IV.ORIGIN OF THE RITE.
A question that forces itself on the mind, in connection with the study of a world-wide primitive rite like this of the Threshold Covenant, is, What was its origin? How came it to pass, that primitive peoples, in all parts of the world, were brought to attach such exceptionally sacred significance to the threshold of a hut, or tent, or cave, or house; of a palace or temple; of a domain, local or national; and to count its crossing by blood a form of holy covenanting between the parties engaged in it, and the deity invoked in the ceremony? This question goes back to the origin of religious rites among human beings, and its answer must, in order to commend itself to all, be in accordance with the natural outgrowths and the abnormal perversions of religious rites, in the main line of human development all the world over.
However simple and elemental were man’s earliestreligious ideas, they must have been from the beginning pure and uplifting, or they would not have been religious. Nothing impure or debasing in itself would have raised man’s thoughts Godward, even though man might subsequently come to degrade his best conceptions of God and his worship. Hence the answer to this question must include only such facts as were capable of being viewed reverently by primitive man, as worthy of God’s creatures in the loving service and worship of God.
This threshold rite clearly goes back to the beginning of family life. The facts already presented are proof of this. The rite includes the proffer of blood at the foundation of the family as a family. It is a part of the marriage ceremonial among primitive peoples. It is also the means by which one is adopted from without into a family circle or group. It marks every stage of the progress of family life, from one pair to a community and to an empire, in its civil and religious relations. It is a form of covenanting between its participants, and between them and God; and thus it has sanctity as a religious rite.
A fair induction from these recognized facts, in their sweep and significance, would seem to indicate,as the origin of this primitive rite, the covenant union between the first pair in their instituting of the family relation. When was the first covenant made between two human beings? When was the first outpouring of blood in loving sacrifice? By what act was the first appeal made to the Author and Source of life for power for the transmission of life, by two persons who thereby entered into covenant with each other and with him? The obvious answer to these questions is an answer to the question, What was the origin of the rite of the Threshold Covenant?
Life and its transmission must have been a sacred mystery to the first thinkers about God and his human workers. Blood was early recognized as life, its outpouring as the pledge and gift of life, and its interchange as a life covenant between those who shared its substance. In view of this truth, a covenant union by blood that looked to the transmission of life must have been in itself, to a thoughtful and reverent person, an appeal to the Author of life to be a party to that covenant union, in order to give it efficiency.
When first a twain were made one in a covenant of blood, the threshold altar of the race was hallowed as a place where the Author of life met and blessed the loving union. And from this beginning there was the natural development of religious rites and ceremonies, in the family, in the temple, and in the domain, asshown alike in the history of the human race and in the main teachings of both the Old Testament and the New.
Flowing blood is widely deemed essential to the covenant by which two are made one in the marriage relation. This is peculiarly the case among those primitive peoples where young maidens are guarded with jealous care, and are given in marriage at a very early age. In the thought of such peoples there is no binding covenant without blood, in the family relation.[524]And a bloody hand stamp on the cloth of testimony is the primitive certificate of the marriage covenant.
Facts in illustration of this truth are numerous in the nuptial customs of Syria, Egypt, China, Dahomey, Liberia, Europe, Central America, Samoa, and other widely different regions. A few of these facts are given in the Appendix for the benefit of scientific students, in a language better suited than English for the presentation of such details.[525]
4. CONFIRMATION OF THIS VIEW.
If the view here given of the origin of this rite of the Threshold Covenant be correct, there will be found traces of the truth in the different religions of mankind. And this is the case, as shown in religious literatures, in history, and in primitive customs and beliefs.
The most ancient expression of the religious thought and feeling of the Aryan races is found in the Vedas and their accompanying literature. The Brahmanas, in this literature, deal with the sacrificial element in public and family worship, and with the rites and ceremonies pertaining to religion. In the description of the construction of the household altars and the high altars, there is abundant evidence that the woman is recognized as the primitive altar, and that the form of the woman is made the pattern of the altar form.
It is distinctly declared as to the shape of the altar, standing east and west, that it “should be broader on the west side, contracted on the middle, and broad again on the east side; for thus shaped they praise a woman: ‘broad about the hips, somewhat narrower between the shoulders, and contracted in the middle [or about the waist].’” Again, it is said, in explanation, that “the altar (vedi, feminine) is female, and thefire (agni, masculine) is male.”[526]This identifying of the altar with the woman, of the offering with the man, and of their union with worship and covenanting, is repeatedly found in the Brahmanas.[527]
Even as far back as the Vedas themselves the termyoni, or doorway of physical life, is used as synonymous with altar.[528]And the production of sacred fire, for purposes of worship, by twisting a stick in softened wood, is described in the Rig-Vedas as a form of this covenant rite. These facts point to this origin of the threshold altar of covenant and sacrifice.
At present in India the most widely recognized visible aid in worship is the representation of thelingaand theyonicombined. This symbol nominally stands for Siva; but that seems to be only because Saivism predominates in modern Hindooism. The idea of this symbolic combination long antedates this prominence of Siva worship.[529]
A form of Booddhist prayer in Tibet, said to be repeated more frequently than any other known among men, is “the six-syllabled sentence, ‘Om mani padme Hūm,’–‘Om! the Jewel in the Lotus! Hum!’” This prayer is simply a euphemism for the primitive Threshold Covenant, as here explained, with an ejaculatory invocation and ascription before and after it.[530]It seems to be a survival of the thought that here was the beginning of religious rites, and that all covenant worship must continue in its spirit and power.
Every repetition of that prayer, by speech or by mechanism, is supposed to affect the progress of a soul in its crossing the threshold of one of the stages of being in the universe. It is a help to a new birth for some soul somewhere.
There would thus appear to be no room for doubt in this matter in the language and customs of the primitive Aryan peoples, and there are also confirmationsof the idea among the Semites. A legend that has a place among the Jews and the Muhammadans, tells of a visit of Abraham to the home of Hagar and Ishmael in Arabia.[531]An Amalekite wife of Ishmael refused hospitality to Abraham, and in consequence Abraham left a message to Ishmael to “change his threshold.” This message Ishmael understood to mean the putting away of his wife and the taking of another, and he acted accordingly. In the Arabic “a wife” is one of the meanings of the term “threshold.”[532]
And the term “gate,” or “door,” had among the rabbis a specific application to the altar of family covenanting. Thus Buxtorf, in his definings of “janua” and “ostium,” says plainly: “Apud rabbinos etiam est ‘ostium ventris muliebris.’” And he quotes the saying of a disappointed bridegroom : “Ostium apertum inveni.”[533]
Among the early Babylonians and Egyptians, as among other primitive peoples, the twofold symbols of sex are counted the sacred emblem of life, and as such are borne by the gods of life, and by those whohave the power of life and death from those gods. The circle and rod, or ring and bolt, conjoined, are in the right hand of the Babylonian sun-god Shamash;[534]as, in theankh, orcrux ansata, they are in the right hand of every principal deity of ancient Egypt.[535]It is much the same with the Phœnicians and others.[536]
In the innermost shrine of the most sacred Shinto temples of Japan, the circular mirror, and the straight dagger, with the same meaning as the circle and rod in Babylonia and Egypt and Phœnicia, are the only indications of the presence of deity; and the worshipers in those temples can come no farther than the threshold of the shrine containing these emblems.[537]
Wherever, among the primitive peoples in America, as elsewhere, the red hand is found as a symbol of covenant, and of life and strength through covenant, it would seem to point to this primal meaning of the hand stamp of blood at the doorway of life in a sacred covenant. There are indications in Central Americansculptures of the sacredness attaching to the covenant rite between the first pair; and the combined symbols of sex are represented there as in the East.[538]
It is a well-known fact that the public exhibit of the primitive Threshold Covenant, as here explained, has been continued as a mode of reverent worship among primitive peoples in the South Sea Islands, down to modern times. The testimony of Captain Cook, the famous navigator, is specific on this point.[539]It is also to be noted that in these islands the two supports of the altar, or table of sacrifice, are seemingly symbols of the two sexes, similar to those used in the far East.[540]
All of the gathered facts concerning the Threshold Covenant in different lands and in different times, as presented in the foregoing pages, would seem to be in accordance with this view of the origin of the rite, as with no other that can be suggested. The main symbolism of both the Old and the New Testament also seem to indicate the same beginning.