Indian Antiquary Vol 25

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 87

MARCA, 1896.)
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
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priests, and their guests.97 Through the ceremonial anointing the guardian Jah or Jehovah passed into the Hebrew king. Even at his own request it was sacrilege to kill Saul. Jacob oiled the holy dream-pillar, and the Jews brought oil as a sin-offering. At Delphi, the stone which Chronos swallowed instead of Zeus, was anointed daily with oil.100 About 1820, the Antiquarian Museum at Newcastle received the Irish Stone, an oiled and shining stone that kept away vermin. The early Christians, when a new church was dedicated, anointed the altar. Formerly, in England, the gods were anointed as a reward. If a straw figure brought good luck it was anointed: if bad, it was knocked to pieces. In Scotland, to prevent cattle being bewitched, some drops of an Easter candle were dropped on their heads. In North Africa, when overfatigued with desert travelling, the rubbing of a little oil or fat on the back, loins and neck, is the greatest comfort. In seventeenth century Scotland, oil was one of the most widely used remedies. At the close of the mysteries of Adonis the priest anointed the mouths of the initiated. The ancient Negroes of the Upper Nile (B. C. 1500) worked grease and oil into their hair. The people of Dahomey please the goddess Legba by unctions of palm oil. Tityan, the guardian badge of the Siberian Ostjak, has its lips smeared with train oil or blood.10 The Western Australians cover theinselves with grease and ochre to keep off flies.11 The Newfoundland Indians (1811) had their faces lacquered with oil and red ochre or red earth.19 The Melanesian Mincopies rab themselves with tortle oil to keep off insects.18 The South Africans are fond of rubbing the body with oil and butter.14 In Morocco, boiling oil is used to stop bleeding, 15 and olive oil is considered a cure for typhus fever.16 In Ceylon, an order in Vishộu's name to bind the demon Riri is breathed over oil. The charmed oil is sprinkled over the sick, and he is at once well. In Ceylon, headaches are cured by stirring with iron a mixture of cocoanut, ginjelly, cohomba, mi, and castor oil, and muttering a charm.27 The Zala medium brings on a trance by fasting, inhaling the smoke of herbs and drinking strange oils.18 The Fuegians of South America cure diseases by rubbing the patient with oil. 19 The Hottentot going to fight a lion is oiled and sprinkled with sweet smelling buchu to encourage him,20 This Hottentot oiling is perhare with the object of making the champion wound proof, since, among the Hindu Saktis, a man becomes wound proof, if, while muttering a cbarm, he smears a weapon with resin, marking nut, and cletoria oil.21
The freemasons have adopted the Hebrew saying: "Wide gladdens the heart, oil makes the face to shine, bread strengthens the heart, and scares evil spirits.'92 With this view of oil as a cheerer and gladdener compare Spencer's description of October%3:
"His head was full of joyous oil whose gentle gust
Made bim so frolic and so full of lust."
97 Exodus, XII.; Dubois, Vol. I. p. 381 ; Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. I. p. 72: Vol. II, p. 596. Compare (Josephus' Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 377). "Samuel anointed David and whispered to him that God had made him king." Conway (Demonology and Devil. Lore, Vol. II. p. 228) says the Jews bad an extreme unction. Adam, dying, asked Seth to bring the oil of mercy from Paradise. $e Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. II. p. 18.
Maurice's Indian Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 384; Josephus' Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 219. 200 Pausanias in Lang's Customa and Myth, 223, Notes and p. 58 ; Hislop's Tuco Babylons, p. 487. * The Deriham Tracts, Vol. II. p. 41.
Smith's Christian Antiquities, p. 429. : Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. I. p. 63. Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 54.
Denham and Clapperton's Africa, Vol. I, p. 167. Dalyell's Darker Superstitions, pp. 115, 126, 158. Mackay's Freemasonry, P. 9.
• Eber's Uarda, Vol. I. p. 178. Burton's Mission to Dahomey, Vol. I. p. 88. 10 Baring Gould's Strange Survivals, p. 145. 11 Journal Anthrop. Institute, Vol. V. p. 317; Featherman's Social History of Mankind, Vol. II. p. 122. 19 Barron's Voyages into the Polar Regions, p. 20. 25 Featherman's Social History of Mankind, Vol. II. p. 229. 14 Dr. Livingstone's Travels in South Africa, p. 272, Harris' South Africa, p. 55. 16 Rohlf's Morocco, p. 91.
16 Op. cit. p. 84. 31 Journal Asiatic Society, Ceylon, 1885, PP. 64, 66. 16 Enoy. Brit. Ninth Edition, "Apparitions." 19 Descriptive Sociology, 3, Table I.
so Hahn's Touni Goam, p. 71. 31 K Raghunatji's Patané Prabhua.
» Mackay's Freemasonry, p. 68. 30 Fairie Queen, Vol. VII. p. 739,