Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https ://arch i ve . o rg/detai I s/pri m iti vesecretsOOwebs_0 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. FREIE UNIVERSITAT BERLIN Institut fur Ethnologie ^t^^JC und Sozialpsychologid inventarisiert Ho^^^rs*-- - PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES ^ Study in Early Politics and Religion BY HUTTON WEBSTER, Ph.D. PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1908 All rights reserved Copyright, 1908, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1908. NorfajootJ 3Presg J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. Co MY FATHER AND MOTHER PREFACE Recent years have witnessed great accretions to our knowledge of the initiation ceremonies and secret societies found among many savage and barbarous communities throughout the world. The data bearing upon these mat- ters, collected by the patient efforts of scholarly investigators in Australia,^ Melanesia, Africa, and North America, are of singular interest to the student of primitive sociology and religion. The present work represents an effort, necessarily provisional in the light of existing information, to arrive at the significance of the materials so laboriously and so carefully collected. Starting with no preconceived notions of the subject, the author has endeavored to shape his theories in accordance with his facts and in many in- stances by abstaining from generalization, to let his facts carry their own significance to the reader's mind. In the final chapter, which is to be regarded as an appendix, the wide diffusion of initiatory rites and secret organizations has been indicated. The bibliography supplied in this connection, though not exhaustive, probably notices nearly everything of importance so far published. The scope of the work precluded any attempt to supply a detailed examination of the various secret societies. More- over, the evidence for the men's house (Chap. I) and for the age-classificatory system (Chap. VI) has been presented only in barest outline. For additional details on these several topics, reference may be made to the valuable treatise by the late Heinrich Schurtz {Altersklassen und Manner biindey vii vili PREFACE Berlin, 1902). Had I learned of Dr. Schurtz*s book at the beginning of my studies instead of at their conclusion, I should have gained a greater profit from this first effort to summarize the evidence for the puberty institution and the secret society. But I am glad to acknowledge my indebtedness to this work as well as to the writings of Leo Frobenius and Dr. J. G. Frazer, for sundry references to literature which I had overlooked, even after a somewhat protracted research. In its original form as a thesis for the doctorate in Politi- cal Science at Harvard University, my study has enjoyed the advantage of a preliminary examination by Professor W. Z. Ripley and Professor T. N. Carver. To them my sincere thanks are due, as also to Professors Toy and Moore, whose reading of the manuscript — a work of supereroga- tion on their part — was all the more appreciated. To Professor Roland B. Dixon of the Peabody Museum, I feel especially indebted for helpful advice and never-failing encouragement from the beginning of my task to its com- pletion. Nor must I fail to acknowledge a non-academic obligation to my wife, whose unselfish devotion has light- ened many burdens in the preparation of this book. HUTTON WEBSTER. Lincoln, Nebraska, December, 1907. CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Men's House In primitive society the separation of the sexes a widespread and fundamental practice, p. i . — This separation in part secured by the institution of the men's house, which serves a general purpose as the centre of the civil, religious, and social life of the tribe, and a special purpose as the abode of unmarried males, pp. i, 2. — Examples of this institution to be found among savage and barbarous peoples in all parts of the world : in Australia, p. 3 ; in New Guinea, pp. 3—5 ; throughout the Melane- sian area, pp. 5, 6 ; among the islands of Torres Straits, pp. 6, 7 ; in Borneo, pp. 7, 8 ; in the East Indian and Philippine Archipelago, pp. 8, 9 ; in Hindustan and Further India, pp. 9, 10; throughout the Micronesian and Polynesian area, pp. 10-12; in Africa, pp. 12—14; in South America, pp. 14, 1 5 ; in Mexico and Central America, pp. 15, 16; and in various regions of North America, pp. 16—19. CHAPTER II The Puberty Institution Sexual separation within the tribe also secured by the grouping of the males on the basis of age distinctions, p. 20. — The passage from one age group to another usually attended with ceremonies of a secret and initia- tory character, p. 20. — ' Such ceremonies especially numerous and significant when the tribal youth reach the age of puberty, p. 21. — Initiatory rites mark the completion of childhood and the separation of the youth from women and children, pp. 21—24. — Initiation into the tribal association consequently compulsory for the males, pp. 24-27. — The uninitiated enjoy no privileges or prestige, p. 27. — Great im- portance must be attached to initiation as providing strong bonds of brotherhood within the tribe, pp. 27, 28. — Initiatory performances form the characteristically social feature of primitive life, pp. 28-31. ix X CONTENTS CHAPTER III The Secret Rites The general features of the secret rites — the periodic initiation of the young men by the elders, their seclusion, their subjection to various ordeals, their instruction in tribal wisdom and obedience — much the same among all primitive peoples, p. 32. — An example in the rites of the Tusca- rora Indians, pp. 32, 33. — The initiatory ordeals provide a prepara- tion for the life of v^arriors and serve as tests of courage and endurance, pp. 34, 35. — Puberty mutilations often the badges or signs of initia- tion, pp. 35, 36. — Circumcision as the typical ordeal, p. 37, — Initiation rites usually include a mimic representation of the death and resurrection of the novices, pp. 38-40. — Candidates also acquire a new name and an esoteric dialect, pp. 40—43. — At the close of their initiatory seclusion novices often allowed sexual privileges previously forbidden to them, pp. 43-45. — The initiatory ceremonies of girls distinctly less impressive and important than those of the boys, pp. 45, 46. — Theories of the origin and primary significance of puberty rites, pp. 46-48. CHAPTER IV The Training of the Novice Real value of the instruction received by the novices during extended periods of seclusion, pp. 49, 50. — The. teaching of these tribal seminaries covers a wide range of topics, p. 50. — Australian lads Jearn the mar- riage laws, the tribal customs and traditions, the native games, songs, and dances, and the prevailing moral code of the community, pp. 50, 51. — Similar features characterize the initiatory preparation of candidates among other primitive peoples: in Torres Straits, p. 52; in New Guinea and New Pomerania, pp. 53, 54; among the inhabitants of Fiji, Halamahera, and Ceram, p. 54 ; among many African tribes, pp. 54-56 ; and among the aborigines of South America and North America, pp. 56—58. CHAPTER V The Power of the Elders General excellence of the initiatory training, p. 59. — Its permanent effects in the increased respect felt by the novices for the old men and their customs, pp. 59, 60. — Thus the mysteries as the most conservative CONTENTS xi of primitive customs provide an effective system of social control, p. 60. — Elements of deceit and chicanery appear in the puberty institution when the elders learn to use the ceremonies for their ov^n private ad- vantage, pp. 60, 61. — Illustrations of the mysterious and magical objects revealed to candidates at the time of initiation, pp. 61-64. — Rigorous restrictions imposed upon the novices which materially con- tribute to the prosperity of the older men, pp. 65, 66. — Many exam- ples of the numerous food taboos usually enforced at this time, pp. 66— 70. — Australia furnishes some evidence of matrimonial taboos, pp. 70, 71. — Often, also, these puberty restrictions prolonged for a lengthy period after the completion of the preliminary ordeals, pp. 71—73. CHAPTER VI Development of Tribal Societies With increasing social progress, the powers of control are gradually shifted from the elders to the chiefs, and tribal societies charged with impor- tant political and judicial functions arise on the basis of the original puberty organizations, pp. 74, 75. — As contrasted with these earlier institutions, tribal societies present several characteristic features : limited membership; degrees"; lodges"; and elaborate paraphernalia of mystery, pp. 75—78. — In some cases, however, the puberty insti- tution may undergo a process of gradual obsolescence, pp. 78—80. — In exceptional instances the initiatory rites may be retained even after the development of permanent chieftainships, pp. 80—82, — The main line of development is, however, into the tribal secret society with limited membership and numerous degrees, p. 83. — Origin of grades or degrees in the age-classificatory system, p. 83. — Australian evidence for age-classifications, pp. 83-86. — Evidence from New Guinea and Fiji, p. 86. — Evidence from Africa, pp. 86-90. — Limitation of membership which follows upon the development of numerous degrees, pp. 90—93. — Initiation into the lower grades of the secret society may still be customary when the upper grades are reserved for picked initiates who can control the organization, pp. 93—95. — Originally, as in Australia, the mysteries embody the inner religious life of the tribe, pp. 95—98. — Subsequent utilization of the mysteries for grossly selfish and material ends, pp. 98, 99. — Examples of the terrorism practised upon the women and uninitiated men: in Australia, pp. 99, 100; in Torres Straits, pp. 100, loi ; in New Guinea and New Pomerania, pp. 1 01-104. — These illustrations show that the strength of the secret xii CONTENTS organizations rests largely upon the pretended association of their mem- bers with the spirits and ghosts of the dead, pp. 104, 105. CHAPTER VII Functions of Tribal Societies Secret societies of the developed type may often provide strong intertribal bonds, pp. 106, 107. — Their connection with the rising power of the chiefs, pp. 107—109. — Membership in the tribal society carries with it many privileges, pp. 109, iio. — In general the tribal society represents the most primitive movement towards the establishment of law and order, pp. 109, iio. — The Dukduk of the Bismarck Archi- pelago as an excellent example of the operations of a tribal society, pp. IIO— 114. — West African societies often effective engines of gov- ernment, pp. 115— 118. — Use of the secret societies to maintain mas- culine authority over the women, pp. 118— 120. CHAPTER VIII Decline of Tribal Societies Why developing social life naturally involves the decline of the tribal society, p. 121. — The admission of women characteristic of the disintegration of the secret rites, pp. 121— 123. — The steady encroachment of mis- sionaries and traders often brings about their downfall, pp. 123, 124. — Where the societies survive they tend to become strongholds of conservatism and of opposition to all foreign influences, pp. 124, 125. — Decline of the older societies sometimes associated with rise of numerous smaller and more temporary organizations devoted to special uses, pp. 125—127. — Survival of the tribal societies as pure impostures, p. 127. — Their occasional development into social clubs, pp. 127— 129. — The Melanesian Suqe, pp. 129, 130. — Club-like associations very numerous among North American Indians, pp. 130—134. CHAPTER IX The Clan Ceremonies Tribal secret societies have frequently developed into fraternities of priests and shamans charged with the performance of magical and dramatic rites, pp. 135, 136. — An understanding of this development only possible through a study of the primitive totemic clan, pp. 136, 137. CONTENTS xiii . — Examination of the Australian evidence exhibits the totemic organiza- tion underlying the initiation ceremonies, pp. 137-140. — In Australia, also, the totem groups appear as dramatic and magical corporations, pp. 140-143. — Confirmatory evidence from Torres Straits, pp. 144— 146. — Much additional evidence afforded by the fraternities of North American Indians, p. 147. — Among the Northwest tribes the clan organization in decay and secret fraternities in initial stages of develop- ment, pp. 147—152. — Among the Plains Indians the clan organization persists in w^eakened form by the side of the fraternities, pp. 152—155. — Among the tribes of the South v^est the totemic clans have broken dowrn to be replaced by numerous and well-developed magical fraterni- ties, pp. 155-159- CHAPTER X Magical Fraternities Summary of the argument that the dramatic and magical practices connected with primitive totemic groups survive in the ceremonies of the secret societies, pp. 160, 161. — Secret magical rites among the natives of New Guinea and Torres Straits, pp. 161, 162. — Similar rites among the Melanesian Islanders, pp. 162—164. — The Areoi society of Tahiti and other islands in the Polynesian area, pp. 164—168. — The Uritoi society of the Carolines and Mariannes, pp. 168—170. — The New Zealand Whare Kura, pp. 170, 171. — Magical rites of African secret societies, p. 171. — Dramatic performances of African secret societies, pp. 172, 173. — Connection of the fetish system with the fraternities in Africa, pp. 173—176. — South American examples of magical and dramatic rites of a secret character, pp. 176—178. — The several aspects of North American fraternities : as the repositories of tribal tradition, ritual, and religion, pp. 178—179; as medicine orders, pp. 179—182; as magical organizations, pp. 182, 183. — Illustrations of the survival in the rites of Mandan, Navajo, Sia, Zuni, and Hopi fraternities of primitive puberty rites, pp. 183—189. — Conclusion, pp. 189, 190. CHAPTER XI Diffusion of Initiation Ceremonies Australia, pp. 191-194. — Tasmania, pp. 195, 196. — Melanesia, pp. 196— 202. — Polynesia, pp. 202—206. — Africa, pp. 206—211. — South America and Central America, pp. 212, 213. — North America, 213-221. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES CHAPTER I THE men's house The separation of the sexes which exists in civilized so- cieties is the outcome, in part, of natural distinctions of sex and economic function; in part it finds an explanation in those feelings of sexual solidarity to which we owe the existence of our clubs and unions. Sexual solidarity itself is only another expression for the working of that uni- versal law of human sympathy, or in more modern phrase, of consciousness of kind, which lies at the foundation of all social relations. But in primitive societies, to these forces bringing about sexual separation, there is added a force even more potent, which originates in widespread beliefs as to the transmissibility of sexual characteristics from one in- dividual to another. Out of these beliefs have arisen many curious and interesting taboos designed to prevent the real or imagined dangers incident to the contact of the sexes. Sexual separation is further secured and perpetuated by the institution known as the men's house, of which examples are to be found among primitive peoples throughout the world. The men's house is usually the largest building in a tribal settlement. It belongs in common to the villagers; it serves as council-chamber and town hall, as a guest-house for strangers, and as the sleeping resort of the men. Fre- quently seats in the house are assigned to elders and other leading individuals according to their dignity and importance. Here the more precious belongings of the community, such as PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES trophies taken in war or in the chase, and religious emblems of various sorts are preserved. Within its precincts, women and children, and men not fully initiated members of the tribe, seldom or never enter. When marriage and the exclusive possession of a woman do not follow immediately upon initiation into the tribe, the institution of the men's house becomes an effective restraint upon the sexual pro- clivities of the unmarried youth. It then serves as a club- house for the bachelors, whose residence within it may be regarded as a perpetuation of that formal seclusion of the lads from the women, which it is the purpose of the initiation ceremonies in the first place to accomplish. Such communal living on the part of the young men is a visible token of their separation from the narrow circle of the family, and of their introduction to the duties and responsibilities of tribal life. The existence of such an institution emphasizes the fact that a settled family life with a private abode is the privilege of the older men, who alone have marital rights over the women of the tribe. For promiscuity, either before or after mar- riage, is the exception among primitive peoples, who attempt not only to regulate by complicated and rigorous marriage systems the sexual desires of those who are competent to marry, but actually to prevent any intercourse at all of those who are not fully initiated members of the community. An institution so firmly established and so widely spread may be expected to survive by devotion to other uses, as the earlier ideas which led to its foundation fade away. As guard posts where the young men are confined on military duty and are exercised in the arts of war, these houses often become a serviceable means of defence. The religious wor- ship of the community frequently centres in them. Often they form the theatre of dramatic representations. In rare instances these institutions seem to have lost their original purpose and to have facilitated sexual communism rather than sexual separation. Among some tribes the men's house is used as the centre of the puberty initiation ceremonies. With the development of secret societies, replacing the earlier tribal puberty institutions, the men's house frequently be- comes the seat of these organizations and forms the secret THE MEN'S HOUSE 3 "lodge/^ The presence then in a primitive community of the men's house in any one of its numerous forms points strongly to the existence, now, or in the past, of secret initia- tion ceremonies. Austrahan natives, who have no settled abode, present the institution in its rudest form. Among the Kurnai in south- eastern Victoria, the ''young men . . . and the married men who have not their wives with them, always encamp together at some distance from the camps of the married men." ^ The bachelors' *camp of the Euahlayi, a tribe in the northwestern part of New South Wales, was known as the Weedegah Gahreemai? The Ungunja of the Arunta and other central tribes is defined by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen as the ''special part of the main camp where the men assemble and near to which the women may not go." ^ The large JVurley in which Port Dar- win (Northern Territory) lads live during their initiatory seclusion, has obvious resemblances to the more developed form of the men's house found in New Guinea.^ Men's houses are numerous in New Guinea. At Dorey Bay, in Dutch New Guinea, we find the Rumslam "des maisons sacrees, sortes de temples de Venus ou habitent les jeunes gens . . ." ^ Similar edifices are reported at Hum- boldt Bay.^ At Berlin Haven, in Kaiser Wilhelm Land, the men's house has differentiated into the Parak^ or spirit-house, and the Alol which serves as a common resort ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1885), 318 n.'; cf. 307. The Tasmanian custom seems to have been the same. We are told that the unmarried grown lads slept at fires removed from the famihes.'^ (Bon- wick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, 11.) 2 Mrs. Parker, Euahlayi Tribe, 61. ^ Native Tribes of Central Aus- tralia, 656; cf. also Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 335; Schulze in Trans, and Proc. and Rep. Roy. Soc. South Australia, xiv (1891), 230-231 ; Curr, Australian Race, i, 71 ; Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Dis- covery into Central Australia, ii, 302- 304. ^ Parkhouse in Rep. Austr. Assoc, Adv. Sci., vi (Sidney, 1895), 643. ^ Raff ray in Soc. Geogr.,^\xth. series, xv (1878), 393. Cf. also van Hasselt in Zeits.f. Ethnol., viii (1876), 197; Reise der Osterreichischen Fre- gatte Novarra um der Erde. Anthro- pologischer Theil (Wien, 1868), 17; F. H. H. Guillemard, The Cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka and New Guinea (London, 1886), ii, 281-282. ^ Otto Finsch, Samoafahrten (Leipzig, 1888), 356. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES of the men and as a bachelor's club-house.^ At Finsch Haven the original meaning of the word barium seems to have been that of a house set apart for certain purposes; a Lum is a guest-house found in every larger village. A Bar- ium is a greater house. The w^ord now has come to signify the ceremonies of initiation as well as the mysterious spirit supposed to preside over them. The bull-roarer employed in the ceremonies is called by the natives ''the roar of the Barium'' ^ In the Constantine Haven district we find the Buambramha,^ and at Astrolabe Bay, the Bantje} At Bo- gadjim, a village in this region, the men's house is on its way toward becoming the centre of the initiation rites. ^ In the D'Entrecasteaux Islands every village has its house which serves as a gathering place for the men.^ In British New Guinea we find the Eramos {ElamoSy Erabosy Eravos)^ M areas J and DubusJ ''The fully initiated native regards his Eravo as his alma mater; all he knows of the past his- tory of his tribe; his knowledge of his duties and obliga- tions to his tribe and community; his contempt and dislike for all and everything opposed to the interests of his tribe and community; in brief, all that he is he owes to his Eravoy and the teaching he received in it during his initiation will dominate his actions through life." ^ Of these structures the Dubu found along the southern coast east of Port Moresby, is the simplest form. It is merely a large open-air, four- cornered platform supported by carved posts. The Marea of the Mekeo district and the Eramo of the Gulf tribes are decorated houses of much more elaborate construction. ^ Parkinson in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., xiii (1900), 33-35- ^ Schellong in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., ii (1889), ^47j i5i- ^ Finsch, op. cit., 47-48. ^ Baessler, Sudsee-Bilder , 73 ; Hoff- mann in Nachrichten iiber Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck- Archipely xiv (1898), 72-73; Finsch, op. cit., 74-75; Lauterbach in Zeits. d. Gesells. f, Erdkunde, xxxiii (1898), 148. ^ Hagen, Unter den Papuans, 200. ® Finsch in Annalen des k, k. Naturhistorischen Hofsmuseums, vi (Wien, 1891), 24. ^ Seligmann in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci.j Ixix (1899), 59^5 Mac- Gregor in Scottish Geogr. Mag., xi (1895), 164; Chalmers and Gill, Work and Adventure in New Guinea, 185; L. M. D'Albertis, iV^2£; Guinea (London, 1880), i, 318-320; Haddon in Geogr. Jour., xvi (1900), 424-425; Finsch in Mitth. Anthrop. Gesells. in Wien, xvii (1887), 1-15; Chal- mers, Pioneering in New Guinea, 180. ^ Holmes in Man, v (1905), 3-4. THE MEN'S HOUSE 5 Several of these structures occupied by the different clans are found in every village of the Motumotuan tribe. ^ Boys undergoing initiation are confined in the upper story of such buildings. When an Eramo is built some human life must be sacrificed, else the boys will not become strong and brave fighting men.^ West of the Yule Island, among both the coast and interior tribes, the men's house disappears in the large communal houses inhabited by the men and the smaller houses where the women live.^ In certain other districts farther to the west, as at Daudai and on the Fly River, these houses are large enough to accommodate many families. Sexual separation is still preserved, however, by the practice of keeping the end rooms as the club apartments of the men, the women and children entering their rooms by the side doors. ^ Such houses are obviously a close approach to the communal dwellings found among the aborigines of Borneo. Throughout the Melanesian area the men's house is met under various names in the different islands. The so-called "temples" found in the Admiralty group are one form of this widely prevalent institution.^ In New Pome- rania, the large assembly houses for all the men appear to be absent; the men's house is here chiefly the resort of the bachelors.^ Among the Sulka of New Pomerania cir- cumcision takes place in the men's house, or A ISfgaulaJ In the Gazelle Peninsula the men's house is called Palnatarei.^ In New Mecklenburg, the club-houses are also used for the reception of guests.^ The Tohes of Santa Anna, St. Christoval, and neighboring islands of the Solomon group are of great size and beauty. In them the natives * Haddon in Science Progress, ii (1894), 85-86. ^ Edelfeldt, quoted in Amer. An- thropologist, V (1892), 288. ^ MacGregor, British New Guinea^ 85. ^ Haddon in Geogr. Jour., xvi (1900), 421. ^ Birgham in Globus, xxxi (1897), 202. ^ Finsch in Annalen des k. k. Naturhistorischen Hofsmuseums, iii (Wien, 1888), 100. ^ Rascher in Archiv f. Anthrop., xxix (1904), 212-213. ^ Hahl in Nachrichten ilber Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck- Archipel., xiii (1897), 70. ^ Finsch, op. cit., 130. 6 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES keep their war canoes. Such houses serve also as sanc- tuaries; blood is rarely shed within their precincts. In the Tohes are preserved the bones of the chiefs and great war- riors as well as the skulls of ordinary men. Boys at puberty are confined in these houses for a year or more until initiation is completed.^ At Alu and Treasury Island in Bougain- ville Straits the Tohe is represented by a mere open canoe shed almost destitute of ornament and apparently held in little veneration.^ In the eastern islands of the Melanesian Archipelago we find the Madai of the Santa Cruz group,^ the Gamal of the Torres Islands, Banks Islands, and Northern New Hebrides,^ the Imeium of Tanna and the Simanlo of Erromanga, islands of the South- ern New Hebrides.^ In the Banks Islands when a boy passes out of childhood he is sent to sleep in the Gamaly his parents saying, "He is a boy; it is time to separate him from the girls.'' ^ In all the islands of this region the men's house appears as a club-house for which preliminary pay- ments at entrance and additional payments at later periods are required. Thus at Meli, one of the New Hebrides, the men prepare all their food in their own club-house which is of course tabooed to women. Anything that a woman cooks would be considered unclean. Only in childhood does a boy eat with his mother.^ In the Loyalty Islands, bachelors' establishments are common,^ and they are probably to be found in New Caledonia.^ In every inhabited island of Torres Straits "there was a certain area set apart for the use of the men which was known as a Kwod,'^ Some islands appear to have had one ^ Gaggin, Among the Man-Eaters , 159-161, 212-213; Guppy, The Solomon Islands and their Natives, 53, 67-71 ; Hagen in Tour du Monde, Ixv (1893), 375; Woodford in Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, new series, x (1888), 372; Elton in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xvii (1887), 97; C. F. Wood, A Yachting Cruise in the South Seas (London, 1875), 118-121. ^ Guppy, op. cit., 71. ^ Codrington, Melanesians, 102. * Codrington, op. cit., loi; Gaggin, op. cit., 93; Coote, The Western Pacific (London, 1883), 64; Baessler, Sudsee-Bilder, 203. ^ Gray in Intern. Archiv f. Eth- nogr., vii (1894), 230; H. A. Robert- son, Erromanga, the Martyr Isle, 375. ^ Codrington, op. cit., 231. ' Baessler, Sudsee-Bilder, 203. ^ Ella in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv, Sci., iv (Sidney, 1893), 625. ^ Codrington, op. cit., loi. THE MEN'S HOUSE 7 only; others had several.^ The term kwod was also applied to the village houses for the reception of visitors. The institution of the Kwod " lent itself to prolonged intercourse, as v^e may safely regard each Kwod as being the real centre of the public life of individual communities/' ^ No v^oman or girl "might visit a Kwody boy-children might go, but not when a ceremony was taking place. After initiation the young men could frequent the Kwod and they habitually slept there and they had to look after the place, keep it in order, fetch water, collect firewood, attend to the fires, and, in fact, to do whatever the elder men required of them. If the elder men went out to fish or to harpoon dugong or turtle and had good luck, they would probably bring some fish or meat to the Kwodj and it was the duty of the young men to cook it. Grey-headed men talked and discussed about fighting, dancing, taiy augud^ women, and other matters of interest. The young men sat still and learnt from the old men, as my informant said, St was like a school.'"^ The men's house in one or more of its numerous forms is found among many Borneo tribes.^ The Pangah^ or head- house, of the Land Dyaks of Sarawak serves both as the abode of the unmarried men and as the place of reception for guests.^ The long houses of the Sea Dyaks contain an entire village community settled, primarily for safety, in one building. Such houses "are really villages of a single street, the veranda being a public thoroughfare, unobstructed throughout its whole length, in front of the private family rooms." ^ This veranda, or Ruat, is the sole survival of the men's house. Here all male visitors are ^ Haddon in Reports of the Cam- bridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits , v, 3. ^ Ihid., 263-264. ^ Ihid.^ 365-366. ^ Forrest, A Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas (Dublin, 1779), 102; ^oy\^j Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo (London, 1865), 63 ; Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, i, 103; Bock, The Head-Hunters of Borneo J 197; Yule, in Jour. An- throp. Inst., ix (1880), 296. ^ Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, ii, 156; Col- lingwood, Rambles of a Naturalist, 237-240; Spencer St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, i, 139, 167; Sir Hugh Low, Sarawak (Lon- don, 1848), 280; A. R. Hein, Die Bildenden Kunste bei den Dayaks auf Borneo (Wien, 1890), 15, 216. ^ Furness, Home Life of Borneo Head-Hunters, 2. 8 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES invariably received and here at night they sleep with the boys and bachelors/ The existence of the men's house is disclosed in many of the East Indian islands. Among the Battaks of Sumatra the institution is known as the Baleiy or town hall,^ the Djamboery^ and the Sopo, In the districts where the Sopos are found they are open to the women who sit in them and ply their daily tasks of weaving.^ "La notte vi dormono i giovanotti non ammogliati e siccome le donne non maritate non devono dormire a casa loro, ma presso qualche vecchia vedova che le ospita tutte, non e raro che quel chaperon poco severo le accompagni nel Sopo per conversare coi loro giovani amici.'^ ^ At Nias, an island off the western coast of Sumatra, the Osale is "la sala delle adunanze, ove si riuniscono col Capo i piu vecchi guerrieri per discutere questioni che interessano I'intero villaggio, come il dichiarar guerra, concludere la pace ed amministrare la giustizia." ^ The "guest-house" of the Mentawai group, south of Nias, is used for similar purposes.^ In the central parts of Celebes, the men's house is known as the Loho,^ In many islands of the Banda Sea such as Flores, Letti, and Timorlaut, we meet with the same institution. In Flores it is called Romaluli^^ in the Kei Islands, Roemah kompani^^^ in Timor, Umalulik}^ In Ceram, the Baleuw, or men's house, is employed as the secret lodge of the powerful ^ Roth, op. cit.j ii, 12; Henry Keppel, The Expedition to Borneo of H,M.S. Dido (New York, 1846), 33. ^ Marsden, History of Sumatra (London, 181 1), 56, 266-267; Von Hligel in Geogr. Jour., vii (1896), 177; Emil and Lenore Selenka, Son- nige Welten, 308, 337; Giesenhagen, Auf Java und Sumatra, 219, 226-227 ; Julius Jacobs, Het Famil'ie-en Kam- pong-leven op Groot-Atjeh (Leiden, 1894), i, 74-75. ^ . ^ Westenberg in Tijds. k. n. Aardrijks. -Gemots., second series, xiv (1897), 10. ^ Kodding in Globus, liii (1888), 76; Schreiber in Ausland, Iv (1882), 162; Volz in Tijds. k. n. Aardrijks.- Genoots., second series, xvi (1899), 432. ^ Modigliani, Fra i Batacchi In- dipendenti, 28. ^ Id., tin Viaggio a Nias, 209. ^ Maass, Bei liebenwUrdigen Wil- den, 104 sq. ^ Paul and Fritz Sarasin in Zeits. d. Gesells. f. Erdkunde, xxix (1894), 332. ^ Jacobsen, Reise in die Inselwelt des Banda-Meeres, 46, 140, 213. Plantin in Globus, Ixii (1892), 316. Forbes in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1883), 411-412. THE MEN'S HOUSE 9 Kakian organization. The rites of the society take place in an enclosed part of the structure hidden from the gaze of the uninitiated.^ In each village of Formosa there are one or more PalangkanSy large enough to hold all the boys who have reached the age of puberty and are still un- married. In the PalangkanSy also, various public matters are discussed by the village elders. As public caravanserais, they are often open to all visitors.^ The men's house exists among the less civilized inhabit- ants of the Philippine Archipelago. The Igorot, v^ho dwell in the mountains of northern Luzon, possess the in- stitution in a double form. The Pahafunan "is the man's club by day, and the unmarried man's dormitory by night, and, as such, it is the social centre for all men of the A to [political division], and it harbors at night all men visiting from other pueblos." ^ In addition there is the Fawi, or council-house, which is more frequented by the older than by the younger men. In some cases the two structures are under the same roof.^ Common to all the Dravidian tribes of India is the hab- itation called among the Oraons, Dhumkuria^ in which the bachelors reside. In some of the villages the young unmarried women have a separate building of their own like the Dhumkuriaj where they sleep under the guardianship of elderly women. In other villages the women sleep in the bachelors' houses. "The Dhumkuria fraternity are under the severest penalties bound down to secrecy in regard to all that takes place in their dormitory; and even girls are punished if they dare to tell tales. They are not allowed to join in the dances till the offence is condoned. They have a regular system of fagging in this curious institution. The small boys serve those of larger growth, shampoo their limbs, and comb their hair, etc., and they are sometimes subjected to severe discipline to make men of them." ^ ^ Prochnik in Mitth. k. k. Geogr. Gesells. in Wien, xxxv (1892) , 596-597. ^ Taylor in Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc.j new series, xi (1889), 231; Kisak Tamai in Globus, Ixx (1896), 96. ^ Jenks, ^^The Bontoc Igorol'' in Ethnographical Survey of the Philip- pines, i (Manila, 1905), 51. ^ Ibid., 52. ^ E. T, Dalton, Descriptive Eth- nology of Bengal (Calcutta, 1872), 248. See also 272. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Among the various primitive tribes of Indonesian type occupying mountainous districts of further India, the men's house flourishes to-day chiefly as a guard-house where the young men Hve in a semi-miHtary organization. ^'I could not find," writes one observer of the Nagas of eastern Assam, "that there was any initiation when boys first left their parents' homes and slept at the Morang; it seemed to be a civil rather than a social institution." ^ Among the Kolya Nagas the young married men are to- gether with the bachelors in the club-houses.^ In addition to the separate sleeping quarters which the Angami, or Western Nagas, provide for their young men, there are platforms in the centre of every village, where the old men and the young men meet separately for their tribal discus- sions. The decision of the elders usually prevails.^ Among the Abors the village notables meet daily in the Morang for discussion of a^Fairs of state. ''The most important and the most trivial matters are there discussed. Apparently nothing is done without a consultation, and an order of the citizens in Morang assembled is issued daily regulating the day's work." ^ Similar institutions are found among the Mois and Khas of Siam,^ and among various tribes of Anam,^ and Cambodia.^ Some form of the men's house appears to be widely ex- tended throughout both Micronesia and Polynesia.^ In ^ Furness in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 454. See also Peal in Jour. Roy. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, lii, part ii (1883), 16-17. ^ Watt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xvi (1887), 358. ^ Prain in Revue Coloniale Inter- nationale, V (1887), 480, 491. ^ Dalton, op. cit., 24. See also for further descriptions Schlagintweit in Globus, xxxiv (1878), 264; Brown- low in Proc. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal (January, 1874), 17-18, and plate ii; Needham in Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, new series, viii (1886), 317; Miss Godden in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvi (1896), 179-192; and the paper by S. E. Peal, ^^On the Morong as possibly a Relic of Pre-marriage Communism," Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxii (1893), 248-249. ^ Bonin in Bull. Soc. Geogr., seventh series, xvii (Paris, 1896), 112; Bel, ibid., xix (1898), 270. ® Cupet in Tour du Monde, Ixv (1893), 200-207, 216, 218; Lemire in Revue d^ Ethnographic, viii (1889), 282-283. ' Aymonier, Le Cambodge (Paris, 1900), i, 32. ^ For examples from the Pelew Islands, the Carolines, and the La- drones, see infra, pp. 168-170. THE MEN^S HOUSE ii the Polynesian area the men's house is largely a social and religious institution, often under the direct control of the chiefs and leading families. Many illustrations are found in the Maniapa of the Gilbert Islands, the council-house of the men where every noble family had its own seat along the sides of the structure,^ in the Heiau of the Hawaiian Islands,^ the Malai of the Tonga group,^ and in the struc- tures generally called Maraes or Marais^ found in the Austral or Tubuai group,^ the Union group,^ the Society Islands,^ the Navigator and Friendly Islands,^ at Penrhyn Island,^ and at Fanning Island.^ At Nine or Savage Island, the Tutu where chiefs sat in council with the king was a struc- ture similar to the Marais}^ The Mara or Morot of the Marquesas Islands, also served as a temporary resting-place for the bodies of deceased chiefs. In the Hervey group, at convenient intervals, the king as high priest of all the gods, summoned the young people to their various family Maraes to be publicly "named." In Samoa, the annual feasts in honor of the gods were celebrated in the central Maraes of the villages. The Faletehy or spirit- houses, of the Samoan villages were generally placed in the principal Maraes, Here the young men slept by themselves ^ Hale in United States Exploring Expedition J vii (Philadelphia, 1846), loi ; Meinicke, Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans, ii, 335. ^ William Ellis, Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii or Owhyhee (London, 1827), 52, 81-85, 248; Moseley, Notes by a Naturalist, 439; Bastian, Zur Kenntniss Hawaii's, 34. ^ Mariner, An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands (Edin- burgh, 1827), i, 91-92 n. Cf. also Basil Thompson, The Diversions of a Prime Minister (Edinburgh, 1894), 300. 379- ' Globus, Iv (1886), 68. ^ Hale, op. cit., vii, 157. ^ Baessler, Neue SUdsee-Bilder, 111-148. ' Hale, op. cit., 26. ^ Smith in Trans, and Proc. New Zealand Inst., xxii (1889), 92. ^ R. F. de Tolna, Chez les Can- nibales (Paris, 1903), 39. Smith in Jour. Polynesian Soc, xi (1902), 174. Lamont, Wild Life among the Pacific Islanders (London, 1867), 120-122, 275; G. H. von Langsdorff, Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World (London, 18 13), i, 134; Baessler, Neue Sudsee-Bilder , 219. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, 38; see also S. P. Smith, ^'Arai-Te-Tonga, the Ancient Marae at Rarotonga,'' in Jour. Polynesian Soc, xii (1903), 218-220. Stair in Jour. Polynesian Soc, V (1896), 54; George Turner, Nine- 12 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES and received the visitors to the community.^ In the Fiji Islands, at least two Bur es-ni-sa^ or strangers' houses, were found in every village. In them all the male popu- lation passed the night. "The v^omen and girls sleep at home; and it is quite against Fijian etiquette for a husband to take his night's repose anywhere except at one of the public bures of his town or village, though he will go to his family soon^ after dawn.'' ^ In New Zealand the Marae survived as the courtyard in front of the large assembly houses where dances or meetings were held and speeches were made.^ Africa yields sufficient evidence to indicate the existence of the men's house throughout that continent. Basutos boys, until marriage, live in a common house and are con- sidered at the public service.^ In the Khotla of the Bech- uanas, the tribesmen meet in general assembly for the dis- cussion of matters of common interest. The Khotla also serves as the audience room of the chiefs.^ Adjoining the structure is the chamber where initiation ceremonies take place. ^ After initiation and until their marriage, the young men remain in the Khotla on guard-post duty.^ The Tondo of the Bawenda, a Transvaal tribe, serves as a resort for the young men and as a watch-house for the town guard. ^ teen Years in Polynesia (London, 1861), 288; id., Samoa, 93, 181. ^ Stair, Old Samoa, 84, 109-110, 129; id. in Jour. Polynesian Soc, iii (1894), 240; V (1896), 45. ^ Seemann, Viti (London, 1862), no. See also, Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, 132; Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Ex- ploring Expedition (Philadelphia, 1845), 86. ^ A. Hamilton, Maori Art (Wel- lington, 1896), 73. The New Zea- land men's house appears to have developed into a number of separate institutions. Every important Maori village contained several houses spe- cially built for various purposes. The Whare Maire or Whare Takiura was a sacred house for teaching the an- cient history, genealogies, and religion of the people. In the Whare Mata, the manufacture of traps and snares was carried on. The Whare Taper e was the place where the village young people met at night for games, Best in Trans, and Proc. New Zealand Inst., xxxi (1898), 626; Hamilton, op. cit., 96; H. G. Robley, Moko; or Maori Tattooing (London, 1896), 118. ^ CasaKs, Les Bassoutos, 281. ^ Fritsch, Die Eingehorenen Siid- Afrika^s, 194, 208. ^ James Chapman, Travels in the Interior of South Africa (London, 1868), i, 44. ^ Fritsch, op. cit., 208. ^ Gottschling in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XXXV (1905), 369, 372. THE MEN'S HOUSE 13 Among the tribes inhabiting the Bondei country (German East Africa) all the bachelors and the boys who are too old to remain at home occupy the Bweni. Such persons are not regarded as members of the tribe, at least so far as to assume all the tribal obligations.^ The Houbo of the Ba-Ronga of Delagoa Bay is described as ^Ma place publique sur laquelle les hommes se reunissent pour jouer, pour causer, ou pour discuter de leurs affaires." ^ Among the Unyamwesi east of llake Tanganyika, there are usually two IwanzaSy or club-houses, in every village. "As soon as a boy attains the age of seven or eight years, he throws off the authority of his mother, and passes most of his time at the club, usually eating, and often sleeping there.'' ^ The Iwanza was "a long room, twelve by eighteen feet, with one door, a low flat roof, well blackened with smoke, and no chim- ney. Along its length there ran a high inclined bench, on which cow-skins were spread for men to take their siesta. Some huge drums were hung in one corner, and logs smouldered on the ground. The young men of the village gathered at the club-house to get the news. . . . Dances would take place in the space in front of it, either by day or night." ^ Masai boys, after circumcision, live for a number of years in the Kraal of the unmarried men.^ The men's house is found in the Congo Free State among the East Manyema ^ and Mogwandi,^ among the Wapokomo of British East Africa,^ the Yaunde and other tribes of Kamerun,^ the Fang of French Congo,^^ ^ Dale in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxv (1896), 196-197. ^ Junod, Les Ba-Ronga, 104. ^ V. L. Cameron, Across Africa, i, 181; see also Burton, Lake Regions of Central Africa, i, 354; ii, 27-28, 279, 285. ' J. A. Grant, A Walk Across Africa, 65-66. ^ Joseph Thomson, Through Masai Land, 248. * Stanley, Through the Dark Con- tinent, ii, 82. ^ Thonner, Im Afrikanischen Ur- wald, 71. ^ Denhardt in Petermanns Mit- teilungen, xxvii (1881), 18. ^ Zenker in Mitth. v. Forschungs- reisenden und Gelehrten aus den Deutschen Schutzgehieten, iv (1891), 139; viii(i895),39, 56; Tappenbeck, ihid., i (1888), 1 15- 1 16; Contau, ibid., xii (1899), 202; Dominik, Kamerun, 55. Bennett in Jour. Anthrop. Inst.y xxix (1899), 70-71, 79. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES and the Mandingoes of Western Soudan.^ Some interesting survivals among the Mohammedan tribes of northern Africa should be noticed. In Wadai, separate dwellings are provided for the elders {Dschemma)y the middle-aged men, and for the youths. In these resorts the men sit from morning till night and here they take their meals. ^ The Djemaa of the Kabyles of Algeria is the gen- eral assembly of the citizens in which all the men who have reached their majority take part. The term is also applied to the public building where their meetings are held.^ Among the Djebala of Morocco, the name Djemaa is ap- plied to the organization of the elders who form the govern- ing body of the tribe; the men's house is called Bett-ef- ^ohfa, "Tout ce beau monde se reunit dans chaque village au Beit-e^-fohfay sorte de maison commune ou ont enfermees les armes et les munitions du village et qui est en meme temps le theatre d'orgies effrenees." ^ Among the Bororo, an aboriginal tribe of Brazil, the BaitOj or men's house, is the central feature of their existence. The family huts serve for little more than as the resorts of the women and children and of the older warriors and hunters. The associated men are called J roe, "Der Stamm macht den Eindruck eines aus Jagern zusammen- gesetzen Mannergesangvereins, dessen Mitglieder sich ver- pflichten, solange sie nicht etwa 40 Jahre alt sind, nicht zu heiraten sondern in ihrem Klubhaus mit einander zu leben.'' ^ Among the Kulisehu, a neighboring tribe which has developed an agricultural life, the organization of the younger men in the A roe is of far less importance; family life is customary and the A roe is prominent chiefly as a dancing organization.^ Many other Brazilian tribes have ^ Park, Travels, i, 59. ^ Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, iii, 244-246. ^ Hanoteau and Letourneux, Le Kahylie et les Coutumes Kabyles, ii, 20-21; Randall-Maciver and Wilkin, Libyan Notes, plate vii, 2. ^ Doutte, Les Djebala du Maroc, separate reprint from Bull, Soc. de Geogr. et d^Archeol. de la Province d'Oran, xix (1899), 23. ^ Von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens, 480. See also on the Baito or Bahito, Frie and Radin in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XXX vi (1906), 388. ^ Von den Steinen, op. cit., 59, 480 sq. THE MEN'S HOUSE 15 one form or another of the men's house. ^ There is also some evidence for the institution among Guiana tribes.^ In Mexico and Central America, the men's house is found among some of the tribes still living in a primitive condition. The Huichol Indians of the Mexican state of Jalisco have the Tokipa^ the "house of all." ^ The Tejas, an old Mexican tribe, had special houses used solely for council meetings.^ With many of the interior tribes of Honduras, the village consists merely of one large building like the long houses of the Borneo aborigines. The back part of such a structure is partitioned off into small bedrooms for married couples and unmarried v^omen. A platform immediately under the roof serves for the boys.^ Among the Isthmian tribes "each village has a public, tov^n, or council-house," ^ and these are also found among the Guatemala Indians.^ The secret councils and assemblies of the Nicaragua Indians w^ere held in a house called Grepon.^ In every city and town of ancient Mexico there were large houses situated near the temples where the young men were taught by the priests. These Tel- puchcalty as they were called, appear to have been used also as the sleeping resorts of the young men.^ Very similar were the Calpules found in the provinces now a part of Guatemala. These were barracks where the warriors and ^ Ehrenreich in Verdffentlichungen aus dem Kdniglichen Museum f. Vdlkerkundej ii (Berlin, 1891), 34; C. F. P. von Martins, Beitrdge zur Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerika^s zumal Brasiliens (Leipzig, 1867), i, 65-67, 113, 391, 410, 597; Steere in Ann. Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus. for I go I (Washington, 1903), 382- 383. ^ Brett, Indian Tribes of Guiana (New York, 1852), 60, 63; Harris in Fifteenth Annual Archceological Report of David Boyle to the Minister of Education^ Ontario (Toronto, 1904), 141. ^ Lumholtz in Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.y iii (1900), 9. ^ Mrs. Harby in Ann. Rep. Amer. Hist. Assoc. for i8g4 (Washington, 1895), 80. ^ Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i, 718. ^ Ihid., i, 756. ^ Ibid., i, 693. « G. F. de Oviedo y Valdes, His- toire du Nicaragua in Ternaux- Com^dinSjV oyages, Relations, et Me- moir es, etc., xiv (Paris, 1840), 62. ^ Bernardino de Sahagun, His- toria general de las cosas de Nueva Espana (Mexico, 1829, ed. Busta- mente), 66 n.^, 268-270, 306; F. J. Clavigero, Historia antigua de Mex- ico (Mexico, 1844, Eng. trans.), i, 336-337- i6 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES the young unmarried men passed the night.^ " In the town of Tepeaca," writes Herrera, "was a great House, in the Nature of a College, where four hundred Youths chosen by the Prime Men resided. These men were authorized to stand in the Ttanguezy which is the Market, and if any Woman brought with her a Maiden Daughter, above twelve Years of Age, they ask'd the Mother, why she did not marry that Girl ? She gave what reason she thought fit; the young Man reply'd. It is now Time for her to breed, and not to spend her Time in vain, carry her to the House of the young Batchelors, and he appointed the Time. She rejoyn'd, that she had not the Dues belonging to it, but would bring them by such a Day, and that was a Mantle, and the Cloth two Yards long, which the Men wore instead of Breeches. Then she carry'd the Girl, whom the Youth kept one Night, and deflower'd, if he lik'd, he took her to Wife, departed the College, and went home to live with her, and another was put into the College in his Stead. If he did not like, he restored her to the Mother, ordering that she should be marry'd and multiply. Such Colleges as these there were in other great Towns." ^ Among the Pueblo Indians in the southwestern part of the United States, the well-known Kivas appear to be a survival of this primitive institution of the men's house. The Kivas are subterranean rooms and are used as a gather- ing place for the numerous secret societies found in every pueblo.^ In the seven pueblos which make up the Tusayan confederacy of northeastern Arizona, there are thirty-three Kivas, Walpi, one of these pueblos, contains five Kivas which appear to have belonged originally to the different clans. At present they are the property of the various secret societies. It is not now customary for all the mem- bers of a clan to be members of the same Kiva} Each ^ D. G. de Palacio, "Carta dirijida ^ Fewkes in Jour. Amer. Eth- al Rey de Espana'' in E. G. Squier's nol. and ArchcBol., i (1891), 2 n}\ ii Collection (New York, i860), 74-75. (1892), 6 n}, 14 sq. ^ The General History of the Vast ^ Mindeleff in Eighth Ann. Rep, Continent and Islands of America Bur. Ethnol., 134. (London, 1740, transl. Stevens), iv, 127-128. THE MEN'S HOUSE 17 society has its own Kiva which only initiated members may enter during the performance of the secret rites. Women are always excluded. The Kivas are also used for secular purposes. They serve as a place of assembly and as the sleeping place of the men and boys who have membership in them. The institution, here as elsewhere, emphasized the separation of the sexes. None of the Kivas "are now preserved exclusively for religious purposes; they are all places of social resort for the men, especially during the winter, when they occupy themselves with the arts common among them. The same Kiva thus serves as a temple during a sacred feast, at other times as a council-house for the discussion of public affairs. It is also used as a work- shop by the industrious and as a lounging place by the idle.'' ^ Structures similar to the Kivas formerly existed among the Cliff Dwellers^ and the village Indians of New Mexico.^ Presenting close resemblance to the Kivas was the council-house of the Indian tribes which lived in what are now the Gulf states. "The great council-house, or rotunda," says an old writer, "is appropriated to much the same purpose as the public square, but more private, and seems particularly dedicated to political affairs ; women and youth are never admitted ; and I suppose it is death for a female to presume to enter the door, or approach within its pale." ^ The council-houses of the Delaware Indians were a similar institution.^ The Kivas of the Pueblo Indians, though properly distinguished from the Estufasy or Sweat-houses, were occasionally used for the same purpose as the latter structures.^ Among the Indian tribes of the Northwest, the Sweat-house, besides its purely medicinal uses, was also the centre of community life. The ^ Bandelier, quoted in Amer. Anti- quarian, xix (1897), 174. Cf. ibid., XX (1898), 238. ^ Peet in Amer. Antiquarian, x (1888), 351- ^ Ingersoll in Jour. Amer. Geogr. Soc, vii (1875), 123. * Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East c and West Florida (Philadelphia, 1791), 448. ^ Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission der evangelischen Briider unter den Indianern in Nordamerika (Bar by, 1789), 168, 173. ^ Powell in Jour. Amer, Geogr. Soc, viii (1876), 264; Bancroft, Native Races, i, 537-538. i8 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Taikyuw of the Northern CaHfornia Hupas is the general resort of the men for visiting and gossiping. Here all the men, married and unmarried, sleep at night. Women seldom enter it/ The men's house has survived in much of its original vigor among the Eskimo tribes of Alaska. The Kozges or Kashims of the Eskimo of Cape Prince of Wales (Bering Straits) is only visited by women when public dances are given in it. Each Kashim is built and maintained by the community as the club-house, workshop, and gambling- house. Here are held the religious dances and the recep- tions to members of neighboring tribes.*^ There is "scarcely an occurrence of note in the life of an Eskimo man which he cannot connect with rites in which the Kashim plays an important part. This is essentially the house of the men; at certain times, and during the performance of certain rites, the women are rigidly excluded, and the men sleep there at all times when their observances re- quire them to keep apart from their wives.'' ^ Structures similar to the Kashims formerly existed among the ^ Goddard in Publications of the University of California. Series in Amer. Archceol. and EthnoL, i (1903), 15-17, 50. See also Kroeber, ibid.^ ii (1904), 86. Upper Klamath Indians use the Sweat-house in connection with the mysterious Sifsan cere- monies. On these ceremonies, see Miss Fry in Out West, xxi (1904), 509. The Sweat-bath among the Thomp- son Indians of British Columbia has a religious significance when employed by the lads at puberty (Teit in Mem, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., ii (1900), 319 sq.). Its use among the Apache medicine-men as a preparation for the celebration of various religious rites, is well known (Burke in Ninth Ann. Rep. Bur. EthnoL, ^^^). Among the Ojibwa, novices undergoing initiation into the Midewiwin must take a sweat bath once a day for four days. During the process of purga- tion, the candidate's thoughts must dwell upon the seriousness of the course he is pursuing and the sacred character of the new life he is about to assume." (Hoffman in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.y 204.) ^ Wickersham in Amer. Anti- quarian, xxiv (1902), 221-223. ^ Nelson in Eighteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. EthnoL, 286. For fur- ther interesting details regarding the Kashim, see Erman in Zeits. f. EthnoL, ii (1870), 315; A. Woldt, Capitain Jacobsen's Reise an der Nordwestkuste Amerikas, 159 ; Whym- per, Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska, 141-143; Sir John Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, 365-369; Gilder, Ice- Pack and Tundra, 56-58; Elliott, Our Arctic Province, 385-387, 390, 393-394. THE MEN^S HOUSE 19 Tlinkit Indians ^ and there is some evidence for their previous existence among the Labrador and Greenland Eskimo.^ ^ Krause, Die Tlinkit-Indianer, Rink, The Eskimo Tribes y 11-12; 129, 234. Packard, The Labrador Coast, 254- 2 Richardson, op. cit., 254, 366; 255. CHAPTER II THE PUBERTY INSTITUTION That system of sexual separation which, as we have seen, arranges the tribe into two great divisions, is reenforced by the presence of another factor. Within the ranks of the males further separations and groupings, based on distinc- tions of age, assert themselves and ultimately develop into what constitute the earliest systems of caste. In fevery primitive society there is a natural tendency for those of the same age, who have consequently the same interests and duties, to group themselves on the basis of these distinctions, and by that very grouping of like with like to separate them- selves from other and unlike groups. Such rude classes as form themselves in obedience to this instinct are, therefore, those of boys who have not yet arrived at puberty; un- married youths; mature men on whom the duties and re- sponsibilities of tribesmen rest; and, finally, old men, the repositories of tribal wisdom and the directors of the com- munity. On the attainment of puberty a lad is enrolled in the ranks of the bachelors, or, where marriage immediately succeeds puberty, is made at once a full tribesman. Tribes- man and warrior he continues until, in process of time, his eldest son has himself reached manhood and is ready to assume those duties which have previously rested on the father alone. He then becomes an elder and retires from active service. While each separate class so formed has a unity and a solidarity of its own, yet each is comprehended in the higher unity of the tribal organization consisting of all initiated men. The tribe becomes, in fact, a secret as- sociation, divided into grades or classes out of which as a later development arise the "degrees" of the secret societies. The passage from one class to another immediately higher is usually attended with various ceremonies of a secret and initiatory character. 20 THE PUBERTY INSTITUTION Of these ceremonies of initiation, the most interesting and important are those which transfer the youth, arrived at puberty, from association with the women and children and introduce him to the wider Hfe of the tribe, and to the society of men. During the years of infancy and early boy- hood, whatever care and training the lad receives naturally comes from his mother. As he gains in years and experience the mother's influence over him declines and the father be- gins to assume a greater part in his education. The in- itiation ceremonies at puberty serve to complete this trans- fer of the child from mother-right to father- and tribal-right. The period of their celebration constitutes the most solemn and important epoch in his entire life. In some of the initiation rites, the surrender of the boys by their mothers is dramatically represented. At some Bora ceremonies in New South Wales after preliminary per- formances lasting three days, one morning after sunrise all the people — men, women, and children — assembled ad- jacent to a large circle which had been previously marked out on the ground. The men formed into a group and danced in front of the women and children. The mothers of those to be initiated stood in the front row of the women during the dance, and at its conclusion "they commanded the novices to enter the circle, thus relinquishing their authority over them. Up to this time the women retained possession of the youths, but now surrendered them to the headmen of the tribes." ^ Among the Yaroinga tribe of Queensland, when initiation draws nigh, the novice, who has been elab- orately decorated with waist-belt and head-dress, is brought before his parents and friends. "When the women first gaze upon the lad thus ornamented, they all begin to cry, and so do his immediate relatives, his father and mother's brothers, who fuijfher smear themselves over with grease and ashes to express their grief." ^ In the puberty rites of the Andaman Islanders, at a certain stage in the * Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxviii (1894), 117. ^ Roth, Ethnological Studies, 172. For the curious ceremony of the War- ramunga tribe, cf. Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia^ 362-363. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES proceedings, the mother, sister, and other female relatives of the novice come and weep over him, the reason given being "that the youth has now entered upon an important epoch in his life, and is about to experience the trials and vicissitudes incidental thereto." ^ The women, however, seldom manifest any unwilling- ness at thus losing the control of their children. In one of the Boras after the secret rites are over, "the youths are brought back to the camp and shown to the women, who pretend to feel deep sorrow for them, but who are in reality very proud of having their sons or brothers initiated to manhood, as it gives them a status in the tribe which they did not before possess." ^ Every effort is made by the directors of the ceremonies to impress upon the novices the necessity of their strict separa- tion henceforth, not only from the women, but from all their childhood ways and life. In certain Australian ceremonies novices lose one or more of their teeth. When a tooth is not readily dislodged and many blows are required, the ex- planation always given is that "'the boy has not kept to himself, but has been too much in the company of the girls and women.'" ^ At the Kuringal of the Coast Murring, "two old men sat down on the ground, in front of the novices, and proceeded, with most ludicrous antics, to make a 'dirt- pie,' after the manner of children, while the men danced round them. The Kahos told their charges that this was to show them that they must no longer consort with children and play at childish games, but for the future act as men." ^ Arunta boys while being painted — the first initiatory cere- mony — are informed that this will promote their growth to manhood, "and they are also told by tribal fathers and elder brothers that in future they rnust not play with the women and girls, nor must they camp ^ith them as they have hitherto done, but henceforth they must go to the camp of the men, which is known as the Ungunja, Up to this ^ Man in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xii (1882), 131 n^. xiii (1884), 448. ^ Cameron in Jour, Anthrop. Inst., ^ Ibid., 444. xiv (1884), 359. THE PUBERTY INSTITUTION time they have been accustomed to go out with the women as they searched for vegetable food and the smaller animals, such as lizards and rats; now they begin to accompany the men in their search for larger game, and begin also to look forward to the time when they will become fully initiated and admitted to all the secrets of the tribe, which are as yet kept hidden from them.'^ ^ Among the Gulf Papuans, when a boy has reached five years of age, his father or male guardian takes the first step towards initiation by giving a dedicatory feast, a purely family affair, the object of which is to enable the father to announce to the relatives of the family and to the tribe in general that at the proper time he intends to present his child for initiation. The maternal relatives of the boy share largely in the food. The feast is an intimation to them that henceforth the boy is to leave their control and enter that of the father or male guardian. To the tribe, also, it forms a public acknowledg- ment that the father or guardian will become responsible for all the fees which are necessary for passage through the initiation ceremonies.^ In New Caledonia where puberty rites are obsolete, circumcision occurring at three years of age, a boy remains with his mother only until he is weaned. After circumcision he receives the marrouy or emblem of manhood, and from this moment he ^'no longer has anything to do with his mother and sees in her nothing more than an ordinary woman." ^ During their novitiate, boys of the Yaunde tribe of Kamerun must fasten banana leaves to their legs as a symbol that they are as yet like women. On their return to the village as initiated men these humiliating reminders of their inferiority are torn off by the female members of the community, amid great rejoicings.* Among the Hottentots, according to an old account, the boys remained entirely with their mothers up to their eighteenth year. Before initiation they might not ^ Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia , 215- 217. ^ Holmes in Jour. Anthrop, Inst., xxxii (1902), 419. ^ Opigez in Bull. Soc, Geogr. de Paris, seventh series, vii (1886), 436-437- ^ Morgen, Durch Kamerun von Sad nach Nord, 52. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES converse with men, not even v^ith their own fathers. At the great feast which introduced the initiation rites, the old- est man present thus addressed the youth: '''That the Men having thought him worthy to be admitted into their Society, he was now to take an Eternal Farewel of his Mother and the Nursery, and of all his Boy's Tricks and Gewgaws. That if he is but once seen again to chat with his Mother, and does not always carefully avoid her Company, he will be look'd upon as a Babe, and as altogether unworthy of the Conversation of the Men, and will be banish'd the same, and must again undergo the Andersmaken to repossess him- self of that Honour. That all his Thoughts, Words and Actions are from that Time forward to be Manly; and that he is never to admit the least Effeminacy or Tarnish of the Nursery into any of 'em.'" ^ A Hottentot "thus discharg'd from the Tuition of his Mother, may insult her when he will with Impunity. . . . Immediately after the Reception of a young Fellow into the Society of the Men, it is an ordinary Thing for him to go and abuse his Mother, and make a reproachful Triumph upon his being discharg'd from her Tuition, in Testimony of the Sincerity of his Intentions to follow the Admonition of the Declaimer at his Admission." ^ In the Ona tribe of Tierra del Fuego the men "form a conspiracy whose object is to frighten the women by tricks and certain other inventions into an unquestioning obedi- ence. Women are looked upon as social inferiors. . . . To no woman must a warrior show his whole mind but only to his father and his friend, or to little children. . . . These and many other lessons are instilled into the boy's mind during the long winter nights by his elders, to whom he yields unfailing respect and obedience. The tie between brother and brother, man and man, is with the Onas far more binding than that between the opposite sexes." ^ With the tribe as a secret association consisting of all initiated men, it follows that initiation is practically com- pulsory. Failure to undergo the rites means deprivation ^ Kolben, The Present State of the ^ Barclay in The Nineteenth Cen- Cape of Good Hope, i, 121. tury and After, January, 1904, 99- ^ Ibid., i, 124. 100. THE PUBERTY INSTITUTION of all tribal privileges and disgrace for life. The uninitiated are the "barbarians" of primitive society. They belong v^ith the v^omen and children. Those who would remain with the women after having reached manhood are the subjects of ridicule and abuse. They are "milk-sops" and "pariahs" with whom real men will have nothing to do. Under sterner conditions death or expulsion from the tribe is the punish- ment of such renegades. "I observed," writes Mr. Fison of the Fijians, "that the old Wainimala man made no dis- tinction between the uninitiated men and the children. He classed them all together in his narrative as ^ Ko ira na ngone^ = they, the children." ^ An old West Kimberley native told another observer that until the boys were sub- incised, a rite which occurs five years after circumcision, "^ they were all the same dog (or other animal).'" ^ At the Kadjawalung of the Coast Murring, witnessed by Mr. Howitt, a "singular feature now showed itself. There were at this time two or three Biduelli men with their wives and children in the encampment, and also one of the Krau- atungalung Kurnai, with his wife and child. When these ceremonies commenced they, with one exception, went away, because neither the Biduelli or the Krauatun Kurnai had, as I have said before, any initiation ceremonies, and these men had therefore never been 'made men.' The fine man who remained was the old patriarch of the Biduelli, and he was now driven crouching among the women and children. The reason was self-evident; he had never been made a man, and therefore was no more than a mere boy." ^ Among the natives of the Papuan Gulf, the stages of initiation are marked by feasts given by the relatives of the initiates. "Unless the father or male guardian of the boy who is being initiated provides a pig for each stage of the boy's initiation, the boy is marked henceforth as not having been fully initiated ; this is a serious matter to him when he becomes a man, and debars him from many privileges as well ^ Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1884), 18 n\ ^ Froggatt in Proc. Linnean Soc. New South Wales, second series, iii (1888), 652. 3 Native Tribes of South-East Aus- tralia, 530. 26 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES as lays him open to many a taunt and insult from his com- peers/' ^ The circumcision lodges of some of the Transvaal tribes are held at intervals of four or five years. "Native public opinion drives many to submit to the rites. They are jeered at if they refuse, and are treated to ridicule, such as the following expressions: 'You are a woman,' 'Your eyes are unopened,' and perhaps the still greater taunt, 'You will not please the women, who prefer circum- cised men.'" ^ The "devil bush" of the Vey peoples of Liberia is " an institution for instructing every man in the tribe as to his duty to the commonwealth." No one may hold office until after initiation. The visible symbol of such initiation consists of deep scarifications from the back of the neck downward. Should a boy before initiation get such scars even by accident, he would be severely punished.^ Of such great importance is initiation that it is sometimes undergone by those who are no longer children, but who, for one reason or another, have been unable to pass through the rites at an earlier date. The Nanga ceremonies of the Fijians took place at intervals, the length of which was deter- mined by the elders. The existence of war or the presence of famine or disease might cause a long period to elapse be- tween initiations, and so it would happen that bearded men who had children of their own might be seen in the Nanga enclosure along with youths just arrived at puberty.^ In the Barium ceremonies of the natives of Finsch Haven, Kaiser Wilhelm Land, which took place every twenty years, mar- ried men were occasionally circumcised and made members of the tribe ; sometimes as many as a hundred men and boys were initiated at once.^ The Anyasa of East Central Africa do not have initiation ceremonies. Should a member ^ Holmes in Jour. Anthrop, Inst., xxxii (1902), 419. ^ Wheelwright in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XXXV (1905), 254. ^ Penick, quoted in Jour. Amer. Folk -Lore, ix (1896), 221-222. ^ Fison in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1884), 19-20. ^ Schellong in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr.y ii (1889), 154; Vetter in Nachrichten iiher Kaiser Wilhelms- Land und den Bismarck- ArchipeL, xiii (1897), 93. The *^huskanawing" of Powhatan youths was every four- teen or fifteen years (Beverley, His- tory of Virginia, 177). But such long intervals between initiation rites are not usual. THE PUBERTY INSTITUTION of this tribe be captured by the Wayao and be made a slave, he would be put through the Wayao rites, even were he an old man and already married/ Initiation, moreover, is the privilege only of those who are by birth true members of the tribe. Aliens may aid in the preparations for the great Nanga ceremonies of the Fijians and may share in the feasts that follow; but in the sacred rites they have no part.^ The Elema natives of the Papuan Gulf exclude all illegitimate children.^ The Australians will not allow the presence of half-castes. ^^^These half-castes,"^ said a native to Mr.Howitt, ^^^have nothing to do with us/" ^ It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of these ceremonies as providing social bonds based upon ideas of kinship and brotherhood in societies without a central- ized political control, and as promoting a very real sense of solidarity in a tribal organization consisting only of initiated men. A primitive sort of caste feeling is the outcome, serving to emphasize the separation of the initiated men, not only from the women and children, but from all uniniti- ated men, whether of the tribe itself or of outside tribes. And though such a conception of human brotherhood cannot extend beyond the narrow confines of the tribe, the require- ment of tribal solidarity in this stage of social evolution is far more pressing than that of tribal expansion. "Between the males of a tribe," writes Mr. Curr, of the Australians, "there always exists a strong feeling of brotherhood, so that, come weal come woe, a man can always calculate on the aid, in danger, of every member of his tribe." ^ Of the Kurnai initiation, Mr. Howitt says : " It formed a bond of peculiar strength, binding together all the contemporaries of the various clans of the Kurnai. It was a brotherhood including all the descendants of the eponymous male and female ancestors, Yeerung and Djeetgun." ® All the lads who have gone through the Jeraeil at the same time " are brothers, and in the future address each other's wives as 'wife,' and each * Macdonald, Africana, i, 127. * Ihid., xiv (1885), 303. ^ Fison in Jour. Anthrop, Inst., ^ Australian Race, i, 62. xiv (1884), 16. ® Kdmilaroi and Kurnai, 199. ^ Holmes, ibid,, xxxii (1902), 420. 28 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES other's children as 'child/" ^ Of the Bondei of German East Africa, Mr. Dale writes that the "friendships made in the Galo are said to be life long." ^ For the successful conduct of the initiatory rites, prolonged tribal assemblies are required. Such assemblies are naturally made the occasion of extended festivities and celebrations, at which there is much friendly intercourse and intermingling of distant and perhaps hostile contingents, as well as trans- action of matters important to the tribal polity. Thus from another point of view the peaceful initiatory gatherings indicate a considerable advance in social relations and con- tribute to the process ever going on of welding small local groups into larger tribal aggregates.^ Australia furnishes some apt examples. Here every tribe has its fixed territorial limits beyond which it may not expand, except at the cost of war. Such tribes are frequently bound together into larger aggregates, and form a community united by the possession of the same divisional system and language. Between such tribes there is more or less intermarriage and participation in identical or similar initiation ceremonies.^ The five tribes of New South Wales whose initiation ceremonies were studied by Mr. Howitt ''represent a social aggregate, namely, a community bound together, in spite of diversity of class system, by ceremonies of initiation, which, although they vary slightly in difi^erent localities, are yet substantially the same, and are common to all." Each of these tribes is connected in the same way with neighboring tribes, so that the community, as indicated by the initiation ceremonies, covers a much greater extent of territory than that which the five tribes alone occupy. These widely scattered tribes may ^ Kdmilaroi and Kurnai, 198. 2 Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxv (1896), 192. ^ The sexual license involving the relaxation of the usual totemic re- strictions which is so often a feature of these meetings, may possibly be a survival of earlier promiscuous prac- tices. In some cases it certainly seems to have a religious significance. For examples from Australia, Fiji, and North America, see Mathews in Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, new series, ix (1897), 153 ; Fison mJour. Anthrop, Inst., xiv (1885), 28; Catlin, O- Kee-Pa, 32 sq. ^ Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy, Soc. New South Wales, xxxii (1898), 66 sq. THE PUBERTY INSTITUTION attend initiation, because connubium exists between them.^ Messengers, bearing as the symbol of their office the sacred bull-roarers, are sent out to summon the tribes to participation in the Borasy or initiation meetings. No tribesman having seen the bull-roarers and heard the message would dare to disregard the invitation. When at length the various con- tingents which have received the summons arrive at the locality agreed upon, all hostile feelings are put aside and the utmost friendship prevails throughout the entire period of the ceremonies.^ These initiatory meetings naturally furnish an opportunity for the transaction of tribal or intertribal business. After the great Bunan of the Coast Murring of New South Wales, a fair is frequently held just before the people return. There is much bartering of goods which have been made and brought to the Bunan for this special purpose.^ Matrimonial arrangements and other regulations are some- times made at this time. Mr. Mathews writes: "When all the merry-making is over, if any of the people present have a personal grievance to bring before the headmen or a com- plaint to make respecting a violation of the tribal laws, the matter is fully discussed by the elders of the several tribes, and punishment is meted out to the offending parties in the presence of the men and women of the whole assemblage." ^ The leading elders among the Port Macquarrie natives when assembled for the initiatory performances "form a council, by whose authority wars are proclaimed, boundaries settled, ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 433 sq.; id., Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 512. ^ Fraser in Amer. Antiquarian, xxi (1899), 234; Enright in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxiii (1899), 116 n'^. At the Bora of the Kamilaroi of New South Wales, which took place in 1894, three tribes participated, and 203 persons were present. Of these 58 were women and 49 were children. Twenty youths were initiated. The Bora did not begin promptly after the call for its celebration had been issued, for some of the natives had to travel over one hundred miles in order to be present. Consequently, while only five weeks were actually taken up with the initia- tion rites, over four months elapsed from the arrival of the first contin- gent to the final dispersion of the tribes (Mathews in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxiv (1895), 413 sq.). ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 456 n^. The conclusion of the Asa ceremonies of the Tamo, Kaiser Wilhelm Land, is also marked by a primitive sort of fair (Hagen, Unter den Papua's, 238). * Amer. Anthropologist, ix (1896), 343- PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES and one tribe prevented from interfering with, or encroaching upon, another/' ^ Such AustraHan ceremonies, requiring the presence of every member of the tribe, naturally serve as the chief vehicle for the transmission of the customs and traditions of the community from one generation to another. At a recent Bora^ for example, there were present a number of young men, tuggabillas^ who had been initiated at a pre- vious inaugural rite. They "walked unrestrained with the old men all over the Bora ground, and everything on it was fully explained to them, so that when they become old men they may be able to produce similar figures and explain their meaning to the young men of the tribe, so that their customs and traditions, rites and ceremonies, may be handed down from one generation to another." ^ The meetings of the Central Australian tribes for the Engwura rites, though their general result is to strengthen the hold of the tribal customs upon the initiated, do sometimes serve as a vehicle for the introduction of changes in these customs. Innova- tions introduced by important elders at their local group might be discussed at the general meetings of the elders of the tribes, and if favorably received, would be communicated to all the tribesmen present. "We have already pointed out," writes Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, "that there are certain men who are especially respected for their ability, and after watching large numbers of the tribe, at a time when they were assembled together for months to perform certain of their most sacred ceremonies, we have come to the con- clusion that at a time such as this, when the older and more powerful men from various groups are met together, and when day by day and night by night around their camp fires they discuss matters of tribal interest, it is quite possible for changes of custom to be introduced." ^ ^ Breton, Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia, and Van Dieman^s-Landj 234. ^ Mathews in Jour, and Proc, Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxviii (1894), 119. Cf. ibid.y xxxi (1897), 127. ^ Native Tribes 0/ Central Aus- tralia, 12. For the success with which obedience to the tribal regula- tions is secured among the Austra- lians, cf. Mathew, Eaglehawk and Crow, 93; Ridley, Kdmilardi and other Australian Languages, 155; Curr, The Australian Race, i, 54-55, 72. THE PUBERTY INSTITUTION Other regions of the world provide additional illustrations of the social aspects of initiation. The Barium ceremonies of Kaiser Wilhelm Land, lasting an entire year, often bring together from the various villages of the neighborhood as many as half a thousand men. Singing, dancing, and feast- ing form the usual preliminaries to the secret rites. During this period the greatest sociability prevails; among the men the Barium forms the sole topic of conversation; and the boys w^ho are so soon to suffer initiation, picture its terrors to one another.^ At the Asa rites practised by the Tamo natives, young men from all the outlying districts are present for initiation. During the ceremonies a general peace is proclaimed betv^een the districts contributing boys to be initiated.^ At a Marawot festival, one of the great ceremonies of the Dukduk society of Bismarck Archipelago, there were present some four hundred spectators from all the near-lying islands; the Kanakas "who otherwise would scarcely care to meet give up all hostile feeling for the time, and ... an omnium gatherum takes place, which shows that, although the desire for seclusion is an obstacle to all traffic, there are yet ties between the people that prove their consanguinity.'' ^ Among the Fijians, it was cus- tomary for two years to elapse between the building of the Nanga and the actual initiation ceremony. During this time great preparations were made by all for the feasts to come.^ At the puberty celebration of the Yaunde of Kamerun, sometimes over a thousand spectators are present.^ When the Sun Dance, the most impor- tant rite of the Plains Indians, is to be celebrated, messengers are sent out to invite all the tribes privileged to participate. "Though some of the visitors are hereditary enemies, it matters not during the sun-dance; they visit one another; they shake hands and form alliances." ^ ^ Schellong in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr.y ii (1889), 147 sq. ^ Bartels in Verhandl. Berlin. Gesells. f. Anthrop. Ethnol. u. Ur- geschichte, xxvi (1894), 200. ^ Graf V. Pfeil in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvii (1897), 188. ^ Fison, ihid.j xiv (1884), 20 sq. ^ Zenker in Mitth. von Forschungs- reisenden und Gelehrten aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten, viii (1895), 55- ^ Bushotter, quoted by Dorsey in Eleventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. , 452. CHAPTER III THE SECRET RITES Puberty institutions for the initiation of young men into manhood are among the most widespread and characteristic features of primitive hfe. They are found among peoples considered the lowest of mankind: among Andamanese, Hottentots, Fuegians, and Australians; and they exist in various stages of development among peoples emerging from savagery to barbarism. Their foundation goes back to an unknown antiquity; their mysteries, jealously guarded from the eyes of all save the initiated, preserve the religion and morality of the tribe. Though varying endlessly in detail, their leading characteristics reproduce themselves with sub- stantial uniformity among many different peoples and in widely separated areas of the world. The initiation by the tribal elders of the young men of the tribe, their rigid se- clusion, sometimes for a lengthy period, from the women and children; their subjection to certain ordeals and to rites designed to change their entire natures; the utiHzation of this period of confinement to convey to the novices a knowledge of the tribal traditions and customs; and finally, the inculca- tion by most practical methods of habits of respect and obe- dience to the older men — all these features are well described in the quaint and vigorous account by an old writer of the ceremonies once practised by the Tuscarora Indians of North Carolina. According to Lawson, these Indians had "one most abominable custom amongst them, which they call hus- quenawing their young men. . . . You must know, that most commonly, once a year, at farthest, once in two years, these people take up so many of their young men as they think are able to undergo it, and husquenaugh them, which is to make them obedient and respective to their superiors, and, 32 THE SECRET RITES 33 as they say, it is the same to them as it is to us to send our children to school to be taught good breeding and letters. This house of correction is a large, strong cabin, made on purpose for the reception of the young men and boys, that have not passed the graduation already; and it is always at Christmas that they husquenaugh their youth, which is by bringing them into this house and keeping them dark all the time, where they more than half starve them. Besides, they give them pellitory bark, and several intoxicating plants, that make them go raving mad as ever were any people in the world; and you may hear them make the most dismal and hellish cries and bowlings that ever human creatures ex- pressed; all which continues about five or six weeks, and the little meat they eat, is the nastiest, loathsome stuff, and mixt with all manner of filth it is possible to get. After the time is expired, they are brought out of the cabin, which never is in the town, but always a distance off, and guarded by a jailor or two, who watch by turn. Now when they first come out, they are as poor as ever any creatures were; for you must know several die under this diabolical purgation. Moreover, they either really are, or pretend to be, dumb, and do not speak for several days ; I think twenty or thirty, and look so ghastly, and are so changed, that it is next to an im- possibility to know them again, although you was never so well acquainted with them before. I would fain have gone into the mad house, and have seen them in their time of purgatory, but the king would not suffer it, because, he told me they would do me or any other white man an injury, that ventured in amongst them, so I desisted. . . . Now the savages say that if it was not for this, they could never keep their youth in subjection, besides that it hardens them ever after to the fatigues of war, hunting, and all manner of hard- ship, which their way of living exposes them to. Besides, they add, that it carries off those infirm weak bodies, that would have been only a burden and disgrace to their nation, and saves the victuals and clothing for better people that would have been expended on such useless creatures." ^ ^ History of Carolina^ 380-382. Virginia the intoxicating drink ad- Among the Powhatan Indians of ministered to the novices was called 34 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES It is in their nature as ordeals that puberty rites have attracted most attention. Where the obligations of a mili- tary career rest upon every tribesman, these ordeals represent an effort to impress upon the novice by the vivid means of bodily torments, the necessary qualities of a w^arrior, and to inculcate the indispensable tribal virtues of bravery, obedi- ence, and self-control. In part there exists a real desire to submit to the proof the manly qualities of the candidates for admission, by ordeals as difficult as they are often dis- gusting. With advancing culture and the decline of mili- tancy, the purely brutal aspect of such practices tends to pass away, but in their original form they certainly make large drafts upon the strength and courage of the young men v^ho must undergo them. Sometimes they are so severe as to ruin the health, and even to cause the death of the v^eaker novices — an outcome v^hich is always defended by the old men on well-known Darwinian principles.^ Inability to support the torments is of course unusual and would sub- ject the unhappy youth to the direst penalties. Among the Macquarrie, if a boy gives any indication of his sufferings, he is handed over to the women and henceforth becomes the comrade of children.^ Should the novices of the Euahlayi tribe "show fear and quail at the Little Boorah, they would be returned to their mothers as cowards unfitted for initia- tion, and sooner or later sympathetic magic would do its work, a poison-stick or bone would end them." ^ Ob- servers have frequently commented upon the utter impas- sibility displayed by the novices throughout the proceedings. "I remember/' writes Mr. Howitt, ''one young lad of about wysoccan (Beverley, History of Vir- Dubois in Amer. Anthropologist, new ginidj lyS). It was a decoction of the series, vii, 1905, 622-623). leaves and twigs of cassina or ilex. ^ For some examples from Aus- Many other Indian tribes make use tralia and Africa, see Taplin in Native of similar preparations to induce ex- Tribes of South Australia, 18; Daw- hilaration and frenzy. The Walapai son, Australian Aborigines, Casa- of Arizona steep the leaves, roots, and lis, Les Bassoutos, 279; Macdonald in flowers of Datura stramonium for Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix (1889), 268. this purpose (Bourke in Ninth Ann. ^ Angas, Savage Life and Scenes Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 455). The Dieg- in Australia and New Zealand, ii, 224. uenos of Southern California used ^ Mrs. Parker, Euahlayi Tribe, the roots of Datura metaloides (Miss 72-73. THE SECRET RITES 35 twelve, who showed no more sense of anything going on round him than if he had been a bronze statue, and yet, as he afterwards said, he felt quite sure several times that he was about to be killed." ^ It would be, however, an error to infer that the real cruelty of these ordeals is due mainly to a savage delight in witness- ing suffering. Even the brutal beatings received by the novices must serve to emphasize the instruction conveyed.^ And it is most likely that in many cases what we regard as merely tests of courage and endurance were once of deeper significance and were imposed originally for religious or magical purposes. Thus cannibalism, formerly an initiatory rite among some Australian tribes, may have been retained as a magical practice intended to convey the virtues of the eaten man to the novices, long after it had been abandoned as a general custom.^ In such primitive con- ceptions lies very probably the explanation of many of the phallic and scatalogic rites practised by Australian natives.^ The various mutilations at puberty in many instances are significant not simply as ordeals, the purpose of which is to test the constancy of the novice; they are further service- able as indicating to the uninitiated the reception of the candidate into the ranks of men. In this category belong knocking out of teeth and scarification, both of which oper- ations leave permanent records upon the body of the novice; ^ Jour. Anthrop. Inst.^ xiii (1884), 451 n\ ^ For some illustrations — Aus- tralia: Mackenzie in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., vii (1878), 252; Torres Straits: Haddon, ibid., xix (1890), 360; Africa: Cole, ibid., xxxii (1902), 308. ^ For an illustration, cf. Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxiv (1900), 278-279. * For some examples see Mathews in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxix (1900), 634-637; xxxvii (1898), 62; Amer. Anthropologist, ix (1896), 339; Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvi (1897), 278; Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxx (1896), 212; xxxi (1897), 141 ; Mackillop in Trans, and Proc. and Rep. Roy. Soc. South Aus- tralia, xvii (1893), 261. Cf. also Mackenzie in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., vii (1878), 252; Ridley, Kdmilaroi and other Australian Languages, 154. For similar ordeals among the natives of the Papuan Gulf, see Holmes in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 424, The Hottentot ordeals of this nature have received more than ade- quate treatment in Kolben's account. The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope, i, 120 sq. 36 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES nose, lip, and ear-boring, plucking out of hair, painting, and the widespread rite of tattooing, which is usually begun, if not completed, at the opening of the pubic period. Such significant operations may often survive the decline of the elaborate tribal puberty rite into a purely domestic cele- bration and may then be undergone years before the arrival of the child at manhood.^ The diversity of the ordeals is most interesting. Thus depilation,^ head-biting; evulsion of teeth, sprinkling with human blood, drinking of human blood,^ immersion in dust or filth, heavy floggings,^ scarification,^ smoking and burning, circumcision and subincision, are some of the forms in which the ordeals appear among the Australians alone. The knocking out of one or more teeth — usually the front teeth of the upper jaw — is the characteristic ordeal of the Bora rites, common to the Eastern Australian tribes. But this practice is not confined to Australia. The Ova- herero and Batoka of South Africa knock out the two middle incisors of the under jaw; ^ Mussurongo and Ambriz blacks knock out the two middle front teeth of the upper jaw.^ The custom of the Wagogo of German East Africa, again, is the same as that of the Ovaherero.^ The great care mani- fested in the disposition of the teeth — among some Aus- tralian tribes it is carefully wrapped up and kept by the boy's relatives ^ — seems to indicate a peculiar sacredness attaching to them.^^ After the Kuranda of the Barkunjee tribes, at which the principal ordeal is plucking the hair from the ^ Infra, 200-201, 205-206. ^ Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxii (1898), 243 sq.; Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., xxxix (1900), 631 sq. For similar depilation ordeals in New Guinea, cf. Hagen, Unter den Papua'' s, 237. ^ Bonney in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1883), 128; Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, i, 115. ^ Mackenzie in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., vii (1878), 252. ^ Mathews in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxix (1900), 628 sq. ^ Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Sud- Afrika^s, 235. ' Monteiro, Angola and the River Congo, \, 262. ^ Cole in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 309. ^ Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxii (1898), 248. A curious custom is found among the Coast Murring and the Murrum- bidgee tribes. After the Bora is over, and the natives have scattered to their own localities, the teeth extracted from the novices at initiation are THE SECRET RITES 37 body of the novice, the hair, when removed, is carefully kept by itself and is disposed of in the same fashion as the ex- tracted teeth in other tribes.^ Of all these ordeals, circumcision has the greatest prom- inence. Its presence in the puberty rites of most primitive peoples as the necessary preliminary to marriage, suggests that the practice was originally designed to facilitate the reproductive act. Initiation ceremonies being intended to prepare the youth for the performance of the marriage function, and thus, indirectly, for that participation in the life of the tribe which is the privilege only of married men, circumcision naturally becomes the seal and sign of this admission into the tribal life. Losing its once practical character as a primitive effort to assist nature, it now serves in the puberty rites as a mere badge or evidence of incorpora- tion into the tribal community.^ passed from one headman to another until they have made a complete cir- cuit of the initiating community. This ceremonial transmission of the extracted teeth serves to indicate that the young men have acquired all the privileges of tribesmen. (Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 456-457; Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxi, 1897, 150-15 1.) ^ Mathews, ibid., xxxii (1898), 245; Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, ii, 336 sq. ^ This view of the origin of cir- cumcision agrees in the main with the theory developed by Ploss {Das Kind, i, 342 sq.), and adopted by Andree, Lippert, Schurtz, and other writers. Westermarck connects the practice of circumcision as well as of all other mutilations at puberty with the desire for self -decoration, most strongly experienced at the be- ginning of manhood. At first prac- tised to bring about variety, and thereby to promote sexual attractive- ness, it was kept up when it became general, from habit or religious motives {The History of Human Marriage, London, 189 1, 177 sq., 201 sq^. The difficulties of such a theory, obvious enough when ap- plied to so simple a puberty ordeal as that of the perforation of the septum or the evulsion of teeth, are redoubled when the theory is offered as the ex- planation of so widespread a custom as circumcision, or the remarkable Australian rite of subincision. At the present time the latter certainly has no decorative purpose, nor is there any reason to suppose such a purpose at an earher period. The effect of the operation is not readily apparent and the incision itself is not visible (Dr. Stirling in Report on the Work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia (Lon- don, 1896, part iv, 33). Wester- marck's theory applies with more reason to the puberty ordeals of scarification and tattooing. But it is most probable that in all these puberty mutilations the ornamental aspects are largely derivative. What- ever serves as a badge of admis- 38 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Almost universally initiation rites include a mimic rep- resentation of the death and resurrection of the novice. The new life to which he awakes after initiation is one utterly forgetful of the old; a new name, a new language, and new privileges are its natural accompaniments. A few significant examples may be cited. Novices of the Koom- banggary tribe of New South Wales have the hair singed off their heads ^^to make the women believe that they have been burnt by the evil spirit and have just emerged from the fire." ^ In the Qatu initiations of the natives of Northern New Hebrides, neophytes are placed in enclosures where they remain unwashed and with very little food and water for sometimes thirty days. " For a woman to see the newly initiated until they have returned to ordinary life is a mortal offence. They come out black with dirt and soot, and are not to be seen till they have washed." ^ The Susus say that when the boys are first initiated their throats are cut and that they continue dead for some time. When at length they are reanimated they are able to go about with much more vigor than before. ^ Just before the boys are removed from their seclusion in the Poro bush, the Poro "devil" perambulates the town during the evening, blowing his red flute in a most doleful fashion, "the meaning of it being that he is presumed to be in the pains before sion into the ranks of men will naturally become the object of high regard and develop ornamental aspects accordingly. Similarly it may be pointed out that the sacrificial and hygienic aspects of circumcision, however prominent in the later development of the rite among barbarous peoples, are un- questionably as foreign to the most primitive practice as is its perform- ance in early infancy. On the origin and extension of the practice of cir- cumcision, see in addition to the refer- ences cited, Andree, Ethnogr aphis che Parallelen und Vergleiche^ second series (Leipzig, 1889), 166-212; Jacobs in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr. , iv (1891), 185-201, 244-255; Frazer, in Independent Rev., iv (1904), 204- 218; Lafargue in Bull. Soc. d'An- thropologie de Paris, third series, X (1887), 420-436; Bergmann in Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradi- zioni Popolari, ii (1883), 271-293, 329-344. ^ Mathews in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc.y XXX vii (1898), 65. Cf. also Helms in Proc. Linnean Soc. New South WaleSy second series, x (1895), 390- ^ Codrington, Melanesians, 87; for the similar Qeta rites, ihid., 92-93. ^ Winterbottom, Native Africans in the Neighborhood of Sierra Leone, h 139- THE SECRET RITES 39 child-birth, for, when the boys go first into the Poro bush, the devil is supposed to be pregnant, and, . . . when they come out of it, the devil is said to have given birth." ^ Can- didates undergoing the Ndembo rites in the vela^ or place of seclusion, are believed "to decompose and decay, until but one bone of each novice is left in charge of the doctor/' ^ Among the Bondei of German East Africa there are various ceremonies, by which the death of the novice and his visit to the lower regions are represented.^ The simula- tion of death and resurrection is well carried out in the in- itiatory rites of the Kakian society of Ceram. These take place in the lodge of the organization which also serves as the mysterious abode of the Nitu Elak under which name the first ancestor of the tribe is worshipped. Before leaving the village for the Kakian house the novices take last fare- well of their female relatives and sweethearts. They do not expect to see them again, for they are told by the priests of the society that Nitu Elak will take the nitu (spirit) out of their bodies, only to restore it after the priests have prayed the god long and fervently. In the lodge which is kept perfectly dark, their blindfolding is removed and they are then tattooed and smeared with powder. The boys sit on benches crossways with their hands in the air as if they were about to receive something. The priests then take a bamboo flute, the lower part of which they put in the hands of the boys and shout through the instrument all sorts of noises imitating the voice of the Nitu Elak, The novices are threatened with death unless they fulfil all the duties of membership and keep everything that happens in the lodge a secret from the uninitiated. Before they leave the lodge, the priests give the boys a stick ornamented with rooster and cassowary feathers as a certificate from the Nitu, On their return to the village they are required to fast for three days and for a long time they must act as if still pos- sessed by the Nitu, They may not speak, their walk is ^ Alldridge, The Sherhro and its ^ Dale in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., Hinterland, 130. xxv (1896), 189. ^ Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, i, 286. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES wobbly and uncertain, and their actions in general betoken those of madmen.^ In some cases it is possible that the neophytes are really hypnotized into believing that they have died and come to life again. In any event the simulation is usually very well carried out. Eyre noticed that the Murray River boys from the time of being seized, closed their eyes and pretended to be in a deep trance until the process of depilation was over.^ Among the Kwakiutl tribes of British Columbia, a novice who is taking the Hamatsa degree "feigns to have forgotten the ordinary ways of man, and has to learn everything anew. The new name acquired by the novice at the close of initiation is, of course, a part of the general dramatic features of the ceremonies. It forms a lasting reminder of the great change which has come over him. Such a name is usually secret, knowledge of it being confined to the initiated men of the tribe. The secret name of an Arunta native is known only to the fully initiated men of his own local group. It is never uttered except during the solemn ceremony of ex- amining the sacred Churinga at the initiation rites. ^ When boys of the Dippil tribes of Queensland receive their new names, there is a special ceremony to impress the sacredness of these upon them. Some of the elders secrete themselves in the tops of trees and as the new names are pronounced, all the men in charge of the boys utter a great shout which is answered by those in the tree-tops, "giving the novices the impression that ancestral spirits are hovering about in the air." ^ Among the Queensland tribes studied by Mr. Roth, the lad gets his individual personal name only after cir- cumcision. Then he may wear, as a full-fledged yuppieriy the grass necklace, human-hair waist-belt, and the opossum- string phallo-crypt which belongs to a man.^ Other typical ^ Riedel, De Sluik-en Kroesharige Rassen tusschen Selehes en Papua, 109-110. ^ Journals of Expeditions of Dis- covery into Central Australia, ii, 337. ^ Boas in Report U. S. National Museum for iSgj, 538. ^ Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 139, 637- ^ Mathews in Amer. Anthropolo- gist, new series, ii (1900), 144. ^ Ethnological Studies, 171. THE SECRET RITES 41 Australian examples of the new name are furnished by the Wiradthuri of New South Wales/ and the Dieri of South Australia.^ A candidate for initiation into the Dukduk of New Pomerania received a new name at the con- clusion of an ordeal well calculated to shake the stoutest nerves. The lad was conducted to a hut in the distant bush and was there left in solitude for several days. For the first day of his seclusion he was allowed to eat whatever articles of food he wished — only what he then ate was to be tabooed to him for the remainder of his life. During the following days he must go without food and water. Even sleep was denied him. When the strain became al- most unbearable, the Dukduk messenger suddenly appeared before the hut. If the lad was found to have bravely borne his torments, he was made a probationer and was given a new name. He must now return to his home, tell no one of what he had gone through, must avoid his childhood friends, and await patiently the coming of the Dukduk to the village, when at length he would be admitted to the or- ganization.^ In the secret societies of the New Hebrides, candidates receive a new name,^ and the same is true of most African societies.^ "It is a terrible way of teasing a Wayao to point to a little boy, and ask if he re- members what was his name when he was about the size of that boy. Some would not mention their old name on any consideration.'' ^ The Konkau, a branch of the Maidu Indians of Northern California, have a tribal society called Kumeh, or "Order of Manhood." At his puberty initiation the lad receives a new name, generally that of his father or some other near relative.^ A new language is closely associated with a new name. ^ Mathews in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XXV (1896), 310. ^ Gason in Native Tribes of South Australia, 269. ^ Churchill in Popular Science Monthly, xxxviii (1890), 239-241. ^ Codrington, op. cit., 87. ^ Cf. the Purrah ceremonies of the Sierra Leone tribes (Winter- bottom, op. cit., i, 135; Alldridge, op. cit., 125), and the Ndemho rites of the Congo natives (Bentley, Dic- tionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language, 506). ^ Macdonald, Africana, i, 128. ^ Powers in Contributions to North American Ethnology, iii (Washing- ton, 1877), 305-306. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES The possession of an esoteric speech known only to initiated members is highly useful as lending an additional mystery to the proceedings. Australian novices learn a secret speech which is never used in the presence of women or uninitiated youths. Short sentences of general utility, names for the common objects of everyday life, for the various animals and plants, and for the parts of the human body, make up a dialect, knowledge of which may sometimes be of real service in determining whether a stranger is an in- itiated tribesman.^ The songs chanted at the Dukduk lodge are in ^*an unknown tongue,'^ ^ The secret language taught the Nkimba novices is fairly well formed, many of the words being obvious modifications of the Congo dialects ; ^ and others possibly archaic Bantu. ^ The Ndemho secret vo- cabulary is, however, small and feeble.^ Initiates of Mu- kukuy a Kamerun society, learn another speech,^ and the same is true of the well-known Mumbo Jumbo order. The Carib Islanders appear to have developed a some- what intricate system of distinct and independent vocabu- laries. Of these one was used by men, and by women when speaking to their husbands, but never among them- selves; a second vocabulary with certain grammatical forms was proper to the women, and this in turn was never employed by the men save when occasion arose of repeating verbatim some statement of their wives. A third and secret speech was known only to the warriors and elders. Into this lan- guage, used principally at the tribal assemblies, the women and young men were not initiated.^ Among the Guaycurus of Brazil and other South American tribes the speech of ^ Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxii (1898), 250; id. J Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., xlii (1903), 259; xxxix (1900), 629 sq.; Enright in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxiii (1899), 120. ^ Churchill in Popular Science Monthly, xxxviii (1890), 242. ^ Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, i, 282. ^ Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals, 57. ^ Bentley, op. cit., i, 286. ^ Buchner, Kamerun, 28. ^ Moore, Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa, 40. ^ R. P. Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux lies de VAmerique (Paris, 1742), vi, 127-128; Lucien Adam, Du Parler des Hommes et du Parler des Femmes dans la Langue Caraibe (Paris, 1879); Sapper in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., x (1897), 56 THE SECRET RITES 43 the women was wholly or in part unlike that of the men.^ In the magical societies of the North American Indians, the ritualistic use of an archaic dialect is common. Though of course unintelligible, both to initiated and un- initiated, the shamans delight to employ it during cere- monials "not only to impress their hearers, but to elevate themselves as well." ^ In the prayer-songs of the Sania- kiakwey or Hunting Order of the Zuni, the names of the sacred prey-gods whose fetishes are kept by the society, are given, for the sake of unintelligibility, in the language of the Rio Grande Indians.^ Where, as with the Eskimos and Dakotas, careful linguistic examination has been made of these esoteric dialects, it has been found that they are usually the ordinary speech modified by an unusual accentuation, the introduction of figurative and symbolic expressions, and the addition of archaic words and phrases.^ After their long initiatory seclusion, the boys are led back to the tribe and invested with the proper belongings of men. Elaborate festivities then take place and the newly made tribesmen in all their finery become the objects of much attention from the women — their mothers and the mar- riageable girls. At such a time much license, especially in sexual matters, is accorded the novices and a period of almost indiscriminate cohabitation, followed usually by marriage, sets in.^ The initiatory seclusion and ordeals are accord- ingly highly significant as constituting the indispensable preliminary to all participation in sexual relations. When marriage is the usual accompaniment of the attainment of puberty, initiation thus becomes the visible token of arrival at sexual maturity, and adds immensely to the importance of the initiates who are now about to look for wives. Some- ^ C. F. P. V. Martius, Beitrdge zur Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerika^s zumal Brasiliens (Leipzig, 1867), i, 106-107. ^ Hoffman in Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 61; cf. Seventh Ann. Rep., 164, 187, 227. ^ Gushing in Second Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.j 20. ^ Brinton, The Myths of the New World (New York, 1868), 285; Boas in Sixth Ann. Rep. Bur. EthnoL, 594. ^ For some illustrations : Helms in Proc. Linnean Soc. New South Wales, second series, x (1895), 391; Taplin in The Native Tribes of South Aus- tralia, 18; Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Sild-Afrika^s, 109. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES times special efforts are made to heighten the sexual attrac- tiveness of the young men. At Tud, one of the Torres Straits Group, after the month of probation following in- itiation, the lad having been thoroughly washed and oiled, was decorated with the head-dress of cassowary feathers and with other articles of native luxury. A skewer-like ornament was passed through his septum and two large seeds were placed inside his cheeks to make them bulge out. Lastly his body was carefully anointed with "girl medicine" which was credited with the property of exciting the girls. Thus, according to the native account they ^'made him flash — flash like hell that boy." ^ The dances which African novices learn during their seclusion and afterwards exhibit in the neighboring villages are usually designed to promote their attractiveness in marriage. Ama- xosa boys while in seclusion are called collectively Abak- weta. After their wounds have healed and the white clay ^ has been washed from their bodies, the Abakweta are taken to the village where they perform their dances with the aid of the unmarried girls. ^ Susu boys of the Soudan, after * Haddon in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix (1890), 412. ^ The use of some substance, usually white clay, with which the novices are daubed over face and body, is common throughout Australia and Africa. Doubtless some obscure con- nection exists here with the death and resurrection ideas. Pipe-clay is often employed by the Australians as a sign of mourning for the dead (Etheridge in Proc. Linnean Soc. New South Wales, new series, xiv (1899), 333 sq.; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 136). Moreover, there is the widespread belief that after death the bodies of the natives become white. The Australian name for a white man is wunda, an expression orig- inally applied to the black man in his spirit state after death (Eraser in Jour, of Trans. Victoria Inst., xxii, 1889, 169). For examples of the use of white clay or white pigment among South African tribes, cf. Fritsch, op. cit., 109; Macdonald in Revue Scientifique, third series, xlv (1890), 643; among the Wagogo of German East Africa, Cole in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 308; and among the Kamerun tribes, Buchner, Kamerun, 27. At Tud, boys undergoing initiation were painted every day with charcoal, the avowed object being to render the skin paler (Haddon in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix, 1890, 410). The Pow- hatan Indians, according to Captain John Smith's account, painted the boys undergoing ^'huskanawing" white (Beverley, History of Virginia, 175). Omaha lads about to begin their initiatory fasts smear them- selves with white clay, and then retire from the camp for their solitary vigils (Dorsey in Third Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 266). ^ Fritsch, op. cit., 109. THE SECRET RITES 45 initiation, go about from town to town begging and dancing, and as their importance is now greatly increased, they soon get wives. ^ Similar customs prevail among the Mandin- goes,^ and the Bondei of German East Africa.^ The various ceremonies which take place on the arrival of girls at puberty are distinctly less impressive than those of the boys. As a rule there is no attempt at a formal initiation, possessing tribal aspects and secret rites. The girl at puberty remains in seclusion usually alone or attended by her female relations, until her first ordeal has been successfully passed.^ In some cases, however, ceremonies of a more important nature develop. With the Central Australian Arunta the initiatory rites which must be undergone by every girl are clearly the equivalent of the first two operations performed on the boys and betray the same purpose.^ Among the Queensland tribes the initiatory rites, here divided into four clearly defined stages, may be taken by both men and women. ^ A number of the African tribes initiate the girls with ceremonies quite as elaborate and important as are those of the boys, on which they are obviously modelled. Thus the Boyale of the Bechuana maidens is the counterpart of the boys' Boguera ^ and the Kiwanga of the Bondei girls corresponds closely to the Galo of the boys.^ Other illus- trations are to be found in the Gold Coast Colony,^ among the Mpongwe, and among the Vey peoples of Liberia. Vey girls go into the "gree-gree bush" when ten years old and even earlier, and remain there under charge of instructors ^ Winterbottom, op. cit., i, 138. ^ Park, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, i, 396; Gray and Dochard, Travels in Western Africa, 383. ^ Dale in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XXV (1896), 192. ^ Dr. Frazer has given many illustrations of the practice of isolat- ing girls at puberty {The Golden Bough, London, 1900, iii, 204-233) ; cf. also, Bastian, Inselgruppen in Oceanien, xiii-xxi. ^ Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 92 sq., 269; see also, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 133 sq. ^ Roth, Ethnological Studies, 169. ^ Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Siid- Afrika^s, 207; Livingstone, Mis- sionary Travels, 167; Casalis, Les Bassoutos, 283 sq. ^ Dale in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XXV (1896), 193-194. ^ Kemp, Nine Years at the Gold Coast, 165 sq. Reade, Savage Africa, 208. " Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, ix (1896), 220-221. 46 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES who are the oldest women in the village, until of marriage- able age. Various womanly duties — the care of children, cooking, making of nets — besides dances, games, and songs are taught them. Nor does this training in seclusion omit those darker rites which seem to be its almost invariable accompaniment, especially among African peoples. In the effort to discover the significance of primitive puberty rites, several theories of their origin have been proposed. Dr. Frazer, who has discussed with a wealth of illustrations the new-birth ideas so characteristic of these mysteries, ^ argues that they are primarily intended to effect the assimilation of the youth to his totem. The latter "is simply the receptacle in which a man keeps his life." ^ In- itiation rites, with their mimic representation of the death and revival of the novice, " become intelligible if we suppose that their substance consists in extracting the youth's soul in order to transfer it to his totem. For the extraction of his soul would naturally be supposed to kill the youth or at least to throw him into a death-like trance, which the savage hardly distinguishes from death. His recovery would then be attributed either to the gradual recovery of his system from the violent shock which it had received, or, more probably, to the infusion into him of fresh life drawn from the totem." ^ This theory of the connection of the totem with the individuals of a totemic clan, has been criticised adversely by Professor Tylor,^ and Messrs. Spencer and Gillen conclude that there is not sufficient evidence to war- rant its application to Australian totemism.^ According to the more general theory of Frobenius, seclusion, abstinence from food and sexual intercourse, the simulation of death and resurrection, the use of a secret language, and the as- sumption of a new name, are all intimately connected with a primitive effort to assimilate the novices to the condition of spirits. When, as especially in the African conceptions, the dead are considered as exercising much power over the ^ The Golden Bough (London, ^ Ibid., 422. 1900), iii, 422-445; Totemism (Edm- burgh, 1887), 38-51. ^ The Golden Bough, iii, 418. ^ Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxviii (1898), 145 sq. ^ I hid., xxviii (1899), 280. THE SECRET RITES 47 living, there will exist a natural desire to assimilate one's self as much as possible to the condition of spirits and to become ^^totengleich'' or "geistergleich" in order that the spiritual power appertaining to the dead may be obtained. Puberty rites originate in a period when manes worship, totemism, and ancestor cults prevail, and their significance is thus pri- marily religious rather than social.^ Mr. Crawley, unfolding his theory of sexual taboo, considers all puberty ceremonies of both sexes as originally the outcome of certain very prim- itive ideas of contagion, regarded by the savage mind as especially threatening at such a great functional crisis as puberty constitutes. As all persons of one sex are poten- tially dangerous to those of the other — sexual taboo — the primitive mind sees in the apparent abnormality of certain sexual functions, confirmation of this sense of danger, and naturally takes measures to avoid impending evil by secluding those who are in a condition to be harmful.^ No doubt various beliefs arising from many different sources have united to establish the necessity of secluding boys and girls at puberty. Isolation from the things of flesh and sense has been a device not infrequently employed by people of advanced culture for the furtherance of spirit- ual life, and we need not be surprised to find uncivilized man resorting to similar devices for more practical purposes. The long fasts, the deprivation of sleep, the constant excite- ment of the new and unexpected, the nervous reaction under long-continued torments, result in a condition of extreme sensitiveness — hypercesthesia — which is certainly favor- able to the reception of impressions that will be indelible. The lessons learned in such a tribal school as the puberty ^ Aus den Flegeljahren der Mensch- heit (Hannover, 1901), 150, 164; ^'Die Masken und Geheimbiinde Afrikas," in Ahhandl. Kaiserlichen Leopoldinisch-Carolinischen Deuts. Akad. der Naturforscher, Ixxiv (Halle, 1899), 214 ^ The Mystic Rose (London, 1902), 29 sq. See also 215-223, 270-314. Other interesting theories of the origin of sexual taboo and of its connection with initiation ceremonies are devel- oped in the posthumous work by J. J. Atkinson, Primal Law (London, 1903), and in a suggestive paper curiously anticipating some of Mr. Atkinson's conclusions, by Ludwig Krzyurcki, Some Notes on the Primi- tive Horde,'' in International Folk-Lore Congress (Chicago, 1898), 199-205. 48 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES institution constitutes, abide through Hfe. Another obvious motive dictating a period of seclusion is found in the wisdom of entirely separating the youth at puberty from the w^omen until lessons of sexual restraint have been learned. New Guinea natives, for instance, say that "when boys reach the age of puberty, they ought not to be exposed to the rays of the sun, lest they suffer thereby; they must not do heavy manual work, or their physical development will be stopped, all possibility of mixing with females must be avoided, lest they become immoral, or illegitimacy become common in the tribe/' ^ Where the men's house is found in a tribal community, this institution frequently serves to prolong the seclusion of the younger initiated men for many years after puberty is reached.^ ^ Holmes in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 421. ^ Puberty ordeals for both sexes, both connected and unconnected with secret initiatory rites, have been discussed by a number of writers. Among the more important references are Ploss, Das Kind, ii, 41 1-45 1; Schurtz, Alter sklas sen und Mdnner- hiinde, 95-110; Bastian, Rechtsver- hdltnisse, 331 sq.; Hall, Adolescence, ii, 232-249; Marro, La Puberta, xi-xxxii ; Kulischer in Zeits.f. EthnoL, XV (1883), 195-203 ; Daniels in Amer. Jour. Psychology, vi (1893), 61-103. There is some evidence for the existence among races just rising into civilization of puberty ceremonies which betray close kinship to those of existing primitive peoples. The Spartan military training with its numerous ordeals, its organization of the youth in companies under charge of an instructor, and its o-va-o-LTia, or public messes, for the men over twenty, affords striking resemblance to the arrangements of less famous peoples. A convenient summary with accompanying references to recent studies in the details of the education of pubescent and. adolescent boys in ancient Greece and Rome is given in Hall, Adolescence (New York, 1904), ii, 249-260. See also Schurtz, Alter sklas sen und Mdnner- biinde, 1 10-124. The older dis- cussion by Lafitau, Mceurs des Sauvages Ameriquains (Paris, 1724), i, 265 sq., is not without value. CHAPTER IV THE TRAINING OF THE NOVICE Amid the many puerilities accompanying the course of instruction in these tribal seminaries, we certainly find much that is of practical value to the novices, much that is truly moral, much that evinces a conscientious purpose to fit them for the serious duties of life. This instruction is im- parted during the seclusion of the candidates, a period which may last for months and even in some instances for years. Obedience to the elders or the tribal chiefs, bravery in battle, liberality towards the community, independence of maternal control, steadfast attachment to the traditional customs and the established moral code, are social virtues of the highest importance in rude communities. Savage ingenuity exhausts itself in devising ways and means for exhibiting these virtues in an effective manner to the young men so soon to take their place as members of the tribe. Some of the initiatory performances are even of a panto- mimic nature intended to teach the novices in a most vivid fashion what things they must in future avoid. In this respect the rites are often equivalent to an impressive mo- rality play. At the Kuringal of the Coast Murring, an Australian tribe, such performances have at first sight a very immoral appearance, being presented apparently on the principle of similia similibus curantur. The kabos^ or guar- dians, talk to each other in inverted language so that the real meaning of their words is just the opposite of what they say. The lads are told that this is to teach them to speak the straightforward truth. Various offences against morality are exhibited and the guardians warn the novices of their death or of violence, should they attempt to repeat the actions E 49 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES they have just witnessed.^ At the Kamilaroi Bora there would be '^many obscene gestures for the purpose of shock- ing the young fellows; and if the latter had shown the least sign of mirth or frivolity, they would have been hit over the head with a nullah nullah by an old man appointed to watch them." ^ Some of these Australian performances, it is true, are made at the expense of the novices and are designed merely to provide amusement to the spectators — features which seem to be retained and developed in the initiatory rites of much more highly civilized peoples. The instruction received by the candidates during their initiatory seclusion covers a wide range of topics. Among the Australians it is at this period that the very complicated laws relating to class and totemic divisions on which the marriage system rests, are brought to the attention of the novices. During their stay in the bush. Port Stephens boys "are taught the sacred songs of the tribes and the laws re- lating to the class system.'' ^ At a recent Bora of some New South Wales tribes, the old men showed the novices ''how to play the native games, to sing the songs of the tribe, and to dance certain corroborees which neither the gins nor the ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 444-449; Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 532 sq. For similar devices of the Queens- land tribes, see Mathews in Amer. An- thropologist, new series, ii (1900), 140. ^ Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxviii (1894), 121; cf. id., Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., xxxix (1900), 632 (Narrinyeri and Booandik tribes). For the antics of the old men at the Fijian Nanga, cf. Joske in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., ii (1889), 265. Some of the phallic observances common to other rites need to be interpreted from this primitive point of view. There is, for instance, slight evidence of phallic worship in the stricter sense among the Austra- lian natives. But remembering that the ceremonies of initiation are in- tended primarily as a preparation for marriage, we shall not be surprised to find much instruction in sexual mat- ters, conveyed sometimes in a most direct and startling fashion. See the illustrations of the drawings and images at a Queensland Bora, as given by Mathews in Jour, and Trans. Vic- toria Inst., xxxiii (1901), 297 sq.; id., Amer. Anthropologist, iii (1901), 340. Among Angola natives the path to the enclosure where the boys are confined is marked by a number of large figures of clay, straw, or carved wood, which are always of a phallic character (Monteiro, Angola and the River Congo, i, 278). Phallic em- blems are frequently carved on the doors of the Oghoni lodges (Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 95). ^ Enright in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxiii (1899), 120. Cf. Mathews, ibid., xxxii (1898), 249. THE TRAINING OF THE NOVICE 51 uninitiated are permitted to learn. They were also in- structed in the sacred traditions and lore of the tribe; to show respect to the old men; and not to interfere with un- protected women/^ ^ In the Buckli rites common to all the tribes of Northwestern Australia, the elders teach the boys the laws and traditions of the tribe, the boundaries of the tribal territory, and the reasons for the feuds with other tribes.^ In the ceremonies of the Omeo blacks, a Victoria tribe now extinct, there were certain proceedings which indicated to the neophyte the districts with which he would be, as a man, on friendly or hostile terms.^ Kurnai boys, after initiation, spend months in the bush as probationers, under the charge of their guardians, "gaining their own living, learning lessons of self-control, and being instructed in the manly duties of the Kurnai, until the old men are satis- fied that they are sufficiently broken in to obedience, and may be trusted to return to the community." ^ The boys are told to obey the old men, to live peaceably with their friends, and share all they have with them, to avoid inter- fering with the girls and married women, and to observe the food restrictions.^ Among the Koombanggary (a tribe in the northern part of New South Wales) this moral train- ing is especially prominent. ''Each lad is attended by one of the elders, who instructs him every evening in his duties, and gives him advice to regulate his conduct through life — advice given in so kindly, fatherly, and impressive a manner as often to soften the heart and draw tears from the youth. He is told to conduct himself discreetly towards women, to restrict himself to the class which his name con- fines him to, and not to look after another's gin; that if he does take another gin when young who belongs to another, he is to give her up without any fighting; not to take ad- vantage of a gin if he finds her alone; that he is to be silent, and not given to quarrelling." ^ In Kaiser Wil- ^ Mathews, i&i6^.,xxviii (1894), 120. ^ Clement in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr.j xvi (1903), 10. ^ Helms in Proc. Linnean Soc. New South Wales, second series, x (1895), 391. ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1885), 319- ^ Ihid., 316. ^ Palmer in Jour. Anthrop. Inst, xiii (1884), 296. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES helm Land boys undergoing the Asa rites are taught certain moral precepts: they are to be generous; they are not to steal; and they are to behave properly towards the women. ^ At Mer, an island in Torres Straits, the lads ''were instructed in all that related to their daily life, in the most approved methods of fishing, fighting, or house-building, and in all the duties which are classed as man's work, in addition to rules of conduct, the customs of the tribe and the traditions of the elders/' ^ At Tud, the initiation cere- monies "formed a very good discipline. The self-restraint acquired during the period of complete isolation was of great value, and being cut off from all the interests of the outer world, the lads had an opportunity for quiet medita- tion, which must have tended to mature their minds, es- pecially as they were at the same time instructed in a good code of morals. It is not easy to conceive of a more effectual means for a rapid training." ^ " 'You. no steal,' " the boys were told, "^you no take anything without leave; if you see a fish-spear and take it without leave, suppose you break it and have not one of your own — how you pay man . . . You no play with boy and girl now; you a man now and no boy. You no play with small play-canoe or spear; that all finish now . . . You no marry your cousin, she all same as sister. If two boys are mates, they may not marry each other's sisters, or by-and-bye they ashamed; they like brothers, they may marry two sisters along another man. If man asks for food or water or anything else, you give, if you have a little, you give little, suppose you got plenty, you give half. Look after mother and father, never mind if you and your wife have to go without. Give half of all your fish to your parents; don't be mean. Don't speak bad word to mother. Father and mother all along same as food in belly ; when they die you feel hungry and empty. Mind your uncles too and cousins. If your brother go to fight, you help him, go together ; don't let him go first.' " ^ Among ^ Hagen, Unter den Papua's, 237. ^ Ibid., 411-412. Cf. also Rep. ^ Haddon in Intern. Archiv f. Cambridge Anthrop. Expedition to Ethnogr.yvi (1893), 146. Torres Straits, v, 140, 210-211, 214, ^ Id.y in Jour. Anthrop Inst., xix 273. (1890), 359-360. THE TRAINING OF THE NOVICE the Gulf Papuans the course of instruction in the Kwody or men's house, forms one long training in tribal cus- tom. The old man who resides with the novices as in- structor teaches them the complicated system of taboo; the seasons when certain kinds of fish may not be eaten or when certain foods are reserved for future feasts. Much attention is devoted to the art of sorcery; not to make them sorcerers, but to impress on their minds how great is the power of sorcerers. Their guardian gives them all kinds of advice respecting their duty to their tribe; the tribal enemies must be the enemies of each individual initiate. In select- ing a wife, the tribal interests must be predominant; she must be a mother of healthy children ; should she prove to be barren, all obligation of husband to wife ceases. Whatever serves the highest interests of the tribe is justifiable. So the novices are taught that if a woman bears twins, one should be buried, for no mother can nourish two children as successfully as one. So also the novices are warned against illicit intercourse; it is detrimental to the tribe, be- cause no one can be held responsible for the conduct of one illegitimately born ; and the murder of such a child is allow- able. "The Gulf Papuan believes implicitly in the survival of the fittest. Personal desires, likes, and dislikes, every- thing that is, or can be, must be subordinated to the pursuit of obtaining the fittest. This idea is innate in him, it is fostered by his guardians when he is a child, it is inculcated in his initiation, it is dominant in him until he dies.'' ^ In New Pomerania where the Dukduk is the all-power- ful tribal society, if the chief decides to admit a can- didate, he is placed in charge of two men, ''brothers of the wood and sea," for his education. They take him to the forest, where he is made to build a house and get a supply of food. ''At first he is examined in his bodily exercises and in his proficiency in the few arts of his savage life. From these material considerations his tutors pass to more recondite matters. They instruct him in the secrets of the sea and the forest, each according to his title. When the candidate can pass a satisfactory examination in this branch ^ Holmes in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 423. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES of his education, his tutors acquaint him with the history of his race and the Hst of its hereditary friends and imme- morial foes/' ^ At one stage of the Nanga rites, formerly practised by the Fijians, the boys gayly painted and dressed go to the Nanga enclosure and there make their ceremonial offerings of kava. And the elders, receiving the offerings, pray ''that in future the tree of the Nanga will be acceptable to the gods" and that the boys may grow up into brave and strong men.^ The inhabitants of Halamahera, one of the Moluccas, still preserve initiation rites of a secret character. After a general festival at which women are present, the boys are led into the forest and remain concealed under the largest trees. Men accompany them armed with swords and shields. The leader strikes three times on each tree in order that the novices hidden under- neath may not be cowards when they grow up. The boys remain in the forest all day, and to harden their bodies ex- pose themselves to the heat of the sun as much as possible. Then they bathe and return to the scene of festivities. The red paint with which they are covered symbolizes the blood from the breaking of the hymen. Before this feast the boys must see no blood, wear no red clothes, nor eat certain foods which are no longer tabooed after the initiation is over and they have become men.^ At initiation into the Kakian of the Patasiva of Ceram, novices are told to treat their relatives well, not to fight with them, and not to seduce other people's wives. They also learn the old traditions of the tribe as well as the special secrets of the Kakian society.^ Basutos boys, during the in- itiatory seclusion, are beaten frequently and without pity. Amendez-vous they are told, "'Soyez hommes ! Craignez le vol ! craignez I'adultere ! Honorez vos peres et meres. Obeissez a vos chefs.'" ^ Bechuana lads are asked, "Will you guard the chief well Will you herd the ^ Churchill in Popular Science Monthly, xxxviii (1890), 240. ^ Joske in Intern. Archiv /. Ethnogr., ii (1889), 263. ^ Riedel in Zeits. f. Ethnol.y xvii (1885), 82. ^ Riedel, De Sluik-en Kroesharige Rassen, no. ^ Casalis, Les Bassoutos, 278. THE TRAINING OF THE NOVICE cattle well?'' and similar questions. After these interroga- tions the old men rush forward and whip them over the back ^*and every stroke inflicted thus makes the blood squirt out of a wound a foot or eighteen inches long." ^ At the close of initiation they listen to a long address by the elders and medicine-men. As they have bathed the white clay from their bodies and have burned all the objects connected with their seclusion, so all that belongs to their life as children must be put away. They must never visit the place of seclusion ''where they are considered to have left their evil dispositions and the follies of childhood." ^ Novices belong- ing to the Lake Nyassa tribes "have arms put into their hands and are harangued by the elders, bards, and magicians. They are now men, and men's work is to be theirs. Herding, hoeing, reaping, and all domestic duties in which they assisted their mothers, they have no longer any concern with. War, hunting, and hearing causes must now occupy their thoughts, for they are to take the place of the fathers, and on them will depend the defence of the tribe and the maintaining of its honour. They must defend their chief, avenge his wrongs, wage war at his word, and obey his commands if that should imply death; *a man can die but once,' with which philosophy they are launched into the new life of full manhood." ^ Vey boys during their year's seclusion receive instruction in the various manly arts — in war, hunting, and fishing. They are taught to withstand hunger and thirst, and to exhibit bravery in fighting, and in all cases to redress wrongs and protect the weak. " Dieser Pflege des Rechtsgefiihls scheint viel Sorgfalt gewidmet zu werden." Especially are they taught how to form proper judgments on matters of tribal importance in order later to be able as men to take part in the deliberations of the palaaver-house.^ Much the same account was given of the Belli-paaro mysteries, among the Quojas, two centuries ago. ''Les initiez ra- ^ Livingstone, Missionary Travels, ^ Macdonald in Jour. Anthrop. 164. Inst., xxii (1892), loo-ioi. ^ Casalis, op. cit., 281. ^ Biittikofer, Reisebilder aus Libe- ria, ii, 305. 56 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES content d'admirables choses de cette ceremonie, ils disent qu'on les rotit, qu'on les fait changer entierement de mceurs et de vie, qu'ils re^oivent un esprit tout di^Ferent de celui des autres et des lumieres toutes nouvelles." ^ The Madagascar ceremonies which illustrate the preservation under monarchical conditions of what was originally a com- munity rite, still exhibit the ethical aspects of initiation. Circumcision, here a practice of great antiquity, must be undergone before a youth is considered fitted for military service. No fixed time is appointed for the ceremonies, which may last for months. "All depends on the will of the sovereign, as the ceremony is, in some respects, an initiation into the rank, privileges, and obligations of the members of the body politic, and, in a sense, transfers the subjects from the jurisdiction of the parent to that of the king." At the actual moment of the rite the father says to his child: "'Thou art become a man; mayst thou be loved, . . . be of good report among the people, be facile of in- struction, and of docile disposition.'"^ While the Fuegian youth were confined in the Kina^ "les freres aines de ces jeunes gar^ons, leurs oncles, leurs cousins, plus ages, les engageaient a etre industrieux, genereux et sinceres en les avertissant qu'ils seraient malheureux s'ils se condui- saient mal." ^ Children of the Bororo tribe of Brazil go to the BahttOy or men's house, as soon as they are weaned — an event which does not take place before their fifth or even their seventh year. The Bahito is "a public school where the children are taught spinning, weaving, the manu- facture of weapons, and above all singing, upon perfection in which is centred the ambition of all those who wish to become chieftains." ^ Of the Powhatan Indians of Virginia we are told that only the choicest young men of the tribe were selected for the puberty ordeal, as well as * Dapper, Description de VAfrique, 268. 2 Ellis, History of Madagascar, i, 176-187 ; cf. Sibree, The Great African Island, 217-222. There is an older account of these ceremonies by Etienne de Flacourt, Histoire de la Grande He Madagascar (Paris, 1761), 63-66. ^ Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn (Paris, 1891), vii, 376. ^ Erie and Radin in Jour. Anthrop. Inst. J XXX vi (1906), 388. ^ THE TRAINING OF THE NOVICE 57 those who had accumulated any property by travel and hunting. " It is an Institution/' says Beverley, " or Discipline which all young Men must pass, before they can be ad- mitted to be of the Number of the great Men, Officers or Cockarouses of the Nation." The candidates were shut up in an enclosure, where they were compelled to drink wysoccariy a preparation which the Indians said took away their wits altogether. When a return was made to the settlement, the boys were "fearful of discovering any thing of their former Rememberance . . . ; otherwise they must go through the ordeal again to the great risk of their lives. Those who died were considered a sacrifice to Okeey the chief deity of the tribes. Beverley at first considered all this to be "an Inven- tion of the Seniors" to get possession of the property of the young men, as the latter can never pretend to call to mind any of their property which is shared among the old men or given to some public use. " But the Indians detest this opinion, and pretend that this violent Method of taking away the Memory, is to release the Youth from all their childish Impressions, ... so that, when the young Men come to themselves again, their Reason may act freely, without being byass'd by the Cheats of Custom and Edu- cation." ^ At the initiation rites of the Dieguenos Indians of Southern California the youths "were instructed in their future duties as members of the tribe and partici- pants in the ceremonies, and were threatened with dire punishment if they should prove recalcitrant. Hatatkurr [the spirit of the Milky Way] would break their backs or deprive them of sight, if they failed in the appointed way of life." ^ In the legends preserved by the Mitawit society of the Menomini Indians it is told how the "Great Mystery" caused Manabush^ his vicar, to appear on earth and erect a mitawikomtky or lodge, where all tribesmen should receive instruction. "^Long ago,'" said a venerable priest at a recent initiation, "^the grand medicine was ob- served with more care and reverence than it is now. The sun was bright when the whiteheads assembled, but now it ^ History of Virginia, 177-180. ^ Miss Dubois in Amer. Anthro- pologist, new series, vii (1905), 623. 58 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES is dark, and I cannot see the reason. Children were better taught to respect the truth and to be honest. . . . There- fore, teach your children that they may not stray beyond your control. . . . Teach them also to be honest; do not permit them to learn to lie and to steal.'" ^ Novices presented for entrance into the Medicine Lodge of the Dakota Indians, to which a very large proportion of the adult members of the tribe belonged, were told that "they should honor and revere the medicine sack, honor all who should belong to the dance, make frequent medicine feasts, refrain from theft, not listen to birds (slander), and female members should not have a plurality of husbands.'' ^ ^ Hoffman in Fourteenth Ann, ^ Pond in Collections of the Minne- Rep. Bur, Ethnol.y 79-80. sota Historical Society , ii (St. Paul, 1867), 38. CHAPTER V THE POWER OF THE ELDERS There can be no question as to the general excellence of this initiatory training, nor as to its permanent effects upon the character of those initiated. Impressions conveyed in so striking a fashion, result in something more than a tem- porary "conversion": the boys become indeed ''men,'' and are now ready to accept the lifelong responsibilities and duties of tribal life. When Mr. Howitt, as headman of the Kurnai, revived for scientific purposes the Jeraeil^ which had been discontinued for a number of years, one of the ''worthy old blackfellows" said to him: '"I am glad it will be held, for our boys are all going wild since they have gone to the white people; we have no longer any control over them.' " ^ At this Jeraeil^ the old men considered it necessary to have a special ceremony for the moral improvement of the lads. The latter were thought "to have departed too much from the good old ancestral virtues, and it was there- fore necessary that the white man's influence should, if possible, be counteracted. It was thought that the lads had become selfish, and no longer willing to share that which they obtained by their own exertions, or had given to them, with their friends." ^ The effect of the Arunta initiation ceremonies on the young men is " naturally to heighten their respect for the old men and to bring them under the control of the latter. With the advent of the white man on the scene and the consequent breaking down of old customs, such a beneficial control exercised by the elder over the younger men rapidly becomes lost, and the native as rapidly de- ^ Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., iii ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., (Sidney, 1891), 349. xiv (1885), 310. 59 6o PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES generates." ^ Writing of the Torres Straits Islanders, Mr. Haddon declares: ''It is difficult for us to realise the awe and reverence that was felt by these people for their sacred ceremonies, and it must be admitted that this intense feeling, combined as it was with reticence and discipline, had a strong educative effect on the people." ^ From another point of view these mysteries may be re- garded as the most conservative of primitive institutions and as the chief means for preserving that uniformity and unchangeableness of custom which is a leading trait of primitive society. The ceremonies, coming at puberty, soon succeed in repressing every favorable intellectual variation and in bringing all the members of the tribe to one monotonous level of slavish adherence to the tribal traditions. Thus they reenforce that obstacle to progress which has been insisted upon by Spencer as characteristic of savage peoples ; namely, the completion of physical growth and structure at an early age. But regarding them purely from the native standpoint, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the initiation rites in providing among peoples destitute of all governmental authority save that of the tribal elders, a system of primitive social control which demands and receives the unquestioning obedience of every member of the community. There is, however, still another aspect of the initiation ceremonies which is of the utmost significance. The lot of the old is not an easy one under the conditions of primitive life, but with the machinery of the puberty institution lying ready to their hand, it is not surprising that the elders should find in its operation a powerful means of amelio- rating what would be otherwise a difficult existence. As the boy grows into manhood he learns that all the great mys- teries of which he has heard so much will be revealed to him when he gives up his association with women and children ; and that he will become acquainted with those objects so powerful for magical purposes which the elders and the ^ Spencer and Gillen, Native ^ Head-Hunters , 51. Tribes of Central Australia, 280-281. Cf. 223. THE POWER OF THE ELDERS 6i medicine-men preserve with such jealous caution from the gaze of the uninitiated. The arrival of puberty finds him only too ready for initiation. However vexatious and bur- densome may be the trials and restrictions imposed upon him, he is willing to fulfil them with the most scrupulous care. Anxiety to become a man and to enjoy the privileges of a man unite with reverence and fear to make him an easy subject for that partial hypnotization which the initiatory performances seem everywhere to produce. Even the savage mind has not failed to grasp the significance of the emotional and religious conditions which arise at puberty. By working upon the very human characteristics of cu- riosity and awe most acutely experienced at the arrival of ' adolescence, the directors of these early mysteries seem to have been everywhere successful in the creation of an or- ganized system of deceit and chicanery. Inextricably mingled even with the Australian rites, there exists a vast amount of fraud and intimidation, which, practised first on the novices and then on the women and children, and gathering force in more favorable conditions, becomes, in the secret societies of the Melanesian and African peoples, the source of wholesale oppression and almost unmitigated evil. In the simplest form of these ceremonies we may detect the conscious efforts of the elders to use them for their own advantage; an element of selfishness is introduced which results finally when the secret society stage is reached, in prostituting the good of the community to the private ends of a small number of initiates. Everywhere the belief is general among the women and uninitiated children that the elders, the directors of the puberty institution, are in possession of certain mysterious and magical objects, the revelation of which to the novices forms the central and most impressive feature of initiation. At the Engwura of the Arunta tribe the young men are per- mitted as a great privilege to examine the sacred Churingaj and in some instances these are handed over by the old men to the younger for safe keeping. The deference paid to the old men during these ceremonies is most noticeable; "no young man thinks of speaking unless he be first addressed 62 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES by one of the elder men and then he Hstens solemnly to all that the latter tells him. During the whole time the presence of the Churinga seems to produce a reverent silence as if the natives really believed that the spirits of the dead men to whom they have belonged in times past were present, and no one, while they are being examined, ever speaks in tones louder than a whisper." ^ Before being allowed to see the Ernatulunga^ or storehouse, of the Churinga^ an Arunta man must have been both circumcised and sub- incised, "and have shown himself capable of self-restraint and of being worthy by his general demeanour to be ad- mitted to the secrets of the tribe. If he be what the natives call irkun oknirray that is, light and frivolous and too much given to chattering like a woman, it may be many years before he is admitted to the secrets." ^ Among most of the Australian tribes, the exhibition of the bull-roarer and the explanation of the manner in which its sounds are produced, is the chief mystery disclosed.^ Practices similar to those of the Australians obtain among the Elema tribes of British New Guinea,^ and at Muralug, Torres Straits.^ Toaripi lads confined in the Dubuy or men's house, at in- itiation, are finally allowed to see the great mask of Semese as it hangs in the dark recesses of the house. "During our stay in one of the Dubus^' writes Chalmers, "a peculiar feast took place. A lad who had never been initiated, never seen the inner precincts of the Dubuy and never looked upon the wonderful fetish of Semesey was to receive his introduction. His father's pigs were dying fast of some unknown and incurable disease, and though his son was * Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 303. ^ Ihid.^ 139-140. ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1885), 314. The mystery at- taching to the bull-roarer among the Arunta, write Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, *'has probably had a large part of its origin in the desire of the men to impress the women of the tribe with an idea of the supremacy and superior power of the male sex. From time immemorial myths and super- stitions have grown up around them, until now it is difficult to say how far each individual believes in what, if the expression may be allowed, he must know to be more or less of a fraud, but in which he implicitly thinks that the other natives believe'' (op. cit., 130). ^ Holmes, ibid., xxxii (1902), 425. ^ Haddon, ibid., xix (1890), 432. THE POWER OF THE ELDERS 63 over-young, he determined to stretch a point, so gave a feast at which the initial processes of the entering-in w^ould take place, though years would elapse ere the final mysteries were disclosed." After the feast the lad was gayly dressed and taken from his father by an elderly man who led him to the inner precinct of the Dubu^ where he saw the image of Semese, '^He looked frightened, and seemed glad when he again stood by his father. Friends then gave him presents of bows and arrows. . . . He slept that night in the inner Dubu. Overhead, near the centre, carefully wrapped, hangs the most sacred of all the representations of Semese. Only old men have seen it; and various are the initiatory steps before it can be seen." ^ The old men of Guadalcancar, one of the Solomon Islands, have secret emblems {tindalos)^ which are regarded with the greatest veneration by the people. By means of the tindalos the elders become great diviners and workers in magic. A youth learns about them only after initiation. The elders guard the tindalos jealously as "in a community where no respect whatever is shown by youth to age they are a power- ful means for keeping the impetuous youth in its proper place. Initiates to the mysteries are doubtless only made after due observation as to the fitness of a man for guarding the secrets to be entrusted to him." ^ In the Banks Islands, where the bull-roarer is too well known to be used in mysteries, its place is taken by a flat, smooth stone on which is rubbed the butt-end of the stalk of a fan. The vibration produces a curious and impressive sound which can be modulated in strength and tone at the will ^ Pioneering in New Guinea, 85- 86. ^ Woodford, A Naturalist among the Head-Hunters, 25; see also Penny, Ten Years in Melanesia, 71-72. Codrington describes the tindalos of Florida, another of the Solomon Islands, as large bamboo structures, brightly painted and ornamented and sometimes large enough to accommo- date as many as eighty or a hundred men who are secreted within them and thus move them about. The unini- tiated believe them to be the handi- work of the ghosts, or even the ghosts themselves {The Melanesians, 96-97). Some of the tindalos possess marked similarities to the structures made by the Arunta for the Engwura rites. Cf. for instance, the waninga of the Arunta with the voi of the Florida Islanders as described by Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 306-309; and Cod- rington, op. cit.y 96. 64 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES of the performer.^ Fijian elders, lacking bull- roarers, or Churinga^ devised a dramatic representation to impress the lads at initiation. On the last day of the cere- monies the candidates were led up to the sacred Nanga enclosure. But where are the men who used to be chaunt- ing there the Voice of the Surf.r* The Great Nanga is deserted and empty. The procession stops. A dead silence prevails. Suddenly, from the forest a harsh scream of many parrots breaks forth, and then a mysterious booming sound which fills the young men's souls with awe. The old Vere now moves slowly forward, and leads them for the first time into the Nanga tambutambu. Here a dreadful spectacle meets their startled gaze. Near the outer entrance, with his back to the Temple, sits the chief priest regarding them with a fixed stare; and between him and them lie a row of dead men, covered with blood, their bodies apparently cut open, and their entrails protruding. The Fere steps over them one by one, and the awestruck youths follow him until they stand in a row before the high priest, their 'souls drying up' under his strong glare. Suddenly he blurts out a great yell, whereupon the dead men start to their feet, and run down to the river to cleanse themselves from the blood and filth with which they are besmeared." ^ The Muanza of the Wanika is a great drum so sacred in character that when it is brought out for the ceremonies all the un- initiated must hide, for should they see it, they would surely die.^ According to Burton, only the members of the third degree of the society may see this drum.^ Among the Uaupes of the Rio Negro, at the close of initiation boys may see the mysterious juripari instruments. When the music of the juripari is heard, the women must retire to the woods; death would be the penalty for even an acci- dental sight of these objects, "and it is said that fathers have been the executioners of their own daughters, and husbands of their wives, when such has been the case." ^ ^ Codrington, op. cit.j 80. ^ Zanzibar, ii, 91. Cf. also Von ^ Fison in Jour. Anthrop. Inst.y der Decken, Reisen in Ost-Afrika, i, xiv (1884), 21-22. 217. ^ New, Life, Wanderings, and ^ Wallace, Narrative of Travels Labours in Eastern Africa, 113. on the Amazon and Rio Negro, 349. THE POWER OF THE ELDERS 65 The restrictions imposed upon the novices from the period of their initiation, are chiefly concerned with material wants. Numerous food taboos and various restraints on marriage contribute in a most substantial fashion to the prosperity of the older men. Ostensibly such taboos are vital and neces- sary parts of initiation. It is interesting, however, to notice how prohibitions which once may have had a legitimate origin have been enlarged for the benefit of the elders and by them bolstered up with ''magical" reasons.^ The inviola- ^ The theory that food taboos arose out of the belief that the flesh of the tribal totem should not be eaten, becomes, in the light of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's discoveries that the Arunta actually eat their totem animals, of somewhat limited ap- plication. Mr. Crawley, with greater plausibility, suggests that these pro- hibitions may have originated in the common practice of '^forbidding certain kinds of food during a dan- gerous state" — the novices, at pu- berty, being ex hypothesi in a state in which they are liable to ''catch'' all sorts of ills {The Mystic Rose, 154). Thus they are frequently cautioned against eating female ani- mals, lest they become as women. Among the Coast Murring, there is an obvious effort to connect the taboos with the initiatory rites. The boys are cautioned against eating any bird that swims, for that recalls their final washing and puri- fication. They must not eat such animals as have prominent teeth, for these recall the teeth lost at the rites, etc. (Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii, 1884, 455 sq.). It should be remembered that the food re- strictions imposed on the novices are usually only a part of a wider scheme of taboos imposed on men and women at other times. For the long list of Arunta food restrictions, see Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 470-473. It is difficult to ascertain F what faith the imposers of these taboos now have in their own regu- lations. The novices certainly be- lieve in them implicitly. "Mr. McAlpine . . . tells me that about 1856-57 he had a black boy in his employment. The lad was strong and healthy, until one day, when Mr. McAlpine found that he was ill. He explained that he had been doing what he ought not to have done, that he had 'stoLn some female opossum' before he was permitted to eat it; that the old men had found it out, and that he should never grow up to be a man. In fact, he lay down under the behef, so to say, and never got up again, and died within three weeks" (Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xvi, 1886, 42 n.^). Mr. Howitt is of the opinion that of the two reasons for which such taboos are imposed — the inculcation of dis- cipline and the provision of a plenti- ful and superior supply of food for the old men — the latter is probably the older, "for it seems to be most likely that where the old men have the power to do so, they will impose rules which favour themselves, leav- ing the disciplinary rule to be the secondary object" (Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 640). The ibets, or taboos, usually im- posed upon members of the African secret societies, and gradually re- laxed as the higher grades are ob- tained, are very probably the survival • 66 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES bility of these prohibitions, secured in the first place by the solemn warnings against their infraction, is further secured by the general belief instilled into the minds of the boys that all their actions as probationers are known to the medicine- men, who will punish them severely by their magical powers for any lapses from the path of rectitude/ Of these food taboos and their operation, there are many illustrations. Boys of the Omeo tribe of Victoria were told that if they ate of forbidden food, they would be struck by lightning. So strong was this belief that they would endure severe starvation rather than infringe upon the regulation.^ Coast Murring youth believed that a breach of the food rules would be punished by Daramulun^ the tribal god, who had instituted them. "These prohibitions were only relaxed as of these earlier puberty restrictions. For the taboos obKgatory on members of Ngi, a Fang society, see Bennett in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 92; Marriott, i^ifi^., 98. Members of Ingiet, a society of New Pome- rania, are subject to certain taboos of various articles of food. Each degree has its different regulations (Hahl in Nachrichten iiber Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck- Archipel, xiii, 1897, 76). Among some South African tribes, during the initiatory seclusion, novices are allowed to obtain food only by theft, and are beaten if not successful (Macdonald in Revue Scientifique, third series, xlv (1890), 643; id. in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix, 1890, 268). This procedure, recalling the training of the Spartan youth, seems chiefly intended as an ordeal, but may have grown out of the earher practice of imposing food taboos at puberty. In Kamerun, candidates undergo- ing initiation must plunder yards and houses of goats and fowls. Such robbery is always carried on at night, because the novices, to preserve the fable of their invisibility, are con- fined in the forest during the day (Hutchinson, Ten Years^ Wander- ings among the Ethiopians, 4 sq.). Purrah boys, at the close of initiation, are given extended privileges of license, and during one day ^^may catch and kill cattle, goats, sheep, fowls, root up cassada, and perform other little pleasantries" (Alldridge, The Sherhro and its Hinterland, 131)- ^ At the Austrahan rites additional impressiveness is secured by the presence of the medicine-men who go through their performances first before the women and children and then, at the secret rites, before the novices. Among a few of the tribes, as the Wonghi and the Coast Mur- ring, these officials, combining the functions of headman and shaman, take immediate charge of the in- itiatory rites (Cameron in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1885), 357; Howitt, ibid., xvi (1886), 43; Bever- idge in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xvii, 1883, 26). ^ Helms in Proc. Linnean Soc. New South Wales, new series, x (1895), 393- THE POWER OF THE ELDERS 67 the youths proved themselves worthy, and in some cases appear to have been perpetual." ^ Of the New South Wales aborigines, we are told that married people alone may eat ducks, while the old men have reserved to them the privilege of eating emu.^ Young men who ate the flesh or eggs of the emu would be afflicted with sores all over the body.^ Among some of the Lower Murray tribes, prior to initiation youths may not eat emu, wild turkey, swans, geese, or black duck, or eggs of any of these birds. "Did they infringe this law in the very remotest degree, their hair would become pre- maturely grey, and the muscles of their limbs would waste away and shrink up." ^ After undergoing the Keeparra, lads of the Port Stephens tribe who had been previously for- bidden to eat the male of all land animals, are now allowed to eat the male kangaroo-rat. After their attendance at a second Keeparra they may eat the male opossum, and at each suc- cessive Keeparra their privileges are further increased.^ Un- til the Arunta novice has quite recovered from subincision, he may not eat the flesh of opossum, snake, echidna, and lizard. Should he do so, his recovery would be retarded and his wounds would be much inflamed.^ When he is passing through the Engwura^ the last of the long series of rites, he must spend much of his time catching game for the benefit of the old men who are in camp performing the ceremonies. He is not supposed to eat any of the game himself.^ In the Warramunga tribe, after subincision the boys "are told that they must not eat large lizards, snakes, turkeys, bandicoot, emu, emu eggs, or echidna, and these restrictions apply until they are fully middle-aged."^ Among the natives of the Pilbarra district of Northwestern Australia, ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst.y xiii (1883), 192. ^ Charles Sturt, Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia (London, 1833), ii, 54 sq. ^ Mitchell, Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, ii, 341 . * Beveridge in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xvii (1883), 27. ^ Enright, ibid., xxxiii (1899), 122; cf.iov similar regulations at the Bunan, Mathews in Amer. Anthropol- ogist, ix (1896), 343; Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1885), 316. ^ Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 256. ' Ibid., 347-348. ^ Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 613. 68 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES after a youth has been circumcised he is not allowed to eat emu or turkey until he has been speared or until the elders, considering him a man, invite him to eat with them.^ In the Kimberley district, after initiation a boy ''must not touch the flesh of emu or kangaroo, and in some tribes bustard- flesh until he has received a wound in a family quarrel or in battle with another tribe, or one of the elders rubs a piece of such meat over his mouth. ^ The old men who conduct the Barium rites of the Jabim, a tribe of Kaiser Wilhelm Land, get much profit out of the initiation cere- monies through the gifts of food they receive.^ After initia- tion, the boys must not eat or drink in the presence of an older man. Should they do so, they must be careful to hide their faces behind a tree or some other object.^ Novices undergoing x\\eAsa rites, during their four months' seclusion, must drink no water and must avoid all cooked foods.^ Even after their initiation the best parts of the food are always reserved for the men.^ Toaripi youth at puberty are confined in the Dubu until their heads, which have been closely shaven, are again covered with long hair. They must not smoke or chew betel-nut, as that would prevent a good growth of hair. Taro and other favorite foods are also forbidden to them.*^ Among the Elema tribes ''initiates are told that if they eat any food that is tabooed, they will speedily become bald and prematurely shrivelled in body; disease and death will come upon them, and their names will be held in disgrace among their relatives.'' ^ Similar food prohibitions are found at Torres Straits and among the New Hebrides and other Melanesian islands.^ The last act of the Fijian Nanga rites is the Stsiliy or Bath. All the men go to the river and carefully wash off^ all the paint with which they have been bedaubed. ^ Withnell, quoted in Amer. An- thropologist, new series, v (1903), 382. ^ Clement in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr.j xvi (1903), 11. ^ Schellong, ibid.^ ii (1889), ^55- * Ibid., 161-162. ^ Bartels in Verhandl. Berlin. Gesells. f. Anthrop. Ethnol. u. Urge- schichte, xxvi (1894), 200; Hagen, Unter den Papua's, 236. ^ Hagen, op. cit., 234. ^ Chalmers, Pioneering in New Guinea, 181. ^ Holmes in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 422. ^ Haddon, ibid., xix (1890), 411. THE POWER OF THE ELDERS 69 The youths, now initiated, are then led before the elders and the chief priest. "He delivers to them an impressive dis- course on the new position they have assumed, points out to them the duties which now devolve upon them, enjoins strict observance of the tribal customs, threatens them with the sure vengeance of the gods if they reveal the Nanga mysteries to the uninitiated, and especially warns them against eating the best kinds of yams and other vegetables. These, together with fresh-water fish and eels caught in the river, are forbidden to them. They must present them to the elders, and content themselves with wild yams, and such articles of food as are not so highly esteemed. As the black paint with which they were adorned mingled with the water of the stream, and flowed away from them when they washed themselves, so also, if they disobey these injunctions, will the comely dark colour of their skins disappear, and leave them of a hideous pallor, a spectacle abhorrent to both gods and men." ^ Among the Andaman Islanders, the fasting period begins before puberty and may last as long as five years. Turtle, honey, pork, fish, and other favorite articles of food are tabooed, but as no restrictions are placed on other articles of diet, the novices do not suffer much hardship. The tribal chief decides when the fast is to be given up. It is regarded "as a test of the endurance, or, more properly speaking, of the self-denial of young persons, and as afi^ording evidence of their fitness and ability to support a family." ^ Soon after puberty the fast is broken and instead of the affix dala^ the prefix guma ( neophyte or novice) is attached to the boy's birth-name; this term is retained until the boy is married and becomes a father, when the word maiay or if a chief, matola^ is added, by which he is known for the rest of his life.^ No one who has not attained the dignity of guma by passing through initiation may eat either dugong or porpoise. It is necessary "that the novice should be fed, on the first occasion of tasting either of these meats, by some ^ Fison in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1884), 26. For a similar Coast Murring ceremony, cf. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia^ 557. 2 Man in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xii (1882), 130. 3 Man, loc. cit. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES friend or relative, who, having previously passed through the prescribed ordeal, is qualified thereby to admit others to the like privilege." ^ It is only after initiation that the Yaunde youth may eat the flesh of sheep and goats. ^ Boys of the Konkau tribe of California Indians, after initiation into the tribal society, must eat nothing but acorn porridge for ten days.^ In the Ona tribe of Tierra del Fuego, the boys at puberty "are separated from their companions, and only after certain cruel trials and a period of probation are they admitted to the confidence of the older men. Now this probation, known as 'Clo'ct'n,' lasts two years or more. During this time the young brave aban- dons the protection of his family, hunting in strange coverts and making long journeys alone. The utmost that is allowed him is the companionship of a single dog. He must eat lean, hard meat, with no fat — a real privation even for whites in that bitter climate. A diet of this kind begets, as is well known, a strong craving for breadstuflFs. The greatest treat that can be given to a Fuegian native is a hard ship's biscuit; but not even the luxury of 'hard tack,' ofi^ered him privily and backed by a ravenous appetite, will induce a boy to break his self-imposed abstinence when he is 'clo'ct'n. '" ^ Where the number of women is limited or the conditions of existence are unusually difficult, full marriage privi- leges do not always immediately follow the attainment of puberty. Among the Tasmanians, the old men "who got the best food, and held the franchise of the tribe in their hands, managed to secure an extra supply of the prettiest girls." ^ The Australian elders seem to be very successful in monopolizing the women of the class with which they may marry. Betrothals are exceedingly common, " a female child being usually betrothed by her guardians to some elderly friend who ^ Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xii, 354. Mr. Man notes the resemblance of these Andamanese rites to those of the Austrahan Bora, ibid., 130 n.^. Cf. Kloss, In the Andamans and Nicobars, 188. 2 Morgen, Durch Kamerun von Sud nach Nord, 51. ^ Powers in Contributions to North American Ethnology, iii, 306. ^ Barclay in The Nineteenth Cen- tury and After, January, 1904, 99-100. ^ Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, 64-65. THE POWER OF THE ELDERS 71 attaches her to his household when she is perhaps not more than twelve years of age. Elderly men have been seen actually nursing children, their own prospective wives." ^ Of the Queensland natives, Lumholtz remarks that, as a rule, it is difficult for the young men to marry before they are thirty. ^^The old men have the youngest and best-looking wives, while a young man must consider himself fortunate if he can get an old woman." ^ Among the West Kimberley natives, it is ^^only the old men who have more than one gin." After subincision, the second of the initiation ceremonies, the novice ^^may get some old man's cast-off hag, discarded for a younger wife." ^ In some of the New South Wales tribes, after the boys have gone through the Bora they are not allowed to approach a woman for a number of months. By one regulation they are prohibited from coming within three hundred yards of a woman,^ by another, they must not permit "any woman's shadow to fall upon them until the old men who are the repositories of the tribal laws and traditions allow it." ^ In the Gringai tribe on the Hunter River the young man is not allowed to marry until three years after initiation.^ Novices of the Lower Murray tribes for three months after initiation may not look at a woman, "as the sight of one during this probation would be the means of entailing numberless misfortunes, such as withering up of limbs, loss of eyesight, and, in fact, general decrepitude."^ Restrictions of these various kinds, enforced during the puberty seclusion, may sometimes be continued for a lengthy period after the ordeals are over, and be relaxed only by slow degrees. Many Australian tribes require the youth who has been through a Bora to live for a long time afterwards as a probationer. He must attend several Boras before he becomes a fully accredited tribesman. In some cases ^ Mathew, Eaglehawk and Crow, 113- ^ Among Cannibals, 163. ^ Froggatt in Proc. Linnean Soc. New South Wales, second series, iii (1888), 653; cf. also Clement in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., xvi (1903), 13. ^ Mackenzie in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., vii (1878), 252. ^ Mathews in Amer. Anthropol- ogist, ix (1896), 344. ^ Howitt, Native Tribes of South- East Australia, 571. ^ Beveridge in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xvii (1883), 27. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES he must suffer a second or even a third time the rigors of initiation. Among the Booandik of South AustraHa, boys must pass through the depilation ordeal at two or three inaugural meetings before as full members of the tribe they are allowed to marry.^ Narrinyeri youth, as they approach the period of initiation, may not cut or comb their hair. When their beards have grown to sufficient length, they are made narumbe^ or young men, and their beards are plucked out. They continue narumhe until their beards have been plucked out three times. ^ In the Euahlayi tribe of northwestern New South Wales, attendance at one Bora rite entitled a man to the privileges of a warrior. But a native must have been present at no less than five Bora meetings before he could be- come one of the Dorrunmai, ''sort of chiefs who hold councils of war, but have few privileges beyond being accepted au- thorities as to war and hunting." ^ Graduates of one Ku- randa must pass through the rites at two or three subsequent meetings before they can take a wife.^ Attendance at five Keeparrasis necessary for Port Stephens aborigines.^ Among the Murumbidgee natives, on the return of the boys to their separate tribes at the close of initiation, they are put under the control of their guardians or relatives. They may not laugh or talk loudly until they reach the age at which their voice is developed. They must not speak to women. After a time they may approach the men's camp and lodge with the single men, but they do not become full tribesmen until they have attended at least three Burbongs,^ Coast Murring novices during their probation gain their living as best they can by "catching such food animals as are not forbidden to them.'' They must not look at a woman, nor speak to one.^ The probationers, while under the charge of their guardians, are from time to time instructed by the old men. When the latter decide that a lad is competent to be a man, he may ^ Mathews in Proc. Amer. Philos. SoCy xxxix (1900), 633. ^ Taplin in Native Tribes of South Australia J iS sq. ^ Mrs. Parker, Euahlayi Tribe, 81. * Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxii (1898), 245- ^ Enright, ibid., xxxiii (1899), 122. ^ Mathews, ibid., xxxi (1897), 150. ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 455-456. THE POWER OF THE ELDERS be present at the tribal councils as a silent member. Still later is he permitted to take the wife who has been assigned him/ Fijian youth were compelled to attend two Nangas before they could become fully initiated men. This meant, a period of probation for at least two years. ^ Among the Basutos the initiatory rites occupied three terms'' with a ^Vacation" period of about three years between each term.^ Among some of the Yoruba tribes the boy must remain under the control of the presiding elders of the tribal society until he has killed a man. He is held to have attained his majority "by having demonstrated his courage and also by having secured for himself the soul of the man he has killed as a spirit slave. " ^ ^ Howitt, loc. cit. For additional examples from Australia, see Mathews in Amer. Anthropologist, new series, ii (1900), 144; id., Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxi (1897), 150; id., Jour, Anthrop. Inst., XXV (1896), 339. ^ Fison in Jour. Anthrop, Inst., xiv (1884), 15. ^ Wheelwright in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XXXV (1905), 255. ^ Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 532. CHAPTER VI DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES The initiation ceremonies which have been up to this point the subject of study, present certain clearly marked character- istics. Above all they are tribal: every male member of the community must at some time or another have passed through them. They are secret and jealously guarded from the eyes of the uninitiated. They are communal rites, and the occasion of great festive celebrations which call out every member of the tribe and absorb his energies over a protracted period. They are organized and conducted by the elders who are the responsible guardians of the state. They have a definite and reasonable purpose : the young men growing into manhood must learn their duties as members of the community; they must be schooled in the traditions and moral regulations developed through long periods of tribal experience. On the transmission and perpetuation of this experience, the life of the community depends. In a state of society destitute of centralized political control such puberty rites constitute the most effective means of providing that subordination of the interests of the individual to the welfare of the whole without which social progress cannot be long maintained. The initiatory institutions found among the most primitive peoples in every quarter of the globe answer to the most definite and impera- tive of social requirements. Whatever else they may in time become, tribal initiation ceremonies at the outset are not an organized cheat. But when, under the influence of various conditions, there develops in every progressive society a definite centralization of authority, the shifting of social control from the elders to the tribal chiefs renders unnecessary the entire machinery 74 DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 75 of tribal initiation. For obedience to the tribe is substituted obedience to the chief. Initiation ceremonies, such as have been studied, retain their democratic and tribal aspects only in societies which have not yet emerged from that primitive stage in w^hich all social control is in the hands of the tribal elders. The presence of ceremonies of this character throughout Australia and Nev^ Guinea is to be associated with the absence of definite and permanent chieftainships in these islands. Such ascendancy as may be gained by the possession of great wealth, or by a reputation for wisdom and prowess, is but temporary and local, extending no farther than the petty confines of the village or local group. In Melanesia and Africa, political centralization has resulted to a large degree in the establishment of chieftainships powerful over a considerable area and often hereditary in nature. But this process has not continued so far as to make possible the entire surrender to the tribal chiefs of those functions of social control which in the earlier stages of society rest with the elders alone. The secret societies which have everywhere arisen on the basis of the puberty institutions, appear in Africa and Melanesia as organizations charged with the performance of important political and judicial functions. In communities where the political powers of the chiefs are as yet in a formative stage, the secret societies provide effective social restraints and supplement the governmental activities of the earliest rulers. With developing political centralization such functions tend to become obsolete and the religious and dramatic aspects of the societies assume the most important place. This last stage is reached both in Polynesia and North America, where we find aristocratic conditions in process of formation and powerful chieftainships (in Polynesia hereditary rulers) already established. Under these conditions tribal secret societies have developed into fraternities of priests or shamans who are intrusted with the performance of the religious rites of the community.^ As contrasted with primitive puberty institutions such as those of the Australian natives, the secret societies found ^ Infray chap. x. 76 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES among Melanesian and African peoples are organizations more or less narrowly limited in membership, divided into degrees, through which candidates able to pay the cost of initiation may progress, and localized usually in some defi- nite lodge, where the members resort for their mysterious ceremonies. The use of the masks, bull-roarers, and other devices serves at once to emphasize the pretended association of the members of these societies with the spirits of the dead, and to terrify and overawe those who are not admitted into the mysteries.^ Possessing in addition to their judicial and ' Definite localization of the in- itiation ceremonies is a natural con- sequence of permanent tribal settle- ments. When a tribe has no settled existence, a lodge" in the modern sense is impossible. The Bora ground serves well the purposes of the Austrahan natives, who use it frequently for a number of cere- monies and guard its sanctity by various taboos. The tribe which issues the call for initiation has always the important duty of preparing the grounds before the arrival of the various contingents. Women and uninitiated boys are strictly forbidden to approach the Bora ground. This prohibition even extends to the in- itiated of a lower degree; among the South Australian natives, a circum- cised youth could not enter the place where subincision had been practised (Mathews in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxix, 1900, 630). The sanc- tity of the Bora ground is further secured by the general belief that the medicine-men have scattered over it magical articles which would be dangerous to a trespasser (Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii, 1884, 452 n.^). So the Dukduk is supposed to leave behind in the bush after his visitation of a village, carved figures intended to be harmful to the dis- trict. Any sudden catastrophe or a sudden death would be attributed to the presence of these objects (Romilly, The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 34-35). The Nanga en- closures of the Fijians are especially interesting, because we may see in them the Bora grounds hardened, as it were, into a permanent place for the celebration of the tribal rites. The men's house of New Guinea, as has been pointed out, is now used for initiation purposes. The lodges of the Melanesian and African societies are frequently adaptations of this primitive institution {supra, chap. i). The widespread custom of wearing masks at the ceremonies, though now largely employed in the service of terror and superstition, may have had its origin in the behef which expresses itself in the masked dances of many primitive peoples — that the wearer of the m^ask, simulating a deity or departed spirit, is thereby assimilated to the real nature of the being represented; that he is for the time possessed by the spirit and has lost his own personaHty. Like the bull-roarers, the masks have a sacred significance which often sur- vives long after the downfall of the rites in which they were used. Professor Haddon, at Murray Is- land, had some of the natives make models of the masks formerly worn at initiation. Having incautiously shown them to a woman, he was visited by the makers who, in great DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 77 political functions many rights and privileges debarred to the uninitiated, the initiates of the great tribal societies constitute agitation, besought him not to let a woman see them. *^The ceremonies had not been held for a quarter of a century, the people are all Christian, and yet even now a woman may not see cardboard models of the tabooed masks" {Head-Hunters, 47). The Australian natives do not appear to have developed the mask proper, but in the ceremonies various disguises are sometimes used. At the rites of the Coast Murring some of the performers wore hideous disguises made by beating out stringy bark fibres into what resembled tow. Their bodies were completely cov- ered and huge wigs were made, leav- ing visible only the face which was distorted by strings tied across the nose and reverting the lips (Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 446 n.^'j id.. Native Tribes of South- East Australia, 53^-539 ; cf. Mathews in Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, new series, ix, 1897, 156). The make-up of the performers at the Engwura rites of the Arunta is fully described by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen {Native Tribes of Central Australia, 294 sq., 3 18, 330 sq. See also Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 177 sq.). On the use of masks by different peoples httle can be added to the careful accounts by Bastian, ^'Masken und Maskereien," Zeits. f. Vdlkerpsycholo- gie und SprachwissenschaftjXiv (1883), 335*358; Andree, ^'Die Masken in der Volkerkunde," in Archiv f. Anthrop., xvi (1886), 477-506; re- printed in his Ethnographische Paral- lelen und Vergleiche, second series, 107-165 ; and W. H. Ball, ' ' On Masks, Labrets, and Certain Aboriginal Cus- toms," Third Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1884), 73-151. The work by Frobenius, ^'Die Masken und Geheimbiinde Afrikas," Ab- handl. Kaiserlichen Leopoldmisch- Carolinischen Deuts. Akad. der Na- turforscher, Ixxiv (Halle, 1899), 1-266, is chiefly valuable for its careful study of African masks. On the African phases of this subject, see also Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, xii (1899), 208-211; Serrurier in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., i (1888), 154-159; and Karutz, ibid., xvi (1903), 123- 127. The Dresden Museum has published some elaborate descrip- tions and figurings of Melanesian masks. A full bibliography is given in the monograph by W. Foy, ^^Tanzobjekte von Bismarck Archi- pel, Nissan, und Buka," Publica- tionen aus dem Kdniglichen Ethno- graphischen Museum zu Dresden, xiii (1900), 22-23. Further ref- erences are given by Bartels, ''Ueber Schadelmasken aus Neu-Britannien," Festschrift fiir Adolf Bastian (Ber- lin, 1896), 233-245. The bull-roarer which survived in the Greek mysteries as the po/jLjSos is one of the most widespread of primitive instruments. Its use in initiation ceremonies is universal in Australia and New Guinea, and it is of frequent occurrence in Melanesia and Africa. Mr. J. W. Fewkes found the Zuni and Hopi priests carrying bull-roarers in their rain ceremonies {Jour. Amer. Eth- nol. and Archceol., i (1891), 15, 23 n.^). Captain Bourke noticed their use for similar purposes by the Apache {Ninth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 476-477), and more recently Professor Haddon discovered like practices at Murray Island, Torres Straits {Head-Hunters, 33). Mr. Howitt was told by the Coast Mur- ring natives that the noise of the mudji represents the muttering of the thunder — the voice of the tribal god '''calling to the rain to fall and make the grass grow up green'" 78 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES a rude but powerful aristocracy in communities made up in addition, of women, children, and uninitiated men. No doubt in many cases the decline of the earlier puberty institutions has not been associated with the rise of secret societies. A process of gradual decay, its outcome the com- plete obsolescence of the ceremonies, would then take place. An examination of the initiatory practices of some of the Australian tribes, for example, seems to indicate that decay had set in even before the arrival of European colonists. Among some of the western tribes of Victoria, according to one account, a boy at puberty is taken by his brothers-in- law, or, if he has none, by strangers from a distant tribe, to a far-off part of the tribal territory "where he is received with welcome by his new friends. After two moons he is allowed to visit his own tribe, but not without several men to take care of him and bring him back.'' He is well treated through- out this period and his wants liberally supplied. After twelve months his relatives call and bring him to the first great meeting of the tribes. Before leaving, they pull out all the hairs of his beard, and make him drink water mixed with mud; which completes his initiation into manhood.'' ^ {Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 446). At Kiwai Island, in the Papuan Gulf, whirling of the maduha, or bull-roarer, insures *'a good crop of yams, sweet po- tatoes, and bananas" (Haddon in Rep. Cambr. Anthrop., Expedition to Torres Straits, v, 218). Noticing the ideas of fertiHty connected with the bull-roarer, Mr. Frazer suggests that since the great change which takes place at puberty consists in the development of the power of reproduction, and since ^'the in- itiatory rites of savages are apparently intended to celebrate, if not to bring about, that change, and to confirm and establish that power," the bull- roarer may be the implement by which sexual power is imparted to the males {Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., viii, Melbourne, 1901, 318). On the bull-roarer in general, see Fison and Howitt, Kdmilaroi and Kurnai, 267-269; Haddon, The Study of Man, 277-327; Lang, Custom and Myth, 29-44; Mathews, Bull-roarers used by the Australian Aborigines," Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvii (1897), 52-60; Schmeltz in Verhandl. des Vereins fiir Natur- wissenschaflliche Unterhaltung zu Hamburg, ix (1896), 92-127. On its employment in the Greek mys- teries, see Adolf Bastian, Allerlei aus Volks- und Menschenkunde (Berlin, 1888), i, 291. For a collection of some of the numerous examples of its use among primitive peoples, see the note in The Golden Bough (London, 1900), iii, 424 n.^. ^ Dawson, Australian Aborigines, 30. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 79 Another emasculated ceremony once practised by coast tribes of Victoria was the Tidbut, The youth was led to an isolated place where his head was shaved and covered with clay. His body was then daubed with mud and filth and in this condition he was required to go through the camp for several days and nights, throwing filth at whomever he met. Finally he was given over to the women, who washed him, painted his face, and danced before him.^ The Nanga cere- monies of the Fijians seem to have lost whatever rigor and harshness may have been theirs originally. Novices under- went no ordeals during their seclusion. Circumcision, which must have been an initiatory rite at an earlier time, was appar- ently unconnected with the introduction of the young men to the tribe. It was only practised, presumably as a propitiatory measure, when a chief or other important personage was ill. The sick man's son, or one of his brother's sons, was then led to the Nanga and there circumcised by the priest, who afterwards performed the rite upon several other boys at the same time. Following the operation was a great feast and a period of general sexual license. The decadence of the Fijian rites is further indicated by the fact that initiation into the tribe was not necessary for marriage. A boy might take possession of a girl who had been betrothed to him as soon as he considered her old enough.^ Among the Andaman Islanders the absence of secrecy and harshness in the conduct of the rites affords a parallel to the Fijian development.^ Other illustrations are not wanting. At Daudai, British New Guinea, the principal puberty rite is now merely a feast at which the health of the lads is drunk in an intoxicating liquor. Even a period of seclusion is not compulsory. The lads, however, usually remain in the men's ^ Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i, 60-61. Cf. also Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1885), 322 sq.; Mathews in Amer. Anthropologist, xi (1898), 330. The ceremonies of the Larakia tribe in the Port Darwin district of Central Australia, present another type of emasculated rites. Curiously enough neither circum- cision nor subincision is practised by this tribe. Cf. Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Aus- tralia, 331-332. ^ Fison in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1884), 23 sq. 2 Cf. Man in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xii (1882), 130 sq. 8o PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES house for several days while they deck themselves so as to attract the favorable notice of the w^omen.^ At Uripiv, one of the New Hebrides, the rules of the duli^ or period of confinement, are not very strict, and the young men undergoing it ''have no superstitious dread of breaking it through in some particulars, but do not let the old men of the village see them do so, for it is they who institute and keep the custom alive." ^ Among the Bogos of Western Abyssinia, the arrival of a lad at puberty is celebrated with a festival called Schingalet^ which lasts seven days. The boy collects several comrades and visits his relatives and acquaint- ances to receive gifts. From this time he is endowed with all the privileges of a citizen.^ Among some of the Brazilian aborigines the tribal secrets appear to be in process of degeneration. Among the Nahuqua and Mehinaku, a recent investigator had no difficulty in obtaining both dance- masks and bull-roarers from the house where they were kept. Their use was publicly exhibited to him, and the women were not compelled to retire when these articles, formerly so sacred, were brought out. But with the Bororo, the bull- roarers are still guarded with the usual secrecy; should a woman see them, she would surely die.^ Similarly, the bull-roarer, found throughout North Queensland, in the north-west-central districts is used indiscrim- inately by either sex and at any age. On the Bloomfield, Lower Tully, and at Cape Grafton it is used by men and boys only. In these latter districts the method of using the bull- roarer is taught the boys at their first initiation so that they can play it in public and before the women.^ In some cases, initiatory rites of a primitive character may continue in existence even after the development of per- manent chieftainships. Under such circumstances the chiefs often utilize them for the furtherance of their own power. ^ Beardmore in Jour. Anthrop, * Von den Steinen, Unter den Inst., xix (1890), 460. Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens, 327, ^ Somerville in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., 497. xxiii (1893), 5. ^ Roth in North Queensland Eth- ^ Munzinger, Uher die Sitten und nography, Bulletin no. 4 (Brisbane, das Recht der Bogos, 38-39. 1902), 14-15. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 8i Among most of the South African tribes, the puberty institu- tion has a civil rather than a reHgious character. Some- thing akin to the Teutonic comitatus has come into existence. All the children born about the same epoch as the son of a chief are circumcised at puberty with him. The brother- hood so formed takes the name of the young chieftain who presides at the rite, and its members become his companions for life. Among the Bechuanas and Kaffirs, the boys during seclusion are taught the essentials of African politics. *'It is an ingenious plan for attaching the members of the tribe to the chief's family, and for imparting a discipHne which renders the tribe easy of command.'' ^ The members of these brotherhoods are supposed ''never to give evidence against one another, and it is a great offence for any of them to eat food alone if their comrades are near. In fact, the friend- ship is greater than is that between men in England who go up to the University together."^ In the Ancho- rites Islands a precisely similar arrangement has come into existence. The necessary period of initiatory seclusion lasts here several years. Its beginning is fixed upon by the chief, who, when his own children or those of his relations have reached the age of puberty, orders their initiation along with the children of his dependents, who have attained a corre- sponding age. All the young men thus initiated remain the friends of the chief in later life and are called his people. A chief has no power over a man who did not in this manner owe his initiation to him.^ With the emergence of a social organization in which political control is centralized within the ranks of a narrowly limited aristocracy of chiefs and leading men, primitive ^ Livingstone, Missionary Travels, i66. ^ Kidd, The Essential Kafir, 206. For further examples among the Amaxosa, Ovaherero, Basutos, Sotho, and other tribes, see Endemann in Zeits. f. EthnoL, vi (1874), 37-38; Fritsch, Die Eingehorenen Sud- Afrika^s, 206, 235; Casalis, Les Bassoutos, 277; Lubbert in Mitth. V. Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten G aus den Deulschen Schutzgehieten, xiv (1901), 89; Theal, History of South Africa, ii, 205-206; Alberti, Die Kaffern auf der SudkUste von Afrika (Gotha, 1815), 138; Gottsch- ling in Jour, Anthrop. Inst., xxxv (1905), 372. ^ Kubary in Die Ethnographisch- Anthropologische Abtheilung des Museum Godeffroy (Hamburg, 1881), 452-455- 82 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES initiation ceremonies maybe retained, but with the loss of their democratic features. In such instances they are often re- served to the governing class. The beginnings of such a devel- opment may perhaps be seen in those Melanesian societies w^here the initiated are the sons of chiefs alone; or where the higher degrees may be taken only by those who from political power or the possession of great wealth, form, in fact, an aristocratic ruling class. In Malanta, one of the Solomon Islands, puberty initiation rites for the common people have been discarded. But at Saa, in Malanta, the chief's son goes early to the Oha^ or canoe-house and public hall, while common children still eat and sleep at home. Formerly, boys used to go into the Oha and remain in se- clusion for years. At the close of their confinement a great feast was held and the boys came out as young men.^ Among the Maori of New Zealand, so far as our infor- mation goes, there were no secret societies and no special ceremonies at puberty for the initiation of common people. But the eldest son of the head chief of a tribe had to undergo rites at puberty which recall the earlier tribal ceremonies. He must be initiated ''into the secrets of all priestcraft and witchcraft as Arikioi the people.'' ^ There was no pretence of killing the novice, and other usual accompaniments of initiation ceremonies were lacking; but it is of some signifi- cance that women could not go near a young chief during this initiation period.^ The ancient Mexican cus- tom whereby a man might obtain the rank of Tecuhtliy or chieftain, by demonstrating his powers to undergo for a protracted period the most rigorous ordeals of the usual initiatory character, seems another survival of the same nature.^ The Ponkas and other Siouan tribes had various sacred and mysterious rites at the initiation or inauguration of their chiefs.^ ^ Codrington, The Melanesians, 233-234. ^ Tregear in Jour. Anthrop, Inst., xix (1889), 99. ^ Ibid,, 100. ^ For a description, see Bandelier in Twelfth Ann. Rep. Peabody Mu- seum (Cambridge, 1880), 642-643. Similar ceremonies existed among the Orinoco Indians and the Peru- vians {ibid., 643 n.). ^ Dorsey in Third Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.y 359 sq. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 83 In spite of these divergencies in development, it is still possible to make out the main lines along which the evolution of the primitive puberty institution has proceeded. Hov^- ever striking may be the differences between such an institu- tion as the Bora of the Australian natives and a tribal secret society like the Dukduk of the Bismarck Archipelago or the Egbo of West Africa, they appear, in the last analysis, to be due fundamentally to the changes brought about when once the principle of limitation of membership is introduced. The process which converts the puberty institution into the secret societies of peoples more advanced in culture, seems in general to be that of the gradual shrinkage of the earlier inclusive and democratic organization consisting of all the members of the tribe. The outcome of this process, on the one hand, is a limitation of the membership of the organization to those only who are able to satisfy the necessary entrance requirements; and, on the other hand, the establishment in the fraternity so formed of various degrees through which candidates may pass in succession. With the fuller develop- ment of secret society characteristics, these degrees become more numerous, and passage through them more costly. The members of the higher degrees, forming an inner circle of picked initiates, then control the organization in their own interests. The grades or degrees which constitute so noteworthy a feature of the secret societies in their developed form, appear to have originated in the system of age-classifications in use among many primitive peoples.^ The best examples of this practice are to be sought in Australia and Africa.^ The Australian evidence presents the initiatory rites as divided into several stages or degrees corresponding in gen- eral to age distinctions, through which the candidate passes as he develops into the complete maturity of manhood. In some cases the advanced grades, no longer open to every tribesman, have become the special possession of a limited class. Among the Tasmanians, most primitive of peoples, ''there existed three distinct classes, or social gradations, * Supra, 20. ^ For examples from North Amer- ica, infra, 130-134. 84 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES which were attained through age and fidehty to the tribe; but it was only the third class which was initiated into the hidden mysteries, and possessed the power of regulating its [the tribe's] affairs. Secrecy was usually observed in the ceremonies of admitting the youth to the first class, and in raising those of the first to the second, but the secrecy was most rigidly observed whenever an initiation into the third class took place/' ^ The Adelaide tribes of South Australia arranged initiation in five stages, all of which were to be passed through before the rank of Bourka^ or full-grown man, could be reached. These stages corresponded roughly to the different age periods: the fourth, attained when the youth was about twenty, marked full maturity; the fifth was "only attained when the individual is getting grey- headed." ^ The three degrees necessary for Port Lincoln natives ''constitute three distinct epochs in their lives." At the age of fourteen they take the first degree and are styled Warraras ; a few years later, having undergone cir- cumcision, they become fFityalkinyeSy and are allowed to marry. ''As a proof of the significance they attach to these strange rites and customs, it may be instanced that it is considered insulting if one of a higher degree taunts his adversary with the lower degree he still occupies." ^ Among the Dieri there are six stages, the completion of which is requisite for the fully initiated tribesman. Between the ages of five and ten, the septum of the lad is pierced; this rite is followed at about twelve years of age by the extraction of two front teeth, and later by circumcision. The fourth degree is taken when the lad receives a formal smearing with blood and the marks of scarification. Mindari^ or attend- ance at certain totemic ceremonies, and Kulpiy or subincis- ion, constitute the final degrees.^ The Arunta and Ilpirra arrangements may be profitably compared with those of the Dieri. Among these tribes there are four clearly ^ Barnard in Rep, Austr. Assoc. ^ Wilhelmi in Trans. Roy. Soc. Adv. Sci., ii (Sidney, 1890), 602-603. Victoria^ v (i860), 188. ^ Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of * Gason in The Native Tribes of Discovery into Central Australia, ii, South Australia, 266 sq. 336. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 85 marked stages : Alkirakiwumaj the painting and throwing the boy in the air, a rite which takes place when he is be- tween ten and twelve years of age ; Lartna^ or circumcision, performed soon after the arrival of puberty; Ariltha^ or subincision, which follows as soon as the boy has recovered from the former operation ; and Engwura^ the fire ceremony, last and most impressive of the series. Natives are some- times twenty-five or even thirty years old before they undergo the Engwura} On the basis of these degrees arise the "status'' names which indicate at once the position in the tribal ceremonies attained by the holders. Before initiation, an Arunta boy is Ambaquerkaj or child. After the first ceremony he is called Ulpmerka,^ at the close of this interval and immediately preceding circumsision he is Wurtja; after circumcision, Arakurta; after subincision, Ertwa- kurkdy or initiated man.^ During the latter part of the Engwura rites, the young men are known collectively as Ilpongwurra; and only after they have gone through the long series of fire ordeals which close the ceremonies, do they graduate as Urliaray or fully initiated men.* The rites of the Kimberley natives of Western Australia exhibit a similar arrangement by degrees. Until five years of age the boy is called Tadup, He then becomes a ChookadoOy and is usually given as a boy-wife to one of the young men. When about ten years old, the severe initiation rites begin in earnest. After circumcision and the knocking out of his two upper front teeth, he is known as Balillie. A year later come subincision and cicatrization, which make him a Wongalong, Finally, on reaching a marriageable age, he is smeared with red ochre and as a Wilgieing may look about for a wife.^ The Eastern tribes, among whom rites of the Bora type prevail, have no such elaborate system of degrees. As we have seen, however, a youth does not attain the status of a full tribesman until he has attended several Bora ceremonies.^ Moreover a number of the New ^ Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia^ 212-213. ' Ibid., 218, 655. ^ Ibid.y 221, 249, 256, 260,638,657. ^ Ibid., 322, 347, 656. ^ Hardman in Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., third series, i (1888), 73-74. ' Supra, 71-72. 86 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES South Wales tribes possess abbreviated inauguration cere- monies, modifications of the great Bora rites and preHminary to them. The Kudsha, or Narramangy of the Coast Murring, for instance, is an abridged form of the Bunan at which the assistance of outside tribes is not necessary. A novice initiated at the Kudsha must take a higher degree when the next Bunan is held.^ The initiation ceremonies of some of the New Guinea tribes show a similar arrangement by progressive stages. Elema boys when they enter the Eravo are known collectively as Malai-asu; while among themselves they are called individually, Heava. This seclusion occurs when the boys are about ten years of age.^ Following Heava comes the Heapu stage, marked by a great feast. The boys now terminate their period of absolute seclusion and may appear in public wearing the regulation ornaments of the HeapUy which they have made during their seclusion. Initiation, however, is not yet completed; there are still certain ordeals which must be successfully undergone before the youth is acknowledged as a Semese^ or warrior. As a Semese he is initiated into the mysteries of the bull-roarer, and is then allowed to marry. ^ In the Nanga^ or initiation ceremonies of the western Fijians, the place and importance of the participants depended upon age. The elders (Fere)y and the very old men (^Vere matua), were members of the sacred Nanga and the priests of the order. Below them were the Vuniloloy the men who had attended at least two initiation ceremonies. They were the strong and mature members of the tribes. Last of all came the young men (Ftlavou)ywho had just been initiated and were on probation.^ The African development of the age classification has ^ Mathews and Miss Everitt in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxiv (1900), 276 sq. Other ceremonies of the same character are the Nguttan (Mathews in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxvii, 1898, 69-73) ; the Murwin of the Belhnger River tribes (Palmer in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii, 1884, 297); and the Kadjawalung of the Coast Murring (Howitt, ibid., xiii, 1884, 432 sq.). ^ Holmes in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 419. ^ Ibid., 424-425. ^ Filson, ibid., xiv (1884), 15 sq.; Joske in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., ii (1889), 259. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 87 especial interest. Among the Masai tribes of German East Africa, a boy at fourteen is admitted by the rite of circum- cision into the ranks of the warriors and becomes El-moran. He now leaves the kraal of the married people and proceeds to a distant kraal where there are only young unmarried men and women. Here he lives a military life for many years. Meat and milk form his daily food; such luxuries as tobacco, beer, and vegetables are rigorously forbidden. As a warrior he can hold no property; indeed his sole busi- ness as El-moran is to train himself for proficiency in war- like enterprises, to guard the kraals and to take part in raids into neighboring districts. During this period marriage is not allowed, but promiscuous intercourse naturally pre- vails. The youth continues a member of the warrior class sometimes for twenty years, at least until the death of his father gives him the latter's property and permits his mar- riage. The strict rules of diet are then abandoned; the companions in the kraal are forgotten; and the once fierce and venturesome warrior becomes a staid and respectable member of society.^ According to a more recent account, a class of probationary warriors is also recognized. Boys on reaching puberty and entering this class are called Selo- gunia (shaved head) in contradistinction to the warriors who have long hair.^ The promiscuous intercourse in the kraal seems now to be given up. In the old days, however, the ditosy or prostitutes, were all immature girls whose career in the kraal did not seem to have injured their marriageable prospects.^ If a warrior had a child by his dito^ he married her and at once entered the class of married people called El-morno} The Wakwafi system of age classification as outlined by Krapf includes the children, Engera^ who remain with their mothers and the old people, tending cattle and doing household work ; the Leiokj youths from fourteen to twenty who devote themselves to national games and to ^ Thomson, Through Masai Landy ^ Ibid., 72-73. 244-261. * Baumann, Durch Masailand zur ^ S. L. Hinde and Hildegarde Nilquelle, 161. See also A. Le Roy, Hinde, The Last of the Masai (Lon- Au Kilima-Ndjaro (Paris, 1893), don, 1901), 56. 422-428. 88 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES the chase; the El-moran^ or warriors, who after reaching the age of twenty-five are designated as Kkieko if they marry; and the aged men, Eekiilsharo^ who remain at home and serve as tribal councillors.^ The Wanika have the three orders of young men {Nyere)^ middle-aged men (Khambi)y and old men (Mfaya). ''Each degree has its different initiation and ceremonies, with an elaborate system of social and legal observances, the junior order always buying promotion from the senior. Once about every twenty years comes the great festival 'Unyaro,' at which the middle-aged degree is conferred." ^ The pre- liminary seclusion of the candidates for two weeks in the woods, the ritualistic use of white clay, and the celebration of various mystic rites, show with the utmost clearness the development of the age-stages as existing in the puberty institution into the well-defined degrees of the tribal society. Though among the Wanika a definite chieftainship has been established, the chief has little power apart from the Mfaya and Khambi, Every adult male expects to join the Khambi if he can pay the fees required at initiation. Members of this degree form the real governing body of the nation. They busy themselves, however, mostly with feast- ing. As all crimes are punished by fines assessed chiefly on flocks and herds, the deliberations of the Khambi do not lack for good cheer.^ Among the Zulus in the Angoni district north of the Zambesi the age classification has been obviously aff^ected by the influence of the chiefs. Here it is almost purely a military institution. Circum- cision, formerly in general use as an initiatory rite, has now been abandoned. The male population is arranged in five legions which are rigidly separated and which in war always go divided. The Mafera are the cadets who occupy ^ Travels, Researches, and Mis- sionary Labours, during an Eighteen Years^ Residence in Eastern Africa (London, i860), 295. Other ac- counts varying in details are given by Burton, Zanzibar, ii, 89 sq.; Hildebrandt in Zeits. f. EthnoL, x (1878), 399-400; and C. C. von der Decken, Reisen in Ost-Afrika (Leip- zig, 1871), ii, 25. ^ Burton, Zanzibar, ii, 90. ^ New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa, 107-114. See also Hildebrandt in Zeits. f. EthnoL, X (1878), 400; and Von der Decken, op. cit., i, 217. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 89 themselves with warhke exercises, but who seldom partici- pate in actual fighting; the Kabenda are young people over fourteen years of age who perform minor services of a military character; the Maora^ Mabema, and Madjaha include all the fighting men from eighteen to thirty years of age. A fourth class is that styled Madoda, made up of warriors over thirty who have the right of attending the tribal assemblies and of participating in the deliberations. The Madjinga are the old men no longer warriors who pass their time in attendance on the chief and form his council.^ The southern Gallas were divided into Toibs (officers), Ghaba (adults and warriors), and Ari (cadets or aspir- ants).^ Traces of the age classification survive among the Makalakas, a Zambesi tribe. "The principal men, and also groups of old men, eat together; young men just entered into manhood do the same; these will pass their dish with the leavings to younger brothers, who are also found grouped together.'' ^ A boy of the Kikuyu tribe of British East Africa is called Kahe until circumcision. He then assumes the title of Mwanake which he bears until he is recognized by the older men as of sufficient age to become an elder. He is then known as Mundu Mzuri} The Mukamba stages are somewhat more elaborate. A male child, called Kivitzi at birth, becomes Muvitziy or youth, when he has reached ten years of age. After marriage he is known as a Mwanake. When he finds himself in a posi- tion to give a feast and to present the leading elders with a goat, "he is received among the elect and is known as a Mutumia until the day of his death.'' ^ In Wadai, central Soudan, five age-distinctions are observed. Of these, two, known as Sedasi and Nurtiy are made up of the younger and older boys ; the Ferafir includes the youths from eighteen to twenty-five years of age; the men from ^ Wiese in Zeits. f. EthnoL, xxxii (1900), 195-196. ^ Burton, Zanzibar, ii, 89; Paul- itschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Af- rikaSf 194 sq. ^ James Chapman, Travels in the Interior of South Africa (Lon- don, 1868), ii, 284. ^ Tate in Jour. Anthrop. Inst.j xxxiv (1904), 133. 5 Ibid., 138. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES twenty-five to fifty are known as Sibjan; those over fifty as Dschemma} In the Kru repubhc near Dahomey and Ashanti, the " body poHtic is composed of three classes of persons which together comprise almost the entire adult male population." ^ The Gnekhadi are the elders; the Sediboy or soldiery, are middle-aged men only admitted to the ranks by payment of a fee; the Kedibo^ or youths, have little influence or power and seldom speak in the deliberative assemblies where the three classes gather to discuss aff^airs of state. Matters both judicial and legislative are settled in these popular assemblies. The government is practically a pure democracy.^ Membership in the upper grades or degrees of this classi- ficatory system carries with it, as we have just seen, the possession of special privileges. For this reason it is not unnatural to find the initiates of the advanced degrees jealously restricting the number of candidates for admission. This process of limitation, best observed in Melanesian and African secret societies, may be discovered in the more primitive puberty organization of the Australians. Among the Dieri the leading members of the tribe — the warriors, orators, and heads of totems — form an inner or privy council, an organization distinct from the general tribal council to which every initiated man belongs. ^^All the younger men look forward for years to pass through the Mindari ceremony so that they may have the honor of appearing at and eventually the right of speaking in the 'great council,' as they call it." ^ Other privileges such as the right pf sharing in the Piraru custom ("group marriage") belong only to men who have passed through the Mindari rites. Kulpiy or subincision, which constitutes among the Dieri the last degree, is not open to every tribesman. At the sessions of the inner or privy council which determines the meetings for circumcision, the headmen and heads of totems ^ Nachtigal, Sahdrd und Suddn, ill, 245. 2 J. L. Wilson, Western Africa (New York, 1856), 129. ^ Wilson, op. cit.j 1 29-131. Cf. also Burton, Zanzibar, ii, 89. ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XX (1890), 68; cf. id., Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 321. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 91 fix upon certain youths who alone will be permitted to undergo the rite.^ All the men who are sent on special missions to other tribes belong to this degree; the Kulpis take precedence at the grand corroborees of the tribe; they are the leading dancers; they hold, in fact, ''the most im- portant positions, and powerfully influence the govern- ment of the tribe." ^on-Kulpis often express regret at their exclusion from this primitive aristocracy, and regard the members of the order with considerable jealousy.^ In the Engwura of the Arunta, the last and most important of the initiatory ceremonies among this tribe, a similar process of limitation is exhibited. During the progress of the rites, ''everything was under the im- mediate control of one special old man, who was a perfect repository of tribal lore. . . . Whilst the final decision on all points lay in his hands, there was what we used to call the 'cabinet,' consisting of this old man and three of the elders, who often met together to discuss matters. Fre- quently the leader would get up from the men amongst whom he was sitting, and apparently without a word being spoken or any sign made, the other three would rise and follow him one after the other, walking away to a secluded spot in the bed of the creek. Here they would gravely discuss matters concerned with the ceremonies to be per- formed, and then the leader would give his orders and everything would work with perfect regularity and smooth- ness." ^ Among some of the Queensland tribes where the initiatory rites have reached a remarkable degree of elaboration, the classes or castes formed by members of the different degrees are exceedingly well defined. Here there are four stages of social rank through which each ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XX (1890), 85. C/"., however, Na- tive Tribes of South-East Australia, 664. ^ Id., Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xx (1890), 87; cf. also Gason in The Native Tribes of South Australia, 266 sq.; and Schiirmann, ibid., 226 sq. Lartna, the Arunta equivalent of the Kulpi rite, is so highly regarded that the younger men often voluntarily undergo a second or even a third operation (Spencer and Gillen, Na- tive Tribes of Central Australia, 257). Cf. also Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 359-361. ^ Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 280. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES individual may pass in the course of years. The third and fourth degrees are naturally the most difficult to reach. Before a man can take an advanced degree he must pass through all the duties of assistance at the initiation of others into the same rank as himself until, by reason of his age, he comes to be the leader, chief director, or master of the ceremonies appertaining to his own degree." ^ No one not of the same or of a higher degree may be present at an initiation. The different degrees have no passwords or signs, but the rank of members is indicated by certain objects of decoration and attire. Only the first degree is com- pulsory for males. In the Boulia district circumcision takes place at this stage. The blood-father gives the newly made Tuppieri his autonym or individual personal name, which is to be his through life. He gets certain other privileges, and after being subincised may marry.^ The second degree may be taken only by those of the Tup- pieri who have been selected by the elders for the honor. In the Pitta- Pitta tribe no young man has the remotest idea that he may be among the individuals secretly agreed upon for its consummation, and indeed may, through absence from the camping grounds, etc., occasionally have reached second and even sometimes higher grades in the social ladder before circumstances arise and opportunities occur suitable for his selection." ^ While undergoing initiation the candidates are subjected to certain restrictions. They must not wear the ornaments which were granted them at their initiation into the first degree, and they must stay away from the camp. Married men may come to the camp only at night. The third and fourth degrees {Koo- koorimaro and Murukkundi among the Boulia tribes) are sel- dom reached. Successful candidates are freed from all their previous restrictions and are decorated with various pat- terns which indicate the rank they have attained.^ In North Bougainville, one of the Solomon Islands, where the Rukruk is the powerful secret organization, a lim- ited number of young men are selected for membership ^ Roth, Ethnological Studies, 169. 2 Ihid., 171. 3 Ibid., 178. * Ihid.^ 177. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 93 by the tribal elders and the chiefs. It is considered a special honor to be chosen by the chiefs/ An example from one of the few tribal societies found in North America throws additional hght upon the operation of this selective process. One of the chief ceremonies of the Maidu of Northern California is the initiation of young men at manhood. The novices are instructed in the myths and lore of the tribe by the tribal elders, and at the end of their period of seclusion a great feast is held at which they perform the various dances they have learned. But not all boys are initiated. The old men every year fix upon certain candidates, who after initiation are known as Teponiy and are much looked up to. ''They formed a sort of secret society, and included all the men of note in the tribe." 2 The secret societies which thus arise by limiting the mem- bership of the earlier tribal organization, in many instances retain something of their former tribal character, in that initiation into the lower grades, by the payment of moderate fees, is the usual thing for nearly every male member of the community. Initiation into the Dukdukj for instance, is, in practice, a matter of compulsion. Parents would naturally wish to present their sons for entrance, because of the prestige and privileges connected with membership. Moreover, it is usually made more expensive to remain outside than to join. A boy or his parents "would cer- tainly be fined sooner or later for some real or imaginary breach of the Dukduk^s laws, and as they would have to pay the fine, it was cheaper to pay the fees.'' ^ A lad at puberty would be told ''that he cannot take his rank as a warrior and a man of property, but must always remain a communal slave, unless he is hardy enough to sue for entrance to the light of the great mystery. The distinction is one that is plain to him, and he probably does not hesitate * Parkinson in Ahh. u. Berichte d. Kgl. Zoolog. u. Anthrop.-Ethnogr. Museums zu Dresden, vii (1899), no. 6, p. II. 2 Dixon in Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.y xvii (1902), 35 sq.; cf. Powers in Contributions to North American Ethnology y iii, 305-306. ^ Brown in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vii (Sidney, 1898), 780. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES in making his choice, but appHes to his chief to be prepared for that which is to come/' ^ This democratic feature, however, goes no further; the higher grades are reserved for the aristocracy of the tribe. With the growing ex- clusiveness of the societies, entrance and passage through the different degrees becomes constantly more difficult and expensive, and the separation of the initiates from the barbarians without, more pronounced. Thus artificial social distinctions arise in a condition of society as yet out- wardly democratic. The Dukduk is controlled by an inner circle composed of the chief and a few important members of the tribe. ^ Entrance to the society costs from fifty to an hundred fathoms of dewarra — about thirty dollars.^ The entire cost of passage through the various grades of Egbof a West African society, has been estimated to amount to over a thousand pounds.^ The fees are divided among those of highest degrees who form the inner circle of the society.^ Admission to the third degree of the power- ful Purrah society of Sierra Leone, rests entirely with the chiefs who control the organization. So separate is the kaimahun from the two lower degrees that the most im- portant affairs of the tribe might be decided by third degree members without the other Purrah men having the least cognizance of the fact.^ When the tribal life no longer centres in organizations made up of all the men of the tribe, initiation ceremonies as a preparation for marriage are not required. The break- ^ Churchill in Popular Science Monthly, xxxviii (1890), 240. ^ Ibid., 242. ^ Graf V. Pfeil in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvii (1897), 189; Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, 62. ^ Walker in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., vi (1876), 121 ; Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 532. ^ Holman {Travels, 392) gives the cost of initiation into each of the degrees. Egbo is an interesting illustration of the extreme develop- ment of all the tribal society char- acteristics. Entrance into most of the African societies does not appear unusually difficult. Initiation into Nkimba costs two dollars' worth of cloth and two fowls (Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, \, 282). A candidate for Ekongolo must pre- sent the chief of the society with gifts to the value of thirteen marks and make donations of food to the older members (Buchner, Kamerun, 26). ^ Alldridge, The Sherhro and its Hinterland, 127-128. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 95 down of the old tribal rites is complete when any one may enter the secret societies on payment of the requisite fees. Melanesia, where the secret societies are exceptionally well developed, affords many illustrations. Boys may enter the Dukduk when they are but four and five years old.^ They become fully accredited members when fourteen years of age — an interesting survival of former puberty initiation.^ In Florida and the New Hebrides generally, admission is granted to male persons of all ages.^ In this process of gradual development which converts the puberty institution into the tribal secret society, the chief factor, everywhere present, has been the growing realization by the directors of initiation ceremonies of the power possessed by mystery and secrecy over the unen- lightened. The members of the inner circles — the elder and more influential men in whose hands is the direction of affairs — come to realize what a means for personal advance- ment is to be found in the manipulation of the tribal cere- monies. The tendency will then be constantly to widen the gap between the initiated and the uninitiated, and to surround the organization so formed with every appliance for working on the fear and awe of the outsiders. In the proceedings of the Melanesian and African secret societies, we may see the fruition of those characteristics of fraud and intimidation already referred to as inseparably con- nected with the puberty institution even in its original and pristine purity. In their primitive state, savage mysteries possess a sacred character and enshrine the real religious beliefs of the people. Only the initiated men share in this secret wor- ship; the outer world of women and children is debarred from its privileges and is ignorant of its rites. Ordained in the beginning of things by the tribal gods, and under their constant supervision, the ceremonies of initiation con- stitute at once a sacred bond of brotherhood between those who have undergone them and a covenant with the gods ^ Danks in Jour. Anthrop. Inst.j ^ Parkinson, Im Bismarck Archi- xviii (1889), 283. pel^ 130. ^ Codrington, MelanesianSy 70-71. 96 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES who have instituted them. Australia, again, furnishes the most significant examples. According to an early account of the Australian natives, "^om, Tippakal^ or Porrangy are their names, of an imag- inary being, w^ho, they say, always was as he now is, in figure like a Black; and who, they believe, resides in brushes and thick jungles, and appears occasionally by day, but mostly by night, and generally before the coming of the Natives from distant parts, when they assemble to celebrate certain mystic rites, such as some dances, or the knocking out of a tooth, which is performed in a mystic ring. They describe him as being painted with pipe-clay and carrying a fire-stick, but generally, as being perceived only by the doctors, who are a kind of magicians, to whom he says, ^Fear not, come and talk.' According to another early writer the natives referred their institution of the Bora back to Baiamaty whose two children were the progenitors of the blacks of New South Wales. Batamai initiated one of his children into the Bora mysteries and gave directions to extract the front tooth and to conceal the rites from women and children.^ Associated with Batamai is Daramuluriy ^'a fabulous being, half man and half spirit, who in olden times took the boys into the forest, apart from the tribe, and put them through all the secret rites of initiation."^ The Bora ground where the Kamilaroi ceremonies take place, represents Baiamai's first camp.^ One of the images shown to the novices at initiation is a repre- sentation of Baiamai, These images, though rude affairs constructed for each inaugural meeting, are regarded, espe- cially by the novices, with much reverence. If the assembly is large, there are several images, always carefully hidden from the uninitiated. At the conclusion of the rites they are destroyed by fire. Thus, at a Burbong of the Western ^ James Backhouse, A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies (London, 1843), 555. ^ John Henderson, Observations on the Colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen^s Land (Calcutta, 1832), 148. ^ Mathews in Amer. Antiquarian^ xxix (1907), 149. ^ Id., Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxiv (1895), 418; cf. also Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxviii (1894), 114. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 97 Wiradthuri, there were two images of Daramulun, the one- legged god/ At the Burbong of the Murrumbidgee tribes, besides a large figure of Baiamai^ there was a representation of Daramulun made of mud and between four and five feet high.^ The Kurnai Jeraeil was instituted and ordained by Daramulun.^ He it was who made the first mudjiy or bull-roarer/ At the present ceremonies of initia- tion the novices listen to a most impressive account of Daramulun, All the tribal legends respecting him are then repeated to them.^ Among the Coast Mur- ring, as soon as the initiated men and novices have left camp and are out of sight of the women, it becomes lawful to speak openly of things elsewhere never mentioned except in whispers. The name Daramulun may now be freely uttered; at other times the god is always addressed as Biam- ban (master) or Papang (father). The principle underlying this usage is that " all things belonging to these ceremonies are so intimately connected with Daramulun that they may not be elsewhere spoken of without risk of displeasing him, and the words which imply these ceremonies, or anything connected with them, are therefore forbidden."^ At the Kuringal of these tribes, the old men made a number of passes over the boys to insure the favor of Daramulun and to fill them with the influence of the All Father "who insti- tuted these ceremonies, and who is supposed to watch them whenever performed." ^ The teachings of the Boray writes Mr. Howitt, "indicate a rude form of religion, which * Mathews in Amer. Anthropolo- gist, new series, iii (1901), 340. ^ Id., Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxi (1897), 117. For a detailed description of the images constructed at the Bunan of the Coast Murring, see Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Austra- lia^, 523-524. ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 442; cf. xiii (1883), 192. ^ Ibid., xiii (1884), 446. 5 Ibid., xiv (1885), 313 sq.; H Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 630. ^ On Murray Island, one of the Torres Straits Group, the culture hero in the myth which relates the origin of the initiation ceremonies is Malu, and by this name he is known to women and children. But his real name, revealed only to the initiated and which they may never utter, is Bomai (Haddon, Head-Hunters, 46). ^ Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 451. 98 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES IS taught to the youthful Australian savage in a manner and under circumstances which leave an indelible impression on his after-life." ^ From the mysteries as the embodiments of the inner religious life of the tribe to their utilization as a means of social control, the transition has everywhere been easy. Whatever may have been the origin of the numerous restric- tions imposed upon the novices after their formal initiation, at present they are chiefly interesting as a simple but efFec- ^ Howitt in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci.y iii (Sidney, 1891), 349. On the basis of the new evidence afforded by the Australian ceremonies, Mr. Andrew Lang has recently argued for the existence at least, in Australia, of native conceptions of ''high gods" unaffected by missionary influences, and indeed anterior to them (The Making of Religion, London, 1898). There is Kttle doubt but that a ''by no means despicable ethics" is taught in these Australian mysteries, but it is still an open question whether, as Mr. Lang avers, among the native conceptions that of a superhuman and eternal creator exists. There is much divergence among the beliefs of the different tribes; the so-called "creator-god" of one tribe may appear as a "bugbear god" in an- other. What evidence we have as to the Australian conceptions would seem to indicate that among many of the tribes degeneration of the earlier and presumably purer be- liefs has set in, proceeding pari passu with the growing materialization of the initiatory rites — a process which finds its completion in the veil of superstitious mystery with which the Melanesian and African secret societies disguise themselves. As to the existence of "high gods" in Australia, Mr. Howitt's statement is emphatic: "The AustraHan aborig- ines do not recognise any divinity, good or evil, nor do they offer any kind of sacrifice, as far as my knowl- edge goes" {Native Tribes of South- East .Australia, 756. See also 488- 508). On this whole subject it is now possible to refer to the careful discussion by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. According to these authors ^^Twanyirika of the Arunta and Unmatjera, and Katajalina of the Binbinga, are merely bogeys to frighten the women and children and keep them in a proper state of subjection. ..." The natives have "not the faintest conception of any individual who might in any way be described as a 'High God of the Mysteries.' ... So far as anything like moral precepts are concerned in these tribes ... it appears to us to be most probable that they have originated in the first instance in association with the purely selfish idea of the older men to keep all the best things for themselves, and in no case whatever are they supposed to have the sanction of a superior being" {Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 502-504). According to Mr. R. H. Mathews, a careful ob- server, worship is never offered or supplication made to Baiamai and Daramulun, the Kamilaroi spirits. Both of them are earthly divinities whose home is in the bush. Neither is to be regarded as an "All Father who had his home in the sky" {Amer. Antiquarian, xxiv (1907), 150)- DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 99 tive means of providing for the material wants of the elder men, the directors of the ceremonies/ But this manipu- lation of the mysteries for private purposes does not end here. Even where the rites are of the simplest char- acter it is possible to find the germs of that terrorism exer- cised over the women and the uninitiated men which forms perhaps the most striking characteristic of the secret societies in their complete development. Among the Australians great pains are taken to make the women and children believe that the initiation of the lads is really the work of the tribal gods. At the Burhong of some of the Murrumbidgee tribes, just before the novices are taken into the bush, the women who have been spec- tators of the preliminary ceremonies are led to the encamp- ment where the boys are confined. Here they are required to lie down and are carefully covered so that they can see nothing of the proceedings. Bull-roarers are then swung and a terrific thumping sound is made by the men who beat the ground with pieces of bark. The women believe that the noise is caused by the trampling of an evil spirit who has come to remove the boys. The sound of the bull- roarer is his voice. Amid all this din the boys are led quickly away.^ Women of the Coast Murring tribe are told that it is Daramulun who knocks out the teeth of the novices; those of the Murray River tribe, that the novices meet Thrumalun who kills them and afterwards restores them to life. Among some Queensland tribes the women believe that the sound of the bull-roarer is the noise made by the wizards in swallowing the boys and bringing them up again as young men.^ Among the Arunta, Twanyirika is a great spirit who lives in wild and inacces- sible regions and only appears when a youth is initiated. " He enters the body of the boy after the operation [cir- cumcision] and takes him away into the bush until he is better, when the spirit goes away and the boy returns, but ^ Supra J 65-71. 3 For these and additional ex- ^ Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. amples, see Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Soc. New South Wales, xxxi (1897), Inst.^ xvi (1886), 47 sq.; Cameron, 132-133- i^id.y xiv (1884), 358. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES now as an initiated man. Both uninitiated youths and women are taught to beHeve in the existence of Twan- yirika'' ^ Kurnai boys who have just passed through their initiatory ordeals are sometimes allowed a little relaxa- tion by frightening the women with the bull-roarers, the noise of which is supposed to be the voice of Turndun himself. The bullawangSy or guardians of the boys, quietly surround the encampment of the women at night, and at a given signal the bull-roarers are rapidly swung. The novices "thoroughly entered into the fun of frightening the women; and having got over their awe of the bull-roarers, they made an outrageous noise with them. The moment the roaring and screeching sounds were heard, there was a terrible clamour of cries and screams from the women and children, to the delight of the novices, who now in their turn aided in mystifying the uninitiated." ^ The preliminary ceremonies preceding the seclusion of the lads at Mer Island (Torres Straits) afford another glimpse into that process of development of which the out- come is the conversion of the puberty institution into a tribal society possessing police functions and ruling by the terror it inspires. When it comes time "^to make AgudJ the lads, painted with red earth and variously adorned, are led to an open space in front of the pelaky or sacred house of Agud, The ceremony begins by a number of old men coming out of the pelak; these are the attendants upon the three zogole, or sacred men. Finally Agud himself appears. Agud is an individual painted all over and clothed with a petticoat of croton leaves. On his head is a large turtle-shell mask. With measured steps and to the monoto- nous beating of drums, Agud and his sacred attendants, the zogohj approach the frightened novices who then pre- sent their food offerings. The ceremony is brought to an end by the actors in the drama retiring with the old men to the sacred house, where the food is consumed. Meanwhile the lads have listened to the legend which recites the origin ^ Spencer and Gillen, Native ^ Howitt in Jour, Anthrop. Inst.j, Tribes of Central Australia, 246 n. xiv (1885), 315. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES loi of the rite, and have heard for the first time the dreadful names of the masks they have just seen. This ceremony, w^hich is strictly secret, is afterwards followed by a public affair at which women and children are present/ Another initiatory rite at Mer consists in thoroughly frightening the novices with the magur^ or devils. These are masked figures who rush noisily about and beat the boys on slight provocation. Some of the old men have carried about for life the scars received from these blows. The lads are told that should they divulge the secrets, Magur would kill them. Later on the identity of the masked figures is dis- closed to the lads, but the women and children believe them to be spirits.^ Magur was "the disciplinary executive of the Malu cult. All breaches of discipline, acts of sacrilege, and the like were punished by Magur, Magur was also the means of terrorizing the women and thereby keeping up the fear and mystery of the Malu ceremonies. There is no doubt that this great power was often abused to pay off personal grudges or for the aggrandizement or indulgence of the Malu officials."^ New Guinea furnishes some interesting examples. An Elema lad, at ten years of age, is secluded in the Eravo^ or men's house. He knows now that he is soon to take a very important step in his life's history; namely, his introduction to the mountain god, Kovave, Shortly after he begins his course the forerunners of Kovave^ who are young men hidden by masks and long draperies of grass, appear in the village. Their arrival is followed by a period of considerable anxiety for the women and the uninitiated males, the latter being mostly men or boys of illegitimate birth, who are not eligible for initiation. The masked men are sacred. Formerly death was the penalty for an attempt on the part of the uninitiated to identify them. It is even claimed that they are gods and, "as proof of their deity, the native sage re- marks that they do not need to walk on the soles of their feet as mortals have to do, but that they hop about as is ^ Haddon in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., vi (1893), 140 sq. 2 Haddon, Head-Hunters, 50. 3 Ibid. J 51. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES characteristic of gods/' For ten days or more the turmoil continues; the masked men prance about in the streets, at night the bull-roarers are whirled, drums are beaten in the Eravoy and the terrified women and children keep to their houses. Vast quantities of food are collected by the women, and on the announcement of the approach of KovavCy it is carried away into the bush. At nightfall, the novices, each accompanied by his father or male guardian, are led into the depths of the forest and brought before Kovave. The mountain god delivers an impressive address to the terrified lads, promises to be their friend if they obey the elders, but threatens the most direful penalties in the shape of disease and death, should they disclose any of the secrets. The boys are then taken back to the Eravo^ where their seclusion continues many weeks. ^ The kaevakuku of the Toaripi tribe of New Guinea are individuals con- nected with a sacred mystery bearing the same name. All men engaged in preparation for the Kaevakuku rites are sacred for at least three months before the feast. During this period they avoid their homes and usual haunts. In their public appearances they wear large masks. Entering one of the DubuSy or men's houses, Chalmers found eighty of these masks ranged on the walls, forty to a side, and by each, a stick. A week later he was present at the Kaevakuku feast when the eighty men wearing the masks appeared. ''A large crowd has assembled from the villages round. . . . Everywhere there is food, cooked and uncooked, in heaps and hanging on poles, chiefly sago prepared in every imag- inable way. Betel-nuts and pepper also abound. On the platform of my friend Meka's Dubu is a large quantity of cut-up pork, and all around the platform streamers are flying, made from the young sago frond. ... I have not long to wait until there comes a man dressed in a tall hat, or mask, resembling some strange animal with peculiar mouth and sharp teeth; his cloak and kilt are of yellow hibiscus fibre, and a small stick is in his hand. He has come from some distance back in the bush, where, I am ^ Holmes in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 419 sq. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 103 told, many are assembled, and that all the masks and dresses I saw the other day in the Dubu with their owners, are there. He danced about for a short time, when an old man came before him with a large piece of pork, gave it to him, and he went away, followed by two young men carrying a long pole of food, sago, cocoanuts, betel-nuts, and pepper. An- other kaevakuku followed and did the same as the first, this time in the Dubu; the conch-shell is being blown as for a pig, and soon a live one appears on a pole between two men. It is placed on the ground, the kaevakuku dancing round and over it, when a bow and arrow is presented to him, and he backs a little, says something, lets fly, and the pig soon breathes his last. The two men pick the pig up and all leave, followed by two youths carrying food. More kaevakukus come, this time five; and all dance until they receive presentation of pig, when they too clear out. . . . Some get dogs, whereupon they catch them by the hind legs and strike the head furiously on the ground. Not a few are displeased with the small quantity given, and persistently remain until they get more." ^ The natives of Rook, a small island between New Guinea and New Pomerania, employ their Marsaba mysteries in the same effective manner. Marsaba lives in a house in the bush, secluded from the women. On certain days one or two masked men set out for the village and demand the uncircumcised boys who have not yet been eaten up by Marsaba, These are led away to the bush. In the village it is presently noised about that Marsaba has sv/allowed the boys and will not return them until the people have made liberal contributions of pigs and taro. These gifts are afterwards consumed by the initiates in the name of Marsaba? Among the Tamo of Bogadjim in Kaiser Wilhelm Land, the heaviest labor at initiation falls upon the women who must busy themselves for months in the preparation of food for the great feasts. Should there be any evidence of unwilling- ^ Chalmers, Pioneering in New ^ Reina in Zeits. f. Allgemeine Guinea^ 72 sq. Erdkunde, new series, iv (1858), PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES ness on their part, or should their industry flag a Httle, ^*so wird sie durch den Asa an ihre Pflicht erinnert." Asa at the head of a numerous company visits the village in state and speedily brings the women to a more reasonable view of the situation.^ Among the Sulka, a tribe of New Pomerania, there are many proceedings at which masked men play an important part. One set of maskers, called a katpa^ has as its chief function the terrifying of the women. They drive the latter out of the plantations, steal the fruit, and carry it oflT to the secret resort in the forest. The women and children believe the maskers are the spirits of the dead. Boys, however, are admitted very early into the secrets of the masks at a festival which precedes that of circumcision. The mother of all the maskers is a certain Parol whose existence consists only in the imagina- tion of the uninitiated. Her failure ever to put in an ap- pearance is explained by the fact that she constantly suff^ers from wounds, and therefore cannot leave her house in the bush. The men of the village collect large quantities of food previously prepared by the women for the Parol and her children and take it into the bush where it is consumed by the maskers.^ Originally, as we have seen, at the initiation ceremonies, youths were solemnly inducted into the religious mysteries of the tribe; mysteries, which though not unattended by many devices of a fraudulent nature, did nevertheless main- tain themselves by a real appeal to the religious aspirations of the candidates. But with the advance to the secret society stage, the religious aspects become more and more a pretence and a delusion, and serve as a cloak to hide mere material and selfish ends. The power of the secret societies in Melanesia and Africa rests entirely upon the belief, as- siduously cultivated among outsiders, that the initiated members are in constant association with the spirits, with evil spirits especially, and with the ghosts of the dead. The connection of the societies with the worship of the dead is everywhere manifest. In all the Melanesian societies, ^ Hagen, Unter den Papuans, 237. ^ Rascher in Archiv f. Anthrop.y xxix (1904), 227-228. DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 105 the ghosts of the dead are supposed to be present;^ and the same is true in Africa, where the native mind is thoroughly imbued with manistic conceptions.^ The various dances, the use of masks, bull-roarers, and similar devices, serve to facilitate this assimilation of the living and the dead and to endow the members of the societies with the various powers attributed to departed spirits. Such conceptions as these existing in a crude and undeveloped form in the most primitive mysteries, have expanded rapidly in those of the Melanesian and African peoples and serve to explain many of the phenomena connected with them.^ ^ This fact leads Mr. Codrington to suggest a connection of the southern Melanesian societies with the Dukduk of the Bismarck Archipelago. In the Banks Islands the name of the secret societies is ''The Ghosts''; in Santa Cruz a ghost is duka; in Florida, one of the New Hebrides, one method of consulting the ghosts is paluduka (Melanesians, 70). ^ The chief masquerader of the African societies is usually a per- sonification of the spirits or manes of the dead. UkukUj the name of a soci- ety in the Benito regions, signifies a de- parted spirit (Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 540). Egungun, among the Yorubas, is supposed to be a man risen from the dead. Every June a great feast is held in his honor, at which there is a general lamentation for all those who have died within the year (Ellis, The Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 107-108). The dead are regarded as still being members of Ekongolo, a society among the QuoUas (Buchner, Kamerun, 26). ^ To such beliefs, for instance, is probably due the common custom of the attendance at the funeral of a deceased member of the living mem- bers of a secret society headed by the masked figure who personates the presiding spirit. Among the Tamo of Bogadjim, Asa appears at a funeral to visit and mourn over the dead. When the dismal Asa music is heard in the distance, women flee in all directions; and the musicians, ap- proaching the corpse, paint it with various pigments and cover it with flowers. Then the horns are sounded once more and Asa departs (Hagen, Unter den Papua'' s, 259). The great Iniat society of New Pomerania assists at the burial of its members (Brown in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., viii, Melbourne, 1901, p. 312). Egungun and his companions always pay their respects to the relatives of a man recently deceased and receive messages for him (Baudin, Fetichism and Fetich Worshipers, 61; Ellis, The Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 108- 109). At the dances and festivals in honor of a dead man belonging to the order of Ekongolo, maskers of the order appear and dance about for nine days. Then Ekongolo returns to his house in the wood, but the family of the deceased must pay him at his departure (Buchner, Kamerun, 26). Whether or not the Melanesian societies conceal in their remoter depths a real religious worship, is a question at present impossible to answer, in view of our great ig- norance of the inner secrets of these organizations. All attempts to ar- rive at the religious significance of the mysteries have so far been baffled by CHAPTER VII FUNCTIONS OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES The operation of the various motives v^hich explains the formation of tribal societies explains also the assumption by them of various functions of an important nature. They arouse the universal sentiments of curiosity, fear, and awe; they surround themselves with that veil of mystery so attractive to primitive minds the world over, and they appeal with ever growing power to the social and convivial aspects of human nature, to feelings of prestige and ex- clusiveness, and to the consciousness of the very material privileges connected with membership. Under these cir- cumstances it is natural to find secret societies of the tribal type widespread among savage and barbarous peoples. By the side of the family and the tribe they provide another organization which possesses still greater power and cohe- sion. In their developed form they constitute the most inter- esting and characteristic of primitive social institutions. In communities destitute of wider social connections, such societies help to bring about a certain consciousness of fellow- ship and may often, by their ramifications throughout dif- ferent tribes, become of much political importance. African societies supply pertinent examples. Among the Korannas of South Africa, a fraternity exists whose initiates are marked the impenetrable reserve with which the natives have surrounded them. To Churchill, an initiated member of the Dukduk, the rehgious teachings appeared to be ''merely a rational- istic rehearsal of a creed of unbehef " (Popular Science Monthly, xxxviii, 1890, 242). Parkinson, after years of observation of the society, could find no traces of a religious cult (Im Bismarck-Archipely 129). As for the West African societies, one writer has associated with them "a mystic religion and belief in one God, a Creator from whom springs all life, and to whom death was but in some sort a return ..." (Marriott in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix, 1899, 27), but the evidence for this statement is not forthcoming. FUNCTIONS OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 107 by three cuts on the chest. Said one of their members to an inquirer: "'I can go through all the valleys inhabited by Korannas and by Griquas, and wherever I go, when I open my coat and show these three cuts, I am sure to be well received/ ^ After a Nkimba novice has acquired the secret language and has become a full member, he is called Mbwamvu anjata^ and the members in the other districts ''hail him as a brother, help him in his business, give him hospitality, and converse freely with him in the mystic language/^ ^ Those who belong to the Idiong of Old Calabar are thereby enabled to travel through the country without danger.^ Representatives of the Ukukuy a society found among the tribes in the Spanish territory north of Corisco Bay, sometimes "meet together and discuss intertribal difficulties, thereby avoiding war/^ ^ Mwetyiy who presides over the secret society of the Shekani and Bakele of French Congo, is always invoked as a witness to covenants between neighboring tribes. Such treaties are usually kept; other- wise Mwetyi would visit the violators and punish them.^ The Purrah of Sierra Leone was formerly a most effective instrument for preventing conflicts between the tribes; its deputations sent out to make peace were always respected.^ The society was organized with a headman in every district who presided over the local and subordinate councils. A grand council, managed by the Head Purrah man had jurisdiction over all the branches of the society.^ While the Purrah law was in force, no blood must be shed by con- tending tribes. Transgressors were punished by death. ^ In the absence of the stronger political ties afforded by the existence of a definite chieftainship, or where the chief ^ Holub in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., X (1880), 7. Members of the Purrah association among the Timanees of Sierra Leone are similarly indicated (Laing, Travels in Western Africa, 97). ^ Bentley, Dictionary and Gram- mar of the Kongo Language, 507. ^ Marriott in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 23. ^ Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 542; cf. Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 145. ^ Wilson, Western Africa, 392. ^ Harris in Mem. Anthrop. Soc, ii (1866), 32. ^ Winterbottom, Native Africans in the Neighborhood of Sierra Leone, \, 135-136. ^ Matthews, A Voyage to the River Sierra-Leone, 84-85. io8 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES is as yet endowed with little power, the secret societies assume or reenforce his functions of social control. Where the societies are still essentially tribal in character, and in their membership include nearly all the men of the tribe, such authority naturally centres itself in those who hold the higher degrees. Probably the earliest ruler is often only the individual highest in the secret society; his power derived from his association with it and his orders executed by it. Thus the control exercised by the New Pomerania chief- tains is immensely strengthened by the circumstance that such individuals are always high in the secrets of the Duk- duk. In some places the society seems to be largely under the power of the chiefs.^ The importance among Melane- sian peoples of the Suqe and Tamate of Banks Islands has always obscured the appearance of such power as the chiefs would be expected to exercise. Any man who was con- spicuous in his community would certainly be high in the degrees of these societies; and no one who held an insig- nificant place in them could have much power outside.^ With growing political centralization, the judicial and executive functions of the secret society may be retained ; and its members, as the personal agents of the ruling chief, may constitute the effective police of the state. Africa affords us instances of such societies in affiliation with the government. Members of the Sindungo order of Kabinda were originally secret agents of the king, and as such were employed to gather information and accuse powerful masters who were unjust to their inferiors.^ The king of the Bashi- lange-Baluba nation (Congo Free State) is ex-officio head of Lubuku} Belli'paaro among the Quojas of Liberia had the chief or king of the tribe at its head. Members were in close affiliation with the government.^ Such centralization of political power is not accomplished, however, without a ^ Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, 60; Weisser in Ausland, Ivi (1883), 857-858. ^ Codrington, Melanesians, 54. ^ Philips in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xvii (1888), 229. In Mekono, the Sindungo were known as the Em- pacasseiros, or soldiers of the king (Bastian, Die Deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Kiiste, i, 223). ^ Bateman, The First Ascent oj the K as at J 183. ^ Allgemeine Historic der Reisen (Leipzig, 1749), iii, 630. FUNCTIONS OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 109 struggle. These societies often put many restrictions upon the influence of the chiefs. Ogbont, among the Egbas of Yoruba, is more powerful than the king.^ The Nkimba fraternity likewise once formed a useful check to the greed and violence of the chiefs.^ Where these societies are powerful their members enjoy many privileges which are not granted their less fortunate tribesmen. In the Dukduk mysteries "everything which by the uninitiated is held as of particular obligation is here chanted as something that the initiated must rigidly impress upon the profane, yet which for themselves they may dis- regard. The tabu is to have no force for them except the great tabu^ with a flock of hair on it, and that they must not break through. All others they may transgress, if only they do it slily, and so as not to raise public scandal among the women and the others who are bound by its provisions. They must teach the uninitiated that there are malign spirits abroad by night, but they themselves need not believe anything so stupid. . . . One only belief do they profess, and that is in the spirit of the volcano-fires, and even that is discarded by the inner degree of the Dukduk^ those half- dozen men who sit within the mystic house and dupe the initiates of the minor degree as all unite to trick those out- side. And the reason is this: the half-dozen members of the most secret rank profess to one another that no better system of governing a savage community could be devised than this ceremonial mystery of the Dukduk,^^ ^ All the Tamate associations of the Banks Islands have as their particular badge a leaf of the croton or a hibiscus flower. To wear the badge without being a member of a Tamate society would subject the offender to a fine and a beating.^ A member of this society, by marking with his badge the fruit trees or garden which he wishes reserved for any par- ticular use, may be sure that his taboo will be respected; ^ Baudin, Fetichism and Fetich Worshipers, 63; Smith in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 25; Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 93. ^ Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, i, 283. ^ Churchill in Popular Science Monthly, xxxviii (1890), 242-243. ^ Codrington, Melanesians, 75-76. no PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES the great Tamate is behind him. Other prerogatives of the members in Melanesian societies include "the right to land in certain portions of the beach, which the uniniti- ated were prevented from doing save by the payment of a fine — the right of way along certain parts — and, above all, a share in the fines in food and money from their less- privileged fellow-countrymen or visitors/' ^ Pur- rah of Sierra Leone places its interdict "upon trees, streams, fishing-pots, fruit trees, oil palms, bamboo palms, growing crops, and in fact upon all and everything that is required to be reserved for any particular use/' ^ Privileges such as these readily pass over into a much more extended system of social control. Ruling chiefly by the mysterious terror they inspire, and providing for infractions of their laws the penalties of death or heavy fines, the tribal societies of Melanesia and Africa represent the most primitive efforts towards the establishment of law and order. They recall the Vehmgerichte which flourished in Westphalia in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, or the Vigilantes and White Caps of a more modern age. One of the most powerful of these organizations — the Dukduk of the Bismarck Archipelago — exhibits at once the good and bad features of the tribal society. In its judicial capacity it fully merits its description as an "inter- national Rechtsgesellschaft," providing in the midst of conditions, otherwise anarchical, some semblance of law and order. Where the Dukduk prevails, the natives are afraid to commit any serious felony. One observer describes the Dukduk as the administrator of law, judge, policeman, and hangman all in one.^ But the Dukduk conception of justice is not modelled on Ulpian's famous definition, for the Dukduk law bears down most unequally upon the weaker members of the community, upon those who for one reason or another have been unable to join the society or have incurred the enmity of its powerful associates. Its ^ Penny, Ten Years in Melan- ^ Powell, Wanderings in a Wild esia, 71. Country y 62 sq. ^ Alldridge, The Sherbro and its Hinterland, 133. FUNCTIONS OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES iii forced contributions impoverish those who are already poor, while those who are rich enough to join share in the profits of the mystery. The fraternity exhibits in the clearest light the culmination of that process of fraud and intimida- tion which, having its roots in the puberty institution, be- comes more and more prominent when the tribal society stage is reached. "There is,'' writes Mr. Romilly, who witnessed some Dukduk initiations, '^a most curious and interesting insti- tution, by which the old men of the tribe band themselves together, and, by working on the superstitions of the rest, secure for themselves a comfortable old age and unbounded influence. . . . The Dukduk is a spirit, which assumes a visible and presumably tangible form, and makes its appearance at certain fixed times. Its arrival is invariably fixed for the day the new moon becomes visible. It is announced a month beforehand by the old men, and is always said to belong to one of them. During that month great preparations of food are made, and should any young man have failed to provide an adequate supply on the occasion of its last appearance, he receives a pretty strong hint to the effect that the Dukduk is displeased with him, and there is no fear of his offending twice. When it is remembered that the old men, who alone have the power of summoning the Dukduk from his home at the bottom of the sea, are too weak to work, and to provide themselves with food or dewarra the reason for this hint seems to me pretty obvious. The day before the Dukduk's expected arrival the women usually disappear, or at all events remain in their houses. It is immediate death for a woman to look upon this unquiet spirit. Before daybreak every one is assembled on the beach, most of the young men looking a good deal frightened. They have many unpleasant experiences to go through during the next fortnight, and the Dukduk is known to possess an extraordinary famil- iarity with all their shortcomings of the preceding month. At the first streak of dawn, singing and drum-beating is heard out at sea, and, as soon as there is enough light to see them, five or six canoes, lashed together with a platform 112 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES built over them, are seen to be slowly advancing towards the beach/ Two most extraordinary figures appear dancing on the platform, uttering shrill cries, like a small dog yelp- ing. They seem to be about ten feet high, but so rapid are their movements that it is difficult to observe them carefully. However, the outward and visible form assumed by them is intended to represent a gigantic cassowary, with the most hideous and grotesque of human faces. The dress, which is made of the leaves of the draconcena^ cer- tainly looks much like the body of this bird, but the head is like nothing but the head of a Dukduk, It is a conical- shaped erection, about five feet high, made of very fine basket work, and gummed all over to give a surface on which the diabolical countenance is depicted. No arms or hands are visible, and the dress extends down to the knees. The old men, doubtless, are in the secret, but by the alarmed look on the faces of the others it is easy to see that they imagine that there is nothing human about these alarming visitors. As soon as the canoes touch the beach, the two Dukduks jump out, and at once the natives fall back, so as to avoid touching them. If a Dukduk is touched, even by accident, he very frequently tomahawks the unfor- tunate native on the spot. After landing, the Dukduks dance round each other, imitating the ungainly motion of the cassowary, and uttering their shrill cries. During the whole of their stay they make no sound but this. It would never do for them to speak, for in that case they might be recognized by their voices. Nothing more is to be done now till evening, and they occupy their time running up and down the beach, through the village, and into the bush, and seem to be very fond of turning up in the most unex- pected manner, and frightening the natives half out of their wits. During the day a little house has been built in the bush, for the Dukduks' benefit. No one but the old men knows exactly where this house is, as it is carefully concealed. Here we may suppose the restless spirit unbends to a certain ^ The coming of Ikun, the spirit representative of a Kamerun society, is also from the sea. The heads of the society go out to meet him in their canoes (Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 529). FUNCTIONS OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 113 extent, and has his meals. Certainly no one would venture to disturb him. In the evening a vast pile of food is col- lected, and is borne off by the old men into the bush, every man making his contribution to the meal. The Dukdukj if satisfied, maintains a complete silence; but if he does not think the amount collected sufficient, he shows his dis- approbation by yelping and leaping. When the food has been carried off, the young men have to go through a very unpleasant ordeal, which is supposed to prepare their minds for having the mysteries of the Dukduk explained to them at some very distant period. They stand in rows of six or seven, holding their arms high above their heads. When the Dukduks appear from their house in the bush, one of them has a bundle of stout canes, about six feet long, and the other a big club. The Dukduk with the canes selects one of them, and dances up to one of the young men, and deals him a most tremendous blow, which draws blood all round his body. There is, however, on the young man's part no flinching or sign of pain. After the blow with the cane he has to stoop down, and the other Dukduk gives him a blow with the club, on the ^tail,' which must be most unpleasant. Each of these young men has to go through this performance some twenty times in the course of the evening, and go limping home to bed. He will nevertheless be ready to place himself in the same position every night for the next fortnight. The time of a man's initiation may and often does last for about twenty years, and as the Duk- duk usually appears at every town six times in every year, the novice has to submit to a considerable amount of flog- ging to purchase his freedom of the guild. ^ Though I have never witnessed it, the Dukduk has the right, which he frequently exercises, of killing any man on the spot. He ^ The ceremonial, though hearty beating sometimes administered by old chiefs at a Dukduk dance to as many as twenty or thirty members of the society at once, seems to be an interesting survival of the earlier ordeals, and of the simulation of the death of the novices. The native explanation is that the people thus beaten are supposed to be killed (Brown in Jour. Roy, Geogr. Soc, xlvii (1877), 149; id., Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, new series, ix (1887), 17; id., Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., viii, Melbourne, 1901, 310). I 114 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES merely dances up to him, and brains him with a tomahawk or club. Not a man would dare dispute this right, nor would any one venture to touch the body afterwards. The Dukduks in such a case pick up the body, and carry it into the bush, where it is disposed of : how, one can only con- jecture. Women, if caught suddenly in the bush, are carried off, and never appear again, nor are any inquiries made after them. It is no doubt this power the Dukduks possess, of killing either man or woman with impunity, which makes them so feared. It is, above all things, neces- sary to preserve the mystery, and the way in which this is done is very clever. The man personating the Dukduk will retire to his house, take off his dress, and mingle with the rest of his tribe, so as not to be missed, and will put his share of food into the general contribution, thus making a present to himself. The last day on which the moon is visible the Dukduks disappear, though no one sees them depart; their house in the bush is burned, and the dresses they have worn are destroyed. Great care is taken to destroy everything they have touched, the canes and clubs being burned every day by the old men.'' ^ The Dukduk society also finds a fertile source of revenue in its exactions upon the women. In the Bismarck Archi- pelago, women have the full custody of their earnings and as they work harder than the men, they soon acquire consider- able property. The Dukduk '^offers a very good means of preventing unfair accumulation of wealth in the hands of the women.'' ^ If a woman sees the Dukduk masks, she is fined a certain quantity of dewarra. The Taraiuy or lodge, is always tabooed to women, and a fine of thirty to fifty dewarra is imposed upon the curious intruder.^ ^ Romilly, The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 27-33. ^ Graf V. Pfeil in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvii (1897), 185. ^ Parkinson, Im Bismarck-Archi- pel, 131. At Buka, one of the Sol- omon Islands, when the women see the spirit Kokorra, they throw away everything they may be carrying and rush for a safe retreat. Then the men who have been following in their wake, pick up the articles and take them to Talohu, or lodge (Parkinson in Abhandl. u. Berichte d. Kgl. Zoolog. u. Anthrop. -Ethnogr, Museums zu Dresden^ vii, 1899, no. 6, 10). FUNCTIONS OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 115 Many of the West African societies Miss Kingsley de- scribes as admirable engines of government; "the machine as a machine for the people is splendid ; it can tackle a tyrannous chief, keep women in order, and even regulate pigs and chickens, as nothing else has been able to do in West Africa." ^ As the African initiate passes from grade to grade, the secrets of the society are gradually revealed to him. "Each grade gives him a certain function in carry- ing out the law, and finally when he has passed through all the grades, which few men do, when he has finally sworn the greatest oath of all, when he knows all the society's heart's secret, that secret is 'I am what I am' — the one word. The teaching of that word is law, order, justice, morality. Why the one word teaches it the man who has reached the innermost heart of the secret society does not know, but he knows two things — one, that there is a law god, and the other that, so says the wisdom of our ancestors, his will must be worked or evil will come; so in his genera- tion he works to keep the young people straight — to keep the people from over-fishing the lagoons, to keep the people from cutting palm nuts, and from digging yams at wrong seasons. He does these things by putting Purrohy or Orw, or Egbo on them; Purrohy OrUy and Egbo and Idiong are things the people fear." ^ Egbo of Old Calabar, perhaps the best-developed of these societies, is divided into numerous grades. The highest of these grades is the Grand Egbo, whose head is the king of the country. Over the other grades preside chiefs who are called the kings of their particular Egbo. Each of the different grades has its Egbo day when the Idem, or spiritual representatives of Egbo, are in full control. When the yellow flag floats from the king's house, it is Brass Egbo day. Only those who belong to the very highest degrees may then be seen in the streets. During an Egbo visitation it would be death for any one not a member of the order to venture forth; even members themselves, if their grade is lower than that which controls the proceedings ^ West African Studies , 448. 2 Ihid.^ 449-450. ii6 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES for the day, would be severely whipped/ When a man "'meets the paraphernalia of a higher grade of Egbo than that to which he belongs, he has to act as if he were lame, and limp along past it humbly, as if the sight of it had taken all the strength out of him/^ ^ Though the society is in many cases an agent of much oppression, it seemingly does not lack its good side. It has jurisdiction over all crimes except witchcraft.^ Its procedure is especially interesting. A person "with a grievance in a district under Egbo has only to rush into the street, look out for a gentle- man connected with the Egho Society, slap him on the waist- coat place, and that gentleman has then and there at once to drop any private matter of his own he may be engaged in, call together the Grade of Egbo he belongs to — there are eleven grades of varying power — and go into the case. Or, if an Egbo gentleman is not immediately get-at-able, the complainant has only to rush to the Egbo House — there is one in every town — and beat the Egbo drum, and out comes the Egbo Grade, who have charge for that day." ^ The offender will then be promptly punished, or the com- plainant himself, if the offence be trivial.^ Calabar people who find it necessary to be absent on a journey, place their property under the protection of Egbo by fastening the badge of the society to their houses.^ A trader, whether a Euro- pean or an influential Effik, usually joins the society and endeavors to reach the higher degrees. Lower grades cannot call out Egbo to proceed against higher grades; debtors belonging to such classes "flip their fingers at lower grade creditors." But a trader can call out his own class ^ Hutchinson, Impressions of Western Africa, 141 sq.; Bastian, Rechtsverhdltnisse, 402 sq. ^ Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 533. 3 Ibid., 532. ^ Miss Kingsley, West African Studies, 384. ^ Hutchinson, op. cit., 142. ^ Bastian, op. cit., 404. The Temnes who have the Purrah in- stitution use the same method to give notice of the excommunication of an individual who has fallen under the displeasure of the society. A stick, at the top of which are fastened some leaves of grass, placed in the of- fender's yard, is a warning that he is not to leave his farm or have any- thing to do with his neighbors until the ban is removed (C. F. Schlenker, A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables, and Proverbs (London, 186 1), xiii-xiv). FUNCTIONS OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 117 of Egho "and send it against those of his debtors who may be of lower grades, and as the Egbo methods of dehvering its orders to pay up consist in placing Egbo at a man's door- way, and until it removes itself from that doorway the man dare not venture outside his house, it is most successful." ^ Other African societies exhibit functions similar to those of Egbo. Sindungo of the Loango tribes is employed for debt-collecting purposes. Any man who has a debt out- standing against another may complain to the head of the society. The masked Sindungo 2ire then sent out to demand payment. Their simple procedure consists in wholesale robbery of the debtor's property if the' proper sums are not immediately forthcoming.^ The Zangbeto of Porto Novo constitutes the night police. The young men of the upper class who compose the society have the right to arrest any one in town and out of doors after nine o'clock in the evening. The organization is a valuable safeguard against robberies and incendiary fires. ^ In Lagos, crimi- nals condemned to death are given over to Oro, who is said to devour the bodies; their clothes are afterwards found entangled in the branches of lofty trees. Sometimes the headless corpse of one of these unfortunates is left in the forest on the outskirts of the town; no one would dare to bury it.^ Ogboniy a powerful society in most parts of the Yoruba country, in Ibadan, is little more than the public executioner.^ Egungun and Belli-paaro have similar duties.^ Nkimba members employ themselves in ^ Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 532-533. ^ Bastian, Die Deutsche Expedi- tion an der Loango -Kiiste, i, 222-223. ^ Ellis, Ewe-Speaking Peoples, 178; Baudin, Fetichism and Fetich Worshipers, 62-63. So also the Ayaka society (Marriott in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix, 1899, 97). ^ Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 110; Baudin, op. cit., 62. ^ Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 94. ^ Baudin, op. cit., 61 ; Dapper, Description de VAfrique, 269. In New Mexico, the Zuni fraternity, called the Priesthood of the Bow, exercises judicial functions not unlike those of the African societies. All persons charged with murder or witchcraft are tried by this society. The accused conducts his own case. The prosecuting attorney is a member of the order appointed for this duty. The decision is reached in secret council. The prisoner, if found guilty, is executed privately (Gore in Trans. Anthrop. Soc. of Washington, i (1882), 87; Mrs. Stevenson in Memoirs of the International Con- ii8 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES catching witches. At night they fill the village with their cries as they run through the deserted streets. Common natives must not be caught outside the house, but despite this regulation, the simple folk ''rejoice that there is such an active police against witches, maladies, and all misfortunes." ^ The problem of maintaining masculine authority over the women is readily solved in Africa, where the secret societies are powerful. An account, by an old writer, of the famous Mumbo Jumbo order found among the Mandingoes of the Soudan, furnishes a good description of the procedure followed by numerous other societies : — "On the 6th of May, at Night, I was visited by a Mumbo Jumboy an Idol, which is among the Mundingoes a kind of cunning Mystery. It is dressed in a long Coat made of the Bark of Trees, with a Tuft of fine Straw on the Top of it, and when the Person wears it, it is about eight or nine Foot high. This is a Thing invented by the Men to keep their Wives in awe, who are so ignorant (or at least are obliged to pretend to be so) as to take it for a Wild Man; and indeed no one but what knows it, would take it to be a Man, by reason of the dismal Noise it makes, and which but few of the Natives can manage. It never comes abroad but in the Night-time, which makes it have the better EflFect. Whenever the Men have any Dispute with the Women, this Mumbo Jumbo is sent for to determine it; which is, I may say, always in Favour of the Men. Whoever is in gress of Anthropology (Chicago, 1894), 314). ^ Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo ^ i, 283. The most powerful of the West African societies are Purrah of Sierra Leone, Oru or Oro of Lagos, Yasi of the Igalwa of Southern Nigeria, Egho of Old Calabar, Ukuku of the Mpongwe, Ikun of the Bakele, and Lubuku of the Bachilangi (Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa y 526). The territory between Cape Blanco and Kam- erun includes the most important of these law-god societies; south of Kamerun there is no such domi- nant authority as Egbo of Calabar. In the Congo region the individual priests or Nganga Nkissi possess the judicial duties elsewhere assumed by the societies (Id., "African Rehgion and Law," National Re- view, XXX, 1897, 137). Miss Kings- ley notes that scattered over all the districts in which the law-god so- cieties are influential are sanctuaries which Hmit their power and provide veritable cities of refuge for a much- enduring people (West African Studies, 412). FUNCTIONS OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 119 the Coat, can order the others to do what he pleases, either fight, kill, or make Prisoner; but it must be observed, that no one is allowed to come armed into its Presence. When the women hear it coming, they run away and hide them- selves; but if you are acquainted with the Person that has the Coat on, he will send for them all to come and sit down, and sing or dance, as he pleases to order them; and if any refuse to come, he will send the People for them, and then whip them. Whenever any one enters into this Society, they swear in the most solemn manner never to divulge it to any Woman, or any Person that is not enter'd into it, which they never allow to Boys under sixteen Years of Age. This thing the People swear by, and the Oath is so much observed by them, that they reckon as irrevocable, as the Grecians thought Jove did of old, when he swore by the River Styx. . . . There are very few Towns of any Note but what have got one of these Coats, which in the Day- time is fixt upon a large Stick near the Town, where it continues till Night, the proper Time of using it.'' ^ Mungo Park, who witnessed the procedure of the society, adds that when a woman is to be punished for a real or suspected departure from the path of virtue, she "is stripped naked, tied to a post, and severely scourged with Mumbo's rod, amidst the shouts and derision of the whole assembly; and it is remarkable, that the rest of the women are the loudest in their exclamations on this occasion against their unhappy sister.'' ^ In the Yoruba villages Oro is the great bugbear god. The Ogboni society, whose members are the personal repre- sentatives of the god, use the bull-roarer, the voice of Oro, to keep the women in subjection. No woman may see the bull-roarer and live. Governor Moloney says, ^^I have seen even persons professing to be Christians awe-struck in its presence." ^ The presence of Oro in Yoruba towns brings about an enforced seclusion of women from seven ^ Moore, Travels into the Inland ^ Jour. Manchester Geogr. Soc.y v Parts of Africa, 116-118. (1889), 293. ^ Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, i, 59. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES o'clock in the evening until five o'clock in the morning.^ On the great Oro days w^omen must remain indoors from daybreak till noon.^ Egungun (literally Bones"), another Yoruba bugbear, is supposed to be a dead man risen from the grave. He is '^the w^hip and the cucking-stool apotheo- sized." Adult males know^ th3.t Egungun is a mortal, "but if a v^oman swears falsely by him, or even says that he is not a tenant of the grave, she v^ould lose her life." ^ Mwetyi and Nda of Southern Guinea tribes are similar creations of the secret societies to keep the women in subjection.^ ^ Mrs. Batty in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix (1889), 160. ^ Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, iii; cf. also Burton, Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains, i, 198. ^ Burton, op. cit., 196. ^ Wilson, Western Africa, 391-392. Some of the California Indians resort to the same devices and with most efjficacious results. Among the Pomo of Northern California, *^it seems to be almost the sole object of government to preserve them [the women] in proper subjection and obedience." By means of a great secret society with branch chapters in every part of the tribe, the dreadful Yukukula, or masked devil, who presides over its dehbera- tions, is enabled to impose the req- uisite scourgings and warnings upon the terrified women. The procedure is a faithful parallel of the more familiar African customs (Powers in Contributions to North American Ethnology, iii, 157 sq.). Similar societies are found among the Tatu, Gualala, and Patwin, other Northern CaHfornia tribes {ibid., 141, 193 sq., 225). In some instances the African women are powerful enough to form secret societies of their own, ob- viously modelled on those of the men. Njembe of the Mpongwe women of Southern Guinea counterparts the Nda of the men, and really succeeds in making itself feared by them (Wilson, op. cit., 396-397; Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land, i, 81-82; Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 250-263). The associated women who constitute the Devil Bush'' of the Vey people of Liberia are also able to prevent undue tyranny on the part of their husbands. If a man were unusually cruel to his wives, the matter would be brought to the at- tention of the Devil Bush'' and the offender, if adjudged guilty, would be poisoned. If the tribe decides to go to war, the declaration is first referred to the women (Penick, quoted in Jour. Amer. Folk -Lore, ix (1896), 221). The Bundu of the Sherbro Hinterland is an important organ- ization. It corresponds to the Pur- rah society, which belongs to the men. Yassi is another society of the women among both the Sherbro and Wendi tribes (for full descriptions, see Alldridge, The Sherbro and its Hinter- land, 136-152; Biittikofer, Reise- bilder aus Ltberia^ ii, 308-312). CHAPTER VIII DECLINE OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES The development of social life is necessarily associated with the decline of secret organizations of the type that has been described. With the growth of population, the rise of large communities, and the extension of social inter- course, there must come an increasing difficulty in keeping up the mystery on which depends the very life of such organizations. In place of such rude methods of social control as Dukduk or Egbo employs, other methods, adapted to wider ends, must come into existence. The establishment of the power of chiefs on a permanent and hereditary basis, the organization of existence on an agri- cultural foundation, making more numerous the necessaries of Hfe and reducing the advantages to be derived from membership in the societies, are factors which in their different ways contribute to the undermining of such crude institutions. The process of decline does not, however, follow everywhere along identical lines. When once the secrecy is dissipated, a simple collapse of the organizations may occur. In many cases the societies become merely social clubs, sometimes preserving a thin veil of secrecy over their proceedings as an additional attraction. Most frequently, however, a development has taken place, into what may be called for convenience of distinction, magical fraternities. The rise of such organizations will later be discussed in detail.^ The admission of women is characteristic of the disin- tegration of the secret societies and of their conversion into purely social clubs or magical fraternities. So far as known, * Infra, chap. ix. 121 122 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES the women are still rigorously excluded from the Melanesian associations, but in Africa, Polynesia, and North America we find some examples either of their partial or complete admission. In the Elung, a secret society of Kamerun, the wife of the head of the society is a member.^ In con- nection with Egbo there is an affiliated society of free women and a slave society, both being in distinct subordination.^ Women, though not allowed to attend Egbo meetings, are now permitted to buy the Egbo privileges.^ Idiong or Idion^ an Old Calabar society, is open only to Egbo members and to women. ^ The head of the woman's secret society is present at the meetings of the Purrah of Sierra Leone. She may not speak and is supposed to be invisible to all but the chief of the Purrah, When she dies, he buries her.^ In some cases, a woman may be made a member of the order; she is then allowed certain broad privileges, and is not regarded henceforth, as of the female sex.^ From this partial and restricted admission of women it is only an additional step to their general admission under the same conditions as those required of the men. The result is such a society as the Lubuku of certain African tribes on the Lulua river, now primarily a social organiza- tion and only indirectly of political importance. Women are admitted as freely as men. The initiatory rites, it is said, violate all decency."^ Ndembo of the upper Congo tribes closely resembles Lubuku, Not only both sexes, but candidates of all ages, are admitted.^ The great Areoi society, in its ramifications widespread throughout Polynesia, admitted women, but their numbers were much less than those of the male initiates.^ In the American fraternities women are frequently members. Sometimes they imitate the men and have secret organiza- ^ Buchner, Kamerun, 26. ^ Miss Kingsley, West African Studies J 384. ^ Hutchinson, Impressions of West- ern Africa, 143. ^ Marriott in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 23. ^ Miss Kingsley, West African Studies, 452. ^ Alldridge, The Sherbro and its Hinterland, 132-133. ' Bateman, The First Ascent of the Kasat, 183-184. ^ Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, \, 284. ^ Infra, p. 164. DECLINE OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES tions of their own. The admission of women is here also doubtless a late development. In the Omaha fraternities they are admitted only through the vision of their male relatives. Women may pass through the various degrees of the Midewiwin of the Ojibwa and the Mitawit of the Menomini, but their duties in the ceremonials are strictly subordinate.^ The Wacicka fraternity, the principal or- ganization among the Omahas, Winnebagos, and Dakotas, closely resembles the Midewiwin, Only chiefs and their immediate relatives of both sexes could be members. Ac- cording to one account, the society "tended to concupis- cence." ^ The female members of the Hopi Snake fraternity do not take part in the public Snake Dance, "but join the society and offer their children for initiation as a protection against rattle-snake bites and for the additional benefit of the invocations in the Kiva per- formances." ^ Among the Sia Indians, women are admitted to all the fraternities except the organizations called Snake and Cougar, or Hunters and Warriors.^ All Zuni boys must be initiated into the Kokko ; but entrance is optional for girls. A girl "must never marry if she joins the Kokko^ and she is not requested to enter this order until she has arrived at such age as to fully understand its grave respon- sibilities and requirements." ^ At the present time the most effective cause of the decline of the secret societies is the steady encroachment of the civilizing agencies introduced by traders and missionaries. In the islands of Torres Straits and of Melanesia, the in- fluence of the missionaries is always aimed at the destruc- tion of ceremonies which constitute the heart of the native beliefs. As the German traders in the Bismarck Archi- pelago press inland, and the dark places of the islands are opened up to commerce and civilization, the great Dukduk ^ Hoffman in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 223; id., Fourteenth Ann. Rep., 102-103. ^ Dorsey in Third Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.y 343. ^ Fewkes in Nineteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. EthnoL, 979. ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Eleventh Ann, Rep. Bur. EthnoL, 75. ^ Id., Fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 540. 124 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES society retires steadily before them, and its ceremonies and privileges are sold by the chiefs to the tribes of the interior/ Similarly the bitterest opponents of missionary enterprise in Africa are the secret societies, where these are powerful. The famous Areoi society of Tahiti and other Polynesian islands long waged a severe, but in the end, ineffectual struggle against the missionaries who arrived in the islands near the end of the eighteenth century. In North America the decline of the magical fraternities is everywhere associated with the advent of the whites. De- generation seems to be complete, when, for instance, propo- sitions are entertained for the production as a spectacular show of the Snake Dance of the Hopi Indians.^ Where the tribal societies succeed in surviving any very decided advance in the general civilization of the com- munity, their tendency is to become the strongholds of con- servatism and resistance to outward change. As such they often develop into powerful organizations and assume im- portant political functions. The Kakian association among the Melanesian aborigines of Western Ceram is an illustra- tion. The Kakiauy once a tribal society of the familiar type, now stands for the old customs of the people and for opposition to all foreign influences. By the freemasonry existing between the numerous and widely scattered lodges, it long remained an important obstacle to the progress of the Dutch in Ceram. ^ In his study of Nagua- Itsruy Dr. Brinton has laid bare the existence of a secret association, extending over the greater part of Southern Mexico and Guatemala. At the opening of the eighteenth century it was a most potent force in resisting the Spanish advance. The society was of an ancient character, dating, indeed, back to the period of barbarism; but after the Spanish conquest of Mexico it became political in its aims, and its members were inspired by two ruling sentiments — ^ Graf V. Pfeil in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvii (1897), 190-191. ^ Fewkes in Nineteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer, Ethnol., 978. ^ Bastian, Idonesien, part i, 145- 147; Joest in Verhandl. Berlin. Gesells. f. Anthrop. Ethnol. u. Urge- schichte (1882), 64-65; Schulze, ibid. (1877), 117. DECLINE OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 125 detestation of the Spaniards and hatred of the Christian rehgion. This '^Eleusinian mystery of America" was organized in a number of degrees, through which candi- dates rose by solemn and often painful ceremonies. One of the practices consisted in the use of a sacred intoxicant, peyotl^ prized as casting the soul into the condition of hypo- static union with divinity. A fundamental doctrine was the belief in a personal guardian spirit (nagual) into which by various rites of a phallic character the members of the society were supposed to be metamorphosed/ Like the Kakian, the society was very probably an outgrowth of earlier puberty institutions.^ The decline of the old tribal societies is associated both in Melanesia and Africa, with the rise of numerous local and ^ D. G. Brinton, *'Nagualism. A Study in Native American Folk- lore and History,'' Proc. Amer, Philos. Soc, xxxiii (1894), 11-69. 2 Were we in possession of suffi- cient information, it might be possible to substantiate the hypothesis that many of the Chinese secret societies exhibit the same origin and course of development as those of more primi- tive peoples. We know that as secret societies they may be referred to a period long prior to the amalgama- tion of the country under a single crown. Beginning in the old tribal organization, and possessing civil functions of various sorts, they have long proved a serious barrier to the constant encroachments of the central government, and to the introduction of all foreign customs. The recent uprising in China, fomented by the so-called ^'Boxers," has directed attention to this particular society with the result of some increase in our knowledge concerning it. Though there is much in the rites that requires clarification, it appears that the in- itiates are children of twelve to fifteen years of age, who by the Chinese custom are sufficiently old to marry. Moreover, the cere- monies attending entrance are de- signed to bring about those condi- tions of hysteria and hyperaesthesia met with so frequently in puberty rites. By the repetition of words supposed to act as charms and by violent contortions of the body the candidates are thrown into a trance state, during which they deliver to the bystanders occult messages. ^'It is certain that in addition to much other mythology the movement in- volves the idea of a revelation, and there is ground for supposing that the revelation is somehow or other con- nected with the institution of mar- riage. ..." (Candlin, ^'The As- sociated Fists," Open Courts xiv, 1900, 551-561.) For further data which tend to confirm the theory here advanced, see Matignon, ^'Hys- teric et Boxeurs en Chine," Revue Scientifique, fourth series, xv (1901), 302-304. On the political powers exercised by the Chinese societies, see Courant, '^Les Associations en Chine," Annates des Sciences Poli- tiqueSj xiv (1899), 68-94; Saturday Review, Ixxii (1891), 331 sq.; Cordier, ^'Les Societes Secretes Chinoises," Rev. d^Ethnographie, vii (1888), 52- 72, with a bibliographical note. 126 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES temporary societies, generally secret, but specialized, so to speak, for the performance of various functions. Some- thing like a division of labor then takes place. Of the societies in the New Britain group (Bismarck Archipelago), Mr. Brown writes that in one a candidate '^was taught how to curse his enemies in the most telling manner ; in another, how to prepare love philters for his own use, or for the use of those who paid him for them ; in another, he was shown the secrets of Agagara^ or witchcraft, and taught how easy it was to make a man sicken and die just as he pleased. He was taught how to make new dances and how profitably he could sell them to other towns." ^ In Melanesia, these societies are now very easily formed; in the Banks and Torres Islands, for example, besides the three or four im- portant societies common to all the group, there are many local associations. These are generally named after birds and may be considered modern. ^^Any one might start a new society, and gather round him his co-founders, taking any object that might strike their fancy as the ground and symbol of their association." ^ The same is true of the African societies. The negro, according to Miss Kingsley, ''gets up one for any little job he has on hand; it's his way, like the Chinaman's. Some of the African secret societies are good, some bad, some merely so-so; some are equivalent to your Freemasonry, some to your Hooligan gangs, some to your Antediluvian Buffaloes and Ancient Shepherds, some to your Burial clubs." ^ Many of these African secret societies seem at present to have their reason for existence purely in the native love of mystery. Some have undoubtedly been founded for common pro- tection and mutual aid. The order of Manganga affords an instance of this sort. In Kamerun, where Egbo and other secret societies had become engines of wholesale plunder and robbery, the slaves, in reprisal, established this new order for their own benefit. Its members acknowl- ^ Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., ^ West African Studies, 448. Cf. vii (Sidney, 1898), 781. also A. G. Leonard, The Lower Niger ^ Codrington, Melanesians, 76. and its Tribes (London, 1906), 323- 325. DECLINE OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES edge no allegiance to any other society. One of the chief provisions of the society is that initiates shall be opposed to the chiefs in everything.^ The terrible Leopard and Alligator societies common to the coast from Sierra Leone to the Niger, Miss Kingsley regards as always distinct from the tribal secret societies, such as Egbo and Tasiy^ but Dr. Nassau, a most competent observer, identifies the tribal societies of the Corisco coast (French Congo) v^ith the Leopard societies.^ It seems probable that the cannibalism and murder associated with these organizations are of recent accretion. In all cases, men go in for both the Leopard and the tribal societies.^ In some cases the tribal societies degenerate into pure impostures, destitute of all social utility, maintained solely by fraud, and liable to speedy dissolution once the secrets are revealed. The Matambala of Florida was undermined by the free admission into the Banks Island lodges of Florida boys, who thus learned what impostures the secrets really were. The introduction of Christianity completed the process of degeneration; "the man who knew how to sacrifice to Stko became a Christian, the sacred precincts were explored, bull-roarers became the playthings of the boys, and the old men sat and wept over the profanation and their loss of power and privilege." ^ But institutions which form so conspicuous an element of tribal life do not as a rule pass away rapidly, or fail to leave behind them some evidence of their former power. Melanesia, again, affords some instructive illustrations of clubs which are obvious outgrowths of the earlier tribal societies. Indeed, it is difficult to distinguish the two except . ^ Hutchinson, Ten Years^ Wan- derings among the Ethiopians (Lon- don, 1861), 4 sq.; id. J Impressions of Western Africa , 144 sq. ^ Travels in West Africa, 536. 3 Ihid., 540, 542. ^ Ibid., 536. See also Leonard, The Lower Niger and its Tribes, 324. On the Human Leopards of Sierra Leone, now stamped out by the British government, see Alldridge in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 26-27; more fully in The Sherbro and its Hinterland, 153- 159- ^ Codrington, op. cit., 99; cf. the account by the Rev. Alfred Penny, to whose missionary labors the downfall of many of the societies is due {Ten Years in Melanesia, 70-72). 128 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES by the fact that the members of the clubs have discarded all the paraphernalia necessary to keep up the supposed association with the ghosts. The Tamate of Banks Islands, formerly a powerful society, has survived the introduction of Christianity and exists to-day as such a club. "The secrecy of the lodges is still maintained, the salagoro is unapproachable by women and the uninitiated, the neophyte has still to go through his time of probation and seclusion, and the authority of the society is maintained by too much of the high-handed tyranny of old times." ^ The salagoroy or lodge, is usually established in some secluded place near the village. Here the members lounge about during the day and often take their meals. ^ Newly admitted members must prepare the food for cooking and keep the salagoro swept. The lodge itself '^affords a corivenient and some- what distinguished resort in the heat of the day." ^ Some Melanesian clubs are exclusive, require heavy entrance fees, and are used only by older men of good social position; others are cheap and easy of entrance. The social status of a native, writes Mr. Codrington, ''depends very much upon his membership of the most important of these clubs; an outsider could never be a person of con- sequence; a man of good social position would think it his duty to secure the same position for his son by entering him early in the clubs to which he himself belonged." ^ At Meli, one of the New Hebrides, there are six ranks or grades of social position attained by fulfilling various re- quirements and especially by the slaughter of pigs. The lat- ter, though sacrificed to the gods, are eaten by the members of the different grades. As long as a man eats with the women, the word Nahor is aifixed to his name. When he sacrifices a pig, he assumes the grade of Merih, With the sacrifice of another pig he steps into higher rank and becomes a Dangur, If a youth has a rich father who can afford to sacrifice pigs in quick succession, his passage from the lowest to the highest grades is much accelerated. How- * Codrington, Melanesians, 74. 2 Ihid., 77. 3 Ihid., 82. * Ihid.y 92. DECLINE OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES ever, the members of the advanced degrees, and above all the chiefs, understand how to hinder the rise of candidates not personally acceptable to them. If a man is too poor to sacrifice a pig, he must remain a Nahor and eat v^ith the women. The different classes are practically clubs whose members eat separately and have little intercourse with those of higher or lower rank.^ At Malekula, another of the New Hebrides, the usual initiation rites are still retained, but the four degrees in which the secret society is divided, — Bara, Gulguly Mai, and Mara, — are rigidly separated from one another. No member of one of these degrees may eat food with a member of any other or even cook it at the same fire. To become a Bara or to attain any higher degree, a man prepares a festival at which he sets up a femes, a carved and painted fern tree, to repre- sent one of his ancestors, kills two to ten pigs, and assumes the new name appropriate to the degree he has reached.^ In the Suqe found throughout the Banks Islands and the Northern New Hebrides, we have a remarkable example of an association existing as a club in the midst of numerous secret societies, and apparently unconnected with them. Its only secrecy appears to be at the initiation of new members, though women are strictly excluded. The society is divided into degrees, and the passage through them is a long and very expensive process. Nearly all the natives are entered as boys into the society, but only a few get to the middle rank and beyond. "In the Banks Island stories the poor lad or orphan who becomes the Fortunate Youth rises to greatness by the Suqe; he takes the highest grade in this instead of marrying the king's daughter.'* ^ A place in the society not only carried with it social honor in this life; a member of the Suqe was highly honored after death and was sure of a happy lot in the next world. As one native said, "^The reason for Suqe is this, that hereafter when a man comes to die, his soul may remain in that place Panoi; but if any one should die who has not killed a pig, ^ Baessler, Siidsee-Bilder, 203-205. Adv. Sci., iv (Sidney, 1893), 704- ^ Leggatt in Rep. Austr. Assoc. 705. ^ Codrington, op. cit., 103. K 130 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES his soul will just stay on a tree, hanging for ever on it like a flying fox. ' ^ The society was widely extended, for we are told that the rank and titles obtained by membership "not only hold good in the man's own village, but are recognized in all the surrounding settlements and islands which happened not to be at war with his native place/' ^ The voluntary associations of the North American Indians aff^ord another illustration of the tendency towards the formation of limited and local organizations somewhat similar to the Melanesian clubs. But, unlike the latter, they are usually non-secret in character, and moreover their membership frequently includes women. Such as- sociations are not of necessity either ancient or permanent. They are social rather than religious associations, formed by the inclusion of individuals from the different clans of the tribe without respect to the totemic groupings. Their members are usually designated by marks and paintings distinct from those which indicate the clan totems. Their organization indicates an origin in conditions similar to those which give rise to the degrees of the secret societies generally — in the natural grouping together of men of the same age who have similar duties and interests in life. In Australia and Africa, the various age groupings are little more than the degrees into which the tribe, as a secret as- ^ Codrington, op. cit., 112. 2 H. Meade, A Ride through the Disturbed Districts of New Zealand, together with Some Account of the South Sea Islands (London, 1870), 266. Though we have no positive evidence on the subject, it is quite possible to regard the Suqe as for- merly a great tribal society which arose, like the Dukduk and Tamate of these islands, on the basis of the primitive puberty institution. Throw- ing off the mask of pretended as- sociation with the ghosts, it became in time what is now practically a great club embracing all the men in its membership. The manner of entering the Suqe presents some analogies to tribal initiation rites. The candidate must have his in- troducer or sponsor, his mother's brother ordinarily, who reminds us of the guardian uncles at the initia- tory rites of the Torres Straits islanders. The candidate is confined in the Gamal, or men's house, and is required to fast sometimes for five days before being admitted. The striking resemblance of the Suqe, in both organization and character, to the Areoi society of Tahiti and other Polynesian islands, on the connection of which with earlier puberty in- stitutions we have more decisive evidence {infra, i6/\ sq.) serves to con- firm this hypothesis. For an in- teresting description of the Suqe, see Codrington, op. cit., 101-115. DECLINE OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES 131 sociation composed of initiated men, is divided. In North America, these degrees are more clearly defined and have assumed a separateness and distinctiveness which entitles them to rank as quasi-independent societies. The decline among the American Indians, of the primitive tribal organiza- tion consisting of all initiated men, leads to the belief that these voluntary societies represent a stage of development similar to that manifested by club formations elsew^here. The dropping of all secrecy, the admission of women, and the easy formation of new societies on the old models would then be explained as in Melanesia, where the formation of clubs from the secret societies is most clearly exhibited. Such associations, numerous among many of the tribes of the Central West often exert great influence upon both the internal and external affairs of an Indian community. Age societies are to be found among nearly all of the Siouan tribes. The Mandans had six orders for the men as well as four for the women. Entrance into the first order was usually purchased for a candidate by his father, a custom which presents an interesting parallel to the Melanesian practice. The dances of the different classes were fundamentally the same, though to each one was attached a different song and sometimes particular steps. ^ The Crow Indians had eight of these societies.^ The Hidatsa Indians had at least three societies for the men, each with its own songs, dances, and ceremonies, besides corresponding societies for the women. ^ The Akitcita among the Assiniboin tribes was an organiza- tion of men between twenty-five and forty-five years of age. Its members served as soldiers and policemen and were intrusted with the execution of the decisions of the tribal council. Young men, women, and children might not enter the lodge of the society when tribal matters were under ^ Maximilien de Wied-Neuwied, Voyage dans VInterieur de VAmeri- que du Nord (Paris, 1841), ii, 408- 415. For the legend of the origin of the societies, see ibid.^ ii, 433-434. ^ Maximilien de Wied-Neuweid, op. cit., ii, 36. ^ Matthews in United States Geo- logical and Geographical Survey^ Miscellaneous Publications y no. vii (Washington, 1877), 47, 153, 155- 156, 189, 192, 197. 132 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES consideration.^ The Omaha society of Poogthun was one of the oldest in the tribe. Chiefs only were eligible. The leader was he who could count the greatest number of valiant deeds. A man must keep up his war record to maintain a place in the order. The songs of the society served as tribal archives, for they preserved the names and deeds of the Omaha heroes.^ The Haethuska society was more democratic ; only a valiant war record was neces- sary for admission and promotion. Other societies were numerous, each of which had its special dance. Thus there was the "Dance of those expecting to die." Members of the society with this dance "always go prepared to meet the enemy and to fall in battle.'' Those who had the "Make-no-flight dance," vow not to flee from a foe. Only very brave men could participate in the "Dance in which buffalo head-dresses were put on. Those who were only a little brave could not dance." The Mandan dance came to the Omahas from the Ponkas, who in turn had learned it from the Dakotas. This was celebrated as a bravery dance over the bodies of warriors who had fallen in battle. "None but aged men and those in the prime of life belong to this society. All are expected to behave themselves, to be sober, and refrain from quarrelling and fighting among themselves." The Tokolo was a bravery society for the younger men. Quarrelling was prohibited among the members. "Two men who do not fear death are the leaders in the dance." ^ Among the Kiowas each of the six orders making up the organization called Tapahe^ or Warriors, has its own dance, songs, insignia, and duties. "The members were first enrolled as boys among the 'Rabbits,' and were afterward promoted, according to merit or the necessities of war, in regular progression to higher ranks. Only a few, however, ever attained the highest ^ Dorsey in Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 224-225. ^ Miss Fletcher in Archceological and Ethnological Papers of the Pea- body Museum, i (Cambridge, 1893), 23; id., Indian Song and Story from North America, 4, 8, 13. ^ Dorsey in Third Ann. Rep. Bur, Ethnol, 352-355; S. H. Long, Ac- count of an Expedition from Pitts- burgh to the Rocky Mountains (Phil- adelphia, 1823), i, 207-208. DECLINE OF TRIBAL SOCIETIES order, that of the Kaitsenko. Almost every able-bodied man was enrolled." ^ The Blackfoot Ikunuh- kahtsi^ or "all comrades/' consisted of a dozen or more secret classes graded according to age, "the whole con- stituting an association which was in part benevolent and helpful, and in part military, but whose main function was to punish offences against society at large. All these societies were really law and order associations." ^ Among the tribes of Algonquian stock, noticeably the Cheyennes ^ and the Arapaho/ age societies were numerous and distinct. Among the Arapaho whose ceremonies were typical of those practised by other Plains tribes, the most sacred and important dances were grouped under the general title Bayaawu. This consisted, first, of the Sun Dance, and, second, of a series of dances and ceremonials performed by members of the various age societies. In the Sun Dance men of any age or ceremonial affiliations might participate. The dancers had no characteristic regalia and were all of the same degree or rank.^ The ceremonies of the age societies differed materially from those of the Sun Dance. They covered the entire period of manhood, from youth to old age ; each society, moreover, had its own name and organization and there was no fasting or torture as in the Sun Dance. A further difference was found in the fixed and elaborate regalia required for each of the ceremonies.^ The members of each society who took part in the dances pertaining to it were instructed by the ^ Mooney in Seventeenth Ann. The Plains of the Great West, 266- Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 229-230. 267. ^ Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, ^ Hayden, op. cit., 325-326; 220-221. On the Blackfoot age Mooney in Fourteenth Ann. Rep. societies, see also Maximilien de Bur. Ethnol., 986-990; Kroeber Wied-Neuwied, op. cit., ii, 213-216; in Bull. Amer. Mus. JSfat. Hist., and Maclean in Trans. Canadian xviii, part ii, 151 sq. Inst., iv (1895), 255 (age distinctions ^ Kroeber, op. cit., 152. of the Blood Indians, a branch of ^ For the legend of the formation the Alberta Blackfoot tribes). of the Bayaawu, see Dorsey and ^ Hayden in Trans. Amer. Philos. Kroeber, ^'Traditions of the Arap- Soc, new series, xii (1863), 281; aho," Publications of the Field Dyer, quoted in Ann. Rep. Smith- Columbian Museum, Anthropological sonian Inst, for 188^, part ii Series, v (1903), 13 sq. (Washington, 1886), 93; Dodge, PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES older men who had been through the ceremonies and who were called the dancers' grandfathers. These men again, and the entire set of ceremonial dances belonging to the different societies, were under the direction of the seven old men who constituted the sixth society.^ ''These seven old men embodied everything that was most sacred in Arapaho life. They directed all the lodges. The actual part they played in these consisted chiefly of directing the grand- fathers, often only by gestures. The grandfathers, in turn, instructed the dancers. This oldest society is there- fore said to contain all the others. Every dance, every song, and every action of the lodges was performed at the direction of these old men.'' ^ ^ Kroeber in Bull. Amer. Mus, ^ Ibid.j 207-208. Nat. Hist., xviii, part ii, 155. CHAPTER IX THE CLAN CEREMONIES Tribal secret societies, such as those of Melanesia and Africa, arise, as we have seen, through what has been de- scribed as a process of gradual shrinkage of the original puberty institution in which, after initiation, all men of the tribe are members. At the beginning the tribe is itself the secret association. But with the gradual limitation of membership, and especially with the reservation of the upper ranks in these associations to the more powerful members of the tribe, such as the heads of totems, the shamans, and the richer and more prominent men generally, secret socie- ties of the familiar type emerge. In many instances such societies retain something of their originally democratic organization in that entrance to the lower degrees is still customary for every man at puberty. These societies, moreover, come to perform functions of an important nature. Their judicial and political duties appear to be at this stage of development the most striking and impressive feature of the organizations, and have naturally attracted most attention. With the centralization of political power, func- tions of this nature are gradually superseded by more effec- tive methods of social control. The formal initiation of lads into manhood, once an important duty of these orders, is abandoned or its tribal purpose is much altered. The secret societies then pass out of existence or decline into purely social clubs. In some instances, however, it is possible to discover the secret societies surviving as organizations of priests and shamans, in whose charge are the various dramatic and magical rites of the tribe. Of this phase of their existence 135 136 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES illustrations from Melanesia, Africa, and other regions are not wanting. When we turn to the secret associations so numerous among the Indian tribes of North America, we find little evidence of the political and judicial duties assumed by similar associations elsewhere. Nor is the connection with the primitive puberty institution so manifest as in Africa or Melanesia. Traces there are of earlier initiatory rites at puberty, but the development of the secret societies has been in general along lines which, so far as our observa- tion reaches, do not closely parallel the stages passed through in other parts of the world. The outcome, however, of this development has been the creation in every tribe of numerous fraternities whose dramatic and magical rites reproduce with remarkable fidelity those practised by the secret societies of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Africa. This close resemblance, as dramatic and magical corpora- tions, between the secret organizations of such widely separated peoples, renders an investigation of its origin imperative. That origin is to be found, it is believed, in the fact that primitive secret associations, whether in the form of the puberty institution as among the Australians, the tribal society as among Melanesian and African peo- ples, or the fraternity as developed by the North Ameri- can Indians, everywhere exhibit the characteristics of the original clan organization which underlies them. Initiation ceremonies of the refinement and complexity that has been described could hardly have developed in that earlier stage of human aggregation when there were no real tribes, — no large associations occupying well- defined localities, all of whose members considered them- selves as units in one organization. That tribal solidarity of which initiatory ceremonies are the recognition is not a primitive development. Tribal initiation ceremonies pre- suppose the tribe. Yet their beginnings must be sought in a stage of development of human society more remote than that of the tribe; in a word, in the primitive totemic clan itself. Initiation into the tribe must have been pre- ceded by some form of initiation into the clan. When in process of time various clans unite to form tribal aggregates, THE CLAN CEREMONIES 137 ceremonies of initiation as well as the dramatic and magical rites of the separate clans are transferred to the newly formed tribe. Where the puberty institutions still retain their primitive vigor, as among the Australians and New Guinea tribes, the original clan ceremonies are clearly seen underlying the existing tribal rites. Where, from the puberty institutions, secret societies of more or less limited member- ship have arisen, as in Melanesia and Africa, we shall find in these organizations fewer traces of the antecedent clan structure. Disintegration of the clans has there been largely accomplished. In the fraternities of the North American Indians, on the other hand, the clan structure underlying the organizations is still, in a number of instances, plainly perceptible. The rise of secret societies in their developed form appears, in fact, to be invariably associated with the decline of the totemic clans. In many instances the formation of these societies, enrolling their members from all parts of the tribe, irrespective of clan ties, must contribute powerfully to the disintegration of the clan structure. Such societies, furnishing a mode of organiza- tion which unites the members of the tribe more firmly than the earlier totemic arrangements, are thus at once a contributing cause of the decline of the clans and the neces- sary outcome of that decline. A study of the clan organiza- tion underlying the tribal initiation ceremonies of some primitive peoples will exhibit two important truths for our future study; namely, the means by which clan rites are passed over into those of the tribe, and second, the nature of those rites which are associated with the primitive totemic clan. Among the tribes of Eastern Australia, it is the general rule that at the Borasy or meetings for initiation purposes, all divisions of the tribe shall be present. The same rule prevails where several tribes by intermarriage come to form a community. Invitations to attend the Bora meeting are sent out to all the divisions of the tribe, or to all the tribes comprising a community. Among the Kamilaroi, for ex- ample, when it has been decided to institute a Bora the head- man of a tribe, to which at a previous inaugural gathering 138 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES this honor of holding the next Bora has been assigned,^ sends out a messenger, always an individual of some impor- tance,^ to give the requisite notice to the tribes which are to be present at the ceremonies. He proceeds from tribe to tribe, carrying the sacred bull-roarer or some other equally significant token of his office,^ and makes a complete circuit of the community.^ Should the Bora ceremonies be confined to one tribe, the same care is manifested to invite all the local groups, scattered as they may be over a wide territory. By such proceedings, the tribal or inter- tribal character of the Bora meetings is clearly indicated. Another important characteristic comes out in these pro- ceedings. Australian tribes are divided into two inter- marrying moieties, sections, or ''classes." Among most of the Eastern tribes these ''classes'^ are the exogamous totemic clans. One totemic ''class" summons the other to initiation. The messengers must be of the same totem as the headman who sends them out.^ Moreover, the head- man to whom the message is sent must be of the same totem as the original sender. The message travels through the community, being carried by the headman of one totem and being then communicated by him to the principal men of the different totems which form the local groups. The community which then assembles for initiation purposes ^ Among the Coast Murring, the call is sent out either on the initiative of one of the principal men of the tribe or in response to the decision of the inner council of the heads of totems (Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst. J xiii, 1884, 438). ^ Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxviii (1894), 107. ^ Mathews in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvi (1897), 324. ^ Sometimes it happens that the headman of the first tribe visited, upon receiving the notice sends his own messenger to the headman of a second tribe, who in like manner transmits it to a third, and so on until all the tribes are invited (id.. Jour. ♦ and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxi, 1897, 120). In a some- what similar way and for the same purpose, when the ceremonies of the Grand Medicine Lodge of the Me- nomini Indians are to be held, the chief priest of the society sends out a courier with a message stick to deliver to each member an invitation to at- tend (Hoffman in Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. EthnoL, 70-71). ^ This rule is occasionally broken for reasons of special weight (Mathews in Amer. Anthropologist, ix (1896), 330; id., Jour. An- throp. Inst., XXV, 1896, 322). THE CLAN CEREMONIES 139 is made up of the two exogamous totemic divisions of the tribe or tribes. Thus one totemic moiety summons the other to the Bora ceremonies.^ The actual ceremonies of initiation further recognize this underlying clan organization. Formerly, we may suppose, before the segmentation of a clan or the consolidation of diifferent clans proceeded so far as to form tribal aggregates connected by the practice of exogamy, a boy entering upon manhood was initiated by his own clansmen. But it is characteristic of these Australian ceremonies in their present aspect that the actual initiation of the youth is in charge of the totemic moiety of the tribe from which, as an initi- ated man, he will be allowed to choose his wife. In other words, at the Boras those in charge of the lads are their real or potential brothers-in-law.^ The care of the novice during the ceremonies rests always with m,en of the (totemic) moiety opposite to his own.^ The reason for this arrange- ment becomes evident when it is remembered that the principal purpose of the initiatory rites among the Aus- tralian natives is to prepare the lads for marriage. The strict regulations under which marriage is permitted, and ^ This same principle prevails where the earher totemic organiza- tion has broken down and paternal descent has arisen, as among the Kurnai of Victoria. Here the tribe # is organized by local classes and the call for initiation is sent from local class to local class in the different tribes (Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 433 sq.; id., Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci.j iii (Sidney, 1891), 344 sq.; id., Native Tribes of South-East Australia, ^12 \ Mathews in Jour. Anthrop. hist., xxiv, 1895, 411 n.^). ^ Mathews in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxix (1900), 633; id.. Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxi (1897), 128; xxxii (1898), 245; Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 435 sq. ; id., Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., iii (Sidney, 1891), 344 sq. Similarly among the Arunta, the first of the initiatory ceremonies is performed by men who stand to the novice ''in the relationship of TJm- hirna; that is, a man who is the brother of a woman of the class from which his, i.e. the boy's, wife must come" (Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 215; cf. also 230). Among the Yaraikanna tribe of Cape York (Queensland) the lads to be initiated are con- ducted into the bush by their sev- eral mawara, the men of the clan into which each will have to marry {Rep. Cambr. Anthrop. Expedition to Torres Straits, v, 220). ^ Only one exception to this rule has been discovered — in the case of the Umba ceremonies of the Wakel- bura tribe of Queensland (Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Aus- tralia, 608). PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES especially the careful assignment of the limits within which the novices may choose their future wives, are impressed upon the novices at the great inaugural meetings, in this clear and unequivocal fashion. At these initiatory meetings again, the underlying clan basis is seen in the fact that the performances, songs, and dances which constitute the greatest part of the proceedings, are exhibited in alternation by each of the two tribal moie- ties,^ or, as among some Central Australian tribes, by the various totem groups. Among the Arunta, where the social organization of the tribe by totem clans is in decay, each local group is in charge of the preliminary initiation of its own members. But for the important Engwura^ or Fire Ceremony, the last stage in the long series of initiation rites, messengers carrying the sacred Churinga are sent out to the various local groups comprising the tribe, and the cere- monies have a distinctively tribal character.^ Not until the novices have passed through the Engwura do they graduate as Urliara^ or fully initiated tribesmen. During its celebration the young men — often twenty-five or thirty years of age — are completely under the control of the elders whose orders they must obey implicitly. The principal object of the Engwura seems to be that of carefully instruct- ing the younger men, now arrived at manhood, in all the traditions and customs of the tribe. This knowledge is conveyed in a most effective manner by means of various elaborate ceremonies of a dramatic nature, performed by members of the different totems and intended to picture events in the life of the mythic ancestral individuals who lived in the Alcheringa time — half-animal creations whose descen- dants are the present members of the Arunta tribe. ^ Thus * Howitt in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 446 sq. The totem dances performed at the Coast Mur- ring rites are described at length in The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 546 sq. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 213, 275 ^ In the Alcheringa period, so far away that the native mind does not attempt to conceive of anything before it, the ancestors of the Arunta were animal-men or plant-men, en- dowed with powers not possessed by their present descendants. All over the district occupied by the Arunta are a large number of Oknanikilla, THE CLAN CEREMONIES 141 performances which seem on the outside merely imitations of the actions of different animals are really part of the instruction of the novice in the sacred lore connected with the totems and the ancestors of the various clans. ^ These various ceremonies presented at the Engwura belong to the different totemic groups into which the tribe is divided. Among the Arunta, as already mentioned, the organiza- tion of the tribe by totem clans does not prevail ; paternal descent is established, and the exogamous laws do not rest upon a totemic foundation. That this organization of the tribe is the development of an earlier state of things in which the social aspects of totemism were prominent, is most probable, though the question is still an open one. At any rate the Arunta totem groups are now concerned with ceremonies of a dramatic and magical character. The entire area occupied by the tribe is divided into a number of localities owned and inhabited by the local groups, and with each locality is identified a particular totem which gives its name to the members of the local group. ^ The men who assemble at the Engwura represent these various local totem groups, and they bring with them for presenta- tion the ceremonies connected with their totems. Each ceremony is the Quabara of a certain totem. More than this, each Quabara is associated with a particular part of the area occupied by the local group. Further complexity is added when we learn that each ceremony is usually Con- or local totem centres, where in the Alcheringa period, the ancestors lived, or camped during their wander- ings, and where some of them died and went down into the ground, leaving their Churinga. With the Churinga they left in these Oknani- killa, are associated spirit individ- uals, and when an Arunta child is born, his mother is beheved to have been entered by one of these spirits. Thus every member of the tribe is a reincarnation of an Alcheringa an- cestor; and his totem is that of the totem centre, or Oknanikilla, with which his mother was by any accident associated at the time of his conception (Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 119 sq.). ^ Native Tribes of Central Aus- tralia, 277 sq. These performances, called Quabara, numbered sixty or seventy at the Engwura witnessed by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. The Engwura continued over four months, and during this time, to the middle of the following January there was a constant succession of ceremonies, not a day passing without one, while there were sometimes as many as five or six within the twenty-four hours*' (ibid., 272; cf. 118). Ibid., 277. 142 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES sidered as the property of some special individual of the totem and local group concerned, who alone has the right of performing it. Such a ceremony has either been received by the performer by inheritance from his father or elder brother, or it may have come as a gift, directly from the Iruntartnidy or spirits, who performed it for his benefit, so he says, and then presented it to him.^ At the Engwura every one who was an initiated member of the special totem with which any given ceremony was concerned, could be present at the preparation for the ceremony, ''but no one else would come near except by special invitation of the individual to whom it belonged, and he could invite any one belonging to any class or totem to be present or to take part in the performance." The mixture of men of all groups is to be associated with the fact that the Engwura ''is an occasion on which members of all divisions of the tribe and of all totems are gathered together, and one of the main objects of which is the handing on to the younger men of the knowledge carefully treasured up by the older men of the past history of the tribe, so far as it is concerned with the totems and the Churinga." ^ This evidence afforded by the Arunta tribe exhibits with some clearness the form in which at least among Australian tribes the decline of clan totemism takes place. The clans whose union formed the tribe appear at the Engwura as local totemic groups whose sole function is the presentation of various dramatic and, as will be shown, of magical ceremonies. Even this restriction is in process of decay; the ceremonies originally confined to a particular totem group are being parcelled out among the different totem groups making up the tribe. That this process has not gone further seems due to the fact that the general meetings of the tribe are only on such great occasions as the Engwura.^ ^ Native Tribes of Central Aus- tralia, 278; cf. 119. ^ Ibid. J 280; cf. 211. ^ Among the Warramunga, a tribe recently studied by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, there is nothing corre- sponding to the Engwura rite. The dramatic performances which, how- ever, closely parallel those presented at the Engwura are in this tribe regarded as the property, not of an individual, but of the whole totem group {Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 193). Decay of clan to- THE CLAN CEREMONIES 143 Further evidence of the breakdown of the totemic clan among the Arunta is to be found in the use of the various totem groups, not only for presenting dramatic performances, but also for magical purposes. An Arunta totem is a cor- poration working magic for the benefit of the plant or animal which gives its name to the totem. With the Arunta each totem has its own magical ceremony and the ceremonies associated with it vary considerably from totem to totem. Any man who is a member of the totem group may attend and participate in the ceremonies of his totem, but this privi- lege is not extended to men outside of the totem. ^ Women, children, and uninitiated men are of course debarred. These Intichiuma ceremonies, as they are called, while secret and confined to the particular totem groups, are not performed, like those of the Engwura^ at a great meeting of all the tribes for initiation purposes. They are held usually at the approach of a good season. ''The Intichiuma are closely associated with the breeding of the animals and the flowering of the plants with which each totem is respectively identified, and as the object of the ceremony is to increase the number of the totemic animal or plant, it is most naturally held at a certain season. . . . While this is so, it some- times happens that the members of a totem, such as, for example, the rain or water totem, will hold their Intichiuma when there has been a long draught and water is badly wanted. . . ^ Though there is considerable variation in the actual performances of the totems, ''one and all have for their sole object the purpose of increasing the number of the animal or plant after which the totem is called; and thus, taking the tribe as a whole, the object of these cere- monies is that of increasing the total food supply." ^ temism has apparently not yet set in. ^ Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 169. ^ Ihid., 169-170. ^Australian totemism, in fact, as Mr. Frazer has recently pointed out, seems to be, in view of the late dis- coveries of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, largely an economic insti- tution, designed to secure through magical practices an abundance of food, water, and other necessities of the tribe. The Australian evi- dence leads Mr. Frazer to suggest that the primary purpose of totemism is ^'the thoroughly practical one of satisfying the material wants of the savage, this purpose being carried PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Some of the initiatory rites as practised at Torres Straits betray the underlying clan organization, even more clearly than the Australian Bora or Engwura, At Tud (Tutu), the Taiokwody or place of initiation, which corresponds closely to the Bora ground of the Australian natives, was covered by four large mats, and four fireplaces were arranged at the sides of the area. Mats and fireplaces belonged to the four separate clans which took part in the initiation. The crocodile and shark clans were 'Mike brothers'' and so had their fireplaces near together. ''The elder men sat on the mats belonging to their respective clans. If a man sat by the fire or upon the mat of a clan other than his own, out by distributing the various functions to be discharged among different groups, who thereby become totem clans. On this hypothesis totemism is of high interest to the economist, since it furnishes, perhaps, the oldest example of a systematic division of labour among the members of a community" {Rep. Austr. Adv. Sci., viii, Melbourne, 1901, 313). In its origin totemism was '^simply an organised and co-operative system of magic devised to secure for the members of the community, on the one hand, a plentiful supply of all the natural commodities of which they stood in need, and, on the other hand, immunity from all the perils and dangers to which man is exposed in his struggle with nature. Each totem group was charged with the superintendence and control of the particular department of nature from which it took its name." (Frazer in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxviii, 1899, 282). On this theory the relation between totemism and exogamy is entirely secondary and derivative; and the magical or religious aspect of totem- ism is more ancient than its social aspect. Though such a theory can- not be regarded as fully estabhshed at the present time, it certainly points to a much greater importance to totemism on the religious side than had ever before been assigned to it. Mr. Baldwin Spencer points out that the Arunta, Ilpirra, Narramang, and other Central Australian tribes under the influence perhaps of a more exacting economic environment have developed the religious aspect almost to the exclusion of the social aspect; for the marriage system is not regu- lated by totemic rules. The tribes of the southeastern coast have the social side well developed; the reli- gious-magical side being of com- paratively httle importance {Fort- nightly Review, Ixxi, 1899, 665). Evidence for the existence of Intichiuma or similar ceremonies in other parts of Australia is steadily increasing. The Minkani rites of the Dieri are to be associated with the Arunta ceremonies (Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 151 sq., 798). Messrs. Spencer and Gillen are now able to report the existence of Intichiuma rites among the Ura- bunna, Kaitish, Warramunga, and other central tribes. The coastal tribes along the Gulf of Carpentaria, as the result of a more favorable economic environment, have but a feeble development of the Intichi- uma ceremonies {Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 23, 193 5^., 283- 319)- THE CLAN CEREMONIES he was painted black, and thenceforth belonged to that clan/^ ^ At Muralug, also, the clansmen assembled in the Kwody sat on mats the property of their respective clans. ^ At Mer, the duties of conducting the initiation rites were parcelled out among the three clans composing the tribe. The ''Drum-men" provided the music, the ''Friends'' prepared the food, and the "Shark-men" were masters of the ceremonies.^ It is, moreover, highly significant of this fundamental clan structure that in all the western islands of Torres Straits, the guardian of the novice at initia- tion is his uncle on the maternal side.^ In several of the islands of Torres Straits the amalgama- tion of the totemic clans has led to the decided preeminence of one clan over the others. Under such circumstances, probably frequent enough in the early stages of social organ- ization, the rites of the assimilated clan or clans will natu- rally be taken over and be absorbed in those of the pre- dominant clan. This process, true of clan ceremonies in general, is doubtless true of the clan initiatory ceremonies. A glimpse at this process is afforded by the gradual emer- gence at Torres Straits of tribal gods, themselves the out- growth of totemic conceptions. The particular totem of a clan has developed into a tribal deity. Here the chief totem of each group of kins is practically the only one recog- nized; the various lesser totems are in process of absorp- tion by two important totems. Each totem has its distinct shrine, and the totem, instead of being an entire species, is visualized in the form of a representative of an individual animal, and this image is spoken of as the totem. Myths have arisen to explain this transformation. In various tales it is told how a family of brothers, some of them sharks, as well as men, wandered from west to east across Torres Straits. Two of the brothers, Sigai and Matau, went to ^ Haddon in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix (1890), 410. The four clans were Sam (cassowary), Umai (dog), Kodal (crocodile), and Baidam (shark) (Haddon in Rep. Camhr. Anthrop. Expedition to Torres Straits J v, 209). L ^ Haddon in Rep. Camhr. Anthrop, Expedition to Torres Straits, v, 216. ^ Id., Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., vi (1893), 141. ^ Rivers in Rep. Camhr. Anthrop. Expedition to Torres Straits, v, 147; Haddon, ibid., 208-210, 215. 146 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Yam, and here each became associated in his animal forms with one of the two phratries, or groups of kins, on the island. The shrines in the Kwod where the totem images are kept, are so sacred that no women may visit them, nor do the women know what the totems are Hke. They are aware of Sigai and Maiauy but they do not know that the former is the hammer-headed shark and the latter the crocodile. This mystery also is too sacred to be imparted to the uniniti- ated men. When the totems are addressed, it is always by their hero names and not by their animal or totem names. Thus in Yam, totemism is seen in its development into a hero cult.^ In Murray Island this process of development is completed. One totem-divinity has replaced all the others. At the great tribal ceremonies of initiation, much instruction is given to the boys as to the nature of Maluy who though identical with the hammer-headed shark is now the tribal deity. ^ In much the same way, we may suppose, the initiatory rites of a predominant clan may become also the rites of a group of clans which benevolently, or otherwise, have been assimilated with it. In the Melanesian Islands where the secret societies are both numerous and powerful, totemism as a form of social grouping is clearly in a degenerate stage, and in the Solo- mon Islands appears to be entirely absent.^ The growth of the secret societies has everywhere contributed to the decline of totemism, both as a social and as a religious institution.^ African totemism has never been carefully studied. Al- though there is good evidence for its existence over a con- siderable area, yet its connection with the secret societies has been entirely ignored. In Africa, as in Melanesia, the number and importance of these societies appear to ^ Haddon in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. ScLj Ixxii (London, 1902), 749-751. For the myth in full, see Haddon in Rep. Camhr. Anthrop. Expedition to Torres Straits, v, 64 sq. ^ Haddon, loc. cit. ^ Banks in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xviii (1889), 281 sq.; Codrington, Melanesians, ^1 sq. Woodford, how- ever, asserts its existence in Guadal- canar {A Naturalist among the Head- Hunters, 40 sq.). ^ Haddon, in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci.y Ixxii (London, 1902), 750. THE CLAN CEREMONIES have contributed to the thorough disintegration of the earHer totemism.^ A study of the fraternities found among North American Indians will exhibit in the clearest fashion their aspects as magical and dramatic corporations and their connection with an underlying clan organization. The gradual develop- ment of clan rites into fraternity rites may be observed in different parts of North America, in at least three dis- tinct stages. Among the Indian tribes of the Northwest, the clan organization, while still retained, is in process of decay, and the peculiar secret societies found among the Kwakiutl and other tribes of British Columbia are coming into existence.^ Among the Indians of the Central Plains, the totemic organization has in some measure kept its place alongside the secret societies,^ but included in the latter are members from all the different clans. Such organiza- tions represent what appears to be a transitional stage between the societies found in the northern and southern portions of the continent. Among the tribes of the South- west, on the other hand, the totemic clans have entirely broken down, and in their place have arisen the numerous fraternities found, for example, among the Zuni and Hopi Indians. The social organization of the North Pacific tribes is by no means uniform. The northern tribes continue to reckon descent on the maternal side; the southern tribes ^ On survivals of totemism in Africa, see J. G. Frazer, Totemism (Edinburgh, 1887), 92-93. For some recent discoveries of a well-organized totemic system among the Baganda, west of Lake Victoria Nyanza, cf. Roscoe in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 27 sq. Among the Bantu tribes of South Africa, totemism "re- solves itself into a particular species of the worship of the dead ; the totem animals are revered as incarnations of the souls of dead ancestors" (Frazer in Man, i, 1901, 136). ^ Among the Eskimo of Alaska, from Kuskokwim River northwards to the shores of Bering Straits and Kotzebue Sound, a totemic system, previously unknown, has been re- cently discovered. But here, as among the Indians to the south, it is in a decadent stage (Nelson in Eighteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 322). ^ The clan system is not found among the Kiowa, Cheyenne, Plains Sioux, the Athapascan tribes of British America, and the tribes of the Columbia River region, Oregon, and CaHfornia (Mooney in Seventeenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. EthnoLj 227). 148 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES have now established paternal descent. The Kwakiutl tribes of the centre appear to be in a pecuHar transitional stage. Five of the northern tribes have animal totems; the latter are not found among the Kw^akiutl, though this tribe belongs to the same linguistic stock as the Heiltsuq, which is totemistic. These northern tribes, moreover, are divided into clans which bear the names of their respective totems and are exogamous.^ The Kwakiutl, divided into many tribes, are also subdivided into clans, each of which derives its origin from a mythical ancestor. The clans appear to have been, originally, scattered village communities which by combination, chiefly for purposes of defence, became divisions of the newly formed tribe. But each community retained its clan traditions and privileges founded upon the acquisition of a manitou^ or personal guardian spirit, by the mythical ancestor of the clan. With each clan is associated a certain rank and station in the tribe, and the members of each clan are accorded certain privi- leges based on their descent from the clan ancestor.^ These privileges acquired by descent, or transmitted by marriage, refer mainly to the use of certain crests and to the per- formance of certain semi-religious songs and dances. The ancestor of each separate clan is supposed, at a time which corresponds very well with the Arunta Alcheringay to have acquired a manitou^ or guardian spirit. The manitoii so acquired, handed down from generation to generation of the clansmen, in process of time has been attenuated into nothing more than a totem symbol; in other words, the tutelary genius of the clan has degenerated into a mere crest. ^ So far has the crest degenerated, that it is now impossible to draw a sharp line between the pure crest and figures of masks illustrating certain incidents in the legen- dary history of the clan. Such crests, moreover, are now largely confined to particular families of the clan. The more general the use of the crest in the whole clan, the * Boas, '*The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwa- kiutl Indians/' Rep. U. S. National Museum for i8gj, 322-323. ^ Boas, op. cit.y 328 sq. 3 Ibid., 336. THE CLAN CEREMONIES remoter is the time to which the clan legends recounting the acquisition of the crest must be ascribed. Among the Kwa- kiutl the totem of the clan has become in fact the hereditary manitouj or guardian spirit, of a family. But in addition to the legends which refer to the early history of the clan, and embody the various beliefs in supernatural beings who appeared to the clan ancestors, and gave the latter the manitous which have now become the crests, there is another set of legends which relate ''entirely to spirits that are still in constant contact with the Indians, whom they endow with supernatural powers. In order to gain their help the youth must prepare himself by fasting and washing, because only the pure find favor with them, while they kill the impure. Every young man endeavors to find a protector of this kind." ^ These spirits likewise first appeared to the ancestors of the clans, and the same spirits, it is believed, still continue to appear to the descendants of these mythical ancestors. The proteges of the spirits personate them in their dances, and wear masks which represent them. Many of the clan ancestors, when they acquired their manitous from the spirits, received other privileges, such as that of performing certain dances, of singing certain songs, or of eating human flesh. These privileges, inheritable and transmissible by marriage, like the possession of a crest, have become the basis of numerous secret societies, and the latter alone are in possession of them. Each individual who by descent or marriage is entitled to membership in one of the secret societies, must first be initiated by its pre- siding spirit before he is allowed to join and to present the dances and songs associated with membership in the so- ciety.^ The secret societies belong, however, only to the nobility. There are among the Kwakiutl a certain limited number of noble families, descendants of the leading mem- bers of the earlier clans. The ancestor of each family had a tradition of his own aside from the general clan tradition, but, like the latter, the tradition was concerned usually with the acquisition of a manitou from the spirits. The crests * Boas, op. cit., 393; cf. 371 sq. 2 Ihid., 337. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES and privileges thus secured' by the ancestor of each noble family are transmitted to his direct descendants in the male line, or through the marriage of the daughter of such a male descendant, to his son-in-law and through the latter to his male grandchildren. Only one man at a time may personate the ancestor and enjoy his rank and privileges. Such men form the nobility of the tribe. ^ Each member of the nobility has, moreover, his special name given him by his hereditary spirit. During the winter ceremonials of the Kwakiutl, when the spirits are supposed to dwell among the Indians, these names come into general use; the ordi- nary clan structure breaks down and the Indians belonging to the nobility are grouped according to the spirits who initiated them.^ Subdivisions of these groups, according to the different ceremonies or dances bestowed upon the individual — for the initiating spirit endowed his proteges with varying powers — constitute the secret societies. Such societies are naturally limited in numbers, for the members are the descendants of ancestors to whom particular powers were revealed by the spirits, and of the latter there is only a limited number. But such a membership will not be limited to one clan, for the same spirit appeared to the ances- tors of the various clans. ^ The gifts of the spirits are always related in the legends which describe the clan ancestor. Such gifts are usually a dance, song, and certain peculiar cries. The dancer is thus a protege of the spirit who has endowed him with the dance. This spirit is personated in the dance performances.^ A man may become a mem- ber of any society by inheritance or by marriage, most frequently by the latter means. This right of membership, gained by inheritance or by marriage, may, however, be exercised only after the public adoption of a crest by the intending candidate. The guardian spirit with which the lad is supposed to have communion during his initiatory seclusion is always the presiding spirit of the society to which he seeks entrance. The object of the great winter cere- ^ Boas, op. cit.j 338. 2 Ibid., 418. ^ Ibid., 418 sq. * Ibid., 396. THE CLAN CEREMONIES 151 monials is, therefore, the initiation of the young men who are ehgible for membership in the societies. The novices go out in the woods and are supposed to remain with the super- natural being who is the guardian genius of the society. After a period of seclusion they come back in a state of ecstasy and madness. The initiated members by songs and dances endeavor to exorcise the spirit which is believed to have entered the novices and to consume them.^ These Kwakiutl ceremonials, corresponding closely in their simu- lation of the death and resurrection of the novices to initia- tory rites already described, constitute, in fact, an interesting North American variant of the widespread puberty ordeal. It is of much consequence also that while the right of belong- ing to a secret society could be gained in this way, there was one restriction: ''The person who is to acquire it must be declared worthy by the tribe assembled in council." ^ The significance of the evidence afforded by the Kwakiutl societies appears then to consist, partly in its exhibition of the original clan structure of the tribe in process of develop- ment into the secret society form of organization, and, partly in showing how, on the basis of the revelations given to the novices at puberty by the spirits, secret societies including men of various clans may arise. Of this latter process, the Kwakiutl evidence is significant only for what may be regarded as the formative stage. For the manitou of the Kwakiutl lad is hereditary. ''When the youth pre- pares to meet a guardian spirit, he does not expect to find any but those of his clan." ^ The secret societies, moreover, are small bodies consisting of all those individuals upon whom the same or almost the same power or secret has been bestowed by one of the spirits.^ Since the members each derive their membership from the initiation of one of the ancestors of th^ nobility, and since these ancestors have only one representative at a time, it follows that a new mem- ber of the society can be admitted only when another one is dropped.^ We have, in other words, small secret associa- ^ Boas, op. cit.j 431. ^ Boas in Rep. U. S. National ^ Boas in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Museum for iS^Sj 393- Scl, lix (London, 1889), 830. ^ Ibid.j 418. ^ Ibid.^ 419. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES tions very similar to those which seem in process of forma- tion out of the local totemic groups of the Central Australians. The Quabaray or dramatic performances, belonging to the latter, are connected, it will be remembered, usually with one particular member of the totemic group. He alone has the privilege of performing it, and only men of the par- ticular totem concerned may be present at the performance.^ This rule, already breaking down among the Arunta, has broken down among the Kwakiutl so far as to open mem- bership in the societies to others than the members of the original clan concerned. The process of clan consolida- tion has not proceeded far enough to bring about the amal- gamation of the numerous small societies into larger organi- zations. But amalgamation has begun. All the societies are arranged in two great groups, the "Seals'' and the Quequtsa. Most of the subdivisions of the Quequtsa bear animal names, as those of the ''Seals'' bear the names of spirits. The legends relate that the Quequtsa ceremonies were instituted when men had still the form of animals. The ceremonies constitute, in fact, a dramatization of the clan myths, similar in essentials to the Quabara presented at the Engwura rites of the Arunta. As these Quequtsa dancers represent what were once the totemic animals of the clans, it follows that the dancers of the ''Seals," who personate spirits and are thought of as superior to the Que- qutsa performers,^ represent a peculiar development of the widespread belief among North American tribes in the manitouy or guardian spirit. In the fraternities of the Central West, we shall find another interesting phase of this conception. Among the Indian tribes of the Central West, the clan system is in a state of pronounced decay, and in its place have arisen numerous secret societies. Wfcere the political structure of the clan is weakest, the secret societies are most powerful. Admission to these societies rests upon the acquisition by every boy at puberty of a personal guardian spirit (manitouy or "individual totem") the same as that of the secret society to which he claims entrance. The manitou ^ Supra, 142. ^ Boas in Rep. U. S. National Museum for 7^95, 419. THE CLAN CEREMONIES 153 is no longer inheritable and is not, as among the Kwakiutl, confined to the clan. In the Omaha societies, for example, membership "depends upon supernatural indications over which the individual has no control. The animal v^hich appears to a man in a vision during his religious fasting determines to w^hich society he must belong.'' ^ Entrance to the society so designated does not, hov^ever, follow im- mediately upon the vision; the youth must first accumulate enough property for the feast and for the necessary gifts to those already members.^ Such societies are in this way made up of members from every kinship group in the tribe. Blood relationship is ignored, "the bond of union being a common right in a common vision. These brotherhoods gradually developed a classified membership with initiatory rites, rituals, and officials set apart to conduct the cere- monials." ^ The vision, arising through a long ordeal of fasting and seclusion, has thus become, among the American Indians, the regular puberty ordeal. Remote from human habitation and under conditions of utter loneliness, of prolonged fasting, of intense concentration upon one idea, the Indian lad is thrown into that condition of spiritual exaltation and receptiveness which has been already noted as one common characteristic of puberty rites. ^ ^ Miss Fletcher in Sixteenth Ann. Rep. Peahody Museum (Cambridge, 1884), 277. 2 Ihid., 282. ^ Miss Fletcher in Ann. Rep. Smith- sonian Institution for iSgy (Washing- ton, 1898), 582; of. Peet in Amer. Antiquarian, xix (1897), 195 sq. ^ For further descriptions of the process whereby an Indian lad ob- tains his guardian spirit, see George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians (London, 1841), i, 36-38; J. G. Kohl, Kitchi-Gami (London, i860), 228-242; Miss Fletcher in Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., xlv (1896), 197; Teit in Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., ii (1900), 320 ^5^. In Australia the conception of the 'individual totem" seems to be con- fined to the medicine-man (Thomas in Man, ii, 1902, 117). Among some Queensland tribes, however, there is an interesting custom which, as Mr. Haddon suggests, resembles the manitou practices of the North American Indians. In the initiation ceremonies of the Yaraikanna tribe, after suffering the loss of a tooth, the lad is given some water in which he rinses his mouth, afterwards letting the gory spittle fall gently into a leaf water-basket. ''The old men care- fully inspect the form assumed by the clot, and trace some likeness to a natural object, plant, or stone; this will be the ari of the newly made man'^ (Head-Hunters, 193; cf. id.,, 154 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Fraternities formed in this manner by the inclusion of members from all the different clans composing the tribe, are to be found among many of the Plains Indians. The Ojibwa had one great '^medicine-society/' the Midewiwin. While membership might be gained in other ways, it was customary for a lad who in his puberty vision had beheld Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Ixix, 1899, 585). Mr. Haddon could find no trace of the manitou con- ception in either New Guinea or Torres Straits {Folk- Lore, xii, 1901, 231). The ''medicine" which boys of the Yaunde of West Africa receive at initiation to guard them henceforth against sickness and all misfortunesj has much the same purpose as the manitou or ari (Zenker in Mitth. v. Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus den Deutschen Schutzgehieten, viii, Berlin, 1895, 53). The purpose of the African fetish, in fact, closely resembles that of the guardian spirit of the Indian lads. Mr. Frazer has given many illustrations of the widespread belief in ''bush-souls," naguals, manitous, and similar con- ceptions {The Golden Bough, iii, London, 1900, 406 sq.). Several careful students have recently argued that the clan totem is a development of the personal totem or manitou; in the acquisition of a manitou — afterwards trans- mitted by inheritance — would be the origin both of the secret societies and of the clans. "The close sim- ilarity," writes Dr. Boas, of the Kwakiutl, "between the clan legends and those of the acquisition of spirits presiding over secret societies, as well as the intimate relation between these and the social organizations of the tribes, allow us to apply the same argument to the consideration of the growth of the secret societies, and lead us to the conclusion that the same psychological factor that moulded the clans into their present shape moulded the secret societies" {Rep. U. S. Nat. Museum for i8g^, 662). Mr. Hill-Tout has also re- cently adduced similar considera- tions based on studies of the British Columbia tribes {Proc. and Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, second series, vii (1901), section ii, 3-15; ihid., ix (1903); section ii, 61-99). Miss Fletcher, from a study of the Omaha conditions, concludes that the in- fluence of the training in methods of social organization received in the secret societies "is traceable in the structure of the gens, where the sign of a vision, the totem, became the symbol of a bond between the people, augmenting the natural tie of blood relationship in an exogamous group" {Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Institution for i8gy, Washington, 1898, 584). The theory here set forth agrees, however, with the conclusions ad- vanced by Mr. Hartland {Folk-Lore, xi, 1900, 68) and Mr. Haddon {Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Ixxii, 1902, 742), who both regard the man- itou conception as of more modern date than that of the clan totem and as "part of the individualism which is tending to obscure the older com- munistic traditions." Just why the manitou conception should have so developed is still to be explained. The advantages to the individual of the belief in a personal guiding spirit are so great that perhaps this reason may suffice as an explanation of its substitution for totemism, the benefits of which are tribal and not individual {cf. Haddon in Rep. Brit. Assoc, Adv. Sci., Ixxii, 1902, 743). THE CLAN CEREMONIES 155 some powerful manido^ or other object held in reverence by the society, to regard this as a sign that he should apply for membership/ The mythic origin of the Mita- wity or Grand Medicine Lodge of Menomini Indians, throws light on the relationship of the society to the totemic clans. According to the legends, after the totem clans had united into an organized body for mutual benefit, they were still without the means of providing themselves with food, medicinal plants, and the power to ward off disease and death. When Masha Manidoy the "Good Mystery" who had created the numerous manidosj or spirits, giving them the forms of animals and birds and afterwards changing these forms into those of men, looked down upon his people on the earth, and saw them afflicted with numerous diseases, he decided to provide them with the means of bettering their evil state. So Manabush, one of his companion "mysteries," was sent to men to teach them the various healing arts, and to secure this purpose, he instituted the great society of the Mttawit, Candidates admitted to the Medicine Lodge were duly instructed in this tradition of its origin.^ The Omahas had the order of Thunder Shamans, composed of "those who have had dreams or visions, in which they have seen the Thunder-being, the Sun, the Moon, or some other superterrestrial objects or phenomena."^ Other Omaha societies were those whose members claimed to have supernatural communications with buffaloes, horses, and grizzly bears. In their dances the actions of these animals were imitated.^ The fraternities of the Arizona and New Mexico Indians are especially interesting, not only because they exhibit in the clearest fashion their close relationship to the primitive clan structure, but also because among these Indians the secret orders have assumed an even more important place in the religious life of the tribe than among the natives of ^ Hoffman in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 163. ^ Ibid., 42-43. The Ojibwa leg- end of the origin of the Midewiwin is very similar. ^ Dorsey in Eleventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. J 395. ^ Ibid. J 497-498. For various other examples, see 392 sq.; 428 sq. 156 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES the plains. The Omaha societies, according to Miss Fletcher, are small private circles within the great religious circle of the tribe. When the annual religious festivals are held, all persons must take part, and as far as I have been able to learn, none of these religious societies at that time take any precedence, or as societies perform especial religious services.'' ^ But among the Hopi, Zuni, and some other tribes,^ certain fraternities have grown to a position of commanding importance and are intrusted with the great religious rites of the tribe. The settled community life of these Hopi and Zuni villagers has led to a most complicated religious ritual now embodied in the rites of the secret societies. The Hopi Indians of Arizona, forming what is known as the Tusayan confederacy, are descendants of once widely scattered clans, some of which probably came from the Gila Valley. As successive clans settled in the pueblos, they intermarried with the previous clans, this process con- tinuing until members of all the various clans were to be found in the seven pueblos. From the amalgamation of the various clans, fraternities have arisen, in the rites and ritual of which the clan origin of these organizations is clearly evident. The clan worship was formerly that of the ancestors of the clan, and this worship has survived in the fraternities.^ Some preliminary evidence for this course of development is furnished by the kinship ideas which still survive in the societies. The chief of a Hopi society is ^ Sixteenth Ann. Rep. Peahody Museum, 294 n. ^ In Sia, formerly an important Indian settlement in western New Mexico, there are eight secret societies now rapidly falling into decay. Each society is controlled by a particular theurgist. Their relation to the earlier clans is very obscure, but Mrs. Stevenson notes that most of the societies are named after animals. In Sia there are now eight clans; fifteen more have become extinct. By the tribal legend the societies were originated in the lower world by Utsetj a mediatorial god who recalls the Minahozho of the Ojibwa. When afterwards instituted on earth, the societies were named for the animals, cougar, bear, snake, etc., who first composed them (Mrs. Stevenson in Eleventh Ann. Rep. Bur. EthnoL, 16 sq., 69 sq.). In the Snake Society of the Sia, membership depends upon a common dream, the seeing of snakes {ibid., 86). ^ Fewkes in Nineteenth Ann, Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1006. THE CLAN CEREMONIES 157 called the father, ''and the members of the brotherhood call one another brothers and sisters/' ^ The survival in the fraternity rites of objects formerly associated with the clans provides additional confirmation. Each Hopi clan possesses one or more ancient objects or Wimi, These are held in high reverence, and like the Australian Churinga have valuable magical pov^ers in the hands of the priests. When the clans lived apart, the worship of the fFtmt W3.s limited to the clans which owned them. On the union of the clans they came into the custody of the priests of the society, who were in every case the leading members of their respective clans. ^ In the same way, the Ttponty or badge, of each religious society was originally the palladium of the clan. As the fraternity is made* up of several clans, there are usually several of these objects on each altar. The Owakulti society of Sitcomovi pueblo has two Tiponisy one belonging to the chief of the Butterfly clan, and the other to the Pakab or Reed clan.^ In this Owakulti festival butterfly symbols are prominent. Some of the chiefs who perform the rites are members of the Butterfly clan. The rites constitute an attempt by magical processes to increase the number of butterflies. With the latter comes summer, and with summer, rain for the crops. ^ Evidence of the most conclusive nature is aflForded by the survivals of the original clan composition in the rites and legends of the societies. The complicated and elaborate Hopi ritual in charge of the fraternities at the present day has grown pari passu with the successive additions of new clans to the pueblos. All of the great religious festivals celebrated by the Hopi Indians constitute a worship of the clan ances- ^ Powell in Seventeenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. EthnoL, xxxiii; Fewkes, op. cit., 1007. Moreover, the so- called priests" of the Snake society, for instance, seem to be simply its older members — the clan elders who on the consoHdation of the clans would naturally have the leading positions in the societies which thus arise. That the priests" are not regarded as a technically trained and exclusive class seems also evident from the custom of introducing boys in their place on the occasion of the death of these officials (Fewkes, op, cit., 978). ^ Fewkes in Amer. Anthropologist, new series, iii (1901), 211-212. ^ Ibid., 214. ^ Ibid.y 221-222. 158 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES tors. One important group of these festivals is that of the KatcinaSy who are masked men personating the ancestors. The present Katcina dances are modified survivals of clan festivals from which the secret rites have disappeared.^ No one Katcina society is at present limited to a particular clan. Some of the performances — in this respect pre- senting close resemblance to the Australian Quabara and to the performances of the Kwakiutl — are now worn down into a single public masked dance. ^ The Katcina per- sonations are really for the purpose of effecting a species of ancestor worship, the ancestors being the totemic ancients of the clans. Such personations are always limited to representations of clan relations on the mother's side.^ According to the Hopi conception, in the lower world where the ancients of the clan live, the occupations and duties of the inhabitants are much the same as on earth. The de- parted clansmen are still intimately connected with their survivors in the Hopi pueblos. The dead retain their membership in their earthly clans,^ and still have their duties to perform among men. They are personated so that they may know the needs of their clans and may exert their powers to produce rain and good crops. "^You have become a Katcina; bring us rain,' say the relatives of the deceased to the dead, before they inter them." ^ Besides ^ Fewkes in Nineteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol.^ 623. ^ Ihid., 630. ^ As Mr. Fewkes points out, Katcina worship is not that of an animal, plant, or other object which has given a totem name or symbol to a clan. The totemic animal which the Hopi believes ancestral is not identified with any living species. The Arunta conception of the totemic ancestors is very similar {cf. Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 119 sq.). Among the Arunta the myths invented to account for the existing relationship between a totem clan and the totem animal or plant is that the ancestors of the former were transformations of certain of the latter {Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxviii, 1899, 279). ^ Fewkes in Jour. Amer. Folk- Lore, xiv (1901), 83. 5 Ihid., 82. The effect of the economic environment upon the Hopi religious beliefs and practices is clearly seen in these Katcina rites. At present the Hopi Indians are an agricultural people living in an arid country where rain is the great necessity. A majority of all their ceremonies are for rain and abundant crops. Even the clan ancestors who were worshipped before the Hopi became an agricultural people, have been endowed with the new powers. The Bear, Buffalo, and Antelope THE CLAN CEREMONIES 159 the Hopi conceptions of clan ancestors as KatctnaSy there are other conceptions of masked clan gods, the worship of whom is the subject of some important ceremonies. These are not festivals in which masked men personating the clan ancestors are present. The worship, however, is still that of the ancestors. The methods of personating the ancestors and the symbols employed have changed, for the clans of which they are the festivals are different.^ These great Hopi festivals known as Lalakonta, Owakuitt, Mam- zrautiy and the Snake Dance, like the Katcinasy are modes of totemic ancestor worship, '^highly modified into a rain prayer." ^ The Snake Dance as given at Walpi pueblo offers, in particular, remarkable parallels to the Katcina festivals. Originally the Snake Dance was a festival of two or more consolidated clans, the Snake and Horn. These clans are now represented in the personnel of celebrants by two fraternities of priests — the Snakes and the Ante- lopes. In the public dance, the ancestors are personated by men carrying reptiles in their mouths — the rattle- snakes being regarded as the elder brothers and as members of the Snake clan.^ Walpi was originally founded by the Bear and Snake clans, the latter largely predominant. Probably, at that time all the men of the Bear-Snake clans participated in the great ceremony of the Snake Dance. Since then the coming to the pueblo of other clans, especially the Ala (Horn) and Lenya (Flute) clans, has caused the society to outgrow its clan limitations. The expanded society now called that of the Snakes and Antelopes, in- cludes members from all the clans. The head of the fra- ternity and a majority of the members still come, however, from the Snake clan.'^ Katcinas, for instance, have become potent in bringing rain or in causing crops to grow (ibid., 92). ^ Ibid.^ 92-93. 2 Ibid., 93. 2 Ibid., 93. ^ Id., Nineteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 590, 624, 1007. The legend which is told to explain the origin of the Snake Dance throws much light on its connection with the clans. When rain and corn were failing, -Ti)'^?, one of the clansmen, left his home to find a people who knew the prayers, rites, and songs by which these much-needed blessings could be obtained. His search was successful. After a time he returned CHAPTER X MAGICAL FRATERNITIES In presenting the evidence for an original clan structure underlying the secret associations of most primitive peoples, we are supplied, also, v^ith the key to the interpretation of those practices, half-magical, half-religious and dramatic, which are almost invariably connected with them. The primitive clan rites, as these are most clearly exhibited among the Australian natives, reveal, as we have seen, two char- acteristic features. The Arunta totem groups are employed to Walpi, bringing with him a wife he had married among his new-found friends. The children of his bride were snakes, like those of her family (the Snake clan). From their parents they inherited the prayers and songs that bring rain and corn. These children were the ancestors of the present Snake people. So every year, the Snake people who have been initiated into the Snake fraternity, assemble together, and gathering the snakes from the fields, dance with them, and personate their mother, the corn maiden. Thus the Snake Dance '^is simply the revival of the worship of the Snake people as legends declare it to have been prac- tised when Tiyo was initiated into its mysteries in the world which he visited " (Fewkes in Sixteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 304). '^We need only look to the clan relation of the majority of priests in the cele- bration to show its intimate connec- tion with the Snake clan, for the Snake chief, the Antelope chief, and all the adult men of the Snake family participate in it. The reverence with which the ancestor, and par- ticularly the ancestress, of the Snake clan, viz. Tcuamana, is regarded, and the personation of these beings in Kiva rites certainly gives strong support to a theory of totemistic ancestor worship {Nineteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. EthnoL, 965; cf. Sixteenth Ann. Rep., 304-305). But like the Katcina worship, the Snake Dance is a highly modified form of ancestor worship; the rattle- snakes introduced in the rites are clan totems whose worship is a wor- ship of the clan ancestors. As such they are intercessors between man and the rain gods. If the ^'proper ceremonies with them are performed in prescribed sequence and in tra- ditional ways, the rains must come, because they came in the ancient times in the house of the Snake maid. The idea of magic permeates the whole ceremony" {Nineteenth Ann. Rep., 1008). 160 MAGICAL FRATERNITIES i6i at the Engwurdy for the presentation of certain dramatic performances called Quahara. The Quabara^ though closely associated with particular totems, are already in process of partition among other totems, a process which, if continued, would result in the presentation of these performances by the secret societies composed of individ- uals from several or many totem groups. Moreover, the totem groups, among the Arunta, are magical corpora- tions, whose members work magic for the increase of the totem with which they are connected. Similar magical, religious, and dramatic rites are associated with the secret societies of many other primitive peoples. Obscured as they have been, among the Melanesians and Africans by the temporary emergence of political and judicial functions, and hidden, as they must always have remained, from the gaze of the uninitiated, they nevertheless form the central feature of these organizations. Among the North American tribes where the fraternities exercise few functions of social control, such associations appear in the clear light as cor- porations of magic-working priests. Dramatic and magical ceremonies connected with the secret societies have been observed in New Guinea and Torres Straits. Among the Toaripi tribes of British New Guinea, the maskers appear to be in the service of Kaeva- kuku. The first-fruits of the harvest belong to Kaevakuku^^ and in honor of the goddess, there are great festivals cele- brated in secret by the men who compose the organization.^ In some of the islands of Torres Straits elaborate dramatic ceremonies formerly existed. At Pulu the Kwody or men's house, was the scene of an important funeral ceremony or death dance called the tai. This was an annual rite in honor of tribesmen recently deceased. No woman or uninitiated man was allowed to witness it.^ The chief of the tai- wzs a culture-hero called Waiatj who according to the folk-tales came from Daudai (British New ^ Chalmers and Gill, Work and ^ Haddon in Rep. Cambr. An- Adventure in New Guinea, 152. throp. Expedition to Torres Straits y ^ Chalmers, Pioneering in New v, 252. Guinea, 49 sq,, 72 sq. M i62 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Guinea).^ He was represented by a wooden figure of a man without eyes or ears. The kernge^ or novices, were not allowed to see this representation as it stood in the square house in the Kwod, for " Waiat belonged solely to the elder men." ^ The chief performers, their heads covered with leafy masks, represented the ghosts of the recently deceased tribesmen.^ The tai presents the elements of an organized dramatic entertainment in which the performers appeared in regular order and imitated the characteristic gait and actions of the deceased. The underlying idea of the cere- mony was to convey to the mourners assurance that the ghost personated by the dancer visited his friends. The women who did not know the identity of the dancers be- lieved them to be really ghosts.^ Various magical cere- monies were also practised by the Torres Islanders. At Mabuiag the Dangal clan had a magical ceremony per- formed in the Kwod for the purpose of compelling the dugong to come towards the island and be caught.^ At Mabuiag, also, it was customary to hand over the first turtle caught during the turtle-breeding season to the Surlal clan, who performed a ceremony over it in their own Kwod, The rite was intended '''to make him (that is, all the turtle) proper fast,'" i.e. copulate and thus insure a good turtle season. While there was no attempt at secrecy during the performance, it is noteworthy that no women or children or members of other clans were present. The clansmen wore a cassowary-feather head-dress and danced round the turtle whirling bull-roarers.® The Melanesian evidence, though scanty, is sufficient to bring the secret societies in this region in line with those of other parts of the world. Here, as elsewhere, the decline of the important social functions connected with the socie- ties results in the recrudescence of their magical and dramatic characteristics. The performances of the Dukduk of the ^ Rep. Cambr. Anthrop. Expedition to Torres Straits, v, 54. ^ Ibid., V, 253 n. ^ Ibid., y, 253. ' Ibid., Y, 255-256. ^ Ibid.,y, 182; YLsiddonm Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Ixxii (1902), 749. ^ Haddon and Rivers in Rep. Cambr. Anthrop. Expedition to Torres Straits, v, 183-184. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 163 Bismarck Archipelago are supposed to possess some medical efficacy. When a chief or some other person of importance is ill, Dukduk ceremonies lasting about a week are per- formed. The Einethj a great Dukduk feast which takes place at stated periods in the lodge of the society, appears to be connected with the propitiation of evil spirits.^ In some parts of the Bismarck Archipelago the Dukduk is much less powerful than elsewhere, a fact which accounts for the variation in the different descriptions which have been given of it. In New Pomerania it is far less of a ''law- god'' society than in New Hanover. In the former island it now figures chiefly as a dramatic organization. Though its secrecy is still observed, the women do not scruple in private to make fun of the performances. The members give dramatic representations in which two masked figures, the Dukduk and Tuhuvan^ his wife, are the leading actors.^ The preparation of the costumes occupies many days. When all is finished, the Dukduk and Tubuvan travel from village to village and perform before their appreciative native audiences.^ Some of the festivals occupy an entire month. As in the case of the Areoi society of Tahiti^ there seems a growing tendency for the members of the upper orders of the Dukduk to reserve themselves from the more common and public entertainments asso- ciated with the inferior degrees.^ Florida soci- eties have charge of periodical sacrifices and feasts con- nected with vegetation cults. Ceremonies devoted to the propitiation of the various Tindalos^ who preside over vegetation, are given ''to inaugurate the time of eating the first-fruits of certain trees. . . ^ Some of the Banks ^ Graf V. Pfeil in Jour. Anthrop. Inst. J xxvii (1897), 186 sq.; Hiibner in Die Ethno gr aphis ch- Anthrop olo- gische AUheilung des Museum Godef- froy in Hamburg (Hamburg, 188 1), 17-18. ^ An obvious parallel is afforded in North Bougainville where the tribal society is associated with two spirits, Ruk a tzon being the male and Ruk a tahol the female spirit (Parkinson in Abhandl. u. Berichte d. Kgl. Zoolog. u. Anthr op. -Ethno gr. Museums zu Dresden, vii, 1899, no. 6, 11). ^ Parkinson, Im Bismarck-Archi- pel, 134. ^ Infra, 166. ^ Parkinson, loc. cit. ^ Penny, Ten Years in Mel- anesia, 69. i64 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Islands societies are now mere dramatic organizations. Their members appear in the villages at frequent intervals, to dance and exhibit their masks and costumes. The Qat is the great dancing society common throughout these islands. Neophytes are instructed in a very difficult dance requiring months of practice for acquisition.^ The Qetu and fFelu of the New Hebrides still survive as dramatic societies. The "mysteries'' concern only the construction of the Qetu figures and the manner of the Qetu dance. ^ The Nanga enclosure, where the Fijian initiatory rites were held, served also as a temple for sacred rites. There dwelt the ancestors of the tribe, and in their honor every year solemn feasts were held, and the first-fruits of the yam harvest were presented to them. No man might taste of the new yams until this presentation had been made.^ In the Areoiy a society which though best known at Tahiti, seems to have extended throughout the Polynesian area as far as Hawaii, it is possible to disclose the existence of a magical fraternity possessing great interest and impor- tance. Much that is perplexing and apparently contra- dictory in the various accounts of this organization becomes capable of explanation on the theory of its development from a secret society of the Melanesian model. To the early missionaries and mariners the Areoi appeared only as a diabolical mystery in the rites of which the worst abomi- nations wxre practised. The men and women who were members lived in a condition of the most complete promis- cuity, the horror of which was increased by the infanticide practised. Those who were admitted to the society must first kill all their children. The unfortunate issue of sub- sequent alliances must never be suffered to live. The performances themselves were of the most indecent and corrupting character. But there seems no doubt but that this dark picture fails to represent the real nature of the society. The evil customs were much exaggerated, and. ^ Codrington, Melanesians, 83 sq, ^ Fison in Jour. Anthrop. InsL ^ Ibid., 91. xiv (1884), 27. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 165 confined as they were to the lowest ranks of the society, appear to have been not more reprehensible than those of Polynesian peoples in general. Infanticide itself was a common practice throughout these islands. The propor- tion of women members to men, moreover, was much less considerable than has been supposed. At any rate there is no doubt of the high estimation in which members of the Areot were regarded by the inhabitants of these islands.^ Its great antiquity seems evident, not only in the mysteri- ous regard accorded to its members as being themselves the very representatives of the gods on earth, but also in the legend of its foundation by Oro, one of the principal Polynesian divinities.^ The natives regarded the society as coeval with the creation of man. To be an Areoi was an honor greatly prized. Those who held the higher grades enjoyed all the privileges of both priests and warriors, while on earth. After death they were accorded the most exalted seats in the sensual Tahitian heaven. As in the Melane- sian societies, the membership included both the living and the dead, for once an Areoi always an Areoi,^ Before a candidate could be received for membership, he must first have given evidence of being inspired by the gods. Pre- vious to initiation he remained for months and even years on probation. His stay in the lowest grades was prolonged until he had mastered the songs and dances, and the dra- matic representations. His reception into the sacred ranks was always made the occasion of a great festival at which he received a new name.^ There were twelve superior lodges, presided over by the chiefs or grandmasters of the society. Six of these lodges were at Tahiti and the remain- ing six in adjoining islands.^ In each lodge there were a number of grades to which initiates could attain. To * Cf. Forster, A Voyage round the ^ Cf. the privileges in the next World, ii, 130. world reserved for a member of the ^ The legend is given with some Melanesian Suqe, Codrington, op. variant details by our two chief cit., 112. authorities, Ellis, Polynesian Re- "* Moerenhout, op. cit.y i, 493-494; searches, i, 183-185;^ and Moeren- Ellis, ci/., i. 190. hout, Voyages aux lies du Grand ^ Moerenhout, op. cit., i, 489-490. Ocean, i, 485-489. i66 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES pass through these different degrees and thus to rise in dignity and honor, did not depend upon the social class of the aspirant; it was rather determined by the length of his membership in the lower degrees, and upon his personal qualities as poet, orator, or singer. The only exception to this democratic feature was the admission of the leading chiefs to the upper grades without the necessity of their passing through the lower. These different degrees, seven or nine in number, had their distinctive marks indicated by tattooing and painting. The two lowest degrees meant ^'youths training up." ^ The cost of entrance to the lowest degree was excessive. As the higher degrees were reached the expense became so great that as a rule only the chiefs and the wealthier men of the community could afford to pass through them.^ The ridiculous and frivolous prac- tices associated with the organization, as well as the immoral exhibitions which were held, seem to have been confined to the lower grades. The higher grades alone were in pos- session of the innermost secrets and of the religious worship which was a part of them.^ As a dramatic and magical organization, the Areoi celebrated the mysteries of Oro, its divine founder and protector. As bards and skalds the members chanted in their hymns the life and actions of the gods and the wonders of creation. Every December the first-fruits of the harvest were offered to Oro in a great festi- val held at Tahiti. This festival was paralleled by those held in the Marquesas Islands, every October, to celebrate the return of Mahoui^ the Sun, to the world; ''fetes toutes etablies pour celebrer le retour du dieu qui ramene la fer- tilite el Tabondance." ^ These festivals and feasts lasting until April or May of each year were held in the Maraisy or men's houses. At them "toutes les populations, meme les plus sauvages, suspendaient souvent leurs eternelles hostilites." ^ Some of the dramatic representations were * Moerenhout, op. cU.y i, 490-491; Ellis, op. cit., i, 188-189. ^ Moerenhout, op. cit.y i, 491. ^ Lesson, Voyage autour du Monde, i, 421. ^ Moerenhout, op. cit., i, 502. ^ Ibid. J i, 502-503. An error of a single word or verse in the dramatic recitations of the Areoi would suspend the fetes. Hence arose the necessity MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 167 regularly constructed and could be repeated with but little variation, as the actors travelled from island to island. A company on landing would present at the Marat a pig as a thank-offering. But this gift also served as a hint that they expected food and accommodation. In most of the islands spacious houses were provided for this purpose. In this manner, members of the associations obtained an easy livelihood. The Areois^ like initiates of Dukduk or Egboy enjoyed many privileges and existed chiefly on the contributions exacted from a superstitious people, making a profit "de la terreur qu'ils inspiraient pour exercer les plus indignes exactions." ^ This evidence yielded by a study of the Areot organization and rites for its likeness to secret societies in other parts of the world, is strengthened by additional considerations of an external character. The early voyagers often described the imposing Marais^ or Maraes^ as the temples of the people. They served as places of sepulture for important members of the community. On their altars human sacrifices were offered. These altars were always placed in some retired spot in the heart of gloomy woods. The ceremonies con- nected with the Marais took place at the approach of twi- light; and only the initiated had the right of practising the mysteries. The sanctity of the Marais on such occasions was preserved by the imposition of the death penalty for intrusion. During funeral ceremonies all the uninitiated inhabitants were obliged to keep to their houses, or at least to remain of a most rigorous apprenticeship; a perfect knowledge of the songs and traditions was essential before a novice could participate in the rep- resentations. This knowledge was publicly tested by masters of the art (Moerenhout, op. cit., i, 501) before candidates were admitted to the society. In the Qat, the great dancing society throughout the Banks Islands, neophytes learn a very dif- ficult dance, requiring several months of practice before a performance can be given. In former times an error in the dance was considered so serious that the unlucky performer was often killed by the old men who directed the ceremonies (Codrington, Mel- anesianSj 86 sq.). In the dances of the Kwakiutl societies, no greater misfortune could occur than an error in the recitation, or an unlucky slip in the dance. Such a mischance meant that the ill-will of the directing spirits had been used against the members concerned (Boas, op. cit.y 433-434). ^ Lutteroth, O-Tatti, 15 ; cf, Ellis, op. cit., i, 186-188. i68 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES at a considerable distance from the place where the priests were making their prayers. One of the principal celebrants was dressed in the paraij "vetement mortuaire," consisting in part of a huge mask hiding the head. The appearance of the priest dressed in the parai was the signal for all the uninitiated to take flight. So extreme was the dread and veneration of the people for these Marais, and for the mys- terious rites connected with them, that, long after the intro- duction of Christianity, the structures were carefully avoided. Lesson, with only the greatest difficulty, could induce his guides to show him one.^ Now we know, that at least in some cases, the Marais were occupied by the Areois, Of one of these structures visited by Mr. Tyerman, an early missionary, we are told: ''This building is famous for having been the rendezvous of the Areois. Here they celebrated their horrid excesses. . . ^ Baron von Hiigel, discussing the Nanga enclosures of the Fijians, which served as a lodge or temple of the tribal secret association, notes their likeness to the Polynesian Marais,^ This parallel is strengthened by the fact that the Marais^ like secret lodges elsewhere, were both religious and social institutions. They served as gathering places for the important men of the community. A man's social position depended on his having a stone to sit upon within the Marai enclosure. Membership in the Marai was evidence of rank and owner- ship of property.^ Women were always excluded from them.^ Some remarkable parallels of the Areoi institution were ^ Lesson, op. cit., 404 sq.; cf. Keeler in Out Westy xix (1903), 635, 643-644. ^ Montgomery, Journal of Voy- ages and Travels by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet, Esq.y i, 113. At Raro tonga the principal Marai was the place where the ruling chiefs of the Makea clan often dwelt and where sacrifices to the gods and the Takwura, or annual feast of the first-fruits, were held. Here also the Ariki, or high priest, had his home. When warrior chiefs of the island came to visit the Ariki, they lodged in a seven-roomed house on the side of the road. This house was called Are-kariei, or house of amusement, kariei being the Rarotonga equiva- lent of the Tahitian Areoi and the Marquesan Kaioi (Smith in Jour. Polynesian Soc, xii, 1903, 218-219). ^ Intern. Archiv /. Ethnogr., ii (1889), 256. ^ Memoirs of Ariitaimai (Paris, 1900), 15 sq. ^ Moerenhout, op. cit.y i, 469. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 169 formerly to be observed in the Caroline and Marianne islands. When the first Catholic missionaries arrived at the Mariannes, they found in the U rttoi society the greatest hindrance to the progress of Christianity. The Uritoisy says Father Le Gobien, are the young men who live with their mistresses without desiring to engage themselves in the bonds of marriage. Of their public houses, in every neighborhood, he piously remarks : Le Demon a etabli icy des Seminaires de debauche." ^ Freycinet, who met the Uritois in Guam, describes the purpose of the societies as ^'un epicurisme grossier." The members had a mysteri- ous language which was used principally for amorous songs. ^ Before marriage the greatest license prevailed between the sexes; girls who entered the ^^maisons des celibataires" suffered no disgrace ; parents would even urge their children to enter them.^ This Uritoi society of the old Chamorros of the Mariannes, seems, in fact, to have been the Areoi under another name and in a somewhat less developed stage. The most primitive form is still to be found in the Pelew Islands in the curious Kaldebekel institution. Kalde- bekels are really clubs formed by the young men. Their place of resort is the Baiy or sleeping-house of the men. In his parents' house a youth is only a guest; at night he must sleep in the Baij not only because he is a member of a Kaldebekel club, but because it is the custom of the young men to be absent during the night from the home of their parents.^ Each Kaldebekel has its own Bai, In these there are usually one or more Armengols^ unmarried girls, who are often the temporary property of the young men.^ In the Carolines the same custom prevails. At Wap or Yap * Histoire des lies Marianes, 6i- 62. ^ Voyage autour du Monde, ii, 369-370. ^ Ibid.^ 369. * Kubary, Ethnographische Beit- r'dge zur Kenntniss der Karolinischen Inselgruppe und Nachbarschaft, i, 34 sq., 62. ^ Ibid., 91. This custom seems now to be falling into decay in the Pelew group. Some of the clubs have no women in them at all, and many have only one. Kubary notes, in passing, the likeness of these Bais to the Polynesian Marais, op. ciL, 64; see also on the Bai, Bridge in Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, new series, viii (1886), 559; George Keate, An Account of the Pelew Islands (Dublin, 1788), 309. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Island, one of the Western Carolines, the girls are called mespily and their business is ^^to minister to the pleasures of the men of the particular clan or brotherhood to which the building belongs/' ^ Such institutions have been also found at Kusaie or Ualua, one of the Eastern Carolines,^ and at Ponape, the most important of the Caroline group. Here all chiefs belong, ex officio; others are admitted after a long novitiate and the passing of various ordeals. The societies thus formed are divided into grades and hold secret meetings.^ In New Zealand, the ancient Maori institution of the Whare Kura^ was a priestly society, which, so far as our information extends, presents some striking likenesses to the Areoi and similar fraternities. The Maori religion ^ ''was essentially of an esoteric nature. The strange powers held by the old time tohunga^ or priest . . . as also the knowledge of the sacred genealogies ... all these and many other matters, profoundly sacred to the Maori, were known but to a select few of the tribe, were jealously guarded and taught but to a few carefully selected neophytes of each generation, in a special house set apart for such sacred matters, during which period the novitiates were under strict laws of tapu and were not allowed to return to their homes or visit friends." ^ The knowledge imparted con- sisted mainly of the popular mythology and traditions. Novices were also taught to be skilful workers in magic and sleight-of-hand. Nor was ventriloquism — so useful an adjunct to the shaman's art — neglected. Following the instruction came a public exhibition at which the candi- dates for the priesthood displayed their powers. Such details as well as many others — the admittance by a form of baptism, the long novitiate lasting through the autumns and winters of five years, the seclusion in a special house ^ Christian, Caroline Islands, 290. ' Meinicke, Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans, ii, 371-372, 381-382. ^ Ibid., 381. See also on this institution in the Carolines, Senfft in Deutsches Kolonialhlatt, xi (1900) 417; Christian in Geogr. Jour., xiii (1899), 129; Finsch, Sildsee-Erin- nerungen, 26. ^ Best in Jour, Polynesian Soc, ix (1900)^ 176. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 171 which could not be entered by women — indicate that in aristocratic New Zealand the primitive puberty rites had come under the direction of a priestly class. ^ In Africa, various magical practices are associated with a number of the secret societies, though, as already explained, the assumption by the latter of important judicial and political duties, has tended to obscure the other aspects of the organization. Nkimba rites, among the natives of the Lower Congo, according to one account, are instituted when "the elders of a village consider that the women are not bearing the usual proportion of children. . . ^ Members of Idiong of Old Calabar are rain-makers.^ The Dou^ a secret society of the Bobo, has similar functions. tOne of their masked processions, which takes place during the night and usually at the beginning of the rainy season, has the object "of putting to flight the evil spirits at the time of cultivation, or rather, of bringing on the rain." ^ Some of the West African societies confine themselves exclusively to magical practices and represent a con- siderable degree of specialization. Kufong^ a Mende organization, busies itself with the making of charms and the practice of sorcery.^ Of such "mystical" societies. Miss Kingsley remarks that most of their mysticism "con- sists in the concoction of charms that will make a house- holder sleep through a smart burglary on his premises, and in making people whom members wish removed go and kill themselves." ^ Nkimba novices learn the botany of various plants so as to be able to make charms and spells. Gojambul prepares and sells native remedies for disease, some of them possessing real value. ^ ^ On the Whare Kura, see Dief- fenbach, Travels in New Zealand (London, 1843), ii, 119; John White, The Ancient History of the Maori (Wellington, 1887), i, 15; Reeves, The Long White Cloud, 68 sq. ^ Ward in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxiv (1895), 288. ^ Marriott, ibid., xxix (1899), 23. ^ Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinee, i, 379. For other typical examples, cf. Crowther and Taylor, The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger , 215- ^ Miss Kingsley, West African Studies, 138. ^ Ibid., 4S?>. : ^ Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, i, 283. ^ Miss Kingsley, loc. cit. Per- PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES In proportion as the secret societies are compelled to abandon their social functions, which too often degenerate into a means for wholesale intimidation and robbery, the dramatic ceremonies associated with such organizations often survive the downfall of their other privileges. This phase, found in the Melanesian dancing societies ^ and to some extent in the Polynesian Areoiy is repeated in West Africa. Here the secrecy of the orders in many cases is of the thinnest sort. Their main purpose appears to be by their crude dramatic representations to provide a little amusement for an unbelieving populace. The secret so- ciety has become a theatrical troupe. The Simo of French Guinea affords an illustration of the degeneration of a tribal society from an originally powerful organization ♦ devoted to the interests of the people, through an inter- mediate stage of brigandage and rapine, into a mere band of dancers and actors deprived of all importance and pres- tige.^ The power of the organization was broken by its futile resistance to the French colonists, and now its mem- bers "ne puisent plus leur raison d'etre que dans les fetes que donnent les villages qui en possedent encore, fetes ou ils figurent comme danseurs, acrobates, prestidigitateurs." ^ The Kuhkwi of French Congo is now neither secret nor sacred like the Nda and Njemhe. A masked man on stilts, surrounded by young men singing and clapping their hands, parades through the village and causes great mer- riment by his demonstrations towards the women. ^ Tast of the Igalwas and Mpongwe shows a similar degen- eration.^ Egunguriy a powerful ^Mevil" among the Yoruba peoples, was brought to Sierra Leone with the slaves taken from slave-ships captured by British cruis- ers. He still performs his antics in Freetown among the haps the specialization of function here exhibited has grown out of the custom of imparting to the boys at initiation some knowledge of the medicinal use of herbs and leaves. For the Purr ah custom, cf. Alldridge, The Sherhro and its Hinterland ^ 125. ^ Supra J 164. ^ Leprince in Revue Scientifique, fourth series, xiii (1900), 399-401. ^ Ibid. J 401. ^ Wilson, Western Africa, 397- 398. ^ Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 535. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 173 Christian descendants of these negroes. ^'Spectators soon gather round him, and though, if asked, they will tell you that it is only 'play,' many of them are half-doubtful, and whenever the Egungun makes a rush forward the crowd flees before him to escape his touch." ^ In some parts of Africa, and particularly in the Congo region, the development of fetishism and of a class of fetish- doctors has resulted in transferring the initiation ceremonies to these officials. Under their supervision the boys are secluded in the forest, where they are circumcised and are o-iven the usual course of instruction. Sometimes one fetish-doctor is in charge; more frequently there are a number of fetish-doctors who, with their assistants, form • an organization of their own.^ In the Nkimbay an institu- ^ Ellis, Yoruha-S peaking Peoples, 109. See also Lady Stirling-Max- well, editor^ A Residence at Sierra Leone (London, 1849), 267. For further illustrations of African masked dances and dramatic per- formances, see Foa, La Tr aver see de rAfrique, 42; Holub, Seven Years in South Africa, ii, 172; Rohlfs, Quer durch Afrika, i, 175-176; R. A. Freeman, Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman, 148 sq.; Clapperton, Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of A frica (London, 1829), 53 sq.; Autenrieth, Ins Inner -Hochland von Kamerun, 32, 36-37; Degrandpre, Voyage a la cote occidentale d'Afrique (Paris, 1801), i, 117-119. ^ On the connection of the fetish system with initiation in Ambamda and Bamba, cf. Bastian, Ein Besuch in San Salvador, 82 sq. The medi- cine-man, fetish-doctor, or shaman of the African tribes has by no means the same functions in all parts of the continent. He often combines, ap- parently, the duties of healer, diviner, actor, magician, judge, and priest. Where the secret societies are in de- cay, the fetish-doctor assumes many of their functions. Among Masongo tribes of northern Angola, a M^Quichi is the combination of charm-doctor and beggar who pre- sides over the seclusion and cir- cumcision of the boys (Schiitt, Reisen im SUdwestlichen Becken des Congo, 106). To Capello and Ivens the M^Quichi is a fetish-man who, in addition to practising magic and performing masked dances, ex- ercises utilitarian functions, such, for instance, as the castigating mis- demeanants, the punishing shameless women, and the accusing criminals " (From Benguella to the Territory of Yacca, i, 296). Yassi, among the Ogowe tribes of the French Congo, is a great witch-doctor and a most important functionary for ferreting out criminals. Without his mask, Yassi is no more than any other man. ^'His garb transforms him into a monster having the power of mbuiri, or mystery, but he is not in any sense divine or supreme, and the people feel no sentiment of reverence or devotion to him" (Garner, in sep- arate reprint from the Journal of the African Society for igo2, 378). Among the Rio Nunez tribes of southwestern Soudan, the fetish- man, besides initiating the boys, acts 174 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES tion which has a wide range among the Lower Congo tribes, initiatory rites are in charge of the Nganga^ or fetish-man, who Hves with his assistants in an enclosure near each village. The candidate for this order, having previously imbibed a sleeping potion, swoons in some public assemblage and is at once surrounded by the Nganga and his assistants, who take him to the enclosure. It is given out that he is dead and has gone to the spirit-world, whence by the power of the great Nganga he will subsequently be restored to life. The novice remains with the Nganga for a prolonged, period, sometimes for several years, learning a new language, probably an archaic Bantu, and receiving instruction in the mysteries of the order. ''No woman is allowed to look on the face of one of the Nktmbay who daily parade through the woods or through the surrounding country singing a strange, weird song to warn the uninitiated of their ap- proach.'' ^ When brought back to the village and intro- duced by his new name, he ''affects to treat everything with surprise as one come to a new life from another world; to recognize no one, not even his father or mother, while his relatives receive him as raised from the dead ; and for several days the newcomer is permitted to take anything he fancies in the village, and is treated with every kindness until it is supposed that he has become accustomed to his sur- roundings. . . ^ He then decides whether he will become a fetish-man or return to his ordinary life. Ndemho or Nkita^ of the Upper Congo tribes, closely resembles Nktmbay but has long since passed out of the stage of a purely puberty organization. A tribal society, coming under the complete control of the fetish-man, has here been opened to candidates of both sexes and of all ages. The as a magistrate in cases of suspected witchcraft, prepares ordeals, and serves in general as a minister of justice (Caillie, Journal d'un Voy- age a Temboctou et a Jenne, i, 231 sq.) ; for further examples, see Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinee, i, 106; Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals, 38 sq.; Guessfeldt in Zeits. f. EthnoL, viii (1876), 207; Serpa Pinto, How I Crossed Africa, i, 238; Bastian, Ein Besuch in San Salvador, 82 sq.; H. v. Wissmann, Unter deutscher Flagge quer durch Afrika von West nach Ost, 380. ^ Glave, Six Years of Adventure in Congo-Land, 80. 2 Ihid., 81. I MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 175 fetish-man instructs the novices to feign death at a sign from him ; the seizure takes place, usually in pubHc, and the novices are then covered with a funeral cloth and taken away to the vela^ or isolated enclosure. Sometimes this feigning of sudden death approaches a form of hysteria, and the witch-doctor finds himself with a large number of can- didates for initiation. After the initiates return to the village, they are for a long time strangers to their surround- ings and act like lunatics, until the excitement and interest of the deception wears away." ^ They are now Nganga^ or the "knowing ones," a general term in the Congo tongues for a doctor, diviner, learned man, or priest. All the uninitiated are Vanga^ the " unenlightened." ^ From such practices as the Nkimba and the Ndemho illustrate, it is an easy step to the conversion of the puberty institution into a seminary for the training of the fetish- doctors or shamans. Such a step seems to have been taken among the Kaffirs, where the Isintonga^ or fetish-doctors, who are supposed to have intimate relations with the Imi- sholugUj or spirits of the dead, form a special caste, the secrets of which are revealed only to those who undergo a long initiation. The candidates must first exhibit by their possession of hallucinations the unmistakable influence of the ImtsholugUj after which their initiation by the usual secret rites occurs.^ In process of time such organizations may develop into a technically trained priesthood. En- trance to the fraternity is then gained only after a prolonged novitiate, and the performance of rites closely modelled upon those that prevailed in the earlier tribal initiations. The associated shamans rise to the dignity of priests. The priesthood stage will naturally not be reached until per- manent chieftainships or kingships have been established. The Polynesian Whare Kura affords a pertinent illustration of this development,^ nor are examples wanting in the few ^ Bentley, Dictionary and Gram- id.y Dictionary and Grammar of the mar of the Kongo Language, 506. Kongo Language, 371, 506. ^ Id., Pioneering on the Congo, ^ Fritsch, Die Eingehorenen SUd- i, 287; id., Life on the Congo, 78 sq.; Afrika's, 98 sq. ^ Supra, 1 70-171. 176 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES African instances where aristocratic-despotic conditions have been reached. In the Ogboni of the Yoruba tribes, the tribal society is seen in its furthest development as an organization whose members have the power of priests. Ogboni J Ellis tells us, is ^'inseparably connected" with the priesthood. In most Yoruba states the chief of Ogboni is head of the priesthood.^ Among the various tribes on the Gold Coast and Slave Coast, applicants for membership in the priestly orders serve a novitiate for several years, and learn the various secrets of the craft. Dancing, sleight- of-hand, and ventriloquism are important subjects in the course. Some instruction in the healing art is also imparted. Novices are taught a new language and after their con- secration as priests are given a new name. Generally they must present satisfactory evidence of possession by the god to whom they would devote themselves before they are accepted as full members of the fraternity. In some cases entrance is obtained by simulation of possession before initiation, in a manner that recalls the Ndembo and Nkimba rites. ^ Before passing to a discussion of the North American fraternities, attention may be directed to the former exist- ence among the Fuegians and other South American peoples of magical and dramatic practices most clearly connected with an earlier secret association. Fuegian puberty initiation ceremonies have now been abandoned. But in former days, before the arrival of the missionaries, the * Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 93 ^ Ellis, Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa (Lon- don, 1887), 119 sq.; id. J Ewe-Speak- ing Peoples, 139 sq.; id., Yoruba- Speaking Peoples, 97 sq. It is of considerable interest to point out the likeness between the preliminary initiation required of the medicine-men and the puberty rites at manhood. Isolation and seclusion, ordeal and purification, resurrection and a new life, are features common to both. For initiation of medicine- men of the Australians, Todas, Sea Dyaks, Guiana tribes, and North American Indians, see Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 522-530; id., Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 479-489; W. E. Marshall, A Phrenologist among the Todas (London, 1873), 138; Perham, quoted in Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, i, 280 sq.; E. F. im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, 334 sq.; Brinton, The Myths of the New World (New York, 1868), 2jgsq. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES kinaj or lodge, besides serving as the place of confinement for the lads at puberty, "etait aussi le theatre de scenes mysterieuses, bizarres, d'origine tres ancienne, dont les roles, autrefois tenus par les femmes, avaient ete ensuite exclusivement devolvus aux hommes. Ceux-ci, diversement grimes, barbouilles de sang tire de leurs propres veines, le visage cache par des bonnets en ecorce, sortaient de la kina en file indienne, sautant ou chantant, poussant des cris sauvages, et cherchant a se rendre aussi effrayants que possible. Les femmes et les enfants n'etaient pas admis dans rinterieur de la kina^ mais se pla^aient au dehors en spectateurs, manifestaient leur contentement par des cris de frayeur, alternant avec des eclats de gaiete, et chantaient en meme temps que les hommes, mais sans jamais se meler a eux. Trois des acteurs jouaient un role particulier: Tun etait suppose venir du fond de la mer, le second de rinterieur de la terre et le troisieme de Tepaisseur des forets. II n'y avait, dans tout cela, aucune idee propi- tiatoire envers un etre superieur, mais simplement Tinten- tion de s'amuser par le spectacle lui-meme/' ^ The Caishana, a Brazilian tribe on the Tunantins river, retain their masked dances in honor of the Jurupari demon.^ Among the Tucunas the masked dances are now semi-fes- tivals,^ while among the more civilized Egas of northwestern Brazil the masked dances are now nothing but theatrical performances.^ The Chilinchili festival held by the Aymara, a civilized tribe of Bolivia, affords an interesting illustration of the survival of primitive customs. In the Chi- linchiliy the participants represent the souls of the dead and go through pantomimic scenes of the familiar type. While the festival is in progress the actors must not live with their wives. Before its celebration the men who are to take part go about the village in the night-time carrying paper lanterns, ringing bells, and visiting the houses of the inhabitants to collect the tolls of money and food necessary for the feast. ^ Mission Scientifique du Cap ^ Ibid.y ii, 403-405. Horn (Paris, 1891), vii, 377. ** Ibid., ii, 204-205. ^ Bates, The Naturalist on the River Amazons , ii, 376. N lyS PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES The simple villagers regard them with the highest reverence and av^e. Mothers sometimes frighten their children with tales of the larij as the actors are called.^ The magical fraternities of the North American Indians hold a most important place in the social and religious life of the people. In the face of tribal disintegration they are still powerful factors in preserving the ancient customs and tribal history.^ The rites, in part secret, in part public, constitute a rude, but often very effective dramatization of the myths and legends. Usually only the members of the particular society which performs the rites understand their significance. The actors, masked or costumed, rep- resent animals or divine beings whose history the myths re- count. Candidates for initiation give much attention to the preparation of the songs and chants sung by members at the lodge meetings or at the public performances of the societies. By means of elaborate rituals and songs, by pictographs and sand paintings,^ the religious traditions concerning the ancestors of the tribe are carefully preserved. Among the Omahas each society has its special songs and music, trans- mitted by official keepers.^ Siouan traditions are "mys- terious things, not to be spoken of lightly or told on ordinary occasions. These traditions were preserved in the secret societies of the tribes. They explain the origin of the gentes and subgentes, of fire, corn, the pipes, bows and arrows, etc.'' ^ The sacred formulas of the Cher- okees include medicine, love, hunting, fishing, war, self- protection, destruction of enemies, witchcraft, the crops, the council, the ball play, and many other subjects of interest to the Indian mind.^ The Ojibwa traditions of ''Indian genesis and cosmogony and the ritual of initiation ^ Nusser in Globus, Hi (1887), 123-126. 2 Cf. Miss Fletcher in Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, v (1892), 135. ^ An interesting and suggestive parallel to these sand paintings are the ground drawings made on the occasion of various totemic cere- monies of the Australian tribes (Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia , 239 sq.) ^ Miss Fletcher in Proc. Amer, Assoc. Adv. Sci.j xliv (1895), 281. ^ Dorsey in Eleventh Ann. Rep, Bur. Ethnol., 430. ^ Mooney in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 307. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES into the Society of the Mide constitute what is to them a religion, even more powerful and impressive than the Christian religion is to the average civilized man/' ^ The winter ceremonials of the Kwakiutl, Koskimo, and other tribes are in close connection with the tribal traditions and mythology. It seems probable that the myths explaining these winter ceremonials were of gradual accretion, and grew up ''to explain and develop a ritual which originally consisted only of disconnected dances/' ^ These Indian fraternities look back to a divine founder, whose worship is maintained in the societies he organized. According to the Ojibwa legends, the Medewiwin was founded by Minabozho, the servant of Dzhe Manidoy the Good Spirit. Minabozho first presented the secret rites to the otter, who thereupon gave them to his kinsmen, the ancestors of the Ojibwa. The ceremonials were . intended by Dzhe Manido to protect his Indian children from sick- ness and death. ^ Sia societies were originated by the gods who gave to the organization "secrets for the healing of the sick.'' ^ Poshaiankia taught the ancestors of the Zuni, Taos, and other Pueblo Indians their agriculture and systems of worship; and, after organizing the secret societies, disappeared from the world. But he is still "the con- scious auditor of the prayers of his children, the invisible ruler of the spiritual Shipapulima^ and of the lesser gods of the medicine orders, the principal 'Finisher of the Paths of our Lives.'" ^ Each Hopi society also looks back to its ancestral divinity.^ One of the most important duties of members of these fraternities is the healing of the sick. The close relation- ship which the members are believed to have with the spirits gives them much consideration as workers in magic. Part ^ Hoffman, ibid., 151. ^ Boas in Jour. Amer. Geogr. Soc, xxviii (1896), 242-243. ^ For the complete legend, cf. Hoffman in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.y 166-167, 175; the Menomini legend, id.y Fourteenth Ann. Rep., 87 sq. ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Eleventh Ann, Rep., 69. ^ Gushing in Second Ann. Rep., 16. ® Fewkes in Nineteenth Ann. Rep,, 998. i8o PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES of the initiatory training consists in the study of the tradi- tional pharmacopoeia of the society. The behef in the mysterious powers of the members is illustrated by the com- mon custom of the Midewiwin and Mitawit societies of initiating a child who has been under the charge of the healers. The patient is brought into the sacred structure, or lodge, where the evil manidos can be expelled from the body. If the child is restored to health, he is regarded as a regularly initiated member, though additional instruction is always given him when he reaches maturity.^ At Sia an adult or a child may join a society after being restored to health by a theurgist. At the beginning of the new year, the cult societies hold synchronal ceremonies for four days and nights, when the fetish medicines are prepared. Those who possess real or imagined diseases gather in the chamber of the society of which they are members, and receive treatment from the theurgists.^ Nearly all of the Sia societies are divided into two or more orders; as candi- dates pass through them they are instructed in various medicinal arts. In the Snake Society the candidate must pass through three degrees before the great privilege of handling the snakes in the annual festivities is granted.^ For admission to the third and last degrees, two years spent in memorizing the songs are required.^ Akon- warahy or the False-Faces, a society of masked men formerly widespread throughout the Iroquois tribes of New York and Canada, derived its earlier power from the supposed association of its members with evil spirits. According to the Iroquois belief, certain spirits whose whole entity was comprehended in their ugly visages, were able to bring about various ailments and diseases. Mr. Boyle, who recently found the False-Faces on the Grand River Reser- vation, reports that the secrecy is not now maintained in anything like the old-fashioned way; the initiatory rites contain nothing cruel or revolting, and the purpose of the ^ Hoffman in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 281 sq.; id., Fourteenth Ann. Rep. J 68-69. ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Eleventh Ann. Rep., 74, 84, 97 sq., 113 sq. 3 Ibid., 74-75. ^ Ibid., 75, 86. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES i8i society IS simply that of visiting the sick and making charms for effecting cures. ^ The Tsiahk of the Cape Flattery Indians is apparently purely a medical society whose performances are given w^hen a chief or member of his family is ill. The patient is first initiated.^ Most of the North American fraternities have special'' medi- cines/' prepared w^ith great secrecy and the objects of much reverent regard. Those who belong to the Witcita^ an Omaha society, ''have a medicine which they use in three w^ays: they rub it on their bodies before going into battle; they rub it on bullets to make them kill the foe, and they ad- minister it to horses, making them smell it when they are about to surround a buffalo herd."' ^ At Zuni pueblo the Saniakiakwey or Hunting Order, has charge of the religious ceremonies on the occasion of the great mid- winter tribal hunts. The sacred fetishes in possession of the order, are taken out by the members while on the hunt. ''It is believed that without recourse to these fetishes or to prayers and other inducements toward the game animals, especially the deer tribe, it would be useless to attempt the chase." ' The magical powers wielded by fraternity members are often used for selfish ends. Persons admitted into the Midewiwin of the Ojibwa are believed to possess the power of communing with supernatural spirits, — manidos^ — and in consequence they are much sought after and respected. The society has the usual division into degrees, each with its elaborate ritual. The higher degrees are reserved for those able to pay the costly initiation fees and to profit by the long preparatory training required of all successful ^ Tenth Annual Archceological Re- port of David Boyle to the Minister of Education of Ontario (Toronto, 1898), 157-160; cf also L. H. Morgan, quoted by Dall in Third Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 144-145; and Smith in Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, i (1888), 187-193. One of these Flying Heads, or False-Face spirits is pictured in R. M. Dorman, The Origin of Prim- itive Superstitions (Philadelphia, 188 1), frontispiece. Legends con- nected with them are given by Mrs. E. A. Smith in Second Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 59-62. ^ Swan in Smithsonian Contri- butions to Knowledge, xvi, 73-75. ^ Dorsey in Third Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 349. * Gushing in Second Ann. Rep., 39. i82 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES aspirants. For the first degree the candidate must make many presents to his preceptor. He must also pass a novitiate of several years employed in collecting the pres- ents for the priests, v^hich, v^ith the gifts of food for the feasts, constitute the entrance fees. The expensiveness of the degrees increases as the candidate proceeds higher, the second degree requiring presents double the value of those offered for entrance to the first, the third requiring three times the value of the first, and similarly for the fourth degree. The latter tv^o degrees are rarely conferred, owing to their excessive cost. Sometimes poor but ambitious candidates burden themselves v^ith lifelong debts in their efforts to procure admission to the society or to rise through the successive degrees. Some additional medical knov^l- edge is received in the higher degrees and in general a repetition of the initiation ceremony is supposed to add to the magical pov^ers of the initiate.^ ^^The amount of influence v^ielded by Mide generally, and particularly such as have received four degrees, is beyond belief. The rite of the Midewiwin ... is believed to elevate such a Mide to the nearest possible approach to the reputed character of Minabozhoy and to place within his reach the super- natural power of invoking and communing with Kitshi Manido himself." ^ Many of the fraternities, besides their medical functions, are intrusted with various magical rites connected especially with the ripening of the crops, the production of rain, and the multiplication of animals used for food. The Buffalo society of the Omahas, composed of those who have super- natural communications with buffaloes, gives a great dance and goes through various ceremonies ''when the corn is withering for want of rain." ^ The Snake society of the ^ Hoffman in Seventh Ann. Rep. demonstration of the genuineness Bur. Ethnol.y 164, 204, 221, 224-225, and divine origin of the Midewiwin^^ 241, 251, 274-275. His preceptor {ibid., 204). For initiation into the gives the novice much information Mitawit of the Menomini Indians, as to the preparation of various see Hoffman in Fourteenth Ann. medicinal remedies. Later in his Rep., 68 sq. course he learns how to perform ^ Id., Seventh Ann. Rep., 274. sleight-of-hand tricks "with which ^ Dorsey in Third Ann. Rep., 3,47- to present to the incredulous ocular Other fraternities among the Omahas MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 183 Sia has most elaborate rain ceremonials.^ The Ahshi- wanni of the Zuni is a priesthood whose members fast and pray for rain.^ The Hopi have two great groups of annual ceremonies: the Katcinas coming from December to July, and the Unmasked or Nine Days' ceremonials during the months of August, September, October, and November.^ The magical practices which form the principal features of these festivals have already received attention.^ Of considerable significance is the survival in many of these American fraternities of initiatory practices once invariably associated with the arrival of the clansmen at puberty. In one instance, found among the Mandans of the Plains, the initiation of the youths at manhood was a most important function of the Medicine Lodge, the great fraternity which existed in that tribe. The rites of initiation in this tribe were of a barbarous character not generally found among the Indians, and recall with great exactness the initiatory practices of more savage peoples. According to Catlin's famous account, the Okeepa was an annual religious ceremony which had several distinct objects. One was the dancing of the bull-dance, a magical practice, by the strict performance of which a supply of buffalo would be secured for the coming season. In the bull-dance, the performers were covered with the skins of different ani- mals, the heads of the latter serving as masks. The dancers personated what were doubtless the totemic animals of their are the Horse, Wolf, and Grizzly Bear. Members are supposed to have supernatural communication with the animals which form the tutelary deities of the society {ihid., 348 sq.). ^ See the description by Mrs. Stevenson in Eleventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.y 76 sq. ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthro- pology (Chicago, 1894), 315. ^ Fewkes in Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.y 256. * Supraj 156-159. Some of these societies of the Pueblo Indians are phallic organiza- tions with rites of a character not easily described. They are all de- voted to magical practices. Com- pare the rites of the Koshare order among the Queres and other New Mexican tribes (Bourke, Scatalogic Rites of All Nations y 9) ; of the Zuni Nehue-Cue {ibid., 4 sq.; BandeHer, The Delight Makers, 44 sq., 134 sq.) ; and of the Hopi New Fire societies (Fewkes in Amer. Anthropologist, new series, i, 1899, 527 w.^; ii, 1900, 81). i84 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES clans — bears, swans, wolves — and in their performances imitated the actions and habits of the animals and chanted peculiar and appropriate songs known to the performers alone. Such totemic representations, like the Arunta Quabaray were the strictly guarded property of those who by initiation were entitled to give them.^ A second object was ^'for the purpose of conducting all the young men of the tribe, as they annually arrive to the age of manhood, through an ordeal of privation and torture, which, while it is supposed to harden their muscles, and prepare them for extreme endurance, enables the chiefs who are specta- tors to the scene, to decide upon their comparative bodily strength and ability to endure the extreme privations and sufferings that often fall to the lots of Indian warriors; and that they may decide who is the most hardy and best able to lead a war-party in case of extreme exigency." ^ At the ceremony witnessed by Catlin, fifty young men, all of whom had arrived at puberty during the preceding year, were present for initiation.^ Before the actual ordeal the young men for four days and nights were strictly guarded in the Medicine Lodge against the approach or gaze of women, "who, I was told, had never been allowed to catch the slightest glance of its interior.'' ^ During the entire period of their seclusion the candidates were not allowed to eat, drink, or sleep. Their bodies were covered with clay of different colors — red, yellow, and white. When, at last, the greatest ordeal was at hand, they were taken to the centre ^ George Catlin, O-Kee-Pa (Lon- don, 1867), 18 sq. For another ac- count of this Buffalo fraternity, see Catlin in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Institution for 188^ (Washington, 1886), part ii, 309-311. From this account it would appear that the Buffalo dance might be held when- ever there was danger of the buffalo deserting the neighborhood of the camp. The dance once started is kept going night and day until ''buf- falo come." When a dancer becomes fatigued, he signifies the fact by bending forward and sinking his body towards the ground. Another dancer then draws bow and hits him with a blunt arrow. He falls like a buffalo, is seized, dragged out of the ring by his heels, and symbolically is skinned and cut up. ^ Id.^ Letters and Notes on the Manners J Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians (Lon- don, 1841), i, 157. 3 Id., 0-Kee-Pa, 13. ^ Ibid., 41. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 185 of the lodge and suspended by thongs passed through the muscles of the breasts and shoulders. Then they were rapidly turned until, fainting under the torture, their life- less bodies were lowered to the ground. While in this condition, no one was allowed to offer any aid to the youths. ''They were here enjoying their inestimable privilege of voluntarily intrusting their lives to the keeping of the Great Spirit, and chose to remain there until the Great Spirit gave them strength to get up and walk away." ^ After a partial recovery, they presented themselves before a masked man who, with one blow of his axe, cut off the little finger of the left hand. Sometimes, we are told, the candidates would offer as an additional sacrifice the forefinger of the same hand. After these ceremonies, the novices were taken out of the lodge, and in the presence of the entire tribe they passed through further trials of their endurance. In this way the chiefs were able to decide who were best fitted to lead a war-party or to occupy the other responsible positions of a tribesman.^ The Navajo ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis is one of the most elaborate of the religious rites of that tribe. At its celebration sometimes as many as a thousand tribesmen are present. Hasjelti Dailjis is the dance of Hasjelti^ one of the most conspicuous of the Navajo gods. The 'Mance," however, is rather histrionic than saltatory, constituting, in fact, like the Hopi Snake Dance, an impos- ing festival. Its magical purpose is that of a medicine dance, and it is held for the purpose of curing distinguished men able to afford the expense of supporting the performers and their retinue during the celebration. In the ceremonial witnessed by Mr. James Stevenson in 1885, the numerous participants in the dance personified the various gods, and with most scrupulous exactness went through an elaborate ^ Catlin, ibid., 28. In the Chey- enne ceremonies which otherwise resemble those of the Mandans, the suspension of the youths by thongs passed through the pectoral muscles is a private ordeal which takes place apart from the camp. The youth is left alone and without food or water, until he succeeds in breaking loose (Dodge, The Plains of the Great West, 257-260). 2 Catlin, 0-Kee-Pa, 29, 31. i86 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES ritual. On the eighth day of the celebration, the children of the tribe who were present were initiated into some of the mysteries. All the boys and girls between five and ten years of age were taken into the secret lodge, where they received what must have been a painful chastisement, the boys being whipped with the needles of the Spanish bayonet. If this ordeal was bravely borne, the children were then suddenly confronted with the masked men of the order, into the mystery of which they had never before been al- lowed to penetrate. ''Up to this time they were supposed never to have had a close view of the masks or to have in- spected anything pertaining to their religious ceremonies. ... At the close of this ceremony the representatives of the gods removed their masks and called upon the children to raise their heads. The amazement depicted upon the faces of the children when they discovered their own people and not gods, afforded much amusement to the spectators." After initiation, the children were permitted to enter the lodge and see the masks and the sand paintings.^ The Night Chant is another of these Navajo rites, performed not only for the curing of disease, but also to secure abundant rains, good crops, and other blessings. "Nearly all the important characters of the Navajo pantheon are named in its myths, depicted in its paintings, or represented by its masqueraders." ^ Not until after a formal initiation is a Navajo privileged to enter the medicine lodge during the performance of the rite. To obtain the highest privi- leges of the order, he must go through the ceremony of initiation four times; it is not until one "has submitted himself for the fourth time to the flagellation that he is permitted to wear the masks and personate the gods." ^ Though some individuals neglect their initiation until after they reach maturity, the rite is usually undergone during childhood. Initiation consists chiefly in the pres- entation of the novices before the dreadful Teiy the buga- boos of the Navajo children. Up to the time of initiation ^ Stevenson in Eighth Ann, Rep. * Matthews in Mem. Amer. Mus. Bur. Ethnol., 265 sq. Nat. Hist., vi (1902), 4. 3 Ibid., 119. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 187 they are taught to beheve that the masked Tei are genuine abnormal creatures. Instead of corporal punishment, a Navajo mother substitutes a threat of the vengeance of these masked characters, should her children be disobedient. But w^hen they are old enough to understand the value of initiation they are taken to the medicine lodge, and, after preliminary chastisements, they learn that the dreadful Tei are only their intimate friends or relations in disguise. After initiation, they are privileged to enter the lodge during the performance of the Night Chant. ^ The Sia Indians of New Mexico have the Katsuna society, the members of which wear masks and personate th^ Kat- suna, The latter are mythological creations, having human bodies and monster heads. They accompanied the ances- tors of the Sia to this world, and ever since that time they are believed to have had much influence with the cloud people who bripg rain and snow. Katsuna performances are, therefore, like the Hopi Katctnasy of a magical character. Both sexes are initiated. The uninitiated believe that these masked personators are the actual Katsuna divinities. When the boys and girls are ten to twelve years of age, and "have a good head," they are initiated. The Katsuna each carry a bunch of Spanish bayonet, with which to chastise the boys and girls. After this preliminary ordeal the Katsuna raise their masks and say to the children, "'Now you know the Katsuna you will henceforth have only good thoughts and a good heart; sometime, perhaps you will be one of us. You must not speak of these things to anyone not initiated."'^ No Zuni child above the age of four years may, after death, enter the Kiva of the Kokko ancestral gods, unless during his lifetime he has been initiated into the society of the Kokko and has received the sacred breath of the gods. "Those who personate the Kokko are endowed for the time being with their actual breath."^ The personators are young men who mask themselves in the Kivas of the socie- ^ Matthews in Mem. Amer. Mus. ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Fifth Ann. Nat. Hist., vi (1902), 117 sq. Rep, Bur. EthnoL, 548. ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Eleventh Ann. Rep. Bur. EthnoL, 33, 116-118. i88 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES ties. The ceremonies of initiation are supposed to be "in direct obedience to the orders and instructions given at the time of the appearance of the Kokko upon the earth, and their masks are counterparts of the original or spiritual Kokko.'' ^ The first or involuntary initiation occurs every four years; the vovs^s are made by sponsors for the child, w^ho then assumes his regular tribal name. Previous to initiation he is know^n only as a baby boy, younger boy, or older boy, as the case may be. The child is taken to the Kiva and there undergoes a severe w^hipping, but he does not flinch under the ordeal. A fast for four days completes the preliminary initiation.^ The second or voluntary initia- tion occurs at an annual ceremonial. Though an optional rite, ''the father and the godfather do not fail to impress upon the boy the importance of the second initiation."^ At this ceremony the novices are again severely w^hipped and if they bravely bear the ordeal, the Kokko floggers lift their masks and reveal their identity. Then the lads are taken before the Zuni High Priest who gives them a lecture, ''instructing them in some of the secrets of the order, v^hen they are told if they betray the secrets confided to them, they v^ill be pun- ished by death; their heads v^ill be cut off^ v^ith a stone knife; for so the Kokko has ordered."^ This discourse concluded, each child "goes to the godfather's house, where his head and hands are bathed in yucca suds by the mother and sisters of the godfather, they repeating prayers that the youth may be true to his vows, etc. The boy then returning to his own home is tested by his father, who says, 'You are no longer ignorant, you are no longer a little child, but a young man. Were you pleased with the words of ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.j 547. For the legend, see 541 sq. ^'To the Indian mind famihar with the traditions of his tribe, these personifications have a deep significance in the early history of the race. The dress, style of ornamentation, and character of the dance are said to be very old, and clinging as the aboriginal mind does to conservatism in religious beliefs, one can well believe that these dances are the least modified of all their manners and customs (Fewkes in Jour. Amer. Ethnol. and Archceol., i (1891), 21-22). ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. ^ 549 sq. ' I^id., 553. ' Ibid., 554. MAGICAL FRATERNITIES 189 the Kokko? What did the priest tell you?' The boy does not forget himself and reveal anything that was said, for the terror overhanging him is too great." ^ In the Powamu festival, one of the great Katcina rites of the Hopi villagers, the children are subjected to ordeals which resemble those described as existing among the Navajo, Sia, and Zuni Indians. Tunwupkatcina^ arrayed in all his paraphernalia and carrying a yucca whip in his hand, receives the frightened children as their godfathers bring them before him. The whipping once over, the nov- ices are compelled to abstain from flesh and salt for four days. After this they may look without danger upon the Katcina masks and other sacred objects in the Kivas, They may now learn the Katcina songs, and themselves act as Katcinas, Previous to initiation the children are never allowed to see an unmasked Katcina; they are taught to believe that the masked personages appearing in the dances are superhuman visitors.^ At a later period the children are initiated into one of the four Hopi fraternities known as Agave {Kwan)^ Horn (Ahl)y Singers (Tataokani)y and fF owochtmtu,^ After so long an occupation with the rites of savage and barbarous peoples, it would be tempting, did space allow, to turn to the mysteries of classical antiquity and to dis- close in the rites of the Eleusinia and Thesmophoriaj the dimly veiled survivals of an earlier and a ruder age. For ^ Mrs. Stevenson, loc. cit. 2 Fewkes in Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. EthnoL, 284 sq. For a fuller description of the Powamu initiation, see Voth in Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological Series, iii, no. 2 (1901), 88 sq. ^ The obscure word Wowochimtu means probably the fraternity of grown men." Boys once initiated are no longer ^'boys," but young men." During the great Wowochim ceremony, ^^initiations into the Agave, Horn, and Singers' societies also take place, the significance of all being the same: initiation from boy- hood into manhood, and while the Wowochimtu is a distinct fraternity, of which the Horn, Agave, and Singer men are not members, the latter sometimes call the initiations into their respective orders in a general way initiations into the W owochimtu.'^ (Dorsey and Voth in Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropo- logical Series, iii, 1900, no. i, 10 n.). igo PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES the magical practices and dramatic ceremonies afterward elaborated into the ritual of a solemn religious cult, which were the chief characteristics of the Greek mysteries, may be traced by the curious student to primitive rites in no wise dissimilar to those which, as we have seen, embody the faith and worship of the modern savage. Omnia exeunt in mysterium ! ^ ^ The survival of death and resur- rection ideas and of other primitive conceptions and practices in the Thesmophoria, or mysteries of De- meter, has been discussed by Andrew Lang in Myth, Ritual, and Religion (London, 1899), ii, 286 sq. On the Eleusinian mysteries in the same con- nection, see Myth, Ritual, and Reli- gion, i, 270 sq., and Count Goblet d^Alviella^s articles in Rev. Hist. Relig., xlvi (1902), nos. 2 and 3; xlvii (1903), nos. i and 2; id.y Eleusinia: de quelques problemes relatifs aux Mysteres d^Eleusis (Paris, 1903). Some of the likenesses be- tween the classical mysteries and those of primitive peoples are also discussed by Achelis, ^^Geheimbiinde und Pubertatsweihen im Lichte der Ethnologie," in Ausland, Ixv (1892), 529-534; and by Howitt in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., iii (Sidney, 1890), 347-348. On the Mithraic mysteries in this light, see C. S. Wake, The Evolution of Morality (London, 1878), ii, chap. vi. CHAPTER XI diffusion of initiation ceremonies 1. Australia Over the wide expanse of the AustraHan continent two great types of initiation rites prevail. These are the Bora ^ ceremonies of the tribes occupying the eastern coast and the interior westward throughout the greater portion of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland; and what we may for convenience call the Apulia ^ ceremonies of the central and western tribes which range over more than half the continent. Among the latter tribes initiation cere- monies exist of much greater complication than those of the eastern tribes. Broadly speaking, the best line of de- marcation seems to be the presence or absence of subincision as the leading feature in the rites. On the basis of the careful studies and maps of Mr. R. H. Mathews,^ it becomes possible to fix with substantial accuracy the boundaries of the tribes having ceremonies of either the Bora or Apulia type. A line drawn from Cape Jervis at St. Vincent's Gulf, South Australia, and continued in a northeasterly ^ The name Bora is usually derived from ^^bor" or ^^boor," the belt of manhood conferred upon the novice at the Kamilaroi celebration (Ridley, Kamilaroi and other Aus- tralian Languages, 156). Mackenzie says, ^'It is called the ^boorah' or place of the ^boorr' because the boorr, or belt, is used in the incanta- tions" {Jour. Anthrop. Inst., vii, 1878, 244). Bora is the Kamilaroi name for the initiation ceremonies which among other eastern tribes are known as Bunan, Burhong, Keeparra, Toara, etc. 2 Among the Arunta, Apulia is the term applied to the ground where the ceremony of circumcision takes place (Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 646). ^ Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxvii (1898), 327 sq.; xxxix (1900), 93, 577; Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxii (1898), 241 sq. IQI PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES direction through New South Wales and then northerly through Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria, separates the tribes which practise circumcision from those that do not. East of this line Bora ceremonies, in which the prin- cipal rite is either evulsion of teeth or depilation, prevail. Between this and a second line which begins at Port Augusta, at the head of Spencer Gulf, South Australia, and then con- tinues in a northerly direction until it joins the first line at Longreach, Queensland, is the area occupied by the tribes which practise circumcision alone. The ceremonies of these tribes may be described as a mixture of Bora and Apulia rites. Extending in a westward direction from this second line is the large area occupied by the tribes which possess the Apulia rites and practise both circumcision and subincision. Beyond a line drawn from Cape Arid on the Great Australian Bight to North West Cape on Plymouth Gulf, neither of these rites has been observed. Considering the general homogeneity of the Australian race in physical characteristics and in mental and social development, it is remarkable that such wide divergences in initiation practices should be observed among them. As compared with the ceremonies of the eastern tribes, initia- tions of the Apulia type are certainly far more elaborate. Bora ceremonies are held at infrequent intervals and at them it is customary to initiate a number of candidates together. Though their presence at succeeding Boras is commonly required, the novices usually become full mem- bers of the tribe by the one initiatory ceremony. Among the Arunta and other central tribes, it is not usual to operate on more than one, or at most two, novices at the same time ; ^ as a consequence initiations must be held with considerable frequency. Candidates do not become fully initiated tribes- men until a number of ordeals, coming at different intervals and lasting until the initiates are men of mature years, have been successfully undergone. Rites like nose-boring and evulsion of teeth, which form the leading features of Bora ceremonies, among the Arunta and other central and northern tribes, are neither sacred nor secret and are prac- ^ Spencer and Gillen, ci/., 218. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 193 tised by men and women alike. Their place as secret rites is taken by circumcision, subincision, and the Engwura ceremonies, though they still persist as vestigial customs/ Among the Queensland tribes studied by Mr. W. E. Roth, both evulsion of teeth and cicatrization are independent of the initiation ceremonial.^ Thus customs once common to central and eastern tribes have been retained only by the latter. These Arunta ceremonies, in particular, show the results of long elaboration under peaceful conditions. The isolation of the tribe, the circumstance that it is not engaged in constant warfare at its borders, and the further circumstance that it has given up cannibalism (still prac- tised in Queensland), lead one to believe that this tribe has advanced further in civilization than its neighbors. Cer- tainly the Arunta elders appear to have employed their leisure in the elaboration of tribal customs to a greater com- plexity than is elsewhere exhibited on the continent. On the theory that the Tasmanians now extinct were the remnants of a Nigritic race which once peopled Australia, it is possible, as Mr. H. L. Roth suggests, that an invading race may have adopted some of the customs of the earlier inhabitants.^ Initiation ceremonies among other customs may have been so borrowed or at least modified by contact with the aboriginal inhabitants. On this hypothesis the southeastern Australian tribes representing the first invaders ought to possess the most archaic customs, and these ought, of all the Australian initiation ceremonies, to show most likeness to those of the Tasmanians. Unfortunately, we know so little of the Tasmanian rites that all comparison must at best be fragmentary. What evidence we have indicates that Tasmanian initiations, if not actually in decay, were of a much simpler character than those now generally practised on the mainland. Reference has already been made to the apparent decline of initiatory rites among the Victorian tribes. Circumcision, practised by the peoples ^ Spencer and Gillen, Native ^ Ethnological Studies among the Tribes of Central Australia, ii8 n}, North-West-Central Queensland Aho- 213, 217-218, 450-459; Northern rigines, 170. Tribes of Central Australia, 589 sq. ^ Aborigines of Tasmania, 227. o PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES of the south and east coast of New Guinea, may have been introduced by an invading race v^hich came from that direction. Subincision is undoubtedly a native AustraHan development, for its like is not to be found outside the con- tinent. Arunta traditions indicate its introduction as sub- sequent to circumcision.^ In the light of these considera- tions it seems at least possible that the ceremonies of those central and northern tribes w^hich practise both circumcision and subincision, are the least primitive of all the Australian rites. On this hypothesis they may represent the elaboration and development of earlier rites once possessed in common by the various divisions of the Australian race.^ ^ Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 402. The operation itself is known by many different terms: Sturt's ''terrible rite," whistling, artificial hypospa- dias, kulpi (its Dieri name), intro- cision, and subincision. For the operation and its results, see the paper by T. P. A. Stuart, professor of physiology in the University of Sidney, Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxx (1896), 115- 123; and the description by Mik- lucho-Maclay in Zeits. f. Ethnol., xiv (1882), 27-29. Eyre, who seems to have been the first to suggest a neo- Malthusian purpose for the custom (Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, i, 212-213, ii, 332), was followed by a number of other writers who succeeded in popularizing this entirely erroneous impression. There is no evidence that the operation Kmits or prevents procreation. See the opinions ex- pressed by such competent observers as Roth, Ethnological Studies, 1 79 sq. ; Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 264; Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 329-330; and Mathews in Jour, and Proc. Roy.^ Soc. New South Wales, xxxi (1897), pp. xxvii-xxviii. ^ For some early accounts of in- itiation rites chiefly in New South Wales, see David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (London, 1804), 365-374; John Turnbull, A Voyage round the World (London, 1805), i, 85; James Montgomery, Journal of Voyages and Travels by the Rev. Daniel Tyer- man and George Bennet, Esq. (Lon- don, 183 1), ii, 155-156; John Hen- derson, Observations on the Colonies of New South Wales and Van Die- men'' s Land (Calcutta, 1832), 145 sq.; W. H. Breton, Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia, and Van Dieman^s Land (London, 1833), 232-234; T. L. Mitchell, Three Expeditions into the Interior of East- ern Australia (London, 1838), ii, 339- 340; (Sir) George Grey, Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia (London, 1841), ii, 343 sq.; E. J. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Dis- covery into Central Australia (Lon- don, 1845), ii, 332-340; G. F. Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand (London, 1847), i, 113-116; ii, 222-224; J. D. Lang, Queensland (London, 1861), 342 sq.; Oldfield in Trans. Ethnol. Soc, new series, iii (1865), 252-253. Various numbers of the Science of Man and Australian Anthrop- ological Journal contain brief accounts of initiation ceremonies witnessed DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 195 11. Tasmania There is some evidence for the existence of manhood rites among the Tasmanians. Bonwick, who made diHgent by early settlers: vol. i, 83-84, 97-98, 115-117; and vol. i, new series, 7-1 1, 85; ii, 145, 148; iii, 115; and iv, 62- 63. The personal narrative of Mr. Honery is reproduced by William Ridley, Kdmilaroi and other Aus- tralian Languages (Sidney, 1875), 154. Cf. also Mackenzie in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., vii (1878), 251-252. Some information of varying ac- curacy is summarized in the com- pilations by R. B. Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria (Melbourne, 1878), i, 58-75; George Taplin, The Folklore, Manners, Customs, and Languages of the South Australian Aborigines (Adelaide, 1879), 41 sq., 79 sq., 99 sq.; J. D. Woods, The Native Tribes of South Australia (Adelaide, 1879), xxviii sq., 15 sq., 162 sq., 226 sq.^ 267 sq.; James Daw- son, Australian Aborigines (Mel- bourne, 1881), 30; E. M. Curr, The Australian Race (Melbourne, 1886- 1887), i, 71-76; see also vol. iii, index, under ^'Circumcision." Recent years have witnessed great accretions to our knowledge of these Australian ceremonies, and they are to-day the best known of those of any primitive people. For the Bora cere- monies, chief reliance must be placed on the admirable studies by Mr. A. W. Howitt and Mr. R. H. Mathews. Mr. Howitt as an initiated tribesman has written ''On Some AustraKan Ceremonies of Initiation," Jour. An- throp. Inst., xiii (1884), 432-459; "The Jeraeil, or Initiation Cere- monies of the Kurnai Tribes," ibid., xiv (1885), 301-325, and has sum- marized his discoveries in an address published in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., \\i (Sidney, 1891), 343-351. ^ An earlier account of the Kurnai in- itiation is given by the same writer in Kdmilaroi and Kurnai (Mel- bourne, 1880), 192-199. In The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London, 1904), 509-677, Mr. Howitt has elaborated his preliminary ar- ticles and has added much new matter of great value. Mr. Mathews in a long series of careful studies has described and classified the principal ceremonies of the different tribes of Victoria, New South Wales, Queens- land, and South AustraHa. A list of these articles with the particular parts of Australia to which they apply is given in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxvii (1898), 66-69. Later articles by the same author are to be found in Amer. Anthropologist, xi (1898), 325- 343; ibid., new series, ii (1900), 139- 144; ibid., iii (1901), 337-341 ; Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxix (1900), 570-573; ibid., 622-638; Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xxxiv (1900), 262-281; and V Anthropologic, xiii (1902), 233-240. The writings of Mr. John Fraser may also be referred to: Jour, and Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales, xvi (1882), 204-220; id., Jour, of Trans. Vict. Inst., xxii (1889), 155-181; id., The Aborigines of New South Wales (Sidney, 1892), 6-21. Mr. John Mathew in Eaglehawk and Crow (London, 1899), 116 sq., describes some Bora rites. See also Mrs. K. L. Parker's account. The Euah- layi Tribe (London, 1905), 61-82. For the Queensland tribes our chief au- thority is Mr. W. E. Roth, Ethno- logical Studies among the North-West- Central Queensland Aborigines (Bris- bane, 1897), 169-180. The elaborate studies of Messrs. Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes 196 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES inquiries among the old settlers of the island, ^believes that the custom existed "more or less'' among the different tribes.^ Circumcision was unknown; scarification and the extraction of teeth were the usual manhood rites. ^ IIL Melanesia Initiation ceremonies have been observed among all the widely scattered branches of the Melanesian race; in the islands of East Malaysia; in New Guinea; and throughout that great island group which extends from New Guinea to the Fiji Archipelago. The Kakian Society of Ceram has been elsewhere described.^ The Dutch anthropologist, Riedel, found traces of primitive puberty rites among the aborigines of the island of Halamahera.^ Such rites have also been recently noted in Java,^ and there is some evidence for their previous existence in Borneo.^ of Central Australia (London, 1899), 212-386, and The Northern Tribes of Central Australia (London, 1904), 328-374, are a mine of information for the customs of important tribes previously almost unknown. The ceremonies of the western Austra- lian tribes have so far received little attention from investigators. Except in the more thickly populated dis- tricts, they exist in a less developed state than elsewhere on the continent. See, however, Bassett-Smith in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxiii (1894), 327; Froggatt in Proc. Linnean Soc. New South Wales, second series, iii (1888), 652; D. W. Carnegie, Spinifex and Sand (London, 1898), 39 sq.; Clem- ent in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., xvi (1903), 10 sq.; Hardman in Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., third series, i (1888), 73-74- ^ James Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians (London, 1870), 60; 186 sq., 202 sq. ^ H. L. Roth, The Aborigines of Tasmania (Halifax, England, 1899), 115 sq. Cf. also R. B. Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria (Melbourne, 1878), ii, 386; Barnard in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., ii (Sidney, 1890), 601 ; Mathews in Proc. Amer. Philos. Assoc., xxxix (1900), 573- 574. ^ The best account is by J. G. F. Riedel, De Sluik-en kroesharige Ras- sen tusschen Selebes en Papua ('s-Gravenhage, 1886), 108-111. See also Van Rees, Die Pioniers der Be- schaving in Neerlands Indie, 92 sq. ; Adolf Bastian, Indonesien (Berlin, 1884), part i, 145-147; Joest in Verhandl. Berlin. Gesell. f. Anthrop. Ethnol. u. Urgeschichte (1882), 64- 65; Schulze, ibid. (1877), 117; Prochnik in Mitth. k. k. Geogr. Gesells. in Wien, xxxv (1892), 595- 598. ^ Zeits. f Ethnol., xvii (1885), 81-82. ^ H. Breitenstein, Einundzwanzig Jahre in Indien (Leipzig, 1899), i, 2ig sq. ® A. R. Hein, Die Bildenden Kilnste bei den Dayaks auf Borneo (Wien, 1890), 35-37. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 197 In New Guinea, beginning with Kaiser Wilhelm Land, we may note the important Barium ceremonieswhich include an area along the Maclay coast from Huon Gulf to Astro- labe Bay, where they are replaced by the Asa ceremonies. The linguistic differences which these coast tribes present do not seem to be perpetuated in their initiation ceremo- nies/ For British New Guinea the best and most recent account has reference only to the important Toaripi tribes living in the Elema district along the coast between Cape Possession on the east and the Alele river on the west.^ Other accounts dealing with the Motumotuans of Williams river have been given chiefly by the late missionary, the Rev. James Chalmers.^ West of the Elema district initia- tion rites have been discovered in Kiwai Island at the mouth of the Fly river,^ and among the four tribes inhabiting the mouth of the Wanigela or Kemp Welch river in the Cen- tral district of British New Guinea.^ At Mowat, Daudai, the initiation rites survive in a degenerate form.® In the Mekeo district, the Fulaari organization has police functions closely resembling those of African secret societies.^ Pro- fessor A. C. Haddon has summarized much of our knowl- edge of the ceremonies of these Gulf tribes in his elaborate monograph on The Decorative Art of British New ^ On the ceremonials of the Jabim tribes, see O. Schellong, **Das Bar- lum-Fest der Gegend Finschafens (Kaiserwilhelmsland)j" Intern. Ar- chiv f. Ethnogr., ii (1889), 145- 162; id.j Zeits. f. EthnoL, xxi (1889), 16-17; Joachim Graf v. Pfeil, Studien und Beobachtungen aus der Sudsee (Braunschweig, 1899), 315- 316; Vetter in Nachrichten iiber Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bis- marck-Archipel, xiii (1897), 92-93. On the Asa ceremonies of the Tamo of Bogadjim, we have the valuable study by Bernhard Hagen, Unter den Papua's (Wiesbaden, 1899), 234 sq. ^ Holmes, "Initiation Ceremonies of Natives of the Papuan Gulf," Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 418-425. ^ Edelfeld in Picturesque New Guinea by J. W. Lindt (London, 1887), 132 sq.; Chalmers in Rep, Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., ii (Sidney, 1890), 312-313, and more fully, Pioneering in New Guinea (London, 1887), 72-74, 85-86, 180-181. See also H. H. Romilly, The Western Pacific and New Guinea (London, 1886), 34; id., From My Verandah in New Guinea (London, 1899), 88. ^ Chalmers in Jour. Anthrop. Inst.y xxxiii (1903), 119; Haddon in Rep. Cambr. Anthrop. Expedition to Torres Straits, v, 218 sq. ^ Guise in Jour, Anthrop. Inst., xxviii (1899), 207. ^ Beardmore in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix (1890), 460. ^ Haddon in Geogr. Jour., xvi (1900), 420. 198 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Guinea} So far as we know there are no initi- ation ceremonies among the strictly Melanesian races of New Guinea which inhabit the southern coast-Hne almost uninterruptedly from Cape Possession to the farthest island of the Louisiades.^ Secret rites are no doubt to be found among the tribes of Dutch New Guinea.^ The ceremonies of the Torres Straits islanders resemble those found on the New Guinea mainland. Professor A. C. Haddon, who has made the inhabitants of these islands a special study since 1888, as an initiated member of the Western Tribe has been able to acquire very detailed infor- mation regarding the ceremonies.^ In the long chain of islands stretching from New Guinea to the southeast, Melanesian institutions have reached their most elaborate development. Such important factors as the fusion of different oceanic races, the rise of definite chieftainships, of fixed property relations, and of a money economy have contributed to the growth in these islands of numerous secret societies on the basis of the earlier puberty institutions. The various stages in this evolution may be traced from the great tribal society of the Dukduk to the small local associations so numerous in the southern islands. The Dukduk is the best known of these societies. It has a wide distribution over New Pomerania (New Britain), New Mecklenburg (New Ireland), New Hanover (Duke ^ Roy. Irish Acad. Cunningham Memoirs, no. x (Dublin, 1894), 104- III. ^ Haddon in Science Progress, ii (1894), 86. F. S. A. de Clercq and J. D. E. Schmeltz, Ethnogr aphis che Beschrijv- ing van de West-en Noordkust van Nederlandsch Nieuw-Guinea (Leiden, i893),t 240-241. * The ceremonies performed by the inhabitants of Mer, one of the Murray Island group belonging to the Eastern Tribe, Haddon has de- scribed at length in his article, "The Secular and Ceremonial Dances of Torres Straits," Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr. J vi (1893), 140-146; and again in Head-Hunters, Black, White, and Brown (London, 1901), 42-52. For other ceremonies at Tud, Nagir, Pulu, and Muralug, see Jour. An- throp. Inst., xix (1890), 315, 359 sq., 408 sq., 432 sq.; and Head-Hunters, 140, 1 76 sq. The latest information on the rites of the western group of the Torres Islanders is contained in the Report of the Cambridge Anthropo- logical Expedition to Torres Straits, V (Cambridge, 1904), 208-218. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 199 of York Island), and New Lauenburg.^ The latter island appears to be the centre of the society. Little is known of the Ingiet society also found in the Bismarck Archipelago.*^ Important initiation rites exist among the Sulka, a tribe of New Pomerania.^ On Rook Island between New Guinea and New Pomerania an institution similar to the Dukduk seems to have formerly existed.* The Rukruk^ or Burriy of North Bougainville is obviously connected with the Dukduk} Kokorra^ found at Buka, is now in process of decay. ^ The Matambala of Florida, one of the Solomon Islands, is a form of the QatUy a society widely extended in the islands to the south. The islands of Malanta and Ulawa probably contain similar mysteries. Secret societies have also been noted at Guadalcanar, another of ' Mr. H. H. Romilly, Deputy Commissioner for the Western Pacific, who has lived for many years among Melanesian peoples, was allowed to witness some of the ceremonies of initiation. The Western Pacific and New Guinea (London, 1886), 27-35. Cf. also his statements in Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, new series, ix (1887), 11-12. William Churchill, as a member by adoption of one of the New Britain families, was initiated into the mysteries of the society, *'The Duk-Duk Ceremonies," Popu- lar Science Monthly , xxxviii (1890), 236-243. See also Brown in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vii (1898), 780-781; ibid., viii (1901), 309-310; Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, new series, ix (1887), 17; Danks in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xviii (1889), 283; Weisser in Ausland, Ivi (1883), 857-858, and in Verhandl. d. Gesellschaft f. Erdkunde, X (1883), 291-292; R. Parkinson, Im Bismarck- Archipel (Leipzig, 1887), 128-134; Joachim Graf von Pfeil, Studien und Beohachtungen aus der Sildsee (Braunschweig, 1899), 159-168; id., Duk-Duk and other Customs as Forms of Ex- pression of the Melanesians' Intel- lectual Life," Jour. Anthrop. Inst.y xxvii (1897), 181-191; Wilfred Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country (London, 1883), 61-66, 182 sq.; Schmeltz, ^^Uber einige religiose Gebrauche der Melanesier," Globus, xH (1882), 7-10, 24-28, 39- 41; Ernst Tappenbeck, Deutsch- Neuguinea (Berlin, 1901), 85-87; Hiibner in Die Ethno graphisch- An- throp ologische Abtheilung des Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg (Hamburg, 188 1), 17-18; Finsch in Annalen des k. k. Naturhistorischen H of muse- ums, iii (Wien, 1888), 115; Hahl in Nachrichten iiber Kaiser Wilhelms- Land und den Bismarck -Archipel, xiii (1897), 76. ^ Tappenbeck, op. cit., 85; Hahl in Nachrichten iiber Kaiser Wil- helms-Land und den Bismarck -Archi- pel, xiii (1897), 76. ^ Rascher in Archiv f. Anthrop., xxix (1904), 212-214, 227-228. ^ Reina in Zeits. f. Allgemeine Erdkunde, new series, iv (1858), 356- 357. ^ Parkinson in Abh. u. Berichte d. Kgl. Zoolog. Anthrop. -Ethnogr. Mu- seums zu Dresden, vii (Berlin, 1899), no. 6, II. ^ Parkinson, loc. cit. ^ Codrington, Melanesians, 100. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES the Solomon group,^ and at Ysabel.^ The Banks Islands with the neighboring Torres Islands have numerous societies. ''In the Torres Islands alone there are a hun- dred of them, and every man belongs to four or five/'^ Many of these are of little importance and are confined to particular islands. The Tamate is the great society found throughout this area and is no doubt the original institution. The Qat^ common to all the Banks group, is not found in the Torres Islands. The Qatu and Qetu^ variants of the Qaty are the great societies in the Northern New Heb- rides.^ Up to the present time we have only scanty indications of the presence of secret societies in New Cale- donia. Hamy mentions the Apouema of that island as analogous to the Dukduk of New Britain.^ According to De Rochas, circumcision is general and is the occasion of a festival at which the boy is invested with his first ''culotte.''® Indicative to a further extent of the passage of puberty institutions into secret societies is the decHne of circumcision in the Melanesian Islands. As no longer a puberty rite ^ C. M. Woodford, A Naturalist among the Head-Hunters (London, 1890) , 25. ^ John Gaggin, Among the Man- Eaters (London, 1900), 205. ^ Codrington, op. cit., 75. ^ Mr. R. H. Codrington's valuable studies refer chiefly to the New Hebrides, The Melanesians (Oxford, 189 1) , 69-100. Other references on the secret societies of the New Hebrides are E. N. Imhaus, Les Nouvelles -Hebrides (Paris, 1890), 47 sq.; Somerville in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxiii (1893), 4 sq.; and Alfred Penny, Ten Years in Melanesia (London, 1887), 70-73. On puberty rites as a preparation for marriage among the different islands of the Melanesian group, see scattered ac- counts jn Jour. Roy. Geogr. Soc, xlvii (1877), 148-149; Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xviii (1889), 287 sq.; Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., iv (1893), 659-660, 704-705; vii (1889), 780- 781; viii (1901), 312. ^ Rev.d Ethnographie,Y (1886), 551. ^ La Nouvelle Caledonie et ses Habitants (Paris, 1862), 265, 285 sq. And for a similar statement, compare Jules Patouillet, Trois Ans en Nou- velle Caledonie (Paris, 1873), 94-95. More recent investigators have failed to find evidences of any secret so- cieties, though these undoubtedly exist: Moncelon, in Bull. Soc. d'' An- throp. de Paris, third series, ix (1886), 345-380; Atkinson in Folk-Lore, xiv (1903), 243-259. Glaumont de- scribes some New Caledonian masks and gives a figure of one of them, Rev. d^ Ethnographic, vii (1888), 106- 107 and Plate I. The mask and dress of a Caledonian native are figured in James Edge-Partington, An Album of the Weapons, Tools, Ornaments, Articles of Dress, etc., of the Natives of the Pacific Islands (Manchester, 1890), i, 126. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 201 admitting to manhood, it is either performed at an early age or is superseded altogether by some more obvious mutilation. At Malekula, one of the New Hebrides, circumcision generally occurs when the boy is from three to five years of age. Even after the rite is performed, the lad is subject to few restrictions ; he still lives and eats with his mother until the time has arrived to become a Bara. The Bara is the lowest of four secret society degrees, through which a man may pass by the performance of appropriate ceremonies, which include the assumption of a new name and the inevitable slaughter of pigs. Once a Bara the boy, now a man, sits in the AmiU or men's house, where he was previously confined at circumcision ; takes a wife, and shares in the other privileges of men.^ At Efate, connected with circumcision were "no mystic rites, no badge, new name, marks, or hair-cutting, or freemasonry, or privileges." ^ At Tanna, however, circumcision is still retained as a com- pulsory puberty rite.^ Among some of the Solomon Islands tattooing seems to have replaced circumcision as an initiatory rite, though the usual period of seclusion is still enforced.^ The inhabitants of Bougainville Straits replace tattoo- ing with cicatrization.^ Circumcision is not practised by the Loyalty Islanders.^ With the spread of Christianity over the islands of the South Seas, native customs and traditions either have rapidly passed out of existence, or, shorn of much of their former importance, have survived only in isolated localities. Such a remark seems especially applicable to the Nanga cere- monies of certain Fijian natives, once the most conspicuous of tribal festivals, but now no longer performed. These interesting rites were confined to those western tribes of Viti Levu which both in traditions and language are recog- nized as distinctly Melanesian. These tribes seem to have ^ Leggatt in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci.y iv (Sidney, 1893), 704- 705- ^ Macdonald, ibid.^ iv, 722. ^ Gray in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr.^ vii (1894), 229. ^ Guppy, The Solomon Islands and their JSfativeSj 136. ^ Gaggin, Among the Man-Eaters^ 212 sq. ^ Gray, loc. cit. PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES first settled on the western coast of the island and as they advanced inland brought their customs, including those of the NangQj with them.^ IV. Polynesia We have no conclusive evidence for the existence through- out the vast Pacific area of tribal initiation ceremonies or secret societies akin to those which have been described. The establishment of permanent chieftainships, and in some cases of more powerful rulers, the aristocratic develop- ment of society in these islands, and the general advance in civilization and the arts of life, have rendered the per- petuation of these institutions unnecessary. Their previous existence, however, seems probable, perhaps at a time when all the islands of the Pacific were still the possession of the Melanesian race. The great society of the Areo'i has been described elsewhere as a probable outgrowth of early puberty institutions. There is sufficient evidence for the existence of the Areo 'i or of societies essentially the same throughout the islands composing the Society, Tuamotu, Marquesas, and Hawaiian groups. It was probably even more widely extended. Curiously enough there is no evidence for its existence in the Tonga Islands. Vason explicitly denies its existence there,^ nor is it mentioned in Mariner's nar- rative.^ The Uritoi society of the Mariannes seems to have ^ After years of fruitless inquiry the Rev. Lorimer Fison at last suc- ceeded in obtaining an account of the ceremonies which is reproduced in his article, ^'The Nanga, or Sa- cred Stone Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji," Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiv (1884), 14-30. A few years later Mr. A. B. Joske received full accounts of the mysteries from some of the initiated men. See ^'The Nanga of Viti- Levu," Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., ii (1889), 254-271, with brief com- ments and additions by Baron A. von Hugel. There is a brief and inac- curate notice of the Nanga by Voll- mer in Petermanns Mitteilungen, xxxiv (1888), 342-343. See also Webb in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci. ii (Sidney, 1890), 623, who applies the other native term, Mbaki, to the rites. The early missionaries, Thomas Williams and James Calvert, de- scribe what were probably secret cere- monies of an initiatory character, Fiji and the Fijians, 186-187. ^ An Authentic Narrative of Four Years^ Residence at Tongataboo (Lon- don, 1810), 132. ^ An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands (Edinburgh, 1827). DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 203 been essentially the same as the Areot^ The society of the Areoi was an object of great interest to the early navigators in the southwestern Pacific. George Forster gives the earliest account.^ Captain Cook, who met it at Tahiti in 1769 on his first voyage and again on his second voyage in 1774, describes those features of unbridled sexual license and infanticide commented on by every traveller after him.^ The English missionaries, who arrived at Tahiti in 1797, naturally came into much contact with the society. The subsequent history of missionary enterprise in Tahiti and the neighboring islands is largely occupied with a desperate, though finally successful, struggle with the Areoisy — ''Legion-fiends of the voluptuous haunts of Belial.^' This history may be read in the two works of William Wilson,^ and James Montgomery,^ and in the summarized account by Th. Arbousset.^ One of the first deacons of the Congregational church at Huahine was an Areoi priest. But stubborn and unconverted Areois were still living until very recently. ''Yes, sir,'' said one of them to an interested inquirer, "I am the last man of the Areoi on Huahine. There are one or two of us on Tai- arapu, in Tahiti.'' The best accounts of the society are those by the missionary William Ellis, based on statements by native chiefs,"^ and J. A. Moerenhout, formerly United States Consul at Tahiti.^ ^ On the Uritoi society, ^see Charles Le Gobien, Histoire des lies Marianes (Paris, 1700), 61 sq., 103; Louis de Freycinet, Voyage autour du Monde (Paris, 1837), ii> 1^4? 3^9 ^Q- ^ A Voyage round the World (London, 1777), ii, 128-135. ^ The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook round the World (Lon- don, 182 1), i, 206-207, iii, 348. Cf. also History of the Otaheitan Islands (Edinburgh, rSoo), 81 sq.; John Turnbull, A Voyage round the World (London, 1805), iii, 68-71. ^ A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean (London, 1799), 65-66, 152-153, 326, 347- ^ Journal of Voyages and Travels by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet^ Esq. (London, 183 1), i, 94, 113, 2545^. ^ Tahiti et les lies Adjacentes (Paris, 1867), 22 sq., 99 sq. ^ Polynesian Researches (New York, 1833), i, 182-195. ^ Voyages aux lies du Grand Ocean (Paris, 1837), i, 484-503; ElKs's account is followed by Michael Russell, Polynesia (New York, 1848), 73-77; H. S. Cooper, Coral Lands (London, 1880), ii, 288 sq.; F. J. Moss, Through Atolls and Islands in the Great South Sea (London, 1889), 150 sq.; and Louis Becke, PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES The existence of Maori secret societies anterior to the development of aristocratic conditions may possibly be discovered in the traditions associated v^ith the Whare Runangdy or council-chamber, of the tribe. According to the native legends the ancestors of the Maori had once lived in a great island, Hawaiki, remote from New Zealand. There a secret society had been formed called the Runanga; its purpose was the reformation of morals, but the reformers who were the chiefs of the Runanga^ being unsuccessful in their efforts, were compelled to leave the island with their followers, and to emigrate to New Zealand. ''The dis- persion of the immigrants broke up and scattered the original and secret Runanga^ but from its ashes arose a Runanga in every tribe, each of which zealously enforced the laws their parent society had framed.'^ ^ These tribal councils, or Runangasy were aristocratic in character and consisted of the ruling chief, some of his nearest relatives, and the most distinguished men of the tribe. ^ We might reasonably expect to find traces of secret societies in New Zealand, and such suspicions are confirmed by the legend that has been related. The Runanga has its counterpart in the organization of the more powerful African societies, as Egbo of Old Calabar, whose members comprising the lead- ing men and chiefs of the tribe formerly exercised almost despotic control. Tradition places ''Hawaiki" in a northerly or northeasterly direction from New Zealand, and efforts have been made to identify it with Tahiti, with Sawaii, the largest of the Samoan group, and even with the Hawaiian Islands. But the opinion of William Colenso that the Maori tradition is probably a ''figurative or allegorical myth," ^ lends support to the hypothesis here suggested. Wild Life in Southern Seas (London, 1897), 44-58. Adolf Bastian, Zur Kenntniss Hawaii's (Berlin, 1883), 66-69, follows Ellis and Moerenhout. See also P. Lesson, Voyage autour du Monde (Paris, 1839), h 421; Henri Lutteroth, O-Tatti (Paris, 1845), 9-18; Jules Garnier, Oceanie (Paris, 1871), 370 sq.; A. Lesson, Les Polynesiens (Paris, 1880- 1884), i, 359-360; iv, 35; and Th. Achelis, Uher Mythologie und Cultus von Hawaii (Braunschweig, 1895), 65 sq. ^ J. C. Johnstone, Maoria (Lon- don, 1874), 47. 2 Ihid.^ 47-48; cf. Richard Taylor, Te Ika A Maui (London, 1870), 344. ^ Trans, and Proc. New Zealand DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 205 The myth of the origin of the Runanga would then arise to explain the existence of the institution throughout the island. The bull-roarer, that sure indication of former secret rites, survives in Nev^ Zealand as a child's play- thing.^ The decline of puberty rites throughout the Polynesian area is to be associated, as in Melanesia, with the decay or total absence of circumcision as an initiatory practice. It has been generally replaced, in Polynesia, by tattooing and, where retained, appears to have lost all religious significance as well as tribal character. As a purely conventional or hygienic practice circumcision is usually performed at an early age. Numerous examples are to be found among the New Zealanders,^ the Fijians,^ the Samoans,^ and at Tahiti ^ and Hawaii.^ At Nine, or Savage Island, east of the Tonga group, there is a curious survival of circumcision in the rite of mata pulega, which must be undergone by infants. ^'A child not so initiated is never regarded as a full-born member of the tribe." ^ Tattooing, though a tribal rite, does not appear to be accompanied with initiatory cere- monies of a secret character. At Samoa, until tattooed a boy was in his minority. " He could not think of marriage, and he was constantly exposed to taunts and ridicule, as being poor and of low birth, and as having no right to speak in the society of men." ^ In the Marquesas Islands, where tattooing is the principal initiatory rite, the boy at puberty Inst., i (1868), 52-53; cf. Edward Shortland, Traditions and Super- stitions of the New Zealanders (Lon- don, 1856), 2. ^ A. Hamilton, Maori Art (Wel- lington, 1896), 373. ^ Edward Shortland, The Southern Districts of New Zealand (London, 1851), 16. ^ Thomas Williams and James Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians (New York, 1859), 131. * Ella in Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., iv (Sidney, 1893), 624; W. T. Pritchard, Polynesian Reminiscences (London, 1866), 142 sq.; Turner, Samoa, 88 sq.; Kubary in Globus ^ xlvii (1885), 71. ^ William Wilson, A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean (London, 1799), 342; Supplement au Voyage de M. de Bougainville (Paris, 1772), 70. ^ Jules Remy, Recits d'un Vieux Sauvage (Chalons-sur-Marne, 1859), 22. ^ Thompson in Jour. Anthrop, Inst., xxxi (1901), 140; id., Savage Island (London, 1902), 92. ^ George Turner, Samoa (London, 1884), 88. 2o6 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES is given over to a professional tattooer and is secluded from the v^omen until the operation is over. He then returns to the village and receives a new name v^hich replaces the provisional name assigned him at birth/ Tattooing reached its culminating point in the Society and Marquesas islands, where both men and women were operated upon. In the Samoan and Tonga groups it was restricted to men; in Fiji to the women. ^ V. Africa Among the numerous South African peoples occupying the continent from the Cape northwards to the Zambesi, puberty rites of the general character that has been described, seem to have commonly prevailed. Such rites have been studied among the Hottentots of the Cape,^ the Korannas and Griquas, Hottentotic races on the Vaal River,^ the Bushmen,^ and among the Basutos,^ the Bechuanas/ the Namaqua, and some other tribes.^ Among the Amazulu, the absence of circumcision seems connected with the lack of any formal rites of tribal initiation. Such rites were formerly in existence, however.^ An old tradition of the people recites that "they circumcised because Unkulun- kulu said, *Let men circumcise, that they may not be ^ Clavel in Rev. Ethnographies iii (1884), 136 sq.; id., Les Mar- quisiens (Paris, 1885), 58. ^ Berthold Seemann, Viti (Lon- don, 1862), 113. ^ Peter Kolben, The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London, 1738), i, 120-125; ^f- ^Iso Francis Leguat, A New Voyage to the East Indies (London, 1708), 230. ^ Holub in Jour, Anthrop. Inst., x (1880), 7-8. 5 G. W. Stow, The Native Races of South A frica (London , 1 905 ) , 1 1 7 /z. ^ ^ Eugene Casalis, Les Bassoutos (Paris, 1859), 275-283; Macdonald in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxii (1892), ICQ sq.; id., Revue Scientifque, third series, xlv (1890), 642-643. ^ Robert Moffat, Missionary La- bours and Scenes in Southern Africa (London, 1842), 250-251; David Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (New York, 1858), 164 sq. ^ The most valuable account of these South African ceremonies is that by Gustav Fritsch, Die Einge- borenen Siid-Afrika^s (Breslau, 1872), 109-111, 206-207. See also for Kaf- fir rites, Nauhaus in Verhandl. Berlin. Gesells. f. Anthrop. Ethnol. und Urgeschichte (1882), 205; and for those of the Sotho tribes, Endemann in Zeits. f. Ethnol., vi (1874), 37-39- ^ Fritsch, op. cit., 140; Wheel- wright in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxv (1905), 251. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 207 boys.' '' ^ The Ba-Ronga of Delagoa Bay have also discon- tinued circumcision. Other initiatory practices still prevail.^ Initiation rites are probably to be found throughout the wide area between the Zambesi and the Congo. At present our information is most fragmentary. We have some evidence for their existence among the Upper Zambesi peoples of British Central Africa,^ the tribes of Nyassaland west of Lake Nyassa,^ the Bondei, Wanika, Wagogo, and other tribes of German East Africa,^ and among the Baluba along the Lulua River, a tributary of the Kasai', Congo Free State. ^ In Angola puberty initiation is a universal custom as also among the Songo negroes.^ There is also some evidence for initiation ceremonies among the Uganda tribes west of Lake Victoria Nyanza.^ The powerful religious fraternities throughout Somaliland, to-day under Mohammedan influence, may possibly be developments of earlier tribal societies. Initiation rites are also found among the Beni Amer of Northern Abyssinia. In the Congo region there are two important fraternities which extend over a large area. The Nkimba rites are ^ Henry Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu (London, 1870), 58. 2 Henri Junod, Les Ba-Ronga (Neuchatel, 1898), 28 sq. 3 Man, iii (1903), 75. ^ Moggridge in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902), 470; Maples in Jour. Manchester Geogr. Soc., v (1899), 67; id., Scottish Geogr. Mag., iv (1888), 429-430; Duff Mac- donald, Africana (London, 1882), i, 127-132. ^ Dale in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxv (1896), 188-193; Cole in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxii (1902) 308; R. F. Burton, Zanzibar (London, 1872), ii, 89-92; Charles New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa (London, 1873), 107-114; C. C. von der Decken, Reisen in Ost- Afrika (Leipzig, 1869), h 217; Oscar Baumann, Usambara und seine Nachbargebiete (Berlin, 1891), 132-133; J. L. Krapf, Travels, Re- searches, and Missionary Labours during an Eighteen Years^ Residence in Eastern Africa (London, i860), 164-166. « C. S. L. Bateman, The First Ascent of the Kasal (London, 1889), 183-184; Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (London, 1897), 547. ^ J. J. Monteiro, Angola and the River Congo (London, 1875), i, 278-279; O. H. Schiitt, Reisen im Siidwestlichen Becken des Congo (Ber- lin, 1881), 106. ^ Paul Pogge, Im Reiche des Muata Jamwo (Berlin, 1880), 39-40. ^ (Sir) Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (New York, 1902), ii, 554, 640, 804, 827. See the description by L. Robec- chi Bricchetti, Somalia e Benadir (Milano, 1899), 422-431. " Werner Munzinger, Ostafrikan- ische Studien (Basel, 1883), 323-324. 2o8 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES found among the Bakongo tribes from the mouth of the Congo upwards for over two hundred miles. Beyond the cataract region of the river they are replaced by the wide- spread Ndembo rites, which have apparently lost all con- nection with puberty initiations.^ Among the Upper Congo tribes, who are pure Bantu, there are no initiations. Boys are circumcised twelve days after birth. ^ In the coastal area between the Congo and the Niger, puberty institutions and secret societies are numerous. Sindungo is found in Angoy and Kabinda.^ In French Congo in the Gabun region of the Equator, the leading societies are Mwetyi among the Shekani,^ Bweti and Ukukwe among the Bakele; Nda or Mda of the Mpongwe.^ Tasiy now little more than a dramatic association, is found in the Ogowe region.^ Ukuku is the prominent organization in the Benito regions of the Spanish territory north of Corisco Bay.^ Malanda dwells in the Batanga country.^ is found among both the Bula and the Fang,^ and still other ^ Initiation by the fetish priests into the mysteries of Maramba of Loango tribes is described by an old writer in Allgemeine Historie der Reisen (Leipzig, 1749), iv, 654 sq. On the Nkimba rites which closely resemble those of Maramba^ see W. H. Bentley, Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language (London, 1887), 507; id., Life on the Congo (London, 1887), 80 sq.; id., Pioneering on the Congo (New York, 1900), i, 282-284; Biittner in Mitth. Afrikan. Gesell. in Deutschland, v (1887), 188; Dennett in Jour. Manchester Geogr. Soc, iii (1887), 119; E. J. Glave, Six Years of Adventure in Congo-Land (London, 1893), 80-83; Johnston, in Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, new series, v (1883), 572-573; id. J Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xiii (1884), 472; id., The River Congo (London, 1884), 423 sq.; Morgan in Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, new series, vi (1884), 93; Herbert Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals (London, 1890), 54-57; id., Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxiv (1895), 288-289. On the Ndembo rites, see Adolf Bastian, Die Deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Kuste (Jena, 1874), ii, 31; Meinhof in Globus, Ixvi (1894), 117 sq.; and the numerous writings by the Rev. W. H. Bentley previously cited. ^ Johnston, The River Congo, 423 sq. ^ Bastian, op. cit., i, 221-223. ^ W. W. Reade, Savage Africa (New York, 1864), 208. ^ J. L. Wilson, Western Africa (New York, 1856), 391 sq.; R. F. Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land (London, 1876), i, loo-ioi. ^ Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 535. ^ Id., Travels in West Africa, 540; Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 140 sq. ^ Nassau, op. cit., 248, 320-326. ^ Bennett in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 92. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 209 secret societies exist among the Abongo/ Among theQuollas of Kamerun, Max Biichner found five societies — Elungy Ekongolo, Mungi (a powerful law-god society, apparently the same as, Egbo of Calabar), Mukukuy and Muemba? The Losango society is allied to Mungi.^ Ikun of the Bakele south of Gross Batanga is an important society in this part of Kamerun.^ The Duala tribe has a secret society called Tugu.^ The Banes have elaborate initiatory rites. ^ The puberty rites of the Yaunde tribes of southeastern Kamerun have recently been the subject of careful study.^ Egho of the Effik tribes of Old Calabar in what is now the British Oil Rivers Protectorate was once the most powerful secret society in Africa.^ Idiong (Jdion or Idien) is a society open only to Egbo members.^ The Ayaka society belongs to this region/^ Between the Niger and the Senegal, secret societies are to be found in nearly every tribe. Among the different Yoruba peoples of Lagos, Egba, and Jebu, Ogboni^^ is the ^ Oskar Lenz, Skizzen aus West Afrika (Berlin, 1878), no. ^ Kamerun (Leipzig, 1887), 25- 29. On Mungi, see also Lauffer in Deutsches Kolonialhlatty x (1899), 852-854. ^ Kobel in Deutsches Kolonialhlatty xi (1900), 800. ^ Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 527-530. ^ Keller in Deutsches Kolonial^ hlatt, xi (1900), 144. ^ Hans Dominik, Kamerun (Ber- lin, 1901), 164-166. ' Zenker in Mitth. v. Forschungs- reisenden und Gelehrten aus den Deutschen Schutzgehieten, viii (Berlin, 1895), 52-58; C. Morgen, Durch Kamerun von Siid nach Nord (Leip- zig, 1893), 51 sq. See also on Kam- erun societies, Pauli in Petermanns Mitteilungen, xxxi (1885), 21; Reiche- now in Verhandl. Berlin. Gesells. f. Anthrop. Ethnol. u. Urgeschichte (1873), 181. ^ Adolf Bastian, Die Rechts- verhaltnisse bei verschiedenen Volkern der Erde (Berlin, 1872), 402-404: Count de Cardi in Miss Kingsley's West African Studies, ist ed. (London, 1899), 562; Daniell in Jour. Ethnol. Soc, first series, i, 223-224; T. J. Hutchinson in Trans. Ethnol. Soc, new series, i (1861), 334-335; ^^-y Impressions of Western Africa (Lon- don, 1858), 141-145; Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 532-535; Walker in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., vi (1876), 119-122; James Holman, Travels in Madeira, Sierra Leone, Teneriffe, etc. (London, 1840), 392- 395; Richard Lander and John Lander, Journal of an Expedition to explore the Course and Termination of the Niger (London, 1838), ii, 377-378. ^ Marriott in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 23. Ibid., 22, 97. P. Baudin, Fetichism and Fetich Worshipers (New York, 1885), 63- 64; A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-Speak- ing Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London, 1894), 93-95; Nar- p 210 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES powerful society. In Jebu it is called Oshogho, Oro ^ and Egungun ^ among these tribes present much interest. Gu- nuko ^ of the Nupe north of Lagos belongs to this region. The Zangheto society constitutes the night police of Porto Novo, Dahomey.^ Afa is found in Togoland;^ and the Katahwiri society on the Gold Coast.® Sembe^ among the Gallianas, Vey, Golah, and other tribes of Liberia, closely resembles the Purrah of Sierra Leone. ^ Kufongy a Mende society, is given over to the preparation of charms.^ Purrahy or Poroy covers a wide area from Sherbro Island through Sierra Leone to the Temnes and Timanees northeast of that country. Before the establishment of British law in the Sherbro Hinterland, it provided the chief governmental agency.^ North and east of Sierra Leone we may note the rative of Captain James Fawckner^s Travels on the Coast of Benin, West Africa (London, 1837), 102-103; Smith in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 25. ^ R. F. Burton, Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains (London, 1863), i, 196-200; Baudin, op. cit., 62; Mrs. Batty in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix (1889), 160-161; Moloney in Jour. Manchester Geogr. Soc, v (1889), 293; Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 109-111; H. L. Roth, Great Benin (Halifax, Eng., 1903), 65; John Adams, Remarks on the Country extending from Cape Palmas to the River Congo (London, 1823), 104- ^ Burton, op. cit., 195-196; Ellis, Yoruba-S peaking Peoples, 107-109; Baudin, op. cit., 61-62, D'Albeca in Tour du Monde, new series, i (1895), lOI. ^ Samuel Crowther and J. C. Taylor, The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger (London, 1859), 215; D^Albeca, loc. cit. ^ A. B. Ellis, The Ewe-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London, 1890), 178. ^ Marriott in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 24. ^ Ibid., 21. ^ For the Liberian societies our chief authority is J. Biittikofer, Reisebilder aus Liberia (Leiden, 1890), ii, 302-308. Cf also Penick, quoted in Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, ix (1896), 220-222. An early account of the Belli-paaro mysteries of the Quo j as, is given by O. Dapper, Description dePAfrique (Amsterdam, 1686), 268- 270. Dapper's account is reproduced by Picart and Bernard, The Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the Various Nations of the Known World (Lon- don, 1733), iv, 450 sq.; it is found also in Allgejneine Historic der Reisen (Leipzig, 1749), iii, 630. ^ Miss Kingsley, West African Studies, 138 sq. ^ John Matthews, A Voyage to the River Sierra-Leone (London, 1788), yosq.; Thomas Winterbottom, An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighborhood of Sierra Leone (London, 1803), i, 135-137; J- Laing, Travels in Western Africa (London, 1825), 92 sq.; Harris in Mem. Anthrop. Soc, ii (1866), 31-32; Grifhth in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xvi (1887), 309; J. de Crozals, Les Peulhs (Paris, 1883), 243-245; T. J. Alldridge in Geogr. Jour.y iv DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 211 Simo (Semo or Simon) and Penda-Penda of the Bagas of French Guinea.^ Among the Temnes, between Sierra Leone and the Niger, the Purrah institution is known as Amporo,^ The Dou or Lou is found among the Bambara and Bobo tribes, south of Timbuctu.'"^ The Naferi is another institution of the Bambaras/ Mahammah Jambohy better known as Mumbo Jumbo^ exists among the Mande or Man- dingoes of western Soudan ^ and the Bagnouns along the Casamance River in Senegal.^ Kongcorong among the Mandingoes and Susus has inquisitorial functions similar to those of Mumbo JumboJ Among the Bayandas (basin of the Tchad), initiates known as labis undergo a novitiate lasting three or four years. ^ (1894), 133-134; id. J The Sherhro and its Hinterland (London, 1901), 124-135- ^ Rene Caillie, Journal d^un Voyage a Temboctou et a Jenne (Paris, 1830), i, 227-231; Winter- bottom, op. cit.j i, 137-139; Leprince in Revue Scientifique, fourth series, xiii (1900), 399-401; Nordeck in Tour du Monde, li (1886), 283-284. ^ C. F. Schlenker, A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables, and Prov- erbs (London, 186 1), xiii-xiv. ^ Caillie, op. cit., ii, 117 sq.; L. G. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinee (Paris, 1892), i, 378-380. ^ Caillie, op. cit., ii, 85-87. ^ Francis Moore, Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa (London, 1738), 40, 116-118. Moore's ac- count is reproduced in Allgemeine Historie der Reisen (Leipzig, 1749), iii, 243 sq. See also Mungo Park, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (London, 1816), i, 58-59; Gray and Dochard, Travels in West- ern Africa (London, 1825), 82 sq. ® J. L. B. Berenger-Feraud, Les Peuplades de la Senegambie (Paris, 1879), 299. ^ Gray and Dochard, op. cit., 55. * Clozel in Tour du Monde, new series, ii (1896), 32-33. The work by Frobenius, previously referred to, summarizes many descrip- tions given of the African societies, especially by the earher writers, ^'Die Masken und Geheimbiinde Afrikas,*' Abhandl. Kaiserlichen Leopoldinisch- Carolinischen Deuts. Akad. der Na- turforscher (Halle, 1899), Ixxiv, 1-266. A previous study by Frobenius, "Die Geheimbiinde Afrika's," is given in Sammlung gemeinverstandlicher wis- senschaftlicher Vortrdge, new series (Hamburg, 1895), 631-658. A pop- ular account of the African societies is found in the same writer's Aus den Flegeljahren der Menschheit (Hann- over, 1901), 148-171. On the secret soueties of the tribes along the Gulf of Guinea, the best general account is to be found in Miss Mary H. Kings- ley's works: Travels in West Africa (London, 1897), 526-547; and West African Studies. 2d ed. (London, 1901), 117, 135, 138-141, 144, 364, 372, 375, 383-384, 398, 411-413, 448- 456. See also Marriott, "The Secret Societies of West Africa," Jour, Anthrop. Inst., xxix (1899), 21-24. In the work by R. H. Nassau, Fetich- ism in West Africa (New York, 1904), 138-155, 247-263, and 320-326 are graphic accounts of the societies known as Ukuku, Yasi, Njembe, and 212 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES VL South America and Central America Puberty rites were common among the aborigines in this part of the world, but we know Httle of them except as ordeals which may or may not have formed part of secret initiation ceremonies/ Among the Fuegians, the Paraguay Indians, and certain Brazilian tribes — notably the Juri, Maupes, Tekuna, Karaya, and Kangthi — however, tribal initiations of a secret character still prevail.^ The cult of Nagualism in Mexico has already been discussed as a probable survival of primitive puberty institutions.^ The secret ceremonies of the Voodoo cult in Hayti have been usually considered to have been brought from West Africa by the Aradas, a tribe of negroes of the Slave Coast. Mr. W. W. Newell, however, has recently argued that the name Vaudoux or Voodoo is derived from a European source, as well as the beliefs which the word denotes — "the alleged Malanda. His account of the in- itiatory rites of the last-named society- is almost the only detailed descrip- tion we have for the West African organizations. ^ Examples of such ordeals are found among the Guanas of Paraguay (T. J. Hutchinson, The Parana, London, 1868, 65); among the BraziHans (Lomonaco in Archivio per V Antra polo gia e la Etnologia, xix, 1889, 47) ; among the Mosquito Indians (Collinson in Mem. An- throp. Soc, iii, 1870, 153); and among the Coras of northwestern Mexico (Carl Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, New York, 1902, i, 510). 2 Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn, tome vii. Anthropologic, Eth- nographic, par P. Hyades et J. Deniker (Paris, 1891), 376-377; W. B. Grubb, Among the Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco (London, 1904), 58-59; A. R. Wallace, A Nar- rative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (London, 1853), 348 sq., 497, 501 sq.; Karl von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral- Brasiliens (Berlin, 1894), 296 sq., 496 sq.; H. W. Bates, The Natu- ralist on the River Amazons (Lon- don, 1863), ii, 204-206, 376, 403- 405. See also Ehrenreich in Veroff- entlichungen aus dem Kdniglichen Museum fur Volkerkunde, ii (Berlin, 1891), 34-38, 70-71. Comparing the Brazilian and Melanesian secret rites, Ehrenreich significantly remarks : ^^Diese Uebereinstimmung geht so ins Einzelne, dass Kleinschmidts Beschreibung der neubritannischen Duck-Duckfeste mutatis mutandis auch auf die Thiertanze der Karaya passen wiirde.'^ The Aymara In- dians of Central Bolivia have three esoteric fraternities of shamans whose rites and ceremonies strikingly re- semble those of the New Mexico and Arizona orders. (Bandelier, ' ' La Danse des ^Sicuri' des Indiens Aymara de la Bolivie," Anthropo- logical Papers written in Honor of Franz Boas, New York, 1906, 272- 2S2). 2 Brinton in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, xxxiii (1894), 11-69. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 213 sect and its supposed rites have, in all probability, no real existence, but are a product of popular imagination." ^ Their resemblance to the West African rites is, however, most striking.^ VIL North America Among the North American Indians the evidence, though scanty, is sufficient to indicate the former presence of tribal initiation ceremonies and tribal secret societies, throughout possibly the entire continent. The Tuscaroras of North Carolina,^ the Creeks of Georgia,^ and the Pov^hatans of Virginia,^ had puberty ceremonies very similar to those practised in Africa and Australia; the secret societies of the Maidu ^ and Pomos^ of Northern California present close resemblances to those of other primitive peoples. Through- out the California area something corresponding to a secret society is found, although in many very different forms, to some of which the strict organization of a society can scarcely be said to belong. It seems, however, that there is everywhere either some ceremony conducted by a special group of men or an initiation of children or young men." ^ At the Toloache fiesta of the Dieguenos of Southern Cali- fornia, boys were initiated according to the long-established traditions of the tribe.^ In the magical fraternities of the ^ Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, i (1888), 18. See also ii (1889), 232-233; iii (1890), 9-10, 241, 281-287; iv (1891), 181-182. For a good description of these so-called Voodoo rites, see Hesketh Prichard, Where Black rules White (Westminster, 1900), 74-101. 2 Cf. Ellis, Ewe-Speaking Peoples, 29-30. ^ John Lawson, The History of Carolina (Raleigh, i860), reprint of the London edition of 1714, 380-382. Lawson' s account is reproduced by John Brickell, The Natural History of North Carolina (Dublin, 1737), 405 sq. ^ For the Boosketau ceremonies of the Creeks, see Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, "A Sketch of the Creek Country in the Years 1798 and 1799," Collections of the Georgia Historical Society (Savannah, 1848), iii, part i, 78-79. ^ On the " Huskanawing " of the Powhatan Indians, see Robert Bev- erley, The History of Virginia (Lon- don, 1722), 177-180. ^ Dixon, in Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat Hist., xvii (1902), 35 sq. ' Powers, "Tribes of Cahfornia," Contributions to North Amer. Ethnol., iii (Washington, 1877), 305 sq. ^ Kroeber in Publications of the University of California. Series in Amer. Archceol. and Ethnol., ii (1904), 84-85. ^ Miss Dubois, "Religious Cere- monies and Myths of the Mission PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES Navajo, Sia, Zuni, and Hopi of New Mexico and Arizona, primitive puberty rites have survived in the midst of cere- monies having at the present time quite other purposes.^ Secret societies of the general type described as magical fraternities, are to be found among many of the existing Indian tribes. They have been most carefully studied among the Plains Indians, the Zuni and Hopi of the South- west, and the Kwakiutl of British Columbia. Such societies probably once existed in every community. One writer makes bold to find them among the Mound-builders.^ It is likely that the tribes of the Gulf of Mexico and some of the eastern tribes, such as the Delawares and Iroquois, also possessed them, but unfortunately they were never studied by the early travellers. Among the Seminoles, the Green Corn Dance was an annual celebration in charge of the medicine-men, who apparently formed a fraternity and had a secret lodge. ^ The Muskoki of Florida organized fraternities for the cure of various diseases, for each disease a separate fraternity. Candidates for membership under- went four years of training.^ Among the Iroquois there were organizations of the medicine-men who possessed special dances.^ The Cherokees who belong to the Iro- quoian stock possess a large collection of sacred formulas covering every subject pertaining to their daily life and embodying, in fact, the entire religious beliefs of the people. Formerly, this sacred knowledge, handed down orally from remote antiquity, was committed to the keeping of secret societies, but the long contact of the tribe with the whites Indiajis^^ in Amer. Anthropologist f new Man^ ii (1902), 101-106, "An Ameri- series, vii (1905), 620-629. can View of Totemism," with the ^ Supra, 183-189. comments by Mr. Hartland and ^ Peet in Amer. Antiquarian, xiii Mr. Thomas, 115-118. (1891), 315. Some aspects of these ^ MacCauley in Fifth Ann. Rep. American fraternities are discussed Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1887), 522. by the same writer in an address on ^ Powell in Trans. Anthrop. Soc. "Secret Societies and Sacred Mys- of Washington, \\\ {i^'^^), teries," Memoirs of the International ^ Mrs. E. A. Smith in Second Congress of Anthropology (Chicago, Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1894), 176-198; and in an article 1883), 116; Powell in Nineteenth in Amer. Antiquarian, xxvii (1905), Ann. Rep. (Washington, 1900), 88-96. See also Major Powell in p. xlvii. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 215 has broken down these organizations, and at present each priest or shaman is isolated and independent.^ Similarly there have been found among the Ojibwa and the Menom- ini, in the keeping of the secret societies, copies of hitherto unknown mnemonic charts and songs giving the legends of tribal genesis and cosmography, carefully preserved on birch bark records.^ The Midewiwiriy or Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa, at present a Minnesota tribe, exhibits most fully the Algon- quian ritual. Throughout the immense area occupied by tribes of the Algonquian stock, similar ceremonies probably were universal.^ The Mitawit of the Menomini, a branch of the Algonquins now living in Wisconsin, closely resembles the Midewiwiuy on which it was probably modelled:^ The Metawin of the Bungees presents striking likenesses to the two societies just mentioned. Numerous lodges of this society are found throughout the Lake Superior region.^ The numerous fraternities maintained by tribes of the Siouan stock have been carefully studied by a number of writers. The ceremonies show many likenesses to those of the Algonquian societies and no doubt have been much influenced by them. This spread of the Algonquian ritual throughout tribes belonging to a different linguistic stock is, no doubt, indicative of that diffusion of rites which has taken place to some extent all over North America.^ The ^ Mooney in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1891), 307 sq.; id., Nineteenth Ann. Rep. (Washington, 1900), 229. ^ Hoffman in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1891), 286; Fourteenth Ann. Rep. (Wash- ington, 1896), 107. ^ An early account of the initia- tion into the Midewiwin is in H. R. Schoolcraft, Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 1855), part v, 426 sq. The society has received a most elaborate description by W. J. Hoffman, who was initiated into it and witnessed its ceremonies in 1889, Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 189 1), 149-300. There is also an interesting narrative by a former chief of the tribe, G. Copway, The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of the Ojib- way Nation (Boston, 185 1), 160-169. ^ For a full account, see Hoffman in Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1896), 68-138. ^ Simms, *^The Metawin Society of the Bungees, or Swampy Indians of Lake Winnipeg," in Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, xix (1906), 330-333- ^ One of the earliest descriptions relates to the Wakon-Kitchewah, or 2i6 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES society known as Wacicka among the Omahas, and under different names among the Winnebago, Dakotas, and other Siouan tribes, clearly exhibits the influence of the Algonquian ritual,^ In the so-called Sun Dance held by nearly all tribes of Siouan stock, except the Winnebago and Osage, we have what appears to be a genuinely indepen- dent creation little influenced by the Algonquian practice. Among the tribes of Algonquian stock the ceremony seems to have been confined to the Blackfeet, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes. The Sun Dance is also found among the Kiowas and Pawnees, the Shoshoni of Wyoming, and the Utes of Utah.^ The Okeepa of Mandans is a variant of the Sun Dance. ^ Among many of the Siouan tribes the Friendly Society of the Spirit, of the Naudowessies, a Siouan tribe on the Upper Missouri: J. Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America (London, 1778), 271 sq. On the other societies among the Omaha, Osage, Kansa, Ponka, Win- nebago, and Dakota tribes, see Mary Eastman, Dahcotah (New York, 1849), xix; Miss Fletcher in Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore^ v (1892), 135-144; Dorsey in Sixth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1888), 377, 381 ; Prescott in Schoolcraft, op. cit., part ii (Philadelphia, 1852), 171, 175; Pond in Collections of the Min- nesota Historical Society, ii (St. Paul, 1867), 37-41 ; Thwaites in Collections of the State Historical Society of Wis- consin, xii (Madison, 1892), 423-425. ^ For a description, Dorsey in Third Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 342- 346; Fletcher in Schoolcraft, In- formation respecting the History, Con- ditions, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (Phila- delphia, 1853), part iii, 286-288; Riggs in Contributions to North Amer. Ethnol., ix (Washington, 1893), 227- 229; Beckwith in Ann. Rep. Smith- sonian Institution for 1886 (Washing- ton, 1889), part i, 246-249. 2 Grinnell in Jour. Amer. Folk- Lore, iv (1891), 307-313; id.. The Indians of To-Day (Chicago, 1900), 27 sc[-y J- O. Dorsey in Eleventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1894), 450-467; Riggs in. Contri- butions to North Amer. Ethnol., ix (Washington, 1893), 229-232; George A. Dorsey, ^'The Arapaho Sun Dance; the Ceremony of the Offerings Lodge,'' Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological Series, iv (1903); R. I. Dodge, Our Wild Indians (Hartford, Conn., 1882), 126-135, 257-260; id., The Plains of the Great West (New York, 1877), 257-260 (Cheyenne Sun Dance); Miss Fletcher, ''The Sun Dance of the Ogalalla Sioux," in Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., xxxi (1882), 580- 584; Lynd in Collections of the Min- nesota Historical Society, ii (St. Paul, 1865), 77-78; Kroeber in Bidl. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., xviii, part ii, 152; S. H. Long, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Moun- tains (Philadelphia, 1823), i, 276-278 (Hidatsa Sun Dance); Beckwith in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Institution for 1886 (Washington, 1889), part i, 250; Matthews in U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey, Miscellane- ous Publications, no. 7, 45-46. ^ George Catlin, Letters and Notes DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 217 names of the gentes, subgentes, and phratries are subjects of mysterious reverence, especially among such tribes as the Osage, Ponka, and Kansa, where the secret society con- tinues in all its power. These names are never used in ordinary conversation/ ''Further investigation may tend to confirm the supposition that in any tribe which has mythic names for its members and its social divisions (as among the Osage, Kansa, Quapaw, Omaha, Ponka, Iowa, Oto, Missouri, Tutelo, and Winnebago), or in one which has mythic names only for its members and local or other names for its social divisions (as among the Dakota, Assini- boin, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crow), there are now, or there have been, secret societies or 'The Mysteries/"^ Among the tribes of Caddoan stock, various elaborate ceremonial rituals have been analyzed and described. Those of the Skidi Pawnee represent perhaps the highest develop- ment to be found in any Indian tribe. ^ Many of the Indian tribes of the Southwest, though of different linguistic stocks, have developed fraternities, the rites of which give evidence of a long process of fusion. The Apache are possibly an exception : no clearly defined medicine lodges or secret societies have so far been found among them. Captain Bourke, who made a careful study of the tribe, never witnessed "any rite of religious signifi- cance in which more than four or five, or at the most six, of the medicine-men took part." ^ The Navajo, belonging with the Apache to the Athapascan stock, have societies on the Manners, Customs, and Con- dition of the North American In- dians (London, 1841), i, 155-184; and more fully in 0-Kee-Pa (London, 1867), 9 sq.; see also Maximilien de Wied-Neuwied, Voyage dans Vlnte- rieur de VAmerique du Nord, ii, 444- 453. ^ Dorsey in Sixth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1888), 396. 2 Ibid., 397. 3 Miss Fletcher, ^^The Hako: A Pawnee Ceremony" in Twenty -second Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. (Wash- ington, 1904), part ii, 13-368; Dorsey '^Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee," Mem. Amer. Folk -Lore Sac, viii (Boston, 1904), p. xx sq.; id.. Traditions of the Arikara," Car- negie Institution Publications , no. 17 (Washington, 1904), 172 sq.; id., ''The Mythology of the Wichita," Carnegie Institution Publications, no. 21 (Washington, 1904), 16 sq. ^ Ninth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1892), 452. 2i8 PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES embracing in their membership nearly every adult male of the community.^ Eight magical fraternities have been found among the Sia, formerly an important tribe of western Nev^ Mexico, whose members belong to the Keresan lin- guistic stock. ^ The Zuni of northwestern New Mexico have thirteen secret orders, some of them open to men and women alike, besides the Ahshiwanni^ or Priesthood of the Bow, and the Kokko.^ The medicine-men among the Pimas of Arizona are apparently organized in fraternities.^ The Hopi Indians of northeastern Arizona, who form what is known as the Tusayan Confederacy, have many fraternities. The Hopi at the present day dwell in seven pueblos on three mesas. On the first are the pueblos of Walpi, Sichumovi (Sitcomovi), and Hano; on the second, Mashonghnavi (Miconinovi), Shipaulovi (Cipaulovi), and Shumopavi (Cunopavi) ; on the third, Oraibi. The Indians of all the pueblos, except Hano, are of Shoshonean stock. The Hano people belong to the Tewan group of Tanoan stock, but affiliate with the Hopi in their institutions. The elaborate ceremonies which comprise the Hopi ritual are divided into two great groups of the Katcinas and the Un- masked or Nine Days' Ceremonials. The Katcinas come in December, January, February, March, April-June, and July; the several celebrations during these months being ^ James Stevenson, "Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand Painting of the Navajo Indians/' Eighth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., (Washington, 1891), 235-285; Wash- ington Matthews in Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, x (1897), 260; id., "The Mountain Chant, a Navajo Cere- mony," Fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1887), 385-467; id.y "The Night Chant, a Navaho Cere- mony," Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. vi (New York, 1902). ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Eleventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1894), 9-157. ^ Mrs. Stevenson in Fifth Ann. Rep. (Washington, 1887), 539-555; id., Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthropology (Chicago, 1894), 315 sq.; id., Amer. Anthro- pologist, xi (1898), 33-40; id., "The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Societies and Ceremonies " in Twenty-third Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. (Washington, 1904), esp. 407-608; Cushing in Second Ann. Rep. (Washington, 1883), 9-45; Fewkes, "A Few Summer Cere- monials at Zuni Pueblo," Jour. Amer. Ethnol. and Archceol., i (1891), 1-61; Gore in Trans. Anthrop. Soc. of Washington, i (1882), 88. * Grossmann in Ann. Rep. Smith- sonian Inst, for i8ji (Washington, 1873), 413. DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 219 known respectively as Soyalunay^ Pa^ Powamu^ Palulu- kontiy^ the abbreviated KatctnaSy^ and Niman.^ The Un- masked or Nine Days' Ceremonials come in August, September, October, and November and are known re- spectively as the Snake and Flute ^ ceremonies, Lala- ^ The Soyaluna, a winter solstice ceremony observed in six of the Hopi pueblos by the Soyal fraternity, is described by Messrs. Dorsey and Voth, "The Oraibi Soyal Ceremony," Publications of the Field Columbian Museum y Anthropological Series, iii (1901), no. i; see also Fewkes in Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1897), 268-273; id., *^The Winter Solstice Ceremony at Walpi," Amer. Anthropologist, xi (1898), 65-87, 101-109; id., ''The Winter Solstice Altars at Hano Pueblo," Amer. Anthropologist, new series, i (1899), 251-276. 2 This festival, varying greatly in the different pueblos, has not been described. 3 H. R. Voth, ''The Oraibi Powamu Ceremony," Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological Series, iii (1901), no. 2 ; Fewkes in Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1897), 274-290. ^ J. W. Fewkes, "ThePalulukonti: A Tusayan Ceremony," Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, vi (1893), 269-282; id.. Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1897), 291. ^ Fewkes, "A Few Summer Cere- monials at the Tusayan Pueblos," Jour. Amer. Ethnol. and ArchceoL, ii (1892), 53 sq.; see also id.. Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1897), 292-304. On the general significance of the Kat- cina rites, see Fewkes in Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, xiv (1901), 81-94; id.. Fifteenth Ann. Rep., 251-313; id.. Twenty -first Ann. Rep., 13- 126. ^ Fewkes, Fifteenth Ann, Rep., 292; id.. Jour. Amer. Ethnol. and ArchceoL, ii (1892), 69 sq. ^ The remarkable ceremonies com- monly known as the Snake Dance are celebrated by the Snake and Ante- lope fraternities, simultaneously every year in five of the Hopi pueblos. See Fewkes, "The Snake Ceremonies at Walpi," Jour. Amer. Ethnol. and ArchceoL, iv (1894), 7-124, with a full bibliography of the cere- moniqs as performed in 1891 and 1893. In "Tusayan Snake Cere- monies," Sixteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 273-311, Mr. Fewkes has treated the dance as prac- tised at Cipaulovi, Cunopavi, and Oraibi. In "Notes on Tusayan Flute and Snake Ceremonies," Nine- teenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. (Washington, 1900), 963-101 1, Mr. Fewkes has completed his elaborate studies by describing the dance as practised at Miconinovi. Messrs. Dorsey and Voth have recently published another illuminating ac- count of the Miconinovi rites, "The Mishongnovi Ceremonies of the Snake and Antelope Fraternities," Pub- lications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological Series, iii (1902), no. 3. Mr. Voth has given us a very full account of "The Oraibi Summer Snake Ceremony," Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological Series, iii (1902), no. 4. Captain Bourke in The Snake-Dance of the Moquis of Arizona (London, 1884), was the first to call attention to the significance of the Hopi rites. There are reasons for beheving that the Snake Dance was formerly practised over a wide area. It presents strong PRIMITIVE SECRET SOCIETIES konta^^ Mamzrautiy^ and Wowochimtu^ known in its more elaborate form as Naacnaiya} There are many resem- blances between the Zuni and Hopi religious systems as also many differences, making it impossible at present to determine conclusively how much borrowing has gone on between the two peoples.^ The Sia and Hopi rites have also many elements in common.^ Among the Indian tribes of the Northwest we find numer- ous secret societies in close connection with the class system. The societies existing among the Kwakiutl of British Colum- bia are reproduced in those of the Nootka and Coast Salish of Vancouver Island, and the Tsimshian, Nisqua, Haida, and Tlingit inhabiting the coast of British Columbia to Alaska. ''The performances themselves are essentially the same from Alaska t(j Juan de Fuca Strait." Professor Boas argues that the present character of the societies among these various tribes was attained among the Kwakiutl, and was spread from this tribe over the vast territory in which these secret societies are now found. The Aleuts are known to have had secret societies before their conquest and con- version to Christianity by the Russians.^ The Sciatl, of affinities to the Nahuatl and Maya rites (Fewkes, "A Central American Ceremony which suggests the Snake Dance of the Tusayan Villagers," Amer. Anthropologist^ vi, 1893, 285- 305). On the Flute ceremonies, see Fewkes in Jour. Amer. Ethnol. and ArchceoL, ii (1892), 108-150; id., ''The Walpi Flute Observance: A Study of Primitive Dramatization," Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, vii (1894), 265-287. ^ Fewkes, "The Lalakonta: A Tusayan Dance," Amer. Anthro- pologist, V (1892), 105-129. 2 Fewkes, ''The Mamzrauti: A Tusayan Ceremony," Amer. Anthro- pologist, V (1892), 217-242. ^ Id., The New-Fire Ceremony at Walpi," Amer. Anthropologist, new series, ii (1900), 80-138. Cf. for an earher description, ''The Naacnaiya: A Tusayan Initiation Ceremony," Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, V (1892), 189-217. There are no New-Fire Ceremonies at Sitcomovi or Hano, but they are found, probably, in all the other Hopi pueblos. Some idea of the multitude and complexity of these Hopi rites, which follow a ceremonial calendar in a definite and prescribed sequence, is afforded by Mr. Fewkes's "Provisional List of Annual Ceremonials at Walpi," Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr., viii (1895), 215-236. A partial bibhography of the investigations made by Mr. Fewkes will be found in Amer. An- thropologist, xi (1898), 110-115. ^ Cf. Fewkes in Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington, 1897), 304 sq. ^ Id., "A Comparison of Sia and Tusayan Snake Ceremonials," Amer. Anthropologist, viii (1895), 118-141. ^ Dall in Third Ann. Rep. Bur, DIFFUSION OF INITIATION CEREMONIES 221 British Columbia, a coast division of Salish stock, have no institutions resembhng the Kwakiutl societies. A period of seclusion at puberty is, however, obligatory for both sexes. ^ The use of masks at the religious festivals of the Central Eskimo is a probable indication of the existence of secret rites among these tribes.^ Ethnol. (Washington, 1884), 139; Nelson in Eighteenth Ann. Rep., 358, 395 On the Kwakiutl societies, see the elaborate investigation of Dr. Franz Boas, '^The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians," Report of U. S. National Museum for i8gj (Washington, 1897), 315-664; id. in Festschrift fur Adolf Bastian (Bedin, 1896), 437-443; Jacobsen in Ausland, Ixiii (1890), 267-269, 290-293; Swanton, ''The Development of the Clan System and of Secret Societies among the North- western Tribes," Amer. Anthropol- ogist, new series, vi (1904), 477-485. On those of the Kluquolla of Van- couver Island, see Matthew Macfie, Vancouver Island and British Colum- bia (London, 1865), 433 sq.; R. C. Mayne, Four Years in British Amer- ica and Vancouver Island (London, 1862), 268. On the Dukwally and other mysteries of the Indians of Cape Flattery, see Swan in Smith- sonian Contributions to Knowledge, xvi, no. 220, 63 sq.; G. M. Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life (London, 1868), 271; Eells in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Institution for 1887 (Washington, 1889), part i, 666. On those among the Tcilqeuk, Niska^ and the Western Denes, see Hill -Tout in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Ixxii (1902), 358; Boas, ibid., Ixv (1895), 575 sq.; Morice in Trans. Canadian Inst., iv (1895), 204 sq. ^ Hill -Tout in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxxiv (1904), 25, 32. ^ Boas, in Sixth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., 605-608 ; id.. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XV, part i (1901), 138 sq. INDEX TO NATIVE TERMS 148. Abakwetay 44. A fa, 210. Agagara, 126. Agud, 100. Ahl, 189. Ahshiwanni, 183, 218. Akaipa, 104. Akitcita, 131. Akonwarahf 180. i4/(i, 159. Alcheringa, 140, 140 n^, 141 n, Alkirakiwuma, 85. ^/o/, 3. Ambaquerka, 85. ^wi/, 201. Amporo, 211. ^ Ngaula, 5. Apouema, 200. Apulia, 191, 19111^,192. Arakurta, 85. Are-karieij 168 n^. Areoi, 122, 124 13011^, 163, 164-168, 169, 170, 172, 202, 203. ^rz, 153 n^ 15411. ^n'^i, 82, 168 Ariltha, 85. Armengol, 169. ^r67g, 14. 29, 31, 53, 68, 104, 105 n^, 9. Augud, 7. i4>'a^a, 117 209. Bahito (Baito), 56. J5af, 169, 16911^. Baiamai, 96, 9811^. Baidam, 145 Balei, 8. Baleuw, 8, 9. Balillie, 85. Bantje, 4. Bam, 129, 201. 197. 223 Barium, 4, 26, 31, 68, 197, 197 n*. Bayaawu, 133, 133 n^. Beit-ef-fohfa, 14. Belli-paaro, 55, 108, 117, 210 n^. Biamban, 97. Boguera, 45. Bomai, 97 n^. Boosketau, 213 n*. 21, 22, 29, 29 30, 36, 36 n^*^, 50, 50 n2, 70 nS 71, 72, 76 nS 83, 85, 86, 96, 97> 137-140, 144, 19I) 191ns 192, 19511. Bourka, 84. Boyale, 45. Buambramba, 4. Buckli, 51. Bullawang, 100. Bunan, 29, 67 n^, 86, 97 n^, 191 n*. Bundu, 120 n*. Burbong, 72, 97, 99, 191 n*. Bure-ni-sa, 12. Bweni, 13. Bweti, 208. Calpule, 15. Chilinchili, 177. Chookadoo, 85. Churinga, 40, 61, 62, 64, 141 n, 142, 157. Z)a/a, 69. Dangal, 162. Dangur, 128. Daramulun, 66, 96, 97, 9811*, 99. Dewarra, 94, in. Dhumkuria, 9. Dz7i7, 87. Djamboer, 8. Djemaa, 14. Dorrunmai, 72. r> 176, 207, 208, 208 ni. Nullah nullah, 50. Nurti, 89. A^);erg, 88. Oghoni, 5011^, 109, 117, 119, 176, 209. Oha, 82. O^eg, 57. Okeepa, 183-185, 216. Oknanikilla, 140 n^, 141 n. Oro (Oru), 115, 117, 118 n\ 119, 120, 210. Osale, 8. Oshogbo, 210. OwakulH, 157, 159. Pa, 219. Pabufunan, 9. Palangkan, 9. Palnatareij 5. Paluduka, 105 n*. Palulukonti, 219, 21911*. Pangah, 7. Papang, 97. Par at, 168. Parak, 3. Parol, 104. Pelak, 100. Penda-Penda, 211. Peyotl, 125. Piraru, 90. Poogthun, 132. Porrang, 96. Poshaiankia, 179. Powamu, 189, 189 n^, 219, 219 n^. Purr ah {Purr oh, Poro), 38, 39, 41 n^, 94, 107, no, 115, 116 n^, 118 n^, 120 n^, 122, 172 n, 210. Qa/, 164, 167 n, 200. Qa/w, 38, 199, 200. Quequtsa, 152. <2e/ii, 38 n2. Q^/w, 164, 200. Quabara, 141, 141 152, 158, 161, 184. Roemah kompanij 8. Romaluli, 8. Ruai, 7, 8. a tahol, 163 n^. a 163 n^. Rukruk (Burri), 92, 199, 199 n^. Rumslam, 3. Runanga, 204, 205. Salagoro, 128. 5aw, 145 n^. Saniakiakwe, 181. Schijigalet, 80. Sedasi, 89. Sedibo, 90. Selogunia, 87. Sembe, 210. Semese, 62, 63. Shipapulima, 179. Sibjan, 90. Sicuri, 212 n^. Sifsan, 18 ^/^a^*, 145, 146. 5^"^^?, 127. Simanlo, 6. 5^'w67 {Semo, Simon), 172, 211. Sindungo, 108, 108 n^, 117, 208. Sisili, 68. 6*0^^?, 8. Soyaluna, 219, 219 n^. ^'wg'^, 108, 129-130, 13011^, 165 n'. Surlal, 162. Taftw (Tapu), 109, 170. Taf, 7, 161. Taikyuw, 18. Taiokwod, 144. Takwura, 168. Talohu, 114 n^. Parnate, 108, 109, no, 128, 13011^, 200. Taraiu, 114. T^ar^?, 68, 103. Tataokani, 189. Tecuhtli, 82. Telpuchali, 15. Temes, 129. Thrumalun, 99. Tidbut, 79. Tiponif 157. INDEX TO NATIVE TERMS Tippdkal^ 96. J. V y\/ y 11 y Xv/W II* F*?"/, 63 n^. Vwnilnln fKfi Todfdy 191 n^. WW VVly Vly fVK4/ y X^S, ^XV^« jVdidty 161, 162. r<9^*65, 89. Wdkon-Kitchewdhy 215 n'. Tokii?d. IK, Wdningdy 63 n^. ToholOy 132. TFarrarfZ, 84. Wccdcgdh GdJtTBCTfidiy 3. TondOy 12. TFe/w, 164. Tsidhky 181. Whdre Kurdy 170, 171 n\ 175. T'uhunn'yt, Vi/^ltCLrp. T^U'H.n.fi.crfi odA WW iV\A/f\> x\~vvfv\Jvrv^KlVy ^\JC^* Tuggdhilldy 30. WW vv^vwvrf^y yJ^» Tttfvwupkdtcifidj 189* Wifttiy 157. Turndufiy 100. Witcitdy 181. Tutu J II. WitydlkinyeSy 84. Twdfiyirikdj 98 n^, 99, 100. Wonzdlonz-. 8^. Wowochiftty 189 n^. UkukUj 10511^, 107, 118 n^, 208, 211 n^. WowochimtUy 189, 189 n^, 220. Ukukwe^ 208. TFwwi/a, 44 n^. Ulptnerkdy 85. Uttidiy 145 n^. TFwr/ev. ^. Wurtjdy 85. Umdluliky 8. Umbd, 13911^. Umbirndy 13911^, Yddup. Sk. Un^unid, 2, 22. Ydifdhe. 1^2, UnkulunkulUy 206. Ydsiy 118 n^, 127, 172, 208, 211 Uritoiy 169, 202, 203 n*. Ydssiy 1 20 n*. Urlidrdf 85, 140. Fe^*, 186, 187. Z7/5e/, 156112. Yeponiy 93. YugUy 209. Faw^a, 175. Yukukuldy 120 n*. F^/a, 175. Yuppieriy 40, 92. Fere, 64, 86. Fere ntdtud, 86. ZdfighetOy 117, 210. VUavou, 86. ZogolCy 100. GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 3 3125 00704 8768