Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/664

 650 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

and poison was used on the arrows. The smith was the oldest of the recognized craftsmen. The divine society was, in some re- spects, less strongly organized and less "moral" than that of men. The dog must once have been more closely connected with the religious system, and human sacrifice must have been more com- mon; less humanity must have been shown toward the conquered, in the mutilation of their bodies, etc. Certain parts of animals were once eaten, which came later, in sacrifice, to be only cere- monially eaten (tasted) ; the tongues were often cast into the flames untouched. The date-palm was a late introduction via the priesthood — of which an ascetic variety is hinted at. Burial at the hearth, in caves, and on mountains is indicated, in accord with the general method of induction develoi>ed by Spencer. Possibly some of the deities had once been animal-headed. And so on.

Naturally cases of this nature have been interpreted diversely, and there is certainly need of the greatest caution both in the interest of truth and of the reputation of the science. Says Seymour :^ "The killing of captives, horses, and dogs by the pyre of Patroclus, is like to the usages of some of the North American Indians, but the analogies should not be pressed. The Trojan captives seem to have been killed in a spirit of vengeance" — not to furnish attendants for the next world. On the third day of battle, angry because of the death of Asius, Deiphobus kills a Greek and says that Asius even in going to the home of Hades will be glad in soul, since Deiphobus has supplied him with an escort (tto/xttoV, N 416), but this need not be interpreted liter- ally any more than Romeo's words to Tybalt, "Mercutio's soul | Is but a little way above our heads : | Either thou or I or both must go with him" {Romeo and Juliet, iii. I. 131). That two dogs are killed at the pyre of Patroclus, just as two dogs attend Telemachus when he goes to the Ithacan place of assembly, may not be significant." The question might be, however, as to whether even the Shaksperean quotation may not hark back into some "dark backwood and abysm of time." Some would even infer back from this slaying of captives on funeral pyres to an antecedent state of cannibalism.


 * Life in the Homeric Age, p. 480.