Cyclotomic Fields S Lang download

https://ebookbell.com/product/cyclotomic-fields-s-lang-43047166

Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.

Cyclotomic Fields And Zeta Values 1st Edition John Coates R Sujatha

https://ebookbell.com/product/cyclotomic-fields-and-zeta-values-1st-
edition-john-coates-r-sujatha-895740

Cyclotomic Fields And Zeta Values 1st Edition John Coates R Sujatha

https://ebookbell.com/product/cyclotomic-fields-and-zeta-values-1st-
edition-john-coates-r-sujatha-1289500

Blocks And Families For Cyclotomic Hecke Algebras Maria Chlouveraki

https://ebookbell.com/product/blocks-and-families-for-cyclotomic-
hecke-algebras-maria-chlouveraki-49032740
Graduate Texts in Mathematics

59
Editorial Board

F. W. Gehring
P.R.Halmos
Managing Editor

C.C.Moore
 Serge Lang

Cyclotomic
Fields

Springer-Verlag
New York Heidelberg Berlin
Dr. Serge Lang
Department of Mathematics
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut 06520
USA

Editorial Board

P. R. Halmos F. W. Gehring C. C. Moore

Managing Editor Department of Mathematics Department of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics University of Michigan University of California
Indiana University Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 Berkeley, CA 94720
Bloomington, Indiana 47401 USA USA
USA

AMS Subject Classification: 12C20, 12B30, 14G20

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Lang, Serge, 1927-
Cyclotomic fields.
(Graduate texts in mathematics: 59)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Fields, Algebraic. 2. Cyclotomy. 1. Title.
II. Series.
QA247.L33 512'.3 77-25859

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form

without written permission from Springer-Verlag.

© 1978 by Springer-Verlag, New York Inc.

Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1978

9 8 7 6 5 432 1
ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-9947-9 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-9945-5
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-9945-5
 Foreword

Kummer's work on cyclotomic fields paved the way for the development of
algebraic number theory in general by Dedekind, Weber, Hensel, Hilbert,
Takagi, Artin and others. However, the success of this general theory has
tended to obscure special facts proved by Kummer about cyclotomic fields
which lie deeper than the general theory. For a long period in the 20th century
this aspect of Kummer's work seems to have been largely forgotten, except
for a few papers, among which are those by Pollaczek [Po], Artin-Hasse
[A-H] and Vandiver [Va].
In the mid 1950's, the theory of cyclotomic fields was taken up again by
Iwasawa and Leopoldt. Iwasawa viewed cyclotomic fields as being analogues
for number fields of the constant field extensions of algebraic geometry, and
wrote a great sequence of papers investigating towers of cyclotomic fields,
and more generally, Galois extensions of number fields whose Galois group
is isomorphic to the additive group of p-adic integers. Leopoldt concentrated
on a fixed cyclotomic field, and established various p-adic analogues of the
classical complex analytic class number formulas. In particular, this led him
to introduce, with Kubota, p-adic analogues of the complex L-functions
attached to cyclotomic extensions of the rationals. Finally, in the late 1960's,
Iwasawa [Iw 1I] .made the fundamental discovery that there was a close
connection between his work on towers of cyclotomic fields and these
p-adic L-functions of Leopoldt-Kubota.
The classical results of Kummer, Stickelberger, and the Iwasawa-
Leopoldt theories have been complemented by, and received new significance
from the following directions:
1. The analogues for abelian extensions of imaginary quadratic fields in
the context of complex multiplication by Novikov, Robert, and Coates-
Wiles. Especially the latter, leading to a major result in the direction of the

v
Foreword

Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, new insight into the explicit reciprocity

laws, and a refinement of the Kummer-Takagi theory of units to all levels.
2. The development by Coates, Coates-Sinnott and Lichtenbaum of an
analogous theory in the context of K-theory.
3. The development by Kubert-Lang of an analogous theory for the units
and cuspidal divisor class group of the modular function field.
4. The introduction of modular forms by Rihet in proving the converse of
Herbrand's theorem.
5. The connection between values of zeta functions at negative integers
and the constant terms of modular forms starting with Klingen and Siegel,
and highly developed to congruence properties of these constant terms by
Serre, for instance, leading to the existence of the p-adic L-function for
arbitrary totally real fields.
6. The construction of p-adic zeta functions in various contexts of elliptic
curves and modular forms by Katz, Manin, Mazur, Vishik.
7.. The connection with rings of endomorphisms of abelian varieties or
curves, involving complex mUltiplication (Shimura-Taniyama) and/or the
Fermat curve (Davenport-Hasse-Weil and more recently Gross-Rohrlich).
There is at present no systematic introduction to the basic cyclotomic
theory. The present book is intended to fill this gap. No connection will be
made here with modular forms, the book is kept essentially purely cyclotomic,
and as elementary as possible, although in a couple of places, we use class
field theory.
Some basic conjectures remain open, notably: Vandiver's conjecture that
h + is prime to p.
The Iwasawa-Leopoldt conjecture that the p-primary part 0f C- is cyclic
over the group ring, and therefore isomorphic to the group ring modulo
the Stickelberger ideal. For prime level, Leopo.!dt and Iwasawa have shown
that this is a consequence of the Vandiver conjecture. Cf. Chapter VI, §4.
Much of the cyclotomic theory extends to totally real number fields, as
theorems or conjecturally. We do not touch on this aspect of the question.
Cf. Coates' survey paper [Co 3], and especially Shintani [Sh].
There seems no doubt at the moment that essential further progress will be
closely linked with the algebraic-geometric considerations, especially via the
Fermat and modular curves.
I am very much indebted to John Coates, Ken Ribet and David Rohrlich
for their careful reading of the manuscript, and for a large number of
suggestions for improvement.

New Haven, Connecticut SERGE LANG

1978

vi
 Contents

Foreword v
CHAPTER 1
Character Sums 1
1. Character Sums Over Finite Fields 1
2. Stickelberger's Theorem 6
3. Relations in the Ideal Classes 14
4. Jacobi Sums as Hecke Characters 16
5. Gauss Sums Over Extension Fields 20
6. Application to the Fermat Curve 22

CHAPTER 2
Stickelberger Ideals and Bernoulli Distributions 26
1. The Index of the First Stickel berger Ideal 27
2. Bernoulli Numbers 32
3. Integral Stickelberger Ideals 43
4. General Comments on Indices 48
5. The Index for k Even 49
6. The Index for k Odd 50
7. Twistings and Stickelberger Ideals 51
8. Stickel berger Elements as Distributions 53
9. Universal Distributions 57
10. The Davenport-Hasse Distribution 61

CHAPTER 3
Complex Analytic Class Number Formulas 69
1. Gauss Sums on Z/mZ 69
2. Primitive L-series 72

vii
Contents

3. Decomposition of L-series 75
4. The (± l)-eigenspaces 81
5. Cyclotomic Units 84
6. The Dedekind Determinant 89
7. Bounds for Class Numbers 91

CHAPTER 4
The p-adic L-function 94
1. Measures and Power Series 95
2. Operations on Measures and Power Series 101
3. The Mellin Transform and p-adic L-function 105
4. The p-adic Regulator 112
5. The Formal Leopoldt Transform 115
6. The p-adic Leopoldt Transform 117

CHAPTER 5
Iwasawa Theory and Ideal Class Groups 123
1. The Iwasawa Algebra 124
2. Weierstrass Preparation Theorem 129
3. Modules over Z,,[[X]] 131
4. Z,,-extensions and Ideal Class Groups 137
5. The Maximal p-abelian p-ramified Extension 143
6. The Galois Group as Module over the Iwasawa Algebra 145

CHAPTER 6
Kummer Theory over Cyclotomic Zp-extensions 148
1. The Cyclotomic Z,,-extension 148
2. The Maximal p-abelian p-ramified Extension of the Cyclotomic
Z,,-extension 152
3. Cyclotomic Units as a Universal Distribution 157
4. The Leopoldt-Iwasawa Theorem and the Vandiver Conjecture 160

CHAPTER 7
Iwasawa Theory of Local Units 166
1. The Kummer-Takagi Exponents 166
2. Projective Limit of the Unit Groups 175
3. A Basis for U(x) over A 179
4. The Coates-Wiles Homomorphism 182
5. The Closure of the Cyclotomic Units 186

CHAPTER 8
Lubin-Tate Theory 190
1. Lubin-Tate Groups 190
2. Formal p-adic Multiplication 196

viii
 Contents

3. Changing the Prime 200

4. The Reciprocity Law 203
5. The Kummer Pairing 204
6. The Logarithm 211
7. Application of the Logarithm to the Local Symbol 217

CHAPTER 9
Explicit Reciprocity Laws 220
1. Statement of the Reciprocity Laws 221
2. The Logarithmic Derivative 224
3. A Local Pairing with the Logarithmic Derivative 229
4. The Main Lemma for Highly Divisible x and IX = Xn 232
5. The Main Theorem for the Symbol <x, xn>n 236
6. The Main Theorem for Divisible x and IX = unit 239
7. End of the Proof of the Main Theorems 242

Bibliography 244
Index 251

ix
 Notation

ZeN) = integers mod N = Zj NZ.

If A is an abelian group, we usually denoted by AN the elements x E A
such that Nx = O. Thus for a prime p, we denote by Ap the elements of order
p. However, we also use p in this position for indexing purposes, so we rely
to some extent on the context to make the intent clear. In his book, Shimura
uses A[p] fot the kernel of p, and more generally, if A is a module
over a ring, uses A[a] for the kernel of an ideal a in A. The brackets are
used also in other contexts, like operators, as in Lubin-Tate theory. There is
a dearth of symbols and positions, so some duplication is hard to avoid.
We let A(N) = AjNA. We let A(p) be the subgroup of A consisting of all
elements annihilated by a power of p.

xi
 1
Character Sums

Character sums occur all over the place in many different roles. In this
chapter they will be used at once to represent certain principal ideals, thus
giving rise to annihilators in a group ring for ideal classes in cyclotomic fields.
They also occur as endomorphisms of abelian varieties, especially Jacob-
ians, but we essentially do not consider this, except very briefly in §6. They
occur in the computation of the cuspidal divisor class group on modular
curves in [KL 6]. The interplay between the algebraic geometry and the
theory of cyclotomic fields is one of the more fruitful activities at the moment
in number theory.

§1. Character Sums Over Finite Fields

We shall use the following notation.
F = Fq = finite field with q elements, q = pn.
ZeN) = ZjNZ.
e = primitive pth root of unity in characteristic O. Over the complex
numbers, e = e21tilp.
Tr = trace from F to Fp.
JlN = group of Nth roots of unity.
2: F -i>- Jlp the character of F given by
2(x) = eTr(X).

X: F* -i>- Jlq -1 denotes a character of the multiplicative group.

We extend X to F by defining X(O) = O.
The field Q(JlN) has an automorphism (1' -1 such that
(1'_1:(1-+(-1.
1. Character Sums

If CI. E Q(JiN) then the conjugate ex denotes (J -lCl.. Over the complex numbers,
this is the complex conjugate.
The Galois group of Q(JiN) over Q is isomorphic to Z(N)*, under the map

where

Let/, g be functions on Fwith values in a fixed algebraically closed field of

characteristic O. We define

S(f, g) = L f(x)g(x).
XEF

We define the Fourier transform Tfby

Tf(y) = L f(x)Je( -xy) = Lf(x)e-Tr<XY).

XEF

Then Tf is again a function on F, identified with its character group by Je,

and T is a linear map.

Theorem 1.1. Let f- be the function such that f-(x) = f( -x). Then
T2f = qf-, that is

T2f(z) = qf(-z).
Proof We have

T2f(z) = L Lf(x)Je( - yx)Je( -zy)

Y x

= Lf(x - z) LJe(-yx).
x 1I

If x =f. 0 then y 1---7 Je(yx) is a non-trivial character, and the sum of the
character over F is O. Hence this last expression is

= qf( -z)
as desired.

We define the convolutionf * g between functions by the formula

(f * g)(y) = L f(x)g(y - x).

x

A change of variables shows that

2
 §1. Character Sums Over Finite Fields

Theorem 1.2. For functions J, g on F we have

T(f * g) = (Tf)(Tg)

1
T(fg) = q- Tf* Tg.
.

Proof For the first formula we have

T(f*g)(z) = L(f*g)(Y)A(-ZY) = LLf(x)g(y - X)A(-ZY).

11 11 x

We change the order of summation, let t = Y - x, Y = x + t, and find

= LfCx)A( -zx) Lg(t)A( -zt)

x t

= (Tf)(Tg )(z),
thereby proving the first formula.

The second formula follows from the first because T is an isomorphism

on the space of functions on F, so that we can write f = Tit and g = Tg l
for some functions It, gl' We then combine the first formula with Theorem
1.1 to get the second.

We shall be concerned with the Gauss sums (Lagrange resolvant)

Sex, A) = sex) = L XCU)A(U)

u

where the sum is taken over U E F*. We ceuld also take the sum over x in F
since we defined X(O) = O. Since A is fixed, we usually omit the reference to A
in the notation. The Gauss sums have the following properties.

GS O. Let Xl be the trivial character 1 on F*. Then

This is obvious from our conventions. It illustrates right at the beginning the
pervasive fact, significant many times later, that the natural object to con-
sider is -Sex) rather than Sex) itself. We shall also write

SCI) = SCI, A),

but the convention remains in force that even for the trivial character, its
value at 0 is O.

GS 1. For any character X '=f. 1, we have TX = X( -I)S(x)X- l •

3
1. Character Sums

Proof We have

TX(Y) = L.. x(x),.l( - yx) .

If y = 0 then TX(Y) = 0 (summing the multiplicative character over the
multiplicative group). If Y"# 0, we make a change of variables x = -ty-I,
and we find precisely the desired value

X( -1)S(x)X(y-l).

GS 2. We have S(i) = X( -1)S(x) andfor X "# 1, S(x)S(i) = X( -1)q, so

S(x)S(x) = q, for X "# 1.
Proof Note that T2X = T(X( -1)S(x)X-l) = S(x)S(X-l)X. But we also
know that T2X = qX-. This proves GS 2, as the other statements are obvious.

Over the complex numbers, we obtain the absolute value

We define the Jacobi sum

J(xI> X2) = - L.. Xl(X)X2(1 - x) .

Observe the minus sign, a most useful convention. We have

J(1, 1) = -(q - 2).

GS 3. If XIX2 "# 1 then

J(x X) = - S(1)S(x2) .
1, 2 S(XIX2)
In particular, J(I, X2) = JU1, 1) = 1. If XIX2 = 1 but not both Xl, X2
are trivial, then

JUI> X2) = Xl( -1).

Proof We compute from the definitions:

S(1)S(x2) = L L Xl(X)X2(y),.l(X + y)
.. II

= L L Xl(X)X2(y - x)A(y)
.. II

= L: L Xl(X)X2(U -
.. u¢o
x),.l(u) + L Xl(X)X2( -x) .
..

4
 §1. Character Sums Over Finite Fields

If XlX2 =F 1, the last sum on the right is equal to O. In the other sum, we inter-
change the order of summation, replace x by ux, and find

2: XIX2(U)A.(U) 2: Xl(x)X2(1 -
u x
x),

thus proving the first assertion of GS 3. If XlX2 = 1, then the last sum on the
right is equal to Xl( -l)(q - 1), and the second assertion follows from
GS2.

Next we give formulas showing how the Gauss sums transform under
Galois automorphisms.

GS 4.
Proof Raising to the pth power is an automorphism of F, and therefore

Tr(xP) = Tr(x).

Thus S(xP) is obtained from S(X) by permuting the elements of F under

x 1-7 x p • The property is then obvious.

Let m be a positive integer dividing q - 1, and suppose that X has order m,

meaning that

Then the values of X are in Q(l1m) and

For any integer c prime to m we have an automorphism (le,l of Q(l1m, I1p)

such that

(l e,l: ( 1-7 (e and (l e,l is identity on I1p.

For any integer v prime to p, we have an automorphism (ll,v such that

We can select v in a given residue class mod p such that v is also prime to m.
In the sequel we usually assume tacitly that v has been so chosen, in particular
in the next property.

GS 5.

Proof The first is obvious from the definitions, and the second comes by
making a change of variable in the Gauss sum,

5
1. Character Sums

Observe that
0"1,){X) = eVTr(x) = eTr(Vx) = A(VX).
The second property then drops out.

The diagram of fields is as follows.

From the action of the Galois group, we can see that the Gauss sum
(Lagrange resolvant) satisfies a Kummer equation.

Theorem 1.3. Assume that X has order m.

(i) S(X)m lies in Q(/lm).
(ii) Let b be an integer prime to m, and let O"b = O"b,1' Then S(x)b-"b lies in
Q(/lm)·
Proof In each case we operate on the given expression by an automorphism
0"1,v with an integer v prime to pm. Using GS 5, it is then obvious that the
given expression is fixed under such an automorphism, and hence lies in
Q(/lm)·

§2. Stickelberger's Theorem

In the first section, we determined the absolute value of the Gauss sum.
Here, we determine the prime factorization. We shall first express a character
in terms of a canonical character determined by a prime.
Let V be a prime ideal in Q(/lq-1), lying above the prime number p. The
residue class field of V is identified with F = Fq. We keep the same notation
as in §l. The equation X q - 1 - 1 = 0 has distinct roots modp, and hence
reduction mod V induces an isomorphism

~ F* -- F*
/lq - 1 ---l>- q.
Phrased another way, this means that there exists a unique character w of
F* such that
w(u) mod V = u.
This character will be called the Teichmuller character. This last equation
will also be written in the more usual form
w(u) == u (mod V).

6
 §2. Stickel berger's Theorem

The Teichmuller character generates the character group of F*, so any

character X is an integral power of w.
We let
n=e-l.

Let ~ be a prime ideal lying above p in Q(jlq-l, jlp). We use the symbol
A ,...., B to mean that AlB is a unit, or the unit ideal, depending whether A, B
are algebraic numbers or (fractional) ideals. We then have
p ,...., ~P-l

because elementary algebraic number theory shows that p is totally ramified

in Q(e), and p is totally ramified in Q(jlq-l, jlp).
Let k be an integer, and assume first that 0 ~ k < q - 1. Write the
p-adic expansion

with 0 ~ kj ~ p - 1. We define

I s(k) = ko + kl + ... + k n - 1 •

For an arbitrary integer k, we define s(k) to be periodic mod q - 1, and

defined by the above sum in the range first assumed. For convenience, we also
define

to be the product of the k i ! in the first range, and then also define y(k) by
(q - I)-periodicity for arbitrary integers k. If the dependence on q is
desired, one could write
sik) and Ylk).
Theorem 2.1. For any integer k, we have the congruence
S(w- k , eTr) _ -1
(e - I),(k) = y(k) (mod ~).
In particular,
ord$ S(w- k ) = s(k).
Remark. Once more, we see how much more natural the negative of the
Gauss sum turns out to be, for we have

-S(w-k, 2) _ 1
ns(k) = y(k) (mod ~)

with 1 instead of -Ion the right-hand side.

7
1. Character Sums

Proof of Theorem 2.1. If k = 0 then the relation of Theorem 2.1 is clear

because both sides of the congruence to be proved are equal to -1. We
assume 1 ::; k < q - 1, and prove the theorem by induction. Suppose first
that k = 1. Then
S(w- k ) =L w(u)-leTr<u)
u

= L w(u)-I(1 + n)Tr<u)
= L w(u)-I(1 + (Tr u)n + O(n2»

(interpreting Tr u as an integer in the given residue class mod p). But

W(U)-I Tr(u) == u-I(u + uP + ... + upn - 1 ) mod ~

== 1 + up - I + ... + U pn - L I •
Each u H- uPJ - I is a non-trivial character of F*. Hence

L W(U)-I Tr(u) == q - 1 == -1 (mod ~)

and therefore
S(W-I)
- - == -1 (mod~)
n

thus proving the theorem for k = 1.

Assume now the result proved for k - 1, and write

for 1 < k < q - 1. We distinguish two cases.

Case 1. plk, so we can write k = pk' with 1 ::; k' < q - 1. Then trivially

s(k) = s(k') and y(k) = y(k')

because k has the same coefficients k i as k', shifted only by one index. Let
Up = U p ,1, so Up leaves e fixed. Since

we find that applying Up to the inductive congruence

S(w- k ') -1
nS(k') == y(k') (mod~)

yields a proof for the present case, because Up is in the decomposition group
of~, whence up~ = ~.

8
 §2. Stickelberger's Theorem

Case 2. p t k. Then 1 ::::;; k o• Furthermore,

s(k) = s(k - 1) + 1 and y(k - 1) = (k o - I)! k 1 !··· k n - 1 !.

Then
S(w- k) S(W- 1W-(k-l») _ S(w- 1) S(W-(k-l» -I
~ ns(k) = - n - ns(k-l) J(w 1, w (k 1»

= -1. -1 -1 ( d ~)
- y(k - 1) J(w 1, W (k 1» mo .

To conclude the proof, it will suffices to get the right congruence for J. We
use GS 3 from §I, to get:
-J(w-I, W-(k-l» == L: u- 1(1 - U)-(k-l)+Q-l (mod ~),

and the sum is at first taken for u =f 0, 1, but with the additional positive
exponent q - I which does not change anything, we may then suppose that
the sum is taken for u =f 0 in F. Hence we get further

If j =f 1 then L ui -1 = 0, so we get the further congruence

-J(w-I, W-(k-l» == (-I)(q - k)(q - ) == -ko (mod ~),

thereby proving the theorem.

Having obtained the order of the Gauss sum at one prime above p, we also
want the full factorization. Suppose that m is an integer > 1 and that p t m.
Let .p be a prime ideal above p in Q(flm) and let
N.p = q = pn.
Let k be an integer such that

~1 has order m in Q/Z.

q-

Let <t> denote the smallest real number ~ 0 in the residue class mod Z of a
real number t. Let
G = Gal(Q(flm)/Q).

Define the Stickelberger element in the rational group ring

e(k,.p) = L:
ce2:(m)'
< q
~ 1 )lJ'c -1 E Q[G].

9
1. Character Sums

Let ~ be the prime ideal in Q(fJ.m, fJ.p) lying above .p. Let w as before be the
Teichmuller character on Fr
We let U e = Ue,l'

Theorem 2.2. We have the factorization

S(w-k) '" ~(P-l)O(k,P) ""' .p0(k,P).

Proof We have

orda;lp S(w- k) = ord!j3 UeS(W-k)

= ord!j3 S(w- kC )
= s(kc)
by Theorem 2.1. On the other hand, the isotropy group of .p in the Galois
group G consists of the powers

{Upl} for i = 0, ... , n - 1.

Hence in the ideal .p0(k) the prime occurs with multiplicity

<
U;l.p

2: -
n-l
1=0q - 1
.
kcpl )

Hence to prove Theorem 2.2 it will suffice to prove:

Lemma 1. For any integer k we have

s(k) = (p - 1).z
n-l<
1=0
--?-
q
k
1
. I )

Proof We may assume that 1 :::; k < q - 1 since both sides are (q - 1)-
periodic in k, and the relation is obvious for k = O. Since pn == 1 (mod q - 1)
we find:
k = ko + k1P + ... + kn_1pn-l
pk == k n - 1 + kop + ... + k n_2pn-l (mod q - 1)
p 2k == k n- 2 + kn-1P + ... + k n _3pn-l (mod q - 1)

Hence

< kl ) =
q-1
right-hand side of ith equation.
q-1

<
Summing yields

n~l kpi ) = s(k)(1 + p + ... + pn-l) = s(k) _1_,

I~ q - 1 q - 1 p - 1

thereby proving the lemma.

10
 §2 Stickelberger's Theorem

In Theorem 2.2 we note that the Gauss sum is not necessarily an element
of Q(flm), and the equivalence of ideals is true only in the appropriate ex-
tension field. Similarly, the Stickel berger element has rational coefficients.
By the same procedure, we can both obtain an element in Q(flm) and a corre-
sponding element in the integral group ring, as follows.

For any integers a, b E Z and any real number t, we have

b<t) - <bt) E Z and <at) + <bt) - «a + b)t) E Z.

The proof is obvious. Let us define R = Z[G], and

I = ideal of R generated by all elements Ub - b with b prime to m.

Then the above remark shows that

I() c R = Z[G].

Although we won't need it, we may prove the converse for general insight.
The matter is analyzed further in Chapter 2, §3.

Lemma 2. We have I() = R() n R.

Proof Note that mEl because

m = -(U1+m - (1 + m)).
Suppose that an element of R() lies in R, that is

with z(b) E Z. Then

whence
"'2 z(b)b == 0 (mod m),
and L: z(b)b is in 1. But then
"'2 Z(b)Ub = "'2 Z(b)(Ub - b) + "'2 z(b)b
is in I, thus proving the lemma.

It will be convenient to formulate the results in terms of the powers of one

character, depending on the integer m. Thus we let

< XI' = wp(NI'-l)/m

11
1. Character Sums

where Wp is the Teichmuller character. We define the Stickelberger element

of level m by

Oem) = 2: <~)(J;;1.
CEZ(m)'m

As a special case of Theorem 2.2, we then obtain the factorization

FAC 1.

Therefore, if b is an integer prime to m, and (Jb = (Jb,b then

FAC 2.

In FAC 2 the algebraic number on the left lies in Q(flm), and the group ring
element O(m)(b - (Jb) lies in Z[G], namely

Thus we have the ideal factorization of the (b - (Jb)-power of the Gauss

sum in terms of powers of conjugates of the prime ~ in Q(flm).
We return later to the application of this factorization to the study of the
ideal classes in the cyclotomic field, but it is worth while here to mention the
simplest consequence. In every ideal class there exists an ideal prime to m.
Since the ideal

is principal for every prime ~ t m, we find:

Theorem 2.3. Let ((j be the ideal class group of Q(Pm). Then for all b prime
tom,

annihilates ((j.

For each integer r let

We are now allowing r to have common factors with m. Let:

vi! = module generated over Z by all elements Or with r E Z, called the

Stickelberger module,
y = vi! n R, called the Stickelberger ideal.

Observe that vi! is also an R-module.

12
 §2. Stickelberger's Theorem

Theorem 2.4. The Stickelberger ideal annihilates the ideal class group of
Q(Pm).
Proof. Let

IX = '2 z(r)Or(m)
r
E R

be an element of the Stickelberger ideal, with z(r) E Z, and the sum taken with
only a finite number of coefficients t= O. Then

'2 z(r)r == 0 mod m.

r

By Theorem 2.2 we have the factorization

and it is immediately verified that the left-hand side lies in Q(flm) by using
GS 5 of the preceding section. This proves the theorem.

Next we look at the Jacobi sums. If d is an integer, then d operates in a

natural way on RjZ by multiplication. We denote this operation by [d].
Thus on representatives, we let

[d]<t) = <dt), t E R.

It is convenient to let

Recall the Jacobi sum for XIX2 t= 1:

Let ah a2 be integers, al + a2;jiE 0 mod m. Then from FAC 1 we get:

FAC3.

where

and LI[ah a2]8(m) E Z[G] lies in the integral group ring. We know that the
Jacobi sum lies in Q(flm), so again we have an ideal factorization of an element
of Q(flm).

13
i. Character Sums

It will be convenient to introduce an abbreviation. Let

denote a pair of integers. We let

In several applications, e.g., in the next section, the level m is fixed, and
consequently we omit m from the notation, and write simply

8(m)[a] = 8[a].

If d is an integer prime to m then trivially

The next two sections are logically independent and can be read in any order.
They pursue two different topics begun in §2.

§3. Relations in the Ideal Classes

Let G = Gal(Q(Jlm)/Q), so that elements of G can be written in the form a e ,
with c E Z(m)*. We recall the Stickelberger element

from formulas FAC 1 and FAC 2. Let

I = ideal of Z[G] generated by all elements b - ab , with integers b prime

to m.

Let p be prime number prime to the Euler function ¢(m). For instance, if
m = p itself, the prime p does not divide p - 1. The character group on G
takes its values in ¢(m)th roots of unity. We let q = pn be a power of p such
that ¢(m) divides q - 1. We let Oq be the ring of p-adic integers in the un-
ramified extension of Zp of degree n, so that Oq/pOq = oip) is the finite field
with pn = q elements. Then Oq contains the ¢(m)th roots of unity. If m = p
then we take q = p and Oq = Zp.
Let'(j' be the ideal class group of Q(Jlm), and '(j'(p) its p-primary component.
We have an isomorphism

The elementary divisors of '(j'(p) over Zp are the same as the elementary
divisors of
Oq ® '(j'(p) over Oq.

14
 §3. Relations in the Ideal Classes

If A is an oq-ideal, on which G operates, we let AU) be the x-eigenspace.

We let

Ix = oq-ideal generated by all elements b - X(b) with integers b prime to m.

By abuse of notation, we write often X(b) instead of X(tTb)' The important

special case we shall consider is when m = p, in which case it is easy to
determine IX" We assume p :2: 3.

Lemma 1. (i) If X = w is the Teichmuller character, then Ix = (P).

(ii) If X is non-trivial and not equal to the Teichmuller character, then
Ix = (1).
Proof For (i), we can take an integer b of the form

b=(+pu

where u is ap:-adic unit, and ( = web) is a (p - l)th root of unity. This makes
(i) clear, and (ii) is obvious, from the definitions.

In the next sections we shall deal with Bernoulli numbers systematically.

For the moment, we need only a special case, so we define ad hoc the first
Bernoulli polynomial

and the first Bernoulli number BI = --t, its constant term. For any function
fan Z(m) we define

BI,t = :2 f(X)BI«~»)'
xeZ(m) m

In particular,

BI,x = :2 «~)
m
ceZ(m)'
- 2!)X(C).
If X is non-trivial, then L X(c) = 0, and hence in this case,

Then in the present terminology, Theorem 2.3 can be reformulated as

follows.

Theorem 3.1. For non-trivial X, the ideal Bl,'j/x annihilates ~(P)U).

15
1. Character Sums

Corollary 1. Assume that m p is prime ;:::: 3. If X is not equal to the

=
Teichmuller character and is non-trivial, then

ord B1,xIx = ord B q .

Proof Immediate from the lemma and the theorem.

Corollary 2. If X is equal to the Teichmuller character then B1,xIx = (1),

and ct'(Pl(x) = 0.
Proof Mod Zp, we have the congruence

B1,w- 1 = - L
Pc=l
CW(C)-l == - L 1 == p - -
I P- 1 IP-l-l
Pc=l P
(mod Zp).

Hence B1,x has a pole of order 1 at p. Lemma l(i) concludes the proof.

Corollary 3 (Herbrand's theorem). Assume again that m = p. Let X = w1-k,

with 2 :0; k :0; P - 2. Ifct'(Pl(x) i= 0, then plBk' where Bk is the kth Bernoulli
number.
Proof In the next chapter Theorem 2.5, we shall prove the congruence

1
- B n,w k-n
n == k-1 Bk (modp)

for k in the given range, and any positive integer n. By Corollary 1, we know
that B1,x annihilates ct'(Pl(x), and

If p does not divide B k, it follows that Bq is a p-unit, whence ct'(Pl(x) = 0, thus

proving Herbrand's theorem.

The converse of Herbrand's theorem has been proved by Ribet [Ri].

For analogues on the modular curves, see the [KL] series, especially [KL 6].
The reader interested in pursuing the ideas of this section may skip the
rest of this chapter, read the first section of Chapter 3, and then go to
Chapter 5.

§4. Jacobi Sums as Hecke Characters

Let, throughout this section be a fixed primitive mth root of unity. We con-
sider the additive group
Z(m)<21 = Z(m) x Z(m),
of order m2 • Its elements will be denoted by

16
 §4. Jacobi Sums as Hecke Characters

The dot product is the usual one, a·b = alb l + a2b2' For any functionfon
Z(m)'2) we have its Fourier transform], and the inversion formulas:

(*) f(a) = L j(bW'a

b

(**)

whose verifications are simple exercises.

For any prime ideal ~ in Q(Jl.m) not dividing m, and a E Z(m)<2) we define

We extend the definition to fractional ideals of Q(Jl.m) prime to m by multi-

plicativity, thus defining lea, a) for all a prime to m. We have:

J O. J(O,~) = -(N~ - 2).

We get J(O, a) by multiplicativity. We also need the congruence

J 1. J(O, a)Na == 1 mod m 2 •

By multiplicativity it suffices to prove it for prime ideals. In that case it is

immediate, since m divides N~ - 1, and by J 0,

°
If all or a2, or al + a2 == mod m, then we shall say that a is special.
Otherwise we say that a is non-special. The absolute value of the Gauss sum
determined in GS 2 immediately implies a corresponding result for the Jacobi
sum, namely:

J2. J(a, a)l(a, a) = Na if a is non-special.

If a is special, a =I 0, note that J(a, a) = 1 or -l. In all cases, we have

J 3. lea, ~) =- L XlJ
u
a1 (U)XlJ a2 (1 - U) = LJ(b, ~Kb.a
b

where the Fourier coefficient -J(b,~) is the number of solutions u of the

equations

17
1. Character Sums

By multiplicativity, it follows that the Fourier coefficients J(b, a) are integers

for arbitrary a, that is

J(b, a) E Z.

For the rest of this section, it will be convenient to assume that all number
fields are contained in the complex numbers.
We have seen that 8[a] is in the integral group ring Z[G]. For any non-zero
element a E Q(Jlm), we let

w(a, a) = J(a, (a»a- 8[al if a is non-special,

w(a, a) = J(a, (a» if a is special, a =1= °
w(O, a) = 1.

As usual, (a) is the principal (fractional) ideal generated by a.

If d is an integer prime to m, then trivially from GS 5,

(J'dJ(a, a) = J(da, a) and (J'dw(a, a) = w(da, a).

Theorem 4.1. The algebraic number w(a, a) is a root of unity.

Proof As (a) ranges over all principal fractional ideals, the numbers
w(a, a) form a group. It will therefore suffice to prove that these numbers
have absolute value 1, for then their conjugates also have absolute value 1,
and these numbers form a finite group. In case a is special the theorem is
true by definition. Otherwise we can use J 2, so that

J(a, (a»J(a, (a» = Na:.

°
On the other hand, the product of a8[al and its conjugate is equal to Na
under the hypothesis that a1 + a2 t= mod m. Indeed, we have

If t is a real number and not an integer, then

<t>+(-t)=I,
and
'"L (J'c-1
ceZ(m)'

18
 §4. Jacobi Sums as Hecke Characters

operates multiplicatively like the absolute norm. The desired relation for the
product of 1X9[a] and its conjugate follows at once. The theorem follows by
using J 2, the analogous relation for the Jacobi sums.

The next theorem was proved originally by Eisenstein for prime level, and
by Weil [We 2] in the general case, which we follow.

Theorem 4.2. If IX is an algebraic integer in Q(f.1m) , and IX == 1 (mod m 2)

then/or all a we have w(a, IX) = 1, that is,
J(a, (IX)) = 1X6[a].

Proof We fix IX and view J, was functions of a, omitting IX from the nota-
tion. In the Fourier inversion relation, we know that the Fourier coefficients
J(b) are integers. But IX == 1 (mod m 2) implies that

w(a) == J(a) (mod m 2).

This is obvious from the definition if a =I 0, and follows at once from J 1
if a = O. Hence web) is an algebraic integer for all b. Furthermore, for d
prime to m,

= web).

It follows that web) E Z for all b. Now by the Plancherel formula,

Since we know that Iw(a)12 = 1, and web) is an integer for all b, it follows that
web) =I 0 for a single value of b, and is 0 for all other values of b. In particular,
for this special b,
w(a) = w(b)(b.a.
But w(O) = 1, so web) = l. Putting a = (1,0) and a = (0, 1) we get:
w(1,O) = J(l, 0) = 1 and w(l,O) = (b1
w(O, 1) = J(O, 1) = 1 and w(O, 1) = (b2.

It follows that

w(a) =1
for all a, thus proving the theorem.

19
1. Character Sums

§5. Gauss Sums Over Extension Fields

We prove in this section a theorem of Davenport-Hasse [D-H].

Theorem 5.1. Let F = Fq be the finite field with q elements, and let E be a
finite extension. Let

be the trace and norm from E to F. Let

Then
- SEUE, AE) = (- SU, A))lE:Fl.

Proof Let m = [E: F]. For any polynomial

f(X) = xn + C1X n- 1 + ... + Co

with coefficients in F, define

Then
tjJ: Monic polynomials of degree ~ lover F -+ F

is a homomorphism, i.e., satisfies

tjJ(fg) = tjJ(f)tjJ(g).

We write n(f) = degf From unique factorization we have the formula

where the product is taken over all monic irreducible polynomials over F.
Suppose f is of degree 1, say f( X) = X + c. Then we see that

L tjJ(f)xn(f) = SU, A)X.

nUl= 1

On the other hand, if n ~ 2 we have

L
n(f)=n
tjJ(f)xn = O.

Indeed,

and the sum over Cl in F on the right is 0, as desired.

20
 §5. Gauss Sums Over Extension Fields

Therefore we find

(1)

Mutatis mutandis, using the variable xm instead of X, we get

(2)

where the product is taken over all monic irreducible polynomials Q over E,
and

We shall write the product over Q as

TI=TITI·
Q P QIP

Each irreducible polynomial P splits in E into a product

Let n = n(P) = deg P. Then

deg Q = nlr.

If a is any root of P, then [F(a):F] = n and the field F(a) is independent of

the chosen root. We have the following lattice of fields.

E F(a)

~~
F'
En F(a)
=
,1
F
All the polynomials Qi are conjugate over F, and their coefficients generate
the field F' = En F(a), of degree rover F. We have

r = (m, n).

These facts are all obvious from elementary field theory. Since

and

21
1. Character Sums

we get
l/IE(Q) = ex(CO(P»Jl(Cl(P»))lE:F'l
= l/I(p)m/r.
With a view towards (2), we conclude that

(3) TI (1 -l/IE(Q)xmn(Q») = (1 - l/I(p)m/rxmn/ry

Q\P

= TI
{mf'~ 1
(1 - l/I(P)(xny

= TI (l - l/I(p)(eX)n).
,m=l

For this last step, we observe that the map

gives a surjection of {lm -7- {lm/n and the inverse image of any element of
{lm/r is a coset of {lr since r = (m, n). This makes the last step obvious.
Substituting (3) in (2), we now find

1 + SE(XE, JlE)X m = JI IJ (1 - l/I(p\(ex)n(p»

= TI
~m~l
(1 + Sex, Jl)eX)

This proves the theorem..

§6. Application to the Fermat Curve

Although we do not return in this book to the applications of Gauss sums to
algebraic geometry, we cannot resist giving the application of Davenport-
Hasse [D-H], Hua-Vandiver [Hu-V], and Weil [We 1], [We 2], [We 3] to
the computation of the zeta function of a Fermat curve.
We keep things to their simplest case, the method applies much more
generally. We consider the Fermet curve V = V(d) defined by

with d ~ 2, defined over a finite field F with q elements. Again for simplicity,
we suppose that d divides q - 1, and therefore dth roots of unity are con-
tained in F.
We let w: F* -7- {lq-l be the Teichmuller character, and

x= character such that X(u) = W(U)<q-l)/d.

22
 §6. Application to the Fermat Curve

If a is an integer mod d, we let Xa(u) have the usual value if u # 0, and for
u = 0 we let:
xa(o) = 1 if a = 0,
Xa(o) = 0 if a # O.
For u in F, we let:

NaCu) = number of solutions x E F such that Xci = u.

Then

ifu = 0
if u # 0, u is not dth power in F
if u # 0, u is dth power in F.

Therefore

NaCu) = L
amodci
Xa(u).

Theorem 6.1. Let N be the number of points of V(d) (in affine space) in the
field F. Then

The sum is taken over integers a, b satisfying 0 < a < d and 0 < b < d,
and a + b "¥- 0 (mod d).
Proof We have

N = L
a,b,c
L
L(u,v,w)= 0
Xa(u)Xb(v)XC(w)

where the sum over u, v, w is taken over triples of elements of F lying on the
line

u +v+w= O.

The sum over a, b, c is taken over elements in Z mod d.

The term for which a = b = c = 0 yields a contribution of q2, that is the
number of points on the line in F.
Next, suppose that in the remaining sum, one of a, b, c is 0 but not all are
o in ZjdZ. Say a = 0 but b # O. Then we may write the sum

L
u+v+w=o
L
certain 'U, W
Xa(u)Xc(w) L
all veF
Xb(V),

and the sum on the far right is O. This shows that all the terms in the sum

23
1. Character Sums

with one, but not all, of a, b, c equal to 0 give a contribution O. Hence we get

N = q2 + 2:
O<a,b,c<d Il+V+W=O
2: Xa(u)Xb(v)XC(w)

where the sum over a, b, c is taken over positive integers satisfying the in-
dicated inequality.
If w = 0 then XC(w) = O. We may therefore assume that in the inner sum,
we have w t= O. We then put
u = u'w and v = v'w.
The inner sum then has the form

2: Xa+b+C(w) 2: Xa(u')Xb(v').
w"o Il'+v'=-l

If a + b + c ~ 0 mod d, then the sum on the left is O. Otherwise it is q - 1,

which we assume from now on. Since 0 < a, b, c < d, there is no such triple
(a, b, c) with a + b == 0 mod d, because any accompanying c would have to
equal d. Hence the sum over a, b, c is for a + b ~ 0 mod d, and then c is
uniquely determined. Changing back the variables u', v' to u" = -u', v" =
- v' and taking into account the value of the Jacobi sum yields the expression
as stated in the theorem.

Let N be the number of points of V(d) in projective space in the field F.

Then
N = 1 + (q - 1)N.
Therefore we obtain:

Corollary. N = 1 +q - 2: cta,b
where cta,b = Xa+b( -1)J(xa, Xb), and (a, b) are as in Theorem 6.1.

Let Nv be the number of points of V(d) in projective space over the field
Fv of degree v over F. The theorem applied to Fv instead of F yields an
analogous expression, the character X being replaced by Xv such that for
uEFv ,

This last expression is nothing but X composed with the norm map, in other
words, it is precisely the character lifted to the extension as in the preceding
section. The additive character is also lifted in a similar fashion. Therefore
by Theorem 5.1 we find

24
 §6. Application to the Fermat Curve

Note that the power of x( -1) also behaves in the same way as J when lifted
to Fv' Indeed, if q is odd then

1 + q + ... + q v -1 == v mod 2,

and if q is even, then 1 = - 1 in F.

The zeta function Z(V, T) is defined by the conditions

Z'IZ(T) =- LNT v v -1 and Z(O) = 1.

It is then immediate that

_ T1 (l - lY.a.b T )
Z(V(d), T) - (1 _ T)(1 - qT)

This is best seen by taking the logarithmic derivative of the last expression
on the right-hand side. The operator

Jf-+ I'IJ
is a homomorphism, so we take the operator for each linear term. Inverting
a geometric series we see that the logarithmic derivative of the last expression
on the right-hand side has precisely the power series

Since it has the value 1 at T = 0, it is the unique function having the desired
properties.

If finally one starts with the Fermat curve defined over the field of dth
roots of unity, and one reduces mod primes ,p not dividing d, one can take
the product of the zeta functions for the reduced curve over the correspond-
ing finite field. Then as Weil remarked, since the Jacobi sums are Hecke
characters, it follows that the Hasse zeta function

,eYed), s) = I1 Z(V(d), N,p-S)

Il.ra

is equal to a Hecke L-series (up to the obvious factors of the zeta function of
Q(J1a) at sand s - 1).
The computation of solutions in finite fields works in essentially the same
way for diagonal equations

as in Hua-Vandiver [Hu-V] and Weil [We 1,2,3]. The additional connection

with the Hasse zeta function for the curve over number fields was made by
Weil.

25
2
Stickelberger Ideals and
Bernoulli Distributions

The study of ideal classes or units in cyclotomic fields, or number fields

(Iwasawa, Leopoldt), of divisor classes on modular curves (e.g., as in [KL]),
of higher K-groups (Coates-Sinnott [Co 1], [Co 2], [C-S]) has led to purely
algebraic theorems concerned with group rings and certain ideals, formed
with Bernoulli numbers (somewhat generalized, as by Leopoldt). Such ideals
happen to annihilate these groups, but in many cases it is still conjectural
that the groups in question are isomorphic to the factor group of the group
ring by such ideals.
However, it is possible to study these ideals, the structure of their factor
group, and the orders of the factor groups in the group ring, without any
allusion to the applications to ideal classes, divisors, or units. This chapter
gives the foundations for such study, applicable to many contexts.
The first section gives Iwasawa's computation of the index of the Stickel-
berger ideal for k = 1, directly applicable to the ideal class group in cyclo-
tomic fields. Next we deal with the basic theory of Bernoulli numbers and
polynomials, and especially integrality theorems of Mazur and Coates-
Sinnott. The sections concerning Stickelberger ideals for k ~ 2 are taken
from Kubert-Lang [KL 8]. The last sections on distribution relations are
from [KL 5] and Kubert [Ku].
For a discussion of conjectures in the case of totally real number fields, cf.
Coates [Co 3], [Co 4], and the very general conjectures in Coates-Lichten-
baum [C-L].
The present chapter is organized so that a reader interested especially in
the structure of the ideal class group in the cyclotomic tower (the basic sub-
stantial example of the theory) can read the first section, and then can go
immediately to Chapter 3, followed by Chapter 5 without impairing the
logical understanding of the material. I followed this pattern when I taught
the course in 1977.

26
 §1. The Index of the First Stickelberger Ideal

On the other hand, a reader especially eager to get into p-adic L-functions
can concentrate on this chapter and then read Chapter 4 as a continuation
omitting Chapter 3. Only the section on the p-adic regulator in Chapter 4 is
related to Chapter 3. Chapter 2 may then be interpreted as giving the basic
congruence properties of Bernoulli distributions, and Chapter 4 gives
essentially more (p-adically) global measure theoretic properties.
A third alternative is to see Chapters 3 and 4 as forming a pair, describing
side by side the complex and p-adic class number and regulator formulas
originally conceived by Leopoldt.

§1. The Index of the First Stickelberger Ideal

Let G ~ Z(m)* be the Galois group of Q(Pm), and assume that m is the
conductor of that field, so that m > 1, m is odd, or m is divisible by 4. We
let
M = !- order of G =,!-cp(m).
We let
R = Z[G],

For any G-module, we let A - be the (-I)-eigenspace for a -1. Then multipli-
cation by e- is the projection operator on this eigenspace (provided 2 is
invertible), and e- is the associated idempotent in the group algebra.

Lemma 1. We have R- = 2e- R = (l - a -l)R and

Proof The inclusion (1 - a -l)R c R- is clear. Conversely, let P be a set

of representatives in Z(m)* for Z(m)*j ± 1. Let

rx = L z(c)a c- 1 E R-

with coefficients z(c) E Z. Thus a -lrx = -rx. Then z( -c) = -z(c). If we let

[J = L z(c)a';-1,
ceP

then rx = (l - a -1)/3, thereby proving the lemma, because e- R is a free

abelian group of rank M.

We recall the primitive Stickelberger element

(J,' = L.,
'"
ceZ(m)'
<c) -
m
ac-1 •

27
2. Stickelberger Ideals and Bernoulli Distributions

We have written ()' instead of () because we are now setting more permanent
notation, and there is a more canonical element which has priority, namely

It is immediately verified that

(*) e-()' = (), andso () = ()-.

We are interested in R() n R. The next lemma does away with a possible
alternative definition of this ideal.

Lemma 2. R() n R = (R()' n R)-.

Proof Let T = R()' n R. Clearly

T- c e- R() = R() and T- c R,

so the inclusion ~ is obvious. Conversely, let IY. E R() n R. It will suffice to

prove that IY. E R()' (because IY. E Rand IY. = IY.-). Write

From the hypothesis that IY. has integral coefficients, we conclude that

L z(b) (bem -
b
!)2 == 0 (mod Z)
for all e prime to m, so that

- L z(b)b == -21 L z(b) (mod Z).

1
m b b

We contend that

L z(b)b == 0 (mod m) and L z(b) == 0 (mod 2).

This is obvious if m is odd. Suppose m even, so m is divisible by 4. Write
m = 4mo. Each b is odd, and

L z(b)b == 0 (mod 2mo)

so 2: z(b) is even. Then

L z(b)b == I L z(b)(mod mZ),

thus proving also the first congruence. Only the second will be used.

28
 §1. The Index of the First Stickelberger Ideal

Now let s(G) = 2: U be the sum of the elements of G in the group ring,
and note that

e+8' = 1-s(G) and (1 + U-1)8' = s(G).

Then

IX = 2: Z(b)Ube-(J' = 2: Z(b)Ub(1 - e+)8'

= 2: Z(b)Ub8' - 2: Z(b)Ube+8'
= 2: Z(b)Ub8' - 2: z(bHs(G).

Substituting s(G) = (1 + U -1)8' on the right and using 2: z(b) even shows
that IX lies in R8', and concludes the proof.

It is of interest to determine the index arising from Lemma 2. This is done

in the next lemma. We let as usual:

w = number of roots of unity in Q(Jlm).

Lemma 3. (R8 : R8 n R) = w.
Proof We define a homomorphism

1
T: R8-+- ZjZ
w

by mapping an element of the group algebra on its first coefficient mod Z.

In other words, if

we let TIX = a(I). Note that

1 1
T(8) == In - 2 (mod Z),

and therefore that T is surjective. It now suffices to prove that its kernel is
R8 n R. But we have

whence for odd b prime to m, and IX E R, we get

T(UbIX8) == bT(1X8) (mod Z).

29
2. Stickelberger Ideals and Bernoulli Distributions

If Cf.() is in the kernel of T, it follows that Cf.() also lies in R, thereby proving the
lemma.

We now assume that m = pn is a prime power. Then

!/ = R() () R

is called the Stickelberger ideal We want to determine the index

Define

for any character Xon Z(m)*. Let X' be the primitive character associated with
X, and let m' be its conductor. Then it is easy to verify that if we replace m by
m' and X by X' in the right-hand side, we obtain the same value, so B 1 • x is
independent of whether we view X as primitive character, or simply a charac-
ter on Z(m)*. (The above fact is a special case of the distribution relation,
discussed in the next section.)
Next, we shall use the fact that

for odd characters X. For primitive X the non-vanishing of B 1 •X comes from

its relation with the L-series, and will be briefly recalled in Chapter 3. Cf.
also [L 3], Chapter 14, Corollary of Theorem 2.2.

Lemma 4. (R(): Rm()) = mM •

Proof This is obvious if one can show that R() is a free abelian group of
rank M. When m is a prime power, this results from the fact that for odd X
we have

We shall analyze (R- :!/) by the sequence of groups and subgroups

shown in the following diagram.
e- R 2M
R- __1- !/
::::> ::::>

mMTI -BI.' lu
'odd ul w

c
Rm() mM
R()

30
 §1. The Index of the First Stickelberger Ideal

We have shown the inclusion relations, and we have also indicated the in-
dices. All of them have been proved, except the one on the left-hand side.
This will be the item in the final lemma, and we then find:

Theorem 1.1 (Iwasawa). Assume that m is a prime power. Then

Remark. Even though some inclusions go opposite to each other in the

diagram, to compute indices one still has multiplicativity, with opposite
inclusions occurring with opposite exponents. Cf. §4 if you don't find this
obvious.

Lemma 5. (e- R: e- Rme) = ±mM f1

xodd
B1,X"

Proof First observe that the sign is whatever is needed to make the right-
hand side positive. Multiplication bye-me is an endomorphism of QR-,
which is a semisimple algebra, decomposing into a product of I-dimensional
algebras corresponding to the odd characters. Consequently we find

det(e-me) = f1
xodd
X(me) = m M f1
;todd
B1,x'

On the other hand, e-me maps e- R into itself, and by standard elementary
linear algebra, the index is given by the absolute value of the determinant.
This proves the lemma, and the theorem.

Remark. In Chapter 3 we shall prove that the index computed in Theorem

1.1 is the order of the ( - 1)-eigenspace of the ideal class group in the cyclo-
tomic field, denoted by h -. The analytic class number formula will show that
the product of - B1,x yields the positive sign.

The theorem and its proof are due to Iwasawa [Iw 7]. It was generalized
to composite levels m by Sinnott [Silo In the composite case, one cannot deal
any more with a single element e, but one has to deal with the module
generated by Stickelberger elements of all intermediate levels

for all divisors d of m. A similar situation had already arisen in the analogous
situation in dimension one higher, concerning the Stickelberger elements
formed with B2 rather than, Bl> in the Kubert-Lang series [KL 2], [KL 3],
[KL 5].

31
2. Stickelberger Ideals and Bernoulli Distributions

§2. Bernoulli Numbers

We recall first some general notions concerning distributions, defined by
Mazur following the work of Iwasawa.
Let {X,,} be a sequence of finite sets, and suppose given a sequence of
surjective maps

so that we can consider the projective limit

For convenience, we took our family of sets indexed by the positive

integers. In applications, it often occurs that the sets are ordered by the
positive integers ordered by divisibility. For instance, the family of sets
Z/N", arises in the sequel. We shall also consider the projective family

with a fixed prime number p, and n = 0, 1, 2, .... In each case, the connecting
homomorphism

for MIN is reduction mod M, denoted by rM'

This type of projective family will also arise in isomorphic form as
follows. We have an isomorphism

1
NZ/Z~Z/NZ

given by multiplication with N. We then have a commutative diagram

1
N Z/Z~Z/NZ

NIMI I,M
I
MZ/Z~Z/MZ

where the left vertical arrow is multiplication with N/ M, and the right arrow
is reduction mod M. Thus the system

is also a projective system, ordered by divisibility.

32
 §2. Bernoulli Numbers

Let us now return to the general projective system {Xn }. For each n suppose
given a function CPn of Xn into an abelian group V. We say that the family
{CPn} is compatible if for each n and x E Xn we have

CPn(X) = 2:
:7t n -1Y=X
CPn+l(Y)'

The sum is taken over all the elements of Xn+1lying above x. In what follows,
we often omit the subscripts, and write ny = x, for instance.
Let K be a ring of operators on V. Let f be a function on Xm for some
integer m, with values in K. If n ;::: m, then we view f as defined on Xn through
the natural projection on X m • We conclude at once from the compatibility
relation that
2: f(x)CPn(x) = 2:
xeX Il xeXm
f(x)CPm(x).

Let X be the projective limit

with the limit topology, so that X is a compact space. For each n we have a
surjective map

For each x E Xn the inverse image r;l(x) is an open set in X, and the totality
of such open sets for all n, x is a basis for the topology of X.
A functionf on X is called locally constant if and only if there exists n such
that f factors through X n • Such functions are also called step functions, and
their group is denoted by St(X, K). For each such function, we can define its

I
integral
f dcp = 2:
xeXn
f(x)CPn(X),

independent of the choice of n such that f factors through X n . We then call

the family {CPn}, or the functional dcp, a distribution on X. It is an additive map

dcp: St(X, K) -+ V.

Examples of such maps will be given later with Bernoulli numbers.

Let K be a complete field with respect to a non-Archimedean valuation,
and suppose that V is a non-Archimedean Banach space over K, i.e., V is a
complete vector space, with a norm

satisfying
Iv + wi ::; max{lvl, Iwl} v, WE V
Icvlv = IcIKlviv c E K, vE V.

33
2. Stickelberger Ideals and Bernoulli Distributions

If <p is bounded, i.e., I<Pn(x) I is bounded for all n, x E Xn> then we say that <P
is bounded, or quasi-integral for the valuation. For any IE St(X, K) we have

where IIIII is the sup norm off, and 11<p11 is the sup norm of the values I(Pn(x)l.
Indeed, if I factors through Xn. then

by the non-Archimedean property, so our assertion is clear.

In particular, if IE ceX) is a continuous function on X, then we can
approximate I uniformly by a sequence {fn} of step functions, and since
III --.., Inll ~ 0, we get
Illn - Imll ~ 0
for m, n ~ 00. Hence the integrals

f In d<p

converge, and define the integral

for such a continuous function, provided that <p is bounded. This will be the
case in important examples, and bounded distributions are also called
measures.
All this is preliminary to defining the distributions which are of importance
to us, namely the Bernoulli distributions. If x E ZeN) then x/N can be viewed
t
as an element of Q/Z. For any E R/Z we let <t>
be the smallest real number
~ 0 in the residue class of t mod Z. What we want is for each positive integer
k a polynomial PIc with rational coefficients, leading coefficient 1, such that
the functions

form a distribution on the projective system {Z/NZ}. Such polynomials will

be given by the Bernoulli polynomials. Let the Bernoulli numbers B" be
defined by the power series
tOOt"
B 1. F(t) = -t- =
e - 1 "=0
B""
k.
2:
34
 §2. Bernoulli Numbers

Then for instance

Bo = 1,
Observe that

F( -t) - F(t) = t,

so that F is almost even, and in particular, we have

Bk = 0 if k is odd, k # 1.
We define the Bernoulli polynomials Bk(X) be the expansion

B2.

Then it is clear that the Bernoulli numbers are the constant terms of the
Bernoulli polynomials, that is

We find:

Bo(X) = 1,

The desired distribution relation is implied by the next formula.

B 3.

Proof On one hand, we have

N..;:;;/ te(x+a)t = l N~l Nte[(X+a)/N]NT

a~o e Nt - 1 N a~o e Nt - 1

On the other hand, summing the geometric series L eat directly from a = 0
to a = N - 1 and using the definition of the Bernoulli polynomials shows
that the coefficient of tkfk! is precisely Bk(X), thereby proving the desired
identity.

35
2. Stickelberger Ideals and Bernoulli Distributions

Relation B 3 can also be written in the form

for y E R/Z. This can be interpreted as follows.

On the projective system

{~Z/Z}
the association
1
x H>- Mk-1B k«x») for x E M Z/Z

defines a distribution.
Proof If y E (l/MN)Z/Z is one element such that Ny = x, then all
elements in the inverse image of x by the mapping (N· id) -1 consist of

y + ~, with t mod N.

Multiplying B 4 by Mk-1 yields precisely the distribution relation.

Since the system {(l/M)Z/Z} is isomorphic to the system {Z/MZ}, we can
also express the distribution relation on the latter. It is convenient to norm-
alize this distribution further and to give it a special symbol. For x E Z/NZ
we define

Then the family {Ef!")} forms a distribution on {Z/ NZ}.

Remark. Historically, this distribution arose in the context of the partial

zeta functions. Indeed, if x E (Z/ NZ)*, define

CN(X, s) = L n-
nEX
S•

n>O

The Dirichlet series converges only for Re(s) > 1, but it is classical and
elementary that it can be analytically continued to the whole complex plane,
and Hurwitz has shown that

36
 §2. Bernoulli Numbers

Furthermore the partial zeta functions themselves satisfy the distribution

relation. For a further discussion, cf. Example 4 at the end of the chapter. For
distributions associated with zeta functions in connection with Cartan groups,
see [KL 10].
For the applications, we shall use one more formula concerning the
Bernoulli polynomials, namely

B 5. BiX) = Xk - tkXk-l + lower terms.

This is obvious by the direct multiplication of the series

For what we have in mind, we don't care about the lower terms, which have
rational coefficients.

Let N be a positive integer, and letfbe a function on Z/NZ. We form the

polynomial
N-l te(a + X)t
Flt, X) = a~o f(a) eNt _ 1 .

We define the generalized Bernoulli polynomials (relative to the function f)

by

B 6.

In particular, the constant term of Bk.tCX) is the generalized Bernoulli number

For instance, fmay be a Dirichlet character X on Z(N)*, extended to Z/NZ

by the value 0 on integers not prime to N. Then Bk,x is the generalized Ber-
noulli number of Leopoldt. Directly from the definition, we then find the
expression

B 7.

In terms of the distribution relation, this can be written

37
2. Stickel berger Ideals and Bernoulli Distributions

The distribution {E?)} is rational valued. We shall be interested in its

p-adic integrality properties for a prime p. For this purpose, we describe a
process which integralizes this distribution. For historical comments, see
below, after Theorem 2.1.
Let c be a rational number. For N prime to e (i.e., prime to the numerator
and denominator of e) we define

for x E ZeN). Multiplication by e or e- 1 is well defined on ZeN) so our

expression makes sense. If N is a power of a prime p, then we could also take
e to be a p-adic unit. We can write symbolically

This distribution satisfies the following properties.

E 1. Ei~~(x) = <~) _e<e~x) + e; 1.

-eBl(
Proof We have

Er.~(x) = Bl( <~») <e~x»)

= __
<~) ~ e«e~x) _~)
whence the assertion is clear.

E 2. E£~~(x) == Xk-1Ei~~(x) mod k%ck) Z[e, lie],

where D(k) is a least common multiple of the denominators of the coeffi-

cients of the polynomial Bk(X),
Proof We work with a representative integer x such that

O~x~N-1.

We write

with an integer b satisfying 0 ~ b ~ N - 1 and Y E Zpje]. Then

e-1x b
--=-+y= < b ) +z
-+y
N N N
38
 §2. Bernoulli Numbers

with some integer z. Since Bk(X) = Xk - tkXk-l + lower terms, we find

the following congruences mod NI(D(k))Z[c, lie]:

== kxk-l(X
N - c <c-1X) c- 1)
-sr- + -2-
and Property E 2 follows by using E 1.

The values of Ek~~ are in

I
kD(k) Z[c, lie].

They will be called N-integral if they are p-integral for every prime dividing
N.

Theorem 2.1. (i) The values of Ek~~ are N-integral.

(ii) We have the congruence for every prime p dividing N:

(iii) If c is an integer prime to 2kN and to the denominators of the Bernoulli

polynomial Bk(X), then the values of Ek~~ lie in Z.
Proof For large integer v the values NVlkD(k) are N-integral. Let M = NV.
The distribution relation yields

Ek~XX) = L Ekz.;;(y)
y

where the sum is taken over, those y mod M which reduce to x mod N. The
expression for Eiz.;; is obviously N-integral except possibly for the term

39
2. Stickel berger Ideals and Bernoulli Distributions

(c - 1)/2. But if N is even then c is odd, so (c - 1)/2 is N-integral, and if N

is odd, then (c - 1)/2 is N-integral. If we apply E 2 to each term Ek~d(y)
then we see that the first two assertions are proved.

For case (iii), we take M = (NkD(k))" for large v. The argument then
proceeds as before, because the only denominators occurring in

or

contain only primes dividing NkD(k).

For k = 1 the integraIizing process already appears in the Stickelberger

theorem, and was used extensively by Iwasawa. For k > 1, Coates-Sinnott
obtained integral elements in group rings by this process [C-S 2], Theorem
1.3 and [C-S 3], Theorem 1. Mazur formulated this integralizing process
in terms of measure theory and the distribution relation, which allows the
jacking up argument used to prove Theorem 2.1.

For the rest of this section, we let N = pn with some fixed prime number p,
so the distributions are defined on the projective limit of Z(pn), which is
none other than the p-adic integers Zp. We view the values of the distributions
to be in C p , the completion of the algebraic closure of the p-adic numbers.
We may express Theorem 2. 1(ii) in the limit as follows.

Theorem 2.2. Let c be a p-adic unit. Then

We shall now express Bernoulli numbers in terms of the integralized

distributions.

Theorem 2.3. Let c E Z; and let k be an integer ;::: 1 such that c k =1= 1.
Then

Proof By definition,

On the last integral to the right, we make the change of variable

X I--?> ex,

40
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
occupied by the Aryans. The Buddhist buildings then erected may be
divided into three principal classes:
1st. Topes or Stupas, with their surrounding rails and lats:
2nd. Chaityas, which, in form and purpose, closely resemble the
early Churches of the Christians, though several of those cut in the
rock were, in all probability, excavated before the Christian era: and,
3rd. Viharas, or Monasteries, forming in the earliest times the
dwellings of the monks or priests who ministered in the Topes or
Chaityas, but afterwards becoming the independent abode of
monastic communities, who had chapels or oratories appropriated to
their use within the walls of their monasteries.
We are here concerned only with the Tope or Stupa.
In its origin we suspect that it simply took the place of the mound or
tumulus which the Turanian and other races had from earliest ages
been accustomed to raise over the last resting-place of their dead.
No such tumuli now exist in India, having probably been washed
away by the tropical rains or river-floods; but some are still found in
Afghanistan. The Indian type is distinguished from the tumulus of
other countries by its material and its shape. It is built of brick or
stone, in a rounded or conical form. It is distinguished also by the
circumstance that instead of being the place of interment of a
corpse, it is the depository of relics.
Besides being used as a relic-shrine, the Tope was frequently
employed as a memorial tower to indicate a sacred spot. Of the
84,000 Stupas which, according to tradition, Asoka erected, fully one
half would seem to have been raised to mark the scenes where
Buddha or some Bôdhisatwa had performed a miracle or done
something worthy of being remembered by the faithful.
The “rails,” or stone-circles, surrounding the Indian Topes are often
of as much importance as the Topes themselves; and in the case of
Sanchi and Amravati, are even more important. As with the Topes,
they are sepulchral in origin. “The circles of rude stones found all
over Europe certainly are so in most cases. They may sometimes
enclose holy spots, and may possibly have in some instances places
of assembly, though this is improbable. Their application to the
purposes of ancestral worship is, however, not only probable, but
appropriate. Sometimes a circle of stones encloses a sepulchral
mound, as at New Grange in Ireland, and very frequently in
Scandinavia and Algeria. In India rude stone circles are of frequent
occurrence.” Some hundreds are found in the neighbourhood of
Amravati alone, and all are sepulchral; but like the Topes when
adopted by the Buddhists, they were “sublimated into a symbol
instead of a reality.”
Reference must briefly be made to another group of early Buddhist
monuments, the lats or stembhas, of which very few are now extant
in India, the British engineer having used them for his roads, and
the native zemindar for his rice or sugar mills. Those erected by
Asoka are uniform in character: circular stone shafts, monoliths,
thirty or forty feet high, and surmounted by a capital of a bell-
shaped or falling leaf form, imitated from the later Grecian
architecture. They were erected in order that certain edicts might be
engraved upon them, which Asoka desired to keep constantly in the
remembrance and before the eyes of his subjects. But in the fifth
century, those raised by the Guptas had no other object than to
perpetuate the name and fame of their royal founders.

The Topes at Sanchi form part of a large group of Topes situated

between the towns of Bhilsa and Bhopul in Central India. They range
over an area about seventeen miles from east to west, and about
ten miles from north to south, in five or six different clusters, and
number in all between forty and fifty of various dimensions. It is
believed that the smallest are merely the places of interment of local
chiefs; others are strictly Dagobas, or relic-shrines; while the largest
is a chaitya or stupa, designed apparently to consecrate some sacred
spot, or perpetuate the memory of some remarkable event in
Buddhist history.
Architecturally speaking, it consists, first, of a basement 121 feet in
diameter and 14 feet in height. This is surmounted by a platform or
procession path, within which the dome or tumulus itself rises in the
shape of a truncated hemisphere to a height of 39 feet. The summit
is a level area, measuring 34 feet across, and surrounded by a
circular railing or barrier of stones, which enclosed a square Tu or
reliquary, 11½ feet square, and this in its turn enclosed a circular
support for the sacred and symbolic umbrella that always crowned
these edifices.
At a distance of 9½ feet from the base, the tope is encircled by a
rail, eleven feet high, and consisting apparently of one hundred
pillars, exclusive of the gateways. Each pillar seems to have been
the gift of an individual, and even the rails between them have
apparently been contributed by different persons. The rail or circle is
devoid of sculpture; but four gateways which were added to it about
the Christian era are covered with sculptured work of the most
elaborate kind.
The human figures represented in these sculptures belong in the
main to two great races. One of them is easily recognised as
“Hindus,”—“meaning by that term the civilized race who formerly
occupied the valley of the Ganges, and who, from their capitals of
Ayodhyâ and Indraprastha or Pâtaliputra (Palibothra), had been the
dominant class in India for at least two thousand years before the
time to which we are now referring.” It may be taken as proved that
these people were originally pure immigrant Aryans, but by
intermixture with other races their blood took, as it were, a new
colouring, though they did not lose the civilisation and pre-eminence
which they owed to their intellectual superiority.
We know them in the sculptures by their costume; by the dhoti,
wrapped round the loins exactly as it is worn now-a-days; the
chadder over their shoulders; and the turban on their heads. So
much for the dress of the men; of the undress of the women it is
more difficult to speak. They are always decorated with enormous
bangles about the wrists and ankles, and strings of beads round the
neck; but with the exception of a bead belt round the body below
the waist they wear little body clothing. From this belt slips of cloth
are sometimes suspended, more generally at the sides or behind
than in front,—and sometimes also a cloth not unlike a dhoti,
invariably of transparent texture. This scantiness of attire can hardly
be regarded as finding compensation in the dimensions and
amplitude of the head-dress, which, consisting of two long plaits of
hair mixed with beads, and a thick roll of cloth, forms almost a kind
of tippet, covering the whole of the woman’s back.
Mr. Fergusson remarks:[50]
“It is, however, not only in the Topes that this absence of dress is so
conspicuous. In all the sculptures at Karli, or Ellora, or
Mahavellipore, or in the paintings in Ajanta, the same peculiarity is
observable. Everywhere, indeed, before the Mahometan conquest,
nudity in India conveyed no sense of indecency. The wife and
mother of Buddha are at times represented in this manner. The
queen on her throne, the female disciples of Buddha, listening to his
exhortations, and on every public occasion on which women take
part in what is going on, the costume is the same. It is equally
remarkable that in those days those unveiled females seem to have
taken part in every public transaction and show, and to have mixed
with the men as freely as women do in Europe at the present day.
“All this is the more remarkable, as in Buddhist books modesty of
dress in women is frequently insisted upon. In the Dulva, for
instance, a story is told of the King of Kalinga presenting to the King
of Kosála (probably Padh), a piece of muslin, which afterwards fell
into the hands of a lewd priestess. She, it is said, wore it in public,
while it was so thin that she, notwithstanding this, appeared naked
to the great scandal of all who witnessed the exhibition.[51] The
probability is, that the story and the book that contains it are of very
much more modern date than our sculptures. It certainly is in direct
conflict with their evidence.”
The want of shame in women, to which this exposure of the person
bears witness, is always the mark and sign of inferior civilisation.
The other race depicted in the sculptures has its distinctive
characteristics. The male costume consists of a kilt,—not a cloth
wrapped round the loins, but a kilt, shaped, sewn, and fastened by
buckle or string;—and also of a cloak or tippet, which seems to be
similarly shaped and sewn. As for the hair, it is twisted into a long
rope or plait like a Chinaman’s, and then folded round the head in a
conical form, or a piece of cloth or rope was treated in this way. The
beard is worn, whereas no single individual of the Hindu race, either
at Sanchi or Amravati, has any trace of beard or moustache; a
circumstance the more remarkable, because, according to Nearchus,
the Hindus dyed their beards with various colours, so that some
were red, some white, some black, others purple, some green. The
female dress differs from that of the Hindus even more than the
male. A striped petticoat is gathered in at the knees so as to form a
neat and modest garb, and a cloak or tippet like that of the men is
thrown generally over one shoulder so as to leave one breast bare,
but sometimes both are covered. The head-dress is a neat and
elegant turban.
Who then are these people? From the peculiarities of their costume,
and their living in the woods, some authorities are inclined to regard
them as priests or ascetics, though, it is to be noted, they are
nowhere represented as worshipping Topes, hero-wheels, or the disc
and crescent symbols (the sun and moon.) In one compartment,
however, they are evidently worshipping the serpent in a fire-temple.
Fergusson concludes that they were the aboriginal inhabitants of
Malwa, to whom came the Hindus as conquerors or missionaries (or
both?) The Topes were erected and the sculpture wrought by the
conquering race, and the others are always represented as inferior
and engaged in servile employments, but not as converts to
Buddhism. The only act of adoration in which we see them
concerned is the adoration of the five-headed Naga. Mr. Fergusson
proposes to call them Dasyus, not because such a name has any
local or traditional authority, but because in the Vedas and the heroic
poems it seems to be applied to the aboriginal people of India as
opposed to the Aryans.

Proceeding now to a consideration of the sculptures, we find that

one half of those at Sanchi represent religious acts, such as the
worship of the Dagoba or of Trees. Once or twice the Wheel is the
object of adoration, and once the Serpent. Other bas-reliefs
represent events in history, and some again are devoted to the
ordinary incidents of every man’s life. Their general execution is
vigorous though rude. Those at Amravati “are perhaps as near in
scale of excellence to the contemporary art of the Roman empire
under Constantine, as to any other that could be named; or, rather,
they should be compared with the sculptures of the early Italian
Renaissance, as it culminated in the hands of Ghiberti, and before
the true limits between the provinces of painting and sculpture were
understood.”
Let us describe an upper bas-relief which has been found on the
eastern gateway.
Here the people whom Mr. Fergusson calls Dasyus are represented
worshipping the five-headed Naga, or Serpent, which appears in a
small hexagonal temple, raising its head over something very like an
altar. In front stands a pot of fire,—probably a fire-altar,—and in
spite of Mr. Fergusson’s doubts, we think both the Serpent and the
Fire are connected with the old Sun-worship.[52]
In the foreground an old man is seated in a circular leaf-thatched
hut, with, according to a frequent Indian custom, a scarf bound
round his knees and loins. Behind him in the hut is suspended his
upper garment, and in front a bearded senior, of his own tribe, is, to
all appearance, addressing him. Near this individual stands another
pot of fire, with three pairs of tongs or ladles, and a bundle of sticks
to feed the flame. Close beside him we see one elephant, two
buffaloes, sheep, and deer. The scene takes place in a forest. Above
are trees and cocks, with monkeys and peacocks; below, a reedy
marsh opens into a lake blooming with lotus-flowers and occupied
by geese.
A lower bas-relief in the same gateway puts before us a very
different scene:
In the centre of the upper part blooms the sacred Buddhist Tree,
behind its altar, with its Chattee and garlands, occupying a position
similar to that of the serpent in the other bas-relief. Two Garudas or
Devas, or flying figures, present garlands, and two females, instead
of griffins, approach it on either side.
In the lower part of the picture, the Inja, or chief male personage,
sits enthroned upon the Naga, and is sheltered by its five-headed
hood. On his right crouch three women on stools, eating and
drinking, and each with her tutelary or snake behind her; and above
them are a female Chaori bearer and a woman with a bottle—there
are snakes behind both. On the other side are two women playing
on drums, two on harps, one on a flute, and a fifth dancing, but all
likewise with snakes, and all in the costume which Mr. Fergusson
defines as that of the Hindus.
The worship of the Naga by the bearded Dasyus as represented in
the upper bas-relief, does not occur again at Sanchi, and occurs only
once at Amravati. There, however, the five-headed snake is seen
very frequently in front of the dagoba, and in a position which is
designed to command the worship, not only of the Dasyus, but of
the whole world.
The Hindu male or chief canopied by the Naga, as shown in the
lower bas-relief, occurs at least ten times at Sanchi, and must have
occurred several hundred times at Amravati.
Mr. Fergusson asks, what are we to infer from these facts? Is it that
the Naga, or serpent, was the god of the aborigines, whom the
conquering Hindus adopted as their own deity, and pretended that it
was for them he reserved his patronage and support? We must
recollect that the Topes were built and the sculptures carved by
Hindus, and that there is no representation of a Hindu doing honour
to a snake; on the contrary, the snake always does homage to the
Hindu.
Shall we conclude, then, that the Hindus were the real Naga-
worshipping people, and that it was they who enforced serpent-
worship on the Dasyus? A conquered people have not infrequently
imposed their language, laws, and religion on their conquerors.
It is, perhaps, impossible to answer these questions: a cloud of
obscurity hangs over the whole subject of Snake-worship; but we
take it to have been the old and prevalent faith of the aborigines of
India prior to the Aryan immigration, and we believe that the Aryans
adopted it more and more generally as they mixed more and more
widely with the Hindus, and their blood became less and less pure.
It is not mentioned in the Vedas; there is scarcely an allusion in the
Râmâyana; in the Mahâbâhrata it occupies a considerable space; it
appears timidly at Sanchi in the first century of the Christian era; is
triumphant at Amravati in the fourth; and might have become the
dominant faith of India had it not been elbowed from its pride of
place by Vishnuism and Sivaism, which took its position when it fell
together with the Buddhism to which it had allied itself so closely.

We turn to the celebrated Tope at Amravati, a town situated on the

river Kishna. The dimensions of the Tope are 195 feet for inside
diameter of the outer circle, and 165 feet for that of the inner. The
procession path is paved with slabs 13 feet long, and the inner rail is
2 feet wide. It has four gateways, and projecting about 30 feet
beyond the outer rail; but these are in so dilapidated a condition that
their size cannot be accurately ascertained.
These circles, or circular bas-reliefs, from the intermediate rails of
the outer enclosure are thus described:
In the upper circle on the right hand side a group of Buddhist
priests, in their yellow robes, may be seen worshipping. In front two
supple women, such as so frequently occur in these sculptures, bend
in attitudes of adoration, and on the left a chief in the ordinary
Hindu costume—surrounded by the women of his family—presents
his little son to the Buddha-emblem.
In the lower circle the same structural arrangements occur up to the
Trisul (or emblem), but the whole is surmounted by the Chakra, or
Wheel, which we know to be the symbol of Dharma or the Law. Here
all the worshippers are men; it is, we are told, one of the very few
scenes in these sculptures from which women are entirely excluded.
Whether it was considered that the study of the Law was unsuited
for women, or whether some other motive governed the designers,
certain it is that, contrary to the usual rule, the whole of the
worshippers are of one sex and one race. The only other noticeable
peculiarity is the introduction of two antelopes, one on each side of
the throne.
The second circle represents the Trisul ornament, or emblem, not on
a throne, but behind an altar. The sacred feet of Buddha are
depicted, but there are no relics. In the upper compartment the
principal worshippers are two men with seven-headed snake-hoods,
and two women with single snakes.
In the centre of the bas-relief sits the principal personage, with a
nine-headed snake-hood, between two of his wives, and beyond, on
both rims of the circle, stands a female figure, supporting herself by
the branches of a tree. On each a young girl waits; one of these girls
has a snake at the back of her head. In front are three musicians,
also with snakes; and on their right a lady without a snake receives
the assistance of a girl with a snake.
“This distinction,” says Mr. Fergusson, “between people with snakes
and those without is most curious and perplexing. After the most
attentive study I have been unable to detect any characteristic either
of feature or costume by which the races can be distinguished,
beyond the possession or absence of this strange adjunct. That
those with snakes are the Naga people we read of, can hardly be
doubted; yet they never are seen actually worshipping the snake like
the Dasyus, but rather as protected by it. The snake seems their
tutelary genius, watching over, perhaps inspiring them; but whether
they borrowed this strange emblem from the natives of the country,
or brought it with them from the north-west, are questions we are
hardly yet in a position to answer satisfactorily.”

We have thus abundant evidence of the prevalence of Serpent-

worship in India in “olden times;” the reader will, perhaps, be
surprised to hear that it lingers still throughout the peninsula. Dr.
Balfour, who had an intimate acquaintance with the habits and
customs of the natives, asserts that the worship both of the
sculptured form and the living creature, is general. The sculpture
invariably represents the Nag or Cobra, and almost every hamlet
owns its Serpent deity. Sometimes it is a single snake, with the hood
spread open. Occasionally the sculptured figures are nine in number,
forming the Nao Nag, which is designed to represent a parent snake
and eight of its young, but the prevalent form is that of two snakes
twining in the manner of the Esculapian rod of classical antiquity.
It is the opinion of some Hindus that the living snake is not
worshipped as a devata, or deity, but simply reverenced in
commemoration of some ancient event—possibly of some
astronomical occurrences. Others, however, distinctly assert that it is
worshipped as a devata. However this may be, there can be no
doubt that the living snake is worshipped throughout all Southern
India. On their feast days the worshippers resort to the snake’s lair,
which they bedaub with vermilion streaks and patches of turmeric
and of wheat flour, and close at hand they suspend garlands of
flowers, strung upon white cotton thread, and laid over wooden
frames. During the rainy seasons occurs the great Nagpanchanic
festival, when the Hindus go in search of snakes, or have them
brought to their houses by the Sanpeli, the snake-charmers who
ensnare them. The snakes are then worshipped, and offerings of
milk are made to them, and in almost every house figures of snakes,
drawn on paper, are affixed to the walls, and worshipped. Those
who visit the snakes’ abodes, or tents, plant sticks around the hole,
and about and over these sticks wind white cotton thread. A bevy of
Mahrathi women repair to the hût, and joining hands, wind round it
in a circle five times, singing songs; after which they prostrate
themselves. They pour milk into the hole; hang festoons of
Chembela flowers and cucumber fruit, and sprinkle a mixture of
sugar and flour.
In reference to this festival, Colonel Meadows Taylor writes:—
On this occasion, Nags or Cobras are worshipped by most of the
lower classes of the people in the Dekhan, and more particularly in
the Shorapore country. The ceremonies are very simple: the
worshippers bathe, smear their foreheads with red colour, and in
small parties,—generally families acquainted with one another,—
resort to the places known to be frequented by snakes. In such
places there are generally sacred stones, to which various offerings
are made, and they are anointed with red colour and ground
turmeric, and invocations are addressed to the local genius and to
the serpents. Near the stones are placed small new earthen saucers,
filled with milk; for cobras are fond of milk, and are believed to
watch the ceremony, coming out of their holes and drinking the milk,
even while the worshippers are near, or are lingering in the distance
to see if their offerings be received. It is considered a fortunate
augury for the worshippers if the snake should appear and drink.
Should the snake not appear, the worshippers, after waiting awhile,
return to the place next morning, to ascertain the result: if the milk
have disappeared, the rite has been accepted, but not under such
favourable auspices as if the reptile had come out at once. These
ceremonies end with a feast.
Colonel Meadows Taylor (whose language we are partly adopting)
continues:—
It is on behalf of children that Snake-worship is particularly
practised; and the women and children of a family invariably
accompany the male head, not only at the annual festival, but
whenever a vow has been made to a Serpent Deity. The first hair
shaved from a child which has passed teething, and gone through
the other infantile ailments, is frequently dedicated to a Serpent. On
such occasions the child is taken to the locality of the vow, the usual
ceremonies are performed, and with the other offerings is included
the child’s hair. In every case a feast follows, served near the spot,
and the attendant Brahmins receive alms and largess.
“In the Shakti ceremonies, Pooma-elhishék, which belong, I think, to
aboriginal customs, the worship of the Snake forms a portion, as
emblematical of energy and wisdom. Most of these ceremonies are,
however, of an inconceivably obscene and licentious character. They
are not confined to the lowest classes, though rarely perhaps
resorted to by Brahmins; but many of the middle class sects, of
obscure origin and denomination, practise them in secret, under the
strange delusion that the divine energy of nature is to be obtained
thereby, with exemption from earthly troubles.
“Although Snake-worship ordinarily belongs professedly to the
descendants of aboriginal tribes, yet Brahmins never or rarely pass
them over, and the Nagpanchani is observed as a festival of kindly
greeting and visiting between families and friends—as a day of gifts
of new clothes or ornaments to wives or children, &c.
“The worship of Gram Deotas, or village divinities, is universal all
over the Dekhan, and indeed I believe throughout India. These
divinities have no temples nor priests. Sacrifice and oblation is made
to them at sowing time and harvest, for rain or fine weather, in time
of cholera, malignant fever, or other disease or pestilence. The Nag
is always one of the Gram Deota, the rest being known by local
names. The Gram Deota are known as heaps of stones, generally in
a grove or quiet spot near every village, and are smeared some with
black and others with red colour.
“Nâg is a common name both for males and females among all
classes of Hindus, from Brahmins downwards to the lowest classes
of Sudras and Mléchhas. Nâgo Rao, Nâgoju, &c., are common
Mahratta names, as Nagappa, Nagowa, and the like are among the
Canarese and Telugu population.
“No Hindu will kill a Nag or Cobra willingly. Should any one be killed
within the precincts of a village, by Mahomedans or others, a piece
of copper money is put into its mouth, and the body is burned with
offerings to avert the evil.
“It is, perhaps, remarkable, that the Snake festival is held after the
season or at the season of casting the skin, and when the Snake,
addressed or worshipped, is supposed to have been purified. Some
Brahmins always keep the skin of a Nag in one of their sacred books.
“In reference to the lower castes alluded to, I may mention those
who practise Snake-worship with the greatest reverence:—1,
Beydars. 2, Dhungars or shepherds, Ahens or milkmen, Waddiwars
or stone-masons, Khungins or rope-makers, Brinjaras and other
wandering tribes, Mangs, Dhérs, and Chennars, Ramorsers, Bhils,
Ghonds, and Kohs, all which I believe, with many others, to be
descendants of aboriginal tribes, partly received within the pale of
Hinduism.
“Lingayots, who are schismatics from Hinduism, and who deny in
toto the religious supremacy of the Brahmins, are nevertheless
Snake-worshippers, many of them bearing the name Nag, both male
and female.
“I cannot speak of the North of India, but in the whole of the South
of India, from the Nerbudda to Cape Comorin, Snake-worship is now
existent.”[53]
 CHAPTER XII.

POLYNESIAN SUPERSTITIONS.

W HEN Captain Cook first visited those beautiful islands of the

South Pacific which are now included under the general name
of Polynesia, he found their inhabitants given over to the lowest and
coarsest idolatry. Many of their rites and ceremonies were as lewd as
any practised in ancient times under the auspices of the Paphian
Venus. Gradually they were brought within the influence of the
missionary work of the Christian Church; and though, if we may
credit the testimony of recent observers, much heathenism still
prevails, and gross superstitions are still secretly nourished, there
cannot be a doubt, that, on the whole, their moral condition has
been materially elevated.
Among the pioneers of the Cross in these “Summer-isles of Eden”
one of the most eminent and successful was the Rev. John Williams;
a missionary of the true type, of an enlightened mind and broad
sympathies, who, after a long career of noble labour, sealed his
witness to the truth with his blood, and lives in the Gospel record as
the Martyr of Erromanga. From the plain, unvarnished, and effective
chronicle of his “Missionary Enterprises” we glean much interesting
information respecting the idolatrous ways of the islanders, revealing
their identity with the superstitions that from all times have
dominated over uncivilised man. In Rarotonga as in Mexico, for
instance, the gods were supposed to be propitiated by human
sacrifices; and in many of the islands cannibalism existed in its most
disgusting form and under the sanction of a religious ordinance.
From the chief of Aitutaki Mr. Williams obtained some curious relics
of idolatry. As for example:—an idol named Te-rongo, one of the
great deities, called a Kaitangata, or man-eater. The priests of this
idol were supposed to be inspired by the shark.
Tangarou, the great national god of Aitutaki, and of almost all the
adjacent islands. He holds the net with which he catches the spirits
of men as they fly from their bodies, and a spear with which he kills
them.
A rod, with snares at the end, made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut
husk, with which the priest caught the spirit of the god. It was used
in cases of pregnancy, when the female was ambitious that her child
should be a son, and become a famous warrior. It was also
employed in wartime to catch the god by his leg, to secure his
influence on the side of the party performing the ceremony.
Ruanu; a chief from Raiatea, who, ages ago, sailed in a canoe from
that island, and settled at Aitutaki. From him a genealogy is traced.
He died at Aitutaki, and was deified as Te atua taitai tere, or the
conductor of fleets.
Tanu; with his fan and other appendages; the god of thunder. The
natives, when they heard a peal of thunder, were accustomed to say
that this god was flying: and produced this sound by the flapping of
his wings.
The Rarotongan idols were of a singular character. From their size
they might have suited Swift’s nation of Brobdingnagians, for the
smallest seems to have been about fifteen feet high. Each was
wrought out of a piece of aito, or iron wood, about four inches in
diameter, carved with a rude imitation of the human hand at one
end, and with an obscene figure at the other; round it were wrapped
numerous folds of native cloth, until it measured two or three yards
in circumference. Near the wooden image some red feathers were
strewn, and a string of small pieces of polished pearl shells was
regarded as the manava, or soul of the god.
An idol, somewhat resembling a Chinese joss, was placed in the
fore-part of every fishing-canoe; and prior to their departure on a
fishing excursion, the boatmen aways presented it with offerings,
and invoked it to grant them a successful issue.
A striking scene was that when Papeiha, a converted islander, lifted
up his voice against idolatry, for the first time, among the banana-
groves of Rarotonga.
The Rarotongans had assembled in great numbers at a marae, or
sacred enclosure, for the purpose of making offerings of food to the
gods. Many priests, pretending to be inspired, were filling the air
with shouts and yells; whilst around them gathered the deluded
worshippers, some with one side of their face and body blackened
with charcoal; others were painted with stripes of various colours;
others figured as warriors, wearing large caps adorned with white
cowrie shells and birds’ feathers. Breaking into their midst, Papeiha
boldly addressed them on their folly in devoting such large quantities
of food to a log of wood which they had carved and decorated and
called a god. This challenge was immediately accepted by one of the
priests, who springing to his feet, protested that their god was a real
god, and a very powerful god, and that they were that day
celebrating a very sacred feast.
Papeiha replied that the day was at hand when their folly would be
revealed to them by the true God Jehovah, who would make their so-
called gods “fuel for the fire.” This strong declaration greatly
perplexed the crowd, but they continued to listen attentively while
Papeiha commented on the love of God in giving His Son to die for
sinners. After he had ceased, the people asked him many questions;
among others,—“Where does your God live?” He answered, that
Heaven was His dwelling-place, but that both Heaven and Earth
were filled with the majesty of His presence. They rejoined, in their
inability to conceive of an Invisible but Omnipresent Deity;—“We
cannot see Him, but ours are here before our eyes, and, if the earth
was full of your God, He would surely be big enough to be seen.”
“And,” said another, “why do we not run against Him?” To which
Papeiha ingeniously responded:—“That the earth was full of air, but
we did not run against it: that we were surrounded by light, but it
did not impede our progress.”
Five months later, a priest came to Papeiha and his associate
missionary Tiberio, announcing his resolve to burn his idols; and he
brought with him his eldest son, a boy of ten years old, to place
under their care, lest the gods in their wrath should destroy him.
Evidently, in spite of his iconoclastic purpose, the priest still
cherished a belief in the power of his wooden deities. Leaving the
child with the two teachers, he returned home, and next day at early
dawn returned, staggering under the weight of his cumbrous idol. A
crowd followed him, shouting at him as a madman, and looking
upon him as one pre-doomed to destruction by his own folly; but he
held fast to his resolve to embrace the word of Jehovah, and declared
that he had no fear of the issue. He threw his idol at the feet of the
teachers, one of whom fetched his saw to cut it up; but the crowd,
as soon as they saw the instrument applied to the head of the god,
were stricken with panic fear, and fled away. As no catastrophe
occurred, they gradually returned impelled by curiosity, which is
sometimes stronger than fear; and in their presence, amidst
profound excitement, the first rejected idol of Rarotonga was
committed to the flames.
To convince the people of the absurdity of their apprehensions, the
teachers, as soon as the idol was converted into ashes, roasted
some bananas upon them, of which they ate, and invited the
spectators to partake. None however were brave enough to admit so
dangerous a morsel into their mouths, and they waited, open-eyed,
for the expected result of the profane audacity of the two teachers.
But, like the inhabitants of Melita, “after they had looked a great
while and saw no harm come to them, they changed their minds,”
and in less than ten days after this event no fewer than fourteen
idols were destroyed. Soon afterwards, the chief Tinomana sent for
the missionaries, and on their arrival at his mountain-home,
informed them that after much deliberation, he had resolved to
become a Christian, and to place himself under their direction. He
therefore wished to know what was the first step he ought to take.
They informed him that he must destroy his maraes and burn his
idols; to which he immediately replied, “Come with me and see them
destroyed.” On reaching the place he desired some person to take a
firebrand and set fire to the temple, the ataraw, or altar, and the
unus, or sacred pieces of carved wood by which the marae was
decorated. Four huge idols were then deposited at the feet of the
teachers, who, having read a portion of the tenth chapter of S.
Luke’s Gospel, which was peculiarly appropriate, especially from
verse 17 to 20, stripped them of their linen wrappings, which they
distributed among the people, and threw them into the flames.
Some of the spectators waxed wroth with the chief, and expressed
themselves with great violence, denouncing him as a fool and a
madman for burning his gods, and listening to worthless fellows who
“were drift-wood from the sea, washed on shore by the waves of the
ocean.” The women were specially vehement in their grief, and
broke out into the loudest and dolefulest lamentations imaginable.
Many of them inflicted deep gashes on their heads with sharp shells
and shark’s teeth, and ran wildly to and fro, smeared with the blood
which streamed from their wounds, and crying in tones of the
deepest melancholy, “Alas, alas, the gods of the madman Tinomana,
the gods of the insane chief are given to the flames!” Others,
blackened with charcoal, were not less demonstrative.
In the course of a few days a clean sweep was made of the idols of
the district; never were Iconoclasts, not even our Puritan
forefathers, more thorough or more resolute. The teachers then
advised Tinomana and their other converts to prepare their food for
the Sunday, and attend worship at the mission station. This they did,
—but they came armed as for battle, with war-caps, slings, and
spears, fearing lest the irate Satanus (as they called the idolaters)
should attack them. Neither in coming nor going, however, were
they molested.
“At this time,” says Mr. Williams,[54] “a ludicrous circumstance
occurred, which will illustrate the ignorance and superstition of this
people. A favourite cat had been taken on shore by one of the
teachers’ wives on our first visit, and not liking his new companions,
Tom fled to the mountains. The house of the priest Tiaki, who had
just destroyed his idol, was situated at a distance from the
settlement, and at midnight while he was lying asleep on his mat,
his wife, who was sitting awake by his side musing upon the strange
events of the day, beheld with consternation two fires glistening in
the doorway, and heard with surprise a mysterious voice. Almost
petrified with fear, she awoke her husband, and began to upbraid
him for his folly in burning his god, who, she declared, was now
come to be avenged of them. ‘Get up and pray, get up and pray,’ she
said. The husband arose, and on opening his eyes beheld the same
glaring lights, and heard the same ominous sound. Impelled by the
extreme urgency of the case, he commenced, with all possible
vehemence, vociferating the alphabet as a prayer to God to deliver
them from the vengeance of Satan. On hearing this, the cat, as
much alarmed as the priest and his wife, of whose nocturnal peace
he had been the unconscious disturber, ran away, leaving the poor
people congratulating themselves on the efficacy of their prayer.”
Afterwards, in the course of his wanderings, Puss reached the
district of the Satanus; and, as the marae was situated in a
sequestered corner, and overshadowed by the luxuriant foliage of
patriarchal trees, the graybeards of the wood, he was well pleased
with the place. In order to keep the best of company, he took up his
abode with the gods; and as he met with no opposition from within,
he little expected any from without. But some few days after came
the priest, accompanied by a number of worshippers, to present
some offerings to the god; on his opening the door, Tom respectfully
welcomed him with a miaou. At this unwonted salutation he rushed
back in terror, shouting to his followers: “Here’s a monster from the
deep! here’s a monster from the deep!”
Whereupon the whole party hastened home, assembled several
hundreds of their companions, assumed their war-caps, equipped
themselves with spear, club, and sling, blackened their bodies with
charcoal, and in all this pomp and circumstance of Polynesian war,
rushed, with yells, cries, and shouts, to attack poor Puss. He,
however, daunted by their grim and strange array, did not await their
approach. The moment the door was open, a leap and a bound—he
was gone! Abiit, evasit, erupit. As he darted through the assembled
warriors, they fled precipitately in all directions.
The religious system of the Samoans, according to Mr. Williams,
differed in essential respects from that which prevailed at the
Tahitian, Society, and other Polynesian groups. They had neither
maraes nor temples, nor altars nor offerings; and consequently none
of the barbarous and sanguinary rites to which we have alluded.
They shed no human blood; they strewed no maraes with the skulls
and bones of their victims; they dedicated no sacred groves to brutal
and sensual observances. Hence the Rarotongans denounced them
for their impiety, and “a godless Samoan” was a proverbial phrase.
Yet they were not without their superstitions; they had lords many
and gods many; and their credulity was as marked as that of any
other savage race on whom the light of Christianity and civilisation
had never shone.
In considering the religion of the Polynesians, there are four points
to be glanced at; 1, their gods; 2, their cultus; 3, their ideas of
immortality; and 4, the means by which they hoped to secure future
happiness.
1. Their gods consisted of three kinds: their deified ancestors, their
idols, and their etus.
Some of their ancestors were deified, after the Greek fashion, for the
supposed boons they had conferred upon mankind. For example, it
was believed that the world was formerly in darkness; but that the
sun, moon, and stars were created by one of their progenitors in a
manner too absurd to be described. Also, that the heavens were of
old so close to the earth that men could not walk erect, and were
compelled to crawl; until a great man conceived the idea of elevating
them to their present height; which he effected by the employment
of almost Herculean energy. By his first effort he raised them to the
top of a tender plant, called teve, about four feet high. There they
remained until he had refreshed and rested himself. A second effort,
and he upheaved them to the height of a tree called kanariki, which
is as tall as the sycamore. His third attempt carried them to the
summits of the mountains; and after a long period of repose, and
another tremendous struggle, he raised them to their present
altitude, at which they have ever since remained. This wonderful
personage was appropriately apotheosized; and down to the date of
the introduction of Christianity, was everywhere worshipped as “the
Elevator of the Heavens.”
The fisherman had his god; so had the husbandman, the voyager,
the warrior, the thief; mothers dedicated their offspring to one or
other of these numerous Powers, and chiefly to Hero, the god of
thieves, and to Oro, the god of war. “If to the former, the mother,
while pregnant, went to the marae with the requisite offerings, when
the priest performed the ceremony of catching the spirit of the god
with the snare previously described, and infusing it into the child
even prior to its birth, that it might become a clever and desperate
thief. Most parents, however, were anxious that their children should
become brave and renowned warriors. This appears to have been
the very summit of a heathen mother’s ambition, and to secure it,
numerous ceremonies were performed before the child was born;
and after its birth it was taken to the marae, and formally dedicated
to Oro. The spirit of the god was then caught, and imparted to the
infant, and the ceremony was completed by numerous offerings and
prayers. At New Zealand, stones were thrust down the throat of the
babe, to give it a stony heart, and make it a dauntless and desperate
warrior.”
This dedication of the child to the sanguinary war-god points to a
condition of society in which life was verily and indeed a battle, and
every one had to hold his own by right of a strong arm and a
reckless spirit. There was no room for the feeble in such a system;
they crawled aside to die; or were trampled to death in the rush and
press of the crowd. Civilisation has its victims; but assuredly they are
few in comparison to the thousands and tens of thousands
destroyed by the merciless tyranny of Heathenism. Civilisation does
at least teach us our duties towards our neighbours; while Savage
Man had little sentiment of compassion or affection for father or
brother, daughter or wife.
The second class of objects regarded with religious veneration was
Idols. In every island and district these were different; but in every
island and district they abounded. Some were large, some small;
some hideous in the extreme, others were almost comely. No fixed
pattern appears to have been before the idol-makers; each man
followed his own fancy.
The third object of worship was the Etu,—that is, some bird, fish, or
reptile, in which the natives believed that a spirit resided. This form
of idolatry was more in vogue in the Samoas than in any other
island-group. Among the Samoans, the objects regarded as etus
were, indeed, almost innumerable, and frequently they were of
extraordinary triviality. It was not unusual to see a chief, in other
matters really intelligent, muttering his prayers to a fly, an ant, or a
lizard, if such chanced to crawl or alight in his presence.
“On one occasion,” says Mr. Williams, “a vessel from New South
Wales touched at the Samoas, the captain of which had on board a
cockatoo that talked. A chief was invited to the ship, and shortly
after he entered the cabin the captain began a colloquy with the
bird. At this he was struck with amazement, trembled exceedingly,
and immediately sprang upon deck, leaped into the sea, and called
aloud to the people to follow him, affirming the captain had his
devolo on board, which he had both seen and heard. Every native
dashed at once into the sea, and swam to shore with haste and
consternation; and it was with much difficulty that they could be
induced to revisit the ship, as they believed that the bird was the
captain’s etu, and that the spirit of the devil was in it.”
Another illustration is given by Mr. Williams:—
“While walking,” he says, “on one occasion, across a small
uninhabited island, in the vicinity of Tongatabu, I happened to tread
upon a nest of sea snakes. At first I was startled at the
circumstance, but being assured that they were perfectly harmless, I
desired a native to kill the largest of them as a specimen. We then
sailed to another island, where a number of heathen fishermen were
preparing their nets. Taking my seat upon a stone under a tou tree, I
desired my people to bring the reptile, and dry it on the rocks; but
as soon as the fishermen saw it, they raised a most terrific yell, and,
seizing their clubs, rushed upon the Christian natives, shouting: ‘You
have killed our god, you have killed our god!’ I stepped in between
them, and with some difficulty stayed their violence, on the condition
that the reptile should be immediately carried back to the boat.”
The Polynesian islanders, or most of them, seem to have cherished a
general idea of a Supreme Being, whom they regarded as the
Creator of all things and the Author of their mercies. They called him
Tangatoa; and at their great feasts, before the food was distributed,
an orator would rise, and after enumerating each viand on the
board, would say: “Thank you for this, great Tangatoa!”
The worship or cultus observed by the islanders included prayers,
offerings of pigs, fish, vegetables, canoes, native cloth, and the like,
and incantations. To these must be added the dread rite of human
sacrifice. Of the style of their addresses to the gods one may form
an idea from the formula with which they were accustomed to
conclude it. Having presented the gift, the priest would say: “Now, if
you are a god of mercy, come this way, and be propitious to our
offering; but if you are a god of anger, go outside the world,—you
shall have neither temples, offerings, nor worshippers here.”
As in other savage countries, they sought to propitiate the gods by
inflicting physical injuries upon themselves. The Sandwich Islanders,
in performing some of their rites, would knock out their front teeth;
the Friendly Islanders would cut off one or two of the bones of their
little fingers. So common was the latter practice, that few were to be
found who had not in this way mutilated their hands. One missionary
relates that, on one occasion, a chief’s daughter,—a fine young
woman about eighteen years of age,—was standing by his side,
when he observed by the condition of the wound that she had
recently performed the ceremony. Taking her hand, he asked why
she had cut off her finger? There was a touch of pathos in her reply.
Her mother was ill, and fearing lest she should die, she had
mutilated herself in the hope the gods would preserve her life. “Well,
and how did you do it?” “I took a sharp shell, and worked it about
until the joint was separated, and then I allowed the blood to stream
from it. This was my offering to persuade the gods to restore my
mother.” One cannot doubt the genuineness of the filial affection
which could make such a sacrifice, though we may wish that it had
been more wisely exercised.
When a second offering was required, the votary severed the second
joint of the same finger. If a third or fourth were demanded, he
amputated the same bones of the other little finger; and when he
had no more joints that he could conveniently spare, he would rub
the stumps of his mutilated fingers with rough stones, until the
blood again streamed from the wounds.
Human sacrifices, as we have said, were very numerous, especially
in the Henry, the Tahitian, and the Society island groups. At the so-
called Feast of Restoration (Raumatavchi raa,) no fewer than seven
victims were required. It was always celebrated after an invading
army had forced the inhabitants to retreat to the mountains, and
had desecrated the maraes by cutting down the branches of the
sacred trees, and cooking their food with them, and with the
wooden altars and decorations of the sacred place.
At the inauguration of their greatest kings, the islanders used what
was called Maro ura, or the red sash. This was a piece of network,
about six feet long and seven inches wide, upon which the red
feathers of the parroquet were neatly fastened. A chief could receive
no more honourable appellation than that of Arii maro ura, “King of
the Red Sash.” A new piece, about eighteen inches long, was
attached at every sovereign’s inauguration; and on all such
occasions several human victims were required. A sacrifice was
made, first for the mau raa tite, or the extension of the network
upon pegs, in order to attach to it the new piece. A second was
necessary for the fatu raa, or actual attachment; and a third for the
piu raa, or twitching the sacred relic off the pegs. These ceremonies
not only invested the sash itself with peculiar solemnity, but also
rendered the chiefs who wore it more important in the eyes of the
people. Well might it be so, when the thing was dyed, as it were, in
innocent human blood.
Human sacrifices were also offered on the breaking out of war. Mr.
Williams remarks that a correct idea of the extent to which this
system is carried may be obtained from a relation of the
circumstances under which the last Tahitian victim fell, immediately
prior to the introduction of Christianity. Pomare, king of Tahiti, was
on the point of fighting a battle which would assure his supremacy
or deprive him of his dominions. It became to him, therefore, a
matter of the highest concern to propitiate the gods by the most
valuable offerings he could command. For this purpose, rolls of
native cloth, pigs, fish, and immense quantities of other food were
presented at the maraes; but the gods (or their priests) would not
be satisfied; a human victim was demanded. Pomare, therefore, sent
two of his messengers to the house of the victim, whom he had
marked for the occasion. On reaching the place they inquired of the
wife where her husband was, and she, in her innocence, gave the
required explanation. “Well,” they continued, “we are thirsty; give us
some cocoa-nut water.” She had no nuts in the house, she replied,
but they were at liberty to climb the trees, and take as many as they
desired. They then requested her to lend them the O,—a piece of
ironwood, about four feet long and an inch and a half in diameter,
with which the natives open the cocoa-nut. She cheerfully
consented, little suspecting that she was placing in their murderous
hands the instrument which, in a few moments, was to inflict a fatal
blow on her husband’s head. Upon receiving the O, the men left the
house, and went in search of their victim; and the woman, her
suspicions being excited, followed them shortly afterwards, reaching
the scene just in time to see the blow inflicted, and her husband fall.
She rushed forward to take a last embrace, but was immediately
seized and bound hand and foot, while her husband’s body was
placed in a long basket made of cocoa-nut leaves, and carried from
her sight. The sacrificers were always exceedingly careful to prevent
the wife, or daughter, or any female relative from touching the
corpse; for so polluting were females considered, that a victim would
have been desecrated by a woman’s touch or breath, to such a
degree as to have rendered it unfit for an offering to the gods.
While the men were bearing their victim to the marae, he recovered
from the stunning effect of the blow, and, bound as he was in the
cocoa-nut leaf basket, said to his murderers: “Friends, I know what
you are about to do with me; you are about to kill me, and offer me
as a tabu to your savage gods; and I also know that it is useless for
me to beg for mercy, for you will not spare my life. You may kill my
body, but you cannot hurt my soul; for I have begun to pray to
Jesus, the knowledge of Whom the missionaries have brought to our
island: you may kill my body, but you cannot hurt my soul.”
This address did not move the compassion of his murderers. Laying
their victim on the ground with a stone under his head, they crushed
it to pieces with another. It appears that he had been selected as a
victim because he had “begun to pray for Jesus;” and it is not unjust,
therefore, to claim for this poor Tahitian savage a place in the noble
army of martyrs.
“The manner in which human victims were sought,” says Williams,
“is strikingly illustrative of many passages of Scripture which portray
the character of heathenism. As soon as the priest announced that
such a sacrifice was required, the king despatched messengers to
the chiefs of the various districts, and upon entering the dwelling
they would inquire whether the chief had a broken calabash at hand,
or a rotten cocoa-nut. These and sinister terms were invariably used,
and well understood, when such applications were made. It
generally happened that the chief had some individual on his
premises whom he intended to devote to this horrid purpose. When,
therefore, such a request was made, he would notify, by a motion of
the hand or head, the individual to be taken. The only weapon with
which these procurers of sacrifices were armed, was a small round
stone concealed in the hollow of their hand. With this they would
strike their victim a stunning blow upon the back of the head, when
others who were in readiness would rush in and complete the horrid
work. The body was then carried, amid songs and shouts of savage
triumph, to the marae, there to be offered to the gods. At other
times, the king’s gang of desperadoes would arm themselves with
spears, surround the house of their victim, and enjoy the sport of
spearing him through the apertures between the poles which
encircled the house. In these circumstances, the object of their
savage amusement, frenzied with pain and dread, would rush from
one part of the house to the other; but wherever he ran he found
the spear entering his body; and at length, perceiving no possibility
of escape, he would cover himself in his cloth, throw himself upon
the floor, and wait until a spear should pierce his heart.”
The Polynesian ideas of a future state were sufficiently curious.
While believing in its existence, the natives had no conception of the
value and immortality of the soul, no conception of the Everlasting.
According to the Tahitians, there were two places of existence for
separated spirits: one called Roohutu noanoa, or sweet-scented
Roohutu, which in many points resembled the paradise of the
Rarotongans; and the other was Roohutu namu-namua, or foul-
scented Roohutu, of which it is impossible to furnish a description.
According to the Rarotongans, paradise was a very long house,
surrounded with beautiful shrubs and flowers, unfading, and of
perpetual sweetness; its inmates enjoyed a beauty which never
waned, and a youth which never waxed old, while passing their
days, without weariness, in dancing, merriment, and festivity. This
was the highest idea of Heaven and future blessedness to which
they could attain, and was as materialistic as that of the
Mohammedans.
It was not necessary that a man should live a pure, true, and noble
life to gain admission to the Polynesian paradise, nor was he
excluded from it on account of his sins. In order to pass the
departed spirit into elysium, the corpse was dressed in the best
attire the relatives could provide, the head was wreathed with
flowers, and other decorations were added. A pig was then baked
whole, and placed on the deceased’s body, surrounded by a pile of
vegetable food. After this, supposing the departed to have been a
son, the father would deliver some such speech as the following:
—“My son, when you were alive I treated you with kindness, and
when you were taken ill I did my best to restore you to health; and
now you are dead, there’s your momoe o, or property of admission.
Go, my son, and with that gain an entrance into the palace of Tiki,
and do not come to this world again to disturb or alarm us.” Body,
pig, and food would then be buried; and, if the kinsman received no
contrary intimation within a few days of the interment, they believed
that the offerings had obtained for the departed the desired
admission. But if a cricket were heard on the premises, it was
considered an ill omen, and they would utter the dismalest howls,
and such expressions as the following: “Oh, our brother! his spirit
has not entered the Paradise; he is suffering from hunger, he is
shivering with cold!” The grave would immediately be opened, and
the offering repeated,—generally with success.
The sacrifices of the Fijians are of a costlier character. The Fijian
chiefs had from twenty to a hundred wives, according to their rank;
and at the interment of a principal chief, the body was laid in state
“upon a spacious lawn,” in the presence of a great crowd of
interested spectators. After the natives had exercised all the taste
and skill at their command in adorning her person, the principal wife
would walk out and take her seat near her husband’s body. A rope
was passed round her neck; eight or ten powerful men pulled at it
with all their strength until she died of suffocation; and the body was
then laid by that of the chief. This done, a second wife seated
herself in the same place; the process of strangulation was repeated,
and she, too, died. A third and a fourth became voluntary sacrifices
in the same manner; and all were interred in a common grave, one
above, one below, and one on either side of the husband. The
motive of this barbarous practice was said to be, that the spirit of
the chief might not be lonely in its passage to the invisible world,
and that by such an offering its happiness might be at once secured.
[55]

The Earl of Pembroke, in his light, gossipy book entitled, “South Sea
Bubbles,” describes a visit which he paid to one of the old sacrificial
maraes, or inclosures, in the island of Raiatea.
“Strange places they were,” he says; “built of enormous slabs of rock
or coral, arranged in an oblong shape, and the space inside them
filled with shingle and coral, so as to form a platform about eight
feet high. I think the largest was about fifty yards long; we
scrambled up on to it by help of a tree, and stood on the spot
stained with so much blood shed in the name of religion. What
horrible stories those stones could tell if they could speak!...
“What made the human sacrifices of the Society Islands so strangely
ghastly and horrible, was the fact that the wretched victim was
always chosen from one of certain families, set apart for that special
purpose for generation after generation for ever. How this caste
originated I do not know. Many of these families used to put to sea
secretly in canoes, preferring an almost certain death by drowning or
starvation to the terribly uncertain fate that was always hanging over
their heads.
“When a man came to the priests to beg some heavenly, or rather
infernal, favour, they would tell him, either from whim, malice, or
some reason best known to themselves, that the god required a
human sacrifice, and naming the victim, present the supplicant with
the death-warrant in the shape of a sacred stone. He hides this
carefully somewhere about him, and collecting a few friends, seeks
out the doomed man. At last they find him sitting lazily under a tree
or mending his canoe, and squatting down round him begin talking
about the weather, fishing, or what not. Suddenly a hand is opened
—the death stone discovered to his horrified view. He starts up
terror-stricken, and tries to escape—one short, furious struggle and
he is knocked down, secured, and carried off to the merciless
priests. Ugh! it is an ugly picture.”[56]
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

ebookbell.com