1. The ancients were very violent in their expres- sions of sorrow. Virgil represents the sister of Dido as tearing her face with her nails, and beating her breasts with her fists (-^n. iv, 672). Some of the learned think that that law of Solon*s which was transferred by the Romans into the Twelve Tables (Cicero, De Leg. ii, 23), thai women in mourning Aould not eeratch their cheeks (Corp, Jur. Civ. v, 66, 67, ed. Godoftedus, 1588), derived its origin from this law of Moses (I^v. xix, 28). But, however this opinion may be questioned, it would appear that the simple tearing of the flesh out of grief and anguish of spirit is taken in other parts of Scripture as a mark of affection : thus (Jer. xlviii, 87), " Every head shall be bald, every beard clipped, and upon all cuttings." Again (ch. xvi, 6): "Both the great and the small shall die in the land : they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves." So (ch. xli, 6) : ** There came from Samaria fourscore men having their heads shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings to the house of the Lord.'* A notion apparently existed that self-inflicted baldness or mutilation had a propitiatory efficacy with respect to the manes of the dead, perhaps as represent- ing, in a modified degree, the solemnity of human or annual sacrifices. Herodotus (iv, 71) describes the Scj^hian usage in the case of a deceased king, for whose obsequies not fewer than six human victims, besides offerings of animals and other effects, were considered necessary. An extreme case of funereal
bloodshed is represented on the occasion of the burial of Patrodus, when four horses, two dogs, and twelve Trojan captives are offered up (//. xxiii, 171, 176). Originally used with human or animal sacrifices at fu- nerals, after these had gone out of use, the minor propi- tiatory acts of self-laceration and depilation continued alone (II. xxiii, 141; Od. iv, 197; Virg. jEn. ui, 67, with Servius ad loc. xii, 605 ; Eurip. Ale. ^.425; Sen- eca, Hippol. V, 1176, 1193; Ovid, Eleg. I, iii, 3; Tibul- lus, Eleg. I, i, 1). Plutarch says that some barbari- ans mudlate themselves (De ConsoL ad ApoUon. p. 118, vol. vi, Reiske). He also says that Solon, by the ad- vice of Epimenides, curtailed the Athenian practice in this respect (Solon. 12-21, i, 184, 194). Such being the ancient heathen practice, it is not surprising that the law should forbid similar practices in every case in which they might be used or misconstrued in a pro- pitiatory sense. "Te shall not make cuttings /»■ (propter) the dead,** ^tA (Lev. xix, 28 ; see Geseni- us, Thes. HA. p. 731 ; Spencer, De Leg. Hebr. II, xix, 404, 405). See Gbief.
2. But the practice of self-mutOation as an act of worship belonged also to heathen religions ceremonies not fkinereal. The priests of Baal, a Syrian and also an Assyrian deity, cut themselves with knives to pro- pitiate the god " after their manner** (1 Kings xviii, 28). Herodotus says that the Carians, who resided in Europe, cut their foreheads with knives at festivals of Isis ; in this respect exceeding the Egyptians, who beat themselves on those occasions (Herod, ii, 61). This shows that the practice was not then at least an Egyp- tian one. Lncian, speaking of the Syrian priestly at- tendants of this mock deity, says that, using violent gestures, they cut their arms and tongues with swords (Lucian, Asknu^ c. 37, vol. ii, 102, Amst ; De Dea Syr. U, 658, 681 ; comp. Ezek. viii, 14). Similar practices in the worship of Bellona are mentioned by Lucan (Phars. i, 560), and alluded to by iElius Lampridius (Comm. p. 209), by Tertullian (Apol. 9), and Lactantius (Div. In- stil, i, c. 21, 29, Paris). Herodotus, speaking of means used for aliasing a storm, uses the words ivrofm wot- firvTsg, which may mean cutting the flesh, but more probably offering human sacrifices (Herod, vii, 191 ; il, 119, with Schweighftuser*s note ; see also Virg. ^En. ii,116; Lucr.i,85). Agreeably to the inference which all this frimishes, we find Tacitus declare (Hist, i, 4) that "the gods care, not for our safety, hut pumsh- ment." In fact, it was a current opinion among the ancient heathen that the gods were jealous of human happiness ; and in no part of the heathen world did this opinion mdpprevail, according to Sanchoniathon's ac- count, than among the inhabitants of those very coun- tries which surrounded tliat hind where God designed to place his people IsraeL The prohibiten, therefore, is directed against practices prevailing, not among the Efzyptians whom the Israelites were leaving, but among the Syrians, to whom they were about to become neigh- bors (Selden, De Diis Sgris, lib. ii, c. 1). The spirit of Islam is less favorable than that of heathenism to displays of this kind ; yet exam- ples of them are not of rare oc- currence even in the Moslem countries of Western Asia, in- cluding Palestine itself. The annexed figure is copied from one which is represented in many of the books of travel in .Egypt and Palestine that were printed in the seventeenth cen- tury. It is described by the missionary Eugene Roger (La ^=^=^ Terre Samcte, etc., 1646, p. 252) as representmg "one of those ^'^^^^^^ ^^^' calenders or devotees whom the Arabs name Balhoaua,** and whom the simple people honor as holy martyrs. He appears in public with a