I 226may also add that, incidentally to this supplementary13 enquiry, we shall come upon several additional traits in the idea of deity and several important sources of earlier godhead, the consideration of which we had to postpone14 before till a more convenient season. We shall find that the process of tracking down Christianity to its hidden springs suggests to us many aspects of primitive religion which we were compelled to neglect in our first hasty synthesis.
The reader must remember that in dealing16 with so complex a subject as that of human beliefs and human cults17, it is impossible ever to condense the whole of the facts at once into a single conspectus. We cannot grasp at a time the entire mass of evidence. While we are following out one clue, we must neglect another. It is only by examining each main set of components18 in analytical20 distinctness that we can proceed by degrees to a full and complete synthetic21 reconstruction22 of the whole vast fabric23. We must therefore correct and supplement in the sequel much that may have seemed vague, inaccurate24, or insufficient25 in our preliminary survey.
The Christian15 religion with which we have next to deal bases itself fundamentally upon the personality of a man, by name Jesus, commonly described as the Christ, that is to say “the anointed.” Of this most sacred and deified person it is affirmed by modern Christianity, and has been affirmed by orthodox Christians26 from a very early period, that he was not originally a mere27 man, afterwards taken into the godhead, but that he was born from the first the son of God, that is to say, of the Hebrew Jahweh; that he existed previously28 from all time; that he was miraculously29 conceived of a virgin30 mother; that he was crucified and buried; that on the third day he arose from the dead; and that he is now a living and distinct person in a divine and mystically-united Trinity. I propose to show in the subsequent chapters how far all these conceptions were already familiar throughout the world in which Christianity 227was promulgated31, and to how large an extent the new religion owed its rapid success to the fact that it was but a r茅sum茅 or idealised embodiment of all the chief conceptions already common to the main cults of Mediterranean32 civilisation33. At the moment when the empire was cosmopolitanising the world, Christianity began to cosmopolitanise religion, by taking into itself whatever was central, common, and universal in the worship of the peoples among whom it originated.
We will begin with the question of the incarnation, which lies at the very root of the Christian concept.
I have said already that in ancient Egypt and elsewhere, “The God was the Dead King, the King was the Living God.” This is true, literally34 and absolutely. Since the early kings are gods, the present kings, their descendants, are naturally also gods by descent; their blood is divine; they differ in nature as well as in position from mere common mortals. While they live, they are gods on earth; when they die, they pass over to the community of the gods their ancestors, and share with them a happy and regal immortality36. We have seen how this essential divinity of the Pharaoh is a prime article in the religious faith of the Egyptian Pyramid-builders. And though in later days, when a Greek dynasty, not of the old divine native blood, bore sway in Egypt, this belief in the divinity of the king grew fainter, yet to the very last the Ptolemies and the Cleopatras bear the title of god or goddess, and carry in their hands the sacred tau or crux37 ansata, the symbol and mark of essential divinity.
The inference made in Egypt that the children of gods must be themselves divine was also made in most other countries, especially in those where similar great despotisms established themselves at an early grade of culture. Thus in Peru, the Incas were gods. They were the children of the Sun; and when they died, it was said that their father, the Sun, had sent to fetch them. The Mexican kings were likewise gods, with full control of the course of nature; 228they swore at their accession to make the sun shine, the rain fall, the rivers flow, and the earth bring forth38 her fruit in due season. How they could promise all this seems at first a little difficult for us to conceive; but it will become more comprehensible at a later stage of our investigation39, when we come to consider the gods of cultivation40: even at present, if we remember that kings are children of the Sun, and that sacred trees, sacred groves41, and sacred wells are closely connected with the tombs of their ancestors, we can guess at the beginning of such a mental connexion. Thus the Chinese emperor is the Son of Heaven; he is held responsible to his people for the occurrence of drought or other serious derangements of nature. The Parthian kings of the Arsacid house, says Mr. Frazer, to whom I am greatly indebted for most of the succeeding facts, styled themselves brothers of the sun and moon, and were worshipped as deities. Numberless other cases are cited by Mr. Frazer, who was the first to point out the full importance of this widespread belief in man-gods. I shall follow him largely in the subsequent discussion of this cardinal42 subject, though I shall often give to the facts an interpretation43 slightly different from that which he would allow to be the correct one. For to me, godhead springs always from the primitive Dead Man, while to Mr. Frazer it is spiritual or animistic in origin.
Besides these human gods who are gods by descent from deified ancestors, there is another class of gods who are gods by inspiration or indwelling of the divine spirit, that is to say of some ghost or god who temporarily or permanently45 inhabits the body of a living man. The germ-idea of such divine possession we may see in the facts of epilepsy, catalepsy, dream, and madness. In all such cases of abnormal nervous condition it seems to primitive man, as it still seemed to the Jews of the age of the Gospels, that the sufferer is entered or seized upon by some spirit, who bodily inhabits him. The spirit may throw 229the man down, or may speak through his mouth in strange unknown tongues; it may exalt46 him so that he can perform strange feats47 of marvellous strength, or may debase him to a position of grovelling48 abjectness49. By fasting and religious asceticism50 men and women can even artificially attain51 this state, when the god speaks through them, as he spoke52 through the mouth of the Pythia at Delphi. And fasting is always one of the religious exercises of god-possessed53 men, priests, monks54, anchorites, and ascetics56 in general. Where races have learnt how to manufacture intoxicating57 drinks, or to express narcotic58 juices from plants, they also universally attribute the effects of such plants to the personal action of an inspiring spirit—an idea so persistent59 even into civilised ages that we habitually60 speak of alcoholic61 liquors as spirits. Both these ways of attaining62 the presence of an indwelling god are commonly practised among savages64 and half-civilised people.
When we recollect65 how we saw already that ancestral spirits may descend35 from time to time into the skulls66 that once were theirs, or into the clay or wooden images that represent them, and there give oracles67, we shall not be surprised to find that they can thus enter at times into a human body, and speak through its lips, for good or for evil. Indeed, I have dwelt but little in this book on this migratory69 power and this ubiquitousness of the spirits, because I have desired to fix attention chiefly on that primary aspect of religion which is immediately and directly concerned with Worship; but readers familiar with such works as Dr. Tylor’s and Mr. Frazer’s will be well aware of the common power which spirits possess of projecting themselves readily into every part of nature. The faculty70 of possession or of divination71 is but one particular example of this well-known attribute. The mysteries and oracles of all creeds72 are full of such phenomena73.
Certain persons, again, are born from the womb as incarnations of a god or an ancestral spirit. “Incarnate74 gods,” 230says Mr. Frazer, “are common in rude society. The incarnation may be temporary or permanent.... When the divine spirit has taken up its abode75 in a human body, the god-man is usually expected to vindicate76 his character by working miracles.” Mr. Frazer gives several excellent examples of both these classes. I extract a few almost verbatim.
Certain persons are possessed from time to time by a spirit or deity; while possession lasts, their own personality lies in abeyance77, and the presence of the spirit is revealed by convulsive shakings and quiverings of the body. In this abnormal state, the man’s utterances78 are accepted as the voice of the god or spirit dwelling44 in him and speaking through him. In Mangaia, for instance, the priests in whom the gods took up their abode were called god-boxes or gods. Before giving oracles, they drank an intoxicating liquor, and the words they spoke in their frenzy79 were then regarded as divine. In other cases, the inspired person produces the desired condition of intoxication80 by drinking the fresh blood of a victim, human or animal, which, as we shall see hereafter, is probably itself an avatar of the inspiring god. In the temple of Apollo Diradiotes at Argos, a lamb was sacrificed by night once a month; a woman, who had to observe the rule of chastity, tasted its blood, and then gave oracles. At 脝gira in Ach忙a the priestess of the Earth drank the fresh blood of a bull before she descended81 into her cave to prophesy82. (Note in passing that caves, the places of antique burial, are also the usual places for prophetic inspiration.) In southern India, the so-called devil-dancer drinks the blood of a goat, and then becomes seized with the divine afflatus83. He is worshipped as a deity, and bystanders ask him questions requiring superhuman knowledge to answer. Mr. Frazer extends this list of oracular practices by many other striking instances, for which I would refer the reader to the original volume.
Of permanent living human gods, inspired by the constant 231indwelling of a deity, Mr. Frazer also gives several apt examples. In the Marquesas Islands there was a class of men who were deified in their lifetime. They were supposed to wield84 supernatural control over the elements. They could give or withhold85 rain and good harvests. Human sacrifices were offered them to appease86 their wrath87. “A missionary88 has described one of these human gods from personal observation. The god was a very old man who lived in a large house within an enclosure.” (A temple in its temenos.) “In the house was a kind of altar, and on the beams of the house and on the trees around it were hung human skeletons, head down. No one entered the enclosure, except the persons dedicated89 to the service of the god; only on days when human victims were sacrificed might ordinary people penetrate90 into the precinct. This human god received more sacrifices than all the other gods; often he would sit on a sort of scaffold in front of his house and call for two or three human victims at a time. They were always brought, for the terror he inspired was extreme. He was invoked91 all over the island, and offerings were sent to him from every side.” Indeed, throughout the South Sea Islands, each island had usually a man who embodied92 its deity. Such men were called gods, and were regarded as of divine substance. The man-god was sometimes a king; oftener he was a priest or a subordinate chief. The gods of Samoa were sometimes permanently incarnate in men, who gave oracles, received offerings (occasionally of human flesh), healed the sick, answered prayer, and generally performed all divine functions. Of the Fijians it is said: “There appears to be no certain line of demarcation between departed spirits and gods, nor between gods and living men, for many of the priests and old chiefs are considered as sacred persons, and not a few of them will also claim to themselves the right of divinity. ‘I am a god,’ Tuikilakila would say; and he believed it too.” There is said to be a sect93 in Orissa who worship the Queen of England as their chief divinity; 232and another sect in the Punjab worshipped during his lifetime the great General Nicholson.
Sometimes, I believe, kings are divine by birth, as descendants of gods; but sometimes divinity is conferred upon them with the kingship, as indeed was the case even in the typical instance of Egypt. Tanatoa, king of Raiatea, was deified by a certain ceremony performed at the chief temple. He was made a god before the gods his ancestors, as Celtic chiefs received the chieftainship standing94 on the sacred stone of their fathers. As one of the deities of his subjects, therefore, the king was worshipped, consulted as an oracle68, and honoured with sacrifices. The king of Tahiti at his inauguration95 received a sacred girdle of red and yellow feathers, which not only raised him to the highest earthly station, but also identified him with the heavenly gods. Compare the way in which the gods of Egypt make the king one of themselves, as represented in the bas-reliefs, by the presentation of the divine tau. In the Pelew Islands, a god may incarnate himself in a common person; this lucky man is thereupon raised to sovereign rank, and rules as god and king over the community. Not unsimilar is the mode of selection of a Grand Lama. In later stages, the king ceases to be quite a god, but retains the anointment, the consecration97 on a holy stone, and the claim to “divine right”; he also shows some last traces of deity in his divine power to heal diseases, which fades away at last into the practice of “touching for king’s evil.” On all these questions, again, Mr. Frazer’s great work is a perfect thesaurus of apposite instances. I abstain98 from quoting his whole two volumes.
But did ideas of this character still survive in the Mediterranean world of the first and second centuries, where Christianity was evolved? Most undoubtedly99 they did. In Egypt, the divine line of the Ptolemies had only just become extinct. In Rome itself, the divine C忙sar had recently undergone official apotheosis100; the divine Augustus had ruled over the empire as the adopted son of the new-made 233god; and altars rose in provincial101 cities to the divine spirit of the reigning102 Trajan or Hadrian. Indeed, both forms of divinity were claimed indirectly103 for the god Julius; he was divine by apotheosis, but he was also descended from the goddess Venus. So the double claim was made for the central personage of the Christian faith: he was the son of God—that is to say of Jahweh; but he was also of kingly Jewish origin, a descendant of David, and in the genealogies104 fabricated for him in the Gospels extreme importance is attached to this pretended royal ancestry105. Furthermore, how readily men of the Mediterranean civilisation could then identify living persons with gods we see in the familiar episode of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. Incarnation, in short, was a perfectly106 ordinary feature of religion and daily life as then understood. And to oriental ideas in particular, the conception was certainly no novelty. “Even an infant king,” say the laws of Manu, which go to the root of so much eastern thinking, “must not be despised from an idea that he is a mere mortal: for he is a great deity in human form.”
To most modern thinkers, however, it would seem at first sight like a grave difficulty in the way of accepting the deity of an ordinary man that he should have suffered a violent death at the hands of his enemies. Yet this fact, instead of standing in the way of acceptance of Christ’s divinity, is really almost a guarantee and proof of it. For, strange as it sounds to us, the human gods were frequently or almost habitually put to death by their votaries107. The secret of this curious ritual and persistent custom has been ingeniously deciphered for us by Mr. Frazer, whose book is almost entirely108 devoted109 to these two main questions, “Why do men kill their gods?” and “Why do they eat and drink their flesh and blood under the form of bread and wine?” We must go over some of the same ground here in rapid summary, with additional corollaries; and we must also bring Mr. Frazer’s curious facts into line with our general principles of the origin of godhead.
Meanwhile, 234it may be well to add here two similar instances of almost contemporary apotheoses110. The dictator Julius was killed by a band of reactionary111 conspirators112, and yet was immediately raised to divine honours. A little later, Antinous, the favourite of the emperor Hadrian, devoted himself to death in order to avert113 misfortune from his master; he was at once honoured with temples and worship. The belief that it is expedient114 that “one man should die for the people,” and that the person who so dies is a god in human shape, formed, as we shall see, a common component19 of many faiths, and especially of the faiths of the eastern Mediterranean. Indeed, a little later, each Christian martyrdom is followed as a matter of course by canonisation—that is to say, by minor115 apotheosis. Mr. Frazer has traced the genesis of this group of allied116 beliefs in the slaughter117 of the man-god in the most masterly manner. They spring from a large number of converging118 ideas, some of which can only come out in full as we proceed in later chapters to other branches of our subject.
In all parts of the world, one of the commonest prerogatives119 and functions of the human god is the care of the weather. As representative of heaven, it is his business to see that rain falls in proper quantities, and that the earth brings forth her increase in due season. But, god though he is, he must needs be coerced120 if he does not attend to this business properly. Thus, in West Africa, when prayers and offerings presented to the king have failed to procure121 rain, his subjects bind122 him with ropes, and take him to the grave of his deified forefathers123, that he may obtain from them the needful change in the weather. Here we see in the fullest form the nature of the relation between dead gods and living ones. The Son is the natural mediator124 between men and the Father. Among the Antaymours of Madagascar, the king is responsible for bad crops and all other misfortunes. The ancient Scythians, when food was scarce, put their kings in bonds. 235The Banjars in West Africa ascribe to their king the power of causing rain or fine weather. As long as the climate is satisfactory, they load him with presents of grain and cattle. But if long drought or rain does serious harm, they insult and beat him till the weather changes. The Burgundians deposed125 their king if he failed to make their crops grow to their satisfaction.
Further than that, certain tribes have even killed their kings in times of scarcity126. In the days of the Swedish king Domalde, a mighty127 famine broke out, which lasted several years, and could not be stayed by human or animal sacrifices. So, in a great popular assembly held at Upsala, the chiefs decided128 that King Domalde himself was the cause of the scarcity, and must be sacrificed for good seasons. Then they slew129 him, and smeared130 with his blood the altars of the gods. Here we must recollect that the divine king is himself a god, the descendant of gods, and he is sacrificed to the offended spirits of his own forefathers. We shall see hereafter how often similar episodes occur—how the god is sacrificed, himself to himself; how the Son is sacrificed to the Father, both being gods; and how the Father sacrifices his Son, to make a god of him. To take another Scandinavian example from Mr. Frazer’s collection: in the reign96 of King Olaf, there came a great dearth131, and the people thought that the fault was the king’s, because he was sparing in sacrifices. So they mustered132 an army and marched against him; then they surrounded his palace and burnt it, with him within it, “giving him to Odin as a sacrifice for good crops.” Many points must here be noted133. Olaf himself was of divine stock, a descendant of Odin. He is burnt as an offering to his father, much as the Carthaginians burnt their sons, or the king of Moab his first-born, as sacrifices to Melcarth and to Chemosh. The royal and divine person is here offered up to his own fathers, just as on the cross of the founder134 of Christendom the inscription135 ran, “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews,” and just as in Christian 236theology God offers his Son as a sacrifice to his own offended justice.
Other instances elsewhere point to the same analogies. In 1814, a pestilence136 broke out among the reindeer137 of the Chukches (a Siberian tribe); and the shamans declared that the beloved chief Koch must be sacrificed to the angry gods (probably his ancestors); so the chief’s own son stabbed him with a dagger138. On the coral island of Niue in the South Pacific there once reigned139 a line of kings; but they were also “high-priests” (that is to say, divine representatives of divine ancestors); and they were supposed to make the crops grow, for a reason which will come out more fully140 in the sequel. In times of scarcity, the people “grew angry with them and killed them,” or more probably, as I would interpret the facts, sacrificed them for crops to their own deified ancestors. So in time there were no kings left, and the monarchy141 ceased altogether on the island.
The divine kings being thus responsible for rain and wind, and for the growth of crops, whose close dependence142 upon them we shall further understand hereafter, it is clear that they are persons of the greatest importance and value to the community. Moreover, in the ideas of early men, their spirit is almost one with that of external nature, over which they exert such extraordinary powers. A subtle sympathy seems to exist between the king and the world outside. The sacred trees which embody143 his ancestors; the crops, which, as we shall see hereafter, equally embody them; the rain-clouds in which they dwell; the heaven they inhabit;—all these, as it were, are parts of the divine body, and therefore by implication part of the god-king’s, who is but the avatar of his deified fathers. Hence, whatever affects the king, affects the sky, the crops, the rain, the people. There is even reason to believe that the man-god, representative of the ancestral spirit and tribal144 god, is therefore the representative and embodiment of the tribe itself—the soul of the nation.
L'茅tat, c’est moi 237is no mere personal boast of Louis Quatorze; it is the belated survival of an old and once very powerful belief, shared in old times by kings and peoples. Whatever hurts the king, hurts the people, and hurts by implication external nature. Whatever preserves the king from danger, preserves and saves the world and the nation.
Mr. Frazer has shown many strange results of these early beliefs—which he traces, however, to the supposed primitive animism, and not (as I have done) to the influence of the ghost-theory. Whichever interpretation we accept, however, his facts at least are equally valuable. He calls attention to the number of kingly taboos145 which are all intended to prevent the human god from endangering or imperilling his divine life, or from doing anything which might react hurtfully upon nature and the welfare of his people. The man-god is guarded by the strictest rules, and surrounded by precautions of the utmost complexity146. He may not set his sacred foot on the ground, because he is a son of heaven; he may not eat or drink with his sacred mouth certain dangerous, impure147, or unholy foods; he may not have his sacred hair cut, or his sacred nails pared; he must preserve intact his divine body, and every part of it—the incarnation of the community,—lest evil come of his imprudence or his folly148.
The Mikado, for example, was and still is regarded as an incarnation of the sun, the deity who rules the entire universe, gods and men included. The greatest care must therefore be taken both by him and of him. His whole life, down to its minutest details, must be so regulated that no act of his may upset the established order of nature. Lest he should touch the earth, he used to be carried wherever he went on men’s shoulders. He could not expose his sacred person to the open air, nor eat out of any but a perfectly new vessel149. In every way his sanctity and his health were jealously guarded, and he was treated like a person 238whose security was important to the whole course of nature.
Mr. Frazer quotes several similar examples, of which the most striking is that of the high pontiff of the Zapotecs, an ancient people of Southern Mexico. This spiritual lord, a true Pope or Lama, governed Yopaa, one of the chief cities of the kingdom, with absolute dominion150. He was looked upon as a god “whom earth was not worthy151 to hold or the sun to shine upon.” He profaned152 his sanctity if he touched the common ground with his holy foot. The officers who bore his palanquin on their shoulders were chosen from the members of the highest families; he hardly deigned153 to look on anything around him; those who met him prostrated154 themselves humbly155 on the ground, lest death should overtake them if they even saw his divine shadow. (Compare the apparition156 of Jahweh to Moses.) A rule of continence was ordinarily imposed upon him; but on certain days in the year which were high festivals, it was usual for him to get ceremonially and sacramentally drunk. On such days, we may be sure, the high gods peculiarly entered into him with the intoxicating pulque, and the ancestral spirits reinforced his godhead. While in this exalted157 state (“full of the god,” as a Greek or Roman would have said) the divine pontiff received a visit from one of the most beautiful of the virgins158 consecrated159 to the service of the gods. If the child she bore him was a son, it succeeded in due time to the throne of the Zapotecs. We have here again an instructive mixture of the various ideas out of which such divine kingship and godship is constructed.
It might seem at first sight a paradoxical corollary that people who thus safeguard and protect their divine king, the embodiment of nature, should also habitually and ceremonially kill him. Yet the apparent paradox160 is, from the point of view of the early worshipper, both natural and reasonable. We read of the Congo negroes that they have a supreme pontiff whom they regard as a god upon earth, and 239all-powerful in heaven. But, “if he were to die a natural death, they thought the world would perish, and the earth, which he alone sustained by his power and merit, would immediately be annihilated161.” This idea of a god as the creator and supporter of all things, without whom nothing would be, is of course a familiar component element of the most advanced theology. But many nations which worship human gods carry out the notion to its logical conclusion in the most rigorous manner. Since the god is a man, it would obviously be quite wrong to let him grow old and weak; since thereby162 the whole course of nature might be permanently enfeebled; rain would but dribble163; crops would grow thin; rivers would trickle164 away; and the race he ruled would dwindle165 to nothing. Hence senility must never overcome the sacred man-god; he must be killed in the fulness of his strength and health (say, about his thirtieth year), so that the indwelling spirit, yet young and fresh, may migrate unimpaired into the body of some newer and abler representative. Mr. Frazer was the first, I believe, to point out this curious result of primitive human reasoning, and to illustrate167 it by numerous and conclusive168 instances.
I cannot transcribe169 here in full Mr. Frazer’s admirable argument, with the examples which enforce it; but I must at least give so much of it in brief as will suffice for comprehension of our succeeding exposition. “No amount of care and precaution,” he says, “will prevent the man-god from growing old and feeble, and at last dying. His worshippers have to lay their account with this sad necessity and to meet it as best they can. The danger is a formidable one; for if the course of nature is dependent on the man-god’s life, what catastrophes170 may not be expected from the gradual enfeeblement of his powers and their final extinction171 in death? There is only one way of averting172 these dangers. The man-god must be killed as soon as he shows symptoms that his powers are beginning to fail, and his soul must be transferred to a 240vigorous successor before it has been seriously impaired166 by the threatened decay. The advantages of thus putting the man-god to death instead of allowing him to die of old age and disease are, to the savage63, obvious enough. For if the man-god dies what we call a natural death, it means, according to the savage, that his soul has either voluntarily departed from his body and refuses to return, or more commonly that it has been extracted or at least detained in its wanderings by a demon173 or sorcerer. In any of these cases the soul of the man-god is lost to his worshippers; and with it their prosperity is gone and their very existence endangered. Even if they could arrange to catch the soul of the dying god as it left his lips or his nostrils174 and so transfer it to a successor, this would not effect their purpose; for, thus dying of disease, his soul would necessarily leave his body in the last stage of weakness and exhaustion175, and as such it would continue to drag out a feeble existence in the body to which it might be transferred. Whereas by killing176 him his worshippers could, in the first place, make sure of catching177 his soul as it escaped and transferring it to a suitable successor; and, in the second place, by killing him before his natural force was abated178, they would secure that the world should not fall into decay with the decay of the man-god. Every purpose, therefore, was answered, and all dangers averted179 by thus killing the man-god and transferring his soul, while yet at its prime, to a vigorous successor.”
For this reason, when the pontiff of Congo grew old, and seemed likely to die, the man who was destined180 to succeed him in the pontificate entered his house with a rope or club, and strangled or felled him. The Ethiopian kings of Meroe were worshipped as gods; but when the priests thought fit, they sent a messenger to the king, ordering him to die, and alleging181 an oracle of the gods (or earlier kings) as the reason of their command. This command the kings always obeyed down to the reign of Ergamenes, a contemporary of Ptolemy II. of Egypt. So, when 241the king of Unyoro in Central Africa falls ill, or begins to show signs of approaching age, one of his own wives is compelled by custom to kill him. The kings of Sofala were regarded by their people as gods who could give rain or sunshine; but the slightest bodily blemish182, such as the loss of a tooth, was considered a sufficient reason for putting one of these powerful man-gods to death; he must be whole and sound, lest all nature pay for it. Many kings, human gods, divine priests, or sultans are enumerated183 by Mr. Frazer, each of whom must be similarly perfect in every limb and member. The same perfect manhood is still exacted of the Christian Pope, who, however, is not put to death in case of extreme age or feebleness. But there is reason to believe that the Grand Lama, the divine Pope of the Tibetan Buddhists184, is killed from time to time, so as to keep him “ever fresh and ever young,” and to allow the inherent deity within him to escape full-blooded into another embodiment.
In all these cases the divine king or priest is suffered by his people to retain office, or rather to house the godhead, till by some outward defect, or some visible warning of age or illness, he shows them that he is no longer equal to the proper performance of his divine functions. Until such symptoms appear, he is not put to death. Some peoples, however, as Mr. Frazer shows, have not thought it safe to wait for even the slightest symptom of decay before killing the human god or king; they have destroyed him in the plenitude of his life and vigour185. In such cases, the people fix a term beyond which the king may not reign, and at the close of which he must die, the term being short enough to prevent the probability of degeneration meanwhile. In some parts of Southern India, for example, the term was fixed186 at twelve years; at the expiration187 of that time, the king had to cut himself to pieces visibly, before the great local idol188, of which he was in all probability the human equivalent. “Whoever desires to reign other twelve years,” says an early observer, “and to undertake 242this martyrdom for the sake of the idol, has to be present looking on at this; and from that place they raise him up as king.”
The king of Calicut, on the Malabar coast, had also to cut his throat in public after a twelve years’ reign. But towards the end of the seventeenth century, the rule was so far relaxed that the king was allowed to retain the throne, and probably the godship, if he could protect himself against all comers. As long as he was strong enough to guard his position, it was held that he was strong enough to retain the divine power unharmed. The King of the Wood at Aricia held his priesthood and ghostly kingship on the same condition; as long as he could hold his own against all comers, he might continue to be priest; but any runaway189 slave had the right of attacking the king; and if he could kill him, he became the King of the Wood till some other in turn slew him. This curious instance has been amply and learnedly discussed by Mr. Frazer, and forms the central subject of his admirable treatise190.
More often still, however, the divine priesthood, kingship, or godhead was held for one year alone, for a reason which we shall more fully comprehend after we have considered the annual gods of cultivation. The most interesting example, and the most cognate191 to our present enquiry, is that of the Babylonian custom cited by Berosus. During the five days of the festival called the Sac忙a, a prisoner condemned192 to death was dressed in the king’s robes, seated on the king’s throne, allowed to eat, drink, and order whatever he chose, and even permitted to sleep with the king’s concubines. But at the end of five days, he was stripped of his royal insignia, scourged193, and crucified. I need hardly point out the crucial importance of this singular instance, occurring in a country within the Semitic circle. Mr. Frazer rightly concludes that the condemned man was meant to die in the king’s stead; was himself, in point of fact, a king substitute; and was therefore invested for the time being with the fullest 243prerogatives of royalty194. Doubtless we have here to deal with a modification195 of an older and sterner rule, which compelled the king himself to be slain196 annually197. “When the time drew near for the king to be put to death,” says Mr. Frazer, “he abdicated198 for a few days, during which a temporary king reigned and suffered in his stead. At first the temporary king may have been an innocent person, possibly a member of the king’s own family; but with the growth of civilisation, the sacrifice of an innocent person would be revolting to the public sentiment, and accordingly a condemned criminal would be invested with the brief and fatal sovereignty.... We shall find other examples of a criminal representing a dying god. For we must not forget that the king is slain in his character of a god, his death and resurrection, as the only means of perpetuating199 the divine life unimpaired, being deemed necessary for the salvation200 of his people and the world.” I need not point out the importance of such ideas as assisting in the formation of a groundwork for the doctrines201 of Christianity.
Other evidence on this point, of a more indirect nature, has been collected by Mr. Frazer; and still more will come out in subsequent chapters. For the present I will only add that the annual character of some such sacrifices seems to be derived202 from the analogy of the annually-slain gods of cultivation, whose origin and meaning we have yet to examine. These gods, being intimately connected with each year’s crop, especially with crops of cereals, pulses, and other annual grains, were naturally put to death at the beginning of each agricultural year, and as a rule about the period of the spring equinox,—say, at Easter. Starting from that analogy, as I believe, many races thought it fit that the other divine person, the man-god king, should also be put to death annually, often about the same period. And I will even venture to suggest the possibility that the institution of annual consuls203, archons, etc., may have something to do with such annual sacrifices. 244Certainly the legend of Codrus at Athens and of the Regifugium at Rome seem to point to an ancient king-slaying custom.
At any rate, it is now certain that the putting to death of a public man-god was a common incident of many religions. And it is also clear that in many cases travellers and other observers have made serious mistakes by not understanding the inner nature of such god-slaying practices. For instance it is now pretty certain that Captain Cook was killed by the people of Tahiti just because he was a god, perhaps in order to keep his spirit among them. It is likewise clear that many rites55, commonly interpreted as human sacrifices to a god, are really god-slayings; often the god in one of his human avatars seems to be offered to himself, in his more permanent embodiment as an idol or stone image. This idea of sacrificing a god, himself to himself, is one which will frequently meet us hereafter; and I need hardly point out that, as “the sacrifice of the mass,” it has even enshrined itself in the central sanctuary204 of the Christian religion.
Christianity apparently205 took its rise among a group of irregular northern Israelites, the Galil忙ans, separated from the mass of their coreligionists, the Jews, by the intervention206 of a heretical and doubtfully Israelitish wedge, the Samaritans. The earliest believers in Jesus were thus intermediate between Jews and Syrians. According to their own tradition, they were first described by the name of Christians at Antioch; and they appear on many grounds to have attracted attention first in Syria in general, and particularly at Damascus. We may be sure, therefore, that their tenets from the first would contain many elements more or less distinctly Syrian, and especially such elements as formed ideas held in common by almost all the surrounding peoples. As a matter of fact. Christianity, as we shall see hereafter, may be regarded historically as a magma of the most fundamental religious ideas of the Mediterranean basin, and especially of the eastern 245Mediterranean, grafted207 on to the Jewish cult3 and the Jewish scriptures208, and clustering round the personality of the man-god, Jesus. It is interesting therefore to note that in Syria and the north Semitic area the principal cult was the cult of just such a slain man-god, Adonis,—originally, as Mr. Frazer shows, an annually slain man-god, afterwards put to death and bewailed in effigy209, after a fashion of which we shall see not a few examples in the sequel, and of which the Mass itself is but an etherealised survival. Similarly in Phrygia, where Christianity early made a considerable impression, the most devoutly210 worshipped among the gods was Attis, who, as Professor Ramsay suggests, was almost certainly embodied in early times as an annually slain man-god, and whose cult was always carried on by means of a divine king-priest, bearing himself the name of Attis. Though in later days the priest did not actually immolate211 himself every year, yet on the yearly feast of the god, at the spring equinox (corresponding to the Christian Easter) he drew blood from his own arms, as a substitute no doubt for the earlier practice of self-slaughter. And I may add in this connexion (to anticipate once more) that in all such godslaughtering rites, immense importance was always attached to the blood of the man-god; just as in Christianity “the blood of Christ” remains212 to the end of most saving efficacy. Both Adonis and Attis were conceived as young men in the prime of life, like the victims chosen for other god-slaying rites.
I have dealt in this chapter only in very brief summary with this vast and interesting question of human deities. Mr. Frazer has devoted to it two large and fascinating volumes. His work is filled with endless facts as to such man-gods themselves, the mode of their vicarious or expiatory213 slaughter on behalf of the community, the gentler substitution of condemned criminals for the divine kings in more civilised countries, the occasional mitigation whereby the divine king merely draws his own blood instead 246of killing himself, or where an effigy is made to take the place of the actual victim, and so forth ad infinitum. All these valuable suggestions and ideas I could not reproduce here without transcribing214 in full many pages of The Golden Bough215, where Mr. Frazer has marshalled the entire evidence on the point with surprising effectiveness. I will content myself therefore by merely referring readers to that most learned yet interesting and amusing book. I will only say in conclusion that what most concerns us here is Mr. Frazer’s ample and convincing proof of the large part played by such slain (and rerisen) man-gods in the religion of those self-same east-Mediterranean countries where Christianity was first evolved as a natural product of the popular imagination. The death and resurrection of the humanly-embodied god form indeed the keynote of the greatest and most sacred religions of western Asia and northeastern Africa.
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1
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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abstruse
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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tributaries
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| n. 支流 | |
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deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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enquire
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| v.打听，询问；调查，查问 | |
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nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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merges
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| （使）混合( merge的第三人称单数 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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supplementary
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| adj.补充的，附加的 | |
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14
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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16
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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cults
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| n.迷信( cult的名词复数 )；狂热的崇拜；（有极端宗教信仰的）异教团体 | |
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components
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| （机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分 | |
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19
component
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| n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的 | |
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20
analytical
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| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
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synthetic
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| adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品 | |
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22
reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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23
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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24
inaccurate
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| adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的 | |
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25
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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27
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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28
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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29
miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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30
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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31
promulgated
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| v.宣扬（某事物）( promulgate的过去式和过去分词 )；传播；公布；颁布（法令、新法律等） | |
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32
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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33
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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34
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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35
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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37
crux
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| adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点 | |
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38
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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40
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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41
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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42
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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43
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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44
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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45
permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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46
exalt
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| v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升 | |
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47
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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48
grovelling
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| adj.卑下的，奴颜婢膝的v.卑躬屈节，奴颜婢膝( grovel的现在分词 )；趴 | |
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49
abjectness
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| 凄惨； 绝望； 卑鄙； 卑劣 | |
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50
asceticism
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| n.禁欲主义 | |
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51
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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52
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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53
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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54
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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55
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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56
ascetics
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| n.苦行者，禁欲者，禁欲主义者( ascetic的名词复数 ) | |
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57
intoxicating
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| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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58
narcotic
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| n.麻醉药，镇静剂；adj.麻醉的，催眠的 | |
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59
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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60
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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61
alcoholic
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| adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者 | |
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62
attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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63
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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65
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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66
skulls
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| 颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜 | |
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67
oracles
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| 神示所( oracle的名词复数 )； 神谕； 圣贤； 哲人 | |
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oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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69
migratory
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| n.候鸟，迁移 | |
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70
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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divination
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| n.占卜，预测 | |
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72
creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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73
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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74
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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75
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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76
vindicate
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| v.为…辩护或辩解，辩明；证明…正确 | |
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77
abeyance
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| n.搁置，缓办，中止，产权未定 | |
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utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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79
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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80
intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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81
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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prophesy
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| v.预言；预示 | |
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83
afflatus
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| n.灵感，神感 | |
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84
wield
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| vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等) | |
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85
withhold
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| v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡 | |
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86
appease
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| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
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87
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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89
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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sect
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| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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inauguration
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| n.开幕、就职典礼 | |
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96
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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97
consecration
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| n.供献，奉献，献祭仪式 | |
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98
abstain
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| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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100
apotheosis
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| n.神圣之理想；美化；颂扬 | |
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101
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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102
reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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103
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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104
genealogies
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| n.系谱，家系，宗谱( genealogy的名词复数 ) | |
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105
ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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106
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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107
votaries
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| n.信徒( votary的名词复数 )；追随者；（天主教）修士；修女 | |
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108
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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109
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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110
apotheoses
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| n.尊为神圣( apotheosis的名词复数 )；神化；美化；颂扬 | |
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111
reactionary
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| n.反动者，反动主义者；adj.反动的，反动主义的，反对改革的 | |
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112
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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113
avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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114
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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115
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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116
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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117
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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118
converging
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| adj.收敛[缩]的，会聚的，趋同的v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的现在分词 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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119
prerogatives
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| n.权利( prerogative的名词复数 )；特权；大主教法庭；总督委任组成的法庭 | |
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120
coerced
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| v.迫使做( coerce的过去式和过去分词 )；强迫；（以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段）控制；支配 | |
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121
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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122
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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123
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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124
mediator
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| n.调解人，中介人 | |
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125
deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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126
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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127
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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128
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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129
slew
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| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
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130
smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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131
dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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132
mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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133
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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134
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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135
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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136
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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137
reindeer
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| n.驯鹿 | |
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138
dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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139
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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140
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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141
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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142
dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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143
embody
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| vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录 | |
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144
tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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145
taboos
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| 禁忌( taboo的名词复数 )； 忌讳； 戒律； 禁忌的事物（或行为） | |
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146
complexity
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| n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物 | |
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147
impure
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| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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148
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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149
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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150
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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151
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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152
profaned
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| v.不敬( profane的过去式和过去分词 )；亵渎，玷污 | |
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153
deigned
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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154
prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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155
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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156
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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157
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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158
virgins
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| 处女，童男( virgin的名词复数 )； 童贞玛利亚（耶稣之母） | |
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159
consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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160
paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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161
annihilated
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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162
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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163
dribble
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| v.点滴留下，流口水；n.口水 | |
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164
trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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165
dwindle
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| v.逐渐变小（或减少） | |
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166
impaired
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| adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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167
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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168
conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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169
transcribe
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| v.抄写，誉写；改编(乐曲)；复制，转录 | |
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170
catastrophes
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| n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难 | |
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171
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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172
averting
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| 防止，避免( avert的现在分词 )； 转移 | |
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173
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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174
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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175
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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176
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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177
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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178
abated
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| 减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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179
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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180
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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181
alleging
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| 断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 ) | |
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182
blemish
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| v.损害；玷污；瑕疵，缺点 | |
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183
enumerated
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| v.列举，枚举，数( enumerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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184
Buddhists
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| n.佛教徒( Buddhist的名词复数 ) | |
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185
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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186
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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187
expiration
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| n.终结，期满，呼气，呼出物 | |
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188
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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189
runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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190
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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191
cognate
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| adj.同类的，同源的，同族的；n.同家族的人，同源词 | |
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192
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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193
scourged
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| 鞭打( scourge的过去式和过去分词 )； 惩罚，压迫 | |
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194
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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195
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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196
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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197
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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198
abdicated
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| 放弃（职责、权力等）( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 退位，逊位 | |
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199
perpetuating
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| perpetuate的现在进行式 | |
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200
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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201
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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202
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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203
consuls
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| 领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次） | |
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204
sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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205
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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206
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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207
grafted
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| 移植( graft的过去式和过去分词 )； 嫁接； 使（思想、制度等）成为（…的一部份）； 植根 | |
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208
scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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209
effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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210
devoutly
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| adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地 | |
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211
immolate
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| v.牺牲 | |
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212
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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213
expiatory
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| adj.赎罪的，补偿的 | |
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214
transcribing
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| （用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的现在分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音） | |
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215
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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