"were naked and entirely covered with clay of various colours."[1] The custom is mentioned by Captain John Smith in Virginia. Mr. Winwood Reade found it in Africa, where, as among the Mandans and Spartans, cruel torture and flogging accompanied the initiation of young men.[2] In Australia the evidence for daubing the initiate is very abundant.[3] In New Mexico, the Zunis stole Mr. Cushing's black paint, as considering it evenbetter than clay for religious daubing.[4]
Another savage rite, the use of serpents in Greek mysteries, is attested by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Demosthenes (loc. cit.). Clemens says the snakes were caressed in representations of the loves of Zeus in serpentine form. The great savage example is that of "the snake-dance of the Moquis," who handle rattle-snakes in the mysteries without being harmed.[5] The dance is partly totemistic, partly meant, like the Thesmophoria, to secure the fertility of the lands of the Moquis of Arizona. The turndun or ῥόμβος is employed. Masks are worn, as in the rites of Demeter Cidaria in Arcadia.[6]
We have now attempted to establish that in Greek law and ritual many savage customs and usages did undeniably survive. We have seen that both philosophical and popular opinion in Greece believed in a past age of savagery. In law, in religion, in religious art, in custom, in human sacrifice, in relics of totemism, and
- ↑ O-Kee-Pa, London, 1867, p. 21.
- ↑ Savage Africa, case of Mongilomba; Pausanias, iii. 15.
- ↑ Brough Smyth, i. 60.
- ↑ Custom and Myth, p. 40.
- ↑ The Snake-Dance of the Moquis. By Captain John G. Bourke. London, 1884.
- ↑ Pausanias, viii. 16.
