Full text of "Folklore"

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FOLK-LORE

A QUARTERLY REVIEW

9 7/,

MYTH, TRADITION, INSTITUTION, & CUSTOM

BEING

The Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society

And Incorporating The Arch^ological Review and
The Folk-Lore Journal

VOL. XVI.— 1905

Alter et Idem.

LONDON :

1 3

PUBLISHED FOR THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY BY

DAVID NUTT, 55— 5 7> LONG ACRE

1905.

[LVL]

^ 'O

GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

CONTENTS.

I. — (March, 1905.)

Minutes of Meeting : Wednesday, 17th November, 1904 . . i

Minutes of Meeting : Wednesday, 7th December, 1904 . . 2

Minutes of Meeting : Wednesday, 1 8th January, 1905 , . 3

Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Council . . .6

Annual Accounts and Balance Sheet, 1904 . . .12

Presidential Address. W. H. D. Rouse . . . .14

Midsummer Customs in Morocco. E. Westermarck . -27

Some Notes on the Huculs. M. L. Hodgson . . .48

II.— (June, 1905.)

Minutes of Meeting : Wednesday, 15th February, 1905 . . 129

Minutes of Meeting : Wednesday, 15th March, 1905 . -131

The Cimaruta, its Structure and Development. R. T. Gunther 132
Folk-lore of the Wye Valley. Margaret Eyre . . .162

III. — (September, 1905.)

Minutes of Meeting : Wednesday, 19th April, 1905 . .241

Minutes of Meeting : Wednesday, 17th May, 1905 . . 242

The Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy. Albinia Wherry . 243
The European Sky-God ; III., The Italians. Arthur Bernard

Cook ....... 260

IV. — (December, 1905.)

Minutes of Meeting : Wednesday, 21st June, 1905 . . 369

Bavili Notes. R. E. Dennett . . . . -371

The Legend of Merlin. M. Gaster .... 407
The Religious Ideas of the Arunta. N. W. Thomas . . 428

iv Contents.

Collectanea : —

The Padstow Hobby-Horse . . . . • 5^

The Devil in Glencoe. Dora Bailey . . .61

Miscellaneous Notes from Monmouthshire. Beatrix A.

Wherry ....... 63

Folklore of the Negroes of Jamaica, VII., VIII., IX. . . 68

Additions to The Ga?fies of Argyleshire. R. C. Maclagan . 77
St. James's Day and Grottoes. F. G. D'Aeth . .180

The Scoppio del Carro at Florence. Jessie L. Weston . 182

Winning the Churn (Ulster). H. W. Lett . . .185

Fin MacCoul's Pebble. L. J. Dennis . . .186

A Cambridgeshire Witch. H. L. F. Jennings . .187

Cutting a Waterspout. J. G. Piddington . . .190

Additions to The Games of Argyleshire. II. R. C. Maclagan 192
The Whitby Snake-Ammonite Myth. Edward Lovett . 333

Veterinary Leechcraft. Edward Lovett, F. Barry, F. M.

Webb . . . . . . -334

A Fisher-Story and Other Notes from South Wales. T. H.

Thomas ....... 337

Additions to The Games of Argyleshire., III., R. C. Maclagan 340
Notes from South Nigeria. R. E. Dennett . . . 434

Correspondence : —

Riddle or Charm ? F. Barry

" I'll put my Foot in the Fire." A. Lang

Group Marriage. N. W. Thomas

The Elder Tree. Albinia Wherry .

Translation of Maltese Folk-Tales. E. Maori

All-Fathers in Australia. A. Lang

Mysterious Smoke. E. A. W. Peacock

Mock Burial. Evelyn Villiers

A Solution of the Gorgon Myth. F. T. Elworthy

Riddle-Story from the Wye Valley. E. E. Sikes

The Dancing-Towers of Italy. Mabel Peacock, Alice Old

KNOW, Charlotte S. Burne
A Correction. Arthur Bernard Cook
The Legend of Merlin ; a Postscript. M. Gaster
Burial in Effigy. Mabel Peacock and Charlotte S. Burne 463
The Mock Mayor of Headington. W. Henry Jewitt and

Charlotte S. Burne . . • . . 464

A Swiss Charm. Lucy E. Broadwood . . . 465

99
100
100
222
224
225

350
352

461
462
462

Contents.

Reviews :-

A. W. Hewitt's The Native Tribes of South-East Australia

E. Sidney Hartland ....

R. H. Nassau's Fetishism in West Africa and E. Allegret's Les

Idees Religieiises des Fan. A. Lang
Carl Ribbe's Zwei Jahre unter den Kannibalen der Salomo

Inseln. A. C. Haddon ....

George A. Dorsey's Traditions of the SkidiPaivnee. N. W

Thomas ......

William Thalbitzer's A Phonetical Study of the Eskimo Language

E. Sidney Hartland ....

Sociological Papers., 1904. Charlotte S. Burne
H. M. Chadwick's Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature. F. M

Stenton ......

Journal of the Folk-Song Society. L. M. Eyre

Arnold van Gennep's Tabou et Tothnisme a Madagascar. E

Sidney Hartland .....
A. C. Hollis's The Masai., their Language and Folklore. N. W

Thomas ......

Helen Child Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge's English

and Scottish Popular Ballads. A. Lang
G. M. Stow's The Native Races of South Africa. N. W. Thomas
Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell's Origines LslandiccE

L. Winifred Faraday ....

Joseph Frank Payne's E7iglish Medicine itt the Anglo-Saxon

limes. Bertram C. A. Windle
H. F. Feilberg'sy>//.- Allesjcelestiden ; Hedensk, Kristen Julefest.

W. A. Craigie .....

Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XVH. N. W. Thomas
Emile Durkheim's L'Annee Sociologique, 1904. E. Sidney

Hartland ......

Salomon Reinach's Cultes, Mythes, et Religions. A. Nutt

J. A. Dulaure's LDes Divinites Generatrices. E. Sidney

Hartland . ....

N. W. Thomas's Crystal Gazing. Edward Clodd
Richard Andre'e's Votive Weihegabeti des Katholischen Volks in

Suddeutschland .....

Paul Ehrenreich's Mythen mid Legendeti der Siidainerikanischen

Urvolker. E. Sidney Hartland

Contents.

Nelson Annandale's The Faroes mid Iceland. Edward
Brabrook ....... 486

Henry Bernard and E. J. Dillon's The Shade of the Balkans . 489
Volkskundliche Zeitschrifteschau fur 1903 ; Hessische B latter
fiir Volkskunde ; Mitteilungen des Verbandes deutschen
Vereine fiir Volkskwide ; Schweizerisches Archiv fiir
Volkskunde ; Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft
ifi Wien ; Ellen and Paul Mitzschke's Sagetischatz der Stadt
Weitnar. N. W. Thomas . . . . '491

Anthropological Queries for Central Africa . . . 494

E. W. Blyden's West Africa before Europe. N. W. Thomas 495

Index

497

Rules and List of Members.

List of Plates

L
IL

in.

IV.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

XIL

XIIL

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

Hucul Easter Eggs

Wedding Invitation, Lemberg

Hucul Easter Dove

Process of Colouring Easter Eggs Illus

trated
Ornaments of the Huculs .
Implements of the Huculs
The Padstow Hobby-Horse, 1903 .

Sprigs of Rue {cima di ruia)

Rue Plant, Lunaria, Assyrian Amulet, and

Bologna Amulet
Cimaruta, No. 23B
Cimaruta ....
Simple and Compound Amulets .
Compound Amulets (Cimarute) .
Cimarute (Typical Series) .
Cimarute (Aberrant and Degenerate Forms)

To Jace page

50
51

55
56

136

137

[42
149

156
158.

159
i6l

Contents.

Vll

XVIII. Sundial at Trelleck
XIX. Fin MacCoul's Pebble
XX. The Rua of Vicenza
XXI. The Lilies of Nola
XXII. The Ship of Nola .
XXIII. Stands for the Cero of Sant' Ubaldo

Gubbio, 1903
XXIV. Stands for the Cero of San Giorgio

Gubbio, 1903
XXV. Whitby Ammonites, and Charmer's Ladle
XXVI. Map of the Loango Coast .
XXVII. Consulting Mpumbu
XXVIII. Mabili ....
XXIX. Nail-Fetish {Nkici Mboiim)

PAGE

To face page 165
186
244
247
248

253

255

371
377
378
385

ERRATA.

P. 164, 1. 22 ; for Geraldus 7-cad Giraldus.
P. 165, n. ; yi?/- Jevvilt ;r(?(/ Jewitt.

golk^%otc.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

Vol. XVI]. MARCH, 1905. [No. I.

WEDNESDAY, 17tli NOVEMBER, 1904.

The President (Dr. W. H. D. Rouse) in the
Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.

The election of the following new members was an-
nounced, viz.: Major G. S. Rodon, Mr. C. H. Bompas,
Mrs. Leather, and Mr. G. Barham.

The resignations of Dr. Ranking, Dr. Colfox, the
Battersea Public Library, Mr. F. Sessions, Mr. H. W.
Underdown, and Mr. E. J. Kitts, were also announced.

The Secretary read a note on some Highland supersti-
tions, communicated by Miss Dora Bailey of Invergloy,
[see p. 61], and exhibited some photographs of the
Hobby Horse at Padstow, Cornwall, sent by Mr. F. G.
Green [p. 56 and Plates VH., VHL, IX.].

Mrs. Mosher read a paper on " Breton Folk-Lore," and
in the discussion which followed, Mr. Nutt, Miss Eyre,
Miss Burne, and Mr. Jenner took part.

The Meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to Mrs.
Mosher for her paper.

VOL. XVI. A

Minutes of Meetings

WEDNESDAY, 7th DECEMBER, 1904.

The President (Dr. W. H. D. Rouse) in the
Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.

The election of the following new Members was an-
nounced, viz. : Mr. C. A. Henderson and the Ethno-
graphical Survey of the Philippine Islands.

The withdrawal of the resignation of Mr. E. J. Kitts
was also announced.

Mr. W. St. John Hope exhibited a conventional corn
ornament which had been offered at the Harvest Thanks-
giving Service in Little Hadham Church, Herts, in 1904.
Mrs. Gomme alse exhibited some corn ornaments from
Devon and Cornwall.

Miss L. M. Eyre read a paper on the " Folk-Lore of the
Wye Valley."

Dr. Westermarck read a paper entitled "Midsummer
Customs in Morocco," [p. 27], and a discussion followed
in which Mr. Dames, Mr. Pusey, Dr. Gaster, Mr. Kirby,
and Mr. Clodd took part.

The Meeting terminated with votes of thanks to Miss
Eyre and Dr. Westermarck for their papers, and to Mr.
St. John Hope and Mrs. Gomme for their exhibits.

Minutes of Meetings.

TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING

(Which by Order of the Council was also a
Special General Meeting).

WEDNESDAY, 18tli JANUARY, 1905.

The President (Dr. W. H. D. Rouse) in the
Chair.

The minutes of the last Annual Meeting were read and

confirmed.

The Annual Report, Statement of Accounts and Balance
Sheet for the year 1904 were duly presented, and, upon
the motion of Dr. Haddon, seconded by Mr. Tabor, it was
resolved that the same be received and adopted.

Balloting papers for the election of President, Vice-
Presidents, Council, and Officers having been distributed,
Mr. Thomas and Mr. Milne were nominated by the Chair-
man as scrutineers for the Ballot.

During the interval while the votes were being counted,
the Chairman moved, pursuant to notice given on the 7th
January, 1905, Dr. Haddon seconded, and it was resolved
unanimously

"That Rule II. of the Society's Rules be amended by
inserting therein, in place of the word Members,
the words {a) Members and {b) Libraries and
other Institutions^

4 Minutes of Meetings.

The result of the Ballot was then announced by the
Chairman, and the following ladies and gentlemen were
declared duly elected, viz. :

As President.
W. H. D. Rouse, Esq., M.A., Litt.D.

As Vice-Presidents.

The Hon. John Abercroniby.
The Rt. Hon. Lord Avebury,

D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A.,

F.G.S., F.L.S.
E. W. Brabrook, Esq., C.B.,

F.S.A.
Miss C. S. Burne.
Edward Clodd, Esq.
G. L. Gomme, Esq., F.S.A.

Prof. E. B. Tylor,

A. C. Haddon, Esq., M.A., D.Sc,
F.R.S., M.R.I.A., F.L.S.

E. S. Hartland, Esq., F.S.A.

A. Lang, Esq., M.A., LL.D.

A. Nutt, Esq.

Prof. J. Rhys, M.A., LL.D.,
F.S.A.

The Rev. Prof A. H. Sayce,
M.A., LL.D., D.D., and

LL.D., F.R.S.

As Members

Miss Lucy Broadwood.
W. Crooke, Esq., B.A.

E. K. Chambers, Esq.

M. Longworth Dames, Esq.

F. T. Elworthy, Esq., F.S.A.
Miss Eyre.

Miss Margaret Ffennell.
Miss Goodrich Freer.
Dr. Gaster.

L Gollancz, Esq., M.A.
Miss Eleanor Hull.

of Coicticil.

E. Lovett, Esq.

A. F. Major, Esq.

S. E. Bouverie Pusey, Esq.,

F.R.G.S.
T. Fairman Ordish, Esq.,

F.S.A.
C. J. Tabor, Esq.
N. W. Thomas, Esq.
H. B. Wheatley, Esq., F.S.A.,

and
A. R. Wright, Esq.

As Hon. Treasurer.
Edward Clodd, Esq.

As Ho7i. Auditors.
F. G. Green, Esq., and N. W. Thomas, Esq.

As Secretary.
F. A. Milne, Esq., M.A.

Minutes of Meetings. 5

The Chairman dehvered his Presidential Address, for
which a vote of thanks was accorded him on the motion
of Dr. Haddon, seconded by Mr. Nutt.

Miss M. L. Hodgson then exhibited a collection of
Easter eggs, necklaces, powder-horns, needlecases, etc.,
made and used by the Huculs, upon which Dr. Gaster
and Mr. Hartland offered some observations. [See p. 48
and Plates I.-IV.]

The Meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to Miss
Hodsfson for her exhibition.

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF
THE COUNCIL.

i8th January, 1905.

The Council record with deep regret the death during
the year of Professor York Powell, the late esteemed and
accomplished President of the Society. This is the first
occasion in the annals of the Society on which, a President
having died during his term of office, the Council have had
to be called together to elect a new President for the
residue of the year. They had the satisfaction of electing
Dr. Rouse to the vacant office and to obtain his acceptance
of it, and they now nominate him as President for the
ensuing year.^ The Council regret also to have to record
the deaths of Mr. W. Jones and Mr. C. H. Moore, and
of Mrs. Kate Lee, to whose energy and geniality the
Society was in many ways indebted.

With regard to membership the Society has had a fairly
successful year, having elected 23 new members. Only
eighteen deaths and resignations have been recorded
during the past year. But it is difficult to ascertain the
precise number of effisctive members, as the present
addresses of some members are not known. If these
members are reckoned as effective there has been a
nett addition of five to the roll of the Society. The
membership may practically be regarded as stationary,

^ An appreciative notice of the late President appeared in the pages of the
June number oi Folk- Lore (vol. xv., p. 182).

Annual Report of the Council. 7

The publications of the Society have been brought very
nearly up to date, and its finances are in a satisfactory
condition.

In the early part of the year an effort was made to
induce the authorities of public libraries to become sub-
scribers. The Council appeal once more to the members
of the Society to interest their friends and acquaintances
in its work.

The following Meetings were held in the course of the
year 1904, at which papers were read before the Society,
viz. :

fan. 20. The President's Address. {Folk- Lore, March, 1904.)
Feb. 17. " Wizardry in the West." Miss Wherry.

"The Place of Tradition in Historical Evidence." Mr. G. L.
Gomme.
March 17. "The Development of the Prayer out of the Spell." Mr. R. R.

Marett.
April 20. "On Toda Prayer." Dr. W, H. R. Rivers.
May 18. "The Folklore of the Basuto." Mrs. Cartwright.
JuneiS- "Some Annancy Tales as told in Jamaica." Miss Pamela

Coleman Smith.
Nov. IT. " Breton Folklore." Mrs. Mosher.
Dec. 7. " The Folklore of the Wye Valley." Miss L. M. Eyre.
" Midsummer Customs in Morocco." Dr. Westermarck,

The following objects have been exhibited at the
Meetings, viz. :

(i)* A Toothache Charm from Pembrokeshire. By Mr. W. C.
Merrick. (2) Photograph of a Rushlight-stand and Fire-screen,
at the Hough, Eccleshall, Staffordshire. By Mr. W. Wells
Bladen. (3) Photograph of a Norwegian Stabbur or Cheese-
house at Telemarken. By the Hon. Mrs. Sinclair. (4) Kentish
Pudding Pies; A Gingerbread Pig from St. Cloud; Pictures
representing (a) An offering before Captain Cook in the Sandwich
Islands, (b) The funeral pile of a husband in Hindustan, and
(c) A dance at Otaheite. By Miss Edith Cobham. (5) Photo-
graphs of Bull Pitchers from Stamford, Lincolnshire. By Miss
Peacock. (6) A collection of Basuto charms, necklaces, costumes
and ornaments, and photographs of Basuto men dancing at a race
meeting, Bushman cave-paintings, and other objects of interest.
By Mrs. Cartwright. {7) A Basuto necklace and charm. By
Mr. A. R. Wright. (8)* A collection of Burmese dolls. By

8 Annual Rep07d of the Council.

Miss L. M. Eyre. (9) A collection of Tibetan amulets and
charms. By Mr. A. R. Wright. (10) Photographs of the Hobby
Horse at Padstow, Cornwall. By Mr. F. G. Green. (11) A
com ornament offered at Little Hadham Church, Herts, at the
Harvest Festival, 1904. By Mr. W. H, St. John Hope ; and
(12) Corn ornaments from Devon and Cornwall. By Mrs. Gomme.

The objects marked with an asterisk have been pre-
sented to the Society, and will in due course be placed
in the Society's case at the Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology at Cambridge.

The Council are glad to note that, perhaps for the first
time in the history of the Society, some object of interest
has been exhibited at every Meeting, so that the hope
expressed a year ago has been fulfilled. As the exhibition
of these objects contributes in no small measure to the
interest of the Meetings, the Council look with confidence
for as good a record this year.

The Meetings have been uniformly well attended and
the interest of the audiences sustained. Miss Pamela C.
Smith's reproduction of Annancy Tales precisely as they
were told to her in Jamaica, which took the place of a
paper at the June Meeting, proved most popular. Miss
Smith told the tales in negro costume and illustrated them
by roughly-shaped toys. This recitation was an entirely
new departure, for which the Council were indebted to
their late lamented President.

The Lecture Committee still continues without a Secre-
tary. The Council are glad, however, to be able to report
that upon their recommendation Mr. E. Lovett has given
lectures at Wellingborough and at the Morley College for
Working Men and Women in the Waterloo Bridge Road,
both of which were well attended and much appreciated.
The Council thank Mr. Lovett for this service, and would
be glad to find other Members of the Society as enthusiastic
as he in the same direction.

The Society has issued during the year the 15th volume

Annual Report of the Council. 9

of its Transactions, Folk-Lore. Miss Burne has again most
kindly assisted the Council by editing the volume, and the
Council desire to place on record the debt of gratitude the
Society owes her for the time and labour she has so
ungrudgingly expended upon this work. The Council have
also again to thank Mr. A. R. Wright, to whom they are
indebted for the Index.

The Society has also issued during the year as the extra
volume for 1902 Miss M. A. Owen's monograph on the
Musquakie Indians, with the descriptive catalogue of the
Musquakie beadwork and other objects which she has so
generously presented to the Society ; and, as the extra
volume for 1903, County Folk-Lore, vol. iv., being examples
of printed Folklore concerning Northumberland, collected
by Mrs. M. C. Balfour, and edited by Mr. N. W. Thomas.
The promised collection by Mr. T. Fairman Ordish of
materials for the History of English Folk-drama is not yet
ready for press ; but it is hoped that it may be finished in
time to be issued as the additional volume for 1904. No
decision has yet been arrived at as to the additional volume
for 1905.

In recognition of the specially valuable services rendered
directly to the Society by Miss M. Roalfe Cox and Miss
M. A. Owen, the Council have unanimously elected them
Honorary Members.

The Society was represented at the Meetings of the
Anthropological section of the British Association at Cam-
bridge by, amongst others, Mr. and Mrs. Gomme, Mr.
Brabrook, Mr. E. S. Hartland, Dr. Haddon, Mr. Crooke,
Mr. J. G. Frazer, Mr. N. W. Thomas, Miss Burne, Miss
Hull, and Miss Ffennell. Mr. F. W. Giinther, who read a
paper on the " Cimaruta," has very kindly promised to
read it again before the Society. The Council would
emphasise the importance of these Meetings being better
attended by Members of the Society than they are at
present.

lo Annual Report of the Council.

It has been a great disappointment to Mr. A. R. Wright
that he has been unable to complete the annual Biblio-
graphy of British Folklore for the year 1902. The task of
verifying and supplementing the materials in his hands has
been greater than he anticipated ; but it is nearly finished,
and Mr. Wright has already collected a good deal of
material for the Bibliography for 1903. The Council there-
fore hope that they may be able to publish the Bibliography
for the two years together in the coming autumn. Now
that the main lines of the scheme for the Bibliography are
settled, there is no reason why the Bibliography for 1904
should not also be completed within the year ; but if this
result is to be achieved, more assistance will have to be
forthcoming, and for such assistance the Council earnestly
appeal.

During the year an appeal was made to the Council
on behalf of the National Library of Turin for a gift of the
Society's publications to replace those which had been lost
in the late disastrous fire. The Council presented the
library with a selection of the publications, and the
following is a copy of the letter of thanks addressed to
the late President on behalf of the Italian Ambassador.

" Ambasciata d'ltalia,

20, Grosvenor Square, W.

ij^rd Dece^nber, 1904.

"Sir,

The Curator of the National Library of Turin has
called the attention of the Italian Government to the
valuable gift of books that your Society has recently made
to that Institution.

The Minister of Public Education has now directed me
to tender your Society the warmest thanks of the Italian
Government for having so generously gone to the aid of
the National Library of Turin with the gift of books, so as

Annual Report of the Council. 1 1

to endeavour to partly lessen the great loss sustained,
some time ago, by that Institution.

Whilst fulfilling this very pleasing duty, I beg to
remain, Sir,

Yours faithfully,

(For the Italian Ambassador),
Carignani,

Councillor to the Embassy!'

" Prof. F. York Powell, M.A.. F.S.A.,
President, Folklore Society."

The Council submit herewith the annual accounts and
balance sheet duly audited, and the balloting list for the
Council and officers for the ensuing year.

By Order of the Council,

W. H. D. ROUSE,

President.

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PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

It must be that our minds are thinking of one who ought
to be in this place to-night. About twelve months ago,
when I last met York Powell, some words that were said
made a deep impression upon me. We were sitting in the
combination-room of Christ's College, after dinner, and I
happened to remark that the place seemed full of the
memory of Robertson Smith, It is ten years since his
death, and yet I could never enter the room but I recalled
that inexhaustible flow of brilliant talk, those sallies of wit
that used to set the table in a roar, the sharp tongue and
generous heart of one, whose life was spent in noble en-
deavour and quiet deeds of kindness. " Yes," York
Powell said, " I feel that too : it is the only kind of
immortality worth having." He who spoke those words
knows now what is behind the veil ; but the immortality
he wished for is his, I suppose no one who ever met
him failed to carry away some intellectual or moral
stimulus, some help or encouragement for his own studies
or his own cares; no one could fail to know him for a
grand master in the freemasonry of generous spirits,
except a soul which knew not the sign. It is no envi-
able thing to stand in his place. I cannot pretend to
give what he could have given us : my store is small,
the time has been very short, I trust you will listen
with something of his gentle tolerance.

Presideyitial Address. 15

The past year has been not uneventful for the study
of Folk-Lore. Amongst the authors whose books have
been published or announced are two well-known names,
the pioneers of Australasian ethnology, Fison and Howitt.
Mr. Fison's book, which by the way has not yet come
out, I have seen in manuscript ; as originally drafted it
was a collection of the most delightful and racy letters,
which contained many descriptions of Fijian legends and
customs. Mr. Howitt's Native Tribes of South-East A ustralia
is mainly a reprint of his scattered articles, but is not less
valuable for that, since the articles are hardly accessible to
students. Messrs. Spenser and Gillen have followed up their
first great work by another, the Native Tribes of Central
Australia, marked by the same scientific care and ac-
curacy. The Cambridge expedition to the Torres Straits,
whose leader needs no mention amongst us, has published
its fifth volume on Sociology, Magic, and Religion : a
volume most remarkable for the exactness of its method,
which makes us wish for more students to be promoted
from the study of dead nature to the study of man.
Another book which ought to be out now, and cannot
be long delayed, is Mr. W. W. Skeat's second volume on
the Malay Tribes. It is worth while mentioning two
others. The first by D. Kidd, called The Essential Kafir,
contains a set of photographs, most original, and admir-
ably executed. The second, Le Folklore de France (P.
Sebillot), is a compilation which has been much wanted.
The Archiv fiir ReligionzvissenscJiaft has passed into the
hands of a new editor, and appears in a much improved
form.

Most of the works I have mentioned are records of
facts ; and it cannot too often be said that the paramount
duty of all students of folk-lore now is to record facts.
There are always plenty of persons willing to spin theories,
and not infrequently one or two who are competent to do
so ; nor is there reason to expect that their number will

1 6 Presidential Address.

grow less. But the facts are fast disappearing from off
the face of the earth. It is most unlucky, that wherever
book-education goes, the natural culture of the folk is
destroyed. Possibly more is gained than lost ; on that
point I shall express no opinion until I have retired
from the scholastic profession, when I shall be able to
offer the ripe fruits of my experience ; but the old cus-
toms are lost, and the old culture, fairy tales, and folk-
songs are replaced by the Golliwog and the Absent-
Minded Beggar. Hence, in all countries which are
called civilized, the present generation will probably be
the last when such collection is possible ; and in the rest
of the world, local authors are either becoming contami-
nated or are even there disappearing. Let us then, so
far as in us lies, gather the harvest while it is ripe, or at
least the gleanings. In Europe there are still two dis-
tricts which have a rich crop ready for the reaper, the
Slavonic area and Greece. Fortunately the Russians are
alive to the importance of this work, as their excellent
folk-lore journal testifies, not to mention the numerous
collections of Skaaki and Bylini. The same is true of
Bohemia, and, I believe, of Bulgaria, although I only know
the last area by hearsay. Greece may be divided into
two parts : the Greek Kingdom and Turkish Greece.
The former is overrun with schoolmasters and politicians,
who unfortunately despise the popular language and all
its works, and wherever daily papers go the old lore
is fast dying. But the one good deed with which we
may credit the Turks, is that they keep their own Greek
districts in complete isolation, not only from the rest
of the world, but island from island, city from city.
Hence these parts of Greece, and especially the isles of
the Aegean, are almost as provincial, as independent in ,
character, as they have ever been. Customs, legends,
songs, dialects — all, with certain general resemblances,
differ in detail in a remarkable degree ; so that the

Presidential Address. 17

material cannot be said to have been collected until
each district has been worked.

There is already collected a great mass of material for
modern Greece. The local patriotism of the people is
intense, and nearly every considerable place has found
its historian, who often gives notes on the dialect and,
generally with some kind of apology, drops in a few
legends and tales, or ballads, which he happens to know.
Some of these collections, such as those of Epirus by
Politis, of Cyprus by Sakellarios, of Chios by Paspatis,
of Crete by Yannarakis, are full and good; but as a
rule the compiler has no scientific method, and no care
for accuracy. Hence those works must be used with
caution, and checked one by another. There is also a
great difficulty in getting them at all. A Greek pub-
lisher never keeps his stock. When sales begin to drop
he gets tired, and sells off the whole remainder to any
one who will buy ; or he shuts up shop and turns to
some other trade ; or perhaps he goes to prison. I have
been collecting these Greek monographs for fifteen years,
and I have about a quarter of them, nearly all bought
from second-hand booksellers. For these reasons then —
the inaccuracy of the record and its incompleteness —
there is much work to be done in Greece. And there
are still many places which are quite virgin soil ; one
such is the island of Cos, from whence I have succeeded
in getting together a collection of songs, tales, and
customs from oral tradition which would already fill a
volume. I have offered a selection of these already to
the Society {Folk-Lore, vol. x., pp. 1 50-185), and a
publisher for the whole has been found.

Greece offers to the student of folk-lore one great
advantage: he is able to trace a great deal of myth and
custom to an earlier source. In comparative studies we
rest largely on analogy, and we have to make many
assumptions, which may be justified but are open to the

1 8 Presidential Address.

objection that they are assumptions. But Greek antiquity
is, to a great extent, known ; and where it is reflected in
modern Greece we have evidence to show how far oral
tradition can be trusted, and what changes may occur
by its means. Sometimes we can even go behind an-
tiquity : there are customs, there are even words and
phrases now current, for which no direct evidence, or
only a hint, is forthcoming in ancient literature, but
which bear all the marks of genuineness. There are
even instances where popular idiom can solve a difficulty
which has seemed to the classical student insoluble.^
But, without venturing upon this debatable ground, the
acknowledged facts are of so great a value that it is a
wonder they have never been gathered and compared.
The only work of the kind which has ever appeared is
Bernhard Schmidt's Volksleben der Neiigriechen imd das
Hellenische AltertJium, of which the first part appeared
in 1871, and the second is still unwritten. The principles
which Schmidt lays down are good, and the execution,
as far as it goes, excellent ; but his book does not ex-
haust the material known in his day, and since his day
a great quantity of fresh material has been published.
The attention of classical scholars ought to be directed
to this field of research. Unfortunately there is hardly
any one in England who thinks modern Greek to be
worthy of serious study. In France and Germany there
are many; and in Paris provision is made, both for
research and for teaching, by the university. In this
country, once identified with the Philhellenic spirit, whose
fleet struck the decisive blow for Greek freedom at the
battle of Navarino, the commercial spirit has so tainted
schools and universities alike, that there is nothing. It
is this that so clearly shows the lack of intelligence in
our government, who squander millions in elementary

^As /caKuis = Mod. Gr. rov kukov, 'in vain;' Eur. Cyclops, 690, as printed
lately by Mr. Pallis in the Classiral Review.

Presidential Address. 19

education, for which parents ought to be compelled to
pay, and refuse all help to disinterested research, which
the public is too ignorant to value at its true worth, or
to any kind of study which is not supposed to have
a direct commercial price. But we cannot expect
enlightened aid to research and experiment from a
government, which in a certain school in the north,
refused to give a grant for the study of Shakespeare,
until an ingenious inspector dubbed it " Commercial
English."

The study of modern Greek is complicated by the strange
perversity of the Greeks themselves. Intoxicated with the
pride of their ancient lineage and heroic past, they have
ever since the War of Independence set themselves arti-
ficially to revive all they can of the ancient language.
Words which have not been spoken for a thousand years
are dug out of ancient books and put over their shops ;
extinct inflexions, and tags of syntax misunderstood, are
foisted in between genuine modern idioms and literal
translation of French phrases. It is as if we were to
use heafod in place of head, and every now and then to
drop into an Anglo-Saxon dative or infinitive inflexion.
But, apart from parliament and professorial lectures and
the range of artificial education, these vagaries are no
part of the spoken language at all. Go into a shop
with the sign oivo-K(xi\eiov and ask for oho';, and you will
be met with a blank stare. I once tried the experiment
of speaking to a Greek member of parliament in the
official dialect, and he did not understand me, until I
repeated my sentence in the popular form. In the
family, the most rigorous of " purists " — so they have the
effrontery to call themselves — will speak pure " dialect,"
as he would call it to you or me. The student then
must avoid all newspapers, and all self-conscious literary
works, which are written in the most astonishing jargon
that ever was heard of

20 Presidential Address.

When however we come to the real modern Greek,
we are astonished by its wealth of resource. There is
no idea, however abstract or abstruse, which cannot be
quite clearly expressed by it. The power of composi-
tion is as strong as ever it was, and as we see by our own
borrowings, is capable of describing the most elaborate
machine or invention. Its dramatic power is very great,
and the Greeks are great talkers. There are very few
foreign words in it ; nearly all have survived from classical
times with their ancient meaning, although disguised by
the modern pronunciation. And there is no local dia-
lect which I am acquainted with, that does not show a
number of other words and grammatical forms which do
not survive in Attica, and therefore have been too hastily
regarded as extinct. This is a matter for the philologist
rather than for us, but it has importance as showing the
tenacity of the old tradition. We may expect to find
a similar tenacity in matters of custom. Some of the
more general heads have been treated by Schmidt, and
other instances may be found in the two papers which I
have read before this Society.^ Thus Votive Offerings
made in time of sickness or peril are much the same,
and offered in the same way, as they were in the third
and fourth centuries B.C. ; harvest thanksgiving and other
popular feasts bear unmistakable evidence of their ancient
origin ; modern sanctuaries in large numbers stand on the
sites of ancient temples ; even sacrifice has left a faint
image in the gilding of the horns of a victim in Lesbos,
perhaps in the gold-leaf which is stuck on butchers' meat
sold after the Sarakoste fast. The connexion between
the saints and the old gods or heroes has never been
worked out ; but that there often is some connexion
is not only probable in itself but certain in some cases :
the latest identification is that by Mr. Rendel Harris of
the Dioscuri with SS. Kastulos and Polyeuctes, SS. Pro-

"^ Folk- Lore, vols, vii., p. 142, .ind x., p. 150.

Presidential Address. 21

tasius and Gervasius, SS. Florus and Laurus.^ It is
greatly to be desired that a full list could be compiled
of the little chapels by the wayside or in deserted spots,
called e^coKXrjcrta, which are often at least as old as
Byzantine days, and might turn out to be commonly on
the sites of ancient hero-shrines, as some of them cer-
tainly are. Nor are the more popular figures of super-
stition lacking. Everyone has heard of the Nereids, who
bear still their ancient name, and are described much as
they were believed in two thousand years ago ; only the
name now includes land-nymphs as well as water-nymphs.
Milk, honey, and cakes are offered to them as to the
Eumenides of old. Besides these we find in one place
or another Lamia, the demon woman, Strigla, the goblin,
Empousa and Mormo, the bogeys, Gillou and Gorgona,
Pytho, the witch, the lame devil who perhaps represents
Hephaistos, the Kalikazari, who resemble the ancient
Is-tjpeg, or sprites of m.ischief and disease, both in their
acts and in the time when they range abroad. Charon,
under the name Charos, still summons the dead to the
nether world, and the whole popular conception of this
figure is taken from the heathen world. The only
borrowed element in popular mythology is, I believe,
the Vampire, or Vourkolakas, whose name appears to
be Slavonic, although I am not sure that his nature is
wholly so.

In the folk-tales, which have never been exhaustively
examined from this standpoint, we find quite a large
number of echoes of mythology proper. In Crete we
find the tale of Peleus and Thetis.^ A young peasant
fell in love with a Nereid, and was advised by a witch
that when the cocks crew he should seize her by the hair,
and hold fast until the cocks ceased from crowing. He did

^ The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends, by J. Rendel Harris : Clay & Sons,
1903-
"Chourmonouzis, KpriTiKd, p. 69; Schmidt, p. 115.

22 Presidential Address.

so, and she changed into a dog, a snake, a camel, and
fire ; he held fast, however, and obtained her for his bride.
Not one word would she speak until, on the advice of
the same witch, he made a big fire, and threatened to
burn the child. She then cried, "Leave my child alone,
dog ! " seized the child, and disappeared from before his
eyes. This story was told about 1825 by an old man who
heard it from his grandfather; hence two transmissions
carry us back close on two centuries. The same trans-
formations are told in Eleusis of a fighting man.^ In
Zakynthos we hear of giants, huge in size, with one
eye in their foreheads.^ When one is born the mother
dips him in a certain river, which makes him invulnerable
except in the ankle by which he is held : a peculiarity
which reminds us of Achilles. The whole incident of the
blinding of the Cyclops, opening of the cave, and escape
of the hero under a sheep, is found in an Athenian story .^
In Astypolaia, an island out of the track of travellers,
whose stores I am hoping to reap soon, we hear of a
winged horse, and in the same story of our old friend
the wooden horse of Troy.* Two brothers wish to gain
access to a beautiful girl ; and, says one to the other,
" Brother, I have devised a plan, and let me tell it to
you, that you may see if you like it. Let us find a good
craftsman and tell him to make us a horse big enough
for a man to go in ; let him make it with screws and
machinery so that it can show all its paces ; let us gild
it all over, and set it here and there with diamonds and
gems, make a saddle with gold tassels and a golden
bridle, and let it go, lacking only a voice. God willing, our
business will speed that way, else we shall lose both the
eggs and the basket." Another tale from the same island
runs as follows : " A King had a daughter who was very
beautiful, and to keep her safe from suitors he built a

^ Greek Folk Poesy, Garnett, ii. 175. -Schmidt, p. 200.

^ Greek Folk Poesy, ii. 84. ■• Conies Populaires Grecs, Pio, p. S5.

Presidential Address. 23

tower which had only one window and one iron door
v/here no one could find it. And he put his daughter
in it alone and by herself: every day her portion of food
was sent to her, and she hung a plate out of the window
and pulled it up." ^ This is a familiar scene, but we are
nevertheless reminded of Danae.

From the same island comes another tale.^ Three
friends, a monk, a carpenter, and a tailor, spent the night
in a shepherd's hut. They kept watch by turns, and the
first watch fell to the carpenter. He sat till he was
tired ; then took a piece of wood, and with his tools
carved it into a shape somewhat resembling a girl, and
set it up in the sheepfold to frighten the tailor. The
tailor's turn came : he sat until he began to nod, and then
opening his eyes he suddenly caught sight of the figure.
" To arms, comrades, here are the thieves ! " he cried, but
seeing that the block did not move, he took courage, and
threw a stone at the figure, which sounded with a dull
thud. " Ha, a nice trick of that cursed carpenter, devil
take him," he said, " and frightened me too. Well, he
made it, what shall I do .-* " He found out a few scraps
of cloth and made a smock for it, so that to look at her
you would think she was a real girl. The priest's turn
came now ; and seeing this figure of a woman except for
the soul, he prayed to God with a pure heart, and God
answered his prayer. Then follows the usual argument
as to who had a right to her. Perhaps it is not too
fanciful to see here a connexion with Pygmalion and
Galatea ; the idea is the same. One Athenian story in-
cluded in Miss Garnett's interesting collection,^ gives the
incident topsy-turvy : here, a princess who did not wish
to marry made herself a husband of sugar, whom God
brought to life after she had prayed for forty days and
forty nights. In the Peloponnesus, somewhere about
where Theseus passed his childhood, we read of a lad

^Pio, p. 129. ^ Pio, p. 102. '^ Greek Folk Poesy, ii. 120.

24 Presidential Address.

borne by a village maiden to a wandering king, who left
a silver pistol behind as a token.^ The episode of the
white sail appears in another story^ as a white flag on
the topmast. In Cyprus we have a young hero slaying
a three-headed serpent and a wild boar, and a tree of
golden apples guarded by a dragon.^ In Melos we have
the tale of Cupid and Psyche.^ A story resembling that
of Oedipus meets us in Cyprus,^ and a riddling dragon
in Naxos.*^

In a tale from Tenos, recovered by Mr. W. R. Paton,
a child miraculously born, along with his mother and
supposed father, is enclosed in a chest like Danae,
and set adrift. Perhaps the most remarkable of all are
two which I will now describe. The first, most appro-
priately, was from Eleusis, and describes the adventures
of Saint Demetra and her daughter Aphrodite, a most
beautiful girl. Aphrodite was carried off by a Turkish
Aga on a black horse which breathed fire from its nostrils.
Demetra questioned Sun, Moon, and Stars, but they
could tell her nothing. Then, led by a Stork, she travelled
far and wide without result, until she came to Eleusis;
here being courteously entertained by the headman of
the village and his wife, she blessed their fields. Magic
and grotesque elements now enter into the tale. In the
end, the headman's son rescues the ravished maiden.
Demetra and her daughter went away, and were never
heard of again ; but ever since, by the Saint's blessing,
the fields of Eleusis have been fruitful.'^ The second
comes from a peasant in Boeotia, an old man in 1846,
who asked a visitor,^ " Do you know how the first vine
was planted ? No .? Then I will tell you. ' When
Dionysios was young, he made a journey through Hellas,
to go to Naxia; but inasmuch as the way was long, he

^ Greek Folk Poesy ^ ii. p. 28. ^ Same, p. 55. " Same, pp. 70, 71, 77.

*Same, p. 277. ^Same, p. 194. "Same, p. 96.

■^ Same, p. 1 7 1 . ** Hahn, Griechische Mdrchen, p. 76.

Presidential Address. 25

sat down to rest on a stone. As he sat there, his eye
fell on a plant that grew by his feet, which looked so
beautiful that he resolved to take it with him and plant
it. The sun was hot on the sand, and for fear that it
might wither, he found out a bird's thigh-bone and put
it within. But in his blessed hand the plant grew so
fast, that it grew out of both ends of the bone. He then
found a lion's bone to contain the bird's bone and the
plant, and the plant grew out of that as out of the other ;
the same happened with the thigh-bone of an ass. When
he came to Naxia, he found that the plant had so en-
twined these bones that he could not separate them.
Accordingly he planted them all together. By and by
the plant put forth beautiful clusters of grapes, from
which he made the first wine to give joy to man. But
what a miracle happened now! As they drank they
became first like birds of the air ; then, as they drank
more, they waxed strong as lions ; and if they drank more
still, they became like asses.' "

Such are a few of the echoes of ancient life which I
have noted down in reading folk-tales. They are taken
from three collections only, and from only a few tales
out of these. They might easily be multiplied. But, as
I said before, the time has not yet come for theorizing ;
we must first gather the facts, and to that end I urge
every member of the Society according to his opportunity.
Much might be done even by a gift of money. I have
the collectors ready, and they progress as fast as I can
pay them, but I cannot pay them much. Our Society
is poor; but perhaps this hint may fall on the ear of
some one who could either assist in collecting, or in
publishing what is collected. I can assure any such pious
benefactor that his money will not be wasted.^ If Shake-
speare is commercial English, this is a branch of natural

1 This appeal has already met with response from one generous friend, Mr.
C. Letts, who has contributed £^ 5s. for collecting in Astypalaea.

26 Presidential Address.

science, in whicii, as we all know, lies the salvation of our
souls. It is also good for trade, which is more important
than any man's soul.

I have to ask the indulgence of the Society if my
subject has been somewhat away from the beaten path.
I was confronted with a dilemma, either to speak of a
narrow field which I knew, or wisely to discourse on general
topics of which I knew nothing. I have not yet had
experience enough of lecturing to be able to do that.
Yet, as often happens, this narrow field is the way to
a wider one. I do not know any study in which we
can so well trace the course of tradition as this, in which
the original forms are known, and the time limits. It has
its drawbacks, no doubt ; the influence of written books
must not be left out of account, nor must transmission and
artificial revival. But with all deductions, there is light
here if we look for it. I hope it may always be our aim
as a Society to seek for the light.

W. H. D. Rouse.

MIDSUMMER CUSTOMS IN MOROCCO.

BY EDWARD WESTERMARCK, PH.D.

{Read at Meeting, yth December, 1904.)

The present article is based on information which I have
obtained in the course of three years and a half devoted to
anthropological research in Morocco, chiefly among its
peasantry.

The population of Morocco consists of the following
ethnic groups : — The Arabic-speaking tribes of the plains
(the ^Arab); the Arabic-speaking mountaineers of Northern
Morocco (the Jbdla), in whose veins, in spite of their
language, probably flows much more Berber than Arab
blood ; the Rif Berbers {Rudfa), whose country extends
along the Mediterranean coast from the neighbourhood of
Tetuan to the Algerian frontier ; the Berbers {Brdber) in-
habiting the mountains of Central Morocco and the eastern
portion of the Great Atlas range ; the Berbers {Shluh)
inhabiting the western part of the Great Atlas, as also the
Sus country situated to the south of that range (a territory
the eastern frontier of which may be roughly indicated by
a line drawn from Demnat in a south-easterly direction,
and the northern frontier by a slightly curved line uniting
Demnat with Mogador on the Atlantic coast and following
the foot of the mountains, or, in some places, intercepting a
strip of the plain) ; and, lastly, the Berbers {Draiua) in-
habiting the valley of the Wad Dra in the extreme south
of Morocco, a group with reference to which I have been
unable to procure any reliable information. I have been

28 Midsiwimer Customs in Morocco.

living for a considerable time among various tribes of the
'Arab on or near the Atlantic coast, the Jbala of Northern
Morocco, and the Shluh of the Great Atlas and the pro-
vince of Haha ; thus my residence among the Andjra
mountaineers of the Jbala group lasted for half a year.
But also the statements referring to tribes which I have not
visited myself are derived from trustworthy native sources,
from members of, or residents among, those tribes, with the
exception perhaps of one or two cases, specially indicated,
in which my informants seem to have spoken from hearsay
rather than from experience.

Among these various groups of natives certain cere-
monies are performed on June 24th, Old Style, the so-called
l-'dnsdra (in Shelha — i.e., the Berber dialect spoken by the
Shluh — tdnsart) day, or on the eve of that day.

On l-dnsdra day, after sunset, the Andjra mountaineers
kindle big fires in open places in their villages. Men,
women, and children leap over these fires, believing that by
doing so they rid themselves of all l-bds, or misfortune,
which may be clinging to them ; the sick will be cured and
childless couples will have offspring. Nobody is hurt by
the fire, for there is baraka, benign virtue, in the smoke.
Some straw, as also some marjoram {sdhfar) and alum, is
burned in the zriba, or enclosed place outside the dwelling
house where the cattle, sheep, and goats are kept at night ;
the smoke will make the animals thrive. The people also
burn straw, dry grass, herbs, or twigs in their gardens.
Thus, in the garden attached to the cottage where I was
living, a small fire was lighted under each fig-tree, and I
was told that if this were not done the fruit would fall
before it was ripe. In places where there are bees, the
people burn dry cowdung, the smoke of which will m.ake
the honey plentiful and prevent the bees from being killed
by thunder. I have found similar midsummer customs
among other Jbala tribes that I have visited. In Jbel
Habib I heard that on l-dnsdra eve branches are cut from

Midsummer Customs in Morocco. 29

the various trees in each garden, and burned underneath
the best of them. In the tribe Sahal the people also burn
poplar twigs 2.r\Aflay)n(, or pennyroyal {Mentha Piilegiinn)
between the animals.

On l-dnsdi'a day the 'Arab of the tribe Mnasara make
fires outside their tents, near their animals, on their fields,
and in their gardens. Large quantities of pennyroyal are
burned in these fires, and over some of them the people
leap three times to and fro. Sometimes small fires are also
kindled inside the tents. The people say that the smoke
confers blessings on everything with which it comes into
contact. At Salli, on the Atlantic coast, persons who
suffer from diseased eyes rub them with the ashes of
l-dnsdra fire ; and in Casablanca and Azemmur the people
keep their faces over the fire, because the smoke is supposed
to be good for the eyes. Among the 'Arab tribe Ulad Bu
Aziz, in the province of Dukkala, fires are burned, not for
men and animals, but only for crops and fruit ; and I was
told that nobody would like to cut the crops of the season
before l-dnsdra is over, so as not to lose the benefit from
benign virtue inherent in the smoke.

On Midsummer Eve the Beni Mgild, a Berber tribe of
the Braber group, light fires of straw. They leap three
times over the fire, to and fro. They let some of the smoke
pass underneath their clothes, and married women keep
their breasts over the fire in order that their children may
be strong. They paint their eyes and lips with some black
powder {l-k/iol), mixed with ashes of the fire. They also
dip the right forelegs of their horses into the fire, and put
ashes on the forehead and between the nostrils of the horse.
The inhabitants of Mequinez, again, purify their gardens
and houses with the smoke of lighted poplar twigs.

The Iniknafen, a Shluh tribe in Haha, burn dry cow-
dung among the bees. When I asked for an explanation
of this custom, one of the natives answered me that, just as
men are purified by water, so bees are purified by the

30 Midstimmer Customs in Morocco.

smoke of cowdung burned at midsummer. I heard of the
same custom farther east, at Amzmiz in the Great Atlas,
l^ut among none of the Shluh tribes inhabiting those
mountains I have been able to detect any other fire
customs at midsummer; on the contrary, the existence of
any such customs was emphatically denied by my infor-
mants. However, among various tribes in Sus, belonging
to the same Berber group, smoke is made under the fruit-
trees at midsummer with a view to preventing the fruit
from falling. Thus the people of Aglu make smoke of
straw and rubbish mixed with the dung of cows or camels,
but the heap must not take fire ; if it does so, the flame is
extinguished with earth, lest the fruit should become bad.
In Tazerwalt, another district in Siis, some fish from the
river are roasted under the fruit-trees, the smoke being
considered beneficial for the tree. But I am aware of no
Shluh tribe making midsummer fires for the purpose of
purifying men and animals.

Among the Rif Berbers, on the other hand, fire cere-
monies are practised at midsummer as extensively as
among the Jbala. Fires are kindled over which the people
leap in order to keep in good health. Fires are made for
the animals, and in the fire the dried body of a wild cat is
often burned, the smoke being considered wholesome for
the animals. Fires are, moreover, made under the fruit-
trees to prevent the fruit from falling. The ashes of the
fires over which the people leap are mixed with water, and
the tuft of hair which the Rif Berbers allow to grow on
their heads is rubbed with this mixture so as to keep the
hair from falling off".

In all these cases the beneficial effect is entirely
attributed to the smoke ; the magic quality of the smoke
removes l-bds, or misfortune, from men, animals, fruit-trees,
or crops. But in some places fire ceremonies of another
type are practised at midsummer, namely, ceremonies
which are supposed to destroy l-bds by the flame. For

Midsummer Customs in Morocco. 31

this purpose the Beni Mgild burn on Midsummer Eve
three sheaves of unthreshed wheat or barley, " one for the
children, one for the crops, and one for the animals." On
the same occasion they burn the tent of a widow who has
never given birth to a child ; and by so doing they think
they rid the village of misfortune. A very similar custom
seems to prevail among another tribe belonging to the
same Berber group, the Zemmur. According to one in-
formant, a native of Mequinez, they drive off the misfortune
from their place by burning the tent of some widow whose
family have died in fighting ; whilst in the neighbouring
tribe, Beni Ah'sen, I was told that the Zemmur at mid-
summer burn a tent which has belonged to somebody
killed in warfare during a feast, or, if there be no such
person in the village, the tent of \\v& fki, or schoolmaster.
Both among the Beni Mgild and among the Zemmur the
burned tent is replaced by a new one. Among the Arabic-
speaking Beni Ah'sen it is the custom for those who
live near the river Sbu to make a little hut of straw at
midsummer, set light to it, and let it float down the river.
The people of Salli burn a straw hut on the river Bu
Ragrag, which flows outside the town ; ^ whilst in the
neighbouring town Rabat the same ceremony is sometimes
performed in the tanks of the gardens.

Beside smoke and fire customs, water ceremonies are
very commonly practised at midsummer. On l-dnsdra
day the people of the Andjra bathe in the sea or in the
rivers ; for on that day all water is endowed with
baraka, which removes sickness and misfortune. They
also bathe their animals : horses, mules, and donkeys,

^Chenier wrote at the end of the eighteenth century {The Present State of the
Empii-e of Morocco, 1788, i. 293 sq.): — "At Sallee, when the harvest is
gathered before the feast of St. John, which among the Moors corresponds
with the fifth of July, I have seen young people collect reeds and straw into a
heap, set them on float down the river, light them in a blaze as they swam,
and sport round."

32 Midsummer Customs in Morocco.

cattle, sheep, and goats. Many saints of Northern Morocco
whose " tombs " are situated on the sea-shore have their
feasts on l-'dnsdra day — for instance, Sidi 1-Mahfi at 1-Ksar
s-sger in Andjra, Sidi Kasem in the Fahs, Sidi Hamed
ben Marzok at Azila ; and on these occasions much
bathing takes place in the sea. Ceremonial bathing on
l-dnsdra day prevails among various, if not all, tribes ot
the Jbala group. I also found it prevalent among the
Beni Ah'sen and at Salli, on the Atlantic coast ; whilst in
Rabat, Mequinez, and Fez, people on that day pour water
over each other in the streets or from the roofs of their
houses without giving offence to anybody by doing so.
On the other hand, I have found no water customs at
midsummer among the 'Arab of the tribe Mnasara, or
Shawia or Dukkala ; nor among the Braber of the tribe
Beni Mgild ; nor among the Shluh of the Great Atlas.
But midsummer bathing occurs among some Shluh in
Sus. I was told by an old man from Tazerwalt that
on I'dnsart day children bathe in springs and grown-
up people in their houses. In Aglu, men, women, and
children on the same occasion bathe in the sea or in
springs or rivers, maintaining that if they do so they will
suffer from no disease during the whole year. And if
a woman is desirous of knowing whether she will be
blessed with a child or not, she goes to the sea-shore on
I'dnsart day and on the two following days, and lets seven
waves go over her body each time ; then she knows that, if
she is going to have a child at all, she will have it very
soon. In this case magic has dwindled into divination.
According to all accounts which I have obtained from Rif
Berbers, midsummer bathing is extensively practised in
their country ; animals also are bathed.

Whilst at midsummer all water is supposed to be en-
dowed with magic energy, there is a certain kind of water
to which such energy is attributed in a special degree,
namely, water which has fallen on April 27th, Old Style

Midsummer Customs in Morocco. "^i

{nhar Idisan). In Andjra, if it rains on that day, the
water {l-via de-ldisan) is collected and afterwards used for a
variety of purposes. On l-dnsdra day about sunset a ring
was painted with cowdung and red earth mixed with such
water round the trunk of every fig-tree in the garden where
I was living. The people told me that this would prevent
the figs from falling and make them good, by giving
baraka to the trees and averting from them the evil eye of
any person who passes by. Those who have a sufficient
quantity of l-ma de-ldisan wash themselves with it on
l-dnsdra day. But this water is miracle-working also on
other occasions. There is baraka in it from the beginning.
A little of it is very beneficial to the crops, whereas much
of it destroys themi, because the water is supposed to be
salt. When it rains on April 27th the people let some
rain fall on their bare heads so as to make the head
strong. When l-ma de-ldisan touches the eyes of poisonous
animals, such as snakes or scorpions, it makes the animal
blind. Mixed with tar it is, in the hottest part of the
summer, sprinkled on the door-posts to prevent snakes
from entering the house. It is also sprinkled over the
heaps of corn after threshing to protect them against the
evil eye. Mixed with an egg, some henna, and seeds
of cress {l-horf) it is given as medicine to cows suffering
from stomach trouble. It is drunk by persons who have
eaten bewitched food. It is poured over a plate on which
a certain sura of the Koran has been written with Moorish
ink, and is then given to schoolboys to drink so as to
strengthen their memory. But in order to preserve its
magic efficacy l-ma de-ldisan must on no account be allowed
to touch the ground. I am told that, if there is no rain on
April 27th, water taken from seven springs which are
never used for drinking purposes is on l-'dnsdra day mixed
with cowdung and red earth as a substitute for l-ma de-
ldisan. A belief which I found among the Shluh is worth
mentioning in this connection. My teacher in Shelha, a

34 Midstimmer Ctistoms in Morocco.

scribe from Glawi in the Great Atlas, told me that at
midsummer, for one hour, the water of the sea becomes
sweet, whilst the water of springs and rivers become salt.
When that water flows over the Indian-corn fields the
corn is affected by it in a peculiar way : those who eat of
the corn get nervous and quarrelsome. As only astro-
logers know the hour when the change takes place, the
people are unable to regulate the irrigation of their fields
so as to keep the injurious water away from their crops.

The Rif Berbers, Brabers, and Shluh are in the habit of
throwing earth on the fruit-trees at midsummer, whereas
I have not found this custom among any of the Arabic-
speaking tribes. The Beni Mgild throw earth taken from
a place where three roads meet, not only on their fruit-
trees, but over their animals and bees ; this, they say, will
keep the animals in good condition and prevent the trees
getting dry. Among the same tribe unmarried girls hang
little bags filled with earth taken from such a place round
their necks for the purpose of soon getting a husband and
keeping off the evil eye. The Iniknafen, in Haha, strew
earth over the vegetables growing in their gardens, as well
as at their fruit-trees. Among the Shluh of Aglu the
sprinkling of the fruit-trees with fine earth or dust alter-
nates with the smoke custom referred to above. The dust
is by preference taken from some road frequented by many
animals and men.

Various other kinds of magic are practised at mid-
summer for the benefit of the people. The Rif Berbers
and the Andjra mountaineers make a few cuts in the
trunks of their fig-trees so that the juice oozes out ; this
is supposed to prevent the tree from getting dry and the
fruit from falling. " Male figs," wrapped up in bundles of
straw or pennyroyal, are hung in the female trees. The
smell of the pennyroyal is considered good for the tree ;
and it was suggested by a native that the " male figs " are
hung there in order to induce the female figs to remain,

Mids2immer Customs in Moi^occo. 35

just as women like to stay where there are men. In
Andjra I also saw the people hanging oleander twigs
in their fig-trees. A few days before l-dnsdra some
pennyroyal is, moreover, placed under the roofs of the
houses. There is baraka in it, but only if it is gathered
before midsummer. It is used as medicine for colds and
coughs, and is applied externally to wounds. When it is
to be taken internally, its dry leaves are pulverised and
the powder is mixed with kesksu, the national dish of the
Moors, or with milk. Shortly before l-'dnsdra some olean-
der branches are also carried into the houses and preserved
under the roof, where they serve as charms against the
evil eye. In cases of sickness caused by the evil eye the
leaves are burned and the patient lets the smoke pass
underneath his clothes, inhaling it as it comes through.
The greatest efficacy is ascribed to the so-called " sultan
of the oleander " (si'dtan dfel), a stalk with a cluster of four
pairs of leaves round the stem. The stalk is used as a
pen, and the leaves, written upon, are used as charms.
The " sultan of the oleander " is always endowed with
baraka, but its magic power is greatest when it has been
cut immediately before midsummer. The oleander which
grows in dry places is more efficacious than that which
grows in rivers. When brought to the house, the branches
must not touch the ground, lest they should lose their
baraka. Like oleander and pennyroyal, marjoram is
gathered just before l-dnsdra, and preserved to be used as
medicine when occasion requires. The dry leaves of this
herb are burned and the smoke is inhaled by persons
troubled with cough, whilst, in the case of eye diseases, the
eyes are held over the smoke. Its stalk is lighted and the
regions of the eyes are touched with the glowing top.
When a person is suffering from jaundice, the nails and
various parts of the body — the temples, the forehead over
the bridge of the nose, the top of the head, the joints of
the arms and leo-s — are treated in a similar manner. On

36 Midsummer Ctistoms in Morocco.

l-dnsara day the Andjra people take home from the
market some thistles, and hang them in their fruit-trees
as a protection against the evil eye. On that day they
also steal from the market some of the stones which are
used as weights, to suspend them on their fruit-trees for the
same object. I was told that their efficacy as charms is
due to the baraka with which they are endowed, as also to
the fact that many eyes have been gazing on them at the
market. By catching so many glances of the eye, these
stones have themselves become like eyes ; and as the eye
serves as a transmitter of baneful energy, it also, naturally,
is capable of throwing back such energy on the person
from whom it emanates, hence the image of an eye is often
used as a charm against the evil eye. In another moun-
tain tribe, the Sahal, I heard that, as in Andjra, pennyroyal
and marjoram are cut immediately before l-dnsdra, taken
to the houses, and afterwards used for medicinal purposes.

In many parts of Morocco certain eating ceremonies
take place on Midsummer Day. A dish is made of
various kinds of corn and pulse : wheat, maize, Indian
corn, barley, peas, chick-peas, beans, and so forth. The
corn and pulse are put in water the previous evening ; and,
in many cases at least, they are boiled in their natural
state, and eaten with the husks on. The object of this
ceremony is to secure good crops. In Shawia the people
on l-dnsdra day roast and eat some Indian corn on the
field, and also take some to their homes. There they boil
the heads without removing the grains, together with two
handfuls of beans and four handfuls of wheat, which has
not been kept in the vidtumra — their subterranean granary
— but in the house. This dish is called sersevi ; there is
baraka in it, " it is dear to God." It is eaten with sour
milk, and the people generally present a portion of it to
their neighbours. Among the Ida Uger'd, a Shluh tribe in
Haha, a honey-comb is cut into two pieces on Midsummer
Day and eaten if there is honey in it ; I was told that if

Midsummer Customs in Moi^occo. 2)7

this ceremony were not performed, the bees would have no
honey. Eating ceremonies at midsummer prevail among
some, but not all, of the Arabic-speaking tribes on the
plains, among the Rif Berbers — who call the dish eaten on
that occasion imsiah — among the Beni Mgild and probably
other tribes of the Braber group, and among the Shluh of
the Great Atlas. On the other hand, I am not aware of
their occurrence among the Shluh of the Sus country nor
among the Jbala.

From what has just been said, it appears that these
eating ceremonies, like other midsummer customs, are
intended to serve a useful purpose. But they are not,
like the fire and water ceremonies, purificatory in their
nature, they are multiplicative. Some food — corn, or
pulse, or honey — is eaten with a view to increasing the
supply of the same kind of food. The idea underlying
this practice is not, as might perhaps be supposed, that of
imitative magic ; it is intended to serve as a conductor of
blessings. In order to be efficacious, a blessing requires a
wire, a material medium, through which it is transmitted
from the person who blesses to the object blessed ; and
the closer the contact between them, the more readily is
the blessing transferred. Now, the eating of a thing
implies the most intimate contact possible between the
thing eaten and the person who eats it ; and, according to
the rule of pars pr-o toto, so commonly applied in magic,
to communicate blessings to a few representatives of a
certain species is to bless the whole species. When the
blessing is meant for the crops, it is desirable that the
grains, peas, beans, and so forth, which are eaten, should
so far as possible resemble those growing in the field. This
seems to be the reason why they are kept in water over-
night ; why they are boiled in their natural state ; why the
husks are not taken off; why, of the Indian corn, the
whole head is boiled. My informant expressly said that
the Beni Mgild put corn and pulse in water overnight " so

8 Midsummer Customs in Morocco.

that they should look like fresh ones the following morn-
ing"; and the Andjra people, who perform the same
ceremony not at midsummer but at New Year (of the
solar year, Old Style), maintain that, if the seeds are much
swollen in the morning, the crops will be good. Similar
notions in all probability account for the eating of the
honey-comb.

In Morocco ceremonial eating is, in fact, a very common
means of transferring blessings. I shall state a few facts
which, though referring to ceremonies practised on other
occasions, will help us to understand the ceremonial eating
at midsummer. On the day when ploughing begins, the
Andjra people take to the field some bread made without
yeast (J-ftair), as also some ordinary bread and dried fruit.
A loaf of l-ftdir is stuck on the horns of each ox, and is
allowed to remain till the evening, when it is eaten by the
owner of the ox and his family. The rest of the food is
eaten on the spot by all people present, among whom the
schoolboys — who are always regarded as semi-holy — are
particularly conspicuous. When they have finished the
meal, they say some words like these : — AlldJi fa'dla
ireskek w" irzdkna fi z-zro' wd z-zerre'a s-sdhha wd l-hena
wd l-'dmdr t-twil, Allah fa'dla i'aicnek 'al' l-harf, " May
God the highest bestow on you" (that is, on the owner of the
field) "and bestow on us wheat and seed, health and security
and a long life, may God the highest help you with the
ploughing." In the Rif country a loaf of bread is broken
over the ploughbeam ; part of it is given to the oxen to
eat, and the rest is eaten by the persons present. Among
the 'Arab of Dukkala a big wheaten loaf is eaten by the
boys on that spot of the field which will be first turned up
by the plough, whereupon they say, " May God make the
ploughing easy for you." Among the Shluh of Aglu a big
dish filled with tagiilla, a kind of hard porridge, is taken to
the place where the ploughing is about to commence. In
the middle of the tagMla a hole has been made and filled

Midsummej'- Ctistofns in Morocco. 39

with oil. Into this the ploughman dips the top of the
plough-share three times, saying : — Bisniilldhi ya rdbb'i,
adagtkejmn elt Iherad Hi viu ntsebUab, " In the name of God,
O God, may thou complete for us this good thing which
we are undertaking." The ploughman then sprinkles the
animals with oil, repeating the following words : — Bisinilld
afillagikenmi el rdbb'i Iherad Hi mu ntsebUab, atnkerz
slhen'a, nemgert slhena, nasit slJiena, nesrutt slkena, nssit
slheiia dessd/it, a-sidi rdbb'i, " In the name of God, may
God complete for us this good thing in which we are engaged,
may we plough in peace, may we reap in peace, may
we gather in peace, may we thresh in peace, may we
eat in peace and with health, O Lord God." The rest of
the oil and the tagidla are eaten by those present. Among
the Shluh of Ida Uger'd I myself took part in a similar
ceremony. When the oxen had been yoked, a boy
brought a plate with argan-oil, in the midst of which was
placed a handful of U'wimity a mixture of roasted barley
and salt. With the plate in his hand, my host then went
round the animals and the plough, and sprinkled them
with a few drops of the oil. He began the ceremony with
the usual bisinilld, " In the name of God," and went on
muttering his blessings in an inaudible voice. When this
was done, he mixed small lumps of the tummit with oil
and gave them to the boys to eat, and then similar
lumps to the others present ; all of us had to eat a
lump. The Eeni Mgild, I am told, before they begin to
sow, roast some wheat, one portion of which is eaten by
the men in the mosque and another portion by the
women in their tents, whilst a third part is thrown on the
field immediately before the sowing commences ; my
informant said that this is done with a view to securing
good crops. In Dukkala, before a new tent is pitched for
the first time, some sersem, prepared of beans, chickpeas,
wheat, salt, and water, is eaten on the tent-cloth. This
meal is considered a good fdl, as the 'Arab say : it will

40 Midsummer Customs in Morocco.

have the effect of filling the tent in the future with various
kinds of food. In Andjra and elsewhere a meal similar to
that which in other parts of Morocco is partaken on
Midsummer Day is eaten on New-Year's Eve (Old Style),
the so-called lilts l-hagilza. The people then bless the
food by saying : — Allah fitala ydrzakna fi z-zrd wd
z-zerr^'a fi r-rezk wd l-dmdr, " May God the highest
bestow on us wheat and seed, good fortune and a long
life." The Jbala call this dish sioha. It is thus even
literally identical with the midsummer meal of the Rif
Berbers {imsiah).

Whilst the eating ceremony which among some tribes is
practised at midsummer is among other tribes practised
on New-Year's Eve of the solar year, we frequently meet
with fire and water customs in the beginning of the
Muhammedan year, on l-'dsur day, that is, on the loth of
Moharram, the first month in the Muhammedan calendar.
At D^mnat, in the Great Atlas, I was present (in disguise)
when, on l-dsur eve, a big fire was made outside the
governor's house, and people were leaping over it to and
fro. When asking for an explanation of this ceremony, I
was told that the people thereby insure their lives till
the next 'dsur. That this fire, like the midsummer fire, is
meant to purify them from all kinds of evil, is obvious
from the words which they utter when leaping over it.
In Aglu, in Sus, the fire is lighted at three different points
by an unmarried girl belonging to a family reputed for
their good luck. When the fire has burned down, the
young men leap over the glowing embers, saying : — Nssussn
gigm afdhirt iggur'dan ula tilkin tela timudan rkalb ula
ti ihsan nzgrdni dag imdl yimdl imdl yimdl imdl ytmdl
selhen'a dessdht, " We shook on you, O Lady 'Asur, fleas
and lice and the illnesses of the heart as also those of the
bones ; we shall pass through you again next year and the
following years with safety and health." Then the charred
branches are carried to Sidi Busmen's sanctuary, and the

Midsummer Customs in Morocco. 41

people who carry them say : — JSTsdrd iugiir'da ula tilkin ula
tiimidan tila lauhasad agddrrdnin, " We make complaint
against the rats and lice and illnesses and beasts which
have hurt us." Both in Aglu and Glawi, in the Great
Atlas, smaller fires are also made, over which the animals
are taken. At Demnat, girls who are anxious to marry
boil water over the 'dhir fire and wash themselves with
the water; and in Dukkala diseased eyes are rubbed with
the ashes of that fire. 'Asur fires seem to occur among
the Shluh in general, as also among the 'Arab of the
plains; whereas I have found no traces of such fires among
the Rif Berbers and the Jbala. I am told that among the
Beni Mgild a white chicken is burned in the tent on l-'dsur
day, but this seems to be the only fire ceremony practised
by them on that occasion. Among the 'Arab of the tribe
Mnasara a fire is only made in the place where the sheep
are kept, and the tail of the sheep which has been pre-
viously sacrificed at " the Great Feast " {I- did l-kbif) is
roasted on the fire. The person who roasts it says : —
^Aj 'dj ma Pilled gneimta ger n-n'dj : ^"AJ 'dj, may our ewes
only give birth to females."

Water ceremonies similar to those practised at mid-
summer are very common at l-dsiir. On l-^dsur morning
all water or, according to some people, only spring water,
is endowed with baraka, especially before sunrise. The
people then bathe and pour water over each other, and, in
some places, sprinkle their animals, tents, or rooms with
water. In Dukkala a portion of the water which has been
brought home at l-dhir is preserved till next 'dsur ; and
some of it is kept to be taken as medicine, or poured on
the place where the corn is threshed {l-gd'a), or put into the
vessel {l-kdnikovi) where money is laid before it is buried in
the ground. In the last-mentioned case the 'dsur water
serves as a charm against the earth-spirits. The 'Arab of
the plains are always in danger of losing their money : if
they keep it in their houses their governor easily lays

42 Midsummer Ctcstoms in Morocco.

hands on it, and if they bury it the spirits, or j7i fen, may run
away with it ; but as a rule they seem to be less afraid of
the jjitln than of their governors. It is interesting to note
that among the Jbala and Rif Berbers, or at least among
many of them, no ceremonial bathing occurs at l-'dsur, the
ordinary custom of watering the graves being the only
water-ceremony prevalent among them on that occasion.

The ^dnsara and ^dsur customs largely supplement each
other. Among tribes which practise no fire or water cere-
monies at l-'dnsdra we may be sure to find such ceremonies
at l-'dsur, and vice versa. And even where they occur on
both occasions, more importance is always attached to them
in the one case than in the other. In this competition
between l-dnsdra and l-dhir Muhammedanism is in favour
of l-dsur. Many of the religious people and scribes alto-
gether disapprove of l-dnsdra, maintaining that all cere-
monies connected with it are bad. A good schoolmaster
who acts up to his religion keeps the boys in school on
l-dnsdra day, refusing the money they offer him to get a
holiday ; however, my informant adds, there are very few
schoolmasters who are so conscientious. It is important to
note that the 'dnsdra ceremonies are most prominent among
the Rif Berbers, the Arabic-speaking Jbala — a portion of
whom are even by themselves recognized to be of the same
stock as the Rif Berbers, — and among the Braber of Central
Morocco ; whereas among the Shluh, who have been in-
fluenced by Muhammedanism in a much higher degree than
any of the other Berber groups, and among the 'Arab of the
plains (with the exception of Arabic-speaking tribes border-
ing on the Braber district), the midsummer customs are
chiefly restricted to ceremonies calculated to promote vege-
tation. Considering, further, that I have been unable to
find a single trace of midsummer ceremonies among Arabs
who have not come in contact with the Berber race, I
venture to suppose that such ceremonies prevailed among
the indigenous Berbers.

Midsummer Cttstoms in Morocco. 43

It might be supposed that the word l-dnsdra itself could
perhaps give us the key to the origin of the Moorish mid-
summer customs. But it practically tells us nothing. In
its origin it is neither Berber nor Arabic. It is derived
from the Hebrew 'asara, which means an assembly of
people for the celebration of a religious feast.^ In the
times of Josephus it denoted Pentecost, and it has the
same meaning in the Talmud.^ To this day the Arabic
form el-'ansarah is used by the Copts for Whitsunday.^
Considering that the real meaning of the word is feast in
general, it is not surprising that it was adopted by the
Arabs and Berbers as a name for the midsummer festival.
Every student of the language of the Berbers knows how
ready they have been to make use of foreign words. The
importation of Arabic expressions in the various Berber
dialects is truly immense ; even the original numerals have
been almost entirely replaced by the Arabic ones. Hence
the midsummer festival may very well be a genuine Berber
custom, although its name is derived from the Arabic form
of a Hebrew word.

Nor do we learn anything as regards the origin of the
'dnsdra custom from the account which the Moors them-
selves give of it. They say that in the time of King
Nemrud (Nimrod) there was in the East a Christian
woman by name 'Ansara, who was opposed to Sidna
Abrahim (Abraham) on account of his religion; Sidna
Abrahim was of course a Muhammedan, the ancestor of all
the Muhammedans. 'Ansara had an excellent sight, she
could see a distance of seven days' journey ; and she used
to watch Sidna Abrahim and inform his enemies of his
whereabouts. She also used to strew thorns on the road
where he was walking. All this made Sidna Abrahim's

1 Dozy and Engelmann, Glossaire des mots espagnoh et portugais dt'rivJs de
Tarabe, 1869, p. 136.
-Ibid., p. 136.
^Lane, Manners and Ctisto?ns of the Modern Egyptians, 1871, ii. 287.

44 Midstmnner Cicstoms in Morocco.

friends very angry with 'Ansara. They finally caught the
malevolent lady and burned her. Hence Sidna Abrahim's
descendants still make fires every year at midsummer, and
call the ceremony l-dnsdra. This is a good instance of
myth-making serving the purpose of explaining ritual.
The midsummer, or l-dnsdra, bonfire is explained by the
burning of a Christian woman 'Ansara because of the
phonetic resemblance between the word 'dnsdra and the
word ndsdra, which is the name given by the Moors to the
Christians.

Whilst, so far as I know, no midsummer customs have
been found among pure Arabs, uninfluenced by contact
with Berbers, such customs, as is well known, are or have
been universally practised in Europe. And the European
midsummer ceremonies are to a large extent similar to
those prevalent in Morocco. In Europe, also, magical
plants are culled on Midsummer Eve, fires are kindled at
midsummer, and in some places live animals are burned in
the fires ; even water-ceremonies exactly similar to those
in Morocco have been noticed in certain districts of Ger-
many, Italy, and elsewhere.^ It also seems that all these
practices are performed in Europe for the same purposes
as in Morocco. Various plants are gathered on account of
the benign virtue with which they are supposed to be
endowed on Midsummer Eve. As for the fire-ceremonies,
I cannot subscribe to Dr. Frazer's opinion that the best
explanation of these seems to be the one given by Mann-
hardt, namely, that they are sun-charms or magical cere-
monies intended to ensure a proper supply of sunshine for
men, animals, and plants.^ As a matter of fact, in Europe,
as well as in Morocco, a purificatory purpose is expressly
ascribed to them by the very persons who practise them ;
and, far from supposing like Dr. Frazer that the purgative
aspect of fire may in these cases be secondary, or only

^ Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, ii. 588.
^ Frazer, The Golden Bough, iii. 300.

Midsummer Customs in Morocco. 45

a later misinterpretation of the custom/ I fail to see
that the fire-ceremonies have served any other purpose.
It seems to me that in Dr. Frazer's exhaustive description
of these ceremonies there is not a single fact which would
make Mannhardt's hypothesis at all probable. Dr. Frazer
says : " The custom of rolling a burning wheel down a hill-
side, which is often observed at these times, seems a very
natural imitation of the sun's course in the sky."^ To me
it appears as a method of distributing the purificatory
energy over the fields or vineyards. Notice, for instance,
the following statements : — In the Rhon Mountains,
Bavaria, " a wheel wrapt in combustibles was kindled
and rolled down the hill ; and the young people rushed
about the fields with their burning torches and brooms
... In neighbouring villages of Hesse ... it is thought
that wherever the burning wheels roll, the fields will be
safe from hail and storm." ^ At Volkmarsen, in Hesse,
" in some places tar-barrels or wheels wrapt in straw used
to be set on fire, and then sent rolling down the hillside.
In others the boys light torches and whisps of straw at the
bonfires and rush about brandishing them in their hand." *
In Miinsterland "boys with blazing bundles of straw run
over the fields to make them fruitful."^ The rolling of
the burning wheel, then, is only one method out of many
of distributing the magic energy of the midsummer bon-
fire. Dr. Frazer says: "The custom of throwing blazing
discs, shaped like suns, into the air is probably also a
piece of imitative magic." ^ But why should it not, in
conformity with other practices, be regarded as a means of
purifying the air? According to old writers, the object
of midsummer fires was to disperse the aerial dragons.^
Dr. Frazer says : " The influence which these bonfires are
supposed to exert on the weather and on vegetation, goes

^Frazer, The Golden Botigh, iii. 314. '^ Ibid., iii. 301.

^Ibid., iii. 243 sq. '^Ibid., iii. 254. ^ Ibid., iii. 255.

^ Ibid., iii. 301. "^ Ibid., iii. 267.

46 Midsummer Customs in Morocco.

to show that they are sun-charms, since the efifects ascribed
to them are identical with those of sunshine." ^ But these
efifects are really such as would result from purification
rather than from sunshine ; they are not restricted to
vegetation, they apply to animals and men as well. More-
over, in Europe, as in Morocco, the magic efficacy is often
attributed to the smoke rather than to the flame. That
the European bonfires are essentially intended to serve as
means of purgation is all the more probable, as they also,
like the Moorish bonfires, alternate with water-ceremonies,
which could not possibly have anything to do with the
sun, but which are obviously of a purificatory character.

Nor do I believe that Dr. Frazer has adduced any solid
reason for his suggestion that the animals which are some-
times burned at midsummer represent the spirit of vegeta-
tion." The smoke produced by the burning of certain
animals at that time is considered to possess magic
efficacy, just as is the case with the smoke from certain
plants. It seems that the animals which are m.ost com-
monly burned in European bonfires, either at midsummer
or at other times of the year, are cats ; and in Morocco
the Rif Berbers and Jbala burn wild-cats under their
horses or mules when ill, the smoke being considered
beneficial to the animal on other occasions besides mid-
summer. In Russia a white cock was sometimes burned
in the midsummer bonfire,^ just as a white cock or chicken
is burned by the Beni Mgild in Morocco on l-'dsur day ;
and among the latter at least the reason for this practice
is, as they say, to make the year " white," that is, lucky, a
white chicken being considered a lucky animal.

How, then, shall we explain the fact that both in Europe
and in Morocco fire and water ceremonies are practised at
midsummer with the same object in view? Is it likely
that the Berbers borrowed the custom from Europe ? For

■"^ Frazer, The Golden Bough, iii. 303. "^ Ibid., iii. 323 sqq,

^ Ibid., iii. 325.

Midsummer Customs in Morocco. 47

my own part I am inclined to answer this question in the
negative. We know that in Spain bonfires were kindled
at midsummer both by the Moors and Spaniards/ but
there is no evidence that the one people had borrowed the
practice from the other ; indeed, that the Moors did not
learn it from the Spaniards is almost proved by the cir-
cumstance that the Moorish term for Midsummer passed
into Spanish under the form alhanzaro? But the fact to
which I attribute the greatest importance is a statement
made by St. Augustine in one of his Sermons. He says
that in his days it was a custom in Libya to go to the sea
and bathe there at midsummer, and he denounces this as
a relic of paganism.^ I therefore suppose that the purifica-
tion ceremonies which are practised in Morocco at mid-
summer are old Berber customs. And considering that
purification ceremonies at midsummer, so far as I know,
occur only in Europe and Northern Africa, I cannot help
thinking that this coincidence gives some additional
strength to the hypothesis according to which there is
a racial affinity between the Berbers and most European
nations of the present day. It may be that the mid-
summer ceremonies of Europe and Northern Africa, or at
least those of a purificatory character, date from a period
when such ceremonies were common to the Mediterranean
race.

Edward Westermarck.

^Dozy and Engelmann, op. cit., p. 136.

"^Jbid., p. 135.

^St. Augustine, Sermo cxcvi., in Migne's Patrologiae cursus covipletus,
xviii.-xxxix. 1021 : " Natali Joannis . . . de solemnitate superstitiosa pagana,
Christiani ad mare veniebant et ibi se baptizabant." Cf. Herodotus's state-
ment (ii, 50 ; iv, 188), that the Libyans worshipped Poseidon.

SOME NOTES ON THE HUCULS.

COMPILED BY M. L. HODGSON.

(See ante, p. 5.)

The information which follows comes in the first instance
from the fascinating account of the Huculs given by
Professor Wlodzimierz Szuchiewicz of the University of
Lemberg, Austria, in the three volumes of his work
entitled Huculs zczyzna. This work is written in Polish,
and is therefore to most Englishmen a closed book,
although much can be learnt from the beautiful photo-
graphs and coloured plates with which it is filled.
Through the extreme kindness and courtesy of the author,
and the equally valued kind help of Professor Paul
Postel of Lemberg University, who has spared no trouble
in answering questions on the subject, I am able to give
the Folklore Society some glimpses into the life of this
most interesting tribe, chiefly gathered from the letters
of my friend Professor Postel.

On the northern slopes of the Carpathians, in the
Province of Galicia, live four Slavic tribes : the Gorale,
the Lemki, the Bojki, and the Huculi. (The pronun-
ciation is Hutzuls.) The Gorale, living in the valleys
near the Tatra Mountains, belong to the Polish nation,
and are Roman Catholics, the other three tribes are
Ruthenians, and belong to the Greek Church. The
Huculs are without doubt the most interesting of these
tribes, and have preserved to this day their ancient
customs and original dress. They live near the frontiers

Some Notes on the Huculs. 49

of Hungary and Bukowina, in the eastern part of the
Carpathians, in the valleys of the Prut and Czeremosz, in
a part of the country called Pokutia, formerly the object
of continual struggles between the ancient kingdom of
Poland and Wallachia. They number about 60,000,
including 2000 Jews. The Jews have of late years
settled in the villages, and introduced brandy to the
tribe, at the same time taking from them many cottages
and much land.

The tourist visiting the picturesque valleys of the
Czeremosz and upper Prut will from time to time meet
shepherds and country people whose gaily coloured dress
necessarily attracts his attention. The Huculs like gay
colours, especially red, which contrasts extremely well
with the green background of forest and meadow. These
simple people live on what their cattle and fields afford
and wear clothes made by themselves from the wool of
their sheep, or threads of their own hemp. Caps
and shoes are also of their own peculiar make, and only
to be seen amongst them. These good and simple-
natured people would be quite independent and content
were it not for the Jews and the military system. The
latter forces their boys to spend some years abroad, and
when they return, they bring back the vices of the large
towns, as well as diseases previously unknown. The
small horses, which carry their riders safely over most
perilous mountain paths, are beautiful little animals.
Both men and women ride astride, and the latter are
generally seen complacently smoking their pipes in com-
pany with the men. The Huculs, having been formerly
very wealthy, were able to satisfy their love and taste
for fine and beautiful things. Many of them possessed
extensive pastures, some 30 to 40 horses, and large herds
of cattle, with hundreds of sheep. Everywhere in his
mountains the Hucul felt free and self-dependent, like
the Kosak in his steppe. The waters of the Prut carried

50 Some Notes on the Huculs.

the timber from the mountains as far as Odessa; and
Armenian merchants brought them beautiful weapons
from Hungary or Constantinople.

These happy times have passed away; the levelling
modern institutions of school and the military system
have proved unpropitious. To-day, owing to these
courses, and more particularly to the settlement of Jews
in their midst, one can hardly find one rich Hucul.
All these circumstances have contributed to the fast
decay of his wealth and his pride, and some twenty
years ago the finishing touch was put, when the railway
from Lemberg through Worochta to Hungary was opened.

The imaginary world in which the Hucul lives still
differs widely from the real one. He believes that the
air and surface of the earth are inhabited by innumer-
able spirits (night-spirits, forest-spirits, etc.). He is
extremely pious with regard to religious observances
and ceremonies, although his morality would not be
approved by an Englishman. On rising in the morning
he makes the sign of the Cross three times, and recites
a prescribed prayer. The same is done on going to bed
and before and after every meal. When leaving his home
he makes the sign of the Cross on the threshold of his
room. Not only does he celebrate the numerous feasts
prescribed by the Greek Church, but also those of Saint
George, Elijah, and other saints. Many ceremonies which
have been brought down from pagan times are observed
on these days besides the religious ones, and even the
religious ones are for the most part pagan in origin.
Fasting in Lent is observed with the utmost rigour. For
forty days the Huculs, as well as all other Ruthenian
peoples, forego all meat : especially conscientious in this
are the young girls, as they are persuaded that fasting
assures them an early marriage.

Pagan creeds have so mingled with Christian ones
that the latter are often degraded. A general belief is

Plate I.

HUCUL EASTER EGGS.

(S.-c /,agc 53.;

To Jace p. 50.

■s

"<,

Some Notes on the Huculs. 51

that the Mother of God and the Holy Virgin are two
persons. All changes and accidents of everyday life are
attributed to spirits. They will drink the milk of the
cows, lull to sleep those who should be on guard, cause
trees to fall ; they thunder and send the lightning, and
such like things. Of great interest is the remnant of
belief in a good and bad god, the latter being called
Arinyk. Much could be said about their strong belief
in witchcraft did space permit.

The Huculs have their own cosmogony, which is
exactly similar to that preserved among the inhabitants
of the Ukraine in Russia. Professor Szuchievvicz, of
Lemberg, who has spent more than twenty years in col-
lecting ethnological material and objects connected with
the Huculs, is about to publish the 4th volume of his
work, which will contain the cosmogony and other
traditions of the highest ethnological interest.

Marriage Customs.

The leaves of the berwinck {vinca minor) are of great
importance during the wedding festivities of Huculs as
well as of Ruthenians. The wreaths of the young couple
are made of, and the dishes ornamented with, these leaves,
in the same way that the myrtle is used in Germany.
Besides this, a small fir-tree is decorated and richly
ornamented with variegated gay shreds of paper, red
and white wool, flowers, golden threads, and so on. This
little tree is always carried before the bride and bride-
groom by one of the most respected husbandmen of the
village, who regards this office as one of great honour.
He carries it before the couple on going to and coming
from the church and cottage where the wedding festival
takes place. Here he puts it on the table before the
places of the nuptial pair, where it remains till the end of

52 Some Notes on the Huculs.

the marriage ceremonies, sometimes lasting for 8 or lo
days. After this the tree is nailed to the gate of the
farm, where it stays till wind and rain have destroyed it.
On the reproduction of a wedding invitation (Plate II. ),^ it
will be noticed that, by the caprice of him who drew it,
a girl carries the fir-tree.

There are a great number of wedding songs which
play an important part in the festivities. Another custom
before the wedding is, when the youth who is courting
sends his match-makers (generally esteemed friends of
his family) to the house of the girl. In proof of their
good breeding they will not fulfil their commission in
plain words, but they will begin by relating a tale of
a hunter who pursued an otter, which leapt into a
pond, and from thence into the house in which they
are. During this preface, the parents of the girl prepare
a luncheon, consisting of wheat bread and whisky {vodka),
while the girl gives them a piece of needlework prepared
by her for the bridegroom. Finally the suitors give their
message in form. After the marriage, which takes place
in the Greek Catholic Church at 8 o'clock in the morning,
the bridegroom returns with his guests to his father's
house, and the bride to that of her parents. In both
houses the wedding is celebrated. It is not until the
guests have well eaten and drunk that the parents of
the bride will send a deputation of good friends to the
house of the bridegroom to conduct him to his new
lodging. Sometimes the case may be reversed, if the
young couple are to live in the house of the bridegroom's
parents. When begging him or her to betake themselves
there, they will offer "white" bread, the Hucul name of
which is Kotacz.

^The invitation runs as follows: "The marriage | of our daughter | Frena
Sophia I with Mr. Theodor Rozankowski, judge \adjunkt sgdowoy\ \ will be
held the 17th inst. at 8'^- evening in the church in Lwow \Lemberg\. \ Sobiesz-
ezyzra Street. 7 September 1903. | Hermina and Wolodimir Szuchiewicz."

Plate III.

HUCUL EASTER DOVE.

To face p. 52.

Plate IV.

PROCESS OF COLOURING HUCUL EASTER EGG ILLUSTRATED.

To fac-e p. 53-

Some Notes on the Huculs. 53

Easter Eggs.

In the Hucul villages the people assemble before the
church on Easter Day at four o'clock in the morning
in order that the Easter bread, ham, etc., may be blessed
by the priest. After this ceremony, many of them present
each other with painted eggs, mutually asking forgiveness
from each other. In the afternoon the boys try to take
the eggs from the girls. If any girl offers a boy an
egg of her own accord, he knows that she wishes him
to court her. Birds (doves), represented by means of
eggs, are fastened to the ceiling, so as to hang down in
the living room of the cottage in remembrance of the
birth of Christ (Plate III.).^ They say that then a dove
came down from heaven soaring over the child Jesus.
The series of eggs in the illustration (Plate IV.) represent
the stages in the technical drawing and colouring of them.
On the first Qgg are only wax lines, which, after the final
touches, will be removed, leaving the egg white. Secondly,
the egg is put into a yellow colour; those parts of the
egg which are to remain yellow being in their turn covered
with wax, and so on.^ (See also Plate I.)

The yellow colour is made from the dried blossoms
oi genista tinctoria, and must be gathered before the feast

^ The body of the dove is made of a coloured egg-shell, the wings and tail
of figured paper, very evenly folded, coloured only on the upper sides ; the
head and attachment of wings and tail are made of grey wax.

" PLATE IV.

Fig. I. Egg covered with intersecting lines in wax, eventually to show
white.

2. Dipped in yellow dye {a).

3. The parts intended to remain yellow covered with wax {b).

4. Coloured green {c), the wax indicated by cross-hatching.

5. The green parts covered with wax {d).

6. Dipped in red dye {e).

7. The wax removed, and the hidden colouring shown (a, c, e), the

intersecting lines white.

54 Some Notes on the Huculs.

of St. John (7th July, according to the Greek calendar).
The dark green and violet colours are made from the
rind of the seeds of Helianthus annus and the berries
of Sambiicus nigra and the bark of the alder-tree. While
making these colours and drawing the designs, a great
many rules and rites have to be observed, in order that
these pisanki (from pisac, " write," because they are
" written " with wax by means of a pencil ^) may be with-
out any witchcraft. As was before noticed, pagan tradi-
tions and customs have become closely connected with
forms of divine service since the Huculs have been shut
off from the world in their mountains ; but there is small
doubt that since they have been " discovered " many of
their original customs and traditions will alter.

Were it possible to have a German, French or English
translation of Huculszczyzna, it would doubtless be warmly
welcomed by all lovers of folklore.

The objects figured in the plates are from the collection
of Professor Szuchiewicz, and were all exhibited by me
at the Society's meeting on January i8th.

PLATE V.

I. Specimen of wood carving.
2 and 3. Necklaces worn by girls.
4 and 5. Necklaces worn by women.
6 and 8. Buckles worn at the neck.
7. Carved box inlaid with brass.

^The egg-pencil is made of a small piece of stick, four or five inches long,
with t tiny brass tube thrust transversely through it at one end. A bit of wire
is fitted into the tube, and projecting at one end makes a fine, hard, yet elastic
point, with which firm and decided lines can be drawn in wax on the eggs.

Plate V.

• 1

li^n/^Skf/f?.

ORNAMENTS OF THE HUCULS.

7o face /. 54.

I'l.A'JE VI.

IMPLEMENTS OF THE HUCULS.

7b face /. 55-

Some Notes on the Huculs. 55

PLATE VI.

1. Heel ornaments (?).

2. Purse made of leather and ornamented with thimbles.

3. Pipe, cleaner, and steel.

4. Man's cross of brass.

5. Powder horn.

6. Powder flask and strap.

7. Man's needle-box, worn in full-dress and attached to the broad

belt, in which knives, etc, are placed.

8. Knife and steel in brass sheath.

9. Knife.

10. Riding-whip and stick.

11. Knife, the handle of which is inlaid with beads.

M. L. Hodgson.

COLLECTANEA,

The Padstow Hobby Horse, Etc.

[We have to thank Messrs. Williams & Son, Stationers, Market
Square, Padstow, for permission to reprint the following notes,
published by them as a leaflet in 1903, and also to reproduce
the photographs (Plates VII., VIII., IX.), exhibited 17th
November, 1904 (see p. i). The notes should be compared
with Miss Courtney's Cofuish Feasts and Feasten Customs,
F.-L. /., Vol. IV., p. 226.— Ed.]

Padstow May Songs.
The Morning Song.

Unite and unite, and let us all unite,

For summer is acome unto day,^
And whither we are going we all will unite,

In the merry morning of May.

I warn you young men every one,

For summer is acome unto day,
To go to the green-wood and fetch your May home,

In the merry morning of May.

Arise up Mr. — and joy you betide,

For summer is acome unto day,
And bright is your bride that lies by your side,

In the merry morning of May.

Arise up Mrs. — and gold be your ring,

For summer is acome unto day,
And give to us a cup of ale the merrier we shall sing.

In the merry morning of May.

With the merry ring, adieu the merry spring,

For summer is acome unto day.
How happy is the little bird that merrily doth sing.

In the merry morning of May.

(Repeated every four Tjerscs.)

[^ Szc in orig. Cf. "Sumer is icumen in." — Ed.]

-s

I-
co

Q
<

Collectanea. 57

Arise up Mr. — with your sword by your side,

For summer is acome unto day,
Your steed is in the stable awaiting for to ride.

In the merry morning of May.

Arise up Mr. — and reach me your hand,

For summer is acome unto day,
And you shall have a lively lass with a thousand pounds in hand,

In the merry morning of May.

Arise up Mr. — I know you well afine,

For summer is acome unto day,
You have a shilling in your purse, and I wish it was in mine,

In the merry morning of May.

Arise up Miss — and strew all your flowers.

For summer is acome unto day.
It is but a while ago since we have strewed ours,

In the merry morning of May.

Arise up Miss — all in your gown of green,

For summer is acome unto day.
You are as fine a lady as wait upon the queen.

In the merry morning of May.

Arise up Miss— out of your bed.

For summer is acome unto day,
Your chamber shall be strewed with the white rose and the red,

In the merry morning of May.

Arise up Miss — all in your smock of silk.

For summer is acome unto day.
And all your body under as white as any milk.

In the merry morning of May.

Where are the young men that here now should dance,

For summer is acome unto day.
Some they are in England, and some they are in France,

In the merry morning of May.

Where are the maidens that here now should sing.

For summer is acome unto day.
They are in the meadows the flowers gathering.

In the merry morning of May.

The young men of Padstow might if they would.

For summer is acome unto day,
They might have built a ship and gilded her with gold,

In the merry morning of May.

58 Collectanea.

The maidens of Padstow might if they would,

For summer is acome unto day,
They have made a garland with the white rose and the red,

In the merry morning of May.

Now fare you well, and we bid you all good cheer,

For summer is acome unto day,
We call once more unto your house before another year,

In the merry morning of May.

The Day Song.

Awake, St. George, our English Knight O,
For summer is acome O and winter is ago.

And every day God give us his grace,
By day and by night O.

Where is St. George, where is he O

He is out in his long boat all on the salt sea O,
And in every land O, the land that ere we go.

And for to fetch the summer home, the

summer and the May O,
For summer is acome O, and winter is ago.

Where are the French dogs that make such boast O,

They shall eat the grey goose feather.
And we will eat the roast O,

And in every land O, the land that ere we go.

Thou might'st have shown thy knavish face.

Thou might'st have tarried at home O,
But thou shalt be an old cuckold.
And thou shalt wear the horns [O].

With Hal-an-tow, and jolly rumble O,

For summer is acome O, and winter is ago,
And in every land O, the land that ere we go.

Up flies the kite and down falls the Lark O,

Aunt Ursula Birdhood she had an old ewe,
And she died in her own Park O.

And for to fetch the summer home, etc.

( The Choruses to he repealed alternately.)

Now fare you well, and we bid you all good cheer,

For summer is acome unto day.
We call no more unto your house before another year.

In the merry morning of May.

Collectanea. 59

Padstow " Hobby Hoss."

Padstow " Hobby Horse," or, as it is always locally termed,
" Hobby Hoss," is a time-honoured custom of great antiquity.
The history of its origin is buried in oblivion, and at the present
time there is nothing but tradition upon which it may be founded.
This tradition says that at the time when fierce wars were raged
between the English and French (probably about the latter part
of the eighteenth century), Padstow was threatened with in-
vasion by a French fleet, and that the " Hobby Hoss " stood
guard over the port on Stepper Point with such good effect that
the Frenchman fled in terror from what they supposed must be
the Evil One. Certainly the reference in the May songs to
French dogs eating the goose feathers may lend colour to this
tradition.^ Further, it is a very remarkable coincidence that in
the year 1902, when the old oaken "snappers" of the " Hobby
Hoss " were being scraped of the accumulated paint of many
years, the date 1802 was found deeply carved in the oak, which
was itself black with age. But this fact, though interesting, is
no conclusive proof of the age of this quaint custom, since it
has been necessary from time to time to renew various parts
of the dress of the "Hobby Hoss," and 1802 may have been
the date of the new " snappers " only.

However, from time immemorial, the custom has been cele-
brated in Padstow on May ist of each year.

When shipbuilding was a thriving industry of the port, the
shipwrights of Padstow would erect a large pole at the top of
Cross Street, in the centre of a cross inlaid with stone, which is
a prominent feature of the street. This pole was gaily decorated
with spring flowers, etc., and used as a maypole, but through the
objections of a former tenant of a house near by, the " Maypole "
has long since been abandoned.

On the night preceding May Day, the " Hobby Hoss Pairs "
or the party of men who were to accompany the " Hobby Hoss "
on the morrow, and lead the merry-making, used to assemble at
the " Golden Lion " Inn to a substantial supper. Afterwards,

i[At Helston, it is "those gallant Spaniards" who are to "eat the grey
goose-feather." In any case, the allusion to arrows does not fit the 1 8th
century. — Ed.]

6o Collectanea.

accompanied by many young men of the town, they made a
round of the countryside and the town, singing the Morning
Song in front of the more important houses. Then followed
some hours of rest and preparation, until at lo a.m. the merry-
makers assembled at the " Golden Lion " for the day's rejoicing.
The " Hobby Hoss," a formidable-looking creature, with tall
cap, flowing plume and tail, savage-looking snappers, and a
ferocious mask, sallied forth, accompanied by the " Pairs,"
carrying each a musical instrument, of which the drum is the
most prominent. Before the "Hobby Hoss" danced a man in
a terrible dwarf mask, carrying a club. This dancer lead the
way everywhere, followed throughout the day by the " Hobby
Hoss," and a vast crowd of men and women gaily decorated
with flowers and singing the May Songs, while the men fired
in all directions pistols loaded with powder. The " Hobby
Hoss " proceeded to the Vicarage, and to Treator Pool " to
drink," then returned to Padstow and made a tour of the
streets, dancing and singing before all the houses visited in
the night. Money was freely collected, to be afterwards shared
by the " Hobby Hoss " and the " Pairs." The " Hobby Hoss "
was always a source of terror to all strangers, even men seeing it
for the first time fleeing from it with alacrity ; particularly the crews
of foreign vessels which happen to be in the quay at Padstow on
May Day, will fly terror-stricken into the rigging of the ships.

But, whatever the origin of the custom may have been, the
" Hobby Hoss " is quite harmless in itself, and its good graces
can always be secured by a contribution to the funds of the
merry-makers.

Formerly the " Hobby Hoss " was welcomed and followed
by almost the entire population of Padstow, but in latter years
the custom has greatly declined. Still the " Hobby Hoss "
regularly sallies forth on each May Day, and the contributions
to the funds are sufficient to ensure its celebration for some
time to come.

Although the custom is absurdly grotesque, its great age
should prevent its entire abolition, and it is hoped by all
Padstonians, whether at home or in " Foreign parts," that the
" Hoss " will continue its annual prance for many years.

Collectanea. 6i

The Devil in Glencoe, and other Stories.

{Ante, p. I.)

{Communicated through Mr. J. Charrington of The Grange,
Shenky, Herts.)

"Dear ,

"Why do you want the story of Mr. M'Innes seeing
the Devil? Luckily I wrote it down just after his wife told it
me, and here it is.

" ' Weel, one night Himself and two or three of the neighbours
were coming down from the Glen, and when they got to the
Bridge of Coe all at once there came up over the side of
the bridge a great black kin' a' beast, with eyes like yon red
peats, and twice as big as a man, and there he stood in the
middle o' the bridge, and they were all too scared to walk
on past him. But Himself knew it was the Teffle, so he went
up to him and said " I baptize ye in the name of Christ,"
and the Tefifle gave a great cry which woke up all the people
in the houses, and then he chumped over the other side of the
bridge and down into the water, and there were a lot of ducks
sleeping down there, and he must have chumped in all among
them and given them a fright too, for they flew about and
screamed and were chust terrified, and Himself and his friends
came home to their beds, and Himself did not rise from his
bed for days and days after that.'

"Then I asked her how Mr. M'Innes knew it was the devil,
and she looked at me with as much scorn as she was capable
of putting into her gentle old face, and said, ' As if any person
could meet the Teffle and not know him ! ' So I asked no more
questions after that.

" I could tell you plenty of superstitions, such as curing a sick
cow by tying her left ear to her left horn and her tail to her left
leg with something red and leaving her like that for seven days,
but the only other stories I know about the supernatural which
are tangible enough to write down are chiefly about second
sight. Here are two which are quite authentic.

62 Collectanea.

" Once old D. P. M'Donald was driving over Banavie Moss
when he saw one of his own men with a cart drawn up at the
side of the road as if he were waiting for something. So
Mr. M'Donald called out and asked him what he was waiting for,
and the man called back, 'I'm waiting to let the funeral by.'
Well there was not a funeral anywhere in sight, and old D. P.
drove on, thinking the man was drunk, and leaving him waiting
there. That night the man was drowned in the locks, and his
own funeral was the next to come over Banavie Moss.

"The other one is this, and was told me by our lad Duncan
as we were driving into Spean one day. We were passing the
' resting cairn ' that was put up about seven years ago for old
Campbell of Lowbridge, and Duncan said that one night just
before it was put up he and Wallace (the Glenfintaig keeper)
were walking home from Fort-Augustus, and they were so tired
with the long tramp that they sat down to rest on the place
where the cairn now is, and as they were sitting there they
heard the voices of Duncan's father and Donald Campbell
(Lowbridge's son) down by the burn below, and they could
hear them throwing the stones about and talking quite plainly.
So Duncan called out to his father, and getting no answer he
got up and went down the bank to the burn, and when he got
there he could still hear the talking and the stones being moved
about, but there was no one there. Then he felt frightened
and ran back to Wallace, who also had felt scared and had run
off along the road, so Duncan took to his heels and never
stopped till he got home, where he found his father in bed
and asleep, and no doubt Donald Campbell was similarly
employed. Well, the next day old Campbell died quite sud-
denly and on the day he was buried he was 'rested' by that
burn and Duncan's father and Donald Campbell were the two
to go down to the burn and throw up the stones for the others
to put up the cairn with.

Dora Bailey."
Invergloy, nth November, 1904.

Collectanea. 63

Miscellaneous Notes from Monmouthshire. ^

Mrs. Pryce says there was a little old fairy woman who used
to go with a basket and buy things at Monmouth market. No
one could make out where she came from or where she went
to, though they watched her closely. She had white hair, done
in an old-fashioned way, and white eyes.

Two men were going once past a meadow called (I think)
Pontcwm, where there was a big oak-tree, round which was a
circle danced bare by the fairies. About twelve o'clock they
passed this tree, and sure enough there were the fairies dancing
away, so these young men they went and danced too. Presently
one of them looked round for his friend, and lo ! he had
vanished, " clean and clever," so had all the fairies. He went
home alone; but he was taken up next day on the charge of
having made away with his friend. So that night he went back
to the tree, and there was his friend waltzing round and round
with a fairy. He said he had had a splendid time, that he
was well off, and meant to stop. However he was persuaded
to go back for a day and explain himself; but then he returned
to the fairies for good and all.

In old days the fairies used often to steal children. Mrs.
Pryce says, " They liked the babies of we country folk, as being
fine and solid-like, and they used to rear them up with their
own." She thinks there was no way of keeping the fairies out
except by strong bolts and bars, they would creep in at any
hole, and the child, once taken, could not be recovered. She
says the fairies "live fine," although underground. Sometimes
they steal a sheep, and cut it up and drag it down. She
describes them as being about the size of a six-year-old child,
with beautiful white skins, dressed in a short white garment, no
shoes or stockings, and having white eyes and white hair.

I asked her if she thought I could ever see one, but she
thought not, there are none about now. Alas !

Mrs. Perrett or Bevati lives at Tregagle ; she has very bad

^See vol. XV., p. 75 {Wizardry on the Welsh Border), for the various
persons mentioned in these Notes.

64 Collectanea.

rheumatism, and does not go out much. She repeated to me
the same stories as Mrs. Pryce about Jack o' Kent, but is most
interesting on the subject of fairies. I think she beHeves in
them ; at least she thinks they make fairy rings — it is much the
simplest explanation !

There was a tradition at Trelleck, she says, of a fiddler
having been lost in a cave ; he was heard playing underground
for years afterwards. Another story of the same sort, or pos-
sibly an explanation of the above, is that some people passing
through a certain meadow used to hear lovely music. Several
times they heard it, and at last they collected some folk together
to investigate it. They traced the music to a certain spot, and
there they dug in the ground, disclosing at last an underground
cave wherein were two old men, hermit-like, playing, one a
violin, the other a harp. They had been there many years,
and used to take it in turns to go out at night and fetch food.
Very old and decrepit they were, and soon after they were taken
from underground they died.

Mrs. Bevan's mother was an Irishwoman, and used to see
many strange things. Before her father died she heard the
Banshee outside her window — a strange, singing cry. And one
night her family had gone out, having arranged to throw up
gravel to her window to be let in on their return ; she had gone
to bed, but presently she heard something outside and put her
head under the bed-clothes. When she lifted it up there was
an old man in the room, clad in silk stockings, buckled shoes,
and a three-cornered hat I (suppose he had other garments, but
Mrs. Bevan did not mention them). He walked up to the bed
and looked at her, then to the window, then back to her — and
vanished. The family had to get in by a ladder, and found the
ghost-seer in a faint.

When her husband was at Gibraltar Mrs. Bevan's mother
came to live in Monmouth, for when trying to get a pass to
go out to him she had drawn a blank.

One day she had been up to Mitchel Troy to see some friends,
and the man of the house came part way back with her. Now
between Mitchel Troy and Monmouth there is a meadow, where
it is said they began to build Troy House, but what was built up

Collectanea. 65

by day every night fell down. Here Mrs. Bevan's mother saw
a lady in white, whom she pointed out to her companion. He
saw nothing. The lady came on, and passed between the two
people with a sound of rustling silk, and vanished. She had
long, loose, golden hair and a rich white gown. Mrs. Bevan's
mother fainted, and had to be carried home.

One of Mrs. Briton's children was at an early age afflicted
with rupture ; she tried a great many cures for him, and none
were successful. At last an old charmer advised her to pass
him through a maiden ash, and that would cure him. (A maiden
ash is one grown from its own seed and never touched with a
knife.) At twelve o'clock on Friday night the baby was wrapped
up and taken to the field while the clock was striking. The
ash stood in the hedge, and had been wedged open the night
before at the same time. Mrs. Briton stood one side of the
hedge and the charmer the other, and they passed the baby
nine times backwards and forwards through the tree. All this
time not a word was spoken, the ash was bound up and the
baby taken home, and as the tree healed so did the child, and
is now as well as any other, and to this day the " stoggle " of
the ash remains in the hedge.

On Midsummer Eve there is a custom at Cwmcarvon to make
a little mound of clay shaped like a grave and put in it pieces
of valerian ("midsummer men" they call it about there), naming
one for each member of the household. In the morning some
are found lying right down — these are those destined to die
within the year, those drooping will be ill during the year, and
so on.

To prophesy the course of true love two " midsummer men "
should be taken and named, say one for Tom and one for Jane.
These should be stuck in clay and put over the lintel of the
door. In the morning you will be able to tell how things
stand. If Jane leans to Tom and Tom stands straight or leans
away, Jane loves him in vain, and vice versa. If both stand
straight they do not care for each other, and if they bend over
and touch they will marry within the year(?).

At a wedding in Penallt, when the bride and bridegroom are
coming back from church the way is roped, and on the rope

66 Collectanea.

are tied four bouquets. The men who keep the rope stop the
bridal party and demand toll from the bridegroom. When this
is given they present the bouquets to the bride and bridegroom,
best man and bridesmaid, and allow them to pass.

When they arrive at the house, before taking her hat off,
the bride is led by her husband to the breakfast table, where
(with his sword if he has one, or, if not, with the best knife in
the house) she makes one cut in the cake, he then takes the
knife and makes a cut the other way, thus finishing the slice.
The bride should always borrow something, a veil or lace, etc.,
to be married in.

Burial Custofns. — To keep a corpse from swelling a saucer
of salt or a turf should be put on the breast and a pan of
water underneath. Rue, hyssop, and wormwood should be put
in the coffin. Before starting for the burial ground there should
be singing in the house. The corpse should be carried out
at the front door feet first, and should then be turned with
its face to the east. In Ross funeral cakes made like hot cross
buns are baked, and a dole is given to the bearers, consisting
of a coin, which may be a penny, sixpence, shilling, or upwards,
one for each man. (Mrs. Briton says a relative of hers gave
eight half-crowns.) These coins are always given in a pair of
kid gloves.

A curious incident took place once at Penallt. A woman
and her daughter had been turned out of their house, which
had made them furious. Soon afterwards the older woman
died, and while her corpse was being carried, to church the
daughter suddenly drew a slipper from under her apron and
struck with it three times at the coffin, exclaiming as she did
so, " Mother, I'm here, fulfilling your commands ! " and with
that she threw the slipper into an orchard close by belonging
to those people who had turned them out. And for long
after that the farm never prospered and no one could stay
there, though by this time the curse appears to have been
removed, as the present inhabitants are doing well.

Some time ago a terrible quarrel took place about some stolen
fowls. The story is too complicated to follow, but it ended
in one of the disputants, Mrs. Adams, being sent to Usk goal.

Collectanea. 67

Her husband then went to Jenkins,^ who told him that Mrs.
Jones, the other party, had stolen his fowls, and he went on
to say that she would soon be coming to tell him to fetch
them back; "But," he said, "don't you fetch them back, you
let 'er bring them, and if she don't she'll never rest, I tell you,
as long as she do live."

Sure enough, when Adams got back he heard that Mrs. Jones
had been asking for him, and presently she appeared again.
" Tom," says she, " if them fowls be your'n, do you come and
fetch 'em."

" No," says Adams, " you took them, and you can bring 'em
back." But she didn't, and, so Mrs. Briton says, she has never
rested from that day to this, but is continually on the fidget —
if you give her a drop of tea or anything she can't drink it for
shaking ; she and her family always have bad luck. And in
revenge Mrs. Adams has sworn that when Mrs. Jones dies and
is carried to be buried she will walk before and "feather the
way."

Mrs. Briton has promised to send me a book full of rhymes
collected a long time ago. The only ones she has told me,
though, are the following :

" Bathe your eyes on Bartimy day,'^
You may throw your spectacles away."

" Where the mistress is the master
The parsley grows the faster."

The following are sayings about the places round :
" Chepstow born and Chepstow bred,

Strong in the arm and weak in the head."

" I've been to Coleford — got both eyes open ! " ^

Beatrix A. Wherry.

^See vol. XV., p. 76.

^[Bartlemy Day = St. Bartholomew's Day. Possibly there is here some
confusion with "blind Bartimseus, the son of Timaeus." — Ed.]

^[/.e. across the Wye, Compare the Bishop's Castle saying (Shropshire),
"You've got to go over Clun Bridge to get sharpened." — Ed.]

68 Collectanea.

Folk-lore of the Negroes of Jamaica.

(Continued frovi Vol. XK, pp. 87, 206, 450. See Prefatory
Note, p. 87.)

VII.

Signs. Omens, Myths, and Superstitions of Jamaica.
Those relating to the Human Body. I. Infancy.

If a child be born with a caul it will be able to see duppies.

Do not cut the nails of infants with a pair of scissors : ' it
makes them light-handed, i.e. thieves.

Do not say that an infant is pretty : it makes him grow ugly.
Should you say he is ugly he will grow handsome.

When an infant smiles in its sleep it is dreaming of the
death of its mother, but when he cries he is dreaming of the
death of its father.

Children, before they are able to talk, understand the language
of animals.

2. Manhood.

White dots on the nails signify luck.

Grey hairs on the head of a young person signify luck.

Do not turn your hat down on a table : it gives you bad
luck and prevents you from marrying early.

Do not carry peppers in your pockets : it makes you poor.

If you are going out shooting or fishing and anyone should
ask you to bring "one" for him he spoils your luck.

If you dream that you have failed in an undertaking you are
going to succeed, and vice-versa.

If your right eye dances you are going to laugh, but if your
left eye dances you will hear of some bad news, or something
will happen to you that will make you cry.

If your right ear rings you are going to hear something good
or some friend is calling your name, but if your left ear rings
someone is calling your name who is your enemy.

Collectanea. 69

When the middle of your hand scratches you, you are going
to receive money.

When you feel a hitching \_sic\ sensation on the soles of your
feet you are going to travel.

Do not comb your hair at night : it makes you forgetful.

Do not sweep your house in the night : you will sweep out
your luck.

Do not hold a piece of cane whilst another person is cutting
it : it makes you lose friendship.

Do not give a straight pin to your lover : it breaks your love.

Do not make a present to your lover of a pair of scissors
or a pocket-handkerchief: it spoils your friendship, or rather
" love."

When you are eating and a bit of food drops from you it
signifies that your lover is hungry.

Never step over dirty water : it makes you sick.

Those relatifig to Animals.

If a birds flies into the house it signifies death in the family.

Fireflies in the house at nights signifies that you will have
a visitor.

Fireflies under a bed signifies death in the house.

When two fowls put their beaks together as if in conversation
it signifies that you are going to have two visitors. If it be two
hens you will have two women, if it be a cock and a hen you
will have a man and a woman.

When fowls cackle on going to roost and on coming off, and
even whilst they are on the roost, someone in the district is
going to die.

Cows lowing mournfully and dogs howling at nights signifies
death in the district.

If you hold the eggs of Gie-me-me-bit you will become
unlucky.

If you want to catch a scorpion that you see say the Lord's
Prayer and he will stop.

If people speak too much of your horse, mule, etc., they
will pine away.

Ground doves that inhabit a particular spot are duppies.

yo Collectanea.

Miscellaneous.

When washing dead people do not wet their backs, for should
you do so they will follow you, saying they are cold.

It is believed that the ghost of a person rises on the third
night after burial and returns to the house, which he finally
leaves on the ninth night. This absurd belief causes people to
keep what is known as "wakes" or "nine nights."

When a man dies who is not good enough to go to heaven,
and not bad enough for hell, he returns to the earth and becomes
a "rolUng calf."

If duppies trouble you in your house put a horse shoe over
the doorway and this will keep them away.

If you want to prevent any ghost whatever from coming into
your house cross ten (X) on the doors.

Duppies cannot count over nine.

Do not throw water outside in the nights, for you may wet
ghosts, and consequently catch harm.

Do not whistle in the nights, for duppies will catch your
voice.

Do not knock a green lizard that lives in a grave-yard, for he
is a duppy and will hurt you.

Do not let your house remain at nights without water, for
the ghosts of those who have died in it will come back to
drink water, and will show you some token of their displeasure
should they find none.

If a duppy should be following you, to stop him you must
cross ten (X) across the road, and stick up a pin or a pen-
knife in it. In the morning, should you go back and observe
the spot, you will find an ant or some small insect dead
beside it.

If you happen to be in a bush, and should hear a stick
break, arise and go away at once, for it is a warning from
some one of your dead relatives that the place is not good to
stay in, and that some harm will attend you if you remain.

If you should draw out a hair of your head and wish for
anything at "New Moon," before you speak to any one, you
will obtain your wish.

Collectanea. 7 1

Do not flog duppies with your right hand, for they will hurt
you, but flog them with your left hand.

Duppies do not follow carpenters and tailors, because they
walk with rules in their pockets.

If in the early morning you happen to come across a warm
stratum of air it is believed that a ghost was sleeping on that
spot during the night.

VIII.

When a firefly flies into your house at nights, a stranger will
surely give you a visit.

When a crow or crows fly late in the evening some one is
expected to depart this life.

When fowls cackle in the night or are startled from their
roost some one would die.

When cows bellow speedy death is expected.

If rats destroy your clothes by gnawing, some one is expected
to die.

If two hens put their beaks together some one is sure to visit
you, if a cock and hen, the visit of a man and woman.

The dirt should not be swept out of a house in which there
is a dead person or some one would surely follow.

To turn down your hat when you enter a house is an omen
which foreshadows no marriage.

To open an umbrella over you in a house foreshadows the
same result.

To come in a warm current of air when travelling in the night
signifies that evil spirits are about the surroundings.

Openings between the front teeth signifies a giddy brazen dis-
position.

If the palm of your hands itches, you shall receive money.

If your eyes dance you would either laugh or cry.

If you handle birds' eggs or kill a spider you will always be
breaking crockeries.

If a branch of a tree should give way some one would die.

Should the bottom of a tumbler fall off some one would die.

72 Collectanea.

You should not answer to your name, if any calls it after
you are gone to bed, or they will catch your shadow.

IX.

Love and Courtships.

^Vhenever there is leap year, women write letters of engage-
ment.

\\Tien a lady's skirt or stockings drop, her lover is thinking
of her.

If one is peeling an orange, and at the same time repeating
the letters of the alphabet, and if the peel break, the letter on
which it breaks will be that with which the name of the one's
lover will be commenced.

Get an egg, bore a hole at each end, allow another person
to suck out its contents. Fill the shell with salt, chew and
swallow the shell and its present contents before going to bed,
you will then dream of a person coming to give you water,
and that person will be your lover.

Fill a glass vessel with water and write each letter of the
alphabet on a separate bit of paper. Throw the bits on the
surface of the water in the vessel. The letters that appear on
the surface of the water will be the initial letters of the one's
lover. (The one who experiments.)

Marriages.

If an umbrella be opened in a house over a person, that
person will never be married.

The falling of one's seat signifies that he or she will never
be married.

Persons who meet a corpse in chapel when going to be
married, never enjoy a happy life.

If the corpse be met when the couple is returning from
chapel, the life of the two parties will be agreeable and happy.

The shining of the sun on a wedding day signifies the living
of a happy life between the married couple.

Collectanea. 73

The falling of rain on a similar day is a sign of an unpleasant
union.

When a married couple is going home for the first time after
the ceremony has been performed, the one that first enters the
threshold of the house and goes in before the other, will rule
the other.

If a lady's veil get torn on putting it on to attend her
marriage ceremony she will lead a "svretched life.

During a marriage ceremony should the bridegroom push
the ring too far down on the bride's finger, they will live
together miserably.

Births.
To be born on a Friday indicates bad luck.

Deaths and Fmierals,

The flying of a bat in a house is a sign that either a relative
or a friend of the inmates is about to die.

The falling of and the sticking up of a pair of scissors in
the floor signifies death.

The cr}' of an owl over a dwelling-house signifies death.

The flying together of six crows and one hawk signifies
death.

The sudden crash of the limb of a tree signifies death.

The cries of dogs and cats when one is very ill signifies
death.

A slight drizzle when any one is seriously ill signifies death.

The constant digging of a hole by a dog signifies death.

If persons afflicted with sores look on the face of a dead
[body] or go to the grave, the sores will become worse.

Should anyone put his head between his legs and stand at
a far distance (say half a mile) away from a hearse going on
with a corpse, he will discern whether the dead be a male or
a female. If he stand too near under similar conditions, his
n2ck will be broken.

Put water on a dead man's back and he will open his ej'es.

74 Collectanea.

A dead person frowns when attended to by one whom he
dislikes. On the other hand he puts on a pleasing countenance
when one whom he loves enters the house.

If you don't bid your dead farewell his spirit will return in
the same familiar style as when he was alive.

After one is dead his spirit returns every night for nine
nights, and on the last night he visits all his relatives and
associates, overlooks all that are his, and then departs
altogether.

Ghosts.

If a spider's web get across one's face, he is being accom-
panied by a ghost.

A ghost seen in black has no intention to harm anyone, but
a ghost seen in white is dangerous.

Cursing at the sight of a good spirit drives it away.

The calling of God's name at the sight of an Evil spirit
drives it away also.

To prevent you seeing the ghost of a dead person, plant
red peas on his grave.

To enable you to see ghosts readily, take the matter from a
dog's eyes and put in yours.

Sand stops the visit by ghosts.

The nailing of a horse's shoe on a gate or door, hinders
ghosts from entering in.

To drive away a ghost, flog him with a whip held in the
left hand.

If dogs howl in a yard, ghosts are in it.

Visits.

Two fowls appearing to be talking foretells of a strange visit.

The crowing of a cock before the proper time foretells of a
strange visit.

The dropping and sticking up of a pin foretells of a strange
visit.

The sight of a spider on the wall of a house when it is
being attended to in the morning, signifies that there will be
a visitor in the evening.

Collectanea. 75

The Weather,

When toads croak there will be bad weather.

The flying of many crows to and fro in the air signifies
that there will be rain soon.

When many swallows fly together in the air it will soon
rain.

The dancing of the right eye signifies laughing by the one.

The dancing of the left eye signifies weeping by the one.

If the palm of one's right hand scratches him he will soon
get money.

If the palm of his left hand scratches him he will soon pay
money.

If a person's knee scratches him he is going to change his
bed.

The itching of the nose shows that the individual is going
to kiss a fool.

When the sole of your feet itches you are about to travel.

The butting of the right foot is a sign of good luck.

Butting the left foot signifies bad luck.^

If your ears ring someone is calling your name.

When your lips tremble you will be in confusion soon.

The number of marks in the palm of one's hand are the
number of trials which he will endure.

When your elbow scratches you another will soon shake your
hands.

When a thrill passes through a person's body an insect is
crossing the place where he will be buried.

A sudden and startling movement of your heart signifies that
you are being spoken of.

White spots on the fingers are signs of riches.

Persons with large ears are always rich.

When your left eye tingles you are being traitored.

^[This is the contrary of the superstition among the Fjort. Dr. Nassau
quotes Mr. R. E. Dennett as follows: "See that your men start with their
left foot first, and that they are ' high-steppers ; ' for if their left foot meet with
an obstacle, and is badly hurt, it is not a bad sign ; but if their right foot
Knock against anything you must go back to town." — Fetichism in West
Africa, p. 195. — E. S. Hartland.]

76 Collectanea.

When your lips scratches you you are going to get a kiss.
When young persons have grey hairs they always have good
luck.

Raiments,

When the end of a lady's dress is turned over, if she ask
a male to put it down, and if he oblige her, she will get a
new one.

If you take off the skin of an orange without breaking the
peel you will get a new suit of clothes.

If the end of a man's jacket is turned over he is about to get
a new one.

Miscellaneous.

If one's spittal \sic\ fall on himself someone is saying some-
thing untrue of him.

Going out but returning before reaching the place for which
you started is a sign of bad luck.

If you mend your clothes on yourself people will trample over
you and will tell lies on you.

When a person cries on being confirmed he will not remain
long in church.

The breaking of a looking-glass is a sign that you will have
seven years of trouble.

If you kill a spider you will always break crockeries.

If you hold a give-me-my-bit's egg you will break every other

egg-

If you see a scorpion repeat the Lord's prayer and it will
remain still.

If in tidying a house you sling round a chair there will soon
be a confusion, in which you will be engaged.

Dreams.

The dreaming of new boots signifies [a] new intended.
The dreaming of fire signifies confusion.
The dreaming of a tooth signifies death.

Collectanea. J J

The dreaming of a new house signifies death.
The dreaming of a wedding signifies a funeral.
To dream of a new born means death.
To dream of a fish means a new born soon.

Miscellaneous ( conlinuedj.

The mournful lowing of cows indicates death.

Wicked people are generally born again in the shape of
savage beasts.

A man who neither goes to heaven nor hell becomes a rolling
calf after death.

If you are handing a lady a knife bend a pin meanwhile or
your love will be lost.

To check vomiting put a bit of stick behind each ear.

(Concluded.)

Additions to " The Games of Argvleshire."

[Since the publication of The Gatnes of Argyleshire as the
Society's occasional volume for 1900, Dr. Maclagan has received,
as he always foresaw would be the case, much additional informa-
tion on the subject, which he has forwarded to the Society for
publication in Folk-Lo7-e. His offer, it is needless to say, has been
gratefully accepted by the Council, and the additional matter will
appear in our volume for 1905. Dr. Maclagan has arranged it
under the "Class" headings used in the Games of Argyleshire,
with a reference before each item to the page and line of the
work where it should have come in if it had been included in the
original volume. Ed.]

ACTIVITY, GENERAL.

(On p. I, after line 9.)

A modification of this [Hop, Step, and Jump] was called—

Three Stones.

Three small stones were taken in the hand of the first player

78 Collectanea.

who toed a line, his heels together. Bending down he stretched
his arm as far as he could without moving his feet at all and
placed one of the stones on the ground. Rising to his full height,
his feet still steady, he jumped as far as he could in the line of
the stone placed and placed the second stone, the same being
repeated and the third stone placed. Separating the feet, wob-
bling so as to move from the spot jumped on put the competitor
out. The one who could reach furthest with three leaps was
successful. The ground must not be touched by the other hand
from that which places the stones. It is usual not to place the
stones at the uttermost stretch on a first trial.

(P. 2, after line 12.)

Leum a Bhradain. (The Salmon's Leap.)

The performer lay flat down, his feet together, his hands close
to his side, on the ground. Drawing up the feet and with a
powerful jerk of the whole body, the upright position had to be
gained without staggering or stumbling, with no assistance from
the hands. A successful performance was a veritable salmon's
leap.

Leum Maighiche. (Hare's Leap.)

Several take part in this. One lies down on the ground on his
back ; another jumps over him and lies down where he has
landed parallel to the one already down. Another leaps over both
and likewise lies down till all are down, or the distance that can
be leapt is covered. The first to go down then rises and leaps
over the party, followed in rapid succession by the remainder, the
fun largely consisting in the rapidity in which they follow each
other. If one is slow in clearing the way for his successor, he is
said to be " run down," and must retire from the game.

This was also played in Orkney. ^ y

Cuddies and Weights.

The players are divided into two parties, and, with the assist-
ance of a counting-out rhyme, the one half become "cuddies,"
the other the "weights." The "cuddies" on all fours are ridden
by the "weights," and their business is to prance and fling and in
every way to do their best to rid themselves of their riders, shout-

Collectanea. 79

ing the while "weights, weights." A tumbled "weight" becomes
in turn a "cuddy," and the performance is repeated.

Port the Helm.

The description comes from Cowal. The players form a chain
by joining hands. The one at the end of the chain, the leader
for the time being, continues crying " Port the helm," wriggling
and jerking the others about as much as he can, trying to get
them into a condition of unstable equilibrium. When he thinks
he has achieved this, he lets go the hand of the boy next him
with the intention that all should fall " in a heap " like the
murdered wives of the King of the Cannibal Islands.

Supple joints and a long arm are necessary for the following
feat. It is generally considered a girls' trick.

Passing her right hand round the front of her neck, she
stretches round the back till she can catch her right ear with her
right hand. Conversely, it may be done with the left hand and
the left ear.

ARTICULATION.

(P. 4, after line 22.)

10. "Brod na poite bige air ceann na poite mhor ; Brod na
poite mhor air ceann na poite bige."

(Lid (board) of the little pot on the top of the large pot ; lid of
the large pot on the top of the little pot.)

11. " Cu dubh, stumpach dubh, gun earbull."
(Black dog, stumpy black, without a tail.)

12. "The cobbler came to cut pumps, new fashioned country
cut, cut pumps cobbler."

AUGURIES.

(P. 7, after line 7.)

Falach a CMobha. (Hiding the Tongs.)

This is an indoor amusement. All retire but one who remains
to hide the tongs within the limits of the apartment. On the
signal given the remainder return and commence searching for
them, the one who finds them being the first to be married.
Tnere is a cryptic allusion in this use of the tongs which also

8o Collectanea.

appears in the statement that "for luck" between entertainer and
entertained, the tongs should be placed under the pillow of a
guest.

The special observances of Hallowe'en have not been included
among games, as they seem in fact, though now perhaps regarded
as amusements, to be in origin religious rites. The following is
given as being practised in Harris independently of any special
anniversary :

Two selected stalks of bent- grass are named respectively after a
girl and a lad known to those who are present and who are
suspected of being favourably affected one towards the other.
The stalks are laid side by side in the hot ashes, and regard is
had to how they burn. If they burn together and equally, those
represented are to be married. If only one burns the person
represented desires marriage, the other does not. If neither
burn, it is clear there is no love between them.

BALL GAMES.

(P. 7, at the bottom.)

A nearly similar game is called

Cluich an Righ. (The King's Play.)

If there are twelve players eleven points are marked, say with a
stone, and a player stands at each. They are disposed in a circle
and the twelfth, provided with a ball, stands in the centre. He
gives a signal, and the others have to change their stations while
he tries to strike one with the ball. If he is successful, the one
struck and the thrower change places. If by any chance one
of the runners does not move at the signal, he must take the
centre, even if not struck with the ball ; two players cannot
occupy the same station at the same time.

(P. 9, after line 24,)

A game started in the same way as " Bonnety " is

Purley Houses.

He into whose bonnet the ball has been thrown having struck
another player, the one struck puts a small stone in his own

Collectanea. 8 1

bonnet, if the thrower has missed, the stone goes into his bonnet.
The same thrower continues throughout the game. When any
one of the players has in his bonnet the number of stones fixed
upon before commencing, say six, the last stage of the game is
reached. The number of stones in each bonnet is counted, and
for every stone the player receives a "purley"; he places his
bonnet against the wall and, laying his hand flat open against the
bonnet, those who had no stones in their caps are entitled, from
a given distance, to strike his hand with the ball as many times
as stones were counted to him. The one to receive the greatest
number suffers first, and so on in succession till all have stood
their punishment, which is virtually the same as in the girls' game
of "Cobs."

There is a modification of " Cobs " called
Jinkers.

In this, the player summoned by the name of the day tries to
strike the one who has thrown the ball against the wall, and if
struck he again throws against the wall, naming another player,
always adding the word "Jinkers," Thursday Jinkers, — Friday
Jinkers, etc. If the thrower misses he bounces the ball off the
gable, naming a player to catch it. When any player has been hit
three times, he stands out. The most successful is he who remains
longest in. This game is played in Ross-shire by girls under the
name of " Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday." If the girl named
catches the ball, she hands it back to be bounced off the wall by
the original thrower, but if the named one does not catch it, she
picks it up and tries to strike some other, who then takes the ball.
If she has missed, she makes it rebound from the wall and calls
for another day of the week.

Piggie Wiggie

Is a girls' game closely allied to the above. The players stand
in a circle, one with the ball in the centre. She stots the ball on
the ground and names one in the circle to catch it. If the named
one catches it, the thrower stands aside during that game and the
one with the ball takes her place becoming " Piggie Wiggie." If

82 Collectanea.

the one called fails to catch the ball, she commences running
round the circle while the remainder call out " Piggie Wiggie,"
and the original stotter tries to strike the runner with the b.all
before she has run round the complete circle, inside. Struck or
not struck she takes her old place in the circle, but each hit
counts one till a number fixed is reached which puts the player
out of the game. The most successful is the one who remains
longest in.

Exercise Ball. Glasgow Ball.

It is played with an india-rubber ball, and consists in a certain
number of feats, each more difficult than its predecessor.

1. The player stots the ball off the ground six times, catching
it each time.

2. She throws the ball up, claps her hands once and then
catches the ball, repeating throwing up the ball and increasing the
number of claps between each throw till six are reached.

3. The same as No. 2, but the hands are clapped behind the
back.

4. As 2, but she slaps her knees with her hands.

5. As 2, but she claps her sides each time.

6. As 2, but both hands are placed on the player's mouth.

7. As 2, but both hands are placed on the top of the player's
head.

This completes the performance. If the ball fall to the ground
the player commences where she left off when her turn comes
again. First out wins the game.

Through the Mill.

Also a girls' game, but sometimes played by both sexes. Sides
are chosen, and they toss for who is to have the ball. Each side
is divided into two equal parts, those having won the toss standing
in two parallel lines facing each other, those who have lost dis-
posing themselves at the open sides so as to form a hollow square.
The game consists in tossing the ball between the players of one
of the " sides," the other " side " trying to intercept the ball in its
flight and then keep it flying among themselves.

Collectanea. 83

House Ball

Is the name for the ordinary English game of " Rounders," the
ball being struck out by hand by each runner in succession of the
party to the pitching of one of the party " out." The number of
stations depends on the number playing. The striker out must
run. No two can occupy the same station, and any one of the
party if struck between stations puts that side out, unless one can
catch the ball and hit one of those out before they all assemble in
the " den."

(P. 10, continuing at line 20.) ("Description of cricket.")

There are, however, traditions of " Kick Ball " as played before
the introduction of the rules for " Rugby " and "Association." It
was a great game in Cowal ; Tom na Bhoid, at Dunoon, being a
regular meeting-place. There, a certain Donald White is by
tradition said to have kicked the ball over the Parish Church,
and with the same kick, sending his pump flying, causing a " bad
eye " to another player.

In primitive " Kick Ball " each game seems to have ended by
the winning of a goal. The distance between goals depended on
the extent of ground at command. The sides are said to have
tossed for first kick, the game commencing from the centre of the
ground. Two persons were appointed, one from each side, who
moved along on either flank as necessary, whose duty was to
prevent the ball being sent too far a-field.

If the play-ground did not yield what was considered a suffi-
ciently long course, the game was not a time one, but was won by
one side or the other getting an agreed-on number of goals.

Shoot for Goal.

Now played, is evidently a modern invention. A goal is fixed
and one appointed goal-keeper, the others spreading themselves
out in front. Any convenient ball is used, which is kicked out by
the keeper, who has then to prevent the others landing it within
the goal. A reckoning of the number of times that any player has
kicked it through the goal is kept, and when a certain number is
reached it is the privilege of that player to become goal-keeper.

84 Collectanea.

If the goal-keeper fails to stop the ball a certain number of times
he must change places with the one who has most shots to his
credit.

Nine Holes.

On a flat piece of turf nine holes, three holes in three rows
at equal intervals, are made and a stand is fixed in front of them.
Each hole has a number assigned it from one to nine. The
player places himself at the stand and tries to roll a ball into
one of the holes ; he continues so long as he is successful, his
score mounting up with the value attached to each hole. If he
fail he is followed by another player, and so on in succession till the
number fixed on for " game " is reached by one of the players.

Bullets.

The players were each provided with a round shot of about
seven pounds weight. Two usually played against each other.
The object was to cover a certain distance of road, as a rule
between one and three miles, with the fewest number of throws.
It might however be who would reach the greatest distance in
a previously determined number of casts. From the starting-point
each hurled his ball in the direction of the goal. On reaching
the ball the player could with his foot draw a line across the road
and might make his next cast from any point on that line. The
skill of the player, as distinguished from his strength, was chiefly
evident in being able to put twist on his bullet so that it would
take a curve in the road and not be brought up at the road
side before its travelling power was expended.

This game, which was played but a few years ago, was put a
stop to by authority as dangerous to persons and horses on the
public roads.

Snowballing

Has no doubt been indulged in from time immemorial.
Combats between chosen sides and predetermined leaders, with
the smaller boys to supply the fighting lines with ammunition,
are organised when the fall of snow is heavy.

Collectanea. 85

BALANCING.

(P. 12, after line 28.)

The description of the above feat, as seen practised in Uist,
is as follows :

The performer stands on one foot on a table, his toe flush
with the edge. To the toe of the foot on the table he brings
the heel of the other foot; stooping forward he places one of
his fists against the toe of the suspended foot and prolongs the
line of foot and fist with his other hand, the success of the feat
consisting in retaining his balance. The reciter saw masons
performing this on the top of a wall. As thus described, the
performer had the whole length of one foot as a base.

(P. 13, at bottom.)

Picking a pin up by the mouth.

In Barra a pin is stuck in the ground, and the performer, with
his or her two hands clasped behind the back, stoops and picks
up the pin with the teeth. This trick was popular in North
Argyle in the I edaig district. " The pin was placed upon a
smooth surface, a broad smooth flagstone, a piece of wood.
Standing erect the performer placed his hands behind his back
and stooped until with his teeth he gripped the pin, having to
lift it from the floor without placing his hands on the floor or
his feet." He might be allowed to put his hands on his knees,
but not lower than that. With the description of the trick as
done in Barra before us, the question was put to our corre-
spondent, " Was the pin not stuck by the point ? " but the answer
was quite clear that it was only laid down horizontally. A man
who had done it in his youth said the hands were put behind
the back and the legs spread out till the face could reach the
pin.

Standing on one foot to touch the ground with the knee of
the other leg.

Standing upright on the left foot, the performer raised the right
foot backwards, bending the knee and held the toes with his
right hand. Retaining his hold he had to bend the left knee

86 Collectanea.

so as to touch the ground with the right and then regain the
upright position without letting go of the right foot or staggering.

Seasamh Claidheimli. (Standing of a sword.)

The name in Barra for standing on the head and hands,
feet together, extended upwards. The question was, who could
stand most firmly and longest with the legs straight?

A swing IS called in Lowland Scottish a "swee." Jamieson
spells it "sway," "swey." As above mentioned, it is a name also
applied to the pot chain which hung over the fire. A children's
swing in Gaelic is a droHag, and a pair of pot hooks is called
drolla, also the name for the handle of a pot. In Skye the
following words are repeated while swinging a companion :

" Tuille gorachd nunn gu Muideart
Tuille eiridh nunn gu Rasaidh."

See Saw. (See p. 250 of games.)

In Uist they repeat while swinging on a plank, " Diol a
bhocadan, ho-ro, chracadan." We give the spelling as we got it,
the words probably mean "a plank waving, ho-ro cracking,"
making a cracking noise.

BAT GAMES.

(P. 17, after line 17.)

Cat and Dog.

In Perthshire " Cat and Dog " are played somewhat differently.
Sides being formed, a ring is marked sufficiently large to contain
those of the side which are in. About twelve yards from the ring
a stone is set up, or other mark made called the "den." The
side out spread themselves at convenient distances in front of the
ring. The first player in the ring lays the cat on the ground,
strikes it with his dog on one end so as to make it rise, and when
it is in the air strikes it out; he then runs for the "den," which he
must touch with his dog and back to the ring ; if successful, this
counts one for his side. If the cat is caught in the air by one of

Collectanea. 87

his opponents, the sides exchange places, if not, the cat is Ufted
and thrown into the ring, and if it reaches it before the runner he
is out till the game is finished. If the striker out has not only
"run the den," but is ready to receive the cat when it is thrown
in, he tries to strike it out before it reaches the ground, and if
successful he steps the distance to which he has driven the cat
and each pace counts one to his side. Another then takes the
dog and follows the same system till all are put out. The game
is won by the side which first makes the number agreed on before
starting.

Pellet

Allied to the above games, is played in Orkney. Equal sides
are chosen and a ball and bat are used. The bat is single-handed,
the ball is usually made of cow's hair and soap worked together
in the palm of the hands till it has become tough and hard ; it is
then covered with leather.

Suppose four are playing on each side, four holes are made
with the heel of the boot or the point of the bat, ten to twelve
yards apart. They are called " Hales." Each of the side in
stands at a Hale with his bat in his hand. One of the side out
bowls the ball to one of the batmen z«, the remainder fielding.
The batman strikes the ball out as far as he can, and all start to
run a round of the hales, each round counting one. The side in
try to run between as many of the hales as possible for each stroke,
the ball being bowled to the player who finds himself at the first
hale bowled to.

The side in is put out by the batman missing a bowl, by his
stroke being "kepped," that is, caught before the ball touches the
ground, by the ball being put into one of the hales when it is not
occupied by the bat of a player, or when one of the batmen is
struck with the ball by a member of the side out while running
between two hales. The game is won by the side first reaching
the agreed-on number of rounds of the hales.

Speilinn

Is an Uist form of the same game. The necessary apparatus
i? a bat {straicean), a ball of any available material — wood, a
centre of cork wrapped with worsted ; a favourite form was made

88 Collectanea.

of horse hair, and the speil^ a lath of wood ten to twelve inches
long and about two inches broad. A hole is then made in the
ground sufficiently large to admit the ball and the point of the
speil {an toll), and forming a semicircle behind it with a radius
of about twenty yards are five calaidh or calaichean (ports, har-
bours). Sides being chosen, one of them takes possession of the
hole, the other side fields out. One of the side in lays the speil
with its one point in the hole and places the ball on it. With
his straicean he hits the projecting end of the lath, jerking the
ball into the air, which he tries to strike out. If he fails to do this
three times, he stands aside till the game is finished. If he hits
the ball, one of his party runs to the first of the five calaichean,
and runs as many of them as he thinks he can with safety. If
the ball is caught after being hit, the whole side is put out, or if
the side out can get what is caMed pu'ean, i.e. tossing the ball into
the hole when returning it to the striker out. If one of the
runners is struck with the ball between two calaichean, the indi-
vidual is out till the end of the game. If none of these three mis-
fortunes for the side in have happened, the batsman measures the
number of straicean lengths between the hole and the place
where the ball rested, and that number is scored to the party in.
Another of the in party then takes the bat and the first striker out
may start on the round. If two men are caught at one port,
one is put out. During the course of a game, either side may
be in several times. The match is won by the side which first
makes the aggregate of straicean lengths fixed on.

(P. 19, after line 23.)

The age of these games is well attested. In the Cattle Spoil of
Coolly (Grimm Library, xvi. 23) Cuchulainn is playing a ball
game against three fifties of other boys. " When it was hole-
driving that they did he filled the hole with his balls, and they
could not ward him off. When they were all throwing into the
hole he warded them off alone, so that not a single ball would go
in it."

Single Pellet.

As played in Orkney is somewhat like the immediately pre-
ceding. A ball, a bat, and a tongue are required, the last being

Collectanea. 89

the equivalent of the speil in SpeiHnn, but the tongue is said to be
about half the size. Sides being chosen, and the party to be in
fixed, the game commences by one of them striking the ball out.
If he miss it he is out for the rest of the innings ; the same
happens if he is caught. Supposing the ball to have been struck
and have a free course, one of the outs returns it as near to the
hole as possible, and the distance from the centre of the hole to
the centre of the ball where it then lies is measured by the bat.
and the total added to the score of the party in, fractions of
length are not counted. To save time in measuring the striker
out may say " I'll take six," or any number he judges represents
the distance. If this is deemed correct, the offer is accepted and
forms the number scored, but any of the outs may challenge the
correctness of the distance judged, and measurement with the bat
is made. If the number of bat lengths turns out to be less than
that mentioned, the striker is put out and the shot counts nothing
to his side. If, on the other hand, the length is greater than he
mentioned, his side has the advantage of the increase. The bat
is taken in turn by each one of a side till all have been put out,
the other side then goes in, and those who have scored most win
the game.

(P. 24, after line 8.)

In Cowal the posts are called "dulls," and the hole in the den
from which the ball is struck is the " moosh."

(P. 35, after Hne 6.)

A Barra variant of the dialogue on p. 32 commencing "Tulla
(thulla) gus an iomain" is quite the same as far as " De an iteag?"
after which comes

Iteag bronnaich Wing (feather) of belly-band.

De am bronnach ? What belly-band ?

Bronnach eich Belly-band of horse.

De 'n t-each ? What horse ?

Each buidhe blar, suas cnoc an teine. Thuit a' chailleach bharr
a mhuin. Thubhairt a Bhanrigh " Thut." (A yellow horse with
a white mark on its face, up the hill of fire. The old woman fell
off its back. The Queen said " hoot.")

90 Collectanea.

(P. 39, after line 8.)

In Sutherland and Caithness-shire and the Orkney Islands a
name given to Shinty is " Knotty." Gateways are often chosen
between which the ball must be driven, thus constituting the
goals. Where gateways are non-existent, as was largely the case
in these northern districts, the thing to be achieved was to drive
the ball a certain distance from the central point at which it was
thrown down between the contending parties. The imaginary
lines to be reached were called in Orkney the Hales.

An interesting parallel to the method in which who was to
drive off is fixed, described on p. 30, is to be found among the
Cossacks. In a note by the Editor in a folk-tale in the Kmptadia^
after the words " Come let us draw lots," we are informed, " To
draw lots the lads in the Ukraine proceed after the following
manner : one takes the stick about the centre, the one who
follows him puts his hand above it, after him the other, and so on
consecutively ; he who will have a hand on the top and can yet
hold the end of the stick without letting it fall, wins." {Kruptadia,
vol. viii., p. 361.)

BLINDFOLD GAMES.

(P. 41, after line 5.)

BHndman's Buff receives the name of " Glim Glam " in Banff-
shire.

(P. 41, after line 4 from bottom of page).

In Harris the Bodach Dall has not to strike another player.
A stick is fastened in the ground representing the Bodach he
is bent upon killing. It is this stick which he must strike.
The endeavour of the other players during the conversation given,
and while he is moving about, is by talking and jostling him to
make him lose all idea of where the object of his attack has
been placed.

(P. 44, after line 15.)
Wheeling the Barrow.

Two stakes were stuck in the ground from sixty to one
hundred yards apart. The competitors were blindfolded and each

Collectanea. 9 1

provided with a barrow. If there was only one barrow, each
took it in turn, but more than one might start at the same
time. The object was, starting from one end of the ground to
run the wheel-barrow up against the post at the other. Obstacles
might be laid down between the stakes to increase the difficulty.
In Cowal this was a common competition on New- Year's Day.

Other indoor games blindfolded were —
Cleas a' Bhuilgein {biiille, 'a stroke,' builgea?i, 'a tap, a little
stroke'.)

The chosen one of the party playing knelt down with both
hands extended behind the back touching each other, palms
upwards. The other players struck with the open palm the
hands of the blindfolded one, one player at a time, after each
stroke the kneeler being expected to say who gave the blow.
If the guess were correct, the striker and the kneeler changed
places and only after a correct guess was the kneeler relieved.
This was played in Barra.

Soldiers.

A pencil and paper or slate are necessary. Two parallel
columns of figures are written down, say Os and Xs, at a slight
distance apart, three-eighths of an inch perhaps, one below the
other, a dot being marked over the topmost figure of each column.
The length of the column would depend on the size of the paper
or slate. Each figure was a 'soldier.' The first to play being
arranged for, he was blindfolded and the point of his pencil put
on the dot above one of the columns. He then drew his pencil
down trying to run it through as many 'soldiers' as possible.
The other player then had his chance, and they played alternately
for the number of strokes fixed on before commencing, it might
be three or four. The one whose pencil passed through most
soldiers was the winner.

There is a very similar game in which rapidity of motion and
not want of sight is employed to make the scoring uncertain.
There are two columns of figures for each player, and a captain
is marked in front of the centre of each column.

92 Collectanea.

O The single figures represent the centre X

O of each party X

O X

O O XX

O X

etc. etc. etc. etc.

The players sit opposite each other. The first to play lays
his pencil on one of his own "soldiers" and with a quick stroke,
representing an arrow shot, runs it through the ranks of the
enemy, trying to strike as many as he can. Otherwise the game
is exactly as above, the captain however counting two.

ARCHERY.

(P. 45, after line 31.)

In the MS. poems collected by the Rev. James Maclagan, the
following verse occurs in an ode in memory of Donald Gorm of
Glengairy, composed by his widow. {Transactions Gaelic Society
of Iftverness, xxii. 170) :

'* O's maith thig dhuit bogha
Cruaidh foghainteach laidr,
Agus teafaid chaol scorrach
Bheireadh ceannuich a Flendras ;
Mar re glac a chinn leathainn,
'N deis a fadhairt o'n chearduich ;
Sud air geal-ghlac mo chridhe
Dheanadh Siothann mar p' ail learn."

Collectanea. 93

(O well became you, a bow/Firm sufificient strong, /And slender
cutting (twanging ?) bow-string/That a merchant would bring from
Flanders ;/ Like (the) moon (the) hollow of its broad head, /After
its tempering in the shop ;/That, on (the) white palm of my heart
(love)/ Would provide venison as I would like.)

Having some acquaintance with archery, the translation is given
with confidence, though tempering is more applicable to a blade
than the adjusting of the " cast " of a bow. Donald Gorm fell at
the battle of Killiecrankie, 1689, and the interesting point here,
of which there can be no doubt, is that he imported his bow from
Flanders. About the middle of last century, when the writer first
made acquaintance with bows and arrows at Archers' Hall, Edin-
burgh, some of the members of the Royal Company still used
shooting graith imported from Flanders. It is interesting to note
that all the historic references here given of the practice of archery
fall within the seventeenth century. In Waldron's Description of
the Isle of Mafi, first published in 1726, he mentions that the
young men of the island were "great shooters with bows and
arrows. There are frequently shooting matches, parish against
parish, and wagers laid which side shall have the better." (Manx
Society's publications, xi. p. 50.) This refers us to the active
practice of archery in a Gaelic-speaking locality during the same
17th century.

CHOOSING PARTNERS.

(P. 56, after line 15.)

There is an Ardrishaig variant of " Mary Matansy." The girl
in the centre of the ring pretends to be weeping and the ring
circling round sings —

"Oh, what is Mary weeping for, weeping for, weeping for,
Oh, what is Mary weeping for, upon Ardrishaig pier?"

Mary answers —

" She is weeping for her own true love, her own true love, her
own true love,
She's weeping for her own true love, who has gone to the war."
The ring —

' ' Oh when will he come back again, back again, back again.
Oh when will he come back again to his own dear Mary ? "

94 Collectanea.

Mary steps forward, the ring stops and she chooses one to
represent her lover ; joining hands the two whirl about singing —
'* He has come back again, back again, back again.
He has come back again to his own dear Mary."

Mary joins the ring and the chosen lover becomes " Mary."

Jingo Ring.

They have a variant from that described above in Lorn. The
players stand in a row with one walking up and down in front,
singing,—

" As I went walking down the street
A German lady I did meet
With a pair of slippers on her feet
And a baby in her arms."

She then chooses one from the row and, arm in arm, they march
up and down in front of it, singing, —

"Jingo-ring fal lal la, (repeated three times)
And a baby in her arms."

The first then joins the row and the other carries on the game.

The same game is played with a variant of the verse given on
p. 85, each one chosen merely taking the chooser's place and
repeating the verse —

"Sweet Mary, sweet Mary, my age is sixteen,
My father's a farmer in sweet Aberdeen,
He has plenty of money to dress me in green,
But there's no bonnie laddie will tak me awa."

(P. 58, after Une 27.)

In Uist, instead of the words "babbity, busty barley" on p.
57, they say "a Mhiss, a Mhiss, a bharley."

Before the line commencing with the words " I wadna kiss
a lassie O," the following are often introduced —

" Choose ye wha we'll tak, wha ye'll tak, vvha ye'U tak,
Choose ye wha ye'll tak, a laddie or a lassie O."

(P. 66, after line 18.)

The bulk of the players standing in a ring or a row, with one

Collectanea. 95

in front who sings a verse and chooses another to take her place
are common.

*' Cherry cheeks and roses, cherry cheeks and roses,
Cherry cheeks and roses, drumpy, drumpy, drj-."

Having chosen the other she says —

"Here's the one that I love best, that I love best, that I love best.
Here's the one that I love best, drumpy drumpy, dry."

In the following the ring sings first as they circle round —

"Every wife for her husband,
Every widow for her son,
Every lassie for a laddie,
Till the boundary is done.

"Seize a basin full of water
And a towel in her hand
Rings of gold on every finger
Like a diamond in the sun."

The centre girl chooses another, they clasp and dance round
singing—

" I will take a glass of whisky,
I will take a cup of tea,
I will take a bonnie lassie,
That's the thing that pleases me."

In the following the mass of the players stand in a row, the one
to make the choice marching up and down in front.

I. " Green grows the rashes O,
My boots are made of silver,
A white rosette upon my breast,
And a gold ring on my finger."

The choice is made, both sing the same verse, the first one
joins the row, etc.

2. The single player sings —

"Here's a poor widow, she's left alone,
She has no one to marry upon,
Come choose in the east, come choose in the west.
Come choose the verj- one you love best."

96 Collectanea.

One is chosen and the two sing —

"Here's a couple that's married together,
Married together, married together ;
Here's a couple that's married together,
Drinking tea and kissing each other,"

The Farmer's Den

Comes under this heading, and is given as reported, but there is
really no playing in it. The players stand in a circle with one in
the centre. She says as she chooses one from the circle, " The
farmer wants a wife." The wife then chooses one, saying, " The
farmer's wife wants a child." The chosen child says, while
choosing one, " The farmer's wife's child wants a nurse," and the
chosen nurse says, " The farmer's wife's child's nurse wants a dog."
If the performance is to be repeated, the dog chosen represents
the farmer.

When partners have been chosen they may amuse themselves
in some particular way.

Row Chow Tobacco.

Having sought a green grassy slope, the couple lock themselves
firmly together, and lying down roll from top to bottom, singing,

' ' Row chow, row chow, row chow tobacco O.
You'll give me a cup of tea and I'll give you tobacco O."

2. The couple "cleek" their right arms and whirl round

singing —

"Hook and eyes and oggrie dean." (Repeat.)

3. Each couple clasp hands facing each other, four playing,
their arms crossed, right hand in right hand, left hand in left hand.
They then pull each other backwards and forwards.

" If you want to see King William,
Take your trumpet to the cross,
There you'll see a noble lady
Riding on a big black horse.

Riddle, doodle, deedle, daddle, (Repeat thrice.)
Riding on a big black horse."

In Uist they repeat "Row chow tobacco" instead of "If ye
want," etc.

Collectanea. 97

4. Tie up the Dumplings.

The position taken up is the same as in No. 3, but the pairs
with their hands clasped stand separately, and one pair repeats —

"One in a bush, two in a bush,
Please, young ladies, come into my house."

The couple invited pass in below the arms of the inviters, and
then all four dance, singing—

"Tie up the dumplings, tie up the dumplings,
Tie up the dumplings, one, two, three."

R. C. Maclagan.
{To be continued.)

CORRESPONDENCE.

Riddle or Charm ?
(Vol. xiii., p. 421.)

The first of the riddles recorded in Miss Salmon's Folklore
of the Kennet Valley was told me by an old Dorset woman,
now dead, as a charm. It was taught her as a child by her
grandmother, then an aged woman. She did not know why
it was supposed to be a charm, but it was always called so.
Her version ran as follows :
"J. I. and P. P.
They both did agree
To put to death J. C

Which they could not do without the will of G.
M. M. and M. V.
Wept with horror and grief to see
The malice and wickedness of P. P."

F. Barry.
Leweston, near Lyme Regis.

" I'll put my Foot in the Fire ! "
(Vol. XV., p. 104.)

In 1552, Cranmer offered to p?{t his foot in the fire against
Knox, to prove that Knox was wrong about the Black Rubric
(Lorimer, y<?/;« Knox and the Church of England {iZ'j^), p. 104).
I don't see the connection of ideas, but the phrase is the
same. A. Lang.

Corresponde7ice. 99

Group Marriage.
(Vol. XV., pp. 466, 472.)

Probably other readers of Folk-Lore\>^^\^t myself, have observed
in Mr. Hartland's review of Spencer and Gillen the phrase,
" group marriage can hardly arise . . . under father-right." Now,
if by father-right no more is meant than the tracing of kinship —
totemic, class, or phratriac bonds — through the father, it is hardly
clear why it is inconsistent with father-right; for (a) if one husband
takes precedence there is no reason why the child should not follow
him ; and {b) if the woman is allied to a group of brothers with
equal rights, there is no question as to the totemic designation of
the child. Only, therefore, if Mr. Hartland understands by " group
marriage" — an ill-defined and variously used term — something
other than the forms I have mentioned, does his argument hold
good.

The point, however, on which I wish to understand his view is
the origin of group marriage. The phrase I have quoted suggests
that it arose out of monogamous relations — a view very different
from that of Spencer and Gillen or Howitt. Group marriage on
this view is simply a bye-path, teratological, not embryological.
But if this statement of his view is correct, Mr. Hartland can
clearly not endorse the statement of Spencer and Gillen that
"group marriage preceded the modified form of individual mar-
riage " ; for the only group marriage which is likely to arise out of
monogamy is precisely what Spencer and Gillen describe as " the
modified form of individual marriage," and not the union of all the
persons who are in the noa relationship. Mr. Hartland, however,
on p. 466, endorses, so far as I can see, the ;?^rt-group theory, and
thus contradicts his later statement, unless my view of the prob-
abilities is wrong.

The fact of group marriage — in the sense of pirrauru — is
unquestionable; the theory of group marriage — in the sense of
n^a-group union — highly problematical. If Mr. Hartland endorses
the latter theory, how does he suppose that it "arose" under
mother-right ?

N. W. Thomas.

lOO Correspondence.

The Elder-Tree.

The following appeared in the Daily Chronicle, i6th Dec,
1904:

" A few days ago a gamekeeper named Albert Povey, in the
service of Sir John Burgoyne, of Sutton Park, Bedfordshire,
was chasing some fowls from a spinney to the roost, when he
tripped up on an elder-bush, a spike of which entered his
hand. It is a popular superstition that a wound from the
elder is fatal, and it proved so in this case. The wound was
promptly dressed, and an operation was performed a few days
later at Cambridge Hospital, but he died in that institution
yesterday from tetanus."

The actual cause of death was the presence of the tetanus
bacteria induced by the dirt on the splinter, which was in a
chicken-run.

Albinia Wherry.

Cambridge.

Translation of Maltese Folk-Tales.

I have published two booklets of Folklore and Folktales of
the Maltese, in the original tongue. Several people, both here
and in England, have asked me to translate them into English.
I have no time at my disposal for the purpose. My collection
of folk-tales is far from being complete, and whenever I have
a little free time, I gather fresh tales in Maltese, for fear of
their being lost. I cannot find anyone who will translate them
for me. Will some fellow-member of the Folklore Society,
acquainted with Maltese, kindly volunteer to do so?

E. Maori, S.J.

The Seminary, Gozo, Malta.

REVIEWS.

The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. By A. W.
HowiTT, D.Sc. Macmillan & Co. 1904.

Following the important works of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen
on the Central tribes and the North-Central tribes of Australia,
we have in the work before us a detailed account of the tribes
over a wide extent of country, embracing the whole of the south-
east of the continent, from southern Queensland to South
Australia, both inclusive. Dr. Howitt, years ago, in Kamilaroi
and Kurnai (written in conjunction with Dr. Fison), and in
papers contributed to the Journal of the Anthropological Instittite,
made known his quality as an experienced and acute observer,
and furnished valuable material for study to anthropologists. He
has now gathered into one volume, revised and greatly extended,
his contributions to our knowledge of the Australian race. The
result is a work which easily takes rank with those above referred
to, and which is, like them, indispensable to the student of human
institutions and beliefs.

The author begins with a discussion of the origin of the
race. His researches lead him to the conclusion that Australia
and Tasmania were originally inhabited by a Melanesian people,
who probably came from New Guinea at an exceedingly remote
period before either the Torres Strait or Bass Strait was formed ;
that after the formation of Bass Strait had cut off a portion of
the population from the main body, a further invasion of Australia
took place by "some other race, probably a low form of Caucasian
Melanochroi," which amalgamated with the original settlers. This
is the theory of Sir W. H. Flower and Mr. Lydekker; and

I02 Reviews.

Dr. Howitt points to such sporadic peoples as the Veddahs,
the Todas, the Ainu and others, Asiatic tribes which furnish
just the characteristics required in the hypothetical invaders.

A careful geographical description of the tribes dealt with in
the book forms the second chapter, illustrated with maps. The
author then plunges into his main subject, first of all, both here
and in the geographical description, carefully defining the terms
he uses. This is especially necessary because the words are not
all used in the ordinary anthropological sense, if such a sense
can be attributed to them. Care and caution are indeed notice-
able throughout the volume. Even when, as on page 170, the
interpretation of a certain set of facts in a particular way would
exactly suit a theory of the evolution of native institutions which
he strongly holds, Dr. Howitt hesitates to adopt it, being of
opinion that another interpretation is possible, and being, he says,
"unable to quite satisfy myself" on the point. This gives con-
fidence alike in his evidence (much of it collected at first-hand and
the rest assiduously sifted), and in his conclusions, from which
the student will only differ with very great respect, if at all.

The theory just referred to is that of a series of reformatory
movements initiated from time to time by the elders of the tribe
after mature deliberation. It is a theory a priori probable. The
Australian race has been isolated from immemorial antiquity.
The tribes are found in varying degrees of evolution. To
produce this evolution the impulse must have come from some-
where. But it could not have come from any source external
to the continent. The old men of a tribe collectively are the
authority, and the only authority recognized. What they are
agreed on is carried out. Here then we have a power which
might effect reforms. A given reform once effected in a tribe
might slowly spread by means of friendly intercourse between
neighbouring tribes on different occasions. It might indeed be
rejected in one tribe, but equally well it might be accepted and
imitated in another. It might never reach the knowledge of
distant or permanently hostile tribes, or only reach them as a
vague rumour, and never be seriously considered ; while they on
their part might have received and acted on an impulse of the
same kind, but varying in details, or directed to quite other

Reviews. 103

social arrangements. It is hard to see how else the dififerences
between the institutions of the various tribes are to be accounted
for; and the onus of proof lies upon those who challenge the
theory.

But it must be admitted that, when we come to apply it,
the theory is not without its difficulties. Dr. Howitt suggests
(p. 89) that a social change of the kind indicated might be
brought about by a dream in which a man of great repute in the
tribe — a medicine-man for instance — dreamed he was visited by
" some supernatural being, such as Kutchi of the Dieri, Bunjil of
the Wurunjerri, or Daramulun of the Coast Murring," from whom
he received a command which he would communicate to his
fellow-medicine-men ; by these it would be first discussed and, if
accepted, afterwards announced to the people. The suggestion
may perhaps account for later changes among some of the more
advanced tribes of the south-east ; but it is obvious that, put
thus, it will not account for a reform among tribes like the Arunta
which do not recognize a Bunjil or a Daramulun. In fact, as
Mr. Lang has pointed out in Man for January last, the difficulty
is to imagine the first step. What was the tribe, or the horde, or
whatever we please to call the group, before the first attempt at
organization took place.? Of course this is a difficulty that
confronts us everywhere as we seek for human beginnings : it is
not peculiar to Australia. What is peculiar to Australia (though
not without some analogies elsewhere) is the fundamental
division of a tribe into two intermarrying moieties. There are
few tribes, most if not all of them coast-tribes, in which we
do not find at least traces of this dual system. There is,
therefore, reason to think that all the tribes were originally so
divided. If the theory of a reformatory movement be sound,
it must apply to this division. The competing theory, favoured
by Mr, Lang is, if I understand rightly, that of a union between
two previously exogamous groups, based on mutual rights of
connubium. It is plausible ; but it would seem to involve no
less difficulty than the other. One cannot help thinking it odd
that everywhere the tribe should be divided into two intermarry-
ing moieties and no more. If two groups might have united, why
not three, why not five, on the footing of mutual conmibium ?

1 04 Reviews.

Moreover, the subdivision of the moieties into two or four
sub-classes, and the sharing of the totems between the
moieties, are unmistakable signs of conscious elaboration. If
the elaboration were conscious, why not the original division?
The motive for such a division is assuredly not beyond
conjecture, at all events on the assumption of primitive pro-
miscuity. There are grounds for believing that jealousy was by
no means so fully developed in primitive times as later. Still,
then as now, "individual likes and dislikes must have existed,"
and these, even in so scant a population as that of Australia,
must have been the cause of quarrels, and possibly have "bred
fruitful hot water for all parties." The division of the tribe into
two exogamous moieties would not have been effectual in stopping
all these. It would not have prevented the union of father and
daughter; but it would have limited the right of connubhim to
some extent. As the first step in organization, it was perhaps as
far as conservative savages who had hitherto known no organiza-
tion would or could go. It rendered possible future steps, and
led ultimately to the recognition of blood-relationship. Even in
an unorganized horde the power would rest with the men of
maturity and experience. Bunjil or Daramulun would be a
stranger to their dreams. Ancestor-worship would of course be as
yet unknown. Yet their meditations on the quarrels and blood-
shed among themselves, and their own personal insecurity from
men who spoke their own dialect and with whom they were
in frequent association, as well as from strangers, might in sleep
have taken the form of visits from deceased victims whom they
had known, with whom they had been in friendly intercourse, or
whom perhaps they had slain in anger — visits the object of which
was to suggest "a more excellent way." Without such visits,
however, it is quite conceivable that the first step on the
journey of civilization might have been devised, agreed on, and
carried out, by men who had come to realize the evils of their
present state and the possibility of amendment. The first step
taken, the rest was easier. With every fresh step the authority of
the elders would augment; and at later stages they would even be
able to strengthen it, as Dr. Howitt conjectures, by superhuman
commands which the tribe durst not disobey.

Reviews. 105

The reference to these supernatural commands leads me to
another subject discussed by the author. Controversies, portions
of which have appeared in the pages of Folk-Lore, have compelled
Dr. Howitt to clear up the doubts entertained by anthropologists
as to the exact status of Baiame, Daramulun, and Co. He has,
therefore, not contented himself, as perhaps he otherwise would
have done, with recounting the legends and ceremonies relating
to these mythical beings. He has carefully examined those
legends and ceremonies ; he has defined the area within which
they are told and practised ; he has analysed the statements and
opinions of previous writers ; he has canvassed the possibility of
fraud or error on the part of his own native informants ; and
he has given the result as it shapes itself in his own mind after
forty years of intimate converse with the blackfellow.

The theory put forward in the work which provoked the contro-
versies just alluded to v/as, in its later and presumably final form,
that among man's earliest original conceptions is an idea of a kind,
creative, relatively Supreme Being whom men may worship, and
that this, contrary to current theories, was earlier than animism,
and did not grow out of it, but was in practice (though not
entirely in belief) superseded by it. Applying the doctrine to
Australia it was contended that Bunjil of the Wotjoballuk, Alungan
ngaua of the Kurnai, Baiame of the Kamilaroi, Daramulun of the
Coast Murring, and the corresponding mythical personages of
other tribes, were to be identified with this relatively Supreme
Being. Now, if the identification were correct and the theory
well-based, we should expect to find that the most backward
tribes had the most fully developed belief in, and the clearest
conception of, the Supreme Being in question. But this, so far as
has been ascertained, is the direct reverse of the fact. The area
of belief in this important Being seems to be confined to the
south-east. The tribes which hold it are precisely those in which
the greatest advance has been made in social organization.
Among them group-marriage (or what look like more or less lively
survivals of group-marriage) has given way to individual marriage,
descent in the female line has been replaced by that in the male
line, the primitive organization under the class system has been
abandoned, or is in process of being abandoned, for organization

io6 Reviews.

based on locality, and the most cruel and outrageous practices
at initiation are unknown. If it be contended that, save in
the last particular, the Arunta fairly answer to this description,
I hasten to add that the Arunta present striking evidence in sup-
port of Dr. Howitt's case. While they and their neighbours
do know of the existence of certain shadowy beings called Twan-
yirika, Atnatu, and so forth, they have evolved the belief to a
very slight extent; and in spite of very careful search Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen were quite unable to find anything like even
the rudimentary moral character of Baiame or Daramulun attri-
buted to them. It would seem as though (if I may make the sug-
gestion) the tribes outside the south-eastern area relied on the
terrific character of the ordeal and their own authority as therein
manifested, rather than on any ethical precepts of a supernatural
being, to enforce conformity to the tribal code on the part of
initiated youths.

Moreover, when the beliefs and practice relating to these
mythical beings come to be analyzed, they resolve themselves
at last into the conception of what I ventured to call some
years ago in these pages a " sublimated head-man." He can
"go anywhere and do anything;" and so can the wizard. He
was before death, and he still lives. But that is only because he
is a wizard more powerful than the rest. His possession of
the magical crystals is conclusive as to his real character. He is
the tribal Father ; but the elders of the tribe are commonly
addressed as Father. He dwells in the sky, often as a star,
and usually with ancestral ghosts who, like himself, lived formerly
on earth. Whether worship is actually paid to him depends on
the definition of worship. Ancestor-worship is as yet unknown to
the Australians ; but we find them at a stage out of which it
might and probably would in time have grown, had it not been
for the irruption of the white race. Possibly with it there would
have evolved, as among the Bantu, the rudiments of a belief in a
Supreme Being. This, however, is no more than conjecture.

Among other subjects treated of by Dr. Howitt, the most
interesting in the present anthropological controversies is that
of the alleged institution of group-marriage. It is a subject far too
large to be discussed here. Dr. Howitt believes that certain

Reviews. 107

of the Australian practices are referable to group-marriage, of
which he claims them as a survival. Holding strongly, as I do,
that civilization has been on its institutional side a progressive
regulation of human affairs, it seems to me that the presump-
tion is that he is right. In any case, he has in this volume
co-ordinated a mass of evidence, much of it, thanks chiefly to
him, previously known. It is a very happy thing that he has been
able to collect, put into final shape, and present in the light of his
long and valuable experience of the blackfellow, all the interesting
and important details to be found in these pages.

Nor is this observation to be confined to the subject of mar-
riage. It extends to every part of aboriginal life expounded
by the author. For instance, the tables of relationship and of
the relationship-terms may perhaps be passed over as dry detail
by all but very careful readers. Yet they contain some of the
most instructive information in the book. There is, however,
one matter here to which I must refer. The table of Dieri
marriages and descents, facing p. 159, shews, among the de-
scendants of the pair numbered respectively 2 and 6, unexpected
changes of totem. The son of the Muluru (caterpillar) woman
should, according to the rule of descent prevailing among the
Dieri, be a Muluru ; but he is in fact given as a Warogati (emu).
The son of the Tidnamara (frog) woman is given as a Kaualka
(crow). The explanation seems to be found on p. 161, where we
read : " In one or two cases a couple had no ' own ' son or ' own '
daughter, and a 'tribal' son or daughter has been interpolated,
there being, from a Dieri point of view, no difference in the relation-
ships A stronger case could hardly be found to illustrate the
meaning of the relationship-terms. But the explanation is hardly
complete. Great as are the pains taken by Dr. Howitt to eluci-
date the meaning of the relationship-terms, I cannot find a
definition of " tribal son " or " daughter." The table of Dieri
relationship-terms gives one {Ngata-mura) which denotes, when
a man speaks, child, when a woman speaks, brother's child, and
another term {Ngatani) which only a woman uses to denote (her
own) child. I suspect it also includes her (own and tribal) sister's
child. But if so, what is the meaning of " tribal " in this connec-
tion? One would naturally suppose it limited to children not

io8 Reviews.

merely belonging to the tribe, nor to the exogamous moiety of the
tribe to which the woman speaking belongs, but to children of
women of her generation within the totem. Can the Dieri usage
extend the meaning of "child," "son," "daughter," "brother,"
"sister" beyond the totem to persons belonging to the same
moiety of the tribe ? And is this usage found among all tribes
where the totem is in full force and reckoned by descent ? If so,
it affords an additional argument for the theory that the distinction
between the exogamous moieties is more fundamental, and there-
fore earlier, than between the totems, an additional support for the
hypothesis of the intentional bisection of the horde as the begin-
ning of organization.

I am not quite sure whether Dr. Howitt holds this view. Some
years ago he expressed the opinion in \}c\.Q.Joiir7ial of the Anthi-opo-
logical Jjistitute that the exogamous moieties were originally totem-
clans. He does not repeat it in this volume, though I infer (see
p. 151) that he still inclines to it. As to the origin of totems and
totemism he guards himself from a definite judgement. Rightly,
as it seems to me, rejecting the hypothesis that "the primary
function of a totemistic group is to ensure by magic a supply of
the object which gives its name to the group," as well as the
hypothesis that totems originated in nicknames, he thinks more
favourably of Dr. Haddon's suggestion that they arose out of the
special varieties of food adopted by different groups in conse-
quence of their different environment. But if so, and if the
exogamous moieties were originally totem-clans, what becomes of
the theory of intentional bisection? It is possible that, as he says,
exogamy is merely a secondary feature of totemism, though the
legends of the Alcheringa and similar traditions are a deceitful
foundation for such an opinion. But, to recur to a previous query,
why should there have been only two, and exactly two, such
groups in every local unit called a tribe? I am puzzled there-
fore ; and I would fain hope that Dr. Howitt will be good enough
to tell us explicitly to what extent the Dieri and other tribes
recognize the relationships of son, daughter, brother, and sister ;
whether they transcend the limits of the totem-group, and if they
do, how far ; and moreover, what is his opinion on the points
raised in the present and the immediately preceding paragraphs.

Reviews. 109

Perhaps the pages of Folk-Lore may form a suitable medium of
communication.

Many another question might well detain us. But space is
limited. I must content myself with expressing a deep sense of
indebtedness to Dr. Howitt for a work so valuable and so oppor-
tune to students of custom and belief. It can never be super-
seded. In south-eastern Australia the blackfellow is rapidly
dying. His customs in their primitive purity are already gone.
The record here given us, and the critical remarks which it
contains on those of previous observers, will remain the final
authority on the people and their culture.

E. Sidney Hartland.

West African Beliefs.

Fetishism in West Africa. By the Rev. R. H. Nassau.
Duckworth & Co.

Les Idees Religieuses des Fan. By E. All^gret. Revue
de I'Histoire des Religions, vol. 1., No. 2, pp. 214-227.

Some years ago, in The Maki?ig of Reiigio?i, I suggested that the
belief in a sky-dwelling "All-Father," benevolent, remote, otiose,
a maker of things, not in receipt of sacrifices, seldom the object
of prayer, without temples, occasionally regarded as interested in
human conduct, was a very early factor in religion, and was most
in evidence where there was least competition on the part of
ancestor-worship or polytheism. My notion was very unpopular
among anthropologists ! I was said to believe, or to pretend to
beheve, in a primitive revelation. As far as I am aware, nobody
made researches among my list of " All-Fathers," except in the
case of Australia. I have since come across a number of fresh
examples, but it has never seemed worth while to trouble people

I lo Reviews.

with an account of them. Recently, in Native Races of South-
east Australia (pp. 488-508), Dr. Howitt has stated the evidence
for the belief in the "All- Father" among many tribes whose
social organization is of the most primitive type. He adds,
" In this being, although supernatural, there is no trace of a
divine nature." A supernatural All-Father and benefactor of
men seems to me to have as much of the " divine nature " as
can reasonably be expected, and how Dr. Howitt defines " divine
nature" or "religion" — ("it cannot be alleged that these abori-
gines have consciously any form of religion ") — I do not know.
Dr. Howitt, however, thinks that, "under favourable conditions"
these beliefs "might have developed into an actual religion,
based on the worship of Mungan ngaua or Baiame." Probably
Dr. Howitt defines religion as " belief //z/i' cult," though he does
not say so. The invocation of the name of Daramulun, and the
dances round his figure, says Dr. Howitt, " might certainly have
led up to worship." I shall not argue that they are worship, nor
trouble the reader with evidence as to prayers to Baiame. At
present I am content to leave the case where Dr. Howitt places
it, as an unborrowed Australian belief in an "All-Father," who
has sometimes an interest in human conduct, who is not evolved
out of ancestor-worship, and who might be evolved into a centre
of religion, as Dr. Howitt understands religion.

Much akin to the Australian "All-Father" is the West-African
belief in Nyambe, as described by Monsieur Alle'gret, and by the
Rev. Robert Nassau, in his Fetishism iti West Africa. M.
AUegret may be a missionary. M. Nassau is a zealous missionary,
American and Presbyterian, of forty years' standing, deeply
versed, as is M. Allegret, in the languages of the West African
tribes. These gentlemen have not scampered through the tribes
asking point-blank questions, but after learning the dialects and
acquiring the confidence of the natives, have listened to recitals
in the evenings, have joined in conversations, have told stories,
and been rewarded with native stories in exchange ; and reckon
more than fifty years of study (adding M. AUegret's fifteen to Mr.
Nassau's forty). Mr. Nassau is Miss Kingsley's " one copy of a
collection of materials." They may thus be supposed to know
what they are talking about. They give absolutely the same

Reviews. 1 1 1

account of native beliefs. There is an obvious surface of fetish-
ism, magic, animism, and ancestor-worship ; and there is the
belief in an everlasting All-Father Niambe, a word with various
dialectical forms. He is benevolent, remote, otiose, without
sacrifices, and only invoked as " Father Niambe " in ejaculations,
in moments of danger or trouble.

The Fans, says M. Allegret, believe in Nzame (Nyambe) as
"the creator of all things." Without consulting M. Allegret one
is disposed to think that, in all probability, the Fans must have
other and contradictory myths, showing how some things were
evolved, rather than created. This is usually the case, and I
would meanwhile regard the word "all" as probably too sweeping,
and "created" as perhaps too metaphysical, though even the
Arunta have terms as metaphysical as any in Hegel, and, as the
Atnatu of the Kaitish "made himself," according to Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen {Northern Tribes^ p. 498), creation is the only
word for the achievement. Nzame, like most of the Australian
All-Fathers, once dwelt among men ; he left them because of
their disobedience. Atnatu, on the other hand, for the same
fault, expelled men from heaven, sending down to them "every-
thing which the blackfellow has," and demanding from them cere-
monial performances, circumcision, and the use of the bull-roarer.
Though not credited with care for ethics, this Atnatu has the
makings, in Central Australia, of the All-Fathers of the South-
Eastern tribes. Nzame, among the Fans, dwells on high, and a
vague belief in his government of the world is quickly disappear-
ing, but is more marked among old people, and up country, than
among the young and the dwellers on the river. For the
rendering of the native names M. Allegret must be consulted, and
the verdict of other philologists is desirable.

Mr. Nassau, though a most intelligent and experienced worker,
believes in the theory of a primitive revelation ; and shows Httle
knowledge of writers like Mr. E. B. Tylor. Professor Menzies'
History of Religion seems to be his favourite authority, almost his
only authority, as to modern speculations on origins. Of course
it is perfectly possible to hold, as I do, that the belief in such a
being as Nyambe is very early indeed, yet not to embrace the
daring hypothesis of a direct supernormal revelation to primitive

112 Reviews.

man. Mr. Nassau quotes a not uncommon eccentricity of logic:
M. Decle writes that the Barotse " beheve in a supreme Being,

Niambe " and also, of the Matabele, that " the idea of a

Supreme Being is utterly foreign to, and cannot be appreciated by
the native mind." Eyre contradicts himself in the same way
about his Australians; and I have observed the identical con-
fusion in the work of an eminent living student of certain
Australian tribes. The belief in the "All-Father," of course, is
not on the level of a bishop's or of a philosopher's attempt to
conceive the Deity, but it is very nearly on a level with the
conception as illustrated by some passages in the Pentateuch.
From the Deity of these passages, and from Baiame and Nyambe,
it is easier to work up to the philosophic or Christian conception
of God, than from the Zeus of Greece, or from the President
of the divine consistory of any other polytheistic religion.
Any one who compares Mr. Nassau's pages 35, 30, with the
essay of M. AUegret, will see that these observers precisely
corroborate each other as to the nature of the behef in Nyambe,
as to its wide diffusion, as to its want of influence on conduct, and
as to a vague " yearning after " Nyambe, to quote Eumaeus
in the Odyssey. " He made these trees, that mountain, this river,
these goats and chickens," say the natives (Nassau, p. 37). Yet I
make little doubt that the natives have also other myths, explain-
ing in detail how this, that, or the other object came to exist.
*' In practice they give Nyambe no worship," and this, as I have
elsewhere shown, is almost universally the case where such
All-Fathers exist among savage or barbarous conceptions. The
All-Father is nihil indiga nostn : sacrifices are for ancestral gods,
and for fetish rocks, trees, pools, and so forth. In Israel they
came to be transferred to the Being held most high; among
known savages this is almost unexampled.

Our two authors agree as well in their accounts of belief about
spirits, magic, and fetishes of all sorts and sizes, as in their
remarks on Nyambe. Mr. Nassau appears to find crystal-gazing
(p. 134). In his paragraph on Totemism (p. 210) he appears to
mix up Totems, Siboko, and Nyarongs (animal familiars) in
helpless confusion. This is not unusual, unluckily. Mr. Nassau's
examples of Mdrc/ien, some of which have European variants, is

Reviews. 1 1 3

of much interest to folklorists. The author's experience is great,
but he appears to have a very superficial knowledge of the work
of anthropologists of the study. Have the natives large secret
supplies of radium? (cf. p. 283). The heart of their magic has
not been reached by Mr. Nassau, or by any white man.

A. Lang.

ZwEi Jahre unter den Kannibalen der Salomo-Inseln :
Reiseerlebnisse und Schilderunge von Land und Leuten.
By Carl Ribbe. 352 pp. 86 figures in the text. 14
plates. 10 diagrams and 3 maps. Dresden-Blasewitz,
Elbgau-Buchdruckerei, H. Beyer, 1903.

There are very few parts of the world which would better repay
thorough anthropological investigation than Melanesia, and one of
the most fascinating fields for research in that region is the
ethnology of the Solomon Islands. To accomplish this effec-
tively not only must sufficient time be given, but preliminary
training is necessary, and it is not specially evident that Carl
Ribbe, who has published the results of his wandering for two
years in that group, had that qualification. He is a good
observer, and tells us many interesting facts, but his accounts
of social and rehgious institutions lack thoroughness ; for example,
like most travellers, he constantly employs the word " devil "
without, in every case, mentioning what is implied by that term.
Travellers should always note, and print, a native word, despite
the fact that the expression " devil " may be used by the native in
the English jargon that he speaks to a foreigner. The majority
of the figures in the text are from paintings by the author ; they
illustrate the text, but actual photographs would have been better.
Incidentally, a student can gather from the illustrations something
about the distribution of certain designs and ornaments, but this
is a subject that needs to be investigated on the spot by one

114 Reviews.

who realises its importance. Some measurements and observa-
tions of natives are given, but the number of natives, sixteen only,
is too small to have much value ; the measurements were not well
chosen and consequently they are of very little practical value.

There are many accounts that will interest students of arts and
crafts, and there are not lacking descriptions and facts that will
appeal to the folklorist, as the following extracts will show.

In the Shortland Islands the people are divided into totemic
groups, the totems being mainly animals, such as the cuscus,
pigeon, eagle, crocodile, shark. The people of one totem may,
or may not, be friendly with those of another totem. Marriage
may not take place within the totem, a son belongs to the same
totem as his mother, and therefore may be a totem enemy to his
father. People belonging to different islands who have a common
totem are regarded as kin in spite of the fact that they may speak
a different dialect or language ; for example, the totems of the
Shortland Islands have adherents in North Choiseul, in Trea-
sury, and in the N.E. and S.W. coast of Bougainville. Thus it
happens that during a war people may pass over to an enemy's
village under the protection of his totem-kin. At dances,
marriages, and deaths, indeed, at all festivities, there are definite
rules as to the order in which the members of the totem groups
must arrive and eat. Each village" contains council-houses which
are the headquarters of various totems and each totem group has
a headman who may be the village headman as well.

If a man marries a woman of lower social rank than himself she
and her children are raised to his level, but if the woman be
of higher rank than her husband, he is raised to her level. The
price paid for a wife is in proportion to her station. In the
marriage ceremony of a well-born woman of the Shortlands all
the inhabitants of the village into which the woman marries prepare
a great feast. When cooked, the food is put into canoes and
brought as quickly as possible to the village of the bride so that
it may arrive still warm, then all eat together. First the men
dance and then the women, but no men may see the latter dance
except the bridegroom, who climbs a tree and peeps between the
twigs and leaves. The bridegroom and his people return to their
village, and the inhabitants of the bride's village bring them a

Reviews. 115

feast. Thus feasting goes on until the last pig is killed, and then
the father, brother, or uncle, whoever is the highest, brings the
bride to the bridegroom. Everybody who can, accompanies the
bride, who sits in the largest canoe and is covered with mats.
As the canoe nears the house of the bridegroom all the men must
walk away till the bride is ashore and the wife-dance has been
danced. This is performed by the female relations of the bride
and bridegroom. The men's dance is held when everyone is
assembled on the shore. Feasting then goes on till the food
gives out.

The world, and its inhabitants, according to the Shortland
tradition, were made by the god Tonatana. At first there was no
death, but it arose in this way : Tonatana created a wife, and in
order that she should not be alone gave her a child. The wife
was eternally young because at certain times she peeled off her
old skin and put on a new one. One day when she was engaged
with her skin-changing she unluckily allowed her child to go by
the entrance, and when the child saw her changing her skin, he was
greatly disturbed and began to scream vigorously. The mother
being worried about the crying child made several mistakes in
putting on her skin, so that the whole would not completely fit,
and as she attempted to get rid of the faults by putting the skin
on again, she fell down dead. They tell numerous stories when
seated round the fire in the evenings ; four of these folk-tales are
given.

All the dead are changed into devils in Nitus and go from
Alu (the largest of the Shortland Islands) to the Crown-Prince
mountains and to the heights of Gieta on Bougainville, and after
they have remained there some time they must betake themselves
to the volcano Bagama and to Balbi mountain in the north of
that island. The souls of chiefs go to a certain person, who is a
great magician and wields much power.

There are two kinds of devils r the Sakesali are bad, they rob
children, bring storms and sickness, in short, they cause all dis-
asters ; they are the bush devils who steal the souls of those lost in
the bush or drowned in streams. The magicians can capture
these souls and send them to the ordinary place Nitus. The
Koriti are good ghosts or devils who protect seafarers, children,

1 1 6 Reviews.

canoes, houses, and plantations. Crocodiles are held as sacred,
and are fed with pigs, dogs, and even with human flesh. In case
of sickness a devil-charmer is called in, and he often makes
puppets of wood to imitate the devils, which are fed and carried
about ; at a certain time these are burnt or thrown into the sea as
the patient recovers. A. C. Haddon.

Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee. By George A. Dorsey
(Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, vol. viii.).
Boston, 1904, pp. xxvi., 366, with 15 Plates.

After an interval of five years the American Folklore Society has
again begun to issue its Memoirs, which include up to the present
one volume of Angola Marchen, three of white American, and
one of Bahama Folklore, and one each of Navaho and Thompson
River Indian legends. Few will regret that they now seem, to
regard the Amerind as a specially suitable field of work, and it is
satisfactory to know that the three other Pawnee bands, together
with the allied Arikara, Wichita and Caddo, will be dealt with in
due course.

The present volume opens with an account of the Skidi Pawnee,
and gives some details as to their cult and their daily life; the tradi-
tions and the classification adopted for them are also dealt with.
By a wise decision, six of the plates are devoted to showing various
types of Pawnees ; the Folklore Society might consider the advisa-
bility of illustrating the series of County Folklore in the same way ;
neither traditions nor customs can properly be studied except in
connection with the life of a people, and into this we cannot get
an insight from printed extracts.

The traditions, to which numerous explanatory notes are
appended, fall into six classes — cosmogonic (23) and with them
the religious myths, tales of boy heroes (22), medicine (14),
animal (18), and transformation (6) tales, and finally miscellaneous
(7). Two points of interest as to these may be noted at the outset.

Reviews. 1 1 7

There are certain magic bundles and dances ; each, with its own
ritual and tale of origin, is the property of an individual, who
regards it as part of his life, and refuses to tell all he knows,
unless he be ready to die. Naturally the traditions do not always
remain his exclusive property, but pass from mouth to mouth ; in
the process, however, they lose their sanctity, and become no
more than nursery tales. The second point relates to the Coyote
stories, narratives in which some one by the exercise of boldness
or ingenuity, emerges from a combat victorious. Like the marchen
told in the East Indies at harvest time, these stories have their
special period of the year ; they are told when the Coyote star is
not visible, for he does not like to be talked about, and would tell
the snake star to send snakes to bite those who spoke of him in
summer.

It is naturally impossible to do more than glance at one or two
of the ninety stories, which are told virtually in the same words as
were used by the Indian interpreter. Each, it may be noted, is
preceded by a brief abstract. Perhaps the most generally interest-
ing group is the first — that of cosmogonic religious myths — and
this is largely due to the fact that the Pawnee pantheon was
amongst the most highly developed of any, in proof of which may
be quoted the fact already referred to that the coyote and snake
tutelary deities have not only been transformed from manitos,
such as, if analogy may be trusted, they must have been originally,
into gods, but have become associated with the astral cult, which
now dominates Pawnee religion. We may, however, feel some
doubts as to the aboriginal character of all the elements of these
myths. For the Pawnee time begins with a meeting of gods in
Tirawahut (the Universe-and-Everything-Inside) under the presi-
dency of Tirawa, whose spouse is Atira (Vault of the Sky). As Mr.
Dorsey points out, the cosmogonic tales are not at first hand, as a
rule, and with this exordium the caution is perhaps hardly needed.
It seems clear, for example, that Tirawahut means no more
than the place of Tirawa ; Atira means literally, we are told in a
note, born from corn. (Grinnell, p. 254, says it is the name
applied to the corn, and means " mother "), and we can hardly
avoid the supposition that the myth has suffered considerably in
parts from retouching.

1 1 8 Reviews.

It is somewhat unfortunate that, in spite of the notes, refer-
ences are often conspicuous by their absence. Previous authors
have not discriminated between the various bands, and it would
have been well to give the reference and the reasons for supposing
that the band to which they refer is not Skidi. Dunbar, for
example, in the Magazine of American History (1882, p. 743 sq.),
gives some additional details of the deluge legend, to which
de Smet, Missiofis of Oregon, p. 357, and Grinnell, Pawnee
Hero Stories, p. 3545'^., also refer; but none of these versions
are cited. Dunbar, too, gives an entirely different account of
the journey of the soul after death.

In connection with the bufifalo-skuU medicine lodge (p. 210),
reference might well have been made to du Lac, Voyage dans les
deux Louisianes, Paris, 1800, p. 270, who describes, without
naming the tribe, customs of great interest in themselves, and
nearly related to European agricultural customs. He says the
Indians call the painted skull of a buffalo-cow by the name of
" mother," and think it has the power of attracting the buffaloes.
When seed-time arrives the seed-corn is brought to the lodge, and
ceremonies are performed to secure a good harvest. Another
account is given by Grinnell (p. 372), who mentions that after the
buffalo dance, the ground is searched for buffalo hairs, and the
finding of them is regarded as a good omen for hunting and har-
vest. In this volume before (pp. 85, 344), another magical
ceremony, now no more than a game, is described, in which a ring
of buffalo-hide is to be traversed by a spear. The fragmentary
accounts of customs, given in explanation of the text, will doubt-
less be amplified in other publications, but it seems rather a pity
that on some of the more interesting points full information could
not have been given in the current volume.

One is, perhaps, unduly exacting, with a volume of such interest
before one, an interest which, it may be said, is far from being
purely anthropological, if one asks for more ; but the excellence of
what is given compels regret that so much is left untold.

N. W. Thomas.

Reviews. 119

A Phonetical Study of the Eskimo Language, based on

OBSERVATIONS MADE ON A JOURNEY IN NORTH GREEN-
LAND, 1900-1901. By William Thalbitzer, Reprint from
Meddelelser om Gronlmid, vol. xxxi. Copenhagen, 1904.

The special interest of this work to students of folklore is
confined within a comparatively few pages. The author, in
order to qualify himself for a scientific study of the language,
undertook a laborious journey to Greenland, where he remained
for more than a year. During that time he devoted himself to
intercourse with the people, and the making of elaborate notes
on the language. Incidentally he took down a considerable
number of folktales and songs. Eight of the former, and 120 of
the latter are here given. Of the former, the common North
xVmerican story of the Sun and Moon, and the European
story of Big Peter and Little Peter transplanted into Eskimo
environment are perhaps the most noteworthy. Another tale
which might have proved of interest is only partly given. The
drum-songs are at least as primitive as the tales. They are a
kind of recitative accompanying the drum-dances, and possess
the usual characteristics of savage attempts at song.

Much of the introduction is also interesting. The discussion of
the evidence afforded by the language as to the provenience
of the various divisions of the Eskimo, and the observations on
the intellectual culture of the people, and the effect upon it of
European contact, contain much that the folklore student would
do well to ponder. An important section of the introduction is
formed by the bibliography. Mrs. Sophia Bertelsen has rendered
the work into excellent English.

E. Sidney Hartland.

Sociological Papers : 1904. With an Introductory Address
by James Bryce. Published for the Sociological Society.
Macmillan. 1905.

Though Sociological Papers is, of course, not a book of folklore,
yet it is undoubtedly one qui donne a penser to the folklorist. It

1 20 Reviews.

is the first publication of the newly-formed Sociological Society, of
which Mr. Bryce is President, and our old friend and former
President, Mr. E. W. Brabrook, Chairman of Council. It con-
sists of the papers read at meetings of the Society during its first
session, with notes of the subsequent discussions, and also written
comments and criticisms by members unable to be present. The
last seems a particularly useful feature. The Society has been
fortunate in securing the adhesion of some of the most eminent
Continental and American sociologists, and the consequent inter-
change of views must make for union and progress in the field of
study. The present volume deals mainly with the science of
Sociology itself, and with the special points of Civic Life and
" Eugenics." On neither of the two latter is it necessary to dwell
here, but the subject of Sociology itself concerns us more nearly.
We ourselves are students of social institutions ; in what relation
do we stand to the professed sociologists ? How is their field of
work to be distinguished from ours ? We have long outgrown the
idea that the object of the folklorist is the mere barren " study of
survivals," but where are we to stop in the study of developments ?
Why do we instinctively feel that the funeral pyre of the Hindoo
comes within our scope, and the Crematorium at Woking does
not ? Where, in short, does the folklorist end and the sociologist
begin ?

These questions must inevitably occur to every folklorist who
may take up the volume before us, though they are neither
directly raised nor directly answered in it. In fact, few writers
besides our good friend, M. Durkheim, — who (pp. 273, 274) does
full justice to the labours of the "anthropological school" — seem
aware of the work done by folklorists. But in delimiting their
own study, they do something towards defining the scope of ours.

The secretary, Mr. V. V. Branford, thus sketches the task of
the sociologist : " (i) That he must construct a reasoned account of
the existing phase of that interaction of the sciences and of the
arts which we call contemporary civilisation; (2) that he must
reconstruct the corresponding phases which historically have
preceded and developed the contemporary phase ; and (3) that he
must work out ideals of more ordered development for the
future," (p. 229). Now, surely, the work of "reconstructing

Reviews. 121

the . . . phases which have preceded and developed the con-
temporary phase" of civilisation, has been the work of the
anthropologist, and in a special sense, that of the folklorist,
since anthropological study was first seriously taken in hand.
Mr. Branford's first and third points mark out an immense and
well-defined field for the labours of the sociologist. The omission
of the second would remove the danger of overlapping.

Again, in the (unsigned) Preface to the volume, we read that
Dr. Westermarck's paper on the Positmi of Women in Early
Civilisation "stands here as a type of the research which
sociologists are forced to undertake" . . . "the sociologist is
himself forced to undertake specialist research into such subjects
as Marriage, War, Sport, Class distinction, etc.; because these
have not been brought adequately within any of the existing
sub-sciences into which the sociological province is at present
partitioned " (p. x.) Our friends of the Anthropological Institute
will share our astonishment at this statement.

After this it is a relief to find our whilom colleague, Mr. J. Stuart
Glennie, writing thus on page 234 : " I trust that I may be
permitted respeclfuUy to protest against the double use of the
term ' Sociology ' to signify both a causal or * pure ' science, ' a
theory of the origin, growth, and destiny of humanity ' ; and an
applied science — a science concerned with the construction of
principles applicable to the ordering of social life. Anthropology
is commonly — as by, for instance, the President of Section H
at the last meeting of the British Association — used as ' the most
general term denoting the study of man in a wide and all-em-
bracing sense.' Surely it would be desirable with less vagueness
to define both Anthropology and Sociology (or, as I should rather
say, Politology) by restricting the connotation of the former
term of the Causal, and the other to the corresponding Applied,
general science of Man." It is pleasant to find oneself thus in
agreement with an old opponent.

It will be remembered by those who were present in Section H
on the occasion referred to, that the President, Mr. Henry Balfour,
went on to predict that it may eventually become advisable to do
something in the way of subdivision of so huge a subject. There
is in fact scarcely any subject outside mathematics and some

122

Reviews.

departments of physical science which cannot, by dint of a Uttle
skilful manipulation, be classed under anthropology when con-
venient. At Cambridge irreverent outsiders were heard to speak
of Section H as a dumping-ground for all the papers the other
sections did not w^ant. Would it be possible for a conference of
representatives of the societies concerned to come to some agree-
ment as to their respective areas of work ? We are all students of
human life, but we study it with different ends in view. Anthrop-
ologists, and those who specialise in folklore in particular, study
institutions to add to the sum of human knowledge ; sociologists,
to increase human comfort and progress. The work of the one
suppHes material for the other. Anthropology embraces the
physical characteristics of race, the history of language, the rise of
all mechanical arts and crafts, the growth and development of
social organisation, etc. Sociology, as Professor Kovalovsky points
out (p. 237), needs and uses every kind of historical, legal, and
economic knowledge, — we might add, every branch of physical
science also — to render its labours fruitful. Folklore specialises,
as has been said, in the history of human thought and human insti-
tutions — religious, political, legal, and social. Like anthropology
in general, it is not concerned with the social problems which
occupy the attention of the sociologist, but on the other hand
the material side of anthropology is outside its limits, and it has
relations to literature which are peculiar to itself. So the matter
presents itself to one old folklorist at least : but it would surely
be well to thrash out such questions as these, whether by means
of a verbal conference or a written symposium.

Charlotte S. Burne.

Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature. By H. M. Chadwick.
Cambridge University Press.

The work before us consists of a series of essays on some of the
difficult questions arising out of English history between the sixth
and tenth centuries inclusive. As such it is very welcome, for the
social history of these five centuries is still excessively obscure

Reviews. 123

and even the most discussed constitutional questions relating to
the period have by no means reached anything like a final
settlement. In the main, no doubt, this is due to the scarcity of
" authorities," but partly also to the small number of scholars who
have been content to work at their records without importing into
them preconceived notions as to the political ideas of these early
times. Mr. Chadwick takes his documents as he finds them in
the best modern editions, and has produced work which is fre-
quently suggestive, even if we may not always bear him company
as far as his conclusions.

For one thing Mr. Chadwick seems to regard the great body of
Anglo-Saxon charters with too unsuspicious an eye. Certainly it is
very possible to go too far by way of scepticism, but it is a pretty
safe rule that a land-book should be regarded as spurious until it has
been proved to be genuine. An instance may be to the point.
On the strength of Birch, 1029, Mr. Chadwick has to add five
earls to the number of such dignitaries who sign the charters of Ead-
wig's reign, remarking, at the same time, that four of them reappear
in Birch 1044 (which belongs to Edgar's Mercian Kingdom).
Now not only is Birch, 1029, very suspicious on internal grounds,
but the earliest known copy of it occurs in the Liber Albus of
York, in which it immediately follows Birch 1044, both charters
referring to land in Nottinghamshire. The presumption is very
strong that the list of witnesses in Edgar's charter, which has every
appearance of being genuine, supplied the material out of which
some later forger concocted the string of attestations to Birch
1029. We cannot, therefore, lightly accept any statement relating
to Eadwig's reign which rests only on the authority of the latter
document.

Mr. Chadwick rightly lays stress on the problems which await
solution in connection with the Danelaw, and has devoted an
Excursus to a discussion of the shifting meanings of the word.
Were it not that Mr. Chadwick has definitely ruled Domesday
Book to lie outside his province we might complain that he did
not at this point introduce some account of the brilliant argument
from the assessment of the district by which Mr. Round has been
able to define its limits. Something also might have been made
of the evidence from place-names in this connection. But the

1 24 Reviews.

local nomenclature of the Danelaw, like the curious " hundredal "
system to which Mr. Chadwick refers, demands much fuller
consideration than it has obtained as yet.

We expect that students will hardly be able to agree with Mr.
Chadwick in his somewhat indiscriminate use of the word " earl."
The evidence to which he himself refers suggests very strongly
that the word in its official sense is a Scandinavian importation
into the language. This being so, and in view of the very small
number of Anglo-Saxon titles to which it is possible to attach a
definite meaning it seems a pity to abandon the old distinction
between " ealdorman " and " eorl" and to put the latter word to a
use which destroys its peculiar significance. On page 254 Mr.
Chadwick also makes a rather difficult statement. He is describ-
ing the administrative system of Oxfordshire, pointing out that
4-|- hundreds were attached to the royal manor of Bensington ;
2 to Headington ; 2\ to Kirtlington and so on. He then goes
on to say, " Is it necessary to suppose that the system came into
operation after the organisation of the hundreds? If that was the
case one would hardly have expected to find a hundred divided
between two royal manors." But surely we are not to suppose
that when we read of a " half-hundred " an older hundred has in
this case been divided into two. If this was so, what are we to
make of such a division as the "hundred-and-a-half"? It seems
much more probable that the term " half-hundred " was used to
describe an administrative district which contained considerably
less than the number of tribes which current opinion considered
to be the complement of a full hundred.

One of the most interesting passages in the book is Excursus
IV., in which Mr. Chadwick discusses the functions of the national
council in Anglo-Saxon times with especial reference to the
election of kings. In his treatment of this subject he joins
company with a number of modern writers who, by laying stress
on the vagueness and uncertainty of early political ideas, mark a
very wholesome reaction from the somewhat facile dogmatism of
the school represented by Mr. Freeman. Thus, by working
through the cases in which the elective powers of the witan have
been supposed to be exercised, ]\Ir. Chadwick is able to prove
that in no case is its action so distinctly stated as to preclude the

Reviews. 1 2 5

possibility that it was the adhesion of individual nobles, rather
than the concerted action of the witan, which really determined
the succession to the crown. In this connection he makes a
point by observing that in the phrase '■'■ geceosan to cyninge" which
is usually taken as a formula of election, the word " elect " is by no
means the only possible translation of ^^ geceosan " which also means
" select," " approve," " acquire." In fact the only serious argument
against Mr. Chadwick's view lies in the passage from ^Elfric which
he quotes, in which the right of the people to choose their king is
distinctly stated. But here Mr. Chadwick suspects the influence
of ^Ifric's ecclesiastical sympathies and possible foreign ideas,
and many students will probably be disposed to agree with him
in this.

Mr. Chadwick makes no use of the evidence of folklore. It is
not improbable that examination of the boundaries of local custom
might have greatly assisted him in determining the limits of the
ancient areas which he discusses. So, too, might the considera-
tion of local weights and measures still in popular use in country
places. Such measurements as the " digging rood " of eight yards,
which cannot be made to correspond with any recognised land-
measurement, may yet be found to throw light on the puzzling
questions of ancient land-measure. And if it be the fact, as it is
said, that there are no local weights and measures in Hampshire,
and that the imperial gallon and imperial or " Winchester " bushel
are the " use " of local rustic life there, we seem to be taken, by
that one survival alone, straight back to the pre-Conquest days of
West-Saxon supremacy, which form so important a part of Mr.
Chadwick's subject. Information on these points has, however,
been so scantily recorded that we can hardly criticize him very
severely for not making use of it. Some tables of weights and
measures are to be found in that wonderful local encyclopaedia
the late Miss G. F. Jackson's Shropshire Word-Book, and Professor
Rhys and Miss C. S. Burne have made some little enquiry into
custom-boundaries, with results that are interesting, so far as they
go. But on the whole, the subject of local custom has been too
much neglected by English folklorists. Even the volumes of
County Folklore scarcely touch upon it. While surveying man-
kind "from China to Peru," the folklorist is apt to overlook the

126 Reviews.

practical assistance he might afford to the historical student of the
modern exact school ; and the historian cannot fairly be blamed
if he does not make use of materials which the folklorist fails
to place within his reach,

F. M. Stenton.

Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. I., Pt. 5. Spottis-
woode & Co., 1904.

The recent finds of Mr. Cecil Sharp in Somersetshire have oppor-
tunely called public attention to the subject of Folk Song, and to
the wealth of material to be discovered in our country places by
the wise seeker.

Leaving aside the question of pleasure received from the fresh-
ness and charm of the individual tunes, the value of the study of
folk music is not sufficiently appreciated. It should be of the
greatest interest both to the ethnologist and to the literary
historian. Specially should it help us in considering the fascinating
question of ballad diffusion. For, when a theme has been bor-
rowed, one would look for the tune to be borrowed also, seeing
that such things pass from lip to lip rather than from book to
book. Therefore the oldest examples of ballads, and ballad
themes require careful consideration in this connection, for the
original air will probably have at any rate influenced the reflected
forms. So far the literary historian. For the ethnologist the
collecting of local tunes should be at least as useful and exhila-
rating a sport as the gathering of skull measurements, for in few
things do racial characteristics come out so clearly as in popular
music, and the mine has been little worked as yet, either in
civilized or in savage society.

Mr. Sharp's brilliant successes should not cause us to forget that
he is not the only Richmond in the field. The Folk-Song Society,
which we are glad to see will now have his valuable help on its
Committee, has done, and is doing, excellent work in collecting
and publishing traditional music, especially that of our own

Rcvieivs. 127

country, a task in which it deserves all possible support. Though,
owing to the illness and death of Mrs. Kate Lee, the original and
much lamented Honorary Secretary, the work of the Society was
checked in 1903, its future progress is assured, for her mantle
has fallen on the shoulders of Miss L. E. Broadwood, who needs
no introduction to the Folklore Society.

The F. S. S. has also the valuable help of Mr. F. Kidson,
whose wide learning and fine library are at the disposal of mem-
bers. In fact, it seems now to be suffering rather from want of
outside interest than from any internal cause. From the Annual
Report, it appears that the funds are in good case, and the fifth annual
number ol the Jou7-na I, now before us, contains forty airs, hitherto
unrecorded, of which one only is Scottish, and two Irish, while
all the others have been recovered in England itself, and include
fifteen songs from Yorkshire, five from Sussex, three from Hamp-
shire, two from Westmoreland, one each from Lancashire, Notts,
Salop, Worcester, Somerset, Herts, and Kent, besides five others
not referred to any particular county. This is tolerable testimony
to the possibilities of the harvest, and to the energy of the little
band of collectors, but to use a somewhat clerical formula,
'* Workers are urgently needed in our country districts." For, as
the Annual Report very justly says : •' No time must be lost, for
every day carries off some old singer, with whom some precious tunes
may die for ever unrecorded. . . . For this purpose we shall warmly
welcome all contributions, not only of traditional songs, words and
music, but also of correspondence on matters connected with Folk
Song, together with notices of publications bearing on the subject."

" Those who do not feel themselves competent to note down
the music may still do useful work by discovering singers, making
a list of the songs that the latter can sing, and communicating with
the Hon. Secretary of the Society, who will then, if possible, send
an expert to note down the songs," says the leaflet of " Hints to
Collectors."

"Although folk-music is to be found in all strata of society, the
classes from which the most interesting specimens are most readily
to be obtained are gardeners, artizans, gamekeepers, shepherds,
rusLic labourers, gipsies, sailors, fishermen, workers at old-
fashioned trades, such as weaving, lace-making, and the like,

128 Reviews.

as well as domestic servants of the old school, especially nurses.
Inmates of workhouses will also be found to know many old
songs, and dwellers in towns may best be able to carry on the
work of collecting traditional music by applying to such." Then
come the practical directions; when making enquiries to use the
local vocabulary, which in many places differentiates a folk-song as
a " ballet," to draw out the informants' stores by giving illustrations
of what is wanted, to note name, address, and occupation, of the
informant, and all possible particulars as to the source whence
he obtained the song, to give words and notes exactly as sung,
without attempting correction. Then as to technical matters ; v/e
are advised to let two persons if possible take down the songs, one
acquiring the words, the other the music — otherwise, to secure the
tune first, and then the words ; not to ask for the repetition of
parts of the tune, as this is apt to lead to mistakes, but not to be
afraid to ask to have the whole tune many times repeated ; to
give the attention to the time, the key-signature, and the intervals,
at different repetitions ; and so on.

But we are sorry to see that the Society in its publications does
not in every case follow the excellent rule laid down for its col-
lectors. " It is desirable that the words of a ballad should be
given exactly as they were repeated "... To be of value to
scholars, songs must be published whole ; whether in the text or
in an appendix is immaterial. Omissions, however well-meant,
give a sense of insecurity.

L. M. Eyre.

Books for Review should be addressed to THE EDITOR OF

"Folk-Lore," c/o David Nutt, 57-59 Long Acre,

London.

)^-

Ifolk^Xore,

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

Vol. XVI]. JUNE, 1905. [No. II.

WEDNESDAY, 15th FEBRUARY, 1905.

Mr. E. W. Brabrook, C.B., F.S.A. (Vice-President) in
THE Chair.

The minutes of the Meeting held on December 17th,
1904, were read and confirmed.

The election of the following new Members was an-
nounced, viz. : Mr. J. C. Davies, Mr. W. Ford, Mr. J. Har-
rower Guild, Countess Amherst, Professor Paul Postel, Mr.
G. F. Bridge, Mr. F. G. D'Aeth, Mrs. C. J. Dennis, the
Rev. J. G. Derrick, Miss F. Barry, and Miss O. Bray.

The Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, the Sion College
Library, the Public Library of Minneapolis, and the Grand
Rapids Public Library were added to the list of sub-
scribers.

The deaths of Mr. D. Isaac, Mr. F. D. Mocatta, and
Mrs, Kate Lee were announced.

The resignations of Mr. W. Hensman, Miss Thompson,
Mr. T. Gilbert, Dr. Brushfield, and Mrs. Naylor were also
announced.

Miss Burne exhibited a Corn-baby from Ulster, locally
known as a "churn," sent by the Rev. Canon Lett, and

VOL. XVI.

\^>:iv

130 Minutes of Meetings.

presented by him to the Society. A vote of thanks was
accorded to Canon Lett for his gift. [See p. 185]

The Secretary exhibited some photographs of a Phoeni-
cian sacred pillar in Melquarts Temple in Malta, sent
by the Rev. E. Magri of Gozo, and also a bottle of quern-
ground barley-meal from the island of Fuda in the Sound
of Barra, sent by Dr. Maclagan.

The Secretary read a note on Fin MacCoul's Pebble,
Carlingford, communicated by Mrs. C. J. Dennis [p. 186].

Mr. Albany F. Major read a paper entitled " The Rag-
narok and Valhalla Myths, and evidence from which they
date," and a discussion followed, in which Mrs. Colling-
wood, Dr. Jon Stefansson, Miss W. Faraday, Mr. Kirby,
and Miss Eyre took part.

The meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to Mn
Major for his paper.

The following books and papers which had been pre-
sented to the Society since June, 1904, were laid on the
table, viz. :

The Mythology of Koryak, by Waldemar Jochelson, pre-
sented by the author.

Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, Vol.
VII., No. I, presented by the Society.

X-fgJieid il Malti fuk ntisserijietna v. I. gganti, Storia ta
Malta Li ma ticJiitbet Katt Kabel I. and II., presented by
the Rev. E. Magri.

Report of the Administration of the Government Museum,
and Connemara Public Library, 1903, 1904, presented by
the Government of Madras.

Epigraphi Zeyla^iica, Part I., edited by Don Martino de
Zilva Wickremasinghe, presented by the Government of
Ceylon.

Buddhism, Vol. I., No. 4, presented by the International
Buddhist Society.

Annals of Gonville and Cains College, by exchange with
the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.

Minutes of Meetings. 131

WEDNESDAY, 15th MARCH, 1905.

The President (Dr. W. H. D. Rouse) in the
Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.

The addition of the Imperial Court Library, Vienna, and
the Public Library of the District of Columbia to the list
of subscribers was announced.

The death of Mr. J. Hodgkin and the resignation of
Mr. S. O. Addy were also announced.

The Secretary read a letter from Mr. H. M. Bower, the
author of The Ceri of Gubbio, regretting his inability to be
present at the Meeting.

A note on the Scoppio del Carro at Florence, by Miss
Jessie L. Weston [p. 182], having been read, Mrs. Wherry
read some notes on " Processions of the Dancing Towers
in Italy," and exhibited a number of photographs and
drawings illustrating the subject.

Mr. Gunther then read a paper entitled "The Cimaruta,"
[p. 132], and exhibited several specimens and drawings of
Cimaruta charms [see Plates]. Miss B. Wherry also ex-
hibited a silver charm-necklace from Italy.

A discussion followed on Mrs. Wherry's and Mr. Gun-
ther's papers, in which the President, Dr. Gaster, Mr.
Thomas, and Mr. Nutt took part.

The Meeting terminated with the usual votes of thanks
to the readers of papers and exhibitors of objects.

THE CIMARUTA: ITS STRUCTURE AND
DEVELOPMENT.

R. T. GiJNTKER, M.A., F.L.S.
Magdalen College, Oxford.

{Read at Meeting, i$tk March, 1905.)

Superstitious observances, which have either been long
extinct or are half smothered beneath a cloak of shame
among Northern Europeans, still flourish with a surprising
vigour in Southern Italy ; nay, are so grafted upon the
ordinary customs as to constitute a very real part of the
everyday life of the people. Foremost among these super-
stitions, and perhaps the most deeply rooted of them all,
is the belief in the power of the Evil Eye, the maroccliio,
or, to use a more entirely Neapolitan expression, the
jettatiira.

Jettatori, or bringers of ill-luck, differ from witches
in the northern sense, in that ill-luck may be brought on
by them unconsciously, and without malice prepense.
This evil influence may at any moment cast a spell on
the unwary. A chance meeting with the jettatore
when you are on business bent, will mar the issue of
it ; if he kindly wishes you " good-day," your day will
be a series of annoyances, if not of misfortunes ; his pre-
sence anywhere will occasion accidents which will affect
all present but himself. Even animals do not escape ; but
the most susceptible to the malign influence are the firm
believers in it, the ignorant, and the very young.

In Naples, amulets intended to secure the wearer against
the power of the jettatore, are to be procured at reasonable

The Cimaruta. 133

prices at the coral and tortoise-shell, silversmiths', and
jewellers' shops, which are patronised by rich and poor
alike. In their show-cases may be seen rows of twisted
pieces of coral, hearts fashioned from bone, shell, and coral,
fists with fingers variously extended or doubled up, hunch-
backed mannikins, pigs, nuts, trefoil, claws, horns, teeth,
and many others besides. For the modest sum of half a
franc anybody may become the possessor of a talisman
warranted to avert all the manifold ills that flesh is heir
to ; and even of up-to-date collections of such amulets,
strung up together on a central ring so as to form com-
plete batteries, which must be invincible in the struggle
against all possible kinds of evil ! But in the smaller
shops, in quarters frequented by a more rustic clientele,
and in the provinces, the amulets are of less modern type,
and, though of inferior workmanship, bear a closer resem-
blance to those of older date, which are often to be picked
up at the curiosity-dealers, and whose prototypes are to
be found in museums.

It is the Neapolitan's firm conviction that an amulet of
ancient type, well-worn and bearing the scars of many an
encounter with the powers of evil, is none the less potent
as a guardian against nefarious influences. It is a fact
that those who believe most implicitly in evil powers are
the nicest in their choice of amulets, and do not entrust
their persons to any but charms of material, construction,
and type, approved and known to have stood the test of
ages, rather than to many of the much vaunted novelties
which hang in the shop windows — such, forsooth, are hardly
powerful enough to protect a dandy's watch-chain !

To-day I wish merely to draw attention to a certain
group of charms especially dedicated to the service of
infants. Two of these, the Sea- horse or Cavallo Marino
and the Sirena, are simple, and often carry pendant
bells like the corals which protected our childhood ;
but the third type, the Cimaruta or Sprig of Rue, is a

1 34 The Cimaruta :

compound charm — of some complexity — built up of parts
which all add to the virtue of the charm.

By a compound charm is here meant one that has arisen
from the blending together of originally separate amulets.
Every single element of the cimaruta is known to exist
separately and to function as a charm with properties more
or less distinct from those of the other elements. Traces
of such separate origin are still to be found in many
cimarzite, in which loops are attached to the individual
elements. These loops are purposeless in the composite
form, and can only be explained like the " rudimentary
organs " or vestigial structures of living organisms, since
they are derived from the functional loops of suspension
of ancestral simple amulets.

Notwithstanding the varied proportions and positions of
the component parts of the cimaruta, a certain uniformity
of plan is always conspicuous, but in its modifications it is
an excellent instance of the laws of evolution. The result
of repeated copying has been that certain portions of some
charms have undergone a gradual process of reduction,
and this no doubt would have continued until the whole
design had become absolutely conventional were it not
for the fact that the efficacy of the charm would be im-
paired by too great a departure from the prototype. The
requirements of technique and of decorative art have
also played a part in the production of series of interest-
ing variations. Rarely are private marks and badges
introduced.

Typical cimarute measure about three inches long by
two inches broad. At the present day they are invariably
made of silver, but in ancient times other metals seem to
have been employed, for the Etruscan amulet depicted by
Mr. Elworthy (Evil Eye, Fig. i6i) seems to have been a
cimaruta, and is of bronze (PI, XL), Nowadays the silver is
so essential a part of the charm that the prudent purchaser
will not take one unauthenticated by a hall-mark, and he

Its StrucHire and Development. 135

will sometimes look for the zigzag scratchings of the
assayer as well. The Neapolitan mark is usually im-
pressed either upon the stem or upon the loop of the
charm.

Specimens of Neapolitan Silver-marks of the Eighteenth Century.

K A P^^^^J MA f

The wearer usually passes round his neck the light silver
chain which is linked in the hole in the stem of the charm.
The work may be executed in cast, carved, or hammered
silver, but very inferior stamped specimens of modern
manufacture are common, many being especially made
for antiquity-hunters.

The branching framework of the charm is said to be
a representation of the "sprig of rue," implied in the
name cima di ruta. Upon the branches of this sprig are
placed other emblems, as are the ornaments on a Christmas
tree.

In a cimaruta of good workmanship we can recognise
the following emblems :— (i) Rue, (2) Hand, (3) Moon,
(4) Key, (5) Flower, (6) Horn or Fish, (7) Cock or Eagle ;
occasionally (8) Heart in especially elaborate specimens,
probably of later date, when other emblems, such as (9)
Serpent, (10) Cornucopia, (11) Cherub, may also occur.

These emblems are added to the rue, much as the
symbolic figures which we find in many Gnostic gems and
medals are grouped around an eye (cf. Jahn, Aberglauben
de: bosen Blicks), and have been picked out for the purpose
of increasing the efficacy of the charm.

36 The Cimaruta

I will now deal separately with the component elements
of the cimaruta. And, first as to the sprig of rue.

I. Rue.

No one would connect these charms with the rue, were it
not for their name, for they might represent most other
branching structures with equal truth. However, on com-
paring some cimarute with rue-sprigs, with ripening fruits
culled during the later months of the year, a certain analogy
can be perceived.^

The stems of the rue bear alternate, petiolate and very
much divided leaves (Pis. X. and XL). The yellow flowers
are disposed in corymbs at the summit of the branches ; the
calyx is persistent, and divided into four or five segments ;
the corolla consists of as many oval petals, and is longer
than the calyx. The fruit-bearing sprays bear lanceolate
bracts near the bases of the fruits. It would appear that
the cimaruta was modelled rather from the fruiting spray
than from any other part of the rue plant ; for although in
some of the type shown in Plate XV., Fig. 19, there are
many small processes which presumably represent the
lanceolate bracts borne upon the fruiting sprays, the leaves
do not ever seem to be represented.

The following features may be recognized as common to
both the fruiting spray of the rue and its imitation :

(i) There are three main terminal branches.

(2) The branching is alternate, and not opposite (like a
trident).

(3) There are swellings at the ends of all the branches.
If we select for comparison the least conventional of the

cimarute, we shall be struck by other points of resemblance
to the natural prototype. The knobs at the ends of the

^ The species most frequently grown in our English gardens is Ruta
graveolens L., which is common in Greece and Italy, and was probably
the irriyavov of Dioscorides. K. ?noniana and R. ckakpensis are species
of shrubby habit found in Greece.

Plate X.

SPRIGS OF RUE.

Photographed l.y .Mr. .\. H. Church from plants
grown in the Physick Garden at O.vford.

To face p. 1 36.

Plate XI.

It Rutahortenfts.
Garden Rue.

RUE PLANT.

After Gerard's Herbal, 1597.

LUNARIA. ASSYRIAN AMULET.

After a 15th Century After Lajard, Cultc

drawing. de Mithra.

BOLOGNA AMULET.

After Eluorthy, Fig. 161.

To face p. 137.

Its Structure and Development. 137

branches of the charm will be seen to be divided into
segments, in very fair imitation of flower-buds or seed-pods
copied by unscientific craftsmen. In this connection a
comparison with the old engravings of the herbalists will
prove instructive {cf. Gerard, Herbal, p. 12, PL XL). On the
whole, when we consider how easily a conventional design
may depart from scientific truth when repeated by men
who never saw the real thing in their lives, it is a matter
for surprise rather than the reverse that there should be any
trace at all of the rue-sprig in the conventional cimaruta.

Unmutilated silver cimarute representing the rue-sprig
without extraneous emblems are rare at the present day ;
but a bronze amulet found at Bologna (PI. XI.) is of this
type, and, like the modern forms of the charm, the three
main branches with twigs ending in small swellings are
conspicuous.

Lest it should be thought that too much importance
is attributed to the three-fold branching, which may be but
an accidental arrangement, I must remind my readers that
this branching has been considered by some to have a
more recondite significance. Mr. Elworthy {Evil Eye,
p, 348) observes that he "can come to no other con-
clusion than that the three branches are typical of Diana
triformis or of her prototypes," but as the alternate
character of the branching is true to nature, I hesitate
to see the diva triformis in this triplicity.

We now pass to the consideration of the peculiar quali-
ties of rue which have given rise to the use of silver images
of it to counteract fascination.

Rue, or " herb of grace," has always hf.d a widespread
medicinal reputation. Eighty-four maladies were known
to be treated by it in Pliny's day. Judges of Assizes
no less than the contemporaries of Aristotle believed in its
efficacy ; a bunch of the herb sufficed to keep gaol-fever
from the august bench; a tuft, worn as an amulet was
thought to disarm the power of witchcraft. Even weasels.

138 The Cimaruta :

wrote Pliny, protected their pelt with rue before hazarding
themselves in combat with the serpent. At the present
day in Khorasan they burn an allied odoriferous herb
{Pegamun harmala) to purify the air.^

A very large proportion of the attributes of rue are
shared by the class of plants which are associated with the
Moon. The Botrychhnn lunaria (Moonwort),'-^ Artemisia
(Southernwood and Mugwort), and Origamun dictamnus
(or Cretan Dittany) are all supposed to repel serpents,
thus possessing the property ascribed to the Moon in
the Vedic books. The plants of the Moon have all
to a greater or less degree acquired some share in
the characteristics of the Moon-deity, who has been
regarded as having all waters and moisture in the world
under general control, and as more particularly exer-
cising an influence on the diseases of the mind, on the
dew of early morn which refreshes all vegetation, the sap of
plants on which their growth and multiplication depends,
on child-birth and the health of women. And so plants
which either by experience or by the doctrine of signatures
or otherwise are believed to be cures for ailments directly
related to the sphere of influence of the moon, are regarded
as intimately connected with the deities who were thought
to personate that luminary. The Moon-Daisy and other
composite flowers have become consecrated to the god-
dess Lucina, who presided over the birth of children ; and
there is little doubt but that the Rue, although a nostrum
of wider application, belonged to the same category ; for
in the fifth century B.C. it was described by Hippocrates as
promoting the catamenia, and nearer our own time Boerhaave
states that he employed it successfully in the treatment of
several feminine complaints.^ It is therefore not surprising

^ Aitchison, Notes on the Products of W. Afghanistan, p. 149.
^Our illustration oi Lunaria (PI. XI.) is from the 15th century Bodleian MS.
Add. A. 23, f. 78.

2 In the 15th century botanical MS. in the Bodleian Library (MS. Selden

Its Structure and Development. 139

to find that in an ancient floral vocabulary Rue should be
entered as the floral sign or emblem of the " Fecundity of
Fields" {Dierbach, Flojm Mytliologica der Griechen und
R'dmer).

Very many other virtues have at various times been
ascribed to Rue, but these in my opinion have for the
most part nothing whatever to do with the cimaruta as
at present used in Southern Italy. Amongst other pro-
perties is its utility in cases of madness and nightmare/
and, according to the teaching of the Salerno School,
it clears the sight as well as the perceptions of the
mind. The association of the herb with the Sun and
the constellation Leo, briefly alluded to by Culpeper^
{English Physitian Enlarged^ 1656, p. 324), has an
astrological significance probably foreign to those asso-
ciations with the Moon which are our more immediate
concern.

The silver Rue-sprig, then, as the basis of the cimaruta
is potent as the more or less realistic representation of the
part of the rue-plant or the material curative agent con-
cerned with fertility and child-birth. It represents the
influence of the lunar deity, and although but rarely found
as a simple amulet, it forms the foundation of a compound
charm in which its virtues are enhanced by the addition of
the emblems to be next described.

It will be noticed that the majority of the conjoined

35), known as the Alphita, we read " Ruta menstruis imperat comesta et
bibita. Item ruta cuius triplex est materies, s. domestica et silvestris, cuius
semen piganum dicitur ; foliis et semine utimur." Compare also the earlier
descriptions accompanying the excellent coloured illustration of rue in Bodl.
MS. 130 f. 27 (circ. A.D. 1 100). This MS. was written in England, perhaps
in the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's, to which it belonged in the 14th century.

^ An explanation is given by W. Coles, the Herbalist, in Adarii and Eve,
1657, p. 45. He wrote : "I know not what religion Crollius was of: but he
saith, that the signe of the Crosse which is upon the seed ; or rather, as I sup-
pose, the flower of Rue driveth away all Phantasms, and evill Spirits, by
Signature."

^Gerard, too, affirms rue to be "hot and drie " {Herbal, 1597).

140 The Cimaruta:

emblems have properties similar to those of the rue, and in
examples of degenerate cimarute the rue may dwindle and
be almost entirely replaced by the added emblems.

2. Hand.

Although hands clenched in varied attitudes are often
worn as simple amulets, yet the manofica, or fist clenched
with the thumb doubled under and projecting between
the knuckles of the index and second fingers, is the
only form met with in combination with the cimaruta ;
and I believe it to have been one of the first amulets
added to the rue.

Mr. Elworthy has collected many instances from different
times and countries which show that as a charm against the
evil eye this clenched fist is operative chiefly on account
of its being regarded as one of the most insulting gestures
it is possible to make. The ma?iofica is usually affixed to
the very extremity of the cimaruta, where its rude strength
may receive the full brunt of the attack of evil and speedily
avert it. Mr. Elworthy regards the knobs at the tip of
every twig of the rue spray as indicating this powerful
emblem, but it seems more likely that they are, as we
have already pointed out, simply the buds or fruits of
the rue.

Clenched fists are extensively used in combination with
one or more of the other amulets. We find it combined
with the moon, with the key (PI. XIV., Fig. 4. i.), and with
a flower (Fig. 2. iii.), and the latter combination is the one
which is used in the peculiar bodkins the Sorrentine
women wear in their hair (p. 144).

As a simple talisman, a hand with extended first and
fourth fingers occurs both by itself and in combination with
the flower or other emblem, but not with the sprig of rue.
It may be taken to possess the same properties as a pair
of horns or a two-horned crescent.

Its Structure and Development. 141

3. Moon.

It is rare to find a cimaruta without the lunar emblem :
it usually takes the form of a crescent, with a well-moulded
face between the horns. The jettatura is baffled by the
two-horned phase with greater certainty than by the more
benign face of the full moon ; occasionally, however, repre-
sentations of the full moon are included in the compound
charm, and sometimes in addition to the crescent.

When the crescent is worn as a separate charm by
human beings, a simple loop for suspension is fixed to the
upper part and the charm is worn upright, with face
looking forward ;^ but the brass crescents of donkeys,
horses, and other domestic animals are hung face
downward, a position at once suited to the gait of the
quadrupeds and identical with that of the crescents repre-
sented in statues of their divine protectress, Diana of the
Ephesians. It follows naturally that the upright moon
should be the one more frequently adopted on the
cimaruta, and we find it to be so in most cases. The excep-
tions are generally when the crescent is represented in
especial relation to some other emblem, such as the fist,
which is then mounted between the horns of the crescent,
like the familiar emblems on the face-plates of English
cart-horses. It may be noted that, when in combination
with the cimaruta, the loop for suspension of the crescent
almost invariably survives as a small silver tag, which may
or may not be perforated. The persistence of the loop is a
clue to a very important fact concerning the origin of the
combined charm, namely, that the crescent was at first a
separate pendant amulet, probably of greater antiquity
than the rue-sprig, and that it was hung with others on the
rue-sprig like keys on a bunch.

An erroneous interpretation of this part of the charm has
been given by Mr. Rolfe {Naples in 1888, p. 117), who has

^ In ornate specimens a perforated crown takes the place of the simple loop.

142 The Cimaruta :

been followed by Mr. Elworthy {Evil Eye, p. 345), in look-
ing on the crescent moon as entwined by a serpent, one of
whose coils forms the suspension-loop. Now, although I
have carefully examined several cimarute of the type
figured, including Mr. Rolfe's specimens, from which the
drawing in question (PI. XIL) is believed to have been
prepared, I have not been able to detect the serpent nor
to convince myself of the existence of anything but the
thickened rim of the moon-emblem and of its loop for
suspension.

On first thoughts it would seem that the close associ-
ation of antagonistic emblems (such as the moon and the
serpent undoubtedly are), in one amulet, might detract
from the power of the whole against evil, but that that
view has not always been held is clear from the appear-
ance of both serpent and lunar emblems in cimarute of
a somewhat rare type, but even then they are not in
close association.

In a particular series of charms (Figs. 12-15) we find that
the lateral rue twigs have been curved and bent round so
as to enclose the central portion of the charm in a manner
that is very suggestive of the crescent emblem, and we are
inclined to think that the silver-worker when executing
these amulets was influenced by the idea of the horned
moon being an essential part of the cimaruta.

Archaeological evidence, I imagine, would show that the
clenched fist and the crescent are the oldest of all the
cimaruta emblems, and that the downcast form of crescent
is more ancient than the upright form.

4. Key.

In most cimarute a key is placed near the moon. This
emblem, like the crescent, can boast a considerable anti-
quity, for it was used as an amulet by the Etruscans, witness
the finger-rings with tiny key-charms in the Bologna
Museum (Elworthy).

Plate XII.

CIMARUTA No. 23b.

(Friirn Rolkk, Nap/es in i8S8.)

The rim and Irpop of suspension of the moon have been
erroneously represented as a serpent, and the cordate shape
of the handle of the key is too pronounced. More accurate
drawings of the Cimarute of similar type are shown on
Plate XVI.

To face p. 142,

Its Structure and Development. 143

The key of the cimaruta is now of the modern type. Its
form seems to have been derived from that of the beautiful
and ornate keys of the cinquecento. When keys are worn
as simple amulets the bows are more elaborately worked
than those of the keys in the cimarute ; they may be
wrought to the design of scrollwork, or be drilled with one,
three, or four perforations ; and in especially ornate
examples I have seen the two-headed eagle (PI. XIV.).
Crossed keys, evidently suggested by the keys of St. Peter,
are occasionally worn as a charm. When in combination
with the cimaruta, the bow of the key is generally trefoil-
shaped, but I cannot accept Mr. Elworthy's theory that the
handle of the key was intended to symbolize a heart. He
may have been misled by an illustration (PL XII.) in which
the artist has drawn this part more like a heart than the
original warranted, for there is no more reason to think a
heart was intended than that Diana Triformis was especially
symbolized by the trilobed perforation of the bow. The
shape is only the outcome of a striving after beauty of form.

Whether or not the key is a " conventionalized repre-
sentation of the crux a)isata" (Elworthy, p. 353), which was
used as a charm in ancient Egypt and in modern Cyprus,
I am unable to say ; but there is no doubt that the
key was the proper attribute of Jana,^ the form in which
Diana opened and closed the gates of night, and thus finds
an appropriate place with the rue - and the crescent. Mr,
Rolfe has also drawn attention to the so-called key which
was found in the hand of Isis, discovered at Pompeii ; but
is it not possible that this may really have been a sistrum,
or some other object, which was the real prototype of the
" key " of the cimaruta .''

^ Mr. Elworthy points out that the Neapolitan word for witch hjanara.

"^ In this connection it will be remembered that certain moon-plants, such as
the Moonwort Fern {Botrychium lunaria), like the Mistletoe and the
Artemisia, are, like the Schlussel-bluine (or Primrose), plants which have the
power of opening locks.

144 -^^^ Cimaruta :

5. Flower.

The flowers which occur in cimarute fall into two groups :
firstly, there are the flowers with few (four or five) petals,
which recall the flowers of the rue (Figs, 19, 23); and,
secondly, there are the flowers which have more numerous
petals, which we shall term moon-flowers (Figs. 24, 27a),

The rue-flowers are sometimes represented as growing
naturally at the ends of the twigs, and each is then formed
from a separate sheet of silver, beaten into the shape of a
bell and fixed to the twig (similarly the knobs in which
the branches end may be considered as the flower buds or
seed capsules of the rue), but often the workman by mould-
ing the cimaruta from one piece of silver has displayed the
flower flatly, so that it presents the appearance of having
been clumsily stuck on by one petal (Plate XVI., Fig. 23D).

The flowers are sometimes independent of the sprig, and
are then supported by one of the other constituents of the
charm. A common example of this is the flower held in
the clenched fist, a combination often to be met with as a
separate amulet. This charm is seen in its greatest perfec-
tion in the silver spaditii worn by Sorrentine women in their
hair. The flowers have four petals.^ There is no absolute
proof that these bodkin-flowers are related to the flowers
on the cimaruta ; there may be cruciferous flowers which
resembled the periwinkle or violette des sorciers, in that
they may once have been used in the manufacture of
amulets. But, bearing in mind the fact that this particular
type of charm is especially worn by women, a more
probable explanation is that the flower is either beneficial
to the fair sex or else is the emblem of something that

^ One specimen examined had evidently been slightly damaged, and so,
apparently with the intention of concealing the injury, the silversmith had bent
and engraved the four petals so that the mutilated one might form the head of
a bird, the three undamaged petals forming the wings outstretched and the
tail (Fig. 2. iii.). For a photograph of an entire spadino, see Italian Jeivellery
collected by Signor Castcllani, PI. lo, published by the Arundel Society, 1868.

Its Sir nocture and Development. 145

is. Now the orange-blossom plays so important a part in
marriage customs, and at the same time is so closely related
to the Rue (for both are of the same tribe Riitales) and is
also so frequently found with four petals only, that I have
no hesitation in associating the spadino flowers with the
orange-blossom.

Sometimes flowers are carried by birds in their beaks,
and are then more difficult to identify; and their presence
as part of a charm against the evil eye is not easy of
explanation, except in the belief of the ancients that birds
are endowed with a marvellous knowledge of the medicinal
properties of herbs. Hawks and eagles, to become far-
sighted, plucked hawkweed and wild lettuce respectively ;
pigeons and doves used vervain or pigeon's-grass, to
counteract any dimness of sight which might prevent them
from seeing their enemy, the hawk. So in these charms
we may regard the flower as a contribution of the bird's to
the general efficiency of the whole, or else as a private
possession to increase his own power against the malign
power of the evil eye.

The many-petalled flower is not common. In some
cimarute in which I have found it, its stalk is pierced for
suspension, and thereby we may recognize it as an amulet
of originally independent existence. I believe that amulets
of this type are intended to represent certain composite
flowers, which perhaps, on account of their likeness to the
full moon, were dedicated to Artemis or her equivalent.
We are informed that the Moon Daisy {Chrysanthcmitin
laicanthemum), the flower of Eileithueia, or the Greek Juno
Lucina, was used for uterine diseases. When the duties of
the moon-goddess were, transferred to St. Mary Magdalene
and to St. Margaret of Cortona, the Moon-daisy became
known as Maudelyn or Maudlinwort, just as the Mar-
guerite Daisy, another flower of Artemis, was assigned to
St. Margaret of Cortona. And there is some ground for
putting into the same category Costmary or Maudlin

146 The Cimaruta :

{Balsainita vulgaris), the Maghet, Maids or May-weed {Pyre-
thrum partheniwn), the Sweet Maudlin or Herba divae
Mariae {Achillea ageratum), the Mather or Mayd-weed
{Antheinis coHila), and the Achillea mairicaria — all of
which plants, bearing flowers with white ray florets, were
thought to resemble the moon, and to have acquired from
her, by the doctrine of signatures, a certain efficacy in the
treatment of feminine complaints.

Notwithstanding the differences in the cimaruta flowers
Mr. Elworthy assumes that all indiscriminately " must be
intended for the lotus, the symbol of Isis " {Evil Eye,
P- 355)- There seems but doubtful foundation for this
assumption, as no such special virtues as those of the
moon-flowers have been attributed to the lotus,^ which was
the sacred emblem of the sun, the symbol of Osiris, and
typified purification and regeneration.-

And if, as I think, it is possible to explain the presence
of these flowers as integral parts of the cimaruta, as
being emblematic either of the healing powers of the rue
itself, or of the virtues associated with other flowers sacred
to the moon, it certainly does not appear necessary to
adopt a theory which adds to the complexity and hetero-
geneity of the charm at the expense of simplicity and
uniformity.

6. Horn, Siuord, Dagger, etc.

In many cases a clenched fist may be seen grasping
some object, not a flower, which is generally so indistinct
that it has been variously explained as a horn, a sword, a
dagger, or a fish, or as some other longish object, or taken
merely as a bar of silver bridging the gap between two

1 The Egyptian Lotus is a Nyinphaa.

2 An uncontrolled recognition of the lotus can sometimes proceed too far, as
appears from Mr. Goodyear's Graiinnar of the Lotus (1891), in which there is a
tendency to substitute that flower as the sole origin of all ancient decorations,
including the Ionic volutes !

Its Structure and Development. 147

emblems to strengthen the whole. No doubt the meaning
of this charm would vary with the exact nature of the
object held in the fist, but inasmuch as the execution of
this part of the cimaruta is very defective, we can gain no
satisfactory knowledge of what the prototypes may have
been.

I have never been able to unhesitatingly recognize the
fish in combination with the rue-sprig, although it is well
known as a separate amulet. I cannot therefore include it
in our list of symbols, for although Mr. El worthy {Evil
Eye, p. 355) mentions it, he does not give an illustration of
it. Horns as amulets contro al fascino (Jorio) are of so
great an antiquity and so widely distributed that it would
be a matter for surprise that they have not been invariably
added to strengthen the collection of cimaruta emblems,
were it not that for a long period the elements in the
combination were chosen simply for their efficacy in matters
relating to childbirth, and that the moon-goddess in this
capacity was sufficiently represented by the crescent.

7. Cock.

Occasionally in cimarute of elaborate design one or two
birds are added to the other emblems ; one is usually
represented in profile and sometimes with a flower in its
beak, the other is represented as seen from above and
with wings expanded as if in full flight. The former
bird is clearly distinguished as a cock by his comb, the
latter has been identified as an eagle, but I would submit
that it is intended for a cock volant. It is certainly not
an owl (Figs. 22, 2 5 A, 46).

Three separate theories may account for their presence.
Both cock and eagle can be considered as able to overpower
the evil eye by the power of their own eyes ; the one is noted
for its extreme vigilance, the other for its piercing sight. The
explanation which has been given of the flower in the beak

148 The Cimaruta:

of the cock (p. 145) is in accordance with this view. The
second explanation would introduce a new idea into our
conception of the cimaruta, viz., that these birds are the
emblems of the sun-god, to whom both cock and eagle
were held sacred, and that they thus contributed to the
power of the charm to resist the evil eye. In Lycia both
birds were sun-emblems, and were associated with the
triscele. But the third idea harmonizes more nearly with the
lunar associations of the charm. The cock, as Herr E.
Baethgen has shown {De vi ac significatione Galli, 1887),
was associated with Diana as well as with Proserpine,
.^sculapius, and other divinities — an association which is
still preserved in two hair-pins I purchased in Fiume. In
one, the cock is modelled in a sitting position above the
head of a female figure, supposed to be Diana ; in the
other, the bird is represented with a crescent, a fist and a
bunch of some herb. Occasionally the cock is represented
by its head (Fig. 16) or merely by its comb (Figs. 17, 22),
thus affording an excellent example of the gradual de-
generation and disappearance of an amulet. The resem-
blance between the knuckles of a fist and a cock's comb is
suggestive,

8. Heart.

The Heart, as one of the component emblems of the
cimaruta, seems to me, all things considered, to be of late
introduction. It is not certain that it was employed as an
emblem by the Greeks or Romans when the cimaruta is
believed to have had its beginning, it is not of frequent
occurrence in the charms, it is not present in many of the
most typical nor most elaborate ; and where we come upon
the heart-emblem most highly developed, there the rue is
degenerate, and tends to be superseded by the newer
element.

Let me repeat at the outset that the theory that the
bow of the key was originally intended to represent a

Plate XIII.

CIMARUTA.

A flower has fallen from the middle branch on the left.
This specimen is described on p. i6i as No. 45.

To face p. 149.

Its Strtictu7'e and Development. 149

heart cannot be accepted : such an interpretation of the
emblem is an attempt to find by force as many different
emblems as possible in the cimaruta.

In charms of various types, hearts do, however, make
their appearance as distinct emblems. One or two hearts
are to be seen suspended from a branch of the rue sprig
(Fig. 27) or sometimes held by a fist grasping it by the
large blood-vessels, which are sometimes very clearly
modelled (Fig. 28).

In charms of another type (No. 45, Plate XIII.) we find
the heart in the correct position anatomically, in the centre
of the group of emblems which constitute the entire charm.
The heart may form the centre of a degenerate rue sprig
and in extreme cases (PI. XIII.) may entirely take its
place, becoming the nucleus around which the other
emblems are attached. In the latter case we find a
tiny perforation or hole above the heart, which, like the
hole in the tag above the moon, is a survival of an original
loop for suspension.

In Naples hearts made of bone, coral, silver, gold, or
other material are commonly worn as simple amulets. In
their modelling the main blood-vessels are occasionally
indicated ; but more frequently by a curious alteration of
the design the blood-vessels are represented as flames,
such as those seen rising from the Sacred Heart venerated
by Roman Catholics. But from the hearts in the cimaruta
flames are never found issuing, blood-vessels not un-
frequently.

9. Serpent.
The serpent emblem as an integral part of the cimaruta
is of exceptional occurrence, perhaps for the reason already
adduced ; namely, that the moon is its bane, and that in
consequence their presence side by side did not make for
the potency of the charm. Still, w^ien as in the very
ornate specimen in the Empire style figured in Plate XVII.,

150 The Cimaruta :

29, we find both moon and serpent combined in the same
amulet, we can only assume that the work was executed
by a generation of workmen ignorant of the antagonism
between the separate emblems.

There have been many traditions woven around the
serpent. In his Sanskrit names drig visha or drishti
visha ( = "having poison in the eye") we have indications
of his supposed power of killing at a glance, and in the
Greek name o0i?, of supernatural vision. These attributes
would make him an argus-eyed antagonist, and one to deal
death to the powers exercising fascination.

1 am strongly of the opinion that there is a close relation
between the inclusion of the emblem of the healing art
among the cimaruta emblems and its presence in certain
early illustrations of medicinal herbs. Several of the plants
depicted in the Herbarium Apuleii Platonica, printed in
Rome soon after 1480,^ are represented as being closely
connected with serpents, scorpions, and other animals,
which for the most part are the venomous animals against
whose bites or stings the herbs were useful.^ The serpent
of the cimaruta may therefore in one sense be regarded as
akin to a shop sign, like the red serpentine stripe on the
barber's pole,^ meaning that the charm, like the barber,
is efficacious even in the case of serpent-bite.

It is well known that Isis as the sign of her profession
of a lady-doctor wore an asp crown, but, on the other
hand, in an Egyptian wall painting, she is piercing the
serpent through the head, reminding us of the original
enmity between its seed and the woman.

I have not been able to trace any oriental or classical

^ J. F. Payne, On the Herbarius. ( Trans. Bibliogr, Soc. , vi. ).

2 A similar tendency is exhibited in the coloured drawings of Verbena and
the serpents in the 12th century Bodleian Herbal cited supra, p. 138, «. 3 ;
and also in many 15th century Italian MSS., of which Canon. Misc. 408 and
500, and Bodl. MS. Add. A. 23 in the Bodleian Library, are examples.

^ The survival of the serpent-entwined staff of Aesculapius.

Its Struct2ire and Developinent. 151

parallel to the Teutonic belief that household serpents or
Unken are not only friendly to solitary children and drink
milk with them, but that their lives are closely related to
one another, so that if the snake be killed the child wastes
away (Grimm and Simrock).

However, in view of the fact that the serpent appears to
be of late introduction into the combined charm, I doubt
whether it is worth discussing further as to whether its
virtues are as good as the Ophites would have us believe,
or its properties those of the basilisk.

10. Cornucopia. 11. Cherub.

Other emblems appear in isolated cases, seemingly
added in accordance with the fancy of maker or wearer
or perhaps occasionally as erroneous interpretations of
some obscure portion of the cimaruta from which the copy
has been taken. Among such we find the cornucopia,
indicative of plenty and good luck, and bunches of grapes
(Elw. Fig. 81), which probably have a similar meaning.
The cimaruta shown in Fig. 28 has a cherub added
to the other emblems. Their occurrence is so exceptional
that I do not feel justified in accepting any explanation for
their presence ; for while they may on the one hand be
regarded merely as elaborate birds, yet I feel certain that
those who see Diana, the moon-goddess, in everything will
compare them with the Egyptian winged Isis or with the
bird-woman Hathor — and thus as being related to the
Sirens.

General Conclusions.

In attempts to reconstruct the history of the cimaruta
and to attribute due significance to its elements, it is but
too easy to go wide of the truth by the adoption of one
theory to the exclusion of all others. Many students will

152 The Cimaruta :

only give heed to the emblems of the sun-god or to those
of Aesculapius, but it is the votaries of the moon-goddess
who will perhaps find most in support of their presumption.
Others, bent on finding relics of phallic worship, will so
interpret more emblems than the occasion demands.

All my searches in museums for links between the cimaruta
and the phallic amulets which were so common in Roman
times, have led us to the conclusion that the cimaruta is
not, as has sometimes been suggested, a descendant of any
of them, but is essentially of separate origin. But, no
doubt owing to the universality with which such amulets
were worn, certain phallic elements were used at an early
period to strengthen the rue charm, and they may have
been inherited from the cult of Isis at Pompeii. In most
cimarute the phallus is represented in the form of the hand
or the horn.

Perhaps the charm had a material origin in an ancient
practice of holding in the hand a sprig of rue culled from
the plant, and later a dried sprig may have been attached
by a mount to a chain or ribbon worn round the neck.
Its efficacy is recorded by Aristotle, and the application of
a herb at child-birth is quite in accordance with the old
Persian lore concerning the seven fruits that charm away
evil influence at parturition, and to which the fatal seven
Hathors turn. The change from the materia inedica itself
to its symbolic representation in a more durable material
is a very familiar one, and in the present case was
possibly suggested by other arborescent amulets of quite
another derivation, like the one engraved upon a green
Assyrian cylinder now in the Hague Museum, and figured
by Lajard in his Culte de Mithra (Plate 2j, Fig. 7). The
amulet, which is represented near a crescent moon, is like
a three-branched spray of olive, and is to be interpreted
as a local representation of the cosmic tree (PI. XL).

The earliest cimarute, in short, may have been inspired
by emblems of a tree-cult and have thus acquired other

Its Structure and Development. 153

properties than those inherited from a medicinal herb, and
may betoken the local acceptance of a world-wide myth,
which some might perceive in the fable repeated by Pliny
of the amicable relation between the fig (one form of the
world-tree) and the rue.

Furthermore, the established practice of associating
objects of various kinds with trees may suggestively
account for the presence of the additional emblems on
the cimaruta. But it should not be assumed that the
individual emblems of the cimarute have necessarily been
associated with the world tree. Among these are the
winged genii of the Assyrian Cosmic Tree, the eagle and
hawk of the Scandinavian Ash, Yggdrasil, the eagle on the
Iranian World-Tree, and the serpent.

From its erstwhile broader significance the rue as we
have seen shrank to be the special protection of women in
child-birth, and the emblems naturally added to it were
those of the lunar goddess, the tutelary deity of maternity ;
and the charm was made of her metal. The silver crescent
and the moon-flower were no doubt soon followed by the
key and by the cock, which, as Herr E. Baethgen has shown,
was closely associated with Diana, an association which is
still indicated by the two hair-pins purchased recently in
Fiume, and referred to supra, p. 148.

There is no reason for believing the serpent to have
been an original element in the compound charm, for
although when worn by itself it might have been supposed
to have intimidated the evil eye by its poisonous glance,
or to have been a beneficial symbol, like the asp from the
Isiac crown or the Aesculapian snake, yet the construction
of cimarute seems to indicate that the traditional enmity
put between the seed of the woman and the seed of the
serpent had not been forgotten. And there are few more
widely-spread beliefs than that in the toxic influence of the
moon.

What cannot fail to impress the student in the investi-

154 The Cimaruta:

gation of this device, the cimaruta, is not so much the
inclusion of this or the other emblem, as the general
conformity to the type, and the almost entire absence
from the combination, of amulets which we might have
expected to find there. For instance, the horn, so uni-
versal in South Italy, is not common. Perhaps so pointed
a weapon was too dangerous to be put into the hands
of infants. The frog or toad emblem (PI. XIV., o) we might
also have expected to see included, for the frog-and-crescent
charm, made of silver, is not unfrequently to be met
with; and that it has been handed down from antiquity,
bronze amulet-frogs found at Pompeii attest. Its absence
may be explained by the fact that, as the frog had no
connection with Diana Lucina, there was no reason for
combining it with the cimaruta, and lack of original
motive may unconsciously have been operative through
the ages.

A similar explanation might be offered for the most
remarkable fact of all, namely, for the almost entire
absence of the Christian element from the cimaruta. The
antagonism between amulets which have remained pagan
and those which have been adopted as Christian has
not yet been allayed. The only exceptions known to
me are three in number, viz. a small cimaruta (Fig.
15), in which the cross appears, and two varieties of
the crescent amulet, one of which has been inscribed
Jesus Maria,^ and the other, upon which some possessor
has scratched a little figure of St, Januarius (PI. XIV.).

We have shown how the potency of the rue and of
the emblems of the moon-goddess as amulets against
the powers of evil was increased by emblems having no
direct connection with her ; prominent among these are
those which are now universally considered insulting, but
which doubtless had originally another meaning.

It is just this change in the exact significance of iden-

^ Elworthy, Evil Eye, Fig. 152.

Its Structure and Development. 155

tical emblems and symbols which we find in different
countries and in different times, that renders the study of
charms at once so difficult and so fascinating. The
crescentic face-plates on our dray-horses are now merely
a smart ornament, the treasured belongings of the carters,
who take a pride in keeping them brightly burnished,
and transfer them from horse to horse ; but in Southern
Italy essentially similar pendant charms avert the Evil
Eye, keep beasts from stumbling, and must be hanging
on the animals when they are blessed by the priest on
the day of St. Anthony (January 17th). Two thousand
years previously the Campanian peasant would have seen
in them the symbol of Diana, protectress of animals,
earlier still the Egyptian would have perceived the emblem
of Isis.

Lastly, let me remark that I am unaware of any
reference to the cimaruta before 1888. It may seem
extraordinary that a charm so much worn in Naples
should have escaped the attention of the earlier writers
on Neapolitan manners and customs, but it must always
be borne in mind that the wearers are nowadays, and
probably always were, principally to be found among
the lower classes, and, consequently, the unobservant of
the upper class have either failed to notice it altogether
or have considered it beneath their attention. Indeed,
persons of some pretence to antiquarian reputation have
denied the existence of these charms or have hinted that
they are only roba Americana, made to be sold to
tourists and curio-hunters.

It is to Mr. Neville Rolfe, the first to write on the matter,
that I am much indebted, as the many references to his
unique collection will show. Acknowledgements are also
due to Mr. H. M. Bower, to my friend Mr. Whitnall, and to
others who have allowed me to examine the amulets in
their possession.

R. T. GUNTHER.

156 The Cimaruta:

APPENDIX.

Table of Amulets connected with the Cimaruta.
(See Plates XIV.-XVIL)

I have found it necessary to devise a simple method
of representing the differences between individual cima-
rute. The following table will I hope be found helpful
in the description not only of the charms at present
under consideration but also of such other objects, like
the inano pantea and the Barone lamps, which are
composed of varying elements.

The composition of the cimaruta is represented by a
constitutional formula in which the emblems are repre-
sented in order from left to right by their initial letters,
and a series of brackets is employed to indicate mutual
relationship of parts.

The following examples will make this clear.

Fig. 2 iii. (Plate XIV.) is represented as H (F).
(A Hand holding a Flower.)

R3 (H— M— H— K— H).

Rue sprig with 5 branches supporting in order from left to right a
Hand — Moon — Hand — Key — Hand.

R3 (H (F) K . bM Cock b Cock (F) b . b).

In this charm one Flower is held in a Hand and a second by a
Cock. A second Cock is supported by the Moon. The two points
divide the symbols into the three groups borne on the branches of the
rue.

A dotted symbol, thus, M, signifies that the loop for suspension is
present.

Simple Amulets.
Elements of usual occurrence.

1. Rue. Symbol R.

2. Hand. H.

a. Mano cornuta.

b. Mano fica.

c. Mano pantea.

The hand is also occasionally found in other positions, but
the mano fica position is the only one which occurs in cimarute.

Plate XIV.

SIMPLE AND COMPOUND AMULETS.

To face p. 1 56.

Its Structure and Development. 157

3. Moon. M.

a. Downcast crescent.

b. Upright increscent. 1 c- i n i

c. Uprilht decrescent. ^'"^^^^ ""' Crowned.

d. Full.

4. Key. K.

a. Bow simple.
d. Bow ornate.

5. Flower. F.

a. Few-petalled Rue or Orange blossom.
d. Many-petalled Moon flower.

Ele^nents of rare occurrefice.

6. Horn. +

Although common as a simple amulet the horn is rarely
found in combination unless held in a hand.

7. Cock (or Eagle .')

a. Side view of entire bird.
d. Head.
c. Comb.

Elements believed to be of comparatively late introduction.

8. Heart. C.

9. Snake.

10. Cornucopias, and \ occasionally appear: also the

11. Winged boys J Pentacle.

Compound Amulets.

2. i. H (M) Hand holding moon Hairpin in authors'

collection,
ii. H (K) „ „ key Elworthy, Fig. 112.

iii. H (F) ;, „ flower Sorrentine bodkins

and amulets,
iv. H (f) „ „ horn or dagger.

A twisted horn appears as a prolongation of the little finger
in a common donkey-charm. Author^s Coll.

3. i. M (H) Moon enclosing hand.

rOnly known in
ii. M (Cock) „ „ cock. - combination with

[the cimaruta.

158 The Cimaruta:

iii. M (F) Moon with flower. Rolfe Coll.

The moon amulet is not unfrequently united with the frog,
PI. XIV. figs. 3. iv. Rolfe Coll.

4. i. K (H) Key ending in a hand.

ii. K (H (F)) Key ending in a hand holding a flower,
iii. K (M + P + H) Key with moon, pentacle and hand.

Rolfe Coll.
8. i. C + Heart ending in a horn. A small iron charm.

Author's Coll.

Compound Amulets (Cimarute).

A sprig of rue forms the basis of the amulet.

I. With a hand, but without moon and key together,
i. Simple forms.

10. R (bbb . H . b). Author's Coll.

11. R ( I bb . H H b). Author's Coll.

12. R(bb .H.b). Author's Coll.

13. R (bb 1 . H . bb). Elw., Fig. 81, Author's Coll.

T? /K I \A \<w\ ( These two amulets are similar, but the

14. R(b I . xi . bb). I lue j^ 15 has been treated conventionally

1 5. Cross (M H). i and has been transformed into a cross and

la crescent.

ii. With the cock substituted for one of the rue-buds.

16. R (b . Cock's head .H.b). Rolfe Coll.

17. R (b . Cock's comb . H (F) . b). Rolfe Coll.

In this specimen the lateral buds are markedly tripartite,
like the trisula in shape.

iii. With the moon.

18. R(b I .HMb.bHb). Rolfe Coll.
iv. With the Key.

19. R (1 F 1 b 1 c 1 1 1 F . H (t) . 1 1 1 c K 1 F 1). Rolfe and

Author's Colls.
Design light, elegant and symmetrical, with numerous
filiform leaves (1) which simulate small horns. The hand with
the horn, the sole emblem on the middle branch, is situated
almost exactly in the centre of an equilateral triangle, the angles
of which are formed by the three 4-6-petaned flowers. Two
heart-shaped leaves (CC) are borne laterally.

Plate XV.

COMPOUND AMULETS (CIMARUTE).

To face p. 158.

Plate XVI.

CIMARUTE (TYPICAL SERIES).

To face p. 159.

Its Structure and Development. 159

I believe this design to be of recent date. It is not
uncommon.

Similar flowers (six petalled) are associated with the pentacle
(PI. XV. Fig. P.), Bower Coll., and with cimaruta No. 26.

II. Rue with three branches ; moon and key present.

(a.) Typical Series.

Under this head are grouped the most typical cimarute.
Other emblems may be added in varying combinations and
positions, but generally they occupy the spaces between two
branches and are often fixed by bars of silver.

20. R (bbb M . H . K b). Rolfe Coll.

The hand does not reach the periphery of the charm and is
but feebly differentiated from a bud. Moon decrescent. In
some specimens the buds are more phallic than in others.

Hall maik r. .

2 1«. R (bb M . b H t . K F b). Rolfe Coll.

Flower of sheet metal, soldered on. Moon increscent.

2ib. R (b H M . b H t . K H b). Author's Coll.

2ic. R (bb M . b H t . K bb). Rolfe Coll.

Both of similar design to the last. The b H t at the end of
the middle branch might easily become transformed into the
moon enveloping the hand which appears in Nos. 38 and 40.

22. R (b F H Cock's comb M . Cock . K bb)

Silver Mark ^g^ (date 1780-9). Author's Coll.

The saw-like structure is not easily identified as the comb
of the cock, but there can be little doubt about it for it occupies
the same relative position as the cock in Nos. 16, 17, 25.

23«. R (bb H . b M b K b . b F b). Whitnall Coll.

2ib. R (bb H . b M b k b . F bb). Rolfe and EI vv., Fig. 8 1 .
See PI. XII. Whitnall Coll.

2ZC. R(bbH.bMbkb.bHb). Author's Coll.

23^. R (bb H . b M b k b . bFHb). Rolfe Coll.

24. R(bHH.bMbkb.FHb) Miss Wright.

The knuckles of the hands bear a strong resemblence to cocks'
combs. Moon increscent. Flower a Moon-daisy.

* The cock might be interpreted as an Eagle by some authorities.

i6o The Chnaruta

2Sa. R (b H (cc) b H (h) Cock .bMbCKb.bF Cock b).

In this type we meet the cimaruta at the zenith of its develop-
ment. The two cocks are clearly distinguished by their combs.
The one to the left is represented as flying, the other as sitting.
The heart (upside down) has, I believe, been derived from
the hand and thumb in the corresponding position in No. 21.

Variations in the structure of the elements to the left of the
charm are shown in 251^ and 2^c. Rolfe, and Author's Coll.

(b.) Series exhibiting variations from the type and a
tendency towards the introduction of new emblems.
26. R(bFFMhK.bCcb), Bower Coll.

A charming and rare two-branched design.
27a. R (C C . K H . b M F). Rolfe Coll.

27b. R (b C . K H (h) b . b M H). Miss Ingleby Coll.

28. R (b C . K F Winged boy . M H). Rolfe Coll.

29. R (1 K M m H M K 1). Rolfe Coll.

The entire design has been remodelled in accordance with
the conventions of the art of the Empire. The middle branch
of the rue spray, has been represented as a serpent. One of
the moons is represented as being nearly full, m in the formula
may represent a small crescent or a flower seen in side-view.
The key on the right ends in a flower.

A less elaborate form is depicted by Elworthy, Fig. 81, but his

photograph is indistinct.

30. R(lkmHMl).

31. is a degenerate form which probably dates from the same
period, but the details are almost impossible to unravel. A
flower on a key-handle, a bunch of grapes, and a hand may
perhaps be recognized. Elw., Fig. 81, and Author's Coll.

(C.) Series showing degeneration as the result of spaces
between the branches being left solid: disappearance
of rue by hypertrophy.

32. R (b M H K b F). Rolfe Coll.

33. R (b M b K bb ). Rolfe Coll.

34. R (b M K F). Author's Coll.

In this amulet the separate parts are almost quite unrecog-
nizable.

(d.) Series exhibiting gradual disappearance of the rue by
atrophy.

i. With Moon face downward.

35. R (H (F) K . b M (Cock) b Cock (F) b . b).

Author's Coll.

Plate XVII.

CIMARUTE (ABERRANT AND DEGENERATE FORMS).

To face p. i6o.

Its Structure and Development. i6i

36. R (H (F) K . b M (Cock) b Cock (F) H (F) . b).

Rolfe Coll.

37. R (b M [ H (F)] . M [ H (F)] . Cock (F) H (F)).

Bower Coll.

A very unusual type of charm. The flowers are represented
as held by four of the emblems and the combination of the
crescent enclosing the hand bearing a flower occurs twice.

38. R(K.bM(H)bCock(F)b.b). Rolfe Coll.

39. R (K . b M [ H (F)] b F . b). Rolfe Coll.

40. R (K M (H) F H). Ehv., Fig. 81, and Author's Coll.

The rue-buds have entirely disappeared, and the typical
branching is no longer recognizable.

ii. With moon upright, face forward.

The rue branching is not recognizable. The arrangement of
the emblems tends to become either radial or gridiron-like.

a Moon decrescent.

41. (KMFH).

Two forms of the flower have been noticed to occur in this

amulet : {a) like those of Fig. 40, made of sheet silver. Rolfe Coll.

{b) cast in one piece with the amulet. Author's Coll.

42. (F H M K F). Author's Coll.

/3 Moon increscent.

43- (F H M K F). Mrs. Vernon.

44- (F F H M K F F F). Elworthy, Fig. 81.

45- C (F F H M K F F F). Author's Coll.

In this fine example a heart has been cut in the centre of the
amulet, the other emblems being grouped radially around it.
(PI. XIII.).

46. (H (F) K Cock M). Author's Coll.

A common modern form, usually of poor workmanship, in
which the various emblems are represented as hanging by
separate bands or chains.

R. T. G.

FOLK-LORE OF THE WYE VALLEY.

BY MARGARET EYRE.

{Read at Meeting, yth December, 1904.)

The present is the second instalment of folk-lore collected
in this district which I have had the honour of reading
before a meeting of the Folk-Lore Society, and it does not
by any means exhaust the matter gathered in the course
of much rambling about the country-side during the last
few years.^

I cannot give the names of my informants, for I do not
know most of them. My stories were often told by chance-
met folk crossing moors, by men stripping bark in the
woods, women in little cottages miles from any village,
and girls who showed me short cuts from hill to hill.
Living, as I do, at the extreme edge of the Forest of
Dean in Gloucestershire, and on the borders of Mon-
mouthshire, my opportunities for collecting characteristic
folk-lore should be great, for I have three racial districts
within walking distance, districts where one would expect
to find distinct varieties of folk-lore, if folk-lore follows
race.

First, there are the Forest of Dean people of my own
immediate neighbourhood — small, dark, and passionate ;
descendants of gipsies, squatters, and broken men. Then
there are the Gloucestershire people of the rolling culti-
vated lands and valleys ; they are fairer, larger, and more
ordinary. Over the river we come to Welshmen, for

^Folk-Lore, Vol. XIII., p, 170.

Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 163

Monmouthshire is to all intents and purposes Wales ;
indeed, I have even heard Welsh spoken there. On the
hilltops there the ancient Silurians are said still to be
found, and the country is covered with moors and great
woods, so that race peculiarities might well persist.

But I must in all honesty confess that, as far as folk-
lore is concerned, I have been unable to discover any
differences. Perhaps as time goes on my inquiries may
lead to some result in this direction, but as far as I can at
present see the same superstitions flourish — I use the word
advisedly — on both sides of the river. And yet the people
are not of the same type, and Offa's Dyke, stretching along
the hither side of the Wye, still divides England from
Wales.

The chief traces we find of " Racial Differences " suggest
another sense of that term. We have many place-names,
whose folk-etymology recalls the long-past border wars
and commemorates real or imaginary battles. Such are
Hewelsfield (Glos.), popularly derived from " Hew and
slay " or " Human slay." Again, Beachly, near Chepstow,
is supposed to come from the English cry of " beat and
slay" as they drove their foes into the water off the narrow
tongue of land now bearing that name. At Trelleck
(Mon.) is the Bloody Field, on which no crops will grow,
nothing but gorse. " Eh, but it have been ploughed again
and again, but 'tis no use ; because of the blood spilt there,
'tis no use."

At Redbrook (Glos.) is found a piece of very mixed
tradition. There is "a pitched road, all laid wi' hmestone,
and stones set on edge ; they do say it was where the
Turks, or Romans, or such, did travel, the way they did
walk. Some calls it the Roman Road, to go somewhere.
They calls it the Turks' Fields."

The village of Trelleck, in Monmouthshire, is specially
rich in "Remains." There stand the Three Stones,
upright monoliths, the " Tre-leck " from which the place

164 Folk-Lore of the Wye Valley.

takes its name: stones which were flung from the
top of Trelleck Beacon to their present position by
Jacky Kent and the Devil, as Miss Wherry told us in
her paper on Monmouthshire Witchcraft.^ The distance
is about 2\ miles, but that was nothing to Jacky;
"He were always a' flinging stones," I was told, and
some of his stray shots used to be found in our own
neighbourhood. Legend said his stones could never be
moved, but alas ! gunpowder has accounted for one at
least on the English side of the Wye.

But there is another Trelleck tradition. If you ask your
way to the three stones you will be answered, " The way
to Harold's Stones ? Yes, Miss," and then directed.
Specially will you be so answered if your informant is
at all above the labouring class, and the information will
be added that " Harold he did set them up because of a
great battle he did win, and if you goes on, Miss, you'll
see the great mound where they did bury all the dead."
The facts of that battle and that victory are real enough.
The late Professor Freeman, in the second volume of his
Norman Conquest, under the year 1063, quotes the chroni-
cler Geraldus Cambrensis to this effect, that " Each scene
of conflict was marked with a trophy of stone bearing the
proud legend, ' Here Harold conquered.' "

It is quite possible that Earl Harold may have taken
to himself stones obviously not of his own raising, though
there is no trace of an inscription on any of the menhirs
at Trelleck. But so definite and detailed is the tradition
that one at once suspects a literary source. Prof Free-
man is not likely to have lectured at Trelleck — is an
acquaintance with Giraldus possible } If so, it is not of
recent date. There stands in the church a very curious
sundial, bearing the date 1671, which was formerly in
the old school-yard. On one face of the pedestal is
carved an excellent representation of the three stones,
^Vol. XV., p. 75.

Plate XVIII.

6
7

SUNDIAL AT TRELLECK.

To face p. 165.

Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 165

with the inscription, " Maior Saxum, hie fuit victor
Harald " ; and on another is carved a dome-shaped object,
with the inscription, '' Magna Mole, O quot hie sepulte,"
obviously referring to the neighbouring mound.^

This would at first sight seem to support the idea of
literary contamination, more especially as we know that
towards the end of the seventeenth century the English
language and English antiquities began to be seriously
studied by the learned of this country. Still, we have
no proof that the benefactor who erected this sundial
was acquainted with Giraldus, and, if he were, I cannot
think that even the most brazen antiquary would have
had the courage to set up such an inscription on the
sole authority of the general statement of Giraldus, (who,
moreover, says nothing of the mound), had he not had
some already-existing local tradition to go upon. I am
therefore inclined to think that the connection of Harold
v/ith the three stones of Trelleck is a piece of really
independent tradition, emphasized and made permanent
by an enthusiastic local antiquary. In this connection, I
must remind you that there is more than one carved
side to this curious and valuable monument. Giraldus
Cambrensis made no mention of the mound delineated
on the first side, and most certainly he ignored the
object shown on the third side, which is to me the most
interesting of all. We have here the round basin of a
well, with cups, and the inscription, " Maxima Fonte "
(the rest illegible), and this represents the Virtuous
Wells — wells still resorted to for their curative powers,
and as a wishing-well. There are not, I think, many
such carvings of sacred wells known, so the man who

^See Plate XVIII. , kindly drawn by Mr. Henry Jewilt from my rough
sketch. The whole inscription is apparently intended to be read thus :
"Magna Mole, O quot hie sepulte !" (carving of mound) : "Major Saxum.
Hie fuit victor Harald," (carving of stones) : " Maxima Fonte, Dom "
illegible, (carving of well-circle with cups and flowers).

1 66 Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley.

wished to perpetuate tliis tradition also, must have been
something more sympathetic than a mere bookworm
grubbing for history.

As far as I can learn, there is no religious legend
attached to the Virtuous Wells, though I have heard
them spoken of as St. Anne's Well by people who did
not belong to Trelleck. There are supposed once to
have been nine springs, though but four remain : they
are enclosed in a walled area, which has never been
roofed in, and is entered by descending steps. It
contains two stone benches and two squared recesses,
besides that of the chief spring, which is honoured
with an arched recess and a round stone basin —
very evidently that figured on the sun-dial. The wells
are situated about a mile outside the village, nowhere
near the stones, and an ordinary stream runs within a
iQy>^ feet of them. The various springs are supposed
to cure various ailments, if used early in the morning,
and fasting. The water of the main spring contains
iron, and very nasty it is, as I know from sad experi-
ence, having tasted it under the impression that that
was the right way to wish. I afterwards learnt that I
ought to have dropped in a pebble and wished as it
fell through the water.

There is also a tank at Trelleck called the Nine
Wells, which tradition assigns as a bathing place to the
"nuns" of Tintern Abbey, some three miles distant.
They are supposed to have come by a subterranean
passage. It is curious that the country folk always
speak of the mins, though Tintern was a Cistercian
Monastery.

Trelleck is supposed once to have had seven churches,
and at very low water it is said that the spire of one
of the last buildings is still to be seen at the bottom
of a pond in the Green Lane. Now this legend is
rather characteristically Celtic, but I will pass on to

Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 167

another subject, that of charming, which is one in
which our neighbourhood takes a great and lively
interest.

We have still living amongst us magic in all its three
distinct forms — white, black, and domestic. By domestic
magic I mean ordinary helpful charms, where the power
lies in the charm itself, and which can be practised by
anyone. " Peter sat on a marble stone," for instance, is
an universal incantation, helpful in itself, to be admini-
stered by anybody. But True Charming — white magic —
is a gift, a power in the possession of one person, wise
man or wise woman, special, priest-like, not to be used
lightly ; communicable only by a species of initiation to
those who are likely to use it fitly, and in no wise to
be confused either with popular charms or with the evil
workings of the devil's servants.

We at St. Briavel's possess a most famous charmer, a
man resorted to by the afflicted of villages ten miles
distant, both for themselves and for their beasts. And
of this man I may boast myself the pupil.

Old Luke Page^ is a partial cripple, but a fine hand-
some old man, with shrewd clear-cut features and a
humorous eye. He is an excellent judge of character,
intuitively suiting his methods to his company, but with
a very real belief in his own gift. In his early days he
was a butcher in good standing, and is a man of some
education. When I went by appointment to his cottage
I was courteously invited to a seat, and it was explained
to me that, whatever I said, I was to give no thanks
to himi. Luke and his old woman — a little shrivelled
thing, with the face of a hungry bird — sat on either side
of the wood-fire, and a weird black hen sat upright like
a penguin in the doorway, and watched me with intel-
ligent eyes whilst the charmer spoke gravely and

^January, 1905. — I regret to say that Luke Page has died since this paper was
written.

1 68 Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley.

reverently of his art. That I came of four generations
of clergy impressed him greatly, and added much to my
fitness to receive the power.

" You do want to know how to charm .-' Well, Missy,
'tis easy ; but you must have the love, and you do
have to be steadfast. 'Tis only for you to have a liking,
and make your mind up, and have a wish to do a body
good, and be steadfast. How to do it .'' Well, 'tis like
this. Suppose one should come to 'ee, an' they have
an arm or a shoulder out. You must know the Christian
name, and, if it be an animal, you do give him one.
You do get hold of the person, and examines the place
and handles it over, wherever the place is, and you will
know by your own inside wJiat 'tis when they comes to 'ee.
You've no need to tell tJiey nothing nor let others
know ; and see here, Missy, 'ee musn't never tell a woman
the way, because of halving the power. Then you fetches
out the complaint. You got to know the Christian name
for it to come right.

" Rub with the right hand and say : ' Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, great God above, send all things right, bone
to bone, marrow to marrow, blood to blood, and flesh to
flesh, in this right arm of James Reynolds. Send all
things right in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost.' Then you do mention the Lord's Prayer. Da
this two or three times all to yourself, handling it. Never
say them the charm, say it to yourself"

" And the same if it was scalds or burns or toothache, or
anything. You got to be steadfast, and you got to say the
Lord's Prayer. The quicker 'tis done after the injury the
sooner 'twill come good."

"An' you got to take No Thanks, but thank the
Almighty, and keep it to yourself."

" I hear you sometimes write charms .'' " said I.

" O yes, you can write this, or som'at from the Bible
for they to carry about, but they must have faith."

Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 169

Now I had been told that Luke used to do some
protective charming every year for a farmer now dead,
in which the burning of salt figured. As this is in itself an
evil and unlucky thing, I asked questions, but got no
answer save an uncomfortable look. But the little old
woman from the other side of the hearth burst out
excitedly : " Burn salt ? why, yes ! you can fetch a man
wi' that ! If a girl have been wronged by a man, or if you
do want revenge, you can fetch him back at midnight.
You do make a good fire, and you mustn't speak or let
any one stir it. An' as it strikes midnight you do put
the salt on the fire, and wishes him back to speak to you.
An' as it strikes you finishes, and him will come, aye ! —
through water ! ! No poker, no tongs in the corner, or him
will take 'em, and stir out the trouble you be making.
That'll bring un back, it will, I know, for I did try myself! "
Here old Luke broke in, " Don't you do it, don't you
listen, Missy. They as are good at charming mustn't do
the devil's work, and that's devil's work, that is."

But that the charmer himself sometimes used to burn salt
in his charming is certain. I do not know if it was a case
of fighting evil with evil, but a farmer's widow told me how
in her husband's time old Luke used to come to charm
the cattle. He would ask for half a pound of salt and
go off alone to the " folder." After a while he would
send it back to the kitchen to be burned. But he would
not tell what he did.

The same woman told me how he cured one of their
farm lads who suffered from nose-bleeding to a dangerous
extent. Physicians were in vain, so his mother took him
to old Luke. — " Yes Miss, he got out the Bible right
enough, and put the key in it, and the boy did turn it
round, and Luke did say something, and the boy wasn't
to touch it after he turned it round the last time, and
the boy did hold the Bible whilst old Luke he did put
the key down his back ; and he's never had no bleeding

I 70 Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley.

since, Miss. Luke he opened the Bible where he thought
proper." This was about four months ago.

I have been told he sometimes gives written charms, the
ink of which is to be washed off and drunk by the patient.
He always looks in his ZadkieVs Almanack to find a
lucky day. (" Yes, Miss, 't will help 'ee, this book will,"
he said to me.) That he suits his methods to his company
the foregoing details will show, but that his gift is un-
doubted I could prove by many instances. He is called
out to distant farms, and both human patients and cattle
are brought to him from all around. Many sick beasts
owe their cure to him, and our late doctor had a great
respect for his knowledge of herbs and bone-setting.

That the methods of professional charmers were the
same in earlier days is shown by the account given me of
" an old tiny lady, very funny, who did travel about, a
charmer she was. She did catch hold of 'ee, an' 'ee
couldn't never hear what she did say. She got it, and
she said, ' That'll do, an you'll find my words come true.' "

Charming leads us on naturally enough to the kindred
but very distinct subject of witchcraft. Here the stories
are endless, for if there be one thing more than another
in which we still believe, it is in " Bewitching." Most of
the tales one hears are very confused and like each other,
and much concerned with pigs.

There is a mysterious Book, supposed to be in the
possession of various women, which is the subject of
trembling curiosity. A certain Mrs, Reynolds had been
doing plain sewing at my aunt's house, and Kate, the
maid, was much excited. ' She's the second daughter of
old Mrs. Williams." " Oh ! she was called a witch, was
not she .'' " " Yes, and her daughters are too, both on 'em.
It's Mrs. Reynolds who's the best one, she's got the Book.
Did you ever hear why she's out with Mrs. Thomas .'' Oh
yes " (very cheerfully), " they did have words, and she did
say something over the pig, and it's never picked up since."

Folk-Lore of the Wye Valley. 171

Then thoughtfully, " If I'd known when she was in the
house, I'd have asked to look at the Book, I'd often heard
of it."

One charming old farmer told me many wandering
stories about witches and their ways. " Witches," he said,
" oh, yes, they old witches did go about wi' packs on their
backs, and if 'ee did refuse un, or make game o' they, why
ee'd be sure to be stopped. They'd say, ' Ah ! never mind,
/ don't need to touch 'ee ' and they did put a spell on 'ee
and curse 'ee ; make children spoonies they did, or club-
foot, or bleed to death, and making the poor animals holler
and bawl, and oh, my dear ! what should be done to they
old women .''

" Now, there was old Harriet Wells. She went in the
shape of a pig, she did. Just before she died they shot at
her twice. They done it twice, wi' marbles in a gun to
prevent her going. But they never hit her. She cursed
them all, the man, his wife, and they were all struck wi'
illness, and prevented their getting their butter, and their
beasts was all nesh.^ So him followed her one night after
they shot at her, an' offered her a sack o' corn not to do
anything to they again. She took the sack o' corn, but
before taking it, her said she must come down to the house
to see what was the matter wi' they. An' she brought an
old pot an' burnt it on the fire, an' they could never tell
what was in it. Then she took the pot an' went off, an'
said them could send the corn. Oh, she was a dreadful
old woman, always tormenting people. Then there was
old Witch Harris ; she did go to a farm asking for
potatoes, and was refused, and then for cider. The
farmer's wife, she said no, she hadn't got no cider. ' O
yes you have, plenty of cider.' ' How do you know ? '
'Never mind, I do know.' 'Well, my husband said I
wasn't to give none away.' ' Ah ! have he t He'll be the
first to regret it ! as you'll have three children born who'll

' Nesh = tender, delicate. See Engl. Dialect Did., s.v.

172 Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley.

lose as much flesh, blood, and bones as he've refused me
cider ! ' And they did, Miss, and they are little tiny
things, the Wrens, they calls 'em ; many's the time I've
seen 'em, grown men, never no bigger nor a child.

" Old Mrs. Rollins, she was a masterpiece, she was. She
did bewitch her son's wife, who took to wandering in the
woods, and it took nine men to find her. So they took
her to the old witch's house, and they got her in and locked
the door up, the husband and the old witch's husband.
And the husband had to get the Bible and the key of the
door and hand it to the old witch, and he said, ' You give
my wife here peace, and unwitch her.' The old witch did
do something with the key and the Bible, and she did
never go away again."

This is an interesting example of the use of white magic
to expel black, rather than a good story. The following
is, however, more dramatic. I got it from the late vicar of
Hewelsfield, a village adjoining ours, and in the Chase.
He was conversing with a clever old cottager, and from
the Bible they got on to spirits and kindred subjects, and
the old lady grew confidential. " Witches, eh ? They
say 'the old witch can't do nothing,' but you and I, we
knows ! Why, there was my mother's brother ; ^ his
daughter was hired out the first time, a fine beardly-
wench she was. One day her mistress says to her, ' There's
old Mrs. Wurgan coming along.' (Now slie was a witch,
as everyone knew.) An' her mistress says, ' If she asks
you for anything, don't you give it her.' An' the old
witch, she comes to the door, an' she says, ' Will you lend
me one of your clean aprons ? ' So the girl says, T haven't
got none.' An' the old witch, she did go on awful ! ' You
wicked wench,' she says, 'you've got three clean ones, an'

' The elder and less sophisticated people always describe collateral relation-
ships genealogically in this way. Names, too, are very seldom used, and even
young people will say " old Mr. A.'s daughter," rather than " Polly A."

^Beardly or burdly = stately, handsome. Cf. Eng. Dial. Did.

Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 173

they're lying folded up in the left-hand corner o' your top
drawer ' ; an' she did go away, saying she'd pay her out for
her lies. An' that girl was taken with the most awful
toothache, she couldn't sit nor stand nor rest day nor night,
nor eat a bite. So her mistress, she sent for my mother's
brother, and he came an' found the poor girl going about
with a face as long as a wet week. An' when he came to
hear he was in a tearing rage, and said Jie'd see about it,
he wasn't going to stand no such. So he went to that old
witch's house, and there she was a-sitting by the fire wash-
ing her pot. An' he says, ' You take that ill-wish off my
daughter,' an' threatens what he'll do if she didn't. An'
she asked, "' What can / do about it t ' He says, ' You
wish it away.' She says she will, an' mutters to herself,
but what she says is, ' Wish it may stay! So my mother's
brother he goes back, and finds the poor girl worse than
ever. An' he was in a taking, and back he goes, and he
takes the old witch an' he shakes her, an' he says, ' You
wish it away, or I'll set you on the fire.' She mutters
again, 'Wish it may stay,' but this hears her, an' takes
her up an' bundles her on to her own fire, an' there he
holds her until she shrieks out, ' Lemme up ! I wish it may
goV And the pain it did go that very minute; and he
got back, and found the girl eating her dinner as smart
as ever."

We have also the story of the man with a witch-wife.
He was thin but she was fat, and he complained of this.
So his wife promised that he should become as well-liking
as herself One night she and her witch-friends took him
to a neighbouring country-house, and the witches all turned
themselves into straws and went in under the doors, which
they then opened and let in the man, afterwards securing
them again. He was told on no account to speak a word ;
the witches then brought up wine and food from the cellar
and the larder, and all began to feast, when suddenly the
man whispered, " Haven't you any salt ? " on which the

1 74 Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley.

witches disappeared, leaving him behind a prisoner in the
house.

This story is, of course, a "commonplace," but it is
interesting to find it accepted amongst our local tales,
just as a story, without name or place given. Here
is a Devil-legend of the same type, which has, how-
ever, been localized, though even there the actors are
nameless.

" Did you never hear tell of the shoemaker and the
Devil.? Well, Miss, they do tell this tale. One night
there was a shoemaker going up the Gloucester road,
very late it was, and there he did meet a stranger, and
they two did get a-talking as they went along. And by
and bye, finding as how he was a shoemaker, the stranger
asks will he make him a pair of boots. So down he kneels
in the road to take the measure, but when he had done
one foot, there weren't no other, only a claw! And the
poor man he makes as though he didn't notice, and the
stranger went off, saying meet him there when the boots
was done. The shoemaker went home half frighted to
death. Early the next morning him did go to the parson
and told him all about it, and what should he do .'' And
he said, ' Make him the boots, but don't you go for to take
no money for them, not on no account' So when the
boots were ready he went to meet the stranger, and the
parson, he did come with him to pray. But the parson
he stayed at the turn of the road, out of sight behind the
hedge, him did. So there stood the stranger, and he gave
him the boots. But when the money was offered, the
shoemaker he wouldn't take it. And there was a great
crash in the hedge, and the stranger rose up in the air and
fled away, and there's a great big hole in the hedge to this
day. Yes, Miss, him did take the boots." The Devil has
a great deal of property in our parts — kitchens and pulpits,
and even a portion of .St. Briavel's Churchyard, a waste
piece where few are buried, save suicides and such like.

Folk-Lore of the Wye Valley. 175

"That's the Devil's bit, Miss, and don't you be buried
there," was said to me by a wellwisher.

Offa's Dyke, locally known as the Devil's Track, runs
along the Wye Valley ; but I have found no tradition
to account for the name, though there is one, I believe,
in Shropshire {Shropshire Folklore, p. 622).

Miss Wherry has told us much about Jacky Kent o'
Grosmont, the famous wizard. Though a Gloucestershire
man, his fame seems better preserved in Monmouthshire,
at least I have heard more about him over the water.
There are people who say they have seen his tomb half
in and half out of Grosmont Church, from which the
dove flew out to show that Jacky had got the better of
the Devil to the end !

"Jacky and the Devil, they was always doing things
together. They used to carry stones over the bridge
just outside Gloucester to build with. There are a lot of
old buildings outside of Cheltenham called the Devil's
Town, and they do say it was to build that} But if
twelve o'clock struck as they was passing the bridge they
had to drop them, and you can see them now, a lot of
big stones lying about in the field."

The Picked Stone at Trelleck is also rejected house-
material of the Devil's. There is, too, the story of a bridge
to be built in one night, on the usual terms, with the
usual dog as victim.

Ghosts we have in plenty, and of the most commonplace
kind, the ordinary road or lane ghost, taking the form of
a black sheep or pig. (I may mention that our pigs
are usually of a beautiful pink.) The following is, how-
ever, worth repeating. Old Mrs. Pirrett lived in Monmouth
whilst her husband was away fifteen years at the Penin-
sular War, and got her living by brewing, etc.- She had

i?The "Devil's Chimney" on Leckhampton Hill? or Churchduwn Church?
^ Cf. attte, p. 64.

176 Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley.

to go and brew at a big house which stood where the
Grammar School stands now, by the Wye Bridge. She
had to go in the middle of the night, so as not to
use the copper when the cook wanted it. She was
crossing Wye Bridge shortly after midnight when a
coach and four dashed past her, coachman and horses
alike without heads, and rushed straight into the river.
She went on as well as she could, her knees shaking
with terror, and went to the front door, the way she
always had to get in at night. A clergyman came and
opened it, in a bath of perspiration, and said to her in
furious tones, " What do you want here .'' " then, " Come
in, for Heaven's sake, quick ! " As she passed towards
the back of the house she saw a lot of gentlemen
standing in a circle in one of the sitting-rooms. "An'
when she came to think of it, she saw as how they
must have been laying the ghost she had met." It takes
twelve clergymen to lay one ghost.

Belief in the fairies has not yet quite died out, though it
is fast disappearing. Still, fairy-tales are yet to be heard,
even if rarely, on either side of the Wye, and in Gloucester-
shire standards are still left at intervals in the hedges
" for the fairies to hide in." (A " standard " is a single
stem, which is left uncut at the first trimming of a
hedge, and which remains, rising like a little tree above
the rest.)

About forty years ago there was a girl at Penallt who
used to go out every night by her bedroom window to
dance with the fairies, always at a certain time, and was
back by a certain time. She always left a pail of water
by a well-swept hearth for the fairies to boil their kettle,
and a loaf on the table. Over "to" Trelleck, a girl told
me that the fairies came out from under the toadstools,
and danced at the Parkhurst rocks, which shows their
good taste, for it is a lovely place. It was also their
custom to dance round the Virtuous Wells, notably on

Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 177

All Hallows' Eve, drinking the water out of hairbell
cups. People used to find these the next morning round
the well, withered and thrown away. They used to
gather them up and dry them, to use in illness. One
churlish farmer dug up the ring, because he " didn't like
all them silly tales." The next day, when he came, he
found the water dried up, a thing hitherto unknown.
And, strangely, it was only dry to him ; other people
could get water. He went again in the morning, hoping
to find some water collected, and found instead a little
old man sitting there, who told him that he was very
much displeased at the ring being dug up, and that the
sods must be put back at once. When this was done
the water came again, but not before.

My next story comes from the Forest of Dean, and
was told by the same old woman in Hewelsfield, who
was so fluent on the subject of witches.

"There do be them as says there be no such, but you
and I, we knows ! Oh ! / could tell 'ee things ! Why,
there was my father. Him did come home one night
all of a tremble, and his horse as frighted as himself.
Him 'ad been riding home through the forest — all
covered in dead leaves, the road were — an' when he
were well on in the lane, the leaves they did begin to
rise up, they did, just a stone's throw ahead o' he, as
though the wind were a-whirling of 'em, an' there
weren't no wind, 'twas as still as still. They did
get up a-twisting and a-twirling, more, and more, and
more, an' always just that much ahead. My father him
did get that frighted, him did ride hard to get past they,
an' the poor horse all of a muck o' sweat. But 'twasn't
no use, him couldn't never get no nearer they, for all
his riding, they was just that much ahead, an' not a
breath stirring. Eh, my father, he was rarely frighted,
he was ! "

By this you will see that we hold the common belief

178 Folk-Lore of the Wye Valley.

that the small whirlwinds which carry columns of dust
along the quiet lanes are made by the fairies riding by.

My last story is of the nature of a " droll."

" Farmer Gag he lived at Ruardean, in the Forest of
Dean, and he was in arrears with his rent. One day
the farmer's youngest son met the landlord, who asks
him where his father was. Lad says, ' He's off making
a bad matter worse.' Landlord asks, 'Where is your
mother ? ' Lad says, ' Baking a batch o' bread as was
ate last week.' The landlord asks where his sister
was. Lad says, ' In the other room crying over the fun
she had at Whitsuntide.' The landlord asks where his
brother was. Lad says, ' Gone a-hunting ; and all the
game he kills he leaves behind, and all as he doesn't
kill he brings home alive.'

" So then the landlord he says : ' Well, if you come to
my house to-morrow at twelve, not before nor not after,
not coming straight down the road nor across the fields,
why, I'll forgive your father the six months' rent he owes.'

" The lad he went the next day, and got there just
at twelve o'clock. * How did you come } ' says the land-
lord ? ' Across the road,' says the lad. ' I told you you
were nol to come down the road nor across the fields.'
' No more I didn't,' says the lad. ' I didn't come down
the road. I rode the old sheep, and he ran from one
hedge to the other across the road, all the way, and
scratched my face, as you can see.'

"Then the lad he was taken into the house, for to
make his explanations.

" ' Now, how was your father oft" making a bad matter
worse .'' '

" ' The cow died, and father he was at the public
spending the money as ought to have bought us a new
cow,' says the lad.

" ' And your mother, who was baking a batch of bread
as was ate last week .-' '

Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 179

" ' So she was ; we hadn't no bread last week, but bor-
rowed from neighbours, and when I met you, she was
baking a batch o' bread to repay the neighbours with,'
says the lad.

" ' And about your sister, who you said was crying over
the fun she had at Whitsuntide,' asks the landlord.

" * So she was,' says the lad. ' She had saved some
money, and at Whitsuntide she spent it all, and she
was crying over that when you met me.'

" ' And about your brother's hunting,' asks the landlord.

" ' What I said was true,' says the lad. ' When we
met, my brother, was under an oak-tree hunting fleas, and
all he killed he left behind, and all he did not kill he
brought home alive,'

" So the landlord he gave a receipt for the six months'
rent that was due."

Margaret Eyre.

COLLECTANEA.

Saint James's Day and Grottoes.

It is the custom of the children in this neighbourhood (Leyton-
stone, Essex) on the festival of St. James, July 25th, and
on the few following days, to erect little structures of clinkers
or rubbish on the edges of the pavement, to which they attract
attention by their persistent appeals to " Please to remember the
grotto."

During the past grotto season (1904) I invited several of
the older boys into the garden and watched them construct
one of their edifices.

The Size varies ; roughly perhaps it is some two feet across,
eighteen inches deep, and eighteen inches high.

The Structure consists of floor, back, side-walls and roof;
the front is left partly open. The roof is formed by placing
sticks across the walls and then piling stones upon them, the
general form of the roof being that of a dome.

Flowers. The outside of the structure is ornamented with
flowers pushed in between the crevices.

Materials. If possible, shells — oyster shells for choice — are
procured, but generally, as a matter of fact, the chnkers and
stones are used.

Candle. The first halfpenny given by the passer-by is spent
in purchasing a candle, which is put in the grotto and lighted.

The Date for making these grottoes did not seem to them
clear. " It is grotto time now," said one, " we see others
building them '"' ; " We keep a note-book with the time for
peg-tops, leap-frog and grotto time," said others.

Reaso7i for Building. None of them knew of any reason
for their erection ; no one had ever seen it elsewhere ; they
had all done it at school, having seen others.

Collectanea. 1 8 1

The observance of this custom seems fairly general in the
London district. Grotto building has been observed in recent
years a.t Barnet, Hoxton, Islington, in the North of London ;
and at Hammersmith in the West, besides Leytonstone in the
East.^ Also some fifty years ago, my landlady, then a child
in the (at that time) well-to-do suburb of the Old Kent Road,
S.E., used herself to make these grottoes, using for the purpose
oyster-shells, which were procured from a fishmonger and
most carefully cleaned, and greeting the passers-by with the
following jingle : —

" Please to remember the grotto ;
It's only once a year.
Father's gone to sea ;
Mother's gone to fetch him back,
So please remember me."

Chambers's Book of Days mentions this custom of grotto-
making under July 25th, and gives an illustration representing
a child standing by one of these grottoes and begging from
a lady passing by. His account is that in London, on the
first few days of the oyster season, children make piles of these
shells with a candle stuck in the top to be lighted at night,
while the children whine out " mind the grotto " — a demand
for a penny, professedly to keep up the candle. Neither Ellis's
Brand's Antiquities, nor Hone's Every Day Book have anything
on the subject.

All whom I interrogated were quite ignorant of the fact that
they were assisting unconsciously to perpetuate an interesting
custom which has probably been handed down for more than
500 years ; and of the real import of candle and flowers. For
these grottoes are almost certainly imitations of shrines to St.
James of Compostella, which were erected in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries in London (and perhaps at other
places in England) for the benefit of those poorer folk who
could not aff"ord the expense of the long pilgrimage to Spain
and yet wished to pay their devotions to the perhaps most
popular saint of that day {cf. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase aiid

^[Wlien I was a child at Islington, fifty years ago, the date of the grotto-
day was August 5th, i.e., 25th July, Old Style. — E. S. Hartland.]

1 82 Collectanea.

Fable, 24th ed., under heading " Grotto"). It would be interest-
ing to know whether the custom is confined to the London
district or whether it is observed elsewhere in England. And
also whether there was a shrine set up in the city of London
itself, or whether there were several shrines set up in the
villages just outside, which lay on the great main roads leading
to London.

The shell connected with Saint James the Great was the
scallop-shell, Pecten Jacobaeus. The children's use of the oyster-
shell is probably due to the fact that it roughly resembled the
scallop-shell in shape, and also was at this time easily pro-
curable because of the commencement of the oyster season.^
For the legend of St. James the Greater and his connection
with Spain, with Compostella, and with the scallop-shell, see
the Lives of the Saints.

Frederic G. D'Aeth.

The "Scoppio del Carro" at Florence.

{Ante, p. 131.)

In the spring of the year 1904 I had occasion to visit Florence
on business, and, by a fortunate coincidence, my visit extending
over Easter, I was able, for the first time, to witness the well-
known annual ceremony of the " Scoppio del Carro."

The " Carro," as it is called, resembles in form rather a Cata-
falque, or Funeral Urn, being a sombre grey-brown erection, four-
sided, and diminishing in size alike towards the summit and the
base. The lines were marked out by wreaths of fireworks, in pink

^ [This seems questionable. Every housewife knows that oysters are out
of season "when there is no ^ in the name of the month"; i.e. from April
to September. Accordingly the ist of September is the date of Colchester
Oyster-Feast, which thus apparently resembles a feast of "first fruits"
partaken of by the elders of the community. Could not some member of
the Society manage to be present at it this year, and send us particulars?
—Ed.]

Collectanea. 183

and white paper, which crowned the top, ran down the four sides,
and encircled the intersecting line. The same "Carro" apparently
serves year after year.

This structure was mounted upon a wheeled base, hung with
crimson cloth and drawn by two splendid white oxen, almost
hidden under their crimson " housings," their horns gilded, and
huge flat wreaths of flowers and evergreens rising high above their
foreheads.

The ceremony of the " Scoppio " takes place on Easter Eve.
Early on that day the " Carro " was drawn by the oxen to its
appointed station on the Piazza del Duomo, midway between the
Cathedral and the Baptistery. The great west doors of the
Duomo were opened, and from the " Carro " to a pillar erected
in front of the High Altar ran a wire at a height of about 6 feet
from the ground. A passage was left down the centre of the
nave, the spectators being ranged on either side, and crowding
the vast interior from wall to wall.

A little after eleven the service began, but in the prevailing
bustle and confusion it was quite impossible to ascertain either
the details of the ritual or the words of the prayers. Shortly
before 1 1.30 the clergy of the Cathedral, including the Archbishop,
came in procession down the nave, chanting as they went, and
issuing from the west door, crossed the square to the Baptistery.
After a short absence (about 20 minutes) they returned, but now
at the rear of the procession walked one of the priests, carefully
carrying a lighted candle. This, I was told, was the " Sacred
Fire " brought by one of the Pazzi family from Jerusalem in the
Middle Ages, and never since extinguished. I imagine that what
my informant really meant was that the candle had been lighted
at the "Sacred Fire" which was preserved in the Baptistery.

On returning to the altar the celebrant, whether the Archbishop
or not I could not see, began High Mass. Precisely at noon the
" Gloria " was reached, and as the first words were sung the sacred
fire was applied to the pillar, which, like the "Carro," was
wreathed with fireworks. This was the supreme moment of the
ceremony ; with a hissing sound, amid a shower of sparks, a dove,
apparently of fire, flew from the pillar along the wire, — it should
have reached the "Carro," and setting that alight, returned to the

1 84 Collectanea.

altar from whence it came, on the success or non-success of its
flight depending, in the opinion of the Contadini, the fate of this
year's harvest. By some unhappy chance it flew no farther than
midway down the nave, where, with a last despairing " fizzle," it
became extinguished, revealing itself as a stuffed bird tied on to a
bundle of squibs. Immediately the spectators rushed upon it,
each trying to secure at least a feather. Finally a small child suc-
ceeded in capturing what remained of the carcase, and went off
with it in triumph.

That evening the walls were placarded with the announcement
of a " Mala Pasqua," and all sorts of misfortunes for the present
year were freely prophesied. A friend who had witnessed the
" Scoppio " on many previous occasions told me she had never
before seen it fail thus, and that the last time it happened was the
year of the late Archbishop's death. ^

The points which struck me most were the curious shape of the
" Carro " and the elaborate decoration of the oxen, which seemed
to me to hint at a possible sacrificial origin.

Jessie L. Weston.

^"Another chapter is devoted to a description of the extraordinary cere-
monial which takes place in the Duomo of Florence on every Easter Eve,
when a firework in the shape of a dove is lighted at the high altar, rushes
down a cord attached to a cart outside the west door, and there sets fire, in
broad daylight, to a collection of squibs, crackers, gerbs, and other loudly-
banging and evil-smelling combustibles. There is a wide-spread belief that if
the dove flies straight to the cart the result will be a good harvest. Certainly
the present writer can testify, from personal observation last Easter, that when,
as then happened, some kink in the cord interrupted the flight and caused the
dove to explode in small fragments inside the cathedral, a general depression
seemed to seize the multitude who filled not only that enormous building but
the whole piazza and the adjacent streets ; and the Florentine newspapers next
morning wrote pathetically of the universal disappointment." — Review, Old
Florence and Modern Tuscany, by Janet H. Ross; Morning Post, 26th Jan.,
1905.

Collectanea. 185

Winning the Churn (Ulster).

{Ante, p. 130.)

The custom of " Winning the Churn " was prevalent all through
the counties of Down and Antrim fifty years ago. It was carried
out at the end of the harvest, or reaping the grain, on each farm or
holding, were it small or large. Oats are the main crop of the
district, but the custom was the same for other kinds of grain.
When the reapers had nearly finished the last field a handful of
the best-grown stalks was selected, carefully plaited as it stood,
and fastened at the top just under the ears to keep the plait in
place. Then when all the corn was cut from about this, which
was known as " The Churn" and the sheaves about it had been
removed to some distance, the reapers stood in a group about ten
yards off it, and each whirled his sickle at the " Churn " till one
lucky one succeeded in cutting it down, when he was cheered on
his achievement. This person had then the right of presenting
it to the master or mistress of the farm, who gave the reaper a
shilling. In many cases, in the times I refer to, the reapers con-
cluded with a supper and dance in the farm-house. The " Churn "
after being cut was trimmed and adorned more or less with bits of
coloured ribbon before being presented; and afterwards it was
often improved in shape, and made neater, by the females of the
household, and more bits of ornaments were sewn on it. It was
then hung on the wall, or over a picture in the farmer's sitting-
room or kitchen or hall, and carefully preserved. It was no
uncommon sight to see six or a dozen or more Churns, the prizes
of former years, decorating the walls of a County Down or Antrim
farmer's residence.

Not long after the middle of the last century the scythe had
begun to displace the sickle or "reaping-hook," and on many
holdings the custom of the winning of the Churn ceased. And
at the present day the introduction of reaping-machines and
self-binding reapers has almost done away with the practice.
However, it still keeps a hold on old farms where the occupier
and his workpeople are sufficiently strong-minded not to be
laughed out of observing an old custom, but though they plait
their " Churn," they do not cast their sickles at it.

1 86 Collectanea.

The reaping the grain was always called '■'■ shearing iho. corn."

The " churn " exhibited is one of six, the trophies of the six

years last past, hanging in the hall of my house. Six years ago

the old " churns," ten or more in number, were burnt, as they had

become shabby.

H. W. Lett.

Aghaderg Glebe, Loughbrickland, County Down.

Fin MacCoul's Pebble.
{A7ite, p. 130.)

Brien Boru, Malachi of the golden collar, and the rest of the
kings of Ireland were parvenus compared with Fin, and the
Halls of Tara a modern villa residence compared with his abode
under the vault of heaven. He and his wife dwelt in and
about Carlingford, County Down, on the banks of Carlingford
Lough, looking across to Rostrevor.

He was a determined giant, and ruled his v^^ife with an iron
hand, but the blood of giants did not run in her veins for
nothing, so one day when Fin was more than usually unpleasant
she told him that she would stand his nonsense no longer,
calmly stepped across Carlingford Lough to where Rostrevor
now stands, and ran up the green slope now called Rostrevor
Mountain. Fin was not only surprised but incensed, so he
picked up the nearest pebble and threw it at her. She was
fleet of foot and it did not hit her; but there it remains to
this day, a huge and slightly oscillating boulder known as
Fin McCoul's Pebble, or otherwise as Cloughmore Stone.
If any one can get on the top of it and wish, the wish is sure
to be granted.

What became of the wife I never heard, but the giant can
still be seen any day in the form of Carlingford Mountain, which
from some points of view might bear a resemblance to the
profile of a man with a receding forehead, an aquiline nose,
and a rudimentary chin, surmounting an aldermanic figure.

L. J. Dennis.

Collectanea. 187

A Cambridgeshire Witch.

{Communicated through Miss Beatrix Wherry.)

Mrs. Smith was born about 18 10 and died about 1880. My
father was then clergyman of the parish (in Cambridgeshire), and
I have heard him say there were such crowds of people at her
funeral that they pushed each other right into the grave, all
expecting that she would burst her coffin. He was obliged to
stop and speak to them, " and a fine lecture he gave them," a
woman told me when lately I revisited my old home, "and
serve 'em right too, for their wonderful ignorance, believing in
such things."

On the occasion of the same visit I asked another old

acquaintance, Mrs D , if she could tell me anything about

Mrs. Smith. "Oh yes," she said, "she used to live near us
and would often come to see mother. Sometimes we would
lay a knife or a pair of scissors just inside the door, and then
she would say, ' I can't come in, my sole is coming off my
shoe,' and she couldn't come in until we had taken the knife
away, because a witch can't pass over steel. Other times we
would hide a knife under the cushion on the arm-chair and
ask her to sit down, but she would pick up the cushion and
say, ' Why, you have got a knife hidden there ! ' "

I then asked if it was true that she had power over animals.
" Oh yes ! " was the reply, " my mother saw a waggon opposite
the public-house down the road there, and the horses couldn't
move it. The man was cursing, and thrashing 'em something
cruel, and the horses was pulling, but they couldn't move
the cart nohow. At last he got so wild, he caught hold of
a pitchfork and drove it into the horse's knee, but even then [!]
it couldn't go on. Well, Mrs. Smith she came down the road.
' Don't treat the poor horses like that,' she says, and directly
she spoke off went the horses as if nothing was the matter.
Then there was a woman here as had a pig as was taken
wonderful bad, a-whirling round in the field and frothing at the
mouth. Well, the woman she sent for a man to kill it, and
he came a-sharpening his knife, when all of a sudden the pig

1 88 Collectanea.

it stopped rushing round, and just ran after the man as was
going to kill it — and Mrs. Smith she come by just at the
minute." " And did they kill the pig ? " I asked. " No, in
course," she said, "it was quite well after that."

" Mrs. Smith seems to have been very kind to animals,"
I remarked. " Well you see, Miss," she said, " if a pig was
hurt, it hurt her too: if they cut a pig on the nose, the mark
came on her face. There was another woman as wanted to
kill a pig as was took bad, so Mrs. Smith she took some meal
and she says to the woman, ' I owe you this,' she says ; and
if the woman had answered she would not have been able
to kill that pig. The children they used to have all sorts of
jokes with her; sometimes they would stick pins into her
footmark and she would turn round and ask them what they
were a-doing of."

"I have been told she had imps," I said, "did you ever

see any?" "No," said Mrs. D , "I didn't, but other

people have." I asked her to tell me something about them.
"After Mrs. Smith died mother laid her out. There was a
chest of drawers in the room and such a squeaking and a
hollering going on inside it like a lot of rats, but when mother
looked in there was nothing inside it. Before she died she
said to mother, ' When I am dead don't you make a peep-show
of me, Sarah,' but mother she did, and I went and so did
lots of others. My sister Mary she saw an imp once; she was
on her way to the mill and something jumped out on her, a
black thing ; it wasn't exactly a dog nor a rat, it looked more
like a frog ; the thing jumped on her and Mary she screeched
something awful and ran for dear life. Mother heard she
had been bitten by a mad dog, so she sent a message down
she had better go to the doctor. But Mary said, no, it wasn't
a dog as had jumped on her, it had the look of a frog. Mrs.
Smith came to see mother. ' Is it true,' she says, ' as your
darter's been bitten by a dog ? ' ' No,' says mother, ' it was
a frog that jumped on her.' 'Ah,' says Mrs. Smith, 'it would
have been a pity if she had killed it.' You see. Miss, if she
had killed it, that would have hurt herT

" Did anybody else see the imps ? " I asked.

Collectanea. 1 89

" Yes, there was a man saw Mrs. and Mr. Smith, a-feeding the
imps out of a box ; that was when her husband was aHve.

There was my cousin, Jim D ; everybody knows he drank,

but not so bad as some, not by a long way. He was coming
home one night, and do what he would he could not reach
home. He could walk straight in any other direction, but
directly he tried to walk home something seemed to stop him,
a-pulling of him back. He climbed hedges, he tried every
way, and a fine state of mind he was in lest the police should
catch him roaming about, and think he was up to mischief.
All at once he thought he saw a woman on a horse, and when
he come close, he saw it was the old girl on a hurdle ! That's
how she used to go about at night. Another man he saw
her a-flying over hedges and ditches on her hurdle."

"There was my brother's little girl Florry as was very ill.

They lived over at T . There was a witch there. Miss.

Well, they put the child's illness down to her. So ray brother
he got a bottle and filled it with water and put in some of the
child's hair and a lot of other things as I can't remember, then
they corked it up and put it on the fire to boil. Then when
the bottle burst that would hurt the witch — that is, if you did
not speak to her ; and she came and she did her best to make
them speak. There was a woman here as Mrs. Smith had a
spite against. She did not leave her house for years and
years, but directly Mrs. Smith died she was all right again,
and so we always says as she was bewitched. Then there was
a little niece of mine staying here with her mother. She was
on her mother's lap sitting near the fire, and she looks up
the chimney and starts screaming awful, and nothing would
pacify her. They took her out of the house cause they couldn't
bear the noise, but directly she was brought back she would
look up the chimney and start screaming again, so we thinks
she must have seen something up the chimney, and it was Mrs.
Smith's doing."

"What was she like to talk to?" I asked.

"Oh, she was always very nice to us. My mother, she told
her plain, that if she tried any of her tricks on our animals,
she would just mark them so that it would come out on her,

1 90 Collectanea.

so that everyone should see. If you gave her anything or lent
her anything, then she had got a hold over you."

Mrs. D had many more anecdotes about pigs which Mrs.

Smith had made ill. The complaint always took the form of
whirling round and round. Many people had seen them in
that state, and as soon as Mrs. Smith spoke to them they

recovered immediately. But in subsequent visits Mrs. D

refused to return to the subject, as she said it made her feel
nervous at night. Another woman in the village afterwards
told me nearly the same stories, and with reference to the
marks coming out on the witch's hands, she declared she had
seen them covered with cuts. She had herself, so she said,
been an eye-witness of the scene, when a man she knew put
a bottle on the fire and "said some words" over it, and
directly the water began to simmer, old Mrs. Smith rushed to
the door and made such a noise that they were obliged to
speak to her.

Hermione L. F. Jennings.

King's Stanley Rectory, Gloucestershire.

Cutting a Waterspout.

{Conwmnicated through Mr. J. G. Frazer.)

The story which I give below was told me by a young Greek
friend of mine, Andre Vagliano, a son of the Paris Vagliano.
He was quite unaware of its real interest and merely regarded
the whole thing as a " funny " incident. There is at least this
advantage in his unsophisticated attitude that he cannot have
read into the ceremony details which were not there ; though, of
course, he may have failed to observe points which were. This
is what he told me : —

" I was travelling to Cephalonia on board the Greek S.S.

Collectanea. 191

Athena in the month of February, 1905. A waterspout was
sighted between Missolonghi and Cyllene at less than a mile's
distance from the ship. On sighting the waterspout the sailors
went down into the hold, drew cabalistic figures on a paper,
took a knife with a black handle, made a movement with the
knife as if cutting something, and said * eKoxf/afiev t»jv rpofxPav.' "

In reply to my questions, Vagliano stated that so far as he
is aware the sailors did not recite any formula before, during,
or after the drawing of the cabalistic signs ; that the sailors told
him that it was essential to employ a ^/^c^-handled knife,^ but
gave no explanation why this was so ; and that it was the common
sailors only who performed the ceremony, the captain and officers
taking no part in it. Vagliano told the captain, who merely
laughed at the whole affair ; and told him that it is a very common
custom among sailors, especially on sailing vessels.^

J. G. PiDDINGTON.

Hotel Grande-Bretagne, Athens,
May 3rd, 1905.

^This charm is common in Greece; see Folk-Lo7-e, vii. 144, 145; x. 163,
168. Compare also vii. 300, from Ireland. — W. H. D. R.

192

Collectanea.

Additions to " The Games of Argyleshire."

{Contitnted from supra, page gy.)

CHUCKS.

(P. 60, after line 24.)

We have received the Hst of movements as played in Uist.
It is verbatim the same as that commencing on page 68 as far
as "Cairteal a cheithir." It then continues —

A. Sgapadh gobagan (a h-aon, a dha, etc.).

B. Sgapadh goraich (a h-aon, etc.).

C. Seatach, also called Cuir a 'stigh na beathaichean, and
Sweet Milk, Skim Milk, Sour Milk, and Cream Milk.

D. Togail nan crodh.

E. A Bhiorag.

F. Sgapadh deireadh, also Black Jock.

G. Seatach game crioch.

H. Sgapadh beag an reisan.
I. Reisan a h-aon bhochdag, a dha, etc.
J. Cul an duirn a h-aon, a dha, etc.
K. Gobag beag mo ghame thoirt dhachaidh.
Of these movements we have received information which enables
us to identify

70, {Games of Argyle).

73-
74-
75-
73-

75-
76.
76.
(One, two, three), p. 70.

Jump the Fence

Is another Argyleshire name for No. 13, p. 70, omitting,
however, the skimming movement with the chuck on the back
of the hand.

the

same as 2. {a) p.

„ 8. p.

„ 10. p.

„ 12. p.

9- P-

14. p.

18. p

„ n- P

J-

„ I. ((

Collectanea. 193

Curly Dog,

The player scatters the chucks, then throws one up and
repeats, touching a chuck each time she says a word, " My wee
curly dog sold pipeclay." At the word pipe the four chucks
are lifted, then catching the one falling and saying the word
clay, the player lays them all down. This demands such rapidity
of motion and pronunciation that one would be justified in
doubting its possibility, but our correspondent. Miss Kerr, has
seen it successfully carried out.

Having received a very full description of the game as played
in the district of Applecross, we give it as received. There it
is the fashion to make the chucks from native clay, hardened
by leaving them exposed to the sun (see Folk-Lore^ xiv. 300).
There are twenty-four movements.

1. Cotg, Deich, Coig-deug, Fichead. {Five, Ten, Fifteen, Twenty.)
Taking the five chucks in her hand she throws them in the

air, and turning the hand, palm downwards, catches two of them
on the back of it. This scores five. Throwing up those two
from the palm of her hand, she picks up one on the ground,
catches the two as they fall on the back of her hand. This
scores other five, and the player is now deich (ten). She then
casts up the three, picks up another, and receives the four on
the back of her hand. The player is now coig-deug (fifteen).
The same movements are carried out with the four and the
remaining one, and the player is now fichead (twenty).

2. Crogais mhor. {Big Fistful.)

Four chucks are placed in a lump on the ground, the fifth is
thrown up, the four lifted, and the other caught as it falls.

3. Crogais bheag. {Little Fistful.)

Carried out as No. 2, but only three are placed for lifting.

4. Crog Mhicheil. {Michael's Fist.)

Three chucks are placed on the ground, side by side, and one
on the top. One is thrown up, and the upper one of the four is
lifted without disturbing the other three and the falling chuck
caught. Putting down the one lifted, the other is thrown up, the
three together are lifted, the descending chuck being caught.

1 94 Collectanea.

5. Coig gun ghliog. {Five without click.)

Played as Deafs (p. 72).

6. Coig na crois. {Cross Jive.)

Four chucks were placed in a parallelogram (the name suggests
the form of a cross), the player threw up one, swept up the four,
and caught the faUing one.

7. Claban Mor. {Big mouth.)

A chuck is placed in the mouth and one on the ground. With
the playing hand the one in the mouth and the one on the ground
are picked up consecutively and the falling one caught.

8. Claban Beag. {Little mouth. It implies open mouth.)
The same as 7, omitting the chuck placed on the ground.

9. Coig an leth shuil. {One eye five ^

Three are thrown up and caught after lifting the two from the
ground.

10. Coig na cearraig. {Left-handed five.)
This is No. i, p. 70, played with the left hand.

1 1 . Coig comhnaidh. {Help five ?)

Holding five in her hand the player throws four up, lays down
the fifth, and catches the four as they fall.

1 2 . Coig mheilich. { Stifi^ {from cold) five. )

Three in hand, two on ground, the three thrown up, and one
lifted.

13. Garadh Mor. {Big wall.)

Four are placed on the ground, extending from the player in a
straight line of about nine inches, the remaining one is thrown up,
the four swept up, and the fifth caught.

14. Garadh Beag. {Little zvall.)

As 13, three chucks forming the wall.

1 5 . Trttsadh. { Gatheriiig. )

As 14, but only two chucks are laid down,

16. Trusadh Beag. {Little gathering.)

As 15, but while the same relative distance between each chuck
has been maintained in 13, 14, 15, here the distance is reduced
to a half.

Collectanea. 195

17. Slipein Mor. {Big slip. Sliop ?)

Two chucks are laid down parallel to the player's front at some
distance from one another. One is thrown up, the two are slipped
up, and the other caught.

18. Slipein Beag. {Little slip.)

Same as 17, but the chucks placed are closer together.

ig. Fad na h-uileann. {Length of the elbow = '•cubit.')

The movement here is the same as "Skips," 18, b, p. 77.

There were^ however, no instructions for the laying down of the

two chucks lifted.

20. Coig na Callain. {Five of the Kalends, the begimiing of a
new period, a month, the New Year.)

The five chucks are thrown up from the palm of the hand, and
must be caught on the back. If the player does not catch them,
all her previous success goes for nothing, and she, at her next
turn, commences at the beginning.

21. Coid ard. {High five.)

The chucks are scattered on the ground, one is lifted, thrown
up to a comparatively great height and another lifted, the falling
one being caught, of course. The one Hfted is laid down, and
the other three are treated in the same manner.

22. Coig iosal. {Low five.)

This is played the same way as 21, but the chuck thrown up
must travel less than the usual distance, and those on the ground
are shovelled up, not lifted with the thumb and fingers.

23. Ao7i choig. {One five.)

The five chucks are thrown up from the palm of the hand, the
hand turned so as to catch them on its back; they are again
thrown up and caught in the palm of the hand. Da choig. (Two
five.) Between the throwing up and the catching the hand is
turned twice, back up, then palm up. Tri choig. (Three five.)
Between the throwing up and the catching the hand is turned
three times, back up, palm up, and back up again. This played
as far as Se choig. (Six five.)

24. Coig dtnlich. {Difficult five ^

This is a variant of " Put the Cows out of the Byre," No. 12,

1 96 Collectanea.

p. 75. The left hand is spread flat on the ground and a chuck
placed within each of the spaces, between the spread digits. One
chuck is thrown up, and with the points of the right-hand fingers
as many as possible of the four first placed are shoved out, and
the falling chuck caught. A second throw must result now in all
four being put out, and the falling chuck caught. The chuck is
again thrown up, the four moved from between the left-hand
fingers, lifted, and the falling chuck caught.

Where the meaning of the names is doubtful, the Gaelic must
be accepted as written phonetically. The sequence given has
been retained, though it does not seem natural to do the more
difficult movements before the easier ones, as in the cases styled
Mor and Beag. With the one exception mentioned (No. 20) a
failure only means commencing in turn where the player left off.

In Perthshire the number of movements has been given to us
as twenty-two.

1. The game begins as described in No. i, p. 70, but if the
player does not catch all five on the back of her hand, she throws
up what she has received and catches them all in their descent
on her palm. She then throws up one of them, claps the others
on the ground and catches the one thrown up ; throwing it up
again she lifts one of those which did not remain on the back of
her hand at the first cast, throws up again, claps down the one
lifted and catches the falling one till all that did not settle on the
back of her hand have been so treated. This counts five. This
has to be done three consecutive times, each completion of the
movements scoring five, so that when finished the player has
added twenty to her score.

2. Oney equals "Scatter One," p. 70.

3. Tzvoey „ "Scatter Two," p. 71.

4. Threey „ "Scatter Three," p. 71.

5. Foury „ "Scatter Four," p. 71,

6. Castle. All the chucks are taken in the palm of the hand,
one is thrown up, the other four put on the ground, the falling
one caught, again thrown up, the four deposited lifted and the
other caught.

7. Cracks. The same as described, p. 71.

Collectanea. 197

8. Double Cracks. Played as No. 7, but two must be lifted
each time.

9. Deafs. As described, p. 72.

10. Double Deafs. Played as No. 8, without the Crack.

11. Tiss the Toe. The chucks are spread on the ground, one
taken and thrown up, one lifted and thrown, one caught, the two
in the hand thrown up, and another lifted and the two caught.
The three now thrown up, another lifted and the three caught;
the four thrown up, the last one lifted and the four caught. The
movement is then reversed, four are thrown up, one deposited
and the four caught ; three thrown up, one deposited and the
three caught, and so on.

12. Clap. The chucks having been scattered, one is thrown
up, the ground clapped with the palm of the player's hand and
the falling chuck caught. She throws it up again, lifts one and
catches the one thrown up.

So it has been described, but analogy leads one to believe that
the ground must be clapped as well as the chuck lifted. At any
rate the same movement is carried on with each individual chuck,
never more than two being in the player's hand at the same time.

13. Double Clap. The same as 12, but two chucks are lifted
each time.

14. Hafiy (Hand-y) equivalent to "Skips," a, p. 76.

15. Arj?iy (Arm-y) equivalent to "Skips," b, p. 77.

16. In and out the Byre. This combines in one movement,
No. 10, p. 74, and No. 12, p. 75.

17. Drop the Eggs. Equivalent to No 9 a, p. 73.

18. Double drop the Eggs. Equivalent to No. 9 b, p. 74.

19. Snowdrop. With all the chucks in her hand, the player
throws up two and lays down three and catches the two. She
then throws up the two and lifts the three laid down, catching the
two.

20. Double Snoivdrop. Played as 19, but three have to be
thrown each time.

21. Lay the Lady. Four chucks are spread on the ground, one
is thrown up and one of the four lifted and the falling one caught.

T 98 Collectanea.

Throwing up the one already thrown up and retaining in her hand
the lifted one, she lifts a second and catches the falling one.
Once more she throws up the same one, deposits the single one
lifted, and catches the chuck in its descent. The same process
is carried out with all the chucks till all have been gone over; she
will thus finish with two in her hand. One of these she throws
up, lifts one from the ground with her right and catches the
thrown chuck with her left, and this is carried on till all the five
chucks are in her left hand.

22. Jump the Dyke. Four chucks are placed about two inches
apart and in line parallel to the player's front. The player throws
up the fifth chuck, lifts in quick succession one and three, and
catches the one thrown up, she throws it again and deposits one
and three in their places and catches the falling one. She then
treats two and four in the same manner.

The Mull game has been described as follows :

1. Five., Ten., Fifteen, Tzventy. This is the equivalent of No. i,
p. 70, but the scoring is by fives, not units.

2. Onesie, Twosie, Threesie, Foursie. Equivalent to " Scatter
One," Scatter Two," etc., pp. 70, 71.

3. Lift the Chair and Sweep the Floor. Four chucks are
placed on the ground and represent chairs. The player throws
up the other chuck and hfts a 'chair,' catching the one she threw
up. Now holding the ' chair ' between her palm and ring and
little finger, she throws the other chuck and gives a switching
movement with her fore and middle finger representing sweeping
the floor from where the chuck was lifted, and catches it. She
throws up again, deposits the ' chair ' in its place and catches it.
The same movements are carried out with all the ' chairs.' She
then throws up the tossing chuck, Hfts a 'chair' and catches ; she
then throws up the two, Hfts a 'chair' and catches both.
She throws up the three, lifts the fourth and catches, throws up
the four, lifts the fifth and catches.

4. Cracks. As 3, p. 71.

5. Deafs. As 4, p. 72.

6. Lay the Eggs. As 9, p. 73.

Collectanea, 1 99

7. Put the Cows in the Byre. As 10, p. 74.

8. Short Span. As " Skips," a, p. 76.

9. Long Span. As "Skips," iJ, p. 77.

10. Dumb Sawnie, Holding all the chucks in her hand, the
player throws them up and catches them on the back, throws
them up from that and catches them in her palm ; if she is suc-
cessful that finishes the movement and the game.

If she has not caught all on the back of her hand, carefully
retaining those she has caught, she pinches up between her
extended fingers those on the ground, of course only using her
right hand. If from this position she can throw up the whole five
and catch them in her palm, the result is the same as if the first
movement had been successful.

In Barra the game appears in a very rudimentary form. It is
called lomairt (driving, playing) simply. It is played with three
chucks, and has but two movements, each of which is repeated
four times, a separate name being applied to each repetition.

1 . Toosh.

2. Teesh.

3. Uainnish.

4. Caisteal.

Each of these is played as follows :

Taking the three chucks in her hand, the player throws them
up and catches them on the back of her hand, or as many of them
as she can. If she has caught them all, the movement is com-
plete. If only one has been caught, she tosses it up, lifts one of
the two that are on the ground, and catches in the front of her
hand. She again throws one up, deposits the one lifted and
catches. The same is done with the second one. If two have
been caught on the back of her hand after the first throw, she
tosses them^ up and catches them, tosses one up, deposits the
other and catches. Throws up, lifts the third chuck and catches,
throws up, deposits, and catches.

5. One.

6. Two.

7. Three.

8. Four.

200 Collectanea.

These are played thus :

The three chucks are disposed of as described in the first six
lines of "Scatter One," p. 70. One is lifted and thrown up, the
other two are lifted and the first one caught. One of the three
is thrown up, the other two deposited, and the one thrown caught.
This finishes the game.

In the Black Isle, Ross-shire, the game is called Five Stofies.
One, Two, Three, Four, p. 70, are spoken of as Onesie, Twosie,
Threesie, Foursie, and other movements are called :

Crawls.

Wash the Dishes.

Cream the Milk.

Change the Money.

Skites.

Climb the Ladder.

Catch the Fish.

Up cust, down cust.

Though these names are vouched for, we have been unable to
get descriptions so as to identify them.

In Kintyre the local pronunciation of Chucks is " Jecks."

CIRCLING.

(P. 86, after line 3.)
The Lodger is Dead

As played in the Outer Hebrides, deals also with apples, the
words being EngUsh. Two girls, one of them on her knees,
her companion covering the head of the kneeling one with
her apron, are surrounded by a circle of companions moving
slijwly round them, singing the while —

" The lodger is dead, and laid in his grave,
Laid in his grave, laid in his grave.
The lodger is dead, and laid in his grave,
Ae, aye, laid in his grave."

Collectanea. 201

Pretending to be planting a tree, the ring sings —

" They planted an apple-tree over his head,
Over his head, over his head,
They planted an apple-tree over his head,
Ae, aye, over his head.

When the apples got ripe, they all fell off.
They all fell off, they all fell off,
When the apples got ripe, they all fell off,
Ae, aye, they all fell off."

The girl whose apron has been over the dead lodger's head
pretends to gather the apples into her apron, while the ring
sings —

" The woman began to pick them up,
To pick them up, to pick them up,
The woman began to pick them up,
Ae, aye, to pick them up."

The lodger rises, strikes the apple-gatherer, while the ring sings —

" The lodger got up and gave her a knock,
Gave her a knock, gave her a knock,
The lodger got up and gave her a knock,
Ae, aye, gave her a knock."

The lodger and the woman now hop about, while the surrounding
ring sings —

" The lodger gets up and goes hippity hop,
Goes hippity hop, goes hippity hop,
The lodger gets up and goes hippity hop,
Ae, aye, goes hippity hop."

If the game is to be continued, the two join the ring and
are replaced by others.

A variant of the above is

The Lodger is Dead.

The lodger is chosen by a counting-out rhyme and, lying
down on the ground, the others dance round her in a circle,
holding hands and singing —

"The lodger is dead and lies in his grave, Ae, aye, O na,
(E, I,0,N,A).
The apple tree grows over his head, Ae, aye, O na."

202 Collectanea.

One from the ring goes beside the lying down lodger and pretends
to be gathering apples into her apron while the others, except
the dead lodger, sing —

" The old wife came and them up did pick, E, I, O, N, A,
The lodger got up and gave her a kick, E, I, O, N, A.

The lodger gets up, and after he and the old wife have hopped
round inside the ring, the old wife becomes the 'lodger' for
the next game.

Cuairteachadli mu Shandie, (Whirling round Sandy.)

A boy or girl represents Sandy and sits on the ground. The
others join hands in a circle and dance round him.

"Cuairteachadh mu Shandie,
Cuairteachadh mu Shandie, Sandie beag, Sandie :
Cuairteachadh mu Shandie, Sandie beag, Sandie ;
Sandie is an old man, stand up Sandie."

As soon as the verse is finished, those in the ring make off
separately in all directions and Sandie rising, pursues and catches
one to take his place.

The Wind and the Rain

Is played by a ring of girls with two in the centre, but the
ring apparently does not move. The ring sings —

" The wind and the rain, and the wind blows high.
The rain comes dashing through the sky,
Peggie Mactavish says she'll die.
If she'll not get the boy with the laughing eye.

She is handsome, she is pretty.
She's the flower of the golden city.
She has lovers, one, two, three,
Pray can you tell me who they be ? "

While this is being sung, the two in the centre retire and fix
upon names of suppositious rival lovers and return singing —

"Duncan Maclarty says he'll have her,
Sandy Grant is fighting for her."

The whole company then, with the exception of the Peggie Mac-
tavish mentioned, sing —

" Let them say what they will, Duncan Maclarty will have her
still."

Collectanea. 203

what is Mary weeping for

Is another of the dancing circle class. They sing —

" O what is Mary weeping for, weeping for, weeping for?
O what is Mary weeping for, in the cold and frosty morning?
Because she wants to see her lad, to see her lad, to see her lad,
Because she wants to see her lad, in the cold and frosty morning."

Mary who stands in the centre sings —

" Father and mother, may I go, may I go, may I go?
Father and mother may I go in the cold and frosty morning ? "

Ring. "Yes my daughter you may go, you may go, you may go.

Yes my daughter you may go in the cold and frosty morning."

Mary. " Buckle up my tails and away I go, away I go, away I go.

Buckle up my tails and away I go, in a cold and frosty morning."

Ring. "Who do you think I met coming home, I met coming home, I met
coming home ?
Who do you think I met coming home, in a cold and frosty morning ? "

Mary. " I met my sweetheart on the way coming home, on the way coming
home, on the way coming home,
I met my sweetheart on the way coming home, in the cold and frosty
morning."

Ring. "What do you think he gave to me, he gave to me, he gave to me ?
What do you think he gave to me, in a cold and frosty morning."

Mary. "He gave me a kiss and a guinea-gold ring, a guinea-gold ring, a
guinea-gold ring,
He gave me a kiss and a guinea-gold ring, in a cold and frosty
morning."

The whole company then dance very fast, Mary having joined the
ring, singing—

" Ruffles up and ruffles down
And ruffles all Matanzie,
As I went up to Mistress Brown
To seek the loan of her frying-pan.
Wha was there but the guid, guid wife
Kissing the guid, guid man."

The above is a variant of " Bonnie Bunch o' Roses," p. 61.

Both in Lochaber and the Outer Hebrides the above game is
played with a slight variation. Two are chosen to be out and
represent ' Maggie ' and a companion, the others stand in a row,

204 Collectanea,

the two on the right of the line represent Maggie's father and
mother. Maggie standing before the rest with her companion
covers her face with her apron and pretends to weep. The line
advancing and retiring sing —

" O what is Maggie weeping for, etc.,
The cook of frosty morning."

Her companion explains because she wants to see her lad, etc.,
" the cook of frosty morning." Maggie asks the two parents,
" Father and mother may I go, etc. ? " and the father and mother,
supported by the rest of the line, give her permission. " Yes, my
darling, etc.," and the companion then sings,

" Knock about your tails and away you go, etc..
The cook of frosty morning. "

All but Maggie and the companion run away, Maggie pursues,
and the one she ' tigs ' becomes ' companion,' and the former com-
panion plays 'Maggie.'

COCK-FIGHTING.

(P, 87, after line 26.)

An old man from the Highlands of Aberdeenshire of which he
was a native, and now (1902) over eighty years of age, tells us
that Cock-fighting as a school ploy at Shrovetide was well within
his recollection.

" We yees'd tae hae cockfechtin' on ' Brosie'. When I wuz at
the skule, I hae seen as mony as a score tae'n tae the skule that
day, an' we daurna tak yin that wasna oor ain, nor yin that wasna
brocht up on oor ain biggin. The best fechter as shune as it
beat yin had anither pit doon till't, an' the cocks that widna fecht,
the maister got. The yin that had the cock that focht best wus
King."

CONCEALED OBJECT RECOVERING.

(P. 89, after line 19.)

Hunt tlie Slipper

Is played in some places under the name of " Shuffle the
Brogue," the players sitting very close together, keeping their

Collectanea. 205

hands under their knees, the brogue not being necessarily a
slipper but some object recognized beforehand.

(P. 90, after line 14.)

In other places this is called "Smuggle the Geggie" and
" Smuggle Eerie " modified as a girl's game. In the former case
the ' geggie ' must not be transferred from one to the other and
the method of recovery is by asking "Geggie or no geggie?" the
player being bound to answer " yes " or " no." If she answers in the
affirmative, she gives up the object, and the players change sides.
If she answers "No," she stands aside for the rest of the game,
while the proper holder may have managed to get it into the
^ den.' This form of the game is sometimes played by boys.

In the latter case a leading player takes, or pretends to take,
something, a chuckie stone, a little earth, in her hand, and
holding it out to another asks, "Something or nothing?" The
one answers, and if she is correct the one who put the question
becomes ' Hut' ; if the answer is wrong, she becomes ' Hut.' All
then stand in a close ring round 'Hut,' holding their hands
behind them, one of them having a ' geg,' which it is the duty of
* Hut ' to secure while it is being passed from one to the other.
When ' Hut ' pounces upon the one in whose possession it is they
change places for the next game.

(P. 91, after line 20.)

Three Beggars Three

Seems a variant of the above. Three stand in front of the
other players who are in a line with one of the party hidden
behind them, crouching low, the others extending their skirts to
hide her. The three advance in front singing —

" Here's three beggars three by three,
Down by the door they bend their knee,
Can we get lodgings here ? "

Those in the row reply together "No," and the beggars retire.
This is repeated twice more, but on the third occasion the beggars
dc not retire but proceed to search behind the row, when they
apparently discover the one hidden, whom they take with them.

2o6 Collectanea,

Another of the row is hidden and the same process as before is
repeated, only of course the four sing —

" Here's four beggars four by four, etc." It then goes on to
" Here's five beggars, etc.," and so on, till the whole party are
members of the begging fraternity.

(P. 92, after line 4.)

The variant of this, " Hunt the Thimble," is played with one
searcher, the remainder of the party being conscious of where the
thimble is placed, which ought to combine invisibility and ease of
being recovered. The " Hot " and " Cold " assistance is given
the searcher. If she ultimately fails to find the thimble, she sits
down on the floor and takes no further part in the game, another
being sent out till the thimble is again hidden.

Up Jinkers.

The players are divided into two equal parties and sit at a
table, the sides facing each other, with the palms of both hands
on the table. Below the hand of a player of one of the sides is
a coin or button, and the other side have to guess under whose
hand it is. They hold a whispered consultation, and having come
to some agreement, the one suspected of having the button is told
" hands up." If the button is found, that counts one to the
guessing side and they have then to conceal it, while if the button
is not found where it was supposed to be, the side holding it score
one and continue in its possession. The side that first scores an
agreed on number of successes, wins.

Hop, Hop.

A boys' game. One is chosen to be Hut. The others playing
having put stones in their bonnets and concealed them in various
places, while Hut has to keep his eyes shut. The others then
cry —

" Hop, hop, harry the nest,
Kill the birds and eat the flesh."

Hut then opens his eyes and must find all the bonnets. When
he has done so, the one whose bonnet he first found becomes Hut.

Recovering an object concealed on the person of one of an
assembled company is practised by means of the following trick.

Collectanea. 207

Two are working in conjunction. One of these undertakes to tell
to whom a knife, say, is given by the other while he is out of the
room. The challenger retires, the knife is handed by his
accomplice, who then recalls the challenger, who then proceeds to
examine the others as if looking for indications he requires to
notice, to come to a correct conclusion. During this examination
the one who handed the knife interrupts with remarks such as :
" I did not give it to you." " It was not to you I gave it." After
a pause "and I did not give it to you." The challenger notices
this and waits for his own time to say to the person sitting on the
right of the one last addressed by his accomplice, " You have the
knife," it having been agreed on that the conjunction and will be
addressed to the person sitting on the left of the one who has the
knife.

If a company can induce one of their number to undertake to
guess what something in the room agreed on by the other players
is, he is asked to retire till " it " is fixed on. This being done, the
guesser returns and commences questioning the others for indica-
tions. But it having been arranged that "it" is the person sitting
on the left of the one being questioned at the moment, and the
questioner must not ask only one person, generally speaking the
answers become so contradictory that it is impossible for the
questioner to say that any individual thing is " it."

COUNTING OUT RHYME.

(P. 102, after line 5.)

In addition to the counting-out rhymes detailed in the Appendix,
p. 248, we have the following from Barra —

*' Gille beag 's cota donn
Feile-goirid os a chionn,
Sud an rud a thogadh fonn,
Biodag Dhomhnuill mhic Alasdair."

Little lad and brown coat/A short kilt above him, /That's the

thing would raise desire (carnal) (tune)/ Donald MacAlister's

dirk.

(See p. 96 for a translation.)

2o8 Collectanea.

From Kintyre

"Oneerie, twoerie, dickerie Davy,
Haligo Mary, tenery lavie,
Pin pan whisky dan,
Tiddleum toddleum twenty-one."

" Ennerie annerie sirteri sannerie,
Draps o' vinegar now begun,
Eat aat moose fat,
Oarrie diddle.
Play the fiddle,
Tike Bo Bizz,"

A variant, see "Games" 230.

" Eenerty, feenerty, fickerty, feg.
El, del, domin, egg,
Irkie, birkie, storie rock,
An, tan, toosy Jock :
Toose oot, toose in,
Toose aboot the river pin,
Black fish, white troot,
Gibbie la, you're oot."

Used in Uist —

" Tic, tac, toe, round we go,
Turn the ship and away she goes."

DANCING.

(P. 113, after line 3.)

We have information from a woman, for some considerable
time in the island of St. Kilda, who had seen the Buck Dance
(p. 103) performed there in the same figure as that of a reel; we
understand a foursome reel. In Uist, however, the girls playing
crouch down, their hands in front of them, with the fingers inter-
laced, and leap round in a circle. There was recently in
Kintyre an old man who danced what he called the " Reel of
the Ducks," " Ruidhil nan tunnag," commencing with the follow-
ing port —

" Seinn am Boradag,
Damhs am Boradag."

Sing the Boradag,/ Dance the Boradag. He would then drop
on one knee, spring up, and down again on the other knee, and

Collectanea. 209

rising again, the motions being performed very swiftly. He
would wheel about singing —

" Thoir ruidhil do'n choileach dubh.
Damhsaidh sinn na tunnagan."
(Give a reel to the blackcock. /We will dance the ducks.)

It will be noticed that this is a solo performance, though called
a reel by the performer, who claims that he is now the only man
in Kintyre who can do it.

Another hunkering dance is called

Am Fac thu Fiadli riomh ? (Did you ever see a Deer ?)

This is a girl's game found in Lorn. They crouch down, with
their hands between their calves and their haunches, the fingers
interlaced. One commences: "Am fac thu fiadh riomh?" The
others replied : " Chunnaic." The first speaker rejoins, " Agus
gu de dheannadh e?" to which the reply was, " Ruitheadh e,
'us roideadh e, 'us leumadh e, 'us sheasadh e air cnoc, 'us
dh'amhairceadh e." "Agus am fac thu Mairi nighean Alasdair?"
" Chunnaic, 'us Mairi nighean Sheumais. Chunnaic mi Mairi
nighean Alasdair 's iad a' mireadh ri cheile." (Have you ever
seen a deer? I have seen (a deer). And what would it do?
It would run, and it would race, and it would jump, and it would
stand on a hillock and it would look. And have you seen Mary
Alexander's daughter? I have seen (Mary Macalister) and Mary
James' daughter. I have seen Mary Alexander's daughter and
them playing together. (Flirting, wanton play.) At this stage
the players, retaining their position, commence to dance, singing
at the same time —

" Punnd 'us plang 'us neapaicean sioda
'Us pios do chantair an dannsaidh."
(A pound, and a plack, and a silk napkin,/And a piece to the
chanter of the dance.)

In Luing an old woman explained that this game had come
down from the Druids who, as well as the money, etc., men-
tioned in the last two lines, claimed as theirs the blankets in
which a person died, A pound was also due to the Druids from
the estate on the death of the head of a house. We have in this
evidently a recollection of the corpse-present, mortuary, or head-
money, paid to the clergy at the time of a death. The statement

2IO Collectanea.

that the clergy claimed the blankets on which a person had died,
we suggest, had arisen from some such misconception as that
expressed by Bishop Meryk when he wrote of the Manx women
that they " never went abroad but with a winding-sheet about
them to mind them of their mortality," (Tain's History of the Isle
of Ma?i, ii., 105), corpses doubtless being buried in the plaid
which they had worn in daily life.

The same hunkering dance from Barra, the girls with their
hands behind their calves and before their thighs hop about

singing —

" Cruinn, geard, sgiobalta,
Cruinn, sgiobalta, gleusta,
Am fac' thu Anna nighean Alasdair ?
Chunnaic, 's Anna nighean Sheumais.
'Sann aig tobar nam Ban-naomh,
A' ruith 's a' lasadh ri cheille. "

Round, guard, active,/Round, active, eager,/Have you seen
Anna, Alexander's daughter ?/Yes, and Anna, James' daughter,/It
was at the Nun's well,/Running and lusting together.

Other names of Highland dances are, Fear Dhruim a' Chairi,
Dannsadh nam boc (buck dance), Figh an gun (Weave the
gown), and Croit an Droigheann (Thorny croft). Some descrip-
tion of these is to be found in the Grampians Desolate, by Alex-
ander Campbell. (Quoted from Celtic Monthly cutting.)

Calluinn Hogmanay, the calends of January, New Year's Day.

This is among the Highlanders a high festival, one upon which
they exercise considerable hospitality to those who visit them.
Popularly the name for New Year " Calluinn " is connected with
the word " callan," ' shout, a noise,' because the visitors,
generally the young people of a country-side, go round among
their friends and neighbours and call attention to their presence
on that occasion by various noises, whacking the walls with their
shinties, banging a dry skin, carried by one of the party, with
sticks, and singing various rhymes requesting their Hogmanay
gifts, of eatables principally. This is not a custom peculiar to
the Gael, it existed quite recently, at any rate in Brittany, where
the name Calannet was applied to the " recompense " given to
the visitors. There are phallic reminiscences in the observance

Collectanea. 2 1 1

of this festival. A strip of the wool, skin, and flesh from the
breast of a sheep is carried round by the party after being singed,
and is presented to the inmates of the houses visited to be smelt,
as a protection against injury it is said. But this is a religious
festival evidently, and must be treated like Hallowe'en and
Bealltuin (May-day).

An interesting thing connected with its observance is to find
in Perthshire what is evidently a small remnant of a Mumming
Play, which took the part of the stick thwacking, common in
other districts to announce the visitor's presence. The per-
formance was described as follows by one who had often in his
boyhood taken part in it.

One was chosen to be the " Doctor," the others, divided into
two parties, were each provided with a lath sword. On arriving
at a door these guisers, guizards, standing opposite each other,
recited —

" Here comes I Golossians, Golossians is my name,
A sword and pistol by my side, I hope to gain the game."

To this was answered —

" The game, Sir, the game. Sir, is not into your power,

For I'll slay you down in inches, in less than half an hour."

A sham fight ensued, and one of the combatants, pretending to
have been wounded, fell to the ground and was immediately
attended to by the " Doctor," the others leaving off fighting, and
singing —

" Here comes little Doctor Brown,
The best little doctor in the town.
Gie's cor carol an' let us run,
Gie's oor carol an' let us run."

The actors were then rewarded by such Hogmanay gifts as
the guid-wife found in her heart to bestow on them, and then
passed on to another house to repeat the ceremony.

We give the " Hogmanay Drame of Golishan, as it used to be
said, sung, and acted all over Scotland, from Cheviot to Cape
Wrath," on the authority of J. F. L., as communicated to the
Scotsmafi of 31st Dec, 1902.

212

Collectanea.

THE NEW-YEAR MUMMER'S TALE OF GOLISHAN.

Dramatis Persons.

(i) BoL Bendo. (4) Doctor Beelzebub.

(2) King of France. (5) Golishan.

(3) King of Spain. (6) Sir Alexander.

Prologue {sung ofi the threshold).

Hogmanay !

Trollolay !

Gie us o' your white bread,

And nane o' your grey.

Oor shoon's made o' mare's skin,

Come, open the door and let's in ;

Redd up stocks, and redd up stools,

Here come in a pack of fools.

{Enter BoL Bendo, winding a horn. Two Yi.\i:iGS follow
shortly after with Pages.)

BoL Bendo.

I am Bol Bendo. Who are you ?

King of France.

I am here, the King of France,
Come for a battle to advance.

King of Spain.

I am here, the King of Spain,
Come for a battle to maintain.

{Enter Sir Alexander, si??ging.)
Silence ! Silence ! Gentlemen,

Upon me cast an eye,
My name's Sir Alexander,

I'll sing you a tragedy.

Four of us there are,

And merry boys are we ;
And we are going a-rambling

Your houses for to see.

Collectanea, 213

Your houses for to see,

And some pleasure for to have :
And what you freely wish to give,

We freely will receive.

The first that I call in

He is Golishan bold,
He fought the battle of Quebec

For sixty pounds of gold.

{Enter Golishan, armed with sword and pistol.)

Golishan.

In come I, Golishan ; Golishan of renown,

A sword and pistol by my side, I hope to win the crown.

BoL Bendo.

The crown, sir ! The crown, sir !

It's not within your power.
I'll draw my sword behind my back,
And stab you with my spear.

Golishan.

My head is made of fire, sir ;

My body is well steeled.

And with my bloody weapon

I'll slay you on the field.

Sir Alexander {aside).

Here are two champions going to fight

Who never fought before,
I'm not going to separate them,

Pray, what could I do more.
Fight on, fight on, my merry boys ;

Fight on, fight on with speed,
I'll give any man a thousand crowns

To lay Golishan dead.

{A dash 0/ swords follows, till at last Golishan falls
down a fid dies.)

214 Collectanea.

Sir Alexander {rushing forward).

O ! what is this ? O ! what is this ?

! what is this you've done ?
You have slain GoHshan,
And on the ground he's laid.

BoL Bendo.

If I have slain Golishan,

Golishan I will cure ;
And I will make him rise and sing,

In less than half an hour.

(BoL Bendo calls loudly for a doctor. After an interval, enters
Dr. Beelzebub, his face blackened, and carryi?ig a club over
his shoulder.)

Doctor.

Here come I, old Hector Protector,
The Devil's own picture,
Sheepskins and camel's hair.
If you don't give me all your money,
I'll carry you all to your graves.

Sir Alexander.

How far have you travelled ?
Doctor.

From hickerty pickerty hedgehog.

Three times round the West Indies,

And back to old Scotland.

Sir Alexander.

What have you seen on your travels ?
Doctor.

I've seen geese going on pattens,

And mice eating rattens.
Bol Bendo.

What can you cure ?
Doctor.

1 can cure the gout, the scur, and the kinkhost.
Bol Bendo.

What will you take to cure this dead man ?

Collectanea. 215

Doctor.

Nine pounds and a bottle of wine.

BoL Bendo.

I'll give you six.

Doctor.

Six won't do.

BoL Bendo.

Will eight ?

Doctor.

Perhaps it may,

For I've a little bottle by my side,

They call it Hoxy Croxy.

I'll touch his eyes, nose, mouth, and chin,

And say, " Rise up, dead man," and he'll fight again.

{The Doctor kneels dotvn by the side of the dead man and
adminisiers a pinch of snuff. The dead man sneezes., revives.,
and sits up.)

GoLiSHAN (sings).

Once I was dead.
But now I am alive,
And blessed be the hand
That made me to revive.

Epilogue.
(A// Join hands and sing in chorus.)

This night is called Hogmanay,

We wish you all good cheer,
With as many guineas in the house

As days are in the year.
And bless the master of this house,

The mistress also.
And all the bonnie bairnies

That round the table go.

2 1 6 Collectanea.

Get up, guid wife, and binna sweir
Tae deal yer bread to them that's puir,
For the time will come that ye'll be dead,
And then ye'll neither need ale nor bread.

Get up, guid wife, and shake yer feathers,
And dinna think that we are beggars,
For we are bairns come oot to play.
Get up and gie's oor Hogmanay.

Oor feet's cauld, oor shoon's thin,
Gie's oor cakes, and let's rin.

FINGER-NAMES.
(P. 115, after line 16.)

A correspondent informs us that the fourth line of the version
current where he was brought up, was " This is the man that
tell't on a'," the rest of it being identical with the second version
on page 113. This fact was turned to use in the language of
signs among the school-children, who, when desirous of applying
the term clype (tell-tale) to a companion when it was inadvisable
to say it aloud, they folded the other fingers into the palm and
held up the third finger, suggesting in some other way who was
indicated. Attention was also called to the fact that " paid for a' "
did not refer to a money payment but to suffering for the misdeeds
of the others mentioned. Pais (it is not possible to indicate the
pronunciation) is a common word for chastisement, strokes,
evidently connected with the idea of recompense.

In Barra the finger names are

Ordag.

Gileabag.

Gunna fada.

Mhic an Aba.

Ludag bheag an airgeid.

Hammer/Chisel/Long gun/Of the Abbot's son/Little Silver finger.

The ordinary way of amusing an infant explains the meaning of

these finger-names. The nurse, or mother, holding the left hand

ot the infant, commencing by touching with her own forefinger the

Collectanea. 2 1 7

point of the child's thumb and the other fingers in succession,
naming them as above ; she comes back to the thumb, and turning
it down in the palm of the hand, she says, "Cuiridh mi ord foidhpe
sin " (I will put a hammer under that). She then turns down the
forefinger and says, " Cuiridh mi gileab foidhpe sin " (I will put a
chisel under that). Then comes the turn of the middle finger,
" Cuiridh mi gunna fada foidh sin " (I will put a long gun under
that). For the ring-finger she says, " Cuiridh mi rud abaich foidh
sin " (I will put a ripe thing under that), and then the little finger,
" Cuiridh mi airgeid foidhpe sin " (I will put silver (money) under
that).

(P. 121, after line 17.)

Spin the Trencher.

This well-known game was played in Argyleshire. All sat with
their backs to the wall but one, who, provided with a plate, stood
in the centre. The plate was set spinning on its edge, the one
who did so calling the name of one of the others who had to
catch it before it ceased spinning. This continued, each spinner
choosing his own successor. Any one missing to catch the plate
in time paid a forfeit, the one who had spun him out calling out
another.

There were, of course, traditional methods of freeing the forfeits
paid, but quite a free field was given to the blindfold person fixed
on to order the punishments. A favourite traditional method,
however, was to order the one who had paid the forfeit to be
blindfolded. Something then was held over his back, the holder
saying, " Truime, truime, 'n ordag, de sin os do cheann ? " (Weight,
weight of a hammer, what is that over your head ?) If the answer
was right the pledge was released, if it was wrong the thing, what-
ever it was, was placed on the bearer's back, and the point of the
joke was to try and crush the bearer under the weight of things
piled upon him.

FUNERAL GAMES.

(P. 124, after line 29.)

In a variant of the above " Genisis " becomes " Georgina " :
" Ladies and gentlemen come to see Georgina, Georgina, Georgina,"

2 1 8 Collecta7iea.

as above. Georgina's mother says, " She is worse, you cannot see
her to-day." The others retire singing

" We are very sorry to hear it, — (Repeat three times.)
We wish you a good day."

On the next advance Georgina is said to be dead, and the
verse, "We are very sorry, etc.," repeated. Someone gives a
resounding blow, and the row of players, pretending fear, say,
"Mother, mother, what's that?" The mother answers, "The
cat in the cupboard." The knock is repeated, and the row cry in
terror, " Mother, mother, what 's that ? " The answer to which is,
" The boys down by." Again the knock and query, the answer
being by the mother, "Georgina's ghost." All then hurriedly
disperse, followed by Georgina, who tries to capture a suc-
cessor.

GAMBLING.

(P. 125, after line 33.)

In Kintyre, instead of the letter P, the Teetotum carried a D.
The consecutive order of play was fixed by a counting-out
rhyme; the whole then deposited in a common heap their
stakes, it might be a button, a marble, etc. The results of
each spin and the interpretation of the letter which came
upmost was —

D. Interpreted by the phrase " Duntare," and the person who
spun had to add a stake to the common stock.

A. Translated " (Tak) ane," and the common stock was reduced
by one.

N. Translated by "Nickelty Naething," no change as far as
stakes were concerned,

T. " Tak' a'," the lucky player bagging the lot.

The reciter of the above gave an amusing account of an experi-
ence of his own. A. MacL. was "rooked," but retiring for a short
time, returned with apparently an unUmited supply of buttons, and
not the usual bone or horn button, but bright nickel ones, the
swapping value of which was one to three bone ones. Play was
resumed, and how it ended history sayeth not. The following

Collectmiea. 219

day, however, MacL. senior, when dressing for church, was
amazed to find his Sunday trousers entirely buttonless. It was
easy to make a shrewd guess as to what happened between sire
and son, the more so as for a long time thereafter A. MacL.
avoided Teetotum for buttons religiously.

In Orkney, Teetotum is known by the name of " Catapult ! "

NINE HOLES.

(P. 128, after line 3.)

Polly, Polly, what o'clock is 't ?

Two play, a certain number — say fifty — being agreed on as
game. One of the players marks down on his slate the figures
from I to 12 inclusive, with a concealed figure, as described in
" Na Figures." He — A — says to B, " Polly, Polly, what o'clock
is't?" B guesses one of the exposed figures, and if on A disclosing
the concealed one it is found to be that guessed by B, B counts
one, the slate is cleaned and he does as A did before. If B's
guess is wrong, a stroke is drawn through the figure. A again
conceals a number, any number up to 1 2, and repeats his question,
" Polly, Polly, what o'clock is 't ? " B again guesses, and if wrong,
the figure is stroked through, and this process is continued till B
guesses aright, when he scores i as if he had been right in his
answer to A's first question, but A adds up B's failures as marked
out, and the total is put to his credit. Thus they play alternately
till one of them can show a total of 50.

HANDCLAPPING.

(P. 131, bottom of the page.)

In some places a line is added to the above rhyme —

*' like z. pain across my back "
" Poc is one, poc is tiuo, poc is mine over yon.''''

Jolly Sailors

Is a game m which hand-clapping plays a part. A ring
is formed round one of the girls who stands in the centre.

220 Collectanea.

She sings in a subdued tone, and with the appearance of
sadness —

" Broken-hearted, I wander at the thought of my love,
He 's a jolly, jolly sailor and to the war he 's gone.
If I had the wings of angels I would know where to fly,
Over hills and valleys where my true love did die."

Those in the ring now let go each other's hands and commence
hand-clapping, shouting the while —

" Hurrah for the pots and pans,

Hurrah for the man that made them.
Hurrah for the pots and pans,
I wish the war was over."

HEN AND CHICKENS.
(P. 132, at bottom of the page.)

In North Uist the above game is called " Cearc 'us iseanan,"^
and the " Madadh ruadh" is addressed by the 'hen,' "De tha thu
ag iarruidh an diugh," to which he replies, " Tha mi ag iarruidh te
dheth na iseanan," and the hen's reply is, " Cha'n fhaigh thu sin
an diugh." (What are you seeking to-day ?/I am seeking one of
the young birds./You won't get that to-day.)

It is also played in Lorn under the name of " Cripple Chirsty."
Chirsty comes limping forward leaning on a stick, and the hen
addresses her, " Hey, Cripple Chirsty, what do you want with me
to-day?" "A beck and a bow and I would thank you for your
eldest daughter." The hen gives her the curtsey and bow, but
refuses to give up her eldest daughter, and then the attack is made,
the game going on as described above.

When the game is played as " Fox and Sheep," the usual
formula recited by the latter at Ardrishaig was " Da roan, da roan,
da roan, da ring, thig am madadh ruadh am maireach agus bheir
e leis a' chaor is fearr tha againn." (Da roan, da ring, the fox
will come to-morrow and he will take with him the best sheep we
have.)

When played as " The Theft of the Kids " (Goid nam meann),
the leader of the 'kids' is called the "Fiadh" (deer), and it is a
'wolf (madadh alluidh) which comes stealthily glancing along

Collectanea. 221

the";line and says to the last player of it, "Am bocan beag tha air
dheireadh, 's an air a tha mo mhiann. Bi maragan air mo rahias
an nochd." (The little buck that is last, it is on him my desire is.
There will be puddings on my plate to-night.) To this the Fiadh
replies : " Ma bhios, cha'n fhaigh thun 'n so iad." (If they will be,
you will not get them here.) The ' wolf then tries to separate the
last of the row. This is the way the game is played in Coll.

R. C. Maclagan.
( To be continued.)

CORRESPONDENCE.

All-Fathers in Australia.

In Folk-Lore for March (p. 105) Mr. Hartland observes that,
applying my theory of early religion to Australia, "it was con-
tended that Bunjil of the Wotjoballuk, Mungan ngaua of the
Kurnai, Baiame of the Kamilaroi, Daramulun of the Coast
Murring, and the corresponding mythical personages of other
tribes, were to be identified with this relatively Supreme Being.
Now, if the identification were correct and the theory well-based,
we should expect to find that the most backward tribes had the
most fully developed belief in, and the clearest conception of, the
Supreme Being in question. But this, so far as has been ascer-
tained, is the direct reverse of the fact. The area of belief in this
important Being seems to be confined to the south-east. The
tribes which hold it are precisely those in which the greatest
advance has been in social organization. Among them group-
marriage (or what look like more or less lively survivals of group-
marriage) has given way to individual marriage, descent in the
female line has been replaced by that in the male line, the primi-
tive organization under the class system has been abandoned, or
is in process of being abandoned, for organization based on
locality, and the most cruel and outrageous practices at initiation
are unknown. If it be contended that, save in the last particular,
the Arunta fairly answer to this description, I hasten to add that
the Arunta present striking evidence in support of Mr. Howitt's
case. While they and their neighbours do know of the existence
of certain shadowy beings called Twanyirika, Atnatu, and so
forth, they have evolved the belief to a very slight extent ; and in

Cor7'espondence. 223

spite of very careful search Messrs. Spencer and Gillen were quite
unable to find anything like even the rudimentary moral character
of Baiame or Daramulun attributed to them."

In this passage Mr. Hartland closely follows the generalization of
Mr. Howitt in his Native Tribes of Soiith-East Australia, pages 500-
506. But Mr. Howitt's statement here does not agree with his own
account of the social organization of these South-Eastern tribes.
The majority of them are in the more primitive form of social
organization, having (i) female reckoning of descent without
"matrimonial" classes, or (2) female reckoning with four, not as in
the North and Centre, eight matrimonial classes. Of the former
type, the large and important "Barkinji" nation, and all tribes
with the phratry names Kilpara and Mukwara, are the leading
examples. The second type is represented by the no less large
and important Kamilaroi "nation," with Dilbi and Kupathin
phratry names, and by the Euahlayi with other phratry names,
and with Kamilaroi names for the matrimonial classes. These
tribes combine female descent with the All-Father belief, which
was also held by the Kurnai and other South-Eastern tribes with
male reckoning, and with totems and classes obliterated or faintly
surviving. On the other hand it is among Northern and Central
tribes with male descent and "organization based on locaHty"
that Messrs. Spencer and Gillen find the All- Father belief weakest
or absent. On this point there is a good deal to be said, but
the Atnatu of the Kaitish (neighbours of the Arunta), the being
who " made himself," " made the Alcheringa," gave the blacks " all
that they possess," instituted rites, and expelled mankind from his
sky-world for disobedience, is not "a shadowy being" like the
Twanyirika of the Arunta, a confessed bugbear like the African
Mumbo Jumbo. We are here on the ground of facts carefully
recorded, though strangely overlooked, by Mr. Howitt in the
passages summarized by Mr. Hartland, As to "group marriage"
among these South-Eastern tribes, the only thing known to me
which can be called " group marriage " is the Dieri and Urabunna
pirrauru, and that, I think, is a '•' sport " confined to tribes with
the Kararu Matteri phratry names ; and in my opinion it is a
late and special modification of individual marriage. Thus a
number of tribes with the All-Father belief, and with female kin,

2 24 Correspondence.

have 7iot "abandoned the class system for organization based on
locality." With female kin they cannot do so.

"The most cruel and outrageous practices at initiation are
unknown " to South-Eastern tribes with the All-Father belief. But
this does not prove that such rites have been dropped by them.
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen indicate more than once their belief,
which is mine, that the South-Eastern rites are the most pristine,
and that the more ferocious rites of the North and Centre are
later additions to these. They are unpleasant examples of social
advance. Thus the All-Father belief, though a socially advanced
tribe may hold it, is, in Australia, very conspicuous among tribes
so archaic as to reckon descent as on the spindle side ; and
so arrier'es as not to have developed the more outrageous rites
and Intichiuma.

In associating the All-Father belief, causally, with advance in
social organization, Mr. Howitt has overlooked his own valuable
collection of social facts. Any one who wishes to verify my
remarks has only to look up " All-Father " in Mr. Howitt's
Index, and then compare his account of the social condition of
tribes with an All-Father. The belief is common to most both
of the more and less socially advanced tribes of the South-East :
and is reported as absent among almost all the socially advanced
Northern and Central tribes with local organization. In my
opinion they have almost sloughed off the belief, not because
they are socially advanced, but for a totally different reason.

May I add that in reviewing the accounts of Fan belief by
Messrs. AUegret and Nassau, in Folk-Lore for March, I omitted
to mention the similar statements as to Angambi (Nyambe), the
Fan-Father {Tata) who " made all things " (a bo mam merere),
published by Dr. Bennett in J.A.I., (N.S. i. 2, p. 85). I do not
know whether Dr. Bennett is or is not a missionary.

A. Lang.

Mysterious Smoke.

(Vol. XV. p. 245).

In my parish, Cadney, Lincolnshire, a peat bank, near a
drain, was fired by a thrown-away match in August, 1902. It

Correspondence. 225

burned, making thin smoke, till the fire was put out by the
heavy rains of October, 1903. Unless you dug down to find
the red-hot peat it was invisible, except during gales, when the
light peat-ashes were blown away. Then for a few minutes at
a time there would be a burst of flame.

Another such fire in my parish, also on ground drained and
kept dry by a watercourse, burned for years, till it was finally
trenched out by cutting a narrow ditch all round it down to
the wet peat. I never saw the flame in this case, and the
smoke was so thin that it was only visible on damp or foggy
nights. The smell of burning peat was to be detected summer
and winter.

E. A. WooDRUFFE Peacock.

Mock Burial.
(Vol. XV. p. 347.)

In the year 1875 or 1876 several of my brother's children
had whooping-cough. We were living at Adisham, a small
village in East Kent. I was talking one day to the village
" Gamp," who, after much hesitation and deprecation, told me
she knew how the children could be cured. I was to bury a
baker's loaf in the churchyard, leave it there one night, and
then give it to them to eat.

Evelyn Villiers.

Lexham Gardens, Kensington.

REVIEWS.

Tabou et Totemisme a Madagascar : Etude descriptive et
THEORiQUE. Par Arnold van Gennep. Paris : E. Leroux,
1904.

The advantage, and indeed the necessity, for scientific purposes,
of selecting for detailed analysis and description a group of
rites practised in a well-defined area could not be better illus-
trated than by the present work. There is a besetting temp-
tation to generalise on data which are at best imperfect ; and
generalisation founded on imperfect data can only result in
conclusions unstable and probably misleading. The critic,
therefore, who brings together and analyses the evidence as to
any definite group of rites and institutions of a people, putting
them into relation with the civilisation and mental atmosphere
in which they have grown up, performs a signal service to
research. Such a critic will test the strength of the evidence
both as to quantity and quality. His labours, if conscientiously
performed, will define for the student at home what is really
known on the subject, and will indicate the direction to be
taken by the explorer in the field. Mr. Farnell, in his work
on The Cults of the Greek States, has performed this kind of
service in one important province of enquiry. And now M.
van Gennep has utilised the opportunity given to scientific
men in France by the occupation of Madagascar to examine
critically in the light of anthropological theories a prominent
institution of the natives of that island.

After an introduction, in which the author rightly rejects the
theories of Christian missionaries and others as to the original

Reviews. 227

monotheism of the Malagasy, and as to the borrowing, either
from Jewish or Arab sources, of their religious ideas, and insists
on the importance of exact scientific enquiry, he passes on to
discuss the Malagasy notion of taboo. The native word is
fady. In the course of a careful analysis it is compared with
words of similar meaning in other tongues and with its Mala-
gasy correlatives, especially tohhia and hasinia, which signify
respectively contagion and power. The conclusion arrived at
is that in the last analysis the true sense of fady is da?igerous,
all the other senses of prohibited^ tmlucky, ill-omened, and so
forth being derivatives. M. van Gennep then proceeds to
enquire why an act is considered dangerous, and why every-
one agrees to consider it so. He insists on the social character
of taboo, discusses its force and its sanctions. He shows that
the sanctions are for the most part supernatural, and conse-
quently that the root-idea oi fady is religious. In the religious
sense, and particularly in regard to the cult of ancestors or to
the customs they established, it is that an act is primarily
dangerous. The juridical value of a prohibition is the result
of evolution, and is not original.

A review is then undertaken of the details of Malagasy
taboos, so far as they are known. Taboos of the abnormal,
the new, and the strange ; taboos of the sick, and of the dead ;
taboos of the chief; clan, caste, and class taboos; sexual
taboos; taboos of children, and family taboos; taboos of property;
taboos of place and of time occupy successive chapters. The
author then discusses at length animal and vegetable taboos.
In connection with them he investigates the question of Mala-
gasy totemism. Throughout the work he has occasion again
and again to point out how defective our information is. It
has been gathered in the first place by missionaries, and more
recently by French officials and travellers, none of whom seem
to have appreciated the points necessary to be observed and
recorded. The accounts of Malagasy custom and belief which
they have either formally drawn up, or which are to be gathered
from their writings, are indeed priceless, because they are the
only source, and in some respects a fairly full source, of infor-
mation. But the point of view is not usually that of a

2 28 Reviews.

dispassionate and accurate observer ; while many of the English-
men wrote for a public whose chief interest was the spread of their
own particular type of religion, and for whom details of heathen
ceremonies were of interest only as they were grotesque, or
as they emphasised the darkness of the Gentiles.

Especially is the lack of information to be deplored on the
subject of the relation between the animal and vegetable taboos
on the one hand, and the beliefs and social organisation of
the people on the other. M. van Gennep has not thought it
necessary to discuss at length the racial connections of the popu-
lation, though a thorough examination of these would perhaps
throw light upon the problems which are his subject. It may
be said in general terms that the population is not quite homo-
geneous. The earliest inhabitants were probably of African
race. They have been conquered and partly absorbed by
peoples of Malayo-Polynesian descent, who now seem to form
in blood as well as in culture the dominant race. There has
been, besides, some Arab influence, chiefly upon the eastern
shores of the island ; but, as M. van Gennep shows, it is easy
to overrate it. At the time of the discovery, and down to the
French conquest in the latter part of the last century, the hege-
mony of the island was wielded by a tribe known as the Imerina
or Hovas, occupying the central heights. The various tribal divi-
sions may indicate some racial differences ; but the language
and civilisation are common to the whole island, subject to
comparatively unimportant dialectal and local variations. The
Malagasy are very far from being savages. They are ingenious
and successful cultivators of rice. They have a number of
settled towns, the most important of which, Antananarivo,
the capital of the island, has a population stated by Mr.
Sibree in 1879 at "above 100,000." They spin, weave, and
make pottery. They hold regular markets, and are accomplished
traders. The taboos which they practise, and of which they are to
some extent the victims, have come down to them from ancient
times, when doubtless the Malagasy were less advanced than they
are now. Among such taboos are taboos against wounding, killing,
or eating certain animals. The question is whether these are
of totemistic origin. M. van Gennep has analysed the evidence

Reviews. 229

with much acuteness, and comes to the conclusion that there
is in Madagascar no true totemism. The conclusion is probably
correct. At the same time it is admittedly based to a large
extent on the absence of exact information. For instance,
when Dr. Catat, just before reaching the village of Sahasoa,
belonging to the Betsimisaraka tribe, had killed a babakoto,
or lemur {Lichanotus brevicaudatus), which he was about to skin,
a score of the inhabitants of the village came crying out and
accusing him of having killed one of their grandfathers in the
forest. In the same way, among the Betsileo, Father Pages
killed a babakoto and was about to skin it, when his palanquin-
bearers loudly clamoured and demanded the body of their
relative, which he was compelled to hand over to them and
which they buried with funeral honours and every sign of
mourning at the next village. Now here is reason to suspect
totemism. The animal is claimed as a relative by members of
two distinct tribes ; the person who kills it is regarded with
anger ; the body, in one case at all events, is solemnly interred
like that of a clansman. What is wanting to complete the
proof is information whether the mourners in these cases
belonged to a single clan, and whether that clan bore the
name of the babakoto. But, then, this is exactly what the
traveller and the missionary who record the facts omitted to
enquire.

It would be possible to adduce a large number of such
cases. If only the observers had been acquainted with even the
merest outlines of anthropological science, they would have
been put upon enquiry again and again, and might easily have
cleared away for us the doubts that arise in reading their reports.
On the other hand, they have mentioned facts which are incon-
sistent with totemism as found in typical totemistic areas like
Australia and North America. The clans (if they be really
clans, for there is no scientific use of the words, clan, caste,
class, family, and tribe) are not usually exogamous ; nor are
they usually named after the object tabooed ; nor do they bear
representations either upon the persons of the members, or
carved or painted on their property, of the object tabooed.
M. van Gennep says, moreover, there are no rites of initiation.

230 Reviews.

But he has overlooked the practice of circumcision, by which
Sibree tells us, the children are said to be made " men," to
be " consecrated " or " estabUshed." The ceremonies, like those
of Australian initiation, were observed not for individual children,
but every few years for the whole body of uncircumcised boys ;
they lasted several days ; they were the occasion of great
festivity. " It will be remarked," adds the missionary, after
describing them, "how very important the ceremony is con-
sidered, from the numerous and minute observances which
have grown up around it in the course of the centuries during
which it has been celebrated by the Malagasy."^ I think it
may well be contended that in the Malagasy, especially the
Hova, rites of circumcision, we have true initiation ceremonies,
though probably in a decadent condition. The stage of civili-
sation, indeed, at which the Malagasy had arrived before the
advent of Christianity was far beyond that in which totemism
is dominant. It can only arise and attain full development
in savagery. Consequently, the utmost we can expect to find
in Madagascar is decay and more or less disconnected survivals.

M. van Gennep discusses the fanany, a worm, snake, or
lizard, in which a deceased Betsileo is reincarnated. He
decides that it is not a totem; and it is clear that in the full
sense of the term he is right. But he suggests that it is either
a totemic survival or a totem in process of formation, and
expresses the opinion that either of these hypotheses is capable
of being sustained. This, however, cannot be, for the reason
just stated. If the fauany behefs and practices have any rela-
tion to totemism, the relationship must be that of survival.

On the whole the study of the alimentary taboos, of the
legends intended to explain them, and of the rites of all sorts
addressed to animals, leads the author to the opinion, expressed
with some hesitation, that besides animal-worship (some of it
having an economic bearing) and the belief in reincarnation of the
vital force, " an attenuated totemism " is found in the island.
In order to be quite satisfied as to the original signification of
he taboos, however, he suggests that it would be enough to
undertake a direct enquiry in a few localities, taking into

^Sibree, Great African Island, pp. 217-221.

Reviews. 231

account the bonds of relationship which unite the individuals
observing a given alimentary taboo and the legends concerning
it. It would be possible then to essay an answer to the ques-
tion whether the Malagasy on this point are " nearer to the
Bantu or to the Maiayo-Polynesian."

By the latter expression I understand him to admit that the
Bantu were, or have been at a comparatively recent date, tote-
mistic. He does me the honour, a few pages earlier, to cite
and controvert the argument by which, in my presidential
address to the Folk-lore Society in January, 1901, I sought
to trace the evolution of totemism into ancestor-worship among
the Bantu of South Africa. Having first proved the existence
of remains of totemism among the various branches of the
race, I sought for the path by which ancestor-worship had
been reached. I found it in the growth of the patriarchal power,
which had effaced the ties of mother-right and, acting upon
the belief in transformation and impermanence of form, which
is one of the elements of totemism, had ministered to the
reverence accorded to a deceased chief, by enabling him to be
recognised first in the form of the totem animal and afterwards,
as totemism slowly decayed, in some other form.

M. van Gennep denies my statement that a chief is not wor-
shipped in his lifetime, and declares my argument to be ruined
at its very basis, because it is easy to conceive the direct for-
mation of a cult of deceased chiefs without the intervention of
totemism. I did not, however, say that a chief was not wor-
shipped, but that a father was not worshipped in his lifetime,
the problem being how to account for the worship not of
deceased chiefs but of ancestors. True, I treated the worship
of deceased chiefs as being ancestor-worship on a larger scale,
though I never suggested that the chief was regarded (as M.
van Gennep seems to have understood me to do) literally as
the father of his people, but only as being so " in a sense,"
that is, by analogy. No doubt, among some of the Bantu tribes
the chief does receive in his lifetime the ascription of super-
natural power, and what amounts to worship. If it be held a
fair inference from my argument that this was denied, then I
must admit that the reasoning of the address was insufiiciently

232 Revieivs.

guarded. But it is far from being "ruined at its basis." Easy
as it may be to conceive the direct formation of a cult of
deceased chiefs without the intervention of totemism, which I
should at once concede, still that was not the problem. The
problem was — Given the former existence of totemism as a
fact, how did that totemism evolve into ancestor-worship,
as now practised among the Bantu, including the worship of
deceased chiefs ?

M. van Gennep does not offer any alternative solution of
this problem. My suggestion was that the belief of certain
North American tribes was at one time a Bantu belief, namely,
that after death a clansman was held to reappear in the form
of the totem-animal, that as totemism decayed the reappear-
ance in the form of the totem-animal would first tend to be
confined to the chief, and that ultimately the limitation would
be dropped and the reappearance of a dead man would assume
any convenient form. This was confessedly " a mere hypo-
thesis." " Nothing proves," says M. van Gennep, " that the
chief, who is the Hon-man in his hfetime, "is so again after
death." Precisely ; I never said it did. " The clan," he goes
on, "is in need of a real, live lion-man, in whom its life may
be incarnated. The lion-man dead, his successor becomes lion-
man in his turn." Certainly. " What is the good, then," he
asks, " of supposing that reincarnation in the lion is the chief's
privilege, since the reincarnation is of no importance for the
preservation of the society, for defence against the lion, for the
success of the crops, or of a war, and so on ? " I am by
no means sure that the clansman would regard his deceased
chief's reincarnation in the lion, if that were his totem-animal,
as of no importance for some of these purposes, such as defence
against the ravages of lions, or success in war. I rather think
it might be regarded as very useful. As to such reincarnation
being the chief's privilege, I only suggested that " he who was
in his lifetime emphatically the lion-man, the crocodile-man,
the porcupine-man, the elephant-man, the hippopotamus-man,"
for some such titles were as a fact given to the chiefs, " would
longest preserve the totem-form after death, especially in cases
where the totem was a beast to be dreaded for its size, physical

Reviews. 233

powers, and propensities to mischief." M. van Gennep may
have good reason for thinking this unHkely, and he may be
able to make some other suggestion which may help us to a
more probable solution of the problem. At present, if I am
right in supposing that he admits the totemism of the Bantu,
I cannot think that his criticism of my hypothesis, without
the presentation of another hypothesis in its place, does it
much damage.

Of course I may be wrong in reading an admission of Bantu
totemism into his words. But he certainly does not expressly
challenge it. I grant at once, if he desire it, the term sibokisvi
to the Bantu variety of totemism. The change of name will
not affect the fact that the remains of the institution among
the Bantu are in all essentials the same as among other peoples
who possess what scientific men have agreed to call totemism,
except that the totem-sacrifice, or communion has not yet been
traced. It may be traced hereafter. If not, it will be for students
to consider («) what are the probabilities of its having once
existed and having disappeared, and {b) whether it be so
essential a part of totemism that totemism cannot properly be
said to exist without it. Whatever the result, it will not
matter for this purpose, for both M. van Gennep and I are
referring to the Bantu institution (call it totemism or call it
sibokism) which has issued in father-right and ancestor-
worship.

I must apologise for this digression. It has, I trust, a scien-
tific side of far more importance than the personal side. And
the mention of father-right reminds me to observe that there are
in Madagascar what look like survivals of mother-right. They
should be carefully collected and examined. It is at least
conceivable that they would result in diminishing the hesi-
tation of M. van Gennep's conclusion as to the existence of
Malagasy totemism, of course in a decayed, or, as he puts it,
attenuated form.

With this final remark I commend the book to the perusal
of all who are interested in the important problems of which
it is an able, instructive, and learned discussion.

E. Sidney Hartland.

234 Reviews.

The Masai, Their Language and Folk-Lore. By A. C.
HoLLis, with Introduction by Sir Charles Eliot. Clarendon
Press, Oxford, 1905, 8vo. Pp. xxxii. + 364. Price 14s. net.

The author of this book is to be congratulated on the invention
of a new method of dealing (anthropologically) with savage races.
In the place of collecting material and giving it to the world in
the ordinary way — as a compilation from notes on the customs,
made at various times and places — he lets the natives describe
themselves and their ideas in their own language, and gives a
translation — sometimes interUnear, sometimes parallel to the
Masai text. The plan is an excellent one, especially in the case
of a people whose language is so little known as the Masai. At
the same time it naturally demands far more space than the
ordinary system, and can hardly be applied where there is much
material.

The Masai occupy what is known as the Rift Valley ; they have
as neighbours the Hamitic Gallas and Somali j various Bantu
stocks; and the extremely confused Nilotic tribes. The Masai
proper are nomadic, but a section of the tribe subsists by agri-
culture ; the latter was formerly more important, but the last century
saw the annihilation of large numbers of the settled population,
as a result of a conflict with their nomadic brethren. Sir C. Eliot
and others hold that the Masai are a cross between Hamitic and
Nilotic stocks ; the physical evidence seems to favour this
hypothesis, and the language indicates a close connection with
the Latuka, to whom Baker ascribes on physical grounds a Galla
origin. In any case it is certain that the Masai came from the
north, and have been exposed to Abyssinian, and, it may be,
Egyptian influence.

Mr. HoUis opens with an account of Masai grammar (pp. 1-102);
then follow stories (103-237), proverbs and sayings (238-252),
and riddles (253-259); the fourth part opens with an account of
the tribal divisions of the Masai (260-263); then follow myths
and traditions (264-281) and finally customs (282-356). Of the
Marchen about one-third are concerned with animals and one is
explicative of the custom of free love prevalent among the Masai.
But the main interest naturally lies in the myths and customs.

Reviews. 235

The Masai views on religion, as depicted by Mr. HoUis, are
not specially remarkable. Various names are used for God, the
commonest be eng-ai (pi. eng-aitin) ; prayers are offered to him ;
this term is however rather the equivalent of the Algonquin
manito, for it is applied to natural phenomena such as rain or
volcanoes, to the sky and to any remarkable objects; in fact it is
impersonal and can only occasionally be translated " divine " or
" god." In one myth we have an account of two gods, one red
{en-nanyokye), the other black (narok) ; the former of these is
malevolent, while the latter, who is nearer mankind, endeavours
to do good. A myth of origin (p. 266), speaks of only one God
(probably engat naroU), who is here rather a demi-urge than a
Creator ; the story explains how the Wandorobo, the hunting and
nomadic neighbours of the Masai, lost their cattle and how eng-di
gave to the Masai all the cattle in the world, which justifies them
in seizing the herds of any one who cannot protect himself. The
same story is told (p. 270) of Naiteru-kop, another demi-urge;
this seems to indicate that the Masai theology is far from settled.
The remainder of the myths are mainly concerned with astronomy
and physical phenomena. One item in the Masai creed is the
belief in ancestral snakes. Like the Betsileo, they hold that
while the poor are simply snuffed out, the soul of a rich man
or magician turns into a snake, which is respected on that
account ; but the interesting point is that though there is no
suggestion of totemism among the Masai, each clan has its own
special snake, which is respected by that clan alone; membership
of the clan is determined by descent and each clan has special
marks (these are depicted by Merker, to whom reference is
made below) ; there is no rule of clan exogamy, but sub-clan
exogamy is insisted on to the extent of prohibiting intermarriage
between two sub-clans of the same district. The blacksmiths
belong mainly to the Kipugoni clan and practice endogamy;
apparently this is owing to an objection on the part of the
other clans to intermarry with them, which may be due, like
the Japanese dislike to intermarriage with certain families, to
a belief in their magical powers ; it will be remembered that
to the Boudas of Abyssinia is attributed a power of trans-
forming themselves into hyenas ; Nachtigal too has recorded

236 Revieivs.

among the Sahara negroes an objection to intermarriage with
blacksmiths.

A considerable amount of controversy has been aroused by
another work on the Masai, mentioned above, by Captain Merker'
who holds that they are of Semitic origin and have preserved a
number of cosmogonic and other myths, bearing a close resem-
blance to those of the book of Genesis, but in some points more
closely allied to the Babylonian form of the story. Unfortunately
Merker has given us no definite information as to the persons from
whom he obtained his accounts beyond the fact that they
were the older men of the tribe, nor yet whether any were
obtained through an interpreter or not. It is true we learn from
the preface that a presumably competent Masai scholar has
verified the narratives and the hypothesis of a mystification
may therefore be dismissed. We cannot, however, overlook two
other possibilities ; (i) that the Masai derived them from mission-
aries in the hard times of the cattle plague ; (2) that in more
remote times they came in contact with non-European Christians,
(the Abyssinians are their near neighbours), or Mohammedans.
One thing is certain and that is that Merker's account shows far
more traces of foreign influence than Hollis's. Take for example
the account of 'Ngai {eng-di) ; Merker describes him as Creator
of the world, omnipotent, incorporeal ; the souls of all men go to
en gatambb (Cloudland) and 'Ngai sends the good to Paradise to
live at ease, the bad to a waterless desert, and condemns the
half-and-half to hard labour, though they too are admitted to
Paradise. Compared with the account mentioned above, this is
obviously non-primitive and cannot but arouse some doubts.

Again, take the deluge legend. The Masai of HoUis seem to
have no myth of this sort, though the Wandorobo, with whom
they are closely associated, have an interesting but very unbiblical
legend {Mitt, von Forsc/naigsreisenden aus den deutschen Schutz-
gebieten, xiii. 168) in which the Masai also figure. Deluge
legends are extremely common in all parts of the world except
Africa; if, as has been pointed out above, the Masai are con-
nected by language and physically with the Latuka, Dinka, and
Bari, and if the Masai are really Semitic, and have preserved their
^ M. Merker, Die Masai, Berlin, 1904.

Reviews. 237

proto-Semitic cosmogonic myths, we should, it is clear, find these
same myths among their neighbours also, and, a fortiori, among
all sections of the Masai. But Mr. Mollis cannot find Semitic
myths in British territory, nor have they been discovered among
any of the other tribes mentioned.

Arguments as to racial affinity may be based on (i) physical
character, (2) material, or (3) mental culture; and their evi-
dential value is roughly in the order given. The evidence from
physical character is open to two objections in the present case :
{a) we do not know with certainty what the primitive Semitic type
was ; (h) we know still less to what crossings and intermixtures
the Masai have been exposed in the three or four thousand years
that, on Merker's theory, have elapsed since they lived in their
original home. Physical evidence may therefore be set aside.

2. Little or no proof of Semitic origin can be discovered in the
material culture of the Masai, The temhe is, according to v.
Luschan, a West-iVsiatic product, and this form of habitation is
in use over a considerable area of East Africa ; but only a portion
of the Masai make use of it, from which it seems clear that it
is an imported feature among them, and not part of their primeval
culture.

3. Language is never a safe guide in ethnological questions ;
the Masai language is undoubtedly Hamitic ; if, therefore, the
evidence of language goes for anything, they are not Semitic. Of
course in so saying I do not overlook the connection traced by
Erman between Hamitic and Semitic languages. But it is clear
that no argument based on this view can be anything but sub-
versive of Merker's theory ; for if one thing is certain, it is that
Egyptian mythology was not Semitic ; but the language argument
makes the Masai no more Semitic than the Egyptian, and demands
that Masai and Egyptian alike shall have brought from their
Asiatic (?) home the myths on which Aterker relies ; if these myths
are not found among the ancient Egyptians and other Hamitic
peoples, the obvious conclusion is that the Masai mythology is
no part of the original inheritance of the Hamites. To reply to
this objection, as Merker would presumably do, by arguing
that the Masai are non-Semitic in language and material culture,
(he argues, though on slight grounds, that they represent the

238 Reviews.

primitive Semitic physical type) owing to contact with Hamitic
neighbours, and that we can base on their mythology alone an
argument for their Semitic origin is to attach to traditions, which
are not pan-Masai, which are not necessarily Masai at all, and
which, if they are now genuine Masai, may well owe their Semitic
character to lateral not lineal transmission, an importance which
no one save the most fanatical opponent of the borrowing theory
would dream of conceding to them. It is therefore not surprising
that his views have not been received with general acceptance
even in Germany.

Marker's views have been brought to our notice in England
mainly through a futile controversy in the Contemporary Revieiv
on the subject of the Higher Criticism. As neither disputant
possessed any of the knowledge, anthropological and otherwise,
essential to a fruitful discussion of the question, it is unnecessary
to allude further to their debate here.

Mr. Hollis's book is well illustrated ; some of the pictures from
one point of view suffer from the smallness of the page, but he
has wisely chosen to give us large scale pictures with much detail
rather than small figures and more artistic illustration. There
seems to be an idea abroad that anything in the way of indexes
is good enough for anthropologists ; though Mr. Hollis's work is
indexed more creditably than some other works of the last twelve
months, it can hardly be called adequate.

N. W. Thomas.

English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Edited from the
Collection of Francis James Child by Helen Child
Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge. London : D.

Nutt. 1905.

Mrs. Sargent and Mr. Kittredge have produced a very good
book of ballads, about the size of the globe editions of English
poets, by selecting one or more versions of each in Professor
Child's famous gathering, adding concise prefaces, and furnishing
a brief introduction, with a discussion of the evolution of our

Reviews. 239

ballads. Short as it is, the essay is nearly adequate for its
purpose. The ballad, as a rule, is "impersonal"; if "it were
possible to conceive a tale as telling itself, without the instru-
mentality of a conscious speaker, the ballad would be such a
tale " — in verse. The argument would be more adequate if
ballads were compared with popular tales {Mdrchen) in prose,
and if the cante-fable, or popular medley of alternate prose
and verse, were dwelt on and illustrated by examples. A short
introduction, however, is hardly the place for a treatise on the
inter-relations of European ballads and Mdrchen. The subject
awaits its critic, and it is to be wished that Mr. Kittredge would
make it his own. Again, the noted formulae of the ballad
deserve attention, and ihe conventions which popular has
bequeathed to hterary poetry, as to some degree the Homeric
epics attest. The ballads, Mr. Kittredge insists, belong to " the
folk," the class undifferentiated by degrees of rank, wealth, and
education. Their popular character is attested by their wide
diffusion over all Europe. Wherever the tale existed, the folk
could turn it into song, and did so. The ballad has now no
authoritative text. Whatever men or women first composed,
other men and women have modified, by additions, excisions,
and new combinations, in the course of centuries of oral trans-
mission. "The initial art of creative authorship is completely
overshadowed by the secondary art of collective composition."
But the initial art may have been that of one rhymer, or of many,
each contributing a verse — a practice of which it might have been
desirable to give more examples; for example, from the outermost
isles of the Hebrides even to-day. It is unlikely that, in the
reign of Mary Stuart, such a ballad as "The Queen's Marie"
was thus composed, while the very unhistorical English ballads
on Darnley, Riccio, and Bothwell may have been actually written
and printed by and for some English street-singer. But many
generations have collaborated in such versions of " The Queen's
Marie" as we possess, with their numerous variations on the
theme. In this sense authorship is "communal," and in many
romantic ballads the don?iee is part of the popular stock of
Marchen. Some ballads are obviously popularised out of literary
romances, but the romances usually owe their donnees to the

240 Reviews.

folk-store of Mdrchen. Mr. Kittredge does not give to the pro-
fessional minstrel the credit, or all the credit, of originating
ballads. The Borderers, Bishop Lesley tells us, themselves
made their own ballads of the class of Kinmont Willie, however
much that poem owes to Sir Walter Scott. Men like " the bard
of Rule " made them, ab initio, and reciters in several generations
collaborated in the usual way. I do not think that a literary
person must fail in making a ballad that would pass muster as
popular ; but they usually do fail, because they try to be " too
poetical," as Scott said of Mrs. Hemans. Could Mr. Kittredge
have detected Scott's ballad of Harlaw, sung by Elspeth of the
Burnfoot, in The Antiquary ? I do not despair of puzzling Mr.
Kittredge by a ballad which he could not disprove by technical
reasons : and I do not know what he makes of " Auld Maitland,"
a nut very hard to crack. Has Mr. Kittredge a theory of how a
title so late as that of " Duke of AthoU" got into "The Duke of
Atholl's Nurse " ? The difficulty, for a certain reason, of obtaining
a nurse for the ducal family, in the eighteenth century, is " well
known to me." Atholl was doubtless thrown in merely to give
local colour. There is no room in a book of the dimensions of
this for very minute inquiry : the specialist must go to Professor
Child's five volumes. But a more exemplary edition than this is,
for its purposes, cannot be imagined. The notes are very good,
and the glossary is no less excellent. Mr. Kittredge's theory of /
ballad origins is one with which I so heartily sympathise that an
opponent might be a more useful critic.

A. Lang.

Books for Review should be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lore,

c/o David Nutt,
57-59 Long Acre, London.

golh^%oic.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

Vol. XVI.] SEPTEMBER, 1905. [No. III.

WEDNESDAY, 19th APRIL, 1905.

Mr. G. L. Gomme (Vice-President) in the Chair.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and con-
firmed.

The election of the Rev. H. C. Matthew, Mr. Percy
Maylan, and Miss Dona R. Torr as members of the Society
was announced. The enrolment of the California State
Library as a subscriber was also announced.

Mr. Lovett exhibited the following objects, viz.:

1. A Whitby cake with the arms of the town (three

ammonites).

2. Ammonites from Whitby, to which false heads have

been fixed to resemble coiled snakes,

3. A Whitby halfpenny, 1667, bearing the coiled snake

arms, and an inscription " Henry Smeaton, his
halfpenny, 1667." ■

4. Neolithic arrow-heads of flint used in County

Antrim, about 1898, to cure cows of "grup."

5. Various holed stones used in County Antrim about

1898 to protect cows from the pixies, etc.

VOL. XVI. Q

242 Mifmtes of Meetings.

6. A ladle of wood used at Beauly, N.B., in 1840, for
sprinkling victims of the evil eye with water :
and read some notes illustrative of the objects. [Plate
XXV. and p. 333.]

Miss Burne, on behalf of Miss Barry, exhibited two
holed stones from Caithness, and read an explanatory
note [p. 335].

After some observations by the Chairman and the Hon.
Mrs. Sinclair, Mr. N. W. Thomas read two papers by Mr.
R. E. Dennett, entitled respectively " Bavili Notes," and,
" Some Notes from Southern Nigeria," and in the dis-
cussion which followed Miss Werner, Miss Burne, Mr.
Thomas and the Chairman took part.

A paper on "Jerusalem Folklore," by Miss Goodrich
Freer, was also read.

The Meeting terminated with votes of thanks to the
exhibitors of objects and readers of papers.

WEDNESDAY, 17tli MAY, 1905.
The President (Dr. W. H. D. Rouse) in the Chair.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed.

The death of Mr. C. H. Stephenson and the resignation
of Mr. E. J. Kitts were announced.

Mr. N. W. Thomas read a note on " The Religious
Ideas of the Arunta."

Mr. Andrew Lang read a paper entitled "Arunta
Totemism and Marriage Law," and in the discussion which
followed Dr. Haddon and Mr. Nutt took part.

At the conclusion of the meeting a hearty vote of
thanks was accorded to Mr. Thomas and Mr. Lang for
their papers.

THE DANCING-TOWER PROCESSIONS OF
ITALY.

BY ALBINIA WHERRY, AUTHOR OF "STORIES OF THE TUSCAN
ARTISTS," ETC.

{Read at Meeting, i§th March, 1905.) ^

On Midsummer Day in the year 1492, Tito Melema, the
unworthy lover of Romola, was seated with his friends
Nello, Cennini, and the painter Piero di Cosimo, in an
upper chamber of the barber's house on the Piazza di San
Giovanni at Florence. Amid the ringing of bells and the
shouting of the populace, a many- coloured train was
slovv^ly defiling beneath them, passing from the shadow of
the frowning palaces that hem in the narrow street, to the
sunny open places where Giotto's Tower rises rose-flushed
against the blue sky. Horses, giants, banners, huge
figures of saints, had already passed in review, straggling
along in the irregular order which characterises Italian
ecclesiastical processions. But the part of the spectacle
which more especially arrested the attention of the stranger
were certain tall slender towers called Ceri.

" These gigantic Ceri, some of them so large as to be
of necessity carried on wheels, were not solid, but hollow,
and had their surface made not solely of wax but of wood
and paste-board, gilded, carved and painted as real
sacred tapers often are, with successive circles of figures,
warriors, dancing maidens, animals, trees and fruit, and
in fine, says the old chronicler, all that could delight the
eye and the heart, the hollowness having the further

^Cf. ante, p. 131.

244 T^^^^ Dancing- Tower Processions of Italy.

advantage that men could stand inside these hyperboHcal
tapers, and whirl them continually so as to produce a
phantasmagoric effect, which, considering that the towers
were numerous, must have been calculated to produce
giddiness on a magnificent scale." ^

The procession of San Giovanni is now shorn of its
former splendour, and but few of the English-speaking
travellers who throng the City of the Lily are aware that
though towers no longer perform their whirling course
through Florence they are still to be met with in other
parts of Italy.

The " Rua" of Vicenza.

The largest of these so-called " dancing towers " is the
" Rua " of Vicenza, a stupendous edifice twenty-five
metres in height, and weighing eighty-five quintali. The
property of the Guild of the Notaries, it was once one
only among many similar erections, each of which bore
the insignia of a trade, was surmounted by the image of a
patron saint, and usually contained some sacred relic. In
the year 144 1 the Guild of the Notaries erected a new and
superior Cero,^ henceforth called the Rua or Ruata. It
was a permanent structure, redecorated each year, and
some portion of it at least could be made to revolve with
great rapidity like the towers of San Giovanni. Formerly
the Ceri of the various Guilds paraded the streets at the
Festa of the Corpus Domini, but, in the eighteenth century
the Rua was secularized, the form of its decoration was
altered, and it was no longer permitted to take part in the
ecclesiastical procession.

' [The old chronicler from whom George Eliot derived this %'ivid picture of a
bygone pageant was evidently Goro Dati, who t^ourished circa 1400 [L'Osser-
vatore Fiorentino, vi. 3. See also Montaigne ; Le festc di S. Giovanni,
(Florence, 1877) pp. 20, 21 ; C. Guasti, Le Feste (Florence, 1884).
— N.W.T.]

-Were they kncnvn as Ceri ? — N.VV.T.

Platk XX.

-^^^

THE RUA OF ViCENZA.

To face p. 244.

The Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy. 245

In the first year of Italian liberty the Rua was turned
into a poHtical burlesque and " came forth " to grace a
Republican festival. After this time it was no longer
accompanied by the Ceri of the other Guilds, and the
pageant became a poor and shabby affair. In September,
1 90 1, it was restored with great magnificence ; eighteen
boys took the place of the wooden or plaster statues, and
fairs and general rejoicings celebrated the occasion. The
great expense connected with its progress, from the
necessity of taking down the telephone and telegraph
wires on the route, will prevent the " coming forth " of
the Riia being an annual ceremony but it will probably be
brought out occasionally to do honour to distinguished
visitors. The name Rua is said to refer to the wheel of
the Carroccio of the Paduans, brought back in triumph by
the valiant citizens of Vicenza in the thirteenth century,
but there is no reliable foundation for this statement.^

The " Macchina TriompJiale" or Cero, of Santa Rosa at

Viterbo.

In September, 1901,'" the city of the beautiful fountains"
was by no means an agreeable residence. No rain had
fallen for two months ; the heat, stench and noise were
insupportable ; for, in addition to the crowds assembled to
do honour to the local patroness, and enjoy the Opera and
the Giostra which celebrated the occasion, the Count of
Turin, the Commander of the Italian army, had made the
town his headquarters for the summer manoeuvres.

I have at present no satisfactory account of the Viterbo
festival, and can only describe what I saw myself.
Towards dusk on the evening of September the 3rd the

1 Giuseppe Buso, La Rua e la Sua Storia (Vicenza, 1901). See also
V Illustrazione Italiana, Sept. 25, 1890 ; Domenico del Corriere, Sept. 5,
1901, from which Plate XX. is taken. There is a good deal of local litera-
ture on the subject, but as one writer observes, "more obstinate than the
Nile, the Rua conceals its source."

246 The Dancing-Tower Processions 0/ Italy.

sixty-two facchini whose office it is to carry the Cero
assembled in the great square. Chosen for their strength,
they are sustained by the promise of reward, not in this
Hfe only but in the next. They wear white clothes, red
waist-scarfs and turbans, this peculiar head-dress, which
gives them an Oriental appearance, being intended to
afford some protection to the back of the head and neck,
on which, like the Caryatides, they support the enormous
weight. The Count of Turin attended by a circle of
brilliant uniforms made his appearance on a balcony, and
the assembled Ceraioli, having made their obeisance to
him, at a given signal and by one united effort, raised the
stupendous edifice. Then amid wild strains of music and
attended by a shouting crowd, the Ccro, twinkling from
head to foot like a gigantic Christmas-tree, came swaying
down the narrow street, ready to crush all that lay in its
path. But that path was cleared and carefully sanded
to prevent a fatal slip, and from the safe vantage of an
upper window in the Hotel Schenardi it was possible
to enjoy without apprehension the really magnificent
spectacle. The tapering spire, sixty feet high, overtopped
the tallest houses : it was as if the tower of St. Clement
Danes were suddenly to stir from its foundation and make
a rapid progress through the Strand. Even the sight
of the hotel-keeper's son beaming from one of its higher
stories did not wholly destroy the illusion. The eyes
of the Ceraioli being perforce bent earthward, an official
on either side guided the direction, and halts were made
at certain authorized stations. Finally, after thus parading
the city for some hours the Cero was deposited in front of
the church of its patroness. There was no whirling, and
there were no hanging figures on the edifice. The sym-
bolical statues which decorated it appeared to be made of
wood or plaster. The same Cero is made use of on five
consecutive occasions. Then a new one is provided, the
architectural style varying from Gothic to Renaissance,

The Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy. 247

from Romanesque to Baroque. In other respects it
resembles the account given of the Ruala}

The " Gigli,'' or Lilies, of Nola.
At Nola, beloved of the archaeologist for the beauty
of its ancient Greek pottery, and interesting to the student
of mediaeval history as the home of the first church-bell,
an annual festival resembling in many respects the
Florentine pageant of San Giovanni is still celebrated on
the 22nd and 23rd of June. Numerous slender towers,
each about forty feet high, made of gesso, or stucco, on
a wooden framework and surmounted by figures of the
Madonna and patron saints, are carried through the streets
on the shoulders of red-clothed bearers, who, undismayed
by their burdens, perform remarkable evolutions, eight of
the towers having been seen to dance a quadrille in the
piazza. Each tower is composed of seven diminishing
platforms built up round a mast and supported on a
square base, on which is stationed a band of musicians
who all play furiously and all different tunes. Above are
boys, who scatter confetti on the crowd. On each tower
are the insignia of a trade, the bakers, coppersmiths, and so
forth, showing that the Lilies like the Ceri of Vicenza are
the property of the different Guilds. With the towers
comes a car, the property of the clog-makers, which is
in form like a ship. Its commander is a ferocious Turk,
its freight a silver statue of St. Paulinus. The procession
is accompanied by the Bishop and clergy bearing the Host
and relics. As the day wears on a fury of excitement
possesses the whole populace, bells are rung, fireworks
exploded, and linked dances similar to those performed
by Greek peasants at Easter-time are a conspicuous and
noteworthy feature of the day's proceeding. The tradi-
tion of the inhabitants as to the origin of their popular
festival is of no very ancient date. They associate it
^ From personal ol^servation. — A. W.

248 The Dancing- Tower Processions of Italy.

with the return of their bishop St. Paulinus (a.D. 353-
431) from a missionary voyage, and the giant "lilies"
represent the flower-trophies brought out in his honour
by his enthusiastic followers. Paulinus was a scholar,
he had also a knowledge of mankind. May it not
therefore be conceived that, taking advantage of a moment
of popular enthusiasm, he converted the celebration of
the return of Dionysos after his capture by pirates into
a perpetual memorial of his own efforts -to convert the
Saracens .'' For the scenes of revelry which now honour
the memory of the Christian bishop find their counterpart
in the decorations of the painted wine-jars for which the
city has long been celebrated.^

The Festival of " La Vara " at Messina.

The festival of La Vara has a twofold significance. On
its secular side it commemorates a famous sea-fight, when
the Norman Count Roger delivered Sicily from the yoke
of the infidel ; as an ecclesiastical function it celebrates the
Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the patroness of Messina,
On August 13th two huge pasteboard giants, mounted on
horseback, are conducted through the city, the people
thronging to kiss their feet and hands. The male giant,
" a handsome Moor, bearded, and with rolling eyes," wears
armour and has emblazoned on his shield the arms of
Messina ; the female, " somewhat larger, flaxen haired, and
very like a Nuremburg doll," is magnificently attired, with
a star on her forehead and a flowing blue mantle. The
people call them Mata and Grifone ; she is the beautiful
lady of Messina, he a fierce heathen warrior whom she
married and civilized. But they have various names, and
Mata is it would appear the goddess Cybele or Rhea,
Grifone her earthly consort. On the following day a

^ E. Neville Rolfe, Naples in the Nineties ; Murray's Guide to Sotdhern-
Italy ; and informalion furnished b}' an eyewitness, Mr. R. H. Hobart Cast,,
from whose photographs of the scene Plates XXI. -XXII. are reproduced.

Plate XXII.

THE SHIP OF NOLA.

To J ace p.ji.a^%.

The Da7icing-Toiver Processions of Italy. 249

pantomirne camel, the fabled steed of Grifone, performs his
gambols through the town, and into his gaping jaws are
thrown loaves of bread, joints of meat, and flagons of wine.
On August 15th the secular festival becomes a religious
one, and the " Vara," or " Bara," comes forth on its annual
progress, borne on the shoulders of the members of the
religious confraternities. This Macchina Triomphale of the
Madonna of the Assunta was one of the most remarkable
creations of human ingenuity fired by a zeal for religion.
It is a revolving pyramid of great height, composed of
four or five platforms. On the lowest the Virgin appears
exl "nded on her death-bed surrounded by the weeping
apostles, above are prophets, singing patriarchs, the sun,
moon, stars, signs of the Zodiac, and the spheres, blue
spangled with gold. On the summit, suspended in mid-air
by means of an iron bracket, the Soul of the Virgin,
formerly represented by the most beautiful girl in Messina,
clings to the extended hand of the central figure, who is
described by some writers as the "Padre Eterno," by
others as his Divine Son. Of late years these two
important characters have been replaced on their gidd}-
height by card-board figures, but on the extended rays of
the great luminaries and on the vertical and horizontal
wheels which represent the celestial spheres, real babies,
gilt-winged and rose-crowned, play the part of angels.
These wheels are in constant motion, like the swings or
steam-horses of an English fair, and fortunate (if there be
degrees in ill-fortune) are the inhabitants of the higher
tiers, since violent sickness is the not unfrequent result.^

iPitre, Feste Patronali in Sicilia (Biblioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari
Siciliane, vol. xxi.). Signorina Maria Pitre, in a work entitled Le Feste di
Santa Rosalia in Palermo e delta Assunta in Messina, gives no less than
eighteen accounts from various witnesses of the procession of the Bara or
Vara. The earliest, by P. Brydone, was in 1770; the most recent, taken
from Vlllustrazione popolari, in 1888; a note, p. 158, mentions the pro-
cession as having taken place in 1897. The accounts differ in detail, but
agree in the more important particulars.

250 The Dancing- Tozver Processions of Italy.

The Festival of Santa Rosalia at Palermo.

This festival, remarkable for the length of its duration,
is celebrated during the latter end of June and the first
days of July. It was instituted, or probably revived, in
the first half of the seventeenth century to commemorate
the cessation of the plague by the intervention of the
city's special [patroness Santa Rosalia, daughter of Count
Sinibaldo. On June 5th, 1635, the bones of the saint, long
hidden in a cave on Monte Pellegrino, were brought down
in solemn procession, and as they passed through the
streets the plague was stayed. In 1858 the annual
festival was discontinued, but was revived in 1895 under
conditions suitable to modern requirements. I have not
been able to verify exactly what takes place at the
present time, the most recent account before me being
no later than 1826. Lasting in all for nearly four weeks,
the interest of the festival centres more especially on two
events. On June 24th, Midsummer Day, the sleigh or
trolly, which carries the car, is thrown into the sea amid
universal rejoicings, to be withdrawn a few days later.
On July nth the car, a huge structure 30 metres high
and 22 broad, is drawn through the streets by twenty
yoke of oxen. On its summit stands Santa Rosalia,
a slender girlish figure robed in white and wreathed with
roses. Surrounding her are groups of angels, and con-
spicuous among a crowd of allegorical figures are Ceres,
the earth mother, and a crowned man with a falcon on
his wrist, the tutelary genius of the city. The lowest
platform of the car, which is profusely decorated and
painted, has the form of a ship. Four days later the
relics of the saint, contained in a magnificent silver urn,
are carried through the streets by the Muratori (masons),
and are accompanied by the barelli (biers or stretchers) of
other guilds. Many of these bavtlli are of great size and
require a large number of bearers. They contain relics

The Dancing- Tower Pi'ocessions of Italy. 2 5 1

and are surmounted by figures of saints. Large silver
statues of S, Cosmo and S. Damian, who are associated
with Santa RosaHa as healers of the plague-stricken
population, also take part in this procession.^

The Elevation of the Ceri at Giibbio.

I can add but little to the admirable account of the
Ceri of Gubbio by Mr. Herbert M. Bower, which was
published in 1897 by the Folklore Society. But having
been present at Gubbio on two occasions of more recent
date, the impressions of an enthusiastic spectator may
present a few points of interest.

The Ceri already described present a certain similarity
of form : they are towers or pagodas built up in diminish-
ing stages : they often serve as pedestals for sacred images,
and sometimes also as reliquaries. But to what can we
liken the three Ceri of Gubbio .'' They have been de-
scribed as being composed of two hollow wooden lobes
or cylinders, and as resembling Chinese lanterns placed
one above the other. When first we saw the Cero of Sant'
Ubaldo, which is the largest, and stands when elevated
about sixteen feet in height, it lay in a horizontal position
in an outhouse, and it then looked like the needle-case of a
giantess. When tossing above the crowd, very much out
of the perpendicular, the three Ceri have a weird resem-
blance to Christmas crackers. Like the whirling towers
of San Giovanni, they are of wood, painted and decorated.
They have light handles serving no obvious purpose, and
are further adorned with tags of ribbon and gilt paper.
When elevated on the barella, which is supported on
the shoulders of the Ceraioli, they preserve their balance
by means of guy-ropes held in position by enthusiastic
spectators, whose office as sustainers of equilibrium be-
comes more onerous and important as the day wears on.

'Pitre, op. iit.

252 The Dancing- Tower Processions of Italy.

In the early morning of May 15th, 1903, the vigil of
Sant' Ubaldo, the empty market-place and deserted streets
of the poverty-stricken town showed little animation, for
the real business of the Festa begins on the following
day. Only crowds of boys, the most loquacious and
ubiquitous of all their kind, attaching themselves firmly
to our company, led the way to the shrine of the sweet
Madonna Belvedere of Ottaviano Nelli, and the repository
of those Eugubean Tables which are the pride of Gubbio.
Towards midday, however, stalwart white-clad men wear-
ing red caps, and with coloured scarfs round their necks
and loins, began by twos and threes to make their ap-
pearance. Following in their tracks, we visited in turns
the various halls, where fast-day repasts of fish, fruit, and
sweets, flanked by graceful wine-flagons and long loaves
of bread, were served on narrow tables, and the whole
population of Gubbio, male and female, poured in and
out in an unending variegated throng. The scene was
an animated one, and as the day wore on and the com-
pany met together for the third time, the excitement
became more intense. Now and again one or another
of the Ceraioli, raising his wine-cup, broke through the
hubbub of voices with the shout, " Viva Sant' Ubaldo,
viva ! " and the cry, taken up by a comrade at a distant
table, had the significance of the old refrain at the
Thessalian banquets, " Evoe, Bacchus, evoe ! "

In the hall of the Cero of Sa-nt' Ubaldo the dignitaries
of the town sat long over their cups, even though an
interruption was effected by a rush to the kitchen window
to show the visitors the ceremony of the baptism of the
Cero. This took place before its elevation, when a man
climbing on the barella broke a large clay vessel of water
over the base of the tower. This curious custom is in-
tended, it is said, to ensure the good quality of the new
wine. Then, not without difficulty, the unwieldy structure
was raised on the shoulders of twelve bearers, who at once

D
O

O
Q

_J
<

The Daficing-Toiver Processions of Italy. 253

set off on their wild career up and down the steep narrow
ways, amid showers of blossoms thrown from upper win-
dows by the women of Gubbio, who otherwise take little
active part in the day's proceedings. The most remark-
able feature in the progress of the three Ceri is the
gyrations performed by them in front of the houses of
important citizens, who, to show their appreciation of the
compliment, pour out before the bearers libations from
their best vintages. These peculiar movements consist
in the describing of a triple circuit backwards and witJier-
sJiins : a difficult task when executed with a long awkward
barella, an ill-balanced weight, by bearers raised by drink
and excitement into a state of frenzy.

An interesting episode witnessed by one member of the
party was the lowering of the Ccro of Sant' Ubaldo to
the open casement of one of the tall grey houses, where a
sick man, supported by his friends, embraced with great
fervour and emotion the feet and golden robes of the
little image.

All through the earlier part of the day the Ceri paraded
separately, or stood deserted in the street of the Via
Savelli della Porta while the bearers were feasting. While
thus in repose, they were in 1903 supported in the upright
position by certain stands of quaint and antique appear-
ance, (Plates XXIII. -XXIV., from photographs by Mr.
R. H. H. Cust.) In the following year these stands were
absent. Enquiry into this singular circumstance led to the
unveiling of a tragedy in humble life. These stands were
the invention of a local workman ; they had been broken
the previous year, and, unable to obtain redress, he had
left the city in search of remunerative work elsewhere.
The mutilated fragments stood dejectedly in the poverty-
stricken home, beside the empty cot of his little daughter,
who during his absence had been carried to her last sleep
in the churchyard.

The Ceri of Gubbio, like the Gigli of Nola, are the

2 54 T^h^ Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy.

property of guilds, the Miiratori (masons) taking preced-
ence as the special devotees of the patron of the city.
The soldiers and shopkeepers tender their allegiance to
San Giorgio, the Contadini (peasants) to Sant' Antonio,
and these stands which have so melancholy a history were
composed of the insignia of the different trades; the first
being a model of four castellated buildings ; the second,
two trophies of arms, a shop, and a pyramid of wine
barrels ; the third, a cottage, a haystack, and two tree
branches, possibly intended for the olive and the vine.

About five o'clock in the afternoon vespers are celebrated
in the Cathedral, and then the Bishop, the living repre-
sentative of Sant' Ubaldo, and clad like him in golden cope
and mitre, comes down in solemn procession to give the
ecclesiastical benediction. With him is the church image
of the Saint, swaying and tottering on the shoulders of
aged men, who, in their lusty youth had, like their sons
and grandsons, run and shouted under the far heavier
burdens.

The two processions (the Ceri now form up into one)
meet in the Via Dante, and as the last word of the
Benediction is spoken start off on their mad career. They
are preceded by a mounted trumpeter, and by the first
captain (possibly the representative of the former Capitano
del Popold) also mounted, and waving a sword. Behind
him comes the second captain on foot, together with
two men bearing covered hatchets ; these being most
likely the relics of the military part of the pageant,
formerly of much greater importance. Up and down the
narrow streets the Ceri tossed wildly, the limp arms of
the little images wagging feebly as if in mute protest,
their golden, blue, and red robes making bright spots of
colour in the grey landscape. Overhead in the tower
of the Palazzo dei Consoli the great bell, which is rung
only five times a year, tolled slowly, the men, who by
pressing with their feet on heavy levers set it in motion,

w^w

CQ
CD

D
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■s

The Dancing- Tower Pi^ocessions of Italy.

205

being plainly visible. Then it ceased suddenly, and the
Ceri having completed their circuit of the town, precipitated
on to the Piazza. At our first visit it rained heavily,
the ecclesiastical benediction was dispensed with, and it
was amid a forest of toadstools of every shade of dingy
blue, brown and green (the umbrellas of the crowd) that
the Ceri made their three rapid turns round the square.
The men, now worked up into a perfect ecstasy of excite-
ment, leant backward as they strained under the heavy
burden, their flushed cheeks and shining eyes denoting
their "god-possession," while shouts of " Evviva Sant'
Ubaldo ! " rent the air. Then with a last wild whoop
they rushed towards the city gate, at the foot of the
steep path which ascends the Monte Ingino.

To pass the low arch the Ceri must be lowered to
a nearly horizontal position, a difficult performance, during
v.'hich accidents often happen to the saints. Profiting by
this delay two of our party, clearing their way through
the kindly sympathetic crowd, stormed the height and
arrived at the convent on the summit, which is the final
goal, before the first Cero had reached it ; the allotted
time being usually twenty minutes. When Sant' Ubaldo
and his followers had passed the convent gate it was
closed behind them, for here the attendant saints are
visitors only, and must wait their turn. Then within
the courtyard, in sight of the shrine where the incor-
ruptible body of the great bishop lies in state above
the high altar, the Ceraioli of Sant' Ubaldo once more
run their threefold course. The image of the saint is
taken down from his pedestal ; the people eagerly throng
round to kiss the rumpled garments of their revered
patron ; and the Cero is stowed away until the following
year. San Giorgio and Sant' Antonio, when admitted
into the precincts repeat the same ceremony.

Then ensued a scene of uproarious rejoicing, health-
drinking, handshaking ; and a regular ovation was

256 The Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy.

bestowed on th^ forestieri, who had joined in the homage
paid to the local divinities. The thick mist which had
enveloped the hill and hidden the three shouting groups
tearing up the narrow path from those beneath had
cleared away ; and as we descended the perpendicular
hillside, with the saints now amicably united on one
platform, the valley lay like a map beneath our feet.
The ruins of the Roman theatre stood out clearly, in
shape like the crescent moon. The tower of Palazzo
dei Consoli was outlined with bright stars, lights shone
in every window, bonfires on every hill. Down the
winding ways we stepped in unison, joining in the refrain
of socialistic songs, which on every day except this one
of privileged licence are forbidden by the police.

Before we reached the town, most of the Ceraioli had
slipped away, the shepherds and vine-dressers had sought
their homes among the rugged hills. Some few Eugubean
citizens, the boys and ourselves, remained to take part in
the concluding ceremony. At the foot of Monte Ingino is
a small chapel, where a young white-robed priest with his
attendant acolytes was already in waiting. Here the
saints, their hard work accomplished, retire into seclusion
for another year. A hymn with the constant repetition of
Sant' Ubaldo's name was shouted, rather than sung, by all
present, a benediction bestowed, and then all went
quietly homeward.^

It now remains to ask ourselves what is the origin of
these curious erections and the attendant ceremonies, and

^ On the point of going to press I take the following from La JDovienica
del Corriere, Aug. 14, 1904 (translated): "At Casteltermini, in the province
of Girgenti, there has been held from time immemorial a festival of a more
or less religious character. On this occasion a high tower mounted on a
car having the form of a ship is drawn in procession through the streets by
oxen. On its summit is a figure of the Madonna, here regarded as the
special patroness of the sulphur miners, who for this one day escaping from
their gloomy, unwholesome surroundings, take a prominent part in the
festivities."

The Dancing- Tower Processions of Italy. 257

can they be brought into connection with similar observ-
ances in other countries? The god hidden from the
gaze of the vulgar in a leafy frame, the wooden o.'i'i^^y
burnt by the Druid priest in honour of his bloodthirsty
deity, the sacred tree, the pointed cone, each of these may
be indirectly represented by these remarkable structures,
and the tower which now serves as a pedestal for god
or saint may itself have been originally the emblem of
the Deity. The expression still in use for the progress
of a great Barella or Cero is the one familiar in Babylonian
records of Bael, " the Going Forth." The golden ship of
Amon Ra still takes part in a Mahomedan procession
at Luxor ; ^ Husain's home, lamp-bedecked, a tower 40
feet high, borne by 50 men, parades the streets of Calcutta.
An eyewitness of a festival held in honour of Buddha of
Kamakura, in Japan, describes many points of resemblance
to these Italian festas ; - and no one who has seen a
great Barella plunging down the street can fail to be
reminded of the procession of the " Ruth Jathra," when,
raised on cars over forty feet high and drawn by the
excited populace shouting " Victory to Jaganarth," that
great idol, accompanied by two inferior companions,
makes its annual progress from Puri to Gondicha.

Albinia Wherry.

NOTE ON THE ABOVE.

The seven festivals with which Mrs. Wherry's paper
deals range as regards the date of their celebration from
May 15th (Gubbio) to September 3rd (Viterbo) ; the Vara
of Messina falls on August 15th; all the remainder in
June.

^Folklore, vol. xi., p. 386.
"^ Life of Professor Coivel/, vol. i., p. 149.
R

258 The Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy.

At Gubbio, Florence, and Viterbo the objects are known
as Ceri ; at Vicenza as the R^ia ; at Nola as Gigli. They
range from 16 feet to lOO feet in height and are conical and
hollow. As a rule, they seem to be slender, though that
of Palermo was 72 feet broad ; and they are in some cases
composed of platforms from four to seven in number, one
above the other. The whirling movement is recorded of
all save those of Palermo and Viterbo.

Many details are given, but it is difficult to lay much
stress on them owing to the great diversity of the different
celebrations. At the present day it is difficult to say what
is modern accretion, what is really of olden time. Even
in the case of the features whose antiquity is vouched for
we have to face the question of how far syncretism, or,
if not syncretism, convergence of type, has been at work.
Until we have a complete collection both of the older
accounts (Montaigne gives one of the Florence celebration,
and there are possibly many more) and of more modern
descriptions, it seems hopeless to try to extract the kernel
and say " this is a portion of the original festival." But
until this can be done we are dealing with aitiological
myths, not scientific theories.

On the whole, the most hopeful side on which to
approach the problem is that of the date and general
character of the celebration. The whirling motion cannot,
it is true, be satisfactorily explained ; but we have a
sufficient number of analogies in the way of spring and
summer processions to be able to offer an opinion on the
basis suggested above.

There are two well-marked types of processions : the
first moves in an odour of sanctity and dispenses the holy
influence wherever the holy image goes. Of this type are
the progresses of Nerthus and Nehalennia, of Ceres and
Dionysus, of the Babylonian gods, and perhaps even of
Jaganarth. In more modern times we have the carrying
of images round the fields in order to bless the crops. The
second is intended, not to diffuse utana, but to disinfect
the locality by attracting the evil influences with a view to
their removal. On the west coast of Africa we find such
an expulsion of evils, animal figures being made, into
which the evil spirits are believed to pass, and which are
subsequently thrown into the river. Of this type, too,
are, in all probability, some familiar European celebrations.

The Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy. 259

such as the hunting of the wren and other obscure customs.
But into these points I need not go here.

This broad distinction in purpose then is usually accom-
panied by a difiference in the season of these two kinds of
celebrations. The ;;^<^««-diffusing, actively-beneficent ones
are found in the late spring and summer, the scavenging,
passively beneficial in the winter and the early months
of the New Year. Judging from the date of these Italian
celebrations, one would say their purpose was to diffuse
a holy influence, not to remove an evil one.

Further than this in the present state of our knowledge
we cannot go with certainty. There is, however, a point —
the connection of the ship with some of the celebrations —
which calls for some remarks. Ships are of course by no
means invariably a " note " of a god-procession ; in fact it
is quite common, especially in the East Indies, to find the
ship figuring in an exorcism ceremony or in an expulsion
of evils. But it should not be forgotten that in ancient
Europe especially we have frequent trace of the sacred
character of the ship-car ; in fact, one might be tempted to
ask whether this is not the primitive type of the waggon.
The wheel may well have been evolved as an aid to
launching. I have already mentioned the ship-procession
of Nerthus in the plains of N.W. Europe ; ^ to this must be
added the ship of Dionysus- in the Anthesteria, and of
the Panathenaion ;3 probably a little research would dis-
close other cases."* The ship is of course a familiar figure
in the Carnival, and possibly we have in the ship of the
Ceri no more than a transference from the spring ceremony.
The May-day ship of other districts, however, suggests that
the ships of Nola and Palermo may be a real survival.

N. W. Thomas.

^Tacitus, Genu., 40.

2 Rhein. Mus. , 43, 355 : Usener, Sintfluisagcn, passim.

^ Michaelis, Parthenon, 327 sq.

^I have given the European parallels known to me in Folklore, vol. xii.,
p. 476, cf. p. 307.

[Can any correspondent give particulars of the celebration of the Festival
of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin (2nd July) at Boulogne? The 14th
stanza of the "Morning May song" {ajite, p. 57) suggests a former ship-
procession at Padstow. The Shetland ship-procession {Folklore, vol. xiv.,
p. 74) seems rather to belong to the expulsion-of-evil class. — En.]

THE EUROPEAN SKY-GOD.
Ill: THE ITALIANS.

BY ARTHUR BERNARD COOK.

The Latin language bears witness to an early animistic
conception of the sky. For the common expression sitb
divo, " under the open sky," stands in an obvious relation
to the doublets divKS and detcs, which are the ordinary
terms for "god."^ Of kindred origin were the names
lu-piter (with its variant forms Dius, Diovis, lovis, etc.),
Dies-piter (with dies, etc.), and certain others to be
mentioned later.^ This whole group of words springs
ultimately from a root div-, meaning "to shine" ;^ and
it is probable that divum originally denoted the sky as
" bright," diviis or dens a god who dwelt in the " bright "
sky, hi-piter the " Bright " One as " Father." The close
interconnexion of the said words, satisfactorily demon-
strated by modern philologists, was already appreciated
in the first century B.C. by M. Terentius Varro, who writes
in his great treatise On the Latin Tongue:'^ "Jupiter

^W. M. Lindsay The Latin Language p. 244.

"^ See Aust in W. H. Roscher AtisfiihrHches Lexikon der griechischen
und romischen Mythologie ii. 619 ff. for a collection of the facts, and
K. Brugmann Ktirze vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Spi-achen,
pp. 85, 88, 91, 95, 312, 358, 377, 445, 685 for their explanation.

^ O. Schrader Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde p. 670.

^ Varr. de ling. Lat. 5. 66 Mtiller : hoc idem magis ostendit antiquius
lovis nomen ; nam olim Diovis et Diespiter dictus, id est dies pater, a
quo dei dicti qui inde, et dius et divos, unde sub divo, Dius Fidius. itaque
inde eius perforatum tectum, ut ea videatur divom id est caelum ; quidam
negant sub tecto per hunc deierare oportere.

The European Sky -God. 261

was formerly called Diovis and Diespiter, that is, the Day-
Father. After him his children were called dei. Hence
too the names dins and divus, which gave rise to the
phrases sub divo and Diits Fidiiis. Consequently the
roof of his temple has a hole in it so that the divum or
sky may be seen. And certain persons affirm that no
oath by this god ^ ought to be taken under cover of a
roof." In the sequel Varro definitely identifies Jupiter
with the sky, ^ as Ennius had done more than a century
before him. Cicero^ quotes from the latter a couple of
detached lines, which may be rendered —

" aspice hoc sublime candens, quern invocant omnes lovem."

Look at yonder Brilliance o^r zts, whom the world invokes as fove.

and —

"qui, quod in me est, exsecrabor hoc, quod lucet, quidquid est."
Wherefore with all my might Pll curse yon Light, whatever it be.

There can be little doubt that in these passages the poet
has caught and made permanent for us the religious
thought of the Italians in the moment of its transition
from an animistic to an anthropomorphic stage. Behind
him lay the divine sky : in front stood the sky-god
Jupiter.

As a bright sky-god Jupiter bore the title Lncetius, the
" Light-bringer." Servius* in his commentary on the
Aeneid says : " In the Oscan language Liicetius means

^"This god" means Dius Fidius. Scaliger cited from Nonius Marcellus
s.v. "rituis" a fragment of Varro's Cato, a treatise on the education of
children, in which we read : " And so our domestic practice is that whoever
wishes to swear by Dius Fidius is wont to step beneath the opening in the
roof" Scaliger also compared Plut. qtiaestt. Rom. 28, where we are told
that boys who swore by Hercules were not allowed to do so under a roof,
but had to go out of doors for the purpose.

2 Varr. de ling. Lat. 5. 67 Miiller : quod lovis luno coniux et is caelum.

^ Cic. de nat. dear. 2. 4 and 65. See J. B. Mayor ad locc.

* Serv. Aen. 9. 570 sane lingua Osca Lucetius est luppiter, dictus a luce,
quam praestare dicitur hominibus. ipse est enim nostra lingua Diespiter,
id est diei pater. A corruption of this appears in Mythogr. Vat. 3. 3. i :

262 The European Sky-God.

Jupiter, who is so called from the light (a luce) that he
is believed to bring to men." Macrobius ^ observes : " We
hold that Jupiter is the author of light {lucis), whence
also the Salii sing of him in their songs as Lucetius" His
remark is borne out by a scrap of Salian verse quoted
in a Latin grammar ^ dating from the reign of Hadrian:

When thou thunderest, Light-bringer (Leucesie),
before thee quail all men and gods
and the broad sea.

A. Gellius^ in the second century of our era writes of
Jupiter: "He was called Diovis and Lticctiiis, because
he furnished us and helped us with day {die) and light
{luce), as it were with life itself. Jupiter is termed
Lucetius by Cn. Naevius in his Punic War." Paulus
Diaconus/ whose glossary goes back to an important
work written by M. Verrius Flaccus in the reign of
Augustus, similarly states that ''Lucetius was a name
once given to Jupiter because men believed him to be
the cause of light {lucis)!' Lastly, C. Marius Victorinus,^
a grammarian of the fourth century, has preserved the
older form Loucetius^ The Latin scholars who discuss
the word Lucetius commonly couple with it a second

lingua Oscorum dictus a luce, quam hominibus praestare putatur, luppiter
Lucceius, a Latinis vero Diespiter, id est diei pater vocatur. A different
corruption is found in a gloss cited by J. J. Pontanus {ad Macrob. Sat.
I. 15. 14) : Lucerius, Zei/s, and in another cited by Fulvius Ursinus {ad
Paul. exc. Fest. 10 . s.v. " Lucetium ") : AovKeptos Zei^s.

^ Macr. Sat. i. 15. 14.

-Terent. Scaur, de orthogr. p. 2261 Putsch = Grammatici Latini vii. 11,
28 Keil. Bahrens [Fragiiienta poctartt)n Romanoriitn p. 29) prints the lines
thus:

quome tonas, Leucesie,

prae ted tremonti quot | ibet hemiinis, deui,

conctum mar6.

' Gell. 5. 12. 6 f. * Paul. exc. Fest. p. 85 Lindemann.

^ Victorin. p. 2459 Putsch = Grammatici Latini vi. 12, 18 Keil: inde
scriptum legitis Loucetios nountios [et] loumen et cetera.

^ See further infra p. 320.

The European Sky -God. 26

title of like significance, •z'/^. Diespiter, " Day- Father."
On a Praenestine cista'^ of the fifth or sixth century B.c
a bearded male figure standing next to Juno {Ivno) is
called Diespiter {Diesptr); and thenceforward the name
is used by Latin authors as a synonym of Iiipiter? As
Jupiter was Liicetiiis, so his consort Juno was Lncetia
or Liicina? In their capacity of light-god and light-
goddess they not only brought daylight to men, but
also controlled the changes of the moon. The Ides of
all the months, i.e. the days of the full moon, were
sacred to Jupiter; the Kalends, i.e. the days of the new
moon, to Juno.'* And the day on which the full moon
occurred was known as "the Pledge of Jupiter" {lovis
fidncid),^ because the night being as bright as day gave
as it were a promise of day's renewal.

From Jupiter as sky-god to Jupiter as weather-god
was not a far cry. For the old popular phrase sub divo,
" under the open sky," poets of the Augustan age wrote

"^ Monumenti dalP Inst. vi. pi. 54, Anttali delP Inst. Arch. 1861 p. 151 ff.

2 So in an old formula ap. Liv. i. 24. 8 (with variants dies luppiter,
Diesitippiter, etc.), also in Plaut. capt. 909, Pocn. "j^o, 869, Hor. od.
!• 34- 5> 3- 2. 29, and often in post- Augustan writers. Seneca {Indus de morte
Claitdii 9. 4) distinguishes Diespiter from Jupiter and describes him as "the
son of Vica Pota." This goddess, whose name was by some thought to
signify conquest and possession (Cic. de legg. 2. 28 vincendi . . . potiundi), by
others eating and drinking (Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 25 Vita et Potua, cp. Varro
ap. Aug. de civ. Dei 4. Ii Potina . . . Educa and ap. Non. Marc. p. 108
Merc. Edusae . . . Potinae), was perhaps an Italian Mairoiva. {? *Vici-pota
cp. *5eyU(T-7rdr7?s). If so, her son, like the offspring of Zeus and Persephone
(Clem. K\&Ti. protr. 2. 16 p. 14 Potter, Arnob. adv. nat. 5. 20 f.), would be
chthonian in character. Should we therefore restore Dis pater for Diespiter
in Senec. liid. 9. 4 ? The two names were liable to confusion : see Pauly-
Wissowa Heal-encyclopddie der classischen Altertiimsioissenschaft v. 479.

^ Mart. Cap. 2. 149. See further Roscher Lex. ii. 578 ff.

''Macrob. i. 9. 16, i. 15. 14 ff., Ov.fast. i. 55 f., Auson. ed. 12. i f., Plut.
quaestt. Rom. 24, lo. Lyd. de mens. p. 47, 6 ff. Wiinsch.

* Macrob. i. 15. 15. The ritual of the Ides is described by W. Warde
Fowler The Roman Festivals pp. 120, 157, 198, 215, 241, G. Wissowa
Jieligion und Kultus der Rbmer pp. loi, 103, 444 n. 3.

264 The European Sky -God.

sub love, " under Jupiter," thus blending the animistic
with the anthropomorphic conception of the sky. Ovid
says of the early Arcadians :

^ Neath Jupiter they would endure, and bare of limb they went.
To face the downpour of the sky or blustering South content}

So of the Romans at the festival of Anna Perenna :

Some must endure 'neath Jupiter, and some must pitch a booth. -

Demeter in search of Persephone —

Steadfast ^neath Jupiter endured for many a weary day.

And patient marked the ?noonlight fall or rain-stonn on its way.^

While of Clytie, who fell in love with the Sun, we read :

'Neath Jupiter by night and day she sat tipon the ground.*

The same author elsewhere tells how Juno was jealous
of—

The ny?nphs who ^Jteath her Jupiter lay on the mountain-side.^

Horace too can write :

The hunter still 'tieath freezing Jupiter
Must tarty heedless of his loving ivife.^

Such expressions, however illogical, had a certain poetic
value. So had the rhetorical, though sometimes far-
fetched, use of the word Iiipiter to denote " the sky " or
" the weather." The author of the poem Aetna^ wrongly
ascribed to Virgil, writes :

" quamvis caeruleo siccus love fulgeat aether."

Though the dry air should shine with sky-blue Jove.

^ Ov. fast. 2. 299 f. - Ov. fast. 3. 527. ' Ov. fast. 4. 505 f.

* Ov. met. 4. 260. ^ Ov. tnet. 3. 363.

^ Hor. od. I. I. 25 f. Cp. Stat. Theb. 2. 403 ff. te iam tempus aperto | sub
love ferre dies terrenaque frigora membris | ducere, Claud, cons. Prob. et
Olyb. 36 f. gelido si quem Maeotica pascit | sub love, Avien. Aratea prognost.
405 ff. sed quum tranquillo tenduntur crassa serena | sub love, venturae
praenoscere signa procellae | convenit.

"^ Aetna 331.

The European Sky -God. 265

Horace ridicules the satirist M. Furius Bibaculus for his
line —

" luppiter hibernas cana nive conspuit Alpes."
Jove on the wintry Alps spits the white snow,^

But Horace himself in describing an inclement climate
speaks of "clouds and a sorry Jupiter.'"^ Virgil in his
Georgics has :

For ripe grapes you may xvell dread Jupiter."^

Again he calls a rainy atmosphere, "Jupiter wet with
South winds," or "Jupiter shivering with South winds,"*
and in a famous passage concerning the spring-time says :

Then the almighty Father of the sky
Into the bosom of his joyous bride
With fostering showers falls J'

Petronius, not unmindful of his Virgil, in a list of portents
includes the following :

Sudden fell Jupiter in a shozoer of blood. ^

This in turn was imitated by Claudian, who in the course
of a similar list writes :

Jupiter, threatening, flushed with a cloud of blood.''

^ Hor. sat. 2. 5. 41, with Porphyrio, Aero, and schol. Cruq. ad loc. : see
Bahrens Frag. poet. Rom. p. 319. The demerit of Furius' unlucky line
(which is quoted by Quint, inst. oral. 8. 6. 17) of course lies in the metaphor
conspuit, not in the metonymy luppiter.

^ Hor. od. I. 22. 19 f. Cp. Stat. Theb. 10. 373 f. sic ubi nocturnum tonitru
malus aethera fran^it | luppiter, absiliunt nubes.

•* Verg. georg. 2. 419, et iam maturis metuendus luppiter uvis. Serv. ad loc.
interprets : aer, more suo, cuius varietas plerumque laborem decipit rusticorum.

■^ Verg. georg. I. 418, luppiter uvidus austris, Aen. 9. 670 luppiter horridus
austris, cp. Serv. ad locc. luppiter : acr. I suspect that the phrase ' ' luppiter
uvidus" was suggested to the poet's mind by the phrase "luppiter tivis" :
see Class. Rev. xvi. 146 ff., 256 ff.

^Verg. georg. 2. 325 f.

® Petron. sat. 122 sanguineoque recens descendit luppiter imbre {v. I. igne).

'^ Claud, in Eutrop. i. 4 f . nimboque minacem | sanguineo rubuisse lovem.
Claud, de bell. Get. 378 f. vel qualis in atram | sollicitus nubem maesto
love cogitur aether may be a reminiscence of the passage from Horace
already cited.

266 The European Sky- God.

Valerius Flaccus and Statius, in describing a storm at sea,
both speak of "wintry Jupiter " : ^ the latter also of " cloudy
Jupiter."^ Martial has not only "the shower of Jove,"
but also "the rains and soaking Jove." ^ And, finally,
in a line of Juvenal we hear of:

The vernal Jupiter hissing with pitiless hail.*

The prose writers, even in the silver age of Latin litera-
ture, refrain from such venturesome expressions, though
Arnobius makes the defenders of the old mythology
interpret Jupiter as "the rain,"^ and Augustine men-
tions that Jupiter was sometimes identified with " the
sky." ^

But the conception of Jupiter as a weather-god was
by no means confined to men of letters. As the Greeks
had their Poseidon or " Zeus-in-the-rain-water " (vroTe/-
Aa?),'^ so the Italians recognized a watery Jupiter. Tibullus
says of Egypt :

The parched grass kneels not to a Rainy Jove.^

^Val. Flacc. 3. 577 ft. ceu pectora nautis | congelat hiberni vultus lovis
agricolisve, | cum coit umbra minax, Stat. Theb. 3. 26 f. cum fragor hibei-ni
subitus lovis, omnia mundi | claustra tonant. With the latter passage cp. Stat.
Theb. 2. 153 ff. quibus ipse per imbres | fulminibus mixtos intempestumque
Tonantem | has meus usque domus vestigia fecit Apollo.

^Stat. Theb. 12. 650 f. qualis Hyperboreos ubi nubibus institit axes]
lupitter. Cp. ib. 8. 423 f. ut ventis nimbisque minax cum solvit habenas|
luppiter.

^ Mart. 9. 18. 8 lovis imber, 7. 36. i pluvias madidumque lovem.

*Juv. 5. 78 f. fremeret saeva cum grandine vernus | luppiter.

^ Arnob. 5. 32 itaque qui dicit : cum sua concubuit luppiter matre . . .
lovem pro pluvia, pro tellure Cererem nominat. et qui rursus perhibet
lascivias eum exercuisse cum filia . . . pro imbris nomine ponit lovem, in
filiae significatione sementem.

®Aug. de civ. Dei 7. 16 et mundus enim totus luppiter, et solum caelum
luppiter, et sola Stella luppiter habetur et dicitur.

''Folk-lore xv. 280.

*Tib. I. 7. 26 arida nee I'luvio supplicat herba lovi. Senec. nat. qiiaest.
4. 2. 2 wrongly ascribes the line to Ovid.

The European Sky -God. 267

Statius makes Adrastus pray to Hypsipyle —

In place of Winds and Rainy Jupiter,'^

And a poet in the Latin Anthology, describing the month
of December, writes :

All things reek of Rainy Jove.'^

At Naples was found the following inscription :

lOVI I PLVVIA //

To Jupiter of the Rain.^

Similarly Jupiter was known as Imbncitor, " the Showerer." *
The bearded head of Jupiter on a denarius of L. Cornelius
Lentulus Crus (consul in 49 B.C.) is, according to some
numismatists, intended for a likeness of Jupiter Pluvius->
Far more convincing is the representation of this god still
to be seen on the Antonine Column at Rome.^ It will be
remembered that the army of M. Aurelius was rescued
from the surrounding Ouadi by the interposition of a
god, who refreshed the fainting legionaries with a down-
pour of rain, while he blasted their opponents with hail
and thunderbolts.^ This god, in whom all modern scholars
have seen Jupiter Pluvius,^ appears in the bas-relief as a
bearded man with outstretched wings and arms \^ rain

^Stat. Tlieb. 4. 758 f. tu nunc ventis pluvioque rogaris | pro love.

' Anth. Lat. 395. 46 Pluvio de love cuncta madent.

"H. Dessau Inscriptiones Latinae selectae 3043 = Cc;^. inscj-r. Lat. ix. 324.

^Apul. de 7nimdo yj dicitur . . . etiam Imbricitor.

^So E. Babelon Mommies de la Rdpublique Romaine i. 426, no. 66
after Eckhel Doctrina numorum vetertim ii. 514. See, however, for other
interpretations A. Morell Thesaurus p. 120 f., pL 3, 6 Cornelia.

^P, S. Bartoli and J. P. Bellori Columna Antoniniana pL 15.

^Dio Cass. 71. 8ff., Oros. 7. 15. 7 ff., alib.

8 The identification is confirmed by the analogy of Trajan's Column, which
similarly shows Jupiter in defence of the Romans hurling his thunderbolt
at the Dacians: cp. V. Duruy Hist, of Rome iv. 767 with v. 195.

^S. Reinach Rt'pertoire de la Statuaire ii. 172, 7 shows a bronze figure
of a nude bearded man with outstretched wings and arms, who has also
small wings on his feet and is represented as flying through the air. Reinach
suggests, though with a query, that he is an Orphic deity. May he not
rather be Jupiter Pluvius? — unless indeed he is Dnedalus.

268 The Eiiropeaji Sky -God.

pours in torrents from him and is collected by the Roman
soldiers in their bucklers, while the barbarians lie on the
ground struck by lightning. The cult of Jupiter as a
rain-god can be traced back to a remote antiquity.
Petronius ^ says : " Formerly the women wearing stoles
used to go bare-foot to the Capitol, with dishevelled hair
but pure hearts, and would implore Jupiter for water.
Presto ! it came down in bucketsful. Now or 7iever was
the word : and they all got home like drowned rats ! "
Tertullian ^ refers to the same rite : " Since summer and
wmter depend on the rains and the seasons must be
considered . . . you offer water-charms {aquilicici) to
Jupiter, you proclaim bare-foot processions {nudipedalia)
to the populace, you seek your sky on the Capitol and
look for clouds from the ceiling, turning your backs upon
the true God and the true Heaven." Some further details
of the ceremony are known.^ " The water-charm {aqiia-
eliciiini)l' says Paulus Diaconus,* "is the name given to
certain means of extracting rain-water {qman aqua phivialis
rcmediis qiiibiisdam elicitur), for instance, if we may believe
it, to the old custom of drawing the streaming-stone
{manali lapide) into the City." Varro,^ too, has a word
on the subject : " We call a small-sized pitcher a water-
jug {aquae manale) because by means of it water is poured
into the basin. Hence the streaming-stone {inanalis lapis)
of the priestly ceremonies, which is moved when rains are
required, gets its name. Again, we all know that in
very ancient times men spoke of the streaming-rite {jnanale
sacnnn) : this explains its name." These passages make
it probable that the stone, which may have been a baetyl

1 Petr. sat. 44.
-Tert. a/>o/. 40.

•^The sources and literature are cited e.^. by Wissowa in Roscher Lex.
ii. 2308 f. and Pauly- Wissowa ii. 310.

* Paul. exc. Fast. p. 95 Lindemann.

* Van. de vita populi Romani lib. I ap. Non. Marc. p. 547 Merc.

The European Sky -God. 269

of Jupiter, was taken by the priests ^ in procession up
the Capitoline Hill, and solemnly drenched with water
as a magical or quasi-magical cure for drought. The
stone normally stood outside the Porta Capena, near
the temple of Mars j^ but, for reasons which will subse-
quently appear,^ this circumstance does not militate against
its connexion with Jupiter.

It has been plausibly maintained* that the Jupiter
worshipped when the rain was charmed forth {elicitur) was
Jupiter Eliciiis, who had an altar on the Aventine.^ If so,
it may have been thought that Jupiter himself came down
in the form of a shower — a conception voiced by Virgil
in a passage already quoted.*^ But Jupiter Elicius was
a thunder-god as well as a rain-god ; for it was he who,
when the people was panic-stricken by continual lightnings
and rain, showed King Numa how the storms might be
stayed,'' and at a later date slew with a thunderbolt
Numa's successor, TuUus Hostilius.^ We have, therefore,
also to reckon with the belief that Jupiter might fall as a
lightning-flash or a thunderbolt,^ appropriate manifestations

^ So Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 175.

- Paul exc. Fest. p. 95 Lindemann.

^ Infra p. 320 f.

^By O. Gilbert Geschichte und Topographic der Stadt Rom ii. 154 and
E. Aust in Roscher Lex. ii. 656 ff.

^ Varr. de ling. Lat. 6. 94 sic Elicii lovis ara in Aventino ab eliciendo, cp.
Liv. I. 20. 7 ad ea elicienda ex mentibus divinis lovi Elicio aram in
Aventino dicavit (_sc. Numa), Ov. fast. 3. 327 ff. eliciunt caelo te, luppiter.
unde minoies | nunc quoque te celebrant, Eliciumque vocant. | constat
Aventinae tremuisse cacumina silvae, | terraque subsedit pondere pressa lovis,
Valerius Antias ap. Arnob. adv. nat. 5. i accepta regem {sc. Nuniam) scientia
rem in Aventino fecisse divinam, elexisse ad terras lovem.

^Verg. georg. 2. 325 f., quoted on p. 265.

'Ov. /aj-A 3. 2S5 ff., Plut. vit. Num. 15, alib.

8 Liv. I. 31. 8, Aur. Vict, de viris illustr. 4. 4, cp. Plin. nat. hist. 2.
140 and 28. 14.

8 See the passages collected by P. Burmann senior in his Zeus Karai/SdrT/j
sive fupiter Fulgerator, in Cyrrhestarum mi m mis. Leidae 1734.

270 The European Sky -God.

of a god who originally represented the bright aspect
of the sky. More than one extant inscription ^ records
the due burial of a " bright " or " divine lightning-flash,"
as though it were a thing instinct with mysterious life.
Such flashes occurring by day were regarded as exhibitions
of Jupiter Fulgur,^ i.e. Jupiter identified with his own flash.
According to Vitruvius,^ " Hypaethral buildings will be
erected under the clear sky {sitb diu) to Jupiter the
Lightning (ylovi Fulguri), to Caelus, to Sol, and to Luna ;
for we see the forms and efl"ects of these divinities before
our eyes in the open and shining vault of heaven." One
such building or precinct dedicated to Jupiter Fulgur
stood in the Campus Martins at Rome.^ Jupiter is
further identified with the thunderbolt in an inscription ^
found near Vienna, which reads :

lOVI . FVLGVRI • FVLMINI

To Jttpiter the Lightning and the Thunderbolt :

perhaps also in dedications*^ to Jupiter Flagius, Flazius, or
Flazzus, i.e. the " Flashing " Jupiter.

A later stage of religious thought is marked by another
dedication ^ from Anguillara on the Lago di Bracciano :

SACR • lOVI • TONANTI • FVLMINANTI

Sacred to Jupiter who sends the Thunder and the Thiinderbolt. —

for here the god is more plainly anthropomorphic.

^ H. Dessau inscriptiones Latinae sekctae 3054 fulgur dium (inscribed on a
cofier built of stones on the Esquiline), 3055 fulgur divom conditum (found at
Nimes), cp. G. Wilmanns exempla insa-iptionutii Latinarum 2734, 2735.

^Fest. p. 201 Lindemann, where with Miiller p. 229 we should read
lovi Fulgtiri.

^Vitr. I. 2. 5.

••Roscher Lex. ii. 656, W. Warde Fowler The Roman Festivals p. 239.

■'Dessau 3053, cp. 3049, 3052.

^ Conway Italic Dialects i. 1 14 f. no. 108 ekas iuvilas iuvei flagiui stahint
= hae iovilae lovi Flagio stent; Dessau 3852 lovi Flazzo votum . . . lovi
Flazio votum. C. D. Buck Osca.n and Uinbrian Gram. p. 248 f. connects
Flagius with flagro, fulgur, etc.

'' Dessau 3047.

The European Sky -God. 271

Finally he is called Fulgurator, Fulminator, etc./ "the
Hurler of the Lightning and Thunderbolt," and represented
on innumerable works of art as a male figure holding or
launching his weapon.- The Romans, following the lead
of the Etruscans, distinguished three kinds of thunderbolt
hurled by Jupiter : ^ but these are subtleties into which we
need not dip.

The rain-storm goes to swell the streams or pools ; and
it is interesting to find that Juturna, an ancient Latin
goddess of " lakes and sounding rivers," ^ bore a name
akin to that of Jupiter.^ Moreover, Virgil and Ovid make
Juturna beloved by Jupiter, who rewarded her with
sovereignty over the waters.*" It should also be noticed on
the one hand that Juturna was the name of a spring close
to the river Numicius in Latium,' on the other that there
was a famous cult of Jupiter Indiges on the bank of the
same river.^ The inscription on the sanctuary of Jupiter
Indiges spoke of him as " presiding over the stream of the
river Numicius."^ At Rome too Juturna may have been
associated with Jupiter ; for at the bottom of her well was

^ E.g. Apul. de mund. 37 dicitur et Fulgurator et Tonitrualis et Ful-
minator, Arnob. adv. nat. 6. 23 ubinam Fulminator tempore illo fuit ?
and the inscriptions cited in Roscher Lex. ii. 751.

-Roscher Lex. ii. 754 ff.

'Sen. 7iat. quaest. 2. 41, Fest. p. 167 Lindemann, Serv. in Verg.
Aen. I. 42.

''Verg. Aen. 12. 139.

^Corssen Beitr. z. ital. Sfrackenk. p. 357 derives Diuturna (Roscher Lex.
i. 762) or Luturna, like Diovis or lovis, from the root div- : cp. supra p. 260.

« Verg. Aen. 12. 138 ff., 0\. fast. 2. 585 ff.

''Serv. in Verg. Aen. 12. 139. So sacred was this spring that, if Servius is
to be trusted, water from it was brought to Rome for all sacrifices : Servius,
however, or his authority was probably confusing it with the spring of
Juturna in the Roman Forum.

8 Liv. I. 2. 6, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 56, alib.

^ Dionys. ant. Rom. i. 64.

2/2 The European Sky -God.

found an altar representing on its four sides the Dioscuri,
Leda, Jupiter, and Lucifera.^

Of Jupiter as a sea-god there are but scanty traces. At
Beneventum is a dedication ^ —

lOVI • TVTATORI • MARW
To Jupiter who makes the Sea safe.

Claudian calls Neptune "the watery Jupiter"^ and even
" our Jupiter " : ^ but it is probable that he is using hipiter
merely in the sense of " a sovereign deity." Other
evidence Vvill be considered later.^

Jupiter was identified with the sun by late writers ^ and
inscriptions : " but there is no reason to think that this
identification was old.® The " Bright " One denoted rather,
for the early Romans at least,^ the whole hemisphere of
daylight. Nevertheless, with the apparent motion of the

^ E. Burton- Brown Recent Excavations in the Roman Forum p. 14 f.,
M. F. Hoffbauer et H. Thtdenat Le Forum Romain, p. 68.

^ Dessau 3027.

^ Claud, de cotts. Mall. Theod. 282 lovis aequorei submersam fluctibus
aulam.

* Claud, de nupt. Ho7i. et Mar. 174 ff. die talia nunquam | promeruisse
Thetin, nee cum soror Amphitrice | nostro nupta lovi.

^ Infra p. 264 f. The sculptor Heniochus carved a group representing
" Oceanus et luppiter" (Plin. nat. hist. 36. 33).

® Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 30, Macrob. i. 23. I ft'., lo. Lyd. de mens. p. 47,
8, 10 f.

^ E.g. Dessau 4320, cp. 4319.

^Against the solar character of Jupiter Anxurus see Preller-Jordan
Rbmische Mythologie i. 26S, n. I, Wissowa Religion und Kidtiir der R'dmer
p. 232 f.

^ The bronze discs or wheels {aenei orbes) dedicated by the Romans to Semo
Sancus (z.e. to Dius Fidius) out of the spoils of Privernum (Liv. 8. 20. 8)
were perhaps solar symbols. At Iguvium the man who swore by Jupater
Sancius held a similar wheel {urfeta=orbita) in his hand (Wissowa Rel. u.
Kult. d. Rom. p. 121, n. 6). Cakes called summanalia and presumably
sacred to Summanus, the nightly Jupiter, were made in the shape of a wheel
(Fest. p. 267 Lindemann). The wheel was also a common symbol on
the coinage of ancient Italy (A. Sambon Les mommies aiitiques de Pltalie,
pp. 41, 46, 58, 66, 170, etc.), though its connection with Jupiter is quite
uncertain.

The European Sky -God. 273

"heavens, the bright sky sank beneath the horizon at
nightfall ; and as Jupiter was the god of the sky by day, so
Summanus or Jupiter Summanus ^ was the god of the
sky by night.- Hence the Italians, like the Greeks, came
to conceive of a subterranean Jupiter. They named him

Vediovis, Veditis, or Veiovis, and regarded him as in some
sort an anti-Jove. Thus on the summit of the Alban
Mount there was a cult of Jupiter Latiaris,^ in Bovillae
at its base a cult of Vediovis : ^ on the Capitol at Rome
Jupiter Feretrius was worshipped," in the hollow of the
same hill Vediovis.^ The chthonian character of the latter
deity is well attested. The ancient formula of devotion
used by dictators and generals was addressed to Dis pater,

Veiovis, Manes ^ i.e. to a group of chthonian powers. A
law, attributed to Romulus, ordained that a patron or
client who neglected his duties " might be put to death by
any man, as a victim devoted to the chthonian Jupiter,"^
i.e. to Vediovis.^ And Martianus Capella expressly
identifies Vediovis with Pluto and Dis.^*^ There was, then,
an early cult of a chthonian Jupiter, which justified the
poets in calling the underground god Jupiter Stygitis,^^
Tartareiisy^ infernus^'^ niger}^ etc.^^

'Dessau 3057, 3058. ^wi^gQ^a Rel. u. KuU. d. Rom. p. 124.

" Roscher Lex. ii. 686 ff. ^ Dessau 2988. ^ Roscher Lex. ii. 670 ff.

*• Preller-Jordan i. 264 ff., Wissowa Rel. u. Kult. d. Rom. p. 191.

^Macr. Sat. 3. 9. lo.

®Dionys. ant. Rom. 2.10. ® Wissowa Rel. 11. Kult. a. Rom. p. 190.

'"Mart. Cap. 2. 166 Pluton quem etiatn Ditem Veiovemque dixere.
"Wissowa cp. Mythogr. Vat. iii. 6. i.

''Verg. Aen. 4. 638, Os. fast. 5. 448, Sil. i. 386, Aus. id. 12 granimatico-
mastix 16, carm. Verg. yjf) in Biihrens Poetae Latini minores iv. 234,
Biicheler Carmina Lattna epigraphica i. 258 no. 540. 5, Arnob. 2. 70, 3. 31,
Corp. inscrr. Lat. ix. 5350.

i^Val. Flacc. i. 730, Sil. 2. 674.

'■'Sen. Here. fur. 47, cp. Prudent c. Symmach. i. 388 lovis Infernalis,

"Sil. 8. 116, Stat. Theb. 2. 49.

'■'J. B. CaLXitr Epitheta dcorum ^. 33 cites Aus. epitaph. 33. 8 lovis Elysii,
Sen. Here. fur. 612 diro . . . lovi, [Damasus] £/;^r. 78. 4 funereo . . . lovi.

2 74 The European Sky -God.

Jupiter, in short, like Zeus,^ appears not only as a
sky-god, but also as a water-god and an earth-god. As
Ovid^ puts it, —

Jupiter
Rules heaven^ s height and the realms o' the threefold zvorld.

Several extant works of art represent him in this triple
capacity. A chalcedony scarab of Etruscan workmanship,
formerly in the Dehn collection,^ shows a naked male
deity with a himatiou over his left arm in the act of
stepping into a chariot. He grasps a thunderbolt in his
right hand, a trident in his left ; while at his feet is a dog.
We can hardly be mistaken in regarding this singular
figure as Jupiter in his threefold role : the thunderbolt
marks him as a sky-god, the trident as a water-god, the
dog (Cerberus }) and the chariot as an earth-god.* Again,
at Albano was found a broken bas-relief of archaistic style
thus described by Brunn : ^ " The central figure is a god,
bearded and crowned, who by the attributes of a thunder-
bolt and a trident on his right, and a cornucopia sur-
mounted by an eagle on his left side is shown to be
Jupiter conceived as lord of the sky, the sea, and the
underworld." Similarly a tile found at Urbisagha in
Picenum*^ depicts love Intor, "Jupiter the Helper," clad in

'^Folk-lore, xv. 265-282.

^ Ov. met. 15. 858 f. lupiter arces | temperat aetherias et mundi regna
triformis.

^ I have figured the gem in Class. Rev. xviii. 361 fig. i after J. Overbeck
Griechische Kunstmythologie Zeus Gemmentaf. 3, 7 ; cp. F. Creuzer
Symbolik und Mythologie ^ iii. i pi. 6, 27, A. Furtwangler, Die antiken
Gemnien pi. 18, 6.

*So Panofka ("Uber verlegene Mythen" in Abhandl. d. Berl. Akad. 1839
p. 35, pi. I, 5) and Welcker [Griechische Gotterlehre i. 162, n. 5), who call
the god Zeus Triopas. Creuzer {Symbolik ^ iii. 204) and Overbeck {Ktinst-
mythologie, Zeus, p. 259) take the same view — " ein Zeus als Herrscher in den
drei Reichen." Furtwangler [Ant. Gem7n. ii. 87) thinks that the animal
at the feet of the god is not a dog but " ein kleiner Seedrache."

^ Bullettino dell' Instituto 1 861 p. 86.

* I have reproduced this interesting tegida mainmata in Class. Rev. xviii.
374 fig. 6 after J. Schmidt [Monumenti deW Instituto Aixh. xi. pi 17, l).

The European Sky -God. 275

a purple cloak: he is armed with a thunderbolt and a
trident in his left hand and a two-pronged fork in his right,
while a dolphin appears at his side. The title Tutor and
certain black strokes, which have been taken to denote
an architectural cornice,^ show that we have here to do
with an actual cult. It is obviously that of the triple
Jupiter : the thunderbolt belongs to him as a sky-god ;
the trident and dolphin as a sea-god ; the fork as an earth-
god. Lastly, it is significant that Vediovis, the chthonian
Jupiter, is represented on coins of the Roman gentes with
a thunderbolt - or a trident : ^ in other words, the earth-god
has the attributes of the sky-god and the sea-god. We
might almost say with the author of the Asclepms : *
"Jupiter Plutonius is lord alike of land and sea."

In dealing with the Greeks I ^ showed that superhuman
power was at first expressed by various grotesque or
monstrous forms with a plurality of heads, arms, legs,
etc. ; that a convenient substitute for this plurality, and
one strictly in accordance with primitive thought, was
found in a three-bodied or three-headed or three-eyed
shape ; and that another such suggestion of manifold
activity was conveyed by double or Janiform figures. For
example, Argus, the Argive Zeus, had a hundred eyes, or
else had three eyes, or else had a Janiform head.° We
have next to see whether the multiple, the triple, and
the dual types of divinity are equally applicable to
Jupiter.

It may be at once admitted that they are not. On the
contrary, there are very few traces indeed of abnormal

^ Annali deW Institiito Arch. Hi. 63.

-E. Babelon Monnaies de la R^publiquc ro?naine i. 2S1, 506 ff., 532, ii. 8,
133, 266.

3 lb. ii. 6, 8.

^{X^vX-l Ascl. 27 terrae vero et mari dominatur lupiter Plutonius, et hie
nutritor est animantium mortalium et fructiferarum.

5 folk-lore xv. 282 ff. « lb. 287 ff.

276 The European Sky -God.

Jupiters. Augustine^ speaks of a Jupiter Centumpeda,
"the Hundred-footed," and explains the title as denoting
ability to establish things or set them on foot {stabiliendi).
Rather it was a survival from the grotesque or monstrous
stage of Jupiter worship. Of the triple Jupiter there is not
a trace on Italian soil ; though the Sicilians, as I have
argued elsewhere,^ had in their three-eyed Cyclops a
real parallel to the three-eyed Zeus of Argos. One or two
Janiform Jupiters exist : there is a double bust of the god
in the Palazzo Spada at Rome ; ^ and a coin of Geta
exhibits a double-headed Jupiter (perhaps Jupiter
Quirinus ^) holding a spear in his right hand, a thunderbolt
in his left.^ But such representations may be, after all,
only late accommodations to the well-known type of Janus.^
In general, the Italian conception of Jupiter was singularly
free from distortion or deformity.

At this point, however, it must be remembered that
Janus was in all probability only the older form of
Jupiter.^ Corssen^ and other philologists have proved
that, from the etymological point of view, the following
pairs of deities should be equated :

cTievi (Za;/) and Anhvrj.
J. Dianus {Jatuis) and Diana (Jana).
\ Jupiter and Jiino.

^ Aug. de civ. Dei 7. 11 dixerunt eum (jif. lovem) Victorem, Invictum,
Opitulum, Inpulsorem, Statorem, Centumpedam, Supinalem, Tigillum,
Almum, Ruminum et alia quae persequi longum est.

2 Class. Rev. xviii. 325 ff.

■'' Figured in E. Braun Antiken Marviorwerkcn I Dekade Taf. 3a, lb ; cp.
Overbeck Kimstinythologie Zeus p. 91 f. ^ Infra p. 281.

5 Figured, after Braun, in Class. Rev. xviii. 367, fig. 2 ; cp. Overbeck
Kunstniythologie Zeus p. 92.

^ The influence of Janus on Jupiter may also be traced in the matter of
epithets : the titles Patulcius and matiitinus as applied to Jupiter (De-Vit Lex.
s.vv.) are cases in point. Orelli 1242 Gemino lovi 0. m. is of doubtful
meaning and authenticity.

■^ Class. Rev. xviii. 367 f.

^Corssen Uber Aussprache, Vocalismus ti. Betonung d. lat. Sprache^i. 212,
Beitr. z. ital. Sprachkunde p. 350 ff.

The European Sky -God. 277

All these are ultimately connected with the root div-,
which meant "to shine." ^ Several titles of Janus recall
those of Jupiter. Thus the oldest hymns of the Salii
saluted him as " deorum deus,"^ and he was often invoked
as lanus pater or lanuspater? Conversely Jupiter was
actually surnamed Janus ; for an inscription from Aquileia
records a dedication lovi Diano} Again, according to
one version Janus, not Jupiter, was the mate of Juturna ;^
and the title Janus Junonius implies a similar relation
to Juno.*" On certain occasions joint offerings were made
to Janus and Jupiter, or to Janus and Juno, or to Janus
and Jupiter and Juno.'^ Janus alone took precedence of
Jupiter in the divine hierarchy;^ and the rex sacrorum
or priestly king at Rome, who seems to have been in
a sense his special ministrant, took similar precedence
of the fiavien Dialis or priest of Jupiter.^ These facts

^ Supra p. 260. Corssen loc. cit. wrongly derived the group from the root
div- of divider e, divisio. Its connexion with dius, dium, "the shining sky,"
was already grasped by Buttmann Mythologns ii. 72, Schwegler Rdmische
Geschichte i. 218 f., Preller Rdmische Mythologie'^ i. 168. Indeed, P.
Nigidius Figulus, a Pythagorean of the first century B.C., long since declared
that Janus was a sun-god and Diana (Jana) his partner (Macrob. Sat. i. 9. 8),
while the opinion that he was a sky-god of some sort was very general in
antiquity (see Roscher Lex. ii. 44).

^ Macrob. Sat. i. 9. 14, 16. Varro de ling. Lat. 7. 27 quotes a Salian line
in which the phrase " divom deo " occurs. He has also {ib. 26) preserved
five lines of a Salian hymn which, if we could be sure of the reading
oZeu (Lindsay Latin Language p. 5), would prove that the Salii identified
Janus with Zeus. Proclus certainly did so at a later date: hymn. 6. 3, 15
Xatp' "lai'e irp6iraT0p, Tied dcpdire, x^-V i'Tare 7i€u.

3 C/ass. Rev. xviii. 368 nn. 3, 4. •* Corp. inscrr. Lat. v. 7S3,

^Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 29.

^Macrob. Sat. 1.9. 15 f., i. 15. 19, lo. Lyd. dc mens. p. di, 13 Wunsch,
Serv. in Verg. Aen. 7. 610.

■^ Class. Rev. xviii. 368 nn. 7, 8, 9. Cp. Plaut. cist. 519 f.

^Cic. de nat. deor. 2. 67, Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 29, Macrob. Sat. i. 9. 9.
For examples see Liv. 8. 9. 6, Cat. de re rust. 134, 141, Dessau 5047 f.

^ Preller-Jordan i . 64, Wissowa Rel. u. Kult. d. Rom. p. 20, Roscher Lex
ii. 43. See also Diet. Ant. s.v. " Agonalia."

278 The Buropemi Sky -God.

are best explained by the assumption that Janus was the
nanfie under which Jupiter was worshipped by the earliest
population of Rome (Pelasgian Aborigines?^); and that,
when this early folk was conquered by the incoming
Italians, its ancient deity Janus and his consort Diana
(Jana) were retained side by side with the Italian Jupiter
and Juno. Herodian- calls Janus "the oldest god native
to the country of Italy " ; Labeo^ says that he was termed
" Patriciiis in the sense of an autochthon " ; and Septimius
Serenus"^ addresses him in the following verse —

"tibi vetus ara caluit Aborigineo sacello."
For thee the ancient altar burned in Aboriginal shrine.

Now, if Jupiter did not conform to the multiple, triple,
and dual types of divinity, Janus did. An ancient image
of Janus with four faces was brought from Falerii to Rome
and set up in the Forum Transitorium. Hence he was
called quadrifrotis, qiiadriformis, T€TpaiJ.op(f>o^.^ On a
common middle-brass of Hadrian he is portrayed with
three faces : ^ he stands looking towards us, a bearded
figure with one hand resting on his hip and the other
holding a sceptre, while his three visages are distinctly

iSee W. Ridgeway The Early Age of Greece i. 254 ff., who concludes that
"the two main elements in the population of early Rome were the aboriginal
Ligurians, who formed the Plebs, and the Umbrian Sabines, who formed the
aristocracy." The statements of Dionysius cited by Prof. Ridgeway in support
of his contention are, however, as Prof. J. S. Reid informs me, viewed with
much suspicion by all modern critical historians. For my present purpose, it
makes no difference whether the early inhabitants of Rome were called
Aborigines or not. I only postulate that there was an early population of
some sort and that its chief deity was Janus, not Jupiter.

^ Herodian hist. i. 49. ' Labeo ap. lo. Lyd. de mens. p. 63, 12 Wiinsch.

* Bahrens Fragmenta poetaruni Roinanorum p. 387.

^ Macrob. Sat. i. 9. 13, Serv. in Verg. Aen. 7. 607, Aug. de civ. Dei 7. 8,
lo. Lyd. de mens. p. 64, 4 ff. Wiinsch, Suid. s.v. '\a.vQva.pio%, Codinus de orig.
Constantinopolit. p. 13.

® Cohen Descr. des monn. imp.- ii. 129, nos. 281, 282; figured in Mont-
faucon Ant. expl. i. pi. 5, 19. R. Mowat in the Bulletin t'pigraphique
iii. 168 takes this to be Janus Quadrifrons with his fourth face concealed.

The Etivopean Sky -God. 279

seen, one full-face, the other two in profile. The existence
of a triple Janus is further supported by the fact that
his consort Diana or Jana was likewise triceps, trifonnis,
triplex, tergemina} The usual type of Janus was, however,
two-headed, or rather two-faced ; and his customary
epithets are biceps, biformis, bifrons, geminiisr It would
seem, therefore, that in Italy, as in Greece, the sky-god
was at an early date conceived as of manifold, threefold,
and twofold formation ; though, so far as we know, no
attempt was here made to equate the three faces of the
god with the three provinces of nature over which he
ruled.^

Jupiter, like Zeus, had the oak as his sacred tree.* And
probably for the same reason, viz. that it was the world-
tree of southern Europe.^ This indeed must remain a
mere conjecture since no description of an Italian world-
tree has come down to us ; ^ but it may stand till a
more convincing explanation is forthcoming. Many

1 Ov. met. 7. 194 triceps Hecate : Hor. od. 3. 22. 4 diva triformis, alib. :
Ov. her. 12. 79 triplicis vultus ... Dianae, alib.: Verg. Aen. 4. 511 terge-
minamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianae.

^ See De-Vit Ononiasticon iii. 474 f.

^ Folk-lore xv. 290 f.

* Plin. nat. hist. 12. 3 arborum genera numinibus suis dicata perpetuo
servantur, ut lovi aesculus, ApoUini laurus, etc., Verg. georg. 2. 15 f. nemo-
rumque lovi quae maxima frondet | aesculus, atque habitae Grais oracula
quercus, 3. 332 f. sicubi magna lovis antique robore quercus ( ingentis
tendat ramos, Aen. 3. 679 ff. quales cum vertice celso | aeriae quercus . . . |
constiterunt, silva alta lovis, Serv. in Verg. eel. i. 17 quercus in tutela lovis
est, 7. 13 sacra autem quercus, aut ipsam quam vult intelligi, aut universum
genus, quod et lovis et olim fatidica, in Verg. georg. 3. 332 omnis quercus lovi
est consecrata, in Verg. Aen. 5. 129 haec enim arbor ^sc. ilex) in tutela lovis
est, Ov. met. i. 106 et quae deciderant patula lovis arbore glandes, Phaedr.
3. 17. 2 f. quercus lovi | et myrtus Veneri placuit, Claud, de rapt. Proserp.
2. 108 quercus arnica lovi.

5 Folk-lore xv. 292 ff.

® It is noticeable, however, that Virgil speaks of the ordinary terrestrial
oak in terms appropriate to a world-tree : georg. 2. 291 f. aesculus in primis,
quae, quantum vertice ad auras | aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit.

2 8o The European Sky-God.

centres of Jupiter-worship were marked by a sacred oak
or a grove of sacred oaks. I have collected the available
evidence of this practice in the Classical Review for
October 1904;^ and I shall here confine myself to citing
a few typical cases of it. The earliest temple at Rome
w^as that which Romulus himself planned for Jupiter
Feretrius on the Capitol, where grew " an oak held sacred
by the shepherds." ^ Vediovis, the chthonian Jupiter
worshipped in the dip of the same hill, appears on coins
of the Fonteii, Gargilii, and Ogulnii wearing a wreath,
of oak.^ Juno too, whose temple stood on the adjoining
Arx, like Jupiter, had the oak as her sacred crown.* On
the Caelian, which in ancient times was covered with
oak-woods and known as the Mons Querquetulanus,^
there was a Sacred Tree,^ presum.ably the tree of Jupiter
Caelius who is represented on a bas-relief as sl:^,nding
beside his oak-tree.'^ Tibur worshipped Jupiter under the
titles Gustos, Praestes, Territor,^ and pointed to a clump
of three ancient oaks as the spot where its eponym
Tiburnus or Tiburtus had been inaugurated.^ At Praeneste,
where oaks were so abundant that Servius^*^ derives the
name of the town from them (Trpri/o?!), Fortuna Primigenia^^
had an oracular shrine close to the temple of Jupiter
Arcanus : ^- the famous sortes Praenestinae were graven in

Aen. 4. 445 f. ipsa {sc. quercus) haeret scopulis, et, quantum verdce ad
auras | aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. Another possible remini-
scence of the Yggdrasill-tree occurs in connexion with Jupiter Tigillus, i.e.
Jupiter "the Beam," who, according to Aug. de civ. Dei 7. 11, was so
called "quod tamquam tigillus mundum contineret ac sustineret."

^ Class. Rev. xviii. 360 ff. - Li v. i. 10. 5.

' Babelon nionn. de la Rep. i. 507, 532, ii. 266.

* Plut. quaestt. Rom. 92. •'' Tac. ami. 4. 65.

^ Notitia Regionum Regio ii. Caelemontium : continet . . . arborem sanctam.

'' Dessau 3080. ^ Corp. inscrr. Lat. xiv. 3557, Dessau 3401, 3028.

^ Plin. nat. hist. 16. 237. i" Serv. in Verg. Aett. 7. 678.

"Dessau 3684-3686.

^'- Corp. inscrr. Lat. xiv. 2937, 2972; op. R. Peter in Roscher Lex \. 1541,.
59 ff-

The European Sky -God. 281

archaic characters on tablets of oak.^ Indeed, the common
cult of the Latins, that of Jupiter Latiaris, was carried
on in a grove of oaks^ on the summit of the Alban
Mount.

As Jupiter and Juno had their oaks, so had Janus
and Diana (Jana) before them. Pliny ^ states that "on
the Vatican is an oak-tree {ilex) older than Rome itself,
bearing a bronze inscription in Etruscan letters, which
proves that even in those early days the tree was thought
worthy of religious veneration." This tree was probably
sacred to Tina or Tinia, the Etruscan Jupiter/ though the
proximity of the Janiculum, an ancient seat of Janus,
makes it possible that it was a Janus-oak. Virgil ^ speaks
of an oak sacred to Father Tiber, who was regarded as
the son of Janus.*' When the Plebs seceded to the
Janiculum, it was in a grove of oaks by the Tiber-side
that O. Hortensius the dictator passed the law which
induced them to return.'^ Further, the title Quirinus,
which was borne alike by Janus ^ and by Jupiter,'^ I take
to mean " the Oak-god," quins being " the oaken spear "
and Quirites " the men of the oaken spear." '^^ Juno also
was entitled Qiiiris or Quiritis}^ Diana, the orisfinal

1 Cic. de div. 2. 85.

^ Liv. I. 31. 3 ex summi cacuminis luco. That this "lucus" was of
oaks I infer from the tradition that the sow of Alba Longa was found
"sub ilicibus" (Verg. Aen. 8. 43, Auson. epist. 7. 17).

^ Plin. nat. hist. 16. 237.

* Roscher Lex ii. 627 fif. According to Paul. exc. Fest. p. 161 Lindemann,
the Etruscans had a settlement on the Vatican, whence they were expelled by
the Romans in obedience to an oracle.

"Verg. Aen. 10. 421 ff. * Serv. in Verg. Aeti. 8. 330.

Tlin. nat. hist. 16. 37, cp. Varr. de ling. Lat. 5. 152 and the vicus
A escleti on the Tiber-bank opposite to the Janiculum (Pauly-V^^issowa i. 682).

^ Roscher Lex. ii. 16 and 40.

3 Two tiles from Casteldieri (Dessau 3036) are inscribed [Io]zii Quirino and
Lovi Cyrin[o'] C. Tati Max.

1° See Class. Rev. xviii. 368 f. " Roscher Lex. ii. 596 fif.

282 The European Sky -God.

partner of Janus, was likewise an oak-goddess. One of
her most famous cults was that on Mount Tifata near
Capua ; and tifata meant " oak-groves." ^ Another was
on the oak-clad Mount Algidus ; ^ a propos of which it
should be observed that, when in 458 B.C. Roman envoys
were sent to complain of a treaty broken by the Aequians,
they were bidden to make their complaint to a huge oak-
tree on Mount Algidus, under the shade of whose branches
the Aequian commander had his quarters.^ The chief
temple of Diana at Rome was on the Aventine,'^ whose
slopes were covered in early days with the oak-wood of
Picus and Faunus.^ A " very great and venerable
sanctuary of Diana " was on the Caeliolus,^ which formed
part of the Mons Ouerquetulanus.'^ Lastly, a relief in the
Palazzo Colonna^ shows a statue of Diana standing beside
an old but fruitful oak.

Substitutes for the oak are sometimes found in the
cults of Italy, as in those of Greece.^ It is well known
that the Greek word ^>;yo9, " oak," appears in Latin as
fagns, " beech." ^^ The beech was in fact a religious as
well as a verbal equivalent of the oak. Varro ^^ in his
account of the Esquiline mentions the view that the hill
derived its name from the oak-trees {aesaili) with which

^ Paul. exc. Fest. p. 156 Lindemann : Tifata iliceta.

- Hor. od. I. 21. 6, cartn. saec. 69, cp. od. 3. 23. 9 f.

3 Liv. 3. 25. 4 Liv. I. 45, alib.

^ Ov. fast. 3. 295. ^ Cic. de har. resp. 32.

^ Tac. ann. 4. 65.

*Th. Schreiber Die kelleiiistischen Reliefbilder pi. 15. In Class. Rev. xviii.
370 fig. 3 I have reproduced it after C. Botticher Der Baumkultus der Hellenen
fig, 26.

8 Folk-lore xv. 296 ff.

i" On the fact and its significance see O. Schrader Prehistoric Antiquities
of the Aryan Peoples p. 272 f., Reallexikon p. 116 f., Frazer The Golden
Bough"^ iii. 347, n. i.

" Varr. de ling. Lat. 5. 49, where the words alii ah atsculetis are a cj. of
C. O. Miiller approved by Bunsen.

The European Sky -God. 283

it was planted by Servius TulHus, and supports this
derivation by the statement that there were in the vicinity
a grove of beech-trees and a chapel of the Oak-wood
Lares {lucus ...facntalis et Lanini Qjierqtietulaiiiivi sacelluni).
Elsewhere ^ he connects the name Fagutal with fagus,
and speaks of a shrine of Jupiter Fagutalis as existing
on the spot. There was also an ancient Dianium on the
Fagutal.- It seems clear, therefore, that Jupiter, and
perhaps Diana before him, was worshipped on the Esqui-
line as a beech-wood deity.^ Similarly on a hill called
Come near Tusculum there was an ancient cult of Diana
in a grove of beech-trees.* And, when Numa consulted
Faunus in the oak-wood already mentioned, he bound his
brows twice with a wreath of beech-leaves.^

Of the poplar as a surrogate for the oak ^ there are few,
if any, traces in Italian cult. Egeria, the goddess-wife
of Numa, bore a name which was once spelt Aegeria,''
and should probably be connected with aiyeipog, " a
poplar." ^ But alyeipog, as we have seen, originally
denoted " an oak," and Egeria is described as an oak-

^ /b. 152. Cp. Plin. ncU. hist. i6. 37 silvarum certe distinguebatur
\sc. Roma) insignibus, Fagutali love etiam nunc ubi lucus fageus fuit, porta
Querquetulana, etc., Paul. exc. Fest. p. 65 Lindemann : Fagutal sacellum
lovis, in quo fuit fagus arbor, quae lovis sacra habebatur.

2 Class. Rev. xvi. 380 n. 3.

^Kern in Pauly-Wissowa iii. 158 justly regards Jupiter Fagutalis as the
Roman counterpart of the Greek Zeus ^'r]yovalo% {Folk-lore xv. 296) and
compares the Aquitanian god Fagus (Dessau 4531).

^Plin. nat. hist. 16. 242.

'^Ov.fasi. 4. 656.

^ Folk-lore xv. 297 f.

^This, according to De-Vit Onomasticon ii. 694, was at one time the
common spelling of the name and is still to be found here and there in
Latin literature, e.g. in Val. Max. i. 2. i. AECETUE • POCOVOM on
a bowl from Vulci was taken by Secchi (// musivo Antoniniano p. 47, cp.
Bull, deir Inst. arch. 1843 p. 72, 127) to be an older form of Aegeria's
name : but this is very doubtful, see Fabretti Gloss. Ital. p. 24 f.

** Class. Rev. xviii. 366 n. 4.

284 The European Sky-God.

nymph.^ In a dedicatory inscription found at Praeneste,-
a certain Caesius Taurinus speaks of his father as —

" Fortunae simulacra colens et Apollinis aras
Arcanumq. lovem."

Ado}-7Jzg Fortune's form, Apollo's altars.
And Jupiter of the Mysteries.

But in place of " Arcanumque lovem " various scholars
have read " Aegeriumque lovem." ^ If this reading is
sound, it affords an excellent parallel to ^Egeria, " the
oak-goddess," since Jupiter at Praeneste was an oak-god.^

The nut-tree too, since like the oak and the beech it
bore edible fruit, was connected with Jupiter in popular
parlance. "Nuts," says Servius,^ "are under the protec-
tion of Jupiter: wherefore also they are called iuglandes,
that is Jupiter's acorns {lovis glandes)!'

It is probable that the Italians, like the Greeks,^ regarded
oak-mistletoe as the quintessence of the oak, and so con-
nected it with the most brilliant manifestation of the
sky-god, i.e. with the sun. The sun seems to figure in
Italian religion as the wheel or orb of Fortuna,'^ who

^ Plut. de fort. Rom. 9 vv/xcpui' p.lav 5pvd8wv.

2 Corp. inscrr. Lat. xiv. 2852, Biicheler Cartn. Lat. epigraph. 249.

^ E.g. S. V. Pighius Hercules Prodicius Antverpiae 1587 p. 525 pro-
fesses to have copied the inscription himself from the original marble base
with the reading AEGERIVMQ • lOVEM, and J. Gruter Inscrr. Rom. Corp.
p. 72, 5 gives a drawing of it with the same reading. On the other
hand, H. Dessau in Corp. inscrr. Lat. xiv. 2852 reads ARCANVMQ •
lOVEM, and says of the inscription as a whole: "descripsit de Rossi,
recognovi ipse post Mommsenum." The matter needs clearing up; which
should be easy, since the base is still extant in the Barberini Gardens at
Praeneste.

* Supra p. 280 f.

^ Serv. in Verg. eel. 8. 30, cp. Cloatius Verus ap. Macrob. Sat. 3. 18. 4
luglans . . . quasi Diuglans, id est At6s ^AXavos and the context, Varr.
de ling. Lat. 5. 102 haec glans optuma et maxuma ab love et glande
iuglans est appellata. See further Class. Rev. xviii. 86.

^Folk-lore xv. 424 ff.

''Class. Rev. xvii. 421. M. Gaidoz, who first detected the true character of
"Fortune's wheel," further pointed out that the dedication-day of the

The European Sky -God. 285

at Rome, Praeneste, and perhaps elsewhere, was associated
with an oak-Jupiter and Juno.^ Now in Greece the solar
wheel was referred to a special mistletoe-god, Ixion.^
When, therefore, at Rome we find a cult of Fortuna
Viscata^ Fortuna " of the Mistletoe," it becomes pro-
bable that here too the sun was connected with oak-
mistletoe. Again, Fortuna was a very ancient goddess
of fertility,* who is sometimes called the daughter of
Jupiter.^ Fortuna with her wheel would thus be the
Italian counterpart of Persephone with her wheel in the
vase-paintings of the Greeks.^ Virgil, therefore, knew
what he was about when he described the famous
" golden bough " first as sacred to Juno of the nether
world, whom in the context he calls Proserpina, and
secondly as growing on an evergreen oak like mistletoe.'^
I have next to show that in Italy, as in Greece,^ the
reigning monarch was regarded as representative and vice-
gerent of the sky-god. To begin with, two or three

temple of Fors Fortuna was June 24 (Roscher Lex. i. 1501), i.e. the
summer solstice, and concluded that Fortuna may be traced back to a
solar deity {Etudes de Myth. Gaul. i. 56 ff.): see, however, Warde Fowler
Roman Festivals p. 169 f.

1 Roscher Lex. i. 1518, 1541 ff., 1546.

2 Class. Rev. xvii. 420.

"Tlut. quaestt. Rom. 74, de fort. Rom. 10.

^ Fortuna was specially worshipped by women under the titles Virgo,
Virilis, Muliebris, Mammosa, etc. (Warde Fowler Roman Festivals
p. 167 f. ). An ancient bronze tablet (Dessau 3684) records an offering to
Fortuna Frimocenia nationu cratia, i.e. "in gratitude for fertility." Colu-
mella 10. 311 if. bids gardeners offer their produce to Fors Fortuna when
the harvest is ripe and the sun's heat greatest. Several symbols of the
goddess, the cornucopia, the modius or grain-measure, and the ears of
corn (Roscher Lex. i. 1503 ff., 1506), belong to one who was originally
no mere personification of luck, but rather the bountiful spirit who brought
tD birth {Fortuna connected with fero) the offspring of all living things.

^Dessau 3684, 3685.

•^ Preller-Robert, p. 805 n. i, Class. Rev. xvii. 176.

^Verg. Aen. 6. 138, 142, 205 ff. ^Folk-lore .xv. 299 ff.

286 The European Sky -God.

legends have come down to us which tell how the early
king was after his death identified with Jupiter. Thus
Festus^ says of Latinus, the eponymous king of the
Latins, that " he vanished in a battle with Mezentius
king of Caere, and was thought to have become Jupiter
Latiaris." So too Aeneas, the founder of the Alban
dynasty, disappeared in a battle with Mezentius or with
Turnus, and was thenceforward worshipped under the
title Jupiter Indiges.^ Romulus, according to the usual
tradition, was caught up to heaven in a thunderstorm,
but subsequently appeared in more than mortal beauty
to Proculus Julius, and announced that he had become
the god Ouirinus,^ i.e. " the oak-god." Nor was it only
after death that the early Italian king claimed the attri-
butes of divinity. Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, who
fortified Alba Longa, was surnamed lulus ; ^ and lulus
means "young Jupiter."^ The bright, but harmless
flame, which is said to have played about his head, was
appropriate to a representative of the sky-god : his grand-
father on seeing it at once recognised the sign, and offered
a prayer to Jupiter of the sky.^ Ascanius at his death
left a son also called lulus ; '^ and the poets speak of

•* Fest. p. 193 Lindemann, cp. schol. Bob. m Cic. pro Plane, p. 256 Orelli.

^Liv. I. 2. 6, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 56, Serv. in Verg. Aen. i. 259,
4. 620.

^Liv. I. 16. I ff., Ov. fast. 2. 475 ff., Plut. vit. Rom. 27 f., Dionys.
ant. Koin. 2. 56, alib.

^Verg. Aen. i. 267 ff., alib.

®[Aur. Vict.] orig. gent. Rom. 15. 5 igitur Latini Ascanium ob insignem
virtutem non solum love ortum crediderunt, sed etiam per diminutionem,
declinato paululum nomine, primo lobum, dein postea lulum appellarunt ;
a quo lulia familia manavit, ut scribunt Caesar lib. ii. et Cato in Originibus.
The name has been traced through the forms Diovilus, lovilus, lohilus,
loihis, lulus: see Biicheler in Rhein. Mus. 1889 xliii. 135, 1890 xliv.
323, Stolz Hist. Grainfii. d. lat. Spr. i. 204, 460.

®Verg. Aen. 2. 680 ff.

"[Aur. Vict.] orig. gent. Rom. 17. 4, cp. Hieronym. ad ami. 870
Ascanius lulium procreavit, a (juo familia luliorum orta.

The European Sky -God. 287

his descendants,! or even of the Romans in general, as
luli 2 — a compliment doubtless to the Caesars, for the
great gens Julia claimed descent from lulus.^ The name
Ascanins appears to mean " he of the oak " (cp. acrKpa,
" oak,") * so that Ascanius lulus may have meant neither
more nor less than "the young oak-Jupiter" — a sufficiently
remarkable appellation. According to tradition, his son
disputed the succession with Silvius, the son of Aeneas
by Lavinia, " and to lulus in place of the sovereignty
a certain holy power and honour was given, preferable
to the royal dignity both for security and for ease ; and
this his posterity enjoy down to the present time, being
called Julii for him." ^ These words of Dionysius seem
to record a genuine separation of the sacred from the
secular functions of the Alban dynasty. Note, however,
that Silvius and the line of Silvii who succeeded him,^
retained a cognomen suitable to representatives of a tree-
god : Silvius means " he of the Forest." Moreover, since
Virgil introduces them one and all as crowned with " civic
oak,"'^ this tree-god must have been an oak-Jupiter.^
Romulus Silvius, the eleventh in descent, claimed the
powers of Jupiter in a very practical way. Ovid^ describes
him as " Remulus . . . mimick o' the thunderbolt " ; and

^ Aus. episi. i6. 85 ff. ut quondam in Albae moenibus | supremus Aenea
satus I Silvios lulis miscuit.

^Val. Flacc. i. 9 oceanus Phrygios prius indignatus lulos, Sil. 3. 595 f.
sacris augebit nomen lulis | bellatrix gens bacifero nutrita Sabino. Pru-
dentius actually uses the singular lulus collectively of the Roman people :
perist. 2. 454 f. agnoscat et verum Deum I errans luli caecitas.

^Verg. Aen. I. 288, alib. * Class. Rev. xviii. 363.

■^Dionys. a7it. Rom. i. 70.

*See the lists in Marindin Class. Diet. s.v. "Silvius."

"Verg. Aen. 6. 772, a passage to which Dr. Frazer drew my attention.
On a sarcophagus in the Mattel collection at Rome Rhea Silvia reclines
beneath an oak-tree (C. Robert Die aiitiken Sarkophag- Reliefs iii. 2, p. 229,
pi. 60).

^ Infra p. 307 f. ^Ov. met. 14. 617 f.

2 88 The European Sky -God.

Dionysius,^ who calls him Alladius, says that " in con-
tempt of the gods he contrived mock thunderbolts and
noises like thunder, wherewith he thought to frighten
men as though he were a god. But a storm fraught
with rain and lightning falling upon his house, and the
lake near which it stood swelling in an unusual manner,
he was drowned with his whole family." Caeculus, the
founder of Praeneste, where there was an oak-cult of
Jupiter and Fortuna,'-^ had been conceived by his mother
from a spark off the hearth, and proved his divine origin
to an incredulous crowd by enveloping them with flame.^
Probably both Alladius and Caeculus, like Salmoneus
in the Greek myth,^ claimed to be Jupiter incarnate.

In the first edition of his Golden Bough Dr. Frazer
suggested that the rex Nemorensis or king of Diana's
Wood at Nemi personated an oak-Jupiter.^ This sugges-
tion, I confess, at the time failed to convince me. But
by way of support for it I pointed out,^ in a review of
Dr. Frazer's second edition, that at Aquileia Jupiter
actually bore the title Dianus ; '' and at Aquileia, I may
add, there was also a cult of Imperial Diana.^ Partly on
the strength of this Jupiter Dianus Dr. Frazer amended his
original suggestion, and towards the close of 1903 told me
that, according to his revised theory, the partner of Diana
at Nemi must have been Dianus or Janus, a collateral
form of Jupiter. I am now satisfied that he was from the
outset on the right track, and that a Dianus or Janus

1 Dionys. ant. Rom. I. 71. "^ Sitpra p. 280 f.

^Serv. in Verg. Aen. 7. 678. * Folk-lore xv. 300, 312.

^Frazer Golden Bough^ ii. 369 f., ib."^ iii. 450, 456 f.

^ Class. Rev. xvi. 372 n. i.

'' Corp. inscrr. Lai. v. 783 lovi Diano . C • Herren • nius • Candidus
V ■ s • 1 ■ ni.

^Dessau 3245 f. prints in juxtaposition two very similar dedications to
Diana, one to Diana Nemorensis now at Narona, the other to Diana Augusta
found at Aquileia. The cult of Diana Augusta at Aquileia is also attested by
Corp. inscrr. Lat. v. 771, 772.

The European Sky -God. 289

of some sort was in fact worshipped along with Diana
at Nemi, and was conceived as immanent in the person
of the rex Nemorensis. The worship of a Jupiter Dianus
(Janus) appears not only from an unfinished marble bust
"probably intended to represent Jupiter,"^ which was
found by Lord Savile in one of the shrines on the spot,
but also from a very remarkable Janiform stele discovered
in the same precinct. This stele, which is inscribed SACR
DIAN (presumably " Sacred to Dian^?," though conceivably
" Sacred to T>\zxms "), is described as follows in the
official Catalogue'^ : it "consists of the head of a beardless
young man, and of an elderly man with a flowing beard.
Both have on their foreheads fishes' fins, looking like
small wings, aquatic plants cover the neck and chest, and
scales cover the cheeks of both heads ; the head of the
young man has a small fin at each angle of the mouth,
the beard of the elder head seems saturated with water,
and the long damp hair of both heads seems to be blown
about in the wind. Etc." I take it that this stele portrays
Dianus (Janus) as a water-god. Diana beside the lake of
Nemi, which was called her " Mirror," ^ may well have
been, as Th. Birt ^ conjectured, not only a goddess of the
bright sky,^ but also a goddess of the bright reflecting
water. And Dianus (Janus), whom Nigidius Figulus held

^ G. H. Wallis Illustrated Catalogue of the Nottingham Art Museum
no. 832.

"^ Id. ib. no. 611, where the stele is figured.

''Serv. in Verg. Aen. 7. 516 Triviae lac us : hie est qui Dianae speculum
dicitur, cp. Corp. inscrr. Lat. xiv. 2772.

■* Birt in Roscher Lex. i. 1005 f.

■'The torch-hght procession to the Lake in honour of Diana Nemorensis
took place on the Ides at the hottest time of year (Stat silv. 3. i. 52 ff.),
i.e. on Aug. 13th, which was the birthday of Diana and, like all other
Tdes, a festival of Jupiter (W. Warde Fowler The Hoinan Festivals p. 198).
For the inferences deducible from these facts see Birt. loc. cit. Diana was
certainly a sky-goddess at Tibur : Corp. inscrr. Lat. xiv. 3536 (Tibur) Dianae
Caelesti sacrum etc.

290 The European Sky -God.

to be a sun-god with Diana for his partner/ had an
aquatic as well as a celestial aspect. He was, it will
be remembered, the mate of Juturna, the old Latin
goddess of lakes and rivers.- He was the father of Fontus,^
the god of springs and wells, whose Janiform head appears
on coins of the gens Fonteia.* He was the father also
of the river Tiber, whose sacred oak is mentioned by-
Virgil,^ and of Canens the water-nymph, whom King
Picus preferred to the Naiads of Nemi.^ It was said that,
when the Sabines on one occasion attempted to force
their way into Rome, a raging flood of waters burst out
from the temple of Janus and drove them back.'^ All this
and more^ goes to prove that an aquatic bust of Janus
is far from being incredible.^ Moreover, that this god was

^ Supra p. 277 n. i. "Supra p. 277.

^Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 29. '' Babelon Moitn. de la Rip. ro?n. i. 499.

^ Szipra p. 281. ^Ov. met. 14, 320 ff.

''Macrob. Sat. i. 9. 18, Ov. fast. i. 267 ff., Serv. ifi Verg. Aeti. i. 291.

* Roscher Lex. ii. 41.

^In what relation to this watery Janus, it may be asked, did Diana's
favourite Virbius stand ? Virbius is an ancient name of unknown origin, which
appears on both sides of the Adriatic. According to Vibius Sequester (p. 20,
5 Oberlin) there was a river Virbius in Laconia and {ib. p. 22, 15) a spring
Virvinus also in Laconia. These statements are supported by the name
Ip^os, which occurs as that of a mythical person connected with the cult
of Artemis at Sparta (Paus. 3. 16. 9). Perhaps, then, Virbius in Italy, as
in Greece, was an aboriginal stream-god, identified with the watery form
of Janus. Note that Irbos was son of ^;«//22sthenesand grandson of AmpAides
(Paus. 3 16. 9) — a pedigree well suited to a Janiform god ; and that Janiform
gods were not unknown in Laconia {Folk-lore xv. 284). The notion that
Virbius meant "the man with two lives" (vir bis: Serv. in Verg. Aen.
7. 761) might easily arise from his representation with a Janiform head; and
the statement that certain persons took Virbius to be the Sun (Serv. in. Verg.
Aen. 7. 776) is intelligible in view of the fact that Janus as the partner of
Diana was sometimes identified with that luminary {supra p. 277. n. i, Roscher
Lex. ii. 44). A list of temple property found at Nemi includes a head of the
Sun ; but this was probably a head of Jupiter Sol Sarapis (cp. Dessau 4395 tf.),
since the temples in question seem to have been those of Isis (Dessau 4423).
In the Class. Rev. xvi. 373 I proposed to regard the Janiform head from
Nemi as that of a river-god Virbius : I still think that view possible, provided

The European Sky -God. 291

incarnate in the rex Nemorensis I should infer from the
following considerations. Nemi was the religious centre
of a Latin federation. When, therefore, we find that a
certain Manius Aegerius^ or Egerius Laevius of Tusculum,
a Latin dictator at the head of this federation, dedicated
a grove to Diana at Nemi,- it becomes highly probable
that the rex Nemorensis discharged the religious duties
of the early Latin king, whose secular functions descended
to the Latin dictator. In fact, I surmise that the separa-
tion of divine and human offices, which took place
at Alba, had taken place at Nemi also ; and that,
just as lulus obtained " a certain holy power and honour
. . . preferable to the royal dignity both for security
and for case" ^ so Virbius, the first king of the Wood,
was " to live at his ease in the grove of Diana." *
Again, as the secular king of Alba retained the name
Silvius, " he of the Forest," so the secular dictator

that we identify Virbius with the water-Janus. Ov. 7net. 15. 539 f. makes
Hippoiytus say that when Diana transformed him into Virbius, she "added
years to mine age and left me not a face that could be recognized." This
description suits well the union of a youthful with an elderly head in our bust,
and also the curious treatment of the two visages.

If it be thought that the authority of Vibius Sequester, an uncritical compiler,
is not enough to justify the foregoing conclusions, I should prefer (with Dr.
Frazer) to connect Virbius and verbena. Verbena could denote the branch
{ramus) of a sacred tree (Serv. in Verg. eel. 8. 65, Aen. 12. 120), so that
Virbius may have been ' He of the sacred branch.' Dr. Postgate has suggested
to me that verber, if it meant originally ' switch,' belongs to the same group of
words, referable to the root of viridis. The i of Virbius (sometimes written
Verbius in the MSS. : see Class. Rev. xvi. 380 n. 3) might, he thinks, come in
through the influence of vir and virgo.

Which of these two theories is right, it is hard to say. We shall perhaps
reach decisive considerations when we come to deal with the Celtic behef in
vervain.

^Fest. p. 169 Lindemann. ^Cato origg. 2. frag. 58 Peter.

^ Dionys. ant. Rom. i. 70 i^pa. tis i%o\>(j\.a. ■Kpoa^reQi) Kal rt/xr} ry re a.KLv5w({)
■npoiixov(Ta. TrjS ixovapxuKri^ Kal ttj pacrrwurj toO l3iov.

■* Schol. Pers. sat. 6. $6 Aesculapius eum vivum Dianae restiluit, et
acceptum, in luco suo otiose ut viveret, consecravit, et Virbium vocavit merito,
quod bis in vitam prolatus esset.

292 The European Sky-God.

of the Latins was named Aegerius or Egerius, " he of the
Oak." I conceive that the Diana and Dianus, who, on
Dr. Frazer's amended hypothesis, had a joint cult in an
oak-grove beside the Lake of Nemi, may have been
surnamed respectively Aegeria, " the oak-goddess," and
Aegerius, " the oak-god " : the former epithet, split off
from Diana by a process familiar to students of ancient
mythology, developed into the separate personality of
Aegeria or Egeria, the oak-nymph; the latter epithet,
borne by the Latin dictator, marks him as the temporal
representative of Janus. Nay, more ; for the man's name
was also Manius, and from him arose a long line of
illustrious Manii, a fact which occasioned the proverb
miilti Mani Ariciae, "There is many a Manius at Aricia."^
Now an extant fragment of a Salian hymn ^ says of
Janus :

"duonus cerus es oenus "

Thou alone art a good creator —

and we have it on the authority of Festus^ that in a
Salian hymn the phrase Cerus viamis meant "good
creator." Whether these translations are right or wrong,*

^ Fest. p. 169 Lindemann.

'^Varr. de ling. Lat. 7. 26. I follow the text of Bahrens Frag. poet. Rotn.
p. 30.

2 Paul. exc. Fest. p. 91 Lindemann, cp. ib. p. loi and Fest. p. 169.

*On Cerus, who appears to have been the male counterpart of Ceres, see
Aust in Pauly-Wissowa iii. 1994 and Wissowa in Roscher Lex. i. 867. A.
Zimmermann in Bezzenberger's Beitrage zur Kunde der indogerm anise hen
Sprachcn 1899 xxv. 30 f. refers the praenomen Manius, the nomen Manius, the
cognomen Manianus, and many other Latin names to rndtius, "good." W.
M. Lindsay The Latin language p. 183 accepts "good" as the root-meaning
of a whole group of words from the parallel stems f?iano- and matii- (manus,
Manes, im-manis ? mane) ; and this was the view of Varr. de ling. Lat. 6. 4
and Macrob. Sat. I. 3. 13. On the other hand, if viane "morning" is to be
dissociated from this group, and if Manius means "morning-born," as several
ancient authorities declare (Varr. de ling. Lat. 9. 38, Paul. exc. Fest. p. 102
Lindemann, Auct. de praenominib. 6), it was still a suitable name for a
representative of Janus, who bore the title "Morning Father" {Matutinus
Pater) as a god of the brightening sky (Hor. sat. 2. 6. 20 and Aero ad loc).

The European Sky -God. 293

it is clear that mantis was a ceremonial epithet of Janus,
But if so, Maniits may well be a derivative of the same
applied to the Manii of Aricia^ as the representatives
of the old divine kings, who were in their day and
generation reverenced as Janus incarnate.^ This con-
jecture is materially strengthened by the fact that the
first rex sacrorum at Rome was Manius Papirius.^

At this point I may be pardoned for a brief digression,
which will help to clear up one of the most familiar but
at the same time least intelligible of Italian beliefs. If
the Manii of Aricia were once regarded as successive
incarnations of the sky-god called mantis, and if we are
to recognize the same word in Manes, the Latin term for
ancestral ghosts or spirits,* it seems probable that origin-
ally the forefather of each clan was reverenced as a
Jupiter and thought to be reincarnated in his descendants.
This explains at once the use of the plural Mattes as per-
taining to an individual and the belief that these Mattes
were gods {di Manes). A man's Mattes were, it would
seem, the whole series of his ancestors who had each in

^ It may be objected that the name Manius should have been borne by the
rex Nemorensis rather than by the dictator of Aricia. I conceive that
originally the two were one and the same ; and that, when the division
between sacred and profane duties took place, the name Manius was given to
the secular leader in token of the religious position occupied by his predecessors.
It is perhaps significant that the names Manlius, Manlia, which appear to be
cognate with Maniits (so Zimmermann loc. cit.) were borne by several persons
in a like position elsewhere. Thus a rex sacroriun at Bovillae was named
Manlius (Dessau 4942), a regina sacrorutn at Rome Manlia (Dessau 3941,
3941 a), and probably another regina sacrorutn at Tibur Manlia (Dessau

I043)-

2 If I am right in equating Virbius with Janus {supra p. 290 n. 9), we obtain
an additional argument for regarding the rex Nemorensis as an embodiment of
Janus ; for the first king of the Wood was named Virbius, as was also his son
(Verg. Aen. 7. 761 ff.).

^Dionys. atit. Rom. 5. i.

^Steuding in Roscher Lex. ii. 2318 fr. shows that the di Manes oi'^om.z.-a.
tombstones were "not the souls of the persons there buried, but ancestral
spirits in general or the ancestral spirits of that family in particular."

294 The European Sky -God,

turn been regarded as Jupiter incarnate. To this series,
when he came to die, he added his own genius or birth-
god, the divine spirit transmitted to him at the moment
of conception on the lectus gejiialis or bridal-bed. This
appears not only from such dedications as a tombstone ^
at Pola inscribed —

MANIBVS I ET GENIO | P. VATrI • SEVERI
To the Mattes and Genius of P. Vatrhis Severus,

or a funeral lamp ^ in the Museo Kircheriano painted
with the words —

Helenus : suom genio M(a)nib inferis | mandat • stipem • strenam • lumen |
suom • secum • defert • ne quis • eum | solvat nisi • nos • qui • legamus.
Helemis commends his Genius to the Manes below. He brings down with
him as cotttribtition and gift his light. Let no man loose him but we %vho
bind.

but also from definite statements made by various classical
authors. Thus Martianus Capella^ says : " Inasmuch as
the Ma7ies are assigned to bodies at the moment of con-
ception, when life is over they still delight in these bodies
and haunting them are called Lcvmres. If they are
supported by the virtue of their past life, they become
the Lares of households and towns. But if they are
depraved by the body, they are spoken of as Larvae
and Mauiae." We are here told that the Manes are
embodied at conception ; in other words, that the ancestral
spirits are reincarnated in their descendants, presumably
as genii. Servius * says much the same : " Some hold
that the Manes are identical with the genii of antiquity ;
and that, as soon as the body is conceived, two Manes
are assigned to it, which do not desert it even in death,
but on the consumption of the body still inhabit its

^ Wilmanns Exempla inscrr. Lat. 233. Others are cited by Orelli 1725,
1727.

'^ Bull, deir Inst. Arch, i860 p. 70. Garucci read "suom geniom dis
.inferis," but his facsimile has beyond a doubt svomgenio m nibinferis.

^ Mart. Cap. 2. 162 f. ^ Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 63, cp. ib. 6. 743.

The European Sky -God. 295

tomb." But if the Manes before birth become genii,
conversely the genii after death become Manes, who are
further identified with the Lares or Larvae. According
to Arnobius,^ "Varro declares at one time that the Lares
are Manes, and that consequently the mother of the
Lares was named Mania, at another that they are the
so-called gods of the air and heroes; or again, following
ancient authorities, he says that the Lares are Larvae,
being as it were the genii of the departed ^ or souls of
the dead." This identification of the genius with the
Lar, i.e. with the Lar familiaris, who appears to have
been the forefather of the family^ buried under the
hearth,* is indeed fairly well attested. Censorinus^ in-
forms us that Granius Flaccus, a contemporary of Caesar,
and many other writers held the genius and the Lar to
be one and the same. Ausonius ^ speaks of " the genius
of our homes, to wit the Lar sprung from Larunda."
And Ovid "^ describes December, the month of the Laren-
talia, as " welcome to the geniir Lastly, Servius ^ quotes

^Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 41.

-The MSS. have "quasi quosdam genios efifunctorum animas mortuorum."
We should perhaps read " quasi quosdam genios defunctorum [animas mortu-
orum]," the last two words being a gloss. For other emendations see Oehler
ad loc.

^ Plaut. mere. 834 familiai Lar pater, cp. Laberius ap. Non. 119, 27 Merc,
genius generis nostri parens.

^ Serv. in Verg. Ae7i. 5. 64 etiam domi suae sepeliebantur : unde orta est
consuetudo, ut dii penates colantur in domibus, ib. 6. 152 apud maiores . . .
omnes in suis domibus sepeliebantur. unde [ortum est, ut lares colerentur
in domibus, unde] etiam umbras larvas vocamus, Isid. 07-igg. 15. 11. i prius
autem quisque in domo sua sepeliebatur. See Class. Rev. xi. 32 ff. These
statements are confirmed by the myths concerning the birth of Romulus
(Plut. vit. Rom. 2), Servius TuUius (Plin. nat. hist. 36. 204), and Caeculus
(Serv. in Verg. Aen. 7. 678). Servius TuUius in particular was called the
son of the Lar familiaris (Plin. loc. cit.).

^ Censorin. de die nat. 3. 3. " Auson. technop. de deis 9.

" Ov. fast. 3. 58.

* Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 63. The quotation is probably a paraphrase of
Appul. de deo Socr. 688 f.

296 The European Sky -God.

from Appuleius the following dictum : " Manes are souls
of the better sort, which while they are in our body
are called genii, but on quitting the body Lemures. When
they attacked and infested a house, they used to be named
Larvae ; if on the other hand they were propitious and
favourable, they were known as the Lares of the family."
A perusal of the foregoing passages certainly confirms us
in the belief that the genius or birth-god comes from
the Manes and returns to the Manes ; in fact, that the
genius of every man is but the reincarnation of an
ancestor's genius.

Moreover, it is highly probable that this genius was a
Jupiter. To begin with, there is the important fact that
in the case of a woman it was called her Juno.^ Secondly,
Caesius,^ who professed to follow Etruscan authorities,
declared that the Penates were Fortuna, Ceres, the gejiius
lovialis, and the masculine Pales : this genius Lovialis is
evidently a family god of some kind, and must not be
confused with the genitis Lovis of literature and inscrip-
tions,^ who was merely the genius of an anthropomorphic
Jupiter. Thirdly, Augustine"^ expressly identifies the
genius with Jupiter — a conclusion based on the general
similarity between the functions of the genius and those
of Jupiter progenitor. Fourthly, the nearest analogy to
the word genitis is offered by Fortuna Primigenia, the
oak-goddess of Praeneste. The meaning of her title is
disputed. Some ^ take it to denote " Eldest-born " ; and
this is supported by two inscriptions, which certainly call

^ Roscher Lex. ii. 615 ff.

^Caesius ap. Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 40. A little further on (ib. 43) we read :
"Ceres, Pales, Fortuna, lovialis aut Genius." The Etruscan Tages is
described as Genii filius, ttepos lovis (Fest. s.v. "Tages" p. 273 Lind. ).

^Minuc. Fel. Octav. 29.5, Dessau 4906: see Orelli 1730.

* Aug. de civ. Dei 7. 13 quid est Genius ? . . .hie est igitur quern appellant
lovem,

* E.g. R. Peter in Roscher Lex. i. 1 542.

The European Sky-God. 297

her " daughter of Jupiter." ^ Others ^ translate " Authoress
or Mother of all things," and point to Cicero's^ statement
that the spot where the oaken tablets of Praeneste were
found " is nowadays carefully railed in on account of the
sanctuary of the boy Jupiter, who, seated as a suckling
along with Juno on the lap of Fortuna and reaching
towards her breast, is worshipped with the utmost rever-
ence by mothers." The cult was singular, not to say
unique. " Italy," says Mr. Warde Fowler,* " presents us
with no real parallel to this child-Jupiter" ; and that he
should have been conceived not only as a child but also
as a father is still more mystifying. If, however, we may
venture to interpret Primigenia as " First of the gejiii
or birth-gods," we go some way towards reading the
riddle, because every genius is from one point of view a
father, from another a son. The infants Jupiter and Juno
on the lap of Fortuna would, on this showing, be the
typical male and female genii. The suggestion is
strengthened by the constant coupling and occasional
identification of Fortuna and Genius, or of Fortuna and
Tutela ( = female Genius), in inscriptions.^ Fifthly, there
were but very few festivals in the Roman calendar sacred
to Jupiter. One of these few was the Larentalia on
December 23, which Ovid described as " welcome to
the genii." ^ Macrobius'' explains the connexion as
follows: on this day "CciQ flamen {Quirinalis^) offered a
solemn sacrifice to the Manes of Acca Larentia (the
Mother of the Lares ^), and the occasion was sacred to
Jupiter because "the ancients held that souls were given

1 Dessau 3684, 3685.

2 See J. A. Hild in Daremberg-Saglio Diet. Ant. ii. 1270. Cp. also
Plut. de fort. Koni. 10 Th\v hi rixv . . . ws irpuirdTroKiv Kal rid-qvbv.

' Cic. de div. 2. 85. ^ Warde Fowler Roman Festivals p. 225.

^Roscher Lex. i. 1522 f., Daremberg-Saglio Diet. Ant. ii. 1276.
^ Supra p. 295. ^Macrob. Sat. i. 10. 1$.

^ Gell. 7. 7. 7. 9 Roscher Lex. i. 5.

298 The European Sky -God.

by Jupiter and after death returned again to him," D.
Junius Brutus, the consul of 138 B.C., used to perform
his family parentatio or funeral offerings not, as all other
Romans did, in February, but in December.^ May not
this have been the older system kept up in the family
of one who claimed descent from Jupiter 2.'' Sixthly, the
common representation of the genius as a snake ^ suits
Jupiter, who was known to appear as a snake on the
lectus genialis!^ Seventhly, it explains the belief in a
two-fold genius^; for, as Jupiter was the god now of the
bright sky, now of the dark sky (Jupiter Summanus), so
the genius was " changeable of aspect, white or black." ^
But to all this it may be objected : if the genius was
Jupiter, why is he never, except in the quasi-philosophic
Augustine, called Jupiter .-' I suspect that the Romans
refrained from mentioning their personal Jupiter from a
fear lest others should work mischief with the name. The
name of the tutelary god of Rome was never uttered for
that reason, and O. Valerius Soranus who divulged it
came to a bad end.^ Servius^ mentions in this connexion
that on the Capitol at Rome was a shield inscribed " To
the Genius of the city of Rome, whether male or female,"

^ Cic. de leg. 2. 54, Plut. quaestt. Rom. 34.

"^ Infra p. 303, Junius="son of Jupiter." ^ Roscher Lex. i. 1623 f.

•* Aur. Vict, de vir. illustr. 49. i.

5 Censorin. de die nat. 3. 3, Serv. in Verg. Aen. 6. 743, cp. ib. 3. 63.

^ Hor. epist. 2. 2. 189. If the genius was a Janus rather than a Jupiter,
its duplication is equally intelligible.

'' Plin. nat. hist. 28. 18, Plut. quaestt. Rom. 61. Serv. in Verg. Aen.
I. 277, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 65 and Solin. i. 5 say that Valerius Soranus divulged
the forbidden name of Rome; and Solinus explains {ib. i. i) that the name
in question was Valentia. Lyd. de mens. p. 125, 5 Wiinsch asserts that the
mystic name was "Epwy, i.e. Amor. But both must be late inventions :
Valentia is but a Latinized form of "Pwfiri, and Amor is a palindrome for
Roma. Macrob. Sat. 3. 9. 3 states that both the tutelary god of Rome and
the Latin name of Rome itself were kept profound secrets, but does not
attempt to disclose them.

^ Serv. in Verg. Aen. 2. 351.

The European Sky -God. 299

and that the pontiffs used to pray " Jupiter Optimus
Maximus, or by what other name thou wouldst be called."
This raises a suspicion that the Genius of Rome was the
Capitoline Jupiter. And it is noteworthy that Augustine^
quotes from Varro the one surviving couplet of the
imprudent Valerius Soranus —

" luppiter omnipotens regum rerumque deumque
progenitor genetrixque deum, deus unus et omnes."
Alviighty Jupiter, father of kings and thijigs
And gods, yea ??iother of gods, whole god and sole. —

the very couplet, it will be observed, which Augustine
cited in support of his contention that the genius was
Jupiter.'- However that may be, we are, I believe, justified
in maintaining that the family genius, the godhead incar-
nate in the founder of the clan, and passed on from father
to son, was none other than Jupiter. Appuleius^ speaks oi
" prayers addressed to Genius and Genita " : the former he
describes as Manium deum ^ ; the latter reappears in
Plutarch ^ and Pliny ^ as Genita Mana, a birth-goddess
to whom dogs (the offering appropriate to the Lares
Praestites") were sacrificed in order that none of those
born in the house might become manns, i.e. might die.
In both cases the epithet adds weight to my conclusion
that the deity incarnate was the sky-god who bore the
old religious title vianus?'

But it is time to resume the thread of our main argu-
ment. At Rome too, as throughout Latium, there are

^ Aug. de civ. Dei 7. 9. 2 Supra p. 296.

^ Appul. de deo Socr. 687.

'^ Id. ib. 689 nomine Manium deum nuncupant. The older texts give the
variant " Manem deum."

5 Plut. quaestt. Rom. 52. '< Plin. nat. hist. 29. 58.

^ Warde Fowler Roman Festivals pp. loi, 351 f.

^If Birt is right in urging that another name for the genius was cerus
(Roscher Lex. i. 1615), my case is still further strengthened, since the
phrase cerus manus was used of Janus by the Salii {supra p. 292).

300 The European Sky-God.

several indications that the king was deemed an embodi-
ment of Janus or Jupiter. In the first place, Janus is
said to have reigned as a king on the Janiculum/ which
probably implies that the local king personated Janus
and bore his name. A very ancient hymn of the Salii ^
saluted Janus as "first and foremost of divine kings."
And just as lulus, the human Jupiter of Alba Longa,
founded the gens Julia, so the human Janus of the
Janiculum may have founded the gens Diania and the
gens Dianidia mentioned in Roman inscriptions.^

Now, a double Janus would be represented better by two
kings than by one. It is, therefore, I venture to think,
highly significant that there was a marked and persistent
tendency towards a dual kingship both at Rome and
elsewhere in Italy. My suggestion is that the two kings,
twins if possible, were regarded as the most fitting
embodiment of the two-fold sky-god.^ Procas, king of
Alba, left his kingdom to his two sons Amulius and
Numitor on condition that they should take it in turns
to reign for a year^ — a rule that recalls on the one hand
the alternate life of the Dioscuri,^ on the other the
alternate office of the consuls.'' Romulus and Remus on
coins of Rome,^ like the Dioscuri on coins of Greece,''

1 Arnob. adv. 7iat. 3. 29, Macrob. Sat. i. 7. 19, Seiv. in Verg. Aen.
8. 319.

"^ Ap. Varr. de ling. Lat. 7. 26. I follow the text of Bahrens Fragmenta
poetariim Romanorufn p. 30 : promelios devom recum.

^De-Vit Onomasticon ii. 612.

* Dr. Frazer has told us that the Baronga of S.E. Africa ''bestow the name
of Tilo — that is, the sky — on a woman who has given birth to twins, and
the infants themselves are called the children of the sky " ( The Golden
Bough"^ i. 91).

^[Aur. Vict.] de vir. illustr. i. i, cp. Strab. 229.

^Roscher Lex. i. 1155 f. 'Id. iii. 482.

^ S. W. Stevenson Diet, of Rom. Coins p. 914.

3 Roscher Zex. i. 1171 f., Ii76f., ii. 2535. Their connection with Juturna
at Rome is noteworthy (M. Albert Le culte de Castor et Pollux en Italie
p. 35 ff., cp. supra p. 271 f.).

The European Sky-God. 301

are represented with two stars above their heads — a
recognized numismatic emblem of divinity.^ Romulus,
after the death of Remus, was bidden by an oracle to
set an empty throne by his side with a sceptre and
crown for Remus, in order that the two brothers might
still seem to be associated in the government.^ Again,
the tradition that Romulus later ruled conjointly with
Titus Tatius the Sabine also points to the custom of
a dual kingship. When the Tarquins were driven out,
the same ancient principle reasserted itself and produced
that characteristically Roman institution, the double
consulship. There was a certain dramatic fitness in the
legend that the battle of lake Regillus, at which the tyrant
was finally beaten, was won for the consuls by the help
of the great twin brethren Castor and Pollux. The duo-
viri or highest magistrates in colonies and municipal
towns throughout Italy, who sometimes bore the name
of praetors,^ and once at least that of dictators,^ may
have been in every case the political outcome of a concep-
tion which was in its origin religious. The same
belief possibly contributed to the later duplication of
the Caesars : it is to be observed that the bisellium or
honorary " seat for two " belonged to them in virtue
of their divinity.^

The god thus represented by the Roman kings and
by their republican and imperial successors was, we

1 Tradition called them the sons of Mars by Rhea Silvia : but this, as
we shall see later {infj-a p. 320 f.), does not conflict with their relation to
Jupiter. For the moment it may suffice to point out that they were found
under the ficus Ruminalis or Kumina, and that the Romans worshipped
a Jupiter Kuminus (Aug. de civ. Dei^. Ii). On the fig-tree as a substitute
for the oak of Jupiter see Folk-lore xv. 299 (Zeus Su/cdcrtos etc.).

-Serv. in Verg. Aen. i. 276.

2 Daremberg-Saglio Diet, des Ant. ii. 416 s.v. "duumviri juridicundo."

*At Fidenae we hear first of duovi7-ei (Dessau 5943) and subsequently
of two dictators (Dessau 6224).

* E. Beurlier Essai sur le culte rendu aux empereurs rojuains p. 48.

302 The European Sky -God.

have seen, a sky-god, whose sacred tree was the oak.
Thus it was from Egeria, the oak-nymph, that Numa
learnt how to control the thunderstorms of Jupiter Elicius.^
Numa, the priestly king, husband of Egeria, may indeed
have been looked upon as Jupiter incarnate. One of his
earliest acts was to establish the cult of Jupiter Termi-
nalis^: and M. Babelon remarks the close resemblance
between the bust of Jupiter Terminalis on coins of the
gens Terentia and the bust of Numa on coins of the
gens Calpurnia — " c'est evidemment la meme tete et les
memes traits."^ But the best proof that a Roman king
was regarded as an oak-Jupiter lies in the nature of his
regalia. A large gold crown of oak-leaves enriched with
acorns of precious stones and golden ribands was worn
by him * as viceroy of the oak-god, while an ivory sceptre
with an eagle perched upon it^ proclaimed the human
Jupiter.^ His throne was hollowed out of a tree stump.''
The fasces borne before him by the lictors consisted in
each case of an axe bound up in a bundle of rods and
fastened with a strap of red leather.^ It is probable
that the axe was the symbol of Jupiter,^ and that the
rods were used for purposes of divination '^^ : both, no
doubt, came to be regarded as means of punishment,
but their primary significance appears to have been
religious, not secular.

The first Roman consuls were doubtless chosen with
the utmost care, in order that the kings as representatives

"^ Supra p. 269. ^Plut. vit. Ahtvi. 16, Dionys. ant. Rom. 2. 74.

^ Babelon monn. de la Rip. rom. ii. 486.

■*Tertull. de coron. mil. 13, Plin. nat. hist. 21. 6, 'i,},. 11, alib.
^Dionys. ant. Rom. 3. 61 f. Cp. Folk-lore xv. 371 f.
* See further Class. Rev. xviii. 361 f.

■^ Lyd. de mag. i. 7, Serv. in Verg. Aen. i. 506, 7. 169. Cp. Class.
Rev. xvii. 406, 413, Folk-Lore xv. 416.
^ Daremberg-Saglio Diet. ant. iii. 1239.
^ Class. Rev. xviii. 362, cp. ib. 365.
^''Cp. the custom of the ancient Germans described by Tac. Germ. 10.

The European Sky -God. 303

of the sky-god might have worthy successors. The two
candidates selected were L. Junius Brutus and L. Tar-
quinius CoUatinus. Apart from their other qualifications,
these two bore well-omened names. For Junius means
"the son of Jupiter,"^ and his colleague was the son of
Egerius, "the oak-man." ^ It is also noteworthy that,
when Junius had fallen in battle the same year, the
consul elected in his room was Sp. Lucretius Tricipitinus,
whose name suggests the god of light {lux, cp. Lucetius)
in his early three-headed {triceps) form. Other members
of the same family succeeded him : T. Lucretius Tricipi-
tinus was consul in 508 B.C. and again in 504 B.C. ;
L. Lucretius Tricipitinus, in 462 B.C. ; Hostus Lucretius
Tricipitinus, in 429 B.C. Further, L. Tarquinius CoUa-
tinus, though he was the son of Egerius, yet bore the
ill-starred name Tarquinius ; and it was, according to
Livy,^ precisely on account of his name that he was
forced to abdicate and go into exile. In his place the
people elected P. Valerius, who bore a well-omened name,
and came of a family which, as Niebuhr'* suggests, may
have exercised king!}'' power over the Sabines at an early
date.

Time after time during the republican era Rome
witnessed a recrudescence of this desire to find a Jupiter
in her popular heroes. The most remarkable case of it
is perhaps that of P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major.
The people were anxious to make him " perpetual consul

^ C- Pauli in Bezzenberger's Beitrdge ziir Kunde der indogermmiischen
Sprachen 1899 xxv. 214 f. cites two Latin inscriptions, Au • Fabi ■ Jucnus
and M • Fabius •Junius, and contends \haX Jucnus —Jovig{e)nus unA Junius
=Jov{i)-nius are the same name in a complete and clipped form respectively.
Cp. infra p. 313, n. 8.

2Liv. I. 57, 6, cp. I. 34. 3, I. 38. I.

^Liv. 2. 2. 3 non placere nomen, periculosum esse libertati, cp. Piso
frag. 19 Peter.

* Niebuhr Hist, of Rome i. 538.

304 The European Sky -God.

and dictator," in other words, to make him king, to erect
statues to him everywhere even on the Capitol in the
shrine of Jupiter, and to pass a decree that a portrait-
figure of him in triumphal attire should be seen to issue
from the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.^ Indeed,
it appears that a portrait of Scipio was actually set up
in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and fetched thence
whenever it was needed for a funeral procession of the
gens Cornelia.^ Scipio never undertook any business,
whether public or private, without first resorting to this
temple, where he remained for long sunk in contempla-
tion : hence the populace came to believe that he was
in reality of divine origin.^ Denarii of the gens Cornelia *
represent on the obverse a helmeted head of Scipio sur-
mounted by a star — a symbol of divinity which we have
met with already : the reverse shows Jupiter with sceptre
and thunderbolt standing between Juno, who has a sceptre,
and Minerva, who is placing a wreath or crown upon his
head. The latter design is meaningless, unless we assume
that Jupiter stands for the victorious Scipio. Another
denarius of the same gens ^ has Jupiter with sceptre and
uplifted thunderbolt driving a four-horse chariot over a
snaky giant, the blank spaces of the sky being filled with
the sun, moon, and a couple of stars. M. Babelon,
following Cavedoni, holds that Jupiter here denotes
Scipio's brother, L. Cornelius Scipio Asiagenus triumph-
ing over Antiochus the Great, King of Syria. A denarius ^
struck half-a-century later by another L. Cornelius Scipio

'Liv. 38. 56. 12 f., Val. Max. 4. i. 6.

^Val. Max. 8. 15. i, App. de reb. Hisp. 23. The statues of the kings
on the Capitol (PHn. nat. hist. 33. 9 f., 34. 22 f.) stood in front of the
door of the temple, not within it (App. de bell. civ. i. 16).

^Liv. 26. 19. 5 ff., App. de reb. Hisp. 23. Aur. Vict, de vir. ill. 49. i
lovis filius creditus.

* Babelon, tnonn. de la Rip. rovi. i. 396 f.

^Ib. i. 393 f. ^ lb. i. 399.

The Eiivopeari Sky-God. 305

Asiagenus represents Jupiter with thunderbolt and sceptre
in a galloping four-horse chariot, and, according to M.
Babelon, refers to the same event. When Cicero^ speaks
of Gnaeus and Publius Scipio, who fell in Spain, as " the
two thunderbolts of our empire"; when Lucretius^ terms
Scipio Major " a thunderbolt of war " ; when Virgil and
Silius, in imitation of him, call Scipio Major and Scipio
Minor "the two thunderbolts of war" and "the thunder-
bolts of our race " ; '^ when Valerius Maximus,'* recording
the degeneracy of Scipio's son, exclaims "Gracious gods !
Ye suffered this thunderbolt to issue in utter obscurity ! ",
they may be, as Mr. H. A. J. Munro^ conjectured, taking
the name Scipio to mean " a thunderbolt " (ct/o/ttto?), but
they may also have been appealing to the primitive senti-
ment of the Roman people, which identified the hero of
the moment with Jupiter himself. Again, Manius Acilius
Glabrio, who as consul in 191 B.C. had won a great victory
over Antiochus III., not only celebrated the customary
triumph on his return to Rome, but was subsequently
honoured as more than a mere man. For his son erected
a statue of him covered with gold, the first of its kind
in Italy.*^ Another member of the same family, Manius
Acilius Balbus, took part in the defeat of Perseus, king
of Macedonia — an exploit commemorated on coins'^ of
his son, which show him standing as Jupiter in a four-
horse chariot. He holds a sceptre in his left hand, and
a thunderbolt in his right ; while his chariot is driven

iQc. pro. Balb. 34. " Lucr. 3. 1034.

=*Verg. Aen. 6. 842 f., Sil. 7. io5 f.

*Val. Max. 3. 5. i. '^ In his note on Lucr. 3. 1034.

^Liv. 40. 34. This statue may have represented him in the guise of
Hercules. For it is as Hercules that he figures on later coins of the
family (Babelon Monn. de la R^p. rom. i. 103 f. ) rather than as Jupiter
(Montfaucon Antiquity Explained i. pi. 8, 17). The gilded statue was
dedicated in the temple of Pietas (Val. Max. 2. 5. i).

''Morell Thesaurus Fam. Kom. Acilia pi. i, 4, cp. Babelon Mon>i. de
la Rip. rom. i. loi f.

3o6 The European Sky -God.

by Victory. Possibly the name Manius, which constantly
occurs in this ancient family, implies that its members
regarded themselves as incarnations of Janus or Jupiter.
The populace dubbed Marius after his victory over the
Cimbrians in loi B.C. the third founder of Rome, erected
statues to him wholesale, and in their private rejoicings
ofifered incense and libations " to the gods and Marius." ^
He fell in with their humour, and subsequently made a
point of using a cantharus for his drinking-vessel in order
that he might be compared with Father Liber,^ i.e. Jupiter
Liber.^ O. Caecilius Metellus Pius, when he once gained
a victory over Sertorius in Spain, was proclaimed iv7perator
and received with altars and sacrifices wherever he went.
He accepted sumptuous entertainments, at which he sat
drinking in triumphal robes, i.e. in the costume of Jupiter.*
Suddenly a mechanical figure of Victory would descend
from the ceiling amid the sound of rolling thunder, bring-
ing a golden trophy or a crown for his " celestial head,"
while choruses of women and children chanted epinician
hymns.^ Nor must we hastily accuse Metellus of blas-
phemy : indeed he was pontifex maxijnus in 65 B.C., and
retained the office till his death. It was but another
example of the great man claiming to be a greater
than man. Pompey in like manner was marked as a
hero by his surname Magnus : but, perhaps because his
family was of plebeian origin, we find him identified
with Janus, not Jupiter. On a first-brass of his son
Sex. Pompeius Magnus*^ occurs a laureated head of
Janus with the features of Pompey the Triumvir.

It may be surmised that these sporadic examples of

^Plut. vit. Mar. 27, Sen. de ira 3. 18. I. -Val. Max. 3. 6. 6.

^Wissowa Kel. «. Kult. d. R0171. p. 105 f., 126 f.
'^ Infra p. 307.

^Sallust ap. Macrob. Sat. 3. 13. 7 f., Serv. in Verg. Aen. 5. 488, Val.
Max. 9. I. 5, Plut. vit. Sert. 22.

^Babelon Monti, de la Rdp. rom. ii. 351.

The European Sky -God. 307

would-be Jupiters could be indefinitely multiplied, if we
possessed more information with regard to the early
history of the Italian gentes. For instance, the gens
luventia of Tusculum, loventia ^ or luentia '^ as it was
sometimes spelt, — must have traced its descent from a
Jupiter.^ Moreover, in Campania a whole series of Iiivilas
or heraldic columns has been found, one of them expressly
dedicated to Jupiter Flagius and many others erected
within a precinct of Juno Lucina.* These columns, marked
with the armorial bearings of this or that family, represent
— if I am right in my conjecture^ — the ancestor of the
family in his character as a human Jupiter. However
that may be, it is certain that the Roman who so dis-
tinguished himself in war as to deserve the honour of
a triumph acted for the time being the part of Jupiter
Capitolinus. " The general," says Mr. G. Mc. Neile
Rushforth,*" " appeared in the procession in the character
of the god. His dress was the same, and it was the
property of the temple, and brought thence for the
occasion. So, too, the golden crown [of oak-leaves]
and the sceptre with its eagle belonged to the god ; the
body of the general was, in early times at least, painted
red like that of the image in the temple ; and the white
chariot horses used by the emperors, and earlier by
Camillus, recalled the white steeds of Jupiter and the
Sun." Another crown of oak-leaves and acorns was the
corona civica given to the man who had slain an enemy
and rescued a fellow-citizen from him. It was originally
of holm-oak {ilex), but later of evergreen-oak {aesculus) —
that being the tree specially sacred to Jupiter — or of

"^ Bull, epigraph. 1884 p. 112 loventia Victoria.

2 G. Wilmanns Exempla inscriptiotmrn Latinaruni 30, 2820 c, alib.

3 See C. Pauli in Bezzenberger's Beitrdge 1899 xxv. 214.

* Conway Italic Dialects i. loi ff. ^ Class. Rev. xviii. 375.

^ In Smith-Way te-Marindin Diet. Ant. ii. S94, where references for each
statement are given.

3o8 The European Sky- God.

evergreen-oak and ordinary oak {qiiercus) mixed ; but
it regularly had acorns. Once won, it might be always
worn ; and it conferred various rights on the wearer —
e.g. at the public games even senators stood up to do him
honour.^ Probably the citizen who wore the oak-crown
of Jupiter- was, like the trmmphator, regarded as in some
sort a Jupiter incarnate. Again, a Roman magistrate who
contracted a treaty seems to have posed as Jupiter. " The
reason," says Servius,^ " why the sceptre is used when a
treaty has to be made is this. Our forefathers on all
such occasions were wont to produce an image of Jupiter.
This was difficult, especially when the treaty was made
with a distant tribe, A way out of the difficulty was for
them to hold a sceptre and so copy, as it were, the image
of Jupiter ; for the sceptre is peculiar to himself"

It would seem, then, that even in republican times the
latent belief in a human Jupiter made itself felt on various
occasions and in various ways. When the republic passed
into an empire, this belief gathered fresh force from the
altered political circumstances of the day. More and more
the emperor came to be looked upon as the one human
Jupiter — indeed, as the one Jupiter worthy of the name,
whether on earth or elsewhere. The whole subject of
emperor-worship has been so carefully studied by M.
I'Abbe Beurlier ^ that I shall content myself with indicat-
ing those cases in which the emperor was definitely
identified with Jupiter in particular.

First and foremost is the case of Julius Caesar, who
claimed descent from lulus and was probably aware that
the blood of Jupiter ran in his veins. At least, as early
as 6d> B.C., when he was a simple quaestor, he proclaimed
in the course of a funeral oration that on his father's

1 Plin. nat. hist. 1 6. ii ff.

^ Plut. quaestt. Rom. 92, vit. Coriol. 3.

■* Serv. in. Verg. A en. 12. 206.

■• E. Beurlier Essai sur !e ailte 7-endu mix empereurs romains Paris 1S90.

The E2iropean Sky -God. 309

side he was related to Venus and "immortal gods."^
Twenty years later, after the victory of Pharsalus, the
senate decreed that Caesar's chariot should be set up
on the Capitol opposite to that of Jupiter, and that a
statue of him standing upon a globe should bear the
inscription — " He is a demigod " {rifxiBeo^).- Caesar at
first disapproved of these flatteries, and even had the
obnoxious word effaced.^ But not long afterwards an
ivory statue of him, and subsequently a complete chariot,
was carried in procession along with the statues of the
gods, while another statue of him inscribed deo invicto (Oew
aviiaiTw) was set up in the temple of Ouirinus, and a third
on the Capitol beside the old kings of Rome.* Soon he
was actually worshipped under the title of Jupiter Julius
and provided with M. Antonius as his priest {flanien
Dialis)^ — a most singular instance of history repeating
itself; for we have seen that the Julii of yore were
human Jupiters. Caesar was, as a later tragedian ^ puts it,
"become the peer of Jove." The honours decreed to him
were recorded in letters of gold on tablets of silver and
deposited beneath the feet of Jupiter Capitolinus." How
far he believed in them himself, it is hard to say. When
Antonius saluted him as King and placed a laurelled
diadem on his head, Caesar replied that Jupiter alone was
king of Rome and sent the diadem to the Capitol : ^ but
this may have been a matter of policy. After his
assassination, the people v.'ere with difificulty restrained
from cremating his body in the temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus,^ while the authorities conferred upon him
the title of diviis}^ for which the less accurate but more

^Suet. Caes. 6. '^ Dio 43. 14. •^ lb. 43. 21.

•* lb. 43. 45. 5 lb. 44. 6, cp. Cic. Phil. 2. i lO.

®[Sen.] Oct. 500 f. gentium domitor, lovi | aequatus.

'Dio 44. 7.

'^ lb. 44. II, Suet. Caes. 79, Plut. vit. Caes. 61, a/ib.

^ Suet. Caes. 84, App. de bell. civ. 2. 148. ^"Dessau 73, 730, nlib.

3IO The European Sky -God.

complimentary deus was sometimes substituted.^ The
great comet (Halley's), which for seven nights after
Caesar's death ghttered in the sky,^ contributed not a
little to confirm the official apotheosis in the minds of the
people at large. Octavius set up a bronze statue of
Caesar with a star above his head in the temple of Venus.^
The temple of Divus Julius appears on a coin with a star
affixed to its pediment.^ Numismatic busts, bas-reliefs,
and statues were all distinguished by the same emblem,
till the luliuni sidus or Caesaris astrimi passed into a
poetic commonplace.^

Caesar had shown the way : Augustus, though with
some apparent hesitation, followed it. Since the role of
Jupiter had already been taken by Caesar, he took that
of Apollo. A statue of him under the guise of this god
was erected in the famous Library of the Palatine Apollo.^
Popular report said that he gave private banquets at which
a dozen diners appeared dressed as the twelve gods and
goddesses, the costume of Apollo being reserved for him.'^
Hence in time of famine people spoke of him as Apollo
Tortor, " Apollo the Torturer." ^ Augustus did more to
foster the cult of Apollo than any Roman before or after
him ; and it has been suggested ® that in so doing he

^ Dessau 72 Genio deivi luli parentis patriae, quern senatu^ populus-
que Romanus in deorum numerum rettulit, 6343 M. Salvio Q. f. Venusto
decurioni [bejnefic. dei Caesaris, Corp. inscrr. Lat. x. 3903, 5, Ditten-
berger Sylloge inscrr. Graec."^ 347 Vaiov ''\ovKi.ov ra'£o[i' vC\ov Kai<xapa ... tov
airb 'Apeus Kal ' AcppodelQrrji debv, Corp. inscrr. Graec. 2369, cp. Suet. Case.
88 in deorum numerum relatus est non ore modo decernentium sed et
persuasione volgi, Avid. Cass. 11. 6. haec (xc. dementia) Caesarem deum
fecit, and the passages from the poets cited by De-Vit Onoiiiasticon ii. 14
s.v. " Caesar deus."

^ Plut. vit. Caes. 69, Sen. quaestt. iiat. 7. 17. 2, alib.

^ Dio 45. 7, cp. Suet. Caes. 88. * Babelon Monn. de la R^p. rom. ii. 59.

•' Hor. od. I. 12. 47, Verg, eel. 9. 47, alib. See Beuriier op. cit. p. 9 f.

^ Serv. in Verg. eel. 4. 10, comm. Cruq. in Hor. epist. I. 13. 17, cp.
Corp. inscrr. Graec. add. 2903 f.

"Suet. Aui;. 70. ^ Id. ib. ''Roscher Lex. i. 448.

The European Sky -God. 311

was actuated by the desire to promote the worship of
Vediovis, a god commonly identified with Apollo ^ and
specially venerated by the gens Juha.^ But those who
had seen Jupiter himself in Caesar were prepared to find
the same god incarnate in his adopted son. Horace ^
speaks of Jove as thundering in heaven, of Augustus as
his visible vicegerent on earth. Virgil ^ does not know
whether Augustus will choose to be a land-god or a
sea-god : an Egyptian poet^ makes answer " He is both "
in the following extravagant effusion —

To Caesar lord of sea and lord of shore,
Zeus sprung from Zeus, the Father's freeborn Son,
Whom Europe and whom Asia own as king.
Star of all Hellas, risejt as Saviour Zeus.

After this one does not wonder that a bronze medallion
of Tiberius struck at Turiaso in Spain shows Augustus
with radiated head grasping a thunderbolt as though he
were Jupiter.^ A signed cornelian in the Orleans collection
is described by S. Reinach'^ as "Jupiter ou Auguste en
Jupiter." And a bronze from Herculaneum, now at
Naples,^ represents Augustus thunderbolt in hand. Shortly
before his death a statue of him was struck by lightning
and the word Caesar on its base lost the initial C : pious

^ Folk-lore xv. 421 n. 300. Possibly Virgil hints at such a desire in
georg. I. 36 f. nam te nee sperant Tartara regem, | nee tibi regnandi
veniat tarn dira cupido.

^ Dessau 2988 an ancient altar from Bovillae inscribed Vediovei Patrei
genteiles luliei. Vedi\ovei\ aara leege Albana dicata.

* Hor. od. 3. 5. I ff. * Verg. georg. i . 24 ff.

^ Corp. inscrr. Graec. 4923 (Philae) Katcrapt irovTOfiibovTi koI amipwi'
KpariofTL, I Zavl rif €k Zavos warpos 'EXei/^fpioj, | becwlna Ei)pa)7ras re Kal
'A<r^5os, dcTTpii} airda-as | 'EXXdSos, [6s~\ Sct;T[T)]p Zei)s a»'[e]'''e[i]X[e] fj.^ya's /c.r.X.,
cp. 4715 (Denderah) vir^p avroKparopos Kalaapos, deov viov, Atos ''E\€v0epiov,
'Ze^acTToO, K.T.X.

^Stevenson £>zcl. Rovi. Coins p. 399.

^ S. Reinach Pierres gravies p. 142, pi, 129, 23.

®S. Reinach Repertoire de la statuaire i. 190, 3. Cp. infra p. 317.

312 The E^iropean Sky -God.

folk concluded that he would live but C, i.e. a hundred,
days longer and then become an aesar, i.e. the Etruscan
term for a god.^ An eagle hovering round his head in
the Campus Martius was regarded by him as an omen;^
and when his body was burnt in the same Campus an
eagle was let loose from the pyre to carry his soul heaven-
wards,^ and an old praetor declared on oath that he had
seen the soul of Augustus rise into the sky> The great
sardonyx cameo of La Sainte Chapelle shows Augustus
v/ith a veil and rayed crown on his head, a sceptre in
his hand, upborne by a figure in Phrygian attire, perhaps
representing Ascanius lulus : enthroned below him is the
emperor Tiberius, identified with Jupiter by means of the
aegis spread upon his lap.^ On the yet finer cameo at
Vienna known as the " gemma Augustea " Augustus with
sceptre, eagle, etc., is enthroned as Jupiter, while a female
figure, probably Oecumene, the " World," holds an oak-
wreath above his head.^ Augustus' wife Livia, who long
survived him, is called on Greek coins " the goddess Livia"
or "Livia Juno"; "^ and Prudentius^ speaks of Juno the
wife of Jupiter and Livia as " the two Junos." But, since
Juno was sister as well as wife of Jupiter, the author of the
tragedy Octavia ^ addresses his heroine as " second Juno,
sister and spouse of Augustus."

Caligula translated the poetic fiction into fact, committed
incest with his sisters, and called himself Jupiter on the
strength of it.^*^ He assumed the title Optimus Maximus,

iSuet. Aug. 97. '^Id. ib.

^ Dio 56. 42. Cp. Folk-lo7-c xv. 389 ff.
^ Suet. Aug. 100, Dio 56. 46.

^ Furtwiingler Ant, Gefnni. ii. 269, pi. 60. ^ Id. ib. ii. 257, pi. 56.
5" Stevenson Diet. Rom. Coins p. 247 Q E A . A I B I A or A I B I A N . H P A N
^Prudent. Syminach. i. 292 f. duarum | lunonum.

^[Sen.] Octav. 224 ff. tu quoque terris altera luno | soror Augusti | con-
iunxque graves vince dolores.

^"Aur. Vict, de Caesar. 3. 9, epit. 3. 4 f., Dio 59. 26.

The European Sky -God. 3 1 3

as though he were himself the peer of Jupiter Capitolinus,
with whom he afifected to hold constant and private inter-
course. He had a famous Greek statue of Olympian
Zeus brought to Italy, intending to replace its head by a
head of himself.^ When the ship conveying it perished in
a thunderstorm, Caligula resoh^ed to have thunder of his
own. He had a bolt constructed, which could be launched
by artificial means,'^ and used to brandish his toy, calling
himself Jupiter and giving oracles from an elevated throne.^
He was also saluted as Jupiter Latiaris.* His downfall
was predicted by various prodigies. A statue of Jupiter
at Olympia, which he had meant to convey to Rome,
burst into a sudden laugh and scared away the workmen :
whereupon a certain Cassius came up and declared that
he had been warned by a dream to sacrifice a bull to
Jupiter. Caligula himself, the night before Cassius Chaerea
stabbed him, " dreamed that he stood in heaven before
the throne of Jupiter, and that, kicked by the toe of his
right foot, he was hurled down to earth." ^ Almost the
last word he spoke was when one of the conspirators
asked him for his watchword and he replied "Jupiter!' '^
Other emperors may be dismissed more shortly. A
cameo in the Marlborough cabinet shows Claudius as
Jupiter with thunderbolt, sceptre, and eagle all complete.^
L. Junius Silanus was done to death, if we may believe
Seneca,^ simply because he dubbed his sister Juno, and so
presumably might be regarded as a rival of the emperor.
Coins of Vespasian and Titus represent a throne with a
thunderbolt upon it and so hint at the same pretensions.^

1 Suet. Calig. 22. ^ Beuilier op. cit. p. 37.

^Dio. 59. 26. *Suet. Calig. 22.

5/3. 57. «/<5. 58.

''A. Furtwangler Die antiken Gemmen ii. 302, pi. 65, 48.

^Sen. apocoloc. 8. 2. Possibly Junius Silanus recalled the origin of his own
name : supra p. 303.

® Stevenson Diet. Rom. Coins p. 400.

314 The European Sky -God.

Domitian was constantly called Jupiter by the poets of the
day,^ sometimes by way of variation Tonans or " the
Thunderer."- On one of his first-brasses we see Jupiter
Custos seated with a thunderbolt and a spear ; on another,
Domitian himself holding the thunderbolt in his right
hand, the spear in his left, while he is crowned by Victory
from behind.^ A dedication to Hadrian as lovi Olyinpio
is extant.'i It was found at Parium in Mysia, and should
be compared with various Greek inscriptions, which give
him the titles Zeiis and Olympios probably because in
the year 128/129 ^-D- ^^ completed the magnificent temple
of Zeus Olympios at Athens.^ A silver medallion of the
Roman province Asia, struck about the same time, shows
him standing in his character of Zeus with reversed spear,
shield and eagle.^ Oppian ^ speaks of Septimius Severus
as "the Ausonian Zeus." A bronze coin of Claudius
Gothicus, who in 269 A.D. routed an immense horde of
Goths, represents the emperor as Jupiter holding a
thunderbolt and a reversed spear with the inscription
lovi Victoria Another bronze coin struck at Heraclea
in Thrace is inscribed lovi Conservatori, and shows either
Jupiter, or more probably Licinius as Jupiter, receiving a
wreath from a small figure of Victory on an orb which
he holds in his right hand, while his left hand has a
sceptre, and on either side of him are placed an eagle
with a wreath in its beak and a captive in bonds.^ But of
all these later emperors he who made the most successful

^ Stat. silv. I. 6. 27, Mart, epigr. 9. 28. 10, 9. 86. 8, 14. I. 2, cp. Dionys.
per. 210 o\)% Albs ovk a\4yovTas airJiKfaev Avcrovls alxfJ-V-
* Mart, epzgr. 6. lo. 9 with Friedlander's n.
^ Stevenson DzcL Rotn. Coins p. 400. ^ Dessau 320.

^P. von Rohden in Pauly-Wissowa i. 500, 509.

® Muller-Wieseler- Wernicke Antike Detikm'dler Zeus p. 98, pi. 9, 28.
^ 0pp. cyit. 3.

"Miiller-Wieseler-Wernicke op. cit. Zeus p. 97, pi. 9, 25.
^ Id. ib. Zeus p. 94, pi. 9, 17.

The Europea7i Sky -God. 315

bid for the honours of Jupiter was Diocletian. He adopted
the name loviiis, which, to judge from contemporary-
literature and inscriptions, was popularly applied to him
as the representative of Jove.^ "He specially adored this
divinity," says Duruy,- " whose name was the beginning
of his own [sc. Z^zV'-cIetianus] ; he placed the figure of
Jupiter upon his coins; ... he built him a temple in
the palace of Salona, and made it his study to appear
in public ceremonies with the calm majesty of the father
of gods and men."

I need not cite further details. It must be already clear
that from Julius Caesar onwards the emperors of Rome
were constantly treated as Jupiter incarnate. One notice-
able symbol of their godhead was the oak-wreath. Coins
of the gens Julia ^ show the head of Pietas crowned with
oak ; and Pietas was equivalent to Julius Caesar, as we see
from a gold coin of the same gens, which portrays a
veiled head of Pietas with the features of Caesar.^ Over
the door of Augustus and his successors an oak-wreath
was regularly suspended by decree of the Senate.^ And
the general impression produced on the public by the
sight of the emperor's palace may be gathered from
Ovid's^ couplet :

" This is the kotise of Jupiter," quoth I,
Taking my cue from yonder wreath of oak.

There was, then, much excuse for pagan Euhemerists
like Ennius '' and for Christian apologists like Tertullian,^
who, viewing such practices from the vantage-ground of

^Aur. Vict, de Caesar. 39. 18, Mamertin. paneg. in Maximian. 13. 3,
Eumen. /ra restaur, schol. 10. 2, Claud, de bell. Gild. 418 f., Lact. de mart,
persecut. 52 ; Dessau 621, 634, 658 f., 661, 665. See farther Duruy History
of Kome vi. 539, where a bronze medaUion inscribed lovio Diocletiatio Aug.
is figured.

^V. Duruy loc. cit. ^Babelon Monn. de la Rep. rom. ii. 17.

* lb. p. 16. ^ Class. Rev. xviii. 372.

«Ov. trist. 3. I. 35 f. 'Bahrens Frag. poet. Rom. p. 126 ff.

^Tert. apol. 10 etiam lovem ostendemus tarn hominem quam ex homine.

3i6 The European Sky -God.

philosophy or religion, concluded that Jupiter was tain
homincm guam ex homine, "a man and the son of
a man."

Now the early Greek king, in his office as human Zeus,
controlled the sun, the rain, and the crops. The same
is true of his Italian counterpart. Every year on the 2ist
of April the Romans celebrated the festival of the Parilia,^
at which they leaped over bonfires probably as a charm to
procure sunshine.^ The day was regarded as the birthday
of Rome itself, and it was said that Romulus had offered
the original sacrifice and arranged the details of the
ritual.^ Mr. VVarde Fowler'^ infers that the sacrificing
priest at the urban Parilia was the rex sacronim, a religious
representative of the old Roman king. Certainly it was
he who on the kalends of each month, as soon as the new
moon was observed in the sky, offered a sacrifice to Juno
and summoned the people to the Curia Calabra adjoining
the hut of Romulus on the Capitol in order to announce to
them when the nones would fall due.^ He thus appears
to have furnished the people with both sunshine and
moonshine. The ruins of his house, the Regia, show in
the centre of the main apartment a circular base of grey
tufa,^ which may have been the royal hearth. And close
to the Regia stood the temple of Vesta, where the Vestal
virgins watched their undying flame. The perpetual fire
thus maintained under the eye of the king was, if I am
right,^ simply a means of keeping up the sun's heat by
mimetic magic. The human Jupiter was responsible for
the sunlight. When Romulus vanished, the sun was

^ W. Warde Fowler The Roman Festivals p. 79 ff.
*W. Mannhardt Wald- und FeldkuUe -p- 517.

^Dionys. atU. Horn. i. 88. *W. Warde Fowler op. cit. p. S3, n. i.

^Macrob. Sat. i. 15. 9 ff.

*• E. Burton-Brown Recent Excavs. in the Roman Forum p. 53 with pis.
facing pp. 53 and 56, Ch. Hiilsen Das Forum Rojnanum p. 154, fig. 76.
"See Folk- Lore xv. 30S ff., Class. Rev. xviii. 366.

The European Sky -God. 317

darkened ; ^ and, among the portents that accompanied
the death of JuHus Caesar, Plutarch"' mentions "the
dimness of the sun, whose orb rose pale and dull
throughout the whole of that year and sent down but a
weak and feeble heat." The rayed crown worn by
Augustus and Claudius after death, by Nero and his
successors during their lifetime, was the visible emblem of
the sun-god, and was certainly borrowed from representa-
tions of that deity.^ Before the birth of Augustus his
father Octavius dreamt that a sunbeam issued from the
womb of his mother Atia. At a later date he dreamt
again that he saw his son in a laurelled chariot drawn
by twelve white horses : he was of superhuman size and
adorned with a rayed crown, a thunderbolt, a sceptre, and
the garments of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. One night
the infant Augustus vanished, and next day was found
on the top of a high tower over against the sunrise.*
Commodus too aped the sun-god. " His hair," says
Herodian,^ "was by nature yellow and curly, so that
whenever he walked in the sunlight there flashed from
it a gleam as of fire, and some supposed that he was
powdered with gold dust on his way, while others regarded
him as a god, affirming that a heavenly light shone about
his head." A small bronze coin of Carus shows face to
face the radiate head of the emperor and the radiate head
of the sun-god.^ This conception of the emperor as a
solar power may account for the fact that the Antonines
and their successors used to have perpetual fire carried
in front of them wherever they went.^

^Cic. de rep. i. 25, Dionys. ant. Rom. 2. 56, Plot. vit. Cam. i},, de fort.
Rom. 8, alib.

'^Plut. vit. Caes. 69, cp. Verg. georg. i. 466 ft"., Tib. 2. 5. 75 f., Ov. 7net.
15. 785 f.

^ Beurlier Le culte rendu aux evipereiirs roinains p. 48 ff.

*Suet. vit. Aug. 94. ■'^ Herod, i. 18. ®Duruy I/ist. 0/ Rome vi. 525.

■'Beurlier op. cit. p. 50 f., Preller -Jordan Rom. Myth. ii. 441 f.

3i8 The European Sky -God.

The early Italian king was also a rain-maker. Alladius
made his mock-thunderstorms till he was destroyed by a
real one.^ Aeneas, according to one authority,"^ disappeared
in a thunderstorm, as did Romulus after him.^ Numa
learnt from Jupiter Elicius how to control thunderstorms :
Tullus Hostilius, who had imperfectly mastered Numa's
formulae, attempted to do the same, but was thunderstruck
himself by Jupiter."^ The pretensions of later Romans to
wield the thunderbolt we have already considered.

The king, who provided the weather, was presumably
responsible for the crops. His palace, the Regia, con-
tained a shrine of Ops,'' an ancient goddess of fertility ;
and modern excavations have brought to light a large silo
or corn-pit in the king's courtyard.*^ Possibly the corn-
distributions of which we hear so much in republican and
imperial tim^es had their origin in a long-standing right of
the people to be fed by their king.

In Italy, as in Greece,'' the judicial and military duties
of the king were closely bound up with his position as
representative of the sky-god. The king, like Jupiter, was
allowed to ride in a chariot within the walls of Rome; and
from the chariot he appears to have pronounced his judg-
ments. A denarius of the gens Vettia shows a man
holding a sceptre, who stands in a two-horse chariot : he is
inscribed IVDEX, the "judge," and behind him is placed
a large ear of corn. Cavedoni and Mommsen took this
personage to be king Numa engaged in distributing corn-
fields : Babelon sees in him Sp. Vettius, who was interrex
or temporary king after the death of Romulus.^ In any
case it is probable that he delivered his verdicts from a
chariot as the vice-gerent of Jupiter. The sella ainilis

^ Su/>7-a p. 288. ^[Aur. Vict.] o/'i£^. £-ent. Rom. 14. 2.

^Liv. I. 16. I, alib. ^ Supra p. 269.

^Varro de ling. Lat. 6. 21, cp. Fest. p. 214 Lind.
^E. Burton-Brown, op. cit. p. 57 f. '' Folk- Lore xv. 370 ff.

^ Babelon, Alonn. de la r^p. ram. ii. 531 f.

The European Sky -God. 319

or " chariot seat," on which Roman magistrates of a later
date sat as judges, was a survival of this primitive
usage.^

No real distinction can be drawn between the king's
sceptre and the standard of the legion : each was a staff
surmounted by an eagle - ; and the standard was wor-
shipped by the soldiery ^ because, like the sceptre,* it
symbolised Jupiter — a fact that the ancients had not
forgotten.^ Lest its connection with the oak of the sky-
god ^ should be obscured, they sometimes placed an oak-
leaf in the eagle's beak,^ or a golden thunderbolt in its
talons.^ The thunderbolt on the shields of the legionaries
and on the lead bullets of the slingers^ was likewise a
token that the whole fighting force was under the com-
mand and protection of Jupiter. The king or general, if
successful in battle, erected on the spot a trophy, i.e. an

^ Cp. Gell. 3. iS. 3 f., Paul. exc. Fest. s.v. "currules" p. 38 Lind., Isid.
on'gg. 20. II. II.

■•^Such was the sceptre of Romulus (Lyd. de viag. i. 7) and the last three
kings of Rome (Dionys. ant. Rom. 3. 61 f.). For the form of the legionary
eagles see Smith- Wayte-Marindin Diet. Ant. ii. 674 f.

^The eagle was kept in a portable shrine (Die 40. 18, cp. Cic. Cat. i. 24),
where it received actual worship (Herod. 4. 4. 5, Plin. nat. hist. 13. 23), being
regarded as the god of the legion (Liv. 26. 48. 12, Tac. a«w. i. 39. 7, 2. 17.
2, hist. 3. 10. 7, Val. Max. 6. I. 11, Dionys. ant. Rom. 6. 45, Co)-p. inscrr.
Lat. iii. 7591).

* Supra p. 302. ^Lact. div. inst. i. 11, Isid. origg. 18. 3. 2.

^See Folk-Lore \\. 371 f. 'Smith-Wayte-Marindin Diet. Atit. ii. 675.

**Dio 43. 35, Jul. Obseq. 126; cp. the relief at Verona figured by A. von
Domaszewski Die Fahnen iiii rdmischen Heere, 1885 fig. 4.

A remarkable analogy to the early Roman eagle is afforded by the later
labariim, i.e. the military standard adorned with the Constantinian monogram.
There can be little doubt that this monogram was an adaptation of an older solar
symbol, and that it was as acceptable to the Mithraic worshippers as to
the Christians (W. Lowrie Christian Art and Archaeology p. 238 ff. ). It
is at least possible that the much-disputed word labarutn should be connected
with Xd^pvs, the "double-axe," which symbolised the sky-god in the Aegean
area from a very remote past (E. Conybeare Roman Britain p. 228 n. 2).

^ Pauly-Wissowa ii. 317.

320 The European Sky -God.

oak-trunk covered with votive armour/ and on his return
to Rome triumphed in the character of the oak-Jupiter.^
A difficulty here occurs. For the trophy, which the
Greeks describe as " an image of Zeus," ^ was by the
Romans connected with Mars rather than with Jupiter ; *
and the sacred spear kept in the Regia was deemed " an
image of Mars " and addressed as " Mars." ^ This diffi-
culty, however, is only apparent. I have elsewhere^
maintained that Mars was but a specialised form of
Jupiter. His name Mars or Ma-vors means, according to
Corssen, Bezzenberger, and Solmsen,^ the " Battle-turner,"
so that he would correspond in function to the Greek Zeus
Tropaios'^ or the Oscan Jupiter Versor? As Jupiter Stator
was the god who " stayed " the Romans from flight,^^ so
Jupiter Mavors may have been the god who "routed"
their foes. The evolution of Mavors as a separate deity
can be precisely paralleled by that of Arcs, a Thracian
development of Zeus ArciosP- Some of the most
important cult-titles of Mars were born by Jupiter also.
Thus throughout the Celtic area Mars is surnamed
Lo7icetijts or Le?/cetms ; ^^ and we have already seen that
Loucetius or Lucetius was an ancient Italian synonym of
Jupiter.'^ Again, Mars was identified with Qiiiriniis}^ the
"oak "-god ; and Jupiter himself was sometimes called

^Verg. Aen. ii. 5 ff. -Supra p. 307.

^Folk-Lore xv. 373 n. 25.

*Verg. Aeti. 11. 5 ft"., Claud, in Rufin. i. 339, cp. Babelon Monn. de la rep.
rom. i. 509, ii. 512.

^Varro ap. Clem. Alex, protr. 4. 46, Arnob. 6. II, Plut. vit. Rom. 29,
Serv. in Verg. Aen. 8. 3.

® Class. Rev. xviii. 372 f. and 375.

'See Solmsen Stud. 2. lat. LaiUgesch. p. 77 f. ^Preller- Robert p. 140.

^Roscher Lex. ii. 642. 10/^. 682 ff.

" See Preller-Robert pp. 140 f., 335, P. Gardner in Num. Chron. xx. 50.

^^ Roscher Lex. ii. 1982 f. ^^ Supra p. 261 f.

"According to Serv. in Verg. Aen. i. 292, 6. 860, Myth. Vat. 3. 11. 10,
Quirinus was strictly the peaceful form of Mars.

The European Sky- God. 321

Quirinus} as Janus had been before him.^ The title
/«/(??' also was common to Mars^ with Jupiter. The wood-
pecker, associated with Zeus on Greek soil* and with
Jupiter in Italy/ was more commonly regarded as the
bird of Mars.*^

These are among the reasons which have led me to
suppose that Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, the great triad
of gods standing at the head of Roman religion and
served by the " major priests " {Jiamines niaiores), were
but differentiated forms of one and the same deity —
the sky-god who was at once the " Bright-father," the
" Battle-turner," and the " Oak "-god. When the Salii
are described as being " under the protection of Jupiter
Mars Quirinus " ; '' when Decius devotes himself to death
with a solemn prayer commencing "Janus, Jupiter, Mars
pater, Quirinus"^; when Numa ordains that the first
spolia opima should be presented to Jupiter Feretrius,
the second to Mars, the third to Quirinus,^ — we seem to
witness successive stages in the evolution of this divine
triad.

The king who personated the warlike oak-Jupiter must
needs be a great warrior. Some of the ancients, who saw
a little way but not very far into their own past, held
that Romulus was called Quirinus because he had been
presented with a quiris or oaken spear on account of his
valour in war.^" The custom of thus rewarding martial
prowess deserves more attention than it has received. It
was, I believe, no mere decoration like those of modern
times, but rather the bestowing of the sceptre in which
the godhead was believed to reside : the man who so

'^ Supra p. 281 n. 9. "^ lb. n. 8. ^ Preller-Jordan, i. 335.

* Folk- Lore xv. 387 n. ^S, Class. Rev. xvii. 412, xviii. So f., 83 f.

5 In the myth ot Picus and Jupiter Elicius [Class. Kev. xvii. 270).

® Class. Rev. xviii. 375. '^Serv. in Verg. Aen. 8. 663.

« Liv. 8. 9. 6. 9 Serv. hi Verg. Aeu. 6. 860, Plut. vit. Marcell. 8.

^" Plut. vit. Rom. 29.

32 2 The European Sky-God.

distinguished himself in battle as to earn the oaken spear
thereby became king- and kept his spear in the Regia
as representative of the war-god. In favour of this surmise
is the fact that the spear awarded for valour was called
hasta piwa and had no head to it. As represented on
coins of the gens Arria it draws from M. Beurlier^ the
exclamation : " It is more like a sceptre than a weapon."
Virgil with equal art and lore makes Silvius, the " wood-
land " king, son of Ascanius lulus, the "oak-Jupiter," lean
on a headless spear.-

Now in dealing with the Greeks I took occasion to
illustrate Dr. Frazer's thesis that the divine king must
be put to death as soon as his physical strength decays.^
The best Italian example is of course that upon which Dr.
Frazer himself has laid stress, the case of the king of Nemi,
who reigned as a strong man armed till a stronger than he
came and slew him. But it may not be amiss to point
out that there are other traces of the same custom to
be detected here and there in Latin literature. In the
Casina of Plautus Olympio,^ a country slave, thus accosts
his master, Lysidamus :

01. Your love-intrigue means hate galore for me.

Your wife's my foe, your son's my foe, your friends

Are all my foes.
Lys. What difference does that make ?

So long as you've one Jupiter here to help you,

Just snap your fingers at the smaller gods.
01. No, no, that's talk, mere talk. Why, don't you know

That human Jupiters suffer sudden death i

And, pray, if you my Jupiter should die.

And so your kingdom pass to the lesser gods.

Who'll help my back then or my head or legs ?

The country slave here treats it as a matter of common
knowledge " that human Jupiters come suddenly to a bad
end " {repente ut emoriajitiir Jmmani loves) and leave their

^ Daremberg-Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 41. ^Verg. Aeii. 6. 760.

'^Folk-Lore xv. 376 ff. ^ Plaut. Cas. 328 ff.

The Etiropean Sky-God, 323

" kingdom " {regjtwii) to others. The passage gains
immensely in point if, as I cannot but think probable, it
refers to the slave who reigned as human Jupiter at Nemi
or to others of his class. What the bad end was to
which they came, we do not exactly know ; but we should
gather from analogy that they were beheaded and their
heads hanged on the sacred oak.^ The decapitation of a
would-be immortal was a subject not unsuited to ancient
satire ; and we have it on the authority of Tertullian that
"Varro, the Roman Cynic, introduces scores of Joves
or Jupiters minus their heads " and that Roman audiences
laughed aloud when in the course of a mime " the last
will and testament of a defunct Jupiter was read." ^
Varro's notion of a Jupiter minus his head may serve
to explain a somewhat difficult passage in Seneca's
brilliant satire TJie P^impkinification of the divine Claudius?
The scene is laid in heaven, and the gods are debating
what sort of divinity shall be conferred upon Claudius, who
has just issued a public order for the beheading of Febris,
and demanded apotheosis for himself One of them,
apparently Jupiter, says : " He can't be the Epicurean god
who 'troubleth no man and is himself untroubled of any.'
The Stoic god, then ? But how can he be ' rotund,' as
Varro puts it, * minus his head, minus his tail ' 1 Ah, I see,

1 See Class. Rev. xvii. 269 ff. The heads of unsuccessful combatants were
hanged on the oak of king Phorbas (Philostr. imagg. 2. 19. 2) and decorated
the palaces of king Sitho (Nonn. Dion. 48. 224 f. ) and king Oenomaus
(Apollod. epit. 2. 5, Philostr. jun. imagg. 9. 3), both of whom were probably
oak-kings. On Italian soil we have the myth of the " heads and a man"
demanded from the Pelasgians by the oak-Zeus of Dodona (Dionys. ant. Rom.
I. 19), and of the "heads" required from king Numa in the oak-wood by
Jupiter Elicius (Plut. vit. Ntim. 15, cp. Class. Rev. xvii. 270, xviii. 369).
The practice of hanging human faces (oscilla) on sacred trees points in
the same direction. A Lucanian vase shows one suspended from a tree,
beneath which two men with swords are engaged in a mortal combat (S.
Reinach R^J>. des vases peints i. 486).

^Tert. apol. 14, 15.

^Sen. apocoloc. 8. i f, I follow the latest text, that of Bucheler ed. 4. 1904.

324 The European Sky -God.

there is something of the Stoic god about him : he has
neither a heart nor a head. Assuredly, if he had craved
this boon (of divinity) from Saturn, whose festive month
he kept going the whole year round, our Saturnalian
prince, he wouldn't have got it ; and he certainly shall not
from Jupiter, whom to the best of his ability he condemned
on a charge of incest." Now Dr. Frazer has shown that
originally the king of the Saturnalia, after personating
Saturn for a month, was put to death in this capacity, and
that the Christian soldier Dasius, who refused to play the
part of the heathen god, was actually beheaded at Duros-
tolum as late as 303 A.D.^ The foregoing extract from
Seneca not only contains a manifest allusion (the one in
Latin literature) to the slaying of the Saturnalian king,
but also describes the enfeebled Claudius' pretensions
to be Jupiter" with a sly reference to Varro's "Jupiters
minus their heads," and so raises a presumption that
the human Jupiter was normally beheaded in his
dotage.

Doubtless there were other methods of superannuating
the effete king. Livy,^ after giving the usual tradition
that Romulus disappeared in a thunderstorm, mentions the
" very obscure tale " that he was torn to pieces by the
hands of the fathers. Plutarch* too, though persuaded
that Romulus was caught up to heaven, records the belief
that the senators had fallen upon him in the temple of
Vulcan and divided his body between them, every man
carrying away a portion of it in his robe. Dionysius^
says much the same, though he makes the senate-house
the scene of the murder, and adds that those who carried
away the king's flesh in their garments buried every man
his fragment in the earth. This singular variant recalls

1 Frazer Golden Bough ^ iii. 140 fif. "^ Supra p. 313.

^Liv. I. 16. 4. ^Y\\xX..vit. Rom. 27.

5 Dionys. ant. Rom. 2. 56.

The European Sky-God. 325

the myth of Pelops, who according to Pindar^ was caught
up to heaven, but according to the common version was
cut to pieces and boiled as food for the gods. In such
cases it is, of course, the crude and ugly tale that is
the better founded ; and I sadly fear that the story of
Romulus being rapt away in a thunderstorm was a pious
fiction designed to conceal a far more horrible fate. Two
other early kings, Aeneas and Latinus, vanished in like
manner ; and it is highly significant that each of them was
identified after his death with Jupiter.^ In the case of
Aeneas, side by side with the euphemistic statement that
he had been translated heavenwards in a thunderstorm,
there was a substantial tradition that he had been drowned
in the river Numicius, on whose banks he was offering
a sacrifice.^ Very possibly the sacrifice in question was
the sacrifice of himself. Again, Titus Tatius was said to
have gone with Romulus to Lavinium, in order to attend a
certain sacrifice incumbent upon the kings, and there to
have been set upon by the comrades and relatives of some
murdered Laviniate envoys and slain by them " upon the
altar with the sacrificial knives and spits."*

It would seem, then, that the Italians, no less than the
Greeks, safeguarded the physical competence of their

^ Find. 01. I. 38 ff. Pelias too was cut to pieces and boiled by his daughters,
who had been told by Medea that they ?night thus restore to their father his
youthful vigour (Roscher Lex. iii. 1848 ff. ) — a circumstance which throws a
flood of light on the motive of all these ritual murders and well accords with
the theory propounded by Dr. Frazer ( Golden Bough - ii. 5 f. ).

^ Supra p. 286.

^Tib. 2. 5. 43 f., Serv. in Verg. Aen. i. 259, 4. 620, 7. 150, Dionys. ant.
Rom. I. 64. [Aur. Vict.] orig. gent. Rom. 14. 3 f. adds that he was after-
wards seen in full armour on the river-bank and therefore believed to have
become immortal.

^Dionys. ant. Kom. 2. 52. Dr. Frazer kindly drew my attention to this
passage ; and further suggests that the death of Metius Fuffetius, the dictator
of Alba, who at the bidding of TuUus Hostilius was torn asunder by a couple
of two-horse chariots {ib. 3. 30), bears some resemblance to the death of
Hippolytus-Virbius, who was "furiis direptus equorum" {Ov.fast. 3. 265).

326 The European Sky -God.

human Jupiters by putting them to death on the approach
of old age. This custom furnishes a clue to the curious
ritual of the argei at Rome.^ On May 15 every year
bundles of rushes resembling men bound hand and foot
were taken down to the old Sublician Bridge by the
pontiffs and praetors, and were thence cast into the river
by the Vestal virgins. Tradition explained the rite by
saying that old men, sixty years of age, used to be flung
from the bridge as a sacrifice — witness the proverb
sexagenaries de ponte — though authorities differed as to
the god thereby propitiated : some thought Saturn,- some
Dis Pater.^ Now one of the most remarkable features
of the occasion is that the flaniinica Dialis, or priestess
of Jupiter, who usually wore bridal attire, had to be
present with dishevelled hair and signs of mourning.*
But, as Mr. Warde Fowler points out, no mention is
made of the flanien, her husband — a significant omission !
I conclude that the sexagc7tarius originally thrown from
the bridge^ was the superannuated flame7i Dialis, who
during the years of his vigour and maturity had been
a worthy representative of Jupiter, but on reaching the
age of sixty must be done to death lest by his bodily
decline he should imperil the divine potency resident in
him. Like Aeneas he must be drowned in the river before
reaching senility.^ Indeed, it is not improbable that the
office o'i fianien Dialis was instituted precisely in order that
the said flamen might take upon himself the numerous
taboos and unpleasant restrictions^ (death by drowning

^ See Warde Fowler Rommi Festivals p. 1 1 1 ff.

'^0\.fast. 5. 627, though he ascribes the institution of the rite to "oracular
Jupiter" [ib. 626); Dionys. ant. Rom. i. 38.

^Fest. s.v. "sexagenaries" p. 259 Lind.

*Gell. 10. 15, Plut. qitacstt. Rom. 86.

^ Manilius ap. Fest. loc. cit. speaks of one, Ovid loc. cit. of two, Dionysius
loc. cit. of thirty.

^See further Class. Rev. xvii. 269 n. 2. "' Frazer Golden Bough ^ i. 241 f.

The European Sky -God. 327

included), which would otherwise have fallen to the king
as Jupiter incarnate. It is to be noted that Romulus and
Titus Tatius are the only Roman kings of whose sacri-
ficial death there is any evidence ; and that the first
appointment of a jiavien Dialis is commonly ascribed to
their immediate successor Numa, who provided that he
should wear magnificent apparel and sit on the royal seat.^
He was thus an obvious substitute for the king himself,
and at a banquet none save the rex sacrorum, or priestly
king, might take precedence of him."

Romulus and Titus Tatius stand for the old regime
which was mitigated and modified by degrees.^ At first
the king seems to have been liable to an attack at any
moment: the king at Nemi, for example, went about with
a drawn sword in his hand and the thought of death always
before him. Next, such murderous assaults were limited to
one day in the year. It is probable that the Roman king
ruled as it were .on sufierance from year to year, and that
once in the twelvemonth he had to prove his powers
undiminished by defending himself or being prepared to
defend himself against a personal assailant. This can be
inferred with much likelihood from a later usage. Once a
year the Vestal virgins came to the rex sacrormn and
addressed him in words of solemn significance : " Art thou
watching, king.-* Watch!""* Lastly, the fitness of the
king to reign was yet more carefully ensured, when his
tenure of office was reduced to a single year^ and his
person duplicated by the creation of a second consul. If
in times of emergency the consuls were superseded and the

^ Liv. I. 20. 2, Dionys. ant. Rom. 2. 64.

-Gell. 10. 15. 21, Fest. s.v. "ordo" p. 189 Lind.

^Cp. Folk-Lore xw. 392 ff. '*Serv. in. Verg. Aen. 10. 228.

°The annual expulsion of Mamurius Veturius, the " Old Mars," who on the
day before the Ides of March was clad in skins, beaten with rods, and turned
out of Rome (Frazer Golden Bough ^ iii. 122 f.), will — if I am right in regard-
ing Mars as a form of Jupiter {supra p. 320 f.) — be a case in point.

328 The European Sky -God.

monarchy restored to the hands of a dictator/ that magis-
trate was still further limited to a rule of six months only.^
The principle on which one Roman king succeeded to
another has long been a moot question. "The election,"
says Mr. A. H. Greenidge,^ "was regarded as free in a far
wider sense than the election of the higher magistrates at
Rome; since, if we are to trust the traditional accounts,
Roman citizenship was not a necessary qualification for
the monarchy. Thus the non-burgess Numa, the foreigner
Tarquin, the slave's son Servius, are all represented as
having been elected kings of Rome." There is, indeed,
only one principle wide enough to cover these very diverse
claimants, viz. that of physical superiority. And it was
precisely on that principle that king succeeded to king at
Nemi : as Ovid puts it —

regna tenent fortes manibus pedibusque fugaces.*
The strong of hand, the fleet of foot the7-e reign.

Can the same custom be traced at Rome? On July 5
every year the Romans celebrated the old and obscure
festival called the Poplifugia. It must have been at one
time a festival of great importance, since, as Mr. Warde
Fowler^ points out, no other festival falling before the
Nones of the month is marked in large capitals on the
Roman calendars. Two stories were told to account for
the name. One of these connected it with the flight of the
Roman army from the men of Fidenae after the retirement
of the Gauls from Rome ; but this Mr. Fowler at once
dismisses on the ground that the Poplifugia must have
been far older than 390 B.C. There remains the other
explanation, which interprets the festival as a memorial
of the flight of the people after the disappearance of

^The first dictator, according to Mommsen, was Manius Valerius (Liv. 2.
l8. 6), who bore a doubly well-omened name {supra pp. 293, 303).
2 Smith-Wayte-Marindin iJ/cA Ant. i. 632.

^ lb. ii. 551. ^Ow.fast. 3. 271.

^ Warde Fowler Roman Festivals p. 174.

The European Sky -God. 329

Romulus.^ Romulus disappeared, according to tradition,^
on July 7 ; but this is not an insuperable barrier to con-
necting the Poplifugia with his death, since festivals
separated by an interval of one day are often related
to each other.^ Indeed, Macrobius and Plutarch ^ identify
the Poplifugia with July 7. That the rites of the two
days were not unconnected appears also from the fact that
July 5 was a festival of Jupiter, July 7 a festival of Juno.
Note too that the former festival was associated with the
fate of Romulus at the Caprae palus in the Campus
Martins,^ while the latter festival included a sacrifice to
Juno Caprotina at the same Caprae pabis^ With regard
to the rites themselves, we are told by Varro that on
July 5 there were "certain traces of a flight" {aliquot
vestigia fugae) ; and, if we may venture with Merkel to
identify the Poplifugia with the Fugalia, it was a time
of much license.'^ That certainly was the character of
July 7, when the handmaids of Rome wore their
mistresses' robes, jibed at the passers-by, had a free
fight among themselves with fisticuffs and stones, and
sat down to a banquet under the boughs of a fig-tree,
while the mob in general thronged forth from the city-
gates with shouts of " Gaius," " Marcus," " Lucius," etc.
Some took all this to be a mimic flight or rout ; others,
a sign of energy and haste.^ On the whole, it seems pro-
bable that the proceedings of both days were a survival of
the primitive mode of electing the Roman king. The
people had a foot-race {Poplifugia) to determine who was

^ Plut. vit. Rom. 29, Dionys. ant. Rom. z. 56.
^Cic. de rep. I. 16, Plut. vit. Rom. 27.

^ Warde Fowler Roman Festivals p. 1 74 quoting Mommsen in Corp. inscrr.
Lat. i. (Fasti) 321 (on July 7).

*Macrob. Sat. 3. 2. 14, Plut. vit. Rom. 29, vit. Cam. 33.

° Plut. vit. Rom. 27.

®Varr. de ling. Lat. 6. 18, Macrob. Sat. i. 11. 36, Plut. vit. Bom. 29.

^ Aug. de civ. Dei 2. 6. » Plut. vit. Rom. 29, vit. Cam. 33.

330 The European Sky-God.

most competent from a physical point of view, and subse-
quently made their choice by acclamation, greeting this or
that favourite with cries of " Gaius," " Marcus," etc. The
simultaneous strife of the women may have been to select
a fitting partner for the king.

It is impossible to discuss the Poplifugia without also
considering the Regifugium, another ancient festival cele-
brated yearly at Rome on February 24. It was popularly
supposed to commemorate the expulsion of the Tarquins ; ^
but a mutilated gloss in Festus rejects this explanation,
and refers to " a sacrifice in [the Comitium] performed
by [the king] and the Salii on [February] 24." ^ Plutarch^
further states : " There is a certain ancestral sacrifice in the
Forum at the Comitium, as it is called, which the king
offers, and having offered flees with all haste from the
Forum." Plutarch, however, need not be alluding to the
Regifiigimn of February 24 ; for there are two other days
in the year, viz. March 24 and May 24, which in the stone
calendars are marked O.R.C.F. These letters probably
denote, as Varro* says, qitando rex comitiavit fas, or
' business may be transacted when the king has been
to the Comitium." But Varro goes on to say that on
such days the priestly king sacrificed at the Comitium.
And a note appended to March 24 in the Praenestine
calendar^ runs: "Most persons wrongly hold that this
day is described as O.R.C.F. because on it the king fled
from the Comitium. But Tarquin did not depart from
the Comitium, and the same rites take place in another
month also." It is, then, highly probable that on February
24, and quite possible that on March 24 and May 24, the

^Os.fast. 2. 685 ff., Paul. exc. Fest. p. 137 Lind.
^ See Warde Fowler Roman Festivals p. 327 ff.
^ Plut. quaestt. Rom. 63.

^Varr. de ling. Lat. 6. 31, adopting Hirschfeld's conjecture " litat ad
comitium" for the meaningless "dicat ad comitium" of the MSS.
s Orelli ii. 386 and 409 f.

The European Sky -God. 331

rex sacrorinn after performing a sacrifice in the Comitium
had to make his escape at full speed. I incline to accept
Dr. Frazer's^ conjecture "that he was originally one of
those divine kings who are either put to death after a
fixed period or allowed to prove by the strong hand or
the fleet foot that their divinity is vigorous and unim-
paired." - If on the same day of February, March, and
May he was expected to run his race, it is possible that
in early times his probation was a monthly affair. The
Etruscans, we know, were even more solicitous about the
health of their king, who likewise personated the sky-god^;
for, says Macrobius,^ " the Etruscans observed several
Nones, inasmuch as every ninth day they used to bid
their king all hail and to consult about their own
business." The same principle perhaps underlies the
Roman system of Nones and Nundinae. On the Nones,
according to Varro,^ " the folk used to come into town
from the country to their king " ; and he adds that a trace
of the gathering still exists in the sacra Nonalia, when
the priestly king proclaims to the people on the Arx the
chief festivals of the month. No doubt these gfatherines
of country-folk occasioned the regular Nimdinae or
market-days of Rome. But their origin was religious
rather than secular : Granius Licinianus declared that
all Nundinae were festivals of Jupiter, because on them
the flaminica in the old Palace sacrificed a ram to that
deity.*^ Servius Tullius was said to have been born on
the Nones ; but, since the month was uncertain, all Nones
alike were regarded as his birthday, and celebrated by

^ Frazer Golden Bough ^ ii. 67.

" [May not the flight of the king from the altar have been due to the need of
escaping before the descent of the deity to partake of the sacrifice ? The idea
that it would be dangerous to see the face of a supernatural being is widely-
spread, and in the case of a Lightning-god such a dread would be mere
common-sense. — Ed.]

^ C/ass. Rev. xviii. 361 f. * Macrob. Sat. i. 15. 13.

''Varr. de ling. Lat. 6. 28. ^Uly^croh. Sat. i. 16. 30.

332 The Etcropean Sky -God.

throngs of people.^ After the kings had been driven out
there was a danger lest these crowds should demand a
fresh king on one of the Nones,^ and consequently the
Nundinae were severed from the Nonae? If the Nones
were, as I suppose, a critical day for the king, we can
understand not only the belief that all the Nones were
birthdays of Servius Tullius, but also the tradition that
Romulus vanished on the Nones, and perhaps even
Augustus' superstitious avoidance of serious business on
that day.^ In eight months of the year the Nones fell on
the fifth day, according to Roman reckoning, from the
Kalends ; and we have seen that even in July, when
the Nones fell on the seventh, the fifth was the
Poplifugia, a red-letter day for the king. Moreover,
the day after the Kalends, Nones, or Ides was called
a " black day," and it was not lawful on it to utter
the name of Janus or Jupiter,^ while the fifth day before
every such "black day" was also avoided as a day
of evil omen.^ It is just possible that the importance
thus attached to the fifth day corresponds to a halving
of the nine-day period. If so, the singular republican
system of interreges or temporary kings, each of whom
reigned for five days and then appointed his successor,
on one occasion^ as many as fourteen being so nomi-
nated, — this system may have been a reversion to
monarchy of the most jealously guarded kind.

Arthur Bernard Cook.

^Another account (Fest. s.v. "servorum dies" p. 262 Lind., Plut. qtiaesit.
Kotn. 100) made Servius' birthday fall on the Ides of August, which was also
known as the birthday of Diana (Warde Fowler Roman Festivals p. 198).

'^A point which favours my interpretation of the Nonae Caprotinae : supra
p. 329 f.

^Macrob. Sat. i. 13. 18. *Suet. vit. Aug. 92.

^Macrob. Sat. i. 16. 25, Gell. 5. 17. i f.

«Macrob. ib. i. 16. 26, Gell. 5. 17. 3 ff. ^ Liv. 8. 23. 17.

Plate X.W

WHITBY AMMONITES AND CHARMER'S LADLE.

7^ face p. 333.

COLLECTANEA.

The Whitby Snake-Ammonite Myth,

{Read at Meeting, igth April, 1905.)

One of the most interesting features in the study of superstition
is the remarkable array of objects which are associated with
magic by primitive folk nearly all over the world.

In this catalogue fossils occupy a prominent place, and it
really seems only natural that such shapely forms and designs
should appeal to the very ignorant as being something beyond
their ken, and therefore of course "magical." Most of these
were, and even still are, considered to have been " thunder-
bolts," as also were the arrowheads and polished celts of
neolithic man. Later on, when some advance in civilisation
brought about more knowledge, these fossils occupied a some-
what higher position in supsrstition, so that an ammonite, in-
stead of being a thunderbolt, became, say, a " petrified sna 'e."
The segments of encrmite stems were St. Cuthbert's beads :
echini = " shepherds' crowns"; nummulites = "fossil money"; and
so on.

Among the most interesting of these superstitions is the snake-
ammonite myth of Whitby. The geological formation there
is the Lias, and in certain zones of this deposit large numbers
of the fossil cephalopods, known as ammonites (of many species),
occur. The old idea was that these were petrified snakes,
turned into stone by the patron saint of Whitby, Saint Hilda.
This delightful legend is referred to in Sir Walter Scott's

334 Collectanea.

Marfuion, Canto ii. 13; when "Whitby's nuns"

" told, how, in their convent cell,
A Saxon Princess once did dwell.

The lovely Edelfled ;
And how of thousand snakes, each one
Was changed into a coil of stone.

When holy Hilda prayed ;
Themselves within their holy bound,
Their stony folds had often found ;
They told how seafowls' pinions fail
As over Whitby's towers they sail.
And, sinking down, with flutterings faint.
They do their homage to the saint."

So Strong was the belief, that the town arms of Whitby — three
ammonites on a shield — once represented these shells with snakes'
heads. An old Whitby copper token of " Flower Gate," dated
1667, also shows them as coiled snakes with heads.

The fact that ammonites were never found with snakes' heads
was, of course, always more or less of a stumbling-block, though
the workmen and others frequently got over the difficulty by
making and fixing heads to the ammonites on their own account.
Plate XXV., Fig. 2, shows two specimens with these forged
heads. The town arms of Whitby, upon a cake, are also shown
in the plate (Fig. i).

But the glory of the legend has departed. I have met many
people even of late years who still believed in it, but if you ask a
man or boy in Whitby now if he knows anything about the
petrified snakes of Saint Hilda, the chances are that he will say,
" It is all rot ! "

Edward Lovett.

Veterinary Leechcraft.

I. Silver Water.

(See p. 242.)

The object figured on Plate XXV., Fig. 3, is a wooden ladle
cut from the solid, and is about 16^ inches long.

It was brought to me by my friend Mr. MacKeggie, from

Collectanea. 335

Beauly, N.B., where it had been hanging up in a farm-house
kitchen for many years. About fifty years ago it was used
in connection with curing cattle supposed to be suffering
from having been " overlooked " by some one possessing an
" evil eye."

First of all, water had to be fetched in a bucket made entirely
of wood, from a brook or burn over which the living and the
dead had crossed (this was a brook running under a road leading
to the local church-yard). In this water silver had to be placed,
and no doubt became a perquisite for the local " wise man " ;
(I believe a threepenny-piece usually did duty in this respect,
as it frequently does now in church collections). Then the
water was ladled out with the object shown in the figure, and
sprinkled over the sick cow.

Whether it did any good I have not been able to ascertain,
but I have no doubt that in many cases the cow recovered in
due course, which would of course be at once attributed to the
magical power of the local wizard who performed the ceremony.

In Ireland cows are still "cured," in the very rural districts,
by administering water in which flint arrow-heads had been
boiled. In this case, I understand that the cows have the water
and the wizard who performs the cure, some whisky ! This is
a sine qua non.

Edward Lovett.

II. Charm-Stones,

(See p. 242.)

The two holed-stones exhibited are from the collection of Sir
F. Tress Barry, and were dug out of brocks, popularly called
" Picts' houses," in the neighbourhood of Keiss Castle,
Caithness. They measure one and three-sixteenths and one
and seven-sixteenths of an inch respectively in diameter.
The smallest is from one-eighth to a quarter of an inch
in thickness, whilst the larger and less perfect specimen
has a thickness of three-eighths of an inch on one side, but
on the opposite is chipped away to little more than one-sixteenth
of an inch. The perforation of the first is a clean cut circle

^'?6 Collectanea.

not quite a quarter of an inch in diameter. The hole of the
larger stone is rougher, and has a diameter of three-eighths of
an inch. Sometimes these stones are found decorated with
small patterns of scratched lines. They are, in fact, ancient
spindle-whorls.

A few people in Caithness still attribute some superstitious
power to these stones, and on the first night of the "quarter"
they tie one of them between the horns of each of their cows
and oxen, to frighten away the fairies and ill-luck. There is
a tradition that the magic stones were made by seven vipers,
who worked them into shape with their teeth, and that as
they were finished the king of the vipers carried them off up
on his tail !

When cattle sickened it used to be the custom in the old
days — and, indeed, until quite recently — to call in a man with
" charm stones " to conjure out the evil spirit. The grand-
father of a middle-aged man now living in Caithness was
celebrated for his wonderful cures, and declared that he had
often seen the " fairy darts " sticking in the sick oxen when
called in to doctor them. He had to be left quite alone
when practising his magic arts, but one day a neighbour —
being very curious to see what he did — hid in a stable
where he had shut himself up, and saw him rub the sick animal
with the charm-stones, while at intervals he turned the stones
over in the basket he had brought them in, saying " Swate
ye ! Swate ye ! " He then administered a " drink of silver "
(a bucket of water with a piece of silver money in it), and the
animal was cured. The " silver drink " is still believed to be
very effective in many parts of Caithness, and certainly it is a
simple remedy, not likely to do any mischief.

F. Barry.

[In the Hebrides these stone whorls are known as adder-stones, cf. Dr.
Arthur Mitchell, The Past in the Presetit, p. 7. Another such whorl is
figured in the Transactions of the Folk-Lore Congress of 1891, p. 434. It
was ploughed up near Pulverbatch, Shropshire, and locally known as a
Fairies' Grindstone. For Silver-water see Dr. R. C. Maclagan, The Evil Eye
in the Western Highlands, p. 151 ; cf. also J. Gregorson Campbell, Witchcraft
and Second Sight in the Scottish Highlands, p. 84, and Henderson, Folklore of
the Northern Counties, p. 165. — Ed.]

Collectanea. '^'^"]

III. Sympathy.

The following extract from a private letter appears to me worthy
of a place in Folk-Lore. The writer is manager of a large farm
near Cambridge.

J. G. Frazer.

"A cowman (a Suffolk man), lately said to me that the only
cure for cows when there was an epidemic of abortion was to bury
one of the premature calves in a gateway through which the herd
passed daily.^

"Another curious idea, prevalent among Cambridgeshire
labourers, is that if a horse runs a nail or hook into its foot,
as soon as the nail or hook is extracted, it is necessary to grease it
with lard or oil, and put it away in some safe place, or the horse
will not recover. A veterinary surgeon told me only last year
that he was sent for to attend a horse that had ripped its side open
on the hinge of a farm gatepost, and on arriving at the farm,
nothing had been done to the horse, but a man was busy trying
to pry the hinge out of the gatepost, so that it couid be greased
and put away, and thus ensure the recovery of the horse."

F. N. Webb.

14th April, 1905.

A Fisher-Story and Other Notes from South Wales.

Communicated through Mr. E. Sidney Ilartland.

The following is the only well-defined transformation-story
which I have gathered in regard to fish and water. It was
obtained near Carmarthen, but does not seem well-known. It
was recited by my informant, a well-to-do farmer's son near
Llanelly, with great clearness and, indeed, dramatic force, half
in Welsh, half in English, and nearly in the following words : —

' Upon the Towy floated a fisher-lad. He was in the very dew
of his youth. He sat in a coracle with his paddle stuck under his

^ Cf. Gutch, County Folklore ( Yorkshire)^ p. 68.
Y

^2,8 Collectanea,

left armpit, with his salmon rod and his "knocker," to kill his fish,
all ready. Suddenly a great salmon leapt to his fly, and there was
a long fight, in which at last he got the better, and the big fish was
flapping in the coracle between his feet with the hook through its
upper jaw on the left. He took his club and said, " Now, I will
knock thee." When the fish reared itself against his leg, and
spoke with a faint human voice, as it were the voice of a babe, and
said, " No, do not knock me, be my cariad (lover), and I will be
thine." "No," said he, trembling with amazement, "thou art a
devil, and I will knock thee," raising his arm to strike. But
before the blow could fall he found himself in the arms of a
beautiful girl, but cold and wet, who knelt between his feet,
but her face was against his and her eyes were asking him, and
she said, " Be my cariad'^ " No," said he, " thou art a devil,
I will knock thee." " Then I will drown thee," said she, bending
him over with all her strength ; so they capsized. Then the girl
plunged him deep in the river and brought him up sputtering, for
he could not swim. "Wilt thou be my cariad}" said she.

" No," said he, " thou art a d ." " Then down you go yti

ngivaelod yr avon (to the bottom of the river)," said she, and down
they went. Up again she brought him, panting. " Wilt thou be
my cariad}'^ said she. "No," he said, "by — ." The word was
drowned in his mouth. She forced him down again into the
weeds at the bottom. Then she plucked him up again. "Now,
wilt thou be my cariad} " The lad was almost drowned, and
said "Yea." At that she was delighted, and wrung him in her
arms, and swam with him with her feet to the shore. And the
coracle went down the stream and the rod too, but that was held
to her by the hook and line, for the hook was in her upper lip.
So when he came to his strength he had with him a gel without a
stitch of clothes on her. Oh, a beautiful gel as white as a salmon,
trying to get a hook out of her lip. So he says, " Pity, I will get
it out," but he could not pull it through. " I must cut thee," he
said, and took out his little knife. " Yea," said she, " cut me,"
and he cut the hook out carefully and she did not wince, but
kissed him suddenly on the mouth, so that her blood was upon his
face. " Now thou has taken of my blood thou wilt love me
for ever," she said, and at the word there came a violent love for

Collectanea. 339

her which never left him during his whole Hfe. He took her home
and lived with her a long and lucky life, having many children, who
all had a little scar, or what seemed like one, in their upper lips,
to the left.'

But my informant said that if when the lad came up the second
time he could have completed his oath with the name of the
Almighty, she would have become eog (a salmon) again. ^

As to magical rites, I found some five years ago that there
were such connected with Arthur's Stone (Gower), though denied
by my informant. But she " did hear that gels went and walked
round it to see their sweethearts — a long time ago — and if they
didn't see him they took off their shawls and went on their hands
and knees — nobody is so fulish now." This from a young girl
at Port Eynon.

Again, at St. Nicholas, near Cardiff, a man told me that his
mother took him to " Castle Corrig " (a cromlech near St. Nicholas,
perhaps the biggest existing in Britain), when he ' had a decline '
as a boy, and she spat upon the stone, rubbed her finger in
the spittle and tubbed him on the forehead and chest. I met
a man at Pentrevoelas, North Wales, when I was searching for
a crossed stone between that and Festiniog. He told me where it
was, and said when he was a boy his mother took him to it, and
rubbing her finger on the cross made that sign on his forehead. I
feel convinced there is a good deal of this sort of thing, but I can-
not get it out, or else it exists among a residuum which feels such
a gap to exist between student and peasant that freedom of speech
becomes impossible. But I have felt the sort of thing to underlie
many ordinary stories, from certain turns of expression.

Mrs. S. (mother of Mrs. T.), who is preparing a work relating
to the county of Glamorgan, has a good Llancarfan story of
catching the ghost of a lady. The 'lady' used to appear and
pinch a farm-lad at night. So he determined to catch her, and
got the skin of a white-bellied horse, cutting it into thongs, of
which he made a bag, and for the draw-strings of the bag he cut
long thongs from hoof to hoof over the shoulders. This was good

[The above story is also given in a pamphlet by Mr. T. H. Thomas, entitled
Some Folklore of South Wales. William Lewis, printer, 22 Duke Street,
Cardiff. N.u., but issued 1904. — E. S. H.]

340 Collectanea.

for catching ghosts. He placed it at the door of the room, but the
ghost evaded the trap, and pinched him unmercifully. However
she never more appeared to him, being afraid of the bag.

T. H. Thomas.
45 The Walk, Cardiff.

Additions to "The Games of Argyleshire."
( Continjied fro?)i page 221.)

HOPPING GAMES.

(P. 134, after line 18.)
Hop and Bar the Door.

Is a sort of general " Hoppy." Opposing parties are formed,
dens for each side are defined by a straight line drawn on either
side of a neutral ground from seven to ten paces apart. The
players from both sides hop on the debatable land, jostling
each other, endeavouring to make their opponents drop their
feet, or to drive them into the den of the conqueror. If one
of the players lets his foot drop he has to sit down on the spot
and remains there for the rest of the game; those driven into
the conqueror's territory become members of the conqueror's
party. The game goes on till all of one side have been put
out of action in one of these manners.

Bonnety.

Is related to "Cutting the Cheese" All the players' bonnets
are placed in a row on the ground, a small space being left
between them. The leader hops on the same leg over each
bonnet from one end of the row to the other and back again,
landing in the space between the bonnets. He repeats this,
but hopping over each in a zig-zag direction, all of course
without touching a bonnet or dropping the other foot. He

Collectanea.

341

then hops along the row, a little to one side of it and stooping
down, lifts the bonnets in succession with his teeth, jerking them
over his shoulder. If this were gone through without failure
the player was game, but if unsuccessful in any way he had to
rush for a pre-arranged den, the others pursuing him, 'clouting'
him until he reached it with their hastily picked up bonnets.

In " French and Scotch," the boys playing fixed on a territory
and standing opposite each other; one side tried to drive the
other out of bounds, hopping and jostling each other, with
their shoulders, or making individuals drop the other foot, thus
causing them to stand aside for the rest of the game. A player
might rest himself and again take part in the struggle if he had
neither been driven out nor caused to drop his foot.

(P. 136, after line 13.)

There are various forms of Peaver "Beds" used in different
places. In Inverness the following diagram will make the usual
arrangement clear.

The names applied to beds as numbered are, Firstie, Secie
Littlie, Farrie First, Farrie Sec, Mucklie.

Other Argyleshire forms of "Beds" than that given on p. 135
are —

Round Beds.

342

Collectanea.
Square Beds.

Cross Beds.

In Ross-shire (Munlochy) the game of "Peaver" is called
" Kettlie."

General Beds.

A girls' hopping-game. A number of parallel lines are
drawn on a flat surface, one for each player, about a foot apart.
The first player hops from space to space till she reaches the
furthest, where she stoops and, still on one foot, marks within
it with chalk the initials of her favourite general, e.g. F.R., G.W.,
etc., and then hops back to where she commenced. The same
process is carried out by each player in succession till all the
'beds' are initialed. The first player then again hops through
all the beds, forward and backward, taking care that her foot
does not touch either the initials or the dividing line of any
bed but her own, in the latter case she is permitted to touch

Collectanea. 343

the initials she herself wrote. Those who follow her do not
stop at their own beds, but do the whole line. Making a
mistake puts a player out, the one doing it oftenest without
mistake winning the game.

IMITATIVE GAMES.

(P. 140, after line 18.)

The words used in various districts generally show a common
origin, but with variations pointing to inexact memory. Thus in
"When I was a Lady," a sample of the Uist words is here given —

" ^Vhen I had a baby, a baby, a baby,
When I had a baby, this way I would go,
See, O this way, that way, this way, that way,
See, O this way, that way, O then, O then, O then."

Our sample verses, in addition to that given, commence " When I
was a lady" — "When I was a gentleman " — "When my husband
died " — and " When I was a drunkard."

In Uist also the version sent us of " When I was a farmer " goes
thus —

' ' Do you know how does the farmer, the farmer, the farmer.

Do you know how does the farmer, sow his barley and his wheat ?

This, how does the farmer, the farmer, the farmer,

This, how does the farmer, sow his barley and his wheat."

The girls playing sing in unison, holding up the skirt of their
dress and imitating with their right hand the sowing of seed.

The next verse is "Cut his barley and his wheat," and while
singing it they imitate the use of the scythe.

(P. 141, after line 7.)

Imitating the actions of a leader without moving from the spot
are the following, being games in which, if lads take part, it is m
company with girls.

Aunt Dinah's dead.

The players sit in a circle, and one is chosen as leader. The
leader says to her neighbour, " Aunt Dinah's dead." Her neigh-
bour replies, " What did she die of? " " Of doing this," says the

344 Collectanea.

leader, striking her left knee with her open left hand. The query
and answer goes round the circle, the striking of the knee never
ceasing from the lime each commences. When it reaches the
leader again the same process is commenced with the same query
and answer, but it is now the right knee which is struck, the strik-
ing of the left knee never ceasing. In the next round the leader
may commence by shaking her head, rocking her body, coughing,
or any other motion which she thinks of. All being under the
observation of their neighbours, a mistake is at once detected, and
the player stands aside. Success is with the one that holds out
longest.

The wee Melo-o-dy Man

Is a Jura sample of a hke game, each of the players being sup-
posed to have a musical instrument of their own. Starting as in
" Aunt Dinah's dead," the leader commences imitating a player on
the melodeon, the others commencing with him as if playing their
own instrument, the whole party singing in unison —

"I'm the wee melo-o-dy man,
I'm the wee melo-o-dy man,
I do all that ever I can
To follow the wee melo-o-dy man.''

The leader, however, suddenly begins to imitate the instrument
of another of the players, and the one whose instrument has been
appropriated must at once commence to imitate the melodeon.
Supposing the leader's second instrument to be the drum, the
moment he ceases to imitate drumming, the original player
resumes his own instrument, and the one whose instrument, say
the fiddle, has been adopted by the leader must then commence
to play the melodeon. Want of promptness, becoming confused
as to your instrument, forgetting to join in the singing, which con-
tinues all the while except when some of the players are declared
to be " out," causes the maker of the mistake to stand aside, the
longest " in " winning.

Statues

Is a like game. The leader in this case stands in the centre of the
circle at first, but commences to run round and round inside it till
the others call to her to stop. Instantly on the word, she stands,

Collectanea. 345

throwing herself into any posture she thinks fit, the other players
at once assuming the same. The leader then goes through a
series of the most grotesque statuesque attitudes she can originate,
the others following. No one is allowed to laugh, the first show-
ing her teeth has to go into the centre and act as leader, the
leader taking her place.

INCORRECT SPEAKING.

(P. 141, at the bottom.)

In the process of the deterioration of a language, Gaelic in this
case, the sound is apt to convey its more usual meaning rather
than the one which is becoming obsolete. The following sent
from Uist is an example of this. "What English would you
give for ' Is buidh dhuitsa, dol a phosadh aig deireadh na
bliandhna'?" Buaidh (victory, something conducing to a
person's advantage) is with difficulty distinguished in common
speech from buidhe meaning ' yellow/ and it would appear that
generally speaking the answer to the inquiry above is " It is
yellow to you to be going to marry at the end of the year."

KNIFE GAMES.

A knife game played with a stick sounds peculiar, but it seems,
looking to the headings which have been adopted, the most
appropriate under which to include

Stickle Stick.

This is a boys' game, the stick used corresponding in appear-
ance as nearly as possible to a roughly made cricket wicket. A
soft piece of ground is chosen, and the first player holds his stick
to his nose, hanging perpendicularly point downwards. He lets
it drop; if it sticks he leaves it there. The next player, having
in view to tumble the first player's stick over and leave his own
in its place, goes about it in the same way. If number two
succeeds in his endeavour, holding his stick to his nose as before,
he tries to drop it three times, each time sticking in the ground,
touching the upset stick of the first player. If successful he lifts
and holds in one hand the first player's stick, and with his own

346 Collectanea.

drives it away as far as possible. The first player has now to
recover his stick and bring it back to the place from which it
has been struck, meanwhile number two must have allowed his
to drop from his nose and fix itself more or less upright in the
ground ten times before number one is back. This finishes the
routine, and number three tries to do with number two what he
did with number one. When a failure occurs the player begins
where he left off. In the game we have described number two
would have been a winner at once, but such success is rare.

LEAP-FKOG.

(P. 156, after line 11.)

Cailleach Mharbh is also played under the name of Bonnety.

One is fixed on by counting rhyme, etc., as " The Rider," the
other players arrange themselves as described above, the boy who
stands upright, however, puts his back against a wall and the
boy next him bent down, rests his head on his hypogastrium, the
other players forming a line extending from his rear. The rider
has to struggle along the backs of the line till he can lay his
hand on the head of the boy resting with his back against the
wall — we may suppose to " bonnet " him. The line, of course,
do everything they can, short of losing hold of each other, in the
way of kicking, swinging, etc., to prevent the rider attaining his
object.

Simple Leap-Frogging, that is, jumping over the head of
another with the assistance of putting the hands on his shoulders,
is quite common, one lad standing for all to jump over him, his
place being taken by any one who fails to clear, or by all the players
going down in succession and being jumped over from rear to
front. The first way of playing is called, in the neighbourhood of
Ardrishaig and elsewhere, " Bull the Cuddy."

MARBLES.

(P. 156, after line 11.)

This game is known in Ross-shire as " Punkie," and is called
in Mid-Argyleshire " Monkey Chips."

Collectanea. 347

(P. 157, after line 17.)
American Tag, Chippy Smash.

This was played with marbles as large as a walnut. Each
player deposited, close to the base of a high wall, a single
marble, the whole forming a line. The first threw his ' knicker '
and caught it on the rebound, and then tried to strike out one
of the line with it, say at a distance of from twelve to fourteen
feet, the distance to which his marble rebounds. He continues
playing from the same point as long as he continues to strike one
of the deposited marbles. When he fails the next player takes
his turn. In the absence of a convenient wall, the same names
are applied to the simple knocking of the marbles deposited out
of line, the stand being about the distance mentioned from the
row of marbles.

Eyeack

Is played in Ross-shire. A small ring is made and each player
deposits a marble on the ring. The order of play is determined
by stringing. The first player stands over the ring, and holding
his playing bool to his eye, tries to drop it on one of the marbles
deposited. He continues playing so long as he continues to
strike with each drop. The others follow in due order. The
name is evidently connected with playing from the eye. That
the name " la," used in Kintyre for a boy's playing bool, has
the same derivation seems probable.

Darting

Is played in Ross-shire also. A smalHsh half circle is described
at the foot of a wall and a stand is fixed a convenient distance
from the semi-circle, on which each boy has deposited a marble.
The order of play being fixed, the first player throws his plunker
from the stand against the wall with the intention of hitting one
or more of the marbles on the semi-circle in the rebound. If
successful he pockets the marbles struck, and others are put
down in their place by the players to whom they belonged. So
long as he strikes a marble he plays again from the spot where
his plunker rested, not being required to go back to the stand.
If at his first throw a player sees that he is unlikely to strike

34^ Collectanea.

out a marble he may endeavour to catch his playing bool as it
rebounds from the wall, and with a view to this contingency the
thrower always follows up his knicker ; if he catches it he has
another shot. If he fails on the rebound either to strike out a
marble or catch the one he is playing with, the next player has
his turn.

MENTAL AGILITY.

(P. 169, after line 16.)

The following may be called an Imitative Game but we classify
it here because the players get no lead showing the motions
expected. " Dh'iarr MacShimein a bhi 'g obair, dh'iarr e leigeil 's
dh'iarr e togail." (MacSimein wanted working, he wanted throw-
ing down, and he wanted raising.)

This is an inside game played in Uist. The player taking the
the part of MacSimein holds in his hand a switch, a sea-tangle, a
knotted handkerchief with which to punish those making mis-
takes, and for convenience of this all the others playing are
arranged in full view. All being ready to start, MacSimein
shouts " Dh'iarr MacShimein a bhi 'g obair." (MacSimein looks
for working.) The whole company put their hands in rapid
motion as if working at something. MacSimein then says e.g.
" Dh'iarr MacShimein a bhi leigeil^' on which the whole company
will imitate the motions of pulling something down. MacSimein
continues ordering various movements, togail, cireadh, sniomh,
fuaighael, sabhadh etc. (building up, carding, spinning, sewing,
sawing, etc.); he may order what he likes and makes his changes
as rapid and unforeseen as possible, the workers having to change
with a like rapidity. The action of their hands must never cease.
Any failure draws down instant punishment, MacSimein whacking
the offender with his switch or whatever the instrument he is
provided with.

The mental agility in the following is shown in the extem-
porized bargaining which is an incident in the game.

A' Chailleach a bha bleth. (The Old Wife grinding.)

An inside game played in Barra. The players sit in a circle,
except one, who at first "takes a back seat." One of those in the

Collectanea. 349

circle takes a short stick in her hand, representing the handle of a
quern, with which she slowly imitates the motions of grinding,
repeating time after time " Bleth O Chailleach " (Grind O old
woman). Gradually she increases the rapidity of her movement,
shortening what she says to " Bleth e " till hand and tongue are
going as fast as she can make them. Another of the company
now joins in saying, " Bail, bail, bail. Tha fear an tighe ag radh,
ho, ha, ho, a' Chailleach aig am brath. Bail, bail, bail. Tha fear
a' tighinn ga iarruidh." (Multure, multure, multure. The man
of the house says ho, ha, ho, old woman at the mill. Multure,
multure, multure. A man is coming to seek it.)

The Cailleach at the mill still keeping her hand going, asks
" De 'n t-aodach bha air" (What clothes were on him), to which
the other replies, " Lurach, larach, sean chroicinn. Bail, bail, bail.
Tha fear ga iarruidh." (Lurach, larach, an old skin. Multure,
multure, multure. A man is coming to seek it.) The player who
took the back seat now comes forward in the character of a
beggar suitably attired as described. He asks his share of the
meal, he and the Cailleach having to settle the amount in an
extemporized conversation. When this is finished, others take
their turn, continuing the game.

We have translated bail 'multure,' which properly represents
the miller's claim in recompense for his trouble, but bail is an old
word used for the portion to be set apart for charitable distribu-
tion, so it was translated in Barra and O'Donovan O'Reilly's Irish
Dictionary interprets it the same way. It seems to be connected
with the word mal^ fnail, ' rent ' ' tribute.' The ' old skin litrach '
seems to go back to the time when leather coats were worn for
defensive purposes, luireach, lorica, ' battle harness.'

R. C. Maclagan.

( To be co/itifiued. )

CORRESPONDENCE.

A Solution of the Gorgon Myth.

(Vol. xiv., 1903, p. 212 sq.)

I have recently had an opportunity of making a sketch of the
fresco from Pompeii at the Naples Museum numbered 9688,
and mentioned on p. 235 of the article above referred to. From
the print herewith it will be seen that the description given in the
text is fully borne out, and, as I think, it conclusively establishes
my solution of the myth. Upon the same fresco, alongside the
Perseo-lobster, is a sea cow with a long fish tail, of a greenish
colour, completing the picture. The remarkable feature of the
whole is that the lobster is rather larger than the cow swimming
by its side.

Naples Museum, 9688.

Quite recently the papers have recorded the capture of an
enormous lobster, so that there is no reason to reject the Pom-
peian fancy as anything more than poetic or artistic license.

I am also able to complete my illustrations by a sketch of the

Correspondence.

351

group in the Palermo Museum from the Temple of Selinunte (see
p. 232). This is probably the most ancient representation in
existence of the exploit of Perseus. It is interesting to compare
the Medusa in this relief, with that from six De Gorgone on p. 231
— where the peculiarly shaped leg-scrolls of the Gorgon (Fig. 20)
are nearly identical with those of the Perseus in the sketch here-
with.

Palermo Museum.

At the Etruscan Museum at Florence is a terra-cotta^having the
face of a split-tongued Medusa of the type of Fig. 2, but instead of
the tentacles shown on Figs. 2 and 3, there is mounted on the head
as a part of it, an Acroteriofi almost identical with Fig. 1 7. Another
specimen of the same kind is to be seen among the terra-cottas at
the Louvre ; indeed, much more evidence might be produced if it
were necessary to further support that already provided.

The remarks on the Manaia (pp. 240 i) should lead to the
examination of the Maori Feather-box illustrated in 'Man,' 1904,
rio. III. The gaping mouth and the scrolls are repeated on all
sides, but on the bottom is the same nondescript pair of jaws,
attacking the head, as depicted on Figs. 26, 27. Much also

352 Correspondence.

has of late been written about Rapanui or Easter Island, but
nothing specially to throw light on my suggestion. I would,
however, ask for a careful and candid comparison of Fig. 27
with the representation here given of Perseus and Medusa from
Selinunte.

F. T. Elworthy.

Riddle-Story from the Wye Valley.
{Anie^ p. 178.)

"Gone a-hunting; and all the game he kills he leaves behind,
and all as he doesn't kill he brings home alive."

The riddle recorded by Miss Eyre from the Wye Valley must be
of venerable antiquity, as Homer himself is said to have "given it
up." It is found in the Ho?neric Epigrams, a collection of odd
scraps which are neither Homeric or epigrammatic ; one or two of
the poems (notably the Potter's Song and the Eiresione) are well-
known to folk-lorists. The story is told in the Pseudo-Herodotean
Life of Homer, with variants in other " lives " of Homer (the
references are collected by Abel, Homeric Hymns, etc., p. 126 f).
In the course of his wanderings Homer met some fishermen, and
on asking about their catch received the answer,

ocro"' e'Ao/xei', XLirofiecrO ' ocra o' ov;^ e'Aoynei', (f^epofiecrOa.
*' We have left all we caught, and bring all we did not catch."

According to one version, which the Pseudo-Herodotean
biographer is at pains to reject, Homer died of vexation at his
failure to solve the riddle. It is difficult to suppose that the Wye
Valley borrowed from Greece ; and the riddle may well have been
invented independently. Does it occur elsewhere?

E. E. SiKES.

REVIEWS.

The Native Races of South Africa : A History of the
Intrusion of the Hottentots and Bantu into the Hunting
Grounds of the Bushmen. By G. W. Stow, F.G.S. Edited
by G. M. Theal. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1905.
Pp. xvi + 618, with 22 Plates and a Map. Price 21s.

This valuable work deals historically rather than descriptively
with the native races — Bushmen, Hottentots, and Bantu; but
for all that, there is much information for the anthropologist,
especially with regard to the Bushmen. An especially valuable
feature is the map showing Mr. Stow's conclusions as to lines
of tribal migration, which, if criticisable in detail, is none the
less of the highest importance. As was to be expected, a great
antiquity is assigned to the Bushmen, both on a priori grounds
and because their traditions, no less than their rock-paintings and
carvings, bear evidence in favour of their prior occupancy of the
soil. The Hottentots, in Mr. Stow's view, were relatively few
in number — not more than 40,000 in all — and came from the
north-east, striking the Atlantic on the west coast and then
working their way southwards to the Cape of Good Hope, where
they were found by sixteenth-century voyagers no very long
time after their migration had been arrested by the waves of
the ocean. Mr. Stow holds that the Bushmen, no less than
the later invaders, came from the north, but in their case he
can assign no cause and no date for the migration ; the Hotten-
tots, however, were, he conceives, forced southward by the
pressure of the Bantu, who themselves eventually came south-
ward in their wake in successive waves.

354 Reviews.

At the time when Mr. Stow came in contact with the Bush-
men they were already too much broken up for it to be possible
to recover much of their social organisation and behefs. We
learn something of their beliefs as to 'Cagn — the mantis god —
and a future life ; a myth of origin is given, and there are hints
of initiation-ceremonies and secret knowledge possessed by
kinship groups or societies. How far these were connected
with certain animals must be a matter of conjecture, but it is
of interest to note that their caves were decorated with animal
paintings which gave a name to the inhabitants ; these caves
were the residence of the great chiefs, and those who acknow-
ledged their authority received the same animal name. The lot
of the Bushman in a future life depended on a due observance
of rites, such as the amputation of the little finger ; and though
nothing in the nature of ancestor-worship was found, they were
in the habit of apologising to the dead, saying that they wished
to remain a little longer in the world. Their cave-paintings,
mentioned above, and rock-sculptures excited Mr. Stow's interest,
and he attempts to base on these two practices a division of
the Bushmen into painters and sculptors. It is quite possible
that different local groups differed in their style of decoration,
for it is clear that painting is not adapted to open-air residences.
Mr. Stow does not say how far the area occupied by his sculptor
tribes contains caves which were left unadorned ; but if local
conditions determine the change from cave to kopje dwellings,
we can attach no racial significance to the distribution of paint-
ings and sculptures.

A long account of Bushman dances is given ; they were largely
mimetic, but a sexual element was not absent. Mr. Stow was
unable to discover how far they were connected with religion.
Some of the dances seem to have been in honour of or to
propitiate Kaang or 'Cagn, who is represented as punishing
certain offences ; but the harvest of facts with regard to religion,
marriage, and social organisation is lamentably small compared
with what it might have been had Mr. Stow lived a hundred
years earlier.

Of the Hottentot beliefs we learn but little. An interesting
custom is, however, recorded as to the succession to the chief-

Reviews. 355

tainship. The eldest son of the chief was kept constantly
supplied with milk, in order that he might grow up a strong
man, and when he reached the age of manhood there began
a series of conflicls between him and his father which only ended
when the latter was knocked down, when custom compelled him
to give up his position to his son. Up to the age of manhood
the son was confined to his hut, and was not even allowed to
wait upon himself, but received the milk from the hands of
others. This so closely resembles some of the tabus imposed
in many parts of the world on the young, more especially on
women, that the confinement may have been among the Hotten-
tots too something more than a mere accessory to the feeding-up
process.

Another curious practice suggests a tabu of commensality.
Although the cattle were so far the joint property of husband
and wife that the consent of both was necessary before any were
alienated, the women killed cattle for their own exclusive use.
Unlike many South African tribes, the Korannas assigned to
their women the duty of milking the cows, while the young men
or boys were, as elsewhere, the herdsmen.

A long list of Koranna " clans " is given, but neither here nor
in the case of the Bushmen do we learn precisely what constitutes
membership of a clan. Like the Bushmen, they named some
of these groups after animals, but no information is forthcoming
as to the date at which these names were assumed, and the fact
that most of them are Dutch suggests a late origin.

In Kidd's Essential Kafir it is mentioned that the chiefs'
genealogies go further back than those of the ordinary man, for
whom five or six generations are the limit. Mr. Stow shows us
how far back some Bantu lists of ancestors go. The chief
of the Bamangwato in 1879 could give the names of twenty-one
of his forefathers. Of course, there is no check on the accuracy
of such a list ; but a careful comparison of a genealogy with the
traditional history of the tribe itself and of its neighbours would
go far to show how much reliance can be placed on records
v.hich antedate the appearance of the European in South Africa.

So much space is devoted by Mr. Stow to Bantu migrations
that we hear little of their customs and beliefs ; and what we do

356 Reviews.

hear is almost entirely on the subject of the siboko, usually-
regarded as a totem, as to which a note from the work before us
appeared in Folk-Lore, vol. xv., p. 203. A list of the Bechuana
siboko is given, which differs but little from those given by Fritsch
and others. A point of interest is that the siboko of the Barolong
is iron, which raises the question of the period at w-hich the
siboko was adopted. If it was an original siboko, it can hardly
have been a totem, though it is possible that iron was known,
but not worked or used, at a very much earlier period than is
commonly supposed. On the other hand, the Barolong may
have substituted iron for their earlier emblem. Some light is
thrown on the question of date by the fact that the great
ancestor of their chiefs, Noto — the Hammer for Iron — lived
some nineteen generations ago — i.e. according to Mr. Stow's
reckoning, at least six hundred years ago — when their traditions
represent them as living far to the north ; but naturally this
inferior limit of date throws no light on the origin of the name.
As to the question of the identity of the siboko and the totem,
one or two curious usages with regard to the siboko are recorded.
The Banoka (men of the porcupine), a branch of the Bapiri,
introduce near the joints of a nursling certain parts of the
stomach of the porcupine. When the sun rises covered with
clouds the chief of the Baletsatsi (men of the sun) kindles a fire
at his house, from which all the people get fire for their own
use. The chief of the Baputi (men of the duiker) is buried in
a duiker skin. But none of these points seem to throw much
light on the origin or meaning of the siboko. There seems to
have been a universal dread of setting eyes on the animal, alive
or dead, and it was not eaten nor even touched, save as a
measure of precaution to prevent ill effects when they had
chanced to look upon it unwittingly. The chief, however, was
in the habit in some of the tribes of using the fur as a cloak,
just as among the Baputi it was used as his shroud. It is of
course no novelty to find a chief exempt from the ritual prohibi-
tions imposed upon his subjects ; but the association of this
with the undoubted fact that the cult of the siboko as we know
it is a form of ancestor worship, suggests that after all it may
have nothing to do with totemism. Mr. Stow states very

Reviews. 357

positively that some of the tribes have adopted a new siboko ; in
particular, the Bamangwato are asserted to have done so only
four generations ago. The Batauana (men of the young lions)
seem to have originated later still under a chief called Tauana.
That there is a substantial basis for this account of the change
of siboko seems clear from the fact that the Bamangwato share
the Bakuena respect for the crocodile. At the same time it
must not be forgotten that Chapman and others assert that
respect for it was general among the Bechuana. It might there-
fore be argued that the Bamangwato merely exemplify this
attitude, due in all probability to the use of the crocodile in
magic. Against this view, however, may be set the duplication
of the siboko of the Batlaru, who respect both the python and
the wild olive. This may indeed be explained by the hypothesis
of an amalgamation of kins ; but it seems more probable that
a change of siboko has actually taken place in more than one
instance. If so, the case of the Barolong presents no special
difficulty.

Against the suggestion of a non-totemic origin of the siboko
may seem to tell that among other Bantu tribes we find all the
marks of totemism — exogamy, as well as respect for an eponymous
animal. But if we take the case of the Ova-Herero, this argu-
ment is seen to be faulty. The Ova-Herero have a duplex
organisation — that of the eanda with matrilineal descent, and
that of the oriizo with patrilineal descent. Neither organisation
has anything to do with the regulation of marriage, but, according
to one account, marriage takes place, as a rule, within the oriizo.
On the other hand, two o^naanda are said to form a " unity,"
which suggests some rule of intermarriage. However that may
be, it seems clear that, if there is any trace of totemism, it is
in the eanda. If so, the case of the other Bantu tribes may be
similar, save that the matrilineal organisation has completely
disappeared, leaving only what corresponds to the oruzo. The
origin of the oruzo is not yet explained, and I cannot discuss it
here ; but if in dealing with South African problems we clear
cur minds of totemism as a necessary part of our solution, we
are opening the door to a more impartial survey than the question
has yet received.

358 Reviews.

It has been mentioned above that Mr. Stow's work is historical
rather than descriptive ; but even with the descriptive portion
left out, it would be well worth the attention of the anthro-
pologist as a specimen of how history may be written from
tradition. We do not indeed learn from whom Mr. Stow
obtained his information, nor do we know how far all his
information was concordant — two important points in dealing
with evidence of any description, but especially with narratives
which cannot be checked by written records. But in regretting
the absence of these data, we must not forget that the MS. was
unfinished at the author's death ; in fact, a large part of his
labours lay still before him.

For the get-up of the book it is impossible to find anything
but praise. Both print and illustrations are excellent, and there
is an index of over fifty pages ; not only so, but, in contrast with
anthropological works issued by some firms, the index has been
prepared by some one who knew what was wanted.

N. W. Thomas.

Origines Islandicae, edited and translated by Gudbrand
ViGFUssoN and F. York Powell. Oxford (Clarendon Press),
1905.

In reviewing the work of the late joint editors of these volumes,
it must always be borne m mind that they have done more to
spread the knowledge of Icelandic literature in England than
all other English writers put together. Remembering therefore
so considerable a debt, especially so soon after the lamented
death of the survivor of the two, the critic feels less inclined to
point out faults than to acknowledge the value and extent of the
work done. Neither had a sufficiently severe training in philology,
both were accustomed to use too slashing a hand in the treatment
of texts; and both these faults are sometimes apparent in the
present volumes, though to a far less irritating degree than in tlie
Corpus Poeticum Boreale, to which they form a belated sequel.

Reviews. 359

Nevertheless, the four volumes together form a monument to the
enthusiasm and industry of the editors.

The intention of this collection is to give in a convenient form
the materials for the early history of the Icelandic commonwealth,
these being gathered from Sagas, Laws, Bishops' Lives, and the
other known historical sources, in the possession of which Iceland
is so rich. The story of the discovery and settlement are followed
by early laws and customs, the conversion of the colony, and its
church history ; the second volume contains selections from the
Sagas, bearing on the history of the four quarters during the
heathen time, and tales of the explorations further west. Readers
who object, on the score of literary form, to the treatment of the
Sagas in this section, must remember that they are dealt with as
documents, only those parts being chosen which suit the purpose
of the work.

The most important documents for the early history of Iceland
are of course LaJidndjnabbk and the Libellus, which, together
with some genealogies from the Sagas and the account of the
settlement of Thorsness from Eyrbyggja, make up the first
division. Landndma has an interest beyond its genealogical
value in the occasional notes of old superstitions and heathen
customs which are scattered through it. There is mention of
sacrifice to the dead in the case of Thorstein Scrofi, to whom
sacrifice was made after death " because of his popularity " ; of
human sacrifices to Thor at Thorsness ; and of some interesting
burial survivals, such as the laying of Asmund Atlason in a boat
in the howe, with a thrall " who slew himself and would not live
after Asmund." A superstition which long survived appears in
the story of Grim Ingialdsson, who pulled up a merman while
he was fishing, and was drowned " ere spring came " ; and another
incident which breaks the monotony of genealogy is that of
the troll whom Einar Sigmundsson saw sitting on a cliff, and
dashing his heels together in the surf in order to make the
spray rise.

The section on " Primitive Laws and Customs " is not exhaus-
tive so far as the Saga-material is concerned ; some customs and
beliefs omitted here are given later where they occur in the longer
Saga extracts in the second volume, though many of the sorceries

360 Reviews.

practised in Vaizdcela and Hblmverja are either omitted or marked
as spurious. Such fragments of ancient practice as the law that
" it was murder to kill a child " that had received a name
{Hbhiverjd) might have been included here. The collection
under this head is interesting. Accounts are given of the ritual
followed in the ordeal of passing under the turf; in sworn-
brotherhood ; in the oaths taken on the temple-ring and on the
boar of Frey ; and in the divine toasts and the memorial toasts
to dead kindred drunk at sacrificial feasts. In the account of
the divine toasts there is an error in punctuation too important
CO be overlooked. " Scylde fyrst O^ens-fidl, scylde \at drecca
til sigrs oc rikes conunge sinom : en svSan Niar^arfull, oc Freys-
full, til drs oc fr't^ar" should be translated "First must come
Odin's toast ; he must drink that to victory and power for his
king; and then Njord's toast, and Frey's toast, to plenty and
peace." In the translation (p. 309), a semicolon after "Njord's
toast" obscures the fact that the toasts to both Njord and Frey
were "to plenty and peace," Njord still retaining a share in
the functions of an earth-god, in which he was being superseded
by his more popular younger rival.

In the section on " The Young Colony," only those portions
of the Sagas are taken which deal with life in Iceland; the
Norwegian adventures which played so important a part in the
life of many young Icelanders are therefore omitted. This has
the advantage of Hmiting the scope of the work strictly to Iceland
and the Icelandic colonies. The Sagas from which selections
are made are well chosen. Eyrbyggja is an inevitable choice,
from its mass of legal material; Nj'dla, which might have been
chosen for the same reason, is not included. Laxdcsla, the only
other of the great Sagas represented here, and Gisla, are already
well known in English versions ; but some English readers will
read for the first time the tragic story of Hord, ill-fated from
the day he was born into a divided household, and his sister
Thorbjorg, the baby-girl who, cast off alike by her mother's kin
and by her father, journeyed through Iceland on the back of
a tramp till she was taken in by that protector of the destitute,
Grim the Little {Hbbnverja) ; the finely told avenging of Olaf
Havardsson {Havards Saga) ; and the less tragic Vatzdcela (of

Reviews. 361

which there is a translation only, without text), with its interesting
survivals of custom and superstition.

It is a pity that the translations, excellent as a rule, should
be marred by occasional eccentricities, such as the coined words
wrongeous (translating rangkiir), aliened, etc. ; and it is unlikely
that the word heredmoot will convey any more meaning to the
English reader than the herd^s\ing which it translates. The
versions are also disfigured by frequent alternative translations
{e.g. "rede or counsel"), and bracketed translations of proper
names, which, if necessary, might better have been placed in
foot-notes or index. It is possible that these were merely notes
for the editors' own use, and would have been removed by
those "final touches" the lack of which is regretted in the
prefatory note.

The treatment of proper names is not happy. Sometimes
they are translated, sometimes transliterated, sometimes left in
their Icelandic form. It is a pity that the last course was not
adopted throughout : the translation of proper names is un-
necessary to the Icelandic student; the forms are often unwieldy;
and to readers who do not know the original they are misleading,
while it is not likely that, for instance, " Se-unn or Seawen " will
be more comprehensible to them than Sceu^. Nor are the forms
adopted consistent : thus the female name lori'cnn is variously
represented by Eorwynd, Eorwend, Eorwen, lorund; and Ufeigr
is sometimes translated Unfey, while throughout the version of
Ljbsvetninga it is written Ufey. Of the two most famous Norse
kings, Olaf the Saint keeps his name in its Norse form, while
his equally well-known predecessor appears as Anlaf Tryggwason.
It is surely unnecessary too to translate the name of the god
Thor.

In some cases a serious liberty is taken with the names.
The late editors held a brief for the hypothetical Irish influence
on Iceland ; and in accordance with this, they frequently repre-
sent Norse names in translation by supposed Irish equivalents.
Thus Thormod, Gjaflaug, Cetill are translated Diarmaid, Geibh-
leach or Gibleach, and Cathal, though all are common Scandinavian
names. In Landndma, III. 5, 12, Utia, which is the genitive of
Uni, is translated Una \UnadIi\ ; and in I. 9, 6, Svartkell is

362 Reviews.

represented in the English version, without a word of explana-
tion or qualification, by Cathal-dubh, though it is difficult to
see why, if Svartkell and Gjaflaug be Irish, Thorkell, HaUkell,
Grimkell, Aslaug, Guhlaug, Thorlaug, etc., should not be
similarly equated.

Those who have seen the volumes through the press do not
clear themselves of all responsibility by an expression of regret
that the work lacks the final touches of its editors. There are
many errors which they could have corrected, and which can
only be explained by the assumption that translation and text
were not revised together in proof. There are cases {e.g. Land-
ndiria, I. 10, 3) where words occurring in the translation have
no equivalent in the text. Again, in Landndma, II. 5, 3, "<?/^
^rof \>ar i sice^olshli^e^' (and dug there in the gateway of the
fold) is translated " and dug a fort there in the slope by the
fold-gate," an evident confusion of alternative renderings. There
are false etymologies in Harrowdale, Harrowholt (translating
Horgardal, Hcergsholt), and We-thorm ( IVelp-orm) ; and there
are many mistakes (in addition to the far too long list of
corrigenda) due to carelessness in proof-reading ; e.g. Eanwend
for Eyvind, Amund for Onund, Beare for Btarne, Bride-dale
{translating Brei'^dal), Thorstan Smiths (where the original is of
course in the genitive) ; all of which occur in the course of a
few pages in Landndma.

L. Winifred Faraday.

English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times. By Joseph
Frank Payne. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1904.

The Fitz-Patrick Lectureship, a gift by an Irishman to an English
College, commences its history by a course of lectures on Anglo-
Saxon Medicine. By no man living probably could the subject
have been handled in a more scholarly and complete manner than
by the learned bibliophile who was chosen to be the first occupant
•of this position. His attitude towards the works of which he
treats is quite admirable, for he recognises, as all should, but as

Reviews. 363

comparatively few do, that to approach the study of books of this
early period merely for the purpose of discovering " quaint "
things or of providing amusement for gaping ignoramuses is to
throw away one's labour, and that the only way in which real value
can be obtained is to try and project oneself into the minds of the
writers of the time and discover their attitude towards the subject
with which they were concerned and its consonance with the
literature, science and knowledge of the period.

The first work dealt with, Tlie Leech Book of Bald, is the most
important surviving memorial of Anglo-Saxon medicine. The
MS. in existence appears to have been written shortly after the
death of Alfred, but the book itself must have been composed at
an earlier date. It was the text-book of a man in medical practice,
and as he alludes to two confreres, Dun and Oxa, it is clear that a
Faculty of some kind was then in existence. As usually happens
in these early books, treatment looms larger than diagnosis, and
principles of any kind are conspicuous by their absence. Some of
the diseases are spoken of under rather striking names \ " half
head's ache " is an excellent Englishing of our hemicrania, the
migraine of the French, and " circle-adle " is a good name for our
herpes zoster or shingles. " Poccas " or "poc-adle" seems to be
our modern small-pox, and there are many other terms over which
one cannot linger. The actual accounts of diseases are — like our
own — mixtures of tradition and observation, but unlike our own,
the tradition is not corrected by observation, but set down beside
it without any critical treatment. Take the case of pleurisy, fully
given at p. 50. About half this description agrees more or less
with that given by Aretsus, and a good many points in it are
common to all the classical writers, from Hippocrates downwards.
But there are several points not discoverable in any ancient writer
which must have been evolved by Bald himself or by some of his
island brethren, so that on the whole we get a mixture of ancient
traditions mingled with some direct observation. Not much of the
latter; for the absence of any proof of clinical observation is a
marked feature in a book in which the feeling of the pulse is not
once alluded to. Added to what we may call the science of the
day is a superstitious element, consisting of charms and formularies.
Dr. Payne traces many of these to late Greek and Latin medicine,

364 Reviews.

others to forms used by the clergy, others again he thinks may
represent Teutonic and Celtic folklore.

Any person in the least familiar with early medicine will be well
aware how largely it is based upon herbs, and Dr. Payne selects
the "Herbarium" of Apuleius for consideration under this head-
ing. The MS. of this work, in the British Museum, is believed to
have been written about 1000-1050 a.d. The original Apuleius
Platonicus (it was an Apuleius of Madaura who wrote " The
Golden Ass " ) appears to have written in the fifth century and
possibly in Africa, and the book in question is an English adapta-
tion. It is remarkable, as Dr. Payne points out, how many of the
plants had, even at that time, an English name, and, in many
cases, a very charming and expressive name too. " Waybraid " or
" waybroad " is, as he says, a much more picturesque name than
plantain, and " Unfortraedde " ( "untrodden-to-pieces") admirably
expresses the character of knotgrass. Amongst the herbs, of
course, mandrake occupies a prominent position, and Dr. Payne
devotes some space to discussion of the many curious facts alleged
about it. It is less easy to understand why so inconspicuous, or
even ugly, a plant as mug-wort (artemisia) and one therapeutically
speaking so very inert, should occupy a position of such import-
ance. Yet it is said to put " to flight devil-sickness (demoniac
possession); and in the house in which one hath it within, it
forbiddeth evil leechcrafts, and also it turneth away the (evil) eyes
of evil men." And, Dr. Payne points out, it was in high respect
amongst the early Greek physicians. The figures in this herbal,
a number of which are reproduced, together with figures from
other similar books, are interesting, and it is specially to be noted
that as the artists copied each from an earlier work and not from
nature, the drawings get to look less and less like the real thing.
This was not due to laziness, but to the fact that the pictures were
intended not to represent natural or known objects, but to identify
the plants described by the old writers, an instance of science
held in bondage by tradition.

Dr. Payne's summary of this portion of his subject is interesting
and very instructive, and may here be quoted : " The Anglo-
Saxons took a keen interest in the study of plants for medicinal
uses. Much of this was doubtless due to the monkish physicians

Reviews. 365

and the herb-gardens of the monasteries, but there must also have
been a popular and widespread love of flowers — a national
characteristic which may still be recognised in the cottage gardens
of.tne South of England. Along with this there went accurate
observation and discrimination, so that these unlearned botanists
were able to recognise and name a much larger number of native
plants than they could have known through the translated Latin
books. Their knowledge of botany was not only much more
extensive than has been supposed, but it was original."

Passing over the subject of Anglo-Saxon surgery, we must
devote a small space to the deeply interesting subject of charms
in connection with the medicine of the period, a portion of the
book particularly interesting to students of folklore and well
worthy of their careful attention. In answering the question as to
whether these Saxon charms — or a large part of them — are not
derived from Teutonic or Celtic medical folklore, Dr. Payne lays
stress on the difficulty of coming to a decision, since it is hard to
know whether a charm may have originated in folklore or in
borrowed learning, for a good " deal of so-called folk-medicine is
old-fashioned medicine wliich has sunk down to the level of the
unlearned, and has sometimes put on a rustic dress." Many of
these charms can, in fact, be traced to Oriental, Greek or Latin
sources. Some of the curious words used in some of these incan-
tations — evidently without any knowledge on the part of the user
as to their meanings — appear to be Irish, or perhaps Scotch GaeHc,
of others the original language cannot even be guessed so changed
have the words become. The spirit of the Leech-books is
Christian, and hence everything in the nature of "rune-lays" is
purposely omitted as being of heathen origin. The Church
banned such incantations, and had her own blessings for herbs,
potions, and unguents. Many directions as to the proper psalms
and prayers to be said when gathering plants, as well as to the
times when they should be sought, appear in the books of which
Dr. Payne deals. On the whole, one obtains from this work a
most vivid picture of the medical science of the time, and I
confidently recommend it to all interested in the social history of
the early days of England.

Bertram C. A. Windle.

366 Reviews.

Jul : Allesj^lestiden ; Hedensk, Kristen Julefest. Vol. L

By H. F. Feilberg. Copenhagen : 1904.
" A POPULAR exposition on a scientific basis " describes in brief
the character of this work on Christmas by Dr. Feilberg, from
whose extensive knowledge of the popular beliefs and customs
of Scandinavia one confidently expects an adequate handling of
the subject. This expectation is quite realised as regards the
more important sections composing the present volume, though
taken as a whole it leaves on the mind something of a desire
for a stricter method and more conclusiveness. This, however,
may be remedied in part in the second volume, of the scope
of which no indication is given.

The work opens with a section of considerable length (80
pages) on the cult of the dead, showing by examples from
many lands how great a part this plays in the popular
imagination. The section is extremely interesting in itself, and
is written with much sympathy, but its bearing on the main
subject is not at all clearly indicated, though Dr. Feilberg
ends it with the words, " All these traits recur one by one
in the northern beliefs relating to Yule." Perhaps this may
be demonstrated later on, but at present it seems a little
difficult to bring Christmas into any close connexion with the
Dies Irce, the Child of Bristozve, and other pieces of various
kinds which the author cites at length.

Passing to the specific subject of his book, Dr. Feilberg
deals first with the " Old Northern Yule," giving in outline an
account of the great midwinter feast, but somewhat obscuring
the facts by the introduction of a good deal of extraneous
matter, part of which would more appropriately have gone
into the preceding section. The visit of Sigrun to Helgi in
his grave-mound, for example, the hauntings of Th6r61f Boegif6t
and Glam, and similar tales, are striking enough, but have
nothing directly to do with Yule and its festivities. The same
objection applies to the description of the spdkojia Thorbjorg,
with which the chapter closes : here the author himself admits
that he does not know " that it is anywhere expressly stated
that Yule-time, or even winter, was specially favourable for the
art of foretelling the future."

Reviews. 367

From these old traditions it is a far cry to the third section,
in which the modern Danish Yule, with all its attendant
observances, general and local, is described in detail, while
Norway and Sweden are similarly dealt with in the sections
which follow. Here Dr. Feilberg has clearly taken great pains
to make his presentation of the subject as complete as possible,
and his lively descriptions succeed in bringing out very distinctly
the prominent place which the Christmas season holds in the
hearts of the whole community. Many curious details and
variations of custom in the three Scandinavian countries are
mentioned, the reasons for which leave much room for specu-
lation : in many cases accident or local fancy may be the only
reason after all. The whole material is so varied that any
attempt at summarising it here would be useless, but all this
part of the work might with advantage be translated into some
language more commonly known than Danish.

The natural sequel to these three sections is the very popular
one at the end of the volume, entitled " How Christmas is
kept," and containing accounts from all corners of the world.
It is an obvious defect in arrangement that this is separated
from its fellows by an historical dissertation on the " Christian
Yule." This ought rather to have followed immediately on the
section which deals with the " Old Northern Yule." In that case
the historic connexion, or rather the want of it, between the old
and the new would have come more clearly before the reader.

While Dr. Feilberg's work bears evident traces of the difficulty
of being at once scientific and popular, it is one from which
there is much to be learned even by those who take up the
subject of popular customs in its most serious aspect. Any
demand for the ultimate evidence on which the statements are
based is anticipated by the copious references to original
authorities given at the end of the volume. A glance at these
is sufficient proof of the wide reading and research which have
gone to the making of an interesting book. Scandinavia has
done marvels in the way of collecting its folk-lore, and it is well
that it also has scholars capable of combining the scattered
items in a work of this kind.

W. A. Craigie.

368 Reviews.

Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XVII., Oct.-Dec, 1904.

It is a fact not unworthy of remark that of the six articles in
this number only three are of the type which we are accustomed
to see in Folklore. These all deal with folk-tales, one French-
Canadian, one of the Diguenos (it might have been well to say
who they are), and the third, a comparative article on points of
resemblance between an ancient Egyptian and Amerindian folk-
tales.

Of the remainder, one — a discussion by Dr. Boas of some traits
of primitive culture — is of a type which might well be commoner
on this side the water. I may be doing the Folklore Society an
injustice, but I think it can hardly be maintained that the work
of synthesis or even of criticism keeps pace with the work of
collection. Among American folklorists collections, though they
are not of course to be despised, stand on a distinctly lower
plane than analytic or synthetic work.

The other two articles deal respectively with Filipino drama,
including native. Christian, and Mohammedan religious, and
modern seditious plays ; and with proverbs in the making. It
is, however, difficult to see how such a pronouncement as " the
anatomical characters of the races have in all their main points
remained constant " can be classed as a proverb, the very essence
of the proverb being homeliness and wit.

The classified records of Amerindian and Negro folklore are a
very useful feature of this excellent periodical, and the Folklore
Society would do well to undertake a similar work for British
dependencies. Provided the classification is accurate, no work
is more useful; unfortunately the only attempt at bibliography
in Europe — the Centralblatt, I do not include the International
Catalogue of Science and Literature as being far too incomplete —
is marked by extraordinary inaccuracy. Another feature of the
J.A.F.L. which might well be imitated is the space devoted to
notices, practically folklore news of the day.

N. W. Thomas.

Books for Review should be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lore,

c/o David Nutt,
57-59 Long Acre, London.

golh^%oic.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

Vol. XVI.] DECEMBER, 1905. [No. IV.

WEDNESDAY, 21st JUNE, 1905.
Mr. H. B. Wheatley in the Chair.

The minutes ot the last Meeting were read and confirmed.
The election of Miss Isabel Dickson and Mrs. E. J,

Dunnill as members of the Society was announced.
The enrolment of the Adelaide Library as a Subscriber

and the resignation of Miss McCaskie were also an-
nounced.

Mr. Wright exhibited and explained a number of

Chinese and Japanese charms, of which the following is

a list, viz. : —

Chinese. — Divination blocks used by fortune-tellers, jade
wheel and lock charms, three charm hairpins, child's
charm against accident, street cake lottery set, and
three metallic charms.

Japanese. — Temple divination-box (from Dr. Dresser's
collection), printed medicine-charm washed with
water used as curative drink, lucky purse, three
curious charms of cooked grain, etc., and a cup and
platter of Soma ware used as a charm against
paralysis : also a Korean charm and a Russian ikon.

VOL. XVI. 2 A

370 Minutes of Meeting.

Dr. Gaster read a paper entitled " The Legend of
Merlin " [p. 407], and in the discussion which followed,
the Chairman, Miss Paton, Mr. Nutt, Miss Jessie Weston,
and Miss Hawkins-Dempster took part.

The Meeting terminated with votes of thanks to Mr.
Wright for his exhibits and to Dr. Gaster for his paper.

The following additions to the Society's Library were
reported :

Recueil de Memoires et de Textes die XIV^ Congrh
des Orientalistes.

Analecta Botlandiana, Vol. xxiv. Parts i and 2 (by
exchange).

Moghdija Taz-Zuicen, No. 44.

X-jgheid it Malti fuk Id-Dinja td Taht, by the Rev.
Father Magri, presented by the Author.

Journal of tJie Anthropological Society of Bombay, Vol.
vii., presented by the Society.

Y Cymmrodor, Vol. xviii., presented by the Cymmro-
dorion Society.

Neolithic Dew-Ponds and Cattleways, by A. J. Hubbard
and G. Hubbard, presented by the Authors.

The American Antiquarian, Vol. xxvii. ; and the 21st
and 22nd Annual Reports of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, presented by the Bureau.

Plate XN\'L

MAP OF THE LOANGO COAST.

I o ,a ,' p. Y]\.

BAVILI NOTES.i

BY R. E. DENNETT, AUTHOR OF "SEVEN YEARS AMONG THE FJORT,"
"FOLKLORE OF THE FJORT," ETC.

{Read at Meeting, \<^th April, 1905.)

The Soul.

When I read that according to the observation of
Mr. So and So the same word is used among a certain
people for breath, shadow, ghost, and soul, I do not
conclude that the observer in question is wrong. Neither,
however, am I led to suppose that these four distinct ideas
are one in the mind of those people. I know how hard it
is for an observer of primitive, arrested, or degraded people's
thoughts to get at their real meaning ; and I know that in
some cases one word may stand for four distinct ideas.^
Even in the country in which I live, although the white
man has been here over four hundred years, I doubt if
there are many who could enter on this subject with any

^ [The Bavili, otherwise known as the Fiote or Fjort, are a Bantu tribe living
on the Loango coast, north of the Congo river (see map), where till the recent
troubles Mr. Dennett had resided for nearly a quarter of a century. Miss
Kingsley, as we know, formed the highest opinion of his intimate knowledge
of the natives.

Mr. Dennett has slightly varied his system of spelling the Fjort language,
since we last had the pleasure of receiving a communication from him, but the
following hints on pronunciation will perhaps be sufficient. The vowels should
be sounded as in Italian ; the au or aw which in some cases replaces the o
formerly used, apparently representing the sound of the open Italian o. X
should be sounded as tsh, c always soft ; and a slight breathing, or indefinite
vowel-sound, should be heard before the initials yJ/and N, when followed by
a consonant. — Eu.]

-Take the Bavili word Mabili for instance.

372 Bavili Notes.

great hope of giving you a definite idea of the difference
the native draws between life, shadow, breath, and intelli-
gence on the one hand, and ghost, soul, and spirit on the
other.

I. Xidundii, or Shadow. Children are frightened of
shadows. I remember when it was considered a crime
for a person in this part of the country to trample on
or even to cross the shadow of another, more especially
if the shadow were that of a married woman. This
shadow the Bavili call Xidiindti. To-day people are still
very particular about passing one another ; but a new-
comer would be rather reminded of the custom at home
that it is rude to pass in front of anyone, and inclined
to put this habit down to a native's natural politeness.

At night the Xidimdu is said to sleep in the body of
its owner ; and that it is considered a very vital part of
man we gather from the fact that should an ndoxi, or
dealer in black arts, rob a sleeper of his Xidundu, he is
said to take away his life. The Xidimdu enters and
comes out of the body by the mouth {Mtimi) and is then
likened to the breath {Muvii) of a man. When a man
dies, he is said to have no shadow, even as he has no
breath. Thus in the mind of the Bavili both Xidiindu
and Miivu are part of mortal man, and die with him.
But when a person swoons, or has a fit, or is in a trance,
they say some ndoxi (witch, or rather wizard), has taken
his Xidimdu, and it is just at the pleasure of the witch
to return it or not. Should you kill the ndoxi, the
Xidtmdu in question would escape with another member
of the ndoxi's family. Supposing even that you know the
witch who has secured your friend's shadow, you may not
go to him and ask him to return it ; you must get two
or three ngangas^ to confirm your supposition, who will
visit the sick person, and cry out to the ndoxi to leave

'^\Mganga, pi. zinganga — '^xy^sX, medicine-man. Mr. Dennett considers
that the primary meaning of the word is repeater; cf. our "soothsayer." — Ed.]

Bavili Notes. 373

the person alone, and then threaten to call out his name
if he does not return the Xidundu, and then if it is not
returned, knock some fetish, calling his name out, so
that if the ndoxi does not return the Xidundu he will
surely die.

2. Ximbmdi, or Revenant. We have already learnt
a good deal about the Bimbindi in the tales in Notes on
the Folklore of the Fjort (pp. 11-16, 115, 156).

After death the Ximbindi of a person may rest in the
house in which he dies for twenty days, after which it
goes off to the woods and lives the very natural kind
of life described in the above tales. But the Ximbindi
of an ndoxi may haunt the place he died in for ever.

It is believed that if a person ever sees the Ximbindi
of one of his relations that person who sees it may
die ; but should any one be beaten by one, that person
certainly has not long to live.

An ndoxi who has the proper medicine {mpangd) is
spoken of as having the power of Nyungala. Such a
ndoxi catches and keeps Bimbindi, and sends them out
to beat and kill living persons. This ndoxi has also
the power to send the leopard to kill people, or the
crocodile to drown them or to carry their Bimbindi
away under the waters to some island in the river
Kongo, where he collects them previous to selling them
to the white man, who (they believe) makes his cloth
beneath the blue sea far away.

The girl mentioned in Notes on the Folklore of the
Fjort (p. 11) as living in Malela, and as having died
and been buried there, and then sold in Boma as a
slave, and who afterwards came back to her family,
was supposed to be under the influence of Nyungala
by her parents. Since giving this example of a living
Ximbindi I have heard of another case. A girl of the
village of Lumbembika, in the upper Lukulu river in
Kakongo, died and was buried. Some time after this

374 Bavili Notes.

her mother, having made a long journey into the bush,
came across her daughter and asked her how she got
there. She said that she had been sold to the chief
of that town. After some palavers and delay she was
brought back to her town, where she lived as a Ximbindi.
She was forbidden to go near the place where she had
been buried. The only difference people noticed about
her was that her will was not her own, and that her
eyes were like those of a person who had been drinking.^

3. Xilunzi, or ndunzi, the intelligence, dies, so they
say, with man, and a Ximbindi is simply a tool in the
hands of the ndoxi, and has no ndunsi.

4. Nkulu, voice or soul of the dead. The Bakulu, or
souls, of the Bavili have nothing to do with witches, or
shadows, or ghosts, or breath, or even intelligence : they
are the good and guiding voices of the good dead, i.e.
of those who are not ndoxi. They prefer to dwell in the
heads of some of their near relations, and are placed there
as described in the Death and Burial of the Fjort? If
they are not fortunate enough to find such a habitation,
they are said to hover about the outer division, or
verandah, of the houses of their relations. They are
never seen. They mourn with their relations when in
trouble and long to help them. And they say that if
every one of the Bavili were destroyed to-morrow, these
Bakulu would hover about in the grass around their town
for ever and ever.

I was very much touched the other day when present
at the funeral of a woman whom I had learnt to respect
very much, to note the careful way in which the brother
picked up the sacred earth from the grave of his now

^ [There is, of course, no reason to suppose that these narratives have
any basis in fact further than the abduction of people for sale into slavery,
accomplished perhaps with the aid of hypnotism? N. W. T. — I knew the
parties. R. E. D.]

"^Folklore, vol. viii. p. 136.

Bavili Notes. 375

buried sister. His wife held out the end of the red
cloth serving as her husband's waistband, and he carefully-
placed the earth in it. She then doubled the cloth over
it and tied the whole into a knot. This earth at some
future date will be placed by some nganga in the little
horn {likawla), or then in the little tin box {nkobi), so that
the nk2(ht of the dead sister may be placed in the head of
some living relation, and her guiding voice be once more
heard by those who loved her.

There are apparently various kinds of kulu among the
Bavili :

1. Nkuiu bakakata (or the soul of our ancestors) causes
women to bear offspring.

2. Nkidii npuniL is also a soul of the past, that causes
babies to fall sick.

3. Nkulu yianzi is the soul of one who has just died.
It is placed in the head of a living relation for the purpose
of consultation, as described.

The muntii jizambi ^ will not reckon as " nkulu " the
nkulu Jidoxi {i.e. kulu of the person dealing in black arts).
This nkulu of the dead wizard only a wizard seeks to
have placed in his head ; but apparently it exists after
all that has been said to the contrary by me and my
informers in nkici?' It is a sore point with the Bavili,
and they prefer to tell us that the nkiUu of a wizard ceases
at his death.

Notes. — I. Lu Mueno, or the Mirror. It is " Xiua''^ to
throw the light reflected from a mirror upon a person ;
and when the light passes across the face of an individual
he cries out : " Leave me alone, I have ndud?i * medicine
in my body." It is not a crime, but more of the nature

^[Muntu mamdi = man of God, i.e. worthy man, man who repudiates
any connection with witchcraft ; see below, p. 382.]

^[A%/« = mysterious power ; fetishism ; holy thing, idol, fetish.]

^ Forbidden ; see below, p. 390.

^[See list oi Nkicikici, personal protective charms, infra^ p. 380.]

376 Bavili Notes.

of an insult, to throw this light upon a person. Bits of
looking-glass are to be found fixed in trees, and in the
eyes and stomach of many fetishes. The light thus thrown
is called ntenia lu mucno. Then there is the divining
mirror of Nganga Mpuku Nyavibi} used when the
Mambomas (chiefs whose duty it is) cannot agree who shall
be elected Maloango, or King.

II. Photography. When one wanders about a native
village with a camera and points it at people with the
intention of taking their photographs, they invariably
at first run away. They say that they are afraid that
the photographer wishes to take away their life or
Monio.

Fetishes.

[Mr. Dennett classifies the objects revered by the Bavili
as (i) nkici ci, "powers on earth," i.e. certain sacred
groves, places, trees, rivers, animals, etc., etc., which have
fetish power (answering pretty much to the Polynesian
mana) inherent in them by nature; and (2) fetishes to
which power has been communicated by certain cere-
monies. Of the first class he says little in the present
paper, but several items in his list of 7ikici kici, " personal
protective charms" appear to belong to it. In the second
class he distinguishes nail-fetishes from others, laying
stress on the difference of the sources from which their
several powers are supposed to be derived, on the differ-
ing methods by which the power is communicated to
them, and by which they are invoked or consulted, and
finally, on the contrasting occasions of their use. Mr.

^ [Mr. Dennett in some notes not yet printed speaks of a grove sacred to
Nyanibi Mpukii. Nzambi or Nyambi is a name of deity ; Mpuku is the rat
(see below, p. 396). The Nganga referred to is apparently the priest of
this grove. Every Nganga has his own method of divination. See N. W.
Thomas, Ciystal- Gazing, p. 56.]

■^

Bavili Notes. 377

Dennett, as will be seen, attaches great importance to this
distinction. In the notes which follow he treats of fetishes
for family, personal, and public use respectively. Ed.]

I. Bakici Bankondi.

(Family Fetishes brought by the winds ; known as
Zinkondi in the Kongo.)

I. The Mpumbu are said to have been brought by the
east wind {Mabili).

They are wooden figures of a man and a woman, stand-
ing about eighteen inches in height. When these figures
have been carved it is necessary to enrol them among the
bakici^ of the Bavili. They must be set apart from
common figures {nkawci), and dedicated to their sacred
use as nkici. This is done by the nganga in the follow-
ing way :

A small shed having been built, he encloses it with
the fronds of the palm tree. He goes into the bush to
gather the leaves of certain trees and herbs (which I do
not know) to make the necessary medicines. He picks
out a man from the family who shall act as the spokes-
man of the figure, and then proceeds to put the spirit
into him ^ by pouring a decoction or infusion of the herbs
he has gathered into his nostrils and eyes. The man
thus treated then lies down upon an empty box within
the shed, surrounded by the fronds of the palm tree, until
the spirit enters his head. He gives evidence of this by
beginning to shake violently, so that his body makes a
noise on the box like the beating of a drum. He then
gets up and tries to run away ; but he is forced back
into the hut until the attack has passed, when he is given
the name of Ngiili Bwanga.

The wooden figures are charged with the proper medi-
cines, and as Mpiimbji are then given into the custody

^[Bakici, pi. oi Nkici.]

-[Neither he nor the figures being nkici ci, nkici of the earth.]

;^yS Bavili Notes.

of their spokesman, Ngidi Bivanga} And when Nguli
Bwanga has received the Mpwnbii, he buries medicines
in the ground and plants a Mbota-Xx^^.

When a native is sick and has gone through all the
necessary formalities in connection with the rites of
Mpumbu, rites in which the plant Msakasaka plays an
important part, a pig is killed and its blood is poured
over the wooden figures of Mpiimbu, as if they were
supposed to glory in that which the Zifumu Zinkondi
abhor.^

Nguli Bwanga does not drive nails into the Mpumbu.
He simply throws palm-kernels and dust at them, as he
asks them to kill the hidden enemy who is secretly de-
stroying the petitioner. And Nguli Bwanga causes the
Mpumbu to kiss mother-earth as a sign that the petition
is heard.^

Mabili as a Nkici Nkondi is found at the entrance of
each village and sacred grove, even as it is found at the
gates of the old kingdom of Loango on its eastern frontier.
It takes the form of a string of grass and feathers stretched
across a road from two stakes or uprights of Nkala wood
planted on each side of it.*

II. XlMBUKA (the first Nkici brought by the west wind)
has the form of a round native basket made of the Mfubu
leaves, and is used as the depository for the household
remedies. Its guardian does not throw kernels at this
basket, but he shakes a small gourd (filled with hard
seeds that rattle) at it, as he requests it to cure one of
the family, or to slay an enemy of the petitioner. It

^See Death and Burial of the Fjort {F.-L., viii. 135). My cook Makawso
was Ngtili Bwanga of the Mpumbu.

^[Cf. p. 404, where the pig is said to be the Xina (tabued animal) of the
Fumu Zinkondi (family chief)]. Bakici Bankondi are owned only by the
heads of families who can trace their descent from kings.

2 See Plate XXVII. from photograph by R. E. D. The object inside the
hut is a coffin containing a corpse prepared for burial.

* See Plate XXVIII. from photograph by R. E. D.

I'LATK XXVIII.

' fg-^ ^^ ^ ^-

^ ^^v.

_:ll:-^:ik.

MABILI

To J ace p. 378.

Bavili Notes. 379

has two guardians and voices that speak for it, Nguli
Bivanga, a woman, and Ngulu Bzvite, a man. They are
not a married couple, and sexual relations are not per-
mitted between them. The ceremony of putting the
voices^ into them is the same as that connected with
Mpiimbii ; but each personage has a hut apart, in which
he or she has to live two months.

NZACI is also a basket ; and the same ceremonies are
gone through in putting the voices into its guardians.
Both take the name of Suami until the ceremony is over,
when the woman takes a small fetish, Nkiitu (a small
bag) which she wears between her arm and body near
the arm-pit, and becomes Xicimbo, while the man takes
the name of Xitembo.

The above two Bakici are said to have been brought
by Bunzi, the west wind.^

III. Ngofo and Lembe are said to have been brought
by the south-west wind Ngonzolo.

Ngofo. In the analogous ceremonies connected with
this basket, which is round and open like a coaling basket,
the maiden only is placed in the hut. After this, which
in this case is a marriage ceremony, both man and woman
wear a certain kind of iron bracelet called ngofo. The
maiden when first she enters the hut is called Kayi's^
wife, or Nkaci Kayi\ afterwards she is known as Nkaci
Ngofo.

Lembe, the other fetish under the rule of the south-
west wind, is a bracelet connected with a marriage-rite.

^ [From the synonymous use of the words "voice" and "spirit" in this
connection, we take it that they represent the native word Nkulu.l

•^ Qwango, Ngoyo, Mbondo de Mboyo, Mpembe are Zinkici Bankondi (see
illustration in The Quiver, xxxii. 619, seq.).

Makwani and Ximpungu are names of other figures of this class. Bisongi
(like forks) are also known here (see illustration in The Quiver).

Lusawnzi and Nkutu are numbered i and 2 on p. 258, Pioneering on the
Congo. Ndibu, ib., p. 257.

2 Kayi is the name of the man.

380 Bavili Notes.

The wife married in this way is called Nkaci Lembe,
and is the one who acts as the guardian of all her
husband's Nkici, and should she commit adultery, the
husband upon opening the basket containing the medicines
connected with the marriage would find them wet. Nkaci
Lembe is kept very strictly within her hut and the fence
ilumbd) surrounding it. Ltibuku, a large kind of rat, is
said by Tati to be Xina [tabu] to Nkaci Lembe}

Note. — Binkawci Nkawci Bi Mwakutm (the little
figures that are apart, looking in different directions) are
two figures on stakes driven into the ground which are
said to turn round as the seasons follow one another.
At the beginning of the rainy season one faces Kayi,
the other the lake Luleba, that is, their backs are more
or less turned to the sea. In the dry season they face
different points of the sea.

2. Personal Charms or Fetishes.

The following are some of the principal Nkicikici, or
personal protective charms — fetishes in the proper sense
of the word feitiqo :

Ciba ; a charm worn by women to ensure safety in
child-birth, consisting of a horn of the little gazelle sese,
filled with " medicines."

Tanta ; a string bearing a strip of the skin of the
Xinkanda, or sloth, tied tightly round the head, as a charm
to protect the wearer from harm and pain. Tanta is also
worn as a sign of mourning, and is then supposed to
have the effect of helping the wearer to bear his troubles.

(The sese and xinkanda are two of the most difficult
animals to catch, hence the charms are proportionately
valuable.)

Nteo; a charm for a woman.

Nduda; a charm for a man (cf. ante. Note I., p. 375).

^ Cf. Miss Kingsley's West /African Studies, p. 193,

Bavili Notes. 381

BeUinga ; a charm which women wear to guard the
hfe of the baby yet unborn. It is made of a piece of
the skin of the Xicifumu, a kind of sloth which is a very
fast breeder.

NsaiL ; a charm which gives a man virih'ty. It is made
of the skin of the elephant.

Xikunda ; a double rattle having fetish powers, carried
by the Badnngii or police society.

Mbiimba ; the copper bracelet worn by the Nganga
Mbumba, who grants to those unfortunate in health a
bracelet made of the fibre of the baobab tree, called
Stmga Mbumba (not to be confounded with the iron
bracelet or charm given by Nganga Mbumba Xicinibu).

Of the same class of charms are the bracelets (not
marriage bracelets) :

Ngofo, made of iron ; in this case not a marriage
bracelet.

Sunga Nsaci, made of plaited leaves of palm tree or cloth.

Sunga Ximbuka, „ „ „ „

Sunga Mabili, „ „ „ „

Sunga Xinbingo, „ „ „ „

Nganga Mbumba Xicimbu is the full title of the Nganga
Mbumba, or medicine-man attached to Maloango's court.
He it is who accompanies and encourages the king-elect
(or Nganga Nvumba) to proceed on his way to Buali, the
capital. He tells him that he will overcome all his enemies,
or that he has nothing to fear as he has no enemies,
etc. He owns the fetishes Xisongo and Xisika.

Xisongo is a piece of iron to be found near Tero,
buried in the ground near to the sacred ground. " Is
it true," says the [enquiring] man "that I am to have
no children .'' " as he tries to pull up this buried piece
of iron. Xisika is a piece of heavy wood buried in the
same way in different parts of the country for the same
purpose, {i.e. divination).

382 Bavili Notes.

A plain iron bracelet is given to patients by Nganga
Mbuniba Xicimba and worn by them as a bracelet.

Marriage - Bracelets. — Ngofo, iron marriage - bracelet,
originally ivory {Ltivose) for real princesses.^ Ngofo and
Funzi are the Loango and Kakongo names for the same
marriage rite and bracelet.

Lembe, a heavy copper marriage-bracelet common to
Loango and Kakongo.

Xibutu Xilongo, a small copper bracelet connected with
the medicine given by Nganga Xibutu to protect one
from evil. When a man wearing this bracelet marries,
his wife also takes and wears one as a charm, in sign of
marriage.

3. Zinkawci Zi Bakici (not Bad.)

(The figures of the people ; Zinkici Mbowu} or Nail

Fetishes.)
The Bavili divide all people into two great classes :

1. Muntu Nzainbi (man of God).

2. Muntu a Ndongo (man of black arts). Ndongo
signifies the evil spirit that is said to live in the stomach
of all witches.

Now the Zinganga nkici (or the repeaters of the lore
connected with the wooden images into which nails are
driven) are not priests in the sense that the Zinganga

^[Compare the following, from A Visit to Lezuanika, King 0/ the Barotse,
by Reginald Arthur Such, late Captain Cape Boys' Corps. (Simpkin and
Marshall, 1902.) The Mogwae or Queen of the Barotse, living at Nalolo on
the Zambesi in 1900, " had on a light cotton gown which hung about her
like a sack, and wore carved ivory ornaments in her thick hair, and ivory
bangles on each arm, reaching from the wrist to above the elbow. Her
husband had on only a sesiba and a coat, with one ivory bangle on
each arm. Ivory is the sole property of the royal family, and only they
are allowed to wear it" (p. 53). "The Queen is not the wife of the
King, but his sister. The King's wives have no particular rank, and are
mostly slaves" (p. 50). Facing p. 52 is a plate of "The Queen's state
barge, with figure of an elephant on the roof of shelter." — Eu.]

^ [Spelt in former notes mbao.'\

Bavili Notes. 383

Bakici Bad (Ngangas of the sacred groves) are. The
latter are Bantu Nzambi, the former, Bantu a Ndongo}
It will be seen from this that the religion of the Bavili
is divided into two great divisions, and that the old
Portuguese sailors and missionaries were most taken by
the Ndongoistic pranks of the Zinganga nkici, and
that they looked upon this part of the religion of the
Kongo people as the whole. This error has been the
cause of much misjudgment of the native religion, and
is perhaps one of the causes of Miss Kingsley's taking
Professor Tylor's definition of fetishism as serving to
describe the complete religion of these people. As Pro-
fessor Tylor says, fetishism is the doctrine of spirits
embodied in or attached to, or conveying influence through,
certain material objects ; but this is not the whole of the
religion of the Bavili. It is only the lower part ; co-
existent with which is the higher part connected with
the kingly office and sacred trees, lands, rivers, animals,
omens, and seasons.

Let me tell you how a nail-fetish is made, and describe
some of the names and uses of fetishes of this class.

When a party enters the wood with the Nganga (or
doctor) attached to the service of the fetishes {Zinkici
Mbowu), into which nails are driven, for the purpose of
cutting the muamba tree with the intention of making a
fetish, no one may call another by his name. If he does so,
that man will die, and his virtue will enter into the tree
and become the presiding spirit of the fetish, when made ;
and the caller will of course have to answer with his life to
the relations of the man whose life has been thus wantonly
thrown away. So, generally speaking, a palaver is held,
and it is there decided whose life it is that is to enter
into the nmamba tree, and to preside over the fetish to be
made. A boy of great spirit, or else, above all, a great and
daring hunter, is chosen. Then they go into the bush and

^[Zinganga, pi. o{ nganga, priest. Bantu, people, pi. oi Mzmtu, man.]

384 Bavili Notes.

call his name. The Nganga cuts down the tree, and blood
is said to gush forth. A fowl is killed and its blood
mingled with the blood that they say comes from the
tree. The person named then dies, certainly within ten
days. His life has been sacrificed for what the Zinganga
consider the welfare of the people. They say that the
named one never fails to die ; and they repudiate all
idea of his being poisoned, or that his death is hurried on
in any material way by the Nganga, who, they say, may
be miles away. The difference between the spirit of
Mpumbii brought by the East Wind, and the Nkulu
of the known individual that is to preside over this fetish,
is evident. And again, the nature of this fetish that is
made by man and inspired by him is clearly different
from the tree or grove that merely symbolizes some
attribute of God or man.

People pass before these fetishes, Zinkici Mbowii, calling
on the fetish to kill them if they do, or have done, such and
such a thing. Others go to them and insist upon their
killing so and so, who has done, or is about to do, them
some fearful injury. And as they make their demand, a nail
is driven into the fetish, and the palaver is settled so
far as they are concerned. The Nkulu of the man whose
life was sacrificed upon the cutting of the tree, sees to the
rest.

These fetishes attended big palavers and were knocked ^
by the parties engaged, so that he who spoke falsely or
bore false witness should die. These are the class of
fetishes most in evidence, and as such are apparently
the bitter enemies of European governments, who seem
to take a delight in clearing the country of them. I
wonder if they are right, at any rate before they have
got the country properly in hand and can give the
inhabitants that security they are so fond of talking about.

' See Notes on the Laws and Customs of the Bavili (Afr. Soc. Journal, 1902,
p. 281).

Plate XXIX.

NAIL-FETISH, (.NKIGI MBOWU).

Ilixeter Mus

To face p. 385.

Bavili Notes. 385

Brute force is no doubt a great power for a European
power to wield over such a race as the Bantu, and will
make them do much ; but is it not curious that civilized
countries in the twentieth century should resort to so
barbarous a form of governing a people supposed to be so
much their moral inferiors ? And by taking away a
fetish of this kind they do not prevent the native from
making another one to take its place. It merely makes
the native more cautious, and forces him to guard his
fetish in some secret place outside the small sphere of
influence of the official.

This class of Nkici Mbowu, the wooden figures into
which nails are driven, are legion, and their multiplication
comes, (i) from the desire of each district to have its
own Nkici, and (2) from the importation from foreign
districts of those who gained fame for their slaying powers
or as deterrents. Thus in Loango we hear of Mangarka,^
Mbiali Mundunbi, Ekawso,'^ Selo Xingululu, Mani ma-
vungu, Fulula, Xiela, Mbwaka,^ all of whom are known to
be imported from Kakongo. It has therefore been hard
work to distinguish those which were originally conse-
crated to the use solely of this district. For some time
I had sixteen on my list ; but I find that Maquarsia and
Ngoio Kondi Mamba are not Zinkici Mbozvii, so that
I am left with the following fourteen ; whose names I give
you under all reserve, as, after all, I may not have got at
the true and original ones.

1. Mambili, a figure of a man with nails driven into
it, now a wreck at Ximoko (see p. 391).

2. Mamboni Pwati, figure of a man.

3. Mambika, a figure of a man.

' Mangaika, see Manchester Museum. [Cf. Man, 1905, No. 59, pp. 102,
103.] Mani mavungu, see Afr. Soc. Journal (July 1903).

^Ekawso, see Seven Years among the Fjort, and specimens in Exeter
Museum [presented by Mr. Dennett. Plate XXIX. See note, p. 406.]

•^Mbwaka, see Bentley, Pioneering in the Congo, p. 260.

2 K

386 Bavili Notes.

4. Maleka,^ a figure of a man.

5. Bixibula Xibula, a figure of a man, at Mpili.

6. Xilinga.

7. Lenga lenga, a man with a knife.

8. Zambi inyona.

9. Ngembe/ a figure of a man.

10. Mvumvu Xioxilo,^ a figure of a dog.

1 1. Pansu muinda, a figure of a man.

12. Boka miemvu, a figure of a man.

13. Lu siemu, a figure of a dog.

14. Mavungu Mambuembo, a figure of a man.

The Story of How Xidiela Exposed the
Wizards.-

Xidiela was not well treated at home, and was finally-
told by his people that he was not worth anything, and
had better go away and earn his living as best he could ;
they were tired of supporting him. This rather sobered
Xidiela, and as he was already a bearded man, he knew
he would have some difficulty in getting his living in a
decent way, and he dreaded the thought of having to
turn his hands to any hard work. He approached a rich
man and offered him his services as " boy " or cook.

" You are too old," said the rich man.

"Never mind that, try me. I will do my best for
you."

And so he was engaged to clean plates, cook food,
and cut wood. He continued to clean plates, and cook
food, and cut wood for a long, long time. During all
this time sundry Ngangas kept on telling him that he
was serving a Mnntii a Ndongo, and Xidiela at last felt
that there must be some truth in what he was told.

1 These gentlemen are now in Europe.*

^ Xidiela means in Fjort a man who humbugs people. A native woman
called Ngo told me the story.

Bavili Notes. 387

" Every Ngaiiga that comes here says the same thing.
What am I to do ? How can I get the better of him ? "

He once more cooks his master's chop, and then goes to
him and says :

"Senhor?"

" What ? "

" I am a iidongo."

" No ! " says his master.

" Yes, I am."

" Why, how do you know ? " asks the master.

" Yes, I am a tidojigo, but am ashamed, and take off my
clothes only behind the sJmnbec (hut)."

" Never mind," says the master ; " I am one, too,
and perhaps after all you are one, for it is to-day that
we are going to kill the prince of the country, and it
is to-day that you tell me you are a ndongo. We
will go together, but go to sleep and wait until the
evening."

Xidiela sleeps, wakes early in the evening, and goes
to his master and wakes him.

"You are no ndongo" says Xidiela, "or you would not
sleep like this."

" Nay," says his master, " it is not time yet, you may
sleep a little longer."

Xidiela goes to sleep again. Then they wake up and
start for the meeting-place of the Bantu a ndongo.
Xidiela goes ahead to show that he is not afraid. They
come to a place where a great number of clothes and
bracelets and leg-rings lie strewn about.

The master tells Xidiela to take off his clothes.

" No," says Xidiela, " when I do that people in town
will dream that I am a ndongo ; but when they see that
I am dressed they will say, ' No, he cannot be a ndongo
because he was dressed.' "

" Very well, then," says his master as he takes off his
own clothes, " go as you are, but take care of the others."

388 Bavili Notes.

Then they walk, and walk, and walk, until they arrive
at a place where all the ndoxi or Bmitu a ndongo were in
the grass.

" Mamboma Xinkanda," ^ says the old woman Nfumu
Ngo'^ with sores (in her hammock) when she sees the
boy ; " Mamboma ! Xidiela kalokaka mino mabola maka
ku sungomina." (Mamboma ! Xidiela is not a witch, he
comes only to look on, as sure as I'm a nganga I
divine it.)

And Mamboma replies : " Zibika munu aku anjea
natanga mu xipoia." (Shut your mouth, it is because you
are in a hammock that you say so.)

The old woman replies : " Maxi ku natua batu ku
anganga" (It is not because I have a hammock, but because
I am a nganga that I say this.)

Mamboma then says : " How could he enter here if he
were not a ndongo ? Give him a matchet ^ that he may
dance."

They give him a matchet. Xidiela takes the matchet
and dances away, and dances back again. And the
young women are very pleased and cry out : " Tuala
ntulu ! " (return here !).

^ I have heard a little story of the Xinkanda (lemur). This little animal is
looked upon to-day as the MatnboDia (Vizier, prime minister) of the princely
Ngo (leopard), and was elected a prince of Loango in the following
manner :

Ngondo (a long-tailed monkey) was very proud of the power his tail gave
him in his hurried movements here and there, and upon this power he laid
claim to the chief office in Loango, i.e. that of Mamboma. Now the Xinkanda
objected to this claim on the part of the Ngondo. The Xinkanda is a
close-fisted little animal, and the Bavili say sticks hard to anything he clings
to. They say it takes hours to get anything out of its hands once they
are closed on any object. The Xinkanda is said to have made some bitter
remarks about the Ngondo and his tail, and challenged him to call a meeting
of all the animals to get at the general opinion of their world upon their
merits. At this meeting the slow-moving but sure Xinkanda was unanimously
elected Mamboma.

'^See pp. 390, 391. 3 A YmA of cutlass.

Bavili Notes. 389

And Xidiela goes to them and returns twice; but the
third time he runs away, taking the matchet with him.
And the old woman with the sores cries out from her
hammock to Mamboma : " You now see that I was
right."

They all waited, and then exclaimed, " She is
right."

They set upon Xidiela's master and thrashed him (and
they did not kill the prince). They then knocked their
fetish, crying out to Xidiela's master : " You brought the
boy here. If you come back here you will die."

And Xidiela gathered up all the clothes and bracelets
and leg-rings, and took them to his home. He made a
fire outside his shimbec and waited for his master, but
he did not sleep. The Zindoxi or Bantu a ndongo
searched for their clothes, and thrashed the master again
when they could not be found, and then they departed to
their towns, dispersing in different directions.

And next day Xidiela remarked to all about him :
" How is it that so many are wearing clean clothes
to-day .? "

And the master called Xidiela aside, and whispered to
him that the Zindoxi had thrashed him.

" Who dared to thrash you } " shouted Xidiela.

"Don't shout," cried the master.

" Why ? " shouted Xidiela.

"If you are a witch, why do you act like this and get me
thrashed .'' "

" I went simply to humbug you," replied Xidiela.

And each ndoxi brought fifty longs (300 yards) of cloth,
or sheep, or presents, to get their clothes from Xidiela and
to bribe him to say nothing about the affair. Thus he
became very rich, and went back to his town and built
a nice shimbec, and looked down upon his poorer
relations.

Some time afterwards he went back to see his master

390 Bavili Notes.

in a hammock. His master called him ndoxi, and dared
him to take nkasa}

" Let us take it together," said Xidiela. And they both
went far away, where they were not known, and took
the bark, and the master died and Xidiela escaped.

The above, of course, is merely a story ; the following,
however, occurred not so long ago, which proves how
near fiction is to fact (in the Bavili's mind).

Buite had been out fishing, and on his way home
met the drunkard Mavungu, who asked him for some
fish. Buite refused to give it, and Mavungu threatened
to " do for him." Buite fell sick and died. Mavungu
took nkasa and died. And it then turned out that the
drunkard Mavungu had gone to his town in a rage and
told his brother, who was also no friend of Buite's,
that the latter had refused to give him fish. So they
sought out one or two other Zindoxi, and they had
determined to kill Buite. Buite falling sick called in an
Nganga, who divined that he was bewitched, and that
nothing could save him. When Buite died, Mavungu,
who had thus been heard to threaten Buite, was accused
of having been the cause of his death, and had to take
nkasa, and died.

The Bavili say that supposing that Mavungu's brother
had refused to join him in wishing the death of Buite,
but on the contrary had said : " No ! Buite is not a
bad fellow, and I do not wish him to die," Buite
might have fallen sick, but would have soon got better.

XiNA (Prohibition).

These may be divided into nine classes.

1st class. — Ngo, the leopard, is the Xina of the people
of Kongo (including the provinces south of the Kongo
as well as Kakongo and Loango), and as such it is

^ The well-known ordeal draught.

Bavili Notes. 391

Nkicici} It is the only animal having the title of Fiimu
[chief]. Its skin is used as a charm against smallpox,
and the Mankaka's (captain, executioner) hat of office
is also made of it.

In 1902 the writer was standing near to his house
when a crowd of natives passed him carrying the body
of a dead leopard to Loango for sale. The head of the
beast was covered with a cloth so that its eyes should
not be seen. And a lady called Ngo, who was standing
near to him, began to cry.

" Why do you cry .'' " the writer asked. " Ah," she
answered, " the brutes would not have treated my name-
sake in this rough way in the olden days with impunity."^

That the leopard is connected with witchcraft is certain,
even if the words '' Ndo/igo" and "■ NdoxV did not so
clearly point to the fact, for we were warned by Mam-
buku ^ at Ximoko that someone with Ndo7igo in his

*[/.iE. of the first class of Nkici, having inherent fetish power.]

^In Seven Years among the Fjort I gave part of the custom attending
the killing of Ngo, and in Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort I (p. 80)
supplemented this. Many of the stories there also throw some light on
the character of this animal. The skins of the leopard are sent to Bunzi
when rain is wanted by the king for his people. See "Laws of the
Bavili," African Society's Journal, 1902, p. 281.

' Extract from my Journal of an expedition in search of a Nko^sa tree.
— "While at my frugal meal, outside his hut, Mambuku, who had been
squatting on the ground near to me, got up and left me. I lit a cigarette,
and walked up and down in the moonlight by the side of the bananas
Mambuku had planted as a kind of fence around the cleared space within
which his dwellings and outhouses were built. At last I retired to rest
upon the bed of boards prepared for me, but just as I was falling to
sleep the midnight silence was suddenly broken by a shout, I recognized
the voice of Mambuku immediately, and thought at first that he must
have met with some accident. Another grunt-like shout, and I knew
that Mambuku was simply calling the attention of his people to something
he had to say to them. And this is what he said :

" ' Ur ! ur ! ' (to wake his people up).

" ' Nuvula ! ' (listen !)

" ' Ngonde moci u bakana kubella mukulu, abu mimibakana ku bella
mu luzala.' (Last month my mother had a bad leg, now she is sick in

392 Bavili Notes.

stomach had willed the leopard to come to the town,
or someone in that very town, perhaps, was ready to
use the leopard as a means of destroying his neighbour's
life. And someone also with evil thoughts was causing
the speaker's mother to keep on suffering.

The Bavili fully believe that certain Bantu a Ndongo
have this power over leopards and crocodiles, and that
others who have not the power themselves, knowing their
brother Ndongo, ask him the favour of the loan of the
wer-beast. The M until a Ndongo or wizard, as you
perhaps would call him, does not in this case change
himself into the leopard or the crocodile, for he may be
talking to you in one place while the beast is doing his
will in another. Neither need he die first, so that what
some people like to call his " soul " may enter and possess
the animal.

The man who has Ndongo in his stomach will search
out an Nganga, or doctor, who has the medicine Xikunibu

her finger.) ' Manwela Ngoma ! Manwela Ngoma ! Anjea unkruntu u
kela ku ngandu.' (Manwela Ngoma! j^ou are head man of the village.)
' Mani Ngombo ! Anjea uzabici ma awso.' (Mani Ngombo (the name of
his suffering mother), you know all about it. ) ' Bene Bawso ! Nu keba
mbizi Xikumbu una untambala befi inu manga 'ntu ntese.' (All of you !
Beware that when the leopard comes you don't receive him, as we shall
divine who he may be. ) ' Beno ! Mundela naka kunxitula lau ! ' (All of
you ! The white man is sleeping in town, and if I make a noise he will
think me a fool.)

"There was a pause and a great silence; then Manweia Ngoma from
his corner of the village replied :

'"Minu unkruntu, anjea veka Mani Puati, anjea veka bakaci libamba
liaku, anjea veka ubakamba, minu Bawso i bakambila baci kumpe, nsamu
au ba veka.' (I am the head man, you yourself are Mani Puati,
[Mani = Prince] you own us all, you have called upon me, I called upon all,
they do not hear, it is their palaver.)

"Then came another pause; after which up spoke the sick mother, Mani
Ngombo.

" ' Bobo ntubila xibene xiaku tata, ntuba minu muntu yaka kalilanga
enxenzo mu litu.' (The father has just now told the truth, I tell you
that I keep on suffering pain in my body.)"

Bavili Notes. 393

Ximanpandu (what this is I do not know) and ask him
to sell him some. The Nganga will ask him if he is really
desirous to obtain it, and the Miintu a Ndoiigo answers
yes. The Nganga sells him the medicine. The Mimtu
a Ndoiigo says he cannot see the leopard or crocodile.
Then the Nganga takes the medicine and gives the Mnntu
a Ndongo some, and rubs some into his eyes, and asks
him if he can now see the leopard.

The Miintu a Ndongo answers yes, and goes his way
conscious that he owns a leopard or crocodile to do his
will.

All leopards do not lend themselves to these
horrible practices, and such as do not are said to
belong to the Bakici Bad, or the " powers " on earth
(see page 376).

Since my visit to Ximoko I have noted the following
cases of the ravages said to have been worked by the
wicked class of leopards.

I. Xikawmo is a man who has lived with white men
all his life, can read and write, and wears European
clothes. He was with his master in Somboa, quite near
to Loango, and it was here that the following sad event
occurred. Three boys, one of them the son of Xikawmo,
were sleeping in an outhouse serving as a kitchen. One
night a leopard entered this place, and passing over one
of the boys, deliberately attacked and killed the son of
Xikawmo, only wounding the boy nearest the door in his
flight.

Xikawmo went to Maloango,^ and after relating the
whole aiifair to him said, " How is this ? I want to know
who had this leopard." Then they set the Ngangas to
work, and it was divined that it was a man of the village
of Ntanda Bilala who owned this particular leopard.
Then Xikawmo said, " Very well ; now I want to know
who ate the flesh of this man of Bilala," for if one of his

^ The native king:.

394 Bavili Notes.

boy's family had not eaten the flesh ^ of the Bilala man,
Xikawmo reasoned that it was impossible that the Bilala
man should have sent the leopard to " chop " his son.
And here this palaver rests for the time being.

2. The wife of Xikaia was in her house sleeping with
another woman, when a leopard burst open the door,
passed over the other woman, and carrying Xikaia's wife
away, ate her up, leaving only her head. Xikaia called
in the Zinganga, and they divined that Maxienzi
was the owner of that leopard. So Xikaia went to
Maxienzi's town and destroyed his house and plantations,
and then went to Maloango to complain about Maxienzi.
Maloango arrested Maxienzi, and advised him to take
Nkasa at once. Maxienzi said, " Let us first hold a
palaver."

In the palaver it was proved that Maxienzi had asked
the acknowledged owner of the leopard to lend it to him.
Maxienzi protested, and declared that in this case he was
innocent. Maloango then said that no one would believe
him under the circumstances, and that the decision was
in the hands of God, not his. Let him take ?ikasa.
Maxienzi went to Mambuku's town and demanded to be
given the nkasa. It was given to him, and he vomited,
thus proving that he was innocent.

Xikaia and his people, however, said that Maxienzi
used his knowledge as a munUi a ndongo to avoid the
proper and just effects of the tikasa. Xikaia and his other
wife and family then left their town and went to live in
Mayomba, or bush-country.

3. A poor old man and his little grandchildren went
into the woods to cut the fronds of the bamboo palm
ijitombe), from the leaves of which he meant to make
thatch to cover his house. Having finished their work,
they picked up their bundles and were about to start

1 Eaten his fleshy i.e. done him an injury, perhaps by sending a leopard
to kill someone of his familv.

Bavili Notes. 395

homewards, when a leopard sprang out of the bush upon
the old man. The children cried out, not being able to
run away. The leopard left the old man, and the party
then took up their burdens and ran away in the direction
of their village. At last the old man threw his bundle
of leaves into the grass, and said he could go no further,
he would rest and then come home. Shortly after he
had stopped the leopard set upon him again. The little
ones saw it, shouted to it to go away, and then ran home
as fast as they could. The people of the village set out
to look for the old man, but only found his head. How
this palaver was settled I do not know.

These four cases in this district then have come to my
knowledge within six months, and I give you the facts
as related to me, and therefore with their native colouring,
and as they are looked upon by disinterested native third
parties.

Now to continue the first class of Bina (plural of Xina) :
Mesii Mazenzi Mavili MatJininini say the Bavili for a
crooked palaver in which one is [yet] able to see the truth.
"You can cook the grasshopper (or cricket) but its eyes
remain," or, in other words, " The truth will out." Mesit
(the cricket) is the Xina of Sonio. Zombo {Bawci or Boci)
(the eel) is, on the other hand, the Xina (sacred animal) of
Kakongo. An old lady is said to have been on a journey
in Kakongo, behind a place called Futila. She carried
a child on her back, and asked some women who were
planting in the fields for water. The women said that
they only had enough for themselves and that water
had to be brought from a long distance. The lady
eventually got a drink of palm-wine from a young man
who was tapping a palm-tree. She rewarded the young
man and punished the women for their want of motherly
instinct by turning the field they had been in into a lake
{Bazvci), the fish of which is Xi?ia to the women of Ntumpu
to this day.

39^ Bavili Notes.

Mpakasa Awct, the wild ox or buffalo (that listens and
hears), is the sacred animal of the province of Loango,
namely, what is called the Xina xi Bika imiana
bukulii. When Maloango ^ first came from Kongo he
brought this Xina, Mpakasa Awci, which is Nkicici, with
him. He is said to have asked some men for water
and they refused to give it to him, hence he made the
flesh of the Mpakasa Xina Buhilu to their family.
These four, then, the leopard, the cricket, the eel, and
the ox, are the Xina of the whole tribe of Kongo and the
three sub-tribes composing it, and the three latter are not
only the sacred animals of the sub-tribes but also the
forbidden food of certain families in those sub-tribes.

2nd Class of Bina. Each province under the rule of
its Fumu [head-man, chief, judge] has two Xina, for
instance, in the case of the province of Xibanga, the Susn
or fowl and the Sexi or Sesse, or gazelle [are the X/««] :
these are called Xina Fiminci.

jrd Class. Then each district under its Kongo Zovo
has its Xina, as [for example] in the chief district of the
above province the Nzikn (chimpanzee). This kind of
Xina is called Xijta Xici, and, if I am not mistaken, will
be the sacred animal of the sacred grove of the district.
Thus Mpuku, the rat, is Xina Xici of a family as well as
[being] the animal connected with the grove Mpuku
Nyambi as an omen.

^ Tradition says that Kakongo and Loango were founded by two sons
of a former King of Kongo, who gave their own names to the two pro-
vinces (See Folklore of the Fjort, p. i). The route of Maloango and
Kakongo from San Salvador to Loango is marked out by the ground where
they rested becoming xinkici a 'itci, i.e. sacred ground. There are no
altars made with tools, but as you wander through the woods you will
at certain places come across a mound of earth and leaves. And as your
servants pass this mound they will add their tribute to it. They say these
mounds are marks which divide the frontiers {ndilu) of two provinces, and
that in passing them they pick up earth and leaves and heap them up, so
that they may not be accused, as they say, of bringing anything evil into
the next prince's country. These mounds are called Lombi.

Bavili Notes.

\97

4.th Class. Each person living under his Kongo Zovo
(head of district), with any pretensions to birth, should
have four Bina.

The Xina of each of his grandparents is Xina Xixin-
kaka}

Xixitata, the Xina of his father.

Xixifumba, the Xina of his mother.

In connection with this class it is astonishing how few
can trace their pedigrees back to their grandparents. Take,
for instance, the following examples.^

Tati of Benguela says his father's Xina was Ngiilnbti,
the pig ; his mother's, Ngzvali, the partridge ; and that
he is of the family of Nziku, the chimpanzee. His grand-
parents were [both i*] of one Xibila or sacred grove, i.e. that
which had Nzikii as its Xina.

Bayona of Ntumpu :

Father Kabi Antelope.

Mother Nziku Chimpanzee.

^ , ^ fNgulubu Pig.

Grandparents ^ ^ ^

I^Nyundu Xibanga Otter.

Engo of Futila (Kakongo) :

Father Kabi Antelope.

Mother Ngwali Partridge.

Grandparents Ngulubu Pig.
Makamba of Xilendi Nkombi :

Father Nkombo Goat.

Mother a slave brought from the interior.
Sungu of Xienji :

Father Nkombo Goat.

Mother Mpakasa Buffalo.

Luiz

Father
Mother

Ngwali Partridge,

he does not know.

^ I do not know whether this refers to grandfathers or grandmothers.
-[There appears to be some confusion in the statements made to Mr.
Dennett : no intelligible rule can be extracted from the examples. — N. W. T.]

398 Bavili Notes.

For instance : Ngo is the Fiiinu from whom they are
all descended ; Mpakasa shows that they are Bavili ; Susu
and Sexi, of the province Xibanga. Then in the case
of Bayona, Ngidubu and Nytmdu Xibanga show the
districts of his grandparents, while his father's Xina is
Kabi and his mother's Nzikn. Through his mother he
is related to Tati, whose grandparents had this animal
{Nziku) as their Xina.

^th Class. Certain offices or situations carry certain
Xina with them. The office of Funm Zinkondi or Zin-
kata, the pig, Ngidubu ^; the office of Badungu, the Nziku\
the office of Nganga Mptmzi, food cooked by an unmarried
woman. This class is called Xina Xisalu.

6th Class. Each Xibila [sacred grove] has its Xina
(tabu). Bunzi hates unmarried women ; Xikumbi (a
maiden) is therefore its Xina. Xikanga and Nxiluka
hate a noise ; the goat {Nkombo) is their Xina. This
class is called Xina Xinkicici.

yth Class. When natives are sick and are undergoing
treatment certain foods are Xina, and as often as not
the patient is ordered henceforth not to allow a companion
to eat certain flesh together with him. This is called
Xina Xibilongo (medicine-tabu).

8th Class. Certain household fetishes, bracelets, etc.,
carry with their ownership certain restrictions as to food.
The wearer of the Ngofo bracelet may not eat the fish
Mpuli with another person ; he may not kill and eat an
animal on the same day. This is Xina Bakici.

Qth Class. — Now parts of some animals are found in
the sacred groves. This summed-up class is called Xina
Xibifumba? These Bina of the Bavili are as follows :

The skin of the leopard only finds its way into a
Xibila as part of the dress of the individual. Neither

^[See ante, p. 378, n. 2.]

2 The objects enumerated under this head are found in all properly-furnished
Bibila in Loango.

Bavili Notes. 399

the eel nor the cricket are found there, but the Mpakasa
is (in Loango) the greatest of the symbols entering there,
and so we will commence with it.

The wild ox in the stories of the Bavili is generally-
found acting as the servant or ambassador of either
the leopard or some princely animal. As often as not
it is sacrificed while in the discharge of some duty.
Thus when Nzambi sent him for the wagtail's drum he
was killed by the followers of that bird {Folklore of the
Fjort, p. 125).

The wild ox is always on the alert for the slightest
noise, it is peculiarly sensitive to sound. The horns
and head of this animal are found in the Bibila.

The tail of the ox called Mawso is the sign of office
of all the Kongozovo (district-chiefs) among the Bavili.

Bafu, the saw-fish, the snout of which the Badungu
carry as their sign of office. This snout is found in
the Bibila (plural of Xibila).

Nkaka, a kind of crocodile (distinct from the Ngandu
or crocodile in the Kongo). This reptile is eaten by
Bakuni or woodmen of the Mayomba district to the
east of Maloango's composite kingdom. It digs out its
home underground in the banks of rivers. The hole
is of the shape of the letter )-^^ , and great danger is
encountered by the Bakuni in hunting and killing it.
The hunter by lighting a fire at the entrance (i) drives
the reptile into the bend (2, 3). He then carries stones
into the hole and blocks up entrance No. 2, and lights
another fire at the entrance No. 3, and so suffocates
his prey. Should the hunter venture beyond No. 2 with-
out having blocked it up, the Nkaka is apt to slip
through it and block up the main entrance with his
body, so that the hunter becomes captive and certain
pr-sy. One of the scales {makii) of this reptile is to
be found in the Bibila.

Beci is what the Portuguese call silver fish. It causes

400 Bavili Notes.

great havoc with the fishing nets, as it is a great
struggler. The saying Kubela Nkanu, to lose right in
a palaver, is connected with it. Its scales are found in
the Xibila.

SusiL, the fowl. White fowls are used as offerings
by those going to a Xibila to ask a favour. A fowl
is generally found tied by a string to a peg in the
ground in front of a sick man whom the Nganga is
trying to cure. It is a sign of good faith, and is supposed
to die if the Nganga in the presence of his fetish does
not act fairly. It is killed, and its blood used in certain
medicines {Ximenga). They call it Mafiika (messenger)
among the animals, and there is a saying Miiana Susu
Kulemba Kiiciata Kzdala Nzala. (The young of the
fowl goes to sleep hungry if its mother does not scratch
for food for it.) Its feathers are found in the Bibila.

Ngwali or Ngumbi or Xilazulolo = t\\Q partridge. The
story goes that a Mr. Partridge fell in love with a Mrs.
Fowl, and went home with her, but passed a very wretched
night in the coop owing to his fear of Mr. Fowl, and
to the fact that the owner of the village gave loud
orders at midnight to his people to kill a fowl in the
morning before letting the fowls out, as he expected
some friends the next day. The partridge got away. It
is the bird that is killed by sons for their mothers when
their husbands have neglected them for strange women.
The head and feet of this bird are found in the Bibila.

Makiuihila, the cockle-shells, that, together with the
oyster-shells, the people of Mamboma cast at the people
of Buali who have carried the coffin of Ntawtela (the
dead king) as far as the nwnbu tree.^ A mound of these
shells is found in the Bibila.

* It is the duty of Mamboma to carry out the burial rites of a defunct
king and the election of his successor. The inhabitants of the capital
must carry the corpse as far as a certain tree, where the burying-party
take charge of it, and forcibly drive away their predecessors.

Bavili Notes. 401

Maili, oysters. The saying Yau Misamu Yi Mali
Maili gives us to understand tiiat the palaver to be
talked out is no small matter, and that it is as hard
as an oyster to open. A mound of these shells is found
in the Bibila.

Mboina, the boa-constrictor. Its skin is found in the
Bibila.

Tele, the whale. Its vertebrae {Kala Kala Mbusd) are
in the Bibila, and are said to point out that people come
there from all parts. Tele Nsamu is to open a palaver.

Nkombo, the goat. When a member of a village has
committed some crime worthy of death, a town's meet-
ing is called, and if there be one dissenting voice against
his being put to death, his family supply a goat in his
place. This is killed, and every member of the com-
munity must eat a little of it. This custom is called
Muntu Fundii Nkombo Fundu. Thus both the goats
and the fowl are Ximenga. The goat's skin is used in
the Bibila to sit upon instead of the usual grass mat.
It is looked upon as noisy and lascivious.

Sungu is a large antelope ; and the saying is that
the Sungu always feeds on the tops of hills, and is
therefore always ready to catch sight of his enemy
{Sungu Mbakala Muntu Ke Kulila Mu Binanga). To
look out becomes a habit of mind {Sunga) with it. Its
head and horns are in the Bibila.

Nzau, the elephant. The chief of all the world, the
great giver of food {kulawmbo ndundu ku miteka), for when
it is killed people come with matets (baskets) and seem
to be for ever coming and carrying its flesh away; and
the story goes that it was led from Kakongo by a single
string of piassava {nkawxi ba kawkila Jizau mu luvusu).
Nzau is a pet name given to little babies. The hairs of
its tail are found in the Bibila round the necks of
people.

Mpiliy the spitting viper. This snake is said to object

402 Bavili Notes.

very much to noise, or to being disturbed in any way.
The people of the town of Mpili hold this viper in great
respect and will not allow the grass around the town to be
burnt for fear of disturbing it. Its skin is found in the
Bibila.

Nkala iVuma Xivanji Mania in full), the crab.
Kufzva nkala xifundii inizi (the claws of the crab nip
even after it is dead). After having held their breath
with fright, the danger being over, the Bavili give vent
to a sigh or groan of relief. This action they call ku
vumina. But the impression of fear remains, and
the above saying is applied to it. The crab Nkala, the
sea, and the sun, are opposed to the leopard Ngo^ the earth,
and the moon. Thus nkala ngo come to mean the yes
and no of a question, the Roe and Doe of the British
law courts. The claws of the crab are found in the basket
of bilongo (medicine) in the Bibila.

Nquiinbike ku vuka, the shark that devours. (The word
qimnbuka is to fear, relating to that cringing fear caused
by a guilty conscience). The kubu, or fin, of the shark
is found in the basket of bilongo in the Bibila.

Nknfn, the turtle. Nkufi means short in stature. Nimi
nknfu u i natina muanza, the husband-turtle who carries
the roof (of his shimbec) on his back. This animal has
a very bad character ; he is noted for his treachery and
deceit, taking a mean advantage over those he has
promised to reward. For instance, " he " is said to have
made a trading compact with a man. They formed two
traps to catch game. He chose the best one. The man
agreed, as they were partners, and he said it did not
matter where the game was trapped as it would be
shared between them. An antelope was caught by the
turtle's trap. Instead of calling his partner to share the
spoil he engaged the ox to carry it to his town, promising
him a share for his trouble. When the antelope had been
cut up he sent the ox away to clean the plates, etc. Then

Bavili Notes. 403

he hid away the food in his strong shimbec. When the
ox came back the meat could not be found, and he was
much annoyed. He resolved to destroy the turtle's trap.
Unfortunately he was caught in it. The turtle then called
the leopard to help him, and played the same dirty trick
upon him. The leopard swore vengeance and went to the
trap and so arranged it that it appeared that he also is
caught in it. The turtle came along and gloated over his
friend's apparent misery, but when he put his head out of
his shell to have a look and smell at his victim, the leopard
snapped it off The leopard then went to the turtle's town
and ate up all the food there, and then told the partner
what he had done. The man recognized that the turtle
deserved his fate. The shell of the turtle is found in
the Bibila.

Nbiibu (or Nguvu\ the hippopotamus ; u nlila ngolo, the
hippopotamus that eats very much. The word vtiba is to
take altogether too much for one's self There are many
amphibious animals, but only four of which these words
are used, nxelo kii bakoko 7isakiiso kit via mbazn, as
a protection for the mouth of his bellows the blacksmith
places an earthenware nozzle over it (so must men protect
themselves against the fires which burn Zindoxi). These
four are Kimbolo, the Nile crocodile, Ngandu, the Indian
crocodile (another way of calling a man a witch), Banibi,
the monitor lizai'd, and the Nguvu or Nbuvii. The head of
the hippopotamus is found in the Bibila.

Mbambi Ngombi, the monitor lizard. They say that
this lizard came along a road carrying a long basket or
matet of salt. He noticed the little cricket Nkawla resting
in the leaf of the Licisa (string-plant). " Get off that tree,"
says the Mbambi, " and allow me to rest this load of
mine against its trunk." " Why," answered the Nkawla
" use such a false picture to deceive me } You know
that this is not a tree, and you know that you simply wish
to kill and eat me. I am here, kill me ! " And the

404 Bavili Notes.

Mbambi snapped at the Nkawla and devoured it. The
skin of this lizard is found in the basket of bilongo in
the Bibila.

Nkabi, the saddleback antelope : ku kabika ncitu tnuntu
li monio ku kabika buala buandi kutunga (as) the antelope
leaves the woods to die (so) when the man leaves his
town stockade he also dies. The word kaba is to divide.
The horns of this antelope form the symbol of the parting
of the ways, signifying, " We are all from one stock and
agree together along one road until we come to the
parting of the ways." The horns are found in the Bibila.

Nsexi {Seci or Saci) a kind of gazelle that is also known
by the name Kinkuba (an axe) and Kirnpiti (half a
matchet). What a beautiful yet deceitful and undutiful
animal this is, is well shown in the stories Nos. 4 and
19 in Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort. Its head and
horns are found in the Bibila.

Nvuli (the water-buck). Its head and horns are found
in the Bibila.

Ngulnbu, the pig. Ngnhtbii Ngidu Mbakala ke ku mana
Mayaka, it is the pig that steals the manioc (in the
market). After certain palavers, certain household fetishes
like Mpundnt are washed in the blood of the pig. Its
dried blood also enters into many bilongo. It is the head
of the pig that enters the Bibila.

Xingolo Xinyundu the otter. Xingolo xin yunda,
Xibango Ngola Maci. This saying is a figurative way of
implying that the wife should satisfy the desire of her
husband. The skin of the otter is used in the place of the
proverbial fig-leaf as a sporran. All princes in their visits
to the Bibila wear this skin.^

^ There are two kinds of skins worn in this way by the Fjort ; nkanda ndici
a wild cat skin, and xin;:;oli xinyundu., the otter skin. Those who wear these
skins are considered to-day very decent people, but there is one thing about
them that one must always bear in mind, and that is, when you take them off
don't pull them downwards, but take care to pull them upwards between the
belt and the cloth ; otherwise you will have no children.

Bavili Notes. 405

There are five kinds of fish forming the class Mbizi
Xibala, the spikes of which enter into bilongo, they are
Xiendo, Mpudi, Nkoko, Ngola, and Xibiiela. Mpiidi and
Ngola are the cat-fish, the others rays.

Nzikii the chimpanzee. Nziku Nkondo, as the saying
goes, " Be careful how you choose your friends." Nzika
ke kn zika niina muntu, " an apparently friendly man may
get one into a big palaver." Nziku is the Xina of mankind
generally. It is not only that there is a certain resem-
blance between man and the chimpanzee in their outward
form but they have many habits in common. It carries
its young on its back and walks about the woods upon its
hind legs with the help of a stick. It fights with a
stick. But above all it is very gallant and treats its
pregnant wife with the greatest respect, running away from
her when she is annoyed instead of beating her. Unlike
other animals it is never caught in the act of copulation.
But in spite of all this the Bavili say that man must
not be led to believe that the chimpanzee is an animal
that he can make a real friend of Its skin is found in the
Bibila.

It is said that the King, Maloango, has no Xina, but
as Fttmic his Xina is pig, and he must have his family
Bina also.

When a person wishes to refuse a request he has simply
to mention his Xina. Thus supposing his Xina to be
Ngwali, the person says Ngwali : the words Minu i
Ciabakoko (I have it not) being understood. The word
Kazila (no road) is often used for the word Xina.

We may now I think conclude that this remarkable
word Xina means a law, a thing forbidden, an abomina-
tion.

R. E. Dennett.

Postscript. — There is a class of people called Mavumba
( Vumba, to leak) living in diff"erent districts of Kakongo

4o6 Bavili Notes.

and just in the southern borders of Loango who are
not allowed to eat out of the same dish as the Bavili,
or people of Kakongo. Should one ask for food he must
tell the people that he is Mavumbu, but as it is a great
disgrace to admit this, such a one seldom does ask another
for it. I know one or two very rich and important
men in the country, whose names I will not mention, who
are Mavumbu. But where these people came from I
cannot find out, neither can I make out why they should
be so cursed.^

^ Father T. Derouet informs me that the tribe the Bavili call Bakutu call
themselves Bavumbu or Bahumbu, and that their greatest fetish {sic) is Ngo.
Can these people be the family or tribe from vifhich the Mavumbu have
descended ?

My linguister, Bayona, who has lived among these people, adds that when
the father or prince of the tribe dies, his head (Father Derouet says his hands
also) is allowed to remain in the water until all the flesh comes away from it,
when it is kept in a hut apart, and carried with the family should it remove to
some other part. His penis is also cut off and smoked and then worn as
a charm by his first wife's eldest son.

[Plate XXIX. (p. 3S5), represents a Nail-fetish, one of several figures
presented to the Exeter Museum by Mr. Dennett. It is two feet in height,
carved from a single block of wood, with looking-glass eyes. It is painted red
round the eyes, and wears a sackcloth muffler and a headdress of blue-green
feathers. The charm-box in the stomach has been broken and many of the
nails are gone, leaving holes only. We have to thank Mr. F. R. Rowley,
F.R.M.S. (Curator), for the photograph, and Mr. Edwin Mollis for these
particulars. — Ed.]

THE LEGEND OF MERLIN.

BY M. GASTER.

{Read at Meeting, 20th June, 1905.)

One of the central figures in the Arthurian cycle is that
of the uncanny prophet and magician Merlin. His whole
history is surrounded with so much mystery, and so many
inexplicable incidents are interwoven in the relation of his
birth and his further activity that they have baffled the
ingenuity of many a scholar. I now endeavour to make
a contribution towards the elucidation of some of the
most prominent features of the romance. We must not
forget that we are dealing with a written and not with
an oral literature. The individuality of the author is
more pronounced and the personal equation much easier
to determine than in the anonymous remnants which
have been retained by the memory of the folk. Each
poem is a literary monument which must be critically
examined, in the same way as we are now examining
and dissecting every other literary remains of ancient
times.

And here the personality of the author ought to
occupy the first place. I may not have seen all that
has been written on these mediaeval rom.ances, but as
far as I know there is nowhere a critical study of the
personality of their authors. We do not find any clear
description of their lives and learning, of the circumstances
under which they wrote, the influences to which they were

4o8 The Legend of Merlin.

exposed and the range of knowledge at their disposal.
What did they know and how did they know the things
of the past, and what kind of knowledge was popular {i.e.
acceptable to their readers and listeners) ? The atmosphere
of a society colours every product and moulds, consciously
or unconsciously, the mental activity of the bard and of
the poet.

Two or three points deserve our close attention. In
the first place, what was the occupation of the authors,
especially the authors of the prose romances which we
rnay assume precede every romantic poem ? (For the
story is first written down, and afterwards taken up by
the trouvcre and versified, as it is to be sung before
the barons at the festive board and later on, when it
has become a popular tale or a shorter ballad, among
the lower bourgeoisie.) The art of writing was in that
early period known to but few. The little knowledge
which the Middle Ages possessed was almost a mono-
poly of the clergy. The clerk, as the name denotes,
was in most cases a cleric. The historiographers and
chroniclers were as a rule monks and priests, and they
wrote as often as not for the special edification of those
readers and for the praise and honour of those places, with
which they stood in close contact. Every clever writer
would enhance and extol the virtues of his special saint
and of the church devoted to the memory of that saint.
His miracles would be retailed to a believing and loving
public almost to the exclusion of any other saint, and the
worship of the local shrine was thus continued from olden
times in a new setting. The clerical authors drew their
inspiration from the religious literature with which they
lived in daily connection. They saw things only and
solely through the glasses of ancient legendary lore and
could not find greater praise for their own saints and
heroes than to liken them to those that shone to them
from the pages of the old books they so much revered

The Legend of Merlin. 409

and whose personages seemed to them the acme of human
and divine achievement.

The second point to which I must draw attention is that
the records of olden times, of persons and places, were not
understood by the people unless translated into their own
surroundings, dressed in their garb, speaking their language,
and behaving in the same manner as their contemporaries
were behaving. The heroes of the Homeric poems, the
exploits of Alexander, were viewed from a standpoint of
the knight and the tournament. Unless Alexander, or say
Ajax and Achilles, accommodated themselves to put on the
armour of the knight and to act the way the people acted
they would have been ignored. The whole ancient world
became a living contemporary ; the heroes obeyed the code
of chivalry with all its complicated etiquette. One can
scarcely recognise the old heroes under the new disguise,
and it requires a whole system of reconstruction and re-
arrangement in order to recognise old acquaintances in the
knights of the mediaeval romances. Yet the difference is
one of detail and setting, not of incident or motif}

And thirdly, what were the literary methods of these
authors .-* A close investigation of the whole romantic
literature reveals, side by side with great poetical force, a
surprising poverty of invention. The situations and
incidents told of one hero are repeated ad nauseam
by every subsequent poet. Nay, whole cycles of
romances are bodily taken over and applied to other
heroes than those of whom they were originally
composed. Too well known to be emphasised again
is the transfer of the whole Merovingian cycle to

^ How the new chivalry came to life at that time is a problem with which
I cannot deal here, nor is it an easy task to trace its origin to an indisputable
source. Suffice it for us to note the fact that the refined form of chivalrous
adventures, the beloved theme of the subsequent romantic literature, does not
appear in Europe before the end of the eleventh century, and follows as it were
in the wake of the Crusades and as a sequel to the exploits in the East and to
the close contact with the new world which opened to the European knight.

4IO The Legend of Merlin.

the Carolingian. The old kings and knights gave
way to new kings and knights, but only the names
were changed, the rest remained almost unaltered. The
same process of transfer from older and more or less
forgotten heroes takes place continually ; new names are
substituted for the old, and local considerations play a
decisive role in the transfer. The trouvere who sings
the exploits of the ancestor of this baron will use the
same language and ascribe the same exploits to the
ancestor of another baron when he sings in his hall and
at his banqueting feast. The same tendency prevails
everywhere and at every time. We meet with it at almost
every turn in the epical poetry of the East, and of the
West. It is one of the constant factors in the develop-
ment and evolution of the ballads. Sufficient attention
has not been paid to this point. Here and there
this transfer and change has been admitted, but not
recognised as an universal law, only as an exceptional
incident. I on the contrary find in this practice of
constant substitution, the very key to the problem of
the sources from which the ancient writers have drawn
their inspiration. Their skill consisted in giving a thorough
local character to a tale borrowed from elsewhere and
in so changing the colouring as to impress their con-
temporaries and to win their applause.

This, then, is my starting-point in the investigation of
the sources of the Merlin legend. Our earliest authority
for it is the Chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth.^ I there-
fore ask myself: — Given a monk at a local shrine, endowed
with some poetical imagination, to what kind of literature
could he have had access in England at the end of
the eleventh or twelfth century .? What mass of tradition
could be floating about him, to be caught up and fixed
in his writings } and for what kind of audience did he

^ See my article on /ewish Sources and Parallels to Early English
Metrical Romances^ 1807.

The Legend of Merlin. 411

write in the hope of appealing to their sentiments and win-
ning their approval ? How great was his naivete and their
credulity ? As for the last there is no limit to either,
but as for his learning we must take it as restricted
within a very narrow compass. Primarily his mind must
have been saturated with Christian religious literature
largely composed of legendary matter ; the innumerable
lives of saints and holy anchorites, the vast apocryphal
literature, were the great storehouse of his information
and inspiration. The Golden Legend was not only
the first book printed by Caxton, but also one of the
earliest with which every cloister was familiar. It must
also not be forgotten that the Apocrypha found their
earliest home in England long before any other country
in Europe. The oldest poems of Caedmon and the oldest
Mysteries written here go back primarily to these apo-
cryphal tales and legends. The very centre of the Graal
legend rests ultimately on these uncanonical writings,
modified, no doubt, to some extent by other motives and
interpretations of a mystical nature, which again have
their root in mediaeval Christian mystical speculation upon
transubstantiation and the spiritualisation of the Mass and
Sacrament.

Can we then find anything in that religious literature
which, if stripped of its modern accoutrement and changed
into its more primitive form, could be considered as one
of the sources for the legends clustering round the name
of Merlin ? which may briefly be related as follows :

Vortigern, king of Britain, determined to erect an
impregnable castle, in which he might defy all attempts
of his enemies. Having made this decision he pitched
upon a spot on Salisbury Plain, traced out the plan of
the fortifications, sent for artificers, carpenters, and stone-
masons, and collected all the materials requisite to
building ; but the whole of these disappeared in one
night, so that nothing remained of what had been pro-

412 The Lege7id of Merlin.

vided for the construction of the citadel. Materials were,
therefore, procured from all parts a second and a third
time, and again vanished as before, leaving and rendering
every effort ineffectual. Vortigern inquired of his wise
men and astronomers the cause of this opposition to his
undertaking, and of so much useless expense of labour.
They replied : "You must find a child born without a father,
put him to death, and sprinkle with his blood the ground
on which the citadel is to be built, or you will never
accomplish your purpose."

In consequence of this reply the king sent messengers
throughout Britain to search for a child born without a
father. After having inquired in all the provinces, three
out of seven came to the field of Aelecti, in the district
of Glevesing, where a party of boys were playing at balL
•And two of them quarrelling, one said to the other, " O boy
without a father, no good will ever happen to you." Upon
this the messengers drew their swords, conceiving they
had found what they sought. But Merlin — for he was the
boy — after rebuking his companion for his indiscretion,
ran to the messengers, and, to their great astonishment,
told them the whole circumstances of their mission, assuring
them at the same time that Vortigern's wise men were
fools, and that all the blood in his veins would not in
any way contribute to the solidity of the intended castle.
He then conducted them to his mother, who told them
the history of his miraculous birth, which is, in short, as
follows : — She was one of three sisters, of whom the
two first went astray, and she herself was deceived by
a (devil) semi-demon in shape of a man. As soon as
this was found out she was brought before the Judge
to be condemned to death. But St. Blaise, her confessor,
believed her, and interfered in her favour to postpone
the judgment until two years after the birth of the
child. When that event took place St. Blaise baptised
it immediately, and counteracted the wicked purposes of

The Legend of Merlin. 413

the devil. After a time, when the mother was bewailing
her fate, the new-born child opened his mouth, and said
to his mother, " Be not dismayed, for you shall never be
judged to death for my cause."

When the two years were expired, she appeared in
court with her child in her arms, when, to the astonish-
ment of all, the infant undertook her defence. He then
proceeded to tell that he was the son of a devil of great
power, though fortunately rescued by an expeditious
baptism from the vicious dispositions of his paternal
relations; that he could prove his preternatural descent
by revealing all things, past, present, or future. And
at the same time he told the Judge some very unpleasant
truths about his own descent, wnich convinced him of
the prophetic power of Merlin and of the innocence of
his mother. Five years after this, by the advice of Merlin,
she assumed the veil of a nun, and spent the remainder
of her life in acts of devotion.

Merlin was just seven years old when he was met by
the messengers, who, at his entreaty not to shed his
blood, promised to spare his life, and they decided to
bring him alive to Vortigern.

The journey lasted three days, and each of these added
to the admiration of the messengers for their young
companion. I will mention here only one of his acts.
They passed the first night in a market town, the streets
of which were crowded by merchants ; and here Merlin
after a long silence, burst into a sudden and violent fit
of laughter. On being questioned about the cause of
his mirth, he pointed out to the messengers a young
man who was bargaining for a pair of shoes with un-
common earnestness. And he said : " See you not that
young man that has shoon bought, and strong leather to
mend them ? He thinks that he will live them to wear ;
but, by my soul, I dare well swear he will be dead before
he enters his gate." The event immediately followed

414 The Legend of Merlin.

the prediction. So also, in two other cases, his pro-
phecies came true.

When he knew of Merlin's arrival, Vortigern rode for-
ward to meet him in great magnificence. The following
day Vortigern conducted the child to the site of his
projected castle. Merlin, before answering, wished to be
confronted with the astronomers who had thirsted for
his blood, and asked them why they had counselled the
King to slay him. At the same time he revealed to
them that they dreaded him, and that they feared he
might cause their death if he should live, and there-
fore they had devised to kill him. He then asked the
permission of the King to question them as to the cause
of the destruction of the castle, and why it could not be
built ; and requested that if they should not know it,
whilst he did so, he might then do with them what they
thought to do with him. The King consented to every thing
he asked, and the astronomers felt abashed, and declared
humbly that their art had certainly deceived them, but
the signs seen in the heavens could not admit another
interpretation. They also did not know the cause of the
tumbling down of the walls. Merlin proceeded then to
say that immediately below the soil were two deep pools
of water; below the water two huge stones, and below
the stones two enormous serpents, the one white as milk,
the other red as fire ; that they slept during the day,
but regularly quarrelled every night, and by their efforts
to destroy each other occasioned an earthquake which
demolished the building. Merlin ordered the workmen
to dig away the earth. The water was soon discovered,
and, by sinking wells, was wholly drawn out. The two
stones were found at the bottom, and being removed,
exhibited the tremendous serpents, which looked like
fiends of hell. The struggle between the two began, and
ended with the victory of the white serpent, which, how-
ever, disappeared after the combat. Merlin explained

The Legend of Merlin. 415

the symbolical meaning of this fight, and this forms
his famous prophecy, composed or versified by Geoffrey
of Monmouth, which forms now the eighth book of his
History. It was delivered by a child, and remained obscure
until to-day.

To start at once with the final result which it will be my
duty to prove, Vortigern and Merlin are here the late and
somewhat confused outcome of a more ancient Oriental
tale which belongs to the cycle of King Solomon and
Ashmedai or Asmodeus. The history of Jovinian in Gesta
Romanorum} compiled in the thirteenth century, offers us
also one side of that same cycle and shows that the series
of legends connected with Solomon had already reached
Europe some time before and had become completely
assimilated by the writers of the Middle Ages, following
the principles of transformation I have sketched above.
The differences between the oldest version of the Solomon
story and that of Geoffrey show unmistakably that the
form only reached Geoffrey after it had undergone many a
change in the course of time, for only after the belief in the
Incubus had taken deep root in the minds of the people
could such an origin as that of Merlin be believed in. In
a former stage another origin would be ascribed to the
wonderful child. We find one of these intermediary stages
in a remarkable book, in which is related the legendary
history of Jesus ben Sira, the author of the collection of wise
sayings which forms part of the biblical Apocrypha.- This
legendary biography agrees in the main with the child
history of Merlin. Almost every incident is found there,
naturally differently set, but all the vital points are there.
His mother is the daughter of the prophet Jeremia and the
latter is his father in a miraculous manner. One can easily
detect that either name is there of a late origin and has been

"^ Ed. Oesterley (Berlin, 1872) ; No. 59, p. 360.

'^ Alphabetum Pseudo-Siracidicum, ed. S. Seinschmeider (Berlin, 1S58),
f. 1 6(5, sq.

4i6 The Legend of Merlin.

substituted for another now efifaced. In the Slavonic version
of the history of the Sibylla/ we find another parallel to this
peculiar miraculous birth. She is the daughter of King
David begotten in a supernatural way, and this origin ex-
plains in both cases the ulterior prophetic wisdom of the
offspring. (Incidentally I remark here that the Sibylla has
been identified with the Queen of Sheba.) In the latter case
the child becomes the prophesying Sibylla, and in the former
the history goes on to tell marvellous adventures which
bring the Sira story in closer similarity still to the Merlin
legend. For Sira or Sirach speaks to his mother imme-
diately after birth and comforts her, protecting her against
the abuse of the world, almost with the same words as used
by Merlin, who also protects his mother and proves her
innocence. Sira's wisdom spreads far and wide and excites
the envy and animosity of the astrologers and magicians at
the court of king Nebuchadnezzar. They decide therefore
on his destruction, and induce the king to send armed
messengers to bring him, and to put to him such questions
as he would be unable to answer ; and thus hope to compass
his death. The messengers find him, and after some trouble
bring him to the king. He is then just seven years old,
exactly the same age as Merlin when he appears before
King Vortigern. At the court he easily discomfits his
adversaries and causes their death instead of his by means
of clever riddles. After that a discussion arises between
the king and the child, who answers all the questions put
to him, as well as cures the daughter of the king who is
suffering from a strange disease. He then remains as the
trusted counsellor of the king. His further fate is left as
mysterious as his birth, and no mention of his death
occurs.

We have in this legend a late and modified version of a
much older tale, in which the principal actors are on the

^ V, Gaster, Literatura poptilara romana (Bucuresti), p. 338 ; L. Miletici,
Stornikure (Sofia, 1893), ^ol- i^-j PP- 177-180.

The Legend of Merlin. 417

one side King Solomon, whose place has been taken here
by Nebuchadnezzar, who is already turned to a kind of
buffoon, and on the other a demon, whose place has been
taken by a wonderful child with prophetic powers and of
a half-human and half-demoniacal nature.^ This version
proves that at the end of the seventh century (for I place
the date of the history of Sira at that period), the old
legend had undergone sufficient change to approximate
it to the legend of Merlin. But we must assume the
existence of a fuller text of this form of the legend in
which some of the older incidents had been preserved
which have dropped out of the Sira version. In the old
Solomon version we find the following incidents, which
occur again in the Merlin version but not in the inter-
mediate oneof Sira. Solomon is anxious to build the Temple,
but must not use any iron for cutting the stones. The
only person that can help him is the king of the demons,
Ashmedai, whom his general Benayah captures by a clever
trick and who fastens a chain round him upon which the
ineffable name of God had been engraved, so that he could
not break it. On the way to the king the demon meets a
bridal pair, and he weeps ; he sees a wizard prophesying
and promising to others riches, and he laughs ; he sees a
man bargaining for a pair of shoes and asking whether they
would last him for seven years, and again he laughs; and so
he does many strange things until brought before King
Solomon, where he continues to act in a similar manner.
When asked a few days later to explain the reason of his
weeping at a bridal procession and his merriment at the
man asking for a pair of shoes that would last a long time,

^ It is not here the place to discuss a possible and very plausible connection
between this version of the legend and other legends current at that and at
earlier times, in Asia, about the virgin birth. Suffice it to remark that in the
in*ant history of Jesus the son of Sirach we find surprising parallels to the
apocryphal " Gospel of the Infancy," notably in the incidents of the precocious
child and the teacher, which child instead of being taught takes the role of the
teacher.

2 D

4 1 8 The Legend of Merlin.

he replies that in the former case the bride would die soon,
and that the buyer of shoes which are to last for seven
years would not complete seven days.^

I pass over other incidents which do not touch our
question. It is only important to notice the strange be-
haviour of the demon and the dialogue which follows between
him and the king. This later portion has been influenced
afterwards by other legends of such witty dialogues and
the putting of riddles to Solomon, or by Solomon to other
reputed clever people, and is the ultimate source of the
whole cycle of Solomon and Morolf,or Saturn and Marculph.^
The legend related by Josephus^ of the riddles put by
Solomon and King Hiram through Abdemon may have
contributed to introduce a demon into the legend. The
Queen of Sheba, who is the hero of other witty contests with
King Solomon, according to widely spread Oriental legends,
partakes also of the character of a demon or a genie.
She has the feet of a demon, and is thus half human and
half demoniacal, and she is also identified later on with the
prophesying Sibylla. This form is then transplanted into
the next development of the legend in Europe, of which
we have the Romance of Solomon and Morolf in German
and the still more important Slavonic version of Solomon
and Kitovras, which Vesselofsky in his exhaustive study ^
of this cycle of legends has proved to be a corruption from
Kentauros^ the half-human half-animal creature of Greek
mythology. The contest then is between Solomon and
a being which in consequence of the Christian colouring
could no longer be a heathen Kentauros, but follows the
lines of the Sirach version, and becomes a child in which
the demoniacal half is represented by the father and not
by the actual semi-human form.

^ Talniud ; Treat. Gittcn, f. 68.

^Gaster, Lit. pop., p. 79, ff.

^Josephus, Antiq., viii., 53.

*A. N. Vesselofsky, O Solomone i Kitovras {Si. Petersburg, 1872).

The Legend of Merlin. 419

How did this old legend then come over to England ?
No doubt in one of those collections of religious legends
and tales which formed the library of the cloister, and
reveal clearly the atmosphere in which the writers of
those times moved. Their scholarship could not be very
extensive, and we must therefore try and find the sources
of such legends in such books as could be within the
reach of the writers of the age. I need not again em-
phasise the fact that in the so-called Gesta Romanoriun
(which, according to Oesterley, the greatest authority on
the subject, were first collected in England), we find
other stories of the Solomon cycle.'-

I will now give, in as faithful a translation as I
can command, a legend which I have found in an old
Rumanian manuscript, embedded among miracles of the
Virgin Mary and of St. Nicholas. It will prove, I hope,
the existence of the missing link between the Oriental
tale and the Western Christian counterpart and indicate
the way and the possibility how such legends could have
become known to the monks in the West. The tale
in itself I consider a gem from a purely poetical point
of view, and were it not that I bring it forward in this
connection I intended publishing it separately as one
of the most beautiful tales I have found among the
Exempla and Gesta of old.

The tale (in my MS. 71) is called: "How it came to
pass that the Archangel Gavriil served an abbot for thirty
years," and is as follows :

" Once upon a time it came 10 pass that the Lord sent
the Archangel Gabriel to take away the soul of a widow
woman, and, going there, he found her near death and two

^ Such as the contest of Solomon with the demon Asmodeus and his
obtaining the miraculous stone-cutting worm Tamir or Shamir (so already
in Petrus Comestor's Hisioria Scholastica and in other writers, such as
Vincent of Beauvais, etc.); the humbling of Solomon through this very
demon, Solomon being changed into King Jovinian. To this cycle belongs
also the "Angel and the Hermit," inculcating similar moral teaching.

420 The Legend of Merlin.

twins were suckling at her breasts. The angel seeing it
took pity upon them and returned without having carried
out His command, not having taken the soul of the widow.
This happening he was asked by the almighty power
of God, why he had done so. He replied, ' For the sake
of those two children I did not take the soul of their
mother.' Then the Lord told him to plunge into the
depths of the sea and to bring up a stone from the bottom.
When he brought it up the Lord told him, ' Cleave it in
twain.' And the Archangel cleft the stone and he found
therein two little worms. 'Who feeds these worms inside
the stone at the bottom of the sea .-' ' asked the Lord.
And Gabriel replied, 'Thine abundant mercies, O Lord!'
And the Lord said, ' If mine abundant mercies feed these
worms inside the hard rock, how much more would I feed
the children of men whom I have saved with my own
blood ! ' Whereupon He sent another angel to take the
soul of the widoW; and the Archangel he condemned
to serve for thirty years as servant to an Abbot and to
take care of him, and at the end of the thirty years he was
to receive the soul of that Abbot and carry it up to the
throne on high. And thus the Archangel became the
servant of the Abbot, and during all the time he was very
humble and meek and obedient, so that the Abbot
marvelled at him and all through those thirty years no one
saw him laugh. One day the Abbot said to him, ' My son,
go and buy me a pair of shoes which are to last one year.'
He then laughed. The Abbot, who did not know that the
serving brother was an angel, wondered at it, and he sent
another brother with him to watch whether he would laugh
again. So the other followed him and they came to a
place where a poor man sat who cried, ' Give alms, have
pity on me,' and the angel laughed again. They met
afterwards a carriage. In it sat the bishop and the
governor of the town with great pomp and pride and many
people following after them. And the angel turned aside

The Legend of Merlin. 421

and laughed again. In the market place they saw a man
stealing an earthenware pot and the angel laughed a fourth
time. After they had finished their purchase they re-
turned to the Abbot and the other brother told the Abbot
that he had laughed three times more. Then the Abbot
asked the angel and said, 'What can this be, what does
this mean, my son ? For thirty years thou hast been
serving me and I have never seen thee laugh, and to-day
thou hast laughed no less than four times.' And the
angel replied, ' I am the Archangel Gabriel and I was once
sent by the Lord to take the soul of a widow whom I
found suckling two children at her breast ; taking pity
on them I spared her, and as punishment for this my doing
have I been sent by the Lord over all to serve thee
thirty years and to protect thee from all evil, and at
the end of the thirty years I am to receive thy soul. Now
the thirty years have come to an end and I will then tell
thee the reason for my laughing. I laughed first when thou
didst order me to buy thee a pair of shoes which were
to last for a year, whilst thou hast barely three days more
to live. I laughed a second time when I heard the beggar
asking for alms whilst he was sitting on a rich treasure
without knowing it. I laughed for a third time when
I beheld the bishop and the governor riding about with
so much pomp and pride, for these were the twins of
the widow on whose behalf I had been punished, and for
a fourth time did I laugh when I saw clay stealing clay.
And this is the reason why I laughed. But do thou now
prepare thyself, for the time of our journey has arrived.'
The Abbot, hearing these words prepared himself and on
the third day he gave up his soul to the Archangel who
took it with him on high, where he joined his heavenly
band rejoicing. Amen."

Thus far this wonderful tale, full of deep faith and
moral beauty, with its impressive lesson of divine provi-
dence and not wanting in human pathos and poetry.

422 The Legend of Merlin.

You will observe that one of the incidents which cause
the angel to laugh is absolutely identical with the incident
in the legend of Merlin, and as I have already pointed
out forms part of the older version of the Solomon
Ashmedai cycle. The Rumanian story goes back, as
does all Rumanian religious literature, either directly,
or indirectly through Slavonic intermediaries, to a Greek
source, and from thence it could have reached England
at an early period, sufficiently early to form part of the
literary repertory of the church or cloister. By means
of this religious literature the legends of the East travelled
and found a ready home in the West.

But there are still incidents in the life of Merlin which
require elucidation. He is forcibly summoned before the
king because he is to explain the reason of the falling
of the foundations of the new castle. The suggestion of
the magicians to sprinkle the foundations with his blood
reminds one forcibly of similar devices and legends in
the East and in the West. They go back to the practice
of human sacrifices which have been practised far and
wide and have not yet entirely died out, though in modern
times the shadow is immured in the foundation in the
belief that the person whose shadow is laid in the founda-
tion of a house is sure to die within the year of the
erection, and he would then be the protecting genius of
the house. I know this practice as a living one in
Rumania, where the gipsies, who are the bricklayers, try
to take the measure of the shadow of any person that
passes by and build it into the foundation.

More important is the solution of the riddle by Merlin,
who orders the builders to dig up the foundations, where
they would find two dragons fighting one another, and
sure when thus liberated to destroy another and thus
remove the cause of the constant falling in of the walls.
There is a curious old legend connected with the building
of the Temple according to which when they dug for

The Legend of Merlin. 423

the foundations they came upon the waters of the deep,
which surged up and threatened to drown the world, until
the advice was given to David (Solomon) to write the
wonder-working name of God upon a stone and to place
it upon the mouth of the waters of the deep. They
would sink and the stone would close the orifice and
thus save the world.^ Yet another legend is current in
Europe, due to the teaching of the Eliicidariiim, that
curious handbook of the Middle Ages into which all the
natural science of the period with all its fantastic
embellishments flowed, and from which many a scholar
of the time drew his information about the phenomena
of nature. We are told there, in the cosmography
of the world, that the earth rests upon water, the
water upon a mighty rock, the rock upon two whales,
and when these whales move there is an earthquake.
There is yet another source, and this approaches the
Merlin legend too closely not to be considered the
true source of the history of the two fighting
dragons. This also is found in a book with which every
priest in olden and modern times might be expected
to be quite familiar, for it is nothing else than the
famous dream of Mordecai in the Apocryphal addi-
tions to the book of Esther. The passage in question
runs as follows : I am giving here the rendering of the
more elaborate Aramaic version (De Rossi),"^ corresponding
to XI, 5-1 1 Greek. "Behold there was a great noise
and tumult and the voice of terrible uproar upon the
whole land and terror and fear seized all the inhabitants
of the earth; and behold there appeared two mighty
dragons and they came one against the other to fight
and all the nations of the earth trembled at the noise
of their fury. And there was a small nation between

^ Talmud ; Treat. Succah, f. 53 a, h.

*J. B. De Rossi, Spec. Var. Cect. et Chald. Essteris addimenta, ed. 2
(Tistering, 1783), p. 122 ff.

424 The Legend of Merlin.

those two dragons and all the nations of the earth rose
up against it to swallow it up. And there were clouds
and darkness and obscurity upon the face of the earth . . .
and the dragons fought one another with cruel fury and
frenzy and no one separated them. And Mordecai beheld
and lo ! a fountain of living water sprang and flowed
between the two fighting dragons and stopped their fight.
And the small fountain swelled into a mighty river and
overflowed like a mighty sea and swept everything off
the face of the earth. And the sun rose up and the rays
lighted up the whole earth."

Here we have the floods at the bottom of the castle
and the two fighting dragons. The small nation may
be represented by the small child. The interpretation
by Mordecai of that symbolical dream, just as Merlin
interprets afterwards the appearance of these two fighting
dragons and their symbolical meaning for the future of
the house of Vortigern, and the Sibylla, Sheba, prophesies
the future when leaving King Solomon.

Let us now briefly sum up the results at which we
have arrived. A king is engaged in the building of an
important house (temple, castle). He cannot carry it out
without the assistance of a being endowed with super-
natural powers (a demon, a half-and-half human and
demoniacal being, a child born under extraordinary cir-
cumstances and endowed with supernatural wisdom).
This being helps the king in his undertakings and defeats
the machinations of its enemies (the demon becomes the
friend, wife, of the king) ; the cause of the trouble is found
in unquenchable floods or in dragons shaking the founda-
tion ; the cause is laid bare and the event is invested with a
symbolical meaning (a prophetic utterance), foretelling the
future. On the way to the king the supernatural being
acts in a curious and apparently unaccountable manner,
but in the end his wisdom and foreknowledge is vindi-
cated by subsequent events. All these elements the

The Legend of Merlin. 425

Merlin legend has in common with the Oriental traditions
which cluster originally round Solomon and which have
been elaborated in the course of time and in many
recensions, the latest of which stands nearest to the
Merlin legend.

What then is more natural than to assume that these
latest versions lie at the bottom of the legend as elaborated
in England by Geoffrey or any of his immediate prede-
cessors, who had, as we have seen, ready access to these
masses of legends and tales. They are an essential and
highly prized part of the vast religious legendary
material, that formed the storehouse of information
in those times. Given the practice of assimilating old
legends to new surroundings and spelling the past in the
letters and ideas of the present, of substituting better
known names for less known ones and making a romance
out of the ancient tales of Greece and Palestine, then this
legend can only be the reflex of the oriental tales and
motives, not even skilfully worked up. One can easily
detect the seams in the coat. The latter part of the
Merlin legend entirely belies the first. There is absolutely
no connection between the later adventures of Merlin
at the courts of Vortigern, Uter, and his son, and the
incidents at the beginning of the tale.

The Lives of the Saints and the tales of pious anchorites,
the Bible with its apocryphal additions, suffice completely
to explain the origin of the legend and I therefore do not
see why we should go outside the immediately possible
and probable and venture upon hypothetical assumptions
of Celtic or other tales, the existence and higher antiquity
of which have still to be proved. Above all it must be
shown how any religious writer came tc know of such
legends and mythical tales, which to his eyes must
have appeared as heathen abominations, which he was
bound to suppress and to banish, being the work of the
Evil Spirit, and not to be supported by his religious zeal

426 The Legend of Merlin.

and devotion. I do not wish to exclude the possibility of
some lay trouvhe introducing later on into the versified
poem some other trait of a local origin, and embellishing
his tale with elements drawn from different sources, but
the proof for this must first be adduced and the premisses
from which I started must not be lost sight of nor
slightingly pushed aside. Not only must we take cogniz-
ance of the atmosphere in which poets and romancers
moved, but also recognise that the same forces which act
in modern times operated also in those days. A man can
only be the product of his time, he cannot soar far above
the limitations of education and surroundings. If in order
to understand a poet we must go to the poet's land, so also
must we go to his library, to his spiritual armoury, to
know whence he has taken his spiritual weapons. The
genius of the poet does not shine so much in what he
says as in how he says it, how he transfigures the elements
with which he deals. He is the true alchemist who
changes the base metals of spurious and wondrous tales
into the gold of immortal poems. Out of simple apoca-
lyptic visions of Heaven and Hell grew the immortal
poem of Dante, and from very inferior Italian novels some
of the most beautiful dramas of immortal Shakespeare.
Lesser geniuses have transformed older Oriental tales into
romances of chivalry, religious tales into phantastic compo-
sitions which delighted the masses of the mediaeval public,
prone to listen to everything supernatural and wondrous, not
over-critical nor fastidious about the fare placed before
them, and satisfied to get a glimpse of another world of
men greater and braver and nobler than themselves, and
of learning, indistinguishable at the time from witchcraft, by
means of which the future could be read as easily as the
past, and the dark powers that surrounded them could be
subdued and made to serve the best and highest interests
of kings and nations.

M. Gaster.

The Legend of Merlin. 427

NOTE ON THE ABOVE.

I CANNOT agree with Dr. Gaster's theory that the prose
romances preceded, and were the sources of, the poetical.
The main body of expert opinion inclines to the other
view; i.e. that lais and metrical romances preceded, and
were elaborated into, the longer prose works. Of the
authors of these prose works we know nothing ; it is
doubtful whether Walter Map, to whom the majority of
them has been described, ever wrote anything of the kind.
M. Gaston Paris has shown that Helie de Boron and
Lucas de Gast, the reputed authors of the Tristan., are
merely assumed names. Such biographical details as Dr.
Gaster sighs for are in the present state of our knowledge
quite unattainable.

Nor is there any reason to believe, save in the case of
the Grand Saint Graal and Qneste, that the author of any
one of these romances was a monk. Nor were the monks
unfamiliar with secular traditions. They were not born
and bred in the cloister, but in many cases came thither
after a long experience of court and camp. Why should
they have forgotten what they knew in the world ?

With regard to the Merlin story, Layamon, who certainly
had access to insular and local traditions, gives a very
different account of his birth. His father was no "demon,"
but a glorious golden-clad knight, who appeared to his
mother in a dream. The story discussed by Dr. Gaster
only touches a very small part of the Merlin-legend. It
affects nothing in his later life and offers no parallel to the
shape-shifting which was so marked a feature of his career ;
nor for his " wood-abiding " madness and his prophecies.
It is quite as likely that a sage of his fame should have
been fitted with a birth-story drawn from a world-wide
tradition, as that the whole Merlin story should have
sprung from such a tradition. All that Dr. Gaster can
claim is to have shown that his birth-story is based upon a
tradition not specifically insular, but world-wide, and of
great antiquity.

Jessie L. Weston.

[See further, p. 462.]

THE RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF THE ARUNTA.

BY N. W. THOMAS.

(See ante, p. 242.)

Readers of the works of Spencer and Gillen cannot fail to
be struck with the fact that, Alcheringa and similar legends
apart, mythology is conspicuous by its absence. This is
the more remarkable because some ten years ago, in the
Report of the Horn Expedition, iv. 183, one of the authors
had given an account of a sky-being named Ulthaana, with
emu feet, who has a wife and a child who never grows
older ; after death too the soul, so far from undergoing
reincarnation, lives with two ulthaana on the shore of a
body of water. This account is in substantial agreement
with the narratives of the missionary, Kempe, in Tracts.
Roy. Soc, S. Aiist., xiv. 244, and of the narratives of the
German missionaries reproduced by Krichauff in Trans.
S. Aust. Br., R.G.S. Aiist., ii. 33 sq., yj sq. It is therefore
somewhat surprising to find little more than a mention of
mythology in the two works produced by Spencer and Gillen.
Among the Arunta they find a bug-bear, Twanyirika^
whom they believe to have been invented to keep the
women and children in order; among the Kaitish there is
a sky-person, Atnatu ; but beyond this superhuman beings
are conspicuous by their absence.

The peculiar philosophy, however, of that part of the
Arunta tribe with which Spencer and Gillen are acquainted,
makes it, on reflection, less surprising that we hear little or
nothing of gods or a future life. For the latter the Arunta

The Religious Ideas of the Arunta. 429

theory of reincarnation leaves no room ; the elimination of
superhuman beings is less easy to explain, however, and
it would have been more satisfactory to learn under what
circumstances it was resolved to omit all mention of the
sky-being known to Gillen in 1896, whose name clearly
means no more than spirit.

With the intention of clearing up some of the difficulties,
I put myself in communication with Mr. Strehlow, mis-
sionary at Hermannsburg, and successor of the gentlemen
whose reports were reproduced by Krichaufif. He is, I
understand, intending to publish in the near future a work
upon the Arunta, of whose language he is a master. I
publish the following communications, for which I take this
opportunity of thanking him most heartily, not as in any
way a complete statement of the beliefs of the southern
Arunta, but as a contribution to the vexed question of the
primitiveness or otherwise of the Arunta beliefs described
by Spencer and Gillen. Mr. Strehlow writes to me in
German ; his letters, dated February nth and August 3rd,
1905, run in a somewhat condensed form as follows :

'* Altjii'a, the god of the Aranda, lives in the sky (or
heaven). He is like a strong man in outward appearance,
save that he has emu-feet, whence he receives the name of
Altjira iliinka, the emu-footed god. He is of reddish skin
(red is the favourite colour of the blacks), and has long hair,
which falls over his shoulders. His dress is a netlike gar-
ment. He eats latjia (a sort of carrot .'') which is always fit
for food in the sky, and eatable berries, such as agi and
lalitja, which are always in season there.

" Altjira is surrounded by handsome youths and immortal
virgins. He is the creator of the heavenly bodies — sun,
moon, and stars. The Milky Way is a river, hence called
by the blacks lara, river, or ulbaia, creek, with fresh water-
holes and fruit ; birds and beasts, too, wander through the
realm of Altjira. When rain clouds come up, it is Altjira
walking through the sky — a good omen for mankind of a

430 The Religious Ideas of the Arunta.

season of plenty. Altjira shows himself to man in the
lightning ; the thunder is his voice. If the lightning
strikes anything, it is Altjira lighting a fire. When Altjira
does not show himself (in the storm cloud) men have to
suffer in a season of drought. Altjira is a good god ; he
never punishes man ; therefore the blacks do not fear him,
and render him neither prayer nor sacrifice."

"An evil being is also known to the blacks — erinja kuna
( = evil spirit) — whom they conceive as a skeleton, but
endued with extraordinary strength. This being sets
himself to rob men of their tjurunga (churinga). If any-
one is ill, he comes from his abode beneath the earth,
Tatara, or Alpara, and puts his foot on the man's throat,
to kill him. This being the blacks fear. From him have
proceeded many " devils," little black beings with a long
thin body, but no arms or legs. Their bodies are covered
with hair and their faces distorted. They come on the
earth at night, and cause pain and disease by entering the
bodies of men."

" In olden days there were giants on the earth ; but the
giant Urbura struck the earth, which was covered with
water, so that the latter was scattered in all directions.
Mangarkunjurkunja, also a strong man, created mankind ;
Twanjirika taught them circumcision."

In reply to a further letter Mr. Strehlow writes as follows:

" The word altjira has in itself no meaning ; but a verb
derived from it, altjirerama, means primarily to become
god ; it is used in the sense of to dream ; for the blacks
think that in dreams are revealed the will of Altjira, or
future events, and pay great attention to them."

"Spencer and Gillen assert {Nor. Tr., p. 745) Xhditalcheri
means dream, and Alcheringa, the dream times ; this is
a mistake. Dream is altjirerinja, a ^x^fd.vao.x, alt jir arena \
a 'dream time' is unknown to the blacks. It is also
erroneous to say that the Aranda believe in reincarnation
of ancestors ; what they believe is, that each birth is an

The Religious Ideas of the Arunta. 431

incarnation of invisible individuals (not merely spirits), who
live in trees, crevices, water-holes, etc., in human or animal
form, and enter the bodies of women, being named after
the species of animals from which they originated. The
soul does not go back to the knanakala place at death,
preparatory to reincarnation ; it goes northwards, to the
island of the dead, called laia, where it wanders for many
years and is finally annihilated. The tjuriinga is not the
abode of the soul, but the body of the dead person, and
is therefore painted with red ochre, and at times decorated
like the body of a living person. The bodily existence
of the deceased ceases with the destruction of the tjurunga.
It is further erroneous to maintain, as do Spencer and
Gillen, that there is no meaning now obtainable for the
tjiiriiuga songs. I have a collection of thirty with a
translation, which are still understood by the chief men."
It is clear from internal evidence that Gillen's Ulthaana
is not a proper name ; the same appears to be the case
with altjira, which, according to Kempe, is applied not only
to five gods, whose names he gives, but also to the sun,
moon, and remarkable things generally. This so entirely
coincides with what we know of theological terminology
in the lower planes of culture that we need have little doubt
of the accuracy of the information. It is hardly possible to
suggest seriously that the beliefs detailed by Kempe and
others are derived from missionaries, whose arrival among
the Arunta only dated back ten years before the publica-
tion of the information. Certain details apart, the in-
formation now published seems equally unassailable on
this ground. " Immortal virgins," it is true, are hardly a
savage conception; but it seems hardly likely that such
an idea would be derived from a Lutheran missionary; if
anything they rather recall the houris of Mohammedanism
than any Christian idea. Probably, however, it is rather
a question of translation than of the invasion of foreign
ideas. If we had the original text before us it would

432 The Religious Ideas of the Arunta.

perhaps turn out that " virgin " is a translation of a word
which means only unmarried female.

If, therefore, these ideas are substantially native in
origin, the question arises. Do they represent the primitive
Arunta creed, or are we rather to turn to the pages of
Spencer and Gillen for an idea of what was originally the
philosophy of the whole Arunta nation ?

Those who are not convinced that the philosophy of the
Arunta is anything more than an interesting " sport " will see
in the opposing camps of Arunta theology fresh evidence
that the ideas of part of the tribe have undergone evolution
away from the main current of Australian belief It is for
those who still maintain that the Arunta of Spencer and
Gillen are the old-established firm to show how another
portion of the nation comes to hold entirely different
views. There are, I conceive, three and only three possible
theories — (i) it may be asserted that the ideas here
published are the product of Christian influence ; or (2) it
may be maintained that they are derived from neighbouring
tribes ; or (3) that they are being evolved by a portion of
the tribe to replace an original non-theistic, non-eschat-
ological (virtually, at any rate) belief.

To the first theory the character of the beliefs seems an
insuperable objection. No trace of Christian teaching is
discernible in them. Not only so, but they are recorded
by missionaries within ten years of the opening of the
mission, and again twenty years later, with no important
variation. If the natives had so eagerly thrown aside
native belief for Christian ideas, it is inconceivable that the
latter should in the short space of ten years have become
crystallised. We should find them, on this hypothesis, at
a different stage in 1905. But this is not the case.

In the case of the second theory the onus probandi is
equally on those who advance it. Correspondences of name
and incident with the mythology of the Urabunna, or other
neighbouring tribes, must be shown in detail before even a

The Religious Ideas of the A runt a. 433

prima facie case can be made out for this hypothesis. If
it be possible to show that the ideas in question are
advancing from their assumed centre of origin, then indeed
the view is tenable that they are encroaching on the
primaeval theology of the Arunta nation. From this point
of view, it is regrettable that Spencer and Gillen do not
mention them in their works, still less attempt to show
where the boundary between the two sets of ideas falls at
the present time.

If the third theory could be substantiated, we should be
confronted with the interesting spectacle of a mythology
in the making, not to speak of the evolution of the idea of
deity. One cannot indeed see why or how the ideas set
forth in this paper should or could take the place of the
Arunta philosophy of Spencer and Gillen's natives. On the
other hand, it is not difficult to trace the possible course of
evolution in the reverse direction; but it seems unnecessary
to do so until the explanation of the facts here set forth has
been attempted by some believer in the primitive atheism
of the Arunta.

N. W. Thomas.

2 E

COLLECTANEA.

Notes from South Nigeria.
{Ante, p. 242.)

I. Maki?ig Father (Ezimi)}

{Extract from my Joiir?ia[). We purposed crossing the river
Osseomo or Awreomo on the morrow (the 22nd April, 1903),
so we sent a boy on ahead to say that we were coming and
would cross the river in the morning.

Soon after our arrival at Ogiigu's town he came to welcome us,
accompanied by one or two Benin City chiefs and their followers.
He told us that he had intended "making father" that evening,
but that as we had come and the festivities might annoy us,
he would put the feast off until we had gone. We thanked
him for his welcome and assured him that we should very much
like to be present while he was "making father," and prayed
him to proceed with his festival just as if we were not present.
He seemed pleased to be honoured by our presence, and ordered
his people to bring us wood, fire, and water, and food for
ourselves and our boys.

Shortly after dark crowds of people bearing lamps and torches
came together in front of Ogiigu's residence. The cloistered wall
through which one had to pass to obtain an entrance into his
house contained several altars, and as we lay on our camp beds
in the rest-house opposite, we gazed through the door and
window at what was going on before us.

There stood Ogugu before one of the altars dressed in what

^ Cf. Miss Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 146.

Collectanea. 435

appeared to be a red hat and gown, a glowing figure, the lurid
light of many torches falling on him. Then a goat was held
up so that he might sever its head from its body and sprinkle
its blood upon the altar. Six goats were killed, and all the
altars within and without the house sprinkled with their blood,
and all this was done in comparative quiet. Then Ogiigu, a
Nabori holding up one of his arms and followed by his courtiers,
danced before his people. Then followed the three great dances
called Okele, Ugulu or Sakwadi, and Ohogo, which I will describe
later on. We saw but little of these dances that night, but
from the noise that took place the natives appeared to have
appreciated them ; and then for a time all was quiet. Soon,
however, bands of people singing and bearing lamps and torches
wended their way in Indian file round about and into Ogugu's
residence ; no sooner had one emerged than another seemed
to take its place, and their songs as they approached and
wandered about the place and finally departed were weird and
beautiful. Some sang softly in falsetto, and some sang songs
that reminded one of old Gregorian chants. This went on all
night. In the early morning Ogugu, preceded by a band of
drummers and players on beaded gourds, came out of his house
followed by many hundreds of people. Immediately in front
of him was a man bearing a dish of cowries {Igo), and just
behind him was his umbrella bearer and his courtiers. Under
the shade of this umbrella Ogugu crushed the cones of chalk
{Or hue) and sprinkled the dust upon the cowries. Thus
the procession passed us on its way down the grassy glade
which led to the Benin City road. The band waited for the
procession just where the glade is divided by Kolo trees from
the village, while it proceeded to the "juju" place to salute
the great father who, in the spirit, is still in Benin City, but who,
as Overami, the late king of Benin, is in reality a prisoner in
Old Calabar. On the return of the procession the band joined
it, and Ogugu scattered the cowries right and left to the boys
and girls who scrambled for them.

Thus did Ogiigu celebrate the anniversary of the death of
his father.

Then he came to greet us as we sat in front of the rest-house,

436 Collecta7iea.

and asked us if we would like to see the dances more distinctly,
as he was afraid that we had seen very little of them the night
before : we thanked him and said yes.

The first dance, called Ugulu or Sakwadi, was danced by one
man only. He turned circles, keeping perfect time to the band
of beaded calabashes and drums. The second, Okele, was
rather more interesting, as it was danced by two men; one had
a fan in his hand, and the other had his hands clasped in front
of him. The man with the fan went through certain steps which
the man with the hands clasped had to copy exactly ; when he
failed another took his place. The third dance was called
Ohogo, and was most remarkable. Fifteen men, three with
native bells and the rest with beaded calabashes, took part in
it. They were scantily dressed and had bells and rattUng
seeds round their arms and ankles. A man with a bell (evidently
their conductor), with one with a beaded calabash, were sur-
rounded by the other thirteen in a perfect circle. At a signal
from their conductor the thirteen ran round in a circle, while
all beat their calabashes and bells; suddenly they stopped, turned
towards each other in couples and saluted each other ; at a
signal they then started off again, changing their step as it
pleased their conductor, who seemed to have perfect control
over their movements. Then at a signal all danced inwards
towards the centre of the circle, and crowded themselves over
their now crouching conductor and his companion. At a beat
of his bell all withdrew and continued dancing in a circle. The
many and complicated steps, all perfectly accomplished, placed
this dance a long way above the general average native dance,
and we were more than astonished to find how perfectly trained
these dancers were. We were told that in the olden days the
slightest error in public in such a dance was punished by death.

II. A Ladies' Dance.
On the 2nd August, 1903, the chief, Obaseki, gave a dance
to which he invited the officers then present in Benin City.
This dance was given in one of the rooms in the chief's house.
The room was square m shape, the roof sloping inwards towards
the centre which was open, forming something between a Roman

Colledmiea. 437

pluvium and a Spanish patio, some 15 or 20 feet square. On
two sides were recesses, in one of which the chief's wives were
crowded, and it was on the mud platform in front of this recess
that the dancing took place.

Some of the wives played the drums, while others beat the
beaded calabashes and sang the choruses to the songs of the
different ladies who from time to time got up and danced
and sang. Each lady was evidently famous for some particular
song and step, but we preferred one that reminded us rather
of one of our own round dances, danced to a song full of her
husband's praise.

III. Secret Societies.

The object that most of the Secret Societies round about
Benin seem to have at heart is to check the despotism of the
rulers of the people, but often the ruler himself becomes a
member of the Society and soon its leader thus secures its
services in furthering his own despotic ideas.

The Bini call their Society Igtoomori, and it is said that
while still a prince the late king, Overami, became a member
of it. The first crime this Society committed on the death of
king Adolo and crowning of Overami, and at the latter's sug-
gestion, was to execute all the late Adolo's councillors. Overami
then placed many of the Igwomori, many of whom were sons
of the lately executed councillors, in their father's place.

The Secret Society of the Ishan people played a great part
in defending the Benin City chief, Abohon, and other refugees
after the British had taken Benin City in 1897-8.

There are Secret Societies at Owo and Akwe.

The Sobo Society is called Otrada, that at Ifton, Otu, while
we have only just had a sad experience of the influence of the
Ekemeku, or the Silent Ones, in the hinterland of Asaba.

In an interesting article, dated May 13, 1904, in the IVest
African Mail, Mr. Hughes, an earnest student of African customs,
writes :

"The Ekemeku Society has for long been in existence. The
aim and idea of its establishment was :

I St. To settle any tribal differences amicably.

438 Collectanea.

2nd. To uphold the law and institution of their countries
according to rights of usage.

3rd. To prevent any oppression of their kings and chiefs.

Of late the Ekemeku Society has become composed for the
most part of the younger and more lawless elements, who hold
their meetings at night, who work by secret methods, and who
are a continual source of terror to the more peaceful natives,
whom they compel by threats of death to contribute to their
Society."

IV. Marriage ajid Birth Customs.

There appear to be two kinds of marriages among the Bini.
Among the upper classes the children are betrothed by their
parents from infancy. The present may be a nominal one, such
as four kolas, three cowries and some palm wine, or it may be
more.

The man is supposed to keep on giving the child betrothed
to him presents until she is grown up ; he also makes her
parents gifts. The seduction of such a betrothed girl is heavily
punished. On the other hand, among the poor, the girl is not
necessarily betrothed, and a man may seduce her without legal
punishment.

The man may refuse to marry his betrothed, and then he has
the right to give her in marriage to anyone, unless she is of
noble family, when she can only be given to a free man.

The girl may not refuse to marry the man to whom she is
betrothed or his chosen representative. But the father may at
any time refuse to give his daughter to her betrothed, but he
has to refund to him all the presents the would-be husband has
given to her and her parents.

When his wife conceives, the husband gives her a cock to
sacrifice.

The son marries his deceased father's wives.

After the birth of a child, the father gives the mother another
name. The child also will give her mother a name, a friend will
also name her; and so one often hears a person spoken of by
two or three names.

Very few women in this country are true to their husbands,

Collectanea. 439

most of them having at least one lover. When a child is born,
the woman does not declare who its father is until her husband
is dead. Many women live openly with their lovers ; the great
majority of cases in court are for return of a wife, and many
women prefer to go to prison than to return to their legal
husbands.

Often on the roads one passes a small tree planted by the
side of the road near which are chalk marks and a mound of
earth, cowries, yams and plantains. This tree has been planted
in memory of the fact that some woman or other has brought
forth a child on that spot.

R. E. Dennett.

Additions to the Games of Argyleshire.
{Continued from supra, page 34g.)

MINNEACHAN.
(P. 165, after line 15.)

In Barra the above is called " Biorrachan beag agus Biorrachan
mor." It begins with the statement. " Chaidh Biorrachan beag
agus Biorrachan mor latha a bhuain cnothan. Mar a bhuinneadh
Biorrachan mor dh'itheadh Biorrachan beag.

" Chaidh Biorrachan mor gus a' choille a dh'iarruidh slait gus
gabhail air Biorrachan beag a dh'ith na cnothan. Nuair a ruig e
'n coille, etc." (Little Biorrachan and big Biorrachan went one
day to gather nuts. As big Biorrachan gathered, little Biorrachan
ate. Big Biorrachan went to the wood to seek a switch to thrash
little Biorrachan who ate the nuts. When he reached the wood,
etc.) With the change of names the narrative was the same as
tliat given from p. 158, line 18, to p. 161, line 16, where the
"yellow-haired woman" becomes "the woman baking," "a bhean
fuinneadh." Biorrachan asks for a bannock; "Cha'n fhaigh thu

440 Collectanea.

bonnach, thu bhairt a bhean fuineadh gus am faigh thu uisg' a
fhliuchas e.

Cha robh soitheach aig' a bheireadh dhachaidh an t-uisg' agus
thug a bhean fuineadh dha criathar.

Chaidh e gus an tobar agus thog e Ian a' chriathair, ach
dh'fhalbh an t-uisge troimh. Thainig feannag os a cheann ag
glaodhaich." " Suath poll bog ris, suath poll bog ris."

Rinn e sin, agus thog e Ian uisg' a rithist, ach dh'fhalbh an-t-
uisge mar a rinn e roimhe.

An sin thaining faoileag os a cheann ag glaodhaich. "Suath
criadh ruadh ris, Suath criadh ruadh ris."

Rinn e sin agus thug e dhachaidh an t-uisge gus a bhean

fuineadh, agus thug a'bhean fuineadh am bonnach dha

finishing as on p. i6i, line 28, "Thug an gille an sop, etc."
(You will not get a bannock, said the baking woman, till you get
water that will wet it. / He had not a dish that would bring home
the water, and the baking woman gave him a sieve. / He went to
the well, and he lifted the full of the sieve, but the water went
through it. / A grey crow came above his head crying "rub soft
mud to it, rub soft mud to it." / He did that and he lifted it full
of water again but away went the water as it did before. / Then a
sea-mew came above his head crying, " rub red clay to it, rub red
clay to it." / He did that and he took home the water to the
woman baking, and the baking woman gave him the bannock), etc.

NOISE MACHINES.

(P. 170, after line 13.)

A writer in the Glasgow Evening News of the 14th October,
1 90 1, says that he has known in Argyleshire what is commonly
called "a Bull Roarer." "The 'srannair' we had was made of
a piece of builder's lath, eight or nine inches long, notched at
the edges with a string at one end by which it was rapidly
whirled round the player's head to give a sonorous moan."
None of our collectors had apparently come across this, which
for the matter of that we have seen in use in Edinburgh, but
we are glad to have the authority for its having been used in
the Highlands.

Collectanea. 44 1

(P. 170, after line 13.)

The Sucker.

This simple demonstration of the effect of a partial vacuum
is known throughout all the Highlands. A disc of stiff leather
from two to three inches in diameter, provided with a cord
from its centre, of from two to three feet long, is thoroughly
wetted and pressed with the foot on the flat surface of a stone
which can then be lifted by the string. The size of the stone
the sucker will sustain gives a test of relative efficiency.

(P. 172, after line 4.)

This trick was known in Dunoon under the name of " Clock
Work," the button being fastened to the window with a little
black soap.

(P. 173, after line 9.)

Cowrie, Cowrie, Connsaich.

The back of the left hand is placed on the knee and the
right hand used to cover it, both hands being held firmly
together, a box-like space being left between them. By gently
knocking the two hands so held upon the knee, a chinking
noise is made supposed to resemble the sound of small gravel
and shells being rolled together by the tide. Keeping time
with the movement of his hands, the performer repeats —

" Cowrie, cowrie, connsaich
Tha e seideadh dosgaich
Latha math am maireach."

(Cowrie, cowrie, contending. / It is blowing the clusters ? / Fine
day to-morrow.) The curious thing here is the use of the word
" cowrie."

PAIN GIVING.

(P. 177, after Hne 9.)

In Harris this game is played somewhat differently. The
middle and forefinger of the right hand are laid across the
corresponding fingers of the left hand, a square opening being
formed between them, large enough to admit another's finger.

442

Collectanea.

The one who has done this says to another, " Cuir do mheur
a steach ann sin." (Put your finger in there.)

The finger having been put in, the following conversation is
carried on, the one who formed the trap commencing, " C'ait
an deachaidh do mhathair ? " The other answers, " Chaidh i
steach do'n bhaile." " C'ait an d'fhag i 'n iuchair?" " Dh'fhag
i ann an toll na glaise i." " Ciamar bheir thu as i?" "Mar
chuir mi ann i."

("Where has your mother gone?" Ans. "She has gone into
town." "Where did she leave the key?" Ans. "She left it
in the key-hole." "How will you take it out?" Ans. "As I
put it in.") The one whose finger has been caught tries to
pull it out while the other does his best to keep it in the
trap.

(P. 177, after line 24.)

This was also called in North Argyleshire "Cutting the
Cheese in France." One, supposed not to know the trick,
was asked, "Do you know how they cut cheese in France?"
If he did not, he answered probably " No." The proposer of
the question then taking a firm grip of the green-horn's wrist,
stretching out the arm said, "So mar a bhios 'ad a gearaidh
a caise anns 'an Fhraing," (This is the way they cut the
cheese in France), stroking the while with the flat of his hand
the arm, from shoulder to wrist, which being repeated several
times, was finished with a sharp blow with the edge of the
hand in the bend of the elbow.

(P. 178, after the bottom line.)
The King and Queen of Sheba.

Generally reckoned a girl's game. The uninitiated are put
out of the room. Two chairs are placed with space enough
for another between them and a plaid spread so as to cover
the seats, being kept taut where there is no chair by a player
sitting on each of the other chairs. One of those outside is
now brought in and introduced to the King and Queen of
Sheba, who receive the newcomer graciously, but of course
retain their seats. They then invite her to sit between them

Collectanea. df/i\f2t

and initiate a conversation, watching their opportunity to rise
simultaneously so that the other falls to the ground. In this
case it is not merely the drop which may cause merriment,
but if well done the conversation made by the king and queen
to keep the victim unsuspicious and put her entirely off her
guard.

Making Nuns.

Also a girls' game. Having found a " tender-foot " who
expresses herself desirous of being made a nun, she is taken
out and another prepares her for the ceremony by tying a
white handkerchief round her head and shrouding her in a
sheet. Meanwhile those in the secret spread a shawl or plaid
on the floor and kneel round the edge of it. One is nominated
Mother Superior who kneels free of the edge. The novice is
brought in and kneels on the shawl, facing the Superior, who
questions her as to her various qualifications, name, age, know-
ledge of knitting, love affairs, etc. This having been finished,
she is solemnly asked " Do you desire to become a nun ? "
Naturally the answer is " yes," but the- question is repeated
" Are you quite sure you would like to be a nun ? " The
answer again is " yes," when those behind her suddenly draw
the shawl, of course throwing her on her hands and face.

(P. 178, at bottom.)
Hard Knuckles.

From Kintyre. A boys' play. One holds his hand out,
palm upwards and clenches his fist firmly, the other shuts his
fist and strikes downwards with all his force with his knuckles
on the exposed knuckles of the other. They have stroke about
till one gives in.

Hard Liefs. (Jamieson's "Looves," 'the palms of the hand.')

Also practised by boys in Kintyre. One holds out his
extended hand, palm upwards, the other comes down on it
with his hand, back downmost, striking with his nails on the
fingers of the extended palm. It is stroke about till one of
the players is contented.

444 Collectanea.

PUZZLES.

(P. 184, after line 33.)

Forethought and Industry seem inculcated by the following.
We translate the Gaelic literally. There was a farmer yonder who
was feeing a lad, and when he inquired of the lad what wages he
would be asking, said the lad, " Not but three grains of corn for
the first year, and each year after that, that I shall be allowed to
sow what grows of them wherever I please throughout the farm."
The farmer considered he had the right bargain here, and he said
to the lad that he would get that, and they came to an agreement.
When the lad got the first three grains he sowed them on the top
of the house — it was a thatched house — and they grew so well
that there was a good handful of seeds for him. When next year
came, he sowed them at the end of a rig, and so he went on from
year to year, till at the end of a few years there was no ground
for the farmer, and the servant lad got the farm town to himself

Stories run generally to proving that the servant is smarter than
his master. A master suspecting his servant of dishonesty, in
order to test the question, entrusted him with sixteen shillings
which however were to be returned at next date of reckoning. In
accepting the money, the servant laid the sixteen shillings on the
table in the following order, counting them one by one as he laid
them down. He counted out eleven shillings, placing them in
one row from left to right, and under the centre shilling he put a
perpendicular row of five shillings, remarking to his master "That's
sixteen shillings." The master agreed. The servant then, as
though to make the matter sure by another process said, " There
must be an equal number of shillings in each of these two angles,
we'll see how many there are," and commencing at the bottom of
his perpendicular, he counted in the right-hand angle, i, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, II, and then from the same starting-point the left
hand angle, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, "Yes, there are eleven
in each angle," and the master agreed. When the time of
reckoning again came, the servant only put four shillings in his
perpendicular row, and brought down the shilling from each end
of the horizontal one. Having then given an account of the
transactions between whiles, he proceeded to count the two angles

Collectanea. 445

as before, and was able to demonstrate that there were eleven
shillings in each angle and so satisfy his master, though he had
retained a shilling for himself.

We may give here the story of " How the Miller Tricked the
Suspicious Farmer."

In a country-side, suspicion having fallen on the miller that he
kept more than the regulated multure, a farmer declared that the
miller would keep none of his next grinding. When the time
came, the agriculturist took his own corn to the mill and kept a
sharp look-out on the miller. Meanwhile, the miller had heard
what was in the farmer's mind. When he arrived and indicated
that he would wait till his stuff was ground, the miller said he
would be very pleased to have his company as long as it was
necessary for him to remain. As rapidly as possible the corn was
got ready for the mill, and then the miller slipped into his house
and put on a special shirt his wife had prepared for him, somewhat
wide-sleeved with a peculiar wristband. The grinding com-
menced ; every now and then the miller would put up his hand as
if to free the discharge of the flour, but in reality to allow so much
of the meal to fall into his shirt sleeve. While moving about he
managed to empty this sleeve into a barrel without raising the
suspicion of the farmer. The miller then got his wife to bake
some of the meal, and when all the corn was ground, offered the
farmer refreshment before starting for home. During the meal he
inquired what his customer thought of the bread. The answer
was satisfactory, the bread was good. " Well," said the miller,
"that bread was made from your meal, I doubt if it is much use
your again trying to watch a miller."

(Page 240, after line 20.)

This game was also called "Pussy Cat" and the "Buckle."
The diagram used being as described, but the ends of the parallel
lines were joined by a semi-circle to the ends of the two perpen-
dicular lines.

(Page 188, after line 21.)

Another cryptogram common in Argyleshire is —

XXURXXUB,ICURXX4me

Too cross you are too cross you be, I see you are too cross for me.

446

Collectanea.

Another —

YYURYYUB,ICURYY4rae.

Too wise you are too wise you be, I see you are too wise for me.

Another —

If the B mt put : if the B . putting :

If the grate be empty put coal on if the grate be full stop putting
coal on.

Another —

Dear i/- come 2 5 T 6.

Dear Bob come to tea between 5 and 6.

In a book on games, it would be quite out of place to go
into questions of tinkers' dialect, the so-called " shelta " or, as
they seem sometimes to call it, " Okam " {Revue Celtique,
xiii. 403). These disguised languages are of the ' Pedlar's
French ' order. Among children, the adding of a syllable to the
ordinary words, the use of "back slang," etc., is common enough;
they may flatter themselves that it is not understood by their
seniors, but it is generally used merely for amusement. We
have not heard of any such transmogrification of the Gaelic,
the only thing of the kind we have come across being the
addition of the sound of the k to English, thus :— Ifk ik hadk,
etc. ; any person can originate examples for himself.

A certain amount of amusement is got out of asking the
meaning of certain sentences, the emphasis being deliberately
put on the wrong word ; for example : — " Explain this ; it was,
and I said not, or." If the one to whom it has been proposed
" gives it up," it is repeated thus : — " It was and I said,
not or. '

Tricks with matches are pretty common.

Match Tricks.

I. Without omitting any to make 11 matches 9-

Collectanea.

447

2. With 15 matches form 5 adjoining squares, then by
removing 3 matches leave 3 adjoining squares. This is most
simply shown by a diagram —

« , . ■

1 \ — *t

n r

1 -

A First formation. B Result.

3. To make 4 triangles with 6 matches —

(P. 190, after line 31.)

Ag cuir Snaim's mo dha Laimh Paisgte. (Tying a knot and
my two hands folded.)

The performer sitting, lays a cord across his two thighs, then
folds his arms across his chest, his right hand on the outside
of his left fore-arm, his left hand under his right upper-arm.
He then seizes with his left hand the end of the cord which
is towards the left, then with his right hand, the end of the
cord which is to the right, of course not moving the relative
positions of his two hands. With the arms placed as directed,
the left hand seizes the left end of the cord under his right
arm, while the right hand seizes the right end of the cord
over his left arm. Separating the hands will draw the string
into a knot.

Virtually the same trick, performed more easily, may be done
in the following manner : — Lay a cord upon the edge of the
right hand, so that one end hangs over the back of the hand
and the other over the palm, then put the left hand between
the sides of the cord, pushing it along the back of the right

44^ Collectanea,

hand from point of fingers to wrist. One end of the cord will
now hang over the palm of the right hand^ the other over the
back of the left. If the ends of the string are pinched up
between two fingers of the hands which are opposite them,
and the two hands separated, a knot will be formed.

A piece of string, at least four times as long as the breadth
of the palm, must be used.

RIDDLES.

Ag cuir Toimhseachain. (Putting Riddles = Giving Guesses.)

A collection of riddles would be, if at all complete, probably
a book as large as Nicholson's Gaelic Proverbs^ but in a book
of pastimes, it would scarcely do not to take some notice of
the existence of guesses. They indeed formed a large part
of the entertainment at a " ceilidh," i.e. a visit for purposes
of gossip and amusement, practically always the spending of
an evening in a neighbour's house of a gathering of those
sufficiently intimate. To afford a glance at the way in which
such a meeting would be carried on, especially as regards
guesses, we give reminiscences of an old Mull man upwards
of eighty years of age. The lads of the place where he was

born frequented the house of one W C , and among

the various pastimes riddles played their part. Now W.'s wife
was a midwife, and was consequently pretty frequently away
from home, but the evening gatherings suffered no interruption,
William himself and a grandson being always at home. Mrs.
C. was detained unusually long with a professional engagement
on Loch Sunart, but there was ceilidh as usual. George, the
grandson, being the entertainer, old William having retired to
bed, the bed being on one side of the kitchen, round the fire
of which the visitors gathered. Each one knowing the other,
" like the palm of his own hand " as they say, guesses were
almost a common stock, and those given had been answered
right away, when George propounded, " Bodach anns a' bhaile
so, agus a bhean ann Loch Sunart thall." (" An old man in
this town and his wife away there in Loch Sunart.") Loch
Sunart being both the loch and the houses in its neighbourhood.

Collectanea. 449

The meeting at once recognised a new guess. In giving
guesses, the practice was to give each one a chance of
answering, but if the proper answer was not given, it was
relegated to the next evening of meeting, and if still too deep
for those present, to a third, when, after all had confessed
inability to solve it, the solution was given. Probably expecting
that it was some question much more recondite than it was,
though many answers were suggested, it survived till the third
night, when all having given it up, it fell to George to give his
answer. Old William had retired as usual, and the exposition
by his grandson was : — " Nach 'eil suilean agaibh cho math 's
th'agamsa. Nach fhaic sibh am bodach na laidhe 'n sin; nach
'eil esan anns a' bhaile so, agus nach 'eil a bhean ann an
Loch .Sunart." (" Have you not eyes as well as I myself,
don't you see the old man lying there ; is he not in this
town, and isn't his wife in Loch Sunart?") The fearful
simplicity of this tempted his friends to give George a licking.

RHYMES.

(Page 206.)

Besides those given in the Appendix, there have been sent
in a considerable number, many of which like those already
given, are local modifications of rhymes common to Scotland
and England as well. A writer in the Glasgoiv Evening News
gives as counting-out rhymes known to the writer of the
article —

" As eenty feenty holigolum,

As orkle porkle peel a gun,

Saw ye the laird of Eezil peezil

Jumping over Jerusalem steeple,

A, pee, pie, pipe ! "

" As eerie orie ickery am,

Pick ma nick and shick ma sham ;
Orum scorum pickmanorum,
Shee, sho, sham, shutters ! "

" As eenty feenty fanty fig,
As iral diral do-ma-nig.
As irky, birky stole a roe,
As an tan tish toe ! "
2 F

4 5 o Collecianea.

COUNTING-OUT RHYMES.

(P. 250, after line 19.)

" Hockie, pockie, penny a lump,
That's the stuff to make you jump."

" Eenie, meenie, manie, mo,
Catch a nigger by the toe,
If he squeals let hhn go,
Eenie, meenie, mannie, mo."

" First tae coont the king's name
Corra, ina, amen."

"As inty, tinty, lathera, mothera.
As an tan, toosh tock."

" Innery, unnery, eke a man eke,
Hollaman, tollaman, erica man,
Whiska, dinda, poker stinda,
Holla, poUa, you are out."

" Ikery, dickery, dock,

The mouse ran up the knock,
The knock struck one,
The mouse is gone,
O.U.T. is out."

" Ina, dina, dinalo, dash,
Cattla, weena, twina, wash,
Speech, spot, shall be done,
Tweedulum, twadlum, twenty-one."

" Eatum, peatum, penny pie.
Pop a lorum, jettum I.
Ease, oze, ease ink.
Pease porridge, man's drink."

Among the Gaelic children's rhymes and lullabies, for many
of them seem to have been used notoriously for this purpose,
we give some as they have been sent us —

" Cha theid mi laidh 'nochd gus a faigh mi rudeigein
Rudeigein, rudeigein. (repeat).

Cha theid ma laidh gus a faigh mi tri casan caorach,
Tri casan, tri casan, tri casan caorach,
Tri casan, agus broUean, tri casan caorach.

Collectanea. 451

Tri casan agus broUean agus piese de 'n maodhel,

'S tha theid mi laidh 'noch gus a faigh mi rudeigein."

(" I will not go to bed to-night till I get something, / something,
something / (repeat).

I will not go lying (down) till I get three sheeps' trotters, /
Three feet, three feet, three sheep's feet, / Three feet and a
breast, three sheep's feet. / Three feet and a breast and a piece
of the paunch, / And I shall not go to bed to-night till I get
something.")

" Huil o mo chuillin min

Thall 's a bhos mo chuillin min

I o mo chuillin min

Huil o mo chuillin meanbh.

" I o mo chuillin chuillin
I o mo chuillin chuillin
Eh o mo chuillin chuillin
Thall 's a bhos mo chuillin meanbh."

(" Hullo my smooth doggie / Here and there my smooth doggie /
I o mo my smooth doggie / Hullo my little doggie. I o my
doggie doggie / I o ray doggie doggie / A o my doggie doggie /
Here and there my little doggie.")

" Cas a Moch a Lurie
A Lurie, a Laurie
Cas a Moch a Lurie,
Air uriar aig mAicheall. (m'aithail)

" Chuirin ann a craidhail e
Shuidhin ann a chuiridh air
'S iomadh te bidh airiedh
Na laidh le a fein thu."

The contributor who sent this seems to think that " Moch " has
some connection with mogan a ' hussion,' a stocking leg. He
translates it " The foot of Moch a Lurie / A lurie, a Laurie /
The foot of Moch a Lurie / On the floor of my dearie. / I would
put him in a cradle / I would sit down to wait on him / Many a
woman would be glad / To own you herself" The literal trans-
lation of the last two lines seems to be " Many a woman will be
worthy / You lying with herself."

452 Collectanea.

" Sud mar chaidh an cal a dholaidh,
Air na bodaich dhubha Ghallda ;
Laidh a' mhin air mas a choire
'S rinn na bodaich cabhruich."

(" That is how the kail went to loss / On the old men black Low-
landers / The meal lay on the bottom of the pot / And the old
men made sowans.")

' ' C'ait am bi na maraichean
Nuair a bhios muir a' deanadh ?
A' mireadh le na caileagan,
Ann tighean geala Grianaig."

("Where will the sailors be? /When the sea will be making?
(rising) / Playing (flirting) with the girls / In the white houses of
Greenock.")

" Dian a ghaol nach beir thu air
Cha bu tu do shean-mhathair
Nuair a bha i aig t-aois,
Dian a ghaol nach beir thu air."

(" Brisk my love will you not prevail with me (catch it) / You were
rot your grand-mother / When she was your age / Brisk my love
will you not catch it.")

"Hi-an, ho-an crog an tailleir
Siosar, meuran, agus snathed."

("Hi-an ho-an the paw of the tailor / Scissors, thimble and needle.")

" Mhin bhosag bhan, lamh leinibh bhig,

Nuair a thig mis' as a bheann, gheibh thu im, 's bainne teth."

("Smooth white Httle palm, hand of little child, /When I will come
from the hill you will get butter and hot milk.")

"Craganach, craganach, craganach gaolach,
Goididh tu gobhair, 'us goididh tu caoiraich."

(" Hardy (?) hardy, hardy dear / you will steal goats and you will
steal sheep.")

This is a Uist lullaby.

" Zinty pinkty, halligolum
The cat went out to get some fun,
It got some fun and back it comes
Zinty, pinkty halhgolum."

Collectanea. a ex

" Tom Blair is a decent man, he goes to church on Sunday,
Prays to Heaven to give him strength, to whip the boys on Monday."

"Who is there?
Tom Blair,
WTiat does he vi^ant?
A bottle of beer.
Where is your money?
In my pocket,
Where is your pocket ?
I forgot it,
'Way down the stair
Ye stupid blockhead."

"Pease brose again mother.
Pease brose again.
Thinking I'm a blackbird.
Me your ane wean."

"The auld wife
The cauld wife
The bed fou o' banes."

"Stick, stack stone dead
Stick him up, stick him doun
Stick him in the old man's crown."

"Peter Dumdick, when did you flit?
Yesterday morn when I got the kick."

"Hallelujah make a dumpling
Hallelujah bring it ben
Hallelujah make a big one
Hallelujah amen."

"Hush-a-baa baby, dinna mak' a din,
An' ye'll get a piece whan the baker comes in."

"Clap hands, clap hands till Mammie comes hame,
Mammie will bring something, but Daddy will bring nane.

"Auld Robin in the loch
Suppin' sowans oot a troch."

" Dainty Davie, curly pow.
Wet the grass, an' mak' it grow."

454 Collectanea.

Address to a crab to make it run towards the sea when found
some distance from the water —

"Tip, tap, taesie.

Keep your mind aesie.
The tide 's comin' in,
If you run a mile awa'
The tide will tak' you in."

CHILDEEN'S RHYMES.

"ABC soup, maragan a' mhuilt,
Cuir do leabhar anns a' phoit,
Agus gheibh thu fhein an soup."

("ABC soup, bloody puddings of the wedder, / Put your book in
the pot, / And you will get the soup.")

The above is from Applecross, a Barra version of it is —

" A B soup, maragan a' mhuilt,
Gill' an cota glas
Cuir an fheoil 'sa phrais,
Amhu, amhu, ithidh mi e."

("A B soup, wedder puddings, / Lad of the gray coat, / Put the
meat in the pot / Miaw, miaw, I'll eat it.")

The tradition that the Devil spoils brambles in September is
shown in the following, repeated about the time of Rood Fair
held at Dumfries in the end of September, the brambles having
been made poisonous the night before the Fair.

" Oh weans, ho weans, the morn's the fair.
Ye mana eat the brambles mair.
This nicht the Deil gangs ower then a'
Tae touch them wi' his pooshioned paw "

From Barra —

"Little kettle burst the brow.
Short of petticoats of brown.
That is in the left off sound
Dinkum dolt, Donald MacSandie."

This is supposed to be the English equivalent of the Gaelic
counting-out rhyme " Gille beag " ante, p. 207.

Collectanea. 455

(P. 207, after " escape"' in line 22.)

Babylons.

From Ross-shire, a boy's game. One is chosen in the following
manner to keep the den. All stand in a circle, except one who
goes round counting them out by the words " easy, oozie, man's
brosie, easy, oozie, out." On the word 'out,' the one touched
falls out of the circle and the process goes on till only one is left
who remains in the den. The others then scatter shouting
" Babylons, Babylons," pursued by the den-keeper, and each one
that he tigs joins in the pursuit till all have been caught.

Carr.

Ross-shire, any number of players. Two keep the den, the
others hide in the neighbourhood, and when concealed they shout
"carr." One of the den-keepers then goes out to look for them
while the other continues in. Those out make a simultaneous
rush for the den, when they think they have an opportunity,
shouting " carr, carr," the while. The den-keepers try to tig as
many as possible, but the two first touched would be the den-
keepers for another game.

LULLABIES.

{P. 252, at the bottom.)

" Tha thu maol, run na glinne so,
Dh'fhalbh do mhathair, 's thug i fireach oirre ;
Tha thu maol, run na glinne so,
'S thug i croc 'san robh mo chuid ime,
'S gar an d'thig an lath' a thilleas i,
Tha thu maol, run na glinne so."

{" You are bald, darling of this glen, / Your mother has gone, gone
to the moor ; / You are bald, darling of this glen, / And she has
taken a porringer in which was my butter, / And should the day
not come on which she'll return, / You are bald, darling of this
glen.")

"Ah dogs, ah dogs, a mhuinntir Eisdeal,
Bonaid ghorm's deacait dhearg,

456 Collectanea.

Clachag mheanbh anns an deacait,
'S bat beag 's leud a mais 'sa chreag,
'S posaidh, posaidh."

(" Dogs, dogs, Oh people of Easdale, / Bluebonnet and red jacket, /
A little stone in the jacket, / And a little stick, and the breadth
of her bottom in the rock, / And Avill marry, will marry.")

"DonuU maol, mo ghille lurach,
Thainig e postadh feadh na fraoich,
Ach cha robh 'n cearc-fhraoich aig a bhanais."

(" Bald Donald, my lively lad, / He came tramping through the
heather, / But there was no heather hen (grouse, a real bird with
secondary allusion) at his wedding.")

" Ha, ha, hu, ro, mo phropanach,
Mo ghille maol is tu ;
C'ait' am faigh mi bean dhuit
Air an gabh thu gaol ?

Ha, ha, hu, ro, mo phropanach,
Mo ghille maol is tu ;
Nighean Diuchd, neo Baran
Aig am bi fearran saor."

(" Ha, ha, hu, ro, my stout lad, / My bald lad are you ; / Where
shall I get a wife for you / For whom you will conceive love ?
Ha, ha, hu, ro, my stout lad, / My bald lad are you ; / A Duke's
daughter or a Baron's / Who has free land.")

" Larach dubh, am breabadair
Air muin nan creag,
Larach dubh am breabadair
'S mise air a muin.
Lan an duirn
Caorain dearga
S ise a' ruith,
'S mise air a muin.
I ! ha ! hi ! O ! ho ! ho ! ho ! "

(" Black filly, the kicker (weaver) / On the top of the rocks / Black
filly the weaver / And I on her top / A handful / Of red embers /
to her tail / And she running, / And me on her back. / I ! etc.")
While the lullaby is being repeated, the nurse and the youngster

Collectanea. 457

swing backwards and forwards, and when the line I ! ha ! etc., is
reached, they are said as if the neighing of a horse.

The above are all, we were going to say frankly, but hardly that,
phallic.

" Tha nead na circe-f hraoich
'Sa mhulan dubh, 'sa mhulan dubh,
Tha nead na circe-fhraoich,
'Sa mhulan dubh, 's an t-samhradh.

Tha mhulan dubh air bhogadan,
Air bhogadan, air, bhogadan,
Tha mhulan dubh air bhogadan,
A' togail, dol a dhannsadh.

Is iomadh rud a chi sibh

Sa mhulan dubh, 'sa mhulan dubh.

Is iomadh rud a chi sibh,

'Sa mhulan dubh, 's an t-samhradh.

Tha Donull a' gleadhadh snuisein,
'Sa mhulan dubh, 'sa mhulan dubh,
Tha Donull a' gleadhadh snuisein,
'Sa mhulan dubh, 's an t-samhradh."

This is evidently phallic. (" The nest of the grouse. / Is in the
black hill, in the black hill, / The nest of the grouse, / Is in the
black hill, in summer, / The black hill / is shaking, is shaking, /
The black hill is shaking, / Rising, going to dance. / Many a
thing you see, / In the black hill, in the black hill, / It is many a
thing you see, / In the black hill in summer. / Donald is keeping
snuff, / In the black hill, in the black hill, / Donald is keeping
snuff, / In the black hill, in summer.")

The word mulan is doubtless chosen from its resemblance to
muileann = z. mill, and, as further explanation, we are informed
that the terms, " muileann dubh " was applied to the old form of
water mill of which the wheel lay horizontally.

Lullaby still used in Applecross —

"Air iomairt sgairteil, null gu Scalpa,
Air iomairt bheag, null a' chreig
Air iomairt mhor, null a' chroidhleig,
Air iomairt bhochd, null a phloc
Air iomairt rompa, null a Rona
Air iomairt innseach, null Lochinneach
Air iomairt caol, null a' chaoil."

45 8 Collectanea.

(" A vigorous exertion, across to Scalpa, / A small exertion, over
the crag, / A considerable exertion, over the basket, / A miserable
exertion, over the stump (block) / Driving before them, across to
Rona, / An island conflict, across Lochinneach, / A slender
exertion, across the strait.")

From Barra —

Ho-hi, ho-ha gur lurach thu,

Ho-hi, ho-ha gur laoghach thu,

Gur h-ann a theid mi a thir a' mhurain leat.

Ged bheireadh iad biadh 's aodach dhomh,

Ged bheireadh iad crodh 's caoraich dhomh,

Ged bheireadh iad uil an daoine dhomh,

Cha leig mi dhachaidh 'na t-aonar thu.

Ho-hi, ho-ha gur lurach thu,

Ho-hi, ho-ha gur laoghach thu,

Gur h-ann a theid mi a thir a' mhurain leat.

(" Ho-hi, ho-ha you're beautiful, / Ho-hi, ho-ha you're lovely, / 'Tis
I'll go to the land of the bent with you. / Should they give me
food and clothing, / Should they give me cattle and sheep /
Should they give all their people / I won't let you home alone. /
Ho-hi, ho-ha you're beautiful," etc.)

Said to a child with a flatulent stomach —

" Bheag bhag, goraichidh bhag,
Bhag mo chomh-ghnath,
Bhag, goraichidh bhag."

("Little bag, (stomach) croaking bag, / Stomach that does like
mine, / Bag croaking stomach.")

In Uist the sound made by the wind through the telegraph
wires is represented by the following —

" larally, arally tarraingean iaruinn,
Punnd tombac, 'us cairteal siapuinn. "

(" larally, arally iron nails, / A pound of tobacco and a quarter of
soap.")

"Hi Diddle Diddle" is known in Argyleshire as well as elsewhere,
but it cannot be claimed as Scotch. There is a rhyme common

Collectanea. 459

to Scotland used to quiet a fractious child, the soles of its feet
being patted the while the rhyme is being repeated —

"John Smith, fallow fine,
Can you shoe this horse of mine?
Yes indeed and that I can,
Jist as weel as any man.
Here's a hammer, here's a nail,
Caa't in, caa't in, caa't in.

Fit a bit upo' the tae,
Tae gar the horsie dim' the brae,
Pit a bit upo' the bred,
To gar the horsie draw the load,
Pit a bit upo' the heel,
Tae gar the horsie pad weel.
Pad weel, pad weel, pad weel.

Small children are taught a certain amount of regulated move-
ment, performing the relative actions mentioned while repeating
the following rhyme —

"Tak your right fit in,
Pit your left fit out,
Tak your left fit in
And then turn round about."

(P. 256, after line 12.)

" Rain, rain, go away.
Come again another day."

" Rain rain.
Go to Spain,
John Bain
Is wanting you."

" Round about, round about,
Round about roost.
Up a bit, up a bit.
Into a house."

The nurse singing, holds the child's hand while tickling the palm
cf it. On the words "up a bit," she moves her fingers up the
child's arm, and on the word " house " puts her hand into its arm-
pit and tickles it.

460 Collectanea.

"Jack the Ripper's dead,
And lying on his bed,
He cut his throat
With Sunlight soap,
Jack the Ripper's dead."

Of course this is pronounced Scottish fashion so that " dead "
sounds Uke "deed," etc.^

" Rock, rock, bubbly jock,
Waken me at ten o'clock,
Ten o'clock is too soon.
Waken me in the afternoon."

R. C. Maclagan.
{To be continued.)

^[This must be very modern. Ed.]

CORRESPONDENCE,

The Dancing-Towers of Italy.

{Ante, p. 243.)

May not these towers be akin to the dressed and ornamented
poles used in different parts of Europe to celebrate May-tide and
summer festivals? I have not my notes at hand, but I think
it could be shown that the whirling of the towers is analogous
to people suspended from ropes swinging round about a pole.
If I remember rightly, in ancient Mexico ropes were tightly
wound round tall poles, and when they were set free the man
hanging at the end of each cord naturally gyrated as he
descended to the ground. Something very like this is also
known in Russia. The old May-pole rites have died out here
(Kirton in Lindsey), but the school-girls, incited by their
teachers, have of late years taken to going from house to house
carrying a small pole, round which they dance and sing. The
long ribbons hanging from it, the ends of which are held by the
dancers and which are interwoven in the course of the dancing,
may represent ropes once used for swinging.

Mabel Peacock.

I was at Buxton on May Day, 1895, 1896, and 1897, and on
each occasion I saw children (girls) dancing round a May-pole.
They came from Burbage, Fairfield, and other villages in the
neighbourhood, and carried a pole decorated with ribbons, which
they set on the ground and danced round, holding the ribbons
till they were twisted and plaited close round the pole and then

462 Correspondence.

unplaited again by reversing the dance. I do not know how
the pole was kept upright. I think there were some grown-up
people with them — men. Some musical instrument was played,
but I do not remember what. They performed two or three
times in different parts of the town. It was usual to give all
the school-children a holiday on May Day.

Alice Oldknow.
Kensington.

This performance is not uncommon in North Staffordshire, but
the pole is usually planted firmly in the ground, not carried
about. I saw it first at Talk o' th' Hill in 1878 or 1879, on
the occasion of a village fete; but I have never been able to
trace it properly. I think, however, it is indigenous there,
though it has now become common in other parts of England,
introduced, as Miss Peacock says, by school-teachers and others.

Charlotte S. Burne.

A Correction.

I ask for space to correct an oversight in my article on
The European Sky-God, No. III. It was towards the close of
1902, not 1903, as printed on page 288 (line 5 from bottom),
that Dr. Frazer told me of his revised theory as to the rex
Nemorensis. That communication preceded my further investi-
gations into the subject, some of which were published in 1903.
The date of the conversation is therefore not altogether unim-
portant.

Arthur Bernard Cook.

The Legend of Merlin : A Postscript.

{Ante, p. 427.)

What Miss Weston brings forward does not touch the question
which I am discussing. She offers no evidence of the secular

Corresp07idence. 463

learning of the monks, nor does she show the pre-existence of
local legends and traditions which such monks might have
brought with them into the cloister and utilised afterwards in
their poetical compositions. It is utterly immaterial from my
point of view whether the names of supposed authors are
genuine or pseudonyms ; nor does it affect the case at all
whether Merlin was a local bard or only a madman. Such a
fact, if accepted, would only strengthen my theory, for 1 hold
that whenever a legend gets locahsed there must be some peg
to hang the story on. I never doubted the possibiUty of the
existence of a Merlin half-savage, half-man ; but that Merlin
has entirely disappeared in the literary form in which he is
presented, and has been transformed beyond recognition.

M. Gaster.

Burial in Effigy.

The following seems a curious adaptation of Mock Burial to
the purpose of Riding the Stang.

In the petition for divorce of Louis Higman, a miner, on May
15th, 1905, Richard Jacob, a builder, living at Bugle, Cornwall,
gave evidence that the conduct of the respondent and co-re-
spondent (a jeweller), caused great scandal in the village, and
"they were buried in efhgy in September, 1898." The co-re-
spondent supplied the beer on the occasion. Witness was among
the crowd. There was a " clergyman " at the funeral, (explained
by counsel to mean a person dressed Uke a clergyman) ; a "choir,"
"mourners," and an "undertaker." The " burial " took place in
a field at the back of the house where the parties were living ; it
was private property.

Counsel read a local newspaper account of the proceedings,
which stated that "The whole proceedings were carried out with the
greatest decorum, and although there was an enormous attendance
there was no sign of rowdyism, but solemn silence was maintained,
the only voices heard, beside the lamentations of the ' mourners,'
being those of the 'clergymen' and the 'choir' and those who
chose to join in the 'service.' The police were present, but their

464 Correspondence.

services were not required." — (Abridged from the Morfiing Post,
May 16, 1905.)

M. Peacock.

A similar incident is reported in the Daily Telegraph of Thurs-
day, August loth, 1905, on the authority of a telegraphic report
from " our correspondent " at Colchester, where, at the camp of
the Essex Volunteer Brigade, the officers of one battalion con-
ducted, on the previous evening, the mock burial of an unpopular
senior officer.

"After dinner some thirty officers turned out, attired in long
black cloaks, and each carrying a lighted lantern. In front was
borne a deck-chair, covered with a Union Jack, and supposed to
bear the corpse of the officer referred to. The procession passed
round the officers' lines, and a mock interment was conducted,
after which the assembled officers sang a song, and indulged in
quadrilles and a cake-walk, the proceedings closing with the
National Anthem."

One is glad to read that "more is likely to be heard" of
this case of degenerate survival.

Charlotte S. Burne.

The Mock Mayor of Headington.

When I was a boy at Headington, in Oxfordshire, a custom
existed on the Wednesday of Whitsun-week, or, as it was called,
" Whit-Wednesday," of chairing round the village, a man selected
for the purpose — generally some drunken ne'er-do-well. A chair
was made, I believe, from three or four hurdles, and covered with
evergreens, with, I think, the addition of a few flowers. The hero
of the day, who was jocularly described as the " Mayor of Head-
ington," his face whitened with chalk, and picked out with red
raddle, was set therein, after the manner of a Jack-in-the-box, and
borne on the shoulders of four men through the village, preceded
by the band, and accompanied by the banners of the village club.
A halt was made at each public-house, where the " Mayor " made
a speech (I remember one of Lord Palmerston's being read on one

Correspondence. 465

occasion), and he and his bearers were treated to beer. As they
were generally in a state of " doubtful ebriety " at the beginning of
■the function, I think the poor fellow often came to grief at the
finish.

Was not this a degraded remains of the " Whitsun Lord ? " I
remember the custom from 1846 to 52 or 53. I am not certain
whether it was kept up in the latter year. It has now gone to the
limbo of forgotten things, as have the village club and the Whit-
suntide merry-making, which are replaced by the " Manchester
Unity of Oddfellows " and Bank Hohday respectively.

W. Henry Jewitt.

Another locale of this not very uncommon custom was Emble-
ton, in Northumberland. Mrs. Creighton gives the following
account of its extinction in the year 1875: "An unpleasant
custom prevailed on one of the days of the village feast [the
week after Trinity Sunday], of getting hold of some tramp or
wandering labourer and dubbing him the mayor of the village.
He was first maae thoroughly drunk and then put on a trolley
and pushed round the village by a crowd of men and boys,
who demanded, and generally received, money for drink at all
the houses. The first year [of Creighton's incumbency] they
even rolled him down to the vicarage. The vicar happened to
be away that day ; but he determined to put an end to the
performance another year, and told the policeman that if either
the ' mayor ' or those who pushed him about got drunk over
the performance he was to summon them for being drunk and
disorderly. I believe they used still to drag the man about,
but there was an end of the public exhibition of drunkenness." —
Life of Mandell Creighton, Bishop of London, Vol. I., p. 171.

Charlotte S. Burne.

A Swiss Charm.

I spent a short time this summer in the Val de Morgins (on
the Savoy border of the Canton de Valais). The peasants of

466 Correspondence.

Morgins are devout Roman Catholics, and, in addition to other
sacred or secular emblems, the cross or crucifix, large or small,
adorns nearly every chalet, being erected, painted, carved, or
incised on the woodwork of the houses. I noticed that a cross
(a Latin cross) was often carved or hung over the principal
door of the chalet.

In most cases there also was nailed on to the outside of the
house, and most usually over the chief entrance, a cross rudely
formed of two dried whisps of the goat's beard spiraea (spircea
aruncus), which is one of the handsomest wild plants of the
mountain woods. Mixed with this were dried sprays of astrantia
major, also a common Alpine flower. The crosses were
formed simply by two little bunches of the plants, about eight
or nine inches to a foot long, laid across each other and
fastened by a whisp of grass in the middle, making the arms
of equal length. As the composition of these roughly-made
crosses seemed to vary little I guessed that they might be used
as charms, and asked an old peasant woman their meaning.
She said, " We of Morgins make these crosses every year on
the Eve of St. John. They are made from the flower that we
call St. John's Beard " {barbe de Saint Jean), " and with it we
put some of the flower, I cannot now remember what its name
is, but it is the flower " (astrantia major) " which has crimson
stains upon it, because it is said that Christ's blood dropped
upon it. On St. John's Day we take these crosses to church,
where the priest blesses them. We then nail them on to the
outside of our chalets, and they protect the house from lightning,
fire, storm, and such calamities. In time of severe thunder-
storm or danger from fire, the people will take a whisp of the
cross and burn it to avert the misfortune." When I said that
these pretty old customs should be remembered, she added,
" Yes, it is good that these pious things should continue, and
that youth should learn them, for one must teach children so/ne-
thing." From a Morgins peasant man I learned the same
concerning these crosses.

I was only a few days at Morgins, so had not time to make
more than superficial enquiries and observations, but in none
of the valleys immediately adjoining could I see these charms

Correspondence. 467

on the chalets ; and as far as I could judge they seem to be
peculiar to the Val de Morgins.

The astrantia major is called " master-wort " in some botanical
books. Is this name connected with the legend told to me
at Morgins? The likeness of the spiraea flower to a lock of
hair suggests the interesting question whether it was once nailed
up as a substitute for real hair, such as is hung on trees as a
propitiatory sacrifice to the wood-fiend in New Zealand and
Malabar, or in Slavonic countries as a " representative sacrifice,"
according to Dr. Tylor. I should be grateful to any reader
who could supply information from the folk-lore of plants bearing
upon both the astrantia or the spircea, or could throw any light
upon these flower-crosses.

Lucy E. Broadwood.

REVIEWS.

L'AnnSe Sociologique, publiee sous la direction de Emile
DuRKHEiM, Professeur de Sociologie a I'Universite de Bor-
deaux. Huitieme Annee (1903-1904). Paris: Fe'lix Alcan.
1905.

The anthropological Mhnoire in this year's issue of V Annee
Sociologique is by the Editor himself. Readers of Folk-Lore will
remember that in the issue of L Annee Sociologique for 1902,
Professor Durkheim considered in an elaborate essay the social
organisation of the Arunta and neighbouring tribes as disclosed in
the first volume published by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. Con-
trary to the opinion of the distinguished explorers he argued that
the original organisation was based, not as they thought upon
what he called male filiation, or what is perhaps more usually called
in this country Father-right, the reckoning of kinship through the
father only, but upon female filiation, or Mother-right, the reckon-
ing of kinship through the mother only. Further, he held that
the two fundamental classes into which these tribes, as well as
many others, are internally divided, and which he calls phratries,
were originally totem-clans; and that the change from mother-right
to father-right by the central tribes was deliberately effected by
the transfer from each of the phratries to the other of one of the
two sub-classes.^ Such a change, it may be observed, could only
have been effected if the primitive character of the phratries as

1 1 am not quite sure whether this was in M. Durkheim's opinion a de-
liberate arrangement, since he seems to protest, in words quoted by Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen, that " the phratries are too closely bound up with the
whole moral organisation of these tribes to admit of being arranged or dis-

Reviews. 469

totem clans had been forgotten. This, indeed, appears to be the
case ; for in the tribes in question, as well as others, the very
meaning of the names has been lost, though it is still traceable
among some of the tribes in the south-east of the continent.

M. Durkheim's criticisms, and those of some anthropologists in
this country, were not lost upon Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, who
in their second journey made further investigations. The result
was to confirm their previous opinion that the customs of the
Arunta and Kaitish tribes "represent most nearly the original
customs common to the ancestors of the central and north-
central tribes." For our present purpose this means that paternal
and not maternal descent was the basis of the original organisa-
tion.

In the present essay M. Durkheim returns to the charge.
He maintains, against the explorers, that the type of organisation
of the Mara and Anula tribes is substantially identical with that
of the Arunta and Warramunga tribes, and that both are capable
of being traced back to the same original : that they are in effect
two different attempts at the solution of the same problem.
He has, I think, the best of the argument ; but the question
cannot be put adequately before the readers of Folk-Lore in a
small space. Assuming, therefore, that he is so far correct,
I pass to consider his further proposition (originally suggested
in a footnote to his previous article) that the system of eight
matrimonial classes which obtains in these and some other tribes,
has been purposely developed out of an earlier system of four
matrimonial classes as the necessary consequence of the change
from maternal to paternal descent.

It is clear that among both the Arunta and the Mara the
eight classes are derived from four, because the terminology
employed bears marks of their origin, and shows that the
scission is still imperfect. Now, suppose that a given society

arranged in this manner." But I think it is clear that if the one change was
deliberate the other was so too, and that, with the evidence before us, given
by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen and by Dr. Howitt, of deliberate changes of
custom and the manner in which they are made, we may safely say that such a
change is not beyond the power of the sages of the tribes to imagine, to decree
or to enforce.

470 Reviews.

or tribe consists of two phratries, each composed of two classes,
forming thus two pairs of classes having the right of connubium.
These may be represented as A and Ai on the one side, and
B and Bi on the other side, so that A would have co?inubium
only with B, and A\ only with B\. The class A\ would
consist of the children of the class A and the class B\ of
the children of ^. In consequence of the prohibition, connubium
with the forbidden classes would be regarded with aversion,
as contrary to tribal usage, and ultimately doubtless with horror,
as unnatural. By the hypothesis descent is traced in the first
mstance through the mother only. Class A would thus con-
sist of the mothers of class A\ and their brothers and sisters,
giving those terms the wide extension usual in the tribes in
question, and class B would consist of the mothers of class
B\ and their brothers and sisters. But the men of class A
(the brothers of the mothers of class A\) would be the fathers
of class B\ ; and vice versa the men of class B would be the
fathers of class Ai. Suppose, further, that by some revolution,
the causes of which need not detain us, descent began to be
traced in the male instead of the female line. The children
of the women of class A would then form class ^i, as being
the children of the men of class B ; and the children of the
women of class B would be class Ai, as being the children
of the men of class A. If the revolution were complete, there
would be no difficulty about the children of the women of
class A and the men of class B continuing to marry the
children of the women of class B and the men of class A.
But there is the influence of the ideas and feelings generated
by the prohibitions and practices of countless generations to
reckon with. Among the institutions of the society supposed
is that of totemism. The men of class A (or some of them
at any rate) and their children under paternal descent, would
bear the totem of any given woman of the class. Although
the children of that woman under paternal descent would not
bear the same totem, yet they would continue to lie under
the prohibition to marry in their mother's totem, and would
regard with horror, as incest, the possibility of doing so, until
the influence of the ideas and feelings just referred to had

Reviews. 471

completely died away. " So long as society was organised
on the basis of mother-right, my mother's totem was also mine,
and consequently I could not marry a woman of the same
totem without committing incest. If, during so long a period,
the maternal totem has marked all who bore it with a special
seal w^hich has rendered them matrimonially taboo to me, if
the violation of this taboo has, during a long series of generations,
roused in the conscience the movement of disgust and horror
of which incestuous unions are the object, it is easy to con-
ceive that these traditional sentiments, these inveterate repug-
nances cannot have vanished by enchantment, by virtue only
of the adoption of a new mode of filiation. The fact that the
civil and religious status of the children was no longer framed
on the same principle could not suffice miraculously to transform
a mentality so powerfully constituted. The prejudices con-
solidated by long usage survived the causes which had engendered
them ; and the maternal totem, conserving something of its
old character, continue to give rise to the same matrimonial
interdiction as in the past. The public conscience refused to
admit that the members of class Ai could henceforth marry
those of Bx ; and as they could not marry in any other class,
all marriage became impossible to them." A way out of this
impasse had to be found. It was found by dividing each of
the primary classes, A and B (so to say) vertically into two, in
such a way that the totem clans were divided between the new-
classes and the same totems did not appear in both halves of
either of the primary classes. There was thus created a double
cleavage. The primary classes A and B remained each
divided horizontally by generations into A and A\, B and B\.
They now became divided vertically by totems into A and
Aa, B and Bb, making in the second generation A\ and Aa\^
Bi and Bbi. The risk of marrying into the mother's totem-
clan, and with it the horror of incest, the matrimonial taboo,
■was thus removed.

This is the hypothesis, and Prof. Durkheim proceeds to the
task of proving it. He shows that among tribes, like the
Narrinyeri and the Kurnai, in other parts of Australia, where
male descent is the rule, marriage into the mother's totem-clan

472 Reviews.

is still tabooed. Among the northern tribes of Central Austra-
lia, such as the Worgaia, the Warramunga, and the Walpari, the
totem-animal of the mother's clan is still under taboo ; and the
same rule applies in considerable measure to the Binbinga,,
the Mara and the Anula; though in all these tribes descent is-
reckoned on the father's side. The Warramunga, Binbinga,
Mara, and Anula do not absolutely forbid marriages with the
class which alternates with the mother's (that is to say, the class
containing persons which bear her totem) ; but such marriages
are rare, they are only contracted as secondary to more regular
unions, and wives in such marriages are not called by the
ordinary name of wife, but by words which really signify only
a distant degree of relationship. It looks as though the taboo
of the mother's clan and its totem were in all these cases still
in force, but in most of them becoming enfeebled and begin-
ning to disappear.

The hypothesis supposes, as I have just said, that the totem-
clans were divided among the classes, so that the same totems
were not represented in the two halves of either of the primary
classes or phratries. This we find to be the case among the
Mara and Anula, and though Messrs. Spencer and Gillen do
not expHcitly state it with regard to the other tribes, from a
fact which they do state concerning the Warramunga there
is reason to infer it. According to Mathews' statement,
among the Tjingilli, or Chingalee as he calls them, and
some other tribes, the phratry is inherited in the female line
while the totem passes in the male Une, with consequent
differences in the arrangement of the classes from that of (say)
the Arunta. This variation is inexplicable apart from the hypo-
thesis of a change from maternal to paternal descent; and it
should be noted that here the same partial relaxation of the
matrimonial prohibition appears as that just mentioned among
the Warramunga. Mathews' account, however, does not agree
with that of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, for, according to the
latter the matrimonial organisation of the Tjingilli is identical
with that of the Arunta. More than that, according to the
information collected by Dr. Howitt and by himself the or-
ganisation of the Warramunga precisely agrees with his account

Reviews. 473

of the Tjingilli, and consequently differs from that of Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen. The probability is (as we shall see directly)
that the tribes in question are in a state of transition, and that
Mathews and Howitt's statement may be (or may have been
at the time) accurate as regards one portion of a tribe which
is spread over a considerable extent of country, while Spencer
and Gillen's statements may be equally accurate for another
portion of the tribe, or (seeing that their report is the most
recent) may be now accurate for the entire tribe.

A Warramunga tradition, reported by the latter, concerning
the change of phratry of certain mythical beings lends countenance
to this suggestion. Such a change of phratry seems actually to
have happened in the Arunta tribe, where the Panunga class
has been transferred from phratry B to phratry A^ and conversely
the Purula class from phratry A to phratry B. Nothing else will
account for the Urabunna rearrangement of the classes to suit
their system of female descent, when intermarriage takes place
between the Urabunna and Arunta. According to Mathews'
account a similar change has been effected by the Tjingilli.
In this tribe the totems descend on the male side, while the
phratries descend on the female side. The result is that while
in tracing descent on the male side the totem is retained through-
out the generations, the phratry is changed at every step in
the genealogy ; and conversely, on the female side the phratry
is retained, but the totem changes. A woman as the first step
of phratry A (call her A\) gives birth to children who are A2.
The women of A2 give birth to A^, those of A3 to ^4, those
of Aa, X.O A\. The women of Ax marry the men of B\ ; but
the women of A2 cannot marry the men of B2, because, seeing
that descent by totems is in the male line, these men would
(or might) belong to their totem, in fact would (or might) be
by tribal reckoning their brothers. They therefore marry the
men of B4. But this they could not do either, if B4 were
the descendants of Bi, because they would belong to their
fathers' totem. The people of B4 must therefore belong either
to a gens of B, severed by what I have called vertical cleavage
from B, or to a gens severed by the same process from A. Let us
suppose the former. If we now compare the arrangement of

474 Reviews.

the phratries and classes as given by Mathews with that given by
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen,^ we shall find that the classes having
interconnubial relations and the descent agree in every particular,
— in short, that the arrangement is precisely the same, except
that two of the classes {A2 and A\ in Mathews' list) have
changed places with ^4 and B2 of the same list. In one word,
while Mathews' list represents the change as in process, Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen's Hst shows the change as completed, and the
descent in both totem and phratry on the male side. To effect
this the two classes referred to in each phratry have changed
places.

The consideration of the evidence produced by Professor
Durkheim thus affords a presumption of the truth of his
hypothesis. But it cannot be regarded as absolutely proven.
No tribe has yet, to my knowledge, been found com-
bining eight matrimonial classes with female descent ; but
there are certainly a few tribes having only four classes which
yet reckon descent through the father only. Dr. Howitt, from
whom we learn of their existence {Native Tribes ofS.E. Australia,
p. 114), is able to give us too little information to found very
definite ideas as to the details of their organisation. The classes,
however, are found in intimate relations with totems. Some of
the tribes, the Kaiabara and Muruburra, for instance, definitely
allot certain totems to each of the sub-classes. In the Annan
River tribe, near Cooktown, Queensland, information of which
was forwarded by Dr. Roth, both the classes and sub-classes are
named from animals : an arrangement pointing to their totemic
origin. Further research will be necessary to ascertain the mode
of development of the organisation of all these tribes, and to
obtain more direct and satisfactory evidence of the correctness
of M. Durkheim's hypothesis.

Meanwhile that hypothesis would appear to account for the
formation of the eight matrimonial classes. It is supported by
the facts which Professor Durkheim alleges ; and if these facts

1 Northern Tribes, p. lOO. The names are not difficult to identify. M.
Durkheim has not discussed the changes I have pointed out here, but they
seem to me to confirm his hypothesis.

Reviews. 475

do not amount to absolute proof, they certainly afiford a presump-
tion in its favour which we may look to further research to confirm.
Learned, penetrating, and clear, M. Durkheim's criticisms are
always valuable ; and they have done much to solve the difficulties
raised by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's important volumes.

The reviews of books, which form the bulk of UAnnee Soci-
ologique, do not call for any remark, except that they fully sustain
their usual high level. The careful articles on the fifth volume
of the Report of the Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits are
an example.

E. Sidney Hartland,

CuLTES, Mythes, et RELIGIONS. Par Sal. Reinach, Membre de
ITnstitut. Vol. I. Paris : E. Leroux. 1905.

In this collection of articles contributed by him during the last
dozen years to the Revue Celtiqiie, U Anthropologie and other
learned periodicals, M. Reinach touches upon nearly every point
that can interest the anthropologist and the student of European
religion, and handles all with the like mastery, the like penetrating
grasp of essentials, the like power of lucid and orderly exposition.
Totemisra, Taboos, Marriage customs, Sacrifice, Magic, the Early
Celtic Pantheon, Prayers for the Dead, the Infernal Cohorts,
Byzantine Christianity, Apostolic Apocrypha, Mediaeval Jewish
Rationalism, Seventeenth-century Mysticism, such are his subjects,
treated with full command of the pertinent literature, with full
perception of the problems involved. Many of them belong to
what is most obscure and controverted in our studies, and it is
delightful to note the ease and sureness with which the com-
plicated tangles of fact which confront the investigators of
totemism, or of archaic sexual relations, are deftly woven into a
simple and convincing argument. M. Reinach combines the
eminently French quality of logical analysis with a truly German
range of erudition and subtlety of method. Moreover, and this
should commend his book to English students, he avows himself

47 6 Reviews.

a convinced adherent of the EngUsh anthropological school, and
he sets forth and vindicates its principles with a directness and a
vigour too often lacking among English scholars. He is an
uncompromising evolutionist, and his firm grasp of principle
enables him to avoid inconsistencies and to keep clear of
unnecessary concessions such as at times irritate one in English
work. To one who has never wavered in his allegiance to
the evolutionary principle, who has always held that " hors de
rhistoire" (of the belief or practice under investigation) '■'■point de
salut" who has steadily maintained from the first that folk-lore
represents in the main the protoplasm out of which the higher
beliefs have evolved by a process of differentiation and refine-
ment, and not a coarsened, weakened degradation of those beliefs,
it is a delight to find his faith championed with such wealth of
accurate knowledge, such force of critical reasoning. Owing to
the nature of M. Reinach's book — a series of independent
monographs each worthy of specialist criticism — it is impossible
to do more here than indicate its leading characteristics, and
commend it warmly to all English students desirous of appreciating
the true scope and import of modern anthropological and folk-
lore research, and justly interested in noting the esteem in which
the work of our English masters is held by one of the most
acccomplished of Continental scholars.

Alfred Nutt.

Des Divinites Generatrices, ou du Culte du Phallus
CHEZ LES Anciens et les Modernes. By J. A. Dulaure..
Paris: Societe du Mercure de France, 1905.

M. Dulaure's famous book, originally issued a hundred years
ago, is here reprinted ; and M. A. van Gennep has added " a.
complementary chapter."

The author of the book was one of the pioneers of the anthro-
pological method of investigating human history. He points out
in his preface the aridity of a history, as history was then usually

Reviews. 477

written, where the manners, institutions, customs, and opinions
of a people are neglected, and rightly insists on the necessity of
taking them into account. "The comparison," he says, "of
customs, cults, idioms, even of dress ; that of the means of trans-
mitting language, that is to say, of writing ; the comparison of
the superstitious ceremonies observed at births, marriages, and
deaths; the comparison of practices intended to prevent trouble-
some accidents, calamities, and diseases, to bring abundance
and prosperity, and to implore the divinity and render him
favourable ; these comparisons, I say, will lead to conclusions
on the origin of the different peoples more certain than can
be drawn from the greater part of our historical traditions."
It is thus evident that he was possessed of the truly scientific
spirit. The root of the matter was in him. But when he
came to apply the principle enunciated in the words I have
quoted, the application was thwarted by two difficulties. First,
he could not shake himself entirely free of the theories of
Dupuis, who had written a ponderous work to prove that the
primitive worship was that of the heavenly bodies. Among
these bodies, of course, the sun in his various zodiacal phases
took a prominent place. Dulaure correlates the worship of
the reproductive principle of nature with that of the sun.
Here there was a germ, and more than a germ, of truth.
In the northern hemisphere, with which he was almost
exclusively concerned, the springtime, when the sun enters the
sign of Taurus, is especially the time when the reproductive
powers of the vegetable world are manifested, and when
religious festivals to celebrate the return of life after the
temporary death of winter are held. It is undeniable that at
these festivals phallic emblems are honoured and phallic rites
performed. Dulaure's mistake was in assuming that the cult of
the sun was primitive and universal, and that the cult of the
phallus was likewise primitive and universal and necessarily
connected with the cult of the sun. The evidence he brings
forward ought to have been sufficient to put him on his guard
as to the latter. It is quite certain, at all events in the light
of more modem researches, that any cult, strictly so called,
of the phallus is of limited range and sporadic, that it is not

4/8 Reviews.

necessarily connected with the cult of the sun, and that it is
not primitive.

Dulaure's second difficulty arises from the fact that he wrote
a century before the principles of magic had been investigated.
He does not distinguish between acts of worship and acts of
magic. It is well pointed out by M. van Gennep in the
"complementary chapter" that the fundamental ideas of the
beliefs and rites in which Dulaure thought he had discovered
fragments of an ancient religious system, at once solar and
phallic, are magical. It may be admitted that the line of
demarcation between magic and religion is often very fine, even
in the highest religions. But clearly Dulaure exaggerates the
import of the fact he adduces in support of his theory ; he
exaggerates and he distorts it because he does not understand it.

Moreover, many of the facts mentioned have nothing to
do with either magic or religion. Often they are simply the
expression of the naive shamelessness of barbarian manners,
or of such coarseness of ideas as was not unknown even in
"the spacious times of great Elizabeth," without in either case
any impure intention. In other cases they are acts of licence,
sometimes acts of tyranny, founded on physical or spiritual power.

Notwithstanding this, Dulaure's work was in the true line
of evolution of anthropological science. The subject is treated
with modesty, though it need hardly be said the book is not
one for the drawing-room table. M. van Gennep's " com-
plementary chapter" is well and discreetly written. He had
a difficult task. It was not possible to bring Dulaure "up
to date " without rewriting the work. But the process of
rewriting would mean the production of something quite
different, and the drawing of conclusions often in contradiction
with those of a hundred years ago. M. van Gennep appreciates
Dulaure's position and the honour due to him as a first explorer
of vast territories of human thought. With gentle dexterity he
supplies the corrective scepticism, showing from his wide
reading that another interpretation is to be put upon much
of the evidence, and that the ideas underlying the worship
of the generative powers are anything but primitive.

E. Sidney Hartland.

Reviews. 479

Crystal-Gazing : Its History and Practice, with a Discus-
sion OF the Evidence for Telepathic Scrying. With an
Introduction by Andrew Lang, M.A., LL.D. By North-
cote W. Thomas, M.A. Alexander Moring Limited. 1905.

The personal references with which Dr. Lang and Mr. Thomas
honour me in this entertaining booklet are gratifying in so far
as they show that the discussion between Dr. Lang and myself,
although now of ancient date, remains occasion of mental dis-
quiet. Dr. Lang's touching allusion to his continued hepatic
troubles commands my unabated sympathy, the more so as I
fear that they may retard his conversion. Mr. Thomas seems
to mistake logomachy for logic. He quotes me as contending
that, as the phenomena which savages attribute to spirits are
explained by science as due to natural causes, spirits do not
exist. That is rather a travesty of what I said ; but let it pass.
Then he offers a parallel. Some ignorant rustics attributed the
working of a steam-driven machine to horses inside it ; they were
mistaken ; therefore, horses do not exist ! Surely the ordinary
man, who has never had Mr. Thomas's advantages of a course
of Mill or Jevons, will reply that, in the one case, the rustics
referred the mystery to known or ascertainable causes, since they
had seen horses doing divers kinds of field work; while in the
other case, the mysteries are ascribed to a cause of which the
savages know, and can know, nothing. The savage and
the spiritualist are at one in explaining what puzzles them as
due to something of which they are totally ignorant. But their
conceptions of that "something" prevent the application of the
saying, Omne ignotitm pro magnifico.

As for the subject-matter of the little volume, there is little,
there can be little, that is new. For the pictures seen in glass
balls, mirrors, beryl stones, and other objects reflecting hght,
vary in detail only according to the idiosyncrasy or " personal
equation " of the scryer. Crystal-gazing is as " old as the hills " ;
^schylus attributed its discovery to Prometheus, Zoroaster to
Ahriman, and the Fathers of the Church to the Devil. Modern
explanations are less concrete : they refer the phenomena to the
vague pseudo- or quasi-supernatural. When Mr. Thomas rebukes

480 Reviews.

Professor Ray Lankester for daring to speak of telepathy as a
*■'■ thing " (does Mr. Thomas contend that it is a person ?), and
when Dr. Lang confesses beUef that there is evidence (ingathered,
it is presumed, by the Society for Psychical Research) in support
of the survival of human personality, the uneasy feeling arises
that both of them are in the movement which arrests the explana-
tion of the occult on scientific lines.

Mind is greater than consciousness; its depths no plummet
has sounded, but its abnormal workings indicate that what man
seeks after in the heavens lies within him. Mr. Thomas closes
his book with the announcement that " crystals can be obtained
of the Society for Psychical Research, 20 Hanover Square, to
whose care reports of crystal-gazing may be consigned" to him.
It is not easy to reconcile his statement that " the crystal is apt to
anticipate events " with the assurance that " moderate indulgence
in the sport is no more harmful than an after-dinner snooze."
Sport, indeed !

Thought-Transference, by the same author and from the same
publisher, has also reached us ; but while the treatise on Crystal-
gazing may be useful to the student as a collection of evidence
relating to a very old and widespread form of divination, its
companion volume lies entirely outside our scope.

Edward Clodd.

Votive Weihegaben des Katholischen Volks in Sijddeutsch-
LAND. EiN Beitrag zur Volkskunde. Von Richard
Andree. Mit 38 Abbildungen im Text, 140 Abbildungen
auf 32 Tafeln, und 2 Farbendrucktafeln. Braunschweig :
Vieweg und Sohn. 1904. 12 marks paper, 13.50 cloth.

The first chapter of this monograph gives a brief sketch of the
practice of dedicating offerings in antiquity, amongst the Egyp-
tians, Greeks, Romans, and Jews : a very brief sketch, the least
satisfactory part of the book. A single reference for Egypt to

Reviews. 481

Wilkinson, without a hint of date or indication whether the
custom was there borrowed; a few references to Olympia and
Epidauros, and other such allusions, only suffice to indicate
that the modern practice has its roots in heathendom. The author
has not used any of the works specially devoted, wholly or in part,
to the topic. The second, which treats of the relation of the
Catholic Church to the saints, is also of a thin texture, and does
not enter into the relation of the modern saints to the ancient
gods or heroes. It would have been very useful had the author
compiled a list of saints, with their properties, and if possible
some indication of their relation to antiquity. No doubt original
research on these lines would have taken a very long time, and
would have given matter enough for a new book ; but something
has been already done, and at least the list we speak of could
have been made. After this the author comes to his own special
sphere, and at once he becomes worth hearing. He describes
first the general features of pilgrim shrines and sacred springs :
the reader will be amused to see how the new is grafted upon the
old. In Bickerstein the author bought for a penny a paper
packet upon which was depicted a steam engine, with the words
"Railway to Heaven" and "Ticket for Paradise." Spiritual
playing-cards are also somewhere to be found. A chapter
follows on Pilgrimages ; and a picture is given of one poor sinner
who for 36 years has not washed, and has always carried an
iron chain bound seven times about his wasted body. An
interesting series of notes and observations is attached under
the title " Guardians of Domestic Animals." Some are patrons
of cattle, some of horses. Here again our author is too scanty.
We now come to a chapter on St. Leonard and his powers, with a
list of his holy places in South Germany. At Aigen, in Bavaria,
the author saw more than a thousand iron figures of horses and
kine which had been there offered on the saint's feast-day. Here
also he found a number of allusions to the practice in the church
archives, in which the foundation statutes of 1599 give detailed
directions for the dedication of offerings. These iron figures are
quite a common form of dedication to this saint at various local
shrines : they are dedicated after a procession of riders and carts
thrice about the church. Other saints have the same patronage

2 H

482 Reviews.

and the same custom : St. Stephen, St. Wolfgang, St. Koloman,
St. George, St. Willibald. Another remarkable thing is that many
of the churches are surrounded by iron chains. These the
author plausibly associates with the dedication of the chains of
horses and cattle, which he supposes to have been joined or
re-made into a large chain and hung about the church. Other
explanations are suggested by various writers, but none can be
proved to be true. Horse-shoes are also dedicated. After an
excursus on tapers, the author recurs to his iron figures, and
traces the extent of their use. Amongst them are human figures
and parts of the body. They are always wrought or cut out of
foil, but never cast ; some are as old as the Middle Ages. Wax
figures of human beings are also off"ered, and the use is recorded
in documents reaching back to the fifteenth century, many
of which are printed in this book. Sometimes the material is
wood, or silver, or even paper. A detailed description is added
of a few very old figures at Aigen, six of which have special
names. The author excavated a store of votive offerings at
this place, two of which were very rude, naked, and phallic
figures, with clasped hands. It is difficult to explain a number
of votive tortoises.^ The dedication of real animals, which the
author traces through past centuries, still exists. Mallet, plough-
share, and other utensils are, or were, also given to the saint ; and
there exist models of houses. Clothes, moreover, and various
kinds of vegetables and food, are not wanting. Finally, we have
votive pictures of types already familiar, in which the scene of
help or heahng is depicted. The book is well illustrated; we
may call attention to a few things of special interest. Two very
old figures of prisoners in chains are given in Plate III. ; most of
the human figures have the hands outstretched and clasped in the
attitude of devotion. Many parts of the body occur, the disease
often being indicated, and some being inscribed with letters or
designs. A number of rough urns have the shape of the human
head, like those found in Etruscan or Peruvian tombs. Amongst
the animals occur snakes, tortoises, and a beehive. Two votive
pictures are painted in colours.

1 But cf. Legend of Perseus, i. 176.

Reviews. 483

Enough has been said to show the character of the book. It
bears evidence of accuracy and careful investigation. We are not
well satisfied with the arrangement, and the style is diffuse : but
the book is most useful, and it is full of first-hand information,
illustrative of popular behef and of the persistence of ancient
custom.

Die Mythen und Legenden der Sudamerikanischen
Urvolker und ihre Beziehungen zu denen Nord-

AMERIKAS UND DER ALTEN WeLT. Von Dr. PaUL

Ehrenreich. Berlin : A. Asher & Co., 1905.

It is remarkable how little is yet known of the mythic world
and the tales of the South American aborigines. This is
partly due to the fact that in South America no government
has yet arisen sufficiently in touch with modern culture and
at leisure from domestic revolution to establish an institution
like the Bureau of Ethnology, which has done so much for
the investigation of the aborigines of North America. Partly
it is due to the climate and the dense forests, which have
greatly hindered the penetration of white men into the interior.
Dr. Ehrenreich's own bibliographical list, appended to his
monograph before us, only includes some score of books
strictly relating to South America, and capable of being called
first-hand works. Few of them are collections of traditions,
most of them being narratives of travel, or of mission-work, in
which the native stories are a very subordinate element. Such,
however, as the material thus gathered is, Dr. Ehrenreich in these
pages sets himself the task of classifying and characterising it,
and of tracing its relations to the mythic material and stories
of North America and the Old World.

Germany lingered under the domination of the sun-myth
and the philological school of mythologists for half a generation
after they had been discredited in England. A new school

484 Reviews.

has at last arisen which recognises the value of the labours
of Mannhardt, Lang and Frazer. To this school I gather
Dr. Ehrenreich belongs, though he still explains many stories
as sun- or moon-myths in a somewhat arbitrary fashion. It
seems impossible, for instance, that the incident of the hero
swallowed by a monster and brought up alive again (Jonah)
can be always a sun-myth, though it is conceivable that the
phenomena of eclipses, of sunset and sunrise, may in some
cases have influenced the development of a story. Direct
evidence also would be required to show that the incident of
the hero cut to pieces and afterwards put together again and
restored to life (Osiris) is a myth of the waning and waxing
moon. As much might be said of other incidents referred by
the author to nature-myths. It is not of course to be denied
that nature-myths exist. One would be a hardened Euhemerist
to do that, for, among savage peoples particularly, the heroes
are often expressly stated to be sun, moon, wind and other
phenomena. Incidents may indeed be taken over from nature-
myths into other stories. That, however, does not constitute
the latter nature-myths, any more than the adoption of a cork-
leg makes a man a cork-tree. I believe such instances are far
fewer than Dr. Ehrenreich thinks. Again; it is perfectly true
that, as he points out, many cases in which borrowing has
been suggested are simply examples of the independent working
up of ideas common, if not to the race, at all events to peoples
in a certain stage of culture. But it does not follow that these
ideas are mythological, in the sense of being stories concern-
ing the heavenly bodies or the phenomena of day and night,
and so forth. The universal love for story-telling has to be
taken into account, and the capacity of human imagination to
exercise itself upon any material presented to it.

If I rightly interpret the author, he thinks that every story
which cannot be referred to a mythological source in the sense
just mentioned, and indeed many stories which can, must be
borrowed — must have originated in one definite centre and
spread thence over the world. It is true that there is a
difficulty in supposing that certain complicated incidents,
sometimes following one another in a definite series with com-

Reviews. 485

paratively few variations, have been invented independently.
The flight from an ogre who is impeded by magical obstacles
thrown in his way is an incident of this kind. It is often
preceded by the incident of lousing the ogre, and thus discover-
ing his real character and putting him to sleep. With or
without the latter, it is found in almost every corner of the world.
It is based on very primitive savage beliefs and practices ; and
without the most minute analysis and tabulation of all the
known variants it would be impossible to justify the conclusion,
at which the author arrives, that all the variants were diffused
on the one hand through Asia, Europe and Africa, and on the
other hand through America, from a common centre in Eastern
Asia. This analysis and tabulation exceed even Dr. Ehren-
reich's researches, extensive though they have been.

The Coniraya story, on which the author lays great stress
as an example of transmission, is a variant of the tale of the
Lucky Fool, well known as a mdrchen in Europe. The mode
of supernatural conception is considered with a number of
analogues in the fifth chapter of my Legend of Perseus. That
cited by Dr. Ehrenreich from Bastian is doubtless genuine, de-
spite that, from the haste in which he always wrote, the latter
omitted as usual to give his authority. Let it suffice here to
say that the mode of conception is founded upon a savage
belief of practically universal distribution, though, as we might
expect from our knowledge of Peruvian and Siamese culture,
not in its most primitive form. The scene where the child is
set to identify his father is a representation of a mode of
divination thoroughly in harmony with early ideas, as familiar
in South America as in Asia. I see no reason here to suspect
any "Asiatic character" in the Coniraya myth, still less to
assert that it is " unmistakable."

The attention, in fact, of storyologists has been too ex-
clusively concentrated on the stories as stories, rather than on
the stories as embodiments of primitive ideas and customs.
What is wanted is to analyse them with regard to these, and
to enquire how far the stories of a nation represent ideas and
things familiar to it. The place of origin and direction of
transmission are of merely secondary importance wherever it

486 Reviews.

can be shown that the ideas, customs and institutions under-
lying a folk-tale are part of the culture of the people and that
the external objects are familiar. In such a case, even if the
story be not native in origin, it has been thoroughly assimilated,
and may for all purposes be regarded as part of the mental
furniture of the people among which it is told. And I need
hardly point out that where, as in the case of the Coniraya
myth just cited, it has become part of the sacred history, no
matter whether through "priestly speculation" or otherwise,
that fact is one of the best proofs of its complete assimilation.
On the author's general position that the myths of North and
South America are organically connected; on his view that it is
needful to study the part played by various peoples, such as the
Arawaks and the Tupi, in carrying material culture, in order to
arrive at sound conclusions as to the transmission of stories in
South America ; and on his plea for further enquiry without loss
of time, I am entirely at one with him. His outline of the con-
tent of the South American story-store and his valuation of
authorities are excellent. His theories are stated with modera-
tion and are to a large extent sound, although I think he
attaches far too much importance to the influence of India
in spreading stories over the world, and especially over Europe.
The volume, originally pubhshed as a supplement to the
Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, is one that students of folk-tales will
do well to study; and the price (three marks) puts it within
the reach of everyone.

E. Sidney Hartland.

The Faroes and Iceland : Studies in Island Life. By
Nelson Annandale. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.

Mr. Annandale, when Research Student in Anthropology
at the University of Edinburgh, became favourably known as
part author of Fasciculi Malayenses, in which he records the
anthropological work done by him when he accompanied the

Reviews, 487

Skeat expedition as a volunteer in its tour through the Eastern
Siamese Malay States in igoi-2, an expedition to which his
university and the Royal Society of London gave financial assist-
ance. He has also made contributions to the publications of
the Anthropological Institute, the Cambridge Philosophical
Society, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is now Deputy
Superintendent of the Indian Museum at Calcutta. In the
work before us, which is appropriately dedicated to Professor
E. B. Tylor, he gives the result of a series of summer and
autumn holidays spent between the years 1896 and 1903, in
the Faroes and Iceland. The people of the Faroes are described
as a finely-built and handsome race, and we believe that, like
many others in remote islands, they retain a brachycephalic
type harking back to the Stone Age, but Mr. Annandale does
not furnish any measurement of the cephalic index. This book
is a charming little work of viii4-2 38 pages, commendably
free from purely technical details, and illustrated by 24 good
photographs. The cover is adorned with a neat sketch-map.
We proceed to note some of its contributions to folk-lore.

The superstitions of the people of the Faroes deal mostly
with trolls, mermaids, and water-spirits. The trolls are the
little people who live inside the fairy mount, from which they
issue at night or in solitary places, to dance, or to play mis-
chievous tricks on human beings, or sometimes to steal a child.
Trolls' Head is the name given to a rock where a troll lost his
head in the attempt to tie two islands together (p. 22). A
disease to which cattle are liable is ascribed to trolls, and
called " troll-riding " (p. 23). It is firmly believed that they
still kidnap little girls (p. 24). Mermaids entangle fishermen's
lines and snap off their hooks. The soldiers of Pharaoh who
were lost in the Red Sea were not drowned but turned into
seals, which swam away to the north. They are said to climb
a hill on Naalsoe once a month, throwing off their skins and
dancing in human form, and men have gained wives of great
beauty by surprising them and withholding their discarded
s):ins (p. 26). Unfortunately the indigenous seals which were
once abundant in the Faroes have now been quite exterminated,
though a few come south from Iceland in the winter.

488 Reviews.

The wren is called the mouse's brother, and whatever the
mouse spoils, the mouse's brother spoils too (p. 52). An
albatross shot in 1894, greatly to the indignation of the people,
was called by them "the king of the gannet" and regarded
with superstitious reverence (p. 56).

Mr. Annandale gives an interesting account in his third
chapter of the raid of the Algerian pirates in Iceland, and the
various legends connected with the pitiful experiences of the
people in that time of horror. He arrives at the conclusion
that it is improbable that there is any trace of Algerian blood
existing in the Icelander or the Faroeman of to-day, but that
it is possible there may be a small Icelandic element in the
very mixed population of Algeria.

Close to Iceland on the south is a small group called the
Vestmannaeyjar or Westman Isles. The folk here believe
that the puffins are an organised community, with a king, a
queen, princes and princesses. The capture of a puffin king,
which is pure white, is regarded as lucky. In the Faroes,
on the other hand, as Col. Fielden informed the readers of
the Zoologist, the white puffins were protected because they
were supposed to have each saved a man's life (Annandale,
p. 106). The Westman islanders also call white fulmars
"kings" and beHeve that they portend good luck to their
captors (p. 116).

The rock of Sulnasker is the property of the community,
and the man who climbs it for the first time on a birding
expedition has to treat his comrades on their return, and to
offer a small coin or iron nail in a cairn on the summit called
the Skerry Priest. The legend of this is that of the first two
men who climbed the Sulnasker, one was profane and perished,
the other was helped by a giant who crossed over every New
Year's eve to the island of Heimey in a stone boat. Mr.
Annandale remarks that this legend is interesting from several
points of view. It illustrates the truth that similar conditions
give rise to similar folk-lore, no matter how far apart peoples
may be, as, for example, in Tahiti a legend of a stone boat
occurs. The similarity of birding-customs all over the world
is also illustrated, as, for example, the fowlers of Lower Siam

Reviews. 489

make offerings before conical stones of a very similar form
to the cairn (p. 118).

The folk-songs of the Westman islanders include Icelandic
versions of English music-hall ditties, which have a habit of
travelling round the world. " A bicycle built for two " has
been translated into Icelandic, and also into Malay, where it
is sung even in remote Patani (p. 119).

The little auk does not breed in the Westman Islands, but
occasionally appears there, and the islanders think it to be
the halcyon of the Greeks and call it halkjon, crediting it
with the legend that it builds a floating nest on the sea with
its own feathers (p. 126).

These specimens of the interesting facts collected by Mr.
Annandale will, we hope, induce many readers to consult his
work, which does not contain a single tiresome page. An
appendix by Dr. F. H. A. Marshall, Carnegie Research Fellow
in the University of Edinburgh, discusses the origin of the
Celtic Pony.

Edward Brabrook.

The Shade of the Balkans, being a collection of Bulgarian
Folk-songs and Proverbs, here for the tirst time rendered into
English, together with an essay on Bulgarian Popular Poetry,
and another on the Origin of the Bulgar. Nutt. 1904.
7s. 6d. net.

The authors of this book appear to be Mr. Henry Bernard and
Dr. E. J. Dillon, although their names do not stand on the title
page ; the material has been supplied by, or through, one Pencho
Slaveikoff, " the caged lion of Sofia." We do not find that either
of the authors knows Bulgarian, nor does the caged lion know
English. The caged lion recited his material to the authors in
German. If they decided to include it in the book, he gave
a " more accurate rendering " in German, and repeated a few
lines in Bulgarian that Mr. Bernard might preserve the metre ;

490 Reviews,

Mr. Bernard then translated the German into English. He adds :
"Whenever we came to a passage that was at all recondite,
we set about the conquest of it by means of metaphor and
illustrative anecdote and fearless flights of imagination." When
Mr. Bernard left Bulgaria the material was written down in
German and sent to him. Slaveikoff is the author of several
books in his own language, and he contributes an essay to this
on the Folk-sotig of the Bulgars, in which he gives an account of
the chief printed collections of songs, and he claims great beauty
and value for them. Some of them also contain very ancient
and even classical elements, e.g. the story of Qidipus. The
great Bulgarian hero is Kralj Marko. The poems are written
in Hnes of irregular length and rhythm, without rime, and the
English version is of the same type.

We frankly confess that Mr. Bernard's account of his method
fills us with consternation. When we read through the pieces we
find much that is interesting and even beautiful ; but how can we
tell whether this came from the lion of Sofia or from some fearless
flight of Mr. Bernard's imagination? It cannot be denied that
serious students will have to use this book with great caution, and
base no hypotheses upon it unless they can check it by other
means. We have no first-hand knowledge of Bulgarian, but we
know from those who have that the Bulgarian people is rich in
folk-lore and folk-literature, and that they have printed large
quantities of both. It is therefore greatly to be desired that some
competent scholar should search this field, from which very little
has been transplanted into English.

It will be worth while, however, briefly to indicate some of the
contents of the volume. In myth we have the Marriage of the
Sun with a maiden named Grozdana (Spring). Religion and myth
are seen in The Plagtie and God; "old, worthy God" could do
nothing with Plague, who would not stay at his bidding \ " when
God encountered me," she says at the end, with grim ferocity,
"he cast no light upon my soul." The Last Journey of St.
Peter's Mother plays on a theme familiar in Italy ;^ this

1 Pitre, vi. Biblioteca, 65 ; Nov. Pop. Toscane, 159, etc. : cf. also Baron
Corvo, In His Image.

Reviews. 49 1

woman always appears as a mean thing whom even St. Peter
could not get out of hell, for she never did a good act.
Songs connected with trees, animals, and other parts of nature
are the most characteristic part of the collection. The Legmd
of Sweet Basil is familiar elsewhere ; not so the Legend of the
Cuckoo, who is a sister grieving for her stricken brother. The
Confessioti of the Mother of God explains why the poplar has no
shade, the ivy has sour fruit, and the fir has no fruit or blossom.
Other pieces allude to marriage customs, to the adventures or the
outrages of robbers, to historical personages (such as the Emperor
Constantine), and above all to love and death. We are glad to
say that a great deal of the poetical imagery is striking and
of fine character; but here again we remember those fearless
flights of imagination. This is a book which any one having
a poetic taste will read with pleasure ; we wish we could say that
it might be also useful to students.

Continental Folk-lore Societies.

Volkskundliche Zeitschriftenschau fur 1903, herausgegebefi ini
Auftrage der hessischen Vereinigung filr Volksku7ide. Von
Adolf Strack. Leipzig, 1905. 8vo. Pp. 281.

Hessische Blatter fur Volkskmide. Von Adolf Strack. Bd. IV.,
Heft I., Leipzig, 1905. 8vo. Pp. 96.

Mitteilungen des Verbandes deutscher Vereine filr Volkskunde,
I and 2, Januar und Juli, 1905.

Schweizerisches Archiv fiir Volkskunde, IX. 3. Zurich, 1905.

Mitteilungen der Anthropologische7i Gesellschaft in Wien,
XXXIV., 6; XXXV., i.

Sagenschatz der Stadt Weimar. Von Ellen und Paul Mitzschke.
Weimar, 1904, 8vo. Pp. xviii., 152. Price 2 M. 40 pf

The Hessische Vereinigung should be a proud body, for it has
performed three remarkable feats. It has reached a membership
of over HOG ; it has directed the energies of some of its members

492 Reviews.

into the channel of bibliography, with the result of a survey of the
literature of 1903, which far exceeds in completeness anything
ever before attempted; and it has found an editor so modest as to
apologise for the shortcomings of his bibliography.

The Schmi is really a series of comptes rendiis arranged under
periodicals and admirably indexed under subjects and authors.
Good folklorists will probably go to Hesse when they die ; if they
don't, it will be because they have omitted to support the
Hessische Vereinigiing with an annual subscription, and have failed
to back up our German sister by helping to produce an adequate
bibliography. If German were not a sealed book to many
members of the society, it would really be unnecessary to do more
than offer a subvention to the bibliography of the Hessische
Vereinigung in return for a number of copies. It is indeed a
matter for serious consideration whether the English Folklore
Society should not undertake to provide the English slips and
thus do its share towards filling up the gaps deplored by Professor
Strack. What these are it is impossible to say at present, inas-
much as some ten periodicals are reserved for the next issue,
which will, we may assume, include the American Anthropologist,
Man, the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, the Australian
Royal Societies, and various French publications.

The subscription to the Vereitiigiing is only 6/- a year, or 3/-
for those who do not wish to receive the bibliography. Sub-
scriptions are payable to Professor Dr. Strack, Alicestr. 16,
Giessen.

The Transactions of the Hessian Society are of minor impor-
tance, compared with their bibliography. None the less there
are papers in them which are both interesting and valuable.
Among others Professor Helm discusses the question of the
home of the Indo-Germans, Professor Knoop gives some informa-
tion about PoUsh goblins, and there is a useful list of new books.
The Mitteilungen are particularly useful as giving cohesion to a
number of efforts which would otherwise be doomed to isolation.

A distinguishing characteristic of many Continental folk-lore
publications is their almost exclusive devotion to their own area.
A systematic study of a particular area, classified under appro-
priate headings, is a type of paper common in Germany ; and we

Reviews. 493

find a good example of it in the number of the ScJnveizerisches
Archiv before us, where Meier continues his account of the folk-
lore of Freiamt and Kelleramt. The number also contains the
conclusion of a collection of riddles from Miinchenbuchsee. This
(Moore's Isle of Man paper excepted) is a type of research to
which the Folklore Society has not so far turned its attention.
The remaining paper deals with a subject— dairy apparatus — which
the Society excludes from its sphere of work ; and as a matter
of fact there is but little work to be done in the British Isles
in this direction. Peasant life is far more characteristic of the
Continent, and there we find materials for study which are lacking
in England.

The wider scope of the Vienna Society, again, makes it
inevitable that much of what they publish should fall without
the limits which the Folklore Society sets itself. As a matter of
fact not one article in these two Parts of the Viennese Mitteilungen,
interests the folklorist pure and simple. There is, however, a
long article, which will prove attractive to many, on the fields
and peasants' houses of Carinthia, illustrated with many plans
and sketches. In England, too, the names of fields are often
of folkloric interest, and members of the Society might do useful
work in recording them.

The little collection of local traditions, historical and legendary,
of the city of Weimar, which stands last on our list, is not issued
under the auspices of any Society, but though due to individual
effort, it may conveniently be noticed here. The authors set an
example to the industrious but unambitious folklorist. There is
no attempt to "improve" the stories, and where there is a
literary source there are full references. The authors would,
however, have done well to go further than the mere '■'■ mi'mdlich^''
and to give name, age, and other details, of the narrators of
stories from their own collections. The arrangement is topo-
graphical, doubtless a convenient one for the local reader, but
less satisfactory for comparative purposes.

N. W. Thomas.

494 Reviews.

Anthropological Queries for Central Africa.

This little pamphlet of twenty 4to pages bears no name of author
or publisher, but the " Prefatory Note " is signed by Mr. Charles
H. Read, of the British Museum, from whom copies may, pre-
sumably, be had on application. Anthropological Notes and
Queries has been used as the basis of the work, with omissions
and additions to suit it to its special purpose. There are sixty-five
sections, embracing subjects so varied as Cannibalism, Machinery,
Government, and Narcotics. Many of them are of course quite
outside the scope of folklore, and otherwise unsuited for repro-
duction here, but the following may be quoted to show the terse,
practical and thorough character of the little brochure.

"XLV. Death, Burial, (i) What causes of death do they
recognise? (2) Do relatives or others attend a dying man, or is
he deserted? (3) How is the body treated after death? Prepared
for burial? Any embalming? (4) How is the body carried to
the grave ? Who attend ? Any mourning ; any mutilations ; any
sacrifice? Blood custom? Fasting? (5) Shape of grave?

(6) What mode of burial ? Anything buried with the body ?

(7) What position is the body in ? Towards any special point of
the compass ? (8) Is burial in a canoe ever practised ? (9) Is
anyone refused burial ? Debtor ; person killed by lightning, etc.
(10) Are women buried in the same way as men? All ranks in
the same way? (11) Any mound or memorial on grave? Hut?
Fire at or near grave ? How long ? Are mourners unclean ?
Ceremonies of purification? (12) Is the body ever exhumed?
Or the bones? What is done with them? Skull drinking-cup ?
(13) Is exposure ever practised? How ? Any special customs?
Influence on lot in future life? (14) Any memorial other than
grave ? (15) Is cremation ever practised ? If so, answer
questions as for burial. Any lamentation? (16) Any ceremonies,
fasts, sacrifices, long after death ? "

"L. Magic and Magician, (i) Is there more than one
kind of magician? What distinction? (2) Who become magi-
cians? How? (3) Relation of priest to magician? Jealousy?
Are they ever the same person ? (4) Does magician work
(a) through natural laws (in his own belief); {b) through

Reviews. 49 5

magical powers of his own; {c) through familiar spirits (in what
form ?) ; through aid of gods ? Is he the master or the servant
of the means by which he acts ? (5) Is the magician also the
leech ? What ceremonies ? (6) Songs, charms, spells, etc.,
connected with the magician's art? (7) Do they fear the evil
eye ? Means of averting ? Cursing ? (8) Any reason to suppose
victims die of fear or any other cause ? (9) Can magician take a
man's soul away? By using his name or how? (10) Are images
of victim used ? Is sympathetic magic used, e.g. keeping weapon
bright when it has inflicted a wound, in order to cure? (11)
Divination by crystal or mirror ? How ? By divining-rod ? By
other objects? (12) Familiar spirits ? Animals? How acquired?
What if the animal is killed ? "

West Africa before Europe, and Other Addresses. By
E. W. Blyden, LL.D. London : C. M. PhiUips, 1905.
8vo. Pp. iv, 158.

There is a widely spread idea that what is good for the white
man is good for the negro, including, inter alia, religion, clothing,
government, etc. Other things, such as bad gin, are admittedly
bad for the white man, but we let him have them because it is
difficult to stop him or because it is a man's birthright to consume
drugs, exhilarating or otherwise, in poisonous quantities, or for
some equally sapient reason : the export of bad gin, etc., to the
negro would be easily prevented, and we do not consider the
rights of man where non-European races are concerned ; " they are
only niggers"; anything is good enough for them, and the interests
of commerce and revenue demand that the export of gin should
go on unchecked ; therefore we do not interfere with the exporta-
tion of spirituous consolation to the heathen, though we prohibit
Christian missionaries from worrying the Mussulmans of Khartoum,
for it would be inadvisable in the interests of good government
for them to stir up religious strife.

The part of the present work which concerns the anthropologist

496 Reviews.

is the section from p. 37 to p. 93, which deals with Islam in the
Western Soudan. It is, of course, repugnant to the orthodox
Colonial Office official, as to all well-brought-up civil servants, to
investigate the beliefs of the races whom they are called upon to
rule. Missionary societies do not concern themselves with the
beliefs of non-Christian races, save as awful examples ; it is their
business to convert them and put them into European clothes,
without considering whether sobriety, health, and every other
virtue might not be better promoted by other beliefs and
methods. It thus being to no one's interest to know about such
things, it is by no means surprising to find that there is but little
known of the importance of Islam in the Soudan. The only
English works on the subject known to Dr. Blyden — two in
number — are apparently hopelessly inaccurate, and the Torik e
Soudan, the most important work, has only lately seen the light
in an occidental language.

Dr. Blyden's book deserves to be read by all anthropologists,
not only for its own interest, which is considerable, but as a plea
for the proper recognition of the religions of our subject races and
as a contribution to the bearings of anthropology at large on the
problems of empire. From an imperial point of view we should
try to raise the peoples of lower cultures ; it is useless to despise
them and tell them they are necessarily and inevitably lower races.
In the interests of humanity though not of anthropology, let us
snuff them out (though not with the gin bottle), if we cannot
respect them and teach them to respect themselves.

N. W. Thomas.

Books for Review should be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lore,

c/o David Nutt,
57-59 Long Acre, London.

INDEX.

Aberdeenshire : {see also Braemar) ;
cockfighting, 204 ; in game, Argj-11-
shire, 94

Abraham, in Moorish legend, 43-4

Abyssinia : {see also Boudas) ; influ-
ence on Masai, 234, 236

Acca Larentia, mother of the Lares,
297

Accounts of Folk-Lore Society, 12-3

Achillea matricaria as moonflower,
146

Achilles legend : modern adaptation
of, Zakynthos, 22

Acorn : in crown of Roman king,
302, and in corona civica, 307-8

Adder, see Snake

Additions to " The Games of Argyll-
shire,"' by R. C. Maclagan, Tj-^"],
192-221, 340-9, 439-60

Adisham : mock burial for whooping
cough, 225

Adolo, King, see King Adolo

yEgeria, see Egeria

yEneas, vanishing or drowning of,
286, 318, 325, 326

Aequians : complaints referred to oak-
tree, 282

^sculapius : barber's pole survival of
staft", 150; cock associated with, 148

Africa : {see also Abyssinia ; Angola ;
Bantu; Bushmen; Congo; Egypt;
Fan tribe ; Gallas ; Hottentots ;
Latuka ; Libya, ancient ; Loango ;
Madagascar ; Masai ; Matabele ;
Morocco; Nigeria ; Somali ; Soudan;
Wandorobo tribe : awrfZambesi dis-
trict) ; Anthropological Queries for
Central Africa reviewed, 494-5 ;
Kidd's The Essential A'aftr, 15 ;
West African Beliefs, by A. Lang,
109-13 ; Stow's 7^he Native Races
of South Africa reviewed, 353-8 ;
luest, evil spirits passed into figures
cast into river, 258 ; Blyden's IVest
Africa before Europe, and Other
Addresses reviewed, 495-6

Aglu : fire custom. New Year, 40- 1 ;
midsummer smoke and bathing
customs, 32 ; ploughing custom,
38-9 ; road &c. dust sprinkled on
fruit trees, midsummer, 34

Agnation or father-right: Australia,
468-75 ; as connected with group
marriage, 99 ; Ovaherero, 357

Agricultural folklore : {see also Corn ;
Harvest customs and beliefs ;
Ploughing customs and beliefs ;
Sowing customs and beliefs ; and
Thrashing-floor) ; king responsible
for crops, Rome, 318; rain water
of Apl. 27, beliefs about, Morocco,

.33

Aigen : votive offerings, 481-2

Akwe : secret society, 437

Alba Longa : fortified by Ascanius,
286 ; kingly succession, 300 ; Melius
Fuftetius, dictator of, 325 ; separa-
tion of divine and human kingly
offices, 287, 291 ; sow of, 281

Alban Mount : cult of Jupiter Latiaris,
273, 281

Albano : bas-relief from, 274

Albatross: kingof thegannet, Faroes,
488

Alcheringa of Aranda tribe, 431

Alder tree : bark to colour Easter
eggs, Huculs, 54

Algidus, Mount : cult of Diana, 282

Alladius, King, see King Romulus
Silvius

All- Fathers in Australia, by A. Lang,
222-4

Alpara, abode of evil being, Aranda
tribe, 430

Alps : snowfall on, Romans, 265

Altjira, god of Aranda, 429-31

Alu : abode of dead, 115

Alum : burnt in cattleyard, Morocco,
28

America, see North America ; atid
South America

Ammonites in folklore, 241, 333-4
{plate) ^

Amon-Ra's ship in Moslem proces-
sion, Luxor, 257

Amulets and talismans, 34, 131, 132-
61, 335-6, 369, 380-2, 391, 406,
466-7

Amulius, King, see King Amulius

Amzmiz ; midsummer custom, 30

Ancestors : ancestral snakes, Mada-
gascar and Masai, 235 ; ancestral

498

Index.

spirits or manes, Romans, 293-9 ;
dead apologised to, Bushmen, 354 ;
not reincarnated, Aranda tribe, 430;
souls of cause births, Bavili, 375 ;
worship, Bantu, 231-3, 356, not
primitive, Australia, 104

Andjra: (^£'^ fl/5^ 1-Ksar-s-sger) ; mid-
summer customs, 28, 31, 34, 36;
New Year customs, 38, 40 ; plough-
ing custom, 38 ; rain on April 27 is
magic, 32-3 ; tribes, 28

Angambi, Fan creator, 224

Anglo-Saxon medicine, 362-5

Angola, see Benguela

Anguillara : Roman inscription, 270

Animals in folklore : {seealso Antelope ;
Bat ; Birds in folklore ; Buffalo ;
Camel ; Cat ; Cattle ; Coyote;
Crocodile ; Crustacea in folklore ;
Cuscus ; Dog ; Donkey ; Dragon ;
Duiker ; Echini in folklore ; Ele-
phant; Fish in folklore ; Fossils in
folklore ; Gazelle ; Goat ; Hare;
Hippopotamus ; Horse ; Hyena ;
Insects in folklore ; Lemur ; Leo-
pard ; Lion ; Lizard ; Monkey ;
Mouse ; Mule ; Otter ; Pig ; Bor-
cupine; Rat; Reptiles in folklore
Scorpion ; Sea-cow ; Sea-dragon
Sea-horse ; Seal ; Sheep ; Sloth
Snake ; Water-buck ; Weasel ; Whale
a;?f/Worm) ; bathed at midsummer,
Morocco, 32 ; cave dwellers named
from paintings of animals, Bushmen,
354 ; cures for, see Medical folk-
lore ; earth thrown over, Mid-
summer, Morocco, 34 ; given Chris-
tian name before charming, St.
Briavel's, 168 ; language under-
stood by infants, Jamaica, 68 ; New
Year fire custom for, Morocco, 41,
and water custom for, Morocco,
41 ; poisonous, blinded by rain of
April 27, Morocco, 33 ; sacrifice of,
see Sacrifice ; sibokos, S. Africa,
356-7 ; South Germany, 481 ; ta-
boos, see Taboos ; as totems, see
Totemism ; as votive offerings,
S. Germany, 482 ; worship of,
Madagascar, 230

Annan River tribe (Aus.) : organisa-
tion, 474

Anna Perenna, festival of, Romans, 264

Annie Sociologique, L\ by E. Durk-
heim, reviewed, 468-75

Annual meeting, 3-5 ; Report of
Council, 6-13

Ansara, legend of, Morocco, 43-4
Ant : duppy as, Jamaica, 70
Antananarivo, 228
Antelope : head and horns in sacred

grove, Loango, 401, 404 ; horns as

symbol, Loango, 404 ; in proverb,

Loango, 401, 404 ; sacred, Loango,

397-8
Anthesteria : ship of Dionysus, 259
Anthropological Queries for Central

Africa reviewed, 494-5
Antiochus, King, see King Antiochus
Antonine Column, see Rome
Antonine emperors : perpetual fire

carried before them, 317
Antrim : churn or corn baby, 129-30,

185-6 ; flint arrowheads as charms,

241 ; holed stones as charms, 241
Anula tribe (Aus. ) : marriage customs,

472 ; organisation, 469
Aphrodite : in folktale, Eleusis, 24
Apollo : Augustus Caesar as, 310-I r

Vediovis identified with, 311
Apple : in game, Hebrides, 20I
Applecross : game of chucks, 1 93-6 ;

lullaby, 457-8 ; rhyme, 454
Apple-tree : in game, Hebrides, 201
April : {see also May Eve) ; 2ist,

Parilia, Rome, 316; 27th (O.S.),

rain-water magical on, Morocco,

32-3.
Aquileia : cults of Jupiter Dianus and

Diana, 288
Aquitania : Fagus, a deity, 283
'Arab tribes, Morocco : 27-9 ; charm
to preserve money, 41-2 ; mid-
summer customs, 32, 42 ; New
Year fires, 41
Aranda tribe, beliefs of, 429-30
Arawaks, as culture carriers, 486
Arcadia : Ovid on early Arcadians,

264
Archangel Gabriel, in Roumanian

legend, 419-21
Archery : {see also Arrows) ; Glen-
garry, 93 ; Isle of Man, 93
Archiv fiir jReligions^vissenschaft, 15
Ardrishaig : games, 93-4, 220, 346
Ares : {see also Mars) ; development of

Zeus, 320
Argei ritual, Rome, 326
Argolis, see Epidauros
Argus, Argive Zeus, 275
Argyllshire : {see also Ardrishaig ;
Cowal ; Dunoon ; Glencoe ; Kin-
tyre ; Ledaig district ; Lome ; and
Luing island) ; Additions to "The

Index.

499

Games of Argyllshire," by R. C.

Maclagan, 77-97, 192-221, 340-9,

439-60; bull- roarer, 440
Aricia : {see also Nemi, wood of) ;

Manii, 292
Arinyk, bad god, Huculs, 5 1
Arria gens : coins, 322
Arrows : flint arrowheads as charms,

Antrim, 241, 335; in May Songs,

Cornwall, 58-9
Artemis : {see a/j^ Diana) ; cult, Sparta,

290 ; flowers dedicated to, 145
Artemisia or mugwort : as cure and

charm, Anglo-Saxons, 364 ; opens

locks, 143 ; repels serpents, 138
Arthurian legends, see King Arthur.
Arthur's Stone (Gower) : magical rites,

339
Arunta tribe : Arunta Totemism and
Marriage Law, by A. Lang, 242 ;
original organization of discussed,
468-75; The Religious Ideas of the
Arunta, by N. W. Thomas, 242,
428-33 ; supernatural beings, 106,
222-3
Asaba : secret society, 437-8
Ascanius, King, see King Ascanius
Ashes of midsummer fires : as cure
for eyes, Morocco, 29 ; as paint for
eyes &c., Morocco &c., 29
Ashmedai and Solomon, legend of,

4I5> 417-9
Ash-tree : in charm against rupture,

Monmouthshire, 65 ; world-tree,

Scandinavia, 153
Asia, see Asia Minor ; Assyria ; Baby-
lon ; China ; East Indies ; Japan ;

Khorasan ; Korea ; Malay States ;

Palestine ; Persia ; and Siam,
Asia Minor : {see also Ephesus ; Lycia ;

Mysia ; a7id Troy) ; medallion of

Roman province, 314
Asmodeus, see Ashmedai
Asp, see Snake
Ass, see Donkey
Assyria : amulet, 152 {plate) ; cosmic

tree, I53 .
Astrantia major : in charm, Val de

Morgins, 466-7 ; legend of, Val de

Morgins, 466 ; master wort, 467
Astronomical folklore : {see also

Comets ; Moon ; Stars ; and Sun) ;

as related to phallicism, 477-8
Astypalaea, see Astypolaia
Astypolaia : folklore, collection of,

25 ; folktales, 22-3
Athens : folktales, 22-3

Atira, deity. Pawnees, 117

Atlas mountains : {see also Demnat) ;
Berber tribes, 27-8 ; midsummer
beliefs and customs, 30, 32, 34, 37

Atnatu, spirit, Kaitish tribe, 106, iii,
222-3, 428

Attica : {see also Athens) : survivals of
ancient language not limited to, 20

Auditors, election of, 4

August : {see also St. James's Day) ;
Ides the birthday of Diana, Rome,
332; 13th and 15th, festival of
" La Vara," Messina, 248-9, 257

Augustus Caesar: as Apollo, 310,
Jupiter or Zeus, 31 1-2, or sun-god,
317 ; avoided business on Nones,
332

Auk, Little : halcyon of Greeks,
Westman Isles, 489

Australia: {seealso'S>2,'s,% Strait ; Queens-
land ; South Australia ; Tasmania ;
a«(/Torres Straits); aborigines, origin
of, lOl ; Spencer and Gillen's
Native Tribes of Cetitral Australia,
15 ; Howitt's Native Tribes of
South- East Australia, 15, reviewed,
101-9

Austro - Hungary, see Bohemia ;
Bukowina ; Carinthia ; Carpathian
mountains ; Dacians ; Fiume ;
Galicia ; Hungary ; Istria ; Poku-
tia; Tatra mountains ; rt«a? Vienna

Aventine hill, see Rome

Axe : as symbol of Jupiter, Rome,
302

Azemmur : midsummer bonfire smoke
good for eyes, 29

Azila : saint's feast at, 32

Babies, see Children

Babylon : progresses of gods, 258

Baetyls, see Stones

Bagama volcano, as abode of dead,

Shortland islands, 1 15
Baiame, Australian deity, 105-6, IIO,

112, 222-3
Bailey, MissD., The Devil in Glencoe,

ani other Stories, i, 61-2
Bakuena : siboko, 357
Bakuni hunters, Mayomba, 399
Bakutu tribe, customs of, 406
Balance Sheet of Folk-Lore Society,

Balbi mountain, as abode of dead, 115
Baletsatsi : sun charm, 356
Ballads, see Folk-songs
Ball games, see Games

500

Index.

Bamangwato : ancestors, memory of,
355 ; siboko, 357

Banavie Moss : second sight story,
62

Banffshire : game, 90

Banoka : siboko usages, 356

Banshees : Monmouthshire, 64

Bantu : [^see also under names of
tribes) ; ancestor worship and to-
temism, 231-3; ancestors, memory
of, 355 ; migration of, 353, 355

Baperi, see Banoka

Baptism : of Cero of Sant' Ubaldo,
Gubbio, 252

Baputi : burial of chief, 356

Bari tribe, 236

Barkingi nation (Aus. ), 223

Barley : burnt in midsummer fires,
Morocco, 31 ; eaten ceremonially,
midsummer, Morocco, 36, and in
ploughing custom, Morocco, 39

Barnet : grotto building, 181

Barolong : siboko, 356-7

Barone lamps, symbols for, 156

Ba-Ronga : twins and sky associated,
300

Barotse tribe : deity, 112; ivory worn
only by royal family, 382

Barra island : counting-out rhymes,
207, 454 ; dance, 210 ; games,
85-6, 89, 91, 199-200, 348-9, 439;
lullaby, 458 ; names for fingers,
216 ; rhyme, 454

Barra, Sound of, see Fuda island

Barrenness, see Birth customs and
beliefs

Barry, Miss F. : exhibit by, 242, 335-
6 ; Charm-Stones, 335-6 ; Riddle
or Charm ? 98

Basket fetish, Congo, 378-9

Bass Strait : effect of formation on
aborigines of Australia, lOl

Bat : omen from, Jamaica, 73

Batauna : siboko, 357

Bathing : of eyes as charm, Mon-
mouthshire, 67 ; on l-'ansara day,
Morocco, 31-3 ; on l-'aSur day,
Morocco, 41 ; at midsummer,
ancient Libya, 47

Batlaru : sibokos, 357

Bavaria, see Aigen ; and Rhon moun-
tains

Bavili : Bavili Notes, by R. E. Den-
nett, 242, 371-406 (//a/«) ; starting
on journey, 75

Beachly : popular derivation of, 163

Beans : eaten ceremonially, mid-

summer, Morocco, 36, and at tent-
pitching, Morocco, 39

Beauly : charm against evil eye, 242,
334-5 {plate)

Bechuana : {see also under names of
tribes) ; sibokos, 356-7

Bedfordshire : elder-tree belief, lOO

Bee : charm to foster, Morocco, 37 ;
cowdung burnt to protect, June,
Morocco, 28-30 ; earth thrown over,
midsummer, Morocco, 34

Beech-tree : as cult substitute for oak,
Italy, 282-3 '■> Diana and Jupiter as
beech-wood deities, Italy, 283 ;
leaves worn when consulting
Faunus, Rome, 283

Beetle : scarab, Etruscans, 274

Belgium, ^ e Flanders

Bells : on amulets against evil eye,
Naples, 133

Benayah, general of Solomon, in
legend, 417

Beneventum : dedication to Jupiter,
272

Bengal, see Calcutta ; and Puri

Benguela : sacred animals, 397

Beni Ah'sen tribe, Morocco : mid-
summer fires, 31, and bathing, 32

Beni Mgild tribe : midsummer cus-
toms, 29, 31, 34, 37, 46, but no
water customs, 32 ; sowing custom,

Benin City : dance, 436-7 ; ' great
father,' 435 ; secret societies, 437

Bensington, manor of, 124

Berber tribes, Morocco : {see alio Rif
Berbers) ; 27, 29 ; adopt foreign
words, 43 ; midsummer ceremonies,
42, 46-7

Berkshire, see Kennet valley

Berne Canton, see Miinchenbuchsee

Berwinck (vinca minor) : at marriages,
Huculs, 51

Betrothal customs, see Courting cus-
toms and beliefs

Betsileos : animal taboos, 229 ; rein-
carnation beliefs, 230, 235

Betsimisaraka tribe, 229

Bible and key used as charm, St.
Briavel's, 169-70, 172

Bibliography of folklore : annual, lo;
Hessian, 492

Bickerstein : "ticket for paradise," 481

Big Klaus and Little Klaus type of
folktales, 119

Binbinga tribe (Aus.): marriage cus-
toms, 472

Index.

501

Bini tribe : mariiage customs, 438 ;

secret society, 437
Birding customs, Siam &c. , 488-9
Birds in folklore : {see also Albatross ;
Auk ; Blackbird ; Chicken ; Cock ;
Crow ; Cuckoo ; Dove ; Eagle ;
Emu ; Falcon ; Fowls ; Fulmar ;
Gannet ; Grouse ; Hawk ; Hen ;
Kite ; Lark ; Owl ; Partridge ;
Pigeon ; Puffin ; Seamew ; Stork ;
Swallow; Wagtail; Woodpecker;
and Wren) ; in amulets, Naples,
145 ; handling eggs unlucky,
Jamaica, 71 ; know medicinal pro-
perties of herbs, 145 ; omens from,
Jamaica, 69 ; seabirds do homage
to St. Hilda, Whitby, 334 ; thigh-
bone in folktale, Boeotia, 25
Birth customs and beliefs : {see also
Omens ; and Twins) ; of Aranda
tribe (Aus.), 430-1 ; barrenness,
charm against, Morocco, 28 ; barren-
ness caused by taking off sporran
skins downwards, Loango, 404 ;
birth caused by ancestral souls,
Bavili, 375 ; birth deities or genii,
Romans, 297-9 ! birth with caul
enables to see duppies, Jamaica,
68 ; childbirth influenced by moon-
deity, 138; divination of birth,
Morocco, 32 ; Friday unlucky birth-
day, Jamaica, 73; gazelle horn worn
for safety in childbirth, Congo, 380;
mother given another name after
birth, S. Nigeria, 438 ; rue as pro-
tective, 153; sacrifice at conception,
S. Nigeria, 438 ; seven fruits charm
away seven fatal Hathors, Persia,
152 ; sloth skin worn to protect
unborn baby, Congo, 381 ; tree
planted in memory of childbirth, S.
Nigeria, 439
Bishop's Castle : saying, 67
Black : beast, Devil as, Glencoe, 61
Black animals, see Dog ; Horse ; Pig ;

and Sheep
Blackberry bramble : spoilt by devil,

September, Dumfries, 454
Blackbird : in rhyme, Argyllshire,

453
Black Isle (Ross) : game, 200
Blacksmiths : amongst Masai, 235
Blaise, St., sec St. Blaise
Blood : of pig poured over fetish

images, Congo, 378; shower of^as

portent, Romans, 265
Boa constrictor, see Snake

Body, parts of, see tinder names, stuk

as Ears ; and Hair
Boeotia : folktale, 24-5
Bohemia : folklore, collection of, 16
Bojki, Slavic tribe, 48
Boma : revenant, 373
Bonfires, see Fire
Books presented to Folk-Lore Society,

130, 370
Boots : in dreams, Jamaica, 76 ; in

legend of Devil, Wye valley, 174
Borrowing, by bride, Monmouthshire,

66
Boudas : shape-shifting by, 235
Bougainville: abode of dead, 115;

totemism, 114
Boulogne : Festival of the Visitation

of the B.V., 259
Boundary mounds, Loango, 396
Bovillae : rex sacrorum, 293 ; Vedi-

ovis, cult of, 273
Braber tribes, Morocco : 27-8 ; mid-
summer customs, 34, 37, 42 ; no

midsummer water customs, 32
Bracciano, Lago di, see Anguillara
Bracelet fetishes, Congo, 379-80,

381-2, 398
Brabrook, E. : review by, The Faroes

and Iceland: Studies in Island Life,

486-9
Braemar : saying, 98
Bread : loaves in ploughing custom,

Morocco, 38 ; in marriage custom,

Huculs, 52 ; unleavened, in plough-
ing custom, Morocco, 38
Bretagne : Breton Folklore, by Mrs.

Mosher, i ; New Year festival, 210
Bridal customs and beliefs, see Marriage

customs and beliefs
Brittany, see Bretagne
Broad wood. Miss L. E., A Swiss

Charm, 465-7
Buali : medicine man at, 381 ; royal

burial rites, 400
Buffalo: b. dance. Pawnees, 118; b.

skull medicine lodge. Pawnees, 118;

in folktale, Loango, 399: parts of

placed in sacred grove, Loango, 399 ;

sacred Loango, 396
Bugle : burial in effigy, 463-4
Bukowina, see Czeremosz ; Huculs ;

and Prut
Bulgaria : folklore, collection of, 16 ;

The Shade of the Balkans reviewed,

489-91
Bull-roarer : Argyllshire, 440 ; legend

of origin, Australia, iii

502

Index.

Bunjil, Australian god, 103-5, 222

Bunzi (sacred grove) : leopard skins
as rain charm, 391 ; taboos, 398

Bu Ragrag river : straw hut burnt on,
midsummer, Morocco, 31

Burbage : maypole rite, 461

Burial customs and beliefs, see Death
and funeral customs and beliefs

Burial in Effigy, by Misses M. Pea-
cock and C. S. Burne, 463-4

Burial, mock, Kent, 225

Burne, Miss C. S.: Burial in Effigy,
464 ; The Dancing-Towers in Italy,
462 ; The Mock Mayor of Heading-
ton, 465 ; review by, — Sociological
Papers: igo4, 119-22

Bury St. Edmund's : rue useful for
catamenia, 139

Bush devils, see Forest spirits

Bushmen : antiquity of, 353 ; clans,
355 ; folklore of, 354 ; migration of,

353
Butter : stopped by witch. Wye

valley, 171
Buxton: maypole rite, 461-2

Cadney : mysterious smoke, 224-5
Caeculus, founder of Praeneste, 288,

295
Caelus, the god, Romans, 270
Caere : king Mezentius, 286
Caesars, the : bisellium of, 301
'Cagn, the mantis god, Bushmen, 354
Caithness-shire : {see also Keiss

Castle) ; game, 90 ; holed stones,

242
Cakes : funeral, Monmouthshire, 66 ;

offered to Nereids, Greeks, 21 ;

wheel-shaped, Romans, 272
Calcutta : Husain's tower in proces-
sion, 257
Calendar folklore, see Days and

Seasons
Calf: [see also QzXile); "rolling calf"

duppy, Jamaica, 70, 77
Caligula as Jupiter, 312-3
Calpurnia gens, coins of, 302
Cambridgeshire : A Cambridgeshire

Witch, by Miss H. L. F. Jennings,

187-90 ; Sympathy, by F. N. Webb,

337
Camel: in festival of "La Vara,"

Messina, 249 ; Nereid in shape of,

Crete, 22
Campagna, see Viterbo
Campania : {see also Capua ; Hercu-

laneum ; Nola ; Pompeii ; and

Tifata, Mount) ; luvilas or heraldic
columns, 307 ; symbols of Diana,

155

Campus Martius, see Rome

Canada : folk tales, 368

Candle burnt in grotto, St. James's
Day, Leytonstone &c., 180-1

Canens the water nymph, 290

Capitol, Roman, see Rome

Capua, see Tifata, Mount

Cardiff : Castle Corrig cromlech, 339

Carinthia : fields and houses, 493

Carlingford : legend of Fin MacCoul,
186

Carmarthen : folktale, 337-9

Carmarthenshire, see Carmarthen ;
Llanelly ; ajtd Towy river

Carpathian mountains, see Bojki ;
Gorale ; Huculs ; and Lemki

Carus, emperor : on coin, 317

Casablanca : midsummer bonfire
smoke good for eyes, 29

Casteldieri, tiles from, 281

Casteltermini : procession with tower,
256

Castle Corrig cromlech, 339

Castor and Pollux, see Dioscuri

Cat : burnt in bonfires, Europe, 46 ;
in game, Perthshire, 86-7 ; omen
from, Jamaica, 73 ; wild, burnt in
midsummer fires, Morocco, 30, or
to cure disease, Morocco, 46; wild,
skin of, worn, Loango, 404

Catamenia promoted by rue, 138

Caterpillar : as token, Australia, 107

Catfish : spikes in sacred grove,
Loango, 405

Cattle : {see also Calf; Cow ; a7td
Ox) ; charms for, Beauly, 334-6,
Caithness, 336 ; patrons of, S.
Germany, 481 ; straw &c. burnt
to protect, Morocco, 28

Cave paintings, Bushmen, 354

Celtic pantheon, 475

Centaur, in legend of Solomon, 418

Cephalonia : charm to destroy water-
spout, 1 90- 1

Ceres : Cerus, counterpart of, 292 ;
in festival of Santa Rosalia, Palermo,
250 ; one of Penates, 296 ; proces-
sion of, 258

Ceri or dancing towers, Italy, 131,
242-5 {plates)

Cerus, counterpart of Ceres, 292

Chains hung round churches, S. Ger-
many, 482.

Chairs, see Seats

Index.

503

Charms and spells : {see also Amulets
and talismans) ;
against barrenness, Morocco, 28 ;
cow ailments, Antrim, 241,
Caithness, 336, Glencoe, 61,
Suffolk, 337 ; 'a decline,' Wales,
339 ; disease, Anglo-Saxons,
363-5, Japan, 369, Morocco, 28,
32-3, Shortland Islands, 116;
dislocations, St. Briavel's, 168 ;
earth spirits, Morocco, 41 ; evil
eye, Beauly, 242, 334-5 [plate) ;
Morocco, 33-4, 36 ; eye diseases,
Morocco, 41 ; fire, Val de
Morgins, 466 ; ghosts, Jamaica,
70-1 ; hail, Germany, 45 ;
paralysis, Japan, 369 ; misfor-
tune, Jamaica, 77 ; nose-bleeding,
St. Briavel's, 169-70 ; rupture,
Monmouthshire, 65 ; scalds and
burns, St. Briavel's, 168: snakes,
Morocco, 33 ; storms, Germany,
45, Val de Morgins, 466 ; tooth-
ache, St. Briavels, 168; vomiting,
Jamaica, 77 ; whooping cough,
Adisham, 225 ; witchcraft, Cam-
bridgeshire, 189-90, Morocco, 33 ;
at cromlechs, Wales, 339 ; to catch
scorpions, Jamaica, 69-76; to curse
enemy, Dorsetshire, 98, Gloucester-
shire, 169, Monmouthshire, 66; to
destroy waterspout, Greeks, 190-1 ;
to ensure good new wine, Gubbio,
252 ; to foster bees, Morocco,
37 ; how to charm, Monmouth-
shire, 168 ; to obtain husbands,
Huculs, 50, Morocco, 34, 41 ; to
obtain sunshine, Rome, 316 ; to
obtain wish at new moon, Jamaica,
70; "Peter sat on a marble stone,"
Wye valley, 167 ; for rain, Rome,
268 ; to strengthen eyes, Mon-
mouthshire, 67 ; to strengthen
memory, Morocco, 33 ; written,
ink vi^ashed off and drunk, St.
Briavel's, 170
Charm-Stones, by Miss F. Barry,

335-6
Charon, modern Charos, Greeks, 21
Charrington, J., communication from,

61-2
Cheltenham : Devil's Town, 175
Chepstow : place rhyme, 67
Cnerub, in cimaruta amulet, Naples,

135. I5i> 157
Chicken : white, burnt at New Year,
Morocco, 41, 46

Chick-peas: eaten ceremonially,
midsummer, Morocco, 36, and at
tent-pitching, Morocco, 39-40

Childbirth customs and beliefs, see
Birth customs and beliefs

Children : {see also Birth customs and
beliefs) ; praise unlucky to, Jamaica,
68 ; stolen by fairies, Monmouth-
shire, 63 ; understand animals'
language, Jamaica, 68

Children's games, see Games

Chimpanzee : beliefs about, Loango,
405 ; in proverb, Loango, 405 ;
sacred, Loango, 396-S ; skin in
sacred grove, Loango, 405

China : amulets, 369 ; divination
blocks, 369 ; lottery set, 369

Chios : folklore collected by Paspatis,

17
Christian names, see Names
Christmas : Feilberg's Jul: Alles-

jalestiden; Hedensk, Kristen Jiile-

fest reviewed, 366-7
Chthonian deities, 263, 273-4, 275,280
Chucks, game of: Scotland, 192-200
Church : submerged, Trelleck, 166 ;

wall, burial in, Grosmont, 175
Churchyard: "Devil's bit," St.

Briavel's, 174-5 > green lizard in is

duppy, Jamaica, 70 ; mock burial

for whooping cough, Adisham, 225
Churingas, Aranda tribe, 430
Churn or corn baby, Ulster, 129-30,

185-6
Cimaruta, The : its Structure and

Development, by R. T. Gtinther,

9, 131, 132-61 {plates)
Circumcision : Aladagascar, 230 ;

taught by Twanjirika, Aranda

tribe, 430
Clans : Australia, 468 ; S. Africa,

355
Claudius Caesar : as Jupiter, 313 ; as

sun god, 317
Claudius Gothicus, emperor : as

Jupiter, 314
Clodd, E. ; review by, — Thomas'

Crystal- Gazing : Its History and

Practice, with a Discussion of the

Evidence for I'elepathic Scrying,

479-80
Cloudland, home of souls, Masai, 236
Cloughmore Stone : legend of Fin

MacCoul, 186
Clytie, lover of the sun, 264
Coast Murring tribe (Aus. ): 105;

origin of social reform, 103, 222

504

Index.

Cock : [see also Chicken) ; associated
with deities, 148, 153; burnt, New
Year, Morocco, 46 ; in cimaruta
amulet, Naples, 135, 147, 156-61
{plates) ; crowing, in folktale, Crete,
21-2 ; omen from, Jamaica, 74 ;
sacrificed on conception, S. Nigeria,
438 ; sun emblem, Lycia &c., 148 ;
white, in midsummer bonfire,
Russia, 46

Cockfighting : Aberdeenshire, 204

Cockle-shells : in burial rites, Loango,
400

Coe, Bridge of: apparition of Devil, 61

Colchester : mock burial, 464 ; oyster-
feast, 182

Colds and coughs, cures for, see
Medical folklore

Coleford : proverbial saying, 67

Coll : game, 221

Collectanea, 56-97, 180-221, 333-49,
434-60

Colours in folklore, see tinder various
colours, such as Black

Combing hair at night unlucky,
Jamaica, 69

Comets : after death of Caesar, 310

Commodus, emperor : as sun god,
317

Compass, points of, see East ; South-
west ; and West

Conception : caused by ancestral
souls, Bavili, "^75 ; supernatural,
485

Congo Free State, see Boma ; and
Congo river

Congo river : ghosts collected by
wizard in island in, Bavili, 373

Conirayas : folktale, 485

Constantine, emperor : in folktale,
Bulgaria, 491

Constellations, see Milky Way

Consuls, Roman, 300, 302-3, 305-6,
327-8

Cook, A. B., The European Sky-God,
III.: The Italians, 260-332, 462

Cooktown, see Annan River tribe

Copper : bracelets as charms, for
marriage &c., Congo, 382

Copts, see Egypt

Corn : {see also Barley ; Maize ; and
Wheat) ; Atira (born from corn),
deity, Pawnees, 117; ears of, as
emblem of Fortuna, 285 ; eaten
ceremonially, midsummer, Mor-
occo, 36 ; measure for, as emblem
of Fortuna, 285 ; sprinkled after

threshing, to avert evil eye, Mor-
occo, 33

Cornelia gens, coins of, 304-5

Corn ornaments, see Harvest customs
and beliefs

Corn spirits, vegetation souls, and the
like : animals burnt at midsummer,
46 ; "churn" or corn baby, Ulster,
129-30, 185-6 ; rex Nemorensis,
288-93, 322-3, 327-8

Cornucopia : in cimaruta amulet,
Naples, 135, 151, 157 ; as emblem
of Fortune, Italy, 285

Cornwall : {see also Bugle ; Helston ;
and Padstow) ; corn ornaments, 2

Corpses, customs and beliefs con-
cerning, see Death and funeral
customs and beliefs

Corpus Domini Festa, Vicenza, 244

Correspondence, 98-100, 223-5, 350-2j
461-7

Cortona : St. Margaret of, 145

Cos : folklore from, 17

Cosmogony : Europe in Middle Ages,
423; Huculs, 51; Masai, 236;
Pawnees, 116-7 ; Ukraine, 51

Cossacks of Ukraine, see Ukraine

Costmary or maudlin as moonflovver,
145-6

Coughs, cures for, see Medical folklore

Council of Folk-Lore Sociey : elec-
tion of, 4 ; report, 6-13

Counting-out rhymes : Argyllshire,
78, 449-50 ; Barra island, 454 ;
Hebrides, 207-8

Courting customs and beliefs : {see also
Divination ; and Omens) ; Huculs,
52 ; Jamaica, 72-76 ; Nigeria, 438

Cow : {see also Cattle) ; charms to
cure, Antrim, 241, Glencoe, 61,
Morocco, 33, Suffolk, 337, or
to protect, Antrim, 241 ; charm-
stones to protect, Caithness, 336 ;
dung burnt to foster bees, Morocco,
28-30, and painted on figtree, mid-
summer, Morocco, T^T) ; milk drunk
by spirits, Huculs, 51 ; omens from,
Jamaica, 69, 71, 77

Cowal : games, 79, 83, 89, 91

Cowrie shells : offered at ceremonies,
S. Nigeria, 435, 439 ; word used in
game, Argyllshire, 441

Coyote: in folktales. Pawnees, 117;
as star, Pawnees, 1 17

Crab : claws in sacred grove, Loango,
402 ; in proverb, Bavili, 402 ; sym-
bol of sea, Bavili, 402

Index.

505

Craigie, W. A., review by, — Feil-
berg's Jul: Allesjalestiden ; He-
densk, Kristen Julefest, 366-7
Creator, beliefs about : Alljira,
Aranda, 429-31 ; Angambi, Fan,
224 ; Mangarkunjurkunja, Aranda,
430 ; 'Ngai, Masai, 236 ; Nyambe,
W. Africa, 112; Tonatana, Short-
land islands, 115
Cress : seeds in cow medicine, Mo-
rocco, 33
Cretan dittany : repels serpents, 138
Crete : folklore collected by Yanna-

rakis, 17; folktale, 21-2
Cricket : in folktale, Loango, 403-4 ;
sacred, Sonio, 395 ; tabooed,
Loango, 399
Crocodile : hunted, Loango, 399 ; in
proverb, Loango, 403 ; sacred,
Shortland islands, 116 ; scale in
sacred grove, Loango, 399 ; sent
by wizard to catch ghosts, Bavili,
373 ; as totem, Bantu, 232, 357,
Shortland islands, 114; as wer-
beast, Congo, 392-3
Cromlechs : Wales, 339
Cross : in charms, Val de Morgins,
466 ; Wales, 339 ; crux ansata, key
as, 143 ; on door or road keeps off
duppy, Jamaica, 70; the labarum,
319; sign of amongst Huculs, 50
Crow : in game, Barra island, 440 ;
omens from, Jamaica, 71, 73 ; as
totem, Australia, 107
Crown Prince mountains, as abode of

dead, 1 15
Crustacea in folklore, see Crab ; a7id

Lobster
Crux ansata, see Cross
Crystal-gazing: W. Africa, 1 12;
Crystal- Gazing: Its History and
Practice, with a Discussion of the
Evidence for Telepathic Scrying, by
N. W. Thomas, reviewed, 479-80
Cuchulainn sagas : ball game, 88
Cuckoo : in folktale, Bulgaria, 491
Cultes, Mythes, et Religions, by S.

keinach, reviewed, 475-6
Cupid and Psyche type of folktale, 24
Cursing, see Imprecations
Cuscus, as totem, Shortland islands, 114
Cuthbert, St., see St. Cuthbert
Cutting : unlucky, Jamaica, 69
Cutting a Waterspout, by J. G.

Piddington, 190- 1
Cwmcarvon : divination, Midsummer
Eve, 65

Cybele, goddess, commemorated,
Messina, 248

Cyclases, see Astypolaia ; Melos ;
Naxos ; and Tenos

Cyclops legend : modern adaptation
of, Zakynthos, 22 ; Sicily, 276 ;
survival of, Athens, 22

Cyllene : charm to destroy water-
spout, 191

Cyprus : amulet, 143 ; folklore col-
lected by Sakellarios, 17 ; folktale,
24

Czeremosz, valley of, see Huculs

Dacians : Jupiter defends Romans
from, 267

Daedalus, image of, 267

D'Aeth, F. G., St. James's Day and
Grottoes, 1S0-2

Dagger : in cimaruta amulet, Naples,
146, 157

Danae legend : modern versions of,
Astypolaia, 22-3, Tenos, 24

Dances: Bushmen, 354; Eskimo, 1 19;
Nigeria, 435-7 ; Nola, 247 ; Pad-
stow, 60; Pawnees, 1 17; Scotland,
208-10; Solomon islands, 114-5

Dancing-Tower Processions of Italy,
The, by Mrs. A. Wherry, 131,
243-57 [plates)

Dancing-Towers of Italy, The, by
Misses M. Peacock, A. Oldknow,
and C. S. Burne, 461-2

Danelagh, The, 123-4

Daramulun, Australian deity, 103-6,
no, 222-3

Dasius, martyrdom of, 324

Day-Father, Jupiter as, Italy, 261,
263

Days and Seasons : April, 32-3, 59-60,
316 ; August, 181, 248-9, 257, 332 ;
Christmas, 366-7 ; Corpus Domini
Festa, 244 ; December, 267, 295-S,
366-7 ; Easter, 5, 53-4, 182-4 ;
Easter Eve, I S2-4 ; Easter Sunday,
53-4; February, 298, 330- 1 ; Fri-
day, 65, 73, 81 ; Ides, Roman, 263,
332; January, 91, 155,210-6; July,
31, 54, 180-2, 250-1, 259, 328-30;
June, 2, 27-47, 65, 250-1, 257, 285,
466; Kalends, Roman, 263, 316,
332 ; Larenlalia, 295-7, 297 ; Leap
year, 72 ; Lent, 50 ; March, 327,
330 ; May, 56-60, 252-4, 259, 326-7,
330-1, 461-2; May Day, 56-60,
259, 461-2; May Eve, 59-60;
Midnight, 65, 175 ; Midsummer, 2,

5o6

Index.

27-47 ; Midsummer Day, 250,
284-5 ; Midsummer Eve, 29, 31,
44, 65; Moharram, 40- 1 ; Mon-
day, 81 ; New Year, 38, 40-2 ;
New Year's Day, 91, 210-6; New
Year's Eve, 40-2 ; Night, 273 ;
Parilia, 316; Pentecost, 43 ; Popli-
fugia festival, 328 ; Regifugium
festival, 330-1 ; Sacra Nonalia, 331 ;
St. Anthony's Day, 155 ; St. Bar-
tholomew's Day, 67 ; St. James's
Day, 180-2 ; St. John's Day, 466 ;
St. John's Eve, 466 ; St. John's
Feast, 54 ; Saturnalia, 324 ; Sep-
tember, 182, 245, 257, 454; Shrove-
tide, 204 ; Thursday, 81; Tuesday,
81 ; Wednesday, 81, 464-5 ; Whit-
sunday, 43; Whitsuntide, 178-9;
W^hit- Wednesday, 464-5

Dead, cult of, connected with Yule
beliefs, N. Europe, 366

Death and funeral customs and beliefs :
{see also Graves ; and Omens) ;
anniversary of death celebrated,
S. Nigeria, 434-5 ; burial customs,
S. Africa, 356, Iceland. 359; burial
in church wall, Monmouthshire,
175 ; Charon, modern Greeks, 21 ;
Cornelia gens, funerals of, Rome,
304 ; corpse, back not wetted in
washing, Jamaica, 70 ; corpse, if
back wetted, opens eyes, Jamaica,
73 ; corpse buried in plaid. Isle of
Man, 210; corpse carried feet first,
and face to east, Monmouthshire,
66 ; corpse can frown and smile,
Jamaica, 74 ; corpse, looking at
through fork shows sex, Jamaica,
73 ; corpse-present, Scotland,
209-10; corpse, salt or turf laid
on, Monmouthshire, 66 ; corpse
should not be seen by person with
sores, Jamaica, 73 ; dead return if
not bid farewell, Jamaica, 74 ; dead
return on third or every night,
Jamaica, 70, 74, and finally leave
on ninth, Jamaica, 70, 74 ; death
caused by evil being from beneath
the earth, Aranda tribe, 430 ; dirt
not swept from house with corpse,
Jamaica, 71 ; eagle released at
pyre of Augustus, Rome, 312 ;
funeral cakes, Monmouthshire, 66 ;
future life, beliefs about, 236,
Bavili, 373, Bushmen, 354, Masai,
235-6 ; looking at corpse through
fork breaks own neck, Jamaica, 73 ;

prayers for dead, 475 ; sloth skin
worn as mourning, Congo, 380 ;
totemism in, Solomon islands, 114

December : {see also Christmas ; and
Larentalia) ; funeral offerings of
Junius Brutus, Rome, 298 ; time of
rainy Jove, 267

Decius, prayer of, 321

Deity, conceptions of: Australian
tribes, 105-6, no, 222-4; Masai, 235

Deluge legends, 118, 236

Demeter, the goddess, 264 ; as saint,
Eleusis, 24

Demnat : Berber tribes, 27 ; fire
in charm. New Year, 40- 1 ; mar-
riage charm, 41

Demons and evil spirits : {see also
Devil) ; 475 ; of Aranda tribe,
Australia, 430; Ashmedai, 415,
417-8 ; cause diseases, Australia,
430 ; dead changed into, Solomon
islands, 1 1 5 ; God's name drives
away, Jamaica, 74 ; imps, Cam-
bridgeshire, 188-9; live in stomachs
of witches, Loango, 382 ; posses-
sion, see Possession, demon ; parent
of Merlin, 412-3, 415 ; wood, hair
offered to, Malabar and New Zea-
land, 467

Denbighshire, see Pentrevoelas

Denmark : Yule, 367

Dennett, R. E. : Bavili Notes, 242,
371-406 {plates) ; Notes from South
Nigeria, 242, 434-9

Dennis, L. J., Fin MacCoul's Pebble,
186 {plate)

Derbyshire, see Burbage ; Buxton ;
and Fairfield

Devil : as black beast, Glencoe, 61 ;
Devil in Glencoe, The, and other
Stories, by Miss D. Bailey, 1,61-2;
in folktale. Wye valley, 174; places
named after. Wye valley, 174-5 '
spoils brambles, Sept., 454; as
stone-thrower, Monmouthshire, 164

Devonshire : corn ornaments, 2

Diana : {see also Artemis) ; asso-
ciated with Dianus, 276, 288-90,
292, or Janus, 277-9, 288-9 5
Augusta, Aquileia, 288 ; as beech-
wood goddess, 283; birthday,
Aug. Ides, Rome, 332 ; cock asso-
ciated with, 148, 153 ; emblems of,
155 ; of Ephesus, crescents always
face downward, 141 ; on hair-pin,
Fiume, 148, 153; Nemi lake as
mirror of, 289 ; Nemorensis, 288-9,

Index.

507

292 ; oak goddess, 282 ; sky goddess,
Tibur, 289 ; triformis, hardly sug-
gested by cimaruta amulets, Naples,

.137, I43> 151

Dianus, associated with Diana, 276,
288-90, 292, and Juturna, 290 ;
Jupiter as, Aquileia, 288 ; as sun-
god, 290 ; as water-god, Nemi,
289-90

Dieri, see Dieyeri

Dieyeri tribe : descent among, 107-8 ;
origin of social reform, 103 ;
totemism, 107-8

Digueiios : folktales, 360

Dinka tribe, 236

Diocletian: as Jupiter, 315

Dione associated with Zeus, 276

Dionysus : in folktale, Bceotia, 24 ;
processions of, 258-9

Dioscuri : on altar, Rome, 272 ; at
battle of lake Regillus, 301 ; on
coins, Greece, 300; as saints, 20-1

Dis, Chthonian deity, 263, 273, 275

Diseases : caused by evil spirits,
Australia, 430, Shortland islands,
115, or souls of past, Bavili, 375 ;
charms against, see Charms and
spells ; cured by jumping over June
fire, Morocco, 28 ; cures for, see
iVIedical folklore ; New Year cere-
mony against, Morocco, 40-1 ;
sprites of, Greeks, 21

Dislocations, charm against, St.
Briavel's, 168

Divination : {see also Omens ; and
Ordeals) ; by buried pieces of iron
or wood, Loango, 381 ; by burning
bent grass, Harris, 80 ; by crystal-
gazing, 479-80 ; by divination
blocks, China, 369 ; by eating salt
in eggshell, Jamaica, 72 ; by fasces
of lictors, Rome, 302 ; by mirror,
Bavili, 376 ; by peeling orange,
Jamaica, 72 ; by sea bathing. Mid-
summer, Morocco, 32 ; by seeds,
New Year, Morocco, 38 ; by shak-
ing strips from box, Japan, 369 ;
by throwing paper letters into water,
Jamaica, 72 ; by tongs, Argyllshire,
79-So; by valerian, Monmouthshire,
65 ; by walking round Arthur's
stone, Wales, 339 ; in Loango dis-
trict, 376, 381 ; of child-bearing,
Congo, 381, Morocco, 32; of crops,
Morocco, 38 ; of death, Monmouth-
shire, 65 ; of illness, Monmouth-
shire, 65 ; of marriage and court-

ship, Argyllshire, 79, Harris, 80,
Jamaica, 72, Monmouthshire, 65,
Wales, 339

Divinites Generatrices, Des, on du
Culte du Phallus chez les Anciens
et les Modernes, by J. A. Dulaure,
reviewed, 476-8

Dodona : oak zeus, 323

Dog : associated with Jupiter, Etrus-
cans, 274 ; black, in game, Argyll-
shire, 79 ; fetish images of, Loango,
386 ; in games, Argj-llshire, 79,
Perthshire, 86 ; in lullaby, Argyll-
shire, 456 ; Nereid in shape of,
Crete, 22; omens from, Jamaica, 69,
73 ; in rhyme, Argj'llshire, 451 ;
sacrificed to birth goddess, Romans,
299 ; water from eyes enables to
see ghosts, Jamaica, 74

Domitian Caesar : as Jupiter, 314

Donkey : amulets for, 141, 157 ;
bathed on l-'ansara day, Morocco,
31 ; Cuddies and Weights, game,
Argyllshire, 78-9 ; thighbone in
folktale, Boeotia, 25

Doorpost, see House

Dorsetshire : charm, 98

Dove : as duppy, Jamaica, 69 ; at
Easter, Huculs, 53 ; in Scoppio del
Carro, Florence, 183-4 ; as sign of
salvation, Monmouthshire, 175 ;
uses herbs for keen sight, 145

Down : (see also Carlingford : Clough-
more Stone ; Loughbrickland ; and
Rostrevor) ; churn or corn baby,
185-6

Dragon : in folktale, Naxos, 24 ; in
Merlin legend, 414, 422 ; in Mor-
decai legend, 423-4

Drama, Folk-, see Folk-drama

Drawa tribes, Morocco, 27

Dreams : of Caligula, 313 ; omens
from, Australia, 430, Italy, 313,
Jamaica, 68, 76-7 ; as origin of
social changes, Australia, 103-4 5
sent by Altjira, Aranda tribe, 430

Dress, ladies' : omen from, Jamaica, 76

Drinking : goddess of, Rome, 263

Drolls : Wye valley, 1 78-9

Duiker : chief buried in skin of,
Baputi, 356

Dukkala, Morocco : cure for eye dis-
eases, 41 ; midsummer fires, 29,
but no water customs, 32 ; New
Year water custom, 41 ; ploughing
custom, 38 ; tent-pitching custom,
39-40

5o8

Index.

Dumfries : devil spoils brambles, Sept. ,
454; rhyme, 454; Rood Fair, Sept.,

454

Dumfriesshire, see Dumfries

Dung : burnt to foster bees, June,
Morocco, 28-30 ; painted on fig-
trees, midsummer, Morocco, 33

Dunoon : game, ^^ ; trick, 441

Duppies, see Ghosts

Durostolum : martyrdom of Dasius,

324 .
Dust : sprinkled on fruit-trees, mid-
summer, Morocco, 34

Eadwig, King, see King Eadwig
Eagle : associated with Jupiter, Italy,
274, emperors, 312, 314, and world-
tree, Iran and Scandinavia, 153 ;
in cimaruta amulet, Naples, 135,
147, 157, 159 {plate) ; as omen,
Rome, 312 ; plucks wild lettuce for
far sight, 145 ; on royal (S.c. sceptres,
Rome, 302, 307, 319 ; as standard
of legion, Romans, 319 ; sun em-
blem, Lycia &c., 148; as totem,
Shortland islands, 114; two-headed,
in amulet, Naples, 143
Earls in early England, 1 23-4
Ears : omens from, Jamaica, 68, 75
Earth : as charm, Morocco, 34-5 ;
thrown over animals &c. , mid-
summer, Morocco, 34 ; touching
destroys virtue of, Morocco, 33, 35
Earth gods, see Chthonian deities
Earth spirits : charm against, Mor-
occo, 41
East : corpse faced to, Monmouth-
shire, 66
Easter : eggs, Huculs, 5, 53-4 (plates)
Easter Eve: " Scoppio del Carro,"

Florence, 182-4
Easter island : Maori Hawaiki, 352
Easter Sunday : Huculs, 53-4
East Indies, see New Guinea ; and

Solomon islands
East wind : fetishes, brought by,

Loango, 377-8, 384
Eating : goddess of, Rome, 263 ;

omens from, Jamaica, 69
Eating ceremonies, see Feasts
Echini in folklore, 333
Edgar, King, see King Edgar
Edinburgh : bull-roarer, 440
Eel : sacred, Kakongo, 395 ; tabooed,

Loango, 399
Egeria, goddess-wife of King Numa,
283-4, 302

Egg : bird's, handling unlucky, Ja-
maica, 71 ; in cow medicine,
Morocco, 33 ; divination by, Ja-
maica, 72 ; Easter eggs, Huculs, 5,
53-4 (plates) ; unlucky to hold,
Jamaica, 69, 76

Egypt : [see also Isis ; Luxor ; and
Osiris) ; ancient, amulet, 143 ;
name for Whit-Sunday, Copts, 43

Eileithueia : flower of, 145

Elbow : omen from, Jamaica, 75

Elder-Tree, The, by Miss A. Wherry,
100

Elephant : charm from skin to give
virility, Congo, 381 ; hairs of tail
worn in sacred grove, Loango, 401 ;
pet name of babies, Loango, 401 ;
as totem, Bantu, 232

Eleusis : folktales, 22, 24

Elijah as saint, Huculs, 50

Elis, see Olympia

Elworthy, F. T., A Solution of the
Gorgon Myth, 350-2

Embleton : mock mayor, 465

Emperors, Roman, identified with
Jupiter, 308-15

Empousa in Greek folklore, 21

Emu : sky-being has feet of, Australia,
428-9 ; as totem, Australia, 107

Encrinites in folklore, 333

Engai narok, Masai deity, 235

England : (see also under tiatnes of
counties) ; folk-songs, 127

English and Scottish Popular Ballads,
edited by H. C. Sargent and G. L.
Kittredge, reviewed, 238-40

English Medici7ie in the Anglo-Saxon
Times, by J. F. Payne, reviewed,
362-5

Ephesus : Diana, 141

Epidauros ; votive offerings, 481

Epirus : (see also Dodona) ; folklore
collected by Politis, 17

Eskimo : dances, 119; folk-songs, 119;
folktales, 119

Essential Kafir, The, by D. Kidd,

i5> 355

Essex, see Bury St. Edmund s ; Col-
chester ; and Leytonstone

Esther, Book of, apocryphal addition
to, 423-4

Etruria, j^f Caere ; Etruscans ; Falerii ;
and Vulci

Etruscans : amulets, 134, 142 ; Jupiter
of, 274, 281 ; king the sky god,
331 ; Medusa legend, 351 ; name
for a god, 312 ; Penates, 296 ;

hidex.

509

settlement on Vatican hill, 281 ;

Tages, 296 ; thunderbolts of three

kinds, 271
European Sky-God, The, III. : The

Italians, by A. B. Cook, 260-332,

462
Evergreen oak-tree : leaves &c. in

corona civica, Rome, 307-8
Evil eye : amulets and charms against,

Anglo-Saxons, 364, Italy, 132-61,

Morocco, 33-4, 36 ; ladle to sprinkle

victims, Beauly, 242, 334-5 {plate)
Evil spirits, see Demons and evil

spirits
Ewe, see Sheep
Exhibits at meetings, 1-2, 5, 7-8,

129-31, 241-2, 333-5
Exogamy : Bantu, 357 ; Masai, 235 ;

origin of, Australia, 103-4, 469-75 ;

as related to totemism, Australia,

108, 470-1 ; Shortland islands,

Eyes : in amulets. Gnostics, 135 ;
ashes in paint for, Morocco, 29 ;
charm to strengthen, Monmouth-
shire, 67 ; cures for diseases of,
Italy, 139, Morocco, 29, 35, 41 ;
omens from, Jamaica, 68, 71, 75

Eyrbyggja saga, 359-60

Eyre, Miss L. M., Folklore of the
Wye Valley, 2, 162-79 ! review by,
Journal of the Folk-Song Society,
126-8

Ezimi ceremony, S. Nigeria, 434-6

Fagus, deity, Aquitania, 283

Fahs : saint's feast at, 32

Fairfield : maypole rite, 461

Fairies : charm stones to protect
cattle from, Caithness, 336; dance,
Monmouthshire, 63, 176-7 ; darts,
Caithness, 336 ; dead leaves whirl
in presence of. Forest of Dean,
177-8 ; Faroes, 487 ; food for,
Monmouthshire, 176 ; go to market,
Monmouthshire, 63 ; grindstone,
Shropshire, 336 ; holed stones pro-
tect from pixies, Antrim, 241 ; life
of, Monmouthshire, 63 ; standards
left in hedges for, Gloucestershire,
176 ; steal human beings l\;c., Mon-
mouthshire, 63

Fairy rings : Monmouthshire, 63-4,
177

Falcon : in festival of Santa Rosalia,
Palermo, 250

Falerii : Janus, image of, 278

Familiar spirits : Cambridgeshire,

188-9
Fan tribe : Allegret's Les Id^es Re-

ligieuses des Fan reviewed, 109-13,

224
Faraday, Miss L. W., review by, —

Vigfusson and Powell's Origines

Islandicae, 358-62
Faroes : {see also Naalsoe) ; Faroes,

The, and Iceland : Studies in Island

Life, by N. Annandale, reviewed,

486-9
Fasting : amongst Huculs, 50 ;

assures early marriage, Huculs, 50
Father-right, see Agnation or father-
right
Faunus, deity, 283
Feasts, see P'estivals
Feathers : on string across road, as

fetish, Loango, 378 {plate)
February : family funeral offerings,

Romans, 298 ; 24th, Regifugium

festival, Rome, 330- 1
Feet : omens from, Jamaica, 69, 75
Festiniog : crossed stone and charm,

339

Festivals : Greek, 20 ; Italy, 243-57,
264, 297 ; Morocco, 36-40

Fetishism : Bavili, 376-86 ; Fetishism
in West Africa, by R. H. Nassau,
reviewed, 109-13

Fez : lustration ceremony. Mid-
summer, 32

Fidenae : two dictators &c., 301 ;
Poplifugia, festival derived from
war with, Rome, 328

Fiends, see Demons and evil spirits

Fig-tree : associated with rue, 153 ;
fires to protect, June, Morocco, 28 ;
in midsummer day ceremonies,
Morocco, 33-4 ; Romulus and
Remus found under, 301 ; substitute
for Jupiter's oak, 301

Fiji islands : legends and customs, 1 5

Filly, see Horse

Finger-nails, see Nails, human

Finger-rings, see Rings, finger

Fingers : little, amputated, Bushmen,
354; names for, Barra island &c.,
216-7

Fin MacCoul's Pebble, by L. J.
Dennis, 186 {plate)

Fiote, see Bavili

Fire : amulet against. Val de Morgins,
466; bonfires, 45-6, June 24,
Morocco, 28-31 ; ceremonies at
midsummer not sun-charms, 44-5 ;

5IO

Index.

in dreams, Jamaica, 76 ; jumped
over to free from misfortune &c.,
Morocco, 28-30, 40, Romans, 316 ;
Nereid in shape of, Crete, 22 ;
perpetual, Rome, 316-7 ; sacred,
from Jerusalem, at Florence, 183

Firefly : as omen, Jamaica, 69, 71

First footing, Salnasker rock, 488

Fir-tree : in folktale, Bulgaria, 491 ;
at marriages, Huculs, 5 1-2.

Fish in folklore : {see also Catfish ;
Eel ; Rayfish ; Salmon ; Sawfish ;
fl«^ Shark) ; in amulet, Naples, 135,
146-7 ; in dream, Jamaica, 77 ;
scales found in sacred grove,
Loango, 400 ; taboos, Loango, 398

Fisher-Story, A, and other Notes
from South Wales, by T. H.
Thomas, 337-40

Fishing : fisher story, Wales, 337-9 ;
mermaid beliefs, Faroes, 487 ;
merman beliefs, Iceland, 359 ; un-
lucky request, Jamaica, 68

Fiume : hairpins from, 148, 153

Five : fifth day before ' black day '
of ill omen, Rome, 332 ; interreges
reigned five days, Rome, 332

Five-stones, game of, see Chucks,
game of

Fjort, see Bavili

Flamen Dialis, in argei ceremony,
Rome, 326-7

Flanders : source of bows, Scotland,

Flea : leaping over New Year fire to

banish, Morocco, 40
Flint arrowheads, see Arrows
Florence : Medusa legend, 351 ;

procession of San Giovanni, 243-4,

258; Scoppiodel Carro, 131, 182-4
Florus, St., see St. Florus
Flowers in folklore : {see also Achillea ;

Costmary ; Genista ; Harebell ;

Lotus ; Marguerite daisy ; Mayd

weed ; May weed ; Moon-daisy ;

Moon flowers ; Orange blossom ;

and Sweet maudlin ; in amulet,

Naples, 135, 144-6, 147-8, 156-61

{plates) ; in bodkins, Sorrento, 140 ;

composite, sacred to Lucina, 138;

dedicated to Artemis, 145 ; on

grottoes, St. James's Day, Leyton-

stone, 180
Folk-drama : History of, by T. F.

Ordish, 9; Perthshire, 2II-6;

Philippine islands, 368
Folklore : range of, 120-2

Folklore de Fraizce, Le, by P. Sebillot,

Folklore of the Negroes of Jamaica,
68-77

Folk-lore of the Wye Valley, by Miss
L. M. Eyre, 2, 162-79

Folk-medicine, see Medical folklore

Folk-music : English, Scotch, and
Irish, 127-8

Folk-sayings, see Proverbs

Folk-songs: Aranda tribe (Aus.), 431 ;
Bulgarian, 490 ; Sargent and Kitt-
redge's English and Scottish Popu-
lar Ballads reviewed, 238-40 ;
Eskimo, 119 ; Huculs, 52 ; Jouinat
of the Folk-So)ig Society reviewed,
126-8 ; Malay, 489 ; Padstow, 56-
8, 259 ; Westman islands, 489 ;
Westmoreland, 127

Folktales : {see also zmder various
types, such as Polyphemus type
of folktales) ; Amerindian, 368 ;
Argyllshire, 444-5 ; Bavili, 386-90,
599 ; borrowing theory, 484-5 ;
Cambridgeshire, 187-9 ! Diguefios,
368 ; Egyptian, 368 ; French Can-
adian, 36s ; Greek, 21-5; Ireland,
186; Italy, 490; Masai, 234;
Monmouthshire, 63-4, 175 ; Paw-
nees, 1 16-7; relation to ballads,
239-240, 408-10, 427 ; Roumania,
419-21 ; Scotland, 61 ; Shortland
islands, 115; South America, 483-
6 ; Tahiti, 4S8 ; transference of
romantic cycles to fresh heroes,
409-10, 425; Wales, 337-9; Wei-
mar, 493; West Africa, 112-3;
Westman Isles, 488 ; Wye valley,

173-5. 178-9

Fonteii, coins of, 280

Fontus, god of springs &c. , 290

Footmarks : witch injured by pin in,
Cambridgeshire, 188

Forest of Dean ; {see also Ruardean) ;
fairies, 177-8 ; people, 162

Forest spirits : bush devils, Shortland
islands, 1 15; Huculs, 50

Fors Fortuna, see Fortuna

Fortuna : associated with oak Jupiter
and Juno, Rome &c., 285 ; counter-
part of Persephone, 285 ; goddess
of fertility, Italy, 285 ; one of
Penates, Romans, 296 ; F. Primi-
genia, oracle of, Praeneste, 280-1,
296-7 ; F. Primocenia, offering to,
285, and a solar deity, Italy, 284 ;
specially worshipped by women,

Index.

511

285 ; sun the wheel or orb of,
Italy, 284 ; symbols of, 285 ;
F. Viscata, Rome, 285

Fossils in folklore, 333-4

Foundation sacrifices, 422

Fowls : (see also Chicken ; Cock ; and
Hen) ; blood used in medicines,
Loango, 400 ; feathers in sacred
grove, Loango, 400 ; omens from,
Jamaica, 69, 71, 74; in proverb,
Bavili, 400 ; sacrificed in making
fetish, Congo, 384 ; as sign of good
faith, Loango, 400 ; tabooed, 396 ;
white, as offerings in sacred grove,
Loango, 400

France : (see also Aquitania ; Bretagne;
aftd Pas de Calais) ; Sebillot's Le
Folklore de France, 15

Frazer, J. G. , communications from,

190- 1, 337

Frey : oath by boar of, Iceland, 360 ;
toast to, Iceland, 360

Friday : as birthday unlucky, Jam-
aica, 73 ; in charm against rupture,
Monmouthshire, 65 ; in game,
Argyllshire, 81

Frog : as amulet, Pompeii &c., 154
(plate), 158; familiar spirit as,
Cambridgeshire, 188; not in cimar-
uta amulet, Naples, 154 ; as totem,
Australia, 107

Fruit and vegetables in folklore, see
Acorn ; Apple ; Beans ; Chickpeas ;
Corn ; Grape ; Nuts ; Orange ; Peas ;
Pulse ; Plantain ; and Yam

Fruit-trees : midsummer customs,
Morocco, 29-30, 34

Fuda island : exhibit from, 130

Fugalia festival, Rome, 329

Fulmar : white, brings good luck,
Westman Isles, 488

Futila : sacred fish, 395, and animals

397

future life, beliefs about, see Death
and funeral customs and beliefs

Galatea and Pygmalion, modern
version of, Astypolaia, 23

Galicia, see Huculs

Gallas, 234

Gallia Transpadana, see Aquileia

Games : Scotland, 77-97, 192-22 1,
340-9, 439-60

Gannet : albatross king of, Faroes,
488

Gaol fever, cures for, see Medical folk-
lore

Gardens : protected by fires, June,
Morocco, 28-9, or by strewing
earth, midsummer, Morocco, 34

Gargilii, coins of, 280

Gaster, M. : The Legend of Merlin,
370, 407-26, 462-3

Gazelle : in folktales, Loango, 404 ;
head and horns in sacred grove,
Loango, 404 ; horn worn for safety
in childbirth, Congo, 380 ; sacred
animal, Xibanga, 396

Genista : to colour Easter eggs,
Huculs, 53-4

Genita Mana, Ijirth goddess, Romans,
299

Genius of Rome, 298-9

Genius or birth god, Romans, 294-6 ;
identified with Jupiter, 296-7, or
Janus, 298 ; as snake, Romans,
298 ; two-fold, 298

Geoffrey of Monmouth : literature
known to, 410-1

George, St., see St. George

Germany : (see also Bavaria ; Hesse ;
Miinsterland ; and Weimar) ; An-
dree's Votive Weihegaben des Katho-
lischen Volks in Suddeutschland
reviewed, 480-3

Gervasius, St., see St. Gervasius

Gesfa Roinanonttn, collected in Eng-
land, 419

Geta, coin of, 276

Ghosts : in animal shape, Jamaica,
69-70, 77, Wye valley, 175 ; caught
by wizard and sent to kill people,
Bavili, 373 ; charms against, Ja-
maica, 70-1 ; colour of dress shows
intentions, Jamaica, 74 ; can only
count to nine, Jamaica, 70 ; cursing
drives off good spirit, Jamaica, 74 ;
death follows from seeing ghost of
relative, Bavili, 373, or from beat-
ing by ghost, Bavili, 373 ; destroyed
by pin &c. , Jamaica, 70; drink
water, Jamaica, 70; must be flogged
with left hand, Jamaica, 71, 74;
God's name drives away evil spirits,
Jamaica, 74 ; good and bad, Short-
land islands, 11 5-6 ; laid by twelve
clergymen, Monmouth, 176; horse-
skin bag to catch, Wales, 339-40 ;
manes, Romans, 293-9 ; Mon-
mouthshire, 64-5, 175-6 ; protec-
tives against, Jamaica, 70-1, 74;
can rest in house of death 20 days,
and then lives in woods, Bavili,
373 ; seen by child born with caul.

512

hidex.

Jamaica, 68 ; visit or haunt those
who wash back of corpse, Jamaica,
70 ; warn by breaking stick,
Jamaica, 70 ; water from dog's eyes
enables to see, Jamaica, 74 ; of
wizards haunt deathplaces for ever,
Bavili, 373 ; Wye valley, 1 7 5-6

Giants: Australia, 430; Down, 186;
Monmouthshire, 64, 164 ; paste-
board, Messina, 248-9

Gieta heights, as abode of dead, 115

Gilding horns of victim, Lesbos, 20

Gillou, in Greek folklore, 21

Giorgio, St., see St. Giorgio

Giovanni, St., see St. Giovanni

Gipsies : foundation custom, Rou-
mania, 422

Girgenti, province of, see Castelter-
mini

Gisla saga, 360

Glamorganshire, see Cardiff; Gower ;
Llancarfan ; Port Eynon ; and St.
Nicholas

Glawi, Morocco : midsummer belief,
34 ; New Year fire custom, 41

Glencoe : apparition of Devil, 61

Glengarry : archery, 92-3

Glevesing : child Merlin discovered at,
412

Gloucester : stones carried by Devil
and wizard, 175

Gloucestershire, see Beachley ; Chel-
tenham ; Forest of Dean ; Glou-
cester ; Hewelsfield ; Kedbrook ;
St. Briavel's ; a7td Wye valley

Goat: killed as substitute for criminal,
Loango, 401 ; sacred, Loango,
397-8 ; sacrificed, S. Nigeria, 435 ;
skin in sacred grove, Loango, 401 ;
straw, marjoram, and alum burnt to
protect, Morocco, 28

Goat's beard spiraea : in charm, Val
de Morgins, 466-7

Goblins : Greeks, 21 ; Poland, 492

God's name drives off evil spirits,
Jamaica, 74, or returns maid to
salmon, Wales, 339

Gods, see Creator, beliefs about ;
Deity, conceptions of; and under
names of gods, such as Jupiter

Gold leaf on butcher's meat, Lesbos,
20

Golden B&ugk, The^ by J. G. Frazer,
discussed, 288-332

Gomme, Mrs. A. B., exhibits by, 2

Gondicha : procession of Jaganath,
257

Goodrich-Freer, Miss A., Jerusalem

Folklore, 242
Gorale, Slavic tribe, 48
Gorgon myth, 350-2
Gorgona, in Greek folklore, 21
Gower, see Arthur's Stone
Grail romances, 41 1, 427
Grain, see Corn
Grape: in amulet, Naples, 151
Graves : peas planted on prevent

seeing ghost, Jamaica, 74 ; watered.

New Year, Morocco, 42
Gravestones: inscriptions on, Romans,

295

Graveyard, see Churchyard

Greek folklore : {see also Arcadia ;
Argolis ; Attica ; Bojotia ; Crete ;
Cyllene ; Cyprus ; Eleusis ; Elis ;
Epirus ; Greek islands; Laconia ;
Missolonghi ; Peloponnesus ; and
under names of deities) ; artemisia
esteemed, 364 ; charm to destroy
waterspout, 190- 1 ; collection of,
16 ; riddle, 352 ; saints connected
with ancient gods and heroes, 20-1 ;
sources of, in Greek antiquity, 1 7-8,
20-1 ; survivals of ancient beliefs,
20-5; Schmidt's Volkslebertder Neu-
griechen iitid das Hellenische Alter-
thum, 18-20 ; votive off"erings, 20

Greek islands : (see also Astypolaia ;
Cephalonia ; Chios ; Cos ; Crete ;
Cyprus ; Lesbos ; Melos ; Naxos ;
Tenos ; and Zakynthos) ; of ^Egean
still isolated, 16

Green : Easter eggs, Huculs, 53

Green, F. G. , exhibits by, i

Greenland, see Eskimo

Greenock : in rhyme, Argyllshire, 452

Grey : hair, lucky to young, Jamaica,
68, 76

Grosmont : Jacky Kent the wizard,

175
Grottoes on St. James's Day, 180-2
Ground, see Earth
Group Marriage, by W. W. Thomas,

99
Grouse : in lullabies, Argyllshire,

456-7
Gubbio : elevation of the Ceri, 251-7

(plates)
Guisers, Perthshire, 21 r
Glinther, R. T., The Cimaruta : its

Structure and Development, 9, 131,

132-61 (plates)

Haddon, A. C, review by, — Ribbe's

Index.

Zwei Jahre unter den Kan7iibalen
der Salomo-Inseln, 1 1 3-6
Hades : {^see also Hell) ; Aranda
tribe (Aus. ), 431 ; Shortland islands,

Hadham, Little, see Little Hadham

Hadrian, Emperor : as Jupiter, 314,
or Zeus, 314 ; middle brass of, 278

Haha, Morocco, 28-9 ; midsummer
custom, 36, 7

Hail : charm against, Germany, 45 ;
from Jupiter, 266

Hair : combing at night unlucky,
Jamaica, 69 ; drawing from head at
new moon gives wish, Jamaica, 70;
grey, lucky to young, Jamaica, 68,
76 ; of head rubbed with ashes of
midsummer fires, Morocco, 30 ; as
propitiatory sacrifice, Malabar and
New Zealand, 467

Hair-pins : charm, China, 369 ; cock
and Diana on, Fiume, 148, 153

Hamed ben Marzok, Moorish saint, 32

Hammersmith : grotto building, 181

Hampshire : folk-songs, 127 ; no
local weights and measures, 125

Hand : in bodkins, Sorrento, 140 ;
in cimaruta amulet, Naples, 135,
140, 156-61 (plates) ; fig, sign of,
140, 156; left, used to flog duppy,
Jamaica, 71 ; omens from, Jamaica,
69) 71, 75; in rhyme, Argyllshire,
452

Hare : Hare's Leap, children's game,
Argyllshire, 78

Harebell ; fairy cup, Monmouthshire,
177 ; used in illness, Monmouth-
shire, 177

Harold, King, see King Harold

Harris island : divination, 80 ; games,
90, 441-2

Hartland, E. S. : communication
from, 337-40 ; reviews by, — Durk-
heim's V AmiHSociologique,i,i)'i-']'^ ;
Dulaure's Des Divinitis Ghi^ra-
trices, on du Ciilte du Phallus chez
les Anciens el les Modernes, 476-8 ;
Ehrenreich's Die My then unci
Legenden der Siidamerikanischen
Ufvolker und ihre Beziehungen zu
denen Nordamerikas und der alien
Welt, 483-6 ; Howitt's The Native
Iribes of South-east Australia,
lui-9 ; Thalbitzer's A Phonetical
Study of the Eskimo Language ^c,
119; van Gennep's Tabou et
Tott'misme a Madagascar, 226-33

Harvest customs and beliefs : Corn-
wall, 2; Devon, 2; Florence, 184;
Greek, 20 ; Hertfordshire, 2 ; Italy,

Hat : of office from leopard's skin,
Congo, 391 ; omens from, Jamaica,
68, 71

Hawk : omen from, Jamaica, 73 ;
plucks hawkweed for sight, 145 ;
on world-ash, Scandinavia, 153

Hawkweed: gives hawk far sight, 145

Hawthorn : in May Day song. Pad-
stow, 56

Head : strengthened by rain falling
on, April 27, Morocco, 33

Headington : manor of, 124 ; mock
mayor, 464-5

Headless ghosts : Monmouth, 175-6

Heart : in amulets, Naples, 135,
148-9, 157, 160- 1 (plates) ; omen
from palpitation of, Jamaica, 75

Heather hen, see Grouse

Hebrides : (see also Barra ; Coll ;
Fuda; Harris; Jura; Mull; North
Uist; St. Kilda; Skye ; and\3\?,t) ;
ballad composition, 239 ; games,
200-1, 203-4; stone whorls as
adder stones, 336

Hecate, tri-formed, 279

Heimey, isle of: folktale, 488

Helianthus : to colour Easter eggs,
Huculs, 54

Hell : of Masai, 236

Helston : arrows and Spaniards, 59

Hemicrania, Anglo-Saxon name for,

363

Hen : (see also Chicken) ; omen from,
Jamaica, 71

Henna : in cow medicine, Morocco,
33

Hephaistos represented as lame devil,
modern Greeks, 21

Heraclea : coin, 314

Heracles : consul represented as, on
coins &c., Rome, 305 ; legends,
survival of, Cyprus, 24 ; -oath by,
taken out of doors, Italy, 261

Herbs in folklore, see Plants in folk-
lore

Herculaneum : bronze, 311

Hercules, see Heracles

Hermannsburg : Arunta beliefs,

429-31
Hertfordshire : (see also Barnet ; and

Little Hadham) ; folk-song, 127
Hesse : Hessische Blatter fiir Volks-

kunde reviewed, 491-2 ; publica-

514

Index.

tions of Folk-Lore Society, 491-2 ;
rolling burning wheels, 45
Hewelsfield : fairies, 177-8; popular
derivation of, 163 ; witchcraft,

172-3

Highlands : [see also under names of
counties); dances, 2io; New Year
festival, 210-11 ; sucker, 441

Hippopotamus : in proverb, Loango,
403 ; as token, Bantu, 232

Hobljyhorse, JPadstow, I, 59-60
{plates)

Hodgson, Miss M. L. : exhibits by, 5 ;
Some Notes on the Huculs, 5, 48

Hogmanay, see New Year

Holed stones, see Stones

Holm-oak, see Ilex

Honey : comb eaten. Midsummer
Day, Morocco, 36-7 ; offered to
Nereids, Greeks, 21 ; yield in-
creased by dung fires, Morocco, 28

Honorary members elected, 9

Hope, W. St. John, exhibit by, 2

Horn : in cimaruta amulet, Naples,
135, 146-7, 154, 157

Horse : amulet for, 141 ; bathed, on
l-'ansara day, Morocco, 31 ; black,
in folktale, Eleusis, 24 ; black, in
game, Argyllshire, 96 ; cured by
burning wild cat, Morocco, 46 ;
in lullaby, Argyllshire, 456-7 ;
patrons of, S. Germany, q.81 ;
sympathetic cure for, Cambridge-
shire, 337 ; treated with mid-
summer fire, Morocco, 29 ; white-
bellied, bag from to catch ghosts,
Wales, 339-40 ; witches' power
over, Cambridgeshire, 187-8 ;
wooden, of Troy, Astypolaia, 22 ;
yellow, in game, Barra island, 89

Horse-shoe : dedicated, S. Germany,
482 ; keeps duppy away, Jamaica,
70, 74 ; in rhyme, Argyllshire, 459

Hottentots : (see also Korannas) ;
chieftainship, succession to, 354-5 ;
migration of, 353 ; taboos, 355

House : destroyed nightly as . built,
Monmouthshire, 64-5 ; doorpost
sprinkled to exclude snakes,
Morocco, 33 ; in dream, Jamaica,

77
Hovas, Madagascar, 228, 230
Hoxton : grotto building, 181
Huculs, Some Notes on the, by Miss

M. L. Hodgson, 5, 48-55
Hundreds in Oxfordshire manors, 124
Hungary, see Huculs

Hunting: unluckyrequest, Jamaica, 68

Husain's tower in procession, Cal-
cutta, 257

Hyena : shape-shifting into, Abys-
sinia, 235

Hyssop : in coffin, Monmouthshire, 66

Iceland : Annandale's The Faroes and
Iceland: Studies in Island Life
reviewed, 486-9 ; Vigfusson and
Powell's Origittes Islandicae re-
viewed, 358-62

Ida Uger'd tribe, Morocco ; mid-
summer customs, 36-7 ; ploughing
custom, 39

Idi^es Religiezises des Fan, Les, by E.
Allegret, reviewed, 109-13

Ides : of all months sacred to Jupiter,
263 ; of August, Diana's birthday,
Rome, 332 ; day after, a black day,
Rome, 332

Idols or images, see Images, sacred

Iguvium : oaths at, 272

Ifton (Nigeria) : secret society, 437

Ilex : leaves &c. in corona civica,,
Rome, 307

" I'll put my Foot in the Fire," by
A. Lang, 98

Images, sacred : fetishes, Congo,
376-86 {plate)

Imerina tribe, see Hovas

Imprecations : drive off good spirit,
Jamaica, 74

Imps, see Demons and evil spirits

Incubi, 412, 415

India, see Bengal ; Gondicha ; and
Malabar

Indian corn, see Maize

Iniknafen tribe : midsummer customs,

29. 34
Initiatory ceremonies: Australia, ro6,

224 ; Bushmen, 354 ; Madagascar,

229-30
Insects in folklore : {see also Ant ;

Bee; Beetle; Caterpillar; Cricket;

Firefly ; Flea ; Louse ; Mantis ;

Scorpion ; attd Spider) ; duppies

as, Jamaica, 70
Invergloy : The Devil in Glencoe,

and other Stories, by Miss D.

Bailey, i, 61-2
Inverness-shire : {see also Beauly ;

Glengarry; Lochaber; awr/Spean);

game, 341
Ionian islands, see Cephalonia ; and

Zakynthos
Iran, ancient, sec Persia

Index.

515

Ireland : {see also Cuchulainn sagas ;
a«a^ Ulster) ; folk-songs, 127

Iron : {see also Axe ; Dagger ; Horse-
shoe ; Knife ; Matchet ; Pin ; and
Scissors) ; bracelets for marriage
&c., Congo, 3S1-2 ; buried for
divination, Loango, 3.8 1 ; siboko,
Barolong, 356-7 ; votive oft'erings,
S. Germany, 481-2

Ishan people : secret society, 437

Isis : asp crown sign of curative
power, 150 ; lotus symbol of, 146 ;
at Pompeii, 143, 152

Isle of Man : archery, 93 ; burial
custom, 210

Islington : grotto building, 181

Istria, see Pola

Italy : {see also Aequians ; Alps ;
Campagna ; Campania ; Etruria ;
Gallia Transpadana ; Latium ; Ligu-
rians ; Lucania ; Naples ; Oscans ;
Picenum; Romans, ancient ; Rome;
Salii ; Samnium ; Sicily ; Sorrento ;
Tiber ; Tuscany ; Umbria ; and
Venetia) : charm necklace, 131 ;
folktales, 490 ; The Dancing-
Tower Processions in Italy, by
Mrs. A. Wheny, 131, 242-57
(plates), 461-2 ; south, pendant
charms, 155

lull, descendants of ^^ineas, 286-7

lulus or young Jupiter, Romans,
286-7, 300, 308

Ivory : bracelets for m.arriage, Congo,
382 ; worn solely by royal family,
Barotse, 382

Ivy : in folktale, Bulgaria, 491

Ixion, mistletoe god, 285

Jackets, omen from, Jamaica, 76

Jaganath, procession of, 257

Jaganath or Puri, see Puri

Jamaica : folklore of negroes, 68-77

Jana, see Diana

Janiculum, see Rome

January, see New Year's Day ; and
St. Anthony's Day

Janus : as genius, 298 ; influence on
Jupiter, 276-9 ; Janiform Jupiter,
276, 289 ; as king on Janiculum,
300 ; oaks sacred to, 281, 321 ;
Pompey the Great identified with,
306 ; in Salian hymns, 292, 299-
300 ; Virbius related to, 293 ; as
water god, Nemi, 289-91 ; waters
from temple drive back Sabines,
Rome, 290

Japan : {see also Kamakura) ; charms,
369 ; divination, 369 ; marriage
customs, 235

Jaundice, cures for, see Medical folk-
lore

Jbala tribes, Morocco : 27, 42 ; mid-
summer customs, 42, fires, 28, 30,
and bathing, 32, but not eating
ceremonies, 37 ; New Year custom,
40, but no fire, 41 ; watering
graves, New Year, 42 ; wild cat
burnt to cure sick animal, 46

Jbel Habib : bonfires under garden
trees, June, 28-9

Jennings, Miss, H. L. F., A Cam-
bridgeshire Witch, 187-90

Jeremiah the prophet, in legend, 415

Jerusalem : J. Folklore, by Miss A.
Goodrich-Freer, 242 ; sacred fire
from, Florence, 183 ; Temple,
legends of building of, 417, 419,
422-3

Jesus ben Sira, legend of, 415-6

Jettatura, see Evil eye

Jewitt, W. H., The Mock Mayor of
Headington, 464-5

Jews : amongst Huculs, 49-50 ; votive
offerings, 480

Jonah legends, 484

Journal of American Folklore, vol.
xvii, reviewed, 368

Journal of the Folk-Son^ Society re-
viewed, 126-8

Journey : lucky and unlucky starts,
Fjort, 75 ; starting ceremony,
Huculs, 50 ; starting, unlucky to
return after, Jamaica, 76

Jove, see Jupiter

Jovinian, emperor, legend of, 415, 419

Jul: Allesjiclestiden; Hedensk, K7-isten
Julefest, by H. F. Feilberg, re-
viewed, 366-7

Julia gens : coins of, 315; descended
from lulus, 287, 300, 308-9, 311

Julius Caesar : divine honours to,
308-10, 315 ; portents of death, 317

July : {see also St. James's Day ; and
St. John's Feast) ; festival of Santa
Rosalia, Palermo, 250- 1 ; 2nd,
Visitation of the B.V., Boulogne,
259 ; 5th, fires on rivers, Morocco,
31 ; 5th, Poplifugia festival, Rome,
328-30 ; 7th, Romulus disappeared,

329
June : {see also Midsummer ; Mid-
summer Day ; Midsummer Eve ;
St. John's Day ; and St. John's

5i6

Index.

Eve) ; dancing -tower processions,
Italy, 257 ; festival of Santa Rosa-
lia, Palermo, 250-1 ; 24th (O.S.),
l-'ansara ceremonies, Morocco, 28-9

Juno : associated with Jupiter etymo-
logically, 276, and with Janus, 277;
J. Caprotina, 329, 332 ; empress
Livia as, 312; festival of, July 7,
329 ; as genius, 297 ; jealous, 264 ;
kalends