On iyomante ritual of the Ainu,
northern
Japan, Part 2.
解説：池田光穂
アイヌのイオマンテ（クマ送り・クマ祭り：カムイを 御送りする儀礼）を描写するジェームズ・フレイザー『金枝篇』（1923年の縮約版）をもとに引用してみよう。
ここには、北海道本島アイヌのほかに、カラフトアイ ヌ、およびニブフ（ギリヤークと記述されている）に関する熊の信仰も含まれている。
なお、この英文の日本語訳は、岩波文庫版、永橋卓介 訳（1967）『金枝篇（４）』の「第52章神的な動物の屠殺（５）神聖な熊を殺すこと」にて読めるので、適宜参照してほしい。
5. Killing the Sacred
Bear
DOUBT also hangs at first sight over the meaning of the bear-sacrifice
offered by the Aino or Ainu, a primitive people who are found in the
Japanese island of Yezo or Yesso, as well as in Saghalien and the
southern of the Kurile Islands. It is not quite easy to define the
attitude of the Aino towards the bear. On the one hand they give it the
name of kamui or “god”; but as they apply the same word to strangers,
it may mean no more than a being supposed to be endowed with
superhuman, or at all events extraordinary, powers. Again, it is said
that “the bear is their chief divinity”; “in the religion of the Aino
the bear plays a chief part”; “amongst the animals it is especially the
bear which receives an idolatrous veneration”; “they worship it after
their fashion”; “there is no doubt that this wild beast inspires more
of the feeling which prompts worship than the inanimate forces of
nature, and the Aino may be distinguished as bear-worshippers.” Yet, on
the other hand, they kill the bear whenever they can; “in bygone years
the Ainu considered bear-hunting the most manly and useful way in which
a person could possibly spend his time”; “the men spend the autumn,
winter, and spring in hunting deer and bears. Part of their tribute or
taxes is paid in skins, and they subsist on the dried meat”; bear’s
flesh is indeed one of their staple foods; they eat it both fresh and
salted; and the skins of bears furnish them with clothing. In fact, the
worship of which writers on this subject speak appears to be paid
chiefly to the dead animal. Thus, although they kill a bear whenever
they can, “in the process of dissecting the carcass they endeavor to
conciliate the deity, whose representative they have slain, by making
elaborate obeisances and deprecatory salutations”; “when a bear has
been killed the Ainu sit down and admire it, make their salaams to it,
worship it, and offer presents of inao”; “when a bear is trapped or
wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic or
propitiatory ceremony.” The skulls of slain bears receive a place of
honour in their huts, or are set up on sacred posts outside the huts,
and are treated with much respect: libations of millet beer, and of
sake, an intoxicating liquor, are offered to them; and they are
addressed as “divine preservers” or “precious divinities.” The skulls
of foxes are also fastened to the sacred posts outside the huts; they
are regarded as charms against evil spirits, and are consulted as
oracles. Yet it is expressly said, “The live fox is revered just as
little as the bear; rather they avoid it as much as possible,
considering it a wily animal.” The bear can hardly, therefore, be
described as a sacred animal of the Aino, nor yet as a totem; for they
do not call themselves bears, and they kill and eat the animal freely.
However, they have a legend of a woman who had a son by a bear; and
many of them who dwell in the mountains pride themselves on being
descended from a bear. Such people are called “Descendants of the bear”
(Kimun Kamui sanikiri), and in the pride of their heart they will say,
“As for me, I am a child of the god of the mountains; I am descended
from the divine one who rules in the mountains,” meaning by “the god of
the mountains” no other than the bear. It is therefore possible that,
as our principal authority, the Rev. J. Batchelor, believes, the bear
may have been the totem of an Aino clan; but even if that were so it
would not explain the respect shown for the animal by the whole Aino
people.
But it is the bear-festival of the Aino which concerns us here. Towards
the end of winter a bear cub is caught and brought into the village. If
it is very small, it is suckled by an Aino woman, but should there be
no woman able to suckle it, the little animal is fed from the hand or
the mouth. During the day it plays about in the hut with the children
and is treated with great affection. But when the cub grows big enough
to pain people by hugging or scratching them, he is shut up in a strong
wooden cage, where he stays generally for two or three years, fed on
fish and millet porridge, till it is time for him to be killed and
eaten. But “it is a peculiarly striking fact that the young bear is not
kept merely to furnish a good meal; rather he is regarded and honoured
as a fetish, or even as a sort of higher being.” In Yezo the festival
is generally celebrated in September or October. Before it takes place
the Aino apologise to their gods, alleging that they have treated the
bear kindly as long as they could, now they can feed him no longer, and
are obliged to kill him. A man who gives a bear-feast invites his
relations and friends; in a small village nearly the whole community
takes part in the feast; indeed, guests from distant villages are
invited and generally come, allured by the prospect of getting drunk
for nothing. The form of invitation runs somewhat as follows: “I, so
and so, am about to sacrifice the dear little divine thing who resides
among the mountains. My friends and masters, come ye to the feast; we
will then unite in the great pleasure of sending the god away. Come.”
When all the people are assembled in front of the cage, an orator
chosen for the purpose addresses the bear and tells it that they are
about to send it forth to its ancestors. He craves pardon for what they
are about to do to it, hopes it will not be angry, and comforts it by
assuring the animal that many of the sacred whittled sticks (inao) and
plenty of cakes and wine will be sent with it on the long journey. One
speech of this sort which Mr. Batchelor heard ran as follows: “O thou
divine one, thou wast sent into the world for us to hunt. O thou
precious little divinity, we worship thee; pray hear our prayer. We
have nourished thee and brought thee up with a deal of pains and
trouble, all because we love thee so. Now, as thou hast grown big, we
are about to send thee to thy father and mother. When thou comest to
them please speak well of us, and tell them how kind we have been;
please come to us again and we will sacrifice thee.” Having been
secured with ropes, the bear is then let out of the cage and assailed
with a shower of blunt arrows in order to arouse it to fury. When it
has spent itself in vain struggles, it is tied up to a stake, gagged
and strangled, its neck being placed between two poles, which are then
violently compressed, all the people eagerly helping to squeeze the
animal to death. An arrow is also discharged into the beast’s heart by
a good marksman, but so as not to shed blood, for they think that it
would be very unlucky if any of the blood were to drip on the ground.
However, the men sometimes drink the warm blood of the bear “that the
courage and other virtues it possesses may pass into them”; and
sometimes they besmear themselves and their clothes with the blood in
order to ensure success in hunting. When the animal has been strangled
to death, it is skinned and its head is cut off and set in the east
window of the house, where a piece of its own flesh is placed under its
snout, together with a cup of its own meat boiled, some millet
dumplings, and dried fish. Prayers are then addressed to the dead
animal; amongst other things it is sometimes invited, after going away
to its father and mother, to return into the world in order that it may
again be reared for sacrifice. When the bear is supposed to have
finished eating its own flesh, the man who presides at the feast takes
the cup containing the boiled meat, salutes it, and divides the
contents between all the company present: every person, young and old
alike, must taste a little. The cup is called “the cup of offering”
because it has just been offered to the dead bear. When the rest of the
flesh has been cooked, it is shared out in like manner among all the
people, everybody partaking of at least a morsel; not to partake of the
feast would be equivalent to excommunication, it would be to place the
recreant outside the pale of Aino fellowship. Formerly every particle
of the bear, except the bones, had to be eaten up at the banquet, but
this rule is now relaxed. The head, on being detached from the skin, is
set up on a long pole beside the sacred wands (inao) outside of the
house, where it remains till nothing but the bare white skull is left.
Skulls so set up are worshipped not only at the time of the festival,
but very often as long as they last. The Aino assured Mr. Batchelor
that they really do believe the spirits of the worshipful animals to
reside in the skulls; that is why they address them as “divine
preservers” and “precious divinities.”
The ceremony of killing the bear was witnessed by Dr. B. Scheube on the
tenth of August at Kunnui, which is a village on Volcano Bay in the
island of Yezo or Yesso. As his description of the rite contains some
interesting particulars not mentioned in the foregoing account, it may
be worth while to summarize it.
On entering the hut he found about thirty Aino present, men, women, and
children, all dressed in their best. The master of the house first
offered a libation on the fireplace to the god of the fire, and the
guests followed his example. Then a libation was offered to the
house-god in his sacred corner of the hut. Meanwhile the housewife, who
had nursed the bear, sat by herself, silent and sad, bursting now and
then into tears. Her grief was obviously unaffected, and it deepened as
the festival went on. Next, the master of the house and some of the
guests went out of the hut and offered libations before the bear’s
cage. A few drops were presented to the bear in a saucer, which he at
once upset. Then the women and girls danced round the cage, their faces
turned towards it, their knees slightly bent, rising and hopping on
their toes. As they danced they clapped their hands and sang a
monotonous song. The housewife and a few old women, who might have
nursed many bears, danced tearfully, stretching out their arms to the
bear, and addressing it in terms of endearment. The young folks were
less affected; they laughed as well as sang. Disturbed by the noise,
the bear began to rush about his cage and howl lamentably. Next
libations were offered at the inao (inabos) or sacred wands which stand
outside of an Aino hut. These wands are about a couple of feet high,
and are whittled at the top into spiral shavings. Five new wands with
bamboo leaves attached to them had been set up for the festival. This
is regularly done when a bear is killed; the leaves mean that the
animal may come to life again. Then the bear was let out of his cage, a
rope was thrown round his neck, and he was led about in the
neighbourhood of the hut. While this was being done the men, headed by
a chief, shot at the beast with arrows tipped with wooden buttons. Dr.
Scheube had to do so also. Then the bear was taken before the sacred
wands, a stick was put in his mouth, nine men knelt on him and pressed
his neck against a beam. In five minutes the animal had expired without
uttering a sound. Meantime the women and girls had taken post behind
the men, where they danced, lamenting, and beating the men who were
killing the bear. The bear’s carcase was next placed on the mat before
the sacred wands; and a sword and quiver, taken from the wands, were
hung round the beast’s neck. Being a she-bear, it was also adorned with
a necklace and ear-rings. Then food and drink were offered to it, in
the shape of millet-broth, millet-cakes, and a pot of sake. The men now
sat down on mats before the dead bear, offered libations to it, and
drank deep. Meanwhile the women and girls had laid aside all marks of
sorrow, and danced merrily, none more merrily than the old women. When
the mirth was at its height two young Aino, who had let the bear out of
his cage, mounted the roof of the hut and threw cakes of millet among
the company, who all scrambled for them without distinction of age or
sex. The bear was next skinned and disembowelled, and the trunk severed
from the head, to which the skin was left hanging. The blood, caught in
cups, was eagerly swallowed by the men. None of the women or children
appeared to drink the blood, though custom did not forbid them to do
so. The liver was cut in small pieces and eaten raw, with salt, the
women and children getting their share. The flesh and the rest of the
vitals were taken into the house to be kept till the next day but one,
and then to be divided among the persons who had been present at the
feast. Blood and liver were offered to Dr. Scheube. While the bear was
being disembowelled, the women and girls danced the same dance which
they had danced at the beginning—not, however, round the cage, but in
front of the sacred wands. At this dance the old women, who had been
merry a moment before, again shed tears freely. After the brain had
been extracted from the bear’s head and swallowed with salt, the skull,
detached from the skin, was hung on a pole beside the sacred wands. The
stick with which the bear had been gagged was also fastened to the
pole, and so were the sword and quiver which had been hung on the
carcase. The latter were removed in about an hour, but the rest
remained standing. The whole company, men and women, danced noisily
before the pole; and another drinking-bout, in which the women joined,
closed the festival.
Perhaps the first published account of the bear-feast of the Aino is
one which was given to the world by a Japanese writer in 1652. It has
been translated into French and runs thus: “When they find a young
bear, they bring it home, and the wife suckles it. When it is grown
they feed it with fish and fowl and kill it in winter for the sake of
the liver, which they esteem an antidote to poison, the worms, colic,
and disorders of the stomach. It is of a very bitter taste, and is good
for nothing if the bear has been killed in summer. This butchery begins
in the first Japanese month. For this purpose they put the animal’s
head between two long poles, which are squeezed together by fifty or
sixty people, both men and women. When the bear is dead they eat his
flesh, keep the liver as a medicine, and sell the skin, which is black
and commonly six feet long, but the longest measure twelve feet. As
soon as he is skinned, the persons who nourished the beast begin to
bewail him; afterwards they make little cakes to regale those who
helped them.”
The Aino of Saghalien rear bear cubs and kill them with similar
ceremonies. We are told that they do not look upon the bear as a god
but only as a messenger whom they despatch with various commissions to
the god of the forest. The animal is kept for about two years in a
cage, and then killed at a festival, which always takes place in winter
and at night. The day before the sacrifice is devoted to lamentation,
old women relieving each other in the duty of weeping and groaning in
front of the bear’s cage. Then about the middle of the night or very
early in the morning an orator makes a long speech to the beast,
reminding him how they have taken care of him, and fed him well, and
bathed him in the river, and made him warm and comfortable. “Now,” he
proceeds, “we are holding a great festival in your honour. Be not
afraid. We will not hurt you. We will only kill you and send you to the
god of the forest who loves you. We are about to offer you a good
dinner, the best you have ever eaten among us, and we will all weep for
you together. The Aino who will kill you is the best shot among us.
There he is, he weeps and asks your forgiveness; you will feel almost
nothing, it will be done so quickly. We cannot feed you always, as you
will understand. We have done enough for you; it is now your turn to
sacrifice yourself for us. You will ask God to send us, for the winter,
plenty of otters and sables, and for the summer, seals and fish in
abundance. Do not forget our messages, we love you much, and our
children will never forget you.” When the bear has partaken of his last
meal amid the general emotion of the spectators, the old women weeping
afresh and the men uttering stifled cries, he is strapped, not without
difficulty and danger, and being let out of the cage is led on leash or
dragged, according to the state of his temper, thrice round his cage,
then round his master’s house, and lastly round the house of the
orator. Thereupon he is tied up to a tree, which is decked with sacred
whittled sticks (inao) of the usual sort; and the orator again
addresses him in a long harangue, which sometimes lasts till the day is
beginning to break. “Remember,” he cries, “remember! I remind you of
your whole life and of the services we have rendered you. It is now for
you to do your duty. Do not forget what I have asked of you. You will
tell the gods to give us riches, that our hunters may return from the
forest laden with rare furs and animals good to eat; that our fishers
may find troops of seals on the shore and in the sea, and that their
nets may crack under the weight of the fish. We have no hope but in
you. The evil spirits laugh at us, and too often they are unfavourable
and malignant to us, but they will bow before you. We have given you
food and joy and health; now we kill you in order that you may in
return send riches to us and to our children.” To this discourse the
bear, more and more surly and agitated, listens without conviction;
round and round the tree he paces and howls lamentably, till, just as
the first beams of the rising sun light up the scene, an archer speeds
an arrow to his heart. No sooner has he done so, than the marksman
throws away his bow and flings himself on the ground, and the old men
and women do the same, weeping and sobbing. Then they offer the dead
beast a repast of rice and wild potatoes, and having spoken to him in
terms of pity and thanked him for what he has done and suffered, they
cut off his head and paws and keep them as sacred things. A banquet on
the flesh and blood of the bear follows. Women were formerly excluded
from it, but now they share with the men. The blood is drunk warm by
all present; the flesh is boiled, custom forbids it to be roasted. And
as the relics of the bear may not enter the house by the door, and Aino
houses in Saghalien have no windows, a man gets up on the roof and lets
the flesh, the head, and the skin down through the smoke-hole. Rice and
wild potatoes are then offered to the head, and a pipe, tobacco, and
matches are considerately placed beside it. Custom requires that the
guests should eat up the whole animal before they depart; the use of
salt and pepper at the meal is forbidden; and no morsel of the flesh
may be given to the dogs. When the banquet is over, the head is carried
away into the depth of the forest and deposited on a heap of bears’
skulls, the bleached and mouldering relics of similar festivals in the
past.
The Gilyaks, a Tunguzian people of Eastern Siberia, hold a
bear-festival of the same sort once a year in January. “The bear is the
object of the most refined solicitude of an entire village and plays
the chief part in their religious ceremonies.” An old she-bear is shot
and her cub is reared, but not suckled, in the village. When the bear
is big enough he is taken from his cage and dragged through the
village. But first they lead him to the bank of the river, for this is
believed to ensure abundance of fish to each family. He is then taken
into every house in the village, where fish, brandy, and so forth are
offered to him. Some people prostrate themselves before the beast. His
entrance into a house is supposed to bring a blessing; and if he snuffs
at the food offered to him, this also is a blessing. Nevertheless they
tease and worry, poke and tickle the animal continually, so that he is
surly and snappish. After being thus taken to every house, he is tied
to a peg and shot dead with arrows. His head is then cut off, decked
with shavings, and placed on the table where the feast is set out. Here
they beg pardon of the beast and worship him. Then his flesh is roasted
and eaten in special vessels of wood finely carved. They do not eat the
flesh raw nor drink the blood, as the Aino do. The brain and entrails
are eaten last; and the skull, still decked with shavings, is placed on
a tree near the house. Then the people sing and both sexes dance in
ranks, as bears.
One of these bear-festivals was witnessed by the Russian traveller L.
von Schrenck and his companions at the Gilyak village of Tebach in
January 1856. From his detailed report of the ceremony we may gather
some particulars which are not noticed in the briefer accounts which I
have just summarised. The bear, he tells us, plays a great part in the
life of all the peoples inhabiting the region of the Amoor and Siberia
as far as Kamtchatka, but among none of them is his importance greater
than among the Gilyaks. The immense size which the animal attains in
the valley of the Amoor, his ferocity whetted by hunger, and the
frequency of his appearance, all combine to make him the most dreaded
beast of prey in the country. No wonder, therefore, that the fancy of
the Gilyaks is busied with him and surrounds him, both in life and in
death, with a sort of halo of superstitious fear. Thus, for example, it
is thought that if a Gilyak falls in combat with a bear, his soul
transmigrates into the body of the beast. Nevertheless his flesh has an
irresistible attraction for the Gilyak palate, especially when the
animal has been kept in captivity for some time and fattened on fish,
which gives the flesh, in the opinion of the Gilyaks, a peculiarly
delicious flavour. But in order to enjoy this dainty with impunity they
deem it needful to perform a long series of ceremonies, of which the
intention is to delude the living bear by a show of respect, and to
appease the anger of the dead animal by the homage paid to his departed
spirit. The marks of respect begin as soon as the beast is captured. He
is brought home in triumph and kept in a cage, where all the villagers
take it in turns to feed him. For although he may have been captured or
purchased by one man, he belongs in a manner to the whole village. His
flesh will furnish a common feast, and hence all must contribute to
support him in his life. The length of time he is kept in captivity
depends on his age. Old bears are kept only a few months; cubs are kept
till they are full-grown. A thick layer of fat on the captive bear
gives the signal for the festival, which is always held in winter,
generally in December but sometimes in January or February. At the
festival witnessed by the Russian travellers, which lasted a good many
days, three bears were killed and eaten. More than once the animals
were led about in procession and compelled to enter every house in the
village, where they were fed as a mark of honour, and to show that they
were welcome guests. But before the beasts set out on this round of
visits, the Gilyaks played at skipping-rope in presence, and perhaps,
as L. von Schrenck inclined to believe, in honour of the animals. The
night before they were killed, the three bears were led by moonlight a
long way on the ice of the frozen river. That night no one in the
village might sleep. Next day, after the animals had been again led
down the steep bank to the river, and conducted thrice round the hole
in the ice from which the women of the village drew their water, they
were taken to an appointed place not far from the village, and shot to
death with arrows. The place of sacrifice or execution was marked as
holy by being surrounded with whittled sticks, from the tops of which
shavings hung in curls. Such sticks are with the Gilyaks, as with the
Aino, the regular symbols that accompany all religious ceremonies.
When the house has been arranged and decorated for their reception, the
skins of the bears, with their heads attached to them, are brought into
it, not, however, by the door, but through a window, and then hung on a
sort of scaffold opposite the hearth on which the flesh is to be
cooked. The boiling of the bears’ flesh among the Gilyaks is done only
by the oldest men, whose high privilege it is; women and children,
young men and boys have no part in it. The task is performed slowly and
deliberately, with a certain solemnity. On the occasion described by
the Russian travellers the kettle was first of all surrounded with a
thick wreath of shavings, and then filled with snow, for the use of
water to cook bear’s flesh is forbidden. Meanwhile a large wooden
trough, richly adorned with arabesques and carvings of all sorts, was
hung immediately under the snouts of the bears; on one side of the
trough was carved in relief a bear, on the other side a toad. When the
carcases were being cut up, each leg was laid on the ground in front of
the bears, as if to ask their leave, before being placed in the kettle;
and the boiled flesh was fished out of the kettle with an iron hook,
and set in the trough before the bears, in order that they might be the
first to taste of their own flesh. As fast, too, as the fat was cut in
strips it was hung up in front of the bears, and afterwards laid in a
small wooden trough on the ground before them. Last of all the inner
organs of the beasts were cut up and placed in small vessels. At the
same time the women made bandages out of parti-coloured rags, and after
sunset these bandages were tied round the bears’ snouts just below the
eyes “in order to dry the tears that flowed from them.”
As soon as the ceremony of wiping away poor bruin’s tears had been
performed, the assembled Gilyaks set to work in earnest to devour his
flesh. The broth obtained by boiling the meat had already been partaken
of. The wooden bowls, platters, and spoons out of which the Gilyaks eat
the broth and flesh of the bears on these occasions are always made
specially for the purpose at the festival and only then; they are
elaborately ornamented with carved figures of bears and other devices
that refer to the animal or the festival, and the people have a strong
superstitious scruple against parting with them. After the bones had
been picked clean they were put back in the kettle in which the flesh
had been boiled. And when the festal meal was over, an old man took his
stand at the door of the house with a branch of fir in his hand, with
which, as the people passed out, he gave a light blow to every one who
had eaten of the bear’s flesh or fat, perhaps as a punishment for their
treatment of the worshipful animal. In the afternoon the women
performed a strange dance. Only one woman danced at a time, throwing
the upper part of her body into the oddest postures, while she held in
her hands a branch of fir or a kind of wooden castanets. The other
women meanwhile played an accompaniment by drumming on the beams of the
house with clubs. Von Schrenk believed that after the flesh of the bear
has been eaten the bones and the skull are solemnly carried out by the
oldest people to a place in the forest not far from the village. There
all the bones except the skull are buried. After that a young tree is
felled a few inches above the ground, its stump cleft, and the skull
wedged into the cleft. When the grass grows over the spot, the skull
disappears from view, and that is the end of the bear.
Another description of the bear-festivals of the Gilyaks has been given
us by Mr. Leo Sternberg. It agrees substantially with the foregoing
accounts, but a few particulars in it may be noted. According to Mr.
Sternberg, the festival is usually held in honour of a deceased
relation: the next of kin either buys or catches a bear cub and
nurtures it for two or three years till it is ready for the sacrifice.
Only certain distinguished guests (Narch-en) are privileged to partake
of the bear’s flesh, but the host and members of his clan eat a broth
made from the flesh; great quantities of this broth are prepared and
consumed on the occasion. The guests of honour (Narch-en) must belong
to the clan into which the host’s daughters and the other women of his
clan are married: one of these guests, usually the host’s son-in-law,
is entrusted with the duty of shooting the bear dead with an arrow. The
skin, head, and flesh of the slain bear are brought into the house not
through the door but through the smoke-hole; a quiver full of arrows is
laid under the head and beside it are deposited tobacco, sugar, and
other food. The soul of the bear is supposed to carry off the souls of
these things with it on the far journey. A special vessel is used for
cooking the bear’s flesh, and the fire must be kindled by a sacred
apparatus of flint and steel, which belongs to the clan and is handed
down from generation to generation, but which is never used to light
fires except on these solemn occasions. Of all the many viands cooked
for the consumption of the assembled people a portion is placed in a
special vessel and set before the bear’s head: this is called “feeding
the head.” After the bear has been killed, dogs are sacrificed in
couples of male and female. Before being throttled, they are fed and
invited to go to their lord on the highest mountain, to change their
skins, and to return next year in the form of bears. The soul of the
dead bear departs to the same lord, who is also lord of the primaeval
forest; it goes away laden with the offerings that have been made to
it, and attended by the souls of the dogs and also by the souls of the
sacred whittled sticks, which figure prominently at the festival.
The Goldi, neighbours of the Gilyaks, treat the bear in much the same
way. They hunt and kill it; but sometimes they capture a live bear and
keep him in a cage, feeding him well and calling him their son and
brother. Then at a great festival he is taken from his cage, paraded
about with marked consideration, and afterwards killed and eaten. “The
skull, jaw-bones, and ears are then suspended on a tree, as an antidote
against evil spirits; but the flesh is eaten and much relished, for
they believe that all who partake of it acquire a zest for the chase,
and become courageous.”
The Orotchis, another Tunguzian people of the region of the Amoor, hold
bear-festivals of the same general character. Any one who catches a
bear cub considers it his bounden duty to rear it in a cage for about
three years, in order at the end of that time to kill it publicly and
eat the flesh with his friends. The feasts being public, though
organised by individuals, the people try to have one in each Orotchi
village every year in turn. When the bear is taken out of his cage, he
is led about by means of ropes to all the huts, accompanied by people
armed with lances, bows, and arrows. At each hut the bear and
bear-leaders are treated to something good to eat and drink. This goes
on for several days until all the huts, not only in that village but
also in the next, have been visited. The days are given up to sport and
noisy jollity. Then the bear is tied to a tree or wooden pillar and
shot to death by the arrows of the crowd, after which its flesh is
roasted and eaten. Among the Orotchis of the Tundja River women take
part in the bear-feasts, while among the Orotchis of the River Vi the
women will not even touch bear’s flesh.
In the treatment of the captive bear by these tribes there are features
which can hardly be distinguished from worship. Such, for example, are
the prayers offered to it both alive and dead; the offerings of food,
including portions of its own flesh, laid before the animal’s skull;
and the Gilyak custom of leading the living beast to the river in order
to ensure a supply of fish, and of conducting him from house to house
in order that every family may receive his blessing, just as in Europe
a May-tree or a personal representative of the tree-spirit used to be
taken from door to door in spring for the sake of diffusing among all
and sundry the fresh energies of reviving nature. Again, the solemn
participation in his flesh and blood, and particularly the Aino custom
of sharing the contents of the cup which had been consecrated by being
set before the dead beast, are strongly suggestive of a sacrament, and
the suggestion is confirmed by the Gilyak practice of reserving special
vessels to hold the flesh and cooking it on a fire kindled by a sacred
apparatus which is never employed except on these religious occasions.
Indeed our principal authority on Aino religion, the Rev. John
Batchelor, frankly describes as worship the ceremonious respect which
the Aino pay to the bear, and he affirms that the animal is undoubtedly
one of their gods. Certainly the Aino appear to apply their name for
god (kamui) freely to the bear; but, as Mr. Batchelor himself points
out, that word is used with many different shades of meaning and is
applied to a great variety of objects, so that from its application to
the bear we cannot safely argue that the animal is actually regarded as
a deity. Indeed we are expressly told that the Aino of Saghalien do not
consider the bear to be a god but only a messenger to the gods, and the
message with which they charge the animal at its death bears out the
statement. Apparently the Gilyaks also look on the bear in the light of
an envoy despatched with presents to the Lord of the Mountain, on whom
the welfare of the people depends. At the same time they treat the
animal as a being of a higher order than man, in fact as a minor deity,
whose presence in the village, so long as he is kept and fed, diffuses
blessings, especially by keeping at bay the swarms of evil spirits who
are constantly lying in wait for people, stealing their goods and
destroying their bodies by sickness and disease. Moreover, by partaking
of the flesh, blood, or broth of the bear, the Gilyaks, the Aino, and
the Goldi are all of opinion that they acquire some portion of the
animal’s mighty powers, particularly his courage and strength. No
wonder, therefore, that they should treat so great a benefactor with
marks of the highest respect and affection.
Some light may be thrown on the ambiguous attitude of the Aino to bears
by comparing the similar treatment which they accord to other
creatures. For example, they regard the eagle-owl as a good deity who
by his hooting warns men of threatened evil and defends them against
it; hence he is loved, trusted, and devoutly worshipped as a divine
mediator between men and the Creator. The various names applied to him
are significant both of his divinity and of his mediatorship. Whenever
an opportunity offers, one of these divine birds is captured and kept
in a cage, where he is greeted with the endearing titles of “Beloved
god” and “Dear little divinity.” Nevertheless the time comes when the
dear little divinity is throttled and sent away in his capacity of
mediator to take a message to the superior gods or to the Creator
himself. The following is the form of prayer addressed to the eagle-owl
when it is about to be sacrificed: “Beloved deity, we have brought you
up because we loved you, and now we are about to send you to your
father. We herewith offer you food, inao, wine, and cakes; take them to
your parent, and he will be very pleased. When you come to him say, ‘I
have lived a long time among the Ainu, where an Ainu father and an Ainu
mother reared me. I now come to thee. I have brought a variety of good
things. I saw while living in Ainuland a great deal of distress. I
observed that some of the people were possessed by demons, some were
wounded by wild animals, some were hurt by landslides, others suffered
shipwreck, and many were attacked by disease. The people are in great
straits. My father, hear me, and hasten to look upon the Ainu and help
them.’ If you do this, your father will help us.”
Again, the Aino keep eagles in cages, worship them as divinities, and
ask them to defend the people from evil. Yet they offer the bird in
sacrifice, and when they are about to do so they pray to him, saying:
“O precious divinity, O thou divine bird, pray listen to my words. Thou
dost not belong to this world, for thy home is with the Creator and his
golden eagles. This being so, I present thee with these inao and cakes
and other precious things. Do thou ride upon the inao and ascend to thy
home in the glorious heavens. When thou arrivest, assemble the deities
of thy own kind together and thank them for us for having governed the
world. Do thou come again, I beseech thee, and rule over us. O my
precious one, go thou quietly.” Once more, the Aino revere hawks, keep
them in cages, and offer them in sacrifice. At the time of killing one
of them the following prayer should be addressed to the bird: “O divine
hawk, thou art an expert hunter, please cause thy cleverness to descend
on me.” If a hawk is well treated in captivity and prayed to after this
fashion when he is about to be killed, he will surely send help to the
hunter.
Thus the Aino hopes to profit in various ways by slaughtering the
creatures, which, nevertheless, he treats as divine. He expects them to
carry messages for him to their kindred or to the gods in the upper
world; he hopes to partake of their virtues by swallowing parts of
their bodies or in other ways; and apparently he looks forward to their
bodily resurrection in this world, which will enable him again to catch
and kill them, and again to reap all the benefits which he has already
derived from their slaughter. For in the prayers addressed to the
worshipful bear and the worshipful eagle before they are knocked on the
head the creatures are invited to come again, which seems clearly to
point to a faith in their future resurrection. If any doubt could exist
on this head, it would be dispelled by the evidence of Mr. Batchelor,
who tells us that the Aino “are firmly convinced that the spirits of
birds and animals killed in hunting or offered in sacrifice come and
live again upon the earth clothed with a body; and they believe,
further, that they appear here for the special benefit of men,
particularly Ainu hunters.” The Aino, Mr. Batchelor tells us,
“confessedly slays and eats the beast that another may come in its
place and be treated in like manner”; and at the time of sacrificing
the creatures “prayers are said to them which form a request that they
will come again and furnish viands for another feast, as if it were an
honour to them to be thus killed and eaten, and a pleasure as well.
Indeed such is the people’s idea.” These last observations, as the
context shows, refer especially to the sacrifice of bears.
Thus among the benefits which the Aino anticipates from the slaughter
of the worshipful animals not the least substantial is that of gorging
himself on their flesh and blood, both on the present and on many a
similar occasion hereafter; and that pleasing prospect again is derived
from his firm faith in the spiritual immortality and bodily
resurrection of the dead animals. A like faith is shared by many savage
hunters in many parts of the world and has given rise to a variety of
quaint customs, some of which will be described presently. Meantime it
is not unimportant to observe that the solemn festivals at which the
Aino, the Gilyaks, and other tribes slaughter the tame caged bears with
demonstrations of respect and sorrow, are probably nothing but an
extension or glorification of similar rites which the hunter performs
over any wild bear which he chances to kill in the forest. Indeed with
regard to the Gilyaks we are expressly informed that this is the case.
If we would understand the meaning of the Gilyak ritual, says Mr.
Sternberg, “we must above all remember that the bear-festivals are not,
as is usually but falsely assumed, celebrated only at the killing of a
house-bear but are held on every occasion when a Gilyak succeeds in
slaughtering a bear in the chase. It is true that in such cases the
festival assumes less imposing dimensions, but in its essence it
remains the same. When the head and skin of a bear killed in the forest
are brought into the village, they are accorded a triumphal reception
with music and solemn ceremonial. The head is laid on a consecrated
scaffold, fed, and treated with offerings, just as at the killing of a
house-bear; and the guests of honour (Narch-en) are also assembled. So,
too, dogs are sacrificed, and the bones of the bear are preserved in
the same place and with the same marks of respect as the bones of a
house-bear. Hence the great winter festival is only an extension of the
rite which is observed at the slaughter of every bear.”
Thus the apparent contradiction in the practice of these tribes, who
venerate and almost deify the animals which they habitually hunt, kill,
and eat, is not so flagrant as at first sight it appears to us: the
people have reasons, and some very practical reasons, for acting as
they do. For the savage is by no means so illogical and unpractical as
to superficial observers he is apt to seem; he has thought deeply on
the questions which immediately concern him, he reasons about them, and
though his conclusions often diverge very widely from ours, we ought
not to deny him the credit of patient and prolonged meditation on some
fundamental problems of human existence. In the present case, if he
treats bears in general as creatures wholly subservient to human needs
and yet singles out certain individuals of the species for homage which
almost amounts to deification, we must not hastily set him down as
irrational and inconsistent, but must endeavour to place ourselves at
his point of view, to see things as he sees them, and to divest
ourselves of the prepossessions which tinge so deeply our own views of
the world. If we do so, we shall probably discover that, however absurd
his conduct may appear to us, the savage nevertheless generally acts on
a train of reasoning which seems to him in harmony with the facts of
his limited experience. This I propose to illustrate in the following
chapter, where I shall attempt to show that the solemn ceremonial of
the bear-festival among the Ainos and other tribes of North-eastern
Asia is only a particularly striking example of the respect which on
the principles of his rude philosophy the savage habitually pays to the
animals which he kills and eats.
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Copyright Mitzub'ixi Quq Chi'j, 2016