Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/148

* DEMONOLOGY. 118 DEMONOLOGY. oliligcd to ask Valiweli's permission to tempt Job, in Job i. 6- 12, ii. 1-7. That .lowisli demonology was far more ileveloped than the extreme Vahwism of the Old Testament would lead one to suppose is clear for several reasons. In the Xew Testament the power of demons is frequently mentioned. Insanity and disease are laid to denioniaoal possession, and Christ is tempted by Satan, who is represented as an independent agent of the utmost enmity to God. The exist- enre of storm demons is . The Talmudic denionolopj', like the ilevillore of other Semites, as shown by the Koran ajid the vast Arabic literature, of which the Arabian Siflhln furnishes a familiar example with its tales of the jinns, who are probably ghosts of benifmant. or more freipiently of malignant, dead, is another proof. Most conclusive of all. perhaps, is the rich de- m<)n(dogy of modem Semitic peoples, with its superhuman and posthuman fiends. In India the development of demonology is still more instructive. Beside the primitive nature gods there existed nature demons no less ancient. Indra, the storm god. cleaves the dragon .hi, who has confined the cows repre- senting the rain-clouds. Here, too, can be seen the process of s.vncretism more clearly than in any other religious system. For instance. Indra is the god of the monsoons, and is beneficent, while the fearful Rudra typifies the ruin caused by the storm. Yet the benignant Indra and the nialignant Kudra become blended into one deity, Inilra, who is almost altogether beneficent. While nature demons are ancient, new ghost demons ma,y be, and are, created constantly. There is an instructive storv current in India of an irascible Englishman much dreaded by the natives. After his death bis tomb was regularly visited and propitiatory offerings of brandy and cigars were presented to appease his ghost. On the otlicr hand, the ghost of Rama Krishna, a Hindu ascetic of recent date, has be- come a beneficent godling about whom the logo- poetic tendency universal in religion has already created nimerovis myths. Beside the superhuman and posthuman gods and demons there is a third class of much later origin. These are abstract deities. They occur in nearly all the great religions, as in India, Crecee, and especially in Rome. Thus in India b.y the time of the later Rig Vedie period, ap- proximately probably about n.r. .500. Brahma the creator is practically an abstract deity. This is true in greater measure of such deities as .diti (Boundhssness) and Ka (Who?). Persia had a large nund)er of abstract demons, as Tari">maiti (Pride). Akonian (Kvil Mind). Duzhyairyrt (Drought), and the like. In Orcci'e and Home it will be sulTicient to refer to the long list of abstract demons eniimerated by Vergil. .Knrid. vi. 27.'t-281. It is obvious that the abstract gods and demons are more closely allied to the nature divinities than to ghosts. Demonology is everywhere closely assotdated with witchcraft. In this two distinct proc-esses arc involved. In the first place, the demon must be placed under the control of the wizard, or. more commonly, of the witch. In the sectjnd place, the demon -o controlled may Ix'come either non- injurious or maligmtnt to some other person or persons. Control over the demons is gained in many ways. Tluis a beneficent deity or something belonging to him may confer the power over demons, l-'amiliar examples are the magic ring given by Allah to Solomon in the Arabian Xighls, which enables him to control all jinns. and the tetragrauunaton. or mvslie letters YilX'Il of the name Jehovah (q.v. ), during the Miildle Ages. Demons ma,v be exorcised or may be invoked against enemies by an equal varictv of methods. Possession of some object belonging to the per- son to be airecled is one of the most common modes. For this reason many tribes have careful regulations, as the ancient Persians, who dis- posed of parings of nails and clippings of hair according to picscribed form. An extremely widespread su|)erstition of this class is the so- called power of the name. According to this the knowledge of the real name of the individual gives all who possess it control ovit him, ami this may be used for demimiacal purposes. For this reason it is customar.v in many tribes, as among the North .mcrican Indians, to have secret names which are considered the real ones. The same view was held by the .lews, as is clear from Rev. ii. 17, .xix. 12. .Iatt. vii. 22. Akin to this acquisition of demoniacal control is the sell- ing of one's soul to the devil to gjiin some object, as in the famous Faust legend, or in the devo- tion of the Hindu Thugs to the malignant Kali, the wife of .Shiva in his destructive aspect. As has been suggested above, sacrifice is an im- jiortant element of demonology. .Since this class of olferings must be in general propitiatory, they are usually, in eonformitv to the nature of the demon, of a bloody or revolting character. Thus among the .ztecs the war-god. Huitzilipoclitli, was honored by human sacrifices, tlic pulsating heart l>eing the offering speciall.y dear to him. The 'customs' of .Ashanti. with their enormous waste of life, and their cruelty to men and ani- mals, were jirimarily based on (he ne<'essity of appeasing nialignant godlings. Even among the earl.v (Greeks a sacrifice of maidens was given each vear to the Minotaur, and in early Rome the Tiber received an annual tribute of aged men. .s civilization develops, the sacrifice be- comes more and more ritualistic, and substitutes for the bloodv ofTering may be made, as when, instead of sacrificing old men, dolls were thrown into the Til)er. The change of gods into demons occurs fre- quentl.v. Wlien one tribi- con<]Ucred anollier, it was customary for the pantheis in F.zek. viii. 1.3-IS. anmng the greatest abominations are classed the annual mourning for Tammuz. an ancient Semitic spring godling. familiar to is from the f!reek version of the myth in the story of Venus and .donis, and the worship of the sin. which is most prob- ably an allusion to Zoronstrianism. In this latter religion the gods of India (Skt. di'rn) are demons ( .v. tiarra), and great Indra seems to have been turned into a fiend . dra by the Ira- nians. In like manner Ceylonese Buddhism sees