Note 120.3 — PSYCHE’S TASK

The custom of secluding and purifying homicides is intended to protect them against the angry spirits of the slain, which are thought to madden their slayers. That the Greek practice of secluding and purifying a homicide was essentially an exorcism, in other words, that its aim was to ban the dangerous ghost of his victim, is rendered practically certain by the similar rites of seclusion and purification which among many savage tribes have to be observed by victorious warriors with the avowed intention of securing them against the spirits of the men whom they have slain in battle. These rites I have illustrated elsewhere,120.3 but a few cases may be quoted here by way of example. Thus among the Basutos “ablution is especially performed on return from battle. It is absolutely necessary that the warriors should rid themselves, as soon as possible, of the blood they have shed, or the shades of their victims would pursue them incessantly, and disturb their slumbers. They go in a procession, and in full armour, to the nearest stream. At the moment they enter the water a diviner, placed higher up, throws some purifying substances into the current.”120.4 According to another account of the Basuto custom, “warriors who have killed an enemy are purified. The chief has to wash them, sacrificing an ox in the presence of the whole army. They are also anointed with the gall of the animal, which prevents the ghost of the enemy from pursuing them any farther.”121.1 Among the Thonga, a Bantu tribe of South Africa, about Delagoa Bay, “to have killed an enemy on the battle-field entails an immense glory for the slayers; but that glory is fraught with great danger. They have killed.… So they are exposed to the mysterious and deadly influence of the nuru and must consequently undergo a medical treatment. What is the nuru? Nuru, the spirit of the slain which tries to take its revenge on the slayer. It haunts him and may drive him into insanity: his eyes swell, protrude and become inflamed. He will lose his head, be attacked by giddiness (ndzululwan) and the thirst for blood may lead him to fall upon members of his own family and to stab them with his assagay. To prevent such misfortunes, a special medication is required: the slayers must lurulula tiyimpì ta bu, take away the nuru of their sanguinary expedition.… In what consists this treatment? The slayers must remain for some days at the capital. They are taboo. They put on old clothes, eat with special spoons, because their hands are ‘hot,’ and off special plates (mireko) and broken pots. They are forbidden to drink water. Their food must be cold. The chief kills oxen for them; but if the meat were hot it would make them swell internally ‘because they are hot themselves, they are defiled (ba na nsila).’ If they eat hot food, the defilement would enter into them. ‘They are black (ntima). This black must be removed.’ During all this time sexual relations are absolutely forbidden to them. They must not go home, to their wives. In former times the Ba-Ronga used to tattoo them with special marks from one eyebrow to the other. Dreadful medicines were inoculated in the incisions, and there remained pimples ‘which gave them the appearance of a buffalo when it frowns.’ After some days a medicine-man comes to purify them, ‘to remove their black.’ There seem to be various means of doing it, according to Mankhelu. Seeds of all kinds are put into a broken pot and roasted, together with drugs and psanyi122.1 of a goat. The slayers inhale the smoke which emanates from the pot. They put their hands into the mixture and rub their limbs with it, especially the joints.… Insanity threatening those who shed blood might begin early. So, already on the battle-field, just after their deed, warriors are given a preventive dose of the medicine by those who have killed on previous occasions.… The period of seclusion having been concluded by the final purification, all the implements used by the slayers during these days, and their old garments, are tied together and hung by a string to a tree, at some distance from the capital, where they are left to rot.”122.2