CHAPTER I

A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION

_THIRD EDITION_

PART VII

BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL

VOL. I

BALDER

THE BEAUTIFUL

THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE

AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE EXTERNAL SOUL

J.G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL.

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I

1913

PREFACE

In this concluding part of _The Golden Bough_ I have discussed the

problem which gives its title to the whole work. If I am right, the

Golden Bough over which the King of the Wood, Diana's priest at Aricia,

kept watch and ward was no other than a branch of mistletoe growing on

an oak within the sacred grove; and as the plucking of the bough was a

necessary prelude to the slaughter of the priest, I have been led to

institute a parallel between the King of the Wood at Nemi and the Norse

god Balder, who was worshipped in a sacred grove beside the beautiful

Sogne fiord of Norway and was said to have perished by a stroke of

mistletoe, which alone of all things on earth or in heaven could wound

him. On the theory here suggested both Balder and the King of the Wood

personified in a sense the sacred oak of our Aryan forefathers, and both

had deposited their lives or souls for safety in the parasite which

sometimes, though rarely, is found growing on an oak and by the very

rarity of its appearance excites the wonder and stimulates the devotion

of ignorant men. Though I am now less than ever disposed to lay weight

on the analogy between the Italian priest and the Norse god, I have

allowed it to stand because it furnishes me with a pretext for

discussing not only the general question of the external soul in popular

superstition, but also the fire-festivals of Europe, since fire played a

part both in the myth of Balder and in the ritual of the Arician grove.

Thus Balder the Beautiful in my hands is little more than a

stalking-horse to carry two heavy pack-loads of facts. And what is true

of Balder applies equally to the priest of Nemi himself, the nominal

hero of the long tragedy of human folly and suffering which has unrolled

itself before the readers of these volumes, and on which the curtain is

now about to fall. He, too, for all the quaint garb he wears and the

gravity with which he stalks across the stage, is merely a puppet, and

it is time to unmask him before laying him up in the box.

To drop metaphor, while nominally investigating a particular problem of

ancient mythology, I have really been discussing questions of more

general interest which concern the gradual evolution of human thought

from savagery to civilization. The enquiry is beset with difficulties of

many kinds, for the record of man's mental development is even more

imperfect than the record of his physical development, and it is harder

to read, not only by reason of the incomparably more subtle and complex

nature of the subject, but because the reader's eyes are apt to be

dimmed by thick mists of passion and prejudice, which cloud in a far

less degree the fields of comparative anatomy and geology. My

contribution to the history of the human mind consists of little more

than a rough and purely provisional classification of facts gathered

almost entirely from printed sources. If there is one general conclusion

which seems to emerge from the mass of particulars, I venture to think

that it is the essential similarity in the working of the less developed

human mind among all races, which corresponds to the essential

similarity in their bodily frame revealed by comparative anatomy. But

while this general mental similarity may, I believe, be taken as

established, we must always be on our guard against tracing to it a

multitude of particular resemblances which may be and often are due to

simple diffusion, since nothing is more certain than that the various

races of men have borrowed from each other many of their arts and

crafts, their ideas, customs, and institutions. To sift out the elements

of culture which a race has independently evolved and to distinguish

them accurately from those which it has derived from other races is a

task of extreme difficulty and delicacy, which promises to occupy

students of man for a long time to come; indeed so complex are the facts

and so imperfect in most cases is the historical record that it may be

doubted whether in regard to many of the lower races we shall ever

arrive at more than probable conjectures.

Since the last edition of _The Golden Bough_ was published some thirteen

years ago, I have seen reason to change my views on several matters

discussed in this concluding part of the work, and though I have called

attention to these changes in the text, it may be well for the sake of

clearness to recapitulate them here.

In the first place, the arguments of Dr. Edward Westermarck have

satisfied me that the solar theory of the European fire-festivals, which

I accepted from W. Mannhardt, is very slightly, if at all, supported by

the evidence and is probably erroneous. The true explanation of the

festivals I now believe to be the one advocated by Dr. Westermarck

himself, namely that they are purificatory in intention, the fire being

designed not, as I formerly held, to reinforce the sun's light and heat

by sympathetic magic, but merely to burn or repel the noxious things,

whether conceived as material or spiritual, which threaten the life of

man, of animals, and of plants. This aspect of the fire-festivals had

not wholly escaped me in former editions; I pointed it out explicitly,

but, biassed perhaps by the great authority of Mannhardt, I treated it

as secondary and subordinate instead of primary and dominant. Out of

deference to Mannhardt, for whose work I entertain the highest respect,

and because the evidence for the purificatory theory of the fires is

perhaps not quite conclusive, I have in this edition repeated and even

reinforced the arguments for the solar theory of the festivals, so that

the reader may see for himself what can be said on both sides of the

question and may draw his own conclusion; but for my part I cannot but

think that the arguments for the purificatory theory far outweigh the

arguments for the solar theory. Dr. Westermarck based his criticisms

largely on his own observations of the Mohammedan fire-festivals of

Morocco, which present a remarkable resemblance to those of Christian

Europe, though there seems no reason to assume that herein Africa has

borrowed from Europe or Europe from Africa. So far as Europe is

concerned, the evidence tends strongly to shew that the grand evil which

the festivals aimed at combating was witchcraft, and that they were

conceived to attain their end by actually burning the witches, whether

visible or invisible, in the flames. If that was so, the wide prevalence

and the immense popularity of the fire-festivals provides us with a

measure for estimating the extent of the hold which the belief in

witchcraft had on the European mind before the rise of Christianity or

rather of rationalism; for Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant,

accepted the old belief and enforced it in the old way by the faggot and

the stake. It was not until human reason at last awoke after the long

slumber of the Middle Ages that this dreadful obsession gradually passed

away like a dark cloud from the intellectual horizon of Europe.

Yet we should deceive ourselves if we imagined that the belief in

witchcraft is even now dead in the mass of the people; on the contrary

there is ample evidence to show that it only hibernates under the

chilling influence of rationalism, and that it would start into active

life if that influence were ever seriously relaxed. The truth seems to

be that to this day the peasant remains a pagan and savage at heart; his

civilization is merely a thin veneer which the hard knocks of life soon

abrade, exposing the solid core of paganism and savagery below. The

danger created by a bottomless layer of ignorance and superstition under

the crust of civilized society is lessened, not only by the natural

torpidity and inertia of the bucolic mind, but also by the progressive

decrease of the rural as compared with the urban population in modern

states; for I believe it will be found that the artisans who congregate

in towns are far less retentive of primitive modes of thought than their

rustic brethren. In every age cities have been the centres and as it

were the lighthouses from which ideas radiate into the surrounding

darkness, kindled by the friction of mind with mind in the crowded

haunts of men; and it is natural that at these beacons of intellectual

light all should partake in some measure of the general illumination. No

doubt the mental ferment and unrest of great cities have their dark as

well as their bright side; but among the evils to be apprehended from

them the chances of a pagan revival need hardly be reckoned.

Another point on which I have changed my mind is the nature of the great

Aryan god whom the Romans called Jupiter and the Greeks Zeus. Whereas I

formerly argued that he was primarily a personification of the sacred

oak and only in the second place a personification of the thundering

sky, I now invert the order of his divine functions and believe that he

was a sky-god before he came to be associated with the oak. In fact, I

revert to the traditional view of Jupiter, recant my heresy, and am

gathered like a lost sheep into the fold of mythological orthodoxy. The

good shepherd who has brought me back is my friend Mr. W. Warde Fowler.

He has removed the stone over which I stumbled in the wilderness by

explaining in a simple and natural way how a god of the thundering sky

might easily come to be afterwards associated with the oak. The

explanation turns on the great frequency with which, as statistics

prove, the oak is struck by lightning beyond any other tree of the wood

in Europe. To our rude forefathers, who dwelt in the gloomy depths of

the primaeval forest, it might well seem that the riven and blackened

oaks must indeed be favourites of the sky-god, who so often descended on

them from the murky cloud in a flash of lightning and a crash of

thunder.

This change of view as to the great Aryan god necessarily affects my

interpretation of the King of the Wood, the priest of Diana at Aricia,

if I may take that discarded puppet out of the box again for a moment.

On my theory the priest represented Jupiter in the flesh, and

accordingly, if Jupiter was primarily a sky-god, his priest cannot have

been a mere incarnation of the sacred oak, but must, like the deity

whose commission he bore, have been invested in the imagination of his

worshippers with the power of overcasting the heaven with clouds and

eliciting storms of thunder and rain from the celestial vault. The

attribution of weather-making powers to kings or priests is very common

in primitive society, and is indeed one of the principal levers by which

such personages raise themselves to a position of superiority above

their fellows. There is therefore no improbability in the supposition

that as a representative of Jupiter the priest of Diana enjoyed this

reputation, though positive evidence of it appears to be lacking.

Lastly, in the present edition I have shewn some grounds for thinking

that the Golden Bough itself, or in common parlance the mistletoe on the

oak, was supposed to have dropped from the sky upon the tree in a flash

of lightning and therefore to contain within itself the seed of

celestial fire, a sort of smouldering thunderbolt. This view of the

priest and of the bough which he guarded at the peril of his life has

the advantage of accounting for the importance which the sanctuary at

Nemi acquired and the treasure which it amassed through the offerings of

the faithful; for the shrine would seem to have been to ancient what

Loreto has been to modern Italy, a place of pilgrimage, where princes

and nobles as well as commoners poured wealth into the coffers of Diana

in her green recess among the Alban hills, just as in modern times kings

and queens vied with each other in enriching the black Virgin who from

her Holy House on the hillside at Loreto looks out on the blue Adriatic

and the purple Apennines. Such pious prodigality becomes more

intelligible if the greatest of the gods was indeed believed to dwell in

human shape with his wife among the woods of Nemi.

These are the principal points on which I have altered my opinion since

the last edition of my book was published. The mere admission of such

changes may suffice to indicate the doubt and uncertainty which attend

enquiries of this nature. The whole fabric of ancient mythology is so

foreign to our modern ways of thought, and the evidence concerning it is

for the most part so fragmentary, obscure, and conflicting that in our

attempts to piece together and interpret it we can hardly hope to reach

conclusions that will completely satisfy either ourselves or others. In

this as in other branches of study it is the fate of theories to be

washed away like children's castles of sand by the rising tide of

knowledge, and I am not so presumptuous as to expect or desire for mine

an exemption from the common lot. I hold them all very lightly and have

used them chiefly as convenient pegs on which to hang my collections of

facts. For I believe that, while theories are transitory, a record of

facts has a permanent value, and that as a chronicle of ancient customs

and beliefs my book may retain its utility when my theories are as

obsolete as the customs and beliefs themselves deserve to be.

I cannot dismiss without some natural regret a task which has occupied

and amused me at intervals for many years. But the regret is tempered by

thankfulness and hope. I am thankful that I have been able to conclude

at least one chapter of the work I projected a long time ago. I am

hopeful that I may not now be taking a final leave of my indulgent

readers, but that, as I am sensible of little abatement in my bodily

strength and of none in my ardour for study, they will bear with me yet

a while if I should attempt to entertain them with fresh subjects of

laughter and tears drawn from the comedy and the tragedy of man's

endless quest after happiness and truth.

J.G. FRAZER.

CAMBRIDGE, 17_th October_ 1913.

CONTENTS

PREFACE, Pp. v-xii

CHAPTER I.--BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH, Pp. 1-21

§ 1. _Not to touch the Earth_, pp. 1-18.--The priest of Aricia and the

Golden Bough, 1 _sq._; sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the

ground with their feet, 2-4; certain persons on certain occasions

forbidden to touch the ground with their feet, 4-6; sacred persons

apparently thought to be charged with a mysterious virtue which will run

to waste or explode by contact with the ground, 6 _sq._; things as well

as persons charged with the mysterious virtue of holiness or taboo and

therefore kept from contact with the ground, 7; festival of the wild

mango, which is not allowed to touch the earth, 7-11; other sacred

objects kept from contact with the ground, 11 _sq._; sacred food not

allowed to touch the earth, 13 _sq._; magical implements and remedies

thought to lose their virtue by contact with the ground, 14 _sq._;

serpents' eggs or snake stones, 15 _sq._; medicinal plants, water, etc.,

not allowed to touch the earth, 17 _sq._

§ 2. _Not to see the Sun_, pp. 18-21.--Sacred persons not allowed to see

the sun, 18-20; tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun, 20; certain

persons forbidden to see fire, 20 _sq._; the story of Prince Sunless,

21.

CHAPTER II.--THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY, Pp. 22-100

§ 1. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Africa_, pp. 22-32.--Girls at

puberty forbidden to touch the ground and see the sun, 22; seclusion of

girls at puberty among the Zulus and kindred tribes, 22; among the

A-Kamba of British East Africa, 23; among the Baganda of Central Africa,

23 _sq._; among the tribes of the Tanganyika plateau, 24 _sq._; among

the tribes of British Central Africa, 25 _sq._; abstinence from salt

associated with a rule of chastity in many tribes, 26-28; seclusion of

girls at puberty among the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on the Zambesi,

28 _sq._; among the Thonga of Delagoa Bay, 29 _sq._; among the Caffre

tribes of South Africa, 30 _sq._; among the Bavili of the Lower Congo,

31 _sq._

§ 2. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and

Indonesia_, pp. 32-36.--Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Ireland,

32-34; in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram, and the Caroline Islands, 35 _sq._

§ 3. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and

Northern Australia_, pp. 36-41.--Seclusion of girls at puberty in

Mabuiag, Torres Straits, 36 _sq._; in Northern Australia, 37-39; in the

islands of Torres Straits, 39-41.

§ 4. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America_,

pp. 41-55.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of

California, 41-43; among the Indians of Washington State, 43; among the

Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, 43 _sq._; among the Haida Indians of

the Queen Charlotte Islands, 44 _sq._; among the Tlingit Indians of

Alaska, 45 _sq._; among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola Indians of British

Columbia, 46 _sq._; among the Tinneh Indians of British Columbia, 47

_sq._; among the Tinneh Indians of Alaska, 48 _sq._; among the Thompson

Indians of British Columbia, 49-52; among the Lillooet Indians of

British Columbia, 52 _sq._; among the Shuswap Indians of British

Columbia, 53 _sq._; among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians, 54 _sq._;

among the Esquimaux, 55 _sq._

§ 5. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of South America_,

pp. 56-68.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Guaranis,

Chiriguanos, and Lengua Indians, 56 _sq._; among the Yuracares of

Bolivia, 57 _sq._; among the Indians of the Gran Chaco, 58 _sq._; among

the Indians of Brazil, 59 _sq._; among the Indians of Guiana, 60 _sq._;

beating the girls and stinging them with ants, 61; stinging young men

with ants and wasps as an initiatory rite, 61-63; stinging men and women

with ants to improve their character or health or to render them

invulnerable, 63 _sq._; in such cases the beating or stinging was

originally a purification, not a test of courage and endurance, 65

_sq._; this explanation confirmed by the beating of girls among the

Banivas of the Orinoco to rid them of a demon, 66-68; symptoms of

puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted on her by a demon, 68.

§ 6. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in India and Cambodia_, pp.

68-70.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Hindoos, 68; in Southern

India, 68-70; in Cambodia, 70.

§ 7. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Folk-tales_, pp. 70-76.--Danish

story of the girl who might not see the sun, 70-72; Tyrolese story of

the girl who might not see the sun, 72; modern Greek stories of the maid

who might not see the sun, 72 _sq._; ancient Greek story of Danae and

its parallel in a Kirghiz legend, 73 _sq._; impregnation of women by the

sun in legends, 74 _sq._; traces in marriage customs of the belief that

women can be impregnated by the sun, 75; belief in the impregnation of

women by the moon, 75 _sq._

§ 8. _Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty_, pp. 76-100.--The

reason for the seclusion of girls at puberty is the dread of menstruous

blood, 76; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines

of Australia, 76-78; in Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, Galela, and

Sumatra, 78 _sq._; among the tribes of South Africa, 79 _sq._; among the

tribes of Central and East Africa, 80-82; among the tribes of West

Africa, 82; powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab

legend, 82 _sq._; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews

and in Syria, 83 _sq._; in India, 84 _sq._; in Annam, 85; among the

Indians of Central and South America, 85 _sq._; among the Indians of

North America, 87-94; among the Creek, Choctaw, Omaha and Cheyenne

Indians, 88 _sq._; among the Indians of British Columbia, 89 _sq._;

among the Chippeway Indians, 90 _sq._; among the Tinneh or Déné Indians,

91; among the Carrier Indians, 91-94; similar rules of seclusion

enjoined on menstruous women in ancient Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew

codes, 94-96; superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern

Europe, 96 _sq._; the intention of secluding menstruous women is to

neutralize the dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from

them in that condition, 97; suspension between heaven and earth, 97; the

same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed by

divine kings and priests, 97-99; stories of immortality attained by

suspension between heaven and earth, 99 _sq._

CHAPTER III.--THE MYTH OF BALDER, Pp. 101-105

How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke of

mistletoe, 101 _sq._; story of Balder in the older _Edda_, 102 _sq._;

story of Balder as told by Saxo Grammaticus, 103; Balder worshipped in

Norway, 104; legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of

Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi, 104 _sq._; the myth of Balder perhaps

acted as a magical ceremony; the two main incidents of the myth, namely

the pulling of the mistletoe and the burning of the god, have perhaps

their counterpart in popular ritual, 105.

CHAPTER IV.--THE FIRE FESTIVALS OF EUROPE, Pp. 106-327

§ 1. _The Lenten Fires_, pp. 106-120.--European custom of kindling

bonfires on certain days of the year, dancing round them, leaping over

them, and burning effigies in the flames, 106; seasons of the year at

which the bonfires are lit, 106 _sq._; bonfires on the first Sunday in

Lent in the Belgian Ardennes, 107 _sq._; in the French department of the

Ardennes, 109 _sq._; in Franche-Comté, 110 _sq._; in Auvergne, 111-113;

French custom of carrying lighted torches (_brandons_) about the

orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent,

113-115; bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in Germany and Austria,

115 _sq._; "burning the witch," 116; burning discs thrown into the air,

116 _sq._; burning wheels rolled down hill, 117 _sq._; bonfires on the

first Sunday in Lent in Switzerland, 118 _sq._; burning discs thrown

into the air, 119; connexion of these fires with the custom of "carrying

out Death," 119 _sq._

§ 2. _The Easter Fires_, 120-146.--Custom in Catholic countries of

kindling a holy new fire on Easter Saturday, marvellous properties

ascribed to the embers of the fire, 121; effigy of Judas burnt in the

fire, 121; Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi, 122; water as well

as fire consecrated at Easter in Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, 122-124;

new fire at Easter in Carinthia, 124; Thomas Kirchmeyer's account of the

consecration of fire and water by the Catholic Church at Easter, 124

_sq._; the new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence, 126 _sq._; the new

fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico and South

America, 127 _sq._; the new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the

Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 128-130; the new fire and the burning of

Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece, 130 _sq._; the new fire at Candlemas

in Armenia, 131; the new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are

probably relics of paganism, 131 _sq._; new fire at the summer solstice

among the Incas of Peru, 132; new fire among the Indians of Mexico and

New Mexico, the Iroquois, and the Esquimaux, 132-134; new fire in Wadai,

among the Swahili, and in other parts of Africa, 134-136; new fires

among the Todas and Nagas of India, 136; new fire in China and Japan,

137 _sq._; new fire in ancient Greece and Rome, 138; new fire at

Hallowe'en among the old Celts of Ireland, 139; new fire on the first of

September among the Russian peasants, 139; the rite of the new fire

probably common to many peoples of the Mediterranean area before the

rise of Christianity, 139 _sq._; the pagan character of the Easter fire

manifest from the superstitions associated with it, such as the belief

that the fire fertilizes the fields and protects houses from

conflagration and sickness, 140 _sq._; the Easter fires in Münsterland,

Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains, and the Altmark, 141-143; Easter fires

and the burning of Judas or the Easter Man in Bavaria, 143 _sq._; Easter

fires and "thunder poles" in Baden, 145; Easter fires in Holland and

Sweden, 145 _sq._; the burning of Judas in Bohemia, 146.

§ 3. _The Beltane Fires_, pp. 146-160.--The Beltane fires on the first

of May in the Highlands of Scotland, 146-154; John Ramsay of Ochtertyre,

his description of the Beltane fires and cakes and the Beltane carline,

146-149; Beltane fires and cakes in Perthshire, 150-153; Beltane fires

in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches, 153 _sq._; Beltane

fires and cakes in the Hebrides, 154; Beltane fires and cakes in Wales,

155-157; in the Isle of Man to burn the witches, 157; in

Nottinghamshire, 157; in Ireland, 157-159; fires on the Eve of May Day

in Sweden, 159; in Austria and Saxony to burn the witches, 159 _sq._

§ 4. _The Midsummer Fires_, pp. 160-219.--The great season for

fire-festivals in Europe is Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day, which the

church has dedicated to St. John the Baptist, 160 _sq._; the bonfires,

the torches, and the burning wheels of the festival, 161; Thomas

Kirchmeyer's description of the Midsummer festival, 162 _sq._; the

Midsummer fires in Germany, 163-171; burning wheel rolled down hill at

Konz on the Moselle, 163 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Bavaria, 164-166; in

Swabia, 166 _sq._; in Baden, 167-169; in Alsace, Lorraine, the Eifel,

the Harz district, and Thuringia, 169; Midsummer fires kindled by the

friction of wood, 169 _sq._; driving away the witches and demons, 170;

Midsummer fires in Silesia, scaring away the witches, 170 _sq._;

Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway, keeping off the witches, 171;

Midsummer fires in Sweden, 172; Midsummer fires in Switzerland and

Austria, 172 _sq._; in Bohemia, 173-175; in Moravia, Austrian Silesia,

and the district of Cracow, 175; among the Slavs of Russia, 176; in

Prussia and Lithuania as a protection against witchcraft, thunder, hail,

and cattle disease, 176 _sq._; in Masuren the fire is kindled by the

revolution of a wheel, 177; Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia,

177 _sq._; among the South Slavs, 178; among the Magyars, 178 _sq._;

among the Esthonians, 179 _sq._; among the Finns and Cheremiss of

Russia, 180 _sq._; in France, 181-194; Bossuet on the Midsummer

festival, 182; the Midsummer fires in Brittany, 183-185; in Normandy,

the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at Jumièges, 185 _sq._; Midsummer

fires in Picardy, 187 _sq._; in Beauce and Perche, 188; the fires a

protection against witchcraft, 188; the Midsummer fires in the Ardennes,

the Vosges, and the Jura, 188 _sq._; in Franche-Comté, 189; in Berry and

other parts of Central France, 189 _sq._; in Poitou, 190 _sq._; in the

departments of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres and in the provinces of Saintonge

and Aunis, 191 _sq._; in Southern France, 192 _sq._; Midsummer festival

of fire and water in Provence, 193 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Belgium,

194-196; in England, 196-200; Stow's description of the Midsummer fires

in London, 196 _sq._; John Aubrey on the Midsummer fires, 197; Midsummer

fires in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, 197 _sq._; in

Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, 199 _sq._; in

Wales and the Isle of Man, 200 _sq._; in Ireland, 201-205; holy wells

resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland, 205 _sq._; Midsummer fires in

Scotland, 206 _sq._; Midsummer fires and divination in Spain and the

Azores, 208 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Corsica and Sardinia, 209; in the

Abruzzi, 209 _sq._; in Sicily, 210; in Malta, 210 _sq._; in Greece and

the Greek islands, 211 _sq._; in Macedonia and Albania, 212; in South

America, 212 _sq._; among the Mohammedans of Morocco and Algeria,

213-216; the Midsummer festival in North Africa comprises rites of water

as well as fire, 216; similar festival of fire and water at New Year in

North Africa, 217 _sq._; the duplication of the festival probably due to

a conflict between the solar calendar of the Romans and the lunar

calendar of the Arabs, 218 _sg._; the Midsummer festival in Morocco

apparently of Berber origin, 219.

§ 5. _The Autumn Fires_, pp. 220-222.--Festivals of fire in August, 220;

"living fire" made by the friction of wood, 220; feast of the Nativity

of the Virgin on the eighth of September at Capri and Naples, 220-222.

§ 6. _The Halloween Fires_, pp. 222-246.--While the Midsummer festival

implies observation of the solstices, the Celts appear to have divided

their year, without regard to the solstices, by the times when they

drove their cattle to and from the summer pasture on the first of May

and the last of October (Hallowe'en), 222-224; the two great Celtic

festivals of Beltane (May Day) and Hallowe'en (the last of October),

224; Hallowe'en seems to have marked the beginning of the Celtic year,

224 _sq._; it was a season of divination and a festival of the dead, 225

_sq._; fairies and hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en, 226-228;

divination in Celtic countries at Hallowe'en, 228 _sq._; Hallowe'en

bonfires in the Highlands of Scotland, 229-232; Hallowe'en fires in

Buchan to burn the witches, 232 _sq._; processions with torches at

Hallowe'en in the Braemar Highlands, 233 _sq._; divination at Hallowe'en

in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, 234-239; Hallowe'en fires in

Wales, omens drawn from stones cast into the fires, 239 _sq._;

divination at Hallowe'en in Wales, 240 _sq._; divination at Hallowe'en

in Ireland, 241-243; Hallowe'en fires and divination in the Isle of Man,

243 _sq._; Hallowe'en fires and divination in Lancashire, 244 _sq._;

marching with lighted candles to keep off the witches, 245; divination

at Hallowe'en in Northumberland, 245; Hallowe'en fires in France, 245

_sq._

§ 7. _The Midwinter Fires_, pp. 246-269.--Christmas the continuation of

an old heathen festival of the sun, 246; the Yule log the Midwinter

counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire, 247; the Yule log in Germany,

247-249; in Switzerland, 249; in Belgium, 249; in France, 249-255;

French superstitions as to the Yule log, 250; the Yule log at Marseilles

and in Perigord, 250 _sq._; in Berry, 251 _sq._; in Normandy and

Brittany, 252 _sq._; in the Ardennes, 253 _sq._; in the Vosges, 254; in

Franche-Comté, 254 _sq._; the Yule log and Yule candle in England,

255-258; the Yule log in the north of England and Yorkshire, 256 _sq._;

in Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire, 257 _sq._;

in Wales, 258; in Servia, 258-262; among the Servians of Slavonia, 262

_sq._; among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro, 263

_sq._; in Albania, 264; belief that the Yule log protects against fire

and lightning, 264 _sq._; public fire-festivals at Midwinter, 265-269;

Christmas bonfire at Schweina in Thuringia, 265 _sq._; Christmas

bonfires in Normandy, 266; bonfires on St. Thomas's Day in the Isle of

Man, 266; the "Burning of the Clavie" at Burghead on the last day of

December, 266-268; Christmas procession with burning tar-barrels at

Lerwick, 268 _sq._

§ 8. _The Need-fire_, pp. 269-300.--Need-fire kindled not at fixed

periods but on occasions of distress and calamity, 269; the need-fire in

the Middle Ages and down to the end of the sixteenth century, 270 _sq._;

mode of kindling the need-fire by the friction of wood, 271 _sq_.; the

need-fire in Central Germany, particularly about Hildesheim, 272 _sq._;

the need-fire in the Mark, 273; in Mecklenburg, 274 _sq._; in Hanover,

275 _sq._; in the Harz Mountains, 276 _sq._; in Brunswick, 277 _sq._; in

Silesia and Bohemia, 278 _sq._; in Switzerland, 279 _sq._; in Sweden and

Norway, 280; among the Slavonic peoples, 281-286; in Russia and Poland,

281 _sq._; in Slavonia, 282; in Servia, 282-284; in Bulgaria, 284-286;

in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 286; in England, 286-289; in Yorkshire,

286-288; in Northumberland, 288 _sq._; in Scotland, 289-297; Martin's

account of it in the Highlands, 289; the need-fire in Mull, 289 _sq._;

in Caithness, 290-292; W. Grant Stewart's account of the need-fire, 292

_sq._; Alexander Carmichael's account, 293-295; the need-fire in

Aberdeenshire, 296; in Perthshire, 296 _sq._; in Ireland, 297; the use

of need-fire a relic of the time when all fires were similarly kindled

by the friction of wood, 297 _sq._; the belief that need-fire cannot

kindle if any other fire remains alight in the neighbourhood, 298 _sq._;

the need-fire among the Iroquois of North America, 299 _sq._

§ 9. _The Sacrifice of an Animal to stay a Cattle-plague_, pp.

300-327.--The burnt sacrifice of a calf in England and Wales, 300 _sq._;

burnt sacrifices of animals in Scotland, 301 _sq._; calf burnt in order

to break a spell which has been cast on the herd, 302 _sq._; mode in

which the burning of a bewitched animal is supposed to break the spell,

303-305; in burning the bewitched animal you burn the witch herself,

305; practice of burning cattle and sheep as sacrifices in the Isle of

Man, 305-307; by burning a bewitched animal you compel the witch to

appear, 307; magic sympathy between the witch and the bewitched animal,

308; similar sympathy between a were-wolf and his or her human shape,

wounds inflicted on the animal are felt by the man or woman, 308;

were-wolves in Europe, 308-310; in China, 310 _sq._; among the Toradjas

of Central Celebes, 311-313 _sq._; in the Egyptian Sudan, 313 _sq._; the

were-wolf story in Petronius, 313 _sq._; witches like were-wolves can

temporarily transform themselves into animals, and wounds inflicted on

the transformed animals appear on the persons of the witches, 315 _sq._;

instances of such transformations and wounds in Scotland, England,

Ireland, France, and Germany, 316-321; hence the reason for burning

bewitched animals is either to burn the witch herself or at all events

to compel her to appear, 321 _sq._; the like reason for burning

bewitched things, 322 _sq._; similarly by burning alive a person whose

likeness a witch has assumed you compel the witch to disclose herself,

323; woman burnt alive as a witch in Ireland at the end of the

nineteenth century, 323 _sq._; bewitched animals sometimes buried alive

instead of being burned, 324-326; calves killed and buried to save the

rest of the herd, 326 _sq_.

CHAPTER V.--THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS, Pp. 328-346

§ 1. _On the Fire-festivals in general_ pp. 328-331.--General

resemblance of the fire-festivals to each other, 328 _sq._; two

explanations of the festivals suggested, one by W. Mannhardt that they

are sun-charms, the other by Dr. E. Westermarck that they are

purificatory, 329 _sq._; the two explanations perhaps not mutually

exclusive, 330 _sq._

§ 2. _The Solar Theory of the Fire-festivals_, pp. 331-341.--Theory that

the fire-festivals are charms to ensure a supply of sunshine, 331;

coincidence of two of the festivals with the solstices, 331 _sq._;

attempt of the Bushmen to warm up the fire of Sirius in midwinter by

kindling sticks, 332 _sq._; the burning wheels and discs of the

fire-festivals may be direct imitations of the sun, 334; the wheel which

is sometimes used to kindle the fire by friction may also be an

imitation of the sun, 334-336; the influence which the bonfires are

supposed to exert on the weather and vegetation may be thought to be due

to an increase of solar heat produced by the fires, 336-338; the effect

which the bonfires are supposed to have in fertilizing cattle and women

may also be attributed to an increase of solar heat produced by the

fires, 338 _sq._; the carrying of lighted torches about the country at

the festivals may be explained as an attempt to diffuse the sun's heat,

339-341.

§ 3. _The Purificatory Theory of the Fire-festivals_, pp.

341-346.--Theory that the fires at the festivals are purificatory, being

intended to burn up all harmful things, 341; the purificatory or

destructive effect of the fires is often alleged by the people who light

them, and there is no reason to reject this explanation, 341 _sq._; the

great evil against which the fire at the festivals appears to be

directed is witchcraft, 342; among the evils for which the

fire-festivals are deemed remedies the foremost is cattle-disease, and

cattle-disease is often supposed to be an effect of witchcraft, 343

_sq._; again, the bonfires are thought to avert hail, thunder,

lightning, and various maladies, all of which are attributed to the

maleficent arts of witches, 344 _sq._; the burning wheels rolled down

hill and the burning discs thrown into the air may be intended to burn

the invisible witches, 345 _sq._; on this view the fertility supposed to

follow the use of fire results indirectly from breaking the spells of

witches, 346; on the whole the theory of the purificatory or destructive

intention of the fire-festivals seems the more probable, 346.

[Transcriber's Note: The brief descriptions often found enclosed in

square brackets are "sidenotes", which appeared in the original book in

the margins of the paragraph following the "sidenote." Footnotes were

originally at the bottoms of the printed pages.]

CHAPTER I

BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH

§ 1. _Not to touch the Earth_

[The priest of Aricia and the Golden Bough]

We have travelled far since we turned our backs on Nemi and set forth in

quest of the secret of the Golden Bough. With the present volume we

enter on the last stage of our long journey. The reader who has had the

patience to follow the enquiry thus far may remember that at the outset

two questions were proposed for answer: Why had the priest of Aricia to

slay his predecessor? And why, before doing so, had he to pluck the

Golden Bough?[1] Of these two questions the first has now been answered.

The priest of Aricia, if I am right, was one of those sacred kings or

human divinities on whose life the welfare of the community and even the

course of nature in general are believed to be intimately dependent. It

does not appear that the subjects or worshippers of such a spiritual

potentate form to themselves any very clear notion of the exact

relationship in which they stand to him; probably their ideas on the

point are vague and fluctuating, and we should err if we attempted to

define the relationship with logical precision. All that the people

know, or rather imagine, is that somehow they themselves, their cattle,

and their crops are mysteriously bound up with their divine king, so

that according as he is well or ill the community is healthy or sickly,

the flocks and herds thrive or languish with disease, and the fields

yield an abundant or a scanty harvest. The worst evil which they can

conceive of is the natural death of their ruler, whether he succumb to

sickness or old age, for in the opinion of his followers such a death

would entail the most disastrous consequences on themselves and their

possessions; fatal epidemics would sweep away man and beast, the earth

would refuse her increase, nay the very frame of nature itself might be

dissolved. To guard against these catastrophes it is necessary to put

the king to death while he is still in the full bloom of his divine

manhood, in order that his sacred life, transmitted in unabated force to

his successor, may renew its youth, and thus by successive transmissions

through a perpetual line of vigorous incarnations may remain eternally

fresh and young, a pledge and security that men and animals shall in

like manner renew their youth by a perpetual succession of generations,

and that seedtime and harvest, and summer and winter, and rain and

sunshine shall never fail. That, if my conjecture is right, was why the

priest of Aricia, the King of the Wood at Nemi, had regularly to perish

by the sword of his successor.

[What was the Golden Bough?]

But we have still to ask, What was the Golden Bough? and why had each

candidate for the Arician priesthood to pluck it before he could slay

the priest? These questions I will now try to answer.

[Sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the ground with their

feet.]

It will be well to begin by noticing two of those rules or taboos by

which, as we have seen, the life of divine kings or priests is

regulated. The first of the rules to which I desire to call the reader's

attention is that the divine personage may not touch the ground with his

foot. This rule was observed by the supreme pontiff of the Zapotecs in

Mexico; he profaned his sanctity if he so much as touched the ground

with his foot.[2] Montezuma, emperor of Mexico, never set foot on the

ground; he was always carried on the shoulders of noblemen, and if he

lighted anywhere they laid rich tapestry for him to walk upon.[3] For

the Mikado of Japan to touch the ground with his foot was a shameful

degradation; indeed, in the sixteenth century, it was enough to deprive

him of his office. Outside his palace he was carried on men's shoulders;

within it he walked on exquisitely wrought mats.[4] The king and queen

of Tahiti might not touch the ground anywhere but within their

hereditary domains; for the ground on which they trod became sacred. In

travelling from place to place they were carried on the shoulders of

sacred men. They were always accompanied by several pairs of these

sanctified attendants; and when it became necessary to change their

bearers, the king and queen vaulted on to the shoulders of their new

bearers without letting their feet touch the ground.[5] It was an evil

omen if the king of Dosuma touched the ground, and he had to perform an

expiatory ceremony.[6] Within his palace the king of Persia walked on

carpets on which no one else might tread; outside of it he was never

seen on foot but only in a chariot or on horseback.[7] In old days the

king of Siam never set foot upon the earth, but was carried on a throne

of gold from place to place.[8] Formerly neither the kings of Uganda,

nor their mothers, nor their queens might walk on foot outside of the

spacious enclosures in which they lived. Whenever they went forth they

were carried on the shoulders of men of the Buffalo clan, several of

whom accompanied any of these royal personages on a journey and took it

in turn to bear the burden. The king sat astride the bearer's neck with

a leg over each shoulder and his feet tucked under the bearer's arms.

When one of these royal carriers grew tired he shot the king on to the

shoulders of a second man without allowing the royal feet to touch the

ground. In this way they went at a great pace and travelled long

distances in a day, when the king was on a journey. The bearers had a

special hut in the king's enclosure in order to be at hand the moment

they were wanted.[9] Among the Bakuba or rather Bushongo, a nation in

the southern region of the Congo, down to a few years ago persons of the

royal blood were forbidden to touch the ground; they must sit on a hide,

a chair, or the back of a slave, who crouched on hands and feet; their

feet rested on the feet of others. When they travelled they were carried

on the backs of men; but the king journeyed in a litter supported on

shafts.[10] Among the Ibo people about Awka, in Southern Nigeria, the

priest of the Earth has to observe many taboos; for example, he may not

see a corpse, and if he meets one on the road he must hide his eyes with

his wristlet. He must abstain from many foods, such as eggs, birds of

all sorts, mutton, dog, bush-buck, and so forth. He may neither wear nor

touch a mask, and no masked man may enter his house. If a dog enters his

house, it is killed and thrown out. As priest of the Earth he may not

sit on the bare ground, nor eat things that have fallen on the ground,

nor may earth be thrown at him.[11] According to ancient Brahmanic

ritual a king at his inauguration trod on a tiger's skin and a golden

plate; he was shod with shoes of boar's skin, and so long as he lived

thereafter he might not stand on the earth with his bare feet.[12]

[Certain persons on certain occasions forbidden to touch the ground with

their feet.]

But besides persons who are permanently sacred or tabooed and are

therefore permanently forbidden to touch the ground with their feet,

there are others who enjoy the character of sanctity or taboo only on

certain occasions, and to whom accordingly the prohibition in question

only applies at the definite seasons during which they exhale the odour

of sanctity. Thus among the Kayans or Bahaus of Central Borneo, while

the priestesses are engaged in the performance of certain rites they may

not step on the ground, and boards are laid for them to tread on.[13] At

a funeral ceremony observed by night among the Michemis, a Tibetan tribe

near the northern frontier of Assam, a priest fantastically bedecked

with tiger's teeth, many-coloured plumes, bells, and shells, executed a

wild dance for the purpose of exorcising the evil spirits; then all

fires were extinguished and a new light was struck by a man suspended by

his feet from a beam in the ceiling; "he did not touch the ground," we

are told, "in order to indicate that the light came from heaven."[14]

Again, newly born infants are strongly tabooed; accordingly in Loango

they are not allowed to touch the earth.[15] Among the Iluvans of

Malabar the bridegroom on his wedding-day is bathed by seven young men

and then carried or walks on planks from the bathing-place to the

marriage booth; he may not touch the ground with his feet.[16] With the

Dyaks of Landak and Tajan, two districts of Dutch Borneo, it is a custom

that for a certain time after marriage neither bride nor bridegroom may

tread on the earth.[17] Warriors, again, on the war-path are surrounded,

so to say, by an atmosphere of taboo; hence some Indians of North

America might not sit on the bare ground the whole time they were out on

a warlike expedition.[18] In Laos the hunting of elephants gives rise to

many taboos; one of them is that the chief hunter may not touch the

earth with his foot. Accordingly, when he alights from his elephant, the

others spread a carpet of leaves for him to step upon.[19] German

wiseacres recommended that when witches were led to the block or the

stake, they should not be allowed to touch the bare earth, and a reason

suggested for the rule was that if they touched the earth they might

make themselves invisible and so escape. The sagacious author of _The

Striped-petticoat Philosophy_ in the eighteenth century ridicules the

idea as mere silly talk. He admits, indeed, that the women were conveyed

to the place of execution in carts; but he denies that there is any deep

significance in the cart, and he is prepared to maintain this view by a

chemical analysis of the timber of which the cart was built. To clinch

his argument he appeals to plain matter of fact and his own personal

experience. Not a single instance, he assures us with apparent

satisfaction, can be produced of a witch who escaped the axe or the fire

in this fashion. "I have myself," says he, "in my youth seen divers

witches burned, some at Arnstadt, some at Ilmenau, some at Schwenda, a

noble village between Arnstadt and Ilmenau, and some of them were

pardoned and beheaded before being burned. They were laid on the earth

in the place of execution and beheaded like any other poor sinner;

whereas if they could have escaped by touching the earth, not one of

them would have failed to do so."[20]

[Sacred or tabooed persons apparently thought to be charged with a

mysterious virtue like a fluid, which will run to waste or explode if it

touches the ground.]

Apparently holiness, magical virtue, taboo, or whatever we may call that

mysterious quality which is supposed to pervade sacred or tabooed

persons, is conceived by the primitive philosopher as a physical

substance or fluid, with which the sacred man is charged just as a

Leyden jar is charged with electricity; and exactly as the electricity

in the jar can be discharged by contact with a good conductor, so the

holiness or magical virtue in the man can be discharged and drained away

by contact with the earth, which on this theory serves as an excellent

conductor for the magical fluid. Hence in order to preserve the charge

from running to waste, the sacred or tabooed personage must be carefully

prevented from touching the ground; in electrical language he must be

insulated, if he is not to be emptied of the precious substance or fluid

with which he, as a vial, is filled to the brim. And in many cases

apparently the insulation of the tabooed person is recommended as a

precaution not merely for his own sake but for the sake of others; for

since the virtue of holiness or taboo is, so to say, a powerful

explosive which the smallest touch may detonate, it is necessary in the

interest of the general safety to keep it within narrow bounds, lest

breaking out it should blast, blight, and destroy whatever it comes into

contact with.

[Things as well as persons can be charged with the mysterious quality of

holiness or taboo; and when so charged they must be kept from contact

with the ground.]

But things as well as persons are often charged with the mysterious

quality of holiness or taboo; hence it frequently becomes necessary for

similar reasons to guard them also from coming into contact with the

ground, lest they should in like manner be drained of their valuable

properties and be reduced to mere commonplace material objects, empty

husks from which the good grain has been eliminated. Thus, for example,

the most sacred object of the Arunta tribe in Central Australia is, or

rather used to be, a pole about twenty feet high, which is completely

smeared with human blood, crowned with an imitation of a human head, and

set up on the ground where the final initiatory ceremonies of young men

are performed. A young gum-tree is chosen to form the pole, and it must

be cut down and transported in such a way that it does not touch the

earth till it is erected in its place on the holy ground. Apparently the

pole represents some famous ancestor of the olden time.[21]

[Festival of the wild manog tree in British New Guinea.]

Again, at a great dancing festival celebrated by the natives of Bartle

Bay, in British New Guinea, a wild mango tree plays a prominent part.

The tree must be self-sown, that is, really wild and so young that it

has never flowered. It is chosen in the jungle some five or six weeks

before the festival, and a circle is cleared round its trunk. From that

time the master of the ceremonies and some eight to twenty other men,

who have aided him in choosing the tree and in clearing the jungle,

become strictly holy or tabooed. They sleep by themselves in a house

into which no one else may intrude: they may not wash or drink water,

nor even allow it accidentally to touch their bodies: they are forbidden

to eat boiled food and the fruit of mango trees: they may drink only the

milk of a young coco-nut which has been baked, and they may eat certain

fruits and vegetables, such as paw-paws (_Carica papaya_) and

sugar-cane, but only on condition that they have been baked. All refuse

of their food is kept in baskets in their sleeping-house and may not be

removed from it till the festival is over. At the time when the men

begin to observe these rules of abstinence, some six to ten women,

members of the same clan as the master of the ceremonies, enter on a

like period of mortification, avoiding the company of the other sex, and

refraining from water, all boiled food, and the fruit of the mango tree.

These fasting men and women are the principal dancers at the festival.

The dancing takes place on a special platform in a temporary village

which has been erected for the purpose. When the platform is about to be

set up, the fasting men rub the stepping posts and then suck their hands

for the purpose of extracting the ghost of any dead man that might

chance to be in the post and might be injured by the weight of the

platform pressing down on him. Having carefully extracted these poor

souls, the men carry them away tenderly and set them free in the forest

or the long grass.

[The wild mango tree not allowed to touch the ground.]

On the day before the festival one of the fasting men cuts down the

chosen mango tree in the jungle with a stone adze, which is never

afterwards put to any other use; an iron tool may not be used for the

purpose, though iron tools are now common enough in the district. In

cutting down the mango they place nets on the ground to catch any leaves

or twigs that might fall from the tree as it is being felled and they

surround the trunk with new mats to receive the chips which fly out

under the adze of the woodman; for the chips may not drop on the earth.

Once the tree is down, it is carried to the centre of the temporary

village, the greatest care being taken to prevent it from coming into

contact with the ground. But when it is brought into the village, the

houses are connected with the top of the mango by means of long vines

decorated with the streamers. In the afternoon the fasting men and women

begin to dance, the men bedizened with gay feathers, armlets, streamers,

and anklets, the women flaunting in parti-coloured petticoats and sprigs

of croton leaves, which wave from their waistbands as they dance. The

dancing stops at sundown, and when the full moon rises over the shoulder

of the eastern hill (for the date of the festival seems to be determined

with reference to the time of the moon), two chiefs mount the gables of

two houses on the eastern side of the square, and, their dusky figures

standing sharply out against the moonlight, pray to the evil spirits to

go away and not to hurt the people. Next morning pigs are killed by

being speared as slowly as possible in order that they may squeal loud

and long; for the people believe that the mango trees hear the

squealing, and are pleased at the sound, and bear plenty of fruit,

whereas if they heard no squeals they would bear no fruit. However, the

trees have to content themselves with the squeals; the flesh of the pigs

is eaten by the people. This ends the festival.

[Final disposition of the wild mango tree.]

Next day the mango is taken down from the platform, wrapt in new mats,

and carried by the fasting men to their sleeping house, where it is hung

from the roof. But after an interval, it may be of many months, the tree

is brought forth again. As to the reason for its reappearance in public

opinions are divided; but some say that the tree itself orders the

master of the ceremonies to bring it forth, appearing to him in his

dreams and saying, "Let me smell the smoking fat of pigs. So will your

pigs be healthy and your crops will grow." Be that as it may, out it

comes, conducted by the fasting men in their dancing costume; and with

it come in the solemn procession all the pots, spoons, cups and so forth

used by the fasting men during their period of holiness or taboo, also

all the refuse of their food which has been collected for months, and

all the fallen leaves and chips of the mango in their bundles of mats.

These holy relics are carried in front and the mango tree itself brings

up the rear of the procession. While these sacred objects are being

handed out of the house, the men who are present rush up, wipe off the

hallowed dust which has accumulated on them, and smear it over their own

bodies, no doubt in order to steep themselves in their blessed

influence. Thus the tree is carried as before to the centre of the

temporary village, care being again taken not to let it touch the

ground. Then one of the fasting men takes from a basket a number of

young green mangoes, cuts them in pieces, and places them with his own

hands in the mouths of his fellows, the other fasting men, who chew the

pieces small and turning round spit the morsels in the direction of the

setting sun, in order that "the sun should carry the mango bits over the

whole country and everyone should know." A portion of the mango tree is

then broken off and in the evening it is burnt along with the bundles of

leaves, chips, and refuse of food, which have been stored up. What

remains of the tree is taken to the house of the master of the

ceremonies and hung over the fire-place; it will be brought out again at

intervals and burned bit by bit, till all is consumed, whereupon a new

mango will be cut down and treated in like manner. The ashes of the holy

fire on each occasion are gathered by the people and preserved in the

house of the master of the ceremonies.[22]

[The ceremony apparently intended to fertilize the mango trees.]

The meaning of these ceremonies is not explained by the authorities who

describe them; but we may conjecture that they are intended to fertilize

the mango trees and cause them to bear a good crop of fruit. The central

feature of the whole ritual is a wild mango tree, so young that it has

never flowered: the men who cut it down, carry it into the village, and

dance at the festival, are forbidden to eat mangoes: pigs are killed in

order that their dying squeals may move the mango trees to bear fruit:

at the end of the ceremonies pieces of young green mangoes are solemnly

placed in the mouths of the fasting men and are by them spurted out

towards the setting sun in order that the luminary may carry the

fragments to every part of the country; and finally when after a longer

or shorter interval the tree is wholly consumed, its place is supplied

by another. All these circumstances are explained simply and naturally

by the supposition that the young mango tree is taken as a

representative of mangoes generally, that the dances are intended to

quicken it, and that it is preserved, like a May-pole of old in England,

as a sort of general fund of vegetable life, till the fund being

exhausted by the destruction of the tree it is renewed by the

importation of a fresh young tree from the forest. We can therefore

understand why, as a storehouse of vital energy, the tree should be

carefully kept from contact with the ground, lest the pent-up and

concentrated energy should escape and dribbling away into the earth be

dissipated to no purpose.

[Sacred objects of various sorts not allowed to touch the ground.]

To take other instances of what we may call the conservation of energy

in magic or religion by insulating sacred bodies from the ground, the

natives of New Britain have a secret society called the Duk-duk, the

members of which masquerade in petticoats of leaves and tall headdresses

of wickerwork shaped like candle extinguishers, which descend to the

shoulders of the wearers, completely concealing their faces. Thus

disguised they dance about to the awe and terror, real or assumed, of

the women and uninitiated, who take, or pretend to take, them for

spirits. When lads are being initiated into the secrets of this august

society, the adepts cut down some very large and heavy bamboos, one for

each lad, and the novices carry them, carefully wrapt up in leaves, to

the sacred ground, where they arrive very tired and weary, for they may

not let the bamboos touch the ground nor the sun shine on them. Outside

the fence of the enclosure every lad deposits his bamboo on a couple of

forked sticks and covers it up with nut leaves.[23] Among the Carrier

Indians of North-Western America, who burned their dead, the ashes of a

chief used to be placed in a box and set on the top of a pole beside his

hut: the box was never allowed to touch the ground.[24] In the Omaha

tribe of North American Indians the sacred clam shell of the Elk clan

was wrapt up from sight in a mat, placed on a stand, and never suffered

to come in contact with the earth.[25] The Cherokees and kindred Indian

tribes of the United States used to have certain sacred boxes or arks,

which they regularly took with them to war. Such a holy ark consisted of

a square wooden box, which contained "certain consecrated vessels made

by beloved superannuated women, and of such various antiquated forms, as

would have puzzled Adam to have given significant names to each." The

leader of a war party and his attendant bore the ark by turns, but they

never set it on the ground nor would they themselves sit on the bare

earth while they were carrying it against the enemy. Where stones were

plentiful they rested the ark on them; but where no stones were to be

found, they deposited it on short logs. "The Indian ark is deemed so

sacred and dangerous to be touched, either by their own sanctified

warriors, or the spoiling enemy, that they durst not touch it upon any

account. It is not to be meddled with by any, except the war chieftain

and his waiter, under the penalty of incurring great evil. Nor would the

most inveterate enemy touch it in the woods, for the very same reason."

After their return home they used to hang the ark on the leader's

red-painted war pole.[26] At Sipi, near Simla, in Northern India, an

annual fair is held, at which men purchase wives. A square box with a

domed top figures prominently at the fair. It is fixed on two poles to

be carried on men's shoulders, and long heavily-plaited petticoats hang

from it nearly to the ground. Three sides of the box are adorned with

the head and shoulders of a female figure and the fourth side with a

black yak's tail. Four men bear the poles, each carrying an axe in his

right hand. They dance round, with a swinging rhythmical step, to the

music of drums and a pipe. The dance goes on for hours and is thought to

avert ill-luck from the fair. It is said that the box is brought to

Simla from a place sixty miles off by relays of men, who may not stop

nor set the box on the ground the whole way.[27] In Scotland, when water

was carried from sacred wells to sick people, the water-vessel might not

touch the earth.[28] In some parts of Aberdeenshire the last bunch of

standing corn, which is commonly viewed as very sacred, being the last

refuge of the corn-spirit retreating before the reapers, is not suffered

to touch the ground; the master or "gueedman" sits down and receives

each handful of corn as it is cut on his lap.[29]

[Sacred food not allowed to touch the earth.]

Again, sacred food may not under certain circumstances be brought into

contact with the earth. Some of the aborigines of Victoria used to

regard the fat of the emu as sacred, believing that it had once been the

fat of the black man. In taking it from the bird or giving it to another

they handled it reverently. Any one who threw away the fat or flesh of

the emu was held accursed. "The late Mr. Thomas observed on one

occasion, at Nerre-nerre-Warreen, a remarkable exhibition of the effects

of this superstition. An aboriginal child--one attending the

school--having eaten some part of the flesh of an emu, threw away the

skin. The skin fell to the ground, and this being observed by his

parents, they showed by their gestures every token of horror. They

looked upon their child as one utterly lost. His desecration of the bird

was regarded as a sin for which there was no atonement."[30] The

Roumanians of Transylvania believe that "every fresh-baked loaf of

wheaten bread is sacred, and should a piece inadvertently fall to the

ground, it is hastily picked up, carefully wiped and kissed, and if

soiled, thrown into the fire--partly as an offering to the dead, and

partly because it were a heavy sin to throw away or tread upon any

particle of it."[31] At certain festivals in south-eastern Borneo the

food which is consumed in the common house may not touch the ground;

hence, a little before the festivals take place, foot-bridges made of

thin poles are constructed from the private dwellings to the common

house.[32] When Hall was living with the Esquimaux and grew tired of

eating walrus, one of the women brought the head and neck of a reindeer

for him to eat. This venison had to be completely wrapt up before it was

brought into the house, and once in the house it could only be placed on

the platform which served as a bed. "To have placed it on the floor or

on the platform behind the fire-lamp, among the walrus, musk-ox, and

polar-bear meat which occupy a goodly portion of both of these places,

would have horrified the whole town, as, according to the actual belief

of the Innuits, not another walrus could be secured this year, and there

would ever be trouble in catching any more."[33] But in this case the

real scruple appears to have been felt not so much at placing the

venison on the ground as at bringing it into contact with walrus

meat.[34]

[Magical implements and remedies thought to lose their virtue by contact

with the ground.]

Sometimes magical implements and remedies are supposed to lose their

virtue by contact with the ground, the volatile essence with which they

are impregnated being no doubt drained off into the earth. Thus in the

Boulia district of Queensland the magical bone, which the native

sorcerer points at his victim as a means of killing him, is never by any

chance allowed to touch the earth.[35] The wives of rajahs in Macassar,

a district of southern Celebes, pride themselves on their luxuriant

tresses and are at great pains to oil and preserve them. Should the hair

begin to grow thin, the lady resorts to many devices to stay the ravages

of time; among other things she applies to her locks a fat extracted

from crocodiles and venomous snakes. The unguent is believed to be very

efficacious, but during its application the woman's feet may not come

into contact with the ground, or all the benefit of the nostrum would be

lost.[36] Some people in antiquity believed that a woman in hard labour

would be delivered if a spear, which had been wrenched from a man's body

without touching the ground, were thrown over the house where the

sufferer lay. Again, according to certain ancient writers, arrows which

had been extracted from a body without coming into contact with the

earth and laid under sleepers, acted as a love-charm.[37] Among the

peasantry of the north-east of Scotland the prehistoric weapons called

celts went by the name of "thunderbolts" and were coveted as the sure

bringers of success, always provided that they were not allowed to fall

to the ground.[38]

[Serpents eggs or Snake Stones.]

In ancient Gaul certain glass or paste beads attained great celebrity as

amulets under the name of serpents' eggs; it was believed that serpents,

coiling together in a wriggling, writhing mass, generated them from

their slaver and shot them into the air from their hissing jaws. If a

man was bold and dexterous enough to catch one of these eggs in his

cloak before it touched the ground, he rode off on horseback with it at

full speed, pursued by the whole pack of serpents, till he was saved by

the interposition of a river, which the snakes could not pass. The proof

of the egg being genuine was that if it were thrown into a stream it

would float up against the current, even though it were hooped in gold.

The Druids held these beads in high esteem; according to them, the

precious objects could only be obtained on a certain day of the moon,

and the peculiar virtue that resided in them was to secure success in

law suits and free access to kings. Pliny knew of a Gaulish knight who

was executed by the emperor Claudius for wearing one of these

amulets.[39] Under the name of Snake Stones (_glain neidr_) or Adder

Stones the beads are still known in those parts of our own country where

the Celtic population has lingered, with its immemorial superstitions,

down to the present or recent times; and the old story of the origin of

the beads from the slaver of serpents was believed by the modern

peasantry of Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland as by the Druids of ancient

Gaul. In Cornwall the time when the serpents united to fashion the beads

was commonly said to be at or about Midsummer Eve; in Wales it was

usually thought to be spring, especially the Eve of May Day, and even

within recent years persons in the Principality have affirmed that they

witnessed the great vernal congress of the snakes and saw the magic

stone in the midst of the froth. The Welsh peasants believe the beads to

possess medicinal virtues of many sorts and to be particularly

efficacious for all maladies of the eyes. In Wales and Ireland the beads

sometimes went by the name of the Magician's or Druid's Glass (_Gleini

na Droedh_ and _Glaine nan Druidhe_). Specimens of them may be seen in

museums; some have been found in British barrows. They are of glass of

various colours, green, blue, pink, red, brown, and so forth, some plain

and some ribbed. Some are streaked with brilliant hues. The beads are

perforated, and in the Highlands of Scotland the hole is explained by

saying that when the bead has just been conflated by the serpents

jointly, one of the reptiles sticks his tail through the still viscous

glass. An Englishman who visited Scotland in 1699 found many of these

beads in use throughout the country. They were hung from children's

necks to protect them from whooping cough and other ailments. Snake

Stones were, moreover, a charm to ensure prosperity in general and to

repel evil spirits. When one of these priceless treasures was not on

active service, the owner kept it in an iron box to guard it against

fairies, who, as is well known, cannot abide iron.[40]

[Medicinal plants, water, are not allowed to touch the earth.]

Pliny mentions several medicinal plants, which, if they were to retain

their healing virtue, ought not to be allowed to touch the earth.[41]

The curious medical treatise of Marcellus, a native of Bordeaux in the

fourth century of our era, abounds with prescriptions of this sort; and

we can well believe the writer when he assures us that he borrowed many

of his quaint remedies from the lips of common folk and peasants rather

than from the books of the learned.[42] Thus he tells us that certain

white stones found in the stomachs of young swallows assuage the most

persistent headache, always provided that their virtue be not impaired

by contact with the ground.[43] Another of his cures for the same malady

is a wreath of fleabane placed on the head, but it must not touch the

earth.[44] On the same condition a decoction of the root of elecampane

in wine kills worms; a fern, found growing on a tree, relieves the

stomach-ache; and the pastern-bone of a hare is an infallible remedy for

colic, provided, first, it be found in the dung of a wolf, second, that

it docs not touch the ground, and, third, that it is not touched by a

woman.[45] Another cure for colic is effected by certain hocus-pocus

with a scrap of wool from the forehead of a first-born lamb, if only the

lamb, instead of being allowed to fall to the ground, has been caught by

hand as it dropped from its dam.[46] In Andjra, a district of Morocco,

the people attribute many magical virtues to rain-water which has fallen

on the twenty-seventh day of April, Old Style; accordingly they collect

it and use it for a variety of purposes. Mixed with tar and sprinkled on

the door-posts it prevents snakes and scorpions from entering the house:

sprinkled on heaps of threshed corn it protects them from the evil eye:

mixed with an egg, henna, and seeds of cress it is an invaluable

medicine for sick cows: poured over a plate, on which a passage of the

Koran has been written, it strengthens the memory of schoolboys who

drink it; and if you mix it with cowdung and red earth and paint rings

with the mixture round the trunks of your fig-trees at sunset on

Midsummer Day, you may depend on it that the trees will bear an

excellent crop and will not shed their fruit untimely on the ground. But

in order to preserve these remarkable properties it is absolutely

essential that the water should on no account be allowed to touch the

ground; some say too that it should not be exposed to the sun nor

breathed upon by anybody.[47] Again, the Moors ascribe great magical

efficacy to what they call "the sultan of the oleander," which is a

stalk of oleander with a cluster of four pairs of leaves springing from

it. They think that the magical virtue is greatest if the stalk has been

cut immediately before midsummer. But when the plant is brought into the

house, the branches may not touch the ground, lest they should lose

their marvellous qualities.[48] In the olden days, before a Lithuanian

or Prussian farmer went forth to plough for the first time in spring, he

called in a wizard to perform a certain ceremony for the good of the

crops. The sage seized a mug of beer with his teeth, quaffed the liquor,

and then tossed the mug over his head. This signified that the corn in

that year should grow taller than a man. But the mug might not fall to

the ground; it had to be caught by somebody stationed at the wizard's

back, for if it fell to the ground the consequence naturally would be

that the corn also would be laid low on the earth.[49]

§ 2. _Not to see the Sun_

[Sacred persons not allowed to see the sun.]

The second rule to be here noted is that the sun may not shine upon the

divine person. This rule was observed both by the Mikado and by the

pontiff of the Zapotecs. The latter "was looked upon as a god whom the

earth was not worthy to hold, nor the sun to shine upon."[50] The

Japanese would not allow that the Mikado should expose his sacred person

to the open air, and the sun was not thought worthy to shine on his

head.[51] The Indians of Granada, in South America, "kept those who were

to be rulers or commanders, whether men or women, locked up for several

years when they were children, some of them seven years, and this so

close that they were not to see the sun, for if they should happen to

see it they forfeited their lordship, eating certain sorts of food

appointed; and those who were their keepers at certain times went into

their retreat or prison and scourged them severely."[52] Thus, for

example, the heir to the throne of Bogota, who was not the son but the

sister's son of the king, had to undergo a rigorous training from his

infancy: he lived in complete retirement in a temple, where he might not

see the sun nor eat salt nor converse with a woman: he was surrounded by

guards who observed his conduct and noted all his actions: if he broke a

single one of the rules laid down for him, he was deemed infamous and

forfeited all his rights to the throne.[53] So, too, the heir to the

kingdom of Sogamoso, before succeeding to the crown, had to fast for

seven years in the temple, being shut up in the dark and not allowed to

see the sun or light.[54] The prince who was to become Inca of Peru had

to fast for a month without seeing light.[55] On the day when a Brahman

student of the Veda took a bath, to signify that the time of his

studentship was at an end, he entered a cow-shed before sunrise, hung

over the door a skin with the hair inside, and sat there; on that day

the sun should not shine upon him.[56]

[Tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun; certain persons forbidden

to see fire.]

Again, women after childbirth and their offspring are more or less

tabooed all the world over; hence in Corea the rays of the sun are

rigidly excluded from both mother and child for a period of twenty-one

or a hundred days, according to their rank, after the birth has taken

place.[57] Among some of the tribes on the north-west coast of New

Guinea a woman may not leave the house for months after childbirth. When

she does go out, she must cover her head with a hood or mat; for if the

sun were to shine upon her, it is thought that one of her male relations

would die.[58] Again, mourners are everywhere taboo; accordingly in

mourning the Ainos of Japan wear peculiar caps in order that the sun may

not shine upon their heads.[59] During a solemn fast of three days the

Indians of Costa Rica eat no salt, speak as little as possible, light no

fires, and stay strictly indoors, or if they go out during the day they

carefully cover themselves from the light of the sun, believing that

exposure to the sun's rays would turn them black.[60] On Yule Night it

has been customary in parts of Sweden from time immemorial to go on

pilgrimage, whereby people learn many secret things and know what is to

happen in the coming year. As a preparation for this pilgrimage, "some

secrete themselves for three days previously in a dark cellar, so as to

be shut out altogether from the light of heaven. Others retire at an

early hour of the preceding morning to some out-of-the-way place, such

as a hay-loft, where they bury themselves in the hay, that they may

neither see nor hear any living creature; and here they remain, in

silence and fasting, until after sundown; whilst there are those who

think it sufficient if they rigidly abstain from food on the day before

commencing their wanderings. During this period of probation a man ought

not to see fire, but should this have happened, he must strike a light

with flint and steel, whereby the evil that would otherwise have ensued

will be obviated."[61] During the sixteen days that a Pima Indian is

undergoing purification for killing an Apache he may not see a blazing

fire.[62]

[The story of Prince Sunless.]

Acarnanian peasants tell of a handsome prince called Sunless, who would

die if he saw the sun. So he lived in an underground palace on the site

of the ancient Oeniadae, but at night he came forth and crossed the

river to visit a famous enchantress who dwelt in a castle on the further

bank. She was loth to part with him every night long before the sun was

up, and as he turned a deaf ear to all her entreaties to linger, she hit

upon the device of cutting the throats of all the cocks in the

neighbourhood. So the prince, whose ear had learned to expect the shrill

clarion of the birds as the signal of the growing light, tarried too

long, and hardly had he reached the ford when the sun rose over the

Aetolian mountains, and its fatal beams fell on him before he could

regain his dark abode.[63]

Notes:

[1] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 44.

[2] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London,

1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations

civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859),

iii. 29.

[3] _Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'origine des Indiens_, publié par

D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), p. 108; J. de Acosta, _The Natural and Moral

History of the Indies_, bk. vii. chap. 22, vol. ii. p. 505 of E.

Grimston's translation, edited by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt

Society, London, 1880).

[4] _Memorials of the Empire of Japon in the XVI. and XVII. Centuries_,

edited by T. Rundall (Hakluyt Society, London, 1850), pp. 14, 141; B.

Varenius, _Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam_ (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11;

Caron, "Account of Japan," in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_

(London, 1808-1814), vii. 613; Kaempfer, "History of Japan," in _id._

vii. 716.

[5] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, Second Edition (London,

1832-1836), iii. 102 _sq._; Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to

the Southern Pacific Ocean_ (London, 1799), p. 329.

[6] A. Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_ (Leipsic, 1860), iii. 81.

[7] Athenaeus, xii. 8, p. 514 c.

[8] _The Voiages and Travels of John Struys_ (London, 1684), p. 30.

[9] Rev. J. Roscoe, "Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the

Baganda," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp.

62, 67; _id., The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 154 _sq._ Compare L.

Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 445 note:

"Before horses had been introduced into Uganda the king and his mother

never walked, but always went about perched astride the shoulders of a

slave--a most ludicrous sight. In this way they often travelled hundreds

of miles." The use both of horses and of chariots by royal personages

may often have been intended to prevent their sacred feet from touching

the ground.

[10] E. Torday et T.A. Joyce, _Les Bushongo_ (Brussels, 1910), p. 61.

[11] Northcote W. Thomas, _Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking

Peoples of Nigeria_ (London, 1913), i. 57 _sq._

[12] _Satapatha Brâhmana_, translated by Julius Eggeling, Part iii.

(Oxford, 1894) pp. 81, 91, 92, 102, 128 _sq. (Sacred Books of the East_,

vol. xli.).

[13] A.W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_ (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 172.

[14] Letter of Missionary Krick, in _Annales de la Propagation de la

Foi_, xxvi. (1854) pp. 86-88.

[15] Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," _Zeitschrift für

Ethnologie_, x. (1878) pp. 29 _sq._

[16] Edgar Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras,

1906), p. 70.

[17] M.C. Schadee, "Het familieleven en familierecht der Dajaks van

Landak en Tajan," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land en Volkenkunde van

Nederlandsch-Indié_, lxiii. (1910) p. 433.

[18] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), p.

382; _Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner_ (London,

1830), p. 123. As to the taboos to which warriors are subject see _Taboo

and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 157 _sqq._

[19] Etienne Aymonier, _Notes sur le Laos_ (Saigon, 1885), p. 26.

[20] _Die gestritgelte Rockenphilosophie_*[5] (Chemnitz, 1759), pp. 586

_sqq._

[21] Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central

Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 364, 370 _sqq._, 629; _id., Across

Australia_ (London, 1912), ii. 280, 285 _sq._

[22] C.G. Seligmann, M.D., _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_

(Cambridge, 1910), pp. 589-599.

[23] George Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910),

pp. 60 _sq._, 64. As to the Duk-duk society, see below, vol. ii. pp. 246

_sq._

[24] John Keast Lord, _The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British

Columbia_ (London, 1866), ii. 237.

[25] Edwin James, _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky

Mountains_ (London, 1823), ii. 47; Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, "Omaha

Sociology," _Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_

(Washington, 1884), p. 226.

[26] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp.

161-163.

[27] (Sir) Henry Babington Smith, in _Folk-lore_, v. (1894) p. 340.

[28] Miss C.F. Gordon Cumming, _In the Hebrides_ (London, 1883), p. 211.

[29] W. Gregor, "Quelques coutumes du Nord-est du Comté d'Aberdeen,"

_Revue des Traditions populaires_, iii. (1888) p. 485 B. Compare

_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 158 _sq._

[30] R. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London,

1878), i. 450.

[31] E. Gerard, _The Land beyond the Forest_ (Edinburgh and London,

1888), ii. 7.

[32] F. Grabowsky, "Der Distrikt Dusson Timor in Südost-Borneo und seine

Bewohner," _Das Ausland_, 1884, No. 24, p. 470.

[33] _Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by Charles F.

Hall_, edited by Prof. J.E. Nourse (Washington, 1879), pp. 110 _sq._

[34] See _Taboo and Perils of the Soul_, pp. 207 _sqq._

[35] Walter E. Roth, _Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central

Queensland Aborigines_ (Brisbane and London, 1897), p. 156, § 265. The

custom of killing a man by pointing a bone or stick at him, while the

sorcerer utters appropriate curses, is common among the tribes of

Central Australia; but amongst them there seems to be no objection to

place the bone or stick on the ground; on the contrary, an Arunta wizard

inserts the bone or stick in the ground while he invokes death and

destruction on his enemy. See Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native

Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 534 _sqq.; id.,

Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), pp. 455 _sqq._

[36] Hugh Low, _Sarawak_ (London, 1848), pp. 145 _sq._

[37] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_ xxviii. 33 _sq._

[38] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of

Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 184. As to the superstitions attaching to

stone arrowheads and axeheads (celts), commonly known as "thunderbolts,"

in the British Islands, see W.W. Skeat, "Snakestones and Stone

Thunderbolts," _Folklore_, xxiii. (1912) pp. 60 _sqq._; and as to such

superstitions in general, see Chr. Blinkenberg, _The Thunderweapon in

Religion and Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1911).

[39] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, xxix. 52-54.

[40] W. Borlase, _Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County

of Cornwall_ (London, 1769), pp. 142 _sq._; J. Brand, _Popular

Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 322; J.G. Dalyell,

_Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 140 _sq._;

Daniel Wilson, _The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_

(Edinburgh, 1851), pp. 303 _sqq._; Lieut.-Col. Forbes Leslie, _The Early

Races of Scotland and their Monuments_ (Edinburgh, 1866), i. 75 _sqq._;

J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands

of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 84-88; Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and

Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), pp. 170 _sq._; J.C. Davies,

_Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76. Compare

W.W. Skeat, "Snakestones and Stone Thunderbolts," _Folk-lore,_ xxiii.

(1912) pp. 45 _sqq._ The superstition is described as follows by Edward

Lhwyd in a letter quoted by W. Borlase (_op. cit._ p. 142): "In most

parts of Wales, and throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it

a common opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer-Eve (though in the

time they do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies;

and that, by joining heads together, and hissing, a kind of bubble is

formed, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it passes

quite through the body, and then it immediately hardens, and resembles a

glass-ring, which whoever finds (as some old women and children are

persuaded) shall prosper in all his undertakings. The rings thus

generated, are called _Gleineu Nadroeth_; in English, Snake-stones. They

are small glass amulets, commonly about half as wide as our

finger-rings, but much thicker, of a green colour usually, though

sometimes blue, and waved with red and white."

[41] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_ xxiv. 12 and 68, xxv. 171.

[42] Marcellus, _De medicamentis_, ed. G. Helmreich (Leipsic, 1889),

preface, p. i.: "_Nec solum veteres medicinae artis auctores Latino

dumtaxat sermone perscriptos ... lectione scrutatus sum, sed etiam ab

agrestibus et plebeis remedia fortuita atque simplicia, quae

experimentis probaverant didici_." As to Marcellus and his work, see

Jacob Grimm, "Ueber Marcellus Burdigalensis," _Abhandlungen der

koniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaft zu Berlin_, 1847, pp. 429-460;

_id._, "Ueber die Marcellischen Formeln," _ibid._. 1855, pp. 50-68.

[43] Marcellus, _De medicamentis_, i. 68.

[44] Marcellus, _op. cit._ i. 76.

[45] Marcellus, _op. cit._ xxviii. 28 and 71, xxix. 35.

[46] Marcellus, _op. cit._ xxix. 51.

[47] Edward Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folklore_,

xvi. (1905) pp. 32 _sq._; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with

Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in

Morocco_ (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 75 _sq._

[48] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.

(1905) p. 35 _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture,

certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco_

(Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 88 _sq._

[49] Matthäus Prätorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_, herausgegeben von Dr. W.

Pierson (Berlin, 1871), p. 54.

[50] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London,

1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations

civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859),

iii. 29.

[51] Kaempfer, "History of Japan," in J. Pinkerton's _Voyages and

Travels_, vii. 717; Caron, "Account of Japan," _ibid._ vii. 613; B.

Varenius, _Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam_ (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11:

_"Radiis solis caput nunquam illustrabatur: in apertum acrem non

procedebat."_

[52] A. de Herrera, _General History of the vast Continent and Islands

of America,_ trans, by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), v. 88.

[53] H. Ternaux-Compans, _Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca_ (Paris,

N.D.), p. 56; Theodor Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_ iv.

(Leipsic, 1864) p. 359.

[54] Alonzo de Zurita, "Rapport sur les differentes classes de chefs de

la Nouvelle-Espagne," p. 30, in H. Ternaux-Compans's _Voyages, Relations

et Mémoires originaux, pour servir à l'Histoire de la Découvertede

l'Amérique_ (Paris, 1840); Th. Waitz, _l.c._; A. Bastian, _Die

Culturländer des alten Amerika_ (Berlin, 1878), ii. 204.

[55] Cieza de Leon, _Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru_ (Hakluyt

Society, London, 1883), p. 18.

[56] _The Grihya Sûtras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii. (Oxford,

1892) pp. 165, 275 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxx.). Umbrellas

appear to have been sometimes used in ritual for the purpose of

preventing the sunlight from falling on sacred persons or things. See W.

Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_ (Amsterdam, 1900), p. 110 note 12.

At an Athenian festival called Scira the priestess of Athena, the priest

of Poseidon, and the priest of the Sun walked from the Acropolis under

the shade of a huge white umbrella which was borne over their heads by

the Eteobutads. See Harpocration and Suidas, _s.v._ [Greek: Skiron];

Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Eccles._ 18.

[57] Mrs. Bishop, _Korea and her Neighbours_ (London, 1898), ii. 248.

[58] J.L. van Hasselt, "Eenige aanteekeningen aangaande de bewoners der

N. Westkust van Nieuw Guinea," _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-Landen

Volkenkunde_, xxxi. (1886) p. 587.

[59] A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, v. (Jena, 1869) p.

366.

[60] W.M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,"

_Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at

Philadelphia_, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876), p. 510.

[61] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 194.

[62] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, i. 553. See

_Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 182.

[63] L. Heuzey, _Le Mont Olympe et l'Acarnanie_ (Paris, 1860), pp. 458

_sq._