PREFACE.
I.THE PRIMITIVE RITE ITSELF.
II.SUGGESTIONS AND PERVERSIONS OF THE RITE.
III.INDICATIONS OF THE RITE IN THE BIBLE.
APPENDIX.
I.THE PRIMITIVE RITE ITSELF.
1.
SOURCES OF BIBLE STUDY.Those
who are most familiar with the Bible, and who have already given
most
time to its study, have largest desire and largest expectation of
more knowledge through its farther study. And, more and more, Bible
study has come to include very much that is outside of the
Bible.For
a long time, the outside study of the Bible was directed chiefly to
the languages in which the Bible was written, and to the archæology
and the manners and customs of what are commonly known as the Lands
of the Bible. Nor are these well-worked fields, by any means, yet
exhausted. More still remains to be gleaned from them, each and
all,
than has been gathered thence by all searchers in their varied
lore.
But, latterly, it has been realized, that, while the Bible is an
Oriental book, written primarily for Orientals, and therefore to be
understood only through an understanding of Oriental modes of
thought
and speech, it is also a record of God’s revelation to the whole
human race; hence, its inspired pages are to receive illumination
from all disclosures of the primitive characteristics and customs
of
that race, everywhere. Not alone those who insist on the belief
that
there was a gradual development of the race from a barbarous
beginning, but those also who believe that man started on a higher
plane, and in his degradation retained perverted vestiges of God’s
original revelation to him, are finding profit in the study of
primitive myths, and of aboriginal religious rites and ceremonies,
all the world over. Here, also, what has been already gained, is
but
an earnest of what will yet be compassed in the realm of truest
biblical research.2.
AN ANCIENT SEMITIC RITE.One
of these primitive rites, which is deserving of more attention than
it has yet received, as throwing light on many important phases of
Bible teaching, is the rite of blood-covenanting: a form of mutual
covenanting, by which two persons enter into the closest, the most
enduring, and the most sacred of compacts, as friends and brothers,
or as more than brothers, through the inter-commingling of their
blood, by means of its mutual tasting, or of its inter-transfusion.
This rite is still observed in the unchanging East; and there are
historic traces of it, from time immemorial, in every quarter of
the
globe; yet it has been strangely overlooked by biblical critics and
biblical commentators generally, in these later centuries.In
bringing this rite of the covenant of blood into new prominence, it
may be well for me to tell of it as it was described to me by an
intelligent native Syrian, who saw it consummated in a village at
the
base of the mountains of Lebanon; and then to add evidences of its
wide-spread existence in the East and elsewhere, in earlier and in
later times.It
was two young men, who were to enter into this covenant. They had
known each other, and had been intimate, for years; but now they
were
to become brother-friends, in the covenant of blood. Their
relatives
and neighbors were called together, in the open place before the
village fountain, to witness the sealing compact. The young men
publicly announced their purpose, and their reasons for it. Their
declarations were written down, in duplicate,—one paper for each
friend,—and signed by themselves and by several witnesses. One of
the friends took a sharp lancet, and opened a vein in the other’s
arm. Into the opening thus made, he inserted a quill, through which
he sucked the living blood. The lancet-blade was carefully wiped on
one of the duplicate covenant-papers, and then it was taken by the
other friend, who made a like incision in its first user’s arm, and
drank his blood through the quill, wiping the blade on the
duplicate
covenant-record. The two friends declared together: “We are
brothers in a covenant made before God: who deceiveth the other,
him
will God deceive.” Each blood-marked covenant-record, was then
folded carefully, to be sewed up in a small leathern case, or
amulet,
about an inch square; to be worn thenceforward by one of the
covenant-brothers, suspended about the neck, or bound upon the arm,
in token of the indissoluble relation.The
compact thus made, is called,
M’âhadat ed-Dam
(معاهدة الدم),
the “Covenant of Blood.” The two persons thus conjoined,
are,
Akhwat el-M’âhadah
(اخوة المعاهدة),
“Brothers of the Covenant.” The rite itself is recognized, in
Syria, as one of the very old customs of the land, as
’âdah qadeemeh
(عادة قديمة)
“a primitive rite.” There are many forms of covenanting in Syria,
but this is the extremest and most sacred of them all. As it is the
inter-commingling of very lives, nothing can transcend it. It forms
a
tie, or a union, which cannot be dissolved. In marriage, divorce is
a
possibility: not so in the covenant of blood. Although now
comparatively rare, in view of its responsibilities and of its
indissolubleness, this covenant is sometimes entered into by
confidential partners in business, or by fellow-travelers; again,
by
robbers on the road—who would themselves rest fearlessly on its
obligations, and who could be rested on within its limits, however
untrustworthy they or their fellows might be to any other compact.
Yet, again, it is the chosen compact of loving friends; of those
who
are drawn to it only by mutual love and trust.This
covenant is commonly between two persons of the same
religion—Muhammadans, Druzes, or Nazarenes; yet it has been known
between two persons of different religions;[1]
and in such a case it would be held as a closer tie than that of
birth[2]
or sect. He who has entered into this compact with another, counts
himself the possessor of a double life; for his friend, whose blood
he has shared, is ready to lay down his life with him, or for
him.[3]
Hence the leathern case, or
Bayt hejâb (بيت
حجاب) “House of
the amulet,”[4]
containing the record of the covenant (’uhdah,
عهدة),
is counted a proud badge of honor, by one who possesses it; and he
has an added sense of security, because he will not be alone when
he
falleth.[5]I
have received personal testimony from native Syrians, concerning
the
observance of this rite in Damascus, in Aleppo, in Hâsbayya, in
Abayh, along the road between Tyre and Sidon, and among the Koords
resident in Salehayyah. All the Syrians who have been my
informants,
are at one concerning the traditional extreme antiquity of this
rite,
and its exceptional force and sacredness.In
view of the Oriental method of evidencing the closest possible
affection and confidence, by the sucking of the loved one’s blood,
there would seem to be more than a coincidence in the fact, that
the
Arabic words for friendship, for affection, for blood, and for
leech,
or blood-sucker, are but variations from a common root.[6]
’Alaqa (علق)
means “to love,” “to adhere,” “to feed.”
’Alaq (علق),
in the singular, means “love,” “friendship,” “attachment,”
“blood.” As the plural of
’alaqa (علقة),
’alaq means
“leeches,” or “blood-suckers.” The truest friend clings like
a leech, and draws blood in order to the sharing thereby of his
friend’s life and nature.A
native Syrian, who had traveled extensively in the East, and who
was
familiar with the covenant of blood in its more common form, as
already described, told me of a practice somewhat akin to it,
whereby
a bandit-chieftain would pledge his men to implicit and
unqualified,
life-surrendering fidelity to himself; or, whereby a conspirator
against the government would bind, in advance, to his plans, his
fellow conspirators,—by a ceremony known as
Sharb el-’ahd
(شرب العهد)
“Drinking the covenant.” The methods of such covenanting are
various; but they are all of the nature of tests of obedience and
of
endurance. They sometimes include licking a heated iron with the
tongue, or gashing the tongue, or swallowing pounded glass or other
dangerous potions; but, in all cases, the idea seems to be, that
the
life of the one covenanting is, by this covenant,
devoted—surrendered
as it were—to the one with whom he covenants; and the rite is
uniformly accompanied with a solemn and an imprecatory appeal to
God,
as witnessing and guarding the compact.Dr.
J. G. Wetzstein, a German scholar, diplomat, and traveler, who has
given much study to the peoples east of the Jordan, makes reference
to the binding force and the profound obligation of the covenants
of
brotherhood, in that portion of the East; although he gives no
description of the methods of the covenant-rite. Speaking of two
Bed´ween—Habbâs and Hosayn—who had been “brothered”
(verbrüdert),
he explains by saying: “We must by this [term] understand the
Covenant of Brotherhood[7]
(Chuwwat el-Ahĕd
[خوة العهد]),
which is in use to-day not only among the Hadari [the Villagers],
but
also among the Bed´ween; and is indeed of pre-Muhammadan origin.
The
brother [in such a covenant] must guard the [other] brother from
treachery, and [must] succor him in peril. So far as may be
necessary, the one must provide for the wants of the other; and the
survivor has weighty obligations in behalf of the family of the one
deceased.” Then, as showing how completely the idea of a common
life in the lives of two friends thus covenanted—if, indeed, they
have become sharers of the same blood—sways the Oriental mind,
Wetzstein adds: “The marriage of a man and woman between whom this
covenant exists, is held to be
incest.”[8]There
are, indeed, various evidences that the tie of blood-covenanting is
reckoned, in the East, even a closer tie than that of natural
descent; that a “friend” by this tie is nearer and is dearer,
“sticketh closer,” than a “brother” by birth. We, in the
West, are accustomed to say, that “blood is thicker than water”;
but the Arabs have the idea that blood is thicker than milk, than a
mother’s milk. With them, any two children nourished at the same
breast are called “milk-brothers,”[9]
or “sucking brothers”;[10]
and the tie between such is very strong. A boy and a girl in this
relation cannot marry, even though by birth they had no family
relationship. Among even the more bigoted of the Druzes, a Druze
girl
who is a “sucking sister” of a Nazarene boy is allowed a sister’s
privileges with him. He can see her uncovered face, even to the
time
of her marriage. But, the Arabs hold that brothers in the covenant
of
blood are closer than brothers at a common breast; that those who
have tasted each other’s blood are in a surer covenant than those
who have tasted the same milk together; that
“blood-lickers,”[11]
as the blood-brothers are sometimes called, are more truly one,
than
“milk-brothers,” or “sucking brothers”; that, indeed, blood
is thicker than milk, as well as thicker than water.This
distinction it is which seems to be referred to in a citation from
the Arabic poet El-A’asha, by the Arabic lexicographer Qamus, which
has been a puzzle to Lane, and Freytag, and others.[12]
Lane’s translation of the passage is: “Two foster-brothers by the
sucking of the breast of one mother, swore together by dark blood,
into which they dipped their hands, that they should not ever
become
separated.” In other words, two milk-brothers became
blood-brothers, by interlocking their hands under their own blood,
in
the covenant of blood-friendship. They had been closely
inter-linked
before; now they were as one; for blood is thicker than milk. The
oneness of nature which comes of sharing the same blood, by its
inter-transfusion, is rightly deemed, by the Arabs, completer than
the oneness of nature which comes of sharing the same milk; or even
than that which comes through having blood from a common source, by
natural descent.3.
THE PRIMITIVE RITE IN AFRICA.Travelers
in the heart of Africa, also, report the covenant of
“blood-brotherhood,” or of “strong-friendship,” as in vogue
among various African tribes; although, naturally retaining less of
primitive sacredness there than among Semites. The rite is, in some
cases, observed after the manner of the Syrians, by the contracting
parties tasting each other’s blood; while, in other cases, it is
performed by the inter-transfusion of blood between the two.The
first mention which I find of it, in the writings of modern
travelers
in Africa, is by the lamented hero-missionary, Dr. Livingstone. He
calls the rite
Kasendi. It was in
the region of Lake Dilolo, at the watershed between the Indian
Ocean
and the Atlantic, in July, 1854, that he made blood-friendship,
vicariously, with Queen Manenko, of the Balonda tribes.[13]
She was represented, in this ceremony, by her husband, the ebony
“Prince Consort”; while Livingstone’s representative was one of
his Makololo attendants. Woman’s right to rule—when she has the
right—seems to be as clearly recognized in Central Africa, to-day,
as it was in Ethiopia in the days of Candace, or in Sheba in the
days
of Balkees.Describing
the ceremony, Livingstone says:[14]
“It is accomplished thus: The hands of the parties are joined (in
this case Pitsane and Sambanza were the parties engaged). Small
incisions are made on the clasped hands, on the pits of the stomach
of each, and on the right cheeks and foreheads. A small quantity of
blood is taken off from these points, in both parties, by means of
a
stalk of grass. The blood from one person is put into a pot of
beer,
and that of the second into another; each then drinks the other’s
blood, and they are supposed to become perpetual friends, or
relations. During the drinking of the beer, some of the party
continue beating the ground with short clubs, and utter sentences
by
way of ratifying the treaty. The men belonging to each [principal’s
party], then finish the beer. The principals in the performance of
‘Kasendi’ are henceforth considered blood-relations, and are
bound to disclose to each other any impending evil. If Sekeletu
[chief of Pitsane’s tribe—the Makololo—] should resolve to
attack the Balonda [Sambanza’s—or, more properly,
Manenko’s—people], Pitsane would be under obligation to give
Sambanza warning to escape; and so, on the other side. [The
ceremony
concluded in this case] they now presented each other with the most
valuable presents they had to bestow. Sambanza walked off with
Pitsane’s suit of green baize faced with red, which had been made
in Loanda; and Pitsane, besides abundant supplies of food, obtained
two shells [of as great value, in regions far from the sea, ‘as the
Lord Mayor’s badge is in London,’] similar to that [one, which] I
had received from Shinte [the uncle of Manenko].”[15]Of
the binding force of this covenant, Livingstone says farther: “On
one occasion I became blood-relation to a young woman by accident.
She had a large cartilaginous tumor between the bones of the
forearm,
which as it gradually enlarged, so distended the muscles as to
render
her unable to work. She applied to me to excise it. I requested her
to bring her husband, if he were willing to have the operation
performed; and while removing the tumor, one of the small arteries
squirted some blood into my eye. She remarked, when I was wiping
the
blood out of it, ‘You were a friend before; now you are a
blood-relation; and when you pass this way always send me word,
that
I may cook food for you.’”[16]Of
the influence of these inter-tribal blood-friendships, in Central
Africa, Dr. Livingstone speaks most favorably. Their primitive
character is made the more probable, in view of the fact that he
first found them existing in a region where, in his opinion, the
dress and household utensils of the people are identical with those
which are represented on the monuments of ancient Egypt.[17]
Although it is within our own generation that this mode of
covenanting in the region referred to, has been made familiar to
us,
the rite itself is of old, elsewhere if not, indeed, there; as
other
travelers following in the track of Livingstone have noted and
reported.Commander
Cameron, who, while in charge of the Livingstone Search Expedition,
was the first European traveler to cross the whole breadth of the
African continent in its central latitudes, gives several
illustrations of the observance of this rite. In June, 1874, at the
westward of Lake Tanganyika, Syde, a guide of Cameron, entered into
this covenant of blood with Pakwanya, a local chief.
“
After
a certain amount of palaver,” says Cameron, “Syde and Pakwanya
exchanged presents, much to the advantage of the former [for in the
East, the person of higher rank is supposed to give the more costly
gifts in any such exchange]; more especially [in this case] as he
[Syde] borrowed the beads of me and afterward forgot to repay me.
Pakwanya then performed a tune on his harmonium, or whatever the
instrument [which he had] might be called, and the business of
fraternizing was proceeded with. Pakwanya’s head man acted as his
sponsor, and one of my askari assumed the like office for
Syde.
“
The
first operation consisted of making an incision on each of their
right wrists, just sufficient to draw blood; a little of which was
scraped off and smeared on the other’s cut; after which gunpowder
was rubbed in [thereby securing a permanent token on the arm]. The
concluding part of the ceremony was performed by Pakwanya’s sponsor
holding a sword resting on his shoulder, while he who acted [as
sponsor] for Syde went through the motions of sharpening a knife
upon
it. Both sponsors meanwhile made a speech, calling down
imprecations
on Pakwanya and all his relations, past, present, and future, and
prayed that their graves might be defiled by pigs if he broke the
brotherhood in word, thought, or deed. The same form having been
gone
through with, [with] respect to Syde, the sponsors changing duties,
the brother-making was complete.”[18]Concerning
the origin of this rite, in this region, Cameron says: “This custom
of ‘making brothers,’ I believe to be really of Semitic origin,
and to have been introduced into Africa by the heathen Arabs before
the days of Mohammed; and this idea is strengthened by the fact
that
when the first traders from Zanzibar crossed the Tanganyika, the
ceremony was unknown [so far as those traders knew] to the westward
of that lake.”[19]
Cameron was, of course, unaware of the world-wide prevalence of
this
rite; but his suggestion that its particular form just here had a
Semitic origin, receives support in a peculiar difference noted
between the Asiatic and the African ceremonies.It
will be remembered, that, among the Syrians, the blood of the
covenant is taken into the mouth, and the record of the covenant is
bound upon the arm. The Africans, not fully appreciating the force
of
a written record, are in the habit of reversing this order,
according
to Cameron’s account. Describing the rite as observed between his
men and the natives, on the Luama River, he says: “The brotherhood
business having been completed [by putting the blood from one party
on to the arm of the other], some pen and ink marks were made on a
piece of paper, which, together with a charge of powder, was put
into
a kettleful of water. All hands then drank of the decoction, the
natives being told that it was a very great medicine.”[20]
That was “drinking the covenant”[21]
with a vengeance; nor is it difficult to see how this idea
originated.The
gallant and adventurous Henry M. Stanley also reports this rite of
“blood-brotherhood,” or of “strong friendship,” in the story
of his romantic experiences in the wilds of Africa. On numerous
occasions the observance of this rite was a means of protection and
relief to Stanley. One of its more notable illustrations was in his
compact with “Mirambo, the warrior chief of Western
Unyamwezi;”[22]
whose leadership in warfare Stanley compares to that of both
Frederick the Great[23]
and Napoleon.[24]It
was during his first journey in pursuit of Livingstone, in 1871,
that
Stanley first encountered the forces of Mirambo, and was worsted in
the conflict.[25]
Writing of him, after his second expedition, Stanley describes
Mirambo, as “the ‘Mars of Africa,’ who since 1871 has made his
name feared by both native and foreigner from Usui to Urori, and
from
Uvinza to Ugogo, a country embracing 90,000 square miles; who, from
the village chieftainship over Uyoweh, has made for himself a name
as
well known as that of Mtesa throughout the eastern half of
Equatorial
Africa; a household word from Nyangwé to Zanzibar, and the theme of
many a song of the bards of Unyamwezi, Ukimbu, Ukonongo, Uzinja,
and
Uvinza.”[26]
For a time, during his second exploring expedition, Stanley was
inclined to avoid Mirambo, but becoming “impressed with his
ubiquitous powers,”[27]
he decided to meet him, and if possible make “strong friendship”
with him. They came together, first, at Serombo, April 22, 1876.
Mirambo “quite captivated” Stanley. “He was a thorough
African
gentleman in
appearance.... A handsome, regular-featured, mild-voiced,
soft-spoken
man, with what one might call a ‘meek’ demeanor; very generous
and open-handed;” his eyes having “the steady, calm gaze of a
master.”[28]The
African hero and the heroic American agreed to “make strong
friendship” with each other. Stanley thus describes the ceremony:
“Manwa Sera [Stanley’s ‘chief captain’] was requested to seal
our friendship by performing the ceremony of blood-brotherhood
between Mirambo and myself. Having caused us to sit fronting each
other on a straw-carpet, he made an incision in each of our right
legs, from which he extracted blood, and inter-changing it, he
exclaimed aloud: ‘If either of you break this brotherhood now
established between you, may the lion devour him, the serpent
poison
him, bitterness be in his food, his friends desert him, his gun
burst
in his hands and wound him, and everything that is bad do wrong to
him until death.’”[29]
The same blood now flowed in the veins of both Stanley and Mirambo.
They were friends and brothers in a sacred covenant; life for life.
At the conclusion of the covenant, they exchanged gifts; as the
customary ratification, or accompaniment, of the compact. They even
vied with each other in proofs of their unselfish fidelity, in this
new covenant of friendship.[30]Again
and again, before and after this incident, Stanley entered into the
covenant of blood-brotherhood with representative Africans; in some
instances by the opening of his own veins; at other times by
allowing
one of his personal escort to bleed for him. In January, 1875, a
“great magic doctor of Vinyata” came to Stanley’s tent to pay a
friendly visit, “bringing with him a fine, fat ox as a peace
offering.” After an exchange of gifts, says Stanley, “he
entreated me to go through the process of blood-brotherhood, which
I
underwent with all the ceremonious gravity of a pagan.”[31]Three
months later, in April, 1875, when Stanley found himself and his
party in the treacherous toils of Shekka, the King of Bumbireh, he
made several vain attempts to “induce Shekka, with gifts, to go
through the process of blood-brotherhood.” Stanley’s second
captain, Safeni, was the adroit, but unsuccessful, agent in the
negotiations. “Go frankly and smilingly, Safeni, up to Shekka, on
the top of that hill,” said Stanley, “and offer him these three
fundo of beads, and ask him to exchange blood with you.” But the
wily king was not to be dissuaded from his warlike purposes in that
way. “Safeni returned. Shekka had refused the pledge of
peace.”[32]
His desire was to take blood, if at all, without any
exchange.After
still another three months, in July, 1875, Stanley, at Refuge
Island,
reports better success in securing peace and friendship through
blood-giving and blood-receiving. “Through the influence of young
Lukanjah—the cousin of the King of Ukerewé”—he says, “the
natives of the mainland had been induced to exchange their churlish
disposition for one of cordial welcome; and the process of
blood-brotherhood had been formally gone through [with], between
Manwa Sera, on my part, and Kijaju, King of Komeh, and the King of
Itawagumba, on the other part.”[33]It
was at “Kampunzu, in the district of Uvinza, where dwell the true
aborigines of the forest country,”—a people whom Stanley
afterwards found to be cannibals—that this rite was once more
observed between the explorers and the natives. “Blood-brotherhood
being considered as a pledge of good-will and peace,” says Stanley,
“Frank Pocock [a young Englishman who was an attendant of Stanley]
and the chief [of Kampunzu] went through the ordeal; and we
interchanged presents”—as is the custom in the observance of this
rite.[34]At
the island of Mpika, on the Livingstone River, in December, 1876,
there was another bright episode in Stanley’s course of travel,
through this mode of sealing friendship. Disease had been making
sad
havoc in Stanley’s party. He had been compelled to fight his way
along through a region of cannibals. While he was halting for a
breakfast on the river bank over against Mpika, an attack on him
was
preparing by the excited inhabitants of the island. Just then his
scouts captured a native trading party of men and women who were
returning to Mpika, from inland; and to them his interpreters made
clear his pacific intentions. “By means of these people,” he
says, “we succeeded in checking the warlike demonstrations of the
islanders, and in finally persuading them to make
blood-brotherhood;
after which we invited canoes to come and receive [these hostages]
their friends. As they hesitated to do so, we embarked them in our
own boat, and conveyed them across to the island. The news then
spread quickly along the whole length of the island that we were
friends, and as we resumed our journey, crowds from the shore cried
out to us, ‘Mwendé
Ki-vuké-vuké’
(‘Go in peace!’)”[35]Once
more it was at the conclusion of a bloody conflict, in the district
of Vinya-Njara, just below Mpika Island, that peace was sealed by
blood. When practical victory was on Stanley’s side, at the cost of
four of his men killed, and thirteen more of them wounded, then he
sought this means of amity. “With the aid of our interpreters,”
he says, “we communicated our terms, viz., that we would occupy
Vinya-Njara, and retain all the canoes unless they made peace. We
also informed them that we had one prisoner, who would be
surrendered
to them if they availed themselves of our offer of peace: that we
had
suffered heavily, and they had also suffered; that war was an evil
which wise men avoided; that if they came with two canoes with
their
chiefs, two canoes with our chiefs should meet them in mid-stream,
and make blood-brotherhood; and that on that condition some of
their
canoes should be restored, and we would purchase the rest.” The
natives took time for the considering of this proposition, and then
accepted it. “On the 22nd of December, the ceremony of
blood-brotherhood having been formally concluded, in mid-river,
between Safeni and the chief of Vinya-Njara,” continues Stanley,
“our captive, and fifteen canoes, were returned, and twenty-three
canoes were retained by us for a satisfactory equivalent; and thus
our desperate struggle terminated.”[36]On
the Livingstone, just below the Equator, in February, 1877,
Stanley’s
party was facing starvation, having been for some time “unable to
purchase food, or indeed [to] approach a settlement for any
amicable
purpose.” The explorers came to look at “each other as fated
victims of protracted famine, or [of] the rage of savages, like
those
of Mangala.” “We continued our journey,” goes on the record,
“though grievously hungry, past Bwena and Inguba, doing our utmost
to induce the staring fishermen to communicate with us; without any
success. They became at once officiously busy with guns, and
dangerously active. We arrived at Ikengo, and as we were almost
despairing, we proceeded to a small island opposite this
settlement,
and prepared to encamp. Soon a canoe with seven men came dashing
across, and we prepared our moneys for exhibition. They
unhesitatingly advanced, and ran their canoe alongside of us. We
were
rapturously joyful, and returned them a most cordial welcome, as
the
act was a most auspicious sign of confidence. We were liberal, and
the natives fearlessly accepted our presents; and from this giving
of
gifts we proceeded to seal this incipient friendship with our
blood,
with all due ceremony.”[37]
And by this transfusion of blood, the starving were re-vivified,
and
the despairing were given hope.Twice,
again, within a few weeks after this experience, there was a call
on
Stanley of blood for blood, in friendship’s compact. The people of
Chumbiri welcomed the travelers. “They readily subscribed to all
the requirements of friendship, blood-brotherhood, and an exchange
of
a few small gifts.”[38]
Itsi, the king of Ntamo, with several of his elders and a showy
escort, came out to meet Stanley; and there was a friendly greeting
on both sides. “They then broached the subject of
blood-brotherhood. We were willing,” says Stanley, “but they
wished to defer the ceremony until they had first shown their
friendly feelings to us.” Thereupon gifts were exchanged, and the
king indicated his preference for a “big goat” of Stanley’s, as
his benefaction—which, after some parleying, was transferred to
him. Then came the covenant-rite. “The treaty with Itsi,” says
Stanley, “was exceedingly ceremonious, and involved the exchange of
charms. Itsi transferred to me for my protection through life, a
small gourdful of a curious powder, which had rather a saline
taste;
and I delivered over to him, as the white man’s charm against all
evil, a half-ounce vial of magnesia; further, a small scratch in
Frank’s arm, and another in Itsi’s arm, supplied blood sufficient
to unite us in one, and [by an] indivisible bond of
fraternity.”[39]Four
years after this experience of blood-covenanting, by proxy, with
young Itsi, Stanley found himself again at Ntamo, or across the
river
from it; this time in the interest of the International Association
of the Congo. Being short of food, he had sent out a party of
foragers, and was waiting their return with interest. “During the
absence of the food-hunters,” he says, “we heard the drums of
Ntamo, and [we] followed with interested eyes the departure of two
large canoes from the landing-place, their ascent to the place
opposite, and their final crossing over towards us. Then we knew
that
Ngalyema of Ntamo had condescended to come and visit us. As soon as
he arrived I recognized him as the Itsi with whom, in 1877, I had
made blood-brotherhood [by proxy]. During the four years that had
elapsed, he had become a great man.... He was now about thirty-four
years old, of well-built form, proud in his bearing, covetous and
grasping in disposition, and, like all other lawless barbarians,
prone to be cruel and sanguinary whenever he might safely vent his
evil humor. Superstition had found in him an apt and docile pupil,
and fetishism held him as one of its most abject slaves. This was
the
man in whose hands the destinies of the Association Internationale
du
Congo were held, and upon whose graciousness depended our only hope
of being able to effect a peaceful lodgment on the Upper Congo.” A
pagan African was an African pagan, even while the blood-brother of
a
European Christian. Yet, the tie of blood-covenanting was the
strongest tie known in Central Africa. Frank Pocock, whose
covenant-blood flowed in Itsi’s veins, was dead;[40]
yet for his sake his master, Stanley, was welcomed by Itsi as a
brother; and in true Eastern fashion he was invited to prove anew
his
continuing faith by a fresh series of love-showing gifts. “My
brother being the supreme lord of Ntamo, as well as the
deepest-voiced and most arrogant rogue among the whole tribe,” says
Stanley, “first demanded the two asses [which Stanley had with
him], then a large mirror, which was succeeded by a splendid
gold-embroidered coat, jewelry, glass clasps, long brass chains, a
figured table-cloth, fifteen other pieces of fine cloth, and a
japanned tin box with a ‘Chubb’ lock. Finally, gratified by such
liberality, Ngalyema surrendered to me his sceptre, which consisted
of a long staff, banded profusely with brass, and decorated with
coils of brass wire, which was to be carried by me and shown to all
men that I was the brother of Ngalyema [or, Itsi] of Ntamo!”[41]
Some time after this, when trouble arose between Stanley and
Ngalyema, the former suggested that perhaps it would be better to
cancel their brotherhood. “‘No, no, no,’ cried Ngalyema,
anxiously; ‘our brotherhood cannot be broken; our blood is now
one.’” Yet at this time Stanley’s brotherhood with Ngalyema was
only by the blood of his deceased retainer, Frank Pocock.More
commonly, the rite of blood-friendship among the African tribes
seems
to be by the inter-transfusion of blood; but the ancient Syrian
method is by no means unknown on that continent. Stanley tells of
one
crisis of hunger, among the cannibals of Rubunga, when the
hostility
of the natives on the river bank was averted by a shrewd display of
proffered trinkets from the boats of the expedition. “We raised our
anchor,” he says, “and with two strokes of the oars had run our
boat ashore; and, snatching a string or two of cowries [or
shell-money], I sprang on land, followed by the coxswain Uledi, and
in a second I had seized the skinny hand of the old chief, and was
pressing it hard for joy. Warm-hearted Uledi, who the moment before
was breathing furious hate of all savages, and of the
procrastinating
old chief in particular, embraced him with a filial warmth. Young
Saywa, and Murabo, and Shumari, prompt as tinder upon all
occasions,
grasped the lesser chiefs’ hands, and devoted themselves with
smiles and jovial frank bearing to conquer the last remnants of
savage sullenness, and succeeded so well that, in an incredible
short
time, the blood-brotherhood ceremony between the suddenly formed
friends was solemnly entered into, and the irrevocable pact of
peace
and good will had been accomplished.”[42]Apparently
unaware of the method of the ancient Semitic rite, here found in a
degraded form, Stanley seems surprised at the mutual tasting of
blood
between the contracting friends, in this instance. He says:
“Blood-brotherhood was a beastly cannibalistic ceremony with these
people, yet much sought after,—whether for the satisfaction of
their thirst for blood, or that it involved an interchange of
gifts,
of which they must needs reap the most benefit. After an incision
was
made in each arm, both brothers bent their heads, and the aborigine
was observed to suck with the greatest fervor; whether for love of
blood or excess of friendship, it would be difficult to
say.”[43]During
his latest visit to Africa, in the Congo region, Stanley had many
another occasion to enter into the covenant of blood with native
chiefs, or to rest on that covenant as before consummated. His
every
description of the rite itself has its value, as illustrating the
varying forms and the essential unity of the ceremony of
blood-covenanting, the world over.A
reference has already been made[44]
to Stanley’s meeting, on this expedition, with Ngalyema, who, under
the name of Itsi, had entered into blood-brotherhood with Frank
Pocock, four years before. That brotherhood by proxy had several
severe strains, in the progress of negotiations between Stanley and
Ngalyema; and after some eight months of these varying experiences,
it was urgently pressed on Stanley by the chiefs of Kintamo (which
is
another name for Ntamo), that he should personally covenant by
blood
with Ngalyema, and so put an end to all danger of conflict between
them. To this Stanley assented, and the record of the transaction
is
given accordingly, under date of April 9, 1882: “Brotherhood with
Ngalyema was performed. We crossed arms; an incision was made in
each
arm; some salt was placed on the wound, and then a mutual rubbing
took place, while the great fetish man of Kintamo pronounced an
inconceivable number of curses on my head if ever I proved false.
Susi [Livingstone’s head man, now with Stanley], not to be outdone
by him, solicited the gods to visit unheard-of atrocious vengeances
on Ngalyema if he dared to make the slightest breach in the sacred
brotherhood which made him and Bula Matari[45]
one and indivisible for ever.”[46]In
June, 1883, Stanley visited, by invitation, Mangombo, the chief of
Irebu, on the Upper Congo, and became his blood-brother. Describing
his landing at this “Venice of the Congo,” he says: “Mangombo,
with a curious long staff, a fathom and a half in length, having a
small spade of brass at one end, much resembling a baker’s
cake-spade, stood in front. He was a man probably sixty years old,
but active and by no means aged-looking, and he waited to greet
me.... Generally the first day of acquaintance with the Congo river
tribes is devoted to chatting, sounding one another’s principles,
and getting at one another’s ideas. The chief entertains his guest
with gifts of food, goats, beer, fish, &c.; then, on the next
day, commences business and reciprocal exchange of gifts. So it was
at Irebu. Mangombo gave four hairy thin-tailed sheep, ten glorious
bunches of bananas, two great pots of beer, and the usual
accompaniments of small stores. The next day we made
blood-brotherhood. The fetish-man pricked each of our right arms,
pressed the blood out; then, with a pinch of scrapings from my gun
stock, a little salt, a few dusty scrapings from a long pod,
dropped
over the wounded arms, ... the black and white arms were mutually
rubbed together [for the inter-transfusion of the flowing blood].
The
fetish-man took the long pod in his hand, and slightly touched our
necks, our heads, our arms, and our legs, muttering rapidly his
litany of incantations. What was left of the medicine Mangombo and
I
carefully folded in a banana leaf [Was this the ‘house of the
amulet?’[47]],
and we bore it reverently between us to a banana grove close by,
and
buried the dust out of sight. Mangombo, now my brother, by solemn
interchange of blood,—consecrated to my service, as I was devoted
in the sacred fetish bond to his service,—revealed his trouble, and
implored my aid.”[48]Yet
again, Stanley “made friendship” with the Bakuti, at Wangata,
“after the customary forms of blood-brotherhood”;[49]
similarly with two chiefs, Iuka and Mungawa, at Lukolela;[50]
with Miyongo of Usindi;[51]
and with the chiefs of Bolombo;[52]
of Yambinga,[53]
of Mokulu,[54]
of Irungu,[55]
of Upoto,[56]
of Uranga;[57]
and so all along his course of travel. One of the fullest and most
picturesque of his descriptions of this rite, is in connection with
its observance with a son of the great chief of the Bangala, at
Iboko; and the main details of that description are worthy of
reproduction here.The
Bangala, or “the Ashantees of the Livingstone River,” as Stanley
characterizes them, are a strong and a superior people, and they
fought fiercely against Stanley, when he was passing their country
in
1877.[58]
“The senior chief, Mata Bwyki (lord of many guns), was [now, in
October, 1883,] an old grey-haired man,” says Stanley, “of
Herculean stature and breadth of shoulder, with a large square
face,
and an altogether massive head, out of which his solitary eye
seemed
to glare with penetrative power. I should judge him to be six feet,
two inches, in height. He had a strong, sonorous voice, which, when
lifted to speak to his tribe, was heard clearly several hundred
yards
off. He was now probably between seventy-five and eighty years
old.... He was not the tallest man, nor the best looking, nor the
sweetest-dispositioned man, I had met in all Africa; but if the
completeness and perfection of the human figure, combining size
with
strength, and proportion of body, limbs, and head, with an
expression
of power in the face, be considered, he must have been at one time
the grandest type of physical manhood to be found in Equatorial
Africa. As he stood before us on this day, we thought of him as an
ancient Milo, an aged Hercules, an old Samson—a really grand
looking old man. At his side were seven tall sons, by different
mothers, and although they were stalwart men and boys, the whitened
crown of Mata Bwyki’s head rose by a couple of inches above the
highest head.”Nearly
two thousand persons assembled, at Iboko, to witness the “palaver”
that must precede a decision to enter into “strong friendship.”
At the place of meeting, “mats of split rattan were spread in a
large semicircle around a row of curved and box stools, for the
principal chiefs. In the centre of the line, opposite this, was
left
a space for myself and people,” continues Stanley. “We had first
to undergo the process of steady and silent examination from nearly
two thousand pairs of eyes. Then, after Yumbila, the guide, had
detailed in his own manner, who we were, and what was our mission
up
the great river; how we had built towns at many places, and made
blood-brotherhood with the chiefs of great districts, such as
Irebu,
Ukuti, Usindi, Ngombé, Lukolela, Bolobo, Mswata, and Kintamo, he
urged upon them the pleasure it would be to me to make a like
compact, sealed with blood, with the great chiefs of populous
Iboko.
He pictured the benefits likely to accrue to Iboko, and Mata Bwyki
in
particular, if a bond of brotherhood was made between two chiefs
like
Mata Bwyki and Tandelay, [Stanley,] or as he was known, Bula
Matari.”There
was no prompt response to Stanley’s request for strong friendship
with the Bangala. There were prejudices to be removed, and old
memories to be overborne; and Yumbila’s eloquence and tact were put
to their severest test, in the endeavor to bring about a state of
feeling that would make the covenant of blood a possibility here.
But
the triumph was won. “A forked palm branch was brought,” says
Stanley. “Kokoro, the heir [of Mata Bwyki], came forward, seized
it, and kneeled before me; as, drawing out his short falchion, he
cried, ‘Hold the other branch, Bula Matari!’ I obeyed him, and
lifting his hand he cleaved the branch in two. ‘Thus,’ he said,
‘I declare my wish to be your brother.’
“
Then
a fetish-man came forward with his lancets, long pod, pinch of
salt,
and fresh green banana leaf. He held the staff of Kokoro’s
sword-bladed spear, while one of my rifles was brought from the
steamer. The shaft of the spear and the stock of the rifle were
then
scraped on the leaf, a pinch of salt was dropped on the wood, and
finally a little dust from the long pod was scraped on the curious
mixture. Then, our arms were crossed,—the white arm over the brown
arm,—and an incision was made in each; and over the blood was
dropped a few grains of the dusty compound; and the white arm was
rubbed over the brown arm [in the intermingling of blood].”
“
Now
Mata Bwyki lifted his mighty form, and with his long giant’s staff
drove back the compressed crowd, clearing a wide circle, and then
roaring out in his most magnificent style, leonine in its
lung-force,
kingly in its effect: ‘People of Iboko! You by the river side, and
you of inland. Men of the Bangala, listen to the words of Mata
Bwyki.
You see Tandelay before you. His other name is Bula Matari. He is
the
man with the many canoes, and has brought back strange smoke-boats.
He has come to see Mata Bwyki. He has asked Mata Bwyki to be his
friend. Mata Bwyki has taken him by the hand, and has become his
blood-brother. Tandelay belongs to Iboko now. He has become this
day
one of the Bangala. O, Iboko! listen to the voice of Mata Bwyki.’
(I thought they must have been incurably deaf, not to have heard
that
voice). ‘Bula Matari and Mata Bwyki are one to-day. We have joined
hands. Hurt not Bula Matari’s people; steal not from them; offend
them not. Bring food and sell to him at a fair price, gently,
kindly,
and in peace; for he is my brother. Hear you, ye people of
Iboko—you
by the river side, and you of the interior?’
“‘
We
hear, Mata Bwyki!’ shouted the multitude.”[59]
And the ceremony was ended.A
little later than this, Stanley, or Tandelay, or Bula Matari, as
the
natives called him, was at Bumba, and there again he exchanged
blood
in friendship. “Myombi, the chief,” he says, “was easily
persuaded by Yumbila to make blood-brotherhood with me; and for the
fiftieth time my poor arm was scarified, and my blood shed for the
cause of civilization. Probably one thousand people of both sexes
looked on the scene, wonderingly and strangely. A young branch of a
palm was cut, twisted, and a knot tied at each end; the knots were
dipped in wood ashes, and then seized and held by each of us, while
the medicine-man practised his blood-letting art, and lanced us
both,
until Myombi winced with pain; after which the knotted branch was
severed; and, in some incomprehensible manner, I had become united
forever to my fiftieth brother; to whom I was under the obligation
of
defending [him] against all foes until death.”[60]The
blood of a fair proportion of all the first families of Equatorial
Africa now courses in Stanley’s veins; and if ever there was an
American citizen who could appropriate to himself preeminently the
national motto, “E pluribus unum,” Stanley is the man.The
root-idea of this rite of blood-friendship seems to include the
belief, that the blood is the life of a living being; not merely
that
the blood is
essential to life,
but that, in a peculiar sense, it
is life; that it
actually vivifies by its presence; and that by its passing from one
organism to another it carries and imparts life. The
inter-commingling of the blood of two organisms is, therefore,
according to this view, equivalent to the inter-commingling of the
lives, of the personalities, of the natures, thus brought together;
so that there is, thereby and thenceforward, one life in the two
bodies, a common life between the two friends: a thought which
Aristotle recognizes in his citation of the ancient “proverb”:
“One soul [in two bodies],”[61]
a proverb which has not lost its currency in any of the
centuries.That
the blood can retain its vivifying power whether passing into
another
by way of the lips or by way of the veins, is, on the face of it,
no
less plausible, than that the administering of stimulants, tonics,
nutriments, nervines, or anæsthetics, hypodermically, may be
equally
potent, in certain cases, with the more common and normal method of
seeking assimilation by the process of digestion. That the blood of
the living has a peculiar vivifying force, in its transference from
one organism to another, is one of the clearly proven
re-disclosures
of modern medical science; and this transference of blood has been
made to advantage by way of the veins, of the stomach, of the
intestines, of the tissue, and even of the lungs—through
dry-spraying.[62]4.
TRACES OF THE RITE IN EUROPE.[63]Different
methods of observing this primitive rite of blood-covenanting are
indicated in the legendary lore of the Norseland peoples; and these
methods, in all their variety, give added proof of the ever
underlying idea of an inter-commingling of lives through an
inter-commingling of blood. Odin was the beneficent god of light
and
knowledge, the promoter of heroism, and the protector of sacred
covenants, in the mythology of the North. Lôké, or Lok, on the
other hand, was the discordant and corrupting divinity;
symbolizing,
in his personality, “sin, shrewdness, deceitfulness, treachery,
malice,” and other phases of evil.[64]
In the poetic myths of the Norseland, it is claimed that at the
beginning Odin and Lôké were in close union instead of being at
variance;[65]
just as the Egyptian cosmogony made Osiris and Set in original
accord, although in subsequent hostility;[66]
and as the Zoroastrians claimed that Ormuzd and Ahriman were at
one,
before they were in conflict.[67]
Odin and Lôké are, indeed, said to have been, at one time, in the
close and sacred union of blood-friendship; having covenanted in
that
union by mingling their blood in a bowl, and drinking therefrom
together.The
Elder Edda,[68]
or the earliest collection of Scandinavian songs, makes reference
to
this confraternity of Odin and Lôké. At a banquet of the gods,
Lôké, who had not been invited, found an entrance, and there
reproached his fellow divinities for their hostility to him.
Recalling the indissoluble tie of blood-friendship, he said:
“
Father
of Slaughter,
[69] Odin,
say,Rememberest
not the former day,When
ruddy in the goblet stood,For
mutual drink, our blended blood?Rememberest
not, thou then didst swear,The
festive banquet ne’er to share,Unless
thy brother Lok was there?”