Note 437.1 — Chapter XV · THE COUVADE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE STRENGTH OF THE BLOOD-TIE—CONCLUSION OF THE INQUIRY INTO THE THEORY OF THE LIFE-TOKEN.

Connection as close as that of kindred could not be terminated by death. We have already considered the efforts made to renew by sacramental means the union with the dead. It remains to refer to a superstition which regards the tie as indissoluble even in the grave. Upon the lowest step of civilisation the Ainu of Yezo are very jealous of their burial-places. They hide them in the depths of the forest, or in some other spot, remote, unlikely to be discovered, and difficult to reach. Nothing angers them more than to know that a stranger has been near their tombs.437.1 The Tanalas of Madagascar enclose the bodies of their dead in little huts erected in inaccessible parts of the forest, and the living are forbidden to intrude into the thickets where these huts are found.437.2 The Haidahs of British Columbia used to cremate their dead, because they feared that their enemies would else get hold of the body and make charms from it.437.3 No reason is assigned by the traveller who reports it for the Ainu feeling; none is assigned for the Tanala practice; but we have perhaps the clue to both here, as well as to the oft-sought origin of cremation among the prehistoric tribes of Europe. If the dead man be a part of the whole body of the clan in anything like a material sense, for a foe to obtain possession of any part of the corpse would be a serious danger for the survivors. The belief of the Narrinyeri of Australia was that if a sorcerer obtained a bone of the totem animal of a hostile clan he could afflict the clan with sickness.437.4 In the Banks’ Islands burials are often secret, and care is taken to prevent the bones from being dug up for arrows and for charms.437.5 In Equatorial Africa the Mpongwe kings are always interred secretly, for fear that other tribes should dig up the head to make a powerful fetish of the brains.437.6 The precautions in the last two cases depend, it may be, on the intrinsic value of the relics of an able or powerful man rather than his relation to those who are in terror of the charms that may be made of his corpse. In the higher civilisation of China, however, it is quite clear that the condition of a corpse is of the greatest moment to the health and prosperity of his descendants. Wherefore small iron nails are scattered in the coffin, also hempseeds, peas and millet, and red yeast, to cause the sons and grandsons of the dead to beget numerous sons and become the ancestors of remoter progeny, and to provide them with plenty of food for all time to come. Pith and rice-paper, which will absorb the fluid products of decay, are scattered to cause the descendants to become grand and of high rank. Two pairs of trousers are spread over the corpse, stuffed with ingots of gold- and silver-paper. “These are expected to enormously enrich the dead and his offspring.” On the other hand, metal buttons are avoided on the grave-clothes, because they will injure the body while it is decaying, “and consequently cause great injuries also” to the posterity of the deceased. And while the coffin, having been made and brought to the house, is being prepared for the reception of the body, the mourners abstain from wailing, “because manifestations of woe and distress might cause real woe and distress to be enclosed in the coffin, and so bring bad luck not only on the dead, but also on his descendants, the fate of whom is most intimately bound up with the grave of their ancestor.”438.1 More than this, necromancers profess to be able to tell the fortunes of the living by inspection of the bodies of their dead ancestors, which, if not among the Chinese themselves, at all events among certain of the wild tribes, are dug up for the purpose. And it is on record that, in the various revolutions which have from time to time convulsed the country, the imperial mausolea have been broken open “and the entombed corpses mangled and destroyed with the object of bringing ruin on the imperial descendant seated on the tottering throne.” The aboriginal Luh-N’zehtsze believe that health depends on the cleanness of the bones of departed kinsmen. Accordingly, when a man has been in the grave a year he is exhumed and his bones are carefully washed; and whenever any of his family are sick the same operation is at once performed, no matter how long or how short the time since he was buried.439.1 Even in Europe we have the well-known superstition that the state and appearance of a corpse before burial indicate whether other deaths in the family are to follow, as if it be limp, or the eyes cannot be closed, and so forth. According to Corean opinion, the prosperity of a dead man’s descendants depends solely on the right choice of the place where he is buried. Hence the utmost care is taken in its selection, and the art of divining the proper spot is a special profession in the country.439.2 The Maori sentiment, it may be added, which regards as one of the most frightful insults that can be flung at a man to tell him to cook his great-grandfather, seems to spring from the same root. The Maoris do not eat their relations: hence to bid a man cook his father would be a great curse. But to tell him to cook his great-grandfather would be far worse, because it would include “every individual who has sprung from him.”439.3 In other words, a man is looked upon as one with all his descendants. The belief in an indissoluble corporal union must have preceded such an interpretation of language which in terms only mentions the ancestor.