CHAPTER VIITHE COMPASS POINTS
Guided by my own personal experience, now extending over a good deal more than threescore and ten years, the Benjamites of Saul’s host, who could hurl stones with equal facility by either hand, seem to me greatly more surprising and exceptional than the left-handed company of seven hundred, every one of whom could sling stones at a hair’s-breadth and not miss. It is contrary to the nearly universal and almost inevitable preferential use of one hand. It naturally followed on such preference that this unvarying employment led not only to its receiving a distinctive appellation, but that the term so used came to be associated with ideas of dignity, honour, and trust; and as such is perpetuated in the languages both of civilised and savage races. Butthis suggests another inquiry of important significance in the determination of the results. The application of the Latindexterto “right-handedness” specifically, as well as to general dexterity in its more comprehensive sense, points, like the record of the old Benjamites, to the habitual use of one hand in preference to the other; but does it necessarily imply thattheir“right hand” was the one on that side which we now concur in calling dexter or right? In the exigencies of war or the chase, and still more in many of the daily requirements of civilised life, it is necessary that there should be no hesitation as to which hand shall be used. Promptness and dexterity depend on this, and no hesitation is felt. But, still further, in many cases of combined action it is needful that the hand so used shall be the same; and wherever such a conformity of practice is recognised the hand so used, whichever it be, is that on whichdexteritydepends, and becomes practically therighthand. The termyamin, “the right hand,” already noted as the root of the proper name Benjamin, and of the tribe thus curiously distinguished for its left-handed warriors and skilled marksmen, is derived from the verbyāmăn, to be firm, to be faithful, as the righthand is given as a pledge of fidelity,e.g.“The Lord hath sworn by his right hand” (Isa. lxii. 8). So in the Arabic form,bimin Allah, by the right hand of Allah. So also with the Hebrews and other ancient nations, as still among ourselves, the seat at the right hand of the host, or of any dignitary, was the place of honour; as when Solomon “caused a seat to be set for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand” (1 Kings ii. 19). Again, the term is frequently used in opposition tosemol, left hand; as when the children of Israel would pass through Edom; “We will go by the king’s high way; we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left” (Num. xx. 17).
But a further use and significance of the terms helps us to the fact that the Hebrewyaminand ourright handare the same. In its secondary meaning it signified the “south,” as in Ezekiel xlvii. 1: “The forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.” The four points are accordingly expressed thus in Hebrew:yamin, the right, the south;kedem, the front, the east;semol, the left, the north;achor, behind, the west. To the oldHebrew, when looking to the east, the west was thus behind, the south on his right hand, and the north on his left. This determination of the right and left in relation to the east is not peculiar to the Hebrews. Many nations appear to have designated the south in the same manner, as being on the right hand when looking to the east. Its origin may be traced with little hesitation to the associations with the most ancient and dignified form of false worship, the paying divine honours to the Sun, as he rises in the east, as the Lord of Day. Thus we find in the Sanskritdakshina, right hand, south;puras, in front, eastward;apara,paçchima, behind, west;uttara, northern, to the left. The old Irish has, in like manner,deasorders, on the right, southward;oirthear, in front, east;jav, behind, west;tuath, north, fromthuaidh, left. An analogous practice among the Eskimos, though suggested by a different cause, illustrates a similar origin for the terms “right” and “left.” Dr. H. Fink in a communication to the Anthropological Institute (June 1885) remarks: “To indicate the quarters of the globe, the Greenlanders use at once two systems. Besides the ordinary one, they derive another from the view of the open sea, distinguishing what is tothe left and to the right hand. The latter appears to have been the original method of determining the bearings, but gradually the words for the left and the right side came to signify at the same time ‘south’ and ‘north.’”
A diverse idea is illustrated by the like secondary significance of the Greek σκαιός, left, or on the left hand; but also used as “west,” or “westward,” as in theIliad, iii. 149, σκαιαὶ πύλαι, the west gate of Troy. The Greek augur, turning as he did his face to the north, had the left—the sinister, ill-omened, unlucky side,—on the west. Hence the metaphorical significance of ἀριστερός, ominous, boding ill. But the Greeks had also that other mode of expressing theright and leftalready referred to, derived from their mode of bearing arms. Ancient sculpture, the paintings on tombs and fictile ware, Egyptian, Assyrian, and classic statuary, all illustrate the methods of carrying the shield, and of wielding the sword or spear. Hence the shield-hand became synonymous with the left. The word ἀριστερός has also been interpreted as “the shield-bearing arm.”
Among the Romans we may trace some survival of the ancient practice of worshipping towards theeast, as in Livy, i. 18, where the augurs are said to turn the right side to the south, and the left side to the north. But the original significance of turning to the east had then been lost sight of; and the particular quarter of the heavens towards which the Roman augur was to look appears to have been latterly very much at the will of the augur himself. It was, at any rate, variable. Livy indicates the east, but Varro assigns the south, and Frontinus the west. Probably part of the augur’s professional skill consisted in selecting the aspect of the heavens suited to the occasion. But this done, the flight of birds and other appearances on the right or on the left determined the will of the gods. “Why,” asks Cicero, himself an augur, “why should the raven on the right and the crow on the left make a confirmatory augury?” “Cur a dextra corvus, a sinistra cornix faciat ratum?” (De Divin.i.) The left was the side on which the thunder was declared to be heard which confirmed the inauguration of a magistrate, and in other respects the augur regarded it with special awe. But still the right side was, in all ordinary acceptance, the propitious one, as in the address to Hercules (Æn.viii. 302)—
Salve, vera Jovis proles, pecus addite divis;Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.
Salve, vera Jovis proles, pecus addite divis;Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.
Salve, vera Jovis proles, pecus addite divis;Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.
Salve, vera Jovis proles, pecus addite divis;
Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.
The traces of a term of common origin for right (south) in so many of the Indo-European languages is interesting and suggestive, though the ultimate word is still open to question. How the equivalent terms run through the whole system may be seen from the following illustrations: Sanskrit,dakshina(cf.deccan); Zend,dashina; Gothic,taihs-vo; O.H. German,zëso; Lithuanian,deszine; Gaelic,dheas; Erse,dess(deas); Latin,dexter; Greek, δεξιός, etc. The immediate Sanskrit stemdakshmeans “to be right, or fitting”; secondarily, “to be dexterous, clever,” etc. This is evidently from a rootdek, as the western languages show. It was usual at an earlier period to trace the whole to the rootdik, to show, to point; but this is now given up. Probably the Greek δέκ-ομαι (δέχομαι), take, receive, preserves the original stem, with the idea primarily of “seizing, catching.” This leads naturally to a comparison of δάκτ-υ-λος, finger, anddig-i-tus, δοκ-ά-νη, fork, etc. (see Curtius’sOutlines of Greek Etymology).
Right-handed usages, and the ideas which they suggest, largely influence the ceremonial customs of many nations, affect their religious observances,bear a significant part in the marriage rites, and are interwoven with the most familiar social usages. Among the ancient Greeks the rites of the social board required the passing of the wine from right to left,—or, at any rate, in one invariable direction,—as indicated by Homer in his description of the feast of the gods (Iliad, i 597, θεοῖς ἐνδέξια πᾶσιν οἰνοχόει), where Hephæstus goes round and pours out the sweet nectar to the assembled gods. The direction pursued by the cupbearer would be determined by his bearing the flagon in his right hand, and so walking with his right side towards the guests. This is, indeed, a point of dispute among scholars. But it is not questioned that a uniform practice prevailed, dependent on the recognition of right and left-handedness; and this is no less apparent among the Romans than the Greeks. It is set forth in the most unmusical of Horace’s hexameters: “Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit;” and finds its precise elucidation from many independent sources, in the allusions of the poets, in the works of sculptors, and in the decorations of fictile ware.