The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 8 of 12)

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Title: The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 8 of 12)
Author: Frazer, James George, Sir, 1854-1941
Language: English
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The Golden Bough

A Study in Magic and Religion

James George Frazer, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.

Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Liverpool

Vol. VIII. of XII.

Part V: Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild.

Vol. 2 of 2.

New York and London

MacMillan and Co.

1912

CONTENTS

Chapter IX. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals.
§ 1. Dionysus, the Goat and the Bull.
§ 2. Demeter, the Pig and the Horse.
§ 3. Attis, Adonis, and the Pig.
§ 4. Osiris, the Pig and the Bull.
§ 5. Virbius and the Horse.
Chapter X. Eating The God.
§ 1. The Sacrament of First-Fruits.
§ 2. Eating the God among the Aztecs.
§ 3. Many Manii at Aricia.
Chapter XI. The Sacrifice of First-Fruits.
Chapter XII. Homoeopathic Magic of a Flesh Diet.
Chapter XIII. Killing The Divine Animal.
§ 1. Killing the Sacred Buzzard.
§ 2. Killing the Sacred Ram.
§ 3. Killing the Sacred Serpent.
§ 4. Killing the Sacred Turtles.
§ 5. Killing the Sacred Bear.
Chapter XIV. The Propitiation of Wild Animals by Hunters.
Chapter XV. The Propitiation of Vermin by Farmers.
§ 1. The Enemies of the Crops.
§ 2. Mouse Apollo and Wolf Apollo.
Chapter XVI. The Transmigration of Human Souls Into Animals.
Chapter XVII. Types of Animal Sacrament.
§ 1. The Egyptian and the Aino Types of Sacrament.
§ 2. Processions with Sacred Animals.
§ 3. The Rites of Plough Monday.
Note: The Ceremony of the Horse at Rice-Harvest Among The Garos.
Index.
Footnotes

[Cover Art]

CHAPTER IX. ANCIENT DEITIES OF VEGETATION AS ANIMALS.

§ 1. Dionysus, the Goat and the Bull.

(M1) 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?

(M2) To begin with Dionysus. We have seen that he was represented
sometimes as a goat and sometimes as a bull.(1) 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 portrayed in
sculpture and painting with the face and legs of a goat.(2) The Satyrs
were depicted with pointed goat-ears, and sometimes with sprouting horns
and short tails.(3) They were sometimes spoken off simply as goats;(4) and
in the drama their parts were played by men dressed in goatskins.(5)
Silenus is represented in art clad in a goatskin.(6) Further, the Fauns,
the Italian counterpart of the Greek Pans and Satyrs, are described as
being half goats, with goat-feet and goat-horns.(7) 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.(8) The Silenuses associated with the tree-nymphs.(9) The Fauns are
expressly designated as woodland deities;(10) 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.(11) Lastly, the association of the Satyrs with
the Silenuses, Fauns, and Silvanuses,(12) 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.(13) This brings out—what we
have remarked before—the close connexion between tree-spirits and
corn-spirits, and shews how easily the former may melt into the latter.
Similarly the Fauns, though wood-spirits, were believed to foster the
growth of the crops.(14) We have already seen how often the corn-spirit is
represented in folk-custom as a goat.(15) On the whole, then, as Mannhardt
argues,(16) the Pans, Satyrs, and Fauns perhaps 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
indeed 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.(17)

(M3) Thus the representation of wood-spirits in the form of goats 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,(18) 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
worships, 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 worships 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.

(M4) Dionysus was also figured, as we have seen,(19) in the shape 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;(20) and the close association of Dionysus
with Demeter and Persephone in the mysteries of Eleusis shews 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.”(21) Of course this is possible. But it is not yet certain
that the Aryans ever had totemism.(22) 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.

(M5) The probability of this view will be somewhat increased if it can be
shewn 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 dearth 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.(23)

(M6) The name of this sacrifice,—“the _murder_ of the ox,”(24)—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.(25) 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 twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth 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_,”(26) Here the straw figure,
called “the great _mondard_” and placed on the oldest apple-tree in
spring, represents the spirit of the tree, who, dead in winter, revives
when the apple-blossoms appear on the boughs. Thus the person who plucks
the first fruit from the tree and thereby receives the name of “the great
_mondard_” must be regarded as a representative of the tree-spirit.
Primitive peoples are usually 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 a
belief that the first-fruits either belong to 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, which fell 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 stands for 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, enacted 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.(27)

(M7) Still more clearly, perhaps, does the identification of the
corn-spirit with an ox come out in the sacrificial ritual which the Greeks
of Magnesia on the Maeander observed in honour of Zeus Sosipolis, a god
whose title of Sosipolis (“Saviour of the City”) marks him as the
equivalent of Zeus Polieus (“Zeus of the City”). The details of the ritual
are happily preserved in an inscription, which records a decree of the
council and of the people for the regulation of the whole proceedings.
Every year at a festival in the month of Heraeon the magistrates bought
the finest bull that could be had for money, and at the new moon of the
month of Cronion, at the time when the sowing was about to begin, they and
the priests dedicated the animal to Zeus Sosipolis, while solemn prayers
were offered by the voice of a sacred herald for the welfare of the city,
of the land, and of the people, for peace and wealth, for the corn-crops
and all other fruits, and for the cattle. Thereafter the sacred animal was
kept throughout the winter, its keep being undertaken by a contractor, who
was bound by law to drive the bull to the market and there collect
contributions for its maintenance from all the hucksters and in particular
from the corn-chandlers; and a prospect was held out to such as
contributed that it would go well with them. Finally, after having been
thus maintained at the public cost for some months, the bull was led forth
with great pomp and sacrificed in the market-place on the twelfth day of
the month Artemision, which is believed to have been equivalent to the
Attic month of Thargelion and to the English month of May, the season when
the corn is reaped in the Greek lowlands. In the procession which attended
the animal to the place of sacrifice the senators, the priests, the
magistrates, the young people, and the victors in the games all bore a
part, and at the head of the procession were borne the images of the
Twelve Gods attired in festal array, while a fluteplayer, a piper, and a
harper discoursed solemn music.(28) Now in the bull, which was thus
dedicated at the time of sowing and kept at the cost of the pious, and
especially of corn-chandlers, to be finally sacrificed at harvest, it is
reasonable to see an embodiment of the corn-spirit. Regarded as such the
animal was consecrated when the seed was committed to the earth; it was
fed and kept all the time the corn was growing in order that by its
beneficent energies it might foster that growth; and at last, to complete
the parallel, when the corn was reaped the animal was slain, the cutting
of the stalks being regarded as the death of the corn-spirit.(29)
Similarly we have seen that in the harvest-fields and on the
threshing-floors of modern Europe the corn-spirit is often conceived in
the form of a bull, an ox, or a calf, which is supposed to be killed at
reaping or threshing; and, further, we saw that the conception is
sometimes carried out in practice by slaughtering a real ox or a real calf
on the harvest-field. Thus the parallelism between the ancient Greek and
the modern European idea of the corn-spirit embodied in the form of a bull
appears to be very close.

(M8) On the interpretation which I have adopted of the sacrifices offered
to Zeus Polieus and Zeus Sosipolis the corn-spirit is conceived as a male,
not as a female, as Zeus, not as Demeter or Persephone. In this there is
no inconsistency. At the stage of thought which the Greeks had reached
long before the dawn of history they supposed the processes of
reproduction in nature to be carried on by a male and a female principle
in conjunction; they did not believe, like some backward savages, that the
female principle alone suffices for that purpose, and that the aid of the
male principle is superfluous. Hence, as we have seen, they imagined that
the goddesses of the corn, the mother Demeter and the daughter Persephone,
had each her male partner with whom she united for the production of the
crops. The partner of Demeter was Zeus, the partner of Persephone was his
brother Pluto, the Subterranean Zeus, as he was called; and reasons have
been shewn for thinking that the marriage of one or other of these divine
pairs was solemnised at Eleusis as part of the Great Mysteries in order to
promote the growth of the corn.(30)

(M9) 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.(31) Here the
tears of the oxen, like those of the human victims amongst the Khonds and
the Aztecs,(32) 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.(33) In the Mithraic religion
this conception is graphically set forth in some of the numerous
sculptures which represent Mithras kneeling on the back of a bull and
plunging a knife into its flank; for on certain of these monuments the
tail of the bull ends in three stalks of corn, and in one of them
corn-stalks instead of blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted by
the knife.(34) Such representations certainly suggest that the bull, whose
sacrifice appears to have formed a leading feature in the Mithraic ritual,
was conceived, in one at least of its aspects, as an incarnation of the
corn-spirit.

(M10) 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, usually on the third or fourth of February, which is also the
beginning of the Chinese New Year, 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. The figure 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 prognosticate the
character of the coming year; if red prevails, there will be many fires;
if white, there will be floods and rain; and so with the other colours.
The mandarins walk slowly round the ox, beating it severely at each step
with rods of various hues. It is filled with five kinds of grain, which
pour forth when the effigy 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, because the people believe that whoever gets one of them is
sure to be fortunate throughout the year. A live buffalo is next 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.”(35) But the ceremony varies somewhat
in the different provinces. According to another account the effigy of the
cow, made of earthenware, with gilded horns, is borne in procession, and
is of such colossal dimensions that forty or fifty men can hardly carry
it. Behind this monstrous cow walks a boy with one foot shod and the other
bare, personifying the Genius of Industry. He beats the effigy with a rod,
as if to drive it forward. A great many little clay cows are afterwards
taken out of the large one and distributed among the people. Both the big
cow and the little ones are then broken in pieces, and the people take the
sherds home with them in order to grind them to powder and strew the
powder on their fields, for they think thus to secure a plentiful
harvest.(36) In the cities nearest to Weihaiwei, in northern China, the
ceremony of “the Beginning of Spring” is a moveable feast, which falls
usually in the first moon. The local magistrate and his attendants go in
procession to the eastern suburbs of the city to “meet the Spring.” A
great pasteboard effigy of an ox is carried in the procession, together
with another pasteboard image of a man called Mang-Shen, “who represents
either the typical ox-driver or ploughman or the god of Agriculture.” On
the return of the procession to the magistrate’s court, that dignitary
himself and his principal colleagues beat and prod the pasteboard ox with
wands, after which the effigy is burned along with the image of its
attendant. The colours and apparel of the two effigies correspond with the
forecasts of the Chinese almanack. Thus if the head of the ox is yellow,
the summer will be very hot; if it is green, the spring will be sickly; if
it is red, there will be a drought; if it is black, there will be much
rain; if it is white, there will be high winds. If Mang-Shen wears a hat,
the year will be dry; if he is bareheaded, it will be rainy; and so on
with the other articles of his apparel. Besides the pasteboard ox a
miniature ox made of clay is also supposed to be provided.(37) In Chinese
the ceremony is called indifferently “beating the ox” and “beating the
spring,” which seems to prove that the ox is identified with the vernal
energies of nature. We may suppose that originally the ox which figures in
the rite was a living animal, but ever since the beginning of our era,
when the custom first appears in history, it has been an effigy of
terra-cotta or pasteboard. To this day the Chinese calendar devotes a page
to a picture of “the ox of spring” with Mang, the tutelary genius of
spring, standing beside it and grasping a willow-bough, with which he is
about to beat the animal for the purpose of stimulating its reproductive
virtue.(38) In one form of this Chinese custom 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 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.(39) Both these customs, like their
Chinese counterpart, are observed in spring.

(M11)The practice of beating an earthenware or pasteboard image of an ox
in spring is not confined to China proper, but seems to be widely spread
in the east of Asia; for example, it has been recorded at Kashgar and in
Annam. Thus a French traveller has described how at Kashgar, on the third
of February 1892, a mandarin, clad in his finest robes and borne in a
magnificent palanquin, conducted solemnly through the streets the
pasteboard image of an ox, “a sacred animal devoted to the deity of spring
who gives life to the fields. It is thus carried to some distance outside
of the town on the eastern side. The official who acts as pontiff
ceremoniously offers food and libations to it in order to obtain a
fruitful year, and next day it is demolished by the lashes of a whip.”(40)
Again, in Annam, every year at the approach of spring the Department of
Rites publishes instructions to the provincial governors as to the manner
in which the festival of the inauguration of spring is to be celebrated.
Among the indispensable features of the festival are the figures of an ox
and its warder made of terra-cotta. The attitudes of the two and the
colours to be applied to them are carefully prescribed every year in the
Chinese calendar. Popular opinion attributes to the colour of the ox and
the accoutrement of its warder, who is called Mang Than, a certain
influence on the crops of the year: a green, yellow, and black buffalo
prognosticates an abundant harvest: a red or white buffalo foretells
wretched crops and great droughts or hurricanes. If Mang Than is
represented wearing a large hat, the year will be rainy; if on the other
hand he is bareheaded, long barren droughts are to be feared. Nay, the
public credulity goes so far as to draw good or evil omens from the
cheerfulness or ill humour which may be detected on the features of the
Warder of the Ox. Having been duly prepared in accordance with the
directions of the almanack, the ox and its warder are carried in
procession, followed by the mandarins and the people, to the altar of
Spring, which is usually to be found in every provincial capital. There
the provincial governor offers fruits, flowers, and incense to the Genius
of Spring (_Xuan Quan_), and gold and silver paper money are burnt on the
altar in profusion. Lastly the ox and his warder are buried in a spot
which has been indicated by a geomancer.(41) It is interesting to observe
that the three colours of the ox which are taken to prognosticate good
crops, to wit, green, yellow, and black, are precisely the colours which
the ancients attributed to Demeter, the goddess of the corn.(42)

(M12) The great importance which the Chinese attach to the performance of
rites for the fertility of the ground is proved by an ancient custom which
is, or was till lately, observed every year in spring. On an appointed day
the emperor himself, attended by the highest dignitaries of the state,
guides with his own hand the ox-drawn plough down several furrows and
scatters the seed in a sacred field, or “field of God,” as it is called,
the produce of which is afterwards examined from time to time with anxious
care by the Governor of Peking, who draws omens from the appearance of the
ears; it is a very happy omen if he should chance to find thirteen ears
growing on one stalk. To prepare himself for the celebration of this
solemn rite the emperor is expected to fast and remain continent for three
days previously, and the princes and mandarins who accompany him to the
field are bound to observe similar restrictions. The corn grown on the
holy field which has thus been ploughed by the imperial hands is collected
in yellow sacks and stored in a special granary to be used by the emperor
in certain solemn sacrifices which he offers to the god Chan Ti and to his
own ancestors. In the provinces of China the season of ploughing is
similarly inaugurated by the provincial governors as representatives of
the emperor.(43)

(M13) The sacred field, or “field of God,” in which the emperor of China
thus ceremonially opens the ploughing for the year, and of which the
produce is employed in sacrifice, reminds us of the Rarian plain at
Eleusis, in which a sacred ploughing similarly took place every year, and
of which the produce was in like manner devoted to sacrifice.(44) Further,
it recalls the little sacred rice-fields on which the Kayans of central
Borneo inaugurate the various operations of the agricultural year by
performing them in miniature.(45) As I have already pointed out, all such
consecrated enclosures were probably in origin what we may call spiritual
preserves, that is, patches of ground which men set apart for the
exclusive use of the corn-spirit to console him for the depredations they
committed on all the rest of his domains. Again, the rule of fasting and
continence observed by the Emperor of China and his august colleagues
before they put their hands to the plough resembles the similar customs of
abstinence practised by many savages as a preparation for engaging in the
various labours of the field.(46)

(M14) On the whole 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 which I have cited(47) 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 enacted in his rites by
stuffing and setting up the slain ox, as was done at the Athenian
_bouphonia_.

§ 2. Demeter, the Pig and the Horse.

(M15) Passing next to the corn-goddess Demeter, and remembering that in
European folk-lore the pig is a common embodiment of the corn-spirit,(48)
we may now ask whether the pig, which was so closely associated with
Demeter, may not have been originally the goddess herself in animal form?
The pig was sacred to her;(49) in art she was portrayed carrying or
accompanied by a pig;(50) 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.(51) 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 viewed as a victim offered to the
god on the ground of its hostility to the deity; in short, the god is
sacrificed to himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. This
happened to Dionysus,(52) 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 Persephone. The Attic
Thesmophoria was an autumn festival, celebrated by women alone in
October,(53) and appears to have represented with mourning rites the
descent of Persephone (or Demeter)(54) into the lower world, and with joy
her return from the dead.(55) 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 an old scholium on Lucian(56) 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 Persephone,” which appear to have been sacred caverns or
vaults.(57) 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(58)—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. With the feeding of the serpents in
the vaults by the women we may compare an ancient Italian ritual. At
Lanuvium a serpent lived in a sacred cave within a grove of Juno. On
certain appointed days a number of holy maidens, with their eyes bandaged,
entered the grove carrying cakes of barley in their hands. Led, as it was
believed, by the divine spirit, they walked straight to the serpent’s den
and offered him the cakes. If they were chaste, the serpent ate the cakes,
the parents of the girls rejoiced, and farmers prognosticated an abundant
harvest. But if the girls were unchaste, the serpent left the cakes
untasted, and ants came and crumbled the rejected viands and so removed
them bit by bit from the sacred grove, thereby purifying the hallowed spot
from the stain it had contracted by the presence of a defiled maiden.(59)

(M16) To explain the rude and ancient ritual of the Thesmophoria the
following legend was told. At the moment when Pluto carried off
Persephone, a swineherd called Eubuleus chanced to be herding his swine on
the spot, and his herd was engulfed in the chasm down which Pluto vanished
with Persephone. Accordingly at the Thesmophoria pigs were annually thrown
into caverns to commemorate the disappearance of the swine of
Eubuleus.(60) It follows from this that the casting of the pigs into the
vaults at the Thesmophoria formed part of the dramatic representation of
Persephone’s descent into the lower world; and as no image of Persephone
appears to have been thrown in, we may infer that the descent of the pigs
was not so much an accompaniment of her descent as the descent itself, in
short, that the pigs were Persephone. Afterwards when Persephone or
Demeter (for the two are equivalent) took on human form, 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 Pluto carried off Persephone, 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 the sad mother was
searching for traces of the vanished Persephone, the footprints of the
lost one were obliterated by the footprints of a pig;(61) originally, we
may conjecture, the footprints of the pig were the footprints of
Persephone and of Demeter herself. A consciousness of the intimate
connexion of the pig with the corn lurks in the legend 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
Persephone.(62) Further, it is to be noted that at the Thesmophoria the
women appear to have eaten swine’s flesh.(63) The meal, if I am right,
must have been a solemn sacrament or communion, the worshippers partaking
of the body of the god.

(M17) As thus explained, the Thesmophoria has its analogies in the
folk-customs of Northern Europe which have been already described. Just 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;(64) 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,(65) 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;(66) so in Hesse 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;(67) 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.(68) 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,(69) 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.(70)

(M18) If persons of fastidious taste should object that the Greeks never
could have conceived Demeter and Persephone to be embodied in the form of
pigs, it may be answered that in the cave of Phigalia in Arcadia the Black
Demeter was portrayed with the head and mane of a horse on the body of a
woman.(71) Between the portrait of a goddess as a pig, and the portrait 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,(72) 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 in dudgeon
to a cave not far from Phigalia in the highlands of Western Arcadia. The
very cavern, now turned into a little Christian chapel with its holy
pictures, is still shewn to the curious traveller far down the side of
that profound ravine through which the brawling Neda winds under
overhanging woods to the sea. There, robed in black, she tarried 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.(73) The Black Demeter, in whose
absence the fruits of the earth perish, is plainly a mythical expression
for the bare wintry earth stripped of its summer mantle of green.

§ 3. Attis, Adonis, and the Pig.

(M19) Passing now to Attis and Adonis, we may note a few facts which seem
to shew that these deities of vegetation had also, like other deities of
the same class, their animal embodiments. The worshippers of Attis
abstained from eating the flesh of swine.(74) This appears to indicate
that the pig was regarded as an embodiment of Attis. And the legend that
Attis was killed by a boar(75) 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!”(76) 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.”(77)

(M20) In regard to Adonis, his connexion with the boar was not always
explained by the story that he had been killed by the animal.(78)
According to another story, a boar rent with his tusk the bark of the tree
in which the infant Adonis was born.(79) According to yet another story,
he perished at the hands of Hephaestus on Mount Lebanon while he was
hunting wild boars.(80) These variations in the legend serve to shew that,
while the connexion of the boar with Adonis was certain, the reason of the
connexion was not understood, and that consequently different stories were
devised to explain it. Certainly the pig ranked as a sacred animal among
the Syrians. At the great religious metropolis of Hierapolis on the
Euphrates 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.(81) This difference of opinion points to a hazy state of religious
thought in which the ideas of sanctity and uncleanness are not yet sharply
distinguished, both being blent in a sort of vaporous solution to which we
give the name of 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 late misapprehension 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 rituals 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 implies that the animal is sacred, and that, as a general rule, it
is spared.(82)

(M21) 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.(83) On the one hand
they might not eat swine; but on the other hand they might not kill them.
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
revered rather than abhorred by the Israelites. We are confirmed in this
opinion by observing 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.(84) Doubtless this was a very ancient ceremony, 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 for
not eating them was that they were divine.

§ 4. Osiris, the Pig and the Bull.

(M22) 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.(85) 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.(86)
To drink pig’s milk was believed to cause leprosy to the drinker.(87)
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.(88) 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.(89) 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.

(M23) The view that in Egypt the pig was sacred 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.(90) Amongst the Omaha Indians
of North America men whose totem 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.(91) 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.(92) The Bush negroes of Surinam, who
practise totemism, believe that if they ate the _capiaï_ (an animal like a
pig) it would give them leprosy;(93) perhaps the _capiaï_ is one of their
totems. The Syrians, in antiquity, who esteemed fish sacred, thought that
if they ate fish their bodies would break out in ulcers, and their feet
and stomach would swell up.(94) The Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central
Angoniland, in British Central Africa, believe that if a person eats his
totemic animal, his body will break out in spots. The cure for this
eruption of the skin is to bathe the body in a decoction made from the
bone of the animal, the eating of which caused the malady.(95) The Wagogo
of German East Africa imagine that the sin of eating the totemic animal is
visited not on the sinner himself but on his innocent kinsfolk. Thus when
they see a child with a scald head, they say at once that its father has
been eating his totem and that is why the poor child has scabs on its
pate.(96) Among the Wahehe, another tribe of German East Africa, a man who
suffers from scab or other skin disease will often set the trouble down to
his having unwittingly partaken of his totemic animal.(97) Similarly among
the Waheia, another tribe of the same region, if a man kills or eats the
totemic animal of his clan, he is supposed to suffer from an eruption of
the skin.(98) In like manner the Bantu tribes of Kavirondo, in Central
Africa, hold that the eating of the totem produces a severe cutaneous
eruption, which can however be cured by mixing an extract of certain herbs
with the fat of a black ox and rubbing the body of the sufferer all over
with the mixture.(99) The Chasas of Orissa believe that if they were to
injure their totemic animal, they would be attacked by leprosy and their
line would die out.(100) These examples prove that the eating of a sacred
animal is often believed to produce leprosy or other skin-diseases; 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. Such fancies may perhaps have been sometimes suggested by the
observation that the eating of semi-putrid flesh, to which some savages
are addicted, is apt to be followed by eruptions on the skin. Indeed, many
modern authorities attribute leprosy to this cause, particularly to the
eating of half rotten fish.(101) It seems not impossible that the
abhorrence which the Hebrews entertained of leprosy, and the pains which
they took to seclude lepers from the community, may have been based on
religious as well as on purely sanitary grounds; they may have imagined
that the disfigurement of the sufferers was a penalty which they had
incurred by some infraction of taboo. Certainly we read in the Old
Testament of cases of leprosy which the historian regarded as the direct
consequence of sin.(102)

(M24) 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.(103) 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.(104) The Parjas, a small tribe of the Central Provinces
in India, are divided into clans which have for their respective totems
the tiger, the tortoise, the goat, a big lizard, a dove, and so on. If a
man accidentally kills his totemic animal, “the earthen cooking-pots of
his household are thrown away, the clothes are washed, and the house is
purified with water in which the bark of the mango or _jamun_ tree
(_Eugenia jambolana_) has been steeped. This is in sign of mourning, as it
is thought that such an act will bring misfortune.”(105) If a Chadwar of
the Central Provinces who has the pig for his totem should even see a pig
killed by somebody else, he will throw away the household crockery and
clean the house as if on the death of a member of his family.(106) 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 contagion. We have seen, for example, how in Tonga a man who happened
to touch a sacred chief, or anything personally belonging to him, had to
perform a certain ceremony before he could feed himself with his hands;
otherwise it was believed that he would swell up and die, or at least be
afflicted with scrofula or some other disease.(107) We have seen, too,
what fatal effects are supposed to follow, and do actually follow, from
contact with a sacred object in New Zealand.(108) 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.(109) 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.”(110) 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.(111) 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.(112) In Samoa people whose god was a butterfly believed that if
they caught a butterfly it would strike them dead.(113) 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 family had used
banana leaves for this purpose, it was supposed that he would suffer from
rheumatic swellings or an eruption all over the body like
chicken-pox.(114) The Mori clan of the Bhils in Central India worship the
peacock as their totem and make offerings of grain to it; yet members of
the clan believe that were they even to set foot on the tracks of a
peacock they would afterwards suffer from some disease, and if a woman
sees a peacock she must veil her face and look away.(115) Thus the
primitive mind seems to conceive of holiness as a sort of dangerous virus,
which a prudent man will shun as far as possible, and of which, if he
should chance to be infected by it, he will carefully disinfect himself by
some form of ceremonial purification.

(M25) 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,(116) 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.(117) 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 may 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 black pig that Typhon injured the eye of the
god Horus, who burned him and instituted the sacrifice of the pig, the
sun-god Ra having declared the beast abominable.(118) 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 pigs were sacrificed once a
year,(119) is clearly a modernised version 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.(120) 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 annual sacrifice of a pig to Osiris, coupled with the
alleged hostility of the animal to the god, tends to shew, first, that
originally the pig was a god, and, second, that he was Osiris. At a later
age, when Osiris became anthropomorphic and his original relation to the
pig had been forgotten, the animal was first distinguished from him, and
afterwards opposed as an enemy to him by mythologists who could think of
no reason for killing a beast in connexion with the worship of a god
except that the beast 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.(121) At this later stage the havoc which a wild boar
notoriously makes amongst the corn would supply a plausible reason for
regarding him as the foe of the corn-spirit, though originally, if I am
right, the very freedom with which the boar ranged at will through the
corn led people to identify him with the corn-spirit, to whom he was
afterwards opposed as an enemy.

(M26) As the depredations committed by wild swine on the growing crops in
countries where these creatures abound are necessarily unfamiliar to most
English readers, it may be well to illustrate them by examples. Thus, for
instance, in Palestine the wild boar “is eagerly chased and destroyed on
account of the frightful ravages it makes among the crops. Not only does
it devour any fruits within reach, but in a single night a party of wild
boars will uproot a whole field, and destroy the husbandman’s hopes for
the year. The places they love to frequent are the reedy marshes and
thickets by rivers and lakes, and they swarm in the thickets all along the
banks of the Jordan from Jericho to the Lake of Gennesaret. From these
fastnesses, whence neither dog nor man can dislodge them, they make
nightly forays upon the corn-fields and root-crops of the villagers,
returning at daybreak to their coverts. About Jericho they are especially
destructive, and when the barley crop is ripening, the husbandmen have to
keep nightly watch to drive them away. Their presence can always be
detected by the crashing noise they make in forcing their way through the
thickets, when the men fire, guided by the sound.”(122) Wild pigs are the
special enemies of the crops in South Africa; the fences constructed by
the Zulus round their gardens are mainly designed to guard against the
devastating depredations of these brutes, though porcupines, baboons,
hippopotamuses, and elephants also make havoc of the ripe grain. Sometimes
small huts are erected on platforms in the gardens, and in these huts
watchers are set to scare away the nocturnal invaders.(123) So in British
Central Africa sentinels are posted day and night in huts raised on
platforms to protect the maize fields from the inroads of baboons and of
wild pigs, which are still more destructive than the baboons, for they
grub up the plants as well as devour the grain; and the watchers drum
continually on any metal they have at hand to keep the marauders at
bay.(124) In the island of Nias whole fields are sometimes trampled down
by these pests between sunset and sunrise. Often the stillness of the
serene equatorial night is broken by the strident cries of the watchers of
the fields; the sound goes echoing through the wooded valleys for a long
time, and here and there a dull grunting tells that the efforts of the
sentinels have not been in vain.(125) In Northern Luzon, of the Philippine
Archipelago, the rice-fields are similarly exposed to the depredations of
wild hogs, and watchers remain on guard day and night in outlooks,
sometimes in commodious structures of stone erected for the purpose, who
burn fires at night to frighten the animals away.(126) At the beginning of
their annual agricultural labours the Banars of Cambodia pray to Yang-Seri
that he would be pleased to give them plenty of rice and to prevent the
wild boars from eating it up.(127) In Gayo-land, a district of Sumatra,
the worst enemies of the rice crops are wild swine and field mice; the
whole of the harvest is sometimes destroyed by their inroads.(128) Among
the Kai of German New Guinea people who are engaged in the labour of the
fields will on no account eat pork. The reason is that pigs, both wild and
tame, are the most dangerous foes of the crops; therefore it seems clear
to the mind of the Kai that if a field labourer were to eat pork, the
flesh of the dead pig in his stomach would attract the living pigs into
the field.(129) Perhaps this superstition, based on the principle of
sympathetic magic, may explain the aversion to pork which was entertained
by some of the agricultural peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean in
antiquity.

(M27) To people thus familiarised with the ravages of wild boars among the
ripe crops the idea might naturally present itself that the animal is
either the enemy of the corn-god or perhaps the corn-god himself come in
person to enjoy his own despite all the efforts of mankind to keep him out
of his rights. Hence we can understand how an agricultural people like the
ancient Egyptians may have identified the wild boar either with their
corn-god Osiris or with his enemy Typhon. The view which identifies the
pig with Osiris derives not a little support from the sacrifice of pigs to
him on the very day on which, according to tradition, Osiris himself was
killed;(130) 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
Persephone into the lower world; and both customs are parallel to the
European practice of killing a goat, cock, and so forth, at harvest as a
representative of the corn-spirit.

(M28) Again, the theory 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.(131) Yet at a later time these men were explained to be
representatives, not of Osiris, but of his enemy Typhon,(132) 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 offered on the ground of their resemblance to Typhon;(133) 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.

(M29) Osiris was regularly identified with the bull Apis of Memphis and
the bull Mnevis of Heliopolis.(134) 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 in origin entirely distinct deities
who came to be fused with Osiris at a later time. The universality of the
worship of these two bulls(135) seems to put them on a different footing
from the ordinary sacred animals whose worships were purely local. Hence
if the latter were evolved from totems, as they may have been, 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.(136) If this were so, ancient Egypt would exhibit a stratification
of three great types of religion or superstition corresponding to three
great stages of society. Totemism, which may be roughly described as a
species of superstitious respect paid to wild animals and plants by many
tribes in the hunting stage of society, would be represented by the
worship of the local sacred animals; the worship of cattle, which belongs
to society in the pastoral stage, would be represented by the cults of
Apis and Mnevis; and the worship of cultivated plants, which is peculiar
to society in the agricultural stage, would be represented by the religion
of Osiris and Isis. The Egyptian reverence for cows, which were never
killed,(137) might belong either to the second or the third of these
stages. The consecration of cows to Isis, who was portrayed with cow’s
horns(138) and may have been supposed to be incarnate in the animals,
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 disquisition on the custom of killing a 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.(139) The limit, according to Plutarch, was twenty-five years;(140)
but it cannot always have been enforced, for the tombs of the Apis bulls
have been discovered in modern times, and from the inscriptions on them it
appears that in the twenty-second dynasty two of the holy steers lived
more than twenty-six years.(141)

(M30) To prevent misunderstandings it may be well to add that what I have
just said as to the stratification of three great types of religion or
superstition corresponding to three great types of society is not meant to
sketch, even in outline, the evolution of religion as a whole. I by no
means wish to suggest that the reverence for wild animals and plants, the
reverence for domestic cattle, and the reverence for cultivated plants are
the only forms of religion or superstition which prevail at the
corresponding stages of social development; all that I desire to convey is
that they are characteristic of these stages respectively. The elements
which make up any religious system are far too numerous and their
interaction far too complex to be adequately summed up in a few simple
formulas. To mention only a single factor of which I have taken no account
in indicating roughly a certain correspondence between the strata of
religion and of society, the fear of the spirits of the dead appears to
have been one of the most powerful factors, perhaps, indeed, the most
powerful of all, in shaping the course of religious evolution at every
stage of social development from the lowest to the highest; and for that
very reason it is not specially characteristic of any one form of society.
And the three types of religion or superstition which I have selected as
characteristic of three stages of society are far from being strictly
limited each to its corresponding step in the social ladder. For example,
although totemism, or a particular species of reverence paid by groups of
men to wild animals and plants, probably always originated in the hunting
stage of society, it has by no means been confined to that primitive phase
of human development but has often survived not only into the pastoral but
into the agricultural stage, as we may see for example by the case of many
tribes in Africa, India, and America; and it seems likely that a similar
overlapping of the various strata takes place in every instance. In short,
we cannot really dissect the history of mankind as it were with a knife
into a series of neat sections each sharply marked off from all the rest
by a texture and colour of its own; we may indeed do so theoretically for
the convenience of exposition, but practically the textures interlace, the
colours melt and run into each other by insensible gradations that defy
the edge of the finest instrument of analysis which we can apply to them.
It is a mere truism to say that the abstract generalisations of science
can never adequately comprehend all the particulars of concrete reality.
The facts of nature will always burst the narrow bonds of human theories.

(M31) Before quitting this part of our subject it may be well to
illustrate by one or two examples the reverence which primitive pastoral
tribes pay to their cattle, since, as I have just indicated, the worship
of sacred bulls by the ancient Egyptians, like the modern Hindoo worship
of cows, may very well have been directly derived from a similar respect
paid by their remote ancestors to their cattle. A good instance is
supplied by the Dinka, a large cattle-breeding tribe, or rather nation, of
the White Nile. “Every idea and thought of the Dinka,” says Schweinfurth,
“is how to acquire and maintain cattle: a kind of reverence would seem to
be paid to them; even their offal is considered of high importance; the
dung, which is burnt to ashes for sleeping in and for smearing their
persons, and the urine, which is used for washing and as a substitute for
salt, are their daily requisites. It must be owned that it is hard to
reconcile this latter usage with our ideas of cleanliness. A cow is never
slaughtered, but when sick it is segregated from the rest, and carefully
tended in the large huts built for the purpose. Only those that die
naturally or by an accident are used as food. All this, which exists among
most of the pastoral tribes of Africa, may perchance appear to be a
lingering remnant of an exploded cattle-worship; but I may draw attention
to the fact that the Dinka are by no means disinclined to partake of any
feast of their flesh, provided that the slaughtered animal was not their
own property. It is thus more the delight of actual possession, than any
superstitious estimate, that makes the cow to them an object of reverence.
Indescribable is the grief when either death or rapine has robbed a Dinka
of his cattle. He is prepared to redeem their loss by the heaviest
sacrifices, for they are dearer to him than wife or child. A dead cow is
not, however, wantonly buried; the negro is not sentimental enough for
that; such an occurrence is soon bruited abroad, and the neighbours
institute a carousal, which is quite an epoch in their monotonous life.
The bereaved owner himself is, however, too much afflicted at the loss to
be able to touch a morsel of the carcass of his departed beast. Not
unfrequently in their sorrow the Dinka remain for days silent and
abstracted, as though their trouble were too heavy for them to bear.”(142)
A rich Dinka will sometimes keep a favourite ox and treat it with such
marks of respect that an observer has compared the animal to the Apis of
the ancient Egyptians. “Here and there,” we are told, “beside the hut of a
wealthy negro is set up a great withered tree. From its boughs hang
vessels containing food and perhaps trophies of war; to its trunk is
fastened the great drum (_Noqara_), which summons to war or to the dance.
To this tree, separated from the rest of the cattle, is tethered a great
fat ox. It is of a white colour passing into a slaty grey on the shoulders
and legs: its long horns are artificially bent to opposite sides and
adorned with bunches of hair: the tuft of the tail is cut off. This is the
_makwi_, the Apis of the negro. His master, who has singled him out from
his youth for his colour and certain marks, has cherished and reared him
in order that he may one day be his pride in the eyes of the village. He
has gelded him, adorned him, trained him to walk at the head of the herd,
to dance, and to fight. His _makwi_ is always an object of his tenderest
attention; he never fails to bring him a bundle of the finest herbs; if he
can procure a bell, he hangs it round the animal’s neck; and at evening,
if he has milk or _meriṣa_ enough for guests, the drum is beaten to summon
the youth to come and dance round the deified ox.”(143)

(M32) Again, speaking of the Nuehr, another pastoral tribe of the Upper
Nile, a traveller tells us that “as among the Dinka, so among the
Nuehr-negroes the cattle enjoy a respect, indeed we may say a veneration,
which reminds us of the animal worship of the ancient Egyptians,
especially of that of the holy steer Apis, though the respect may be
grounded on the simple fact that cattle are the only possession of these
negroes. The largest and handsomest bull is the leader of the herd; he is
decked with bunches of hair and small bells, marked out from the rest in
every way, and regarded as the guardian genius of the herd as well as of
the family. His loss is the greatest misfortune that can befall his owner.
At night his master drives the animal round the herd, couched about the
smoky fire, and sings of his beauty and courage, while the bull signifies
his contentment by a complacent lowing. To him his master every morning
commits the herd, in order that he may guide them to the best pastures and
guard them from danger; in him he reveres his ideal of all that is
beautiful and strong; nay he designates him by the same name which he
applies to his own dim conception of a Supreme Being, _Nyeledit_, and to
the thunder.”(144)

§ 5. Virbius and the Horse.

(M33) We are now in a position to hazard a conjecture as to the meaning of
the tradition that Virbius, the first of the divine Kings of the Wood at
Aricia, had been killed in the character of Hippolytus by horses.(145)
Having found, first, that spirits of the corn are not infrequently
represented in the form of horses;(146) 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 or
Hippolytus was said to have been slain were really embodiments of him as a
deity of vegetation. The myth that he had been killed by horses was
probably invented to explain certain features in his worship, 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 their exclusion it might be inferred
that horses 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 Athena, as may be inferred from the
practice of representing the goddess 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 Athena.(147) So far,
therefore, the relation of the goat of Athena 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.(148) 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 Athena
herself;(149) 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.(150) Now,
if we knew the ritual of the Arician grove better, we might find that 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.(151) 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 Dionysus, and possibly to
Athena. 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 Athena 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.

(M34) 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 similar sacrifice of a horse which took place once a
year at Rome. On the fifteenth of October in each year a chariot-race was
run on the Field of Mars. Stabbed with a spear, the right-hand horse of
the victorious team was then sacrificed to Mars for the purpose of
ensuring good crops, and its head was cut off and adorned with a string of
loaves. Thereupon the inhabitants of two wards—the Sacred Way and the
Subura—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.(152) Further, it
appears that the blood of the horse was caught and preserved till the
twenty-first of April, when the Vestal virgins mixed it 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.(153)

(M35) In this ceremony the decoration of the horse’s head(154) with a
string of loaves, and the alleged object of the sacrifice, namely, to
procure a good harvest, seem to indicate that the horse was killed as one
of those animal representatives of the corn-spirit of which we have found
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.(155) In both the Roman and the African custom the
animal apparently stands for 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.(156) Again, the practice of fumigating
the cattle in spring with the blood of the horse may be compared with the
practice of giving the Old Wife, the Maiden, or the _clyack_ sheaf as
fodder to the horses in spring or the cattle at Christmas, and giving the
Yule Boar to the ploughing oxen or horses to eat in spring.(157) All these
usages aim at ensuring the blessing of the corn-spirit on the homestead
and its inmates and storing it up for another year.

(M36) 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 squalid
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.(158) 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 Maypole 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.(159) 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 township 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. 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.

(M37) However, it should be borne in mind that the evidence for thus
interpreting the relation of horses to Virbius is exceedingly slender, and
that the custom of excluding horses from the sacred Arician grove may have
been based on some other superstitious motive which entirely escapes us.
At the city of Ialysus in Rhodes there was a sanctuary of Alectrona, one
of the daughters of the Sun, into which no horse, ass, mule, or beast of
burden of any kind might enter. Any person who broke the law by
introducing one of these animals into the holy precinct, had to purify the
place by a sacrifice; and the same atonement had to be made by any man who
brought shoes or any portion of a pig within the sacred boundaries. And
whoever drove or suffered his sheep to stray into the precinct was obliged
to pay a fine of one obol for every sheep that set foot in it.(160) The
reasons for these prohibitions are quite unknown; and the taboo on horses
is particularly remarkable, since the Rhodians were in the habit of
offering a chariot and horses every year to the Sun, the father of
Alectrona,(161) doubtless in order that he might ride on them through the
sky. Did they think that it was not for the daughter of the Sun to meddle
with horses, which were the peculiar property of her father? The
conjecture may perhaps be supported by an analogy drawn from West Africa.
The Ewe negroes of the Slave Coast conceive the Rain-god Nyikplã as a man
who rides a horse, and who may be seen galloping on it through the sky in
the form of a shooting star. Hence in the town of Angla, where he
generally resides when he is at home, no person may appear on horseback in
the streets, that being apparently regarded as an impious usurpation of
the style of the deity. In former days even Europeans were forbidden to
ride on horseback in Angla; and missionaries who attempted to set the
local prejudice at defiance have been pelted with sticks and dirt by the
outraged natives.(162) Another deity who suffered not horses to enter his
sacred place was Rakelimalaza, a Malagasy god whose name signifies
“renowned, although diminutive.” His residence was a village situated on
the top of a hill about seven miles east of Tananarivo. But horses were
not the only animal or thing to which this fastidious being entertained a
rooted aversion. “Within the limits of the ground which is considered
sacred, and which embraces a wide circumference in the immediate vicinity
of the idol’s residence, it is strictly forbidden to bring, or to suffer
to come, certain animals and certain objects, which are carefully
specified by the keepers of the idol. Things thus forbidden are called
_fady_; a term of similar import with the well-known tabu of the South Sea
Islands. Every idol has its own particular _fady_. The things prohibited
by Rakelimalaza are, guns, gunpowder, pigs, onions, sifotra (a shell-fish
resembling a snail), sitry (a small animal resembling the young
crocodile), striped or spotted robes, anything of a black colour, goats,
horses, meat distributed at funerals or at the _tangena_, and cats and
owls. Its keepers are forbidden to enter any house where there is a
corpse; and in crossing a river they are not permitted to say, ‘Carry me,’
otherwise they place themselves in danger of being seized by the
crocodiles; and in war they must not talk, or they are in danger of being
shot.”(163) To attempt to discover the particular reasons for all these
numerous and varied taboos would obviously be futile; many of them may be
based on accidental circumstances which for us are lost past recovery. But
it may be worth while to observe that a variety of taboos was enforced at
other ancient Greek shrines besides the sanctuary of Alectrona at Ialysus.
For example, no person was allowed to enter the sanctuary of the Mistress
at Lycosura in Arcadia clad in black, purple, or flowered vestments, or
wearing shoes or a ring, or with his or her hair plaited or covered, or
carrying flowers in his hand;(164) and no pomegranates might be brought
into the sanctuary, though all other fruits of the orchard were free to
enter.(165) These instances may warn us against the danger of arguing too
confidently in favour of any one of the many possible reasons which may
have moved the old Latins to exclude horses from the sacred Arician grove.
The domain of primitive superstition, in spite of the encroachments of
science, is indeed still to a great extent a trackless wilderness, a
tangled maze, in the gloomy recesses of which the forlorn explorer may
wander for ever without a light and without a clue.

CHAPTER X. EATING THE GOD.

§ 1. The Sacrament of First-Fruits.

(M38) 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
naturally 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.(166)
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.(167)

(M39) 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. About the time of the autumn
sowing, when all the corn had been got in and the threshing had begun,
each farmer held a festival called Sabarios, that is, “the mixing or
throwing together.” He took nine good handfuls of each kind of crop—wheat,
barley, oats, flax, beans, lentils, and the rest; 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
that 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 employed 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. Next 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. After that, a bushel was 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 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 took place no bad word might be spoken.(168)

(M40) Such was the custom about two hundred years or more 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.(169)
The meaning of this last custom is obscure, but a similar custom was
certainly observed by the heathen Lithuanians at their solemn
sacrifices.(170) 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.(171) The iron is here plainly a charm, intended to render
harmless the spirit that is in the corn.(172) 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.”(173) In one part of Yorkshire it is still
customary for the clergyman to cut the first corn; and my informant
believes that the corn so cut is used to make the communion bread.(174) If
the latter part of the custom is correctly reported (and analogy is all in
its favour), it shews how the Christian communion has absorbed within
itself a sacrament which is doubtless far older than Christianity.

(M41) Among the heathen Cheremiss on the left bank of the Volga, when the
first bread baked from the new corn is to be eaten, the villagers assemble
in the house of the oldest inhabitant, the eastern door is opened, and all
pray with their faces towards it. Then the sorcerer or priest gives to
each of them a mug of beer, which they drain; next he cuts and hands to
every person a morsel of the loaf, which they partake of. Finally, the
young people go to the elders and bowing down to the earth before them
say, “We pray God that you may live, and that God may let us pray next
year for new corn.” The rest of the day is passed in mirth and dancing.
The whole ceremony, observes the writer who has described it, looks almost
like a caricature of the Eucharist.(175) According to another account,
each Cheremiss householder on this occasion, after bathing, places some of
each kind of grain, together with malt, cakes, and drink, in a vessel,
which he holds up to the sun, at the same time thanking the gods for the
good things which they have bestowed upon him.(176) But this part of the
ceremony is a sacrifice rather than a sacrament of the new corn.

(M42) The Aino or Ainu of Japan are said to distinguish various kinds of
millet as male and female respectively, and these kinds, taken together,
are called “the divine husband and wife cereal” (_Umurek haru kamui_).
“Therefore before millet is pounded and made into cakes for general
eating, the old men have a few made for themselves first to worship. When
they are ready they pray to them very earnestly and say:—‘O thou cereal
deity, we worship thee. Thou hast grown very well this year, and thy
flavour will be sweet. Thou art good. The goddess of fire will be glad,
and we also shall rejoice greatly. O thou god, O thou divine cereal, do
thou nourish the people. I now partake of thee. I worship thee and give
thee thanks.’ After having thus prayed, they, the worshippers, take a cake
and eat it, and from this time the people may all partake of the new
millet. And so with many gestures of homage and words of prayer this kind
of food is dedicated to the well-being of the Ainu. No doubt the cereal
offering is regarded as a tribute paid to god, but that god is no other
than the seed itself; and it is only a god in so far as it is beneficial
to the human body.”(177)

(M43) The natives of the Reef Islands in Melanesia describe as follows the
ceremonies which they observe at eating new fruits: “When the fruit of
trees that are eatable, such as bread-fruit, or _ninas_ (nuts) is nearly
ripe, about a month before the time that people eat it, they all go
together into the bush. They must all go together for this ‘holy eating,’
and when they return they all assemble in one place, and no one will be
absent; they sit down and cook bread-fruit. While it is being cooked no
one will eat beforehand, but they set it in order and cook it with
reverence, and with the belief that the spirit has granted that food to
them and they return thanks to him for it. When it is cooked a certain man
takes a bread-fruit and climbs up a tree, and all the people stand on the
ground and they all look up, and when he has reached the top they shout
out, and when they have shouted they call out, ‘This is the bread-fruit of
the whole land’; then he throws down the bread-fruit and they pick it up
and shout out again and give thanks, for they think that the spirit who
protects the fruit will hear. Their thoughts are thus also with regard to
the yam, there is no difference, it is all the same; they think that a
spirit gives them food, and the people assemble together and thank the
spirit. In every island they think that there is a spirit presiding over
food.”(178)

(M44) At Bourail, in New Caledonia, the eating of the first yams of the
season is a solemn ceremony. The women may take no part in it; indeed for
five days previously they may not even shew themselves on any pretext, and
must hide in the forest. But the men of other tribes are invited to share
in the festivity. On the day of the ceremony seven or eight yams are dug
up with the greatest precaution, wrapt in leaves, and carried before the
great wooden images, ten or twelve feet high, rudely carved in human form
and painted black, red, and white, which represent the ancestors of the
tribe. Special pots, only used on these occasions, are then disinterred by
boys, who cook the new yams in them, eat them, and afterwards bury the
pots in the places where they found them. Thereupon the chief or the
oldest man mounts a ladder and addresses the crowd in a long and voluble
harangue, telling them how their forefathers always respected the feast of
the first yams, and exhorting the young men of the tribe to do the same in
the time to come. After that, turning towards the ancestral images, he
prays them to give a good crop of yams every year to the people and their
descendants, adjuring them to remember how, while they were still on
earth, they always ate to their heart’s content, and beseeching them to
reflect that their sons and grandsons naturally desire to do the same.
When the orator has finished his discourse, and his hearers have signified
their approval of his eloquence by a loud grunt, the new yams are dressed
and eaten, each family cooking them in a pot of its own.(179)

(M45) At the close of the rice harvest in the East Indian island of Buru,
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.(180) Amongst the Alfoors of
Minahassa, in the north 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.(181)
Shortly before the rice-harvest in Bolang Mongondo, another district of
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 next 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.(182)

(M46) On the north coast of Ceram every owner of a rice-field begins
planting by making six holes in the middle of the field and depositing
rice-seed in them. When the crop is ripe, the rice which has sprouted from
these six holes must be the first to be reaped and the first to be eaten
by the owner at the common harvest-feast of the village. When all the
owners of the fields have thus partaken of the rice that was first planted
and first reaped in their fields, the other villagers may help themselves
to rice out of the pot. Not till this feast has been held may the owners
of rice-fields sell their rice.(183) Among the Kayans of Central Borneo,
who, as we have seen, believe rice to be animated by a soul,(184) before a
family partakes of the new rice at harvest, a priestess must touch the
face and breast of every person with a magical instrument (_kahe parei_)
consisting of the husk of a certain fruit adorned with strings of beads.
After this ceremony has been performed on every member of the family, he
or she eats a few grains of the new rice and drinks a little water. When
all have complied with this ritual, the feast begins.(185)

(M47) Amongst the Burghers or Badagas, 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, the members of which 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.”(186) 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. Next the man who cut the sheaf
kneads a cake of rice-meal, plantains, milk, honey, seven new rice corns,
seven pieces of coco-nut, and so on. Every one receives a little of his
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.(187) 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 Gaṇeṣa; then every one partakes of it.(188) In some parts
of Northern India the festival of the new crop is known as _Navan_, that
is, “new grain.” When the crop is ripe, the owner takes the omens, goes to
the field, plucks five or six ears of barley in the spring crop and one of
the millets in the autumn harvest. This is brought home, parched, and
mixed with coarse sugar, butter, and curds. Some of it is thrown on the
fire in the name of the village gods and deceased ancestors; the rest is
eaten by the family.(189) 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.(190)

(M48) The Chams of Binh-Thuan, in Indo-China, may not reap the
rice-harvest until they have offered the first-fruits to Po-Nagar, the
goddess of agriculture, and have consumed them sacramentally. These
first-fruits are gathered from certain sacred fields called
_Hamou-Klêk-Laoa_ or “fields of secret tillage,” which are both sown and
reaped with peculiar ceremonies. Apparently the tilling of the earth is
considered a crime which must be perpetrated secretly and afterwards
atoned for. On a lucky day in June, at the first cock-crow, two men lead
the buffaloes and the plough to the sacred field, round which they draw
three furrows in profound silence and then retire. Afterwards at dawn the
owner of the land comes lounging by, as if by the merest chance. At sight
of the furrows he stops, pretends to be much surprised, and cries out,
“Who has been secretly ploughing my field this night?” Hastening home, he
kills a kid or some fowls, cooks the victuals, and prepares five quids of
betel, some candles, a flask of oil, and lustral water of three different
sorts. With these offerings and the plough drawn by the buffaloes, he
returns to the field, where he lights the candles and spreading out the
victuals worships Po-Nagar and the other deities, saying: “I know not who
has secretly ploughed my field this night. Pardon, ye gods, those who have
done this wrong. Accept these offerings. Bless us. Suffer us to proceed
with this work.” Then, speaking in the name of the deities, he gives the
reassuring answer, “All right. Plough away!” With the lustral water he
washes or sprinkles the buffaloes, the yoke, and the plough. The oil
serves to anoint the plough and to pour libations on the ground. The five
quids of betel are buried in the field. Thereupon the owner sows a handful
of rice on the three furrows that have been traced, and eats the victuals
with his people. After all these rites have been duly performed, he may
plough and sow his land as he likes. When the rice has grown high enough
in this “field of secret tillage” to hide pigeons, offerings of ducks,
eggs, and fowls are made to the deities; and fresh offerings, which
generally consist of five plates of rice, two boiled fowls, a bottle of
spirits, and five quids of betel, are made to Po-Nagar and the rest at the
time when the rice is in bloom. Finally, when the rice in “the field of
secret tillage” is ripe, it has to be reaped before any of the rest.
Offerings of food, such as boiled fowls, plates of rice, cakes, and so
forth, are spread out on the field; a candle is lit, and a priest or, in
his absence, the owner prays to the guardian deities to come and partake
of the food set before them. After that the owner of the land cuts three
stalks of rice with a sickle in the middle of the field, then he cuts
three handfuls at the side, and places the whole in a napkin. These are
the first-fruits offered to Po-Nagar, the goddess of agriculture. On being
taken home the rice from the three handfuls is husked, pounded in a
mortar, and presented to the goddess with these words: “Taste, O goddess,
these first-fruits which have just been reaped.” This rice is afterwards
eaten, while the straw and husks are burned. Having eaten the first-fruits
of the rice, the owner takes the three stalks cut in the middle of the
field, passes them through the smoke of the precious eagle-wood, and hangs
them up in his house, where they remain till the next sowing-time comes
round. The grain from these three stalks will form the seed of the three
furrows in “the field of secret tillage.” Not till these ceremonies have
been performed is the proprietor at liberty to reap the rest of that field
and all the others.(191)

(M49) The ceremony of eating the new yams at Onitsha, on the Niger, 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 into 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.”(192)

(M50) Among the Ewe negroes of West Africa the eating of the new yams is
the greatest festival of the year; it usually falls at the beginning of
September, and its character is predominantly religious. We possess a
native account of the festival as it is celebrated by the tribe of the Hos
in Togoland. When the yams are ripe and ready to be dug up and brought
home, two days are devoted to cleansing the town of all ills, whether
spiritual or material, as a solemn preparation for the ensuing
celebration. When these rites of purification, which will be described in
a later part of this work, have been accomplished, then, in the words of
the native account, “the people make ready to eat the new yams. And the
manner of making ready consists in going to the fields and digging the
yams. However, they do not bring them home but lay them down somewhere on
the way. The reason why they do not bring them home is that the people
have not yet been on the place where they sacrifice to the deity. When
they wish to go thither, the way to the sacrificial place of Agbasia must
first be cleared of grass. Afterwards the people come with their drums,
which they beat loudly. When they are come to the place of sacrifice, they
first raise two great mounds of earth, and they bring to the place of
sacrifice palm wine, uncooked and cooked yams, and meal mixed with oil.
First of all the uncooked yams are cut in two through the middle, and then
this prayer is offered: ‘Agbasia, thou art he who has given the yams;
therefore here is thine own! We thank thee sincerely. May the eating of
the yams be a great joy, and may no quarrel intervene!’ Thereupon they lay
down on the ground yams mixed with oil and not mixed with oil. In doing so
they say to Agbasia, ‘He who eats not the white yams, to him belong the
yams mixed with oil; and he who eats not the yams mixed with oil, to him
belong the white yams.’ They do the same with the meal that is mixed with
oil and with the meal that is not mixed with oil. Thereby they say: ‘Here
we bring thee all that thou hast given us. Eat thereof what thou
pleasest!’ After that they pour palm wine into one pot and water into
another, and say, ‘When one has eaten, one drinks water.’ Thereby the
drums sound, songs are sung, and the priest says: ‘Our father Agbasia, we
pray thee, let us hear no more evil but good only! When women are with
child, let them bear twins and triplets, that we may increase and
multiply! When the time for sowing the yams comes again, make it to rain
upon them even more than hitherto, in order that we may come again and
thank thee more sincerely than hitherto!’ Thereupon the priest pours water
on one of the mounds, makes a paste with it, and calls the people thither.
Then he dips his finger in the slime and smears it on their brows,
temples, and breasts, saying, ‘This is the slime of Agbasia, wherewith I
smear you, that ye may remain in life.’ After that they disperse and go
home. Further, the prayers and offerings of the individual peasants on the
occasion of the yam festival are described as follows. “In the evening,
when the town is swept clean, the people go to the fields to fetch yams,
which, however, they may not yet bring into the town and therefore they
hide them in the forest. As soon as the high priest quits the town next
morning to go to the sacrificial place of his god, the women set out to
fetch the yams which they had deposited. Now they begin to cook. Many
people kill fowls or goats, and others buy fish for the festival. When the
yams are sodden, a little is broken off, mixed with oil, and laid,
together with uncooked yams, on the ground at the entrance to the
homestead. Thereby the house-father says: ‘That belongs to all those
(gods) who abide at the fence.’ He does the same under the door of the
house and says: ‘That belongs to all those (gods) who dwell with me.’ Then
he goes to the loom, and brings it its offering, and says: ‘That belongs
to all the “Artificers” who have helped me in weaving.’ After that he lays
all his charms on a mat spread in the house, and brings them also their
offering, and speaks with them.”

“Another account describes the priestly functions of the house-father
still more fully. Every house-father takes a raw piece of yam and goes
with it to his loom (_agbati_) and prays: ‘May the Artificers take this
yam and eat! When they practise their art, may it prosper!’ Again he takes
a raw yam and goes with it under the house-door and prays: ‘O my
guardian-spirit (_aklama_) and all ye gods who pay heed to this house,
come and eat yams! When I also eat of them, may I remain healthy and
nowhere feel pain! May my housemates all remain healthy!’ After he has
invoked their protection on his family, he takes a cooked yam, crumbles it
on a stone, and mixes it with red oil. With this mixture he goes again to
the loom and prays as before. But even that is not the end of the worship
of the Artificers. He again crumbles a cooked yam, but this time he does
not mix it with red oil; he goes to the entrance of the homestead and
prays again to the loom: ‘He among the Artificers who does not relish yams
mixed with oil, let him come and take the white yam and eat it!’ From
there he goes again under the house-door and prays: ‘He of my guardian
gods and he of the watchers of the house who likes not yams mixed with
oil, let him come and take the white yam from my hand and eat!’ From the
house-door he steps into the midst of the chamber and says: ‘He who
relishes not the yams mixed with oil, may eat the white; he who relishes
not the white may eat the red; and he who relishes not the red may eat the
uncooked!’ With this prayer he has completed his duties as house-priest.
Just as the weaver prays to his loom, so the hunter prays to his musket,
the smith to his hammer and anvil, and the carpenter to his plane and saw.

“Now, while the free people begin to cook the yams so soon as the priest
has left the town, the slaves of the Earth Gods, the _Trõkluwo_, must
first as children perform their duties to the priest of their gods. Each
of these children receives from his parents on the morning of the Yam
Festival two pieces of yam, which he brings to the priest of his god. The
priest cuts off a small piece of the yam and divides the piece again into
four pieces. The child kneels before him and lolls out his tongue. Holding
two of these pieces of yam in his hands, the priest utters a prayer over
the child and touches his tongue five times with the pieces of yam. Then
the child stretches his hands out, each of which the priest touches five
times with the same pieces of yam and prays as before. Then he touches
both feet of the child five times and prays for the third time. He takes
half of the cowry-shells which the child has brought, fastens them on a
string, and hangs it round the child’s neck. Thereby the child gets leave
to eat new yams.

“After all these preparations the yams are pounded into a mash, and every
one calls his brother, that he may eat with him. When the meal is over,
the people are called together to amuse themselves and to drink palm wine.
In the afternoon every one bathes, puts on a new garment, and girds
himself with a new loin-cloth.”(193)

(M51) The Ashantees celebrate the festival of the new yams early in
September; until it is over none of the people may taste of the new yams.
“The Yam Custom,” we are told, “is like the Saturnalia; neither theft,
intrigue, nor assault are punishable during the continuance, but the
grossest liberty prevails, and each sex abandons itself to its passions.”
An eye-witness has described the scene at Coomassie, the capital: “The
next morning the King ordered a large quantity of rum to be poured into
brass pans, in various parts of the town; the crowd pressing around, and
drinking like hogs; freemen and slaves, women and children, striking,
kicking, and trampling each other under foot, pushed head foremost into
the pans, and spilling much more than they drank. In less than an hour,
excepting the principal men, not a sober person was to be seen, parties of
four, reeling and rolling under the weight of another, whom they affected
to be carrying home; strings of women covered with red paint, hand in
hand, falling down like rows of cards; the commonest mechanics and slaves
furiously declaiming on state palavers; the most discordant music, the
most obscene songs, children of both sexes prostrate in insensibility. All
wore their handsomest cloths, which they trailed after them to a great
length, in a drunken emulation of extravagance and dirtiness.” About a
hundred persons, mostly culprits reserved for the purpose, used to be
sacrificed at this festival in Coomassie. All the chiefs killed several
slaves that their blood might flow into the hole from which the new yam
was taken. Such as could not afford to kill slaves took the head of a
slave who had already been sacrificed and placed it in the hole. About ten
days after these ceremonies the whole of the royal household ate new yams
for the first time in the market-place, the King himself being in
attendance. Next day he and his captains set off before sunrise to perform
their annual ablutions in the river Dah; almost all the inhabitants of the
capital followed him, so that the streets appeared to be deserted. The
following day the King, attended by his suite, washed in the marsh at the
south-east end of the town and laved the water not only over himself but
also over the chairs, stools, gold and silver plate, and the articles of
furniture which were set aside for his special use.(194) From another
account it appears that the King of Ashantee must eat the new yams before
any of his subjects was at liberty to do so.(195) Similarly in the West
African kingdom of Assinie, which forms part of the French possessions of
Senegal, the king must eat the new yams eight full days before the people
may taste them.(196)

(M52) A second festival of yams used to be celebrated at Coomassie in
December, when the king or a fetish priest consecrated the new yams before
they could be eaten by common folk. On one of the days of this December
celebration all the laws were suspended, and every man might do what
seemed good in his own eyes: he might even, contrary to custom, look at
the king’s wives, to the number of several hundreds, when they returned
with the king and his suite from washing in the fetish water of Tana. All
that day drinking went on, and the noise and uproar were prolonged far
into the night. Early in the morning a human victim was sacrificed: the
first man found near the gates of the palace was seized, butchered, and
cut in pieces, and the executioners danced with the bleeding fragments of
the victim in their hands or fastened round their necks. Before he ate of
the new yams the king washed himself in fetish water brought from distant
springs, and the chiefs performed similar ablutions.(197) In Benin the new
yams might not be eaten until the king had performed certain ceremonies,
among which one is said to have been a pretence of making a yam to grow in
a pot. Dancing, merrymaking, and farces or plays formed part of the
festival; the city was crowded with people, and they indulged in a regular
orgie.(198)

(M53) Among the Nandi of British East Africa, when the eleusine grain is
ripening in autumn, every woman who owns a cornfield goes out into it with
her daughters, and they all pluck some of the ripe grain. Each of the
women then fixes one grain in her necklace and chews another, which she
rubs on her forehead, throat, and breast. No mark of joy escapes them;
sorrowfully they cut a basketful of the new corn, and carrying it home
place it in the loft to dry. As the ceiling is of wickerwork, a good deal
of the grain drops through the crevices and falls into the fire, where it
explodes with a crackling noise. The people make no attempt to prevent
this waste; for they regard the crackling of the grain in the fire as a
sign that the souls of the dead are partaking of it. A few days later
porridge is made from the new grain and served up with milk at the evening
meal. All the members of the family take some of the porridge and dab it
on the walls and roofs of the huts; also they put a little in their mouths
and spit it out towards the east and on the outside of the huts. Then,
holding up some of the grain in his hand, the head of the family prays to
God for health and strength, and likewise for milk, and everybody present
repeats the words of the prayer after him.(199) Amongst the Baganda, when
the beans were ripe, a woman would call her eldest son to eat some of the
first which she cooked; if she neglected to do so, it was believed that
she would incur the displeasure of the gods and fall ill. After the meal
her husband jumped over her, and the beans might thereafter be eaten by
all.(200)

(M54) Amongst the Caffres of Natal and Zululand, no one may eat of the new
fruits till after a festival which marks the beginning of the Caffre year
and falls at the end of December or the beginning of January. 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.(201) It is
believed that if any man were to partake of the new fruits before the
festival, he would die;(202) if he were detected, he would be put to
death, or at least all his cattle would be taken from him.(203) The
holiness of the new fruits is well marked by the rule that they must be
cooked in a special pot which is used only for this purpose, and on a new
fire kindled by a magician through the friction of two sticks which are
called “husband and wife.” These sticks are prepared by the sorcerers from
the wood of the _Uzwati_ tree and belong exclusively to the chief. The
“wife” is the shorter of the two. When the magician has kindled the new
fire on which the new fruits are to be cooked, he hands the fire-sticks
back to the chief, for no other hand may touch them; and they are then put
away till they are required next season. The sticks are regarded as in a
measure sacred, and no one, except the chief’s personal servant, may go to
the side of the hut where they are kept. No pot but the one used for the
preparation of this feast may be set on a fire made by the friction of the
“husband and wife.” When the feast is over, the fire is carefully
extinguished, and the pot is put away with the fire-sticks, where it
remains untouched for another year.(204)

(M55) A remarkable feature of the festival, as it is observed at the court
of the Zulu king, is a dance performed by the king himself in a mantle of
grass or, according to another account, of herbs and corn-leaves. This
mantle is afterwards burnt and its ashes are scattered and trodden into
the ground by cattle.(205) Further, it is worthy of notice that the
festival is described as a saturnalia, and we are told that “a great deal
of noise and dancing goes on, and people are not supposed to be
responsible for what they say or do.”(206) Thus, for example, among the
Pondos the festival includes a period of license, during the continuance
of which the chief abdicates his functions and any crime may be committed
with impunity. The description of the Pondo festival comprises so many
interesting features that I will reproduce it entire. “When a Pondo chief
is to hold the feast of first-fruits, some of his people procure a ripe
plant of the gourd family, pumpkin or calabash, from another tribe. This
is cooked; the inside cleaned out, and the rind made ready for use as a
vessel. It is then presented to the chief with much ceremony. The
first-fruits are now brought forward, and a sacrifice, generally a young
bull, is offered, after which the feast commences. The chief issues
certain orders for the conduct of the proceedings, tastes the fruits which
are served in the gourd-dish with which he has been presented, and then
abdicates all his functions while the festival lasts. The cattle from all
the neighbouring villages are collected in the vicinity, and now they are
brought together, and the bulls incited to fight to determine which is to
be king among them for the next year. The young people engage in games and
dances, feats of strength and running. After these are over the whole
community give themselves over to disorder, debauchery, and riot. In their
bull-fights and games they but did honour to the powers of nature, and
now, as they eat and drink, the same powers are honoured in another form
and by other rites. There is no one in authority to keep order, and every
man does what seems good in his own eyes. Should a man stab his neighbour
he escapes all punishment, and so too with all other crimes against the
person, property, and morality. People are even permitted to abuse the
chief to his face, an offence which at any other time would meet with
summary vengeance and an unceremonious dispatch to join the ancestors.
While the feast continues, a deafening noise is kept up by drumming,
shouting, hand-clapping, and every kind of instrument that can be made to
emit sound. Men advance to the chief and explain their origin, and also
the object they hold sacred, by imitating the sounds and movements of
their most sacred animal. This is the person’s totem. Others imitate the
gurgling made by an enemy when stabbed in the throat. Those who adopt this
latter emblem are known as ‘children of the spear.’ When the ceremonies,
revels, and mummeries are ended, the chief repairs to his accustomed
place, and sitting down there, by that act resumes his kingly functions.
He calls the bravest of his braves before him, who is immediately clothed
and decorated with skins of animals suggestive of courage and strategy. He
performs a dance amid the frenzied shouting of the multitude, after which
the chief declares the festival at an end and harvest commenced.”(207)
Another writer, speaking of the Zulu festival of first-fruits as it was
celebrated in the time of the ferocious despot Chaka, says that “at this
period the chiefs are allowed to converse unreservedly with the king,
speaking with great freedom, and in some measure to be dictatorial.”(208)
Again, another traveller, who visited the Zulus in the reign of King
Panda, tells us that “in spite of the practice of the most absolute
despotism there are three days in the year when the nation in its turn has
the right to call the king to a severe account for his acts. It is at the
general assembly of the warriors, when the maize is ripe, that the lively
discussions take place and the questions are put to which the king must
answer at once in a manner satisfactory to the people. I have then seen
simple warriors come leaping from the ranks, assume the style of fluent
and excessively energetic orators, and not only confront the fiery glare
of Panda, but even attack him before everybody, blame his acts, call them
infamous and base, compel him to vindicate his conduct, and then refute
his vindication by dissecting it and exposing its falsehood, finally
proceeding to haughty threats and winding up the harangue with a gesture
of contempt.”(209) Such liberties taken with the despotic Zulu kings seem
to point to a time when they too, like the Pondo chiefs, abdicated or were
deposed during the festival. Perhaps we may even go a step further. We
have seen that on this occasion the Zulu king dances in a mantle of grass
or of herbs and corn-leaves, which is afterwards burnt and the ashes
scattered and trodden into the ground. This custom seems clearly intended
to promote the fertility of the earth, and in earlier times the same end
may have been compassed by burning the king himself and dispersing his
ashes; for we have seen that a Bechuana tribe, of the same Bantu stock as
the Zulus, were wont to sacrifice a human victim for the good of the crops
and to scatter his ashes over the ground.(210) In this connexion it should
be borne in mind that we have found independent evidence of a custom of
putting the Zulu king to death whenever his bodily strength began to
fail.(211)

(M56) Among the Bechuanas it is a rule that before they partake of the new
crops they must purify themselves. The purification takes place at the
commencement of the new year on a day in January which is fixed by the
chief. It begins in the great kraal of the tribe, where all the adult
males assemble. Each of them takes in his hand leaves of a gourd called by
the natives _lerotse_ (described as something between a pumpkin and a
vegetable marrow); and having crushed the leaves he anoints with the
expressed juice his big toes and his navel; many people indeed apply the
juice to all the joints of their body, but the better-informed say that
this is a vulgar departure from ancient custom. After this ceremony in the
great kraal every man goes home to his own kraal, assembles all the
members of his family, men, women, and children, and smears them all with
the juice of the _lerotse_ leaves. Some of the leaves are also pounded,
mixed with milk in a large wooden dish, and given to the dogs to lap up.
Then the porridge plate of each member of the family is rubbed with the
_lerotse_ leaves. When this purification has been completed, but not
before, the people are free to eat of the new crops. On the night after
the purification every man was bound, as a matter of ritual, to sleep with
his chief wife. If she had been unfaithful to him during the past year, it
was incumbent on her to confess her sin before she fulfilled her part of
the ceremony. Having confessed she was purified by a medicine-man, who
fumigated her with the smoke produced by burning a bean plant. Thereupon
husband and wife cut each other slightly under the navel, and each of them
rubbed his or her blood, mixed with “medicine,” into the other’s wound.
That completed the purification of the woman, and the pair might now
proceed with the rest of the rite. Should a married man be from home at
the time when the annual purification ceremony is performed, he is thought
to be in a very sad plight; indeed his chances of surviving for another
year are supposed to be small. On his return home, he dare not enter his
own house, for he would pollute it, and if even his shadow were to fall on
one of his children, the child would die. He must wait till his wife comes
to him and brings him a calabash of water to drink, which is a sign that
she has waited for his return to perform the rite of purification
together. But if she does not bring the water, he knows that in his
absence she has performed the rite with some other man, and it becomes
necessary to purge her by means of fumigation and blood-letting, as
described before. But even when that purgation is completed, husband and
wife may not indulge in connubial intercourse for the rest of the year,
that is, until the next annual purification has taken place. The Bechuanas
think that “any breach of this rule will be punished with supernatural
penalties—the husband, wife, or child will die.”(212)

(M57) Among the Matabele, another Bantu tribe of South Africa, no one
might partake of the new fruits till the king had first tasted of them;
any one who was known to have broken the law was instantly put to death.
On this occasion the regiments assembled at Bulawayo, the capital, and
danced in a great semicircle before the king, who occasionally joined in
the dance. When he did so, the medicine-men and their satellites, armed
with thorn-bushes, rushed about among the dancers and incited them to
fresh efforts by a vigorous application of the thorns to the bodies of
such as seemed to flag. The king’s wives also sang and danced before him
in long lines, holding the marriage ring in their right hands and green
boughs in their left. On the third day of the festival hundreds of oxen
were sacrificed: the flesh and blood of the black or sacred cattle were
converted into charms; while the carcases of the rest were cut up and
distributed among the people, who feasted upon them. The fourth day was
specially set apart for the ceremony of the first-fruits. In the morning
all the people went down to the river to wash, and on their return a
witch-doctor or medicine-man took a dish of the new vegetables and corn,
mixed with charms, and scattered the contents by handfuls among the crowd,
who seized and ate them. After that the people were free to eat the new
crops. According to one account, this festival of first-fruits was held at
the first full moon which followed the summer solstice (the twenty-first
of December in the southern hemisphere); according to another account, it
took place a few days after the full moon of February, which marked the
beginning of the Matabele year.(213)

(M58) The Ovambo or, as they call themselves, the Ovakuanjama, of
South-West Africa, may not partake of the new fruits of the _omuongo_
tree, which ripen in February and from which an intoxicating beverage is
extracted, until certain ceremonies have been performed. Among other
things husband and wife mutually offer each other one of the fruits, make
white strokes with chalk each on the brow, cheeks, and nose of the other,
and accompany the action with the formal expression of good wishes. If
this ceremony, which seems to mark the beginning of the New Year, were
omitted, they believe that they would be attacked by a painful disease of
the knee-joints which would cripple them.(214)

(M59) The Bororo Indians of Brazil think that it would be certain death to
eat the new maize before it has been blessed by the medicine-man. The
ceremony of blessing it is as follows. The half-ripe husk is washed and
placed before the medicine-man, who by dancing and singing for several
hours, and by incessant smoking, works himself up into a state of ecstasy,
whereupon he bites into the husk, trembling in every limb and uttering
shrieks from time to time. A similar ceremony is performed whenever a
large animal or a large fish is killed. The Bororo are firmly persuaded
that were any man to touch unconsecrated maize or meat, before the
ceremony had been completed, he and his whole tribe would perish.(215)

(M60) Amongst the Creek Indians of North America, the _busk_ or festival
of first-fruits was the chief ceremony of the year.(216) 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.(217) 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 commanded 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.(218) 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.(219) 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 fetched 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. Next 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 set 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.(220) 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 that no evil could now befall them for what
they had done amiss in the past. So they departed in joy and peace.

(M61) Ceremonies of the same general type are still annually observed by
the Yuchi Indians of Oklahoma, who belong to the Creek nation but speak a
different language. The rites are said to have been instituted by the Sun.
They are solemnised in the public square, and are timed so as to coincide
with the ripening of the corn, which usually takes place about the middle
or early part of July. Continence and abstinence from salt are prescribed
during their celebration, and all the men must fast for twelve hours
before they take the emetic. A sacred new fire is kindled by striking two
stones against each other, after which all the males are scarified or
scratched by an official on the arm or breast, so as to let blood flow and
drip on the ground of the public square. This bleeding of the men is said
to be symbolical of the origin of the Yuchi people; for the first Yuchi
sprang from some drops of blood which the mother of the Sun let fall on
earth at one of her monthly periods. Hence the Yuchi call themselves the
Children of the Sun. The solemn rite of scratching is followed by the no
less solemn rite of vomiting. This also was instituted by the Sun. He
taught the Indians to steep the button-snake root and the red root in
water and to drink the decoction, in order that they might vomit and so
purify their bodies against sickness during the ensuing year. They think
that if they did not thus purge themselves before eating the new corn,
they would fall sick. The chief of the town is charged with the solemn
duty of preparing the nauseous concoction, and he is assisted by four boys
who have been initiated into the mysteries. The pots containing the stuff
are decorated on the rim with a pattern representing the sun, and they
stand east of the fire near the middle of the public square. The order of
drinking is regulated by the rank of the drinkers. When the sun is about
the zenith, the four noblest come forward, face eastward, and gulp down
the vile but salutary potion; then they retire to their places and await
the usual results. When they feel the inward workings of the draught, they
step out of the square and discharge the contents of their stomachs in a
place set apart for the purpose. They are followed by another party of
four, and that by another, and so on, till all the men have thus purged
themselves. The rite is repeated several times. When it is over, they all
go to water and wash off the paint with which they were adorned; then
returning to their places in the square they feast on the new corn. After
a rest of some hours the men engage in ball play, not as a mere recreation
but as a matter of ritual. Sides are chosen; every player is equipped with
two rackets, and the aim of each side is to drive the ball through their
opponents’ goal, which consists of two uprights and a cross-piece. The two
goals stand east and west of each other. During the following night
dancing is kept up, and a general laxity, degenerating into debauchery,
prevails; but parents and elders wink at the excesses of the young folk.
Among the dances are some in which the dancers mimick the motions and
cries of their totemic animals, such as ducks, buzzards, rabbits, fish,
buffaloes, chickens, and owls.(221)

(M62) To this day, also, the remnant of the Seminole Indians of Florida, a
people of the same stock as the Creeks,(222) hold an annual purification
and festival called the Green Corn Dance, at which the new corn is eaten.
On the evening of the first day of the festival they quaff a nauseous
“Black Drink,” as it is called, which acts both as an emetic and a
purgative; they believe that he who does not drink of this liquor cannot
safely eat the new green corn, and besides that he will be sick at some
time in the year. While the liquor is being drunk, the dancing begins, and
the medicine-men join in it. Next day they eat of the green corn; the
following day they fast, probably from fear of polluting the sacred food
in their stomachs by contact with common food; but the third day they hold
a great feast.(223) Further, the Natchez Indians, another tribe of the
same stock, who used to inhabit a district on the lower course and eastern
bank of the Mississippi, ate the new corn sacramentally at a great
festival which has been fully described by Du Pratz, the French historian
of Louisiana. As his work is probably not easily accessible to many of my
readers, I shall perhaps consult their convenience by extracting his
description entire. The Natchez, he tells us, began their year in March
and divided it into thirteen moons. Their sixth moon, which answered to
our August, was the Mulberry Moon, and the seventh was the moon of Maize
or Great Corn. “This feast is beyond dispute the most solemn of all. It
principally consists in eating in common, and in a religious manner, of
new corn, which had been sown expressly with that design, with suitable
ceremonies. This corn is sown upon a spot of ground never before
cultivated; which ground is dressed and prepared by the warriors alone,
who also are the only persons that sow the corn, weed it, reap it, and
gather it. When this corn is near ripe, the warriors fix on a place proper
for the general feast, and close adjoining to that they form a round
granary, the bottom and sides of which are of cane; this they fill with
the corn, and when they have finished the harvest, and covered the
granary, they acquaint the Great Sun,(224) who appoints the day for the
general feast. Some days before the feast, they build huts for the Great
Sun, and for all the other families, round the granary, that of the Great
Sun being raised upon a mound of earth about two feet high. On the
feast-day the whole nation set out from their village at sun-rising,
leaving behind only the aged and infirm that are not able to travel, and a
few warriors, who are to carry the Great Sun on a litter upon their
shoulders. The seat of this litter is covered with several deer-skins, and
to its four sides are fastened four bars which cross each other, and are
supported by eight men, who at every hundred paces transfer their burden
to eight other men, and thus successively transport it to the place where
the feast is celebrated, which may be near two miles from the village.
About nine o’clock the Great Sun comes out of his hut dressed in the
ornaments of his dignity, and being placed in his litter, which has a
canopy at the head formed of flowers, he is carried in a few minutes to
the sacred granary, shouts of joy re-echoing on all sides. Before he
alights he makes the tour of the whole place deliberately, and when he
comes before the corn, he salutes it thrice with the words _hoo, hoo,
hoo_, lengthened and pronounced respectfully. The salutation is repeated
by the whole nation, who pronounce the word _hoo_ nine times distinctly,
and at the ninth time he alights and places himself on his throne.

(M63) “Immediately after they light a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood
violently against each other, and when everything is prepared for dressing
the corn, the chief of war, accompanied by the warriors belonging to each
family, presents himself before the throne, and addresses the Sun in these
words, ‘Speak, for I hear thee.’ The sovereign then rises up, bows towards
the four quarters of the world, and advancing to the granary, lifts his
eyes and hands to heaven, and says, ’Give us corn’: upon which the great
chief of war, the princes and princesses, and all the men, thank him
separately by pronouncing the word _hoo_. The corn is then distributed,
first to the female Suns, and then to all the women, who run with it to
their huts, and dress it with the utmost dispatch. When the corn is
dressed in all the huts, a plate of it is put into the hands of the Great
Sun, who presents it to the four quarters of the world, and then says to
the chief of war, ‘Eat’; upon this signal the warriors begin to eat in all
the huts; after them the boys of whatever age, excepting those who are on
the breast; and last of all the women. When the warriors have finished
their repast, they form themselves into two choirs before the huts, and
sing war songs for half an hour; after which the chief of war, and all the
warriors in succession, recount their brave exploits, and mention, in a
boasting manner, the number of enemies they have slain. The youths are
next allowed to harangue, and each tells in the best manner he can, not
what he has done, but what he intends to do; and if his discourse merits
approbation, he is answered by a general _hoo_; if not, the warriors hang
down their heads and are silent.

(M64) “This great solemnity is concluded with a general dance by
torch-light. Upwards of two hundred torches of dried canes, each of the
thickness of a child, are lighted round the place, where the men and women
often continue dancing till daylight; and the following is the disposition
of their dance. A man places himself on the ground with a pot covered with
a deer-skin, in the manner of a drum, to beat time to the dancers; round
him the women form themselves into a circle, not joining hands, but at
some distance from each other; and they are inclosed by the men in another
circle, who have in each hand a chichicois, or calabash, with a stick
thrust through it to serve for a handle. When the dance begins, the women
move round the men in the centre, from left to right, and the men
contrariwise from right to left, and they sometimes narrow and sometimes
widen their circles. In this manner the dance continues without
intermission the whole night, new performers successively taking the place
of those who are wearied and fatigued.

(M65) “Next morning no person is seen abroad before the Great Sun comes
out of his hut, which is generally about nine o’clock, and then upon a
signal made by the drum, the warriors make their appearance distinguished
into two troops, by the feathers which they wear on their heads. One of
these troops is headed by the Great Sun, and the other by the chief of
war, who begin a new diversion by tossing a ball of deer-skin stuffed with
Spanish beard from the one to the other. The warriors quickly take part in
the sport, and a violent contest ensues which of the two parties shall
drive the ball to the hut of the opposite chief. The diversion generally
lasts two hours, and the victors are allowed to wear the feathers of
superiority till the following year, or till the next time they play at
the ball. After this the warriors perform the war dance; and last of all
they go and bathe; an exercise which they are very fond of when they are
heated or fatigued.

“The rest of that day is employed as the preceding; for the feast holds as
long as any of the corn remains. When it is all eat up, the Great Sun is
carried back in his litter, and they all return to the village, after
which he sends the warriors to hunt both for themselves and him.”(225)

(M66) Even tribes which do not till the ground sometimes observe analogous
ceremonies when they gather the first wild fruits or dig the first roots
of the season. Thus among the Salish and Tinneh Indians of North-West
America, “before the young people eat the first berries or roots of the
season, they always addressed the fruit or plant, and begged for its
favour and aid. In some tribes regular First-fruit ceremonies were
annually held at the time of picking the wild fruit or gathering the
roots, and also among the salmon-eating tribes when the run of the
‘sockeye’ salmon began. These ceremonies were not so much thanksgivings,
as performances to ensure a plentiful crop or supply of the particular
object desired, for if they were not properly and reverently carried out
there was danger of giving offence to the ‘spirits’ of the objects, and
being deprived of them.” For example, these Indians are fond of the young
shoots or suckers of the wild raspberry, and they observe the following
ceremony at gathering the first of them in season. “When the shoots are
ready to pick, that is, when they are about six or eight inches above the
ground, the chief, or directing elder of the community, instructs his wife
or his daughters to pluck a small bundle of these and prepare them for
eating. This they do, using a new pot or kettle for cooking them in. In
the meantime all the settlement comes together to take part in the
ceremony. They stand in a great circle, the presiding chief, elder, or
medicine-man as the case may be, and his assistants being in their midst.
Whoever is conducting the ceremony now silently invokes the spirit of the
plants, the tenor of his prayer being that it will be propitious to them
and grant them a good supply of the suckers. While the invocation is being
made all in the circle must keep their eyes reverently closed, this being
an essential part in all such ceremonies, the non-observance of which
would anger the spirits and cause them to withhold the favours sought. To
ensure this being strictly done, the assisting elders are armed with long
wands with which they strike any person found opening his eyes during the
prayer. After this part of the ceremony is over the cooked suckers are
handed to the presiding officer in a newly carved dish, and a small
portion is given to each person present, who reverently and decorously
eats it. This brings the ceremony to a close. Later, when the berries of
this plant are ripe, a second and similar ceremony takes place.”(226)

(M67) The Thompson Indians of British Columbia cook and eat the sunflower
root (_Balsamorrhiza sagittata_, Nutt.), but they used to regard it as a
mysterious being, and observed a number of taboos in connexion with it;
for example, women who were engaged in digging or cooking the root must
practise continence, and no man might come near the oven where the women
were baking the root. When young people ate the first berries, roots, or
other products of the season, they addressed a prayer to the
Sunflower-Root as follows: “I inform thee that I intend to eat thee.
Mayest thou always help me to ascend, so that I may always be able to
reach the tops of mountains, and may I never be clumsy! I ask this from
thee, Sunflower-Root. Thou art the greatest of all in mystery.” To omit
this prayer would make the eater lazy and cause him to sleep long in the
morning. Again, when the first tobacco of the season was gathered and
smoked for the first time, the inhabitants of each lodge among the
Thompson Indians observed the following ceremony. An elderly man assembled
all the inmates, often outside the lodge and generally after sunset, and
caused all the adult men and women, who were in the habit of smoking, to
sit down in a circle, while he stood in the middle. Sometimes he made a
long speech to the people, but as a rule he simply said, “Be it known to
you that we will cut up the chief,” meaning by the chief the tobacco. So
saying he cut up some of the tobacco, and after mixing it with bear-berry
leaves he filled a large pipe, lighted it, and handed it to each person,
following the sun’s course. Everybody took one whiff, and holding up his
or her hands, the palms close together, blew the smoke downwards between
the fingers and over the breast; and as the smoke descended, he crossed
his hands on his breast, and rubbing his chest and shoulders with both
hands, as if he were rubbing the smoke in, he prayed: “Lengthen my breath,
chief, so that I may never be sick, and so that I may not die for a long
time to come.” By the chief he meant the tobacco. When every one had had
his whiff, the tobacco was cut up small and a piece given to each
person.(227)

(M68) These customs of the Thompson and other Indian tribes of North-West
America are instructive, because they clearly indicate the motive, or at
least one of the motives, which underlies the ceremonies observed at
eating the first fruits of the season. That motive in the case of these
Indians is simply a belief that the plant itself is animated by a
conscious and more or less powerful spirit, who must be propitiated before
the people can safely partake of the fruits or roots which are supposed to
be part of his body. Now if this is true of wild fruits and roots, we may
infer with some probability that it is also true of cultivated fruits and
roots, such as yams, and in particular that it holds good of the cereals,
such as wheat, barley, oats, rice, and maize. In all cases it seems
reasonable to infer that the scruples which savages manifest at eating the
first fruits of any crop, and the ceremonies which they observe before
they overcome their scruples, are due at least in large measure to a
notion that the plant or tree is animated by a spirit or even a deity,
whose leave must be obtained, or whose favour must be sought before it is
possible to partake with safety of the new crop. This indeed is plainly
affirmed of the Aino: they call the millet “the divine cereal,” “the
cereal deity,” and they pray to and worship him before they will eat of
the cakes made from the new millet.(228) And even where the indwelling
divinity of the first fruits is not expressly affirmed, it appears to be
implied both by the solemn preparations made for eating them and by the
danger supposed to be incurred by persons who venture to partake of them
without observing the prescribed ritual. In all such cases, accordingly,
we may not improperly describe the eating of the new fruits as a sacrament
or communion with a deity, or at all events with a powerful spirit.

(M69) Among the usages which point to this conclusion are the custom of
employing either new or specially reserved vessels to hold the new
fruits,(229) and the practice of purifying the persons of the communicants
and even the houses and streets of the whole town, before it is lawful to
engage in the solemn act of communion with the divinity.(230) Of all the
modes of purification adopted on these occasions none perhaps brings out
the sacramental virtue of the rite so clearly as the Creek and Seminole
practice of taking a purgative before swallowing the new corn. The
intention is thereby to prevent the sacred food from being polluted by
contact with common food in the stomach of the eater. For the same reason
Catholics partake of the Eucharist fasting; and among the pastoral Masai
of Eastern Africa the young warriors, who live on meat and milk
exclusively, are obliged to eat nothing but milk for so many days and then
nothing but meat for so many more, and before they pass from the one food
to the other they must make sure that none of the old food remains in
their stomachs; this they do by swallowing a very powerful purgative and
emetic.(231) Similarly, among the Suk, a tribe of British East Africa, no
one may partake of meat and milk on the same day, and if he has chewed raw
millet he is forbidden to drink milk for seven days.(232) Among the
Wataturu, another people of Eastern Africa akin to the Masai, a warrior
who had eaten antelope’s flesh might not drink of milk on the same
day.(233) Similarly among the Central Esquimaux the rules prohibiting
contact between venison and the flesh of marine animals are very strict.
The Esquimaux themselves say that the goddess Sedna dislikes the deer, and
therefore they may not bring that animal into contact with her favourites,
the sea beasts. Hence the meat of the whale, the seal, or the walrus may
not be eaten on the same day with venison. Both sorts of meat may not even
lie on the floor of the hut or behind the lamps at the same time. If a man
who has eaten venison in the morning happens to enter a hut in which the
flesh of seal is being cooked, he is allowed to eat venison on the bed,
but it must be wrapt up before being carried into the hut, and he must
take care to keep clear of the floor. Before changing from one food to the
other the Esquimaux must wash themselves.(234) Again, just as the
Esquimaux think that their goddess would be offended if venison met seal
or whale or walrus meat in the eater’s stomach, so the Melanesians of
Florida, one of the Solomon Islands, believe that if a man who has eaten
pork or fish or shell-fish or the flesh of a certain sort of cuscus were
to enter a garden immediately afterwards, the ghosts who preside over the
garden and cause the fruits to grow would be angry and the crop would
consequently suffer; but three or four days after partaking of such
victuals, when the food has quite left his stomach, he may enter the
garden without offence to the ghosts or injury to the crop.(235) In like
manner the ancient Greeks, of whose intellectual kinship with savages like
the Esquimaux and the Melanesians we have already met with many proofs,
laid it down as a rule that a man who had partaken of the black ram
offered to Pelops at Olympia might not enter into the temple of Zeus, and
that persons who had sacrificed to Telephus at Pergamus might not go up to
the temple of Aesculapius until they had washed themselves,(236) just as
the Esquimaux who have eaten venison must wash before they may partake of
seal or whale or walrus meat. Again, at Lindus in Rhodes there was a
sanctuary of some god or hero unknown into which no one who had partaken
of goat’s flesh or peas-pudding might enter for three days, and no one who
had eaten cheese might enter for one day.(237) The prescribed interval was
probably calculated to allow the obnoxious food to pass out of the body of
the eater before he entered into the presence of the deity, who for some
reason or other cherished an antipathy to these particular viands. At
Castabus in the Carian Chersonese there was a sanctuary of Hemithea, which
no one might approach who had either eaten pork or touched a pig.(238)

(M70) In some of the festivals which we have examined, as in the
Cheremiss, Buru, Cham, Ewe, and Creek ceremonies, the sacrament of
first-fruits is combined with a sacrifice or presentation of them to gods
or spirits,(239) 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 offering the first-fruits to the gods or spirits comes now to be
thought a sufficient preparation for eating the new corn; the higher
powers 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 returning to them a portion of their bounty. More
examples of the sacrifice, as distinct from sacrament, of first-fruits
will be given presently.(240)

§ 2. Eating the God among the Aztecs.

(M71) 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: “The Mexicans in the month of
May made their principal feast to their god Vitzilipuztli, and two days
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 quantity of the seed of beets with roasted maize, and then
they did mould it with honey, making an idol of that paste in bigness like
to that of wood, putting instead of eyes grains of green glass, of blue or
white; and for teeth grains of maize 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 attire it. Being thus clad and deckt, they did set it
in an azured chair and in a litter to carry it on their shoulders. The
morning of this feast being come, an hour 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
maize roasted and parched, being like unto azahar or the flower of orange;
and about their necks they had great chains of the same, which went
bauldrickwise under their left arm. Their cheeks were dyed with vermilion,
their arms from the elbow to the wrist were covered with red parrots’
feathers.” Young men, dressed in red robes and 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 idol all the people stood in the court with much reverence and
fear. Being mounted to the top, and that they had placed it in a little
lodge of roses which they held ready, presently came the young men, which
strewed many flowers of sundry kinds, wherewith they filled the temple
both within and without. This done, all the virgins came out of their
convent, bringing pieces of paste compounded of beets and roasted maize,
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
young men, who carried them up and laid them at the idol’s feet, wherewith
they filled the whole place that it could receive no more. They called
these morsels of paste the flesh and bones of Vitzilipuztli. Having laid
abroad these bones, presently came all the ancients of the temple,
priests, Levites, and all the rest of the ministers, according to their
dignities and antiquities (for herein there was a strict order amongst
them) one after another, with their veils of diverse colours and works,
every one according to his dignity and office, having garlands upon their
heads and chains of flowers about their necks; after them came their gods
and goddesses whom they worshipped, of diverse figures, attired in the
same livery; then putting themselves in order about those morsels and
pieces of paste, they used certain ceremonies with singing and dancing. By
means whereof they were blessed and consecrated for the flesh and bones of
this idol. This ceremony and blessing (whereby they were taken for the
flesh and bones of the idol) being ended, they honoured those pieces in
the same sort as their god.

(M72) “Then come forth the sacrificers, who began the sacrifice of men in
the manner as hath been spoken, and that day they did sacrifice a greater
number than at any other time, for that it was the most solemn feast they
observed. The sacrifices being ended, all the young men and maids came out
of the temple attired as before, and being placed in order and rank, one
directly against another, they danced by drums, the which sounded in
praise of the feast, and of the idol which they did celebrate. To which
song all the most ancient and greatest noblemen did answer dancing about
them, making a great circle, as their use is, the young men and maids
remaining always in the midst. All the city came to this goodly spectacle,
and there was a commandment very strictly observed throughout all the
land, that the day of the feast of the idol of Vitzilipuztli they should
eat no other meat but this paste, with honey, whereof the idol was made.
And this should be eaten at the point of day, and they should drink no
water nor any other thing till after noon: they held it for an ill sign,
yea, for sacrilege to do the contrary: but after the ceremonies ended, it
was lawful for them to eat anything. During the time of this ceremony they
hid the water from their little children, admonishing all such as had the
use of reason not to drink any water; which, if they did, the anger of God
would come upon them, and they should die, which they did observe very
carefully and strictly. The ceremonies, dancing, and sacrifice ended, they
went to unclothe themselves, and the priests and superiors of the temple
took the idol of paste, which they spoiled of all the ornaments it had,
and made many pieces, as well of the idol itself as of the truncheons
which they consecrated, and then they gave them to the people in manner of
a communion, beginning with the greater, and continuing unto the rest,
both men, women, and little children, who received it with such tears,
fear, and reverence as it was an admirable thing, saying that they did eat
the flesh and bones of God, wherewith they were grieved. Such as had any
sick folks demanded thereof for them, and carried it with great reverence
and veneration.”(241)

(M73) From this interesting passage we learn that the ancient Mexicans,
even before the arrival of Christian missionaries, were fully acquainted
with the theological doctrine of transubstantiation and acted upon it in
the solemn rites of their religion. They believed that by consecrating
bread their priests could turn it into the very body of their god, so that
all who thereupon partook of the consecrated bread entered into a mystic
communion with the deity by receiving a portion of his divine substance
into themselves. The doctrine of transubstantiation, or the magical
conversion of bread into flesh, was also familiar to the Aryans of ancient
India long before the spread and even the rise of Christianity. The
Brahmans taught that the rice-cakes offered in sacrifice were substitutes
for human beings, and that they were actually converted into the real
bodies of men by the manipulation of the priest. We read that “when it
(the rice-cake) still consists of rice-meal, it is the hair. When he pours
water on it, it becomes skin. When he mixes it, it becomes flesh: for then
it becomes consistent; and consistent also is the flesh. When it is baked,
it becomes bone: for then it becomes somewhat hard; and hard is the bone.
And when he is about to take it off (the fire) and sprinkles it with
butter, he changes it into marrow. This is the completeness which they
call the fivefold animal sacrifice.”(242) These remarkable
transformations, daily wrought by the priest, on the rice-wafer, were,
however, nothing at all to those which the gods themselves accomplished
when they first instituted the rite. For the horse and the ox which they
sacrificed became a _bos gaurus_ and a gayal respectively; the sheep was
turned into a camel; and the goat was converted into a remarkable species
of deer, enriched with eight legs, which slew lions and elephants.(243) On
the whole it would seem that neither the ancient Hindoos nor the ancient
Mexicans had much to learn from the most refined mysteries of Catholic
theology.

(M74) Now, too, we can perfectly understand why on the day of their solemn
communion with the deity the Mexicans refused to eat any other food than
the consecrated bread which they revered as the very flesh and bones of
their God, and why up till noon they might drink nothing at all, not even
water. They feared no doubt to defile the portion of God in their stomachs
by contact with common things. A similar pious fear led the Creek and
Seminole Indians, as we saw, to adopt the more thoroughgoing expedient of
rinsing out their insides by a strong purgative before they dared to
partake of the sacrament of first-fruits.(244) We can now also conjecture
the reason why Zulu boys, after eating the flesh of the black bull at the
feast of first-fruits, are forbidden to drink anything till the next
day.(245)

(M75) At the festival of the winter solstice in December the Aztecs killed
their god Huitzilopochtli in effigy first and ate him afterwards. As a
preparation for this solemn ceremony an image of the deity in the likeness
of a man was fashioned out of seeds of various sorts, which were 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, who bore the name and acted the part of the god
Quetzalcoatl, 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.”(246)

(M76) At another festival the Mexicans made little images like men, which
stood for the cloud-capped mountains. These images were moulded of a paste
of various seeds and were dressed in paper ornaments. Some people
fashioned five, others ten, others as many as fifteen of them. Having been
made, they were placed in the oratory of each house and worshipped. Four
times in the course of the night offerings of food were brought to them in
tiny vessels; and people sang and played the flute before them through all
the hours of darkness. 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.”(247) In some cities
of Mexico, as in Tlacopan and Coyohuacan, an idol was fashioned out of
grains of various kinds, and the warriors ate it in the belief that the
sacred food would increase their forces fourfold when they marched to the
fight.(248) At certain festivals held thrice a year in Nicaragua all the
men, beginning with the priests and chiefs, drew blood from their tongues
and genital organs with sharp knives of flint, allowed it to drip on some
sheaves of maize, and then ate the bloody grain as a blessed food.(249)

(M77) But the Mexicans did not always content themselves with eating their
gods in the outward and visible shape of bread or grain; it was not even
enough that this material vehicle of the divine life should be kneaded and
fortified with human blood. They craved, as it seems, after a closer union
with the living god, and attained it by devouring the flesh of a real man,
who, after he had paraded for a time in the trappings and received the
honours of a god, was slaughtered and eaten by his cannibal worshippers.
The deity thus consumed in effigy was Tetzcatlipoca, and the man chosen to
represent him and die in his stead was a young captive of handsome person
and illustrious birth. During his captivity the youth thus doomed to play
the fatal part of divinity was allowed to range the streets of Mexico
freely, escorted by a distinguished train, who paid him as much respect as
if he had been indeed the god himself instead of only his living image.
Twenty days before the festival at which the tragic mockery was to end,
that he might taste all the joys of this transient world to which he must
soon bid farewell, he received in marriage four women, from whom he parted
only when he took his place in the last solemn procession. Arrived at the
foot of the sacred pyramid on the top of which he was to die, the
sacrificers saluted him and led him up the long staircase. On the summit
five of them seized him and held him down on his back upon the sacrificial
stone, while the high priest, after bowing to the god he was about to
kill, cut open his breast and tore out the throbbing heart with the
accustomed rites. But instead of being kicked down the staircase and sent
rolling from step to step like the corpses of common victims, the body of
the dead god was carried respectfully down, and his flesh, chopped up
small, was distributed among the priests and nobles as a blessed food. The
head, being severed from the trunk, was preserved in a sacred place along
with the white and grinning skulls of all the other victims who had lived
and died in the character of the god Tetzcatlipoca.(250)

(M78) The custom of entering into communion with a god by eating of his
effigy survived till lately among the Huichol Indians of Mexico. In a
narrow valley, at the foot of a beetling crag of red rock, they have a
small thatched temple of the God of fire, and here down to recent years
stood a small image of the deity in human form roughly carved out of
solidified volcanic ash. The idol was very dirty and smeared with blood,
and in his right side was a hole, which owed its existence to the piety
and devotion of his worshippers. For they believed that the power of
healing and a knowledge of mysteries could be acquired by eating a little
of the god’s holy body, and accordingly shamans, or medicine-men, who
desired to lay in a stock of these accomplishments, so useful in the
exercise of their profession, were wont to repair to the temple, where,
having deposited an offering of food or a votive bowl, they scraped off
with their finger-nails some particles of the god’s body and swallowed
them. After engaging in this form of communion with the deity they had to
abstain from salt and from all carnal converse with their wives for five
months.(251) Again, the Malas, a caste of pariahs in Southern India,
communicate with the goddess Sunkalamma by eating her effigy. The
communion takes place at marriage. An image of the goddess in the form of
a truncated cone is made out of rice and green grain cooked together, and
it is decorated with a nose jewel, garlands, and other religious symbols.
Offerings of rice, frankincense, camphor, and a coco-nut are then made to
the image, and a ram or he-goat is sacrificed. After the sacrifice has
been presented, all the persons assembled prostrate themselves in silence
before the image, then they break it in pieces, and distributing the
pieces among themselves they swallow them. In this way they are, no doubt,
believed to absorb the divine essence of the goddess whose broken body has
just passed into their stomachs.(252) In Europe the Catholic Church has
resorted to similar means for enabling the pious to enjoy the ineffable
privilege of eating the persons of the Infant God and his Mother. For this
purpose images of the Madonna are printed on some soluble and harmless
substance and sold in sheets like postage stamps. The worshipper buys as
many of these sacred emblems as he has occasion for, and affixing one or
more of them to his food swallows the bolus. The practice is not confined
to the poor and ignorant. In his youth Count von Hoensbroech and his
devout mother used thus to consume portions of God and his Mother with
their meals.(253)

§ 3. Many Manii at Aricia.

(M79) We are now able to suggest an explanation of the proverb “There are
many Manii at Aricia.”(254) 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.(255) Now, Mania, the name of one of these
loaves, was also the name of the Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts,(256) 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, either out of good nature or through simple inadvertence, 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.(257) Upon data so
fragmentary and uncertain, it is impossible to build with confidence; 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, India,
and Europe, and were eaten sacramentally by his worshippers.(258) 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 connexion of the 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 ghosts or demons from living people is not uncommon. As
the practice is both widely spread and very characteristic of the manner
of thought of primitive man, who tries in a thousand ways to outwit the
malice of spiritual beings, I may be pardoned for devoting a few pages to
its illustration, even though in doing so I diverge somewhat from the
strict line of argument. I would ask the reader to observe that the
vicarious use of images, with which we are here concerned, differs wholly
in principle from the sympathetic use of them which we examined
before;(259) and that while the sympathetic use belongs purely to magic,
the vicarious use falls within the domain of religion.

(M80) The Tibetans stand in fear of innumerable earth-demons, all of whom
are under the authority of Old Mother Khön-ma. This goddess, who may be
compared to the Roman Mania, the Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts, is
dressed in golden-yellow robes, holds a golden noose in her hand, and
rides on a ram. In order to bar the dwelling-house against the foul
fiends, of whom Old Mother Khön-ma is mistress, an elaborate structure
somewhat resembling a chandelier is fixed above the door on the outside of
the house. It contains a ram’s skull, a variety of precious objects such
as gold-leaf, silver, and turquoise, also some dry food, such as rice,
wheat, and pulse, and finally images or pictures of a man, a woman, and a
house. “The object of these figures of a man, wife, and house is to
deceive the demons should they still come in spite of this offering, and
to mislead them into the belief that the foregoing pictures are the
inmates of the house, so that they may wreak their wrath on these bits of
wood and so save the real human occupants.” When all is ready, a priest
prays to Old Mother Khön-ma that she would be pleased to accept these
dainty offerings and to close the open doors of the earth, in order that
the demons may not come forth to infest and injure the household.(260)

(M81) Further, it is often supposed that the spirits of persons who have
recently departed this life are apt to carry off with them to the world of
the dead the souls of their surviving relations. Hence the savage resorts
to the device of making up of dummies or effigies which he puts in the way
of the ghost, hoping that the dull-witted spirit will mistake them for
real people and so leave the survivors in peace. Hence in Tahiti the
priest who performed the funeral rites used to lay some slips of plantain
leaf-stalk on the breast and under the arms of the corpse, saying, “There
are your family, there is your child, there is your wife, there is your
father, and there is your mother. Be satisfied yonder (that is, in the
world of spirits). Look not towards those who are left in the world.” This
ceremony, we are told, was designed “to impart contentment to the
departed, and to prevent the spirit from repairing to the places of his
former resort, and so distressing the survivors.”(261) When the
Galelareese bury a corpse, they bury with it the stem of a banana-tree for
company, in order that the dead person may not seek a companion among the
living. Just as the coffin is being lowered into the earth, one of the
bystanders steps up and throws a young banana-tree into the grave, saying,
“Friend, you must miss your companions of this earth; here, take this as a
comrade.”(262) In the Banks Islands, Melanesia, the ghost of a woman who
has died in childbed cannot go away to Panoi or ghost-land if her child
lives, for she cannot leave the baby behind. Hence to bilk her ghost they
tie up a piece of banana-trunk loosely in leaves and lay it on her bosom
in the grave. So away she goes, thinking she has her baby with her, and as
she goes the banana-stalk keeps slipping about in the leaves, and she
fancies it is the child stirring at her breast. Thus she is happy, till
she comes to ghost-land and finds she has been deceived; for a baby of
banana-stalk cannot pass muster among the ghosts. So back she comes
tearing in grief and rage to look for the child; but meantime the infant
has been artfully removed to another house, where the dead mother cannot
find it, though she looks for it everywhere.(263) In the Pelew Islands,
when a woman has died in childbed, her spirit comes and cries, “Give me
the child!” So to beguile her they bury the stem of a young banana-tree
with her body, cutting it short and laying it between her right arm and
her breast.(264) The same device is adopted for the same purpose in the
island of Timor.(265) In like circumstances negroes of the Niger Delta
force a piece of the stem of a plantain into the womb of the dead mother,
in order to make her think that she has her babe with her and so to
prevent her spirit from coming back to claim the living child.(266) Among
the Yorubas of West Africa, when one of twins dies, the mother carries
about, along with the surviving child, a small wooden figure roughly
fashioned in human shape and of the sex of the dead twin. This figure is
intended not merely to keep the live child from pining for its lost
comrade, but also to give the spirit of the dead child something into
which it can enter without disturbing its little brother or sister.(267)
Among the Tschwi of West Africa a lady observed a sickly child with an
image beside it which she took for a doll. But it was no doll, it was an
effigy of the child’s dead twin which was being kept near the survivor as
a habitation for the little ghost, lest it should wander homeless and,
feeling lonely, call its companion away after it along the dark road of
death.(268)

(M82) At Onitsha, a town on the left bank of the Niger, a missionary once
met a funeral procession which he describes as very singular. The real
body had already been buried in the house, but a piece of wood in the form
of a sofa and covered up was being borne by two persons on their heads,
attended by a procession of six men and six women. The men carried
cutlasses and the women clapped their hands as they passed along each
street, crying, “This is the dead body of him that is dead, and is gone
into the world of spirits.” Meantime the rest of the villagers had to keep
indoors.(269) The sham corpse was probably intended as a lure to draw away
prowling demons from the real body. So among the Angoni, who inhabit the
western bank of Lake Nyassa, there is a common belief that demons hover
about the dying and dead before burial in order to snatch away their souls
to join their own evil order. Guns are fired and drums are beaten to repel
these spiritual foes, but a surer way of baulking their machinations is to
have a mock funeral and so mislead and confound them. A sham corpse is
made up out of anything that comes to hand, and it is treated exactly as
if it were what it pretends to be. This lay figure is then carried some
distance to a grave, followed by a great crowd weeping and wailing as if
their hearts would break, while the rub-a-dub of drums and the discharge
of guns add to the uproar. Meantime the real corpse is being interred as
quietly and stealthily as possible near the house. Thus the demons are
baffled; for when the dummy corpse has been laid in the earth with every
mark of respect, and the noisy crowd has dispersed, the fiends swoop down
on the mock grave only to find a bundle of rushes or some such trash in
it; but the true grave they do not know and cannot find.(270) Similarly
among the Bakundu of the Cameroons two graves are always made, one in the
hut of the deceased and another somewhere else, and no one knows where the
corpse is really buried. The custom is apparently intended to guard the
knowledge of the real grave from demons, who might make an ill use of the
body, if not of the soul, of the departed.(271) In like manner the
Kamilaroi tribe of Australia are reported to make two graves, a real one
and an empty one, for the purpose of cheating a malevolent spirit called
Krooben.(272) So, too, some of the Nagas of Assam dig two graves, a sham
grave made conspicuous on purpose to attract the notice of the evil
spirits, and the real grave made inconspicuous to escape their attention:
a figure is set up over the false grave.(273) Isis is said to have made
many false graves of the dead Osiris in Egypt in order that his foe Typhon
might not be able to find the true one.(274) In Bombay, if a person dies
on an unlucky day, a dough figure of a man is carried on the bier with him
and burnt with his corpse. This is supposed to hinder a second death from
occurring in the family,(275) probably because the demons are thought to
take the dough figure instead of a real person.

(M83) Again, effigies are often employed as a means of preventing or
curing sickness; the demons of disease either mistake the effigies for
living people or are persuaded or compelled to enter them, leaving the
real men and women well and whole.(276) Thus the Alfoors of Minahassa, in
Celebes, will sometimes transport a sick man to another house, while they
leave on his bed a dummy made up of a pillow and clothes. This dummy the
demon is supposed to mistake for the sick man, who consequently
recovers.(277) Cure or prevention of this sort seems to find especial
favour with the Dyaks of Borneo. Thus, when an epidemic is raging among
them, the Dyaks of the Katoengouw river set up wooden images at their
doors in the hope that the demons of the plague may be deluded into
carrying off the effigies instead of the people.(278) Among the Oloh
Ngadju of Borneo, when a sick man is supposed to be suffering from the
assaults of a ghost, puppets of dough or rice-meal are made and thrown
under the house as substitutes for the patient, who thus rids himself of
the ghost. So if a man has been attacked by a crocodile and has contrived
to escape, he makes a puppet of dough or meal and casts it into the water
as a vicarious offering; otherwise the water-god, who is conceived in the
shape of a crocodile, might be angry.(279) In certain of the western
districts of Borneo if a man is taken suddenly and violently sick, the
physician, who in this part of the world is generally an old woman,
fashions a wooden image and brings it seven times into contact with the
sufferer’s head, while she says: “This image serves to take the place of
the sick man; sickness, pass over into the image.” Then, with some rice,
salt, and tobacco in a little basket, the substitute is carried to the
spot where the evil spirit is supposed to have entered into the man. There
it is set upright on the ground, after the physician has invoked the
spirit as follows: “O devil, here is an image which stands instead of the
sick man. Release the soul of the sick man and plague the image, for it is
indeed prettier and better than he.” Similar substitutes are used almost
daily by these Dyaks for the purpose of drawing off evil influences from
anybody’s person. Thus, when an Ot Danom baby will not stop squalling, its
maternal grandmother takes a large leaf, fashions it into a puppet to
represent the child, and presses it against the infant’s body. Having thus
decanted the spirit, so to speak, from the baby into the puppet, she
pierces the effigy with little arrows from a blow-gun, thereby killing the
spirit that had vexed her child.(280) Similarly in the island of Dama,
between New Guinea and Celebes, where sickness is ascribed to the agency
of demons, the doctor makes a doll of palm-leaf and lays it, together with
some betel, rice, and half of an empty eggshell, on the patient’s head.
Lured by this bait the demon quits the sufferer’s body and enters the
palm-leaf doll, which the wily doctor thereupon promptly decapitates. This
may reasonably be supposed to make an end of the demon and of the sickness
together.(281) A Dyak sorcerer, being called in to prescribe for a little
boy who suffered from a disorder of the stomach, constructed two effigies
of the boy and his mother out of bundles of clothes and offered them,
together with some of the parents’ finery, to the devil who was plaguing
the child; it was hoped that the demon would take the effigies and leave
the boy.(282) Batta magicians can conjure the demon of disease out of the
patient’s body into an image made out of a banana-tree with a human face
and wrapt up in magic herbs; the image is then hurriedly removed and
thrown away or buried beyond the boundaries of the village.(283) Sometimes
the image, dressed as a man or a woman according to the sex of the
patient, is deposited at a cross-road or other thoroughfare, in the hope
that some passer-by, seeing it, may start and cry out, “Ah! So-and-So is
dead”; for such an exclamation is supposed to delude the demon of disease
into a belief that he has accomplished his fell purpose, so he takes
himself off and leaves the sufferer to get well.(284) The Mai Darat, a
Sakai tribe of the Malay Peninsula, attribute all kinds of diseases to the
agency of spirits which they call _nyani_; fortunately, however, the
magician can induce these maleficent beings to come out of the sick person
and take up their abode in rude figures of grass, which are hung up
outside the houses in little bell-shaped shrines decorated with peeled
sticks.(285)

(M84) In the island of Nias people fear that the spirits of murdered
infants may come and cause women with child to miscarry. To divert the
unwelcome attention of these sprites from a pregnant woman an elaborate
mechanism has been contrived. A potent idol called Fangola is set up
beside her bed to guard her slumbers during the hours of darkness from the
evil things that might harm her; another idol, connected with the first by
a chain of palm-leaves, is erected in the large room of the house; and
lastly a small banana-tree is planted in front of the second idol. The
notion is that the sprites, scared away by the watchful Fangola from the
sleeping woman, will scramble along the chain of palm-leaves to the other
idol, and then, beholding the banana-tree, will mistake it for the woman
they were looking for, and so pounce upon it instead of her.(286) In
Bhutan, when the Lamas make noisy music to drive away the demon who is
causing disease, little models of animals are fashioned of flour and
butter and the evil spirit is implored to enter these models, which are
then burnt.(287) So in Tibet, when a man is very ill and all other
remedies have failed, his friends will sometimes, as a last resort, offer
an image of him with some of his clothes to the Lord of Death, beseeching
that august personage to accept the image and spare the man.(288) A
Burmese mode of curing a sick man is to bury a small effigy of him in a
tiny coffin, after which he ought certainly to recover.(289) In Siam, when
a person is dangerously ill, the magician models a small image of him in
clay and carrying it away to a solitary place recites charms over it which
compel the malady to pass from the sick man into the image. The sorcerer
then buries the image, and the sufferer is made whole.(290) So, too, in
Cambodia the doctor fashions a rude effigy of his patient in clay and
deposits it in some lonely spot, where the ghost or demon takes it instead
of the man.(291) The same ideas and the same practices prevail much
further to the north among the tribes on the lower course of the River
Amoor. When a Goldi or a Gilyak shaman has cast out the devil that caused
disease, an abode has to be provided for the homeless devil, and this is
done by making a wooden idol in human form of which the ejected demon
takes possession.(292)

(M85) The Chinese of Amoy make great use of cheap effigies as means of
diverting ghostly and other evil influence from people. These effigies are
kept in stock and sold in the shops which purvey counterfeit paper money
and other spurious wares for the use of simple-minded ghosts and gods, who
accept them in all good faith instead of the genuine articles. Nothing
could well be cruder than the puppets that are employed to relieve
sufferers from the many ills which flesh is heir to. They are composed of
two bamboo splinters fastened together crosswise with a piece of paper
pasted on one side to represent a human body. Two other shreds of paper,
supposed to stand for boots, distinguish the effigy of a man from the
effigy of a woman. Armed with one of these “substitutes for a person,” as
they are called, you may set fortune at defiance. If a member of your
family, for example, is ailing, or has suffered any evil whatever, or even
is merely threatened by misfortune, all that you have to do is to send for
one of these puppets, pass it all over his body while you recite an
appropriate spell, and then burn the puppet. The maleficent influence is
thus elicited from the person of the sufferer and destroyed once for all.
If your child has tumbled into one of those open sewers which yawn for the
unwary in the streets, you need only fish him out, pass the puppet over
his filthy little body, and say: “This contact (of the substitute) with
the front of the body brings purity and prosperity, and the contact with
the back gives power to eat till an old, old, old age; the contact with
the left side establishes well-being for years and years, and the contact
with the right side bestows longevity; happy fate, come! ill fate, be
transferred to the substitute!” So saying you burn the substitute, by
choice near the unsavoury spot where the accident happened; and if you are
a careful man you will fetch a pail of water and wash the ashes away.
Moreover, the child’s head should be shaven quite clean; but if the
sufferer was an adult, it is enough to lay bare with the razor a small
patch on his scalp to let out the evil influence.(293) In Corea effigies
are employed on much the same principle for the purpose of prolonging
life. On the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the first month all men
and women born under the Jen or “Man” star make certain straw images
dressed in clothes and containing a number of the copper cash which form
the currency of the country. Strictly speaking, there should be as many
cash in the image as the person whom it represents has lived years; but
the rule is not strictly observed. These images are placed on the path
outside the house, and the poor people seize them and tear them up in
order to get the cash which they contain. The destruction of the image is
supposed to save the person represented from death for ten years.
Accordingly the ceremony need only be performed once in ten years, though
some people from excess of caution appear to observe it annually.(294)

(M86) The Abchases of the Caucasus believe that sickness is sometimes
caused by Mother Earth. So in order to appease her and redeem the life of
the sick man, an innocent maiden will make a puppet in human form, richly
clad, and bury it in the earth, saying, “Instead of the sick man, play and
delight yourself with this.”(295) The Ewe negroes of Togoland, in West
Africa, think that the spirits of all living people come from heaven,
where they live in the intervals between their incarnations. Life in
Amedzowe, as they call that heavenly region, which lies a little to the
east of the town of Ho, is very like life on earth. There are fields there
and wildernesses and forests. Also there are all kinds of food, such as
yams and maize and likewise stock-yams, not to speak of cotton; in fact,
all these things came from heaven just as men themselves did. Moreover,
everybody has his spiritual mother in heaven and his spiritual aunt, also
his spiritual uncle, his spiritual grandfather, and so on, just as on
earth. Now the spirits in heaven are apt to resent it when one of their
number quits them to go and be born as a child on earth; and sometimes
they will pursue the truant and carry him back to the celestial country,
and that is what we call death. Little children are most commonly fetched
away by their mother in heaven; for she wearies for them and comes and
lays an invisible hand on the child, and it sickens and dies. If you hear
a child whimpering of nights, you may be sure that its mother from heaven
has laid her hand on it and is drawing it away to herself. If the child
grows very sick and its earthly mother fears that it will die, she will
mould two figures of clay, a man and a woman, and offer them in exchange
to the heavenly mother, saying, “O thou bearer and mother of children!
instead of the child that has gone away from thee we bring thee here in
exchange these clay men. Take them and withdraw thy hand from the child in
this visible world.” Grown-up people also, when they fall sick, will
sometimes make images of clay and offer them as substitutes to the
messengers who have come from heaven to fetch them away. These images are
deposited with other offerings, such as cowry-shells and a musket, by the
roadside; and if the messengers accept them instead of the sick man, he
recovers.(296) During an epidemic of small-pox the Ewe negroes will
sometimes clear a space outside of the town, where they erect a number of
low mounds and cover them with as many little clay figures as there are
people in the place. Pots of food and water are also set out for the
refreshment of the spirit of small-pox who, it is hoped, will take the
clay figures and spare the living folk; and to make assurance doubly sure
the road into the town is barricaded against him.(297)

(M87) Among the Nishga Indians of British Columbia when a medicine-man
dreams a dream which portends death to somebody, he informs the person
whose life is threatened, and together they concert measures to avert the
evil omen. The man whose life is at stake has a small wooden figure called
a _shigigiadsqu_ made as like himself as the skill of the wood-carver will
allow, and this he hangs round his neck by a string so that the figure
lies exactly over his heart. In this position he wears it long enough to
allow the heat of his body to be imparted to it, generally for about four
days. On the fourth day the medicine-man comes to the house, arrayed in
his bearskin and other insignia of office and bringing with him a wisp of
teased bark and a toy canoe made of cedar-bark. Thus equipped, he sings a
doleful ditty, the death-song of the tribe. Then he washes the man over
the region of the heart with the wisp of bark dipped in water, places the
wisp, together with the wooden image, in the canoe, and after again
singing the death-chant, commits image, wisp, and canoe to the flames,
where they are all consumed. The death-chant is now changed to a song of
joy, and the man who was lately in fear of his life joins in. He may well
be gay, for has he not given death the slip by devoting to destruction,
not merely a wisp saturated with the dangerous defilement of his body, but
also a substitute made in his own likeness and impregnated with his very
heart’s warmth?(298)

(M88) With these examples before us we may fairly conclude that the
woollen effigies, which at the festival of the Compitalia might be seen
hanging at the doors of all the houses in ancient Rome, were not
substitutes for human victims who had formerly been sacrificed at this
season, but rather vicarious offerings presented to the Mother or
Grandmother of Ghosts, in the hope that on her rounds through the city she
would accept or mistake the effigies for the inmates of the house and so
spare the living for another year. It is possible that the puppets made of
rushes, which in the month of May the pontiffs and Vestal Virgins annually
threw into the Tiber from the old Sublician bridge at Rome,(299) had
originally the same significance; that is, they may have been designed to
purge the city from demoniac influence by diverting the attention of the
demons from human beings to the puppets and then toppling the whole
uncanny crew, neck and crop, into the river, which would soon sweep them
far out to sea. In precisely the same way the natives of Old Calabar used
periodically to rid their town of the devils which infested it by luring
the unwary demons into a number of lamentable scarecrows, which they
afterwards flung into the river.(300) This interpretation of the Roman
custom is supported to some extent by the evidence of Plutarch, who speaks
of the ceremony as “the greatest of purifications.”(301) However, other
explanations of the rite have been proposed: indeed these puppets of
rushes have been a standing puzzle to Roman antiquaries in ancient and
modern times.

CHAPTER XI. THE SACRIFICE OF FIRST-FRUITS.

(M89) In the preceding chapter we saw that primitive peoples often partake
of the new corn and the new fruits sacramentally, because they suppose
them to be instinct with a divine spirit or life. At a later age, when the
fruits of the earth are conceived as created 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 offered to the divine
beings who are believed to have produced them. Originally, perhaps,
offerings of first-fruits were supposed to be necessary for the
subsistence of the divinities, who without them must have died of
hunger;(302) but in after times they seem to be looked on rather in the
light of a tribute or mark of homage rendered by man to the gods for the
good gifts they have bestowed on him. Sometimes the first-fruits are
presented to the king, perhaps in his character of a god; very often they
are made over to the spirits of the human dead, who are sometimes thought
to have it in their power to give or withhold the crops. Till the
first-fruits have been offered to the deity, the dead, 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
giving some examples of the latter.

(M90) The Ovambo or Ovakuanjama of South-West Africa stand in great fear
of the spirits of the dead, who are believed to exercise a powerful
influence over the living; in particular the spirits of dead chiefs can
give or withhold rain, a matter of vital importance in the parched region
of Ovamboland. Accordingly the people pay great respect to the spirits of
the departed, and they hold a thanksgiving festival in their honour at the
close of the harvest. When the new corn has been reaped and ground, a
portion of it is made into porridge and carried to the quarters of the
principal wife. Here all the inhabitants of the kraal assemble; the head
of the family takes some of the porridge, dips it in melted fat, and
throws it to the east, saying, “Take it, ye spirits of the East!” Then he
does the same towards the west, saying, “Take it, ye spirits of the West!”
This is regarded as a thank-offering presented to the spirits of the dead
for not visiting the people with sickness while they were cultivating the
fields, and especially for sending the rain.(303)

(M91) 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.(304) 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
these powerful beings.(305) 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.(306) The Makalaka worship a god called
Shumpaoli, whose image is to be found in the enclosure outside of their
huts. The image consists of the head of an axe, a stone from the river,
and a twig or long stalk of grass planted between them in the ground.
About this god they scatter the first-fruits of their harvest, and when
they brew beer they pour some of it on him.(307) Of the Bantu tribes of
South Africa in general we are told that they might not eat of the new
crops till the chief gave them leave to do so. When the millet was ripe he
appointed a general assembly of the people at his residence, which was
known as the Great Place; he then performed certain rites, and in
particular he offered a small quantity of the fresh grain to the spirits
of his ancestors, either by laying it on their graves or by casting it
into a stream. After that he granted the people permission to gather and
eat the new corn.(308)

(M92) Among the Maraves or Zimbas, a tribe of the Upper Zambesi, bordering
on the Portuguese territory, it is the custom that first-fruits of all
produce must be offered to the spirits of the dead (_muzimos_), to whom
they attribute all the good and ill that befall them. Every year at
harvest-time the offerings are brought to these mighty beings. Small
portions of all kinds of fruits, together with cooked fowls and _pombe_
(the native intoxicant), are carried in procession, with songs, dances,
and the beating of drums, to the burial-ground, which is always situated
in a grove or a wilderness and is esteemed a sacred place; no tree may be
felled and no animal killed on the holy ground, for the natives believe
that a spirit of the dead is present in everything within the
precincts.(309) Among the Yaos of British Central Africa “offerings are
made to the spirit world or to _mulungu_ as the great agency in the
affairs of human life. Outside the village, or beside the head-man’s hut,
may often be seen a rough shed. In this are placed the first-fruits of the
new crop, green maize, beans, pumpkins, peas, etc., as a thank offering
from the villagers for their harvest. This is described as _kulomba __
mulungu_, to worship _mulungu_.”(310) By _mulungu_ the Yaos mean primarily
and strictly the soul of a dead person, which is believed to influence the
lives and fortunes of the survivors, and therefore needs to be honoured
and propitiated; but they employ the word in an extended sense to signify
the aggregate of the spirits of all the dead, and missionaries have
adopted it as the nearest equivalent for the word God.(311) Among the
Winamwanga, a tribe of north-eastern Rhodesia, between Lake Nyassa and
Lake Tanganyika, it is customary to offer the first beer and the first
flour made from the new harvest of millet to the spirits of the dead. The
head of the family pours out some beer and a small quantity of the new
flour in a heap on the floor of his own house, after which he prays to the
spirits of his forefathers, thanks them for the harvest, and invites them
to come and partake of it with the family. The priest performs the same
ceremony at the shrine for the whole village. The householder or the
priest speaks to the spirits as if they were sitting around him. Thus he
may say, “O ye great spirits, fathers in the spirit world, mothers in the
spirit world, and all ye others, bless us now. Here is the food, and here
is the offering, call ye all of you each other.” Then after summoning the
dead by their names he may go on: “Come all of you and partake of this
offering. Ye great spirits, all things of this earth were known to you
while yet ye were here. Take care of this your family, and of all these
your children. May we ever go in our ways in prosperity. Oh! ye great
spirits, give to us food and all the produce of the land. Drive ye away
all illnesses from your family, ye great spirits; every evil spirit put
far away from us, and whatever might seek to hurt us may it fly away on
the wind. Cause ye us to abide in peace.”(312) Among the Yombe of Northern
Rhodesia, to the west of Lake Tanganyika, no one is allowed to partake of
the new fruits until certain ceremonies have been performed. Escorted by a
band of drummers, his medicine-men, and the village elders, the chief
ascends the Kalanga Mountain until he reaches the hollow fastness which in
former days his forefathers held against the marauding Angoni. Here the
grandfather of the present chief lies buried. Before his tomb a bull is
slain, and pots of freshly-brewed beer and porridge made from the
first-fruits are deposited before the shrine. The ground is then carefully
cleaned of weeds, and the blood of the bull is sprinkled on the
freshly-turned-up soil and on the rafters of the little hut. After
offering the customary prayers in thanksgiving for the harvest, and
beseeching the spirits to partake with them of the first-fruits, the
procession retires. On their return to the village, the carcase of the
bull is divided, all partake of the fresh porridge and beer awaiting them,
and the day closes with beer-drinking and dancing.(313)

(M93) The A-Kamba of British East Africa offer first-fruits to the spirits
of their dead before anybody may eat of the new crop. Sometimes these
offerings are piled on the graves of chiefs and left there along with the
meat of a goat which has been sacrificed. Sometimes the offerings are made
in a cleared place under the sacred wild fig tree (_mumbo_) of the
village; for the A-Kamba think that the spirits of the dead (_aiimu_)
dwell in wild fig trees, and they build miniature huts at the foot of the
trees for the accommodation of the ghosts. The clearing under the wild fig
tree of the village is called the Place of Prayer (_ithembo_). When any
crop is ripe, all the inhabitants of the district assemble, and a very old
man and woman, chosen for the purpose, leave the crowd and go to the Place
of Prayer, where they call aloud to the spirits of the dead and ask leave
to eat the crop. The people then dance, and during the dance one of the
women is sure to be seized with a fit of shaking and to cry aloud, which
is deemed the answer of the spirits to the people’s prayer.(314) Amongst
the Baganda a man used to offer the first-fruits of a new garden to his
god, imploring the blessing of the deity on the future crops.(315) Among
the Dinka of the White Nile no member of a family may eat the new fruits
until the father or mother has scattered some of them over the courtyard
of the house in order to ensure the blessing of God.(316) When the millet
is ripe, the Nubas of Jebel-Nuba, a range of mountains in the eastern
Sudan, observe the following ceremony. Every group of villages is presided
over by a sacred pontiff called a _cogiour_ or _codjour_, who is believed
to act under the inspiration of a spirit named Laro. So when it is known
that the grain is ready to be cut, a drum is beaten, the pontiff mounts
his horse and, attended by all the elderly men and women, repairs to his
fields, while the rest of the people betake themselves to their own farms.
There the people whose eldest child is a boy break five ears of corn, and
those whose eldest child is a girl break four. But young unmarried people
break five or four ears according as they desire to have a boy or a girl
for their first-born. All then return to the village and place the ears
they have gathered on the hedge which serves as an enclosure. When the
beat of the drum and multitudinous cries of joy announce the return of the
pontiff, the people take the gathered ears and advance to meet him. He
rides at the head of a cavalcade composed of all the men who have horses.
After that, attended by the elders, he retires to his house, while the
rest of the people deposit the ears of corn in the cave of Laro, the being
who inspires the holy pontiff. Feasting, drinking, and horse-races
conclude the ceremony. At the races the young folk amuse themselves by
flinging stalks of millet before the horses to make them shy and throw
their riders.(317)

(M94) The Igbiras, a pagan tribe at the confluence of the Niger and the
Benue, bury their dead in their houses and have great faith in the power
of the ghosts, whose guidance and protection they seek to ensure by
periodical offerings of goats and cocks. Also they offer the first-fruits
of their crops to the dead, hanging bunches of the new grain over the
burial-places in their huts. The Igbiras also celebrate the festival of
the new yams with great pomp. It is their New Year’s Day. Sacrifices of
fowls and goats are offered, and wine and oil are freely poured out. The
king takes a prominent part in the feast.(318) Among the Cross River
natives, in the lower valley of the Niger, the eating of the new yams is
an occasion of great rejoicing, but no one may partake of them until a
portion has been ceremonially offered to the deities. The festival is not
held simultaneously but separately for each village according to the state
of the crops. High and low, old and young, men, women, and children dance
to music on these joyful occasions.(319) The Matse tribe of Ewe negroes in
Togoland worship the Earth at the times when they dig the ripe yams in
September, when they reap the ripe maize in November, and when they burn
the grass in February. The place where they offer sacrifices to the Earth
goddess is called “the Wood of our Mother.” In the month of November the
hunters, led by the Chief Huntsman and the High Priest, repair to the
maize-fields, where they gather cobs of the ripe grain. Some of these they
deposit, with prayers, in the sacrificial place in the wood, but they keep
the finest cobs for themselves. After this sacrifice of the new corn to
the Earth goddess everybody is free to get in his maize.(320) Amongst the
Hos, another Ewe tribe of Togoland, when a man is about to dig up his yam
crop, he first of all digs up two yams which he had planted for the
goddess Mawu Sodza. These he holds up to her and prays, saying, “O Mawu
Sodza, thou ship full of yams, give to me, and I will give to you; pass me
over, and I will pass you over. Here are thy yams, which I have dug for
thee. When I dig mine, grant that I may have plenty.” Thereupon he begins
to dig the crop.(321) Among the Bassari, another tribe of Togoland, no man
may eat of the new yams until the people have paid a tribute of the
first-fruits to the king. At such times long files of men, women, and
children may be seen wending their way to the capital to render to the
king his dues. But the king himself may not partake of the new yams until
he has offered a portion of them, along with ten white fowls, to the
fetish.(322) Before the Adeli of the Slave Coast may eat of the new yams,
the owner of each farm must bring the first yams of his field to the
fetish priest, who offers them to the fetish, after which he declares that
the harvest may take place. The festival, accompanied by shooting and
dancing, lasts several days; it generally falls in August.(323)

(M95) Among the Betsileo of Madagascar the king used to receive
first-fruits of all the crops, such as rice, maize, manioc, beans, and
sweet potatoes: indeed this tribute of first-fruits formed a large part of
his revenue.(324) 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.(325) 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.(326) It has been suggested that the modern system of taxation may be
directly derived from the ancient obligation of paying first-fruits to a
sacred pontiff or king.(327)

(M96) 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.(328) Before they harvest any of their crops, the
Garos, another people of Assam, deem it necessary to sacrifice the
first-fruits of the crops to the gods. Thus, for example, they gather some
ears of rice or millet, pound them between two stones, and offer them up
on a piece of plantain stem.(329) In August, when the rice ripens, the Hos
of Bengal 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.(330) Among the
Oraons of Bengal no one will partake of the new rice until some of it has
been offered to the ancestors. A handful of it is cooked and spread on the
ground, and a pot of rice-beer is brewed and some of the beer also spilt
on the ground. Before drinking every one dips his finger in his cup and
lets fall some drops in honour of the ancestors. Further, a whity grey
fowl is killed, and the eldest of the family, addressing the ancestral
spirits, says, “O old mothers and fathers, you have always been so good to
us on these days. Here we are rejoicing: we cannot forget you: come and
rejoice with us.”(331) In Ladakh the peasants offer the first two or three
handfuls of the wheat-crop to the spirit who presides over agriculture.
These offerings they attach to the tops of the pillars which support the
roofs of their houses; and thus the bands of straw and ears of wheat form
a primitive sort of capital. Rams’ horns are sometimes added to this
decoration.(332) In the Himalayan districts of the North-Western provinces
of India the fields and boundaries are under the protection of a
beneficent local deity named Kshetrpal or Bhumiya. Every village possesses
a small temple sacred to him. When a crop is sown, a handful of grain is
sprinkled over a stone in the corner of the field nearest to the temple,
in order that the god may protect the growing crop from hail, blight, and
the ravages of wild beasts; and at harvest he receives the first-fruits in
order that he may save the garnered grain from the inroads of rats and
insects.(333) 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.(334) In the Central
Provinces of India the first grain of the season is commonly offered to
the god Bhímsen or Bhím Deo.(335) When the new rice crop is ripe, the
Gadbas, a primitive tribe of the Central Provinces, cook the first-fruits
and serve them to the cattle in new bamboo baskets; after that the men
themselves partake of the new rice.(336) The Nahals, a forest tribe of the
same region, worship the forest god Jharkhandi in the month of Chait, and
until this rite has been performed they may not use the leaves or fruits
of the _Butea frondosa_, _Phyllanthus emblica_, and mango trees. When the
god is worshipped, they collect branches and leaves of these trees and
offer cooked food to them: after that they begin to use the new leaves,
fruit, and timber.(337) Again, when the Mannewars, another forest tribe of
the Central Provinces, pick the flowers of the _mahua_ tree (_Bassia
latifolia_), they worship the tree and offer it some of the liquor
distilled from the new flowers, along with a fowl and a goat.(338) The
principal festivals of the Parjas, a small tribe of the Central Provinces,
are the feast of new vegetation in July, the feast of the new rice in
August or September, and the feast of the new mango crop in April or May.
At these feasts the new season’s crop is eaten, and offerings of them are
presented to the ancestors of the family, who are worshipped on these
occasions.(339) In the Punjaub, when sugar-cane is planted, a woman puts
on a necklace and walks round the field, winding thread on a spindle;(340)
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.(341)

(M97) Among the ancient Hindoos the first-fruits were sacrificed to the
gods at the beginning of harvest, generally at the new or the full moon.
There were two harvests in the year; the barley was reaped in spring and
the rice in autumn. From the new grain, whether barley or rice, a
sacrificial cake was prepared and set forth on twelve potsherds for the
two great gods Indra and Agni; a pap or gruel of boiled grain, sodden
either in water or milk, was offered to the Visve Devah, that is, to the
common mob of deities; and a cake on one potsherd was presented to Heaven
and Earth. The origin of these sacrifices of first-fruits was explained by
the following myth. They say that the gods and their powerful rivals the
Asuras once strove with each other for the mastery. In this strife the
Asuras defiled, both by magic and by poison, the plants on which men and
beasts subsist; for thus they hoped to get the better of the gods.
Therefore neither man nor beast could eat food, and for lack of it they
well nigh perished. When the gods heard of it, they said one to the other,
“Come let us rid the plants of the defilement,” and they did so by means
of the sacrifice. But they could not agree as to which of them should
receive the sacrifices, so to decide this delicate question they ran a
race, and Indra and Agni came in first; that is why the cake is offered to
them on twelve potsherds, while the common mob of the gods have to put up
with a simple pap or gruel. To this day, therefore, he who offers the
first-fruits to the gods does it either because no one will then be able
to defile the plants, neither by magic nor yet by poison; or perhaps he
does it because the gods did so before him. Be that as it may, certain it
is that he thereby renders both kinds of plants wholesome and innocuous,
both the plants which men eat and the plants on which cattle graze; that
indeed is the reason why the sacrificer sacrifices the first-fruits. And
the priest’s fee for the sacrifice is the first-born calf of the season,
which is, as it were, the first-fruit of the cattle.(342)

(M98) The Kachins of Upper Burma worship the spirit (_nat_) of the earth
every year before they sow their crops. The worship is performed by the
chief on behalf of all the villagers, who contribute their offerings. The
priest afterwards determines by exorcism which particular household shall
start sowing first in order that the crop may be a good one. Then the
household on which the lot has fallen goes out and sows its fields. When
the crop is ripe, it may not be reaped until the household which was the
first to sow its fields has gathered the first-fruits and offered them to
its own domestic spirits (_nats_). This is usually done before the crop is
quite ripe, in order that the reaping of the other crops may not be
delayed.(343) The Chins, another people of Upper Burma, eat the
first-fruits of their corn as a religious rite, but before doing so they
offer some of the new corn or vegetables to their dead ancestors. They
also offer the first-fruits to the goddess Pok Klai, a single glance of
whose eyes is enough to give them a plentiful harvest of rice.(344) Among
the Thay of Indo-China the first-fruits of the rice are offered at harvest
to the guardian spirit of the family before the household may partake of
the new crop. The guardian spirit of the family is the last ancestor who
died; he mounts guard until he is relieved by his successor; his shrine is
a corner of the house screened off by a low trellis of bamboo. But besides
the first-fruits offered him at harvest this guardian spirit receives some
of the parched grain in spring, at the time when the first thunder of the
season is heard to mutter. The grain which is presented to him on this
occasion was plucked from the crop before the rice was quite ripe, and it
has been carefully kept to be offered to him when the first peal of
thunder in spring announces the reviving energies of nature. When all is
ready, the rice is served up together with fish, which have been caught
for the purpose, on a table set in the corner which is sacred to the
guardian spirit. A priest drones out a long invitation to the spirit to
come and feast with his children; then the family sits down to table and
consumes the offerings. At the close of the banquet the daughter-in-law of
the deceased ancestor hangs up a basket containing rice and fish for his
use in the corner, after which she closes the shrine for another
year.(345) In Corea the first-fruits of all the crops used to be offered
to the king with religious pomp, and he received almost divine honours
from his subjects.(346) This suggests that, as I have already conjectured,
the common practice, of presenting the first-fruits to kings is founded on
a belief in their divinity.

(M99) In the island of Tjumba, East Indies, a festival is held after
harvest. Vessels filled with rice are presented as a thankoffering 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.(347) The Dyaks of Borneo hold a feast of first-fruits when the
paddy or 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 coco-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.(348) 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 deposited before the
two dummy figures, which were also sprinkled with the new paddy. Moreover,
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.(349) In Minahassa, a
district of Celebes, the people 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.(350) 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 and other things, to their ancestors as a token of gratitude.
The ceremony is called “feeding the dead.”(351) In the Tenimber and
Timor-laut 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 assume the form of birds, pigs, crocodiles, turtles,
sharks, and so forth.(352) In Amboyna, 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 by no means eat of them. A portion of the
new rice, or whatever it may be, is boiled, and milk of the coco-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.(353) In the Kei Islands, to the south-west of New
Guinea, the first-fruits are offered to Lir majoran, the god of husbandry,
when the harvest is ripe.(354) After the rice has been reaped, the people
of Nias deck the images of their ancestors with wreaths, and offer to them
the first dishful of boiled rice, while they thank them for the blessings
they have bestowed on the family.(355) 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 family dwelling, are especially sacred to them.(356)
When the Bagobos of the Philippines have got in their harvest of rice or
maize, they will neither eat of it nor sell so much as a grain till they
have made a pretence of feeding all their agricultural implements.(357)

(M100) The Bukaua of German New Guinea think that the spirits of their
dead have power to make the fruits of the earth to grow. Accordingly when
they have cleared a patch in the forest for cultivation and are planting
their crops, they take particular care to plant slips near the tree-stumps
which have been left standing in the field, because the spirits of their
long dead ancestors are supposed to perch on them. While they plant, they
call out the names of the dead, praying them to guard the field, so that
their children, the living, may have food to eat and not suffer hunger.
And similarly, when they plant stones shaped like taro bulbs in the
ground, which are supposed to produce a fine crop of taro, they pray to
their forefathers to grant them an abundance of the fruits. When the crops
are ripe, the people fetch bundles of taro, clusters of bananas,
sugar-canes, and vegetables from the fields and bring them back solemnly
to the village; a feast is prepared and a portion of the new fruits, along
with tobacco, betel, and dog’s flesh, is put in a coco-nut shell and set
on a scaffold in the house of the owner of the field, while he prays to
the spirits of his forefathers, saying, “Ye who have guarded our field as
we asked you to do, there is something for you; now look on us favourably
also for the time to come.” Afterwards, while the people are feasting, the
owner privily stirs the contents of the coco-nut shell with his finger,
and then calls the attention of the others to it as a proof that the
spirits have partaken of the offering provided for them. Finally the food
remaining in the shell is consumed by the banqueters.(358)

(M101) In certain tribes of Fiji “the first-fruits of the yam harvest are
presented to the ancestors in the Nanga [sacred 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.”(359) 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.”(360) 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.(361)

(M102) In Florida, one of the Solomon Islands, the canarium nut is much
used in the native cookery, but formerly none might be eaten till the
sacrifice of the first-fruits had been offered to the ghosts of the dead.
This was done on behalf of a whole village by a man who inherited a
knowledge of the way in which the sacrifice should be offered, and who
accordingly had authority to open the season. When he saw that the time
had come, he raised a shout early in the morning, then climbed a tree,
cracked the nuts, ate some himself, and put some on the stones in his
sacred place for the particular ghost whom he worshipped. Then all the
people might gather the nuts for themselves. The chief offered food, in
which the new nuts were mixed, on the stones of the village sanctuary; and
every man who revered a ghost of his own did the same in his private
sanctuary.(362) This sacrifice of first-fruits was witnessed by Mr.
Woodford at the village of Aola, in the neighbouring island of
Guadalcanar. The canarium nuts, or Solomon Island almonds, had been ripe
for a week, and Mr. Woodford had expressed a wish to taste them, but he
was told that this was quite impossible till the offering to the ghost had
been made. As a native put it, “Devil he eat first; all man he eat
behind.” All the inhabitants of the village adjourned to the sea-shore in
groups of ten or twelve to perform the sacrifice. The party to which Mr.
Woodford attached himself swept a space clean beneath the spreading
branches of a Barringtonia, and there constructed half-a-dozen tiny
altars, each about six inches square, out of dry sticks. On these altars
they laid offerings of yams, taros, bananas, and a little flesh; and a few
of the nuts were skinned and set up on sticks round about the altars. Fire
was then made by the friction of wood, for matches might not be used for
this purpose, though probably every man had a box of them in his bag. With
the sacred flame thus produced the altars were kindled and the offerings
consumed. When this was done, the women produced large flat cakes baked of
a paste of pounded nuts, and these were eaten by all.(363) In Saa, another
of the Solomon Islands, when the yams are ripe, the people fetch some from
each garden to offer to the ghosts. Early in the morning all the male
members of a family assemble at the sanctuary of the particular ancestral
ghosts whom they revere. One of them goes with a yam into the holy place
and cries with a loud voice to the ghosts, “This is yours to eat,” and
with that he sets the yam beside the skull which is in the sanctuary. The
others call quietly upon all the ancestors and present their yams, which
are many in number, because one from each garden is given to each of the
ghosts. Moreover, if any man has a relic of the dead at home, such as a
head, or bones, or hair, he takes back a yam to his house and places it
beside the head or whatever it may be. In the same island, as in Florida,
the new canarium nuts may not be eaten until the first-fruits have been
offered to the ghosts. Moreover, the first flying-fish of the season must
be sacrificed to these spirits of the dead before the living are allowed
to partake of the fish. The ghosts to whom the flying-fish are offered
have the form of sharks. Some of them have sanctuaries ashore, where
images of sharks are set up; and the flying-fish are laid before these
images. Other shark-ghosts have no place on shore; so the fish offered to
them are taken out to sea and shredded into the water, while the names of
the ghosts are called out.(364)

(M103) 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
end in the open air. Leaves of the coco-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 deity. 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.(365)

(M104) In the Tonga Islands the first-fruits of the year were offered with
solemn ceremony to the sacred chief Tooitonga, who was regarded as divine.
The ceremony generally took place about October, and the people believed
that if the rite were neglected the vengeance of the gods would fall in a
signal manner upon them. The following is a description of the festival as
it was celebrated 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 anything 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 of a kind which admit of 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_ [the 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 ribbons prepared from the inner membrane of
the leaf of a species of pandanus, and dyed red; when thus prepared, it is
called _mellecoola_ and is wrapped round the yam, beginning at one end,
and running round spirally to the other, when it is brought back in the
opposite direction, the turns crossing each other in a very neat manner.
As the ceremony is always performed at the island where Tooitonga chooses
to reside, the distant islands must make these preparations two or three
days beforehand, that the yams, etc., may be sent in time to Vavaoo, where
we will suppose the affair is to take place. The ninth day then is
employed in preparing and collecting the yams and other provisions, such
as fish, cava root, and _mahoa_, and getting ready mats, _gnatoo_, and
bundles of _mellecoola_: but the yams only are to be carried in the
procession about to be described....

(M105) “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 óooa 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, to produce a more
pleasing effect: 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_(366) (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.(367) 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, seating himself before the grave, a little in
advance of the men, 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 before the grave,
marched back to the _malái_ the same way they came, singing and blowing
the conchs as before. The chiefs and _matabooles_ soon followed to the
same place, where the yams had been again deposited and loosened from the
poles, though they still retained their ornaments. Here the company sat
down in a great circle, presided over by Tooitonga, while the king and
other great chiefs retired into the background among the mass of the
people. 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 by one of the _matabooles_ of Tooitonga.
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_. Some _cava_ root was brought and prepared; a
large quantity of provisions, perhaps a hundred and fifty baskets-full,
was set forth, and a small part of it was distributed to be eaten with the
_cava_. While the infusion was preparing, a _mataboole_ made a speech to
the people, saying that, as they had performed this important ceremony,
the gods would protect them and grant them long lives, if only they
continued to observe the religious rites and to pay due respect to the
chiefs. When the _cava_ was all drunk, the circle separated, and the
provisions were shared out to each chief according to his rank. The day
concluded with wrestling, boxing, and so forth, and then the night dances
began. When these were ended, the people went home perfectly assured of
the protection of the gods. At this ceremony, we are informed, the
quantity of provisions distributed was incredible, and the people looked
upon it as a very heavy tribute.(368)

(M106) In this Tongan festival the solemn presentation of the first-fruits
to the divine chief at the grave of his predecessor is highly significant:
it confirms the conclusion which we have already reached, that wherever
the first-fruits are paid to the chief, it is rather in his religious than
in his civil capacity that he receives them. It is true that the king of
Tonga received a large share of the first-fruits, indeed a larger share
than was allotted to the divine chief; but it is very noticeable that
while the division of the first-fruits was taking place under the
presidency of the divine chief, the king and the other great chiefs
retired from the scene and mingled with the mass of the people, as if to
indicate that as mere laymen they had no right to participate in a
religious rite of such deep solemnity.

(M107) The Samoans used to present the first-fruits to the spirits
(_aitus_) and chiefs.(369) For example, a family whose god was in the form
of an eel presented the first-fruits of their taro plantations to the
eel.(370) 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.”(371) 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 carried 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.”(372) 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.(373) 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. The crop of sweet potatoes (_kumara_) was
sacred, and all persons engaged in its cultivation were also sacred or
tabooed; they might not quit the place nor undertake any other work.(374)

(M108) 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.(375) We have seen that the Athenians and
other Greek peoples offered the first-fruits of the wheat and barley
harvests to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis.(376) The Troezenians
sacrificed the first-fruits to Poseidon, whom they worshipped as the
guardian deity of their city.(377) In Attica the first-fruits of the
vintage were presented to Icarius and Erigone.(378) 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.(379) In various parts of ancient
Italy the vintage was solemnly inaugurated by the priests. At Rome the
duty devolved on the Flamen Dialis, who sacrificed a lamb to Jupiter and
then gathered the first grapes over the entrails of the victim. Till this
ceremony had been performed, the new wine might not be brought into the
city.(380)

(M109) The Thompson River Indians of British Columbia used to offer the
first berries of the season to the earth, or more generally to the
mountains. The offering was made by an old grey-haired person, who danced
and held out the fruit towards the mountain-tops. The rest of the people
painted their faces red and danced for some time.(381) The Okanaken
Indians of British Columbia “observed first-fruits ceremonies. When the
first berries or roots were ripe, the chief would send out his wife or
eldest daughter to gather a portion. The whole community would then come
together, and prayers would be offered to those spirits of the sky who
were supposed to preside over the operations of nature, portions of the
fruit or roots would be distributed to all present, after which any one
was free to gather all he or she desired; but no one would think of
picking a berry or digging a root until after the feast had been
held.”(382) When the ears of maize were formed, the Quiches of Central
America gathered the first-fruits and carried them to the priests;
moreover, they baked loaves or cakes, which they offered to the idol who
guarded their fields, but afterwards these cakes were given to the poor or
the infirm to eat.(383) It was the custom of the Arkansas Indians to offer
the first-fruits of the ripe maize and melons to the Master of Life; even
children would die of hunger rather than touch the new fruits before this
offering had been made. Some of the new maize, melons, and other fruits
were minced up with the carcase of a dog in the presence of the old men,
who alone were privileged to assist at this solemn rite. Then, after
performing certain ceremonies, the old men began to dance, and some young
girls, wound up to a pitch of frenzy, threw themselves on the offering and
bolted it in an instant. Thereupon the old men seized the damsels and
ducked them in the river Arkansas, which had a sobering influence on the
minds of the devotees.(384) From this account we may perhaps infer that in
eating the new fruits the girls were believed to be inspired by the Master
of Life, who thus consumed the offering by deputy. The chief solemnity of
the Natchez, an Indian tribe on the Lower Mississippi, was the Harvest
Festival or the Festival of New Fire. An early account of this ceremony
has been already submitted to the reader,(385) but it may not be amiss to
add here for comparison the later description by Chateaubriand, which
differs from the other in some particulars, and lays stress on the
sacrifice rather than on the sacrament of first-fruits. According to
Chateaubriand, then, 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 the
morning of this holy day, 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 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 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 towards 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.(386)

CHAPTER XII. HOMOEOPATHIC MAGIC OF A FLESH DIET.

(M110) The practice of killing a 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 in some places a custom has
prevailed of killing annually either the human or the animal
representative of the god. One reason for thus killing the corn-spirit in
the person of his representative has been given implicitly in an earlier
part of this work: we may suppose that the intention was to guard him or
her (for the corn-spirit is often feminine) from the enfeeblement of old
age by transferring the spirit, while still hale and hearty, to the person
of a youthful and vigorous successor. Apart from the desirability of
renewing his divine energies, the death of the corn-spirit may have been
deemed inevitable under the sickles or the knives of the reapers, and his
worshippers may accordingly have felt bound to acquiesce in the sad
necessity.(387) 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; so when the creature is deemed divine, our simple
savage naturally expects to absorb a portion of its divinity along with
its material substance. It may be well to illustrate by instances this
common faith in the acquisition of virtues or vices of many kinds through
the medium of animal food, even when there is no pretence that the viands
consist of the body or blood of a god. The doctrine forms part of the
widely ramified system of sympathetic or homoeopathic magic.

(M111) Thus, for example, the Creeks, Cherokee, and kindred tribes of
North American Indians “believe that nature is possest 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 dullness through
the whole system, and disabled them from exerting themselves with proper
vigour in their martial, civil, and religious duties.”(388) The Zaparo
Indians of Ecuador “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.”(389) Similarly some of
the Brazilian Indians would eat no beast, bird, or fish that ran, flew, or
swam slowly, lest by partaking of its flesh they should lose their agility
and be unable to escape from their enemies.(390) The Caribs abstained from
the flesh of pigs lest it should cause them to have small eyes like pigs;
and they refused to partake of tortoises from a fear that if they did so
they would become heavy and stupid like the animal.(391) Among the Fans of
West Africa men in the prime of life never eat tortoises for a similar
reason; they imagine that if they did so, their vigour and fleetness of
foot would be gone. But old men may eat tortoises freely, because having
already lost the power of running they can take no harm from the flesh of
the slow-footed creature.(392) Some of the Chiriguanos of eastern Bolivia
would not touch the flesh of the vicuña, because they imagined that if
they ate it they would become woolly like the vicuña.(393) On the other
hand the Abipones of Paraguay ate the flesh of jaguars in order to acquire
the courage of the beast;(394) indeed the number of jaguars which they
consumed for this object is said to have been very great, and with a like
intent they eagerly devoured the flesh of bulls, stags, boars, and
ant-bears, being persuaded that by frequently partaking of such food they
increased their strength, activity, and courage. On the other hand they
all abhorred the thought of eating hens, eggs, sheep, fish, and tortoises,
because they believed that these tender viands begot sloth and
listlessness in their bodies and cowardice in their minds.(395) The
Thompson Indians of British Columbia would not eat the heart of the
fool-hen, nor would they allow their dogs to devour the bird, lest they
should grow foolish like the bird.(396)

(M112) While many savages thus fear to eat the flesh of slow-footed
animals lest they should themselves become slow-footed, the Bushmen of
South Africa purposely ate the flesh of such creatures, and the reason
which they gave for doing so exhibits a curious refinement of savage
philosophy. They imagined that the game which they pursued would be
influenced sympathetically by the food in the body of the hunter, so that
if he had eaten of swift-footed animals, the quarry would be swift-footed
also and would escape him; whereas if he had eaten of slow-footed animals,
the quarry would also be slow-footed, and he would be able to overtake and
kill it. For that reason hunters of gemsbok particularly avoided eating
the flesh of the swift and agile springbok; indeed they would not even
touch it with their hands, because they believed the springbok to be a
very lively creature which did not go to sleep at night, and they thought
that if they ate springbok, the gemsbok which they hunted would likewise
not be willing to go to sleep, even at night. How, then, could they catch
it?(397)

(M113) Certain tribes on the Upper Zambesi believe in transmigration, and
every man in his lifetime chooses the kind of animal whose body he wishes
at death to enter. He then performs an initiatory rite, which consists in
swallowing the maggots bred in the putrid carcase of the animal of his
choice; thenceforth he partakes of that animal’s nature. And on the
occasion of a calamity, while the women are giving themselves up to
lamentation, you will see one man writhing on the ground like a boa
constrictor or a crocodile, another howling and leaping like a panther, a
third baying like a jackal, roaring like a lion, or grunting like a
hippopotamus, all of them imitating the characters of the various animals
to perfection.(398) Clearly these people imagine that the soul or vital
essence of the animal is manifested in the maggots bred in its decaying
carcase; hence they imagine that by swallowing the maggots they imbue
themselves with the very life and spirit of the creature which they desire
to become. 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.(399) The Bushmen will not give their
children a jackal’s heart to eat, lest it should make them timid like the
jackal; but they give them a leopard’s heart to eat to make them brave
like the leopard.(400) When a Wagogo man of German East Africa kills a
lion, he eats the heart in order to become brave like a lion; but he
thinks that to eat the heart of a hen would make him timid.(401) Among the
Ja-luo, a tribe of Nilotic negroes, young men eat the flesh of leopards in
order to make themselves fierce in war.(402) The flesh of the lion and
also that of the spotted leopard are sometimes cooked and eaten by native
warriors in South-Eastern Africa, who hope thereby to become as brave as
lions.(403) When a Zulu army assembles to go forth to battle, the warriors
eat slices of meat which is smeared with a powder made of the dried flesh
of various animals, such as the leopard, lion, elephant, snakes, and so
on; for thus it is thought that the soldiers will acquire the bravery and
other warlike qualities of these animals. Sometimes if a Zulu has killed a
wild beast, for instance a leopard, he will give his children the blood to
drink, and will roast the heart for them to eat, expecting that they will
thus grow up brave and daring men. But others say that this is dangerous,
because it is apt to produce courage without prudence, and to make a man
rush heedlessly on his death.(404) Among the Wabondei of Eastern Africa
the heart of a lion or leopard is eaten with the intention of making the
eater strong and brave.(405) In British Central Africa aspirants after
courage consume the flesh and especially the hearts of lions, while
lecherous persons eat the testicles of goats.(406) Among the Suk of
British East Africa the fat and heart of a lion are sometimes given to
children to eat in order that they may become strong; but they are not
allowed to know what they are eating.(407) Arab women in North Africa give
their male children a piece of a lion’s heart to eat to make them
fearless.(408) The flesh of an elephant is thought by the Ewe-speaking
peoples of West Africa to make the eater strong.(409) Before they go forth
to fight, Wajagga warriors drink a magical potion, which often consists of
shavings of the horn and hide of a rhinoceros mixed with beer; this is
supposed to impart to them the strength and force of the animal.(410) When
a serious disease has attacked a Zulu kraal, the medicine-man takes the
bone of a very old dog, 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.(411) So to restore the aged Aeson to youth, the witch Medea
infused into his veins a decoction of the liver of the long-lived deer and
the head of a crow that had outlived nine generations of men.(412) In
antiquity the flesh of deer and crows was eaten for other purposes than
that of prolonging life. As deer were supposed not to suffer from fever,
some women used to taste venison every morning, and it is said that in
consequence they lived to a great age without ever being attacked by a
fever; only the venison lost all its virtue if the animal had been killed
by more blows than one.(413) Again, ancient diviners sought to imbue
themselves with the spirit of prophecy by swallowing vital portions of
birds and beasts of omen; for example, they thought that by eating the
hearts of crows or moles or hawks they took into their bodies, along with
the flesh, the prophetic soul of the creature.(414)

(M114) Among 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.(415) However, among the Kayans of the
same region, who share the same view as to the ill effect of eating
venison, men will partake of the dangerous viand provided it is cooked in
the open air, for then the timid spirit of the animal is supposed to
escape at once into the jungle and not to enter into the eater.(416) The
Aino of Japan think that the otter is a very forgetful animal, and they
often call a person with a bad memory an “otter head.” Therefore it is a
rule with them that “the otter’s head must not lightly be used as an
article of food, for unless people are very careful they will, if they eat
it, become as forgetful as that creature. And hence it happens that when
an otter has been killed the people do not usually eat the head. But if
they are seized with a very strong desire for a feast of otter’s head,
they may partake thereof, providing proper precautions are taken. When
eating it the people must take their swords, knives, axes, bows and
arrows, tobacco-boxes and pipes, trays, cups, garden tools, and everything
they possess, tie them up in bundles with carrying slings, and sit with
them attached to their heads while in the act of eating. This feast may be
partaken of in this way, and no other. If this method be carefully adhered
to, there will be no danger of forgetting where a thing has been placed,
otherwise loss of memory will be the result.”(417) On the other hand the
Aino believe that the heart of the water-ousel is exceedingly wise, and
that in speech the bird is most eloquent. Therefore whenever he is killed,
he should be at once torn open and his heart wrenched out and swallowed
before it has time to grow cold or suffer damage of any kind. If a man
swallows it thus, he will become very fluent and wise, and will be able to
argue down all his adversaries.(418) In Northern India people fancy that
if you eat the eyeballs of an owl you will be able like an owl to see in
the dark.(419)

(M115) When the Kansas Indians were going to war, a feast used to be held
in the chief’s hut, and the principal dish was dog’s flesh, because, said
the Indians, the animal who is so brave that he will let himself be cut in
pieces in defence of his master, must needs inspire valour.(420) On
extraordinary occasions the bravest warriors of the Dacotas used to
perform a dance at which they devoured the livers of dogs raw and warm in
order thereby to acquire the sagacity and bravery of the dog. The animals
were thrown to them alive, killed, and cut open; then the livers were
extracted, cut into strips, and hung on a pole. Each dancer grabbed at a
strip of liver with his teeth and chewed and swallowed it as he danced: he
might not touch it with his hands, only the medicine-man enjoyed that
privilege. Women did not join in the dance.(421) Men of the Buru and Aru
Islands, East Indies, eat the flesh of dogs in order to be bold and nimble
in war.(422) 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.(423) Some of the
natives of Northern Australia fancy that by eating the flesh of the
kangaroo or emu they are enabled to jump or run faster than before.(424)
The Miris of Assam 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.”(425) In Corea the bones of tigers fetch a higher price
than those of leopards as a means of inspiring courage. A Chinaman in
Seoul bought and ate a whole tiger to make himself brave and fierce.(426)
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.(427)
Again, the Similkameen Indians of British Columbia imagine that to eat the
heart of a bear inspires courage.(428)

(M116) In Norse legend, Ingiald, son of King Aunund, was timid in his
youth, but after eating the heart of a wolf he became very bold; Hialto
gained strength and courage by eating the heart of a bear and drinking its
blood;(429) and when Sigurd killed the dragon Fafnir and tasted his
heart’s blood, he acquired thereby a knowledge of the language of
birds.(430) The belief that the language of birds or of animals in general
can be learned by eating some part of a serpent appears to be ancient and
wide-spread. Democritus is reported to have said that serpents were
generated from the mixed blood of certain birds, and that therefore
whoever ate a serpent would understand the bird language.(431) The Arabs
in antiquity were supposed to be able to draw omens from birds because
they had gained a knowledge of the bird language by eating either the
heart or liver of a serpent; and the people of Paraka in India are said to
have learned the language of animals in general by the same means.(432)
Saxo Grammaticus relates how Rollo acquired all knowledge, including an
understanding of the speech of animals, both wild and tame, by eating of a
black serpent.(433) In Norway, Sweden, and Jutland down to the nineteenth
century the flesh of a white snake was thought to confer supernatural
wisdom on the eater;(434) it is a German and Bohemian superstition that
whoever eats serpent’s flesh understands the language of animals.(435)
Notions of the same sort, based no doubt on a belief in the extraordinary
wisdom or subtlety of the serpent, often meet us in popular tales and
traditions.(436)

(M117) In Morocco lethargic patients are given ants to swallow, and to eat
lion’s flesh will make a coward brave;(437) but people abstain from eating
the hearts of fowls, lest thereby they should be rendered timid.(438) When
a child is late in learning to speak, the Turks of Central Asia will give
it the tongues of certain birds to eat.(439) 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.”(440)
In Java there is a tiny earthworm which now and then utters a shrill sound
like that of the alarum of a small clock. Hence when a public dancing girl
has screamed herself hoarse in the exercise of her calling, the leader of
the troop makes her eat some of these worms, in the belief that thus she
will regain her voice and will, after swallowing them, be able to scream
as shrilly as ever.(441) 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.(442)

(M118) Again, the flesh and blood of dead men are commonly eaten and drunk
to inspire bravery, wisdom, or other qualities for which the men
themselves were remarkable, or which are supposed to have their special
seat in the particular part eaten. Thus among the mountain tribes of
South-Eastern Africa there are ceremonies by which the youths are formed
into guilds or lodges, and among the rites of initiation there is one
which is intended to infuse courage, intelligence, and other qualities
into the novices. Whenever an enemy who has behaved with conspicuous
bravery is killed, his liver, which is considered the seat of valour; his
ears, which are supposed to be the seat of intelligence; the skin of his
forehead, which is regarded as the seat of perseverance; his testicles,
which are held to be the seat of strength; and other members, which are
viewed as the seat of other virtues, are cut from his body and baked to
cinders. The ashes are carefully kept in the horn of a bull, and, during
the ceremonies observed at circumcision, are mixed with other ingredients
into a kind of paste, which is administered by the tribal priest to the
youths. By this means the strength, valour, intelligence, and other
virtues of the slain are believed to be imparted to the eaters.(443) When
Basutos of the mountains have killed a very brave foe, they immediately
cut out his heart and eat it, because this is supposed to give them his
courage and strength in battle. At the close of the war the man who has
slain such a foe is called before the chief and gets from the doctor a
medicine which he chews with his food. The third day after this he must
wash his body in running water, and at the expiry of ten days he may
return to his wives and children.(444) So an Ovambo warrior in battle will
tear out the heart of his slain foe in the belief that by eating it he can
acquire the bravery of the dead man.(445) A similar belief and practice
prevail among some of the tribes of British Central Africa, notably among
the Angoni. These tribes also mutilate the dead and reduce the severed
parts to ashes. Afterwards the ashes are stirred into a broth or gruel,
“which must be ‘lapped’ up with the hand and thrown into the mouth, but
not eaten as ordinary food is taken, to give the soldiers courage,
perseverance, fortitude, strategy, patience and wisdom.”(446) In former
times whenever a Nandi warrior killed an enemy he used to eat a morsel of
the dead man’s heart to make himself brave.(447) The Wagogo of German East
Africa do the same thing for the same purpose.(448) When Sir Charles
M’Carthy was killed by the Ashantees in 1824, it is said that his heart
was devoured by the chiefs of the Ashantee army, who hoped by this means
to imbibe his courage. His flesh was dried and parcelled out among the
lower officers for the same purpose, and his bones were long kept at
Coomassie as national fetishes.(449) The Amazons of Dahomey used to eat
the hearts of foes remarkable for their bravery, in order that some of the
intrepidity which animated them might be transfused into the eaters. In
former days, if report may be trusted, the hearts of enemies who enjoyed a
reputation for sagacity were also eaten, for the Ewe-speaking negro of
these regions holds that the heart is the seat of the intellect as well as
of courage.(450) Among the Yoruba-speaking negroes of the Slave Coast the
priests of Ogun, the war-god, usually take out the hearts of human
victims, which are then dried, crumbled to powder, mixed with rum, and
sold to aspirants after courage, who swallow the mixture in the belief
that they thereby absorb the manly virtue of which the heart is supposed
to be the seat.(451) Similarly, Indians of the Orinoco region used to
toast the hearts of their enemies, grind them to powder, and then drink
the powder in a liquid in order to be brave and valiant the next time they
went forth to fight.(452) The Nauras Indians of New Granada ate the hearts
of Spaniards when they had the opportunity, hoping thereby to make
themselves as dauntless as the dreaded Castilian chivalry.(453) The Sioux
Indians of North America used to reduce to powder the heart of a valiant
enemy and swallow the powder, hoping thus to appropriate the dead man’s
valour.(454) The Muskoghees also thought that to eat the heart of a foe
would “communicate and give greater heart against the enemy. They also
think that the vigorous faculties of the mind are derived from the brain,
on which account, I have seen some of their heroes drink out of a human
skull; they imagine, they only imbibe the good qualities it formerly
contained.”(455) For a similar reason in Uganda a priest used to drink
beer out of the skull of a dead king in order that he might be possessed
by the king’s spirit.(456) Among the Esquimaux of Bering Strait, when
young men had slain an enemy for the first time in war, they were wont to
drink some of the blood and to eat a small piece of the heart of their
victim in order to increase their bravery.(457) In some tribes of
North-Western Australia, when a man dies who had been a great warrior or
hunter, his friends cut out the fat about his heart and eat it, because
they believe that it imparts to them the courage and cunning of the
deceased.(458)

(M119) But while the human heart is thus commonly eaten for the sake of
imbuing the eater with the qualities of its original owner, it is not, as
we have already seen, the only part of the body which is consumed for this
purpose. Thus in New Caledonia the victors in a fight used to eat the
bodies of the slain, “not, as might be supposed, from a taste for human
flesh, but in order to assimilate part of the bravery which the deceased
was supposed to possess.”(459) Among the tribes about Maryborough in
Queensland, when a man was killed in a ceremonial fight, it was customary
for his friends to skin and eat him, in order that his warlike virtues
might pass into the eaters.(460) Warriors of the Theddora and Ngarigo
tribes in South-Eastern Australia used to eat the hands and feet of their
slain enemies, believing that in this way they acquired some of the
qualities and courage of the dead.(461) In the Dieri tribe of Central
Australia, when a man had been condemned and killed by a properly
constituted party of executioners, the weapons with which the deed was
done were washed in a small wooden vessel, and the bloody mixture was
administered to all the slayers in a prescribed manner, while they lay
down on their backs and the elders poured it into their mouths. This was
believed to give them double strength, courage, and great nerve for any
future enterprise.(462) The Kamilaroi of New South Wales ate the liver as
well as the heart of a brave man to get his courage.(463) In Tonquin also
there is a popular superstition that the liver of a brave man makes brave
any who partake of it. Hence when a Catholic missionary was beheaded in
Tonquin in 1837, the executioner cut out the liver of his victim and ate
part of it, while a soldier attempted to devour another part of it
raw.(464) With a like intent the Chinese swallow the bile of notorious
bandits who have been executed.(465) The Dyaks of Sarawak used to eat the
palms of the hands and the flesh of the knees of the slain in order to
steady their own hands and strengthen their own knees.(466) The Tolalaki,
notorious head-hunters of Central Celebes, drink the blood and eat the
brains of their victims that they may become brave.(467) 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 to acquire their
courage. For the same reason the Efugaos, another tribe of the
Philippines, suck the brains of their foes.(468) In like manner the Kai of
German New Guinea eat the brains of the enemies they kill in order to
acquire their strength.(469) Among 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.(470) The notorious Zulu chief Matuana drank the gall
of thirty chiefs, whose people he had destroyed, in the belief that it
would make him strong.(471) It is a Zulu fancy that by eating the centre
of the forehead and the eyebrow of an enemy they acquire the power of
looking steadfastly at a foe.(472) In Tud or Warrior Island, Torres
Straits, men would drink the sweat of renowned warriors, and eat the
scrapings from their finger-nails which had become coated and sodden with
human blood. This was done “to make strong and like stone; no
afraid.”(473) In Nagir, another island of Torres Straits, in order to
infuse courage into boys a warrior used to take the eye and tongue of a
man whom he had killed, and after mincing them and mixing them with his
urine he administered the compound to the boy, who received it with shut
eyes and open mouth seated between the warrior’s legs.(474) Before every
warlike expedition the people of Minahassa in Celebes used to take the
locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble them in boiling water to extract
the courage; this infusion of bravery was then drunk by the warriors.(475)
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.”(476)

(M120) Even without absorbing any part of a man’s bodily substance it is
sometimes thought possible to acquire his moral virtues through simple
contact with his bones. Thus among the Toradjas of Central Celebes, when a
youth is being circumcised he is made to sit on the skull of a slain foe
in order to make him brave in war;(477) and when Scanderbeg, Prince of
Epirus, was dead, the Turks, who had often felt the force of his arm in
battle, are said to have imagined that by wearing a piece of his bones
near their heart they should be animated with a strength and valour like
his.(478) A peculiar form of communion with the dead is practised by the
Gallas of Eastern Africa. They think that food from the house of a dead
man, especially food that he liked, or that he cooked for himself,
contains a portion of his life or soul. If at the funeral feast a man eats
some of that food, he fancies that he has thereby absorbed some of the
life or soul of the departed, a portion of his spirit, intelligence, or
courage.(479)

(M121) Strange as it may seem to us, one motive which induces a savage
warrior to eat the flesh or drink the blood of the foe whom he has slain
appears to be a wish to form an indissoluble covenant of friendship and
brotherhood with his victim. For it is a widespread belief among savages
that by transfusing a little of their blood into each other’s bodies two
men become kinsmen and allies; the same blood now circulating in the veins
of both, neither can injure the other without at the same time injuring
himself; the two have therefore given each other the strongest bond, the
best possible hostages, for their good behaviour.(480) Acting on this
theory, the primitive warrior seeks to convert his slain foe into the
firmest of friends by imbibing the dead man’s blood or swallowing his
flesh. That at all events appears to be the idea at the root of the
following customs. When an Arawak Indian of British Guiana has murdered
another, he repairs on the third night to the grave of his victim, and
pressing a pointed stick through the corpse he licks off and swallows any
blood that he finds adhering to the stick. For he believes that if he did
not taste his victim’s blood, he would go mad and die; whereas by
swallowing the blood he averts any ill consequences that might flow to him
from the murder.(481) The belief and practice of the Nandi are similar:
“To the present day, when a person of another tribe has been slain by a
Nandi, the blood must be carefully washed off the spear or sword into a
cup made of grass, and drunk by the slayer. If this is not done it is
thought that the man will become frenzied.”(482) So among the tribes of
the Lower Niger “it is customary and necessary for the executioner to lick
the blood that is on the blade”; moreover, “the custom of licking the
blood off the blade of a sword by which a man has been killed in war is
common to all these tribes, and the explanation given me by the Ibo, which
is generally accepted, is, that if this was not done, the act of killing
would so affect the strikers as to cause them to run amok among their own
people; because the sight and smell of blood render them absolutely
senseless as well as regardless of all consequences. And this licking the
blood is the only sure remedy, and the only way in which they can recover
themselves.”(483) Among the Shans executioners believe that they would
soon fall ill and die if they did not taste the blood of their
victims.(484)

(M122) The most probable explanation of these practices seems to be that a
manslayer is thought to be driven mad by the ghost of his victim, who
takes possession of his murderer’s body and causes him to demean himself
in a frantic manner; whereas, as soon as the slayer has tasted the blood
of the slain, he becomes a blood-brother of his victim, whose ghost
accordingly will do him no harm.(485) This hypothesis is strongly
confirmed by the reason alleged for a similar custom formerly observed by
the Maoris. When a warrior had slain his foe in combat, he tasted his
blood, believing that this preserved him from the avenging spirit of his
victim; for they imagined that “the moment a slayer had tasted the blood
of the slain, the dead man became a part of his being and placed him under
the protection of the _atua_ or guardian-spirit of the deceased.”(486) In
the light of these facts we can now explain the opinion, still widely held
in Calabria, that if a murderer is to escape, he must suck his victim’s
blood from the reeking blade of the dagger with which he did the
deed;(487) and, further, we can see at least a glimmering of reason,
however misapplied, in the confidence cherished by the Botocudos of
Brazil, that if only they ate a morsel of the flesh of their enemies, the
arrows of the fellow tribesmen of the slain would not be able to hit
them.(488) Indeed the evidence which I have just adduced suggests that the
intention of forming a blood-covenant with the dead may have been a common
motive for the cannibalism which has been so often practised by savage
victors on the bodies of their victims.(489) If that was so, it would to
some extent mitigate the horror with which such a practice is naturally
viewed by civilised observers; since it would reveal the cannibal feast,
no longer in the lurid light of a brutal outburst of blind rage and hatred
against the vanquished, but in the milder aspect of a solemn rite designed
to wipe out the memory of past hostilities and to establish a permanent
relation of friendship and good fellowship with the dead.

(M123) Another mode of entering into communion with the dead by means of
their bodily relics is to grind their bones to powder or to burn them to
ashes, and then to swallow the powder or the ashes mixed with food or
drink. This method of absorbing the virtues or appropriating the souls of
deceased kinsfolk has been practised by a number of Indian tribes of South
America. Thus the Tarianas, Tucanos, and other tribes in the valley of the
Amazon, about a month after the funeral, disinter the corpse, which is
then much decomposed, and put it in a great pan or oven over the fire till
all the volatile parts are driven off with a most horrible stench, leaving
only a black carbonaceous paste. This paste is then pounded into a fine
powder, and being mixed in several large vats of the native beer, the
liquor is drunk by the assembled company until all is consumed. They
believe that thus the virtues of the deceased are transmitted to the
drinkers.(490) Similarly among the Xomanas and Passes of the Rio Negro and
Japura River in Brazil, it was customary to burn the bones of the dead and
mingle the ashes in their drink; “for they fancied, that by this means
they received into their own bodies the spirits of their deceased
friends.”(491) We may suppose that a similar motive underlies the custom
wherever it has been observed by the Indians of South America, even when
this particular motive is not expressly alleged by our authorities. For
example, the Retoroños, Pechuyos, and Guarayos of eastern Bolivia
“manifested their feeling for the dead by a remarkable custom: when the
body had mouldered they dug up the bones, reduced them to powder, and
mingling it with maize, composed a sort of cake, which they considered it
the strongest mark of friendship to offer and partake. Some of the first
missionaries were regaled with this family bread, before they knew what
they were eating.”(492) Again, in the province of Coro, in north-western
Venezuela, when a chief died, they lamented him in the night, celebrating
his actions; then they parched his body at the fire, and reducing it to
powder drank it up in their liquor, deeming this act the highest honour
they could pay him.(493) The Tauaré Indians of the Rio Enivra burn their
dead, keep their ashes in hollow reeds, and eat a portion of the ashes
with every meal.(494) So in antiquity Artemisia expressed her love and
grief for her dead husband Mausolus by powdering his ashes and drinking
them in water.(495) It is said that Mwamba, a recent king or chief of the
Wemba in Northern Rhodesia, having detected one of his wives in an
intrigue with another man, caused the guilty pair to be burned alive,
while he watched their tortures from a raised seat. “Shortly after this,
however, he would seem to have been stricken with remorse and the dread of
Nemesis. The presiding witch-doctor was therefore ordered to collect the
ashes of the twain, and decoct therefrom a potion, which was administered
to the king to avert the avenging furies of evil spirits of the murdered
pair, which might otherwise have hounded him into a fit of madness.”(496)
By drinking the ashes of his victims the king sought to identify himself
with them and so to protect himself against their angry ghosts, just as we
have seen that manslayers seek to protect themselves against the ghosts of
their victims by drinking their blood.(497)

(M124) Just as the savage thinks that he can swallow the moral and other
virtues in the shape of food, so he fondly imagines that he can inoculate
himself with them. Here in Europe we as yet inoculate only against
disease; in Basutoland they have learned the art of inoculating not merely
against disease but against moral evil and public calamity, against wild
beasts and winter cold. For example, if an epidemic is raging, if public
affairs go ill, or war threatens to break out, the chief, with paternal
solicitude, seeks to guard his people against the evils that menace them
by inoculating them with his own hand. Armed with a lancet, he makes a
slight incision in the temples of each one, and rubs into the wound a
pinch of magic powder which has been carefully compounded of the ashes of
certain plants and animals. The plants and animals whose ashes compose
this sovereign medicine are always symbolical; in other words, they are
supposed to be imbued with the virtues which the chief desires to impart
to his people. They consist, for example, of plants whose foliage
withstands the rigours of winter; mimosas, whose thorns present an
impenetrable barrier to all animals of the deer kind; the claws or a few
hairs from the mane of a lion, the bravest of beasts; the tuft of hair
round the root of the horns of a bull, which is the emblem of strength and
fecundity; the skin of a serpent; the feathers of a kite or a hawk.(498)
So when the Barotsé wish to be swift of foot, to cripple the fleeing game,
and to ensure an abundant catch, they scarify their arms and legs and rub
into the wounds a powder made of the burnt bones of various beasts and
birds.(499) Among some tribes of South-Eastern Africa the same magic
powder which is made from various parts of slain foes, and is eaten by
boys at circumcision,(500) is used to inoculate the fighting-men in time
of war. The medicine-man makes an incision in the forehead of each
warrior, and puts the powder into the cut, thus infusing strength and
courage for the battle.(501) Among some Caffre tribes the powdered
charcoal with which the warriors are thus inoculated in various parts of
their bodies is procured by burning the flesh of a live ox with a certain
kind of wood or roots, to which magic virtue is attributed.(502) The
Basutos think that they can render themselves invulnerable by
inoculation,(503) and the Zulus imagine that they can protect themselves
against snake-bite by similar means. But the saving virtue of the
inoculation is not permanent; like vaccination, it has to be periodically
renewed. Hence every year, about October, Zulu men, women, and children
have a small piece of skin cut from the back of the left hand, and the
poison of a snake, mixed with spittle, is rubbed into the wound. No snake
will ever approach a man who has thus been inoculated; and what is even
more curious, if the shadow of an inoculated man should touch the shadow
of a man who has not been inoculated, the latter will fall down as if he
had been shot, overcome by the poison transmitted through the shadow: so
exceedingly virulent is the virus.(504) Among the Jukos, a tribe of the
Benue River in Northern Nigeria, before a hunter goes forth to hunt
elephants, he makes four cuts in his left arm and rubs in “medicine”; this
helps him to see the beast next day.(505)

(M125) Again, the Zulus know how to inoculate themselves not merely with
moral virtue, but even with celestial power. For you must know that the
Zulus have heaven-herds or sky-herds, who drive away clouds big with hail
and lightning, just as herdsmen drive cattle before them. These
heaven-herds are in sympathy with the heaven. For when the heaven is about
to be darkened, and before the clouds appear or the thunder mutters, the
heart of the heaven-herd feels it coming, for it is hot within him and he
is excited by anger. When the sky begins to be overcast, he too grows dark
like it; when it thunders, he frowns, that his face may be black as the
scowl of the angry heaven. Now the way in which he thus becomes
sympathetic with all the changing moods of the inconstant heaven is this:
he eats the heaven and scarifies himself with it. And the way in which he
eats the heaven and scarifies himself with it is as follows. When a
bullock is struck by lightning, the wizard takes its flesh and puts it in
a sherd and eats it while it is hot, mixed with medicine; and thus he eats
the heaven by eating the flesh, which came from the beast, which was
struck by the lightning, which came down from the heaven. And in like
manner he scarifies himself with the heaven, for he makes cuts in his body
and rubs in medicine mixed with the flesh of a bullock that was struck by
lightning.(506) In some Caffre tribes, when an animal or a man has been
struck by lightning, the priest comes straightway and vaccinates every
person in the kraal, apparently as a sort of insurance against lightning.
He sets to work by tying a number of charms round the neck of every man
and woman in the village, in order that they may have power to dig the
dead man’s grave; for in these tribes beasts and men alike that have been
struck by lightning are always buried, and the flesh is never eaten. Next
a sacrificial beast is killed and a fire kindled, in which certain magic
woods or roots are burned to charcoal, and then ground to powder. The
priest thereupon makes incisions in various parts of the bodies of each
inmate of the kraal, and rubs a portion of the powdered charcoal into the
cuts; the rest of the powder he mixes with sour milk, and gives to them
all to drink. From the time the lightning strikes the kraal until this
ceremony has been performed, the people are obliged to abstain entirely
from the use of milk. Their heads are then shaved. Should a house have
been struck by lightning it must be abandoned, with everything in it.
Until all these rites have been performed, none of the people may leave
the kraal or have any intercourse whatever with others; but when the
ceremonies have been duly performed, the people are pronounced clean, and
may again associate with their neighbours. However, for some months
afterwards none of the livestock of the kraal and few other things
belonging to it are allowed to pass into other hands, whether by way of
sale or of gift.(507) Hence it would appear that all persons in a village
which has been struck by lightning are supposed to be infected with a
dangerous virus, which they might communicate to their neighbours; and the
vaccination is intended to disinfect them as well as to protect them
against the recurrence of a like calamity. Young Carib warriors used to be
inoculated for the purpose of making them brave and hardy. Some time
before the ceremony the lad who was to be operated on caught a bird of
prey of a particular sort and kept it in captivity till the day appointed.
When the time was come and friends had assembled to witness the ceremony,
the father of the boy seized the bird by its legs and crushed its head by
beating it on the head of his son, who dared not wince under the rain of
blows that nearly stunned him. Next the father bruised and pounded the
bird’s flesh, and steeped it in water together with a certain spice; after
which he scored and slashed his son’s body in all directions, washed his
wounds with the decoction, and gave him the bird’s heart to eat, in order,
as it was said, that he might be the braver for it.(508)

(M126) It is not always deemed necessary either that the mystical
substance should be swallowed by the communicant, or that he should
receive it by the more painful process of scarification and inoculation.
Sometimes it is thought enough merely to smear or anoint him with it.
Among some of the Australian blacks it used to be a common practice to
kill a man, cut out his caul-fat, and rub themselves with it, in the
belief that all the qualities, both physical and mental, which had
distinguished the original owner of the fat, were thus communicated by its
means to the person who greased himself with it.(509) The Kamilaroi tribe
of New South Wales sometimes deposited their dead on the forks of trees,
and lighting fires underneath caught the fat as it dropped; for they hoped
with the droppings to acquire the strength and courage of the
deceased.(510) The Wollaroi, another tribe of New South Wales, used to
place the dead on a stage, and the mourners sat under it and rubbed their
bodies with the juices of putrefaction which exuded from the rotten body,
believing that this made them strong. Others collected these juices in
vessels, and the young men rubbed the stinking liquid into their persons
in order to acquire the good qualities of the departed.(511) Wherever a
like custom has been practised, as it has been, for example, by some of
the natives of New Guinea, Timor Laut, and Madagascar,(512) we may
conjecture that the motive has been similar. Again, the negroes of
Southern Guinea regard the brain as the seat of wisdom, and think it a
pity that, when a wise man dies, his brain and his wisdom should go to
waste together. So they sever his head from his body and hang it up over a
mass of chalk, which, as the head decays, receives the drippings of brain
and wisdom. Any one who applies the precious dripping to his forehead is
supposed to absorb thereby the intelligence of the dead.(513) Among the
Beku, a tribe of dwarfs attached to the Fans in West Africa, the great
charm for success in hunting is procured by killing a man and afterwards,
when the corpse has begun to moulder in the grave, detaching the head from
the body. The brain, heart, eyes and hairs of the body are then removed
and mixed, according to a secret formula, with special incantations. When
the compound is dry, the hunter rubs himself with it “in order to acquire
a dash of the higher power with which people are endowed in the other
life, and in particular their invisibility.”(514) Among the Digger Indians
of California, when a man died, it was customary to burn the body to
ashes, mix the ashes with a thick resinous gum extracted from a pine-tree,
and then smear the gum on the head of the mourner, where it was allowed to
remain till it gradually wore away.(515) The motive for the custom is not
mentioned, but it was probably, like the motive for the parallel custom of
swallowing the ashes of the dead, a desire to participate in the powers
and virtues of the departed. At a certain stage of the ceremonies by
which, in the Andaman Islands, a boy is initiated into manhood, the chief
takes the carcase of a boar and presses it heavily down on the shoulders,
back, and limbs of the young man as he sits, silent and motionless, on the
ground. This is done to make him brave and strong. Afterwards the animal
is cut up, and its melted fat is poured over the novice, and rubbed into
his body.(516) 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.(517) In the forests of North-western Brazil there lives
a small falcon with a red beak which is so sharp-sighted that it can
detect even a worm on the ground from a considerable height. When a Kobeua
Indian has killed one of these birds, he pokes out its eyes and allows the
fluid to drip into his own, believing that in this way they will be
sharp-sighted like those of the falcon.(518) Most of the Baperis, or
Malekootoos, a Bechuana tribe of South Africa, revere or, as they say,
sing the porcupine, which seems to be their totem, as the sun is the totem
of some members of the tribe, and a species of ape the totem of others.
Those of them who have the porcupine for their totem swear by the animal,
and lament if any one injures it. When a porcupine has been killed, they
religiously gather up its bristles, spit on them, and rub their eyebrows
with them, saying, “They have slain our brother, our master, one of
ourselves, him whom we sing.” They would fear to die if they ate of its
flesh. Nevertheless they esteem it wholesome for an infant of the clan to
rub into his joints certain portions of the paunch of the animal mixed
with the sap of some plants to which they ascribe an occult virtue.(519)
So at the solemn ceremony which is observed by the Central Australian
tribes for the purpose of multiplying kangaroos, men of the kangaroo totem
not only eat a little kangaroo flesh as a sacrament, but also have their
bodies anointed with kangaroo fat. Doubtless the intention alike of the
eating and of the anointing is to impart to the man the qualities of his
totem animal, and thus to enable him to perform the ceremonies for the
multiplication of the breed.(520)

(M127) In ancient Mexico the priests of the god Tezcatlipoca, before they
engaged in religious rites which tried the nerve, used to smear their
bodies with a magic ointment, which had the effect of banishing all fear,
so that they would confront wild beasts in their dens or slaughter people
in sacrifice with the utmost indifference. The ointment which had this
marvellous property was compounded of the ashes of venomous reptiles and
insects, such as spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and vipers, which were
brayed up in a mortar along with living specimens of the same creatures,
tobacco, soot, and the ashes of black caterpillars. This precious
substance was then set before the god in little pots, because they said it
was his victuals; therefore they called it a divine food. And when the
priests had besmeared themselves with it, they were ready to discharge the
duties of their holy office by butchering their fellow men in the human
shambles without one qualm of fear or one visiting of compassion.
Moreover, an unction of this ointment was deemed a sovereign remedy for
sickness and disease; hence they named it “the divine physic”; and sick
people came from all quarters to the priests, as to their saviours, to
have their ailing parts anointed with the divine physic and to be made
whole.(521)

(M128) Sometimes the valuable qualities of an animal or of a person may be
imparted to another by the more delicate and ethereal process of
fumigation. This refined mode of cultivating the moral virtues is or used
to be practised by the Caffres of South Africa. Thus in former times as
soon as a baby was born, some dirt was scraped from the forearm and other
parts of the father’s body and mixed with special medicines. The mixture
was then made to smoulder and the baby was fumigated or “washed” in the
smoke. This ceremony was deemed of great importance, being the established
way of communicating to the child a portion of the ancestral spirit
(_itongo_) through the physical medium of the father’s dirt, to which the
spirit naturally adheres. But while the dirt was endowed with this
spiritual potency, the moral character of the infant depended in a large
measure on the nature of the medicines with which the dirt was compounded,
and accordingly much thought and skill were devoted to their selection and
preparation. Foremost among the ingredients was a meteorite, burnt to a
cinder and ground to powder. The effect of this powder, well mixed with
the dirt, and introduced into the orifices of the child’s body by means of
smoke, is to close the anterior fontanelle of the baby’s skull, to
strengthen the bones of that important part of his person, to communicate
vigour to his mind and courage to his disposition, and in general to brace
and harden his whole system with the strength and hardness of the
meteorite. Other ingredients which have a most beneficial effect are the
powdered whiskers of a leopard, the claws of a lion, and the skin of a
salamander. The mode of administering the medicine is as follows. You set
fire to the compound, and while it smoulders, you hold the infant, wrapt
up in a blanket, over the burning mass so as to compel it to inhale the
smoke. To make sure of producing the desired effect, some of the powdered
medicine is mixed with the baby’s food.(522) In like manner by holding the
smouldering feather of a vulture under a baby’s nose you render the child
valiant and brave like a vulture, and if you do the same with a peacock’s
feather, your offspring will be, like a peacock, impavid and never
dismayed by thunder or other terrible noises.(523)

(M129) 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.(524) Yet a time comes when
reasonable men find it hard to understand how any one in his senses can
suppose that by eating bread or drinking wine he consumes the body or
blood of a deity. “When we call corn Ceres and wine Bacchus,” says Cicero,
“we use a common figure of speech; but do you imagine that anybody is so
insane as to believe that the thing he feeds upon is a god?”(525) In
writing thus the Roman philosopher little foresaw that in Rome itself, and
in the countries which have derived their creed from her, the belief which
he here stigmatises as insane was destined to persist for thousands of
years, as a cardinal doctrine of religion, among peoples who pride
themselves on their religious enlightenment by comparison with the blind
superstitions of pagan antiquity. So little can even the greatest minds of
one generation foresee the devious track which the religious faith of
mankind will pursue in after ages.

CHAPTER XIII. KILLING THE DIVINE ANIMAL.

§ 1. Killing the Sacred Buzzard.

(M130) In the preceding chapters we saw that many communities which have
progressed so far as to subsist mainly by agriculture have been in the
habit of killing and eating their farinaceous deities either in their
proper form of corn, rice, and so forth, or in the borrowed shapes of
animals and men. It remains to shew that hunting and pastoral tribes, as
well as agricultural peoples, have been in the habit of killing the beings
whom they worship. Among the worshipful beings or gods, if indeed they
deserve to be dignified by that name, 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(526) under a serene and
temperate sky, nevertheless rank near the bottom of the savage scale.
Where a stretch of iron-bound coast breaks the long line of level sands
that receive the rollers of the Pacific, there stood in former days, not
far from the brink of the great cliffs, the white mission-house of San
Juan Capistrano. Among the monks who here exercised over a handful of
wretched Indians the austere discipline of Catholic Spain, there was a
certain Father Geronimo Boscana who has bequeathed to us a precious record
of the customs and superstitions of his savage flock. Thus he tells us
that the Acagchemem tribe adored the great buzzard, and that once a year
they celebrated a great festival called _Panes_ or bird-feast in its
honour. The day selected for the festival was made known to the public on
the evening before its celebration and preparations were at once made for
the erection of a special temple (_vanquech_), which seems to have been a
circular or oval enclosure of stakes with the stuffed skin of a coyote or
prairie-wolf set up on a hurdle to represent the god Chinigchinich. When
the temple was ready, the bird was carried into it in solemn procession
and laid on an altar erected for the purpose. Then all the young women,
whether married or single, began to run to and fro, as if distracted, some
in one direction and some in another, while the elders of both sexes
remained silent spectators of the scene, and the captains, tricked out in
paint and feathers, danced round their adored bird. These ceremonies being
concluded, they seized upon the bird and carried it to the principal
temple, all the assembly uniting in the grand display, and the captains
dancing and singing at the head of the procession. Arrived at the temple,
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 carcase 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? you would have made _pinole_ (a kind of gruel) as we do,
and if you had not run away, you would not have become a _Panes_,” and so
on. When this ceremony was concluded, the dancing was resumed and kept up
for three days and nights. 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 _Panes_, and were firm in the opinion that
the birds sacrificed were but one and the same female.”(527)

(M131) 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 imagines 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.”(528)

§ 2. Killing the Sacred Ram.

(M132) 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.(529) 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.(530) But this only shews that he was in the usual chrysalis state
through which beast-gods regularly pass before they emerge as full-blown
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
shewn 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 a 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.(531) The
intention of thus putting a limit to the life of the human 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.

(M133) One point in the Theban ritual—the application of the skin to the
image of the god—deserves particular attention. If the god was at first
the living ram, his representation by an image must have originated later.
But how did it originate? One 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.(532) 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,(533) 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.(534) 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.

§ 3. Killing the Sacred Serpent.

(M134) West Africa appears to furnish 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.(535) 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;(536) 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.(537)

§ 4. Killing the Sacred Turtles.

(M135) In the Californian, Egyptian, and Fernando Po customs the animal
slain may perhaps have been at some time or other a totem, but this is
very doubtful.(538) 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 hunting 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 class 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. Though his tools were wonderfully rude, the
work he turned out by dint of combined patience and ingenuity was
remarkably beautiful. 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.’

(M136) “Four days after, towards 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 fore-feet 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 foot-sore 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.’

(M137) “ ‘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.” ’ ”(539)

(M138) In this custom we find expressed in the clearest way a belief in
the transmigration of human souls into the bodies of turtles.(540) The
theory of 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, and so on; they believe that the
ancestors of the clans were bears, deer, wolves, hares, and so forth; and
that at death the members of each clan become bears, deer, and so on
according to the particular clan to which they belonged.(541) 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.(542) Thus their belief
in transmigration into the turtle is probably one of the regular articles
of their totem faith.(543) 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.(544) In the Zuni
ceremony the dead are fetched home 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. Nor is the obscurity which hangs over the subject
entirely dissipated by a later and fuller account which we possess of the
ceremony. From it we learn that the ceremony forms part of the elaborate
ritual which these Indians observe at the midsummer solstice for the
purpose of ensuring an abundant supply of rain for the crops. Envoys are
despatched to bring “their otherselves, the tortoises,” from the sacred
lake Kothluwalawa, to which the souls of the dead are believed to repair.
When the creatures have thus been solemnly brought to Zuni, they are
placed in a bowl of water and dances are performed beside them by men in
costume, who personate gods and goddesses. “After the ceremonial the
tortoises are taken home by those who caught them and are hung by their
necks to the rafters till morning, when they are thrown into pots of
boiling water. The eggs are considered a great delicacy. The meat is
seldom touched except as a medicine, which is curative for cutaneous
diseases. Part of the meat is deposited in the river with _kóhakwa_ (white
shell beads) and turquoise beads as offerings to Council of the
Gods.”(545) This account at all events confirms the inference that the
tortoises are supposed to be reincarnations of the human dead, for they
are called the “otherselves” of the Zuni; indeed, what else should they be
than the souls of the dead in the bodies of tortoises seeing that they
come from the haunted lake? As the principal object of the prayers uttered
and of the dances performed at these midsummer ceremonies appears to be to
procure rain for the crops, it may be that the intention of bringing the
tortoises to Zuni and dancing before them is to intercede with the
ancestral spirits, incarnate in the animals, that they may be pleased to
exert their power over the waters of heaven for the benefit of their
living descendants.

§ 5. Killing the Sacred Bear.

(M139) Doubt also hangs at first sight over the meaning of the
bear-sacrifice offered by the Aino or Ainu, a primitive people who are
found in the Japanese island of Yezo or Yesso, as well as in Saghalien and
the southern of the Kurile Islands. It is not quite easy to define the
attitude of the Aino 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,(546) it may mean no more than a being supposed to be endowed
with superhuman, or at all events extraordinary, powers.(547) Again, it is
said that “the bear is their chief divinity”;(548) “in the religion of the
Aino the bear plays a chief part”;(549) “amongst the animals it is
especially the bear which receives an idolatrous veneration”;(550) “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 Aino may be distinguished as
bear-worshippers.”(551) Yet, on the other hand, they kill the bear
whenever they can;(552) “in bygone years the Ainu considered bear-hunting
the most manly and useful way in which a person could possibly spend his
time”;(553) “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”;(554) bear’s flesh is indeed one of their
staple foods; they eat it both fresh and salted;(555) and the skins of
bears furnish them with clothing.(556) In fact, the worship of which
writers on this subject speak appears to be paid chiefly 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”;(557) “when a bear has been killed the Ainu sit
down and admire it, make their salaams to it, worship it, and offer
presents of _inao_”;(558) “when a bear is trapped or wounded by an arrow,
the hunters go through an apologetic or propitiatory ceremony.”(559) 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 millet beer, and of _sake_, an intoxicating liquor, are
offered to them; and they are addressed as “divine preservers”
(_akoshiratki kamui_), or “precious divinities.”(560) 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.(561) 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.”(562) The bear can hardly, therefore, be described as a sacred
animal of the Aino, nor yet as a totem; for they do not call themselves
bears, and they kill and eat the animal freely. However, they have a
legend of a woman who had a son by a bear; and many of them who dwell in
the mountains pride themselves on being descended from a bear. Such people
are called “Descendants of the bear” (_Kimun Kamui sanikiri_), and in the
pride of their heart they will say, “As for me, I am a child of the god of
the mountains; I am descended from the divine one who rules in the
mountains,” meaning by “the god of the mountains” no other than the
bear.(563) It is therefore possible that, as our principal authority, the
Rev. J. Batchelor, believes, the bear may have been the totem of an Aino
clan; but even if that were so it would not explain the respect shewn for
the animal by the whole Aino people.

(M140) But it is the bear-festival of the Aino which concerns us here.
Towards the end of winter a bear cub is caught and brought into the
village. If it is very small, it is suckled by an Aino woman, but should
there be no woman able to suckle it, the little animal is fed from the
hand or the mouth. If it cries loudly and long for its mother, as it is
apt to do, its owner will take it to his bosom and let it sleep with him
for a few nights, thus dispelling its fears and sense of loneliness.
During the day it plays about in the hut with the children and is treated
with great affection. But when the cub grows big enough to pain people by
hugging or scratching them, he is shut up in a strong wooden cage, where
he stays generally for two or three years, fed on fish and millet
porridge, till it is time for him to be killed and eaten.(564) 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.”(565) In Yezo the festival is generally
celebrated in September or October. Before it takes place the Aino
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;
indeed, guests from distant villages are invited and generally come,
allured by the prospect of getting drunk for nothing. The form of
invitation runs somewhat as follows: “I, so and so, am about to sacrifice
the dear little divine thing who resides among the mountains. My friends
and masters, come ye to the feast; we will then unite in the great
pleasure of sending the god away. Come.”(566) When all the people are
assembled in front of the cage, an orator chosen for the purpose addresses
the bear and tells it that they are about to send it forth to its
ancestors. He craves pardon for what they are about to do to it, hopes it
will not be angry, and comforts it by assuring the animal that many of the
sacred whittled sticks (_inao_) and plenty of cakes and wine will be sent
with it on the long journey. One speech of this sort which Mr. Batchelor
heard ran as follows: “O thou divine one, thou wast sent into the world
for us to hunt. O thou precious little divinity, we worship thee; pray
hear our prayer. We have nourished thee and brought thee up with a deal of
pains and trouble, all because we love thee so. Now, as thou hast grown
big, we are about to send thee to thy father and mother. When thou comest
to them please speak well of us, and tell them how kind we have been;
please come to us again and we will sacrifice thee.” Having been secured
with ropes, the bear is then let out of the cage and assailed with a
shower of blunt arrows in order to rouse it to fury. When it has spent
itself in vain struggles, it is tied up to a stake, gagged and strangled,
its neck being placed between two poles, which are then violently
compressed, all the people eagerly helping to squeeze the animal to death.
An arrow is also discharged into the beast’s heart by a good marksman, but
so as not to shed blood, for they think that it would be very unlucky if
any of the blood were to drip on the ground. However, the men sometimes
drink the warm blood of the bear "that the courage and other virtues it
possesses may pass into them"; and sometimes they besmear themselves and
their clothes with the blood in order to ensure success in hunting. When
the animal has been strangled to death, it is skinned and its head is cut
off and set in the east window of the house, where a piece of its own
flesh is placed under its snout, together with a cup of its own meat
boiled, some millet dumplings, and dried fish. Prayers are then addressed
to the dead animal; amongst other things it is sometimes invited, after
going away to its father and mother, to return into the world in order
that it may again be reared for sacrifice. When the bear is supposed to
have finished eating its own flesh, the man who presides at the feast
takes the cup containing the boiled meat, salutes it, and divides the
contents between all the company present: every person, young and old
alike, must taste a little. The cup is called “the cup of offering”
because it has just been offered to the dead bear. When the rest of the
flesh has been cooked, it is shared out in like manner among all the
people, everybody partaking of at least a morsel; not to partake of the
feast would be equivalent to excommunication, it would be to place the
recreant outside the pale of Aino fellowship. Formerly every particle of
the bear, except the bones, had to be eaten up at the banquet, but this
rule is now relaxed. The head, on being detached from the skin, is set up
on a long pole beside the sacred wands (_inao_) outside of the house,
where it remains till nothing but the bare white skull is left. Skulls so
set up are worshipped not only at the time of the festival, but very often
as long as they last. The Aino assured Mr. Batchelor that they really do
believe the spirits of the worshipful animals to reside in the skulls;
that is why they address them as “divine preservers” and “precious
divinities.”(567)

(M141) The ceremony of killing the bear was witnessed by Dr. B. Scheube on
the tenth of August at Kunnui, which is a village on Volcano Bay in the
island of Yezo or Yesso. As his description of the rite contains some
interesting particulars not mentioned in the foregoing account, it may be
worth while to summarise it.(568)

On entering the hut he found about thirty Aino 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 at the _inao (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.(569) 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 animal 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
beast 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 animal 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
carcase was next placed on the 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 Aino, 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 carcase. 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.

(M142) Perhaps the first published account of the bear-feast of the Aino
is one which was given to the world by a Japanese writer in 1652. It has
been translated into French and runs thus: “When they find a young bear,
they bring it home, and the wife suckles it. When it is grown they feed it
with fish and fowl and kill it in winter for the sake of the liver, which
they esteem an antidote to poison, the worms, colic, and disorders of the
stomach. It is of a very bitter taste, and is good for nothing if the bear
has been killed in summer. This butchery begins in the first Japanese
month. For this purpose they put the animal’s head between two long poles,
which are squeezed together by fifty or sixty people, both men and women.
When the bear is dead they eat his flesh, keep the liver as a medicine,
and sell the skin, which is black and commonly six feet long, but the
longest measure twelve feet. As soon as he is skinned, the persons who
nourished the beast begin to bewail him; afterwards they make little cakes
to regale those who helped them.”(570)

(M143) The Aino of Saghalien rear bear cubs and kill them with similar
ceremonies. We are told that they do not look upon the bear as a god but
only as a messenger whom they despatch with various commissions to the god
of the forest. The animal is kept for about two years in a cage, and then
killed at a festival, which always takes place in winter and at night. The
day before the sacrifice is devoted to lamentation, old women relieving
each other in the duty of weeping and groaning in front of the bear’s
cage. Then about the middle of the night or very early in the morning an
orator makes a long speech to the beast, reminding him how they have taken
care of him, and fed him well, and bathed him in the river, and made him
warm and comfortable. “Now,” he proceeds, “we are holding a great festival
in your honour. Be not afraid. We will not hurt you. We will only kill you
and send you to the god of the forest who loves you. We are about to offer
you a good dinner, the best you have ever eaten among us, and we will all
weep for you together. The Aino who will kill you is the best shot among
us. There he is, he weeps and asks your forgiveness; you will feel almost
nothing, it will be done so quickly. We cannot feed you always, as you
will understand. We have done enough for you; it is now your turn to
sacrifice yourself for us. You will ask God to send us, for the winter,
plenty of otters and sables, and for the summer, seals and fish in
abundance. Do not forget our messages, we love you much, and our children
will never forget you.” When the bear has partaken of his last meal amid
the general emotion of the spectators, the old women weeping afresh and
the men uttering stifled cries, he is strapped, not without difficulty and
danger, and being let out of the cage is led on leash or dragged,
according to the state of his temper, thrice round his cage, then round
his master’s house, and lastly round the house of the orator. Thereupon he
is tied up to a tree, which is decked with sacred whittled sticks (_inao_)
of the usual sort; and the orator again addresses him in a long harangue,
which sometimes lasts till the day is beginning to break. “Remember,” he
cries, “remember! I remind you of your whole life and of the services we
have rendered you. It is now for you to do your duty. Do not forget what I
have asked of you. You will tell the gods to give us riches, that our
hunters may return from the forest laden with rare furs and animals good
to eat; that our fishers may find troops of seals on the shore and in the
sea, and that their nets may crack under the weight of the fish. We have
no hope but in you. The evil spirits laugh at us, and too often they are
unfavourable and malignant to us, but they will bow before you. We have
given you food and joy and health; now we kill you in order that you may
in return send riches to us and to our children.” To this discourse the
bear, more and more surly and agitated, listens without conviction; round
and round the tree he paces and howls lamentably, till, just as the first
beams of the rising sun light up the scene, an archer speeds an arrow to
his heart. No sooner has he done so, than the marksman throws away his bow
and flings himself on the ground, and the old men and women do the same,
weeping and sobbing. Then they offer the dead beast a repast of rice and
wild potatoes, and having spoken to him in terms of pity and thanked him
for what he has done and suffered, they cut off his head and paws and keep
them as sacred things. A banquet on the flesh and blood of the bear
follows. Women were formerly excluded from it, but now they share with the
men. The blood is drunk warm by all present; the flesh is boiled, custom
forbids it to be roasted. And as the relics of the bear may not enter the
house by the door, and Aino houses in Saghalien have no windows, a man
gets up on the roof and lets the flesh, the head, and the skin down
through the smoke-hole. Rice and wild potatoes are then offered to the
head, and a pipe, tobacco, and matches are considerately placed beside it.
Custom requires that the guests should eat up the whole animal before they
depart: the use of salt and pepper at the meal is forbidden; and no morsel
of the flesh may be given to the dogs. When the banquet is over, the head
is carried away into the depth of the forest and deposited on a heap of
bears’ skulls, the bleached and mouldering relics of similar festivals in
the past.(571)

(M144) The Gilyaks, a Tunguzian people of Eastern Siberia,(572) hold a
bear-festival of the same sort once a year in January. “The bear is the
object of the most refined solicitude of an entire village and plays the
chief part in their religious ceremonies.”(573) 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 they lead him 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, and so forth 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.(574)
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 Aino 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.(575)

(M145) One of these bear-festivals was witnessed by the Russian traveller
L. von Schrenck and his companions at the Gilyak village of Tebach in
January 1856. From his detailed report of the ceremony we may gather some
particulars which are not noticed in the briefer accounts which I have
just summarised. The bear, he tells us, plays a great part in the life of
all the peoples inhabiting the region of the Amoor and Siberia as far as
Kamtchatka, but among none of them is his importance greater than among
the Gilyaks. The immense size which the animal attains in the valley of
the Amoor, his ferocity whetted by hunger, and the frequency of his
appearance, all combine to make him the most dreaded beast of prey in the
country. No wonder, therefore, that the fancy of the Gilyaks is busied
with him and surrounds him, both in life and in death, with a sort of halo
of superstitious fear. Thus, for example, it is thought that if a Gilyak
falls in combat with a bear, his soul transmigrates into the body of the
beast. Nevertheless his flesh has an irresistible attraction for the
Gilyak palate, especially when the animal has been kept in captivity for
some time and fattened on fish, which gives the flesh, in the opinion of
the Gilyaks, a peculiarly delicious flavour. But in order to enjoy this
dainty with impunity they deem it needful to perform a long series of
ceremonies, of which the intention is to delude the living bear by a show
of respect, and to appease the anger of the dead animal by the homage paid
to his departed spirit. The marks of respect begin as soon as the beast is
captured. He is brought home in triumph and kept in a cage, where all the
villagers take it in turns to feed him. For although he may have been
captured or purchased by one man, he belongs in a manner to the whole
village. His flesh will furnish a common feast, and hence all must
contribute to support him in his life. His diet consists exclusively of
raw or dried fish, water, and a sort of porridge compounded of powdered
fish-skins, train-oil, and whortle-berries. The length of time he is kept
in captivity depends on his age. Old bears are kept only a few months;
cubs are kept till they are full-grown. A thick layer of fat on the
captive bear gives the signal for the festival, which is always held in
winter, generally in December but sometimes in January or February. At the
festival witnessed by the Russian travellers, which lasted a good many
days, three bears were killed and eaten. More than once the animals were
led about in procession and compelled to enter every house in the village,
where they were fed as a mark of honour, and to shew that they were
welcome guests. But before the beasts set out on this round of visits, the
Gilyaks played at skipping-rope in presence, and perhaps, as L. von
Schrenck inclined to believe, in honour of the animals. The night before
they were killed, the three bears were led by moonlight a long way on the
ice of the frozen river. That night no one in the village might sleep.
Next day, after the animals had been again led down the steep bank to the
river, and conducted thrice round the hole in the ice from which the women
of the village drew their water, they were taken to an appointed place not
far from the village, and shot to death with arrows. The place of
sacrifice or execution was marked as holy by being surrounded with
whittled sticks, from the tops of which shavings hung in curls. Such
sticks are with the Gilyaks, as with the Aino, the regular symbols that
accompany all religious ceremonies. Before the bears received the fatal
shafts from two young men chosen for the purpose, the boys were allowed to
discharge their small but not always harmless arrows at the beasts. As
soon as the carcases had been cut up, the skins with the heads attached to
them were set up in a wooden cage in such a way as to make it appear that
the animals had entered the cage and were looking out of it. The blood
which flowed from the bears on the spot where they were killed was
immediately covered up with snow, to prevent any one from accidentally
treading on it, a thing which was strictly tabooed.

(M146) When the house has been arranged and decorated for their reception,
the skins of the bears, with their heads attached to them, are brought
into it, not however by the door, but through a window, and then hung on a
sort of scaffold opposite the hearth on which the flesh is to be cooked.
This ceremony of bringing the bears’ skins into the house by the window
was not witnessed by the Russian travellers, who only learned of it at
second hand. They were told that when the thin disc of fish-skin, which is
the substitute for a pane of glass in the window, has been replaced after
the passage of the bear-skins, a figure of a toad made of birch bark is
affixed to it on the outside, while inside the house a figure of a bear
dressed in Gilyak costume is set on the bench of honour. The meaning of
this part of the ceremony, as it is conjecturally interpreted by Von
Schrenck, may be as follows. The toad is a creature that has a very evil
reputation with the Gilyaks, and accordingly they attempt to lay upon it,
as on a scapegoat, the guilt of the slaughter of the worshipful bear.
Hence its effigy is excluded from the house and has to remain outside at
the window, a witness of its own misdeeds; whereas the bear is brought
into the house and treated as an honoured guest, for fish and flesh are
laid before it, and its effigy, dressed in Gilyak costume, is seated on
the bench of honour.

(M147) The boiling of the bears’ flesh among the Gilyaks is done only by
the oldest men, whose high privilege it is; women and children, young men
and boys have no part in it. The task is performed slowly and
deliberately, with a certain solemnity. On the occasion described by the
Russian travellers the kettle was first of all surrounded with a thick
wreath of shavings, and then filled with snow, for the use of water to
cook bear’s flesh is forbidden. Meanwhile a large wooden trough, richly
adorned with arabesques and carvings of all sorts, was hung immediately
under the snouts of the bears; on one side of the trough was carved in
relief a bear, on the other side a toad. When the carcases were being cut
up, each leg was laid on the ground in front of the bears, as if to ask
their leave, before being placed in the kettle; and the boiled flesh was
fished out of the kettle with an iron hook, and set in the trough before
the bears, in order that they might be the first to taste of their own
flesh. As fast, too, as the fat was cut in strips it was hung up in front
of the bears, and afterwards laid in a small wooden trough on the ground
before them. Last of all the inner organs of the beasts were cut up and
placed in small vessels. At the same time the women made bandages out of
parti-coloured rags, and after sunset these bandages were tied round the
bears’ snouts just below the eyes “in order to dry the tears that flowed
from them.” To each bandage, just below the eyes, was attached a figure of
a toad cut out of birch bark. The meaning of this appears to be, as Von
Schrenck conjectured, as follows. With the carving of his inner organs,
the heart, liver, and so forth, the bear sees that his fate is sealed, and
sheds some natural tears at his hard lot. These tears trickle down his
snout over the figure of the toad, which the poor deluded bear accordingly
regards as the author of all the mischief. For he cannot blame the
Gilyaks, who have treated him so kindly. Have they not received him as a
guest in their house, set him on the seat of honour, given him of their
best, and done nothing but with his knowledge and permission? Finally,
have not their women shewn him the last delicate mark of attention by
drying the tears that flow from his eyes and trickle down his nose? Surely
then he cannot think that these kindly folk have done him any harm; it was
all the fault of the unprincipled toad.

(M148) Whatever may be thought of this explanation, as soon as the
ceremony of wiping away poor bruin’s tears had been performed, the
assembled Gilyaks set to work in earnest to devour his flesh. The broth
obtained by boiling the meat had already been partaken of. The wooden
bowls, platters, and spoons out of which the Gilyaks eat the broth and
flesh of the bears on these occasions are always made specially for the
purpose at the festival and only then; they are elaborately ornamented
with carved figures of bears and other devices that refer to the animal or
the festival, and the people have a strong superstitious scruple against
parting with them. While the festival lasts, no salt may be used in
cooking the bear’s flesh or indeed any other food; and no flesh of any
kind may be roasted, for the bear would hear the hissing and sputtering of
the roasting flesh, and would be very angry. After the bones had been
picked clean they were put back in the kettle in which the flesh had been
boiled. And when the festal meal was over, an old man took his stand at
the door of the house with a branch of fir in his hand, with which, as the
people passed out, he gave a light blow to every one who had eaten of the
bear’s flesh or fat, perhaps as a punishment for their treatment of the
worshipful animal. In the afternoon of the same day the women performed a
strange dance. Only one woman danced at a time, throwing the upper part of
her body into the oddest postures, while she held in her hands a branch of
fir or a kind of wooden castanets. The other women meanwhile played an
accompaniment in a peculiar rhythm by drumming on the beams of the house
with clubs. The dance reminded one of the Russian travellers of the
bear-dance which he had seen danced by the women of Kamtchatka. Von
Schrenck believes, though he has not positive evidence, that after the fat
and flesh of the bear have been consumed, his skull is cleft with an axe,
and the brain taken out and eaten. Then the bones and the skull are
solemnly carried out by the oldest people to a place in the forest not far
from the village. There all the bones except the skull are buried. After
that a young tree is felled a few inches above the ground, its stump
cleft, and the skull wedged into the cleft. When the grass grows over the
spot, the skull disappears from view, and that is the end of the
bear.(576)

(M149) Another description of the bear-festivals of the Gilyaks has been
given us by Mr. Leo Sternberg.(577) It agrees substantially with the
foregoing accounts, but a few particulars in it may be noted. According to
Mr. Sternberg, the festival is usually held in honour of a deceased
relation: the next of kin either buys or catches a bear cub and nurtures
it for two or three years till it is ready for the sacrifice. Only certain
distinguished guests (_Narch-en_) are privileged to partake of the bear’s
flesh, but the host and members of his clan eat a broth made from the
flesh; great quantities of this broth are prepared and consumed on the
occasion. The guests of honour (_Narch-en_) must belong to the clan into
which the host’s daughters and the other women of his clan are married:
one of these guests, usually the host’s son-in-law, is entrusted with the
duty of shooting the bear dead with an arrow. The skin, head, and flesh of
the slain bear are brought into the house not through the door but through
the smoke-hole; a quiver full of arrows is laid under the head and beside
it are deposited tobacco, sugar, and other food. The soul of the bear is
supposed to carry off the souls of these things with it on the far
journey. A special vessel is used for cooking the bear’s flesh, and the
fire must be kindled by a sacred apparatus of flint and steel, which
belongs to the clan and is handed down from generation to generation, but
which is never used to light fires except on these solemn occasions. Of
all the many viands cooked for the consumption of the assembled people a
portion is placed in a special vessel and set before the bear’s head: this
is called “feeding the head.” After the bear has been killed, dogs are
sacrificed in couples of male and female. Before being throttled, they are
fed and invited to go to their lord on the highest mountain, to change
their skins, and to return next year in the form of bears. The soul of the
dead bear departs to the same lord, who is also lord of the primaeval
forest; it goes away laden with the offerings that have been made to it,
and attended by the souls of the dogs and also by the souls of the sacred
whittled sticks, which figure prominently at the festival.

(M150) 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.”(578)

(M151) The Orotchis, another Tunguzian people of the region of the Amoor,
hold bear-festivals of the same general character. Any one who catches a
bear cub considers it his bounden duty to rear it in a cage for about
three years, in order at the end of that time to kill it publicly and eat
the flesh with his friends. The feasts being public, though organised by
individuals, the people try to have one in each Orotchi village every year
in turn. When the bear is taken out of his cage, he is led about by means
of ropes to all the huts, accompanied by people armed with lances, bows,
and arrows. At each hut the bear and bear-leaders are treated to something
good to eat and drink. This goes on for several days until all the huts,
not only in that village but also in the next, have been visited. The days
are given up to sport and noisy jollity. Then the bear is tied to a tree
or wooden pillar and shot to death by the arrows of the crowd, after which
its flesh is roasted and eaten. Among the Orotchis of the Tundja River
women take part in the bear-feasts, while among the Orotchis of the River
Vi the women will not even touch bear’s flesh.(579)

(M152) In the treatment of the captive bear by these tribes there are
features which can hardly be distinguished from worship. Such, for
example, are the prayers offered to it both alive and dead; the offerings
of food, including portions of its own flesh, laid before the animal’s
skull; and the Gilyak custom of leading the living beast on to the ice of
the river in order to ensure a supply of fish, and of conducting him from
house to house in order that every family may receive his blessing, just
as in Europe a May-tree or a personal representative of the tree-spirit
used to be taken from door to door in spring for the sake of diffusing
among all and sundry the fresh energies of reviving nature.(580) Again,
the solemn participation in his flesh and blood, and particularly the Aino
custom of sharing the contents of the cup which had been consecrated by
being set before the dead beast, are strongly suggestive of a sacrament,
and the suggestion is confirmed by the Gilyak practice of reserving
special vessels to hold the flesh and cooking it on a fire kindled by a
sacred apparatus which is never employed except on these religious
occasions. Indeed our principal authority on Aino religion, the Rev. John
Batchelor, frankly describes as worship the ceremonious respect which the
Aino pay to the bear,(581) and he affirms that the animal is undoubtedly
one of their gods.(582) Certainly the Aino appear to apply their name for
god (_kamui_) freely to the bear; but, as Mr. Batchelor himself points
out,(583) that word is used with many different shades of meaning and is
applied to a great variety of objects, so that from its application to the
bear we cannot safely argue that the animal is actually regarded as a
deity. Indeed we are expressly told that the Aino of Saghalien do not
consider the bear to be a god but only a messenger to the gods, and the
message with which they charge the animal at its death bears out the
statement.(584) Apparently the Gilyaks also look on the bear in the light
of an envoy despatched with presents to the Lord of the Mountain, on whom
the welfare of the people depends. At the same time they treat the animal
as a being of a higher order than man, in fact as a minor deity, whose
presence in the village, so long as he is kept and fed, diffuses
blessings, especially by keeping at bay the swarms of evil spirits who are
constantly lying in wait for people, stealing their goods and destroying
their bodies by sickness and disease. Moreover, by partaking of the flesh,
blood, or broth of the bear, the Gilyaks, the Aino, and the Goldi are all
of opinion that they acquire some portion of the animal’s mighty powers,
particularly his courage and strength. No wonder, therefore, that they
should treat so great a benefactor with marks of the highest respect and
affection.(585)

(M153) Some light may be thrown on the ambiguous attitude of the Aino to
bears by comparing the similar treatment which they accord to other
creatures. For example, they regard the eagle-owl as a good deity who by
his hooting warns men of threatened evil and defends them against it;
hence he is loved, trusted, and devoutly worshipped as a divine mediator
between men and the Creator. The various names applied to him are
significant both of his divinity and of his mediatorship. Whenever an
opportunity offers, one of these divine birds is captured and kept in a
cage, where he is greeted with the endearing titles of “Beloved god” and
“Dear little divinity.” Nevertheless the time comes when the dear little
divinity is throttled and sent away in his capacity of mediator to take a
message to the superior gods or to the Creator himself. The following is
the form of prayer addressed to the eagle-owl when it is about to be
sacrificed: “Beloved deity, we have brought you up because we loved you,
and now we are about to send you to your father. We herewith offer you
food, _inao_, wine, and cakes; take them to your parent, and he will be
very pleased. When you come to him say, ‘I have lived a long time among
the Ainu, where an Ainu father and an Ainu mother reared me. I now come to
thee. I have brought a variety of good things. I saw while living in
Ainu-land a great deal of distress. I observed that some of the people
were possessed by demons, some were wounded by wild animals, some were
hurt by landslides, others suffered shipwreck, and many were attacked by
disease. The people are in great straits. My father, hear me, and hasten
to look upon the Ainu and help them.’ If you do this, your father will
help us.”(586)

(M154) Again, the Aino keep eagles in cages, worship them as divinities,
and ask them to defend the people from evil. Yet they offer the bird in
sacrifice, and when they are about to do so they pray to him, saying: “O
precious divinity, O thou divine bird, pray listen to my words. Thou dost
not belong to this world, for thy home is with the Creator and his golden
eagles. This being so, I present thee with these _inao_ and cakes and
other precious things. Do thou ride upon the _inao_ and ascend to thy home
in the glorious heavens. When thou arrivest, assemble the deities of thy
own kind together and thank them for us for having governed the world. Do
thou come again, I beseech thee, and rule over us. O my precious one, go
thou quietly.”(587) Once more, the Aino revere hawks, keep them in cages,
and offer them in sacrifice. At the time of killing one of them the
following prayer should be addressed to the bird: “O divine hawk, thou art
an expert hunter, please cause thy cleverness to descend on me.” If a hawk
is well treated in captivity and prayed to after this fashion when he is
about to be killed, he will surely send help to the hunter.(588)

(M155) Thus the Aino hopes to profit in various ways by slaughtering the
creatures, which, nevertheless, he treats as divine. He expects them to
carry messages for him to their kindred or to the gods in the upper world;
he hopes to partake of their virtues by imbibing parts of their bodies or
in other ways; and apparently he looks forward to their bodily
resurrection in this world, which will enable him again to catch and kill
them, and again to reap all the benefits which he has already derived from
their slaughter. For in the prayers addressed to the worshipful bear and
the worshipful eagle before they are knocked on the head the creatures are
invited to come again,(589) which seems clearly to point to a faith in
their future resurrection. If any doubt could exist on this head, it would
be dispelled by the evidence of Mr. Batchelor, who tells us that the Aino
“are firmly convinced that the spirits of birds and animals killed in
hunting or offered in sacrifice come and live again upon the earth clothed
with a body; and they believe, further, that they appear here for the
special benefit of men, particularly Ainu hunters.”(590) The Aino, Mr.
Batchelor tells us, “confessedly slays and eats the beast that another may
come in its place and be treated in like manner”; and at the time of
sacrificing the creatures “prayers are said to them which form a request
that they will come again and furnish viands for another feast, as if it
were an honour to them to be thus killed and eaten, and a pleasure as
well. Indeed such is the people’s idea.”(591) These last observations, as
the context shews, refer especially to the sacrifice of bears.

(M156) Thus among the benefits which the Aino anticipates from the
slaughter of the worshipful animals not the least substantial is that of
gorging himself on their flesh and blood, both on the present and on many
a similar occasion hereafter; and that pleasing prospect again is derived
from his firm faith in the spiritual immortality and bodily resurrection
of the dead animals. A like faith is shared by many savage hunters in many
parts of the world and has given rise to a variety of quaint customs, some
of which will be described presently. Meantime it is not unimportant to
observe that the solemn festivals at which the Aino, the Gilyaks, and
other tribes slaughter the tame caged bears with demonstrations of respect
and sorrow, are probably nothing but an extension or glorification of
similar rites which the hunter performs over any wild bear which he
chances to kill in the forest. Indeed with regard to the Gilyaks we are
expressly informed that this is the case. If we would understand the
meaning of the Gilyak ritual, says Mr. Sternberg, “we must above all
remember that the bear-festivals are not, as is usually but falsely
assumed, celebrated only at the killing of a house-bear but are held on
every occasion when a Gilyak succeeds in slaughtering a bear in the chase.
It is true that in such cases the festival assumes less imposing
dimensions, but in its essence it remains the same. When the head and skin
of a bear killed in the forest are brought into the village, they are
accorded a triumphal reception with music and solemn ceremonial. The head
is laid on a consecrated scaffold, fed, and treated with offerings, just
as at the killing of a house-bear; and the guests of honour (_Narch-en_)
are also assembled. So, too, dogs are sacrificed, and the bones of the
bear are preserved in the same place and with the same marks of respect as
the bones of a house-bear. Hence the great winter festival is only an
extension of the rite which is observed at the slaughter of every
bear.”(592)

(M157) Thus the apparent contradiction in the practice of these tribes,
who venerate and almost deify the animals which they habitually hunt,
kill, and eat, is not so flagrant as at first sight it appears to us: the
people have reasons, and some very practical reasons, for acting as they
do. For the savage is by no means so illogical and unpractical as to
superficial observers he is apt to seem; he has thought deeply on the
questions which immediately concern him, he reasons about them, and though
his conclusions often diverge very widely from ours, we ought not to deny
him the credit of patient and prolonged meditation on some fundamental
problems of human existence. In the present case, if he treats bears in
general as creatures wholly subservient to human needs and yet singles out
certain individuals of the species for homage which almost amounts to
deification, we must not hastily set him down as irrational and
inconsistent, but must endeavour to place ourselves at his point of view,
to see things as he sees them, and to divest ourselves of the
prepossessions which tinge so deeply our own views of the world. If we do
so, we shall probably discover that, however absurd his conduct may appear
to us, the savage nevertheless generally acts on a train of reasoning
which seems to him in harmony with the facts of his limited experience.
This I propose to illustrate in the following chapter, where I shall
attempt to shew that the solemn ceremonial of the bear-festival among the
Ainos and other tribes of north-eastern Asia is only a particularly
striking example of the respect which on the principles of his rude
philosophy the savage habitually pays to the animals which he kills and
eats.

CHAPTER XIV. THE PROPITIATION OF WILD ANIMALS BY HUNTERS.

(M158) The explanation of life by the theory of an indwelling and
practically immortal soul is one which the savage does not confine to
human beings but extends to the animate creation in general. In so doing
he is more liberal and perhaps more logical than the civilised man, who
commonly denies to animals that privilege of immortality which he claims
for himself. The savage is not so proud; he commonly 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. Thus, for example, we are told that the Indian of Guiana does
not see “any sharp line of distinction, such as we see, between man and
other animals, between one kind of animal and another, or between
animals—man included—and inanimate objects. On the contrary, to the
Indian, all objects, animate and inanimate, seem exactly of the same
nature except that they differ in the accident of bodily form. Every
object in the whole world is a being, consisting of a body and spirit, and
differs from every other object in no respect except that of bodily form,
and in the greater or less degree of brute power and brute cunning
consequent on the difference of bodily form and bodily habits.”(593)
Similarly we read that “in Cherokee mythology, as in that of Indian tribes
generally, there is no essential difference between men and animals. In
the primal genesis period they seem to be completely undifferentiated, and
we find all creatures alike living and working together in harmony and
mutual helpfulness until man, by his aggressiveness and disregard for the
rights of the others, provokes their hostility, when insects, birds,
fishes, reptiles, and fourfooted beasts join forces against him.
Henceforth their lives are apart, but the difference is always one of
degree only. The animals, like the people, are organized into tribes and
have like them their chiefs and townhouses, their councils and ballplays,
and the same hereafter in the Darkening land of Usunhiyi. Man is still the
paramount power, and hunts and slaughters the others as his own
necessities compel, but is obliged to satisfy the animal tribes in every
instance, very much as a murder is compounded for, according to the Indian
system, by ‘covering the bones of the dead’ with presents for the bereaved
relatives.”(594) To the same effect another observer of the North American
Indians writes: “I have often reflected on the curious connexion which
appears to subsist in the mind of an Indian between man and the brute
creation, and found much matter in it for curious observation. Although
they consider themselves superior to all other animals and are very proud
of that superiority; although they believe that the beasts of the forest,
the birds of the air, and the fishes of the waters, were created by the
Almighty Being for the use of man; yet it seems as if they ascribe the
difference between themselves and the brute kind, and the dominion which
they have over them, more to their superior bodily strength and dexterity
than to their immortal souls. All beings endowed by the Creator with the
power of volition and self-motion, they view in a manner as a great
society of which they are the head, whom they are appointed, indeed, to
govern, but between whom and themselves intimate ties of connexion and
relationship may exist, or at least did exist in the beginning of time.
They are, in fact, according to their opinions, only the first among
equals, the legitimate hereditary sovereigns of the whole animated race,
of which they are themselves a constituent part. Hence, in their
languages, those inflections of their nouns which we call _genders_, are
not, as with us, descriptive of the _masculine_ and _feminine_ species,
but of the _animate_ and _inanimate_ kinds. Indeed, they go so far as to
include trees and plants within the first of these descriptions. All
animated nature, in whatever degree, is in their eyes a great whole, from
which they have not yet ventured to separate themselves. They do not
exclude other animals from their world of spirits, the place to which they
expect to go after death.”(595) Even Chinese authors “have roundly avowed
themselves altogether unable to discover any real difference between men
and animals,” and they have drawn out the parallelism between the two in
some detail.(596)

(M159) But it is not merely between the mental and spiritual nature of man
and the animals that the savage traces a close resemblance; even the
distinction of their bodily form appears sometimes to elude his dull
apprehension. An unusually intelligent Bushman questioned by a missionary
“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.”(597) In the opinion of the Gilyak, “the form and size of an animal
are merely a sort of appearance. Every animal is in point of fact a real
being like man, nay a Gilyak such as himself, but endowed with reason and
strength which often surpass those of mere men.”(598) Nor is it merely
that in the mental fog the savage takes beasts for men; he seems to be
nearly as ready to take himself and his fellows for beasts. 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.”(599) We
have seen how some savages identify themselves with animals of various
sorts by eating the maggots bred in the rotting carcases of the beasts,
and how thereafter, when occasion serves, they behave in their adopted
characters by wriggling, roaring, barking, or grunting, according as they
happen to be boa-constrictors, lions, jackals, or hippopotamuses.(600) In
the island of Mabuiag men of the Sam, that is, the Cassowary, totem think
that cassowaries are men or nearly so. “Sam he all same as relation, he
belong same family,” is the account they give of their kinship with the
creature. Conversely they hold that they themselves are cassowaries, or at
all events that they possess some of the qualities of the long-legged
bird. When a Cassowary man went forth to reap laurels on the field of
battle, he used to reflect with satisfaction on the length of his lower
limbs: “My leg is long and thin, I can run and not feel tired; my legs
will go quickly and the grass will not entangle them.”(601) Omaha Indians
believe that between a man and the creature which is his guardian spirit
there subsists so close a bond that the man acquires the powers and
qualities, the virtues and defects of the animal. Thus if a man has seen a
bear in that vision at puberty which determines an Indian’s guardian
spirit, he will be apt to be wounded in battle, because the bear is a slow
and clumsy animal and easily trapped. If he has dreamed of an eagle, he
will be able to see into the future and foretell coming events, because
the eagle’s vision is keen and piercing.(602) Similarly, the Thompson
Indians of British Columbia imagined that every man partook of the nature
of the animal which was his guardian spirit; for example, a man who had
the grisly bear for his protector would prove a much fiercer warrior than
one who had only a crow, a coyote, or a fox for his guardian spirit. And
before they set out on the war-path these Indians used to perform a mimic
battle, in which each man, tricked out with paint and feathers, imitated
the sounds of the animal that was his guardian spirit, grunting and
whooping in character.(603) The Bororos, a tribe of Indians in the heart
of Brazil, will have it that they are parrots of a gorgeous red plumage
which live in the Brazilian forest. It is not merely that their souls will
pass into these birds at death, but they themselves are actually identical
with them in their life, and accordingly they treat the parrots as they
might treat their fellow-tribesmen, keeping them in captivity, refusing to
eat their flesh, and mourning for them when they die. However, they kill
the wild birds for their feathers, and, though they will not kill, they
pluck the tame ones to deck their own naked brown bodies with the gaudy
plumage of their feathered brethren.(604)

(M160) Thus to the savage, who regards all living creatures as practically
on a footing of equality with man, 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. Hence on the principles of his
rude philosophy the primitive hunter 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 little reason to kill them for the sake of
their tough and unpalatable flesh.(605) Hence it is a custom with some
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.”(606)

(M161) When a Dyak has made up his mind to take vengeance on the
crocodiles for the death of a kinsman, he calls in the help of a
Pangareran, a man whose business it is to charm and catch crocodiles and
to make them do his will. While he is engaged in the discharge of his
professional duties the crocodile-catcher has to observe a number of odd
rules. He may not go to anybody and may not even pass in front of a
window, because he is unclean. He may not himself cook anything nor come
near a fire. If he would eat fruit, he may not peel or husk it himself,
but must get others to do it for him. He may not even chew his food, but
is obliged to swallow it unchewed. A little hut is made for him on the
bank of the river, where he uses divination by means of the figure of a
crocodile drawn on a piece of bamboo for the purpose of determining
whether his undertaking will prosper. The boat in which he embarks to
catch the wicked man-eating crocodile must be painted yellow and red, and
in the middle of it lances are erected with the points upward. Then the
man of skill casts lots to discover whether the hook is to be baited with
pork, or venison, or the flesh of a dog or an ass. In throwing the baited
hook into the water he calls out: “Ye crocodiles who are up stream, come
down; and ye crocodiles who are down stream, come up; for I will give you
all good food, as sweet as sugar and as fat as coco-nut. I will give you a
pretty and beautiful necklace. When you have got it, keep it in your neck
and body, for this food is very _pahuni_,” which means that it would be
sinful not to eat it. If a crocodile bites at the hook, the
crocodile-catcher bawls out, “Choose a place for yourself where you will
lie; for many men are come to see you. They are come joyfully and
exultingly, and they give you a knife, a lance, and a shroud.” If the
crocodile is a female, he addresses her as “Princess”; if it is a male, he
calls it “Prince.” The enchanter, who is generally a cunning Malay, must
continue his operations till he catches a crocodile in which traces are to
be found shewing that the animal has indeed devoured a human being. Then
the death of the man is atoned for, and in order not to offend the
water-spirits a cat is sacrificed to the crocodiles. The heads of the dead
crocodiles are fastened on stakes beside the river, where in time they
bleach white and stand out sharply against the green background of the
forest.(607) While the captured crocodile is being hauled in to the bank,
the subtle Dyaks speak softly to him and beguile him into offering no
resistance; but once they have him fast, with arms and legs securely
pinioned, they howl at him and deride him for his credulity, while they
rip up the belly of the infuriated and struggling brute to find the
evidence of his guilt in the shape of human remains. On one occasion Rajah
Brooke of Sarawak was present at a discussion among a party of Dyaks as to
how they ought to treat a captured crocodile. One side maintained that it
was proper to bestow all praise and honour on the kingly beast, since he
was himself a rajah among animals and was now brought there to meet the
rajah; in short, they held that praise and flattery were agreeable to him
and would put him on his best behaviour. The other side fully admitted
that on this occasion rajah met rajah; yet with prudent foresight they
pointed to the dangerous consequences which might flow from establishing a
precedent such as their adversaries contended for. If once a captured
crocodile, said they, were praised and honoured, the other crocodiles, on
hearing of it, would be puffed up with pride and ambition, and being
seized with a desire to emulate the glory of their fellow would enter on a
career of man-eating as the road likely to lead them by the shortest cut
to the temple of fame.(608)

(M162) The Minangkabauers of Sumatra have also a great respect for
crocodiles. Their celebrated law-giver Katoemanggoengan was indeed born
again in the form of a crocodile; and thus his descendants, including the
rajah of Indrapoera and his family, are more or less distant cousins of
the crocodiles, and enjoy the help and protection of the creatures in many
ways, for example when they go on a journey. The respect entertained for
the animals is also attested by the ceremonies observed in some places
when a crocodile has been caught. A crowd of women then performs certain
dances which closely resemble the dances performed when somebody has died.
Moreover, it is a rule with the Minangkabauers that no cooking-pot may be
washed in a river; to do so would be like offering the crocodiles the
leavings of your food, and they would very naturally resent it. For the
same reason in washing up the dinner or supper plates you must be careful
not to make a splashing, or the crocodiles would hear it and take
umbrage.(609)

(M163) Among the Malays of Patani Bay, in Siam, there is a family whose
members may not kill a crocodile nor even be present when one of these
ferocious reptiles is captured. The reason alleged for this forbearance is
that the family claim kindred with a woman named Betimor, who was drowned
in the river and afterwards turned into a crocodile. After her
transformation she appeared to her father in a dream and told him what had
become of her; so he went down to the river and made offerings to her of
rice and wax tapers. There is a shrine on the spot where the woman was
transformed into a crocodile, and any one may dedicate offerings there and
pray to Toh Sri Lam; for so she has been called ever since her
metamorphosis. Members of the crocodile family call on her for help in
sickness and other misfortunes, and they will do so on behalf of other
people for a proper consideration. Rice and wax tapers are the usual
offerings.(610) In many islands of the Indian Archipelago, including Java,
Sumatra, Celebes, Timor, and Ceram, this belief in a kinship of men with
crocodiles assumes a peculiar form. The people imagine that women are
often delivered of a child and a crocodile at the same birth, and that
when this happens, the midwife carries the crocodile twin carefully down
to the river and places it in the water. The family in which such a birth
is thought to have happened, constantly put victuals into the river for
their amphibious relation; and in particular the human twin, so long as he
lives, goes down to the river at stated seasons to do his duty by his
crocodile brother or sister; and if he were to fail to do so, it is the
universal opinion that he would be visited with sickness or death for his
unnatural conduct. Large parties of these crocodile people periodically go
out in a boat furnished with great plenty of provisions and all kinds of
music, and they row backwards and forwards, with the music playing, in
places where crocodiles do most abound. As they do so they sing and weep
by turns, each of them invoking his animal kinsfolk, till the snout of one
of the brutes bobbs up from the water, whereupon the music stops, and
food, betel, and tobacco are thrown into the river. By these delicate
attentions they hope to recommend themselves to the formidable
creatures.(611)

(M164) The crocodiles about the island of Damba in the Victoria Nyanza
were sacred and might not be molested in any way. Hence they multiplied
and became dangerous; people made offerings to them in the hope of being
spared by the monsters when they crossed in the ferries. From time to time
batches of men were brought down to the beach and sacrificed to the
crocodiles. Their arms and legs were broken so that they could not stir
from the spot; then they were laid out in a row on the shore, and the
crocodiles came and dragged them into the water. On the island there was a
temple dedicated to the crocodiles, and here an inspired medium resided
who gave oracular responses. Under the influence of the spirit he wagged
his head from side to side, opening his jaws and snapping them together,
just as a crocodile does.(612) No doubt the spirit which possessed him in
these moments of fine frenzy was supposed to be that of a crocodile.
Similarly in other parts of Uganda men were inspired by the ghosts or
spirits of lions, leopards, and serpents, and in that state of exaltation
they uttered oracles, roaring like a lion, growling like a leopard, or
grovelling and wriggling like a serpent, according to the nature of the
spirit by which they were possessed.(613) Crocodiles abound in the Albert
Nyanza Lake and its tributaries. In many places they are extremely
dangerous, but the Alur tribe of that region only hunt them when they have
dragged away a man; and they think that any one who has taken away a
crocodile’s eggs must be on his guard when he walks near the bank of the
river, for the crocodiles will try to avenge the injury by seizing
him.(614) In general the Foulahs of Senegambia dare not kill a crocodile
from fear of provoking the vengeance of the relations and friends of the
murdered reptile; but if the sorcerer gives his consent and passes his
word that he will guarantee them against the vengeance of the family of
the deceased, they will pluck up courage to attack one of the brutes.(615)

(M165) Like the Dyaks, 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.(616) Various tribes
of Madagascar believe themselves to be descended from crocodiles, and
accordingly they view the scaly reptile as, to all intents and purposes, a
man and a brother. If one of the animals should so far forget himself as
to devour one of his human kinsfolk, the chief of the tribe, or in his
absence an old man familiar with the tribal customs, repairs at the head
of the people to the edge of the water, and summons the family of the
culprit to deliver him up to the arm of justice. A hook is then baited and
cast into the river or lake. Next day the guilty brother, or one of his
family, is dragged ashore, and after his crime has been clearly brought
home to him by a strict interrogation, he is sentenced to death and
executed. The claims of justice being thus satisfied and the majesty of
the law fully vindicated, the deceased crocodile is lamented and buried
like a kinsman; a mound is raised over his relics and a stone marks the
place of his head.(617) The Malagasy, indeed, regard the crocodile with
superstitious veneration as the king of the waters and supreme in his own
element. When they are about to cross a river they pronounce a solemn
oath, or enter into an engagement to acknowledge his sovereignty over the
waters. An aged native has been known to covenant with the crocodiles for
nearly half an hour before plunging into the stream. After that he lifted
up his voice and addressed the animal, urging him to do him no harm, since
he had never hurt the crocodile; assuring him that he had never made war
on any of his fellows, but on the contrary had always entertained the
highest veneration for him; and adding that if he wantonly attacked him,
vengeance would follow sooner or later; while if the crocodile devoured
him, his relations and all his race would declare war against the beast.
This harangue occupied another quarter of an hour, after which the orator
dashed fearlessly into the stream.(618)

(M166) Again, the tiger is another of those dangerous beasts whom the
savage prefers to leave alone, lest by killing one of the species he
should excite the hostility of the rest. No consideration will induce a
Sumatran to catch or wound a tiger except in self-defence or immediately
after a 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 animals that the traps are not set
by them nor with their consent.(619) If it is necessary to kill a tiger
which has wrought much harm in the village, the Minangkabauers of Sumatra
try to catch him alive in order to beg for his forgiveness before
despatching him, and in ordinary life they will not speak evil of him or
do anything that might displease him. For example, they will not use a
path that has been untrodden for more than a year, because the tiger has
chosen that path for himself, and would deem it a mark of disrespect were
any one else to use it. Again, persons journeying by night will not walk
one behind the other, nor keep looking about them, for the tiger would
think that this betrayed fear of him, and his feelings would be hurt by
the suspicion. Neither will they travel bareheaded, for that also would be
disrespectful to the tiger; nor will they knock off the glowing end of a
firebrand, for the flying sparks are like the tiger’s glistering eyes, and
he would treat this as an attempt to mimic him.(620) The population of
Mandeling, a district on the west coast of Sumatra, is divided into clans,
one of which claims to be descended from a tiger. It is believed that the
animal will not attack or rend the members of this clan, because they are
his kinsmen. When members of the clan come upon the tracks of a tiger,
they enclose them with three little sticks as a mark of homage; and when a
tiger has been shot, the women of the clan are bound to offer betel to the
dead beast.(621) The Battas of Sumatra seldom kill a tiger except from
motives of revenge, observing the rule an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth, or, as they express it, “He who owes gold must pay in gold; he who
owes breath (that is, life) must pay with breath.” Nor can the beast be
attacked without some ceremony; only weapons that have proved themselves
able to kill may be used for the purpose. When the tiger has been killed,
they bring the carcase to the village, set offerings before it, and burn
incense over it, praying the spirit of the tiger to quit its material
envelope and enter the incense pot. As soon as the soul may be supposed to
have complied with this request, a speaker explains to the spirits in
general the reasons for killing the tiger, and begs them to set forth
these reasons to the departed soul of the beast, lest the latter should be
angry and the people should suffer in consequence. Then they dance round
the dead body of the tiger till they can dance no longer, after which they
skin the carcase and bury it.(622) The inhabitants of the hills near
Rajamahall, in Bengal, believe that if any man kills a tiger without
divine orders, either he or one of his relations will be devoured by a
tiger. Hence they are very averse to killing a tiger, unless one of their
kinsfolk has been carried off by one of the beasts. In that case they go
out for the purpose of hunting and slaying a tiger; and when they have
succeeded they lay their bows and arrows on the carcase and invoke God,
declaring that they slew the animal in retaliation for the loss of a
kinsman. Vengeance having been thus taken, they swear not to attack
another tiger except under similar provocation.(623) The natives of Cochin
China have a great respect for the tiger, whom they regard as a terrible
divinity. Yet they set traps for him and leave no stone unturned to catch
him. Once he is ensnared, they offer him their excuses and condolences for
the painful position in which he finds himself.(624)

(M167) The Indians of Carolina would not molest snakes when they came upon
them, but would pass by on the other side of the path, believing that if
they were to kill a serpent, the reptile’s kindred would destroy some of
their brethren, friends, or relations in return.(625) So the Seminole
Indians spared the rattlesnake, because they feared that the soul of the
dead rattlesnake would incite its kinsfolk to take vengeance. Once when a
rattlesnake appeared in their camp they entreated an English traveller to
rid them of the creature. When he had killed it, they were glad but tried
to scratch him as a means of appeasing the spirit of the dead snake.(626)
Soon after the Iowas began to build their village near the mouth of Wolf
River, a lad came into the village and reported that he had seen a
rattlesnake on a hill not far off. A medicine-man immediately repaired to
the spot, and finding the snake made it presents of tobacco and other
things which he had brought with him for the purpose. He also had a long
talk with the animal, and on returning to his people told them that now
they might travel about in safety, for peace had been made with the
snakes.(627) The Delaware Indians also paid great respect to the
rattlesnake, whom they called their grandfather, and they would on no
account destroy one of the reptiles. They said that the rattlesnake
guarded them and gave them notice of impending danger by his rattle, and
that if they were to kill a rattlesnake, the rest of the species would
soon hear of it and bite the Indians in revenge.(628) The Potawatomi
Indians highly venerated the rattlesnake for a similar reason, being
grateful to it for the timely warning which it often gave of the approach
of an enemy. Yet a young man who desired to obtain a rattle would have no
hesitation in killing one of the snakes for the purpose; but he apologised
profusely to the creature for the liberty he took with it, explaining that
he required the rattle for the adornment of his person, and that no
disrespect was intended to the snake; and in proof of his good will he
would leave a piece of tobacco beside the carcase.(629) The Cherokee
regard the rattlesnake as the chief of the snake tribe and fear and
respect him accordingly. Few Cherokee will venture to kill a rattlesnake,
unless they cannot help it, and even then they must atone for the crime by
craving pardon of the snake’s ghost either in their own person or through
the mediation of a priest, according to a set formula. If these
precautions are neglected, the kinsfolk of the dead snake will send one of
their number as an avenger of blood, who will track down the murderer and
sting him to death. It is absolutely necessary to cut off the snake’s head
and bury it deep in the earth and to hide the body in a hollow log; for if
the remains were exposed to the weather, the other snakes would be so
angry that they would send torrents of rain and all the streams would
overflow their banks. If a Cherokee dreams of being bitten by a snake, he
must be treated in exactly the same way as if he had been really bitten;
for they think that he has actually been bitten by the ghost of a snake,
and that if the proper remedies were not applied to the hurt, the place
would swell and ulcerate, though possibly not for years afterwards.(630)
Once when an Englishman attempted to kill a rattlesnake, a party of
Ojibway Indians, with whom he was travelling, begged him to desist, and
endeavoured to appease the snake, addressing it in turns as grandfather,
smoking over it, and beseeching it to take care of their families in their
absence, and to open the heart of the British Agent so that he should fill
their canoe with rum. A storm which overtook them next day on Lake Huron
was attributed by them to the wrath of the insulted rattlesnake, and they
sought to mollify him by throwing dogs as sacrifices to him into the
waves.(631) The Kekchi Indians of Guatemala will not throw serpents or
scorpions into the fire, lest the other creatures of the same species
should punish them for the outrage.(632)

(M168) In Kiziba, a district of Central Africa, to the west of Lake
Victoria Nyanza, if a woman accidentally kills a snake with her hoe while
she is working in the field, she hastens in great agitation to the
snake-priest and hands him over the hoe, together with two strings of
cowries and an ox-hide, begging him to appease the angry spirit of the
slain serpent. In this application she is accompanied and supported by all
the villagers, who share her fears and anxiety. Accordingly the priest
beats his drum as a sign that no woman of the village is to work in the
fields till further notice. Next he wraps the dead serpent in a piece of
the ox-hide and buries it solemnly. On the following day he performs a
ceremony of purification for the slaughter of the reptile. He compounds a
medicine out of the guts of a leopard or hyaena and earth or mud dissolved
in water, and with this mixture he disinfects all the houses in the
village, beginning with the house of the woman who killed the serpent.
Next he proceeds to the fields, where all the women of the village have
collected their hoes. These he purifies by dipping them in the fluid and
then twirling them about so as to make the drops of water fly off. From
that moment the danger incurred by the slaughter of the reptile is
averted. The spirit of the serpent is appeased, and the women may resume
their usual labours in the fields.(633)

(M169) When the Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia have slain a wolf
they lay the carcase on a blanket and take out the heart, of which every
person who helped to kill the beast must eat four morsels. Then they wail
over the body, saying, “Woe! our great friend!” After that they cover the
carcase with a blanket and bury it. A bow or gun that killed a wolf is
regarded as unlucky, and the owner gives it away. These Indians believe
that the slaying of a wolf produces a scarcity of game.(634) When the
Tinneh Indians of Central Alaska have killed a wolf or a wolverine, the
carcase is brought into the camp or village with great pomp. The people go
forth to meet it, saying, “The chief is coming.” Then the body is carried
into a hut and propped up in a sitting posture; and the medicine-man
spreads before it a copious banquet, to which every family in the village
has contributed of its best. When the dead animal is supposed to have
satisfied his hunger, the men consume the remains of the feast, but no
woman is allowed to participate in what has been thus offered to the wolf
or the wolverine.(635) No ordinary Cherokee dares to kill a wolf, if he
can possibly help it; for he believes that the kindred of the slain beast
would surely avenge its death, and that the weapon with which the deed had
been done would be quite useless for the future, unless it were cleaned
and exorcised by a medicine-man. However, certain persons who know the
proper rites of atonement for such a crime can kill wolves with impunity,
and they are sometimes hired to do so by people who have suffered from the
raids of the wolves on their cattle or fish-traps. The professional
wolf-killer prays to the animal whom he has bereaved of life, and seeks to
avert the vengeance of the other wolves by laying the blame of the
slaughter on the people of another settlement. To purify the gun which has
perpetrated the murder, he unscrews the barrel, inserts into it seven
small sour-wood rods which have been heated in the fire, and then allows
the barrel and its contents to lie in a running stream till morning.(636)
When the Chuckchees of north-eastern Siberia have killed a wolf, they hold
a festival, at which they cry, “Wolf, be not angry with us. It was not we
who killed you, it was the Russians who destroyed you.”(637) In ancient
Athens any man who killed a wolf had to bury it by subscription.(638)

(M170) In Jebel-Nuba, a district of the eastern Sudan, it is forbidden to
touch the nests or remove the young of a species of black birds,
resembling our blackbirds, because the people believe that the parent
birds would avenge the wrong by causing a stormy wind to blow, which would
destroy the harvest.(639) Some of the Sudanese negroes of Upper Egypt
regard the great black raven (_Corvus umbrinus_) as their uncle and exact
pecuniary compensation or blood-money from any one who has been so rash as
to slay their sable relative. Having satisfied their scruples on that
head, they give the bird a solemn burial, carrying the corpse to the
graveyard on a bier with flags and shouts of _la ill Allah_, just as if
they were interring one of their kinsfolk.(640) The Palenques of South
America are very careful to spare harmless animals which are not good for
food; because they believe that any injury inflicted on such creatures
would entail the sickness or death of their own children.(641)

(M171) 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 and so forth, to make it think that it was not a
victim but a guest at a feast. They believed that this hindered 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 inform 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. Moreover,
they used to insert sprigs of a plant resembling bear’s wort in the mouths
of the animals they killed; after which they would exhort the grinning
skulls to have no fear but to go and tell it to their fellows, that they
also might come and be caught and so partake of this splendid
hospitality.(642) 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 carcase 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.(643) 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.”(644) When a party of Koryak 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.(645) A fuller account of the Koryak
ceremonies is given by a more recent writer. He tells us that when a dead
bear is brought to the house, the women come out to meet it dancing with
firebrands. The bear-skin is taken off along with the head; and one of the
women puts on the skin, dances in it, and entreats the bear not to be
angry, but to be kind to the people. At the same time they offer meat on a
wooden platter to the dead beast, saying, “Eat, friend.” Afterwards a
ceremony is performed for the purpose of sending the dead bear, or rather
his spirit, away back to his home. He is provided with provisions for the
journey in the shape of puddings or reindeer-flesh packed in a grass bag.
His skin is stuffed with grass and carried round the house, after which he
is supposed to depart towards the rising sun. The intention of the
ceremonies is to protect the people from the wrath of the slain bear and
his kinsfolk, and so to ensure success in future bear-hunts.(646) The
Finns used to try to persuade a slain bear that he had not been killed by
them, but had fallen from a tree, or met his death in some other way;(647)
moreover, they held a funeral festival in his honour, at the close of
which bards expatiated on the homage that had been paid to him, urging him
to report to the other bears the high consideration with which he had been
treated, in order that they also, following his example, might come and be
slain.(648) 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. His
flesh then furnished a feast.(649)

(M172) 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 Bering’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 carcase 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.(650) 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?”(651) 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. After that
the animal was skinned, boiled, and eaten.(652) The Assiniboins pray to
the bear and offer sacrifices to it of tobacco, belts, and other valuable
objects. Moreover, they hold feasts in its honour, that they may win the
beast’s favour and live safe and sound. The bear’s head is often kept in
camp for several days mounted in some suitable position and decked with
scraps of scarlet cloth, necklaces, collars, and coloured feathers. They
offer the pipe to it, and pray that they may be able to kill all the bears
they meet, without harm to themselves, for the purpose of anointing
themselves with his fine grease and banqueting on his tender flesh.(653)
The Ojibways will not suffer dogs to eat the flesh or gnaw the bones of a
bear, and they throw all the waste portions into the fire. They think that
if the flesh were desecrated, they would have no luck in hunting bears
thereafter.(654) A trader of the eighteenth century has described the
endearments which a party of Ojibways lavished on a she-bear which he had
just killed. They took her head in their hands, stroked it and kissed it,
and begged a thousand pardons for her violent death; they called her their
relation and grandmother, and begged her not to lay the fault at their
door, for indeed it was an Englishman who had killed her. Having severed
the head from the body, they adorned it with all the trinkets they could
muster and set it up on a scaffold in the lodge. Next day pipes were lit
and tobacco smoke blown into the nostrils of the dead bear, and the trader
was invited to pay this mark of respect to the animal as an atonement for
having taken her life. Before they feasted on the bear’s flesh, an orator
made a speech in which he deplored the sad necessity under which they
laboured of destroying their friends the bears; for how otherwise could
they subsist?(655) Some of the Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands, off
the north-western coast of America, used to mark the skins of bears,
otters, and other animals with four red crosses in a line, by way of
propitiating the spirit of the beast they had killed.(656) When the
Thompson Indians of British Columbia were about to hunt bears, they would
sometimes address the animal and ask it to come and be shot. They prayed
the grisly bear not to be angry with the hunter, nor to fight him, but
rather to have pity on him and to deliver himself up to his mercies. The
man who intended to hunt the grisly bear had to be chaste for some time
before he set out on his dangerous adventure. When he had killed a bear,
he and his companions painted their faces in alternate perpendicular
stripes of black and red, and sang the bear song. Sometimes the hunter
also prayed, thanking the beast for letting itself be killed so easily,
and begging that its mate might share the same fate. After they had eaten
the flesh of the bear’s head, they tied the skull to the top of a small
tree, as high as they could reach, and left it there. Having done so, they
painted their faces with alternate stripes of red and black as before; for
if they failed to observe this ceremony, the bears would be offended, and
the hunters would not be able to kill any more. To place the heads of
bears or any large beasts on trees or stones was a mark of respect to the
animals.(657) The Lillooet and Shuswap Indians of the same region used to
observe similar ceremonies at the killing of a bear.(658)

(M173) A like respect is testified for other dangerous creatures by the
hunters who regularly trap and kill them. When Caffre 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.”(659) 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.”(660) Before the Amaxosa Caffres attack an elephant they shout
to the animal and beg him to pardon them for the slaughter they are about
to perpetrate, professing great submission to his person and explaining
clearly the need they have of his tusks to enable them to procure beads
and supply their wants. When they have killed him they bury in the ground,
along with the end of his trunk, a few of the articles they have obtained
for the ivory, thus hoping to avert some mishap that would otherwise
befall them.(661) Among the Wanyamwezi of Central Africa, when hunters
have killed an elephant, they bury his legs on the spot where he fell and
then cover the place with stones. The burial is supposed to appease the
spirit of the dead elephant and to ensure the success of the hunters in
future undertakings.(662) When the Baganda have killed an elephant, they
extract the nerve from the tusk and bury it, taking care to mark the place
of the burial. For they think that the ghost of the dead elephant attaches
itself to the nerve, and that if a hunter were to step over the nerve, the
elephant’s ghost would cause him to be killed by an elephant the next time
he went forth to hunt the beasts.(663)

(M174) In Latuka, a district of the Upper Nile, lions are much respected,
and are only killed when they prove very troublesome and dangerous. There
used to be in this region a Lion-chief, as he was called, who professed to
have all lions under his control, and who actually kept several tame lions
about his house. Whenever a lion was accidentally caught in a trap near
the station of the Egyptian Government, this man would regularly present
himself and demand the release of the noble animal. The favour was always
granted, and planks were let down into the pit to enable the imprisoned
lion to clamber up and escape.(664) Amongst some tribes of Eastern Africa,
when a lion is killed, the carcase 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.(665)

(M175) 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.(666) The
leopard is held in great veneration by the Igaras of the Niger. They call
it “father” (_atta_), though they do not object to kill the animal in the
chase. When a dead leopard is brought into Idah, the capital, it is
dressed up in white and borne on the heads of four men from house to
house, amidst singing and beating of drums. Each householder gives a
present of cowries or cloth to the owner of the leopard, and at last the
carcase is buried with great ceremony and firing of guns. Should these
rites be neglected, the people imagine that the spirit of the dead leopard
will punish them.(667) Among the Ewe negroes of Togoland “hunters who had
killed buffaloes, leopards, or wild black swine observed in Agome for nine
days the same, or very similar, ceremonies as are customary at the death
of a woman, in order to prevent the soul of the slain beasts from avenging
itself on them, a custom which is the less surprising because the mourning
customs themselves are based on the fear of spirits, namely the spirits of
the dead. The natives ascribe to the souls of these dangerous animals the
power of killing the man who shot them, or of so blinding and enchanting
him that in the chase he confuses animals and men and so incurs serious
mishaps.”(668) The quaint ceremonies which these negroes observe for the
purpose of avoiding the imaginary perils have been described by a German
missionary. The leopard and the wild buffalo, he tells us, are believed to
be animated by malignant souls which not only do the hunter a mischief
while they still occupy the bodies of the living creatures, but even after
death, in their disembodied state, continue to haunt and plague their
slayer, sometimes egging on a serpent or a leopard to sting or bite him,
sometimes blinding him so that he shoots a man for an animal, or cannot
find his way home and goes groping about in the wilderness till he
perishes miserably. If a man thus blinded and crazed should make his way
back to the town, he is banished for life and sold into slavery; his house
and plantation are razed to the ground; and his nearest relations are
often given as bail into the hands of strangers. It is therefore a very
serious matter indeed for a hunter to incur the wrath of a leopard’s
ghost, and it is quite natural that he should take all reasonable measures
to guard himself against so threatening a calamity. Hence as soon as he
has killed a leopard, he hurries back to the town and brings word of it to
the other men who have slain leopards on former occasions, and who now
assist him with their advice and experience. The first thing they do is to
put a stalk of grass in his mouth as a sign that he may not speak. Then
they repair to the place where the leopard lies dead in the forest, and
inform the animal of the reasons why he has been shot, namely, because he
has stolen sheep, fowls, and pigs, and has killed men. Next the drums are
beaten and the people assemble in the open square of the town. The dead
leopard meanwhile has been fastened to a pole, and with his eyes bandaged
and his face upturned to heaven, is solemnly carried about the town and
set down before the houses of the principal folk, who reward the hero and
his comrades with presents. After the procession has gone the round, the
leopard is tied to a tree, and the hunters paint the slayer with red and
white so as to make him look like a leopard, except that the leopard’s
spots are only painted on the left side of his body; a basket painted in
the same colours is clapped on his head, and magical strings of cowries
are tied round his hands and feet. Thus attired, he and the other heroes
who have killed leopards crawl about on all fours and roar like leopards
when anybody comes near them. In his left hand every man grasps a bow for
the slaughter of innocent cocks and hens, and with his right he grabbles
about in the earth like an animal seeking what it may devour. None of them
may speak, they may only roar, but they do that in a masterly manner. At
the head of this imposing procession go two men armed with a thick cudgel
and a spear respectively; and the rear is brought up by a third man, who
is privileged to walk upright on his hind legs. This favoured person is
the cook, whose office it is to dress the fowls which the human leopards;
purloin in the course of their pilgrimage; indeed for nineteen days they
are privileged, no doubt in their character of leopards, to rob the
hen-roosts with impunity. In the afternoon the carcase of the leopard is
taken down, skinned, and cut up. The titbits are sent to the chief and the
other dignitaries, who eat them; and the remainder of the flesh is
consumed by the common folk. The skin, the teeth, the head, and the claws
belong to the hunter who killed the beast. But for nineteen days
thereafter the slayer of the leopard must retain his peculiar costume: he
may eat only warm-blooded animals and food seasoned with salt: he may not
eat anything seasoned with pepper; and on no account may he taste fish,
because they are cold-blooded creatures. A general feast, of which all the
male inhabitants of the town partake, winds up the proceedings at the
close of the nineteen days. A feature of the festivities is a dramatic
representation of a leopard-hunt, which is carried out in every detail
amid great excitement. If only all these ceremonies are strictly observed,
the hunter need have no fear at all of being plagued by the leopard’s
ghost.(669)

(M176) The Baganda greatly fear the ghosts of buffaloes which they have
killed, and they always appease these dangerous spirits. On no account
will they bring the head of a slain buffalo into a village or into a
garden of plantains: they always eat the flesh of the head in the open
country. Afterwards they place the skull in a small hut built for the
purpose, where they pour out beer as an offering and pray to the ghost to
stay where he is and not to harm them.(670) Oddly enough the Baganda also
dread the ghosts of sheep, which they believe would haunt and kill the
butcher if they saw him give the fatal stroke. Hence when a man is about
to slaughter a sheep, he gets another man to divert its attention, and
coming up behind the unsuspecting animal he stuns it with the blow of an
axe-handle; then, before it can recover consciousness, he adroitly cuts
its throat. In this way the ghost of the sheep is bamboozled and will not
haunt the butcher. Moreover, when a sheep dies in a house, the housewife
may not say bluntly to her husband, “The sheep is dead,” or its ghost,
touched to the quick, would certainly make her fall ill and might even
kill her. She must put a finer point on the painful truth by saying, “I am
unable to untie such and such a sheep.” Her husband understands her, but
the ghost of the animal does not, or at all events he does not resent so
delicate an allusion to its melancholy decease.(671) Even the ghost of a
fowl may haunt a Muganda woman and make her ill, if she has accidentally
killed it with her hoe and flung away the body in the long grass instead
of carrying it to her husband and confessing her fault.(672)

(M177) Another formidable beast whose life the savage hunter takes with
joy, yet with fear and trembling, is the whale. After the slaughter of a
whale the maritime Koryak of north-eastern Siberia hold a communal
festival, the essential part of which “is based on the conception that the
whale killed has come on a visit to the village; that it is staying for
some time, during which it is treated with great respect; that it then
returns to the sea to repeat its visit the following year; that it will
induce its relatives to come along, telling them of the hospitable
reception that has been accorded to it. According to the Koryak ideas, the
whales, like all other animals, constitute one tribe, or rather family, of
related individuals, who live in villages like the Koryak. They avenge the
murder of one of their number, and are grateful for kindnesses that they
may have received.”(673) As large whales are now rarely seen in the bays
of the Okhotsk Sea, the Koryak at the present time generally celebrate the
festival for a white whale. One such festival was witnessed by Mr. W.
Jochelson, at the village of Kuel, in October 1900. A white whale had been
caught in the nets, and as the sea was partially frozen, the carcase had
to be brought ashore in a sledge. When it was seen nearing the beach, a
number of women, arrayed in their long embroidered dancing-coats, went
forth to meet and welcome it, carrying lighted fire-brands in their hands.
To carry burning fire-brands from the hearth is the ancient Koryak fashion
of greeting an honoured guest. Strictly speaking, the women who go forth
to welcome a whale to the house should wear masks of sedge-grass on their
faces as well as dancing-coats on their bodies, and should carry
sacrificial alder branches as well as firebrands in their hands, but on
the present occasion the women dispensed with the use of masks. They
danced, shaking their heads, moving their shoulders, and swinging their
whole bodies with arms outstretched, now squatting, now rising and
singing, “Ah! a guest has come.” In spite of the cold and the wind the
sweat dripped from them, so violently did they dance, and they sang and
screamed till they were hoarse. When the sledge with its burden had
reached the shore, one of the women pronounced an incantation over the
whale’s head, and then thrust alder branches and sacrificial grass into
its mouth. Next they muffled its head in a hood, apparently to prevent the
creature from witnessing the painful spectacle of its own dissection.
After that the men cut up the carcase, and the women collected the blood
in pails. Two seals, which had also been killed, were included in the
festivities which followed. The heads of all three animals were cut off
and placed on the roof of the house. Next day the festival began. In the
morning the women plaited travelling bags of grass for the use of the
whale, and made grass masks. In the evening, the people having assembled
in a large underground house, some boiled pieces of the white whale were
placed in a grass bag and set before a wooden image of a white whale, so
that the animal, or its departed spirit, was thus apparently supposed to
be regaled with portions of its own body; for the white whale and the
seals were treated as honoured guests at the banquet. To keep up the
pretence, the people were silent or spoke only in whispers for fear of
wakening the guests before the time. At last the preparations were
complete: fresh faggots piled on the hearth sent up a blaze, illumining
with an unsteady light the smoke-blackened walls of the vast underground
dwelling, which a moment before had been shrouded in darkness; and the
long silence was broken by the joyful cries of the women, “Here dear
guests have come!” “Visit us often!” “When you go back to the sea, tell
your friends to call on us also, we will prepare just as nice food for
them as for you.” With these words they pointed to puddings set out
temptingly on the boards. Next the host took a piece of the fat of the
white whale and threw it into the fire, saying, “We are burning it in the
fire for thee!” Then he went to the domestic shrine, placed lumps of fat
before the rude effigies of the guardian spirits, and smeared fat on their
mouths. The appetites of the higher powers having thus been satisfied, the
people set to and partook of the good things provided for them, including
the flesh of the white whale and the seals. Lastly, two old men practised
divination by means of the shoulder-blade of a seal to discover whether
the white whale would go back to the sea and call his fellows to come and
be caught like himself. In order to extract this information from the bone
burning coals were piled on it, and the resulting cracks were carefully
scrutinised. To the delight of all present the omens proved favourable: a
long transverse crack indicated the sea to which the spirit of the white
whale would soon depart. Four days later the departure actually took
place. It was a bright sunshiny wintry morning: the frost was keen; and
for more than a mile seaward the beach was covered with blocks of ice. In
the great underground dwelling, where the feast had been held, the hearth
had been turned into something like an altar. On it lay the heads of the
white whale and the seals, and beside them travelling-bags of grass filled
with puddings, which the souls of the animals were to take with them on
their long journey. Beside the hearth knelt two women, their faces covered
with grass masks and their heads bent over the bags, mumbling an
incantation. The sunlight streamed down on them through the smoke-hole
overhead, but spread only a dim twilight through the remoter recesses of
the vast subterranean chamber. The masks worn by the women were intended
to guard them against the spirit of the white whale, which was supposed to
be hovering invisible in the air. The incantation over, the women rose
from their knees and doffed their masks. A careful examination of a
pudding, which had been offered in sacrifice to the white whale, now
revealed the joyful intelligence that the spirit of the whale had accepted
the sacrifice and was about to return to the sea. All that remained,
therefore, to do was to speed him on his way. For that purpose two men
ascended the roof, let down thongs through the smoke-hole, and hauled up
the heads of the white whale and of the seals together with the
travelling-bags of provisions. That concluded the despatch of the souls of
the dead animals to their home in the great waters.(674)

(M178) When the inhabitants of the Isle of St. Mary, to the north of
Madagascar, go a-whaling, they single out the young whales for attack and
“humbly beg the mother’s pardon, stating the necessity that drives them to
kill her progeny, and requesting that she will be pleased to go below
while the deed is doing, that her maternal feelings may not be outraged by
witnessing what must cause her so much uneasiness.”(675) An Ajumba hunter
having killed a female hippopotamus on Lake Azyingo in West Africa, the
animal was decapitated and its quarters and bowels removed. Then the
hunter, naked, stepped into the hollow of the ribs, and kneeling down in
the bloody pool washed his whole body with the blood and excretions of the
animal, while he prayed to the soul of the hippopotamus not to bear him a
grudge for having killed her and so blighted her hopes of future
maternity; and he further entreated the ghost not to stir up other
hippopotamuses to avenge her death by butting at and capsizing his
canoe.(676) The ounce, a leopard-like creature, is dreaded for its
depredations by the Indians of Brazil. When they have caught one of these
animals in a snare, they kill it and carry the body home to the village.
There the women deck the carcase with feathers of many colours, put
bracelets on its legs, and weep over it, saying, “I pray thee not to take
vengeance on our little ones for having been caught and killed through
thine own ignorance. For it was not we who deceived thee, it was thyself.
Our husbands only set the trap to catch animals that are good to eat: they
never thought to take thee in it. Therefore, let not thy soul counsel thy
fellows to avenge thy death on our little ones!”(677) When the Yuracares
Indians of Bolivia have killed great apes in their tropical forests, they
bring the bodies home, set them out in a row on palm leaves with their
heads all looking one way, sprinkle them with chicha, and say, “We love
you, since we have brought you home.” They imagine that the performance of
this ceremony is very gratifying to the other apes in the woods.(678)
Before they leave a temporary camp in the forest, where they have killed a
tapir and dried the meat on a babracot, the 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.(679)

(M179) When a Blackfoot Indian has caught eagles in a trap and killed
them, he takes them home to a special lodge, called the eagles’ lodge,
which has been prepared for their reception outside of the camp. Here he
sets the birds in a row on the ground, and propping up their heads on a
stick, puts a piece of dried meat in each of their mouths in order that
the spirits of the dead eagles may go and tell the other eagles how well
they are being treated by the Indians.(680) So when Indian hunters of the
Orinoco region have killed an animal, they open its mouth and pour into it
a few drops of the liquor they generally carry with them, in order that
the soul of the dead beast may inform its fellows of the welcome it has
met with, and that they too, cheered by the prospect of the same kind
reception, may come with alacrity to be killed.(681) A Cherokee hunter who
has killed an eagle stands over the dead bird and prays it not to avenge
itself on his tribe, because it is not he but a Spaniard who has done the
cruel deed.(682) When a Teton Indian is on a journey and he meets a grey
spider or a spider with yellow legs, he kills it, because some evil would
befall him if he did not. But he is very careful not to let the spider
know that he kills it, for if the spider knew, his soul would go and tell
the other spiders, and one of them would be sure to avenge the death of
his relation. So in crushing the insect, the Indian says, “O Grandfather
Spider, the Thunder-beings kill you.” And the spider is crushed at once
and believes what is told him. His soul probably runs and tells the other
spiders that the Thunder-beings have killed him; but no harm comes of
that. For what can grey or yellow-legged spiders do to the
Thunder-beings?(683)

(M180) But it is not merely dangerous creatures 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.(684) 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.”(685) 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 shewn to animals which, without being feared, are either eaten
or valued for their skins.

(M181) 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
sables 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.(686) A Russian traveller happening once to enter a
Gilyak hut in the absence of the owner, observed a freshly killed sable
hanging on the wall. Seeing him look at it, the housewife in consternation
hastened to muffle the animal in a fur cap, after which it was taken down,
wrapt in birch bark, and put away out of sight. Despite the high price he
offered for it, the traveller’s efforts to buy the animal were unavailing.
It was bad enough, they told him, that he, a stranger, had seen the dead
sable in its skin, but far worse consequences for the future catch of
sables would follow if they were to sell him the animal entire.(687)
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.”(688) The
Shuswap Indians of British Columbia think that if they did not throw
beaver-bones into the river, the beavers would not go into the traps any
more, and that the same thing would happen were a dog to eat the flesh or
gnaw the bone of a beaver.(689) Carrier Indians who have trapped martens
or beavers take care to keep them from the dogs; for if a dog were to
touch these animals the Indians believe that the other martens or beavers
would not suffer themselves to be caught.(690) A missionary who fell in
with an old Carrier Indian asked him what luck he had in the chase. “Oh,
don’t speak to me about it,” replied the Indian; “there are beavers in
plenty. I caught one myself immediately after my arrival here, but
unluckily a dog got hold of it. You know that after that it has been
impossible for me to catch another.” “Nonsense,” said the missionary; “set
your traps as if nothing had happened, and you will see.” “That would be
useless,” answered the Indian in a tone of despair, “quite useless. You
don’t know the ways of the beaver. If a dog merely touches a beaver, all
the other beavers are angry at the owner of the dog and always keep away
from his traps.” It was in vain that the missionary tried to laugh or
argue him out of his persuasion; the man persisted in abandoning his
snares and giving up the hunt, because, as he asserted, the beavers were
angry with him.(691) A French traveller, observing that the Indians of
Louisiana did not give the bones of beavers and otters to their dogs,
enquired the reason. They told him there was a spirit in the woods who
would tell the other beavers and otters, and that after that they would
catch no more animals of these species.(692) 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 prating 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.”(693) 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.”(694)

(M182) The elan, deer, and elk were treated by the 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.(695) The houses of the Indians of Honduras were
encumbered with the bones of deer, the Indians believing that if they
threw the bones away, the other deer could not be taken.(696) Among the
Chiquites of Paraguay 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.”(697) Before the Tzentales of Southern Mexico
and the Kekchis of Guatemala venture to skin a deer which they have
killed, they lift up its head and burn copal before it as an offering;
otherwise a certain being named Tzultacca would be angry and send them no
more game.(698) Cherokee hunters ask pardon of the deer they kill. If they
failed to do so, they think that the Little Deer, the chief of the deer
tribe, who can never die or be wounded, would track the hunter to his home
by the blood-drops on the ground and would put the spirit of rheumatism
into him. Sometimes the hunter, on starting for home, lights a fire in the
trail behind him to prevent the Little Deer from pursuing him.(699) Before
they went out to hunt for deer, antelope, or elk the Apaches used to
resort to sacred caves, where the medicine-men propitiated with prayer and
sacrifice the animal gods whose progeny they intended to destroy.(700) The
Indians of Louisiana bewailed bitterly the death of the buffaloes which
they were about to kill. More than two hundred of them at a time have been
seen shedding crocodile tears over the approaching slaughter of the
animals, while they marched in solemn procession, headed by an old man who
waved a pocket-handkerchief at the end of a stick as an oriflamme, and by
a woman who strutted proudly along, bearing on her back a large kettle
which had been recently abstracted from the baggage of some French
explorers.(701) The Thompson Indians of British Columbia cherished many
superstitious beliefs and observed many superstitious practices in regard
to deer. When a deer was killed, they said that the rest of the deer would
be well pleased if the hunters butchered the animal nicely and cleanly. To
waste venison displeased the animals, who after that would not allow
themselves to be shot by the hunter. If a hunter was overburdened and had
to leave some of the venison behind, the other deer were better pleased if
he hung it up on a tree than if he let it lie on the ground. The guts were
gathered and put where the blood had been spilt in butchering the beast,
and the whole was covered up with a few fir-boughs. In laying the boughs
on the blood and guts the man told the deer not to grieve for the death of
their friend and not to take it ill that he had left some of the body
behind, for he had done his best to cover it. If he did not cover it, they
thought the deer would be sorry or angry and would spoil his luck in the
chase. When the head of a deer had to be left behind, they commonly placed
it on the branch of a tree, that it might not be contaminated by dogs and
women. For the same reason they burned the bones of the slain deer, lest
they should be touched by women or gnawed by dogs. And venison was never
brought into a hut by the common door, because that door was used by
women; it was taken in through a hole made in the back of the hut. No
hunter would give a deer’s head to a man who was the first or second of a
family, for that would make the rest of the deer very shy and hard to
shoot. And in telling his friends of his bag he would generally call a
buck a doe, and a doe he would call a fawn, and a fawn he would call a
hare. This he did that he might not seem to the deer to brag.(702) The
Lillooet Indians of British Columbia threw the bones of animals,
particularly those of the deer and the beaver, into the water, in order
that the dogs should not defile or eat them and thereby offend the
animals. When the hunter committed the bones to the water he generally
prayed to the dead animal, saying, “See! I treat you respectfully. Nothing
shall defile you. Have pity on me, so I may kill more of you! May I be
successful in hunting and trapping!”(703) 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.(704)

(M183) Indians of the Lower Fraser River regard the porcupine as their
elder brother. Hence when a hunter kills one of these creatures he asks
his elder brother’s pardon and does not eat of the flesh till the next
day.(705) 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.(706) Some of the North American 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.(707)

(M184) When the Koryak have killed a fox, they take the body home and lay
it down near the fire, saying, “Let the guest warm himself. When he feels
warm, we will free him from his overcoat.” So when the frozen carcase is
thawed, they skin it and wrap long strips of grass round about it. Then
the animal’s mouth is filled with fish-roe, and the mistress of the house
gashes the flesh and puts more roe or dried meat into the gashes, making
believe that the gashes are the fox’s pockets, which she thus fills with
provisions. Then the carcase is carried out of the house, and the people
say, “Go and tell your friends that it is good to visit yonder house.
‘Instead of my old coat, they gave me a new one still warmer and with
longer hair. I have eaten my fill, and had my pockets well stored. You,
too, go and visit them.’ ” The natives think that if they neglected to
observe this ceremonial they would have no luck in hunting foxes.(708)
When a Ewe hunter of Togoland has killed an antelope of a particular kind
(_Antilope leucoryx_), he erects an enclosure of branches, within which he
places the lower jawbones of all the animals he has shot. Then he pours
palm-wine and sprinkles meal on the bones, saying, “Ye lower jawbones of
beasts, ye are now come home. Here is food, here is drink. Therefore lead
your comrades (that is, the living beasts of the forest) hither
also.”(709) In the Timor-laut islands of the Indian Archipelago the skulls
of all the turtles which a fisherman has caught are hung up under his
house. Before he goes out to catch another, he addresses himself to the
skull of the last turtle that he killed, and having inserted betel between
its jaws, he prays the spirit of the dead animal to entice its kinsfolk in
the sea to come and be caught.(710) In the Poso district of central
Celebes hunters keep the jawbones of deer and wild pigs which they have
killed and hang them up in their houses near the fire. Then they say to
the jawbones, “Ye cry after your comrades, that your grandfathers, or
nephews, or children may not go away.” Their notion is that the souls of
the dead deer and pigs tarry near their jawbones and attract the souls of
living deer and pigs, which are thus drawn into the toils of the
hunter.(711) Thus in all these cases the wily savage employs dead animals
as decoys to lure living animals to their doom.

(M185) The Lengua Indians of the Gran Chaco love to hunt the ostrich, but
when they have killed one of these birds and are bringing home the carcase
to the village, they take steps to outwit the resentful ghost of their
victim. They think that when the first natural shock of death is passed,
the ghost of the ostrich pulls himself together and makes after his body.
Acting on this sage calculation, the Indians pluck feathers from the
breast of the bird and strew them at intervals along the track. At every
bunch of feathers the ghost stops to consider, “Is this the whole of my
body or only a part of it?” The doubt gives him pause, and when at last he
has made up his mind fully at all the bunches, and has further wasted
valuable time by the zigzag course which he invariably pursues in going
from one to another, the hunters are safe at home, and the bilked ghost
may stalk in vain round about the village, which he is too timid to
enter.(712)

(M186) The Esquimaux of the Hudson Bay region believe that the reindeer
are controlled by a great spirit who resides in a large cave near the end
of Cape Chidley. The outward form of the spirit is that of a huge white
bear. He obtains and controls the spirit of every reindeer that is slain
or dies, and it depends on his good will whether the people shall have a
supply of reindeer or not. The sorcerer intercedes with this great spirit
and prevails on him to send the deer to the hungry Esquimaux. He informs
the spirit that the people have in no way offended him, since he, the
sorcerer, has taken great care that the whole of the meat was eaten up,
and that last spring, when the does were returning to him to drop their
young, none of the little or embryo fawns were devoured by the dogs. After
long incantations the magician announces that the patron of the deer
condescends to supply the Esquimaux with the spirits of the animals in a
material form, and that soon there will be plenty in the land. He charges
the people to fall on and slay and thereby win the approval of the spirit,
who loves to see good folk enjoying themselves, knowing that so long as
the Esquimaux refrain from feeding their dogs with the unborn young, the
spirits of the dead reindeer will return again to his watchful care. The
dogs are not allowed to taste the flesh, and until the supply is plentiful
they may not gnaw the leg-bones, lest the guardian of the deer should take
offence and send no more of the animals. If, unfortunately, a dog should
get at the meat, a piece of his tail is cut off or his ear is cropped to
let the blood flow.(713) Again, the Central Esquimaux hold that
sea-mammals, particularly whales, ground-seals, and common seals, sprang
from the severed fingers of the goddess Sedna, and that therefore an
Esquimau must make atonement for every such animal that he kills. When a
seal is brought into the hut, the woman must stop working till it has been
cut up. After the capture of a ground seal, walrus, or whale they must
rest for three days. Not all sorts of work, however, are forbidden, for
they may mend articles made of sealskin, but they may not make anything
new. For example, an old tent cover may be enlarged in order to build a
larger hut, but it is not allowed to make a new one. Working on new
deerskins is strictly forbidden. No skins of this kind obtained in summer
may be prepared before the ice has formed and the first seal has been
caught with the harpoon. Later on, as soon as the first walrus has been
taken, the work must again stop until autumn comes round. Hence all
families are eager to finish the work on deerskins as fast as possible,
for until that is done the walrus season may not begin.(714) The
Greenlanders are careful not to fracture the heads of seals or throw them
into the sea, but pile them in a heap before the door, that the souls of
the seals may not be enraged and scare their brethren from the coast.(715)

(M187) The Esquimaux about Bering Strait believe that the souls of dead
sea-beasts, such as seals, walrus, and whales, remain attached to their
bladders, and that by returning the bladders to the sea they can cause the
souls to be reincarnated in fresh bodies and so multiply the game which
the hunters pursue and kill. Acting on this belief every hunter carefully
removes and preserves the bladders of all the sea-beasts that he kills;
and at a solemn festival held once a year in winter these bladders,
containing the souls of all the sea-beasts that have been killed
throughout the year, are honoured with dances and offerings of food in the
public assembly-room, after which they are taken out on the ice and thrust
through holes into the water; for the simple Esquimaux imagine that the
souls of the animals, in high good humour at the kind treatment they have
experienced, will thereafter be born again as seals, walrus, and whales,
and in that form will flock willingly to be again speared, harpooned, or
otherwise done to death by the hunters. The ceremonies observed at these
annual festivals of reincarnation are elaborate. The assembly-room or
dancing-house (_kashim_, _kassigim_, or _kassigit_), in which the festival
is held, consists of a spacious semi-subterranean chamber entered by a
tunnel, which leads down to a large round cellar under the floor of the
house. From the cellar you ascend into the assembly-room through a hole in
the floor. Wooden benches run round the apartment, which is lit by lamps.
An opening in the roof serves at once as a window and a chimney. Unmarried
men sleep in the assembly-room at all times; they have no other home. The
festival is commonly held in December, but it may fall as late as January.
It lasts several days. When the time is come to celebrate it, each hunter
brings into the assembly-room the inflated bladders of all the seals,
walrus, and whales that he has killed during the year. These are tied by
the necks in bunches and hung up on seal spears, which are stuck in a row
in the wall some six or eight feet above the floor. Here food and water
are offered to them, or rather to the spirits of the animals which are
supposed to be present in the bladders; and the spirits signify their
acceptance of the offering by causing the bladders to swing to and fro, a
movement which is really produced by a man sitting in a dark corner, who
pulls a string attached to the bladders. Further, the bladders are
fumigated with torches of wild parsnip stalks, the aromatic smoke and red
flames of which are believed to be well-pleasing to the souls of the
animals dangling in the bladders. Moreover to amuse the souls men execute
curious dances before them to the music of drums. First the dancers move
slowly with a jerky action from side to side; then they gallop obliquely
with arms tossed up and down; and lastly they hop and jump, always keeping
perfect time to the beat of the drums. The dance is supposed to imitate
the movements of seals and walrus; and again the spirits signify their
pleasure by making the bladders swing backwards and forwards. During the
continuance of the festival no loud noises may be made in the
assembly-room for fear of alarming the souls of the animals in the
bladders; if any person makes a noise by accident, all the men present
raise a chorus of cries in imitation of the notes of the eider duck to let
the souls of the animals think that the unseemly disturbance proceeds from
the birds and not from the people. Further, so long as the festival lasts,
no wood may be cut with an iron axe in the village, the men must keep
rigidly apart from the women, and no female above the age of puberty may
come near the bladders suspended in the assembly-room, the reason assigned
being that such women are unclean and might offend the sensitive souls of
the sea-beasts in the bladders. But immature girls, being untainted by the
pollution which attaches to adult women, may go about the bladders freely.
The last and crowning scene of the festival takes place at night or just
at sunrise. The spears with the bladders attached to them are passed out
by the shaman into the open air through the smoke-hole in the roof. When
all are outside, a huge torch of wild parsnip stalks is lighted; the chief
shaman takes it on his shoulder, and runs with it as fast as he can across
the snow and out on the ice. Behind him troop all the men carrying each
his spear with the bladders of the sea-beasts dangling and flapping from
it; and in the rear race the women, children, and old men, howling,
screaming and making a great uproar. In the darkness the lurid flame of
the torch shoots high into the air, casting a red glare over the snowy
landscape and lighting up the swarm of fantastic, fur-clad figures that
stream along in wild excitement. Arrived at a hole, which had been cut on
purpose in the sea-ice, the shaman plants his burning torch beside it in
the snow, and every man as he comes up rips open his bladders and thrusts
them, one after the other, into the water under the ice. This ends the
ceremony. The souls of the dead seals, walrus, and whales, are now ready
to be born again in the depths of the sea. So all the people return
contented to the village. At St. Michael the men who have thrust the
bladders under the ice are obliged on their return to leap through a fire
of wild parsnip stalks, probably as a mode of ceremonial purification; for
after the dance and the offering of food at the festival the chief shaman
passes a lighted torch of parsnip stalks round the assembly-room and the
dancers, for the express purpose of purifying them and averting any evil
influence that might bring sickness or ill luck on the hunters.(716)

(M188) 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 “worshipped the whale for
its monstrous greatness. Besides this ordinary system of worship, which
prevailed throughout the coast, the people of different provinces 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.”(717) The Kwakiutl Indians of
British Columbia think that when a salmon is killed its soul returns to
the salmon country. Hence they take care to throw the bones and offal into
the sea, in order that the soul may reanimate them at the resurrection of
the salmon. Whereas if they burned the bones the soul would be lost, and
so it would be quite impossible for that salmon to rise from the
dead.(718) In like manner 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.(719) 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 this 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.”(720) At Bogadjim in German New Guinea an
enchanter is employed to lure the fish to their doom. He stands in a canoe
on the beach with a decorated fish-basket beside him, and commands the
fish to come from all quarters to Bogadjim.(721) When the Aino have killed
a sword-fish, they thank the fish for allowing himself to be caught and
invite him to come again.(722) Among the Nootka Indians of British
Columbia it was formerly a rule that any person who had partaken of bear’s
flesh must rigidly abstain from eating any kind of fish for a term of two
months. The motive for the abstinence was not any consideration for the
health of the eater, but “a superstitious belief, that should any of their
people after tasting bear’s flesh, eat of fresh salmon, cod, etc., the
fish, though at ever so great a distance off, would come to the knowledge
of it, and be so much offended thereat, as not to allow themselves to be
taken by any of the inhabitants.”(723) The disappearance of herring from
the sea about Heligoland in 1530 was attributed by the fishermen to the
misconduct of two lads who had whipped a freshly-caught herring and then
flung it back into the sea.(724) A similar disappearance of the herrings
from the Moray Firth, in the reign of Queen Anne, was set down by some
people to a breach of the Sabbath which had been committed by the
fishermen, while others opined that it was due to a quarrel in which blood
had been spilt in the sea.(725) For Scotch fishermen are persuaded that if
blood be drawn in a quarrel on the coast where herring are being caught,
the shoal will at once take its departure and not return for that season
at least. West Highland fishermen believe that every shoal of herring has
its leader which it follows wherever he goes. This leader is twice as big
as an ordinary herring, and the fishermen call it the king of herring.
When they chance to catch it in their nets they put it back carefully into
the sea; for they would esteem it petty treason to destroy the royal
fish.(726) 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 compensate the fish for their fellows
who have been caught and eaten.(727) When the Tarahumares of Mexico are
preparing to poison the waters of a river for the purpose of stupefying
and catching the fish, they take the precaution of first making offerings
to the Master of the Fish by way of payment for the fish of which they are
about to bereave him. The offerings consist of axes, hats, blankets,
girdles, pouches, and especially knives and strings of beads, which are
hung to a cross or a horizontal bar set up in the middle of the river.
However, the Master of the Fish, who is thought to be the oldest fish,
does not long enjoy these good things; for next morning the owners of the
various articles remove them from the river and appropriate them to their
usual secular purposes.(728) It is especially necessary to treat the first
fish caught with consideration in order to conciliate the rest of the
fish, whose conduct may be supposed to be influenced by the reception
given to those of their kind which were the first to be 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.”(729) Among the
Baganda “the first fish taken were treated ceremonially: some the
fisherman took to the god Mukasa; the remainder his wife cooked, and he
and she both partook of them, and he afterwards jumped over her.”(730)

(M189) 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. To some of these tribes the salmon is what corn is to
the European, rice to the Chinese, and seals to the Esquimaux. Plenty of
salmon means abundance in the camp and joy at the domestic hearth; failure
of the salmon for a single season means famine and desolation, silence in
the village, and sad hearts about the fire.(731) Accordingly 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.’ ”(732)
Amongst the Thlinkeet or Tlingit of Alaska the first halibut of the season
is carefully handled and addressed as a chief, and a festival is given in
his honour, after which the fishing goes on.(733) Among the tribes of the
Lower Fraser River when the first sockeye-salmon of the season has been
caught, the fisherman carries it to the chief of his tribe, who delivers
it to his wife. She prays, saying to the salmon, “Who has brought you here
to make us happy? We are thankful to your chief for sending you.” When she
has cut and roasted the salmon according to certain prescribed rules, the
whole tribe is invited and partakes of the fish, after they have purified
themselves by drinking a decoction of certain plants which is regarded as
a medicine for cleansing the people. But widowers, widows, menstruous
women, and youths may not eat of this particular salmon. Even later, when
the fish have become plentiful and these ceremonies are dispensed with,
the same classes of persons are not allowed to eat fresh salmon, though
they may partake of the dried fish. The sockeye-salmon must always be
looked after carefully. Its bones have to be thrown into the river, after
which the fish will revive and return to its chief in the west. Whereas if
the fish are not treated with consideration, they will take their revenge,
and the careless fisherman will be unlucky.(734) Among the Songish or
Lkungen tribe of Vancouver Island it is a rule that on the day when the
first salmon have been caught, the children must stand on the beach
waiting for the boats to return. They stretch out their little arms and
the salmon are heaped on them, the heads of the fish being always kept in
the direction in which the salmon are swimming, else they would cease to
run up the river. So the children carry them and lay them on a grassy
place, carefully keeping the heads of the salmon turned in the same
direction. Round the fish are placed four flat stones, on which the plant
hog’s wort (_Peucedanum leiocarpum_, Nutt.), red paint, and bulrushes are
burnt as an offering to the salmon. When the salmon have been roasted each
of the children receives one, which he or she is obliged to eat, leaving
nothing over. But grown people are not allowed to eat the fish for several
days. The bones of the salmon that the children have eaten may not touch
the ground. They are kept in dishes, and on the fourth day an old woman,
who pretends to be lame, gathers them in a huge basket and throws them
into the sea.(735) The Tsimshian Indians of British Columbia observe
certain ceremonies when the first olachen fish of the season are caught.
The fish are roasted on an instrument of elder-berry wood, and the man who
roasts them must wear his travelling dress, mittens, cape, and so forth.
While this is being done the Indians pray that plenty of olachen may come
to their fishing-ground. The fire may not be blown up, and in eating the
fish they may not cool it by blowing nor break a single bone. Everything
must be neat and clean, and the rakes used for catching the fish must be
kept hidden in the house.(736) 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.”(737)
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.”(738) 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.(739) There
is a favourite fish of the Aino 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.”(740) This may partly explain the custom observed by other
savages of bringing game in certain cases 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.(741)

(M190) 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.”(742) Hence on the western prairies of America, the skulls of
buffaloes may be seen arranged in circles and symmetrical piles, awaiting
the resurrection.(743) 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.”(744) Among
the Esquimaux of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay, when a boy has killed his
first seal, his mother gathers all the bones and throws them into a
seal-hole. They think that these bones will become seals which the boy
will catch in later life.(745) The Yuracares Indians of Bolivia are at
great pains to collect all the bones of the beasts, birds, and fishes
which they eat, and to throw them into a stream, bury them in the depths
of the forest, or burn them in the fire, “in order that the animals of the
sort killed may not be angry and may allow themselves to be killed
again.”(746) 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 remainder of
the flesh, they laid the bones and the rest 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.(747) 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.(748) 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,(749) 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(750) may be based either on a belief in the resurrection of
the animals, or on a fear of intimidating other creatures of the same
species and offending the ghosts of the slain animals. The reluctance of
North American Indians and Esquimaux to let dogs gnaw the bones of
animals(751) is perhaps only a precaution to prevent the bones from being
broken.

(M191) We have already seen that some rude races believe in a resurrection
of men(752) as well as of beasts, and it is quite natural that people who
entertain such a belief should take care of the bones of their dead in
order that the original owners of the bones may have them to hand at the
critical moment. Hence in the Mexican territories of Guazacualco and
Yluta, where the Indians thought that the dead would rise again, the bones
of the departed were deposited in baskets and hung up on trees, that their
spirits might not be obliged to grub in the earth for them at the
resurrection.(753) On the other hand, the Luritcha tribe of Central
Australia, who eat their enemies, take steps to prevent their coming to
life again, which might prove very inconvenient, by destroying the bones
and especially the skulls of the bodies on which they have banqueted.(754)

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(M192) The preceding review of customs observed by savages for the
conciliation and multiplication of animals which they hunt and kill, is
fitted to impress us with a lively sense of the unquestioning faith which
primitive man reposes in the immortality of the lower creatures. He
appears to assume as an axiom too obvious to be disputed that beasts,
birds, and fishes have souls like his own, which survive the death of
their bodies and can be reborn in other bodies to be again killed and
eaten by the hunter. The whole series of customs described in the
foregoing pages—customs which are apt to strike the civilised reader as
quaint and absurd—rests on this fundamental assumption. A consideration of
them suggests a doubt whether the current explanation of the savage belief
in human immortality is adequate to account for all the facts. That belief
is commonly deduced from a primitive theory of dreams. The savage, it is
said, fails to distinguish the visions of sleep from the realities of
waking life, and accordingly when he has dreamed of his dead friends he
necessarily concludes that they have not wholly perished, but that their
spirits continue to exist in some place and some form, though in the
ordinary course of events they elude the perceptions of his senses. On
this theory the conceptions, whether gross or refined, whether repulsive
or beautiful, which savages and perhaps civilised men have formed of the
state of the departed, would seem to be no more than elaborate hypotheses
constructed to account for appearances in dreams; these towering
structures, for all their radiant or gloomy grandeur, for all the massy
strength and solidity with which they present themselves to the
imagination of many, may turn out on inspection to be mere visionary
castles built of clouds and vapour, which a breath of reason suffices to
melt into air.

(M193) But even if we grant for the sake of argument that this theory
offers a ready explanation of the widespread belief in human immortality,
it is less easy to see how the theory accounts for the corresponding
belief of so many races in the immortality of the lower animals. In his
dreams the savage recognises the images of his departed friends by those
familiar traits of feature, voice, and gesture which characterised them in
life. But can we suppose that he recognises dead beasts, birds, and fishes
in like manner? That their images come before him in sleep with all the
particular features, the minute individual differences, which
distinguished them in life from their fellows, so that when he sees them
he can say to himself, for example, “This is the very tiger that I speared
yesterday; his carcase is dead, but his spirit must be still alive”; or,
“That is the very salmon I caught and ate this morning; I certainly killed
his body but clearly I have not succeeded in destroying his soul”? No
doubt it is possible that the savage has arrived at his theory of animal
immortality by some such process of reasoning, but the supposition seems
at least more far-fetched and improbable than in the case of human
immortality. And if we admit the insufficiency of the explanation in the
one case, we seem bound to admit it, though perhaps in a less degree, in
the other case also. In short, we conclude that the theory of dreams
appears to be hardly enough by itself to account for the widespread belief
in the immortality of men and animals; dreams have probably done much to
confirm that belief, but would they suffice to originate it? We may
reasonably doubt it.

(M194) Accordingly we are driven to cast about for some more adequate
explanation of this prevalent and deeply rooted persuasion. In search of
such an explanation perhaps we need go no further than the sense of life
which every man feels in his own breast.(755) We have seen that to the
savage death presents itself not as a natural necessity but as a
lamentable accident or crime that cuts short an existence which, but for
it, might have lasted for ever.(756) Thus arguing apparently from his own
sensations he conceives of life as an indestructible kind of energy, which
when it disappears in one form must necessarily reappear in another,
though in the new form it need not be immediately perceptible by us; in
other words, he infers that death does not destroy the vital principle nor
even the conscious personality, but that it merely transforms both of them
into other shapes, which are not the less real because they commonly elude
the evidence of our senses. If I am right in thus interpreting the thought
of primitive man, the savage view of the nature of life singularly
resembles the modern scientific doctrine of the conservation of energy.
According to that doctrine, no material energy ever perishes or is even
diminished; when it seems to suffer diminution or extinction, all that
happens is that a portion or the whole of it has been transmuted into
other shapes which, though qualitatively different from, are
quantitatively equivalent to, the energy in its original form. In short,
if we listen to science, nothing in the physical world is ever lost, but
all things are perpetually changing: the sum of energy in the universe is
constant and invariable, though it undergoes ceaseless
transformations.(757) A similar theory of the indestructibility of energy
is implicitly applied by the savage to explain the phenomena of life and
death, and logically enough he does not limit the application to human
beings but extends it to the lower animals. Therein he shews himself a
better reasoner than his civilised brother, who commonly embraces with
avidity the doctrine of human immortality but rejects with scorn, as
derogatory to human dignity, the idea that animals have immortal souls.
And when he attempts to confirm his own cherished belief in a life after
death by appealing to similar beliefs among savages and inferring from
them a natural instinct of immortality, it is well to remind him that, if
he stands by that appeal, he must, like the savage, consistently extend
the privilege of immortality to the despised lower animals; for surely it
is improper for him to pick and choose his evidence so as to suit his
prepossessions, accepting those parts of the savage creed which tally with
his own and rejecting those which do not. On logical and scientific
grounds he seems bound to believe either more or less: he must hold that
men and animals are alike immortal or that neither of them is so.

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(M195) We have seen that many savages look forward to a joyful
resurrection of men and beasts, if only a proper care is taken of their
skeletons; the same old bones, they imagine, will do duty over again in
the next life, when they have been decently clad in a new garment of
flesh. This quaint fancy is reflected in many popular tales; 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.(758) 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 revives. His shoulder-blade, however, has been lost, so the
serpent-king supplies its place with one of gold and ivory.(759) 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.(760) Doubtless he
explained that at one of his resurrections a leg had been broken or
mislaid, and that he had replaced it, like Miss Kilmansegg, with one of
gold. Similarly, when the murdered Pelops was restored to life, the
shoulder which Demeter had eaten was made good with one of ivory,(761)
which was publicly exhibited at Elis down to historical times.(762) 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,(763) may perhaps belong to the same circle of
beliefs.

(M196) There is a certain rule observed by savage hunters and fishers
which, enigmatical at first sight, may possibly be explained by this
savage belief in resurrection. A traveller in America in the early part of
the nineteenth 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 this sinew; but it had never occurred to him
to inquire the reason.”(764) James Adair, who knew the Indians of the
South-Eastern States intimately, and whose absurd 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.”(765)

(M197) In more recent times the statement of Adair’s informant has been
confirmed by a French missionary, who has also published the “obscure
story” to which the English traveller 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 foe. 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 flushed a fiery red, so Fireless
and Homeless knew that the kind giant was no more, and he wept.(766)

(M198) This myth, it is almost needless to observe, does not really
explain the custom. People do not usually observe a custom because on a
particular occasion a mythical being is said to have acted in a certain
way. But, on the contrary, they very often invent myths to explain why
they practise 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(767) 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.
However, subsequent enquiries make it probable that the Indian practice of
cutting out the hamstring of deer has no other object than that of
preventing eaters of venison from going lame. Among the Cherokee, we are
told, “on killing a deer the hunter always makes an incision in the hind
quarter and removes the hamstring, because this tendon, when severed,
draws up into the flesh; ergo, any one who should unfortunately partake of
the hamstring would find his limbs drawn up in the same manner.”(768) Thus
the superstition seems to rest on the common principle of homoeopathic or
imitative magic, that an eater infects himself with the qualities of the
animal of whose flesh he partakes. Many instances of the application of
that principle have met us already.(769)

(M199) But some hunters hamstring the game for a different purpose; they
hope thereby to prevent the dead beast or its ghost from getting up and
running away. This is the motive alleged for the practice by Koui hunters
in Laos; they think that the spells which they utter in the chase may lose
their magical virtue, and that the slaughtered animal may consequently
come to life again and escape. To prevent that catastrophe they therefore
hamstring the beast as soon as they have butchered it.(770) When an
Esquimau of Alaska has killed a fox, he carefully cuts the tendons of all
the animal’s legs in order to prevent the ghost from reanimating the body
and walking about.(771) But hamstringing the carcase is not the only
measure which the prudent savage adopts for the sake of disabling the
ghost of his victim. In old days, when the Aino went out hunting and
killed a fox first, they took care to tie its mouth up tightly in order to
prevent the ghost of the animal from sallying forth and warning its
fellows against the approach of the hunter.(772) The Gilyaks of the Amoor
River put out the eyes of the seals they have killed, lest the ghosts of
the slain animals should know their slayers and avenge their death by
spoiling the seal-hunt.(773) The custom of putting out the eyes of
slaughtered animals appears to be not uncommon among primitive peoples,
and we may suspect that even where a different reason is alleged for it,
the true original motive was to blind the dangerous ghost of the injured
creature, and so to incapacitate it for retaliating on the slayer. Thus,
when a Samoyed has killed a wild reindeer, one of the first things he does
is to cut out the eyes and throw them away “in order to ensure a good bag
in future”; and he buries the eyes in some place where no woman or adult
girl is likely to step over them, since that also would spoil his luck in
the chase.(774) Among the tribes of South-east Africa hunters pluck out
the right eye of any animal they have killed and pour a charmed medicine
into the empty socket.(775) Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia
a man whose daughter has just arrived at puberty may not hunt or trap for
a month, or he will have no luck. Moreover, he should cut off the head of
the first grouse he snares, pluck out the eyes, and insert two small roots
of the _Zygadenus elegans_ Pursch. in the orbits and another in its mouth,
and having done so he ought to hang up the bird’s head above his pillow.
If he neglects these precautions, he will not be able to snare any more
grouse or other small game.(776) No doubt the ceremonial pollution
contracted by his daughter at this critical period of her life is supposed
to infect the hunter and render him unacceptable to the game;(777) hence
it seems a mere elementary dictate of prudence to hoodwink the grouse
effectually by putting out their eyes. Sometimes, perhaps, the cutting out
of the eyes of fierce and powerful animals may be a rational, not a
superstitious, precaution. Thus the Kamtchatkans, who stab with knives the
eyes of slain bears before they cut the carcases up, allege as their
reason for doing so that bears which seem to be dead of their wounds will
sometimes revive and kill their would-be killers.(778)

(M200) It appears to be a common custom with savage hunters to cut out the
tongues of the animals which they kill. On the analogy of the foregoing
customs we may conjecture that the removal of the tongues is sometimes a
precaution to prevent the ghosts of the creatures from telling their sad
fate to their sympathising comrades, the living animals of the same sort,
who would naturally be frightened, and so keep out of the hunter’s way.
Thus, for example, 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.(779) 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 and so on, whether the
soul of the slain bear is angry with them or not.(780) 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 shew that the custom was a
common one, since folk-tales reflect with accuracy the customs and beliefs
of a primitive age.(781) On the other hand, the tongues of certain
animals, as the otter and the eagle, are torn out and sometimes worn round
their necks by Thlinkeet and Haida shamans as a means of conferring
superhuman knowledge and power on their possessors.(782) In particular, an
otter’s tongue is supposed to convey a knowledge of “the language of all
inanimate objects, of birds, animals, and other living creatures” to the
shaman, who wears it in a little bag hung round his neck.(783) When a
Galla priest sacrifices an animal and decides that the omens are
favourable, he cuts out the tongue, sticks his thumb through it, and so
flays the animal.(784) In certain cases Gallas cut out the tongues of oxen
and wear them on their heads as tokens.(785) In Bohemia a fox’s tongue is
worn as an amulet to make a timid person bold;(786) in Oldenburg and
Belgium it is a remedy for erysipelas.(787) In Bohemia the tongue of a
male snake, if cut from the living animal on St. George’s Eve and placed
under a person’s tongue, will confer the gift of eloquence.(788) The
Homeric Greeks cut out the tongues of sacrificial victims and burned
them.(789) According to some accounts, the tongues of the victims were
assigned by the Greeks to Hermes, as the god of speech, or to his human
representatives the heralds.(790) On the principles of sympathetic magic
we might expect that heralds should taste the tongues of sacrificial
victims to strengthen their voices, or to acquire the gift of
tongues.(791)

(M201) The conjecture that the practice of cutting out the tongues of dead
animals may sometimes be a precaution to prevent their ghosts from telling
tales, is to some extent confirmed by a ceremony which the Bechuanas used
to observe after a battle. It was customary with them on these occasions
to sacrifice a fine black ox, called the expiatory victim (_pekou_), cut
off the tip of its tongue, and extract one of its eyes together with a
piece of the hamstring and a piece of the principal tendon of the
shoulder; and the severed parts were afterwards carefully fried, along
with some medicinal herbs, in a horn by a medicine-man. The reasons for
thus mutilating the animal were explained by a native to two French
missionaries. “If we cut out and purify the victim’s tongue,” said he,
“the motive is to induce the guardian deities to prevent the enemy from
speaking ill of us. We ask also that the sinews of their feet and hands
may fail them in the battle; and that their eyes may not cast a covetous
look on our herds.”(792) In this custom the sacrificial ox appears to be
treated as the ceremonial equivalent of the enemy; accordingly by cutting
out its tongue you obviously prevent your enemy from cursing you, for how
can he curse you if he has no tongue? Similarly, by hamstringing the beast
you ensure that the legs and arms of your adversary will fail him in the
battle, and by gouging out the ox’s eye you make perfectly certain that
the foe will never be able to cast a longing eye on your fat beeves. Thus
for all practical purposes the mutilation of the ox is quite as effective
as the mutilation of the enemy’s dead, which is sometimes practised by
savages from similar superstitious motives. Thus on the return from a
field of battle the Baganda used to cut up one or two of the enemy’s dead,
scoop out the eyes, cut off the ears, and lay the limbs on the road taken
by the returning army “to prevent evil following them.”(793) The nature of
the evil which the Baganda warriors feared to incur if they did not
mutilate the dead in this fashion, is not mentioned, but we may conjecture
that by gouging out the eyes and ears of their slain foes they hoped to
make their angry ghosts blind and deaf; or perhaps, upon the principles of
homoeopathic magic, they counted on maiming their living foes in like
manner. Some of the aborigines of Australia cut off the thumbs of their
dead enemies in order that their ghosts may not be able to throw
spears.(794) Other Australian tribes burn off the thumb nails of their own
dead to prevent the poor ghost from scratching a way for himself out of
the grave.(795) When the Tupi Indians of Brazil killed and ate a prisoner,
“the thumb was cut off because of its use in archery, an art concerning
which they were singularly superstitious; what was done with it does not
appear, except that it was not eaten like the rest.”(796) Perhaps these
Indians, like the Australians, thought by this mutilation to disarm the
dangerous ghost of their victim. When any bad man died, the Esquimaux of
Bering Strait used to cut the sinews of his arms and legs, “in order to
prevent the shade from returning to the body and causing it to walk at
night as a ghoul.”(797) In Travancore the ghosts of men who have been
hanged for murder are particularly dreaded; so in order to incapacitate
them from roaming about and attacking people, it used to be customary to
slice off a criminal’s heels with a sword or hamstring him at the moment
when he swung free from the ladder.(798) The Omaha Indians used to slit
the soles of a man who had been killed by lightning in order to prevent
his ghost from walking.(799) Among the Awemba of Northern Rhodesia
murderers often inflicted shocking mutilations on the bodies of their
victims. “This was done, it is said, to prevent the spirit of the murdered
person from exacting vengeance, and even if only the joint of the first or
the little finger were cut off, such mutilation would suffice for this
purpose.”(800) These examples suggest that many other mutilations which
savages practise on their dead enemies may spring, not from the blind fury
of hatred, but from a cool calculation of the best mode of protecting
themselves against the very natural resentment of the ghosts; by
mutilating the corpse they apparently hope to maim the ghost and so to
render him incapable of harming them. At all events it appears that in
certain circumstances some savages treat the dead bodies of men and beasts
much alike, by hamstringing them in order to prevent their ghosts from
getting up and walking. So consistent and impartial is the primitive
philosopher in his attitude to the spirit world.

CHAPTER XV. THE PROPITIATION OF VERMIN BY FARMERS.

§ 1. The Enemies of the Crops.

(M202) 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 his crops and his cattle. To rid himself of
these deadly foes the farmer has recourse to many superstitious devices,
of which, though some 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 and the herds. 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 fine name, 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.(801) 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.”(802)
The Huzuls of the Carpathians believe that the bite of the weasel is
poisonous and that the animal commits ravages on the cattle. Yet they take
care never to kill a weasel, lest the surviving kinsfolk of the deceased
should avenge his death on the herds of his murderer. They even celebrate
a festival of weasels either on St. Matthew’s day (9th August, old style,
21st August, new style), or on St. Catherine’s day (24th November, old
style, 6th December, new style). On that day no work may be done, lest the
weasels should harm the herds.(803) 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.(804)

(M203) The attempts thus made by European peasants to mollify the rage and
avert the ravages of vermin have their counterpart in the similar
observances of savages. When the Matabele find caterpillars in their
fields they put an ear of corn in a calabash, fill the vessel up with
caterpillars, and set it down on a path leading to another village, hoping
thus to induce the insects to migrate thither.(805) The Yabim of German
New Guinea imagine that the caterpillars and worms which infest their
fields of taro are animated by the souls of the human dead; hence in order
to rid the crops of these vermin they politely request the insects to
leave the fields and repair to the village. “Ye locusts, worms, and
caterpillars,” they say, “who have died or hanged yourselves, or have been
killed by a falling log or devoured by a shark, go into the village.”(806)
There is a certain ant whose destructive ravages are dreaded by the people
of Nias. Generally they wage war on it by means of traps and other
devices; but at the time of the rice-harvest they cease to call the insect
by its common name, and refer to it under the title of Sibaia, a good
spirit who is supposed to protect the crop from harm.(807) In South
Mirzapur, when locusts threaten to eat up the fruits of the earth, the
people catch one, decorate his head with a spot of red lead, salaam to
him, and let him go. After these civilities he immediately departs along
with his fellows.(808) Among the Wajagga of German East Africa sorcerers
attempt to rid the fields of locusts by catching one of the insects, tying
its legs together, and letting it fly away, after charging the creature to
lead the swarm to the lands of a neighbouring and hostile chief.(809) The
Wagogo, another tribe of German East Africa, catch one of the birds which
infest their gardens, and, having drenched it with a charmed stuff, they
release the bird in the hope that it may entice all its companions away
into the forest.(810)

(M204) Sometimes in dealing with vermin the farmer aims at hitting a happy
mean between excessive rigour on the one hand and weak indulgence on the
other; 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
up.”(811) In the Ardennes they say that to get rid of rats you should
repeat the following words: “_Erat verbum, apud Deum vestrum._ Male rats
and female rats, I conjure you, by the great God, to go out of my house,
out of all my habitations, and to betake yourselves to such and such a
place, there to end your days. _Decretis, reversis et desembarassis virgo
potens, clemens, justitiae._” Then write the same words on pieces of
paper, fold them up, and place one of them under the door by which the
rats are to go forth, and the other on the road which they are to take.
This exorcism should be performed at sunrise.(812) Some years ago an
American farmer was reported to have written a civil letter to the rats,
telling them that his crops were short, that he could not afford to keep
them through the winter, that he had been very kind to them, and that for
their own good he thought they had better leave him and go to some of his
neighbours who had more grain. This document he pinned to a post in his
barn for the rats to read.(813) The mouse is one of the most dreaded
enemies of the rice-crop in Celebes. Many therefore are the prayers and
incantations which prudent farmers resort to for the purpose of keeping
the vermin from their fields. Thus, for example, a man will run round his
field, saying, “Pruner is your name. Creep not through my rice. Be blind
and deaf. Creep not through my rice. If you must creep through rice, go
and creep through other rice.” The following formula is equally effective:
“Pruner is your real name. Mouse is your by-name. Down in the evening land
is the stone on which you ought to sit; in the west, in Java, is your
abode.” Or again: “O Longtail, Longtail, eat not my rice. It is the rice
of a prince. It is the field of one who is revered.”(814) The Aino of
Japan believe that God first created rats and mice at Erum kotan, which
means “rat place.” Indeed, there are a great many rats and mice there even
now, and the people of the village worship mice and offer them libations
and sacred sticks whittled at the top into shavings. Grateful for these
attentions, the mice spare the gardens and will not nibble at the roots
and the fruits. But if the people omit to worship the mice, or if they are
rash enough to speak evil of them, the creatures are angry and eat up the
garden produce. The havoc which rats and mice now work in the gardens of
the Aino every year is attributed to the modern neglect of the people to
worship the vermin.(815)

(M205) 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.(816) In the Kangean archipelago, East Indies, when the mice prove
very destructful to the rice-crop, the people rid themselves of the pest
in the following manner. On a Friday, when the usual service in the mosque
is over, four pairs of mice are solemnly united in marriage by the priest.
Each pair is then shut up in a miniature canoe about a foot long. These
canoes are filled with rice and other fruits of the earth, and the four
pairs of mice are then escorted to the sea-shore just as if it were a real
wedding. Wherever the procession passes the people beat with all their
might on their rice-blocks. On reaching the shore, the canoes, with their
little inmates, are launched and left to the mercy of the winds and
waves.(817) When the farms of the Sea Dyaks or Ibans of Sarawak are much
pestered by birds and insects, they catch a specimen of each kind of
vermin (one sparrow, one grasshopper and so on), put them in a tiny boat
of bark well-stocked with provisions, and then allow the little vessel
with its obnoxious passengers to float down the river. If that does not
drive the pests away, the Dyaks resort to what they deem a more effectual
mode of accomplishing the same purpose. They make a clay crocodile as
large as life and set it up in the fields, where they offer it food,
rice-spirit, and cloth, and sacrifice a fowl and a pig before it.
Mollified by these attentions, the ferocious animal very soon gobbles up
all the creatures that devour the crops.(818) In some parts of Bohemia the
peasant, though he kills field mice and grey 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 grey mice would multiply fearfully in the
dwelling.(819) In Albania, if the fields or vineyards are ravaged by
locusts or beetles, some of the women will assemble with dishevelled hair,
catch a few of the insects, and march with them in a funeral procession to
a spring or stream, in which they drown the creatures. Then one of the
women sings, “O locusts and beetles who have left us bereaved,” and the
dirge is taken up and repeated by all the women in chorus. Thus by
celebrating the obsequies of a few locusts and beetles, they hope to bring
about the death of them all.(820) 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.(821) On the first 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.”(822) In South Africa a
plague of caterpillars is removed by a number of small Caffre girls, who
go singing through the fields. They wail as they pass through the
languishing crops, and thus invoke the aid and pity of some ancestral
spirits. The mournful rite ends with a dance on a plot of ground
overlooking the fields.(823)

(M206) On the shore of Delagoa Bay there thrives a small brown beetle
which is very destructive to the beans and maize. The Baronga call it
_noonoo_. In December or January, when the insects begin to swarm, women
are sent to collect them from the bean-stalks in shells. When they have
done so, a twin girl is charged with the duty of throwing the insects into
a neighbouring lake. Accompanied by a woman of mature years and carrying
the beetles in a calabash, the girl goes on her mission without saying a
word to any one. At her back marches the whole troop of women, their arms,
waists, and heads covered with grass and holding in their hands branches
of manioc with large leaves which they wave to and fro, while they chant
the words, “_Noonoo_, go away! Leave our fields! _Noonoo_, go away! leave
our fields!” The little girl throws her calabash with the beetles into the
water without looking behind her, and thereupon the women bellow out
obscene songs, which they never dare to utter except on this occasion and
at the ceremony for making rain.(824)

(M207) Another mode of getting rid of vermin and other noxious creatures
without hurting their feelings or shewing them disrespect is to make
images of them. Apollonius of Tyana is said to have cleared Antioch of
scorpions by making a bronze image of a scorpion and burying it under a
small pillar in the middle of the city.(825) Further, it is reported that
he freed Constantinople from flies by means of a bronze fly, and from
gnats by means of a bronze gnat.(826) In the Middle Ages Virgil passed for
an enchanter and is said to have rid Naples of flies and grasshoppers by
bronze or copper images of these insects; and when the waters of the city
were infested by leeches, he made a golden leech, which put a stop to the
plague.(827) It is reported that a mosque at Fez used to be protected
against scorpions by an image of a bird holding a scorpion in its
beak.(828) An Arab writer tells of a golden locust which guarded a certain
town from a plague of locusts; and he also mentions two brazen oxen which
checked a murrain among cattle.(829) Gregory of Tours tells us that the
city of Paris used to be free of dormice and serpents, but that in his
lifetime, while they were cleaning a sewer, they found a bronze serpent
and a bronze dormouse and removed them. “Since then,” adds the good
bishop, “dormice and serpents without number have been seen in
Paris.”(830) When their land was overrun with mice, the Philistines made
golden images of the vermin and sent them out of the country in a new cart
drawn by two cows, hoping that the real mice would simultaneously
depart.(831) So when a swarm of serpents afflicted the Israelites in the
desert, they made a serpent of brass and set it on a pole as a mode of
staying the plague.(832)

§ 2. Mouse Apollo and Wolf Apollo.

(M208) Some of the Greek gods were worshipped under titles derived from
the vermin or other pests which they were supposed to avert or
exterminate. Thus we hear of Mouse Apollo,(833) Locust Apollo,(834) and
Mildew Apollo;(835) of Locust Hercules and Worm-killing Hercules;(836) of
Foxy Dionysus;(837) and of Zeus the Fly-catcher or Averter of Flies.(838)
If we could trace all these and similar worships to their origin, we
should probably find that they were at first addressed, not to the high
gods as the protectors of mankind, but to the baleful things themselves,
the mice, locusts, mildew, and so forth, with the intention of flattering
and soothing them, of disarming their malignity, and of persuading them to
spare their worshippers. We know that the Romans worshipped the mildew,
the farmer’s plague, under its own proper name.(839) The ravages committed
by mice among the crops both in ancient and modern times are
notorious,(840) and according to a tradition which may be substantially
correct the worship of the Mouse (Smintheus) Apollo was instituted to
avert them.(841) The image of a mouse which stood beside Apollo’s tripod
in the god’s temple in the Troad,(842) may be compared with the golden
mice which the Philistines made for the purpose of ridding themselves of
the vermin; and the tame mice kept in his sanctuary, together with the
white mice which lived under the altar,(843) would on this hypothesis be
parallel to the white mice which the Bohemian peasant still cherishes as
the best way of keeping down the numbers of their grey-coated
brethren.(844) An Oriental counterpart of the Mouse Apollo is the ancient
pillar or rude idol which the Chams of Indo-China call _yang-tikuh_ or
“god rat,” and to which they offer sacrifices whenever rats infest their
fields in excessive numbers.(845)

(M209) Another epithet applied to Apollo which probably admits of a
similar explanation is Wolfish.(846) Various legends set forth how the god
received the title of Wolfish because he exterminated wolves;(847) indeed
this function was definitely attributed to him by the epithet
Wolf-slayer.(848) Arguing from the analogy of the preceding cases, we may
suppose that at first the wolves themselves were propitiated by fair words
and sacrifices to induce them to spare man and beast; and that at a later
time, when the Greeks, or rather the enlightened portion of them, had
outgrown this rude form of worship, they transferred the duty of keeping
off the wolves to a beneficent deity who discharged the same useful office
for other pests, such as mice, locusts, and mildew. A reminiscence of the
direct propitiation of the fierce and dangerous beasts themselves is
preserved in the legends told to explain the origin of the Lyceum or Place
of Wolves at Athens and of the sanctuary of Wolfish Apollo at Sicyon. It
is said that once, when Athens was infested by wolves, Apollo commanded
sacrifices to be offered on the Place of Wolves and the smell proved fatal
to the animals.(849) Similarly at Sicyon, when the flocks suffered heavily
from the ravages of wolves, the same god directed the shepherds to set
forth meat mixed with a certain bark, and the wolves devoured the tainted
meat and perished.(850) These legends probably reflect in a distorted form
an old custom of sacrificing to the wolves, in other words of feeding them
to mollify their ferocity and win their favour. We know that such a custom
prevailed among the Letts down to comparatively recent times. In the month
of December, about Christmas time, they sacrificed a goat to the wolves,
with strange idolatrous rites, at a cross-road, for the purpose of
inducing the wolves to spare the flocks and herds. After offering the
sacrifice they used to brag that no beast of theirs would fall a victim to
the ravening maw of a wolf for all the rest of that year, no, not though
the pack were to run right through the herd. Sacrifices of this sort are
reported to have been secretly offered by the Letts as late as the
seventeenth century;(851) and if we knew more of peasant life in ancient
Greece we might find that on winter days, while Aristotle was expounding
his philosophy in the Lyceum or Place of Wolves at Athens, the Attic
peasant was still carrying forth, in the crisp frosty air, his offering to
the wolves, which all night long had been howling round his sheepfold in a
snowy glen of Parnes or Pentelicus.

CHAPTER XVI. THE TRANSMIGRATION OF HUMAN SOULS INTO ANIMALS.

(M210) With many savages a reason for respecting and sparing certain
species of animals is a belief that the souls of their dead kinsfolk are
lodged in these creatures. Thus the Indians of Cayenne refuse to eat
certain large fish, because they say that the soul of some one of their
relations might be in the fish, and that hence in eating the fish they
might swallow the soul.(852) The Piaroas Indians of the Orinoco believe
that the tapir is their ancestor and that the souls of the dying
transmigrate into animals of that species. Hence they will never hunt the
tapir nor eat its flesh. It may even ravage their crops with impunity;
they will not attempt to ward it off or scare it away.(853) The Canelos
Indians of Ecuador also believe in the transmigration of souls; it is
especially under the form of jaguars that they expect to be born again;
hence they refuse to attack a jaguar except by way of righteous
retribution for some wrong he has done them.(854) The doctrine of
transmigration finds favour also with the Quixos Indians; an old man told
the Italian traveller Osculati that the soul is a breath which passes from
the human body into an animal, and on the death of the animal shifts its
quarters to another body.(855) The Caingua Indians of Paraguay think that
the souls of the dead which are unable to depart this earth are born again
in the shape of animals; for that reason many of them refuse to eat the
flesh of the domestic pig, because they say, “He was a man.”(856) Once
when a Spaniard was out hunting with two Piros Indians of Peru, they
passed a deserted house in which they saw a fine jaguar. The Indians drew
the Spaniard away, and when he asked why they did not attack the animal,
they said: “It was our sister. She died at the last rains. We abandoned
the hut and on the second night she came back. It was the beautiful
jaguar.”(857) Similarly a missionary remarked of the Chiriguanos Indians
of Bolivia that they must have some idea of the transmigration of souls;
for one day, while he was talking with a woman of the tribe who had left
her daughter in a neighbouring village, she started at sight of a fox
passing near and exclaimed, “May it not be the soul of my daughter who has
died?”(858) The Colombian Indians in the district of Popayan will not kill
the deer of their forests, and entertain such a respect for these animals
that they view with horror and indignation any one who dares to eat
venison in their presence. They say that the souls of persons who have led
a good life are in the deer.(859) In like manner the Indians of California
formerly refused to eat the flesh of large game, because they held that
the bodies of all large animals contained the souls of past generations of
men and women. However, the Indians who were maintained at the Spanish
missions and received their rations in the form of beef, had to overcome
their conscientious scruples in regard to cattle. Once a half-caste,
wishing to amuse himself at the expense of the devout, cooked a dish of
bear’s flesh for them and told them it was beef. They ate heartily of it,
but when they learned the trick that had been played on them, they were
seized with retchings, which only ended with the reappearance of the
obnoxious meat. A reproach hurled by the wild tribes at their brethren who
had fallen under European influence was “They eat venison!”(860)
Californian Indians have been known to plead for the life of an old
grizzly she-bear, because they thought it housed the soul of a dead
grandam, whose withered features had borne some likeness to the wrinkled
face of the bear.(861)

(M211) The doctrine of the transmigration of human souls into animal
bodies is viewed with great favour by the negroes of northern Guinea. In
different parts of the coast different species of animals are accounted
sacred, because they are supposed to be animated by the spirits of the
dead. Hence monkeys near Fishtown, snakes at Whydah, and crocodiles near
Dix Cove live in the odour of sanctity.(862) In the lagoon of Tendo, on
the Ivory Coast of West Africa, there is a certain sacred islet covered
with impenetrable scrub, on which no native dare set foot. It is peopled
only by countless huge bats, which at evening quit the island by hundreds
of thousands to fly towards the River Tanoe, which flows into the lagoon.
The natives say that these bats are the souls of the dead, who retire
during the day to the holy isle and are bound to present themselves every
night at the abode of Tano, the great and good fetish who dwells by the
river of his name. Paddling past the island the negroes will not look at
it, but turn away their heads. A European in crossing the lagoon wished to
shoot one of the bats, but his boatmen implored him to refrain, lest he
should kill the soul of one of their kinsfolk.(863) In the Mopane country
of South Africa there is, or used to be, no check on the increase of
lions, because the natives, believing that the souls of their chiefs
entered into the animals, never attempted to kill them; on the contrary,
whenever they met a lion they saluted him in the usual fashion by clapping
their hands. Hence the country was so infested by lions that people,
benighted in fields, often slept for safety in trees.(864) Similarly, the
Makanga, who occupy the angle between the Zambesi and Shire rivers,
refrain from killing lions because they believe that the spirits of dead
chiefs enter into them.(865) The Amambwe universally suppose that their
reigning chief turns at death into a lion.(866) The Bahima of Ankole, in
Central Africa, also imagine that their dead kings are changed into lions.
Their corpses are carried to a forest called Ensanzi, where they lie in
state for several days. At the end of that time the body is supposed to
burst and give forth a lion cub, which contains the spirit of the deceased
king. The animal is nurtured by priests till it is grown up, when it is
released and allowed to roam the forest with the other lions. It is the
duty of the priests to feed and care for the lions and to hold
communications with the dead kings when occasion arises. For that purpose
the priests always live in a temple in the forest, where they receive
frequent offerings of cattle for the lions. In this forest the lions are
sacred and may not be killed, but in other parts of the country they may
be slaughtered with impunity. Similarly, the Bahima think that at death
the king’s wives are changed into leopards; the transformation takes place
in like manner through the bursting of the dead bodies in a belt of the
same sacred forest. There the leopards are daily fed with offerings of
meat by priests, whose office is hereditary. Further, the Bahima are of
opinion that the spirits of dead princes and princesses come to life again
in the form of snakes, which burst from their dead bodies in another belt
of the same forest: there is a temple in the forest where priests feed and
guard the holy serpents. When the little snakes have issued from the
corpses of the princes, they are fed with milk till they are big enough to
go alone.(867) The El Kiboron clan of the Masai, in East Africa, imagine
that when married men of the clan are buried, their bones turn into
serpents. Hence the El Kiboron do not, like the other Masai, kill snakes:
on the contrary they are glad to see the reptiles in the kraal and set out
saucers of milk and honey for them on the ground. It is said that snakes
never bite members of the clan.(868) The Ababu and other tribes of the
Congo region believe that at death their souls transmigrate into the
bodies of various animals, such as the hippopotamus, the leopard, the
gorilla, and the gazelle; and on no account would a man eat the flesh of
an animal of the particular kind which he expects to inhabit in the next
life.(869) Some of the Caffres of the Zambesi region, in Portuguese
territory, who believe in the transmigration of human souls into the
bodies of animals, judge of the species of animals into which a dead
person has transmigrated by the resemblance which he bore to it in his
life. Thus, the soul of a big burly man with prominent teeth will pass
into an elephant; a strong man with a long beard will become a lion; an
ugly man with a large mouth and thick lips will be a hyaena; and so on.
Animals supposed to be tenanted by the spirits of the dead are treated as
sacred and invulnerable. When a Portuguese lady, named Dona Maria, to whom
the blacks were much attached, had departed this life, it chanced that a
hyaena came repeatedly by night to the village and carried off pigs and
kids. The lady’s old slaves would not do the creature the smallest hurt,
saying, “It is Dona Maria, our good mistress. She is hungry and comes to
her house seeking what she may devour.”(870)

(M212) The belief that the souls of the dead transmigrate into the bodies
of animals appears to be widely diffused among the tribes of Madagascar.
Thus, for example, the souls of the Betsileo are thought after death to be
reborn in boa-constrictors, crocodiles, and eels of a particular sort
according to their rank in life. It is the nobles, or at all events the
most illustrious of them, who have the privilege of turning into
boa-constrictors at death. To facilitate the transformation the corpse of
a dead noble is strapped to the central pillar of his house, and the
products of decomposition are collected in a silver bowl. The largest of
the worms which are bred in the putrid liquid is believed to contain the
soul of the dead nobleman and to develop in due time into a
boa-constrictor. Accordingly these huge serpents are regarded as sacred by
the Betsileo; nobody would dare to kill one of them. The people go down on
their knees to them and salute them, just as they would do to a real live
nobleman. It is a happy day when a boa-constrictor deigns to visit the
village which he formerly inhabited in human form. He receives an ovation
from his family. They go forth to meet him, spread silk for him to crawl
upon, and carry him off to the public square, where he is allowed to gorge
himself with the blood of a sacrificed ox. The souls of commoners of good
standing transmigrate into the bodies of crocodiles, and in their new form
still serve their old masters, particularly by announcing to them the
approach of the hour when they must shuffle out of the human frame into
the frame of boa-constrictors. Lastly, the scum of the population turn at
death into eels, and to render the change as easy for them as possible it
is customary to remove the bowels from the corpse and throw them into a
sacred lake. The eel that swallows the first mouthful becomes the domicile
of the soul of the deceased. No Betsileo would eat such eels.(871) Again,
the Antankarana, a tribe in the extreme north of Madagascar, believe that
the spirits of their dead chiefs pass into crocodiles, while those of
common folk are reborn in other animals.(872) Once more, the Tanala, a
tribe of south-eastern Madagascar, suppose that the souls of their dead
transmigrate into certain animals, such as scorpions and insects, which
accordingly they will not kill or eat, believing that the creatures will
in like manner abstain from injuring them.(873)

(M213) Some of the Nagas of Assam hold that the spirits of the departed,
after undergoing a cycle of changes in a subterranean world, are reborn on
earth in the form of butterflies or small house flies, only however in
that shape to perish for ever. Hence, when these small flies light on the
wine-cups of the living, the wassailers will not kill them for fear of
destroying some one of their ancestors.(874) For a like reason the
Angamis, one of the Naga tribes, carefully abstain from injuring certain
species of butterfly.(875) At Ang Teng, a large village of Upper Burma,
the river at a point above a dilapidated bridge swarms with fish, which
the people hold sacred, because they imagine them to be their dead come to
life again in a fishy form. In former days no one might kill one of these
fish under pain of death. Once a Shan, caught fishing with some dead fish
in his possession, was instantly hauled away and killed.(876) The people
of Kon-Meney in eastern Cochin China will not eat toads, because long ago
the soul of one of their chiefs passed at death into a toad. In his new
shape he appeared to his son in a dream, informed him of the
transformation, and commanded him to sacrifice a pig, a fowl, and millet
wine to his deceased parent, assuring him that if he complied with the
injunction the rice would grow well. The dutiful son obeyed the author of
his being; the toad appeared in the rice-fields watching over the growth
of the rice, and the crop was magnificent. For two generations the
sacrifices were duly offered, the toad appeared at the time of sowing, and
the granaries were full. Afterwards, however, the people neglected to
sacrifice to the toad and were punished accordingly by failure of the
crops and consequent famine.(877) Some of the Chams of Indo-China believe
that the souls of the dead inhabit the bodies of certain animals, such as
serpents, crocodiles, and so forth, the kind of animal varying with the
family. The species of animals most commonly regarded as tenanted by the
spirits of the departed are the rodents and active climbing creatures
which abound in the country, such as squirrels. According to some people,
these small animals are especially the abode of still-born infants or of
children who died young. The souls of these little ones appear in dreams
to their mourning parents and say: “I inhabit the body of a squirrel.
Honour me as such. Make me a present of a flower, a coco-nut, a cup of
roasted rice,” and so on. The parents discharge this pious duty, respect
these familiar spirits, ascribe illnesses to their displeasure, pray to
them for healing, and on their deathbed commend to their descendants the
care of such and such a spirit, as a member of the family.(878)

(M214) The Igorrots of Cabugatan, in the Philippines, regard the eels in
their stream as the souls of their forefathers. Hence instead of catching
and eating them they feed them, till the eels become as tame as carp in a
pond.(879) In the Sandwich Islands various people worshipped diverse kinds
of animals, such as fowls, lizards, owls, rats, and so forth. If a man who
adored sharks happened to have a child still-born, he would endeavour to
lodge the soul of the dead infant in the body of a shark. For this purpose
he laid the tiny body, together with a couple of roots of taro, some kava,
and a piece of sugar-cane, on a mat, recited prayers over it, and then
flung the whole into the sea, believing that by virtue of this offering
the transmigration of the child’s soul into the shark’s body would be
effected, and that henceforth the voracious monsters would spare all
members of the family who might otherwise be exposed to their attacks. In
the temples dedicated to sharks there were priests who, morning and
evening, addressed prayers to the shark-idol, and rubbed their bodies with
water and salt, which, drying on their skin, imparted to it an appearance
of being covered with scales. They also wore red stuffs, uttered shrill
cries, leaped over the sacred enclosure, and persuaded the credulous
islanders that they knew the exact moment when the children thrown into
the sea were turned into sharks. For this revelation they were rewarded by
the happy parents with a plentiful supply of little pigs, coco-nuts, kava,
and so on.(880) The Pelew Islanders believed that the souls of their
forefathers lived in certain species of animals, which accordingly they
held sacred and would not injure. For this reason one man would not kill
snakes, another would not harm pigeons, and so on; but every one was quite
ready to kill and eat the sacred animals of his neighbours.(881)

(M215) We have seen that the Battas of Sumatra seldom kill a tiger and
never without performing an elaborate ceremony to appease the animal’s
ghost. The reason alleged for treating tigers with this respect is that
the souls of the dead often transmigrate into these animals, and therefore
in killing a tiger a man never knows whether he is not killing a relative
of his own. If members of the totemic clan of the Tiger should happen to
be in a village when the carcase of a slain tiger is brought into it, they
are bound to pay special marks of honour to its remains by putting betel
in its mouth. A priest offers food and drink to the dead tiger, addresses
him as Grandfather, prays him not to be angry or frightened, and explains
to the gods the reasons for putting the animal to death.(882)

(M216) The Kayans of Borneo think that when the human soul departs from
the body at death it may take the form of an animal or bird. For example,
if a deer were seen browsing near a man’s grave, his relations would
probably conclude that his soul had assumed the shape of a deer, and the
whole family would abstain from eating venison lest they should annoy the
deceased.(883) Most of the Kalamantans, another tribe of Borneo, will kill
and eat deer freely, but there are exceptions to the rule. “Thus Damong,
the chief of a Malanau household, together with all his people, will not
kill or eat the deer _Cervulus muntjac_, alleging that an ancestor had
become a deer of this kind, and that, since they cannot distinguish this
incarnation of his ancestor from other deer, they must abstain from
killing all deer of this species. We know of one instance in which one of
these people refused to use again his cooking-pot which a Malay had
borrowed and used for cooking the flesh of this deer. This superstition is
still rigidly adhered to, although these people have been converted to
Islam of recent years.... The people of Miri, who also are Mohammedan
Malanaus, claim to be related to the large deer (_Cervus equinus_) and
some of them to the muntjac deer also. Now these people live in a country
in which deer of all kinds abound, and they always make a clearing in the
jungle around a tomb. On such a clearing grass grows up rapidly, and so
the spot becomes attractive to deer as a grazing ground; and it seems not
improbable that it is through frequently seeing deer about the tombs that
the people have come to entertain the belief that their dead relatives
become deer or that they are in some other way closely related to the
deer. The Bakongs, another group of Malanaus, hold a similar belief with
regard to the bear-cat (_Artictis_) and the various species of
_Paradoxurus_, and in this case the origin of the belief is admitted by
them to be the fact that on going to their graveyards they often see one
of these beasts coming out of a tomb. These tombs are roughly constructed
wooden coffins raised a few feet only from the ground, and it is probable
that these carnivores make their way into them in the first place to
devour the corpse, and that they then make use of them as lairs.”(884)
Among the Sea Dyaks, also of Borneo, the idea of metempsychosis is not
unknown. One of them used to treat a snake with the greatest kindness,
because he said it had been revealed to him in a dream that the spirit of
his grandfather dwelt in that snake.(885)

(M217) Some of the Papuans on the northern coast of New Guinea also
believe in the transmigration of souls. They hold that at death the souls
of human beings sometimes pass into animals, such as cassowaries, fish, or
pigs, and they abstain from eating the animals of the sort in which the
spirits of the dead are supposed to have taken up their abode.(886) For
example, at Masur in Dutch New Guinea there are people who imagine that
the spirits of their ancestors transmigrated into cassowaries, and
accordingly they will not partake of the flesh of the long-legged
bird.(887) In Simbang, a village at the mouth of the Bubui river in German
New Guinea, there is a family who will not harm crocodiles, not merely
because they fear the vengeance of the creatures, but also because they
reckon crocodiles their kinsfolk and expect that they themselves will turn
into crocodiles at death. As head of the family they recognise a certain
aged crocodile, everywhere known as “old Butong,” who is said to have been
born of a woman at Simbang.(888) They think that while they are at work in
the fields, and the houses stand empty, their ancestors come forth from
the river and repair to the place in the roof where the mysterious
bull-roarers are kept, which make a humming sound at the initiatory rites
of young men. But when the people return from the fields they find the
houses as empty and silent as when they left them: the spirits of their
forefathers have plunged into the river again. If a crocodile carries off
anybody, the natives are sure that the brute must be a stranger, not one
of their own crocodile kinsfolk, who never would do such a thing; and if
their neighbours at Yabim are so unfeeling as to kill a crocodile, the
Bubui people protest against the outrage and demand satisfaction. Some
Yabim people give out that after death their souls will be turned into
certain fabulous cave-haunting swine, and accordingly their relatives
refuse to spear or to eat the real wild swine. If these animals break into
and ravage the fields, their human kinsfolk attempt to appease them with
offerings of coco-nuts and other valuable articles.(889) Similarly in
Tamara, an island off the coast of German New Guinea, the people will not
eat pork, because it is their conviction that the souls of the dead
transmigrate into the bodies of pigs.(890) The Kai people, who inhabit the
rugged and densely wooded mountains inland from Finsch Harbour in German
New Guinea, imagine that the gloomy depths of some wild ravines are
haunted by the souls of the dead in the form of cuscuses and other
animals. None but the owner has the right to kill game in these dark and
awful gullies, and even he must propitiate the soul of every animal that
he slays in such a spot. For this purpose he spreads out offerings on the
carcase and presents them to the injured spirit, saying, “Take the gifts
and leave us the animal, that we may eat it.” After leaving the articles
long enough to allow the soul of the beast to abstract and convey away the
souls of the things, the hunter is free to cut up and consume the carcase.
Some years ago, when heavy rains caused a land-slip in these wild
mountains, and a house with its inmates was buried in the ruins, public
opinion in the neighbourhood attributed the disaster to the misconduct of
the deceased, who had failed to appease the soul of a boa-constrictor
slain by them on haunted ground.(891)

(M218) In the Solomon Islands a man at the point of death would gather the
members of his family about him and inform them of the particular sort of
creature, say a bird or a butterfly, into which he proposed to
transmigrate. Henceforth the family would regard that species of animal as
sacred and would neither kill nor injure it. If they fell in with a
creature of the kind, it might be a bird or a butterfly, they would say,
“That is papa,” and offer him a coco-nut.(892) In these islands sharks are
very often supposed to be ghosts, for dying people frequently announce
their intention of being sharks when they have put off their human shape.
After that, if any shark remarkable for its size or colour is seen to
haunt a certain shore or rock, it is taken to be somebody’s ghost, and the
name of the deceased is given to it. For example, at Ulawa a dreaded
man-eating shark received the name of a dead man and was propitiated with
offerings of porpoise teeth. At Saa, certain food, for example coco-nuts
from particular trees, is reserved to feed such a ghost-shark, but men of
whom it is positively known that after death they will be in sharks are
allowed by anticipation to partake of the shark-food in the sacred place.
Other men will sometimes join themselves to their company, and speaking
with the voice of a shark-ghost will say, “Give me to eat of that food.”
If such a man happens to be really possessed of supernatural power, he
will in due time become a shark-ghost himself; but it is perfectly
possible that he may fail. In Savo not very long ago a certain man had a
shark that he used to feed and to which he offered sacrifice. He swam out
to it with food, called it by name, and it came to him. Of course it was
not a common shark, but a ghost, the knowledge of which had been handed
down to him from his ancestors. Alligators also may lodge the souls of
dead Solomon Islanders. In the island of Florida a story was told of an
alligator that used to come up out of the sea and make itself quite at
home in the village in which the man whose ghost it was had lived. It went
by the name of the deceased, and though there was one man in particular
who had special connexion with it and was said to own it, the animal was
on friendly terms with everybody in the place and would even let children
ride on its back. But the village where this happened has not yet been
identified.(893) In the same island the appearance of anything wonderful
is taken as proof of a ghostly presence and stamps the place as sacred.
For example, a man planted some coco-nut palms and almond trees in the
bush and died not long afterwards. After his death there appeared among
the trees a great rarity in the shape of a white cuscus. The animal was
accordingly assumed to be the ghost of the departed planter and went by
his name. The place became sacred, and no one would gather the fruits of
the trees there, until two young men, who had been trained in the
principles of Christianity, boldly invaded the sanctuary and appropriated
the almonds and coco-nuts.(894) It must not be supposed, however, that the
choice of transmigration open to a Solomon Islander is restricted to the
animal kingdom; he is free after death to become a vegetable, if he feels
so disposed. When a mission-school was established in the island of Ulawa
it was observed with surprise that the natives would not eat bananas and
had ceased to plant the tree. Enquiry elicited the origin of the
restriction, which was recent and well remembered. A man of great
influence, dying not long before, had forbidden the eating of bananas
after his death, saying that he would be in the banana. The older natives
would still mention his name and say, “We cannot eat So-and-so.”(895)

(M219) The doctrine of the reincarnation of human souls in the bodies
either of men or of animals, which meets us as an article of faith in so
many savage tribes, has a special interest for the historian of thought,
because it has been adopted more or less explicitly and employed, not
merely as a philosophical theory, but as a means of enforcing moral
lessons, by thinkers, teachers, and lawgivers among various civilised
peoples, notably in ancient India and Greece. Thus in the most famous of
old Indian law-books, _The Laws of Manu_, the penalties to be endured by
evil-doers in future births are described with a precision which leaves
nothing to be desired: the degradation of the birth is exactly
proportioned to the degree of moral guilt of the transgressor. For
example, if a man has the temerity to censure his teacher, even though the
censure is richly deserved, that rash man in his next birth will be an
ass; but if he defames his teacher falsely, he will be a dog; and if he is
so lost to all sense of propriety as to live at the expense of his
teacher, he will be a worm.(896) A faithless wife in her next
transmigration will be born a jackal.(897) A Brahman who misappropriates
money which he has received for a sacrifice will hereafter be either a
vulture or a crow for the period of one hundred years.(898) Men who
delight in doing hurt will be born as carnivorous animals, and those who
eat forbidden food will be degraded into worms. As for thieves, their lot
is a hard one, and it is harder in proportion to the value of the article
stolen. A man who steals gems will be born a goldsmith; a man who steals
grain will be born a rat; a man who steals honey will be born a stinging
insect; and a man who steals clarified butter will be born an ichneumon.
The penalty for stealing silk is to become a partridge, for stealing linen
a frog, for stealing vegetables a peacock, for stealing cooked food a
porcupine, for stealing uncooked food a hedgehog, and for stealing
molasses a flying-fox. And so on for the various degrees of moral
turpitude throughout the entire range of the animal kingdom.(899) Buddha
himself, who gave an immense extension to the doctrine of transmigration
by incorporating it in his religious or rather philosophical system, is
traditionally said to have undergone many animal births of various sorts
before he attained to his supreme dignity. Thus it is reported that he was
once a hare, once a dog, twice a pig, twice a frog, four times a serpent,
six times a snipe, ten times a lion, eleven times a deer, and eighteen
times a monkey; to say nothing of having been once a devil-dancer, twice a
thief, eighty-three times an ascetic, and so on.(900)

(M220) In ancient Greece also the theory of the transmigration of souls
found favour with the early philosophers Pythagoras and Empedocles, both
of whom, if we may trust tradition, appealed to their own personal
experience in support of the doctrine. According to ancient writers,
Pythagoras affirmed that he had been Euphorbus the Trojan in one of his
former lives, and in proof of the assertion he identified the shield of
Euphorbus among the Trojan spoils at Mycenae.(901) He would seem to have
held that human souls can transmigrate into animals or even into
plants;(902) and we may suppose that the possibility of such
transmigrations was at least one of the reasons he alleged for enjoining
the strictest of his disciples neither to kill nor to eat animals and to
abstain from certain vegetables, such as beans and mallows.(903) Certainly
at a later time these principles were maintained and these precepts
inculcated by Empedocles, who outdid the reminiscences of his predecessor
by asserting that he himself in former lives had been a boy, a girl, a
bush, a bird, and a fish.(904) Hence he denounced as a crime the practice
of killing and eating animals, since according to him a man could never
know but that in slaughtering and eating an animal he might be murdering
and devouring one of his dead kinsfolk, it might be his father or mother,
his son or daughter.(905) Thus from the doctrine of transmigration
Empedocles logically drew the same practical conclusion as the savage, who
abstains, for example, from killing and eating crocodiles or pigs because
he believes the souls of his departed relations to be embodied in
crocodiles or pigs: the only important difference between the savage and
the philosopher in this respect is that, whereas the savage venerates and
spares only animals of one particular species on the ground of their
possible affinity to himself, the philosopher on his own shewing was bound
to abstain from all animals whatever, since according to him the spirits
of his deceased relatives might be lurking in creatures of any species.
Hence while a faith in transmigration imposes but few restrictions on the
diet of a savage, since it leaves him free to partake of the flesh of
every sort of animals but one, the creed of Empedocles logically cut him
off from a flesh diet altogether and compelled him to live on vegetables
alone; indeed, if he had been rigidly logical, he must have denied himself
the use of vegetables also and perished of hunger, since on his theory
vegetables as well as animals may house the souls of the dead.(906)
However, like a wise man he sacrificed logic to life, and contented
himself with forbidding his disciples the use of a few vegetables, such as
beans and laurels,(907) while he suffered them to browse freely on all the
rest.

(M221) So far as we can gather the real opinions of Pythagoras and
Empedocles from the traditional history of the one and the miserably
mutilated writings of the other, they seem both, like Buddha, with whom
they had much in common, to have used the old savage doctrine of the
transmigration of souls mainly as a handle by which to impress on the
minds of their followers the necessity of leading an innocent, pure, and
even ascetic life in this world as the only means of ensuring a blissful
or at all events an untroubled eternity in a world to come.(908) At least
this is fairly certain for Empedocles, whose views are comparatively well
known to us through the fragments of his philosophical writings. From
these utterances of his, the genuineness of which seems to be beyond
suspicion, we gather that the psychology of Empedocles was a curious blend
of savagery and mysticism. He regarded the incarnation of the human soul
in a body of any sort as a punishment for sin, a degradation, a fall from
heaven, an exile from God, a banishment from a world of bliss to a world
of woe.(909) He describes the earth as a cavern,(910) a joyless land,
where men wander in darkness, a prey to murder and revenge, to swarms of
foul fiends, to wasting sickness and decay.(911) He speaks with pity and
contempt of the life of mortals as a wretched and miserable existence,
begotten of strife and sighs and prolonged as a punishment for their sins
through a series of transmigrations, until, by the exercise of virtue,
they have been born again as prophets, poets, physicians, and princes, and
so return at last to communion with the gods to live thenceforth free from
pain and sorrow, immortal, incorruptible, divine.(912) This view of human
destiny, this passionate scorn poured on the present world, this ecstatic
aspiration after a blissful eternity, the reward of virtue in a world to
come, are very alien from the cheerful serenity, the calm rationalism of
the ordinary Greek attitude towards existence on earth.(913) In his
profound conviction of the manifold sufferings inseparable from mortality,
in his longing to put off the burden of the body or what he calls “the
garment of flesh,”(914) in his tenderness for the lower animals and his
strong sense of kinship with them, Empedocles resembled Buddha, whose
whole cast of thought, however, was tinged with a still deeper shade of
melancholy, a more hopeless outlook on the future. Yet so close in some
respects is the similarity between the two that we might incline to
suppose a direct influence of Buddhism on Empedocles, were it not that the
dates of the two great thinkers, so far as they can be ascertained, appear
to exclude the supposition.(915)

(M222) But if on its ethical side the teaching of Empedocles may almost be
described as Buddhism relieved of its deepest shadows, on its scientific
side it curiously anticipated some speculations which have deeply stirred
the European mind in our own and our fathers’ days. For to his savage
psychology and religious mysticism Empedocles superadded a comprehensive
and grandiose theory of the material universe, which presents a close
analogy to that of Herbert Spencer. The scientific doctrine of the
conservation of energy or, as he preferred to call it, the persistence of
force, which Spencer made the corner-stone of his system, has its
counterpart in the Empedoclean doctrine of the conservation or
indestructibility of matter, the sum of which, according to him, remains
always constant, never undergoing either increase or diminution.(916)
Hence all the changes that take place in the physical world, according to
Empedocles, resolve themselves into the integration and disintegration of
matter, the composition and decomposition of bodies, brought about by the
two antagonistic forces of attraction and repulsion, which in mythical
language he called love and hate. And just as all particular things are
evolved by the force of attraction and dissolved by the force of
repulsion, a state of concentration or aggregation in the individual
perpetually alternating with a state of diffusion or segregation, so it is
also with the material universe as a whole. It, too, alternately contracts
and expands according as the forces of attraction and repulsion
alternately prevail. For it was the opinion of Empedocles that a long,
perhaps immeasurable, period of time, during which the force of attraction
prevails over the force of repulsion, is succeeded by an equally long
period in which the force of repulsion prevails over the force of
attraction, each period lasting till, the predominant force being spent,
its action is first arrested and then reversed by the opposite force; so
that the material universe performs a periodic and rhythmic movement of
alternate contraction and expansion, which never ceases except at the
moments when, the two opposite forces exactly balancing each other, all
things come to rest and equilibrium for a time, only however to return,
with the backward sweep of the cosmic pendulum, to their former state
either of consolidation or of dispersion. Thus under the influence of
attraction and repulsion matter is constantly oscillating to and fro: at
the end of a period of contraction it is gathered up in a solid globe: at
the end of a period of expansion it is diffused throughout space in a
state of tenuity which nowadays we might describe as gaseous. And this
gigantic see-saw motion of the universe as a whole has gone on and will go
on for ever and ever.(917)

(M223) The imposing generalisation thus formulated by Empedocles in the
fifth century before our era was enunciated independently in the
nineteenth century of our era by Herbert Spencer. Like his Greek
predecessor, the modern English philosopher held that the material
universe passes through alternate periods of concentration and
dissipation, of evolution and dissolution, according as the forces of
attraction and repulsion alternately prevail. The terms in which he sums
up his general conclusions might be used with hardly any change to
describe the conclusions of Empedocles. For the sake of comparison it may
be well to subjoin the passage. It runs as follows:—

“Thus we are led to the conclusion that the entire process of things, as
displayed in the aggregate of the visible Universe, is analogous to the
entire process of things as displayed in the smallest aggregates.

“Motion as well as matter being fixed in quantity, it would seem that the
change in the distribution of Matter which Motion effects, coming to a
limit in whichever direction it is carried, the indestructible Motion
thereupon necessitates a reverse distribution. Apparently, the universally
coexistent forces of attraction and repulsion, which, as we have seen,
necessitate rhythm in all minor changes throughout the Universe, also
necessitate rhythm in the totality of its changes—produce now an
immeasurable period during which the attractive forces predominating,
cause universal concentration, and then an immeasurable period during
which the repulsive forces predominating, cause universal
diffusion—alternate eras of Evolution and Dissolution. And thus there is
suggested the conception of a past during which there have been successive
Evolutions analogous to that which is now going on; and a future during
which successive other such Evolutions may go on—ever the same in
principle but never the same in concrete result.”(918)

(M224) The most recent researches in physical science tend apparently
rather to confirm than to invalidate these general views of the nature of
the universe; for if modern physicists are right in regarding the
constitution of matter as essentially electrical, the antagonistic forces
of attraction and repulsion postulated by Empedocles and Spencer would
resolve themselves into positive and negative electricity. On the other
hand the atomic disintegration which is now known to be proceeding in
certain of the chemical elements, particularly in uranium and radium, and
which is probably proceeding in all, suggests a doubt whether the universe
is really, as Spencer supposed, in process of integration and evolution
and not rather in process of disintegration and dissolution; or whether
perhaps the apparent evolution of the organic world is not attended by a
simultaneous dissolution of the inorganic, so that the fabric of the
universe would be a sort of Penelope’s web, which the great artificer
weaves and unweaves at the same time.(919) With such a grave doubt to
trouble the outlook on the future, we may perhaps say that Empedocles was
wiser than Herbert Spencer in leaving, as he apparently did, the question
undecided, whether during the epoch open to human observation the force of
attraction or that of repulsion has been and is predominant, and
consequently whether matter as a whole is integrating or disintegrating,
whether all things are gradually evolving into more complex and
concentrated forms, or are gradually dissolving and wasting away, through
simpler and simpler forms, into the diffused tenuity of their primordial
constituents.

(M225) Just as in his view of the constitution and history of the physical
universe Empedocles anticipated to some extent the theories of Spencer, so
in his view of the development of living beings he anticipated to some
extent the theories of Darwin; for he held that the existing species of
animals have been evolved out of inorganic matter through intermediate
sorts of monstrous creatures, which, being ill fitted to survive,
gradually succumbed and were exterminated in the struggle for
existence.(920) Whether Empedocles himself clearly enunciated the
principle of the survival of the fittest as well as the doctrine of
evolution, we cannot say with certainty; but at all events it is
significant that Aristotle, after stating for the first time the principle
of the survival of the fittest, illustrates it by a reference to
Empedocles’s theory of the extinction of monstrous forms in the past, as
if he understood the theory to imply the principle.(921)

(M226) It is a remarkable instance of the strange complexities and seeming
inconsistencies of human nature, that a man whose capacious mind revolved
ideas so far-reaching and fruitful, should have posed among his
contemporaries as a prophet or even as a god, parading the streets of his
native city bedecked with garlands and ribbons and followed by obsequious
crowds of men and women, who worshipped him and prayed to him that he
would reveal to them the better way, that he would give them oracles and
heal their infirmities.(922) In the character of Empedocles, as in that of
another forerunner of science, Paracelsus, the sterling qualities of the
genuine student would seem to have been alloyed with a vein of ostentation
and braggadocio; but the dash of the mountebank which we may detect in his
composition probably helped rather than hindered him to win for a time the
favour and catch the ear of the multitude, ever ready as they are to troop
at the heels of any quack who advertises his wares by a loud blast on a
brazen trumpet. With so many claims on the admiration of the wise and the
adulation of the foolish, we may almost wonder that Empedocles did not
become the founder, if not the god, of a new religion. Certainly other
human deities have set up in business and prospered with an intellectual
stock-in-trade much inferior to that of the Sicilian philosopher. Perhaps
Empedocles lacked that perfect sincerity of belief in his own pretensions
without which it seems difficult or impossible permanently to impose on
the credulity of mankind. To delude others successfully it is desirable,
if not absolutely necessary, to begin by being one’s self deluded, and the
Sicilian sage was probably too shrewd a man to feel perfectly at ease in
the character of a god.

(M227) The old savage doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which
Empedocles furbished up and passed off on his disciples as a philosophical
tenet, was afterwards countenanced, if not expressly affirmed, by another
Greek philosopher of a very different stamp, who united, as no one else
has ever done in the same degree, the highest capacity for abstract
thought with the most exquisite literary genius. But if he borrowed the
doctrine from savagery, Plato, like his two predecessors, detached it from
its rude original setting and fitted it into an edifying moral scheme of
retributive justice. For he held that the transmigration of human souls
after death into the bodies of animals is a punishment or degradation
entailed on the souls by the weaknesses to which they had been subject or
the vices to which they had been addicted in life, and that the kind of
animal into which a peccant soul transmigrates is appropriate to the
degree and nature of its weakness or guilt. Thus, for example, the souls
of gluttons, sots, and rakes pass into the bodies of asses; the souls of
robbers and tyrants are born again in wolves and hawks; the souls of sober
quiet people, untinctured by philosophy, come to life as bees and ants; a
bad poet may turn at death into a swan or a nightingale; and a bad jester
into an ape. Nothing but a rigid practice of the highest virtue and a
single-minded devotion to abstract truth will avail to restore such
degraded souls to their human dignity and finally raise them to communion
with the gods.(923) Though the passages in which these views are set forth
have a mythical colouring and are, like all Plato’s writings, couched in
dramatic form and put into the mouths of others, we need not seriously
doubt that they represent the real opinion of the philosopher
himself.(924) It is interesting and instructive to meet with the old
savage theory of the transmigration of souls thus masquerading under a
flowing drapery of morality and sparkling with the gems of Attic eloquence
in the philosophic system of a great Greek thinker. So curiously alike may
be the solutions which the highest and the lowest intellects offer of
those profound problems which in all ages have engaged the curiosity and
baffled the ingenuity of mankind.(925)

CHAPTER XVII. TYPES OF ANIMAL SACRAMENT.

§ 1. The Egyptian and the Aino Types of Sacrament.

(M228) We are now perhaps in a position to understand the ambiguous
behaviour of the Aino and Gilyaks towards the bear. It has been shewn that
the sharp line of demarcation which we draw between mankind and the lower
animals does not exist for the savage. To him many of the other animals
appear as his equals or even his superiors, not merely in brute force but
in intelligence; and if choice or necessity leads him to take their lives,
he feels bound, out of regard to his own safety, to do it in a way which
will be as inoffensive as possible not merely to the living animal, but to
its departed spirit and to all the other animals of the same species,
which would resent an affront put upon one of their kind much as a tribe
of savages would revenge an injury or insult offered to a tribesman. We
have seen that among the many devices by which the savage seeks to atone
for the wrong done by him to his animal victims one is to shew marked
deference to a few chosen individuals of the species, for such behaviour
is apparently regarded as entitling him 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 Aino 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. So the other bears are
appeased, and do not resent the slaughter of their kind by attacking the
slayers or deserting the country, which would deprive the Aino of one of
their means of subsistence.

(M229) 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
worshipped, and are therefore neither killed nor eaten. 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 apparently revere and spare their totem
animals,(926) 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 clear 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 primarily based, not on
conciliation, but on sympathetic magic,(927) a principle to which the
North American Indians also resort for the same purpose.(928) Hence, as
the Australians undoubtedly represent a ruder and earlier stage of human
progress than the American Indians, it would seem 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 shew—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.

(M230) 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.

(M231) The practice of pastoral tribes appears to furnish examples of both
types of sacrament. “Pastoral tribes,” says a learned ethnologist, “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 staves 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.”(929) 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.(930)

(M232) 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.”(931) 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.(932) The Madi or Moru tribe of Central
Africa, whose chief wealth is their cattle, though they also practise
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.”(933) The sorrow thus manifested by the
people at the annual slaughter of the lamb clearly indicates that the lamb
slain is a sacred or divine animal, whose death is mourned by his
worshippers,(934) 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;(935) the vehicle of the divine life is
applied externally instead of being taken internally, as when the blood is
drunk or the flesh eaten.

§ 2. Processions with Sacred Animals.

(M233) 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.(936) 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!_”

Then they 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. Thither 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. Indeed, 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.(937)

(M234) 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, and so forth,(938) and has been reckoned amongst
those birds which it is extremely unlucky to kill. In England it is
supposed 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;(939) sometimes it is thought that the cows will give bloody
milk.(940) 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!_”(941)

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, and so on.(942) In other parts of
France it is thought 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.(943)

(M235) 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 down to the eighteenth century the custom was observed on Christmas
Eve or rather Christmas morning. On the twenty-fourth 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._”

When they had gone from house to house and collected all the money they
could, they laid the wren on a bier and carried it in procession to the
parish churchyard, where they made a grave and buried it “with the utmost
solemnity, singing dirges over her in the Manks language, which they call
her knell; after which Christmas begins.” The burial over, the company
outside the churchyard formed a circle and danced to music. About the
middle of the nineteenth century the burial of the wren took place in the
Isle of Man on St. Stephen’s Day (the twenty-sixth of December). 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.(944) Even to the present time, in the
twentieth century, the custom is generally observed, at least in name, on
St. Stephen’s Day, throughout the Isle of Man.(945)

(M236) A writer of the eighteenth century says that in Ireland the wren
“is still hunted and killed by the peasants on Christmas Day, and on the
following (St. Stephen’s Day) he is carried about, hung by the leg, in the
centre of two hoops, crossing each other at right angles, and a procession
made in every village, of men, women, and children, singing an Irish
catch, importing him to be the king of all birds.”(946) Down to the
present time 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.(947) 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.(948) 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.(949)

(M237) In the first half of the nineteenth 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 to the light of torches, with
drums beating and fifes playing in front of them. 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
verdant wreath of olive, of oak, and sometimes of mistletoe grown on an
oak. After hearing high mass in the parish church of St. Vincent,
surrounded by his officers and guards, the King visited the bishop, the
mayor, the magistrates, and the chief inhabitants, collecting money to
defray the expenses of the royal banquet which took place in the evening
and wound up with a dance.(950) 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, when they
caught them.(951) 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.(952)

(M238) The parallelism between this custom of “hunting the wren” and some
of those which 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 lasted in the Highlands of Scotland and in St. Kilda down at least
to the latter half of the eighteenth century. It was described to Dr.
Samuel Johnson in the island of Coll.(953) Another description of it runs
as follows: “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 the 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 of the 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. It is the principal remnant of
superstition among the inhabitants of St. Kilda.”(954)

(M239) A more recent writer has described the old Highland custom as
follows. Towards evening on the last day of the year, or Hogmanay, as the
day is called in Scotland, “men began to gather and boys ran about
shouting and laughing, playing shinty, and rolling ‘pigs of snow’ (_mucan
sneachda_), _i.e._ large snowballs. The hide of the mart or winter cow
(_seiche a mhairt gheamhraidh_) was wrapped round the head of one of the
men, and he made off, followed by the rest, belabouring the hide, which
made a noise like a drum, with switches. The disorderly procession went
three times _deiseal_, according to the course of the sun (_i.e._ keeping
the house on the right hand) round each house in the village, striking the
walls and shouting on coming to a door:

‘_The_ calluinn _of the yellow bag of hide,_
_Strike the skin (upon the wall)_
_An old wife in the graveyard,_
_An old wife in the corner,_
_Another old wife beside the fire,_
_A pointed stick in her two eyes,_
_A pointed stick in her stomach,_
_Let me in, open this._’

“Before this request was complied with, each of the revellers had to
repeat a rhyme, called _Rann Calluinn_ (_i.e._ a Christmas rhyme), though,
as might be expected when the door opened for one, several pushed their
way in, till it was ultimately left open for all. On entering each of the
party was offered refreshments, oatmeal bread, cheese, flesh, and a dram
of whisky. Their leader gave to the goodman of the house that
indispensable adjunct of the evening’s mummeries, the _Caisein-uchd_, the
breast-stripe of a sheep wrapped round the point of a shinty stick. This
was then singed in the fire (_teallach_), put three times with the
right-hand turn (_deiseal_) round the family, and held to the noses of
all. Not a drop of drink was given till this ceremony was performed. The
_Caisein-uchd_ was also made of the breast-stripe or tail of a deer,
sheep, or goat, and as many as chose had one with them.”(955) Another
writer who gives a similar account of the ceremony and of the verses sung
by the performers, tells us that the intention of putting the burnt
sheep-skin to the noses of the people was to protect them against
witchcraft and every infection.(956) The explanation, which is doubtless
correct, reminds us of the extraordinarily persistent hold which the
belief in sorcery and witchcraft has retained on the minds of the European
peasantry. Formerly, perhaps, pieces of the cow-hide in which the man was
clad were singed and put to the noses of the people, 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.(957) 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.

§ 3. The Rites of Plough Monday.

(M240) In the “hunting of the wren,” and the procession with the man clad
in a cow-skin, there is nothing to shew that the customs in question have
any relation to agriculture. So far as appears, they may date from a time
before the invention of husbandry 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 perhaps be purely agricultural in their origin; 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. Examples of
such dramatic and at the same time religious rites have been collected by
W. Mannhardt, who says of them in general: “Not only on the harvest field
and on the threshing-floor but also quite apart from them people loved to
represent the corn-spirit dramatically, especially in solemn processions
in spring and about the winter solstice, whereby they meant to depict the
return of the beneficent powers of summer to the desolate realm of
nature.”(958) Thus, for example, in country districts of Bohemia it is, or
used to be, customary during the last days of the Carnival for young men
to go about in procession from house to house collecting gratuities.
Usually a man or boy is swathed from head to foot in pease-straw and wrapt
round in straw-ropes: thus attired he goes by the name of the Shrovetide
or Carnival Bear (_Fastnachtsbär_) and is led from house to house to the
accompaniment of music and singing. In every house he dances with the
girls, the maids, and the housewife herself, and drinks to the health of
the good man, the good wife, and the girls. For this performance the
mummer is regaled with food by the good wife, while the good man puts
money in his box. When the mummers have gone the round of the village,
they betake themselves to the ale-house, whither also all the peasants
repair with their wives; “for at Shrovetide, but especially on Shrove
Tuesday, every one must dance, if the flax, the vegetables, and the corn
are to thrive; and the more and the higher they dance, the greater the
blessing which the people expect to crown their exertions.” In the
Leitmeritz district the Shrovetide Bear, besides being wrapt in straw,
sometimes wears a bear’s mask to emphasise his resemblance to the animal.
In the Czech villages the housewives pluck the pease-straw and other straw
from the Shrovetide Bear and put it in the nests of their geese, believing
that the geese will lay more eggs and hatch their broods better for the
addition of this straw to their nests. For a similar purpose in the Saaz
district the women put the straw of the Shrovetide Bear in the nests of
their hens.(959) In these customs the dancing for the express purpose of
making the crops grow high,(960) and the use of the straw to make the
geese and hens lay more eggs, sufficiently prove that the Shrovetide Bear
is conceived to represent the spirit of fertility both animal and
vegetable; and we may reasonably conjecture that the dances of the mummer
with the women and girls are especially intended to convey to them the
fertilising powers of the spirit whom the mummer personates.(961)

(M241) In some parts of Bohemia the straw-clad man in these Shrovetide
processions is called, not the Bear, but the Oats-goat, and he wears horns
on his head to give point to the name.(962) These different names and
disguises indicate that in some places the corn-spirit is conceived as a
bear and in others as a goat. Many examples of the conception of the
corn-spirit as a goat have already been cited;(963) the conception of him
as a bear seems to be less common. In the neighbourhood of Gniewkowo, in
Prussian Lithuania, the two ideas are combined, for on Twelfth Day a man
wrapt in pease-straw to represent a Bear and another wrapt in oats-straw
to represent a Goat go together about the village; they imitate the
actions of the two animals and perform dances, for which they receive a
present in every house.(964) At Marburg in Steiermark the corn-spirit
figures now as a wolf and now as a bear. The man who gave the last stroke
at threshing is called the Wolf. All the other men flee from the barn, and
wait till the Wolf comes forth; whereupon they pounce on him, wrap him in
straw to resemble a wolf, and so lead him about the village. He keeps the
name of Wolf till Christmas, when he is wrapt in a goat’s skin and led
from house to house as a Pease-bear at the end of a rope.(965) In this
custom the dressing of the mummer in a goat’s skin seems to mark him out
as the representative of a goat; so that here the mythical fancy of the
people apparently hesitates between a goat, a bear, and a wolf as the
proper embodiment of the corn-spirit. In Scandinavia the conception of the
spirit as a goat who appears at Christmas (_Julbuck_) appears to be
common. Thus, for example, in Bergslagshärad (Sweden) it used to be
customary at Christmas to lead about a man completely wrapt in corn-straw
and wearing a goat’s horns on his head: he personated the Yule-goat.(966)
In some parts of Sweden a regular feature of the little Christmas drama is
a pretence of slaughtering the Yule-goat, who, however, comes to life
again. The actor, hidden by a coverlet made of skins and wearing a pair of
formidable horns, is led into the room by two men, who make believe to
slaughter him, while they sing verses referring to the mantles of various
colours, red, blue, white, and yellow, which they laid on him, one after
the other. At the conclusion of the song, the Yule-goat, after feigning
death, jumps up and skips about to the amusement of the spectators.(967)
In Willstad after supper on Christmas evening, while the people are
dancing “the angel dance” for the sake of ensuring a good crop of flax,
some long stalks of the Yule straw, either of wheat or rye, are made up
into the likeness of a goat, which is thrown among the dancers with the
cry, “Catch the Yule-goat!” The custom in Dalarne is similar, except that
there the straw-animal goes by the name of the Yule-ram.(968) In these
customs the identification of the Yule-goat or the Yule-ram with the
corn-spirit seems unmistakable. As if to clinch the argument it is
customary in Denmark and Sweden to bake cakes of fine meal at Christmas in
the form of goats, rams, or boars. These are called Yule-goats, Yule-rams,
or Yule-boars; they are often made out of the last sheaf of corn at
harvest and kept till sowing-time, when they are partly mixed with the
seed-corn and partly eaten by the people and the plough-oxen in the hope
thereby of securing a good harvest.(969) It would seem scarcely possible
to represent the identification of the corn-spirit with an animal, whether
goat, ram, or boar, more graphically; for the last corn cut at harvest is
regularly supposed to house the corn-spirit, who is accordingly caught,
kept through the winter in the shape of an animal, and then mixed with the
seed in spring to quicken the grain before it is committed to the ground.
Examples of the corn-spirit conceived as a wether and a boar have met us
in a preceding part of this work.(970) The pretence of killing the
Yule-goat and bringing him to life again was probably in origin a magical
rite to ensure the rebirth of the corn-spirit in spring.

(M242) In England a custom like some of the preceding still prevails at
Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire on the Tuesday after Plough Monday, as I
learn from an obliging communication of Professor G. C. Moore Smith of
Sheffield University. He writes: “When I was at Whittlesey yesterday I had
the pleasure of meeting a ‘Straw-bear,’ if not two, in the street. I had
not been at Whittlesey on the day for nearly forty years, and feared the
custom had died out. In my boyhood the Straw-bear was a man completely
swathed in straw, led by a string by another and made to dance in front of
people’s houses, in return for which money was expected. This always took
place on the Tuesday following Plough-Monday. Yesterday the Straw-bear was
a boy, and I saw no dancing. Otherwise there was no change.”(971)

(M243) A comparison of this English custom with the similar Continental
customs which have been described above, raises a presumption that the
Straw-bear, who is thus led about from house to house, represents the
corn-spirit bestowing his blessing on every homestead in the village. This
interpretation is strongly confirmed by the date at which the ceremony
takes place. For the date is the day after Plough Monday, and it can
hardly be doubted that the old popular celebration of Plough Monday has a
direct reference to agriculture. Plough Monday is the first Monday of
January after Twelfth Day. On that day it used to be the custom in various
parts of England for a band of sturdy swains to drag a gaily decorated
plough from house to house and village to village, collecting
contributions which were afterwards spent in rustic revelry at a tavern.
The men who drew the plough were called Plough Bullocks; they wore their
shirts over their coats, and bunches of ribbons flaunted from their hats
and persons. Among them there was always one who personated a much
bedizened old woman called Bessy; under his gown he formerly had a
bullock’s tail fastened to him behind, but this appendage was afterwards
discarded. He skipped, danced and cut capers, and carried a money-box
soliciting contributions from the onlookers. Some of the band, in addition
to their ribbons, “also wore small bunches of corn in their hats, from
which the wheat was soon shaken out by the ungainly jumping which they
called dancing. Occasionally, if the winter was severe, the procession was
joined by threshers carrying their flails, reapers bearing their sickles,
and carters with their long whips, which they were ever cracking to add to
the noise, while even the smith and the miller were among the number, for
the one sharpened the plough-shares and the other ground the corn; and
Bessy rattled his box and danced so high that he shewed his worsted
stockings and corduroy breeches; and very often, if there was a thaw,
tucked up his gown skirts under his waistcoat, and shook the bonnet off
his head, and disarranged the long ringlets that ought to have concealed
his whiskers.” Sometimes among the mummers there was a Fool, who wore the
skin of a calf with the tail hanging down behind, and wielded a stick with
an inflated bladder tied to it, which he applied with rude vigour to the
heads and shoulders of the human team. Another mummer generally wore a
fox’s skin in the form of a hood with the tail dangling on his back. If
any churl refused to contribute to the money-box, the plough-bullocks put
their shoulders to the plough and ploughed up the ground in front of his
door.(972)

(M244) The clue to the meaning of these curious rites is probably
furnished by the dances or rather jumps of the men who wore bunches of
corn in their hats. When we remember how often on the Continent about the
same time of year the peasants dance and jump for the express purpose of
making the crops grow tall, we may conjecture with some probability that
the intention of the dancers on Plough Monday was similar; the original
notion, we may suppose, was that the corn would grow that year just as
high as the dancers leaped. If that was so, we need not wonder at the
agility displayed on these occasions by the yokels in general and by Bessy
in particular. What stronger incentive could they have to exert themselves
than the belief that the higher they leaped into the air the higher would
sprout the corn-stalks? In short, the whole ceremony was probably a
magical rite intended to procure a good crop. The principle on which it
rested was the familiar one of homoeopathic or imitative magic: by
mimicking the act of ploughing and the growth of the corn the mummers
hoped to ensure the success of the real ploughing, which was soon to take
place.

(M245) If such was the real meaning of the ritual of Plough Monday, we may
the more confidently assume that the Straw-bear who makes his appearance
at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire on the day after Plough Monday represents
indeed the corn-spirit. What could be more appropriate than for that
beneficent being to manifest himself from house to house the very day
after a magical ceremony had been performed to quicken the growth of the
corn?

(M246) The foregoing interpretation of the rites observed in England on
Plough Monday tallies well with the explanation which I have given of the
very similar rites annually performed at the end of the Carnival in
Thrace.(973) The mock ploughing is probably practised for the same purpose
in both cases, and what that purpose is may be safely inferred from the
act of sowing and the offering of prayers for abundant crops which
accompany and explain the Thracian ceremony. It deserves to be noted that
ceremonies of the same sort and closely resembling those of Plough Monday
are not confined to the Greek villages of Thrace but are observed also by
the Bulgarians of that province at the same time, namely, on the Monday of
the last week in Carnival. Thus at Malko-Tirnovsko, in the district of
Adrianople, a procession of mummers goes through the streets on that day.
The principal personages in it bear the names of the _Kuker_ and
_Kukerica_. The _Kuker_ is a man clad in a goatskin. His face is blackened
with soot and he wears on his head a high shaggy hat made of an entire
skin. Bells jingle at his girdle, and in his hand he carries a club. The
_Kukerica_, who sometimes goes by the name of _Baba_, that is, “Old
Woman,” is a man disguised in petticoats with his face blackened. Other
figures in the procession are young men dressed as girls, and girls
dressed as men and wearing masks. Bears are represented by dogs wrapt in
bearskins. A king, a judge, and other officials are personated by other
mummers; they hold a mock court and those whom they condemn receive a
bastinado. Some of the maskers carry clubs; it is their duty to beat all
who fall into their hands and to levy contributions from them. The play
and gestures of the _Kuker_ and _Kukerica_ are wanton and lascivious: the
songs and cries addressed to the _Kuker_ are also very cynical. Towards
evening two of the company are yoked to a plough, and the _Kuker_ ploughs
a few furrows, which he thereupon sows with corn. After sunset he puts off
his disguise, is paid for his trouble, and carouses with his fellows. The
people believe that the man who plays the part of _Kuker_ commits a deadly
sin, and the priests make vain efforts to abolish the custom. At the
village of Kuria, in the district of Losengrad, the custom is in general
the same, but there are some significant variations. The money collected
by the mummers is used to buy wine, which is distributed among all the
villagers at a banquet in the evening. On this occasion a cake in which an
old coin has been baked is produced by the _Kuker_, broken into bits, and
so divided among all present. If the bit with the coin in it falls to a
farmer, then the crops will be good that year; but if it falls to a
herdsman, then the cattle will thrive. Finally, the _Kuker_ ploughs a
small patch of ground, “bending his body to right and left in order to
indicate symbolically the ears of corn bending under the weight of the
grain.” The others lay hold of the man with whom the coin was found, bind
him by the feet, and drag him over the land that has just been
ploughed.(974) In these observances the intention of promoting the
fertility of the ground is unmistakable; the ploughman’s imitation of the
cornstalks bending under their own weight is a simple case of homoeopathic
or imitative magic, while the omens drawn from the occupation of the
person who obtains the piece of cake with the coin in it indicate that the
ceremony is designed to quicken the herds as well as the crops. We can
hardly doubt that the same serious motive underlies the seemingly wanton
gestures of the principal actors and explains the loose character of the
songs and words which accompany the ceremony. Nor is it hard to divine the
reason for dragging over the fresh furrows the man who is lucky enough to
get the coin in the cake. He is probably looked on as an embodiment of the
corn-spirit, and in that character is compelled to fertilise the ground by
bodily contact with the newly-ploughed earth.

(M247) Similar customs are observed at the Carnival not only by Bulgarian
peasants in Thrace but also here and there in Bulgaria itself. In that
country the leading personage of the masquerade is the _Baba_, that is,
the Old Woman or Mother. The part is played by a man in woman’s clothes;
she, or rather he, wears no mask, but in many villages she carries a
spindle with which she spins. The _Kuker_ and the _Kukerica_ also figure
in the performance, but they are subordinate to the Old Woman or Mother.
Their costume varies in different villages. Usually they are clad in skins
with a girdle of lime-tree bark and five or six bells fastened to it; on
their back they wear a hump made up of rags. But the principal feature in
their attire consists of their masks, which represent the heads of animals
and men in fantastic combinations, such as the horned head of a man or a
bird, the head of a ram, a bull, and so on. Much labour is spent on the
manufacture of these masks. Early in the morning of Cheese Monday (the
Monday of the last week in Carnival) the mummers go about the village
levying contributions. Towards noon they form a procession and go from
house to house. In every house they dance a round dance, while the Old
Woman spins. It is believed that if any house-holder contrives to carry
off the Old Woman and secrete her, a blessing and prosperity will enter
into his dwelling; but the maskers defend the Old Woman stoutly against
all such attempts of individuals to appropriate her beneficent presence.
After the dance the mummers receive gifts of money, eggs, meal, and so on.
Towards evening a round dance is danced in the village square, and there
the Old Woman yokes the _Kuker_ and _Kukerica_ to a plough, ploughs with
it a small piece of ground, and sows the ground with corn. Next day the
performers reassemble, sell the presents they had collected, and with the
produce hold a feast in the house of the Old Woman. It is supposed that if
strange maskers make their way into a village, fertility will be drawn
away to the village from which they have come; hence the villagers resist
an inroad of strange maskers at any price. In general the people believe
that the masquerade is performed for the purpose of increasing the luck
and fertility of the village.(975)

(M248) In these Bulgarian rites, accordingly, we are not left to form
conjectures as to the intention with which they are practised; that
intention is plainly avowed, and it is no other than the one which we have
inferred for the similar rites observed in Thrace at the same season and
in England on Plough Monday. In all these cases it is reasonable to
suppose that the real aim of the ceremonial ploughing and sowing of the
ground is thereby, on the principles of homoeopathic or imitative magic,
to ensure the growth of the corn on all the fields of the community.
Perhaps we may go a step further and suggest that in the Bulgarian Old
Woman or Mother, who guides the plough and sows the seed, and whose
presence is believed to bring a blessing to any household that can
contrive to appropriate her, we have the rustic prototype of Demeter, the
Corn-Mother, who in the likeness of an Old Woman brought a blessing to the
house of Celeus, king of Eleusis, and restored their lost fertility to the
fallow Eleusinian fields. And in the pair of mummers, man and woman, who
draw the plough, may we not discern the rude originals of Pluto and
Persephone? If that is so, the gods of Greece are not wholly dead; they
still hide their diminished heads in the cottages of the peasantry, to
come forth on sunshine holidays and parade, with a simple but expressive
pageantry, among a gazing crowd of rustics, at the very moment of the year
when their help is most wanted by the husbandman.

(M249) Be that as it may, these rites still practised by the peasantry at
opposite ends of Europe, no doubt date from an extremely early age in the
history of agriculture. They are probably far older than Christianity,
older even than those highly developed forms of Greek religion with which
ancient writers and artists have made us familiar, but which have been for
so many centuries a thing of the past. Thus it happens that, while the
fine flower of the religious consciousness in myth, ritual, and art is
fleeting and evanescent, its simpler forms are comparatively stable and
permanent, being rooted deep in those principles of common minds which bid
fair to outlive all the splendid but transient creations of genius. It may
be that the elaborate theologies, the solemn rites, the stately temples,
which now attract the reverence or the wonder of mankind, are destined
themselves to pass away like “all Olympus’ faded hierarchy,” and that
simple folk will still cherish the simple faiths of their nameless and
dateless forefathers, will still believe in witches and fairies, in ghosts
and hobgoblins, will still mumble the old spells and make the old magic
passes, when the muezzin shall have ceased to call the faithful to prayer
from the minarets of St. Sophia, and when the worshippers shall gather no
more in the long-drawn aisles of Nôtre Dame and under the dome of St.
Peter’s.

NOTE: THE CEREMONY OF THE HORSE AT RICE-HARVEST AMONG THE GAROS.

(M250) Among the Garos, an agricultural tribe of Assam, the close of the
rice-harvest is celebrated by a festival in which the effigy of a horse
figures prominently. The intention of the ceremony is not stated, but
possibly it may be to ensure a good rice crop in the following year. If
so, the artificial horse of the Garos would be analogous to the October
horse of the Romans, as that animal has been explained by W. Mannhardt.
For the sake of comparison it may be well to subjoin Major A. Playfair’s
account of the Garo ceremony:—(976)

(M251) “When the rice harvest has been fully gathered in, the great
sacrifice and festival of the year, the _Wangala_ or _Guréwata_, takes
place. This is the most festive observance of the year, and combines
religious sacrifice with much conviviality. It is celebrated by all
sections of the tribe except the Duals and some Plains Garos. The cost of
the entertainment falls principally on the _nokma_ [headman] of the
village, who provides a pig to be eaten by his guests, and plenty of
liquor. Among the Akawés and Chisaks of the north and north-eastern hills
a curious feature of the ceremony is the manufacture of _guré_ or ‘horses’
out of pieces of plantain-stem for the body, and of bamboo for the head
and legs. The image of the ‘horse’ is laid on the floor of the _nokma’s_
house, and the assembled guests dance and sing around it the whole night
long, with the usual intervals for refreshments. Early the next morning,
the ‘horse’ is taken to the nearest river and launched on the water to
find its way down stream on the current. For those who possess the
necessary paraphernalia, the _guré_ takes the shape of a horse’s head of
large size, made of straw, and covered with cloth. I once saw one in the
village of Rongrong, which, when in use, was ornamented with discs of
brass on both sides of the face. Its eyes and ears were made of the same
metal, and between the ears were fixed a pair of wild goat’s horns. To the
head were attached a number of bronze bells similar to those hawked about
by Bhutia pedlars. The owner, a _laskar_, was unable to tell me whence
they came, but said that they were inherited from his wife’s mother, and
were many generations old.

(M252) “The manner in which this form of _guré_ is used is the following.
The head is mounted on a stick, which a man holds before him in such a way
that the head comes up to the level of his chest. Two straps pass over his
shoulders to relieve his hands of the weight. The body of the ‘horse’ is
then built round his own body with cane and cloth. For a tail, yak’s tails
are fastened in with his own hair, which, for the occasion, is allowed to
hang down instead of being tied up. The performer thus apparelled,
commences to dance a shuffling step to the usual music. In front of him
dances the priest, who goes through the pantomime of beckoning the animal
to come to him. The remaining guests of the _nokma_ [headman] form a
_queue_ behind the ’horse,’ and dance after it. When the first man gets
tired, another takes his place, and the dancing goes on right through the
night. A pleasant part of the performance is the pelting of the _guré_
with eggs. A piece of egg-shell was still sticking to the horn of the
_guré_ which was shown to me.

“Strictly speaking, this festival should last for three days and two
nights. When it is over, the _guré_ is taken to a stream and the body
thrown into the water, the head being preserved for another year. The
people who come to see it off, bring rice with them, and a meal by the
water’s edge closes the proceedings.

“At the _Wangala_, it is the custom to mix flour with water, and for the
assembled people to dip their hands into the mixture and make white
hand-marks on the posts and walls of the house and on the backs of the
guests.”

(M253) Can it be that the horse whose effigy is thus made at rice-harvest
and thrown into the water, while the head is kept for another year,
represents the spirit of the rice? If that were so, the pelting of the
head with eggs would be a charm to ensure fertility and the throwing of it
into water would be a rain-charm. And on the same theory the horse’s head
would be comparable to the horse-headed Demeter of Phigalia(977) as well
as to the head of the October horse at Rome, which was nailed to a wall,
probably to be kept there till next October. If we knew more about the
rites of the horse-headed Demeter at Phigalia, we might find that amongst
them was a dance of a man or woman who wore the mask of a horse’s head and
personated the goddess herself, just as, if I am right, the man who dances
disguised as a horse at the harvest festival of the Garos, represents the
spirit of the rice dancing among the garnered sheaves. The conjecture is
to some extent supported by the remains of the magnificent marble drapery,
which once adorned the colossal statue of Demeter or Persephone in the
sanctuary of the two goddesses at Lycosura, in Arcadia; for on that
drapery are carved rows of semi-human, semi-bestial figures dancing and
playing musical instruments; the bodies of the figures are those of women,
but their heads, paws, and feet are those of animals. Among the heads set
on the figures are those of a horse, a pig, a cat or a hare, and
apparently an ass.(978) It is reasonable to suppose that these dancing
figures represent a ritual dance which was actually performed in the rites
of Demeter and Persephone by masked men or women, who personated the
goddesses in their character of beasts.

INDEX.

Ab, a Jewish month, i. 259 _n._ 1

Ababu, a tribe of the Congo, ii. 288

Abchases of the Caucasus, ii. 105, 313

Abdication, temporary, of chief, ii. 66, 68

Aberdeenshire, harvest customs in, i. 158 _sqq._

Abipones, the, of Paraguay, i. 308, ii. 140

Acagchemem tribe of California, ii. 170

Achinese, the, i. 315

Acosta, J. de, quoted, i. 171 _sq._, ii. 86 _sqq._

Acropolis of Athens, ii. 40 _sq._

Actium, games celebrated at, i. 80, 85

Adair, James, ii. 264

Adeli, the, of the Slave Coast, ii. 116

Adonis, i. 214, 216, 258, 263;
and the boar, ii. 22 _sq._

_Aegis_, ii. 40

Aesculapius at Pergamus, ii. 85

Aeson and Medea, ii. 143

Agbasia, a Ewe god, ii. 59, 60

Agni, Indian god, ii. 120

_Agnus castus_, i. 116 _n._ 2

Agricultural year determined by observation of the Pleiades, i. 313 _sqq._

Agriculture, magical significance of games in primitive, i. 92 _sqq._;
origin of, 128 _sq._;
woman’s part in primitive, 113 _sqq._

Aino, the, ii. 144, 251, their ceremony at eating new millet, 52;
their worship of eagle-owls, eagles, and hawks, 199 _sq._;
their propitiation of mice, 278;
their ambiguous attitude towards the bear, 310 _sq._;
type of animal sacrament, 312 _sq._

—— of Japan, their custom of killing bears ceremonially, ii. 180 _sqq._

—— of Saghalien, their bear-festivals, ii. 188 _sqq._

Aïsawa or Isowa, order of saints in Morocco, i. 21

Ajumba hunter, ii. 235

A-Kamba, the, ii. 113

Alaskan hunters, ii. 238

Albania, custom as to locusts and beetles in, ii. 279

Alcyonian Lake, the, i. 15

Alder branches, sacrificial, ii. 232

Alectrona, daughter of the Sun, ii. 45

Alfoors of Minahassa, ii. 100

Alligators, souls of dead in, ii. 297

All Souls, Feast of, i. 30

Alur tribe, ii. 214

Alus, custom at, i. 25

Amambwe, the, ii. 287

Amaxosa Caffres, ii. 227

Amazons of Dahomey, ii. 149

Amazulu, the, i. 316

Amboyna, ii. 123

Amedzowe, the spirit land, ii. 105

Amei Awi, i. 93

American Indians, women’s agricultural work among the, i. 120 _sqq._;
their ceremonies at hunting bears, ii. 224 _sqq._;
personification of maize, i. 171 _sqq._

Ammon, ram sacrificed to, ii. 41;
the Theban, 172 _sq._

Ancestors, prayers to, i. 105;
images of, ii. 53;
offerings to spirits of, 111, 117, 119, 121, 123, 124, 125

Ancestral Contest at the _Haloa_, i. 61;
at the Eleusinian Games, 71, 74, 77;
at the Festival of the Threshing-floor, 75

Ancient deities of vegetation as animals, ii. 1 _sqq._

Andaman Islanders, ii. 164

Andree, Dr. Richard, i. 307

Angamis (Angami), a Naga tribe of Assam, i. 244, ii. 291

Angel dance, the, ii. 328

Angoni, the, ii. 149;
burial custom among the, 99

Anhalt, harvest customs in, i. 226, 233, 279

Animal, corn-spirit as an, i. 270 _sqq._;
killing the divine, ii. 169 _sqq._;
worshipful, killed once a year and promenaded from door to door, 322

Animal embodiments of the corn-spirit, on the, i. 303 _sqq._

—— form, god killed in, i. 22 _sq._

—— god, two types of the custom of killing the, ii. 312 _sq._

—— masks worn by Egyptian kings, i. 260 _sq._

—— sacrament, types of, ii. 310 _sqq._

Animals torn to pieces and devoured raw in religious rites, i. 20 _sqq._;
language of, acquired by eating serpent’s flesh, ii. 146;
resurrection of, 200 _sq._, 256 _sqq._;
and men, savages fail to distinguish accurately between, 204 _sqq._;
wild, propitiation of, by hunters, 204 _sqq._;
bones of, not to be broken, 258 _sq._;
bones of, not allowed to be gnawed by dogs, 259;
savage faith in the immortality of, 260 _sqq._;
transmigration of human souls into, 285 _sqq._;
two forms of the worship of, 311;
processions with sacred, 316 _sqq._

_Anitos_, souls of ancestors, ii. 124

Anna Kuari, i. 244

Anointing the body as a means of acquiring certain qualities, ii. 162
_sqq._

Antankarana tribe of Madagascar, ii. 290

Anthesteria, the, i. 30 _sqq._

Anthropomorphism, i. 212

Antinous, games in honour of, i. 80, 85

Antiquity of the cultivation of the cereals in Europe, i. 79

Antrim, harvest customs in, i. 144, 154 _sq._

Ants, superstitious precaution against the ravages of, ii. 276

Apaches, the, ii. 242

Apes, ceremony after killing, ii. 235 _sq._

Apis, sacred bull, ii. 34 _sqq._

Apollo surnamed Locust and Mildew, ii. 282;
the Mouse, 282 _sq._;
Wolfish, 283 _sq._

Apollonius of Tyana, ii. 280

Apologies offered by savages to the animals they kill, ii. 215, 217, 218,
221, 222 _sqq._, 235 _sqq._, 243

Apple-tree, straw-man placed on oldest, ii. 6

Arabs, ii. 146, 164;
of Moab, harvest custom of the, i. 138

Arawak Indians, ii. 154

Arcturus, i. 47 _n._ 2, 51, 52

Ardennes, precautions against rats in the, ii. 277

Argyleshire, harvest customs in, i. 155 _sq._

Ariadne, Cyprian worship of, i. 209 _n._ 2

Aricia, many Manii at, ii. 94 _sqq._;
sacred grove at, 95

Arician grove, horses excluded from, ii. 40 _sqq._

Aristides, the rhetorician, on first-fruit offerings, i. 56;
on Eleusinian Games, 71

Aristotle, _Constitution of Athens_, i. 79;
on men of genius, ii. 302 _n._ 5

Arkansas Indians, ii. 134

Arriaga, J. de, i. 173 _n._

Art, Demeter and Persephone in, i. 43 _sq._

Artemis, Brauronian, ii. 41 _n._ 3

Artemisia and Mausolus, ii. 158

Artemision, a Greek month, ii. 8

Artificers, worship of the, ii. 60 _sq._

Aru Islands, ii. 145

Aryans of Europe, agriculture among the early, i. 129 _sq._;
totemism not proved for the, ii. 4

Ash Wednesday, i. 300

Ashantees, the, ii. 149;
their festivals of new yams, 62 _sq._

Ashes as manure, i. 117

—— of dead swallowed, ii. 156 _sqq._;
smeared on mourner, 164;
of human victim scattered on earth to fertilise it, i. 240;
scattered on fields, 249, 250, 251;
scattered with winnowing-fans, 260, 262

Assam, ii. 116;
agriculture in, i. 123;
_genna_ in, 109 _n._ 2;
head-hunting in, 256

Asses, transmigration of sinners into, ii. 299, 308

Assimilation of victims to gods, i. 261 _sq._;
of men to their totems or guardian animals, ii. 207 _sq._

Assiniboins, the, ii. 225

Assinie, W. African kingdom, ii. 63

Astronomy, origin of, i. 307

Asuras, the, ii. 120

Athamanes, the, of Epirus, i. 129

Athamas, King, i. 24, 25

Athena, sacrifices to, i. 56;
and the goat, ii. 40 _sq._

Athens, Queen of, married to Dionysus, i. 30 _sq._;
called “the Metropolis of the Corn,” 58;
ceremony at killing a wolf at, ii. 221;
the Lyceum at, 283, 284

Athletic competitions among harvesters, i. 76 _sq._

Atonement to animals for wrong done to them, ii. 310 _sq._

Attic months lunar, i. 52

Attica, vintage custom in, ii. 133

Attis, i. 2, 14, 214;
his relation to Lityerses, 255 _sq._;
and the pig, ii. 22

Attraction and repulsion, forces of, ii. 303 _sqq._

Augustine, i. 88

Augustus celebrates games at Actium, i. 80

Australia, totemism in, ii. 311

—— Northern, ii. 145

Australian aborigines, i. 126, 307 _sq._;
their mutilations of the dead, ii. 272

Australians, the Central, ii. 165

Austria, harvest customs in, i. 276, 292

Awe, Loch, i. 142

Awemba, the, i. 115;
of Northern Rhodesia, ii. 272 _sq._

Ayrshire, harvest customs in, i. 279

Aztecs, their festival at end of fifty-two years, i. 310 _sq._;
eating the god among the, ii. 86 _sqq._

Baba or Boba, name given to last sheaf, i. 144 _sq._;
“the Old Woman,” at the Carnival, ii. 332, 333

Bacchanals of Thrace, i. 17

Badagas, the, ii. 55

Baden, harvest customs in, i. 283, 286, 292, 298

Baganda, the, i. 118, ii. 64, 70 _n._ 1, 227, 253, 271 _sq._;
their offerings of first-fruits, 113;
their fear of the ghosts of animals, 231 _sq._

Bagobos, the, ii. 124;
of Mindanao, i. 240

Bahaus or Kayans of central Borneo, i. 92 _sqq._
_See_ Kayans

Bahima, their belief in transmigration, ii. 288

Bakongs, a tribe of Borneo, ii. 294

Bakundu of the Cameroons, burial custom of the, ii. 99

Bali, i. 314, ii. 278;
rice spirit in, i. 201 _sqq._

Ball, game of, played as a rite, ii. 76, 79

Balquhidder, cutting the Maiden at, i. 157

_Balum_, spirits of the dead, i. 104

Ba-Mbala, the, i. 119

Bananas, cultivated by women, i. 115, 118;
cultivated in South America, 120, 121;
cultivated in New Britain, 123;
cultivated in New Guinea, 123;
soul of dead man in, ii. 298

Banars, the, of Cambodia, ii. 33

Bangala, the, i. 119

Banks’ islanders, i. 313

—— Islands, burial custom in the, ii. 97

Barley awarded as a prize in the Eleusinian games, i. 73, 74, 75;
oldest cereal cultivated by the Aryans, 132

—— Bride among the Berbers, i. 178 _sq._

—— -cow, i. 289, 290

—— -mother, the, i. 131, 135

—— -sow, i. 298

—— -wolf, i. 271, 273

Baronga, the, ii. 280;
women’s part in agriculture among the, i. 114 _sq._

Barotsé, the, i. 115, ii. 159

Bassari, the, ii. 116

_Bassia latifolia_, ii. 119

Bastian, Adolph, quoted, ii. 313

Basutoland, i. 116;
inoculation in, ii. 158, 160

Basutos, the, ii. 148;
their customs as to the new corn, 110

Batari Sri, a goddess, i. 202

Batchelor, Rev. J., ii. 180 _n._ 2, 182 _n._ 2, 183, 184, 186 _n._, 198,
201

Bathing forbidden, i. 94

Bats, souls of dead in, ii. 287

Battas or Bataks of Sumatra, i. 196, 315, ii. 293;
their ceremonies at catching tigers, 216 _sq._

Battle, mock, ii. 75

Bavaria, harvest customs in, i. 147, 221 _sq._, 232, 282, 286, 287, 289,
296, 298, 299

Bean-cock, i. 276

—— -goat, i. 282

Beans, Spirit of, i. 177;
cultivated in Burma, 242;
forbidden as food by Empedocles, ii. 301

Bear, importance of the, for people of Siberia, ii. 191;
ambiguous attitude of the Aino towards the, 310 _sq._;
the corn-spirit as a, 325 _sqq._

—— -cats, souls of dead in, ii. 294

—— -dances, ii. 191, 195

—— -festivals of the Aino, ii. 182 _sqq._;
of the Gilyaks, 190 _sqq._;
of the Goldi, 197;
of the Orotchis, 197

—— -skin worn by woman dancer, ii. 223

—— the Great, constellation, i. 315

Bear’s liver, i. 187 _sq._;
heart eaten, ii. 146

“Beard of Volos,” i. 233

Bears killed ceremonially by the Aino, ii. 180 _sqq._;
souls of dead in, 286 _sq._;
processions with, in Europe, 326 _n._ 3

—— slain, propitiated by Kamtchatkans, Ostiaks, Koryak, Finns, and Lapps,
ii. 222 _sqq._;
by American Indians, 224 _sqq._

Beating a man clad in a cow’s hide, ii. 322 _sqq._

—— boys with leg-bone of eagle-hawk, ii. 165 _n._ 2

—— effigy of ox with rods in China, ii. 11 _sq._

—— people for good luck, i. 309

Beavers, their bones not allowed to be gnawed by dogs, ii. 238 _sqq._

Bechuanas, the, i. 316, ii. 28, 164;
their ceremonies before eating the new fruits, 69 _sq._;
ceremony observed after a battle by the, 271

Beer in relation to Dionysus, i. 2 _n._ 1

Bees, transmigration of quiet people into, ii. 308

Beetles, superstitious precautions against, ii. 279, 280

Beggar, name given to last sheaf, i. 231 _sq._

Beku, the, of West Africa, ii. 163

Bells worn by mummers, i. 26, 28, ii. 332, 333;
attached to hobby-horse, 337 _sq._

Benin, ii. 64;
human sacrifice at, i. 240

Bera Pennu, the Earth Goddess, i. 245

Berbers, the Barley Bride among the, i. 178 _sq._

Berosus, Babylonian historian, i. 258 _sq._

Berry, harvest customs in, i. 292, 294

Berwickshire, harvest customs in, i. 153 _sq._

Bessy, one of the mummers on Plough Monday, ii. 329, 331

Betsileo, the, of Madagascar, ii. 116;
their belief in the transmigration of souls, 289 _sq._

Bhils, the, of Central India, ii. 29

Bhímsen, an Indian deity, ii. 118

Bhumiya, a Himalayan deity, ii. 117

Bhutan, ii. 103

Biennial cycle, i. 87

—— festivals, i. 14, i. 86

Binder of last sheaf represents the Corn-mother, i. 150, 253

Binders of corn, contests between, i. 136, 137, 138, 218 _sq._, 220, 221,
222, 253

Binding the corn, contests in, i. 218 _sq._

_Binsenschneider_, i. 230 _n._ 5

Bird, soul as a, i. 181, 182 _n._ 1;
corn-spirit as a, 295 _sq._

—— of prey, inoculation with a, ii. 162

Birds, migratory, as representatives of a divinity, i. 204 _sq._;
language of, ii. 146;
tongues of, eaten, 147

Birth of child on harvest-field, pretended, i. 150 _sq._

Bisaltae, a Thracian tribe, i. 5

Bizya in Thrace, i. 26, 30

Black Drink, an emetic, ii. 76

—— Goat-skin, in relation to Dionysus, i. 17

Blackened faces, i. 291, 299;
of actors, 27

Blackfeet Indians, i. 311, ii. 236

Bladders of sea-beasts returned by the Esquimaux to the sea, ii. 247
_sqq._

Blindfolded, reapers, i. 144, 153 _sq._

Blood drawn from men as a religious rite, ii. 75, 91 _sq._;
as a means of communion with a deity, 316

—— of bear drunk, ii. 146

—— of beavers not allowed to fall on ground, ii. 240 _n._ 2

—— of dragon, ii. 146

—— of human victim sprinkled on seed, i. 239, 251;
scattered on field, 244, 251

—— of lamb sprinkled on people, ii. 315

—— of slain men tasted by their slayers, ii. 154 _sqq._

Blood-covenant, ii. 154 _sqq._

Boa-constrictor, soul of a, ii. 296

Boa-constrictors, souls of dead in, ii. 289 _sq._

Boar, corn-spirit as, i. 298 _sqq._;
the Yule, 300 _sqq._, 302 _sq._;
and Adonis, ii. 22 _sq._

Boars, wild, their ravages in the corn, ii. 31 _sqq._

Boba or Baba, name given to the last sheaf, i. 144 _sq._

Bock, C., quoted, i. 8

Boedromion, an Attic month, i. 52, 77

Bogadjim in German New Guinea, ii. 251

Bohemia, harvest customs in, i. 138, 145, 149, 150, 225 _sq._, 232, 286,
289;
Carnival custom in, ii. 325;
custom as to mice in, 279, 283

Böhmer Wald Mountains, i. 284

Bolivia, ii. 235, 286

Bombay, burial custom in, ii. 100

Bone of old animal eaten to make the eater old, ii. 143

Bones and skulls of enemies destroyed, ii. 260

—— of animals preserved in order that the animals may come to life again,
ii. 256 _sqq._;
burned or thrown into water, 257;
not to be broken, 258 _sq._;
not allowed to be gnawed by dogs, 225, 238 _sqq._, 243, 259

—— of the dead, virtues acquired by contact with the, ii. 153 _sq._;
preserved for the resurrection, 259

—— of deer not given to the dogs, ii. 241, 242, 243

—— of fish not burned, ii. 250, 251;
thrown into the sea or a river, 250, 254;
not to be broken, 255

Bontoc, province of Luzon, i. 240

Bordeaux, harvest custom at, i. 291

Bormus or Borimus, i. 216, 257, 264

Borneo, ii. 122;
agricultural communities of central, i. 92

Bororos, the, of Brazil, ii. 71 _sq._, 208

Boscana, Father G., ii. 169;
quoted, i. 125

Botocudos, the, of Brazil, ii. 156

Bougainville Straits, i. 313

_Bouphonia_, ii. 4 _sqq._

_Bouphonion_, a Greek month, ii. 6 _n._

Bourbourg, Brasseur de, i. 237

Bourke, Captain J. G., ii. 178 _n._ 4

Bouzygai, the, at Eleusis, i. 108

Boxing, i. 71 _n._ 5, ii. 131

Brahman boys sacrificed, i. 244

Brahmans, the, on transubstantiation, ii. 89

Brain, drippings of, used to acquire wisdom of dead, ii. 163 _sq._

Brains of enemies eaten, ii. 152

Brand, John, quoted, i. 146

Brazen serpent, the, ii. 281

Brazil, Indians of, i. 111, ii. 235;
their flesh diet, ii. 139

Bridal pair at rice-harvest in Java, i. 200 _sq._

Bride, name given to last sheaf, i. 162, 163

British Columbia, Indians of, ii. 253

Brittany, harvest customs in, i. 135

_Bromios_, epithet of Dionysus, i. 2 _n._ 1

Brooke, Rajah, ii. 211

Brown, Dr. Burton, ii. 100 _n._ 2

Bubui river, in New Guinea, ii. 295

Buckwheat cultivated in Burma, i. 242

Bucolium at Athens, i. 30

Buddha, transmigrations of, ii. 299, 301

Budge, Dr. E. A. Wallis, i. 259 _n._ 3, 260 _n._ 2

Buffalo sacrificed for human victim, i. 249

Buffaloes, propitiation of dead, ii. 229, 231;
their death bewailed, 242;
revered by the Todas, 314

Bukaua, the, of German New Guinea, i. 103, 105, 313, ii. 124

Bulawayo, ii. 70

Bulgarians, the Carnival among the, ii. 331 _sqq._

Bull, corn-spirit as, i. 288 _sqq._, ii. 8;
in relation to Dionysus, i. 16 _sq._, 31

——, live, torn to pieces in rites of Dionysus, i. 15, 17, ii. 16

——, sacrifice of, ii. 68 _n._ 3;
at Magnesia, 7 _sq._;
in Mithraic religion, 10;
at tomb of dead chief, 113

—— -fights, ii. 66

—— -roarers, i. 19 _n._ 1, ii. 295;
as magical instruments, i. 104, 106 _sq._, 110

—— -shaped deities, i. 3 _sqq._

Bulls, sacred, of ancient Egypt, ii. 34 _sqq._

Burghers or Badagas, the, ii. 55

Burial rites intended to deceive ghosts or demons, ii. 97 _sqq._

Burials, fictitious, to divert the attention of demons from the real
burials, ii. 98 _sqq._

Buring Une, a goddess, i. 93

Burma, ii. 116;
securing the rice-soul in, i. 190 _sq._;
custom at threshing rice in, 203 _sq._;
head-hunting in, i. 256

Burmese cure, ii. 103

Burne, Miss C. S., i. 266

Burning last sheaf of corn, i. 146

—— the Old Witch, i. 224

Buru, island, ii. 54, 145

Bush negroes of Surinam, ii. 26

Bushmen, ii. 29, 206, 266 _n._ 1;
their customs as to diet, 140 _sq._

Busiris, i. 259 _sq._

_Busk_, festival of first-fruits, ii. 72

_Butea frondosa_, ii. 119

Butterflies, souls of dead in, ii. 290, 291, 296 _sq._

Butterfly of the rice, i. 190

Button snake root, emetic made from, ii. 73, 75

Buzzard, killing the sacred, ii. 169 _sqq._

Caffre elephant-hunters, ii. 227

Caffres, their festival of new fruits, ii. 64 _sqq._;
their custom of fumigating infants, 166 _sq._;
of South Africa, their observation of the Pleiades, i. 315;
of the Zambesi region, ii. 289

_Cailleach_ (Old Wife), name given to last corn cut, i. 140 _sqq._, 164
_sqq._

Caingua Indians of Paraguay, ii. 285

Cakes in obscene shapes, i. 62

Calabash, ceremony of breaking the, ii. 68 _n._ 3

Calabria, custom observed by murderers in, ii. 156

Calendar, regulation of, an affair of religion, i. 83;
the Roman, 83 _sq._;
primitive, 125 _sq._

Calendars, the Pleiades in primitive, i. 307 _sqq._

Calf sacrificed to Dionysus, i. 33;
killed at harvest, 290;
sacrifice of buffalo, ii. 314

California, Indians of, i. 125, ii. 169, 286

Californian missions, the Spanish, ii. 171 _n._ 1

Callaway, Rev. H., i. 316

Callias, the Eleusinian Torch-bearer, i. 54, 73 _n._ 3

Cambodia, ii. 103

Cameron, Hugh E., i. 162 _n._ 3

Campbell, Major J., i. 248, 250

Campbell, Rev. J. G., i. 140

Cancer, Tropic of, i. 125

Candlemas, i. 300

Canelos Indians of Ecuador, ii. 285

Cannibal orgies, i. 18 _sqq._

—— Spirit, i. 21

Cannibals, a secret society of the Kwakiutl Indians, i. 20

Canopus, i. 308

Capricorn, Tropic of, i. 125

Carcassone, hunting the wren at, ii. 320 _sq._

Carian Chersonese, ii. 85

Carib warriors, ii. 162

Caribs, the, i. 120, ii. 139

Carinthia, harvest custom in, i. 224 _sq._

Carley, the, i. 144

Carlin or Carline, the, i. 140

Carnival, modern Thracian drama at the, i. 26 _sqq._, ii. 331

—— Bear, ii. 325

—— custom in Bohemia, ii. 325

Carolina, Indians of, ii. 217

Carrier Indians, ii. 238 _sq._

Cassava (manioc) bread, i. 120 _sq._

Cassowaries, souls of dead in, ii. 295

Cassowary totem, ii. 207

Castabus, ii. 85

Cat, corn-spirit as, i. 280 _sq._;
killed at harvest, i. 281

Cat’s cradle, i. 101, 103

—— tail, name given to last standing corn, i. 268

Catalangans, the, ii. 124

Caterpillars, superstitious precautions against, ii. 275 _sq._, 279, 280

Catholic custom of eating effigies of the Madonna, ii. 94

Cattle, last sheaf given to, i. 134, 155, 158, 161, 170;
(plough oxen) Yule or Christmas Boar given to, the, 301, 302, 303;
worship of, ii. 35, 37 _sqq._;
first-fruits offered to, 118

Caul-fat, human, rubbed on body, ii. 162

Cayenne, Indians of, 285 _sqq._

Celebes, i. 313, ii. 54, 122, 123;
precautions against mice in, 277

Celeus, king of Eleusis, i. 37

Censorinus, i. 86, 87

Central Provinces of India, ii. 118 _sq._

Ceram, ii. 54, 123

Cereal deity, ii. 52, 83

Cereals in Europe, antiquity of the cultivation of, i. 79;
cultivated by the early Aryans, 132

Ceremony of the Horse at rice-harvest among the Garos, ii. 337 _sqq._

Ceres, i. 42;
festival of, 297 _n._ 5;
the, in France, 135;
Roman sacrifices to, ii. 133

Chadwars, the, ii. 28

Chaka, Zulu despot, ii. 67

Chambéry, harvest customs at, i. 275, 288, 291 _sq._

Chams, the, of Indo-China, ii. 283;
their agricultural ceremonies, 56 _sqq._;
their belief in transmigration, 291 _sq._

Changes of shape, magical, i. 305

Chasas, the, of Orissa, ii. 26

“Chasms of Demeter and Persephone,” ii. 17

Chastity required in sower of seed, i. 115 _sq._;
of hunter before hunting bears, ii. 226

Chateaubriand, his description of the Natchez festival, ii. 135 _sqq._

Cheese Monday, i. 26, ii. 333

Cheremiss, the, ii. 51

Cherokee hunters, ii. 236, 241

—— mythology, ii. 204 _sq._

Cherokees, the, ii. 72 _n._ 2, 139, 220;
their respect for rattlesnakes, 218 _sq._;
their custom of removing the hamstring of deer, 266

Chicome couatl, Mexican Maize-goddess i. 176

Chief, sacred, ii. 28;
acting as priest, 126;
sacrifices to dead, 113

Chiefs, spirits of dead, give rain, ii. 109;
deified after death, 125;
souls of dead, in lions, 287 _sq._

Child born on harvest-field, pretence of, i. 150 _sq._

Childbed, deceiving the ghosts of women who have died in, ii. 97 _sq._

Children at birth placed in winnowing-fans, i. 6 _sqq._;
guarded against evil spirits, 6 _sqq._;
employed to sow seed, 115 _sq._;
sacrificed at harvest, 236

China, ceremony at beginning of spring in, ii. 10 _sqq._

Chinese, their theory as to courage, ii. 145 _sq._

—— of Amoy, their use of effigies, ii. 104

—— ceremony of ploughing, ii. 14 _sq._

—— use of sieve or winnowing-fan, i. 6, 9 _sq._

Chinigchinich, a Californian god, ii. 170

Chinna Kimedy, i. 247, 249

Chins, the, of Upper Burma, ii. 121

Chiquites of Paraguay, ii. 241

Chiriguanos, the, Indians of Bolivia, ii. 140, 286

Chota Nagpur, i. 244

Christmas, i. 134;
boar sacrificed at, 302. _See also_ Yule

—— Day, ii. 319, 320

—— drama, ii. 327 _sq._

—— Eve, i. 302, ii. 318, 321

Chuckchees, the, ii. 221

_Churn_, last corn cut, i. 151, 153, 154 _sq._

Cicero, on the gift of the corn, i. 58;
on transubstantiation, ii. 167

Cinteotl, Mexican Maize-god, i. 176

Circumcision, i. 316, ii. 153

Clarke, E. D., at Eleusis, i. 64;
quoted, 146

Clement of Alexandria on the Eleusinian mysteries, i. 39

Cleostratus of Tenedos, i. 81

_Clyack-kebback_, i. 160

_Clyack_ sheaf, i. 158 _sqq._, ii. 43

Cnossus, i. 82, 85

Cobra-capella, guardian-deity of Issapoo, ii. 174

Cochin China, tigers respected in, ii. 217

Cock, corn-spirit as, i. 276 _sqq._;
killed on harvest field, 277 _sq._;
white, sacrificed, ii. 117, 118

—— -sheaf, i. 276

_Cogiour_, a sacred pontiff, ii. 114

Cohabitation of husband and wife enjoined as a matter of ritual, ii. 69,
70 _n._ 1

_Colluinn_, custom of beating a cow’s hide, ii. 323, 324

Colombian Indians, ii. 286

Communal taboos, i. 109 _n._ 2

Communion with deity, ii. 83, 325

Compitalia, a Roman festival, ii. 94, 96, 107

Complexity of religious phenomena, ii. 36

Confession of sin, ii. 69

Congo, the Lower, i. 115;
the Upper, 119

Conjunction of sun and moon, ii. 15 _n._ 1

Conservation of energy, ii. 262

Constantinople protected against flies and gnats, ii. 281

Contact with sacred things is deemed dangerous, ii. 27 _sqq._

—— between certain foods in stomach of eater forbidden, ii. 83 _sqq._, 90

Contest, Ancestral, at the Eleusinian Games, i. 71, 74, 77

Contests for possession of the corn-spirit, i. 74 _sq._, 180;
between binders of corn, 136, 137, 138, 218 _sq._, 220, 221, 222, 253;
between reapers, 74 _sq._, 136, 140, 141, 142, 144, 152, 153 _sq._, 164
_sq._, 219, 253;
between threshers, 147 _sqq._, 218, 219 _sq._, 221 _sq._, 223 _sq._, 253

Continence, ceremonial, ii. 75, 81, 93;
prescribed at festival, 248

—— and fasting, ii. 14

Coomassie, ii. 62, 63

Coorgs, the, ii. 55

Corea, ii. 122;
use of effigies in, 105

Corn, ear of, revealed to initiates at the rites of Eleusis, i. 38;
personified as Demeter, 42;
first-fruits of, offered to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis, 53
_sqq._;
first bestowed on the Athenians by Demeter, 54;
personified as female, 130;
wreath of, 134;
double personification of, as mother and daughter, 207 _sqq._;
the first corn cut, customs connected with, 214 _sq._;
the new, eaten sacramentally, ii. 48 _sqq._;
sanctity of the, 110

—— and poppies as symbols of Demeter, i. 43 _sq._

—— Baby, i. 152, 292

—— -bull, i. 291

—— -cow, i. 289

—— -ears, Queen of the, i. 146;
crown of, 163, 221, 283

—— -fool, i. 148

—— -goat, i. 282, 283, 286, 287

—— -maiden, i. 150;
in Northern Europe, 129 _sqq._

—— -mallet at threshing, i. 148

—— -man, i. 223;
the goal of a women’s race at harvest, 76 _sq._

Corn-mother, i. 150;
in Northern Europe, 131 _sqq._;
in last sheaf, 133 _sqq._;
in America, 171 _sqq._;
in many lands, 171 _sqq._

—— -pug, i. 273

—— -reapers, songs of the, i. 214 _sqq._

—— -sow, i. 298

Corn-spirit, contests for possession of the, i. 74 _sq._, 180;
conceived as old, 136 _sqq._;
in last sheaf threshed, i. 139, 147, 168, ii. 48;
represented in duplicate, i. 139;
conceived as young, 150 _sqq._;
as Bride and Bridegroom, 162 _sqq._;
as male and female, 164, ii. 9;
as female, both old and young, i. 164 _sqq._;
represented by person who cuts, binds, or threshes the last corn, 167
_sq._, 220 _sqq._, 236, 253 _sq._;
fertilising influence of, 168;
its influence on women, 168;
represented by human beings, 168, 204 _sqq._, ii. 333;
in form of an old man, i. 206 _sq._;
in first corn cut, 215;
personal representative of, killed in mimicry, 216;
killing the, 216 _sqq._, 223 _sqq._;
represented by a puppet, 224;
represented by a stranger, 225 _sqq._;
conceived as poor and robbed by the reapers, 231 _sqq._;
slain in his human representatives, 251 _sqq._;
the neck of the, 268;
as animal, 270 _sqq._;
on the animal embodiments of the, 303 _sqq._;
as wolf or dog, 271, _sqq._, ii. 327;
the tail of the, i. 268, 272, 300, ii. 10, 43;
as cock, i. 276 _sqq._, 277 _sq._;
as hare, 279 _sq._;
as cat, 280 _sq._;
as goat, 281 _sqq._, ii. 327;
lame, i. 284;
slain in the form of a goat, 284 _sq._, 287;
as bull, cow, or ox, 288 _sqq._, ii. 8;
killed in form of bull, i. 290, 291 _sq._;
killed at threshing, 291 _sq._;
as horse or mare, 292 _sqq._;
in form of calf, 292;
as a bird, 295;
as fox, 296 _sq._;
as pig (boar, sow), 298 _sqq._;
represented by an ox, ii. 9 _sqq._;
killed in animal form and eaten sacramentally, 20;
as a bear, 325 _sqq._;
represented dramatically, 325;
as a boar, 328;
represented by a man called the Straw-bear, 329

—— -stalks, harvesters wrapt up in, i. 220 _sqq._

—— -wolf, i. 272, 273, 275

—— -woman, i. 230, 233;
at threshing, 149

Corners of fields not to be reaped, i. 234 _sq._

Corpus Christi Day, i. 310

Cos, harvest-home in, i. 47

Cotton, treatment of first cotton picked, ii. 119

Courage seated in gall-bladder, ii. 145 _sq._

Cow, corn-spirit as, i. 288 _sqq._

Cow’s hide, thresher of last corn wrapt in, i. 291;
custom of beating the, ii. 322 _sqq._

Cows milked by women, i. 118;
and their milk, superstitions as to, ii. 84 _n._ 1 and 2

Cranes, trumpeting of the, signal for ploughing, i. 45

Creek Indians, ii. 72, 139

Cretan festival of Dionysus, i. 14 _sq._

—— myth of Dionysus, i. 13

Crete, ancient seat of worship of Demeter, i. 131;
pig not eaten in, ii. 21 _n._ 1

Cries of reapers, i. 263 _sqq._

Cripple Goat, the, i. 284

Crocodile, clay image of, ii. 279

—— -catchers, rules observed by, ii. 209 _sq._

Crocodiles hunted by savages for their flesh, ii. 208 _n._ 2;
often spared by savages out of respect, 208 _sqq._;
ceremonies observed at catching, 209 _sqq._;
kinship of men with, 212 _sq._, 214 _sq._;
respected in Africa and Madagascar, 213 _sqq._;
sacred at Dix Cove, 287;
souls of dead in, 289, 290, 291, 295

Cronion, a Greek month, ii. 7, 8 _n._ 1

Crooke, W., i. 118 _n._, 234 _n._ 2, ii. 56 _n._ 3

Crops, charms and spells for growth of, i. 100;
rotation of, 117;
human sacrifices for the, 236 _sqq._

Cross River natives, ii. 115

Crow, head of, eaten to prolong life, ii. 143;
transmigration of sinner into, 299

—— Song, the Greek, ii. 322 _n._

Crown of corn-ears, i. 163, 221, 283;
worn by Demeter and Persephone, 43

“Crying the Mare” in Hertfordshire, i. 292 _sq._;
in Shropshire, 293

“Crying the neck,” i. 264 _sqq._

Cultivation, shifting, i. 99;
_see_ Agriculture

“Cup of offering,” ii. 184

Curcho, old Prussian god, ii. 133

Curetes, their war-dance, i. 13

Curses uttered by Bouzygai, i. 108

Cuscuses, souls of dead in, ii. 296, 298

Cushing, Frank H., quoted, ii. 175 _sqq._

Cuzco, i. 310

Cycle, the octennial in Greece, i. 80 _sqq._

Cynaetha, i. 16

Cyzicus, i. 16

Dacotas, the, ii. 256

Dama, island of, ii. 101

Damatrius, a Boeotian month, i. 46

Dance at harvest supper, i. 134, 135, 145;
of harvesters with or round the last sheaf, 135, 141, 145, 160, 219, 220
_sq._;
of masked men before sowing, 186;
of Dyaks to secure soul of rice, 188 _sq._;
of old women as representatives of the corn-goddess, 205;
Pawnee, before human sacrifice, 238;
before the king at ceremony of first-fruits, ii. 70 _sq._;
of Zulu king, 66, 68 _n._ 3;
of medicine-man, 72;
the Green Corn Dance, 76;
war, 79;
by torchlight, 79;
of Kansas Indians, 145
“the angel dance,” 328;
of mummers at Carnival, 333, 334;
of mummer wearing a horse-headed mask, 338

Dances, i. 246, 247;
at sowing festival, 95;
masked, 95 _sq._, 111, 186, ii. 208 _n._ 1;
at the reappearance of the Pleiades, i. 307, 309, 311, 312, 317;
in imitation of totemic animals, ii. 76;
Mexican, 88;
in connexion with offerings of first-fruits, 113, 116, 126, 131, 134;
of men personifying deities, 179;
of women at bear-festival, 185, 186 _sq._, 191, 195;
of women at catching a crocodile, 211;
round dead tigers, 216;
of the Koryak at the slaughter of bears or wolves, 223;
in honour of slain leopards, 228;
of Koryak women at slaughter of whales, 232 _sq._;
to amuse the souls of dead sea-beasts, 248;
of Shrovetide Bear, 325 _sq._;
to make the crops thrive, 326, 328, 330 _sq._;
of masked men and women in ritual, 339

Dancing for salmon, ii. 255

Danger Island, i. 312

Danzig, harvest customs at, i. 133, 218 _sq._

Darfur, ii. 147

Darwin and Empedocles, ii. 306

Daughter-in-law in ritual, ii. 121 _sq._

Dawkins, R. M., i. 25 _n._ 4, 29 _n._ 2

Dead, rebirth of the, i. 84;
fear of the, ii. 36 _sq._;
souls of the, 64;
festival in honour of, at end of harvest, 110;
buried in the houses, 115;
bones of the, 153 _sq._;
mourners rub themselves with the fat or putrefying juices of the, 162
_sq._;
souls of the human, supposed to be in caterpillars, 275 _sq._; and in
other animals, 285 _sqq._

—— men mutilated in order to disable their ghosts, ii. 271 _sqq._

—— spirits of the, supposed to influence the crops, i. 104;
give rain, ii. 109 _sq._;
first-fruits offered to, 109 _sq._, 111 _sqq._, 115, 116, 119, 121, 123,
124 _sqq._;
prayers to, 112, 113, 124 _sq._;
in trees, 113

Deane, Mrs. J. H., ii. 319 _n._ 2

Death and resurrection of the gods, i. 1, 12 _sqq._, 15

—— pollution of, ii. 85 _n._ 3

Deer, flesh of, eaten to prolong life or to avoid fever, ii. 143;
not eaten by warriors, 144;
treated with respect by American Indians, 240 _sqq._;
their bones not given to dogs, 241, 242, 243;
Indian custom of cutting out the sinew of the thighs of, 264 _sqq._;
souls of dead in, 286, 293 _sq._

_Deiseil_ or _deiseal_, according to the course of the sun, ii. 323, 324

Deities of vegetation as animals, ii. 1 _sqq._

Deity, communion with, ii. 325

Delagoa Bay, i. 114, ii. 280

Delaware Indians, ii. 218

Delphi, grave of Dionysus at, i. 14

Delphic oracle, i. 55, 58

Demeter, mother of Dionysus by Zeus, i. 14, 66;
Homeric Hymn to, 35 _sqq._, 70;
a personification of the corn, 39, 40 _sq._;
distinguished from the Earth-goddess, 41, 43;
at the threshing-floor, 41 _sq._, 47;
in art, 43 _sq._, 88 _sq._;
offering of first-fruits to, 46 _sqq._;
surnamed Proerosia, 51;
bestows corn on the Athenians, 54;
worshipped in Sicily, 56 _sqq._;
bestows corn on the Sicilians, 56 _sq._;
sacrifices to her at sowing, 57;
associated with seed-corn, 58;
her epithets, 63 _sq._;
her image at Eleusis, 64;
her intrigue with Zeus, 66;
etymology of name, 131;
in relation to the pig, ii. 16 _sqq._;
horse-headed, of Phigalia, 21, 338;
rustic prototype of, 334

—— and Iasion, i. 208

—— and Pelops, ii. 263

—— and Persephone, i. 35 _sqq._;
resemblance of their artistic types, 67 _sq._;
their essential identity, 90;
associated with death and immortality, 90 _sq._;
double personification of the corn as, 208 _sqq._

—— and Zeus, ii. 9;
marriage of, i. 65 _sqq._

—— Black, i. 263;
of Phigalia, ii. 21

—— Green, i. 42, 263

—— Yellow, i. 41 _sq._

Demeter’s corn, i. 42

Democritus, ii. 146

Demons or ghosts deceived by dummies, ii. 96 _sqq._;
repelled by gun-shots, 99

Dendereh, sculptures at, i. 260

Dengdit, high god of the Dinka, ii. 40 _n._, 114 _n._ 2

Denmark, harvest customs in, i. 139 _sq._, 231;
the Yule Boar in, i. 300 _sq._

De Smet, J., i. 239 _n._ 1

Descent of Persephone, i. 46, ii. 17

Devonshire reapers, cries of, i. 264 _sqq._

Diasia, an Athenian sacrifice, ii. 95 _n._ 2

Dieri, the, of Central Australia, i. 106, ii. 151

Digger Indians, the, ii. 164

Digging-sticks used by women, i. 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128

Dijon, harvest custom near, i. 290

Dinka, the, ii. 37 _sqq._, 114

Diocles, i. 37

Diodorus Siculus, on worship of Demeter and Persephone, i. 56 _sqq._

Dionysus, i. 1 _sqq._;
god of the vine, 2 _sq._;
god of trees, 3 _sq._;
a god of agriculture and corn, 5;
and the winnowing-fan, 5 _sqq._;
as Zagreus, 12;
horned, 12;
son of Zeus by Persephone, Demeter, or Semele, 12, 14;
death and resurrection of, 12 _sqq._, 32;
ritual of, 14 _sq._;
grave of, 14;
as a bull, 16 _sq._, 31;
as a goat, 17 _sq._;
torn to pieces at Thebes, 25;
his marriage to the Queen of Athens, 30 _sq._;
son of Zeus and Demeter, 66;
and the bull-roarer, 110 _n._ 4;
his relation to Pan, Satyrs, and Silenuses, ii. 1 _sqq._;
as a bull, 3 _sq._;
live animals rent in rites of, 16;
the Foxy, 282

Dittenberger, W., i. 77 _n._ 4

Dius, a Macedonian month, i. 46 _n._ 2

Divination, ii. 210;
magic dwindles into, i. 110 _n._;
by shoulder-blade, ii. 234

Diviners, ancient, their rules of diet, ii. 143

Dodwell, E., at Eleusis, i. 64

Dog, corn-spirit as, i. 271 _sqq._;
of the harvest, 273;
feast on flesh of, ii. 256;
sacrifice of the White, 258 _n._ 2;
transmigration of sinner into, 299

—— -eating Spirit, i. 21

—— -star, i. 261

Dog’s flesh or liver eaten to acquire bravery, ii. 145

Dogs devoured in religious rites, i. 20, 21, 22;
sacrificed, ii. 196, 202;
not allowed to gnaw bones of slain animals, 225, 238 _sqq._, 243, 259;
bones of deer not given to, 241, 242, 243

Doll made of last corn at harvest, i. 140, 151, 153, 155, 157, 162

D’Orbigny, A., quoted, i. 120

Dormice, charm against, ii. 281

Door of house protected against fiends, ii. 96

Dough image of god eaten sacramentally, ii. 86 _sqq._, 90 _sq._

—— images of animals sacrificed instead of the animals, ii. 95 _n._ 2

—— puppets as substitutes for live human beings, ii. 101 _sq._

Dragon’s blood, ii. 146

Drama, modern Thracian, at the Carnival, i. 25 _sqq._;
magical, 187 _sq._

Dramatic representations of the corn-spirit, ii. 325

—— rites practised with magical intention, i. 1

Dreams as a source of belief in immortality, ii. 260 _sq._

Drinking juices of dead kinsfolk, ii. 163 _n._ 3

Dryas, son of Lycurgus, i. 24, 25

Du Pratz, Le Page, ii. 77 _sqq._

Duke of York Islands, ii. 252

Dumbartonshire, harvest customs in, i. 157 _sq._

Dummies to avert attention of ghosts or demons, ii. 96 _sqq._

“Dumping” people on harvest field, i. 226 _sq._

Dumplings in human form at threshing, i. 148;
in form of pigs, 299

Duplication of deities, i. 212 _sq._

Durham, harvest customs in, i. 151

Dyaks, the, i. 313, 314, ii. 100, 101, 102, 152;
their ceremonies to secure the rice-soul, i. 188 _sq._;
of Borneo, ii. 122, 144, 209, 211;
of Sarawak, 279

Dying and Reviving God, i. 1, 33

Eagle-owl worshipped by the Aino, ii. 199

Eagles worshipped by the Aino, ii. 200;
propitiation of dead, 236

Ears regarded as the seat of intelligence, ii. 148;
of dead enemies cut out, 271 _sq._

Earth, Mother, ii. 105

—— the spirit of the, ii. 120

—— -God, i. 69

—— -goddess, ii. 115;
distinguished from Demeter, i. 41, 43, 89;
in Greek art, 89;
human sacrifices offered to, 245, 246, 249, 250

—— -gods, slaves of the, ii. 61, 62 _n._ 1

—— -mothers, i. 173 _n._

Easing nature, a charm used by robbers, i. 235

East Indies, the Rice-mother in the, i. 180 _sqq._

Easter, i. 300

—— Eve, i. 134

—— Islanders, ii. 133

—— Sunday, i. 33

Eater of animals, as epithet of a god, i. 23

Eating the god, ii. 48 _sqq._, 167;
among the Aztecs, 86 _sqq._

—— the soul of the rice, ii. 54

Eckstein, Miss L., ii. 317 _n._ 2

Ecstasy induced by smoking, ii. 72

Edonians, the, i. 24

Eels, souls of dead in, ii. 289, 290, 292

Effigies of men and women hung at doors of houses, ii. 94;
buried with the dead to deceive their ghosts, 97 _sq._;
used to cure or prevent sickness, 100 _sqq._
_See also_ Doll, Images, Puppet

Effigy of an ox broken as a spring ceremony in China, ii. 10 _sqq._

Eggs not eaten, ii. 140;
charm to make hens lay, 326

Egypt, ancient, stratification of religion in, ii. 35

Egyptian kings, their animal masks, i. 260

—— reapers, their cries, i. 263

—— type of animal sacrament, ii. 312 _sq._, 314

Egyptians, human sacrifices offered by the ancient, i. 259 _sq._;
the ancient, their religious attitude to pigs, ii. 24 _sqq._

El Kiboron clan of the Masai, ii. 288

Elans treated with respect by American Indians, ii. 240

Elephant’s flesh thought to make eater strong, ii. 143

Elephants, ceremonies observed at the slaughter of, ii. 227 _sq._, 237;
souls of dead in, 289

Eleusine grain, i. 117

Eleusinian Games, i. 70 _sqq._, 110, 180;
less ancient than the Eleusinian mysteries, 87 _sq._

—— inscription dealing with first-fruits, i. 55 _sq._

—— mysteries, i. 35, 37 _sqq._, 65 _sqq._ 69 _sq._, 78 _sq._, 161 _sq._,
188;
instituted by Demeter, 70

Eleusis, Demeter at, i. 36 _sq._;
offerings of first-fruits at, 53 _sqq._;
image of Demeter at, 64;
prayer for rain at, 69;
the Rarian plain at, 36, 70, 74, 234, ii. 15

Eleutherian games at Plataea, i. 80

Elijah, the prophet, i. 233

Elis, Dionysus at, i. 17

Elk treated with respect, ii. 240;
embryos of, not eaten, 243

Ellis, William, quoted, i. 312

Elopango, i. 237

Embodiment, human, of the corn-spirit, ii. 333

Emboq Sri, rice-bride, i. 200 _sq._

Embryos of elk not eaten, ii. 243

Emetics used before eating new corn, ii. 73, 75 _sq._, 76;
sacred, 74

Empedocles, his doctrine of transmigration, ii. 300 _sqq._;
his resemblance to Buddha, 302;
his theory of the material universe like that of Herbert Spencer, 303
_sqq._;
as a forerunner of Darwin, 306;
his posing as a god, 307

Enchanters of crops, foods forbidden to, i. 100

Encounter Bay tribe, i. 126

Enemies, mutilation of dead, ii. 271 _sq._

Energy, the conservation of, ii. 226

En-jemusi, the, of East Africa, i. 118

Epiphany, i. 302

Epithets applied to Demeter, i. 63 _sq._

Equinox, human sacrifice offered soon after the spring equinox, i. 239

Erigone and Icarius, ii. 133

Esquimaux, the Central, ii. 246;
dietary rules of, 84

—— of Baffin Land, ii. 257

—— of Bering Strait, i. 150, ii. 247, 272

—— of Hudson Bay, ii. 245 _sq._

Essex, hunting the wren in, ii. 320

Esthonia, i. 302

Esthonian reapers, i. 285;
peasants, their treatment of weevils, ii. 274

Esthonians, the, i. 298, 300, ii. 51

Etna, Mount, i. 57

Etymology, its uncertainty as a base for mythological theories, i. 41 _n._

Eubuleus, ii. 19

Eubulus, i. 56

Eudoxus of Cnidus, i. 81, ii. 30

Eumolpids, i. 56

Eumolpus, i. 37, 70, 73

Euphorbus the Trojan, ii. 300

Europe, Corn-mother and Corn-maiden in Northern, i. 131 _sqq._

Evolution and dissolution, ii. 305 _sq._

Ewe hunters, ii. 244

—— negroes, ii. 45, 115, 143, 149;
their festival of new yams, 58 _sqq._;
their belief as to the spirit-land, 105 _sq._;
their ceremonies after killing leopards, 228 _sqq._

Exclusion of strangers, i. 94, 111

Eyes shut at prayer, ii. 81;
of men eaten, 153;
of slaughtered animals cut out, 267 _sqq._, 271;
of dead enemies gouged out, 271 _sq._

Faces of bear-hunters painted red and black, ii. 226;
blackened, i. 291, 299

_Fady_, taboo, ii. 46

Fafnir, the dragon, ii. 146

Falcon’s eye used as charm, ii. 164

Faleshas, a Jewish sect, ii. 266 _n._ 1

Fallow, thrice-ploughed, i. 66, 69;
lands allowed to lie, 117, 123

Fanning away ill luck, i. 10

Fans, the, of West Africa, ii. 140

Farmer’s wife, pretence of threshing, i. 149 _sq._

Farmers, propitiation of vermin by, ii. 274 _sqq._

Farnell, Dr. L. R., i. 3 _n._ 1, 15 _n._, 68 _n._ 1, ii. 2 _n._ 9

Fast before eating new fruits, ii. 73 _sq._, 76 _sq._

Fasting and continence, ii. 14

_Fastnachtsbär_, ii. 325

Fat, anointing the body with, from superstitious motives, ii. 162 _sq._,
164, 165

Fatigue of the Horse, i. 294

Fauns, ii. 1 _sqq._

Feathers of cock mixed with seed-corn, i. 278;
of wren, virtue attributed to, ii. 319

Feet of enemies eaten, ii. 151

Felkin, Dr. R. W., ii. 314 _sq._

Fernando Po, ii. 174

Fertilising influence of the corn-spirit, i. 168

Festival before Ploughing (_Proerosia_), i. 51 _sqq._, 60;
of the Cornstalks at Eleusis, 63;
of the Threshing-floor (_Haloa_) at Eleusis, 60 _sqq._, 75;
of winter solstice, ii. 90;
of New Fire, 135;
of bladders among the Esquimaux, 247 _sqq._

Festivals of new yams, ii. 58 _sqq._

Fewkes, J. Walter, quoted, i. 312

Fez, orgiastic rites at, i. 21

Fictitious burials to divert the attention of demons from the real
burials, ii. 98 _sqq._

“Field of God,” ii. 14, 15

“Field of secret tillage,” ii. 57

Fields, miniature, dedicated to spirits, i. 233 _sq._

Fife, harvest custom in, i. 227

Fifty-two years, Aztec cycle of, i. 310 _sq._

Fig Dionysus, i. 4

—— trees, sacred wild, ii. 113

Fiji, sacrifice of first-fruits in, ii. 125

Finns, their propitiation of slain bears, ii. 223 _sq._

Fire not given out, i. 249;
god of, ii. 93;
made by friction of wood, 127, 136, 314;
purification by, 249;
not to be blown upon, 254;
new, ii. 65, 74, 75, 78;
sacred, i. 311, ii. 255, 314;
festival of, ii. 135

“Fireless and Homeless,” a mythical giant, ii. 265, 266

Fire-sticks called “husband and wife,” ii. 65

Fires extinguished, ii. 73

Firing guns to repel demons, ii. 99

Firmicus Maternus, i. 13

First-fruits offered to Demeter, i. 46 _sqq._;
offered to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis, 53 _sqq._;
offered to the sun, 237;
primitive reluctance to taste, ii. 6;
sacrament of, 48 _sqq._;
offered to goddess of agriculture, 56;
why savages scruple to eat the, 82 _sq._;
sacrifice of, 109 _sqq._;
presented to the king, 109, 116, 122;
offered to the spirits of the dead, 109 _sq._, 111 _sqq._, 115, 116,
119, 121, 123, 124 _sqq._

Fish, sacred, ii. 26;
the first caught, sacrificed, 132;
not eaten, 140;
treated with respect by fishing tribes, 249 _sqq._;
compensated by fishermen, 252;
first of the season, treated ceremoniously, 253 _sqq._;
souls of dead in, 285, 291, 295

—— bones of, not burned, ii. 250, 251;
not to be broken, 255

Fison, Rev. Lorimer, quoted, ii. 125

Flail, pretence of throttling persons with flail at threshing, i. 149, 150

Flamen Dialis, inaugurates the vintage, ii. 133

Flax-mother, i. 133

Flesh of human victim eaten, i. 240, 244, 251;
buried in field, 248, 250

—— diet, homoeopathic magic of a, ii. 138 _sqq._

Flies, charms against, ii. 281;
souls of dead in, 290 _sq._

Florida, one of the Solomon Islands, ii. 85, 126

Flowery Dionysus, i. 4

Fly-catcher Zeus, ii. 282

Flying-fish, the first of the season, ii. 127

—— fox, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Folk-tales, tongues of wild beasts cut out in, ii. 269

Foods forbidden to enchanters of crops, i. 100;
certain, forbidden to meet in stomach of eater, ii. 83 _sqq._

Fool, one of the mummers on Plough Monday, ii. 330

—— -hen, heart of, not eaten, ii. 140

Foot, limping on one, i. 232, 284

Foucart, P., i. 32 _n._ 6

Foulahs of Senegambia, ii. 214

Fox, stuffed, i. 287, 297;
corn-spirit as, 296 _sq._;
carried from house to house in spring, 297;
Koryak ceremony at killing a, ii. 223;
Esquimau and Aino treatment of dead, 244, 267;
soul of dead in a, 286

Fox’s tail, name given to last standing corn, i. 268

—— tongue as amulet, ii. 270

Foxy Dionysus, ii. 282

France, harvest customs in, i. 135, 271, 275, 280, 295, 296;
hunting the wren in, ii. 320 _sq._

Franche-Comté, harvest customs in, i. 281, 286 _sq._

Franken (Franconia), harvest customs in, i. 148

Friction of wood, fire made by, ii. 127, 136;
new fire made by, i. 311, ii. 74, 78;
sacred fire made by, 314

Frog, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Fruit-trees bound with Yule straw, i. 301;
Dionysus a god of, i. 3 _sq._;
presided over by dead chiefs, ii. 125

Fruits and roots, wild, ceremonies at gathering the first of the season,
ii. 80 _sqq._

Fumigation as mode of cultivating moral virtues, ii. 166 _sq._

Funeral of caterpillars, ii. 279;
of dead snake, 317

Furnivall, J. S., i. 190 _sq._

Gadbas, the, ii. 118

Galelareese, their burial custom, ii. 97

Galicia, harvest customs in, i. 135, 277

Gall-bladders, the seat of courage, ii. 145 _sq._

Gallas, the, ii. 154, 266 _n._ 2, 270

Galloway, harvest customs in, i. 279

Game of ball played as a rite, ii. 76, 79

Games held by harvesters, i. 75 _sqq._;
quadriennial period of Greek, 77 _sqq._;
octennial period of Greek, 80;
in primitive agriculture, magical significance of, 92 _sqq._;
played at the sowing festival among the Kayans, 94 _sqq._, 97 _sq._;
played for the good of the crops, 101;
magical, 102;
athletic, ii. 66

—— the Eleusinian, i. 70 _sqq._, 110, 180

Gander’s neck, name given to last standing corn, i. 268

Gaṇeṣa, ii. 56

Gaolis, the, i. 7

Gardner, Percy, quoted, i. 44

Gareloch, harvest customs on the, i. 157 _sq._, 218 _n._ 2, 268

Garos, the, of Assam, ii. 43 _n._ 1, 116;
ceremony of the Horse at rice-harvest among the, 337 _sqq._

Gayo-land, ii. 33

Gazelle Peninsula, i. 123

Gazelles, souls of dead in, ii. 289

Geminus, on the supposed influence of the stars, i. 318 _sq._

Generalisations of science inadequate to cover all particular facts, ii.
37

Generation, male organ of, as emblem of Dionysus, i. 12;
effigy of male organ of, in Thracian ceremony, 26, 29

Genius, Aristotle on men of, ii. 302 _n._ 5

—— or patron of animals, ii. 243

_Genna_, taboo, in Assam, i. 109 _n._ 2

Germans, the ancient, i. 129

Germany, the Corn-mother in, i. 132 _sqq._;
cries of reapers in, 269;
the corn-spirit as an animal in, 271, 277, 279, 296, 300

Ghosts or demons deceived by dummies, ii. 96 _sqq._;
offerings to ancestral, 127;
of animals feared, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 223, 224, 227 _sq._, 229,
231 _sq._, 235, 236, 237, 241, 245, 267 _sq._, 269, 271;
disabled by the mutilation of their bodies, 271 _sqq._

Gilgit, ii. 56

Gill, W. W., quoted, i. 312

Gilyak procession with bear, ii. 322, 325

—— shaman, ii. 103

Gilyaks, the, of Siberia, ii. 206, 238, 267;
their bear-festivals, 190 _sqq._

Ginger cultivated, i. 123

Girls sacrificed for the crops, i. 237, 239

Gnats, charm against, ii. 281

Goat in relation to Dionysus, i. 17 _sq._;
sacrificed for human victim, 249;
corn-spirit as, 281 _sqq._, ii. 327;
the Cripple or Lame, i. 284;
killed on harvest-field, 285;
stuffed, 287;
killed at sowing, 288

—— and Athena, ii. 40 _sq._

—— -formed deities, ii. 1 _sqq._

—— live, torn to pieces in rites of Dionysus, i. 18, ii. 16

—— skin, mask of, i. 26;
worn by farmer at harvest, 285

—— skins, mummers clad in, i. 26 _sqq._

Goat’s neck, name given to last standing corn, i. 268

Goats torn to pieces by fanatics in Morocco, i. 21 _sq._;
sacrificed to wolves, ii. 284

God, the Dying and Reviving, i. 1, 33;
killed in animal form, 22 _sq._;
eating the, ii. 48 _sqq._

Gods, death and resurrection of, i. 1, 12 _sqq._;
distinguished from spirits, 169;
in the likeness of foreigners, 236

Goldi, bear-festivals of the, ii. 197

—— shaman, ii. 103

Goldsmith, transmigration of thief into, ii. 299

Gonds, human sacrifices among the, i. 244

Good Friday, i. 33

—— Spirit, the, i. 206

Goose, to lose the, i. 277 _n._ 3

Gorillas, souls of dead in, ii. 289

Grandmother, name given to last sheaf, i. 136

Grapes, the last, not to be stript, i. 234 _sq._

Grasshoppers, charm against, ii. 281

Grave of Dionysus, i. 14

Graves, sacrifices at, ii. 113;
false, to deceive demons, ii. 99 _sq._

Great Bassam, in Guinea, ii. 9

—— Eleusinian Games, i. 71, 79

—— Mother, the, name given to the last sheaf, i. 135 _sq._

—— Mysteries of Eleusis, their date, i. 51

Great Sun, title of head chief of the Natchez, ii. 77 _sqq._

—— Vigil, i. 176

Greece, theory of the transmigration of souls in ancient, ii. 300

Greek divinities who died and rose again, i. 2;
farmers, their seasons for sowing and reaping, i. 318

—— months lunar, i. 52

—— summer rainless, i. 69

Green Corn Dance, ii. 76

—— Festival at Eleusis, i. 63

Greenlanders, the, ii. 246

Gregor, Rev. Walter, i. 158 _sqq._

Gregory of Tours, ii. 281

Grey, Sir George, quoted, i. 127

Ground, last sheaf not allowed to touch the, i. 158, 159, 161

Guadacanal, island of, ii. 127

Guaranis, the, of Paraguay, i. 309

“Guardian gods” of the Hos, i. 234

Guardian-spirit, ii. 60;
of family, i. 121

—— spirits of American Indians, ii. 207

Guayaquil, in Ecuador, i. 236

Guaycurus of the Gran Chaco, i. 309

Guazacualco, ii. 259

Guiana, Indians of British, i. 120, ii. 236;
their animism, 204

Guinea-fowl gives signal for planting, i. 117

Guns fired to repel demons, ii. 99

_Guré_, a hobby-horse, ii. 337 _sq._

Haddon, Dr. A. C., i. 106 _n._ 1

Hadrian institutes games at Mantinea, i. 80

Hag (_wrach_), name given to last corn cut in Wales, i. 142 _sqq._

Hahn, Theophilus, i. 317

Haida Indians, i. 20

Hair of slain foes, use made of, ii. 153

Halibut, the first of the season, treatment of, ii. 253

Hallowmas, i. 140

Halmahera, i. 183

_Haloa_, Attic festival, i. 60 _sqq._

Hamstring of deer, custom of removing, ii. 266

Hamstringing dead animals, ii. 267, 271, 273

—— men to disable their ghosts, ii. 272, 273

Hand-marks, white, ii. 338

Hands of enemies eaten, ii. 151, 152

Hanover, harvest customs in, i. 133, 135, 283

Hare, corn-spirit as, i. 279 _sq._

Hare-skin Indians, ii. 265

Hare’s tail, name given to last standing corn, i. 268

Hares not eaten, ii. 141

Harran, sacrifices offered by the heathen of, i. 261 _sq._

—— legend of Tammuz, i. 258

Harrison, Miss J. E., i. 5 _n._ 4, 60 _n._ 1, 62 _n._ 6

Harte, Bret, ii. 171 _n._ 1

Hartland, E. S., i. 143 _n._ 1, 224 _n._ 4

Harvest, festival of the dead at the close of, ii. 110;
in Greece, date of, i. 48

—— -child, i. 151

—— -cock, i. 276, 277

—— -crown, i. 221, 277

—— -customs and spring customs compared, i. 167 _sqq._

—— -goat, i. 282, 283

—— -man, i. 221

—— -mother, i. 135

—— -Queen, i. 146 _sq._

—— -supper, i. 134, 138, 156, 157, 159 _sq._, 161 _sq._, 297;
sacramental character of, 303

—— -woman, i. 145

—— -wreath, i. 283

Harvesters, athletic competitions among, i. 76 _sq._;
wrapt up in corn-stalks, 220 _sqq._

_Hawkie_, i. 146, 147 _n._ 1

Hawks, revered by the Aino, ii. 200

Hay, Sir John Drummond, i. 179

Head of horse, ii. 42, 43 _n._ 1, 337

—— -hunting, human, i. 240 _sqq._;
practice of, 256

Headlam, Walter, i. 2 _n._ 1

Heads shaved, ii. 161

Heart of Dionysus, the sacred, i. 13, 14, 15;
of human victim torn out, ii. 92;
of lion or leopard eaten to make the eater brave, 142 _sq._;
of water-ousel eaten in order to acquire wisdom and eloquence, 144;
of bear eaten to acquire courage, 146;
of serpent eaten to acquire language of animals, 146;
of wolf eaten to acquire courage, 146;
regarded as the seat of intellect, 149

Hearts of men sacrificed, i. 236;
of crows, moles, or hawks eaten, ii. 143;
of men eaten to acquire their qualities, 148 _sqq._

Heaven-herds among the Zulus, ii. 160

Hebrews forbidden to reap corners of fields and glean, last grapes, i. 234
_sq._

Heckewelder, Rev. J., quoted, ii. 205 _sq._

Hedgehog, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Hemithea, sanctuary of, ii. 85

Hen, heart of, not eaten, ii. 142, 147;
hens not eaten, ii. 140

Henna, image of Demeter at, i. 65

Hephaestius, a Greek month, i. 46 _n._ 2

Heraeon, a Greek month, ii. 7

Heralds and tongues, ii. 271

Hercules and Busiris, i. 259

Hercules and Lityerses, i. 217

—— and Syleus, i. 258

—— and Zeus, ii. 172

—— surnamed Locust, ii. 282

Hermes, tongues of victims assigned to, ii. 270

Herrick, i. 147 _n._ 1

Herring, superstitions as to, ii. 251 _sq._

Hertfordshire, “crying the Mare,” in, i. 292 _sq._

Hervey Islands, i. 312

Hesiod on time for ploughing, i. 45;
on time of vintage, 47 _n._ 2;
on the farmer’s calendar, 53

Hierapolis on the Euphrates, ii. 23

Hierophant at Eleusis, i. 55, 65

Highlands of Scotland, beating the cow’s hide in the, ii. 322 _sqq._

Hill-Tout, C., ii. 80 _sq._, 134

Himerius, on the gift of the corn, i. 58

Hindoos, sacrifice of first-fruits among the ancient, ii. 119 _sq._

Hippolytus and Virbius, ii. 40

—— on mysteries of Eleusis, i. 38

Hippopotamus, ceremony after killing a, ii. 235

Hippopotamuses, souls of dead in, ii. 289

_Hockey_ cart, i. 147 _n._ 1

Hodson, T. C., i. 109 _n._ 2

Hoeing, rites at, i. 96;
done by women, 113 _sq._

Hoensbroech, Count von, ii. 94

Hoes used by women in agriculture, i. 114, 115, 116, 118, 119

Hoggan, Frances, i. 267

Hogmanay, the last day of the year, ii. 323

Holiness conceived as a dangerous virus, ii. 29

Hollis, A. C., ii. 155

Homer on Demeter, i. 41 _sq._;
on loves of Zeus and Demeter, 66;
on gods in likeness of foreigners, 236

Homeric Greeks, ii. 270

—— _Hymn to Demeter_, i. 35 _sqq._

Homoeopathic or imitative magic, i. 62, 262, ii. 267, 331, 333, 334;
of a flesh diet, ii. 138 _sqq._

Honduras, Indians of, ii. 241

Hone, W., quoted, i. 264 _sq._

Hop-picking, custom at, i. 226

Horned Dionysus, i. 12, 16

Horse, “seeing the Horse,” i. 294;
“Cross of the Horse,” 294;
“fatigue of the Horse,” 294;
sacrificed to Mars at Rome, ii. 42 _sqq._;
ceremony of the, at rice-harvest among the Garos, 337 _sqq._

—— and Virbius, ii. 40 _sqq._

—— -headed Demeter of Phigalia, ii. 21, 338

—— or mare, corn-spirit as, i. 292 _sqq._

Horse-races, i. 71, ii. 114;
at harvest, i. 76

Horse’s head, ii. 42, 43 _n._ 1, 337 _sq._

Horses, Lycurgus torn to pieces by, i. 24;
excluded from Arician grove, ii. 40 _sqq._;
excluded from sanctuaries, 45 _sq._

Horus, eye of, ii. 30

Hos of Togoland, the, i. 130, 234, ii. 59;
a tribe of Ewe negroes, i. 115, 116;
of Bengal, ii. 117

Hottentots, the, i. 316 _sq._

Huahine, island of, ii. 132

Huichol Indians, the, ii. 93

Huitzilopochtli, a Mexican god, ii. 86, 90, 95

Human beings torn to pieces in rites of Dionysus, i. 24

Human sacrifices for crops, i. 236 _sqq._;
offered by ancient Egyptians, 259 _sq._;
in Mexico, ii. 88

—— victims, substitutes for, i. 249;
treated as divine, 250

Hunters, propitiation of wild animals by, ii. 204 _sqq._;
of grisly bears, chastity observed by, 226

Hunting the wren, ii. 317 _sqq._

Hurons, the, ii. 250 _sq._

Huts, miniature, for ghosts, ii. 113

Huzuls, the, of the Carpathians, ii. 43 _n._ 1, 275

Hyaenas, souls of dead in, ii. 289

Hyes Attes, ii. 22

_Hymn to Demeter_, Homeric, i. 35 _sqq._, 70

Ialysus in Rhodes, ii. 45

Iasion and Demeter, i. 208

Ibans (Sea Dyaks) of Sarawak, ii. 279

Iberians, the, i. 129

Icarius and Erigone, ii. 133

Ichneumon, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Ida Batara, i. 202

Idah, ii. 228

Ideler, L., i. 86

Igaras of the Niger, ii. 228

Igbiras, the, ii. 115

Igorrots of the Philippines, ii. 292

Image of god made of dough and eaten sacramentally, ii. 86 _sqq._, 90
_sq._;
of snake carried about, 316 _sq._

Images of ancestors, ii. 53;
of animals sacrificed instead of the animals, 95 _n._ 2;
vicarious use of, 96 _sqq._;
of gods, suggested origin of, 173 _sq._;
of vermin made as a protection against them, 280 _sq._
_See also_ Effigies, Puppets

Imitation of spirits, i. 186

Immortality, hope of, associated with Eleusinian mysteries, i. 90 _sq._

—— of animals, savage faith in the, ii. 260 _sqq._

Immortality of soul revealed in mysteries of Dionysus, i. 15

_Inachi_, an offering of first-fruits, ii. 128, 131

_Inao_, sacred wands of the Aino, ii. 185, 186 _n._, 189

Inari, Japanese rice-god, i. 297

Incantations for growth of crops, i. 100

Incas, the, i. 310

India, the last sheaf of corn in, 222 _sq._;
doctrine of the transmigration of souls in ancient, ii. 298 _sq._

Indian Archipelago, the, i. 124

Indians of British Columbia, their cannibal orgies, i. 18 _sq._;
of South America, women’s agricultural work among the, 119 _sqq._

Indonesian ideas of rice-soul, i. 181 _sq._

Indra, Indian god, ii. 120

Ingiald, son of King Aunund, ii. 146

Inoculation with moral and other virtues, ii. 158 _sqq._

Inscription, Eleusinian, dealing with first-fruits, i. 55 _sq._

Intercalation in Greek calendar, i. 81

Invulnerability, ii. 160

Iowa Indians, ii. 217

Irayas, the, of Luzon, ii. 124

Ireland, hunting the wren in, ii. 319 _sq._

Iron axe, use of, forbidden, ii. 248

Iroquois, their sacrifice of a white dog, ii. 258 _n._ 1

_Isilimela_, the Pleiades, i. 316

Isis, i. 262;
dirge of, 215;
at Tithorea, festivals of, ii. 18 _n._ 1;
in relation to cows, 35

Islay, harvest customs in, i. 141 _sq._

Isle de France, harvest customs in, i. 221, 226

Isle of Man, hunting the wren in the, ii. 318 _sq._

Isocrates, on Demeter’s gift of the corn, i. 54 _sq._

Isowa or Aïsawa, order of saints in Morocco, i. 21

Israelites, their brazen serpent, ii. 281

Isthmian games, i. 86

Italy, vintage custom in, ii. 133

Ivy Girl, i. 153

Jabme-Aimo, the abode of the dead, ii. 257

Jackal, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Jackal’s heart not eaten, ii. 141

Jacob, the wrestling of, ii. 264

—— of Edessa, 280 _n._

Jaguars eaten to inspire courage, ii. 140;
souls of dead in, 285, 286

Ja-luo, the, Nilotic negroes, ii. 142

Jankari, a god, i. 244

Japan, rice-god in, i. 297

Japanese deities of the Sun, i. 212

_Jatakas_, ii. 299 _n._ 5

Java, use of winnowing-basket in, i. 6;
ceremony at rice-harvest in, 199 _sqq._

Jawbones of slain beasts propitiated by hunters, ii. 244 _sq._

Jebel-Nuba, ii. 221

Jewish high priest, ii. 27

Jews, their attitude to the pig, ii. 23 _sq._;
their ablutions, 27

Jochelson, W., ii. 232

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, ii. 322

Jukos, the, of Nigeria, ii. 160

_Julbuck_ in Scandinavia, ii. 327

Jumping over a woman, ceremony of, ii. 64, 70 _n._ 1, 253

Jupiter, lamb sacrificed to, at vintage, ii. 133

Kachins, the, of Upper Burma, ii. 120

Kai, the, of German New Guinea, i. 99 _sqq._, 313, ii. 33;
their belief in transmigration, 296

Kaimani Bay, i. 123

Kalamantans of Borneo, ii. 293 _sq._

Kalmucks, their consecration of a white ram, ii. 313 _sq._

Kamilaroi, the, of New South Wales, ii. 151, 162;
burial custom of the, 99 _sq._

Kamtchatka, ii. 195

Kamtchatkans, the, i. 315, ii. 257, 268;
their propitiation of slain animals, 222

_Kamui_, ii. 180, 198

Kandhs or Khonds. _See_ Khonds

Kangean archipelago, ii. 278

Kansas Indians, ii. 149

Karels of Finland, the, ii. 258 _n._ 2

Karens of Burma, i. 10;
their ceremonies to secure the rice-soul, 189 _sq._

Karo-Bataks of Sumatra, i. 196

Karoks of California, ii. 255

_Kashim_, ii. 247

Kaua Indians, i. 111

Kavirondo, ii. 26

Kayans or Bahaus, the, of central Borneo, i. 92 _sqq._, 107, 109, 111,
234, 314, ii. 54;
their ceremonies in connexion with rice, 184 _sqq._;
their custom as to eating deer, ii. 144;
their belief in transmigration, 293

—— of the Mahakam river, i. 186

—— of the Mendalam river, i. 97, 98

Kei Islands, ii. 123

Kekchis of Guatemala, ii. 241

_Kelah_, soul, i. 189

_Kemping_, i. 152

Kent, harvest custom in, i. 153

Kenyahs, the, of Borneo, i. 314

Key of the field, i. 226

Khön-ma, a Tibetan goddess, ii. 96

Khonds or Kandhs, human sacrifices for crops among the, i. 245 _sqq._

Kid, surname of Dionysus, i. 17

Kikuyu, i. 317

Killing a god in the form of an animal, i. 22 _sq._;
two types of the custom of, ii. 312 _sq._

—— the corn-spirit, i. 216 _sqq._

—— the divine animal, ii. 169 _sqq._

Kimbunda, the, of West Africa, ii. 152

King, title of Carnival mummer, i. 28 _sq._;
eats of new fruits before his people, ii. 63, 70;
first-fruits presented to the, 109, 116, 122;
so called, at Carcassone, 320 _sq._

—— of the Calf, i. 290

—— of the harvesters, i. 294

—— of the Rice, i. 197

King’s son sacrificed for his father, i. 13, 24 _sq._

Kings, trace of custom of slaying them annually, i. 254 _sq._;
turned at death into lions, ii. 288

Kings’ wives turned at death into leopards, ii. 288

Kingsmill Islands, ii. 127

Kinross, harvest custom in, i. 227

Kinship of men with crocodiles, ii. 212 _sq._, 214 _sq._;
of men with tigers, 216

_Kirn_ or _kern_, last corn cut, i. 151, 152 _sqq._;
name of the harvest-supper, 158

—— -baby, i. 151, 153

—— -doll, i. 151, 153, 154

—— -supper, i. 154

Kiwaii, i. 106

Kiziba, district of Central Africa, i. 118, ii. 219

_Klöppel_ (mallet), at threshing, i. 148

Kobeua Indians, the, i. 111, ii. 164

Kochs of Assam, ii. 116

Kon-Meney, a tribe of Cochin China, ii. 291

_Koragia_ at Mantinea, i. 46 _n._ 2

_Kore_, title of Persephone, i. 208

Koryak, their ceremonies at killing bears and wolves, ii. 223;
their ceremonies at the slaughter of whales, 232 _sqq._;
their treatment of a slain fox, 244

Kothluwalawa, a sacred lake, ii. 179

Krooben, a malevolent spirit, ii. 100

Kruyt, A. C., i. 182 _sq._

Kshetrpal, a Himalayan deity, ii. 117

Kudulu, a hill tribe of India, i. 244

_Kuker_ and _Kukerica_, ii. 332, 333, 334

Κυκεών, i. 161 _n._ 4

Kukis, the, ii. 155 _n._ 4

Kull Gossaih, an Indian goddess, ii. 118

Kwakiutl Indians, i. 20, ii. 220, 250

La Ciotat, near Marseilles, hunting the wren at, ii. 321

Ladakh, ii. 117

Lagos, human sacrifice at, i. 239

Lake-dwellers of Europe, i. 132

Lamb killed sacramentally, ii. 314 _sq._

Lame, woman who pretends to be, ii. 254

—— Goat, the, i. 284

Lamentations, pretended, for insects which destroy the crops, ii. 279
_sq._

Lampsacus, coin of, i. 44

Land cleared for cultivation by men, i. 113 _sq._, 117 _sqq._

Landowners, sacrifices offered to spirits of former, i. 228

Lang, Andrew, ii. 4

Language of animals acquired by eating serpent’s flesh, ii. 146;
of birds, how learned, 146

Lanuvium, sacred serpent at, ii. 18

Laos, province of Siam, i. 8

Laphystian Zeus, i. 25

Lapps, the, ii. 257;
their treatment of slain bears, 224

Latuka, ii. 228

_Laws of Manu_, ii. 298

Leaf-clad dancers, i. 95

Leaps, high and long, i. 98;
to make the crops grow tall, ii. 330 _sq._

Learchus, son of Athamas, i. 24

Leeches, charm against, ii. 281

Legends told as charms, i. 102 _sq._

Lenaeon, a Greek month, i. 66

Lengua Indians of Paraguay, i. 309;
of the Gran Chaco, ii. 245

Lenormant, François, i. 40 _n._ 3

Leonard, Major A. G., ii. 155

Leopard’s blood drunk, or its flesh or heart eaten to make the eater
brave, ii. 141 _sq._

Leopards, men inspired by, ii. 213;
revered, 228;
ceremonies observed after the slaughter of, 228 _sqq._;
souls of dead in, 288, 289

Lepers sacrificed, i. 261

Leprosy caused by eating a sacred animal, ii. 25 _sqq._

Lesbos, harvest custom in, i. 280

Letts, swinging among the, i. 107;
their sacrifices to wolves, ii. 284

Lhoosai, the, i. 122

Lhota Naga, the, i. 243

Libanius, on human life before Demeter, i. 43

Libations of beer, ii. 181, 185, 186

Liber, Father, i. 12;
Roman sacrifice of new wine to, ii. 133

License, periods of, ii. 62, 63, 66 _sqq._

Lightning, eating flesh of bullock that has been struck by, ii. 161;
treatment of men, animals, and houses that have been struck by, 161

_Liknites_, epithet of Dionysus, i. 5, 27

Lillooet Indians, ii. 226, 243

Limping on one foot, i. 232, 284

Lindus in Rhodes, ii. 85

Linus or Ailinus, i. 216, 257 _sq._, 263, 264

Lion-chief, ii. 228

Lion’s fat, unguent of, ii. 164

—— flesh or heart eaten to make eater brave, ii. 141, 142 _sq._, 147

Lions, men inspired by, ii. 213;
respected, 228;
souls of dead chiefs in, 287 _sq._

Lir majoran, god of husbandry, ii. 123

Lithuania, ii. 327;
harvest customs in, i. 133, 145, 148;
custom at threshing in, 223 _sq._;
old Lithuanian ceremonies at eating the new corn, ii. 49 _sq._

Little Deer, chief of the deer tribe, ii. 241

—— Wood-woman, i. 232

Lityerses, i. 216 _sqq._;
his relation to Attis, 255 _sq._

Liver of deer eaten, ii. 143;
of dog eaten to acquire bravery, 145;
of serpent eaten to acquire language of animals, 146;
regarded as the seat of the soul, 147 _sq._;
regarded as the seat of valour, 148;
of brave men eaten, 151 _sq._;
of bear, used as medicine, 187 _sq._

_Ljeschie_, Russian wood-spirits, ii. 2

Loaf made of corn of last sheaf, i. 148 _sq._

Loaves in shape of a boar, i. 300;
in human shape, ii. 48 _sq._, 94, 95

Lobeck, Chr. A., ii. 17 _n._ 5, 18 _n._ 1, 20, 21

Lochaber, harvest customs in, i. 157

Locust Apollo, ii. 282

—— Hercules, ii. 282

Locusts, superstitious precautions against, ii. 276, 279, 281

Lombok, rice-spirit in, i. 201

Lothringen (Lorraine), harvest customs in, i. 223, 273, 288

Loucheux-Indians, ii. 265

Louisiana, festival of new corn in, ii. 77 _sqq._;
Indians of, 239, 242

Lous, a Macedonian month, i. 258, 259

Lucian, old scholium on, ii. 17

_Lumi lali_, consecrated rice-field, i. 93, 108

Lunar calendar corrected by observation of the Pleiades, i. 314 _sq._, 315
_sq._

—— months observed by savages, i. 117, 125

—— months of Greek calendar, i. 52 _sq._, 82

—— and solar time, attempts to harmonise, i. 80 _sq._

Luritcha tribe of Australia, ii. 260

Luzon, ii. 124

Lyceum or Place of Wolves at Athens, ii. 283, 284

Lycosura, in Arcadia, ii. 46;
sanctuary of the two goddesses at, 339

Lycurgus, a Thracian king, his death, i. 24, 25

Mabuaig, i. 106, ii. 207

M’Carthy, Sir Charles, ii. 149

Macdonald, Rev. James, ii. 66 _sq._

Maclagan, Dr. R. C., i. 165, 166

McClintock, Walter, i. 311

Macpherson, Major S. C., i. 250

McTaggart, Dr. J. McT. Ellis, ii. 309 _n._ 1

Madagascar, ii. 116;
crocodiles respected in, 214 _sq._;
belief in transmigration among the tribes of, 289 _sq._

Madder-harvest, Dutch custom at, i. 231, 235 _sq._

Madi or Moru tribe of Central Africa, ii. 314

Madonna, effigies of, sold and eaten, ii. 94

Maggots eaten as an initiatory rite, ii. 141

Magic dwindles into divination, i. 110 _n._;
sympathetic, 1, 11, 102, ii. 271;
homoeopathic or imitative, i. 10, 62, 262, 267, 331, 333, 334;
of a flesh diet, 138 _sqq._

Magical changes of shape, i. 305

—— significance of games in primitive agriculture, i. 92 _sqq._

Magnesia on the Maeander, i. 3;
sacrifice of bull at, ii. 7 _sq._

Magpies’ nests, custom of robbing the, ii. 321 _n._ 3

Magyar tale, ii. 263

Mahakam River, i. 98, 99 _n._ 1, 186, 187, 314

Mai Darat, the, ii. 102

Maiden, name given to last corn cut, i. 150, 153, 155 _sqq._, 164 _sqq._

—— Feast at end of harvest, i. 156

Maidenhead, name of last standing corn, i. 158

_Maidhdean-buain_, i. 155

Maize cultivated in Africa, i. 114, 115, 119, 130;
cultivated in South America, 122, 124;
cultivated in Assam, 123;
American personification of, 171 _sqq._;
cultivated in Burma, 242;
thought to be dependent on the Pleiades, 310

—— -goddess, Mexican, i. 176

—— -mother, i. 172 _sqq._

Makalaka, the, ii. 110

Makanga, the, ii. 287

Malagasy, the, venerate crocodiles, ii. 215

Malas, the, a caste of pariahs, ii. 93

Malay Peninsula, the Rice-mother in the, i. 197 _sqq._

Malays of Patani Bay, ii. 212

Male organ, effigy of, in rites of Dionysus, i. 12;
effigy of, in Thracian ceremony, 26, 29

Malko-Tirnovsko, ii. 331

Mamilian tower, ii. 42, 44

Mandans, the, i. 204

Mandeling, a district of Sumatra, i. 197, ii. 216

Maneros, i. 215, 258, 259, 261, 263, 264

Mang-Shen, god of agriculture, ii. 11, 12

Mango tree, ii. 119

Mania, the Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts, ii. 94, 96

_Maniae_, a kind of loaf, ii. 94

Manii at Aricia, many, ii. 94 _sqq._

Manioc cultivated in Africa, i. 119;
cultivated in South America, 120 _sqq._

Mannewars, the, ii. 119

Mannhardt, W., i. 11, 131, 132, 135, 138, 204, 217 _n._ 1, 218 _n._ 1,
222, 258, 292, 294, ii. 2, 42 _n._ 1, 263, 325, 337

Manslayers taste the blood of their victims, ii. 154 _sq._

Mantinea, sanctuary of Demeter at, i. 46 _n._ 2;
games in honour of Antinous at, 80, 85

_Manu, Laws of_, ii. 298

Manure, ashes used as, i. 117

Many Manii at Aricia, ii. 94 _sqq._

Maoris, the, i. 313, ii. 133, 156, 252

Maraves, the, ii. 111

March, the first of, ii. 322 _n._

Mare in foal, last sheaf of corn given to, i. 160, 162, 168

—— or horse, corn-spirit as, i. 292 _sqq._

Marimos, human sacrifices among the, i. 240, 251

Mariner, W., quoted, ii. 128 _sqq._

Marno, E., ii. 39

Marriage, mock, at Carnival masquerade, i. 27;
of Queen of Athens to Dionysus, 30 _sq._;
sacred, of Zeus and Demeter in Eleusinian mysteries, 65 _sqq._;
of mice, ii. 278

Mars, red-haired men sacrificed to the planet, i. 261 _sq._;
horse sacrificed to, at Rome, ii. 42

Masai, the, i. 317, ii. 83, 288

Masked dances, i. 95 _sq._, 111, 186, ii. 208 _n._ 1;
in ritual, 339

Masks worn by Egyptian kings, i. 260 _sq._;
worn by women, ii. 232 _sq._, 234;
worn by mummers at Carnival, 333

Maskers in Thrace at Carnival, i. 26 _sqq._

Maspero, Sir G., i. 260 _n._ 2

Masquerade at sowing festival, i. 95 _sq._, 98, 186 _sq._

Master of the Fish, ii. 252

—— of Life, ii. 134, 135

Matabelé, the, i. 115, ii. 275;
their festival of new fruits, 70 _sq._

Matse tribe of Ewe negroes, ii. 115

Matthes, Dr. B. F., ii. 122

Mausolus, ii. 158

Mawu Sodza, a Ewe goddess, ii. 115

May, J. D., ii. 281 _n._ 2

May, the first of, ii. 321 _n._ 3

Maypole, ii. 44

“Meal and ale,” i. 160

Meat and milk, dietary rules as to, ii. 83 _sq._

Mecklenburg, harvest customs in, i. 273, 274, 283

Medea and Aeson, ii. 143

Medicine-man, ii. 217, 220;
dance of, 72

Medium inspired by crocodile spirit, ii. 213;
mediums inspired by spirits of lions, leopards, and serpents, 213

Medontids, the, i. 86

_Megara_, ii. 17 _n._ 6

Meilichios, epithet of Dionysus, i. 4

Melancholy, characteristic of men of genius, ii. 302 _n._ 5

Melanesians, their observation of the Pleiades, i. 313

_Mell_, last corn cut, i. 151 _sq._

—— -doll, i. 151

—— -sheaf, i. 151 _sq._

—— -supper, i. 151

Men, parts of, eaten to acquire their qualities, ii. 148 _sqq._;
disguised as animals, processions of, 325 _sqq._

Mendalam River, i. 97, 98, 187

Menstruous women, disability of, ii. 253 _sq._

Meriah, the human victim among the Khonds, i. 245, 246, 249, 250

Metageitnion, an Attic month, i. 77

“Metropolis of the Corn,” i. 58

Mexican custom of eating a man as an embodiment of a god, ii. 92 _sq._

—— customs at maize-harvest, i. 174 _sqq._

—— human sacrifices, i. 236 _sqq._

—— sacraments, ii. 86 _sqq._

Meyer, Prof. E., i. 260 _n._ 2

_Mhaighdean-Bhuana_ (or _Maighdean-Buana_), i. 156, 164 _sq._

Miamis, the, i. 206

Mice, the genius of, ii. 243;
superstitious precautions taken by farmers against, 276 _sqq._, 281;
superstition as to white, 279, 283;
their ravages on the crops, 282

Midas, King of Phrygia, i. 217

Middleton, J. H., i. 14 _n._ 3, 266

Midsummer solstice, rainmaking ceremony performed at the, ii. 179

Mildew worshipped by the Romans, ii. 282

—— Apollo, ii. 282

Milk, taboos referring to, ii. 83 _sq._;
temporary abstinence from, 161;
offered to snakes, 288

Milk and meat (flesh), dietary rules as to, ii. 83 _sq._

—— of pig, ii. 24, 25

Mill, Tammuz, ground in a, i. 258

Millet cultivated in Africa, i. 115, 117;
cultivated in Assam, 123;
cultivated in New Guinea, 123

Milton, quoted, i. 147

Minahassa, ii. 54, 123

Minangkabauers of Sumatra, i. 191, ii. 211

Miniature fields dedicated to spirits, i. 233 _sq._

Minnetaree Indians, i. 204, ii. 256

Minotaur, the, i. 31

Miris of Assam, the, i. 123, ii. 145

Mirzapur, remedy for locusts in, ii. 276

Mistress, sanctuary of the, at Lycosura, ii. 46

Mithraic sacrifice of bull, ii. 10

Mnevis, sacred bull, ii. 34 _sq._

Moab, Arabs of, i. 138

Mock battle, ii. 75.
_See_ Sham Fight

Mocobis, the, i. 309

Moffat, R., i. 316

Monbuttoo, the, of Central Africa, i. 119

_Mondard_, the great, ii. 6

Mongolian peoples, ii. 257

Monkeys sacred at Fishtown, ii. 287

Months, lunar, observed by savages, i. 117, 125;
of Greek calendar, 52 _sq._, 82

Moon, reckoning by the, i. 117;
human victims sacrificed to, 261;
pigs sacrificed to the, ii. 25

Mooney, J., quoted, ii. 204 _sq._

Mopane country, South Africa, ii. 287

Moravia, harvest custom in, i. 162

Morgan, L. H., ii. 225 _n._ 1

Morning Star, the, i. 238, 315

Morocco, order of saints in, i. 21;
the Barley Bride in, 178 _sq._

Mosquito Indians, ii. 258 _n._ 2

Mother, the Great, name given to the last sheaf, i. 135 _sq._;
of the Maize, 172 _sqq._;
of the Rice, 191 _sqq._

—— -corn, name given to last sheaf threshed, i. 147

—— -cotton, i. 178

—— Earth, ii. 105

—— -sheaf, i. 135

Moulton, Professor J. H., i. 41 _n._, 131 _n._ 4

Mountains, offerings to the, ii. 134

Mourning, pretended, for insects that destroy the crops, ii. 279 _sq._

Mouse Apollo, ii. 282 _sq._
_See_ Mice

Mouth of dead fox tied up, ii. 267

Mpongwe, the, i. 119

Muganda (singular of Baganda, plural), ii. 231

Mukasa, god of the Baganda, ii. 253

Mull, harvest custom in, i. 155

_Mulungu_, spirits of the dead, ii. 111 _sq._

Murray, Miss Margaret A., i. 260 _sq._

Murray, Sir James, i. 151 _n._ 3

Muskoghees, the, ii. 150

Mutilation of dead men intended to disable their ghosts, ii. 271 _sqq._;
of ox, magical equivalent to mutilation of enemy, 271

_Muzimos_, spirits of the dead, ii. 111

Myconus, i. 66

Myres, Professor J. L., i. 62 _n._ 5

Mysteries at Mantinea, i. 46 _n._ 2

—— Eleusinian, i. 35, 37 _sqq._, 65 _sqq._, 69 _sq._, 78 _sq._, 111, 161
_sq._, 188;
the Great, their date, 51;
instituted by Eumolpus, 70;
associated with belief in immortality, 90 _sq._;
of Dionysus, 15;
Greek, i. 110

Nagas of Assam, their burial custom, ii. 100;
their belief in transmigration, 290 _sq._

Nahals, the, ii. 119

Namaquas, the, ii. 141

Nandi, the, i. 117, 317, ii. 64, 149, 155

_Nanga_, sacred enclosure in Fiji, ii. 125

Naples protected against flies and grasshoppers, ii. 281

Narrative spells, i. 104 _sqq._

Natchez Indians, ii. 135;
their festival of new corn, 77 _sqq._

Natural timekeepers, i. 53

Nauras Indians, ii. 150

Navel-string, term applied to last handful of corn, i. 150

Neck, crying the, i. 264 _sqq._

—— of the corn-spirit, i. 268

Neil, R. A., ii. 22 _n._ 4

Nemean games, i. 86

Nets treated as living beings, ii. 240 _n._ 1

New corn, eaten sacramentally, ii. 48 _sqq._

—— fire, ii. 65, 74, 75, 78;
festival of, 135

—— fruits, ceremonies at eating, ii. 52 _sqq._

—— potatoes, how eaten, ii. 51

—— rice, ceremonies at eating the, ii. 54 _sqq._

—— vessels used for new fruits, ii. 81, 83

—— yams, ceremonies at eating, ii. 53, 58 _sqq._;
festival of the, 115;
in Tonga, festival of the, 128 _sqq._

—— Britain, i. 123

—— Caledonia, ii. 151;
ceremony at eating first yams in, 53

—— Guinea, i. 313, ii. 124;
German, i. 99, 103, 104;
Dutch, 123

—— Hebrides, i. 313, ii. 125

—— Zealand, ii. 28

New Year festival of the Kayans, i. 96 _sq._, 98, 99;
dated by the Pleiades, 116, 310, 312, 315

—— Year’s Day, i. 302;
eve of, ii. 322

Niam-Niam, the, i. 119

Nias, i. 315, ii. 32, 102, 124, 276;
harvest custom in, i. 233 _sq._

Nicaragua, festivals in, ii. 91

Nicolson, A., i. 164 _sq._

Nieuwenhuis, Dr. A. W., i. 93, 94 _n._ 2, 95, 96, 97 _sq._, 98, 107

Niger Delta, burial custom in the, ii. 98

Nilsson, Professor M. P., i. 58 _n._ 1, 62 _n._ 6, ii. 8 _n._ 2

Nine, the number, in ritual, i. 195

Nisan, a Jewish month, i. 259 _n._ 1

Nishga Indians, the, ii. 106

Nonnus, on death of Dionysus, i. 12 _sq._

Nootka Indians, ii. 225, 251

Normandy, harvest customs in, i. 226, 295

North American Indians, ii. 237;
their theory of the lower animals, 205 _sq._

Northumberland, harvest customs in, i. 151

Norway, harvest customs in, i. 132, 223, 225, 280, 282

Nubas, the, of Jebel-Nuba, ii. 114

Nuehr, the, ii. 39

Nyanja-speaking tribes, ii. 26

Nyanza, Lake Victoria, i. 118

Nyikplă, a negro rain-god, ii. 45

Oath of women by the Pleiades, i. 311

Oaths accompanied by eating a sacred substance, ii. 313

Oats-bride, i. 162, 163, 164

—— -cow, i. 289, 290

—— -fool, i. 148

—— -goat, i. 270, 282, 283, 286, 287;
mummer called the, ii. 327

—— -king, i. 164

—— -man, i. 163, 223

—— -mother, i. 135

—— -queen, i. 164

—— -sow, i. 298

—— -stallion, i. 292

—— -wolf, i. 273, 274

—— -woman, i. 163

Obscene songs sung by women on special occasions, ii. 280

Octennial cycle in Greek calendar, i. 80 _sqq._

—— period of Greek games, i. 80

—— tenure of kingship, i. 82, 85

October horse, at Rome, ii. 42 _sqq._

Oesel, island of, i. 298, 302, ii. 51

Ogun, a war-god, ii. 150

Oil, human victim anointed with, i. 246, 247;
holy, ii. 123

Ointment, magical, ii. 165 _sq._

Ojibway Indians, ii. 219;
their treatment of slain bears, ii. 225 _sq._

Okanaken Indians, ii. 134

Olachen fish, ceremonies at catching the first of the season, ii. 254
_sq._

Old animal, bone of, eaten to make eater old, ii. 143

—— Barley-woman, i. 139

—— Calabar, ii. 108

—— Corn-woman at threshing, i. 147

—— Man, name given to the last sheaf, i. 136 _sqq._, 218 _sqq._;
at threshing, 148 _sq._

—— Potato Woman, i. 145

—— Rye-woman, i. 139, 140, 145, 223, 224, 232

—— Wheat-woman, i. 139

—— Wife (_Cailleach_), name given to last corn cut, i. 140 _sqq._, 164
_sqq._

—— Witch, burning the, i. 224

—— Woman, name given to last sheaf, i. 136 _sq._, 147, 223;
Cherokee personification of corn, 177

—— Woman who Never Dies, i. 204 _sq._

—— Women as representatives of the Corn-goddess, i. 125

Oloh Ngadju, the, ii. 100

Olympia, Pelops at, ii. 85

Olympiads, beginning of reckoning by, i. 82

Olympic games, i. 80, 86

Omagua Indians of Brazil, i. 309

Omaha Indians, ii. 25, 29, 207, 269, 272

Omambos, the, ii. 149

Omen, beasts and birds of, ii. 143

_Omuongo_ tree, ii. 71

Onitsha, on the Niger, ii. 58;
funeral custom at, 98 _sq._

Opium, i. 242

Oraons, human sacrifices among the, i. 244 _sq._;
of Bengal, ii. 117

Organs of generation, male and female, cakes in shape of, i. 62;
effigies of male, 12, 26, 29

Origin of agriculture, i. 128 _sq._;
of astronomy, 307

Orinoco, Indians of the, i. 124, 310, ii. 150, 236

Orion, the constellation, i. 315

Orion’s belt, i. 313, 315, 317

—— sword, i. 317

Orotchis, bear-festivals of the, ii. 197

Osculati, G., ii. 285

Osiris, i. 214, 215, 259 _sqq._;
his relation to Dionysus, 3, 32;
human sacrifices at grave of, 260;
black and green, 263;
key to mysteries of, 263;
and the pig, ii. 24 _sqq._;
in relation to sacred bulls, 34 _sqq._;
false graves of, 100;
his missing member, 264

Ostiaks, their ceremonies at killing bears, ii. 222 _sq._

Ostrich, ghost of, deceived, ii. 245

Otawa Indians, ii. 224, 250

Otawa totem clans, ii. 225 _n._ 1

Otter’s head, Aino custom as to eating, ii. 144

Otters, their bones not allowed to be gnawed by dogs, ii. 239

Ounce, ceremony at killing an, ii. 235

Ovambo, the, ii. 71;
their worship of the dead, 109 _sq._

Ox, corn-spirit as, i. 288 _sqq._;
killed on harvest field, 290;
slaughtered at threshing, 291 _sq._;
sacrificed at the _Bouphonia_, ii. 5;
as representative of the corn-spirit, 9 _sqq._;
effigy of, broken as a spring ceremony in China, 10 _sqq._;
Bechuana sacrifice of a black, 271;
sacrificed to boa-constrictor, 290

—— -stall (Bucolium) at Athens, i. 30 _sq._

—— -yoked Ploughing at Athens, i. 31

Oxen used in ploughing, i. 129 _n._ 1

Pains in back at reaping, i. 285

Palenques, the, of South America, ii. 221

Palestine, wild boars in, ii. 31 _sq._

Panathenaic games at Athens, i. 80

_Panes_, a bird-feast, ii. 170

Panopeus, i. 48

Pans in relation to goats, ii. 1 _sqq._

Papuans, the, i. 123, ii. 145;
their belief in the transmigration of souls, 295

_Paradoxurus_, souls of dead in various species of, ii. 294

Pardon of animal asked before killing it, ii. 183

Parian chronicler, i. 70

Paris protected against dormice and serpents, ii. 281

Parjas, the, ii. 27, 119

Parrots, assimilation of men to, ii. 208

Partridge, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Pasiphae and the Minotaur, i. 31

Pastoral stage of society, ii. 35, 37

—— tribes, animal sacraments among, ii. 313

Patani Bay, ii. 212

Pawnees, human sacrifices among the, i. 238 _sq._

Peacock as a totem, ii. 29;
transmigration of sinner into, 299

Pea-mother, i. 132, 135

Peas-cow, i. 290

—— -pug, i. 272

Pelew Islanders, ii. 293

—— Islands, burial custom in the, ii. 98

Pelops at Olympia, ii. 85;
his restoration to life, 263

Pembrokeshire, harvest customs in, i. 142 _sqq._;
cutting “the neck” in, 267;
hunting the wren in, ii. 320

Pentheus, death of, i. 24, 25

Pergamus, ii. 85

Permanence of simpler forms of religion, ii. 335

Persephone, mother of Zagreus by Zeus, i. 12;
rape of, 36;
a personification of the corn, 39 _sq._;
in art, 43 _sq._;
the descent of, 46, ii. 17;
associated with the ripe ears of corn, 58;
in Greek art, 88 _sq._

—— and Demeter, i. 35 _sqq._

—— and Pluto, ii. 9

Personification of corn as mother and daughter, i. 130, 207 _sqq._

Perthshire, harvest customs in, i. 156 _sq._

Peru, Indians of, i. 120, 122, ii. 249;
their worship of the Pleiades, i. 310

Peruvians, their customs as to Mother of Maize, etc., i. 171 _sqq._

Pessinus, i. 255

Phigalia, horse-headed Demeter of, ii. 21, 338

Philippine Islands, i. 240

Philistines, their charm against mice, ii. 281, 283

Philochorus, on date of _Haloa_, i. 62

Phlius, i. 17

Phoenicia, song of Linus in, i. 216

Phrygia, Lityerses in, i. 216 _sq._

_Phyllanthus emblica_, ii. 119

Piaroas Indians of the Orinoco, ii. 285

Pig, corn-spirit as, i. 298 _sqq._;
in relation to Demeter, ii. 16 _sqq._;
not eaten in Crete, 21 _n._ 1;
in ancient Egypt, 24 _sqq._

—— and Attis, ii. 22

—— -meat forbidden to women at sowing seed, i. 115

Pig’s flesh not eaten by field labourers, ii. 33, 139

Pigeons, souls of dead in, ii. 293

Pigs, sacrifice of, i. 74, 97;
not to be eaten by enchanters of crops, 100 _sq._;
sacrificed to the moon, ii. 25;
souls of dead in, 286, 295, 296

_Pilae,_ human effigies, ii. 95 _n._ 1

Pindar, old scholiast on, i. 71, 74, 77, 78;
on rebirth, 84

Pine-tree, sacred to Dionysus, i. 4

Piros Indians of Peru, ii. 286

_Pirua,_ granary of maize, i. 171 sqq.

Plaiting the last standing corn before cutting it, i. 142, 144, 153, 154,
157, 158

Plane-tree, Dionysus in, i. 3

Planets, human victims sacrificed to, i. 261 _sq._

Plants thought to be animated by spirits, ii. 82 _sq._

Plataea, Eleutherian games at, i. 80, 85

Plato and the doctrine of transmigration, ii. 308

Playfair, Major A., ii. 337

Pleiades, autumnal setting of, i. 45;
morning rising of, the signal for reaping in Greece, 48 _sq._;
in primitive calendars, 116, 307 _sqq._;
associated with the rainy season, 318

Pliny, on the setting of the Pleiades, i. 318

Plough in relation to Dionysus, i. 5;
in primitive agriculture, 113

—— Monday, i. 33;
rites of, ii. 325 _sqq._;
English celebration of, 329 _sqq._

Ploughing at Carnival, ceremony of, i. 28, 29, 331, 332, 334;
at Athens, sacred ceremony of, 31;
in Greece, season of, 45;
with oxen, 129 _n._ 1;
Chinese ceremony of, ii. 14 _sq._;
ceremonies at, 57

Ploughings, three a year, i. 53 _n._ 1;
Sacred, in Attica, 108

Ploughmen and plough-horses, the Yule Boar given to, i. 301, 303

Plutarch, on a Roman rite, ii. 108;
on immortality, i. 15;
on mourning festival of Demeter, 46;
on sacrifices, ii. 31;
on Apis, 36

Pluto called Subterranean Zeus, i. 66

—— and Persephone, ii. 9;
rude originals of, 334

Plutus, i. 208

Poland, harvest customs in, i. 144, 145, 148, 150, 277

Pollution of death, ii. 85 _n._ 3;
ceremonial, of girl at puberty, 268

Polynesia, observation of the Pleiades in, i. 313

Polynesians, ii. 28

Pomegranates sprung from blood of Dionysus, i. 14

Po-nagar, goddess of agriculture, ii. 56, 57, 58

Pondos, the, ii. 66

Pongal feast, i. 244

Pongol, a Hindoo festival, ii. 56

Pontiffs regulate Roman calendar, i. 83

Poor Old Woman, corn left on field for, i. 231 _sq._

Poppies as symbols of Demeter, i. 43 _sq._

Poppy, the, cultivated for opium, i. 242

Porcupine, a Bechuana totem, ii. 164 _sq._;
respected by some Indians, 243;
transmigration of sinner into, 299

Pork forbidden to enchanters of crops, i. 100 _sq._;
not eaten by field labourers, ii. 33;
reason for not eating, 296

Porphyry, on the _Bouphonia_, ii. 5 _n._ 1

Poseidon, first-fruits sacrificed to, ii. 133

Poso, in Celebes, i. 236, ii. 244

Potato-dog, i. 272 _sq._

—— -mother, i. 172

—— -wolf, i. 274

Potawatomi Indians, ii. 218

Prayer, the Place of, ii. 113

Prayer and spell, i. 105

Prayers to the spirits of the dead, ii. 112, 113, 124 _sq._;
addressed to dead animals, 184, 197, 224, 225, 226, 235, 236, 243, 253,
293;
to shark-idol, 292

Preachers to fish, ii. 250 _sq._

Pretence made by reapers of mowing down visitors to the harvest-field, i.
229 _sq._

Priest, chief acting as, ii. 126

Priests, first-fruits belong to, ii. 125;
of Tetzcatlipoca, ii. 165;
of shark-idols, 292

Primitive ritual, marks of, i. 169

Proarcturia, a Greek festival, i. 51

Processions with sacred animals, ii. 316 _sqq._;
of men disguised as animals, 325 _sqq._

Proclus on Dionysus, i. 13

_Proerosia_, a Greek festival of Demeter, i. 50 _sqq._, 60, 108

Prophecy, spirit of, acquired by eating certain food, ii. 143

Propitiation of wild animals by hunters, ii. 204 _sqq._;
of vermin by farmers, 274 _sqq._

Prussia, harvest customs in, i. 136, 137, 139, 150 _sq._, 209, 219, 280,
281 _sq._, 288, 292

Prussians, the old, ii. 133;
their custom at sowing, i. 288

Pruyssenaere, E. de, ii. 38 _sq._

Psylli, a Snake clan, ii. 174

Puberty, ceremonial pollution of girl at, ii. 268

Pueblo Indians, i. 312

_Pul_, an astrologer, i. 125 _sq._

Pulse cultivated in Bengal, i. 123

_Puplem_, general council, i. 125

Puppet made out of last sheaf, i. 137, 138, 231;
at threshing, 148, 149;
at harvest, 150;
representing the corn-spirit, 224

Puppets of rushes thrown into the Tiber, ii. 107

Purest person cuts the last corn, i. 158

Purification, ceremonies of, i. 9;
before partaking of new fruits, ii. 59, 60, 63, 69 _sq._, 71, 73, 75
_sq._, 82, 83;
for slaughter of a serpent, 219 _sq._;
by fire, 249;
before eating the first salmon, 253

Pyanepsia, an Attic festival, i. 52

Pyanepsion, an Attic month, i. 46, 52, 116

Pythagoras, his reincarnations, ii. 263;
his doctrine of transmigration, 300, 301

Pythian games, i. 80

Python clan, ii. 174

Quadriennial period of Greek games, i. 77 _sqq._

Quail, cry of, i. 295;
corn-spirit as, 295 _sq._

Queen of Athens married to Dionysus, i. 30 _sq._;
of the Corn-ears, 146;
name given to last sheaf, 146

—— Charlotte Islands, ii. 226

Quetzalcoatl, a Mexican god, ii. 90

Quiches, the, of Central America, ii. 134

Quinoa-mother, i. 172

Quixos Indians, ii. 285

Race of reapers to last sheaf, i. 291;
on harvest-field, 137

Races at harvest, i. 76 _sq._;
in connexion with agriculture, 98.
_See_ Horse-races

Rain, prayer for, at Eleusis, i. 69;
supposed to be given by the spirits of dead chiefs, ii. 109

—— -charm, i. 134, 170, 250, 252, 268

Rainless Greek summer, i. 69

Rains, autumnal, in Greece, i. 52

Rajamahall, in Bengal, ii. 118, 217

Rakelimalaza, a Malagasy god, ii. 46

Ram sacrificed to Ammon, ii. 41;
killing the sacred, 172 _sqq._;
consecration of a white, 313

Ram’s skull, ii. 96

Rams’ horns, ii. 117

Rape of Persephone, i. 66

Rarian Plain at Eleusis, i. 36, 70, 74, 108, 234, ii. 15

Raspberries, wild, ceremony at gathering the first, ii. 80 _sq._

Rat, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Rats, superstitious precautions of farmers against, ii. 277, 278, 283

Rattles in myth and ritual of Dionysus, i. 13, 15

Rattlesnakes respected by the North American Indians, ii. 217 _sqq._

Ravens respected by Sudanese negroes, ii. 221

Reapers, contests between, i. 136, 140, 141, 142, 144, 152, 153 _sqq._,
164 _sq._, 219, 253;
blindfolded, 144, 153 _sq._;
special words used by, 193;
pretend to mow down visitors to harvest-field, 229 _sq._;
cries of, 263 _sqq._;
race of, to last corn, 291

Reaping, Indonesian mode of, i. 181 _sq._, 184;
contests in, 218 _sqq._;
pains in back at, 285

Rebirth of the dead, i. 84

Red and black, faces of bear-hunters painted, ii. 226

—— and white, leopard-hunters painted, ii. 230

—— and yellow, faces of human victims painted, i. 261

Red-haired men sacrificed, i. 260, 261, 263, ii. 34

—— puppies sacrificed, i. 261, ii. 34

Reef Islands, ii. 52

Reincarnation of animals, ii. 247, 249, 250

Reindeer, dogs not allowed to gnaw the leg-bones of, ii. 246

Repulsion and attraction, forces of, ii. 303 _sqq._

Rest for three days, compulsory, ii. 246

Resurrection of the gods, i. 1, 12, 14, 15;
of animals, ii. 200 _sq._, 256 _sqq._;
of fish, 250, 254;
bones of men preserved for the, 259;
in popular tales, 263 _sqq._

Revolving image, ii. 322 _n._

Ribald jests at mysteries, i. 38

Rice cultivated in Assam, i. 123;
cultivated in New Guinea, 123;
soul of, 180 _sqq._;
treated as a woman, 183 _sq._;
King of the, 197;
(paddy), Father and Mother of the, 203 _sq._;
spirituous liquor distilled from, 242;
the new, ceremonies at eating the, ii. 54 _sqq._

—— -bride, i. 199 _sq._

—— -bridegroom, i. 199 _sq._

—— -child, i. 197 _sqq._

—— -fields, sacred, among the Kayans, i. 93, 108

—— -goddess, i. 202

—— -harvest, ceremony of the Horse at, ii. 337 _sqq._

—— -mother, i. 183 _n._ 1, 191 _sqq._, 197 _sqq._;
in the East Indies, 180 _sqq._

—— -soul as bird, i. 182 _n._ 1;
caught or detained, 184 _sqq._

Riddles asked at harvest, i. 194

Ridgeway, Professor W., i. 29 _n._ 2, 65, ii. 282 _n._ 5

Ring, competition for, i. 160

Rites of Plough Monday, ii. 325 _sqq._

Ritual, primitive, marks of, i. 169;
magical or propitiatory, 169, 170

—— of Dionysus, i. 14 _sq._

Robbers, charm used by, i. 235

Rodents, souls of dead in, ii. 291

Rohde, E., i. 91 _n._ 2

Rollo, ii. 146

Roman calendar, i. 83 _sq._

—— deities of the corn, i. 210 _n._ 3

—— sacrifices to Ceres and Liber, ii. 133

Romans worship mildew, ii. 282

Roof, spirits enter through the, ii. 123;
remains of slain bear let down through the, 189 _sq._, 196

Roots and seeds, wild, collected by women, i. 124 _sqq._

Roscher, W. H., ii. 2 _n._ 9

Roscoe, Rev. John, i. 240 _n._ 4

Rotation of crops, i. 117

Rouse, Dr. W. H. D., i. 208 _n._ 1

Rügen, harvest customs in, i. 274

Running, contests in, i. 98

Rush-cutter, i. 230 _n._ 5

Russia, harvest customs in, i. 146, 233

Russian wood-spirits, ii. 2

Rye-beggar, i. 231

—— -boar, i. 298, 300

—— -bride, i. 163

—— -goat, i. 282, 283

—— -mother, i. 132, 135

—— -pug, i. 273

—— -sow, i. 270, 298

—— -wolf, i. 270, 271, 272, 273, 274

—— -woman, i. 223;
the Old, 133

Saa, island of, ii. 127

Sabarios, a Lithuanian festival, ii. 49

Sabazius, i. 2 _n._ 1

Sabbaths, agricultural, i. 109

Sable-hunters, rules observed by, ii. 238

Sacaea, a Babylonian festival, i. 258 _sq._

Sacrament of eating a god, ii. 167

—— of swine’s flesh, ii. 20, 24;
totemic, 165;
types of animal, 310 _sqq._;
of first-fruits, 48 _sqq._;
combined with a sacrifice of them, 86

Sacramental bread, ii. 95

—— character of harvest supper, i. 303

—— eating of corn-spirit in animal form, ii. 20

Sacraments among pastoral tribes, ii. 313

Sacred Marriage at Eleusis, i. 65 _sqq._

—— ploughings in Attica, i. 108

—— things deemed dangerous, ii. 27 _sqq._

—— Women, i. 32

Sacrifice not to be touched, ii. 27;
of first-fruits, 109 _sqq._

Sacrifices, human, for the crops, i. 236 _sqq._;
human, in Mexico, ii. 88;
offered to nets, 240 _n._ 1;
offered to wolves, 284;
to a toad, 291

Sadana, rice-bridegroom, i. 200 _sq._

Sahagun, B. de, i. 175

St. Catherine’s Day, ii. 275

St. George’s Eve, ii. 270

St. Kilda, ii. 322

St. Mary, Isle of, ii. 235

St. Matthew’s Day, ii. 275

St. Nicholas, i. 233

St. Paul on immortality, i. 91

St. Peter’s Day, i. 300

St. Stephen’s Day, ii. 319, 320

Sakalava, the, of Madagascar, ii. 40 _n._

Sale, nominal, of children, i. 8

Salish Indians, ii. 80

Salmon, resurrection of, ii. 250;
ceremonies at catching the first salmon of the season, 253 _sq._, 255

Salt, abstinence from, ii. 75, 93;
use of, forbidden, 190, 195

Salzburg, harvest custom in, i. 146

Samoa, ii. 29

Samoans, their sacrifices of first-fruits, ii. 132

Samoyed, custom after killing a reindeer, ii. 268

San Juan Capistrano, ii. 169;
Indians of, i. 125

Sanctity of the corn, ii. 110

Sandwich Islands, belief in transmigration among natives of the, ii. 292
_sq._

Saning Sari, rice-goddess, i. 191, 192

Sappho, i. 216

Saturnalia, ii. 62, 66

Satyrs in relation to goats, ii. 1 _sqq._

Savage, the, not illogical, ii. 202

—— faith in the immortality of animals, ii. 260 _sqq._

Saxo Grammaticus, ii. 146

Saxons of Transylvania, harvest custom of the, i. 295;
their customs at sowing, ii. 274 _sq._

Saxony, harvest customs in, i. 134, 137, 149, 163, 164

Scanderbeg, Prince of Epirus, ii. 154

Scandinavian custom of the Yule Boar, i. 300 _sqq._

Scarification as a religious rite, ii. 75;
from superstitious motives, 159, 160 _sq._

Scheube, Dr. B., ii. 185, 186, 187

Schleswig, harvest customs in, i. 230, 287

Schrenck, L. von, ii. 191, 192, 193, 194, 195

Schweinfurth, G., ii. 37 _sq._

Science, generalisations of, inadequate to cover all particulars, ii. 37

Scirophorion, a Greek month, ii. 8 _n._ 1

Scorpions, charm against, ii. 281;
souls of dead in, 290

Scotland, harvest customs in, i. 140 _sqq._

Scratching as a religious rite, ii. 75

Scurrilities exchanged between vine-dressers and passers-by, i. 258 _n._ 1

Scurrilous language at mysteries, i. 38

Scythians, set store on heads of enemies, i. 256 _n._ 1

Sea beasts, Esquimau rules as to eating, ii. 84;
their bladders restored to the sea by the Esquimaux, 247 _sqq._

—— -mammals, their mythical origin, ii. 246

Seals, care taken of the bladders and bones of, ii. 247 _sqq._, 257, 258
_n._ 2

Sedna, an Esquimau goddess, ii. 84, 246

Seed sown by women, i. 113 _sqq._;
sown by children, i. 115 _sq._

Seed-corn, i. 135, 205, 278, 301, 304, ii. 20

Seed-rice, i. 189

Seeds and roots, wild, collected by women, i. 124 _sqq._

Seler, Professor E., i. 175

Seligmann, Dr. C. G., ii. 40 _n._

_Sĕmangat_, i. 181, 183

Semele, mother of Dionysus, i. 14, 15

Seminole Indians, ii. 76, 217

Senegambia, Python clan in, ii. 174

Serpent, killing the sacred, ii. 174 _sq._;
ceremonies performed after killing a, 219 _sq._

Serpent’s flesh eaten to learn the language of animals, ii. 146

Serpents, offerings to, ii. 17 _sq._;
men inspired by, 213;
charms against, 281;
souls of the dead in, 291.
_See also_ Snake, Snakes

Set or Typhon, ii. 30.
_See_ Typhon

Seven, the number, in ritual, i. 190, 198

—— months’ child, i. 26, 29

Sham fight, ii. 75

—— fights in connexion with agriculture, i. 98;
(mimic battles) before going forth to war, ii. 207

—— graves and corpses to deceive demons, ii. 98 _sqq._

Shans of Indo-China, i. 243

Shape, magical changes of shape, i. 305

Sharks, ghosts in, ii. 127;
souls of dead in, 292 _sq._, 297

Sheaf, the last, the Corn-mother in, i. 133 _sqq._;
thresher tied up in, 134, 147, 148;
drenched with water, 134, 137, 145;
given to cattle, 134, 155, 158, 161, 170;
stones fastened to, 135 _sq._, 138, 139;
called the Old Woman or Old Man, 136 _sqq._;
corn-spirit caught in, 139;
harvester tied up in, 139, 145, 221, 222;
called the _Cailleach_ (Old Wife), 140 _sqq._;
representative of the corn-spirit, 168, ii. 48;
in Lower Burma, i. 190 _sq._;
person identified with, 138 _sq._;
in India, 222 _sq._, 234 _n._ 2;
race of reapers to, 291.
_See also_ _Clyack_, _Kirn_, _Mell_, Maiden

Sheep not eaten, ii. 140;
ghosts of, dreaded, 231

Sheep-skin, fumigation with, ii. 324

Sheep-skins, candidates at initiation seated on, i. 38

Shells of eggs preserved, ii. 258 _n._ 2

Shifting cultivation, i. 99

Shoulder-blade, divination by, ii. 234

Shropshire, “the neck” in, i. 268;
“crying the Mare” in, 293 _sq._

Shrove Tuesday, i. 300, ii. 326

Shrovetide Bear, ii. 325 _sq._

Shumpaoli, an African god, ii. 110

Shuswap Indians, ii. 226, 238

Siam, ii. 103

Sicilians, Demeter’s gift of corn to the, i. 56 _sq._

Sicily, worship of Demeter and Persephone in, i. 56

Sickles thrown at last standing corn, i. 136, 142, 144, 153, 154, 165

Sickness cured or prevented by effigies, ii. 180 _sqq._

Sicyon, wolves at, ii. 283, 284

Sierra Leone, i. 317

Sieves, children at birth placed in, i. 6 _sqq._

Sigurd and the dragon, ii. 146

Silence enforced during absence of fisher, ii. 256

Silenuses, ii. 1 _sq._

Silesia, harvest customs in, i. 136, 138, 139, 148 _sq._, 163 _sq._, 231,
233, 273, 277, 281, 289

Silvanus, ii. 2

Simbang, village in German New Guinea, ii. 295

Similkameen Indians, the, ii. 146

Sinew of the thigh, customs and myths as to, ii. 264 _sqq._

Sinews of dead men cut to disable their ghosts, ii. 272

Sing Bonga, a sun god, ii. 117

Singleton, Miss A. H., ii. 320 _n._ 1

Sioux girl, sacrifice of, i. 238 _sq._

—— Indians, ii. 150, 243

Skeat, W. W., i. 197 _sq._

Skin of sacrificed animal, uses of, ii. 173 _sq._

—— -disease caused by eating a sacred animal, ii. 25 _sqq._

Skins of sacrificed animals stuffed, 257 _sq._

Skipping-rope, ii. 192

Skull, drinking out of a human, ii. 150

Skulls, human, as protection against powers of evil, i. 241;
the Place of, 243;
spirits of ancestors in their, ii. 123;
of ancestors, offerings set beside, 127;
of bears worshipped, 184;
of enemies destroyed, 260

Sky God, the, i. 69

—— -god Zeus, i. 65

Skye, harvest custom in, i. 284

Slaves of the Earth Gods, ii. 61, 62 _n._ 1

Slavonic peoples, harvest customs among, i. 144 _sqq._

Slayers of leopards, rules of diet observed by, ii. 230 _sq._

Slow-footed animals not eaten by some savage tribes, ii. 139 _sq._;
eaten by preference by the Bushmen, 140 _sq._

Small-pox, cure for, i. 9 _sq._

Smearing the body as a means of imparting certain qualities, ii. 162
_sqq._

—— of blood on worshippers a mode of communion with the deity, ii. 316

Smintheus Apollo, ii. 283

Smith, Professor, G. C., ii. 329

Smith, W. Robertson, i. 259 _n._ 1, ii. 5 _n._ 2, 27 _n._ 5, 31 _n._ 1, 35
_n._ 2, 251 _n._ 5, 266 _n._ 1, 280 _n._

Smoking as a means of inducing state of ecstasy, ii. 72;
in honour of slain bears, 224, 226

—— first tobacco of season, ceremony at, ii. 82

Snake worshipped, ii. 316 _sq._;
white, eaten to acquire supernatural knowledge, 146.
_See_ Serpent

—— -bite, inoculation against, ii. 160

—— -priest, ii. 219

—— tribe, ii. 316, 317

Snake’s tongue as amulet, ii. 270

Snakes respected by the North American Indians, ii. 217 _sqq._;
sacred at Whydah, 287;
souls of dead in, 293, 294 _sq._;
souls of dead princes in, 288

Society, stratification of religion according to types of, ii. 35 _sqq._

—— Islanders, i. 312

Solar and lunar time, attempts to harmonise, i. 80 _sq._

Solomon Islands, ii. 85, 126, 127;
belief in the transmigration of souls in the, 296 _sqq._

Solstice, the midsummer, rain-making ceremony at the, ii. 179

—— the summer, i. 117

—— the winter, ii. 325;
festival of, 90

Solstices observed, i. 125

Somerville, Professor W., i. 193 _n._

Songish or Lkungen tribe of Vancouver Island, ii. 254

Songs of the corn-reapers, i. 214 _sqq._

Sophocles, his play _Triptolemus_, i. 54

Soul thought to be seated in the liver, ii. 147 _sq._

—— of rice, i. 180 _sqq._;
eating the, ii. 54

—— -stuff in the East Indies, i. 182 _sq._

Souls, immortal, attributed by savages, to animals, ii. 204;
of the human dead in caterpillars, 275 _sq._;
transmigration of human, into animals, 285 _sqq._

South American Indians, women’s agricultural work among the, i. 120 _sqq._

Southey, R., quoted, i. 122, ii. 157

Sowing, festival of Demeter at, i. 46 _n._ 2;
sacrifice to Demeter at, 57;
Festival of the, 111;
time of, determined by observation of the sun, 187;
goat killed at, 288;
ceremonies at, ii. 57;
customs observed by Saxons of Transylvania at, 274 _sq._

—— and planting, time of, determined by the appearance of the Pleiades, i.
313 _sqq._

Sowing in Greece, time for, i. 45

—— festival of the Kayans, i. 93 _sqq._

—— seed to make children grow, i. 11

Sowing the seed done by women, i. 113 _sqq._;
done by children, 115 _sq._

Spades and hoes, human victim killed with, i. 239, 251

Sparrows, charm to keep them from the corn, ii. 274

Spearing taro stalks, as a charm, i. 102, 103

Spell and prayer, i. 105

Spells for growth of crops, i. 100;
narrative, 104 _sqq._;
imperative, 105

Spencer, Herbert, his theory of the material universe compared to that of
Empedocles, ii. 303 _sqq._

Spiders, ceremony at killing, ii. 236 _sq._

Spieth, J., ii. 59 _sqq._

Spindle used in ritual, ii. 119

Spinning acorns or figs, i. 102

—— tops, i. 95, 97, 187

Spirit of Beans, Iroquois, i. 177

—— of the Corn, Iroquois, i. 177. _See_ Corn-spirit

—— of Squashes, Iroquois, i. 177

Spirits, evil, averted from children, i. 6 _sqq._;
of the dead supposed to influence the crops, 104;
distinguished from gods, 169;
imitation of, 186

Spittle, virtue of, i. 247, 250

Sports, athletic, at harvest, i. 76 _sq._ _See also_ Contests, Games

Spring, ceremony at beginning of, in China, ii. 10 _sqq._

—— customs and harvest customs compared, i. 167 _sqq._

—— festival of Dionysus, i. 15

Springbok not eaten, ii. 141

Squirrels, souls of dead in, ii. 291 _sq._

Sri, Hindoo goddess of crops, i. 182

Star, the Morning, i. 238

Stars, their supposed influence on the weather, i. 318

Stepping or jumping over a woman, ii. 70 _n._ 1

Sternberg, Leo, ii. 196, 199 _n._ 1, 201

Stettin, harvest customs near, i. 220

Stevenson, Mrs. Matilda Coxe, quoted, ii. 179

Stewart, Balfour, ii. 262 _n._ 1

Sticks. _See_ Digging-sticks

Stiens of Cambodia, ii. 237

Stomach of eater, certain foods forbidden to meet in, ii. 83 _sqq._

Stone, magic of heavy, i. 100

—— Age, agriculture in the, i. 79, 132

Stones fastened to last sheaf, i. 135 _sq._, 138, 139;
the meeting of the, 237;
worshipped, ii. 127 _sq._

Stories told as charms, i. 102 _sqq._

Stout, Professor G. F., 261 _n._ 1

Stranger regarded as representative of the corn-spirit, i. 225 _sqq._

Strangers excluded, i. 94, 111, 249;
preferred as human victims, 242;
as representatives of the corn-spirit, 253

Strata of religion and society, ii. 36 _sq._

Stratification of religion according to types of society, ii. 35 _sqq._

Straw, the Yule, i. 301 _sq._;
of Shrovetide Bear used to make geese and hens lay eggs, ii. 326

—— -bear at Whittlesey, ii. 329

—— -bull, i. 289 _sq._

—— -man placed on apple-tree, ii. 6

Stubble-cock, i. 277

Styria, harvest customs in, i. 133, 134, 283

Sublician bridge at Rome, ii. 107

Substitutes for animal sacrifices, ii. 94 _n._ 2

“Substitutes for a person” in China, ii. 104

Subterranean Zeus, i. 66

Sudanese negroes respect ravens, ii. 221

Sufferings and death of Dionysus, i. 17

Sugar-cane cultivated, i. 121, 123

Suk, the, of British East Africa, i. 118, ii. 84, 142

Sumatra, i. 315;
tigers respected in, ii. 215 _sqq._

Summer in Greece rainless, i. 69

Sun, time of sowing determined by observation of the, i. 187;
Japanese deities of the, 212;
first-fruits offered to the, 237;
savage observation of the, 314;
rites instituted by the, ii. 75;
temple of the, 135

—— and moon conjunction of, ii. 15 _n._ 1

—— father of Alectrona, ii. 45

—— -god, the, i. 86

——, moon, and planets, human victims sacrificed to, i. 261 _sq._

——, the Great, title of head chief of the Natchez, ii. 77 _sqq._

Sunflower root, ceremony at eating the, ii. 81

Sunkalamma, a goddess, ii. 93

Superstitious practices to procure good crops, i. 100

Supper, the harvest, i. 134, 138. _See_ Harvest-supper

Survival of the fittest, doctrine of the, ii. 306

Sutherlandshire, ii. 51

Swabia, harvest customs in, i. 136, 282, 289, 290, 298 _sq._

Swallow Song, the Greek, ii. 322 _n._

Swans, transmigration of bad poets into, ii. 308

Sweat of famous warriors drunk, ii. 152

Sweden, harvest customs in, i. 149, 230, 280

Sweet potatoes cultivated in Africa, i. 117;
cultivated in Assam, 123;
cultivated in New Britain, 123;
cultivated in South America, 121;
sacred, ii. 133

Swine, wild, their ravages in the corn, ii. 31 _sqq._

Swine’s flesh sacramentally eaten, ii. 20, 24. _See also_ Pork

Swinging for good crops, i. 101, 103, 107

Switzerland, harvest customs in, i. 283, 289, 291, 295

Syleus, i. 257 _sq._

Sympathetic magic, i. 102, ii. 271, 311 _sq._

Syria, precaution against caterpillars in, ii. 279

Syrians, their religious attitude to pigs, ii. 23;
esteemed fish sacred, 26

Szis, the, of Burma, i. 203

Tabooed village, ii. 122

Taboos observed at the sowing festival among the Kayans, i. 94;
observed by enchanters, 100;
communal, 109 _n._ 2;
agricultural, 187;
relating to milk, ii. 83 _sq._;
observed after the capture of a ground seal, walrus, or whale, 246

Tahiti, ii. 132; funeral rites in, 97

Tail of corn-spirit, 268, 272, 300, ii. 10, 43

Talaings, the, i. 190

Tales told as charms, i. 102 _sqq._;
the resurrection of the body in popular, ii. 263 _sqq._

Tamara, island of, ii. 296

Tammuz, his death in a mill, i. 258;
a Babylonian month, 259

Tana, one of the New Hebrides, ii. 125

Tanala, the, of Madagascar, i. 9, ii. 290

Tanganyika plateau, the, i. 115

Tani, a god, ii. 132

Tano, a fetish, ii. 287

Tapir, custom of Indians after killing a, ii. 236

Tapirs, souls of dead in, ii. 285

Tapuiyas, the, of Brazil, i. 309

Tarahumare Indians of Mexico, i. 227 _sq._, ii. 252

Tarianos Indians, ii. 157

Taro, charms for growth of, i. 100, 102

Tarri Pennu, a Khond goddess, i. 245

Tauaré Indians, ii. 157

Taungthu, the, i. 190

Tears of human victim signs of rain, i. 248, 250;
of oxen as rain-charm, ii. 10

Teasing animals before killing them, ii. 190

Telephus at Pergamus, ii. 85

Temples dedicated to sharks, ii. 292

Tenimber, island, ii. 123

Teton Indians, ii. 236

Tetzcatlipoca, a Mexican god, ii. 92, 93, 165

Thargelion, an Attic month, ii. 8

Thay, the, of Indo-China, ii. 121

Thebes, grave of Dionysus at, i. 14;
Dionysus torn to pieces at, 25

Theocritus on the harvest-home, i. 46 _sq._

Thesmophoria, the, i. 14, ii. 17 _sqq._;
chastity of women at the, i. 116

Thigh, sinew of the, customs and myths as to, ii. 264 _sqq._

Thlinkeet or Tlingit, the, ii. 253

Thompson Indians, ii. 81, 82, 133, 140, 207, 226, 268

Thrace, worship of Dionysus in, i. 3;
the Bacchanals of, 17;
modern Carnival customs in, 25 _sqq._, ii. 331 _sqq._

Thresher tied up in last sheaf, i. 134, 147, 148

Threshers, contests between, i. 147 _sqq._, 218, 219 _sq._, 221 _sq._, 223
_sq._, 253;
pretend to throttle or thresh people on threshing-floor, 149 _sq._, 230;
tied in straw and thrown into water, 224 _sq._

Threshing, customs at, i. 134, 147 _sqq._, 203;
contests in, 218 _sqq._;
corn-spirit killed at, 291 _sq._

—— -cow, i. 291

—— -dog, i. 271

—— -floor, Demeter at the, i. 41 _sq._, 47;
of Triptolemus at Eleusis, 61, 72, 75;
sanctity of the, ii. 110 _n._ 4

—— in Greece, date of, i. 62

Throttling farmer’s wife at threshing, pretence of, i. 150

Thumbs of dead enemies cut off, ii. 272

Thüringen, harvest customs in, i. 147, 222, 232, 276, 290, 291, 298

Thurn, E. F. im. quoted, ii. 204

Tibetans, the, ii. 96

Tiger, ghost of, ii. 155 _n._ 4

Tiger’s flesh eaten to make men brave, ii. 145

Tigers, ceremonies at killing, ii. 215, 216 _sq._;
respected in Sumatra, 215 _sq._;
kinship of men with, 216;
souls of dead in, 293

Tilling of the earth treated as a crime, ii. 57

Timekeepers, natural, i. 53

Timor, island of, ii. 98

Timor-laut, ii. 123, 244

Tinneh Indians, ii. 80, 220

Titans attack and kill Dionysus, i. 12 _sq._, 17

Tjumba, island of, ii. 122

Tlaloc, Mexican god of thunder, i. 237

Toad, figure of, ii. 193, 194;
soul of dead man in a, 291

Tobacco used as an emetic, ii. 73;
first of season, ceremony at smoking, 82

Todas, their sacrament of buffalo’s flesh, ii. 314

Toepffer, J., quoted, i. 73

Toerateyas, the, i. 196 _n._

Tofoke, the, i. 119

Togoland, i. 130, ii. 59, 105, 105

Tolalaki, the, ii. 152

Tomb, sacrifices at, ii. 113

Tomori, the, of Central Celebes, i. 193 _sq._, 288

_Tondi_, soul-stuff, i. 182

Tonga Islands, ii. 28;
offerings of first-fruits in the, 128 _sqq._

Tongues of birds eaten, ii. 147;
of slain men eaten, 153;
of dead animals cut out, 269 _sqq._;
of animals worn as amulets, 270

Tonsure, the clerical, ii. 105 _n._ 1

Tooitonga, the sacred chief of Tonga, ii. 128, 129, 130, 131

Tops, spinning, i. 95, 97, 187

Toradjas, the, of Central Celebes, i. 183, 193, 194, 228, ii. 153

Torch-bearer, the Eleusinian, i. 54, 59

Torches in relation to Demeter and Persephone, i. 57

Torchlight dance, ii. 79;
procession at Eleusis, i. 38

Torres Straits islands, i. 313, ii. 152, 153

Tortoises not eaten, ii. 140

Tossing successful reaper, i. 154

Totem, skin-disease supposed to be caused by eating, ii. 25 _sq._

—— sacrament, ii. 165

Totemic animals, dances in imitation of, ii. 76

Totemism, ii. 35, 37;
not proved for the Aryans, 4;
in Australia and America, 311

Transformation of woman into crocodile, ii. 212

Transmigration of human souls into animals, ii. 141, 285 _sqq._;
into turtles, 178 _sq._;
into bears, 191

—— of souls, doctrine of, in ancient India, ii. 298 _sq._;
in ancient Greece, 300 _sqq._, 307 _sq._

Transmigrations of Buddha, ii. 299

Transubstantiation, ii. 89 _sq._

Transylvania, harvest customs in, i. 221, 276, 278, 280, 285, 295;
customs at sowing in, ii. 274 _sq._

Travancore, i. 8;
custom at executions in, ii. 272

Treasury Islanders, i. 313

Trees in relation to Dionysus, i. 3 _sq._;
spirits of the dead in, ii. 124

Triptolemus, i. 37, 38, ii. 19;
agent of Demeter, i. 54, 72 _sq._;
sacrifices to, 56;
his Threshing-floor at Eleusis, 61, 72, 75;
in Greek art, 68 _n._ 1;
sows seed in Rarian plain, 70;
the corn-hero, 72 _sq._

Tristram, H. B., ii. 31 _sq._

Troezenians, the, ii. 133

Trumpets in rites of Dionysus, i. 15

Tschwi, the, of West Africa, ii. 98

Tsimshian Indians of British Columbia, ii. 254

Tucanos Indians, ii. 157

Tug of War, i. 103 _n._ 1, 110 _n._

Tupi Indians of Brazil, ii. 272

Tupinambas, the, i. 122

Turmeric cultivated, i. 245, 250

Turtles, killing the sacred, ii. 175 _sqq._;
transmigration of human souls into, 178 _sq._

Tusayan, an ancient province of Arizona, i. 312

Twelfth Day, ii. 320, 321, 327, 329

Twelve Gods, the, ii. 8

Twin, ghost of a, ii. 98

—— girl charged with special duty, ii. 280

Two Goddesses, the, i. 56, 59, 73, 90

Types of animal sacrament, ii. 310 _sqq._

Typhon, i. 262, 263, ii. 30, 31, 33, 34, 100

Tyrol, harvest customs in the, i. 163, 224, 273, 286

Tzentales of Mexico, ii. 241

Uaupes River, tribes of the, i. 121

Uganda, ii. 213

Underground Zeus, i. 45, 50

Unleavened bread, ii. 137

Usagara hills, German East Africa, i. 240

Varro, on the rites of Eleusis, i. 88;
on killing oxen in Attica, ii. 6;
on sacrifice of goat, ii. 41

Vedijovis, i. 33

Venison, Esquimau rules as to eating, ii. 84;
not eaten, 144;
not brought into hut by door, 242 _sq._;
reason for not eating, 286, 293

Vera Cruz, the tribes of, i. 310

Vermin propitiated by farmers, ii. 274 _sqq._;
images of, made as a protection against them, 280 _sq._

Verres, C., i. 65

Vessels, new or specially reserved, to hold new fruits, ii. 50, 53, 65,
66, 72, 81, 83;
special, reserved for eating bear’s flesh, 196, 198

Vestal virgins, ii. 42

Vicarious use of images, ii. 96 _sqq._

Victim, human, taken in procession from door to door, i. 247

Victims, human, treated as divine, i. 250;
assimilated to gods, 261 _sq._

Victoria, aborigines of, i. 127

Vicuña not eaten, ii. 140

Village tabooed, ii. 122

Vine in relation to Dionysus, i. 2

Vintage, first-fruits of, ii. 133;
inaugurated by priests, 133

—— in Greece, time of, i. 47

Vintagers and vine-diggers, i. 257 _sq._

Virbius and the horse, ii. 40 _sqq._

Virgil as an enchanter, ii. 281

Virgins sacrificed, i. 237

Vitzilipuztli, a Mexican god, ii. 86, 87, 88

Viza in Thrace, i. 26

Vizyenos, G. M., i. 25 _n._ 4, 26

Volos, the beard of, i. 233

Vomiting as a religious rite, ii. 73, 75

Vosges Mountains, harvest customs in the, i. 272, 279, 281

Vulture, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Wa, the Wild, i. 241 _sqq._

Wabondei, the, ii. 142

Wadowe, the, i. 118

Wagogo, the, ii. 26, 142, 149, 276

Wahehe, the, ii. 26

Waheia, the, ii. 26

Wajagga, the, of East Africa, ii. 276

—— warriors, ii. 143

_Wakan_, ii. 180 _n._ 2

Wales, harvest customs in, i. 142 _sqq._

Wallace, A. R., quoted, i. 121 _sq._

Wamegi, the, of German East Africa, i. 240

Wanyamwezi, the, i. 118, ii. 227

War dance, ii. 79

Washing as a ceremonial purification, ii. 27 _sq._, 71, 84, 85

Wataturu, the, ii. 84

Weasels, superstition of farmers as to, ii. 275

Weevils, spared by Esthonian peasants, ii. 274

Weihaiwei, ii. 11

Welsh, Miss, i. 155 _n._ 1

Wemba, the, ii. 158

Wends, harvest customs among the, i. 138, 149, 276

Wermland, harvest customs in, i. 230, ii. 48

Westphalia, harvest customs in, i. 135 _sq._, 138, 277 _sq._, 296, 297

Wetar, island, ii. 25

Whales, ceremonies observed after the slaughter of, ii. 232 _sqq._

Wheat-bride, i. 162, 163

—— -cock, i. 276

Wheat-cow, i. 289

—— -dog, i. 272

—— -mallet at threshing, i. 148

—— -man, i. 223

—— -mother, i. 135

—— -sow, i. 298

—— -wolf, i. 273, 274

Whetham, W. C. D., ii. 305 _n._ 2

White Maize, Goddess of the, i. 261

—— ram, ii. 313

Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, the Straw-bear at, ii. 328 _sq._

Whydah, snakes sacred at, ii. 287

Widows and widowers, disability of, ii. 253 _sq._

Wiedemann, Prof. A., ii. 35 _n._ 4

Wild animals propitiated by hunters, ii. 204 _sqq._

—— fig trees, sacred, ii. 113

—— fruits and roots, ceremonies at gathering the first of the season, ii.
80 _sqq._

—— seeds and roots collected by women, i. 124 _sqq._

—— Wa, the, i. 241 _sqq._

Wilkinson, R. J., i. 181 _sq._

Winamwanga, the, ii. 112

Wine, new, offered to Liber, ii. 133

Winnowing done by women, i. 117, 128

—— -basket, image of snake in, ii. 316

—— -fan, an emblem of Dionysus, i. 5 _sqq._;
as cradle, 6 _sqq._;
used to scatter ashes of human victims, 260, 262

Winter, name given to man who cuts the last sheaf, i. 142;
name of harvest-supper, 160

—— festival of Dionysus, i. 16 _sq._

—— solstice, ii. 325;
festival of, 90

Witch, burning the Old, i. 224

Witchcraft, protection against, i. 156, ii. 324

Wolf, corn-spirit as, i. 271 _sqq._, ii. 327;
stuffed, carried about, i. 275;
ceremonies at killing a, ii. 220 _sq._, 223.
_See also_ Wolves

Wolf’s heart eaten, ii. 146

—— skin, man clad in, i. 275

Wolfish Apollo, ii. 283 _sq._

Wollaroi, the, of New South Wales, ii. 163

Wolves, sacrifices offered to, ii. 284;
transmigration of sinners into, 308

Woman’s part in primitive agriculture, i. 113 _sqq._

Women, influence of corn-spirit on, i. 168;
who have died in childbed, attempts to deceive their ghosts, ii. 97
_sq._;
thought to have no soul, ii. 148

—— milk cows, i. 118

—— swear by the Pleiades, i. 311

Women’s race at harvest, i. 76 _sq._

Wood-spirits in goat form, ii. 2 _sq._

—— woman, i. 232

Woodford, C. M., ii. 126

Words, special, used by reapers, i. 193

Worm, transmigration of sinner into, ii. 299

Worms, souls of dead in, ii. 289

Worship of cattle, ii. 35 _sqq._;
of animals, two forms of the, 311;
of snake, 316 _sq._

Worshipful animal killed once a year, ii. 322

_Wrach_ (Hag), name given to last corn cut in Wales, i. 142 _sqq._

Wreath of corn, i. 134

Wren, hunting the, ii. 317 _sqq._;
called the king of birds, 317;
superstitions as to the, 317 _sq._, 319

Wrestling, i. 98, ii. 131

Würtemburg, harvest customs in, i. 286, 287

Xanthicus, a Macedonian month, i. 259 _n._ 1

Xenophon, on Triptolemus, i. 54

Xochiquetzal, a Mexican goddess, i. 237

Yabim, the, of German New Guinea, i. 104 _sqq._, 228, ii. 275, 295

Yams, charm for growth of, i. 100, 101;
cultivated in Africa, 119;
cultivated in New Britain, 123;
cultivated in South America, 120, 121;
dug by Australian aborigines, 126 _sq._;
ceremonies at eating the new, ii. 53, 58 _sqq._

—— festival of the new, ii. 115;
in Tonga, 128 _sqq._

Yang-Seri, prayers to, ii. 33

Yaos, the, ii. 111 _sq._

Year, beginning of, marked by appearance of Pleiades, i. 309, 310, 312,
313, 314, 315;
divided into thirteen moons, ii. 77

Yellow Demeter, i. 41 _sq._

Yezo or Yesso, ii. 180, 185

Yombe, the, ii. 112

Yorkshire, harvest customs in, i. 151 _sq._, 224

Yoruba negroes, ii. 149

Youngest person cuts the last corn, i. 158, 161

Yuchi Indians, ii. 75, 311 _n._ 1

Yule Boar, i. 300 _sqq._, ii. 43, 328

—— Goat, the, ii. 327 _sq._

—— ram, the, ii. 328

—— straw, i. 301 _sq._

Yuracares Indians of Bolivia, ii. 235, 257

Zabern in Alsace, harvest custom at, i. 297

Zagreus, i. 12

Zambesi, tribes of the Upper, ii. 141

—— region, Caffres of the, ii. 289

Zanzibar, custom at sowing in, i. 233

Zaparo Indians, the, ii. 139

Zapotecs of Mexico, their harvest customs, i. 174 _sq._

Zeus, his intrigue with Persephone, i. 12;
father of Dionysus by Demeter, 12, 14, 66;
his intrigue with Demeter, 66;
surnamed Underground, 45, 50

—— and Demeter, ii. 9; marriage of, i. 65 _sqq._

—— and Hercules, ii. 172

——, Laphystian, i. 25

—— Polieus, ii. 5, 7

—— Sosipolis, ii. 7

——, Subterranean, i. 66, ii. 9

—— the Fly-catcher, ii. 282

Zulu king, dance of the, ii. 66

Zulus, the, ii. 32, 142, 143;
women’s part in agriculture among the, i. 113 _sq._;
their festival of first-fruits, ii. 67;
their inoculation, 160 _sq._

Zuni Indians, their custom of killing sacred turtles, ii. 175 _sqq._

Zurich, harvest customs in the canton of, i. 291, 297

FOOTNOTES

M1 Ancient deities of vegetation as animals.
M2 Dionysus as a goat: his association with the Pans, Satyrs, and
Silenuses, who have been interpreted as semi-goat-shaped deities of
the woods.

1 See above, vol. i. pp. 16 _sqq._

2 Herodotus, ii. 46; L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_,4 i.
(Berlin, 1894), pp. 745 _sq._; K. Wernicke, in W. H. Roscher’s
_Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, iii. 1407 _sqq._

3 L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_,3 i. 600; W. Mannhardt, _Antike
Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 138.

4 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 139.

5 Julius Pollux, iv. 118.

6 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 142 _sq._

7 Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 361, iii. 312, v. 101; _id._, _Heroides_, iv. 49.

8 Macrobius, _Sat._ i. 22. 3.

9 Homer, _Hymn to Aphrodite_, 262 _sqq._

10 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xii. 3; Ovid, _Metam._ vi. 392; _id._, _Fasti_,
iii. 303, 309; Gloss. Isid. Mart. Cap. ii. 167, cited by W.
Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 113.

11 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xii. 3; Martianus Capella, ii. 167; Augustine,
_De civitate Dei_, xv. 23; Aurelius Victor, _Origo gentis Romanae_,
iv. 6.

12 Servius on Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 14; Ovid, _Metam._ vi. 392 _sq._;
Martianus Capella, ii. 167.

13 W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 138 _sq._; _id._, _Antike Wald- und
Feldkulte_, p. 145.

14 Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 10.

15 Above, vol. i. pp. 281 _sqq._

_ 16 Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, ch. iii. pp. 113-211. In the text I
have allowed my former exposition of Mannhardt’s theory as to
ancient semi-goat-shaped spirits of vegetation to stand as before,
but I have done so with hesitation, because the evidence adduced in
its favour appears to me insufficient to permit us to speak with any
confidence on the subject. Pan may have been, as W. H. Roscher and
L. R. Farnell think, nothing more than a herdsman’s god, the
semi-human, semi-bestial representative of goats in particular. See
W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, iii. 1405
_sq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, v. (Oxford,
1909) pp. 431 _sqq._ And the Satyrs and Silenuses seem to have more
affinity with horses than with goats. See W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon
der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, iv. 444 _sqq._

17 Above, vol. i. pp. 231 _sqq._

M3 Wood-spirits in the form of goats.

18 Above, vol. i. pp. 17 _sq._

M4 The bull as an embodiment of Dionysus seems to be another expression
of his character as a god of vegetation.

19 Above, vol. i. pp. 16 _sq._

20 Above, vol. i. pp. 288 _sqq._

21 A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_,2 ii. 252.

22 Compare _Totemism and Exogamy_, iv. 12 _sqq._

M5 The _bouphonia_, an Athenian sacrifice of an ox to Zeus Polieus.

23 Pausanias, i. 24. 4; _id._, i. 28. 10; Porphyry, _De abstinentia_,
ii. 29 _sq._; Aelian, _Var. Hist._ viii. 3; Scholia on Aristophanes,
_Peace_, 419, and _Clouds_, 985; Hesychius, Suidas, and
_Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ βούφονια; Suidas, _s.v._ Θαύλων; Im.
Bekker’s _Anecdota Graeca_ (Berlin, 1814-1821), p. 238, _s.v._
Δυπόλια. The date of the sacrifice (14th Skirophorion) is given by
the Scholiast on Aristophanes and the _Etymologicum Magnum_; and
this date corresponds, according to W. Mannhardt (_Mythologische
Forschungen_, 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 (as to whom see
_The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 44 _sq._) presided at
the trial of all lifeless objects, is mentioned by Aristotle
(_Constitution of Athens_, 57) and Julius Pollux (viii. 90, compare
viii. 120).

M6 The ox sacrificed at the _bouphonia_ appears to have embodied the
corn-spirit.

24 The real import of the name _bouphonia_ was first perceived by W.
Robertson Smith. See his _Religion of the Semites_,2 pp. 304 _sqq._
In Cos also an ox specially chosen was sacrificed to Zeus Polieus.
See Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 616; Ch.
Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions Grecques_, No. 716; H. Collitz und
F. Bechtel, _Sammlung der griechischen Dialekt-Inschriften_, iii.
pp. 357 _sqq._, No. 3636; J. de Prott et L. Ziehen, _Leges Graecorum
Sacrae e Titulis collectae_, Fasciculus i. (Leipsic, 1896) pp. 19
_sqq._, No. 5; M. P. Nilsson, _Griechische Feste_ (Leipsic, 1906),
pp. 17-21. A month Bouphonion, corresponding to the Attic Boedromion
(September), occurred in the calendars of Delos and Tenos. See E.
Bischoff, “De fastis Graecorum antiquioribus,” in _Leipziger Studien
für classische Philologie_, vii. (Leipsic, 1884) p. 414.

25 Varro, _De re rustica_, ii. 5. 4. Compare Columella, _De re
rustica_, 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.

26 W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 409.

27 See _The Dying God_, p. 208.

M7 Sacrifice of an ox to Zeus Sosipolis at Magnesia on the Maeander.
The bull so sacrificed seems to have been regarded as an embodiment
of the corn-spirit.

28 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_2 (Leipsic,
1898-1901), vol. ii. pp. 246-248, No. 553. As to the identification
of the Magnesian month Artemision with the Attic month Thargelion
(May), see Dittenberger, _op. cit._ ii. p. 242, No. 552 note 4. It
is interesting to observe that at Magnesia the sowing took place in
Cronion, the month of Cronus, a god whom the ancients regularly
identified with Saturn, the Italian god of sowing. In Samos,
Perinthus, and Patmos, however, the month Cronion seems to have been
equivalent to the Attic Scirophorion, a month corresponding to June
or July, which could never have been a season of sowing in the hot
rainless summers of Greece. See E. Bischoff, “De fastis Graecarum
antiquioribus,” in _Leipziger Studien für classische Philologie_,
vii. (1884) p. 400; Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum
Graecarum_,2 No. 645 note 14, vol. ii. p. 449.

29 In thus interpreting the sacrifice of the bull at Magnesia I follow
the excellent exposition of Professor M. P. Nilsson, _Griechische
Feste_ (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 23-27.

M8 The Greek conception of the corn-spirit as both male and female.

30 See above, vol. i. pp. 36 _sq._, 65 _sqq._

M9 The ox as a representative of the corn-spirit at Great Bassam in
Guinea.

31 H. Hecquard, _Reise an die Küste und in das Innere von West-Afrika_
(Leipsic, 1854), pp. 41-43.

32 See above, vol. i. p. 248.

33 Above, vol. i. pp. 268, 272.

34 Franz Cumont, _Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux Mystères de
Mithra_ (Brussels, 1896-1899), ii. figures 18, 19, 20, 59 (p. 228,
corn-stalks issuing from wound), 67, 70, 78, 87, 105, 143, 168, 215,
also plates v. and vi.

M10 The ox as a personification of the corn-spirit in China.

_ 35 China Review_, i. (July 1872 to June 1873, Hongkong), pp. 62, 154,
162, 203 _sq._; Rev. J. Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, ed.
Paxton Hood (London, 1868), pp. 375 _sq._; Rev. J. H. Gray, _China_
(London, 1878), ii. 115 _sq._

_ 36 Ostasiatischer Lloyd_, March 14, 1890, quoted by J. D. E. Schmeltz,
“Das Pflugfest in China,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_,
xi. (1898) p. 79. With this account the one given by S. W. Williams
(_The Middle Kingdom_, New York and London, 1848, ii. 109)
substantially agrees. In many districts, according to the
_Ostasiatischer Lloyd_, the Genius of Spring is represented at this
festival by a boy of blameless character, clad in green. As to the
custom of going with one foot bare and the other shod, see _Taboo
and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 311-313.

37 R. F. Johnston, _Lion and Dragon in Northern China_ (London, 1910),
pp. 180-182.

38 Ed. Chavannes, _Le T’ai Chan, Essai de Monographie d’un Culte
Chinois_ (Paris, 1910), p. 500 (_Annales du Musée Guimet,
Bibliothèque d’Études_, vol. xxi.).

39 See _The Dying God_, pp. 240 _sq._, 250.

M11 The ox as a personification of the corn-spirit in Kashgar and Annam.

40 J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins, _Mission Scientifique dans la Haute Asie,
1890-1895_, i. (Paris, 1897) pp. 95 _sq._ After describing the
ceremony as he witnessed it at Kashgar, the writer adds: “Probably
the ox was at first a living animal which they sacrificed and
distributed the flesh to the bystanders. At the present day the
official who acts as pontiff has a number of small pasteboard oxen
made, which he sends to the notables in order that they may
participate intimately in the sacrifice, which is more than
symbolical. The reason for carrying the ox a long distance is that
as much as possible of the territory may be sanctified by the
passage of the sacred animal, and that as many people as possible
may share in the sacrifice, at least with their eyes and good
wishes. The procession, which begins very early in the morning,
moves eastward, that is, toward the quarter where, the winter being
now over, the first sun of spring may be expected to appear, whose
divinity the ceremony is intended to render propitious. It is
needless to insist on the analogy between this Chinese festival and
our Carnival, at which, about the same season, a fat ox is led
about. Both festivals have their origin in the same conceptions of
ancient natural religion.”

41 Colonel E. Diguet, _Les Annamites, Société, Coutumes, Religions_
(Paris, 1906), pp. 250-253.

42 See above, vol. i. pp. 41 _sq._, and below, pp. 21 _sq._

M12 Annual inauguration of ploughing by the Chinese emperor.

43 Du Halde, _The General History of China_, Third Edition (London,
1741), ii. 120-122; Huc, _L’Empire Chinois_5 (Paris, 1879), ii.
338-343; Rev. J. H. Gray, _China_ (London, 1878), ii. 116-118.
Compare _The Sacred Books of China_, translated by James Legge, Part
iii., _The Lî Kî_ (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxvii., Oxford,
1885), pp. 254 _sq._: “In this month [the first month of spring] the
son of Heaven on the first day prays to God for a good year; and
afterwards, the day of the first conjunction of the sun and moon
having been chosen, with the handle and share of the plough in the
carriage, placed between the man-at-arms who is its third occupant
and the driver, he conducts his three ducal ministers, his nine high
ministers, the feudal princes and his Great officers, all with their
own hands to plough the field of God. The son of Heaven turns up
three furrows, each of the ducal ministers five, and the other
ministers and feudal princes nine. When they return, he takes in his
hand a cup in the great chamber, all the others being in attendance
on him and the Great officers, and says, ‘Drink this cup of comfort
after your toil.’ In this month the vapours of heaven descend and
those of the earth ascend. Heaven and earth are in harmonious
co-operation. All plants bud and grow.” Here the selection of a day
in spring when sun and moon are in conjunction is significant. Such
conjunctions are regarded as marriages of the great luminaries and
therefore as the proper seasons for the celebration of rites
designed to promote fertility. See _The Dying God_, p. 73.

M13 Analogy of the Chinese custom to the agricultural rites at Eleusis
and elsewhere.

44 See above, pp. 74, 108.

45 See above, p. 93.

46 See above, pp. 94, 109; _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_,
ii. 105 _sqq._

M14 The rending of live animals in the rites of Dionysus.

47 As to the European customs, see above, p. 12.

M15 Association of the pig with Demeter. Pigs in the ritual of the
Thesmophoria. The sacred serpent at Lanuvium.

48 See above, vol. i. pp. 298 _sqq._

49 Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Acharn._ 747.

50 J. Overbeck, _Griechische Kunstmythologie_, Besonderer Theil, ii.
(Leipsic, 1873-1878), p. 493; Müller-Wieseler, _Denkmäler der alten
Kunst_, ii. pl. viii. 94.

51 Hyginus, _Fab._ 277; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28;
Macrobius, _Saturn._ i. 12. 23; Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Acharn._
747; _id._, on _Frogs_, 338; _id._, on _Peace_, 374; Servius on
Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 380; Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ x. 16.

52 See above, vol. i. pp. 22 _sq._

53 As to the Thesmophoria see my article “Thesmophoria” in the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth Edition, vol. xxiii, 295 _sqq._;
August Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_ (Leipsic, 1898),
pp. 308 _sqq._; Miss J. E. Harisson, _Prolegomena to the Study of
Greek Religion_2 (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 120 _sqq._; M. P. Nilsson,
_Griechische Feste_ (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 313 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell,
_The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. (Oxford, 1907) pp. 75 _sqq._
At Thebes and in Delos the Thesmophoria was held in summer, in the
month of Metageitnion (August). See Xenophon, _Hellenica_, v. 2. 29;
M. P. Nilsson _Griechische Feste_, pp. 316 _sq._

54 Photius, _Lexicon_, _s.v._ στήνια, speaks of the ascent of _Demeter_
from the lower world; and Clement of Alexandria speaks of both
Demeter and Persephone as having been engulfed in the chasm
(_Protrept._ ii. 17). The original equivalence of Demeter and
Persephone must be borne steadily in mind.

55 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 69; Photius, _Lexicon_, _s.v._ στήνια.

56 E. Rohde, “Unedirte Lucians-scholien, die attischen Thesmophorien
und Haloen betreffend,” _Rheinisches Museum_, N.F., xxv. (1870) p.
548; _Scholia in Lucianum_, ed. H. Rabe (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 275
_sq._ Two passages of classical writers (Clement of Alexandria,
_Protrept._ ii. 17, and Pausanias, ix. 8. 1) refer to the rites
described by the scholiast on Lucian, and had been rightly
interpreted by Chr. A. Lobeck (_Aglaophamus_, pp. 827 _sqq._) before
the discovery of the scholia.

57 The scholiast speaks of them as _megara_ and _adyta_. The name
_megara_ is thought to be derived from a Phoenician word meaning
“cavern,” “subterranean chasm,” the Hebrew מעךה. See F. C. Moyers,
_Die Phoenizier_ (Bonn, 1841), i. 220. In Greek usage the _megara_
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
nympharum_, 6; and my note on Pausanias, ii. 2. 1.

58 We infer this from Pausanias, ix. 8. 1, though the passage is
incomplete and apparently corrupt. For ἐν Δωδώνῃ Lobeck
(_Aglaophamus_, pp. 829 _sq._) proposed to read ἀναδῦναι or
ἀναδοθῆαι. 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. See Pausanias, x. 32.
14. This analogy supports the view that the pigs thrown into the
caverns at the Thesmophoria were left there till the next festival.

59 Aelian, _De natura animalium_, xi. 16; Propertius, v. 8. 3-14. The
feeding of the serpent is represented on a Roman coin of about 64
B.C.; on the obverse of the coin appears the head of Juno Caprotina.
See E. Babelon, _Monnaies de la République Romaine_ (Paris, 1886),
ii. 402. A common type of Greek art represents a woman feeding a
serpent out of a saucer. See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second
Edition, p. 75.

M16 Legend told to explain the ritual of the Thesmophoria.

_ 60 Scholia in Lucianum_, ed. H. Rabe, pp. 275 _sq._

61 Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 461-466, upon which Gierig remarks, “_Sues melius
poeta omisisset in hac narratione_.” Such is the wisdom of the
commentator.

62 Pausanias, i. 14. 3.

63 Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 338.

M17 Analogy of the Thesmophoria to the folk-customs of Northern Europe.

64 Above, vol. i. p. 285.

65 Above, vol. i. p. 290.

66 Above, vol. i. p. 278.

67 Above, vol. i. p. 300.

68 Above, vol. i. pp. 300 _sq._

69 In Clement of Alexandria, _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. 18 note 1.

70 It is worth nothing that in Crete, which was an ancient seat of
Demeter worship (see above, vol. i. p. 131), the pig was esteemed
very sacred and was not eaten (Athenaeus, ix. 18, pp. 375 F-376 A).
This would not exclude the possibility of its being eaten
sacramentally, as at the Thesmophoria.

M18 The horse-headed Demeter of Phigalia.

71 Pausanias, viii. 42.

72 Above, vol. i. pp. 292 _sqq._

73 Pausanias, viii. 25 and 42. At the sanctuary of the Mistress (that
is, of Persephone) in Arcadia many terracotta statuettes have been
found which represent draped women with the heads of cows or sheep.
They are probably votive images of Demeter or Persephone, for the
ritual of the sanctuary prescribed the offering of images
(Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 939, vol. ii.
pp. 803 _sq._). See P. Perdrizet, “Terres-cuites de Lycosoura, et
mythologie arcadienne,” _Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique_,
xxiii. (1899) p. 635; M. P. Nilsson, _Griechische Feste_ (Leipsic,
1906), pp. 347 _sq._ On the Phigalian Demeter, see W. Mannhardt,
_Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 244 _sqq._ I well remember how on a
summer afternoon I sat at the mouth of the shallow cave, watching
the play of sunshine on the lofty wooded sides of the ravine and
listening to the murmur of the stream.

M19 Attis and the pig.

74 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p. 221. On the position
of the pig in ancient Oriental and particularly Semitic religion,
see F. C. Movers, _Die Phoenizier_, i. (Bonn, 1841), pp. 218 _sqq._

_ 75 Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p. 220.

76 Demosthenes, _De corona_, p. 313.

77 The suggestion was made to me in conversation by my lamented friend,
the late R. A. Neil of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

M20 Adonis and the boar. Ambiguous position of pigs at Hierapolis.

78 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p. 8; and to the
authorities there cited add Athenaeus, ii. 80, p. 69 B; Cornutus,
_Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28; Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ iv.
5. 3, § 8; Aristides, _Apologia_, II, p. 107, ed. J. Rendel Harris
(Cambridge, 1891); Joannes Lydus, _De mensibus_, iv. 44; Propertius,
iii. 4 (5). 53 _sq._, ed. F. A. Paley; Lactantius, _Divin. Instit._
i. 17; Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vi. 7; Firmicus Maternus, _De
errore profanarum religionum_, 9; Macrobius, _Saturnal._ i. 21. 4.
See further W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_ (Leipsic,
1911), pp. 142 _sqq._

79 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p. 186.

80 W. Cureton, _Spicilegium Syriacum_ (London, 1855), p. 44.

81 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 54.

82 The heathen Harranians sacrificed swine once a year and ate the
flesh (En-Nedîm, in D. Chwolsohn’s _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_,
St. Petersburg, 1856, ii. 42). My friend W. Robertson Smith
conjectured that the wild boars annually sacrificed in Cyprus on 2nd
April (Joannes Lydus, _De mensibus_, iv. 45) represented Adonis
himself. See his _Religion of the Semites_,2 pp. 290 _sq._, 411.

M21 Attitude of the Jews to the pig.

83 Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ iv. 5.

84 Isaiah lxv. 3, lxvi. 3, 17. Compare R. H. Kennett, _The Composition
of the Book of Isaiah in the Light of History and Archaeology_
(London, 1910) p. 61, who suggests that the eating of the mouse as a
sacrament may have been derived from the Greek worship of the Mouse
Apollo (Apollo Smintheus). As to the Mouse Apollo see below, pp. 282
_sq._

M22 Attitude of the ancient Egyptians to the pig. Annual sacrifice of
pigs to Osiris and the moon.

85 Herodotus, ii. 47; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 8; Aelian, _Nat.
Anim._ x. 16. Josephus merely says that the Egyptian priests
abstained from the flesh of swine (_Contra Apionem_, ii. 13).

86 Herodotus, _l.c._

87 Plutarch and Aelian, _ll.cc._

88 Herodotus, _l.c._ At Castabus in Chersonese there was a sacred
precinct of Hemithea, which no one might approach who had touched or
eaten of a pig (Diodorus Siculus, v. 62. 5).

89 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, was covered with
fat and burned; the rest of the flesh was eaten. On the evening (not
the eve, see H. Stein’s note 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.

M23 Belief that the eating of a sacred animal causes skin-disease,
especially leprosy.

90 J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes
en Papua_ (The Hague, 1886), pp. 432, 452.

91 Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” _Third Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1884), p. 225; Miss A. C. Fletcher
and F. la Flesche, “The Omaha Tribe,” _Twenty-seventh Annual Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology_ (Washington, 1911), p. 144.
According to the latter writers, any breach of a clan taboo among
the Omahas was supposed to be punished either by the breaking out of
sores or white spots on the body of the offender or by his hair
turning white.

92 Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, _op. cit._ p. 231.

93 J. Crevaux, _Voyages dans l’Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1883), p. 59.

94 Plutarch, _De superstitione_, 10; Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, iv.
15. As to the sanctity of fish among the Syrians, see also Ovid,
_Fasti_, ii. 473 _sq._; Diodorus Siculus, ii. 4.

95 R. Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folklore Stories and Songs in
Chinyanja_ (London, 1907), pp. 174 _sq._

96 Rev. H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 307, compare p.
317.

97 E. Nigmann, _Die Wahehe_ (Berlin, 1908), p. 42.

98 J. Kohler, “Das Banturecht in Ostafrika,” _Zeitschrift für
vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft_, xv. (1902) pp. 2, 3.

99 C. W. Hobley, “Anthropological Studies in Kavirondo and Nandi,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxiii. (1903) p. 347.

_ 100 Central Provinces, Ethnographic Survey_, II. _Draft Articles on
Uriya Castes_ (Allahabad, 1907), p. 16.

101 C. Creighton, _s.v._ “Leprosy,” _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, iii. col.
2766.

102 2 Kings v. 27; 2 Chronicles xxvi. 16-21.

M24 Mere contact with a sacred object is deemed dangerous and calls for
purification as a sort of disinfectant.

103 Leviticus xvi. 23 _sq._

104 Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii. 44. For this and the Jewish examples
I am indebted to my friend W. Robertson Smith. Compare his _Religion
of the Semites_,2 pp. 351, 426, 450 _sq._

_ 105 Central Provinces, Ethnographic Survey_, VII. _Draft Articles on
Forest Tribes_ (Allahabad, 1911), p. 97.

_ 106 Central Provinces, Ethnographic Survey_, I. _Draft Articles on
Hindustani Castes_ (Allahabad, 1907), p. 32.

107 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 133 _sq._

_ 108 Op. cit._ pp. 134-136.

109 E. Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), p. 211; D. Livingstone,
_Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_ (London, 1857),
p. 255; John Mackenzie, _Ten Years north of the Orange River_
(Edinburgh, 1871), p. 135 note. See further _Totemism and Exogamy_,
ii. 372.

110 J. Mackenzie, _l.c._

111 Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” _Third Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1884), p. 225.

_ 112 Ibid._ p. 275.

113 G. Turner, _Samoa_ (London, 1884), p. 76.

_ 114 Ibid._ p. 70.

115 Captain C. Eckford Luard, in _Census of India, 1901_, vol. xix.
_Central India_, Part i. (Lucknow, 1902) pp. 299 _sq._; also _Census
of India, 1901_, vol. i. _Ethnographic Appendices_ (Calcutta, 1903),
p. 163.

M25 Thus the pig was probably at first a sacred animal with the
Egyptians, and may have been regarded as an embodiment of the
corn-god Osiris, though at a later time he was looked on as an
embodiment of Typhon, the enemy of Osiris. The havoc wrought by wild
boars in the corn is a reason for regarding them as foes of the
corn-god.

116 Diogenes Laertius, _Vitae Philosophorum_, viii. 8.

117 Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ x. 16. The story is repeated by Pliny, _Nat.
Hist._ xviii. 168.

118 E. Lefébure, _Le Mythe Osirien_, Première Partie, _Les yeux d’Horus_
(Paris, 1874), p. 44; _The Book of the Dead_, English translation by
E. A. Wallis Budge (London, 1901), ii. 336 _sq._, chapter cxii.; E.
A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_ (London, 1904), i. 496
_sq._; _id._, _Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_ (London and New
York, 1911), i. 62 _sq._

119 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 8. E. Lefébure (_op. cit._ p. 46)
recognises that in this story the boar is Typhon himself.

120 This important principle was first recognised by W. Robertson Smith.
See his article, “Sacrifice,” _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth
Edition, xxi. 137 _sq._ Compare his _Religion of the Semites_,2 pp.
373, 410 _sq._

121 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 31.

M26 Evidence of the depredations committed by wild boars on the crops.

122 H. B. Tristram, _The Natural History of the Bible_, Ninth Edition
(London, 1898), pp. 54 _sq._

123 Rev. J. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_ (London,
1857), pp. 18-20.

124 Miss A. Werner, _The Natives of British Central Africa_ (London,
1906), pp. 182 _sq._

125 E. Modigliano, _Un Viaggio a Nías_ (Milan, 1890), pp. 524 _sq._,
601.

126 A. E. Jenks, _The Bontoc Igorot_, (Manilla, 1905), pp. 100, 102.

127 A. Bastian, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Gebirgs-stämme in Kambodia,”
_Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin_, i. (1866) p.
44.

128 G. Snouck Hurgronje, _Het Gajōland en zijne Bewoners_ (Batavia,
1903), p. 348.

129 Ch. Keysser, “Aus dem Leben der Kaileute,” in R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch
Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, 1911), p. 125.

M27 The ravages of wild boars among the crops help us to understand the
ambiguous attitude of the ancient Egyptians to swine.

130 E. Lefébure, _Le Mythe Osirien_, Première Partie, _Les yeux d’Horus_
(Paris, 1874), pp. 48 _sq._

M28 Egyptian sacrifices of red oxen and red-haired men.

131 See above, pp. 260 _sq._; _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition,
pp. 331, 338.

132 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 33, 73; Diodorus Siculus, i. 88.

133 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 31; Diodorus Siculus, i. 88. Compare
Herodotus, ii. 38.

M29 Osiris identified with the sacred bulls Apis and Mnevis.
Stratification of three great types of religion or superstition in
ancient Egypt.

134 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 20, 29, 33, 43; Strabo, xvii. 1. 31;
Diodorus Siculus, i. 21, 85; Duncker, _Geschichte des Alterthums_,5
i. 55 _sqq._ On Apis and Mnevis, see also Herodotus, ii. 153, with
A. Wiedemann’s comment, iii. 27 _sq._; Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii.
14. 7; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ viii. 184 _sqq._; Solinus, xxxii. 17-21;
Cicero, _De natura deorum_, i. 29; Augustine, _De civitate Dei_,
xviii. 5; Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ xi. 10 _sq._; Plutarch, _Quaest.
Conviv._ viii. 1. 3; _id._, _Isis et Osiris_, 5, 35; Eusebius,
_Praeparatio Evangelii_, iii. 13. 1 _sq._; Pausanias, i. 18. 4, vii.
22. 3 _sq._; W. Dittenberger, _Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones
Selectae_ (Leipsic, 1903-1905), Nos. 56, 90 (vol. i. pp. 98, 106,
159). Both Apis and Mnevis were black bulls, but Apis had certain
white spots. See A. Wiedemann, _Die Religion der alten Aegypter_
(Münster i. W., 1890), pp. 95, 99-101. When Apis died, pious people
used to put on mourning and to fast, drinking only water and eating
only vegetables, for seventy days till the burial. See A. Erman,
_Die ägyptische Religion_ (Berlin, 1905), pp. 170 _sq._

135 Diodorus Siculus, i. 21.

136 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_,2 pp. 296 _sqq._

137 Herodotus, ii. 41.

138 Herodotus, ii. 41, with A. Wiedemann’s commentary; Plutarch, _Isis
et Osiris_, 19; E. A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the Egyptian
Resurrection_ (London and New York, 1911), i. 8. In his commentary
on the passage of Herodotus Prof. Wiedemann observes (p. 188) that
“the Egyptian name of the Isis-cow is _ḥes-t_ and is one of the few
cases in which the name of the sacred animal coincides with that of
the deity.”

139 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).

140 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 56.

141 G. Maspero, _Histoire ancienne_4 (Paris, 1886), p. 31. Compare
Duncker, _Geschichte des Alterthums_,5 i. 56. It has been
conjectured that the period of twenty-five years was determined by
astronomical considerations, that being a period which harmonises
the phases of the moon with the days of the Egyptian year. See L.
Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_
(Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 182 _sq._; F. K. Ginzel, _Handbuch der
mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, i. (Leipsic, 1906), pp.
180 _sq._

M30 On the stratification of religions corresponding to certain social
types.
M31 Reverence of the Dinka for their cattle.

142 G. Schweinfurth, _The Heart of Africa_, Third Edition (London,
1878), i. 59 _sq._

143 E. de Pruyssenaere, _Reisen und Forschungen im Gebiete des Weissen
und Blauen Nil_ (Gotha, 1877), pp. 22 _sq._ (_Petermann’s
Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft_, No. 50).

M32 Reverence of the Nuehr for their cattle.

144 Ernst Marno, _Reisen im Gebiete des Blauen und Weissen Nil_ (Vienna,
1874), p. 343. The name _Nyeledit_ is explained by the writer to
mean “very great and mighty.” It is probably equivalent to
_Nyalich_, which Dr. C. G. Seligmann gives as a synonym for Dengdit,
the high god of the Dinka. According to Dr. Seligmann, _Nyalich_ is
the locative of a word meaning “above” and, literally translated,
signifies, “in the above.” See C. G. Seligmann, _s.v._ “Dinka,” in
_Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, edited by J. Hastings, D.D.,
vol. iv. (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 707. The Sakalava of Ampasimene, in
Madagascar, are said to worship a black bull which is kept in a
sacred enclosure in the island of Nosy Be. On the death of the
sacred bull another is substituted for it. See A. van Gennep, _Tabou
et Totémisme à Madagascar_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 247 _sq._, quoting J.
Carol, _Chez les Hova_ (Paris, 1898), pp. 418 _sq._ But as the
Sakalava are not, so far as I know, mainly or exclusively a pastoral
people, this example of bull-worship does not strictly belong to the
class illustrated in the text.

M33 The tradition that Virbius had been killed in the character of
Hippolytus by horses, and the custom of excluding horses from the
sacred Arician grove, may point to the conclusion that the horse was
regarded as an embodiment of Virbius and was annually sacrificed in
the grove. Similarly at Athens the goat was usually excluded from
the Acropolis but was admitted once a year for a necessary
sacrifice.

145 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 19 _sqq._

146 See above, vol. i. pp 292-294.

147 Athenaeus, xiii. 51, p. 587 A; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ viii. 204.
Compare W. Robertson Smith, in _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth
Edition, article “Sacrifice,” vol. xxi. p. 135.

148 Varro, _De agri cultura_, i. 2. 19 _sq._: “_hoc nomine etiam Athenis
in arcem non inigi, praeterquam semel ad necessarium sacrificium._”
By _semel_ Varro probably means once a year.

149 The force of this inference is greatly weakened, if not destroyed,
by a fact which I had overlooked when I wrote this book originally.
A goat was sacrificed to Brauronian Artemis at her festival called
the Brauronia (Hesychius, _s.v._ Βραυρωνίοις; compare Im. Bekker’s
_Anecdota Graeca_, p. 445, lines 6 _sqq._). As the Brauronian
Artemis had a sanctuary on the Acropolis of Athens (Pausanias, i.
23. 7), it seems probable that the goat sacrificed once a year on
the Acropolis was sacrificed to her and not to Athena. (Note to
Second Edition of _The Golden Bough_.)

150 Herodotus, ii. 42.

151 It is worth noting that Hippolytus, with whom Virbius was
identified, is said to have dedicated horses to Aesculapius, who had
raised him from the dead (Pausanias, ii. 27. 4).

M34 Annual sacrifice of a horse at Rome in October.

152 Festus, ed. C. O. Müller, pp. 178, 179, 220; Plutarch, _Quaestiones
Romanae_, 97; Polybius, xii. 4 B. The sacrifice is referred to by
Julian, _Orat._ v. p. 176 D (p. 228 ed. F. C. Hertlein). It is the
subject of a valuable essay by W. Mannhardt, whose conclusions I
summarise in the text. See W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_
(Strasburg, 1884), pp. 156-201.

153 Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 731 _sqq._, compare 629 _sqq._; Propertius, v. 1.
19 _sq._

M35 The horse so sacrificed seems to have embodied the corn-spirit.

154 The Huzuls of the Carpathians attribute a special virtue to a
horse’s head. They think that fastened on a pole and set up in a
garden it protects the cabbages from caterpillars. See R. F. Kaindl,
_Die Huzulen_ (Wienna, 1894), p. 102. At the close of the
rice-harvest the Garos of Assam celebrate a festival in which the
effigy of a horse plays an important part. When the festival is
over, the body of the horse is thrown into a stream, but the head is
preserved for another year. See Note at the end of the volume.

155 Above, pp. 9 _sq._

156 Above, vol. i. pp. 268, 272.

157 Above, vol. i. pp. 141, 155, 156, 158, 160 _sq._, 301.

M36 Archaic character of the sacrifice and its analogies in the harvest
customs of Northern Europe.

158 Livy, ii. 5.

159 Festus, ed. C. O. Müller, pp. 130, 131.

M37 Other examples of the exclusion of horses from sanctuaries.
Uncertainty as to the reason for excluding horses from the Arician
grove.

160 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 560 (vol. ii.
pp. 259-261); Ch. Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions Grecques_
(Brussels, 1900), No. 434, pp. 323 _sq._; P. Cauer, _Delectus
Inscriptionum Graecarum propter dialectum memorabilium_2 (Leipsic,
1883), No. 177, pp. 117 _sq._ As to Alectrona or Alectryona,
daughter of the Sun, see Diodorus Siculus, v. 65. 5.

161 Festus, _s.v._ “October equus,” p. 181 ed. C. O. Müller. See _The
Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 315.

162 G. Zündel, “Land und Volk der Eweer auf der Sclavenküste in
West-afrika,” _Zeitschrift für Erdkunde zu Berlin_, xii. (1877) pp.
415 _sq._

163 Rev. W. Ellis, _History of Madagascar_ (London, preface dated 1838),
i. 402 _sq._

164 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 939 (vol. ii.
p. 803).

165 Pausanias, viii. 37. 7.

M38 Custom of eating the new corn sacramentally as the body of the
corn-spirit. Loaves baked of the new corn in human shape and eaten.

166 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_ (Strasburg, 1884), p. 179.

167 W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme_
(Berlin, 1875), 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.

M39 Old Lithuanian ritual at eating the new corn.

168 M. Praetorius, _Deliciae Prussicae oder Preussische Schaubuhne, im
wörtlichen Auszüge aus dem Manuscript herausgegeben_ von Dr. William
Pierson (Berlin, 1871), pp. 60-64; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und
Feldkulte_ (Berlin, 1877), pp. 249 _sqq._ Mathaeus Praetorius, the
author to whom we owe the account in the text, compiled a detailed
description of old Lithuanian manners and customs in the latter part
of the seventeenth century at the village of Niebudzen, of which he
was Protestant pastor. The work, which seems to have occupied him
for many years and to have been finished about 1698, exists in
manuscript but has never been published in full. Only excerpts from
it have been printed by Dr. W. Pierson. Praetorius was born at Memel
about 1635 and died in 1707. In the later years of his life he
incurred a good deal of odium by joining the Catholic Church.

M40 Modern European ceremonies at eating the new corn or new potatoes.

169 A. Bezzenberger, _Litauische Forschungen_ (Göttingen, 1882), p. 89.

170 Simon Grunau, _Preussischer Chronik_, herausgegeben von Dr. M.
Perlbach, i. (Leipsic, 1876) p. 91.

171 J. B. Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen
Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. Heft 2 (Dorpat, 1872), p. 108.

172 On iron as a charm against spirits, see _Taboo and the Perils of the
Soul_, pp. 232 _sqq._

_ 173 Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) p. 54.

174 Communicated by the Rev. J. J. C. Yarborough, of Chislehurst, Kent.
See _Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) p. 50.

M41 Ceremony of the heathen Cheremiss at eating the new corn.

175 Von Haxthausen, _Studien über die innern Zustände, das Volksleben
und insbesondere die ländliche Einrichtungen Russlands_, i. 448
_sq._

176 J. G. Georgi, _Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs_
(St. Petersburg, 1776), p. 37.

M42 Ceremony of the Aino at eating the new millet.

177 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_ (London, 1901),
pp. 204, 206.

M43 Ceremonies of the Melanesians of Reef Island at eating the new
bread-fruits and yams.

178 “Native Stories from Santa Cruz and Reef Islands,” translated by the
Rev. W. O’Ferrall, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xxxiv. (1904) p. 230.

M44 Ceremony of the New Caledonians at eating the first yams.

179 Glaumont, “La culture de l’igname et du taro en Nouvelle-Calédonie,”
_L’Anthropologie_, viii. (1897) pp. 43-45.

M45 Ceremonies observed at eating the new rice in Buru and Celebes.

180 G. A. Wilken, “Bijdragen tot de kennis der Alfoeren van het eiland
Boeroe,” p. 26 (_Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van
Kunsten en Wetenschappen_ vol. xxxviii., Batavia, 1875).

181 P. N. Wilken, “Bijdragen tot de kennis van de zeden en gewoonten der
Alfoeren in de Minahassa,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche
Zendelinggenootschap_, vii. (1863) p. 127.

182 N. P. Wilken en J. A. Schwarz, “Allerlei over het land en volk van
Bolaang Mongondou,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche
Zendelinggenootschap_, xi. (1867) pp. 369 _sq._

M46 Ceremonies observed at eating the new rice in Ceram and Borneo.

183 J. Boot, “Korte schets der noordkust van Ceram,” _Tiidschrift van
het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, Tweede Serie, x.
(1893) pp. 671 _sq._

184 See above, vol. i. pp. 184 _sqq._

185 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _In Centraal Borneo_ (Leyden, 1900), i. 156;
_id._, _Quer durch Borneo_ (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 117 _sq._ In the
latter passage “_ist jeder_” is a misprint for “_isst jeder_”; the
Dutch original is “_eet ieder_.”

M47 Ceremonies observed at eating the new rice in India.

186 H. Harkness, _Description of a Singular Aboriginal Race inhabiting
the Summit of the Neilgherry Hills_ (London, 1832), pp. 56 _sq._

187 Ch. E. Gover, _The Folk-songs of Southern India_ (London, 1872), pp.
105 _sqq._; “Coorg Folklore,” _Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) pp.
302 _sqq._

188 Gover, “The Pongol Festival in Southern India,” _Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society_, N.S., v. (1871) pp. 91 _sqq._

189 From notes sent to me by my friend Mr. W. Crooke.

190 Major J. Biddulph, _Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh_ (Calcutta, 1880), p.
103.

M48 Ceremonies observed by the Chams at ploughing, sowing, reaping, and
eating the new rice.

191 E. Aymonier, “Les Tchames et leurs religions,” _Revue de l’histoire
des Religions_, xxiv. (1891) pp. 272-274.

M49 Ceremony at eating the new yams at Onitsha on the Niger.

192 S. Crowther and J. C. Taylor, _The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger_
(London, 1859), pp. 287 _sq._ Mr. Taylor’s information is repeated
in _West African Countries and Peoples_, by J. Africanus B. Horton
(London, 1868), pp. 180 _sq._

M50 Ceremonies at eating the new yams among the Ewe negroes of Togoland.

193 J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 304-310, 340;
compare _id._ pp. 435, 480, 768. The “slaves of the Earth-gods” are
children whom women have obtained through prayers offered to
Agbasia, the greatest of the Earth-gods. When such a child is born,
it is regarded as the slave of Agbasia; and the mother dedicates it
to the service of the god, as in similar circumstances Hannah
dedicated Samuel to the Lord (1 Samuel i.). If the child is a girl,
she is married to the priest’s son; if it is a boy, he serves the
priest until his mother has given birth to a girl whom she exchanges
for the boy. See J. Spieth, _op. cit._ pp. 448-450. In all such
cases the original idea probably was that the child has been
begotten in the woman by the god and therefore belongs to him as to
his father, in the literal sense of the word.

M51 Festival of the new yams among the Ashantees in September.

194 T. E. Bowdich, _Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee_, New
Edition (London, 1873), pp. 226-229.

195 A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_ (London,
1887), pp. 229 _sq._

196 J. C. Reichenbach, “Etude sur le royaume d’Assinie,” _Bulletin de la
Société de Géographie_ (Paris), vii.ème Série, xi. (1890) p. 349.

M52 Festival of the new yams at Coomassie and Benin.

197 Ramseyer and Kühne, _Four Years in Ashantee_ (London, 1875), pp.
147-151; E. Perregaux, _Chez les Achanti_ (Neuchatel, 1906), pp.
158-160.

198 H. Ling Roth, _Great Benin_ (Halifax, England, 1903), pp. 76 _sq._

M53 Ceremonies observed by the Nandi at eating the new eleusine grain.

199 A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_ (Oxford, 1909), pp. 46 _sq._

200 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 428.

M54 Festival of the new fruits among the Caffres of Natal and Zululand.

201 F. Speckmann, _Die Hermannsburger Mission in Afrika_ (Hermannsburg,
1876), pp. 150 _sq._

202 L. Grout, _Zulu-land_ (Philadelphia, N.D.), p. 161.

_ 203 (South African) Folk-lore Journal_, i. (1879) p. 135; Rev. H.
Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_, Part iii. p. 389 note.

204 Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, Second Edition (London, 1890),
pp. 216 _sq._ On the conception of the two fire-sticks as husband
and wife, see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 208
_sqq._

M55 Dance of the Zulu king at the festival. Licentious character of the
festival. The festival as celebrated by the Pondos. Bull-fights and
games. License accorded to chiefs and others at this festival among
the Zulus. Traces of an annual abdication of Zulu kings, perhaps of
a custom of burning them and scattering their ashes.

205 J. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal_ (London, 1857), p. 27; N. Isaacs,
_Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa_ (London, 1836), ii. 293;
Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), pp. 270, 271.

206 J. Macdonald, _op. cit._ p. 189.

207 Rev. J. Macdonald, _Religion and Myth_ (London, 1893), pp. 136-138,
from manuscript notes furnished by J. Sutton. Mr. Macdonald has
described the custom more briefly in his _Light in Africa_, Second
Edition (London, 1890), p. 189.

208 N. Isaacs, _Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa_ (London,
1836), ii. 292.

209 A. Delegorgue, _Voyage dans l’Afrique Australe_ (Paris, 1847), ii.
237.

210 Above, vol. i. p. 240.

211 See _The Dying God_, pp. 36 _sq._ On the Zulu festival of
first-fruits see also T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, _Voyage
d’Exploration au Nord-Est de la Colonie du Cap de Bonne Espérance_
(Paris, 1843), pp. 308 _sq._; G. Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen
Süd-Afrikas_ (Breslau, 1872), p. 143. Fritsch mentions that after
executing a grotesque dance in the presence of the assembled
multitude the king gives formal permission to eat of the new fruits
by dashing a gourd or calabash to the ground. This ceremony of
breaking the calabash is mentioned also by J. Shooter (_Kafirs of
Natal_, p. 27), L. Grout (_Zulu-land_, p. 162), and Mr. Dudley Kidd
(_The Essential Kafir_, p. 271). According to this last writer the
calabash is filled with boiled specimens of the new fruits, and the
king sprinkles the people with the cooked food, frequently spitting
it out on them. Mr. Grout tells us (_l.c._) that at the ceremony a
bull is killed and its gall drunk by the king and the people. In
killing it the warriors 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. See L. Grout, _op. cit._ p.
161. According to Shooter, two bulls are killed; the first is black,
the second of another colour. The boys who eat the beef of the black
bull may not drink till the next morning, else the king would be
defeated in war or visited with some personal misfortune. See
Shooter, _op. cit._ pp. 26 _sq._ According to another account the
sacrifice of the bull, performed by the warriors of a particular
regiment with their bare hands, takes place several weeks before the
festival of first-fruits, and “the strength of the bull is supposed
to enter into the king, thereby prolonging his health and strength.”
See D. Leslie, _Among the Zulus and Amatongas_2 (Edinburgh, 1875),
p. 91. For a general account of the Caffre festival of first-fruits,
see Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), pp. 270-272.

M56 Ceremonies observed by the Bechuanas before eating the new fruits.

212 Rev. W. C. Willoughby, “Notes on the Totemism of the Becwana,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxv. (1905) pp.
311-313. It is very remarkable that among several Bantu tribes the
cohabitation of husband and wife is enjoined as a religious or
magical rite on a variety of solemn occasions, such as after the
death of a son or daughter, the circumcision of a child, the first
menstruation of a daughter, the occupation of a new house or of a
new village, etc. For examples see C. W. Hobley, _Ethnology of
A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 58,
59, 60, 65, 67, 69, 74; H. A. Junod, “Les Conceptions physiologiques
des Bantou Sud-Africains et leurs tabous,” _Revue d’Ethnographie et
de Sociologie_, i. (1910) p. 148; Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_
(London, 1911), pp. 48, 144, 357, 363, 378, 428, etc.; _id._,
“Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 59, 61. Among
the Baganda the act of stepping or leaping over a woman is regarded
as equivalent to cohabitation with her, and is accepted as a ritual
substitute for it (J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 357 note). The ideas
on which this custom of ceremonial cohabitation is based are by no
means clear.

M57 Ceremonies observed by the Matabele at eating the new fruits.

213 Ch. Croonenberghs, S.J., “La fête de la Grande Danse dans le haut
Zambeze,” _Les Missions Catholiques_, xiv. (1882) pp. 230-234; L.
Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), pp. 157 _sq._
The two accounts supplement each other. I have combined features
from both in the text.

M58 Ceremony observed by the Ovambo at eating the new fruits.

214 H. Tönjes, _Ovamboland, Land, Leute, Mission_ (Berlin, 1911), pp.
200 _sq._

M59 Ceremony observed by the Bororo Indians before eating the new maize.

215 V. Frič and P. Radin, “Contributions to the Study of the Bororo
Indians,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxvi. (1906)
p. 392.

M60 The _busk_ or festival of first-fruits among the Creek Indians of
North America. Fast and purgation. New fire made by friction.

216 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), pp. 507 _sq._; A. Hodgson, _Letters from
North America_ (London, 1824), i. 131 _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 H.
R. Schoolcraft’s _Indian Tribes of the United States_ (Philadelphia,
1853-1856), v. 267 _sq._; F. G. Speck, _Ethnology of the Yuchi
Indians_ (Philadelphia, 1909), pp. 112-131. The fullest descriptions
are those of Adair and Speck. In the text I have chiefly followed
Adair, our oldest authority. A similar ceremony was observed by the
Cherokees. See the description (from an unpublished MS. of J. H.
Payne, author of _Home, Sweet Home_) in “Observations on the Creek
and Cherokee Indians, by William Bartram, 1789, with prefatory and
supplementary notes by E. G. Squier,” _Transactions of the American
Ethnological Society_, vol. iii. Part i. (1853) p. 75. The Indians
of Alabama also held a great festival at their harvest in July. They
passed the day fasting, lit a new fire, purged themselves, and
offered the first-fruits to their _Manitoo_: the ceremony ended with
a religious dance. See Bossu, _Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes
occidentales_ (Paris, 1768), ii. 54. These Indians of Alabama were
probably either the Creeks or the Cherokees.

217 W. Bartram, _Travels_, p. 507.

218 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.”

219 So Adair. Bartram, on the other hand, as we have seen, says that the
people provided themselves with new household utensils.

220 B. Hawkins, “Sketch,” etc., p. 76.

M61 Festival of the new fruits among the Yuchi Indians. Game of ball.

221 F. G. Speck, _Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians_ (Philadelphia, 1909),
pp. 86-89, 105-107, 112-131.

M62 Green Corn Dance among the Seminole Indians. Festival of the new
corn among the Natchez Indians.

222 Th. Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, iii. (Leipsic, 1862) p.
42; A. S. Gatschet, _A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians_, i.
(Philadelphia, 1884) pp. 66 _sqq._; _Totemism and Exogamy_, iii.
167.

223 C. MacCauley, “Seminole Indians of Florida,” _Fifth Annual Report of
the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1887), pp. 522 _sq._

224 That is, the grand chief of the nation. All the chiefs of the
Natchez were called Suns and were connected with the head chief or
Great Sun, who bore on his breast an image of the sun and claimed to
be descended from the luminary. See Bossu, _Nouveaux Voyages aux
Indes occidentales_ (Paris, 1768), i. 42.

M63 New fire made by friction.
M64 Torchlight dance.
M65 Game of ball.

225 Le Page Du Pratz, _History of Louisiana, or of the western parts of
Virginia and Carolina_, translated from the French, New Edition
(London, 1774), pp. 338-341. See also J. R. Swanton, _Indian Tribes
of the Lower Mississippi Valley_ (Washington, 1911), pp. 110 _sqq._,
where the passage of Du Pratz is translated in full from the
original French. From Mr. Swanton’s translation it appears that the
English version of Du Pratz, which I have quoted in the text, is a
good deal abridged. On the festival of first-fruits among the
Natchez see also _Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, Nouvelle
Édition, vii. (Paris, 1781) p. 19; Charlevoix, _Histoire de la
Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), vi. 183; De Tonti, “Relation de la
Louisiane et du Mississippi,” _Recueil de Voyages au Nord_, v.
(Amsterdam, 1734) p. 122; Le Petit, “Relation des Natchez,” _ibid._
ix. 13 _sq._ (reprint of the account in the _Lettres édifiantes_
cited above); Bossu, _Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales_
(Paris, 1768), i. 43. According to Charlevoix, Le Petit, and Bossu
the festival fell in July. For Chateaubriand’s description of the
custom, see below, pp. 135 _sqq._

M66 Ceremonies observed by the Salish and Tinneh Indians before they eat
the first wild berries or roots of the season.

226 C. Hill-Tout, _The Far West, the Home of the Salish and Déné_
(London, 1907), pp. 168-170.

M67 Ceremonies observed by the Thompson Indians before they eat the
first wild berries or roots of the season.

227 J. Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 349 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
Natural History_, April, 1900).

M68 The ceremonies observed by savages at eating the first fruits of any
crop seem to be based on the idea that the plant or tree is animated
by a spirit, who must be propitiated before it is safe to partake of
the fruit.

228 See above, p. 52.

M69 The sanctity of the new fruits indicated in various ways. Care taken
to prevent the contact of sacred and profane food in the stomach of
the eater. Contact between certain foods in the stomach of the eater
forbidden.

229 See above, pp. 50, 53, 65, 66, 72, 81.

230 See above, pp. 59, 60, 63, 69 _sq._, 71, 73, 75 _sq._, 82.

231 Joseph Thomson, _Through Masai Land_ (London, 1885), p. 430; P.
Reichard, _Deutsch-Ostafrika_ (Leipsic, 1892), p. 288; O. Baumann,
_Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p. 162; M. Merker,
_Die Masai_ (Berlin, 1904), p. 33; M. Weiss, _Die Völkerstämme im
Norden Deutsch-Ostafrikas_ (Berlin, 1910), p. 380. However, the
motive which underlies the taboo appears to be a fear of injuring by
sympathetic magic the cows from which the milk is drawn. See my
essay “Folk-lore in the Old Testament,” in _Anthropological Essays
presented to E. B. Tylor_ (Oxford, 1907), pp. 164 _sq._ According to
Reichard the warriors may partake of honey both with meat and with
milk. Thomson does not mention honey and speaks of a purgative only.
The periods during which meat and milk are alternately consumed
vary, according to Reichard, from twelve to fifteen days. We may
conjecture, therefore, that two of them, making up a complete cycle,
correspond to a lunar month, with reference to which the diet is
perhaps determined.

232 M. W. H. Beech, _The Suk, their Language and Folklore_ (Oxford,
1911), p. 9. In both cases the motive, as with the Masai, is
probably a fear of injuring the cattle, and especially of causing
the cows to loose their milk. This is confirmed by other taboos of
the same sort observed by the Suk. Thus they think that to eat the
flesh of a certain forest pig would cause the cattle of the eater to
run dry, and that if a rich man ate fish his cows would give no
milk. See M. W. H. Beech, _op. cit._ p. 10.

233 O. Baumann, _Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p. 171.

234 Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1888), p. 595; _id._, “The Eskimo of
Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” _Bulletin of the American Museum of
Natural History_, vol. xv. part i. (New York, 1901) pp. 122-124. For
more details see _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 208 _sqq._

235 Rev. R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), p. 134.

236 Pausanias, v. 13. 3. We may assume, though Pausanias does not
expressly say so, that persons who sacrificed to Telephus partook of
the sacrifice.

237 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 576 (vol. ii.
p. 267); Ch. Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions Grecques_, No. 723, p.
622. Further, no one who had suffered a domestic bereavement might
enter the sanctuary for forty days. Hence the pollution of death was
clearly deemed more virulent, or at all events more lasting, than
the pollution of food.

238 Diodorus Siculus, v. 62. 5.

M70 The sacrament of first-fruits sometimes combined with a sacrifice of
them to gods or spirits.

239 See above, pp. 51 _sq._, 54, 58, 60 _sq._, 64, 74.

240 See below, pp. 109 _sqq._

M71 Aztec custom of eating sacramentally a dough image of the god
Huitzilopochtli or Vitzilipuztli as a mode of communion with the
deity.
M72 Eating the flesh and bones of the god Vitzilipuztli sacramentally.

241 J. de Acosta, _Natural and Moral History of the Indies_, bk. v. ch.
24, vol. ii. pp. 356-360 (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880). I have
modernised the old translator’s spelling. Acosta’s authority, which
he followed without acknowledgment, was an anonymous writer of about
the middle of the sixteenth century, whose manuscript, written in
Spanish, was found in the library of the Franciscan monastery at
Mexico in 1856. A French translation of it has been published. See
_Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l’Origine des Indiens qui habitent
la Nouvelle-Espagne selon leurs traditions_, publié par D. Charnay
(Paris, 1903), pp. 149-154. Acosta’s description is followed by A.
de Herrera (_General History of the vast Continent and Islands of
America_, translated by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iii.
213-215).

M73 The doctrine of transubstantiation or the magical conversion of
bread into flesh recognised by the ancient Aztecs and Brahmans.

_ 242 The Satapatha-Brâhmana_, translated by J. Eggeling, Part i.
(Oxford, 1882) p. 51 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xii.).

_ 243 Op. cit._ pp. 51 _sq._, with the translator’s note.

M74 The sacred food not to be defiled by contact with common food.

244 See above, pp. 73 _sqq._

245 Above, p. 68, note 3.

M75 Aztec custom of killing the god Huitzilopochtli in effigy and eating
him afterwards.

246 H. H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London,
1875-1876), iii. 297-300 (after Torquemada); F. S. Clavigero,
_History of Mexico_, translated by Ch. Cullen (London, 1807), i. 309
_sqq._; B. de Sahagun, _Histoire générale des choses de la
Nouvelle-Espagne_, traduite et annotée par D. Jourdanet et R. Siméon
(Paris, 1880), pp. 203 _sq._; J. G. Müller, _Geschichte der
amerikanischen Urreligionen_ (Bâle, 1867), p. 605; Brasseur de
Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de
l’Amérique Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 531-534.

M76 Mexican custom of eating images of dough.

247 F. S. Clavigero, _op. cit._ i. 311; B. de Sahagun, _op. cit._ pp.
74, 156 _sq._; J. G. Müller, _op. cit._ p. 606; H. H. Bancroft, _op.
cit._ iii. 316; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _op. cit._ iii. 535. This
festival took place on the last day of 16th month (which extended
from 23rd 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. See Sahagun, _op. cit._ p. 33.

248 Brasseur de Bourbourg, _op. cit._ iii. 539.

249 G. F. de Oviedo, _Histoire du Nicaragua_ (Paris, 1840), p. 219.
Oviedo’s account is borrowed by A. de Herrera (_General History of
the vast Continent and Islands of America_, translated by Capt. John
Stevens, iii. 301).

M77 Mexican custom of eating a man as a human embodiment of the god
Tetzcatlipoca.

250 J. de Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. x. cap. 14, vol. ii. pp.
259 _sqq._ (Madrid, 1723); Brasseur de Bourbourg, _op. cit._ iii.
510-512.

M78 Communion with a god by eating of his effigy among the Huichol
Indians of Mexico and the Malas of Southern India. Catholic custom
of eating effigies of the Madonna.

251 C. Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_ (London, 1903), ii. 166-171. When Mr.
Lumholtz revisited the temple in 1898, the idol had disappeared. It
has probably been since replaced by another. The custom of
abstaining both from salt and from women as a mode of ceremonial
purification is common among savage and barbarous peoples. See
above, p. 75 (as to the Yuchi Indians), and _Totemism and Exogamy_,
iv. 224 _sqq._

252 E. Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras, 1909),
iv. 357 _sq._

253 Graf Paul von Hoensbroech, _14 Jahre Jesuit_ (Leipsic, 1909-1910),
i. 25 _sq._ The practice was officially sanctioned by a decree of
the Inquisition, 29th July 1903.

M79 Loaves called _Maniae_ baked at Aricia. Woollen effigies dedicated
at Rome to Mania, the Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts, at the
Compitalia. The loaves at Aricia perhaps sacramental bread made in
the likeness of the King of the Wood. Practice of putting up dummies
to divert the attention of ghosts or demons from living people.

254 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 22.

255 Festus, ed. C. O. Müller, pp. 128, 129, 145. The reading of the last
passage is, however, uncertain (“_et Ariciae genus panni fieri; quod
manici † appelletur_”).

256 Varro, _De lingua latina_, ix. 61; Arnobius, _Adversus nationes_,
iii. 41; Macrobius, _Saturn._ i. 7. 35; Festus, p. 128, ed. C. O.
Müller. Festus speaks of the mother or grandmother of the _larvae_;
the other writers speak of the mother of the _lares_.

257 Macrobius, _l.c._; Festus, pp. 121, 239, ed. C. O. 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. See Martial, _Epigr._ ii. 43. 5
_sq._; Asconius,_ In Cornel._ p. 55, ed. Kiessling and Schoell.

258 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. See Servius on Virgil,
_Aen._ ii. 116; compare Pausanias, x. 18. 5. Poor people who could
not afford to sacrifice real animals offered dough images of them
(Suidas, _s.v._ βοῦς ἕβδομος; compare 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 Chr. A. 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 Persephone,
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 (Julius 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, p. 36, ed. Didot). We have seen above
(p. 25) that the poorer Egyptians offered cakes of dough instead of
pigs. The Cheremiss of Russia sometimes offer cakes in the shape of
horses instead of the real animals. See P. v. Stenin, “Ein neuer
Beitrag zur Ethnographie der Tscheremissen,” _Globus_, lviii. (1890)
pp. 203 _sq._ 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. See _Relations des
Jésuites_, 1636, p. 11 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).

259 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 55 _sqq._

M80 Tibetan custom of putting effigies at the doors of houses to deceive
demons.

260 L. A. Waddell, _The Buddhism of Tibet_ (London, 1895), pp. 484-486.

M81 Effigies buried with the dead in order to deceive their ghosts.

261 W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, Second Edition (London,
1832-1836), i. 402.

262 M. J. van Baarda, “Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleveringen der
Galelareezen,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van
Nederlandsch-Indië_, xlv. (1895) p. 539.

263 Rev. R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), p. 275.

264 J. Kubary, “Die Religion der Pelauer,” in A. Bastian’s _Allerlei aus
Volks- und Menschenkunde_ (Berlin, 1888), i. 9.

265 W. M. Donselaar, “Aanteekeningen over het eiland Saleijer,”
_Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, i.
(1857) p. 290.

266 Le Comte C. N. de Cardi, “Ju-ju laws and customs in the Niger
Delta,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxix. (1899) p.
58.

267 A. B. Ellis, _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_
(London, 1894), p. 80.

268 Miss Mary H. Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_ (London, 1897), p.
473.

M82 Fictitious burials to divert the attention of demons from the real
burials.

269 S. Crowther and J. C. Taylor, _The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger_
(London, 1859), pp. 250 _sq._

270 J. Macdonald, “East Central African Customs,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xxii. (1893) pp. 114 _sq._; _id._, _Myth
and Religion_ (London, 1893), pp. 155 _sq._ (from MS. notes of Dr.
Elmslie).

271 B. Schwarz, _Kamerun_ (Leipsic, 1886), pp. 256 _sq._; E. Reclus,
_Nouvelle Géographie Universelle_, xiii. 68 _sq._

272 J. Fraser, “The Aborigines of New South Wales,” _Journal and
Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales_, xvi. (1882) p.
229; A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London,
1904), p. 467.

273 This I learned from Dr. Burton Brown (formerly of 3 Via Venti
Setembri, Rome), who lived for some time among the Nagas.

274 Strabo, xvii. 1. 23, p. 803; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 18.

_ 275 Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. p. 39, § 240 (December 1884).

M83 Effigies used to cure or prevent sickness by deluding the demons of
disease or inducing them to accept the effigies instead of the
persons.

276 Some examples of this vicarious use of images as substitutes for the
sick have been given in an earlier part of this work. See _Taboo and
the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 62 _sq._

277 N. Graafland, _De Minahassa_, (Rotterdam, 1869), i. 326.

278 P. J. Veth, _Borneo’s Wester-Afdeeling_ (Zaltbommel, 1854-56), ii.
309.

279 F. Grabowsky, “Ueber verschiedene weniger bekannte Opfer bei den
Oloh Ngadju in Borneo,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_,
i. (1888) pp. 132 _sq._

280 E. L. M. Kühr, “Schetsen uit Borneo’s Westerafdeeling,” _Bijdragen
tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, xlvii.
(1897) pp. 60 _sq._ For another mode in which these same Dyaks seek
to heal sickness by means of an image, see _Taboo and the Perils of
the Soul_, pp. 55 _sq._

281 J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes
en Papua_ (The Hague, 1886), p. 465.

282 H. Ling Roth, “Low’s Natives of Borneo,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xxi. (1892) p. 117.

283 B. Hagen, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Battareligion,” _Tijdschrift
voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxviii. (1883) p. 531.

284 M. Joustra, “Het leven, de zeden en gewoonten der Bataks,”
_Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_,
xlvi. (1902) pp. 413 _sq._

285 N. Annandale and H. C. Robinson, “Some Preliminary Results of an
Expedition to the Malay Peninsula,” _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 416.

M84 Effigies used to divert the attention of demons in Nias and various
parts of Asia.

286 Fr. Kramer, “Der Götzendienst der Niasser,” _Tijdschrift voor
Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxxiii. (1890) p. 489.

287 A. Bastian, _Die Völkerstämme am Brahmaputra_ (Berlin, 1883), p. 73.

288 Sarat Chandra Das, _Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet_ (London,
1902), p. 134.

289 Shway Yoe, _The Burman_ (London, 1882), ii. 138.

290 Pallegoix, _Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam_ (Paris, 1854), ii.
48 _sq._ Compare A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_
(Leipsic and Jena, 1866-1871), iii. 293, 486; E. Young, _The Kingdom
of the Yellow Robe_ (Westminster, 1898), p. 121.

291 J. Moura, _Le Royaume du Cambodge_ (Paris, 1883), i. 176.

292 A. Woldt, “Die Kultus-Gegenstände der Golden und Giljaken,”
_Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, i. (1888) pp. 102 _sq._

M85 Effigies used to divert ghostly and other evil influence from people
in China.

293 J. J. M. de Groot, _The Religious System of China_, vi. (Leyden,
1910) pp. 1103 _sq._; for a description of the effigies or
“substitutes for a person” see _id._, vol. v. (Leyden, 1907) p. 920.
Can the monkish and clerical tonsure have been originally designed
in like manner to let out the evil influence through the top of the
head?

294 T. Watters, “Some Corean Customs and Notions,” _Folk-lore_, vi.
(1895) pp. 82 _sq._

M86 Effigies used as substitutes to save the lives of people among the
Abchases of the Caucasus and the Ewe negroes of West Africa.

295 N. v. Seidlitz, “Die Abchasen,” _Globus_, lxvi. (1894) p. 54.

296 J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 502-506, 512, 513,
838, 848, 910. It is a disputed point in Ewe theology whether there
are many spiritual mothers in heaven or only one. Some say that
there are as many spiritual mothers as there are individual men and
women; others doubt this and say that there is only one spiritual
mother, and that she is the wife of God (_Mawu_) and gave birth to
all spirits that live in heaven, both men and women.

297 G. Binetsch, “Beantwortung mehrerer Fragen über unser Ewe-Volk und
seine Anschauungen,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xxxviii. (1906)
p. 37.

M87 Effigies used as substitutes to save the lives of people among the
Nishga Indians.

_ 298 The Illustrated Missionary News_, April 1st, 1891, pp. 59 _sq._

M88 Hence the woollen effigies hung out at the Compitalia in Rome were
probably offered as substitutes for living persons to the Mother or
Grandmother of Ghosts.

299 As to the custom see Varro, _De lingua latina_, v. 45; Ovid,
_Fasti_, v. 621 _sqq._; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Antiquit.
Roman._ i. 38; Plutarch, _Quaestiones Romanae_, 32 and 86. For
various explanations which have been proposed, see L. Preller,
_Römische Mythologie_,3 ii. 134 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald-
und Feldkulte_, pp. 265 _sqq._; _Journal of Philology_, xiv. (1885)
p. 156 note; R. von Ihering, _Vorgeschichte der Indoeuropäer_, pp.
430-434; W. Warde Fowler, _The Roman Festivals of the Period of the
Republic_ (London, 1899), pp. 111 _sqq._; _id._, _The Religious
Experience of the Roman People_ (London, 1911), pp. 54 _sq._, 321
_sqq._; G. Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur römischen
Religions- und Stadtgeschichte_ (Munich, 1904), pp. 211-229. The
ceremony was observed on the fifteenth of May.

300 See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, iii. 107.

301 Plutarch, _Quaest. Roman._ 86.

M89 The sacrifice of first-fruits to gods is probably later than the
custom of partaking of them sacramentally. First-fruits sometimes
presented to the king and often to the dead.

302 See above, vol. i. pp. 231 _sqq._

M90 Sacrifice of first-fruits among the Ovambo of South-West Africa.

303 H. Tönjes, _Ovamboland, Land, Leute, Mission_ (Berlin, 1911), p.
195.

M91 Sacrifices of first-fruits in South Africa.

304 Rev E. Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), pp. 251 _sq._

_ 305 Ibid._ p. 252.

_ 306 Ibid._ pp. 252 _sq._ In the southern province of Ceylon “the
threshers behave as if they were in a temple of the gods when they
put the corn into the bags.” See C. J. R. Le Mesurier, “Customs and
Superstitions connected with the Cultivation of Rice in the Southern
Province of Ceylon,” _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, N.S.
xvii. (1885), p. 371.

307 L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 173.

308 G. McCall Theal, _Records of South-Eastern Africa_, vii. (1901) p.
397.

M92 Sacrifices of first-fruits in Central Africa.

309 “Der Muata Cazembe und die Völkerstämme der Maravis, Chevas,
Muembas, Lundas und andere von Süd-Afrika,” _Zeitschrift für
allgemeine Erdkünde_ (Berlin), vi. (1856) pp. 272, 273.

310 Rev. A. Hetherwick, “Some Animistic Beliefs among the Yaos of
British Central Africa,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xxxii. (1902) pp. 94 _sq._

311 Rev. A. Hetherwick, _op. cit._ pp. 91-94.

312 Dr. J. A. Chisholm, “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
Winamwanga and Wiwa,” _Journal of the African Society_, vol. ix. No.
36 (July 1910), pp. 366 _sq._ Among the Winamwanga, as among the
Yaos, the human soul or spirit is called _muzimu_ (_op. cit._ p.
363).

313 C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern
Rhodesia_ (London, 1911), pp. 294 _sq._

M93 Sacrifices of first-fruits in East Africa.

314 C. W. Hobley, _Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_
(Cambridge, 1910), pp. 66, 85 _sq._

315 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 428.

_ 316 Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, lx. (1888) p. 57. The account
is extracted from the letter of a Catholic priest, himself a Dinka.
The name of God, according to him, is _Den-dit_, meaning “Great
Rain.” The form of the name agrees closely, and the interpretation
of it agrees exactly, with the results of Dr. C. G. Seligmann’s
independent enquiries, according to which the name of the Dinka God
is _Dengdit_, “Great Rain,” the word for rain being _deng_. See Dr.
C. G. Seligmann, in Dr. J. Hastings’ _Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics_, _s.v._ “Dinka,” vol. iv. (Edinburgh, 1911) p. 707.

317 “Coutumes étranges des indigènes du Djebel-Nouba (Afrique centrale),
notes communiquées par les missionnaires de Vérone,” _Les Missions
Catholiques_, xiv. (1882) p. 459. As to the Nubas and their pontiff
see further Stanislas Carceri, “Djebel-Nouba,” _Les Missions
Catholiques_, xv. (1883) pp. 448-452.

M94 Sacrifices of first-fruits in West Africa.

318 A. F. Mockler-Ferryman, _Up the Niger_ (London, 1892), pp. 141 _sq._

319 Ch. Partridge, _Cross River Natives_ (London, 1905), pp. 266 _sq._

320 J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 795 _sq._

321 J. Spieth, _op. cit._ p. 344. As to the goddess Mawu Sodza, see
_ibid._ pp. 424 _sq._

322 H. Klose, _Togo unter deutscher Flagge_ (Berlin, 1899), p. 504.

323 L. Conradt, “Das Hinterland der deutschen Kolonie Togo,” _Petermanns
Mittheilungen_, xlii. (1896) p. 18.

M95 First-fruits offered to kings in Madagascar and Burma.

324 G. A. Shaw, “The Betsileo,” _Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar
Magazine, Reprint of the First Four Numbers_ (Antananarivo, 1885),
p. 346.

325 J. Cameron, “On the Early Inhabitants of Madagascar,” _Antananarivo
Annual and Madagascar Magazine, Reprint of the First Four Numbers_
(Antananarivo, 1885), p. 263.

326 A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, ii. (Leipsic, 1866),
p. 105.

327 A. van Gennep, _Tabou et Totémisme à Madagascar_ (Paris, 1904), p.
97.

M96 Sacrifices of first-fruits in Assam and other parts of India.
Sacrifices of first-fruits among hill tribes of India. Sacrifices of
first-fruits in the Central Provinces of India. Sacrifices of
first-fruits in the Punjaub.

328 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p.
91.

329 Major A. Playfair, _The Garos_ (London, 1909), p. 94.

330 E. T. Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 198; (Sir) H. H. Risley, _Tribes and
Castes of Bengal, Ethnographic Glossary_ (Calcutta, 1891-1892), ii.
104.

331 Rev. P. Dehon, S.J., _Religion and Customs of the Uraons_ (Calcutta,
1906), p. 137 (_Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. i.
No. 9).

_ 332 North Indian Notes and Queries_, i. 57, No. 428, quoting Moorcroft
and Trebeck, _Travels in the Himalayan Provinces_, i. 317 _sq._

333 E. T. Atkinson, _The Himalayan Districts of the North-Western
Provinces of India_, ii. (Allahabad, 1884) p. 825. As to Bhumiya see
further W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern
India_ (Westminster, 1896), i. 105-107, who observes (pp. 106
_sq._): “To illustrate the close connection between this worship of
Bhûmiya as the soil godling with that of the sainted dead, it may be
noted that in some places the shrine of Bhûmiya is identified with
the Jathera, which is the ancestral mound, sacred to the common
ancestor of the village or tribe.”

334 Thomas Shaw, “The Inhabitants of the Hills near Rajamahall,”
_Asiatic Researches_, iv. (London, 1807) pp. 56 _sq._

_ 335 Panjab Notes and Queries_, i. p. 60, § 502 (February 1884).

_ 336 Central Provinces, Ethnographic Survey_, iii. _Draft Articles on
Forest Tribes_ (Allahabad, 1907) p. 45.

_ 337 Op. cit._ iii. 73.

_ 338 Op. cit._ v. (Allahabad, 1911) p. 66.

_ 339 Op. cit._ vii. (Allahabad, 1911) p. 102.

340 The practice 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). The purpose of the
Indian custom may be to ward off evil influences from the field, as
Mr. W. Crooke suggests (_Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern
India_, ii. 305, “This forms a sacred circle which repels evil
influence from the crop”). Compare _The Magic Art and Evolution of
Kings_, i. 113 _sq._

341 D. C. J. Ibbetson, _Outlines of Panjab Ethnography_ (Calcutta,
1883), p. 119.

M97 Sacrifices of first-fruits among the ancient Hindoos.

_ 342 The Satapatha Brâhmana_, translated by Julius Eggeling, Part i.
(Oxford, 1882), pp. 369-373 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xii.).

M98 Sacrifices of first-fruits in Burma and Corea.

343 (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and
the Shan States_, Part i. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1900), pp. 425 _sq._

344 Rev. G. Whitehead, “Notes on the Chins of Burma,” _Indian
Antiquary_, xxxvi. (1907) p. 207.

345 A. Bourlet, “Les Thay,” _Anthropos_, ii. (1907) pp. 627-629.

346 Ch. Dallet, _Histoire de l’Eglise de Corée_ (Paris, 1874), i. p.
xxiv.

M99 Sacrifices of first-fruits in the East Indies.

347 Fr. Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_ (Berlin, 1847), ii. 312.

348 Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_2 (London,
1863), i. 191.

349 B. F. Matthes, _Beknopt Verslag mijner reizen in de Binnenlanden van
Celebes, in de jaren 1857 en 1861_, p. 5 (_Verzameling van Berigten
betreffende de Bijbelverspreiding_, Nos. 96-99).

350 N. Graafland, _De Minahassa_ (Rotterdam, 1869), i. 165.

351 J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes
en Papua_ (The Hague, 1886), p. 107.

352 Riedel, _op. cit._ pp. 281, 296 _sq._

353 Fr. Valentyn, _Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën_ (Dordrecht and Amsterdam,
1724-1726), iii. 10.

354 C. M. Pleyte, “Ethnographische Beschrijving der Kei-Eilanden,”
_Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_,
Tweede Serie, x. (1893) p. 801.

355 Fr. Kramer, “Der Götzendienst der Niasser,” _Tijdschrift voor
Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxxiii. (1890) p. 482.

356 C. Semper, _Die Philippinen und ihre Bewohner_ (Würzburg, 1869), p.
56.

357 F. Blumentritt, “Das Stromgebiet des Rio Grande de Mindano,”
_Petermanns Mittheilungen_, xxxvii. (1891) p. 111.

M100 Sacrifices of first-fruits in New Guinea.

358 Stefan Lehner, “Bukaua,” in R. Neuhauss’s _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii.
(Berlin, 1911) pp. 434-436.

M101 Sacrifices of first-fruits in Fiji and the New Hebrides.

359 Rev. Lorimer Fison, “The Nanga, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of
Wainimala, Fiji,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xiv.
(1885) p. 27.

360 J. E. Erskine, _Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western
Pacific_ (London, 1853), p. 252.

361 G. Turner, _Samoa_ (London, 1884), pp. 318 _sq._

M102 Sacrifices of first-fruits in the Solomon Islands.

362 Rev. R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), pp. 132
_sq._

363 C. M. Woodford, _A Naturalist among the Head-hunters, being an
Account of Three Visits to the Solomon Islands_ (London, 1890), pp.
26-28.

364 Rev. R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 138.

M103 Sacrifices of first-fruits in the Kingsmill Islands.

365 Horatio Hale, _United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnology and
Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 97.

M104 Sacrifices of first-fruits in the Tonga Islands.
M105 The first-fruits of the yams deposited on the grave of the last
Tooitonga (divine chief).

366 The _malái_ is “a piece of ground, generally before a large house,
or chief’s grave, where public ceremonies are principally held” (W.
Mariner, _Tonga Islands, Vocabulary_).

367 The _mataboole_ is “a rank next below chiefs or nobles” (_ibid._).

368 W. Mariner, _Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands_, Second
Edition (London, 1818), ii. 78, 196-203. As to the divine chief
Tooitonga see _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 21.

M106 Significance of the presentation of first-fruits to the divine chief
at the grave of his predecessor.
M107 Sacrifices of first-fruits in Samoa and other parts of Polynesia.

369 Ch. Wilkes,. _Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition_,
New Edition (New York, 1851), ii. 133.

370 G. Turner, _Samoa_, pp. 70 _sq._

371 W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, Second Edition (London,
1832-1836), i. 350.

372 D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _Journal of Voyages and Travels_ (London,
1831), i. 284.

373 Geiseler, _Die Oster-Insel_ (Berlin, 1883), p. 31.

374 E. Tregear, “The Maoris of New Zealand,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xix. (1890) p. 110; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A
Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_, Second Edition (London,
1870), pp. 165 _sq._; _Old New Zealand_, by a Pakeha Maori (London,
1884), pp. 103 _sq._

M108 Sacrifices of first-fruits among the old Prussians, Greeks, and
Romans.

375 Chr. Hartknoch, _Alt und neues Preussen_ (Frankfort and Leipsic,
1684), p. 161; _id._, _Dissertationes historicae de variis rebus
Prussicis_, p. 163 (appended to his edition of P. de Dusburg’s
_Chronicon Prussiae_, Frankfort and Leipsic, 1679). Compare W.
Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_ (Berlin, 1868), p. 27.

376 See above, vol. i. pp. 53 _sqq._

377 Plutarch, _Theseus_, 6.

378 Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 130.

379 Festus, _s.v._ “Sacrima,” p. 319, ed. C. O. Müller; Pliny, _Nat.
Hist._ xviii. 8.

380 Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi. 16, ed. C. O. Müller.

M109 Sacrifices of first-fruits among the Indians of America.
Chateaubriand’s description of the harvest festival among the
Natchez.

381 James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 345 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
Natural History_, May, 1900).

382 C. Hill Tout, “Report on the Ethnology of the Okanaken of British
Columbia,” _Journal of the R. Anthropological Institute_, xli.
(1911) p. 132.

383 Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique
et de l’Amérique-Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859), ii. 566.

_ 384 Annales de l’Association de la Propagation de la Foi_, i. (Paris
and Lyons, 1826) p. 386.

385 Above, pp. 77 _sqq._

386 Chateaubriand, _Voyage en Amérique_, pp. 130-136 (Michel Lévy,
Paris, 1870).

M110 Custom of killing and eating the corn-spirit sacramentally. Belief
of the savage that by eating an animal or man he acquires the
qualities of that animal or man.

387 See _The Dying God_, pp. 9 _sqq._

M111 Beliefs of the American Indians as to the homoeopathic magic of the
flesh of animals.

388 James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), p.
133.

389 Alfred Simson, _Travels in the Wilds of Ecuador_ (London, 1887), p.
168; _id._, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, vii.
(1878) p. 503.

390 A. Thevet, _Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique, autrement
nommée Amerique_ (Antwerp, 1558), p. 55; _id._, _La Cosmographie
Universelle_ (Paris, 1575), ii. pp. 929, [963], 940 [974]; J.
Lerius, _Historia Navigationis in Brasiliam, quae et America
dicitur_ (1586), pp. 126 _sq._

391 Rochefort, _Histoire Naturelle et Morale des Iles Antilles_, Seconde
Edition (Rotterdam, 1665), p. 465.

392 C. Cuny, “De Libreville au Cameroun,” _Bulletin de la Société de
Géographie_ (Paris), vii. Série, xvii. (1896) p. 342.

393 R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, ii. (London, 1817) p. 373; _id._,
iii. (London, 1819) p. 164.

394 P. Lozano, _Descripcion Chorographica del Gran Chaco_ (Cordova,
1733), p. 90.

395 M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_ (Vienna, 1784), i. 289
_sq._

396 J. Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 348 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
Natural History_, April, 1900).

M112 Bushman beliefs as to the homoeopathic magic of the flesh of
animals.

397 W. H. I. Bleek and C. L. Lloyd, _Specimens of Bushman Folklore_
(London, 1911), pp. 271-275.

M113 Other African beliefs as to the homoeopathic magic of the flesh of
animals. Ancient beliefs as to the homoeopathic magic of the flesh
of animals.

398 A. Bertrand, _The Kingdom of the Barotsi, Upper Zambezia_ (London,
1899), p. 277, quoting the description given by the French
missionary M. Coillard.

399 Theophilus Hahn, _Tsuni-Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_
(London, 1881), p. 106.

400 W. H. I. Bleek and L. C. Lloyd, _Specimens of Bushman Folklore_
(London, 1911), p. 373.

401 Rev. H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 318.

402 Sir Harry Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, Second Edition
(London, 1904), ii. 787.

403 Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, Second Edition (London, 1890),
p. 174; _id._, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix.
(1890) p. 282.

404 Rev. H. Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 438, note
16.

405 O. Baumann, _Usambara und seine Nachbargebiete_ (Berlin, 1891), p.
128.

406 Sir H. H. Johnston, _British Central Africa_ (London, 1897), p. 438;
J. Buchanan, _The Shire Highlands_, p. 138.

407 M. W. H. Beech, _The Suk, their Language and Folklore_ (Oxford,
1911), p. 11.

408 J. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_ (London,
1857), p. 399.

409 A. B. Ellis, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West
Africa_ (London, 1890), p. 99.

410 M. Merker, _Rechtsverhältnisse und Sitten der Wadschagga_ (Gotha,
1902), p. 38 (_Petermanns Mitteilungen, Ergänzungsheft_, No. 138).

411 Rev. H. Callaway, _Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the
Zulus_ (Natal and London, 1868), p. 175 note.

412 Ovid, _Metam._ vii. 271 _sqq._ As to the supposed longevity of deer
and crows, see L. Stephani, in _Compte Rendu de la Commission
Archéologique_ (St. Petersburg), 1863, pp. 140 _sq._, and my note on
Pausanias, viii. 10. 10.

413 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ viii. 119.

414 Porphyry, _De Abstinentia_, ii. 48: οἱ γοῦν ζώων μαντικῶν ψυχὰς
δέξασθαι βουλόμενοι εἰς ἑαυτούς, τὰ κυριώτατα μόρια καταπιόντες,
οἷον καρδίας κοράκων ἢ ἀσπαλάκων ἢ ἱεράκων, ἔχουσι παριοῦσαν τὴν
ψυχὴν καὶ χρηματίζουσαν ὡς θεὸν καὶ εἰσιοῦσαν εἰς αὐτοὺς ἄμα τῇ
ἐνθέσει τῇ τοῦ σώματος. Pliny also mentions the custom of eating the
heart of a mole, raw and palpitating, as a means of acquiring skill
in divination (_Nat. Hist._ xxx. 19).

M114 Beliefs of the Dyaks and Aino as to the homoeopathic magic of the
flesh of animals.

415 Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, Second
Edition (London, 1863), i. 186, 206.

416 W. H. Furness, _Home-life of Borneo Head-hunters_ (Philadelphia,
1902), p. 71; compare _id._, pp. 166 _sq._

417 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_ (London, 1901),
pp. 511-513.

418 Rev. J. Batchelor, _op. cit._ p. 337.

419 W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_
(Westminster, 1896), i. 279.

M115 Beliefs as to the homoeopathic magic of the flesh of dogs, tigers,
etc.

420 Bossu, _Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales_ (Paris, 1768), i.
112.

421 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_, ii.
(Philadelphia, 1853) pp. 79 _sq._

422 J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes
en Papua_ (The Hague, 1886), pp. 10, 262.

423 James Chalmers, _Pioneering in New Guinea_ (London, 1887), p. 166.

_ 424 Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiv. (1895) p. 179.

425 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p.
33.

_ 426 Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, N.S., viii. (1886)
p. 307.

427 J. Henderson, “The Medicine and Medical Practice of the Chinese,”
_Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_,
New Series, i. (Shanghai, 1865) pp. 35 _sq._ Compare Mrs. Bishop,
_Korea and her Neighbours_ (London, 1898), i. 79.

428 Mrs. S. S. Allison, “Account of the Similkameen Indians of British
Columbia,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxi. (1892)
p. 313.

M116 Beliefs as to the homoeopathic magic of the flesh of wolves, bears,
and serpents.

429 P. E. Müller on Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_ (Copenhagen,
1839-1858), vol. ii. p. 60.

_ 430 Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock8 (Stuttgart, 1882), pp. 180,
309.

431 Pliny, _Hist. Natur._ x. 137, xxix. 72.

432 Philostratus, _Vita Apollonii_, i. 20, iii. 9.

433 Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, ed. P. E. Müller (Copenhagen,
1839-1858), i. 193 _sq._

434 P. E. Müller, note in his edition of Saxo Grammaticus, vol. ii. p.
146.

435 A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 110, §
153; J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und
Mähren_ (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 230, § 1658.

436 Grimm, _Kinder- und Hausmärchen_, No. 17; _id._, _Deutsche Sagen_2
(Berlin, 1865-1866), No. 132 (vol. i. pp. 174-176); A. Kuhn und W.
Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_ (Leipsic,
1848), p. 154; A. Waldau, _Böhmisches Märchenbuch_ (Prague, 1860),
pp. 13 _sqq._; Von Alpenburg, _Mythen und Sagen Tirols_ (Zurich,
1857), pp. 302 _sqq._; W. von Schulenburg, _Wendische Volkssagen und
Gebräuche aus dem Spreewald_ (Leipsic, 1880), p. 96; P. Sébillot,
_Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1882),
ii. 224; W. Grant Stewart, _The Popular Superstitions and Festive
Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland_, New Edition (London,
1851), pp. 53, 56; J. F. Campbell, _Popular Tales of the West
Highlands_, New Edition (Paisley and London, 1890), No. 47, vol. ii.
pp. 377 _sqq._; E. Prym und A. Socin, _Syrische Sagen und Maerchen_
(Göttingen, 1881), pp. 150 _sq._ On the serpent in relation to the
acquisition by men of the language of animals, see further my
article, “The Language of Animals,” _The Archaeological Review_, i.
(1888) pp. 166 _sqq._ Sometimes serpents have been thought to impart
a knowledge of the language of animals voluntarily by licking the
ears of the seer. See Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, i. 9. 11 _sq._;
Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, iii. 4.

M117 Various beliefs as to the homoeopathic magic of the flesh of
animals.

437 A. Leared, _Morocco and the Moors_ (London, 1876), p. 281.

438 M. Quedenfelt, “Aberglaube und halb-religiöse Bruderschaft bei den
Marokkanarn,” _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte_, 1886, p. 682 (bound up
with the _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xviii. 1886).

439 H. Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_ (Leipsic, 1885), p. 218.

440 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), vi. 8.

441 P. J. Veth, “De leer der Signatuur,” _Internationales Archiv für
Ethnographie_, vii. (1894) pp. 140 _sq._

442 R. W. Felkin, “Notes on the For Tribe of Central Africa,”
_Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, xiii. (1884-1886)
p. 218.

M118 The flesh and blood, but especially the hearts, of dead men eaten or
drunk for the sake of acquiring the good qualities of the dead.

443 Rev. J. Macdonald, “Manners, Customs, etc., of the South African
Tribes,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xx. (1891) p.
116; _id._, _Light in Africa_ (London, 1890), p. 212. Compare Rev.
E. Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), pp. 257 _sq._; Dudley
Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 309.

444 Rev. J. Macdonald, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xx. (1891) p. 138; _id._, _Light in Africa_, p. 220.

445 H. Schinz, _Deutsch Südwest-Afrika_ (Oldenburg and Leipsic, preface
dated 1891), p. 320.

446 J. Macdonald, “East Central African Customs,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xxii. (1893) p. 111. Compare J.
Buchanan, _The Shire Highlands_, p. 138; Sir H. H. Johnston,
_British Central Africa_ (London, 1897), p. 438.

447 A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_ (Oxford, 1909), p. 27.

448 Rev. H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 318.

449 Rev. J. L. Wilson, _Western Africa_ (London, 1856), pp. 167 _sq._

450 A. B. Ellis, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_ (London,
1890), pp. 99 _sq._

451 A. B. Ellis, _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_
(London, 1894), p. 69.

452 A. Caulin, _Historia Coro-graphica natural y evangelica dela Nueva
Andalucia_ (1779), p. 98.

453 A. de Herrera, _General History of the vast Continent and Islands of
America_, translated by Capt. J. Stevens (London, 1725-1726), vi.
187.

454 F. de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les parties centrales de
l’Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), iv. 382.

455 James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), p.
135.

456 Rev. J. Roscoe, “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901) pp. 129
_sq._; _id._, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902)
p. 45.

457 E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington,
1899) p. 328.

458 E. Clement, “Ethnographical Notes on the Western Australian
Aborigines,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, xvi. (1904)
p. 8.

M119 Other parts than the heart are eaten for the purpose of acquiring
the virtues of the deceased.

459 O. Opigez, “Aperçu général sur la Nouvelle-Calédonie,” _Bulletin de
la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), vii. Série, vii. (1886) p. 433.

460 A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London,
1904), p. 753.

461 A. W. Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 752.

462 S. Gason, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiv.
(1895) p. 172.

463 Rev. W. Ridley, _Kamilaroi_ (Sydney, 1875), p. 160.

_ 464 Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xi. (Lyons, 1838-1839) p.
258.

465 J. Henderson, “The Medicine and Medical Practice of the Chinese,”
_Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_,
New Series, i. (Shanghai, 1865) pp. 35 _sq._

466 A. C. Kruyt, “Het koppensnellen der Toradja’s van Midden-Celebes, en
zijne Beteekenis,” _Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke
Akademie van Wetenschappen_, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks,
iii. (Amsterdam, 1899) p. 201.

467 N. Adriani en A. C. Kruijt, “Van Posso naar Mori,” _Mededeelingen
van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xliv. (1900) p.
162.

468 F. Blumentritt, “Der Ahnencultus und die religiösen Anschauungen der
Malaien des Philippinen-Archipels,” _Mittheilungen der Wiener
Geograph. Gesellschaft_, 1882, p. 154; _id._, _Versuch einer
Ethnographie der Philippinen_ (Gotha, 1882), p. 32 (_Petermann’s
Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft_, No. 67).

469 Ch. Keysser, “Aus dem Leben der Kaileute,” in R. Neuhauss’s _Deutsch
Neu-Guinea_, iii. (Berlin, 1911) p. 131.

470 L. Magyar, _Reisen in Süd-Afrika in den Jahren 1849-1857_
(Buda-Pesth and Leipsic, 1859), pp. 273-276.

471 Rev. J. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal_ (London, 1857), p. 216.

472 Rev. H. Callaway, _Nursery Tales, Traditions and Histories of the
Zulus_ (Natal and London, 1868), p. 163 note.

473 A. C. Haddon, “The Ethnography of the Western Tribe of Torres
Straits,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix. (1890) p.
414, compare p. 312; _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) p. 301.

474 A. C. Haddon, _op. cit._ p. 420; _Reports of the Cambridge
Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904)
pp. 301 _sq._

475 S. J. Hickson, _A Naturalist in North Celebes_ (London, 1889), p.
216.

476 R. Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_,
Second Edition (London, 1870), p. 352. Compare _ibid._ p. 173; W.
Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, Second Edition (London, 1831-1836),
i. 358; J. Dumont D’Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et à la
recherche de la Pérouse sur la corvette Astrolabe_ (Paris,
1832-1833), ii. 547; E. Tregear, “The Maoris of New Zealand,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix. (1890) p. 108.

M120 Moral virtues of the dead acquired through simple contact with their
bones.

477 A. C. Kruyt, “Het koppensnellen der Toradja’s van Midden-Celebes, en
zijne Beteekenis,” _Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke
Akademie van Wetenschappen_, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks,
iii. (Amsterdam, 1899) p. 166.

_ 478 The Spectator_, No. 316, March 3, 1712; Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_,
ch. lxvii.

479 Ph. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die geistige Cultur
der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl_ (Berlin, 1896), p. 56.

M121 Savages sometimes seek to form a covenant of friendship with their
dead foes by drinking their blood.

480 For examples of the blood-covenant see H. C. Trumbull, _The Blood
Covenant_ (London, 1887). The custom is particularly common in
Africa.

481 Rev. J. H. Bernau, _Missionary Labours in British Guiana_ (London,
1847), pp. 57 _sq._; R Schomburgk, _Reisen in Britisch-Guiana_
(Leipsic, 1847-1848), ii. 497.

482 A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_ (Oxford, 1909), p. 27.

483 A. G. Leonard, _The Lower Niger and its Tribes_ (London, 1906), pp.
180, 181 _sq._

484 Mrs. Leslie Milne, _Shans at Home_ (London, 1910), p. 192.

M122 Blood-covenant formed by manslayers with the ghosts of their
victims.

485 The Kukis of north-eastern India believe that the ghost of an animal
as well as of a man will haunt its slayer and drive him mad unless
he performs a ceremony called _ai_. For example, a man who has
killed a tiger must dress himself up as a woman, put flints into the
tiger’s mouth, and eat eggs himself, after which he makes a speech
to the tiger and gives it three cuts over the head with a sword.
During this performance the principal performer must keep perfectly
grave. Should he accidentally laugh, he says, “The porcupine
laughed,” referring to a real porcupine which he carries in his arms
for the purpose. See Lieut.-Colonel J. Shakespeare, “The Kuki-Lushai
Clans,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xxxix.
(1909) pp. 380 _sq._

486 J. Dumont D’Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et à la recherche de la
Pérouse_ (Paris, 1832-1833), iii. 305.

487 Vincenzo Dorsa, _La Tradizione greco-latina negli usi e nelle
credenze popolari della Calabria Citeriore_ (Cosenza, 1884), p. 138.

488 F. de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les parties centrales de
l’Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), iv. 382.

489 Some of the evidence has already been cited by me in _Psyche’s
Task_, pp. 56-58.

M123 Communion with the dead by swallowing their ashes.

490 A. R. Wallace, _Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro_, Second Edition
(London, 1889), ch. xvii. pp. 346 _sq._

491 R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. (London, 1819) p. 722.

492 R. Southey, _op. cit._ iii. 204.

493 A. de Herrera, _The General History of the Vast Continent and
Islands of America_, translated by Capt. John Stevens (London,
1725-1726), iv. 45.

494 A. Reich und F. Stegelmann, “Bei den Indianern des Urubamba und des
Envira,” _Globus_, lxxxiii. (1903) p. 137. On similar custom
practised by the American Indians see further De la Borde, _Relation
de l’Origine, Mœurs, Coustumes, Religion, Guerres et Voyages des
Caraibes Sauvages_, p. 37 (forming part of the _Recueil de divers
Voyages faits en Afrique et en l’Amerique_, Paris, 1684); J. F.
Lafitau, _Mœurs des Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), ii.
444-446; A. N. Cabeça de Vaca, _Relation et Naufrages_ (Paris,
1837), p. 109 (in Ternaux Compans’ _Voyages, Relations et Mémoires
originaux pour servir à l’Histoire de la Découverte de l’Amérique_);
R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, i. (Second Edition, London, 1822),
Supplemental Notes, p. xxxvi.; F. de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les
parties centrales de l’Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), iv. 380;
J. G. Müller, _Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen_ (Bâle,
1867), pp. 289 _sq._; H. A. Coudreau, _La France Équinoxiale_
(Paris, 1887), ii. 173; Theodor Koch, “Die Anthropophagie der
südamerikanischen Indianer,” _Internationales Archiv für
Ethnographie_, xii. (1899) pp. 78-110; Th. Koch-Grünberg, _Zwei
Jahre unter den Indianern_ (Berlin, 1909-1910), ii. 152. Some
Indians of Guiana rubbed their limbs with water in which the ashes
of their dead were mingled. See A. Biet, _Voyage de la France
Equinoxiale en l’Isle de Cayenne_ (Paris, 1664), p. 392.

495 Aulus Gellius, _Noctes Atticae_, x. 18; Valerius Maximus, iv. 6. 5.

496 C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern
Rhodesia_ (London, 1911), p. 55.

497 See above, p. 154 _sqq._

M124 Savages attempt to inoculate themselves with moral and other virtues
by making cuts in their bodies and inserting in the cuts the ashes
of animals and plants which they suppose to be endowed with the
virtues in question.

498 Rev. E. Casalis, _The Basutos_, (London, 1861), pp. 256 _sq._

499 E. Holub, _Sieben Jahre in Süd Afrika_ (Vienna, 1881), ii. 361.

500 See above, p. 148.

501 J. Macdonald, “Manners, Customs, etc., of South African Tribes,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xx. (1891) p. 133. The
Barolong, a Bechuana tribe, observe a custom of this sort. See W.
Joest, “Bei den Barolong,” _Das Ausland_, 16th June 1884, p. 464.

502 Col. Maclean, _A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_ (Cape Town,
1866), p. 82.

503 Father Porte, “Les reminiscences d’un missionnaire du Basutoland,”
_Les Missions Catholiques_, xxviii. (1896) p. 149.

504 Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood_ (London, 1906), p. 70, compare p.
43.

505 Lieut. H. Pope-Hennessy, “Notes on the Jukos and other Tribes of the
Middle Benue,” _Anthropological Reviews and Miscellanea_, p. (30);
appended to _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxx. (1900).

M125 The Zulus think they can inoculate themselves with celestial power.
Some Caffres inoculate themselves against lightning.

506 Rev. H. Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_, pp. 380-382.

507 Col. Maclean, _A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_ (Cape Town,
1866), pp. 83 _sq._

508 Du Tertre, _Histoire generale des Isles de S. Christophe, de la
Guadeloupe, de la Martinique et autres dans l’Amerique_ (Paris,
1654), pp. 417 _sq._; _id._, _Histoire generale des Antilles_
(Paris, 1667-1671), ii. 377; Rochefort, _Histoire Naturelle et
Morale des Iles Antilles_2 (Rotterdam, 1665), p. 556.

M126 Some savages attempt to acquire the physical and mental qualities of
the dead by anointing themselves with their remains. The juices of
animals are sometimes similarly applied for the same purpose.

509 R. Brough Smith, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London,
1878), i. p. xxix., ii. 313; A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of
South-East Australia_ (London, 1904), pp. 367 _sqq._

510 Rev. W. Ridley, _Kamilaroi_ (Sydney, 1875), p. 160.

511 A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London,
1904), pp. 467, 468.

512 J. Chalmers and W. W. Gill, _Work and Adventure in New Guinea_
(London, 1885), pp. 130, 265, 308; J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik- en
kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_ (The Hague, 1886), p.
308; Rev. J. Sibree, _The Great African Island_ (London, 1880), p.
241. Other or the same peoples sometimes drink the juices of the
decaying bodies of their kinsfolk, doubtless for a similar reason.
See _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres
Straits_, vi. (Cambridge, 1906) p. 159; J. Chalmers and W. Gill,
_op. cit._ pp. 27, 265; Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States
Exploring Expedition_, New Edition (New York, 1851), ii. 139; J. G.
F. Riedel, _op. cit._ p. 267; A. Bastian, _Indonesien_, ii. (Berlin,
1885) p. 95; _id._, _Die Völker des Ostlichen Asien_, v. (Jena,
1869) p. 91; P. J. Veth, _Borneo’s Westerafdeeling_ (Zaltbommel,
1854-1856), ii. 270; J. Jacobs, _Eenigen Tijd onder de Baliers_
(Batavia, 1883), p. 53.

513 Rev. J. L. Wilson, _Western Africa_ (London, 1856), p. 394.

514 Mgr. Le Roy, “Les Pygmées,” _Les Missions Catholiques_, xxix. (1897)
p. 210.

515 “Mourning for the Dead among the Digger Indians,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, iii. (1874) p. 530.

516 E. H. Man, _Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands_, p. 66.

517 Jerome Becker, _La Vie en Afrique_ (Paris and Brussels, 1887), ii.
366.

518 Th. Koch-Grünberg, _Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern_ (Berlin,
1909-1910), ii. 153.

519 T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, _Voyage d’Exploration au Nord-est de la
Colonie du Cap de Bonne-Espérance_ (Paris, 1842), pp. 349 _sq._

520 Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London,
1899), pp. 204 _sq._ Men of other totem clans also partake of their
totems sacramentally at these _Intichiuma_ ceremonies (Spencer and
Gillen, _op. cit._ pp. 202-206). As to the _Intichiuma_ ceremonies,
see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 85 _sqq._ Another
Central Australian mode of communicating qualities by external
application is seen in the custom of beating boys on the calves of
their legs with the leg-bone of an eagle-hawk; strength is supposed
to pass thereby from the bone into the boy’s leg. See Spencer and
Gillen, _op. cit._ p. 472; _Report on the Work of the Horn
Scientific Expedition to Central Australia_, Part iv. (London and
Melbourne, 1896), p. 180.

M127 Magical ointment used by Mexican priests.

_ 521 Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l’Origine des Indiens qui habitent
la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions_, publié par D. Charnay
(Paris, 1903), pp. 171-173; J. de Acosta, _Natural and Moral History
of the Indies_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880), ii. 364-367; E.
Seler, _Altmexikanische Studien_, ii. (Berlin, 1899), pp. 43 _sq._
(_Veröffentlichungen aus dem königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde_).

M128 Qualities of a person, animal, or thing imparted by fumigation.

522 Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood_ (London, 1906), pp. 12 _sq._

523 Dudley Kidd, _op. cit._ pp. 20 _sq._

M129 The savage custom of eating a god. Cicero on transubstantiation.

524 On the custom of eating a god, see also a paper by Felix Liebrecht,
“Der aufgegessene Gott,” _Zur Volkskunde_ (Heilbronn, 1879), pp.
436-439; and especially W. R. Smith, article “Sacrifice,”
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth Edition, vol. xxi. pp. 137 _sq._
On wine as the blood of a god, see _Taboo and the Perils of the
Soul_, pp. 248 _sqq._

525 Cicero, _De natura deorum_, iii. 16. 41.

M130 Hunting and pastoral tribes, as well as agricultural peoples, have
been in the habit of killing and eating the beings whom they
worship. The Californian Indians used solemnly to kill the great
buzzard which they adored; but they believed that though they slew
it annually, it always came to life again.

526 This does not refer to the Californian peninsula, which is an arid
and treeless wilderness of rock and sand.

527 Father Geronimo Boscana, “Chinigchinich; a historical account of the
origin, customs, and traditions of the Indians at the missionary
establishment of St. Juan Capistrano, Alta California,” appended to
Alfred Robinson’s _Life in California_ (New York, 1846), pp. 291
_sq._; H. H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, iii.
168. The mission station of San Juan Capistrano is described by R.
H. Dana (_Two Years before the Mast_, chaps. xviii. and xxiv.). A
favourable picture of the missions is drawn by H. von Langsdorf
(_Reise um die Welt_, Frankfort, 1812, ii. pp. 134 _sqq._), by
Duflos de Mofras (“Fragment d’un Voyage en Californie,” _Bulletin de
la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), ii. Série, xix. (1843) pp. 9-13),
and by a writer (H. H.) in _The Century Magazine_, May, 1883, pp.
2-18. But the severe discipline of the Spanish monks is noticed by
other travellers. We are told that the Indians laboured during the
day in the fields to support their Spanish masters, were driven to
church twice or thrice a day to hear service in a language which
they did not understand, and at night were shut up in crowded and
comfortless barracks, without windows and without beds. When the
monks desired to make new proselytes, or rather to capture new
slaves, they called in the aid of the soldiery, who attacked the
Indian villages by night, lassoed the fugitives, and dragged them
back at their horses’ tails to slavery in the missions. See O. von
Kotzebue, _Reise um die Welt_ (Weimar, 1830), ii. 42 _sqq._; F. W.
Beechey, _Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering’s Strait_
(London, 1831), ii. chap. i.; A. Schabelski, “Voyage aux colonies
russes de l’Amérique,” _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_
(Paris), ii. Série, iv. (1835) pp. 216-218. A poet has described
with prosaic accuracy the pastoral crook by which these good
shepherds brought back their strayed lambs to the spiritual fold:—

“_Six horses sprang across the level ground_
_ As six dragoons in open order dashed;_
_ Above their heads the lassos circled round,_
_ In every eye a pious fervour flashed;_
_ They charged the camp, and in one moment more_
_ They lassoed six and reconverted four._”

(Bret Harte, _Friar Pedro’s Ride_.)

In the verses inscribed _The Angelus, heard at the Mission Dolores_,
1868, and beginning

“_Bells of the Past, whose long-forgotten music_
_ Still fills the wide expanse_,”

the same poet shews that he is not insensible to the poetical side
of those old Spanish missions, which have long passed away.

M131 Perhaps they hoped by the sacrifice of the individual bird to
preserve the species.

528 G. Turner, _Samoa_ (London, 1884), p. 21. Compare _id._, pp. 26, 61.

M132 Ancient Egyptian sacrifice of a ram at the festival of Ammon.

529 Herodotus, ii. 42. The custom has been already referred to above, p.
41.

530 Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_,2 i. 2 (Stuttgart and Berlin,
1909), p. 73 § 180. Compare Sir J. G. Wilkinson, _Manners and
Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1878), iii. 1 _sqq._

531 Above, p. 36.

M133 Use of the skin of the sacrificed animal.

532 Above, p. 170; vol. i. p. 285.

533 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. See G. W. Steller, _Beschreibung
von dem Lande Kamtschatka_ (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1774), pp. 327
_sq._ According to Chr. Hartknoch (_Dissertat. histor. de variis
rebus Prussicis_, p. 163; _Alt- und neues Preussen_, Frankfort and
Leipsic, 1684, p. 161) the image of the old Prussian god Curcho was
annually renewed. But see W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_ (Berlin,
1868), p. 27.

534 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. pp. 70
_sq._

M134 The sacred serpent of Issapoo in Fernando Po.

535 T. J. Hutchinson, _Impressions of Western Africa_ (London, 1858),
pp. 196 _sq._ The writer does not expressly state that a serpent is
killed annually, but his statement implies it.

536 Dr. Tautain, “Notes sur les croyances et pratiques religieuses des
Banmanas,” _Revue d’Ethnographie_, iii. (1885) p. 397. Compare
_Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 543 _sq._

537 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.

M135 The killing of sacred turtles by the Zuni Indians.

538 When I wrote _The Golden Bough_ originally I said that in these
three cases “the animal slain probably is, or once was, a totem.”
But this seems to me less probable now than it did then. In regard
to the Californian custom in particular, there appears to be no good
evidence that within the area now occupied by the United States
totemism was practised by any tribes to the west of the Rocky
Mountains. See H. Hale, _United States Exploring Expedition,
Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 199; George
Gibbs, in _Contributions to North American Ethnology_ (Washington,
1877), i. 184; S. Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877),
p. 5; A. S. Gatschet, _The Klamath Indians of South-western Oregon_
(Washington, 1890), vol. i. p. cvi. “California and Oregon seem
never to have had any gentes or phratries” (A. S. Gatschet in a
letter to me, dated November 5th, 1888). Beyond the very doubtful
case cited in the text, I know of no evidence that totemism exists
in Fernando Po.

M136 The return of the procession with the turtles.
M137 The turtle addressed as a dead relative. The turtle killed.

539 Frank H. Cushing, “My Adventures in Zuñi,” _The Century Illustrated
Monthly Magazine_, May 1883, pp. 45 _sq._

M138 In this custom is expressed a belief in the transmigration of human
souls into turtles. From a later account it appears that the custom
is a mode of interceding with the ancestral spirits for rain.

540 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.

541 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_
(Philadelphia, 1853-1856), iv. 86. On the totem clans of the Moquis,
see J. G. Bourke, _Snake-Dance of the Moquis of Arizona_ (London,
1884), pp. 116 _sq._, 334 _sqq._

542 For this information I am indebted to the kindness of the late
Captain J. G. Bourke, 3rd Cavalry, U.S. Army, author of the work
mentioned in the preceding note. In his letter Captain Bourke gave a
list of fourteen totem clans of Zuni, which he received on the 20th
of May 1881 from Pedro Dino (?), Governor of Zuni.

543 It should be observed, however, that Mr. Cushing omits to say
whether or not the persons who performed the ceremony described by
him had the turtle for their totem. If they had not, the ceremony
need not have had anything to do with totemism.

544 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 301-318.

545 Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, “The Zuñi Indians,” _Twenty-Third
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_ (Washington,
1904), pp. 148-162.

M139 Ambiguous attitude of the Aino towards the bear.

546 B. Scheube, “Der Baerencultus und die Baerenfeste der Ainos,”
_Mittheilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft b. S. und S. Ostasiens_
(Yokohama), Heft xxii. p. 45.

547 We are told that the Aino have gods for almost every conceivable
object, and that the word _kamui_ “has various shades of meaning,
which vary if used before or after another word, and according to
the object to which it is applied.” “When the term _kamui_ is
applied to good objects, it expresses the quality of usefulness,
beneficence, or of being exalted or divine. When applied to supposed
evil gods, it indicates that which is most to be feared and dreaded.
When applied to devils, reptiles, and evil diseases, it signifies
what is most hateful, abominable, and repulsive. When applied as a
prefix to animals, fish or fowl, it represents the greatest or
fiercest, or the most useful for food or clothing. When applied to
persons, it is sometimes expressive of goodness, but more often is a
mere title of respect and reverence.” See the Rev. J. Batchelor,
_The Ainu of Japan_ (London, 1892), pp. 245-251; _id._, _The Ainu
and their Folk-lore_ (London, 1901), pp. 581 _sq._ Thus the Aino
_kamui_ appears to mean nearly the same as the Dacotan _wakan_, as
to which see _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 225, note.

548 W. Martin Wood, “The Hairy Men of Yesso,” _Transactions of the
Ethnological Society of London_, N.S., iv. (1866) p. 36.

549 J. J. Rein, _Japan_ (Leipsic, 1881-1886), i. 446.

550 H. von Siebold, _Ethnologische Studien über die Aino auf der Insel
Yesso_ (Berlin, 1881), p. 26.

551 Miss Isabella L. Bird, _Unbeaten Tracks in Japan_ (new edition,
1885), p. 275.

552 W. Martin Wood, _l.c._

553 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, p. 471.

554 Miss I. L. Bird, _op. cit._ p. 269.

555 B. Scheube, _Die Ainos_, p. 4 (reprinted from _Mittheilungen d.
deutsch. Gesell. b. S. und S. Ostasiens_, Yokohama).

556 B. Scheube, “Baerencultus,” etc., p. 45; W. Joest, in _Verhandlungen
der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und
Urgeschichte_, 1882, p. 188.

557 W. Martin Wood, _l.c._

558 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_ (London, 1901),
pp. 476 _sq._ As to the _inao_ see below, p. 186, note.

559 Miss I. L. Bird, _op. cit._ p. 277.

560 B. Scheube, _Die Ainos_, p. 15; H. von Siebold, _op. cit._ p. 26; W.
Martin Wood, _l.c._; J. J. Rein, _Japan_, i. 447; Von Brandt, “The
Ainos and Japanese,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
iii. (1874) p. 134; Miss Bird, _op. cit._ pp. 275, 276; Rev. J.
Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 495 _sq._

561 B. Scheube, _Die Ainos_, pp. 15, 16; Von Brandt, _l.c._; Rev. J.
Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 352-354, 504 _sq._

562 B. Scheube, _Die Ainos_, p. 16.

563 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 8-10. E.
Reclus (_Nouvelle Géographie Universelle_, vii. 755) mentions a
(Japanese?) legend which attributes the hairiness of the Ainos to
the suckling of their first ancestor by a bear. But in the absence
of other evidence this is no proof of totemism.

M140 Aino custom of catching a bear cub, rearing it for several years,
and killing it at a solemn festival.

564 B. Scheube, “Der Baerencultus und die Baerenfeste der Ainos,” p. 45;
Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 483-485. Mr.
Batchelor formerly doubted or denied that the Aino women suckle the
bear cubs (_The Ainu of Japan_, p. 173); but since then he has
repeatedly seen them do it. Once, while he was preaching, a cub was
being passed round among all the young women present and suckled by
each in turn.

565 J. J. Rein, _Japan_ (Leipsic, 1881-1886), i. 447.

566 B. Scheube, “Der Baerencultus und die Baerenfeste der Ainos,” p. 45;
Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 485 _sq._

567 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 486-496. The
killing of the bear is described somewhat differently by Miss I. L.
Bird (_Unbeaten Tracks in Japan_, New Edition, 1885, pp. 276 _sq._),
but she did not witness the ceremony. She tells us that at Usu, on
Volcano Bay, when the bear is being killed, the Aino shout, “We kill
you, O bear! Come back soon into an Aino.” According to Dr. Siebold,
a very respectable authority, the bear’s own heart is frequently
offered to the dead beast to assure him that he is still in life
(_Ethnologische Studien über die Aino auf der Insel Yesso_, p. 26).
This, however, is denied by Dr. Scheube, who says that the heart is
eaten (“Baerencultus,” p. 50 note). The custom may vary in different
places.

M141 Dr. Scheube’s description of the Aino custom of killing of a bear
ceremonially.

568 B. Scheube, “Der Baerencultus und die Baerenfeste der Ainos,”
_Mittheilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft b. S. und S. Ostasiens_
(Yokohama), Heft xxii. pp. 46 _sqq._

569 B. Scheube, “Baerencultus,” etc., p. 46; _id._, _Die Ainos_, p. 15;
Miss I. L. Bird, _op. cit._ pp. 273 _sq._ As to these whittled wands
(_inao_), which are so conspicuous about the Aino huts, see the Rev.
J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 89-95. He remarks
(p. 92): “I have often insisted both in my lectures and also in my
writings that the Ainu do not worship their _inao_, but that they
make them as offerings to the deities, and set them up as signs
showing reverence towards them. This, I must now remark, is true but
in part, for while some of the ordinary or less important kinds are
not worshipped, there are several others which are. Those _not_
worshipped may almost always be regarded as offerings and charms
pure and simple, while those which _are_ worshipped must generally
be regarded as messengers sent to the higher deities.” On the whole
Mr. Batchelor would describe the _inao_ as fetishes of various
degrees of power. See further P. Labbé, _Un bagne Russe, l’Isle de
Sakhaline_ (Paris, 1903), pp. 194 _sq._, who compares the use of
these whittled sticks to the use of holy candles among Roman
Catholics. In Borneo the search for camphor is attended by many
superstitions; among other things, when the searchers have found a
tree which promises to yield much camphor “they plant near their hut
a stake, whereof the outer surface has been cut into curled shavings
and tufts down the sides and at the top” (W. H. Furness, _Home-life
of Borneo Head-hunters_, Philadelphia, 1902, p. 168). According to
some ancient authorities, the old Italians worshipped peeled sticks
as gods or as the images of gods; however, the statement seems no
better than an etymological guess to explain the word _delubrum_.
See Festus, _s.v._ “Delubrum,” p. 73, ed. C. O. Müller; Servius on
Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 225.

M142 Early Japanese account of the Aino festival of the bear.

570 “Ieso-Ki, ou description de l’île d’Iesso, avec une notice sur la
révolte de Samsay-in, composée par l’interprète Kannemon,” printed
in Malte-Brun’s _Annales des Voyages_, xxiv. (Paris, 1814) p. 154.

M143 The custom of rearing and killing bears among the Aino of Saghalien.

571 P. Labbé, _Un Bagne Russe, l’Isle de Sakhaline_ (Paris, 1903), pp.
227, 232-258. The Gilyaks of Saghalien similarly keep and sacrifice
bears; but the ceremonies are simpler, and they treat the animals
with less respect than the Aino. See P. Labbé, _op. cit._ pp.
261-267.

M144 Bear-festivals of the Gilyaks.

572 They inhabit the banks of the lower Amoor and the north of
Saghalien. See E. G. Ravenstein, _The Russians on the Amur_ (London,
1861), p. 389.

573 “Notes on the River Amur and the Adjacent Districts,” translated
from the Russian, _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_,
xxviii. (1858) p. 396.

574 Compare the custom of pinching a frog before cutting off his head;
see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 86. 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. See A. Bastian, _Die
Culturländer des alten Amerika_ (Berlin, 1878), i. 475 note, who
adds “_wie im ostindischen Archipelago die Schutzseele gereizt
wird_.” He probably refers to the Batta _Pang-hulu-balang_. See H.
von Rosenberg, _Der Malayische Archipel_ (Leipsic, 1878), pp. 59
_sq._; W. Ködding, “Die Batakschen Götter,” _Allgemeine
Missions-Zeitschrift_, xii. (1885) pp. 478 sq.; J. B. Neumann, “Het
Pane-en Bila-stroomgebied op het eiland Sumatra,” in _Tijdschrift
van het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, Tweede Serie, dl.
iii. (1886) Afdeeling, meer uitgebreide artikelen, No. 2, p. 306;
Van Dijk, in _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_,
xxxviii. (1895) pp. 307 _sq._

575 W. Joest, in B. Scheube, _Die Ainos_, p. 17; J. Deniker, “Les
Ghiliaks d’après les derniers renseignements,” _Revue
d’Ethnographie_, ii. (1883) pp. 307 _sq._ (on the authority of Mr.
Seeland); _Internationales Archiv für Ethnologie_, i. (1888) p. 102
(on the authority of Captain Jacobsen); _Archiv für Anthropologie_,
xxvi. (1900) p. 796 (abstract of a Russian work on the Gilyaks by
Dr. Seland or Seeland). What exactly is meant by “dancing as bears”
(“_tanzen beide Geschlechter Reigentänze, wie Bären_,” Joest,
_l.c._) does not appear.

M145 L. von Schrenck’s description of a bear-festival among the Gilyaks
of the Amoor. Bears led in procession about the village. Slaughter
of the bears.
M146 Treatment of the bears’ skins.
M147 Treatment of the bears’ flesh.
M148 Banquet on the bears’ flesh. Dance of the women. Disposal of the
skull and bones of the bear.

576 L. von Schrenck, _Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-lande_ (St.
Petersburg, 1891), iii. 696-731.

M149 Mr. L. Sternberg’s description of the bear-festivals of the Gilyaks.

577 L. Sternberg, “Die Religion der Giljaken,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, viii. (1905) pp. 260-274.

M150 Bear-festivals of the Goldi.

578 E. G. Ravenstein, _The Russians on the Amur_ (London, 1861), pp. 379
_sq._; T. W. Atkinson, _Travels in the Regions of the Upper and
Lower Amoor_ (London, 1860), pp. 482 _sq._

M151 Bear-festivals of the Orotchis.

579 E. H. Fraser, “The Fish-skin Tartars,” _Journal of the China Branch
of the Royal Asiatic Society for the year 1891-1892_, New Series,
xxvi. 36-39. L. von Schrenck describes a bear-feast which he
witnessed in 1855 among the Oltscha (_Reisen und Forschungen im
Amur-lande_, iii. 723-728). The Oltscha are probably the same as the
Orotchis.

M152 Respect shewn by all these tribes for the bears which they kill and
eat.

_ 580 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 59 _sqq._

581 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 492, 493,
495, 496.

_ 582 Op. cit._ p. 482. Mr. Batchelor says “totem gods.”

_ 583 Op. cit._ pp. 580 _sqq._

584 See above, pp. 188 _sq._

585 This account of the attitude of the Gilyaks to the bear, and of
their reasons for holding the festival, is the one given by Mr. Leo
Sternberg. See his articles, “Die Religion der Giljaken,” _Archiv
für Religionswissenschaft_, viii. (1905) pp. 273 _sq._, 456-458. He
speaks of the bear as a minor deity (“_Er selbst ist ja eine
Gottheit, wenn auch eine kleine_”). Mr. Sternberg and Mr. Batchelor,
two of the best-informed writers on the subject, agree in denying
that the slaughter of the bear at the festival is a sacrifice to the
gods. See L. Sternberg, _op. cit._ p. 457; Rev. J. Batchelor, _The
Ainu and their Folk-lore_, p. 482. As to the belief of the Gilyaks
in evil spirits, which menace and destroy the life of man, see L.
Sternberg, _op. cit._ pp. 460 _sqq._

M153 Similar respect shewn by the Aino for the eagle-owls which they keep
in cages and kill.

586 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, pp. 410-415.

M154 Similar respect shewn by the Aino for the eagles and hawks which
they keep in cages and kill.

587 Rev. J. Batchelor, _op. cit._ pp. 432 _sq._

588 Rev. J. Batchelor, _op. cit._ p. 438.

M155 Advantages which the Aino hopes to reap from slaughtering the
worshipful animals.

589 See above, pp. 183, 184, 196.

590 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_, p. 479.

591 Rev. J. Batchelor, _op. cit._ pp. 481, 482.

M156 The bear-festivals of these tribes are probably nothing but an
extension of the similar rites which the hunter performs over any
wild bear which he kills in the forest.

592 L. Sternberg, “Die Religion der Giljaken,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, viii. (1905) p. 272.

M157 The apparent contradiction in the behaviour of these tribes to bears
is not so great as it seems to us at first sight. Savage logic.
M158 The savage believes that animals, like men, are endowed with souls
which survive the death of their bodies. The American Indians draw
no sharp distinction between animals and men.

593 E. F. im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_ (London, 1883), p.
350.

594 J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 261.

595 Rev. John Heckewelder, “An Account of the History, Manners, and
Customs of the Indian Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and
the neighbouring States,” _Transactions of the Historical and
Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society_, vol. i.
(Philadelphia, 1819) pp. 247 _sq._

596 J. J. M. de Groot, _The Religious System of China_, iv. (Leyden,
1901) pp. 157 _sq._

M159 Some savages apparently fail to distinguish clearly even the bodies
of animals from the bodies of men.

597 John Campbell, _Travels in South Africa, being a Narrative of a
Second Journey in the Interior of that Country_ (London, 1822), ii.
34.

598 L. Sternberg, “Die Religion der Giljaken,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, viii. (1905) p. 248.

599 I. Petroff, _Report on the Population, Industries, and Resources of
Alaska_, p. 145.

600 Above, p. 141.

601 A. C. Haddon, “The Ethnography of the Western Tribe of Torres
Straits,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix. (1890) p.
393; _id._, _Head-hunters_ (London, 1901), p. 133; _Reports of the
Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v.
(Cambridge, 1904) p. 166.

602 Miss Alice C. Fletcher, _The Import of the Totem, a Study from the
Omaha Tribe_, p. 6 (paper read before the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, August 1897).

603 James Teit, “The Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” p. 356 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Memoir of the American Museum of
Natural History_, April 1900).

604 K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_
(Berlin, 1894), pp. 352 _sq._, 512. The Chambioa Indians of Central
Brazil kept birds of the same species in captivity and used their
brilliant feathers to cover enormous head-dresses or masks, some six
feet high, which were worn by dancers in certain mystic dances. The
masks were guarded in a special hut of each village, and no woman
might see them under pain of death. See F. de Castelnau, _Expédition
dans les parties centrales de l’Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851),
i. 436 _sq._, 440, 449-451.

M160 Hence the savage attempts to propitiate the animals which he kills
and the other members of the species. Scruples entertained by the
Dyaks as to the killing of crocodiles.

605 However, many savages hunt the crocodile for the sake of its flesh,
which some of them even regard as a delicacy. See H. von Wissmann,
_My Second Journey through Equatorial Africa, from the Congo to the
Zambesi_ (London, 1891), p. 298; Ch. Partridge, _Cross River
Natives_ (London, 1905), p. 149; A. F. Mocler-Ferryman, _Up the
Niger_ (London, 1892), p. 222; Captain G. Burrows, _The Land of the
Pigmies_ (London, 1898), p. 247; R. E. Dennett, "Bavili Notes,"
_Folk-lore_, xvi. (1905) p. 399; J. Halkin, _Quelques Peuplades du
district de l’Uelé_, I. _Les Ababua_ (Liége, 1907), p. 33; H.
Reynolds, “Notes on the Azandé Tribe of the Congo,” _Journal of the
African Society_, No. xi. (April, 1904) p. 242; Brard, “Der
Victoria-Nyansa,” _Petermann’s Mittheilungen_, xliii. (1897) p. 78;
A. van Gennep, _Tabou et Totémisme à Madagascar_ (Paris, 1904), p.
209; G. Kurze, “Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer,”
_Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xxiii.
(1905) p. 30; W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An unknown People in an unknown
Land_ (London, 1911), pp. 82 _sq._; _Census of India, 1901_, vol.
xxvi., _Travancore_ (Trivandrum, 1903), p. 353; Max Krieger,
_Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, N.D.), p. 163; Spencer and Gillen, _Northern
Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), p. 770; W. E. Roth,
_Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland
Aborigines_ (Brisbane and London, 1897), p. 94; N. W. Thomas,
_Natives of Australia_ (London, 1906), p. 106. In antiquity some of
the Egyptians worshipped crocodiles, but others killed and ate them.
See Herodotus, ii. 69; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 50; Aelian, _De
natura animalium_, x. 21.

606 Rev. J. Perham, “Sea Dyak Religion,” _Journal of the Straits Branch
of the Royal Asiatic Society_, No. 10 (Singapore, 1883), p. 221.
Compare C. Hupe, “Korte verhandeling over de godsdienst zeden, enz.
der Dajakkers,” _Tijdschrift voor Neêrlands Indië_, 1846, dl. iii.
160; S. Müller, _Reizen en onderzoekingen in den Indischen Archipel_
(Amsterdam, 1857), i. 238; M. T. H. Perelaer, _Ethnographische
Beschrijving der Dajaks_ (Zalt-Bommel, 1870), p. 7.

M161 Ceremonies observed by the Dyaks at killing a crocodile.

607 F. Grabowsky, “Die Theogonie der Dajaken auf Borneo,”
_Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, ii. (1892) pp. 119 _sq._

608 H. Ling Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_
(London, 1896), i. 447 _sq._ Compare E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen years
among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_ (London, 1911), pp. 56-60. Similarly
the Kenyahs, Kayans, and Ibans, three tribes of Sarawak, will not
kill crocodiles except in revenge for the death of one of their
people. See C. Hose and W. MacDougall, “The Relations between Men
and Animals in Sarawak,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xxxi. (1901) pp. 186, 190, 199, compare _ib._ pp. 193 _sq._

M162 Ceremonies observed by the Minangkabauers of Sumatra at killing a
crocodile.

609 J. L. van der Toorn, “Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der
Padangsche Bovenlanden,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en
Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, xxxix. (1890) pp. 75 _sq._

M163 Belief in the kinship of men with crocodiles among the Malays.

610 Nelson Annandale, “Primitive Beliefs and Customs of the Patani
Fishermen,” _Fasciculi Malayenses, Anthropology_, i. (April, 1903)
pp. 76-78.

_ 611 Voyages of Captain James Cook round the World_ (London, 1809), ii.
316-319.

M164 Crocodiles respected in Africa.

612 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 336.

613 Rev. J. Roscoe, _op. cit._ pp. 318, 322, 335.

614 Fr. Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_ (Berlin, 1894),
pp. 510 _sq._

615 A. Raffenel, _Voyage dans l’Afrique occidentale_ (Paris, 1846), pp.
84 _sq._

M165 Crocodiles respected in Madagascar.

616 J. Sibree, _The Great African Island_ (London, 1880), p. 269.

617 Father Abinal, “Croyances fabuleuses des Malgaches,” _Les Missions
Catholiques_, xii. (1880) p. 527; A. van Gennep, _Tabou et Totémisme
à Madagascar_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 283 _sq._

618 W. Ellis, _History of Madagascar_ (London, N.D.), i. 57 _sq._

M166 Tigers respected in Sumatra. Ceremonies at killing tigers in Sumatra
and Bengal.

619 W. Marsden, _History of Sumatra_ (London, 1811), p. 292.

620 J. L. van der Toorn, “Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der
Padangsche Bovenlanden,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en
Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië_, xxxix. (1890) pp. 74, 75 _sq._

621 H. Ris, “De onderafdeeling Mandailing Oeloe en Pahantan en hare
Bevolking,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van
Nederlandsch Indië_, xlvi. (1896) pp. 472 _sq._

622 G. G. Batten, _Glimpses of the Eastern Archipelago_ (Singapore,
1894), p. 86.

623 Th. Shaw, “On the Inhabitants of the Hills near Rajamahall,”
_Asiatic Researches_, Fourth Edition, iv. (London, 1807) p. 37.

_ 624 Annales de l’Association de la Propagation de la Foi_, v. (1831)
pp. 363 _sq._

M167 Snakes, especially rattlesnakes, respected by the North American
Indians.

625 J. Bricknell, _The Natural History of North Carolina_ (Dublin,
1737), p. 368.

626 W. Bartram, _Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East
and West Florida_, etc. (London, 1792) pp. 258-261.

627 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_
(Philadelphia, 1853-1856), iii. 273.

628 Rev. John Heckewelder, “An Account of the History, Manners, and
Customs of the Indian Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and
the neighbouring States,” _Transactions of the Historical and
Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society_, i.
(Philadelphia, 1819) p. 245.

629 W. Keating, _Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s
River_ (London, 1825), i. 127.

630 J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) pp.
294-296. Compare _id._, pp. 456-458; J. Adair, _History of the
American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp. 237 _sq._

631 Henry, _Travels_, pp. 176-179, quoted by J. Mooney, _op. cit._ pp.
457 _sq._

632 C. Sapper, “Die Gebräuche und religiösen Anschauungen der
Kekchí-Indianer,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, viii.
(1895) p. 204.

M168 Ceremonies observed in Kiziba at the killing of a snake.

633 H. Rehse, _Kiziba, Land und Leute_ (Stuttgart, 1910), pp. 130 _sq._

M169 Ceremonies observed by the North American Indians and others at the
killing of a wolf.

634 Fr. Boas, in _Eleventh Report on the North-Western Tribes of
Canada_, pp. 9 _sq._ (separate reprint from the _Report of the
British Association for 1896_).

635 Rev. J. Jetté, “On the Medicine-men of the Ten’a,” _Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute_, xxxvii. (1907) p. 158.

636 J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 265.

637 T. de Pauly, _Description Ethnographique des Peuples de la Russie_
(St. Petersburg, 1862), _Peuples de la Sibérie Orientale_, p. 7.

638 Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, _Argonaut._ ii. 124.

M170 Certain birds respected.

639 “Coutumes étranges des indigènes du Djebel-Nouba,” _Les Missions
Catholiques_, xiv. (1882) p. 458.

640 C. B. Klunzinger, _Upper Egypt_ (London, 1878), pp. 402 _sq._

641 Caulin, _Historia Coro-graphica natural y evangelica dela Nueva
Andalucia_, p. 96: “_Reusan mucho matar qualquier animal no
comestibile que no sea nocibo_,” etc. Here _reusan_ appears to be a
misprint for _recusan_.

M171 Apologies offered by savages to the animals which they are obliged
to kill. Propitiation of slain bears by Kamtchatkans, Ostiaks,
Koryak, Finns, and Lapps.

642 G. W. Steller, _Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka_ (Frankfort
and Leipsic, 1774), pp. 85, 280, 331.

_ 643 Voyages au Nord_ (Amsterdam, 1727), viii. 41, 416; P. S. Pallas,
_Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs_ (St.
Petersburg, 1771-1776), iii. 64; J. G. Georgi, _Beschreibung aller
Nationen des russischen Reichs_ (St. Petersburg, 1776), p. 83.

644 A. Erman, _Travels in Siberia_ (London, 1848), ii. 43. For the
veneration of the polar bear by the Samoyedes, who nevertheless kill
and eat it, see ib_id._ pp. 54 _sq._

645 A. Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_ (Leipsic, 1860), iii. 26.

646 W. Jochelson, _The Koryak_ (Leyden and New York, 1908), pp. 88 _sq._
(_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, vol. vi., _Memoir of the
American Museum of Natural History_).

647 Max Buch, _Die Wotjäken_ (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 139.

648 A. Featherman, _Social History of the Races of Mankind, Fourth
Division, Dravido-Turanians_, etc. (London, 1891) p. 422.

649 J. Scheffer, _Lapponia_ (Frankfort, 1673), pp. 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).

M172 Propitiation of slain bears by the North American Indians.

650 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), v. 173
_sq._; Chateaubriand, _Voyage en Amérique_, pp. 172-181 (Paris,
Michel Lévy, 1870).

_ 651 Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, Nouvelle Édition, vi. (Paris,
1781) p. 171. L. H. Morgan states that the names of the Otawa totem
clans had not been obtained (_Ancient Society_, London, 1877, 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.

_ 652 A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt_, p.
117 (Middletown, 1820), p. 133 (Edinburgh, 1824).

653 De Smet, _Western Missions and Missionaries_ (New York, 1863), p.
139.

654 A. P. Reid, “Religious Belief of the Ojibois Indians,” _Journal of
the Anthropological Institute_, iii. (1874) p. 111.

655 Henry’s _Travels_, pp. 143-145, quoted by J. Mooney, “Myths of the
Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900), pp. 446 _sq._

656 A. Mackenzie, “Descriptive notes on certain implements, weapons,
etc., from Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C.,”
_Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada_, ix. (1891) section
ii. p. 58.

657 James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 347 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
Natural History_, April 1900). The Thompson Indians used to be known
as the Couteau or Knife Indians.

658 J. Teit, _The Lillooet Indians_ (Leyden and New York, 1906), p. 279
(_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum
of Natural History_); _id._, _The Shuswap_ (Leyden and New York,
1909), pp. 602 _sq._ (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition_).

M173 Propitiation of slain elephants in Africa.

659 Stephen Kay, _Travels and Researches in Caffraria_ (London, 1833),
p. 138.

660 L. Alberti, _De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika_ (Amsterdam,
1810), p. 95. Alberti’s information is repeated by H. Lichtenstein
(_Reisen im südlichen Afrika_, Berlin, 1811-1812, i. 412) and by
Cowper Rose (_Four Years in Southern Africa_, London, 1829, p. 155).
The burial of the trunk is also mentioned by Kay, _l.c._

661 J. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal_ (London, 1857), p. 215.

662 Fr. Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_ (Berlin, 1894),
p. 87.

663 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 447.

M174 Propitiation of lions in Africa.

664 Fr. Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_ (Berlin, 1894),
p. 785.

665 J. Becker, _La Vie en Afrique_ (Paris and Brussels, 1887), ii. 298
_sq._, 305.

M175 Propitiation of slain leopards in Africa.

666 A. Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_ (Jena,
1874-1875), ii. 243.

667 A. F. Mockler-Ferryman, _Up the Niger_ (London, 1892), p. 309.

668 Lieut. Herold, “Bericht betreffend religiöse Anschauungen und
Gebräuche der deutschen Ewe-Neger,” _Mittheilungen von
Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten_,
v. Heft 4 (Berlin, 1892), p. 156.

669 H. Spieth, “Jagdgebräuche in Avatime,” _Mitteilungen der
geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, ix. (1890) pp. 18-20. Compare
H. Klose, _Togo unter deutscher Flagge_ (Berlin, 1899), pp. 145-147.
The ceremonies observed after the slaughter of a wild buffalo are of
the same general character with variations in detail.

M176 Propitiation of slain buffaloes and sheep in Uganda.

670 Rev. J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902)
p. 54; _id._, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 289, 448.

671 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 288 _sq._ Another
curious notion which the Baganda have about sheep is that they give
health to cattle and prevent them from being struck by lightning.
Hence a sheep is often herded with cows to serve as a sort of
lightning-conductor. See J. Roscoe, _op. cit._ p. 421.

672 Rev. J. Roscoe, _op. cit._ pp. 423 _sq._ Further, “if a man’s dog
died in the house, his wife dared not touch it, because she feared
its ghost; she would call her husband to take it away” (op. cit. p.
425).

M177 Propitiation of dead whales among the Koryak.

673 W. Jochelson, _The Koryak_ (Leyden and New York, 1908), p. 66 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, vol. vi., _Memoir of the American
Museum of Natural History_).

674 W. Jochelson, _The Koryak_ (Leyden and New York, 1908), pp. 66-76
(_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, vol. vi., _Memoir of the
American Museum of Natural History_).

M178 Propitiation of whales, hippopotamuses, ounces, and apes.

675 Captain W. F. W. Owen, _Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores
of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar_ (London, 1833), i. 170.

676 Rev. R. H. Nassau, _Fetichism in West Africa_ (London, 1904), p.
204.

677 A. Thevet, _La Cosmographie Universelle_ (Paris, 1575), ii. 936
[970] _sq._

678 A. d’Orbigny, _Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale_, iii. (Paris and
Strasburg, 1844) p. 202.

679 E. F. im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_ (London, 1883), p.
352.

M179 Propitiation of dead eagles. Deceiving the ghosts of spiders.

680 G. B. Grinnell, _Blackfoot Lodge Tales_ (London, 1893), p. 240.

681 A. Caulin, _Historia Coro-graphica natural y evangelica dela Nueva
Andalucia Guayana y Vertientes del Rio Orinoco_ (1779), p. 97.

682 J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 282.

683 J. Owen Dorsey, “Teton Folklore Notes,” _Journal of American
Folklore_, ii. (1889) p. 134; _id._, “A Study of Siouan Cults,”
_Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington,
1894), p. 479.

M180 The ceremonies of propitiation offered to slain animals vary with
the more or less dangerous character of the creature. Animals which,
without being feared, are valued for their flesh or their skin, are
also treated with respect.

684 H. Mouhot, _Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China_ (London,
1864), i. 252; J. Moura, _Le Royaume du Cambodge_ (Paris, 1883), i.
422.

685 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_
(Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 420.

M181 Respect shewn to dead sables. Bones of sables and beavers kept out
of reach of dogs, lest the spirits of the dead animals should be
offended.

686 J. G. Gmelin, _Reise durch Sibirien_ (Göttingen, 1751-1752), ii.
278.

687 L. von Schrenck, _Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-lande_, iii. 564.

688 W. Dall, _Alaska and its Resources_ (London, 1870), p. 89; _id._, in
_The Yukon Territory_ (London, 1898), p. 89.

689 Fr. Boas, in _Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_,
p. 92 (separate reprint from the _Report of the British Association
for 1890_).

690 A. G. Morice, “Notes, archæological, industrial, and sociological,
on the Western Dénés,” _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, iv.
(1892-93) p. 108.

691 A. G. Morice, _Au pays de l’Ours Noir, chez les sauvages de la
Colombie Britannique_ (Paris and Lyons, 1897), p. 71.

692 L. Hennepin, _Description de la Louisiane_ (Paris, 1683), pp. 97
_sq._

_ 693 Relations des Jésuites_, 1634, p. 24 (Canadian reprint, Quebec,
1858). Nets are regarded by the Indians as living creatures who not
only think and feel but also eat, speak, and marry wives. See F.
Gabriel Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, p. 256 (pp.
178 _sq._ of the reprint, Librairie Tross, Paris, 1865); S. Hearne,
_Journey to the Northern Ocean_ (London, 1795), pp. 329 _sq._;
_Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p. 109; _ibid._ 1639, p. 95;
Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), v. 225;
Chateaubriand, _Voyage en Amérique_, pp. 140 _sqq._ The Hebrews
sacrificed and burned incense to their nets (Habakkuk i. 16). In
some of the mountain villages of Annam the people, who are great
hunters, sacrifice fowls, rice, incense, and gilt paper to their
nets at the festival of the New Year. See Le R. P. Cadière,
“Coutumes populaires de la vallée du Nguôn-So’n,” _Bulletin de
l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient_, ii. (Hanoi, 1902) p. 381. When
a net has caught little or nothing, the Ewe negroes think that it
must be hungry; so they call in the help of a priest, who commonly
feeds the hungry net by sprinkling maize-flour and fish, moistened
with palm oil, on its meshes. See G. Härtter, “Der Fischfang im
Evheland,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xxxviii. (1906) p. 55.

694 Chateaubriand, _Voyage en Amérique_, pp. 175, 178 (Paris, Michel
Lévy Frères, 1870). 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. See _Taboo and the Perils of
the Soul_, pp. 241 _sqq._

M182 Deer, elk, and elan treated by the American Indians with ceremonious
respect.

695 L. Hennepin, _Nouveau voyage d’un pais plus grand que l’Europe_
(Utrecht, 1698), pp. 141. _sq._; _Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p.
109; F. Gabriel Sagard, Le _Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, p. 255
(p. 178 of the reprint, Libraire Tross, Paris, 1865). 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._).

696 A. de Herrera, _General History of the vast Continent and Islands of
America_, translated by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iv.
142.

_ 697 Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, Nouvelle Édition, viii. (Paris,
1781) p. 339.

698 C. Sapper, “Die Gebräuche und religiösen Anschauungen der
Kekchí-Indianer,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, viii.
(1895) pp. 195 _sq._

699 J. Mooney, “Cherokee Theory and Practice of Medicine,” _American
Journal of Folk-lore_, iii. (1890) pp. 45 _sq._; _id._, “Sacred
Formulas of the Cherokees,” _Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology_ (Washington, 1891), pp. 320 _sq._, 347; _id._, “Myths of
the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) pp. 263 _sq._

700 J. G. Bourke, “Religion of the Apache Indians,” _Folk-lore_, ii.
(1891) p. 438.

701 L. Hennepin, _Description de la Louisiane_ (Paris, 1683), pp. 80
_sq._

702 James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp. 346 sq.
(_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum
of Natural History_, April 1900).

703 James Teit, _The Lillooet Indians_ (Leyden and New York, 1906), pp.
281 sq. (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
Museum of Natural History_).

_ 704 Relations des Jésuites_, 1634, p. 26 (Canadian reprint, Quebec,
1858).

M183 Porcupines, turtles, and mice treated by American Indians with
ceremonious respect.

705 Fr. Boas, in “Ninth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada,”
_Report of the British Association for 1894_, PP. 459 sq.

706 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_
(Philadelphia, 1853-1856), iii. 230.

707 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), v. 443.

M184 Dead foxes, turtles, deer, and pigs treated with ceremonious
respect.

708 W. Bogaras, _The Chuckchee_ (Leyden and New York, 1904-1909), p. 409
(_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, vol. vii., _Memoir of the
American Museum of Natural History_).

709 J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 389 _sq._

710 J. A. Jacobsen, _Reisen in die Inselwelt des Banda-Meeres_ (Berlin,
1896), p. 234.

711 A. C. Kruijt, “Een en ander aangaande het geestelijk en
maatschappelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,” _Mededeelingen van wege
het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xli. (1897) pp. 4 _sq._

M185 Ghost of ostrich outwitted.

712 W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London,
1911), pp. 125 _sq._

M186 Esquimau propitiation of the spirit who controls reindeer.
Ceremonious treatment of sea-beasts by the Esquimaux.

713 L. M. Turner, “Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay
Territory,” _Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_
(Washington, 1894), pp. 200 _sq._

714 Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1888), p. 595; _id._, “The Eskimo of
Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” _Bulletin of the American Museum of
Natural History_, xv. (1901) pp. 119 _sqq._ As to the antagonism
which these Esquimaux suppose to exist between marine and
terrestrial animals, see above, p. 84; and with regard to the taboos
observed by these Esquimaux after the slaughter of sea-beasts, see
_Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 205 _sqq._

715 D. Crantz, _History of Greenland_ (London, 1767), i. 216.

M187 Annual ceremony of returning the bladders of the sea-beasts to the
sea in order that the animals may come to life again.

716 E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington,
1899), pp. 379-393, 437. Compare A. Woldt, _Captain Jacobsen’s Reise
an der Nordwestküste Americas 1881-1883_ (Leipsic, 1884), pp.
289-291. In the text the ceremony has been described mainly as it
was witnessed by Mr. E. W. Nelson at Kushunuk, near Cape Vancouver,
in December, 1879. As might have been expected, the ritual varies in
details at different places.

M188 Fish treated with respect by fishing tribes. The Peruvian Indians
worshipped the various sorts of fish which they caught. Fish treated
with respect by the North American Indians. Herring respected by
European fishermen. Compensation made to fish for catching them.

717 Garcilasso de la Vega, _Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, translated
by C. R. Markham, First Part, bk. i. ch. 10, vol. i. pp. 49 _sq._
(Hakluyt Society, London, 1869-1871). Compare _id._, vol. ii. p.
148.

718 Fr. Boas, in _Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_,
pp. 61 _sq._ (separate reprint from the _Report of the British
Association for 1890_); _id._, _Kwakiutl Texts_, ii. pp. 303 _sq._,
305 _sq._, 307, 317 (_Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the
American Museum of Natural History_, December, 1902).

_ 719 Relations des Jésuites_, 1667, p. 12 (Canadian reprint, Quebec,
1858).

720 F. Gabriel Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, pp. 255
_sqq._ (pp. 178 _sqq._ of the reprint, Libraire Tross, Paris, 1865).

721 B. Hagen, _Unter den Papuas_ (Wiesbaden, 1899), p. 270.

722 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_ (London, 1901),
pp. 529 _sq._

_ 723 A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt_
(Middletown, 1820), p. 116.

724 M. J. Schleiden, _Das Salz_ (Leipsic, 1875), p. 47. For this
reference I am indebted to my late friend W. Robertson Smith.

725 Hugh Miller, _Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland_, ch.
xvii. pp. 256 _sq._ (Edinburgh, 1889).

726 M. Martin, “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in
Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, iii. (London, 1809) p. 620.

727 W. Powell, _Wanderings in a Wild Country_ (London, 1883), pp. 66
_sq._

728 C. Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_ (London, 1903), i. 403.

729 R. Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_,
Second Edition (London, 1870), p. 200; A. S. Thomson, _The Story of
New Zealand_ (London, 1859), i. 202; E. Tregear, “The Maoris of New
Zealand,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix. (1890) p.
109.

730 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 395.

M189 Ceremonious treatment of the first fish of the season.

731 A. G. Morice, _Au pays de l’Ours Noir_ (Paris and Lyons, 1897), p.
28.

732 Sir John Lubbock, _Origin of Civilisation_4 (London, 1882), p. 277,
quoting _Metlahkatlah_, p. 96.

733 W. Dall, _Alaska and its Resources_ (London, 1870), p. 413.

734 Fr. Boas, in “Ninth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada,”
_Report of the British Association for 1894_, p. 461. Compare J.
Teit, _The Lillooet Indians_ (Leyden and New York, 1906), pp. 280
_sq._ (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
Museum of Natural History_); C. Hill Tout, in _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xxxv. (1905) p. 140; _id._, _The Far
West, the Home of the Salish and Déné_ (London, 1907), pp. 170-172.

735 Fr. Boas, in _Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_,
pp. 16 _sq._ (separate reprint from the _Report of the British
Association for 1890_).

_ 736 Id._, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p.
51 (separate reprint from the _Report of the British Association for
1889_).

737 Stephen Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), pp. 31
_sq._

738 Alex. Ross, _Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or
Columbia River_ (London, 1849), p. 97.

739 Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition_,
New Edition (New York, 1851), 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.”

740 H. C. St. John, “The Ainos,” _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, ii. (1873) p. 253; _id._, _Notes and Sketches from the
Wild Coasts of Nipon_, pp. 27 _sq._ Similarly it is a rule with the
Aino to bring the flesh of bears and other game into the house, not
by the door, but by the window or the smoke-hole. See Rev. J.
Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_ (London, 1901), p. 123; P.
Labbé, _Un Bagne Russe_ (Paris, 1903), pp. 255 _sq._

_ 741 Archiv für Anthropologie_, xxvi. (1900) p. 796 (as to the Gilyak of
the Amoor); J. Scheffer, _Lapponia_ (Frankfort, 1673), pp. 242
_sq._; C. Leemius, _De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua, vita,
et religione pristina commentatio_ (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 503;
_Revue d’Ethnographie_, ii. (1883) pp. 308 _sq._; _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, vii. (1878) p. 207; Fr. Boas, “The
Central Eskimo,” in _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_
(Washington, 1888), p. 595; _id._, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and
Hudson Bay,” _Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History_,
xv. (1901) p. 148; A. G. Morice, in _Transactions of the Canadian
Institute_, iv. (1892-93) p. 108.

M190 Some savages preserve the bones of the animals they kill in order
that the animals may come to life again.

742 E. James, _Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains_
(London, 1823), i. 257.

743 D. G. Brinton, _Myths of the New World_2 (New York, 1876), p. 278.

744 W. H. Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River_
(London, 1825), i. 452.

745 Fr. Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” _Bulletin of
the American Museum of Natural History_, xv. (1901) p. 161.

746 A. d’Orbigny, _Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale_, iii. (Paris and
Strasburg, 1844) p. 201. However, in this case a belief in the
resurrection of the animals is not expressly affirmed, and the
practice of burning the bones seems inconsistent with it.

747 E. J. Jessen, _De Finnorum Lapponumque Norwegicorum religione pagana
tractatus singularis_, pp. 46 _sq._, 52 _sq._, 65 (bound with C.
Leem’s _De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua, vita et religione
pristina commentatio_, Copenhagen, 1767). Compare Leem’s work, pp.
418-420, 428 _sq._; J. Acerbi, _Travels through Sweden, Finnland,
and Lapland_ (London, 1802), ii. 302.

748 G. W. Steller, _Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka_ (Frankfort
and Leipsic, 1774), p. 269; S. Krascheninnikow, _Beschreibung des
Landes Kamtschatka_ (Lemgo, 1766), p. 246.

749 See A. Erman, referred to above, p. 223; J. G. Gmelin, _Reise durch
Sibirien_ (Göttingen, 1751-1752), i. 274, ii. 182 _sq._, 214; H.
Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_ (Leipsic, 1885), pp. 118 _sq._ When a fox,
the sacred animal of the Conchucos in Peru, had been killed, its
skin was stuffed and set up (A. Bastian, _Die Culturländer des alten
Amerika_, i. 443). Compare the _bouphonia_, above, pp. 4 _sqq._

750 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_, Rochester, 1851, p. 210). It is a rule with some of the
Australian blacks that in killing the native bear they may 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 (R. Brough Smyth,
_Aborigines of Victoria_, i. 447 _sqq._). Some of the Queensland
aborigines believe that if the bones or skulls of dugong were not
put away in a heap or otherwise preserved, no more dugong would be
caught (W. E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography_, Bulletin No. 5,
Brisbane, 1903, p. 27). 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_, London, 1830, 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, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp.
160 _sq._, note). Some of the Esquimaux in skinning a deer are
careful not to break a single bone, and they will not break the
bones of deer while walrus are being hunted (Fr. Boas, “The Central
Eskimo,” _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_
(Washington, 1888), pp. 595 _sq._). 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 (H. H.
Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, i. 741). In Syria at
the present time people offer a sacrifice for a boy when he is seven
days old, and they will not break a bone of the victim, “because
they fear that if a bone of the sacrifice should be broken, the
child’s bones would be broken, too” (S. I. Curtiss, _Primitive
Semitic Religion To-day_, Chicago, etc., 1902, p. 178). This last
may be a later misinterpretation of the old custom. For West African
cases of refusal to break the bones of sacrificial victims, see J.
Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 458, 466, 480, 527,
712, 796, 824. Amongst the Narrinyeri of South Australia, when an
animal was being cut up, the bystanders used to leap and yell as
often as a bone was broken, thinking that if they did not do so
their own bones would rot within them (A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes
of South-East Australia_, p. 763).

_ 751 Relations des Jésuites_, 1634, p. 25 (Canadian reprint, Quebec,
1858); A. Mackenzie, _Voyages through the Continent of America_
(London, 1801), p. civ.; J. Dunn, _History of the Oregon Territory_
(London, 1844), p. 99; F. Whymper, in _Journal of the Royal
Geographical Society_, xxxviii. (1868) p. 228; _id._, in
_Transactions of the Ethnological Society_, N.S., vii. (1869) p.
174; A. P. Reid, “Religious Belief of the Ojibois Indians,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, iii. (1874) p. 111; Fr. Boas,
“The Central Eskimo,” _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology_ (Washington, 1888), p. 596; _id._, “The Eskimo of Baffin
Land and Hudson Bay,” _Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural
History_, xv. (1901) p. 123; E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering
Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1899) pp. 438 _sq._ For more
examples see above, pp. 225, 238 _sqq._, 242 _sq._, 246. 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. See 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 custom of burning the bones to prevent the
dogs getting them does not necessarily 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_, Adelaide, 1879, pp. 24, 196).

M191 Some savages preserve or destroy the bones of men in order to assist
or prevent their resurrection.

752 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 279 _sqq._

753 A. de Herrera, _General History of the vast Continent and Islands of
America_, translated by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iv.
126.

754 Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
Australia_ (London, 1899), p. 475.

M192 Unquestioning faith of savages in the immortality of animals. The
savage faith in human immortality is commonly supposed to be deduced
from a primitive theory of dreams.
M193 But can a theory of dreams account for the savage belief in the
immortality of animals?
M194 Apparently the savage conceives life as an indestructible form of
energy. Analogy of the conception to the modern scientific
conception of the conservation of energy.

755 For this suggestion I am indebted to a hint thrown out in
conversation by my friend Professor G. F. Stout.

756 See _The Dying God_, p. 1.

757 The principle of the conservation of energy is clearly stated and
illustrated by Balfour Stewart in his book _The Conservation of
Energy_, Fourth Edition (London, 1877). The writer does not
countenance the view that life is a form of energy distinct from and
independent of physical and chemical forces; he regards a living
being simply as a very delicately constructed machine in which the
natural forces are in a state of unstable equilibrium. To avoid
misapprehension it may be well to add that I do not pretend to argue
either for or against the theory of life which appears to be
implicitly adopted by the savage; my aim is simply to explain, not
to justify or condemn, the mental attitude of primitive man towards
these profound problems.

M195 The resurrection of the body in tales and legends.

758 W. Mannhardt, _Germanische Mythen_ (Berlin, 1858), pp. 57-74; _id._,
_Baumkultus_, p. 116; C. L. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_
(Berlin, 1867), i. 219 _sqq._; J. Curtin, _Myths and Folk-lore of
Ireland_ (London, N.D.), pp. 45 _sq._; E. Cosquin, _Contes
populaires de Lorraine_ (Paris, N.D.), ii. 25; E. S. Hartland, “The
Physicians of Myddfai,” _Archaeological Review_, i. (1888) pp. 30
_sq._ In folk-tales, as in primitive custom, the blood is sometimes
not allowed to fall on the ground. See E. Cosquin, _l.c._

759 W. Mannhardt, _Germanische Mythen_, p. 66.

760 Jamblichus, _Vita Pythag._ 92, 135, 140; Porphyry, _Vita Pythag._
28.

761 Pindar, _Olymp._ i. 37 _sqq._, with the Scholiast.

762 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxviii. 34.

763 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 18. This is one of the sacred stories
which the pious Herodotus (ii. 48) concealed and the pious Plutarch
divulged.

M196 The sinew of the thigh regularly cut out and thrown away by some
American Indians.

764 Adam Hodgson, _Letters from North America_ (London, 1824), i. 244.

765 J. Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp. 137
_sq._ This writer, animated by a curious though not uncommon passion
for discovering the ten lost tribes of Israel, imagined that he
detected the missing Hebrews disguised under the red skins and
beardless faces of the American Indians.

M197 Story told by the Indians to explain the custom.

766 É. Petitot, _Monographie des Dènè-Dindjie_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 77, 81
_sq._; _id._, _Traditions indiennes du Canada Nord-ouest_ (Paris,
1886), pp. 132 _sqq._, compare pp. 41, 76, 213, 264. The story is
told in a briefer form, though without any reference to the custom,
by another French missionary. See the letter of Mgr. Tache, in
_Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xxiv. (1852) pp. 336 _sq._

M198 The custom of cutting out the sinew of the thigh in animals seems to
be based on the principle of sympathetic magic.

767 The first part of this suggestion is due to my friend W. Robertson
Smith. See his _Lectures on the Religion of the Semites_2 (London,
1894), p. 380, note 1. The Faleshas, a Jewish sect of Abyssinia,
after killing an animal for food, “carefully remove the vein from
the thighs with its surrounding flesh.” See Halévy, “Travels in
Abyssinia,” in _Publications of the Society of Hebrew Literature_,
Second Series, vol. ii. p. 220. Caffre men will not eat the sinew of
the thigh; “it is carefully cut out and sent to the principal boy at
the kraal, who with his companions consider it as their right.” See
Col. Maclean, _Kafir Laws and Customs_ (Cape Town, 1866), p. 151.
Gallas who pride themselves on their descent will not eat the flesh
of the biceps; the reasons assigned for the custom are inconsistent
and unsatisfactory. See Ph. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie
Nordost-Afrikas: die materielle Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl_
(Berlin, 1893), p. 154. When the Bushmen kill a hare, they cut out a
sinew of the thigh and will not eat it, alleging as their reason
that the hare was once a man, and that this particular sinew is
still human flesh. See W. H. I. Bleek and L. C. Lloyd. _Specimens of
Bushman Folklore_ (London, 1911), pp. xxxix., 60 _sq._, 63.

768 J. Mooney, “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,” _Seventh Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1891), p. 323.
Compare _id._, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) pp.
267, 447. In the last of these passages the writer quotes Buttrick,
_Antiquities_, p. 12, as follows: “The Indians never used to eat a
certain sinew in the thigh.... Some say that if they eat of the
sinew they will have cramp in it on attempting to run. It is said
that once a woman had cramp in that sinew, and therefore none must
eat it.”

769 See above, pp. 138 _sqq._

M199 Some hunters hamstring the dead game in order to lame the ghosts of
the animals. Some savages put out the eyes of dead game in order
perhaps to blind the ghosts of the animals.

770 É. Aymonier, _Notes sur le Laos_ (Saigon, 1885), p. 23.

771 E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington,
1899) p. 423.

772 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_ (London, 1901), p.
504.

773 L. von Schrenck, _Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande_, iii. 546.

774 P. S. Pallas, _Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen
Reichs_ (St. Petersburg, 1771-1776), iii. 70.

775 Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, Second Edition (London, 1890),
p. 171.

776 J. Teit, _The Thompson Indians cf British Columbia_, p. 317 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
Natural History_, April, 1900).

777 So among the Esquimaux of Bering Strait a girl at puberty is
considered unclean. “A peculiar atmosphere is supposed to surround
her at this time, and if a young man should come near enough for it
to touch him it would render him visible to every animal he might
hunt, so that his success as a hunter would be gone.” See E. W.
Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1899) p.
291.

778 P. Dobell, _Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia_ (London, 1830), i.
19.

M200 The custom of cutting out the tongues of dead animals may sometimes
be intended to prevent their ghosts from telling tales. Tongues of
animals cut out in order to confer superhuman knowledge or power on
their possessors.

779 Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” _Third Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1884), pp. 289 _sq._

780 J. G. Kohl, _Kitschi-Gami_ (Bremen, 1859), ii. 251 sq.; Charlevoix,
_Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, v. 173; Chateaubriand, _Voyage en
Amérique_, pp. 179 _sq._, 184.

781 For examples of the incident, see J. F. Bladé, _Contes populaires
recueillis en Agenais_ (Paris, 1874), pp. 12, 14; G. W. Dasent,
_Popular Tales from the Norse_ (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 133 sq.
(“Shortshanks”); Aug. Schleicher, _Litauische Märchen_ (Weimar,
1857), p. 58; Sepp, _Altbayerischer Sagenschatz_ (Munich, 1876), p.
114; R. Köhler, on L. Gonzenbach’s _Sicilianische Märchen_ (Leipsic,
1870), ii. 230; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 13. 3; Schol. on
Apollonius Rhodius, _Argonaut._ i. 517; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald-
und Feldkulte_, p. 53; J. C. Poestion, _Lappländische Märchen_
(Vienna, 1876), pp. 231 sq.; A. F. Chamberlain, in _Eighth Report on
the North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 35 (separate reprint from
the _Report of the British Association for 1892_); I. V. Zingerle,
_Kinder und Hausmärchen aus Tirol_2 (Gera, 1870), No. 25, p. 127; A.
Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_
(Leipsic, 1848), p. 342; S. Grundtvig, _Dänische Volksmärchen_,
übersetzt von W. Leo (Leipsic, 1878), p. 289; A. Leskien und K.
Brugmann, _Litauische Volkslieder und Märchen_ (Strasburg, 1882),
pp. 405 _sq._, 409 _sq._; A. und A. Schott, _Walachische Maerchen_
(Stuttgart and Tübingen), No. 10, p. 142; Chr. Schneller, _Märchen
und Sagen aus Wälschtirol_ (Innsbruck, 1867), No. 39, pp. 116 _sq._;
G. Basile, _Pentamerone_, übertragen von F. Liebrecht (Breslau,
1846), i. 99; P. Sébillot, _Contes Populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_
(Paris, 1885), No. 11, p. 80; E. Cosquin, _Contes Populaires de
Lorraine_ (Paris, N.D.), i. p. 61; J. Haltrich, _Deutsche
Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen_4 (Vienna and
Hermannstadt, 1885), No. 24, pp. 104 _sqq._; Grimm, _Household
Tales_, No. 60. The incident often occurs in the type of tale
analysed by Mr. E. S. Hartland in his _Legend of Perseus_ (vol. i.
pp. 12, 17, 18, etc.; vol. iii. pp. 6, 7, 8, etc.).

782 Fr. Boas, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_,
p. 58 (separate reprint from the _Report of the British Association
for 1889_); _id._, in _Journal of American Folk-lore_, i. (1888) p.
218.

783 See W. H. Dall, “Masks and Labrets,” _Third Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1884), pp. 111 _sq._ Compare
_id._, _Alaska and its Resources_ (London, 1870), p. 425; Ivan
Petroff, _Report on the Population, Industries, and Resources of
Alaska_, p. 176.

784 Ph. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die Geistige Cultur
der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl_ (Berlin, 1896), p. 47.

785 Ph. Paulitschke, _op. cit._ p. 156; _id._, _Ethnographie
Nordost-Afrikas: die materielle Cultur_, etc. (Berlin, 1893), p.
226.

786 J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_
(Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 54, § 354.

787 L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_
(Oldenburg, 1867), ii. 94, § 381; E. Monseur, in _Revue de
l’Histoire des Religions_, xxxi. (1895) pp. 297 _sq._

788 J. V. Grohmann, _op. cit._ p. 81, § 576.

789 Homer, _Od._ iii. 332, 341.

790 Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Plutus_, 1110; Athenaeus, i. 28, p. 16
B; _Paroemiographi Graeci_, ed. Leutsch et Schneidewin, i. 415, No.
100.

791 See further H. Gaidoz, “Les Langues coupées,” _Mélusine_, iii.
(1886-87) coll. 303-307; E. Monseur, _loc. cit._

M201 Bechuana custom of mutilating a sacrificial ox in order to inflict
corresponding mutilations on the enemy. Mutilation of the corpses of
enemies or other dangerous persons for the purpose of maiming their
ghosts. Disabling the ghost by mutilating his dead body.

792 T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, _Relation d’un Voyage d’Exploration au
Nord-est de la Colonie du Cap de Bonne-Espérance_ (Paris, 1842), pp.
562-564.

793 Rev. J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902)
p. 60. This custom appears not to be mentioned by the writer in his
book _The Baganda_ (London, 1911).

794 A. Oldfield, “On the Aborigines of Australia,” _Transactions of the
Ethnological Society of London_, N.S. iii. (1865) p. 287.

795 E. M. Curr, _The Australian Race_ (Melbourne and London, 1886), i.
348, 381.

796 R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, vol. i. Second Edition (London,
1822), p. 231.

797 E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, part i. (Washington,
1899) p. 423.

798 Rev. S. Mateer, _The Land of Charity_ (London, 1871), pp. 203 _sq._

799 Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “A Study of Siouan Cults,” _Eleventh Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1894), p. 420.

800 C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern
Rhodesia_ (London, 1911), p. 126.

M202 Propitiation of the vermin which infest crops and cattle in Europe.

801 J. B. Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen
Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. Heft 2 (Dorpat, 1872), p. 105 note.

802 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
Siebenbürgens_ (Hermannstadt, 1880), pp. 15 _sq._

803 R. F. Kaindl, _Die Huzulen_ (Vienna, 1894), pp. 79, 103; _id._,
“Viehzucht und Viehzauber in den Ostkarpaten,” _Globus_, lxix.
(1906) p. 387.

804 E. Krause, “Abergläubische Kuren und sonstiger Aberglaube in
Berlin,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xv. (1883) p. 93.

M203 Similar attempts made to propitiate vermin by savages.

805 L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 160.

806 Vetter, “Aberglaube unter dem Jabim-Stamme in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland,”
_Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xii. (1893)
pp. 95 _sq._

807 E. Modigliani, _Un Viaggio a Nías_ (Milan, 1890), p. 626.

808 W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_
(Westminster, 1896), ii. 303.

809 M. Merker, “Rechtsverhältnisse und Sitten der Wadschagga,”
_Petermanns Mitteilungen, Ergänzungsheft_ No. 113 (Gotha, 1902), pp.
35 _sq._

810 Rev. H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 320.

M204 Sometimes in dealing with vermin the farmer aims at a judicious mean
between undue severity and weak indulgence.

_ 811 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. The charm is said to have
been employed formerly in the neighbourhood of Paris (A. de Nore,
_Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France_, Paris and
Lyons, 1846, p. 383).

812 A. Meyrac, _Traditions, Coutumes, Légendes et Contes des Ardennes_
(Charleville, 1890), p. 176.

_ 813 American Journal of Folk-lore_, xi. (1898) p. 161.

814 G. Maan, “Eenige mededeelingen omtrent de zeden en gewoonten der
Toerateya ten opzichte van den rijstbouw,” _Tijdschrift voor
Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xlvi. (1903) pp. 329 _sq._

815 Rev. J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their Folk-lore_ (London, 1901), p.
509.

M205 Sometimes a few of the vermin are treated with high distinction,
while the rest are pursued with relentless rigour. Mock lamentations
of women for insects which destroy the crops.

816 R. van Eck, “Schetsen van het eiland Bali,” _Tijdschrift voor
Nederlandsch-Indië_, N.S., viii. (1879) p. 125.

817 J. L. van Gennep, “Bijdrage tot de kennis van den Kangean-Archipel,”
_Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van
Nederlandsch-Indië_, xlvi. (1896) p. 101.

818 C. Hose and W. McDougall, “The Relations between Men and Animals in
Sarawak” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901)
pp. 198 _sq._

819 J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_
(Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 60, § 405.

820 J. G. von Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_ (Jena, 1854), Heft i. p. 157.

821 Lagarde, _Reliquiae juris ecclesiastici antiquissimae_, p. 135. For
this passage I am indebted to my late friend W. Robertson Smith, who
kindly translated it for me from the Syriac. It occurs in the Canons
of Jacob of Edessa, of which a German translation has been published
by C. Kayser (_Die Canones Jacob’s von Edessa übersetzt und
erläutert_, Leipsic, 1886; see pp. 25 _sq._).

822 W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_ (London, 1872), p.
255.

823 Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood, a Study of Kafir Children_ (London,
1906), p. 292.

M206 Ceremony performed by Baronga women to drive insects from the crops.

824 H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-ronga_ (Neuchatel, 1898), pp. 419 _sq._ As to
the rain-making ceremony among the Baronga, see _The Magic Art and
the Evolution of Kings_, i. 267 _sq._

M207 Images made of vermin as a charm to get rid of them.

825 J. Malalas, _Chronographia_, ed. L. Dindorf (Bonn, 1831), p. 264.

826 D. Comparetti, _Vergil in the Middle Ages_ (London, 1895), p. 265. I
have to thank Mr. J. D. May of Merton College, Oxford, for this and
the following references to Comparetti’s book.

827 D. Comparetti, _op. cit._ pp. 259, 293, 341.

828 E. Doutté, _Magie et Religion dans l’Afrique du Nord_ (Algiers,
1908), p. 144.

_ 829 Encyclopaedia Biblica_, iv. (London, 1903) col. 4395.

830 Grégoire de Tours, _Histoire Ecclésiastique des Francs_, traduction
de M. Guizot, Nouvelle Édition (Paris, 1874), viii. 33, vol. i. p.
514. For some stories of the same sort, see J. B. Thiers, _Traité
des Superstitions_ (Paris, 1679), pp. 306-308.

831 1 Samuel vi. 4-18. The passage in which the plague of mice is
definitely described has been omitted in the existing Hebrew text,
but is preserved in the Septuagint (1 Samuel v. 6, καὶ μέσον τῆς
χώρας αὐτῆς ἀνεφύησαν μύες). See Dean Kirkpatrick’s note on 1 Samuel
v. 6 (_Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges_).

832 Numbers xxi. 6-9.

M208 Greek gods who took titles from vermin. Mouse (Smintheus) Apollo.

833 Homer, _Iliad_, i. 39, with the Scholia and the comment of
Eustathius; Strabo, xiii. 1. 48 and 63; Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ xii. 5;
Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 39, p. 34, ed. Potter;
Pausanias, x. 12. 5.

834 Strabo, xiii. 1. 64; Pausanias, i. 24. 8.

835 Strabo, xiii. 1. 64; Eustathius, on Homer, _Iliad_, i. 39, p. 34;
Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 609 (vol. ii.
p. 386).

836 Strabo and Eustathius, _ll.cc._

837 Professor W. Ridgeway has pointed out that the epithet Bassareus
applied to Dionysus (Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30)
appears to be derived from bassara, “a fox.” See J. Tzetzes, _Schol.
on Lycophron_, 771; W. Ridgeway, in _The Classical Review_, x.
(1896) pp. 21 _sqq._; S. Reinach, _Cultes, Mythes, et Religions_,
ii. (Paris, 1906) pp. 106 _sqq._

838 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ x. 75; Pausanias, v. 14. 1, viii. 26. 7; Clement
of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 38, p. 33, ed. Potter.

_ 839 Robigo_ or personified as _Robigus_. See Varro, _Rerum rusticarum_,
i. 1. 6; _id._, _De lingua latina_, vi. 16; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 905
_sqq._; Tertullian, _De spectaculis_, 5; Augustine, _De civitate
Dei_, iv. 21; Lactantius, _Divin. Instit._ i. 20; L. Preller,
_Römische Mythologie_3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), ii. 43 _sqq._; W. Warde
Fowler, _The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic_ (London,
1899), pp. 88 _sqq._

840 Aristotle, _Hist. Anim._ vi. 37, p. 580 b 15 _sqq._; Aelian, _Nat.
Anim._ xvii. 41; W. Warde Fowler, in _The Classical Review_ vi.
(1892) p. 413. In Laos, a province of Siam, the ravages committed by
rats are terrible. From time to time whole armies of these
destructive rodents appear and march across the country in dense
columns and serried ranks, devouring everything as they go, and
leaving famine, with all its horrors, in their train. See
Lieut.-Col. Tournier, _Notice sur le Laos Français_ (Hanoi, 1900),
pp. 104, 135. So in Burma, the rats multiply in some years to such
an extent that they cause a famine by destroying whole crops and
granaries. See Max and Bertha Ferrars, _Burma_ (London, 1900), pp.
149 _sq._

841 Polemo, cited by a scholiast on Homer, _Iliad_, i. 39 (ed. Im.
Bekker). Compare Eustathius on Homer, _Iliad_, i. 39.

842 Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ xii. 5.

843 Aelian, _l.c._

844 See above, p. 279.

845 E. Aymonier, “Les Tchames et leurs religions,” _Revue de l’Histoire
des Religions_, xxiv. (1891) p. 236.

M209 Wolfish Apollo.

846 Λύκειος or Λύκιος, Pausanias, i. 19. 3 (with my note), ii. 9. 7, ii.
19. 3, viii. 40. 5; Lucian, _Anacharsis_, 7; Im. Bekker, _Anecdota
Graeca_ (Berlin, 1814-1821), i. 277, lines 10 _sq._

847 Pausanias, ii. 9. 7; Scholiast on Demosthenes, xxiv. 114, p. 736.

848 Sophocles, _Electra_, 6.

849 Scholiast on Demosthenes, xxiv. 114, p. 736.

850 Pausanias, ii. 9. 7.

851 P. Einhorn, _Reformatio gentis Letticae in Ducatu Curlandiae_,
reprinted in _Scriptores rerum Livonicarum_, vol. ii. (Riga and
Leipsic, 1848) p. 621. The preface of Einhorn’s work is dated 17th
July 1636.

M210 Many savages spare certain animals because they believe the souls of
their dead to be lodged in them. Examples of this belief among the
American Indians.

852 A. Biet, _Voyage de la France Equinoxiale en l’Isle de Cayenne_
(Paris, 1664), p. 361.

853 J. Chaffanjon, _L’Orénoque et le Caura_ (Paris, 1889), p. 203.

854 Levrault, “Rapport sur les provinces de Canélos et du Napo,”
_Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), Deuxième Série, xi.
(1839) p. 75.

855 G. Osculati, _Esplorazione delle regioni equatorali lungo il Napo ed
il fiume delle Amazzoni_ (Milan, 1850), p. 114.

856 J. B. Ambrosetti, “Los Indios Caingua del alto Paraná (misiones),”
_Boletin del Instituto Geografico Argentino_, xv. (Buenos Ayres,
1895) p. 740.

857 Ch. Wiener, _Pérou et Bolivie_ (Paris, 1880), p. 369.

_ 858 Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, Nouvelle Édition, viii. (Paris,
1781) pp. 335 _sqq._

859 Fr. Coreal, _Voyages aux Indes occidentales_ (Amsterdam, 1722), ii.
132.

860 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_
(Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 215 _sq._

861 H. R. Schoolcraft, _op. cit._ iii. 113.

M211 Belief of the transmigration of human souls into animals in Africa.

862 Rev. J. L. Wilson, _Western Africa_ (London, 1856), p. 210.

863 J. C. Reichenbach, “Étude sur le royaume d’Assinie,” _Bulletin de la
Société de Géographie_ (Paris), vii. Série, xi. (1890) pp. 322 _sq._

864 D. Livingstone, _Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_
(London, 1857), p. 615.

865 Miss A. Werner, _The Natives of British Central Africa_ (London,
1906), p. 64.

866 C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern
Rhodesia_ (London, 1911), p. 200.

867 Rev. J. Roscoe, “The Bahima,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute_, xxxvii. (1907) pp. 101 _sq._ Compare Major J. A. Meldon,
“Notes on the Bahima of Ankole,” _Journal of the African Society_,
No. 22 (January, 1907), p. 151.

868 M. Merker, _Die Masai_ (Berlin, 1894), p. 202. The belief that the
human dead are turned into serpents is common in Africa; and the
practice of offering milk to the reptiles appears to be not
infrequent. See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,2 pp. 71 _sq._

869 J. Halkin, _Quelques Peuplades du district de l’Uelé_ (Liége, 1907),
p. 102; _Notes Analytiques sur les Collections Ethnographiques du
Musée du Congo, La Religion_ (Brussels, 1906), p. 162.

870 Father Courtois, “Scènes de la vie Cafre,” _Les Missions
Catholiques_, xv. (1883) p. 593. For more evidence of similar
beliefs in Africa, see Father Courtois, “À travers le haut Zambèze,”
_Les Missions Catholiques_, xvi. (1884) p. 299 (souls of the dead in
guinea-fowl); Father Lejeune, “Dans la forêt,” _Les Missions
Catholiques_, xxvii. (1895) p. 248 (souls of the dead in apes, owls,
etc.).

M212 Belief in the transmigration of human souls into animals in
Madagascar.

871 Father Abinal, “Croyances fabuleuses des Malgaches,” _Les Missions
Catholiques_, xii. (1880) pp. 549-551. A somewhat different account
of the Betsileo belief in the transmigration of souls is given by
another authority. See G. A. Shaw, “The Betsileo,” _Antananarivo
Annual and Madagascar Magazine, Reprint of the First Four Numbers_
(Antananarivo, 1885), p. 411. Compare A. van Gennep, _Tabou et
Totémisme à Madagascar_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 272 _sq._, 283, 291.

872 Rev. J. Sibree, _The Great African Island_ (London, 1880), p. 270.

873 “Das Volk der Tanala,” _Globus_, lxxxix. (1906) p. 362.

M213 Belief in the transmigration of human souls into animals in Assam,
Burma, and Cochin China.

874 W. H. Furness, “The Ethnography of the Nagas of Eastern Assam,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 463.

875 T. C. Hodson, _The Naga Tribes of Manipur_ (London, 1911), p. 159.

876 (Sir) J. George Scott and J. P. Hardiman, _Gazetteer of Upper Burma
and the Shan States_ (Rangoon, 1900-1901), Part ii. vol. i. p. 26.

877 Guerlach, “Chez les sauvages de la Cochinchine Orientale, Bahnar,
Reungao, Sédang,” _Les Missions Catholiques_, xxvi. (1894) pp. 143
_sq._

878 E. Aymonier, “Les Tchames et leurs religions,” _Revue de l’histoire
des Religions_, xxiv. (1891) p. 267. Compare D. Grangeon, “Les Cham
et leurs superstitions,” _Les Missions Catholiques_, xxviii. (1896)
p. 46. According to the latter writer, white horses are specially
set apart to serve as domiciles for these domestic deities. After
its dedication such a horse is carefully tended and never mounted
again.

M214 Belief in the transmigration of human souls into animals in the
Philippines, the Sandwich Islands, and the Pelew Islands.

879 F. Blumentritt, “Der Ahnencultus und die religiösen Anschauungen der
Malaien des Philippinen-Archipels,” _Mittheilungen der Wiener Geogr.
Gesellschaft_, 1882, p. 164; _id._, _Versuch einer Ethnographie der
Philippinen_ (Gotha, 1882), p. 29 (_Petermanns Mittheilungen,
Ergänzungsheft_, No. 67).

880 L. de Freycinet, _Voyage autour du Monde_, ii. (Paris, 1829) pp. 595
_sq._

881 K. Semper, _Die Palau-Inseln im Stillen Ocean_ (Leipsic, 1873), pp.
87 _sq._, 193. These sacred animals were called _kalids_. A somewhat
different account of the _kalids_ of the Pelew Islanders is given by
J. Kubary (“Die Religion der Pelauer,” in A. Bastian’s _Allerlei aus
Volks- und Menschenkunde_, Leipsic, 1888, i. 5 _sqq._).

M215 Transmigration of human souls into tigers in Sumatra.

882 W. D. Helderman, “De tijger en het bijgeloof der Bataks,”
_Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxxiv.
(1891) pp. 170-175. The account which this writer gives of the
reception of a dead tiger by the Battas agrees with, and is probably
the source of, Mr. Batten’s account cited above (pp. 216 _sq._).

M216 Belief in the transmigration of human souls into animals in Borneo.

883 C. Hose, “The Natives of Borneo,” _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, xxiii. (1894) p. 165. Compare A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _In
Centraal Borneo_ (Leyden, 1900), i. 148; _id._, _Quer durch Borneo_
(Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 105. According to the latter writer the
Kayans or Bahaus in general abstain from the flesh both of deer and
of grey apes, because they think that the souls of the dead may be
in them.

884 Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, “The Relations between Men and Animals in
Sarawak,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901)
p. 193.

885 E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_
(London, 1911), p. 143.

M217 Belief in the transmigration of human souls into animals in New
Guinea.

886 F. S. A. de Clercq, “De West en Noordkust van Nederlandsch
Nieuw-Guinea,” _Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch
Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, Tweede Serie, x. (1893) p. 635.

887 Max Krieger, _Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, N.D.), p. 404.

888 K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf uns!_ iii. (Barmen, 1898) p. 22.
Compare _id._, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land_, 1897, pp.
87 _sq._; B. Hagen, _Unter den Papuas_ (Wiesbaden, 1899), p. 225.

889 H. Zahn, “Die Jabim,” in R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii.
(Berlin, 1911) p. 310.

890 R. Parkinson, “Die Berlinhafen Section, ein Beitrag zur Ethnographie
der Neu-Guinea Küste,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_,
xiii. (1900) p. 40.

891 Ch. Keysser, “Aus dem Leben der Kaileute,” in R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch
Neu-Guinea_, iii. (Berlin, 1911) pp. 150 _sq._

M218 Belief in the transmigration of human souls into animals in the
Solomon Islands.

892 Mr. Sleigh of Lifu, quoted by Prof. E. B. Tylor, in _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xxviii. (1898) p. 147.

893 R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), pp. 179 _sq._

894 R. H. Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 177.

895 R. H. Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 33. East Indian evidence of the
belief in transmigration into animals is collected by G. A. Wilken
(“Het animisme bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel,” _De
Indische Gids_, June 1884, pp. 988 _sqq._), who argues that this
belief supplies the link between ancestor-worship and totemism.
Compare the same writer’s article “Iets over de Papoewas van de
Geelvinksbaai,” pp. 24 _sqq._ (separate reprint from _Bijdragen tot
de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Ned. Indië_, 5e Volgreeks ii.).
Wilken’s view on this subject is favoured by Professor E. B. Tylor
(_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxviii. (1898) pp. 146
_sq._). See further, _Totemism and Exogamy_, iv. 45 _sqq._

M219 The doctrine of the transmigration of human souls into animals in
ancient India. The doctrine of transmigration in Buddhism.

_ 896 The Laws of Manu_, ii. 201.

_ 897 Id._, v. 164.

_ 898 Id._, xi. 25.

_ 899 Id._, xii. 39-78.

900 Sir Monier Monier-Williams, _Buddhism_, Second Edition (London,
1890), pp. 111 _sq._ Full, if not always authentic, particulars of
the Buddha’s manifold transmigrations are contained in the
_Jatakas_, a large collection of stories which has been completely
translated into English by the late Professor E. B. Cowell, Dr. W.
H. D. Rouse, and other scholars (6 volumes, Cambridge, 1895-1907).

M220 The doctrine of the transmigration of souls taught in ancient Greece
by Pythagoras and Empedocles.

901 Diodorus Siculus, x. 6. 1-3; Jamblichus, _De Pythagorica vita_, xiv.
63; Porphyry, _Vita Pythag._ 26 _sq._; Ovid, _Metamorph._ xv. 160
_sqq._ According to Heraclides Ponticus, the philosopher remembered
his personal identity in four different human lives before he was
born into the world as Pythagoras (Diogenes Laertius, _Vit.
Philosoph._ viii. 1. 4 _sq._). See further E. Rohde, _Psyche_3
(Leipsic and Tübingen, 1903), ii. 417 _sqq._

902 Diogenes Laertius, _Vit. Philosoph._ viii. 1. 4 and 36.

903 Jamblichus, _De Pythagorica vita_, xxiv. 107-109; Sextus Empiricus,
ix. 127-130; Aulus Gellius, iv. 11.

904 Diogenes Laertius, _Vit. Philosoph._ viii. 2. 77; H. Diels, _Die
Fragmente der Vorsokratiker_,2 i. (Berlin, 1906) p. 208, frag. 117.

905 Sextus Empiricus, ix. 129; H. Diels, _op. cit._ i. pp. 213 _sq._,
frag. 137.

906 Compare Sextus Empiricus, ix. 127-130.

907 Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ iii. 1. 2. 7; Aulus Gellius, iv. 11. 9;
H. Diels, _op. cit._ i. p. 214, fragments 140, 141.

M221 The doctrine of transmigration used by Pythagoras and Empedocles
mainly to inculcate certain ethical precepts. The pessimism of
Empedocles unlike the ordinary Greek view of life; its similarity to
Buddhism.

908 As to Pythagoras in this respect, see E. Rohde, _Psyche_3 (Tübingen
and Leipsic, 1903), ii. 161 _sqq._

909 Plutarch, _De exilio_, 17; _id._, _De esu carnium_, i. 7. 4; Clement
of Alexandria, _Strom._ iv. 4. 12, p. 569 ed. Potter; Hippolytus,
_Refutatio omnium Haeresium_, vii. 29, p. 388 ed. L. Duncker and F.
G. Schneidewin; H. Diels, _op. cit._ i. pp. 207 _sq._, fragments
115, 119.

910 Porphyry, _De antro nympharum_, 8.

911 H. Diels, _op. cit._ i. pp. 208 _sq._, frag. 121.

912 Clement of Alexandria, _Strom._ iii. 3. 14, iv. 23. 152, v. 14. 123,
pp. 516 _sq._, 632, 722 ed. Potter; H. Diels, _Die Fragmente der
Vorsokratiker_,2 i. (Berlin, 1906) pp. 207, 209, 215 _sq._,
fragments 115, 124, 144-147.

913 Empedocles is cited by Aristotle as an example of the melancholy
which he believed to be characteristic of men of genius. See
Aristotle, _Problem_. 30, p. 953 a 27 ed. Im. Bekker.

914 Stobaeus, _Eclogae_, i. 41. 60 (vol. i. p. 331 ed. A. Meineke);
Plutarch, _De esu carnium_ ii. 4. 4; H. Diels, _op. cit._ i. p. 210,
frag. 126.

915 It seems to be fairly certain that Buddha died and Empedocles was
born somewhere about the year 480 B.C. Hence it is difficult to
suppose that the ideas of the former should have percolated from
India to Greece, or rather to Sicily, in the lifetime of the latter.
As to their respective dates see H. Oldenberg, _Buddha_5 (Stuttgart
and Berlin, 1906), pp. 115, 227; E. Zeller, _Die Philosophie der
Griechen_, i.4 (Leipsic, 1876) p. 678 note 1.

M222 Analogy of the physical speculations of Empedocles to those of
Herbert Spencer.

916 Plutarch, _Adversus Coloten_, 10; Aristotle, _De Xenophane_, 2, p.
975 a 39-b 4 ed. Im. Bekker; H. Diels, _op. cit._ i. pp. 175, 176,
fragments 8 and 12.

917 The evidence, consisting of the testimonies of ancient authorities
and the fragments of Empedocles’s own writings, is fully collected
by H. Diels in his excellent work _Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker_,
Zweite Auflage, i. (Berlin, 1906) pp. 158 _sqq._, 173 _sqq._ Compare
_Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A. Mullach, i.
(Paris, 1875) pp. 1 _sqq._; H. Ritter et L. Preller, _Historia
Philosophiae Graecae et Latinae ex fontium locis contexta_, Editio
Quinta (Gothae, 1875), pp. 91 _sqq._; E. Zeller, _Die Philosophie
der Griechen_, i.4 (Leipsic, 1876) pp. 678 _sqq._

M223 Herbert Spencer’s theory of alternate periods of concentration and
dissipation of matter.

918 Herbert Spencer, _First Principles_, Third Edition (London, 1875),
pp. 536 _sq._

M224 Evolution or dissolution.

919 On the discovery of the atomic disintegration of certain chemical
elements, and the general question (Evolution or Dissolution?)
raised by that discovery, see W. C. D. Whetham, “The Evolution of
Matter,” in _Darwin and Modern Science_ (Cambridge, 1909), pp.
565-582, particularly his concluding paragraph: “In the strict sense
of the word, the process of atomic disintegration revealed to us by
the new science of radio-activity can hardly be called evolution. In
each case radio-active change involves the breaking up of a heavier,
more complex atom into lighter and simpler fragments. Are we to
regard this process as characteristic of the tendencies in accord
with which the universe has reached its present state, and is
passing to its unknown future? Or have we chanced upon an eddy in a
backwater, opposed to the main stream of advance? In the chaos from
which the present universe developed, was matter composed of large
highly complex atoms, which have formed the simpler elements by
radio-active or rayless disintegration? Or did the primaeval
substance consist of isolated electrons, which have slowly come
together to form the elements, and yet have left here and there an
anomaly such as that illustrated by the unstable family of uranium
and radium, or by some such course are returning to their state of
primaeval simplicity?”

M225 Empedocles as a forerunner of Darwin.

920 H. Diels, _Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker_,2 i. (Berlin, 1906) pp.
190 _sqq._; _Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A.
Mullach, i. (Paris, 1875) pp. 8 _sqq._; H. Ritter und L. Preller,
_Historia Philosophiae Graecae et Latinae ex fontium locis
contexta_5 (Gothae, 1875), pp. 102 _sq._; E. Zeller, _Die
Philosophie der Griechen_, i.4 (Leipsic, 1876) pp. 718 _sqq._

921 Aristotle, _Physic. Auscult._ ii. 8, p. 198 b 29 _sqq._, ed. Im.
Bekker; ὅπου μὲν οὖν ἅπαντα συνέβη ὥσπερ κὰν εἰ ἔνεκά του ἐγίνετο,
ταῦτα μὲν ἐσωθη ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτομάτου συστάντα ἐπιτηδείως; ὅσα δὲ μὴ
οὕτως, ἀπώλετο καὶ ἀπόλλυται, καθάπερ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς λέγει τὰ βουγενῆ
ἀνδρόπρῳρα. This passage is quoted by Darwin in the “Historical
Sketch” prefixed to _The Origin of Species_ with the remark, “We
here see the principle of natural selection shadowed forth, but how
little Aristotle fully comprehended the principle, is shown by his
remarks on the formation of the teeth.” Darwin omits Aristotle’s
reference to Empedocles, apparently deeming it irrelevant or
unimportant. Had he been fully acquainted with the philosophical
speculations of Empedocles, we can scarcely doubt that Darwin would
have included him among the pioneers of evolution.

M226 Empedocles as a pretender to divinity.

922 Diogenes Laertius, _Vit. Philosoph._ viii. 2. 62; H. Diels, _Die
Fragmente der Vorsokratiker_,2 i. (Berlin, 1906) p. 205, frag. 112.
Compare _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 390.

M227 The doctrine of the transmigration of souls in Plato.

923 Plato, _Phaedo_, pp. 81 B-84 C; _Republic_, x. pp. 617 D-620 D;
_Timaeus_, pp. 41 D-42 D; _Phaedrus_, p. 249 B.

924 This is the view of E. Zeller (_Die Philosophie der Griechen_, ii.3
Leipsic, 1875, pp. 706 _sqq._), Sir W. E. Geddes (on Plato,
_Phaedo_, p. 81 E), and J. Adam (on Plato, _Republic_, x. p. 618 A).
We have no right, with some interpreters ancient and modern, to
dissolve the theory into an allegory because it does not square with
our ideas.

925 In our own time the theory of transmigration is favoured by Dr.
McTaggart, who argues that human beings may have lived before birth
and may live many, perhaps an infinite number of, lives after death.
Like Plato he further suggests that the nature of the body into
which a person transmigrates at death may be appropriate to and
determined by his or her character in the preceding life. See J.
McT. Ellis McTaggart, _Some Dogmas of Religion_ (London, 1906), pp.
112-139. However, Dr. McTaggart seems only to contemplate the
transmigration of human souls into human bodies; he does not discuss
the possibility of their transmigration into animals.

M228 The ambiguous behaviour of the Aino and the Gilyaks towards bears
explained.
M229 Two forms of the worship of animals.

926 This is known, for example, of the Yuchi Indians, for among them
“members of each clan will not do violence to wild animals having
the form and name of their totem. For instance, the Bear clan people
never molest bears.” See F. G. Speck, _Ethnology of the Yuchi
Indians_ (Philadelphia, 1909), p. 70. But in spite of the attention
which has been paid to American totemism, we possess very little
information as to the vital point of the system, the relation
between a man and his totemic animal. Compare _Totemism and
Exogamy_, iii. 88 _sq._, 311.

927 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 85 _sqq._
However, Collins reports that among the natives of New South Wales
the women were “compelled to sit in their canoe, exposed to the
fervour of the mid-day sun, hour after hour, chaunting their little
song, and inviting the fish beneath them to take their bait” (D.
Collins, _An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales_,
London, 1804, p. 387). This may have been a form of conciliation
like that employed by the American Indians towards the fish and
game. But the account is not precise enough to allow us to speak
with confidence. It is sometimes reported that the Australians
attempt to appease the kangaroos which they have killed, assuring
the animals of their affection and begging them not to come back
after death to torment them. But the writer who mentions the report
disbelieves it. See Dom Théophile Bérengier, in _Les Missions
Catholiques_, x. (1878) p. 197.

928 G. Catlin, _O-Kee-pa, a Religious Ceremony, and other Customs of the
Mandans_ (London, 1867), Folium reservatum; Lewis and Clarke,
_Travels to the Source of the Missouri River_ (London, 1815), i. 205
_sq._

M230 Two types of animal sacrament, the Egyptian and the Aino type.
M231 Examples of animal sacraments among pastoral tribes. Aino or
expiatory type of animal sacrament among the Abchases and Kalmucks.

929 A. Bastian, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte_, 1870-71, p. 59. J.
Reinegg (_Beschreibung des Kaukasus_, Gotha, St. Petersburg, and
Hildesheim, 1796-97, 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.

930 A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, vi. (Jena, 1871) pp.
632, note. On the Kalmucks as a people of shepherds and on their
diet of mutton, see J. G. Georgi, _Beschreibung aller Nationen des
russischen Reichs_ (St. Petersburg, 1776), pp. 406 _sq._, compare p.
207; B. Bergmann, _Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmücken_
(Riga, 1804-5), ii. 80 _sqq._, 122; P. S. Pallas, _Reise durch
verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs_ (St. Petersburg,
1771-1776), 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.

M232 Egyptian type of animal sacrament among the Todas and Madi.

931 W. E. Marshall, _Travels amongst the Todas_ (London, 1873), pp. 129
_sq._

932 W. E. Marshall, _op. cit._ pp. 80 _sq._, 130.

933 R. W. Felkin, “Notes on the Madi or Moru Tribe of Central Africa,”
_Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, xii. (1882-84) pp.
336 _sq._

934 Mutton appears to be now eaten by the tribe as a regular article of
food (R. W. Felkin, _op. cit._ p. 307), but this is not inconsistent
with the original sanctity of the sheep.

935 See W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_2 (London, 1894), pp. 344
_sqq._ As to communion by means of an external application, see
above, pp. 162 _sqq._

M233 Form of communion with a sacred animal by taking it from house to
house. Effigy of a snake carried from house to house by members of
the Snake tribe.

936 See above, pp. 190, 192.

_ 937 Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. p. 91, § 555 (March 1885).

M234 “Hunting the Wren” in Europe. Sacred character of the wren in
popular superstition.

938 See Ch. Vallancey, _Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis_, iv. (Dublin,
1786) p. 97; J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_ (London, 1882-1883),
iii. 195 _sq._ (Bohn’s ed.); Rev. C. Swainson, _Folk-lore of British
Birds_ (London, 1886), p. 36; E. Rolland, _Faune populaire de la
France_, ii. 288 _sqq._ The names for the bird are βασιλίσκος,
_regulus_, _rex avium_ (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ viii. 90, x. 203), _re
di siepe_, _reyezuelo_, _roitelet_, _roi des oiseaux_, _Zaunkönig_,
etc. On the custom of hunting the wren see further N. W. Thomas,
“The Scape-Goat in European Folklore,” _Folk-lore_, xvii. (1906) pp.
270 _sqq._, 280; Miss L. Eckstein, _Comparative Studies in Nursery
Rhymes_ (London, 1906), pp. 172 _sqq._ Miss Eckstein suggests that
the killing of the bird called “the king” may have been a mitigation
of an older custom of killing the real king.

939 J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, iii. 194.

940 R. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, New Edition (London and
Edinburgh, N.D.), p. 188.

_ 941 Ibid._ p. 186.

942 P. Sébillot, _Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_
(Paris, 1882), ii. 214.

943 A. Bosquet, _La Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse_ (Paris and
Rouen, 1845), p. 221; E. Rolland, _op. cit._ ii. 294 _sq._; P.
Sébillot, _l.c._; Rev. C. Swainson, _op. cit._ p. 42.

M235 Hunting the Wren in the Isle of Man.

944 G. Waldron, _Description of the Isle of Man_ (reprinted for the Manx
Society, Douglas, 1865), pp. 49 _sqq._; J. Train, _Account of the
Isle of Man_ (Douglas, 1845), ii. 124 _sqq._, 141.

945 In _The Morning Post_ of Wednesday, 27th December 1911, we read that
“the observance of the ancient and curious custom known as ‘the hunt
of the wren’ was general throughout the Isle of Man yesterday.
Parties of boys bearing poles decked with ivy and streamers went
from house to house singing to an indescribable tune a quaint ballad
detailing the pursuit and death of the wren, subsequently demanding
recompense, which is rarely refused. Formerly boys actually engaged
in the chase, stoning the bird to death with the object of
distributing the feathers ‘for luck.’ ” From this account we may
gather that in the Isle of Man the hunting of the wren is now merely
nominal and that the pretence of it is kept up only as an excuse for
collecting gratuities. It is thus that the solemnity of ritual
dwindles into the pastime of children. I have to thank Mrs. J. H.
Deane, of 41 Iverna Court, Kensington, for kindly sending me the
extract from _The Morning Post_.

M236 Hunting the Wren in Ireland and England.

946 Ch. Vallancey, _Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis_, iv. (Dublin, 1786)
p. 97; J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, iii. 195.

947 G. H. Kinahan, “Notes on Irish Folk-lore,” _Folk-lore Record_, iv.
(1881) p. 108; Rev. C. Swainson, _Folk-lore of British Birds_, pp.
36 _sq._; E. Rolland, _Faune populaire de la France_, ii. 297;
Professor W. Ridgeway, in _Academy_, 10th May 1884, p. 332; T. F.
Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 497; L.
L. Duncan, “Further Notes from County Leitrim,” _Folk-lore_, v.
(1894) p. 197. The custom is still, or was down to a few years ago,
practised in County Meath, where the verses sung are practically the
same as those in the text. Wrens are scarce in that part of the
country, “but as the boys go round more for the fun of dressing up
and collecting money, the fact that there is no wren in their basket
is quite immaterial.” These particulars I learn from a letter of
Miss A. H. Singleton, dated Appey-Leix, Ireland, 24th February 1904.

948 W. Henderson, _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties_ (London, 1879),
p. 125.

949 Rev. C. Swainson, _op. cit._ pp. 40 _sq._

M237 Hunting the Wren in France.

950 Madame Clément, _Histoire des Fêtes civiles et religieuses_, etc.,
_de la Belgique Méridionale_ (Avesnes, 1846), pp. 466-468; A. De
Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des provinces de France_
(Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 77 _sqq._; E. Rolland, _Faune populaire
de la France_, ii. 295 _sq._; J. W. Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutschen
Mythologie_, ii. (Göttingen, 1857) pp. 437 _sq._ The ceremony was
abolished at the revolution of 1789, revived after the restoration,
and suppressed again after 1830.

951 E. Rolland, _op. cit._ ii. 296 _sq._

952 C. S. Sonnini, _Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt_, translated from
the French (London, 1800), pp. 11 _sq._; J. Brand, _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 shew 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. See L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_
(London, 1870), pp. 237 _sq._ The resemblance of such customs to the
“swallow song” and “crow song” of the ancient Greeks (on which see
Athenaeus, viii. 59 _sq._, 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. The “crow song” is referred to in a Greek inscription found in
the south of Russia ἕξ δεκάδας λυκάβας κεκορώνικα. See _Compte
Rendu_ of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, St. Petersburg,
1877, pp. 276 _sqq._ In modern Greece and Macedonia it is 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. See J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 636; A.
Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna,
1878), p. 301; G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folk-lore_ (Cambridge,
1903), p. 18; J. C. Lawson, _Modern Greek Folklore and ancient Greek
Religion_ (Cambridge, 1910), p. 35. The custom of making the image
of the swallow revolve on a pivot, which is practised in Macedonia
as well as Greece, may be compared with the pirouetting of the girl
in the Servian rain-making ceremony. The meaning of these
revolutions is obscure. See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of
Kings_, i. 273, 275.

M238 Religious processions with sacred animals. Ceremony of beating a man
clad in a cow’s skin in the Highlands of Scotland.

953 S. Johnson, _A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_, pp. 128
_sq._ (_The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D._, edited by the Rev. R.
Lynam, London, 1825, vol. vi.).

954 John Ramsay, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_
(Edinburgh and London, 1888), ii. 438 _sq._ The custom is clearly
referred to in the “Penitential of Theodore,” quoted by Kemble,
_Saxons in England_, i. 525; Ch. Elton, _Origins of English History_
(London, 1882), 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.

M239 Another description of the Highland custom.

955 J. G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and
Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 230-232. Shinty is the
Scotch name for hockey: the game is played with a ball and curved
sticks or clubs.

956 R. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, New Edition (London and
Edinburgh, N.D.), pp. 166 _sq._

957 See above, vol. i. pp. 246 _sq._

M240 Processions of men disguised as animals, in which the animal seems
to represent the corn-spirit. The Shrovetide Bear in Bohemia.

958 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_ (Berlin, 1877), p. 183.

959 O. Freiherr von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest- Kalender aus Böhmen_
(Prague, N.D., preface dated 1861), pp. 49-52. Compare E. Cortet,
_Essai sur les Fêtes Religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), p. 83. Similar
processions with a Shrovetide Bear take place among some of the
German peasantry of Moravia, though there the mummer is said to be
wrapt in skins and furs rather than in straw and to personate
Winter. See W. Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in
Mähren_ (Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), p. 431. This latter
interpretation may be due to a misunderstanding of the old custom.

960 On this custom see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i.
137 _sqq._

961 Real bears and other animals were formerly promenaded about both
town and country with rags of coloured cloth attached to them.
Scraps of these cloths and hairs of the animals were given, rather
perhaps sold, to all who asked for them as preservatives against
sickness and the evil eye. The practice was condemned by the Council
of Constance. See J. B. Thiers, _Traité des Superstitions_ (Paris,
1679), pp. 315 _sq._ We need not suppose that these animals
represented the corn-spirit.

M241 The Oats-goat, the Pease-bear, etc. The Yule-goat in Sweden.

962 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp. 183 _sq._

963 See above, vol. i. pp. 281 _sqq._

964 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 190.

965 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 188.

966 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 191-193.

967 L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), pp. 184 _sq._; W.
Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 196 _sq._

968 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 196.

969 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 197 _sq._

970 See above, vol. i. pp. 275, 298 _sqq._

M242 The Straw-bear at Whittlesey.

971 Letter of Professor G. C. Moore Smith, dated The University,
Sheffield, 13th January, 1909.

M243 The ceremonies of Plough Monday in England.

972 R. Chambers, _The Book of Days_ (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i. 94
_sq._; J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, New Edition (London, 1883),
i. 506 _sqq._; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_
(London, 1876), pp. 37 _sqq._; O. Freiherr von
Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_ (Leipsic, 1863), pp. 27
_sq._ Compare W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 557
_sq._; T. Fairman Ordish, “English Folk-drama,” _Folk-lore_, iv.
(1893) pp. 163 _sqq._; _Folk-lore_, viii. (1897) p. 184; E. K.
Chambers, _The Mediaeval Stage_ (Oxford, 1903), i. 208-210; H. Munro
Chadwick, _The Origin of the English Nation_ (Cambridge, 1907), p.
238. Counties in which the custom of Plough Monday is reported to
have been observed are Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire,
Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire,
Derbyshire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire. Thus the custom would seem to
have been characteristic of a group of counties in the centre of
England. In January 1887, I witnessed the ceremony in the streets of
Cambridge. Wooden ploughs of a primitive sort were dragged about by
bands of young men who were profusely decked with scarves and
ribbons. They ran at a good pace, and beside them ran a companion
with a money-box collecting donations. Amongst them I did not
observe any woman or man in female attire. Compare _The Folk-lore
Journal_, v. (1887) p. 161.

M244 The object of the dances on Plough Monday is probably to ensure the
growth of the corn.
M245 The Straw-bear a representative of the corn-spirit.
M246 The rites of Plough Monday resemble the rites at the end of the
Carnival in Thrace. Similar rites are performed at the same time by
the Bulgarian peasants of Thrace. The intention of the rites is
clearly to fertilise the ground.

973 See above, vol. i. pp. 25 _sqq._

974 G. Kazarow, “Karnevalbräuche in Bulgarien,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, xi. (1908) pp. 407 _sq._

M247 Similar customs are observed at the Carnival in Bulgaria.

975 G. Kazarow, “Karnevalbräuche in Bulgarien,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft,_ xi. (1908) pp. 408 _sq._

M248 In all these cases the ceremonial ploughing and sowing are probably
charms to ensure the growth of the crops.
M249 Such rites no doubt date from a remote antiquity.
M250 Effigy of a horse in a harvest festival of the Garos.

976 Major A. Playfair, _The Garos_ (London, 1909), pp. 94 _sq._

M251 Major Playfair’s description of the festival.
M252 Dance of a man wearing the mask of a horse’s head.
M253 The effigy of the horse at rice-harvest perhaps represents the
spirit of the rice.

977 See above, p. 21.

978 See my note on Pausanias, viii. 37. 3 (vol. iv. pp. 375 _sqq._).

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