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Xiaoyu Ruan

Platform Embedded Security

Technology Revealed
Xiaoyu Ruan

ISBN 978-1-4302-6571-9 e-ISBN 978-1-4302-6572-6

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4302-6572-6

© Apress 2014

Platform Embedded Security Technology Revealed

Xiaoyu Ruan
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About the Author

Xiaoyu Ruan is a security researcher

with the Platform Engineering Group at Intel Corporation. He is

responsible for designing cryptography infrastructure and security
applications for Intel’s security and management engine. Xiaoyu
obtained his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in computer engineering from
the North Dakota State University in 2007 and 2005, respectively,
and his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Fudan University
of China in 2003. He is an author of 15 peer-reviewed journal and
conference papers and holds three U.S. patents in the areas of
cryptography, security, and information theory.
About the Technical Reviewer

Hareesh Khattri received his M.S.

degree in electrical and computer engineering from North Dakota

State University. He has worked as a computer security researcher at
Intel Corporation since 2007. As part of his work at Intel
Corporation, Hareesh has done security evaluation of multiple
generations of Intel Manageability Engine technology and associated
platform features.
Introduction
Malware, virus, e-mail scam, identity theft, evil maid, password
logger, screen scraper…
Cyber security concerns everyone. Computers can be your
trusted friends or traitors. The Internet is a scary place. Going on
the Internet is like walking the streets of a crime-ridden
neighborhood. Cyber criminals work to steal your privacy, money,
assets, and even identity. Cyber-attacks are intangible, invisible, and
hard to detect. Due to the increasing popularity of mobile devices,
the danger is several-fold worse today than it was seven years ago.
Technologies that created the security problem as a side effect
are supposed to resolve the problem. Prevention is the key—the
potential loss and cost of dealing with incidents is simply too high to
afford.
However, it is more difficult to defend a castle than to build it.
The mitigation against cyber-attacks is complicated and involves
multiple layers of building blocks:
Algorithm: An algorithm is a set of mathematical calculations
that realize a specific cryptographic functionality, such as
encryption, digital signature, hashing, and so forth.
Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules and messages that govern
the transmission of data between two entities. Security
protocols are always built on cryptographic algorithms.
Application: An application is a computer program that
accomplishes a specific task, such as authenticating a user to a
protected database. Applications are built with algorithms and
protocols as the backbone.
Algorithms and protocols are often standardized and used across
the industry for compatibility and interoperability. On the other hand,
applications may be standardized, but in most cases they are
invented and deployed by individual vendors to distinguish their
products from competitors.
 Algorithms, protocols, and applications can be realized in
software, hardware, or combinations of both. Security measures that
are rooted in hardware are more robust than those rooted in
software, because attacks against well-designed hardware-based
protections not only require advanced expertise, but also cost
significant resources.
Intel is committed to delivering state-of-the-art solutions for
supporting a safe computing environment. The embedded engine
built in most Intel platforms today is a major achievement of that
effort. It features hardware implementations for standard algorithms
and protocols, as well as innovative applications that are exclusively
available on Intel products, including:
Privacy safeguard with EPID (enhanced privacy identification)
Strong authentication and secure transaction with IPT (identity
protection technology)
Verified boot process
…and many more
Thanks to these protections, users are largely shielded from
dangers when they are surfing the Web. With peace of mind, people
can enjoy all the good things that technologies have to offer.
This book takes the readers through an extensive tour of the
embedded engine, exploring its internal architecture, security
models, threat mitigations, and design details of algorithms,
protocols, and interesting applications.
The journey begins now.
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the strong support
from my manager, Michael Berglund, and a number of colleagues,
including Vincent von Bokern, William Stevens, Daniel Nemiroff,
Purushottam Goel, Andrew Fry, and many others, who provided me
with invaluable advice. I wholeheartedly appreciate the help.
Special thanks go to Hareesh Khattri of the Security Center of
Excellence at Intel. With his unique expertise and attention to detail,
Hareesh performed an extremely thorough review that significantly
improved the quality of the manuscript.
I would also like to express my gratitude to editors Patrick
Hauke, Corbin Collins, Melissa Maldonado, Steve Weiss, and Kimberly
Burton-Weisman. I am truly impressed by their skills, dedication, and
patience.
Contents
Chapter 1:​Cyber Security in the Mobile Age

Three Pillars of Mobile Computing

Power Efficiency

Internet Connectivity

Security

BYOD

Incident Case Study

eBay Data Breach

Target Data Breach

OpenSSL Heartbleed

Key Takeaways

Strong Authentication

Network Management

Boot Integrity

Hardware-Based Protection

Open-Source Software Best Practice

Third-Party Software Best Practice

Security Development Lifecycle

Assessment

Architecture

Design

Implementation

Deployment

CVSS

Limitations

References

Chapter 2:​Intel’s Embedded Solutions:​from Management

to Security

Management Engine vs.​Intel AMT

Intel AMT vs.​Intel vPro Technology

Management Engine Overview

Hardware

Overlapped I/​O

Firmware

Software

Platform and System Management

Software Solutions

Hardware Solutions
In-Band Solutions

Out-of-Band Solutions

Intel AMT Overview

BIOS Extension

Local Management Service and Tray Icon

Remote Management

The Engine’s Evolvement:​from Management to Security

Embedded System as Security Solution

Security Applications at a Glance

EPID

PAVP

IPT

Boot Guard

Virtual Security Core:​ARM TrustZone

Secure Mode and Nonsecure Mode

Memory Isolation

Bus Isolation

Physical Isolation vs.​Virtual Isolation

References
Chapter 3:​Building Blocks of the Security and Management
Engine

Random Number Generation

Message Authentication

Hash with Multiple Calls

Symmetric-Key Encryption

AES

DES/​3DES

Asymmetric-Key Encryption:​RSA

Key Pair Generation and Validation

Encryption and Decryption

Digital Signature

RSA

ECDSA

Hardware Acceleration

Other Cryptography Functions

Secure Storage

Debugging

Debug Messaging

Special Production-Signed Firmware Based on Unique Part

ID
Secure Timer

Host-Embedded Communication Interface

Direct Memory Access to Host Memory

References

Chapter 4:​The Engine:​Safeguarding Itself before

Safeguarding Others

Access to Host Memory

Communication with the CPU

Triggering Power Flow

Security Requirements

Confidentiality

Integrity

Availability

Threat Analysis and Mitigation

Load Integrity

Memory Integrity

Memory Encryption

Task Isolation

Firmware Update and Downgrade

Published Attacks
“Introducing Ring -3 Rootkits”

References

Chapter 5:​Privacy at the Next Level:​Intel’s Enhanced

Privacy Identification (EPID) Technology

Redefining Privacy for the Mobile Age

Passive Anonymity

Active Anonymity

Processor Serial Number

EPID

Revocation

Signature Generation and Verification

SIGMA

Verifier’s Certificate

Messages Breakdown

Implementation of EPID

Key Recovery

Attack Mitigation

Applications of EPID

Next Generation of EPID

Two-way EPID
Optimization

References

Chapter 6:​Boot with Integrity, or Don’t Boot

Boot Attack

Evil Maid

BIOS and UEFI

BIOS Alteration

Software Replacement

Jailbreaking

Trusted Platform Module (TPM)

Platform Configuration Register

Field Programmable Fuses

Field Programmable Fuses vs.​Flash Storage

Field Programmable Fuse Task

Intel Boot Guard

Operating System Requirements for Boot Integrity

OEM Configuration

Measured Boot

Verified Boot

Manifests
Verification Flow

References

Chapter 7:​Trust Computing, Backed by the Intel Platform

Trust Technology

TPM Overview

Cryptography Subsystem

Storage

Endorsement Key

Attestation

Binding and Sealing

Intel Platform Trust Technology

Cryptography Algorithms

Endorsement Key Storage

Endorsement Key Revocation

Endorsement Certificate

Supporting Security Firmware Applications

Integrated vs.​Discrete TPM

References

Chapter 8:​Unleashing Premium Entertainment with

Hardware-Based Content Protection Technology

Rights Protection
DRM Schemes

Device Key Management

Rights Management

Playback

UltraViolet

End-to-End Content Protection

Content Server

License Server

Software Stack

External Display

Weak Points

Intel’s Hardware-Based Content Protection

Protected Audio and Video Path (PAVP)

Device Key Provisioning

Rights Management

Intel Wireless Display

Authentication and Key Exchange

Content Protection on TrustZone

References
Chapter 9:​Breaking the Boundaries with Dynamically
Loaded Applications

Closed-Door Model

DAL Overview

DAL Architecture

Loading an Applet

Secure Timer

Host Storage Protection

Security Considerations

Reviewing and Signing Process

References

Chapter 10:​Intel Identity Protection Technology:​the

Robust, Convenient, and Cost-Effective Way to Deter
Identity Theft

One-Time Password

HOTP

TOTP

Transaction Signing

OTP Tokens

Embedded OTP and OCRA

Token Installation
TOTP and OCRA Generation

Highlights and Lowlights

Protected Transaction Display

Drawing a Sprite

Gathering the User’s PIN Input

Firmware Architecture

Embedded PKI and NFC

References

Chapter 11:​Looking Ahead:​Tomorrow’s Innovations Built

on Today’s Foundation

Isolated Computing Environment

Security-Hardening Measures

Basic Utilities

Anonymous Authentication and Secure Session

Establishment

Protected Input and Output

Dynamic Application Loader

Summary of Firmware Ingredients

Software Guard Extensions

More Excitement to Come

References
Index
Contents at a Glance
Chapter 1:​Cyber Security in the Mobile Age

Chapter 2:​Intel’s Embedded Solutions:​from Management to

Security

Chapter 3:​Building Blocks of the Security and Management Engine

Chapter 4:​The Engine:​Safeguarding Itself before Safeguarding

Others

Chapter 5:​Privacy at the Next Level:​Intel’s Enhanced Privacy

Identification (EPID) Technology

Chapter 6:​Boot with Integrity, or Don’t Boot

Chapter 7:​Trust Computing, Backed by the Intel Platform Trust

Technology

Chapter 8:​Unleashing Premium Entertainment with Hardware-Based

Content Protection Technology

Chapter 9:​Breaking the Boundaries with Dynamically Loaded

Applications
Chapter 10:​Intel Identity Protection Technology:​the Robust,
Convenient, and Cost-Effective Way to Deter Identity Theft

Chapter 11:​Looking Ahead:​Tomorrow’s Innovations Built on Today’s

Foundation

Index
© Xiaoyu Ruan 2014
Xiaoyu Ruan, Platform Embedded Security Technology Revealed,
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4302-6572-6_1

1. Cyber Security in the Mobile Age

Xiaoyu Ruan1
(1) CA, USA

The number of new security threats identified every month

continues to rise. We have concluded that security has now
become the third pillar of computing, joining energy-efficient
performance and Internet connectivity in importance.
—Paul S. Otellini

This book is an in-depth technical introduction to an embedded

system developed and manufactured by Intel Corporation. The
embedded system is not an independent product; it is a native
ingredient inside most of Intel’s computer product portfolio, which
includes servers, desktops, workstations, laptops, tablets, and
smartphones. Although not well known to most end users, the
embedded system plays a critical role in many consumer applications
that people use every day. As such, its architecture, implementation,
and security features are worth studying.
Depending on the end product in which the embedded engine
resides, the engine is denominated differently:
For the embedded system shipped with computing devices
featuring Intel Core family microprocessors, it is called the
management engine.
 For the embedded system shipped with computing devices
featuring the Intel Atom system-on-chip (SoC), it is called the
security engine. Note that not all Atom platforms use the
security engine introduced in this book.
For the sake of convenience, this book refers to it as the security
and management engine, the embedded engine, or simply the
engine.

Three Pillars of Mobile Computing

In August 2010, Intel announced the acquisition of security giant
McAfee. Paul S. Otellini, Intel’s president and CEO at the time,
emphasized that “security has become the third pillar of computing”
when commenting on the investment. The other two pillars of
computing are energy-efficient performance and Internet
connectivity.
The three pillars summarize the core characteristics for
computing, especially mobile computing. Intel’s security and
management engine is an embedded component that serves as the
backbone that supports the three pillars for multiple forms of
computers, including mobile endpoints, desktops, workstations, and
servers. As its name indicates, the engine’s main functionalities are
security and management. In the meantime, power efficiency and
connectivity are also addressed in its design.

Power Efficiency
Mobile devices distinguish themselves from stationary platforms in
mobility and independence of AC (alternating current) power supply.
The battery life is hence an important factor for evaluating the
quality of a mobile product. Before the battery technology sees a
major breakthrough, computer manufacturers have to strive to
deliver hardware and software with low energy consumption.
A number of general strategies can be employed to save power:
 Decrease the processor’s clock frequency, with the potential
tradeoff of performance. For example, the security and
management engine runs at a significantly lower speed than the
platform’s main processor. This is possible without degrading the
user experiences, because the engine is not designed to be
involved in performance-critical paths.
Dim the display screen and shut down devices that are not
being used or place them in sleep states. For example, after
being idle for a configurable amount of time, like 30 seconds,
the security and management engine may completely power off
or run in a low-power state with very low clock frequency.
Events that may wake up the engine to its full-power state
include device interrupts and messages received from the host
operating system.
Simplify and adjust hardware and software logic. Redundant
routines should be removed. For example, applying blinding to
public key operations is meaningless, because there is no secret
to be secured from side-channel attacks; whenever feasible,
favor performance over memory consumptions for runtime
programs. These are part of the design guidelines for the
security and management engine.

Internet Connectivity
Needless to say, the majority of applications running on a mobile
device rely on network connections to function. Looking into the
architecture, there are two models of splitting the workload between
the local device and the cloud:
The main functionality of the cloud is storage, for contents such
as movies, music, and personal files. The local device carries out
most of computational tasks. This model requires stronger
computing capability of the mobile devices, which may imply
higher prices.
Besides storage, the cloud also performs a certain amount of
computations for the device. The device is responsible for only
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
and his face painted with the latter, whilst individuals would often rush out
of their [pg 212] houses to lay their hands upon him that they might thus
transfer to him their sin, guilt, trouble, and death. This parading done, he is
taken through a temporary sacred shed of palm and other tree branches,
and especially of the former, the Igbodu522 and to its first division, where
many persons might follow him, and through a second where only the chiefs
and other very important persons might escort and accompany him to, and
to a third where only the Babalawo [priest] and his official assistant, the
Ajigbona, are permitted to enter with him. Here, after he himself has given
out or started his last song, which is to be taken up by the large assembly
of people who will have been waiting to hear his last word or his last groan,
his head is taken off and his blood offered to the gods. The announcement
of his last word or his last groan heard and taken up by the people, would
be a signal for joy, gladness, and thanksgiving, and for drum beating and
dancing, as an expression of their gratification because their sacrifice has
been accepted, the divine wrath is appeased, and the prospect of prosperity
or increased prosperity assured.”523

In Siam it used to be the custom on one day of the year to single out a
woman broken down by debauchery, and carry her on a litter through all the
streets to the music of drums and hautboys. The mob insulted her and
pelted her with dirt; and after having carried her through the whole city,
they threw her on a dunghill or a hedge of thorns outside the ramparts,
forbidding her ever to enter the walls again. They believed that the woman
thus drew upon herself all the malign influences of the air and of evil
spirits.524 In Japan the “tsuina or oni-yarahi, that is to say, demon expelling,
is a sort of drama in which disease, or more generally ill-luck, is personified,
and driven away with threats [pg 213] and a show of violence. Like the oho-
harahi,525 it was performed on the last day of the year. This association is
only natural. The demons of the tsuina are personified wintry influences,
with the diseases which they bring with them, while the oho-harahi is
intended to cleanse the people from sin and uncleanness, things closely
related to disease, as well as from disease itself. Though probably of
Chinese origin, the tsuina is a tolerably ancient rite. It is alluded to in the
Nihongi under the date a.d. 689. It was at one time performed at Court on
an imposing scale. Four bands of twenty youths, each wearing a four-eyed
mask, and each carrying a halberd in the left hand, marched simultaneously
from the four gates of the palace, driving the devils before them. Another
account of this ceremony says that a man disguised himself as the demon of
pestilence, in which garb he was shot at and driven off by the courtiers
armed with peach-wood bows and arrows of reed. Peach-wood staves were
used for the same purpose. There was formerly a practice at Asakusa in
Tokio on the last day of the year for a man got up as a devil to be chased
round the pagoda there by another wearing a mask. After this 3,000 tickets
were scrambled for by the spectators. These were carried away and pasted
up over the doors as a charm against pestilence.”526 The Battas of Sumatra
offer either a red horse or a buffalo as a public sacrifice to purify the land
and obtain the favour of the gods. Formerly, it is said, a man was bound to
the same stake as the buffalo, and when they killed the animal, the man
was driven away; no one might receive him, converse with him, or give him
food.527 Doubtless he [pg 214] was supposed to carry away the sins and
misfortunes of the people.

Human scapegoats, as we shall see presently, were well known in classical

antiquity, and even in mediæval Europe the custom seems not to have been
wholly extinct. In the town of Halberstadt, in Thüringen, there was a church
said to have been founded by Charlemagne. In this church every year they
chose a man, who was believed to be stained with heinous sins. On the first
day of Lent he was brought to the church, dressed in mourning garb, with
his head muffled up. At the close of the service he was turned out of the
church. During the forty days of Lent he perambulated the city barefoot,
neither entering the churches nor speaking to any one. The canons took it
in turn to feed him. After midnight he was allowed to sleep in the streets.
On the day before Good Friday, after the consecration of the holy oil, he was
readmitted to the church and absolved from his sins. The people gave him
money. He was called Adam, and was now believed to be in a state of
innocence.528 At Entlebuch, in Switzerland, down to the close of the
eighteenth century, the custom of annually expelling a scapegoat was
preserved in the ceremony of driving “Posterli” from the village into the
lands of the neighbouring village. “Posterli” was represented by a lad
disguised as an old witch or as a goat or an ass. Amid a deafening noise of
horns, clarionets, bells, whips, and so forth, he was driven out. Sometimes
“Posterli” was represented by a puppet, which was drawn on a sledge and
left in a corner of the neighbouring village. The ceremony took place on the
Thursday evening of the last week but one before Christmas.529

In Munich down to about a hundred years ago the expulsion of the devil
from the city used to be annually enacted on Ascension Day. On the Eve of
Ascension Day a man disguised as a devil was chased through the streets,
[pg 215] which were then narrow and dirty in contrast to the broad, well-
kept thoroughfares, lined with imposing buildings, which now distinguish the
capital of Bavaria. His pursuers were dressed as witches and wizards and
provided with the indispensable crutches, brooms, and pitchforks which
make up the outfit of these uncanny beings. While the devil fled before
them, the troop of maskers made after him with wild whoops and halloos,
and when they overtook him they ducked him in puddles or rolled him on
dunghills. In this way the demon at last succeeded in reaching the palace,
where he put off his hideous and now filthy disguise and was rewarded for
his vicarious sufferings by a copious meal. The devilish costume which he
had thrown off was then stuffed with hay and straw and conveyed to a
particular church (the Frauenkirche), where it was kept over night, being
hung by a rope from a window in the tower. On the afternoon of Ascension
Day, before the Vesper service began, an image of the Saviour was drawn
up to the roof of the church, no doubt to symbolize the event which the day
commemorates. Then burning tow and wafers were thrown on the people.
Meantime the effigy of the devil, painted black, with a pair of horns and a
lolling red tongue, had been dangling from the church tower, to the delight
of a gaping crowd of spectators gathered before the church. It was now
flung down into their midst, and a fierce struggle for possession of it took
place among the rabble. Finally, it was carried out of the town by the Isar
gate and burned on a neighbouring height, “in order that the foul fiend
might do no harm to the city.” The custom died out at Munich towards the
end of the eighteenth century; but it is said that similar ceremonies are
observed to this day in some villages of Upper Bavaria.530

This quaint ceremony suggests that the pardoned criminal who used to play
the principal part in a solemn religious procession on Ascension Day at
Rouen531 may in like manner have originally served, if not as a
representative [pg 216] of the devil, at least as a public scapegoat, who
relieved the whole people of their sins and sorrows for a year by taking
them upon himself. This would explain why the gaol had to be raked in
order to furnish one who would parade with the highest ecclesiastical
dignitaries in their gorgeous vestments through the streets of Rouen, while
the church bells pealed out, the clergy chanted, banners waved, and every
circumstance combined to enhance the pomp and splendour of the pageant.
It would add a pathetic significance to the crowning act of the ceremony,
when on a lofty platform in the public square, with the eyes of a great and
silent multitude turned upon him, the condemned malefactor received from
the Church the absolution and remission of his sins; for if the rite is to be
interpreted in the way here suggested, the sins which were thus forgiven
were those not of one man only but of the whole people. No wonder, then,
that when the sinner, now a sinner no more, rose from his knees and thrice
lifted the silver shrine of St. Romain in his arms, the whole vast assembly in
the square broke out into joyous cries of “Noel! Noel! Noel!” which they
understood to signify, “God be with us!” In Christian countries no more
appropriate season could be selected for the ceremony of the human
scapegoat than Ascension Day, which commemorates the departure from
earth of Him who, in the belief of millions, took away the sins of the
world.532

Sometimes the scapegoat is a divine animal. The people of Malabar share

the Hindoo reverence for the cow, to kill and eat which “they esteem to be a
crime as heinous as homicide or wilful murder.” Nevertheless the “Bramans
transfer the sins of the people into one or more Cows, which are then
carry'd away, both the Cows and the Sins wherewith these Beasts are
charged, to what place the Braman shall appoint.”533 When the ancient
Egyptians sacrificed a bull, they invoked upon its head all the evils that
might otherwise befall themselves and the land of Egypt, and thereupon
they either sold the bull's head to the Greeks or cast it into the river.534 Now,
it cannot be said that in the [pg 217] times known to us the Egyptians
worshipped bulls in general, for they seem to have commonly killed and
eaten them.535 But a good many circumstances point to the conclusion that
originally all cattle, bulls as well as cows, were held sacred by the Egyptians.
For not only were all cows esteemed holy by them and never sacrificed, but
even bulls might not be sacrificed unless they had certain natural marks; a
priest examined every bull before it was sacrificed; if it had the proper
marks, he put his seal on the animal in token that it might be sacrificed; and
if a man sacrificed a bull which had not been sealed, he was put to death.
Moreover, the worship of the black bulls Apis and Mnevis, especially the
former, played an important part in Egyptian religion; all bulls that died a
natural death were carefully buried in the suburbs of the cities, and their
bones were afterwards collected from all parts of Egypt and interred in a
single spot; and at the sacrifice of a bull in the great rites of Isis all the
worshippers beat their breasts and mourned.536 On the whole, then, we are
perhaps entitled to infer that bulls were originally, as cows were always,
esteemed sacred by the Egyptians, and that the slain bull upon whose head
they laid the misfortunes of the people was once a divine scapegoat. It
 seems not improbable that the lamb annually slain by the Madis of Central
Africa is a divine scapegoat, and the same supposition may partly explain
the Zuni sacrifice of the turtle.537

Lastly, the scapegoat may be a divine man. Thus, in November the Gonds of
India worship Ghansyam Deo, the protector of the crops, and at the festival
the god himself is said to descend on the head of one of the worshippers,
who is suddenly seized with a kind of fit and, after staggering about, rushes
off into the jungle, where it is believed that, if left to himself, he would die
mad. However, they bring him back, but he does not recover his senses for
one or two days. The people think that one man is thus singled out as a
f
scapegoat [pg 218] for the sins of the rest of the village.538 In the temple of
the Moon the Albanians of the Eastern Caucasus kept a number of sacred
slaves, of whom many were inspired and prophesied. When one of these
men exhibited more than usual symptoms of inspiration or insanity, and
wandered solitary up and down the woods, like the Gond in the jungle, the
high priest had him bound with a sacred chain and maintained him in luxury
for a year. At the end of the year he was anointed with unguents and led
forth to be sacrificed. A man whose business it was to slay these human
victims and to whom practice had given dexterity, advanced from the crowd
and thrust a sacred spear into the victim's side, piercing his heart. From the
manner in which the slain man fell, omens were drawn as to the welfare of
the commonwealth. Then the body was carried to a certain spot where all
the people stood upon it as a purificatory ceremony.539 This last
circumstance clearly indicates that the sins of the people were transferred to
the victim, just as the Jewish priest transferred the sins of the people to the
scapegoat by laying his hands on the animal's head; and since the man was
believed to be possessed by the divine spirit, we have here an undoubted
example of a man-god slain to take away the sins and misfortunes of the
people.

In Tibet the ceremony of the scapegoat presents some remarkable features.

The Tibetan new year begins with the new moon which appears about the
fifteenth of February. For twenty-three days afterwards the government of
Lhasa, the capital, is taken out of the hands of the ordinary rulers and
entrusted to the monk of the Debang monastery who offers to pay the
highest sum for the privilege. The successful bidder is called the Jalno, and
he announces his accession to power in person, going through the streets of
Lhasa with a silver stick in his hand. Monks from all the neighbouring
monasteries and temples assemble to pay him homage. The Jalno exercises
f his authority in the most arbitrary manner for his own benefit, as all the
fines which [pg 219] he exacts are his by purchase. The profit he makes is
about ten times the amount of the purchase money. His men go about the
streets in order to discover any conduct on the part of the inhabitants that
can be found fault with. Every house in Lhasa is taxed at this time, and the
slightest offence is punished with unsparing rigour by fines. This severity of
the Jalno drives all working classes out of the city till the twenty-three days
are over. But if the laity go out, the clergy come in. All the Buddhist
monasteries of the country for miles round about open their gates and
disgorge their inmates. All the roads that lead down into Lhasa from the
neighbouring mountains are full of monks hurrying to the capital, some on
foot, some on horseback, some riding asses or lowing oxen, all carrying
their prayer-books and culinary utensils. In such multitudes do they come
that the streets and squares of the city are encumbered with their swarms,
and incarnadined with their red cloaks. The disorder and confusion are
indescribable. Bands of the holy men traverse the streets chanting prayers
or uttering wild cries. They meet, they jostle, they quarrel, they fight;
bloody noses, black eyes, and broken heads are freely given and received.
All day long, too, from before the peep of dawn till after darkness has fallen,
these red-cloaked monks hold services in the dim incense-laden air of the
great Machindranath temple, the cathedral of Lhasa; and thither they crowd
thrice a day to receive their doles of tea and soup and money. The cathedral
is a vast building, standing in the centre of the city, and surrounded by
bazaars and shops. The idols in it are richly inlaid with gold and precious
stones.

Twenty-four days after the Jalno has ceased to have authority, he assumes
it again, and for ten days acts in the same arbitrary manner as before. On
the first of the ten days the priests again assemble at the cathedral, pray to
the gods to prevent sickness and other evils among the people, “and, as a
f peace-offering, sacrifice one man. The man is not killed purposely, but the
ceremony he undergoes often proves fatal.540 Grain is thrown against [pg
220] his head, and his face is painted half white, half black.” Thus
grotesquely disguised, and carrying a coat of skin on his arm, he is called
f
the King of the Years, and sits daily in the market-place, where he helps
himself to whatever he likes and goes about shaking a black yak's tail over
the people, who thus transfer their bad luck to him. On the tenth day, all the
troops in Lhasa march to the great temple and form in line before it. The
King of the Years is brought forth from the temple and receives small
donations from the assembled multitude. He then ridicules the Jalno, saying
 to him, “What we perceive through the five senses is no illusion. All you
teach is untrue,” and the like. The Jalno, who represents the Grand Lama for
the time being, contests these heretical opinions; the dispute waxes warm,
and at last both agree to decide the questions at issue by a cast of the dice,
the Jalno offering to change places with the scapegoat should the throw be
against him. If the King of the Years wins, much evil is prognosticated; but if
the Jalno wins, there is great rejoicing, for it proves that his adversary has
been accepted by the gods as a victim to bear all the sins of the people of
Lhasa. Fortune, however, always favours the Jalno, who throws sixes with
unvarying success, while his opponent turns up only ones. Nor is this so
extraordinary as at first sight it might appear; for the Jalno's dice are
marked with nothing but sixes and his adversary's with nothing but ones.
When he sees the finger of Providence thus plainly pointed against him, the
King of the Years is terrified and flees away upon a white horse, with a
white dog, a white bird, salt, and so forth, which have all been provided for
him by the government. His face is still painted half white and half black,
and he still wears his leathern coat. The whole populace pursues him,
hooting, yelling, and firing blank shots in volleys after him. Thus driven out
of the city, he is detained for seven days in the great chamber of horrors at
the Samyas monastery, surrounded by monstrous and terrific images of
devils and skins of huge serpents and wild beasts. Thence he goes away
into the mountains of Chetang, where he has to remain an outcast for
several months or a year in a narrow den. [pg 221] If he dies before the
time is out, the people say it is an auspicious omen; but if he survives, he
may return to Lhasa and play the part of scapegoat over again the following
year.541

This quaint ceremonial, still annually observed in the secluded capital of

Buddhism—the Rome of Asia—is interesting because it exhibits, in a clearly
marked religious stratification, a series of divine redeemers themselves
redeemed, of vicarious sacrifices vicariously atoned for, of gods undergoing
a process of fossilization, who, while they retain the privileges, have
disburdened themselves of the pains and penalties of divinity. In the Jalno
we may without undue straining discern a successor of those temporary
f kings, those mortal gods, who purchase a short lease of power and glory at
the price of their lives. That he is the temporary substitute of the Grand
Lama is certain; that he is, or was once, liable to act as scapegoat for the
people is made nearly certain by his offer to change places with the real
scapegoat—the King of the Years—if the arbitrament of the dice should go
against him. It is true that the conditions under which the question is now
 put to the hazard have reduced the offer to an idle form. But such forms are
f no mere mushroom growths, springing up of [pg 222] themselves in a
night. If they are now lifeless formalities, empty husks devoid of
significance, we may be sure that they once had a life and a meaning; if at
the present day they are blind alleys leading nowhere, we may be certain
that in former days they were paths that led somewhere, if only to death.
That death was the goal to which of old the Tibetan scapegoat passed after
his brief period of licence in the market-place, is a conjecture that has much
to commend it. Analogy suggests it; the blank shots fired after him, the
statement that the ceremony often proves fatal, the belief that his death is a
happy omen, all confirm it. We need not wonder then that the Jalno, after
paying so dear to act as deputy-deity for a few weeks, should have
preferred to die by deputy rather than in his own person when his time was
up. The painful but necessary duty was accordingly laid on some poor devil,
some social outcast, some wretch with whom the world had gone hard, who
readily agreed to throw away his life at the end of a few days if only he
might have his fling in the meantime. For observe that while the time
allowed to the original deputy—the Jalno—was measured by weeks, the
time allowed to the deputy's deputy was cut down to days, ten days
according to one authority, seven days according to another. So short a rope
was doubtless thought a long enough tether for so black or sickly a sheep;
so few sands in the hour-glass, slipping so fast away, sufficed for one who
had wasted so many precious years. Hence in the jack-pudding who now
masquerades with motley countenance in the market-place of Lhasa,
sweeping up misfortune with a black yak's tail, we may fairly see the
substitute of a substitute, the vicar of a vicar, the proxy on whose back the
heavy burden was laid when it had been lifted from nobler shoulders. But
the clue, if we have followed it aright, does not stop at the Jalno; it leads
straight back to the pope of Lhasa himself, the Grand Lama, of whom the
Jalno is merely the temporary vicar. The analogy of many customs in many
lands points to the conclusion that, if this human divinity stoops to resign his
ghostly power for a time into the hands of a substitute, it is, or rather was
once, for no other reason than that the substitute might die in his stead.
Thus through the mist of [pg 223] ages unillumined by the lamp of history,
the tragic figure of the pope of Buddhism—God's vicar on earth for Asia—
looms dim and sad as the man-god who bore his people's sorrows, the Good
Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep.
[pg 224]
 Chapter V. On Scapegoats in General.

The foregoing survey of the custom of publicly expelling the accumulated

evils of a village or town or country suggests a few general observations.

In the first place, it will not be disputed that what I have called the
immediate and the mediate expulsions of evil are identical in intention; in
other words, that whether the evils are conceived of as invisible or as
embodied in a material form, is a circumstance entirely subordinate to the
main object of the ceremony, which is simply to effect a total clearance of all
the ills that have been infesting a people. If any link were wanting to
connect the two kinds of expulsion, it would be furnished by such a practice
as that of sending the evils away in a litter or a boat. For here, on the one
hand, the evils are invisible and intangible; and, on the other hand, there is
a visible and tangible vehicle to convey them away. And a scapegoat is
nothing more than such a vehicle.

In the second place, when a general clearance of evils is resorted to

periodically, the interval between the celebrations of the ceremony is
commonly a year, and the time of year when the ceremony takes place
usually coincides with some well-marked change of season, such as the
beginning or end of winter in the arctic and temperate zones, and the
beginning or end of the rainy season in the tropics. The increased mortality
which such climatic changes are apt to produce, especially amongst ill-fed,
ill-clothed, and ill-housed savages, is set down by primitive man to the
agency of demons, who must accordingly be expelled. Hence, in the tropical
regions [pg 225] of New Britain and Peru, the devils are or were driven out
at the beginning of the rainy season; hence, on the dreary coasts of Baffin
Land, they are banished at the approach of the bitter arctic winter. When a
tribe has taken to husbandry, the time for the general expulsion of devils is
f naturally made to agree with one of the great epochs of the agricultural
year, as sowing, or harvest; but, as these epochs themselves naturally
 coincide with changes of season, it does not follow that the transition from
the hunting or pastoral to the agricultural life involves any alteration in the
time of celebrating this great annual rite. Some of the agricultural
f communities of India and the Hindoo Koosh, as we have seen, hold their
general clearance of demons at harvest, others at sowing-time. But, at
whatever season of the year it is held, the general expulsion of devils
commonly marks the beginning of the new year. For, before entering on a
f new year, people are anxious to rid themselves of the troubles that have
harassed them in the past; hence it comes about that in so many
communities the beginning of the new year is inaugurated with a solemn
and public banishment of evil spirits.

In the third place, it is to be observed that this public and periodic expulsion
of devils is commonly preceded or followed by a period of general license,
during which the ordinary restraints of society are thrown aside, and all
offences, short of the gravest, are allowed to pass unpunished. In Guinea
and Tonquin the period of license precedes the public expulsion of demons;
and the suspension of the ordinary government in Lhasa previous to the
expulsion of the scapegoat is perhaps a relic of a similar period of universal
license. Amongst the Hos of India the period of license follows the expulsion
of the devil. Amongst the Iroquois it hardly appears whether it preceded or
followed the banishment of evils. In any case, the extraordinary relaxation
of all ordinary rules of conduct on such occasions is doubtless to be
explained by the general clearance of evils which precedes or follows it. On
f the one hand, when a general riddance of evil and absolution from all sin is
in immediate prospect, men are encouraged to give the rein to their
passions, trusting that the coming ceremony will wipe out [pg 226] the
score which they are running up so fast. On the other hand, when the
ceremony has just taken place, men's minds are freed from the oppressive
sense, under which they generally labour, of an atmosphere surcharged with
devils; and in the first revulsion of joy they overleap the limits commonly
imposed by custom and morality. When the ceremony takes place at
harvest-time, the elation of feeling which it excites is further stimulated by
the state of physical wellbeing produced by an abundant supply of food.542

Fourthly, the employment of a divine man or animal as a scapegoat is

especially to be noted; indeed, we are here directly concerned with the
custom of banishing evils only in so far as these evils are believed to be
f transferred to a god who [pg 227] is afterwards slain. It may be suspected
that the custom of employing a divine man or animal as a public scapegoat
is much more widely diffused than appears from the examples cited. For, as
has already been pointed out, the custom of killing a god dates from so
early a period of human history that in later ages, even when the custom
continues to be practised, it is liable to be misinterpreted. The divine
character of the animal or man is forgotten, and he comes to be regarded
merely as an ordinary victim. This is especially likely to be the case when it
is a divine man who is killed. For when a nation becomes civilized, if it does
not drop human sacrifices altogether, it at least selects as victims only such
wretches as would be put to death at any rate. Thus the killing of a god
may sometimes come to be confounded with the execution of a criminal.

If we ask why a dying god should be chosen to take upon himself and carry
away the sins and sorrows of the people, it may be suggested that in the
practice of using the divinity as a scapegoat we have a combination of two
customs which were at one time distinct and independent. On the one hand
we have seen that it has been customary to kill the human or animal god in
order to save his divine life from being weakened by the inroads of age. On
the other hand we have seen that it has been customary to have a general
expulsion of evils and sins once a year. Now, if it occurred to people to
combine these two customs, the result would be the employment of the
dying god as a scapegoat. He was killed, not originally to take away sin, but
to save the divine life from the degeneracy of old age; but, since he had to
be killed at any rate, people may have thought that they might as well seize
the opportunity to lay upon him the burden of their sufferings and sins, in
order that he might bear it away with him to the unknown world beyond the
grave.

The use of the divinity as a scapegoat clears up the ambiguity which, as we

saw, appears to hang about the European folk-custom of “carrying out
Death.”543 Grounds have been shewn for believing that in this ceremony the
so-called Death was originally the spirit of vegetation, who [pg 228] was
annually slain in spring, in order that he might come to life again with all the
vigour of youth. But, as I pointed out, there are certain features in the
ceremony which are not explicable on this hypothesis alone. Such are the
marks of joy with which the effigy of Death is carried out to be buried or
burnt, and the fear and abhorrence of it manifested by the bearers. But
these features become at once intelligible if we suppose that the Death was
not merely the dying god of vegetation, but also a public scapegoat, upon
whom were laid all the evils that had afflicted the people during the past
year. Joy on such an occasion is natural and appropriate; and if the dying
god appears to be the object of that fear and abhorrence which are properly
due not to himself, but to the sins and misfortunes with which he is laden,
this arises merely from the difficulty of distinguishing, or at least of marking
the distinction, between the bearer and the burden. When the burden is of a
baleful character, the bearer of it will be feared and shunned just as much
as if he were himself instinct with those dangerous properties of which, as it
happens, he is only the vehicle. Similarly we have seen that disease-laden
and sin-laden boats are dreaded and shunned by East Indian peoples.544
Again, the view that in these popular customs the Death is a scapegoat as
well as a representative of the divine spirit of vegetation derives some
support from the circumstance that its expulsion is always celebrated in
spring and chiefly by Slavonic peoples. For the Slavonic year began in
spring;545 and thus, in one of its aspects, the ceremony of “carrying out
Death” would be an example of the widespread custom of expelling the
accumulated evils of the old year before entering on a new one.

[pg 229]
Chapter VI. Human Scapegoats in Classical
Antiquity.
 § 1. The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Rome.

We are now prepared to notice the use of the human scapegoat in classical
antiquity. Every year on the fourteenth of March a man clad in skins was led
in procession through the streets of Rome, beaten with long white rods, and
driven out of the city. He was called Mamurius Veturius,546 that is, “the old
Mars,”547 and as the ceremony took place on the day preceding the first full
moon of the old Roman year (which began on the first of March), the skin-
clad man must have represented the Mars of the past year, who was driven
out at the beginning of a new one. Now Mars was originally not a god of
f
war but of vegetation. For it was to Mars that the Roman husbandman
prayed for the prosperity of his corn and his vines, his fruit-trees and his
copses;548 it was to Mars that the [pg 230] priestly college of the Arval
Brothers, whose business it was to sacrifice for the growth of the crops,549
addressed their petitions almost exclusively;550 and it was to Mars, as we
saw,551 that a horse was sacrificed in October to secure an abundant
harvest. Moreover, it was to Mars, under his title of “Mars of the woods”
(Mars Silvanus), that farmers offered sacrifice for the welfare of their
cattle.552 We have already seen that cattle are commonly supposed to be
under the special patronage of tree-gods.553 Once more, the consecration of
the vernal month of March to Mars seems to point him out as the deity of
the sprouting vegetation. Thus the Roman custom of expelling the old Mars
at the beginning of the new year in spring is identical with the Slavonic
custom of “carrying out Death,” if the view here taken of the latter custom is
correct. The similarity of the Roman and Slavonic customs has been already
remarked by scholars, who appear, however, to have taken Mamurius
Veturius and the corresponding figures in the Slavonic ceremonies to be
representatives of the old year rather than of the old god of vegetation.554 It
is possible that ceremonies of this kind may have come to be thus
interpreted in later times even by the people who practised them. But the
personification of a period of time is too abstract an idea to be primitive.555
[pg 231] However, in the Roman, as in the Slavonic, ceremony, the
representative of the god appears to have been treated not only as a deity
of vegetation but also as a scapegoat. His expulsion implies this; for there is
no reason why the god of vegetation, as such, should be expelled the city.
 But it is otherwise if he is also a scapegoat; it then becomes necessary to
drive him beyond the boundaries, that he may carry his sorrowful burden
away to other lands. And, in fact, Mamurius Veturius appears to have been
driven away to the land of the Oscans, the enemies of Rome.556

The blows with which the “old Mars” was expelled the city seem to have
been administered by the dancing priests of Mars, the Salii. At least we
know that in their songs these priests made mention of Mamurius
Veturius;557 and we are told that on a day dedicated to him they beat a hide
with rods.558 It is therefore highly probable that the hide which they drubbed
on that day was the one worn by the representative of the deity whose
name they simultaneously chanted. Thus on the fourteenth day of March
every year Rome witnessed the curious spectacle of the human incarnation
of a god chased by the god's own priests with blows from the city. The rite
becomes at least intelligible on the theory that the man so beaten and
expelled stood for the outworn deity of vegetation, who had to be replaced
f
by a fresh and vigorous young divinity at the beginning of a New Year, when
everywhere around in field and meadow, in wood and thicket the vernal
f
flowers, the sprouting grass, and the opening buds and blossoms testified to
the stirring of new life in nature after the long torpor and stagnation of [pg
232] winter. The dancing priests of the god derived their name of Salii from
the leaps or dances which they were bound to execute as a solemn religious
ceremony every year in the Comitium, the centre of Roman political life.559
Twice a year, in the spring month of March and the autumn month of
October, they discharged this sacred duty;560 and as they did so they
invoked Saturn, the Roman god of sowing.561 As the Romans sowed the corn
both in spring and autumn,562 and as down to the present time in Europe
superstitious rustics are wont to dance and leap high in spring for the
purpose of making the crops grow high,563 we may conjecture that the leaps
f
and dances performed by the Salii, the priests of the old Italian god of
vegetation, were similarly supposed to quicken the growth of the corn by
homoeopathic or imitative magic. The Salii were not limited to Rome; similar
colleges of dancing priests are known to have existed in many towns of
ancient Italy;564 everywhere, we may conjecture, they were supposed to
contribute to the fertility of the earth by their leaps and dances. At Rome
they were divided into two colleges, each composed of twelve members;
and it is not impossible that the number twelve was fixed with reference to
the twelve months of the old lunar year;565 the Fratres Arvales, or “Brethren
of the Ploughed Fields,” another Roman college of priests, whose functions
were purely agricultural, and who wore as a badge of their office a wreath
of corn-ears, were also twelve in number, [pg 233] perhaps for a similar
reason.566 Nor was the martial equipment of the Salii so alien to this
peaceful function as a modern reader might naturally suppose. Each of them
wore on his head a peaked helmet of bronze, and at his side a sword; on his
left arm he carried a shield of a peculiar shape, and in his right hand he
wielded a staff with which he smote on the shield till it rang again.567 Such
weapons in priestly hands may be turned against spiritual foes; in the
preceding pages we have met with many examples of the use of material
arms to rout the host of demons who oppress the imagination of primitive
man, and we have seen that the clash and clangour of metal is often
deemed particularly effective in putting these baleful beings to flight.568 May
it not have been so with the martial priests of Mars? We know that they
paraded the city for days together in a regular order, taking up their
quarters for the night at a different place each day; and as they went they
danced in triple time, singing and clashing on their shields and taking their
time from a fugleman, who skipped and postured at their head.569 We may
conjecture that in so doing they were supposed to be expelling the powers
of evil which had accumulated during the preceding year or six months, and
which the people pictured to themselves in the form of demons lurking in
the houses, temples, and the other edifices of the city. In savage
communities such tumultuous and noisy processions often parade the
village for a similar purpose. Similarly, we have seen that among the
Iroquois men in fantastic costume used to go about collecting the sins of the
people as a preliminary to transferring them to the scapegoat dogs; and we
have met with many examples of [pg 234] armed men rushing about the
streets and houses to drive out demons and evils of all kinds.570 Why should
it not have been so also in ancient Rome? The religion of the old Romans is
full of relics of savagery.

If there is any truth in this conjecture, we may suppose that, as priests of a

god who manifested his power in the vegetation of spring, the Salii turned
their attention above all to the demons of blight and infertility, who might be
thought by their maleficent activity to counteract the genial influence of the
kindly god and to endanger the farmer's prospects in the coming summer or
winter. The conjecture may be supported by analogies drawn from the
customs of modern European peasants as well as of savages. Thus, to begin
with savages, we have seen that at the time of sowing the Khonds drive out
the “evil spirits, spoilers of the seed” from every house in the village, the
expulsion being effected by young men who beat each other and strike the
air violently with long sticks.571 If I am right in connecting the vernal and the
autumnal processions of the Salii with the vernal and the autumnal sowing,
the analogy between the Khond and the Roman customs would be very
close. In West Africa the fields of the King of Whydah, according to an old
French traveller, “are hoed and sowed before any of his subjects has leave
to hoe and sow a foot of his own lands. These labours are performed thrice
a year. The chiefs lead their people before the king's palace at daybreak,
and there they sing and dance for a full quarter of an hour. Half of these
people are armed as in a day of battle, the other half have only their farm
tools. They go all together singing and dancing to the scene of their labours,
and there, keeping time to the sound of the instruments, they work with
such speed and neatness that it is a pleasure to behold. At the end of the
day they return and dance before the king's palace. This exercise refreshes
them and does them more good than all the repose they could take.”572
From this account we might infer that the dancing was merely a recreation
of the field-labourers, and that the music of the [pg 235] band had no other
object than to animate them in their work by enabling them to ply their
mattocks in time to its stirring strains. But this inference, though it seems to
have been drawn by the traveller who has furnished the account, would
probably be erroneous. For if half of the men were armed as for war, what
were they doing in the fields all the time that the others were digging? A
clue to unravel the mystery is furnished by the description which a later
French traveller gives of a similar scene witnessed by him near Timbo in
French Guinea. He saw some natives at work preparing the ground for
sowing. “It is a very curious spectacle: fifty or sixty blacks in a line, with
bent backs, are smiting the earth simultaneously with their little iron tools,
which gleam in the sun. Ten paces in front of them, marching backwards,
the women sing a well marked air, clapping their hands as for a dance, and
the hoes keep time to the song. Between the workers and the singers a
man runs and dances, crouching on his hams like a clown, while he whirls
about his musket and performs other manœuvres with it. Two others dance,
also pirouetting and smiting the earth here and there with their little hoe. All
that is necessary for exorcising the spirits and causing the grain to
sprout.”573 Here, while the song of the women gives the time to the strokes
of the hoes, the dances and other antics of the armed man and his
colleagues are intended to exorcise or ward off the spirits who might
interfere with the diggers and so prevent the grain from sprouting.
 Again, an old traveller in southern India tells us that “the men of Calicut,
when they wish to sow rice, observe this practice. First, they plough the
f land with oxen as we do, and when they sow the rice in the field they have
all the instruments of the city continually sounding and making merry. They
also have ten or twelve men clothed like devils, and these unite in making
great rejoicing with the players on the instruments, in order that the devil
may make that rice very productive.”574 We may suspect that the [pg 236]
noisy music is played and the mummers cut their capers for the purpose
rather of repelling demons than of inducing them to favour the growth of
the rice. However, where our information is so scanty it would be rash to
dogmatize. Perhaps the old traveller was right in thinking that the mummers
personated devils. Among the Kayans of Central Borneo men disguised in
wooden masks and great masses of green foliage certainly play the part of
f
demons for the purpose of promoting the growth of the rice just before the
seed is committed to the ground; and it is notable that among the
performances which they give on this occasion are war dances.575 Again,
among the Kaua and Kobeua Indians of North-Western Brazil masked men
who represent spirits or demons of fertility perform dances or rather
pantomimes for the purpose of stimulating the growth of plants, quickening
the wombs of women, and promoting the multiplication of animals.576

Further, we are told that “the natives of Aracan dance in order to render
propitious the spirits whom they believe to preside over the sowing and over
the harvest. There are definite times for doing it, and we may say that in
their eyes it is, as it were, an act of religion.”577 Another people who dance
diligently to obtain good crops are the Tarahumare Indians of Mexico. They
f
subsist by agriculture and their thoughts accordingly turn much on the
supply of rain, which is needed for their fields. According to them, “the
f
favour of the gods may be won by what for want of a better term may be
called dancing, but what in reality is a series of monotonous movements, a
kind of rhythmical exercise, kept up sometimes for two nights. By dint of
such hard work they think to prevail upon the gods to grant their prayers.
The dancing is accompanied by the song of the shaman, in which he
communicates his wishes to the unseen world, describing the beautiful
effect of the rain, the fog, and the mist on the vegetable world. He invokes
the aid of all the animals, mentioning each by name, and also calls on them,
especially the deer and the rabbit, to multiply that the people [pg 237] may
have plenty to eat. As a matter of fact, the Tarahumares assert that the
dances have been taught them by the animals. Like all primitive people,
 they are close observers of nature. To them the animals are by no means
inferior creatures; they understand magic and are possessed of much
knowledge, and may assist the Tarahumares in making rain. In spring, the
singing of the birds, the cooing of the dove, the croaking of the frog, the
chirping of the cricket, all the sounds uttered by the denizens of the
greensward, are to the Indian appeals to the deities for rain. For what other
reason should they sing or call? For the strange behaviour of many animals
in the early spring the Tarahumares can find no other explanation but that
these creatures, too, are interested in rain. And as the gods grant the
prayers of the deer expressed in its antics and dances, and of the turkey in
its curious playing, by sending the rain, they easily infer that to please the
gods they, too, must dance as the deer and play as the turkey. From this it
will be understood that dance with these people is a very serious and
ceremonious matter, a kind of worship and incantation rather than
amusement.”578

The two principal dances of these Indians, the rutuburi and the yumari, are
supposed to have been taught them by the turkey and the deer respectively.
f They are danced by numbers of men and women, the two sexes keeping
apart from each other in the dance, while the shaman sings and shakes his
rattle. But “a large gathering is not necessary in order to pray to the gods by
dancing. Sometimes the family dances alone, the father teaching the boys.
While doing agricultural work, the Indians often depute one man to dance
yumari near the house, while the others attend to the work in the fields. It
is a curious sight to see a lone man taking his devotional exercise to the
tune of his rattle in front of an apparently deserted dwelling. The lonely
worshipper is doing his share of the general work by bringing down the
fructifying rain and by warding off disaster, while the rest of the family and
their friends plant, hoe, weed, or harvest. In the evening, when they return
from the field, they may join him for a little while; but often he goes on
alone, dancing [pg 238] all night, and singing himself hoarse, and the
Indians told me that this is the very hardest kind of work, and exhausting
even to them. Solitary worship is also observed by men who go out hunting
deer or squirrels for a communal feast. Every one of them dances yumari
alone in front of his house for two hours to insure success on the hunt; and
when putting corn to sprout for the making of tesvino the owner of the
house dances for a while, that the corn may sprout well.” Another dance is
thought to cause the grass and funguses to grow, and the deer and rabbits
 to multiply; and another is supposed to draw the clouds together from the
north and south, so that they clash and descend in rain.579

The Cora Indians of Mexico celebrate a festival of sowing shortly before they
commit the seed of the maize to the ground. The festival falls in June,
f because that is the month when the rainy season sets in, supplying the
moisture needed for the growth of the maize. At the festival two old women,
who represent the goddesses of sowing, dance side by side and imitate the
process of sowing by digging holes in the earth with long sticks and
inserting the seed of the maize in the holes; whereupon a man who
represents the Morning Star pours water on the buried seeds. This solemn
dance is accompanied by the singing of an appropriate hymn, which may be
compared to the song of the Arval Brothers in ancient Rome.580

We have seen that in many parts of Germany, Austria, and France the
peasants are still, or were till lately, accustomed to dance and leap high in
order that the crops may grow tall. Such leaps and dances are sometimes
performed by the sower immediately before or after he sows the seed; but
often they are executed by the people on a fixed day of the year, which in
some places is Twelfth Night (the sixth of January), or Candlemas (the
second of February) or Walpurgis Night, that is, the Eve of May Day; but
apparently the favourite season for these performances [pg 239] is the last
day of the Carnival, namely Shrove Tuesday.581 In such cases the leaps and
dances are performed by every man for his own behoof; he skips and jumps
merely in order that his own corn, or flax, or hemp may spring up and
thrive. But sometimes in modern Europe, as (if I am right) in ancient Rome,
the duty of dancing for the crops was committed to bands or troops of men,
who cut their capers for the benefit of the whole community. For example,
at Grub, in the Swiss canton of the Grisons (Graubünden), the practice used
to be as follows. “The peasants of Grub,” we are informed, “have still some
hereditary customs, in that they assembled in some years, mostly at the
time of the summer solstice, disguised themselves as maskers so as to be
unrecognizable, armed themselves with weapons defensive and offensive,
took every man a great club or cudgel, marched in a troop together from
one village to another, and executed high leaps and strange antics. They ran
full tilt at each other, struck every man his fellow with all his might, so that
the blow resounded, and clashed their great staves and cudgels. Hence they
were called by the country folk the Stopfer. These foolish pranks they
played from a superstitious notion that their corn would thrive the better;
but now they have left off, and these Stopfer are no longer in any repute.”
 Another authority, after describing the custom, remarks: “With this custom
was formerly connected the belief that its observance brought a fruitful
year.”582

[pg 240]

In the Austrian provinces of Salzburg and Tyrol bands of mummers wearing

grotesque masks, with bells jingling on their persons, and carrying long
f sticks or poles in their hands, used formerly to run and leap about on
certain days of the year for the purpose of procuring good crops. They were
called Perchten, a name derived from Perchta, Berchta, or Percht, a mythical
old woman, whether goddess or elf, who is well known all over South
Germany; Mrs. Perchta (Frau Perchta), as they call her, is to be met with in
Elsace, Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and Switzerland, but nowhere, perhaps, so
f commonly as in Salzburg and the Tyrol. In the Tyrol she appears as a little
old woman with a very wrinkled face, bright lively eyes, and a long hooked
nose; her hair is dishevelled, her garments tattered and torn. Hence they
say to a slatternly wench, “You are a regular Perchta.” She goes about
especially during the twelve days from Christmas to Twelfth Night
(Epiphany), above all on the Eve of Twelfth Night, which is often called
Perchta's Day. Many precautions must be observed during these mystic days
in order not to incur her displeasure, for she is mischievous to man and
beast. If she appears in the byre, a distemper breaks out among the cows.
That is why during these days the byres must be kept very clean and straw
laid on the threshold; otherwise you will find bald patches on your sheep
and goats next morning, and next summer the hair which has been filched
from the animals will descend in hail-stones from the sky. Old Mrs. Perchta
also keeps a very sharp eye on spinners during the twelve days; she
inspects all distaffs and spinning-wheels in the houses, and if she finds any
flax or tow unspun on them, she tears it to bits, and she does not spare the
lazy spinner, for she scratches her and smacks her fingers so that they bear
the marks of it for the rest of her life. Indeed she sometimes does much
more; for she rips up the belly of the sluggard and stuffs it with flax. That is
the punishment with which a Bavarian mother will threaten an idle jade of a
girl who has left some flax on her distaff on New Year's Eve. However, they
say in Bavaria that if you only eat plenty of the rich juicy cakes which are
baked for Mrs. Perchta on her day, the old woman's knife will glance off [pg
241] your body without making any impression on it. Perchta often comes
not alone but attended by many little children, who follow her as chickens
waddle after the mother hen; and if you should see any little child lagging
 behind the rest and blubbering, you may be quite sure that that child has
been baptized. On the Eve of Twelfth Night everybody should eat pancakes
baked of meal and milk or water. If anybody does not do so, old Mrs.
Perchta comes and slits up his stomach, takes out the other food, fills up
the vacuity so created with a tangled skein and bricks, and then sews up the
orifice neatly, using, singularly enough, a ploughshare for a needle and an
iron chain for thread. In other or the same places she does the same thing
to anybody who does not eat herrings and dumplings on Twelfth Night.
Some say that she rides on the storm like the Wild Huntsman, followed by a
boisterous noisy pack, and carrying off people into far countries. Yet withal
old Mrs. Perchta has her redeeming qualities. Good children who spin
diligently and learn their lessons she rewards with nuts and sugar plums. It
has even been affirmed that she makes the ploughed land fruitful and
causes the cattle to thrive. When a mist floats over the fields, the peasants
see her figure gliding along in a white mantle. On the Eve of Twelfth Night
good people leave the remains of their supper for her on the table, and
when they have gone to bed and all is quiet in the house, she comes in the
likeness of an old wizened little woman, with all the children about her, and
partakes of the broken victuals. But woe to the prying wight who peeps at
her through the key-hole! Many a man has been blinded by her for a whole
year as a punishment for his ill-timed curiosity.583

[pg 242]

The processions of maskers who took their name of Perchten from this
quaint creation of the popular fancy were known as Perchten-running or
Perchten-leaping from the runs and leaps which the men took in their wild
headlong course through the streets and over the fields. They appear to
have been held in all the Alpine regions of Germany, but are best known to
f us in the Tyrol and Salzburg. The appropriate season for the celebration of
the rite was Perchta's Day, that is, Twelfth Night or Epiphany, the sixth of
January, but in some places it was held on Shrove Tuesday, the last day of
the Carnival, the very day when many farmers of Central Europe jump to
make the crops grow tall. Corresponding to the double character of Perchta
as a power for good and evil, the maskers are divided into two sets known
respectively as the Beautiful and the Ugly Perchten. At Lienz in the Tyrol,
where the maskers made their appearance on Shrove Tuesday, the Beautiful
Perchten were decked with ribbons, galloons, and so forth, while the ugly
Perchten made themselves as hideous as they could by hanging rats and
mice, chains and bells about their persons. All wore on their heads tall
pointed caps with bells attached to them; their faces were concealed by
masks, and in their hands they all carried long sticks. The sticks of the
Beautiful Perchten were adorned with ribbons; those of the Ugly Perchten
ended in the heads of devils. Thus equipped they leaped and ran about the
streets and went into the houses. Amongst them was a clown who blew
ashes and soot in people's faces through a blow-pipe. It was all very merry
and frolicsome, except when “the wild Perchta” herself came, invisible to
ordinary eyes, upon the scene. Then her namesakes the Perchten grew wild
and furious too; they scattered and fled for their lives to the nearest house,
for as soon as they got under the gutter of a roof they were safe. But if she
caught them, she tore them in pieces. To this [pg 243] day you may see the
graves where the mangled bodies of her victims lie buried. When no such
interruption took place, the noisy rout of maskers rushed madly about, with
jingling bells and resounding cracks of whips, entering the houses, dancing
here, drinking there, teasing wayfarers, or racing from village to village like
the Wild Hunt itself in the sky; till at the close of the winter day the church
bells rang the Ave Maria. Then at last the wild uproar died away into silence.
Such tumultuous masquerades were thought to be very beneficial to the
crops; a bad harvest would be set down to the omission of the Perchten to
skip and jump about in their usual fashion.584

In the province of Salzburg the Perchten mummers are also divided into two
sets, the Beautiful Perchten and the Ugly Perchten. The Ugly Perchten are
properly speaking twelve young men dressed in black sheepskins and
wearing hoods of badger-skins and grotesque wooden masks, which
represent either coarse human features with long teeth and horns, or else
the features of fabulous animals with beaks and bristles or movable jaws.
They all carry bells, both large and small, fastened to broad leathern girdles.
The procession was headed by a man with a big drum, and after him came
lads bearing huge torches and lanterns fastened to tall poles; for in Salzburg
or some parts of it these mummers played their pranks by night. Behind the
torchbearers came two Fools, a male and a female, the latter acted by a lad
in woman's clothes. The male Fool carried a sausage-like roll, with which he
struck at all women or girls of his acquaintance when they shewed
themselves at the open doors or windows. Along with the Perchten
themselves went a train of young fellows cracking whips, blowing horns, or
jingling bells. The ways might be miry and the night pitch dark, but with
flaring lights the procession swept rapidly by, the men leaping along with
the help of their long sticks and waking the echoes of the slumbering valley
by their loud uproar. From [pg 244] time to time they stopped at a farm,
danced and cut their capers before the house, for which they were
rewarded by presents of food and strong drink; to offer them money would
have been an insult. By midnight the performance came to an end, and the
tired maskers dispersed to their homes.

The Beautiful Perchten in Salzburg are attired very differently from the Ugly
Perchten, but their costume varies with the district. Thus in the Pongau
district the distinctive feature of their costume is a tall and heavy framework
covered with bright red cloth and decorated with a profusion of silver
jewelry and filagree work. This framework is sometimes nine or ten feet
high and forty or fifty pounds in weight. The performer carries it above his
head by means of iron supports resting on his shoulders or his back. To run
or jump under the weight of such an encumbrance is impossible; the dancer
has to content himself with turning round and round slowly and clumsily.
Very different is the headdress of the Beautiful Perchten in the Pinzgau
district of Salzburg. There the performers are dressed in scarlet and wear
straw hats, from which bunches of white feathers, arranged like fans, nod
and flutter in the wind. Red shoes and white stockings complete their attire.
Thus lightly equipped they hop and jump and stamp briskly in the dance.
Unlike their Ugly namesakes, who seem now to be extinct, the Beautiful
Perchten still parade from time to time among the peasantry of the Salzburg
highlands; but the intervals between their appearances are irregular, varying
from four to seven years or more. Unlike the Ugly Perchten, they wear no
masks and appear in full daylight, always on Perchta's Day (Twelfth Night,
the sixth of January) and the two following Sundays. They are attended by a
train of followers who make a great din with bells, whips, pipes, horns,
rattles, and chains. Amongst them one or two clowns, clothed in white and
wearing tall pointed hats of white felt with many jingling bells attached to
them, play a conspicuous part. They carry each a sausage-shaped roll
stuffed with tow, and with this instrument they strike lightly such women
and girls among the spectators as they desire particularly to favour. Another
attendant [pg 245] carries the effigy of a baby in swaddling bands, made of
linen rags, and fastened to a string; this effigy he throws at women and girls
and then pulls back again, but he does this only to women and girls whom
he respects and to whom he wishes well. At St. Johann the Perchten carry
drawn swords; each is attended by a lad dressed as a woman; and they are
followed by men clad in black sheepskins, wearing the masks of devils, and
holding chains in their hands.585
 What is the meaning of the quaint performances still enacted by the
Perchten and their attendants in the Austrian highlands? The subject has
been carefully investigated by a highly competent enquirer, Mrs. Andree-
Eysn. She has visited the districts, witnessed the performances, collected
information, and studied the costumes. It may be well to quote her
conclusion: “If we enquire into the inner meaning which underlies the
Perchten-race and kindred processions, we must confess that it is not at first
sight obvious, and that the original meaning appears blurred and indistinct.
Nevertheless from many features which they present in common it can be
demonstrated that the processions were held for the purpose of driving
away demons and had for their object to promote fertility. In favour of this
f view it may be urged, first of all, that their appearance is everywhere
greeted with joy, because it promises fertility and a good harvest. ‘It is a
good year,’ they say in Salzburg. If the processions are prevented from
taking place, dearth and a bad harvest are to be apprehended. The
peasants of the Tyrol still believe that the more Perchten run about, the
better will the year be, and therefore they treat them to brandy and cakes.
In Lienz, when the harvest turns out ill, they say that they omitted to let the
Perchten run over the fields, and for that reason the peasant in the Sarn
valley gets the Perchten to leap about on his fields, for then there will be a
good year.

“If fertility and blessing are to be poured out on field, house, and
homestead, it is obvious that everything that could hinder or harm must be
averted and driven away. When we consider how even at the present time,
and still [pg 246] more in times gone by, much that is harmful is attributed
to the malevolence of invisible powers, we can readily understand why
people should resort to measures which they deem effective for the purpose
of disarming these malevolent beings. Now it is a common belief that
certain masks possess the virtue of banning demons, and that loud noise
and din are a means of keeping off evil spirits or hindering their activity. In
the procession of the Perchten we see the principle of the banishment of
evil carried out in practice. The people attack the evil spirits and seek to
chase them away by putting on frightful masks, with which they confront
the demon. For one sort of malevolent spirits one kind of mask appears
suitable, and for another another; this spirit is daunted by this mask, and
that spirit by that; and so they came to discriminate. Originally, particular
masks may have been used against particular evil spirits, but in course of
time they were confused, the individual taste of the maker of the mask
counted for something, and so gradually it resulted in carving all kinds of
horrible, fantastic, and hideous masks which had nothing in common but
their general tendency to frighten away all evil spirits.”586

In support of her view that the procession of the Perchten aims chiefly at
banishing demons who might otherwise blight the crops, Mrs. Andree-Eysn
lays stress on the bells which figure so prominently in the costume of these
maskers; for the sound of bells, as she reminds us, is commonly believed to
be a potent means of driving evil spirits away. The notion is too familiar to
call for proof,587 but a single case from Central Africa may be cited as an
illustration. The Teso people, who inhabit a land of rolling plains between
Mount Elgon and Lake Kioga, “make use of bells to exorcise the storm fiend;
a person who has been injured by a flash or in the resulting fire wears bells
round his ankles for weeks [pg 247] afterwards. Whenever rain threatens,
and rain in Uganda almost always comes in company with thunder and
lightning, this person will parade the village for an hour, with the jingling
bells upon his legs and a wand of papyrus in his hand, attended by as many
of his family as may happen to be at hand and not employed in necessary
duties.”588 The resemblance of such men, with their bells and wands, to the
Austrian Perchten with their bells and wands is, on the theory in question,
fairly close; both of them go about to dispel demons by the sound of their
bells and probably also by the blows of their rods. Whatever may be thought
of their efficacy in banning fiends, certain it is that in the Tyrol, where the
Perchten play their pranks, the chime of bells is used for the express
purpose of causing the grass to grow in spring. Thus in the lower valley of
the Inn, especially at Schwaz, on the twenty-fourth of April (there reckoned
St. George's Day) troops of young fellows go about ringing bells, some of
which they hold in their hands, while others are attached to their persons;
and the peasants say, “Wherever the Grass-ringers come, there the grass
grows well, and the corn bears abundant fruit.” Hence the bell-ringers are
welcomed and treated wherever they go. Formerly, it is said, they wore
masks, like the Perchten, but afterwards they contented themselves with
blackening their faces with soot.589 In other parts of the Tyrol the bell-
ringing processions take place at the Carnival, but their object is the same;
for “it is believed that by this noisy procession growth in general, but
especially the growth of the meadows, is promoted.”590 Again, at Bergell, in
the Swiss canton of the Grisons, children go in procession on the first of
March ringing bells, “in order that the grass may grow.”591 So in Hildesheim,
on the afternoon of Ascension Day, young girls ascend the church tower and
ring all the church bells, “in order that they may get a good harvest of flax;
the girl who, hanging on to the bell-rope, is swung highest by the swing [pg
248] of the bell, will get the longest flax.”592 Here the sound of the bells as a
means of promoting the growth of the flax is reinforced by the upward
swing of the bell, which, carrying with it the bell-ringer at the end of the
rope, naturally causes the flax in like manner to rise high in the air. It is a
simple piece of imitative magic, like the leaps and bounds which the
peasants of Central Europe often execute for precisely the same purpose.
Once more, in various parts of the Tyrol on Senseless Thursday, which is the
last Thursday in Carnival, young men in motley attire, with whips and
brooms, run about cracking their whips and making believe to sweep away
the onlookers with their brooms. They are called Huttler or Huddler. The
people say that if these fellows do not run about, the flax will not thrive,
and that on the contrary the more of them run about, the better will the flax
grow. And where there are many of them, there will be much maize.593 In
this custom the cracking of the whips may be supposed to serve the same
purpose as the ringing of the bells by frightening and banishing the demons
of infertility and dearth. About Hall, in the northern Tyrol, the ceremony of
the Hudel-running, as it is called, is or used to be as follows. A peasant-
farmer, generally well-to-do and respected, rigs himself out in motley and
hides his face under a mask; round his waist he wears a girdle crammed
with rolls, while in his hand he wields a long whip, from which more than
fifty cracknels dangle on a string. Thus arrayed he suddenly bursts from the
ale-house door into the public view, solicited thereto by the cries of the
street urchins, who have been anxiously waiting for his appearance. He
throws amongst them the string of cracknels, and while they are scrambling
for these dainties, he lays on to them most liberally with his whip. Having
faithfully discharged this public duty, he marches down between rows of
peasants, who have meantime taken up their position in a long street.
Amongst them he picks out one who is to run [pg 249] before him. The man
selected for the honour accordingly takes to his heels, hotly pursued by the
other with the whip, who lashes the feet of the fugitive till he comes up with
him. Having run him down, he leads him back to the alehouse, where he
treats him to a roll and a glass of wine. After that the masker runs a similar
race with another man; and so it goes on, one race after another, till the sun
sets. Then the mummer doffs his mask and leads the dance in the alehouse.
The object of these races is said to be to ensure a good crop of flax and
maize.594
 In these races of mummers, whether known as Perchten or Huttler, there
are certain features which it is difficult to explain on the theory that the aim
of the performers is simply to drive away demons, and that the hideous
masks which they assume have no other intention than that of frightening
these uncanny beings. For observe that in the last example the blows of the
whip fall not on the airy swarms of invisible spirits, but on the solid persons
of street urchins and sturdy yokels, who can hardly be supposed to receive
f the chastisement vicariously for the demons. Again, what are we to make of
the rolls and cracknels with which in this case the mummer is laden, and
which he distributes among his victims, as if to console them in one part of
their person for the pain which he has inflicted on another? Surely this
bounty seems to invest him with something more than the purely negative
character of an exorciser of evil; it appears to raise him to the positive
character of a dispenser of good. The same remark applies to the action of
the Perchten who strike women lightly, as a mark of friendship and regard,
f with the sausage-like rolls which they carry in their hands, or throw them,
as a mark of favour, the effigy of a baby. The only probable explanation of
these practices, as Mrs. Andree-Eysn rightly points out, is that the mummers
thereby intend to fertilize the women whom they honour by these
attentions.595 Here, again, therefore the maskers appear as the actual
dispensers of good, the bestowers of fruitfulness, not merely the averters of
evil. If that is so, we seem bound to infer that these masked men represent
or [pg 250] embody the spirits who quicken the seed both in the earth and
in the wombs of women. That was the view of W. Mannhardt, the highest
authority on the agricultural superstitions of European peasantry. After
f
reviewing these and many more similar processions, he concludes that if the
comparison which he has instituted between them holds good, all these
various mummers “were intended by the original founders of the
processions to represent demons of vegetation, who by their mere
appearance and cries drove away the powers that hinder growth and woke
to new life the slumbering spirits of the grasses and corn-stalks.”596 Thus
Mannhardt admitted that these noisy processions of masked men are really
supposed to dispel the evil spirits of blight and infertility, while at the same
time he held that the men themselves originally personated vegetation-
spirits. And he thought it probable that the original significance of these
performances was in later times misunderstood and interpreted as a simple
expulsion of witches and other uncanny beings that haunt the fields.597
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