FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 251 



The Jews had a custom of placing a lighted wax candle in a pot of 

 ashes by the corpse.^" 



For a month after the death of a parent a light is kept burning, 

 and at the anniversary of the death a lamp is lighted for a day. 

 This is believed to signalize a belief in the immortaUty of the soul. 

 The lamp used is the primitive one of the bowl with oil floating on 

 water and a float carr3dng a wick." 



The Russians of St. Petersburg carry lighted lamps before the dead 

 in funeral processions, and it is said that these lamps help the soul 

 on its upward journey. ^^ The poorer classes, how^ever, do not carry 

 lamps. 



The Egyptians place candles beside the dead.^^ This is only one 

 instance of a w^orld-wide custom of lighting the dead. 



The candle as a cult object features in all the religions of the world, 

 and, as has been pointed out, the perpetuation of this superseded 

 illuminating device is on account of its use for ceremonial purposes. 

 The phases of its use are numerous. It is first set apart as an object 

 possessing a certain sacredness by rites called blessings or rendering 

 sacred, which fundamentally are for the purpose of producing the 

 requisite psj'chological reaction on the part of the devout. This 

 consecration is a necessary and legitimate method of producing a 

 religious attitude, and is observed in the crudest manifestations of 

 religious sentiment in the lowest observed stages of culture. 



The candle, having been blessed, is put to the various uses 

 developed in cult practices, some of which have been mentioned. 

 In the chiu'ch it serves not only for illumination, but to convey 

 some messages to the spiritual world or by its light to conserve the 

 well-being of the people. It is lighted during thunderstorms to ward 

 off lightning, it keeps off sickness from man and animals, its beams 

 drive away evil spirits, thieves, and other dangers. It serves as a 

 simple means of reheving the mind of harmful stresses. 



In China white candles are used in worship by gamblers in gam- 

 bling houses, while red candles are required in religious ceremonies. "° 



In Cambodia little wax candles are employed in ancestral worship 

 before the altars. In India candles are used in Buddhist worship, 

 and offerings of money are sometimes stuck in candles and placed 

 before the altars. A curious instance of light magic comes from 

 Greece, where a candle in a pumpkin lantern was let down on the sea 

 by Greek mariners to dispel fog. "^ 



^'Thomas Brown. Hydriotaphia, Works, London, 1892, p. 421. 



"Infonnation by Dr. Cyrus Adler. 



ssThe Outlook, New York, vol. 79, Mar. 18, 1905, p. 681. 



''« Qeorg Ebers. Aegypten, New York, 1880. 



M Information by Stewart Culin. 



" Penny Magazine, 1832, p. 53. 



