Scatalogic Rites Of All Nations - free ebook by John Gregory Bourke

Read as playlist

Scatalogic Rites Of All Nations

John Gregory Bourke

128 chapters

14 hour read

Read as playlist

Selected Chapters

128 chapters

PREFACE.

PREFACE.

The subject of Scatalogic or Stercoraceous Rites and Practices , however repellent it may be under some of its aspects, is none the less deserving of the profoundest consideration,—if for no other reason than that from the former universal dissemination of such aberrations of the intellect, as well as of the religious impulses of the human race, and their present curtailment or restriction, the progress of humanity upward and onward may best be measured. Philosophical and erudite thinkers of pas

7 minute read

Read Chapter

I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

“The proper study of mankind is man.” “The study of man is the study of man’s religion.”— Max Müller. “Few who will give their minds to master the general principles of savage religion will ever again think it ridiculous.... Far from its beliefs and practices being a rubbish heap of miscellaneous folly, they are consistent and logical in so high a degree as to begin, as soon as even roughly classified, to display the principles of their formation and development; and these principles prove to be

4 minute read

Read Chapter

II. THE URINE DANCE OF THE ZUÑIS.

II. THE URINE DANCE OF THE ZUÑIS.

On the evening of November 17, 1881, during my stay in the village of Zuñi, New Mexico, the Nehue-Cue , one of the secret orders of the Zuñis, sent word to Mr. Frank H. Cushing, [2] whose guest I was, that they would do us the unusual honor of coming to our house to give us one of their characteristic dances, which, Cushing said, was unprecedented. The squaws of the governor’s family put the long living-room to rights, sweeping the floor and sprinkling it with water to lay the dust. Soon after d

13 minute read

Read Chapter

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FEAST OF FOOLS AND THE URINE DANCE.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FEAST OF FOOLS AND THE URINE DANCE.

In the above description may be seen that the principal actors (taking possession of the church during high mass) had their faces daubed and painted, or masked in a harlequin manner; that they were dressed as clowns or as women; that they ate upon the altar itself sausages and blood-puddings. Now the word “blood-pudding” in French is boudin ; but boudin also meant “excrement.” [5] Add to this the feature that these clowns, after leaving the church, took their stand in dung-carts ( tombereaux ),

42 minute read

Read Chapter

THE FEAST OF FOOLS TRACED BACK TO MOST ANCIENT TIMES.

THE FEAST OF FOOLS TRACED BACK TO MOST ANCIENT TIMES.

Dulaure makes no attempt to trace the origin of these ceremonies in France; he contents himself with saying, “Ces cérémonies ... ont subsisté pendant douze ou quinze siècles,” or, in other words, that they were of Pagan origin. In twelve or fifteen hundred years the rite might have been well sublimed from the eating of pure excrement, as among the Zuñis, to the consumption of the boudin , the excrement symbol. [6] Conceding for the moment that this suspicion is correct, we have a proof of the an

1 minute read

Read Chapter

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FEAST OF FOOLS.

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FEAST OF FOOLS.

In France the Feast of Fools disappeared only with the French Revolution; in other parts of Continental Europe it began to wane about the time of the Reformation. In England, “the abbot of unreason,” whose pranks are outlined by Sir Walter Scott in his novel “The Abbot,” the miracle plays which had once served a good purpose in teaching Scriptural lessons to an illiterate peasantry, and the “moralities” of the same general purport, faded away under the stern antagonism of the Puritan iconoclast.

8 minute read

Read Chapter

THE “SZOMBATIAKS” OF TRANSYLVANIA.

THE “SZOMBATIAKS” OF TRANSYLVANIA.

In further explanation of the tenacity with which older cults survive long after the newer religions seem to have gained predominance in countries and nations, it is extremely appropriate to introduce a passage from an article in the “St. James’ Gazette,” entitled “Crypto-Jews,” reprinted in the Sunday edition of the “Sun,” New York, sometime in October, 1888. The writer, in speaking of the Szombatiaks of Transylvania, remarks: “The crypto-Judaism of the Szombatiaks was suspected for centuries,

11 minute read

Read Chapter

THE GENERALLY SACRED CHARACTER OF DANCING.

THE GENERALLY SACRED CHARACTER OF DANCING.

“Dancing was originally merely religious, intended to assist the memory in retaining the sacred learning which originated previous to the invention of letters. Indeed, I believe that there were no parts of the rites and ceremonies of antiquity which were not adopted with a view to keep in recollection the ancient learning before letters were known.”—(Higgins’ “Anacalypsis,” vol. ii. p. 179.) In one of the sieges of Samaria, it is recorded that “The fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung sold for fi

1 minute read

Read Chapter

FRAY DIEGO DURAN’S ACCOUNT OF THE MEXICAN FESTIVALS.

FRAY DIEGO DURAN’S ACCOUNT OF THE MEXICAN FESTIVALS.

All that Higgins believed was believed and asserted by the Dominican missionary Diego Duran. Duran complains bitterly that the unwise destruction of the ancient Mexican pictographs and all that explained the religion of the natives left the missionaries in ignorance as to what was religion and what was not. The Indians, taking advantage of this, mocked and ridiculed the dogmas and ceremonies of the new creed in the very face of its expounders, who still lacked a complete mastery of the language

2 minute read

Read Chapter

THE URINE DANCE OF THE ZUÑIS MAY CONSERVE A TRADITION OF THE TIME WHEN VILE ALIMENT WAS IN USE.

THE URINE DANCE OF THE ZUÑIS MAY CONSERVE A TRADITION OF THE TIME WHEN VILE ALIMENT WAS IN USE.

The Zuñi dance may therefore not improperly be considered among other points of view, under that which suggests a commemoration of the earliest life of this people, when vile aliment of every kind may have been in use through necessity. An examination of evidence will show that foods now justly regarded as noxious were once not unknown to nations of even greater development than any as yet attained by the Rio Grande Pueblos. Necessity was not always the inciting motive; frequently religious fren

2 minute read

Read Chapter

V. HUMAN EXCREMENT USED IN FOOD BY THE INSANE AND OTHERS.

V. HUMAN EXCREMENT USED IN FOOD BY THE INSANE AND OTHERS.

The subject of excrement-eating among insane persons has engaged the attention of medical experts. H. B. Obersteiner, in a communication to the “Psychiatrisches Centralblatt,” Wien, 1871, vol. iii. p. 95, informs that periodical that Dr. A. Erlenmeyer, Jr., induced by a lecture delivered by Professor Lang in 1872, had prepared a tabulated series of data embodying the results of his observations upon the existence of coprophagy among insane persons. He found that one in a hundred of persons suffe

6 minute read

Read Chapter

VI. THE EMPLOYMENT OF EXCREMENT IN FOOD BY SAVAGE TRIBES.

VI. THE EMPLOYMENT OF EXCREMENT IN FOOD BY SAVAGE TRIBES.

The very earliest accounts of the Indians of Florida and Texas refer to the use of such aliment. Cabeza de Vaca, one of the survivors of the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez, was a prisoner among various tribes for many years, and finally, accompanied by three comrades as wretched as himself, succeeded in traversing the continent, coming out at Culiacan, on the Pacific Coast, in 1536. His narrative says that the “Floridians,” “for food, dug roots, and that they ate spiders, ants’ eggs,

7 minute read

Read Chapter

CHINOOK OLIVES.

CHINOOK OLIVES.

The addition of urine to human food is mentioned by various writers. Speaking of the Chinooks, Paul Kane describes a delicacy manufactured by some of the Indians among whom he travelled, and called by him “Chinook Olives.” They were nothing more nor less than acorns soaked for five months in human urine (see Kane, “Artist’s Wanderings in North America,” London, 1859, p. 187). Spencer copies Kane’s story in his “Descriptive Sociology,” article “Chinooks.” “In Queensland, near Darlington, there is

2 minute read

Read Chapter

URINE IN BREAD-MAKING.

URINE IN BREAD-MAKING.

A comparatively late writer says of the Moquis of Arizona: “They are not as clean in their housekeeping as the Navajoes, and it is hinted that they sometimes mix their meal with chamber-lye for these festive occasions; but I did not know that until I talked with Mormons who visited them” (J. H. Beadle, “Western Wilds,” Cincinnati, Ohio, 1878, p. 279). Beadle lived and ate with the Moquis for a number of days. This story, coming from the Mormons, may refer to some imperfectly understood ceremonia

2 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN ORDURE EATEN BY EAST INDIAN FANATICS.

HUMAN ORDURE EATEN BY EAST INDIAN FANATICS.

Speaking of the remnants of the Hindu sect of the Aghozis, an English writer observes:— “In proof of their indifference to worldly objects they eat and drink whatever is given to them, even ordure and carrion. They smear their bodies also with excrement, and carry it about with them in a wooden cup, or skull, either to swallow it, if by so doing they can get a few pice, or to throw it upon the persons or into the houses of those who refuse to comply with their demands.”—(“Religious Sects of the

2 minute read

Read Chapter

HUC AND DUBOIS COMPARED.

HUC AND DUBOIS COMPARED.

Huc was a keen and observing traveller; he was well acquainted with the languages and customs of the Mongolians; his tour into Thibet was replete with incident, and his narrative never flags in interest. Still, in Thibet he was only a traveller; the upper classes of the Buddhist priesthood looked upon him with suspicion. The lower orders of priesthood and people did seem to consider him as a Lama from the far East, but he did not succeed in gaining the confidence of the Thibetans to the extent p

28 minute read

Read Chapter

UN DALAI-LAMA IRLANDAIS.

UN DALAI-LAMA IRLANDAIS.

“A l’occasion des reliques journalières du Dalai-Lama dont on fait des pilules pour les dévots, histoire que les imprimeurs de cette Revue n’avaient pas voulu ‘avaler’ (voir plus haut, col. 24) Mr. Wh. Stokes nous a signalé un curieux passage des annales irlandaises. Nous croyons intéressant de le traduire ici. Cet ‘acte de foi’ se passait en l’an 605, et le héros en est le roi Aedh, surnommé Uairidhnach. [14] “Un jour il passa, n’étant encore que prince royal, par le territoire d’Othain-Muira;

7 minute read

Read Chapter

BACCHIC ORGIES IN NORTH AMERICA.

BACCHIC ORGIES IN NORTH AMERICA.

These orgies were duplicated among many of the tribes of North America. Paul Kane describes the inauguration of Clea-clach, a Clallum chief (northwest coast of British America): “He seized a small dog and began devouring it alive.” He also bit pieces from the shoulders of the male by-standers.—(See “Artist’s Wanderings in North America,” London, 1859, p. 212; also, the same thing quoted by Herbert Spencer in “Descriptive Sociology.”) Speaking of these ceremonies, Dr. Franz Boas says: “Members of

2 minute read

Read Chapter

THE SACRIFICE OF THE DOG A SUBSTITUTION FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE DOG A SUBSTITUTION FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE.

It would add much to the bulk of this chapter to show that the dog has almost invariably been employed as a substitute for man in sacrifice. Other animals have performed the same vicarious office, but none to the same extent, especially among the more savage races. To the American Indians and other peoples of a corresponding stage of development, the substitution presents no logical incongruity. Their religious conceptions are so strongly tinged with zoolatry that the assignment of animals to th

24 minute read

Read Chapter

THE MUSHROOM DRINK OF THE BORGIE WELL.

THE MUSHROOM DRINK OF THE BORGIE WELL.

The following paragraph deserves more than a passing mention:— “The Borgie well, at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, is credited with making mad those who drink from it; according to the local rhyme, The weed is the weedy fungi.”—(“Folk-Medicine,” Black, London, 1883, p. 104.) Camden says that the Irish “delight in herbs, ... especially cresses, mushrooms, and roots.”—(“Britannia,” edition of London, 1753, vol. ii. p. 1422.) Other references to the Siberian fungus are inserted to afford students the fu

13 minute read

Read Chapter

XII. THE MUSHROOM IN CONNECTION WITH THE FAIRIES.

XII. THE MUSHROOM IN CONNECTION WITH THE FAIRIES.

In the opinion of the folk of Great Britain and Ireland, possibly of the Continent as well, the mushroom was intimately connected with the dwellers in the realm of sprites and fairies, as can be shown in a moment, and by simple reference. The lore of the peasantry of those countries is replete with the uncanniness of the “Fairy Circles,” which modern investigation has shown to be due to a species of fungus. “Various theories were current among the peasantry to account for their existence. Some o

10 minute read

Read Chapter

MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS WORSHIPPED BY AMERICAN INDIANS.

MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS WORSHIPPED BY AMERICAN INDIANS.

Dorman is authority for the statement that mushrooms were worshipped by the Indians of the Antilles, and toadstools by those in Virginia, [22] but for what toxic or therapeutic qualities, real or supposed, he does not say. The toxic properties of fungi would seem to have been known to the Algonkins:—...

31 minute read

Read Chapter

A FORMER USE OF FUNGUS INDICATED IN THE MYTHS OF CEYLON, AND IN THE LAWS OF THE BRAHMINS.

A FORMER USE OF FUNGUS INDICATED IN THE MYTHS OF CEYLON, AND IN THE LAWS OF THE BRAHMINS.

On the west shore of the Pacific Ocean, aside from the orgies of the Siberian Shamans, no instance is on record of the use of the mushroom, or other fungus in religious rites in the present day. A former use of it is indicated in the Cingalese myths, which teach that “Chance produced a species of mushroom called mattika [23] or jessathon, on which they lived for sixty-five thousand years; but being determined to make an equal division of this, also, they lost it. Luckily for them, another creepi

2 minute read

Read Chapter

XIV. THE ONION ADORED BY THE EGYPTIANS.

XIV. THE ONION ADORED BY THE EGYPTIANS.

There are examples of the ideas surrounding onions, leeks, garlic, and bulbous vegetables of different kinds, in many countries. “The Egyptians likened the whole firmament to an onion with its varied shells and radiations; and this, together with the aphrodisiacal and fertilizing properties which this vegetable is almost universally held to possess, rendered it sacred.”—(“Rivers of Life,” Forlong, London, 1883, vol. i. p. 474.) “The species of onion which the Egyptians abhorred was the squill or

4 minute read

Read Chapter

XV. SACRED INTOXICATION AND PHALLISM.

XV. SACRED INTOXICATION AND PHALLISM.

Two fundamental principles underlie the structure of primordial religion,—Intoxication and Phallism. All perversion of the cerebral functions, whether temporary estrangement or permanent alienation, is classified as Obsession; and the pranks and gibberish of the maniac or the idiot are solemnly treasured as outbursts of inspiration. Where such temporary exaltation can be produced by an herb, bulb, liquid, or food, the knowledge of such excitant is kept as long as possible from the laity; and eve

15 minute read

Read Chapter

FORMER EMPLOYMENT OF AN INFUSION OR DECOCTION OF MISTLETOE.

FORMER EMPLOYMENT OF AN INFUSION OR DECOCTION OF MISTLETOE.

That an infusion or decoction of the plant was once in use may be gathered from the fact narrated by John Eliot Howard: “Water, in which the sacred mistletoe had been immersed, was given to or sprinkled upon the people.”—(“The Druids and their Religion,” John Eliot Howard, in “Transactions of Victoria Institute,” vol. xiv. p. 118, quoting “Le gui de chêne et les Druides,” E. Magdaleine, Paris, 1877.) Montfaucon says of the Druids: “Ils croient que les animaux stériles deviennent féconds en buvan

1 minute read

Read Chapter

THE MISTLETOE ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN HELD SACRED BY THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

THE MISTLETOE ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN HELD SACRED BY THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

An American writer says that among the Mound-builders the mistletoe was “the holiest and most rare of evergreens,” and that when human sacrifices were offered to sun and moon the victim was covered with mistletoe, which was burnt as an incense. (Pidgeon, “Dee-coo-dah,” New York, 1853, p. 91 et seq. ) Pidgeon claimed to receive his knowledge from Indians versed in the traditions and lore of their tribes. [29] Mrs. Eastman presents a drawing of what may be taken as the altar of Haokah, the anti-na

35 minute read

Read Chapter

THE MISTLETOE FESTIVAL OF THE MEXICANS.

THE MISTLETOE FESTIVAL OF THE MEXICANS.

That the Mexicans had a reverence for the mistletoe would seem to be assured. They had a mistletoe festival. In October they celebrated the festival of the Neypachtly, or bad eye, which was a plant growing on trees and hanging from them, gray with the dampness of rain; especially did it grow on the different kinds of oak. [31] The informant says he can give no explanation of this festival....

21 minute read

Read Chapter

VESTIGES OF DRUIDICAL RITES AT THE PRESENT DAY.

VESTIGES OF DRUIDICAL RITES AT THE PRESENT DAY.

It may be interesting to detect vestiges of Druidical rites tenaciously adhering to the altered life of modern civilization. In the department of Seine-et-Oise, twelve leagues from Paris (says a recent writer), when a child had a rupture (hernia) he was brought under a certain oak, and some women, who no doubt earned a living in that trade, danced around the oak, muttering spell-words till the child was cured,—that is, dead.—(“Notes and Queries,” 5th series, vol. vii. p. 163.) It has already bee

5 minute read

Read Chapter

THE LINGUISTICS OF THE MISTLETOE.

THE LINGUISTICS OF THE MISTLETOE.

Other curious instances of survival present themselves in the linguistics of the subject. The French word “gui,” meaning mistletoe, is not of Latin, but of Druidical derivation, and so the Spanish “aguinaldo,” meaning Christmas or New Year’s present, conserves the cry, slightly altered, of the Druid priest to the “gui” at the opening of the new year. “Aguillanneuf, et plus clairement, ‘au gui, l’an neuf,’ ou bien encore, ‘l’anguil l’an neuf.’”—(Le Roux de Lincy, Livre des Proverbes Français, 184

4 minute read

Read Chapter

COW DUNG ALSO USED BY THE ISRAELITES.

COW DUNG ALSO USED BY THE ISRAELITES.

“The tribes had not many feelings in common when they came to be writers and told us what they thought of each other. As a rule, they bitterly reviled each other’s gods and temples.... Judeans called the Samaritan temple, where calves and bulls were holy, in a word of Greek derivation, ‘Pelethos Naos,’ ‘the dung-hill temple.’ ... The Samaritans, in return, called the temple of Jerusalem ‘the house of dung.’”—(“Rivers of Life,” Forlong, vol. i. p. 162.) Commentators would be justified in believin

12 minute read

Read Chapter

THE SACRED COW’S EXCRETA A SUBSTITUTE FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE.

THE SACRED COW’S EXCRETA A SUBSTITUTE FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE.

The foregoing testimony, which could readily be swelled in volume, proves the sacred character of these excreta, which may be looked upon as substitutes for a more perfect sacrifice. In the early life of the Hindus it is more than likely that the cow or the heifer was slaughtered by the knife or burnt; as population increased in density, domestic cattle became too costly to be offered as a frequent oblation, and on the principle that the part represents the whole, hair, milk, butter, urine, and

7 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN ORDURE AND URINE STILL USED IN INDIA.

HUMAN ORDURE AND URINE STILL USED IN INDIA.

It is well to remember, however, that in India the more generally recognized efficacy of cow urine and cow dung has not blinded the fanatical devotee to the necessity of occasionally having recourse to the human product. “At about ten leagues to the southward of Seringapatam there is a village called Nan-ja-na-gud, in which there is a temple famous all over the Mysore. Amongst the number of votaries of every caste who resort to it, a great proportion consists of barren women, who bring offerings

4 minute read

Read Chapter

THE ASSYRIAN VENUS HAD OFFERINGS OF DUNG PLACED UPON HER ALTARS.

THE ASSYRIAN VENUS HAD OFFERINGS OF DUNG PLACED UPON HER ALTARS.

Another authority states that “the zealous adorers of Siva rub the forehead, breast, and shoulders with ashes of cow-dung,” and, further, he adds: “It is very remarkable that the Assyrian Venus, according to Lucian, had also offerings of dung placed upon her altars.”—(Maurice, “Indian Antiquities,” London, 1800, vol. i. pp. 172, 173.) [46]...

18 minute read

Read Chapter

THE MEXICAN GODDESS SUCHIQUECAL EATS ORDURE.

THE MEXICAN GODDESS SUCHIQUECAL EATS ORDURE.

The Mexicans had a goddess, of whom we read the following:—Father Fabreya says, in his commentary on the Codex Borgianus, that the mother of the human race is there represented in a state of humiliation, eating cuitlatl ( kopros , Greek). The vessel in the left hand of Suchiquecal contains “ mierda ,” according to the interpreter of these paintings.—(See note to p. 120, Kingsborough’s “Mexican Antiquities,” vol. iv.) The Spanish mierda , like the Greek kopros , means ordure . Besides Suchiquecal

2 minute read

Read Chapter

ISRAELITISH DUNG GODS.

ISRAELITISH DUNG GODS.

Dulaure quotes from a number of authorities to show that the Israelites and Moabites had the same ridiculous and disgusting ceremonial in their worship of Bel-phegor. The devotee presented his naked posterior before the altar and relieved his entrails, making an offering to the idol of the foul emanations. [50] Dung gods are also mentioned as having been known to the chosen people during the time of their idolatry. [51] Mr. John Frazer, LL.D., describing the ceremony of initiation, known to the

29 minute read

Read Chapter

POSTURE IN URINATION.

POSTURE IN URINATION.

The Apache men in micturating always squat down, while the women, on the contrary, always stand up. Giraldus Cambrensis says of the Irish: “Præterea, viri in hac gente sedendo, mulieres stando, urinas emittunt.”—(“Opera,” edited by James Dimock, and published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, London, 1867, vol. v. p. 172.) The author has seen an Italian woman of the lower class urinating in this manner in the street near San Pietro in Vinculis, Rome, in open daylight, in 1883. Fren

9 minute read

Read Chapter

XXI. AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE RITES CONNECTED WITH THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR.

XXI. AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE RITES CONNECTED WITH THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR.

Precisely what ceremonial observances the ritual of Bel-Phegor demanded of the suppliant at his shrine is not likely ever to be known. It would be worse than useless to attempt in a treatise of this kind to affirm or deny the existence of the obscene usages alleged to have formed part of his worship; sufficient, at this moment, to lay before reflecting minds testimony on both sides of the question, with reasons for the belief that flatulence could be presented as an oblation, with examples of qu

15 minute read

Read Chapter

XXII. OBSCENE TENURES.

XXII. OBSCENE TENURES.

In close connection with this worship of Bel-Phegor, if there ever was such a worship, may be examined the obscene tenures by which certain estates in England were held in “sergeantcy.” No less an authority than Buckle, the historian, deemed an investigation of these not beneath the dignity of his intellect, as may be ascertained by a glance at his article “Contributions to the History of the Pet,” in his “Commonplace Book,” p. 472. He refers to “Miscellanea Antica Anglicana,” Blount’s “Ancient

6 minute read

Read Chapter

THE SACRED CHARACTER OF BRIDGE-BUILDING.

THE SACRED CHARACTER OF BRIDGE-BUILDING.

It is quite within the bounds of argument and proof to show that the Romans looked upon the building of a bridge as a sacred work. Upon no other hypothesis can we make clear why their chief priest was designated “the Greatest Bridge-Builder” (the Pontifex Maximus). That this idea was transmitted to the barbarians who occupied Continental and insular Europe would be a most plausible presumption, even were historical evidence lacking. Concerning the tolls exacted from the prostitutes who crossed c

6 minute read

Read Chapter

XXIV. OBSCENE SURVIVALS IN THE GAMES OF THE ENGLISH RUSTICS.

XXIV. OBSCENE SURVIVALS IN THE GAMES OF THE ENGLISH RUSTICS.

The rough games of the English rustics are not altogether free from vestiges of the same nature as have been recorded of the Arabian sheik in preceding pages. For example, in Northumberland, England, there was a curious diversion called “F⸺g for the pig.” Brand gives no explanation of the custom, which may be allied to the jocular tenures mentioned by Blount, and with them to the worship of Bel-Phegor. Brand says: “The ancient grossièreté of our manners would almost exceed belief. In the stage d

5 minute read

Read Chapter

XXV. URINE AND ORDURE AS SIGNS OF MOURNING.

XXV. URINE AND ORDURE AS SIGNS OF MOURNING.

Care should be taken to distinguish between the religious use of ordure and urine, and that in which they figure as outward signs of mourning, induced by a frenzy of grief, or where they have been utilized in the arts. Lord Kingsborough (Mexican Antiquities, vol. viii. p. 237) briefly outlines such ritualistic defilement in the Mortuary Ceremonies of Hebrews and Aztecs, giving as references for the latter Diego Duran, and for the former the prophet Zechariah, chap. iii.: “Now Joshua was clothed

1 minute read

Read Chapter

TANNING.

TANNING.

The inhabitants of Kodiak employ urine in preparing the skins of birds, according to Lisiansky.—(“Voyage round the World,” London, 1814, p. 214.) “Les gants, articles de grand luxe, et de haute élégance, faits pour recouvrir de blanches mains et des bras dodus, sont imbibés d’un jaune d’œuf largement additionné dudit liquide ambré.”—(“Les Primitifs,” Réclus, p. 72.) By the Eskimo urine is preserved for use in tanning skins, [58] while its employment in the preparation of leather, in both Europe

1 minute read

Read Chapter

BLEACHING.

BLEACHING.

“Roman fullers used human urine in their business, and Pliny says it was noticed that they never suffered from gout.”—(Pliny, “Natural History,” lib. xxviii. cap. 3: Bohn). Urine has also been employed as a detergent in cleaning wool.—(Encyclopædia Britannica, article “Bleaching.”)...

11 minute read

Read Chapter

DYEING.

DYEING.

Urine is used in dyeing by the people of Ounalashka, according to Langsdorff, “Voyages” (vol. ii. p. 47); also, according to Sarytschew, in “Philip’s Voyages” (vol. vi. p. 72). The same use of it has been attributed to the Irish by Camden, in “Brittania,” edition of London, 1753, vol. ii. p. 1419. His statement is quoted by Buckle: “In 1562, O’Neal, with some of his companions, came to London and astonished the citizens by their hair flowing in locks on their shoulders, on which were yellow surp

1 minute read

Read Chapter

PLASTER.

PLASTER.

As a plaster for the interior of dwellings, cow-dung has been used with frequency; that the employment of the ordure of an animal held sacred by so many peoples has a religious basis, is perhaps too much to say, but it will be shown, further on, that different ordures were kept about houses to ensure good luck or to avert the maleficence of witchcraft. Marco Polo has the following: (In Malabar) “there are some called Gaui, who eat such oxen as die of themselves, but may not kill them, and daub o

2 minute read

Read Chapter

AS A CURE FOR TOBACCO.

AS A CURE FOR TOBACCO.

The best varieties of Tobacco coming from America were arranged in bunches, tied to stakes, and suspended in privies, in order that the fumes arising from the human ordure and urine might correct the corrupt and noxious principles in the plant in the crude state.—(See Schurig, “Chylologia,” p. 776. “Ex paxillo aliquandiu suspendere in Cloacis Tabacum,” etc.) “I heard lately from good authority that, in Havana, the female urine is used in cigar-manufacturing as a good maceration.”—(Personal lette

25 minute read

Read Chapter

TO RESTORE THE ODOR OF MUSK AND THE COLOR OF CORAL.

TO RESTORE THE ODOR OF MUSK AND THE COLOR OF CORAL.

The odor of musk and the color of coral could be restored by suspending them in a privy for a time.—(See Danielus Beckherius, “Medicus Microcosmus,” London, 1600, p. 113.) “Paracelsus scil. mediante digestione stercus humanum ad odorem Moschi redigere voluit.”—(Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” Comment. Ludovic. Lyons, 1690, vol. ii. pp. 171, 172.) “Moschi odorem deperditum restitui posse, si in loco aliquo, ubi urina et excrementa alvina putrescunt, detineatur, apud autores legimus.”—(Schurig, “Chylolog

30 minute read

Read Chapter

CHEESE MANUFACTURE.

CHEESE MANUFACTURE.

“A storekeeper in Berlin was punished some years ago for having used the urine of young girls with a view to make his cheese richer and more piquant. Notwithstanding, people went, bought and ate his cheese with delight. What may be the cause of all these foolish and mysterious things? In human urine is the Anthropin.”—(Personal letter from Dr. Gustav Jaeger, Stuttgart, August 29, 1888.) “En certaines fermes de Suisse on se sert, m-a-t’on-dit, de l’urine pour activer la férmentation de certaines

49 minute read

Read Chapter

OPIUM ADULTERATION.

OPIUM ADULTERATION.

The smoker of opium little imagines that, in using his deadly drug, he is often smoking an adulterated article, the adulterant being hen manure; he is thus placed on a par with the American Indian smoking the dried dung of the buffalo, and the African smoking that of the antelope or the rhinoceros....

15 minute read

Read Chapter

EGG-HATCHING.

EGG-HATCHING.

In the description of the province of Quang-tong, it is stated that the Chinese hatch eggs “in the Oven, or in Dung.”—(Du Halde, “History of China,” London, 1741, vol. i. p. 238.) See the same statement made in Purchas, vol. i. 270. In China “their fish is chiefly nourished with the dung of Oxen that greatly fatteth it.”—(Perera, in Purchas, vol. i. p. 205.)...

18 minute read

Read Chapter

TAXES ON URINE.

TAXES ON URINE.

The Roman emperors imposed a tax and tolls upon urine because of its usefulness in many things.—(“Dreck Apotheke,” Paullini, p. 8. See previous statements in this volume and consult Suetonius “Vespasian.”)...

9 minute read

Read Chapter

CHRYSOCOLLON.

CHRYSOCOLLON.

There was a cement for fixing the precious metals, which cement was known as “Chrysocollon,” and was made with much ceremony from the urine “of an innocent boy.” There are various descriptions, but the following, while brief, contain all the material points. Galen describes this Chrysocollon, or Gold-Glue, as prepared by some physicians from the urine of a boy, who had to void it into a mortar of red copper while a pestle of the same material was in motion, which urine carefully exposed to the s

1 minute read

Read Chapter

FOR REMOVING INK STAINS.

FOR REMOVING INK STAINS.

Human urine was considered efficacious in the removal of ink-spots.—(See Pliny, Bohn, lib. v. and lib. xxviii.)...

6 minute read

Read Chapter

AS AN ARTICLE OF JEWELRY.

AS AN ARTICLE OF JEWELRY.

Fossilized excrement is used in the manufacture of jewelry, under the name of “Coprolite.” Lapland women carry a little case made from the bark of the birch tree, “which they usually carry under the girdle” in which is to be found reindeer dung, not as an amulet but to aid in weaning the young reindeer by smearing the udders of the dams.—(See Leems’ “Account of Danish Lapland,” in Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 405.) But, from other sources, we have learned that the Laps attached the most potent influenc

37 minute read

Read Chapter

TATTOOING.

TATTOOING.

Langsdorff noticed that urine entered into the domestic economy of the natives of Ounalashka. He tells us that the tattooing was performed with “a sort of coal dust mixed with urine, rubbed in” the punctures made in the skin (“Voyages,” vol. ii. p. 40). That the tattooing with which savages decorate their bodies has a significance beyond a simple personal ornamentation cannot be gainsaid, although the degree of its degeneration from a primitive religious symbolism may now be impossible to determ

12 minute read

Read Chapter

AGRICULTURE.

AGRICULTURE.

In the interior of China, travellers relate that copper receptacles along the roadsides rescue from loss a fertilizer whose value is fully recognized. These copper receptacles recall the “Gastra,” of the Romans, already referred to under the heading of “Latrines.” “Les Chinois fument leurs terres autant que cela est en leur pouvoir; ils emploient à cet usage toutes sortes d’engrais, mais principalement les excréments humains, qu’ils recueillent à cet effet avec grand soin. On trouve dans les vil

5 minute read

Read Chapter

URINE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT.

URINE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT.

Gómara explains that, mixed with palm-scrapings, human urine served as salt to the Indians of Bogota,—“Hacen sal de raspaduras de palma y orinas de hombre.”—(“Hist. de las Indias,” p. 202.) Salt is made by the Latookas of the White Nile from the ashes of goat’s dung.—(See “The Albert Nyanza,” Sir Samuel Baker, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 224.) Pallas states that the Buriats of Siberia, in collecting salts from the shores of certain lakes in their country, are careful as to the taste of the same: “Ils

1 minute read

Read Chapter

PREPARATION OF SAL AMMONIAC, PHOSPHORUS, SOLUTION OF INDIGO.

PREPARATION OF SAL AMMONIAC, PHOSPHORUS, SOLUTION OF INDIGO.

Diderot and D’Alembert say that the sal ammoniac of the ancients was prepared with the urine of camels; that phosphorus, as then manufactured in England, was made with human urine, as was also saltpetre.—(Encyclopædia, Geneva, 1789, article “Urine.”) Sal ammoniac derives its name from having been first made in the vicinity of the temple of Jupiter Ammon; it would be of consequence to us to know whether or not the priests of that temple had administered urine in disease before they learned how to

1 minute read

Read Chapter

MANURE EMPLOYED AS FUEL.

MANURE EMPLOYED AS FUEL.

The employment of manures as fuel for firing pottery among Moquis, Zuñis, and other Pueblos, and for general heating in Thibet, has been pointed out by the author in a former work. (“Snake Dance of the Moquis,” London, 1884.) It was used for the same purpose in Africa, according to Mungo Park. (“Travels,” etc., p. 119.) The dung of the buffalo served the same purpose in the domestic economy of the Plains Indians. Camel dung is the fuel of the Bedouins; that of men and animals alike was saved and

3 minute read

Read Chapter

SMUDGES.

SMUDGES.

Dried ordure is generally used for smudges, to drive away insects; the Indians of the Great Plains beyond the Missouri burned the “chips” of the buffalo with this object. The natives of the White Nile “make tumuli of dung which are constantly on fire, fresh fuel being added constantly, to drive away the mosquitoes.”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” Baker, p. 53.) “When they burn it (the dung of a camel) the smoke which proceeds from it destroys Gnats and all kinds of vermin.”—(Chinese recipes given in Du H

1 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN AND ANIMAL EXCRETA TO PROMOTE THE GROWTH OF THE HAIR AND ERADICATE DANDRUFF.

HUMAN AND ANIMAL EXCRETA TO PROMOTE THE GROWTH OF THE HAIR AND ERADICATE DANDRUFF.

For shampooing the hair, urine was the favorite medium among the Eskimo. [61] Sahagun, gives in detail the formula of the preparation applied by the Mexicans for the eradication of dandruff: “Cut the hair close to the root, wash head well with urine, and afterward take amole (soap-weed) and coixochitl leaves—the amole is the wormwood of this country [in this Sahagun is mistaken]—and then the kernels of aguacate ground up and mixed with the ashes already spoken of (wood ashes from the fire-place)

2 minute read

Read Chapter

AS A MEANS OF WASHING VESSELS.

AS A MEANS OF WASHING VESSELS.

Among the Shillooks, “ashes, dung, and the urine of cows are the indispensable requisites of the toilet. The item last named affects the nose of the stranger rather unpleasantly when he makes use of any of their milk vessels, as, according to a regular African habit, they are washed with it, probably to compensate for a lack of salt.”—(“Heart of Africa,” Schweinfurth, vol. i. p. 16.) “The Obbo natives are similar to the Bari in some of their habits. I have had great difficulty in breaking my cow

1 minute read

Read Chapter

FILTHY HABITS IN COOKING.

FILTHY HABITS IN COOKING.

The Eskimo relate stories of a people who preceded them in the Polar regions called the Tornit. Of these predecessors, they say, “Their way of preparing meat was disgusting, since they let it become putrid, and placed it between the thigh and the belly to warm it.”—(“The Central Eskimo,” Dr. Franz Boas, in Sixth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C., 1888, p. 635.) This recalls the similar method of the Tartars, who used to seat themselves on their horses with their meat under th

27 minute read

Read Chapter

XXVII. URINE IN CEREMONIAL ABLUTIONS.

XXVII. URINE IN CEREMONIAL ABLUTIONS.

Where urine is applied in bodily ablutions, the object sought is undoubtedly the procuring of ammonia by oxidation, and in no case of that kind is it sought to ascribe an association of religious ideas. But where the ablutions are attended with ceremonial observances, are incorporated in a ritual, or take place in chambers reserved for sacred purposes, it is not unfair to suggest that everything made use of, including the urine, has a sacred or a semi-sacred significance. No difficulty is experi

21 minute read

Read Chapter

STERCORACEOUS CHAIR OF THE POPES.

STERCORACEOUS CHAIR OF THE POPES.

“Stercoraire, Chaire (Hist. des Papes); c’est ainsi qu’on nommoit à Rome, au rapport de M. L’Enfant, une chaire qui étoit autrefois devant le portique de la basilique, sur laquelle on faisait asseoir le Pape le jour de sa consécration. Le chœur de musique lui chantoit alors ces paroles du Psaume 113, selon l’Hébreu, et le 112, selon la Vulgate, v. 6, et suiv. ‘Il tire de la poussière celui qui est dans l’indigence et il élève le pauvre de son avilissement pour le placer avec les princes de son p

1 minute read

Read Chapter

XXIX. ORDURE IN SMOKING.

XXIX. ORDURE IN SMOKING.

Among all the observances of the every-day life of the American aborigines, none is so distinctly complicated with the religious idea as smoking; therefore, should the use of excrement, human or animal, be detected in this connection, full play should be given to the suspicion that a hidden meaning attaches to the ceremony. This would appear to be the view entertained by the indefatigable missionary, De Smet, who records such a custom among the Flatheads and Crows in 1846: “To render the odor of

2 minute read

Read Chapter

ORDURE IN LOVE-PHILTERS.

ORDURE IN LOVE-PHILTERS.

Love-sick maidens in France stand accused of making as a philter a cake into whose composition entered “nameless ingredients,” which confection, being eaten by the refractory lover, soon caused a revival of his waning affections. [64] This was considered to savor so strongly of witchcraft that it was interdicted by councils. The witches and wizards of the Apache tribe make a confection or philter, one of the ingredients of which is generally human ordure, as the author learned from some of them

13 minute read

Read Chapter

ANTI-PHILTERS.

ANTI-PHILTERS.

To protect the population from the baleful effects of the love-philter, there was, fortunately, the anti-philter, in which, strangely enough, we come upon the same ingredients. Thus mouse-dung, applied in “the form of a liniment, acts as an antiphrodisiac,” according to Pliny (lib. xxviii. cap. 80). “A lizard drowned in urine has the effect of an antiphrodisiac upon the man whose urine it is.” (Idem, lib. xxx. cap. 49.) “The same property is to be attributed to the excrement of snails and pigeon

6 minute read

Read Chapter

XXXI. SIBERIAN HOSPITALITY.

XXXI. SIBERIAN HOSPITALITY.

A curious manifestation of hospitality has been noticed among the Tchuktchi of Siberia: “Les Tschuktschi offrent leurs femmes aux voyageurs; mais ceux-ci, pour s’en rendre dignes, doivent se soumettre à une épreuve dégoûtante. La fille ou la femme qui doit passer la nuit avec son nouvel hôte lui présente une tasse pleine de son urine; il faut qu’il s’en rince la bouche. S’il a ce courage, il est regardé comme un ami sincère; sinon, il est traité comme un ennemi de la famille.”—(Dulaure, “Des Div

15 minute read

Read Chapter

WEANING.

WEANING.

For an example of Urinal Aspersion, in connection with Weaning, see on page 211 . The attainment by young men of the age of manhood is an event which among all primitive peoples has been signalized by peculiar ceremonies; in a number of instances ordure and urine have been employed, as for example: The observances connected with this event in the lives of Australian warriors are kept a profound secret, but, among the few learned is the fact that the neophyte is “plastered with goat dung.”—(See “

2 minute read

Read Chapter

FEARFUL RITE OF THE HOTTENTOTS.

FEARFUL RITE OF THE HOTTENTOTS.

A religious rite of still more fearful import occurs among the same people at the initiation of their young men into the rank of warriors—a ceremony which must be deferred until the postulant has attained his eighth or ninth year. It consists, principally, in depriving him of the left testicle, after which the medicine man voids his urine upon him. [67] “At eight or nine years of age, the young Hottentot is, with great ceremony deprived of his left testicle.” (Kolbein, p. 402.) He says nothing a

6 minute read

Read Chapter

WAR-CUSTOMS.—ARMS AND ARMOR.

WAR-CUSTOMS.—ARMS AND ARMOR.

It is remarkable that we should be able to adduce any example of the employment of excrementitious matter in war customs; not that we should not suspect their existence, but because on occasions of such importance the medicine-men, who arrogate to themselves so much consequence in all military affairs, would naturally be more careful to conceal their performances from profane eyes. There is very little reason to doubt that a fuller examination would be rewarded with new facts of additional inter

2 minute read

Read Chapter

XXXIV. HUNTING AND FISHING.

XXXIV. HUNTING AND FISHING.

The African hunter in pursuit of game, such as elephants, anoints himself “all over with their dung.”—(Father Merolla, in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 251, “Voyage to Congo.”) This, he says, is merely to deceive the animal with the smell. Pliny relates that in Heraklea the country-people poisoned panthers with aconite. But the panthers had sense enough to know that human excrement was an antidote. (Lib. xxviii. c. 2.) Again in lib. viii. c. 41 he tells of the aconite-poisoned panther curing itself by

2 minute read

Read Chapter

XXXV. DIVINATION.—OMENS.—DREAMS.

XXXV. DIVINATION.—OMENS.—DREAMS.

Among the ancients there was a method of divination by excrementitious materials.—(See “Scatomancie,” in Bib. Scat. p. 28.) “Gaule, in his ‘Mag-Astromancers Posed and Puzzled’ (p. 165), enumerates as follows the several species of divination.” (Here follows a list of fifty-three kinds.) One of the kinds enumerated is “Spatalomancy, by skin, bones, excrement.”—(Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” pp. 329, 330.) In the “Rhudhiradhyaya, or Sanguinary Chapter,” translated from the Calica Puran, in the 4th vol. “Asi

4 minute read

Read Chapter

XXXVI. ORDEALS AND PUNISHMENTS, TERRESTRIAL AND SUPERNAL.

XXXVI. ORDEALS AND PUNISHMENTS, TERRESTRIAL AND SUPERNAL.

In beginning this chapter it is fair to say that oaths will herein be regarded as a modified form of the ancient ordeal, in which the affiant invokes upon himself, if proved to have sworn falsely, the tortures of the ordeal, mundane or celestial, which in an older form of civilization he would have been obliged to undergo as a preliminary trial. The author learned while campaigning against the Sioux and Cheyennes, in 1876-1877, that the Sioux and Assinaboines had a form of oath sworn to while th

13 minute read

Read Chapter

XXXVII. INSULTS.

XXXVII. INSULTS.

It is somewhat singular to find in the myths of the Zuñis—the very people among whom we have discovered the existence of this filthy rite of urine-drinking—an allusion to the fact that to throw urine upon persons or near their dwellings was to be looked upon as an insult of the gravest character. During the early winter of 1881 the author was at the Pueblo of Zuñi, New Mexico, while Mr. Frank H. Cushing was engaged in the researches which have since placed him at the head of American anthropolog

7 minute read

Read Chapter

XXXVIII. MORTUARY CEREMONIES.

XXXVIII. MORTUARY CEREMONIES.

A Parsi is defiled by touching a corpse. “And when he is in contact and does not move it, he is to be washed with bull’s urine and water.”—(“Shapast la Shayast,” cap. 2.; “Sacred Books of the East,” Max Müller, editor, Oxford, 1880, pp. 262, 269, 270, 272, 273, 279, 281, 282, 333, 349.) In the cremation of a Hindu corpse at Bombay, the ashes of the pyre were sprinkled with water, a cake of cow-dung placed in the centre, and around it a small stream of cow-urine; upon this were placed plantain-le

7 minute read

Read Chapter

XXXIX. MYTHS.

XXXIX. MYTHS.

“All peoples have invented myths to explain why they observed certain customs.”—(“The Golden Bough,” vol. ii. p. 128.) “Myth changes while custom remains constant; men continue to do what their fathers did before them, though the reasons on which their fathers acted have long been forgotten. The history of religion is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason; to find a sound theory for an absurd practice.”—(Idem, p. 62.) The Australians have a myth of the Creation of Man; it is giv

15 minute read

Read Chapter

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE EMOTIONS UPON THE EGESTÆ.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE EMOTIONS UPON THE EGESTÆ.

Reciprocally, the influence exerted by the emotions over functional disturbances has been made the subject of investigation by learned commentators. “Aristote, dans les Problèmes Physiques, s’occupe des rapports qui lient les impressions de l’âme aux fonctions intestinales. Il recherche pourquoi une frayeur subite et violente cause presque toujours et incontinent la diarrhée.” (Aule-Gelée, lib. xix. c. 4, “Bib. Scatalog.” p. 66.) Schurig gives numbers of instances of the power of the mind over t

18 minute read

Read Chapter

EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF DIOSCORIDES.

EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF DIOSCORIDES.

Dioscorides devotes a chapter to the medicinal values of different ordures; a condensation only of the translation need be given, since the original is inserted. The fresh dung of domestic cattle was considered good for inflamed wounds; for pains at extremity of spine; and, when made into a plaster with oil, it dissolved glandular and scrofulous swellings and tumors. The dung of bulls was a remedy for falling of the womb; when drunk with wine, was frequently given as a remedy in epilepsy; used a

5 minute read

Read Chapter

THE VIEWS OF GALEN.

THE VIEWS OF GALEN.

Galen disapproved of the pharmaceutical use of human ordure on account of its abominable smell, but he assented to the employment of that of domestic cattle, goats, crocodiles, and dogs; he makes known, moreover, that human ordure was taken internally, as a medicine, by very many persons. “De Copro, Stercore, Copros, sive Copron, sive Apoptema, apellari velis perinde est. Scito autem hanc substantiam vim habere vel maxime digerentem. Verum stercus humanum ob fœtorem abominandum est, at bubulum,

5 minute read

Read Chapter

SEXTUS PLACITUS.

SEXTUS PLACITUS.

This author is supposed to have lived in the beginning of the fourth century after Christ. The edition of his work, “De Medicamentis ex Animalibus,” was printed in Lyons, in 1537. The pages are not numbered, and the citations are consequently by chapter. Goat-urine was given as a drink to dropsical patients (“De Capro”). This urine was also drunk by women to relieve suppression of the menses. For inflammation of the joints, goat-dung was dried and applied as a fine powder; for colic, a fomentati

3 minute read

Read Chapter

“SAXON LEECHDOMS.”

“SAXON LEECHDOMS.”

In “Saxon Leechdoms,” is arranged the medical lore of the early centuries of the Saxon occupancy and conquest of England. “Alexander of Tralles ( A.D. 550) ... guarantees, of his own experience and the approval of almost all the best doctors, dung of a wolf with bits of bone in it” for colic.—(“Saxon Leechdoms,” lib. i. c. 18.) “Bull’s dung was good for dropsical men; cow’s dung for women” (vol. i. c. 12, quoting Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 68). Swine-dung was applied to warts (vol. i. p. 101). “For

3 minute read

Read Chapter

AVICENNA.

AVICENNA.

A careful examination of a Latin edition of “Averrhoes,” Lyons, 1537, discovered nothing in regard to the medicinal use of human or animal egestæ. But, on the contrary, the works of Avicenna teem with such references; there is hardly a page of the index to his portly volumes that does not contain mention of stercoraceous remedies. Out of all this abundance these selections will show that the Arabian physicians made of such medicaments the same free use as their older brethren of the subverted Ro

3 minute read

Read Chapter

MISCELLANEOUS.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Marco Polo mentions that in the province of Carazan (Khorassan?), the common sort of people carried poison about their persons, so that if taken prisoners by the Tartars, they might commit suicide; but the Tartars compelled them to swallow dog’s dung as an antidote.—(See Marco Polo, in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 143.) “In cases of sickness, the Eskimo of Cumberland Sound are not allowed to clean their chambers before sunrise.”—(“The Central Eskimo,” Boas, p. 593.) The writings of the best medical a

10 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN ORDURE.

HUMAN ORDURE.

Beckherius cites a case where its use for three days cured a man of yellow jaundice; dried, powdered, and drunk in wine, it cured febrile paroxysms (p. 112); it was recommended to be that of a boy fed for some time on bread and beans. To smell human ordure in the morning, fasting, protected from plague (pp. 112, 113). He also gives the mode of preparing “zibethum,” or “occidental sulphur” (p. 116). As a cure for angina a mixture was prescribed containing the white dung of dogs; also human ordure

34 minute read

Read Chapter

SCHURIG’S IDEAS REGARDING THE USE IN MEDICINE OF THE EGESTÆ OF ANIMALS.

SCHURIG’S IDEAS REGARDING THE USE IN MEDICINE OF THE EGESTÆ OF ANIMALS.

Schurig devotes the fourteenth chapter of his work to a treatise “De Stercoribus Brutorum.” It is unnecessary to enter much into detail upon this point; it will be sufficient to give only a small number of the recipes, with notes upon the manner of administering, and, where possible, the opinions expressed in regard to their efficacy. From these we may be enabled to form some idea of the line of medical thought of the ancient practitioners. Beginning with goose-dung, we find it commended as warm

18 minute read

Read Chapter

ORDURE AND URINE IN FOLK-MEDICINE.

ORDURE AND URINE IN FOLK-MEDICINE.

Excrementitious remedies are still to be met with in the folk-medicine of various countries; indeed, the problem would be to determine in what country of the world at the present day the more ignorant classes do not still use them. The extracts to be now given will show that folk-medicine still retains a hold upon medicaments the use of which is generally believed to have passed away with the centuries. “I never had an opportunity of seeing the following deed, but it was many times asserted to m

9 minute read

Read Chapter

OCCULT INFLUENCES ASCRIBED TO ORDURE AND URINE.

OCCULT INFLUENCES ASCRIBED TO ORDURE AND URINE.

In Canada, human urine was drunk as a medicine. Father Sagard witnessed a dance of the Hurons in which the young men, women, and girls danced naked around a sick woman, into whose mouth one of the young men urinated, she swallowing the disgusting draught in the hope of being cured. [77] Analogous medicaments may be hinted at in Smith’s account of the Araucanians of Chili: “Their remedies are principally if not entirely, vegetable matter, though they administer many disgusting compounds of animal

8 minute read

Read Chapter

OTHER EXCREMENTITIOUS REMEDIES.

OTHER EXCREMENTITIOUS REMEDIES.

It was not enough that the urine and ordure of men and animals should be employed in pharmacy; everything that could be taken from the bodies of men or animals, wild or domesticated, living or dead, was enlisted to swell the dread list of filth remedies. Etmuller supplies the following list of remedies; “sumuntur ex corpore vivente:” Hair, nails, saliva, ear-wax, sweat, milk, menses, after-birth, urine, ordure, semen, blood, calculi, worms, lice, caul (of infant), ... and these “ex partibus corp

47 minute read

Read Chapter

HAIR.

HAIR.

“The first hair cut from an infant’s head will modify the attacks of gout.... The hair of a man torn down from the cross is good for quartan fevers.”—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 7.) “The smell of a woman’s hair, burnt, will drive away serpents, and hysterical suffocations, it is said, may be dispelled thereby. The ashes of a woman’s hair, burnt in an earthen vessel, will cure eruptions and porrigo of the eyes ... warts and ulcers upon infants ... wounds upon the head ... corrosive ulcers ... infla

6 minute read

Read Chapter

SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE HUMAN SALIVA.

SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE HUMAN SALIVA.

The most recent work on this subject is the extended monograph of Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now in press, and to the pages of which the author of this volume has contributed his own collection of data. Reference may also be had, with advantage, to Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Reginald Scot’s “Discoverie of Witchcraft,” Black’s “Folk-Medicine,” Samuel Augustus Flemming’s “De Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis,” Lenormant’s “La Magie chez les Chaldéens,” and to the works

1 minute read

Read Chapter

CERUMEN OR EAR-WAX.

CERUMEN OR EAR-WAX.

Pliny speaks of its use in medicine (lib. xxviii. cap. 7); Galen does also. Flemming recommended its internal use in colic and cramps; and externally as an application to wounds.—(“De Remediis,” etc., p. 22.) Paullini was of the opinion that a good salve for sore eyes could be prepared from cerumen (pp. 42, 43). “The excrement of the ears, like unto a yellow oyntment, is a great comfort in the pricking of the sinews.”—(Von Helmont, “Oritrika,” English translation, London, 1662, p. 247.) Galen th

45 minute read

Read Chapter

WOMAN’S MILK.

WOMAN’S MILK.

Woman’s milk mitigated redness of eyes and inflammation of the lachrymal glands; it should be used with vitriol. For “gutta serena” it was applied as an ointment; in cases of atrophy it was regarded by many as of commendable utility, especially if drawn from the woman’s breast; the same treatment was a specific in obstinate hiccough. A butter prepared from woman’s milk was used in diseases of children, especially colic, and in ocular affections. (See Flemming, “De Remediis,” etc., p. 18.) Its re

1 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN SWEAT.

HUMAN SWEAT.

Human perspiration was believed to be valuable not only as a means of prognosis in some diseases, but its appearance was dreaded in others. If the perspiration of a fever-stricken patient was mixed with dough, baked into bread, and given to a dog, the dog would catch the fever, and the man recover. It was efficacious in driving away scrofulous wens, and in rendering philters abortive. It was narrated that if a man, who under the influence of a philter, was forced to love a girl against his will,

1 minute read

Read Chapter

SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE CATAMENIAL FLUID.

SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE CATAMENIAL FLUID.

For the opinions entertained by the ancients regarding its occult powers, read Pliny (Bohn’s edition), lib. xxviii. cap. 23, and again lib. viii. cap. 13. “On the approach of a woman in this state, must will become sour, seeds which are touched by her become sterile, grafts wither away, garden-plants are parched up, and the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she sits; ... a swarm of bees if looked upon by her will die immediately, brass and iron will immediately become rusty.... Dogs ta

8 minute read

Read Chapter

AFTER-BIRTH AND LOCHIÆ.

AFTER-BIRTH AND LOCHIÆ.

Both of these were used medicinally; the lochiæ were useful in restraining uterine hemorrhages; after-birth, dried and powdered, deprived love-philters of their power; it was used as an anti-epileptic, to relieve retention of the menses, etc. (See Flemming, “De Remediis,” p. 17.) Secundines were used in the treatment of epilepsy.—(See Etmuller, vol ii. p. 265)....

16 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN SEMEN.

HUMAN SEMEN.

Etmuller knew nothing of the remedial value of human semen beyond the fact that Paracelsus had recommended its use in some cases (vol. ii. p. 272). Pliny mentions the use of human semen as a medicine (lib. xxviii. c. 10). The savage Australians have “a last and most disgusting remedy ... deemed infallible in the most extreme cases.... ‘Mulierem ob juventutem firmitatemque corporis lectam sex vel plures viri in locum haud procul a castris remotum deducant. Ibique omnes deinceps in illa libidinem

1 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN BLOOD.

HUMAN BLOOD.

The medicinal employment of human blood is described by Pliny (lib. xxviii. cap. 105). Beckherius says that human blood was employed in the treatment of epilepsy. Faustina, the wife of the philosophical emperor, Marcus Antoninus, anxious to have a child, drank the warm blood of a dying gladiator, and then shared her husband’s bed, and at once became pregnant, and brought forth the cruel Commodus. Human blood was also used in effecting “sympathetic cures.”—(“Medic. Microcos.” pp. 122, 128.) But i

1 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN SKIN, FLESH, AND TALLOW.

HUMAN SKIN, FLESH, AND TALLOW.

Girdles of human skin were regarded as efficacious in helping women in labor; Etmuller, in his “Comment. Ludovic.” disapproves of their use, but, in another part of his works, describes how and for what purposes they were to be employed. “Corium humanum et ex inde paratum cingulum magni est usu in suffocatione uterina arcenda, uti etiam in pellendo fœto mortuo, item in partu difficile” (vol. ii. p. 272). References to such girdles or belts, called “cingulæ” or “chirothecæ” are to be found in the

1 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN SKULL.—BRAIN.—MOSS GROWING ON HUMAN SKULL.—MOSS GROWING ON STATUE.—LICE.

HUMAN SKULL.—BRAIN.—MOSS GROWING ON HUMAN SKULL.—MOSS GROWING ON STATUE.—LICE.

Democritus thought, in his Memoirs, quoted by Pliny, that “the skull of a malefactor is most efficacious.... While, for the treatment of others, that of one who has been a friend or guest is required.” (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 2.) ... “Skull of a man who has been slain,” and “whose body remains unburnt.... Skull of a man who has been hanged.”—(Idem.) “Xenocrates, who, says Galen, flourished two generations or sixty years before him, writes with an air of confidence on the good effects to be obtai

5 minute read

Read Chapter

MOSS GROWING ON HUMAN SKULLS.

MOSS GROWING ON HUMAN SKULLS.

The medicinal use of the moss growing on the skulls of those who had died violent deaths is mentioned by Von Helmont.—(“Oritrika,” p. 768.) Etmuller speaks of the usnea , or moss, growing on the skull of a malefactor, which was given in cases of epilepsy (vol. ii. p. 273). Flemming regarded such moss, if taken from the skull of a malefactor, who had been hanged or broken on the wheel, as of great efficacy in epilepsy, in brain troubles, and as a styptic for hemorrhages (p. 11). “Such a moss, if

36 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN BRAIN.

HUMAN BRAIN.

The human brain, dissolved or distilled in spirits of wine, was employed in nerve troubles and as an anti-epileptic.—(Flemming, “De Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis,” p. 10.)...

8 minute read

Read Chapter

LICE.

LICE.

One might infer that habits of personal cleanliness did not prevail in England two centuries ago, judging from the terms of the following prescription, which seemingly takes as a matter of course that the patient could at any time obtain the insects needed:— “For the cure of sore eyes ... take two or three lice out of one’s head; put them under the lid.”—(“Rare Secrets in Physicke,” collected by the Comtesse of Kent, London, 1654, p. 75.) The author of this work knows, from disagreeable personal

45 minute read

Read Chapter

MOSS GROWING ON THE HEAD OF A STATUE.

MOSS GROWING ON THE HEAD OF A STATUE.

“It is asserted that a plant growing on the head of a statue gathered in the lappet of any one of the garments, and then attached with a red string to the neck, is an instantaneous cure for the headache.” (Pliny, lib. xxiv. c. 106.) This would seem to be germane to the idea of moss growing on the human skull....

19 minute read

Read Chapter

WOOL.

WOOL.

“The ancient Romans attributed to wool a degree of religious importance even; and it was in this spirit that they enjoined that the bride should touch the door-posts of her husband’s house with wool.”—(Pliny, lib. xxix. cap. 10.) In Cumberland, England, a reputed cure for earache is the application of a bit of wool from a black sheep, moistened in cow’s urine. Possibly it is a modified form of this latter notion that is found at Mount Desert, where it is said that the wool must be wet in new mil

3 minute read

Read Chapter

BONES AND TEETH.—MARROW.

BONES AND TEETH.—MARROW.

“If a circle is traced round an ulcer with a human bone, it will be effectually prevented from spreading.”—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 11.) Etmuller believed that by the use of an unbroken human bone it was possible to induce as copious a purgation as might be desired. “Beneficio ossis humani integri potest fieri purgatio artificialis tanta quantum volumus,” etc.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 273.) “‘Holy oyle of dead men’s bones,’ good for the ‘falling sickness.’”—(“The Newe Jewell of Health,” George Bake

35 minute read

Read Chapter

HUMAN TEETH.

HUMAN TEETH.

“A tooth taken from a body before burial,” worn as an amulet, cured toothache.—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 12.) “The first tooth that a child has shed,” worn as an amulet, protects from pain in the uterus.—(Idem, lib. xxviii. c. 7.) Pounded dead men’s teeth were used in fumigating the genitalia of persons “ligated” by witchcraft.—(See Frommann, “Tract. de Fascin.,” p. 965.) Etmuller taught that the teeth were similar to the bones, and used in the alleviation of the same infirmities. Those drawn from

2 minute read

Read Chapter

TARTAR IMPURITIES FROM THE TEETH.

TARTAR IMPURITIES FROM THE TEETH.

Paullini goes so far as to recommend the use of the tartar impurities from the teeth, and the dirt from soiled stockings, as a remedy for nose-bleed. (Paullini, p. 52.) In this he most probably follows an ancient line of practice, of which other authors have neglected to give a detailed account. Galen and others have shown that the scrapings from the body, and all other “sordes” were used medicinally, and there was no reason why dental tartar should not be added to the materia medica....

25 minute read

Read Chapter

RENAL AND BILIARY CALCULI.—HUMAN BILE.

RENAL AND BILIARY CALCULI.—HUMAN BILE.

Calculi were used in the treatment of calculary troubles and in childbirth.—(Pliny, lib. xxvii. cap. 9. See also Galen.) Prescribed for stone in the bladder or kidneys by Beckherius.—(“Med. Microcosmus,” pp. 167-170.) Flemming advocates the same use of them.—(“De Remediis,” p. 23.) “A man’s stone, drunk fasting, is most powerful of any to break the stone and expel it with the urine.”—(“The Poor Man’s Physician,” Moncrief, p. 131.) Flemming also used biliary calculi in the cure of yellow jaundice

28 minute read

Read Chapter

BEZOAR STONES.—LYNCURIUS.

BEZOAR STONES.—LYNCURIUS.

From the most ancient times there were used in the medical practice of Europe certain stones, known as belemnites, thunder-stones, lyncurius, etc., believed to be efficacious in treatment of stone in the bladder. This lyncurius was regarded as the coagulated urine of the lynx, and under that phase of the case properly comes within the scope of this volume.—(See “Pomet on Drugs,” English translation, London, 1738, p. 408.) The “bezoar” stone, so frequently alluded to by old writers, was simply ex

24 minute read

Read Chapter

COSMETICS.

COSMETICS.

Pigeon’s dung was applied externally for all spots and blemishes on the face. (Pliny, lib. xxx. cap. 9.) Mouse-dung, externally, for lichens. (Idem.) “Brand Marks” (stigmata) were removed by using pigeon’s dung diluted in vinegar. (Idem, lib. xxx. cap 10.) Crocodile-dung, or “crocodilea,” removed blemishes from the face. (Idem, lib. xxxviii. caps. 29, 50.) It also removed freckles. “An application of bull-dung, they say, will impart a rosy tint to the cheeks, and not even crocodilea is better fo

1 minute read

Read Chapter

XLII. AMULETS AND TALISMANS.

XLII. AMULETS AND TALISMANS.

As a connecting link between pharmacy proper and the antidotes to the effects of witchcraft, and at the same time fully deserving of a separate place on its own merits, may be inserted a chapter upon talismans and amulets made of excrementitious materials. “From the cradle, modern Englishmen are taught to fight an angry battle against superstition, and they treat a talisman or charm with some disdain and contempt. But let us reflect that those playthings tended to quiet and reassure the patient,

4 minute read

Read Chapter

XLIII. WITCHCRAFT.—SORCERY.—CHARMS.—SPELLS.—INCANTATIONS.—MAGIC.

XLIII. WITCHCRAFT.—SORCERY.—CHARMS.—SPELLS.—INCANTATIONS.—MAGIC.

There is but one method of arriving at a correct understanding of what witchcraft was, as known to civilized communities, and that is by placing it under the lens of investigation as a mutilated and distorted survival of a displaced religion. The very earliest records of man’s thought, the alabaster and earthen tablets of Chaldea and Assyria, allude to the evil eye, to incantations, and to the fear of evil spirits, witches, and sorcerers. “Nevertheless, the Chaldean tablets do not leave us witho

39 minute read

Read Chapter

XLIV. A FEW REMARKS UPON TEMPLE OR SACRED PROSTITUTION, AND UPON THE HORNS OF CUCKOLDS.

XLIV. A FEW REMARKS UPON TEMPLE OR SACRED PROSTITUTION, AND UPON THE HORNS OF CUCKOLDS.

“The bawds of Amsterdam believed (in 1637) that horse’s dung dropped before the house and put fresh behind the door ... would bring good luck to their houses.”—(“Le Putanisme d’Amsterdam,” p. 56, quoted in Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” vol. iii. p. 18, article “Sorcery.”) While a sacred origin cannot be claimed for prostitution in general, all, or nearly all, temples must in the early ages of mankind have been provided with prostitutes. The necessity for such a provision is obvious. Man’s supers

9 minute read

Read Chapter

XLV. CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION.

XLV. CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION.

The most curious method of alleviating physical and mental disorders was that termed by various writers: “Cures by Transplantation,” by “Translation,” by “Sympathy,” and by “Magnetic Transference.” There is a perfect embarrassment of riches on this division of our subject, and the difficulty has been not to select, but to know what to reject. Etmuller enumerates five different kinds of cures by transplantation: 1. Insemenation, wherein “magnes mumia” (the spirit distilled from mummy flesh) was u

31 minute read

Read Chapter

XLVI. THE USE OF THE LINGAM IN INDIA.

XLVI. THE USE OF THE LINGAM IN INDIA.

In connection with the Lingamic ritual in India, there remain usages now degenerated into symbolism, which cannot be interpreted in any other sense than as “survivals” of very obscene and disgusting practices in the primitive life of that region. In describing the sacrifice called Poojah, Maurice says: “The Abichegam makes a part of the Poojah. This ceremony consists in pouring milk upon the lingam. This liquor is afterwards kept with great care, and some drops are given to dying people that the

5 minute read

Read Chapter

XLVII. PHALLIC SUPERSTITIONS IN FRANCE AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE.

XLVII. PHALLIC SUPERSTITIONS IN FRANCE AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE.

Among the peasantry of Ireland there are in use certain prehistoric arrow-heads, believed by them to be fairy darts. “When an illness is supposed to be due to the influence of the fairies, ... this ‘fairy dart’ ... is put into a tumbler and covered with water, which the patient then drinks, and if the fairies are responsible for his sickness, he at once recovers.”—(“Medical Mythology of Ireland,” Mooney, Amer. Phil. Soc., 1887.) And in like manner,—as has already been shown of the sacred charact

8 minute read

Read Chapter

A FEW REMARKS UPON THE USE OF BLADDERS IN RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.

A FEW REMARKS UPON THE USE OF BLADDERS IN RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.

Whether or not primitive man, excited by his insatiate, omnivorous appetite for gods, under the impulses of which he deified winds, waters, trees, and stones, and looked with a veneration not far removed from devotion itself, upon the holy graals, chalices, and other paraphernalia of his ritual, should have associated a mysterious power with the bladders he employed to hold his urine and ordure is a question which no one can to-day determine. For our own cow-worshipping Aryan ancestry bladders w

26 minute read

Read Chapter

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN SPORT OF “CORRER EL GALLO” AND THE ENGLISH PASTIME OF “THROWING AT ‘SHROVE-COCKS.’”

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN SPORT OF “CORRER EL GALLO” AND THE ENGLISH PASTIME OF “THROWING AT ‘SHROVE-COCKS.’”

The Spaniards brought with them to the New World a cruel form of sport, which consisted in burying a cock or hen in the earth up to its neck, and then allowing the young men of the village to mount their horses, and charging down at full speed upon the hapless bird, reach down from their saddles and endeavor to seize it and wring its neck. This sport (as seen by the author in the Indian Pueblo of Santo Domingo, New Mexico, in 1881, and described by him in “The Snake Dance of the Moquis”) is evid

1 minute read

Read Chapter

THE SCARABÆUS OF EGYPT.

THE SCARABÆUS OF EGYPT.

The radical divergence of opinion among scholars as to the basis of the veneration accorded by the inhabitants of the Nile delta to the scarabæus has been an occasion of much perplexity; no two authors can be found to agree upon the subject. In the absence of anything which can be considered conclusive, it is not worth while to more than allude to the fact that it was the dung-beetle to which this adoration was manifested, and possibly because it associated itself with material so intimately con

2 minute read

Read Chapter

EPILEPSY.

EPILEPSY.

The dung of the peacock was one of the favorite prescriptions for the alleviation of epilepsy, the disease so pre-eminently of divine origin that by the Romans it was termed the Divine Disease [98] (Morbus sacer). Epilepsy was likewise called the “comitial disease,” because, according to the different authorities consulted upon the subject, the moment a Roman was attacked by it, the “comitia,” if in session, were dissolved. The “comitia ... were the assemblies of the clans for deliberating upon

3 minute read

Read Chapter

ANCESTOR-WORSHIP.—MAN-WORSHIP.—THE GRAND LAMA.

ANCESTOR-WORSHIP.—MAN-WORSHIP.—THE GRAND LAMA.

“Homo est medicus, et ex homine medicina paratur,” said Flemming, in his “De Remediis ex corpore humano desumtis,” that is to say, man being a doctor, from man medicine is prepared. The savage, with all his fear of the vague and indefinable, had still a wonderful belief in himself as the greatest of nature’s works; all his great gods he created in his own image and likeness; he went even further, and ascribed to the priests or representatives of the gods, the same respect and veneration as were

2 minute read

Read Chapter

LII. EASTER EGGS.

LII. EASTER EGGS.

The constant use of the egg in effecting these cures by transplantation awakens a suspicion that the origin of the pretty custom of giving away Easter eggs, beautifully colored, was induced by something more than charitable impulse. Nearly every usage that remains among us as a game or a play derives from a serious ancestry. Easter was pre-eminently the festival of the Christian church which most tenaciously preserved the rites of paganism. It was, for some reason, looked upon as the season when

5 minute read

Read Chapter

LIII. THE USE OF BLADDERS IN MAKING EXCREMENT SAUSAGES.

LIII. THE USE OF BLADDERS IN MAKING EXCREMENT SAUSAGES.

It was believed to be peculiarly necessary that the urine or ordure of those suffering from epilepsy, yellow jaundice, quartan fevers, etc., should be placed in a pig’s bladder, and hung up in the chimney; in other words, they were made into an excrement sausage. Traces of the employment of these sausages appear from the most remote times. Galen has a paragraph which reads as if he had some such practice in mind. Speaking of human ordure, he says: “Utitur non modo medicamenti quæ focis imponuntu

4 minute read

Read Chapter

LIV. CONCLUSION.

LIV. CONCLUSION.

Lastly, it may be urged that the thoughtful consideration of this subject will not be without results of importance to science. It shows us, if we may employ a mathematical expression, that by integrating the equation of man’s development between the limits zero, in which these disgusting practices had full sway, and the limit of A.D. 1891, the precise extent of his advancement in all that we call civilization can better be understood. The biologist and psychologist may find material to demonstr

40 minute read

Read Chapter

ADDENDA.

ADDENDA.

Dr. Thomas G. Morton, of Philadelphia, imparts the information that not only is the use of human urine still general among ignorant women during pregnancy, but that it has been learned that female abortionists have been in the habit of vending a nostrum for defeating pregnancy, one of the components of which was the catamenial discharge. Referring to previous remarks, on page 162 , it may be noticed that a curious instance of survival by contrariety is to be detected in what Picart relates of th

56 minute read

Read Chapter