son refuses to obey his father in any serious matter, the father solemnly strikes the son with his fur mantle. This is equivalent to a most serious curse, and is supposed to be fatal to the son unless he obtains forgiveness, which he can only do by sacrificing a goat before his father.' Among the Mpongwe "there is nothing which a young person so much deprecates as the curse of an aged person, and especially that of a revered father." The Barea and Kunáma are convinced that any undertaking which has not the blessing of the old people will fail, that every curse uttered by them must be destructive. Among the Bogos nobody takes an employment or gives it up, nobody engages in a business or contracts a marriage, before he has received the blessing of his father or his master. Among the Herero, "when a chief feels his dissolution approaching, he calls his sons to the bedside, and gives them his benediction." 5 The Moors have a proverb that "if the saints curse you the parents will cure you, but if the parents curse you the saints will not cure you.' The ancient Hebrews believed that parents, and especially a father, could by their blessings or curses determine the fate of their children; indeed, we have reason to assume that the reward which in the fifth commandment is held out to respectful children was originally a result of parental blessings. We still meet with the original idea in Ecclesiasticus, where it is said "Honour thy father and mother both in word and deed, that a blessing may come upon thee from them. For the blessing of the father establisheth the houses of children; but the curse of the mother rooteth out foundations."7 The same notion that the parents' blessings beget prosperity, and that their curses bring ruin, prevailed in ancient Greece. Plato says 1 Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, ii. 879. Wilson, Western Africa, p. 393. 4 Idem, Sitten der Bogos, p. 90 sq. 23, 25, 27 sqq.; xlviii. 9, 14 sqq. xlix. 4, 7 sqq. Judges, xvii. 2. Cf. Cheyne, Blessings and Cursings,' in Encyclo padia Biblica, i. 592; Nowack, Blessing and Cursing,' in Jewish Encyclo pedia, iii. 244. 7 Ecclesiasticus, iii. 8 sq. Cf. ibid. iii. 16. in his 'Laws' :-" Neither God, nor a man who has under- X standing, will ever advise any one to neglect his parents. . . If a man has a father or mother, or their fathers or mothers treasured up in his house stricken in years, let him consider that no statue can be more potent to grant his requests than they are, who are sitting at his hearth, if only he knows how to show true service to them. Oedipus, as tradition says, when dishonoured by his sons, invoked on them curses which every one declares to have been heard and ratified by the gods, and Amyntor in his wrath invoked curses on his son Phoenix, and Theseus upon Hippolytus, and innumerable others have also called down wrath upon their children, whence it is clear that the gods listen to the imprecations of parents; for the curses of parents are, as they ought to be, mighty against their children as no others are. And shall we suppose that the prayers of a father or mother who is specially dishonoured by his or her children, are heard by the gods in accordance with nature; and that if a parent is honoured by them, and in the gladness of his heart earnestly entreats the gods in his prayers to do them good, he is not equally heard, and that they do not minister to his request? . . . Therefore, if a man makes a right use of his father and grandfather and other aged relations, he will have images which above all others will win him the favour of the gods."1 Originally the efficacy of parents' curses and blessings were ascribed to a magic power immanent in the spoken word itself, and their Erinyes, who were no less terrible than the Erinyes of neglected guests, were only personifications of their curses.3 But in this, as in other similar cases already noticed, the fulfilment of the curse or the blessing came afterwards to be looked upon as an act of divine justice. According to Plato, "Nemesis, the messenger of justice," watches over unbecoming words uttered 1 Plato, Leges, xi. 930 sq. Cf. ibid. iv. 717. 2 Aeschylus, Eumenides, 545 sqq. 3 See Iliad, xxi. 412 sq.; Sophocles, Edipus Coloneus, 1299, 1434; von 2 Lasaulx, Der Fluch bei Griechen und Römern, p. 8; Müller, Dissertations on the Eumenides, p. 155 sqq.; Rohde, 'Paralipomena,' in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 1895, p. 7. 2 to a parent;1 and Hesiod says that if anybody reproaches an aged father or mother "Zeus himself is wroth, and at last, in requital for wrong deeds, lays on him a bitter penalty." It also seems to be beyond all doubt that the divi parentum of the Romans, like their dii hospitales, were nothing but personified curses. For it is said, "If a son beat his parent and he cry out, the son shall be devoted to the parental gods for destruction." In aristocratic families in Russia children used to stand in mortal fear of their fathers' curses; and the country people still believe that a marriage without the parents' approval will call down the wrath of Heaven on the heads of the young couple. Some of the Southern Slavs maintain. that if a son does not fulfil the last will of his father, the soul of the father will curse him from the grave. The Servians say, "Without reverence for old men, there is no salvation."7 8 6 In various instances the rewards or punishments attached to the behaviour of children seem to spring from the belief in parental blessings and curses, although the cause is not expressly mentioned. According to ancient Hindu ideas, a father, mother, and spiritual teacher are equal to the three Vedas, equal to the three gods, Brahman, Vishnu, and Siva. A man who shows no regard for them derives no benefit from any religious observance; whereas, "by honouring his mother, he gains the present world; by honouring his father, the world of gods; and by paying strict obedience to his spiritual teacher, the world of Brahman." 9 As in Greece a person who had assaulted his parent was regarded as polluted by a curse, so accord 1 Plato, Leges, iv. 717. 2 Hesiod, Opera et dies, 331 sqq. (329 sqq.) 3 Servius Tullius, in Bruns, Fontes Juris Romani antiqui, p. 14, and Festus, De verborum significatione, ver. Plorare: "Si parentem puer verberit, ast olle plorassit, puer divis parentum sacer esto." Cf. Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Civile, i. 184. 4 I am indebted to Prince Kropotkin for this statement. 10 6 Kovalewsky, Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia, p. 37. 6 Krauss, op. cit. p. 119. 7 Maine, Early Law and Custom, p. 243. Institutes of Vishnu, xxxi. 7. Laws of Manu, ii. 230. 9 Institutes of Vishnu, xxxi. 9 sq. Cf. Laws of Manu, ii. 233 sq. 10 Plato, Leges, ix. 881. 3 5 ing to the sacred law of India, those who quarrel with their father, and those who have forsaken their father, mother, or spiritual teacher, defile a company and must not be entertained at a Srâddha offering. Those who have struck any of these persons cannot be readmitted until they have been purified with water taken from a sacred lake or river.2 The stain of disobedience towards mother and father is purged away with barley-corns, like food which has been licked at by dogs or pigs, or defiled by crows and impure men. In the Dhammapada it is said that to him who always greets and constantly reveres the aged four things will increase, namely, life, beauty, happiness, and power. The Coreans believe that "the richest rewards on earth and brightest heaven hereafter await the filial child," whereas “curses and disgrace in this life and the hottest hell in the world hereafter are the penalties of the disobedient or neglectful child." It seems to have been a notion of the ancient Egyptians that a son who accepted the word of his father would attain. old age on that account. The following is an exhortation which an Aztec gave to his son :-" Guard against imitating the example of those wicked sons who, like brutes that are deprived of reason, neither reverence their parents, listen to their instruction, nor submit to their correction; because whoever follows their steps will have an unhappy end, will die in a desperate or sudden manner, or will be killed and devoured by wild beasts."7 And if an Aztec married without the sanction of his parents, the belief was that he would be punished with some misfortune. The Aleuts were of opinion that those who were attentive to feeble old men, expecting in exchange their good advice only, would be long-lived and fortunate in the chase and in war, and would not be neglected when growing old themselves.1 In the Tonga Islands "disrespect to one's superior relations is little short of sacrilege to the gods," and to pay respect to chiefs is "a superior sacred duty, the non-fulfilment of which it is supposed the gods would punish almost as severely as disrespect to themselves.": In the same islands great efficacy is ascribed to curses which are uttered by a superior.3 6 Why are the blessings and curses of parents supposed to possess such an extraordinary power? One reason is no doubt the mystery of old age and the nearness of death. As appears from several of the cases already referred to, it is not parents only but old people generally that are held capable of giving due effect to their good and evil wishes, and this capacity is believed to increase when life is drawing to its close. The Herero "know really no blessing save that conferred by the father on his deathbed." According to old Teutonic ideas, the curse of a dying person was the strongest of all curses." A similar notion prevailed among the ancient Arabs; and among the Hebrews the father's mystic privilege of determining the weal or woe of his children was particularly obvious when his days were manifestly numbered." But, at the same time, parental benedictions and imprecations possess a potency of their own owing to the parents' superior position in the family and the respect in which they are naturally held. The influence which such a superiority has upon the efficacy of curses is well brought out by various facts. According to the Greek notion, the Erinyes avenged wrongs done by younger members of a family to elder ones, even brothers and sisters, but not vice versa. The Arabs of Morocco say that the curse of a husband is as potent as that of a father. The Tonga Islanders believe 1 Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, loc. cit. p. 155. 2 Mariner, op. cit. ii. 237, 155. 3 Ibid. ii. 238. 4 Ratzel, History of Mankind, ii. 468. 5 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, iv. 1690. 6 Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Hädentums, pp. 139, 191. 7 Cheyne, in Encyclopædia Biblica, i. 592. Iliad, xv. 204: "Thou knowest how the Erinyes do always follow to aid the elder-born." Cf. Müller, Dissertations on the Eumenides, p. 155 sq. |