receive the inspiration of the spirits seated in swings and rocking
themselves to and fro. Thus suspended in the air they appear to be in a
peculiarly favourable position for catching the divine afflatus. One end
of the plank which forms the seat of the priest’s swing is carved in the
rude likeness of a crocodile’s head; the swing of the priestess is
similarly ornamented with a serpent’s head.(744)
(M222) Again, swings are used for the cure of sickness, but it is the
doctor who rocks himself in them, not the patient. In North Borneo the
Dyak medicine man will sometimes erect a swing in front of the sick man’s
house and sway backwards and forwards on it for the purpose of kicking
away the disease, frightening away evil spirits, and catching the stray
soul of the sufferer.(745) Clearly in his passage through the air the
physician is likely to collide with the disease and the evil spirits, both
of which are sure to be loitering about in the neighbourhood of the
patient, and the rude shock thus given to the malady and the demons may
reasonably be expected to push or hustle them away. At Tengaroeng, in
Eastern Borneo, a traveller witnessed a ceremony for the expulsion of an
evil spirit in which swinging played a part. After four men in blue shirts
bespangled with stars, and wearing coronets of red cloth decorated with
beads and bells, had sought diligently for the devil, grabbling about on
the floor and grunting withal, three hideous hags dressed in faded red
petticoats were brought in with great pomp, carried on the shoulders of
Malays, and took their seats, amid solemn silence, on the cradle of a
swing, the ends of which were carved to represent the head and tail of a
crocodile. Not a sound escaped from the crowd of spectators during this
awe-inspiring ceremony; they regarded the business as most serious. The
venerable dames then rocked to and fro on the swing, fanning themselves
languidly with Chinese paper fans. At a later stage of the performance
they and three girls discharged burning arrows at a sort of altar of
banana leaves, maize, and grass. This completed the discomfiture of the
devil.(746)
(M223) The Athenians in antiquity celebrated an annual festival of
swinging. Boards were hung from trees by ropes, and people sitting on them
swung to and fro, while they sang songs of a loose or voluptuous
character. The swinging went on both in public and private. Various
explanations were given of the custom; the most generally received was as
follows. When Bacchus came among men to make known to them the pleasures
of wine, he lodged with a certain Icarus or Icarius, to whom he revealed
the precious secret and bade him go forth and carry the glad tidings to
all the world. So Icarus loaded a waggon with wine-skins, and set out on
his travels, the dog Maera running beside him. He came to Attica, and
there fell in with shepherds tending their sheep, to whom he gave of the
wine. They drank greedily, but when some of them fell down dead drunk,
their companions thought the stranger had poisoned them with intent to
steal the sheep; so they knocked him on the head. The faithful dog ran
home and guided his master’s daughter Erigone to the body. At sight of it
she was smitten with despair and hanged herself on a tree beside her dead
father, but not until she had prayed that, unless the Athenians should
avenge her sire’s murder, their daughters might die the same death as she.
Her curse was fulfilled, for soon many Athenian damsels hanged themselves
for no obvious reason. An oracle informed the Athenians of the true cause
of this epidemic of suicide; so they sought out the bodies of the unhappy
pair and instituted the swinging festival to appease Erigone; and at the
vintage they offered the first of the grapes to her and her father.(747)
(M224) Thus the swinging festival at Athens was regarded by the ancients
as an expiation for a suicide or suicides by hanging. This opinion is
strongly confirmed by a statement of Varro, that it was unlawful to
perform funeral rites in honour of persons who had died by hanging, but
that in their case such rites were replaced by a custom of swinging
images, as if in imitation of the death they had died.(748) Servius says
that the Athenians, failing to find the bodies of Icarius and Erigone on
earth, made a pretence of seeking them in the air by swinging on ropes
hung from trees; and he seems to have regarded the custom of swinging as a
purification by means of air.(749) This explanation probably comes very
near the truth; indeed if we substitute “souls” for “bodies” in the
wording of it we may almost accept it as exact. It might be thought that
the souls of persons who had died by hanging were, more than the souls of
the other dead, hovering in the air, since their bodies were suspended in
air at the moment of death. Hence it would be considered needful to purge
the air of these vagrant spirits, and this might be done by swinging
persons or things to and fro, in order that by their impact they might
disperse and drive away the baleful ghosts. Thus the custom would be
exactly analogous, on the one hand, to the practice of the Malay
medicine-man, who swings to and fro in front of the patient’s house in
order to chase away the disease, or to frighten away evil spirits, or to
catch the stray soul of the sick man, and, on the other hand, to the
practice of the Central Australian aborigines who beat the air with their
weapons and hands in order to drive the lingering ghost away to the
grave.(750) At Rome swinging seems to have formed part of the great Latin
festival (_Feriae Latinae_), and its origin was traced to a search in the
air for the body or even the soul of King Latinus, who had disappeared
from earth after the battle with Mezentius, King of Caere.(751)
(M225) Yet on the other hand there are circumstances which point to an
intimate association, both at Athens and Rome, of these swinging festivals
with an intention of promoting the growth of cultivated plants. Such
circumstances are the legendary connexion of the Athenian festival with
Bacchus, the custom of offering the first-fruits of the vintage to Erigone
and Icarius,(752) and at Rome the practice of hanging masks on trees at
the time of sowing(753) and in order to make the grapes grow better.(754)
Perhaps we can reconcile the two apparently discrepant effects attributed
to swinging as a means of expiation on the one side and of fertilisation
on the other, by supposing that in both cases the intention is to clear
the air of dangerous influences, whether these are ghosts of the unburied
dead or spiritual powers inimical to the growth of plants. Independent of
both appears to be the notion that the higher you swing the higher will
grow the crops.(755) This last is homoeopathic or imitative magic pure and
simple, without any admixture of the ideas of purification or expiation.
(M226) In modern Greece and Italy the custom of swinging as a festal rite,
whatever its origin may be, is still observed in some places. At the small
village of Koukoura in Elis an English traveller observed peasants
swinging from a tree in honour of St. George, whose festival it was.(756)
On the Tuesday after Easter the maidens of Seriphos play their favourite
game of the swing. They hang a rope from one wall to another of the steep,
narrow, filthy street, and putting some clothes on it swing one after the
other, singing as they swing. Young men who try to pass are called upon to
pay toll in the shape of a penny, a song, and a swing. The words which the
youth sings are generally these: “The gold is swung, the silver is swung,
and swung too is my love with the golden hair”; to which the girl replies,
“Who is it that swings me that I may gild him with my favour, that I may
work him a fez all covered with pearls?”(757) In the Greek island of
Karpathos the villagers assemble at a given place on each of the four
Sundays before Easter, a swing is erected, and the women swing one after
the other, singing death wails such as they chant round the mimic tombs in
church on the night of Good Friday.(758) On Christmas Day peasant girls in
some villages of Calabria fasten ropes to iron rings in the ceiling and
swing on them, while they sing certain songs prescribed by custom for the
occasion. The practice is regarded not merely as an amusement but also as
an act of devotion.(759) “It is a custom in Cadiz, when Christmas comes,
to fasten swings in the courtyards of houses, and even in the houses
themselves when there is no room for them outside. In the evenings lads
and lasses assemble round the swings and pass the time happily in swinging
amid joyous songs and cries. The swings are taken down when Carnival is
come.”(760) The observance of the custom at Christmas, that is, at the
winter solstice, suggests that in Calabria and Spain, as in Esthonia, the
pastime may originally have been a magical rite designed to assist the sun
in climbing the steep ascent to the top of the summer sky. If this were
so, we might surmise that the gold and the golden hair mentioned by youths
and maidens of Seriphos as they swing refer to “the golden swing in the
sky,” in other words to the sun whose golden lamp swings daily across the
blue vault of heaven.
(M227) However that may be, it would seem that festivals of swinging are
especially held in spring. This is true, for example, of North Africa,
where such festivals are common. At some places in that part of the world
the date of the swinging is the time of the apricots; at others it is said
to be the spring equinox. In some places the festival lasts three days,
and fathers who have had children born to them within the year bring them
and swing them in the swings.(761) In Corea “the fifth day of the fifth
moon is called _Tano-nal_. Ancestors are then worshipped, and swings are
put up in the yards of most houses for the amusement of the people. The
women on this day may go about the streets; during the rest of the year
they may go out only after dark. Dressed in their prettiest clothes, they
visit the various houses and amuse themselves swinging. The swing is said
to convey the idea of keeping cool in the approaching summer. It is one of
the most popular feasts of the year.”(762) Perhaps the reason here
assigned for swinging may explain other instances of the custom; on the
principles of homoeopathic magic the swinging may be regarded as a means
of ensuring a succession of cool refreshing breezes during the oppressive
heat of the ensuing summer.
ADDENDA.
P. 104. _The sacred precinct of Pelops at Olympia._—It deserves to be
noted that just as Pelops, whose legend reflects the origin of the
chariot-race, had his sacred precinct and probably his tomb at Olympia, in
like manner Endymion, whose legend reflects the origin of the
foot-race,(763) had his tomb at the end of the Olympic stadium, at the
point where the runners started in the race.(764) This presence at Olympia
of the graves of the two early kings, whose names are associated with the
origin of the foot-race and of the chariot-race respectively, can hardly
be without significance; it indicates the important part played by the
dead in the foundation of the Olympic games.
P. 188. _A man is literally reborn in the person of his son._—This belief
in the possible rebirth of the parent in the child may sometimes explain
the seemingly widespread dislike of people to have children like
themselves. Examples of such a dislike have met us in a former part of
this work.(765) A similar superstition prevails among the Papuans of Doreh
Bay in Dutch New Guinea. When a son resembles his father or a daughter
resembles her mother closely in features, these savages fear that the
father or mother will soon die.(766) Again, in the island of Savou, to the
south-west of Timor, if a child at birth is thought to be like its father
or mother, it may not remain under the parental roof, else the person whom
it resembles would soon die.(767) Such superstitions, it is obvious, might
readily suggest the expedient of killing the child in order to save the
life of the parent.
INDEX.
Ababua, the, 65
Abbas, the Great, 157
Abchases, their memorial feasts, 98, 103
Abdication, annual, of kings, 148;
of father when his son is grown up, 181;
of the king on the birth of a son, 190
Abeokuta, the Alake of, 203
Abipones, the, 63
Abraham, his attempted sacrifice of Isaac, 177
Abruzzi, the, 66, 67; burning an effigy of the Carnival in the, 224;
Lenten custom in the, 244 _sq._
Abstract notions, the personification of, not primitive, 253
Academy at Athens, funeral games held in the, 96
Acaill, Book of, 39
Accession of a Shilluk king, ceremonies at the, 23 _sq._
Acropolis at Athens, the sacred serpent on the, 86 _sq._
Adonis or Tammuz, 7
Aesculapius restores Hippolytus or Virbius to life, 214
Africa, succession to the soul in, 200 _sq._
—— North, festivals of swinging in, 284
Agathocles, his siege of Carthage, 167
Agrigentum, Phalaris of, 75
Agrionia, a festival, 163
Agylla, funeral games at, 95
Ahaz, King, his sacrifice of his children, 169 _sq._
Akurwa, 19, 23, 24
Alake, the, of Abeokuta, custom of cutting off the head of his corpse, 203
Alban kings, 76
Albania, expulsion of Kore on Easter Eve in, 265
Alcibiades of Apamea, his vision of the Holy Ghost, 5 _n._3
Alexander the Great, funeral games in his honour, 95
Algonkin women, their attempts to be impregnated by the souls of the
dying, 199
Altdorf and Weingarten, Ash Wednesday at, 232
Alus, sanctuary of Laphystian Zeus at, 161, 164
Amasis, king of Egypt, 217
Amelioration in the character of the gods, 136
American Indians, their Great Spirit, 3
Andaman Islanders, their ideas as to shooting stars, 60
Angamis, the, 13
Angel of Death, 177 _sq._
Angola, the Matiamvo of, 35
Angoni, the, of British Central Africa, 156 _n._2
Angoy, king of, 39
Anhouri, Egyptian god, 5
Animals sacred to kings, 82, 84 _sqq._;
transformations into, 82 _sqq._
Annam, natives of, their indifference to death, 136 _sq._
Annual abdication of kings, 148
—— renewal of king’s power at Babylon, 113
—— tenure of the kingship, 113 _sqq._
Antichrist, expected reign of, 44 _sq._
Aphrodite, the grave of, 4
Apollo, buried at Delphi, 4;
servitude of, 70 _n._1, 78;
and the laurel, 78 _sqq._;
as slayer of the dragon at Delphi, 78, 79, 80 _sq._;
at Thebes, 79;
purged of the dragon’s blood in the Vale of Tempe, 81
Ardennes, effigies of Carnival burned in the, 226 _sq._
Ares, the grave of, 4
Ariadne and Theseus, 75
Ariadne’s Dance, 77
Arician grove, ritual of the, 213
Arizona, mock human sacrifices in, 215
Arnold, Matthew, on the English middle class, 146
Artemis, Munychian, sacrifice to, 166 _n._1; mock human sacrifice in the
ritual of, 215 _sq._
Artemisia, wife of Mausolus, 95
Ascanius, 76
Ascension Day, 222 _n_.1; the “Carrying out of Death” on, at Braller, 247
_sqq._
Ash Wednesday, Burial of the Carnival on, 221;
death of Caramantran on, 226;
effigies of Carnival or of Shrove Tuesday burnt or buried on, 226, 228
_sqq._
_Asherim_, sacred poles, 169
Ass, son of a god in the form of an, 124 _sq._;
the crest or totem of a royal family, 132, 133
“Assegai, child of the,” 183
Asses and men, redemption of firstling, 173
Assyrian eponymate, 116 _sq._
Astarte, the moon-goddess, 92
Astronomical considerations determining the early Greek calendar, 68 _sq._
Athamas and his children, legend of, 161 _sqq._
Athena, human sacrifices to, 166 _n._1
Athenaeus, 143
Athenian festival of swinging, 281
Athens, funeral games at, 96;
hand of suicide cut off at, 220 _n._
Attacks on kings permitted, 22, 48 _sqq._
Aun or On, king of Sweden, 57; sacrifices his sons, 160 _sq._, 188
Aurora Australis, fear entertained by the Kurnai of the, 267 _n._1
Australia, custom of destroying firstborn children among the aborigines
of, 179 _sq._;
magical rites for the revival of nature in Central, 270
Australian aborigines, their ideas as to shooting stars, 60 _sq._
—— funeral custom, 92
Avebury, Lord, 146 _n._1, 273
Baal, Semitic, 75;
human sacrifices to, 167 _sqq._, 195
Babylon, festival of Zagmuk at, 110, 113
Babylonian gods, mortality of the, 5 _sq._
—— legend of creation, 110
—— myth of Marduk and Tiamat, 105 _sq._, 107 _sq._
Bacchic frenzy, 164
Baganda, the, 11
Ball, V., 279
Ballymote, the Book of, 100
Balwe in Westphalia, Burying the Carnival at, 232
Banishment of homicide, 69 _sq._
Banna, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181 _sq._
Barber, Rev. Dr. W. T. A., 145 _n._, 275
Barcelona, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 242
Barongo, the, 10, 61
Bashada, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181
_sq._
Bashkirs, their horse-races at funerals, 97
Bath of ox blood, 201
Battle of Summer and Winter, 254 _sqq._
Bautz, Dr. Joseph, on hell fire, 136 _n._1
Bavaria, Whitsuntide mummers in, 207 _sq._;
Carrying out Death in, 233 _sqq._;
dramatic contests between Summer and Winter in, 255 _sq._
Bear, the soul of Typhon in the Great, 5
Beast, the number of the, 44
Beating cattle to make them fat or fruitful, 236
Beauty and the Beast type of tale, 125 _sqq._
Bedouins, annual festival of the Sinaitic, 97
Behar, custom of swinging in, 279
Beheading the King, a Whitsuntide pageant in Bohemia, 209 _sq._
Bengal, kings of, their rule of succession, 51
Bengkali, East Indian island, 277
Benin, king of, represented with panther’s whiskers, 85 _sq._;
human sacrifices at the burial of a king of, 139 _sq._
Berosus, Babylonian historian, 113
Berry, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” in, 241 _sq._
Bhagats, mock human sacrifices among the, 217 _sq._
Bhuiyas, the, of north-eastern India, 56
Bilaspur, temporary rajah in, 154
Birds of omen, stories of their origin, 126, 127 _sq._
Black, Dr. J. Sutherland, 260 _sq._
Black bull sacrificed to the dead, 95
—— ox, bath of blood of, 201
—— ram sacrificed to Pelops, 92, 104
Bland, J. O. P., 274 _sq._
Blemishes, bodily, a ground for putting kings to death, 36 _sqq._
Blood of victims in rain-making ceremonies, 20;
bath of ox, 35;
human, offered to the dead, 92 _sq._, 104;
of sacrifice splashed on door-posts, house-posts, etc., 175, 176 _n._1;
of human victims smeared on faces of idols, 185
Boemus, J., 234
Bohemia, Whitsuntide mummers in, 209 _sqq._;
“Carrying out Death” in, 237 _sq._
Bones of sacrificial victim not broken, 20
Bonfire, jumping over, 262
Boni, in Celebes, 40
Book of Acaill, 39
Borans, their custom of sacrificing their children, 181
Bororos, the, of Brazil, 62
Bourges, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 242
Bourke, Captain J. G., 215
Boxers at funerals, 97
Brahmans, the ceremonial swinging of, 150, 156 _sq._
Braller in Transylvania, 230; “Carrying out Death” at, 247 _sqq._
Brasidas, funeral games in his honour, 94
Brazilian Indians, their indifference to death, 138
Breezes, magical means of securing, 287
Bridegroom of the May, 266
Bringing in Summer, 233, 237, 238, 246 _sqq._
Britomartis and Minos, 73
Brittany, Burial of Shrove Tuesday or of the Carnival in, 229 _sq._
Brockelmann, C., 116
Bronze ploughs used by Etruscans at founding cities, 157
Brother and sister marriages in royal families, 193 _sq._
Buddhist monks, suicide of, 42 _sq._
Budge, E. A. Wallis, 5 _n._3
Buginese of Celebes, their custom of swinging, 277
Bull, Pasiphae and the, 71; as symbol of the sun, 71 _sq._;
the brazen, of Phalaris, 75;
said to have guided the Samnites, 186 _n._4
—— and cow, represented by masked actors, 71
Bull-headed image of the sun, 75, 76, 78
Burgebrach in Bavaria, straw-man burnt on Ash Wednesday at, 232
Burial alive of the aged, 11 _sq._;
in jars, 12 _sq._;
of infants to secure rebirth, 199 _sq._;
of Shrove Tuesday, 228
Burning an effigy of the Carnival, 223, 224, 228 _sq._, 229 _sq._, 232
_sq._
—— effigies of Shrove Tuesday, 227 _sqq._;
of Winter at Zurich, 260 _sq._
“Burying the Carnival,” 209, 220 _sqq._
Busoga, mock human sacrifice in, 215
Cabunian, Mount, 3
Cadiz, custom of swinging at, 284
Cadmea, the, 79
Cadmus, servitude of, for the slaughter of the dragon, 70 _n._1, 78;
the slayer of the dragon at Thebes, 78 _sq._
—— and Harmonia, their transformation into serpents, 84;
marriage of, 88, 89
Caffres, the, 65
Caiem, the caliph, 8
Calabria, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” in, 241;
custom of swinging in, 284
Calendar, the early Greek, determined by astronomical considerations, 68
_sq._;
closely bound up with religion, 69;
the Syro-Macedonian, 116
_Calica Puran_, an Indian law-book, 217
Calicut, rule of succession observed by the kings of, 47 _sqq._, 206
California, Indians of, 62
Cambodia, Kings of Fire and Water in, 14;
annual abdication of the king of, 148
Canaanites, their custom of burning their children in honour of Baal, 168
Canada, Indians of, their ceremony for mitigating the cold of winter, 259
_sq._
Caramantran, death of, on Ash Wednesday in Provence, 226
Carinthia, ceremony at the installation of a prince of, 154 _sq._
Carman, the fair of, 100, 101
Carnival, Burying the, 209, 220 _sqq._;
swings taken down at, 287
“Carnival (Shrovetide) Fool,” 231
Carolina, king’s son wounded among the Indians of, 184 _sq._
Carrier Indians, succession to the soul among the, 199
“Carrying out Death,” 221, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._
Carthaginian sacrifice of children to Moloch, 75;
to Baal, 167 _sq._
Cassange, in Angola, king of, 203;
human sacrifice at installation of king of, 56 _sq._
Cassotis, oracular spring, 79
Castaly, the oracular spring of, 79
Catalonia, funeral of Carnival in, 225
Cattle sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._ 1
Caucasus, funeral games among the people of the, 97 _sq._
Cauxanas, Indian tribe of the Amazon, kill all their firstborn children,
185 _sq._
Cecrops, half-serpent, half-man, 86 _sq._
Celebes, sanctity of regalia in, 202; the Toboongkoos of, 219
Celts of Gaul, their indifference to death, 142 _sq._
Cemeteries, fairs held at, 101, 102
Chaka, a Zulu tyrant, 36 _sq._
Chama, town on the Gold Coast, 129
Chariot-race at Olympia, 91, 104 _sq._, 287
—— races in honour of the dead, 93
Chewsurs, their funeral games, 98
Cheyne, Professor T. K., 86 _n._4
Chilcotin Indians, their practice at an eclipse of the sun, 77
“Child of the assegai,” 183
Children sacrificed to Moloch, 75;
sacrificed by the Semites, 166 _sqq._;
dislike of parents to have children like themselves, 287
Chinese indifference to death, 144 _sqq._, 273 _sqq._;
reports of custom of devouring firstborn children, 180
Chiriguanos, the, of South America, 12
Chirol, Valentine, 274
Chitomé, a pontiff in Congo, the manner of his death, 14 _sq._
Christmas, custom of swinging at, 284
Chrudim in Bohemia, effigy of Death burnt at, 239
Chukchees, voluntary deaths among the, 13
Circassia, games in honour of the dead in, 98
Circumcision of father as a mode of redeeming his offspring, 181;
mimic rite of, 219 _sq._
Cities, Etruscan ceremony at the founding of, 157
Cloud-dragon, myth of the, 107
Cluis-Dessus and Cluis-Dessous, custom of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 241
_sq._
Cnossus, Minos at, 70 _sqq._;
the labyrinth at, 75 _sqq._
Cobra, the crest of the Maharajah of Nagpur, 132 _sq._
Cock, king represented with the feathers of a, 85
Colchis, Phrixus in, 162
Congo, the pontiff Chitomé in, 14
Conjunction of sun and moon, a time for marriage, 73
Consecration of firstlings, 172
Contempt of death, 142 _sqq._
Contests, dramatic, between actors representing Summer and Winter, 254
_sqq._
Conti, Nicolo, 54
Conybeare, F. C., 5 _n._3
Cook, A. B., 71 _n._2, 78 _n._2, 79 _n._1, 80, 81 _n._1, 82 _ns._1 and 3,
89 _n._5, 90
Corannas of South Africa, custom as to succession among the, 191 _sq._
Corea, custom of swinging in, 284 _sq._
Cornaby, Rev. W. A., 273
Cornford, F. M., 91 _n._7
Corn-harvest, the first-fruits of the, offered at Lammas, 101 _sq._
—— -spirit called the Old Man or the Old Woman, 253 _sq._
Cornwall, temporary king in, 153 _sq._
Corporeal relics of dead kings confer right to throne, 202 _sq._
Courtiers required to imitate their sovereign, 39 _sq._
Cow as symbol of the moon, 71 _sq._
Crane, dance called the, 75
Crassus, Publicius Licinius, 96
Creation, myths of, 106 _sqq._;
Babylonian legend of, 110
Creator, the grave of the, 3
Crete, grave of Zeus in, 3
Criminals sacrificed, 195
Crocodile clan, 31
Cromm Cruach, a legendary Irish idol, 183
Cronus buried in Sicily, 4;
his sacrifice of his son, 166, 179;
his treatment of his father and his children, 192;
his marriage with his sister Rhea, 194
Crooke, W., 53 _n._1, 157 _n._5, 159 _n._1
Crown of laurel, 78, 80 _sqq._;
of oak leaves, 80 _sqq._;
of olive at Olympia, 91
Crowning, festival of the, at Delphi, 78 _sqq._
Cruachan, the fair of, 101
Crystals, superstitions as to, 64 _n._6
Cupid and Psyche, story of, 131
Cutting or lacerating the body in honour of the dead, 92 _sq._, 97
Cuttle-fish, expiation for killing a, 217
Cychreus, king of Salamis, 87
Cycle, the octennial, based on an attempt to reconcile solar and lunar
time, 68 _sq._
Cyclopes, slaughter of the, 78 _n._4
Cytisorus, 162
Czechs of Bohemia, 221
Daedalus, 75
Dahomey, royal family of, related to leopards, 85;
religious massacres in, 138
Daira or Mahadev Mohammedans in Mysore, 220
Dalton, Colonel E. T., 217
Danakils or Afar of East Africa, 200
Dance of youths and maidens at Cnossus, 75 _sqq._;
Ariadne’s, 77
Dardistan, custom of swinging in, 279
Darfur, Sultans of, 39
Dassera festival of Nepaul, 277
Daura, a Hausa kingdom, 35;
custom of succession to the throne in, 201
David, King, and the brazen serpent, 86
Dead, souls of the, associated with falling stars, 64 _sqq._;
rebirth of the, 70;
sacrifices to the, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97;
human blood offered to the, 92 _sq._, 104
Dead kings, worship of, 24 _sq._;
their spirits thought to possess sick people, 25 _sq._;
of Uganda consulted as oracles, 200 _sq._
—— man’s hand used in magical ceremony, 267 _n._1
—— One, the, name applied to the last sheaf, 254
—— Sunday, 239;
the fourth Sunday in Lent, 221;
also called Mid-Lent, 222 _n._1
Death of the Great Pan, 6 _sq._
—— preference for a violent, 9 _sqq._;
natural, regarded as a calamity, 11 _sq._;
European fear of, 135 _sq._, 146;
indifference to, displayed by many races, 136 _sqq._;
the Carrying out of, 221, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._;
conception of, in relation to vegetation, 253 _sq._;
in the corn, 254;
and resurrection of Kostrubonko at Eastertide, 261;
and revival of vegetation, 263 _sq._
Death, effigy of, feared and abhorred, 239 _sq._;
potency of life attributed to, 247 _sqq._
—— the Angel of, 177 _sq._
De Barros, Portuguese historian, 51
Deer, descent of Kalamants from a, 126 _sq._;
sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._.1
Delos, Theseus at, 75
Delphi, tombs of Dionysus and Apollo at, 3 _sq._;
festival of Crowning at, 78 _sqq._
Dengdit, the Supreme Being of the Dinka, 30, 32
Deputy, the expedient of dying by, 56, 160
Dictynna and Minos, 73
Dinka, the, of the White Nile, 28 _sqq._;
totemism of the, 30 _sq._
Diomede, human sacrifices to, 166 _n._1
Dionysus, the tomb of, at Delphi, 3;
human sacrifice consummated by a priest of, 163;
boys sacrificed to, 166 _n._1
Dislike of people to have children like themselves, 287
Diurnal tenure of the kingship, 118 _sq._
Divine king, the killing of the, 9 _sqq._
—— kings of the Shilluk, 17 _sqq._
—— spirit incarnate in Shilluk kings, 21, 26 _sq._
Dodge, Colonel R. I., 3
Dog killed instead of king, 17
Doreh Bay in New Guinea, 287
Dorians, their superstition as to meteors, 59
Dragon, drama of the slaughter of the, 78 _sqq._, 89;
myth of the, 105 _sqq._
Dragon-crest of kings, 105
Dramatic contests of actors representing Summer and Winter, 254 _sqq._
Dreams, revelations in, 25
Drenching leaf-clad mummer as a rain-charm, 211
Driver, Professor S. R., 170 _n._5, 173 _n._1
Ducks and ptarmigan, dramatic contest of the, 259
Dyak medicine-men, their practice of swinging, 280 _sq._
Dyaks of Sarawak, story of their descent from a fish, 126;
sacrifice cattle instead of human beings, 166 _n._1;
their sacrifices during an epidemic, 176 _n._1;
their custom of swinging, 277
Dying, custom of catching the souls of the, 198 _sqq._
Dying by deputy, 56, 160
Eames, W., 273
Ears of sacrificial victims cut off, 97
Easter, first Sunday after, 249;
swinging on the Tuesday after, 283;
custom of swinging on the four Sundays before, 284
Easter Eve in Albania, expulsion of Kore on, 265
Eastertide, death and resurrection of Kostrubonko at, 261
Eating the bodies of aged relations, custom of, 14
Echinadian Islands, 6
Eclipse of the sun and moon, belief of the Tahitians as to, 73 _n._2;
practice of the Chilcotin Indians at an, 77
Ecliptic perhaps mimicked in dances, 77
Effigies of Carnival, 222 _sqq._;
of Shrove Tuesday, 227 _sqq._;
of Death, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._;
seven-legged, of Lent in Spain and Italy, 244 _sq._;
of Winter burnt at Zurich, 260 _sq._;
of Kupalo, Kostroma, and Yarilo in Russia, 262 _sq._
Effigy, human sacrifices carried out in, 217 _sqq._
Egbas, the, 41
Egypt, temporary kings in Upper, 151 _sq._;
mock human sacrifices in ancient, 217
Egyptian gods, mortality of the ancient, 4 _sqq._;
influence on Christian doctrine of the Trinity, 5 _n._3;
kings called bulls, 72;
trinities of gods, 5 _n._3
Eimine Ban, an Irish abbot, 159 _n._1
Eldest sons sacrificed for their fathers, 161 _sqq._
Elliot, R. H., 136
Emain, fair at, 100
Embalming as a means of prolonging the life of the soul, 4
Encheleans, the, 84
Endymion at Olympia, 90; his tomb at Olympia, 287
English middle class, their clinging to life, 146
Ἐννέωρος βασίλευε, 70 _n._3
Eponymate, the Assyrian, 116 _sq._
Eponymous magistrates, 117 _n._1
Equinox, the spring, custom of swinging at, 284;
drama of Summer and Winter at the spring, 257
Erechtheum, the, 87
Erechtheus or Erichthonius in relation to the sacred serpent on the
Acropolis, 86 _sq._;
voluntary death of the daughters of, 192 _n._3
Ergamenes, king of Meroe, 15
Erichthonius, 86. _See_ Erechtheus
Erigone, her suicide by hanging, 281 _sq._
Erzgebirge, Shrovetide custom in the, 208 _sq._
Esagil, temple of Marduk at Babylon, 113
Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, 116
Esquimaux, suicide among the, 43;
their magical ceremony in autumn, 259
Esthonian belief as to falling stars, 66 _sq._;
celebration of St. John’s Day, 280;
custom on Shrove Tuesday, 233, 252 _sq._
Esthonians, their ideas of shooting stars, 63
Ethiopia, kings of, chosen for their beauty, 38 _sq._
Ethiopian kings of Meroe put to death, 15
Etruscan ceremony at founding cities, 157
Euphorion of Chalcis, Greek author, 143, 144
Europa, her wanderings, 89;
and Zeus, 73
European beliefs as to shooting stars, 66 _sqq._;
fear of death, 135 _sq._, 146
Evans, Sebastian, 122 _n._1
Eve, Easter, in Albania, 265
Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve), Russian ceremony on, 262
Ewe negroes, the, 61
Expiation for killing sacred animals, 216 _sq._
Eyeo, kings of, put to death, 40 _sq._
Ezekiel, on the sacrifice of the firstborn, 171 _sq._
E-zida, the temple of Nabu, 110
Fairs of ancient Ireland, 99 _sqq._
Fashoda, the capital of the Shilluk kings, 18, 19, 21, 24
Father god succeeded by his divine son, 5
Fazoql or Fazolglou, kings of, put to death, 16
Fear of death entertained by the European races, 135 _sq._, 146
“Feeding the dead,” 102
_Feriae Latinae_, 283
Feronia, a Latin goddess, 186 _n._4
Fertilising power ascribed to the effigy of Death, 250 _sq._
Festival of the Crowning at Delphi, 78 _sq._;
of the Laurel-bearing at Thebes, 78 _sq._, 88 _sq._
Festus, on “the Sacred Spring,” 186
Feuillet, Madame Octave, 228 _sq._
Fez, mock sultan in, 152
Fighting the king, right of, 22
Fiji, voluntary deaths in, 11 _sq._;
custom of grave-diggers in, 156 _n._2;
rule of succession in, 191
Finger-joints, custom of sacrificing, 219;
mock sacrifice of, _ib._
Fire, voluntary death by, 42 _sqq._;
and Water, kings of, in Cambodia, 14
Firstborn, sacrifice of the, 171 _sqq._;
killed and eaten, 179 _sq._;
sacrificed among various races, 179 _sqq._
—— -fruits offered to the dead, 102;
of the corn offered at Lammas, 101 _sq._;
of the vintage offered to Icarius and Erigone, 283
Firstlings, Hebrew sacrifice of, 172 _sq._;
Irish sacrifice of, 183
Fish, descent of the Dyaks from a, 126
Fison, Rev. Lorimer, 156 _n._2
Five years, despotic power for period of, 53
Flight of the priestly king (_Regifugium_) at Rome, 213
Florence, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 240 _sq._
Florida, sacrifice of firstborn male children by the Indians of, 184
Fool, the Carnival, burial of, 231 _sq._
Foot, custom of standing on one, 149, 150, 155, 156
—— -race at Olympia, 287
Franche-Comté, effigies of Shrove Tuesday destroyed in, 227
Freycinet, L. de, 118 _n._1
Frosinone in Latium, burning an effigy of the Carnival at, 22 _sq._
Funeral of Kostroma, 261 _sqq._
—— -games, 92 _sqq._
—— -rites performed for a father in the fifth month of his wife’s
pregnancy, 189
Futuna in the South Pacific, 97
Galton, Sir Francis, 146 _n._2
Game of Troy, 76 _sq._
Games, funeral, 92 _sqq._
Gandharva-Sena, 124, 125
Ganges, firstborn children sacrificed to the, 180 _sq._
Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain, 65
Gelo, tyrant of Syracuse, 167
Genesis, account of the creation in, 106
Ghost, the Holy, regarded as female, 5 _n._3
Ghosts propitiated with blood, 92;
propitiated with games, 96;
anger of, 103
Giles, Professor H. A., 275
Girls’ race at Olympia, 91
Gladiators at Roman funerals, 96;
at Roman banquets, 143
Goats sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._1
Gobir, a Hausa kingdom, 35
God, the killing and resurrection of a god in the hunting, pastoral, and
agricultural stages of society, 221
God’s Mouth, 41
Gods, mortality of the, 1 _sqq._;
created by man in his own likeness, 2 _sq._;
succeeded by their sons, 5;
progressive amelioration in the character of the, 136
Golden apples of the Hesperides, 80
—— fleece, ram with, 162
—— swords, 75
Goldmann, Dr. Emil, 155 _n._1
Goldziher, I., 97 _n._7
Gomes, E. H., 176 _n._1
Gonds, mock human sacrifices among the, 217
Good Friday, 284
Gore, Captain, 139 _n._1
Gospel to the Hebrews, the apocryphal, 5 _n._3
_Graal_, _History of the Holy_, 120, 134
Grape-cluster, Mother of the, 8
Gray, Archdeacon J. H., 145
Great Pan, death of the, 6 _sq._
—— Spirit, the, of the American Indians, 3
—— year, the, 70
Greece, human sacrifices in ancient, 161 _sqq._;
swinging as a festal rite in modern, 283 _sq._
Greek mode of reckoning intervals of time, 59 _n._1
Greenlanders, their belief in the mortality of the gods, 3
Grey hair a signal of death, 36 _sq._
—— hairs of kings, 100, 102, 103
Grimm, J., 155 _n._1, 221, 240, 244
Groot, Professor J. J. M. de, 180 _n._7, 275
Grove, the Arician, 213
Guatemala, catching the soul of the dying in, 199
Guayana Indians, 12
Gypsies, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” among the, 243
Hair, grey, a signal of death, 36 _sq._
Halae in Attica, mock human sacrifice at, 215
Hale, Horatio, quoted, 11 _sq._
Hamilton, Alexander, quoted, 48
Hamilton’s _Account of the East Indies_, 278
Hammurabi, king of Babylon, 110
Hand of dead man in magical ceremony, 267 _n._1;
of suicide cut off, 220 _n._
Hanging of an effigy of the Carnival, 230 _sq._
Harmonia and Cadmus, 84;
marriage of, 88, 89
Harvest ceremonies, 20, 25
Harz Mountains, ceremony at Carnival in the, 233
Hausa kings put to death, 35
Hawaii, annual festival in, 117 _sq._
Hawk in Egypt, symbol of the sun and of the king, 112
Heads of dead kings removed and kept, 202 _sq._
Hebrew sacrifice of the firstborn, 171 _sqq._
Hebrews, apocryphal Gospel to the, 5 _n._3
Heitsi-eibib, a Hottentot god, 3
Heliogabalus, the emperor, 92
Heliopolis, 5;
the sacred bull of, 72
Hell fire in Catholic and Protestant theology, 136
Helle and Phrixus, the children of King Athamas, 161 _sqq._
Hephaestion, 95
Hera, race of girls in honour of, at Olympia, 91;
the sister of her husband Zeus, 194
Heraclitus, on the souls of the dead, 12
Hercules in the garden of the Hesperides, 80
Hermapolis, 4
Hermes, the grave of, 4
Heruli, the, 14
Hesperides, garden of the, 80
Hieraconpolis, 112
_High History of the Holy Graal_, 120, 134
Hippodamia at Olympia, 91;
grave of the suitors of, 104
Hippolytus or Virbius killed by horses, 214
Hindoo belief as to shooting stars, 67;
of the rebirth of a father in his son, 188
Hinnom, the Valley of, 169, 170
Hirpini, guided by a wolf (_hirpus_), 186 _n._4
Hodson, T. C., 117 _n._1
Hoeck, K., 73 _n._1
Hofmayr, P. W., 18 _n._1, 19 _n._2
Holm-oak, 81 _sq._
Holy Ghost, regarded as female, 5 _n._3
—— Saturday, 244
Homeric age, funeral games in the, 93
Homicide, banishment of, 69 _sq._
Homoeopathic or imitative magic, 283, 285
Hooks, Indian custom of swinging on, 278 _sq._
Horse-mackerel, descent of a totemic clan from a, 129
—— -races in honour of the dead, 97, 98, 99, 101;
at fairs, 99 _sqq._
Horses, Hippolytus killed by, 214
Horus, the soul of, in Orion, 5
Hottentots, the mortal god of the, 3
Howitt, A. W., 64
Human flesh, transformation into animal shape through eating, 83 _sq._
Human sacrifices at Upsala, 58;
in ancient Greece, 161 _sqq._;
mock, 214 _sqq._;
offered by ancestors of the European races, 214;
to renew the sun’s fire, 74 _sq._
Huntsman, the Spectral, 178
Huron Indians, their burial of infants, 199
Ibadan in West Africa, 203
Ibn Batuta, 53
Icarus or Icarius and his daughter Erigone, 281 _sq._, 283
Ida, oracular cave of Zeus on Mount, 70
Ihering, R. von, 187 _n._4
Ijebu tribe, 112
Ilex or holm-oak, 81 _sq._
Immortality, belief of savages in their natural, 1;
firm belief of the North American Indians in, 137
Impregnation by the souls of the dying, 199
Incarnation of divine spirit in Shilluk kings, 21, 26 _sq._
India, sacrifice of firstborn children in, 180 _sq._;
images of Siva and Pârvati married in, 265 _sq._
Indians of Arizona, mock human sacrifice among the, 215;
of Canada, their ceremony for mitigating the cold of winter, 259 _sq._
Indifference to death displayed by many races, 136 _sqq._
Indra and the dragon Vrtra, 106 _sq._
Infanticide among the Australian aborigines, 187 _n._6;
sometimes suggested by a doctrine of transmigration or reincarnation of
human souls, 188 _sq._;
prevalent in Polynesia, 191, 196;
among savages, 196 _sq._
Infants, burial of, 199
Ino and Melicertes, 162
Intervals of time, Greek and Latin modes of reckoning, 59 _n._1
_Invocavit_ Sunday, 243
Ireland, the great fairs of ancient, 99 _sqq._
Irish sacrifice of firstlings, 183
Iron-Beard, Dr., a Whitsuntide mummer, 208, 212, 233
Isaac about to be sacrificed by his father Abraham, 177
Isaacs, Nathaniel, 36 _sq._
Isis, the soul of, in Sirius, 5
Isle of Man, May Day in the, 258
Isocrates, 95
Israelites, their custom of burning their children in honour of Baal, 168
_sqq._
Isthmian games instituted in honour of Melicertes, 93, 103
Italy, seven-legged effigies of Lent in, 244 _sq._
Jack o’ Lent, 230
Jagas, a tribe of Angola, their custom of infanticide, 196 _sq._
Jaintias of Assam, 55
Jambi in Sumatra, temporary kings in, 154
Japan, mock human sacrifices in, 218
Jars, burial in, 12 _sq._
Java, Sultans of, 53
Jawbone of king preserved, 200 _sq._
Jeoud, the only-begotten son of Cronus, sacrificed by his father, 166
Jerome, on Tophet, 170
“Jerusalem, the Road of,” 76
Jerusalem, sacrifice of children at, 169
Jinn, death of the King of the, 8
Jordanus, Friar, 54
Joyce, P. W., 100 _n._1, 101
Judah, kings of, their custom of burning their children, 169
Jukos, kings of the, put to death, 34
Jumping over a bonfire, 262
June, the twenty-ninth of, St. Peter’s Day, 262
Jŭok, the great god of the Shilluk, 18
Jupiter, period of revolution of the planet, 49
Justin, 187 _n._5
Kaitish, the, 60
Kalamantans, their descent from a deer, 126 _sq._
Kali, Indian goddess, 123
Kamants, a Jewish tribe, 12
Kanagra district of India, 265
Karpathos, custom of swinging in the island of, 284
Katsina, a Hausa kingdom, 35
Kayans of Borneo, mock human sacrifices among the, 218
Keonjhur, ceremony at installation of Rajah of, 56
Kerre, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181 _sq._
Khlysti, the, a Russian sect, 196 _n._3
Khonds of India, their human sacrifices, 139
Kibanga, kings of, put to death, 34
Killer of the Elephant, 35
Killing the divine king, 9 _sqq._
—— of the tree-spirit, 205 _sqq._;
a means to promote the growth of vegetation, 211 _sq._
—— a god, in the hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society,
221
King, the killing of the divine, 8 _sqq._;
slaying of the, in legend, 120 _sqq._;
responsible for the weather and crops, 165;
abdicates on the birth of a son, 190;
at Whitsuntide, pretence of beheading the, 209 _sq._
King of the Jinn, death of the, 8
—— of the Wood at Nemi, 28, 205 _sq._, 212 _sqq._
—— and Queen of May, marriage of, 266
King Hop, 149, 151
King’s daughter offered as prize in a race, 104
—— jawbone preserved, 200 _sq._
—— life sympathetically bound up with the prosperity of the country, 21,
27
—— skull used as a drinking-vessel, 200
—— son, sacrifice of the, 160 _sqq._
—— widow, succession to the throne through marriage with, 193
Kingdom, the prize of a race, 103 _sqq._ _See also_ Succession
Kings, divine, of the Shilluk, 17 _sqq._;
regarded as incarnations of a divine spirit, 21, 26 _sq._;
attacks on, permitted, 22, 48 _sqq._;
worship of dead, 24 _sq._;
killed at the end of a fixed term, 46 _sqq._;
related to sacred animals, 82, 84 _sqq._;
personating dragons or serpents, 82;
addressed by names of animals, 86;
with a dragon or serpent crest, 105;
the supply of, 134 _sqq._;
temporary, 148 _sqq._;
abdicate annually, 148
—— killed when their strength fails, 14 _sqq._
—— of Dahomey and Benin represented partly in animal shapes, 85 _sq._
—— of Fire and Water, 14
—— of Uganda, dead, consulted as oracles, 200 _sq._
Kingship, octennial tenure of the, 58 _sqq._;
triennial tenure of the, 112 _sq._;
annual tenure of the, 113 _sqq._;
diurnal tenure of the, 118 _sq._;
burdens and restrictions attaching to the early, 135;
modern type of, different from the ancient, 135
Kingsley, Mary H., 119 _n._1
Kingsmill Islanders, 64
Kirghiz, games in honour of the dead among the, 97
_Kirwaido_, ruler of the old Prussians, 41
Königgrätz district of Bohemia, Whitsuntide custom in the, 209 _sq._
Kore expelled on Easter Eve in Albania, 265
Koryaks, voluntary deaths among the, 13
Kostroma, funeral of, 261 _sqq._
Kostrubonko, funeral of, 261
Krapf, Dr. J. L., 183 _n._1
Krishna, Hindoo festival of swinging in honour of, 279
Kupalo, funeral of, 261, 262
Kurnai, their fear of the Aurora Australis, 267 _n._1
Kutonaqa Indians of British Columbia, their sacrifice of their firstborn
children to the sun, 183 _sq._
La Rochelle, burning of Shrove Tuesday at, 230
Labyrinth, the Cretan, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77
Labyrinths in churches, 76;
in the north of Europe, 76 _sq._
Lada, the funeral of, 261, 262
Laevinus, M. Valerius, 96
Laius and Oedipus, 193
“Lame reign,” 38
Lammas, the first of August, 99, 100, 101, 105
Lampson, M. W., 146 _n._1, 273
Lancelot constrained to be king, 120 _sq._, 135
Lang, Andrew, 130 _n._1
Laodicea in Syria, human sacrifices at, 166 _n._1
Laos, a province of Siam, 97
Laphystian Zeus, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165
Last sheaf called “the Dead One,” 254
Latin festival, the great (_Feriae Latinae_), 283
—— mode of reckoning intervals of time, 59 _n._1
Latins, sanctity of the woodpecker among the, 186 _n._4
Latinus, King, his disappearance, 283
Laughlan Islanders, 63
Laurel, sacred, guarded by a dragon, 79 _sq._;
chewed by priestess of Apollo, 80
Laurel-Bearer at Thebes, 88 _sq._
—— -Bearing Apollo, 79 _n._3
—— -bearing, festival of the, at Thebes, 78 _sq._, 88 _sq._
—— wreath at Delphi and Thebes, 78 _sqq._
_Laws of Manu_, 188
Learchus, son of King Athamas, 161, 162
Lechrain, Burial of the Carnival in, 231
Leipsic, “Carrying out Death” at, 236
Lengua Indians, 11;
of the Gran Chaco, 63;
their practice of killing firstborn girls, 186;
their custom of infanticide, 197
Lent, the fourth Sunday in, called Dead Sunday or Mid-Lent, 221, 222
_n._1, 233 _sqq._, 250, 255;
personified by an actor or effigy, 226, 230;
fifth Sunday in, 234, 239;
third Sunday in, 238;
Queen of, 244;
symbolised by a seven-legged effigy, 244 _sq._
Leonidas, funeral games in his honour, 94
Leopard Societies of Western Africa, 83
Leopards related to royal family of Dahomey, 85
Lepidus, Marcus Aemilius, 96
Lepsius, R., 17 _n._2
Lerida in Catalonia, funeral of the Carnival at, 225 _sq._
Lerpiu, a spirit, 32
Letts, celebration of the summer solstice among the, 280
Leviathan, 106 _n._2
Liebrecht, F., 7 _n._2
Life, human, valued more highly by Europeans than by many other races, 135
_sq._
_Limu_, the Assyrian eponymate, 117
Lion, king represented with the body of a, 85
Lisiansky, U., 117 _sq._
“Little Easter Sunday,” 153, 154 _n._1
Logan, W., 49
Lolos, the, 65
Lombardy, the Day of the Old Wives in, 241
“Lord of the Heavenly Hosts,” 149, 150, 155, 156
Lostwithiel in Cornwall, temporary king at, 153 _sq._
Lous, a Babylonian month, 113, 116
Lucian, 42
Lug, legendary Irish hero, 99, 101
Lugnasad, the first of August, 101
Lunar and solar time, attempts to harmonise, 68 _sq._
Luschan, F. von, 85 _n._5, 86 _n._1
Lussac, Ash Wednesday at, 226
Lycaeus, Mount, Zeus on, 70;
human sacrifices on, 163
Macahity, an annual festival in Hawaii, 117
Macassars of Celebes, their custom of swinging, 277
Macdonald, Rev. J., 183 _n._2
Maceboard, the, in the Isle of Man, 258
Macgregor, Sir William, 203 _n._2
Macha, Queen, 100
McLennan, J. F., 194 _n._1
Magic, the Age of, 2;
homoeopathic or imitative, 283, 285
Magical ceremonies for the revival of nature in spring, 266 _sqq._;
for the revival of nature in Central Australia, 270
_Maha Makham_, the Great Sacrifice, 49
Mairs, their custom of sacrificing their firstborn sons, 181
Malabar, custom of _Thalavettiparothiam_ in, 53;
religious suicide in, 54 _sq._
Malayans, devil-dancers, practise a mock human sacrifice, 216
Malays, their belief in the Spectral Huntsman, 178
Malta, death of the Carnival in, 224 _sq._
Manasseh, King, his sacrifice of his children, 170
Mandans, their notions as to the stars, 67 _sq._
Man-god, reason for killing the, 9 _sq._
Mangaians, their preference for a violent death, 10
Manipur, the Naga tribes of, 11;
mode of counting the years in, 117 _n._1;
rajahs of, descended from a snake, 133
Mannhardt, W., 249 _n._4, 253, 270
_Manu_, _Laws of_, 188
Maoris, the, 64
Mara tribe of northern Australia, 60
_Mardi Gras_, Shrove Tuesday, 227
Marduk, New Year festival of, 110;
his image at Babylon, 113
—— and Tiamat, 105 _sq._, 107 _sq._
_Mareielis_ at Zurich, 260
Marena, Winter or Death, 262
Marketa, the holy, 238
Marriage, mythical and dramatic, of the Sun and Moon, 71, 73 _sq._, 78, 87
_sq._, 92, 105;
of brothers and sisters in royal families, 193 _sq._
—— Sacred, of king and queen, 71;
of gods and goddesses, 73;
of actors disguised as animals, 83;
of Zeus and Hera, 91
“Marriage Hollow” at Teltown, 99
Martin, Father, quoted, 141 _sq._
Marzana, goddess of Death, 237
Masai, the, 61, 65;
their custom as to the skulls of dead chiefs, 202 _sq._
Masks hung on trees, 283
Masquerades of kings and queens, 71 _sq._, 88, 89
Masson, Bishop, 137
Mata, the small-pox goddess, sacrifice of children to, 181
Matiamvo, a potentate in Angola, the manner of his death, 35 _sq._
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, 94 _sq._
Mausolus, contests of eloquence in his honour, 95
May, the Queen of, in the Isle of Man, 258;
King and Queen of, 266
—— Bride, 266
—— Day in Sweden, 254;
in the Isle of Man, 258
—— -tree, 246;
horse-race to, 208
—— -trees, 251 _sq._
Mbaya Indians of South America, 140;
their custom of infanticide, 197
Medicine-men swinging as a mode of cure, 280 _sq._
Melicertes at the Isthmus of Corinth, 93, 103;
in Tenedos, human sacrifices to, 162
Memphis, statues of Summer and Winter at, 259 _n._1
Men and asses, redemption of firstling, 173
Mendes, mummy of Osiris at, 4;
the ram-god of, 7 n.2
Menoeceus, his voluntary death, 192 _n._3
Meriahs, human victims among the Khonds, 139
Meroe, Ethiopian kings of, put to death, 15
Merolla, G., quoted, 14 _sq._
Messiah, a pretended, 46
Meteors, superstitions as to, 58 _sqq._
Metis, swallowed by her husband Zeus, 192
_Metsik_, “wood-spirit,” 233, 252 _sq._
Meyer, Professor Kuno, 159 _n._1
Micah, the prophet, on sacrifice, 171, 174
Mid-Lent, the fourth Sunday in Lent, 222 _n._1;
also called Dead Sunday, 221;
celebration of, 234, 236 _sq._;
ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 240 _sqq._
Midsummer Eve, Russian ceremony on, 262
Mikados, human sacrifices formerly offered at the graves of the, 218
Miltiades, funeral games in his honour, 93
Minahassa, mock human sacrifices in, 214 _sq._
Minorca, seven-legged images of Lent in, 244 _n._1
Minos, king of Cnossus, his reign of eight years, 70 _sqq._;
tribute of youths and maidens sent to, 74 _sqq._
—— and Britomartis, 73
Minotaur, legend of the, 71, 74, 75
Minyas, king of Orchomenus, 164
Mnevis, the sacred bull of Heliopolis, 72
Moab, king of, sacrifices his son on the wall, 166, 179
Mock human sacrifices, 214 _sqq._;
sacrifices of finger-joints, 219
—— sultan in Morocco, 152 _sq._
Mohammedan belief as to falling stars, 63 _sq._
Moloch, sacrifice of children to, 75, 168 _sqq._
Moon represented by a cow, 71 _sq._;
myth of the setting and rising, 73;
married to Endymion, 90
—— and sun, mythical and dramatic marriage of the, 71, 73 _sq._, 78, 87
_sq._, 92, 105
Morasas, the, 219
Moravia, “Carrying out Death” in, 238 _sq._, 249
Morocco, annual temporary king in, 152 _sq._
Mortality of the gods, 1 _sqq._
Moschus, 73 _n._1
Moss, W., 284 _n._4
Mother of the Grape-cluster, 8
Moulton, Professor J. H., 124 _n._1
Mounds, sepulchral, 93, 96, 100, 104
Mulai Rasheed II., 153
Müller, K. O., 59, 69 _n._1, 90, 165 _n._1, 166 _n._1
Mumbo Jumbos, 178
Mummers, the Whitsuntide, 205 _sqq._
Murderers, their bodies destroyed, 11
Mutch, Captain J. S., 259 _n._1
Mysore, mimic rite of circumcision in, 220
Myths of creation, 106 _sqq._
Nabu, a Babylonian god, 110
Naga tribes of Manipur, 11
Nagpur, the cobra the crest of the Maharajah of, 132 _sq._
Namaquas, the, 61
Natural death regarded as a calamity, 11 _sq._
Nauroz and Eed festivals, 279
Nemean games celebrated in honour of Opheltes, 93
Nemi, priest of, 28, 212 _sq._, 220;
King of the Wood at, 205 _sq._, 212 _sqq._
Nephele, wife of King Athamas, 161
New Britain, 65
—— Guinea, the Papuans of, 287
—— Hebrides, burial alive in the, 12
—— South Wales, sacrifice of firstborn children among the aborigines of,
179 _sq._
Ngarigo, the, of New South Wales, 60
Ngoio, a province of Congo, 118 _sq._
Nias, custom of succession to the chieftainship in, 198 _sq._;
mock human sacrifices at funerals in, 216
Nicobarese, their sham-fights to gratify the dead, 96
Niederpöring in Bavaria, Whitsuntide custom at, 206 _sq._
Niué or Savage Island, 219
Nöldeke, Professor Th., 179 _n._4
Normandy, Burial of Shrove Tuesday in, 228
Norsemen, their custom of wounding the dying, 13 _sq._
North Africa, festivals of swinging in, 284
—— American Indians, their funeral celebrations, 97;
their firm belief in immortality, 137
Nyakang, founder of the dynasty of Shilluk kings, 18 _sqq._
Nyikpla or Nyigbla, a negro divinity, 61
Oak, sacred, at Delphi, 80 _sq._;
effigy of Death buried under an, 236
Oak branches, Whitsuntide mummer swathed in, 207
—— -leaves, crown of, 80 _sqq._
Oath by the Styx, 70 _n._1
Octennial cycle based on an attempt to harmonise lunar and solar time, 68
_sq._
—— tenure of the kingship, 58 _sqq._
Odin, 13;
legend of the deposition of, 56; sacrifice of king’s sons to, 57;
human sacrifices to, 160 _sq._, 188
Oedipus, legend of, 193
Oenomaus at Olympia, 91
Oesel, island of, 66
Old Man, name of the corn-spirit, 253 _sq._
—— people killed, 11 _sqq._
—— Wives, the Day of the, 241
—— Woman, Sawing the, a ceremony in Lent, 240 _sqq._;
name applied to the corn-spirit, 253 _sq._
Oldenberg, Professor H., 122 _n._2
Oleae, the, at Orchomenus, 163, 164
Olive crown at Olympia, 91
Olympia, tombs of Pelops and Endymion at, 287
Olympiads based on the octennial cycle, 90
Olympic festival based on the octennial cycle, 89 _sq._;
based on astronomical, not agricultural considerations, 105
—— games said to have been founded in honour of Pelops, 92
—— stadium, the, 287
—— victors regarded as embodiments of Zeus, 90 _sq._, or of the Sun and
Moon, 91, 105
Omen-birds, stories of their origin, 126, 127 _sq._
On or Aun, king of Sweden, 57, 160 _sq._, 188
Opheltes at Nemea, 93
Ophites, the, 5 _n._3
Oracular springs, 79 _sq._
Orchomenus in Boeotia, human sacrifice at, 163 _sq._
Ordeal by poison, fatal effects of, 197
Orestes, flight of, 213
Origen, on the Holy Spirit, 5 _n._3
Orion the soul of Horus, 5
_Ororo_, 24
Osiris, the mummy of, 4
Otho, suicide of the Emperor, 140
Ox-blood, bath of, 201
Oxen sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._1
Palermo, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 240
Palm Sunday, “Sawing the Old Woman” on, 243
Palodes, 6
Pan, death of the Great, 6 _sq._
Panebian Libyans, their custom of cutting off the heads of their dead
kings, 202
Papuans, the, of Doreh Bay in New Guinea, 287
Parker, Professor E. H., 146 _n._1
Parkinson, John, 112 _sq._
Parrots’ eggs, a signal of death, 40 _sq._
Parsons, Harold G., 203 _n._5
Parthenon, eastern frieze of the, 89 _n._5
Pârvatî and Siva, marriage of the images of, 265 _sq._
Pasiphae identified with the moon, 72
—— and the bull, 71
“Pass through the fire,” meaning of the phrase as applied to the sacrifice
of children, 165 _n._3, 172
Passier, kings of, put to death, 51 _sq._
Passover, tradition of the origin of the, 174 _sqq._
Pau Pi, an effigy of the Carnival, 225
Pausanias, King, funeral games in his honour, 94
Payagua Indians, 12
Payne, E. J., 69 _n._2
Paxos, 6
_Peking Gazette_, 274, 275
Pelops worshipped at Olympia, 92, 104;
sacred precinct of, 104, 287
—— and Hippodamia at Olympia, 91
Penance for the slaughter of the dragon, 78
Peregrinus, his death by fire, 42
Persia, temporary kings in, 157 _sqq._
Personification of abstract ideas not primitive, 253
Peru, sacrifice of children among the Indians of, 185
Perun, sacrifice of firstborn children to, 183
Peruvian Indians, 63 _n._1
_Pfingstl_, a Whitsuntide mummer, 206 _sq._, 211
Phalaris, the brazen bull of, 75
Phaya Phollathep, “Lord of the Heavenly Hosts,” 149
Pherecydes, 163 _n._1
Philippine Islands, 3
Philo Judaeus, his doctrine of the Trinity, 6 _n._
—— of Byblus, 166, 179
Phocaeans, dead, propitiated with games, 95
Phoenicians, their custom of human sacrifice, 166 _sq._, 178, 179
Phrixus and Helle, the children of King Athamas, 161 _sqq._
Piceni, guided by a woodpecker (_picus_), 186 _n._4
Pilsen district of Bohemia, Whitsuntide custom in the, 210 _sq._
Pindar on the rebirth of the dead, 70
Pitrè, G., 224 _n._1
Plataea, sacrifices and funeral games in honour of the slain at, 95 _sq._
Plato on human sacrifices, 163
Ploughing, annual ceremony of, performed by temporary king, 149, 155
_sq._, 157
Ploughs, bronze, used by Etruscans at founding of cities, 157
Plutarch, 163;
on the death of the Great Pan, 6;
on human sacrifices among the Carthaginians, 167
Poison ordeal, fatal effects of the use of the, 197
Polynesia, remarkable rule of succession in, 190;
prevalence of infanticide in, 191, 196
Poplars burnt on Shrove Tuesday, 224 _n._1
Poseidon, identified with Erechtheus, 87
Posidonius, ancient Greek traveller, 142
Possession by spirits of dead kings, 25 _sq._
Preference for a violent death, 9 _sqq._
Pregnancy, funeral rites performed for a father in the fifth month of his
wife’s, 189
Prince of Wales Islands, 64
Procopius, 14
Prussians, supreme ruler of the old, 41 _sq._;
custom of the old, 156
Pruyssenaere, E. de, 30 _n._1
Psoloeis, the, at Orchomenus, 163, 164
Ptarmigans and ducks, dramatic contest of the, 259
Puruha, a province of Quito, 185
Pururavas and Urvasi, Indian story of, 131
Pylos, burning the Carnival at, 232 _sq._
Pythagoras at Delphi, 4
Pythian games, 80 _sq._;
celebrated in honour of the Python, 93
Queen of May in the Isle of Man, 259;
married to the King of May, 266
—— of Winter in the Isle of Man, 258
Queensland, natives of, their superstitions as to falling stars, 60
Quilicare, suicide of kings of, 46 _sq._
Quiteve, title of kings of Sofala, 37 _sq._
Race for the kingdom at Olympia, 90
Races to determine the successor to the kingship, 103 _sqq._
_Radica_, a festival at the end of the Carnival at Frosinone, 222
Rahab or Leviathan, 106 _n._2
Rain-charms, 211
—— clan, 31
—— -god, 61
—— -makers among the Dinka, 32 _sqq._
—— -making ceremonies, 20
Rajah, temporary, 154
Ralî, the fair of, 265
Ram with golden fleece, 162
—— -god of Mendes, 7 _n._3
—— sacrificed to Pelops, 92, 104
Raratonga, custom of succession in, 191
_Rauchfiess_, a Whitsuntide mummer, 207 _n._1
Rebirth of the dead, 70;
of a father in his son, 188 _sqq._;
of the parent in the child, 287
Reckoning intervals of time, Greek and Latin modes of reckoning, 59 _n._1
Redemption of firstling men and asses, 173
Regalia in Celebes, sanctity of, 202
Regicide among the Slavs, 52;
modified custom of, 148
_Regifugium_ at Rome, 213
Reinach, Salomon, 7 _n._2
Reincarnation of human souls, belief in, a motive for infanticide, 188
_sq._
Religion, the Age of, 2
Renewal, annual, of king’s power at Babylon, 113
Resurrection of the god, 212;
of the tree-spirit, 212;
of a god in the hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society,
221;
enacted in Shrovetide or Lenten ceremonies, 233;
of the effigy of Death, 247 _sqq._;
of the Carnival, 252;
of the Wild Man, 252;
of Kostrubonko at Eastertide, 261
Retaliation in Southern India, law of, 141 _sq._
Rhea and Cronus, 194
Rhegium in Italy, 187 _n._5
Rhodes, human sacrifices to Baal in, 195
Rhys, Sir John, 101
Rigveda, the, 279
“Road of Jerusalem,” 76
Robinson, Captain W. C., 139 _n._1
Rockhill, W. W., 284 _sq._
Roman custom of catching the souls of the dying, 200;
of vowing a “Sacred Spring,” 186 _sq._
—— funeral customs, 92, 96
—— game of Troy, 76 _sq._
—— indifference to death, 143 _sq._
Rome, funeral games at, 96;
the _Regifugium_ at, 213
Rook, custom of killing all firstborn children in the island of, 180
Roscher, W. H., 7 _n._2, 73 _n._2
Roscoe, Rev. J., 139, 182 _n._2, 201 _n._1
Rose, H. A., 181
Rose, the Sunday of the, 222 _n._1
Rottweil, the Carnival Fool at, 231
Russia, funeral ceremonies of Kostrubonko, etc., in, 261 _sqq._
Russians, religious suicides among the, 44 _sq._;
the heathen, their sacrifice of the firstborn children, 183
Sacaea, a Babylonian festival, 113 _sqq._
Sacred Marriage of king and queen, 71;
of actors disguised as animals, 71, 83;
of gods and goddesses, 73;
of Zeus and Hera, 91
—— spears, 19, 20
“Sacred spring, the,” among the ancient Italian peoples, 186 _sq._
Sacrifice of the king’s son, 160 _sqq._;
of the firstborn, 171 _sqq._, 179 _sqq._;
of finger-joints, 219
Sacrifices for rain, 20;
for the sick, 20, 25;
to totems, 31;
to the dead, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97;
of children among the Semites, 166 _sqq._
—— human, in ancient Greece, 161 _sqq._;
mock human, 214 _sqq._
—— vicarious, 117;
in ancient Greece, 166 _n._1
St. George and the Dragon, 107;
swinging on the festival of, 283
St. John’s Day (the summer solstice), swinging at, 280
—— Eve, Russian ceremony on, 262
Saint-Lô, the burning of Shrove Tuesday at, 228 _sq._
St. Peter’s Day, the twenty-ninth of June, 262
Saintonge and Aunis, burning the Carnival in, 230
Sakalavas, sanctity of relics of dead kings among the, 202
Salamis in Cyprus, human sacrifices at, 166 _n._1
Salih, a prophet, 97
Salish Indians, their sacrifice of their firstborn children to the sun,
184
Salmoneus, his imitation of thunder and lightning, 165
Samaracand, New Year ceremony at, 151
Samnites, guided by a bull, 186 _n._4
Samoa, expiation for disrespect to a sacred animal in, 216 _sq._
Samorin, title of the kings of Calicut, 47 _sq._
Samothracian mysteries, 89
Santal custom of swinging on hooks, 279
Santos, J. dos, 37 _sq._