EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 655 



become recognized as binding to the dead those who bear them, and 

 do develop in the way alleged, we have tolerably good evidence. The 

 command in Leviticns, " Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh 

 for the dead, nor print any marks upon you," shows us the usage in 

 that stage at which the scar left by sacrifice of blood is still a sign 

 partly of family subordination and partly of other subordination. 

 And the traditions of the Scandinavians show us a stage at which it 

 betokens allegiance either to an unspecified supernatural being, or to 

 a deceased ruler who has become a god. Odin, " when he was near 

 his death, made himself be marked with the point of a spear ; " and 

 jSTiort " before he died made himself be marked for Odin with the 

 spear-point." 



That scars on the surface of the body, thus coming to express loy- 

 alty to a deceased father or a deceased ruler, or a god derived from 

 him, initiate, among other disfigurements, those we class as tattooing, 

 is a probable inference. Lacerations, and the traces they leave, are 

 certain to take different forms in different places. The Andaman-Isl- 

 anders " tattoo by incising the skin with small pieces of glass, without 

 inserting coloring-matter, the cicatrix being whiter than the sound 

 skin." Some natives of Australia have ridges raised on this or that 

 part of the body, while others brand themselves. In Tanna the peo- 

 ple make elevated scars on their arms aud chests. And Barton, in his 

 " Abeokuta," says : " The skin-patterns were of every variety, from 

 the diminutive prick to the great gash and the large, boil-like lumps. 

 ... In this country every tribe, sub-tribe, and even family, has its 

 blazon, whose infinite diversifications maybe compared with the lines 

 and ordinaries of European heraldry a volume would not suffice to 

 explain all the marks in detail." Naturally, among the various skin- 

 mutilations originating in the way alleged, many will, under the 

 promptings of vanity, take on a character more or less ornamental ; 

 and the use of them for decoration will often survive when their 

 meaning has been lost. 



Hypothesis apart, we have proof that these marks made by cut- 

 ting gashes, or puncturing lines, or raising welts, or otherwise, are in 

 many cases tribal marks as they would, of course become if they 

 were originally made when binding themselves by blood to the dead 

 founder of the tribe. A clear exhibition of the feeling implied by 

 the bearing of marks is contained in a statement Bancroft makes re- 

 specting the Cuebas of Central America : " If the son of a chief de- 

 clined to use the distinctive badge of his house, he could, when he be- 

 came chief, choose any new device he might fancy. A son who did 

 not adopt his father's totem was always hateful to him during his life- 

 time." And if the refusal to adopt the family-mark where it is painted 

 on the body is thus regarded as a kind of disloyalty, equally will it 

 be so when the mark is one that has arisen from modified lacerations 

 and such refusal will be tantamount to rebellion where the mark sig- 



