The Golden Bough (Vol. 2 of 2)

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Title: The Golden Bough (Vol. 2 of 2)
Author: Frazer, James George, Sir, 1854-1941
Language: English
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The Golden Bough

A Study in Comparative Religion

James George Frazer, M.A.

Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

In Two Volumes.

Vol. II.

New York and London

MacMillan and Co.

1894

CONTENTS

Chapter III—(_continued_).
§ 10.—The corn-spirit as an animal.
§ 11.—Eating the god.
§ 12.—Killing the divine animal.
§ 13.—Transference of evil.
§ 14.—Expulsion of evils,
§ 15.—Scapegoats.
§ 16.—Killing the god in Mexico.
Chapter IV—The Golden Bough.
§ 1.—Between heaven and earth.
§ 2.—Balder.
§ 3.—The external soul in folk-tales.
§ 4.—The external soul in folk-custom.
§ 5.—Conclusion.
Note. Offerings of first-fruits.
Index.
Footnotes

[Cover Art]

CHAPTER III—(_CONTINUED_).

§ 10.—The corn-spirit as an animal.

In some of the examples cited above to establish the meaning of the term
“neck” as applied to the last sheaf, the corn-spirit appears in animal
form as a gander, a goat, a hare, a cat, and a fox. This introduces us to
a new aspect of the corn-spirit, which we must now examine. By doing so we
shall not only have fresh examples of killing the god, but may hope also
to clear up some points which remain obscure in the myths and worship of
Attis, Adonis, Osiris, Dionysus, Demeter, and Virbius.

Amongst the many animals whose forms the corn-spirit is supposed to take
are the wolf, dog, hare, cock, goose, cat, goat, cow (ox, bull), pig, and
horse. In one or other of these forms the corn-spirit is believed to be
present in the corn, and to be caught or killed in the last sheaf. As the
corn is being cut the animal flees before the reapers, and if a reaper is
taken ill on the field, he is supposed to have stumbled unwittingly on the
corn-spirit, who has thus punished the profane intruder. It is said “The
Rye-wolf has got hold of him,” “the Harvest-goat has given him a push.”
The person who cuts the last corn or binds the last sheaf gets the name of
the animal, as the Rye-wolf, the Rye-sow, the Oats-goat, etc., and retains
the name sometimes for a year. Also the animal is frequently represented
by a puppet made out of the last sheaf or of wood, flowers, etc., which is
carried home amid rejoicings on the last harvest waggon. Even where the
last sheaf is not made up in animal shape, it is often called the
Rye-wolf, the Hare, Goat, and so on. Generally each kind of crop is
supposed to have its special animal, which is caught in the last sheaf,
and called the Rye-wolf, the Barley-wolf, the Oats-wolf, the Pea-wolf, or
the Potato-wolf, according to the crop; but sometimes the figure of the
animal is only made up once for all at getting in the last crop of the
whole harvest. Sometimes the animal is believed to be killed by the last
stroke of the sickle or scythe. But oftener it is thought to live so long
as there is corn still unthreshed, and to be caught in the last sheaf
threshed. Hence the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is told
that he has got the Corn-sow, the Threshing-dog, etc. When the threshing
is finished, a puppet is made in the form of the animal, and this is
carried by the thresher of the last sheaf to a neighbouring farm, where
the threshing is still going on. This again shows that the corn-spirit is
believed to live wherever the corn is still being threshed. Sometimes the
thresher of the last sheaf himself represents the animal; and if the
people of the next farm, who are still threshing, catch him, they treat
him like the animal he represents, by shutting him up in the pig-sty,
calling him with the cries commonly addressed to pigs, and so forth.(1)

These general statements will now be illustrated by examples. We begin
with the corn-spirit conceived as a wolf or a dog. This conception is
common in France, Germany, and Slavonic countries. Thus, when the wind
sets the corn in wave-like motion, the peasants often say, “The Wolf is
going over, or through, the corn,” “the Rye-wolf is rushing over the
field,” “the Wolf is in the corn,” “the mad Dog is in the corn,” “the big
Dog is there.”(2) When children wish to go into the corn-fields to pluck
ears or gather the blue corn-flowers, they are warned not to do so, for
“the big Dog sits in the corn,” or “the Wolf sits in the corn, and will
tear you in pieces,” “the Wolf will eat you.” The wolf against whom the
children are warned is not a common wolf, for he is often spoken of as the
Corn-wolf, Rye-wolf, etc.; thus they say, “The Rye-wolf will come and eat
you up, children,” “the Rye-wolf will carry you off,” and so forth.(3)
Still he has all the outward appearance of a wolf. For in the
neighbourhood of Feilenhof (East Prussia), when a wolf was seen running
through a field, the peasants used to watch whether he carried his tail in
the air or dragged it on the ground. If he dragged it on the ground, they
went after him, and thanked him for bringing them a blessing, and even set
tit-bits before him. But if he carried his tail high, they cursed him and
tried to kill him. Here the wolf is the corn-spirit, whose fertilising
power is in his tail.(4)

Both dog and wolf appear as embodiments of the corn-spirit in
harvest-customs. Thus in some parts of Silesia the person who binds the
last sheaf is called the Wheat-dog or the Peas-pug.(5) But it is in the
harvest-customs of the north-east of France that the idea of the Corn-dog
comes out most clearly. Thus when a harvester, through sickness,
weariness, or laziness, cannot or will not keep up with the reaper in
front of him, they say, “The White Dog passed near him,” “he has the White
Bitch,” or “the White Bitch has bitten him.”(6) In the Vosges the
Harvest-May is called the “Dog of the harvest.”(7) About Lons-le-Saulnier,
in the Jura, the last sheaf is called the Bitch. In the neighbourhood of
Verdun the regular expression for finishing the reaping is, “They are
going to kill the Dog;” and at Épinal they say, according to the crop, “We
will kill the Wheat-dog, or the Rye-dog, or the Potato-dog.”(8) In
Lorraine it is said of the man who cuts the last corn, “He is killing the
Dog of the harvest.”(9) At Dux, in the Tyrol, the man who gives the last
stroke at threshing is said to “strike down the Dog;”(10) and at
Ahnebergen, near Stade, he is called, according to the crop, Corn-pug,
Rye-pug, Wheat-pug.(11)

So with the wolf. In Germany it is said that “The Wolf sits in the last
sheaf.”(12) In some places they call out to the reaper, “Beware of the
Wolf;” or they say, “He is chasing the Wolf out of the corn.”(13) The last
bunch of standing corn is called the Wolf, and the man who cuts it “has
the Wolf.” The last sheaf is also called the Wolf; and of the woman who
binds it they say, “The Wolf is biting her,” “she has the Wolf,” “she must
fetch the Wolf” (out of the corn).(14) Moreover, she is herself called
Wolf and has to bear the name for a whole year; sometimes, according to
the crop, she is called the Rye-wolf or the Potato-wolf.(15) In the island
of Rügen they call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You’re
Wolf;” and when she comes home she bites the lady of the house and the
stewardess, for which she receives a large piece of meat. The same woman
may be Rye-wolf, Wheat-wolf, and Oats-wolf, if she happens to bind the
last sheaf of rye, wheat, and oats.(16) At Buir, in the district of
Cologne, it was formerly the custom to give to the last sheaf the shape of
a wolf. It was kept in the barn till all the corn was threshed. Then it
was brought to the farmer, and he had to sprinkle it with beer or
brandy.(17) In many places the sheaf called the Wolf is made up in human
form and dressed in clothes. This indicates a confusion between the
conceptions of the corn-spirit as theriomorphic (in animal form) and as
anthropomorphic (in human form).(18) Generally the Wolf is brought home on
the last waggon, with joyful cries.(19)

Again, the Wolf is supposed to hide himself amongst the cut corn in the
granary, until he is driven out of the last bundle by the strokes of the
flail. Hence at Wanzleben, near Magdeburg, after the threshing the
peasants go in procession, leading by a chain a man, who is enveloped in
the threshed out straw and is called the Wolf.(20) He represents the
corn-spirit who has been caught escaping from the threshed corn. In Trier
it is believed that the Corn-wolf is killed at threshing. The men thresh
the last sheaf till it is reduced to chopped straw. In this way they think
that the Corn-wolf who was lurking in the last sheaf, has been certainly
killed.(21)

In France also the Corn-wolf appears at harvest. Thus they call out to the
reaper of the last corn, “You will catch the Wolf.” Near Chambéry they
form a ring round the last standing corn, and cry, “The Wolf is in there.”
In Finisterre, when the reaping draws near an end, the harvesters cry,
“There is the Wolf; we will catch him.” Each takes a swath to reap, and he
who finishes first calls out, “I’ve caught the Wolf.”(22) In Guyenne, when
the last corn has been reaped, they lead a wether all round the field. It
is called “the Wolf of the field.” Its horns are decked with a wreath of
flowers and corn-ears, and its neck and body are also encircled with
garlands and ribbons. All the reapers march, singing, behind it. Then it
is killed on the field. In this part of France the last sheaf is called
the _coujoulage_, which, in the patois, means a wether. Hence the killing
of the wether represents the death of the corn-spirit, considered as
present in the last sheaf; but two different conceptions of the
corn-spirit—as a wolf and as a wether—are mixed up together.(23)

Sometimes it appears to be thought that the Wolf, caught in the last corn,
lives during the winter in the farmhouse, ready to renew his activity as
corn-spirit in the spring. Hence at midwinter, when the lengthening days
begin to herald the approach of spring, the Wolf makes his appearance once
more. In Poland a man, with a wolf’s skin thrown over his head, is led
about at Christmas; or a stuffed wolf is carried about by persons who
collect money.(24) There are facts which point to an old custom of leading
about a man enveloped in leaves and called the Wolf, while his conductors
collected money.(25)

Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that of a cock. In
Austria children are warned against straying in the corn-fields, because
the Corn-cock sits there, and will peck their eyes out.(26) In North
Germany they say that “the Cock sits in the last sheaf;” and at cutting
the last corn the reapers cry, “Now we will chase out the Cock.” When it
is cut they say, “We have caught the Cock.” Then a cock is made of
flowers, fastened on a pole, and carried home by the reapers, singing as
they go.(27) At Braller, in Transylvania, when the reapers come to the
last patch of corn, they cry, “Here we shall catch the Cock.”(28) At
Fürstenwalde, when the last sheaf is about to be bound, the master lets
loose a cock, which he has brought in a basket, and lets it run over the
field. All the harvesters chase it till they catch it. Elsewhere the
harvesters all try to seize the last corn cut; he who succeeds in grasping
it must crow, and is called Cock.(29) The last sheaf is called Cock,
Cock-sheaf, Harvest-cock, Harvest-hen, Autumn-hen. A distinction is made
between a Wheat-cock, Bean-cock, etc., according to the crop.(30) At
Wünschensuhl, in Thüringen, the last sheaf is made into the shape of a
cock, and called Harvest-cock.(31) A figure of a cock, made of wood,
pasteboard, or ears of corn, is borne in front of the harvest-waggon,
especially in Westphalia, where the cock carries in his beak fruits of the
earth of all kinds. Sometimes the image of the cock is fastened to the top
of a May-tree on the last harvest-waggon. Elsewhere a live cock, or a
figure of one, is attached to a harvest-crown and carried on a pole. In
Galicia and elsewhere this live cock is fastened to the garland of
corn-ears or flowers, which the leader of the women-reapers carries on her
head as she marches in front of the harvest procession.(32) In Silesia a
live cock is presented to the master on a plate. The harvest supper is
called Harvest-cock, Stubble-cock, etc., and a chief dish at it, at least
in some places, is a cock.(33) If a waggoner upsets a harvest-waggon, it
is said that “he has spilt the Harvest-cock,” and he loses the cock—that
is, the harvest supper.(34) The harvest-waggon, with the figure of the
cock on it, is driven round the farmhouse before it is taken to the barn.
Then the cock is nailed over, or at the side of the house door, or on the
gable, and remains there till next harvest.(35) In East Friesland the
person who gives the last stroke at threshing is called the Clucking-hen,
and grain is strewed before him as if he were a hen.(36)

Again, the corn-spirit is killed in the form of a cock. In parts of
Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Picardy, the reapers place a live cock in
the corn which is to be cut last, and chase it over the field, or bury it
up to the neck in the ground; afterwards they strike off its head with a
sickle or scythe.(37) In many parts of Westphalia, when the harvesters
bring the wooden cock to the farmer, he gives them a live cock, which they
kill with whips or sticks, or behead with an old sword, or throw it into
the barn to the girls, or give it to the mistress to cook. If the
Harvest-cock has not been spilt—that is, if no waggon has been upset—the
harvesters have the right of killing the farmyard cock by throwing stones
at it or beheading it. Where this custom has fallen into disuse, it is
still common for the farmer’s wife to make cockie-leekie for the
harvesters, and to show them the head of the cock which has been killed
for the soup.(38) In the neighbourhood of Klausenburg, Transylvania, a
cock is buried on the harvest-field in the earth, so that only its head
appears. A young man then takes a scythe and cuts off the cock’s head at a
single stroke. If he fails to do this, he is called the Red Cock for a
whole year, and people fear that next year’s crop will be bad.(39) In the
neighbourhood of Udvarhely, Transylvania, a live cock is bound up in the
last sheaf and killed with a spit. It is then skinned. The flesh is thrown
away, but the skin and feathers are kept till next year; and in spring the
grain from the last sheaf is mixed with the feathers of the cock and
scattered on the field which is to be tilled.(40) Nothing could set in a
clearer light the identification of the cock with the spirit of the corn.
By being tied up in the last sheaf and killed, the cock is identified with
the corn, and its death with the cutting of the corn. By keeping its
feathers till spring, then mixing them with the seed-corn taken from the
very sheaf in which the bird had been bound, and scattering the feathers
together with the seed over the field, the identity of the bird with the
corn is again emphasised, and its quickening and fertilising power, as the
corn-spirit, is intimated in the plainest manner. Thus the corn-spirit, in
the form of a cock, is killed at harvest, but rises to fresh life and
activity in spring. Again, the equivalence of the cock to the corn is
expressed, hardly less plainly, in the custom of burying the bird in the
ground, and cutting off its head (like the ears of corn) with the scythe.

Another common embodiment of the corn-spirit is the hare.(41) In some
parts of Ayrshire the cutting of the last corn is called “cutting the
Hare;”(42) and in Germany a name for the last sheaf is the Hare.(43) In
East Prussia they say that the Hare sits in the last patch of standing
corn, and must be chased out by the last reaper. The reapers hurry with
their work, each being anxious not to have “to chase out the Hare;” for
the man who does so, that is, who cuts the last corn, is much laughed
at.(44) At Birk in Transylvania, when the reapers come to the last patch,
they cry out, “We have the Hare.”(45) At Aurich, as we have seen,(46) an
expression for cutting the last corn is “to cut off the Hare’s tail.” “He
is killing the Hare” is commonly said of the man who cuts the last corn in
Germany, Sweden, Holland, France, and Italy.(47) In Norway the man who is
thus said to “kill the Hare” must give “hare’s blood,” in the form of
brandy, to his fellows to drink.(48)

Again, the corn-spirit sometimes takes the form of a cat.(49) Near Kiel
children are warned not to go into the corn-fields because “the Cat sits
there.” In the Eisenach Oberland they are told “the Corn-cat will come and
fetch you,” “the Corn-cat goes in the corn.” In some parts of Silesia at
mowing the last corn they say, “the Cat is caught;” and at threshing, the
man who gives the last stroke is called the Cat. In the neighbourhood of
Lyons the last sheaf and the harvest supper are both called the Cat. About
Vesoul when they cut the last corn they say, “We have the Cat by the
tail.” At Briançon, in Dauphiné, at the beginning of reaping, a cat is
decked out with ribbons, flowers, and ears of corn. It is called the Cat
of the ball-skin (_le chat de peau de balle_). If a reaper is wounded at
his work, they make the cat lick the wound. At the close of the reaping
the cat is again decked out with ribbons and ears of corn; then there is
dancing and merriment. When the dance is over, the cat is solemnly
stripped of its ornaments by the girls. At Grüneberg in Silesia the reaper
who cuts the last corn is called the Tom-cat. He is enveloped in
rye-stalks and green withes, and is furnished with a long plaited tail.
Sometimes as a companion he has a man similarly dressed, who is called the
(female) Cat. Their duty is to run after people whom they see and beat
them with a long stick. Near Amiens the expression for finishing the
harvest is, “They are going to kill the Cat;” and when the last corn is
cut a cat is killed in the farmyard. At threshing, in some parts of
France, a live cat is placed under the last bundle of corn to be threshed,
and is struck dead with the flails. Then on Sunday it is roasted and eaten
as a holiday dish.

Further, the corn-spirit often appears in the form of a goat. In the
province of Prussia, when the corn bends before the wind, they say, “The
Goats are chasing each other,” “the wind is driving the Goats through the
corn,” “the Goats are browsing there,” and they expect a very good
harvest. Again they say, “the Oats-goat is sitting in the oats-field,”
“the Corn-goat is sitting in the rye-field.”(50) Children are warned not
to go into the corn-fields to pluck the blue cornflowers, or amongst the
beans to pluck pods, because the Rye-goat, the Corn-goat, the Oats-goat,
or the Bean-goat is sitting or lying there, and will carry them away or
kill them.(51) When a harvester is taken sick or lags behind his fellows
at their work, they call out, “The Harvest-goat has pushed him,” “he has
been pushed by the Corn-goat.”(52) In the neighbourhood of Braunsberg
(East Prussia) at binding the oats every harvester makes haste “lest the
Corn-goat push him.” At Oefoten in Norway each harvester has his allotted
patch to reap. When a harvester in the middle has not finished reaping his
piece after his neighbours have finished theirs, they say of him, “He
remains on the island.” And if the laggard is a man, they imitate the cry
with which they call a he-goat; if a woman, the cry with which they call a
she-goat.(53) Near Straubing in Lower Bavaria, it is said of the man who
cuts the last corn that “he has the Corn-goat or the Wheat-goat, or the
Oats-goat,” according to the crop. Moreover, two horns are set up on the
last heap of corn, and it is called “the horned Goat.” At Kreutzburg, East
Prussia, they call out to the woman who is binding the last sheaf, “The
Goat is sitting in the sheaf.”(54) At Gablingen in Swabia, when the last
field of oats upon a farm is being reaped, the reapers carve a goat out of
wood. Ears of oats are inserted in its nostrils and mouth, and it is
adorned with garlands of flowers. It is set upon the field and called the
Oats-goat. When the reaping approaches an end, each reaper hastens to
finish his piece first; he who is the last to finish gets the
Oats-goat.(55) Again, the last sheaf is itself called the Goat. Thus, in
the valley of the Wiesent, Bavaria, the last sheaf bound on the field is
called the Goat, and they have a proverb, “The field must bear a
goat.”(56) At Spachbrücken in Hesse, the last handful of corn which is cut
is called the Goat, and the man who cuts it is much ridiculed.(57)
Sometimes the last sheaf is made up in the form of a goat,(58) and they
say, “The Goat is sitting in it.” Again, the person who cuts or binds the
last sheaf is called the Goat. Thus, in parts of Mecklenburg they call out
to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You are the Harvest-goat.” In the
neighbourhood of Uelzen in Hanover, the harvest festival begins with “the
bringing of the Harvest-goat;” that is, the woman who bound the last sheaf
is wrapt in straw, crowned with a harvest-wreath, and brought in a
wheelbarrow to the village, where a round dance takes place. About
Lüneburg, also, the woman who binds the last corn is decked with a crown
of corn-ears and is called the Corn-goat.(59) In the Canton St. Gall,
Switzerland, the person who cuts the last handful of corn on the field, or
drives the last harvest-waggon to the barn, is called the Corn-goat or the
Rye-goat, or simply the Goat.(60) In the Canton Thurgau he is called
Corn-goat; like a goat he has a bell hung round his neck, is led in
triumph, and drenched with liquor. In parts of Styria, also, the man who
cuts the last corn is called Corn-goat, Oats-goat, etc. As a rule, the man
who thus gets the name of Corn-goat has to bear it a whole year till the
next harvest.(61)

According to one view, the corn-spirit, who has been caught in the form of
a goat or otherwise, lives in the farmhouse or barn over winter. Thus,
each farm has its own embodiment of the corn-spirit. But, according to
another view, the corn-spirit is the genius or deity, not of the corn of
one farm only, but of all the corn. Hence when the corn on one farm is all
cut, he flees to another where there is still corn left standing. This
idea is brought out in a harvest-custom which was formerly observed in
Skye. The farmer who first finished reaping sent a man or woman with a
sheaf to a neighbouring farmer who had not finished; the latter in his
turn, when he had finished, sent on the sheaf to his neighbour who was
still reaping; and so the sheaf made the round of the farms till all the
corn was cut. The sheaf was called the _goabbir bhacagh_, that is, the
Cripple Goat.(62) The corn-spirit was probably thus represented as lame
because he had been crippled by the cutting of the corn. We have seen that
sometimes the old woman who brings home the last sheaf must limp on one
foot.(63) In the Böhmer Wald mountains, between Bohemia and Bavaria, when
two peasants are driving home their corn together, they race against each
other to see who shall get home first. The village boys mark the loser in
the race, and at night they come and erect on the roof of his house the
Oats-goat, which is a colossal figure of a goat made of straw.(64)

But sometimes the corn-spirit, in the form of a goat, is believed to be
slain on the harvest-field by the sickle or scythe. Thus, in the
neighbourhood of Bernkastel, on the Moselle, the reapers determine by lot
the order in which they shall follow each other. The first is called the
fore-reaper, the last the tail-bearer. If a reaper overtakes the man in
front he reaps past him, bending round so as to leave the slower reaper in
a patch by himself. This patch is called the Goat; and the man for whom
“the Goat is cut” in this way, is laughed and jeered at by his fellows for
the rest of the day. When the tail-bearer cuts the last ears of corn, it
is said “He is cutting the Goat’s neck off.”(65) In the neighbourhood of
Grenoble, before the end of the reaping, a live goat is adorned with
flowers and ribbons and allowed to run about the field. The reapers chase
it and try to catch it. When it is caught, the farmer’s wife holds it fast
while the farmer cuts off its head. The goat’s flesh serves to furnish the
harvest supper. A piece of the flesh is pickled and kept till the next
harvest, when another goat is killed. Then all the harvesters eat of the
flesh. On the same day the skin of the goat is made into a cloak, which
the farmer, who works with his men, must always wear at harvest-time if
rain or bad weather sets in. But if a reaper gets pains in his back, the
farmer gives him the goat-skin to wear.(66) The reason for this seems to
be that the pains in the back, being inflicted by the corn-spirit, can
also be healed by it. Similarly we saw that elsewhere, when a reaper is
wounded at reaping, a cat, as the representative of the corn-spirit, is
made to lick the wound.(67) Esthonian reapers in the island of Mon think
that the man who cuts the first ears of corn at harvest will get pains in
his back,(68)—probably because the corn-spirit is believed to resent
especially the first wound; and, in order to escape pains in the back,
Saxon reapers in Transylvania gird their loins with the first handful of
ears which they cut.(69) Here, again, the corn-spirit is applied to for
healing or protection, but in his original vegetable form, not in the form
of a goat or a cat.

Further, the corn-spirit under the form of a goat is sometimes conceived
as lurking among the cut corn in the barn, till he is driven from it by
the threshing-flail. For example, in the neighbourhood of Marktl in Upper
Bavaria the sheaves are called Straw-goats or simply Goats. They are laid
in a great heap on the open field and threshed by two rows of men standing
opposite each other, who, as they ply their flails, sing a song in which
they say that they see the Straw-goat amongst the corn-stalks. The last
Goat, that is, the last sheaf, is adorned with a wreath of violets and
other flowers and with cakes strung together. It is placed right in the
middle of the heap. Some of the threshers rush at it and tear the best of
it out; others lay on with their flails so recklessly that heads are
sometimes broken. In threshing this last sheaf, each man casts up to the
man opposite him the misdeeds of which he has been guilty throughout the
year.(70) At Oberinntal in Tyrol the last thresher is called Goat.(71) At
Tettnang in Würtemberg the thresher who gives the last stroke to the last
bundle of corn before it is turned goes by the name of the He-goat, and it
is said “he has driven the He-goat away.” The person who, after the bundle
has been turned, gives the last stroke of all, is called the She-goat.(72)
In this custom it is implied that the corn is inhabited by a pair of
corn-spirits, male and female. Further, the corn-spirit, captured in the
form of a goat at threshing, is passed on to a neighbour whose threshing
is not yet finished. In Franche Comté, as soon as the threshing is over,
the young people set up a straw figure of a goat on the farmyard of a
neighbour who is still threshing. He must give them wine or money in
return. At Ellwangen in Würtemberg the effigy of a goat is made out of the
last bundle of corn at threshing; four sticks form its legs, and two its
horns. The man who gives the last stroke with the flail must carry the
Goat to the barn of a neighbour who is still threshing and throw it down
on the floor; if he is caught in the act, they tie the Goat on his
back.(73) A similar custom is observed at Indersdorf in Upper Bavaria; the
man who throws the straw Goat into the neighbour’s barn imitates the
bleating of a goat; if they catch him they blacken his face and tie the
Goat on his back.(74) At Zabern in Elsass, when a farmer is a week or more
behind his neighbours with his threshing, they set a real stuffed goat (or
fox) before his door.(75) Sometimes the spirit of the corn in goat form is
believed to be killed at threshing. In the district of Traunstein, Upper
Bavaria, it is thought that the Oats-goat is in the last sheaf of oats. He
is represented by an old rake set up on end, with an old pot for a head.
The children are then told to kill the Oats-goat.(76) A stranger passing a
harvest-field is sometimes taken for the Corn-goat escaping in human shape
from the cut or threshed grain. Thus, when a stranger passes a
harvest-field, all the labourers stop and shout as with one voice
“He-goat! He-goat!” At rape-seed threshing in Schleswig, which generally
takes place on the field, the same cry is raised if the stranger does not
take off his hat.(77)

At sowing their winter corn the Prussian Slavs used to kill a goat,
consume its flesh with many superstitious ceremonies, and hang the skin on
a high pole near an oak and a large stone. Here it remained till harvest.
Then, after a prayer had been offered by a peasant who acted as priest
(_Weidulut_) the young folk joined hands and danced round the oak and the
pole. Afterwards they scrambled for the bunch of corn, and the priest
distributed the herbs with a sparing hand. Then he placed the goat-skin on
the large stone, sat down on it and preached to the people about the
history of their forefathers and their old heathen customs and
beliefs.(78) The goat-skin thus suspended on the field from sowing time to
harvest represents the corn-spirit superintending the growth of the corn.

Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that of a bull, cow,
or ox. When the wind sweeps over the corn they say at Conitz in West
Prussia, “The Steer is running in the corn;”(79) when the corn is thick
and strong in one spot, they say in some parts of East Prussia, “The Bull
is lying in the corn.” When a harvester has overstrained and lamed
himself, they say in the Graudenz district (West Prussia), “The Bull
pushed him;” in Lothringen they say, “He has the Bull.” The meaning of
both expressions is that he has unwittingly lighted upon the divine
corn-spirit, who has punished the profane intruder with lameness.(80) So
near Chambéry when a reaper wounds himself with his sickle, it is said
that he has “the wound of the Ox.”(81) In the district of Bunzlau the last
sheaf is sometimes made into the shape of a horned ox, stuffed with tow
and wrapt in corn-ears. This figure is called the Old Man (_der Alte_). In
some parts of Bohemia the last sheaf is made up in human form and called
the Buffalo-bull.(82) These cases show a confusion between the
anthropomorphic and the theriomorphic conception of the corn-spirit. The
confusion is parallel to that of killing a wether under the name of a
wolf.(83) In the Canton of Thurgau, Switzerland, the last sheaf, if it is
a large one, is called the Cow.(84) All over Swabia the last bundle of
corn on the field is called the Cow; the man who cuts the last ears “has
the Cow,” and is himself called Cow or Barley-cow or Oats-cow, according
to the crop; at the harvest supper he gets a nosegay of flowers and
corn-ears and a more liberal allowance of drink than the rest. But he is
teased and laughed at; so no one likes to be the Cow.(85) The Cow was
sometimes represented by the figure of a woman made out of ears of corn
and corn-flowers. It was carried to the farmhouse by the man who had cut
the last handful of corn. The children ran after him and the neighbours
turned out to laugh at him, till the farmer took the Cow from him.(86)
Here again the confusion between the human and the animal form of the
corn-spirit is apparent. In various parts of Switzerland the reaper who
cuts the last ears of corn is called Wheat-cow, Corn-cow, Oats-cow, or
Corn-steer, and is the butt of many a joke.(87) In some parts of East
Prussia, when a few ears of corn have been left standing by inadvertence
on the last swath, the foremost reaper seizes them and cries, “Bull!
Bull!”(88) On the other hand, in the district of Rosenheim, in Upper
Bavaria, when a farmer is later in getting in his harvest than his
neighbours, they set up on his land a Straw-bull, as it is called. This is
a gigantic figure of a bull made of stubble on a framework of wood and
adorned with flowers and leaves. A label is attached to it containing
doggerel verses in ridicule of the man on whose land the Straw-bull is
placed.(89)

Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a bull or ox is killed on the
harvest-field at the close of the reaping. At Pouilly near Dijon, when the
last ears of corn are about to be cut, an ox adorned with ribbons,
flowers, and ears of corn is led all round the field, followed by the
whole troop of reapers dancing. Then a man disguised as the Devil cuts the
last ears of corn and immediately kills the ox. Part of the flesh of the
animal is eaten at the harvest supper; part is pickled and kept till the
first day of sowing in spring. At Pont à Mousson and elsewhere on the
evening of the last day of reaping a calf adorned with flowers and ears of
corn is led three times round the farmyard, being allured by a bait or
driven by men with sticks, or conducted by the farmer’s wife with a rope.
The calf selected for this ceremony is the calf which was born first on
the farm in the spring of the year. It is followed by all the reapers with
their implements. Then it is allowed to run free; the reapers chase it,
and whoever catches it is called King of the Calf. Lastly, it is solemnly
killed; at Lunéville the man who acts as butcher is the Jewish merchant of
the village.(90)

Sometimes again the corn-spirit hides himself amongst the cut corn in the
barn to reappear in bull or cow form at threshing. Thus at Wurmlingen in
Thüringen the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is called the
Cow, or rather the Barley-cow, Oats-cow, Peas-cow, etc., according to the
crop. He is entirely enveloped in straw; his head is surmounted by sticks
in imitation of horns, and two lads lead him by ropes to the well to
drink. On the way thither he must low like a cow, and for a long time
afterwards he goes by the name of the Cow.(91) At Obermedlingen in Swabia,
when the threshing draws near an end, each man is careful to avoid giving
the last stroke. He who does give it “gets the Cow,” which is a straw
figure dressed in an old ragged petticoat, hood, and stockings. It is tied
on his back with a straw-rope; his face is blackened, he is tied with
straw-ropes to a wheelbarrow, and wheeled round the village.(92) Here,
again, we are met with that confusion between the anthropomorphic and
theriomorphic conception of the corn-spirit, which has been already
signalised. In Canton Schaffhausen the man who threshes the last corn is
called the Cow; in Canton Thurgau, the Corn-bull; in Canton Zurich, the
Thresher-cow. In the last-mentioned district he is wrapt in straw and
bound to one of the trees in the orchard.(93) At Arad in Hungary the man
who gives the last stroke at threshing is enveloped in straw and a cow’s
hide with the horns attached to it.(94) At Pessnitz, in the district of
Dresden, the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is called Bull.
He must make a straw-man and set it up before a neighbour’s window.(95)
Here, apparently, as in so many cases, the corn-spirit is passed on to a
neighbour who has not finished threshing. So at Herbrechtingen in
Thüringen the effigy of a ragged old woman is flung into the barn of the
farmer who is last with his threshing. The man who throws it in cries,
“There is the Cow for you.” If the threshers catch him they detain him
over night and punish him by keeping him from the harvest supper.(96) In
these latter customs the confusion between the anthropomorphic and
theriomorphic conception of the corn-spirit meets us again. Further, the
corn-spirit in bull form is sometimes believed to be killed at threshing.
At Auxerre in threshing the last bundle of corn they call out twelve
times, “We are killing the Bull.” In the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, where
a butcher kills an ox on the field immediately after the close of the
reaping, it is said of the man who gives the last stroke at threshing that
“he has killed the Bull.”(97) At Chambéry the last sheaf is called the
sheaf of the Young Ox and a race takes place to it, in which all the
reapers join. When the last stroke is given at threshing they say that
“the Ox is killed;” and immediately thereupon a real ox is slaughtered by
the reaper who cut the last corn. The flesh of the ox is eaten by the
threshers at supper.(98)

We have seen that sometimes the young corn-spirit, whose task it is to
quicken the corn of the coming year, is believed to be born as a Corn-baby
on the harvest-field.(99) Similarly in Berry the young corn-spirit is
sometimes believed to be born on the field in calf form. For when a binder
has not rope enough to bind all the corn in sheaves, he puts aside the
wheat that remains over and imitates the lowing of a cow. The meaning is
that “the sheaf has given birth to a calf.”(100) In Puy-de-Dôme when a
binder cannot keep up with the reaper whom he or she follows, they say “He
or she is giving birth to the Calf.”(101) In some parts of Prussia, in
similar circumstances, they call out to the woman, “The Bull is coming,”
and imitate the bellowing of a bull.(102) In these cases the woman is
conceived as the Corn-cow or old corn-spirit, while the supposed calf is
the Corn-calf or young corn-spirit. In some parts of Austria a mythical
calf (_Muhkälbchen_) is believed to be seen amongst the sprouting corn in
spring and to push the children; when the corn waves in the wind they say,
“The Calf is going about.” Clearly, as Mannhardt observes, this calf of
the spring-time is the same animal which is afterwards believed to be
killed at reaping.(103)

Sometimes the corn-spirit appears in the shape of a horse or mare. Between
Kalw and Stuttgart, when the corn bends before the wind, they say, “There
runs the Horse.”(104) In Hertfordshire, at the end of the reaping, there
is or was a ceremony called “crying the Mare.” The last blades of corn
left standing on the field are tied together and called the Mare. The
reapers stand at a distance and throw their sickles at it; he who cuts it
through “has the prize, with acclamations and good cheer.” After it is cut
the reapers cry thrice with a loud voice, “I have her!” Others answer
thrice, “What have you?”—“A Mare! a Mare! a Mare!”—“Whose is she?” is next
asked thrice. “A. B.’s,” naming the owner thrice. “Whither will you send
her?”—“To C. D.,” naming some neighbour who has not all his corn
reaped.(105) In this custom the corn-spirit in the form of a mare is
passed on from a farm where the corn is all cut to another farm where it
is still standing, and where therefore the corn-spirit may be supposed
naturally to take refuge. In Shropshire the custom is similar. “Crying,
calling, or shouting the mare is a ceremony performed by the men of that
farm which is the first in any parish or district to finish the harvest.
The object of it is to make known their own prowess, and to taunt the
laggards by a pretended offer of the ‘owd mar’ [old mare] to help out
their ‘chem’ [team]. All the men assemble (the wooden harvest-bottle being
of course one of the company) in the stackyard, or, better, on the highest
ground on the farm, and there shout the following dialogue, preceding it
by a grand ‘Hip, hip, hip, hurrah!’

“ ‘I ’ave ’er, I ’ave ’er, I ’ave ’er!’

“ ‘Whad ’ast thee, whad ’ast thee, whad ’ast thee?’

“ ‘A mar’! a mar’! a mar’!’

“ ‘Whose is ’er, whose is ’er, whose is ’er?’

“ ‘Maister A.’s, Maister A.’s, Maister A.’s!’ (naming the farmer whose
harvest is finished).

“ ‘W’eer sha’t the’ send ’er? w’eer sha’t the’ send ’er? w’eer sha’t the’
send ’er?’

“ ‘To Maister B.’s, to Maister B.’s, to Maister B.’s’ (naming one whose
harvest is _not_ finished).”

The farmer who finishes his harvest last, and who therefore cannot send
the Mare to any one else, is said “to keep her all winter.” The mocking
offer of the Mare was sometimes responded to by a mocking acceptance of
her help. Thus an old man told an inquirer, “While we wun at supper, a mon
cumm’d wi’ a autar [halter] to fatch her away.” But at one place (Longnor,
near Leebotwood), down to about 1850, the Mare used really to be sent.
“The head man of the farmer who had finished harvest first was mounted on
the best horse of the team—the leader—both horse and man being adorned
with ribbons, streamers, etc. Thus arrayed, a boy on foot led the pair in
triumph to the neighbouring farmhouses. Sometimes the man who took the
‘mare’ received, as well as plenty of harvest-ale, some rather rough,
though good-humoured, treatment, coming back minus his decorations, and so
on.”(106) In the neighbourhood of Lille the idea of the corn-spirit in
horse form is clearly preserved. When a harvester grows weary at his work,
it is said, “He has the fatigue of the Horse.” The first sheaf, called the
“Cross of the Horse,” is placed on a cross of box-wood in the barn, and
the youngest horse on the farm must tread on it. The reapers dance round
the last blades of corn, crying, “See the remains of the Horse.” The sheaf
made out of these last blades is given to the youngest horse of the parish
(commune) to eat. This youngest horse of the parish clearly represents, as
Mannhardt says, the corn-spirit of the following year, the Corn-foal,
which absorbs the spirit of the old Corn-horse by eating the last corn
cut; for, as usual, the old corn-spirit takes his final refuge in the last
sheaf. The thresher of the last sheaf is said to “beat the Horse.”(107)
Again, a trace of the horse-shaped corn-spirit is reported from Berry. The
harvesters there are accustomed to take a noon-day sleep in the field.
This is called “seeing the Horse.” The leader or “King” of the harvesters
gives the signal for going to sleep. If he delays giving the signal, one
of the harvesters will begin to neigh like a horse, the rest imitate him,
and then they all go “to see the Horse.”(108)

The last animal embodiment of the corn-spirit which we shall notice is the
pig (boar or sow). In Thüringen, when the wind sets the young corn in
motion, they sometimes say, “The Boar is rushing through the corn.”(109)
Amongst the Esthonians of the island of Oesel the last sheaf is called the
Rye-boar, and the man who gets it is saluted with a cry of, “You have the
Rye-boar on your back!” In reply he strikes up a song, in which he prays
for plenty.(110) At Kohlerwinkel, near Augsburg, at the close of the
harvest, the last bunch of standing corn is cut down, stalk by stalk, by
all the reapers in turn. He who cuts the last stalk “gets the Sow,” and is
laughed at.(111) In other Swabian villages also the man who cuts the last
corn “has the Sow,” or “has the Rye-sow.”(112) In the Traunstein district,
Upper Bavaria, the man who cuts the last handful of rye or wheat “has the
Sow,” and is called Sow-driver.(113) At Friedingen, in Swabia, the
thresher who gives the last stroke is called Sow—Barley-sow, Corn-sow,
etc., according to the crop. At Onstmettingen the man who gives the last
stroke at threshing “has the Sow;” he is often bound up in a sheaf and
dragged by a rope along the ground.(114) And, generally, in Swabia the man
who gives the last stroke with the flail is called Sow. He may, however,
rid himself of this invidious distinction by passing on to a neighbour the
straw-rope, which is the badge of his position as Sow. So he goes to a
house and throws the straw-rope into it, crying, “There, I bring you the
Sow.” All the inmates give chase; and if they catch him they beat him,
shut him up for several hours in the pig-sty, and oblige him to take the
“Sow” away again.(115) In various parts of Upper Bavaria the man who gives
the last stroke at threshing must “carry the Pig”—that is, either a straw
effigy of a pig or merely a bundle of straw-ropes. This he carries to a
neighbouring farm where the threshing is not finished, and throws it into
the barn. If the threshers catch him they handle him roughly, beating him,
blackening or dirtying his face, throwing him into filth, binding the Sow
on his back, etc.; if the bearer of the Sow is a woman they cut off her
hair. At the harvest supper or dinner the man who “carried the Pig” gets
one or more dumplings made in the form of pigs; sometimes he gets a large
dumpling and a number of small ones, all in pig form, the large one being
called the sow and the small ones the sucking-pigs. Sometimes he has the
right to be the first to put his hand into the dish and take out as many
small dumplings (“sucking-pigs”) as he can, while the other threshers
strike at his hand with spoons or sticks. When the dumplings are served up
by the maid-servant, all the people at table cry, “Süz, süz, süz!” being
the cry used in calling pigs. Sometimes after dinner the man who “carried
the Pig” has his face blackened, and is set on a cart and drawn round the
village by his fellows, followed by a crowd crying, “Süz, süz, süz!” as if
they were calling swine. Sometimes, after being wheeled round the village,
he is flung on the dunghill.(116)

Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a pig plays his part at sowing-time
as well as at harvest. At Neuautz, in Courland, when barley is sown for
the first time in the year, the farmer’s wife boils the chine of a pig
along with the tail, and brings it to the sower on the field. He eats of
it, but cuts off the tail and sticks it in the field; it is believed that
the ears of corn will then grow as long as the tail.(117) Here the pig is
the corn-spirit, whose fertilising power is sometimes supposed to lie
especially in his tail.(118) As a pig he is put in the ground at
sowing-time, and as a pig he reappears amongst the ripe corn at harvest.
For amongst the neighbouring Esthonians, as we have seen,(119) the last
sheaf is called the Rye-boar. Somewhat similar customs are observed in
Germany. In the Salza district, near Meiningen, a certain bone in the pig
is called “the Jew on the winnowing-fan” (_der Jud’ auf der Wanne_). The
flesh of this bone is boiled on Shrove Tuesday, but the bone is put
amongst the ashes, which the neighbours exchange as presents on St.
Peter’s Day (22d February), and then mix with the seed-corn.(120) In the
whole of Hessen, Meiningen, etc., people eat pea-soup with dried pig-ribs
on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas. The ribs are then collected and hung in the
room till sowing-time, when they are inserted in the sown field or in the
seed-bag amongst the flax seed. This is thought to be an infallible
specific against earth-fleas and moles, and to cause the flax to grow well
and tall.(121) In many parts of White Russia people eat a roast lamb or
sucking-pig at Easter, and then throw the bones backwards upon the fields,
to preserve the corn from hail.(122)

But the conception of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form is nowhere
more clearly expressed than in the Scandinavian custom of the Yule Boar.
In Sweden and Denmark at Yule (Christmas) it is the custom to bake a loaf
in the form of a boar-pig. This is called the Yule Boar. The corn of the
last sheaf is often used to make it. All through Yule the Yule Boar stands
on the table. Often it is kept till the sowing-time in spring, when part
of it is mixed with the seed-corn and part given to the ploughmen and
plough-horses or plough-oxen to eat, in the expectation of a good
harvest.(123) In this custom the corn-spirit, immanent in the last sheaf,
appears at midwinter in the form of a boar made from the corn of the last
sheaf; and his quickening influence on the corn is shown by mixing part of
the Yule Boar with the seed-corn, and giving part of it to the ploughman
and his cattle to eat. Similarly we saw that the Corn-wolf makes his
appearance at midwinter, the time when the year begins to verge towards
spring.(124) We may conjecture that the Yule straw, of which Swedish
peasants make various superstitious uses, comes, in part at least, from
the sheaf out of which the Yule Boar is made. The Yule straw is long
rye-straw, a portion of which is always set apart for this season. It is
strewn over the floor at Christmas, and the peasants attribute many
virtues to it. For example, they think that some of it scattered on the
ground will make a barren field productive. Again, the peasant at
Christmas seats himself on a log; his eldest son or daughter, or the
mother herself, if the children are not old enough, places a wisp of the
Yule straw on his knee. From this he draws out single straws, and throws
them, one by one, up to the ceiling; and as many as lodge in the rafters,
so many will be the sheaves of rye he will have to thresh at harvest.(125)
Again, it is only the Yule straw which may be used in binding the
fruit-trees as a charm to fertilise them.(126) These uses of the Yule
straw show that it is believed to possess fertilising virtues analogous to
those ascribed to the Yule Boar; the conjecture is therefore legitimate
that the Yule straw is made from the same sheaf as the Yule Boar. Formerly
a real boar was sacrificed at Christmas,(127) and apparently also a man in
the character of the Yule Boar. This, at least, may perhaps be inferred
from a Christmas custom still observed in Sweden. A man is wrapt up in a
skin, and carries a wisp of straw in his mouth, so that the projecting
straws look like the bristles of a boar. A knife is brought, and an old
woman, with her face blackened, pretends to sacrifice the man.(128)

So much for the animal embodiments of the corn-spirit as they are
presented to us in the folk-customs of Northern Europe. These customs
bring out clearly the sacramental character of the harvest supper. The
corn-spirit is conceived as embodied in an animal; this divine animal is
slain, and its flesh and blood are partaken of by the harvesters. Thus,
the cock, the goose, the hare, the cat, the goat, and the ox are eaten
sacramentally by the harvesters, and the pig is eaten sacramentally by
ploughmen in spring.(129) Again, as a substitute for the real flesh of the
divine being, bread or dumplings are made in his image and eaten
sacramentally; thus, pig-shaped dumplings are eaten by the harvesters, and
loaves made in boar-shape (the Yule Boar) are eaten in spring by the
ploughman and his cattle.

The reader has probably remarked the complete parallelism between the
anthropomorphic and the theriomorphic conceptions of the corn-spirit. The
parallel may be here briefly resumed. When the corn waves in the wind it
is said either that the Corn-mother or that the Corn-wolf, etc. is passing
through the corn. Children are warned against straying in corn-fields
either because the Corn-mother or because the Corn-wolf, etc. is there. In
the last corn cut or the last sheaf threshed either the Corn-mother or the
Corn-wolf, etc. is supposed to be present. The last sheaf is itself called
either the Corn-mother or the Corn-wolf, etc., and is made up in the shape
either of a woman or of a wolf, etc. The person who cuts, binds, or
threshes the last sheaf is called either the Old Woman or the Wolf, etc.,
according to the name bestowed on the sheaf itself. As in some places a
sheaf made in human form and called the Maiden, the Mother of the Maize,
etc. is kept from one harvest to the next in order to secure a continuance
of the corn-spirit’s blessing; so in some places the Harvest-cock and in
others the flesh of the goat is kept for a similar purpose from one
harvest to the next. As in some places the grain taken from the
Corn-mother is mixed with the seed-corn in spring to make the crop
abundant; so in some places the feathers of the cock, and in Sweden the
Yule Boar is kept till spring and mixed with the seed-corn for a like
purpose. As part of the Corn-mother or Maiden is given to the cattle to
eat in order that they may thrive, so part of the Yule Boar is given to
the ploughing horses or oxen in spring. Lastly, the death of the
corn-spirit is represented by killing (in reality or pretence) either his
human or his animal representative; and the worshippers partake
sacramentally either of the actual body and blood of the representative
(human or animal) of the divinity, or of bread made in his likeness.

Other animal forms assumed by the corn-spirit are the stag, roe, sheep,
bear, ass, fox, mouse, stork, swan, and kite.(130) If it is asked why the
corn-spirit should be thought to appear in the form of an animal and of so
many different animals, we may reply that to primitive man the simple
appearance of an animal or bird among the corn is probably sufficient of
itself to suggest a mysterious connection between the animal or bird and
the corn; and when we remember that in the old days, before fields were
fenced in, all kinds of animals must have been free to roam over them, we
need not wonder that the corn-spirit should have been identified even with
large animals like the horse and cow, which nowadays could not, except by
a rare accident, be found straying among the corn. This explanation
applies with peculiar force to the very common case in which the animal
embodiment of the corn-spirit is believed to lurk in the last standing
corn. For at harvest a number of wild animals—hares, rabbits, partridges,
etc.—are commonly driven by the progress of the reaping into the last
patch of standing corn, and make their escape from it as it is being cut
down. So regularly does this happen that reapers and others often stand
round the last patch of corn armed with sticks or guns, with which they
kill the animals as they dart out of their last refuge among the corn.
Now, primitive man, to whom magical changes of shape seem perfectly
credible, finds it most natural that the spirit of the corn, driven from
his home amongst the corn, should make his escape in the form of the
animal which is seen to rush out of the last patch of corn as it falls
under the scythe of the reaper. Thus the identification of the corn-spirit
with an animal is analogous to the identification of him with a passing
stranger. As the sudden appearance of a stranger near the harvest-field or
threshing-floor is, to the primitive mind, sufficient to identify him as
the spirit of the corn escaping from the cut or threshed corn, so the
sudden appearance of an animal issuing from the cut corn is enough to
identify it with the corn-spirit escaping from his ruined home. The two
identifications are so analogous that they can hardly be dissociated in
any attempt to explain them. Those who look to some other principle than
the one here suggested for the explanation of the latter identification
are bound to show that their explanation covers the former identification
also.

But however we may explain it, the fact remains that in peasant folk-lore
the corn-spirit is very commonly conceived and represented in animal form.
May not this fact explain the relation in which certain animals stood to
the ancient deities of vegetation, Dionysus, Demeter, Adonis, Attis, and
Osiris?

To begin with Dionysus. We have seen that he was represented sometimes as
a goat and sometimes as a bull. As a goat he can hardly be separated from
the minor divinities, the Pans, Satyrs, and Silenuses, all of whom are
closely associated with him and are represented more or less completely in
the form of goats. Thus, Pan was regularly represented in sculpture and
painting with the face and legs of a goat.(131) The Satyrs were depicted
with pointed goat-ears, and sometimes with sprouting horns and short
tails.(132) They were sometimes spoken of simply as goats;(133) and in the
drama their parts were played by men dressed in goat-skins.(134) Silenus
is represented in art clad in a goat-skin.(135) Further, the Fauns, the
Italian counterpart of the Greek Pans and Satyrs, are described as being
half goats, with goat-feet and goat-horns.(136) Again, all these minor
goat-formed divinities partake more or less clearly of the character of
woodland deities. Thus, Pan was called by the Arcadians the Lord of the
Wood.(137) The Silenuses associated with the tree-nymphs.(138) The Fauns
are expressly designated as woodland deities;(139) and their character as
such is still further brought out by their association, or even
identification, with Silvanus and the Silvanuses, who, as their name of
itself indicates, are spirits of the woods.(140) Lastly, the association
of the Satyrs with the Silenuses, Fauns, and Silvanuses,(141) proves that
the Satyrs also were woodland deities. These goat-formed spirits of the
woods have their counterparts in the folk-lore of Northern Europe. Thus,
the Russian wood-spirits, called _Ljeschie_ (from _ljes_, “wood,”) are
believed to appear partly in human shape, but with the horns, ears, and
legs of goats. The _Ljeschi_ can alter his stature at pleasure; when he
walks in the wood he is as tall as the trees; when he walks in the meadows
he is no higher than the grass. Some of the _Ljeschie_ are spirits of the
corn as well as of the wood; before harvest they are as tall as the
corn-stalks, but after it they shrink to the height of the stubble.(142)
This brings out—what we have remarked before—the close connection between
tree-spirits and corn-spirits, and shows how easily the former may melt
into the latter. Similarly the Fauns, though wood-spirits, were believed
to foster the growth of the crops.(143) We have already seen how often the
corn-spirit is represented in folk-custom as a goat.(144) On the whole,
then, as Mannhardt argues,(145) the Pans, Satyrs, and Fauns appear to
belong to a widely diffused class of wood-spirits conceived in goat-form.
The fondness of goats for straying in woods and nibbling the bark of
trees—to which it is well known that they are most destructive—is an
obvious and perhaps sufficient reason why wood-spirits should so often be
supposed to take the form of goats. The inconsistency of a god of
vegetation subsisting upon the vegetation which he personifies is not one
to strike the primitive mind. Such inconsistencies arise when the deity,
ceasing to be immanent in the vegetation, comes to be regarded as its
owner or lord; for the idea of owning the vegetation naturally leads to
that of subsisting on it. We have already seen that the corn-spirit,
originally conceived as immanent in the corn, afterwards comes to be
regarded as its owner, who lives on it and is reduced to poverty and want
by being deprived of it.(146)

Thus the representation of wood-spirits in goat-form appears to be both
widespread and, to the primitive mind, natural. Therefore when we find, as
we have done, that Dionysus—a tree-god—is sometimes represented in goat
form,(147) we can hardly avoid concluding that this representation is
simply a part of his proper character as a tree-god and is not to be
explained by the fusion of two distinct and independent cults, in one of
which he originally appeared as a tree-god and in the other as a goat. If
such a fusion took place in the case of Dionysus, it must equally have
taken place in the case of the Pans and Satyrs of Greece, the Fauns of
Italy, and the _Ljeschie_ of Russia. That such a fusion of two wholly
disconnected cults should have occurred once is possible; that it should
have occurred twice independently is improbable; that it should have
occurred thrice independently is so unlikely as to be practically
incredible.

Dionysus was also represented, as we have seen,(148) in the form of a
bull. After what has gone before we are naturally led to expect that his
bull form must have been only another expression for his character as a
deity of vegetation, especially as the bull is a common embodiment of the
corn-spirit in Northern Europe;(149) and the close association of Dionysus
with Demeter and Proserpine in the mysteries of Eleusis shows that he had
at least strong agricultural affinities. The other possible explanation of
the bull-shaped Dionysus would be that the conception of him as a bull was
originally entirely distinct from the conception of him as a deity of
vegetation, and that the fusion of the two conceptions was due to some
such circumstance as the union of two tribes, one of which had previously
worshipped a bull-god and the other a tree-god. This appears to be the
view taken by Mr. Andrew Lang, who suggests that the bull-formed Dionysus
“had either been developed out of, or had succeeded to the worship of a
bull-totem.”(150) Of course this is possible. But it is not yet certain
that the Aryans ever had totemism. On the other hand, it is quite certain
that many Aryan peoples have conceived deities of vegetation as embodied
in animal forms. Therefore when we find amongst an Aryan people like the
Greeks a deity of vegetation represented as an animal, the presumption
must be in favour of explaining this by a principle which is certainly
known to have influenced the Aryan race rather than by one which is not
certainly known to have done so. In the present state of our knowledge,
therefore, it is safer to regard the bull form of Dionysus as being, like
his goat form, an expression of his proper character as a deity of
vegetation.

The probability of this view will be somewhat increased if it can be shown
that in other rites than those of Dionysus the ancients slew an ox as a
representative of the spirit of vegetation. This they appear to have done
in the Athenian sacrifice known as “the murder of the ox” (_bouphonia_).
It took place about the end of June or beginning of July, that is, about
the time when the threshing is nearly over in Attica. According to
tradition the sacrifice was instituted to procure a cessation of drought
and barrenness which had afflicted the land. The ritual was as follows.
Barley mixed with wheat, or cakes made of them, were laid upon the bronze
altar of Zeus Polieus on the Acropolis. Oxen were driven round the altar,
and the ox which went up to the altar and ate the offering on it was
sacrificed. The axe and knife with which the beast was slain had been
previously wetted with water brought by maidens called “water-carriers.”
The weapons were then sharpened and handed to the butchers, one of whom
felled the ox with the axe and another cut its throat with the knife. As
soon as he had felled the ox, the former threw the axe from him and fled;
and the man who cut the beast’s throat apparently imitated his example.
Meantime the ox was skinned and all present partook of its flesh. Then the
hide was stuffed with straw and sewed up; next the stuffed animal was set
on its feet and yoked to a plough as if it were ploughing. A trial then
took place in an ancient law-court presided over by the King (as he was
called) to determine who had murdered the ox. The maidens who had brought
the water accused the men who had sharpened the axe and knife; the men who
had sharpened the axe and knife blamed the men who had handed these
implements to the butchers; the men who had handed the implements to the
butchers blamed the butchers; and the butchers laid the blame on the axe
and knife, which were accordingly found guilty, condemned, and cast into
the sea.(151)

The name of this sacrifice,—“the _murder_ of the ox,”(152)—the pains taken
by each person who had a hand in the slaughter to lay the blame on some
one else, together with the formal trial and punishment of the axe or
knife or both, prove that the ox was here regarded not merely as a victim
offered to a god, but as itself a sacred creature, the slaughter of which
was sacrilege or murder. This is borne out by a statement of Varro that to
kill an ox was formerly a capital crime in Attica.(153) The mode of
selecting the victim suggests that the ox which tasted the corn was viewed
as the corn-deity taking possession of his own. This interpretation is
supported by the following custom. In Beauce, in the district of Orleans,
on the 24th or 25th of April they make a straw-man called “the great
_mondard_.” For they say that the old _mondard_ is now dead and it is
necessary to make a new one. The straw-man is carried in solemn procession
up and down the village and at last is placed upon the oldest apple-tree.
There he remains till the apples are gathered, when he is taken down and
thrown into the water, or he is burned and his ashes cast into water. But
the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree succeeds to the title
of “the great _mondard_.”(154). Here the straw figure, called “the great
_mondard_” and placed on the apple-tree in spring, represents the spirit
of the tree, who, dead in winter, revives when the apple-blossoms appear
in spring. The fact, therefore, that the person who plucks the first fruit
from the apple-tree receives the name of “the great _mondard_” proves that
he is regarded as a representative of the tree-spirit. Primitive peoples
are, as a rule, reluctant to taste the annual first-fruits of any crop,
until some ceremony has been performed which makes it safe and pious for
them to do so. The reason of this reluctance appears to be that the
first-fruits either are the property of, or actually contain, a divinity.
Therefore when a man or animal is seen boldly to appropriate the sacred
first-fruits, he or it is naturally regarded as the divinity himself in
human or animal form taking possession of his own. The time of the
Athenian sacrifice—about the close of the threshing—suggests that the
wheat and barley laid upon the altar were a harvest offering; and the
sacramental character of the subsequent repast—all partaking of the flesh
of the divine animal—would make it parallel to the harvest suppers of
modern Europe, in which, as we have seen, the flesh of the animal who
represents the corn-spirit is eaten by the harvesters. Again, the
tradition that the sacrifice was instituted in order to put an end to
drought and famine is in favour of taking it as a harvest festival. The
resurrection of the corn-spirit, represented by setting up the stuffed ox
and yoking it to the plough, may be compared with the resurrection of the
tree-spirit in the person of his representative, the Wild Man.(155)

The ox appears as a representative of the corn-spirit in other parts of
the world. At Great Bassam, in Guinea, two oxen are slain annually to
procure a good harvest. If the sacrifice is to be effectual, it is
necessary that the oxen should weep. So all the women of the village sit
in front of the beasts, chanting, “The ox will weep; yes, he will weep!”
From time to time one of the women walks round the beasts, throwing manioc
meal or palm wine upon them, especially into their eyes. When tears roll
down from the eyes of the oxen, the people dance, singing, “The ox weeps!
the ox weeps!” Then two men seize the tails of the beasts and cut them off
at one blow. It is believed that a great misfortune will happen in the
course of the year if the tails are not severed at one blow. The oxen are
afterwards killed, and their flesh is eaten by the chiefs.(156) Here the
tears of the oxen, like those of the human victims amongst the Khonds, are
probably a rain-charm. We have already seen that the virtue of the
corn-spirit, embodied in animal form, is sometimes supposed to reside in
the tail, and that the last handful of corn is sometimes conceived as the
tail of the corn-spirit.(157) Still more clearly does the ox appear as a
personification of the corn-spirit in a ceremony which is observed in all
the provinces and districts of China to welcome the approach of spring. On
the first day of spring the governor or prefect of the city goes in
procession to the east gate of the city, and sacrifices to the Divine
Husbandman, who is represented with a bull’s head on the body of a man. A
large effigy of an ox, cow, or buffalo has been prepared for the occasion,
and stands outside of the east gate, with agricultural implements beside
it. It is made of differently-coloured pieces of paper pasted on a
framework either by a blind man or according to the directions of a
necromancer. The colours of the paper indicate the character of the coming
year; if red prevails, there will be many fires; if white, there will be
floods and rain, etc. The mandarins walk slowly round the ox, beating it
severely at each step with rods of various colours. It is filled with five
kinds of grain, which pour forth when the ox is broken by the blows of the
rods. The paper fragments are then set on fire, and a scramble takes place
for the burning fragments, as the people believe that whoever gets one of
them is sure to be fortunate throughout the year. A live buffalo is then
killed, and its flesh is divided among the mandarins. According to one
account, the effigy of the ox is made of clay, and, after being beaten by
the governor, is stoned by the people till they break it in pieces, “from
which they expect an abundant year.”(158) Here the corn-spirit appears to
be plainly represented by the corn-filled ox, whose fragments may
therefore be supposed to bring fertility with them. We may compare the
Silesian spring custom of burning the effigy of Death, scrambling for the
burning fragments, and burying them in the fields to secure a good crop,
and the Florentine custom of sawing the Old Woman and scrambling for the
dried fruits with which she was filled.(159)

On the whole, then, we may perhaps conclude that both as a goat and as a
bull Dionysus was essentially a god of vegetation. The Chinese and
European customs just referred to may perhaps shed light on the custom of
rending a live bull or goat at the rites of Dionysus. The animal was torn
in fragments, as the Khond victim was cut in pieces, in order that the
worshippers might each secure a portion of the life-giving and fertilising
influence of the god. The flesh was eaten raw as a sacrament, and we may
conjecture that some of it was taken home to be buried in the fields, or
otherwise employed so as to convey to the fruits of the earth the
quickening influence of the god of vegetation. The resurrection of
Dionysus, related in his myth, may have been represented in his rites by
stuffing and setting up the slain ox, as was done at the Athenian
_bouphonia_.

Passing next to the corn-goddess Demeter, and remembering that in European
folk-lore the pig is a common embodiment of the corn-spirit,(160) we may
now ask, may not the pig, which was so closely associated with Demeter, be
nothing but the goddess herself in animal form? The pig was sacred to
her;(161) in art she was represented carrying or accompanied by a
pig;(162) and the pig was regularly sacrificed in her mysteries, the
reason assigned being that the pig injures the corn and is therefore an
enemy of the goddess.(163) But after an animal has been conceived as a god
or a god as an animal, it sometimes happens, as we have seen, that the god
sloughs off his animal form and becomes purely anthropomorphic; and that
then the animal, which at first had been slain in the character of the
god, comes to be regarded as a victim offered to the god on the ground of
its hostility to the deity; in short, that the god is sacrificed to
himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. This happened to Dionysus,
and it may have happened to Demeter also. And in fact the rites of one of
her festivals, the Thesmophoria, bear out the view that originally the pig
was an embodiment of the corn-goddess herself, either Demeter or her
daughter and double Proserpine. The Thesmophoria was an autumn festival,
celebrated by women alone in October,(164) and appears to have represented
with mourning rites the descent of Proserpine (or Demeter)(165) into the
lower world, and with joy her return from the dead.(166) Hence the name
Descent or Ascent variously applied to the first, and the name
_Kalligeneia_ (fair-born) applied to the third day of the festival. Now
from a scholion on Lucian, first edited in 1870,(167) we learn some
details about the mode of celebrating the Thesmophoria, which shed
important light on the part of the festival called the Descent or the
Ascent. The scholiast tells us that it was customary at the Thesmophoria
to throw pigs, cakes of dough, and branches of pine-trees into “the chasms
of Demeter and Proserpine,” which appear to have been sacred caverns or
vaults.(168) In these caverns or vaults there were said to be serpents,
which guarded the caverns and consumed most of the flesh of the pigs and
dough-cakes which were thrown in. Afterwards—apparently at the next annual
festival(169)—the decayed remains of the pigs, the cakes, and the
pine-branches were fetched by women called “drawers,” who, after observing
rules of ceremonial purity for three days, descended into the caverns,
and, frightening away the serpents by clapping their hands, brought up the
remains and placed them on the altar. Whoever got a piece of the decayed
flesh and cakes, and sowed it with the seed-corn in his field, was
believed to be sure of a good crop.

To explain this rude and ancient rite the following legend was told. At
the moment that Pluto carried off Proserpine, a swineherd called Eubuleus
was herding his swine on the spot, and his herd was engulfed in the chasm
down which Pluto vanished with Proserpine. Accordingly at the Thesmophoria
pigs were annually thrown into caverns in order to commemorate the
disappearance of the swine of Eubuleus. It follows from this that the
casting of the pigs into the vaults at the Thesmophoria formed part of the
dramatic representation of Proserpine’s descent into the lower world; and
as no image of Proserpine appears to have been thrown in, it follows that
the descent of the pigs must have been, not an accompaniment of her
descent, but the descent itself; in short, the pigs were Proserpine.
Afterwards when Proserpine or Demeter (for the two are equivalent) became
anthropomorphic, a reason had to be found for the custom of throwing pigs
into caverns at her festival; and this was done by saying that when
Proserpine was carried off, there happened to be some swine browsing near,
which were swallowed up along with her. The story is obviously a forced
and awkward attempt to bridge over the gulf between the old conception of
the corn-spirit as a pig and the new conception of her as an
anthropomorphic goddess. A trace of the older conception survived in the
legend that when Demeter was looking for the lost Proserpine, the
footprints of the latter were obliterated by the footprints of a pig;(170)
originally, no doubt, the footprints of the pig were the footprints of
Proserpine and of Demeter herself. A consciousness of the intimate
connection of the pig with the corn lurks in the tradition that the
swineherd Eubuleus was a brother of Triptolemus, to whom Demeter first
imparted the secret of the corn. Indeed, according to one version of the
story, Eubuleus himself received, jointly with his brother Triptolemus,
the gift of the corn from Demeter as a reward for revealing to her the
fate of Proserpine.(171) Further, it is to be noted that at the
Thesmophoria the women appear to have eaten swine’s flesh.(172) The meal,
if I am right, must have been a solemn sacrament or communion, the
worshippers partaking of the body of the god.

As thus explained, the Thesmophoria has its analogies in the folk-customs
of Northern Europe which have been already described. As at the
Thesmophoria—an autumn festival in honour of the corn-goddess—swine’s
flesh was partly eaten, partly kept in caverns till the following year,
when it was taken up to be sown with the seed-corn in the fields for the
purpose of securing a good crop; so in the neighbourhood of Grenoble the
goat killed on the harvest-field is partly eaten at the harvest supper,
partly pickled and kept till the next harvest;(173) so at Pouilly the ox
killed on the harvest-field is partly eaten by the harvesters, partly
pickled and kept till the first day of sowing in spring(174)—probably to
be then mixed with the seed, or eaten by the ploughmen, or both; so at
Udvarhely the feathers of the cock which is killed in the last sheaf at
harvest are kept till spring, and then sown with the seed on the
field;(175) so in Hessen and Meiningen the flesh of pigs is eaten on Ash
Wednesday or Candlemas, and the bones are kept till sowing-time, when they
are put into the field sown or mixed with the seed in the bag;(176) so,
lastly, the corn from the last sheaf is kept till Christmas, made into the
Yule Boar, and afterwards broken and mixed with the seed-corn at sowing in
spring.(177) Thus, to put it generally, the corn-spirit is killed in
animal form in autumn; part of his flesh is eaten as a sacrament by his
worshippers; and part of it is kept till next sowing-time or harvest as a
pledge and security for the continuance or renewal of the corn-spirit’s
energies. Whether in the interval between autumn and spring he is
conceived as dead, or whether, like the ox in the _bouphonia_, he is
supposed to come to life again immediately after being killed, is not
clear. At the Thesmophoria, according to Clement and Pausanias, as emended
by Lobeck,(178) the pigs were thrown in alive, and were supposed to
reappear at the festival of the following year. Here, therefore, if we
accept Lobeck’s emendations, the corn-spirit is conceived as alive
throughout the year; he lives and works under ground, but is brought up
each autumn to be renewed and then replaced in his subterranean
abode.(179)

If it is objected that the Greeks never could have conceived Demeter and
Proserpine to be embodied in the form of pigs, it may be answered that in
the cave of Phigalia in Arcadia the Black Demeter was represented with the
head and mane of a horse on the body of a woman.(180) Between the
representation of a goddess as a pig, and the representation of her as a
woman with a horse’s head, there is little to choose in respect of
barbarism. The legend told of the Phigalian Demeter indicates that the
horse was one of the animal forms assumed in ancient Greece, as in modern
Europe,(181) by the corn-spirit. It was said that in her search for her
daughter, Demeter assumed the form of a mare to escape the addresses of
Poseidon, and that, offended at his importunity, she withdrew to the cave
of Phigalia. There, robed in black, she stayed so long that the fruits of
the earth were perishing, and mankind would have died of famine if Pan had
not soothed the angry goddess and persuaded her to quit the cave. In
memory of this event, the Phigalians set up an image of the Black Demeter
in the cave; it represented a woman dressed in a long robe, with the head
and mane of a horse.(182) The Black Demeter, in whose absence the fruits
of the earth perish, is plainly a mythical expression for the state of
vegetation in winter.

Passing now to Attis and Adonis, we may note a few facts which seem to
show that these deities of vegetation had also, like other deities of
vegetation, their animal embodiments. The worshippers of Attis abstained
from eating the flesh of swine.(183) This fact is certainly in favour of
supposing that the pig was regarded as an embodiment of Attis. And the
legend that Attis was killed by a boar(184) points in the same direction.
For after the examples of the goat Dionysus and the pig Demeter it may
almost be laid down as a rule that an animal which is said to have injured
a god was originally the god himself. Perhaps the cry of “Hyes Attes! Hyes
Attes!”(185) which was raised by the worshippers of Attis, may be neither
more nor less than “Pig Attis! Pig Attis!”—_hyes_ being possibly a
Phrygian form of the Greek _hȳs_, “a pig.”

In regard to Adonis, his connection with the boar was not always explained
by the story that he was killed by a boar. According to another story, a
boar rent with his tusk the bark of the tree in which the infant Adonis
was born.(186) According to another story, he was killed by Hephaestus on
Mount Lebanon while he was hunting wild boars.(187) These variations in
the legend serve to show that, while the connection of the boar with
Adonis was certain, the reason of the connection was not understood, and
that consequently different stories were devised to explain it. Certainly
the pig was one of the sacred animals of the Syrians. At the great
religious metropolis of Hierapolis pigs were neither sacrificed nor eaten,
and if a man touched a pig he was unclean for the rest of the day. Some
people said this was because the pigs were unclean; others said it was
because the pigs were sacred.(188) This difference of opinion points to a
state of religious thought and feeling in which the ideas of sanctity and
uncleanness are not yet differentiated, and which is best indicated by the
word taboo. It is quite consistent with this that the pig should have been
held to be an embodiment of the divine Adonis, and the analogies of
Dionysus and Demeter make it probable that the story of the hostility of
the animal to the god was only a modern misunderstanding of the old view
of the god as embodied in a pig. The rule that pigs were not sacrificed or
eaten by worshippers of Attis and presumably of Adonis, does not exclude
the possibility that in these cults the pig was slain on solemn occasions
as a representative of the god and consumed sacramentally by the
worshippers. Indeed, the sacramental killing and eating of an animal, that
is the killing and eating it as a god, implies that the animal is sacred,
and is, as a general rule, not killed.(189)

The attitude of the Jews to the pig was as ambiguous as that of the
heathen Syrians towards the same animal. The Greeks could not decide
whether the Jews worshipped swine or abominated them. On the one hand they
might not eat swine; but on the other hand they might not kill them.(190)
And if the former rule speaks for the uncleanness, the latter speaks still
more strongly for the sanctity of the animal. For whereas both rules may,
and one rule must, be explained on the supposition that the pig was
sacred; neither rule must, and one rule cannot, be explained on the
supposition that the pig was unclean. If, therefore, we prefer the former
supposition, we must conclude that, originally at least, the pig was held
to be sacred rather than unclean by the Israelites. This is confirmed by
the fact that down to the time of Isaiah some of the Jews used to meet
secretly in gardens to eat the flesh of swine and mice as a religious
rite.(191) Doubtless this was a very ancient rite, dating from a time when
both the pig and the mouse were venerated as divine, and when their flesh
was partaken of sacramentally on rare and solemn occasions as the body and
blood of gods. And in general it may be said that all so-called unclean
animals were originally sacred; the reason why they were not eaten was
that they were divine.

In ancient Egypt, within historical times, the pig occupied the same
dubious position as in Syria and Palestine, though at first sight its
uncleanness is more prominent than its sanctity. The Egyptians are
generally said by Greek writers to have abhorred the pig as a foul and
loathsome animal.(192) If a man so much as touched a pig in passing, he
stepped into the river with all his clothes on, to wash off the
taint.(193) To drink pig’s milk was believed to cause leprosy to the
drinker.(194) Swineherds, though natives of Egypt, were forbidden to enter
any temple, and they were the only men who were thus excluded. No one
would give his daughter in marriage to a swineherd, or marry a swineherd’s
daughter; the swineherds married among themselves.(195) Yet once a year
the Egyptians sacrificed pigs to the moon and to Osiris, and not only
sacrificed them, but ate of their flesh, though on any other day of the
year they would neither sacrifice them nor taste of their flesh. Those who
were too poor to offer a pig on this day baked cakes of dough, and offered
them instead.(196) This can hardly be explained except by the supposition
that the pig was a sacred animal which was eaten sacramentally by his
worshippers once a year. The view that in Egypt the pig was a sacred
animal is borne out by the very facts which, to moderns, might seem to
prove the contrary. Thus the Egyptians thought, as we have seen, that to
drink pig’s milk produced leprosy. But exactly analogous views are held by
savages about the animals and plants which they deem most sacred. Thus in
the island of Wetar (between New Guinea and Celebes) people believe
themselves to be variously descended from wild pigs, serpents, crocodiles,
turtles, dogs, and eels; a man may not eat an animal of the kind from
which he is descended; if he does so, he will become a leper, and go
mad.(197) Amongst the Omaha Indians of North America men whose totem
(sacred animal or plant) is the elk, believe that if they ate the flesh of
the male elk they would break out in boils and white spots in different
parts of their bodies.(198) In the same tribe men whose totem is the red
maize, think that if they ate red maize they would have running sores all
round their mouths.(199) The Bush negroes of Surinam, who have totemism,
believe that if they ate the _capiaï_ (an animal like a pig) it would give
them leprosy;(200) probably the _capiaï_ is one of their totems. In Samoa
each man had generally his god in the shape of some species of animal; and
if he ate one of these divine animals, it was supposed that the god
avenged himself by taking up his abode in the eater’s body, and there
generating an animal of the kind he had eaten till it caused his death.
For example, if a man whose god was the prickly sea-urchin, ate one of
these creatures, a prickly sea-urchin grew in his stomach and killed him.
If his god was an eel, and he ate an eel, he became very ill, and before
he died the voice of the god was heard from his stomach saying, “I am
killing this man; he ate my incarnation.”(201) These examples prove that
the eating of a sacred animal is often believed to produce skin-disease or
even death; so far, therefore, they support the view that the pig must
have been sacred in Egypt, since the effect of drinking its milk was
believed to be leprosy.

Again, the rule that, after touching a pig, a man had to wash himself and
his clothes, also favours the view of the sanctity of the pig. For it is a
common belief that the effect of contact with a sacred object must be
removed, by washing or otherwise, before a man is free to mingle with his
fellows. Thus the Jews wash their hands after reading the sacred
scriptures. Before coming forth from the tabernacle after the
sin-offering, the high priest had to wash himself, and put off the
garments which he had worn in the holy place.(202) It was a rule of Greek
ritual that, in offering an expiatory sacrifice, the sacrificer should not
touch the sacrifice, and that, after the offering was made, he must wash
his body and his clothes in a river or spring before he could enter a city
or his own house.(203) The Polynesians felt strongly the need of ridding
themselves of the sacred contagion, if it may be so called, which they
caught by touching sacred objects. Various ceremonies were performed for
the purpose of removing this sacred contagion. For example, in Tonga a man
who happened to touch a sacred chief, or anything personally belonging to
him, as his clothes or his mat, was obliged to go through the ceremony of
touching the soles of the chief’s (or of any chief’s) feet with his hands,
first applying the palm and then the back of each hand; next he had to
rinse his hands in water, or, if there was no water near, the sap of the
plantain or banana-tree might be used as a substitute. If he were to feed
himself with his hands before he performed this ceremony, it was believed
that he would swell up and die, or at least be afflicted with scrofula or
some other disease.(204) We have already seen what fatal effects are
supposed to follow, and do actually follow, from contact with a sacred
object in New Zealand.(205) In short, primitive man believes that what is
sacred is dangerous; it is pervaded by a sort of electrical sanctity which
communicates a shock to, even if it does not kill, whatever comes in
contact with it. Hence the savage is unwilling to touch or even to see
that which he deems peculiarly holy. Thus Bechuanas, of the Crocodile
clan, think it “hateful and unlucky” to meet or see a crocodile; the sight
is thought to cause inflammation of the eyes. Yet the crocodile is their
most sacred object; they call it their father, swear by it, and celebrate
it in their festivals.(206) The goat is the sacred animal of the
Madenassana Bushmen; yet “to look upon it would be to render the man for
the time impure, as well as to cause him undefined uneasiness.”(207) The
Elk clan, among the Omaha Indians, believe that even to touch the male elk
would be followed by an eruption of boils and white spots on the
body.(208) Members of the Reptile clan in the same tribe think that if one
of them touches or smells a snake, it will make his hair white.(209) In
Samoa people whose god was a butterfly believed that if they caught a
butterfly it would strike them dead.(210) Again, in Samoa the
reddish-seared leaves of the banana-tree were commonly used as plates for
handing food; but if any member of the Wild Pigeon clan had used banana
leaves for this purpose, it was believed that he would have suffered from
rheumatic swellings or an eruption all over the body like
chicken-pox.(211)

In the light of these parallels the beliefs and customs of the Egyptians
touching the pig are probably to be explained as based upon an opinion of
the extreme sanctity rather than of the extreme uncleanness of the animal;
or rather, to put it more correctly, they imply that the animal was looked
on, not simply as a filthy and disgusting creature, but as a being endowed
with high supernatural powers, and that as such it was regarded with that
primitive sentiment of religious awe and fear in which the feelings of
reverence and abhorrence are almost equally blended. The ancients
themselves seem to have been aware that there was another side to the
horror with which swine seemed to inspire the Egyptians. For the Greek
astronomer and mathematician Eudoxus, who resided fourteen months in Egypt
and conversed with the priests,(212) was of opinion that the Egyptians
spared the pig, not out of abhorrence, but from a regard to its utility in
agriculture; for, according to him, when the Nile had subsided, herds of
swine were turned loose over the fields to tread the seed down into the
moist earth.(213) But when a being is thus the object of mixed and
implicitly contradictory feelings, he may be said to occupy a position of
unstable equilibrium. In course of time one of the contradictory feelings
is likely to prevail over the other, and according as the feeling which
finally predominates is that of reverence or abhorrence, the being who is
the object of it will rise into a god or sink into a devil. The latter, on
the whole, was the fate of the pig in Egypt. For in historical times the
fear and horror of the pig seem certainly to have outweighed the reverence
and worship of which he must once have been the object, and of which, even
in his fallen state, he never quite lost trace. He came to be looked on as
an embodiment of Set or Typhon, the Egyptian devil and enemy of Osiris.
For it was in the shape of a boar that Typhon menaced the eye of the god
Horus, who burned him and instituted the sacrifice of the pig, the sun-god
Ra having declared the pig abominable.(214) Again, the story that Typhon
was hunting a boar when he discovered and mangled the body of Osiris, and
that this was the reason why the pig was sacrificed once a year,(215) is a
transparent modernisation of an older story that Osiris, like Adonis and
Attis, was slain or mangled by a boar, or by Typhon in the form of a boar.
Thus, the annual sacrifice of a pig to Osiris might naturally be
interpreted as vengeance inflicted on the hostile animal that had slain or
mangled the god. But, in the first place, when an animal is thus killed as
a solemn sacrifice once and once only in the year, it generally or always
means that the animal is divine—that he is spared and respected the rest
of the year as a god and slain, when he is slain, also in the character of
a god.(216) In the second place, the examples of Dionysus and Demeter, if
not of Attis and Adonis, have taught us that the animal which is
sacrificed to a god on the ground that he is the god’s enemy may have
been, and probably was, originally the god himself. Therefore, the fact
that the pig was sacrificed once a year to Osiris, and the fact that he
appears to have been sacrificed on the ground that he was the god’s enemy,
go to show, first, that originally the pig was a god, and, second, that he
was Osiris. At a later age the pig was distinguished from Osiris when the
latter became anthropomorphic and his original relation to the pig was
forgotten; later still, the pig was opposed as an enemy to Osiris by
mythologists who could think of no reason for killing an animal in
connection with the worship of a god except that the animal was the god’s
enemy; or, as Plutarch puts it, not that which is dear to the gods, but
that which is the contrary, is fit to be sacrificed.(217) At this later
stage the havoc which a wild boar notoriously makes amongst the corn would
supply a plausible reason for regarding him as an enemy of the
corn-spirit, though originally, if I am right, the very fact that the boar
was found ranging at will through the corn was the reason for identifying
him with the corn-spirit, to whom he was afterwards opposed as an enemy.
The view which identifies the pig with Osiris derives not a little support
from the fact that the day on which the pigs were sacrificed to him was
the day on which, according to tradition, Osiris was killed;(218) for thus
the killing of the pig was the annual representation of the killing of
Osiris, just as the throwing of the pigs into the caverns at the
Thesmophoria was an annual representation of the descent of Proserpine
into the lower world; and both customs are parallel to the European
practice of killing a goat, cock, etc., at harvest as a representative of
the corn-spirit.

Again, the view that the pig, originally Osiris himself, afterwards came
to be regarded as an embodiment of his enemy Typhon, is supported by the
similar relation of red-haired men and red oxen to Typhon. For in regard
to the red-haired men who were burned and whose ashes were scattered with
winnowing-fans, we have seen fair grounds for believing that originally,
like the red-haired puppies killed at Rome in spring, they were
representatives of the corn-spirit himself, that is, of Osiris, and were
slain for the express purpose of making the corn turn red or golden.

Yet at a later time these men were explained to be representatives, not of
Osiris, but of his enemy Typhon,(219) and the killing of them was regarded
as an act of vengeance inflicted on the enemy of the god. Similarly, the
red oxen sacrificed by the Egyptians were said to be sacrificed on the
ground of their resemblance to Typhon;(220) though it is more likely that
originally they were slain on the ground of their resemblance to the
corn-spirit Osiris. We have seen that the ox is a common representative of
the corn-spirit and is slain as such on the harvest-field.

Osiris was regularly identified with the bull Apis of Memphis and the bull
Mnevis of Heliopolis.(221) But it is hard to say whether these bulls were
embodiments of him as the corn-spirit, as the red oxen appear to have
been, or whether they were not rather entirely distinct deities which got
fused with Osiris by syncretism. The fact that these two bulls were
worshipped by _all_ the Egyptians,(222) seems to put them on a different
footing from the ordinary sacred animals whose cults were purely local.
Hence, if the latter were evolved from totems, as they probably were, some
other origin would have to be found for the worship of Apis and Mnevis. If
these bulls were not originally embodiments of the corn-god Osiris, they
may possibly be descendants of the sacred cattle worshipped by a pastoral
people.(223) If this were so, ancient Egypt would exhibit a stratification
of the three great types of religion corresponding to the three great
stages of society. Totemism or (roughly speaking) the worship of wild
animals—the religion of society in the hunting stage—would be represented
by the worship of the local sacred animals; the worship of cattle—the
religion of society in the pastoral stage—would be represented by the
cults of Apis and Mnevis; and the worship of cultivated plants, especially
of corn—the religion of society in the agricultural stage—would be
represented by the worship of Osiris and Isis. The Egyptian reverence for
cows, which were never killed,(224) might belong either to the second or
third of these stages. The fact that cows were regarded as sacred to, that
is, as embodiments of Isis, who was represented with cow’s horns, would
indicate that they, like the red oxen, were embodiments of the
corn-spirit. However, this identification of Isis with the cow, like that
of Osiris with the bulls Apis and Mnevis, may be only an effect of
syncretism. But whatever the original relation of Apis to Osiris may have
been, there is one fact about the former which ought not to be passed over
in a chapter dealing with the custom of killing the god. Although the bull
Apis was worshipped as a god with much pomp and profound reverence, he was
not suffered to live beyond a certain length of time which was prescribed
by the sacred books, and on the expiry of which he was drowned in a holy
spring.(225) The limit, according to Plutarch, was twenty-five years;(226)
but it cannot always have been enforced, for the tombs of the Apis bulls
have been discovered in the present century, and from the inscriptions on
them it appears that in the twenty-second dynasty two bulls lived more
than twenty-six years.(227)

We are now in a position to hazard a conjecture—for it can be little
more—as to the meaning of the tradition that Virbius, the first of the
divine Kings of the Wood at Aricia, was killed by horses. Having found,
first, that spirits of vegetation are not infrequently represented in the
form of horses;(228) and, second, that the animal which in later legends
is said to have injured the god was sometimes originally the god himself,
we may conjecture that the horses by which Virbius was said to have been
slain were really embodiments of him as a deity of vegetation. The myth
that Virbius had been killed by horses was probably invented to explain
certain features in his cult, amongst others the custom of excluding
horses from his sacred grove. For myth changes while custom remains
constant; men continue to do what their fathers did before them, though
the reasons on which their fathers acted have been long forgotten. The
history of religion is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new
reason; to find a sound theory for an absurd practice. In the case before
us we may be sure that the myth is more modern than the custom and by no
means represents the original reason for excluding horses from the grove.
From the fact that horses were so excluded it might be inferred that they
could not be the sacred animals or embodiments of the god of the grove.
But the inference would be rash. The goat was at one time a sacred animal
or embodiment of Athene, as may be inferred from the practice of
representing her clad in a goat-skin (_aegis_). Yet the goat was neither
sacrificed to her as a rule, nor allowed to enter her great sanctuary, the
Acropolis at Athens. The reason alleged for this was that the goat injured
the olive, the sacred tree of Athene.(229) So far, therefore, the relation
of the goat to Athene is parallel to the relation of the horse to Virbius,
both animals being excluded from the sanctuary on the ground of injury
done by them to the god. But from Varro we learn that there was an
exception to the rule which excluded the goat from the Acropolis. Once a
year, he says, the goat was driven on to the Acropolis for a necessary
sacrifice.(230) Now, as has been remarked before, when an animal is
sacrificed once and once only in the year, it is probably slain, not as a
victim offered to the god, but as a representative of the god himself.
Therefore we may infer that if a goat was sacrificed on the Acropolis once
a year, it was sacrificed in the character of Athene herself; and it may
be conjectured that the skin of the sacrificed animal was placed on the
statue of the goddess and formed the _aegis_, which would thus be renewed
annually. Similarly at Thebes in Egypt rams were sacred and were not
sacrificed. But on one day in the year a ram was killed, and its skin was
placed on the statue of the god Ammon.(231) Now, if we knew the ritual of
the Arician grove better, we might find the rule of excluding horses from
it, like the rule of excluding goats from the Acropolis at Athens, was
subject to an annual exception, a horse being once a year taken into the
grove and sacrificed as an embodiment of the god Virbius. By the usual
misunderstanding the horse thus killed would come in time to be regarded
as an enemy offered up in sacrifice to the god whom he had injured, like
the pig which was sacrificed to Demeter and Osiris or the goat which was
sacrificed to Athene and Dionysus. It is so easy for a writer to record a
rule without noticing an exception that we need not wonder at finding the
rule of the Arician grove recorded without any mention of an exception
such as I suppose. If we had had only the statements of Athenaeus and
Pliny, we should have known only the rule which forbade the sacrifice of
goats to Athene and excluded them from the Acropolis, without being aware
of the important exception which the fortunate preservation of Varro’s
work has revealed to us.

The conjecture that once a year a horse may have been sacrificed in the
Arician grove as a representative of the deity of the grove derives some
support from the fact that a horse sacrifice of a similar character took
place once a year at Rome. On the 15th of October in each year a
chariot-race took place on the Field of Mars. The right-hand horse of the
victorious team was sacrificed to Mars by being stabbed with a spear. The
object of the sacrifice was to ensure good crops. The animal’s head was
cut off and adorned with a string of loaves. The inhabitants of two
wards—the Sacred Way and the Subura—then contended with each other who
should get the head. If the people of the Sacred Way got it, they fastened
it to a wall of the king’s house; if the people of the Subura got it, they
fastened it to the Mamilian tower. The horse’s tail was cut off and
carried to the king’s house with such speed that the blood dripped on the
hearth of the house.(232) Further, it appears that the blood of the horse
was caught and preserved till the 21st of April, when it was mixed by the
Vestal virgins with the blood of the unborn calves which had been
sacrificed six days before. The mixture was then distributed to shepherds,
and used by them for fumigating their flocks.(233)

In this ceremony the decoration of the horse’s head with a string of
loaves, and the alleged object of the sacrifice, namely, to procure a good
harvest, clearly indicate that the horse was killed as one of those animal
representatives of the corn-spirit of which we have seen so many examples.
The custom of cutting off the horse’s tail is like the African custom of
cutting off the tails of the oxen and sacrificing them to obtain a good
crop.(234) In both the Roman and the African custom the animal represents
the corn-spirit; and its fructifying power is supposed to reside
especially in its tail. The latter idea occurs, as we have seen, in
European folk-lore.(235) Again, the custom of fumigating the cattle in
spring with the blood of the horse may be compared with the custom of
giving the Maiden as fodder to the cattle at Christmas, and giving the
Yule Boar to the ploughing oxen or horses to eat in spring.(236) All these
customs aim at ensuring the blessing of the corn-spirit on the homestead
and its inmates and storing it up for another year.

The Roman sacrifice of the October horse, as it was called, carries us
back to the early days when the Subura, afterwards a low and crowded
quarter of the great metropolis, was still a separate village, whose
inhabitants engaged in a friendly contest on the harvest-field with their
neighbours of Rome, then a little rural town. The Field of Mars on which
the ceremony took place lay beside the Tiber, and formed part of the
king’s domain down to the abolition of the monarchy. For tradition ran
that at the time when the last of the kings was driven from Rome, the corn
stood ripe for the sickle on the crown lands beside the river; but no one
would eat the accursed grain and it was flung into the river in such heaps
that, the water being low with the summer heat, it formed the nucleus of
an island.(237) The horse sacrifice was thus an old autumn custom observed
upon the king’s corn-fields at the end of the harvest. The tail and blood
of the horse, as the chief parts of the corn-spirit’s representative, were
taken to the king’s house and kept there; just as in Germany the
harvest-cock is nailed on the gable or over the door of the farmhouse; and
as the last sheaf, in the form of the Maiden, is carried home and kept
over the fireplace in the Highlands of Scotland. Thus the blessing of the
corn-spirit was brought to the king’s house and hearth and, through them,
to the community of which he was the head. Similarly in the spring and
autumn customs of Northern Europe the May-pole is sometimes set up in
front of the house of the mayor or burgomaster, and the last sheaf at
harvest is brought to him as the head of the village. But while the tail
and blood fell to the king, the neighbouring village of the Subura, which
no doubt once had a similar ceremony of its own, was gratified by being
allowed to compete for the prize of the horse’s head. The Mamilian tower
to which the Suburans nailed the horse’s head when they succeeded in
carrying it off, appears to have been a peel-tower or keep of the old
Mamilian family, the magnates of the village.(238) The ceremony thus
performed on the king’s fields and at his house on behalf of the whole
town and of the neighbouring village presupposes a time when each commune
performed a similar ceremony on its own fields. In the rural districts of
Latium the villages may have continued to observe the custom, each on its
own land, long after the Roman hamlets had merged their separate
harvest-homes in the common celebration on the king’s lands.(239) There is
no intrinsic improbability in the supposition that the sacred grove of
Aricia, like the Field of Mars at Rome, may have been the scene of a
common harvest celebration, at which a horse was sacrificed with the same
rude rites on behalf of the neighbouring villages. The horse would
represent the fructifying spirit both of the tree and of the corn, for the
two ideas melt into each other, as we see in customs like the Harvest-May.

§ 11.—Eating the god.

We have now seen that the corn-spirit is represented sometimes in human,
sometimes in animal form, and that in both cases he is killed in the
person of his representative and eaten sacramentally. To find examples of
actually killing the human representative of the corn-spirit we had of
course to go to savage races; but the harvest suppers of our European
peasants have furnished unmistakable examples of the sacramental eating of
animals as representatives of the corn-spirit. But further, as might have
been anticipated, the new corn is itself eaten sacramentally, that is, as
the body of the corn-spirit. In Wermland, Sweden, the farmer’s wife uses
the grain of the last sheaf to bake a loaf in the shape of a little girl;
this loaf is divided amongst the whole household and eaten by them.(240)
Here the loaf represents the corn-spirit conceived as a maiden; just as in
Scotland the corn-spirit is similarly conceived and represented by the
last sheaf made up in the form of a woman and bearing the name of the
Maiden. As usual, the corn-spirit is believed to reside in the last sheaf;
and to eat a loaf made from the last sheaf is, therefore, to eat the
corn-spirit itself. Similarly at La Palisse in France a man made of dough
is hung upon the fir-tree which is carried on the last harvest-waggon. The
tree and the dough-man are taken to the mayor’s house and kept there till
the vintage is over. Then the close of the harvest is celebrated by a
feast at which the mayor breaks the dough-man in pieces and gives the
pieces to the people to eat.(241)

In these examples the corn-spirit is represented and eaten in human shape.
In other cases, though the new corn is not baked in loaves of human shape,
still the solemn ceremonies with which it is eaten suffice to indicate
that it is partaken of sacramentally, that is, as the body of the
corn-spirit. For example, the following ceremonies used to be observed by
Lithuanian peasants at eating the new corn. When the harvest and the
sowing of the new corn were over, each farmer held a festival called
Sabarios, that is, “the mixing or throwing together.” He took a handful of
each kind of grain—wheat, barley, oats, flax, beans, lentils, etc.; and
each handful he divided into three parts. The twenty-seven portions of
each grain were then thrown on a heap and all mixed up together. The grain
used had to be the grain which was first threshed and winnowed and which
had been set aside and kept for this purpose. A part of the grain thus
mixed was used to bake little loaves, one for each of the household; the
rest was mixed with more barley or oats and made into beer. The first beer
brewed from this mixture was for the drinking of the farmer, his wife, and
children; the second brew was for the servants. The beer being ready, the
farmer chose an evening when no stranger was expected. Then he knelt down
before the barrel of beer, drew a jugful of the liquor and poured it on
the bung of the barrel, saying, “O fruitful earth, make rye and barley and
all kinds of corn to flourish.” Next he took the jug to the parlour, where
his wife and children awaited him. On the floor of the parlour lay bound a
black or white or speckled (not a red) cock and a hen of the same colour
and of the same brood, which must have been hatched within the year. Then
the farmer knelt down, with the jug in his hand, and thanked God for the
harvest and prayed for a good crop next year. Then all lifted up their
hands and said, “O God, and thou, O earth, we give you this cock and hen
as a free-will offering.” With that the farmer killed the fowls with the
blows of a wooden spoon, for he might not cut their heads off. After the
first prayer and after killing each of the birds he poured out a third of
the beer. Then his wife boiled the fowls in a new pot which had never been
used before. A bushel was then set, bottom upwards, on the floor, and on
it were placed the little loaves mentioned above and the boiled fowls.
Next the new beer was fetched, together with a ladle and three mugs, none
of which was used except on this occasion. When the farmer had ladled the
beer into the mugs, the family knelt down round the bushel. The father
then uttered a prayer and drank off the three mugs of beer. The rest
followed his example. Then the loaves and the flesh of the fowls were
eaten, after which the beer went round again, till every one had emptied
each of the three mugs nine times. None of the food should remain over;
but if anything did happen to be left, it was consumed next morning with
the same ceremonies. The bones were then given to the dog to eat; if he
did not eat them all up, the remains were buried under the dung in the
cattle-stall. This ceremony was observed at the beginning of December. On
the day on which it occurred no bad word might be spoken.(242)

Such was the custom about two hundred years ago. At the present day in
Lithuania, when new potatoes or loaves made from the new corn are being
eaten, all the people at table pull each other’s hair.(243) The meaning of
the latter custom is obscure, but a similar custom was certainly observed
by the heathen Lithuanians at their solemn sacrifices.(244) Many of the
Esthonians of the island of Oesel will not eat bread baked of the new corn
till they have first taken a bite at a piece of iron.(245) The iron is
here plainly a charm, intended to render harmless the spirit that is in
the corn.(246) In Sutherlandshire at the present day, when the new
potatoes are dug all the family must taste them, otherwise “the spirits in
them [the potatoes] take offence, and the potatoes would not keep.”(247)
In one part of Yorkshire it is still the custom for the clergyman to cut
the first corn; and my informant believes that the corn so cut is used to
make the communion bread.(248) If the latter part of the custom is
correctly reported (and analogy is all in its favour), it shows how the
Christian communion has absorbed within itself a sacrament which is
doubtless far older than Christianity.

At the close of the rice harvest in Boeroe, East Indies, each clan
(_fenna_) meets at a common sacramental meal, to which every member of the
clan is bound to contribute a little of the new rice. This meal is called
“eating the soul of the rice,” a name which clearly indicates the
sacramental character of the repast. Some of the rice is also set apart
and offered to the spirits.(249) Amongst the Alfoers of Celebes the priest
sows the first rice-seed and plucks the first ripe rice in each field.
This rice he roasts and grinds into meal, and gives some of it to each of
the household.(250) Shortly before the rice harvest in Bolang Mongondo,
Celebes, an offering is made of a small pig or a fowl. Then the priest
plucks a little rice, first on his own field and then on those of his
neighbours. All the rice thus plucked by him he dries along with his own,
and then gives it back to the respective owners, who have it ground and
boiled. When it is boiled the women take it back, with an egg, to the
priest, who offers the egg in sacrifice and returns the rice to the women.
Of this rice every member of the family, down to the youngest child, must
partake. After this ceremony every one is free to get in his rice.(251)
Amongst the Burghers, a tribe of the Neilgherry Hills in Southern India,
the first handful of seed is sown and the first sheaf reaped by a
Curumbar—a man of a different tribe, whom the Burghers regard as
sorcerers. The grain contained in the first sheaf “is that day reduced to
meal, made into cakes, and, being offered as a first-fruit oblation, is,
together with the remainder of the sacrificed animal, partaken of by the
Burgher and the whole of his family as the meat of a federal offering and
sacrifice.”(252)

Amongst the Coorgs of Southern India the man who is to cut the first sheaf
of rice at harvest is chosen by an astrologer. At sunset the whole
household takes a hot bath and then goes to the rice-field, where the
chosen reaper cuts an armful of rice with a new sickle, and distributes
two or more stalks to all present. Then all return to the threshing-floor.
A bundle of leaves is adorned with a stalk of rice and fastened to the
post in the centre of the threshing-floor. Enough of the new rice is now
threshed, cleaned, and ground to provide flour for the dough cakes which
each member of the household is to eat. Then they go to the door of the
house, where the mistress washes the feet of the sheaf-cutter, and
presents to him, and after him to all the rest, a brass vessel full of
milk, honey, and sugar, from which each person takes a draught. Then the
man who cut the sheaf kneads a cake of rice meal, plantains, milk, honey,
seven new rice corns, seven pieces of cocoa-nut, etc. Every one receives a
little of this cake on an Ashvatha leaf, and eats it. The ceremony is then
over and the sheaf-cutter mixes with the company. When he was engaged in
cutting the rice no one might touch him.(253) Among the Hindoos of
Southern India the eating of the new rice is the occasion of a family
festival called Pongol. The new rice is boiled in a new pot on a fire
which is kindled at noon on the day when, according to Hindoo astrologers,
the sun enters the tropic of Capricorn. The boiling of the pot is watched
with great anxiety by the whole family, for as the milk boils, so will the
coming year be. If the milk boils rapidly, the year will be prosperous;
but it will be the reverse if the milk boils slowly. Some of the new
boiled rice is offered to the image of Ganesa; then every one partakes of
it.(254) At Gilgit, in the Hindoo Koosh, before wheat-harvest begins, a
member of every household gathers a handful of ears of corn secretly at
dusk. A few of the ears are hung up over the door of the house, and the
rest are roasted next morning, and eaten steeped in milk. The day is spent
in rejoicings, and next morning the harvest begins.(255)

The ceremony of eating the new yams at Onitsha, on the Quorra River,
Guinea, is thus described: “Each headman brought out six yams, and cut
down young branches of palm-leaves and placed them before his gate,
roasted three of the yams, and got some kola-nuts and fish. After the yam
is roasted, the _Libia_, or country doctor, takes the yam, scrapes it with
a sort of meal, and divides it into halves; he then takes one piece, and
places it on the lips of the person who is going to eat the new yam. The
eater then blows up the steam from the hot yam, and afterwards pokes the
whole into his mouth, and says, ‘I thank God for being permitted to eat
the new yam;’ he then begins to chew it heartily, with fish
likewise.”(256) Amongst the Kafirs of Natal and Zululand, no one may eat
of the new fruits till after a festival which marks the beginning of the
Kafir year. All the people assemble at the king’s kraal, where they feast
and dance. Before they separate the “dedication of the people” takes
place. Various fruits of the earth, as corn, mealies, and pumpkins, mixed
with the flesh of a sacrificed animal and with “medicine,” are boiled in
great pots, and a little of this food is placed in each man’s mouth by the
king himself. After thus partaking of the sanctified fruits, a man is
himself sanctified for the whole year, and may immediately get in his
crops.(257)

Amongst the Creek Indians of North America, the _busk_ or festival of
first-fruits was the chief ceremony of the year.(258) It was held in July
or August, when the corn was ripe, and marked the end of the old year and
the beginning of the new one. Before it took place none of the Indians
would eat or even handle any part of the new harvest. Sometimes each town
had its own busk; sometimes several towns united to hold one in common.
Before celebrating the busk, the people provided themselves with new
clothes and new household utensils and furniture; they collected their old
clothes and rubbish, together with all the remaining grain and other old
provisions, cast them together in one common heap, and consumed them with
fire.(259) As a preparation for the ceremony, all the fires in the village
were extinguished, and the ashes swept clean away. In particular, the
hearth or altar of the temple was dug up and the ashes carried out. Then
the chief priest put some roots of the button-snake plant, with some green
tobacco leaves and a little of the new fruits, at the bottom of the
fireplace, which he afterwards ordered to be covered up with white clay,
and wetted over with clean water. A thick arbour of green branches of
young trees was then made over the altar.(260) Meanwhile the women at home
were cleaning out their houses, renewing the old hearths, and scouring all
the cooking vessels that they might be ready to receive the new fire and
the new fruits.(261) The public or sacred square was carefully swept of
even the smallest crumbs of previous feasts, “for fear of polluting the
first-fruit offerings.” Also every vessel that had contained or had been
used about any food during the expiring year was removed from the temple
before sunset. Then all the men who were not known to have violated the
law of the first-fruit offering and that of marriage during the year were
summoned by a crier to enter the holy square and observe a solemn fast.
But the women (except six old ones), the children, and all who had not
attained the rank of warriors were forbidden to enter the square.
Sentinels were also posted at the corners of the square to keep out all
persons deemed impure and all animals. A strict fast was then observed for
two nights and a day, the devotees drinking a bitter decoction of
button-snake root “in order to vomit and purge their sinful bodies.” That
the people outside the square might also be purified, one of the old men
laid down a quantity of green tobacco at a corner of the square; this was
carried off by an old woman and distributed to the people without, who
chewed and swallowed it “in order to afflict their souls.” During this
general fast, the women, children, and men of weak constitution were
allowed to eat after mid-day, but not before. On the morning when the fast
ended, the women brought a quantity of the old year’s food to the outside
of the sacred square. These provisions were then brought in and set before
the famished multitude, but all traces of them had to be removed before
noon. When the sun was declining from the meridian, all the people were
commanded by the voice of a crier to stay within doors, to do no bad act,
and to be sure to extinguish and throw away every spark of the old fire.
Universal silence now reigned. Then the high priest made the new fire by
the friction of two pieces of wood, and placed it on the altar under the
green arbour. This new fire was believed to atone for all past crimes
except murder. Then a basket of new fruits was brought; the high priest
took out a little of each sort of fruit, rubbed it with bear’s oil, and
offered it, together with some flesh, “to the bountiful holy spirit of
fire, as a first-fruit offering, and an annual oblation for sin.” He also
consecrated the sacred emetics (the button-snake root and the cassina or
black-drink) by pouring a little of them into the fire. The persons who
had remained outside now approached, without entering, the sacred square;
and the chief priest thereupon made a speech, exhorting the people to
observe their old rites and customs, announcing that the new divine fire
had purged away the sins of the past year, and earnestly warning the women
that, if any of them had not extinguished the old fire, or had contracted
any impurity, they must forthwith depart, “lest the divine fire should
spoil both them and the people.” Some of the new fire was then laid down
outside the holy square; the women carried it home joyfully, and laid it
on their unpolluted hearths. When several towns had united to celebrate
the festival, the new fire might thus be carried for several miles. The
new fruits were then dressed on the new fires and eaten with bear’s oil,
which was deemed indispensable. At one point of the festival the men
rubbed the new corn between their hands, then on their faces and
breasts.(262) During the festival which followed, the warriors, dressed in
their wild martial array, their heads covered with white down and carrying
white feathers in their hands, danced round the sacred arbour, under which
burned the new fire. The ceremonies lasted eight days, during which the
strictest continence was practised. Towards the conclusion of the festival
the warriors fought a mock battle; then the men and women together, in
three circles, danced round the sacred fire. Lastly, all the people
smeared themselves with white clay and bathed in running water. They came
out of the water “believing themselves out of the reach of temporal evil
for their past vicious conduct.” So they departed in joy and peace.

The solemn preparations thus made for eating the new corn prove that it
was eaten as a sacrament. In the Boeroe and Creek customs, this sacrament
is combined with a sacrifice, and in course of time the sacrifice of
first-fruits tends to throw the sacrament into the shade, if not to
supersede it. The mere fact of having offered the first-fruits to the gods
or ancestral spirits comes now to be thought a sufficient preparation for
eating the new corn; the gods having received their share, man is free to
enjoy the rest. This mode of viewing the new fruits implies that they are
regarded no longer as themselves instinct with divine life, but merely as
a gift bestowed by the gods upon man, who is bound to express his
gratitude and homage to his divine benefactors by presenting them with a
portion of the fruits of the earth. But with sacrifice, as distinct from
sacrament, we are not here concerned.(263)

The custom of eating bread sacramentally as the body of a god was
practised by the Aztecs before the discovery and conquest of Mexico by the
Spaniards. Twice a year, in May and December, an image of the great
Mexican god Huitzilopochtli or Vitzilipuztli was made of dough, then
broken in pieces, and solemnly eaten by his worshippers. The May ceremony
is thus described by the historian Acosta. “Two daies before this feast,
the virgins whereof I have spoken (the which were shut up and secluded in
the same temple and were as it were religious women) did mingle a
quantitie of the seede of beetes with roasted Mays [maize], and then they
did mould it with honie, making an idol of that paste in bignesse like to
that of wood, putting insteede of eyes graines of greene glasse, of blue
or white; and for teeth graines of Mays set forth with all the ornament
and furniture that I have said. This being finished, all the Noblemen came
and brought it an exquisite and rich garment, like unto that of the idol,
wherewith they did attyre it. Being thus clad and deckt, they did set it
in an azured chaire and in a litter to carry it on their shoulders. The
morning of this feast being come, an houre before day all the maidens came
forth attired in white, with new ornaments, the which that day were called
the Sisters of their god Vitzilipuztli, they came crowned with garlands of
Mays rosted and parched, being like unto azahar or the flower of orange;
and about their neckes they had great chaines of the same, which went
bauldricke-wise under their left arme. Their cheekes were died with
vermillion, their armes from the elbow to the wrist were covered with red
parrots’ feathers.” Young men, crowned like the virgins with maize, then
carried the idol in its litter to the foot of the great pyramid-shaped
temple, up the steep and narrow steps of which it was drawn to the music
of flutes, trumpets, cornets, and drums. “While they mounted up the idoll
all the people stoode in the Court with much reverence and feare. Being
mounted to the top, and that they had placed it in a little lodge of roses
which they held readie, presently came the yong men, which strawed many
flowers of sundrie kindes, wherewith they filled the temple both within
and without. This done, all the virgins came out of their convent,
bringing peeces of paste compounded of beetes and rosted Mays, which was
of the same paste whereof their idol was made and compounded, and they
were of the fashion of great bones. They delivered them to the yong men,
who carried them up and laide them at the idoll’s feete, wherewith they
filled the whole place that it could receive no more. They called these
morcells of paste the flesh and bones of Vitzilipuztli.” Then the priests
came in their robes of office, “and putting themselves in order about
these morsells and peeces of paste, they used certaine ceremonies with
singing and dauncing. By means whereof they were blessed and consecrated
for the flesh and bones of this idoll.... The ceremonies, dauncing, and
sacrifice ended, they went to unclothe themselves, and the priests and
superiors of the temple tooke the idoll of paste, which they spoyled of
all the ornaments it had, and made many peeces, as well of the idoll
itselfe as of the tronchons which were consecrated, and then they gave
them to the people in maner of a communion, beginning with the greater,
and continuing unto the rest, both men, women, and little children, who
received it with such teares, feare, and reverence as it was an admirable
thing, saying that they did eate the flesh and bones of God, wherewith
they were grieved. Such as had any sicke folkes demaunded thereof for
them, and carried it with great reverence and veneration.”(264)

Before the festival in December, which took place at the winter solstice,
an image of the god Huitzilopochtli was made of seeds of various sorts
kneaded into a dough with the blood of children. The bones of the god were
represented by pieces of acacia wood, This image was placed on the chief
altar of the temple, and on the day of the festival the king offered
incense to it. Early next day it was taken down and set on its feet in a
great hall. Then a priest took a flint-tipped dart and hurled it into the
breast of the dough-image, piercing it through and through. This was
called “killing the god Huitzilopochtli so that his body might be eaten.”
One of the priests cut out the heart of the image and gave it to the king
to eat. The rest of the image was divided into minute pieces, of which
every man great and small, down to the male children in the cradle,
received one to eat. But no woman might taste a morsel. The ceremony was
called _teoqualo_, that is, “god is eaten.”(265)

At another festival the Mexicans made little images in human shape to
represent the cloud-capped mountains. These images were made of paste of
various seeds and were dressed in paper ornaments. Some people made five,
others ten, others as many as fifteen of these paste images. They were
placed in the oratory of each house and worshipped. Four times in the
course of the night offerings of food were made to them in tiny vessels;
and people sang and played the flute before them all night. At break of
day the priests stabbed the images with a weaver’s instrument, cut off
their heads, and tore out their hearts, which they presented to the master
of the house on a green saucer. The bodies of the images were then eaten
by all the family, especially by the servants, “in order that by eating
them they might be preserved from certain distempers, to which those
persons who were negligent of worship to those deities conceived
themselves to be subject.” (266)

We are now able to suggest an explanation of the proverb “there are many
Manii at Aricia.”(267) Certain loaves made in the shape of men were called
by the Romans _maniae_, and it appears that this kind of loaf was
especially made at Aricia.(268) Now, Mania, the name of one of these
loaves, was also the name of the Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts,(269) to
whom woollen effigies of men and women were dedicated at the festival of
the Compitalia. These effigies were hung at the doors of all the houses in
Rome; one effigy was hung up for every free person in the house, and one
effigy, of a different kind, for every slave. The reason was that on this
day the ghosts of the dead were believed to be going about, and it was
hoped that they would carry off the effigies at the door instead of the
living people in the house. According to tradition, these woollen figures
were substitutes for a former custom of sacrificing human beings.(270)
Upon data so fragmentary and uncertain, it is of course impossible to
build with certainty; but it seems worth suggesting that the loaves in
human form, which appear to have been baked at Aricia, were sacramental
bread, and that in the old days, when the divine King of the Wood was
annually slain, loaves were made in his image, like the paste figures of
the gods in Mexico, and were eaten sacramentally by his worshippers.(271)
The Mexican sacraments in honour of Huitzilopochtli were also accompanied
by the sacrifice of human victims. The tradition that the founder of the
sacred grove at Aricia was a man named Manius, from whom many Manii were
descended, would thus be an etymological myth invented to explain the name
_maniae_ as applied to these sacramental loaves. A dim recollection of the
original connection of these loaves with human sacrifices may perhaps be
traced in the story that the effigies dedicated to Mania at the Compitalia
were substitutes for human victims. The story itself, however, is probably
devoid of foundation, since the practice of putting up dummies to divert
the attention of demons from living people is not uncommon. For example,
when an epidemic is raging, some of the Dyaks of Borneo set up wooden
images at their doors, in the hope that the demons of the plague will be
deceived into carrying off the images instead of the people.(272) The
Minahassa of Celebes will sometimes transport a sick man to another house,
leaving on his bed a dummy made up of a pillow and clothes. This dummy the
demon is supposed to take by mistake for the sick man, who consequently
recovers.(273) Similarly in Burma it is thought that a patient will
recover if an effigy be buried in a small coffin.(274)

The custom of killing the god has now been traced amongst peoples who have
reached the agricultural stage of society. We have seen that the spirit of
the corn, or of other cultivated plants, is commonly represented either in
human or in animal form, and that a custom has prevailed of killing
annually either the human or the animal representative of the god. The
reason for thus killing the corn-spirit in the person of his
representative has been given implicitly in the earlier part of this
chapter. But, further, we have found a widespread custom of eating the god
sacramentally, either in the shape of the man or animal who represents the
god, or in the shape of bread made in human or animal form. The reasons
for thus partaking of the body of the god are, from the primitive
standpoint, simple enough. The savage commonly believes that by eating the
flesh of an animal or man he acquires not only the physical, but even the
moral and intellectual qualities which were characteristic of that animal
or man. To take examples. The Creeks, Cherokees, and kindred tribes of
North American Indians “believe that nature is possessed of such a
property, as to transfuse into men and animals the qualities, either of
the food they use, or of those objects that are presented to their senses;
he who feeds on venison is, according to their physical system, swifter
and more sagacious than the man who lives on the flesh of the clumsy bear,
or helpless dunghill fowls, the slow-footed tame cattle, or the heavy
wallowing swine. This is the reason that several of their old men
recommend, and say, that formerly their greatest chieftains observed a
constant rule in their diet, and seldom ate of any animal of a gross
quality, or heavy motion of body, fancying it conveyed a dulness through
the whole system, and disabled them from exerting themselves with proper
vigour in their martial, civil, and religious duties.”(275) The Zaparo
Indians of South America “will, unless from necessity, in most cases not
eat any heavy meats, such as tapir and peccary, but confine themselves to
birds, monkeys, deer, fish, etc., principally because they argue that the
heavier meats make them unwieldy, like the animals who supply the flesh,
impeding their agility, and unfitting them for the chase.”(276) The
Namaquas abstain from eating the flesh of hares, because they think it
would make them faint-hearted as a hare. But they eat the flesh of the
lion, or drink the blood of the leopard or lion to get the courage and
strength of these beasts.(277) The Arabs of Eastern Africa believe that an
unguent of lion’s fat inspires a man with boldness, and makes the wild
beasts flee in terror before him.(278) When a serious disease has attacked
a Zulu kraal, the medicine-man takes the bone of a very old dog, which has
died a natural death from mere old age, or the bone of an old cow, bull,
or other very old animal, and administers it to the healthy as well as to
the sick people, in order that they may live to be as old as the animal of
whose bone they have partaken.(279) The Miris of Northern India prize
tiger’s flesh as food for men; it gives them strength and courage. But “it
is not suited for women; it would make them too strong-minded.”(280)
Amongst the Dyaks of North-west Borneo young men and warriors may not eat
venison, because it would make them as timid as deer; but the women and
very old men are free to eat it.(281) Men of the Buro and Aru Islands,
East Indies, eat the flesh of dogs in order to be bold and nimble in
war.(282) Amongst the Papuans of the Port Moresby and Motumotu districts,
New Guinea, young lads eat strong pig, wallaby, and large fish, in order
to acquire the strength of the animal or fish.(283) In Corea the bones of
tigers fetch a higher price than those of leopards as a means of inspiring
courage. A Chinaman in Soul bought and ate a whole tiger to make himself
brave and fierce.(284) The special seat of courage, according to the
Chinese, is the gall-bladder; so they sometimes procure the gall-bladders
of tigers and bears, and eat the bile in the belief that it will give them
courage.(285) In Norse history, Ingiald, son of King Aunund, was timid in
his youth, but after eating the heart of a wolf he became very bold; and
Hialto gained strength and courage by eating the heart of a bear and
drinking its blood.(286) In Morocco lethargic patients are given ants to
swallow; and to eat lion’s flesh will make a coward brave.(287) When a
child is late in learning to speak, the Turks of Central Asia will give it
the tongues of certain birds to eat.(288) A North American Indian thought
that brandy must be a decoction of hearts and tongues, “Because,” said he,
“after drinking it I fear nothing, and I talk wonderfully.”(289) The
people of Darfur, in Central Africa, think that the liver is the seat of
the soul, and that a man may enlarge his soul by eating the liver of an
animal. “Whenever an animal is killed its liver is taken out and eaten,
but the people are most careful not to touch it with their hands, as it is
considered sacred; it is cut up in small pieces and eaten raw, the bits
being conveyed to the mouth on the point of a knife, or the sharp point of
a stick. Any one who may accidentally touch the liver is strictly
forbidden to partake of it, which prohibition is regarded as a great
misfortune for him.” Women are not allowed to eat liver, because they have
no soul.(290)

Again, the flesh and blood of brave men are commonly eaten and drunk to
inspire bravery. The Australian Kamilaroi eat the heart and liver of a
brave man to get his courage.(291) It is a common practice with the
Australian blacks to kill a man, cut out his caul-fat, and rub themselves
with it, “the belief being that all the qualifications, both physical and
mental, of the previous owner of the fat were thus communicated to him who
used it.”(292) The Italones of the Philippine Islands drink the blood of
their slain enemies, and eat part of the back of their heads and of their
entrails raw, in order to acquire their courage. For the same reason the
Efugaos, another tribe of the Philippines, suck the brains of their
foes.(293) Amongst the Kimbunda of Western Africa, when a new king
succeeds to the throne, a brave prisoner of war is killed in order that
the king and nobles may eat his flesh, and so acquire his strength and
courage.(294) The Basutos cut off pieces of their slain enemies and make
them into a powder, “which is supposed to communicate to them the courage,
skill, and good fortune of their adversaries.”(295) The Zulus think that
by eating the centre of the forehead and the eyebrow of an enemy they
acquire the power of looking steadfastly at a foe.(296) In the Shire
Highlands of Africa those who kill a brave man eat his heart to get his
courage.(297) For the same purpose the Chinese eat the bile of notorious
bandits who have been executed.(298) In New Zealand “the chief was an atua
[god], but there were powerful and powerless gods; each naturally sought
to make himself one of the former; the plan therefore adopted was to
incorporate the spirits of others with their own; thus, when a warrior
slew a chief he immediately gouged out his eyes and swallowed them, the
_atua tonga_, or divinity, being supposed to reside in that organ; thus he
not only killed the body, but also possessed himself of the soul of his
enemy, and consequently the more chiefs he slew the greater did his
divinity become.”(299)

It is now easy to understand why a savage should desire to partake of the
flesh of an animal or man whom he regards as divine. By eating the body of
the god he shares in the god’s attributes and powers. And when the god is
a corn-god, the corn is his proper body; when he is a vine-god, the juice
of the grape is his blood; and so by eating the bread and drinking the
wine the worshipper partakes of the real body and blood of his god. Thus
the drinking of wine in the rites of a vine-god like Dionysus is not an
act of revelry, it is a solemn sacrament.(300)

§ 12.—Killing the divine animal.

It remains to show that hunting and pastoral tribes, as well as
agricultural peoples, have been in the habit of killing their gods. The
gods whom hunters and shepherds adore and kill are animals pure and
simple, not animals regarded as embodiments of other supernatural beings.
Our first example is drawn from the Indians of California, who, living in
a fertile country(301) under a serene and temperate sky, nevertheless rank
near the bottom of the savage scale. The Acagchemen tribe of San Juan
Capistrano adored the great buzzard. Once a year, at a great festival
called _Panes_ or bird-feast, they carried one of these birds in
procession to their chief temple, which seems to have been merely an
unroofed enclosure of stakes. Here they killed the bird without losing a
drop of its blood. The skin was removed entire and preserved with the
feathers as a relic or for the purpose of making the festal garment or
_paelt_. The carcass was buried in a hole in the temple, and the old women
gathered round the grave weeping and moaning bitterly, while they threw
various kinds of seeds or pieces of food on it, crying out, “Why did you
run away? Would you not have been better with us?” and so on. They said
that the Panes was a woman who had run off to the mountains and there been
changed into a bird by the god Chinigchinich. They believed that though
they sacrificed the bird annually, she came to life again and returned to
her home in the mountains. Moreover they thought that “as often as the
bird was killed, it became multiplied; because every year all the
different Capitanes celebrated the same feast of the Panes, and were firm
in the opinion that the birds sacrificed were but one and the same
female.”(302)

The unity in multiplicity thus postulated by the Californians is very
noticeable and helps to explain their motive for killing the divine bird.
The notion of the life of a species as distinct from that of an
individual, easy and obvious as it seems to us, appears to be one which
the Californian savage cannot grasp. He is unable to conceive the life of
the species otherwise than as an individual life, and therefore as exposed
to the same dangers and calamities which menace and finally destroy the
life of the individual. Apparently he thinks that a species left to itself
will grow old and die like an individual, and that therefore some step
must be taken to save from extinction the particular species which he
regards as divine. The only means he can think of to avert the catastrophe
is to kill a member of the species in whose veins the tide of life is
still running strong and has not yet stagnated among the fens of old age.
The life thus diverted from one channel will flow, he fancies, more
freshly and freely in a new one; in other words, the slain animal will
revive and enter on a new term of life with all the spring and energy of
youth. To us this reasoning is transparently absurd, but so too is the
custom. If a better explanation, that is, one more consonant with the
facts and with the principles of savage thought, can be given of the
custom, I will willingly withdraw the one here proposed. A similar
confusion, it may be noted, between the individual life and the life of
the species was made by the Samoans. Each family had for its god a
particular species of animal; yet the death of one of these animals, for
example an owl, was not the death of the god, “he was supposed to be yet
alive, and incarnate in all the owls in existence.”(303)

The rude Californian rite which we have just considered has a close
parallel in the religion of ancient Egypt. The Thebans and all other
Egyptians who worshipped the Theban god Ammon held rams to be sacred and
would not sacrifice them. But once a year at the festival of Ammon they
killed a ram, skinned it, and clothed the image of the god in the skin.
Then they mourned over the ram and buried it in a sacred tomb. The custom
was explained by a story that Zeus had once exhibited himself to Hercules
clad in the fleece and wearing the head of a ram.(304) Of course the ram
in this case was simply the beast-god of Thebes, as the wolf was the
beast-god of Lycopolis, and the goat was the beast-god of Mendes. In other
words, the ram was Ammon himself. On the monuments, it is true, Ammon
appears in semi-human form with the body of a man and the head of a
ram.(305) But this only shows that he was in the usual chrysalis state
through which beast-gods regularly pass before they emerge as full-fledged
anthropomorphic gods. The ram, therefore, was killed, not as a sacrifice
to Ammon, but as the god himself, whose identity with the beast is plainly
shown by the custom of clothing his image in the skin of the slain ram.
The reason for thus killing the ram-god annually may have been that which
I have assigned for the general custom of killing the god and for the
special Californian custom of killing the divine buzzard. As applied to
Egypt, this explanation is supported by the analogy of the bull-god Apis,
who was not suffered to outlive a certain term of years.(306) The
intention of thus putting a limit to the life of the god was, as I have
argued, to secure him from the weakness and frailty of age. The same
reasoning would explain the custom—probably an older one—of putting the
beast-god to death annually, as was done with the ram of Thebes.

One point in the Theban ritual—the application of the skin to the image of
the god—deserves special attention. If the god was at first the living
ram, his representation by an image must have originated later. But how
did it originate? The answer to this question is perhaps furnished by the
practice of preserving the skin of the animal which is slain as divine.
The Californians, as we have seen, preserved the skin of the buzzard; and
the skin of the goat, which is killed on the harvest-field as a
representative of the corn-spirit, is kept for various superstitious
purposes.(307) The skin in fact was kept as a token or memorial of the
god, or rather as containing in it a part of the divine life, and it had
only to be stuffed or stretched upon a frame to become a regular image of
him. At first an image of this kind would be renewed annually,(308) the
new image being provided by the skin of the slain animal. But from annual
images to permanent images the transition is easy. We have seen that the
older custom of cutting a new May-tree every year was superseded by the
practice of maintaining a permanent May-pole, which was, however, annually
decked with fresh leaves and flowers and even surmounted each year by a
fresh young tree.(309) Similarly when the stuffed skin, as a
representative of the god, was replaced by a permanent image of him in
wood, stone, or metal, the permanent image was annually clad in the fresh
skin of the slain animal. When this stage had been reached, the custom of
killing the ram came naturally to be interpreted as a sacrifice offered to
the image, and was explained by a story like that of Ammon and Hercules.

West Africa furnishes another example of the annual killing of a sacred
animal and the preservation of its skin. The negroes of Issapoo, in the
island of Fernando Po, regard the cobra-capella as their guardian deity,
who can do them good or ill, bestow riches or inflict disease and death.
The skin of one of these reptiles is hung tail downwards from a branch of
the highest tree in the public square, and the placing of it on the tree
is an annual ceremony. As soon as the ceremony is over, all children born
within the past year are carried out and their hands made to touch the
tail of the serpent’s skin.(310) The latter custom is clearly a way of
placing the infants under the protection of the tribal god. Similarly in
Senegambia a python is expected to visit every child of the Python clan
within eight days after birth;(311) and the Psylli, a Snake clan of
ancient Africa, used to expose their infants to snakes in the belief that
the snakes would not harm true-born children of the clan.(312)

In the Californian, Egyptian, and Fernando Po customs the animal slain
probably is, or once was, a totem. At all events, in all three cases the
worship of the animal seems to have no relation to agriculture, and may
therefore be presumed to date from the hunter or pastoral stage of
society. The same may be said of the following custom, though the people
who practise it—the Zuni Indians of New Mexico—are now settled in walled
villages or towns of a peculiar type, and practise agriculture and the
arts of pottery and weaving. But the Zuni custom is marked by certain
features which appear to place it in a somewhat different category from
the preceding cases. It may be well therefore to describe it at full
length in the words of an eye-witness.

“With midsummer the heat became intense. My brother [_i.e._ adopted Indian
brother] and I sat, day after day, in the cool under-rooms of our
house,—the latter [_sic_] busy with his quaint forge and crude appliances,
working Mexican coins over into bangles, girdles, ear-rings, buttons, and
what not for savage ornament.... One day as I sat watching him, a
procession of fifty men went hastily down the hill, and off westward over
the plain. They were solemnly led by a painted and shell-bedecked priest,
and followed by the torch-bearing Shu-lu-wit-si, or God of Fire. After
they had vanished, I asked old brother what it all meant.

“ ‘They are going,’ said he, ‘to the city of the Ka-ka and the home of our
others.’

“Four days after, toward sunset, costumed and masked in the beautiful
paraphernalia of the Ka-k’ok-shi, or ‘Good Dance,’ they returned in file
up the same pathway, each bearing in his arms a basket filled with living,
squirming turtles, which he regarded and carried as tenderly as a mother
would her infant. Some of the wretched reptiles were carefully wrapped in
soft blankets, their heads and forefeet protruding,—and, mounted on the
backs of the plume-bedecked pilgrims, made ludicrous but solemn
caricatures of little children in the same position. While I was at supper
upstairs that evening, the governor’s brother-in-law came in. He was
welcomed by the family as if a messenger from heaven. He bore in his
tremulous fingers one of the much abused and rebellious turtles. Paint
still adhered to his hands and bare feet, which led me to infer that he
had formed one of the sacred embassy.

“ ‘So you went to Ka-thlu-el-lon, did you?’ I asked.

“ ‘E’e,’ replied the weary man, in a voice husky with long chanting, as he
sank, almost exhausted, on a roll of skins which had been placed for him,
and tenderly laid the turtle on the floor. No sooner did the creature find
itself at liberty than it made off as fast as its lame legs would take it.
Of one accord the family forsook dish, spoon, and drinking-cup, and
grabbing from a sacred meal-bowl whole handfuls of the contents, hurriedly
followed the turtle about the room, into dark corners, around water-jars,
behind the grinding-troughs, and out into the middle of the floor again,
praying and scattering meal on its back as they went. At last, strange to
say, it approached the footsore man who had brought it.

“ ‘Ha!’ he exclaimed, with emotion; ‘see, it comes to me again; ah, what
great favours the fathers of all grant me this day,’ and passing his hand
gently over the sprawling animal, he inhaled from his palm deeply and
long, at the same time invoking the favour of the gods. Then he leaned his
chin upon his hand, and with large wistful eyes regarded his ugly captive
as it sprawled about, blinking its meal-bedimmed eyes, and clawing the
smooth floor in memory of its native element. At this juncture I ventured
a question:

“ ‘Why do you not let him go, or give him some water?’

“Slowly the man turned his eyes toward me, an odd mixture of pain,
indignation, and pity on his face, while the worshipful family stared at
me with holy horror.

“ ‘Poor younger brother!’ he said at last, ‘know you not how precious it
is? It die? It will _not_ die; I tell you, it cannot die.’

“ ‘But it will die if you don’t feed it and give it water.’

“ ‘I tell you it _cannot_ die; it will only change houses to-morrow, and
go back to the home of its brothers. Ah, well! How should _you_ know?’ he
mused. Turning to the blinded turtle again: ‘Ah! my poor dear lost child
or parent, my sister or brother to have been! Who knows which? Maybe my
own great-grandfather or mother!’ And with this he fell to weeping most
pathetically, and, tremulous with sobs, which were echoed by the women and
children, he buried his face in his hands. Filled with sympathy for his
grief, however mistaken, I raised the turtle to my lips and kissed its
cold shell; then depositing it on the floor, hastily left the
grief-stricken family to their sorrows. Next day, with prayers and tender
beseechings, plumes, and offerings, the poor turtle was killed, and its
flesh and bones were removed and deposited in the little river, that it
might ‘return once more to eternal life among its comrades in the dark
waters of the lake of the dead.’ The shell, carefully scraped and dried,
was made into a dance-rattle, and, covered by a piece of buckskin, it
still hangs from the smoke-stained rafters of my brother’s house. Once a
Navajo tried to buy it for a ladle; loaded with indignant reproaches, he
was turned out of the house. Were any one to venture the suggestion that
the turtle no longer lived, his remark would cause a flood of tears, and
he would be reminded that it had only ‘changed houses and gone to live for
ever in the home of “our lost others.” ’ ”(313)

In this custom we find expressed in the clearest way a belief in the
transmigration of human souls into the bodies of turtles.(314) The same
belief in transmigration is held by the Moqui Indians, who belong to the
same race as the Zunis. The Moquis are divided into totem clans—the Bear
clan, Deer clan, Wolf clan, Hare clan, etc.; they believe that the
ancestors of the clans were bears, deer, wolves, hares, etc.; and that at
death the members of each clan become bears, deer, etc.(315) The Zuni are
also divided into clans, the totems of which agree closely with those of
the Moquis, and one of their totems is the turtle.(316) Thus their belief
in transmigration into the turtle is probably one of the regular articles
of their totem faith. What then is the meaning of killing a turtle in
which the soul of a kinsman is believed to be present? Apparently the
object is to keep up a communication with the other world in which the
souls of the departed are believed to be assembled in the form of turtles.
It is a common belief that the spirits of the dead return occasionally to
their old homes; and accordingly the unseen visitors are welcomed and
feasted by the living, and then sent upon their way.(317) In the Zuni
ceremony the dead are fetched back in the form of turtles, and the killing
of the turtles is the way of sending back the souls to the spirit-land.
Thus the general explanation given above of the custom of killing a god
seems inapplicable to the Zuni custom, the true meaning of which is
somewhat obscure.

Doubt also hangs over the meaning of the bear-sacrifice offered by the
Ainos, a primitive people who are found in the Japanese islands of Yesso
and Saghalien, and also in the southern of the Kurile Islands. It is not
quite easy to make out the attitude of the Ainos towards the bear. On the
one hand they give it the name of _Kamui_ or “god”; but as they apply the
same word to strangers,(318) it probably means no more than a being
supposed to be endowed with superhuman powers. Again, it is said “the bear
is their chief divinity;”(319) “in the religion of the Ainos the bear
plays a chief part;”(320) “amongst the animals it is especially the bear
which receives an idolatrous veneration;”(321) “they worship it after
their fashion.... There is no doubt that this wild beast inspires more of
the feeling which prompts worship than the inanimate forces of nature, and
the Ainos may be distinguished as bear-worshippers.”(322) Yet, on the
other hand, they kill the bear whenever they can;(323) “the men spend the
autumn, winter, and spring in hunting deer and bears. Part of their
tribute or taxes is paid in skins, and they subsist on the dried
meat;”(324) bear’s flesh is indeed one of their staple foods; they eat it
both fresh and salted;(325) and the skins of bears furnish them with
clothing.(326) In fact, the “worship” of which writers on this subject
speak appears to be paid only to the dead animal. Thus, although they kill
a bear whenever they can, “in the process of dissecting the carcass they
endeavour to conciliate the deity, whose representative they have slain,
by making elaborate obeisances and deprecatory salutations;”(327) “when a
bear is trapped or wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an
apologetic or propitiatory ceremony.”(328) The skulls of slain bears
receive a place of honour in their huts, or are set up on sacred posts
outside the huts, and are treated with much respect; libations of _sake_,
an intoxicating liquor, are offered to them.(329) The skulls of foxes are
also fastened to the sacred posts outside the huts; they are regarded as
charms against evil spirits, and are consulted as oracles.(330) Yet it is
expressly said, “The live fox is revered just as little as the bear;
rather they avoid it as much as possible, considering it a wily
animal.”(331) The bear cannot, therefore, be described as a sacred animal
of the Ainos, and it certainly is not a totem; for they do not call
themselves bears, they appear to have no legend of their descent from a
bear,(332) and they kill and eat the animal freely.

But it is the bear-festival of the Ainos which concerns us here. Towards
the end of winter a young bear is caught and brought into the village. At
first he is suckled by an Aino woman; afterwards he is fed on fish. When
he grows so strong that he threatens to break out of the wooden cage in
which he is confined, the feast is held. But “it is a peculiarly striking
fact that the young bear is not kept merely to furnish a good meal; rather
he is regarded and honoured as a fetish, or even as a sort of higher
being.”(333) The festival is generally celebrated in September or October.
Before it takes place the Ainos apologise to their gods, alleging that
they have treated the bear kindly as long as they could, now they can feed
him no longer, and are obliged to kill him. A man who gives a bear-feast
invites his relations and friends; in a small village nearly the whole
community takes part in the feast. One of these festivals has been
described by an eyewitness, Dr. Scheube.(334) On entering the hut he found
about thirty Ainos present, men, women, and children, all dressed in their
best. The master of the house first offered a libation on the fireplace to
the god of the fire, and the guests followed his example. Then a libation
was offered to the house-god in his sacred corner of the hut. Meanwhile
the housewife, who had nursed the bear, sat by herself, silent and sad,
bursting now and then into tears. Her grief was obviously unaffected, and
it deepened as the festival went on. Next, the master of the house and
some of the guests went out of the hut and offered libations before the
bear’s cage. A few drops were presented to the bear in a saucer, which he
at once upset. Then the women and girls danced round the cage, their faces
turned towards it, their knees slightly bent, rising and hopping on their
toes. As they danced they clapped their hands and sang a monotonous song.
The housewife and a few old women, who might have nursed many bears,
danced tearfully, stretching out their arms to the bear, and addressing it
in terms of endearment. The young folks were less affected; they laughed
as well as sang. Disturbed by the noise, the bear began to rush about his
cage and howl lamentably. Next libations were offered to the _inabos_ or
sacred wands which stand outside of an Aino hut. These wands are about a
couple of feet high, and are whittled at the top into spiral
shavings.(335) Five new wands with bamboo leaves attached to them had been
set up for the festival. This is regularly done when a bear is killed; the
leaves mean that the bear may come to life again. Then the bear was let
out of his cage, a rope was thrown round his neck, and he was led about in
the neighbourhood of the hut. While this was being done the men, headed by
a chief, shot at the bear with arrows tipped with wooden buttons. Dr.
Scheube had to do so also. Then the bear was taken before the sacred
wands, a stick was put in his mouth, nine men knelt on him and pressed his
neck against a beam. In five minutes the bear had expired without uttering
a sound. Meantime the women and girls had taken post behind the men, where
they danced, lamenting, and beating the men who were killing the bear. The
bear’s carcass was next placed on a mat before the sacred wands; and a
sword and quiver, taken from the wands, were hung round the beast’s neck.
Being a she-bear, it was also adorned with a necklace and ear-rings. Then
food and drink were offered to it, in the shape of millet-broth,
millet-cakes, and a pot of _sake_. The men now sat down on mats before the
dead bear, offered libations to it, and drank deep. Meanwhile the women
and girls had laid aside all marks of sorrow, and danced merrily, none
more merrily than the old women. When the mirth was at its height two
young Ainos, who had let the bear out of his cage, mounted the roof of the
hut and threw cakes of millet among the company, who all scrambled for
them without distinction of age or sex. The bear was next skinned and
disembowelled, and the trunk severed from the head, to which the skin was
left hanging. The blood, caught in cups, was eagerly swallowed by the men.
None of the women or children appeared to drink the blood, though custom
did not forbid them to do so. The liver was cut in small pieces and eaten
raw, with salt, the women and children getting their share. The flesh and
the rest of the vitals were taken into the house to be kept till the next
day but one, and then to be divided among the persons who had been present
at the feast. Blood and liver were offered to Dr. Scheube. While the bear
was being disembowelled, the women and girls danced the same dance which
they had danced at the beginning—not, however, round the cage, but in
front of the sacred wands. At this dance the old women, who had been merry
a moment before, again shed tears freely. After the brain had been
extracted from the bear’s head and swallowed with salt, the skull,
detached from the skin, was hung on a pole beside the sacred wands. The
stick with which the bear had been gagged was also fastened to the pole,
and so were the sword and quiver which had been hung on the carcass. The
latter were removed in about an hour, but the rest remained standing. The
whole company, men and women, danced noisily before the pole; and another
drinking-bout, in which the women joined, closed the festival.

The mode of killing the bear is described somewhat differently by Miss
Bird, who, however, did not witness the ceremony. She says: “Yells and
shouts are used to excite the bear; and when he becomes much agitated a
chief shoots him with an arrow, inflicting a slight wound which maddens
him, on which the bars of the cage are raised, and he springs forth, very
furious. At this stage the Ainos run upon him with various weapons, each
one striving to inflict a wound, as it brings good luck to draw his blood.
As soon as he falls down exhausted his head is cut off, and the weapons
with which he has been wounded are offered to it, and he is asked to
avenge himself upon them.” At Usu, on Volcano Bay, when the bear is being
killed, the Ainos shout, “We kill you, O bear! come back soon into an
Aino.”(336) A very respectable authority, Dr. Siebold, states that the
bear’s own heart is frequently offered to the dead animal, in order to
assure him that he is still in life.(337) This, however, is denied by Dr.
Scheube, who says the heart is eaten.(338) Perhaps the custom may be
observed in some places, though not in others.

The Gilyaks, a Tunguzian people of Eastern Siberia,(339) hold a bear
festival of the same sort. “The bear is the object of the most refined
solicitude of an entire village and plays the chief part in their
religious ceremonies.”(340) An old she-bear is shot and her cub is reared,
but not suckled in the village. When the bear is big enough he is taken
from his cage and dragged through the village. But first he is led to the
bank of the river, for this is believed to ensure abundance of fish to
each family. He is then taken into every house in the village, where fish,
brandy, etc. are offered to him. Some people prostrate themselves before
the beast. His entrance into a house is supposed to bring a blessing; and
if he snuffs at the food offered to him, this also is a blessing.
Nevertheless they tease and worry, poke and tickle the animal continually,
so that he is surly and snappish.(341) After being thus taken to every
house, he is tied to a peg and shot dead with arrows. His head is then cut
off, decked with shavings, and placed on the table where the feast is set
out. Here they beg pardon of the beast and worship him. Then his flesh is
roasted and eaten in special vessels of wood finely carved. They do not
eat the flesh raw nor drink the blood, as the Ainos do. The brain and
entrails are eaten last; and the skull, still decked with shavings, is
placed on a tree near the house. Then the people sing and both sexes dance
in ranks, as bears.(342)

The Goldi, neighbours of the Gilyaks, treat the bear in much the same way.
They hunt and kill it; but sometimes they capture a live bear and keep him
in a cage, feeding him well and calling him their son and brother. Then at
a great festival he is taken from his cage, paraded about with marked
consideration, and afterwards killed and eaten. “The skull, jaw-bones, and
ears are then suspended on a tree, as an antidote against evil spirits;
but the flesh is eaten and much relished, for they believe that all who
partake of it acquire a zest for the chase, and become courageous.”(343)

In the treatment of the captive bear by these tribes there are features
which can hardly be distinguished from worship. Such in particular is the
Gilyak custom of leading him from house to house, that every family may
receive his blessing—a custom parallel to the European one of taking a
May-tree or a personal representative of the tree-spirit from door to door
in spring, in order that all may share the fresh energies of reviving
nature. Again the expected resurrection of the bear is avowedly indicated
by the bamboo leaves and by the prayer addressed to him to “come back soon
into an Aino.” And that the eating of his flesh is regarded as a sacrament
is made probable by the Gilyak custom of reserving special vessels to hold
the bear’s flesh on this solemn occasion. How is the reverence thus paid
to particular bears to be reconciled with the fact that bears in general
are habitually hunted and killed by these tribes for the sake of their
flesh and skins? On the one hand, the bear is treated as a god; on the
other hand, as a creature wholly subservient to human needs. The apparent
contradiction vanishes when we place ourselves at the savage point of
view. The savage, we must remember, believes that animals are endowed with
feelings and intelligence like those of men, and that, like men, they
possess souls which survive the death of their bodies either to wander
about as disembodied spirits or to be born again in animal form. To the
savage, therefore, who regards all living creatures as practically on a
footing of equality with man,(344) the act of killing and eating an animal
must wear a very different aspect from that which the same act presents to
us who regard the intelligence of animals as far inferior to our own and
deny them the possession of immortal souls. Thus on the principles of his
rude philosophy the savage who slays an animal believes himself exposed to
the vengeance either of its disembodied spirit or of all the other animals
of the same species, whom he considers as knit together, like men, by the
ties of kin and the obligations of the blood feud, and therefore as bound
to resent the injury done to one of their number. Accordingly the savage
makes it a rule to spare the life of those animals which he has no
pressing motive for killing, at least such fierce and dangerous animals as
are likely to exact a bloody vengeance for the slaughter of one of their
kind. Crocodiles are animals of this sort. They are only found in hot
countries where, as a rule, food is abundant and primitive man has
therefore no reason to kill them for the sake of their tough and
unpalatable flesh. Hence it is a general rule among savages to spare
crocodiles, or rather only to kill them in obedience to the law of blood
feud, that is, as a retaliation for the slaughter of men by crocodiles.
For example, the Dyaks of Borneo will not kill a crocodile unless a
crocodile has first killed a man. “For why, say they, should they commit
an act of aggression, when he and his kindred can so easily repay them?
But should the alligator take a human life, revenge becomes a sacred duty
of the living relatives, who will trap the man-eater in the spirit of an
officer of justice pursuing a criminal. Others, even then, hang back,
reluctant to embroil themselves in a quarrel which does not concern them.
The man-eating alligator is supposed to be pursued by a righteous Nemesis;
and whenever one is caught they have a profound conviction that it must be
the guilty one, or his accomplice.”(345) So the natives of Madagascar
never kill a crocodile “except in retaliation for one of their friends who
has been destroyed by a crocodile. They believe that the wanton
destruction of one of these reptiles will be followed by the loss of human
life, in accordance with the principle of _lex talionis_.” The people who
live near the lake Itasy in Madagascar make a yearly proclamation to the
crocodiles, announcing that they will revenge the death of some of their
friends by killing as many crocodiles in return and warning all
well-disposed crocodiles to keep out of the way, as they have no quarrel
with them, but only with their evil-minded relations who have taken human
life.(346) The Foulahs of Senegambia respect crocodiles on similar
grounds.(347) The Seminoles, Sioux, and Iowa Indians of North America
spare the rattle-snake because they fear that the ghost of the dead
rattle-snake would incite its kinsfolk to take vengeance.(348) No
consideration will induce a Sumatran to catch or wound a tiger except in
self-defence or immediately after the tiger has destroyed a friend or
relation. When a European has set traps for tigers, the people of the
neighbourhood have been known to go by night to the place and explain to
the tiger that the traps are not set by them nor with their consent.(349)

But the savage clearly cannot afford to spare all animals. He must either
eat some of them or starve, and when the question thus comes to be whether
he or the animal must perish, he is forced to overcome his superstitious
scruples and take the life of the beast. At the same time he does all he
can to appease his victims and their kinsfolk. Even in the act of killing
them he testifies his respect for them, endeavours to excuse or even
conceal his share in procuring their death, and promises that their
remains will be honourably treated. By thus robbing death of its terrors
he hopes to reconcile his victims to their fate and to induce their
fellows to come and be killed also. For example, it was a principle with
the Kamtchatkans never to kill a land or sea animal without first making
excuses to it and begging that the animal would not take it ill. Also they
offered it cedar-nuts, etc. to make it think that it was not a victim but
a guest at a feast. They believed that this prevented other animals of the
same species from growing shy. For instance, after they had killed a bear
and feasted on its flesh, the host would bring the bear’s head before the
company, wrap it in grass, and present it with a variety of trifles. Then
he would lay the blame of the bear’s death on the Russians, and bid the
beast wreak his wrath upon them. Also he would ask the bear to tell the
other bears how well he had been treated, that they too might come without
fear. Seals, sea-lions, and other animals were treated by the Kamtchatkans
with the same ceremonious respect.(350) When the Ostiaks have hunted and
killed a bear, they cut off its head and hang it on a tree. Then they
gather round in a circle and pay it divine honours. Next they run towards
the carcass uttering lamentations and saying, “Who killed you? It was the
Russians. Who cut off your head? It was a Russian axe. Who skinned you? It
was a knife made by a Russian.” They explain, too, that the feathers which
sped the arrow on its flight came from the wing of a strange bird, and
that they did nothing but let the arrow go. They do all this because they
believe that the wandering ghost of the slain bear would attack them on
the first opportunity, if they did not thus appease it.(351) Or they stuff
the skin of the slain bear with hay; and after celebrating their victory
with songs of mockery and insult, after spitting on and kicking it, they
set it up on its hind legs, “and then, for a considerable time, they
bestow on it all the veneration due to a guardian god.”(352) When a party
of Koriaks have killed a bear or a wolf, they skin the beast and dress one
of themselves in the skin. Then they dance round the skin-clad man, saying
that it was not they who killed the animal, but some one else, generally a
Russian. When they kill a fox they skin it, wrap the body in grass, and
bid him go tell his companions how hospitably he has been received, and
how he has received a new cloak instead of his old one.(353) The Finns
used to try to persuade a slain bear that he had not been killed by them,
but had fallen from a tree, etc.(354) When the Lapps had succeeded in
killing a bear with impunity, they thanked him for not hurting them and
for not breaking the clubs and spears which had given him his death
wounds; and they prayed that he would not visit his death upon them by
sending storms or in any other way.(355) His flesh then furnished a feast.

The reverence of hunters for the bear whom they regularly kill and eat may
thus be traced all along the northern region of the Old World, from
Behring’s Straits to Lappland. It reappears in similar forms in North
America. With the American Indians a bear hunt was an important event for
which they prepared by long fasts and purgations. Before setting out they
offered expiatory sacrifices to the souls of bears slain in previous
hunts, and besought them to be favourable to the hunters. When a bear was
killed the hunter lit his pipe, and putting the mouth of it between the
bear’s lips, blew into the bowl, filling the beast’s mouth with smoke.
Then he begged the bear not to be angry at having been killed, and not to
thwart him afterwards in the chase. The carcass was roasted whole and
eaten; not a morsel of the flesh might be left over. The head, painted red
and blue, was hung on a post and addressed by orators, who heaped praise
on the dead beast.(356) When men of the Bear clan in the Otawa tribe
killed a bear, they made him a feast of his own flesh, and addressed him
thus: “Cherish us no grudge because we have killed you. You have sense;
you see that our children are hungry. They love you and wish to take you
into their bodies. Is it not glorious to be eaten by the children of a
chief?”(357) Amongst the Nootka Indians of British Columbia, when a bear
had been killed, it was brought in and seated before the head chief in an
upright posture, with a chief’s bonnet, wrought in figures, on its head,
and its fur powdered over with white down. A tray of provisions was then
set before it, and it was invited by words and gestures to eat. The animal
was then skinned, boiled, and eaten.(358)

A like respect is testified for other dangerous animals by the hunters who
regularly trap and kill them. When Kafir hunters are in the act of
showering spears on an elephant, they call out, “Don’t kill us, great
captain; don’t strike or tread upon us, mighty chief.”(359) When he is
dead they make their excuses to him, pretending that his death was a pure
accident. As a mark of respect they bury his trunk with much solemn
ceremony; for they say that “The elephant is a great lord; his trunk is
his hand.”(360) Amongst some tribes of Eastern Africa, when a lion is
killed, the carcass is brought before the king, who does homage to it by
prostrating himself on the ground and rubbing his face on the muzzle of
the beast.(361) In some parts of Western Africa if a negro kills a leopard
he is bound fast and brought before the chiefs for having killed one of
their peers. The man defends himself on the plea that the leopard is chief
of the forest and therefore a stranger. He is then set at liberty and
rewarded. But the dead leopard, adorned with a chief’s bonnet, is set up
in the village, where nightly dances are held in its honour.(362) “Before
leaving a temporary camp in the forest, where they have killed a tapir and
dried the meat on a babracot, Indians [of Guiana] invariably destroy this
babracot, saying that should a tapir passing that way find traces of the
slaughter of one of his kind, he would come by night on the next occasion
when Indians slept at that place, and, taking a man, would babracot him in
revenge.”(363)

But it is not merely dangerous animals with whom the savage desires to
keep on good terms. It is true that the respect which he pays to wild
beasts is in some measure proportioned to their strength and ferocity.
Thus the savage Stiens of Cambodia, believing that all animals have souls
which roam about after their death, beg an animal’s pardon when they kill
it, lest its soul should come and torment them. Also they offer it
sacrifices, but these sacrifices are proportioned to the size and strength
of the animal. The ceremonies observed at the death of an elephant are
conducted with much pomp and last seven days.(364) Similar distinctions
are drawn by North American Indians. “The bear, the buffalo, and the
beaver are manidos [divinities] which furnish food. The bear is
formidable, and good to eat. They render ceremonies to him, begging him to
allow himself to be eaten, although they know he has no fancy for it. We
kill you, but you are not annihilated. His head and paws are objects of
homage.... Other animals are treated similarly from similar reasons....
Many of the animal manidos, not being dangerous, are often treated with
contempt—the terrapin, the weasel, polecat, etc.”(365) The distinction is
instructive. Animals which are feared, or are good to eat, or both, are
treated with ceremonious respect; those which are neither formidable nor
good to eat are despised. We have had examples of reverence paid to
animals which are both feared and eaten. It remains to prove that similar
respect is shown for animals which, without being feared, are either eaten
or valued for their skins.

When Siberian sable-hunters have caught a sable, no one is allowed to see
it, and they think that if good or evil be spoken of the captured sable,
no more sables will be caught. A hunter has been known to express his
belief that the sables could hear what was said of them as far off as
Moscow. He said that the chief reason why the sable hunt was now so
unproductive was that some live sables had been sent to Moscow. There they
had been viewed with astonishment as strange animals, and the sables
cannot abide that. Another, though minor, cause of the diminished take of
sable was, he alleged, that the world is now much worse than it used to
be, so that nowadays a hunter will sometimes hide the sable which he has
got instead of putting it into the common stock. This also, said he, the
sables cannot abide.(366) Alaskan hunters preserve the bones of sables and
beavers out of reach of the dogs for a year and then bury them carefully,
“lest the spirits who look after the beavers and sables should consider
that they are regarded with contempt, and hence no more should be killed
or trapped.”(367) The Canadian Indians were equally particular not to let
their dogs gnaw the bones, or at least certain of the bones, of beavers.
They took the greatest pains to collect and preserve these bones and, when
the beaver had been caught in a net, they threw them into the river. To a
Jesuit who argued that the beavers could not possibly know what became of
their bones, the Indians replied, “You know nothing about catching beavers
and yet you will be talking about it. Before the beaver is stone dead, his
soul takes a turn in the hut of the man who is killing him and makes a
careful note of what is done with his bones. If the bones are given to the
dogs, the other beavers would get word of it and would not let themselves
be caught. Whereas, if their bones are thrown into the fire or a river,
they are quite satisfied; and it is particularly gratifying to the net
which caught them.”(368) Before hunting the beaver they offered a solemn
prayer to the Great Beaver, and presented him with tobacco; and when the
chase was over, an orator pronounced a funeral oration over the dead
beavers. He praised their spirit and wisdom. “You will hear no more,” said
he, “the voice of the chieftains who commanded you and whom you chose from
among all the warrior beavers to give you laws. Your language, which the
medicine-men understand perfectly, will be heard no more at the bottom of
the lake. You will fight no more battles with the otters, your cruel foes.
No, beavers! But your skins shall serve to buy arms; we will carry your
smoked hams to our children; we will keep the dogs from eating your bones,
which are so hard.”(369)

The elan, deer, and elk were treated by the North American Indians with
the same punctilious respect, and for the same reason. Their bones might
not be given to the dogs nor thrown into the fire, nor might their fat be
dropped upon the fire, because the souls of the dead animals were believed
to see what was done to their bodies and to tell it to the other beasts,
living and dead. Hence, if their bodies were ill used, the animals of that
species would not allow themselves to be taken, neither in this world nor
in the world to come.(370) A sick man would be asked by the medicine-man
whether he had not thrown away some of the flesh of the deer or turtle,
and if he answered yes, the medicine-man would say, “That is what is
killing you. The soul of the deer or turtle has entered into your body to
avenge the wrong you did it.”(371) The Sioux will not stick an awl or
needle into a turtle, for they are sure that, if they were to do so, the
turtle would punish them at some future time.(372) The Canadian Indians
would not eat the embryos of the elk, unless at the close of the hunting
season; otherwise the mother-elks would be shy and refuse to be
caught.(373) Some of the Indians believed that each sort of animal had its
patron or genius who watched over and preserved it. An Indian girl having
once picked up a dead mouse, her father snatched the little creature from
her and tenderly caressed and fondled it. Being asked why he did so, he
said that it was to appease the genius of mice, in order that he might not
torment his daughter for eating the mouse. With that he handed the mouse
to the girl and she ate it.(374)

For like reasons, a tribe which depends for its subsistence, chiefly or in
part, upon fishing is careful to treat the fish with every mark of honour
and respect. The Indians of Peru “adored the fish that they caught in
greatest abundance; for they said that the first fish that was made in the
world above (for so they named Heaven) gave birth to all other fish of
that species, and took care to send them plenty of its children to sustain
their tribe. For this reason they worshipped sardines in one region, where
they killed more of them than of any other fish; in others, the skate; in
others, the dogfish; in others, the golden fish for its beauty; in others,
the crawfish; in others, for want of larger gods, the crabs, where they
had no other fish, or where they knew not how to catch and kill them. In
short, they had whatever fish was most serviceable to them as their
gods.”(375) The Otawa Indians of Canada, believing that the souls of dead
fish passed into other bodies of fish, never burned fish bones, for fear
of displeasing the souls of the fish, who would come no more to the
nets.(376) The Hurons also refrained from throwing fish bones into the
fire, lest the souls of the fish should go and warn the other fish not to
let themselves be caught, since the Hurons would burn their bones.
Moreover, they had men who preached to the fish and persuaded them to come
and be caught. A good preacher was much sought after, for they thought
that the exhortations of a clever man had a great effect in drawing the
fish to the nets. In the Huron fishing village where the French missionary
Sagard stayed, the preacher to the fish prided himself very much on his
eloquence, which was of a florid order. Every evening after supper, having
seen that all the people were in their places and that a strict silence
was observed, he preached to the fish. His text was that the Hurons did
not burn fish bones. “Then enlarging on his theme with extraordinary
unction, he exhorted and conjured and invited and implored the fish to
come and be caught and to be of good courage and to fear nothing, for it
was all to serve their friends who honoured them and did not burn their
bones.”(377) The disappearance of herring from the sea about Heligoland in
1530 was attributed by the fishermen to the fact that two lads had whipped
a freshly-caught herring and then flung it back into the sea.(378) The
natives of the Duke of York Island annually decorate a canoe with flowers
and ferns, lade it, or are supposed to lade it, with shell-money, and set
it adrift to pay the fish for those they lose by being caught.(379) It is
especially necessary to treat the first fish caught with consideration in
order to conciliate the rest of the fish, for their conduct may be
supposed to be influenced by the reception given to the first of their
kind which is taken. Accordingly the Maoris always put back into the sea
the first fish caught, “with a prayer that it may tempt other fish to come
and be caught.”(380)

Still more stringent are the precautions taken when the fish are the first
of the season. On salmon rivers, when the fish begin to run up the stream
in spring, they are received with much deference by tribes who, like the
Indians of the Pacific Coast of North America, subsist largely upon a fish
diet. In British Columbia the Indians used to go out to meet the first
fish as they came up the river. “They paid court to them, and would
address them thus. ‘You fish, you fish; you are all chiefs, you are; you
are all chiefs.’ ”(381) Amongst the Thlinket of Alaska the first halibut
of the season is carefully handled, addressed as a chief, and a festival
is given in his honour, after which the fishing goes on.(382) In spring,
when the winds blow soft from the south and the salmon begin to run up the
Klamath river, the Karoks of California dance for salmon, to ensure a good
catch. One of the Indians, called the Kareya or God-man, retires to the
mountains and fasts for ten days. On his return the people flee, while he
goes to the river, takes the first salmon of the catch, eats some of it,
and with the rest kindles the sacred fire in the sweating-house. “No
Indian may take a salmon before this dance is held, nor for ten days after
it, even if his family are starving.” The Karoks also believe that a
fisherman will take no salmon if the poles of which his spearing-booth is
made were gathered on the river-side, where the salmon might have seen
them. The poles must be brought from the top of the highest mountain. The
fisherman will also labour in vain if he uses the same poles a second year
in booths or weirs, “because the old salmon will have told the young ones
about them.”(383) Among the Indians of the Columbia River, “when the
salmon make their first appearance in the river, they are never allowed to
be cut crosswise, nor boiled, but roasted; nor are they allowed to be sold
without the heart being first taken out, nor to be kept over night, but
must be all consumed or eaten the day they are taken out of the water. All
these rules are observed for about ten days.”(384) They think that if the
heart of a fish were eaten by a stranger at the beginning of the season,
they would catch no more fish. Hence, they roast and eat the hearts
themselves.(385) There is a favourite fish of the Ainos which appears in
their rivers about May and June. They prepare for the fishing by observing
rules of ceremonial purity, and when they have gone out to fish, the women
at home must keep strict silence or the fish would hear them and
disappear. When the first fish is caught he is brought home and passed
through a small opening at the end of the hut, but not through the door;
for if he were passed through the door, “the other fish would certainly
see him and disappear.”(386) This explains the custom observed by other
savages of bringing game into their huts, not by the door, but by the
window, the smoke-hole, or by a special opening at the back of the
hut.(387)

With some savages a special reason for respecting the bones of game, and
generally of the animals which they eat, is a belief that, if the bones
are preserved, they will in course of time be reclothed with flesh, and
thus the animal will come to life again. It is, therefore, clearly for the
interest of the hunter to leave the bones intact, since to destroy them
would be to diminish the future supply of game. Many of the Minnetaree
Indians “believe that the bones of those bisons which they have slain and
divested of flesh rise again clothed with renewed flesh, and quickened
with life, and become fat, and fit for slaughter the succeeding
June.”(388) Hence on the western prairies of America, the skulls of
buffalos may be seen arranged in circles and symmetrical piles, awaiting
the resurrection.(389) After feasting on a dog, the Dacotas carefully
collect the bones, scrape, wash, and bury them, “partly, as it is said, to
testify to the dog-species, that in feasting upon one of their number no
disrespect was meant to the species itself, and partly also from a belief
that the bones of the animal will rise and reproduce another.”(390) In
sacrificing an animal the Lapps regularly put aside the bones, eyes, ears,
heart, lungs, sexual parts (if the animal was a male), and a morsel of
flesh from each limb. Then, after eating the rest of the flesh, they laid
the bones etc. in anatomical order in a coffin and buried them with the
usual rites, believing that the god to whom the animal was sacrificed
would reclothe the bones with flesh and restore the animal to life in
Jabme-Aimo, the subterranean world of the dead. Sometimes, as after
feasting on a bear, they seem to have contented themselves with thus
burying the bones.(391) Thus the Lapps expected the resurrection of the
slain animal to take place in another world, resembling in this respect
the Kamtchatkans, who believed that every creature, down to the smallest
fly, would rise from the dead and live underground.(392) On the other
hand, the North American Indians looked for the resurrection of the
animals in the present world. The habit, observed especially by Mongolian
peoples, of stuffing the skin of a sacrificed animal, or stretching it on
a framework,(393) points rather to a belief in a resurrection of the
latter sort. The objection commonly entertained by primitive peoples to
break the bones of the animals which they have eaten or sacrificed(394)
may be based either on a belief in the resurrection of the animals, or on
a fear of intimidating the other creatures of the same species and
offending the ghosts of the slain animals. The reluctance of North
American Indians to let dogs gnaw the bones of animals(395) is perhaps
only a precaution to prevent the bones from being broken. There are traces
in folk-tales of the same primitive belief that animals or men may come to
life again, if only their bones are preserved; not uncommonly the animal
or man in the story comes to life lame of a limb, because one of his bones
has been eaten, broken, or lost.(396) In a Magyar tale, the hero is cut in
pieces, but the serpent-king lays the bones together in their proper
order, and washes them with water, whereupon the hero comes to life again.
His shoulder-blade, however, had been lost, so the serpent-king supplied
its place with one of gold and ivory.(397) Such stories, as Mannhardt has
seen, explain why Pythagoras, who claimed to have lived many lives, one
after the other, was said to have exhibited his golden leg as a proof of
his supernatural pretensions.(398) Doubtless he was reported to have
explained that at one of his resurrections a leg had been broken or
mislaid, and that it had been replaced with one of gold. Similarly, when
the murdered Pelops was restored to life, the shoulder which Demeter had
eaten was replaced with one of ivory.(399) The story that one of the
members of the mangled Osiris was eaten by fish, and that, when Isis
collected his scattered limbs, she replaced the missing member with one of
wood,(400) may perhaps belong to the same circle of beliefs.

There is a certain rule observed by savage hunters and fishers which,
obscure at first sight, may be explained by this savage belief in
resurrection. A traveller in America in the early part of this century was
told by a half-breed Choctaw that the Indians “had an obscure story,
somewhat resembling that of Jacob wrestling with an angel; and that the
full-blooded Indians always separate the sinew which shrank, and that it
is never seen in the venison exposed for sale; he did not know what they
did with it. His elder brother, whom I afterwards met, told me that they
eat it as a rarity; but I have also heard, though on less respectable
authority, that they refrain from it, like the ancient Jews. A gentleman,
who had lived on the Indian frontier, or in the nation, for ten or fifteen
years, told me that he had often been surprised that the Indians always
detached the sinew; but it had never occurred to him to inquire the
reason.”(401) James Adair, who knew the Indians of the South Eastern
States intimately, and whose theories appear not to have distorted his
view of the facts, observes that “when in the woods, the Indians cut a
small piece out of the lower part of the thighs of the deer they kill,
lengthways and pretty deep. Among the great number of venison-hams they
bring to our trading houses, I do not remember to have observed one
without it.... And I have been assured by a gentleman of character, who is
now an inhabitant of South Carolina, and well acquainted with the customs
of the Northern Indians, that they also cut a piece out of the thigh of
every deer they kill, and throw it away; and reckon it such a dangerous
pollution to eat it as to occasion sickness and other misfortunes of
sundry kinds, especially by spoiling their guns from shooting with proper
force and direction.”(402) In recent years the statement of Adair’s
informant has been confirmed by the French missionary Petitot, who has
also published the “obscure story” to which Hodgson refers. The Loucheux
and Hare-skin Indians who roam the bleak steppes and forests that stretch
from Hudson’s Bay to the Rocky Mountains, and northward to the frozen sea,
are forbidden by custom to eat the sinew of the legs of animals. To
explain this custom they tell the following “sacred story.” Once upon a
time a man found a burrow of porcupines, and going down into it after the
porcupines he lost his way in the darkness, till a kind giant called “He
who sees before and behind” released him by cleaving open the earth. So
the man, whose name was “Fireless and Homeless,” lived with the kind
giant, and the giant hunted elans and beavers for him, and carried him
about in the sheath of his flint knife. “But know, my son,” said the
giant, “that he who uses the sky as his head is angry with me, and has
sworn my destruction. If he slays me the clouds will be tinged with my
blood; they will be red with it, probably.” Then he gave the man an axe
made of the tooth of a gigantic beaver, and went forth to meet his enemy.
But from under the ice the man heard a dull muffled sound. It was a whale
which was making this noise because it was naked and cold. Warned by the
man, the giant went toward the whale, which took human shape, and rushed
upon the giant. It was the wicked giant, the kind giant’s enemy. The two
struggled together for a long time, till the kind giant cried, “Oh, my
son! cut, cut the sinew of the leg.” The man cut the sinew, and the wicked
giant fell down and was slain. That is why the Indians do not eat the
sinew of the leg. Afterwards, one day the sky suddenly grew red, so
Fireless and Homeless knew that the kind giant was dead, and he wept.(403)
This myth, it is almost needless to observe, does not really explain the
custom. No people ever observed a custom because a mythical being was said
to have once acted in a certain way. But, on the contrary, all peoples
have invented myths to explain why they observed certain customs.
Dismissing, therefore, the story of Fireless and Homeless as a myth
invented to explain why the Indians abstain from eating a particular
sinew, it may be suggested(404) that the original reason for observing the
custom was a belief that the sinew in question was necessary to
reproduction, and that deprived of it the slain animals could not come to
life again and stock the steppes and prairies either of the present world
or of the spirit land. We have seen that the resurrection of animals is a
common article of savage faith, and that when the Lapps bury the skeleton
of the male bear in the hope of its resurrection they are careful to bury
the genital parts along with it.(405)

Besides the animals which primitive man dreads for their strength and
ferocity, and those which he reveres on account of the benefits which he
expects from them, there is another class of creatures which he sometimes
deems it necessary to conciliate by worship and sacrifice. These are the
vermin that infest the crops. To rid himself of these deadly foes the
farmer has recourse to a thousand superstitious devices, of which, though
many are meant to destroy or intimidate the vermin, others aim at
propitiating them and persuading them by fair means to spare the fruits of
the earth. Thus Esthonian peasants, in the Island of Oesel, stand in great
awe of the weevil, an insect which is exceedingly destructive to the
grain. They give it a euphemistic title, and if a child is about to kill a
weevil they say, “Don’t do it; the more we hurt him, the more he hurts
us.” If they find a weevil they bury it in the earth instead of killing
it. Some even put the weevil under a stone in the field and offer corn to
it. They think that thus it is appeased and does less harm.(406) Amongst
the Saxons of Transylvania, in order to keep sparrows from the corn, the
sower begins by throwing the first handful of seed backwards over his
head, saying, “That is for you, sparrows.” To guard the corn against the
attacks of leaf-flies (_Erdflöhe_) he shuts his eyes and scatters three
handfuls of oats in different directions. Having made this offering to the
leaf-flies he feels sure that they will spare the corn. A Transylvanian
way of securing the crops against all birds, beasts, and insects, is this:
After he has finished sowing, the sower goes once more from end to end of
the field imitating the gesture of sowing, but with an empty hand. As he
does so he says, “I sow this for the animals; I sow it for everything that
flies and creeps, that walks and stands, that sings and springs, in the
name of God the Father, etc.”(407) The following is a German way of
freeing a garden from caterpillars. After sunset or at midnight the
mistress of the house, or another female member of the family, walks all
round the garden dragging a broom after her. She must not look behind her,
and must keep murmuring, “Good evening, Mother Caterpillar, you shall come
with your husband to church.” The garden gate is left open till the
following morning.(408)

Sometimes in dealing with vermin the farmer resorts neither to unmitigated
severity nor to unbounded indulgence, but aims at adopting a judicious
compromise between the two; kind but firm, he tempers severity with mercy.
An ancient Greek treatise on farming advises the husbandman who would rid
his lands of mice to act thus: “Take a sheet of paper and write on it as
follows: ‘I adjure you, ye mice here present, that ye neither injure me
nor suffer another mouse to do so. I give you yonder field’ (here you
specify the field); ‘but if ever I catch you here again, by the Mother of
the Gods I will rend you in seven pieces.’ Write this, and stick the paper
on an unhewn stone in the field before sunrise, taking care to keep the
written side uppermost.”(409) Sometimes the desired object is supposed to
be attained by treating with high distinction one or two chosen
individuals of the obnoxious species, while the rest are pursued with
relentless rigour. In the East Indian island of Bali, the mice which
ravage the rice-fields are caught in great numbers, and burned in the same
way that corpses are burned. But two of the captured mice are allowed to
live, and receive a little packet of white linen. Then the people bow down
before them, as before gods, and let them go.(410) In some parts of
Bohemia the peasant, though he kills field mice and gray mice without
scruple, always spares white mice. If he finds a white mouse he takes it
up carefully, and makes a comfortable bed for it in the window; for if it
died the luck of the house would be gone, and the gray mice would multiply
fearfully in the house.(411) When caterpillars invaded a vineyard or field
in Syria, the virgins were gathered, and one of the caterpillars was taken
and a girl made its mother. Then they bewailed and buried it. Thereafter
they conducted the “mother” to the place where the caterpillars were,
consoling her, in order that all the caterpillars might leave the
garden.(412) On the 1st of September, Russian girls “make small coffins of
turnips and other vegetables, enclose flies and other insects in them, and
then bury them with a great show of mourning.”(413)

In these latter examples the deference shown to a few chosen individuals
of the species is apparently regarded as entitling a person to exterminate
with impunity all the rest of the species upon which he can lay hands.
This principle perhaps explains the attitude, at first sight puzzling and
contradictory, of the Ainos towards the bear. The flesh and skin of the
bear regularly afford them food and clothing; but since the bear is an
intelligent and powerful animal, it is necessary to offer some
satisfaction or atonement to the bear species for the loss which it
sustains in the death of so many of its members. This satisfaction or
atonement is made by rearing young bears, treating them, so long as they
live, with respect, and killing them with extraordinary marks of sorrow
and devotion. Thus the other bears are appeased, and do not resent the
slaughter of their kind by attacking the slayers or deserting the country,
and thus depriving the Ainos of one of their means of subsistence.

Thus the primitive worship of animals assumes two forms, which are in some
respects the converse of each other. On the one hand animals are
respected, and are therefore neither killed nor eaten. Totemism is a form
of this worship, if worship it can be called; but it is not the only form,
for we have seen that dangerous and useless animals, like the crocodile,
are commonly revered and spared by men who do not regard the animal in
question as their totem. On the other hand animals are worshipped because
they are habitually killed and eaten. In both forms of worship the animal
is revered on account of some benefit, positive or negative, which the
savage hopes to receive from it. In the former worship the benefit comes
either in the positive form of protection, advice, and help which the
animal affords the man, or in the negative one of abstinence from injuries
which it is in the power of the animal to inflict. In the latter worship
the benefit takes the material form of the animal’s flesh and skin. The
two forms of worship are in some measure antithetical: in the one, the
animal is not eaten because it is revered; in the other, it is revered
because it is eaten. But both may be practised by the same people, as we
see in the case of the North American Indians, who, while they revere and
spare their totem animals, also revere the animals and fish upon which
they subsist. The aborigines of Australia have totemism in the most
primitive form known to us, but, so far as I am aware, there is no
evidence that they attempt, like the North American Indians, to conciliate
the animals which they kill and eat. The means which the Australians adopt
to secure a plentiful supply of game appear to be based not on
conciliation, but on sympathetic magic,(414) a principle to which the
North American Indians also resort for the same purpose.(415) If this is
so, it would appear that the totemistic respect for animals is older than
the other, and that, before hunters think of worshipping the game as a
means of ensuring an abundant supply of it, they seek to attain the same
end by sympathetic magic. This, again, would show—what there is good
reason for believing—that sympathetic magic is one of the earliest means
by which man endeavours to adapt the agencies of nature to his needs.

Corresponding to the two distinct types of animal worship, there are two
distinct types of the custom of killing the animal god. On the one hand,
when the revered animal is habitually spared, it is nevertheless
killed—and sometimes eaten—on rare and solemn occasions. Examples of this
custom have been already given and an explanation of them offered. On the
other hand, when the revered animal is habitually killed, the slaughter of
any one of the species involves the killing of the god, and is atoned for
on the spot by apologies and sacrifices, especially when the animal is a
powerful and dangerous one; and, in addition to this ordinary and everyday
atonement, there is a special annual atonement, at which a select
individual of the species is slain with extraordinary marks of respect and
devotion. Clearly the two types of sacramental killing—the Egyptian and
the Aino types, as we may call them for distinction—are liable to be
confounded by an observer; and, before we can say to which type any
particular example belongs, it is necessary to ascertain whether the
animal sacramentally slain belongs to a species which is habitually
spared, or to one which is habitually killed by the tribe. In the former
case the example belongs to the Egyptian type of sacrament, in the latter
to the Aino type.

The practice of pastoral tribes appears to furnish examples of both types
of sacrament. “Pastoral tribes,” says the most learned ethnologist of the
day, “being sometimes obliged to sell their herds to strangers who may
handle the bones disrespectfully, seek to avert the danger which such a
sacrilege would entail by consecrating one of the herd as an object of
worship, eating it sacramentally in the family circle with closed doors,
and afterwards treating the bones with all the ceremonious respect which,
strictly speaking, should be accorded to every head of cattle, but which,
being punctually paid to the representative animal, is deemed to be paid
to all. Such family meals are found among various peoples, especially
those of the Caucasus. When amongst the Abchases the shepherds in spring
eat their common meal with their loins girt and their staffs in their
hands, this may be looked upon both as a sacrament and as an oath of
mutual help and support. For the strongest of all oaths is that which is
accompanied with the eating of a sacred substance, since the perjured
person cannot possibly escape the avenging god whom he has taken into his
body and assimilated.”(416) This kind of sacrament is of the Aino or
expiatory type, since it is meant to atone to the species for the possible
ill-usage of individuals. An expiation, similar in principle but different
in details, is offered by the Kalmucks to the sheep whose flesh is one of
their staple foods. Rich Kalmucks are in the habit of consecrating a white
ram under the title of “the ram of heaven” or “the ram of the spirit.” The
animal is never shorn and never sold; but when it grows old and its owner
wishes to consecrate a new one, the old ram must be killed and eaten at a
feast to which the neighbours are invited. On a lucky day, generally in
autumn when the sheep are fat, a sorcerer kills the old ram, after
sprinkling it with milk. Its flesh is eaten; the skeleton, with a portion
of the fat, is burned on a turf altar; and the skin, with the head and
feet, is hung up.(417)

An example of a sacrament of the Egyptian type is furnished by the Todas,
a pastoral people of Southern India, who subsist largely upon the milk of
their buffaloes. Amongst them “the buffalo is to a certain degree held
sacred” and “is treated with great kindness, even with a degree of
adoration, by the people.”(418) They never eat the flesh of the cow
buffalo, and as a rule abstain from the flesh of the male. But to the
latter rule there is a single exception. Once a year all the adult males
of the village join in the ceremony of killing and eating a very young
male calf,—seemingly under a month old. They take the animal into the dark
recesses of the village wood, where it is killed with a club made from the
sacred tree of the Todas (the _tûde_ or _Millingtonia_). A sacred fire
having been made by the rubbing of sticks, the flesh of the calf is
roasted on the embers of certain trees, and is eaten by the men alone,
women being excluded from the assembly. This is the only occasion on which
the Todas eat buffalo flesh.(419) The Madi or Moru tribe of Central
Africa, whose chief wealth is their cattle, though they also practice
agriculture, appear to kill a lamb sacramentally on certain solemn
occasions. The custom is thus described by Dr. Felkin. “A remarkable
custom is observed at stated times—once a year, I am led to believe. I
have not been able to ascertain what exact meaning is attached to it. It
appears, however, to relieve the people’s minds, for beforehand they
evince much sadness, and seem very joyful when the ceremony is duly
accomplished. The following is what takes place: A large concourse of
people of all ages assemble, and sit down round a circle of stones, which
is erected by the side of a road (really a narrow path). A very choice
lamb is then fetched by a boy, who leads it four times round the assembled
people. As it passes they pluck off little bits of its fleece and place
them in their hair, or on to some other part of their body. The lamb is
then led up to the stones, and there killed by a man belonging to a kind
of priestly order, who takes some of the blood and sprinkles it four times
over the people. He then applies it individually. On the children he makes
a small ring of blood over the lower end of the breast bone, on women and
girls he makes a mark above the breasts, and the men he touches on each
shoulder. He then proceeds to explain the ceremony, and to exhort the
people to show kindness.... When this discourse, which is at times of
great length, is over, the people rise, each places a leaf on or by the
circle of stones, and then they depart with signs of great joy. The lamb’s
skull is hung on a tree near the stones, and its flesh is eaten by the
poor. This ceremony is observed on a small scale at other times. If a
family is in any great trouble, through illness or bereavement, their
friends and neighbours come together and a lamb is killed: this is thought
to avert further evil. The same custom prevails at the grave of departed
friends, and also on joyful occasions, such as the return of a son home
after a very prolonged absence.”(420) The sorrow thus manifested by the
people at the annual slaughter of the lamb clearly indicates that the lamb
slain is a divine animal, whose death is mourned by his worshippers,(421)
just as the death of the sacred buzzard was mourned by the Californians
and the death of the Theban ram by the Egyptians. The smearing each of the
worshippers with the blood of the lamb is a form of communion with the
divinity;(422) the vehicle of the divine life is applied externally
instead of being taken internally, as when the blood is drunk or the flesh
eaten.

The form of communion in which the sacred animal is taken from house to
house, that all may enjoy a share of its divine influence, has been
exemplified by the Gilyak custom of promenading the bear through the
village before it is slain. A similar form of communion with the sacred
snake is observed by a Snake tribe in the Punjaub. Once a year in the
month of September the snake is worshipped by all castes and religions for
nine days only. At the end of August the Mirasans, especially those of the
Snake tribe, make a snake of dough which they paint black and red, and
place on a winnowing basket. This basket they carry round the village, and
on entering any house they say—

“God be with you all!
May every ill be far!
May our patron’s (Gugga’s) word thrive!”

They then present the basket with the snake, saying—

“A small cake of flour:
A little bit of butter:
If you obey the snake,
You and yours shall thrive!”

Strictly speaking, a cake and butter should be given, but it is seldom
done. Every one, however, gives something, generally a handful of dough or
some corn. In houses where there is a new bride or whence a bride has
gone, or where a son has been born, it is usual to give a rupee and a
quarter, or some cloth. Sometimes the bearers of the snake also sing—

“Give the snake a piece of cloth,
And he will send a lively bride.”

When every house has been thus visited, the dough snake is buried and a
small grave is erected over it. Hither during the nine days of September
the women come to worship. They bring a basin of curds, a small portion of
which they offer at the snake’s grave, kneeling on the ground and touching
the earth with their foreheads. Then they go home and divide the rest of
the curds among the children. Here the dough snake is clearly a substitute
for a real snake. This is proved by the fact that in districts where
snakes abound the worship is offered, not at the grave of the dough snake,
but in the jungles where snakes are known to be. Besides this yearly
worship performed by all the people, the members of the Snake tribe
worship in the same way every morning after a new moon. The Snake tribe is
not uncommon in the Punjaub. Members of it will not kill a snake and they
say that its bite does not hurt them. If they find a dead snake, they put
clothes on it and give it a regular funeral.(423)

Ceremonies closely analogous to this Indian worship of the snake have
survived in Europe into recent times, and doubtless date from a very
primitive paganism. The best-known example is the “hunting of the wren.”
By many European peoples—the ancient Greeks and Romans, the modern
Italians, Spaniards, French, Germans, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, English, and
Welsh—the wren has been designated the king, the little king, the king of
birds, the hedge king, etc.,(424) and has been reckoned amongst those
birds which it is extremely unlucky to kill. In England it is thought that
if any one kills a wren or harries its nest, he will infallibly break a
bone or meet with some dreadful misfortune within the year;(425) sometimes
it is thought that the cows will give bloody milk.(426) In Scotland the
wren is called “the Lady of Heaven’s hen,” and boys say—

“Malisons, malisons, mair than ten,
That harry the Ladye of Heaven’s hen!”(427)

At Saint Donan, in Brittany, people believe that if children touch the
young wrens in the nest, they will suffer from the fire of St. Lawrence,
that is, from pimples on the face, legs, etc.(428) In other parts of
France it is believed that if a person kills a wren or harries its nest,
his house will be struck by lightning, or that the fingers with which he
did the deed will shrivel up and drop off, or at least be maimed, or that
his cattle will suffer in their feet.(429) Notwithstanding such beliefs,
the custom of annually killing the wren has prevailed widely both in this
country and in France. In the Isle of Man last century the custom was
observed on Christmas Eve or rather Christmas morning. On the 24th of
December, towards evening, all the servants got a holiday; they did not go
to bed all night, but rambled about till the bells rang in all the
churches at midnight. When prayers were over, they went to hunt the wren,
and having found one of these birds they killed it and fastened it to the
top of a long pole with its wings extended. Thus they carried it in
procession to every house chanting the following rhyme—

“We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,
We hunted the wren for Jack of the Can,
We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,
We hunted the wren for every one.”

After going from house to house and collecting all the money they could,
they laid the wren on a bier “with the utmost solemnity, singing dirges
over her in the Manks language, which they call her knell; after which
Christmas begins.” After the burial the company outside the churchyard
formed a circle and danced to music. About the middle of the present
century the burial of the wren took place in the Isle of Man on St.
Stephen’s Day (December 26th). Boys went from door to door with a wren
suspended by the legs in the centre of two hoops which crossed each other
at right angles and were decorated with evergreens and ribbons. The
bearers sang certain lines in which reference was made to boiling and
eating the bird. If at the close of the song they received a small coin,
they gave in return a feather of the wren; so that before the end of the
day the bird often hung almost featherless. The wren was then buried, no
longer in the churchyard, but on the sea-shore or in some waste place. The
feathers distributed were preserved with religious care, it being believed
that every feather was an effectual preservative from shipwreck for a
year, and a fisherman would have been thought very foolhardy who had not
one of them.(430)

In Ireland the “hunting of the wren” still takes place in parts of
Leinster and Connaught. On Christmas Day or St. Stephen’s Day the boys
hunt and kill the wren, fasten it in the middle of a mass of holly and ivy
on the top of a broomstick, and on St. Stephen’s Day go about with it from
house to house, singing—

“The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze;
Although he is little, his family’s great,
I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.”

Money or food (bread, butter, eggs, etc.) were given them, upon which they
feasted in the evening. Sometimes in Ireland, as in the Isle of Man, the
bird was hung by the leg in the centre of two hoops crossing each other at
right angles.(431) In Essex a similar custom used to be observed at
Christmas, and the verses sung by the boys were almost identical with
those sung in Ireland.(432) In Pembrokeshire a wren, called the King, used
to be carried about on Twelfth Day in a box with glass windows surmounted
by a wheel, from which hung various coloured ribbons. The men and boys who
carried it from house to house sang songs, in one of which they wished
“joy, health, love, and peace” to the inmates of the house.(433)

In the first half of this century similar customs were still observed in
various parts of the south of France. Thus at Carcassone, every year on
the first Sunday of December the young people of the street Saint Jean
used to go out of the town armed with sticks, with which they beat the
bushes, looking for wrens. The first to strike down one of these birds was
proclaimed King. Then they returned to the town in procession, headed by
the King, who carried the wren on a pole. On the evening of the last day
of the year the King and all who had hunted the wren marched through the
streets of the town with torches and music. At the door of every house
they stopped, and one of them wrote with chalk on the door _vive le roi!_
with the number of the year which was about to begin. On the morning of
Twelfth Day the King again marched in procession with great pomp, wearing
a crown and a blue mantle and carrying a sceptre. In front of him was
borne the wren fastened to the top of a pole, which was adorned with a
wreath of olive, oak, and mistletoe. After hearing high mass in the
church, surrounded by his officers and guards, he visited the bishop,
mayor, magistrates, and the chief inhabitants, collecting money to defray
the expenses of the royal banquet which took place in the evening.(434) At
Entraigues men and boys used to hunt the wren on Christmas Eve. When they
caught one alive they presented it to the priest, who, after the midnight
mass, set the bird free in the church. At Mirabeau the priest blessed the
bird. If the men failed to catch a wren and the women succeeded in doing
so, the women had the right to mock and insult the men, and to blacken
their faces with mud and soot, if they caught them.(435) At La Ciotat,
near Marseilles, a large body of men armed with swords and pistols used to
hunt the wren every year about the end of December. When a wren was caught
it was hung on the middle of a pole which two men carried, as if it were a
heavy burden. Thus they paraded round the town; the bird was weighed in a
great pair of scales; and then the company sat down to table and made
merry.(436)

The parallelism between this custom of “hunting the wren” and some of
those we have considered, especially the Gilyak procession with the bear,
and the Indian one with the snake, seems too close to allow us to doubt
that they all belong to the same circle of ideas. The worshipful animal is
killed with special solemnity once a year; and before or immediately after
death, he is promenaded from door to door, that each of his worshippers
may receive a portion of the divine virtues that are supposed to emanate
from the dead or dying god. Religious processions of this sort must have
had a great place in the ritual of European peoples in prehistoric times,
if we may judge from the numerous traces of them which have survived in
folk-custom. A well-preserved specimen is the following, which survived in
the Highlands of Scotland and in St. Kilda down to the latter half of last
century. “On the evening before New Year’s Day, it is usual for the
cowherd and the young people to meet together, and one of them is covered
with a cow’s hide. The rest of the company are provided with staves, to
the end of which bits of raw hide are tied. The person covered with the
hide runs thrice round the dwelling-house, _deiseil_—_i.e._ according to
the course of the sun; the rest pursue, beating the hide with their
staves, and crying [here follows the Gaelic], ‘Let us raise the noise
louder and louder; let us beat the hide.’ They then come to the door of
each dwelling-house, and one of them repeats some verses composed for the
purpose. When admission is granted, one of them pronounces within the
threshold the _beannachadthurlair_, or verses by which he pretends to draw
down a blessing upon the whole family [here follows the Gaelic], ‘May God
bless this house and all that belongs to it, cattle, stones, and timber!
In plenty of meat, of bed and body-clothes, and health of men, may it ever
abound!’ Then each burns in the fire a little bit of hide which is tied to
the end of the staff. It is applied to the nose of every person and
domestic animal that belongs to the house. This, they imagine, will tend
much to secure them from diseases and other misfortunes during the ensuing
year. The whole of the ceremony is called _colluinn_, from the great noise
which the hide makes.”(437) From another authority,(438) we learn that the
hide of which pieces were burned in each house and applied to the inmates
was the breast part of a sheep-skin. Formerly, perhaps, pieces of the
cow-hide in which the man was clad were detached for this purpose, just as
in the Isle of Man a feather of the wren used to be given to each
household. Similarly, as we have seen, the human victim whom the Khonds
slew as a divinity was taken from house to house, and every one strove to
obtain a relic of his sacred person. Such customs are only another form of
that communion with the deity which is attained most completely by eating
the body and drinking the blood of the god.

In the “hunting of the wren,” and the procession with the man clad in a
cow-skin, there is nothing to show that the customs in question have any
relation to agriculture. So far as appears, they may date from the
pre-agricultural era when animals were revered as divine in themselves,
not merely as divine because they embodied the corn-spirit; and the
analogy of the Gilyak procession of the bear, and the Indian procession of
the snake is in favour of assigning the corresponding European customs to
this very early date. On the other hand, there are certain European
processions of animals, or of men disguised as animals, which may possibly
be purely agricultural in their origin;(439) in other words, the animals
which figure in them may have been from the first nothing but
representatives of the corn-spirit conceived in animal shape. But it is at
least equally possible that these processions originated in the
pre-agricultural era, and have only received an agricultural tinge from
the environment in which they have so long survived. But the question is
an obscure and difficult one, and cannot be here discussed.

§ 13.—Transference of evil.

The custom of killing the god has now been proved to have been practised
by peoples in the hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society,
and the various reasons for observing the custom have been explained. One
aspect of the custom still remains to be noticed. The accumulated
misfortunes and sins of the whole people are sometimes laid upon the dying
god, who is supposed to bear them away for ever, leaving the people
innocent and happy. The notion that we can transfer our pains and griefs
to some other being who will bear them in our stead is familiar to the
savage mind. It arises from a very obvious confusion between the physical
and the mental. Because it is possible to transfer a load of wood, stones,
or what not, from our own back to the back of another, the savage fancies
that it is equally possible to transfer the burden of his pains and
sorrows to another, who will suffer them in his stead. Upon this idea he
acts, and the result is an endless number of often very unamiable devices
for putting off upon some one else the trouble which a man shrinks from
bearing himself. Such devices are amongst the most familiar facts in
folk-lore; but for the benefit of readers who are not professed students
of folk-lore, a few illustrations may be given.

It is not necessary that the pain or trouble should be transferred from
the sufferer to a person; it may equally well be transferred to an animal
or a thing, though in the last case the thing is often only a vehicle to
convey the trouble to the first person who touches it. In some of the East
Indian islands epilepsy is believed to be cured by striking the patient on
the face with the leaves of certain trees and then throwing the leaves
away. The epilepsy is believed to have passed into the leaves, and to have
been thrown away with them.(440) To cure toothache some of the Australian
blacks apply a heated spear-thrower to the cheek. The spear-thrower is
then cast away, and the toothache goes with it, in the shape of a black
stone called _karriitch_. Stones of this kind are found in old mounds and
sandhills. They are carefully collected and thrown in the direction of
enemies, in order to give them toothache.(441) When a Moor has a headache,
he will sometimes take a lamb or a goat and beat it till it falls down,
believing that the headache will thus be transferred to the animal.(442)
After an illness, a Bechuana king seated himself upon an ox which lay
stretched on the ground. The native doctor next poured water on the king’s
head till it ran down over his body. Then the head of the ox was held in a
vessel of water till the animal expired; whereupon the doctor declared,
and the people believed, that the ox died of the king’s disease, which had
been transferred to it from the king.(443) Amongst the Malagasy the
vehicle for carrying away evils is called a _faditra_. “The faditra is
anything selected by the sikidy [divining-board] for the purpose of taking
away any hurtful evils or diseases that might prove injurious to an
individual’s happiness, peace, or prosperity. The faditra may be either
ashes, cut money, a sheep, a pumpkin, or anything else the sikidy may
choose to direct. After the particular article is appointed, the priest
counts upon it all the evils that may prove injurious to the person for
whom it is made, and which he then charges the faditra to take away for
ever. If the faditra be ashes, it is blown, to be carried away by the
wind. If it be cut money, it is thrown to the bottom of deep water, or
where it can never be found. If it be a sheep, it is carried away to a
distance on the shoulders of a man, who runs with all his might, mumbling
as he goes, as if in the greatest rage against the faditra for the evils
it is bearing away. If it be a pumpkin, it is carried on the shoulders to
a little distance, and there dashed upon the ground with every appearance
of fury and indignation.”(444) A Malagasy was informed by a diviner that
he was doomed to a bloody death, but that possibly he might avert his fate
by performing a certain rite. Carrying a small vessel full of blood upon
his head, he was to mount upon the back of a bullock; while thus mounted,
he was to spill the blood upon the bullock’s head, and then send the
animal away into the wilderness, whence it might never return.(445)

The Battas of Sumatra have a ceremony which they call “making the curse to
fly away.” When a woman is childless, a sacrifice is offered to the gods
of three grasshoppers, representing a head of cattle, a buffalo, and a
horse. Then a swallow is set free, with a prayer that the curse may fall
upon the bird and fly away with it.(446) At the cleansing of a leper and
of a house suspected of being tainted with leprosy, the Jews let a bird
fly away.(447) Amongst the Miaotse of China, when the eldest son of the
house attains the age of seven years, a ceremony called “driving away the
devil” takes place. The father makes a kite of straw and lets it fly away
in the desert, bearing away all evil with it.(448) In Morocco most wealthy
Moors keep a wild boar in their stables, in order that the jinn and evil
spirits may be diverted from the horses and enter into the boar.(449) The
Dyaks believe that certain men possess in themselves the power of
neutralising bad omens. So, when evil omens have alarmed a farmer for the
safety of his crops, he takes a small portion of his farm produce to one
of these wise men, who eats it raw for a small consideration, “and thereby
appropriates to himself the evil omen, which in him becomes innocuous, and
thus delivers the other from the ban of the _pemali_ or taboo.”(450) In
Travancore, when a Rajah is dangerously ill and his life is despaired of,
a holy Brahman is brought, who closely embraces the King, and says, “O
King! I undertake to bear all your sins and diseases. May your Highness
live long and reign happily.” Then the sin-bearer is sent away from the
country, and never allowed to return.(451) Amongst the Burghers or Badagas
of the Neilgherry Hills in Southern India, when a death has taken place,
the sins of the deceased are laid upon a buffalo calf. A set form of
confession of sins, the same for every one, is recited aloud, then the
calf is set free, and is never afterwards used for common purposes. “The
idea of this ceremony is that the sins of the deceased enter the calf, or
that the task of his absolution is laid on it. They say that the calf very
soon disappears, and that it is never after heard of.”(452)

Similar attempts to shift the burden of disease and sin from one’s self to
another person, or to an animal or thing, have been common in ancient and
modern Europe. Grave writers of antiquity recommended that, if a man be
stung by a scorpion, he should sit upon an ass with his face to the tail,
or whisper in the ear of the ass, “A scorpion has stung me”; in either
case, they thought, the pain would be transferred from the man to the
ass.(453) A Roman cure for fever was to pare the patient’s nails, and
stick the parings with wax upon a neighbour’s door before sunrise; the
fever then passed from the sick man to his neighbour.(454) Similar devices
must have been practised by the Greeks; for in laying down laws for his
ideal state, Plato thinks it too much to expect that men should not be
alarmed at finding certain wax figures adhering to their doors or to the
tombstones of their parents, or lying at cross-roads.(455) In modern
Europe there is no end to such devices. Thus the Orkney Islanders will
wash a sick person and then throw the water down at a gateway, in the
belief that the sickness will leave the patient and be transferred to the
first person who passes through the gate.(456) A Bavarian cure for the
fever is to write upon a piece of paper, “Fever, stay away, I am not at
home,” and to put the paper in some person’s pocket. The latter then
catches the fever and the patient is rid of it.(457) Another cure is for
the patient to stick a twig of the elder-tree in the ground without
speaking. The fever then adheres to the twig, and whoever pulls up the
twig will catch the disease.(458) To get rid of warts, take a string and
make as many knots in it as you have warts. Then lay the string under a
stone. Whoever treads upon the stone will get the warts, and you will be
rid of them.(459) Gout may be transferred from a man to a tree thus. Pare
the nails of the sufferer’s fingers and clip some hairs from his legs.
Bore a hole in an oak, stuff the nails and hair in the hole, stop up the
hole again, and smear it with cow’s dung. If, for three months afterwards,
the patient is free of gout, then the oak has it in his stead.(460) A
Flemish cure for the ague is to go early in the morning to an old willow,
tie three knots in one of its branches, say, “Good-morrow, Old One, I give
thee the cold, good-morrow, Old One,” then turn and run away without
looking round.(461) A cure current in Sunderland for a cough is to shave
the patient’s head and hang the hair on a bush. When the birds carry the
hair to their nests, they will carry the cough with it. A Northamptonshire
and Devonshire cure is to put a hair of the patient’s head between two
slices of buttered bread and give it to a dog. The dog will get the cough
and the patient will lose it.(462) In the Greek island of Carpathus the
priest ties a red thread round the neck of a sick person. Next morning the
friends of the patient remove the thread and go out to the hillside, where
they tie the thread to a tree, thinking that they thus transfer the
sickness to the tree.(463)

The old Welsh custom known as “sin-eating” is another example of the
supposed transference of evil from one person to another. According to
Aubrey, “In the County of Hereford was an old Custome at funeralls to hire
poor people, who were to take upon them all the sinnes of the party
deceased. One of them, I remember, lived in a cottage on Rosse-high way
(he was a long, leane, ugly, lamentable poor raskal). The manner was that
when the Corps was brought out of the house and layd on the Biere; a Loafe
of bread was brought out, and delivered to the Sinne-eater over the corps,
as also a Mazar-bowle of maple (Gossips bowle) full of beer, which he was
to drinke up, and sixpence in money, in consideration whereof he took upon
him (ipso facto) all the Sinnes of the Defunct, and freed him (or her)
from walking after they were dead.... I believe this custom was heretofore
used over all Wales.... In North Wales the Sinne-eaters are frequently
made use of; but there, instead of a Bowle of Beere, they have a bowle of
Milke.”(464) According to a letter dated February 1, 1714-5, “within the
memory of our fathers, in Shropshire, in those villages adjoyning to
Wales, when a person dyed, there was notice given to an old sire (for so
they called him), who presently repaired to the place where the deceased
lay, and stood before the door of the house, when some of the family came
out and furnished him with a cricket, on which he sat down facing the
door. Then they gave him a groat, which he put in his pocket; a crust of
bread, which he eat; and a full bowle of ale, which he drank off at a
draught. After this he got up from the cricket and pronounced, with a
composed gesture, the ease and rest of the soul departed for which he
would pawn his own soul. This I had from the ingenious John Aubrey,
Esq.”(465) In recent years some doubt has been thrown on Aubrey’s account
of the custom.(466) The practice, however, is reported to have prevailed
in a valley not far from Llandebie to a recent period. An instance was
said to have occurred about forty years ago.(467) Aubrey’s statement is
supported by the analogy of similar customs in India. When the Rajah of
Tanjore died in 1801, some of his bones and the bones of the two wives,
who were burned with his corpse, were ground to powder and eaten, mixed
with boiled rice, by twelve Brahmans. It was believed that the sins of the
deceased passed into the bodies of the Brahmans, who were paid for the
service.(468) A Brahman, resident in a village near Raipúr, stated that he
had eaten food (rice and milk) out of the hand of the dead Rajah of
Biláspúr, and that in consequence he had been placed on the throne for the
space of a year. At the end of the year he had been given presents and
then turned out of the territory and forbidden apparently to return. He
was an outcast among his fellows for having eaten out of a dead man’s
hand.(469) A similar custom is believed to obtain among the hill states
about Kángrá, and to have given rise to a caste of “outcaste” Brahmans. At
the funeral of a Rání of Chambá rice and _ghí_ were eaten out of the hands
of the corpse by a Brahman paid for the purpose. Afterwards a stranger,
who had been caught outside the Chambá territory, was given the costly
wrappings of the corpse, then told to depart and never show his face in
the country again.(470) In Oude when an infant was killed it used to be
buried in the room in which it had been born. On the thirteenth day
afterwards the priest had to cook and eat his food in that room. By doing
so he was supposed to take the whole sin upon himself and to cleanse the
family from it.(471) At Utch Kurgan in Turkistan Mr. Schuyler saw an old
man who was said to get his living by taking on himself the sins of the
dead and thenceforth devoting his life to prayer for their souls.(472)

§ 14.—Expulsion of evils,

These examples illustrate the primitive principle of the transference of
ills to another person, animal, or thing. In the instances cited the
principle is applied for the benefit of individuals only. But analogous
proceedings are employed by barbarous peoples to rid a whole community of
all their troubles at a blow. The frame of mind which prompts such
wholesale clearances of evil may be described in the language of Mr. Im
Thurn, for though he wrote of the Indians of Guiana in particular, his
description is capable of a much wider application. He says: “Thus the
whole world of the Indian swarms with these [spiritual] beings. If by a
mighty mental effort we could for a moment revert to a similar mental
position we should find ourselves surrounded by a host of possibly hurtful
beings, so many in number that to describe them as innumerable would fall
ridiculously short of the truth. It is not therefore wonderful that the
Indian fears to move beyond the light of his camp-fire after dark, or, if
he is obliged to do so, carries a firebrand with him that he may at least
see among what enemies he walks; nor is it wonderful that occasionally the
air round the settlement seems to the Indian to grow so full of beings
that a peaiman [sorcerer], who is supposed to have the power of
temporarily driving them away, is employed to effect a general clearance
of these beings, if only for a time.”(473) Such general clearances of evil
influences may be divided into two classes, according as the expelled
evils are immaterial and invisible or are embodied in a material vehicle
or scapegoat. The former may be called the direct or immediate expulsion
of evils; the latter the indirect or mediate expulsion, or the expulsion
by scapegoat. We begin with examples of the former.

In the island of Rook, between New Guinea and New Britain, when any
misfortune has happened, all the people run together, scream, curse, howl,
and beat the air with sticks to drive away the devil (_Marsába_), who is
supposed to be the author of the mishap. From the spot where the mishap
took place they drive him step by step to the sea, and on reaching the
shore they redouble their shouts and blows in order to expel him from the
island. He generally retires to the sea or to the island of Lottin.(474)
The natives of New Britain ascribe sickness, drought, the failure of
crops, and in short all misfortunes, to the influence of wicked spirits.
So at times when many people sicken and die, as at the beginning of the
rainy season, all the inhabitants of a district, armed with branches and
clubs, go out by moonlight to the fields, where they beat and stamp on the
ground with wild howls till morning, believing that this drives away the
devils.(475) When a village has been visited by a series of disasters or a
severe epidemic, the Minahassa of Celebes lay the blame upon the devils
who are infesting the village and must be expelled from it. Accordingly,
early one morning all the people, men, women, and children, quit their
homes, carrying their household goods with them, and take up their
quarters in temporary huts which have been erected outside the village.
Here they spend several days, offering sacrifices and preparing for the
final ceremony. At last the men, some wearing masks, others with their
faces blackened, and so on, but all armed with swords, guns, pikes, or
brooms, steal cautiously and silently back to the deserted village. Then,
at a signal from the priest, they rush furiously up and down the streets
and into and under the houses (which are raised on piles above the
ground), yelling and striking on walls, doors, and windows, to drive away
the devils. Next, the priests and the rest of the people come with the
holy fire and march nine times round each house and thrice round the
ladder that leads up to it, carrying the fire with them. Then they take
the fire into the kitchen, where it must burn for three days continuously.
The devils are now driven away, and great and general is the joy.(476) The
Alfoers of Halmahera attribute epidemics to the devil who comes from other
villages to carry them off. So, in order to rid the village of the
disease, the sorcerer drives away the devil. From all the villagers he
receives a costly garment and places it on four vessels, which he takes to
the forest and leaves at the spot where the devil is supposed to be. Then
with mocking words he bids the demon abandon the place.(477) In the Key
Islands, south of New Guinea, when sickness prevails, the people erect a
stage on the shore and load it with meat and drink. Then the priest in
presence of the people bans the spirits which are causing the disease,
whereupon the people run back to the village at full speed, like
fugitives.(478)

In the island of Nias, when a man is seriously ill and other remedies have
been tried in vain, the sorcerer proceeds to exorcise the devil who is
causing the illness. A pole is set up in front of the house, and from the
top of the pole a rope of palm-leaves is stretched to the roof of the
house. Then the sorcerer mounts the roof with a pig, which he kills and
allows to roll from the roof to the ground. The devil, anxious to get the
pig, lets himself down hastily from the roof by the rope of palm-leaves,
and a good spirit, invoked by the sorcerer, prevents him from climbing up
again. If this remedy fails, it is believed that other devils must still
be lurking in the house. So a general hunt is made after them. All the
doors and windows in the house are closed, except a single dormer-window
in the roof. The men, shut up in the house, hew and slash with their
swords right and left to the clash of gongs and the rub-a-dub of drums.
Terrified at this onslaught the devils escape by the dormer-window, and
sliding down the rope of palm-leaves take themselves off. As all the doors
and windows, except the one in the roof, are shut, the devils cannot get
into the house again. In the case of an epidemic the proceedings are
similar. All the gates of the village, except one, are closed; every voice
is raised, every gong and drum beaten, every sword brandished. Thus the
devils are driven out and the last gate is shut behind them. For eight
days thereafter the village is in a state of siege, no one being allowed
to enter it.(479) When cholera has broken out in a Burmese village the
able-bodied men scramble on the roofs and lay about them with bamboos and
billets of wood, while all the rest of the population, old and young,
stand below and thump drums, blow trumpets, yell, scream, beat floors,
walls, tin-pans, everything to make a din. This uproar, repeated on three
successive nights, is thought to be very effective in driving away the
cholera demons.(480) When small-pox first appeared amongst the Kumis of
South-Eastern India, they thought it was a devil come from Arracan. The
villages were placed in a state of siege, no one being allowed to leave or
enter them. A monkey was killed by being dashed on the ground, and its
body was hung at the village gate. Its blood, mixed with small river
pebbles, was sprinkled on the houses, the threshold of every house was
swept with the monkey’s tail, and the fiend was adjured to depart.(481) At
Great Bassam, in Guinea, the French traveller Hecquard witnessed the
exorcism of the evil spirit who was believed to make women barren. The
women who wished to become mothers offered to the fetish wine-vessels or
statuettes representing women suckling children. Then being assembled in
the fetish hut, they were sprinkled with rum by the priest, while young
men fired guns and brandished swords to drive away the demon.(482) When
sickness was prevalent in a Huron village, and all other remedies had been
tried in vain, the Indians had recourse to the ceremony called
_Lonouyroya_, “which is the principal invention and most proper means, so
they say, to expel from the town or village the devils and evil spirits
which cause, induce, and import all the maladies and infirmities which
they suffer in body and mind.” Accordingly, one evening the men would
begin to rush like madmen about the village, breaking and upsetting
whatever they came across in the wigwams. They threw fire and burning
brands about the streets, and all night long they ran howling and singing
without cessation. Then they all dreamed of something, a knife, dog, skin,
or whatever it might be, and when morning came they went from wigwam to
wigwam asking for presents. These they received silently, till the
particular thing was given them which they had dreamed about. On receiving
it they uttered a cry of joy and rushed from the hut, amid the
congratulations of all present. The health of those who received what they
had dreamed of was believed to be assured; whereas those who did not get
what they had set their hearts upon regarded their fate as sealed.(483)

The observance of such ceremonies, from being occasional, tends to become
periodic. It comes to be thought desirable to have a general riddance of
evil spirits at fixed times, usually once a year, in order that the people
may make a fresh start in life, freed from all the malignant influences
which have been long accumulating about them. Some of the Australian
blacks annually expelled the ghosts of the dead from their territory. The
ceremony was witnessed by the Rev. W. Ridley on the banks of the river
Barwan. “A chorus of twenty, old and young, were singing and beating time
with boomerangs.... Suddenly, from under a sheet of bark darted a man with
his body whitened by pipeclay, his head and face coloured with lines of
red and yellow, and a tuft of feathers fixed by means of a stick two feet
above the crown of his head. He stood twenty minutes perfectly still,
gazing upwards. An aboriginal who stood by told me he was looking for the
ghosts of dead men. At last he began to move very slowly, and soon rushed
to and fro at full speed, flourishing a branch as if to drive away some
foes invisible to us. When I thought this pantomime must be almost over,
ten more, similarly adorned, suddenly appeared from behind the trees, and
the whole party joined in a brisk conflict with their mysterious
assailants.... At last, after some rapid evolutions in which they put
forth all their strength, they rested from the exciting toil which they
had kept up all night and for some hours after sunrise: they seemed
satisfied that the ghosts were driven away for twelve months. They were
performing the same ceremony at every station along the river, and I am
told it is an annual custom.”(484)

Certain seasons of the year mark themselves naturally out as appropriate
moments for a general expulsion of devils. Such a moment occurs towards
the close of an Arctic winter, when the sun reappears on the horizon after
an absence of weeks or months. Accordingly, at Point Barrow, the most
northerly extremity of Alaska, and nearly of America, the Eskimo choose
the moment of the sun’s reappearance to hunt the mischievous spirit Tuña
from every house. The ceremony was witnessed a few years ago by the
members of the United States Polar Expedition, who wintered at Point
Barrow. A fire was built in front of the council-house, and an old woman
was posted at the entrance to every _iglu_ (Eskimo house). The men
gathered round the council-fire, while the young women and girls drove the
spirits out of every _iglu_ with their knives, stabbing viciously under
the bunk and deer-skins, and calling upon Tuña to leave the _iglu_. When
they thought he had been driven out of every hole and corner, they thrust
him down through the hole in the floor and chased him into the open air
with loud cries and frantic gestures. Meanwhile the old woman at the
entrance of the _iglu_ made passes with a long knife in the air to keep
him from returning. Each party drove the spirit towards the fire and
invited him to go into it. All were by this time drawn up in a semicircle
round the fire, when several of the leading men made specific charges
against the spirit; and each after his speech brushed his clothes
violently, calling on the spirit to leave him and go into the fire. Two
men now stepped forward with rifles loaded with blank cartridges, while a
third brought a vessel of urine and flung it on the fire. At the same time
one of the men fired a shot into the fire; and as the cloud of steam rose
it received the other shot, which was supposed to finish Tuña for the time
being.(485) In autumn, when heavy gales are raging, the Eskimo of Baffin
Land think that the female spirit Sedna dwells amongst them, and the most
powerful enchanter is employed to drive her out. Beside a small hole in
the centre of the floor a line of seal-skin is coiled up. Holding a
sealing-spear in his left hand the enchanter watches the hole in the
floor. Another sorcerer sits in the rear of the hut chanting songs to
attract Sedna. Now she is heard approaching under the floor of the hut.
When she reaches the hole the enchanter strikes her with his harpoon and
pays out the line. A severe struggle ensues, but ultimately Sedna flies to
her country, Adlivun. The performance is cleverly managed. When the
harpoon is drawn out of the hole it is covered with blood, and the heavy
breathing of Sedna can be distinctly heard under the floor.(486)

The Iroquois inaugurated the new year in January, February, or March (the
time varied) with a “festival of dreams” like that which the Hurons
observed on special occasions.(487) The whole ceremonies lasted several
days, or even weeks, and formed a kind of Saturnalia. Men and women,
variously disguised, went from wigwam to wigwam smashing and throwing down
whatever they came across. It was a time of general licence; the people
were supposed to be out of their senses, and therefore not to be
responsible for what they did. Accordingly, many seized the opportunity of
paying off old scores by belabouring obnoxious persons, drenching them
with ice-cold water, and covering them with filth or hot ashes. Others
seized burning brands or coals and flung them at the heads of the first
persons they met. The only way of escaping from these persecutors was to
guess what they had dreamed of. On one day of the festival the ceremony of
driving away evil spirits from the village took place. Men clothed in the
skins of wild beasts, their faces covered with hideous masks, and their
hands with the shell of the tortoise, went from hut to hut making
frightful noises; in every hut they took the fuel from the fire and
scattered the embers and ashes about the floor with their hands. The
general confession of sins which preceded the festival was probably a
preparation for the public expulsion of evil influences; it was a way of
stripping the people of their moral burdens, that these might be collected
and cast out. This New Year festival is still celebrated by some of the
heathen Iroquois, though it has been shorn of its former turbulence. A
conspicuous feature in the ceremony is now the sacrifice of the White Dog,
but this appears to have been added to the festival in comparatively
modern times, and does not figure in the oldest descriptions of the
ceremonies. We shall return to it later on.(488) A great annual festival
of the Cherokee Indians was the Propitiation, “Cementation,” or
Purification festival. “It was celebrated shortly after the first new moon
of autumn, and consisted of a multiplicity of rigorous rites, fastings,
ablutions, and purifications. Among the most important functionaries on
the occasion were seven exorcisers or cleansers, whose duty it was, at a
certain stage of the proceedings, to drive away evil, and purify the town.
Each one bore in his hand a white rod of sycamore. ‘The leader, followed
by the others, walked around the national heptagon, and coming to the
treasure or store-house to the west of it, they lashed the eaves of the
roofs with their rods. The leader then went to another house, followed by
the others, singing, and repeated the same ceremony until every house was
purified.’ This ceremony was repeated daily during the continuance of the
festival. In performing their ablutions they went into the water and
allowed their old clothes to be carried away by the stream, by which means
they supposed their impurities removed.”(489)

In September the Incas of Peru celebrated a festival called Situa, the
object of which was to banish from the capital and its vicinity all
disease and troubles. The festival fell in September because the rains
begin about this time, and with the first rains there was generally much
sickness. As a preparation for the festival the people fasted on the first
day of the moon after the autumnal equinox. Having fasted during the day,
and the night being come, they baked a coarse paste of maize. This paste
was made of two sorts. One was kneaded with the blood of children aged
five to ten years, the blood being obtained by bleeding the children
between the eye-brows. These two kinds of paste were baked separately,
because they were for different uses. Each family assembled at the house
of the eldest brother to celebrate the feast; and those who had no elder
brother went to the house of their next relation of greater age. On the
same night all who had fasted during the day washed their bodies, and
taking a little of the blood-kneaded paste, rubbed it over their head,
face, breast, shoulders, arms, and legs. They did this in order that the
paste might take away all their infirmities. After this the head of the
family anointed the threshold with the same paste, and left it there as a
token that the inmates of the house had performed their ablutions and
cleansed their bodies. Meantime the High Priest performed the same
ceremonies in the temple of the Sun. As soon as the Sun rose, all the
people worshipped and besought him to drive all evils out of the city, and
then they broke their fast with the paste that had been kneaded without
blood. When they had paid their worship and broken their fast, which they
did at a stated hour, in order that all might adore the Sun as one man, an
Inca of the blood royal came forth from the fortress, as a messenger of
the Sun, richly dressed, with his mantle girded round his body, and a
lance in his hand. The lance was decked with feathers of many hues,
extending from the blade to the socket, and fastened with rings of gold.
He ran down the hill from the fortress brandishing his lance, till he
reached the centre of the great square, where stood the golden urn, like a
fountain, that was used for the sacrifice of _chicha_. Here four other
Incas of the blood royal awaited him, each with a lance in his hand, and
his mantle girded up to run. The messenger touched their four lances with
his lance, and told them that the Sun bade them, as his messengers, drive
the evils out of the city. The four Incas then separated and ran down the
four royal roads which led out of the city to the four quarters of the
world. While they ran, all the people, great and small, came to the doors
of their houses, and with great shouts of joy and gladness shook their
clothes, as if they were shaking off dust, while they cried, “Let the
evils be gone. How greatly desired has this festival been by us. O Creator
of all things, permit us to reach another year, that we may see another
feast like this.” After they had shaken their clothes, they passed their
hands over their heads, faces, arms, and legs, as if in the act of
washing. All this was done to drive the evils out of their houses, that
the messengers of the Sun might banish them from the city. This was done
not only in the streets through which the Incas ran, but generally in all
quarters of the city. Moreover, they all danced, the Inca himself amongst
them, and bathed in the rivers and fountains, saying that their maladies
would come out of them. Then they took great torches of straw, bound round
with cords. These they lighted, and passed from one to the other, striking
each other with them, and saying, “Let all harm go away.” Meanwhile the
runners ran with their lances for a quarter of a league outside the city,
where they found four other Incas ready, who received the lances from
their hands and ran with them. Thus the lances were carried by relays of
runners for a distance of five or six leagues, at the end of which the
runners washed themselves and their weapons in rivers, and set up the
lances, in sign of a boundary within which the banished evils might not
return.(490)

The negroes of Guinea annually banish the devil from all their towns with
much ceremony. At Axim, on the Gold Coast, this annual expulsion is
preceded by a feast of eight days, during which mirth and jollity reign,
and “a perfect lampooning liberty is allowed, and scandal so highly
exalted, that they may freely sing of all the faults, villanies, and
frauds of their superiors as well as inferiors, without punishment, or so
much as the least interruption.” On the eighth day they hunt out the devil
with a dismal cry, running after him and pelting him with sticks, stones,
and whatever comes to hand. When they have driven him far enough out of
the town, they all return. In this way he is driven out of more than a
hundred towns at the same time. To make sure that he does not return to
their houses, the women wash and scour all their wooden and earthen
vessels, “to free them from all uncleanness and the devil.”(491) At
Onitsha, on the Quorra River, Mr. J. C. Taylor witnessed the celebration
of New Year’s Day by the negroes. It fell on 20th December 1858. Every
family brought a firebrand out into the street, threw it away, and
exclaimed as they returned, “The gods of the new year! New Year has come
round again.” Mr. Taylor adds, “The meaning of the custom seems to be that
the fire is to drive away the old year with its sorrows and evils, and to
embrace the new year with hearty reception.”(492) Of all Abyssinian
festivals that of Mascal or the Cross is celebrated with the greatest
pomp. The eve of the festival witnesses a ceremony which doubtless belongs
to the world-wide class of customs we are dealing with. At sunset a
discharge of firearms takes place from all the principal houses. “Then
every one provides himself with a torch, and during the early part of the
night bonfires are kindled, and the people parade the town, carrying their
lighted torches in their hands. They go through their houses too, poking a
light into every dark corner in the hall, under the couches, in the
stables, kitchen, etc., as if looking for something lost, and calling out,
‘Akho, akhoky! turn out the spinage, and bring in the porridge; Mascal is
come!’.... After this they play, and poke fun and torches at each
other.”(493)

Sometimes the date of the annual expulsion of devils is fixed with
reference to the agricultural seasons. Among the Hos of North-Eastern
India the great festival of the year is the harvest home, held in January,
when the granaries are full of grain, and the people, to use their own
expression, are full of devilry. “They have a strange notion that at this
period men and women are so overcharged with vicious propensities, that it
is absolutely necessary for the safety of the person to let off steam by
allowing for a time full vent to the passions.” The ceremonies open with a
sacrifice to the village god of three fowls, two of which must be black.
Along with them are offered flowers of the Palás tree, bread made from
rice-flour, and sesamum seeds. These offerings are presented by the
village priest, who prays that during the year about to begin they and
their children may be preserved from all misfortune and sickness, and that
they may have seasonable rain and good crops. Prayer is also made in some
places for the souls of the dead. At this time an evil spirit is supposed
to infest the place, and to get rid of it men, women, and children go in
procession round and through every part of the village with sticks in
their hands, as if beating for game, singing a wild chant, and shouting
vociferously, till they feel assured that the evil spirit must have fled.
Then they give themselves up to feasting and drinking rice-beer, till they
are in a fit state for the wild debauch which follows. The festival now
“becomes a saturnale, during which servants forget their duty to their
masters, children their reverence for parents, men their respect for
women, and women all notions of modesty, delicacy, and gentleness; they
become raging bacchantes.” Usually the Hos are quiet and reserved in
manner, decorous and gentle to women. But during this festival “their
nature appears to undergo a temporary change. Sons and daughters revile
their parents in gross language, and parents their children; men and women
become almost like animals in the indulgence of their amorous
propensities.” The Mundaris, kinsmen and neighbours of the Hos, keep the
festival in much the same manner. “The resemblance to a Saturnale is very
complete, as at this festival the farm labourers are feasted by their
masters, and allowed the utmost freedom of speech in addressing them. It
is the festival of the harvest home; the termination of one year’s toil,
and a slight respite from it before they commence again.”(494)

Amongst some of the Hindoo Koosh tribes, as among the Hos and Mundaris,
the expulsion of devils takes place after harvest. When the last crop of
autumn has been got in, it is thought necessary to drive away evil spirits
from the granaries. A kind of porridge called _mool_ is eaten, and the
head of the family takes his matchlock and fires it into the floor. Then,
going outside, he sets to work loading and firing till his powder horn is
exhausted, while all his neighbours are similarly employed. The next day
is spent in rejoicings. In Chitral this festival is called
“devil-driving.”(495) On the other hand the Khonds of India expel the
devils at seed-time instead of at harvest. At this time they worship
Pitteri Pennu, the god of increase and of gain in every shape. On the
first day of the festival a rude car is made of a basket set upon a few
sticks, tied upon bamboo rollers for wheels. The priest takes this car
first to the house of the lineal head of the tribe, to whom precedence is
given in all ceremonies connected with agriculture. Here he receives a
little of each kind of seed and some feathers. He then takes the car to
all the other houses in the village, each of which contributes the same
things. Lastly, the car is conducted to a field without the village,
attended by all the young men, who beat each other and strike the air
violently with long sticks. The seed thus carried out is called the share
of the “evil spirits, spoilers of the seed.” “These are considered to be
driven out with the car; and when it and its contents are abandoned to
them, they are held to have no excuse for interfering with the rest of the
seed-corn.” Next day each household kills a hog over the seed for the
year, and prays to Pitteri Pennu. The elders then feast upon the hogs. The
young men are excluded from the repast, but enjoy the privilege of
waylaying and pelting with jungle fruit their elders as they return from
the feast. Upon the third day the lineal head of the tribe goes out and
sows his seed, after which all the rest may do so.(496)

The people of Bali, an island to the east of Java, have periodical
expulsions of devils upon a great scale. Generally the time chosen for the
expulsion is the day of the “dark moon” in the ninth month. When the
demons have been long unmolested the country is said to be “warm,” and the
priest issues orders to expel them by force, lest the whole of Bali should
be rendered uninhabitable. On the day appointed the people of the village
or district assemble at the principal temple. Here at a cross-road
offerings are set out for the devils. After prayers have been recited by
the priests, the blast of a horn summons the devils to partake of the meal
which has been prepared for them. At the same time a number of men step
forward and light their torches at the holy lamp which burns before the
chief priest. Immediately afterwards, followed by the bystanders, they
spread in all directions and march through the streets and lanes crying,
“Depart! go away!” Wherever they pass, the people who have stayed at home
hasten by a deafening knocking on doors, beams, rice-blocks, etc., to take
their share in the expulsion of devils. Thus chased from the houses, the
fiends flee to the banquet which has been set out for them; but here the
priest receives them with curses which finally drive them from the
district. When the last devil has taken his departure, the uproar is
succeeded by a dead silence, which lasts during the next day also. The
devils, it is thought, are anxious to return to their old homes, and in
order to make them think that Bali is not Bali but some desert island, no
one may stir from his own premises for twenty-four hours. Even ordinary
household work, including cooking, is discontinued. Only the watchmen may
show themselves in the streets. Wreaths of thorns and leaves are hung at
all the entrances to warn strangers from entering. Not till the third day
is this state of siege raised, and even then it is forbidden to work at
the rice-fields or to buy and sell in the market. Most people still stay
at home, striving to while away the time with cards and dice.(497)

In some parts of Fiji an annual ceremony took place which has much the
aspect of an expulsion of devils. The time of its celebration was
determined by the appearance of a certain fish or sea-slug (_balolo_)
which swarms out in dense shoals from the coral reefs on a single day of
the year, usually in the last quarter of the moon in November. The
appearance of the sea-slugs was the signal for a general feast at those
places where they were taken. An influential man ascended a tree and
prayed to the spirit of the sky for good crops, fair winds, and so on.
Thereupon a tremendous clatter, with drumming and shouting, was raised by
all the people in their houses for about half an hour. This was followed
by a dead quiet for four days, during which the people feasted on the
sea-slug. All this time no work of any kind might be done, not even a leaf
plucked nor the offal removed from the houses. If a noise was made in any
house, as by a child crying, a forfeit was at once exacted by the chief.
At daylight on the expiry of the fourth night the whole town was in an
uproar; men and boys scampered about, knocking with clubs and sticks at
the doors of the houses and crying “Sinariba.” This concluded the
ceremony.(498)

On the night before spring begins the Japanese throw roasted beans against
the walls and floors of their houses, crying thrice loudly, “Away from
here, wicked spirit!” but adding softly, “Enter, O god of riches!”(499)
Amongst some of the Hindus of the Punjaub on the morning after Diwali or
the festival of lamps (at which the souls of ancestors are believed to
visit the house) the oldest woman of the family takes all the sweepings
and rubbish of the family and throws them out, with the words, “Let all
dirt and wretchedness depart from here, and all good fortune come
in.”(500) In Tonquin a _theckydaw_ or general expulsion of malevolent
spirits commonly took place once a year, especially if there was a great
mortality amongst men or cattle, “the cause of which they attribute to the
malicious spirits of such men as have been put to death for treason,
rebellion, and conspiring the death of the king, general, or princes, and
in that revenge of the punishment they have suffered, they are bent to
destroy everything and commit horrible violence. To prevent which their
superstition has suggested to them the institution of this theckydaw as a
proper means to drive the devil away, and purge the country of evil
spirits.” The day appointed for the ceremony was generally the 25th of
February, one month after the commencement of the new year, which began on
the 25th of January. The intermediate month was a season of feasting,
merry-making of all kinds, and general licence. During the whole month the
great seal was kept shut up in a box, face downwards, and the law was, as
it were, laid asleep. All courts of justice were closed; debtors could not
be seized; small crimes, such as petty larceny, fighting, and assault,
escaped with impunity; only treason and murder were taken account of and
the malefactors detained till the great seal should come into operation
again. At the close of the saturnalia the wicked spirits were driven away.
Great masses of troops and artillery having been drawn up with flying
colours and all the pomp of war, “the general beginneth then to offer meat
offerings to the criminal devils and malevolent spirits (for it is usual
and customary likewise amongst them to feast the condemned before their
execution), inviting them to eat and drink, when presently he accuses them
in a strange language, by characters and figures, etc., of many offences
and crimes committed by them, as to their having disquieted the land,
killed his elephants and horses, etc., for all which they justly deserved
to be chastised and banished the country. Whereupon three great guns are
fired as the last signal; upon which all the artillery and musquets are
discharged, that, by their most terrible noise the devils may be driven
away; and they are so blind as to believe for certain, that they really
and effectually put them to flight.”(501)

In Cambodia the expulsion of evil spirits took place in March. Bits of
broken statues and stones, considered as the abode of the demons, were
collected and brought to the capital. Here as many elephants were
collected as could be got together. On the evening of the full moon
volleys of musketry were fired and the elephants charged furiously to put
the devils to flight.(502) In Siam the banishment of demons is annually
carried into effect on the last day of the old year. A signal gun is fired
from the palace; it is answered from the next station, and so on from
station to station, till the firing has reached the outer gate of the
city. Thus the demons are driven out step by step. As soon as this is done
a consecrated rope is fastened round the circuit of the city walls to
prevent the banished demons from returning. The rope is made of tough
couch-grass and is painted in alternate stripes of red, yellow, and
blue.(503) The Shans of Southern China annually expel the fire-spirit. The
ceremony was witnessed by the English Mission under Colonel Sladen on the
13th of August 1868. Bullocks and cows were slaughtered in the
market-place; the meat was all sold, part of it was cooked and eaten,
while the rest was fired out of guns at sundown. The pieces of flesh which
fell on the land were supposed to become mosquitoes, those which fell in
the water were believed to turn into leeches. In the evening the chief’s
retainers beat gongs and blew trumpets; and when darkness had set in
torches were lit and a party, preceded by the musicians, searched the
central court for the fire-spirit, who is supposed to lurk about at this
season with evil intent. They then searched all the rooms and the gardens,
throwing the light of the torches into every nook and corner where the
evil spirit might find a hiding-place.(504)

Annual expulsions of demons or of evil influences are not unknown in
Europe at the present day. Amongst the heathen Wotyaks, a Finnish people
of Eastern Russia, all the young girls of the village assemble on the last
day of the year or on New Year’s Day armed with sticks, the ends of which
are split in nine places. With these they beat every corner of the house
and yard, saying, “We are driving Satan out of the village.” Afterwards
the sticks are thrown into the river below the village, and as they float
down stream Satan goes with them to the next village, from which he must
be driven out in turn. In some villages the expulsion is managed
otherwise. The unmarried men receive from every house in the village
groats, flesh, and brandy. These they take to the field, light a fire
under a fir-tree, boil the groats, and eat of the food they have brought
with them, after pronouncing the words, “Go away into the wilderness, come
not into the house.” Then they return to the village and enter every house
where there are young women. They take hold of the young women and throw
them into the snow, saying, “May the spirits of disease leave you.” The
remains of the groats and the other food are then distributed among all
the houses in proportion to the amount that each contributed, and each
family consumes its share. According to a Wotyak of the Malmyz district
the young men throw into the snow whomever they find in the houses, and
this is called “driving out Satan;” moreover some of the boiled groats are
thrown into the fire with the words, “O god, afflict us not with sickness
and pestilence, give us not up as a prey to the spirits of the wood.” But
the most antique form of the ceremony is that observed by the Wotyaks of
the Kasan Government. First of all a sacrifice is offered to the Devil at
noon. Then all the men assemble on horseback in the centre of the village,
and decide with which house they shall begin. When this question, which
often gives rise to hot disputes, is settled, they tether their horses to
the paling, and arm themselves with whips, clubs of lime-wood, and bundles
of lighted twigs. The lighted twigs are believed to have the greatest
terrors for Satan. Thus armed, they proceed with frightful cries to beat
every corner of the house and yard, then shut the door, and spit at the
ejected fiend. So they go from house to house, till the Devil has been
driven from every one. Then they mount their horses and ride out of the
village, yelling wildly and brandishing their clubs in every direction.
Outside of the village they fling away the clubs and spit once more at the
Devil.(505) The Cheremiss, another Finnish people of Eastern Russia, chase
Satan from their dwellings by beating the walls with cudgels of lime-wood.
When he has fled to the wood, they pelt the trees with some of the
cheese-cakes and eggs which furnished the feast.(506)

In Albania on Easter Eve the young people light torches of resinous wood
and march in procession, swinging them, through the village. At last they
throw the torches into the river, crying, “Ha, Kore! we throw you into the
river, like these torches, that you may never return.”(507) In some
villages of Calabria the month of March is inaugurated with the expulsion
of the witches. It takes place at night to the sound of the church bells,
the people running about the streets and crying, “March is come.” They say
that the witches roam about in March, and the ceremony is repeated every
Friday evening during the month.(508) In the Tyrol the expulsion of
witches takes place on the first of May. On a Thursday at midnight bundles
are made up of resinous splinters, black and red spotted hemlock,
caper-spurge, rosemary, and twigs of the sloe. These are kept and burned
on May Day by men who must first have received plenary absolution from the
church. On the last three days of April all the houses are cleansed and
fumigated with juniper berries and rue. On May Day, when the evening bell
has rung and the twilight is falling, the ceremony of “burning out the
witches,” as it is called, begins. Men and boys make a racket with whips,
bells, pots, and pans; the women carry censers; the dogs are unchained and
run barking and yelping about. As soon as the church bells begin to ring,
the bundles of twigs, fastened on poles, are set on fire and the incense
is ignited. Then all the house-bells and dinner-bells are rung, pots and
pans are clashed, dogs bark, every one must make a noise. And amid this
hubbub all scream at the pitch of their voices,

“Witch flee, flee from here,
Or it will go ill with thee.”

Then they run seven times round the houses, the yards, and the village. So
the witches are smoked out of their lurking-places and driven away.(509)
At Brunnen in Switzerland the boys go about in procession on Twelfth
Night, carrying torches and lanterns, and making a great noise with horns,
cow-bells, whips, etc. This is said to frighten away the two female
spirits of the wood, Strudeli and Strätteli.(510)

§ 15.—Scapegoats.

Thus far the examples cited have belonged to the class of direct or
immediate expulsion of ills. It remains to illustrate the second class of
expulsions, in which the evil influences are either embodied in a visible
form or are at least supposed to be loaded upon a material medium, which
acts as a vehicle to draw them off from the people, village, or town. The
Pomos of California celebrate an expulsion of devils every seven years, at
which the devils are represented by disguised men. “Twenty or thirty men
array themselves in harlequin rig and barbaric paint, and put vessels of
pitch on their heads; then they secretly go out into the surrounding
mountains. These are to personify the devils. A herald goes up to the top
of the assembly-house, and makes a speech to the multitude. At a signal
agreed upon in the evening the masqueraders come in from the mountains,
with the vessels of pitch flaming on their heads, and with all the
frightful accessories of noise, motion, and costume which the savage mind
can devise in representation of demons. The terrified women and children
flee for life, the men huddle them inside a circle, and, on the principle
of fighting the devil with fire, they swing blazing firebrands in the air,
yell, whoop, and make frantic dashes at the marauding and bloodthirsty
devils, so creating a terrific spectacle, and striking great fear into the
hearts of the assembled hundreds of women, who are screaming and fainting
and clinging to their valorous protectors. Finally the devils succeed in
getting into the assembly-house, and the bravest of the men enter and hold
a parley with them. As a conclusion of the whole farce, the men summon
courage, the devils are expelled from the assembly-house, and with a
prodigious row and racket of sham fighting are chased away into the
mountains.”(511) In spring, as soon as the willow leaves were full grown
on the banks of the river, the Mandan Indians celebrated their great
annual festival, one of the features of which was the expulsion of the
devil. A man, painted black to represent the devil, entered the village
from the prairie, chased and frightened the women, and acted the part of a
buffalo bull in the buffalo dance, the object of which was to ensure a
plentiful supply of buffaloes during the ensuing year. Finally he was
chased from the village, the women pursuing him with hisses and gibes,
beating him with sticks, and pelting him with dirt.(512) On the last night
of the year the palace of the Kings of Cambodia is purged of devils. Men
painted as fiends are chased by elephants about the palace courts. When
they have been expelled, a consecrated thread of cotton is stretched round
the palace to keep them out.(513) The Kasyas, a hill tribe of Assam,
annually expel the demons. The ceremony takes place on a fixed month in
the year, and part of it consists in a struggle between two bands of men
who stand on opposite sides of a stream, each side tugging at the end of a
rope which is stretched across the water. In this contest, which resembles
the game of “French and English,” the men on one side probably represent
the demons.(514) At Carmona in Andalusia, on one day of the year, boys are
stripped naked and smeared with glue in which feathers are stuck. Thus
disguised, they run from house to house, the people trying to avoid them
and to bar their houses against them.(515) The ceremony is probably a
relic of an annual expulsion of devils.

Oftener, however, the expelled demons are not represented at all, but are
understood to be present invisibly in the material and visible vehicle
which conveys them away. Here, again, it will be convenient to distinguish
between occasional and periodical expulsions. We begin with the former.

The vehicle which conveys away the demons may be of various kinds. A
common one is a little ship or boat. Thus, in the southern district of the
island of Ceram, when a whole village suffers from sickness, a small ship
is made and filled with rice, tobacco, eggs, etc., which have been
contributed by all the people. A little sail is hoisted on the ship. When
all is ready, a man calls out in a very loud voice, “O all ye sicknesses,
ye small-poxes, agues, measles, etc., who have visited us so long and
wasted us so sorely, but who now cease to plague us, we have made ready
this ship for you, and we have furnished you with provender sufficient for
the voyage. Ye shall have no lack of food nor of _siri_ nor of _pinang_
nor of tobacco. Depart, and sail away from us directly; never come near us
again, but go to a land which is far from here. Let all the tides and
winds waft you speedily thither, and so convey you thither that for the
time to come we may live sound and well, and that we may never see the sun
rise on you again.” Then ten or twelve men carry the vessel to the shore,
and let it drift away with the land-breeze, feeling convinced that they
are free from sickness for ever, or at least till the next time. If
sickness attacks them again, they are sure it is not the same sickness,
but a different one, which in due time they dismiss in the same manner.
When the demon-laden bark is lost to sight, the bearers return to the
village, whereupon a man cries out, “The sicknesses are now gone,
vanished, expelled, and sailed away.” At this all the people come running
out of their houses, passing the word from one to the other with great
joy, beating on gongs and on tinkling instruments.(516)

Similar ceremonies are commonly resorted to in other East Indian islands.
Thus in Timorlaut, to mislead the demons who are causing sickness, a small
prao, containing the image of a man and provisioned for a long voyage, is
allowed to drift away with wind and tide. As it is being launched, the
people cry, “O sickness, go from here; turn back; what do you here in this
poor land?” Three days after this ceremony a pig is killed, and part of
the flesh is offered to Dudilaa, who lives in the sun. One of the oldest
men says, “Old sir, I beseech you, make well the grandchildren, children,
women, and men, that we may be able to eat pork and rice and to drink
palm-wine. I will keep my promise. Eat your share, and make all the people
in the village well.” If the prao is stranded at any inhabited spot, the
sickness will break out there. Hence a stranded prao excites much alarm
amongst the coast population, and they immediately burn it, because demons
fly from fire.(517) In the island of Buro the prao which carries away the
demons of disease is about twenty feet long, rigged out with sails, oars,
anchor, etc., and well stocked with provisions. For a day and a night the
people beat gongs and drums, and rush about to frighten the demons. Next
morning ten stalwart young men strike the people with branches, which have
been previously dipped in an earthen pot of water. As soon as they have
done so, they run down to the beach, put the branches on board the prao,
launch another prao in great haste, and tow the disease-burdened prao far
out to sea. There they cast it off, and one of them calls out,
“Grandfather Small-pox, go away—go willingly away—go visit another land;
we have made you food ready for the voyage, we have now nothing more to
give.” When they have landed, all the people bathe together in the
sea.(518) In this ceremony the reason for striking the people with the
branches is clearly to rid them of the disease-demons, which are then
supposed to be transferred to the branches. Hence the haste with which the
branches are deposited in the prao and towed away to sea. So in the inland
districts of Ceram, when small-pox or other sickness is raging, the priest
strikes all the houses with consecrated branches, which are then thrown
into the river, to be carried down to the sea;(519) exactly as amongst the
Wotyaks of Russia the sticks which have been used for expelling the devils
from the village are thrown into the river, that the current may sweep the
baleful burden away. In Amboina, for a similar purpose, the whole body of
the patient is rubbed with a live white cock, which is then placed on a
little prao and committed to the waves;(520) and in the Babar archipelago
the bark which is to carry away to sea the sickness of a whole village
contains a bowl of ashes taken from every kitchen in the village, and
another bowl into which all the sick people have spat.(521) The plan of
putting puppets in the boat to represent sick persons, in order to lure
the demons after them, is not uncommon.(522)

The practice of sending away diseases in boats is known outside the limits
of the East Indian Archipelago. Thus when the people of Tikopia, a small
island in the Pacific, to the north of the New Hebrides, were attacked by
an epidemic cough, they made a little canoe and adorned it with flowers.
Four sons of the principal chiefs carried it on their shoulders all round
the island, accompanied by the whole population, some of whom beat the
bushes, while others uttered loud cries. On returning to the spot from
which they had set out, they launched the canoe on the sea.(523) In the
Nicobar Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, when there is much sickness in a
village or no fish are caught, the blame is laid upon the spirits. They
must be propitiated with offerings. All relations and friends are invited,
a huge pig is roasted, and the best of it is eaten, but some parts are
offered to the shades. The heap of offerings remains in front of the house
till it is carried away by the rising tide. Then the priests, their faces
reddened with paint and swine’s blood, pretend to catch the demon of
disease, and, after a hand-to-hand struggle, force him into a model boat,
made of leaves and decked with garlands, which is then towed so far to sea
that neither wind nor tide is likely to drive it back to the shore.(524)

Often the vehicle which carries away the collected demons or ills of a
whole community is an animal or scapegoat. In the Central Provinces of
India, when cholera breaks out in a village, every one retires after
sunset to his house. The priests then parade the streets, taking from the
roof of each house a straw, which is burnt with an offering of rice,
_ghi_, and turmeric, at some shrine to the east of the village. Chickens
daubed with vermilion are driven away in the direction of the smoke, and
are believed to carry the disease with them. If they fail, goats are
tried, and last of all pigs.(525) When cholera is very bad among the
Bhárs, Malláns, and Kurmís of India, they take a goat or a buffalo—in
either case the animal must be a female, and as black as possible—then
they tie some grain, cloves, and red lead in a yellow cloth on its back,
and turn it out of the village. It is conducted beyond the boundary, and
is not allowed to return.(526) The people of the city and cantonments of
Sagar being afflicted with a violent influenza, “I had an application from
the old Queen Dowager of Sagar to allow of a noisy religious procession,
for the purpose of imploring deliverance from this great calamity. Men,
women, and children in this procession were to do their utmost to add to
the noise by ’raising their voices in psalmody,’ beating upon their brass
pots and pans with all their might, and discharging firearms where they
could get them. Before the noisy crowd was to be driven a buffalo, which
had been purchased by general subscription, in order that every family
might participate in the merit. They were to follow it out eight miles,
where it was to be turned loose for any man who would take it. If the
animal returned the disease must return with it, and the ceremony be
performed over again.... It was, however, subsequently determined that the
animal should be a goat; and he was driven before the crowd accordingly. I
have on several occasions been requested to allow of such noisy ceremonies
in cases of epidemics.”(527) Once, when influenza was raging in Pithuria,
a man had a small carriage made, after a plan of his own, for a pair of
scapegoats, which were harnessed to it and driven to a wood at some
distance, where they were let loose. From that hour the disease entirely
ceased in the town. The goats never returned; had they done so, “the
disease must have come back with them.”(528) The idea of the scapegoat is
not uncommon in the hills of the Eastern Ghats. In 1886, during a severe
outbreak of small-pox, the people of Jeypur made “puja” to a goat, marched
it to the Ghats, and let it loose on the plains.(529) In Southern Konkan,
on the appearance of cholera, the villagers went in procession from the
temple to the extreme boundaries of the village, carrying a basket of
cooked rice covered with red powder, a wooden doll representing the
pestilence, and a cock. The head of the cock was cut off at the village
boundary, and the body was thrown away. When cholera was thus transferred
from one village to another, the second village observed the same ceremony
and passed on the scourge to its neighbours, and so on through a number of
villages.(530) When the Aymara Indians were suffering from a plague, they
loaded a llama with the clothes of the plague-stricken people, and drove
the animal into the mountains, hoping that it would take the plague away
with it.(531) Sometimes the scapegoat is a man. Some of the aboriginal
tribes of China, as a protection against pestilence, select a man of great
muscular strength to act the part of scapegoat. Having besmeared his face
with paint, he performs many antics with the view of enticing all
pestilential and noxious influences to attach themselves to him only. He
is assisted by a priest. Finally the scapegoat, hotly pursued by men and
women beating gongs and tom-toms, is driven with great haste out of the
town or village.(532) A Hindu cure for the murrain is to hire a man of the
Chamár caste, turn his face away from the village, brand him with a
red-hot sickle, and let him go out into the jungle, taking the murrain
with him. He must not look back.(533)

The mediate expulsion of evils by means of a scapegoat or other material
vehicle, like the immediate expulsion of them in invisible form, tends to
become periodic, and for a like reason. Thus every year, generally in
March, the people of Leti, Moa, and Lakor send away all their diseases to
sea. They make a prao about six feet long, rig it with sails, oars,
rudder, etc., and every family deposits in it some rice, fruit, a fowl,
two eggs, insects that ravage the fields, etc. Then they let it drift away
to sea, saying, “Take away from here all kinds of sickness, take them to
other islands, to other lands, distribute them in places that lie
eastward, where the sun rises.”(534) The Biajas of Borneo annually send to
sea a little bark laden with the sins and misfortunes of the people. The
crew of any ship that falls in with the ill-omened bark at sea will suffer
all the sorrows with which it is laden.(535) At the beginning of the dry
season, every year, the Nicobar islanders carry the model of a ship
through their villages. The devils are chased out of the huts, and driven
on board the little ship, which is then launched and suffered to sail away
with the wind.(536) At Sucla-Tirtha, in India, an earthen pot containing
the accumulated sins of the people is (annually?) set adrift on the river.
Legend says that the custom originated with a wicked priest who, after
atoning for his guilt by a course of austerities and expiatory ceremonies,
was directed to sail upon the river in a boat with white sails. If the
white sails turned black, it would be a sign that his sins were forgiven
him. They did so, and he joyfully allowed the boat to drift with his sins
to sea.(537) Amongst many of the aboriginal tribes of China, a great
festival is celebrated in the third month of every year. It is held by way
of a general rejoicing over what the people believe to be a total
annihilation of the ills of the past twelve months. This annihilation is
supposed to be effected in the following way. A large earthenware jar
filled with gunpowder, stones, and bits of iron is buried in the earth. A
train of gunpowder, communicating with the jar, is then laid; and a match
being applied, the jar and its contents are blown up. The stones and bits
of iron represent the ills and disasters of the past year, and the
dispersion of them by the explosion is believed to remove the ills and
disasters themselves. The festival is attended with much revelling and
drunkenness.(538) At Old Calabar, in Guinea, the devils are expelled once
every two years. A number of figures called _nabikems_ are made of sticks
and bamboos, and fixed indiscriminately about the town. Some of them
represent human beings, others birds, crocodiles, and so on. After three
or four weeks the devils are expected to take up their abode in these
figures. When the night comes for their general expulsion, the people
feast and sally out in parties, beating at empty corners, and shouting
with all their might. Shots are fired, the _nabikems_ are torn up with
violence, set in flames, and flung into the river. The orgies last till
daybreak, and the town is considered to be rid of evil influences for two
years to come.(539) Mr. George Bogle, the English envoy sent to Tibet by
Warren Hastings, witnessed the celebration of the Tibetan New Year’s Day
at Teshu Lumbo the capital of the Teshu Lama. “The figure of a man,
chalked upon paper, was laid upon the ground. Many strange ceremonies,
which to me who did not understand them appeared whimsical, were performed
about it; and a great fire being kindled in a corner of the court, it was
at length held over it, and being formed of combustibles, vanished with
much smoke and explosion. I was told it was a figure of the devil.”(540)

On one day of the year some of the people of the Western Himalayas take a
dog, intoxicate him with spirits and bhang or hemp, and having fed him
with sweetmeats, lead him round the village and let him loose. They then
chase and kill him with sticks and stones, and believe that, when they
have done so, no disease or misfortune will visit the village during the
year.(541) In some parts of Breadalbane it was formerly the custom on New
Year’s Day to take a dog to the door, give him a bit of bread, and drive
him out, saying, “Get away you dog! Whatever death of men, or loss of
cattle would happen in this house to the end of the present year, may it
all light on your head!”(542) It appears that the white dogs annually
sacrificed by the Iroquois at their New Year Festival are, or have been,
regarded as scapegoats. According to Mr. J. V. H. Clark, who witnessed the
ceremony in January 1841, on the first day of the festival all the fires
in the village were extinguished, the ashes scattered to the winds, and a
new fire was kindled with flint and steel. On a subsequent day, men
dressed in fantastic costumes went round the village, gathering the sins
of the people. On the morning of the last day of the festival, two white
dogs, decorated with red paint, wampum, feathers, and ribbons were led
out. They were soon strangled, and hung on a ladder. Firing and yelling
succeeded, and half an hour later the dogs were taken into a house, “where
the peoples’ sins were transferred to them.” The dogs were afterwards
burnt on a pyre of wood.(543) According to the Rev. Mr. Kirkland, who
wrote last century, the ashes of the pyre upon which one of the white dogs
was burned were carried through the village and sprinkled at the door of
every house.(544) Formerly, however, as we have seen, the Iroquois
expulsion of evils was immediate and not by scapegoat.(545) The Jews
annually laid all the sins of the people upon the head of a goat and sent
it away into the wilderness.(546)

The scapegoat upon whom the sins of the people are periodically laid, may
also be a human being. At Onitsha, on the Quorra River, two human beings
are annually sacrificed to take away the sins of the land. The victims are
purchased by public subscription. All persons who, during the past year,
have fallen into gross sins, such as incendiarism, theft, adultery,
witchcraft, etc. are expected to contribute 28 _ngugas_, or a little over
£2. The money thus collected is taken into the interior of the country and
expended in the purchase of two sickly persons “to be offered as a
sacrifice for all these abominable crimes—one for the land and one for the
river.” A man from a neighbouring town is hired to put them to death. The
sacrifice of one of these victims was witnessed by the Rev. J. C. Taylor
on 27th February 1858. The sufferer was a woman, about nineteen or twenty
years of age. She was dragged alive along the ground, face downwards, from
the king’s house to the river, a distance of two miles. The crowds who
accompanied her cried “Wickedness! wickedness!” The intention was “to take
away the iniquities of the land. The body was dragged along in a merciless
manner, as if the weight of all their wickedness was thus carried
away.”(547) In Siam it was formerly the custom on one day of the year to
single out a woman broken down by debauchery, and carry her on a litter
through all the streets to the music of drums and hautboys. The mob
insulted her and pelted her with dirt; and after having carried her
through the whole city, they threw her on a dunghill or a hedge of thorns
outside the ramparts, forbidding her ever to enter the walls again. They
believed that the woman thus drew upon herself all the malign influences
of the air and of evil spirits.(548) The people of Nias offer either a red
horse or a buffalo as a public sacrifice to purify the land and obtain the
favour of the gods. Formerly, it is said, a man was bound to the same
stake as the buffalo, and when the animal was killed, the man was driven
away; no one might receive him, converse with him, or give him food.(549)
Doubtless he was supposed to carry away the sins and misfortunes of the
people.

In Tibet the ceremony of the scapegoat is marked by some peculiar
features. The Tibetan New Year begins with the new moon, which appears
about 15th February. For twenty-three days afterwards the government of
Lhásá, the capital, is taken out of the hands of the ordinary rulers and
entrusted to the monk of the Debang monastery who offers to pay the
highest sum for the privilege. The successful bidder is called the Jalno,
and he announces the fact in person through the streets of Lhásá, bearing
a silver stick. Monks from all the neighbouring monasteries and temples
assemble to pay him homage. The Jalno exercises his authority in the most
arbitrary manner for his own benefit, as all the fines which he exacts are
his by purchase. The profit he makes is about ten times the amount of the
purchase money. His men go about the streets in order to discover any
conduct on the part of the inhabitants that can be found fault with. Every
house in Lhásá is taxed at this time, and the slightest fault is punished
with unsparing rigour by fines. This severity of the Jalno drives all
working classes out of the city till the twenty-three days are over.
Meantime, all the priests flock from the neighbourhood to the
Máchindránáth temple, where they perform religious ceremonies. The temple
is a very large one, standing in the centre of the city, surrounded by
bazaars and shops. The idols in it are richly inlaid with gold and
precious stones. Twenty-four days after the Jalno has ceased to have
authority, he assumes it again, and for ten days acts in the same
arbitrary manner as before. On the first of the ten days the priests
assemble as before at the Máchindránáth temple, pray to the gods to
prevent sickness and other evils among the people, “and, as a
peace-offering, sacrifice one man. The man is not killed purposely, but
the ceremony he undergoes often proves fatal.(550) Grain is thrown against
his head, and his face is painted half white, half black.” On the tenth
day, all the troops in Lhásá march to the temple and form in line before
it. The victim is brought forth from the temple and receives small
donations from the assembled multitude. He then throws dice with the
Jalno. If the victim wins, much evil is foreboded; but if the Jalno wins,
there is great rejoicing, for it is then believed that the victim has been
accepted by the gods to bear all the sins of the people of Lhásá.
Thereupon his face is painted half white and half black, a leathern coat
is put on him, and he is marched to the walls of the city, followed by the
whole populace, hooting, shouting, and firing volleys after him. When he
is driven outside the city, the people return, and the victim is carried
to the Sáme monastery. Should he die shortly afterwards, the people say it
is an auspicious sign; but if not, he is kept a prisoner at the monastery
for a whole year, after which he is allowed to return to Lhásá.(551)

Human scapegoats, as we shall see presently, were well known in classical
antiquity, and even in mediæval Europe the custom seems not to have been
wholly extinct. In the town of Halberstadt in Thüringen there was a church
which was said to have been founded by Charlemagne. In this church every
year a man was chosen, who was believed to be stained with heinous sins.
On the first day of Lent he was brought to the church, dressed in mourning
garb, with his head muffled up. At the close of the service he was turned
out of the church. During the forty days of Lent he perambulated the city
barefoot, neither entering the churches nor speaking to any one. The
canons took it in turn to feed him. After midnight he was allowed to sleep
on the streets. On the day before Good Friday, after the consecration of
the holy oil, he was readmitted to the church and absolved from his sins.
The people gave him money. He was called Adam, and was now believed to be
in a state of innocence.(552) At Entlebuch in Switzerland, down to the
close of last century, the custom of annually expelling a scapegoat was
preserved in the ceremony of driving “Posterli” from the village into the
lands of the neighbouring village. “Posterli” was represented by a lad
disguised as an old witch or as a goat or an ass. Amid a deafening noise
of horns, clarionets, bells, whips, etc. he was driven out. Sometimes
“Posterli” was represented by a puppet, which was drawn in a sledge and
left in a corner of the neighbouring village. The ceremony took place on
the Thursday evening of the last week but one before Christmas.(553)

Sometimes the scapegoat is a divine animal. The people of Malabar share
the Hindu reverence for the cow, to kill and eat which “they esteem to be
a crime as heinous as homicide or wilful murder.” Nevertheless “the
Bramans transfer the sins of the people into one or more Cows, which are
then carry’d away, both the Cows and the Sins wherewith these Beasts are
charged, to what place the Braman shall appoint.”(554) When the ancient
Egyptians sacrificed a bull, they invoked upon its head all the evils that
might otherwise befall themselves and the land of Egypt, and thereupon
they either sold the bull’s head to the Greeks or cast it into the
river.(555) Now, it cannot be said that in the times known to us the
Egyptians worshipped bulls in general, for they seem to have commonly
killed and eaten them.(556) But a good many circumstances point to the
conclusion that originally all cattle, bulls as well as cows, were held
sacred by the Egyptians. For not only were all cows esteemed holy by them
and never sacrificed, but even bulls might not be sacrificed unless they
had certain natural marks; a priest examined every bull before it was
sacrificed; if it had the proper marks, he put his seal on the animal in
token that it might be sacrificed; and if a man sacrificed a bull which
had not been sealed, he was put to death. Moreover, the worship of the
black bulls Apis and Mnevis, especially the former, played an important
part in Egyptian religion; all bulls that died a natural death were
carefully buried in the suburbs of the cities, and their bones were
afterwards collected from all parts of Egypt and buried in a single spot;
and at the sacrifice of a bull in the great rites of Isis all the
worshippers beat their breasts and mourned.(557) On the whole, then, we
are perhaps entitled to infer that bulls were originally, as cows were
always, esteemed sacred by the Egyptians, and that the slain bull upon
whose head they laid the misfortunes of the people was once a divine
scapegoat. It seems not improbable that the lamb annually slain by the
Madis of Central Africa is a divine scapegoat, and the same supposition
may partly explain the Zuni sacrifice of the turtle.(558)

Lastly, the scapegoat may be a divine man. Thus, in November the Gonds of
India worship Ghansyam Deo, the protector of the crops, and at the
festival the god himself is said to descend on the head of one of the
worshippers, who is suddenly seized with a kind of fit and, after
staggering about, rushes off into the jungle, where it is believed that,
if left to himself, he would die mad. As it is, he is brought back, but
does not recover his senses for one or two days. “The idea is, that one
man is thus singled out as a scapegoat for the sins of the rest of the
village.”(559) In the temple of the Moon the Albanians of the Eastern
Caucasus kept a number of sacred slaves, of whom many were inspired and
prophesied. When one of these men exhibited more than usual symptoms of
inspiration and wandered solitary up and down the woods, like the Gond in
the jungle, the high priest had him bound with a sacred chain and
maintained him in luxury for a year. At the end of the year he was
anointed with unguents and led forth to be sacrificed. A man whose
business it was to slay these human victims and to whom practice had given
dexterity, advanced from the crowd and thrust a sacred spear into the
victim’s side, piercing his heart. From the manner in which the slain man
fell, omens were drawn as to the welfare of the commonwealth. Then the
body was carried to a certain spot where all the people stood upon it as a
purificatory ceremony.(560) This last circumstance clearly indicates that
the sins of the people were transferred to the victim, just as the Jewish
priest transferred the sins of the people to the scapegoat by laying his
hand on the animal’s head; and since the man was believed to be possessed
by the divine spirit, we have here an undoubted example of a man-god slain
to take away the sins and misfortunes of the people.

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

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

In the third place, it is to be observed that this public and periodic
expulsion of devils is commonly preceded or followed by a period of
general licence, during which the ordinary restraints of society are
thrown aside, and all offences, short of the gravest, are allowed to pass
unpunished. In Guinea and Tonquin the period of licence precedes the
public expulsion of demons; and the suspension of the ordinary government
in Lhásá previous to the expulsion of the scapegoat is perhaps a relic of
a similar period of universal licence. Amongst the Hos the period of
licence follows the expulsion of the devil. Amongst the Iroquois it hardly
appears whether it preceded or followed the banishment of evils. In any
case, the extraordinary relaxation of all ordinary rules of conduct on
such occasions is doubtless to be explained by the general clearance of
evils which precedes or follows it. On the one hand, when a general
riddance of evil and absolution from all sin is in immediate prospect, men
are encouraged to give the rein to their passions, trusting that the
coming ceremony will wipe out the score which they are running up so fast.
On the other hand, when the ceremony has just taken place, men’s minds are
freed from the oppressive sense, under which they generally labour, of an
atmosphere surcharged with devils; and in the first revulsion of joy they
overleap the limits commonly imposed by custom and morality. When the
ceremony takes place at harvest-time, the elation of feeling which it
excites is further stimulated by the state of physical wellbeing produced
by an abundant supply of food.(561)

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

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

The use of the divinity as a scapegoat clears up the ambiguity which, as
we saw, appeared to hang about the European folk-custom of “carrying out
Death.”(562) Grounds have been shown for believing that in this ceremony
the so-called Death was originally the spirit of vegetation, who was
annually slain in spring, in order that he might come to life again with
all the vigour of youth. But, as we saw, there are certain features in the
ceremony which are not explicable on this hypothesis alone. Such are the
marks of joy with which the effigy of Death is carried out to be buried or
burnt, and the fear and abhorrence of it manifested by the bearers. But
these features become at once intelligible if we suppose that the Death
was not merely the dying god of vegetation, but also a public scapegoat,
upon whom were laid all the evils that had afflicted the people during the
past year. Joy on such an occasion is natural and appropriate; and if the
dying god appears to be the object of that fear and abhorrence which are
properly due not to himself, but to the sins and misfortunes with which he
is laden, this arises merely from the difficulty of distinguishing or at
least of marking the distinction between the bearer and the burden. When
the burden is of a baleful character, the bearer of it will be feared and
shunned just as much as if he were himself instinct with those dangerous
properties of which, as it happens, he is only the vehicle. Similarly we
have seen that disease-laden and sin-laden boats are dreaded and shunned
by East Indian peoples.(563) Again, the view that in these popular customs
the Death is a scapegoat as well as a representative of the divine spirit
of vegetation derives some support from the circumstance that its
expulsion is always celebrated in spring and chiefly by Slavonic peoples.
For the Slavonic year began in spring;(564) and thus, in one of its
aspects, the ceremony of “carrying out Death” would be an example of the
widespread custom of expelling the accumulated evils of the past year
before entering on a new one.

We are now prepared to notice the use of the scapegoat in classical
antiquity. Every year on the 14th of March a man clad in skins was led in
procession through the streets of Rome, beaten with long white rods, and
driven out of the city. He was called Mamurius Veturius,(565) that is,
“the old Mars,”(566) and as the ceremony took place on the day preceding
the first full moon of the old Roman year (which began on 1st March), the
skin-clad man must have represented the Mars of the past year, who was
driven out at the beginning of a new one. Now Mars was originally not a
god of war but of vegetation. For it was to Mars that the Roman husbandman
prayed for the prosperity of his corn and his vines, his fruit-trees and
his copses;(567) it was to Mars that the priestly college of the Arval
Brothers, whose business it was to sacrifice for the growth of the
crops,(568) addressed their petitions almost exclusively;(569) and it was
to Mars, as we saw,(570) that a horse was sacrificed in October to secure
an abundant harvest. Moreover, it was to Mars, under his title of “Mars of
the woods” (_Mars Silvanus_) that farmers offered sacrifice for the
welfare of their cattle.(571) We have already seen that cattle are
commonly supposed to be under the special patronage of tree-gods.(572)
Once more, the fact that the vernal month of March was dedicated to Mars
seems to point him out as the deity of the sprouting vegetation. Thus the
Roman custom of expelling the old Mars at the beginning of the New Year in
spring is identical with the Slavonic custom of “carrying out Death,” if
the view here taken of the latter custom is correct. The similarity of the
Roman and Slavonic customs has been already remarked by scholars, who
appear, however, to have taken Mamurius Veturius and the corresponding
figures in the Slavonic ceremonies to be representatives of the old year
rather than of the old god of vegetation.(573) It is possible that
ceremonies of this kind may have come to be thus interpreted in later
times even by the people who practised them. But the personification of a
period of time is too abstract an idea to be primitive. However, in the
Roman, as in the Slavonic, ceremony, the representative of the god appears
to have been treated not only as a deity of vegetation but also as a
scapegoat. His expulsion implies this; for there is no reason why the god
of vegetation, as such, should be expelled the city. But it is otherwise
if he is also a scapegoat; it then becomes necessary to drive him beyond
the boundaries, that he may carry his sorrowful burden away to other
lands. And, in fact, Mamurius Veturius appears to have been driven away to
the land of the Oscans, the enemies of Rome.(574)

The ancient Greeks were also familiar with the use of a human scapegoat.
At Plutarch’s native town of Chaeronea in Boeotia, there was a ceremony of
this kind performed by the chief magistrate at the Town Hall, and by each
householder at his own home. It was called the “expulsion of hunger.” A
slave was beaten with rods of the _agnus castus_, and turned out of doors
with the words, “Out with hunger, and in with wealth and health.” When
Plutarch held the office of chief magistrate of his native town he
performed this ceremony at the Town Hall, and he has recorded the
discussion to which the custom afterwards gave rise.(575) The ceremony
closely resembles the Japanese, Hindoo, and Highland customs already
described.(576)

But in civilised Greece the custom of the scapegoat took darker forms than
the innocent rite over which the amiable and pious Plutarch presided.
Whenever Marseilles, one of the busiest and most brilliant of Greek
colonies, was ravaged by a plague, a man of the poorer classes used to
offer himself as a scapegoat. For a whole year he was maintained at the
public expense, being fed on choice and pure food. At the expiry of the
year he was dressed in sacred garments, decked with holy branches, and led
through the whole city, while prayers were uttered that all the evils of
the people might fall on his head. He was then cast out of the city.(577)
The Athenians regularly maintained a number of degraded and useless beings
at the public expense; and when any calamity, such as plague, drought, or
famine befell the city, they sacrificed two of these outcasts as
scapegoats. One of the victims was sacrificed for the men and the other
for the women. The former wore round his neck a string of black, the
latter a string of white figs. Sometimes, it seems, the victim slain on
behalf of the women was a woman. They were led about the city and then
sacrificed, apparently by being stoned to death outside the city.(578) But
such sacrifices were not confined to extraordinary occasions of public
calamity; it appears that every year, at the festival of the Thargelia in
May, two victims, one for the men and one for the women, were led out of
Athens and stoned to death.(579)

From the Lover’s Leap, a white bluff at the southern end of their island,
the Leucadians used annually to hurl a criminal into the sea as a
scapegoat. But to lighten his fall they fastened live birds and feathers
to him, and a flotilla of small boats waited below to catch him and convey
him beyond the boundary.(580) Doubtless these humane precautions were a
mitigation of an earlier custom of flinging the scapegoat into the sea to
drown. The custom of the scapegoat as practised by the Greeks of Asia
Minor in the sixth century B.C. was as follows. When a city suffered from
plague, famine, or other public calamity, an ugly or deformed person was
chosen to take upon himself all the evils by which the city was afflicted.
He was brought to a suitable place where dried figs, a barley loaf, and
cheese were put into his hand. These he ate. Then he was beaten seven
times upon his genital organs with squills and branches of the wild fig
and other wild trees. Afterwards he was burned on a pyre constructed of
the wood of forest trees; and his ashes were cast into the sea.(581) A
similar custom appears to have been annually celebrated by the Asiatic
Greeks at the harvest festival of the Thargelia.(582)

In the ritual just described the beating of the victim with squills,
branches of the wild fig, etc., cannot have been intended to aggravate his
sufferings, otherwise any stick would have been good enough to beat him
with. The true meaning of this part of the ceremony has been explained by
W. Mannhardt.(583) He points out that the ancients attributed to squills a
magical power of averting evil influences, and accordingly hung them up at
the doors of their houses and made use of them in purificatory rites.(584)
Hence the Arcadian custom of beating the image of Pan with squills at a
festival or whenever the hunters returned empty-handed,(585) must have
been meant, not to punish the god, but to purify him from the harmful
influences which were impeding him in the exercise of his divine functions
as a god who should supply the hunter with game. Similarly the object of
beating the human scapegoat on the genital organs with squills, etc., must
have been to release his reproductive energies from any restraint or spell
under which they might be laid by demoniacal or other malignant agency;
and as the Thargelia at which he was annually sacrificed was an early
harvest festival,(586) we must recognise in him a representative of the
creative and fertilising god of vegetation. The representative of the god
was annually slain for the purpose I have indicated, that of maintaining
the divine life in perpetual vigour, untainted by the weakness of age; and
before he was put to death it was not unnatural to stimulate his
reproductive powers in order that these might be transmitted in full
activity to his successor, the new god or new embodiment of the old god,
who was doubtless supposed immediately to take the place of the one
slain.(587) Similar reasoning would lead to a similar treatment of the
scapegoat on special occasions, such as drought or famine. If the crops
did not answer to the expectation of the husbandman, this would be
attributed to some failure in the generative powers of the god whose
function it was to produce the fruits of the earth. It might be thought he
was under a spell or was growing old and feeble. Accordingly he was slain
in the person of his representative, with all the ceremonies already
described, in order that, born young again, he might infuse his own
youthful vigour into the stagnant energies of nature. On the same
principle we can understand why Mamurius Veturius was beaten with rods,
why the slave at the Chaeronean ceremony was beaten with the _agnus
castus_ (a tree to which magical properties were ascribed),(588) why the
effigy of Death in north Europe is assailed with sticks and stones, and
why at Babylon the criminal who played the god was scourged before he was
crucified. The purpose of the scourging was not to intensify the agony of
the divine sufferer, but on the contrary to dispel any malignant
influences by which at the supreme moment he might conceivably be beset.

The interpretation here given to the custom of beating the human scapegoat
with certain plants is supported by many analogies. With the same
intention some of the Brazilian Indians beat themselves on the genital
organs with an aquatic plant, the white _aninga_, three days before or
after the new moon.(589) We have already had examples of the custom of
beating sick people with the leaves of certain plants or with branches in
order to rid them of the noxious influences.(590) At the autumn festival
in Peru people used to strike each other with torches saying, “Let all
harm go away.”(591) Indians of the Quixos, in South America, before they
set out on a long hunting expedition, cause their wives to whip them with
nettles, believing that this renders them fleeter and helps them to
overtake the peccaries. They resort to the same proceeding as a cure for
sickness.(592) At Mowat in New Guinea small boys are beaten lightly with
sticks during December “to make them grow strong and hardy.”(593) In
Central Europe a similar custom is very commonly observed in spring. On
the 1st of March the Albanians strike men and beasts with cornel branches,
believing that this is very good for their health.(594) On Good Friday and
the two previous days people in Croatia and Slavonia take rods with them
to church, and when the service is over they beat each other “fresh and
healthy.”(595) In some parts of Russia people returning from the church on
Palm Sunday beat the children and servants who have stayed at home with
palm branches, saying, “Sickness into the forest, health into the
bones.”(596) In Germany the custom is widely known as _Schmeckostern_,
being observed at Eastertide. People beat each other, especially with
fresh green twigs of the birch. The beating is supposed to bring good
luck; the person beaten will, it is believed, be free of vermin during the
summer, or will have no pains in his back or his legs for a year.(597)

If the view here taken of the Greek scapegoat is correct, it obviates an
objection which might otherwise be brought against the main argument of
this chapter. To the theory that the priest of Nemi was slain as a
representative of the spirit of the grove, it might have been objected
that such a custom has no analogy in classical antiquity. But reasons have
now been given for believing that the human being periodically and
occasionally slain by the Asiatic Greeks was regularly treated as an
embodiment of a divinity. Probably the persons whom the Athenians kept to
be sacrificed were similarly treated as divine. That they were social
outcasts did not matter. On the primitive view a man is not chosen to be
the mouth-piece or embodiment of a god on account of his high moral
qualities or social standing. The divine afflatus descends equally on the
good and the bad, the lofty and the lowly. If then the civilised Greeks of
Asia and Athens habitually sacrificed men whom they regarded as incarnate
gods, there can be no inherent improbability in the supposition that at
the dawn of history a similar custom was observed by the semi-barbarous
Latins in the Arician Grove.

§ 16.—Killing the god in Mexico.

But the religion of ancient Mexico, as it was found and described by the
Spanish conquerors in the sixteenth century, offers perhaps the closest
parallels to the rule of the Arician priesthood, as I conceive that rule
to have been originally observed. Certainly nowhere does the custom of
killing the human representative of a god appear to have been carried out
so systematically and on so extensive a scale as in Mexico. “They tooke a
captive,” says Acosta, “such as they thought good; and afore they did
sacrifice him unto their idolls, they gave him the name of the idoll, to
whom hee should be sacrificed, and apparelled him with the same ornaments
like their idoll, saying that he did represent the same idoll. And during
the time that this representation lasted, which was for a yeere in some
feasts, in others six moneths, and in others lesse, they reverenced and
worshipped him in the same maner as the proper idoll; and in the meane
time he did eate, drincke, and was merry. When hee went through the
streetes the people came forth to worship him, and every one brought him
an almes, with children and sicke folkes, that he might cure them, and
bless them, suffering him to doe all things at his pleasure, onely hee was
accompanied with tenne or twelve men lest he should flie. And he (to the
end he might be reverenced as he passed) sometimes sounded upon a small
flute, that the people might prepare to worship him. The feast being come,
and hee growne fatte, they killed him, opened him, and eat him, making a
solempne sacrifice of him.”(598) For example, at the annual festival of
the great god Tezcatlipoca, which fell about Easter or a few days later, a
young man was chosen to be the living image of Tezcatlipoca for a whole
year. He had to be of unblemished body, and he was carefully trained to
sustain his lofty role with becoming grace and dignity. During the year he
was lapped in luxury, and the king himself took care that the future
victim was apparelled in gorgeous attire, “for already he esteemed him as
a god.” Attended by eight pages clad in the royal livery, the young man
roamed the streets of the capital day and night at his pleasure, carrying
flowers and playing the flute. All who saw him fell on their knees before
him and adored him, and he graciously acknowledged their homage. Twenty
days before the festival at which he was to be sacrificed, four damsels,
delicately nurtured, and bearing the names of four goddesses, were given
him to be his brides. For five days before the sacrifice divine honours
were showered on him more abundantly than ever. The king remained in his
palace, while the whole court went after the destined victim. Everywhere
there were solemn banquets and balls. On the last day the young man, still
attended by his pages, was ferried across the lake in a covered barge to a
small and lonely temple, which, like the Mexican temples in general, rose
in the form of a pyramid. As he ascended the stairs of the temple he broke
at every step one of the flutes on which he had played in the days of his
glory. On reaching the summit he was seized and held down on a block of
stone, while a priest cut open his breast with a stone knife, and plucking
out his heart, offered it to the sun. His head was hung among the skulls
of previous victims, and his legs and arms were cooked and prepared for
the table of the lords. His place was immediately filled up by another
young man, who for a year was treated with the same profound respect, and
at the end of it shared the same fate.(599)

The idea that the god thus slain in the person of his representative comes
to life again immediately, was graphically represented in the Mexican
ritual by skinning the slain man-god and clothing in his skin a living
man, who thus became the new representative of the godhead. Thus at an
annual festival a woman was sacrificed who represented Toci or the Mother
of the Gods. She was dressed with the ornaments, and bore the name of the
goddess, whose living image she was believed to be. After being feasted
and diverted with sham fights for several days, she was taken at midnight
to the summit of a temple, and beheaded on the shoulders of a man. The
body was immediately flayed, and one of the priests, clothing himself in
the skin, became the representative of the goddess Toci. The skin of the
woman’s thigh was removed separately, and a young man who represented the
god Cinteotl, the son of the goddess Toci, wrapt it round his face like a
mask. Various ceremonies then followed, in which the two men, clad in the
woman’s skin, played the parts respectively of the god and goddess.(600)
Again, at the annual festival of the god Totec, a number of captives
having been killed and skinned, a priest clothed himself in one of their
skins, and thus became the image of the god Totec. Then wearing the
ornaments of the god—a crown of feathers, golden necklaces and ear-rings,
scarlet shoes, etc.—he was enthroned, and received offerings of the first
fruits and first flowers of the season, together with bunches of the maize
which had been kept for seed.(601) Every fourth year the Quauhtitlans
offered sacrifices in honour of the god of fire. On the eve of the
festival they sacrificed two slaves, skinned them, and took out their
thigh bones. Next day two priests clothed themselves in the skins, took
the bones in their hands, and with solemn steps and dismal howlings
descended the stairs of the temple. The people, who were assembled in
crowds below, called out, “Behold, there come our gods.”(602)

Thus it appears that human sacrifices of the sort I suppose to have
prevailed at Aricia were, as a matter of fact, systematically offered on a
large scale by a people whose level of culture was probably not inferior,
if indeed it was not distinctly superior, to that occupied by the Italian
races at the early period to which the origin of the Arician priesthood
must be referred. The positive and indubitable evidence of the prevalence
of such sacrifices in one part of the world may reasonably be allowed to
strengthen the probability of their prevalence in places for which the
evidence is less full and trustworthy. Taken all together, the evidence
affords a fair presumption that the custom of killing men whom their
worshippers regard as divine has prevailed in many parts of the world.
Whether the general explanation which I have offered of that custom is
adequate, and whether the rule that the priest of Aricia had to die a
violent death is, as I have tried to show, a particular instance of the
general custom, are questions which I must now leave to the judgment of
the reader.

CHAPTER IV—THE GOLDEN BOUGH.

“Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum.”—FAUST.

§ 1.—Between heaven and earth.

At the outset of this book two questions were proposed for answer; Why had
the priest of Nemi (Aricia) to slay his predecessor? And why, before doing
so, had he to pluck the Golden Bough? Of these two questions the first has
now been answered. The priest of Nemi, if I am right, embodied in himself
the spirit, primarily, of the woods and, secondarily, of vegetable life in
general. Hence, according as he was well or ill, the woods, the flowers,
and the fields were believed to flourish or fade; and if he were to die of
sickness or old age, the plant world, it was supposed, would
simultaneously perish. Therefore it was necessary that this priest of the
woodlands, this sylvan deity incarnate in a man, should be put to death
while he was still in the full bloom of his divine manhood, in order that
his sacred life, transmitted in unabated force to his successor, might
renew its youth, and thus by successive transmissions through a perpetual
line of vigorous incarnations might remain eternally fresh and young, a
pledge and security that the buds and blossoms of spring, the verdure of
summer woods, and the mellow glories of autumn would never fail.

But we have still to ask, What was the Golden Bough? and why had each
candidate for the Arician priesthood to pluck it before he could slay the
priest? These questions I will now try to answer.

It will be well to begin by noticing two of those rules or taboos by
which, as we have seen, the life of divine kings or priests is regulated.
The first of the rules to which I desire to call the reader’s attention is
that the divine personage may not touch the ground with his foot. This
rule was observed by the Mikado of Japan and by the supreme pontiff of the
Zapotecs in Mexico. The latter “profaned his sanctity if he so much as
touched the ground with his foot.”(603) For the Mikado to touch the ground
with his foot was a shameful degradation; indeed, in the sixteenth
century, it was enough to deprive him of his office. Outside his palace he
was carried on men’s shoulders; within it he walked on exquisitely wrought
mats.(604) The king and queen of Tahiti might not touch the ground
anywhere but within their hereditary domains; for the ground on which they
trod became sacred. In travelling from place to place they were carried on
the shoulders of sacred men. They were always accompanied by several pairs
of these sacred men; and when it became necessary to change their bearers,
the king and queen vaulted on to the shoulders of their new bearers
without letting their feet touch the ground.(605) It was an evil omen if
the king of Dosuma touched the ground, and he had to perform an expiatory
ceremony.(606) The king of Persia was never seen on foot outside his
palace.(607)

The second rule to be here noted is that the sun may not shine upon the
divine person. This rule was observed both by the Mikado and by the
pontiff of the Zapotecs. The latter “was looked upon as a god whom the
earth was not worthy to hold, nor the sun to shine upon.”(608) The
Japanese would not allow that the Mikado “should expose his sacred person
to the open air, and the sun is not thought worthy to shine on his
head.”(609) The heir to the throne of Bogota in Colombia, South America,
had to undergo a severe training from the age of sixteen; he lived in
complete retirement in a temple, where he might not see the sun nor eat
salt nor converse with a woman.(610) The heir to the kingdom of Sogamoso
in Colombia, before succeeding to the crown, had to fast for seven years
in the temple, being shut up in the dark and not allowed to see the sun or
light.(611) The prince who was to become Inca of Peru had to fast for a
month without seeing light.(612)

Now it is remarkable that these two rules—not to touch the ground and not
to see the sun—are observed either separately or conjointly by girls at
puberty in many parts of the world. Thus amongst the negroes of Loango
girls at puberty are confined in separate huts, and they may not touch the
ground with any part of their bare body.(613) Amongst the Zulus and
kindred tribes of South Africa, when the first signs of puberty show
themselves “while a girl is walking, gathering wood, or working in the
field, she runs to the river and hides herself among the reeds for the day
so as not to be seen by men. She covers her head carefully with her
blanket that the sun may not shine on it and shrivel her up into a
withered skeleton, assured result from exposure to the sun’s beams. After
dark she returns to her home and is secluded” in a hut for some time.(614)

In New Ireland girls are confined for four or five years in small cages,
being kept in the dark and not allowed to set foot on the ground. The
custom has been thus described by an eye-witness. “I heard from a teacher
about some strange custom connected with some of the young girls here, so
I asked the chief to take me to the house where they were. The house was
about twenty-five feet in length, and stood in a reed and bamboo
enclosure, across the entrance to which a bundle of dried grass was
suspended to show that it was strictly ‘_tabu_’. Inside the house were
three conical structures about seven or eight feet in height, and about
ten or twelve feet in circumference at the bottom, and for about four feet
from the ground, at which point they tapered off to a point at the top.
These cages were made of the broad leaves of the pandanus-tree, sewn quite
close together so that no light, and little or no air could enter. On one
side of each is an opening which is closed by a double door of plaited
cocoa-nut tree and pandanus-tree leaves. About three feet from the ground
there is a stage of bamboos which forms the floor. In each of these cages
we were told there was a young woman confined, each of whom had to remain
for at least four or five years, without ever being allowed to go outside
the house. I could scarcely credit the story when I heard it; the whole
thing seemed too horrible to be true. I spoke to the chief, and told him
that I wished to see the inside of the cages, and also to see the girls
that I might make them a present of a few beads. He told me that it was
‘_tabu_,’ forbidden for any men but their own relations to look at them;
but I suppose the promised beads acted as an inducement, and so he sent
away for some old lady who had charge, and who alone is allowed to open
the doors.... She had to undo the door when the chief told her to do so,
and then the girls peeped out at us, and, when told to do so, they held
out their hands for the beads. I, however, purposely sat at some distance
away and merely held out the beads to them, as I wished to draw them quite
outside, that I might inspect the inside of the cages. This desire of mine
gave rise to another difficulty, as these girls were not allowed to put
their feet to the ground all the time they were confined in these places.
However, they wished to get the beads, and so the old lady had to go
outside and collect a lot of pieces of wood and bamboo, which she placed
on the ground, and then going to one of the girls, she helped her down and
held her hand as she stepped from one piece of wood to another until she
came near enough to get the beads I held out to her. I then went to
inspect the inside of the cage out of which she had come, but could
scarcely put my head inside of it, the atmosphere was so hot and stifling.
It was clean and contained nothing but a few short lengths of bamboo for
holding water. There was only room for the girl to sit or lie down in a
crouched position on the bamboo platform, and when the doors are shut it
must be nearly or quite dark inside. The girls are never allowed to come
out except once a day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl placed close to
each cage. They say that they perspire profusely. They are placed in these
stifling cages when quite young, and must remain there until they are
young women, when they are taken out and have each a great marriage feast
provided for them.”(615)

In some parts of New Guinea “daughters of chiefs, when they are about
twelve or thirteen years of age, are kept indoors for two or three years,
never being allowed, under any pretence, to descend from the house, and
the house is so shaded that the sun cannot shine on them.”(616) Among the
Ot Danoms of Borneo girls at the age of eight or ten years are shut up in
a little room or cell of the house and cut off from all intercourse with
the world for a long time. The cell, like the rest of the house, is raised
on piles above the ground, and is lit by a single small window opening on
a lonely place, so that the girl is in almost total darkness. She may not
leave the room on any pretext whatever, not even for the most necessary
purposes. None of her family may see her all the time she is shut up, but
a single slave woman is appointed to wait on her. During her lonely
confinement, which often lasts seven years, the girl occupies herself in
weaving mats or with other handiwork. Her bodily growth is stunted by the
long want of exercise, and when, on attaining womanhood, she is brought
out, her complexion is pale and wax-like. She is now shown the sun, the
earth, the water, the trees, and the flowers, as if she were newly born.
Then a great feast is made, a slave is killed, and the girl is smeared
with his blood.(617) In Ceram girls at puberty were formerly shut up by
themselves in a hut which was kept dark.(618)

Amongst the Aht Indians of Vancouver Island, when girls reach puberty they
are placed in a sort of gallery in the house “and are there surrounded
completely with mats, so that neither the sun nor any fire can be seen. In
this cage they remain for several days. Water is given them, but no food.
The longer a girl remains in this retirement the greater honour is it to
the parents; but she is disgraced for life if it is known that she has
seen fire or the sun during this initiatory ordeal.”(619) Amongst the
Thlinkeet or Kolosh Indians of Alaska, when a girl shows signs of
womanhood she is shut up in a little hut or cage, which is completely
blocked up with the exception of a small air-hole. In this dark and filthy
abode she had formerly to remain a year, without fire, exercise, or
associates. Her food was put in at the small window; she had to drink out
of the wing-bone of a white-headed eagle. The time has now been reduced,
at least in some places, to six months. The girl has to wear a sort of hat
with long flaps, that her gaze may not pollute the sky; for she is thought
unfit for the sun to shine upon.(620) Amongst the Koniags, an Esquimaux
people of Alaska, girls at puberty were placed in small huts in which they
had to remain on their hands and knees for six months; then the hut was
enlarged enough to let them kneel upright, and they had to remain in this
posture for six months more.(621)

When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time, the
Indians of the Rio de la Plata used to sew her up in her hammock as if she
were dead, leaving only a small hole for her mouth to allow her to
breathe. In this state she continued so long as the symptoms lasted.(622)
In similar circumstances the Chiriguanos of Bolivia hoisted the girl in
her hammock to the roof, where she stayed for a month; the second month
the hammock was let half way down from the roof; and in the third month
old women, armed with sticks, entered the hut and ran about striking
everything they met, saying they were hunting the snake that had wounded
the girl. This they did till one of the women gave out that she had killed
the snake.(623) Amongst some of the Brazilian Indians, when a girl
attained to puberty, her hair was burned or shaved off close to the head.
Then she was placed on a flat stone and cut with the tooth of an animal
from the shoulders all down the back, till she ran with blood. Then the
ashes of a wild gourd were rubbed into the wounds; the girl was bound hand
and foot, and hung in a hammock, being enveloped in it so closely that no
one could see her. Here she had to stay for three days without eating or
drinking. When the three days were over, she stepped out of the hammock
upon the flat stone, for her feet might not touch the ground. If she had a
call of nature, a female relation took the girl on her back and carried
her out, taking with her a live coal to prevent evil influences from
entering the girl’s body. Being replaced in her hammock she was now
allowed to get some flour, boiled roots, and water, but might not taste
salt or flesh. Thus she continued to the end of the first monthly period,
at the expiry of which she was gashed on the breast and belly as well as
all down the back. During the second month she still stayed in her
hammock, but her rule of abstinence was less rigid, and she was allowed to
spin. The third month she was blackened with a certain pigment and began
to go about as usual.(624)

Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a girl shows the first signs
of puberty, she is hung in a hammock at the highest point of the hut. For
the first few days she may not leave the hammock by day, but at night she
must come down, light a fire, and spend the night beside it, else she
would break out in sores on her neck, throat, etc. So long as the symptoms
are at their height, she must fast rigorously. When they have abated, she
may come down and take up her abode in a little compartment that is made
for her in the darkest corner of the hut. In the morning she may cook her
food, but it must be at a separate fire and in a vessel of her own. In
about ten days the magician comes and undoes the spell by muttering charms
and breathing on her and on the more valuable of the things with which she
has come in contact. The pots and drinking vessels which she used are
broken and the fragments buried. After her first bath, the girl must
submit to be beaten by her mother with thin rods without uttering a cry.
At the end of the second period she is again beaten, but not afterwards.
She is now “clean,” and can mix again with people.(625) Other Indians of
Guiana, after keeping the girl in her hammock at the top of the hut for a
month, expose her to certain large ants, whose bite is very painful.(626)
The custom of stinging the girl with ants or beating her with rods is
intended, we may be sure, not as a punishment or a test of endurance, but
as a purification, the object being to drive away the malignant influences
with which a girl at such times is believed to be beset and enveloped.
Examples of purification, both by beating and by stinging with ants, have
already come before us.(627) Probably, beating or scourging as a religious
or ceremonial rite always originated with a similar intention. It was
meant to wipe off and drive away a dangerous contagion (whether
personified as demoniacal or not) which was supposed to be adhering
physically, though invisibly, to the body of the sufferer.(628) The pain
inflicted on the person beaten was no more the object of the beating than
it is of a surgical operation with us; it was a necessary accident, that
was all. In later times such customs were interpreted otherwise, and the
pain, from being an accident, became the prime object of the ceremony,
which was now regarded either as a test of endurance imposed upon persons
at critical epochs of life, or as a mortification of the flesh well
pleasing to the god. But asceticism, under any shape or form, is never
primitive. Amongst the Uaupes of Brazil a girl at puberty is secluded in
the house for a month, and allowed only a small quantity of bread and
water. Then she is taken out into the midst of her relations and friends,
each of whom gives her four or five blows with pieces of _sipo_ (an
elastic climber), till she falls senseless or dead. If she recovers, the
operation is repeated four times at intervals of six hours, and it is
considered an offence to the parents not to strike hard. Meantime, pots of
meats and fish have been made ready; the _sipos_ are dipped into them and
then given to the girl to lick, who is now considered a marriageable
woman.(629)

When a Hindoo maiden reaches maturity she is kept in a dark room for four
days, and is forbidden to see the sun. She is regarded as unclean; no one
is allowed to touch her. Her diet is restricted to boiled rice, milk,
sugar, curd, and tamarind without salt.(630) In Cambodia a girl at puberty
is put to bed under a mosquito curtain, where she should stay a hundred
days. Usually, however, four, five, ten, or twenty days are thought
enough; and even this, in a hot climate and under the close meshes of the
curtain, is sufficiently trying.(631) According to another account, a
Cambodian maiden at puberty is said to “enter into the shade.” During her
retirement, which, according to the rank and position of her family, may
last any time from a few days to several years, she has to observe a
number of rules, such as not to be seen by a strange man, not to eat flesh
or fish, and so on. She goes nowhere, not even to the pagoda. But this
state of retirement is discontinued during eclipses; at such times she
goes forth and pays her devotions to the monster who is supposed to cause
eclipses by catching the heavenly bodies between his teeth.(632) The fact
that her retirement is discontinued during an eclipse seems to show how
literally the injunction is interpreted which forbids maidens entering on
womanhood to look upon the sun.

A superstition so widely diffused as this might be expected to leave
traces in legends and folk-tales. And it has done so. In a modern Greek
folk-tale the Fates predict that in her fifteenth year a princess must be
careful not to let the sun shine on her, for if this were to happen she
would be turned into a lizard.(633) A Tyrolese story tells how it was the
doom of a lovely maiden to be transported into the belly of a whale if
ever a sunbeam fell on her.(634) In another modern Greek tale the Sun
bestows a daughter upon a childless woman on condition of taking the child
back to himself when she is twelve years old. So, when the child was
twelve, the mother closed the doors and windows, and stopped up all the
chinks and crannies, to prevent the Sun from coming to fetch away her
daughter. But she forgot to stop up the key-hole, and a sunbeam streamed
through it and carried off the girl.(635) In a Sicilian story a seer
foretells that a king will have a daughter who, in her fourteenth year,
will conceive a child by the Sun. So, when the child was born, the king
shut her up in a lonely tower which had no window, lest a sunbeam should
fall on her. When she was nearly fourteen years old, it happened that her
parents sent her a piece of roasted kid, in which she found a sharp bone.
With this bone she scraped a hole in the wall, and a sunbeam shot through
the hole and impregnated her.(636) The old Greek story of Danae, who was
confined by her father in a subterranean chamber or a brazen tower, but
impregnated by Zeus, who reached her in the shape of a shower of gold,
perhaps belongs to the same class of tales. It has its counterpart in the
legend which the Kirgis of Siberia tell of their ancestry. A certain Khan
had a fair daughter, whom he kept in a dark iron house, that no man might
see her. An old woman tended her; and when the girl was grown to
maidenhood she asked the old woman, “Where do you go so often?”—“My
child,” said the old dame, “there is a bright world. In that bright world
your father and mother live, and all sorts of people live there. That is
where I go.” The maiden said, “Good mother, I will tell nobody, but show
me that bright world.” So the old woman took the girl out of the iron
house. But when she saw the bright world, the girl tottered and fainted;
and the eye of God fell upon her, and she conceived. Her angry father put
her in a golden chest and sent her floating away (fairy gold can float in
fairyland) over the wide sea.(637) The shower of gold in the Greek story,
and the eye of God in the Kirgis legend, probably stand for sunlight and
the sun. The idea that women may be impregnated by the sun is not uncommon
in legends,(638) and there are even traces of it in marriage customs.(639)

The ground of this seclusion of girls at puberty lies in the deeply
engrained dread which primitive man universally entertains of menstruous
blood. Evidence of this has already been adduced,(640) but a few more
facts may here be added. Amongst the Australian blacks “the boys are told
from their infancy that, if they see the blood, they will early become
gray-headed, and their strength will fail prematurely.” Hence a woman
lives apart at these times; and if a young man or boy approaches her she
calls out, and he immediately makes a circuit to avoid her. The men go out
of their way to avoid even crossing the tracks made by women at such
times. Similarly the woman may not walk on any path frequented by men, nor
touch anything used by men; she may not eat fish, or go near water at all,
much less cross it; for if she did, the fish would be frightened, and the
fishers would have no luck; she may not even fetch water for the camp; it
is sufficient for her to say _Thama_ to ensure her husband fetching the
water himself. A severe beating, or even death, is the punishment
inflicted on an Australian woman who breaks these rules.(641) The Bushmen
think that, by a glance of a girl’s eye at the time when she ought to be
kept in strict retirement, men become fixed in whatever position they
happen to occupy, with whatever they were holding in their hands, and are
changed into trees which talk.(642) The Guayquiries of the Orinoco think
that, when a woman has her courses, everything upon which she steps will
die, and that if a man treads on the place where she has passed, his legs
will immediately swell up.(643) The Creek and kindred Indians of the
United States compelled women at menstruation to live in separate huts at
some distance from the village. There the women had to stay, at the risk
of being surprised and cut off by enemies. It was thought “a most horrid
and dangerous pollution” to go near the women at such times; and the
danger extended to enemies who, if they slew the women, had to cleanse
themselves from the pollution by means of certain sacred herbs and
roots.(644) Similarly, among the Chippeways and other Indians of the
Hudson Bay Territory, women at such seasons are excluded from the camp,
and take up their abode in huts of branches. They wear long hoods, which
effectually conceal the head and breast. They may not touch the household
furniture nor any objects used by men; for their touch “is supposed to
defile them, so that their subsequent use would be followed by certain
mischief or misfortune,” such as disease or death. They may not walk on
the common paths nor cross the tracks of animals. They “are never
permitted to walk on the ice of rivers or lakes, or near the part where
the men are hunting beaver, or where a fishing-net is set, for fear of
averting their success. They are also prohibited at those times from
partaking of the head of any animal, and even from walking in or crossing
the track where the head of a deer, moose, beaver, and many other animals
have lately been carried, either on a sledge or on the back. To be guilty
of a violation of this custom is considered as of the greatest importance;
because they firmly believe that it would be a means of preventing the
hunter from having an equal success in his future excursions.”(645) So the
Lapps forbid women at menstruation to walk on that part of the shore where
the fishers are in the habit of setting out their fish.(646)

Amongst the civilised nations of Europe the superstitions which have
prevailed on this subject are not less extravagant. In the oldest existing
cyclopaedia—the _Natural History_ of Pliny—the list of dangers apprehended
from menstruation is longer than any furnished by savages. According to
Pliny, the touch of a menstruous woman turned wine to vinegar, blighted
crops, killed seedlings, blasted gardens, brought down the fruit from
trees, dimmed mirrors, blunted razors, rusted iron and brass (especially
at the waning of the moon), killed bees, or at least drove them from their
hives, caused mares to miscarry, and so forth.(647) Similarly, in various
parts of Europe, it is still believed that if a woman in her courses
enters a brewery the beer will turn sour; if she touches beer, wine,
vinegar, or milk, it will go bad; if she makes jam, it will not keep; if
she mounts a mare, it will miscarry; if she touches buds, they will
wither; if she climbs a cherry-tree, it will die.(648)

Thus the object of secluding women at menstruation is to neutralise the
dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate from them at such
times. That the danger is believed to be especially great at the first
menstruation appears from the unusual precautions taken to isolate girls
at this crisis. Two of these precautions have been illustrated above,
namely, the rules that the girl may not touch the ground nor see the sun.
The general effect of these rules is to keep the girl suspended, so to
say, between heaven and earth. Whether enveloped in her hammock and slung
up to the roof, as in South America, or elevated above the ground in a
dark and narrow cage, as in New Ireland, she may be considered to be out
of the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the earth
and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great sources of life by
her deadly contagion. In short, she is rendered harmless by being, in
electrical language, insulated. But the precautions thus taken to isolate
or insulate the girl are dictated by a regard for her own safety as well
as for the safety of others. For it is thought that the girl herself would
suffer if she were to neglect the prescribed regimen. Thus Zulu girls, as
we have seen, believe that they would shrivel to skeletons if the sun were
to shine on them at puberty, and in some Brazilian tribes the girls think
that a transgression of the rules would entail sores on the neck and
throat. In short, the girl is viewed as charged with a powerful force
which, if not kept within bounds, may prove the destruction both of the
girl herself and of all with whom she comes in contact. To repress this
force within the limits necessary for the safety of all concerned is the
object of the taboos in question.

The same explanation applies to the observance of the same rules by divine
kings and priests. The uncleanness, as it is called, of girls at puberty
and the sanctity of holy men do not, to the primitive mind, differ from
each other. They are only different manifestations of the same
supernatural energy which, like energy in general, is in itself neither
good nor bad, but becomes beneficent or maleficent according to its
application.(649) Accordingly, if, like girls at puberty, divine
personages may neither touch the ground nor see the sun, the reason is, on
the one hand, a fear lest their divinity might, at contact with earth or
heaven, discharge itself with fatal violence on either; and, on the other
hand, an apprehension, that the divine being, thus drained of his ethereal
virtue, might thereby be incapacitated for the future performance of those
supernatural functions, upon the proper discharge of which the safety of
the people and even of the world is believed to hang. Thus the rules in
question fall under the head of the taboos which we examined in the second
chapter; they are intended to preserve the life of the divine person and
with it the life of his subjects and worshippers. Nowhere, it is thought,
can his precious yet dangerous life be at once so safe and so harmless as
when it is neither in heaven nor in earth, but, as far as possible,
suspended between the two.(650)

§ 2.—Balder.

A god whose life might in a sense be said to be neither in heaven nor
earth but between the two, was the Norse Balder, the good and beautiful
god. The story of his death is as follows: Once on a time Balder dreamed
heavy dreams which seemed to forebode his death. Thereupon the gods held a
council and resolved to make him secure against every danger. So the
goddess Frigg took an oath from fire and water, iron and all metals,
stones and earth, from trees, sicknesses and poisons, and from all
four-footed beasts, birds, and creeping things, that they would not hurt
Balder. When this was done Balder was deemed invulnerable; so the gods
amused themselves by setting him in their midst, while some shot at him,
others hewed at him, and others threw stones at him. But whatever they
did, nothing could hurt him; and at this they were all glad. Only Loki,
the mischief-maker, was displeased, and he went in the guise of an old
woman to Frigg, who told him that the weapons of the gods could not wound
Balder, since she had made them all swear not to hurt him. Then Loki
asked, “Have all things sworn to spare Balder?” She answered, “East of
Walhalla grows a plant called mistletoe; it seemed to me too young to
swear.” So Loki went and pulled the mistletoe and took it to the assembly
of the gods. There he found the blind god Hödur standing at the outside of
the circle. Loki asked him, “Why do you not shoot at Balder?” Hödur
answered, “Because I do not see where he stands; besides I have no
weapon.” Then said Loki, “Do like the rest and show Balder honour, as they
all do. I will show you where he stands, and do you shoot at him with this
twig.” Hödur took the mistletoe and threw it at Balder, as Loki directed
him. The mistletoe struck Balder and pierced him through and through, and
he fell down dead. And that was the greatest misfortune that ever befel
gods and men. For a while the gods stood speechless, then they lifted up
their voices and wept bitterly. They took Balder’s body and brought it to
the sea-shore. There stood Balder’s ship; it was called Ringhorn, and was
the hugest of all ships. The gods wished to launch the ship and to burn
Balder’s body on it, but the ship would not stir. So they sent for a
giantess called Hyrrockin. She came riding on a wolf and gave the ship
such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.
Then Balder’s body was taken and placed on the funeral pile upon his ship.
When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst for sorrow and she died. So
she was laid on the funeral pile with her husband, and fire was put to it.
Balder’s horse, too, with all its trappings, was burned on the pile.(651)

The circumstantiality of this story suggests that it belongs to the
extensive class of myths which are invented to explain ritual. For a myth
is never so graphic and precise in its details as when it is a simple
transcript of a ceremony which the author of the myth witnessed with his
eyes. At all events, if it can be made probable that rites like those
described in the Balder myth have been practised by Norsemen and by other
European peoples, we shall be justified in inferring that the ritual gave
birth to the myth, not the myth to the ritual. For while many cases can be
shown in which a myth has been invented to explain a rite, it would be
hard to point to a single case in which a myth has given rise to a rite.
Ritual may be the parent of myth, but can never be its child.(652)

The main incidents in the myth of Balder’s death are two; first, the
pulling of the mistletoe, and second, the death and burning of the god.
Now both these incidents appear to have formed parts of an annual ceremony
once observed by Celts and Norsemen, probably also by Germans and Slavs.

In most parts of Europe the peasants have been accustomed from time
immemorial to kindle bonfires on certain days of the year, and to dance
round them or leap over them. Customs of this kind can be traced back on
historical evidence to the Middle Ages,(653) and their analogy to similar
customs observed in antiquity goes with strong internal evidence to prove
that their origin must be sought in a period long prior to the spread of
Christianity. Indeed the earliest evidence of their observance in Northern
Europe is furnished by the attempts made by Christian synods in the eighth
century to put them down as heathenish rites.(654) Not uncommonly effigies
are burned in these fires, or a pretence is made of burning a living
person in them; and there are grounds for believing that anciently human
beings were actually burned on these occasions. A brief review of the
customs in question will bring out the traces of human sacrifice, and will
serve at the same time to throw light on their meaning.(655)

The seasons of the year at which these bonfires are most commonly lit are
spring and midsummer, but in some places they are kindled at Hallow E’en
(October 31st) and Christmas. In spring the first Sunday in Lent
(Quadragesima) and Easter Eve are the days on which in different places
the ceremony is observed. Thus in the Eifel Mountains, Rhenish Prussia, on
the first Sunday in Lent young people used to collect straw and brushwood
from house to house. These they carried to an eminence and piled them up
round a tall, slim, beech-tree, to which a piece of wood was fastened at
right angles to form a cross. The structure was known as the “hut” or
“castle.” Fire was set to it and the young people marched round the
blazing “castle” bareheaded, each carrying a lighted torch and praying
aloud. Sometimes a straw man was burned in the “hut.” People observed the
direction in which the smoke blew from the fire. If it blew towards the
corn-fields, it was a sign that the harvest would be abundant. On the same
day, in some parts of the Eifel, a great wheel was made of straw and
dragged by three horses to the top of a hill. Thither the village boys
marched at nightfall, set fire to the wheel, and sent it rolling down the
slope. Two lads followed it with levers to set it in motion again, in case
it should anywhere meet with a check.(656) About Echternach the same
ceremony is called “burning the witch.”(657) At Voralberg in the Tyrol on
the first Sunday in Lent a slender young fir-tree is surrounded with a
pile of straw and fire-wood. At the top of the tree is fastened a human
figure called the “witch”; it is made of old clothes and stuffed with
gunpowder. At night the whole is set on fire and boys and girls dance
round it, swinging torches and singing rhymes in which the words “corn in
the winnowing-basket, the plough in the earth” may be distinguished.(658)
In Swabia on the first Sunday in Lent a figure called the “witch” or the
“old wife” or “winter’s grandmother” is made up of clothes and fastened to
a pole. This is stuck in the middle of a pile of wood, to which fire is
applied. While the “witch” is burning the young people throw blazing discs
into the air. The discs are thin round pieces of wood, a few inches in
diameter, with notched edges to imitate the rays of the sun or stars. They
have a hole in the middle, by which they are attached to the end of a
wand. Before the disc is thrown it is set on fire, the wand is swung to
and fro, and the impetus thus communicated to the disc is augmented by
dashing the rod sharply against a sloping board. The burning disc is thus
thrown off, and mounting high into the air, describes a long curve before
it reaches the ground. A single lad may fling up forty or fifty of these
discs, one after the other. The object is to throw them as high as
possible. The wand by which they are hurled must, at least in some parts
of Swabia, be of hazel. Sometimes the lads also leap over the fire
brandishing blazing torches of pine-wood. The charred embers of the burned
“witch” and discs are taken home and planted in the flax-fields the same
night, in the belief that they will keep vermin from the fields.(659) In
the Rhön Mountains, Bavaria, on the first Sunday in Lent the people used
to march to the top of a hill or eminence. Children and lads carried
torches, brooms daubed with tar, and poles swathed in straw. A wheel,
wrapt in combustibles, was kindled and rolled down the hill; and the young
people rushed about the fields with their burning torches and brooms, till
at last they flung them in a heap, and standing round them, struck up a
hymn or a popular song. The object of running about the fields with the
blazing torches was to “drive away the wicked sower.” Or it was done in
honour of the Virgin, that she might preserve the fruits of the earth
throughout the year and bless them.(660)

It seems hardly possible to separate from these bonfires, kindled on the
first Sunday in Lent, the fires in which, about the same season, the
effigy called Death is burned as part of the ceremony of “carrying out
Death.” We have seen that at Spachendorf, Austrian Silesia, on the morning
of Rupert’s Day (Shrove Tuesday?) a straw-man, dressed in a fur coat and a
fur cap, is laid in a hole outside the village and there burned, and that
while it is blazing every one seeks to snatch a fragment of it, which he
fastens to a branch of the highest tree in his garden or buries in his
field, believing that this will make the crops to grow better. The
ceremony is known as the “burying of Death.”(661) Even when the straw-man
is not designated as Death, the meaning of the observance is probably the
same; for the name Death, as I have tried to show, does not express the
original intention of the ceremony. At Cobern in the Eifel Mountains the
lads make up a straw-man on Shrove Tuesday. The effigy is formally tried
and accused of having perpetrated all the thefts that have been committed
in the neighbourhood throughout the year. Being condemned to death, the
straw-man is led through the village, shot, and burned upon a pyre. They
dance round the blazing pile, and the last bride must leap over it.(662)
In Oldenburg on the evening of Shrove Tuesday people used to make long
bundles of straw, which they set on fire, and then ran about the fields
waving them, shrieking, and singing wild songs. Finally they burnt a
straw-man on the field.(663) In the district of Düsseldorf the straw-man
burned on Shrove Tuesday was made of an unthreshed sheaf of corn.(664) On
the first Monday after the spring equinox the urchins of Zurich drag a
straw-man on a little cart through the streets, while at the same time the
girls carry about a May-tree. When vespers ring, the straw-man is
burned.(665) In the district of Aachen on Ash Wednesday a man used to be
encased in peas-straw and taken to an appointed place. Here he slipped
quietly out of his straw casing, which was then burned, the children
thinking that it was the man who was being burned.(666) In the Val di
Ledro (Tyrol) on the last day of the Carnival a figure is made up of straw
and brushwood and then burned. The figure is called the Old Woman, and the
ceremony “burning the Old Woman.”(667)

Another occasion on which these fire-festivals are held is Easter Eve, the
Saturday before Easter Sunday. On that day it has been customary in
Catholic countries to extinguish all the lights in the churches, and then
to make a new fire, sometimes with flint and steel, sometimes with a
burning-glass. At this fire is lit the Easter candle, which is then used
to rekindle all the extinguished lights in the church. In many parts of
Germany a bonfire is also kindled, by means of the new fire, on some open
space near the church. It is consecrated, and the people bring sticks of
oak, walnut, and beech, which they char in the fire, and then take home
with them. Some of these charred sticks are thereupon burned at home in a
newly-kindled fire, with a prayer that God will preserve the homestead
from fire, lightning, and hail. Thus every house receives “new fire.” Some
of the sticks are placed in the fields, gardens, and meadows, with a
prayer that God will keep them from blight and hail. Such fields and
gardens are thought to thrive more than others; the corn and the plants
that grow in them are not beaten down by hail, nor devoured by mice,
vermin, and beetles, no witch harms them, and the ears of corn stand close
and full. The charred sticks are also applied to the plough. The ashes of
the Easter bonfire, together with the ashes of the consecrated
palm-branches, are mixed with the seed at sowing. A wooden figure called
Judas is sometimes burned in the consecrated bonfire.(668)

Sometimes instead of the consecrated bonfire a profane fire used to be
kindled on Easter Eve. In the afternoon the lads of the village collected
firewood and carried it to a corn-field or to the top of a hill. Here they
piled it together and fastened in the midst of it a pole with a
cross-piece, all wrapt in straw, so that it looked like a man with
outstretched arms. This figure was called the Easter-man, or the Judas. In
the evening the lads lit their lanterns at the new holy fire in the
church, and ran at full speed to the pile. The one who reached it first
set fire to it and to the effigy. No women or girls might be present,
though they were allowed to watch the scene from a distance. Great was the
joy while the effigy was burning. The ashes were collected and thrown at
sunrise into running water, or were scattered over the fields on Easter
Monday. At the same time the palm branches which had been consecrated on
Palm Sunday, and sticks which had been charred in the fire and consecrated
on Good Friday, were also stuck up in the fields. The object was to
preserve the fields from hail.(669) In Münsterland, these Easter fires are
always kindled upon certain definite hills, which are hence known as
Easter or Pascal Mountains. The whole community assembles about the fire.
Fathers of families form an inner circle round it. An outer circle is
formed by the young men and maidens, who, singing Easter hymns, march
round and round the fire in the direction of the sun, till the blaze dies
down. Then the girls jump over the fire in a line, one after the other,
each supported by two young men who hold her hands and run beside her.
When the fire has burned out, the whole assemblage marches in solemn
procession to the church, singing hymns. They march thrice round the
church, and then break up. In the twilight boys with blazing bundles of
straw run over the fields to make them fruitful.(670) In Holland, also,
Easter fires used to be kindled on the highest eminences, the people
danced round them, and leaped through the flames.(671) In Schaumburg, the
Easter bonfires may be seen blazing on all the mountains around for miles.
They are made with a tar barrel fastened to a pine-tree, which is wrapt in
straw. The people dance singing round them.(672) Easter bonfires are also
common in the Harz Mountains and in Brunswick, Hanover, and Westphalia.
They are generally lit upon particular heights and mountains which are
hence called Easter Mountains. In the Harz the fire is commonly made by
piling brushwood about a tree and setting it on fire, and blazing tar
barrels are often rolled down into the valley. In Osterode, every one
tries to snatch a brand from the bonfire and rushes about with it; the
better it burns, the more lucky it is. In Grund there are torch
races.(673) In the Altmark, the Easter bonfires are composed of tar
barrels, bee-hives, etc., piled round a pole. The young folk dance round
the fire; and when it has died out, the old folk come and collect the
ashes, which they preserve as a remedy for the ailments of bees. It is
also believed that as far as the blaze of the bonfire is visible, the corn
will grow well throughout the year, and no conflagration will break
out.(674) In some parts of Bavaria, bonfires were kindled at Easter upon
steep mountains, and burning arrows or discs of wood were shot high into
the air, as in the Swabian custom already described. Sometimes, instead of
the discs, an old waggon wheel was wrapt in straw, set on fire, and sent
rolling down the mountain. The lads who hurled the discs received painted
Easter eggs from the girls.(675) In some parts of Swabia the Easter fires
might not be kindled with iron or flint or steel; but only by the friction
of wood.(676) At Braunröde in the Harz Mountains it was the custom to burn
squirrels in the Easter bonfire.(677) In the Altmark, bones were burned in
it.(678)

In the central Highlands of Scotland bonfires, known as the Beltane fires,
were formerly kindled with great ceremony on the 1st of May, and the
traces of human sacrifices at them were particularly clear and
unequivocal. In the neighbourhood of Callander, in Perthshire, the custom
lasted down to the close of last century. The fires were lit by the people
of each hamlet on a hill or knoll round which their cattle were pasturing.
Hence various eminences in the Highlands are known as “the hill of the
fires,” just as in Germany some mountains take their name from the Easter
fires which are kindled upon them. On the morning of May Day the people
repaired to a hill or knoll and cut a round trench in the green sod,
leaving in the centre a platform of turf large enough to contain the whole
company. On this turf they seated themselves, and in the middle was placed
a pile of wood or other fuel, which of old they kindled with
_tein-eigin_—that is, forced fire or need-fire. The way of making the
need-fire was this: “The night before, all the fires in the country were
carefully extinguished, and next morning the materials for exciting this
sacred fire were prepared. The most primitive method seems to be that
which was used in the islands of Skye, Mull, and Tiree. A well-seasoned
plank of oak was procured, in the midst of which a hole was bored. A
wimble of the same timber was then applied, the end of which they fitted
to the hole. But in some parts of the mainland the machinery was
different. They used a frame of green wood, of a square form, in the
centre of which was an axle-tree. In some places three times three
persons, in others three times nine, were required for turning round, by
turns, the axle-tree or wimble. If any of them had been guilty of murder,
adultery, theft, or other atrocious crime, it was imagined either that the
fire would not kindle, or that it would be devoid of its usual virtue. So
soon as any sparks were emitted by means of the violent friction, they
applied a species of agaric which grows on old birch-trees, and is very
combustible. This fire had the appearance of being immediately derived
from heaven, and manifold were the virtues ascribed to it. They esteemed
it a preservative against witchcraft, and a sovereign remedy against
malignant diseases, both in the human species and in cattle; and by it the
strongest poisons were supposed to have their nature changed.” For many
years, however, before the close of last century, the Beltane fires were
kindled in the usual way. The fire being lit, the company prepared a
custard of eggs and milk, which they ate. Afterwards they amused
themselves a while by singing and dancing round the fire. Then “they knead
a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After
the custard is eaten up they divide the cake into so many portions, as
similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons
in the company. They daub one of these portions all over with charcoal
until it be perfectly black. They put all the bits of cake into a bonnet.
Every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet is
entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted
person who is to be sacrificed to _Baal_, whose favour they mean to
implore, in rendering the year productive of the sustenance of man and
beast.” The victim thus selected “was called _cailleach bealtine_—_i.e._
the Beltane _carline_, a term of great reproach. Upon his being known,
part of the company laid hold of him, and made a show of putting him into
the fire; but, the majority interposing, he was rescued. And in some
places they laid him flat on the ground, making as if they would quarter
him. Afterwards he was pelted with eggshells, and retained the odious
appellation during the whole year. And, while the feast was fresh in
people’s memory, they affected to speak of the _cailleach bealtine_ as
dead.” He had to leap thrice through the flames, and this concluded the
ceremony.(679)

Another account of the Beltane festival, written in the latter half of
last century, is as follows: “On the 1st of May the herdsmen of every
village hold their Beltien, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench on
the ground, leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of
wood, on which they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal, and
milk, and bring, besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and
whisky; for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin
with spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation; on
that every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square
knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of
their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer
of them; each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob,
and, flinging it over his shoulder, says, ‘This I give to thee, preserve
thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and so on.’ After
that they use the same ceremony to the noxious animals: ‘This I give to
thee, O fox! spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded crow! this to
thee, O eagle!’ When the ceremony is over they dine on the caudle; and,
after the feast is finished, what is left is hid by two persons deputed
for that purpose; but on the next Sunday they reassemble, and finish the
reliques of the first entertainment.”(680) The 1st of May is a great
popular festival in the more midland and southern parts of Sweden. On the
preceding evening huge bonfires, which should be lighted by striking two
flints together, blaze on all the hills and knolls. Every large hamlet has
its own fire, round which the young people dance in a ring. The old folk
notice whether the flames incline to the north or to the south. In the
former case the spring will be cold and backward; in the latter mild and
genial.(681)

But the season at which these fire-festivals are most generally held all
over Europe is the summer solstice, that is, Midsummer Eve (23d June) or
Midsummer Day (24th June). According to a mediæval writer the three great
features of this festival were the bonfires, the procession with torches
round the fields, and the custom of rolling a wheel. The writer adds that
the smoke drives away harmful dragons which cause sickness, and he
explains the custom of rolling the wheel to mean that the sun has now
reached the highest point in the ecliptic, and begins thenceforward to
descend.(682) From his description, which is still applicable, we see that
the main features of the midsummer fire-festival are identical with those
which characterise the spring festivals. In Swabia lads and lasses, hand
in hand, leap over the midsummer bonfire, praying that the hemp may grow
three ells high, and they set fire to wheels of straw and send them
rolling down the hill.(683) In Lechrain bonfires are kindled on the
mountains on Midsummer Day; and besides the bonfire a tall beam, thickly
wrapt in straw, and surmounted by a cross-piece, is burned in many places.
Round this cross, as it burns, the lads dance; and when the flames have
subsided, the young people leap over the fire in pairs, a young man and a
young woman together. It is believed that the flax will grow that year as
high as they leap over the fire; and that if a charred billet be taken
from the fire and stuck in a flax field it will promote the growth of the
flax.(684) At Deffingen, as they jumped over the midsummer bonfire, they
cried out, “Flax, flax! may the flax this year grow seven ells high!”(685)
In Bohemia bonfires are kindled on many of the mountains on Midsummer Eve;
boys and girls, hand in hand, leap over them; cart-wheels smeared with
resin are ignited and sent rolling down the hill; and brooms covered with
tar and set on fire are swung about or thrown high into the air. The
handles of the brooms or embers from the fire are preserved and stuck in
gardens to protect the vegetables from caterpillars and gnats. Sometimes
the boys run down the hillside in troops, brandishing the blazing brooms
and shouting. The bonfire is sometimes made by stacking wood and branches
round the trunk of a tree and setting the whole on fire.(686)

In old farm-houses of the Surenthal and Winenthal a couple of holes or a
whole row of them may sometimes be seen facing each other in the
door-posts of the barn or stable. Sometimes the holes are smooth and
round; sometimes they are deeply burnt and blackened. The explanation of
them is this. About midsummer, but especially on Midsummer Day, two such
holes are bored opposite each other, into which the extremities of a
strong pole are fixed. The holes are then stuffed with tow steeped in
resin and oil; a rope is looped round the pole, and two young men, who
must be brothers or must have the same baptismal name, and must be of the
same age, pull the ends of the rope backwards and forwards so as to make
the pole revolve rapidly, till smoke and sparks issue from the two holes
in the door-posts. The sparks are caught and blown up with tinder, and
this is the new and pure fire, the appearance of which is greeted with
cries of joy. Heaps of combustible materials are now ignited with the new
fire, and blazing bundles are placed on boards and sent floating down the
brook. The boys light torches at the new fire and run to fumigate the
pastures. This is believed to drive away all the demons and witches that
molest the cattle. Finally the torches are thrown in a heap on the meadow
and allowed to burn out. On their way back the boys strew the ashes over
the fields: this is supposed to make them fertile. If a farmer has taken
possession of a new house, or if servants have changed masters, the boys
fumigate the new abode and are rewarded by the farmer with a supper.(687)

At Konz, on the Moselle, the midsummer fire-festival used to be celebrated
as follows. A quantity of straw, contributed jointly by every house, was
collected on the top of the Stromberg Hill. Here, towards evening, the men
and boys assembled, while the women and girls took up their position at a
certain well down below. On the top of the hill a huge wheel was
completely covered with a portion of the collected straw, the remainder of
which was made into torches. The mayor of Sierk, who always received a
basket of cherries for his services, gave the signal, the wheel was
ignited with a torch, and sent rolling down the hill amid shouts of joy.
All the men and boys swung their torches in the air, some of them remained
on the top of the hill, while others followed the fiery wheel on its
course down the hillside to the Moselle. As it passed the women and girls
at the well they raised cries of joy which were answered by the men on the
top of the hill. The inhabitants of the neighbouring villages also stood
on the banks of the river and mingled their voices with the general shout
of jubilation. The wheel was often extinguished before it reached the
water, but if it plunged blazing into the river the people expected an
abundant vintage, and the inhabitants of Konz had the right to exact a
waggon-load of white wine from the surrounding vineyards.(688)

In France the midsummer customs are similar. In Poitou a wheel enveloped
in straw is set on fire, and people run with it through the fields, which
are supposed to be fertilised thereby; also, the people leap thrice over
the fire, holding in their hands branches of nut-trees, which are
afterwards hung over the door of the cattle-stall. At Brest torches are
brandished, and hundreds of them flung up into the air together.(689) In
Britanny midsummer fires blaze on the hills, the people dance round them,
singing and leaping over the glowing embers. The bonfire is made by piling
wood round a pole which is surmounted by a nosegay or crown.(690)
Sometimes, instead of rolling fiery wheels, discs of wood are ignited in
the midsummer fires and thrown into the air in the manner already
described.(691) At Edersleben, near Sangerhausen, a high pole was planted
in the ground and a tar barrel was hung from it by a chain which reached
to the ground. The barrel was then set on fire and swung round the pole
amid shouts of joy.(692)

In our own country the custom of lighting bonfires at midsummer has
prevailed extensively. In the North of England these fires used to be lit
in the open streets. Young and old gathered round them; the former leaped
over the fires and engaged in games, while the old people looked on.
Sometimes the fires were kindled on the tops of high hills. The people
also carried firebrands about the fields.(693) In Herefordshire and
Somersetshire people used to make fires in the fields on Midsummer Eve “to
bless the apples.”(694) In Devonshire the custom of leaping over the
midsummer fires was also observed.(695) In Cornwall bonfires were lit on
Midsummer Eve and the people marched round them with lighted torches,
which they also carried from village to village. On Whiteborough, a large
tumulus near Launceston, a huge bonfire used to be kindled on Midsummer
Eve; a tall summer pole with a large bush at the top was fixed in the
centre of the bonfire.(696) At Darowen in Wales small bonfires were lit on
Midsummer Eve.(697) On the same day people in the Isle of Man used to
light fires to the windward of every field, so that the smoke might pass
over the corn; and they folded their cattle and carried blazing furze or
gorse round them several times.(698)

In Ireland, “on the Eves of St. John Baptist and St. Peter, they always
have in every town a bonfire late in the evening, and carry about bundles
of reeds fast tied and fired; these being dry, will last long, and flame
better than a torch, and be a pleasing divertive prospect to the distant
beholder; a stranger would go near to imagine the whole country was on
fire.”(699) Another writer says of the South of Ireland: “On Midsummer’s
Eve, every eminence, near which is a habitation, blazes with bonfires; and
round these they carry numerous torches, shouting and dancing.”(700) An
author who described Ireland in the first quarter of last century says:
“On the vigil of St. John the Baptist’s nativity, they make bonfires, and
run along the streets and fields with wisps of straw blazing on long poles
to purify the air, which they think infectious by believing all the
devils, spirits, ghosts, and hobgoblins fly abroad this night to hurt
mankind.”(701) Another writer states that he witnessed the festival in
Ireland in 1782: “Exactly at midnight the fires began to appear, and
taking advantage of going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely
extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the fires
burning on every eminence which the country afforded. I had a further
satisfaction in learning, from undoubted authority, that the people
_danced __ round the fires_, and at the close went through these fires,
and made their sons and daughters, together with their cattle, pass
through the fire; and the whole was conducted with religious
solemnity.”(702) That the custom prevailed in full force as late as 1867
appears from a notice in the _Liverpool Mercury_, 29th June 1867, which
runs thus: “The old pagan fire-worship still survives in Ireland, though
nominally in honour of St. John. On Sunday night bonfires were observed
throughout nearly every county in the province of Leinster. In Kilkenny
fires blazed on every hillside at intervals of about a mile. There were
very many in the Queen’s county, also in Kildare and Wexford. The effect
in the rich sunset appeared to travellers very grand. The people assemble
and dance round the fires, the children jump through the flames, and in
former times live coals were carried into the corn-fields to prevent
blight.”(703)

In Scotland the traces of midsummer fires are few. In reference to the
parish of Mongahitter it is said: “The Midsummer Eve fire, a relic of
Druidism, was kindled in some parts of this country.”(704) Moresin states
that on St. Peter’s Day (29th June) the Scotch ran about with lighted
torches on mountains and high grounds;(705) and at Loudon in Ayrshire it
appears that down to the close of last century the custom still prevailed
for herdsmen and young people to kindle fires on high grounds on St.
Peter’s Day.(706) In the Perthshire Highlands on Midsummer Day the cowherd
used to go three times round the fold, according to the course of the sun,
with a burning torch in his hand. This was believed to purify the flocks
and herds and prevent diseases.(707)

In Slavonic countries also the midsummer festival is celebrated with
similar rites. In Russia fires are lighted and young people, crowned with
flowers, jump through them and drive their cattle through them. In Little
Russia a stake is driven into the ground on St. John’s Night, wrapt in
straw, and set on fire. As the flames rise the peasant women throw
birch-tree boughs into them, saying, “May my flax be as tall as this
bough!”(708) “In Ruthenia the bonfires are lighted by a flame procured
from wood by friction, the operation being performed by the elders of the
party, amid the respectful silence of the rest. But as soon as the fire is
‘churned,’ the bystanders break forth with joyous songs, and when the
bonfires are lit the young people take hands, and spring in couples
through the smoke, if not through the flames, and after that the cattle in
their turn are driven through it.”(709) In many parts of Prussia and
Lithuania great fires are kindled on the Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve).
All the heights are ablaze with them, as far as the eye can see. The fires
are supposed to be a protection against thunder, hail, and cattle disease,
especially if next morning the cattle are driven over the places where the
fires burned.(710) In some parts of Masuren it is the custom on the
evening of Midsummer Day to put out all the fires in the village. Then an
oaken stake is driven into the ground, a wheel is fixed on it as on an
axle and is made to revolve rapidly, till the friction produces fire.
Every one takes home a light from the new fire and rekindles the fire on
the domestic hearth.(711) In Bohemia the cows used to be driven over the
midsummer fires to protect them from witchcraft.(712) In Servia on
Midsummer Eve herdsmen light torches of birch bark and march round the
sheepfolds and cattle-stalls; then they climb the hills and there allow
the torches to burn out.(713)

In Greece the women light fires on St. John’s Eve and jump over them
crying, “I leave my sins behind me.”(714) Italy must also have had its
midsummer bonfires, since at Orvieto they were specially excepted from the
prohibition directed against bonfires in general.(715) We have seen that
they are still lighted in Sardinia.(716) In Corsica on the Eve of St. John
the people set fire to the trunk of a tree or to a whole tree, and the
young men and maidens dance round the blaze, which is called
_fucaraja_.(717) Midsummer fires are, or were formerly, lighted in
Spain.(718) Even the Mohammedans of Algeria and Morocco are reported to
have kindled great midsummer bonfires of straw, into which they kept
throwing incense and spices the whole night, invoking the divine blessing
on their fruit-trees.(719)

It remains to show that the burning of effigies of human beings in the
midsummer fires was not uncommon. At Rottenburg in Würtemberg, down to the
beginning of the present century, a ceremony was observed on Midsummer Day
which was called “beheading the angel-man.” A stump was driven into the
ground, wrapt with straw, and fashioned into the rude likeness of a human
figure, with arms, head, and face. This was the angel-man; round about him
wood was piled up. The boys, armed with swords, assembled in crowds,
covered the figure completely over with flowers, and eagerly awaited the
signal. When the pile of wood was fired and the angel-man burst into a
blaze, the word was given and all the boys fell upon him with their swords
and hewed the burning figure in pieces. Then they leaped backwards and
forwards over the fire.(720) In some parts of the Tyrol a straw-man is
carted about the village on Midsummer Day and then burned. He is called
the _Lotter_, which has been corrupted into Luther.(721) In French
Flanders down to 1789 a straw figure representing a man was always burned
in the midsummer bonfire, and the figure of a woman was burned on St.
Peter’s Day, 29th June.(722) At Grätz on the 23d June the common people
used to make a puppet called the _Tatermann_, which they dragged to the
bleaching-ground, and pelted with burning besoms till it took fire.(723)
In some parts of Russia a figure of Kupalo is burned or thrown into a
stream on St. John’s Night.(724) The Russian custom of carrying the straw
effigy of Kupalo over the midsummer bonfire has been already
described.(725)

The best general explanation of these European fire-festivals seems to be
the one given by Mannhardt, namely, that they are sun-charms or magical
ceremonies intended to ensure a proper supply of sunshine for men,
animals, and plants. We have seen that savages resort to charms for making
sunshine,(726) and we need not wonder that primitive man in Europe has
done the same. Indeed, considering the cold and cloudy climate of Europe
during a considerable part of the year, it is natural that sun-charms
should have played a much more prominent part among the superstitious
practices of European peoples than among those of savages who live nearer
the equator. This view of the festivals in question is supported by
various considerations drawn partly from the rites themselves, partly from
the influence which they are believed to exert upon the weather and on
vegetation. For example, the custom of rolling a burning wheel down a
hillside, which is often observed on these occasions, seems a very natural
imitation of the sun’s course in the sky, and the imitation is especially
appropriate on Midsummer Day when the sun’s annual declension begins. Not
less graphic is the imitation of his apparent revolution by swinging a
burning tar-barrel round a pole.(727) The custom of throwing blazing
discs, shaped like suns, into the air is probably also a piece of
imitative magic. In these, as in so many cases, the magic force is
supposed to take effect through mimicry or sympathy; by imitating the
desired result you actually produce it; by counterfeiting the sun’s
progress through the heavens you really help the luminary to pursue his
celestial journey with punctuality and despatch. The name “fire of
heaven,” by which the midsummer fire is sometimes popularly known,(728)
clearly indicates a consciousness of the connection between the earthly
and the heavenly flame.

Again, the manner in which the fire appears to have been originally
kindled on these occasions favours the view that it was intended to be a
mock-sun. For, as various scholars have seen,(729) it is highly probable
that originally at these festivals fire was universally obtained by the
friction of two pieces of wood. We have seen that this is still the case
in some places both at the Easter and midsummer fires, and that it is
expressly stated to have been formerly the case at the Beltane fires.(730)
But what makes it almost certain that this was once the invariable mode of
kindling the fire at these periodic festivals is the analogy of the
need-fires. Need-fires are kindled, not at fixed periods, but on occasions
of special distress, particularly at the outbreak of a murrain, and the
cattle are driven through the need-fire, just as they are sometimes driven
through the midsummer fires.(731) Now, the need-fire has always been
produced by the friction of wood and sometimes by the revolution of a
wheel; in Mull, for example, it was made by turning an oaken wheel over
nine oaken spindles from east to west, that is, in the direction of the
sun. It is a plausible conjecture that the wheel employed to produce the
need-fire represents the sun;(732) and if the spring and midsummer fires
were originally produced in the same way, it would be a confirmation of
the view that they were originally sun-charms. In point of fact there is,
as Kuhn has pointed out,(733) some evidence to show that the midsummer
fire was originally thus produced. For at Obermedlingen in Swabia the
“fire of heaven,” as it was called, was made on St. Vitus’s Day (15th
June) by igniting a cart-wheel, which, smeared with pitch and plaited with
straw, was fastened on a pole twelve feet high, the top of the pole being
inserted in the nave of the wheel. This fire was made on the summit of the
mountain, and as the flame ascended, the people uttered a set form of
words, with eyes and arms directed heaven-ward.(734) Here the fact of a
wheel being fixed on the top of a pole and ignited makes it probable that
originally the fire was produced, as in the need-fire, by the revolution
of a wheel. The day on which the ceremony takes place (15th June) is near
midsummer; and we have seen that in Masuren fire is (or was) actually made
on Midsummer Day by turning a wheel rapidly about an oaken pole, though it
is not said that the new fire so produced is used to light a bonfire.

Once more, the influence which these bonfires are supposed to exert on the
weather and on vegetation, goes to show that they are sun-charms, since
the effects ascribed to them are identical with those of sunshine. Thus,
in Sweden the warmth or cold of the coming season is inferred from the
direction in which the flames of the bonfire are blown; if they blow to
the south, it will be warm, if to the north, cold. No doubt at present the
direction of the flames is regarded merely as an augury of the weather,
not as a mode of influencing it. But we may be pretty sure that this is
one of the cases in which magic has dwindled into divination. So in the
Eifel Mountains, when the smoke blows towards the corn-fields, this is an
omen that the harvest will be abundant. But doubtless the older view was,
not merely that the smoke and flames prognosticated, but that they
actually produced an abundant harvest, the heat of the flames acting like
sunshine on the corn. Indeed, this older view must still have been held by
people in the Isle of Man when they lit fires to windward of their fields
in order that the smoke might blow over them. Again, the idea that the
corn will grow well as far as the blaze of the bonfire is visible, is
certainly a remnant of the belief in the quickening and fertilising power
of the bonfires. The same belief reappears in the notion that embers taken
from the bonfires and inserted in the fields will promote the growth of
the crops, and again it plainly underlies the custom of mixing the ashes
of the bonfire with the seed-corn at sowing, or of scattering the ashes by
themselves over the field. The belief that the flax will grow as high as
the people leap over the bonfire belongs clearly to the same class of
ideas. Once more, we saw that at Konz, on the banks of the Moselle, if the
blazing wheel which was trundled down the hillside reached the river
without being extinguished, this was hailed as a proof that the vintage
would be abundant. So firmly was this belief held that the successful
performance of the ceremony entitled the villagers to levy a tax upon the
owners of the neighbouring vineyards. Here the unextinguished wheel meant
an unclouded sun, and this in turn meant an abundant vintage. So the
waggon-load of white wine which the villagers received from the vineyards
round about was in fact a payment for the sunshine which they had procured
for the grapes.

The interpretation of these fire-customs as charms for making sunshine is
confirmed by a parallel custom observed by the Hindoos of Southern India
at the Pongol or Feast of Ingathering. The festival is celebrated in the
early part of January, when, according to Hindoo astrologers, the sun
enters the tropic of Capricorn, and the chief event of the festival
coincides with the passage of the sun. For some days previously the boys
gather heaps of sticks, straw, dead leaves, and everything that will burn.
On the morning of the first day of the festival the heaps are fired. Every
street and lane has its bonfire. The young folk leap over the fire or pile
on fresh fuel. This fire is an offering to Sûrya, the sun-god, or to Agni,
the deity of fire; it “wakes him from his sleep, calling on him again to
gladden the earth with his light and heat.”(735) To say that the fires
awaken the sun-god from his sleep is only a metaphorical and perhaps
modernised expression of the belief that they actually help to rekindle
the sun’s light and heat.

The custom of leaping over the fire and driving cattle through it may be
intended, on the one hand, to secure for man and beast a share of the
vital energy of the sun, and, on the other hand, to purify them from all
evil influences; for to the primitive mind fire is the most powerful of
all purificatory agents. The latter idea is obviously uppermost in the
minds of Greek women when they leap over the midsummer fire, saying, “I
leave my sins behind me.” So in Yucatan at a New Year’s festival the
people used to light a huge bonfire and pass through it, in the belief
that this was a means of ridding themselves of their troubles.(736) The
custom of driving cattle through a fire is not confined to Europe. At
certain times the Hottentots make a fire of chips, dry branches, and green
twigs, so as to raise a great smoke. Through this fire they drive their
sheep, dragging them through by force, if necessary. If the sheep make
their escape without passing through the fire, it is reckoned a heavy
disgrace and a very bad omen. But if they pass readily through or over the
fire, the joy of the Hottentots is indescribable.(737)

The procession or race with burning torches, which so often forms a part
of these fire-festivals, appears to be simply a means of diffusing far and
wide the genial influence of the bonfire or of the sunshine which it
represents. Hence on these occasions lighted torches are very frequently
carried over the fields, sometimes with the avowed intention of
fertilising them;(738) and with the same intention live coals from the
bonfire are sometimes placed in the field “to prevent blight.” The custom
of trundling a burning wheel over the fields, which is practised for the
express purpose of fertilising them, embodies the same idea in a still
more graphic form; since in this way the mock-sun itself, not merely its
light and heat represented by torches, is made actually to pass over the
ground which is to receive its quickening and kindly influence. Again, the
custom of carrying lighted brands round the cattle is plainly equivalent
to driving the animals through the fire. It is quite possible that in
these customs the idea of the quickening power of fire may be combined
with the conception of it as a purgative agent for the expulsion or
destruction of evil beings. It is certainly sometimes interpreted in the
latter way by persons who practise the customs; and this purgative use of
fire comes out very prominently, as we have seen, in the general expulsion
of demons from towns and villages. But in the present class of cases this
aspect of it is perhaps secondary, if indeed it is more than a later
misinterpretation of the custom.

It remains to ask, What is the meaning of burning an effigy in these
bonfires? The effigies so burned, as was remarked above, can hardly be
separated from the effigies of Death which are burned or otherwise
destroyed in spring; and grounds have been already given for regarding the
so-called effigies of Death as really representations of the tree-spirit
or spirit of vegetation. Are the other effigies, which are burned in the
spring and midsummer bonfires, susceptible of the same explanation? It
would seem so. For just as the fragments of the so-called Death are stuck
in the fields to make the crops grow, so the charred embers of the figure
burned in the spring bonfires are sometimes placed in the fields in the
belief that they will keep vermin from the crop. Again, the rule that the
last married bride must leap over the fire in which the straw-man is
burned on Shrove Tuesday, is probably intended to make her fruitful. But,
as we have seen, the power of blessing women with offspring is a special
attribute of tree-spirits;(739) it is therefore a fair presumption that
the burning effigy over which the bride must leap is a representative of
the fertilising tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation. This character of the
effigy, as representative of the spirit of vegetation, is almost
unmistakable when the effigy is composed of an unthreshed sheaf of corn or
is covered from head to foot with flowers.(740) Again, it is to be noted
that instead of an effigy living trees are sometimes burned both in the
spring and midsummer bonfires.(741) Now, considering the frequency with
which the tree-spirit is represented in human shape, it is hardly rash to
suppose that when sometimes a tree and sometimes an effigy is burned in
these fires, the effigy and the tree are regarded as equivalent to each
other, each being a representative of the tree-spirit. This, again, is
confirmed by observing, first, that sometimes the effigy which is to be
burned is carried about simultaneously with a May-tree, the former being
carried by the boys, the latter by the girls;(742) and, second, that the
effigy is sometimes tied to a living tree and burned with it.(743) In
these cases, we can scarcely doubt, the tree-spirit is represented, as we
have found it represented before, in duplicate, both by the tree and by
the effigy. That the true character of the effigy as a representative of
the beneficent spirit of vegetation should sometimes be forgotten, is
natural. The custom of burning a beneficent god is too foreign to later
modes of thought to escape misinterpretation. Naturally enough the people
who continued to burn his image came in time to identify it as the effigy
of persons, whom, on various grounds, they considered objectionable, such
as Judas Iscariot, Luther, and a witch.

The general reasons for killing a god or his representative have been
examined in the preceding chapter. But when the god happens to be a deity
of vegetation, there are special reasons why he should die by fire. For
light and heat are necessary to vegetable growth; and, on the principle of
sympathetic magic, by subjecting the personal representative of vegetation
to their influence, you secure a supply of these necessaries for trees and
crops. In other words, by burning the spirit of vegetation in a fire which
represents the sun, you make sure that, for a time at least, vegetation
shall have plenty of sun. It may be objected that, if the intention is
simply to secure enough sunshine for vegetation, this end would be better
attained, on the principles of sympathetic magic, by merely passing the
representative of vegetation through the fire instead of burning him. In
point of fact this is sometimes done. In Russia, as we have seen, the
straw figure of Kupalo is not burned in the midsummer fire, but merely
carried backwards and forwards across it.(744) But, for the reasons
already given, it is necessary that the god should die; so next day Kupalo
is stripped of her ornaments and thrown into a stream. In this Russian
custom, therefore, the passage of the image through the fire is a
sun-charm pure and simple; the killing of the god is a separate act, and
the mode of killing him—by drowning—is probably a rain-charm. But usually
people have not thought it necessary to draw this fine distinction; for
the various reasons already assigned, it is advantageous, they think, to
expose the god of vegetation to a considerable degree of heat, and it is
also advantageous to kill him, and they combine these advantages in a
rough-and-ready way by burning him.

Finally, we have to ask, were human beings formerly burned as
representatives of the tree-spirit or deity of vegetation? We have seen
reasons for believing that living persons have often acted as
representatives of the tree-spirit, and have suffered death as such. There
is no reason, therefore, why they should not have been burned, if any
special advantages were likely to be attained by putting them to death in
that way. The consideration of human suffering is not one which enters
into the calculations of primitive man. It would have been surprising if
it did, when we remember the record of Christian Europe. Now, in the
fire-festivals which we are discussing, the pretence of burning people is
sometimes carried so far that it seems reasonable to regard it as a
mitigated survival of an older custom of actually burning them. Thus in
Aachen, as we saw, the man clad in peas-straw acts so cleverly that the
children really believe he is being burned. And at the Beltane fires the
pretended victim was seized, and a show made of throwing him into the
fire, and for some time afterwards people affected to speak of him as
dead. In the following customs Mannhardt is probably right in recognising
traces of an old custom of burning a leaf-clad representative of the
spirit of vegetation. At Wolfeck, in Austria, on Midsummer Day, a boy
completely clad in green fir branches goes from house to house,
accompanied by a noisy crew, collecting wood for the bonfire. As he gets
the wood he sings—

“Forest trees I want,
No sour milk for me,
But beer and wine,
So can the wood-man be jolly and gay.”(745)

In some parts of Bavaria, also, the boys who go from house to house
collecting fuel for the midsummer bonfire envelop one of their number from
head to foot in green branches of firs, and lead him by a rope through the
whole village.(746) At Moosheim, in Würtemberg, the festival of St. John’s
Fire usually lasted for fourteen days, ending on the second Sunday after
Midsummer Day. On this last day the bonfire was left in charge of the
children, while the older people retired to a wood. Here they encased a
young fellow in leaves and twigs, who, thus disguised, went to the fire,
scattered it, and trod it out. All the people present fled at the sight of
him.(747)

But it seems possible to go farther than this. Of human sacrifices offered
on these occasions the most unequivocal traces, as we have seen, are those
which, about a hundred years ago, still lingered at the Beltane fires in
the Highlands of Scotland, that is, among a Celtic people who, situated in
a remote corner of Europe, enjoying practical independence, and almost
completely isolated from foreign influence, had till then conserved their
old heathenism better than any other people in the West of Europe. It is
significant, therefore, that human sacrifices by fire are known, on
unquestionable evidence, to have been systematically practised by the
Celts. The earliest description of these sacrifices is by Julius Caesar.
As conqueror of the hitherto independent Celts of Gaul, Caesar had ample
opportunity of observing the national Celtic religion and manners, while
these were still fresh and crisp from the native mint and had not yet been
fused in the melting-pot of Roman civilisation. With his own notes Caesar
appears to have incorporated the observations of a Greek explorer, by name
Posidonius, who travelled in Gaul about fifty years before Caesar carried
the Roman arms to the English Channel. The Greek geographer Strabo and the
historian Diodorus seem also to have derived their descriptions of the
Celtic sacrifices from the work of Posidonius, but independently of each
other and of Caesar, for each of the three derivative accounts contains
some details which are not to be found in either of the others. By
combining them, therefore, we can restore the original account of
Posidonius with some certainty, and thus obtain a picture of the
sacrifices offered by the Celts of Gaul at the close of the second century
B.C.(748) The following seem to have been the main outlines of the custom.
Condemned criminals were reserved by the Celts in order to be sacrificed
to the gods at a great festival which took place once in every five years.
The more there were of such victims, the greater was believed to be the
fertility of the land.(749) When there were not enough criminals to
furnish victims, captives taken in war were sacrificed to supply the
deficiency. When the time came the victims were sacrificed by the Druids
or priests. Some were shot down with arrows, some were impaled, and some
were burned alive in the following manner. Colossal images of wicker-work
or of wood and grass were constructed; these were filled with live men,
cattle, and animals of other kinds; fire was then applied to the images,
and they were burned with their living contents.

Such were the great festivals held once every five years. But besides
these quinquennial festivals, celebrated on so grand a scale and with,
apparently, so large an expenditure of human life, it seems reasonable to
suppose that festivals of the same sort, only on a lesser scale, were held
annually, and that from these annual festivals are lineally descended some
at least of the fire-festivals which, with their traces of human
sacrifices, are still celebrated year by year in many parts of Europe. The
gigantic images constructed of osiers or covered with grass in which the
Druids enclosed their victims remind us of the leafy framework in which
the human representative of the tree-spirit is still so often
encased.(750) Considering, therefore, that the fertility of the land was
apparently supposed to depend upon the due performance of these
sacrifices, Mannhardt is probably right in viewing the Celtic victims,
cased in osiers and grass, as representatives of the tree-spirit or spirit
of vegetation. These wicker giants of the Druids seem to have still their
representatives at the spring and midsummer festivals of modern Europe. At
Douay a procession takes place annually on the Sunday nearest to the 7th
of July. The great feature of the procession is a colossal figure made of
osiers, and called “the giant,” which is moved through the streets by
means of rollers and ropes worked by men who are enclosed within the
figure. The wooden head of the giant is said to have been carved and
painted by Rubens. The figure is armed as a knight with lance and sword,
helmet and shield. Behind him march his wife and his three children, all
constructed of osiers on the same principle, but on a smaller scale.(751)
At Dunkirk the giant is forty to fifty feet high, being made of
basket-work and canvas, properly painted and dressed. It contains a great
many living men within it, who move it about. Wicker giants of this sort
are common in the towns of Belgium and French Flanders; they are led about
at the Carnival in spring. The people, it is said, are much attached to
these grotesque figures, speak of them with patriotic enthusiasm, and
never weary of gazing at them.(752) In England artificial giants seem to
have been a standing feature of the midsummer festival. A writer of the
sixteenth century speaks of “Midsommer pageants in London, where, to make
the people wonder, are set forth great and uglie gyants, marching as if
they were alive, and armed at all points, but within they are stuffed full
of browne paper and tow, which the shrewd boyes, underpeeping, do
guilefully discover, and turne to a greate derision.”(753) The Mayor of
Chester in 1599 “altered many antient customs, as the shooting for the
sheriff’s breakfast; the going of the Giants at Midsommer, etc.”(754) In
these cases the giants only figure in the processions. But sometimes they
are burned in the spring or summer bonfires. Thus the people of the Rue
aux Ours in Paris used annually to make a great wicker-work figure,
dressed as a soldier, which they promenaded up and down the streets for
several days, and solemnly burned on the 3d of July, the crowd of
spectators singing _Salve Regina_. The burning fragments of the image were
scattered among the people, who eagerly scrambled for them. The custom was
abolished in 1743.(755) In Brie, Isle de France, a wicker-work giant,
eighteen feet high, was annually burned on Midsummer Eve.(756)

Again, the Druidical custom of burning live animals, enclosed in
wicker-work, has its counterpart at the spring and midsummer festivals. At
Luchon in the Pyrenees on Midsummer Eve “a hollow column, composed of
strong wicker-work, is raised to the height of about sixty feet in the
centre of the principal suburb, and interlaced with green foliage up to
the very top; while the most beautiful flowers and shrubs procurable are
artistically arranged in groups below, so as to form a sort of background
to the scene. The column is then filled with combustible materials, ready
for ignition. At an appointed hour—about 8 P.M.—a grand procession,
composed of the clergy, followed by young men and maidens in holiday
attire, pour forth from the town chanting hymns, and take up their
position around the column. Meanwhile, bonfires are lit, with beautiful
effect, in the surrounding hills. As many living serpents as could be
collected are now thrown into the column, which is set on fire at the base
by means of torches, armed with which about fifty boys and men dance
around with frantic gestures. The serpents, to avoid the flames, wriggle
their way to the top, whence they are seen lashing out laterally until
finally obliged to drop, their struggles for life giving rise to
enthusiastic delight among the surrounding spectators. This is a favourite
annual ceremony for the inhabitants of Luchon and its neighbourhood, and
local tradition assigns to it a heathen origin.”(757) In the midsummer
fires formerly kindled on the Place de Grève at Paris it was the custom to
burn a basket, barrel, or sack full of live cats; sometimes a fox was
burned. The people collected the embers and ashes of the fire and took
them home, believing that they brought good luck.(758) At Metz midsummer
fires were lighted on the Esplanade, and six cats were burned in
them.(759) In Russia a white cock was sometimes burned in the midsummer
bonfire;(760) in Meissen or Thüringen a horse’s head used to be thrown
into it.(761) Sometimes animals are burned in the spring bonfires. In the
Vosges cats were burned on Shrove Tuesday; in Elsass they were thrown into
the Easter bonfire.(762) We have seen that squirrels were sometimes burned
in the Easter fire.

If the men who were burned in wicker frames by the Druids represented the
spirit of vegetation, the animals burned along with them must have had the
same meaning. Amongst the animals burned by the Druids or in modern
bonfires have been, as we saw, cattle, cats, foxes, and cocks; and all of
these creatures are variously regarded by European peoples as embodiments
of the corn-spirit.(763) I am not aware of any certain evidence that in
Europe serpents have been regarded as representatives of the tree-spirit
or corn-spirit;(764) as victims at the midsummer festival in Luchon they
may have replaced animals which really had this representative character.
When the meaning of the custom was forgotten, utility and humanity might
unite in suggesting the substitution of noxious reptiles as victims in
room of harmless and useful animals.

Thus it appears that the sacrificial rites of the Celts of ancient Gaul
can be traced in the popular festivals of modern Europe. Naturally it is
in France, or rather in the wider area comprised within the limits of
ancient Gaul, that these rites have left the clearest traces in the
customs of burning giants of wicker-work and animals enclosed in
wicker-work or baskets. These customs, it will have been remarked, are
generally observed at or about midsummer. From this we may infer that the
original rites of which these are the degenerate successors were
solemnised at midsummer. This inference harmonises with the conclusion
suggested by a general survey of European folk-custom, that the midsummer
festival must on the whole have been the most widely diffused and the most
solemn of all the yearly festivals celebrated by the primitive Aryans in
Europe. And in its application to the Celts this general conclusion is
corroborated by the more or less perfect vestiges of midsummer
fire-festivals which we have found lingering in all those westernmost
promontories and islands which are the last strongholds of the Celtic race
in Europe—Britanny, Cornwall, Wales, the Isle of Man, Scotland, and
Ireland. In Scotland, it is true, the chief Celtic fire-festivals
certainly appear to have been held at Beltane (1st May) and Hallow E’en;
but this was exceptional.

To sum up: the combined evidence of ancient writers and of modern
folk-custom points to the conclusion that amongst the Celts of Gaul an
annual festival was celebrated at midsummer, at which living men,
representing the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation, were enclosed in
wicker-frames and burned. The whole rite was designed as a charm to make
the sun to shine and the crops to grow.

But another great feature of the Celtic midsummer festival appears to have
been the gathering of the sacred mistletoe by the Druids. The ceremony has
been thus described by Pliny in a passage which has often been quoted.
After enumerating the different kinds of mistletoe he proceeds: “In
treating of this subject, the admiration in which the mistletoe is held
throughout Gaul ought not to pass unnoticed. The Druids, for so they call
their wizards, esteem nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree
on which it grows, provided only that the tree is an oak. But apart from
this they choose oak-woods for their sacred groves and perform no sacred
rites without oak-leaves; so that the very name of Druids may be regarded
as a Greek appellation derived from their worship of the oak.(765) For
they believe that whatever grows on these trees is sent from heaven, and
is a sign that the tree has been chosen by the god himself. The mistletoe
is very rarely to be met with; but when it is found, they gather it with
solemn ceremony. This they do especially in the sixth month (the
beginnings of their months and years are determined by the moon) and after
the tree has passed the thirtieth year of its age, because by that time it
has plenty of vigour, though it has not attained half its full size. After
due preparations have been made for a sacrifice and a feast under the
tree, they hail it as the universal healer and bring to the spot two white
bulls, whose horns have never been bound before. A priest clad in a white
robe climbs the tree and with a golden(766) sickle cuts the mistletoe,
which is caught in a white cloth. Then they sacrifice the victims, praying
that God may make his own gift to prosper with those upon whom he has
bestowed it. They believe that a potion prepared from mistletoe will make
barren animals to bring forth, and that the plant is a remedy against all
poison.”(767)

In saying that the Druids cut the mistletoe in the sixth month Pliny must
have had in his mind the Roman calendar, in which the sixth month was
June. Now, if the cutting of the mistletoe took place in June, we may be
almost certain that the day which witnessed the ceremony was Midsummer
Eve. For in many places Midsummer Eve, a day redolent of a thousand
decaying fancies of yore, is still the time for culling certain magic
plants, whose evanescent virtue can be secured at this mystic season
alone. For example, on Midsummer Eve the fern is believed to burst into a
wondrous bloom, like fire or burnished gold. Whoever catches this bloom,
which very quickly fades and falls off, can make himself invisible, can
understand the language of animals, and so forth. But he must not touch it
with his hand; he must spread a white cloth under the fern, and the magic
bloom (or seed) will fall into it.(768) Again, St. John’s wort (_Hypericum
perforatum_), a herb which is believed to heal all kinds of wounds and to
drive away witches and demons, is gathered on Midsummer Eve (Eve of St.
John), and is worn as an amulet or hung over doors and windows on that
day.(769) Again, mugwort (_Artemisia vulgaris_) is believed to possess
magic qualities provided it be gathered on St. John’s Eve. Hence in France
it is called the herb of St. John. People weave themselves a girdle of the
plant, believing that it will protect them against ghosts, magic,
misfortune, and disease, throughout the year. Or they weave garlands of it
on St. John’s Eve, and look through them at the midsummer bonfire or put
them on their heads. Whoever does this will suffer no aches in his eyes or
head that year. Sometimes the plant is thrown into the midsummer
bonfire.(770) The superstitious association of fern-seed, St. John’s wort,
and mugwort with Midsummer Eve is widely diffused over Europe. The
following associations seem to be more local. In England the orpine
(_Sedum telephium_) is popularly called Midsummer Men, because it has been
customary to gather it on Midsummer Eve for the purpose of using it to
ascertain the fate of lovers;(771) and in England sprigs of red sage are
sometimes gathered on Midsummer Eve for the same purpose.(772) In Bohemia
poachers fancy they can make themselves invulnerable by means of fir-cones
gathered before sunrise on St. John’s Day.(773) Again, in Bohemia wild
thyme gathered on Midsummer Day is used to fumigate the trees on Christmas
Eve, in order that they may grow well.(774) In Germany and Bohemia a plant
called St. John’s Flower or St. John’s Blood (_Hieracium pilosella_) is
gathered on Midsummer Eve. It should be rooted up with a gold coin. The
plant is supposed to bring luck and to be especially good for sick
cattle.(775)

These facts by themselves would suffice to raise a strong presumption
that, if the Druids cut the mistletoe in June, as we learn from Pliny that
they did, the day on which they cut it could have been no other than
Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day. This presumption is converted into
practical certainty when we find it to be still a rule of folk-lore that
the mistletoe should be cut on Midsummer Eve.(776) Further, the peasants
of Piedmont and Lombardy still go out on Midsummer morning to search the
oak-leaves for the “oil of St. John,” which is supposed to heal all wounds
made with cutting instruments.(777) Originally no doubt the “oil of St.
John” was simply the mistletoe, or a decoction made from it. For in
Holstein the mistletoe, especially oak-mistletoe, is still regarded as a
panacea for green wounds;(778) and if, as is alleged, “all-healer” is an
epithet of the mistletoe in the modern Celtic speech of Britanny, Wales,
Ireland, and Scotland,(779) this can be nothing but a survival of the name
by which, as we have seen, the Druids addressed the oak, or rather,
perhaps, the mistletoe.

Thus it appears that the two main features of the Balder myth—the pulling
of the mistletoe and the burning of the god—were reproduced in the great
midsummer festival of the Celts. But in Scandinavia itself, the home of
Balder, both these features of his myth can still be traced in the popular
celebration of midsummer. For in Sweden on Midsummer Eve mistletoe is
“diligently sought after, they believing it to be, in a high degree,
possessed of mystic qualities; and that if a sprig of it be attached to
the ceiling of the dwelling-house, the horse’s stall, or the cow’s crib,
the ‘Troll’ will then be powerless to injure either man or beast.”(780)
And in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark huge bonfires are kindled on hills and
eminences on Midsummer Eve.(781) It does not appear, indeed, that any
effigy is burned in these bonfires; but the burning of an effigy is a
feature which might easily drop out after its meaning was forgotten. And
the name of Balder’s bale-fires (_Balder’s Bălar_), by which these
midsummer fires were formerly known in Sweden,(782) puts their connection
with Balder beyond the reach of doubt, and makes it certain that in former
times either a living representative or an effigy of Balder must have been
annually burned in them. Midsummer was the season sacred to Balder, and
the fact that the Swedish poet Tegner, in his _Frithiofssaga_, places the
burning of Balder at midsummer(783) may perhaps be allowed as evidence of
a Swedish tradition to that effect. From this double coincidence of the
Balder myth, on the one hand with the midsummer festival of Celtic Gaul
and on the other with the midsummer festival in Scandinavia, we may safely
conclude that the myth is not a myth pure and simple, that is, a mere
description of physical phenomena in imagery borrowed from human life; it
must undoubtedly be a ritualistic myth, that is a myth based on actual
observation of religious ceremonies and purporting to explain them. Now,
the standing explanation which myth gives of ritual is that the ritual in
question is a periodic commemoration of some remarkable transaction in the
past, the actors in which may have been either gods or men. Such an
explanation the Balder myth would seem to offer of the annual
fire-festivals which, as we saw, must have played so prominent a part in
the primitive religion of the Aryan race in Europe. Balder must have been
the Norse representative of the being who was burnt in effigy or in the
person of a living man at the fire-festivals in question. But if, as I
have tried to show, the being so burnt was the tree-spirit or spirit of
vegetation, it follows that Balder also must have been a tree-spirit or
spirit of vegetation.

But it is desirable to determine, if we can, the particular kind of tree
or trees, of which a personal representative was burned at the
fire-festivals. For we may be quite sure that it was not as a
representative of vegetation in general that the victim suffered death.
The conception of vegetation in general is too abstract to be primitive.
Most probably the victim at first represented a particular kind of sacred
tree. Now of all European trees none has such claims as the oak to be
considered as pre-eminently the sacred tree of the Aryans. Its worship is
attested for all the great branches of the Aryan stock in Europe. We have
seen that it was not only the sacred tree, but the principal object of
worship of both Celts and Slavs.(784) According to Grimm, the oak ranked
first among the holy trees of the Germans, and was indeed their chief god.
It is certainly known to have been adored by them in the age of
heathendom, and traces of its worship have survived in various parts of
Germany almost to the present day.(785) Amongst the ancient Italians,
according to Preller, the oak was sacred above all other trees.(786) The
image of Jupiter on the Capitol at Rome seems to have been originally
nothing but a natural oak-tree.(787) At Dodona, perhaps the oldest of all
Greek sanctuaries, Zeus was worshipped as immanent in the sacred oak, and
the rustling of its leaves in the wind was his voice.(788) If, then, the
great god of both Greeks and Romans was represented in some of his oldest
shrines under the form of an oak, and if the oak was the principal object
of worship of Celts, Germans, and Slavs, we may certainly conclude that
this tree was one of the chief, if not the very chief divinity of the
Aryans before the dispersion; and that their primitive home must have lain
in a land which was clothed with forests of oak.(789)

Now, considering the primitive character and remarkable similarity of the
fire-festivals observed by all the branches of the Aryan race in Europe,
we may infer that these festivals form part of the common stock of
religious observances which the various peoples carried with them in their
wanderings from their original home. But, if I am right, an essential
feature of those primitive fire-festivals was the burning of a man who
represented the tree-spirit. In view, then, of the place occupied by the
oak in the religion of the Aryans, the presumption is that the tree so
represented at the fire-festivals must originally have been the oak. So
far as the Celts and Slavs are concerned, this conclusion will perhaps
hardly be contested. But both for them and for the Germans it is confirmed
by a remarkable piece of religious conservatism. The most primitive method
known to man of producing fire is by rubbing two pieces of wood against
each other till they ignite; and we have seen that this method is still
used in Europe for kindling sacred fires such as the need-fire, and that
most probably it was formerly resorted to at all the fire-festivals under
discussion. Now it is sometimes prescribed that the need-fire, or other
sacred fire, must be made by the friction of a particular kind of wood;
and wherever the kind of wood is prescribed, whether among Celts, Germans,
or Slavs, that wood is always the oak. Thus we have seen that amongst the
Slavs of Masuren the new fire for the village is made on Midsummer Day by
causing a wheel to revolve rapidly round an axle of oak till the axle
takes fire.(790) When the perpetual fire which the ancient Slavs used to
maintain chanced to go out, it was rekindled by the friction of a piece of
oak-wood, which had been previously heated by being struck with a gray
(not a red) stone.(791) In Germany the need-fire was regularly kindled by
the friction of oak-wood;(792) and in the Highlands of Scotland, both the
Beltane and the need-fires were lighted by similar means.(793) Now, if the
sacred fire was regularly kindled by the friction of oak-wood, we may
infer that originally the fire was also fed with the same material. In
point of fact, the perpetual fire which burned under the sacred oak at the
great Slavonian sanctuary of Romove was fed with oak-wood;(794) and that
oak-wood was formerly the fuel burned in the midsummer fires may perhaps
be inferred from the circumstance that in many mountain districts of
Germany peasants are still in the habit of making up their cottage fire on
Midsummer Day with a heavy block of oak-wood. The block is so arranged
that it smoulders slowly and is not finally reduced to charcoal till the
expiry of a year. Then upon next Midsummer Day the charred embers of the
old log are removed to make room for the new one, and are mixed with the
seed-corn or scattered about the garden. This is believed to promote the
growth of the crops and to preserve them from blight and vermin.(795) It
may be remembered that at the Boeotian festival of the Daedala, the
analogy of which to the spring and midsummer festivals of modern Europe
has been already pointed out, the great feature was the felling and
burning of an oak.(796) The general conclusion is, that at those periodic
or occasional ceremonies, of which the object was to cause the sun to
shine, and the fruits of the earth to grow, the ancient Aryans both
kindled and fed the fire with the sacred oak-wood.

But if at these solemn rites the fire was regularly made of oak-wood, it
follows that the man who was burned in it as a personification of the
tree-spirit could have represented no tree but the oak. The sacred oak was
thus burned in duplicate; the wood of the tree was consumed in the fire,
and along with it was consumed a living man as a personification of the
oak-spirit. The conclusion thus drawn for the European Aryans in general
is confirmed in its special application to the Celts and Scandinavians by
the relation in which, amongst these peoples, the mistletoe stood to the
burning of the victim in the midsummer fire. We have seen that among Celts
and Scandinavians it has been customary to gather the mistletoe at
midsummer. But so far as appears on the face of this custom, there is
nothing to connect it with the midsummer fires in which human victims or
effigies of them were burned. Even if the fire, as seems probable, was
originally always made with oak-wood, why should it have been necessary to
pull the mistletoe? The last link between the midsummer customs of
gathering the mistletoe and lighting the bonfires is supplied by Balder’s
myth, which certainly cannot be disjoined from the customs in question.
The myth shows that a vital connection must once have been believed to
subsist between the mistletoe and the human representative of the oak who
was burned in the fire. According to the myth, Balder could be killed by
nothing in heaven or earth except the mistletoe; and so long as the
mistletoe remained on the oak, he was not only immortal, but invulnerable.
Now, as soon as we see that Balder was the oak, the origin of the myth
becomes plain. The mistletoe was viewed as the seat of life of the oak,
and so long as it was uninjured nothing could kill or even wound the oak.
The conception of the mistletoe as the seat of life of the oak would
naturally be suggested to primitive people by the observation that while
the oak is deciduous, the mistletoe which grows on it is evergreen. In
winter the sight of its fresh foliage among the bare branches must have
been hailed by the worshippers of the tree as a sign that the divine life
which had ceased to animate the branches yet survived in the mistletoe, as
the heart of a sleeper still beats when his body is motionless. Hence when
the god had to be killed—when the sacred tree had to be burnt—it was
necessary to begin by breaking off the mistletoe. For so long as the
mistletoe remained intact, the oak (so people thought) was invulnerable;
all the blows of their knives and axes would glance harmless from its
surface. But once tear from the oak its sacred heart—the mistletoe—and the
tree nodded to its fall. And when in later times the spirit of the oak
came to be represented by a living man, it was logically necessary to
suppose that, like the tree he personated, he could neither be killed nor
wounded so long as the mistletoe remained uninjured. The pulling of the
mistletoe was thus at once the signal and the cause of his death.

But since the idea of a being whose life is thus, in a sense, outside
itself, must be strange to many readers, and has, indeed, not yet been
recognised in its full bearing on primitive superstition, it will be worth
while to devote a couple of sections to the subject. The result will be to
show that, in assuming this idea as the explanation of the relation of
Balder to the mistletoe, I assume a principle which is deeply engraved on
the mind of primitive man.

§ 3.—The external soul in folk-tales.

In a former chapter we saw that, in the opinion of primitive people, the
soul may temporarily absent itself from the body without causing death.
Such temporary absences of the soul are often believed to involve
considerable risk, since the wandering soul is liable to a variety of
mishaps at the hands of enemies, and so forth. But there is another aspect
to this power of externalising the soul. If only the safety of the soul
can be ensured during its absence from the body, there is no reason why
the soul should not continue absent for an indefinite time; indeed a man
may, on a pure calculation of personal safety, desire that his soul should
never return to his body. Unable to conceive of life abstractly as a
“permanent possibility of sensation” or a “continuous adjustment of
internal arrangements to external relations,” the savage thinks of it as a
concrete material thing of a definite bulk, capable of being seen and
handled, kept in a box or jar, and liable to be bruised, fractured, or
smashed in pieces. It is not needful that the life, so conceived, should
be in the man; it may be absent from his body and still continue to
animate him, by virtue of a sort of sympathy or “action at a distance.” So
long as this object which he calls his life or soul remains unharmed, the
man is well; if it is injured, he suffers; if it is destroyed, he dies.
Or, to put it otherwise, when a man is ill or dies, the fact is explained
by saying that the material object called his life or soul, whether it be
in his body or out of it, has either sustained injury or been destroyed.
But there may be circumstances in which, if the life or soul remains in
the man, it stands a greater chance of sustaining injury than if it were
stowed away in some safe and secret place. Accordingly, in such
circumstances, primitive man takes his soul out of his body and deposits
it for security in some safe place, intending to replace it in his body
when the danger is past. Or if he should discover some place of absolute
security, he may be content to leave his soul there permanently. The
advantage of this is that, so long as the soul remains unharmed in the
place where he has deposited it, the man himself is immortal; nothing can
kill his body, since his life is not in it.

Evidence of this primitive belief is furnished by a class of folk-tales of
which the Norse story of “The giant who had no heart in his body” is
perhaps the best-known example. Stories of this kind are widely diffused
over the world, and from their number and the variety of incident and of
details in which the leading idea is embodied, we may infer that the
conception of an external soul is one which has had a powerful hold on the
minds of men at an early stage of history. For folk-tales are a faithful
reflection of the world as it appeared to the primitive mind; and we may
be sure that any idea which commonly occurs in them, however absurd it may
seem to us, must once have been an ordinary article of belief. This
assurance, so far as it concerns the supposed power of externalising the
soul for a longer or shorter time, is amply corroborated by a comparison
of the folk-tales in question with the actual beliefs and practices of
savages. To this we shall return after some specimens of the tales have
been given. The specimens will be selected with a view of illustrating
both the characteristic features and the wide diffusion of this class of
tales.

In the first place, the story of the external soul is told, in various
forms, by all Aryan peoples from Hindustan to the Hebrides. A very common
form of it is this: A warlock, giant, or other fairyland being is
invulnerable and immortal because he keeps his soul hidden far away in
some secret place; but a fair princess, whom he holds enthralled in his
enchanted castle, wiles his secret from him and reveals it to the hero,
who seeks out the warlock’s soul, heart, life, or death (as it is
variously called), and, by destroying it, simultaneously kills the
warlock. Thus a Hindoo story tells how a magician called Punchkin held a
queen captive for twelve years, and would fain marry her, but she would
not have him. At last the queen’s son came to rescue her, and the two
plotted together to kill Punchkin. So the queen spoke the magician fair,
and pretended that she had at last made up her mind to marry him. “ ‘And
do tell me,’ she said, ‘are you quite immortal? Can death never touch you?
And are you too great an enchanter ever to feel human suffering?’ ... ‘It
is true,’ he said, ‘that I am not as others. Far, far away—hundreds of
thousands of miles from this—there lies a desolate country covered with
thick jungle. In the midst of the jungle grows a circle of palm-trees, and
in the centre of the circle stand six chattees full of water, piled one
above another; below the sixth chattee is a small cage, which contains a
little green parrot—on the life of the parrot depends my life—and if the
parrot is killed I must die. It is, however,’ he added, ‘impossible that
the parrot should sustain any injury, both on account of the
inaccessibility of the country, and because, by my appointment, many
thousand genii surround the palm-trees, and kill all who approach the
place.’ ” But the queen’s young son overcame all difficulties, and got
possession of the parrot. He brought it to the door of the magician’s
palace, and began playing with it. Punchkin, the magician, saw him, and,
coming out, tried to persuade the boy to give him the parrot. “ ‘Give me
my parrot!’ cried Punchkin. Then the boy took hold of the parrot and tore
off one of his wings; and as he did so the magician’s right arm fell off.
Punchkin then stretched out his left arm, crying, ‘Give me my parrot!’ The
prince pulled off the parrot’s second wing, and the magician’s left arm
tumbled off. ‘Give me my parrot!’ cried he, and fell on his knees. The
prince pulled off the parrot’s right leg, the magician’s right leg fell
off; the prince pulled off the parrot’s left leg, down fell the magician’s
left. Nothing remained of him except the lifeless body and the head; but
still he rolled his eyes, and cried, ‘Give me my parrot!’ ‘Take your
parrot, then,’ cried the boy; and with that he wrung the bird’s neck, and
threw it at the magician; and, as he did so, Punchkin’s head twisted
round, and, with a fearful groan, he died!”(797) In another Hindoo tale an
ogre is asked by his daughter, “ ‘Papa, where do you keep your soul?’
‘Sixteen miles away from this place,’ said he, ‘is a tree. Round the tree
are tigers, and bears, and scorpions, and snakes; on the top of the tree
is a very great fat snake; on his head is a little cage; in the cage is a
bird; and my soul is in that bird.’ ” The end of the ogre is like that of
the magician in the previous tale. As the bird’s wings and legs are torn
off, the ogre’s arms and legs drop off; and when its neck is wrung he
falls down dead.(798)

In another Hindoo story a princess called Sodewa Bai is born with a golden
necklace about her neck, and the astrologer told her parents, “This is no
common child; the necklace of gold about her neck contains your daughter’s
soul; let it, therefore, be guarded with the utmost care; for if it were
taken off and worn by another person, she would die.” So her mother caused
it to be firmly fastened round the child’s neck, and, as soon as the child
was old enough to understand, she told her its value, and warned her never
to let it be taken off. In course of time Sodewa Bai was married to a
prince who had another wife living. The first wife, jealous of her young
rival, persuaded a negress to steal from Sodewa Bai the golden necklace
which contained her soul. The negress did so, and, as soon as she put the
necklace round her own neck, Sodewa Bai died. All day long the negress
used to wear the necklace; but late at night, on going to bed, she would
take it off and put it by till morning; and whenever she took it off,
Sodewa Bai’s soul returned to her and she lived. But when morning came,
and the negress put on the necklace, Sodewa Bai died again. At last the
prince discovered the treachery of his elder wife and restored the golden
necklace to Sodewa Bai.(799) In another Hindoo story a holy mendicant
tells a queen that she will bear a son, adding, “As enemies will try to
take away the life of your son, I may as well tell you that the life of
the boy will be bound up in the life of a big _boal_-fish which is in your
tank in front of the palace. In the heart of the fish is a small box of
wood, in the box is a necklace of gold, that necklace is the life of your
son.” The boy was born and received the name of Dalim. His mother was the
Suo or younger queen. But the Duo or elder queen hated the child, and
learning the secret of his life, she caused the _boal_-fish, with which
his life was bound up, to be caught. Dalim was playing near the tank at
the time, but “the moment the _boal_-fish was caught in the net, that
moment Dalim felt unwell; and when the fish was brought up to land, Dalim
fell down on the ground, and made as if he was about to breathe his last.
He was immediately taken into his mother’s room, and the king was
astonished on hearing of the sudden illness of his son and heir. The fish
was by the order of the physician taken into the room of the Duo queen,
and as it lay on the floor striking its fins on the ground, Dalim in his
mother’s room was given up for lost. When the fish was cut open, a casket
was found in it; and in the casket lay a necklace of gold. The moment the
necklace was worn by the queen, that very moment Dalim died in his
mother’s room.” The queen used to put off the necklace every night, and
whenever she did so, the boy came to life again. But every morning when
the queen put on the necklace, he died again.(800)

In a Cashmeer story a lad visits an old ogress, pretending to be her
grandson, the son of her daughter who had married a king. So the old
ogress took him into her confidence and showed him seven cocks, a
spinning-wheel, a pigeon, and a starling. “These seven cocks,” said she,
“contain the lives of your seven uncles, who are away for a few days. Only
as long as the cocks live can your uncles hope to live; no power can hurt
them as long as the seven cocks are safe and sound. The spinning-wheel
contains my life; if it is broken, I too shall be broken, and must die;
but otherwise I shall live on for ever. The pigeon contains your
grandfather’s life, and the starling your mother’s; as long as these live,
nothing can harm your grandfather or your mother.” So the lad killed the
seven cocks and the pigeon and the starling, and smashed the
spinning-wheel; and at the moment he did so the ogres and ogresses
perished.(801) In another story from Cashmeer an ogre cannot die unless a
particular pillar in the verandah of his palace be broken. Learning the
secret, a prince struck the pillar again and again till it was broken in
pieces. And it was as if each stroke had fallen on the ogre, for he howled
lamentably and shook like an aspen every time the prince hit the pillar,
until at last, when the pillar fell down, the ogre also fell down and gave
up the ghost.(802) In another Cashmeer tale an ogre is represented as
laughing very heartily at the idea that he might possibly die. He said
that “he should never die. No power could oppose him; no years could age
him; he should remain ever strong and ever young, for the thing wherein
his life dwelt was most difficult to obtain.” It was in a queen bee, which
was in a honeycomb on a tree. But the bees in the honeycomb were many and
fierce, and it was only at the greatest risk that any one could catch the
queen. But the hero achieved the enterprise and crushed the queen bee; and
immediately the ogre fell stone dead to the ground, so that the whole land
trembled with the shock.(803) In some Bengalee tales the life of a whole
tribe of ogres is described as concentrated in two bees. The secret was
thus revealed by an old ogress to a captive princess who pretended to fear
lest the ogress should die. “Know, foolish girl,” said the ogress, “that
we ogres never die. We are not naturally immortal, but our life depends on
a secret which no human being can unravel. Let me tell you what it is that
you may be comforted. You know yonder tank; there is in the middle of it a
crystal pillar, on the top of which in deep water are two bees. If any
human being can dive into the water and bring up the two bees from the
pillar in one breath, and destroy them so that not a drop of their blood
falls to the ground, then we ogres shall certainly die; but if a single
drop of blood falls to the ground, then from it will start up a thousand
ogres. But what human being will find out this secret, or, finding it,
will be able to achieve the feat? You need not, therefore, darling, be
sad; I am practically immortal.” As usual, the princess reveals the secret
to the hero, who kills the bees, and that same moment all the ogres drop
down dead, each on the spot where he happened to be standing.(804) In
another Bengalee story it is said that all the ogres dwell in Ceylon, and
that all their lives are in a single lemon. A boy cuts the lemon in
pieces, and all the ogres die.(805)

In a Siamese or Cambodian story, probably derived from India, we are told
that Thossakan or Ravana, the King of Ceylon, was able by magic art to
take his soul out of his body and leave it in a box at home, while he went
to the wars. Thus he was invulnerable in battle. When he was about to give
battle to Rama, he deposited his soul with a hermit called Fire-eye, who
was to keep it safe for him. So in the fight Rama was astounded to see
that his arrows struck the king without wounding him. But one of Rama’s
allies, knowing the secret of the king’s invulnerability, transformed
himself by magic into the likeness of the king, and going to the hermit
asked back his soul. On receiving it he soared up into the air and flew to
Rama, brandishing the box and squeezing it so hard that all the breath
left the King of Ceylon’s body, and he died.(806) In a Bengalee story a
prince going into a far country planted with his own hands a tree in the
courtyard of his father’s palace, and said to his parents, “This tree is
my life. When you see the tree green and fresh, then know that it is well
with me; when you see the tree fade in some parts, then know that I am in
an ill case; and when you see the whole tree fade, then know that I am
dead and gone.”(807) In another Indian tale a prince, setting forth on his
travels, left behind him a barley plant with instructions that it should
be carefully tended and watched, for if it flourished, he would be alive
and well, but if it drooped, then some mischance was about to happen to
him. And so it fell out. For the prince was beheaded, and as his head
rolled off, the barley plant snapped in two and the ear of barley fell to
the ground.(808) In the legend of the origin of Gilgit there figures a
fairy king whose soul is in the snows and who can only perish by
fire.(809)

In Greek tales, ancient and modern, the idea of an external soul is not
uncommon. When Meleager was seven days old, the Fates appeared to his
mother and told her that Meleager would die when the brand which was
blazing on the hearth had burnt down. So his mother snatched the brand
from the fire and kept it in a box. But in after years, being enraged at
her son for slaying her brothers, she burnt the brand in the fire and
Meleager at once expired.(810) Again, Nisus King of Megara, had a purple
or golden hair on the middle of his head, and it was fated that whenever
the hair was pulled out the king should die. When Megara was besieged by
the Cretans, the king’s daughter Scylla fell in love with Minos, their
King, and pulled out the fatal hair from her father’s head. So he
died.(811) Similarly Poseidon made Pterelaus immortal by giving him a
golden hair on his head. But when Taphos, the home of Pterelaus, was
besieged by Amphitryon, the daughter of Pterelaus fell in love with
Amphitryon and killed her father by plucking out the golden hair with
which his life was bound up.(812) In a modern Greek folk-tale a man’s
strength lies in three golden hairs on his head. When his mother pulls
them out, he grows weak and timid and is slain by his enemies.(813) In
another modern Greek story the life of an enchanter is bound up with three
doves which are in the belly of a wild boar. When the first dove is
killed, the magician grows sick, when the second is killed, he grows very
sick, and when the third is killed, he dies.(814) In another Greek story
of the same sort an ogre’s strength is in three singing birds which are in
a wild boar. The hero kills two of the birds, and then coming to the
ogre’s house finds him lying on the ground in great pain. He shows the
third bird to the ogre, who begs that the hero will either let it fly away
or give it to him to eat. But the hero wrings the bird’s neck and the ogre
dies on the spot.(815) In a variant of the latter story the monster’s
strength is in two doves, and when the hero kills one of them, the monster
cries out, “Ah, woe is me! Half my life is gone. Something must have
happened to one of the doves.” When the second dove is killed, he
dies.(816) In another Greek story the incidents of the three golden hairs
and the three doves are artificially combined. A monster has three golden
hairs on his head which open the door of a chamber in which are three
doves; when the first dove is killed, the monster grows sick, when the
second is killed, he grows worse, and when the third is killed, he
dies.(817) In another Greek tale an old man’s strength is in a ten-headed
serpent. When the serpent’s heads are being cut off, he feels unwell, and
when the last head is struck off, he expires.(818) In another Greek story
a dervish tells a queen that she will have three sons, that at the birth
of each she must plant a pumpkin in the garden, and that in the fruit
borne by the pumpkins will reside the strength of the children. In due
time the infants are born and the pumpkins planted. As the children grow
up the pumpkins grow with them. One morning the eldest son feels sick, and
on going into the garden they find that the largest pumpkin is gone. Next
night the second son keeps watch in a summer-house in the garden. At
midnight a negro appears and cuts the second pumpkin. At once the boy’s
strength goes out of him and he is unable to pursue the negro. The
youngest son, however, succeeds in slaying the negro and recovering the
lost pumpkins.(819)

Ancient Italian legend furnishes a close parallel to the Greek story of
Meleager. Silvia, the young wife of Septimius Marcellus, had a child by
the god Mars. The god gave her a spear, with which he said that the fate
of the child would be bound up. When the boy grew up he quarrelled with
his maternal uncles and slew them. So in revenge his mother burned the
spear on which his life depended.(820) In one of the stories of the
_Pentamerone_ a certain queen has a twin brother, a dragon. The
astrologers declared at her birth that she would live just as long as the
dragon and no longer, the death of the one involving the death of the
other. If the dragon were killed, the only way to restore the queen to
life would be to smear her temples, breast, pulses, and nostrils with the
blood of the dragon.(821) In a modern Roman version of “Aladdin and the
Wonderful Lamp,” the magician tells the princess whom he holds captive in
a floating rock in mid-ocean that he will never die. The princess reports
this to the prince her husband, who has come to rescue her. The prince
replies, “It is impossible but that there should be some one thing or
other that is fatal to him; ask him what that one fatal thing is.” So the
princess asked the magician and he told her that in the wood was a hydra
with seven heads; in the middle head of the hydra was a leveret, in the
head of the leveret was a bird, in the bird’s head was a precious stone,
and if this stone were put under his pillow he would die. The prince
procured the stone and the princess laid it under the magician’s pillow.
No sooner did the enchanter lay his head on the pillow than he gave three
terrible yells, turned himself round and round three times, and died.(822)

Stories of the same sort are current among Slavonic peoples. Thus in a
Russian tale a warlock called Koshchei the Deathless is asked where his
death is. “My death,” he answered, “is in such and such a place. There
stands an oak, and under the oak is a casket, and in the casket is a hare,
and in the hare is a duck, and in the duck is an egg, and in the egg is my
death.” A prince obtained the egg and squeezed it, whereupon Koshchei the
Deathless bent double. But when the prince shivered the egg in pieces, the
warlock died.(823) “In one of the descriptions of Koshchei’s death, he is
said to be killed by a blow on the forehead inflicted by the mysterious
egg—that last link in the magic chain by which his life is darkly bound.
In another version of the same story, but told of a snake, the fatal blow
is struck by a small stone found in the yolk of an egg, which is inside a
duck, which is inside a hare, which is inside a stone, which is on an
island.”(824) In another variant the prince shifts the fatal egg from one
hand to the other, and as he does so Koshchei rushes wildly from side to
side of the room. At last the prince smashes the egg, and Koshchei drops
dead.(825) In another Russian story the death of an enchantress is in a
blue rose-tree in a blue forest. Prince Ivan uproots the rose-tree,
whereupon the enchantress straightway sickens. He brings the rose-tree to
her house and finds her at the point of death. Then he throws it into the
cellar, crying, “Behold her death!” and at once the whole building shakes,
“and becomes an island, on which are people who had been sitting in Hell,
and who offer up thanks to Prince Ivan.”(826) In another Russian story a
prince is grievously tormented by a witch who has got hold of his heart,
and keeps it seething in a magic cauldron.(827) In a Bohemian tale a
warlock’s strength lies in an egg, which is in a duck, which is in a stag,
which is under a tree. A seer finds the egg and sucks it. Then the warlock
grows as weak as a child, “for all his strength had passed into the
seer.”(828) In a Serbian story a fabulous being called True Steel
declares, “Far away from this place there is a very high mountain, in the
mountain there is a fox, in the fox there is a heart, in the heart there
is a bird, and in this bird is my strength.” The fox is caught and killed
and its heart is taken out. Out of the fox’s heart is taken the bird,
which is then burnt, and that very moment True Steel falls dead.(829) In a
South Slavonian story a dragon tells an old woman, “My strength is a long
way off, and you cannot go thither. Far in another empire under the
emperor’s city is a lake, in that lake is a dragon, and in the dragon a
boar, and in the boar a pigeon, and in that is my strength.”(830)

Amongst peoples of the Teutonic stock stories of the external soul are not
wanting. In a tale told by the Saxons of Transylvania it is said that a
young man shot at a witch again and again. The bullets went clean through
her but did her no harm, and she only laughed and mocked at him. “Silly
earthworm,” she cried, “shoot as much as you like. It does me no harm. For
know that my life resides not in me but far, far away. In a mountain is a
pond, on the pond swims a duck, in the duck is an egg, in the egg burns a
light, that light is my life. If you could put out that light, my life
would be at an end. But that can never, never be.” However, the young man
got hold of the egg, smashed it, and put out the light, and with it the
witch’s life went out also.(831) In a German story a cannibal called
Soulless keeps his soul in a box, which stands on a rock in the middle of
the Red Sea. A soldier gets possession of the box and goes with it to
Soulless, who begs the soldier to give him back his soul. But the soldier
opens the box, takes out the soul, and flings it backward over his head.
At the same moment the cannibal drops down stone dead.(832) In an
Oldenburg story a king has three sons and a daughter, and for each child
there grows a flower in the king’s garden. Each of the flowers is a life
flower; it blooms and flourishes while the child lives, but when the child
dies it withers away.(833) In another German story an old warlock lives
with a damsel all alone in the midst of a vast and gloomy wood. She fears
that being old he may die and leave her alone in the forest. But he
reassures her. “Dear child,” he said, “I cannot die, and I have no heart
in my breast.” But she importuned him to tell her where his heart was. So
he said, “Far, far from here in an unknown and lonesome land stands a
great church. The church is well secured with iron doors, and round about
it flows a broad deep moat. In the church flies a bird and in the bird is
my heart. So long as that bird lives, I live. It cannot die of itself, and
no one can catch it; therefore I cannot die, and you need have no
anxiety.” However, the young man, whose bride the damsel was to have been
before the warlock spirited her away, contrived to reach the church and
catch the bird. He brought it to the damsel, who stowed him and it away
under the warlock’s bed. Soon the old warlock came home. He was ailing,
and said so. The girl wept and said, “Alas, daddy is dying; he has a heart
in his breast after all.” “Child,” replied the warlock, “hold your tongue.
I _can’t_ die. It will soon pass over.” At that the young man under the
bed gave the bird a gentle squeeze; and as he did so, the old warlock felt
very unwell and sat down. Then the young man gripped the bird tighter, and
the warlock fell senseless from his chair. “Now squeeze him dead,” cried
the damsel. Her lover obeyed, and when the bird was dead, the old warlock
also lay dead on the floor.(834)

In the Norse tale of “the giant who had no heart in his body,” the giant
tells the captive princess, “Far, far away in a lake lies an island, on
that island stands a church, in that church is a well, in that well swims
a duck, in that duck there is an egg, and in that egg there lies my
heart.” The hero of the tale obtains the egg and squeezes it, at which the
giant screams piteously and begs for his life. But the hero breaks the egg
in pieces and the giant at once bursts.(835) In another Norse story a
hill-ogre tells the captive princess that she will never be able to return
home unless she finds the grain of sand which lies under the ninth tongue
of the ninth head of a certain dragon; but if that grain of sand were to
come over the rock in which the ogres live, they would all burst “and the
rock itself would become a gilded palace, and the lake green meadows.” The
hero finds the grain of sand and takes it to the top of the high rock in
which the ogres live. So all the ogres burst and the rest falls out as one
of the ogres had foretold.(836) In an Icelandic parallel to the story of
Meleager, the spae-wives or sybils come and foretell the high destiny of
the infant Gestr as he lies in his cradle. Two candles were burning beside
the child, and the youngest of the spae-wives, conceiving herself
slighted, cried out, “I foretell that the child shall live no longer than
this candle burns.” Whereupon the chief sybil put out the candle and gave
it to Gestr’s mother to keep, charging her not to light it again until her
son should wish to die. Gestr lived three hundred years; then he kindled
the candle and expired.(837)

In a Celtic tale a giant says, “There is a great flagstone under the
threshold. There is a wether under the flag. There is a duck in the
wether’s belly, and an egg in the belly of the duck, and it is in the egg
that my soul is.” The egg is crushed, and the giant falls down dead.(838)
In another Celtic tale, a sea beast has carried off a king’s daughter, and
an old smith declares that there is no way of killing the beast but one.
“In the island that is in the midst of the loch is Eillid Chaisthion—the
white-footed hind, of the slenderest legs, and the swiftest step, and,
though she should be caught, there would spring a hoodie out of her, and
though the hoodie should be caught, there would spring a trout out of her,
but there is an egg in the mouth of the trout, and the soul of the beast
is in the egg, and if the egg breaks, the beast is dead.” As usual the egg
is broken and the beast dies.(839) In a Breton story there figures a giant
whom neither fire nor water nor steel can harm. He tells a princess whom
he has just married, “I am immortal, and no one can hurt me, unless he
crushes on my breast an egg which is in a pigeon, which is in the belly of
a hare; this hare is in the belly of a wolf, and this wolf is in the belly
of my brother, who dwells a thousand leagues from here. So I am quite easy
on that score.” A soldier gets the egg and crushes it on the breast of the
giant, who immediately expires.(840) In another Breton tale a giant is
called Body-without-Soul because his life does not reside in his body. It
resides in an egg, the egg is in a dove, the dove is in a hare, the hare
is in a wolf, and the wolf is in an iron chest at the bottom of the sea.
The hero kills the animals one after another, and at the death of each
animal the giant grows weaker, as if he had lost a limb. When at last the
hero comes to the giant’s castle bearing the egg in his hand, he finds
Body-without-Soul stretched on his bed at the point of death. So he dashes
the egg against the giant’s forehead, the egg breaks, and the giant
straightway dies.(841)

The notion of an external soul has now been traced in folk-tales told by
Aryan peoples from India to Brittany and the Hebrides. We have still to
show that the same idea occurs commonly in the popular stories of
non-Aryan peoples. In the first place it appears in the ancient Egyptian
story of “The Two Brothers.” This story was written down in the reign of
Rameses II, about 1300 years B.C. It is therefore older than our present
redaction of Homer, and far older than the Bible. The outline of the
story, so far as it concerns us here, is as follows: Once upon a time
there were two brethren; the name of the elder was Anupu and the name of
the younger was Bitiu. Now Anupu had a house and a wife, and his younger
brother dwelt with him as his servant. It was Anupu who made the garments,
and every morning when it grew light he drove the kine afield. As he
walked behind them they used to say to him, “The grass is good in such and
such a place,” and he heard what they said and led them to the good
pasture that they desired. So his kine grew very sleek and multiplied
greatly. One day when the two brothers were at work in the field the elder
brother said to the younger, “Run and fetch seed from the village.” So the
younger brother ran and said to the wife of his elder brother, “Give me
seed that I may run to the field, for my brother sent me saying, tarry
not.” She said, “Go to the barn and take as much as you desire.” He went
and filled a jar full of wheat and barley, and came forth bearing it on
his shoulders. When the woman saw him her heart went out to him, and she
laid hold of him and said, “Come, let us rest an hour together.” But he
said, “Thou art to me as a mother, and my brother is to me as a father.”
So he would not hearken to her, but took the load on his back and went
away to the field. In the evening, when the elder brother was returning
from the field, his wife feared for what she had said. So she took soot
and made herself as one who has been beaten. And when her husband came
home, she said, “When thy younger brother came to fetch seed, he said to
me, Come, let us rest an hour together. But I would not, and he beat me.”
Then the elder brother became like a panther of the south; he sharpened
his knife and stood behind the door of the cow-house. And when the sun set
and the younger brother came laden with all the herbs of the field, as was
his wont every day, the cow that walked in front of the herd said to him,
“Behold, thy elder brother stands with a knife to kill thee. Flee before
him.” When he heard what the cow said, he looked under the door of the
cow-house and saw the feet of his elder brother standing behind the door,
his knife in his hand. So he fled and his brother pursued him with the
knife. But the younger brother cried for help to the Sun, and the Sun
heard him and caused a great water to spring up between him and his elder
brother, and the water was full of crocodiles. The two brothers stood, the
one on the one side of the water and the other on the other, and the
younger brother told the elder brother all that had befallen. So the elder
brother repented him of what he had done and he wept aloud. But he could
not come at the farther bank by reason of the crocodiles. His younger
brother called to him and said, “Go home and tend the cattle thyself. For
I will dwell no more in the place where thou art. I will go to the Valley
of the Acacia. But this is what thou shalt do for me. Thou shalt come and
care for me, if evil befalls me, for I will enchant my heart and place it
on the top of the flower of the Acacia; and if they cut the Acacia and my
heart falls to the ground, thou shalt come and seek it, and when thou hast
found it thou shalt lay it in a vessel of fresh water. Then I shall come
to life again. But this is the sign that evil has befallen me; the pot of
beer in thine hand shall bubble.” So he went away to the Valley of the
Acacia, but his brother returned home with dust on his head and slew his
wife and cast her to the dogs.

For many days afterwards the younger brother dwelt alone in the Valley of
the Acacia. By day he hunted the beasts of the field, but at evening he
came and laid him down under the Acacia, on the top of whose flower was
his heart. And many days after that he built himself a house in the Valley
of the Acacia. But the gods were grieved for him; and the Sun said to
Khnum, “Make a wife for Bitiu, that he may not dwell alone.” So Khnum made
him a woman to dwell with him, who was perfect in her limbs more than any
woman on earth, for all the gods were in her. So she dwelt with him. But
one day a lock of her hair fell into the river and floated down to the
land of Egypt, to the house of Pharaoh’s washerwomen. The fragrance of the
lock perfumed Pharaoh’s raiment, and the washerwomen were blamed, for it
was said, “An odour of perfume in the garments of Pharaoh!” So the heart
of Pharaoh’s chief washerman was weary of the complaints that were made
every day, and he went to the quay, and there in the water he saw the lock
of hair. He sent one down into the river to fetch it, and, because it
smelt sweetly, he took it to Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh’s magicians were sent
for and they said, “This lock of hair belongs to a daughter of the Sun,
who has in her the essence of all the gods. Let messengers go forth to all
foreign lands to seek her.” So the woman was brought from the Valley of
the Acacia with chariots and archers and much company, and all the land of
Egypt rejoiced at her coming, and Pharaoh loved her. But when they asked
her of her husband, she said to Pharaoh, “Let them cut down the Acacia and
let them destroy him.” So men were sent with tools to cut down the Acacia.
They came to it and cut the flower upon which was the heart of Bitiu; and
he fell down dead in that evil hour. But the next day, when the elder
brother of Bitiu was entered into his house and had sat down, they brought
him a pot of beer and it bubbled, and they gave him a jug of wine and it
grew turbid. Then he took his staff and his sandals and hied him to the
Valley of the Acacia, and there he found his younger brother lying dead in
his house. So he sought for the heart of his brother under the Acacia. For
three years he sought in vain, but in the fourth year he found it in the
berry of the Acacia. So he threw the heart into a cup of fresh water. And
when it was night and the heart had sucked in much water, Bitiu shook in
all his limbs and revived. Then he drank the cup of water in which his
heart was, and his heart went into its place, and he lived as before.(842)

In the story of Seyf-el-Mulook in the Arabian Nights, the Jinnee declares,
“When I was born, the astrologers declared that the destruction of my soul
would be effected by the hand of one of the sons of the human kings. I
therefore took my soul, and put it into the crop of a sparrow, and I
imprisoned the sparrow in a little box, and put this into another small
box, and this I put within seven other small boxes, and I put these within
seven chests, and the chests I put into a coffer of marble within the
verge of this circumambient ocean; for this part is remote from the
countries of mankind, and none of mankind can gain access to it.” But
Seyf-el-Mulook got possession of the sparrow and strangled it, and the
Jinnee fell upon the ground a heap of black ashes.(843) In a modern
Arabian tale a king marries an ogress, who puts out the eyes of the king’s
forty wives. One of the blinded queens gives birth to a son whom she names
Mohammed the Prudent. But the ogress queen hated him and compassed his
death. So she sent him on an errand to the house of her kinsfolk the
ogres. In the house of the ogres he saw some things hanging from the roof,
and on asking a female slave what they were, she said, “That is the bottle
which contains the life of my lady the queen, and the other bottle beside
it contains the eyes of the queens whom my mistress blinded.” A little
afterwards he spied a beetle and rose to kill it. “Don’t kill it,” cried
the slave, “for that is my life.” But Mohammed the Prudent watched the
beetle till it entered a chink in the wall; and when the female slave had
fallen asleep, he killed the beetle in its hole, and so the slave died.
Then Mohammed took down the two bottles and carried them home to his
father’s palace. There he presented himself before the ogress queen and
said, “See, I have your life in my hand, but I will not kill you till you
have replaced the eyes which you took from the forty queens.” The ogress
did as she was bid, and then Mohammed the Prudent said, “There, take your
life.” But the bottle slipped from his hand and fell, the life of the
ogress escaped from it, and she died.(844)

In a Kabyl story an ogre declares that his fate is far away in an egg,
which is in a pigeon, which is in a camel, which is in the sea. The hero
procures the egg and crushes it between his hands, and the ogre dies.(845)
In a Magyar folk-tale, an old witch detains a young prince called Ambrose
in the bowels of the earth. At last she confided to him that she kept a
wild boar in a silken meadow, and if it were killed, they would find a
hare inside, and inside the hare a pigeon, and inside the pigeon a small
box, and inside the box one black and one shining beetle: the shining
beetle held her life, and the black one held her power; if these two
beetles died, then her life would come to an end also. When the old hag
went out, Ambrose killed the wild boar, took out the hare, from the hare
he took the pigeon, from the pigeon the box, and from the box the two
beetles; he killed the black beetle, but kept the shining one alive. So
the witch’s power left her immediately, and when she came home, she had to
take to her bed. Having learned from her how to escape from his prison to
the upper air, Ambrose killed the shining beetle, and the old hag’s spirit
left her at once.(846) In another Hungarian story the safety of the
Dwarf-king resides in a golden cockchafer, inside a golden cock, inside a
golden sheep, inside a golden stag, in the ninety-ninth island. The hero
overcomes all these golden animals and so recovers his bride, whom the
Dwarf-king had carried off.(847) A Samoyed story tells how seven warlocks
killed a certain man’s mother and carried off his sister, whom they kept
to serve them. Every night when they came home the seven warlocks used to
take out their hearts and place them in a dish, which the woman hung on
the tent-poles. But the wife of the man whom they had wronged stole the
hearts of the warlocks while they slept, and took them to her husband. By
break of day he went with the hearts to the warlocks, and found them at
the point of death. They all begged for their hearts; but he threw six of
their hearts to the ground, and six of the warlocks died. The seventh and
eldest warlock begged hard for his heart, and the man said, “You killed my
mother. Make her alive again, and I will give you back your heart.” The
warlock said to his wife, “Go to the place where the dead woman lies. You
will find a bag there. Bring it to me. The woman’s spirit is in the bag.”
So his wife brought the bag; and the warlock said to the man, “Go to your
dead mother, shake the bag and let the spirit breathe over her bones; so
she will come to life again.” The man did as he was bid, and his mother
was restored to life. Then he hurled the seventh heart to the ground, and
the seventh warlock died.(848)

In a Tartar poem two heroes named Ak Molot and Bulat engage in mortal
combat. Ak Molot pierces his foe through and through with an arrow,
grapples with him, and dashes him to the ground, but all in vain, Bulat
could not die. At last when the combat has lasted three years, a friend of
Ak Molot sees a golden casket hanging by a white thread from the sky, and
bethinks him that perhaps this casket contains Bulat’s soul. So he shot
through the white thread with an arrow, and down fell the casket. He
opened it, and in the casket sat ten white birds, and one of the birds was
Bulat’s soul. Bulat wept when he saw that his soul was found in the
casket. But one after the other the birds were killed, and then Ak Molot
easily slew his foe.(849) In another Tartar poem, two brothers going to
fight two other brothers take out their souls and hide them in the form of
a white herb with six stalks in a deep pit. But one of their foes sees
them doing so and digs up their souls, which he puts into a golden ram’s
horn, and then puts the ram’s horn in his quiver. The two warriors whose
souls have thus been stolen know that they have no chance of victory, and
accordingly make peace with their enemies.(850) In another Tartar poem a
terrible demon sets all the gods and heroes at defiance. At last a valiant
youth fights the demon, binds him hand and foot, and slices him with his
sword. But still the demon is not slain. So the youth asked him, “Tell me,
where is your soul hidden? For if your soul had been hidden in your body,
you must have been dead long ago.” The demon replied, “On the saddle of my
horse is a bag. In the bag is a serpent with twelve heads. In the serpent
is my soul. When you have killed the serpent, you have killed me also.” So
the youth took the saddle-bag from the horse and killed the twelve-headed
serpent, whereupon the demon expired.(851) In another Tartar poem a hero
called Kök Chan deposits with a maiden a golden ring, in which is half his
strength. Afterwards when Kök Chan is wrestling long with a hero and
cannot kill him, a woman drops into his mouth the ring which contains half
his strength. Thus inspired with fresh force he slays his enemy.(852)

In a Mongolian story the hero Joro gets the better of his enemy the lama
Tschoridong in the following way. The lama, who is an enchanter, sends out
his soul in the form of a wasp to sting Joro’s eyes. But Joro catches the
wasp in his hand, and by alternately shutting and opening his hand he
causes the lama alternately to lose and recover consciousness.(853) In a
Tartar poem two youths cut open the body of an old witch and tear out her
bowels, but all to no purpose, she still lives. On being asked where her
soul is, she answers that it is in the middle of her shoe-sole in the form
of a seven-headed speckled snake. So one of the youths slices her
shoe-sole with his sword, takes out the speckled snake, and cuts off its
seven heads. Then the witch dies.(854) Another Tartar poem describes how
the hero Kartaga grappled with the Swan-woman. Long they wrestled. Moons
waxed and waned and still they wrestled; years came and went, and still
the struggle went on. But the piebald horse and the black horse knew that
the Swan-woman’s soul was not in her. Under the black earth flow nine
seas; where the seas meet and form one, the sea comes to the surface of
the earth. At the mouth of the nine seas rises a rock of copper; it rises
to the surface of the ground, it rises up between heaven and earth, this
rock of copper. At the foot of the copper rock is a black chest, in the
black chest is a golden casket, and in the golden casket is the soul of
the Swan-woman. Seven little birds are the soul of the Swan-woman; if the
birds are killed the Swan-woman will die straightway. So the horses ran to
the foot of the copper rock, opened the black chest, and brought back the
golden casket. Then the piebald horse turned himself into a bald-headed
man, opened the golden casket, and cut off the heads of the seven birds.
So the Swan-woman died.(855) In a Tartar story a chief called Tash Kan is
asked where his soul is. He answers that there are seven great poplars,
and under the poplars a golden well; seven _Maralen_ (?) come to drink the
water of the well, and the belly of one of them trails on the ground; in
this _Maral_ is a golden box, in the golden box is a silver box, in the
silver box are seven quails, the head of one of the quails is golden and
its tail silver; that quail is Tash Kan’s soul. The hero of the story gets
possession of the seven quails and wrings the necks of six of them. Then
Tash Kan comes running and begs the hero to let his soul go free. But the
hero wrings the quail’s neck, and Tash Kan drops dead.(856) In another
Tartar poem the hero, pursuing his sister who has driven away his cattle,
is warned to desist from the pursuit because his sister has carried away
his soul in a golden sword and a golden arrow, and if he pursues her she
will kill him by throwing the golden sword or shooting the golden arrow at
him.(857)

A Malay poem relates how once upon a time in the city of Indrapoera there
was a certain merchant who was rich and prosperous, but he had no
children. One day as he walked with his wife by the river they found a
baby girl, fair as an angel. So they adopted the child and called her
Bidasari. The merchant caused a golden fish to be made, and into this fish
he transferred the soul of his adopted daughter. Then he put the golden
fish in a golden box full of water, and hid it in a pond in the midst of
his garden. In time the girl grew to be a lovely woman. Now the King of
Indrapoera had a fair young queen, who lived in fear that the king might
take to himself a second wife. So, hearing of the charms of Bidasari, the
queen resolved to put her out of the way. So she lured the girl to the
palace and tortured her cruelly; but Bidasari could not die, because her
soul was not in her. At last she could stand the torture no longer and
said to the queen, “If you wish me to die, you must bring the box which is
in the pond in my father’s garden.” So the box was brought and opened, and
there was the golden fish in the water. The girl said, “My soul is in that
fish. In the morning you must take the fish out of the water, and in the
evening you must put it back into the water. Do not let the fish lie
about, but bind it round your neck. If you do this, I shall soon die.” So
the queen took the fish out of the box and fastened it round her neck; and
no sooner had she done so, than Bidasari fell into a swoon. But in the
evening, when the fish was put back into the water, Bidasari came to
herself again. Seeing that she thus had the girl in her power, the queen
sent her home to her adopted parents. To save her from further persecution
her parents resolved to remove their daughter from the city. So in a
lonely and desolate spot they built a house and brought Bidasari thither.
Here she dwelt alone, undergoing vicissitudes that corresponded with the
vicissitudes of the golden fish in which was her soul. All day long, while
the fish was out of the water, she remained unconscious; but in the
evening, when the fish was put into the water, she revived. One day the
king was out hunting, and coming to the house where Bidasari lay
unconscious, was smitten with her beauty. He tried to waken her, but in
vain. Next day, towards evening, he repeated his visit, but still found
her unconscious. However, when darkness fell, she came to herself and told
the king the secret of her life. So the king returned to the palace, took
the fish from the queen, and put it in water. Immediately Bidasari
revived, and the king took her to wife.(858)

The last story of an external soul which I shall notice comes from Nias,
an island to the west of Sumatra, which we have visited more than once in
the course of this book. Once on a time a chief was captured by his
enemies, who tried to put him to death but failed. Water would not drown
him nor fire burn him nor steel pierce him. At last his wife revealed the
secret. On his head he had a hair as hard as a copper wire; and with this
wire his life was bound up. So the hair was plucked out, and with it his
spirit fled.(859)

§ 4.—The external soul in folk-custom.

Thus the idea that the soul may be deposited for a longer or shorter time
in some place of security outside the body, or at all events in the hair,
is found in the popular tales of many races. It remains to show that the
idea is not a mere figment devised to adorn a tale, but is a real article
of primitive faith, which has given rise to a corresponding set of
customs.

We have seen that in the tales the hero, as a preparation for battle,
sometimes removes his soul from his body, in order that his body may be
invulnerable and immortal in the combat. With a like intention the savage
removes his soul from his body on various occasions of real or imaginary
danger. Thus we have seen that among the Minahassa of Celebes, when a
family moves into a new house, a priest collects the souls of the whole
family in a bag, and afterwards restores them to their owners, because the
moment of entering a new house is supposed to be fraught with supernatural
danger.(860) In Southern Celebes when a woman is brought to bed the
messenger who fetches the doctor or the midwife always carries with him a
piece of iron, which he delivers to the doctor. The doctor must keep it in
his house till the confinement is over, when he gives it back, receiving a
fixed sum of money for doing so. The piece of iron represents the woman’s
soul, which at this critical time is believed to be safer out of her body
than in it. Hence the doctor must take great care of the piece of iron;
for if it were lost, the woman’s soul would assuredly, it is supposed, be
lost with it.(861)

Again, we have seen that in folk-tales a man’s soul or strength is
sometimes represented as bound up with his hair, and that when his hair is
cut off he dies or grows weak. So the natives of Amboina used to think
that their strength was in their hair and would desert them if it were
shorn. A criminal under torture in a Dutch Court of that island persisted
in denying his guilt till his hair was cut off, when he immediately
confessed. One man who was tried for murder endured without flinching the
utmost ingenuity of his torturers till he saw the surgeon standing with a
pair of shears. On asking what this was for, and being told that it was to
cut his hair, he begged they would not do it, and made a clean breast. In
subsequent cases, when torture failed to wring a confession from a
prisoner, the Dutch authorities made a practice of cutting off his
hair.(862) In Ceram it is still believed that if young people have their
hair cut they will be weakened and enervated thereby.(863) In Zacynthus
people think that the whole strength of the ancient Greeks resided in
three hairs on their breasts, and vanished whenever these hairs were cut;
but if the hairs were allowed to grow again, their strength returned.(864)

Again, we have seen that in folk-tales the life of a person is sometimes
so bound up with the life of a plant that the withering of the plant will
immediately follow or be followed by the death of the person.(865)
Similarly among the M’Bengas in Western Africa, about the Gaboon, when two
children are born on the same day, the people plant two trees of the same
kind and dance round them. The life of each of the children is believed to
be bound up with the life of one of the trees; and if the tree dies or is
thrown down, they are sure that the child will soon die.(866) In the
Cameroons, also, the life of a person is believed to be sympathetically
bound up with that of a tree.(867) Some of the Papuans unite the life of a
new-born child sympathetically with that of a tree by driving a pebble
into the bark of the tree. This is supposed to give them complete mastery
over the child’s life; if the tree is cut down, the child will die.(868)
After a birth the Maoris used to bury the navel-string in a sacred place
and plant a young sapling over it. As the tree grew, it was a _tohu
oranga_ or sign of life for the child; if it flourished, the child would
prosper; if it withered and died, the parents augured the worst for their
child.(869) In Southern Celebes, when a child is born, a cocoa-nut is
planted, and is watered with the water in which the after-birth and
navel-string have been washed. As it grows up, the tree is called the
“contemporary” of the child.(870) So in Bali a cocoa-palm is planted at
the birth of a child. It is believed to grow up equally with the child,
and is called its “life-plant.”(871) On certain occasions the Dyaks of
Borneo plant a palm-tree, which is believed to be a complete index of
their fate. If it flourishes, they reckon on good fortune; but if it
withers or dies, they expect misfortune.(872) It is said that there are
still families in Russia, Germany, England, France, and Italy who are
accustomed to plant a tree at the birth of a child. The tree, it is hoped,
will grow with the child, and it is tended with special care.(873) The
custom is still pretty general in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland; an
apple-tree is planted for a boy and a pear-tree for a girl, and the people
think that the child will flourish or dwindle with the tree.(874) In
Mecklenburg the after-birth is thrown out at the foot of a young tree, and
the child is then believed to grow with the tree.(875) In England persons
are sometimes passed through a cleft tree as a cure for rupture, and
thenceforward a sympathetic connection is believed to exist between them
and the tree. “Thomas Chillingworth, son of the owner of an adjoining
farm, now about thirty-four years of age, was, when an infant of a year
old, passed through a similar tree, now perfectly sound, which he
preserves with so much care that he will not suffer a single branch to be
touched, for it is believed that the life of the patient depends on the
life of the tree; and the moment that it is cut down, be the patient ever
so distant, the rupture returns, and a mortification ensues.”(876) When
Lord Byron first visited his ancestral estate of Newstead “he planted, it
seems, a young oak in some part of the grounds, and had an idea that as
_it_ flourished so should _he_.”(877)

But in practice, as in folk-tales, it is not merely with trees and plants
that the life of an individual is occasionally believed to be united by a
bond of physical sympathy. The same bond, it is supposed, may exist
between a man and an animal or a thing, so that the death or destruction
of the animal or thing is immediately followed by the death of the man.
The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus was once informed by an astronomer that the
life of Simeon prince of Bulgaria was bound up with a certain column in
Constantinople, so that if the capital of the column were removed Simeon
would immediately die. The Emperor took the hint and removed the capital,
and at the same hour, as the emperor learned by inquiry, Simeon died of
heart disease in Bulgaria.(878) Amongst the Karens of Burma “the knife
with which the navel-string is cut is carefully preserved for the child.
The life of the child is supposed to be in some way connected with it, for
if lost or destroyed it is said the child will not be long-lived.”(879)
The Malays believe that “the soul of a person may pass into another person
or into an animal, or rather that such a mysterious relation can arise
between the two that the fate of the one is wholly dependent on that of
the other.”(880) In the Banks Islands “some people connect themselves with
an object, generally an animal, as a lizard or a snake, or with a stone,
which they imagine to have a certain very close natural relation to
themselves. This, at Mota, is called tamaniu—likeness. This word at Aurora
is used for the ‘atai’ [_i.e._ soul] of Mota. Some fancy dictates the
choice of a tamaniu; or it may be found by drinking the infusion of
certain herbs and heaping together the dregs. Whatever living thing is
first seen in or upon the heap is the tamaniu. It is watched, but not fed
or worshipped. The natives believe that it comes at call. The life of the
man is bound up with the life of his tamaniu. If it dies, gets broken or
lost, the man will die. In sickness they send to see how the tamaniu is,
and judge the issue accordingly. This is only the fancy of some.”(881)

But what among the Banks Islanders and the Malays is irregular and
occasional, among other peoples is systematic and universal. The Zulus
believe that every man has his _ihlozi_, a kind of mysterious serpent,
“which specially guards and helps him, lives with him, wakes with him,
sleeps and travels with him, but always under ground. If it ever makes its
appearance, great is the joy, and the man must seek to discover the
meaning of its appearance. He who has no _ihlozi_ must die. Therefore if
any one unintentionally kills an _ihlozi_ serpent, the man whose _ihlozi_
it was dies, but the serpent comes to life again.”(882) Amongst the
Zapotecs of Central America, when a woman was about to be confined, her
relations assembled in the hut, and began to draw on the floor figures of
different animals, rubbing each one out as soon as it was completed. This
went on till the moment of birth, and the figure that then remained
sketched upon the ground was called the child’s _tona_ or second self.
“When the child grew old enough he procured the animal that represented
him and took care of it, as it was believed that health and existence were
bound up with that of the animal’s, in fact that the death of both would
occur simultaneously,” or rather that when the animal died the man would
die.(883) Among the Indians of Guatemala the _nagual_ or _naual_ is an
“animate or inanimate object, generally an animal, which stands in a
parallel relation to a particular man, so that the weal and woe of the man
depend on the fate of the animal.” Among the Chontal Indians who inhabit
the part of Honduras bordering on Guatemala and in point of social culture
stand very close to the Pipil Indians of Guatemala, the _nagual_ used to
be obtained as follows. The young Indian went into the forest to a lonely
place by a river or to the top of a mountain, and prayed with tears to the
gods that they would vouchsafe to him what his forefathers had possessed
before him. After sacrificing a dog or a bird he laid himself down to
sleep. Then in a dream or after awakening from sleep there appeared to him
a jaguar, puma, coyote (prairie-wolf), crocodile, serpent, or bird. To
this visionary animal the Indian offered blood drawn from his tongue, his
ears, and other parts of his body, and prayed for an abundant yield of
salt and cacao. Then the animal said to him, “On such and such a day you
shall go out hunting, and the first animal that meets you will be myself,
who will always be your companion and _nagual_.” A man who had no _nagual_
could never grow rich. The Indians were persuaded that the death of their
_nagual_ would entail their own. Legend affirms that in the first battles
with the Spaniards on the plateau of Quetzaltenango the _naguals_ of the
Indian chiefs fought in the form of serpents. The _nagual_ of the highest
chief was especially conspicuous, because it had the form of a great bird,
resplendent in green plumage. The Spanish general Pedro de Alvarado killed
the bird with his lance, and at the same moment the Indian chief fell dead
to the ground.(884)

In many of the Australian tribes each sex regards a particular species of
animals in the same way that a Central American Indian regards his
_nagual_, but with this difference, that whereas the Indian apparently
knows the individual animal with which his life is bound up, the
Australians only know that each of their lives is bound up with some one
animal of the species, but they cannot say with which. The result
naturally is that every man spares and protects all the animals of the
species with which the lives of the men are bound up; and every woman
spares and protects all the animals of the species with which the lives of
the women are bound up; because no one knows but that the death of any
animal of the respective species might entail his or her own; just as the
killing of the green bird was immediately followed by the death of the
Indian chief, and the killing of the parrot by the death of Punchkin in
the fairy tale. Thus, for example, the Wotjobaluk tribe of South Eastern
Australia “held that ‘the life of Ngŭnŭngŭnŭt (the Bat) is the life of a
man and the life of Yártatgŭrk (the Nightjar) is the life of a woman,’ and
that when either of these creatures is killed the life of some man or of
some woman is shortened. In such a case every man or every woman in the
camp feared that he or she might be the victim, and from this cause great
fights arose in this tribe. I learn that in these fights, men on one side
and women on the other, it was not at all certain which would be
victorious, for at times the women gave the men a severe drubbing with
their yamsticks while often women were injured or killed by spears.”(885)
The particular species of animals with which the lives of the sexes were
believed to be respectively bound up varied somewhat from tribe to tribe.
Thus whereas among the Wotjobaluk the bat was the animal of the men, at
Gunbower Creek on the lower Murray the bat seems to have been the animal
of the women, for the natives would not kill it for the reason that “if it
was killed, one of their lubras [women] would be sure to die in
consequence.”(886) But the belief itself and the fights to which it gave
rise are known to have extended over a large part of South Eastern
Australia, and probably they extended much farther.(887) The belief is a
very serious one, and so consequently are the fights which spring from it.
Thus where the bat is the men’s animal they “protect it against injury,
even to the half-killing of their wives for its sake;” and where the fern
owl or large goatsucker (a night bird) is the women’s animal, “it is
jealously protected by them. If a man kills one, they are as much enraged
as if it was one of their children, and will strike him with their long
poles.”(888)

The jealous protection thus afforded by Australian men and women to bats
and owls respectively (for bats and owls seem to be the creatures usually
allotted to men and women respectively) is not based upon purely selfish
considerations. For each man believes that not only his own life, but the
lives of his father, brothers, sons, etc., are bound up with the lives of
particular bats, and that therefore in protecting the bat species he is
protecting the lives of all his male relations as well as his own.
Similarly, each woman believes that the lives of her mother, sisters,
daughters, etc., equally with her own, are bound up with the lives of
particular owls, and that in guarding the owl species she is guarding the
lives of all her female relations in addition to her own. Now, when men’s
lives are thus supposed to be contained in certain animals, it is obvious
that the animals can hardly be distinguished from the men, or the men from
the animals. If my brother John’s life is in a bat, then, on the one hand,
the bat is my brother as well as John; and, on the other hand, John is in
a sense a bat, since his life is in a bat. Similarly, if my sister Mary’s
life is in an owl, then the owl is my sister and Mary is an owl. This is a
natural enough conclusion, and the Australians have not failed to draw it.
When the bat is the man’s animal, it is called his brother; and when the
owl is the woman’s animal, it is called her sister. And conversely a man
addresses a woman as an owl, and she addresses him as a bat.(889) So with
the other animals allotted to the sexes respectively in other tribes. For
example, among the Kurnai all Emu Wrens were “brothers” of the men, and
all the men were Emu Wrens; all Superb Warblers were “sisters” of the
women, and all the women were Superb Warblers.(890)

But when a savage names himself after an animal, calls it his brother, and
refuses to kill it, the animal is said to be his totem. Accordingly the
bat and the owl, the Emu Wren and the Superb Warbler, may properly be
described as totems of the sexes. But the assignation of a totem to a sex
is comparatively rare, and has hitherto been discovered nowhere but in
Australia. Far more commonly the totem is appropriated not to a sex, but
to a tribe or clan, and is hereditary either in the male or female line.
The relation of an individual to the tribal totem does not differ in kind
from his relation to the sex totem; he will not kill it, he speaks of it
as his brother, and he calls himself by its name.(891) Now if the
relations are similar, the explanation which holds good of the one ought
equally to hold good of the other. Therefore the reason why a tribe revere
a particular species of animals or plants (for the tribal totem may be a
plant) and call themselves after it, must be a belief that the life of
each individual of the tribe is bound up with some one animal or plant of
the species, and that his or her death would be the consequence of killing
that particular animal, or destroying that particular plant. This
explanation of totemism squares very well with Sir George Grey’s
definition of a totem or _kobong_ in Western Australia. He says, “A
certain mysterious connection exists between a family and its _kobong_, so
that a member of the family will never kill an animal of the species to
which his _kobong_ belongs, should he find it asleep; indeed he always
kills it reluctantly, and never without affording it a chance to escape.
This arises from the family belief that some one individual of the species
is their nearest friend, to kill whom would be a great crime, and to be
carefully avoided. Similarly, a native who has a vegetable for his
_kobong_ may not gather it under certain circumstances, and at a
particular period of the year.”(892) Here it will be observed that though
each man spares all the animals or plants of the species, they are not all
equally precious to him; far from it, out of the whole species there is
only one which is specially dear to him; but as he does not know which the
dear one is, he is obliged to spare them all from fear of injuring the
one. Again, this explanation of the tribal totem harmonises with the
supposed effect of killing one of the totem species. “One day one of the
blacks killed a crow. Three or four days afterwards a Boortwa (crow)
[_i.e._ a man of the Crow clan or tribe] named Larry died. He had been
ailing for some days, but the killing of his wingong [totem] hastened his
death.”(893) Here the killing of the crow caused the death of a man of the
Crow clan, exactly as, in the case of the sex totems, the killing of a bat
causes the death of a Bat man, or the killing of an owl causes the death
of an Owl woman. Similarly, the killing of his _nagual_ causes the death
of a Central American Indian, the killing of his _ihlozi_ causes the death
of a Zulu, the killing of his _tamaniu_ causes the death of a Banks
Islander, and the killing of the animal in which his life is stowed away
causes the death of the giant or warlock in the fairy tale.

Thus it appears that the story of “The giant who had no heart in his body”
furnishes the key to the religious aspect of totemism, that is, to the
relation which is supposed to subsist between a man and his totem. The
totem, if I am right, is simply the receptacle in which a man keeps his
life, as Punchkin kept his life in a parrot, and Bidasari kept her soul in
a golden fish. It is no valid objection to this view that when a savage
has both a sex totem and a tribal totem his life must be bound up with two
different animals, the death of either of which would entail his own. If a
man has more vital places than one in his body, why, the savage may think,
should he not have more vital places than one outside it? Why, since he
can externalise his life, should he not transfer one portion of it to one
animal and another to another? The divisibility of life, or, to put it
otherwise, the plurality of souls, is an idea suggested by many familiar
facts, and has commended itself to philosophers like Plato as well as to
savages. It is only when the notion of a soul, from being a
quasi-scientific hypothesis, becomes a theological dogma that its unity
and indivisibility are insisted upon as essential. The savage, unshackled
by dogma, is free to explain the facts of life by the assumption of as
many souls as he thinks necessary. Hence, for example, the Caribs supposed
that there was one soul in the head, another in the heart, and other souls
at all the places where an artery is felt pulsating.(894) Some of the
Hidatsa Indians explain the phenomena of gradual death, when the
extremities appear dead first, by supposing that man has four souls, and
that they quit the body, not simultaneously, but one after the other,
dissolution being only complete when all four have departed.(895) The Laos
suppose that the body is the seat of thirty spirits, which reside in the
hands, the feet, the mouth, the eyes, etc.(896) Hence, from the primitive
point of view, it is perfectly possible that a savage should have one soul
in his sex totem, and another in his tribal totem. However, as I have
observed, sex totems occur nowhere but in Australia; so that as a rule the
savage who practises totemism need not have more than one soul out of his
body at a time.

If this explanation of the totem as a receptacle in which a man keeps his
soul or one of his souls is correct, we should expect to find some
totemistic tribes of whom it is expressly stated that every man amongst
them is believed to keep at least one soul permanently out of his body,
and that the destruction of this external soul is supposed to entail the
death of its owner. Such a tribe are the Battas of Sumatra. The Battas are
divided into exogamous clans (_margas_) with descent in the male line; and
each clan is forbidden to eat the flesh of a particular animal. One clan
may not eat the tiger, another the ape, another the crocodile, another the
dog, another the cat, another the dove, another the white buffalo. The
reason given by members of a clan for abstaining from the flesh of the
particular animal is either that they are descended from animals of that
species, and that their souls after death may transmigrate into the
animals, or that they or their forefathers have been under certain
obligations to the animals. Sometimes, but not always, the clan bears the
name of the animal.(897) Thus the Battas have totemism in full. But,
further, each Batta believes that he has seven or, on a more moderate
computation, three souls. One of these souls is always outside the body,
but nevertheless whenever it dies, however far away it may be at the time,
that same moment the man dies also.(898) The writer who mentions this
belief says nothing about the Batta totems; but on the analogy of the
Australian and Central American evidence we can scarcely avoid concluding
that the external soul, whose death entails the death of the man, must be
housed in the totem animal or plant.

Against this view it can hardly be thought to militate that the Batta does
not in set terms affirm his external soul to be in his totem, but alleges
other, though hardly contradictory, grounds for respecting the sacred
animal or plant of his clan. For if a savage seriously believes that his
life is bound up with an external object, it is in the last degree
unlikely that he will let any stranger into the secret. In all that
touches his inmost life and beliefs the savage is exceedingly suspicious
and reserved; Europeans have resided among savages for years without
discovering some of their capital articles of faith, and in the end the
discovery has often been the result of accident. Above all, the savage
lives in an intense and perpetual dread of assassination by sorcery; the
most trifling relics of his person—the clippings of his hair and nails,
his spittle, the remnants of his food, his very name—all these may, he
fancies, be turned by the sorcerer to his destruction, and he is therefore
anxiously careful to conceal or destroy them. But if in matters such as
these, which are but the outposts and outworks of his life, he is shy and
secretive to a degree, how close must be the concealment, how impenetrable
the reserve in which he enshrouds the inner keep and citadel of his being!
When the princess in the fairy tale asks the giant where he keeps his
soul, he generally gives false or evasive answers, and it is only after
much coaxing and wheedling that the secret is at last wrung from him. In
his jealous reticence the giant resembles the timid and furtive savage;
but whereas the exigencies of the story demand that the giant should at
last reveal his secret, no such obligation is laid on the savage; and no
inducement that can be offered is likely to tempt him to imperil his soul
by revealing its hiding-place to a stranger. It is therefore no matter for
surprise that the central mystery of the savage’s life should so long have
remained a secret, and that we should be left to piece it together from
scattered hints and fragments and from the recollections of it which
linger in fairy tales.

This view of totemism throws light on a class of religious rites of which
no adequate explanation, so far as I am aware, has yet been offered.
Amongst many savage tribes, especially such as are known to practise
totemism, it is customary for lads at puberty to undergo certain
initiatory rites, of which one of the commonest is a pretence of killing
the lad and bringing him to life again. Such rites become intelligible if
we suppose that their substance consists in extracting the youth’s soul in
order to transfer it to his totem. For the extraction of his soul would
naturally be supposed to kill the youth or, at least, to throw him into a
death-like trance, which the savage hardly distinguishes from death. His
recovery would then be attributed either to the gradual recovery of his
system from the violent shock which it had received, or, more probably, to
the infusion into him of fresh life drawn from the totem. Thus the essence
of these initiatory rites, so far as they consist in a simulation of death
and resurrection, would be an exchange of life or souls between the man
and his totem. The primitive belief in the possibility of such an exchange
of souls comes clearly out in the story of the Basque hunter who affirmed
that he had been killed by a bear, but that the bear had, after killing
him, breathed its own soul into him, so that the bear’s body was now dead,
but he himself was a bear, being animated by the bear’s soul.(899) This
revival of the dead hunter as a bear is exactly analogous to what, if I am
right, is supposed to take place in the totemistic ceremony of killing a
lad at puberty and bringing him to life again. The lad dies as a man and
comes to life again as an animal; the animal’s soul is now in him, and his
human soul is in the animal. With good right, therefore, does he call
himself a Bear or a Wolf, etc., according to his totem; and with good
right does he treat the bears or the wolves, etc., as his brethren, since
in these animals are lodged the souls of himself and his kindred.

Examples of this supposed death and resurrection at initiation are the
following. Among some of the Australian tribes of New South Wales, when
lads are initiated, it is thought that a being called Thuremlin takes each
lad to a distance, kills him, and sometimes cuts him up, after which he
restores him to life and knocks out a tooth.(900) In one part of
Queensland the humming sound of the Bullroarer, which is swung at the
initiatory rites, is said to be the noise made by the wizards in
swallowing the boys and bringing them up again as young men. “The Ualaroi
of the Upper Darling River say that the boy meets a ghost which kills him
and brings him to life again as a man.”(901) This resurrection appears to
be represented at the initiatory rites by the following ceremony. An old
man, disguised with stringy bark fibre, lies down in a grave, and is
lightly covered up with sticks and earth, and as far as possible the
natural appearance of the ground is restored, the excavated earth being
carried away. The buried man holds a small bush in his hand; it appears to
be growing in the soil, and other bushes are stuck in the soil to heighten
the effect. The novices are then brought to the edge of the grave, and a
song is sung, in which the only words used are the “class-name” of the
buried man and the word for stringy bark fibre. Gradually, as the song
continues, the bush held by the buried man begins to quiver and then to
move more and more, and finally the man himself starts up from the
grave.(902) Similarly, Fijian lads at initiation were shown a row of
apparently dead men, covered with blood, their bodies seemingly cut open,
and their entrails protruding. But at a yell from the priest the pretended
dead men sprang to their feet and ran to the river to cleanse themselves
from the blood and entrails of pigs with which they had been
besmeared.(903)

In the valley of the Congo initiatory rites of this sort are common. In
some places they are called Ndembo. “In the practice of Ndembo the
initiating doctors get some one to fall down in a pretended fit, and in
that state he is carried away to an enclosed place outside the town. This
is called ‘dying Ndembo.’ Others follow suit, generally boys and girls,
but often young men and women.... They are supposed to have died. But the
parents and friends supply food, and after a period varying, according to
custom, from three months to three years, it is arranged that the doctor
shall bring them to life again.... When the doctor’s fee has been paid,
and money (goods) saved for a feast, the _Ndembo_ people are brought to
life. At first they pretend to know no one and nothing; they do not even
know how to masticate food, and friends have to perform that office for
them. They want everything nice that any one uninitiated may have, and
beat them if it is not granted, or even strangle and kill people. They do
not get into trouble for this, because it is thought that they do not know
better. Sometimes they carry on the pretence of talking gibberish, and
behaving as if they had returned from the spirit-world. After this they
are known by another name, peculiar to those who have ‘died Ndembo.’ ...
We hear of the custom far along on the upper river, as well as in the
cataract region.”(904) The following account of the rites, as practised in
this part of Africa, was given to Bastian by an interpreter. “In the land
of Ambamba every one must die once, and when the fetish priest shakes his
calabash against a village, all the men and lads whose hour is come fall
into a state of lifeless torpidity, from which they generally awake after
three days. But if the fetish loves a man he carries him away into the
bush and buries him in the fetish house, often for many years. When he
comes to life again, he begins to eat and drink as before, but his
understanding is gone and the fetish man must teach him and direct him in
every motion, like the smallest child. At first this can only be done with
a stick, but gradually his senses return, so that it is possible to talk
with him, and when his education is complete, the priest brings him back
to his parents. They would seldom recognise their son but for the express
assurances of the fetish priest, who moreover recalls previous events to
their memory. He who has not gone through the ceremony of the new birth in
Ambamba is universally looked down upon and is not admitted to the
dances.” During the period of initiation the novice is sympathetically
united to the fetish by which his life is henceforward determined.(905)
The novice, plunged in the magic sleep or death-like trance within the
sacred hut, “beholds a bird or other object with which his existence is
thenceforward sympathetically bound up, just as the life of the young
Indian is bound up with the animal which he sees in his dreams at
puberty.”(906)

Rites of this sort were formerly observed in Quoja, on the west coast of
Africa, to the north of the Congo. They are thus described by an old
writer:—“They have another ceremony which they call Belli-Paaro, but it is
not for everybody. For it is an incorporation in the assembly of the
spirits, and confers the right of entering their groves, that is to say,
of going and eating the offerings which the simple folk bring thither. The
initiation or admission to the Belli-Paaro is celebrated every twenty or
twenty-five years. The initiated recount marvels of the ceremony, saying
that they are roasted, that they entirely change their habits and life,
and that they receive a spirit quite different from that of other people
and quite new lights. The badge of membership consists in some lines
traced on the neck between the shoulders; the lines seem to be pricked
with a needle. Those who have this mark pass for persons of spirit, and
when they have attained a certain age they are allowed a voice in all
public assemblies; whereas the uninitiated are regarded as profane,
impure, and ignorant persons, who dare not express an opinion on any
subject of importance. When the time for the ceremony has come, it is
celebrated as follows: By order of the king a place is appointed in the
forest, whither they bring the youths who have not been marked, not
without much crying and weeping; for it is impressed upon the youths that
in order to undergo this change it is necessary to suffer death. So they
dispose of their property, as if it were all over with them. There are
always some of the initiated beside the novices to instruct them. They
teach them to dance a certain dance called _killing_, and to sing verses
in praise of Belli. Above all, they are very careful not to let them die
of hunger, because if they did so, it is much to be feared that the
spiritual resurrection would profit them nothing. This manner of life
lasts five or six years, and is comfortable enough, for there is a village
in the forest, and they amuse themselves with hunting and fishing. Other
lads are brought thither from time to time, so that the last comers have
not long to stay. No woman or uninitiated person is suffered to pass
within four or five leagues of the sacred wood. When their instruction is
completed, they are taken from the wood and shut up in small huts made for
the purpose. Here they begin once more to hold communion with mankind and
to talk with the women who bring them their food. It is amusing to see
their affected simplicity. They pretend to know no one, and to be ignorant
of all the customs of the country, such as the customs of washing
themselves, rubbing themselves with oil, etc. When they enter these huts,
their bodies are all covered with the feathers of birds, and they wear
caps of bark which hang down before their faces. But after a time they are
dressed in clothes and taken to a great open place, where all the people
of the neighbourhood are assembled. Here the novices give the first proof
of their capacity by dancing a dance which is called the dance of Belli.
After the dance is over, the novices are taken to the houses of their
parents by their instructors.”(907)

Among the Indians of Virginia, an initiatory ceremony, called _Huskanaw_,
took place every sixteen or twenty years, or oftener, as the young men
happened to grow up. The youths were kept in solitary confinement in the
woods for several months, receiving no food but an infusion of some
intoxicating roots, so that they went raving mad, and continued in this
state eighteen or twenty days. “Upon this occasion it is pretended that
these poor creatures drink so much of the water of Lethe that they
perfectly lose the remembrance of all former things, even of their
parents, their treasure, and their language. When the doctors find that
they have drank sufficiently of the Wysoccan (so they call this mad
potion), they gradually restore them to their senses again by lessening
the intoxication of their diet; but before they are perfectly well they
bring them back into their towns, while they are still wild and crazy
through the violence of the medicine. After this they are very fearful of
discovering anything of their former remembrance; for if such a thing
should happen to any of them, they must immediately be _Huskanaw’d_ again;
and the second time the usage is so severe that seldom any one escapes
with life. Thus they must pretend to have forgot the very use of their
tongues, so as not to be able to speak, nor understand anything that is
spoken, till they learn it again. Now, whether this be real or
counterfeit, I don’t know; but certain it is that they will not for some
time take notice of any body nor any thing with which they were before
acquainted, being still under the guard of their keepers, who constantly
wait upon them everywhere till they have learnt all things perfectly over
again. Thus they unlive their former lives, and commence men by forgetting
that they ever have been boys.”(908)

Among some of the Indian tribes of North America there are certain
religious associations which are only open to candidates who have gone
through a pretence of being killed and brought to life again. Captain
Carver witnessed the admission of a candidate to an association called
“the friendly society of the Spirit” among the Naudowessies. The candidate
knelt before the chief, who told him that “he himself was now agitated by
the same spirit which he should in a few moments communicate to him; that
it would strike him dead, but that he would instantly be restored again to
life.... As he spoke this, he appeared to be greatly agitated, till at
last his emotions became so violent that his countenance was distorted and
his whole frame convulsed. At this juncture he threw something that
appeared both in shape and colour like a small bean at the young man,
which seemed to enter his mouth, and he instantly fell as motionless as if
he had been shot.” For a time the man lay like dead, but under a shower of
blows he showed signs of consciousness, and finally, discharging from his
mouth the bean, or whatever it was the chief had thrown at him, he came to
life.(909) In other tribes the instrument by which the candidate is
apparently slain is the medicine-bag. The bag is made of the skin of an
animal (such as the otter, wild cat, serpent, bear, raccoon, wolf, owl,
weasel), of which it roughly preserves the shape. Each member of the
society has one of these bags, in which he keeps the odds and ends that
make up his “medicine” or charms. “They believe that from the
miscellaneous contents in the belly of the skin bag or animal there issues
a spirit or breath, which has the power, not only to knock down and kill a
man, but also to set him up and restore him to life.” The mode of killing
a man with one of these medicine-bags is to thrust it at him; he falls
like dead, but a second thrust of the bag restores him to life.(910)

A ceremony witnessed by Jewitt during his captivity among the Indians of
Nootka Sound doubtless belongs to this class of customs. The Indian king
or chief “discharged a pistol close to his son’s ear, who immediately fell
down as if killed, upon which all the women of the house set up a most
lamentable cry, tearing handfuls of hair from their heads, and exclaiming
that the prince was dead; at the same time a great number of the
inhabitants rushed into the house armed with their daggers, muskets, etc.,
inquiring the cause of their outcry. These were immediately followed by
two others dressed in wolf skins, with masks over their faces representing
the head of that animal. The latter came in on their hands and feet in the
manner of a beast, and taking up the prince, carried him off upon their
backs, retiring in the same manner as they entered.”(911) In another place
Jewitt mentions that the young prince—a lad of about eleven years of
age—wore a mask in imitation of a wolf’s head.(912) Now, as the Indians of
this part of America are divided into totem clans, of which the Wolf clan
is one of the principal, and as the members of each clan are in the habit
of wearing some portion of the totem animal about their person,(913) it is
probable that the prince belonged to the Wolf clan, and that the ceremony
described by Jewitt represented the killing of the lad in order that he
might be born anew as a wolf, much in the same way that the Basque hunter
supposed himself to have been killed and to have come to life again as a
bear. The Toukaway Indians of Texas, one of whose totems is the wolf, have
a ceremony in which men, dressed in wolf skins, run about on all fours,
howling and mimicking wolves. At last they scratch up a living tribesman,
who has been buried on purpose, and putting a bow and arrows in his hands,
bid him do as the wolves do—rob, kill, and murder.(914) The ceremony
probably forms part of an initiatory rite like the resurrection from the
grave of the old man in the Australian rites.

The people of Rook, an island east of New Guinea, hold festivals at which
one or two disguised men, their heads covered with wooden masks, go
dancing through the village, followed by all the other men. They demand
that the circumcised boys who have not yet been swallowed by Marsaba (the
devil) shall be given up to them. The boys, trembling and shrieking, are
delivered to them, and must creep between the legs of the disguised men.
Then the procession moves through the village again, and announces that
Marsaba has eaten up the boys, and will not disgorge them till he receives
a present of pigs, taro, etc. So all the villagers, according to their
means, contribute provisions, which are then consumed in the name of
Marsaba.(915) In New Britain all males are members of an association
called the Duk-duk. The boys are admitted to it very young, but are not
fully initiated till their fourteenth year, when they receive from the
Tubuvan a terrible blow with a cane, which is supposed to kill them. The
Tubuvan and the Duk-duk are two disguised men who represent cassowaries.
They dance with a short hopping step in imitation of the cassowary. Each
of them wears a huge hat like an extinguisher, woven of grass or
palm-fibres; it is six feet high, and descends to the wearer’s shoulders,
completely concealing his head and face. From the neck to the knees the
man’s body is hidden by a crinoline made of the leaves of a certain tree
fastened on hoops, one above the other. The Tubuvan is regarded as a
female, the Duk-duk as a male. No woman may see these disguised men. The
institution of the Duk-duk is common to the neighbouring islands of New
Ireland and the Duke of York.(916)

Amongst the Galela and Tobelorese of Halmahera, an island to the west of
New Guinea, boys go through a form of initiation, part of which seems to
consist in a pretence of begetting them anew. When a number of boys have
reached the proper age, their parents agree to celebrate the ceremony at
their common expense, and they invite others to be present at it. A shed
is erected, and two long tables are placed in it, with benches to match,
one for the men and one for the women. When all the preparations have been
made for a feast, a great many skins of the rayfish, and some pieces of a
wood which imparts a red colour to water, are taken to the shed. A priest
or elder causes a vessel to be placed in the sight of all the people, and
then begins, with significant gestures, to rub a piece of the wood with
the ray-skin. The powder so produced is put in the vessel, and at the same
time the name of one of the boys is called out. The same proceeding is
repeated for each boy. Then the vessels are filled with water, after which
the feast begins. At the third cock-crow the priest smears the faces and
bodies of the boys with the red water, which represents the blood shed at
the perforation of the _hymen_. Towards daybreak the boys are taken to the
wood, and must hide behind the largest trees. The men, armed with sword
and shield, accompany them, dancing and singing. The priest knocks thrice
on each of the trees behind which a boy is hiding. All day the boys stay
in the wood, exposing themselves to the heat of the sun as much as
possible. In the evening they bathe and return to the shed, where the
women supply them with food.(917)

In the west of Ceram boys at puberty are admitted to the Kakian
association.(918) Modern writers have commonly regarded this association
as primarily a political league instituted to resist foreign domination.
In reality its objects are purely religious and social, though it is
possible that the priests may have occasionally used their powerful
influence for political ends. The society is in fact merely one of those
widely-diffused primitive institutions, of which a chief object is the
initiation of young men. In recent years the true nature of the
association has been duly recognised by the distinguished Dutch
ethnologist, J. G. F. Riedel. The Kakian house is an oblong wooden shed,
situated under the darkest trees in the depth of the forest, and is built
to admit so little light that it is impossible to see what goes on in it.
Every village has such a house. Thither the boys who are to be initiated
are conducted blindfolded, followed by their parents and relations. Each
boy is led by the hand by two men, who act as his sponsors or guardians,
looking after him during the period of initiation. When all are assembled
before the shed, the high priest calls aloud upon the devils. Immediately
a hideous uproar is heard to proceed from the shed. It is made by men with
bamboo trumpets, who have been secretly introduced into the building by a
back door, but the women and children think it is made by the devils, and
are much terrified. Then the priests enter the shed, followed by the boys,
one at a time. As soon as each boy has disappeared within the precincts, a
dull chopping sound is heard, a fearful cry rings out, and a sword or
spear, dripping with blood, is thrust through the roof of the shed. This
is a token that the boy’s head has been cut off, and that the devil has
carried him away to the other world, there to regenerate and transform
him. So at sight of the bloody sword the mothers weep and wail, crying
that the devil has murdered their children. In some places, it would seem,
the boys are pushed through an opening made in the shape of a crocodile’s
jaws or a cassowary’s beak, and it is then said that the devil has
swallowed them. The boys remain in the shed for five or nine days. Sitting
in the dark, they hear the blast of the bamboo trumpets, and from time to
time the sound of musket shots and the clash of swords. Every day they
bathe, and their faces and bodies are smeared with a yellow dye, to give
them the appearance of having been swallowed by the devil. During his stay
in the Kakian house each boy has one or two crosses tattooed with thorns
on his breast or arm. When they are not sleeping, the lads must sit in a
crouching posture without moving a muscle. As they sit in a row
cross-legged, with their hands stretched out, the chief takes his trumpet,
and placing the mouth of it on the hands of each lad, speaks through it in
strange tones, imitating the voice of the spirits. He warns the lads,
under pain of death, to observe the rules of the Kakian society, and never
to reveal what has passed in the Kakian house. The novices are also told
by the priests to behave well to their blood relations, and are taught the
traditions and secrets of the tribe.

Meantime the mothers and sisters of the lads have gone home to weep and
mourn. But in a day or two the men who acted as guardians or sponsors to
the novices return to the village with the glad tidings that the devil, at
the intercession of the priests, has restored the lads to life. The men
who bring this news come in a fainting state and daubed with mud, like
messengers freshly arrived from the nether world. Before leaving the
Kakian house, each lad receives from the priest a stick adorned at both
ends with cock’s or cassowary’s feathers. The sticks are supposed to have
been given to the lads by the devil at the time when he restored them to
life, and they serve as a token that the lads have been in the
spirit-land. When they return to their homes they totter in their walk,
and enter the house backward, as if they had forgotten how to walk
properly; or they enter the house by the back door. If a plate of food is
given to them, they hold it upside down. They remain dumb, indicating
their wants by signs only. All this is to show that they are still under
the influence of the devil or the spirits. Their sponsors have to teach
them all the common acts of life, as if they were new-born children.
Further, upon leaving the Kakian house the boys are strictly forbidden to
eat of certain fruits until the next celebration of the rites has taken
place. And for twenty or thirty days their hair may not be combed by their
mothers or sisters. At the end of that time the high priest takes them to
a lonely place in the forest, and cuts off a lock of hair from the crown
of each of their heads. After these initiatory rites the lads are deemed
men, and may marry; it would be a scandal if they married before.

The simulation of death and resurrection or of a new birth at initiation
appears to have lingered on, or at least to have left traces of itself,
among peoples who have advanced far beyond the stage of savagery. Thus,
after his investiture with the sacred thread—the symbol of his order—a
Brahman is called “twice-born.” Manu says, “According to the injunction of
the revealed texts the first birth of an Aryan is from his natural mother,
the second happens on the tying of the girdle of Muñga grass, and the
third on the initiation to the performance of a Srauta sacrifice.”(919) A
pretence of killing the candidate appears to have formed part of the
initiation to the Mithraic mysteries.(920)

Thus, if I am right, wherever totemism is found, and wherever a pretence
is made of killing and bringing to life again at initiation, there must
exist or have existed not only a belief in the possibility of permanently
depositing the soul in some external object—animal, plant, or what not—but
an actual intention of so depositing it. If the question is put, why do
men desire to deposit their life outside their bodies? the answer can only
be that, like the giant in the fairy tale, they think it safer to do so
than to carry it about with them, just as people deposit their money with
a banker rather than carry it on their persons. We have seen that at
critical periods the life or soul is sometimes temporarily deposited in a
safe place till the danger is past. But institutions like totemism are not
resorted to merely on special occasions of danger; they are systems into
which every one, or at least every male, is obliged to be initiated at a
certain period of life. Now the period of life at which initiation takes
place is regularly puberty; and this fact suggests that the special danger
which totemism and systems like it are intended to obviate is supposed not
to arise till sexual maturity has been attained, in fact, that the danger
apprehended is believed to attend the relation of the sexes to each other.
It would be easy to prove by a long array of facts that the sexual
relation is associated in the primitive mind with many supernatural
perils; but the exact nature of the danger apprehended is still obscure.
We may hope that a more exact acquaintance with savage modes of thought
will in time disclose this central mystery of primitive society, and will
thereby furnish the clue, not only to the social aspect of totemism (the
prohibition of sexual union between persons of the same totem), but to the
origin of the marriage system.

§ 5.—Conclusion.

Thus the view that Balder’s life was in the mistletoe is entirely in
harmony with primitive modes of thought. It may indeed sound like a
contradiction that, if his life was in the mistletoe, he should
nevertheless have been killed by a blow from it. But when a person’s life
is conceived as embodied in a particular object, with the existence of
which his own existence is inseparably bound up, and the destruction of
which involves his own, the object in question may be regarded and spoken
of indifferently as the person’s life or as his death, as happens in the
fairy tales. Hence if a man’s death is in an object, it is perfectly
natural that he should be killed by a blow from it. In the fairy tales
Koshchei the Deathless is killed by a blow from the egg or the stone in
which his life or death is;(921) the ogres burst when a certain grain of
sand—doubtless containing their life or death—is carried over their
heads;(922) the magician dies when the stone in which his life or death is
contained is put under his pillow;(923) and the Tartar hero is warned that
he may be killed by the golden arrow or golden sword in which his soul has
been stowed away.(924)

The idea that the life of the oak was in the mistletoe was probably
suggested, as I have said, by the observation that in winter the mistletoe
growing on the oak remains green, while the oak itself is leafless. But
the position of the plant—growing, not from the ground, but from the trunk
or branches of the tree—might confirm this idea. Primitive man might think
that, like himself, the oak-spirit had sought to deposit his life in some
safe place, and for this purpose had pitched on the mistletoe, which,
being in a sense neither on earth nor in heaven, was as secure a place as
could be found. At the beginning of this chapter we saw that primitive man
seeks to preserve the life of his human divinities by keeping them in a
sort of intermediate position between earth and heaven, as the place where
they are least likely to be assailed by the dangers that encompass the
life of man on earth. We can therefore understand why in modern
folk-medicine the mistletoe is not allowed to touch the ground; if it
touches the ground, its healing virtue is supposed to be gone.(925) This
may be a survival of the old superstition that the plant in which the life
of the sacred tree was concentrated should not be exposed to the risk
incurred by contact with the ground. In an Indian legend, which offers a
parallel to the Balder myth, Indra promised the demon Namuci not to kill
him by day or by night, nor with what was wet or what was dry. But he
killed him in the morning twilight by sprinkling over him the foam of the
sea.(926) The foam of the sea is just such an object as a savage might
choose to put his life in, because it occupies that sort of intermediate
or nondescript position between earth and sky or sea and sky in which
primitive man sees safety. It is therefore not surprising that the foam of
the river should be the totem of a clan in India.(927) Again, the view
that the mistletoe owes its mystic character partly to the fact of its not
growing on the ground is confirmed by a parallel superstition about the
mountain-ash or rowan-tree. In Jutland a rowan that is found growing out
of the top of another tree is esteemed “exceedingly effective against
witchcraft: since it does not grow on the ground witches have no power
over it; if it is to have its full effect it must be cut on Ascension
Day.”(928) Hence it is placed over doors to prevent the ingress of
witches.(929) Similarly the mistletoe in Germany is still universally
considered a protection against witchcraft, and in Sweden, as we saw, the
mistletoe which is gathered on Midsummer Eve is attached to the ceiling of
the house, the horse stall, or the cow’s crib, in the belief that this
renders the Troll powerless to injure man or beast.(930)

The view that the mistletoe was not merely the instrument of Balder’s
death, but that it contained his life, is countenanced by the analogy of a
Scottish superstition. Tradition ran that the fate of the family of Hay
was bound up with the mistletoe of a certain oak.

“While the mistletoe bats on Errol’s oak,
And that oak stands fast,
The Hays shall flourish, and their good gray hawk
Shall not flinch before the blast.

“But when the root of the oak decays,
And the mistletoe dwines on its withered breast,
The grass shall grow on the Earl’s hearthstone,
And the corbies craw in the falcon’s nest.”

“A large oak with the mistletoe growing on it was long pointed out as the
tree referred to. A piece of the mistletoe cut by a Hay was believed to
have magical virtues. ‘The oak is gone and the estate is lost to the
family,’ as a local historian says.”(931) The idea that the fate of a
family, as distinct from the lives of its members, is bound up with a
particular plant or tree, is no doubt comparatively modern. The older view
probably was that the lives of all the Hays were in this particular
mistletoe, just as in the Indian story the lives of all the ogres are in a
lemon; to break a twig of the mistletoe would then have been to kill one
of the Hays. Similarly in the island of Rum, whose bold mountains the
voyager from Oban to Skye observes to seaward, it was thought that if one
of the family of Lachlin shot a deer on the mountain of Finchra, he would
die suddenly or contract a distemper which would soon prove fatal.(932)
Probably the life of the Lachlins was bound up with the deer on Finchra,
as the life of the Hays was bound up with the mistletoe on Errol’s oak.

It is not a new opinion that the Golden Bough was the mistletoe.(933)
True, Virgil does not identify but only compares it with the mistletoe.
But this may be only a poetical device to cast a mystic glamour over the
humble plant. Or, more probably, his description was based on a popular
superstition that at certain times the mistletoe blazed out into a
supernatural golden glory. The poet tells how two doves, guiding Aeneas to
the gloomy vale in whose depth grew the Golden Bough, alighted upon a
tree, “whence shone a flickering gleam of gold. As in the woods in winter
cold the mistletoe—a plant not native to its tree—is green with fresh
leaves and twines its yellow berries about the boles; such seemed upon the
shady oak the leafy gold, so rustled in the gentle breeze the golden
leaf.”(934) Here Virgil definitely describes the Golden Bough as growing
on an oak, and compares it with the mistletoe. The inference is almost
inevitable that the Golden Bough was nothing but the mistletoe seen
through the haze of poetry or of popular superstition.

Now grounds have been shown for believing that the priest of the Arician
grove—the King of the Wood—personified the tree on which grew the Golden
Bough.(935) Hence, if that tree was the oak, the King of the Wood must
have been a personification of the oak-spirit. It is, therefore, easy to
understand why, before he could be slain, it was necessary to break the
Golden Bough. As an oak-spirit, his life or death was in the mistletoe on
the oak, and so long as the mistletoe remained intact, he, like Balder,
could not die. To slay him, therefore, it was necessary to break the
mistletoe, and probably, as in the case of Balder, to throw it at him. And
to complete the parallel, it is only necessary to suppose that the King of
the Wood was formerly burned, dead or alive, at the midsummer fire
festival which, as we have seen, was annually celebrated in the Arician
grove.(936) The perpetual fire which burned in the grove, like the
perpetual fire under the oak at Romove, was probably fed with the sacred
oak-wood; and thus it would be in a great fire of oak that the King of the
Wood formerly met his end. At a later time, as I have suggested, his
annual tenure of office was lengthened or shortened, as the case might be,
by the rule which allowed him to live so long as he could prove his divine
right by the strong hand. But he only escaped the fire to fall by the
sword.

Thus it seems that at a remote age in the heart of Italy, beside the sweet
lake of Nemi, the same fiery tragedy was annually enacted which Italian
merchants and soldiers were afterwards to witness among their rude
kindred, the Celts of Gaul, and which, if the Roman eagles had ever
swooped on Norway, might have been found repeated with little difference
among the barbarous Aryans of the North. The rite was probably an
essential feature in the primitive Aryan worship of the oak.(937)

It only remains to ask, Why was the mistletoe called the Golden Bough? The
name was not simply a poet’s fancy, nor even peculiarly Italian; for in
Welsh also the mistletoe is known as “the tree of pure gold.”(938) The
whitish-yellow of the mistletoe berries is hardly enough to account for
the name. For Virgil says that the Bough was altogether golden, stem as
well as leaves,(939) and the same is implied in the Welsh name, “the tree
of pure gold.” A clue to the real meaning of the name is furnished by the
mythical fern-seed or fern-bloom.

We saw that fern-seed is popularly supposed to bloom like gold or fire on
Midsummer Eve. Thus in Bohemia it is said that “on St. John’s Day
fern-seed blooms with golden blossoms that gleam like fire.”(940) Now it
is a property of this mythical fern-seed that whoever has it, or will
ascend a mountain holding it in his hand on Midsummer Eve, will discover a
vein of gold or will see the treasures of the earth shining with a bluish
flame.(941) And if you place fern-seed among money, the money will never
decrease, however much of it you spend.(942) Sometimes the fern-seed is
supposed to bloom at Christmas, and whoever catches it will become very
rich.(943) Thus, on the principle of like by like, fern-seed is supposed
to discover gold because it is itself golden; and for a similar reason it
enriches its possessor with an unfailing supply of gold. But while the
fern-seed is described as golden, it is equally described as glowing and
fiery.(944) Hence, when we consider that two great days for gathering the
fabulous seed are Midsummer Eve and Christmas—that is, the two solstices
(for Christmas is nothing but an old heathen celebration of the winter
solstice)—we are led to regard the fiery aspect of the fern-seed as
primary, and its golden aspect as secondary and derivative. Fern-seed, in
fact, would seem to be an emanation of the sun’s fire at the two
turning-points of its course, the summer and winter solstices. This view
is confirmed by a German story in which a hunter is said to have procured
fern-seed by shooting at the sun on Midsummer Day at noon; three drops of
blood fell down, which he caught in a white cloth, and these blood-drops
were the fern-seed.(945) Here the blood is clearly the blood of the sun,
from which the fern-seed is thus directly derived. Thus it may be taken as
certain that fern-seed is golden, because it is believed to be an
emanation of the sun’s golden fire.

Now, like fern-seed, the mistletoe is gathered either at Midsummer or
Christmas(946)—that is, at the summer and winter solstices—and, like
fern-seed, it is supposed to possess the power of revealing treasures in
the earth. On Midsummer Eve people in Sweden make divining-rods of
mistletoe or of four different kinds of wood, one of which must be
mistletoe. The treasure-seeker places the rod on the ground after sundown,
and when it rests directly over treasure, the rod begins to move as if it
were alive.(947) Now, if the mistletoe discovers gold, it must be in its
character of the Golden Bough; and if it is gathered at the solstices,
must not the Golden Bough, like the golden fern-seed, be an emanation of
the sun’s fire? The question cannot be answered with a simple affirmative.
We have seen that the primitive Aryans probably kindled the midsummer
bonfires as sun-charms, that is, with the intention of supplying the sun
with fresh fire. But as this fire was always elicited by the friction of
oak wood,(948) it must have appeared to the primitive Aryan that the sun
was periodically recruited from the fire which resided in the sacred oak.
In other words, the oak must have seemed to him the original storehouse or
reservoir of the fire which was from time to time drawn out to feed the
sun. But the life of the oak was conceived to be in the mistletoe;
therefore the mistletoe must have contained the seed or germ of the fire
which was elicited by friction from the wood of the oak. Thus, instead of
saying that the mistletoe was an emanation of the sun’s fire, it would be
more correct to say that the sun’s fire was regarded as an emanation of
the mistletoe. No wonder, then, that the mistletoe shone with a golden
splendour, and was called the Golden Bough. Probably, however, like
fern-seed, it was thought to assume its golden aspect only at those stated
times, especially midsummer, when fire was drawn from the oak to light up
the sun.(949) At Pulverbatch, in Shropshire, it was believed within living
memory that the oak-tree blooms on Midsummer Eve and the blossom withers
before daylight.(950) This fleeting bloom of the oak, if I am right, could
originally have been nothing but the mistletoe in its character of the
Golden Bough. As Shropshire borders on Wales, the superstition may be
Welsh in its immediate origin, though probably the belief is a fragment of
the primitive Aryan creed. In some parts of Italy, as we saw,(951)
peasants still go out on Midsummer morning to search the oak-trees for the
“oil of St. John,” which, like the mistletoe, heals all wounds, and is
doubtless the mistletoe itself in its glorified aspect. Thus it is easy to
understand how a title like the Golden Bough or the “tree of pure gold,”
so little descriptive of the real appearance of the plant, should have
held its ground as a name for the mistletoe in Italy and Wales, and
probably in other parts of the Aryan world.(952)

Now, too, we can fully understand why Virbius came to be confounded with
the sun. If Virbius was, as I have tried to show, a tree-spirit, he must
have been the spirit of the oak on which grew the Golden Bough; for
tradition represented him as the first of the Kings of the Wood. As an
oak-spirit he must have been supposed periodically to rekindle the sun’s
fire, and might therefore easily be confounded with the sun itself.
Similarly we can explain why Balder, an oak-spirit, was described as “so
fair of face and so shining that a light went forth from him,”(953) and
why he should have been so often taken to be the sun. And in general we
may say that in primitive society, when the only known way of making fire
is by the friction of wood, the savage must necessarily conceive fire as a
property stored away, like sap or juice, in trees, from which he has
laboriously to extract it. Thus all trees, or at least the particular
sorts of trees whose wood he employs in fire-making, must be regarded by
him as reservoirs of hidden fire, and it is natural that he should
describe them by epithets like golden, shining, or bright. May not this
have been the origin of the name, “the Bright or Shining One” (Zeus, Jove)
by which the ancient Greeks and Italians designated their supreme
god?(954) It is at least highly significant that, amongst both Greeks and
Italians, the oak should have been the tree of the supreme god, that at
his most ancient shrines, both in Greece and Italy, this supreme god
should have been actually represented by an oak, and that so soon as the
barbarous Aryans of Northern Europe appear in the light of history, they
should be found, amid all diversities of language, of character, and of
country, nevertheless at one in worshipping the oak as the chief object of
their religious reverence, and extracting their sacred fire from its wood.
If we are to judge of the primitive religion of the European Aryans by
comparing the religions of the different branches of the stock, the
highest place in their pantheon must certainly be assigned to the oak. The
result, then, of our inquiry is to make it probable that, down to the time
of the Roman Empire and the beginning of our era, the primitive worship of
the Aryans was maintained nearly in its original form in the sacred grove
at Nemi, as in the oak woods of Gaul, of Prussia, and of Scandinavia; and
that the King of the Wood lived and died as an incarnation of the supreme
Aryan god, whose life was in the mistletoe or Golden Bough.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

If, in bidding farewell to Nemi, we look around us for the last time, we
shall find the lake and its surroundings not much changed from what they
were in the days when Diana and Virbius still received the homage of their
worshippers in the sacred grove. The temple of Diana, indeed, has
disappeared, and the King of the Wood no longer stands sentinel over the
Golden Bough. But Nemi’s woods are still green, and at evening you may
hear the church bells of Albano, and perhaps, if the air be still, of Rome
itself, ringing the Angelus. Sweet and solemn they chime out from the
distant city, and die lingeringly away across the wide Campagnan marshes.
_Le roi est mort, vive le roi!_

NOTE. OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS.

We have seen (vol. ii. p. 68 _sqq._) that primitive peoples often partake
of the new corn sacramentally, because they suppose it to be instinct with
a divine spirit or life. At a later age, when the fruits of the earth are
conceived as produced rather than as animated by a divinity, the new
fruits are no longer partaken of sacramentally as the body and blood of a
god; but a portion of them is presented as a thank-offering to the divine
beings who are believed to have produced them. Sometimes the first-fruits
are presented to the king, probably in his character of a god. Till the
first-fruits have been offered to the deity or the king, people are not at
liberty to eat of the new crops. But, as it is not always possible to draw
a sharp line between the sacrament and the sacrifice of first-fruits, it
may be well to round off this part of the subject by appending some
miscellaneous examples of the latter.

Among the Basutos, when the corn has been threshed and winnowed, it is
left in a heap on the threshing-floor. Before it can be touched a
religious ceremony must be performed. The persons to whom the corn belongs
bring a new vessel to the spot, in which they boil some of the grain. When
it is boiled they throw a few handfuls of it on the heap of corn, saying,
“Thank you, gods; give us bread to-morrow also!” When this is done the
rest is eaten, and the provision for the year is considered pure and fit
to eat.(955) Here the sacrifice of the first-fruits to the gods is the
prominent idea, which comes out again in the custom of leaving in the
threshing-floor a little hollow filled with grain, as a thank-offering to
the gods.(956) Still the Basutos retain a lively sense of the sanctity of
the corn in itself; for, so long as it is exposed to view, all defiled
persons are carefully kept from it. If it is necessary to employ a defiled
person in carrying home the harvest, he remains at some distance while the
sacks are being filled, and only approaches to place them upon the draught
oxen. As soon as the load is deposited at the dwelling he retires, and
under no pretext may he help to pour the corn into the baskets in which it
is kept.(957)

In Ashantee a harvest festival is held in September when the yams are
ripe. During the festival the king eats the new yams, but none of the
people may eat them till the close of the festival, which lasts a
fortnight. During its continuance the grossest liberty prevails; theft,
intrigue, and assault go unpunished, and each sex abandons itself to its
passions.(958) The Hovas of Madagascar present the first sheaves of the
new grain to the sovereign. The sheaves are carried in procession to the
palace from time to time as the grain ripens.(959) So in Burma, when the
_pangati_ fruits ripen, some of them used to be taken to the king’s palace
that he might eat of them; no one might partake of them before the
king.(960)

Every year, when they gather their first crops, the Kochs of Assam offer
some of the first-fruits to their ancestors, calling to them by name and
clapping their hands.(961) In August, when the rice ripens, the Hos offer
the first-fruits of the harvest to Sing Bonga, who dwells in the sun.
Along with the new rice a white cock is sacrificed; and till the sacrifice
has been offered no one may eat the new rice.(962) Among the hill tribes
near Rajamahall, in India, when the _kosarane_ grain is being reaped in
November or early in December, a festival is held as a thanksgiving before
the new grain is eaten. On a day appointed by the chief a goat is
sacrificed by two men to a god called Chitariah Gossaih, after which the
chief himself sacrifices a fowl. Then the vassals repair to their fields,
offer thanksgiving, make an oblation to Kull Gossaih (who is described as
the Ceres of these mountaineers), and then return to their houses to eat
of the new _kosarane_. As soon as the inhabitants have assembled at the
chief’s house—the men sitting on one side and the women on the other—a
hog, a measure of _kosarane_, and a pot of spirits are presented to the
chief, who in return blesses his vassals, and exhorts them to industry and
good behaviour; “after which, making a libation in the names of all their
gods, and of their dead, he drinks, and also throws a little of the
_kosarane_ away, repeating the same pious exclamations.” Drinking and
festivity then begin, and are kept up for several days. The same tribes
have another festival at reaping the Indian corn in August or September.
Every man repairs to his fields with a hog, a goat, or a fowl, which he
sacrifices to Kull Gossaih. Then, having feasted, he returns home, where
another repast is prepared. On this day it is customary for every family
in the village to distribute to every house a little of what they have
prepared for their feast. Should any person eat of the new _kosarane_ or
the new Indian corn before the festival and public thanksgiving at the
reaping of these crops, the chief fines him a white cock, which is
sacrificed to Chitariah.(963) In the Central Provinces of India the first
grain of the season is always offered to the god Bhímsen or Bhím Deo.(964)
In the Punjaub, when sugar-cane is planted, a woman puts on a necklace and
walks round the field, winding thread on to a spindle;(965) and when the
sugar-cane is cut the first-fruits are offered on an altar, which is built
close to the press and is sacred to the sugar-cane god. Afterwards the
first-fruits are given to Brahmans. Also, when the women begin to pick the
cotton, they go round the field eating rice-milk, the first mouthful of
which they spit upon the field toward the west; and the first cotton
picked is exchanged at the village shop for its weight in salt, which is
prayed over and kept in the house till the picking is finished.(966)

In the island of Tjumba, East Indies, a festival is held after harvest.
Vessels filled with rice are presented as a thank-offering to the gods.
Then the sacred stone at the foot of a palm-tree is sprinkled with the
blood of a sacrificed animal; and rice, with some of the flesh, is laid on
the stone for the gods. The palm-tree is hung with lances and
shields.(967) The Dyaks of Borneo hold a feast of first-fruits when the
paddy (unhusked rice) is ripe. The priestesses, accompanied by a gong and
drum, go in procession to the farms and gather several bunches of the ripe
paddy. These are brought back to the village, washed in cocoa-nut water,
and laid round a bamboo altar, which at the harvest festivals is erected
in the common room of the largest house. The altar is gaily decorated with
white and red streamers, and is hung with the sweet-smelling blossom of
the areca palm. The feast lasts two days, during which the village is
tabooed; no one may leave it. Only fowls are killed, and dancing and
gong-beating go on day and night. When the festival is over the people are
free to get in their crops.(968)

The pounding of the new paddy is the occasion of a harvest festival which
is celebrated all over Celebes. The religious ceremonies which accompany
the feast were witnessed by Dr. B. F. Matthes in July 1857. Two mats were
spread on the ground, each with a pillow on it. On one of the pillows were
placed a man’s clothes and a sword, on the other a woman’s clothes. These
were seemingly intended to represent the deceased ancestors. Rice and
water were placed before the two dummy figures, and they were sprinkled
with the new paddy. Also dishes of rice were set down for the rest of the
family and the slaves of the deceased. This was the end of the
ceremony.(969) The Minahassa of Celebes have a festival of “eating the new
rice.” Fowls or pigs are killed; some of the flesh, with rice and
palm-wine, is set apart for the gods, and then the eating and drinking
begin.(970) The people of Kobi and Sariputi, two villages on the
north-east coast of Ceram, offer the first-fruits of the paddy, in the
form of cooked rice, with tobacco, etc., to their ancestors, as a token of
gratitude. The ceremony is called “feeding the dead.”(971) In the Tenimber
and Timorlaut Islands, East Indies, the first-fruits of the paddy, along
with live fowls and pigs, are offered to the _matmate_. The _matmate_ are
the spirits of their ancestors, which are worshipped as guardian-spirits
or household gods. They are supposed to enter the house through an opening
in the roof, and to take up their abode temporarily in their skulls, or in
images of wood or ivory, in order to partake of the offerings and to help
the family. They also take the form of birds, pigs, crocodiles, turtles,
sharks, etc.(972) In Amboina, after the rice or other harvest has been
gathered in, some of the new fruits are offered to the gods, and till this
is done, the priests may not eat of them. A portion of the new rice, or
whatever it may be, is boiled, and milk of the cocoa-nut is poured on it,
mixed with Indian saffron. It is then taken to the place of sacrifice and
offered to the god. Some people also pour out oil before the deity; and if
any of the oil is left over, they take it home as a holy and priceless
treasure, wherewith they smear the forehead and breast of sick people and
whole people, in the firm conviction that the oil confers all kinds of
blessings.(973) The Irayas and Catalangans of Luzon, tribes of the Malay
stock, but of mixed blood, worship chiefly the souls of their ancestors
under the name of _anitos_, to whom they offer the first-fruits of the
harvest. The _anitos_ are household deities; some of them reside in pots
in the corners of the houses; and miniature houses, standing near the
dwelling-house, are especially sacred to them.(974)

In certain tribes of Fiji “the first-fruits of the yam harvest are
presented to the ancestors in the Nanga [sacred stone enclosure] with
great ceremony, before the bulk of the crop is dug for the people’s use,
and no man may taste of the new yams until the presentation has been made.
The yams thus offered are piled in the Great Nanga, and are allowed to rot
there. If any one were impiously bold enough to appropriate them to his
own use, he would be smitten with madness. The mission teacher before
mentioned told me that when he visited the Nanga he saw among the weeds
with which it was overgrown numerous yam vines which had sprung up out of
the piles of decayed offerings. Great feasts are made at the presentations
of the first-fruits, which are times of public rejoicing, and the Nanga
itself is frequently spoken of as the _Mbaki_, or Harvest.”(975) In other
parts of Fiji the practice with regard to the first-fruits seems to have
been different, for we are told by another observer that “the first-fruits
of the yams, which are always presented at the principal temple of the
district, become the property of the priests, and form their revenue,
although the pretence of their being required for the use of the god is
generally kept up.”(976) In Tana, one of the New Hebrides, the general
name for gods appeared to be _aremha_, which meant “a dead man.” The
spirits of departed ancestors were among the gods of the people. Chiefs
who reached an advanced age were deified after their death, addressed by
name, and prayed to on various occasions. They were supposed to preside
especially over the growth of the yams and fruit-trees. The first-fruits
were presented to them. A little of the new fruit was laid on a stone, or
on a shelving branch of the tree, or on a rude temporary altar, made of a
few sticks lashed together with strips of bark, in the form of a table,
with its four feet stuck in the ground. All being quiet, the chief acted
as high priest, and prayed aloud as follows: “Compassionate father! here
is some food for you; eat it; be kind to us on account of it.” Then all
the people shouted. This took place about noon, and afterwards the
assembled people feasted and danced till midnight or morning.(977)

In some of the Kingsmill Islands the god most commonly worshipped was
called Tubuériki. He was represented by a flat coral stone, of irregular
shape, about three feet long by eighteen inches wide, set up on one end in
the open air. Leaves of the cocoa-nut palm were tied about it,
considerably increasing its size and height. The leaves were changed every
month, that they might be always fresh. The worship paid to the god
consisted in repeating prayers before the stone, and laying beside it a
portion of the food prepared by the people for their own use. This they
did at their daily meals, at festivals, and whenever they specially wished
to propitiate the favour of the god. The first-fruits of the season were
always offered to him. Every family of distinction had one of these stones
which was considered rather in the light of a family altar than as an
idol.(978)

The following is a description of the festival of first-fruits as it was
celebrated in Tonga in the days when a European flag rarely floated among
the islands of the Pacific. “_Inachi._ This word means literally a share
or portion of any thing that is to be, or has been, distributed out: but
in the sense here mentioned it means that portion of the fruits of the
earth, and other eatables, which is offered to the gods in the person of
the divine chief Tooitonga, which allotment is made once a year, just
before the yams in general are arrived at a state of maturity; those which
are used in this ceremony being planted sooner than others, and,
consequently, they are the first-fruits of the yam season. The object of
this offering is to insure the protection of the gods, that their favour
may be extended to the welfare of the nation generally, and in particular
to the productions of the earth, of which yams are the most important.

“The time for planting most kinds of yams is about the latter end of July,
but the species called _caho-caho_, which is always used in this ceremony,
is put in the ground about a month before, when, on each plantation, there
is a small piece of land chosen and fenced in, for the purpose of growing
a couple of yams of the above description. As soon as they have arrived at
a state of maturity, the _How_ [King] sends a messenger to Tooitonga,
stating that the yams for the _inachi_ are fit to be taken up, and
requesting that he would appoint a day for the ceremony; he generally
fixes on the tenth day afterwards, reckoning the following day for the
first. There are no particular preparations made till the day before the
ceremony; at night, however, the sound of the conch is heard occasionally
in different parts of the islands, and as the day of the ceremony
approaches, it becomes more frequent, so that the people of almost every
plantation sound the conch three or four times, which, breaking in upon
the silence of the night, has a pleasing effect, particularly at Vavaoo,
where the number of woods and hills send back repeated echoes, adding
greatly to the effect. The day before the ceremony the yams are dug up,
and ornamented with a kind of ribbon prepared from the inner membrane of
the leaf of a species of pandanus, and dyed red....

“The sun has scarcely set when the sound of the conch begins again to echo
through the island, increasing as the night advances. At the Mooa
[capital] and all the plantations the voices of men and women are heard
singing _Nófo óoa tegger gnaoóe, óooa gnaoóe_, Rest thou, doing no work;
thou shalt not work. This increases till midnight, men generally singing
the first part of the sentence, and the women the last: it then subsides
for three or four hours, and again increases as the sun rises. Nobody,
however, is seen stirring out in the public roads till about eight
o’clock, when the people from all quarters of the island are seen
advancing towards the Mooa, and canoes from all the other islands are
landing their men; so that all the inhabitants of Tonga seem approaching
by sea and land, singing and sounding the conch. At the Mooa itself the
universal bustle of preparation is seen and heard; and the different
processions entering from various quarters of men and women, all dressed
up in new _gnatoos_, ornamented with red ribbons and wreaths of flowers,
and the men armed with spears and clubs, betoken the importance of the
ceremony about to be performed. Each party brings in its yams in a basket,
which is carried in the arms with great care by the principal vassal of
the chief to whom the plantation may belong. The baskets are deposited in
the _malái_(979) (in the _Mooa_), and some of them begin to employ
themselves in slinging the yams, each upon the centre of a pole about
eight or nine feet long, and four inches diameter. The proceedings are
regulated by attending matabooles.(980) The yams being all slung, each
pole is carried by two men upon their shoulders, one walking before the
other, and the yam hanging between them, ornamented with red ribbons. The
procession begins to move towards the grave of the last Tooitonga (which
is generally in the neighbourhood, or the grave of one of his family will
do), the men advancing in a single line, every two bearing a yam, with a
slow and measured pace, sinking at every step, as if their burden were of
immense weight. In the meantime the chiefs and matabooles are seated in a
semicircle before the grave, with their heads bowed down, and their hands
clasped before them.” The procession then marched round the grave twice or
thrice in a great circle, the conchs blowing and the men singing. Next the
yams, still suspended from the poles, were deposited before the grave, and
their bearers sat down beside them. One of the _matabooles_ of Tooitonga
now addressed the gods generally, and afterwards particularly, mentioning
the late Tooitonga, and the names of several others. He thanked them for
their divine bounty in favouring the land with the prospect of so good a
harvest, and prayed that their beneficence might be continued in future.
When he had finished, the men rose and resumed their loads, and after
parading two or three times round the grave, marched back to the _malái_,
singing and blowing the conchs as before. The chiefs and _matabooles_ soon
followed to the same place, where the yams had been again deposited. Here
the company sat down in a great circle, presided over by Tooitonga. Then
the other articles that formed part of the _Inachi_ were brought forward,
consisting of dried fish, mats, etc., which, with the yams, were divided
into shares. About a fourth was allotted to the gods, and appropriated by
the priests; about a half fell to the king; and the remainder belonged to
Tooitonga. The materials of the _Inachi_ having been carried away, the
company set themselves to drink _cava_, and a _mataboole_ addressed them,
saying that the gods would protect them, and grant them long lives, if
they continued to observe the religious ceremonies and to pay respect to
the chiefs.(981)

The Samoans used to present the first-fruits to the spirits (_aitus_) and
chiefs.(982) For example, a family whose god was in the form of an eel
presented the first-fruits of their taro plantations to the eel.(983) In
Tahiti “the first fish taken periodically on their shores, together with a
number of kinds regarded as sacred, were conveyed to the altar. The
first-fruits of their orchards and gardens were also _taumaha_, or
offered, with a portion of their live stock, which consisted of pigs,
dogs, and fowls, as it was supposed death would be inflicted on the owner
or the occupant of the land from which the god should not receive such
acknowledgment.”(984) In Huahine, one of the Society Islands, the
first-fruits were presented to the god Tani. A poor person was expected to
bring two of the earliest fruits gathered, of whatever kind; a _raatira_
had to bring ten, and chiefs and princes had to bring more, according to
their rank and riches. They brought the fruits to the temple, where they
threw them down on the ground, with the words, “Here, Tani, I have brought
you something to eat.”(985) The chief gods of the Easter Islanders were
Make-Make and Haua. To these they offered the first of all the produce of
the ground.(986) Amongst the Maoris the offering of the first-fruits of
the sweet potatoes to Pani, son of Rongo, the god of sweet potatoes, was a
solemn religious ceremony.(987)

It has been affirmed that the old Prussians offered the first-fruits of
their crops and of their fishing to the god Curcho, but doubt rests on the
statement.(988) The Romans sacrificed the first ears of corn to Ceres, and
the first of the new wine to Liber; and until the priests had offered
these sacrifices, the people might not eat the new corn nor drink the new
wine.(989)

The chief solemnity of the Natchez, an Indian tribe on the Lower
Mississippi, was the Harvest Festival or the Festival of New Fire. When
the time for the festival drew near, a crier went through the villages
calling upon the people to prepare new vessels and new garments, to wash
their houses, and to burn the old grain, the old garments, and the old
utensils in a common fire. He also proclaimed an amnesty to criminals.
Next day he appeared again, commanding the people to fast for three days,
to abstain from all pleasures, and to make use of the medicine of
purification. Thereupon all the people took some drops extracted from a
root which they called the “root of blood.” It was a kind of plantain and
distilled a red liquor which acted as a violent emetic. During their three
days’ fast the people kept silence. At the end of it the crier proclaimed
that the festival would begin on the following day. So next morning, as
soon as it began to grow light in the sky, the people streamed from all
quarters towards the temple of the Sun. The temple was a large building
with two doors, one opening to the east, the other to the west. On this
morning the eastern door of the temple stood open. Facing the eastern door
was an altar, placed so as to catch the first beams of the rising sun. An
image of a _chouchouacha_ (a small marsupial) stood upon the altar; on its
right was an image of a rattlesnake, on its left an image of a marmoset.
Before these images a fire of oak bark burned perpetually. Once a year
only, on the eve of the Harvest Festival, was the sacred flame suffered to
die out. To the right of the altar, on “this pious morn,” stood the great
chief, who took his title and traced his descent from the Sun. To the left
of the altar stood his wife. Round them were grouped, according to their
ranks, the war chiefs, the sachems, the heralds, and the young braves. In
front of the altar were piled bundles of dry reeds, stacked in concentric
rings.

The high priest, standing on the threshold of the temple, kept his eyes
fixed on the eastern horizon. Before presiding at the festival he had to
plunge thrice into the Mississippi. In his hands he held two pieces of dry
wood which he kept rubbing slowly against each other, muttering magic
words. At his side two acolytes held two cups filled with a kind of black
sherbet. All the women, their backs turned to the east, each leaning with
one hand on her rude mattock and supporting her infant with the other,
stood in a great semicircle at the gate of the temple. Profound silence
reigned throughout the multitude while the priest watched attentively the
growing light in the east. As soon as the diffused light of dawn began to
be shot with beams of fire, he quickened the motion of the two pieces of
wood which he held in his hands; and at the moment when the upper edge of
the sun’s disc appeared above the horizon, fire flashed from the wood and
was caught in tinder. At the same instant the women outside the temple
faced round and held up their infants and their mattocks to the rising
sun.

The great chief and his wife now drank the black liquor. The priests
kindled the circle of dried reeds; fire was set to the heap of oak bark on
the altar, and from this sacred flame all the hearths of the village were
rekindled. No sooner were the circles of reeds consumed than the chief’s
wife came forth from the temple and placing herself at the head of the
women marched in procession to the harvest fields, whither the men were
not allowed to follow them. They went to gather the first sheaves of maize
and returned to the temple bearing them on their heads. Some of the
sheaves they presented to the high priest, who laid them on the altar.
Others they used to bake the unleavened bread which was to be eaten in the
evening. The eastern door of the sanctuary was now closed, and the western
door was opened.

When the day began to decline, the multitude assembled once more at the
temple, this time at its western gate, where they formed a great crescent,
with the horns turned toward the west. The unleavened bread was held up
and presented to the setting sun, and a priest struck up a hymn in praise
of his descending light. When darkness had fallen the whole plain twinkled
with fires, round which the people feasted; and the sounds of music and
revelry broke the silence of night.(990)

INDEX.

Aachen, fire festival at, ii. 251

Aargau, trees planted at births in, ii. 330

Aberdeenshire, ceremony at the cutting of the last sheaf in, i. 345

Abyssinia, rain-making on the outskirts of, i. 53

Abyssinian festivals, ii. 171

Acagchemen tribe, adoration of the buzzard by the, ii. 90, 91

Adonis, myth and worship of, i. 279-282, 296;
connection with vegetation, i. 281;
gardens of, i. 284-296;
rites of, similar to those of Osiris, i. 319, 320;
probable origin of the cult of, i. 363;
lament of, i. 280, 399;
as a pig, ii. 49, 50

Aegira, blood drunk at, before prophesying, i. 34

Aethiopian kings confined to their palaces, i. 164

Afghan Boundary Mission, reception of the, by the natives, i. 155

Afghanistan, reception of strangers in, i. 155

Africa, weather kings common in, i. 44;
reluctance to accept the crown in some parts of West, i. 118, 119;
priestly kings on the west coast of, i. 112;
human heart eaten in the Shire Highlands of, ii. 89

Ague, cure for, ii. 153

Aht Indians, seclusion of girls amongst the, ii. 229, 230

Ain, May-day customs in the Département de l’, i. 88

Aino type of sacrament, ii. 134-136

Ainos, bear festival of the, ii. 101-105;
preparation for fishing, ii. 122;
treatment of the bear, ii. 132

Alaskan sable hunters, ii. 116

Alban hills, i. 1;
mount, i. 2

Albania, Easter Eve custom in, i. 276; ii. 181;
scapegoat in, ii. 201, 202;
beating in, ii. 216

Alexandria, commemoration of the death of Adonis and Aphrodite at, i. 279,
280

Alfoers, function of their high priest Leleen, i. 166;
ceremony for restoring the soul, i. 134, 135;
priest’s hair uncut, i. 194;
priest sows the first rice seed and plucks the first ripe rice, ii. 71;
driving away the devil by the, ii. 159

Algeria, midsummer fires in, ii. 266

Alligator, the man-eating, ii. 109

Alps, May-day custom in the, i. 104

Altisheim, harvest custom in, i. 337

Altmark, Whitsuntide customs in, i. 98;
Easter bonfires, ii. 254

Amboina, soul-abstracting in, i. 139, 140;
sprinkling the sick with spices in, i. 154;
hair burying in, i. 201;
disease boats in, ii. 188;
strength thought to be in the hair in, ii. 328;
offerings of first-fruits in, ii. 377

Amenhôtep IV and the sun-god, i. 314, 315

America, belief in the resurrection of the buffalo in the western prairies
of, ii. 123

Ammon, rage of the sun-god Ra against, i. 315;
rams held sacred by the worshippers of, ii. 92, 93

Andamanese belief in the reflection as the soul, i. 145

Anderida, wealds of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, remnants of the forest of,
i. 57

Angel-man, beheading the, ii. 267

Angoulême, custom of burning a poplar on St. Peter’s Day in, i. 101

Angoy, king of, must have no bodily defects, i. 221

Animal worship, two types of, ii. 133, 134;
sacred carried in procession, ii. 139-147;
employed as a scapegoat, ii. 189-191, 194, 195;
eaten to obtain its quality, ii. 86, 87;
spared by savages from fear of the vengeance of other animals of the
same kind, ii. 107-110;
respect shown by the savage for the animal he kills, ii. 110-132;
Savage belief in the resurrection of the, ii. 122-125;
burnt as representative of the spirit of vegetation, ii. 282-284

Annamites, soul superstition amongst the, i. 132

Antaymour kings responsible for the general welfare, i. 46

Antrim, harvest custom in, i. 339

Apache Indians, rain-making by the, i. 15

Apalai Indians, ceremony on the arrival of a stranger by the, i. 153, 154

Aphrodite, i. 279

Apis the sacred Egyptian bull drowned, ii. 61 _sq._

Apollo Diradiotes, blood of sacrificial lamb drunk in the temple of, i. 34

Apple-tree, superstition with regard to the, by barren women, i. 73

Arabia, belief concerning a man’s shadow in, i. 143

Arabian stories, the external soul in, ii. 318, 319

Arabic belief in the properties of lion’s fat, ii. 86

Arabs, rain-making by the heathen, i. 20

Arcadia, rain-charm in, i. 21;
beating the scapegoat, ii. 214

Archon of Plataeae, the, may not touch iron, i. 173

Arden, forest of, i. 57

Argive tradition concerning Dionysus, i. 324, 325

Ariadne, marriage of, i. 104

Aricia, “there are many Manii at,” explanation of the proverb, ii. 82, 83

Arician Grove, the, i. 1-6;
ritual, ii. 63, 64;
harvest celebration, ii. 67;
Manius the traditional founder of the, ii. 84;
sacrament, ii. 83, 84

Aru Islands, soul superstition in the, i. 125, 126;
custom after a death in the, i. 147;
hair cutting, i. 201;
dog’s flesh eaten, ii. 87

Arval Brothers, priestly college of the, and the sacred grove, i. 65;
sacred grove of the, and iron, i. 172

Aryans, the, tree worshippers, i. 56-59, 99;
totemism and the, ii. 38;
oak the sacred tree of the, ii. 291;
primitive worship, ii. 370

Ascension Day custom, i. 265

Aschbach, harvest custom in, i. 368

Ash Wednesday customs, i. 254-257; ii. 29, 48, 251

Ashantee, royal blood not shed in, i. 181;
harvest festival in, ii. 374

Asia Minor, Pontiffs of, i. 7, 8

Athene, relation of the goat to, ii. 63

Athens, annual marriage of the queen to Dionysus at, i. 103, 104;
rites of Adonis observed in, i. 284, 285;
scapegoats in, ii. 212;
ritual at the sacrifice of the ox in, ii. 38, 39, 41

Attis, myth and festival of, i. 296-298; ii. 50;
a tree-spirit or corn-spirit, i. 298-300;
probability that the high priest of, was slain in the character of the
god, i. 300;
probable origin of the cult of, i. 363;
relation to Lityerses, i. 396, 397;
as a pig, ii. 49, 50

Australia, rain-making in, i. 20, 21;
ceremony on entering strange territory by the Australians, i. 156;
seclusion of women in, i. 170;
blood may not be spilt on the ground in some parts of, i. 181, 182;
hair burning after child-birth in, i. 206;
totemism, ii. 133, 334-336

Australian blacks’ charm for staying the sun, i. 25;
attack the dust columns of red sand, i. 29, 30;
fear of women’s blood, i. 185, 186; ii. 238;
remedy for toothache, ii. 149;
annual expulsion of ghosts, ii. 163

—— Kamilaroi, cannibalism by the, ii. 88

—— medicine man and recall of the soul, i. 131, 132

—— Wotjobaluk, rain-making by the, i. 14

Austria, charm for lulling the wind in, i. 28;
old peasant belief in the souls of trees in, i. 61

Auxerre, reaping custom at, i. 335

Axim, annual expulsion of devils at, ii. 170

Aymara Indians, scapegoat used by the, in times of plague, ii. 191

Aztecs, the, and the reflection-soul, i. 145;
aversion to wine, i. 185

Baba, a name given to the last sheaf, i. 339, 340

Babar Islands, restoration of the soul in the, i. 137;
the soul believed to be in the shadow, i. 142

Babylon, Sacaea festival at, i. 226

Babylonian legend concerning the goddess Istar, i. 287

Baffin Land, expulsion of evil by the Eskimo of, ii. 165

Bagota, restrictions on the heir to the throne in, ii. 225

Balder killed by the mistletoe, ii. 244 _sq._;
the oak, ii. 295;
life of, in the mistletoe, ii. 359-362

Balder’s bale-fires, ii. 289 _sq._

Bali, mice and the rice fields of the island of, ii. 131;
periodic expulsion of devils, ii. 174, 175;
custom at a birth, ii. 329

Balquhidder, harvest custom in, i. 344

Banjar kings held responsible for the weather, i. 46, 47

Banks Islanders, the tamaniu of the, ii. 331, 332

Baranton, fountain of, i. 15

Barcelona, Mid-Lent custom in, i. 262

Bari tribe, rain kings of the, i. 52, 53

Barotse, the chief a demigod in, i. 46

Barren women’s superstition regarding the apple-tree, i. 73

Bassam, Great, sacrifice of oxen at, ii. 41, 42;
ceremony of driving out the evil spirit, ii. 161, 162

Basutos, the, and the reflection-soul, i. 145;
cannibalism by the, ii. 89;
offerings of first-fruits, ii. 373

Bat, the, ii. 334-337

Battambang, rain-charm in, i. 19

Battas, the, fighting the wind, i. 28, 29;
refuse to fell trees, i. 64, 65;
soul superstition, i. 124, 125, 135, 136;
soul straying, i. 160;
ceremony of making the curse to fly away by the, ii. 150, 151;
totemism amongst the, ii. 340, 341;
belief in plurality of souls, ii. 341

Bavaria, May custom in, i. 84;
Whitsuntide representative of the tree-spirit in, i. 242;
harvest custom in, i. 342; ii. 27, 28;
cure for fever, ii. 153;
Easter bonfires in, ii. 254;
midsummer bonfires in, ii. 278

Bear, Shrovetide, i. 254, 255;
sacrifice of the, ii. 99-108;
ceremony at killing a, ii. 111-113, 115;
ceremony before a bear-hunt, ii. 112, 113

Bears, dead, treated with respect, ii. 111-113

Beasts, divine, held responsible for the course of nature, i. 48

Beating as a ceremonial purification, ii. 213-217, 232-234

Beauce, straw man in, ii. 40

Beavers, superstition about killing, ii. 116

Bechuanaland, rain-charm in, i. 18;
sun superstition in, i. 23;
hack-thorn held sacred in, i. 69;
purification after travel, i. 157;
crocodile superstition in, ii. 55, 56;
transference of ills in, ii. 149

Bedouins, pursuing the wind, i. 29

Belfast, harvest custom at, i. 336, 337

Belgium, procession with wicker giant in, ii. 281

Belli-Paaro, ceremony of, in Quoja, ii. 347, 348

Beltane fires, ii. 254-258

Bengal, Gardens of Adonis in, i. 288, 289

Bernkastel, reaping custom in, ii. 15

Berry, belief regarding the birth of the corn-spirit in, ii. 23;
harvest custom, ii. 26

Bhagats, mock human sacrifices by the, i. 252, 253

Bhotan, man worshippers in, i. 42

Biajas of Borneo, expulsion of diseases to sea by the, ii. 192

Bidasari, ii. 325 _sq._

Bilaspur, custom at, on the death of a Rajah, i. 232

Birch-tree dressed in women’s clothes in Russia at Whitsuntide, i. 77

Births, trees planted at, ii. 229, 230

Bison, resurrection of the, ii. 122, 123

Bithynia, lament by the reapers in, i. 365

Black Lake, i. 15

Blankenfelde, harvest custom in, i. 370

Bleeding trees, i. 61

Blekinge, midsummer ceremonies in, i. 292

Blood, the soul thought to be in the, i. 178, 179;
not eaten, _ib._;
royal blood not spilt upon the ground, i. 179-183;
ill effect of seeing, i. 185, 186;
dread of contact with, i. 185-187;
primitive dread of menstruous, ii. 238-241

Blood-drinking, inspiration by, i. 34, 35

Boba, a name given to the last sheaf, i. 340, 341

Boeotians of Plataea, festival of the, i. 100-103

Boeroe, ceremony at the rice harvest in, ii. 71

Bohemian midsummer custom, i. 79; ii. 259;
Mid-Lent custom, i. 82;
Whit Monday custom, i. 91, 244-247;
ceremony of carrying out Death, i. 258-260;
superstition regarding death, i. 260;
ceremony of bringing back summer, i. 263;
harvest custom, i. 340;
white mice spared in Bohemia, ii. 131, 132;
superstition held by poachers in Bohemia, ii. 288

Böhmer Wald Mountains, custom of the reapers in the, ii. 15

Bolang Mongondo, recapture of the soul in, i. 131;
preservation of cut hair, i. 203;
ceremony at rice harvest in, ii. 71, 72

Bombay, soul superstition in, i. 127

Bones of animals not broken by savages, ii. 124

Boni, king of, and his courtiers, i. 222, 223

Booandik tribe superstition concerning the blood of women, i. 186

Book of the Dead, i. 312

Bormus, the name given to the lament of the Bithynian reapers, i. 365, 398

Borneo, custom in, regarding infested persons, i. 154

Bouphonia, the, ii. 38-41

Brabant, North, Whitsuntide custom in, i. 88

Brahman soul story, i. 128, 129;
sin eaters, ii. 156

Brahmans, temple of the, i. 230;
transference of sins by the, ii. 200

Brandy, North American Indian theory about, ii. 87

Brazilian Indians, self-beating by the, ii. 215, 216;
treatment of girls at the age of puberty by the, ii. 231, 232

Bresse, May customs in, i. 98;
ceremony regarding the last sheaf, i. 408

Brest, fire festival at, ii. 261

Breton peasant and the wind, i. 30

Briançon, May-day in the neighbourhood of, i. 95;
harvest ceremony at, ii. 11

Bride, a name given to the binder of the last sheaf, i. 345

Brie, May-day custom in, i. 84;
harvest custom in, i. 370, 375;
burning of mock giant in, ii. 282

Britanny, reaping custom in, i. 335, 336;
midsummer fires in, ii. 261

British Columbia, fish ceremony by the Indians of, ii. 121

Bruck, harvest custom in, i. 333, 334

Brüd’s bed in the Highlands, i. 97

Brunnen, Twelfth Night custom at, ii. 182

Brunswick, Whitsuntide customs in, i. 90

Buddhist animism, i. 59

—— Tartar worship, i. 42, 43

Buffalo, belief in the resurrection of the, ii. 123;
held sacred by the Todas, ii. 136, 137

—— bull, ii. 19

Bulgarian rain-charm, i. 16;
custom at the laying of a foundation stone, i. 144;
harvest custom, i. 341

Bull, Dionysus as a, i. 325, 326; ii. 37-44;
the corn-spirit as a, ii. 19-24;
Osiris and the, ii. 59-61;
sacred, ii. 60;
as a scapegoat, ii. 200, 201

Burghers, first seed sowing and reaping amongst the, ii. 72;
transference of sins by the, ii. 151, 152

Burgundian kings deposed in times of scarcity, i. 47

Burma, mode of executing princes of the blood in, i. 180;
head-washing in, i. 188, 189;
mock burial in time of sickness in, ii. 84;
ceremony of driving away cholera in, ii. 161;
offering of first-fruits in, ii. 374

Burmese and the soul, i. 130

Burnt sacrifices among the Celts, ii. 278-280

Buro Islands, dog’s flesh eaten in the, ii. 87;
disease boats, ii. 187

Burying alive, i. 217

Busiris, legend of, i. 400, 401

Butterfly, the Samoans and the, ii. 56

Buzzard, sacrifice of the sacred, ii. 90-92

Byblus, lamentation for the death of Adonis at, i. 280

Calabria, expulsion of witches in, ii. 181

Calcutta, iron-charm used in, i. 176

Calf, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 19-24

Calicut, kings killed at the expiry of twelve years in, i. 224, 225

Californian Indians, their opinion of the dust columns, i. 30

—— sacrifice of the buzzard, ii. 90, 91

Caligula, i. 4

Callander, Beltane fires in, ii. 254, 255

Cambodia, search for inspired man in time of epidemic in, i. 36;
kings of fire and water in, i. 53-56;
its sacred tree, i. 67;
kings of, i. 118;
touching the king’s body in, i. 172;
man’s head not touched in, i. 189;
ceremony at the cutting of the king’s hair in, i. 197;
temporary kings of, i. 228;
the Stiens of Cambodia and the killing of animals, ii. 115;
expulsion of evil spirits, etc. in, ii. 178, 184;
seclusion of girls in, ii. 235

Cambridgeshire, harvest custom in, i. 341, 342

Cameroons, the life of a person supposed to be bound up with that of a
tree by the, ii. 329

Canadian Indians, detention of the soul amongst the, i. 139;
beaver hunting by the, ii. 116, 117

Candlemas Day customs, i. 97; ii. 29, 48

Canelos Indians, their belief of the soul in the portrait, i. 148

Cannibalism, ii. 88, 89

Capital offences, i. 162, 190

Carcassonne, hunting the wren in, ii. 143, 144

Caribs, the, belief in the plurality of souls, ii. 339

Carinthia, ceremonies on St. George’s Day in, i. 84, 85;
ceremony at the installation of a prince of, i. 232, 233

Carmona, custom in, ii. 184, 185

Carnival, ceremony of burying the, i. 244, 252-257, 270, 272

Carnival Fool, i. 256

Carpathus islanders, reluctance to have their likenesses drawn, i. 148,
149;
transference of sickness by the, ii. 154

Cashmere stories, the external soul in, ii. 302-304

Cat, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 11, 12;
burnt, ii. 283

Caterpillars, method of freeing a garden from, ii. 130

Cattle, trees and, i. 72 _sq._;
driven through the fire, ii. 273

Cedar, the sacred, of Gilgit, i. 69

Celebes, the, and the soul, i. 123-125;
custom regarding infested persons, i. 154;
superstition regarding the knife, i. 177;
blood not spilt on the ground by the, i. 182;
custom at a birth, ii. 329;
harvest festival, ii. 376

Celtic human sacrifices, ii. 278-284;
the external soul in Celtic stories, ii. 313, 314

Ceram, rain-making in, i. 13;
superstition regarding the blood of women in, i. 187;
hair cutting superstition in, i. 194; ii. 328;
disease boats in, ii. 185, 186;
ceremony in epidemic, ii. 187;
seclusion of girls in, ii. 229;
initiation ceremony, ii. 354-356

Chaeronea, human scapegoat in, ii. 210, 211

Chambéry, threshing ceremony at, ii. 23

Chedooba, ceremony on felling a tree in the island of, i. 64

Cheremiss, expulsion of Satan by the, ii. 180, 181

Cherokee Indians, purification festival of the, ii. 166, 167

Chester, procession of mock giant at, ii. 281

Chibchas, weather kings of the, i. 44

Children sacrificed by their parents, i. 235-237

Chile, preservation of cut hair in, i. 204

China, emperors of, offer public sacrifices, i. 8;
rain-charm in, i. 18;
emperor held responsible for drought, etc., i. 49;
abstention from knives after a death in, i. 177;
ceremony to welcome the return of spring in, ii. 42, 43;
special seat of courage amongst the Chinese, ii. 87;
cannibalism in, ii. 89;
human scapegoat in, ii. 191;
festival of the aboriginal tribes of, ii. 193

Chios, rites of Dionysus at, i. 329

Chippeways, seclusion of women amongst the, ii. 239, 240

Chiriguanos, seclusion of girls by the, ii. 231

Chitomé, the, i. 113-115;
not allowed to die a natural death, i. 217, 218

Cholera, driving away, ii. 161, 189, 191

Chontal Indians, the nagual amongst the, ii. 333

Christian, Captain, shooting of, i. 181

Christmas customs, i. 60, 334; ii. 6, 7, 29-31, 141, 142, 144

Chrudim, ceremony of carrying out Death at, i. 259, 260

Chuwash, the, test of a suitable sacrificial victim, i. 36

Circassians, the pear-tree believed to be the protector of cattle by the,
i. 73

Circumcision, i. 171

Clucking-hen, ii. 8

Cobern, fire festival at, ii. 250

Cobra Capella, sacrifice of the, ii. 94, 95

Cock, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 7-10

Columbia River, Indians of the, and the salmon, ii. 121, 122

Comanches, rain-charm used by the, i. 18

Compitalia, festival of the, ii. 83

Congo belief in the souls of trees, i. 60;
the Chitomé in the kingdom of, i. 113;
negroes and soul selling, i. 139;
initiatory rites in the valley of the, ii. 345, 346

Coorg rice-harvest ceremonies, ii. 72, 73

Corea, kings of, confined to their palaces, i. 164;
may not be touched, i. 172;
tigers’ bones valuable in, ii. 87

Corn drenched as a rain-charm, i. 286;
double personification of the, i. 358, 359;
reaper, binder, or thresher wrapt up in corn, i. 370, 371

—— baby, ii. 23

—— goat, ii. 13, 14

—— mother, i. 232, 233;
a prototype of Demeter, i. 356

Corn queen, i. 341

—— spirit, the, as the grandmother, etc., i. 336-343;
as youthful, i. 343-346;
death of, i. 363, 364;
binding persons in sheaves as representatives of the, i. 367-372;
pretence of killing the, or its representative, i. 372-380;
represented by a stranger, i. 375-380;
represented by a human victim, i. 390-395;
how the representative is chosen, i. 393;
as an animal, ii. 1-67;
as a cock, ii. 7-10;
as a hare, ii. 11;
as a cat, ii. 11, 12;
as a goat, ii. 12-17;
as a bull, ii. 19-24;
as a calf, _ib._;
as a cow, ii. 20, 21;
as a mare, ii. 24, 25;
as a horse, ii. 26;
as a pig, ii. 26-31;
parallelism between the anthropomorphic and theriomorphic conceptions of
the, ii. 32;
death of the, ii. 33;
suggested explanation of the embodiment of the, in animal form, ii. 34;
the ox as the embodiment of the, ii. 41-43

—— wolf, ii. 3-7, 30

—— woman, i. 342, 343

Cornwall, May-day custom in, i. 75;
midsummer bonfires in, i. 101; ii. 262;
reaping cries in, i. 407

Corsica, midsummer fires in, ii. 266

Cough, cure for, ii. 154

Court ceremonies, i. 22, 23; ii. 88

Cow, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 20, 21;
sacred, ii. 61;
man in cow’s hide, ii. 145, 146;
cow as a scapegoat, ii. 200, 201

Cracow, harvest customs in, i. 340

Crannon, rain-charm at, i. 21

Creek Indians, festival of the first-fruits amongst the, ii. 75-78;
opinions held regarding the properties of various foods amongst the, ii.
85, 86;
seclusion of women by the, ii. 239

Crete, sacrifices in, i. 173;
festival of Dionysus in, i. 324;
worship of Demeter in, i. 331

Croatia, beating in, ii. 216

Crocodiles spared from fear of the vengeance of other crocodiles, ii. 109

Crops, kings and priests punished for the failure of the, i. 46-48;
human sacrifices for the, i. 383, 384;
ceremonies at the eating of the new, ii. 69, 71;
sacramental eating of the new, ii. 68-77

Crying the Neck, i. 405-408

Curka Coles of India, their belief that the tops of trees are inhabited,
i. 65

Curse, ceremony of making the curse to fly away, ii. 150, 151

Cyzicus, construction of the council chamber of, i. 174

Dacotas and the resurrection of the dog, ii. 123

Daedala, festival of the, i. 100-103

Dahomey, king of, a capital offence to see him eat, i. 162

Damaras, custom of the, after travel, i. 158;
blood of cattle not shed by the, i. 182

Danae, ii. 237

Danger Islanders, soul snare used by the, i. 138, 139

Danzig, burying of cut hair in, i. 202;
reaping custom, i. 333;
harvest ceremony, i. 367, 368

Dards, the, rain-charm, i. 19

Darfur, veiling the sultan of, i. 162;
the sultans and their courtiers, i. 222;
the liver thought to be the seat of the soul in, ii. 88

Darowen, midsummer bonfires at, ii. 262

Dead Sunday, i. 254, 260

Death, preference for a violent, i. 216, 217;
superstition concerning, i. 260;
“carrying out,” i. 257-261, 264-271; ii. 207;
driving out, i. 258, 259, 272, 276;
in the custom of “carrying out” Death is probably a divine scapegoat,
ii. 206-208;
ceremonies at the burying of, ii. 250;
effigy of, i. 257 _sq._

Debden, May Day custom in, i. 76

Deer, regard for, ii. 117, 118

Deities, reduplication of, i. 360-362

Demeter, the corn mother, i. 331, 332;
festivals of, ii. 44-47;
as a pig, ii. 44-49;
legend of the Phigalian, ii. 49;
representation of the black, ii. 49;
and Proserpine, myth of, i. 330, 331;
probable origin of, i. 355 _sq._;
prototypes of, i. 356, 357

Demons, the soul carried off by, i. 132-135

Denderah, tree of Osiris at, i. 308

Denmark Christmas customs, ii. 29, 30;
midsummer bonfires, ii. 289

Devils, ceremony at the expulsion of, ii. 151, 158, 159-162, 170-185, 192,
193, 203;
represented by men and expelled, ii. 183-185

Devonshire reaping cries, i. 405, 406;
rain-charm, i. 408;
cure for cough, ii. 154

Diana, rule of the priesthood of, i. 2, 3, 6;
ceremonies at the festival of, i. 5;
Arician Grove said to be first consecrated to her by Manius Egerius, i.
5;
a tree goddess, i. 105

Diana’s mirror, i. 1

Dieyerie of South Australia, rain-making by the, i. 20;
tree superstition amongst the, i. 62

Dingelstedt, harvest custom at, i. 371

Dionysus, marriage of, i. 104;
titles of, i. 320, 321;
myth of, i. 322-325;
rites of, i. 324, 329; ii. 43-46, 90;
rites of, similar to those of Osiris, i. 319, 320;
as an animal, i. 325-327, ii. 34-38;
association of, with Demeter and Proserpine, ii. 37

Diseases sent away in boats, ii. 185-189, 192 _sq._

Divine beasts, i. 48

—— king, dependence of nature upon the, i. 109

—— kings, i. 49;
care taken of, i. 115;
cease to govern, i. 118, 119

—— kings and priests, burdensome observances placed upon, i. 110-118;
effects of these burdens, i. 118-120

—— Man as scapegoat, ii. 201, 205

—— persons, seclusion of, ii. 242, 243

—— spirit, transmigration of, i. 42-44

Divining rods made from the mistletoe, ii. 367

Dog, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 3-7;
the flesh of the, eaten, ii. 87;
resurrection of the, ii. 123;
used as a scapegoat, ii. 194, 195

Domalde, King of Sweden, sacrificed, i. 47

Douai, annual procession at, ii. 280

Dreams, festival of, ii. 165, 166

Druids, oak-worship of the, i. 58

Dublin, May Day custom in, i. 101

Duk-duk, the, ii. 352 _sq._

Duke of York Island, fishing ceremony by the natives of, ii. 120

Dulyn, i. 15

Dunkirk, annual procession at, ii. 280, 281

Dust columns, i. 30

Dutch criminals, cutting the hair of, to enforce confession, ii. 328

Dyaks, belief in the souls of trees amongst the, i. 59, 60;
abduction of the soul, i. 132, 133;
restoration of the soul, i. 138;
harvest custom, i. 68, 69, 353, 354;
the Dyaks and bad omens, ii. 151;
custom in epidemic, ii. 84;
may not eat venison, ii. 86, 87;
spare the crocodile, ii. 109;
Dyaks and the palm-tree, ii. 329;
festival of first-fruits, ii. 376

East Indian Islands, supposed cure for epilepsy in the, ii. 148, 149

Easter customs, i. 272, 276, 334; ii. 29, 181, 216, 217

—— fires, ii. 251, 252

—— Islanders, blood of an animal not shed by the, i. 182, 183;
offerings of first fruits, ii. 381

Eating animals to get their qualities, ii. 85-89

—— the god, ii. 67-90

—— and drinking, precautions taken at, i. 160-162

Edersleben, midsummer fire festival in, ii. 262

Efugaos, cannibalism by the, ii. 88

Egeria, i. 5

Egypt, beasts responsible for the course of nature in Upper, i. 48;
Egyptian kings deified, i. 49, 50;
Egyptian kings blamed for failure of crops, i. 50;
ancient Egyptian kings did not drink wine, i. 184, 185;
temporary-rulers in Upper Egypt, i. 231;
custom of burning red-haired men by the ancient Egyptians, i. 307;
religion of ancient Egypt, i. 313;
Egyptians and the pig, ii. 52, 53, 56, 57;
the bulls Apis and Mnevis worshipped, ii. 60;
sacred cattle in Egypt, ii. 60, 61;
sacrifice of the ram in, ii. 92, 93;
Egyptian type of sacrament, ii. 134-136;
Egyptian scapegoat, ii. 200;
the external soul in Egyptian story, ii. 315-318

Eifel mountains, fire festival in the, ii. 247, 248;
harvest omens in the, ii. 271

Eisenach, ceremony of bringing back summer in, i. 263;
ceremony of carrying out death in, _ib._

Elan, regard for the, ii. 117, 118

Elephant, ceremony at the killing of an, ii. 113-115

Eleusis, mysteries of, ii. 37

Elk, regard for the, ii. 117, 118

Ellwangen, harvest ceremony in, ii. 17

Emin Pasha’s reception in a Central African village, i. 155

Emu wren, ii. 336, 337

Encounter Bay tribe, their dread of women’s blood, i. 186

English tradition concerning the killing of the wren, ii. 140, 141

Entlebuch, human scapegoat in, ii. 199

Entraigues, hunting the wren in, ii. 144

Epidemic, ceremony in time of, i. 36; ii. 84, 187-189

Epilepsy, supposed cure for, ii. 148, 149

Erfurt, harvest custom in, i. 336

Ertingen, midsummer custom in, i. 89

Erzgebirge, Shrovetide custom in the, i. 244

Eskimos, charm for lulling the wind, i. 28;
Eskimos and the soul, i. 122;
reception of strangers, i. 155;
Eskimo women, i. 170

Essex, hunting the wren in, ii. 143

Esthonian superstition regarding the welfare of cattle, i. 72 _sq._;
blood not tasted by the Esthonians, i. 178, 179;
belief concerning women’s blood, i. 187;
preservation of the parings of nails by the Esthonians, i. 204;
carrying out the effigy of Death, i. 270;
ceremony at the eating of the new corn, ii. 69, 70;
dread of the weevil by the Esthonian peasants, ii. 129, 130

Ethiopian kings and their courtiers, i. 222

Etruscan wizards, i. 22

European rain-charm, i. 18;
forests, i. 57;
fire festivals, ii. 246-285

Evils, expulsion of, ii. 145 _sq._;
occasional, ii. 158-162;
periodic, ii. 162-182;
two kinds of expulsion of evils, the direct or immediate, and the
indirect or mediate, ii. 158;
general observations on, ii. 202-206;
transference of, ii. 145 _sq._

Fauns, representation of the, ii. 35;
the Fauns wood and corn-spirits, ii. 35, 36

Feilenhof, the wolf a corn-spirit in, ii. 3

Feloupes of Senegambia, charm for rain-making, i. 18

Fern seed, midsummer, ii. 365, 366

Fernando Po, restrictions on the food of the king of, i. 208

Fever, cure for, ii. 152, 153

Fida, no one to drink out of the king’s glass in, i. 166

Field of Mars, chariot race on the, ii. 64-66

Fiji, charm used for staying the sun in, i. 24;
gods of, i. 39;
soul extraction in, i. 138;
belief in two souls in, i. 145;
eating in the presence of suspected persons avoided in, i. 160;
self-immolation at old age in, i. 216;
expulsion of devils in, ii. 175, 176;
initiatory rites in, ii. 344, 345;
offerings of first-fruits in, ii. 377, 378

Finland, wind selling in, i. 27;
cattle protected by the wood god in, i. 105, 106;
ceremony at the killing of a bear in, ii. 112

Fire festivals, human sacrifices offered at, i. 251

—— festivals in Europe, ii. 246-285;
they were charms to make the sun shine, ii. 267, 274

—— kings, i. 53-56

—— sacred, made by the friction of wood, ii. 269;
made with oak wood, ii. 292, 293

Fire spirit, expulsion of the, ii. 178

Firstborn sacrificed, i. 236, 237

First-fruits, festival of the, ii. 75-78;
offerings of, ii. 373-384

Fish, respect shown by savages to, ii. 118-122;
fish preachers, ii. 119, 120

Fladda’s chapel and wind-making, i. 26, 27

Flamen Dialis, rules of life, i. 117;
not allowed to walk under a trellised vine, i. 183, 184;
cuttings from the hair and nails buried, i. 200;
restriction on the food of the, i. 207

—— Virbialis, i. 6

Flaminica, rules of life for the, i. 117, 118

Flanders, midsummer bonfires in, ii. 267;
Flemish cure for ague, ii. 153

Flax-pullers, custom of the, i. 375

Florence, “sawing the old woman” in, i. 261

Florida, sacrifice of the firstborn by the Indians of, i. 236, 237

Folk tales, resurrection in, ii. 125

Food, unconsumed, buried, i. 166;
prohibited food, i. 207, 208;
strong food, ii. 85

Forests, Europe covered with, in prehistoric times, i. 56

Fors, the, of Central Africa, preservation of nail parings by the, i. 204,
205

Forsaken sleeper, i. 96

Foulahs of Senegambia spare the crocodile, ii. 110

France, harvest customs in the northeast of, ii. 4

Franche Comté, harvest customs in, ii. 17

Frankish kings not allowed to cut their hair, i. 193

Friedingen, harvest custom in, ii. 27

Friesland, harvest customs in East, ii. 8

Frog-flayer, i. 92

Funeral custom, i. 129, 130

Fürstenwalde, harvest ceremonies in, ii. 7

Gablingen, harvest customs in, ii. 13

Galela, ceremony at the initiation of boys amongst the, ii. 353

Galicia, harvest customs in, ii. 8

Gall-bladder the special seat of courage amongst the Chinese, ii. 87

Gareloch, Dumbartonshire, harvest customs on some farms on the, i. 345

Garos, rain-charm used by the, i. 18

Georgia, rain-charm in, i. 17

Germany—German peasants and a whirlwind, i. 30;
sacred groves common amongst the ancient Germans, i. 58;
ceremony on felling a tree, i. 64;
rain-charm, i. 93;
custom after a death, i. 147;
superstition regarding the knife, i. 177;
superstition concerning hair cutting, i. 196, 199;
harvest custom, i. 337, 345, 374, 375; ii. 9;
harvest cries, i. 408, 409;
way to free a garden from caterpillars, ii. 130;
beating as a charm, ii. 216, 217;
oak the sacred tree, ii. 291;
oak log burnt on Midsummer Day, ii. 294;
the external soul in German stories, ii. 310-312

Gervasius, rain spring mentioned by, i. 19

Ghosts, the soul carried off by, i. 129-132;
annual expulsion of the ghosts of the dead, ii. 163

Giant, sham, procession and burning of the, ii. 280-282

Gilgit, ceremony on felling a tree in, i. 65;
sacred cedar of, i. 69 _sq._;
harvest custom at, ii. 73, 74

Gilyak sacrifice of the bear, ii. 105-107

Girls secluded at puberty, ii. 225-247;
reason for, ii. 238-242;
not allowed to touch the ground or see the sun, ii. 225-253;
traces in folk tales of the rule which forbids girls at puberty to see
the sun, ii. 235-237

Goat, the, sacred, ii. 56, 63;
Dionysus as a, i. 326-328; ii. 34-37;
the corn-spirit as a, ii. 12-19

God, killing the, i. 213; ii. 218-222;
killing a god in animal form, i. 327, 328;
motives for killing the god, i. 214-216

God’s Mouth, the name of the supreme ruler of the old Prussians, i. 223

Gods die and are buried, i. 213, 214

—— incarnate, slain, ii. 218-222

Gold Coast, sacrifices of the negroes of the, i. 67;
their superstition with regard to iron, i. 173

Golden Bough, Turner’s picture of the, i. 1;
legend of the, i. 4;
the representative of the tree-spirit, i. 107;
between heaven and earth, ii. 223-243;
what was it, ii. 224;
the Golden Bough is the mistletoe, ii. 363, 368;
why was the mistletoe called the Golden Bough, ii. 365;
the Golden Bough an emanation of the sun’s fire, ii. 367

Goldi sacrifice of the bear, ii. 107, 108

Gommern, harvest festival at, i. 370

Gonds, human sacrifices by the, i. 252, 384;
mock-human sacrifices, i. 252;
scapegoats amongst the, ii. 200

Good Friday custom, ii. 216

Gout transferred from a man to a tree, ii. 153

Grand Lama, death and reappearance of the, i. 42, 43;
and the shadow of Sankara, i. 142

Grandmother, a name given to the last sheaf, i. 336

Granny, a name given to the last sheaf, i. 336

Grass king, i. 91-93, 247

Grätz, midsummer custom in, ii. 267

Greece, rain-making in, i. 16;
tree worship in, i. 58, 59, 99;
festivals of the Greeks, i. 99, 100, 103;
ceremony at the laying of a foundation stone in, i. 144;
sacrificial ritual in, ii. 54, 55;
human scapegoats in, ii. 210-217;
midsummer fires in, ii. 266;
the external soul in Greek stories, ii. 305-307

Green George, i. 84-86

Grenoble, May Day in, i. 94;
harvest custom in, ii. 15, 47

Grihya-Sûtras, provision in the, for the burning of cut hair, i. 202

Grossvargula, Whitsuntide custom in, i. 91

Ground, sacred persons not allowed to touch the, ii. 224, 243 _note_;
girls at puberty not allowed to touch the, ii. 225-253;
sacred things may not touch the, ii. 243 _note_

Grüneberg, harvest ceremony in, ii. 11

Guanches, rain-charm in, i. 19

Guatemala, the nagual amongst the, ii. 333, 334

Guaycurus and storms, i. 28

Guinea, secreting of cut hair and nails in, i. 203;
annual expulsion of the devil by the negroes of, ii. 170;
time of licence in, ii. 204

Guyenne, harvest ceremony in, ii. 6

Hack-thorn, sacred, i. 69

Hadeln, reaping custom in the district of, i. 333

Haida Indian wind-charm, i. 26

Hair, burning of loose, i. 205;
burning after child-birth, i. 206;
cut hair deposited in a safe place, i. 200-205;
cutting, i. 193 _sq._;
most sacred day of the year appointed for hair cutting, i. 197;
superstition concerning the cutting of the, i. 196, 198, 199;
cut only during a storm, i. 199;
haircutting as a disinfectant, i. 206, 207;
magic use of cut hair, i. 198, 199;
strength supposed to be in the, ii. 328;
hair not cut, i. 193-195;
superstition about cutting the hair and nails, i. 193-207

Halberstadt, human scapegoats in, ii. 199

Halibut, festival in honour of the, ii. 121

Halmahera, rain-making in, i. 13, 21

Hampstead, forest of, i. 57

Hare, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 10 _sq._

Harran, ritual observed by the heathen Syrians of, i. 283

Harvest child, a name given to the last sheaf, i. 344

—— cock, a name given to the last sheaf, ii. 7, 8

—— cries, i. 404-409

—— customs, i. 333-347, 352, 353, 367-381, 408; ii. 4-27, 32, 47, 48,
68-73, 213

—— festival, i. 169; ii. 171, 172, 374-376, 382-384

—— goat, ii. 13

—— maiden, a prototype of Proserpine, i. 356

—— May, i. 68, 69, 81, 82; ii. 4

—— omens, ii. 271

—— queen, i. 344

—— songs and cries, ii. 364-366, 404-409

Harz Mountains, Easter fires in the, ii. 253

Hawaii, detention of the soul in, i. 139;
capital offences in, i. 190

Hay family, the, and the mistletoe, ii. 362

Head, sanctity of the, i. 187-193;
ceremony at the washing of the, i. 188

Headache, transference of, ii. 149

Headington, May-day custom at, i. 94, 95

Heaven, the Golden Bough between heaven and earth, ii. 223-243

Hebrides, representation of spring in the, i. 97

Heligoland, disappearance of the herring from, ii. 120

Herbrechtingen, threshing custom in, ii. 22

Hercynian forest, i. 56, 57

Hereford, sin eaters in, ii. 154, 155

Herefordshire, midsummer fires in, ii. 262

Hermsdorf, harvest custom in, i. 338

Herodotus, story by, of the wind fighters of Psylli, i. 29

Herring, disappearance of the, from Heligoland, ii. 120

Hertfordshire harvest custom, ii. 24

Hessen, Ash Wednesday custom in, ii. 29;
sowing-time customs in, ii. 48

Hidatsa Indians, belief in the plurality of souls amongst the, ii. 339

Hierapolis, pigs sacred at, ii. 50

Himalayas, scapegoats in the Western, ii. 194

Hindoo cure for the murrain, ii. 191;
festival of Ingathering, ii. 272;
girls and puberty, ii. 234, 235;
the external soul in Hindoo stories, ii. 298-302

Hindoos, the, test of a suitable sacrificial victim, i. 36;
Hindoos and yawning, i. 123;
custom of nail cutting by the, i. 196;
festival at the eating of the new rice by the, ii. 73

Hindoo Koosh, smoke from the sacred tree inhaled by the sybil, i. 35;
blood sucking the test of a diviner amongst the, _ib._;
expulsion of devils amongst the, ii. 173

Hippolytus, i. 6

Holland, Whitsuntide custom in, i. 88;
Easter fires, ii. 253

Holstein, reaping custom in, i. 333;
healing effects of the mistletoe in, ii. 289

Hornkampe, harvest custom in, i. 337

Horse, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 24-26;
sacrifice of the, ii. 64

Horses excluded from the Arician grove, i. 6

—— and Virbius, ii. 62-64

Hos, harvest festival amongst the, ii. 171, 172;
time of licence with the, ii. 204;
offering of first-fruits by the, ii. 374

Hottentot priests do not use iron, i. 173;
wind-charm, i. 27, 28;
sheep driven through the fire by the, ii. 273

Hovas of Madagascar, offerings of first-fruits by the, ii. 374

How, coffer of Osiris at, i. 309

Huahine, offerings of first-fruits in, ii. 381

Huitzilopochtli, dough image of the Mexican god, made and eaten, ii. 81

Human sacrifices, i. 235-237, 251, 252, 381;
replaced by mock sacrifices, i. 250-253

—— victim represents the corn-spirit, i. 390-395

Hungary, Whitsuntide custom in, i. 93;
the external soul in Hungarian stories, ii. 320, 321

Hunger, expulsion of, ii. 210, 211

Hunting the wren, ii. 140-144

Hurons, the, and fish bones, ii. 119;
their idea of the soul, i. 122;
driving away sickness amongst the, ii. 162

Huskanaw, the name of an initiatory ceremony amongst the Indians of
Virginia, ii. 348

Hylæ, sacred men inspired by the image of Apollo at, i. 37

Ibo, king of, confined to his premises, i. 164

Iddah, king of, asserts that he is god, i. 41, 42

Ihlozi, the, of the Zulus, ii. 332

Incarnate gods, i. 30-54

Incarnation, temporary and permanent, i. 32, 37-42

Incas of Peru revered as gods, i. 49;
preservation of cut hair and parings of the nails of the, i. 203;
restrictions upon the prince who is to become Inca of Peru, ii. 225;
ceremony for the expulsion of diseases, etc. by the, ii. 167-169

Indersdorf, harvest custom in, ii. 17, 18

India, devil dancer drinks sacrificial blood in Southern, i. 34;
human gods in, i. 41, 42;
marriage of shrubs and trees in, i. 60;
sin eating in, ii. 155, 156;
iron used as a charm in, i. 175, 176;
harvest custom in the Central Provinces of, i. 371, 372;
custom during cholera in Central Provinces of, ii. 189;
offerings of first-fruits in, ii. 374, 375

Indians of Alaska, preservation of cut hair by the, i. 201, 202

—— of Arizona offer human sacrifices, i. 251

—— of Guayaquil sacrifice human beings at seed time, i. 381

—— of Guiana, treatment of girls at puberty by the, ii. 232-234

—— of Peru and their fish gods, ii. 118, 119

—— of Virginia, initiatory ceremony amongst the, ii. 348, 349

Influenza, ii. 190

Initiatory rites, simulation of death and resurrection at, ii. 342-358

Innuit of Alaska, custom after a death amongst the, i. 177

Inspiration, i. 33;
by blood drinking, i. 34, 35;
by use of sacred tree, i. 35; 36

Inspired men, i. 36, 37

—— victims, i. 36

Irayas of Luzon, offerings of first-fruits by the, ii. 377

Ireland, May Day in the south-east of, i. 94;
hunting the wren at Christmas in, ii. 142, 143;
midsummer fires in, ii. 263, 264

Iron, superstitious aversion to, i. 172-174;
as a charm, i. 175

Iron-Beard, Dr., i. 249, 257

Iroquois, ceremony at the festival of dreams by the, ii. 165, 166;
scapegoat used by the, ii. 194, 195;
time of licence amongst the, ii. 204

Isis, acorn goddess, i. 310, 311;
named the moon by the aboriginal inhabitants of Egypt, i. 311;
as a cow, ii. 61

Isle of Man, wind selling in the, i. 27;
hunting the wren at Christmas in the, ii. 142;
midsummer bonfires, ii. 263

Issapoo, the cobra capella the guardian deity of the negroes of, ii. 94,
95

Istar, legend concerning the goddess, i. 287

Italones, cannibalism by the, ii. 88

Italy, tree worship in ancient, i. 58, 59;
custom of “sawing the old woman” in, i. 261, 262;
gardens of Adonis in, i. 294;
midsummer fires in, ii. 266;
oak the sacred tree in, ii. 291;
the external soul in Italian stories, ii. 307, 308

Itonamas, the, and the soul, i. 123

Itzgrund, harvest custom in, i. 338

Ivy girl, i. 344

Jack-in-the-green, i. 88, 89, 247

Jambi, temporary kings in, i. 231, 232

Japanese, expulsion of evil spirits by the, ii. 176

Jarkino, belief in animate trees in, i. 61

Javanese and rice bloom, i. 60, 61;
ceremony at rice harvest, i. 355;

Javanese and the soul, i. 124, 125

Jerome of Prague, i. 24

Jeypur, scapegoat used in cases of smallpox in, ii. 190, 191

Jubilee, i. 225

Jupiter represented by an oak on the Capitol at Rome, ii. 291

Kaffa, worship of human god in, i. 42

Kafir boys at circumcision, i. 171;
New Year festival, ii. 74;
elephant hunters, ii. 113, 114;
burying of cut hair and nails by the Kafirs, i. 202, 203

Kakian Association, ii. 354-357

Kakongo, king of, not allowed to touch certain European goods, i. 160;
not seen eating, i. 162

Kalamba, ceremonies on a visit to, by subject chiefs, i. 159

Kalmucks, consecration of the white ram by the, ii. 136

Kamant tribe do not allow a natural death, i. 217

Kamtchatkans excuse themselves before killing land or sea animals, ii.
110, 111;
respect the seal and sea lion, ii. 111

Kânagrâ, spring custom in, i. 276, 277

Kángrá, custom at, on the death of a Rajah, i. 232;
sin eaters in, ii. 156

Karens, funeral custom by the, i. 129, 130;
transference of the soul in Karen, i. 140;
dread of women’s blood by the, i. 186;
belief concerning the head, i. 187;
custom at rice sowing, i. 354, 355

Karma tree, i. 289

Karoks of California and salmon catching, ii. 121

Kasyas, expulsion of devils by the, ii. 184

Katodis, ceremony before felling a tree by the, i. 63

Kent, the ivy girl in, i. 344

Keramin tribe of New South Wales, rain-making by the, i. 15

Key Islanders, soul superstition amongst the, i. 130, 131;
expulsion of sickness by the, ii. 160

Khonds, human sacrifices by the, i. 384-390;
rain-charm, ii. 42;
expulsion of devils by the, ii. 173, 174

Kibanga, kings killed in, i. 218

Kilema, ceremony in, before a stranger is allowed to see the king, i. 159

Kilimanjaro Mount, believed to be tenanted by demons, i. 151

Kimbunda, cannibalism amongst the, ii. 88, 89

King Hop, the title of a temporary king, i. 230

—— of the calf, ii. 21

—— of the May, i. 247

—— of the sacred rites, i. 7

—— of the Wood, i. 1-108;
why so called, i. 7;
never a temporal sovereign, i. 51;
an incarnation of the tree spirit, i. 106-108;
probability that he was formerly slain annually, i. 240, 241;
similarity to North European personages, i. 249, 250;
a personification of the oak, ii. 364;
probably burned in a fire of oak wood, ii. 363-365

Kings—as gods, i. 8;
supposed to control the weather, i. 44-46;
punished for the failure of crops, i. 46-48;
killed, i. 48;
divine, i. 49;
of nature, i. 52;
of fire, i. 53-56;
of rain, i, 52, 53;
of water, i. 53-56;
divine, cease to govern, i. 118, 119;
abdicate, i. 120;
guarded against strangers, i. 158, 159;
veiled, i. 162, 163;
at meals, i. 162;
confined to their palaces, i. 164, 165;
killed when they show signs of decay, i. 217-223;
killed at expiry of fixed term, i. 223;
mitigation of the above rule, kings allowed to defend themselves, i.
224;
killed annually, i. 225-227;
temporary, i. 228-234;
temporary kings sometimes hereditary, i. 228, 232;
sons sacrificed in times of great danger, i. 235

Kingsmill Islands, offerings of first-fruits in, ii. 378

Kirn, the name of a harvest supper, i. 345

Klausenburg, harvest custom at, ii. 9

Kloxin, harvest ceremony in, i. 369

Knives, reluctance to use, after a death, i. 176, 177

Kobi, offering of first-fruits by the, ii. 376

Kochs of Assam, offerings of first-fruits by the, ii. 374

Kohlerwinkel, harvest ceremony at, ii. 27

Kolosh Indians, seclusion of girls amongst the, ii. 230

Koniags, seclusion of girls amongst the, ii. 230

Königshain, driving out Death in, i. 276

Konkan, scapegoat used in Southern, in cases of cholera, ii. 191

Konz, midsummer fire festival in, ii. 260, 261

Kostroma, funeral of, i. 273

Kostrubonko, i. 272

Kukulu, the priest king, i. 112, 113

Kumis, driving away small-pox by the, ii. 161

Kupalo, funeral of, i. 272;
representation of, i. 292

Kupole’s festival, i. 294

Lachlin family and the deer, ii. 363

La Ciotat, hunting the wren in, ii. 144

Lada, funeral of, i. 273

Lagos, human sacrifices at, i. 383

Lakor, expulsion of diseases to sea in, ii. 192

Lamas, Grand, i. 42, 43;
the chief of the, i. 43, 44

Lamb killed sacramentally by the Madi tribe of Central Africa, ii. 137,
138

Lamps, festival of, ii. 176

Laos, precautions against strangers in, i. 152;
belief in plurality of souls amongst the, ii. 339

Laosia, women worshippers in, i. 42

La Palisse, harvest custom in, ii. 68

Lapis manalis, i. 22

Lappland, wind selling in, i. 27;
ceremony at the sacrifice of an animal in, ii. 123;
seclusion of women in, ii. 240

Larch-tree, sacred, i. 61, 62

Lazy man, the, i. 89

Lechrain, midsummer fires in, ii. 258, 259

Leipzig, carrying out the effigy of Death in, i. 268

Lent customs, ii. 247-249

Leopard, ceremony at the killing of a, ii. 114

Leper, custom at the cleansing of a, ii. 151

Lerwick wind-sellers, i. 27

Leti, expulsion of diseases to sea by the, ii. 92

Leucadian scapegoat, ii. 213

Lewis, wind selling in the island of, i. 27

Lhoosai, harvest festival of the, i. 69

Libchowic, Mid-Lent custom in the neighbourhood of, i. 93

Licence, periods of, ii. 204

Life of a person bound up with that of a plant, ii. 328-330

Life plants, ii. 329, 330

Lille, harvest ceremonies at, ii. 25, 26

Linus, the name given to the Phoenician lament at vintage time, i. 365

—— song, i. 398, 399

—— identified with Adonis, i. 399

Lion, ceremony at the killing of a, ii. 114;
Arabic belief in the properties of lion’s fat, ii. 86

Lithuania, sun worshippers in, i. 24, 25;
tree worshippers in, i. 58;
superstition concerning the felling of sacred groves in, i. 66, 67;
May customs in, i. 83, 84;
custom after a funeral in, i. 177;
harvest custom in, i. 340, 341;
ceremony at threshing time in, i. 372, 373;
ceremonies by the peasants at the eating of the new corn in, ii. 69, 70

Little leaf man, i. 88

Lityerses compared with harvest customs, i. 366, 367;
story of, i. 392-395;
relation of, to Attis, i. 396, 397

—— the name given to a song by the Phrygian reapers, i. 365, 366

Liver, the, thought to be the seat of the soul, ii. 88

Livonia, sacred grove in, i. 65

Llandebie, sin eating in, ii. 155

Loango, king of, deposed when the harvest fails, i. 47;
supernaturally endowed kings of, i. 116;
a capital offence to see the king eat, i. 161;
the king confined to his palace after coronation, i. 164;
food left by the king buried, i. 166;
food restrictions in, i. 207, 208;
girls secluded at puberty in, ii. 226

London, midsummer pageants in, ii. 281

Longnor, harvest custom at, ii. 25

Lost children, superstition concerning, i. 63

Loucheux Indians, abstinence from the sinew of the thigh by the, ii. 127,
128

Luchon, midsummer fire ceremony at, ii. 282

Lumley, Sir J., excavation of the site of the Diana Nemorensis by, i. 2
_note_

Lüneberg, harvest custom in, i. 377

Lusatia, ceremony of carrying out Death in, i. 259, 264

M’Bengas, life of a child supposed to be bound up with that of a tree by
the, ii. 328, 329

Macusis of British Guiana, treatment of girls at the age of puberty by
the, ii. 232 _sq._

Madagascar, power ascribed to the souls of the dead in, i. 132;
blood of nobles may not be shed in, i. 181;
crocodile not killed in, ii. 109, 110

Madenassana bushmen, the goat sacred to the, ii. 56

Madi tribe, burying of the parings of the nails by the, i. 202;
lamb killed sacramentally by the, ii. 137, 138

Magic, sympathetic, i. 9-12

—— use of cut hair, i. 198-200

Maiden, a name given to the last handful of corn, i. 344, 345

Maize, mother of the, i. 350-352

Makololo, burning or burying of cut hair by the, i. 205

Malabar, reverence for the cow in, ii. 200

Malagasy, vehicle used by the, for the transference of ills, ii. 149, 150

Malay poem, the external soul in a, ii. 325, 326

Malays and the soul, i. 124; ii. 331;
do not touch a man’s head, i. 189

Maldives, cuttings from the hair and nails buried by the natives of the,
i. 200

Mamilian tower, ii. 67

Mamurius Veturius or the old Mars, ii. 208-210

Man in cow-skin, ii. 145, 146

—— gods in the South Sea Islands, i. 38, 39

Mandan Indians, and their portraits, i. 148;
expulsion of devils by the, ii. 183, 184

Maneros, the name given to the lament of the Egyptian reapers at the
cutting of the first sheaf, i. 364

Mangaia, priests called gods in, i. 33;
spiritual and temporal government in, i. 120;
story of a warrior’s shadow, i. 142, 143

Man-god, two types of, i. 12

Mania, i. 6

“Manii, there are many at Aricia,” explanation of the proverb, ii. 82, 83

Manius Egerius, traditional founder of the Arician Grove, etc., i. 5; ii.
84

Maori ceremonies on entering strange territory, i. 156;
the Maoris and dead bodies, i. 169;
fear of the blood of women, i. 186;
sacredness of the head amongst the, i. 191, 192;
ceremony at hair cutting, i. 196, 197;
fishing custom, ii. 120;
offerings of first-fruits, ii. 381, 382

Mare, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 24-26

Marimos, human sacrifices by the, i. 383, 384

Marktl, harvest ceremonies in the neighbourhood of, ii. 16, 17

Marquesas Islands, men deified in their life-time in the, i. 37, 38;
the Marquesans and the soul, i. 123;
shaving of the head in the, i. 195

Mars, chariot race on the field of, ii. 64-66

—— the old, ii. 208-210

Marseilles, human scapegoat in, ii. 212

Masuren, midsummer fire festival in, ii. 265, 266

May bride, i. 98

—— Day carols, i. 75, 76

—— Day customs, i. 72-86, 88, 89, 94, 95, 98-101; ii. 181, 182, 254, 255,
257, 258

—— king, i. 90, 91

—— poles, i. 78 _sq._, 230, 308; ii. 66

—— queen, i. 93, 94

—— sleeping bridegroom of, i. 95

—— trees, i. 74-82, 90, 91, 243, 247, 268, 269; ii. 8, 251

Mayenne, May Day custom in, i. 76

Mecklenburg, reaping custom in, i. 376

Meiningen, Ash Wednesday custom in, ii. 29;
sowing time custom, ii. 48

Melanesia, sunshine making in, i. 24;
bringing back the soul in, i. 136;
Melanesian stones and a man’s shadow, i. 142

Meleager, ii. 305

Men eaten to obtain their qualities, ii. 88, 89

Menstruation, seclusion of women at periods of, ii. 238-242

Menstruous blood, primitive dread of, ii. 238, 241

Mentawej Islands, precautions against strangers in the, i. 152

Meroe, Ethiopian kings of, killed, i. 218

Metz, midsummer fires in, ii. 283

Mexican sacraments, paste images of the god eaten, ii. 79-82;
festivals, ii. 80-84

Mexico, oath of kings at accession in, i. 49;
sacrifice of new-born babes in, i. 307;
human sacrifice at harvest festival in, i. 381;
incarnate gods slain in, ii. 218-222

Miaotse, ceremony of driving away the devil by the, ii. 151

Mice, charm for ridding lands from, ii. 131

Mid-Lent customs, i. 82, 93, 254, 261-263, 268, 269

Midsummer customs, i. 78 _sq._, 89, 101, 272, 290-294; ii. 366, 367

—— European fire festivals at, ii. 258-267, 282, 283;
burning of effigies in the midsummer fires, ii. 266, 267

—— Eve superstitions, ii. 286, 287;
magic plants gathered on Midsummer Eve, ii. 286-288

—— omens, i. 294

Mikado, description of the life of the, i. 110-112;
cooking of his food, i. 166, 167;
effects of wearing his clothes without leave, i. 167;
cutting his hair and nails, i. 197;
not allowed to touch the ground, ii. 224, 225

Miklucho-Maclay, Baron, ceremony on his entering a village on the Maclay
coast, i. 156

Milkmen worshipped by the Todas, i. 41

Minahassa, rain-charm used by the, i. 17;
blood drinking at festivals by the, i. 35;
custom in time of sickness, ii. 84;
driving away devils by the, ii. 158, 159

Mingrelia, rain-getting in, i. 15

Minnetaree Indians and the resurrection of the bison, ii. 122, 123

Miris, tree superstition of the, i. 63;
tiger’s flesh eaten by the, ii. 86

Mirrors, covering up of, i. 147

Mistletoe, the, worshipped by the Celts and gathered by the Druids, ii.
285, 286, 288, 289, 295;
gathered on Midsummer Eve, ii. 286 _sq._;
qualities of, ii. 289;
viewed as the seat of life, ii. 295;
life of the oak in the, ii. 360, 361;
not allowed to touch the ground, ii. 361;
a protection against witchcraft, ii. 362;
the Golden Bough the, ii. 363, 368;
reason it was called the Golden Bough, ii. 365;
why called golden, ii. 366, 367;
divining rods made from, in Sweden, ii. 367;
gathered at midsummer and Christmas, ii. 367

Mithraic mysteries, ii. 358

Mnevis, the bull, ii. 60, 61

Moa, expulsion of diseases to sea by the, ii. 192

Mock executions, i. 261

—— human sacrifices, i. 250-253

Mole, Le, i. 5

Moluccas, festivals in the, i. 40;
treatment of clove-trees in blossom in the, i. 60;
soul abduction in the, i. 133, 134;
ceremony in the, after a journey, i. 158

Mondard, the great, ii. 40

Mongolians, stuffing the skin of a sacrificed animal by the, ii. 124

Mongols, the, and the soul, i. 128

Monomotapa, precautions taken for the king of, i. 159

Montalto, Mid Lent custom in, i. 262

Mooris, custom at births by the, ii. 329

Moosheim, fire festival at, ii. 278

Moqui Indians, belief in the transmigration of human souls into turtles
held by the, ii. 98, 99;
totem clans of the, ii. 99

Moresby, Captain, at Shepherd’s Isle, i. 152, 153

Morocco, iron a protection against demons in, i. 175;
ants eaten in, ii. 87;
diverting evil spirits in, ii. 151

Mother-cotton, the, i. 353

—— of the maize, i. 350-352

Motumotu theory of storms, i. 27

——, the soul believed to be in the reflection by the, i. 145

Mowat, the chief of, supposed to have power of affecting crops, etc., i.
46;
boys beaten to make them grow in, ii. 216

Mozcas, weather kings of the, i. 44

Muato Jamwo, a capital offence to see him eat, i. 162

Mundaris, sacred groves of the, i. 63;
superstition concerning the felling of sacred groves, i. 67;
harvest festival, ii. 172

Mundas, ceremony at the planting of the rice by the, i. 288, 289

Munster, rain fountain in, i. 19

Münsterland, Easter fires in, ii. 252, 253

Murrain, cure for the, ii. 191

Murrams of Manipur, restrictions of food among the, i. 208

Muyscas, weather kings of the, i. 44

Nagual, the, of the Indians of Guatemala, ii. 333, 334

Nails, cutting the, i. 195, 196;
burying the first cuttings of a child’s, i. 201;
cuttings of, preserved, i. 202-205

Namaquas, foods eaten and rejected by the, ii. 86

Nanumea, precautions against strangers in the island of, i. 151

Narrinyeri and their totems, i. 165, 166

Nass River, Indians of the, and the recall of the soul, i. 140, 141

Natchez, harvest festival by the, ii. 382-384

Nature, kings of, i. 52;
dependence of, upon the divine king, i. 109

Nauders, sacred larch-tree at, i. 61, 62

Naudowessies, initiatory ceremony amongst the, ii. 350

Navarre, rain-making in, i. 15

Ndembo, the, ii. 345

Need fires, ii. 269, 293

Negro idea of the soul, i. 125

Nemi, lake of, i. 1;
tree within the sanctuary, i. 4;
priest of, i. 249, 253, ii. 223;
unchanged, ii. 370, 371

Nerechta, Whitsuntide customs in, i. 96

Neuautz, custom at barley sowing in, ii. 28

Neuhausen, harvest custom in, i. 370

Neusaass, harvest custom in, i. 337

New Britain, rain-making in, i. 13, 14;
wind-charm, i. 26;
driving away evil in, ii. 158;
expulsion of devils in, ii. 203;
initiation ceremony in, ii. 352, 353

New Caledonia, rain-making in, i. 16;
charm for making sunshine in, i. 22-24

New fruits etc. eaten sacramentally, ii. 68-79

New Guinea, seclusion of girls in, ii. 228, 229

New Ireland, seclusion of girls in, ii. 226-228

New South Wales, ceremony of initiation in, i. 163;
first-born eaten in, i. 236

New Year’s Day customs, ii. 170, 171, 179, 193, 194, 272, 273

New Zealand, sacredness of blood in, i. 183;
superstition concerning the head, i. 192;
hair cutting in, i. 197, 199;
clippings from the hair buried in, i. 200;
effects of sacred contagion in, ii. 55;
gods, ii. 89

Nias, the people of, and the soul, i. 122, 138;
precautions against strangers in, i. 154;
succession in, i. 238;
slaves sacrificed at the funeral of a chief in, i. 251;
exorcising the devil in, ii. 160, 161;
scapegoats in, ii. 196, 197

Nicobar Islands, ceremony in cases of epidemic in the, ii. 188, 189;
expulsion of devils in the, ii. 192

Nightjar, the, ii. 334, 335

Nisus, King of Megara, ii. 305

Nootka Indians, ceremony by the, at the killing of a bear, ii. 113;
initiatory ceremony by the, ii. 351

Nördlingen, threshing custom in, i. 371

Norse stories, the external soul in, ii. 312, 313

North American Indians, their idea with regard to strangers, i. 153;
restrictions upon women at certain times, i. 170;
cleansing after the slaying of enemies, i. 170, 171;
abstinence from blood, i. 179;
nail cutting amongst the, i. 196;
belief concerning the various properties of food, ii. 85, 86;
spare the rattlesnake, ii. 110;
ceremony at bear killing, ii. 115;
respect for the elan, deer and elk, ii. 117, 118;
regard for the bones of animals, ii. 125

Northamptonshire, May-day custom in, i. 75;
cure for cough, ii. 154

Norway, cut hair and nails buried or burned in, i. 205;
midsummer bonfires in, ii. 289

Nürnberg, ceremony of carrying out Death in, i. 259

Oak worship, ii. 291;
the chief sacred tree of the European Aryans, ii. 291-370;
sacred fires made of, ii. 292;
oak wood burnt on Midsummer Day, ii. 294;
Balder is the, ii. 295;
human representative of the, slain, ii. 294-296;
life of, in the mistletoe, ii. 360, 361;
superstition concerning the oak tree, ii. 368;
a store of solar fire, ii. 369

Oats-goat, ii. 13-15

Obermedlingen, threshing custom in, ii. 21, 22;
midsummer fires in, ii. 270

Oberpfalz, threshing custom in, i. 371

October horse, ii. 64-67

Offerings of first-fruits, ii. 373-384

Oil of St. John, ii. 288, 289

Ojebways, sunshine charm used by the, i. 22;
seldom fell living trees, i. 61

Olaf, King of Sweden, sacrificed, i. 47, 48

Old Calabar, revellings at the expulsion of devils in, ii. 193

Old man, a name given to the last sheaf, i. 337, 338

Old woman, a name given to the last sheaf, i. 337, 338

Oldenburg, superstition regarding the reflection in, i. 147;
custom with regard to clippings from the hair in, i. 201;
fire festival in, ii. 250

Omaha Indians, rain-making by the, i. 14;
wind clan of the Omahas, i. 26;
their totems, ii. 53, 56

Omens, neutralising bad, ii. 151

Onitsha, ceremony of eating the new yams at, ii. 74;
New Year festival in, ii. 170, 171;
human scapegoats in, ii. 195, 196

Oraon festival, i. 85, 86

Oraons, ceremony at rice planting by the, i. 288

Orchomenus, human sacrifice at the rites of Dionysus in, i. 329

Oregon, belief in the recall of the soul by the Salish Indians of, i. 136,
137

Orestes, the originator of the worship of Diana, i. 3

Orinoco rain-charm, i. 18, 93;
sunshine charm, i. 22

Orissa, worshippers of the Queen of England in, i. 41;
rice growing in, i. 61

Orkney Islands, transference of sickness in the, ii. 153

Osiris, myth of, i. 301 _sq._;
ritual of, i. 303-305;
representation of the dead body of, in the temple of Isis, i. 305;
a corn-spirit, i. 305-307;
a tree-spirit, i. 307-309;
grave of, at Philae, i. 309;
arguments for and against his being the sun-god, i. 311-313, 316, 317,
318, 320;
a god of vegetation, i. 319;
rites of, similar to those of Dionysus and Adonis, i. 319, 320;
probable origin of the cult of, i. 363;
once represented by a human victim, i. 400-404;
on monuments, i. 403;
key to the mysteries of, i. 404;
as a pig, ii. 52-60;
death of, ii. 58, 59;
annual sacrifice of a pig to, ii. 58, 59;
as a bull, ii. 59-61

Osnabrück, harvest custom in, i. 336

Osterode, Easter fires in, ii. 253

Ostiaks, ceremony by the, at the killing of a bear, ii. 111, 112

Ot Damons, custom with regard to strangers by the, i. 151, 152;
seclusion of girls amongst the, ii. 229

Otawa Indians, ceremony at the killing of a bear by the, ii. 113;
do not burn fish bones, ii. 119

Oude, sin eating in, ii. 156

Owl, the, ii. 335, 336

Ox, ritual at the Athenian sacrifice of the, ii. 38, 39, 41;
as an embodiment of the corn-spirit, ii. 41-43;
Osiris and the, ii. 59-61

Ozieri, Gardens of Adonis at, i. 290

Pacific, human gods in the, i. 38, 39

Pádams of Assam, superstition concerning lost children by the, i. 63

Palermo, “sawing the old woman” in, i. 261

Palm-tree, the Dyaks and the, ii. 329

—— Sunday custom, ii. 216

Pan, representation of, ii. 34, 35;
the Lord of the Wood, ii. 35

Panes, festival of the, ii. 90, 91

Papuans, foods eaten by the, ii. 87;
belief in a child’s life being bound up with that of a tree, ii. 329

Paris, procession of mock giant in, ii. 281

Parthian monarchs worshipped as deities, i. 49

Patagonians, burning of loose hair by the, i. 205

Pawnees, human sacrifices by the, at sowing, i. 381, 382

Payaguas, method of fighting the wind by the, i. 28

Pear-tree, the protector of cattle, i. 73

Pelew Islanders, god of the, i. 39, 40;
custom at tree-felling by the, i. 62, 63;
ceremony on the killing of a man by the, i. 178

Pembrokeshire, Twelfth Day custom in, ii. 143

Pepper Coast, high priest held responsible for the general welfare, i. 47

Permanent incarnation, i. 37-42

Persian kings not seen eating, i. 162

Peru, rain-charm in, i. 17;
charm for staying the sun in, i. 24;
preservation of the representative corn-spirit by the ancient Peruvians,
i. 350, 351;
expulsion of devils in, ii. 203;
self-beating in, ii. 216.
_See also under_ Incas.

Philippine Islands, belief in the souls of trees in the, i. 62;
cannibalism in the, ii. 88

Philosophy, primitive, defect of, i. 210-212;
rules of life of sacred men are the outcome of, _ib._

Phoenician custom at vintage, i. 365;
Linus song, i. 398, 399

Phrygia, mock human sacrifices in, i. 300;
reapers’ song in, i. 365, 366

Piedmont, midsummer peasant custom in, i. 288

Pig, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 26-31;
sacred, ii. 50-57;
Osiris as a, ii. 52-60

Pigs, Demeter and Proserpine as, ii. 44-49;
Attis and Adonis as, ii. 49, 50

Pilsen, Whitsuntide custom near, i. 92

Pine-tree sacred to Dionysus, i. 321

Pinsk, Whit Monday customs by Russian girls in, i. 87, 88

Plas, Whitsuntide custom in the neighbourhood of, i. 92

Po, excavations in the valley of the, i. 57

Poachers and the fir-cones, ii. 288

Point Barrow, hunting the evil spirit by the Eskimo of, ii. 164, 165

Poitou, midsummer fire festival in, ii. 261

Poland, ceremony of carrying out Death in, i. 261;
harvest custom in, i. 339, 340, 342, 343;
Christmas custom in, ii. 6, 7

Polynesians, superstition held by the, concerning the head, i. 189, 190;
and sacred contagion, ii. 55

Pomerania, cut hair buried in, i. 205;
reaping custom in, i. 205

Pomos of California, expulsions of devils by the, ii. 183

Pongol festival, ii. 73

Pont à Mousson, harvest ceremony at, ii. 21

Poplar, burning of a, on St. Peter’s Day, i. 101

Portrait, the soul in the, i. 148, 149

Portraits, life in, i. 148

Potato-dog, ii. 4

—— wolf, ii. 2, 5

Potatoes, custom at the digging of new, in Sutherlandshire, ii. 71

Potniae, rites of Dionysus at, i. 329

Pouilly, harvest ceremony at, ii. 20, 21, 47

Preacher to the fish, ii. 119, 120

Pregnancy, i. 239

Priestly kings, i. 7, 8

Priests, Roman and Sabine, not shaved with iron razors, i. 172

Primitive man and the supernatural, i. 6-30

—— philosophy, rules of life are the outcome of, i. 208-210

Prophesying, drinking blood before, i. 34, 35

Propitiation of the fish, ii. 118, 119

Proserpine and the pig, ii. 44-49

Prussia, reverence for the oak in, i. 58;
high trees worshipped by the ancient Prussians, i. 64;
custom after a funeral by the old Prussians, i. 177;
self-immolation of the supreme ruler of the old Prussians, i. 223;
ceremony at spring ploughing in, i. 286;
corn drenching in, i. 287;
gardens of Adonis in, i. 294, 295;
harvest custom in, i. 336, 338, 343;
ceremony at the sowing of the winter corn by the Prussian Slavs, ii. 18,
19;
midsummer fire festival in, ii. 265

Puberty, girls at, not allowed to touch the ground or see the sun, ii.
225-253;
girls secluded at, ii. 225;
reasons for the seclusion, ii. 238 _sq._

Pulverbatch, oak tree superstition at, ii. 368

Punjaub, Gen. Nicholson worshipped by a sect in the, i. 41;
ceremony at the bursting of the cotton boles in the, i. 353;
custom at the festival of lamps, ii. 176

Purification after travel, i. 157, 158

Pyrenees, customs in the, i. 101

Quauhtitlans, human sacrifices by the, ii. 221

Queen of the sacred rites, i. 7

Queensland, initiatory rites in, ii. 343, 344

Quilacare, self-immolation of the king of, i. 224

Quoja, initiatory rites in, ii. 347

Ra, the sun-god, i. 313-316

Rain-charm, i. 93, 199, 287, 289, 299, 333, 374, 390, 400; ii. 42

—— kings of, i. 52, 53

—— making, i. 13-22

Rajah, custom at the death of a, i. 232

Rajah Vijyanagram, his aversion to iron, i. 174

Rajamahall, offerings of first-fruits in, ii. 374, 375

Rali fair, the, i. 276, 277

Ram, sacred, ii. 63;
Egyptian sacrifice of the, ii. 92-94;
consecration of the white ram by the Kalmucks, ii. 136

Ramin, harvest custom in, i. 377

Raskolniks, the, and mirrors, i. 147

Rattlesnake not killed, ii. 110

Ratzeburg, harvest custom in, i. 376, 377

Red cock, ii. 9

—— haired victims, i. 306, 307

Reflection, the soul in the, i. 145-148

Religion, marks of a primitive, i. 348, 349

—— and magic, relation of, i. 30-32

Religious aspect of Peruvian, Parthian and Egyptian sovereigns, i. 48-50

Resurrection, the, of animals, ii. 123-125;
traces in folk-tales of the belief in, ii. 125;
simulation of death and resurrection at initiatory rites, ii. 342-358

Rhetra, priest tastes the sacrificial blood at, i. 35

Rhön mountains, fire festivals in the, ii. 249

Rice-bride, the, i. 355

Rice harvest, ceremonies at the, ii. 71, 72

Rio de la Plata, seclusion of girls amongst the Indians of, ii. 230, 231

Roman cure for fever, ii. 152

—— haircutting custom, i. 199

Romans, tree worship by the, i. 99

Rome, ceremony of driving out the old Mars from, ii. 208-210

Romove, sacred oak at, i. 58, 64

Rook, expulsion of evil in the island of, ii. 158;
initiation festival, ii. 352

Rosenheim, harvest custom in, ii. 20

Roti, haircutting ceremony in the island of, i. 201, 205, 206

Rottenburg, midsummer ceremony in, ii. 266, 267

Roumanians, rain-making by the, i. 16;
custom after a death by the, i. 176;
corn-drenching by the, i. 286

Rowan, the, effective against witchcraft, ii. 361

Royal and priestly taboos, i. 109-120, 149-209

—— blood not spilt upon the ground, i. 179-183

Ruhla, springtide custom in, i. 88

Rupture, cure for, ii. 330

Russia, Whitsuntide customs in, i. 76, 77;
first-born sacrificed by the heathen in, i. 237;
Eastertide customs in Little Russia, i. 272, 273;
harvest custom in, i. 341;
ceremony on the cutting of the first sheaf in, i. 364;
Easter custom in White Russia, ii. 29;
Russian wood-spirits, ii. 35, 36;
Russian corn-spirits, ii. 36;
beating as a charm in, ii. 216;
midsummer customs in, ii. 265, 267

Ruthenia, fire festival in, ii. 265

Rye-boar, ii. 26, 27

—— goat, ii. 12

—— wolf, ii. 1-3, 5

Sabaea, kings of, not allowed out of their palaces, i. 164

Sabarios, festival of, ii. 69

Sables, superstition about killing, ii. 115

Sacaea festival at Babylon, i. 226, 400

Sacramental bread, traces of the use of, at Aricia, ii. 82-84

—— character of the harvest supper, corn-spirit eaten in animal form, ii.
31

—— killing of an animal, two types of the, ii. 134 _sq._

Sacramental killing of sacred animal by pastoral peoples, ii. 135-138

Sacraments in ancient Mexico, ii. 78, 79

Sacred cattle in Egypt, ii. 60, 61

—— persons’ vessels not to be used by others, i. 166;
sacred persons are dangerous, i. 166, 167;
not allowed to see the sun, ii. 225, 243 _note_;
not allowed to touch the ground, ii. 224, 243 _note_

Sacredness and uncleanness not distinguished by primitive man, i. 169-172

Sacrifices, human, i. 235-237, 251, 252

Sacrificial king, i. 7

Saddle Island, the reflection and the soul in the, i. 145

Saffron Walden, May-day custom in, i. 76

Sagar, influenza in, ii. 189, 190

Saligné, harvest custom in, i. 343

Salii, the, ii. 210 _note_

Salmon-catching, ii. 121, 122

Salza district, Shrove Tuesday custom in the, ii. 29

Salzwedel, Whitsuntide custom in, i. 90

Samoan gods, i. 39; ii. 54

Samoans, the, and bleeding trees, i. 61;
recall of the soul amongst the, i. 135;
turtle not eaten by the, i. 163;

Samoans and the butterfly, ii. 56;
presentation of first-fruits by the, ii. 381

Samogitians, tree superstition amongst the, i. 65;
birds and beasts of the wood held sacred by the, i. 105

Samorin kings, i. 225

Samoyed story, the external soul in a, ii. 321

Sankara and his shadow, i. 142

Santals, story of a soul by the, i. 126

Sardinia, Gardens of Adonis in, i. 290

Satyrs, representation of the, ii. 35

Savage, our debt to the, i. 210-212

Savage Island, kings killed in the, i. 48;
collapse of the monarchy in the, i. 118;
killing of strangers in the, i. 158

Savages and the soul, i. 121, 122

“Sawing the old woman,” i. 261, 262

Saxon villages, Whitsuntide custom in, i. 95

Saxons of Transylvania, charm for keeping sparrows from the corn used by
the, ii. 130

Saxony, Whitsuntide ceremonies in, i. 243

Scandinavian Christmas custom, ii. 29

Scapegoat, ii. 182-217;
animal employed as a, ii. 189-191, 194 _sq._;
human, ii. 191 _sq._;
dog used as a, ii. 194, 195;
Tibetan ceremony of the, ii. 197, 198;
divine, ii. 199-201, 205;
cow and bull as, ii. 201, 202;
use of, in classical antiquity, ii. 208-217;
reason for beating the, ii. 213-215

Schaumburg, Easter fires in, ii. 253

Schluckenau, Shrovetide custom in, i. 244

Scotland, representation of spring in the Highlands of, i. 97;
iron as a charm in, i. 175, 176;
harvest custom in, i. 339, 345;
cowherd clothed in cow’s hide in the Highlands of, ii. 145, 146;
midsummer fires in, ii. 264, 265

Scythian kings put in bonds in times of scarcity, i. 46

Sea-lion, respect for the, ii. 111

Seal, respect for the, ii. 111

Self-immolation, i. 216, 224

Semites, sacrifice of children by the, i. 235;
the king’s son sacrificed, _ib._;
worship of Adonis, i. 279

Senegambia, the Python clan in, ii. 95;
soul detention among the Sereres of, i. 139

Senjero, first-born sacrificed in, i. 236, 237

Servia, rain-making in, i. 16;
torchlight procession in, ii. 266

Seven Oaks, May-day custom in, i. 76

Sex-totems in Australia, ii. 334-337

Shadow, the soul in the, i. 141-149

Shamans, the, sacrifice their chief on account of pestilence, i. 48

Shans, expulsion of the fire-spirit by the, ii. 178, 179

Shark Point the home of the priestly King Kukulu, i. 112

Sharp instruments supposed to wound spirits, i. 176, 177

Sheaf, the last, various names given to, and ceremonies in connection
with, i. 336-338, 340-346, 408; ii. 4, 7, 8, 68

Shepherd’s Isle, precautions taken against strangers in, i. 152, 153

Shetland seamen and wind buying, i. 27

Shropshire, “Neck” the name given to the last handful of corn in, i. 407,
408;
harvest custom, ii. 24, 25;
sin-eating in, ii. 155

Shrovetide Bear, i. 254, 255

—— customs, i. 96, 244, 270; ii. 29, 250, 254-257, 283

Siam, soul superstition in, i. 59;
mode of royal executions in, i. 179, 180;
superstition concerning the head, i. 187, 188;
temporary king of, i. 229;
banishment of demons in, ii. 178;
human scapegoats in, ii. 196;
the external soul in Siamese story, ii. 304, 305

Siberian sable hunters, ii. 115, 116

Sicily, Gardens of Adonis in, i. 294, 295

Silenus both a wood and corn spirit, ii. 35;
representation of, _ib._

Silesia, driving out Death in, i. 260;
“carrying out Death” in, i. 267;
bringing back summer in, i. 263;
harvest custom in, i. 336, 346; ii. 8

Silvanus both a wood and corn spirit, ii. 35

Sin-bearers, ii. 151, 152

Sin-eating, ii. 154-157

“Sinew which shrank,” abstinence from the, ii. 126-128

Skye, harvest festival in, ii. 14;
Beltane fires in, ii. 255, 256

Slaves sacrificed, i. 251, 252

Slavonia, “carrying out Death” in, i. 260; ii. 209;
custom of “sawing the old woman” amongst the Slavs, i. 262;
reaping custom amongst the Slavs, i. 334, 355;
beating in, ii. 216;
midsummer fires in, ii. 265;
perpetual fire of the Slavs, ii. 293;
the external soul in Slavonic stories, ii. 309, 310

Slovenes of Oberkrain, Shrove Tuesday custom amongst the, i. 96

Small-pox, driving away the, ii. 161;
scapegoat used for, ii. 190, 191

Snake, communion with the, ii. 139

—— tribe, ii. 95;
ceremony performed with a dough snake by the, ii. 139, 140

Soest, custom of flax pullers at, i. 375

Sofala, kings of, killed, i. 219, 220

Sogamoso, restrictions on the heir to the throne in, ii. 225

Solör, harvest custom in, i. 375

Somersetshire, midsummer fires in, ii. 262

Sorcerers, the soul extracted or detained by, i. 135-141

Soul, perils of the, i. 109 _sq._;
a miniature of the body, i. 121-123;
precautions to prevent its escape, i. 123;
conceived as a bird, i. 124;
its flight, i. 124, 125;
absent in sleep, i. 125-129;
its departure not always voluntary, i. 129;
carried off by ghosts, i. 129-132;
recall of the, i. 129-141;
stolen by demons, i. 132-135;
brought back in visible shape, i. 136-138;
extracted or detained by sorcerers, i. 138-141;
transference of the, i. 140;
the soul thought to be in the portrait, i. 148, 149;
in the shadow, i. 141-149;
in the reflection, i. 145-148;
in the blood, i. 178, 179;
transmigration of the human soul into that of a turtle, ii. 98;
the external soul in folk tales, ii. 296-326;
in folk custom, ii. 327-359

Souls, of trees, i. 59-61;
of divine persons transmitted to successors, i. 237-239;
plurality of, ii. 339

South American Indians, foods eaten and avoided by the, ii. 86;
beating by the, ii. 216

South Sea Islands, man-gods in the, i. 38, 39.

Sowing-time custom, ii. 28-30, 32, 48

Spachendorf, fire festivals in, ii. 249, 250

Spain, custom of “sawing the old woman” in, i. 261, 262;
midsummer fires in, ii. 266

Sparrows, the, and the corn, ii. 130

Sparta, state sacrifices offered by the kings of, i. 7

Spices, sprinkling the sick with, i. 154

Spirit, of vegetation, in human shape, i. 87, 88

—— robbing the, i. 380

Spirits, sharp instruments supposed to wound, i. 176, 177

Spitting as a protective charm, i. 205

Spring and harvest customs compared, i. 346, 347

—— ceremony in, in China, ii. 42, 43;
European fire festivals in, ii. 247-254

Storms, Motumotu theory of, i. 27

Strangers, precautions against the magic arts of, i. 150-160;
tied up in the sheaves by the reapers as representatives of the
corn-spirit, i. 374-380

Straw goats, ii. 16

Sucla-Tirtha, expulsion of sins to sea by the, ii. 192

Suicide of Fijians at old age, i. 216

Sumatra, rain-charm in, i. 17;
tree-superstition in, i. 63;
reluctance to wound a tiger in, ii. 110

Summer, bringing back, i. 263, 268

—— tree, i. 268, 269

Sun, staying the, i. 24;
sacred person not allowed to see the, ii. 225, 243 _note_;
girls at puberty not allowed to see the, ii. 225-253;
traces in folktales of the rule which forbids girls at puberty to see
the sun, ii. 235-237;
belief that the sun can impregnate women, ii. 236;
tabooed persons may not see the, ii. 243 _note_;
fires as sun charms, ii. 267-274

Suni Mohammedans, covering up mirrors by the, i. 147

Sunshine, making, i. 22-24

Superb warbler, ii. 336, 337

Surenthal, midsummer fire ceremony in the, ii. 259, 260

Surinam, the bush negroes of, and their totems, ii. 53, 54

Sutherland, cure for cough in, ii. 154

Sutherlandshire, custom at the digging of new potatoes in, ii. 71

Swabia, burying of cut hair in, i. 202;
burying the carnival in, i. 254-257;
harvest custom, ii. 27;
fire festival, ii. 248-249;
Easter fires in, ii. 254; midsummer fires in, ii. 258

Sweden, harvest superstition in, i. 68;
King Domalde sacrificed on account of famine, i. 47, 48;
May Eve customs in, i. 78;
midsummer ceremonies, i. 78, 79;
Christmas customs in, ii. 29-31;
superstitious use of Yule straw in, ii. 30, 31;
May Day fires in, ii. 258;
midsummer bonfires in, ii. 289;
mistletoe superstition in, _ib._;
divining rods made from the mistletoe in, ii. 367

Swineherds, restrictions on, in Egypt, ii. 52

Syleus, legend of, i. 398

Sympathetic eating, Savage belief that a man acquires the character of the
animal or man whose flesh he eats, ii. 85-89

—— magic, i. 9-12

Syria, caterpillars in, ii. 132

Taboo, i. 121, 178;
fatal effects of, i. 167-170;
seclusion of tabooed persons, i. 170, 171;
the object of, is to preserve life, i. 149;
royal and priestly taboos, i. 109-120, 149-150, 209

Tabor, in Bohemia, ceremony of carrying out Death in, i. 258

Tahiti, abdication of kings of, i. 120;
the bodies of the king and queen not allowed to be touched, i. 172;
superstition concerning the head in, i. 190, 191;
burying of cut hair in, i. 200

Tâif, hair cut on returning from a journey in, i. 194

Tamaniu, the, of the Bank Islanders, ii. 331, 332

Tana, disposal of unconsumed food by the islanders, i. 166;
offerings of first-fruits in, ii. 378

Tarnow, reaping custom in, i. 335

Tartar Khan, ceremony on a visit by a stranger to a, i. 158, 159

—— poems, the external soul in, ii. 321-324

Ta-ta-thi tribe of New South Wales, rain-making by the, i. 14

Tâ-uz, festival in honour of, i. 283, 284

Temporary kings, i. 228-234;
sometimes hereditary, i. 228, 232

Tenedos, rites of Dionysus at, i. 329

Tenimber Islands, offering of first-fruits in the, ii. 376, 377

Teutonic kings exercised the powers of high priests, i. 8

Texas, initiatory ceremony among the Toukaway Indians of, ii. 352

Thammuz as a corn-spirit, i. 283, 288

Thann, May-Day customs in, i. 83

Theban ritual, ii. 92, 93;
rams sacred at Thebes, ii. 63

Thesmophoria, the, ii. 44-48

Thlinket of Alaska, festival to the halibut by the, ii. 121

Thuringen, Whitsuntide customs in, i. 90, 91, 243;
Mid-Lent customs in, i. 257, 258;
threshing custom in, i. 371

Tibetan New Year’s day custom, ii. 193-195;
scapegoat, ii. 197-198

Tiger, flesh of, eaten, ii. 86;
reluctance to wound a, ii. 110

Tikopia islanders, ceremony by the, in cases of epidemic, ii. 188

Tillot, threshing custom in the canton of, i. 372

Timor, West, custom of a speaker in, i. 163

Timorese rain-charm, i. 18

Timorlaut, married men not allowed to cut their hair in, i. 194;
disease-boats in, ii. 186, 187

Tjumba, harvest festival in, ii. 375, 376

Todas, the dairy a sanctuary amongst the, i. 41;
buffalo held sacred by the, ii. 136, 137

Tom-cat, ii. 11

Tona, the, of the Zapotecs, ii. 332, 333

Tonga, king of, not seen eating, i. 162;
ceremony in, with regard to sacred contagion, ii. 55;
festival of the first-fruits in, ii. 379-381

Tongues of birds given to backward children to eat, ii. 87

Tonquin, the test of a suitable sacrificial victim in, i. 36;
selection of guardian spirits in, i. 40;
the monarchy, i. 119, 120;
kings not allowed to be viewed in public, i. 165;
mode of royal executions in, i. 180, 181;
expulsion of evil spirits in, ii. 176-178;
time of licence in, ii. 204

Toothache cure, ii. 149

Torchlight processions, ii. 266, 273

Totem, a, is an object (animal, plant, etc.) in which a man deposits his
soul for safety, ii. 337-342

Totemism, ii. 38, 53, 54, 56, 133, 337-342, 358, 359

Totems, sex, ii. 334

Touaregs of the Sahara, custom of veiling the face amongst the, i. 163

Transmigration of divine spirit, i. 42-44

Transylvania, rain-charm in, i. 17;
burying the carnival amongst the Saxons of, i. 255;
“carrying out Death” in, i. 265, 266;
corn-drenching in, i. 286;
custom for preserving the crops from insects, etc. in, ii. 130

Transylvanian story of a soul, i. 126, 127

Traunstein district, harvest custom in the, ii. 27

Travancore, transference of sickness in, ii. 151

Travel, purification after, i. 157, 158

Tree-spirit represented by leaf-clad persons alone, i. 87-90;
killing the, i. 240-253;
reason for annually killing the, i. 247-249;
the goat as an embodiment of the, ii. 34-37;
burnt in effigy, ii. 274-277;
human beings burnt as representatives of the, ii. 277-285

—— spirits give rain and sunshine, i. 66;
cause the crops to grow, i. 67-70;
influence of, on women and cattle, i. 70-74

—— worship, i. 56-98;
in antiquity, 98-108

Trees, bleeding, i. 61;
souls of, i. 59-61;
souls of the dead believed to animate, i. 62;
inhabited by spirits, i. 62-65;
planted at the births of children, ii. 329, 330;
regarded as storehouses of the sun’s fire, ii. 369 _sq._

—— and cattle, i. 72 _sq._

Trier, harvest custom in, ii. 6

Tukaitawa and his shadow, i. 142, 143

Turks, parings from the nails preserved by the, i. 204;
Turks of Central Asia give backward children tongues of birds to eat,
ii. 87

Turner’s picture of the Golden Bough, i. 1

Turtle, the, not eaten, i. 163;
sacrifice of the sacred, ii. 95-99;
belief in the transmigration of human souls into, ii. 98, 99

Twelfth Day customs, ii. 143, 144, 182

Tycoons, the, i. 119

Types, two, of animal worship, ii. 133, 134

Typhon, ii. 57-60

Tyrol, expulsion of witches in the, i. 181, 182;
witches said to make use of the hair cut in the, i. 199;
midsummer customs in the, ii. 267

Ualaroi, ceremony at initiatory rites in, ii. 344

Uapes of Brazil, treatment of girls at the age of puberty in, ii. 334

Udvarhely, harvest home in, i. 370, 371;
ceremony with the last sheaf in, ii. 9, 48

Uea, power ascribed to the souls of the dead in, i. 132

Uelzen, harvest ceremony in, ii. 13

Uganda, custom of burning the king’s brothers in, i. 181;
king of, and his courtiers, i. 222

Ugi, dread of women’s blood in, i. 186;
burying of cut hair in, i. 202

Uliase, sprinkling the sick with spices in, i. 154

Unyoro, kings killed in, i. 218

Upsala, sacred grove at, i. 58

Utch Kurgan, sin eating in, ii. 156, 157

Val di Ledro, fire festival in, ii. 251

Vaté, burying alive at, i. 217

Vegetation, spirit of, in human shape, i. 87, 88;
slain at midsummer, i. 274, 275

Veiling, i. 162, 163

Venison not eaten, ii. 86, 87

Vermin, respect shown by primitive people for, ii. 129-132

Vestal fire, i. 5

—— virgins, hair of, i. 200

Victoria, Queen, worshipped by a sect in Orissa, i. 41

Vine, not to walk under a, i. 183;
sacred to Dionysus, i. 321

Vintage, Phoenician custom at, i. 365

Virbius, legend of, i. 6;
possible explanation of his relation to the Arician Diana, i. 362;
and the horse, ii. 62-67;
reason why he was confounded with the sun, ii. 369

Volders, threshing custom at, i. 374

Vorarlberg, fire festival at, ii. 248

Vosges Mountains, May Day customs in the, i. 76

Wadai, veiling of the Sultan of, i. 163;
he must have no bodily defect, i. 221

Waganda, worship in, i. 45

Walber, the, i. 84, 86

Wallachia, corn-drenching in, i. 286

Wanika, the, believers in the souls of trees, i. 59;
do not shed the blood of animals, i. 182

Wanyoro, secretion of cut hair and nails by the, i. 203

Wanzleben, harvest custom in, ii. 5

Warts, cure for, ii. 153

Warua, the, not seen eating, i. 160, 161

Wa-teita, the, their reluctance to be photographed, i. 148

Water, kings of, i. 53-56

—— fairy, English superstition regarding the, i. 146

Watjobaluk, the, and the bat, ii. 334

Weather kings, i. 44-46

—— omens, ii. 270, 271

Weevil, the, ii. 129, 130

Weiden, harvest custom in, i. 338

Welsh custom of sin eating, ii. 154, 155

Wends dancing round the oak-tree, i. 72

Wermland, custom among the threshers in, i. 378;
ceremony with regard to the last sheaf in, ii. 68

West African rain-makers, i. 20

Westerhüsen, reaping custom in, i. 334

Westphalia, Whitsuntide customs in, i. 98;
harvest custom in, i. 336; ii. 8, 9

Wetar, men injured by attacking their shadows in, i. 142;
superstition concerning the blood of women in, i. 187;
opinion of the inhabitants as to their descent, ii. 53

Wheat-bride, a name given to the binder of the last sheaf, i. 346

—— dog, a name given to the binder of the last sheaf, ii. 4

White dog, sacrifice of the, ii. 166

—— mice spared, ii. 131, 132

Whitsuntide basket, i. 89

—— bride, i. 98

—— customs, i. 76, 77, 80, 87, 88, 90-96, 98, 242, 243-247

—— flower, i. 88

—— king, i. 90

—— queen, i. 93

Wiedingharde, threshing custom in, i. 378

Wild man, i. 243, 244, 248, 250, 270; ii. 41

Wind, buying and selling, i. 27;
fighting the, i. 28-30;
wind-making, i. 26, 27

Wine the blood of the vine, i. 184, 185;
abstention from, _ib._

Winenthal, midsummer fire ceremony in the, ii. 259, 260

Witchcraft, protection against, ii. 361, 362

Witches, expulsion of, ii. 181

Wolf, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 3-7

Wolfeck, midsummer bonfire in, ii. 277

Women, superstition concerning the blood of, i. 185-187

—— secluded, ii. 238-242

—— and tree-spirits, i. 70-74

Wotjaks, sacred groves of the, i. 65;
driving out Satan by the, ii. 179, 180

Wren, hunting the, ii. 140-144;
English tradition concerning the hunting of the, ii. 140, 141

Wurmlingen, Whit Monday custom in, i. 242, 243;
threshing custom in, ii. 21

Yakut charm for making wind, i. 26;
sacrifices, i. 36

Yawning, Hindoo custom when, i. 123

Yarilo, funeral of, i. 273

Yorkshire custom of the clergyman cutting the first corn, ii. 71

Yoruba, precautions against strangers in, i. 151

Yucutan charm for staying the sun, i. 25;
New Year’s festival, ii. 272, 273

Yule boar, ii. 29-32, 48

—— straw, ii. 30, 31

Zabern, May Day custom in, i. 77;
harvest custom in, ii. 18

Zacynthus, strength thought to be in the hair by the people of, ii. 328

Zafimanelo, the, not seen eating, i. 160

Zaparo Indians of South America, foods eaten and avoided by the, ii. 86

Zapotecs, high pontiff of the, i. 113, 114; ii. 224;
harvest custom, i. 352, 353;
the tona of the, ii. 332

Zealand, custom at the madder harvest in, i. 378, 379

Zend Avesta, directions by the, concerning the clippings of hair and
nails, i. 202

Zeus, a man’s shadow lost on entering the sanctuary of, i. 143;
represented by an oak at Dodona, ii. 291

—— and Hera, representation of the marriage of, i. 103

Zoolas, qualities required for the king of the, i. 219

Zulu rain-charm, i. 19;
belief in the reflection as the soul, i. 145;
kings put to death, i. 218, 219;
custom in time of disease, ii. 86;
cannibalism, ii. 89;
girls secluded at puberty, ii. 226;
the Ihlozi of the, ii. 332

Zuni sacrifice of the turtle, ii. 95-99;
totem clans, ii. 99

Zürich, fire festival in, ii. 250, 251

FOOTNOTES

1 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, pp. 1-6.

2 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_ (Danzig, 1865), p. 5;
_id._, _Antike Wald-und Feldkulte_, p. 318 _sq._; _id._, _Mythol.
Forsch._ p. 103; Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus
Thüringen_, p. 213.

3 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf u. Roggenhund_, p. 7 _sqq._; _id._, _A. W.
F._ p. 319.

4 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf_, etc. p. 10.

5 W. Mannhardt, _M. F._ p. 104.

_ 6 Ib._

_ 7 Ib._ p. 104 _sq._ On the Harvest-May, see above, vol. i. p. 68.

_ 8 Ib._ p. 105.

_ 9 Ib._ p. 30.

_ 10 Ib._ pp. 30, 105.

_ 11 Ib._ p. 105 _sq._

_ 12 A. W. F._ p. 320; _Roggenwolf_, p. 24.

_ 13 Roggenwolf_, p. 24.

_ 14 Roggenwolf_, p. 24.

_ 15 Ib._ p. 25.

_ 16 Ib._ p. 28; _A. W. F._ p. 320.

_ 17 Roggenwolf_, p. 25.

_ 18 Ib._ p. 26.

_ 19 Ib._ p. 26; _A. W. F._ p. 320.

_ 20 A. W. F._ p. 321.

_ 21 A. W. F._ p. 321 _sq._

_ 22 A. W. F._ p. 320.

_ 23 A. W. F._ p. 320 _sq._

_ 24 A. W. F._ p. 322.

_ 25 Ib._ p. 323.

_ 26 Die Korndämonen_, p. 13.

_ 27 Ib._; Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen des Eifler Volkes_, i. p. 95;
Kuhn, _Westfälische Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_, ii. p. 181; Kuhn
und Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_, p. 398.

28 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
Siebenbürgens_, p. 21.

_ 29 Die Korndämonen_, p. 13. Cp. Kuhn and Schwartz, _l.c._

_ 30 Die Korndämonen_, p. 13.

31 Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_, p. 220.

_ 32 Die Korndämonen_, p. 13 _sq._; _Kuhn, Westfälische Sagen, Märchen
und Gebräuche_, ii. p. 180 _sq._; Pfannenschmid, _Germanische
Erntefeste_, p. 110.

_ 33 Die Korndämonen_, p. 14; Pfannenschmid, _op. cit._ pp. 111, 419
_sq._

_ 34 Die Korndämonen_, p. 15. So in Shropshire, where the corn-spirit is
conceived in the form of a gander (see above, vol. i. p. 407), the
expression for overthrowing a load at harvest is “to lose the
goose,” and the penalty used to be the loss of the goose at the
harvest supper (Burne and Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 375);
and in some parts of England the harvest supper was called the
Harvest Gosling, or the Inning Goose (Brand, _Popular Antiquities_,
ii. 23, 26, Bohn’s ed.)

_ 35 Die Korndämonen_, p. 14.

_ 36 Ib._ p. 15.

_ 37 M. F._ p. 30.

_ 38 Die Korndämonen_, p. 15.

_ 39 Ib._ p. 15 _sq._

_ 40 Ib._ p. 15; _M. F._ p. 30.

_ 41 Die Korndämonen_, p. 1.

_ 42 Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 47.

_ 43 Die Korndämonen_, p. 3.

44 Lemke, _Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen_, i. 24.

45 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
Siebenbürgens_, p. 21.

46 Above, vol. i. p. 408.

_ 47 M. F._ p. 29.

_ 48 M. F._ p. 29 _sq._; _Die Korndämonen_, p. 5.

_ 49 A. W. F._ pp. 172-174; _M. F._ p. 30.

50 W. Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ p. 155 _sq._

_ 51 Ib._ p. 157 _sq._

_ 52 Ib._ p. 159.

_ 53 Ib._ p. 161 _sq._

54 W. Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ p. 162.

55 Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. p. 232 _sq._ No.
426; _A. W. F._ p. 162.

56 Panzer, _op. cit._ ii. p. 228 _sq._ No. 422; _A. W. F._ p. 163.

_ 57 A. W. F._ p. 163.

_ 58 Ib._ p. 164.

_ 59 A. W. F._ p. 164.

_ 60 Ib._ p. 164 _sq._

_ 61 Ib._ p. 165.

62 Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 24, Bohn’s ed.; _A. W. F._ p. 165.

63 Above, vol. i. p. 380.

_ 64 A. W. F._ p. 165.

_ 65 A. W. F._ p. 166; _M. F._ p. 185.

_ 66 A. W. F._ p. 166.

67 Above, p. 11.

68 Holzmayer, _Osiliana_, p. 107.

69 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten u. Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
Siebenbürgens_, p. 19. Cp. B. K. p. 482 _sqq._

70 Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. p. 225 _sqq._ No.
421; _A. W. F._ p. 167 _sq._

_ 71 A. W. F._ p. 168.

72 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p.
445, No. 162; _A. W. F._ p. 168.

_ 73 A. W. F._ p. 169.

74 Panzer, _op. cit._ ii. p. 224 sq. No. 420; _A. W. F._ p. 169.

_ 75 A. W. F._ p. 169.

_ 76 Ib._ p. 170.

_ 77 Ib._ p. 170.

78 Praetorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_, p. 23 _sq._; _B. K._ p. 394 _sq._

_ 79 M. F._ p. 58.

_ 80 Ib._

_ 81 M. F._ p. 62.

_ 82 M. F._ p. 59.

83 Above, p. 6.

_ 84 M. F._ p. 59.

85 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p.
440 _sq. Nos._ 151, 152, 153; Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen
Mythologie_, ii. p. 234, No. 428; _M. F._ p. 59.

86 Panzer, _op. cit._ ii. p. 233, No. 427; _M. F._ p. 59.

_ 87 M. F._ p. 59 _sq._

_ 88 M. F._ p. 58.

89 M. F. p. 58 _sq._

_ 90 M. F._ p. 60.

91 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p.
444 _sq._ No. 162; _M. F._ p. 61.

92 Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. p. 233, No. 427.

_ 93 M. F._ p. 61 _sq._

_ 94 M. F._ p. 62.

_ 95 M. F._ p. 62.

96 E. Meier, _op. cit._ p. 445 _sq._ No. 163.

_ 97 M. F._ p. 60.

_ 98 M. F._ p. 62.

99 Above, vol. i. p. 343 _sq._

100 Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France_,
ii. 135.

_ 101 M. F._ p. 62, “_Il fait le veau_.”

_ 102 M. F._ p. 62.

_ 103 M. F._ p. 63.

_ 104 M. F._ p. 167.

105 Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 24, Bohn’s ed.

106 Burne and Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 373 _sq._

_ 107 M. F._ p. 167.

108 Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France_,
ii. 133; _M. F._ p. 167 _sq._

109 Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_, p. 213, No.
4.

110 Holzmayer, _Osiliana_, p. 107; _M. F._ p. 187.

111 Birlinger, _Aus Schwaben_, ii. 328.

112 Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. pp. 223, 224, Nos.
417, 419.

_ 113 M. F._ p. 112.

114 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p.
445, No. 162.

115 Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, ii. 425, No. 379.

116 Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. pp. 221-224, Nos.
409, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 418.

_ 117 M. F._ p. 186 _sq._

118 Above, p. 3.

119 Above, p. 26 _sq._

_ 120 M. F._ p. 187.

_ 121 M. F._ p. 187 _sq._; Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus
Thüringen_, pp. 189, 218; W. Kolbe, _Hessische Volks-Sitten und
Gebräuche_ (Marburg, 1888), p. 35.

_ 122 M. F._ p. 188; Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 220.

_ 123 A. W. F._ p. 197 _sq._; Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_,
ii. p. 491; Jamieson, _Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, _s.v._
“Maiden”; Afzelius, _Volkssagen und Volkslieder aus Schwedens
älterer und neuerer Zeit_, übersetzt von Ungewitter, i. 9.

124 Above, p. 6 _sq._

125 L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_, pp. 169 _sq._, 182. On Christmas
night children sleep on a bed of the Yule straw (_ib._ p. 177).

126 Jahn, _Deutsche Opfergebräuche_, p. 215. Cp. above, vol. i. p. 60.

127 Afzelius, _op. cit._ i. 31.

128 Afzelius, _op. cit._ i. 9; Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_, pp. 181,
185.

129 Above, pp. 8 _sq._, 11, 12, 15 _sq._, 21, 23, 28. In regard to the
hare the substitution of brandy for hare’s blood is doubtless
comparatively modern.

_ 130 Die Korndämonen_, p. 1.

131 Herodotus, ii. 46.

132 Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_, 3 i. 600; _A. W. F._ p. 138.

_ 133 A. W. F._ p. 139.

134 Pollux, iv. 118.

_ 135 A. W. F._ p. 142 _sq._

136 Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 361; iii. 312; v. 101; _id._, _Heroides_, iv. 49.

137 Macrobius, _Sat._ i. 22, 3.

138 Homer, _Hymn to Aphrodite_, 262 _sqq._

139 Pliny, _N. H._ xii. 3; Ovid, _Metam._ vi. 392; _id._, _Fasti_, iii.
303, 309; Gloss. Isid. Mart. Cap. ii. 167, cited by Mannhardt, _A.
W. F._ p. 113.

140 Pliny, _N. H._ xii. 3; Martianus Capella, ii. 167; Augustine, _Civ.
Dei_, xv. 23; Aurelius Victor, _Origo gentis Romanae_, iv. 6.

141 Servius on Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 14; Ovid, _Metam._ vi. 392 _sq._;
Martianus Capella, ii. 167.

_ 142 B. K._ p. 138 _sq._; _A. W. F._ p. 145.

143 Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 10.

144 Above, p. 12 _sqq._

_ 145 A. W. F._ ch. iii.

146 Above, vol. i. p. 379 _sq._

147 Above, vol. i. p. 326 _sq._

148 Above, vol. i. p. 325 _sq._

149 Above, p. 19 _sqq._

150 A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, ii. 232.

151 Pausanias, i. 24, 4; _id._, i. 28, 10; Porphyry, _De abstinentia_,
ii. 29 _sq._; Aelian, _Var. Hist._ viii. 3; Schol. on Aristophanes,
_Peace_, 419; Hesychius, Suidas, and _Etymol. Magnum_, _s.v._
βούφονια. The date of the sacrifice (14th Skirophorion) is given by
the Schol. on Aristophanes and the _Etym. Magn._; and this date
corresponds, according to Mannhardt (_M. F._ p. 68), with the close
of the threshing in Attica. No writer mentions the trial of both the
axe and the knife. Pausanias speaks of the trial of the axe,
Porphyry and Aelian of the trial of the knife. But from Porphyry’s
description it is clear that the slaughter was carried out by two
men, one wielding an axe and the other a knife, and that the former
laid the blame on the latter. Perhaps the knife alone was condemned.
That the King Archon (on whom see above, vol. i. p. 7), presided at
the trial of all lifeless objects, is mentioned by Pollux, viii. 90;
cp. _id._ viii. 120.

152 The real import of the name _bouphonia_ was first perceived by Prof.
W. Robertson Smith. See his _Religion of the Semites_, i. 286 _sqq._

153 Varro, _De re rustica_, ii. 5, 4. Cp. Columella, vi. praef. § 7.
Perhaps, however, Varro’s statement may be merely an inference drawn
from the ritual of the _bouphonia_ and the legend told to explain
it.

_ 154 B. K._ p. 409.

155 See above, vol. i. p. 243.

156 Hecquard, _Reise an die Küste und in das Innere von West-Afrika_,
pp. 41-43.

157 Above, p. 3, and vol. i. p. 408.

_ 158 China Review_, i. 62, 154, 162, 203 _sq._; Doolittle, _Social Life
of the Chinese_, p. 375 _sq._, ed. Paxton Hood; Gray, _China_, ii.
115 _sq._

159 Above, vol. i. pp. 261, 267.

160 See above, p. 26 _sqq._

161 Schol. on Aristophanes, _Acharn._ 747.

162 Overbeck, _Griechische Kunstmythologie_, ii. 493; Müller-Wieseler,
_Denkmäler d. alt. Kunst_, ii. pl. viii. 94.

163 Hyginus, _Fab._ 277; Cornutus, _De nat. deor._ c. 28; Macrobius,
_Sat._ i. 12, 23; Schol. on Aristophanes, _Acharn._ 747; _id._ on
_Frogs_, 338; _id._ on _Peace_, 374; Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ ii.
380; Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ x. 16.

164 For the authorities on the Thesmophoria and a discussion of some
doubtful points in the festival, I may be permitted to refer to my
article “Thesmophoria” in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, ninth ed.

165 Photius, _s.v._ στήνια, speaks of the ascent of _Demeter_ from the
lower world; and Clement of Alexandria speaks of both Demeter and
Proserpine as having been engulfed in the chasm (_Protrept._ ii. §
17). The original equivalence of Demeter and Proserpine must be
borne steadily in mind.

166 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 69; Photius, _s.v._ στήνια.

167 E. Rohde, “Unedirte Luciansscholien, die attischen Thesmophorien und
Haloen betreffend,” in _Rheinisches Museum_, N. F. xxv. (1870) 548
_sqq_. Two passages of classical writers (Clemens Alex., _Protrept._
ii. § 17 and Pausanias, ix. 8, 1) refer to the rites described by
the Scholiast on Lucian, and had been rightly interpreted by Lobeck
(_Aglaophamus_, p. 827 _sqq._)

168 The scholiast speaks of them as _megara_ and _adyta_. _Megara_ (from
a Phoenician word meaning “cavern,” “subterranean chasm,” Movers,
_Die Phoenizier_, i. 220) were properly subterranean vaults or
chasms sacred to the gods. See Hesychius, quoted by Movers, _l.c._
(the passage does not appear in M. Schmidt’s minor edition of
Hesychius); Porphyry, _De antro nymph._ 6.

169 We infer this from Pausanias, ix. 8, 1, though the passage is
incomplete and apparently corrupt. For ἐν Δωδώνῃ Lobeck proposes to
read ἀναδῦναι or ἀναδοθῆναι. At the spring and autumn festivals of
Isis at Tithorea geese and goats were thrown into the _adyton_ and
left there till the following festival, when the remains were
removed and buried at a certain spot a little way from the temple.
Pausanias, x. 32, 14 (9). This analogy supports the view that the
pigs thrown into the caverns at the Thesmophoria were left there
till the next festival.

170 Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 461-466, upon which Gierig remarks, “_Sues melius
poeta omisisset in hac narratione_.” Such is the wisdom of the
commentator.

171 Pausanias, i. 14, 3.

172 Schol. on Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 338.

173 Above, p. 15 _sq._

174 Above, p. 20 _sq._

175 Above, p. 9.

176 Above, p. 29.

177 Above, p. 29 _sq._

178 In Clemens Alex., _Protrept._ ii. 17, for μεγαρίζοντες χοίρους
ἐκβάλλουσι Lobeck (Aglaophamus, p. 831) would read μεγάροις ζῶντας
χοίρους ἐμβάλλουσι. For his emendation of Pausanias, see above, p.
45.

179 It is worth noting that in Crete, which was an ancient seat of
Demeter worship (see above, vol. i. p. 331), the pig was esteemed
very sacred and was not eaten, Athenaeus, 375 F·376 A. This would
not exclude the possibility of its being eaten sacramentally, as at
the Thesmophoria.

180 Pausanias, viii. 42.

181 Above, p. 24 _sqq._

182 Pausanias, viii. 25 and 42. On the Phigalian Demeter, see W.
Mannhardt, _M. F._ p. 244 _sqq._

183 Above, vol. i. p. 296 _sq._

184 Above, vol. i. p. 296.

185 Demosthenes, _De corona_, p. 313.

186 Above, vol. i. p. 281.

187 Cureton, _Spicilegium Syriacum_, p. 44.

188 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 54.

189 The heathen Harranians sacrificed swine once a year and ate the
flesh; En-Nedim, in Chwolsohn’s _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_, ii.
42. My friend Professor W. Robertson Smith has conjectured that the
wild boars annually sacrificed in Cyprus on 2d April (Joannes Lydus,
_De mensibus_, iv. 45) represented Adonis himself. See his _Religion
of the Semites_, i. 272 sq., 392.

190 Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ iv. 5.

191 Isaiah lxv. 3, 4, lxvi. 3, 17.

192 Herodotus, ii. 47; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 8; Aelian, _Nat.
Anim._ x. 16.

193 Herodotus, _l.c._

194 Plutarch and Aelian, _ll.cc._

195 Herodotus, _l.c._

196 Herodotus, ii. 47 _sq._; Aelian and Plutarch, _ll.cc._ Herodotus
distinguishes the sacrifice to the moon from that to Osiris.
According to him, at the sacrifice to the moon, the extremity of the
pig’s tail, together with the spleen and the caul, were covered with
fat and burned; the rest of the flesh was eaten. On the evening (not
the eve, see Stein on the passage) of the festival the sacrifice to
Osiris took place. Each man slew a pig before his door, then gave it
to the swineherd, from whom he had bought it, to take away.

197 Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_,
pp. 432, 452.

_ 198 Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington), p.
225.

_ 199 Ib._ p. 231.

200 J. Crevaux, _Voyages dans l’Amérique au Sud_, p. 59.

201 Turner, _Samoa_, pp. 17 _sq._, 50 _sq._

202 Leviticus xvi. 23 _sq._

203 Porphyry, _De abstin._ ii. 44. For this and the Jewish examples I am
indebted to my friend Prof. W. Robertson Smith.

204 Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 434, _note_; ii. 82, 222 _sq._

205 Above, vol. i. p. 167 _sqq._

206 Casalis, _The Basutos_, p. 211; Livingstone, _Missionary Travels and
Researches in South Africa_, p. 255; John Mackenzie, _Ten Years
north of the Orange River_, p. 135 _note_.

207 J. Mackenzie, _l.c._

_ 208 Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington), p.
225.

_ 209 Ib._ p. 275.

210 Turner, _Samoa_, p. 76.

_ 211 Ib._ p. 70.

212 Diogenes Laertius, _Vitae Philos._ viii. 8.

213 Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ x. 16. The story is repeated by Pliny, _Nat.
Hist._ xviii. 168.

214 Lefébure, _Le mythe Osirien_, i. 44.

215 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 8. Lefébure (_op. cit._ p. 46)
recognises that in this story the boar is Typhon himself.

216 This important principle was first recognised by Prof. W. Robertson
Smith. See his article “Sacrifice,” _Encycl. Britann._ 9th ed. xxi.
137 sq. Cp. his _Religion of the Semites_, pp. 353 _sq._, 391 _sq._

217 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 31.

218 Lefébure, _Le mythe Osirien_, p. 48 _sq._

219 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 33, 73; Diodorus, i. 88.

220 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 31; Diodorus, i. 88. Cp. Herodotus, ii.
38.

221 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 20, 29, 33, 43; Strabo, xvii. 1, 31;
Diodorus, i. 21, 85; Duncker, _Geschichte des Alterthums_,5 i. 55
_sqq._ On Apis and Mnevis, see also Herodotus, ii. 153, iii. 27
_sq._; Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 14, 7; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ viii.
184 _sqq._; 17.; Solinus, xxxii. 17-21; Cicero, _De nat. deor._ i.
29; Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ xi. 10 _sq._; Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._
viii. 1, 3; _id._, _Isis et Osiris_, 5, 35: Eusebius, _Praepar.
Evang._ iii. 13, 1 _sq._; Pausanias, i. 18, 4, vii. 22, 3 _sq._ Both
Apis and Mnevis were black bulls, but Apis had certain white spots.

222 Diodorus, i. 21.

223 On the religious reverence of pastoral peoples for their cattle, and
the possible derivation of the Apis and Isis-Hathor worship from the
pastoral stage of society, see W. Robertson Smith, _Religion of the
Semites_, i. 277 _sqq._

224 Herodotus, ii. 41.

225 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ viii. 184; Solinus, xxxii. 18; Ammianus
Marcellinus, xxii. 14, 7. The spring or well in which he was drowned
was perhaps the one from which his drinking water was procured; he
might not drink the water of the Nile. Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_,
5.

226 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 56.

227 Maspero, _Histoire ancienne_,4 p. 31. Cp. Duncker, _Geschichte des
Alterthums_,5 i. 56.

228 See above, p. 24 _sqq._

229 Athenaeus, 587 A; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ viii. 204. Cp. _Encycl.
Britann._ 9th ed. art. “Sacrifice,” xxi. 135.

230 Varro, _De agri cult._ i. 2, 19 _sq._

231 Herodotus, ii. 42.

232 Festus, ed. Müller, pp. 178, 179, 220; Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 97;
Polybius, xii. 4 B. The sacrifice is referred to by Julian, _Orat._
176 D.

233 Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 731 _sqq._, cp. 629 _sqq._; Propertius, v. 1, 19
_sq._

234 Above, p. 41 _sq._

235 Above, vol. i. p. 408, vol. ii. p. 3.

236 Above, p. 30.

237 Livy, ii. 5.

238 Festus, ed. Müller, pp. 130, 131.

239 The October horse is the subject of an essay by Mannhardt
(_Mytholog. Forsch._ pp. 156-201), of which the above account is a
summary.

_ 240 M. F._ p. 179.

_ 241 B. K._ p. 205. It is not said that the dough-man is made of the new
corn; but probably this is, or once was, the case.

242 Praetorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_, pp. 60-64; _A. W. F._ p. 249
_sqq._

243 Bezzenberger, _Litauische Forschungen_ (Göttingen, 1882), p. 89.

244 Simon Grunau, _Preussische Chronik_, ed. Perlbach, i. 91.

245 Holzmayer, _Osiliana_, p. 108.

246 On iron as a charm against spirits, see above, vol. i. p. 175 _sq._

_ 247 Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 54.

248 Communicated by the Rev. J. J. C. Yarborough, of Chislehurst, Kent.
See _Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 50.

249 G. A. Wilken, _Bijdrage tot de kennis der Alfoeren van het eiland
Boeroe_, p. 26.

250 P. N. Wilken, “Bijdragen tot de kennis van de zeden en gewoonten der
Alfoeren in de Minahassa,” in _Mededeelingen van wege het
Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, vii. (1863) p. 127.

251 N. P. Wilken en J. A. Schwarz, “Allerlei over het land en volk van
Bolaang Mongondou,” in _Mededeel. v. w. h. Nederl. Zendelinggen_.
xi. 369 _sq._

252 H. Harkness, _Description of a Singular Aboriginal Race inhabiting
the Summit of the Neilgherry Hills_, p. 56 _sq._

253 Gover, _Folk-songs of Southern India_, p. 105 _sqq._; _Folk-lore
Journal_, vii. 302 _sqq._

254 Gover, “The Pongol Festival in Southern India,” _Journ. R. Asiatic
Society_, N. S. v. (1871) p. 91 _sqq._

255 Biddulph, _Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh_, p. 103.

256 Crowther and Taylor, _The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger_, p. 287
_sq._ Mr. Taylor’s information is repeated in _West African
Countries and Peoples_, by J. Africanus B. Horton (London, 1868), p.
180 _sq._

257 Speckmann, _Die Hermannsburger Mission in Afrika_, p. 150 _sq._ On
the Zulu feast of first-fruits, see also N. Isaacs, _Travels and
Adventures in Eastern Africa_, ii. 291 _sq._; Arbousset et Daumas,
_Voyage d’exploration_, etc. p. 308 _sq._; Callaway, _Religious
System of the Amazulu_, p. 389 _note_; _South African Folk-lore
Journal_, i. 135 _sqq._; Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrikas_, p.
143; Lewis Grout, _Zululand_, p. 160 _sqq._ From Mr. Grout’s
description it appears that a bull is killed and its gall drunk by
the king and people. In killing it the men must use nothing but
their naked hands. The flesh of the bull is given to the boys to eat
what they like and burn the rest; the men may not taste it. As a
final ceremony the king breaks a green calabash in presence of the
people, “thereby signifying that he opens the new year, and grants
the people leave to eat of the fruits of the season.” If a man eats
the new fruits before the festival, he will die or is actually put
to death.

258 The ceremony is described independently by James Adair, _History of
the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp. 96-111; W. Bartram,
_Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West
Florida_ (London, 1792), p. 507 _sq._; B. Hawkins, “Sketch of the
Creek country,” in _Collections of the Georgia Historical Society_,
iii. (Savannah, 1848), pp. 75-78; A. A. M’Gillivray, in
Schoolcraft’s _Indian Tribes_, v. 267 _sq._ Adair’s description is
the fullest and has been chiefly followed in the text. In
_Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians_, by William Bartram
(1789), _with prefatory and supplementary notes_, by E. G. Squier,
p. 75, there is a description—extracted from an MS. of J. H. Payne
(author of _Home, Sweet Home_)—of the similar ceremony observed by
the Cherokees. I possess a copy of this work in pamphlet form, but
it appears to be an extract from the transactions or proceedings of
a society, probably an American one. Mr. Squier’s preface is dated
New York, 1851.

259 W. Bartram, _Travels_, p. 507.

260 So amongst the Cherokees, according to J. H. Payne, an arbour of
green boughs was made in the sacred square; then “a beautiful
bushy-topped shade-tree was cut down close to the roots, and planted
in the very centre of the sacred square. Every man then provided
himself with a green bough.”

261 So Adair. Bartram, on the other hand, as we have seen, says that the
old vessels were burned and new ones prepared for the festival.

262 B. Hawkins, “Sketch,” etc., p. 76.

263 See Note on “Offerings of first-fruits” at the end of the volume.

264 Acosta, _Natural and Moral History of the Indies_, bk. v. c. 24,
vol. ii. pp. 356-360 (Hakluyt Society, 1880).

265 Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, iii. 297-300 (after
Torquemada); Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, trans. by Cullen, i.
309 _sqq._; Sahagun, _Histoire générale des choses de la
Nouvelle-Espagne_, traduite et annotée par Jourdanet et Siméon
(Paris, 1880), p. 203 _sq._; J. G. Müller, _Geschichte der
amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 605.

266 Clavigero, i. 311; Sahagun, pp. 74, 156 _sq._; Müller, p. 606;
Bancroft, iii. 316. This festival took place on the last day of the
16th month (which extended from 23d December to 11th January). At
another festival the Mexicans made the semblance of a bone out of
paste and ate it sacramentally as the bone of the god. Sahagun, p.
33.

267 See above, vol. i. p. 5 _sq._

268 Festus, ed. Müller, pp. 128, 129, 145. The reading of the last
passage is, however, uncertain (“_et Ariciae genus panni fieri; quod
manici † appelletur_”).

269 Varro, _De ling. lat._ ix. 61; Arnobius, _Adv. nationes_, iii. 41;
Macrobius, _Saturn_, i. 7, 35; Festus, p. 128, ed. Müller. Festus
speaks of the mother or grandmother of the _larvae_; the other
writers speak of the mother of the _lares_.

270 Macrobius, _l.c._; Festus, pp. 121, 239, ed. Müller. The effigies
hung up for the slaves were called _pilae_, not _maniae_. _Pilae_
was also the name given to the straw-men which were thrown to the
bulls to gore in the arena. Martial, _Epigr._ ii. 43, 5 _sq._;
Asconius, _In Cornel._ p. 55, ed. Kiessling and Schoell.

271 The ancients were at least familiar with the practice of sacrificing
images made of dough or other materials as substitutes for the
animals themselves. It was a recognised principle that when an
animal could not be easily obtained for sacrifice, it was lawful to
offer an image of it made of bread or wax. Servius on Virgil, _Aen._
ii. 116. (Similarly a North-American Indian dreamed that a sacrifice
of twenty elans was necessary for the recovery of a sick girl; but
the elans could not be procured, and the girl’s parents were allowed
to sacrifice twenty loaves instead. _Relations des Jesuites_, 1636,
p. 11, ed. 1858). Poor people who could not afford to sacrifice real
animals offered dough images of them. Suidas, _s.v._ βοῦς ἕβδομος;
cp. Hesychius, _s. vv._ βοῦς, ἕβδομος βοῦς. Hence bakers made a
regular business of baking cakes in the likeness of all the animals
which were sacrificed to the gods. Proculus, quoted and emended by
Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, p. 1079. When Cyzicus was besieged by
Mithridates and the people could not procure a black cow to
sacrifice at the rites of Proserpine, they made a cow of dough and
placed it at the altar. Plutarch, _Lucullus_, 10. In a Boeotian
sacrifice to Hercules, in place of the ram which was the proper
victim, an apple was regularly substituted, four chips being stuck
in it to represent legs and two to represent horns. Pollux, i. 30
_sq._ The Athenians are said to have once offered to Hercules a
similar substitute for an ox. Zenobius, _Cent._ v. 22. And the
Locrians, being at a loss for an ox to sacrifice, made one out of
figs and sticks, and offered it instead of the animal. Zenobius,
_Cent._ v. 5. At the Athenian festival of the Diasia cakes shaped
like animals were sacrificed. Schol. on Thucydides, i. 126, quoted
by Lobeck, _l.c._ We have seen above (p. 53) that the poorer
Egyptians offered dough images of pigs and ate them sacramentally.

272 P. J. Veth, _Borneo’s Wester Afdeeling_, ii. 309.

273 N. Graafland, _De Minahassa_, i. 326.

274 Shway Yoe, _The Burman_, ii. 138.

275 James Adair, _History of the American Indians_, p. 133.

276 Alfred Simson, _Travels in the Wilds of Ecuador_ (London, 1887), p.
168; _id._ in _Journal of the Anthrop. Institute_, vii. 503.

277 Theophilus Hahn, _Tsuni-Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_,
p. 106. Compare John Buchanan, _The Shire Highlands_, pg. 138;
Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 438 _note_.

278 Jerome Becker, _La Vie en Afrique_, (Paris and Brussels, 1887), ii.
366.

279 Callaway, _Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus_,
p. 175 _note_.

280 Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 33.

281 St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_,2 i. 186, 206.

282 Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_,
pp. 10, 262.

283 James Chalmers, _Pioneering in New Guinea_, p. 166.

_ 284 Proceedings Royal Geogr. Society_, N. S. viii. (1886) p. 307.

285 J. Henderson, “The Medicine and Medical Practice of the Chinese,”
_Journ. North China Branch R. Asiatic Society_, New Series, i.
(Shanghai, 1865) p. 35 _sq._

286 Müller on Saxo Grammaticus, vol. ii. p. 60.

287 Leared, _Morocco and the Moors_, p. 281.

288 Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_, p. 218.

289 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, vi. 8.

290 Felkin, “Notes on the For tribe of Central Africa,” in _Proceedings
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, xiii. (1884-1886) p. 218.

291 W. Ridley, _Kamilaroi_, p. 160.

292 Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_, ii. 313.

293 Blumentritt, “Der Ahnencultus und die religiösen Anschauungen der
Malaien des Philippinen-Archipels,” in _Mittheilungen d. Wiener
Geogr. Gesellschaft_, 1882, p. 154.

294 Magyar, _Reisen in Süd-Afrika in den Jahren_ 1849-1857, pp. 273-276.

295 Casalis, _The Basutos_, p. 257 _sq._

296 Callaway, _Nursery Tales, Traditions and Histories of the Zulus_, p.
163 _note_.

297 John Buchanan, _The Shire Highlands_, p. 138.

_ 298 Journal of the North China Branch Royal Asiatic Society, l.c._

299 R. Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_
(London, 1870), p. 352. Cp. _ib._ p. 173; Ellis, _Polynesian
Researches_, i. 358; J. Dumont D’Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde
sur la corvette Astrolabe_, ii. 547; _Journal of the Anthrop. Inst._
xix. 108.

300 On the custom of eating a god, see also a paper by Felix Liebrecht,
“Der aufgegessene Gott,” in _Zur Volkskunde_, pp. 436-439; and
especially W. R. Smith, art. “Sacrifice,” _Encycl. Britann._ 9th ed.
vol. xxi. p. 137 _sq._ On wine as the blood of a god, see above,
vol. i. p. 183 _sqq._

301 This does not refer to the Californian peninsula, which is an arid
and treeless wilderness of rock and sand.

302 Boscana, in Alfred Robinson’s _Life in California_ (New York, 1846),
p. 291 sq.; Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, iii.
168.

303 Turner, _Samoa_, p. 21, cp. pp. 26, 61.

304 Herodotus, ii. 42. The custom has been already referred to, above,
p. 63.

305 Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_, i. § 58. Cp. Wilkinson,
_Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_, iii. 1 _sqq._ (ed.
1878).

306 Above, p. 61 _sq._

307 Above, p. 15 _sq._

308 The Italmens of Kamtchatka, at the close of the fishing season, used
to make the figure of a wolf out of grass. This figure they
carefully kept the whole year, believing that it wedded with their
maidens and prevented them from giving birth to twins; for twins
were esteemed a great misfortune. Steller, _Beschreibung von dem
Lande Kamtschatka_, p. 327 _sq._ According to Hartknoch (_Dissertat.
histor. de variis rebus Prussicis_, p. 163; _Altpreussen_, p. 161)
the image of the old Prussian god Curcho was annually renewed. But
see Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 27.

309 Above, vol. i. p. 81.

310 T. J. Hutchinson, _Impressions of Western Africa_ (London, 1858), p.
196 _sq._ The writer does not expressly state that a serpent is
killed annually, but his statement implies it.

_ 311 Revue d’Ethnographie_, iii. 397.

312 Varro in Priscian, x. 32, vol. i. p. 524, ed. Keil; Pliny, _Nat.
Hist._ vii. § 14. Pliny’s statement is to be corrected by Varro’s.

313 Mr. Frank H. Cushing, “My Adventures in Zuñi,” in _The Century_, May
1883, p. 45 _sq._

314 Mr. Cushing, indeed, while he admits that the ancestors of the Zuni
may have believed in transmigration, says, “Their belief, to-day,
however, relative to the future life is spiritualistic.” But the
expressions in the text seem to leave no room for doubting that the
transmigration into turtles is a living article of Zuni faith.

315 Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, iv. 86. On the totem clans of the
Moquis, see J. G. Bourke, _Snake-Dance of the Moquis of Arizona_,
pp. 116 _sq._, 334 _sqq._

316 For this information I am indebted to the kindness of Captain J. G.
Bourke, 3d. Cavalry, U.S. Army, author of the work mentioned in the
preceding note.

317 The old Prussian and Japanese customs are typical. For the former,
see above, vol. i. p. 177. For the latter, Charlevoix, _Histoire et
Description générale du Japon_, i, 128 _sq._ Thunberg, _Voyages au
Japon_, etc. iv. 18 _sqq._ A general account of such customs must be
reserved for another work.

318 B. Scheube, “Der Baerencultus und die Baerenfeste der Ainos,” in
_Mittheilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft b. S. und S. Ostasiens_
(Yokama), Heft xxii. p. 45.

_ 319 Transactions of the Ethnological Society_, iv. 36.

320 Rein, _Japan_, i. 446.

321 H. von Siebold, _Ethnologische Studien über die Ainos auf der Insel
Yesso_, p. 26.

322 Miss Bird, _Unbeaten Tracks in Japan_ (new ed. 1885), p. 275.

_ 323 Trans. Ethnol. Soc._ _l.c._

324 Miss Bird, _op. cit._ p. 269.

325 Scheube, _Die Ainos_, p. 4.

326 Scheube, “Baerencultus,” etc. p. 45; Joest, in _Verhandlungen d.
Berliner Gesell. f. Anthropologie_, 1882, p. 188.

_ 327 Trans. Ethnol. Soc. l.c._

328 Miss Bird, _op. cit._ p. 277.

329 Scheube, _Die Ainos_, p. 15; Siebold, _op. cit._ p. 26; _Trans.
Ethnol. Soc._ _l.c._; Rein, _Japan_, i. 447; Von Brandt, “The Ainos
and Japanese,” in _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ iii. 134; Miss Bird, _op.
cit._ pp. 275, 276.

330 Scheube, _Die Ainos_, pp. 15, 16; _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ iii. 134.

331 Scheube, _Die Ainos_, p. 16.

332 Reclus (_Nouvelle Géographie Universelle_, vii. 755) mentions a
(Japanese?) legend which attributes the hairiness of the Ainos to
the fact of their first ancestor having been suckled by a bear. But
in the absence of other evidence this is no proof of totemism.

333 Rein, _Japan_, i. 447.

334 “Der Baerencultus,” etc. See above.

335 Scheube, “Baerencultus,” etc. p. 46; _id._, _Die Ainos_, p. 15; Miss
Bird, _op. cit._ p. 273 _sq._

336 Miss Bird, _op. cit._ p. 276 _sq._ Miss Bird’s information must be
received with caution, as there are grounds for believing that her
informant deceived her.

337 Siebold, _Ethnolog. Studien über die Ainos_, p. 26.

338 “Baerencultus,” etc. p. 50 _note_.

339 They inhabit the banks of the lower Amoor and the north of
Saghalien. E. G. Ravenstein, _The Russians on the Amur_, p. 389.

340 “Notes on the River Amur and the adjacent districts,” translated
from the Russian, _Journal Royal Geogr. Soc._ xxviii. (1858) p. 396.

341 Compare the custom of pinching the frog before cutting off his head,
above vol. i. p. 93. In Japan sorceresses bury a dog in the earth,
tease him, then cut off his head and put it in a box to be used in
magic. Bastian, _Die Culturländer des alten Amerika_, i. 475 _note_,
who adds “_wie im ostindischen Archipelago die Schutzseele gereizt
wird_.” He probably refers to the Batta _Pang-hulu-balang_. See
Rosenberg, _Der Malayische Archipel_, p. 59 _sq._; W. Ködding, “Die
Batakschen Götter,” in _Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift_, xii.
(1885) 478 _sq._; Neumann, “Het Pane-en Bila-stroomgebied op het
eiland Sumatra,” in _Tijdschrift v. h. Nederl. Aardrijks Genootsch_.
ii. series, dl. iii. Afdeeling: meer uitgebreide artikelen, No. 2,
p. 306.

342 W. Joest, in Scheube, _Die Ainos_, p. 17; _Revue d’Ethnographie_,
ii. 307 _sq._ (on the authority of Mr. Seeland); _Internationales
Archiv für Ethnologie_, i. 102 (on the authority of Captain
Jacobsen). What exactly is meant by “dancing as bears” (“_tanzen
beide Geschlechter Reigentänze, wie Bären_,” Joest, _l.c._) does not
appear.

343 Ravenstein, _The Russians on the Amur_, p. 379 _sq._; T. W.
Atkinson, _Travels in the Regions of the Upper and Lower Amoor_
(London, 1860), p. 482 _sq._

344 A Bushman, questioned by the Rev. Mr. Campbell, “could not state any
difference between a man and a brute—he did not know but a buffalo
might shoot with bows and arrows as well as a man, if it had them.”
John Campbell, _Travels in South Africa, being a Narrative of a
Second Journey in the Interior of that Country_, ii. 34. When the
Russians first landed on one of the Alaskan islands the people took
them for cuttle-fish, “on account of the buttons on their clothes.”
Petroff, _Alaska_, p. 145.

345 Rev. J. Perham, “Sea Dyak Religion,” _Journal of the Straits Branch
of the Royal Asiatic Society_, No. 10, p. 221. Cp. C. Hupe, “Korte
verhandeling over de godsdienst zeden, enz. der Dajakkers,” in
_Tijdschrift voor Neêrland’s Indië_, 1846, dl. iii. 160; S. Müller,
_Reizen en onderzoekingen in den Indischen Archipel_, i. 238;
Perelaer, _Ethnographische Beschrijving der Dayaks_, p. 7.

346 Sibree, _The Great African Island_, p. 269.

347 Raffenel, _Voyage dans l’Afrique Occidentale_ (Paris, 1846), p. 84
_sq._

348 Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, v. 65.

349 Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, p. 292.

350 Steller, _Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka_, pp. 280, 331.

_ 351 Voyages au Nord_ (Amsterdam, 1727), viii. 41, 416; Pallas, _Reise
durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs_, iii. 64;
Georgi, _Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen Reichs_, p. 83.

352 Erman, _Travels in Siberia_, ii. 43. For the veneration of the polar
bear by the Samoyedes, who nevertheless kill and eat it, see _ib._
54 _sq._

353 Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_, iii. 26.

354 Max Buch, _Die Wotjäken_, p. 139.

355 Scheffer, _Lapponia_ (Frankfort, 1673), p. 233 _sq._ The Lapps “have
still an elaborate ceremony in hunting the bear. They pray and chant
to his carcase, and for several days worship before eating it.” E.
Rae, _The White Sea Peninsula_ (London, 1881), p. 276.

356 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, v. 173 _sq._;
Chateaubriand, _Voyage en Amérique_, pp. 172-181 (Paris, Michel
Lévy, 1870).

_ 357 Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, vi. 171. Morgan states that the
names of the Otawa totem clans had not been obtained (_Ancient
Society_, p. 167). From the _Lettres édifiantes_, vi. 168-171, he
might have learned the names of the Hare, Carp, and Bear clans, to
which may be added the Gull clan, as I learn from an extract from
_The Canadian Journal_ (Toronto) for March 1858, quoted in the
_Academy_, 27th September 1884, p. 203.

_ 358 A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt_, p.
117 (Middletown, 1820), p. 133 (Edinburgh, 1824).

359 Stephen Kay, _Travels and Researches in Caffraria_ (London, 1833),
p. 138.

360 Alberti, _De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika_ (Amsterdam, 1810),
p. 95. Alberti’s information is repeated by Lichtenstein (_Reisen im
südlichen Afrika_, i. 412), and by Rose (_Four Years in Southern
Africa_, p. 155). The burial of the trunk is also mentioned by Kay,
_l.c._

361 Jerome Becker, _La Vie en Afrique_ (Paris and Brussels, 1887), ii.
298 _sq._ 305.

362 Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_, ii. 243.

363 Im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 352.

364 Mouhot, _Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China_, i. 252; Moura,
_Le Royaume du Cambodge_, i. 422.

365 Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, v. 420.

366 J. G. Gmelin, _Reise durch Sibirien_, ii. 278.

367 W. Dall, _Alaska and its Resources_, p. 89.

_ 368 Relations des Jésuites_, 1634, p. 24, ed. 1858. Nets are regarded
by the Indians as living creatures who not only think and feel but
also eat, speak, and marry wives. Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays
des Hurons_, p. 256 (p. 178 _sq._ of the Paris reprint, Librairie
Tross, 1865); S. Hearne, _Journey to the Northern Ocean_, p. 329
_sq._; _Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p. 109; _ib._ 1639, p. 95;
Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, v. 225; Chateaubriand,
_Voyage en Amérique_, p. 140 _sqq._

369 Chateaubriand, _Voyage en Amérique_, pp. 175, 178. They will not let
the blood of beavers fall on the ground, or their luck in hunting
them would be gone. _Relations des Jésuites_, 1633, p. 21. Compare
the rule about not allowing the blood of kings to fall on the
ground, above, vol. i. p. 179 _sqq._

370 Hennepin, _Nouveau voyage d’un pais plus grand que l’Europe_
(Utrecht, 1698), p. 141 _sq._; _Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p.
109; Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, p. 255 (p. 178 of
the Paris reprint). Not quite consistently the Canadian Indians used
to kill every elan they could overtake in the chase, lest any should
escape to warn their fellows (Sagard, _l.c._)

_ 371 Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, viii. 339.

372 Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, iii. 230.

_ 373 Relations des Jésuites_, 1634, p. 26.

374 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, v. 443.

375 Garcilasso de la Vega, _Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, First
Part, bk. i. ch. 10, vol. i. p. 49 _sq._, Hakluyt Society. Cp.
_id._, ii. p. 148.

_ 376 Relations des Jésuites_, 1667, p. 12.

377 Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, p. 255 _sqq._ (p. 178
_sqq._ of the Paris reprint).

378 Schleiden, _Das Salz_, p. 47. For this reference I am indebted to my
friend Prof. W. Robertson Smith.

379 W. Powell, _Wanderings in a Wild Country_, p. 66 _sq._

380 R. Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui; or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants_, p.
200; A. S. Thomson, _The Story of New Zealand_, i. 202; E. Tregear,
“The Maoris of New Zealand,” _Journal Anthrop. Inst._ xix. 109.

381 Lubbock, _Origin of Civilisation_,4, p. 277, quoting _Metlahkatlah_,
p. 96.

382 W. Dall, _Alaska and its Resources_, p. 413.

383 Stephen Powers, _Tribes of California_, p. 31 _sq._

384 Alex. Ross, _Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or
Columbia River_, p. 97.

385 Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_, iv. 324,
v. 119, where it is said, “a dog must never be permitted to eat the
heart of a salmon; and in order to prevent this, they cut the heart
of the fish out before they sell it.”

386 H. C. St. John, “The Ainos,” in _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ ii. 253;
_id._ _Notes and Sketches from the Wild Coasts of Nipon_, p. 27
_sq._

387 Scheffer, _Lapponia_, p. 242 _sq._; _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ vii.
207; _Revue d’Ethnographie_, ii. 308 _sq._

388 James, _Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains_, i. 257.

389 Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 278.

390 Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River_, i. 452.

391 E. J. Jessen, _De Finnorum Lapponumque Norwegicorum religione pagana
tractatus singularis_, pp. 46 _sq._, 52 _sq._, 65. The work of
Jessen is bound up (paged separately) with the work of C. Leem, _De
Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua, vita, et religione pristina
commentatio_ (Latin and Danish), Copenhagen, 1767. Compare Leem’s
work, pp. 418-420 (Latin), 428 _sq._, also Acerbi, _Travels through
Sweden, Finnland, and Lapland_, ii. 302.

392 Steller, _Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka_, p. 269;
Kraschennikow, _Kamtschatka_, p. 246.

393 See Erman, referred to above, p. 111 _sq._; Gmelin, _Reise durch
Sibirien_, i. 274, ii. 182 _sq._, 214; Vambery, Das _Türkenvolk_, p.
118 sq. When a fox, the sacred animal of the Conchucos in Peru, had
been killed, its skin was stuffed and set up. Bastian, _Die
Culturländer des alten Amerika_, i. 443. Cp. the _bouphonia_, above,
p. 38 _sq._

394 At the annual sacrifice of the White Dog, the Iroquois were careful
to strangle the animal without shedding its blood or breaking its
bones. The dog was afterwards burned. L. H. Morgan, _League of the
Iroquois_, p. 210. It is a rule with some of the Australian blacks
that in killing the native bear they must not break his bones. They
say that the native bear once stole all the water of the river, and
that if they were to break his bones or take off his skin before
roasting him, he would do so again. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of
Victoria_, i. 447 _sqq._ When the Tartars whom Carpini visited
killed animals for eating, they might not break their bones but
burned them with fire. Carpini, _Historia Mongalorum_ (Paris, 1838),
cap. iii. § i. 2, p. 620. North American Indians might not break the
bones of the animals which they ate at feasts. Charlevoix, _Histoire
de la Nouvelle France_, vi. 72. In the war feast held by Indian
warriors after leaving home, a whole animal was cooked and had to be
all eaten. No bone of it might be broken. After being stripped of
the flesh the bones were hung on a tree. _Narrative of the Captivity
and Adventures of John Tanner_, p. 287. On St. Olaf’s Day (29th
July) the Karels of Finland kill a lamb, without using a knife, and
roast it whole. None of its bones may be broken. The lamb has not
been shorn since spring. Some of the flesh is placed in a corner of
the room for the house-spirits, some is deposited on the field and
beside the birch-trees which are destined to be used as May-trees
next year. W. Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ p. 160 _sq._ _note_. The Innuit
(Esquimaux) of Point Barrow, Alaska, carefully preserve unbroken the
bones of the seals which they have caught and return them to the
sea, either leaving them in an ice-crack far out from the land or
dropping them through a hole in the ice. By doing so they think they
secure good fortune in the pursuit of seals. _Report of the
International Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska_ (Washington,
1885), p. 40. In this last custom the idea probably is that the
bones will be reclothed with flesh and the seals come to life again.
The Mosquito Indians of Central America carefully preserved the
bones of deer and the shells of eggs, lest the deer or chickens
should die or disappear. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific
States_, i. 741. The Yurucares of Bolivia “carefully put by even
small fish bones, saying that unless this is done the fish and game
will disappear from the country.” Brinton, _Myths of the New World_,
p. 278.

_ 395 Relations des Jésuites_, 1634, p. 25, ed. 1858; A. Mackenzie,
_Voyages through the Continent of America_, civ; J. Dunn, _History
of the Oregon Territory_, p. 99; Whymper in _Journ. Royal Geogr.
Soc._ xxxviii. (1868) p. 228; _id._ in _Transact. Ethnolog. Soc._
vii. 174; A. P. Reid, “Religious Belief of the Ojibois Indians,” in
_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ iii. 111. After a meal the Indians of Costa
Rica gather all the bones carefully and either burn them or put them
out of reach of the dogs. W. M. Gabb, _On the Indian Tribes and
Languages of Costa Rica_ (read before the American Philosophical
Society, 20th Aug. 1875), p. 520 (Philadelphia, 1875). The fact that
the bones are often burned to prevent the dogs getting them does not
contradict the view suggested in the text. It may be a way of
transmitting the bones to the spirit-land. The aborigines of
Australia burn the bones of the animals which they eat, but for a
different reason; they think that if an enemy got hold of the bones
and burned them with charms, it would cause the death of the person
who had eaten the animal. _Native Tribes of South Australia_, pp.
24, 196.

396 Mannhardt, _Germanische Mythen_, pp. 57-74; _id._, _B. K._ p. 116;
Cosquin, _Contes populaires de Lorraine_, ii. 25; Hartland, “The
physicians of Myddfai,” _Archaeological Review_, i. 30 _sq._ In
folk-tales, as in primitive custom, the blood is sometimes not
allowed to fall on the ground. See Cosquin, _l.c._

397 W. Mannhardt, _Germ. Myth._ p. 66.

398 Jamblichus, _Vita Pythag._ §§ 92, 135, 140; Porphyry, _Vit. Pythag._
§ 28.

399 Pindar, _Olymp._ i. 37 _sqq._, with the Scholiast.

400 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 18. This is one of the sacred stories
which the pious Herodotus (ii. 48) concealed and the pious Plutarch
divulged.

401 Adam Hodgson, _Letters from North America_, i. 244.

402 Adair, _History of the American Indians_, p. 137 _sq._

403 Petitot, _Monographie des Dènè-Dindjié?_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 77, 81
_sq._; _id._, _Traditions indiennes du Canada Nord-ouest_ (Paris,
1886), p. 132 _sqq._, cp. pp. 41, 76, 213, 264.

404 The first part of this suggestion is that of my friend Prof. W.
Robertson Smith. See his _Lectures on the Religion of the Semites_,
first series, p. 360, _note_ 2. The Faleshas, a Jewish sect of
Abyssinia, after killing an animal for food, “carefully remove the
vein from the thighs with its surrounding flesh.” Halévy, “Travels
in Abyssinia,” in _Publications of the Society of Hebrew
Literature_, second series, vol. ii. p. 220.

405 It seems to be a common custom with hunters to cut out the tongues
of the animals which they kill. Omaha hunters remove the tongue of a
slain buffalo through an opening made in the animal’s throat. The
tongues thus removed are sacred and may not touch any tool or metal
except when they are boiling in the kettles at the sacred tent. They
are eaten as sacred food. _Third Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_
(Washington), p. 289 _sq._ Indian bear-hunters cut out what they
call the bear’s little tongue (a fleshy mass under the real tongue)
and keep it for good luck in hunting or burn it to determine from
its crackling, etc., whether the soul of the slain bear is angry
with them or not. Kohl, _Kitschi-Gami_, ii. 251 _sq._; Charlevoix,
_Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, v. 173; Chateaubriand, _Voyage en
Amérique_, pp. 179 _sq._, 184. In folk-tales the hero commonly cuts
out the tongue of the wild beast which he has slain and preserves it
as a token. The incident serves to show that the custom was a common
one, since folk-tales reflect with accuracy the customs and beliefs
of a primitive age. For examples of the incident, see Blade, _Contes
populaires recueillis en Agenais_, pp. 12, 14; Dasent, _Tales from
the Norse_, p. 133 _sq._ (“Shortshanks”); Schleicher, _Litauische
Märchen_; Sepp, Altbayerischer Sagenschatz, p. 114; Köhler on
Gonzenbach’s _Sicilianische Märchen_, ii. 230; Apollodorus, iii. 13,
3; Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ p. 53; Poestion, _Lapplandische Märchen_,
p. 231 _sq._ It may be suggested that the cutting out of the tongues
is a precaution to prevent the slain animals from telling their fate
to the live animals and thus frightening away the latter. At least
this explanation harmonises with the primitive modes of thought
revealed in the foregoing customs.

406 Holzmayer, _Osiliana_, p. 105 _note_.

407 Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
Siebenbürgens_, p. 15 _sq._

408 E. Krause, “Aberglaubische Kuren und sonstiger Aberglaube in
Berlin,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xv. (1883) p. 93.

_ 409 Geoponica_, xiii. 5. According to the commentator, the field
assigned to the mice is a neighbour’s, but it may be a patch of
waste ground on the farmer’s own land.

410 R. van Eck, “Schetsen van het eiland Bali,” in _Tijdschrift voor
Nederlandsch Indië_, N.S. viii. (1879) p. 125.

411 Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_, § 405.

412 Lagarde, _Reliquiae juris ecclesiastici antiquissimae_, p. 135. For
this passage I am indebted to my friend Prof. W. Robertson Smith,
who kindly translated it for me from the Syriac.

413 Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 255.

414 Compare _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 280, with the customs
referred to in the following note.

415 Catlin, _O-Kee-pa_, Folium reservatum; Lewis and Clarke, _Travels to
the Source of the Missouri River_ (London, 1815), i. 205 _sq._

416 A. Bastian, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte_, 1870-71, p. 59.
Reinegg (_Beschreibung des Kaukasus_, ii. 12 _sq._) describes what
seems to be a sacrament of the Abghazses (Abchases). It takes place
in the middle of autumn. A white ox called Ogginn appears from a
holy cave, which is also called Ogginn. It is caught and led about
amongst the assembled men (women are excluded) amid joyful cries.
Then it is killed and eaten. Any man who did not get at least a
scrap of the sacred flesh would deem himself most unfortunate. The
bones are then carefully collected, burned in a great hole, and the
ashes buried there.

417 Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, vi. 632 _note_. On the
Kalmucks as a people of shepherds and on their diet of mutton, see
Georgi, _Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen Reichs_, p. 406
_sq._, cp. 207; B. Bergmann, _Nomadische Streifereien unter den
Kalmücken_, ii. 80 _sqq._, 122; Pallas, _Reise durch verschiedene
Provinzen des russischen Reichs_, i. 319, 325. According to Pallas,
it is only rich Kalmucks who commonly kill their sheep or cattle for
eating; ordinary Kalmucks do not usually kill them except in case of
necessity or at great merry-makings. It is, therefore, especially
the rich who need to make expiation.

418 W. E. Marshall, _Travels amongst the Todas_, p. 129 _sq._ On the
Todas, see also above, vol. i. p. 41.

419 Marshall, _op. cit._ pp. 80 _sq._ 130.

420 R. W. Felkin, “Notes on the Madi or Moru tribe of Central Africa,”
_Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, xii. (1882-84) p.
336 _sq._

421 The fact that the flesh of sheep appears to be now eaten by the
tribe as a regular article of food (Felkin, _op. cit._ p. 307), is
not inconsistent with the original sanctity of the sheep.

422 See W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, i. p. 325 _sq._

_ 423 Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. No. 555.

424 See Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, iii. 195 _sq._, Bohn’s ed.;
Swainson, _Folk-lore of British Birds_, p. 36; E. Rolland, _Faune
populaire de la France_, ii. 288 _sqq._ The names for it are
βασιλίσκος, _regulus_, _rex avium_ (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ viii. 90; x.
203), _re di siepe_, _reyezuelo_, _roitelet_, _roi des oiseaux_,
_Zaunkönig_, etc.

425 Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, iii. 194.

426 Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, p. 188.

_ 427 Ib._ p. 186.

428 P. Sébillot, _Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute Bretagne_, ii.
214.

429 Rolland, _op. cit._ ii. 294 _sq._; Sébillot, _l.c._; Swainson, _op.
cit._ p. 42.

430 G. Waldron, _Description of the Isle of Man_ (reprinted for the Manx
Society, Douglas, 1865), p. 49 _sqq._; J. Train, _Account of the
Isle of Man_, ii. 124 _sqq._ 141.

431 Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, iii. 195; Swainson, _Folk-lore of
British Birds_, p. 36 _sq._; Rolland, _Faune populaire de la
France_, ii. 297; Professor W. Ridgeway in _Academy_, 10th May 1884,
p. 332; Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, p. 497.

432 Henderson, _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 125.

433 Swainson, _op. cit._ p. 40 _sq._

434 Rolland, _op. cit._ ii. 295 _sq._; J. W. Wolf, _Beiträge zur
deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 437 _sq._

435 Rolland, _op. cit._ ii. 296 _sq._

436 Brand’s _Popular Antiquities_, iii. 198. The “hunting of the wren”
may be compared with a Swedish custom. On the 1st of May children
rob the magpies’ nests of both eggs and young. These they carry in a
basket from house to house in the village and show them to the
housewives, while one of the children sings some doggerel lines
containing a threat that, if a present is not given, the hens,
chickens, and eggs will fall a prey to the magpie. They receive
bacon, eggs, milk, etc., upon which they afterwards feast. L. Lloyd,
_Peasant Life in Sweden_, p. 237 _sq._ The resemblance of such
customs to the “swallow song” and “crow song” of the ancient Greeks
(on which see Athenaeus, pp. 359, 360) is obvious and has been
remarked before now. Probably the Greek swallow-singers and
crow-singers carried about dead swallows and crows or effigies of
them. In modern Greece it is said to be still customary for children
on 1st March to go about the streets singing spring songs and
carrying a wooden swallow, which is kept turning on a cylinder.
Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 636.

437 John Ramsay, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, ii.
438 sq.; cp. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, p. 166 _sq_.;
Samuel Johnson, _Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_, p. 228
_sq._ (first American edition, 1810). The custom is clearly referred
to in the “Penitential of Theodore,” quoted by Kemble, _Saxons in
England_, i. 525; Elton, Origins of English History, p. 411; “_Si
quis in Kal. Januar. in cervulo vel vitula vadit, id est in ferarum
habitus se communicant, et vestiuntur pellibus pecudum et assumunt
capita bestiarum_,” etc.

438 Chambers, _l.c._

439 Such are the Bohemian processions at the Carnival when a man called
the Shrovetide Bear, swathed from head to foot in peas-straw and
sometimes wearing a bear’s mask, is led from house to house. He
dances with the women of the house, and collects money and food.
Then they go to the alehouse, where all the peasants assemble with
their wives. For at the Carnival, especially on Shrove Tuesday, it
is necessary that every one should dance, if the flax, the corn, and
the vegetables are to grow well. The higher they leap the better
will be the crops. Sometimes the women pull out some of the straw in
which the Shrovetide Bear is swathed, and put it in the nests of the
geese and fowls, believing that this will make them lay well.
Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, pp. 49-52. On
similar customs, see W. Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ pp. 183-200.

440 J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en
Papua_, pp. 266 _sq._, 305, 357 _sq._; cp. id. pp. 141, 340.

441 J. Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_, p. 59.

442 Dapper, _Description de l’Afrique_, p. 117.

443 John Campbell, _Travels in South Africa_ (second journey), ii. 207
_sq._

444 Ellis, _History of Madagascar_, i. 422 _sq_.; cp. _id._ pp. 232,
435, 436 _sq._; Sibree, _The Great African Island_, p. 303 _sq._

445 Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 374; Sibree, _op. cit_. p. 304; _Antananarivo
Annual and Madagascar Magazine_, iii. 263.

446 Ködding, “Die Batakschen Götter,” _Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift_,
xii. (1885) 478.

447 Leviticus xiv. 7, 53. For a similar use in Arabia see Wellhausen,
_Reste arabischen Heidentumes_, p. 156; W. Robertson Smith,
_Religion of the Semites_, i. 402.

448 R. Andree, _Ethnographische Parallele und Vergleiche_, p. 29 _sq._

449 A. Leared, _Morocco and the Moors_, p. 301.

450 J. Perham, “Sea Dyak Religion,” in _Journ. Straits Branch Royal
Asiatic Soc._ No. 10, p. 232.

451 S. Mateer, _Native Life in Travancore_, p. 136.

452 H. Harkness, _Singular Aboriginal Race of the Neilgherry Hills_, p.
133; Metz, _The Tribes Inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills_, p. 78;
Jagor, “Ueber die Badagas im Nilgiri-Gebirge,” _Verhandl. d. Berlin.
Gesell. f. Anthropol._ (1876), p. 196 _sq._ For the custom of
letting a bullock go loose after a death, compare also Grierson,
_Bihar Peasant Life_, p. 409; Ibbetson, _Settlement Report of the
Panipat, Tahsil, and Karnal Parganah of the Karnal district_
(Allahabad, 1883) p. 137. In the latter case it is said that the
animal is let loose “to become a pest.” Perhaps the older idea was
that the animal carried away death from the survivors. The idea of
sin is not primitive.

_ 453 Geoponica_, xiii. 9, xv. 1; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxviii. § 155. The
authorities for these cures are respectively Apuleius and
Democritus. The latter is probably not the atomic philosopher. See
_Archaeological Review_, i. 180, _note_.

454 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxviii. § 86.

455 Plato, _Laws_, xi. c. 12, p. 933 B.

456 Ch. Rogers, _Social Life in Scotland_, iii. 226.

457 G. Lammert, _Volkmedizin und medizinischer Aberglaube in Bayern_, p.
264.

_ 458 Ib._ p. 263.

459 Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_, i.
§ 85.

460 Carl Meyer, _Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters_, p. 104.

461 Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 979.

462 Henderson, _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 143. Collections
of cures by transference will be found in Strackerjan’s work, cited
above, i. § 85 _sqq._; W. G. Black, _Folk-medicine_, ch. ii. Cp.
Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. c. 36.

_ 463 Blackwood’s Magazine_, February 1886, p. 239.

464 Aubrey, _Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (Folk-lore Society,
1881), p. 35 _sq._

465 Bagford’s letter in Leland’s _Collectanea_, i. 76, quoted by Brand,
_Popular Antiquities_, ii. 246 _sq._, Bohn’s ed.

466 In the _Academy_, 13th Nov. 1875, p. 505, Mr. D. Silvan Evans stated
that he knew of no such custom anywhere in Wales; and Miss Burne
knows no example of it in Shropshire. Burne and Jackson, _Shropshire
Folk-lore_, p. 307 _sq._

467 The authority for the statement is a Mr. Moggridge, reported in
_Archaeologia Cambrensis_, second series, iii. 330. But Mr.
Moggridge did not speak from personal knowledge, and as he appears
to have taken it for granted that the practice of placing bread and
salt upon the breast of a corpse was a survival of the custom of
“sin-eating,” his evidence must be received with caution. He
repeated his statement, in somewhat vaguer terms, at a meeting of
the Anthropological Institute, 14th December 1875. See _Journ.
Anthrop. Inst_. v. 423 _sq._

468 Dubois, _Moeurs des Peuples de l’Inde_, ii. 32.

469 R. Richardson, in _Panjab Notes and Queries_, i. No. 674.

_ 470 Panjab Notes and Queries_, i. No. 674; ii. No. 559. Some of these
customs have been already referred to in a different connection. See
above, vol. i. p. 232.

_ 471 Op. cit._ iii. No. 745.

472 E. Schuyler, _Turkistan_, ii. 28.

473 E. F. im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 356 _sq._

474 Paul Reina, “Ueber die Bewohner der Insel Rook,” _Zeitschrift für
allgemeine Erdkunde_, N. F. iv. 356.

475 R. Parkinson, _Im Bismarck-Archipel_, p. 142.

476 [P. N. Wilken], “De godsdienst en godsdienstplegtigheden der
Alfoeren in de Menahassa op het eiland Celebes,” _Tijdschrift voor
Nederlandsch Indië_, December 1849, pp. 392-394; id., “Bijdragen tot
de kennis van de zeden en gewoonten der Alfoeren in de Minahassa,”
_Mededeelingen v. w. het Nederland. Zendelinggenootsch_. vii. (1863)
149 _sqq._; J. G. F. Riedel, “De Minahasa in 1825,” _Tijdschrift
voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xviii. (1872), 521 _sq._
Wilken’s first and fuller account is reprinted in Graafland’s _De
Minahassa_, i. 117-120.

477 Riedel, “Galela und Tobeloresen,” in _Zeitschrift f. Ethnologie_,
xvii. (1885) 82; G. A. Wilken, _Het Shamanisme bij de Volken van de
Indischen Archipel_, p. 58.

478 Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_,
p. 239.

479 Nieuwenhuisen en Rosenberg, _Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias_, p.
116 _sq._, Rosenberg, _Der Malayische Archipel_, p. 174 _sq._ Cp.
Chatelin, “Godsdienst en Bijgeloof der Niassers,” _Tijdschrift voor
Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxvi. 139. The Dyaks also
drive the devil at the point of the sword from a house where there
is sickness. See Hupe, “Korte verhandeling over de godsdienst,
zeden, enz. der Dajakkers” in _Tijdschrift voor Neêrland’s Indië_,
viii. (1846) dl. iii. p. 149.

480 Forbes, _British Burma_, p. 233; Shway Yoe, _The Burman_, i. 282,
ii. 105 _sqq._; Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, ii. 98.

481 Lewin, _Wild Tribes of South-Eastern India_, p. 226.

482 Hecquard, _Reise an die Küste und in das Innere von West Afrika_, p.
43.

483 Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, p. 279 _sqq._ (195
_sq._ of the Paris reprint). Compare _Relations des Jésuites_, 1639,
pp. 88-92 (Canadian reprint), from which it appears that each man
demanded the subject of his dream in the form of a riddle, which the
hearers tried to solve. The propounding of riddles is not uncommon
as a superstitious observance. Probably enigmas were originally a
kind of divination. Cp. Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_, p. 232 _sq._;
Riedel, _De sluiken kroesharige rassen_, etc. p. 267 _sq._ In Bolang
Mongondo (Celebes) riddles may never be asked except when there is a
corpse in the village. N. P. Wilken en J. A. Schwarz, “Allerlei over
het land en volk van Bolaäng Mongondou,” _Mededeelingen van wege het
Nederlandsch. Zendelinggenootschap_, xi. (1867) p. 357.

484 The Rev. W. Ridley, in J. D. Lang’s _Queensland_, p. 441; cp.
Ridley, _Kamilaroi_, p. 149.

_ 485 Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow,
Alaska_ (Washington, 1885), p. 42 _sq._

486 Franz Boas, “The Eskimo,” _Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal
Society of Canada for 1887_, vol. v. (Montreal, 1888), sect. ii. 36
_sq._

487 Above, p. 162.

488 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, vi. 82 _sqq._; Timothy
Dwight, _Travels in New England and New York_, iv. 201 _sq._; L. H.
Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 207 _sqq._; Mrs. E. A. Smith,
“Myths of the Iroquois,” _Second Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology_ (Washington, 1883), p. 112 _sqq._; Horatio Hale,
“Iroquois sacrifice of the White Dog,” _American Antiquarian_, vii.
7 _sqq._; W. M. Beauchamp, “Iroquois White Dog feast,” _ib._ p. 235
_sqq._

489 Squier’s notes upon Bartram’s _Creek and Cherokee Indians_, p. 78,
from the MS. of Mr. Payne. See above, p. 75 _note_.

490 Garcilasso de la Vega, _Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, pt. i. bk.
vii. ch. 6, vol. ii. p. 228 _sqq._, Markham’s translation; Molina,
“Fables and Rites of the Yncas,” in _Rites and Laws of the Yncas_
(Hakluyt Society, 1873), p. 20 _sqq._; Acosta, _History of the
Indies_, bk. v. ch. 28, vol. ii. p. 375 _sq._ (Hakluyt Society,
1880). The accounts of Garcilasso and Molina are somewhat
discrepant, but this may be explained by the statement of the latter
that “in one year they added, and in another they reduced the number
of ceremonies, according to circumstances.” Molina places the
festival in August, Garcilasso and Acosta in September. According to
Garcilasso there were only four runners in Cuzco; according to
Molina there were four hundred. Acosta’s account is very brief. In
the description given in the text features have been borrowed from
all three accounts, where these seemed consistent with each other.

491 Bosman’s “Guinea,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, xvi. 402.
Cp. Pierre Bouche, _La Côte des Esclaves_, p. 395.

492 S. Crowther and J. C. Taylor. _The Gospel on the Banks of the
Niger_, p. 320.

493 Mansfield Parkyns, _Life in Abyssinia_, p. 285 _sqq._

494 Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 196 _sq._

495 Biddulph, _Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh_, p. 103.

496 W. Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 357 _sq._
Possibly this case belongs more strictly to the class of mediate
expulsions, the devils being driven out upon the car. Perhaps,
however, the car with its contents is regarded rather as a bribe to
induce them to go than as a vehicle in which they are actually
carted away. Anyhow it is convenient to take this case along with
those other expulsions of demons which are the accompaniment of an
agricultural festival.

497 R. van Eck, “Schetsen van het eiland Bali,” _Tijdschrift voor
Nederlandsch Indië_, N. S. viii. (1879) 58-60. Van Eck’s account is
reprinted in J. Jacobs’s _Eenigen tijd onder de Baliërs_ (Batavia,
1883), p. 190 _sqq._

_ 498 U.S. Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_, by H. Hale,
p. 67 _sq._; Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring
Expedition_, iii. 90 _sq._ According to the latter, the sea-slug was
eaten by the men alone, who lived during the four days in the
temple, while the women and boys remained shut up in their houses.

499 Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, v. 367.

_ 500 Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. No. 792; D. C. J. Ibbetson,
_Outlines of Panjab Ethnography_, p. 119.

501 Baron, “Description of the Kingdom of Tonqueen,” Pinkerton’s
_Voyages and Travels_, ix. 673, 695 _sq._; cp. Richard, “History of
Tonquin,” _ib._ p. 746. The account of the ceremony by Tavernier
(whom Baron criticises very unfavourably) is somewhat different.
According to him the expulsion of wicked souls at the New Year is
combined with sacrifice to the honoured dead. See Harris, _Voyages
and Travels_, i. 823.

502 Aymonier, _Notice sur le Cambodge_, p. 62.

503 Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, iii. 237, 298, 314, 529
_sq._; Pallegoix, _Royaume Thai ou Siam_, i. 252. Bastian (p. 314),
with whom Pallegoix seems to agree, distinctly states that the
expulsion takes place on the last day of the year. Yet both state
that it occurs in the fourth month of the year. According to
Pallegoix (i. 253) the Siamese year is composed of twelve lunar
months, and the first month usually begins in December. Hence the
expulsion of devils would commonly take place in March, as in
Cambodia.

504 J. Anderson, _Mandalay to Momien_, p. 308.

505 Max Buch, _Die Wotjäken_, p. 153 _sq._

506 Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_, ii. 94.

507 J. G. von Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_, i. 160. Cp. above, vol. i.
p. 276.

508 Vincenzo Dorsa, _La tradizione greco-latina negli usi e nelle
credenze popolari della Calabria Citeriore_, p. 42 _sq._

509 Von Alpenburg, _Mythen und Sagen Tirols_, p. 260 _sq._ A Westphalian
form of the expulsion of evil is the driving out the _Süntevögel_,
_Sunnenvögel_, or _Sommervögel_, _i.e._, the butterfly. On St.
Peter’s Day, 22d February, children go from house to house knocking
on them with hammers and singing doggerel rhymes in which they bid
the _Sommervögel_ to depart. Presents are given to them at every
house. Or the people of the house themselves go through all the
rooms, knocking on all the doors, to drive away the _Sunnenvögel_.
If this ceremony is omitted, it is thought that various misfortunes
will be the consequence. The house will swarm with rats, mice, and
other vermin, the cattle will be sick, the butterflies will multiply
at the milk-bowls, etc. Woeste, _Volksüberlieferungen in der
Grafschaft Mark_, p. 24; J. W. Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen
Mythologie, i. 87; A. Kuhn, _Westfälische Sagen, Gebräuche und
Märchen_, ii. §§ 366-374; Montanus, _Die deutschen Volksfeste,
Volksbräuche_, etc., p. 21 _sq._; Jahn, _Die deutschen
Opfergebräuche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht_, pp. 94-96.

510 Usener, “Italische Mythen,” in _Rheinisches Museum_, N. F. xxx. 198.

511 S. Powers, _Tribes of California_, p. 159.

512 G. Catlin, _North American Indians_, i. 166 _sqq._; _id._,
_O-kee-pa, a Religious Ceremony, and other Customs of the Mandans_.

513 Moura, _Le Royaume du Cambodge_, i. 172. Cp. above, p. 178.

514 A. Bastian, in _Verhandl. d. Berlin. Gesellsch. f. Anthropol._ 1881,
p. 151; cp. _id._, _Völkerstämme am Brahmaputra_, p. 6 _sq._ Amongst
the Chukmas of South-east India the body of a priest is conveyed to
the place of cremation on a car; ropes are attached to the car, the
people divide themselves into two equal bodies and pull at the ropes
in opposite directions. “One side represents the good spirits; the
other, the powers of evil. The contest is so arranged that the
former are victorious. Sometimes, however, the young men
representing the demons are inclined to pull too vigorously, but a
stick generally quells this unseemly ardour in the cause of evil.”
Lewin, _Wild Tribes of South-Eastern India_, p. 185. The contest is
like that between the angels and devils depicted in the frescoes of
the Campo Santo at Pisa. In Burma a similar contest takes place at
the funeral of a holy man; but there the original meaning of the
ceremony appears to be forgotten. See Sangermano, _Description of
the Burmese Empire_ (ed. 1885), p. 98; Forbes, _British Burma_, p.
216 _sq._; Shway Yoe, _The Burman_, ii. 334 _sq._, 342. Sometimes
ceremonies of this sort are instituted for a different purpose. In
some East Indian islands when the people want a rainy wind from the
west, the population of the village, men, women, and children,
divide into two parties and pull against each other at the ends of a
long bamboo. But the party at the eastern end must pull the harder,
in order to draw the desired wind out of the west. Riedel, _De
sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_, p. 282. The
Cingalese perform a ceremony like “French and English” in honour of
the goddess Patiné. Forbes, _Eleven Years in Ceylon_ (London, 1840),
i. 358.

_ 515 Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 174.

516 François Valentyn, _Oud-en nieuw Ost-Indiën_, iii. 14. Backer,
_L’Archipel Indien_, p. 377 _sq._, copies from Valentyn.

517 Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_,
p. 304 _sq._

_ 518 Ib._ p. 25 _sq._

_ 519 Ib._ p. 141.

520 Riedel, _op. cit._ p. 78.

_ 521 Ib._ p. 357.

_ 522 Ib._ pp. 266, 304 _sq._, 327, 357. For other examples of sending
away disease-laden boats in these islands, _ib._ pp. 181, 210; Van
Eck, “Schetsen van het eiland Bali,” _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch
Indië_, N.S. viii. (1879) p. 104; Bastian, _Indonesien_, i. 147;
Hupe, “Korte verhandeling over de godsdienst, zeden, enz. der
Dajakkers,” _Tijdschrift voor Neêrland’s Indië_, 1846, dl. iii. 150;
Campen, “De godsdienstbegrippen der Halmaherasche Alfoeren,”
_Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxvii.
(1882) p. 441; _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society_, No. 12, pp. 229-231; Van Hasselt, _Volksbeschrijving van
Midden-Sumatra_, p. 98.

523 J. Dumont D’Urville, _Voyage autour du monde et à la recherche de La
Pérouse, sur la corvette Astrolabe_, v. 311.

524 Roepstorff, “Ein Geisterboot der Nicobaresen,” _Verhandl. der
Berlin. Gesellsch. f. Anthropologie_ (1881), p. 401. For Siamese
applications of the same principle to the cure of individuals, see
Bastian, _Die Volker des östlichen Asien_, iii. 295 _sq._, 485 _sq._

_ 525 Panjab Notes and Queries_, i. No. 418.

_ 526 Id._ iii. No. 373.

_ 527 Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. No. 1127.

_ 528 Id._ ii. No. 1123.

529 F. Fawcett, “On the Saoras (or Savaras),” _Journ. Anthrop. Soc.
Bombay_, i. 213 _note_.

_ 530 Journ. Anthrop. Soc. Bombay_, i. 37.

531 R. Andree, _Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche_ (first
series), p. 30.

532 J. H. Gray, _China_, ii. 306.

_ 533 Panjab Notes and Queries_, i. 598.

534 Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_,
p. 393.

535 Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_, ii. 93.

_ 536 Id._ ii. 91.

_ 537 Asiatic Researches_, ix. 96 _sq._

538 J. H. Gray, _China_, ii. 306 _sq._

539 T. J. Hutchinson, _Impressions of Western Africa_, p. 162.

540 Bogle and Manning, _Tibet_, edited by C. R. Markham, p. 106 _sq._

541 E. T. Atkinson, “Notes on the History of Religion in the Himalaya of
the North-West Provinces,” _Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal_, liii. pt. i. (1884), p. 62.

_ 542 Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, from the MSS. of
John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, edited by Alex. Allardyce (Edinburgh,
1888), ii. 439.

543 W. M. Beauchamp, “The Iroquois White Dog Feast,” _American
Antiquarian_, vii. 237.

_ 544 Ib._ p. 236; T. Dwight, _Travels in New England and New York_, iv.
202.

545 Above, p. 165 _sq._

546 Leviticus xvi. Modern Jews sacrifice a white cock on the eve of the
Festival of Expiation, nine days after the beginning of their New
Year. The father of the family knocks the cock thrice against his
own head, saying, “Let this cock be a substitute for me, let it take
my place, let death be laid upon this cock, but a happy life
bestowed on me and on all Israel.” Then he cuts its throat and
dashes the bird violently on the ground. The intestines are thrown
on the roof of the house. The flesh of the cock was formerly given
to the poor. Buxtorf, _Synagoga Judaica_, c. xxv.

547 S. Crowther and J. C. Taylor, _The Gospel on the Banks of the
Niger_, pp. 343-345. Cp. J. F. Schon and S. Crowther, _Journals_, p.
48 _sq._ The account of the custom by J. Africanus B. Horton (_West
African Countries and Peoples_ p. 185 _sq._) is entirely from
Taylor.

548 Turpin, “History of Siam,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, ix.
579.

549 Ködding, “Die Bataksche Götter,” _Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift_,
xii. (1885) pp. 476, 478.

550 The ceremony referred to is probably the one performed on the tenth
day, as described in the text.

551 “Report of a Route Survey by Pundit—from Nepal to Lhasa,” etc.,
_Journal Royal Geogr. Soc._ xxxviii. (1868) pp. 167, 170 _sq._;
“Four Years’ Journeying through Great Tibet, by one of the
Trans-Himalayan Explorers,” _Proceed. Royal Geogr. Soc._ N.S. vii.
(1885) p. 67 _sq._

552 Aeneas Sylvius, _Opera_ (Bâle, 1571), p. 423 _sq._

553 Usener, “Italische Mythen,” _Rheinisches Museum_, N.F. xxx. 198.

554 J. Thomas Phillips, _Account of the Religion, Manners, and Learning
of the People of Malabar_, pp. 6, 12 _sq._

555 Herodotus, ii. 39.

556 Herodotus, ii. 38-41; Wilkinson, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians_, iii. 403 _sqq._ (ed. 1878).

557 Herodotus, _l.c._

558 See above, pp. 95 _sqq._, 137 _sq._

_ 559 Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. No. 335.

560 Strabo, xi. 4, 7. For the custom of standing upon a sacrificed
victim, cp. Demosthenes, p. 642; Pausanias, iii. 20, 9.

561 In the Dassera festival, as celebrated in Nepaul, we seem to have
another instance of the annual expulsion of demons preceded by a
time of licence. The festival occurs at the beginning of October and
lasts ten days. “During its continuance there is a general holiday
among all classes of the people. The city of Kathmandu at this time
is required to be purified, but the purification is effected rather
by prayer than by water-cleansing. All the courts of law are closed,
and all prisoners in jail are removed from the precincts of the
city.... The Kalendar is cleared, or there is a jail-delivery always
at the Dassera of all prisoners.” This seems a trace of a period of
licence. At this time “it is a general custom for masters to make an
annual present, either of money, clothes, buffaloes, goats, etc., to
such servants as have given satisfaction during the past year. It is
in this respect, as well as in the feasting and drinking which goes
on, something like our ‘boxing-time’ at Christmas.” On the seventh
day at sunset there is a parade of all the troops in the capital,
including the artillery. At a given signal the regiments commence
firing, the artillery takes it up, and a general firing goes on for
about twenty minutes, when it suddenly ceases. This probably
represents the expulsion of the demons. “The grand cutting of the
rice-crops is always postponed till the Dassera is over, and
commences all over the valley the very day afterwards.” See the
description of the festival in Oldfield’s _Sketches from Nipal_, ii.
342-351. On the Dassera in India, see Dubois, _Moeurs, Institutions
et Cérémonies des Peuples de l’Inde_, ii. 329 _sqq._ Amongst the
Wasuahili of East Africa New Year’s Day was formerly a day of
general licence, “every man did as he pleased. Old quarrels were
settled, men were found dead on the following day, and no inquiry
was instituted about the matter.” Ch. New, _Life, Wanderings, and
Labours in Eastern Africa_, p. 65. In Ashantee the annual festival
of the new yams is a time of general licence. See the Note on
“Offerings of first fruits” at the end of the volume.

562 See above, vol. i. p. 275 _sq._

563 Above, pp. 186 _sq._, 192.

564 H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” _Rheinisches Museum_, N. F. (1875)
xxx. 194.

565 Joannes Lydus, _De mensibus_, iii. 29, iv. 36. Lydus places the
expulsion on the Ides of March, that is 15th March. But this seems
to be a mistake. See Usener, “Italische Mythen,” _Rheinisches
Museum_, xxx. 209 _sqq._ Again, Lydus does not expressly say that
Mamurius Veturius was driven out of the city, but he implies it by
mentioning the legend that his mythical prototype was beaten with
rods and expelled the city. Lastly, Lydus only mentions the name
Mamurius. But the full name Mamurius Veturius is preserved by Varro,
_Ling. Lat._ vi. 45; Festus, ed. Muller, p. 131; Plutarch, _Numa_,
13.

566 Usener, _op. cit._ p. 212 _sq._; Roscher, _Apollon und Mars_, p. 27;
Preller, _Römische Mythologie_,3 i. 360; Vaniček,
_Griechisch-lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch_, p. 715. The
three latter scholars take Veturius as = _annuus_, because _vetus_
is etymologically equivalent to ἔτος. But, as Usener argues, it
seems quite unallowable to take the Greek meaning of the word
instead of the Latin.

567 Cato, _De agri cult._ 141.

568 Varro, _De lingua latina_, v. 85.

569 See the song of the Arval Brothers in _Acta Fratrum Arvalium_, ed.
Henzen, p. 26 _sq._; Wordsworth, _Fragments and Specimens of Early
Latin_, p. 158.

570 Above, p. 64.

571 Cato, _De agri cult._ 83.

572 Above, vol. i. p. 70 _sqq._ p. 105 _sq._

573 Preller, _Römische Mythologie_,3 i. 360; Rosscher, _Apollon und
Mars_, p. 49; Usener, _op. cit._ The ceremony also closely resembles
the Highland New Year ceremony described above, p. 145 _sq._

574 Propertius, v. 2, 61 _sq._; Usener, _op. cit._ p. 210. One of the
functions of the Salii or dancing priests, who during March went up
and down the city dancing, singing, and clashing their swords
against their shields (Livy, i. 20; Plutarch, _Numa_, 13; Dionysius
Halicarn. _Antiq._ ii. 70) may have been to rout out the evils or
demons from all parts of the city, as a preparation for transferring
them to the scapegoat Mamurius Veturius. Similarly, as we have seen
(above, p. 194 _sq._), among the Iroquois, men in fantastic costume
went about collecting the sins of the people as a preliminary to
transferring them to the scapegoat dogs. We have had many examples
of armed men rushing about the streets and houses to drive out
demons and evils of all kinds. The blows which were showered on
Mamurius Veturius seem to have been administered by the Salii
(Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 188; Minucius Felix, 24, 3; Preller,
_Röm. Myth._3 i. 360, _note_ 1; Rosscher, _Apollon und Mars_, p.
49). The reason for beating the scapegoat will be explained
presently. As priests of Mars, the god of agriculture, the Salii
probably had also certain agricultural functions. They were named
from the remarkable _leaps_ which they made. Now dancing and leaping
high are common sympathetic charms to make the crops grow high. See
Peter, _Volksthümliches aus Oesterreichisch Schlesien_, ii. 266; E.
Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p. 499,
No. 333; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, p. 49;
O. Knoop, _Volkssagen_, etc., _aus dem östlichen Hinterpommern_, p.
176, No. 197; E. Sommer, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Sachsen
und Thüringen_, p. 148; Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus
Thüringen_, p. 190, No. 13; Woeste, _Volksüberlieferungen in der
Grafschaft Mark_, p. 56; _Bavaria_, ii. 298; _id._, iv. Abth. ii.
pp. 379, 382; Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten u. Gebräuche unter den
Sachsen Siebenbürgens_, p. 11 _sq._; Schulenberg, _Wendische
Volkssagen und Gebräuche_, p. 252; Wuttke, _Der deutsche
Volksaberglaube_,2 § 657; Jahn, _Die deutsche Opfergebräuche bei
Ackerbau und Viehzucht_, p. 194 _sq._; cp. Schott, _Walachische
Mährchen_, p. 301 _sq._; Gerard, _The Land beyond the Forest_, i.
264; Cieza de Leon, _Travels_ (Hakluyt Soc. 1864), p. 413. Was it
one of the functions of the Salii to dance and leap on the fields at
the spring or autumn sowing, or at both? The dancing processions of
the Salii took place in October as well as in March (Marquardt,
_Sacralwesen_,2 p. 436 _sq._), and the Romans sowed both in spring
and autumn (Columella, ii. 9, 6 _sq._) In their song the Salii
mentioned Saturnus or Saeturnus the god of sowing (Festus, p. 325,
ed. Müller. _Saeturnus_ is an emendation of Ritschl’s. See
Wordsworth, _Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin_, p. 405). The
weapons borne by the Salii, while effective against demons in
general, may have been especially directed against the demons who
steal the seed corn or the ripe grain. Compare the Khond and Hindoo
Koosh customs described above, p. 173. In Western Africa the field
labours of tilling and sowing are sometimes accompanied by dances of
armed men on the field. See Labat, _Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais
en Guinée, Isles voisines, et à Cayenne_, ii. p. 99 of the Paris
ed., p. 80 of the Amsterdam ed.; Olivier de Sanderval, _De
l’Atlantique au Niger par le Foulah-Djallon_ (Paris, 1883), p. 230.
In Calicut (Southern India) “they plough the land with oxen as we
do, and when they sow the rice in the field they have all the
instruments of the city continually sounding and making merry. They
also have ten or twelve men clothed like devils, and these unite in
making great rejoicing with the players on the instruments, in order
that the devil may make that rice very productive.” Varthema,
_Travels_ (Hakluyt Soc. 1863), p. 166 _sq._ The resemblance of the
Salii to the sword-dancers of northern Europe has been pointed out
by K. Müllenhoff, “Ueber den Schwerttanz,” in _Festgaben für Gustav
Homeyer_ (Berlin, 1871). In England the Morris Dancers who
accompanied the procession of the plough through the streets on
Plough Monday (the first Monday after Twelfth Day) sometimes wore
swords (Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 505, Bohn’s ed.), and
sometimes they “wore small bunches of corn in their hats, from which
the wheat was soon shaken out by the ungainly jumping which they
called dancing.... Bessy rattled his box and danced so high that he
showed his worsted stockings and corduroy breeches.” Chambers, _Book
of Days_, i. 94. It is to be observed that in the “Lord of Misrule,”
who reigned from Christmas till Twelfth Night (see Brand, _Popular
Antiquities_, i. 497 _sqq._), we have a clear trace of one of those
periods of general licence and suspension of ordinary government
which so commonly occur at the end of the old year or beginning of
the new one in connection with a general expulsion of evils. The
fact that this period of licence immediately preceded the procession
of the Morris Dancers on Plough Monday seems to indicate that the
functions of these dancers were like those which I have attributed
to the Salii. But the parallel cannot be drawn out here. Cp.
meantime Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, pp. 31, 39. The Salii were
said to have been founded by _Morrius_, King of Veii (Servius on
Virgil, _Aen._ viii. 285). _Morrius_ seems to be etymologically the
same with _Mamurius_ and _Mars_ (Usener, _Italische Mythen_, p.
213). Can the English _Morris_ (in _Morris_ dancers) be the same?
Analogy suggests that at Rome the Saturnalia, which fell in December
when the Roman year began in January, may have been celebrated in
February when the Roman year began in March. Thus at Rome, as in so
many places, the public expulsion of evils at the New Year would be
preceded by a period of general licence, such as the Saturnalia was.
A trace of the former celebration of the Saturnalia in February or
the beginning of March may perhaps be seen in the _Matronalia_,
celebrated on 1st March, at which mistresses feasted their slaves,
just as masters feasted theirs at the Saturnalia. Macrobius,
_Saturn._ i. 12, 7; Solinus, i. 35, p. 13, ed. Mommsen; Joannes
Lydus, _De mensibus_, iii. 15.

575 Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ vi. 8.

576 See above, pp. 176, 194.

577 Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ iii. 57, from Petronius.

578 Helladius, in Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 534 A, ed. Bekker; Schol.
on Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 734, and on _Knights_, 1136; Hesychius,
_s.v._ φαρμακοί; cp. Suidas, _s.vv._ κάθαρμα, φαρμακοός, and
φαρμακούς; Lysias, _Orat._ vi. 53. That they were stoned is an
inference from Harpocration. See next note.

579 Harpocration, _s.v._ φαρμακός, who says δύο ἄνδρας Ἀθήνησιν ἑξῆγον
καθάρσια ἐσομένους τῆς πόλεως ἐν τοῖς Θαργηλίοις, ἕνα μὲν ὑπερ τῶν
ἀνδρῶν, ἕνα δὲ ὑπερ τῶν γυναικῶν. He does not expressly state that
they were put to death; but as he says that the ceremony was an
imitation of the execution of a mythical Pharmacus who was stoned to
death, we may infer that the victims were killed by being stoned.
Suidas (_sv._ φάρμακος) copies Harpocration.

580 Strabo, x. 2, 9. I do not know what authority Wordsworth (_Greece,
Pictorial, Historical, and Descriptive_, p. 354) has for saying that
the priests of Apollo, whose temple stood near the edge of the
cliff, sometimes flung themselves down in this way.

581 Tzetzes, _Chiliades_, v. 726-761. Tzetzes’s authority is the
satyrical poet Hipponax.

582 This may be inferred from the verse of Hipponax, quoted by
Athenaeus, 370 B, where for φαρμάκου we should perhaps read φαρμακοῦ
with Schneidewin (_Poetae lyr. Gr._3 ed. Bergk, ii. 763).

583 See his _Mytholog. Forschungen_, p. 113 _sqq._, especially 123 _sq._
133.

584 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xx. 101; Dioscorides, _De mat. med._ ii. 202;
Lucian, _Necyom._ 7; _id._, _Alexander_, 47; Theophrastus,
_Superstitious Man_.

585 Theocritus, vii. 106 _sqq._ with the scholiast.

586 Cp. Aug. Mommsen, _Heortologie_, 414 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _A. W.
F._ p. 215.

587 At certain sacrifices in Yucatan blood was drawn from the genitals
of a human victim and smeared on the face of the idol. De Landa,
_Relation des choses de Yucatan_, ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg (Paris,
1864) p. 167. Was the original intention of this rite to transfuse
into the god a fresh supply of reproductive energy?

588 Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ ix. 26.

589 De Santa-Anna Nery, _Folk-lore Brésilien_ (Paris, 1889) p. 253.

590 Above, pp. 148 _sq._ 187. Compare Plutarch, _Parallela_, 35, where a
woman is represented as going from house to house striking sick
people with a hammer and bidding them be whole.

591 Acosta, _History of the Indies_, ii. 375 (Hakluyt Soc.) See above,
p. 169.

592 Osculati, _Esplorazione delle regioni equatoriali lungo il Napo ed
il fiume delle Amazzoni_ (Milan, 1854), p. 118.

593 Ed. Beardmore, _Anthropological Notes collected at Mowat, Dandai,
New Guinea_ (1888) (in manuscript).

594 Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_, i. 155.

595 F. S. Krauss, _Kroatien und Slavonien_ (Vienna, 1889), p. 108.

596 W. Mannhardt, _B. K._ p. 257.

597 W. Mannhardt, _B. K._ p. 258-263. See his whole discussion of such
customs, pp. 251-303, and _Myth. Forsch._ pp. 113-153.

598 Acosta, _History of the Indies_, ii. 323 (Hakluyt Soc. 1880).

599 Sahagun, _Histoire des choses de la Nouvelle Espagne_ (Paris, 1880),
pp. 61 _sq._, 96-99, 103; Acosta, _History of the Indies_, ii. 350
_sq._; Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, trans. by Cullen, i. 300;
Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, ii. 319 _sq._ For
other Mexican instances of persons representing deities and slain in
that character, see Sahagun, pp. 75, 116 _sq._, 123, 158 _sq._, 164
_sq._, 585 _sqq._, 589; Acosta, ii. 384 _sqq._; Clavigero, i. 312;
Bancroft, ii. 325 _sqq._, 337 _sq._

600 Sahagun, pp. 18 _sq._, 68 _sq._, 133-139; Bancroft, iii. 353-359.

601 Sahagun, p. 584 _sq._ For this festival see also _id._ pp. 37 _sq._
58 _sq._ 60, 87 _sqq._ 93; Clavigero, i. 297; Bancroft, ii. 306
_sqq._

602 Clavigero, i. 283.

603 Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, ii. 142.

_ 604 Memorials of Japan_ (Hakluyt Society, 1850), pp. 14, 141; Varenius,
_Descriptio regni Japoniae_, p. 11; Caron, “Account of Japan,” in
Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, vii. 613; Kaempfer, “History of
Japan,” in _id._, vii. 716.

605 Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, iii. 102 _sq._ ed. 1836; James
Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_, p. 329.

606 Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_, iii. 81.

607 Athenaeus, 514 C.

608 Bancroft, _l.c._

609 Kaempfer, “History of Japan,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_,
vii. 717; Caron, “Account of Japan,” _id._ vii. 613; Varenius,
_Descriptio regni Japoniae_, p. 11, “_Radiis solis caput nunquam
illustrabatur: in apertum aërem non procedebat_.”

610 Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, iv. 359.

611 Alonzo de Zurita, “Rapport sur les differentes classes de chefs de
la Nouvelle-Espagne,” p. 30, in Ternaux-Compans’s _Voyages,
Relations et Mémoires originaux_ (Paris, 1840); Waitz, _l.c._;
Bastian, _Die Culturländer des alten Amerika_, ii. 204.

612 Cieza de Leon, _Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru_ (Hakluyt Soc.
1883), p. 18.

613 Pechuel-Loesche, “Indiscretes aus Loango,” _Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie_, x. (1878) 23.

614 Rev. James Macdonald (Reay Free Manse, Caithness), _Manners,
Customs, Superstitions, and Religions of South African Tribes_ (in
manuscript).

615 The Rev. G. Brown, quoted by the Rev. B. Danks, “Marriage Customs of
the New Britain Group,” _Journ. Anthrop. Institute_, xviii. 284
_sq._; cp. Rev. G. Brown, “Notes on the Duke of York Group, New
Britain, and New Ireland,” _Journ. Royal Geogr. Soc._ xlvii. (1877)
p. 142 _sq._ Powell’s description of the New Ireland custom is
similar (_Wanderings in a Wild Country_, p. 249). According to him
the girls wear wreaths of scented herbs round the waist and neck; an
old woman or a little child occupies the lower floor of the cage:
and the confinement lasts only a month. Probably the long period
mentioned by Mr. Brown is that prescribed for chiefs’ daughters.
Poor people could not afford to keep their children so long idle.
This distinction is sometimes expressly stated; for example, among
the Goajiras of Colombia rich people keep their daughters shut up in
separate huts at puberty for periods varying from one to four years,
but poor people cannot afford to do so for more than a fortnight or
a month. F. A. Simons, “An exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,”
_Proceed. Royal Geogr. Soc._ N.S. vii. (1885) p. 791. In Fiji,
brides who were being tattooed were kept from the sun. Williams,
_Fiji and the Fijians_, i. 170. This was perhaps a modification of
the Melanesian custom of secluding girls at puberty. The reason
mentioned by Mr. Williams, “to improve her complexion,” can hardly
have been the original one.

616 Chalmers and Gill, _Work and Adventure in New Guinea_, p. 159.

617 Schwaner, _Borneo, Beschrijving van het stroomgebied van den
Barito_, etc. ii. 77 _sq._; Zimmerman, _Die Inseln des Indischen und
Stillen Meeres_, ii. 632 _sq._; Otto Finsch, _Neu Guinea und seine
Bewohner_, p. 116.

618 Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_,
p. 138.

619 Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_, p. 93 _sq._

620 Erman, “Ethnographische Wahrnehmungen u. Erfahrungen an den Küsten
des Berings-Meeres,” _Zeitschrift f. Ethnologie_, ii. 318 _sq._;
Langsdorff, _Reise um die Welt_, ii. 114 _sq._; Holmberg, “Ethnogr.
Skizzen über die Völker d. russischen Amerika,” _Acta Societatis
Scientiarum Fennicae_, iv. (1856) p. 320 _sq._; Bancroft, _Native
Races of the Pacific States_, i. 110 _sq._; Krause, _Die
Tlinkit-Indianer_, p. 217 _sq._; Rev. Sheldon Jackson, “Alaska and
its Inhabitants,” _American Antiquarian_, ii. 111 _sq._; W. M.
Grant, in _Journal of American Folk-lore_, i. 169. For caps, hoods,
and veils worn by girls at such seasons, compare G. H. Loskiel,
_History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians_,
i. 56; _Journal Anthrop. Institute_, vii. 206; G. M. Dawson, _Report
of the Queen Charlotte Islands_, 1878 (Geological Survey of Canada),
p. 130 B; Petitot, _Monographie des Dènè-Dindjié_, pp. 72, 75;
_id._, _Traditions indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest_, p. 258.

621 Holmberg, _op. cit._ p. 401; Bancroft, i. 82; Petroff, _Report on
the Population_, etc. _of Alaska_, p. 143.

622 Lafitau, _Moeurs des Sauvages amériquains_ i. 262 _sq._

_ 623 Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, viii. 333. On the Chiriguanos see
Von Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika’s zumal Brasiliens_, p. 212
_sqq._

624 Thevet, _Cosmographie Universelle_ (Paris, 1575) ii. 946 B _sq._;
Lafitau, _op. cit._ i 290 _sqq._

625 Schomburgk, _Reisen in Britisch Guiana_, ii. 315 _sq._; Martius,
_Zur Ethnographie Amerika’s_, p. 644.

626 Labat, _Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinée, Isles voisines,
et à Cayenne_, iv. p. 365 _sq._ (Paris ed.), p. 17 _sq._ (Amsterdam
ed.)

627 Above, p. 213 _sq._, vol. i. p. 153 _sq._

628 This interpretation of the custom is supported by the fact that
beating or scourging is inflicted on inanimate objects expressly for
the purpose indicated in the text. Thus the Indians of Costa Rica
hold that there are two kinds of ceremonial uncleanness, _nya_ and
_bu-ku-rú_. Anything that has been connected with a death is _nya_.
But _bu-ku-rú_ is much more virulent. It can not only make one sick
but kill. “The worst _bu-ku-rú_ of all is that of a young woman in
her first pregnancy. She infects the whole neighbourhood. Persons
going from the house where she lives carry the infection with them
to a distance, and all the deaths or other serious misfortunes in
the vicinity are laid to her charge. In the old times, when the
savage laws and customs were in full force, it was not an uncommon
thing for the husband of such a woman to pay damages for casualties
thus caused by his unfortunate wife.... _Bu-ku-rú_ emanates in a
variety of ways; arms, utensils, even houses become affected by it
after long disuse, and before they can be used again must be
purified. In the case of portable objects left undisturbed for a
long time, the custom is to beat them with a stick before touching
them. I have seen a woman take a long walking stick and beat a
basket hanging from the roof of a house by a cord. On asking what
that was for, I was told that the basket contained her treasures,
that she would probably want to take something out the next day, and
that she was driving off the _bu-ku-rú_. A house long unused must be
swept, and then the person who is purifying it must take a stick and
beat not only the movable objects, but the beds, posts, and in short
every accessible part of the interior. The next day it is fit for
occupation. A place not visited for a long time or reached for the
first time is _bu-ku-rú_. On our return from the ascent of Pico
Blanco, nearly all the party suffered from little calenturas, the
result of extraordinary exposure to wet and cold and want of food.
The Indians said that the peak was especially _bu-ku-rú_, since
nobody had ever been on it before.” One day Mr. Gabb took down some
dusty blow-guns amid cries of _bu-ku-rú_ from the Indians. Some
weeks afterwards a boy died, and the Indians firmly believed that
the _bu-ku-rú_ of the blow-guns had killed him. “From all the
foregoing, it would seem that _bu-ku-rú_ is a sort of evil spirit
that takes possession of the object, and resents being disturbed;
but I have never been able to learn from the Indians that they
consider it so. They seem to think of it as a property the objects
acquires.” W. M. Gabb, _Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica_
(read before the American Philosophical Society, 20th August 1875),
p. 504 _sq._

629 A. R. Wallace, _Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro_,
p. 496.

630 Bose, _The Hindoos as they are_, p. 86. Similarly, after a Brahman
boy has been invested with the sacred thread, he is for three days
strictly forbidden to see the sun. He may not eat salt, and he is
enjoined to sleep either on a carpet or a deer’s skin, without a
mattress or mosquito curtain. _Ib._ p. 186. In Bali, boys who have
had their teeth filed, as a preliminary to marriage, are kept shut
up in a dark room for three days. Van Eck, “Schetsen van het eiland
Bali,” _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië_, N. S. ix. (1880) 428
_sq._

631 Moura, _Royaume du Cambodge_, i. 377.

632 Aymonier, “Notes sur les coutumes et croyances superstitieuses des
Cambodgiens,” _Cochinchine Française, Excursions et
Reconnaissances_, No. 16 (Saigon, 1883), p. 193 _sq._ Cp. _id._
_Notice sur le Cambodge_, p. 50.

633 B. Schmidt, _Griechische Märchen, Sagen und Volkslieder_, p. 98.

634 Schneller, _Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol_, No. 22.

635 J. G. von Hahn, _Griechische und albanesische Märchen_, No. 41.

636 Gonzenbach, _Sicilianische Märchen_, No. 28. The incident of the
bone occurs in other folk-tales. A prince or princess is shut up for
safety in a tower and makes his or her escape by scraping a hole in
the wall with a bone which has been accidentally conveyed into the
tower; sometimes it is expressly said that care was taken to let the
princess have no bones with her meat. Hahn, _op. cit._ No. 15;
Gonzenbach, Nos. 26, 27; _Pentamerone_, No. 23. From this we should
infer that it is a rule with savages not to let women handle the
bones of animals during their monthly seclusions. We have already
seen the great respect with which the savage treats the bones of
game (see above, p. 116 _sqq._); and women in their courses are
specially forbidden to meddle with the hunter or fisher, as their
contact or neighbourhood would spoil his sport (see below, p. 238
_sqq._) In folk-tales the hero who uses the bone is sometimes a boy;
but the incident might easily be transferred from a girl to a boy
after its real meaning had been forgotten. Amongst the Hare-skin
Indians a girl at puberty is forbidden to break the bones of hares.
Petitot, _Traditions indiennes du Canada Nordouest_, p. 258. On the
other hand, she drinks out of a tube made of a swan’s bone (Petitot,
_l.c._ and _id._, _Monographie des Dènè-Dindjié_, p. 76), and we
have seen that a Thlinkeet girl in the same circumstances used to
drink out of the wing-bone of a white-headed eagle (Langsdorff,
_Reise um die Welt_, ii. 114).

637 W. Radloff, _Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stämme
Süd-Sibiriens_, iii. 82 _sq._

638 Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, i. 416, vi. 25; Turner,
_Samoa_, p. 200; _Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. No. 797.

639 Amongst the Chaco Indians of South America a newly-married couple
sleep the first night on a skin with their heads towards the west;
“for the marriage is not considered as ratified till the rising sun
shines on their feet the succeeding morning.” T. J. Hutchinson, “The
Chaco Indians,” _Transact. Ethnolog. Soc._ iii. 327. At old Hindoo
marriages, the first ceremony was the “Impregnation-rite”
(_Garbhādhāna_). “During the previous day the young married woman
was made to look towards the sun, or in some way exposed to its
rays.” Monier Williams, _Religious Life and Thought in India_, p.
354. Amongst the Turks of Siberia it was formerly the custom on the
morning after marriage to lead the young couple out of the hut to
greet the rising sun. The same custom is said to be still practised
in Iran and Central Asia, the belief being that the beams of the
rising sun are the surest means of impregnating the new bride.
Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_, p. 112.

640 Above, vol. i. p. 170.

_ 641 Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 186; E. J. Eyre, _Journals_,
ii. 295, 304; W. Ridley, _Kamilaroi_, p. 157; _Journ. Anthrop.
Inst._ ii. 268, ix. 459 _sq._; Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of
Victoria_, i. 65, 236. Cp. Sir George Grey, _Journals_, ii. 344; J.
Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_, ci. _sq._

642 Bleek, _Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore_, p. 14; cp. _ib._ p. 10.

643 Gumilla, _Histoire de l’Orénoque_, i. 249.

644 James Adair, _History of the American Indians_, p. 123 _sq._

645 S. Hearne, _Journey to the Northern Ocean_, p. 314 _sq._; Alex.
Mackenzie, _Voyages through the Continent of North America_,
cxxiii.; Petitot, _Monographie des Dènè-Dindjié_, p. 75 _sq._

646 C. Leemius, _De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua vita et
religione pristina_ (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 494.

647 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ vii. § 64 _sq._, xxviii. § 77 _sqq._ Cp.
_Geoponica_, xii. c. 20, 5, and c. 25, 2; Columella, xi. 3, 50.

648 A. Schleicher, _Volkstümliches aus Sonnenberg_; p. 134; B. Souché,
_Croyances, Présages et Traditions diverses_, p. 11; V. Fossel,
_Volksmedicin und medicinischer Aberglaube in Steiermark_ (Graz,
1886), p. 124. The Greeks and Romans thought that a field was
completely protected against insects if a menstruous woman walked
round it with bare feet and streaming hair. Pliny, _Nat. Hist._
xvii. 266, xxviii. 78; Columella, x. 358 _sq._, xi. 3, 64;
Palladius, _De re rustica_, i. 35, 3; _Geoponica_, xii. 8, 5 _sq._;
Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ vi. 36. A similar remedy is employed for the
same purpose by North American Indians and European peasants.
Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, v. 70; Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und
äussern Leben der Ehsten_, p. 484. Cp. Haltrich, _Zur Volkskunde der
Siebenbürger Sachsen_, p. 280; Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und
Gebräuche unter den Sachsen Siebenbürgens_, p. 14; Grimm, _Deutsche
Mythologie_,4 iii. 468.

649 For an example of the beneficent application of the menstrual
energy, see note on p. 241.

650 The rules just discussed do not hold exclusively of the persons
mentioned in the text, but are applicable in certain circumstances
to other tabooed persons and things. Whatever, in fact, is permeated
by the mysterious virtue of taboo may need to be isolated from earth
and heaven. Mourners are taboo all the world over; accordingly in
mourning the Ainos wear peculiar caps in order that the sun may not
shine upon their heads. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_,
v. 366. During a solemn fast of three days the Indians of Costa Rica
eat no salt, speak as little as possible, light no fires, and stay
strictly indoors, or if they go out during the day they carefully
cover themselves from the light of the sun, believing that exposure
to the sun’s rays would turn them black. W. M. Gabb, _Indian Tribes
and Languages of Costa Rica_, p. 510. On Yule night it has been
customary in parts of Sweden from time immemorial to go on
pilgrimage, whereby people learn many secret things and know what is
to happen in the coming year. As a preparation for this pilgrimage,
“some secrete themselves for three days previously in a dark cellar,
so as to be shut out altogether from the light of heaven. Others
retire at an early hour of the preceding morning to some out-of-the
way place, such as a hayloft, where they bury themselves in the hay,
that they may neither hear nor see any living creature; and here
they remain, in silence and fasting, until after sundown; whilst
there are those who think it sufficient if they rigidly abstain from
food on the day before commencing their wanderings. During this
period of probation a man ought not to see fire.” L. Lloyd, _Peasant
Life in Sweden_, p. 194. During the sixteen days that a Pima Indian
is undergoing purification for killing an Apache he may not see a
blazing fire. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, i.
553. Again warriors on the war-path are strictly taboo; hence
Indians may not sit on the bare ground the whole time they are out
on a warlike expedition. J. Adair, _History of the American
Indians_, p. 382; _Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John
Tanner_, p. 123. The holy ark of the North American Indians is
deemed “so sacred and dangerous to be touched” that no one, except
the war chief and his attendant, will touch it “under the penalty of
incurring great evil. Nor would the most inveterate enemy touch it
in the woods for the very same reason.” In carrying it against the
enemy they never place it on the ground, but rest it on stones or
logs. Adair, _History of the American Indians_, p. 162 _sq._ The
sacred clam shell of the Elk clan among the Omahas is kept in a
sacred bag, which is never allowed to touch the ground. E. James,
_Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains_, ii. 47; J. Owen
Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” _Third Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_
(Washington, 1884), p. 226. Newly born infants are strongly taboo;
accordingly in Loango they are not allowed to touch the earth.
Pechuel-Loesche, “Indiscretes aus Loango,” _Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie_, x. (1878) p. 29 _sq._ In Laos the hunting of elephants
gives rise to many taboos; one of them is that the chief hunter may
not touch the earth with his foot. Accordingly when he alights from
his elephant, the others spread a carpet of leaves for him to step
upon. E. Aymonier, _Notes sur le Laos_, p. 26. In some parts of
Aberdeenshire, the last bit of standing corn (which, as we have
seen, is very sacred) is not allowed to touch the ground; but as it
is cut, it is placed on the lap of the “gueedman.” W. Gregor,
“Quelques coutumes du Nord-Est du Comté d’Aberdeen,” _Revue des
Traditions populaires_, iii. (1888) 485 B. Sacred food may not, in
certain circumstances, touch the ground. F. Grabowsky, “Der Distrikt
Dusson Timor in Südost-Borneo und seine Bewohner,” _Ausland_ (1884),
No. 24, p. 474; Ch. F. Hall, _Narrative of the Second Arctic
Expedition_, edited by Prof. J. E. Nourse (Washington, 1879), p.
110; Gerard, _The Land beyond the Forest_, ii. 7. In Scotland, when
water was carried from sacred wells to sick people, the water-vessel
might not touch the ground. C. F. Gordon Cumming, _In the Hebrides_,
p. 211. On the relation of spirits to the ground, compare Denzil
Ibbetson in _Panjab Notes and Queries_, i. No. 5.

_ 651 Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock,8 pp. 286-288, cp. pp. 8, 34,
264. In English the Balder story is told at length by Prof. Rhys,
_Celtic Heathendom_, p. 529 _sqq._

652 It is strange to find so learned and judicious a student of custom
and myth as H. Usener exactly inverting their true relation to each
other. After showing that the essential features of the myth of the
marriage of Mars and Nerio have their counterpart in the marriage
customs of peasants at the present day, he proceeds to infer that
these customs are the reflection of the myth. “Italische Mythen,”
_Rheinisches Museum_, N. F. xxx. 228 _sq._ Surely the myth is the
reflection of the custom. Men not only fashion gods in their own
likeness (as Xenophanes long ago remarked) but make them think and
act like themselves. Heaven is a copy of earth, not earth of heaven.

653 See Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 502, 510, 516.

654 Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 518 _sq._

655 In the following survey of these fire-customs I follow chiefly W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, kap. vi. p. 497 _sqq._ Compare also Grimm,
_Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 500 _sqq._

656 Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen_ etc. _des Eifler Volkes_, i. pp. 21-25;
_B. K._ p. 501.

_ 657 B. K._ p. 501.

658 Vonbun, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_, p. 20; _B. K._ p. 501.

659 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p.
380 _sqq_.; Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, ii. 59 _sq._
, 66 _sq._; _Bavaria_, ii. 2, p. 838 _sq._; Panzer, _Beitrag zur
deutschen Mythologie_, i. p. 211, No. 232, _B. K._ p. 501 _sq._

_ 660 Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_, p. 189;
Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 207; _B. K._ p. 500
_sq._

661 Th. Vernalcken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_, p.
293 _sq._; _B. K._ p. 498. See above, vol. i. p. 267.

_ 662 Schmitz, Sitten, u. Sagen des Eifler Volkes_, i. p. 20; _B. K._ p.
499.

663 Strackerjan, _Aberglaube u. Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_, ii.
39, No. 306; _B. K._ p. 499.

_ 664 B. K._ p. 499.

_ 665 B. K._ p. 498 _sq._

_ 666 B. K._ p. 499.

667 Schneller, _Märchen u. Sagen aus Wälschtirol_, p. 234 _sq._; _B. K._
p. 499 _sq._

_ 668 B. K._ pp. 502-505; Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_,2 § 81;
Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_,2 p.
149, §§ 1286-1289; _Bavaria_, i. 1, p. 371.

669 Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. p. 212 _sq._, ii. p.
78 _sq._; _B. K._ p. 505.

670 Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_,
ii. p. 43 _sq._, No. 313; _B. K._ p. 505 _sq._

671 Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. 75 _sq._; _B. K._ p.
506.

672 Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 512; _B. K._ p. 506 _sq._

673 H. Pröhle, _Harzbilder_, p. 63; Kuhn und Schwartz, _Norddeutsche
Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_, p. 373; _B. K._ p. 507.

674 Kuhn, _Markische Sagen und Märchen_, p. 312 _sq._; _B. K._ p. 507.

675 Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. p. 211 _sq._; _B. K._
p. 507 _sq._

676 Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, ii. p. 82, No. 106; _B.
K._ p. 508.

_ 677 B. K._ p. 508; cp. Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutsch. Myth._ i. 74;
Grimm, _Deutsche Myth._4 i. 512. The two latter writers only state
that before the fires were kindled it was customary to hunt
squirrels in the woods.

678 Kuhn, _l.c._; _B. K._ p. 508.

679 Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 224 _sq._, Bohn’s ed., quoting
Sinclair’s _Statistical Account of Scotland_, 1794, xi. 620;
_Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, from the MSS. of
John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, edited by Alex. Allardyce, ii. 439-445;
_B. K._ p. 508.

680 Pennant, “Tour in Scotland,” Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, iii.
49; Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 226.

681 L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_, p. 233 _sq._

_ 682 B. K._ p. 509; Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ i. 298 _sq._; Grimm, _D. M._4
i. 516.

683 Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, ii. p. 96 _sqq._ No. 128,
p. 103 _sq._ No. 129; E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und
Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p. 423 _sqq._; _B. K._ p. 510.

684 Leoprechting, _Aus dem Lechrain_, p. 182 _sq._; _B. K._ p. 510. Cp.
Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. 210; _Bavaria_, iii.
956.

685 Panzer, _op. cit._ ii. 549.

686 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, pp. 306-311; _B.
K._ p. 510. For the custom of burning a tree in the midsummer
bonfires, see vol. i. p. 79.

687 Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, ii. 144 _sqq._

688 Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 515 _sq._; _B. K._ p. 510 _sq._

689 Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 393; Grimm, _D. M._4
i. 517; _B. K._ p. 511.

690 Sébillot, Coutumes populaires de la Haute Bretagne, p. 193 _sq._
Wolf, _op. cit._ ii. 392 _sq._

691 Zingerle, _Sitten, etc. des Tiroler Volkes_,2 p. 159, No. 1354;
Panzer, _Beitrag_, i. 210; _B. K._ p. 511.

692 Kuhn u. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_, p.
390; _B. K._ 511.

693 Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 300 _sq._, 318, cp. pp. 305, 306,
308 _sq._; _B. K._ p. 512.

694 Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, p. 96, cp. _id._ p.
26.

695 Brand, _op. cit._ i. 311.

_ 696 Id._ i. 303, 318, 319; Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, p. 315.

697 Brand, _op. cit._ i. 318.

698 J. Train, _Account of the Isle of Man_, ii. 120.

699 Brand, i. 303, quoting Sir Henry Piers’s _Description of Westmeath_.

700 Brand, _l.c._, quoting the author of the _Survey of the South of
Ireland_.

701 Brand, i. 305, quoting the author of the _Comical Pilgrim’s
Pilgrimage into Ireland_.

702 Brand, i. 304, quoting _The Gentleman’s Magazine_, February 1795, p.
124.

703 Quoted by Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, p. 321 _sq._

704 Brand, i. 311, quoting _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xxi. 145.

_ 705 B. K._ p. 512.

706 Brand, i. 337.

707 J. Ramsay and A. Allardyce, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth
Century_, ii. 436.

708 Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 240; Grimm, _D. M._4 i.
519.

709 Ralston. _l.c._

710 Tettau und Temme, _Die Volkssagen Ostpreussens, Litthauens und
Westpreussens_, p. 277; Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 519.

711 Töppen, _Aberglauben aus Masuren_,2 p. 71.

712 Grimm, _l.c._; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, p.
307 _note_.

713 Grimm, _l.c._

714 Grimm, _l.c._

715 Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 518.

716 Above, vol. i. p. 291.

717 Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_, i. 185.

718 Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 317; Grimm, _l.c._

719 G. Ferraro, _Superstizioni, usi e proverbi Monferrini_, p. 34 _sq._,
referring to Alvise da Cadamosto, _Relazion dei viaggi d’Africa_, in
Ramusio.

720 Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, ii. 100 _sq._; _B. K._ p.
513 _sq._

721 Zingerle, _Sitten_, etc., _des Tiroler Volkes_,2 p. 159, No. 1353,
cp. No. 1355; _B. K._ p. 513.

722 Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 392; _B. K._ p. 513.

_ 723 B. K._ p. 513.

724 Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 240.

725 Above, vol. i. p. 272 _sq._

726 Above, vol. i. p. 22 _sqq._

727 Above, p. 262.

728 Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, ii. 57, 97; _B. K._ p.
510; cp. Panzer, _Beitrag_, ii. 240.

729 Cp. Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 521; Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutschen
Mythologie_, ii. 389; Ad. Kuhn, _Herabkunft des Feuers_,2 pp. 41
_sq._, 47; W. Mannhardt, _B. K._ p. 521.

730 See above, pp. 254, 255, 260, 265.

731 On the need-fires, see Grimm, _D. M._ i. 501 _sqq._; Wolf, _op.
cit._ i. 116 _sq._, ii. 378 _sqq._; Kuhn, _op. cit._ p. 41 _sqq._;
_B. K._ p. 518 _sqq._; Elton, _Origins of English History_, p. 293
_sq._; Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebräuche bei Ackerbau und
Viehzucht_, p. 26 _sqq._

732 This is the view of Grimm, Wolf, Kuhn, and Mannhardt.

_ 733 Herabkunft des Feuers_,2 p. 47.

734 Panzer, _Beitrag_, ii. 240.

735 Ch. E. Gover, “The Pongol festival in Southern India,” _Journ. Royal
Asiatic Society_, N.S. v. (1870) p. 96 _sq._

736 Diego de Landa, _Relation des choses de Yucatan_ (Paris, 1864), p.
233.

737 Kolben, _Present State of the Cape of Good Hope_, i. 129 _sqq._

738 P. 253. The torches of Demeter, which figure so largely in her myth
and on the monuments, are perhaps to be explained by this custom. To
regard, with Mannhardt (_B. K._ p. 536), the torches in the modern
European customs as imitations of lightning seems unnecessary.

739 Above, vol. i. p. 70 _sqq._

740 Pp. 250, 267.

741 Pp. 247, 248, 253, 259, 266.

742 P. 250 _sq._

743 Pp. 247, 248.

744 Vol. i. p. 272.

_ 745 B. K._ p. 524.

_ 746 Bavaria_, iii. 956; _B. K._ p. 524.

747 Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, ii. 121 _sq._, No. 146;
_B. K._ p. 524 _sq._

748 Caesar, _Bell. Gall._ vi. 15; Strabo, iv. 4, 5, p. 198; Casaubon;
Diodorus, v. 32. See Mannhardt, _B. K._ p. 525 _sqq._

749 Strabo, iv. 4, 4, p. 197, τὰς δὲ φονικὰς δίκας μάλιστα τούτοις [i.e.
the Druids] ἐπετέτραπτο δικάζειν, ὅταν τε φορὰ τούτων ἧ, φορὰν καὶ
τῆς χώρας νομίζουσιν ὐπάρχειν. On this passage see Mannhardt, _B.
K._ p. 529 _sqq._

750 See vol. i. p. 88 _sqq._

_ 751 B. K._ p. 523, _note_.

_ 752 B. K._ p. 523, _note_; John Milner, _The History, Civil and
Ecclesiastical, and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester_, i. 8
_sq._; Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 325 _sq._; James Logan, _The
Scottish Gael_, ii. 358 (new ed.); Reinsberg-Düringsfeld,
_Calendrier Belge_, p. 123 _sqq._

753 Puttenham, _Arte of English Poesie_, 1589, p. 128, quoted by Brand,
_Popular Antiquities_, i. 323.

754 King’s _Vale Royal of England_, p. 208, quoted by Brand, _l.c._

755 Liebrecht, _Gervasius von Tilbury_, p. 212 _sq._; _B. K._ p. 514.

_ 756 B. K._ pp. 514, 523.

_ 757 Athenaeum_, 24th July 1869, p. 115; _B. K._ p. 515 _sq._

758 Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 388; _B. K._ p. 515.

_ 759 B. K._ p. 515.

760 Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 519; _B. K._ p. 515.

_ 761 B. K._ p. 515.

_ 762 Ib._

763 Above, vol. i. p. 408, vol. ii. p. 1 _sqq._

764 Some of the serpents worshipped by the old Prussians lived in hollow
oaks, and as oaks were sacred among the Prussians, the serpents may
have been regarded as genii of the trees. Simon Grunau, _Preussische
Chronik_, ed. Perlbach, i. p. 89; Hartknoch, _Altund Neues
Preussen_, pp. 143, 163. Serpents, again, played an important part
in the worship of Demeter, as we have seen. But that they were
regarded as embodiments of her can hardly be assumed. In Siam the
spirit of the _takhien_ tree is believed to appear, sometimes in the
form of a woman, sometimes in the form of a serpent. Bastian, _Die
Volker des östlichen Asien_, iii. 251.

765 Pliny derives the name Druid the Greek _drūs_, “oak.” He did not
know that the Celtic word for oak was the same (_daur_), and that
therefore Druid, in the sense of priest of the oak, was genuine
Celtic, not borrowed from the Greek. See Curtius, _Griech.
Etymologie_,5 p. 238 _sq._; Vaniček, _Griechisch-lateinisches
etymolog. Wörterbuch_, p. 368 _sqq._; Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, p.
221 _sqq._ In the Highlands of Scotland the word is found in
place-names like Bendarroch (the mountain of the oak),
Craigandarroch, etc.

766 It is still a folk-lore rule not to cut the mistletoe with iron;
some say it should be cut with gold. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_4
ii. 1001. On the objection to the use of iron in such cases, see
Liebrecht, _Gervasius von Tilbury_, p. 103; and above, vol. i. p.
177 _sqq._

767 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvi. § 249 _sqq._ On the Celtic worship of the
oak, see also Maximus Tyrius, _Dissert._ viii. 8, Κελτοὶ σέβουσι μὲν
Δία ἄγαλμα δὲ Διὸς Κελτικὸν ὐψηλὴ δρῦς. With this mode of gathering
the mistletoe compare the following. In Cambodia when a man
perceives a certain parasitic plant growing on a tamarind-tree, he
dresses in white and taking a new earthen pot climbs the tree at
mid-day. He puts the plant in the pot and lets the whole fall to the
ground. Then in the pot he makes a decoction which renders
invulnerable. Aymonier, “Notes sur les coutumes et croyances
superstitieuses des Cambodgiens,” in _Cochinchine Française,
Excursions et Reconnaissances_, No. 16, p. 136.

768 Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_,2 § 123; Grohmann,
_Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_, §§ 673-677;
Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_, ii. 144 _sqq._; Friend,
_Flowers and Flower Lore_, p. 362; Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i.
314 _sqq._; Vonbun, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_, p. 133
_sqq._; Burne and Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 242. Cp.
_Archaeological Review_, i. 164 _sqq._

769 Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 307, 312; Dyer, _Folk-lore of
Plants_, pp. 62, 286; Friend, _Flowers and Flower Lore_, pp. 147,
149, 150, 540; Wuttke, § 134.

770 Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 514 _sq._, ii. 1013 _sq._, iii. 356; Grohmann,
_op. cit._ § 635-637; Friend, _op. cit._ p. 75; Gubernatis, _Myth.
des Plantes_, i. 189 _sq._, ii. 16 _sqq._

771 Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, p. 25 _sq._; Brand,
_Pop. Ant._ i. 329 _sqq._; Friend, p. 136.

772 Brand, i. 333.

773 Grohmann, § 1426.

774 Grohmann, § 648.

775 Grohmann, § 681; Wuttke, § 134; Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und
Brauch_, i. 9; Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_, i. 190.

776 Grimm, _D. M._4 iii. 78, 353.

777 Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_, ii. 73.

778 Friend, _Flowers and Flower Lore_, p. 378. Hunters believe that the
mistletoe heals all wounds and brings luck in hunting. Kuhn,
_Herabkunjt des Feuers_,2 p. 206.

779 Grimm, _D. M._4 ii. 1009.

780 L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_, p. 269.

781 Lloyd, _op. cit._ p. 259; Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 517 _sq._

782 Lloyd, _l.c._

783 Grimm, _D. M._4 iii. 78, who adds, “_Mahnen die Johannisfeuer an
Baldrs Leichenbrand?_” This pregnant hint, which contains in germ
the solution of the whole myth, has been quite lost on the
mythologists who since Grimm’s day have enveloped the subject in a
cloud of learned dust.

784 Above, p. 285, and vol. i. pp. 58, 64.

785 Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 55 _sq._, 58 _sq._, ii. 542, iii. 187 _sq._

786 Preller, _Röm. Mythol._3 i. 108.

787 Livy, i. 10. Cp. C. Bötticher, _Der Baumkultus der Hellenen_, p. 133
_sq._

788 Bötticher, _op. cit._ p. 111 _sqq._; Preller, _Griech. Mythol._4 ed.
C. Robert, i. 122 _sqq._

789 Without hazarding an opinion on the vexed question of the primitive
home of the Aryans, I may observe that in various parts of Europe
the oak seems to have been formerly more common than it is now. In
Denmark the present beech woods were preceded by oak woods and these
by the Scotch fir. Lyell, _Antiquity of Man_, p. 9; J. Geikie,
_Prehistoric Europe_, p. 486 _sq._ In parts of North Germany it
appears from the evidence of archives that the fir has ousted the
oak. O. Schrader, _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_,2 (Jena,
1890), p. 394. In prehistoric times the oak appears to have been the
chief tree in the forests which clothed the valley of the Po; the
piles on which the pile villages rested were of oak. W. Helbig, _Die
Italiker in der Poebene_, p. 25 _sq._ The classical tradition that
in the olden time men subsisted largely on acorns is borne out by
the evidence of the pile villages in Northern Italy, in which great
quantities of acorns have been discovered. See Helbig, _op. cit._
pp. 16 _sq._, 26, 72 _sq._

790 Above, p. 265 _sq._

791 Praetorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_, p. 19 _sq._ Mr. Ralston states (on
what authority I do not know) that if the fire maintained in honour
of the Lithuanian god Perkunas went out, it was rekindled by sparks
struck from a stone which the image of the god held in his hand.
_Songs of the Russian People_, p. 88.

792 Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 502, 503; Kuhn, _Herabkunft des Feuers_,2 p. 43;
Pröhle, _Harzbilder_, p. 75; Bartsch, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche
aus Mecklenburg_, ii. 150; Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_,
ii. 148. The writer who styles himself Montanus says (_Die deutschen
Volksfeste_, etc., p. 127) that the need-fire was made by the
friction of oak and fir. Sometimes it is said that the need-fire
should be made with nine different kinds of wood (Grimm, _D. M._4 i.
503, 505; Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 380; Jahn,
_Die deutschen Opfergebräuche_, p. 27); but the kinds of wood are
not specified.

793 John Ramsay, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, ii.
442; Grimm, _D. M._4 i. 506. See above, p. 255.

794 Above, vol. i. p. 58.

795 Montanus, _Die deutschen Volksfeste_, etc., p. 127.

796 Above, vol. i. p. 100.

797 Mary Frere, _Old Deccan Days_, p. 12 _sqq._

798 Maive Stokes, _Indian Fairy Tales_, p. 58 _sqq._ For similar
stories, see _id_. p. 187 _sq._; Lal Behari Day, _Folk-tales of
Bengal_, p. 121 _sq._; F. A. Steel and R. C. Temple, _Wide-awake
Stories_, p. 58 _sqq._

_ 799 Old Deccan Days_, p. 239 _sqq._

800 Lal Behari Day, _op. cit._ p. 1 _sqq._ For similar stories of
necklaces, see _Old Deccan Days_, p. 233 _sq._; _Wide-awake
Stories_, p. 83 _sqq._

801 J. H. Knowles, _Folk-tales of Kashmir_ (London, 1888), p. 49 _sq._

802 J. H. Knowles, _Folk-tales of Kashmir_ (London, 1888), p. 134.

_ 803 Id._ p. 382 _sqq._

804 Lal Behari Day, _op. cit._ p. 85 _sq._, cp. _id._ p. 253 _sqq._;
_Indian Antiquary_, i. (1872) 117. For an Indian story in which a
giant’s life is in five black bees, see Clouston, _Popular Tales and
Fictions_, i. 350.

_ 805 Indian Antiquary_, i. 171.

806 A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, iv. 340 _sq._

807 Lal Behari Day, _op. cit._ p. 189.

_ 808 Wide-awake Stories_, pp. 52, 64.

809 G. W. Leitner, _The Languages and Races of Dardistan_, p. 9.

810 Apollodorus, i. 8; Diodorus, iv. 34; Pausanias, x. 31, 4; Aeschylus,
_Choeph._ 604 _sqq._

811 Apollodorus, iii. 15, 8; Aeschylus, _Choeph._ 612 _sqq._; Pausanias,
i. 19, 4. According to Tzetzes (_Schol. on Lycophron_, 650) not the
life but the strength of Nisus was in his golden hair; when it was
pulled out, he became weak and was slain by Minos. According to
Hyginus (_Fab._ 198) Nisus was destined to reign only so long as he
kept the purple lock on his head.

812 Apollodorus, ii. 4, §§ 5, 7.

813 Hahn, _Griechische und Albanesische Märchen_, i. p. 217; a similar
story, _id._ ii. p. 282.

814 Hahn, _op. cit._ ii. p. 215 _sq._

_ 815 Id._ ii. p. 275 _sq._ Similar stories, _id._ ii. pp. 204, 294 _sq._
In an Albanian story a monster’s strength is in three pigeons, which
are in a hare, which is in the silver tusk of a wild boar. When the
boar is killed, the monster feels ill; when the hare is cut open, he
can hardly stand on his feet; when the three pigeons are killed, he
expires. Dozon, _Contes albanais_, p. 132 _sq._

816 Hahn, _op. cit._ ii. p. 260 _sqq._

_ 817 Id._ i. p. 187.

_ 818 Id._ ii. p. 23 _sq._

819 Legrand, _Contes populaires grecs_, p. 191 _sqq._

820 Plutarch, _Parallela_, 26. In both the Greek and Italian stories the
subject of quarrel between nephew and uncles is the skin of a boar,
which the nephew presented to his lady-love and which his uncles
took from her.

821 Basile, _Pentamerone_, ii. p. 60 _sq._ (Liebrecht’s German trans.)

822 R. H. Busk, _Folk-lore of Rome_, p. 164 _sqq._

823 Ralston, _Russian Folk-tales_, p. 103 _sq._; so Dietrich, _Russian
Popular Tales_, p. 23 _sq._

824 Ralston, _op. cit._ p. 109.

_ 825 Ib._

826 Ralston, _Russian Folk-tales_, p. 113 _sq._

_ 827 Id._, p. 114.

_ 828 Id._, p. 110.

829 Mijatovics, _Serbian Folk-lore_, edited by the Rev. W. Denton, p.
172; F. S. Krauss, _Sagen und Märchen der Südslaven_, i. (No. 34) p.
168 _sq._

830 A. H. Wraitslaw, _Sixty Folk-Tales from exclusively Slavonic
sources_ (London, 1889), p. 225.

831 Haltrich, _Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in
Siebenbürgen_,4 No. 34 (No. 33 of the first ed.), p. 149 _sq._

832 J. W. Wolf, _Deutsche Marchen und Sagen_, No. 20, p. 87 _sqq._

833 Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_,
ii. p. 306 _sq._

834 K. Müllenhoff, _Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogthümer
Schleswig-Holstein und Lauenburg_, p. 404 _sqq._

835 Asbjörnsen og Moe, _Norske Folke-Eventyr_, No. 36; Dasent, _Popular
Tales from the Norse_, p. 55 _sqq._

836 Asbjörnsen og Moe, _Norske Folke-Eventyr_, Ny Samling, No. 70;
Dasent, _Tales from the Fjeld_, p. 229 (“Boots and the Beasts.”)

837 Mannhardt, _Germanische Mythen_, p. 592; Jamieson, _Dictionary of
the Scottish Language_, _s.v._ “Yule.”

838 J. F. Campbell, _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_, i. p. 10
_sq._

839 J. F. Campbell, _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_, i. p. 80
_sqq._

840 Sébillot, _Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1885), p.
63 _sqq._

841 F. M. Luzel, _Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1887), i.
445-449.

842 Maspero, _Contes populaires de l’Égypte ancienne_ (Paris, 1882), p.
5 _sqq._

843 Lane’s _Arabian Nights_, iii. 316 _sq._

844 G. Spitta-Bey, _Contes arabes modernes_ (Leyden and Paris, 1883),
No. 2, p. 12 _sqq._ The story in its main outlines is identical with
the Cashmeer story of “The Ogress Queen” (J. H. Knowles, _Folk-tales
of Kashmir_, p. 42 _sqq._) and the Bengalee story of “The Boy whom
Seven Mothers Suckled” (Lal Behari Day, _Folk-tales of Bengal_, p.
117 _sqq._; _Indian Antiquary_, i. 170 _sqq._) In another Arabian
story the life of a witch is bound up with a phial: when it is
broken, she dies. W. A. Clouston, _A Group of Eastern Romances and
Stories_, p. 30. A similar incident occurs in a Cashmeer story.
Knowles, _op. cit._ p. 73. In the Arabian story mentioned in the
text, the hero, by a genuine touch of local colour, is made to drink
the milk of an ogress’s breasts and hence is regarded by her as her
son. Cp. W. Robertson Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_,
p. 149; and for the same mode of creating kinship among other races,
see D’Abbadie, _Douze ans dans la Haute Ethiopie_, p. 272 _sq._;
Tausch, “Notices of the Circassians,” _Journ. Royal Asiatic Soc._ i.
(1834) p. 104; Biddulph, _Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh_, pp. 77, 83
(cp. Leitner, _Languages and Races of Dardistan_, p. 34); Denzil
Ibbetson, _Settlement Report of the Panipat, Tahsil, and Karnal
Parganah of the Karnal District_, p. 101; Moura, _Royaume du
Cambodge_, i. 427; F. S. Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven_,
p. 14.

845 Rivière, _Contes populaires de la Kabylie du Djurdjura_, p. 191.

846 W. H. Jones and L. L. Kropf, _The Folk-tales of the Magyar_ (London,
1889), p. 205 _sq._

847 R. H. Busk, _The Folk-lore of Rome_, p. 168.

848 Castren, _Ethnologische Vorlesungen über die Altaischen Völker_, p.
173 _sqq._

849 Schiefner, _Heldensagen der Minussinschen Tataren_, pp. 172-176.

850 Schiefner, _op. cit._ pp. 108-112.

851 Schiefner, _op. cit._ pp. 360-364; Castren, _Vorlesungen über die
finnische Mythologie_, p. 186 _sq._

852 Schiefner, _op. cit._ pp. 189-193. In another Tartar poem
(Schiefner, _op. cit._ p. 390 _sq._) a boy’s soul is shut up by his
enemies in a box. While the soul is in the box, the boy is dead;
when it is taken out, he is restored to life. In the same poem (p.
384) the soul of a horse is kept shut up in a box, because it is
feared the owner of the horse will become the greatest hero on
earth. But these cases are, to some extent, the converse of those in
the text.

853 Schott, “Ueber die Sage von Geser Chan,” _Abhandlungen d. Königl.
Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin_, 1851, p. 269.

854 W. Radloff, _Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stämme
Süd-Siberiens_, ii. 237 _sq._

855 W. Radloff, _op. cit._ ii. 531 _sqq._

_ 856 Id._, iv. 88 _sq._

857 W. Radloff, _op. cit._ i. 345 _sq._

858 G. A. Wilken, “De Simsonsage,” _De Gids_, 1888, No. 5, p. 6 _sqq._
(of the separate reprint). Cp. Backer, _L’Archipel Indien_, pp.
144-149.

859 Nieuwenhuisen en Rosenberg, “Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias,”
_Verhandel. van het Batav. Genootsch. v. Kunsten en Wetenschappen_,
xxx. p. 111; Sundermann, “Die Insel Nias,” _Allgemeine
Missions-Zeitschrift_, xi. (1884) p. 453.

860 Above, vol. i. p. 134.

861 B. F. Matthes, _Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie van Zuid-Celebes_, p.
54.

862 F. Valentyn, _Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën_, ii. 143 _sq._; G. A.
Wilken, _De Simsonsage_, p. 15 _sq._

863 Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_,
p. 137.

864 B. Schmidt, _Das Volksleben der Neugriechen_, p. 206.

865 Above, pp. 305, 307, 309, 311.

_ 866 Revue d’Ethnographie_, ii. 223.

867 Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_, i. 165.

868 Bastian, _Ein Besuch in San Salvador_, p. 103 _sq._; _id._, _Der
Mensch in der Geschichte_, iii. 193.

869 R. Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui; or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants_,2 p.
184; Dumont D’Urville, _Voyage autour du monde et à la recherche de
La Pérouse sur la corvette Astrolabe_, ii. 444.

870 Matthes, _Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie van Zuid-Celebes_, p. 59.

871 Van Eck, “Schetsen van het eiland Bali,” _Tijdschrift voor
Nederlandsch Indië_, N. S. ix. (1880) p. 417 _sq._

872 G. A. Wilken, _De Simsonsage_, p. 26.

873 Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_, i. xxviii. _sq._

874 W. Mannhardt, _B. K._ p. 50; Ploss, _Das Kind_,2 i. 79.

875 K. Bartsch, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg_, ii. 43,
No. 63.

_ 876 Gentleman’s Magazine_, October 1804, p. 909, quoted by Brand,
_Popular Antiquities_, iii. 289; W. G. Black, _Folk-medicine_, pp.
31 _sq._, 67.

877 Moore’s _Life of Lord Byron_, i. 101.

878 Cedrenus, _Compend. Histor._ p. 625 B, vol. ii. p. 308, ed. Bekker.

879 F. Mason, “Physical Character of the Karens,” _Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal_, 1866, pt. ii. p. 9.

880 Matthes, _Makassarsch-Hollandsch Woordenboek_, _s.v._ _soemâñgá_, p.
569; G. A. Wilken, “Het animísme bij de volken van den Indischen
Archipel,” _De Indische Gids_, June 1884, p. 933.

881 R. H. Codrington, “Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands”
(communicated by the Rev. Lorimer Fison), _Transactions of the Royal
Society of Victoria_, xvi. 136.

882 F. Speckmann, _Die Hermannsburger Mission in Afrika_ (Hermannsburg,
1876), p. 167.

883 Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific Coast_, i. 661. The words
quoted by Bancroft (p. 662, _note_) “_Consérvase entre ellos la
creencia de que su vida está unida à la de un animal, y que es
forzoso que mueran ellos cuando éste muere_,” are not quite
accurately represented by the statement of Bancroft in the text.

884 Otto Stoll, _Die Ethnologie der Indianerstämme von Guatemala_
(Leyden, 1889), p. 57 _sq._; Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific
States_, i. 740 _sq._; Bastian, _Die Culturländer des alten
Amerika_, ii. 282.

885 A. W. Howitt, “Further Notes on the Australian Class Systems,”
_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xviii. 58.

886 Gerard Krefft, “Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the Lower
Murray and Darling,” _Transact. Philos. Soc. New South Wales_,
1862-65, p. 359 _sq._

887 A. W. Howitt, _l.c._

888 Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_, p. 52.

_ 889 Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xiv. 350, xv. 416, xviii. 57 (the “nightjar”
is apparently an owl).

890 Fison and Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, pp. 194, 201 _sq._, 215;
_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xv. 416, xviii. 56 _sq._

891 The chief facts of totemism have been collected by the present
writer in a little work, _Totemism_ (Edinburgh, A. and C. Black,
1887).

892 (Sir) George Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in
North-West and Western Australia_, ii. 228 _sq._

893 Fison and Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, p. 169.

894 De la Borde, “Relation de l’Origine, etc. des Caraibes,” p. 15, in
_Recueil de divers Voyages faits en Afrique et en l’Amérique_
(Paris, 1684).

895 Washington Matthews, _The Hidatsa Indians_, p. 50.

896 Bastian, _Die Volker des ostlichen Asien_, iii. 248.

897 I. B. Neumann, “Het Pane-en Bila-stroomgebied op het eiland
Sumatra,” _Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch Aardrijks, Genootsch._,
Tweede Serie, dl. iii. Afdeeling: meer uitgebreide artikelen, No. 2,
p. 311 _sq._; _id._, dl. iv. No. 1, p. 8 sq.; Van Hoëvell, “Iets
over ’t oorlogvoeren der Batta’s,” _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch
Indie_, N. S. vii. (1878) p. 434; G. A. Wilken, _Over de
verwantschap en het huwelijks-en erfrecht bij de volken van het
maleische ras_, pp. 20 _sq._, 36; _id._, _Iets over de Papoewas van
de Geelvunksbaai_, p. 27 _sq._ (reprint from _Bijdragen tot de Taal-
Land- en Volkenkunde van Ned.-Indië_, 5e Volgreeks ii.); _Journal
Anthrop. Inst._ ix. 295; Backer, _L’Archipel Indien_, p. 470.

898 B. Hagen, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Battareligion,” _Tijdschrift
voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_ xxviii. 514. J. B. Neumann
(_op. cit._ dl. iii. No. 2, p. 299) is the authority for the seven
souls.

899 Th. Benfey, _Pantschatantra_, i. 128 _sq._

900 A. L. P. Cameron, “Notes on some Tribes of New South Wales,” _Journ.
Anthrop. Instit._ xiv. 358.

901 A. W. Howitt, “On Australian Medicine Men,” _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._
xvi. 47 _sq._ On the Bullroarer (a piece of wood fastened to a cord
or thong and swung round so as to produce a booming sound), see A.
Lang, _Custom and Myth_, p. 29 _sqq._ The religious use of the
Bullroarer is best known in Australia, but in the essay just
referred to Mr. Andrew Lang has shown that the instrument has been
similarly employed not only in South Africa and by the Zunis of New
Mexico, but also by the ancient Greeks in their religious mysteries.
As a sacred instrument it also occurs in Western Africa (R. F.
Burton, _Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains_, i. 197 _sq._;
Bouche, _La Côte des Esclaves_, p. 124), and in New Guinea (J.
Chalmers, _Pioneering in New Guinea_, p. 85).

902 A. W. Howitt, “On some Australian ceremonies of initiation,” _Journ.
Anthrop. Inst._ xiii. 453 _sq._ The “class-name” is the name of the
totemic division to which the man belongs.

903 L. Fison, “The Nanga, or sacred stone enclosure of Wainimala, Fiji,”
_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xiv. 22.

904 W. H. Bentley, _Life on the Congo_ (London, 1887), p. 78 _sq._

905 A. Bastian, _Ein Besuch in San Salvador_, pp. 82 _sq._ 86.

906 Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_, ii. 183; cp.
_id._, pp. 15-18, 30 _sq._ On these initiatory rites in the Congo
region see also H. H. Johnston in _Proceed. Royal Geogr. Soc._ N. S.
v. (1883) p. 572 _sq._, and in _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xiii. 472; E.
Delmar Morgan, in _Proceed. Royal Geogr. Soc._ N. S. vi. 193.

907 Dapper, _Description de l’Afrique_, p. 268 _sq._ Dapper’s account
has been abbreviated in the text.

908 (Beverley’s) _History of Virginia_ (London, 1722), p. 177 _sq._

909 J. Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of North America_,
pp. 271-275.

910 Carver, _op. cit._ p. 277 sq.; Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, iii.
287, v. 430 sqq.; Kohl, _Kitschi-Gami_, i. 64-70.

_ 911 Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt_
(Middletown, 1820), p. 119.

_ 912 Id._, p. 44. For the age of the prince, see _id._, p. 35.

913 Holmberg, “Ueber die Völker des russischen Amerika,” _Acta Soc.
Scient. Fennicae_, iv. (Helsingfors, 1856) pp. 292 _sqq._, 328;
Petroff, _Report on the Population, etc. of Alaska_, p. 165 _sq._;
A. Krause, Die _Tlinkit-Indianer_, p. 112; R. C. Mayne, _Four years
in British Columbia and Vancouver Island_, p. 257 _sq._, 268.

914 Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, v. 683. In a letter dated 16th Dec.
1887, Mr. A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington,
writes to me: “Among the Toukawe whom in 1884 I found at Fort
Griffin [?], Texas, I noticed that they never kill the big or gray
wolf, _hatchukunän_, which has a mythological signification,
‘holding the earth’ (_hatch_). He forms one of their totem clans,
and they have had a dance in his honor, danced by the males only,
who carried sticks.”

915 Reina, “Ueber die Bewohner der Insel Rook,” _Zeitschrift für
allgemeine Erdkunde_, N. F. iv. (1858) p. 356 _sq._

916 R. Parkinson, _Im Bismarck Archipel_, pp. 129-134; Rev. G. Brown,
“Notes on the Duke of York Group, New Britain, and New Ireland,”
_Journ. Royal Geogr. Soc._ xlvii. (1878) p. 148 _sq._; H. H.
Romilly, “The Islands of the New Britain Group,” _Proceed. Royal
Geogr. Soc._ N. S. ix. (1887) p. 11 _sq._; Rev. G. Brown, _ib._ p.
17; W. Powell, _Wanderings in a Wild Country_, pp. 60-66; C. Hager,
_Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land und der Bismarck Archipel_, pp. 115-128. The
inhabitants of these islands are divided into two exogamous classes,
which in the Duke of York Island have two insects for their totems.
One of the insects is the _mantis religiosus_; the other is an
insect that mimicks the leaf of the horse-chestnut tree very
closely. Rev. B. Danks, “Marriage customs of the New Britain Group,”
_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xviii. 281 _sq._

917 J. G. F. Riedel, “Galela und Tobeloresen,” _Zeitschrift f.
Ethnologie_, xvii. (1885) p. 81 _sq._

918 The Kakian association and its initiatory ceremonies have often been
described. See Valentyn, _Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën_, iii. 3 _sq._;
Von Schmid, “Het Kakihansch Verbond op het eiland Ceram,”
_Tijdschrift v. Neêrlands Indië_, v. dl. ii. (1843) 25-38; Van
Ekris, “HetCeramsche Kakianverbond,” _Mededeelingen van wege het
Nederland. Zendelinggenootschap_, (1865) ix. 205-226 (repeated with
slight changes in _Tijdschrift v. Indische Taal- Land- en
Volkenkunde_, xvi. 1866, pp. 290-315); F. Fournier, “De Zuidkust van
Ceram,” _Tijdschrift v. Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xvi.
154 _sqq._; Van Rees, _Die Pionniers der Beschaving in Neêrlands
Indië_, pp. 92-106; Van Hoëvell, _Ambon en meer bepaaldelijk de
Oeliasers_, p. 153 _sqq._; Schulze, “Ueber Ceram und seine
Bewohner,” _Verhandl. d. Berliner Gesell. f. Anthropologie_, etc.
(1877) p. 117; W. Joest, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Eingebornen der
Insel Formosa und Ceram,” _id._ (1882), p. 64; Rosenberg, _Der
Malayische Archipel_, p. 318; Bastian, _Indonesien_, i. 145-148;
Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_,
pp. 107-111. The best accounts are those of Valentyn, Von Schmid,
Van Ekris, Van Rees, and Riedel, which are accordingly followed in
the text.

_ 919 Laws of Manu_, ii. 169, trans. by Bühler; Dubois, _Moeurs,
Institutions et Cérémonies des Peuples de l’Inde_, i. 125; Monier
Williams, _Religious Life and Thought in India_, pp. 360 _sq._ 366
_sq._

920 Lampridius, _Commodus_, 9; C. W. King, _The Gnostics and their
Remains_,2 pp. 127, 129.

921 Above, p. 309.

922 Above, p. 312 _sq._

923 Above, p. 308 _sq._

924 Above, p. 324 _sq._ In the myth the throwing of the weapons and of
the mistletoe at Balder and the blindness of Hödur who slew him
remind us of the custom of the Irish reapers who kill the
corn-spirit in the last sheaf by throwing their sickles blindfold at
it. (See above, vol. i. p. 339). In Mecklenburg a cock is sometimes
buried in the ground and a man who is blindfolded strikes at it with
a flail. If he misses it, another tries, and so on till the cock is
killed. Bartsch, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg_, ii.
280. In England on Shrove Tuesday a hen used to be tied upon a man’s
back, and other men blindfolded struck at it with branches till they
killed it. Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, p. 68. Mannhardt (_Die
Korndämonen_, p. 16 _sq._) has made it probable that such sports are
directly derived from the custom of killing a cock upon the
harvest-field as a representative of the corn-spirit (see above, p.
9). These customs, therefore, combined with the blindness of Hödur
in the myth suggest that the man who killed the human representative
of the oak-spirit was blindfolded, and threw his weapon or the
mistletoe from a little distance. After the Lapps had killed a
bear—which was the occasion of many superstitious ceremonies—the
bear’s skin was hung on a post, and the women, blindfolded, shot
arrows at it. Scheffer, _Lapponia_, p. 240.

925 Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 1001, 1010.

_ 926 Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 61.

927 Col. E. T. Dalton, “The Kols of Chota-Nagpore,” _Trans. Ethnol.
Soc._ vi. 36.

928 Jens Kamp, _Danske Folkeminder_ (Odense, 1877), pp. 172, 65 _sq._
referred to in Feilberg’s _Bidrag til en Ordbog over Jyske
Almuesmål_, Fjerde hefte (Copenhagen, 1888), p. 320. For a sight of
Feilberg’s work I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Walter
Gregor, M.A., Pitsligo, who pointed out the passage to me.

929 E. T. Kristensen, _Iydske Folkeminder_, vi. 380, referred to by
Feilberg, _l.c._

930 Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_,2 § 128; L. Lloyd, _Peasant
Life in Sweden_, p. 269.

931 Extract from a newspaper, copied and sent to me by the Rev. Walter
Gregor, M.A., Pitsligo. Mr. Gregor does not mention the name of the
newspaper.

932 Martin, “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in
Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, iii. 661

933 Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 9.

934 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 203 _sqq._, cp. 136 _sqq._ On the mistletoe
(_viscum_) see Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvi. 245 _sqq._

935 Virgil (Aen. vi. 201 _sqq._) places the Golden Bough in the
neighbourhood of Lake Avernus. But this was probably a poetical
liberty, adopted for the convenience of Aeneas’s descent to the
infernal world. Italian tradition, as we learn from Servius, placed
the Golden Bough in the grove at Nemi.

936 See above, vol. i. p. 4 _sq._

937 A custom of annually burning a human representative of the
corn-spirit has been noted among the Egyptians, Pawnees, and Khonds.
See above, vol. i. pp. 382, 387, 401 _sq._ In Semitic lands there
are traces of a practice of annually burning a human god. For the
image of Hercules (that is, of Baal) which was periodically burned
on a pyre at Tarsus, must have been a substitute for a human
representative of the god. See Dio Chrysostom, _Orat._ 33, vol. ii.
p. 16, ed. Dindorf; W. R. Smith, _The Religion of the Semites_, i.
353 _sq._ The Druids seem to have eaten portions of the human
victim. Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxx. § 13. Perhaps portions of the flesh
of the King of the Wood were eaten by his worshippers as a
sacrament. We have seen traces of the use of sacramental bread at
Nemi. See above, p. 82 _sq._

938 Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_, ii. 1009, _pren puraur_.

939 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 137 _sq._

940 Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_, § 673.

941 Grohmann, _op. cit._ § 676; Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_,
§ 123.

_ 942 Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_,2 §
882.

943 Zingerle, _op. cit._ § 1573.

944 Grohmann, _op. cit._ § 675; Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_,
p. 98.

945 L. Bechstein, _Deutsches Sagenbuch_ No. 500; _id._, _Thüringer
Sagenbuch_ (Leipzig, 1885), ii. No. 161.

946 For gathering it at midsummer, see above, p. 289. The custom of
gathering it at Christmas still survives among ourselves. At York
“on the eve of Christmas Day they carry mistletoe to the high altar
of the cathedral, and proclaim a public and universal liberty,
pardon, and freedom to all sorts of inferior and even wicked people
at the gates of the city, towards the four quarters of heaven.”
Stukeley, _Medallic History of Carausius_, quoted by Brand, _Popular
Antiquities_, i. 525. This last custom is of course now obsolete.

947 Afzelius, _Volkssagen und Volkslieder aus Schwedens älterer und
neuerer Zeit_, i. 41 _sq._; Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 iii. 289;
L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_, p. 266 _sq._

948 Above, p. 293.

949 Fern-seed is supposed to bloom at Easter as well as at midsummer and
Christmas (Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 98 _sq._); and
Easter, as we have seen, is one of the times when sun-fires are
kindled.

950 Burne and Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 242.

951 P. 288.

952 The reason why Virgil represents Aeneas as taking the mistletoe with
him to Hades is perhaps that the mistletoe was supposed to repel
evil spirits (see above, p. 362). Hence when Charon is disposed to
bluster at Aeneas, the sight of the Golden Bough quiets him (_Aen._
vi. 406 _sq._) Perhaps also the power ascribed to the mistletoe of
laying bare the secrets of the earth may have suggested its use as a
kind of “open Sesame” to the lower world. Compare _Aen._ vi. 140
_sq._—

“_Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire,_
_ Auricomos quam qui decerpserit arbore fetus._”

_ 953 Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock,8 p. 264.

954 On the derivation of the names Zeus and Jove from a root meaning
“shining,” “bright,” see Curtius, _Griech. Etymologie_,5 p. 236;
Vanič, _Griech.-Latein. Etymolog. Wörterbuch_, p. 353 _sqq._ On the
relation of Jove to the oak, compare Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xii. § 3,
_arborum genera numinibus suis dicata perpetuo servantur, ut Jovi
aesculus_; Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 332, _omnis quercus Jovi
est consecrata_. Zeus and Jupiter have commonly been regarded as sky
gods, because their names are etymologically connected with the
Sanscrit word for sky. The reason seems insufficient.

955 Casalis, _The Basutos_, p. 251 _sq._

_ 956 Ib._ p. 252.

957 Casalis, _The Basutos_, p. 252 _sq._

958 A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 229
_sq._; T. E. Bowdich, _Mission to Ashantee_, p. 226 _sq._ (ed.
1873.)

959 J. Cameron, “On the Early Inhabitants of Madagascar,” _Antananarivo
Annual and Madagascar Magazine_, iii. 263.

960 Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, ii. 105.

961 Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 91.

962 Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 198.

963 Thomas Shaw, “The Inhabitants of the Hills near Rajamahall,”
_Asiatic Researches_, iv. 56 _sq._

_ 964 Panjab Notes and Queries_, i. No. 502.

965 This is curiously unlike the custom of ancient Italy, in most parts
of which women were forbidden by law to walk on the highroads
twirling a spindle, because this was supposed to injure the crops.
Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxviii. § 28.

966 D. C. J. Ibbetson, _Outlines of Panjab Ethnography_ (Calcutta,
1883), p. 119.

967 Fr. Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, ii. 312.

968 Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, i. 191. On
taboos observed at agricultural operations, see _id._ i. 185; R. G.
Woodthorpe, “Wild Tribes Inhabiting the so-called Naga Hills,”
_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xi. 71; _Old New Zealand_, by a Pakeha Maori
(London, 1884), p. 103 _sq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui; or, New
Zealand and its Inhabitants_,2 p. 165 _sq._; E. Tregear, “The Maoris
of New Zealand,” _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xix. 110.

969 B. F. Matthes, _Beknopt Verslag mijner reizen in de Binnenlanden van
Celebes, in de jaren 1857 en 1861_, p. 5.

970 N. Graafland, _De Minahassa_, i. 165.

971 J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en
Papua_, p. 107.

972 Riedel, _op. cit._ pp. 281, 296 _sq._

973 Fr. Valentyn, _Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën_, iii. 10.

974 C. Semper, _Die Philippinen und ihre Bewohner_, p. 56.

975 Rev. Lorimer Fison, “The Nanga, or sacred stone enclosure, of
Wainimala, Fiji,” _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xiv. 27.

976 J. E. Erskine, _Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western
Pacific_, p. 252.

977 Turner, _Samoa_, p. 318 _sq._

978 Horatio Hale, _United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnology and
Philology_, p. 97.

979 The _malái_ is “a piece of ground, generally before a large house,
or chief’s grave, where public ceremonies are principally held.”
Mariner, _Tonga Islands, Vocabulary_.

980 The _mataboole_ is “a rank next below chiefs or nobles.” _Ib._

981 W. Mariner, _Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands_ (London,
1818), ii. 196-203.

982 Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition_,
ii. 133.

983 Turner, _Samoa_, p. 70 _sq._

984 Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 350.

985 Tyerman and Bennet, _Journal of Voyages and Travels_, i. 284.

986 Geiseler, _Die Oester-Insel_ (Berlin, 1883), p. 31.

987 E. Tregear, “The Maoris of New Zealand,” _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._
xix. 110.

988 Hartknoch, _Alt und neues Preussen_, p. 161; _id._, _Dissertationes
historicae de variis rebus Prussicis_, p. 163 (appended to his
edition of Dusburg’s _Chronicon Prussiae_). Cp. W. Mannhardt, _Die
Korndämonen_, p. 27.

989 Festus, _s.v._ _sacrima_, p. 319, ed. Müller; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._
xviii. § 8.

990 Chateaubriand, _Voyage en Amérique_, pp. 130-136 (Michel Lévy,
Paris, 1870). Chateaubriand’s description is probably based on
earlier accounts, which I have been unable to trace. Compare,
however, Le Petit, “Relation des Natchez,” in _Recueil de voiages au
Nord_, ix. 13 _sq._ (Amsterdam edition); De Tonti, “Relation de la
Louisiane et du Mississippi,” _ib._ v. 122; Charlevoix, _Histoire de
la Nouvelle France_, vi. 183; _Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_,
vii. 18 _sq._

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