Yet another indication that the binding circlet of the covenant-token stands, among primitive peoples, as also among cultivated ones, as the representative, or proof, of this very covenant itself, is found in a method of divorce prevailing among the Balau Dayaks, of Borneo. It has already been shown (page 73, supra) that a ring of blood is a binding symbol in the marriage covenant in some parts of Borneo. It seems, also, that when a divorce has been agreed on by a Balau couple, "it is necessary for the offended husband to send a ring to his wife, before the marriage can be considered as finally dissolved; without which, should they marry again, they would be liable to be punished for infidelity."1 This practice seems to have grown out of the old custom already referred to (page 73 f.), of the bride giving to the bridegroom a bloodrepresenting ring in the marriage cup. Until that symbolic ring is returned to her by the bridegroom, it remains as the proof of her covenant with him. This connection of the encircling ring with the heart's blood is of very ancient origin, and of general, if not of universal, application. Wilkinson (Anc. Egypt., III., 420) cites Macrobius as saying, that "those Egyptian priests who were called prophets, when engaged in the temple near the altars of the gods, moistened [anointed] the ring-finger of the left hand (which was that next to the smallest) with various sweet ointments, in the belief that a certain nerve communicated with it from the heart.” He also says, that among the Egyptian women, many finger rings were worn, and that "the left was considered the hand peculiarly privileged to wear these ornaments; and it is remarkable that its third finger [next to the little finger] was considered by them, as by us, par excellence the ring finger; though there is no evidence [to his knowledge] of its having been so honored at the marriage ceremony." Birch adds (Ibid., II., 340) that "it is very difficult to distinguish between the ring worn for mere ornament, and the signet [standing for the wearer's very life] employed to seal [and to sign] epistles and other things." The evidence 1 St. John's Life in the Far East, I., 67. is, in fact, ample, that the ring, in ancient Egypt, as elsewhere, was not a mere ornament, nor yet a superstitious amulet, but represented one's heart, or one's life, as a symbol and pledge of personal fidelity. In South Australia, the rite of circumcision is one of the steps by which a lad enters into the sphere of manhood. This involves his covenanting with his new god-father, and with his new fellows in the sphe e of his entering. In this ceremony, the very ring of flesh itself is placed "on the third finger of the boy's left hand" (Angas's Sav. Life, I., 99). What clearer indication than this is needed, that the finger-ring is a vestige of the primitive blood-covenant token? An instance of the use of a large ring, or bracelet, encircling the two hands of persons joining in the marriage covenant, is reported to me from the North of Ireland, in the present century. It was in the county Donegal. The Roman Catholic priest was a French exile. In marrying the people of the poorer class, who could not afford to purchase a ring, he "would take the large ring from his old-fashioned double-cased watch, and hold it on the hands, or the thumbs, of the contracting parties, while he blessed their union." Yet another illustration of the universal symbolism of the ring, as a token of sacred covenant, is its common use as a pledge of friendship, even unto death. The ring given by Queen Elizabeth to the unfortunate Earl of Essex is an instance in point. Had that covenant token reached her, her covenant promises would have been redeemed. There is an old Scottish ballad, "Hynd Horn,”—perhaps having a common origin with the Bohemian lay on which Scott based The Noble Moringer,1-which brings out the idea of a covenant-ring having the power to indicate to its wearer the fidelity of its giver; corresponding with the popular belief to that effect, suggested by Bacon.2 Hynd Horn has won the heart of the king's daughter, and the king sends him over the sea, as a means of breaking up the match. As he sets out Hynd Horn carries with him a symbol of his lady-love's troth. 2 See page 75, supra 1 See page 73, supra. "O his love gave him a gay gold ring, With a hey lillelu, and a how lo lan; And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. "But when your ring turns pale and wan, With a hey lillelu, and a how lo lan, Then I'm in love with another man, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie." 1 Seven years went by, and then the ring-gems grew "pale and wan." Hynd Horn hastened back, entered the wedding-hall disguised as a beggar, sent the covenant-ring to the bride in a glass of wine; and the sequel was the same as in The Noble Moringer. At a Brahman wedding, in India, described by Miss H. G. Brittan (in "The Missionary Link," for October, 1864; cited in Women of the Orient, pp. 176-179) a silver dish, filled with water, (probably with water colored with saffron, or with turmeric, according to the common custom in India,)" also containing a very handsome ruby ring, and a thin iron bracelet," was set before the father of the bride, during the marriage ceremony. At the covenanting of the young couple, "the ring was given to the groom; the bracelet to the bride; then some of the [blood-colored?] water was sprinkled on them [See page 194, supra], and some flowers [were] thrown at them." Here seem to be combined the symbolisms of the ring, the bracelet, and the blood, in a sacred covenanting. HINTS OF BLOOD-UNION. From the very fact that so little attention has been given to the primitive rite of blood-covenanting, in the studies of modern scholars, there is reason for supposing that the rite itself has very often been unnoticed 1 Allingham's Ballad Book, p. 6 f. by travelers and missionaries in regions where it was practiced almost under their eyes. Indeed, there is proof of this to be obtained, by comparing the facts recorded in this volume with the writings of visitors to the lands here reported from. Hence it is fair to infer that more or less of the brotherhoods or friendships noted among primitive peoples, without any description of the methods of their consummating, are either directly based on the rite of blood-covenanting, or are outgrowths and variations of that rite; as, for example, in Borneo, blood-tasting is sometimes deemed essential to the rite, and again it is omitted. It may be well, therefore, to look at some of the hints of blood-union among primitive peoples, in relationships and in customs where not all the facts and processes involved are known to us. Peculiarly is it true, that wherever we find the idea of an absolute merging of two natures into one, or of an inter-union or an inter-changing of two personalities in loving relation, there is reason for suspecting a connection with the primitive rite of inter-union through a common blood flow. And there are illustrations of this idea in the Old World and in the New, all along the ages. It has already been mentioned (page 109, supra) that, in India, the possibility of an inter-union of two natures, and of their inter-merging into one, is recognized in the statement that "the heart of Vishnu is Sivâ, and the heart of Sivâ is Vishnu"; and it is a well-known philosophical fact that man must have an actual basis of human experience for the symbolic language with which he illustrates the nature and characteristics of Deity. In the most ancient portion of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead,1 there is a description of the inter-union of Osiris and Rā, not unlike that above quoted concerning Sivâ and Vishnoo. It says that "Osiris came to Tattu (Mendes) and found the soul of Ra there; each embraced the other, and became as one soul in two souls" 2life in two lives; or, as it would be phrased concerning two human 1 Todtenbuch, xvii., 42, 43. -as one 2 Renouf's The Relig. of Anc. Egypt, p. 107. beings united in blood-friendship, "one soul in two bodies"; a common life in two personalities. Again it is said in an Egyptian sacred text, "Ra is the soul of Osiris, and Osiris is the soul of Rā."1 An exchange of names, as if in exchange of personalities, in connection with a covenant of friendship, is a custom in widely diverse countries; and this custom seems to have grown out of the idea of an inter-union of natures by an inter-union of blood, even if it be not actually an accompaniment of that rite in every instance. It is common in the Society Islands,' as an element in the adoption of a “tayo,” or a personal friend and companion (See page 56, supra). It is to be found in various South Sea islands, and on the American continent. Among the Araucanians, of South America, the custom of making brothers, or brother-friends, is called Lacu. It includes the killing of a lamb and dividing it—" cutting" it-between the two covenanting parties; and each party must eat his half of the lamb—either by himself or by such assistance as he chooses to call in. None of it must be left uneaten. Gifts also pass between the parties; and the two friends exchange names. “The giving [the exchanging] of a name [with this people] establishes between the namesakes a species of relationship which is considered almost as sacred as that of blood, and obliges them to render to each other certain services, and that consideration which naturally belongs to relatives." 3 It is related of Tolo, a chief of the Shastika Indians, on the Pacific coast, that when he made a treaty with Col. McKee, an American soldier, in 1852, for the cession of certain tribal rights, he was anxious for some ceremony of brotherhood that should give binding sacredness to the mutual covenant. After some parleying, he proposed the formal exchange of names, and this was agreed to. Thenceforward he desired 1 Renouf's The Relig. of Anc. Egypt, p. 107. 2 Miss. Voyage to So. Pacif. Ocean, p. 65. 3 See E. R. Smith's The Araucanians, p. 262. |