Note 95 — Chapter V · THE ENJOYMENT OF PAIN
Reading edition
On woundings in medical cures, cf. esp. Bartels, Medicin der Naturvölker, pp. 267-271; Curr, The Australian Race, ii. pp. 69, 70 (The Dieyerie Tribe, by Gason); Ling Roth, Tasmania, pp. 75, 76; Man, Journ. Anthr. Inst. xii. p. 85 (Andamanese); Mouat, Andaman Islands, p. 307; Bourke, Rep. Bur. Ethn., 1887-88, p. 471 (Medicine-men of the Apache. Scarification resorted to in order to relieve exhaustion); Keating, Narrative of an Expedition, i. p. 226, quotes the interesting conceptions entertained by the Sauks and Foxes as to the result of lacerations. The wounds are inflicted at funerals, “not for the purpose of mortification, or to create a pain, which shall, by dividing their attention, efface the recollection of their loss, but entirely from a belief that their grief is internal, and that the only way of dispelling it is to give it a vent through which to escape.” There seems to be no doubt that similar notions have led to the curing of bodily pain by bleeding.
As to laceration as a means of overcoming humiliation see Curr, l.c. ii. p. 70 (Dieyerie). Even joy, when abnormally strong, seems often to express itself in this way. Ellis, Pol. Res. i. p. 410 (Tahiti); Pritchard, Pol. Rem. p. 138 (Samoa); Péron, Voyage, i. p. 227 (Tasmanians, who scratch themselves in the face and tear the hair in their enthusiasm, when hearing the Marseillaise performed); Bernier, L’art du comédien, p. 310.
As connected with the emotion of joy we may also explain the occurrences of self-woundings at meetings between friends. Cf. esp. Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, pp. 224, 225. It is not to be overlooked that in many tribes friends express their delight at meetings by a ceremonial weeping and wailing. Cf. Man, Journ. Anthr. Inst. xii. p. 147; Day, Proc. As. Soc. Bengal, 1870, p. 157, both on the Andamanese; Batchelor, The Ainu, p. 105; Taylor, Te Ika A Maui, p. 103; Angas, Savage Life, ii. pp. 32, 73, 109, all on New Zealand; Freycinet, Voyage, ii. p. 589 (The Sandwich Islands); Lander, Journal, i. pp. 148, 149 (Yoruba Country); and the instances quoted in Spencer, Principles of Sociology, ii. pp. 20, 70, 71. As this apparently paradoxical expression can be explained in many cases as a conventional ceremony, which is not accompanied by any genuine feeling, so the self-wounding may often be a purely ritual observance. But although some of the above adduced instances can thus be considered as spurious, we nevertheless feel right in assuming that an impulsive creation of pain is generally to be derived from the psychical conditions accompanying high-strung emotion. This is also the conclusion at which Mr. Brinton and Mr. Andrew Lang have arrived. Cf. Brinton, Religion of Primitive Peoples, p. 213; Lang, The Making of Religion, p. 310.