6 5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But if any doubt exists that these gifts are in every case thank- 

 offerings to the ghosts or ancestors who caused the crops to grow, 

 it will be removed by the consideration that often the first fruits 

 are offered not to spirits or gods at all, but to the divine king him- 

 self, who is the living representative and earthly counterpart of 

 his deified ancestors. 



In Ashantee a harvest festival is held in September, when the 

 yams are ripe. During the festival the king eats the new yams, 

 but none of the people may eat them till the close of the festival, 

 which lasts a fortnight. During its continuance the grossest 

 liberty prevails; theft, intrigue, and assault go unpunished, and 

 each sex abandons itself to its passions. The Hovas of Madagas- 

 car present the first sheaves of the new grain to the sovereign. 

 The sheaves are carried in procession to the palace from time to 

 time as the grain ripens. So in Burma, when the pangati fruits 

 ripen, some of them used to be taken to the king's palace that he 

 might eat of them: no one might partake of them before the 

 king.* 



These cases, with many others of like sort which I forbear to 

 quote, strikingly display the exact equivalence of the king, the 

 ghost, and the god in the savage mind ; for we find what is offered 

 here to the living chief is offered there to his dead predecessor, 

 and yonder, again, to the great deity who has grown slowly out 

 of him. The god is the dead king ; the king is the living god, and 

 the descendant of gods, his deified ancestors. 



Almost equally to the point is a statement of Mr. Macdonald's 

 about the Blantyre negroes. " When there is no rain at the proper 

 season/' he says, " there ensues much distress. Famine is dreaded 

 above all other evils. After private offerings have all failed, the 

 chief of the country calls a national meeting for supplication. 

 Much beer is brewed and offered to the spirit. The chief addresses 

 his own god ; he calls on him to look at the sad state of matters 

 for himself, and think on the evils that are impending. He re- 

 quests him to hold a meeting with all the other gods that have an 

 interest or influence in the matter. . . . After the supplication 

 there is a great dance in honor of the god. The people throw up 

 water toward the heavens as a sign that it is water that is prayed 

 for." [Say rather, as a sympathetic charm to make the rain fol- 

 low.] "They also smear their bodies with mud or charcoal to 

 show that they want washing. If rain do not come, they must 

 wash themselves in the rivers or streams. If rain fall, they are 

 soon washed in answer to their prayers. When the good crops 

 follow, they present as a thanksgiving some the first heads of 

 maize and some pumpkins." f 



* The Golden Bough, vol. ii, p. 374. \ Africana, vol. i, p. 89. 



