Chapter 58 Public scapegoats: send away demons with light boats, people, and animals at any time

There are various tools to transport the demon away.The most common type is a small boat.For example, in the southern part of Salem Island, when the whole village is sick, a small boat is built, and the boat is loaded with rice, tobacco, eggs, etc., which are donated by all the villagers.The boat was also fitted with a small sail.When everything was ready, a man shouted in a very high voice: "All the diseases, smallpox, malaria, measles, etc., you have tortured us for so long, you have caused us so much suffering, don't hurt us now , we have prepared this boat for you, with provisions for your journey. You have no shortage of food, nor medicine leaves, betel nuts, and tobacco. Come, sail away from us at once; never again Come to us; go to a place far away from here. The tide blows and the wind blows, help you to get there quickly; you go there, and our days will be free from illness and pain from now on. Then you will never see the sun shine on you again." Then, ten or twelve men took the boat to the sea, let it float away with the breeze blowing from the shore, and people believed that they would never get sick again, At least you won't get sick until the next ship.If they get sick again, they will judge that it is not the original disease, but another disease, and then they will send it away in the same way.When the boat with the monster was out of sight, the people who sent the boat went back to the village, and one of them shouted: "Now the sickness is gone, gone, driven away, and left by boat." People ran out of their houses, and told the words from one person to another, with great joy, beating gongs and other resounding instruments.

Similar ceremonies are often performed on other islands in the East Indies.For example, in Timor Lot Island [that is, the Tanimbar Islands in Indonesia], in order to lure away the disease-causing demons, people use a small clipper boat to load human idols and long-distance food, and let it go with the wind. The waves drift away.When the boat was about to drift away, people shouted: "Sick, get out of here; go back; what are you doing in this poor place?" Three days after the ceremony, a pig was killed and part of the pork was dedicated to Du Dila, he lives in the sun.One of the oldest people said: "Old man, please let these children, grandchildren, women, and men get well, so that we can all eat pork, rice, and drink palm bars. We will also offer sacrifices to you , never break your word. Take your share, and please keep the whole village healthy." If the clipper stopped anywhere inhabited, disease would spread there.Therefore, a stalled clipper caused great consternation among the inhabitants of the coast, and they immediately burned it, for the demons would flee at the sight of fire.On the island of Bru, the clipper that carried away the sick man was about twenty feet long, with sails, oars, anchors, etc., and carried a lot of provisions.All day and night, people beat gongs and drums and ran around to scare away the demons.The next morning, ten young strong men beat people with sticks that had been soaked in water in earthen pots beforehand.Immediately after this, they ran to the beach, put the branches on the clipper, and hurriedly started another boat, and towed the sick clipper out to sea.Abandoning the clipper far from the coast, one shouted: "Master Smallpox, go away--go away willingly--and find another place; we have provided you with food for the road, now We have nothing more for you." When they got back to shore, they all went to bathe in the sea.In this ritual, the reason for beating people with branches is obviously to get rid of their illness.After beating someone, the disease spread to the branches.That's why I quickly put the branches on the clipper boat and pulled them out to sea.In the interior of Selam, too, when small-pox or other diseases were rampant, the priests beat all the houses with the sacrificial branches, and then threw the branches into the river, and with the water into the sea, just like the Votyaks in Russia, Throw the stick with which you cast out the demons from the village into the river, and let the running water carry away the disaster.It is not uncommon to put some idols on the boat to represent the sick to induce the devil to follow the idol. For example, many pagan tribes on the coast of Borneo used the following method to drive away the plague.They dig out one or several rough humanoid idols from the heart of sago palms, and put them on rafts or boats or well-equipped Malayan boats, along with some rice and other food.Then use the strips woven of betel nuts and betel nut leaves to decorate the boat, and let the boat float out to sea with the ebb tide to take away the disease.That's how foolishly people think and hope.

Often the instrument used to carry away all demons or diseases from an entire tribe is an animal or scapegoat.In the central provinces of India, when cholera broke out in a certain village, people returned to their homes after sunset.The priests took to the streets, took a piece of grass from the roofs of each house, burned the grass in front of a shrine in the east of the village, and offered rice, ghee, and turmeric.At the same time, the chickens with red feathers were driven away in the direction of the smoke, thinking that these chickens also took away the disease.If this fails to cure the disease, goats are tried again, and finally pigs are used to take the disease away.When cholera is prevalent among the Baal, Maran and Kemi people in India, they use a goat or buffalo—both sheep and cattle must be female, choose black as much as possible, and wrap some millet, cloves, Lead lead, put it on its back, and drive it out of the village.After driving the cow or sheep out of the village, it is never allowed to return to the village.Sometimes a mark is made on the buffalo with red color, and it is rushed to the neighboring village, and it will take the plague with it.

The Dinka people, a herding people in the White Nile, have a sacred cow in every family.When the place is hit by war, famine, or any other large-scale disaster, the village chief asks a certain family to hand over his sacred bull as a scapegoat.The women drive it to the river, cross it to the other bank, and let it wander there to be eaten by wild animals.Then the women came back without making a sound, and without looking back; if they looked back, the magic would have failed. In 1857, the Aymara Indians in Bolivia and Peru suffered from a plague. They took a black camel horse, loaded it with the clothes of the affected people, sprinkled brandy on the clothes, and put the camel horse into the mountains. , hope it will take away the plague.

Occasionally someone is used as a scapegoat.For example, the gods used to warn the king of Uganda that his enemy, Benioro, was bewitching him and his people to sicken and kill them all.The king, to prevent this calamity, sent a scapegoat to the frontier of the enemy's border, Benioro.The scapegoat, either a man and boy, or a woman and her child, is chosen on the basis of some mark or physical defect, which is the mark made by God by which the victim is identified, by a strong guards sent them to the place appointed by God.Break their limbs there, and leave them to linger in enemy territory until they die.They were unable to climb back to Uganda due to their disabled limbs.It is believed that the disease or plague spread to the victim, and the victim sent the disease back to where it came from.

In some indigenous tribes in China, in order to prevent epidemics, they often choose strong men as scapegoats.The face of this person was painted with oil paint, and he was doing all kinds of ridiculous movements, which meant to lure all the plague and evil to attach to him alone.At last men and women, beating gongs and drums, chased him and drove him out of the town or village as fast as he could.There is a way to cure rinderpest in Punjab. It is to hire a man from the Kama caste, turn his face away from the village, brand him with a red-hot sickle, and then tell him to walk straight into the forest without looking back. This takes rinderpest away.