Saturday, Holy, 244
Savage Island, mimic rite of circumcision in, 219 _sq._
Savages believe themselves naturally immortal, 1
Savou, island of, 287
“Sawing the Old Woman,” a Lenten ceremony, 240 _sqq._
Saws at Mid-Lent, 241, 242
Saxon kings, their marriage with their stepmothers, 193
Saxons of Transylvania, the hanging of an effigy of Carnival among the,
230 _sq._
Saxony, Whitsuntide mummers in, 208
_Scarli_, 224 _n._1
Schmidt, A., 59 _n._1
Schmiedel, Professor P., 261 _n._1
Schoolcraft, H. R., 137 _sq._
Schörzingen, the Carnival Fool at, 231
Schwegler, F. C. A., 187 _n._4
Sdach Méac, title of annual temporary king of Cambodia, 148
Sea Dyaks, their stories of the origin of omen birds, 126, 127 _sq._
Seligmann, C. G., 17, 21, 22, 23, 26, 30, 33
Semang, the, 85
Semic in Bohemia, beheading the king on Whit-Monday at, 209
Seminoles of Florida, souls of the dying caught among the, 199
Semites, sacrifices of children among the, 166 _sqq._
Semitic Baal, 75
Senjero, sacrifice of firstborn sons in, 182 _sq._
Sepharvites, their sacrifices of children, 171
Seriphos, custom of swinging in the island of, 283 _sq._
Serpent, the Brazen, 86;
sacred, on the Acropolis at Athens, 86;
or dragons personated by kings, 82;
transmigration of the souls of the dead into, 84
Servitude for the slaughter of dragons, 70, 78
Servius, on the legend of Erigone, 282
Seven youths and maidens, tribute of, 74 _sqq._
—— -legged effigy of Lent, 244 _sq._
Shadow Day, a gypsy name for Palm Sunday, 243
—— Queen, the, 243
Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 169, 170
Sham fight, 24
Shark, king of Dahomey represented with body of a, 85
Shilluk, a tribe of the White Nile, 17 _sqq._;
custom of putting to death the divine kings, 17 _sqq._, 204, 206;
ceremony on the accession of a new king of the, 204
Shirt worn by the effigy of Death, its use, 247, 249
Shooting stars, superstitions as to, 53 _sqq._
Shrines of dead kings, 24 _sq._
Shrove Tuesday, Burial of the Carnival on, 221 _sqq._;
mock death of, 227 _sqq._;
drama of Summer and Winter on, 257
Shrovetide custom in the Erzgebirge, 208 _sq._;
in Bohemia, 209
—— Bear, the, 230
Shurii-Kia-Miau, aboriginal tribe in China, 145
Siam, annual temporary kings in, 149 _sq._
Siamese, mock human sacrifices among the, 218
Sick, sacrifices for the, 20, 25;
thought to be possessed by the spirits of kings, 25 _sq._
Silesia, “Carrying out Death” in, 236 _sq._, 250 _sq._
Singalang Burong, the Ruler of the Spirit World, 127, 128
Sioo or Siauw, mock human sacrifices in the island of, 218
Sirius, the soul of Isis in, 5
Sister, marriage with, in royal families, 193 _sq._
Siu, a Sea Dyak, and his bird wife, 127 _sq._
Siva and Pârvatî, marriage of the images of, 265 _sq._
Six hundred and sixty-six, the number of the Beast, 44
Skoptsi, a Russian sect, 196 _n._3
Skull of dead king used as a drinking-vessel, 200
Skulls of dead kings removed and kept, 202 _sq._
Sky-spirit, sacrifice of children to, 181
Slaughter of the Dragon, drama of the, at Delphi and Thebes, 78 _sqq._,
89;
myth of the, 105 _sqq._
Slavs, custom of regicide among the, 52;
festival of the New Year among the old, 221;
"Sawing the Old Woman" among the, 242
Slaying of the king in legend, 120 _sqq._
Smith, W. Robertson, 8 _n._1
Snake, rajahs of Manipur descended from a, 133
Sofala, kings of, put to death, 37 _sq._;
dead kings of, consulted as oracles, 201
Solar and lunar time, early attempts to harmonise, 68 _sq._
Son of the king sacrificed for his father, 160 _sqq._
Sons of gods, 5
“Soranian Wolves,” 186 _n._4
Soul, succession to the, 196 _sqq._
Souls of the dead supposed to resemble their bodies, as these were at the
moment of death, 10 _sq._;
associated with falling stars, 64 _sqq._;
transmitted to successors, 198
South American Indians, their insensibility to pain, 138
Spain, seven-legged effigies of Lent in, 244
Spartan kings liable to be deposed every eighth year, 58 _sq._
Spears, sacred, 19
Spectral Huntsman, 178
Spencer and Gillen, quoted, 180 _n._1, 187 _n._6
Spirit, the Great, of the American Indians, 3
Spitting to avert demons, 63
Spring equinox, custom of swinging at, 284;
drama of Summer and Winter at the, 257
Spring, magical ceremonies for the revival of nature in, 266 _sqq._
“Spring, the Sacred,” among the ancient Italian peoples, 186 _sq._
Springs, oracular, 78 _sq._
Stadium, the Olympic, 287
Standing on one foot, custom of, 149, 150, 155, 156
Stars, the souls of Egyptian gods in, 5;
shooting, superstitions as to, 58 _sqq._;
their supposed influence on human destiny, 65 _sq._, 67 _sq._
Stepmother, marriage with a, 193
Stevens, Captain John, his _History of Persia_ quoted, 158 _sq._
Stigand, Captain C. H., 182
Stool at installation of Shilluk kings, 24
Students of Fez, their mock sultan, 152 _sq._
Styx, oath by the, 70 _n._1
Substitutes, voluntary, for capital punishment in China, 145 _sq._, 273
_sqq._
Succession in Polynesia, customs of, 190 _sq._
—— to the kingdom through marriage with a sister or with the king’s widow,
193 _sq._;
conferred by personal relics of dead kings, 202 _sq._
—— to the soul, 196 _sqq._
Sufi II., Shah of Persia, 158
Suicide of Buddhist monks, 42 _sq._;
epidemic of, in Russia, 44 _sq._;
by hanging, 282
——, religious, 42 _sqq._, 54 _sqq._;
in India, 54 _sq._
——, hand of, cut off, 220 _n._
Sulka, the, of New Britain, 65
“Sultan of the Scribes,” 152 _sq._
Summer, bringing in, 233, 237, 238, 246 _sqq._
—— and Winter, dramatic battle of, 254 _sq._
—— solstice in connexion with the Olympic festival, 90;
swinging at the, 280
—— trees, 246, 251 _sq._
Sun represented by a bull, 71 _sq._;
represented as a man with a bull’s head, 75;
eclipses of the, beliefs and practices as to, 73 _n._2, 77;
sacrifice of firstborn children to the, 183 _sq._;
called “the golden swing in the sky,” 279
Sun and Moon, mythical and dramatic marriage of, 71, 73 _sq._, 78, 87
_sq._, 92, 105
Sunday of the Rose, 222 _n._1
Supply of kings, 134 _sqq._
Supreme Beings, otiose, in Africa, 19 _n._
Swabia, Whitsuntide mummers in, 207;
Shrovetide or Lenten ceremonies in, 230, 233
Sweden, May Day in, 254
Swedish kings, traces of nine years’ reign of, 57 _sq._
Swing in the Sky, the Golden, description of the sun, 279
Swinging as a ceremony or magical rite, 150, 156 _sq._, 277 _sqq._;
on hooks run through the body, Indian custom, 278 _sq._;
as a mode of inspiration, 280;
as a festal rite in modern Greece, Spain, and Italy, 283 _sq._
Swords, golden, 75
Syene, 144 _n._2
Syntengs of Assam, 55
Syro-Macedonian calendar, 116 _n._1
Tahiti, remarkable rule of succession in, 190
Tahitians, their notions as to eclipses of the sun and moon, 73 _n._2
Tailltiu or Tailltin, the fair of, 99, 101
Takilis or Carrier Indians, succession to the soul among the, 199
Talos, a bronze man, perhaps identical with the Minotaur, 74 _sq._
Tammuz or Adonis, 7
Tara, pagan cemetery at, 101
Tarahumares, the, of Mexico, 62
Taui Islanders, 61
Tchiglit Esquimaux, the, 65
Tel-El-Amarna tablets, 170 _n._5
Teltown, the fair at, 99
Tempe, the Vale of, 81
Temporary kings, 148 _sqq._
Tenedos, sacrifice of infants to Melicertes in, 162
Tengaroeng in Borneo, swinging at, 280, 281
_Thalavettiparothiam_, a custom observed in Malabar, 52 _sq._
Thamus, an Egyptian pilot, 6
Thebes, festival of the Laurel-Bearing at, 78 _sq._, 88 _sq._
Theopompus, 95
Theseus and Ariadne, 75
Thiodolf, the poet, 161
Thracians, funeral games held by the, 96;
their contempt of death, 142
Throne, reverence for the, 51
Thüringen, Whitsuntide mummers in, 208;
Carrying out Death in, 235 _sq._
Tiamat and Marduk, 105 _sq._, 107 _sq._
Tiberius, his enquiries as to the death of Pan, 7;
his attempt to put down Carthaginian sacrifices of children, 168
Tilton, E. L., 232
Time, Greek and Latin modes of reckoning intervals of, 59
Timoleon, funeral games in his honour, 94
Tinneh Indians, the, 65, 278
Tirunavayi temple, 49
Tlachtga, pagan cemetery at, 101
Toboongkoos, mock human sacrifices among the, 219
_Todtenstein_, 264
Tonquinese custom of catching the soul of the dying, 200
Tooth of dead king kept, 203
Tophet, 169, 170, 171
Torres Straits, funeral custom in, 92 _sq._
Totemism of the Dinka, 30 _sq._;
possible trace of Latin, 186 _n._4;
the source of a particular type of folk-tales, 129 _sqq._
Totems, sacrifices to, 31;
stories told to account for the origin of, 129
Toumou, Egyptian god, 5
Transformations into animals, 82 _sqq._
Transmigration of souls of the dead into serpents and other animals, 84
_sq._;
belief in, a motive for infanticide, 188 _sq._
Transmission of soul to successor, 198 _sqq._
Trasimene Lake, battle of, 186
Tree-spirit, killing of the, 205 _sqq._;
resurrection of the, 212;
in relation to vegetation-spirit, 253
Trees, masks hung on, 283
Trevelyan, G. M., 154 _n._1
Tribute of youths and maidens, 74 _sqq._
Triennial tenure of the kingship, 112 _sq._
Trinity, Christian doctrine of the, 5 _n._3
Trocadero Museum, statues of kings of Dahomey in the, 85
Trojeburg, 77
Trophonius at Lebadea, 166 _n._1
Troy, the game of, 76 _sq._
Tshi-speaking negroes of the Gold Coast, their stories to explain their
totemism, 128 _sq._
Turrbal tribe of Queensland, 60
Typhon, the soul of, in the Great Bear, 5
Uganda, king of, 39 _sq._;
human sacrifices in, 139;
firstborn sons strangled in, 182;
dead kings of, give oracles through inspired mediums, 200 _sq._
Ujjain in Western India, 122 _sqq._, 132, 133
Ulster, tombs of the kings of, 101
Unyoro, kings of, put to death, 34
Upsala, 161;
sepulchral mound at, 57;
great festival at, 58
Uranus mutilated by his son Cronus, 192
Urvasi and King Pururavas, Indian story of, 131
Ushnagh, pagan cemetery at, 101
Valhala, 13
Varro on a Roman funeral custom, 92;
on suicides by hanging, 282
Vegetation, death and revival of, 263 _sqq._
—— -spirit perhaps generalised from a tree-spirit, 253
Vicarious sacrifices, 117;
in ancient Greece, 166 _n._1
Vikramaditya, legendary king of Ujjain, 122 _sqq._, 132
Vintage, first-fruits of the, offered to Icarius and Erigone, 283
Virbius or Hippolytus killed by horses, 214
Virgil, on the game of Troy, 76;
on the creation of the world, 108 _sq._
Vishnu, mock human sacrifice in the worship of, 216
Volcano, sacrifice of child to, 218
Vosges Mountains, superstition as to shooting stars in the, 67
Vṛtra, the dragon, 106 _sq._
Wachtl in Moravia, drama of Summer and Winter at, 257
Wadai, Sultan of, 39
Wade, Sir Thomas, 273 _sq._
Waizganthos, an old Prussian god, 156
Wak, a sky-spirit, 181
Wambugwe, the, 65
Water, effigies of Death thrown into the, 234 _sqq._, 246 _sq._
—— -bird, a Whitsuntide mummer, 207 _n._1
—— -dragon, drama of the slaying of, 78
Weinhold, K., 57 _n._2
Wends, their custom of killing and eating the old, 14
Westermarck, Dr. E., 16 _n._1, 153 _n._1, 189 _n._2, 204_ n._1
Wheat at Lammas, offerings of, 101
Wheel, effigy of Death attached to a, 247
Whiteway, R. S., 51 _n._2
Whitsuntide, drama of Summer and Winter at, 257
—— King, 209 _sqq._
—— Mummers, 205 _sqq._
—— Queen, 210
Widow of king, succession to the throne through marriage with the, 193
Wieland’s House, 77
Wild Man, a Whitsuntide mummer, 208 _sq._, 212
Winter, Queen of, in the Isle of Man, 258;
effigy of, burned at Zurich, 260 _sq._
—— and Summer, dramatic battle of, 254 _sqq._
Wolf, transformation into, 83;
said to have guided the Samnites, 186 _n._4
—— -god, Zeus as the, 83
Wolves, Soranian, 186 _n._4
Woman, Sawing the Old, a Lenten ceremony, 240 _sqq._
Wood, King of the, at Nemi, 28
Woodpecker (_picus_) said to have guided the Piceni, 186 _n._4;
sacred among the Latins, _ib._
Worship of dead kings, 24 _sq._
Wotjobaluk, the, 64
Wounding the dead or dying, custom of, 13 _sq._
Wrestling-matches in honour of the dead, 97
Wurmlingen in Swabia, Whitsuntide custom at, 207 _sq._;
the Carnival Fool at, 231 _sq._
Wyse, W., 144
Xeres, Fr., early Spanish historian, 185
Xerxes in Thessaly, 161, 163
Ximanas, an Indian tribe of the Amazon, kill all their firstborn children,
185 _sq._
Yarilo, the funeral of, 261, 262 _sq._
Year, the Great, 70
Years, mode of counting the, in Manipur, 117 _n._1
Yerrunthally tribe of Queensland, 64
Yorubas, the, 41, 112
Youths and maidens, tribute of, sent to Minos, 74 _sqq._
Zagmuk, a Babylonian festival, 110 _sq._, 113, 115 _sqq._
Zeus, the grave of, 3;
oracular cave of, 70;
on Mount Lycaeus, 70 _n._1;
his transformations into animals, 82 _sq._;
the Wolf-god, 83;
the Olympic victors regarded as embodiments of, 90 _sq._;
swallows his wife Metis, 192;
his marriage with his sister Hera, 194;
and Europa, 73
—— and Hera, sacred marriage of, 91
—— Laphystian, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165
Zimmern, H., 111 _n._1
Zoganes at Babylon, 114
Zulu kings put to death, 36 _sq._
Zurich, effigies of Winter burnt at, 260 _sq._
FOOTNOTES
M1 Mortality of savage gods, Greek gods.
1 For examples see M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_ (Vienna,
1784), ii. 92 _sq._, 240 _sqq._; C. Gay, “Fragment d’un voyage dans
le Chili et au Cusco,” _Bulletin le la Société de Géographie_
(Paris), Deuxième Série, xix. (1843) p. 25; H. Delaporte, “Une
Visite chez les Araucaniens,” _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_
(Paris), Quatrième Série, x. (1855) p. 30; K. von den Steinen,
_Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_ (Berlin, 1894), pp. 344,
348; E. F. im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_ (London, 1883),
pp. 330 sq.; A. G. Morice, “The Canadian Dénés,” _Annual
Archaeological Report, 1905_; (Toronto, 1906), p. 207; (Sir) George
Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery into North-West and
Western Australia_ (London, 1841), ii. 238; A. Oldfield, “The
Aborigines of Australia,” _Transactions of the Ethnological Society
of London_, N.S. iii. (1865) p. 236; J. Dawson, _Australian
Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881), p. 63; Rev. G.
Taplin, “The Narrinyeri,” _Native Tribes of South Australia_
(Adelaide, 1879), p. 25; C. W. Schürmann, “The Aboriginal Tribes of
Port Lincoln,” _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 237; H. E. A.
Meyer, in _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 195; R. Brough
Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne, 1878), i. 110, ii.
289 _sq._; W. Stanbridge, in _Transactions of the Ethnological
Society of London_, New Series, i. (1861) p. 299; L. Fison and A. W.
Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, pp. 250 _sq._; A. L. P. Cameron,
“Notes on some Tribes of New South Wales,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xiv. (1885) pp. 361, 362 sq.; W. Ridley,
_Kamilaroi_, Second Edition (Sydney, 1875), p. 159; Baldwin Spencer
and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London,
1899), pp. 46-48; _Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres
Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 248, 323; E. Beardmore, “The
Natives of Mowat, British New Guinea,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xix. (1890) p. 461; R. E. Guise, “On the
Tribes inhabiting the Mouth of the Wanigela River, New Guinea,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxviii. (1899) p. 216;
C. G. Seligmann, _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_ (Cambridge,
1910), p. 279; K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf uns! oder die
Arbeit der Neuen-Dettelsauer Mission_, iii. (Barmen, 1898) pp. 10
_sq._; _id._, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser-Wilhelmsland und den
Bismarck-Archipel_, 1897, pp. 94, 98; A. Deniau, “Croyances
religieuses et mœurs des indigènes de l’ile Malo,” _Missions
Catholiques_, xxxiii. (1901) pp. 315 _sq._; C. Ribbe, _Zwei Jahre
unter den Kannibalen der Salomo-Inseln_ (Dresden-Blasewitz, 1903),
p. 268; P. A. Kleintitschen, _Die Küstenbewohner der
Gazellehalbinsel_ (Hiltrup bei Münster, N.D.), p. 344; P. Rascher,
“Die Sulka,” _Archiv für Anthropologie_, xxix. (1904) pp. 221 _sq._;
R. Parkinson, _Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), pp.
199-201; G. Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London,
1910), p. 176; Father Abinal, “Astrologie Malgache,” _Missions
Catholiques_, xi. (1879) p. 506; A. Grandidier, “Madagascar,”
_Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), Sixième Série, iii.
(1872) p. 399; Father Campana, “Congo, Mission Catholique de
Landana,” _Missions Catholiques_, xxvii. (1895) pp. 102 _sq._; Th.
Masui, _Guide de la Section de l’État Indépendant du Congo à
l’Exposition de Bruxelles-Tervueren en 1897_ (Brussels, 1897), p.
82. The discussion of this and similar evidence must be reserved for
another work.
2 C. Meiners, _Geschichte der Religionen_ (Hannover, 1806-1807), i.
48.
3 R. I. Dodge, _Our Wild Indians_, p. 112.
4 F. Blumentritt, “Der Ahnencultus und die religiösen Anschauungen der
Malaien des Philippinen-Archipels,” _Mittheilungen d. Wiener geogr.
Gesellschaft_, 1882, p. 198.
5 Sir James E. Alexander, _Expedition of Discovery into the Interior
of Africa_, i. 166; H. Lichtenstein, _Reisen im Südlichen Africa_
(Berlin, 1811-1812), i. 349 _sq._; W. H. I. Bleek, _Reynard the Fox
in South Africa_ (London, 1864), pp. 75 _sq._; Theophilus Hahn,
_Tsuni-Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_ (London, 1881), pp.
56, 69.
6 Callimachus, _Hymn to Zeus_, 9 _sq._; Diodorus Siculus, iii. 61;
Lucian, _Philopseudes_, 3; _id._, _Jupiter Tragoedus_, 45; _id._,
_Philopatris_, 10; Porphyry, _Vita Pythagorae_, 17; Cicero, _De
natura deorum_, iii. 21. 53; Pomponius Mela, ii. 7. 112; Minucius
Felix, _Octavius_, 21; Lactantius, _Divin. instit._ i. II.
7 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35; Philochorus, _Fragm._ 22, in C.
Müller’s _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, i. p. 378; Tatian,
_Oratio ad Graecos_, 8, ed. Otto; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_,
208. Compare Ch. Petersen, “Das Grab und die Todtenfeier des
Dionysos,” _Philologus_, xv. (1860) pp. 77-91. The grave of Dionysus
is also said to have been at Thebes (Clemens Romanus,
_Recognitiones_, x. 24; Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, i. col. 1434).
8 Porphyry, _Vit. Pythag._ 16.
9 Philochorus, _Fr._ 184, in C. Müller’s _Fragmenta historicorum
Graecorum_, ii. p. 414.
10 Ch. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg, 1829), pp. 574 _sq._
M2 Mortality of Egyptian gods.
11 G. Maspero, _Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient classique:
les origines_, pp. 108-111, 116-118. On the mortality of the
Egyptian gods see further A. Moret, _Le Rituel du culte divin
journalier en Égypte_ (Paris, 1902), pp. 219 _sqq._
12 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 21, 22, 38, 61; Diodorus Siculus, i. 27.
4; Dittenberger, _Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae_, i. No.
56, p. 102.
13 A. Wiedemann, _Die Religion der alten Aegypter_, pp. 59 _sq._; G.
Maspero, _Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient classique: les
origines_, pp. 104-108, 150. Indeed it was an article of the
Egyptian creed that every god must die after he had begotten a son
in his own likeness (A. Wiedemann, _Herodots zweites Buch_, p. 204).
Hence the Egyptian deities were commonly arranged in trinities of a
simple and natural type, each comprising a father, a mother, and a
son. “Speaking generally, two members of such a triad were gods, one
old and one young, and the third was a goddess, who was, naturally,
the wife, or female counterpart, of the older god. The younger god
was the son of the older god and goddess, and he was supposed to
possess all the attributes and powers which belonged to his
father.... The feminine counterpart or wife of the chief god was
usually a local goddess of little or no importance; on the other
hand, her son by the chief god was nearly as important as his
father, because it was assumed that he would succeed to his rank and
throne when the elder god had passed away. The conception of the
triad or trinity is, in Egypt, probably as old as the belief in
gods, and it seems to be based on the anthropomorphic views which
were current in the earliest times about them” (E. A. Wallis Budge,
_The Gods of the Egyptians_, London, 1904, i. 113 _sq._). If the
Christian doctrine of the Trinity took shape under Egyptian
influence, the function originally assigned to the Holy Spirit may
have been that of the divine mother. In the apocryphal _Gospel to
the Hebrews_, as Mr. F. C. Conybeare was kind enough to point out to
me, Christ spoke of the Holy Ghost as his mother. The passage is
quoted by Origen (_Comment. in Joan. II._ vol. iv. col. 132, ed.
Migne), and runs as follows: “My mother the Holy Spirit took me a
moment ago by one of my hairs and carried me away to the great Mount
Tabor.” Compare Origen, _In Jeremiam Hom._ XV. 4, vol. iii. col.
433, ed. Migne. In the reign of Trajan a certain Alcibiades, from
Apamea in Syria, appeared at Rome with a volume in which the Holy
Ghost was described as a stalwart female about ninety-six miles high
and broad in proportion. See Hippolytus, _Refut. omnium haeresium_,
ix. 13, p. 462, ed. Duncker and Schneidewin. The Ophites represented
the Holy Spirit as “the first woman,” “mother of all living,” who
was beloved by “the first man” and likewise by “the second man,” and
who conceived by one or both of them “the light, which they call
Christ.” See H. Usener, _Das Weihnachtsfest_, pp. 116 _sq._, quoting
Irenaeus, i. 28. As to a female member of the Trinity, see further
_id._, _Dreiheit, ein Versuch mythologischer Zahlenlehre_ (Bonn,
1903), pp. 41 _sqq._; Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire_, ch. 1. vol. ix. p. 261, note g (Edinburgh, 1811). Mr.
Conybeare tells me that Philo Judaeus, who lived in the first half
of the first century of our era, constantly defines God as a Trinity
in Unity, or a Unity in Trinity, and that the speculations of this
Alexandrian Jew deeply influenced the course of Christian thought on
the mystical nature of the deity. Thus it seems not impossible that
the ancient Egyptian doctrine of the divine Trinity may have been
distilled through Philo into Christianity. On the other hand it has
been suggested that the Christian Trinity is of Babylonian origin.
See H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte
Testament_,3 pp. 418 _sq._, 440.
14 L. W. King, _Babylonian Religion and Mythology_ (London, 1899), p.
8.
M3 The death of the Great Pan. Death of the King of the Jinn. Death of
the Grape-cluster.
15 Plutarch, _De defectu oraculorum_, 17.
16 This is in substance the explanation briefly suggested by F.
Liebrecht, and developed more fully and with certain variations of
detail by S. Reinach. See F. Liebrecht, _Des Gervasius von Tilbury
Otia Imperialia_ (Hanover, 1856), p. 180; S. Reinach, _Cultes,
mythes et religions_, iii. (Paris, 1908), pp. 1 _sqq._ As to the
worship of Tammuz or Adonis in Syria and Greece see my _Adonis,
Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition (London, 1907). In Plutarch’s
narrative confusion seems to have arisen through the native name
(Tammuz) of the deity, which either accidentally coincided with that
of the pilot (as S. Reinach thinks) or was erroneously transferred
to him by a narrator (as F. Liebrecht supposed). An entirely
different explanation of the story has been proposed by Dr. W. H.
Roscher. He holds that the god whose death was lamented was the
great ram-god of Mendes in Egypt, whom Greek writers constantly
mistook for a goat-god and identified with Pan. A living ram was
always revered as an incarnation of the god, and when it died there
was a great mourning throughout all the land of Mendes. Some stone
coffins of the sacred animal have been found in the ruins of the
city. See Herodotus, ii. 46, with A. Wiedemann’s commentary; W. H.
Roscher, “Die Legende vom Tode des groszen Pan,” _Fleckeisen’s
Jahrbücher für classische Philologie_, xxxviii. (1892) pp. 465-477.
Dr. Roscher shews that Thamus was an Egyptian name, comparing Plato,
_Phaedrus_, p. 274 D E; Polyaenus, iii. 2. 5; Philostratus, _Vit.
Apollon. Tyan._ vi. 5. 108. As to the worshipful goat, or rather
ram, of Mendes, see also Diodorus Siculus, i. 84; Strabo, xvii. 1.
19, p. 802; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 39, p. 34, ed.
Potter; Suidas, _s.v._ Μένδην.
17 F. Liebrecht, _op. cit._ pp. 180 _sq._; W. Robertson Smith,
_Religion of the Semites_,2 pp. 412, 414. The latter writer observes
with justice that “the wailing for ’Uncūd, the divine Grape-cluster,
seems to be the last survival of an old vintage piaculum.” “The
dread of the worshippers,” he adds, “that the neglect of the usual
ritual would be followed by disaster, is particularly intelligible
if they regarded the necessary operations of agriculture as
involving the violent extinction of a particle of divine life.” On
the mortality of the gods in general and of the Teutonic gods in
particular, see J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 263 _sqq._;
compare E. H. Meyer, _Mythologie der Germanen_ (Strasburg, 1903), p.
288. As to the mortality of the Irish gods, see Douglas Hyde,
_Literary History of Ireland_ (London, 1899), pp. 80 _sq._
M4 Human gods are killed to prevent them from growing old and feeble.
18 “Der Muata Cazembe und die Völkerstämme der Maravis, Chevas,
Muembas, Lundas und andere von Süd-Afrika,” _Zeitschrift für
allgemeine Erdkunde_, vi. (1856) p. 395; F. T. Valdez, _Six Years of
a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa_ (London, 1861), ii. 241 _sq._
19 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 6, 7 _sq._
20 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 26 _sqq._
M5 Preference for a violent death: the sick and old killed.
21 W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs of the South Pacific_ (London, 1876),
p. 163.
22 H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-Ronga_ (Neuchatel, 1898), pp. 381 _sq._
23 W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London,
1911), p. 120.
24 T. C. Hodson, _The Naga Tribes of Manipur_ (London, 1911), p. 159.
25 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 281.
26 Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_ (London,
1845), iii. 96.
_ 27 U.S. Exploring Expedition, Ethnology and Philology_, by H. Hale
(Philadelphia, 1846), p. 65. Compare Th. Williams, _Fiji and the
Fijians_,2 i. 183; J. E. Erskine, _Journal of a Cruise among the
Islands of the Western Pacific_ (London, 1853), p. 248.
28 G. Turner, _Samoa_, p. 335.
29 Martin Flad, _A Short Description of the Falasha and Kamants in
Abyssinia_, p. 19.
30 H. Diels, _Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker_,2 i. (Berlin, 1906) p.
81; _id._, _Herakleitos von Ephesos_2 (Berlin, 1909), p. 50, Frag.
136, ψυχαὶ ἀρηίφατοι καθαρώτεραι ἢ ἐνὶ νούσοις.
M6 Preference for a violent death: the sick and aged killed.
31 F. de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les parties centrales de
l’Amérique du Sud_, iv. (Paris, 1851) p. 380. Compare _id._ ii. 49
_sq._ as to the practice of the Chavantes, a tribe of Indians on the
Tocantins river.
32 R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. (London, 1819) p. 619; R. F.
Burton, in _The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse_ (Hakluyt Society,
London, 1874), p. 122.
33 C. von Dittmar, “Über die Koräken und die ihnen sehr nahe verwandten
Tschuktschen,” _Bulletin de la Classe philologique de l’Académie
Impériale des Sciences de St-Pétersbourg_, xiii. (1856) coll. 122,
124 _sq._ The custom has now been completely abandoned. See W.
Jochelson, “The Koryak, Religion and Myths” (Leyden and New York,
1905), p. 103 (_Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History,
The Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, vol. vi. part i.).
34 C. von Dittmar, _op. cit._ col. 132; De Wrangell, _Le Nord de la
Sibérie_ (Paris, 1843), i. 263 _sq._; “Die Ethnographie Russlands
nach A. F. Rittich,” _Petermann’s Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft_,
_No._ 54 (Gotha, 1878), pp. 14 _sq._; “Der Anadyr-Bezirk nach A. W.
Olssufjew,” _Petermann’s Mittheilungen_, xlv. (1899) p. 230; V.
Priklonski, “Todtengebräuche der Jakuten,” _Globus_, lix. (1891) p.
82; R. von Seidlitz, “Der Selbstmord bei den Tschuktschen,” _ib._ p.
111; Cremat, “Der Anadyrbezirk Sibiriens und seine Bevölkerung,”
_Globus_, lxvi. (1894) p. 287; H. de Windt, _Through the Gold-fields
of Alaska to Bering Straits_ (London, 1898), pp. 223-225; W.
Bogaras, “The Chukchee” (Leyden and New York, 1904-1909), pp. 560
_sqq._ (_Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup
North Pacific Expedition_, vol. vii.).
35 L. A. Waddell, “The Tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley,” _Journal of
the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, lxix. part iii. (1901) pp. 20, 24;
T. C. Hodson, _The Naga Tribes of Manipur_ (London, 1911), p. 151.
36 K. Simrock, _Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie_,5 pp. 177 _sq._,
507; H. M. Chadwick, _The Cult of Othin_ (London, 1899), pp. 13
_sq._, 34 _sq._
37 Procopius, _De bello Gothico_, ii. 14.
38 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_,3 p. 488. A custom of putting
the sick and aged to death seems to have prevailed in several
branches of the Aryan family; it may at one time have been common to
the whole stock. See J. Grimm, _op. cit._ pp. 486 _sqq._; O.
Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, pp.
36-39.
M7 Divine kings put to death. The Chitomé of Congo. Ethiopian kings of
Meroe.
39 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 4 _sq._
_ 40 Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 5 _sq._
41 J. B. Labat, _Relation historique de l’Éthiopie occidentale_ (Paris,
1732), i. 260 _sq._; W. Winwood Reade, _Savage Africa_ (London,
1863), p. 362.
42 G. Merolla, _Relazione del viaggio nel regno di Congo_ (Naples,
1726), p. 76. The English version of this passage (Pinkerton’s
_Voyages and Travels_, xvi. 228) has already been quoted by Sir John
Lubbock (Lord Avebury) in his _Origin of Civilisation_,4 pp. 358
_sq._ In that version the native title of the pontiff is misspelt.
43 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 6; Strabo, xvii. 2. 3, p. 822.
M8 Kings of Fazoql on the Blue Nile.
44 R. Lepsius, _Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of
Sinai_ (London, 1853), pp. 202, 204. I have to thank Dr. E.
Westermarck for pointing out these passages to me. Fazoql lies in
the fork between the Blue Nile and its tributary the Tumat. See J.
Russeger, _Reisen in Europa, Asien und Afrika_, ii. 2 (Stuttgart,
1844), p. 552 note.
45 Brun-Rollet, _Le Nil Blanc et le Soudan_ (Paris, 1855), pp. 248
_sq._ For the orgiastic character of these annual festivals, see
_id._ p. 245. Fazolglou is probably the same as Fazoql. The people
who practise the custom are called Bertat by E. Marno (_Reisen im
Gebiete des blauen und weissen Nil_ (Vienna, 1874), p. 68).
46 J. Russegger, _Reisen in Europa, Asien und Afrika_, ii. 2, p. 553.
Russegger met Assusa in January 1838, and says that the king had
then been a year in office. He does not mention the name of the
king’s uncle who had, he tells us, been strangled by the chiefs; but
I assume that he was the Yassin who is mentioned by Brun-Rollet.
Russegger adds that the strangling of the king was performed
publicly, and in the most solemn manner, and was said to happen
often in Fazoql and the neighbouring countries.
47 R. Lepsius, _Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of
Sinai_ (London, 1853), p. 204. Lepsius’s letter is dated “The
Pyramids of Meroë, 22nd April 1844.” His informant was Osman Bey,
who had lived for sixteen years in these regions. An _anqareb_ or
_angareb_ is a kind of bed made by stretching string or leather
thongs over an oblong wooden framework.
M9 Shilluk custom of putting divine kings to death. The Shilluk kings
supposed to be reincarnations of Nyakang, the semi-divine founder of
the dynasty. The shrines of Nyakang.
48 I have to thank Dr. Seligmann for his kindness and courtesy in
transmitting to me his unpublished account and allowing me to draw
on it at my discretion.
49 As to Jŭok (Čuok), the supreme being of the Shilluk, see P. W.
Hofmayr, “Religion der Schilluk,” _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp.
120-122, whose account agrees with the briefer one given by Dr. C.
G. Seligmann. Otiose supreme beings (_dieux fainéants_) of this
type, who having made the world do not meddle with it and to whom
little or no worship is paid, are common in Africa.
50 P. W. Hofmayr, “Religion der Schilluk,” _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp.
123, 125. This writer gives Nykang as the name of the first Shilluk
king.
51 P. W. Hofmayr, _op. cit._ p. 123.
52 This is the view both of Dr. C. G. Seligmann and of Father P. W.
Hofmayr (_op. cit._ p. 123).
53 The word _kengo_ is applied only to the shrines of Nyakang and the
graves of the kings. Graves of commoners are called _roro_.
M10 Annual rain-making ceremony performed at the shrines of Nyakang.
Harvest ceremony at the shrines of Nyakang.
54 On the use of flowing blood in rain-making ceremonies see _The Magic
Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 256, 257 _sq._
M11 Shilluk kings put to death when they shew signs of ill-health or
failing strength.
55 Dr. C. G. Seligmann, _The Shilluk Divine Kings_ (in manuscript).
M12 Shilluk kings formerly liable to be attacked and killed at any time
by rival claimants to the throne.
56 On this subject Dr. Seligmann writes to me (March 9th, 1911) as
follows: “The assumption of the throne as the result of victory in
single combat doubtless occurred once; at the present day and
perhaps for the whole of the historic period it has been superseded
by the ceremonial killing of the king, but I regard these stories as
folk-lore indicating what once really happened.”
57 These particulars I take from letters of Dr. C. G. Seligmann’s to me
(dated 8th February and 9th March 1911). They are not mentioned in
the writer’s paper on the subject.
M13 Ceremonies at the accession of a Shilluk king.
M14 Worship of the dead Shilluk kings.
58 When one of the king’s wives is with child, she remains at Fashoda
till the fourth or fifth month of her pregnancy; she is then sent
away to a village, not necessarily her own, where she remains under
the charge of the village chief until she has finished nursing the
child. Afterwards she returns to Fashoda, but the child invariably
remains in the village of his or her birth and is brought up there.
All royal children of either sex, in whatever part of the Shilluk
territory they may happen to die, are buried the village where they
were born.
M15 Sick people and others supposed to be possessed by the spirits of
dead Shilluk kings.
M16 The principal element in the religion of the Shilluk is the worship
of their kings. The kings put to death in order to preserve their
divine spirit from natural decay, which would sympathetically affect
the crops, the cattle, and mankind.
59 As to the disappearance of the early Roman kings see _The Magic Art
and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. pp. 312 _sqq._; as to the
disappearance of the early kings of Uganda, see the Rev. J. Roscoe,
_The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 214.
M17 Parallel between the Shilluk kings and the King of the Wood at Nemi.
60 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 1 _sqq._, ii. 376
_sqq._
M18 The Dinka of the Upper Nile.
61 “E. de Pruyssenaere’s Reisen und Forschungen im Gebiete des Weissen
und Blauen Nil,” _Petermann’s Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft_, No. 50
(Gotha, 1877), pp. 18-23. Compare G. Schweinfurth, _The Heart of
Africa_, Third Edition (London, 1878), i. 48 _sqq._ In the text I
have followed de Pruyssenaere’s description of the privations
endured by the Dinka in the dry season. But that description is
perhaps only applicable in seasons of unusual drought, for Dr. C. G.
Seligmann, writing from personal observation, informs me that he
regards the description as much overdrawn; in an average year, he
tells me, the cattle do not die of famine and the natives are not
starving. According to his information the drinking of the blood of
their cattle is a luxury in which the Dinka indulge themselves at
any time of the year.
M19 Dengdit, the Supreme Being of the Dinka. Totemism of the Dinka.
62 For this and the following information as to the religion, totemism,
and rain-makers of the Dinka I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. C.
G. Seligmann, who investigated the Shilluk and Dinka in 1909-1910
and has most obligingly placed his manuscript materials at my
disposal.
M20 Rain-makers among the Dinka.
63 On the importance of the rain-makers among the Dinka and other
tribes of the Upper Nile, see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of
Kings_, i. 345 _sqq._
M21 Dinka rain-makers not allowed to die a natural death.
M22 Kings put to death in Unyoro and other parts of Africa.
_ 64 Emin Pasha in Central Africa, being a Collection of his Letters and
Journals_ (London, 1888), p. 91; J. G. Frazer, _Totemism and
Exogamy_, ii. 529 _sq._ (from information given by the Rev. John
Roscoe).
65 Father Guillemé, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, lx.
(1888) p. 258; _id._, “Credenze religiose dei Negri di Kibanga nell’
Alto Congo,” _Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari_,
vii. (1888) p. 231.
_ 66 The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia_, collected and historically
digested by F. Balthazar Tellez, of the Society of Jesus (London,
1710), p. 197. We may compare the death of Saul (1 Samuel, xxxi.
3-6).
67 Lieut. H. Pope-Hennessy, “Notes on the Jukos and other Tribes of the
Middle Benue,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxx.
(1900) p. (29).
68 J. G. Frazer, _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 608, on the authority of
Mr. H. R. Palmer, Resident in Charge of Katsina.
M23 The Matiamvo of Angola.
69 F. T. Valdez, _Six Years of a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa_
(London, 1861), ii. 194 _sq._
M24 Zulu kings put to death on the approach of old age.
70 Nathaniel Isaacs, _Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa_
(London, 1836), i. 295 _sq._, compare pp. 232, 290 _sq._
M25 Kings of Sofala put to death on account of bodily blemishes.
_ 71 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 392.
72 J. dos Santos, “Eastern Ethiopia,” in G. McCall Theal’s _Records of
Southeastern Africa_, vii. (1901) pp. 194 _sq._ A more
highly-flavoured and full-bodied, though less slavishly accurate,
translation of this passage is given in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and
Travels_, xvi. 684, where the English translator has enriched the
unadorned simplicity of the Portuguese historian’s style with “the
scythe of time” and other flowers of rhetoric.
73 J. dos Santos, _op. cit._ p. 193.
M26 Kings required to be unblemished. Courtiers required to imitate
their sovereign.
74 Xenophon, _Hellenica_, iii. 3. 3; Plutarch, _Agesilaus_, 3; _id._,
_Lysander_, 22; Pausanias, iii. 8. 9.
75 Herodotus, iii. 20; Aristotle, _Politics_, iv. 4. 4.; Athenaeus,
xiii. 20, p. 566. According to Nicolaus Damascenus (_Fr._ 142, in
_Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. p. 463), the
handsomest and bravest man was only raised to the throne when the
king had no heirs, the heirs being the sons of his sisters. But this
limitation is not mentioned by the other authorities.
76 G. Nachtigal, _Saharâ und Sûdân_, iii. (Leipsic, 1889) p. 225; A.
Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_ (Jena,
1874-75), i. 220.
77 P. W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903), i.
311.
78 Strabo, xvii. 2. 3, p. 823; Diodorus Siculus, iii. 7.
79 Mohammed Ebn-Omar El-Tounsy, _Voyage au Darfour_ (Paris, 1845), pp.
162 _sq._; _Travels of an Arab Merchant in Soudan_, abridged from
the French by Bayle St. John (London, 1854), p. 78; _Bulletin de la
Société de Géographie_ (Paris), IVme Série, iv. (1852) pp. 539 _sq._
80 R. W. Felkin, “Notes on the Waganda Tribe of Central Africa,” in
_Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, xiii. (1884-1886)
p. 711; J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902)
p. 77 (as to sneezing).
_ 81 Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, from the Journal of
James Brooke, Esq., Rajah of Sarawak_, by Captain R. Mundy, i. 134.
My friend the late Mr. Lorimer Fison, in a letter of August 26th,
1898, told me that the custom of falling down whenever a chief fell
was observed also in Fiji, where it had a special name, _bale muri_,
“fall-follow.”
82 Mgr. Bruguière, in _Annales de l’Association de la Propagation de la
Foi_, v. (1831) pp. 174 _sq._
M27 Kings of Eyeo put to death. Voluntary death by fire of the old
Prussian _Kirwaido_.
83 A. Dalzel, _History of Dahomy_ (London, 1793), pp. 12 _sq._, 156
_sq._
84 Father Baudin, “Le Fétichisme ou la religion des Nègres de la
Guinée,” _Missions Catholiques_, xvi. (1884) p. 215.
85 Missionary Holley, “Étude sur les Egbas,” _Missions Catholiques_,
xiii. (1881) pp. 351 _sq._ Here Oyo is probably the same as Eyeo
mentioned above.
86 Simon Grunau, _Preussische Chronik_, herausgegeben von Dr. M.
Perlbach (Leipsic, 1876), i. p. 97.
M28 Voluntary deaths by fire. Peregrinus at Olympia. Buddhist monks in
China.
87 Lucian, _De morte Peregrini_. That Lucian’s account of the
mountebank’s death is not a fancy picture is proved by the evidence
of Tertullian, _Ad martyres_, 4, “_Peregrinus qui non olim se rogo
immisit._”
88 D. S. Macgowan, M.D., “Self-immolation by Fire in China,” _The
Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal_, xix. (1888) pp. 445-451,
508-521.
89 E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part I. (Washington,
1899), pp. 320, 433 _sq._
M29 Religious suicides in Russia. Belief in the approaching end of the
world.
90 Revelation xx. 1-3.
91 Revelation xiii. 18.
M30 Epidemic of suicide. Suicide by starvation. Suicide by fire.
92 Ivan Stchoukine, _Le Suicide collectif dans le Raskol russe_ (Paris,
1903), pp. 45-53, 61-78, 84-87, 96-99, 102-112. The mania in its
most extreme form died away towards the end of the seventeenth
century, but during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries cases of
collective suicide from religious motives occurred from time to
time, people burning themselves in families or in batches of thirty
or forty. The last of these suicides by fire took place in 1860,
when fifteen persons thus perished in the Government of Olonetz.
Twenty-four others buried themselves alive near Tiraspol in the
winter of 1896-97. See I. Stchoukine, _op. cit._ pp. 114-126.
M31 A Jewish Messiah.
93 Voltaire, _Essai sur les Mœurs_, iii. 142-145 (_Œuvres complètes de
Voltaire_, xiii. Paris, 1878).
M32 Kings put to death after a fixed term. Suicide of the kings of
Quilacare at the end of a reign of twelve years.
94 Duarte Barbosa, _A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and
Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century_ (Hakluyt Society,
London, 1866), pp. 172 _sq._
M33 Custom of the kings of Calicut.
95 L. di Varthema, _Travels_, translated by J. W. Jones and edited by
G. P. Badger (Hakluyt Society, London, 1863), p. 134. In a note the
Editor says that the name Zamorin (Samorin) according to some “is a
corruption of _Tamuri_, the name of the most exalted family of the
Nair caste.”
96 Francis Buchanan, “Journey from Madras through the Countries of
Mysore, Canara, and Malabar,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_,
viii. 735.
97 Alex. Hamilton, “A New Account of the East Indies,” in Pinkerton’s
_Voyages and Travels_, viii. 374.
M34 Fuller account of the Calicut custom.
M35 The _Maha Makham_ or Great Sacrifice at Calicut.
98 The sidereal revolution of Jupiter is completed in 11 years 314.92
days (_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth Edition, _s.v._ “Astronomy,”
ii. 808). The twelve-years revolution of Jupiter was known to the
Greek astronomers, from whom the knowledge may perhaps have
penetrated into India. See Geminus, _Eisagoge_, I, p. 10, ed. Halma.
M36 The attack on the king.
99 W. Logan, _Malabar_ (Madras, 1887), i. 162-169. The writer describes
in particular the festival of 1683, when fifty-five men perished in
the manner described.
M37 Custom of kings in Bengal. Custom of the kings of Passier. Custom of
Slavonic kings.
100 Sir H. M. Elliot, _The History of India as told by its own
Historians_, iv. 260. I have to thank Mr. R. S. Whiteway, of
Brownscombe, Shottermill, Surrey, for kindly calling my attention to
this and the following instance of the custom of regicide.
101 De Barros, _Da Asia, dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no
descubrimento e conquista dos mares e terras do Oriente_, Decada
Terceira, Liv. V. cap. i. pp. 512 _sq._ (Lisbon, 1777).
102 Saxo Grammaticus,_Historia Danica_, viii. pp. 410 _sq._, ed. P. E.
Müller (p. 334 of Mr. Oliver Elton’s English translation).
M38 Custom of _Thalavettiparothiam_ in Malabar. Custom of the Sultans of
Java.
103 T. K. Gopal Panikkar (of the Madras Registration Department),
_Malabar and its Folk_ (Madras, N. D., preface dated Chowghaut, 8th
October 1900), pp. 120 _sq._ I have to thank my friend Mr. W. Crooke
for calling my attention to this account.
_ 104 Voyage d’Ibn Batoutah_, texte arabe, accompagné d’une traduction
par C. Deffrémery et B. R. Sanguinetti (Paris, 1853-58), iv. 246
_sq._
M39 Religious suicides in India.
_ 105 The Wonders of the East, by Friar Jordanus_, translated by Col.
Henry Yule (London, 1863, Hakluyt Society), pp. 32 _sq._
_ 106 India in the Fifteenth Century, being a Collection of Voyages to
India in the century preceding the Portuguese discovery of the Cape
of Good Hope_, edited by R. H. Major (Hakluyt Society, London,
1857), “The Travels of Nicolo Conti in the East,” pp. 27 _sq._ An
instrument of the sort described in the text (a crescent-shaped
knife with chains and stirrups attached to it for the convenience of
the suicide) used to be preserved at Kshira, a village of Bengal
near Nadiya: it was called a _karavat_. See _The Book of Ser Marco
Polo_, newly translated and edited by Colonel Henry Yule, Second
Edition (London, 1875), ii. 334.
107 Major P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_ (London, 1907), pp. 102 _sq._,
quoting Mr. Gait in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_
for 1898.
M40 Pretence of putting the king’s proxy to death. Man killed at the
installation of a king of Cassange.
108 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p.
146.
109 F. T. Valdez, _Six Years of a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa_
(London, 1861), ii. 158-160. I have translated the title _Maquita_
by “chief”; the writer does not explain it.
M41 Sacrifice of the king’s sons in Sweden: evidence of a nine years’
tenure of the throne.
_ 110 Ynglinga Saga_, 29 (_The Heimskringla_, translated by S. Laing, i.
239 sq.). Compare H. M. Chadwick, _The Cult of Othin_ (London,
1899), p. 4. According to Messrs. Laing and Chadwick the sacrifice
took place every _tenth_ year. But I follow Prof. K. Weinhold who
translates “_hit tiunda hvert ár_” by “_alle neun Jahre_” (“Die
mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen,” _Abhandlungen der könig.
Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_, 1897, p. 6). So in Latin
_decimo quoque anno_ should be translated “every ninth year.”
111 Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, iii. pp. 129-131, ed. P. E.
Müller (pp. 98 _sq._ of Oliver Elton’s English translation).
112 Adam of Bremen, _Descriptio insularum Aquilonis_, 27 (Migne’s
_Patrologia Latina_, cxlvi. col. 644). See _The Magic Art and the
Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. pp. 364 _sq._
M42 Limited tenure of the kingship in ancient Greece. The Spartan kings
appear formerly to have held office for periods of eight years only.
The dread of meteors shared by savages.
113 Plutarch, _Agis_, II. Plutarch says that the custom was observed “at
intervals of nine years” (δι᾽ ἐτῶν ἐννέα), but the expression is
equivalent to our “at intervals of eight years.” In reckoning
intervals of time numerically the Greeks included both the terms
which are separated by the interval, whereas we include only one of
them. For example, our phrase “every second day” would be rendered
in Greek διὰ τρίτης ἡμέρας, literally “every third day.” Again, a
cycle of two years is in Greek _trieteris_, literally “a period of
three years”; a cycle of eight years is _ennaeteris_, literally “a
period of nine years”; and so forth. See Censorinus, _De die
natali_, 18. The Latin use of the ordinal numbers is similar, _e.g._
our “every second year” would be _tertio quoque anno_ in Latin.
However, the Greeks and Romans were not always consistent in this
matter, for they occasionally reckoned in our fashion. The resulting
ambiguity is not only puzzling to moderns; it sometimes confused the
ancients themselves. For example, it led to a derangement of the
newly instituted Julian calendar, which escaped detection for more
than thirty years. See Macrobius, _Saturn._ i. 14. 13 _sq._;
Solinus, i. 45-47. On the ancient modes of counting in such cases
see A. Schmidt, _Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie_ (Jena,
1888), pp. 95 _sqq._ According to Schmidt, the practice of adding
both terms to the sum of the intervening units was not extended by
the Greeks to numbers above nine.
_ 114 Die Dorier_,2 ii. 96.
M43 Superstitions of the Australian aborigines as to shooting stars.
115 E. Man, _Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands_, pp. 84
_sq._
116 W. E. Roth, _North Queensland Bulletin, No. 5, Superstition, Magic,
and Medicine_ (Brisbane, 1903), p. 8.
117 A. W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, p. 429.
118 A. W. Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 430. One of the earliest writers on New
South Wales reports that the natives attributed great importance to
the falling of a star (D. Collins,_Account of the English Colony in
New South Wales_ (London, 1804), p. 383).
119 Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 627.
120 Spencer and Gillen, _op. cit._ pp. 488, 627 _sq._
121 G. Thilenius, _Ethnographische Ergebnisse aus Melanesien_, ii.
(Halle, 1903) p. 129.
M44 Superstitions of the negroes and other African races as to shooting
stars.
122 H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-ronga_ (Neuchatel, 1898), p. 470.
123 A. C. Hollis, _The Masai_ (Oxford, 1905), p. 316.
124 J. Campbell, _Travels in South Africa_ (London, 1815), pp. 428 _sq._
_ 125 Id._, _Travels in South Africa, Second Journey_ (London, 1822), ii.
204.
126 G. Zündel, “Land und Volk der Eweer auf der Sclavenküste in
Westafrika,” _Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin_,
xii. (1877) pp. 415 _sq._; C. Spiess, “Religionsbegriffe der Evheer
in Westafrika,” _Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische
Sprachen zu Berlin_, vi. (1903) Dritte Abtheilung, p. 112.
M45 Superstitions of the American Indians as to shooting stars.
127 Boscana, “Chinigchinich, a Historical Account of the Origin, etc.,
of the Indians of St. Juan Capistrano,” in A. Robinson’s _Life in
California_ (New York, 1846), p. 299.
128 C. Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_ (London, 1903), i. 324 _sq._
129 K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_
(Berlin, 1894), pp. 514 _sq._ The Peruvian Indians also made a
prodigious noise when they saw a shooting star. See P. de Cieza de
Leon, _Travels_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1864), p. 232.
130 G. Kurze, “Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer,” _Mitteilungen
der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xxiii. (1905) p. 17; W.
Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London,
1911), p. 163.
131 M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_ (Vienna, 1784), ii. 86.
M46 Shooting stars regarded as demons.
132 W. Tetzlaff, “Notes on the Laughlan Islands,” _Annual Report on
British New Guinea, 1890-91_ (Brisbane, 1892), p. 105.
133 H. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 267.
134 W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_
(Westminster, 1906), ii. 22.
135 Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen
Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. (1872) p. 48.
136 Guillain, _Documents sur l’histoire, la géographie, et le commerce
de l’Afrique Orientale_, ii. (Paris, N.D.) p. 97; C. Velten, _Sitten
und Gebräuche der Suaheli_ (Göttingen, 1903), pp. 339 _sq._; C. B.
Klunzinger, _Upper Egypt_ (London, 1878), p. 405; Budgett Meakin,
_The Moors_ (London, 1902), p. 353.
M47 Shooting stars associated with the souls of the dead. Supposed
relation of the stars to men.
137 E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_ (London, 1843), ii. 66.
According to another account, meteors are regarded by the Maoris as
betokening the presence of a god (R. Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui, or New
Zealand and its Inhabitants_,2 p. 147).
138 Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition_,
v. 88.
139 A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, p. 369.
140 A. W. Howitt, in Brough Smyth’s _Aborigines of Victoria_, ii. 309.
141 E. Palmer, “Notes on some Australian Tribes,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xiii. (1884) p. 292. Sometimes
apparently the Australian natives regard crystals or broken glass as
fallen stars, and treasure them as powerful instruments of magic.
See E. M. Curr, _The Australian Race_, iii. 29; W. E. Roth, _North
Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5_, p. 8.
142 J. Macgillivray, _Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake_
(London, 1852), ii. 30.
143 P. A. Kleintitschen, _Die Küstenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel_
(Hiltrup bei Münster, N.D.), p. 227.
144 P. Rascher, “Die Sulka,” _Archiv für Anthropologie_, xxix. (1904) p.
216.
145 Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood_ (London, 1906), p. 149.
146 J. Halkin, _Quelques Peuplades du district de l’Uelé_ (Liège, 1907),
p. 102.
147 O. Baumann, _Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p. 163.
148 O. Baumann, _Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p. 188.
149 E. Petitot, _Monographie des Dènè-Dindjé_ (Paris, 1876), p. 60;
_id._, _Monographie des Esquimaux Tchiglit_ (Paris, 1876), p. 24.
150 A. Henry, “The Lolos and other Tribes of Western China,” _Journal of
the Anthropological Institute_, xxxiii. (1903) p. 103.
151 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ ii. 28.
M48 Modern European beliefs as to meteors. Various beliefs as to stars
and meteors.
152 F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 293; A. Kuhn und
W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_, p. 457, §
422; E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_,
p. 506, §§ 379, 380.
153 P. Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, ii.
353; J. Haltrich, _Zur Volkskunde der Siebenbürger Sachsen_ (Vienna,
1885), p. 300; W. Schmidt, _Das Jahr und seine Tage in Meinung und
Brauch der Romänen Siebenbürgens_, p. 38; E. Gerard, _The Land
beyond the Forest_, i. 311; J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und
Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_, p. 31, § 164; Br. Jelínek,
“Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde Böhmens,”
_Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, xxi.
(1891) p. 25; G. Finamore, _Credenze, usi e costumi Abruzzesi_, pp.
47 _sq._; M. Placucci, _Usi e pregiudizj dei contadini della
Romagna_ (Palermo, 1885), p. 141; Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandl.
der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. (1872) p. 48.
The same belief is said to prevail in Armenia. See Minas Tchéraz,
“Notes sur la mythologie arménienne,” _Transactions of the Ninth
International Congress of Orientalists_ (London, 1893), ii. 824.
Bret Harte has employed the idea in his little poem, “Relieving
Guard.”
154 H. Lew, “Der Tod und die Beerdigungs-gebräuche bei den polnischen
Juden,” _Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_,
xxxii. (1902) p. 402.
155 A. Schlossar, “Volksmeinung und Volksaberglaube aus der deutschen
Steiermark,” _Germania_, N.R., xxiv. (1891) p. 389.
156 Boecler-Kreutzwald, _Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche, Weisen und
Gewohnheiten_ (St. Petersburg, 1854), p. 73.
157 E. Monseur, _Le Folklore wallon_, p. 61; A. de Nore, _Coutumes,
mythes et traditions des provinces de France_, pp. 101, 160, 223,
267, 284; B. Souché, _Croyances, présages et traditions diverses_,
p. 23; P. Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la
Haute-Bretagne_, ii. 352; J. Lecœur, _Esquisses du bocage normand_,
ii. 13; L. Pineau, _Folk-lore du Poitou_ (Paris, 1892), pp. 525
_sq._
158 L. F. Sauvé. _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), pp. 196
_sq._
159 F. Chapiseau, _Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris,
1902), i. 290; G. Finamore, _Credenze, usi e costumi Abruzzesi_
(Palermo, 1890), p. 48.
_ 160 North Indian Notes and Queries_, i. p. 102, § 673. Compare _id._ p.
47, § 356; _Indian Notes and Queries_, iv. p. 184, § 674; W. Crooke,
_Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_ (Westminster,
1896), i. 82.
161 W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_,2 iii. 171.
162 Maximilian Prinz zu Wied, _Reise in das Innere Nord-America_
(Coblenz, 1839-1841), ii. 152. It does not, however, appear from the
writer’s statement whether the descent of the soul was identified
with the flight of a meteor or not.
163 D. C. J. Ibbetson, _Outlines of Panjab Ethnography_ (Calcutta,
1883), p. 118, § 231.
M49 The fall of the king’s star.
M50 Reasons for limiting a king’s reign to eight years. The octennial
cycle based on an attempt to reconcile solar and lunar time.
164 L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
Chronologie_, ii. 605 _sqq._ Ninety-nine lunar months nearly
coincide with eight solar years, as the ancients well knew
(Sozomenus, _Historia ecclesiastica_, vii. 18). On the religious and
political import of the eight years’ cycle in ancient Greece see
especially K. O. Müller, _Orchomenus und die Minyer_,2 pp. 213-218;
_id._, _Die Dorier_,2 i. 254 _sq._, 333 _sq._, 440, ii. 96, 483;
_id._, _Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Mythologie_
(Göttingen, 1825), pp. 422-424.
165 “Ancient opinion even assigned the regulation of the calendar by the
solstices and equinoxes to the will of the gods that sacrifices
should be rendered at similar times in each year, rather than to the
strict requirements of agriculture; and as religion undoubtedly
makes larger demands on the cultivator as agriculture advances, the
obligations of sacrifice may probably be reckoned as of equal
importance with agricultural necessities in urging the formation of
reckonings in the nature of a calendar” (E. J. Payne, _History of
the New World called America_, ii. 280).
M51 The octennial cycle in relation to the Greek doctrine of rebirth.
166 As to the eight years’ servitude of Apollo and Cadmus for the
slaughter of dragons, see below, p. 78. For the nine years’ penance
of the man who had tasted human flesh at the festival of Zeus on
Mount Lycaeus, see Pliny, _Nat. hist._ viii. 81 _sq._; Augustine,
_De civitate Dei_, xviii. 17; Pausanias, viii. 2. 6; compare Plato,
_Republic_, viii. p. 565 D E. Any god who forswore himself by the
water of Styx was exiled for nine years from the society of his
fellow-gods (Hesiod, _Theogony_, 793-804). On this subject see
further, E. Rohde, _Psyche_,3 ii. 211 _sq._; W. H. Roscher, “Die
enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen der ältesten
Griechen,” _Abhandlungen der philolog.-histor. Klasse der Königl.
Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, xxi. No. 4 (1903), pp.
24 _sqq._
167 Plato, _Meno_, p. 81 A-C; Pindar, ed. Boeckh, vol. iii. pp. 623
_sq._, Frag. 98.
M52 The octennial cycle at Cnossus in Crete. King Minos and Zeus. Sacred
marriage of the king and queen of Cnossus in the form of bull and
cow as symbols of the sun and moon.
168 Homer, _Odyssey_, xix. 178 _sq._,
τῇσι δ᾽ ἐνὶ Κνωσός, μεγάλη πόλις, ἔνθα τε Μίνως
ἐννέωρος βασίλευε Διὸς μεγάλου ὀαριστής.
with the Scholia; Plato, _Laws_, i. I. p. 624 A, B;[_id._] _Minos_,
13 _sq._, pp. 319 _sq._; Strabo, ix. 4. 8, p. 476; Maximus Tyrius,
_Dissert._ xxxviii. 2; _Etymologicum magnum_, _s.v._ ἐννέωροι, p.
343, 23 _sqq._; Valerius Maximus, i. 2, ext. I; compare Diodorus
Siculus, v. 78. 3. Homer’s expression, ἐννέωρος βασίλευε, has been
variously explained. I follow the interpretation which appears to
have generally found favour both with the ancients, including Plato,
and with modern scholars. See K. Hoeck, _Kreta_, i. 244 _sqq._; K.
O. Müller,_Die Dorier_,2 ii. 96; G. F. Unger, “Zeitrechnung der
Griechen und Römer,” in Ivan Müller’s _Handbuch der klassischen
Altertumswissenschaft_, i. 569; A. Schmidt, _Handbuch der
griechischen Chronologie_ (Jena, 1888), p. 65; W. H. Roscher, “Die
enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen der ältesten
Griechen,” _Abhandlungen der philolog.-histor. Klasse der Königl.
Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, xxi. No. 4 (Leipsic,
1903), pp. 22 _sq._; E. Rohde, _Psyche_,3 i. 128 _sq._ Literally
interpreted, ἐννέωρος means “for nine years,” not “for eight years.”
But see above, p. 59, note 1.
169 Apollodorus, iii. 1. 3 _sq._, iii. 15. 8; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 77;
Schol. on Euripides, _Hippolytus_, 887; J. Tzetzes, _Chiliades_, i.
479 _sqq._; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 40; Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 45 _sqq._;
Ovid, _Ars amat._ i. 289 _sqq._
170 K. Hoeck, _Kreta_, ii. (Göttingen, 1828) pp. 63-69; L. Preller,
_Griechische Mythologie_,3 ii. 119-123; W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene
mid Verwandtes_ (Leipsic, 1890), pp. 135-139; _id._, _Nachträge zu
meiner Schrift über Selene_ (Leipsic, 1895), p. 3; Türk, in W. H.
_Roscher’s Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, iii. 1666
_sq._; A. J. Evans, “Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult,” _Journal of
Hellenic Studies_, xxi. (1901) p. 181; A. B. Cook, “Zeus, Jupiter,
and the Oak,” _Classical Review_, xvii. (1903) pp. 406-412; compare
_id._, “The European Sky-god,” _Folklore_, xv. (1904) p. 272. All
these writers, except Mr. Cook, regard Minos and Pasiphae as
representing the sun and moon. Mr. Cook agrees so far as relates to
Minos, but he supposes Pasiphae to be a sky-goddess or sun-goddess
rather than a goddess of the moon. On the other hand, he was the
first to suggest that the myth was periodically acted by the king
and queen of Cnossus disguised in bovine form.
171 Compare _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 368 _sq._
172 Bekker’s _Anecdota Graeca_, i. 344, _s.v._ Ἀδιούνιος ταῦρος.
173 Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelii_, iii. 13. 1 _sq._; Diodorus
Siculus, i. 84. 4, i. 88. 4; Strabo, xvii. 1. 22 and 27, pp. 803,
805; Aelian, _De natura animalium_, xi. II; Suidas, _s.v._ Ἆπις;
Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 14. 7; A. Wiedemann, _Herodots Zweites
Buch_, p. 552; A. Erman, _Die ägyptische Religion_ (Berlin, 1905),
p. 26; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_ (London,
1904), i. 330.
174 E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, i. 25.
175 Pausanias, i. 26. 1. For a description of the scenery of this coast,
see Morritt, in Walpole’s _Memoirs relating to European Turkey_, i.2
p. 54.
176 W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 30-33.
177 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 130 _sqq._ We
are told that Egyptian sovereigns assumed the masks of lions, bulls,
and serpents as symbols of power (Diodorus Siculus, i. 62. 4).
M53 The same myth and custom of the marriage of the sun and moon appear
in the stories of Zeus and Europa, of Minos and Britomartis. The
conjunction of the sun and moon regarded as the best time for
marriages. Octennial marriage of the king and queen as
representatives of the sun and moon.
178 As to Minos and Britomartis or Dictynna, see Callimachus, _Hymn to
Diana_, 189 _sqq._; Pausanias, ii. 30. 3; Antoninus Liberalis,
_Transform._ 40; Diodorus Siculus, v. 76. On Britomartis as a
moon-goddess, see K. Hoeck, _Kreta_, ii. 170; W. H. Roscher, _Über
Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 45 _sq._, 116-118. Hoeck acutely
perceived that the pursuit of Britomartis by Minos “is a trait of
old festival customs in which the conceptions of the sun-god were
transferred to the king of the island.” As to the explanation here
adopted of the myth of Zeus and Europa, see K. Hoeck, _Kreta_, i. 90
_sqq._; W. H. Roscher, _op. cit._ pp. 128-135. Moschus describes
(ii. 84 _sqq._) the bull which carried off Europa as yellow in
colour with a silver circle shining on his forehead, and he compares
the bull’s horns to those of the moon.
179 See W. H. Roscher, _op. cit._ pp. 76-82. Amongst the passages of
classical writers which he cites are Plutarch, _De facie in orbe
lunae_, 30; _id._, _Isis et Osiris_, 52; Cornutus, _Theologiae
Graecae compendium_, 34, p. 72, ed. C. Lang; Proclus, on Hesiod,
_Works and Days_, 780; Macrobius, _Commentar. in Somnium Scipionis_,
i. 18. 10 _sq._; Pliny, _Nat. hist._ ii. 45. When the sun and moon
were eclipsed, the Tahitians supposed that the luminaries were in
the act of copulation (J. Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern
Pacific Ocean_ (London, 1799), p. 346).
M54 Octennial tribute of youths and maidens probably required as a means
of renewing the sun’s fire by human sacrifices. The Minotaur a
bull-headed image of the sun.
180 Plutarch, _Theseus_, 15 _sq._; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 61; Pausanias,
i. 27. 10; Ovid, _Metam._ viii. 170 _sq._ According to another
account, the tribute of youths and maidens was paid every year. See
Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 14 _sqq._, with the commentary of Servius;
Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 41.
181 Apollodorus, i. 9. 26; Apollonius Rhodius, _Argon._ iv. 1638 _sqq._,
with the scholium; Agatharchides, in Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p.
443b, lines 22-25, ed. Bekker; Lucian, _De saltatione_, 49;
Zenobius, v. 85; Suidas, _s.v._ Σαρδάνιος γέλως; Eustathius on
Homer, _Odyssey_, xx. 302, p. 1893; Schol. on Plato, _Republic_, i.
p. 337A.
182 Apollodorus, i. 9. 26.
183 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ταλῶς.
184 Diodorus Siculus, xx. 14; Clitarchus, cited by Suidas, _s.v._
Σαρδάνιος γέλως, and by the Scholiast on Plato, _Republic_, p. 337A;
Plutarch, _De superstitione_, 13; Paulus Fagius, quoted by Selden,
_De dis Syris_ (Leipsic, 1668), pp. 169 _sq._ The calf’s head of the
idol is mentioned only by P. Fagius, who drew his account from a
book Jalkut by Rabbi Simeon.
185 Compare M. Mayer, _s.v._ “Kronos,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d.
griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, iii. 1501 _sqq._
186 J. Tzetzes, _Chiliades_, i. 646 _sqq._
M55 Dance of the youths and maidens at Cnossus.
187 Homer, _Iliad_, xviii. 590 _sqq._
188 Plutarch, _Theseus_, 21; Julius Pollux, iv. 101.
M56 The game of Troy.
189 As to the Game of Troy, see Virgil, _Aen._ v. 545-603; Plutarch,
_Cato_, 3; Tacitus, _Annals_, xi. 11; Suetonius, _Augustus_, 43;
_id._, _Tiberius_, 6; _id._, _Caligula_, 18; _id._, _Nero_, 6; W.
Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,3 _s.v._ “Trojae
ludus”; O. Benndorf, “Das Alter des Trojaspieles,” appended to W.
Reichel’s _Über homerische Waffen_ (Vienna, 1894), pp. 133-139.
190 O. Benndorf, _op. cit._ pp. 133 _sq._
191 B. V. Head, _Historia numorum_ (Oxford, 1887), pp. 389-391.
192 O. Benndorf, _op. cit._ pp. 134 _sq._
193 Pliny, _Nat. hist._ xxxvi. 85.
194 O. Benndorf, _op. cit._ p. 135; W. Meyer, “Ein Labyrinth mit
Versen,” _Sitzungsberichte der philosoph. philolog. und histor_.
_Classe der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München_, 1882,
vol. ii. pp. 267-300.
M57 The dance at Cnossus perhaps an imitation of the sun’s course in the
sky.
195 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 312.
196 B. V. Head, _Historia numorum_, p. 389.
M58 Conclusions as to the king of Cnossus.
M59 Octennial festivals of the Crowning at Delphi and the Laurel-bearing
at Thebes. Both represented dramatically the slaying of a
water-dragon.
197 Censorinus, _De die natali_, 18. 6.
198 The suggestion was made by Mr. A. B. Cook. The following discussion
of the subject is founded on his ingenious exposition. See his
article, “The European Sky-god,” _Folklore_, xv. (1904) pp. 402-424.
199 As to the Delphic festival see Plutarch, _Quaest. Graec._ 12; _id._,
_De defectu oraculorum_, 15; Strabo, ix. 3. 12, pp. 422 _sq._;
Aelian, _Var. hist._ iii. 1; Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Δειπνίας;
K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 i. 203 _sqq._, 321-324; Aug. Mommsen,
_Delphika_ (Leipsic, 1878), pp. 206 _sqq._; Th. Schreiber, _Apollo
Pythoktonos_, pp. 9 _sqq._; my note on Pausanias, ii. 7. 7 (vol. ii.
53 _sqq._). As to the Theban festival, see Pausanias, ix. 10. 4,
with my note; Proclus, quoted by Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 321, ed.
Bekker; Aug. Boeckh, in his edition of Pindar, _Explicationes_, p.
590; K. O. Müller, _Orchomenus und die Minyer_,2 pp. 215 _sq._;
_id._, _Dorier_,2 i. 236 _sq._, 333 _sq._; C. Boetticher, _Der
Baumkultus der Hellenen_, pp. 386 _sqq._; G. F. Schömann,
_Griechische Alterthümer_,4 ii. 479 _sq._
200 Apollodorus, iii. 4. 2, iii. 10. 4; Servius, on Virgil, _Aen._ vii.
761. The servitude of Apollo is traditionally associated with his
slaughter of the Cyclopes, not of the dragon. But see my note on
Pausanias, ii. 7. 7 (vol. ii. pp. 53 _sqq._).
201 W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 830,
838, 839. On an Etruscan mirror the scene of Cadmus’s combat with
the dragon is surrounded by a wreath of laurel (Roscher, _op. cit._
ii. 862). Mr. A. B. Cook was the first to call attention to these
vase-paintings in confirmation of my view that the Festival of the
Laurel-bearing celebrated the destruction of the dragon by Cadmus
(_Folklore_, xv. (1904) p. 411, note 224).
202 Pausanias, ix. 10. 2; K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 i. 237 _sq._
203 For evidence of the wide diffusion of the myth and the drama, see
Th. Schreiber, _Apollon Pythoktonos_, pp. 39-50. The Laurel-bearing
Apollo was worshipped at Athens, as we know from an inscription
carved on one of the seats in the theatre. See E. S. Roberts and E.
A. Gardner, _Introduction to Greek Epigraphy_, ii. (Cambridge, 1905)
p. 467, No. 247.
M60 Both at Delphi and at Thebes the dragon seems to have guarded the
oracular spring and the oracular tree. The crown of laurel and the
crown of oak. The Festival of Crowning at Delphi originally
identical with the Pythian games.
204 Apollodorus, iii. 4. 3; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494;
Pausanias, ix. 10. 5; _Homeric Hymn to Apollo_, 300 _sq._ The writer
of the Homeric hymn merely says that Apollo slew the Delphic dragon
at a spring; but Pausanias (x. 6. 6) tells us that the beast guarded
the oracle.
205 Pausanias, x. 8. 9, x. 24. 7, with my notes; Ovid, _Amores_, i. 15.
35 _sq._; Lucian, _Jupiter tragoedus_, 30; Nonnus, _Dionys._ iv. 309
_sq._; Suidas, _s.v._ Κασταλία.
206 W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, ii. 830,
838.
207 Euripides, _Iphigenia in Tauris_, 1245 _sq._, where the reading
κατάχαλκος is clearly corrupt.
208 Lucian, _Bis accusatus_, I. So the priest of the Clarian Apollo at
Colophon drank of a secret spring before he uttered oracles in verse
(Tacitus, _Annals_, ii. 54; Pliny, _Nat. hist._ ii. 232).
209 Euripides, _Iphigenia in Tauris_, 1245 _sqq._; Apollodorus, i. 4. I;
Pausanias, x. 6. 6; Aelian, _Var. hist._ iii. i; Hyginus, _Fabulae_,
140; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 519; Schol. on Pindar, _Pyth._
Argument, p. 298, ed. Boeckh.
210 Euripides, _Hercules Furens_, 395 _sqq._; Apollodorus, ii. 5. II;
Diodorus Siculus, iv. 26; Eratosthenes, _Catasterism._ 3; Schol. on
Euripides, _Hippolytus_, 742; Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, _Argon_,
iv. 1396.
211 A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-god,” _Folklore_, xv. (1904) p. 413.
212 Ovid, _Metam._ i. 448 _sqq._
213 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ i. I, p. 2, and ii. 34, p. 29,
ed. Potter; Aristotle, _Peplos_, Frag. (_Fragmenta historicorum
Graecorum_, ii. p. 189, No. 282, ed. C. Müller); John of Antioch,
Frag. i. 20 (_Frag. histor. Graec._ iv. p. 539, ed. C. Müller);
Jamblichus, _De Pythagor. vit._ x. 52; Schol. on Pindar, _Pyth._
Argum. p. 298, ed. Boeckh; Ovid, _Metam._ i. 445 _sqq._; Hyginus,
_Fabulae_, 140.
214 Schol. on Pindar, _l.c._; Censorinus, _De die natali_, 18. 6;
compare Eustathius on Homer, _Od._ iii. 267, p. 1466. 29.
215 Plutarch, _De defectu oraculorum_, 3, compared with _id._ 15; Aug.
Mommsen, _Delphika_, pp. 211, 214; Th. Schreiber, _Apollon
Pythoktonos_ (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 32 _sqq._
216 Aelian, _Var. hist._ iii. I; Schol. on Pindar, _l.c._
217 On the original identity of the festivals see Th. Schreiber,
_Apollon Pythoktonus_, pp. 37 _sq._; A. B. Cook, in _Folklore_, xv.
(1904) pp. 404 _sq._
218 The inference was drawn by Mr. A. B. Cook, whom I follow. See his
article, “The European Sky-god,” _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 412
_sqq_.
M61 Substitution of the laurel for the oak.
219 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. i. p. 8.
220 Aelian, _Var. hist._ iii. 1; Schol. on Pindar, _Pyth._ Argum. p.
298, ed. Boeckh.
221 A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-god,” _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 423
_sq_.
222 Pausanias, ix. 3. 4. See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_,
vol. ii. p. 140.
M62 Hypothesis of octennial kings at Delphi and Thebes, who personated
dragons or serpents. Animals sacred to royal families. Greek stories
of the transformation of gods into beasts point to a custom of a
sacred marriage in which the actors masqueraded as animals.
223 A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-god,” _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 402
_sqq_.
M63 Analogy of the Wolf Society of Arcadia to the Leopard Society of
west Africa.
224 Plato, _Republic_, viii. p. 565 D E; Polybius, vii. 13; Pliny, _Nat.
hist._ viii. 81; Varro, cited by Augustine, _De civitate Dei_,
xviii. 17; Pausanias, vi. 8. 2, viii. 2. 3-6.
225 Mary H. Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_, pp. 536-543; T. J.
Alldridge, _The Sherbro and its Hinterland_ (London, 1901), pp.
153-159; compare R. H. Nassau, _Fetichism in West Africa_ (London,
1904), pp. 200-203.
226 T. J. Alldridge, _op. cit._ p. 154.
227 A. Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_, ii. 248.
M64 Legend of the transformation of Cadmus and Harmonia into serpents.
Transmigration of the souls of the dead into serpents. Kings claim
kinship with the most powerful animals.
228 Apollodorus, iii. 5. 4; Strabo, vii. 7. 8, p. 326; Ovid, _Metam_.
iv. 563-603; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 6; Nicander, _Theriaca_, 607 _sqq._
229 A. van Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_ (Paris, 1904), p.
326.
230 Dercylus, quoted by a scholiast on Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 7;
_Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iv. 387. The
writer rationalises the legend by representing the dragon as a
Theban man of that name whom Cadmus slew. On the theory here
suggested this Euhemeristic version of the story is substantially
right.
231 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 268 _sqq._
232 David Leslie, _Among the Zulus and Amatongas_, Second Edition
(Edinburgh, 1875), p. 213. Compare H. Callaway, _The Religious
System of the Amazulu_, Part II., pp. 196, 211.
233 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 73 _sqq._
234 D. Livingstone, _Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_,
p. 615; Miss A. Werner, _The Natives of British Central Africa_
(London, 1906), p. 64; L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_
(London, 1898), p. 74; J. Roscoe, “The Bahima,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xxxvii. (1907) pp. 101 sq.; Major J. A.
Meldon, “Notes on the Bahima,” _Journal of the African Society_, No.
22 (January, 1907), pp. 151-153; J. A. Chisholm, “Notes on the
Manners and Customs of the Winamwanga and Wiwa,” _Journal of the
African Society_, No. 36 (July, 1910), pp. 374, 375; P. Alois
Hamberger, in _Anthropos_, v. (1910) p. 802.
235 W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden, _Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula_
(London, 1906), ii. 194, 197, 221, 227, 305.
236 A. B. Ellis, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, pp. 74
sq.
237 This I learned from Professor F. von Luschan in the Anthropological
Museum at Berlin.
238 M. Delafosse, in _La Nature_, No. 1086 (March 24th, 1894), pp.
262-266; J. G. Frazer, “Statues of Three Kings of Dahomey,” _Man_,
viii. (1908) pp. 130-132. King Behanzin, surnamed the Shark, is
doubtless the King of Dahomey referred to by Professor von Luschan
(see the preceding note).
239 The statue was pointed out to me and explained by Professor F. von
Luschan.
240 A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, pp. 205
_sq._
241 2 Kings xviii. 4.
242 W. Robertson Smith, “Animal Worship and Animal Tribes,” _Journal of
Philology_, ix. (1880) pp. 99 _sq._ Professor T. K. Cheyne prefers
to suppose that the brazen serpent and the brazen “sea” in the
temple at Jerusalem were borrowed from Babylon and represented the
great dragon, the impersonation of the primaeval watery chaos. See
_Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Nehushtan,” vol. i. coll. 3387. The
two views are perhaps not wholly irreconcilable. See below, pp. 111
_sq._
M65 The serpent the royal animal at Athens and Salamis.
243 Herodotus, viii. 41; Plutarch, _Themistocles_, 10; Aristophanes,
_Lysistrata_, 758 _sq._, with the Scholium; Philostratus,
_Imagines_, ii. 17. 6. Some said that there were two serpents
,Hesychius and Photius, _Lexicon_, _s.v._ οἰκουρὸν ὄφιν. For the
identity of the serpent with Erichthonius, see Pausanias, i. 24. 7;
Hyginus, _Astronomica_, ii. 13; Tertullian, _De spectaculis_, 9;
compare Philostratus, _Vit. Apoll._ vii. 24; and for the identity of
Erichthonius and Erechtheus, see Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 547;
_Etymologicum magnum_, p. 371, _s.v._ Ἐρεχθεύς. According to some,
the upper part of Erichthonius was human and the lower part or only
the feet serpentine. See Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 166; _id._,
_Astronomica_, ii. 13; Schol. on Plato, _Timaeus_, p. 23 D;
_Etymologicum magnum_, _l.c._; Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 13.
See further my notes on Pausanias i. 18. 2 and i. 26. 5, vol. ii.
pp. 168 _sqq._, 330 _sqq._
244 Apollodorus, iii. 14. i; Aristophanes, _Wasps_, 438. Compare J.
Tzetzes, _Chiliades_, v. 641.
245 W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 1019.
Compare Euripides, _Ion_, 1163 _sqq._
246 O. Immisch, in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. und röm.
Mythologie_, ii. 1023.
247 Apollodorus, iii. 12. 7; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 72; J. Tzetzes,
_Schol. on Lycophron_, 110, 175, 451.
248 Pausanias, i. 36. 1. Another version of the story was that Cychreus
bred a snake which ravaged the island and was driven out by
Eurylochus, after which Demeter received the creature at Eleusis as
one of her attendants (Hesiod, quoted by Strabo, ix. 1. 9, p. 393).
249 Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Κυχρεῖος πάγος; Eustathius, _Commentary
on Dionysius_, 507, in _Geographi Graeci minores_, ed. C. Müller,
ii. 314.
250 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ἐρεχθεύς; Athenagoras, _Supplicatio pro
Christianis_, 1; [Plutarch], _Vit. X. Orat._ p. 843 B C; _Corpus
inscriptionum Atticarum_, i. No. 387, iii. Nos. 276, 805; compare
Pausanias, i. 26. 5.
251 Apollodorus, iii. 14. 1; Herodotus, viii. 55; compare Pausanias,
viii. 10. 4.
M66 The wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia at Thebes may have been a
dramatic representation of the marriage of the sun and moon at the
end of the eight years’ cycle.
252 See above, p. 73.
253 Apollodorus, iii. 4. 1 _sq._; Pausanias, ix. 12. 1 _sq._; Schol. on
Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 178. The mark of the
moon on the cow is mentioned only by Pausanias and Hyginus.
254 Apollodorus, iii. 4. 2; Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 822 _sq._; Pindar,
_Pyth._ iii. 155 _sqq._; Diodorus Siculus, v. 49. 1; Pausanias, iii.
18. 12, ix. 12. 3; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494.
M67 This theory confirmed by the astronomical symbols carried by the
Laurel-bearer at the octennial festival of Laurel-bearing. The
Olympic festival seems to have been based on the octennial cycle.
Mythical marriage of the sun and moon at Olympia.
255 Proclus, quoted by Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 321, ed. Bekker.
256 Proclus, _l.c._
257 Pindar, _Pyth._ iii. 155 _sqq._; Diodorus Siculus, v. 49. 1;
Pausanias, ix. 12. 3; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494.
258 Schol. on Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 7 καὶ νῦν ἔτι ἐν τῇ Σαμοθρᾴκῃ
ζητοῦσιν αὐτὴν [scil. Ἁρμονίαν] ἐν ταῖς ἑορταῖς. According to the
Samothracian account, Cadmus in seeking Europa came to Samothrace,
and there, having been initiated into the mysteries, married
Harmonia (Diodorus Siculus, v. 48 _sq._). It is probable, though it
cannot be proved, that the legend was acted in the mystic rites.
259 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 133. Mr. A. B.
Cook has suggested that the central scene on the eastern frieze of
the Parthenon represents the king and queen of Athens about to take
their places among the enthroned deities. See his article “Zeus,
Jupiter, and the Oak,” _Classical Review_, xviii. (1904) p. 371. As
the scenes on the frieze appear to have been copied from the
Panathenaiac festival, it would seem, on Mr. Cook’s hypothesis, that
the sacred marriage of the King and Queen was celebrated on that
occasion in presence of actors who played the parts of gods and
goddesses. In this connexion it may not be amiss to remember that in
the eastern gable of the Parthenon the pursuit of the moon by the
sun was mythically represented by the horses of the sun emerging
from the sea on the one side, and the horses of the moon plunging
into it on the other.
260 Schol. on Pindar, _Olymp._ iii. 35 (20).
261 Compare Aug. Boeckh, on Pindar, _l.c._, _Explicationes_, p. 138; L.
Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_,
i. 366 _sq._; G. F. Unger, “Zeitrechnung der Griechen und Römer,” in
Iwan Müller’s _Handbuch der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i.
605 _sq._ All these writers recognise the octennial cycle at
Olympia.
262 K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 ii. 483; compare _id._ i. 254 _sq._
263 Pausanias, v. 1. 4.
264 Aug. Boeckh, _l.c._; A. Schmidt, _Handbuch der griechischen
Chronologie_ (Jena, 1888), pp. 50 _sqq._; K. O. Müller, _Die
Dorier_,2 i. 438; W. H. Roscher, _Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 2
_sq._, 80 _sq._, 101.
265 See Aug. Boeckh and L. Ideler, _ll.cc._ More recent writers would
date it on the second full moon after the summer solstice, hence in
August or the last days of July. See G. F. Unger, _l.c._; E. F.
Bischoff, “De fastis Graecorum antiquioribus,” _Leipziger Studien
zur classischen Philologie_, vii. (1884) pp. 347 _sq._; Aug.
Mommsen, _Über die Zeit der Olympien_ (Leipsic, 1891); and my note
on Pausanias, v. 9. 3 (vol. iii. pp. 488 _sq._).
M68 The Olympic victors, male and female, may originally have
represented Zeus and Hera or the Sun and Moon, and have reigned as
divine king and queen for four or eight years.
266 A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-God,” _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp.
398-402.
267 Rapp, in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie_,
i. 2005 _sqq._
268 Pausanias, v. 15. 3, with my note; Schol. on Pindar, _Olymp._ iii.
60.
269 Pausanias, v. 11. 1.
270 Pausanias, v. 16. 2 _sqq._
271 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. p. 143.
272 Pausanias, v. 16. 4.
273 Many years after the theory in the text was printed (for the present
volume has been long in the press) I accidentally learned that my
friend Mr. F. M. Cornford, Fellow and Lecturer of Trinity College,
Cambridge, had quite independently arrived at a similar conclusion
with regard to the mythical and dramatic parts played by the Olympic
victors, male and female, as representatives of the Sun and Moon,
and I had the pleasure of hearing him expound the theory in a
brilliant lecture delivered before the Classical Society of
Cambridge, 28th February 1911. The coincidence of two independent
enquirers in conclusions, which can hardly be called obvious, seems
to furnish a certain confirmation of their truth. In Mr. Cornford’s
case the theory in question forms part of a more elaborate and
comprehensive hypothesis as to the origin of the Olympic games,
concerning which I must for the present suspend my judgment.
274 Herodian, v. 6. 3-5.
M69 Tradition that the great games of Greece originated in funeral
celebrations.
275 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 34, p. 29, ed. Potter. The
following account of funeral games is based on my note on Pausanias
i. 44. 8 (vol. ii. pp. 549 _sq._). Compare W. Ridgeway, _The Origin
of Tragedy_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 32 _sqq._
276 Clement of Alexandria, _l.c._
277 Pausanias, v. 13. 1 _sq._
278 Scholiast on Pindar, _Olymp._ i. 146.
279 Varro, cited by Servius, on Virgil, _Aen._ iii. 67.
280 F. Bonney, “On some Customs of the Aborigines of the River Darling,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xiii. (1884) pp. 134
_sq._; Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, pp.
507, 509 _sq._; (Sir) G. Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of
Discovery in North-West and Western Australia_ (London, 1841), ii.
332.
_ 281 Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres
Straits_, vi. (Cambridge, 1908) pp. 135, 154.
282 Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 74; Apollodorus, iii. 6. 4; Schol. on Pindar,
_Pyth._, Introduction; Pausanias, ii. 15. 2 _sq._; Clement of
Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 34, p. 29, ed. Potter.
283 Scholiast on Pindar, _Isthm._, Introduction, p. 514, ed. Boeckh;
Pausanias, i. 44. 8; Apollodorus, iii. 4. 3; Zenobius, iv. 38;
Clement of Alexandria, _l.c._; J. Tzetzes, _Scholia on Lycophron_,
107, 229; Scholia on Euripides, _Medea_, 1284; Hyginus, _Fabulae_,
2.
284 Clement of Alexandria, _l.c._; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 140.
M70 The tradition is confirmed by Greek practice, for in historical
times games were instituted to do honour to many famous men in
Greece.
285 Homer, _Iliad_, xxiii. 255 _sqq._, 629 _sqq._, 651 _sqq._
286 Herodotus, vi. 38.
287 Pausanias, iii. 14. 1.
288 Plutarch, _De sera numinis vindicta_, 17.
289 Thucydides, v. 10 _sq._
290 Plutarch, _Timoleon_, 39.
291 Aulus Gellius, x. 18. 5 _sq._
292 Arrian, vii. 14. 10.
M71 The Greeks also instituted games in honour of large numbers of men
who had perished in battle or a massacre.
293 Herodotus, i. 167.
294 Plutarch, _Aristides_, 21; Strabo, ix. 2. 31, p. 412; Pausanias, ix.
2. 5 _sq._
295 Philostratus, _Vit. Sophist._ ii. 30; Heliodorus, _Aethiopica_, i.
17; compare Aristotle, _Constitution of Athens_, 58.
M72 Funeral games have been celebrated in honour of the dead by other
peoples both in ancient and modern times.
296 Herodotus, v. 8.
297 Livy, xxiii. 30. 15.
298 Livy, xxxi. 50. 4.
299 Livy, xxxix. 46. 2 _sq._
_ 300 Census of India, 1901_, vol. iii., _The Andaman and Nicobar
Islands_, by Lieut.-Col. Sir Richard C. Temple (Calcutta, 1903), p.
209.
301 Letter of the missionary Chevron, in _Annales de la Propagation de
la Foi_, xv. (1843) pp. 40 _sq._
302 É. Aymonier, _Voyage dans le Laos_ (Paris, 1895-1897), ii. 325
_sq._; C. Bock, _Temples and Elephants_ (London, 1884), p. 262.
303 A. de Levchine, _Description des hommes et des steppes des
Kirghiz-Kazaks ou Kirghiz-Kaisaks_ (Paris, 1840), pp. 367 _sq._; H.
Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_ (Leipsic, 1885), p. 255; P. von Stenin,
“Die Kirgisen des Kreises Saissanak im Gebiete von Ssemipalatinsk,”
_Globus_, lxix. (1906) p. 228.
304 T. de Pauly, _Description ethnographique des peuples de la Russie_
(St. Petersburg, 1862), _Peuples ouralo-altaïques_, p. 29.
305 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), vi. 111.
M73 Funeral games among the Bedouins and among the peoples of the
Caucasus.
306 I. Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_ (Halle a. S., 1888-1890),
ii. 328 _sq._ However, Prof. Goldziher believes that the festival is
an ancient heathen one which has been subsequently grafted upon the
tradition of the orthodox prophet Salih.
307 J. Potocki, _Voyage dans les steps d’Astrakhan et du Caucase_
(Paris, 1829), i. 275 _sq._; Edmund Spencer, _Travels in Circassia,
Krim Tartary_, etc. (London, 1836) ii. 399.
308 G. Radde, _Die Chews’uren und ihr Land_ (Cassel, 1878), pp. 95
_sq._; Prince Eristow, “Die Pschawen und Chewsurier im Kaukasus,”
_Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkunde_, Neue Folge, ii. (1857) p. 77.
309 C. v. Hahn, “Religiöse Anschauungen und Totengedächtnisfeier der
Chewsuren,” _Globus_, lxxvi. (1899) pp. 211 _sq._
310 N. v. Seidlitz, “Die Abchasen,” _Globus_, lxvi. (1894) pp. 42 _sq._
M74 Games periodically held in honour of some famous man might in time
assume the character of a great fair. The great Irish fairs of
Tailltin and Carman, in which horse-races played a prominent part,
are said to have been instituted in honour of the dead.
311 (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London, 1888), pp. 409 _sq._;
H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de littérature celtique_, vii.
(Paris, 1895) pp. 309 _sqq._; P. W. Joyce, _Social History of
Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903), ii. 438 _sqq._ “The _aenach_ or
fair was an assembly of the people of every grade without
distinction; it was the most common kind of large public meeting,
and its main object was the celebration of games, athletic
exercises, sports, and pastimes of all kinds” (P. W. Joyce, _op.
cit._ ii. 438). The Irish name is _Tailltiu_, genitive _Taillten_,
accusative and dative _Tailltin_ (Sir J. Rhys, _op. cit._ p. 409
note 1).
312 (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 411; H. d’Arbois de
Jubainville, _Cours de littérature celtique_, vii. 313 _sqq._; P. W.
Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, ii. 434 _sq._, 441
_sqq._
M75 Indeed most of the great Irish fairs are said to have originated in
funeral games.
313 P. W. Joyce, _op. cit._ ii. 435.
314 P. W. Joyce, _op. cit._ ii. 434. Compare (Sir) J. Rhys, _Celtic
Heathendom_, p. 411.
315 H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de littérature celtique_, vii.
313.
316 H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._ vii. 310.
M76 The great Irish fairs were held on the first of August (Lammas),
which seems to have been an old harvest festival of first-fruits.
317 P. W. Joyce, _op. cit._ ii. 389, 439.
318 (Sir) J. Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 410.
319 (Sir) J. Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, pp. 411 _sq._, quoting the
substance of a note by Thos. Hearne, in his edition of _Robert of
Gloucester’s Chronicles_ (Oxford, 1724), p. 679. As to the
derivation of the word see _New English Dictionary_ (Oxford, 1888- )
and W. W. Skeat, _Etymological Dictionary of the English Language_
(Oxford, 1910), _s.v._ “Lammas.”
320 See above, p. 100.
321 See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, ii. 459 _sqq._
322 See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, ii. 460, 463, 464 _sq._
M77 If the great Irish fairs were instituted in honour of the dead, we
can understand why their observance was supposed to ensure plenty of
corn, fruit, milk, and fish.
323 See above, pp. 14 _sqq._, 21, 27, 33, 36 _sq._
324 See above, p. 98.
325 See above, p. 93.
M78 But the theory of the funeral origin of the Olympic games does not
explain all the legends connected with them. Suggested theory of the
origin of the Olympic games.
326 Pausanias, v. 1. 4, v. 8. 1.
327 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, pp. 183-185 ed. R. Wagner (_Epitoma_,
ii. 3-9); Diodorus Siculus, iv. 73; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 84; Schol.
on Pindar, _Olymp._ i. 114; Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 7. See
_The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 299 _sq._
328 Strabo, vi. 3. 9, p. 284; K. O. Müller, _Aeschylos Eumeniden_
(Göttingen, 1833), p. 144.
329 Pausanias, vi. 21. 9-11.
M79 The Olympic games not a harvest festival, but based on astronomical
considerations.
M80 Widespread myth of the slaughter of a great dragon. The Babylonian
story of the slaying of Tiamat by Marduk is a myth of the creation
of cosmos out of chaos.
330 P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_ (Strasburg, 1890), pp.
263 _sqq._; _id._, _Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen_ (Berlin,
1900), pp. 3 _sqq._; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and
Assyria_, pp. 407 _sqq._; L. W. King, _Babylonian Religion and
Mythology_, pp. 53 _sqq._; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader’s _Die
Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_ (Berlin, 1902), pp. 488
_sqq._; M. J. Lagrange, _Études sur les religions sémitiques_2
(Paris, 1905); pp. 366 _sqq._
331 P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_, pp. 304-306; H. Gunkel,
_Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit_ (Göttingen, 1895), pp.
114 _sqq._; _id._, _Genesis übersetzt und erklärt_ (Göttingen,
1901), pp. 107 _sqq._; _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Creation,”
i. coll. 938 _sqq._; S. R. Driver, _The Book of Genesis_4 (London,
1905), pp. 27 _sqq._ The myth is clearly alluded to in several
passages of Scripture, where the dragon of the sea is spoken of as
Rahab or Leviathan. See Isaiah li. 9, “Art thou not it that cut
Rahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon?”: _id._ xxvii. 1, “In that
day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish
leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and
he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea”: Job xxvi. 12, “He
stirreth up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he
smiteth through Rahab”: Psalm lxxxix. 10, “Thou hast broken Rahab in
pieces as one that is slain”: Psalm lxxiv. 13 _sq._, “Thou didst
divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the
dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in
pieces.” See further H. Gunkel, _Schöpfung und Chaos_, pp. 29 _sqq._
M81 Indian story of the slaying of Vṛtra by Indra. The story may be a
myth descriptive of the beginning of the rainy season in India.
332 A. A. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_, pp. 58-60, 158 _sq._ Compare H.
Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, pp. 134 _sqq._
333 See M. Winternitz, “Der Sarpabali, ein altindischer Schlangencult,”
_Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, xviii.
(1888) pp. 44 _sq._
M82 Similarly the other tales of the slaughter of the dragon may be
mythical descriptions of the changes of the seasons.
334 A. Kuhn, “Wodan,” _Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum_, v. (1845)
pp. 484-488.
335 P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_, pp. 315 _sq._; H.
Gunkel, _Schöpfung und Chaos_, p. 25; _id._, _Genesis übersetzt und
erklärt_, pp. 115 _sq._; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and
Assyria_, pp. 411 _sq._, 429 _sq._, 432 _sq._; H. Zimmern, in
_Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Creation,” i. coll. 940 _sq._;
_id._, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte
Testament_,3 pp. 370 _sq._, 500 _sq._; S. R. Driver, _The Book of
Genesis_4 (London, 1905), p. 28.
M83 The cosmogonical significance of the Babylonian myth may have been
an after-thought, the early philosophers picturing the creation of
the world on the analogy of the change from winter to summer.
336 Virgil, _Georgics_, ii. 336-342.