CHAPTER XIII. FAREWELL TO NEMI.

(M234) We are at the end of our enquiry, but as often happens in the

search after truth, if we have answered one question, we have raised many

more; if we have followed one track home, we have had to pass by others

that opened off it and led, or seemed to lead, to far other goals than the

sacred grove at Nemi. Some of these paths we have followed a little way;

others, if fortune should be kind, the writer and the reader may one day

pursue together. For the present we have journeyed far enough together,

and it is time to part. Yet before we do so, we may well ask ourselves

whether there is not some more general conclusion, some lesson, if

possible, of hope and encouragement, to be drawn from the melancholy

record of human error and folly which has engaged our attention in these

volumes.

(M235) If then we consider, on the one hand, the essential similarity of

man’s chief wants everywhere and at all times, and on the other hand, the

wide difference between the means he has adopted to satisfy them in

different ages, we shall perhaps be disposed to conclude that the movement

of the higher thought, so far as we can trace it, has on the whole been

from magic through religion to science. In magic man depends on his own

strength to meet the difficulties and dangers that beset him on every

side. He believes in a certain established order of nature on which he can

surely count, and which he can manipulate for his own ends. When he

discovers his mistake, when he recognizes sadly that both the order of

nature which he had assumed and the control which he had believed himself

to exercise over it were purely imaginary, he ceases to rely on his own

intelligence and his own unaided efforts, and throws himself humbly on the

mercy of certain great invisible beings behind the veil of nature, to whom

he now ascribes all those far-reaching powers which he once arrogated to

himself. Thus in the acuter minds magic is gradually superseded by

religion, which explains the succession of natural phenomena as regulated

by the will, the passion, or the caprice of spiritual beings like man in

kind, though vastly superior to him in power.

(M236) But as time goes on this explanation in its turn proves to be

unsatisfactory. For it assumes that the succession of natural events is

not determined by immutable laws, but is to some extent variable and

irregular, and this assumption is not borne out by closer observation. On

the contrary, the more we scrutinize that succession the more we are

struck by the rigid uniformity, the punctual precision with which,

wherever we can follow them, the operations of nature are carried on.

Every great advance in knowledge has extended the sphere of order and

correspondingly restricted the sphere of apparent disorder in the world,

till now we are ready to anticipate that even in regions where chance and

confusion appear still to reign, a fuller knowledge would everywhere

reduce the seeming chaos to cosmos. Thus the keener minds, still pressing

forward to a deeper solution of the mysteries of the universe, come to

reject the religious theory of nature as inadequate, and to revert in a

measure to the older standpoint of magic by postulating explicitly, what

in magic had only been implicitly assumed, to wit, an inflexible

regularity in the order of natural events, which, if carefully observed,

enables us to foresee their course with certainty and to act accordingly.

In short, religion, regarded as an explanation of nature, is displaced by

science.

(M237) But while science has this much in common with magic that both rest

on a faith in order as the underlying principle of all things, readers of

this work will hardly need to be reminded that the order presupposed by

magic differs widely from that which forms the basis of science. The

difference flows naturally from the different modes in which the two

orders have been reached. For whereas the order on which magic reckons is

merely an extension, by false analogy, of the order in which ideas present

themselves to our minds, the order laid down by science is derived from

patient and exact observation of the phenomena themselves. The abundance,

the solidity, and the splendour of the results already achieved by science

are well fitted to inspire us with a cheerful confidence in the soundness

of its method. Here at last, after groping about in the dark for countless

ages, man has hit upon a clue to the labyrinth, a golden key that opens

many locks in the treasury of nature. It is probably not too much to say

that the hope of progress—moral and intellectual as well as material—in

the future is bound up with the fortunes of science, and that every

obstacle placed in the way of scientific discovery is a wrong to humanity.

(M238) Yet the history of thought should warn us against concluding that

because the scientific theory of the world is the best that has yet been

formulated, it is necessarily complete and final. We must remember that at

bottom the generalizations of science or, in common parlance, the laws of

nature are merely hypotheses devised to explain that ever-shifting

phantasmagoria of thought which we dignify with the high-sounding names of

the world and the universe. In the last analysis magic, religion, and

science are nothing but theories of thought; and as science has supplanted

its predecessors, so it may hereafter be itself superseded by some more

perfect hypothesis, perhaps by some totally different way of looking at

the phenomena—of registering the shadows on the screen—of which we in this

generation can form no idea. The advance of knowledge is an infinite

progression towards a goal that for ever recedes. We need not murmur at

the endless pursuit:—

“_Fatti non foste a viver come bruti_

_Ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza._”

(M239) Great things will come of that pursuit, though we may not enjoy

them. Brighter stars will rise on some voyager of the future—some great

Ulysses of the realms of thought—than shine on us. The dreams of magic may

one day be the waking realities of science. But a dark shadow lies athwart

the far end of this fair prospect. For however vast the increase of

knowledge and of power which the future may have in store for man, he can

scarcely hope to stay the sweep of those great forces which seem to be

making silently but relentlessly for the destruction of all this starry

universe in which our earth swims as a speck or mote. In the ages to come

man may be able to predict, perhaps even to control, the wayward courses

of the winds and clouds, but hardly will his puny hands have strength to

speed afresh our slackening planet in its orbit or rekindle the dying fire

of the sun.(762) Yet the philosopher who trembles at the idea of such

distant catastrophes may console himself by reflecting that these gloomy

apprehensions, like the earth and the sun themselves, are only parts of

that unsubstantial world which thought has conjured up out of the void,

and that the phantoms which the subtle enchantress has evoked to-day she

may ban to-morrow. They too, like so much that to common eyes seems solid,

may melt into air, into thin air.(763)

(M240) Without dipping so far into the future, we may illustrate the

course which thought has hitherto run by likening it to a web woven of

three different threads—the black thread of magic, the red thread of

religion, and the white thread of science, if under science we may include

those simple truths, drawn from observation of nature, of which men in all

ages have possessed a store. Could we then survey the web of thought from

the beginning, we should probably perceive it to be at first a chequer of

black and white, a patchwork of true and false notions, hardly tinged as

yet by the red thread of religion. But carry your eye further along the

fabric and you will remark that, while the black and white chequer still

runs through it, there rests on the middle portion of the web, where

religion has entered most deeply into its texture, a dark crimson stain,

which shades off insensibly into a lighter tint as the white thread of

science is woven more and more into the tissue. To a web thus chequered

and stained, thus shot with threads of diverse hues, but gradually

changing colour the farther it is unrolled, the state of modern thought,

with all its divergent aims and conflicting tendencies, may be compared.

Will the great movement which for centuries has been slowly altering the

complexion of thought be continued in the near future? or will a reaction

set in which may arrest progress and even undo much that has been done? To

keep up our parable, what will be the colour of the web which the Fates

are now weaving on the humming loom of time? will it be white or red? We

cannot tell. A faint glimmering light illumines the backward portion of

the web. Clouds and thick darkness hide the other end.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

(M241) Our long voyage of discovery is over and our bark has drooped her

weary sails in port at last. Once more we take the road to Nemi. It is

evening, and as we climb the long slope of the Appian Way up to the Alban

Hills, we look back and see the sky aflame with sunset, its golden glory

resting like the aureole of a dying saint over Rome and touching with a

crest of fire the dome of St. Peter’s. The sight once seen can never be

forgotten, but we turn from it and pursue our way darkling along the

mountain side, till we come to Nemi and look down on the lake in its deep

hollow, now fast disappearing in the evening shadows. The place has

changed but little since Diana received the homage of her worshippers in

the sacred grove. The temple of the sylvan goddess, indeed, has vanished

and the King of the Wood no longer stands sentinel over the Golden Bough.

But Nemi’s woods are still green, and as the sunset fades above them in

the west, there comes to us, borne on the swell of the wind, the sound of

the church bells of Ariccia ringing the Angelus. _Ave Maria!_ Sweet and

solemn they chime out from the distant town and die lingeringly away

across the wide Campagnan marshes. _Le roi est mort, vive le roi! Ave

Maria!_

NOTES.

I. Snake Stones.(764)

(M242) The belief of the Scottish Highlanders as to the so-called Snake

Stones has been recorded as follows by a good authority at the end of the

nineteenth century:—

“A product called _clach-nathrach_, serpent stone, is found on the root of

the long ling. It is of steel-grey colour, has the consistency of soft

putty when new and of hard putty when old, and is as light as

pumice-stone, which it resembles. It is of a globular form, and from one

to three inches in diameter. There is a circular hole, about a quarter of

an inch in width, through the centre. This substance is said to be

produced by the serpent emitting spume round the root of a twig of

heather. The _clach-nathrach_ is greatly prized by the people, who

transmit it as a talisman to their descendants.”(765)

II. The Transformation of Witches Into Cats.

(M243) The European belief that witches can turn themselves into cats, and

that any wounds inflicted on the witch-cat will afterwards be found on the

body of the witch herself,(766) has its exact parallel among the Oraons or

Uraons, a primitive hill tribe of Bengal. The following is the account

given of the Oraon belief by a Jesuit missionary, who laboured for years

among these savages and was intimately acquainted with their

superstitions:—

“_Chordewa_ is a witch rather than a _bhut_ [demon]. It is believed that

some women have the power to change their soul into a black cat, who then

goes about in the houses where there are sick people. Such a cat has a

peculiar way of mewing quite different from its brethren, and is easily

recognised. It steals quietly into the house, licks the lips of the sick

man and eats of the food that has been prepared for him. The sick man soon

gets worse and dies. They say it is very difficult to catch the cat, as it

has all the nimbleness of its nature and the cleverness of a _bhut_.

However, they sometimes succeed, and then something wonderful happens. The

woman out of whom the cat has come remains insensible, as it were in a

state of temporary death, until the cat re-enters her body. Any wound

inflicted on the cat will be inflicted on her; if they cut its ears or

break its legs or put out its eyes the woman will suffer the same

mutilation. The Uraons say that formerly they used to burn any woman that

was suspected to be a _Chordewa_.”(767)

III. African Balders.

(M244) In various parts of Africa stories are told of men who could only

be killed, like Balder, by the stroke of an apparently insignificant

weapon; and some at least of these men were not mythical beings but real

men of flesh and blood who lived not long ago and whose memory is still

comparatively fresh among their people. The Wadoe of German East Africa

tell such a story of a great sorcerer, whom they now worship as a

dispenser of sunshine and rain. The legend and the worship are reported as

follows by a native African traveller:—

(M245) “If drought sets in, all the chiefs meet in council and resolve:

‘This year we have had nothing but sunshine; when we plant, the fruits

will not ripen; therefore we must betake ourselves to our spirits of the

dead (_mizimu_).’ Then they take some woollen stuff dyed blue and a red

cloth, and set out together on the way and go to the district Nguu, where

their principal ghost (_mzimu_) resides, in order to lay the matter before

him. The ghost dwells in a very spacious cave. On their coming the chiefs

greet him. His answer consists in a humming noise, which sounds like the

patter of rain. If one among them is a bad man, the ghost says to them,

‘There is come with you in the caravan a rascal who wears such and such

clothes.’ If such a man there is, he is driven away. Now they tell the

ghost all that they wish to say, to wit: ‘This year thou hast given us

much sunshine; the fruits in the fields do not grow tall, everywhere there

is sickness, therefore we beg thee, give us rain.’ Thereupon the ghost

hums a second time, and all are glad, because he has answered them. But if

the ghost is angry, he does not answer but holds his peace. If he has made

them glad and given an answer, much rain will fall; otherwise they return

as they went in sunshine.

(M246) “Originally this ghost was a man, a village elder (_jumbe_) of

Ukami. He was a great sorcerer. One day people wished to conquer him, but

they could do him no harm, for neither lead nor sword nor arrow could

pierce his body. But he lived at strife with his wife. She said to his

enemies, ‘If you would kill my husband, I will tell you how it can be

done.’ They asked her, ‘How can it be done?’ She answered, ‘My husband is

a great sorcerer; you all know that.’ They answered, ‘That is true.’ Then

she said further, ‘If you would kill him so that he dies on the spot, seek

a stalk of a gourd and smite him with it; then he will die at once, for

that has always been to him a forbidden thing.’(768) They sought the stalk

of a gourd, and when they smote him with it, he died at once without so

much as setting one foot from the spot. But of him and his departure there

was nothing more to be seen, for suddenly a great storm blew, and no man

knew whither he had gone. The storm is said to have carried him to that

cave which is still there to this day. After some days people saw in the

cave his weapons, clothes, and turban lying, and they brought word to the

folk in the town, ‘We have seen the clothes of the elder in the cave, but

of himself we have perceived nothing.’ The folk went thither to look

about, and they found that it was so. So the news of this ghost spread,

all the more because people had seen the marvel that a man died and nobody

knew where he had gone. The wonderful thing in this wood is that the

spirits dwell in the midst of the wood and that everywhere a bright white

sand lies on the ground, as if people had gone thither for the purpose of

keeping everything clean. On many days they hear a drumming and shouts of

joy in this wood, as if a marriage feast were being held there. That is

the report about the ghost of Kolelo.(769) All village elders, who dwell

in the interior, see in this ghost the greatest ghost of all. All the

chiefs (_mwene_) and headmen (_pazi_) and the village elders (_jumben_) of

the clan Kingaru(770) respect that ghost.”(771)

(M247) Miss Alice Werner, who kindly called my attention to this and the

following cases of African Balders, tells me that this worshipful ghost in

the cave appears to have been in his time a real man. Again, she was

assured by some natives that “Chikumbu, a Yao chief, who at one time gave

the Administration some trouble, was invulnerable by shot or steel; the

only thing that could kill him—since he had not been fortified against it

by the proper medicine—was a sharp splinter of bamboo. This reminds one of

Balder and the mistletoe.”(772) Again, a Nyanja chief named Chibisa, who

was a great man in this part of Africa when Livingstone travelled in

it,(773) “stood firm upon his ant-heap, while his men fell round him,

shouting his war-song, until one who knew the secret of a sand-bullet

brought him down.”(774)

(M248) Once more the Swahili tell a story of an African Samson named

Liongo who lived in Shanga, while it was a flourishing city. By reason of

his great strength he oppressed the people exceedingly, and they sought to

kill him, but all in vain. At last they bribed his nephew, saying, “Go and

ask your father what it is that will kill him. When you know, come and

tell us, and when he is dead we will give you the kingdom.” So the

treacherous nephew went to his uncle and asked him, “Father, what is it

that can kill you?” And his uncle said, “A copper needle. If any one stabs

me in the navel, I die.” So the nephew went to the town and said to the

people, “It is a copper needle that will kill him.” And they gave him a

needle, and he went back to his uncle; and while his uncle slept the

wicked nephew stabbed him with the needle in the navel. So he died, and

they buried him, and his grave is to be seen at Ozi to this day. But they

seized the nephew and killed him; they did not give the kingdom to that

bad young man.(775)

(M249) When we compare the story of Balder with these African stories, the

heroes of which were probably all real men, and when further we remember

the similar tale told of the Persian hero Isfendiyar, who may well have

been an historical personage,(776) we are confirmed in the suspicion that

Balder himself may have been a real man, admired and beloved in his

lifetime and deified after his death, like the African sorcerer, who is

now worshipped in a cave and bestows rain or sunshine on his votaries. On

the whole I incline to regard this solution of the Balder problem as more

probable than the one I have advocated in the text, namely that Balder was

a mythical personification of a mistletoe-bearing oak. The facts which

seem to incline the balance to the side of Euhemerism reached me as my

book was going to press and too late to be embodied in their proper place

in the volumes. The acceptance of this hypothesis would not necessarily

break the analogy which I have traced between Balder in his sacred grove

on the Sogne fiord of Norway and the priest of Diana in the sacred grove

of Nemi; indeed, it might even be thought rather to strengthen the

resemblance between the two, since there is no doubt at all that the

priests of Diana at Nemi were men who lived real lives and died real

deaths.

IV. The Mistletoe and the Golden Bough.

(M250) That Virgil compares the Golden Bough to the mistletoe(777) is

certain and admitted on all hands. The only doubt that can arise is

whether the plant to which he compares the mystic bough is the ordinary

species of mistletoe (_Viscum album_) or the species known to botanists as

_Loranthus europaeus_. The common mistletoe (_Viscum album_, L.) “lives as

a semi-parasite (obtaining carbon from the air, but water, nitrogen, and

mineral matter from the sap of its host) on many conifers and broadleaved

trees, and chiefly on their branches. The hosts, or trees on which it

lives, are, _most frequently_, the apple tree, both wild and cultivated

varieties; next, the silver-fir; _frequently_, birches, poplars (except

aspen), limes, willows, Scots pine, mountain-ash, and hawthorn;

_occasionally_, robinia, maples, horse-chestnut, hornbeam, and aspen. It

is very rarely found on oaks, but has been observed on pedunculate oak at

Thornbury, Gloucestershire, and elsewhere in Europe, also on _Quercus

coccinea_, Moench., and _Q. palustris_, Moench. The alders, beech and

spruce appear to be always free from mistletoe, and it very rarely attacks

pear-trees. It is commoner in Southern Europe than in the North, and is

extremely abundant where cider is made. In the N.-W. Himalayan districts,

it is frequently found on apricot-trees, which are the commonest

fruit-trees there. Its white berries are eaten by birds, chiefly by the

missel-thrush (_Turdus viscivorus_, L.), and the seeds are either rubbed

by the beak against branches of trees, or voided on to them; the seeds,

owing to the viscous nature of the pulp surrounding them, then become

attached to the branches.”(778) The large smooth pale-green tufts of the

parasite, clinging to the boughs of trees, are most conspicuous in winter,

when they assume a yellowish hue.(779) In Greece at the present time

mistletoe grows most commonly on firs, especially at a considerable

elevation (three thousand feet or more) above the level of the sea.(780)

Throughout Italy mistletoe now grows on fruit-trees, almond-trees,

hawthorn, limes, willows, black poplars, and firs, but never, it is said,

on oaks.(781) In England seven authentic cases of mistletoe growing on

oaks are said to be reported.(782) In Gloucestershire mistletoe grows on

the Badham Court oak, Sedbury Park, Chepstow, and on the

Frampton-on-Severn oak.(783) Branches of oak with mistletoe growing on

them were exhibited to more than one learned society in France during the

nineteenth century; one of the branches was cut in the forest of

Jeugny.(784) It is a popular French superstition that mandragora or “the

hand of glory,” as it is called by the people, may be found by digging at

the root of a mistletoe-bearing oak.(785)

(M251) The species of mistletoe known as _Loranthus europaeus_ resembles

the ordinary mistletoe in general appearance, but its berries are bright

yellow instead of white. “This species attacks chiefly oaks, _Quercus

cerris_, L., _Q. sessiliflora_, Salisb., less frequently, _Q.

pedunculata_, Ehrh., and _Castanea vulgaris_, Lam.; also lime. It is found

throughout Southern Europe and as far north as Saxony, not in Britain. It

grows chiefly on the branches of standards over coppice.” The injury which

it inflicts on its hosts is even greater than that inflicted by the

ordinary mistletoe; it often kills the branch on which it settles. The

seeds are carried to the trees by birds, chiefly by the missel-thrush. In

India many kinds of _Loranthus_ grow on various species of forest trees,

for example, on teak;(786) one variety (_Loranthus vestitus_) grows on two

species of oak, the _Quercus dilatata_, Lindl., and the _Quercus incana_,

Roxb.(787) A marked distinction between the two sorts of mistletoe is that

whereas ordinary mistletoe (_Viscum album_) is evergreen, the _Loranthus_

is deciduous.(788) In Greece the _Loranthus_ has been observed on many old

chestnut-trees at Stheni, near Delphi.(789) In Italy it grows chiefly on

the various species of oaks and also on chestnut-trees. So familiar is it

on oaks that it is known as “oak mistletoe” both in popular parlance

(_visco quercino_) and in druggists’ shops (_viscum quernum_). Bird-lime

is made from it in Italy.(790)

(M252) Both sorts of mistletoe were known to the ancient Greeks and

Romans, though the distinctive terms which they applied to each appear not

to be quite certain. Theophrastus, and Pliny after him, seem to

distinguish three sorts of mistletoe, to which Theophrastus gives the

names of _ixia_, _hyphear_, and _stelis_ respectively. He says that the

_hyphear_ and the _stelis_ grow on firs and pines, and that the _ixia_

grows on the oak (δρῦς), the terebinth, and many other kinds of trees. He

also observes that both the _ixia_ and the _hyphear_ grow on the ilex or

holm-oak (πρῖνος), the same tree sometimes bearing both species at the

same time, the _ixia_ on the north and the _hyphear_ on the south. He

expressly distinguishes the evergreen species of _ixia_ from the

deciduous, which seems to prove that he included both the ordinary

mistletoe (_Viscum album_) and the _Loranthus_ under the general name of

_ixia_.(791)

(M253) Modern writers are not agreed as to the identification of the

various species of mistletoe designated by the names _ixia_, _hyphear_,

and _stelis_. F. Wimmer, the editor of Theophrastus in the Didot edition,

takes _hyphear_ to be common mistletoe (_Viscum album_), _stelis_ to be

_Loranthus europaeus_, and _ixia_ to be a general name which includes the

two species.(792) On the other hand F. Fraas, while he agrees as to the

identification of _hyphear_ and _stelis_ with common mistletoe and

_Loranthus_ respectively, inclines somewhat hesitatingly to regard _ixia_

or _ixos_ (as Dioscorides has it) as a synonym for _stelis_ (the

_Loranthus_).(793) H. O. Lenz, again, regards both _hyphear_ and _stelis_

as synonyms for common mistletoe (_Viscum album_), while he would restrict

_ixia_ to the _Loranthus_.(794) But both these attempts to confine _ixia_

to the single deciduous species _Loranthus_ seem incompatible with the

statement of Theophrastus, that _ixia_ includes an evergreen as well as a

deciduous species.(795)

(M254) We have now to ask, Did Virgil compare the Golden Bough to the

common mistletoe (_Viscum album_) or to the _Loranthus europaeus_? Some

modern enquirers decide in favour of the _Loranthus_. Many years ago Sir

Francis Darwin wrote to me:(796) “I wonder whether _Loranthus europaeus_

would do for your Golden Bough. It is a sort of mistletoe growing on oaks

and chestnuts in S. Europe. In the autumn it produces what are described

as bunches of pretty yellow berries. It is not evergreen like the

mistletoe, but deciduous, and as its leaves appear at the same time as the

oak leaves and drop at the same time in autumn, it must look like a branch

of the oak, more especially as it has rough bark with lichens often

growing on it. _Loranthus_ is said to be a hundred years old sometimes.”

Professor P. J. Veth, after quoting the passage from Virgil, writes that

“almost all translators (including Vondel) and commentators of the Mantuan

bard think that the mistletoe is here meant, probably for the simple

reason that it was better known to them than _Loranthus europaeus_. I am

convinced that Virgil can only have thought of the latter. On the other

side of the Alps the _Loranthus_ is much commoner than the mistletoe; on

account of its splendid red blossoms, sometimes twenty centimetres long,

it is a far larger and more conspicuous ornament of the trees; it bears

really golden yellow fruit (_Croceus fetus_), whereas the berries of the

mistletoe are almost white; and it attaches itself by preference to the

oak, whereas the mistletoe is very seldom found on the oak.”(797) Again,

Mr. W. R. Paton writes to me from Mount Athos:(798) “The oak is here

called _dendron_, _the_ tree. As for the mistletoe there are two

varieties, both called _axo_ (ancient ἰξός). Both are used to make

bird-lime. The real _Golden Bough_ is the variety with yellow berries and

no leaves. It is the parasite of the oak and rarely grows on other trees.

It is very abundant, and now in winter the oak-trees which have adopted it

seem from a distance to be draped in a golden tissue. The other variety is

our own mistletoe and is strictly a parasite of the fir (a spruce fir, I

don’t know its scientific name). It is also very abundant.”

(M255) Thus in favour of identifying Virgil’s mistletoe (_viscum_) with

_Loranthus_ rather than with common mistletoe it has been urged, first,

that the berries of _Loranthus_ are bright yellow, whereas those of the

mistletoe are of a greenish white; and, second, that the _Loranthus_

commonly grows on oaks, whereas mistletoe seldom does so, indeed in Italy

mistletoe is said never to be found on an oak. Both these circumstances

certainly speak strongly in favour of _Loranthus_; since Virgil definitely

describes the berries as of a saffron-yellow (_croceus_) and says that the

plant grew on a holm-oak. Yet on the other hand Virgil tells us that the

plant put forth fresh leaves in the depths of winter (_brumali frigore_,

strictly speaking, “the cold of the winter solstice”); and this would best

apply to the common mistletoe, which is evergreen, whereas _Loranthus_ is

deciduous.(799) Accordingly, if we must decide between the two species,

this single circumstance appears to incline the balance in favour of

common mistletoe. But is it not possible that Virgil, whether consciously

or unconsciously, confused the two plants and combined traits from both in

his description? Both parasites are common in Italy and in appearance they

are much alike except for the colour of the berries. As a loving observer

of nature, Virgil was probably familiar by sight with both, but he may not

have examined them closely; and he might be excused if he thought that the

parasite which he saw growing, with its clusters of bright yellow berries,

on oaks in winter, was identical with the similar parasite which he saw

growing, with its bunches of greenish white berries and its pale green

leaves, on many other trees of the forest. The confusion would be all the

more natural if the Celts of northern Italy, in whose country the poet was

born, resembled the modern Celts of Brittany in attaching bunches of the

common mistletoe to their cottages and leaving them there till the

revolving months had tinged the pale berries, leaves, and twigs with a

golden yellow, thereby converting the branch of mistletoe into a true

Golden Bough.

INDEX.

Aachen, effigy burnt at, i. 120, ii. 25

Aargau, Swiss canton, of, Lenten fire-custom in, i. 119;

superstition as to oak-mistletoe in, ii. 82;

mistletoe called “thunder-besom” in, 85, 301;

birth-trees in, 165

Abeghian, Manuk, on creeping through cleft trees in Armenia, ii. 172

Abensberg in Bavaria, burning the Easter Man at, i. 144

Abeokuta, use of bull-roarers at, ii. 229 _n._

Aber, the Lake of, in Upper Austria, ii. 189

Aberdeenshire, custom at reaping the last corn in, i. 12;

need-fire in, 296;

holed rock used by childless women in, ii. 187

Aberfeldy, Hallowe’en fires near, i. 232

Aborigines of Victoria, their custom as to emu fat, i. 13

Abougit, Father X., S.J., on the ceremony of the new fire at Jerusalem, i.

130

Abruzzi, new Easter fire in the, i. 122;

water consecrated at Easter in the, 122 _sqq._;

Midsummer rites of fire and water in the, 209 _sq._

Acacia, the heart in the flower of the, ii. 135 _sq._

Acarnanian story of Prince Sunless, i. 21

Achern, St. John’s fires at, i. 168

Achterneed, in Ross-shire, Beltane cakes at, i. 153

Acireale, in Sicily, Midsummer fires at, i. 210

Adder stones, i. 15

Addison, Joseph, on witchcraft in Switzerland, ii. 42 _n._ 2

Adonis and Aphrodite, ii. 294 _sq._

Aelst, Peter van, painter, ii. 36

Aeneas and the Golden Bough, ii. 285, 293 _sq._

Africa, girls secluded at puberty in, i. 22 _sqq._;

dread and seclusion of women at menstruation in, 79 _sqq._;

birth-trees in, ii. 160 _sqq._;

use of bull-roarers in, 229 _n._, 232

——, British Central, the Anyanja of, i. 81

——, British East, i. 81;

ceremony of new fire in, 135 _sq._;

the Nandi of, ii. 229 _n._;

the Akikuyu of, 262 _sq._

——, East, ceremony of the new fire in, i. 135;

the Swahili of, ii. 160

——, German East, the Wajagga of, ii. 160;

the Washamba of, 183;

the Bondeis of, 263;

the Wadoe of, 312

——, German South-West, the Ovambo of, ii. 183

——, North, Midsummer fires in, i. 213 _sqq._

——, South, the Thonga of, ii. 297

——, West, theory of an external soul embodied in an animal prevalent in,

ii. 200 _sqq._;

ritual of death and resurrection at initiation in, 251 _sqq._

African stories of the external soul, ii. 148 _sqq._;

Balders, 312 _sqq._

Afterbirth buried under a tree, ii. 160 _sq._, 162, 163, 164, 165;

of child animated by a ghost and sympathetically connected with a

banana-tree, 162;

regarded as brother or sister of child, 162 _n._ 2;

regarded as a second child, 162 _n._ 2;

regarded as a guardian spirit, 223 _n._ 2;

and navel-string regarded as guardian angels of the man, ii. 162 _n._ 2

Agaric growing on birch-trees, superstitions as to, i. 148

Aglu, New year fires at, i. 217

Air thought to be poisoned at eclipses, i. 162 _n._

Aisne, Midsummer fires in the department of, i. 187

Aix, squibs at Midsummer in, i. 193;

Midsummer king at, i. 194, ii. 25;

bathing at Midsummer in, 216

Agni, Hindoo deity, i. 99 _n._ 2;

the fire-god, ii. 1, 296

Ague, Midsummer bonfires deemed a cure for, i. 162;

leaps across the Midsummer bonfires thought to be a preventive of, 174

Agweh, on the Slave Coast, custom of widows at, ii. 18 _sq._

Ahlen, in Munsterland, i. 247

Ahriman, the devil of the Persians, i. 95

Aht or Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, seclusion of girls at puberty

among the, i. 43 _sq._

Ahura Mazda, the supreme being of the Persians, i. 95

Ain, Lenten fires in the department of, i. 114

Ainos of Japan, their mourning caps, i. 20;

their use of mugwort in exorcism, ii. 60;

their veneration for mistletoe, 79

A-Kamba of British East Africa, seclusion of girls at puberty among the,

i. 23

Akikuyu of British East Africa, their dread of menstruous women, i. 81;

ritual of the new birth among the, ii. 262 _sq._

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Roman version of, ii. 105

Alaska, seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, i. 45 _sq._;

the Esquimaux of, ii. 155

Alastir and the Bare-Stripping Hangman, Argyleshire story of, ii. 129

_sq._

Albania, Midsummer fires in, i. 212;

the Yule log in, 264

Albanian story of the external soul, ii. 104 _n._ 3

Albert Nyanza, the Wakondyo of the, ii. 162 _sq._

Albino head of secret society on the Lower Congo, ii. 251

Alders free from mistletoe, ii. 315

Alfoors or Toradjas of Celebes, their custom at the smelting of iron, ii.

154;

their doctrine of the plurality of souls, 222

Algeria, Midsummer fires in, i. 213

Alice Springs in Central Australia, ii. 238

Allan, John Hay, on the Hays of Errol, ii. 283

Allandur temple, at St. Thomas’s Mount, Madras, ii. 8

All-healer, name applied to mistletoe, ii. 77, 79, 82

All Saints’ Day, omens on, i. 240;

the first of November, 225;

bonfires on, 246;

sheep passed through a hoop on, ii. 184

All Souls, Feast of, i. 223 _sq._, 225 _n._ 3

Almond-trees, mistletoe on, ii. 316

A-Louyi, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 28 _n._ 5

Alsace, Midsummer fires in, i. 169;

cats burnt in Easter bonfires in, ii. 40

Althenneberg, in Bavaria, Easter fires at, i. 143 _sq._

Altmark, Easter bonfires in, i. 140, 142

Alum burnt at Midsummer, i. 214

Alungu, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 24 _sq._

Alur, a tribe of the Upper Nile, i. 64

Alvarado, Pedro de, Spanish general, ii. 214

_Amadhlozi_, ancestral spirits in serpent form, ii. 211 _n._ 2

Amambwe, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 24 _sq._

_Amatongo_, plural of _itongo_, ii. 302 _n._

Amazon, ordeals of young men among the Indians of the, i. 62 _sq._

Ambamba, in West Africa, death, resurrection, and the new birth in, ii.

256

Amboyna, hair of criminals cut in, ii. 158

Ambras, Midsummer customs at, i. 173

America, Central, the Mosquito territory in, i. 86

America, North, Indians of, not allowed to sit on bare ground in war, i.

5;

seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, 41 _sqq._;

dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of, 87 _sqq._;

stories of the external soul among the Indians of, ii. 151 _sq._;

religious associations among the Indian tribes of, 267 _sqq._

——, South, seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, i. 56

_sqq._;

effigies of Judas burnt at Easter in, 128;

Midsummer fires in, 212 _sq._

Ammerland, in Oldenburg, cart-wheel used as charm against witchcraft in,

i. 345 _n._ 3

Amphitryo besieges Taphos, ii. 103

Amulets, rings and bracelets as, i. 92;

as soul-boxes, ii. 155;

degenerate into ornaments, 156 _n._ 2

Ancestor, wooden image of, ii. 155

Ancestors, worship of, in Fiji, ii. 243 _sq._

Ancestral spirits incarnate in serpents, ii. 211

Anderson, Miss, of Barskimming, i. 171 _n._ 3

Andes, the Peruvian, effigies of Judas burnt at Easter in the, i. 128

Andjra, a district of Morocco, i. 17;

Midsummer fires in the, 213 _sq._;

Midsummer rites of water in, 216;

animals bathed at Midsummer in, ii. 31

Andreas, parish of, in the Isle of Man, i. 224, 305, 307 _n._ 1

Angass, the, of Northern Nigeria, their belief in external human souls

lodged in animals, ii. 210

Angel, need-fire revealed by an, i. 287

—— -man, effigy of, burnt at Midsummer, i. 167

Angelus bell, the, i. 110, ii. 47

Angoniland, British Central Africa, customs as to girls at puberty in, i.

25 _sq._;

customs as to salt in, 27

Angus, superstitious remedy for the “quarter-ill” in, i. 296 _n._ 1

Anhalt, Easter bonfires in, i. 140

Animal, bewitched, or part of it, burnt to compel the witch to appear, i.

303, 305, 307 _sq._, 321 _sq._;

sickness transferred to, ii. 181;

and man, sympathetic relation between, 272 _sq._

Animal familiars of wizards and witches, ii. 196 _sq._, 201 _sq._

Animals burnt alive as a sacrifice in England, Wales, and Scotland, i. 300

_sqq._;

witches transformed into, 315 _sqq._, ii. 311 _sq._;

bewitched, buried alive, i. 324 _sqq._;

live, burnt at Spring and Midsummer festivals, ii. 38 _sqq._;

the animals perhaps deemed embodiments of witches, 41 _sq._, 43 _sq._;

the language of, learned by means of fern-seed, 66 _n._;

external soul in, 196 _sqq._;

magical transformation of men into animals, 207;

helpful, in fairy tales. _See_ Helpful

_Ankenmilch bohren_, to make the need-fire, i. 270 _n._

Ankole, in Central Africa, i. 80

Annam, dread of menstruous women in, i. 85;

use of wormwood to avert demons in, ii. 61 _n._ 1

Anpu and Bata, ancient Egyptian story of, ii. 134 _sqq._

_Anthemis nobilis_, camomile, gathered at Midsummer, ii. 63

Ant-hill, insane people buried in an, i. 64

Ants employed to sting girls at puberty, i. 61;

to sting young men, i. 62 _sq._

Antonius Mountain, in Thuringia, Christmas bonfire on the, i. 265 _sq._

Antwerp, wicker giants at, ii. 35 _sq._

Anula tribe of Northern Australia, their rites of initiation, ii. 235

Anyanja of British Central Africa, their dread of menstruous women, i. 81

_sq._

Apaches, i. 21;

use of bull-roarers among the, ii, 230 _n._

Apala cured by Indra in the Rigveda, ii. 192

Ape, a Batta totem, ii. 223

Aphrodite and Adonis, ii. 294 _sq._

Apollo, identified with the Celtic Grannus, i. 112

—— Soranus, ii. 14, 15 _n._ 3

Apollo’s temple at Cumae, i. 99

Apple, divination by the sliced, i. 238;

and candle, biting at, 241, 242, 243, 245

Apple-tree as life-index of boy, ii. 165

—— -trees, torches thrown at, i. 108;

mistletoe on, ii. 315, 316 _n._ 5

Apples, dipping for, at Hallowe’en, i. 237, 239, 241, 242, 243, 245

Apricot-trees, mistletoe on, ii. 316

April, the twenty-seventh of, in popular superstitions of Morocco, i. 17

_sq._;

ceremony of the new fire in, 136 _sq._, ii. 3;

Chinese festival of fire in, 3

Arab women in Morocco, their superstitions as to plants at Midsummer, ii.

51

Arabia, tree-spirits in snake form in, ii. 44 _n._ 1

Arabian, modern, story of the external soul, ii. 137 _sq._

_Arabian Nights_, story of the external soul in the, ii. 137

Arabs of Morocco, their Midsummer customs, i. 214

Aran, in the valley of the Garonne, Midsummer fires at, i. 193

Arch, child after an illness passed under an, ii. 192;

young men at initiation passed under a leafy, 193;

triumphal, suggested origin of the, 195

Archer (_Tirant_), effigy of, ii. 36

Arches, novices at initiation passed under arches in Australia, ii. 193

_n._ 1

Archways, passing under, as a means of escaping evil spirits or sickness,

ii. 179 _sqq._

Ardennes, the Belgian, bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in the, i. 107

_sq._;

the French, Lenten fires and customs in the, 109 _sq._;

Midsummer fires in the, 188;

the Yule log in the, 253;

cats burnt alive in Lenten bonfires, ii. 40

Argo, tree of which the ship was made, ii. 94 _n._ 1

Argyleshire stories of the external soul, ii. 127 _sqq._

Argyrus, temple of Hercules at, i. 99 _n._ 3

Aricia, the priest of, and the Golden Bough, i. 1;

the priest of Diana at, perhaps a personified Jupiter, ii. 302 _sq._

Arician grove, the Midsummer festival of fire in the, ii. 285;

the priest of the, a personification of an oak-spirit, 285

Ariminum, triumphal arch of Augustus at, ii. 194 _n._ 4

Arizona and New Mexico, use of bull-roarers in, ii. 230 _n._, 231

Arks, sacred, of the Cherokees, i. 11 _sq._

Armenia, were-wolves in, i. 316;

sick people creep through cleft trees in, ii. 173

Armenian church, bonfires at Candlemas in the, i. 131

—— idea of the sun as a wheel, i. 334 _n._ 1

Arms of youths punctured to make them good hunters, i. 58

Arnstadt, witches burnt at, i. 6

Arran, the need-fire in, i. 293

Arrows used as a love-charm, i. 14

Artemis Perasia, at Castabala in Cappadocia, ii. 14

_Artemisia absinthium_, wormwood, ii. 58 _n._ 3, 61 _n._ 1

—— _vulgaris_, mugwort, gathered at Midsummer, ii. 58 _sqq._

Artois, mugwort at Midsummer in, ii. 59

Arunta of Central Australia, their sacred pole, i. 7;

their dread of women at menstruation, 77;

legend that the ancestors kept their spirits in their _churinga_, ii.

218 _n._ 3;

rites of initiation among the, 233 _sq._;

initiation of medicine-men among the, 238

Aryan god of the thunder and the oak, i. 265

—— peoples, stories of the external soul among, ii. 97 _sqq._

Aryans of Europe, importance of the Midsummer festival among the, ii. 40;

the oak the chief sacred tree of the, 89 _sq._

Ascension Day, parasitic rowan should be cut on, ii. 281

Asceticism not primitive, i. 65

Ash Wednesday, effigy burnt on, i. 120

Ash-trees, children passed through cleft ash-trees as a cure for rupture

or rickets, ii. 168 _sqq._

Ashes in divination, i. 243, 244, 245.

_See also_ Sticks, Charred

—— of bonfires put in fowls’ nests, i. 112, 338;

increase fertility of fields, 141, 337;

make cattle thrive, 141, 338;

placed in a person’s shoes, 156;

administered to cattle to make them fat, ii. 4

—— of dead, disposal of the, i. 11

—— of Easter bonfire mixed with seed at sowing, i. 121

—— of Hallowe’en fires scattered, i. 233

—— of holy fires a protection against demons, ii. 8, 17

—— of Midsummer fires strewed on fields to fertilize them, i. 170, 190,

203;

a protection against conflagration, 174, 196;

a protection against lightning, 187, 188;

a protection against thunder, 190;

put by people in their shoes, 191 _sq._;

a cure for consumption, 194 _sq._;

rubbed by people on their hair or bodies, 213, 214, 215;

good for the eyes, 214

Ashes of the need-fire strewn on fields to protect the crops against

vermin, i. 274;

used as a medicine, 286

—— of New Year’s fire used to rub sore eyes, i. 218

—— of Yule log strewed on fields, i. 250;

used to heal swollen glands, 251

_Ashur_, Arab New Year’s Day, i. 217, 218

Asia Minor, the Celts in, ii. 89;

cure for possession by an evil spirit in, 186;

creeping through rifted rocks in, 189

Aspen, mistletoe on, ii. 315

_Aspidium filix mas_, the male fern, superstitions as to, ii. 66 _sq._

Ass, child passed under an, as a cure for whooping-cough, ii. 192 _n._ 1

Assam, the Khasis of, ii. 146;

the Lushais of, 185 _sq._

Assiga, tribe of South Nigeria, ii. 204

Associations, religious, among the Indian tribes of North America, ii. 267

_sqq._

Assyrian ritual, use of golden axe in, ii. 80 _n._ 3

Aston, W. G., quoted, i. 137 _sq._;

on the fire-walk in Japan, ii. 10 _n._ 1

Astral spirit of a witch, i. 317

_Atai_, external soul in the Mota language, ii. 197 _sq._

Ath, in Hainaut, procession of giants at, ii. 36

Athboy, in County Meath, i. 139

Athena, priestess of, uses a white umbrella, i. 20 _n._ 1

Athenians offer cakes to Cronus, i. 153 _n._ 3

Athens, ceremony of the new fire at Easter in, i. 130

Athis, in Normandy, Christmas bonfires at, i. 266

Athos, Mount, mistletoe at, ii. 319, 320 _n._

Atrae, city in Mesopotamia, i. 82

Aubrey, John, on the Midsummer fires, i. 197

Aufkirchen in Bavaria, burning the Easter Man at, i. 144

August, procession of wicker giants in, ii. 36

——, first of, Festival of the Cross on the, i. 220

—— the eighteenth, feast of Florus and Laurus, i. 220

—— the sixth, festival of St. Estapin, ii. 188

Augustus, triumphal arch of Augustus at Ariminum, ii. 195 _n._ 4

Aunis, wonderful herbs gathered on St. John’s Eve in, ii. 45;

St. John’s wort in, 55;

vervain gathered at Midsummer in, 62 _n._ 4;

four-leaved clover at Midsummer in, 63

—— and Saintonge, Midsummer fires in, i. 192

Aurora, in the New Hebrides, _tamaniu_ in, ii. 198

Australia, dread and seclusion of women at menstruation in, i. 76 _sqq._;

passing under an arch as a rite of initiation in, ii. 193 _n._ 1;

initiation of young men in, 227, 233 _sqq._;

use of bull-roarers in, 228 _n._ 2

——, Central, pointing sticks or bones in, i. 14 _n._ 3;

its desert nature, ii. 230 _n._ 2

——, South-Eastern, sex totems among the natives of, ii. 214 _sqq._

Australian languages, words for fire and wood in, ii. 296

Austria, Midsummer fires in, i. 172 _sqq._;

the Yule log among the Servians of, 262 _sqq._;

need-fire in Upper, 279;

fern-seed at Midsummer in, ii. 65;

mistletoe used to prevent nightmare in, 85

Autumn fires, i. 220 _sqq._

Auvergne, Lenten fires in, i. 111 _sq._;

story of a were-wolf in, 308 _sq._

_Ave Maria_ bell, ii. 47

Avernus, Lake, and the Golden Bough, ii. 285 _n._ 2

Awa-nkonde, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 28

“Awasungu, the house of the,” i. 28

Awka in South Nigeria, i. 4

Azemmur, in Morocco, Midsummer fires at, i. 214

Azores, bonfires and divination on Midsummer Eve in the, i. 208 _sq._;

fern-seed at Midsummer in the, ii. 66

Aztecs, their punishment of witches and wizards, ii. 159

Baal and Beltane, i. 149 _n._ 1, 150 _n._ 1, 157

Babine Lake in British Columbia, i. 47

Backache at reaping, leaps over the Midsummer bonfire thought to be a

preventive of, i. 165, 168, 189, 344 _sq._;

set down to witchcraft, 343 _n._, 345;

at harvest, mugwort a protection against, ii. 59;

creeping through a holed stone to prevent backache at harvest, 189

_Badache_, double-axe, Midsummer King of the, i. 194

Badagas of the Neilgherry Hills, their fire-walk, ii. 8 _sq._

Baden, Lenten fire-custom in, i. 117;

Easter bonfires in, 145;

Midsummer fires in, 167 _sqq._

Badham Court oak, in Gloucestershire, ii. 316

_Badnyak_, Yule log, i. 259, 263

_Badnyi Dan_, Christmas Eve, i. 258, 263

Bag, souls of persons deposited in a, ii. 142, 153, 155

Baganda, children live apart from their parents among the, i. 23 _n._ 2;

seclusion of girls at puberty among the, 23 _sq._;

superstition as to women who do not menstruate, 24;

abstain from salt in certain cases, 27 _sq._;

their dread of menstruous women, 80 _sq._;

their beliefs and customs concerning the afterbirth, ii. 162.

_See also_ Uganda

Bahaus or Kayans of Central Borneo, i. 4 _sq._

Bahima of Central Africa, their dread of menstruous women, i. 80

Bahr-el-Ghazal province, ceremony of the new fire in the, i. 134 _sq._

Bakairi, the, of Brazil, call bull-roarers “thunder and lightning,” ii.

231 _sq._

Baking-forks, witches ride on, ii. 73, 74

Bakuba or Bushongo of the Congo, i. 4

Balder, his body burnt, i. 102;

worshipped in Norway, 104;

camomile sacred to, ii. 63;

burnt at Midsummer, 87;

Midsummer sacred to, 87;

a tree-spirit or deity of vegetation, 88 _sq._;

interpreted as a mistletoe-bearing oak, 93 _sq._;

his invulnerability, 94;

why Balder was thought to shine, 293

—— and the mistletoe, i. 101 _sq._, ii. 76 _sqq._, 302;

his life or death in the mistletoe, 279, 283;

perhaps a real man deified, 314 _sq._

——, the myth of, i. 101 _sqq._;

reproduced in the Midsummer festival of Scandinavia, ii. 87;

perhaps dramatized in ritual, 88;

Indian parallel to, 280;

African parallels to, 312 _sqq._

Balder’s Balefires, name formerly given to Midsummer bonfires in Sweden,

i. 172, ii. 87

—— Grove, i. 104, ii. 315

_Balders-brâ_, Balder’s eyelashes, a name for camomile, ii. 63

Bâle, Lenten fire-custom in the canton of, i. 119

Balefires, Balder’s, at Midsummer in Sweden, i. 172

Bali, filing of teeth in, i. 68 _n._ 2;

birth-trees in, ii. 164

Balkan Peninsula, need-fire in the, i. 281

Ball, game of, played to determine the King of Summer, i. 195

Ballyvadlea, in Tipperary, woman burnt as a witch at, i. 323 _sq._

Balnagown loch, in Lismore, i. 316

Balong of the Cameroons, their external souls in animals, ii. 203

Balquhidder, hill of the fires at, i. 149;

Hallowe’en bonfires at, 232

_Balum_, New Guinea word signifying bull-roarer, ghost, and mythical

monster, ii. 242

Banana-tree, afterbirth of child buried under a, ii. 162, 163, 164

Bancroft, H. H., on the external souls of the Zapotecs, ii. 212

Banivas of the Orinoco, their scourging of girls at puberty, i. 66 _sqq._

_Baraka_, blessed or magical virtue, i. 216, 218, ii. 51

Barclay, Sheriff, on Hallowe’en fires, i. 232

Bardney bumpkin, on witch as hare, i. 318

Bare-Stripping Hangman, Argyleshire story of the, ii. 129 _sq._

Barker, W. G. M. Jones, on need-fire in Yorkshire, i. 286 _sq._

Barley plant, external soul of prince in a, ii. 102

Ba-Ronga, the, of South Africa, their story of a clan whose external souls

were in a cat, ii. 150 _sq._

Barotse or Marotse of the Zambesi, seclusion of girls at puberty among

the, i. 28, 29

Barren cattle driven through fire, i. 203, 338

—— women hope to conceive through fertilizing influence of vegetables, ii.

51

Barricading the road against a ghostly pursuer, ii. 176

Barsana, in North India, Holi bonfires at, ii. 2, 5

Bartle Bay, in British New Guinea, festival of the wild mango tree at, i.

7 _sqq._

Basque hunter transformed into bear, ii. 226, 270

—— story of the external soul, ii. 139

Bastar, province of India, treatment of witches in, ii. 159

Bastian, Adolph, on rites of initiation in West Africa, ii. 256 _sq._

Basutos, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 31

Bata and Anpu, ancient Egyptian story of, ii. 134 _sqq._

Bathing in the sea at Easter, i. 123;

at Midsummer, 208, 210, 216, ii. 29 _sq._;

thought to be dangerous on Midsummer Day, 26 _sq._

Bats, the lives of men in, ii. 215 _sq._, 217;

called men’s “brothers,” 215, 216, 218

Battas, their doctrine of the plurality of souls, ii. 223;

their totemic system, 224 _sqq._

Battel, Andrew, on the colour of negro children at birth, ii. 251 _n._ 1

Bavaria, Easter bonfires in, i. 143 _sq._;

belief as to eclipses in, 162;

Midsummer fires in, 164 _sqq._;

leaf-clad mummer at Midsummer in, ii. 26;

the divining-rod in, 67 _sq._;

creeping through a holed stone or narrow opening in, 188 _sq._

——, Upper, use of mistletoe in, ii. 85 _n._ 4

Bavarian peasants, their belief as to hazel, ii. 69 _n._

Bavili, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 31

Beal-fires on Midsummer Eve in Yorkshire, i. 198

Bean, King of the, i. 153 _n._ 1

Beans, divination by, i. 209

Bear, external soul of warrior in a, ii. 151;

Basque hunter transformed into, 226, 270;

simulated transformation of novice into a, 274 _sq._

—— clan, ii. 271, 272 _n._ 1

—— -dance of man who pretends to be a bear, ii. 274

Bear’s skin, Lapp women shoot blindfold at a, ii. 280 _n._

Bearers to carry royal personages, i. 3 _sq._

Beating girls at puberty, i. 61, 66 _sq._;

as a form of purification, 61, 64 _sqq._

Beauce, festival of torches in, i. 113;

story of a were-wolf in, 309

—— and Perche, Midsummer fires in, i. 188

Beaver clan, ii. 272

Bechuana belief as to sympathetic relation of man to wounded crocodile,

ii. 210 _sq._

Bee, external soul of an ogre in a, ii. 101

Beech or fir used to make the Yule log, i. 249

—— -tree burnt in Lenten bonfire, i. 115 _sq._

Beeches, struck by lightning, proportion of, ii. 298 _sq._;

free from mistletoe, 315

Bees thought to be killed by menstruous women, i. 96;

ashes of bonfires used to cure ailments of, 142

Beetle, external soul in a, ii. 138, 140

Begetting novices anew at initiation, pretence of, ii. 248

Behar, the fire-walk in, ii. 5

_Beifuss_, German name for mugwort, ii. 60 _n._ 6

Bel, the fires of, i. 147, 157, 158 _sq._

Beleth, John, his _Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_ quoted, i. 161 _n._ 2

Belford, in Northumberland, the Yule log at, i. 256

Belgium, Lenten fires in, i. 107 _sq._;

Midsummer fires in, 194 _sq._;

the Yule log in, 249;

bathing on Midsummer Day in, ii. 30;

divination by flowers on Midsummer Eve in, 53;

mugwort gathered on St. John’s Day or Eve in, 59 _sq._;

vervain gathered on St. John’s Day in, 62;

four-leaved clover at Midsummer in, 63;

the witches’ Sabbath in, 73

Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia, seclusion of girls at puberty

among the, i. 46;

custom of mourners among the, ii. 174

Belli-Paaro society in West Africa, rites of initiation in the, ii. 257

_sqq._

Bellochroy, i. 290

Bells worn by priest in exorcism, i. 5;

on his legs, ii. 8

——, church, silenced in Holy Week, i. 123, 125 _n._ 1;

rung on Midsummer Eve, ii. 47 _sq._;

rung to drive away witches, 73

Beltane, popularly derived from Baal, i. 149 _n._ 1, 150 _n._ 1;

the need-fire at, 293;

the Yellow Day of, 293;

sheep passed through a hoop at, ii. 184

—— and Hallowe’en the two chief fire-festivals of the British Celts, ii.

40 _sq._

—— cakes, i. 148 _sq._, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155

—— carline, i. 148, 153

—— Eve (the Eve of May Day), a witching time, i. 295

—— fire, pretence of throwing a man into the, i. 148, ii. 25;

kindled by the friction of oak-wood, i. 148, 155, ii. 91

—— fires, i. 146 _sqq._;

in Wales, 155 _sq._;

in Ireland, 157 _sq._;

in Nottinghamshire, 157

Benametapa, the king of, in East Africa, i. 135

Bengal, seclusion of girls at puberty in, i. 68;

the Oraons of, ii. 311

Bengalee stories of the external soul, ii. 101 _sq._, 102

Beni Ahsen, a tribe in Morocco, ii. 31;

their Midsummer fires, i. 215 _sq._

—— Mgild, a Berber tribe of Morocco, their Midsummer fires, i. 215

—— Snous, the, of Morocco, their Midsummer rites, i. 216

Bent, J. Theodore, on passing sick children through a cleft oak, ii. 172

Berber belief as to water at Midsummer, ii. 31

—— tale, milk-tie in a, ii. 138 _n._ 1

Berbers of North Africa, their Midsummer customs, i. 213 _sqq._, 219

Bergen, Midsummer bonfires at, i. 171

Bering Strait, the Esquimaux of, i. 91

Berleburg, in Westphalia, the Yule log at, i. 248

Berlin, the divining-rod at, ii. 68

Bern, Midsummer fires in the canton of, i. 172;

the Yule log in the canton of, 249;

witches put to death in the canton of, ii. 42 _n._ 2

Berry, Lenten fire custom in, i. 115;

Midsummer fires in, 189;

the Yule log in, 251 _sq._;

four-leaved clover at Midsummer in, ii. 63

Besoms, blazing, flung aloft to make the corn grow high, i. 340;

used to drive away witches, ii. 74

Bethlehem, new Easter fire carried to, i. 130 _n._

“Between the two Beltane fires,” i. 149

Beul, fire of, need-fire, i. 293

Bevan, Professor A. A., i. 83 _n._ 1

Beverley, on the initiatory rites of the Virginian Indians, ii. 266 _sq._

Bewitched animals burnt alive, i. 300 _sqq._;

buried alive, 324 _sqq._

—— cow, mugwort applied to, ii. 59

—— things burnt to compel the witch to appear, i. 322

Bhils of India, torture of witches among the, ii. 159

Bhuiyars of Mirzapur, their dread of menstrual pollution, i. 84

Bhuiyas, a Dravidian tribe, fire-walk among the, ii. 5 _sq._

_Bhut_, demon, ii. 312

Bidasari and the golden fish, Malay story of, ii. 147 _sq._, 220

Bilqula. _See_ Bella Coola

Binbinga tribe of Northern Australia, their rites of initiation, ii. 234

_sq._;

initiation of medicine-man in the, 239

Binding up a cleft stick or tree a mode of barricading the road against a

ghostly pursuer, ii. 176

Bir, a tribal hero, ii. 6

Birch used to kindle need-fire, i. 291

—— and plane, fire made by the friction of, i. 220

——, branches of, on Midsummer Day, i. 177, 196;

a protection against witchcraft, ii. 185

—— trees set up at Midsummer, i. 177;

used to keep off witches, ii. 20 _n._;

mistletoe on, 315

Bird, disease transferred to, ii. 187;

brings first fire to earth, 295

Bird-lime made from mistletoe, ii. 317

Birds, external souls in, ii. 104, 111, 119, 142, 144, 150;

carry seed of mistletoe, 316

Birseck, Lenten fires at, i. 119

Birth, the new, of novices at initiation, ii. 247, 251, 256, 257, 261

Birth-names of Central American Indians, ii. 214 _n._ 1

—— -trees in Africa, ii. 160 _sqq._;

in Europe, 165

Birthday of the Sun at the winter solstice, i. 246

Bisection of the year, Celtic, i. 223

Black Corrie of Ben Breck, the giant of, in an Argyleshire tale, ii. 129

_sq._

—— Forest, Midsummer fires in the, i. 168

—— Isle, Ross-shire, i. 301

—— poplars, mistletoe on, ii. 316, 318 _n._ 6

—— spauld, a disease of cattle, cure for, i. 325

—— three-legged horse ridden by witches, ii. 74

Blackening girls at puberty, i. 41, 60

Blemishes, physical, transferred to witches, i. 160 _n._ 1

Blindness of Hother, ii. 279 _n._ 4

Block, the Yule, i. 247

Blocksberg, the resort of witches, i. 171;

the Mount of the Witches, ii. 74

Blood, girls at puberty forbidden to see, i. 46;

disastrous effect of seeing menstruous, 77;

drawn from women who do not menstruate, 81

—— -brotherhood between men and animals among the Fans, ii. 201, 226 _n._

1

—— -covenant between men and animals, ii. 201, 214, 226 _n._ 1

——, human, used in rain-making ceremonies, ii. 232 _sq._

——, menstruous, dread of, i. 76;

deemed fatal to cattle, 80;

miraculous virtue attributed to, 82 _sq._;

medicinal application of, 98 _n._ 1

—— of St. John found on St. John’s wort and other plants at Midsummer, ii.

56, 57

—— of sheep poured on image of god as a sin-offering, i. 82

Boa-constrictors, kings at death turn into, ii. 212 _n._

Boas, Dr. Franz, on seclusion of Shuswap girls at puberty, i. 53;

on customs observed by mourners among the Bella Coola Indians, ii. 174;

on initiation into the wolf society of the Nootka Indians, 270 _sq._;

on the relation between clans and secret societies, 273 _n._ 1

Boar’s skin, shoes of, worn by a king at inauguration, i. 4

Boars, familiar spirits of wizards in, ii. 196 _sq._;

lives of persons bound up with those of, 201, 203, 205;

external human souls in, 207

Bocage of Normandy, Midsummer fires in the, i. 185;

the Yule log in the, 252;

torchlight processions on Christmas Eve in the, 266

Body-without-soul in a Ligurian story, ii. 107;

in a German story, 116 _sq._;

in a Breton story, 132 _sq._;

in a Basque story, 139

Boeotian festival of the Great Daedala, ii. 77 _n._ 1

Bogota, rigorous training of the heir to the throne of, i. 19

Bohemia, water and fire consecrated at Easter in, i. 123 _sq._;

bonfires on May Day in, 159;

Midsummer fires in, 173 _sqq._;

need-fire in, 278 _sq._;

charm to make corn grow high in, 340;

offering to water-spirits on Midsummer Eve in, ii. 28;

simples gathered on St. John’s Night in, 49;

divination by means of flowers on Midsummer Eve in, 52 _sq._;

mugwort at Midsummer in, 59;

elder-flowers gathered at Midsummer in, 64;

wild thyme gathered on Midsummer Day in, 64;

fern-seed at Midsummer in, 66;

“thunder besoms” in, 85;

fern-seed on St. John’s Day in, 287, 288

Bohemian poachers, their use of vervain, ii. 62;

their use of seeds of fir-cones, 64

—— story of the external soul, ii. 110

Bohus, Midsummer fires in, i. 172

_Boidès_, bonfires, i. 111 _n._ 1

Boiling bewitched animal or part of it to compel witch to appear, i. 321

_sq._, 323

—— milk, omens drawn from, ii. 8

—— resin, ordeal of, i. 311

Boils, crawling under a bramble as a cure for, ii. 180

Bolivia, the Chiriguanos of, i. 56;

the Yuracares of, 57 _sq._;

fires on St. John’s Eve in, 213;

La Paz in, ii. 50

Boloki of the Upper Congo, birth-plants among the, ii. 161 _sq._;

use of bull-roarers among the, 229 _n._

Bondeis of German East Africa, rites of initiation among the, ii. 263

_sq._

Bone used to point with in sorcery, i. 14;

incident of, in folk-tales, 73 _n._ 3;

of bird (eagle or swan), women at menstruation obliged to drink out of,

45, 48, 49, 50, 73 _n._ 3, 90, 92

Bones burnt in the Easter bonfires, i. 142;

burnt in Midsummer fires, 203

—— of dead husbands carried by their widows, i. 91 _n._ 4

Bonfire Day in County Leitrim, i. 203

Bonfires supposed to protect against conflagrations, i. 107, 108;

protect houses against lightning and conflagration, 344;

lit by the persons last married, 107, 109;

a protection against witchcraft, 108, 109, 154;

a protection against sickness, 108, 109;

a protection against sorcery, 156;

quickening and fertilizing influence of, 336 _sqq._;

omens of marriage drawn from, 338 _sq._;

protect fields against hail, 344;

at festivals in India, ii. 1 _sqq._

_See also_ Fires

Bonfires, Midsummer, intended to drive away dragons, i. 161;

protect cattle against witchcraft, 188;

thought to ensure good crops, 188, 336

Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, i. 270

Bonnach stone in a Celtic story, ii. 126

_Bordes_, bonfires, i. 111 _n._ 1, 113

Borlase, William, on Midsummer fires in Cornwall, i. 199

Borneo, festivals in, i. 13;

seclusion of girls at puberty in, 35 _sq._;

birth-custom in, ii. 154 _sq._;

trees and plants as life-indices in, 164 _sq._;

creeping through a cleft stick after a funeral in, 175 _sq._;

giving the slip to an evil spirit in, 179 _sq._

——, the Dyaks of, i. 5, ii. 222

——, the Kayans of, i. 4 _sq._

Bororo of Brazil, their use of bull-roarers, ii. 230 _n._

Borrow, witches come to, i. 322, 323, ii. 73

Bosnia, need-fire in, i. 286;

life-trees of children in, ii. 165

Bossuet, Bishop, on the Midsummer bonfires, i. 182

Bottesford, in Lincolnshire, mistletoe deemed a remedy for epilepsy at,

ii. 83

Bottle, external soul of queen in a, ii. 138

Bougainville, use of bull-roarers in, ii. 229 _n._

Bough, the Golden, ii. 279 _sqq._;

and the priest of Aricia, i. 1;

a branch of mistletoe, ii. 284 _sqq._, 315 _sqq._

_See also_ Golden Bough

Boulia district of Queensland, i. 14

Bourbonnais, mistletoe a remedy for epilepsy in, ii. 83

_Bourdifailles_, bonfires, i. 111 _n._ 1

Bourke, Captain J. G., on the bull-roarer, ii. 231

Bowels, novice at initiation supplied by spirits with a new set of, ii.

235 _sqq._

Bowes, in Yorkshire, need-fire at, i. 287

Box, external soul of king in a, ii. 102, 149;

external soul of cannibal in a, 117

Boxes or arks, sacred, i. 11 _sq._

Box-tree, external soul of giant in a, ii. 133

Boxwood blessed on Palm Sunday, i. 184, ii. 47

Boy and girl produce need-fire by friction of wood, i. 281

Boys at initiation thought to be swallowed by wizards, ii. 233

Brabant, Midsummer fires in, i. 194;

St. Peter’s bonfires in, 195;

wicker giants in, ii. 35

Bracelets as amulets, i. 92

Braemar Highlanders, their Hallowe’en fires, i. 233 _sq._

Brahman, the Hindoo creator, i. 95

Brahman called “twice born,” ii. 276

—— boys forbidden to see the sun, i. 68 _n._ 2

—— student, his observances at end of his studentship, i. 20

Brahmanic ritual at inauguration of a king, i. 4

Bramble, crawling under a, as a cure for whooping-cough, etc., ii. 180

Brand, John, on the Yule log, i. 247, 255

Brandenburg, simples culled at Midsummer in, ii. 48

_Brandons_, the Sunday of the, i. 110;

torches carried about fields and streets, 111 _n._ 1

Brands of Midsummer fires a protection against lightning, conflagration,

and spells, i. 183;

a protection against thunder, 191;

lighted, carried round cattle, 341

Braunrode in the Harz Mountains, Easter fires at, i. 142

Brazier, walking through a lighted, ii. 3 _sqq._

Brazil, the Guaranis of, i. 56;

seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, 56, 59 _sq._;

the Uaupes of, 61;

ordeals undergone by young men among the Indians of, 62 _sq._;

effigies of Judas burnt at Easter in, 128;

fires of St. John in, 213;

the Caripunas of, ii. 230;

the Bororo of, 230 _n._;

the Nahuqua of, 230;

the Bakairi of, 231

Bread, reverence for, i. 13

Breadalbane, i. 149;

treatment of mad cow in, 326

Breadfruit-tree planted over navel-string of child, ii. 163

“Breath, scoring above the,” cutting a witch on the forehead, i. 315 _n._

2

Breitenbrunn, the “Charcoal Man” at, ii. 26 _n._ 2

Brekinjska, in Slavonia, need-fire at, i. 282

Bresse, Midsummer bonfires in, i. 189

Brest, Midsummer fire-custom at, i. 184

Breteuil, canton of, Midsummer fires in the, i. 187

Breton belief that women can be impregnated by the moon, i. 76

—— stories of the external soul, ii. 132 _sq._

Brezina, in Slavonia, need-fire at, i. 282

Briar-thorn, divination by, i. 242

Bri-bri Indians of Costa Rica, seclusion of women at menstruation among

the, i. 86

Bride not allowed to tread the earth, i. 5;

last married, made to leap over bonfire, ii. 22

—— and bridegroom, mock, at bonfires, i. 109 _sq._

Bride, parish of, in the Isle of Man, i. 306, 307 _n._ 1

Bridegroom not to touch the ground with his feet, i. 5

Brie, Isle de France, effigy of giant burnt on Midsummer Eve at, ii. 38

Brihaspati, Hindoo deity, i. 99 _n._ 2

Briony, wreaths of, at Midsummer, i. 210

Brisbane River in Queensland, use of bull-roarers on the, ii. 233 _sqq._

British Columbia, seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, i.

46 _sqq._;

dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of, 89 _sq._;

the Kwakiutl of, ii. 186;

Koskimo Indians of, 229;

rites of initiation among the Indians of, 270 _sqq._;

the Thompson Indians of, 297;

the Shuswap Indians of, 297 _n._ 3

Brittany, Midsummer fires in, i. 183 _sqq._;

stones thrown into the Midsummer fires in, 240;

the Yule log in, 253;

mistletoe hung over doors of stables and byres in, ii. 287;

fern-seed used by treasure-seekers in, 288

_Brochs_, prehistoric ruins, i. 291

Brocken, in the Harz mountains, associated with witches, i. 160 _n._ 1,

171 _n._ 3

Broom, a protective against witchcraft, i. 210

“Brother” and “sister,” titles given by men and women to their sex totems,

ii. 215, 216, 218

Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at Jumièges in Normandy, i. 185 _sq._

Brothers, ancient Egyptian story of the Two, ii. 134 _sqq._

Brown, Dr. George, quoted, i. 32 _sqq._;

on external soul in Melanesia, ii. 199

Brughe, John, his cure for bewitched cattle, i. 324 _sq._

Brund (or brand), the Christmas, the Yule log, i. 257

Brunswick, belief as to menstruous women in, i. 96;

Easter bonfires in, 140;

need-fire in, 277 _sq._

Buchan, Hallowe’en fires in, i. 232 _sq._

_Bûche de Noël_, the Yule log, i. 249

Buddha and the crocodile, Indian story, ii. 102 _n._ 4

Buffalo, external souls of a clan in a, ii. 151;

a Batta totem, 223

—— clan in Uganda, i. 3

Buffaloes, external human souls in, ii. 207, 208

Bühl, St. John’s fires at, i. 168

Bukaua, the, of New Guinea, girls at puberty secluded among the, i. 35;

their rites of initiation, ii. 239 _sqq._

_Bu-ku-rú_, ceremonial uncleanness, i. 65 _n._ 1, 86

Buléon, Mgr., quoted by Father H. Trilles, ii. 202 _n._ 1

Bulgaria, the Yule log in, i. 264 _n._ 1;

need-fire in, 281, 285;

simples and flowers culled on St. John’s Day in, ii. 50;

creeping through an arch of vines as a cure in, 180;

creeping under the root of a willow as a cure for whooping-cough in, 180

_sq._

——, Simeon, prince of, ii. 156 _sq._

Bullet blessed by St. Hubert used to shoot witches with, i. 315 _sq._

Bullock, bewitched, burnt to cause the witch to appear, i. 303

Bull-roarers swung, i. 133;

sounded at initiation of lads, ii. 227, 228 _sqq._, 233 _sqq._, 240,

241;

used as magical instruments to make rain, 230 _sqq._;

sounded at festivals of the dead, 230 _n._;

made from trees struck by lightning, 231;

sounded to make the wind blow, 232;

called “thunder and lightning,” 232;

sounded to promote the growth of the crops, 232;

originally magical instruments for making thunder, wind, and rain, 233;

not to be seen by women, 234, 235, 242;

called by name which means a ghost or spirit of the dead, 242;

called by the same name as the monster who swallows lads at initiation,

242;

kept in men’s club-house, 242;

named after dead men, 242 _n._ 1

——, sound of, thought to resemble thunder, ii. 228 _sqq._;

supposed to increase the food supply, 230;

supposed to be the voice of a spirit, 233, 234, 235

Burchard, Bishop of Worms, his condemnation of a heathen practice, ii. 191

_Bures_, bonfires, i. 110 _n._ 1, 111 _n._ 1

Burford, in Oxfordshire, Midsummer giant and dragon at, ii. 37

Burghead, the burning of the Clavie at, i. 266 _sq._;

the old rampart at, 267 _sq._

Burgundy, Firebrand Sunday in, i. 114;

the Yule log in, 254

Burma, the Karens of, ii. 157

Burne, Miss F. C., and Jackson, Miss G. F., on the fear of witchcraft in

Shropshire, i. 342 _n._ 4

Burning the witches on May Day, i. 157, 159, 160;

of effigies in the Midsummer fires, 195;

of the witches in the Hallowe’en fires, 232 _sq._;

of the Clavie at Burghead, 266 _sq._;

of a bewitched animal or part of it to cause the witch to appear, 303,

305, 307 _sq._, 321 _sq._;

of human beings in the fires, ii. 21 _sqq._;

of live animals at spring and Midsummer festivals, 38 _sqq._;

the animals perhaps deemed embodiments of witches, 41 _sq._, 43 _sq._;

of human victims annually, 286 _n._ 2

—— discs thrown into the air, i. 116 _sq._, 119, 143, 165, 166, 168 _sq._,

172

—— the Easter Man, i. 144

“—— the Old Wife (Old Woman),” i. 116, 120

“—— the Witches,” i. 116, 118 _sq._, 154;

a popular name for the fires of the festivals, ii. 43

—— wheels rolled down hill, i. 116, 117 _sq._, 119, 141, 143, 161, 162

_sq._, 163 _sq._, 166, 173, 174, 201, 328, 334, 337 _sq._;

rolled over fields at Midsummer to fertilize them, 191, 340 _sq._;

perhaps intended to burn witches, 345

Burns, Robert, i. 207;

on Hallowe’en, 234

Burnt sacrifices to stay cattle-plague in England, Wales, and Scotland, i.

300 _sqq._

Burs, a preservative against witchcraft, i. 177

Burying bewitched animals alive, i. 324 _sqq._

—— girls at puberty in the ground, i. 38 _sqq._

Bushmen, their dread of menstruous women, i. 79;

their way of warming up the star Sirius, 332 _sq._

Bushongo, royal persons among the, not allowed to set foot on the ground,

i. 4;

use of bull-roarers among the, ii. 229;

rites of initiation among the, 264 _sqq._

Butter thought to be improved by the Midsummer fires, i. 180;

bewitched, burnt at a cross-road, 322

“—— -churning,” Swiss expression for kindling a need-fire, i. 279

Byron, Lord, and the oak, ii. 166

Cabbages, divination by, at Hallowe’en, i. 242.

_See also_ Kail

Caesar on the fortification walls of the Gauls, i. 267;

on human sacrifices among the Celts of Gaul, ii. 32

Caesarea. _See_ Everek

Caffre villages, women’s tracks at, i. 80

Caffres of South Africa, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 30;

use of bull-roarers among the, ii. 229 _n._, 232

Cages, girls at puberty confined in, i. 32 _sqq._, 44, 45

_Cailleach beal-tine_, the Beltane carline, i. 148

Cairnshee, in Kincardineshire, Midsummer fires on, i. 206

Caithness, need-fire in, i. 290 _sqq._

Cake, St. Michael’s, i. 149, 154 _n._ 3;

salt, divination by, 238 _sq._;

the Yule or Christmas, 257, 259, 261

Cakes, Hallowe’en, i. 238, 241, 245;

Beltane, 148 _sq._, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155;

divination by, 242, 243

Calabar, soul of chief in sacred grove at, ii. 161;

negroes of, their belief in external or bush souls lodged in animals,

204 _sqq._, 220, 222 _n._ 5;

the fattening-house for girls in, 259

Calabria, holy water at Easter in, i. 123

Calamities, almost all, set down to witchcraft, ii. 19 _sq._

Calendar, change in the Chinese, i. 137;

Mohammedan, 216 _sq._, 218 _sq._;

the Julian, used by Mohammedans, 218 _sq._;

the reform of, in relation to floral superstitions, ii. 55 _n._ 1

Calendars, conflict of, i. 218

_Calendeau_, _calignau_, the Yule-log, i. 250

Calf burnt alive to stop a murrain, i. 300 _sq._

California, seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, i. 41

_sqq._;

ordeals among the Indians of, 64;

the Senal Indians of, ii. 295;

the Maidu Indians of, 295, 298

Callander, the parish of, Beltane fires in, i. 150 _sqq._;

Hallowe’en fires in, 231

Calves burnt to stop disease in the herds, i. 301, 306

Calymnos, a Greek island, superstition as to menstruous women in, i. 96

_sq._;

Midsummer fires in, 212

Cambodia, seclusion of girls at puberty in, i. 70;

ritual at cutting a parasitic orchid in, ii. 81

Cambodian or Siamese story of the external soul, ii. 102

Cambridgeshire, witch as cat in, i. 317

Cambus o’ May, near Ballater, holed stone at, ii. 187

Cameroons, life of person bound up with tree in the, ii. 161;

theory of the external soul in, 200, 202 _sq._

Camomile (_Anthemis nobilis_) burnt in Midsummer fire, i. 213;

sacred to Balder, ii. 63;

gathered at Midsummer, 63

Campbell, Rev. J. G., on _deiseal_, i. 151 _n._

Campbell, Rev. John, on Coranna customs, ii. 192, 192 _n._ 1

Campo di Giove, in the Abruzzi, Easter candles at, i. 122

Candle, the Easter or Paschal, i. 121, 122, 125;

divination by the flame of a, 229;

the Yule or Christmas, 255, 256, 260;

external soul in a, ii. 125 _sq._

—— and apple, biting at, i. 241, 242, 243, 245

Candlemas in the Armenian church, bonfires at, i. 131;

the Yule log at, 256 _n._

—— candles, i. 264 _n._ 4

Candles used to keep off witches, i. 245

Canopus and Sirius in Bushman lore, i. 333

Capart, Jean, on palettes found in Egyptian tombs, ii. 155 _n._ 3

Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, i. 37, 38

Caper-spurge (_Euphorbia lathyris_) identified with mythical springwort,

ii. 69

Capital of column, external soul in, ii. 156 _sq._

Capitol at Rome, the oak of Jupiter on the, ii. 89

Cappadocia, the fire-walk at Castabala in, ii. 14

Capri, feast of the Nativity of the Virgin in, i. 220 _sq._

Capricorn, time when the sun enters the tropic of, ii. 1

Caps worn in mourning, i. 20

Cardiganshire, Hallowe’en in, i. 226

Caribs, their theory of the plurality of souls, ii. 221

Carinthia, new fire at Easter in, i. 124

Caripunas Indians of Brazil, use of bull-roarers among the, ii. 230 _n._

Carmichael, Alexander, on need-fire, i. 293 _sqq._;

on snake stones, ii. 311

Carn Brea, in Cornwall, Midsummer fires on, i. 199

Carnarvonshire, the cutty black sow in, i. 240

Carnival, effigy burnt at end of, i. 120;

wicker giants at the, ii. 35

Carnmoor, in Mull, need-fire kindled on, i. 289 _sq._

Carnwarth, in Cornwall, Midsummer fires at, i. 199

Caroline Islands, traditionary origin of fire in the, ii. 295

Carpathian Mountains, Midsummer fires on the, i. 175;

need-fire in the, 281;

the Huzuls of the, ii. 49

Carrier Indians of North-Western America, funeral custom of the, i. 11;

their dread and seclusion of menstruous women, 91 _sqq._;

their honorific totems, ii. 273 _sqq._

Carver, Captain Jonathan, his description of the rite of death and

resurrection, ii. 267 _sq._

Casablanca, Midsummer fires at, i. 214

Cashmeer stories of the external soul, ii. 100 _sq._, 138 _n._ 1

Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior, the Three Holy Kings, ii. 68

Cassel, in France, wicker giants on Shrove Tuesday at, ii. 35

Cassowaries, men disguised as, in Duk-duk ceremonies, ii. 247

Castabala, in Cappadocia, the fire-walk at, ii. 14

Castiglione a Casauria, Midsummer customs at, i. 210

Castle Ditches, in the Vale of Glamorgan, bonfires at, i. 156

Castres, in Southern France, ii. 187

Cat, a representative of the devil, ii. 40;

story of a clan whose souls were all in one, 150 _sq._;

a Batta totem, 223.

_See also_ Cats

Caterpillars, bonfires as a protection against, i. 114

Catholic Church, its consecration of the Midsummer festival to St. John

the Baptist, i. 181

Cato on a Roman cure for dislocation, ii. 177

Cats burnt in bonfires, i. 109, ii. 39 _sq._;

perhaps burnt as witches, 41;

witches changed into, i. 315 _n._ 1, 317, 318, 319 _sq._, ii. 311 _sq._

Cattle sacrificed at holy oak, i. 181;

protected against sorcery by sprigs of mullein, 190;

fire carried round, 201, 206;

driven out to pasture in spring and back in autumn, 223;

acquire the gift of speech on Christmas Eve, 254;

driven through the need-fire, 270 _sqq._;

killed by fairy darts, 303;

lighted brands carried round, 341;

thought to benefit by festivals of fire, ii. 4, 7;

fumigated with smoke of Midsummer herbs, 53

—— and sheep driven through, round, or between bonfires, i. 108, 109, 141,

154, 157, 158, 159, 165, 175, 176, 179, 185, 188, 192, 202,

203, 204, 301, ii. 8, 9, 11 _sq._, 13

—— disease, the Midsummer fires a protection against, i. 176;

attributed to witchcraft, 302 _sq._, 343

—— -plague, need-fire kindled as a remedy for, i. 270 _sqq._;

sacrifice of an animal to stay a, 300 _sqq._

—— -rearing tribes of South Africa, their dread of menstruous women, i. 79

_sq._

Cave, initiation of medicine-men by spirits in a, ii. 237 _sqq._

—— of Cruachan, the “Hell-gate of Ireland,” i. 226

Cedar-bark, red, used in ceremonies of a secret society, ii. 271

Celebes, Macassar in, i. 14;

souls of persons removed for safety from their bodies in, ii. 153 _sq._

——, Central, the Toradjas of, i. 311 _sqq._

——, Southern, birth-trees in, ii. 164

Celibacy of the Vestal Virgins, i. 138 _n._ 5

Celtic bisection of the year, i. 223

—— population, their superstition as to Snake Stones, i. 15

—— stories of the external soul, ii. 126 _sqq._

Celts, their two great fire-festivals on the Eve of May Day and

Hallowe’en, i. 222, 224;

the oak worshipped by the, ii. 89

——, the British, their chief fire-festivals, Beltane and Hallowe’en, ii.

40 _sq._

—— of Brittany, their use of mistletoe, ii. 320

—— of Gaul, their human sacrifices, ii. 32 _sq._;

the victims perhaps witches and wizards, 41 _sq._;

W. Mannhardt’s theory, 43

—— of Ireland, their new fire on Hallowe’en, i. 139

—— of northern Italy, ii. 320

Celts (prehistoric implements) called “thunderbolts,” i. 14 _sq._

Central Provinces of India, cure for fever in the, ii. 190

Ceos, Greek island of, sick children passed through a cleft oak in, ii.

172

Ceram, seclusion of girls at puberty in, i. 36;

belief that strength of young people is in their hair in, ii. 158;

rites of initiation to the Kakian association in, 249 _sqq._

Ceremony, magical, to ensure fertility of women, i. 23 _sq._, 31

Cetraro in Calabria, Easter custom at, i. 123

Ceylon, the king of, and his external soul, ii. 102

Chaco, the Gran, i. 58;

marriage custom of Indians of the, i. 75;

Indians of the, i. 98 _n._ 1

——, the Paraguayan, i. 56

Chadwick, Professor H. M., i. 103 _n._

Chaka, Zulu king, ii. 212 _n._

Chalk, white, bodies of newly initiated lads coated with, ii. 241

Chambers, E. K., on the Celtic bisection of the year, i. 223

“Charcoal Man” at Midsummer, ii. 26 _n._ 2

Charente Inférieure, department of, St. John’s fires in the, i. 192

Chariot, patient drawn through the yoke of a, ii. 192

Chariots used by sacred persons, i. 4 _n._ 1

Charlemagne, i. 270

Chaste young men kindle need-fire, i. 273

Chastity associated with abstinence from salt, i. 27 _sq._

Château-Tierry, Midsummer fires at, i. 187 _sq._

Chatham Islands, birth-trees in the, ii. 165

_Chavandes_, bonfires, i. 109 _n._ 2

Cheadle, in Staffordshire, the Yule log at, i. 256

Cheese, the Beltane, kept as a charm against the bewitching of

milk-produce, i. 154

_Chêne-Doré_, “the gilded oak,” in Perche, ii. 287 _n._ 1

Chepstow oak, in Gloucestershire, ii. 316

Cheremiss of the Volga, their Midsummer festival, i. 181

Cherokees, their sacred arks, i. 11 _sq._;

their ideas as to trees struck by lightning, ii. 296 _sq._

Cherry-tree wood used for Yule log, i. 250

—— -trees, torches thrown at, i. 108

Chervil-seed burnt in Midsummer fire, i. 213

_Chesnitsa_, Christmas cake, i. 261

Chester, Midsummer giants at, ii. 37

_Chevannes_, bonfires, i. 111 _n._ 1

Cheyenne Indians, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 54 _sq._

—— women secluded at menstruation, i. 89

Chiaromonte, Midsummer custom at, i. 210

Chibisa, an African chief, ii. 314

_Chicha_, a native intoxicant, i. 57, 58

Chicory, the white flower of, opens all locks, ii. 71

Chief’s daughter, ceremonies observed by her at puberty, i. 30, 43

Chikumbu, a Yao chief, ii. 314

Chilblains, the Yule log a preventive of, i. 250

Childbirth, customs observed by women after, i. 20

Childless couples leap over bonfires to procure offspring, i. 214, 338

Childless women creep through a holed stone, ii. 187

Children live apart from their parents among the Baganda, i. 23 _n._ 2;

born feet foremost, curative power attributed to, 295;

passed across the Midsummer fires, 182, 189 _sq._, 192, 203;

passed through holes in ground or turf to cure them, ii. 190 _sq._

Chillingworth, Thomas, passed through a cleft ash-tree for rupture, ii.

168 _sq._

Chimney, witches fly up the, ii. 74

—— -piece, divination by names on, i. 237

China, were-wolves in, i. 310 _sq._;

annual ceremony of the new fire in, 136 _sq._, ii. 3;

use of fire to bar ghosts in, 17 _sq._;

spirits of plants in snake form in, 44 _n._ 1;

use of mugwort in, 60

Chinese festival of fire, ii. 3 _sqq._;

story of the external soul, 145 _sq._;

theories as to the human soul, 221

Chinook Indians, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 43

Chippeway Indians, their dread and seclusion of menstruous women, i. 90

_sq._

Chiquites Indians of Paraguay, their theory of sickness, ii. 226 _n._ 1

Chirbury, in Shropshire, the Yule log at, i. 257

Chiriguanos of Bolivia, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 56

Choctaw women secluded at menstruation, i. 88

Chopping-knife, soul of woman in childbirth transferred for safety to a,

ii. 153 _sq._

Chota Nagpur, the fire-walk in, ii. 5

Chouquet, in Normandy, the Green Wolf at, i. 185

_Christbrand_, the Yule log, i. 248

Christenburg Crags, in Northumberland, Midsummer fires at, i. 198

Christian Church, its treatment of witches, ii. 42

_Christklotz_, the Yule log, i. 248

Christmas, an old pagan festival of the sun, i. 246, 331 _sq._;

new fire made by the friction of wood at, 264;

mistletoe gathered at, ii. 291

—— cake, i. 257, 259, 261

—— candle, the, i. 255, 256, 260

—— Eve, cattle acquire the gift of speech on, i. 254;

trees fumigated with wild thyme on, ii. 64;

the fern blooms at, 66;

witches dreaded on, 73;

sick children passed through cleft trees on, 172

—— night, fern-seed blooms on, ii. 289

—— pig, i. 259

—— visiter, the, i. 261 _sq._, 263, 264

Church, the Christian, its treatment of witches, ii. 42

—— bells on Midsummer Eve, custom as to ringing, ii. 47 _sq._;

rung to drive away witches, 73

Churches used as places of divination at Hallowe’en, i. 229

_Churinga_, sacred sticks and stones of the Arunta, ii. 218 _n._ 3, 234

Chu-Tu-shi, a Chinese were-tiger, i. 310 _sq._

Ciotat, Midsummer rites of fire and water at, i. 194

Circumambulating fields with lighted torches, i. 233 _sq._

Circumcision, custom at, among the Washamba, ii. 183;

of lads at initiation in Australia, 227 _sq._, 233, 234, 235;

in New Guinea, 240 _sq._;

in Fiji, 243 _sq._;

in Rook, 246;

custom of, on the Lower Congo, 251, 255 _n._ 1

_Clach-nathrach_, serpent stone, ii. 311

Clam shell, sacred, of the Omahas, i. 11

Clan of the Cat, ii. 150 _sq._

Clappers, used instead of church bells in Holy Week, i. 125;

wooden, used in China, 137

Classificatory system of relationship, ii. 234 _n._ 1, 314 _n._ 4

Claudius, the emperor, i. 15

Clavie, the burning of the, at Burghead, i. 266 _sq._

Clay plastered on girls at puberty, i. 31;

white, bodies of novices at initiation smeared with, ii. 255 _n._ 1, 259

Cleary, Bridget, burnt as a witch in Tipperary, i. 323 _sq._

——, Michael, burns his wife as a witch, i. 323 _sq._

Clee, in Lincolnshire, the Yule log at, i. 257

—— Hills, in Shropshire, fear of witchcraft in the, i. 342 _n._ 4

Cleft stick, passage through a, in connexion with puberty and

circumcision, ii. 183 _sq._

_Climacteris scandens_, women’s “sister” among the Kulin, ii. 216

Clodd, Edward, on the external soul, ii. 96 _n._ 1

Clog, the Yule, i. 247

Clonmel, trial for witch-burning at, i. 324

Clover, four-leaved, a counter-charm for witchcraft, i. 316;

found at Midsummer, ii. 62 _sq._

Clue of yarn, divination by a, i. 235, 240, 241, 243

Coal, magical, that turns to gold at Midsummer, ii. 60 _sq._

Coast Murring tribe of New South Wales, the drama of resurrection

exhibited to novices at initiation in the, ii. 235 _sqq._

Cobern, effigy burnt at, i. 120

Coblentz, i. 248

_Coccus Polonica_ and St. John’s blood, ii. 56

Cock, effigy of, in bonfire, i. iii;

a black, used as counter-charm to witchcraft, 321;

white, burnt in Midsummer bonfire, ii. 40;

external soul of ogre in a, 100;

killed on harvest-field, 280 _n._;

red, killed to cure person struck by lightning, 298 _n._ 2

—— or hen, striking blindfold at a, ii. 279 _n._ 4

Cock’s blood poured on divining-rod, ii. 282

Cockchafer, external soul in a golden, ii. 140

Cockchafers, witches as, i. 322

Coco-nut, soul of child deposited in a, i. 154 _sq._

—— palm planted over navel-string and afterbirth of child, ii. 161, 163,

compare 164;

attracts lightning, 299 _n._ 2

Codrington, Dr. R. H., on the Melanesian conception of the external soul,

ii. 197 _sq._

_Coel Coeth_, Hallowe’en bonfire, i. 239

Cohen, S. S., i. 128 _n._ 1

Coil, sick children passed through a, ii. 185 _sq._

Cold food, festival of the, in China, i. 137

Cole, Lieut.-Colonel H. W. G., on a custom of the Lushais, ii. 185 _sq._

Colic, popular remedies for, i. 17;

leaping over bonfires as a preventive of, 107, 195 _sq._, 344;

attributed to witchcraft, 344

Coll, the Hole Stone in the island of, ii. 187

Colleda, an old Servian goddess, i. 259

Cologne, St. John’s fourteen Midsummer victims at, ii. 27

Colombia, the Goajiras of, i. 34 _n._ 1;

Guacheta in, 74

Combe d’Ain, i. 114

Comminges, Midsummer fires in, i. 192 _sq._

Community, welfare of, bound up with the life of the divine king, i. 1

_sq._;

purified in the persons of its representatives, ii. 24

Condé, in Normandy, i. 266

Conductivity, electric, of various kinds of wood, ii. 299 _n._ 2

Conflagrations, bonfires supposed to protect against, i. 107, 108, 140,

142, 344;

brands of Midsummer bonfires thought to be a protection against, 165,

174, 183, 188, 196;

the Yule log a protection against, 248 _sq._, 250, 255, 256, 258;

Midsummer flowers a protection against, ii. 48;

mountain arnica a protection against, 58;

oak-mistletoe a protection against, 85

Conflict of calendars, solar and lunar, i. 218

Congo, seclusion of girls at puberty on the Lower, i. 31;

birth-trees on the, 161 _sq._;

theory of the external soul on the, ii. 200;

use of bull-roarers on the, 229

——, the French, the Fans of, ii. 161

——, the Lower, rites of initiation on the, ii. 251 _sqq._

Connaught, Midsummer fires in, i. 203;

cave of Cruachan in, 226;

palace of the kings of, ii. 127

Connemara, Midsummer fires in, i. 203

Constance, the Lake of, ii. 26

Constantinople, column at, ii. 157

Consumption, ashes of the Midsummer fires a cure for, i. 194 _sq._;

transferred to bird, ii. 187

Consumptive patients passed through holes in stones or rocks, ii. 186

_sq._

Continence as preparation for walking through fire, ii. 3

Conty, Lenten fires at, i. 113

Conway, Professor R. S., on the etymology of Soranus, ii. 15 _n._ 1

Cook, A. B., on the oak of Errol, ii. 284 _n._ 1

Cook, menstruous women not allowed to, i. 80, 82, 84, 90

Copper needle, story of man who could only be killed by a, ii. 314

Corannas, a Hottentot people, children after an illness passed under an

arch among the, ii. 192

Cords tied tightly round the bodies of girls at puberty, i. 92 _n._ 1

Corea, custom observed after childbirth by women in, i. 20;

use of torches to ensure good crops in, 340

Cormac, on Beltane fires, i. 157

Cor-mass, procession of wicker giants at Dunkirk, ii. 34

Corn, charm to make the corn grow tall, i. 18;

thrown on the man who brings in the Yule log, 260, 262, 264;

blazing besoms flung aloft to make the corn grow high, 340

—— -spirit in last standing corn, i. 12;

human representatives of, put to death, ii. 25;

in animal shape, 43

Cornel-tree wood used to kindle need-fire, i. 286

Cornwall, Snake Stones in, i. 15, 16 _n._ 1;

Midsummer fires in, 199 _sq._;

burnt sacrifices to stay cattle-disease in, 300 _sq._;

holed stone through which people used to creep in, ii. 187

Corpse, priest of Earth forbidden to see a, i. 4

Corpus Christi Day, processions on, i. 165

Corrèze and Creuse, departments of, St. John’s fires in the, i. 190

Corsica, Midsummer fires in, i. 209

Cos, effigies of Judas burnt at Easter in, i. 130;

Midsummer fires in, 212

Cosquin, E., on helpful animals and external souls in folk-tales, ii. 133

_n._ 1

_Cosse de Nau_, the Yule log, i. 251

Costa Rica, Indians of, their customs in fasts, i. 20;

ceremonial uncleanness among the, 65 _n._ 1;

the Bri-bri Indians of, 86;

the Guatusos of, ii. 230 _n._

Coudreau, H., quoted, i. 63 _sq._

Coulommiers, in France, notion as to mistletoe at, ii. 316 _n._ 1

Counter-charm for witchcraft, “scoring above the breath,” i. 316 _n._ 2

Couples married within the year obliged to dance by torchlight, i. 115,

339

Coventry, Midsummer giants at, ii. 37

Cows, witches steal milk from, i. 343;

mistletoe given to, ii. 86;

milked through a hole in a branch or a “witch’s nest,” 185

Crackers burnt to frighten ghosts, ii. 17, 18

Cracow, Midsummer fires in the district of, i. 175

Cream, ceremony for thickening, i. 262

Creek Indians, their dread of menstruous women, i. 88

Creeping through a tunnel as a remedy for an epidemic, i. 283 _sq._;

through cleft trees as cure for various maladies, ii. 170 _sqq._;

through narrow openings in order to escape ghostly pursuers, 177 _sqq._

Creuse and Corrèze, departments of, St. John’s fires in the, i. 190

Criminals shorn to make them confess, ii. 158 _sq._

Croatia, Midsummer fires in, i. 178

Croats of Istria, their belief as to the activity of witches on Midsummer

Eve, ii. 75

Crocodile, a Batta totem, ii. 223

Crocodiles, fat of, i. 14;

lives of persons bound up with those of, ii. 201, 202, 206, 209;

external human souls in, 207, 209

Cronus, cakes offered to, i. 153 _n._ 3

Crops supposed to be spoiled by menstruous women, i. 79, 96;

leaping over bonfires to ensure good, 107;

Midsummer fires thought to ensure good, 188, 336;

torches swung by eunuchs to ensure good, 340;

bull-roarers sounded to promote the growth of the, ii. 232

Cross River natives, their lives bound up with those of certain animals,

ii. 202 _sq._, 204

—— -roads, ceremonies at, i. 24;

witches at, 160 _n._ 1;

Midsummer fires lighted at, 172, 191;

divination at, 229;

bewitched things burnt at, 322

Crosses chalked up to protect houses and cattle-stalls against witches, i.

160 _n._ 1, ii. 74

Crow, hooded, sacrifice to, i. 152

_Crowdie_, a dish of milk and meal, i. 237

Crown or garland of flowers in Midsummer bonfire, i. 184, 185, 188, 192;

of Roses, festival of the, 195.

_See also_ Flowers

Cruachan, the herdsman or king of, Argyleshire story of, ii. 127 _sqq._;

in Connaught, the cave of, i. 226

_Cryptocerus atratus_, F., stinging ants, i. 62

Cuissard, Ch., on Midsummer fires, i. 182 _sq._

Cumae, the Sibyl at, i. 99

Cumanus, inquisitor, ii. 158

Cumberland, Midsummer fires in, i. 197

Cups, special, used by girls at puberty, i. 50, 53

Curative powers ascribed to persons born feet foremost, i. 295

Cures, popular, prescribed by Marcellus of Bordeaux, i. 17

Cursing a mist in Switzerland, i. 280

Cuzco, ceremony of the new fire in, i. 132

Cycle of thirty years (Druidical), ii. 77

Cycles of sixty years (Boeotian, Indian, and Tibetan), ii. 77 _n._ 1

Cythnos, Greek island, sickly children pushed through a hole in a rock in,

ii. 189

Czechs cull simples at Midsummer, ii. 49

Dacotas or Sioux, ritual of death and resurrection among the, ii. 268

_sq._

Daedala, Boeotian festival of the Great, ii. 77 _n._ 1

Dairy, mistletoe used to make the dairy thrive, ii. 86

Daizan, king of Atrae, i. 83

Dalhousie Castle, the Edgewell Tree at, ii. 166

Dalmatia, the Yule log in, i. 263

Dalyell, J. G., on Beltane, i. 149 _n._ 1

Damun, in German New Guinea, ceremony of initiation at, ii. 193

Danae, the story of, i. 73 _sq._

Dance at Sipi in Northern India, i. 12;

of young women at puberty, ii. 183;

in the grave at initiation, 237;

in honour of the big or grey wolf, 276 _n._ 2

Dances of fasting men and women at festival, i. 8 _sq._;

of Duk-duk society, 11;

of girls at puberty, 28, 29, 30, 37, 42, 50, 58, 59;

round bonfires, 108, 109, 110, 111, 114, 116, 120, 131, 142, 145, 148,

153 _sq._, 159, 166, 172, 173, 175, 178, 182, 183, 185, 187,

188, 189, 191, 193, 194, 195, 198, 246, ii. 2, 39;

masked, bull-roarers used at, 230 _n._;

of novices at initiation, 258, 259

Dancing with the fairies at Hallowe’en, i. 227

Dandelions gathered at Midsummer, ii. 49

Danger apprehended from the sexual relation, ii. 277 _sq._

Dangers thought to attend women at menstruation, i. 94

Danish stories of the external soul, ii. 120 _sqq._

—— story of a girl who was forbidden to see the sun, i. 70 _sqq._

_Danserosse_ or _danseresse_, a stone, i. 110

Danube, worship of Grannus on the, i. 112

Danzig, the immortal lady of, i. 100

_Daphne gnidium_ gathered at Midsummer, ii. 51

Dapper, O., on ritual of death and resurrection at initiation in the

Belli-Paaro society, ii. 257 _sqq._

Daramulun, a mythical being who instituted and superintends the initiation

of lads in Australia, ii. 228, 233, 237;

his voice heard in the sound of the bull-roarer, 228.

_See also_ Thrumalun and Thuremlin

“Darding Knife,” pretence of death and resurrection at initiation to the,

ii. 274 _sq._

Darling River, the Ualaroi of the, ii. 233

Darma Rajah, Hindoo god, ii. 6

Darowen, in Wales, Midsummer fires at, i. 201

Darwin, Charles, on the cooling of the sun, ii. 307

Darwin, Sir Francis, on the Golden Bough, ii. 318, 319 _n._ 3

Dashers of churns, witches ride on, ii. 73 _sq._

Date of Chinese festival changed, i. 137

Dathi, king of Ireland, and his Druid, i. 228 _sq._

Davies, J. Ceredig, as to witches in Wales, i. 321 _n._ 2

Dawn of the Day, prayers to the, i. 50 _sq._, 53;

prayer of adolescent girl to the, 98 _n._ 1

Dawson, James, on sex totems in Victoria, ii. 216

Dead, festival of the, i. 223 _sq._, 225 _sq._;

souls of the, sit round the Midsummer fire, 183, 184;

sacrifice of reindeer to the, ii. 178;

incarnate in serpents, 211 _sq._;

bull-roarers sounded at festivals of the, 230 _n._;

first-fruits offered to the souls of the, 243

“Death, carrying out,” i. 119;

“the burying of,” 119;

effigies of, burnt in spring fires, ii. 21 _sq._;

omens of, 54, 64;

customs observed by mourners after a death in order to escape from the

ghost, 174 _sqq._;

identified with the sun, 174 _n._ 1

Death and resurrection, ritual of, ii. 225 _sqq._;

in Australia, 227 _sqq._;

in New Guinea, 239 _sqq._;

in Fiji, 243 _sqq._;

in Rook, 246;

in New Britain, 246 _sq._;

in Ceram, 249 _sqq._;

in Africa, 251 _sqq._;

in North America, 266 _sqq._;

traces of it elsewhere, 276 _sq._

_Debregeasia velutina_, used to kindle fire by friction, ii. 8

December, the last day of, Hogmanay, i. 266;

the twenty-first, St. Thomas’s Day, 266

Decle, L., quoted, i. 4 _n._ 1

Dee, holed stone used by childless women in the Aberdeenshire, ii. 187

Deer and the family of Lachlin, superstition concerning, ii. 284

Deffingin, in Swabia, Midsummer bonfires at, i. 166 _sq._

Dehon, P., on witches as cats among the Oraons, ii. 312

_Deiseal_, _deisheal_, _dessil_, the right-hand turn, in the Highlands of

Scotland, i. 150 _n._ 1, 154

Delagoa Bay, the Thonga of, i. 29

Delaware Indians, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 54

Delivery, charms to ensure women an easy, i. 49, 50 _sq._, 52;

women creep through a rifted rock to obtain an easy, ii. 189

Delmenhorst, in Oldenburg, Easter fires at, i. 142

Delos, new fire brought from, i. 136

Delphi, perpetual fire at, ii. 91 _n._ 7;

the picture of Orpheus at, 294;

Stheni, near, 317

Demeter, the torches of, i. 340 _n._ 1;

serpents in the worship of, ii. 44 _n._

Demnat, in the Atlas, New Year rites at, i. 217, 218

Demon supposed to attack girls at puberty, i. 67 _sq._;

festival of fire instituted to ban a, ii. 3

Demons attack women at puberty and childbirth, i. 24 _n._ 2;

expelled at the New Year, 134 _sq._;

abroad on Midsummer Eve, 172;

ashes of holy fires a protection against, ii. 8, 17;

vervain a protection against, 62;

guard treasures, 65.

_See also_ Evil Spirits

Déné or Tinneh Indians, their dread and seclusion of menstruous women, i.

91 _sqq._;

the Western, tattooing among the, 98 _n._ 1

_See also_ Tinneh

_Denham Tracts_, on need-fire in Yorkshire, i. 287 _sq._

Denmark, fires on St. John’s Eve in, i. 171;

passing sick children through a hole in the ground in, 190, 191;

children passed through a cleft oak as a cure for rupture or rickets in,

ii. 170, 172

_Dessil._ _See_ _Deiseal_

Deux-Sèvres, department of, Midsummer fires in the, i. 191;

fires on All Saints’ Day in the, 245 _sq._

Devil, the, seen on Midsummer Eve, i. 208

Devil’s bit, St. John’s wort, ii. 55 _n._ 2

Devils, ghosts, and hobgoblins abroad on Midsummer Eve, i. 202

Devonshire, need-fire in, i. 288;

animals burnt alive as a sacrifice in, 302;

belief in witchcraft in, 302;

crawling under a bramble as a cure for whooping-cough in, ii. 180

Dew, rolling in the, at Midsummer, i. 208, with _n._ 1;

at Midsummer a protection against witchcraft, ii. 74

Diana and Juno, ii. 302 _n._ 2

Diana, priest of, at Nemi, ii. 315

Diana’s Mirror, the Lake of Nemi, ii. 303

Dieri of Central Australia, their dread of women at menstruation, i. 77;

use of bull-roarers among the, ii. 229 _sq._, 232;

bleed themselves to make rain, 232

Dijon, Lenten fires at, i, 114

Dingle, church of St. Brandon near, ii. 190

Diodorus Siculus, on the human sacrifices of the Celts, ii. 32

Dioscorides on mistletoe, ii. 318 _n._ 1

Dipping for apples at Hallowe’en, i. 237, 239, 241, 242, 245

Discs, burning, thrown into the air, i. 116 _sq._, 119, 143, 165, 166, 168

_sq._, 172, 328, 334;

burning, perhaps directed at witches, 345

Disease, walking through fire as a remedy for, ii. 7;

conceived as something physical that can be stripped off the patient and

left behind, 172

Diseases of cattle ascribed to witchcraft, i. 343

Dish, external soul of warlock in a, ii. 141

Dishes, special, used by girls at puberty, i. 47, 49

Dislocation, Roman cure for, ii. 177

Divination on St. John’s Night (Midsummer Eve), i. 173, ii. 46 _n._ 3, 50,

52 _sqq._, 61, 64, 67 _sqq._;

at Midsummer in Spain and the Azores, i. 208 _sq._;

at Hallowe’en, 225, 228 _sqq._;

by stones at Hallowe’en fires, 230 _sq._, 239, 240;

by stolen kail, 234 _sq._, 241;

by clue of yarn, 235, 240, 241, 243;

by hemp seed, 235, 241, 245;

by winnowing-basket, 236;

by thrown shoe, 236;

by wet shirt, 236, 241;

by white of eggs, 236 _sq._, 238;

by apples in water, 237;

by a ring, 237;

by names on chimney-piece, 237;

by three plates or basins, 237 _sq._, 240, 244;

by nuts in fire, 237, 239, 241, 242, 245;

by salt cake, or salt herring, 238 _sq._;

by the sliced apple, 238;

by eavesdropping, 238, 243, 244;

by knife, 241;

by briar-thorn, 242;

by melted lead, 242;

by cabbages, 242;

by cake at Hallowe’en, 242, 243;

by ashes, 243, 244, 245;

by salt, 244;

by raking a rick, 247;

magic dwindles into, 336.

_See also_ Divining-rod

Divine personages not allowed to touch the ground with their feet, i. 2

_sqq._;

not allowed to see the sun, 18 _sqq._;

suspended for safety between heaven and earth, 98 _sq._

Divining-rod cut on Midsummer Eve, ii. 67 _sqq._;

made of hazel, 67 _sq._, 291 _n._ 3;

made of mistletoe in Sweden, 69, 291;

made of four sorts of wood, 69;

made of willow, 69 _n._;

made out of a parasitic rowan, 281 _sq._

Divisibility of life, doctrine of the, ii. 221

Dobischwald, in Silesia, need-fire at, i. 278

Dodona, Zeus and his sacred oak at, ii. 49 _sq._

Dog not allowed to enter priest’s house, i. 4;

beaten to ensure woman’s fertility, 69;

charm against the bite of a mad, ii. 56;

a Batta totem, 223

—— Star, or Sirius, supposed by the ancients to cause the heat of summer,

i. 332

Dolac, need-fire at, i. 286

Dolmen, sick children passed through a hole in a, ii. 188

Dommartin, Lenten fires at, i. 109

Door, separate, for girls at puberty, i. 43, 44

Doorie, hill of, at Burghead, i. 267

Doors, separate, used by menstruous women, i. 84

Doorway, creeping through narrow opening in, as a cure, ii. 181 _sq._

Dosadhs, an Indian caste, the fire-walk among the, ii. 5

Dosuma, king of, not allowed to touch the ground, i. 3

Douay, procession of the giants at, ii. 33 _sq._

Double-axe, Midsummer king of the, i. 194

Dourgne, in Southern France, crawling through holed stones near, ii. 187

_sq._

Dove, the ceremony of the fiery, at Easter in Florence, i. 126;

a Batta totem, ii. 223

Doves, external soul of magicians in, ii. 104;

Aeneas led by doves to the Golden Bough, 285, 316 _n._ 1

Dragon at Midsummer, effigy of, ii. 37;

external soul of a queen in a, 105;

of the water-mill, Servian story of the, 111 _sqq._

Dragons driven away by smoke of Midsummer bonfires, i. 161;

St. Peter’s fires lighted to drive away, 195

Draguignan, in the department of Var, Midsummer fires at, i. 193

Draupadi, the heroine of the _Mahabharata_, ii. 7

Dread and seclusion of menstruous women, i. 76 _sqq._;

dread of witchcraft in Europe, 342

Dream, guardian spirit or animal acquired in a, ii. 256 _sq._

Dreaming on flowers on Midsummer Eve, i. 175

Dreams, oracular, i. 238, 242;

of love on Midsummer Eve, ii. 52, 54;

prophetic, on the bloom of the oak, 292;

prophetic, on mistletoe, 293

Driving away the witches on Walpurgis Night, i. 160;

at Midsummer, 170, 171

Drobede (Draupadi), the heroine of the epic _Mahabharata_, ii. 7

Drömling district, in Hanover, need-fire in, i. 277

Drought attributed to misconduct of young girls, i. 31

Druid, etymology of the word, i. 76 _n._ 1

Druidical custom of burning live animals, ii. 38;

the animals perhaps deemed embodiments of witches, 41 _sq._, 43 _sq._;

festivals, so-called, of the Scotch Highlanders, i. 147, 206

—— sacrifices, W. Mannhardt’s theory of the, ii. 43

Druidism, so-called, remains of, i. 233, 241;

and the Christian Church in relation to witchcraft, ii. 42

Druid’s Glass, the, i. 16; prediction, the, 229

Druids’ Hill, the, i. 229

Druids, their superstition as to “serpents’ eggs,” i. 15;

their human sacrifices, ii. 32 _sq._;

in relation to the Midsummer festival, 33 _sqq._, 45;

their worship of the mistletoe and the oak, 76 _sq._, 301;

their cycle of thirty years, 77;

catch the mistletoe in a white cloth, 293

—— of Ireland, i. 157

Drynemetum, “the temple of the oak,” ii. 89

Duck baked alive as a sacrifice in Suffolk, i. 304

Duck’s egg, external soul in a, ii. 109 _sq._, 115 _sq._, 116, 119 _sq._,

120, 126, 130, 132

Duk-duk, secret society of New Britain, i. 11, ii. 246 _sq._

Duke of York Island, ii. 199 _n._ 2;

Duk-duk society in, 247;

exogamous classes in, 248 _n._

Duke Town, on the Calabar River, ii. 209

Dukkala, New Year customs in, i. 218

Dumbartonshire, Hallowe’en in, i. 237 _n._ 5

Dunbeath, in Caithness, i. 291

Dunkeld, i. 232

Dunkirk, procession of giants on Midsummer Day at, ii. 34 _sq._

Durandus, G. (W. Durantis), his _Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_, i. 161