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Of him who

kingdoms, of misery, sorrow, and poverty. drinks immoderately it is said in one of the Pahlavi texts that infamy comes to his body and wickedness to his soul. According to Ecclesiasticus, "drunkenness increaseth the rage of a fool till he offend: it diminisheth strength and maketh wounds.” 3 We read in the Talmud, "Drink not, and you will not sin."4 Muhammed said that in wine there is both sin and profit, but that the sin is greater than the profit. Buddhism stigmatises drinking as the worst of crimes because it leads to all other sins; from the continued use of intoxicating drink six evil consequences are said to follow-namely, the loss of wealth; the arising of disputes that lead to blows and battles; the production of various diseases, as soreness of the eyes and others; the bringing of disgrace, from the rebuke of parents and superiors; the exposure to shame, from going hither and thither unclothed; the loss of the judgment required for the carrying on of the affairs of the world." That drunkenness, in spite of the evils resulting from it, nevertheless so frequently escapes censure, is due partly to the pleasures connected with it, partly to lack of foresight, and in a large measure to the influence of intemperate habits. Why such habits should have grown up in one country and not in another we are often unable to tell. The climate has no doubt something to do with it, although it is impossible to agree with the statement made by Montesquieu that the prevalence of intoxication in different parts of the earth is proportionate to the coldness and humidity of the air. A gloomy temperament and a cheerless life are apt to induce people to resort to the artificial pleasures produced by drink. The dreariness of the Puritan Sunday has much to answer for; the evidence given by a spirit merchant before the Commission on the Forbes Mackenzie Act was "that there is a great

1

Sahagun, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, ii. 94 sqq. 2 Dina-i Mainôg-i Khirad, xvi. 63. 3 Ecclesiasticus, xxxi. 30. Deutsch, Literary Remains, p. 58.

5

Koran, ii. 216.

6 Hardy, op. cit. p. 491 sq.

7 Cf. supra, i. 281, 309 sq.

8 Montesquieu, De l'esprit des lois, xiv. 10 (Œuvres, p. 303 sq.).

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demand for drink on Sunday," and that "this demand must be supplied." Ennui was probably Ennui was probably a cause of the prevailing inebriety in Europe in former days, when there was difficulty in passing the time not occupied in fighting or hunting; and the monotony of life in the lower ranks of an industrial community still tends to produce a similar effect. Other causes of drunkenness are miserable homes and wretched cooking. Mr. Lecky is of opinion that if the wives of the poor in Great Britain and Ireland could cook as they can cook in France and in Holland, a much smaller proportion of the husbands would seek a refuge in the public-house.3

The evil consequences of intoxication have led not only to the condemnation of an immoderate use of alcoholic drink, but also to the demand for total abstinence, in consideration of the difficulty many people have in avoiding excess. But this hardly accounts in full for the religious prohibition of drink which we meet with in the East. Wine or spirituous liquor inspires mysterious fear. The abnormal mental state which it produces suggests the idea that there is something supernatural in it, that it contains a spirit, or is perhaps itself a spirit. Moreover, the juice of the grape is conceived as the blood of the vine in Ecclesiasticus the wine which was poured out at the foot of the altar is even called "the blood of the grape"; and in the blood is the soul. The law of Brahmanism not only prohibits the drinking of wine, but also commands that "one should carefully avoid red exudations from trees and juices flowing from incisions."? That spirituous liquor is believed to contain baneful mysterious energy is obvious from the statement that if the Brahman (the Veda) which dwells in the body of a Brâhmana is even once deluged with it, his Brahmanhood forsakes him, and he becomes a Sûdra; holy persons are, of course,

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1 Hessey, Sunday, p. 378.

2 Cf. Spencer, Principles of Ethics, i. 445.

3 Lecky, Democracy and Liberty, ii. 138.

See supra, i. 278, 281; infra, on

the Belief in Supernatural Beings;
Frazer, Golden Bough, i. 359.

5 Frazer, op. cit. i. 358 sq.
6 Ecclesiasticus, 1. 15.
7 Laws of Manu, v. 6.
8 Ibid. xi. 98.

most easily affected by the mysterious drink, owing to the delicate nature of holiness. Muhammedans likewise regard wine as "unclean" and polluting; some of them dread it so much that if a single drop were to fall upon a clean garment it would be rendered unfit to wear until washed.2 The fact of its being forbidden by the Prophet might perhaps by itself be a sufficient reason for the notion that it is unclean. But already in pre-Muhammedan times wine seems to have been scrupulously avoided by some of the Arabs, though among others it was much in use and was highly praised by their poets.

As for the Muhammedan prohibition of wine the suggestion has been made by Palgrave that it mainly arose from the Prophet's antipathy to Christianity and his desire to broaden the line of demarcation between his followers and those of Christ. Wine was raised by the founder of Christianity to a dignity of the highest religious import. It became well-nigh typical of Christianity and in a manner its badge. To declare it "unclean," an "abomination," and "the work of the devil," was to set up for the Faithful a counter-badge. This view derives much probability from the fact that there are several unequivocal indications of the same bent of policy in Muhammed's system, showing a distinct tendency to oppose Islam to other religions. But at the same time both a desire to prevent intoxication and the notion that wine is polluting may very well have been co-operating motives for the prohibition.

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CHAPTER XXXIX

CLEANLINESS AND

UNCLEANLINESS-ASCETICISM

GENERAL

IN

It seems that man, like many other animals, is naturally endowed with a certain tendency to cleanliness or aversion to filth. Of Caspar Hauser-the boy who had been kept in a dungeon separated from all communication with the world from early childhood to about the age of seventeen— Feuerbach tells us that "uncleanliness, or whatever he considered as such, whether in his own person or in others, was an abomination to him." And the savage boy of Aveyron, though filthy at first, soon became so scrupulously clean in his habits that "he constantly threw away, in a pet, the contents of his plate, if any particle of dirt or dust had fallen upon it; and, after he had broken his walnuts under his feet, he took pains to clean them in the nicest and most delicate manner." 2

3

Many savages are praised for their cleanliness. The Veddahs of Ceylon wash their bodies every few days, as opportunity occurs. Among the South Sea Islanders

1 Feuerbach, Caspar Hauser, p. 62.

2 Itard, Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man, p. 58.

3 Colquhoun, Amongst the Shans, p. 298 sq. Man, Sonthalia and the Sonthals, p. 84. Foreman, Philippine Islands, p. 189 (domesticated natives). Boyle, Dyaks of Borneo, p. 242. Erskine,

Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific, pp. 110 (Samoans; cf. Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 205), 262, 264 (Fijians). Percy Smith, Futuna,' in Jour. Polynesian Soc. i. 35. Markham, Cruise of the "Rosario," p. 136 (Polynesians).

4 Nevill, Vaeddas of Ceylon,' in Taprobanian, i. 187.

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bathing is a very common practice; the Tahitians bathe in fresh water once or twice a day,' and the natives of Ni-afu, in the Tonga Islands, are said to spend half their life in the water. So, also, many Indian tribes both in North, Central, and South America are very fond of bathing." The Omahas generally bathe every day in warm weather, early in the morning and at night, and some of them also at noon. Among the Guiana Indians it is a custom for men and women to troop down together to the nearest water early in the morning and many times during the day. The Tehuelches of Patagonia not only make morning ablutions and, when encamped near a river, enjoy bathing for hours, but are also scrupulously careful as to the cleanliness of their houses and utensils, and will, if they can obtain soap, wash up everything they may be possessed of. The Moquis and Pueblos of New Mexico are remarkable both for their personal cleanliness and the neatness of their dwellings." Cleanliness is a common characteristic of many natives of Africa. The Negroes of the Gold Coast wash their whole persons once, if not oftener, during the day. The Megé, a people subject to the Monbuttu, wash two or three times a day, and when engaged in work constantly adjourn to a neighbouring stream to cleanse themselves.10 The MarutseMabundas, rather than lose their bath, are always ready

1 Ellis, Polynesian Researches (ed. 1829), ii. 113 sq.

2 Romilly, Western Pacific, p. 145.

3 Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 83, 696, 722, 760. Domenech, Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North America, ii. 337. von Humboldt, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, iii. 237 (Chaymas). von Martius, Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika's, i. 600 (Uaupés), 643 (Macusis). Molina, History of Chili, ii. 118; Smith, Araucanians, p. 184. Dobrizhoffer, Account of the Abipones, ii. 53.

4 Dorsey, 'Omaha Sociology,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 269.

Im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, p. 191.

8

6 Musters, At Home with the Patagonians, p. 173.

7 Bancroft, op. cit. i. 540. See also ibid. i. 267 (some Inland Columbians).

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Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, ii. 86 (Negroes of Accra, Krus), 464 (Western Fulahs). Torday and Joyce, Ethnography of the Huana,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxvi. 292. Rowley, Africa Unveiled, p. 153. Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda, p. 305; Wilson and Felkin, Uganda, i. 184. Casati, Ten Years in Equatoria, i. 122 (Monbuttu). Holub, Seven Years in South Africa, ii. 208 (Manansas).

9 Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, ii. 283 sq.

10 Burrows, Land of the Pigmies, p.

119.

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