FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 253 



Epiphanes, 169 B. C. Josephus records that it was a feast of lights. 

 It is celebrated eight days. On the first night one hght is lit, 

 on the second two, etc. The lamp is probably of Dutch make and 

 exhibits an interesting sm-vival of the ancient Roman lamp. " 



The usual hauka lamp has spoon-shaped oil containers, eight in 

 number, in a row, and one isolated lamp above called shammas, or 

 servant, from wliich the other wicks arc lighted. This arrangement 

 is invariable, but the lianuka is quite varied as to art, country, 

 and period. The form with oil lamps is not ancient, the Russian 

 hanuka with candles being more in accord with the methods of light- 

 ing in Biblical times. The relation of the hanuka in ceremony with 

 the ancient widely disseminated feast of lights is mentioned by 

 Josephus. 



The Hindu lamps with multiple lights may point to relationship 

 if not origin in respect to the hanuka. A figure of a god from India, 

 figured in the New York Herald, April 2, 1905, bears 43 spoon- 

 shaped lamps placed on various parts of the body, and, as remarked, 

 there are many examples of multiple lights among Hindu sacred 

 lamps. 



FEAST OF LIGHTS 



Celebrations in which hght is a prominent feature are without 

 number. At first rudimentary, they occur in every phase of man's 

 culture. The idea of hght as well as fu-e appears to be inherent in 

 the primitive bonfires. The stimulus to joy in firelight has a profound 

 basis in human nature. 



Concerning feasts of hghts, Pere Lafitau says: "Since most of the 

 feasts of the savages were celebrated during the night and those who 

 engage in them went through the villages and into the cabin carrying 

 firebrands in their hands or torches of birch bark, I have some idea 

 that this may have been the origin of the lymphatic races, which 

 were made in honor of Bacchus, Pan, Ceres, of Vulcan, Prometheus, 

 Minerva, etc., and which were called the feast of torches or of lamps, 

 of which we have found many vestiges in the ancient monuments 

 and in the authors that have spoken of it under different names who 

 place their origin so far back that they attribute them to the gods 

 themselves or perhaps to primitive man. The most celebrated of 

 these feasts was the Panathenees at Athens, in honor of Minerva; the 

 Lupercaha at Rome, in honor of Pan; and the feast of lamps in 

 Egypt, in memory of Isis. I do not doubt that the feast of lanterns 

 is held with such pomp among the Chinese and of wliich we have so 

 good a description in the Memoires of Pere du Comte.'"^ 



The Japanese festival of the dead, "feast of lanterns," called Bom- 

 matsuri or Bonku, is held from the 13th to the 15th of July. Many 



" Moeurs, vol. 1, Paris, 1724, pp. 369-370. 



