Note on cross-roads

Note: this text is extracted from Book VI, chapter 28:

In nearly all countries, and at all times, special significance has been attached to the place where roads cross one another. In Christian times it was the spot chosen for the burial of suicides and condemned criminals. This practice seems to have arisen, not merely because the roads form the sign of the cross and so make the ground the next best burial-place to a properly consecrated churchyard, but because the ancient Teutons erected altars at cross-roads on which they sacrificed criminals. Thus cross-roads were of old regarded as execution-grounds. The chief fact prompting the choice of the special locality must be, I think, that just as a circle commands every direction, so cross-roads, pointing north, south, east and west, command every main direction, and the actual point of crossing is the only point where people coming from every direction must pass.

From a study of customs connected with cross-roads in different parts of the world, we find that the spot was particularly efficient in unburdening oneself of diseases, and, owing probably to its connection with illness and death, was a fit place to conjure up evil spirits. A few illustrations will explain these points.

I will take India first. At the funeral of a Brāhman, five balls of wheat-flour and water are offered to various spirits. The third ball is offered to the spirit of the cross-roads of the village through which the corpse will be carried (Stevenson, Rites of the Twice-born, 1920, p. 146). Lamps are also placed at cross-roads (Colebrooke, Essays, 1858, p. 102). Crooke tells us (“Indian Charms and Amulets,” Hastings’ Ency. Rel. Eth., vol. iii, pp. 446-447) that at the marriage rite among the Bharvāds in Gujarāt a eunuch flings balls of wheat-flour towards the four quarters of the heavens, as a charm to scare evil spirits; and in the same province, at the Holī festival, the fire is lighted at a quadrivinm (Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix, pt. i, pp. 280, 357). In Bombay seven pebbles, picked up from a place where three roads meet, are used as a charm against the evil eye. Some of the Gujarāt tribes, apparently with the intention of dispersing the evil or passing it on to some traveller, sweep their houses on the first day of the month Kārttik (November), and lay the refuse in a pot at the cross-roads (Campbell, Notes on the Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom, Bombay, 1885, pp. 208, 329).

On the same principle, a common form of smallpox-transference is to lay the scabs or scales from the body of the patient at cross-roads, in the hope that some passer-by may take the disease with him. See W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, vol. i, p. 164 et seq.; and ditto, Burial of Suicides at Cross-roads,” Folk-Lore, vol. xx, pp. 88-89.

The consecration of idols is naturally an elaborate and very important affair, and one to which much ceremony is attached. One of the final rites is particularly interesting. A procession is formed in which one of the Brāhmans carries a pot containing black pulse, rice, areca nut, a copper coin, and a lamp filled with clarified butter. On arriving at the cross-roads, they sprinkle the junction with water for the purposes of purification, and leave the pot there as an offering to pacify any evil spirit that may happen to dwell at the cross-roads. When returning great care is taken never to look backwards (Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 414, 415).

We will now consider the custom in places other than India.

In the ancient world we find the expression suḳ irbitti, “cross-roads,” in Assyrian texts as the place where “atonement” is to be made (Campbell Thompson, Semitic Magic, pp. 200, 201, where numerous interesting references are given). In Hebrew medicine, in order to heal an issue of blood, the patient must sit at the parting of the ways with a cup of wine in her hand, and someone coming up behind her has to cry out suddenly: “Be healed of thine issue of blood” (Creighton, Ency. Bibl., 3006). This is, of course, an instance of sympathetic magic, the cup of wine resembling the blood, and the sudden start, which causes it to spill, typifying what will happen to the issue.

In Africa cross-roads are largely used to effect cures. Thus among the Baganda there exists great fear of the ghosts of suicides, consequently their bodies were burned and removed to waste lands or cross-roads. Here, it was thought, the ghost would be incapable of doing harm, but in case it had survived the burning, grass and sticks were thrown on the spot by passers-by to prevent the ghost from catching them. The same precaution was taken with children born feet first. They were strangled and buried at cross-roads. (See J. Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. 20 et seq., 46 et seq., and 124 et seq.)

In Taṅganyika Territory the cross-roads play an important part in disease transference. Thus among the Wagogo when a man is ill the native doctor takes him to a cross-road, where he prepares a medicine, part of which is given to the patient and part buried under an inverted pot at the juncture of the roads. It is hoped that someone will step over the pot, catch the disease, and so relieve the original sufferer (J. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” Journ. Anth. Inst., vol. xxxiii, 1902, p. 313).

The magical rites connected with cross-roads are fully appreciated by the Hausas of Tripoli and Tunis. Some of their games and contests have a magical connection, thus in the Koraiya contest if a youth wished to become invincible he first had to drink medicine for ten days and then undergo a test of courage. He was sent to cross-roads at midnight with orders to stay there, and after a time a bori (spirit) would come along with a short, heavy stick, with which he would poke at the boy. He must, however, take no notice. After other boris had likewise failed to produce any effect, a half-man would appear. Him the boy would catch hold of and demand what he wanted. While returning home he must not look behind him or speak to anyone until he has entered his own hut (H. J. N. Tremearne, The Ban oj the Bori [1914], pp. 208, 20.9).

The use of cross-roads as a place for disease-transference is widespread: examples of the custom from Japan, Bali (Indian Archipelago), Guatemala, Cochin-China, Bohemia and England are given by Frazer (Golden Bough, vol. iii, p. 59; vol. ix, pp. 10, 49, 68, 144).

Other useful references will be found in Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, vol. ii, pp. 256, 257.— n.m.p.