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FOLK-LORE

A QUARTERLY REVIEW

MYTH, TRADITION, INSTITUTION, & CUSTOM

The Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society

And Incorporating The Archaeological Review and
The Folk-Lore Journal

VOL. XXL— 1910

LONDON: " v

PUBLISHED FOR THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY BY

DAVID NUTT, 57—59, LONG ACRE

1910

[LXVI.]

GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERStTY FRRSS
BV ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD,

CONTENTS.

I. — (March, 1910.)

Minutes of Meetings : October 2otii, November 1 7th, and

December 15th, 1909 ....

The Thirty-second Annual Meeting : January 19th, 1910.

The Thirty-second Annual Report of the Council: January 19th
1910 .......

Treasurer's Cash Account and Balance Sheet . . .12

Presidential Address. C. S. Burne . . . -14

The Father's Sister in Oceania. W. H. R. Rivers . 42

The Sun God's Axe and Thor's Hammer. Oscar Montelius . 60

II. — (June, 1910.)

Minutes of Meetings : February 1 6th and March i6th, 1910 . 129
Method and Minotaur. A. Lang . . . -132

The Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. W. R. Halliday . 147
The Cult of Executed Criminals at Palermo. E. Sidney Hart-
land. ....... 168

III. — (September, 1910.)

Minutes of Meetings: April 20th, May nth, June ist, and

June 15th, 1910 . . . . . . 265

Notes on the Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

A. M. Spoer , . . . . . .270

Some Naga Customs and Superstitions. T. C. Hodson . . 296

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. Charlotte S. Burne 313

IV. — (December, 1910.)

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. Eleanor Hull . 417

The Congo Medicine-man and his Black and White Magic The

Rev. John H. Weeks ..... 447

iv Contents.

PAGE

Collectanea : —

Manipur Festival. J. Shakespear . . . -79

Folk-medicine in the Panjab. H. A. Rose . . -83

Queensland Corroboree Songs. {Communicatedhy^.^MK^KiT) 86
Scraps of Scottish Folklore, I. A. Macdonald, Minnie Cart-
wright, H. M. B. Reid, and David Rorie . . .88
A Folklore Survey of County Clare (i-iv). Thos. J. Westropp 180
Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales (1-9). A. J. N. Tremearne . . 199
Panjab Folklore Notes. H. A. Rose . . . .216

Armenian Folk-Tales (i). J. S. Wingate . . .217

Scraps of English Folklore, V. Geoffrey I. L. Gomme,
R. V. H Burne, M. F. Irvine, Harriet M. Smith,
Florence M. Brown, Barbara Freire-Marreco, and
R. Dyke Acland ...... 222

A Folklore Survey of County Clare (v-viii). Thos. J. Westropp 338
The Dragon of La Trinita : an Italian Folk-Tale. Mary
LovETT Cameron ...... 349

351
365
371
375

Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales (io-i8). A. J. N. Tremearne
Armenian Folk-Tales (2-3). J. S. Wingate
Playing the Wer-Beast : a Malay Game. J. O'May
English Charms of the Seventeenth Century. M. Gaster
'^^ The Fairy Child and the Tailor : an Isle of Man Folk-Tale
Sophia Morrison .....

472

A Folklore Survey of County Clare (ix-x). Thos. J. Westropp 476

487
503

507

Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales (19-30). A. J. N. Tremearne
Sirmur Folklore Notes. H. A. Rose .
Armenian Folk-Tales (4). J. S. Wingate

Address to His Majesty King George V. .

228

Correspondence : —

Sale of Salvage Stock to Members of the Society. Charlotte
S. Burne .......

The Future Work of the Folk-Lore Society. Eleanor Hull
and A. Nutt ...... loi

The West Riding Teachers' Anthropological Society. Barbara
Freire-Marreco . . . . . .103

Burial of Amputated Limbs. Charlotte S. Burne . . 105

Good Men have no Stomachs. A. R. Wright . -105

Locality and Variants of Carol Wanted. Lucy Broadwood . 106

Contents.

Sale of Salvage Stock to Members of the Society : Hints to

Collectors of Folklore. Charlotte S. Burne
Cuckoo Heroes. Alfred Nutt
The Future Work of the Folk-Lore Society. P. J. Heather
The West Riding Teachers' Anthropological Society. L. M
Eyre ......

How Far is the Lore of the Folk Racial ? Alfred Nutt
Heredity and Tradition. G. Laurence Gomme
The Antiquity of Abbot's Bromley. F. M. Stenton .
Burial of Amputated Limbs. A. R. Wright .
Crosses Cut in Turf after Fatal Accidents. Barbara Freire
Marreco ......

A Spitting Cure. W. R. Halliday ...
A Surrey Birch-Broom Custom. Geo. Thatcher
Alfred Nutt : an Appreciation. Jessie L. Weston
" Cross Trees." M. Eyre ....

Religious Dancing. Mabel Peacock .

W. A. Nitze. The Fisher King in the Grail Romances
Alfred Nutt .....

Marie Trevelyan. Folklore and Folk-stories of Wales. Char
lotte S. Burne .....

Karl IVeule. Native Life in East Africa. E. Sidney Hart
land .......

Cecil Henry Bompas. Folklore of the Santal Parganas

W. Crooke .....

Harriet Maxwell Converse. Myths and Legends of the New

York State Iroquois. A. C. Haddon
J. Gwe?iogvryn Evans. The White Book Mabinogion

Alfred Nutt .....

Percy Maylam. The Hooden Horse. Charlotte S. Burne
Mary Lovett Cameron. Old Etruria and Modern Tuscany
M. E. Durha?n. High Albania. W. H. D. Rouse .
W. Scoresby Routledge and Katherine Routledge. With a Pre

historic People. A. Werner ...

229
230
235

236
379
385
386

387

387
388

388

512

515

Obituary : —

In Memoriam : Alfred Nutt. Edward Clodd . . 335

Reviews : —

107
117

122
124
126

237
246

249
250

252

vi Contents.

PAGE

Josef Schbnhdrl. Volkskundliches aus logol

Elphinstone Dayrell. Folk Stories from South- [ A. R. Wright 258

ern Nigeria, West Africa . . J

A. Playfair. The Garos. W. Crooke . . .261

J. G. Frazer. Totemism and Exogamy. N. W. Thomas . 389
Eoin MacNeill. Irish Texts Society. Vol. VII. Duanaire

Finn. Alfred Nutt ..... 396

Carolus Plummer. Vitse Sanctorum Hibernife. Eleanor

Hull . . . . . . .401

Studies in English and Comparative Literature. B. C A.

WiNDLE ....... 409

W. P. Ker. On the History of the Ballads, 11 00-1150.

B. C. A. WiNDLE ...... 409

Charles Peabody. Certain Quests and Doles. B. C. A. Windle 410
T. Sharper Knowlson. The Origins of Popular Superstitions

and Customs. Charlotte S. Burne . . .411

Frederick Tupper, Jr. The Riddles of the Exeter Book.

B. C. A. Windle ...... 413

Max Arthur Macatdiffe. The Sikh Religion. W. Crooke . 414
Guillaume Schmidt. L'Origine de ITdee de Dieu. A. Lang 516
H. Hubert et M. Mauss. Melanges-^

d'Histoire des Religions
Emile Durkheini. L'Annee Socio-

logique, Tome XL .
R. R. Marett. The Birth of Humility.
Albert Churchward. The Signs and Symbols of Primordial

Man ....... 525

E. H. van Heurck et G. J. Boekenoogen. Histoire de I'imagerie

populaire Flamande et de ses rapports avec les imageries

etrangeres. A. R. Wright . . . . -527

J. C. Lawson. Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek

Religion : A Study in Survivals. H. J. Rose . -529

C. G. Seligman?i. The Melanesians of British New Guinea.

A. C. Haddon ...... 532

llilliam Heftry Furness. The Island of Stone Money. A.Lang 535
George Brown. Melanesians and Polynesians . . . 536

Short Notices : —

Albert Thummel. Die Germanische Tempel . . .128

A.A.Grace. Folktales of the Maori. George Calderon . 128

E. Sidney Hartland 523

Conlents.

Vll

The Races of Man and their Distribution

A. C. If addon
VV. Crookk

A Worcestershire Parish in the Olden Time

Alfrrd W. Johnsto?i and Amy Johnston. Old-Lore Miscellany

ot Orkney, Caithness, and Sutherland. Vol. II. and Vol III

Parts I. and ii. . .

Florence Jackson Stoddard. As Old as the Moon
Thomas A. Janvier. Legends of the City of Mexico
A.J. N. Tremearne. The Niger and the West Sudan .

List of
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X
XI
XII.

XIII.
XIV.

Plates : —

The Sun-God's Axe and Thor's Hammer
Oo. do.

Do. do.

Ravan the Ten-headed .
Chiesa dei Decollati. The Chapel
Sicilian Cart

Sicilian Cart with Paintings of Decollati
Ancient Parishes of County Clare
Bargaining for the Bride among the Bedu.

Musa, a Kawi or Professional Singer
Alfred Nutt . . . _

Rath-Blathmaic. "Broc-sidh"and "Sheelah"
Dysert O'Dea. " Peists " .
Clonlara. "Ghost Stone" .

To face page

263
263

264
264
538
538

168

170

172

180

272
340

ERRATA.

P. 131, 1. 6,>r J L. Freeborough read G. W. Ferrington.

^- l«^3, I. 3,>r ]Vonghaval rmo? Noughaval.

P. 183, 1 12, for Lisfarbegnagommaun read Lisfearbegnagommaun.

P. 195, 1- 24,>-Leskeenthar£aa'Liskeentha.

P. 195, 1. 28,/or Tobesheefra ;-^a^Tobersheefra.

P. 259, 1. 21, for lower read Lower.

P. 344, 1. 2i,/(;r Teermicbrain i'-^ao? Tirmicbrain.

3folk*%ore,

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
Vol. XXL] MARCH, 1910. [No. I.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20th, 1909.
The President (Miss C. S. Burne) in the Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.

The election of Mr. R. H. Anderson, Major H. R.
Brown, Mr. J. A. Fallows, Mr. W. Mitchell, Mr. R. H.
Stephenson, and the Rev. J. H. Weeks as members of
the Society was announced.

The death of Mr. J. B. Andrews and the resignations
of Mr. I. Abrahams, Miss Jackson, Mr. G. P. Sneddon,
and Mrs. J. G. Speakman were also announced.

Mrs. M. French-Sheldon, F.R.G.S., read a paper entitled
" Some Secret Societies and Fetishes in Africa," and a
discussion followed in which Miss A. Werner, Mr. A. R.
Wright, Mr. Tabor, and the President took part. Mrs.
French-Sheldon exhibited numerous objects illustrative of
her paper, amongst which were: — the coat worn by the
executioner of King Prempeh of Ashanti ; a burial casket

VOL. XXI. A

2 Minutes of Meetings.

of gold, brass, and copper taken from a royal tomb ; a nail
fetish ; a harvest fetish ; a Janus-headed fetish cup from
the Congo ; a horn and necklace from the Mangunga
people ; and a mask from the upper Aruwimi river. The
meeting concluded with a hearty vote of thanks to Mrs.
French-Sheldon for her paper.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17tli, 1909.
The President (Miss C. S. Burne) in the Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.

The election of Mr. W. G. Sullivan as a member of
the Society was announced.

The deaths of Mrs. C. E. Levy and Mr. J. Tolhurst,
and the resignations of Mrs. Cartwright, the Rev. F. C.
Lambert, and Mr. A. E. Swanson were also announced.

Dr. W. H. R. Rivers read papers entitled " The Father's
Sister in Oceania " (pp. 42-59) and " Some Notes on
Magical Practices in the Banks' Islands," and in the
discussion which followed Mr. A. R. Wright, Dr. Gaster,
Mr. A. R. Brown, Mr. Tabor, the Rev. T. Lewis, and
Mrs. French-Sheldon took part. The meeting terminated
v»rith a hearty vote of thanks to Dr. Rivers for his
paper.

The following objects illustrative of the folklore
of Oceania were exhibited by Mr, A. R. Wright : —
Sorcerer's book from the Batta tribe (Sumatra); two
carved-wood deities and a medicine-man's silver mirror
from Nias Island ; a dugong amulet from New Guinea ;

Minutes of Meetings. 3

a charm ornament and a canoe ornament from New
Britain ; a carved fly-whisk carried as insignia by a chief,
Hervey Island (Cook's Islands ) ; a Janus-headed amulet
from Mortlock Island ; a neck ornament and necklace of
tridacne shell from Santa Cruz Island ; and internodes
of the kurman vine used in magic in Mabuiag Island
(Torres Straits).

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15tli, 1909.
The President (Miss C. S. Burne) in the Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.

The election of Mr, T. C. Hodson as a member of
the Society was announced.

The death of Mr. A. Macgregor was also announced.

Mr. A. R. Wright exhibited and described a number of
horse ornaments and amulets connected with the horse,
and gave an account of some British horse charms and
superstitions.

Mr. E. Lovett gave a lecture on " Horse Charms and
Superstitions Abroad, and the Early Legendary History
of the Horse," which was illustrated by lantern slides.

The following objects were exhibited : —

By Mr. A. R. Wright:— A collection of 76 different
brass horse ornaments from London, Winchester, and
Scarborough ; horse-shoes and horse-shoe nails used as
charms ; horse-shoe motor mascot ; Servian double boar's
tusk horse pendant ; Tibetan horse tassel ornamented by
dragons.

4 Minutes of Meetings.

By Mr. E. Lovett : — Two pairs (large and small) of
brass sea-horses fixed to gondolas, Venice ; toy horses and
chariot, carved out of single block of wood, from Vologda,
Russia.

By Mr. Tabor: — Horse trappings from Christiania.

In the discussion which followed Mr. G, L. Gomme, Dr.
Hildburgh, Mr. F. Fawcett, Mr. P. G. Thomas, Mr. Major,
Miss Broadwood, Mr. Tabor, and the President took part.

The meeting terminated with a hearty vote of thanks
to Messrs. Wright, Lovett, and Tabor for the papers and
exhibits.

Minutes of Meetings.

THE THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19th, 1910.
The President (Miss C. S. Burne) 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 1909 were duly presented, and upon
the motion of Dr. Gaster, seconded by Mr. H. B. Wheatley,
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. A. A. Gomme and the Acting Secretary were
nominated by the President as scrutineers for the Ballot.

The President then delivered her Presidential Address
on " The Value of European Folklore in the History of
Culture" (pp. 13-36), and at its conclusion a very hearty
vote of thanks to her was moved by Mr. Crooke, seconded
by Mr. Clodd, and carried with acclamation.

At the request of the President the Acting Secretary
then announced the result of the Ballot, and the following
ladies and gentlemen were declared duly elected, viz. : —

As President, Miss C. S. Burne.

As Vice-Presidents, The Hon. John Abercromby ; The
Right Hon. Lord Avebury, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S. ; Sir E.
W. Brabrook, C.B., F.S.A. ; E. Clodd, Esq. ; J. G. Frazer,
Esq., LL.D., Litt.D. ; M. Gaster, Ph.D. ; G. Laurence

6 Minutes of Meetings.

Gomme, Esq., F.S.A.; A. C. Haddon, Esq., D.Sc, F.R.S.;
E. S. Hartland, Esq., F.S.A. ; A. Lang, Esq., M.A., LL.D. ;
A. Nutt, Esq. ; Prof. Sir J. Rhys, LL.D., F.B.A., F.S.A. ;
W. H. D. Rouse, Esq., Litt.D. ; The Rev. Prof. A. H.
Sayce, M.A., LL.D., D.D. ; and Prof. E. B. Tylor, LL.D.,
F.R.S.

As Members of Council, G. Calderon, Esq. ; W. Crooke,
Esq., B.A. ; M. Longworth Dames, Esq. ; A. A. Gomme,
Esq. ; W. L. Hildburgh, Esq., Ph.D. ; T. C. Hodson, Esq. ;
Miss E. Hull ; A. W. Johnston, Esq., F.S.A.Scot. ; W. F.
Kirby, Esq. ; E. Lovett, Esq. ; A. F. Major, Esq. ; R.
R. Marett, Esq., M.A. ; W. H. R. Rivers, Esq., M.D. ;
C. G. Sehgmann, Esq., M.D. ; C. J. Tabor, Esq.; E.
Westermarck, Esq., Ph.D. ; H. B. Wheatley, Esq., F.S.A. ;
and A. R. Wright, Esq.

As Hon, Treasurer, Edward Clodd, Esq.

As Hon. Auditors, F. G. Green, Esq.; and A. W.
Johnston, Esq., F.S.A.Scot.

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

Upon the motion of Dr. W. L. Hildburgh, seconded by
Col. W. Hanna, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to
the outgoing Members of Council, Miss Eyre, the Rev.
H. N. Hutchinson, and Mr. W. W. Skeat.

The following objects were exhibited : —

By the President :— Old print of St. Oswald's Well,
Oswestry; funeral hood from Edgmond, East Salop; stones
from Woolston Well, Shropshire, supposed to be stained
by the blood of St. Winifred ; ashen faggot from Devon-
shire.

By the Rev. J. H. Brooksbank : — Photograph of pews
in Castleton Church, Derbyshire, erected at the Restora-
tion.

By Mr. W. Wells Bladen : — Views of the Horn Dance
at Abbot's Bromley, Staffordshire.

By Mr. A. R. Wright : — Bayberry candle burnt for
luck on Christmas Night, Baltimore, U.S.A.

Minutes of Meetings. 7

By Mr. E. Lovett : — Holed stones and Neolithic flint
arrowheads and celt, used as amulets in Antrim ;
belemnite " thunderbolt " from Surrey ; peasants' love
tokens of the early fifties ; fossil teeth " cramp stones,"
Whitstable ; rudely shaped " hands " of amber, Lowestoft ;
mole feet and ash-tree concretions carried as cures for
cramp, Sussex; hag-stone and sheep-bone amulet, Whitby ;
badger's snout carried as protection against mad dogs,
Minehead ; potatoes and bone ring carried against rheuma-
tism, Brandon (Suffolk) ; and various amulets for luck from
costers' barrows in North London.

THE THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF
THE COUNCIL.

The Council are glad to be able to report that the
numbers of the Society are well maintained at over 410.
Twenty new members have been elected, and five libraries
added to the roll of subscribers. But they have to announce
with regret the deaths of five members, among them that
of Mr. J. B. Andrews, who had been actively associated
with the Society since its foundation in 1878, and Mr.
A. M. T. Jackson, assistant collector at Nasik in the
Bombay Residency, who was assassinated in December
last. There have been fifteen resignations, and the
names of a few members who were in arrear with their
subscriptions have been struck off the list. The Council
again appeal for greater regularity in the payment of
subscriptions. They are informed by the Secretary that
he has found it necessary to send out more reminders
than in any previous year, and a considerable number
of subscriptions are still unpaid.

The papers read during the year have been as follows :

fan. 20. The Presidential Address. [Folk-Lore, 1909, pp. 12-31.)

Feb. 17. "Head-hunting among the Hill Tribes of Assam" (illustrated by
lantern slides). Mr. T. C. Hodson.

March 17. "The Religion of the Andaman Islanders." Mr. A. R. Brown.

April 21. "Personal Amulets (European)." Miss Lina Eckenslein.

May 19. "The Bantu Element in Swahili Folklore." Miss A. Werner.

fu7ie 16. " Folk-tales of the Lushais and their neighbours " (illustrated by
lantern slides). Lieut. -Colonel J. Shakespear.

Annual Report of the Council. 9

October 20. " Some Secret Societies and Fetishes in Africa. " Mrs. M. French-
Sheldon.

Nov. 17. "Two Notes from the Banks Islands." Dr. W. H. R. Rivers.

Dec. 15. "British Horse Ornaments and Superstitions." Mr. A. R.
Wright. "Horse Charms and Superstitions Abroad, and
the Early Legendary History of the Horse" (illustrated by
lantern slides). Mr. E. Lovett.

At the April meeting Mr. W. L. Hildburgh and Mr.
E. Lovett exhibited a number of amulets from Naples and
elsewhere ; at the June meeting, Mrs. Shakespear exhibited
and explained the use of a number of objects collected
among the hill tribes of Assam, and more particularly
the Lushais, the Manipuris, and the Hakka Chins ; at the
October meeting Mrs. French-Sheldon exhibited a number
of objects illustrating her paper, including the coat worn
by the executioner of King Prempeh of Ashanti, a fetish
cup from the Congo with head looking both Avays,
and a mask from the upper Aruwimi river; at the
November meeting Mr. A. R. Wright exhibited a
number of interesting objects from Oceania ; and at the
December meeting Mr. A. R. Wright, Mr. E. Lovett,
and Mr. C. J. Tabor exhibited a fine collection of
charms, amulets, and trappings. Other objects exhibited
during the session were two "St. Bridget's crosses" from
County Antrim by the President, and a helmet of riveted
mail covered with amulets from the field of Omdurman
by Mr. A. R. Wright.

The Council have arranged a programme of exhibits
coordinated as far as possible with the papers to be
read at each meeting, and they hope that members and
friends of the Society possessing objects of folklore
interest, and especially any bearing on the subjects of the
papers announced for reading, will offer them for exhibi-
tion. Anyone kind enough to send exhibits should
communicate with Mr. A. A. Gomme, 12 Dryden Chambers,
119 Oxford St., W., who will supply appropriate labels.

lo Annual Report of the Council.

The attendance at the evening meetings has been good.
No meeting has been crowded, but the room has been
often quite full. The papers illustrated by lantern slides
have, as usual, proved the most attractive.

A list of additions to the library will be found appended
to the minutes of the June meeting {Folk-Lore, 1909,
p. 386).

The Society has issued during the year the 20th volume
of Folk-Lore. In their last report the Council were
unable to announce who would succeed Miss Burne as
Editor of the journal. They have been so fortunate as
to secure the services of Mr. A. R. Wright, under whose
able editorship in collaboration with Mr. Crooke this
volume has been produced. The Council have also to
thank Mr. Wright for the service he has so ungrudgingly
rendered to the Society in compiling the Index.

The Annual Bibliography for the year 1908, compiled in
accordance with the arrangement made with the Council
of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1907, is in
course of preparation, and will be issued during the
coming year.

The additional volume for 1908, the collection of
Lincolnshire Folklore from Printed Sources, by Miss M.
Peacock and Mrs. Gutch, has been issued. The additional
volumes for 1909 and 1910 will be Primitive Paternity,
Parts I. and II., by Mr. E. S. Hartland. Part I. is nearly
ready, and Part II. will, it is expected, be issued before
June.

For many years past there has been a growing demand
for another edition of The Handbook of Folklore, the first
edition of which has long been out of print. The Council
are glad to be able to announce that the President has
undertaken to prepare a revised edition of the book, and
that substantial progress has already been made with the
work. The Council have not yet decided upon what
terms the book will be issued to members and subscribers.

Annual Report of the Council. 1 1

The meeting of the Congress of Archaeological Societies
was held as usual in July, and was attended by Dr.
Gaster and Mr. Longworth Dames as delegates from the
Society.

The Society was represented at the meeting of the
British Association at Winnipeg by Mr. E. S. Hartland
and Professor J. L. Myres,

The Council regret to announce that four-fifths of the
Society's stock of bound and unbound volumes were
damaged by water during a fire which took place early in
October at the warehouse in Little Guildford Street, South-
wark, in the basement of which it was stored. The stock
was insured in the Westminster Fire Office for ;£'i500, and
Mr. C. J. Tabor kindly undertook on behalf of the Society
the negotiations for the settlement of its claim against
the Office. The claim was finally settled for ;^iioo
and the whole of the salvage. The sincere thanks of the
Council are due to Mr. Tabor for his exertions, and
the Society is to be congratulated on the successful result
arrived at.

The Council submit herewith the annual Accounts and
Balance Sheet duly audited.

Charlotte S. Burne,

President, 1909.

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PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

The Value of European Folklore in the History
OF Culture.

This is, to the best of my belief, the first time, — at all
events in the Old World, — that the duty of delivering the
Annual Presidential Address to a learned Society has been
entrusted to a woman. I am old-fashioned enough to feel
considerable diffidence in occupying a position of so much
responsibility, and one which has previously been filled by
so many of greater note. But I regard the honour you
have done me in placing me in this chair less as a compli-
ment to myself individually, than as one to my sex in
my person. I look on it as another pleasant token of the
manner in which a generation brought up under the sove-
reignty of a woman has learnt to appreciate woman's help
and counsel. So I am going to speak out frankly, knowing
that whatever I may say will receive serious consideration
at your hands.

Over thirty years, — the lifetime of a generation, — have
elapsed since our Society was founded. The Report that
is presented to you to-night is our thirty-second : one can
hardly realise the different conditions that prevailed when
we issued our first, — the different position then held by all
anthropological study, and especially by studies bearing
on Religion and Sociology. The patriarchal theory pre-
vailed in Sociology, and the sun-myth, disease-of-language
theory in the sphere of Mythology and Religion. We had

Presidential Address. 15

Pri^nitive Culture and the Early History of Mankind to set
our faces in the right direction, our feet in the right path.
But Custom and Myth did not appear till 1884, Myth,
Ritual, and Religion till 1887, the Golden Bough only in
1890, the Science of Fairy Tales in the same year, and the
Legend of Perseus not till 1895. There was all the charm
of the discoverer about those early days, twenty and thirty
years ago, and perhaps we who groped our way through
them need not altogether envy the highly-trained and
carefully-instructed young students of the present.

Discussions in the Folk-Lore fournalxn 1885-87 led to
the delimitation of the scope of the study of folklore. The
boundary was drawn in accordance with Mr. Thoms's
original coinage of the word, to /wclude all branches of
"folk's learning,"— all that concerns the intellectual and
social life of the folk,— and to ^;irclude arts and crafts,—
" technology," as they now begin to be called. In 1890 the
Handbook of Folklore set forth a simple and practical
scheme of work and study, framed on this principle, and
the next year, 1891, saw the gathering of a Congress of
Folklorists in London. This not only brought the Folk-
Lore Society into closer touch with students in America
and on the Continent of Europe, but also, as I must
believe, brought home to the minds of English scholars in
general the fact that here was a definite subject of study,
hitherto neglected, and worthy of their serious attention.

One very practical outcome of the Congress was to
establish, beyond dispute, the importance and interest of
children's games, a bit of woman's work on which I may
be permitted for a moment to dwell. A young woman
from the specially musical parish of Madeley, in Shrop-
shire, went to live as nurse in the family of my sister in
Derbyshire. She had a large repertory of singing-games,
some of which she taught to her charges. My sister, who
was continually under the necessity of organising parish
festivities, caused the maid to teach her games to some of

1 6 Presidential Address.

the village children for performance at one of these enter-
tainments, and the result was a great success. Mrs.
Gomme, hearing of this from me, took up the idea with
characteristic energy, trained a party of children at Barnes
(teaching them games from other places in addition to those
they already knew), overcame the anxieties of the Com-
mittee of the Congress, who sent a solemn deputation
down to Barnes to inspect and report on her doings, and,
finally, when the games were performed at the conver-
sazione, she had the success of the Congress. Following
it up, she compiled the Dictiotiary of British Traditional
Games, which must always rank beside Strutt's Sports and
Pastimes as a standard work on the subject with which
they both deal. How the revival of traditional games
and dances has progressed since its appearance we all
know.

Perhaps nothing has done more to bring home to us the
reality and importance of the phenomenon of " Survival in
Culture " than have that little Handbook and those childish
games. It is pleasant to reflect that these two foundation-
stones were laid by a man and a woman working in
partnership, a husband and wife, the founders of our
Society, Mr. and Mrs. G. Laurence Gomme.

In the twenty years that have passed since then, the
claims of the early history of culture on the attention of
anthropologists have gained general recognition, and the
study has advanced all along the line. The older Univer-
sities have taken it up, each 7nore stio. Cambridge, the
scientific, has sent out exploring expeditions commissioned
to report not only on physical anthropology and tech-
nology, but on the " manners and customs of the natives,"
chronicled with a thoroughness and exactitude never
attempted before. The whole standard of scientific re-
search in the fields of ethnology and culture has been raised
by the work of the Cambridge explorers. Oxford, the
philosophic, approached the study of culture from the side

Presidential Address. 17

of the philosophy of religion, and, coming to perceive that
systems of religion cannot be studied apart from culture,
nor culture from anthropology as a whole, she has insti-
tuted a diploma in anthropology, and has succeeded in
awakening a real interest in the subject among the young
men from whose ranks the future rulers of the native
races of the British Empire are likely to be drawn. Of
the younger Universities, London has established two
Professorships of Sociology and a Lectureship of Ethno-
logy, and Liverpool a Chair of Social Anthropology. The
names differ, but the early stages of the history of culture
are dealt with under them all.

In other quarters, the barrier once existing between
students of physical anthropology and students of culture
may now be said to have been thoroughly broken down.
The Royal Anthropological Institute has silently and
gradually enlarged its borders, and now welcomes cultural
studies as freely as the physical or technological work
which used to be its chief concern. It has progressed by
leaps and bounds, and has become a centre of influence,
a voice to be listened to, a power not to be disregarded.

Of the progress made in exploration by America and
Australia, of the societies founded and the important works
produced on the Continent of Europe, I will not now stay
to speak. I have said enough to show the difference of our
circumstances to-day from those of thirty years ago.

The change being so great, — the phenomenon of savage
survivals in culture established, the position of the history
and development of culture as an integral part of anthro-
pology vindicated, and the claims of anthropology as a
subject of study recognized by the Universities, — the
question has naturally been more than once asked, — Is
there any further need for the Folk-Lore Society? Has it
not done its work .'' How can it now justify its existence
as a separate organization .'' It is to these questions that
I propose to address myself to-night. Sundry criticisms of

1 8 Presidential Address.

our methods of study which begin to make themselves
heard will, I think, help to determine the answer.

For here and there it is whispered that our progress is
not altogether sound. Voices from across the Channel
begin to murmur that English anthropologists are going too
fast. Ten years ago Monsieur Henri Hubert ^ warned us
against trying to discover the origins of traditional rites
before we have ascertained the laws which govern them;
in other words, against attempting to go direct to the
source and omitting the intermediate history. Others,
even among ourselves, tell us that we are proceeding on
wrong methods, comparing recklessly, pulling up " items "
of folklore by the roots to set them beside other items,
similarly uprooted, from other social systems and other
stages of culture. More discrimination, they say, is
needed, more close examination of definite areas, more
study of variations, and more enquiry into causes. The
complaint against us amounts to this, — that we pay too
much attention to similarities, and not enough to differ-
ences, and, further, that we confine our attention to the
incident, ceremony, or saying itself, without taking en-
vironment into consideration. The following seems to be
a case in point: —

In 1902, a correspondent writing to Folk- Lore (xiii.,
p. 171) recorded an Oxfordshire proverbial saying applied
to a lazy man in the hayfield or harvest-field, or to "one
as wouldn't work," viz. — " He's got the little white dog."
On the strength of parallel expressions used in the north-
east of France, he hastily added this saying to the vast
memorial cairn of folklore erected to the honour of the
Corn-spirit. But take the environment into consideration.
This is one of the obscurely-worded metaphorical sayings
in which country people delight. The metaphor is one of
disease. " He's got the little white dog," — as if it had
been, he has got the yellow janders, the brown typhus, the

^ VAnnee Sociologique, 1900, reviewing A. F. Scot, Offering and Sacrifice.

Presidential Address. 19

Harry's slippers, the wolf, or any other of the occult
diseases the folk tell you that their friends are suffering
from. What malady could be likened to, or symbolized
by, a little white dog ? Well, what place does the actual
little white dog hold in the economy of English agricultural
life ? I say nothing about French country life, because I
have no acquaintance with it ; but in an old-fashioned
English farmhouse the only creature that is not kept for
profit is the little white dog. There are no pet animals, no
tame rabbits, white mice, or canaries, — no sporting-dogs,
because there is (or was) no sport. The sheep-dog, if
there is one, and the big house-dog tied up in the yard
both have their uses and duties. They " earn their living,"
as the people say. Only the little white terrier has no
duties or responsibilities, and may play about all day long
at his own sweet will. What he typifies is idleness. He is
a "lazy dog," and the man who has "got" him is the one
who has been infected by his laziness. This is sufficiently
shown by the parallel expression given by the country
informant in explanation, — " the Lawrence has got him," —
" Lazy Lawrence," the personification of the idle fellow.

(Even since these lines were written, a country-woman
incidentally said to me, a propos of a license for a pet
dog, — " It's waste of money, ma'am, for 'e don't earn 'is
living." This casual remark in itself shows the point of
view from which the " little dog " is regarded.)

I cannot put the whole matter better than it has been
put by Mr. Gomme : ^ — " Similarity in form does not
necessarily imply similarity in origin. It does not mean
similarity in motive. Customs and rites which are alike
in practice can be shown to have originated from quite
different causes, to express quite different motives, and
cannot, therefore, be held to belong to a common class, the
elements of which are comparable." In evidence of this
he adduces the custom of the inheritance of the youngest

^ Folklore as an Historical Science, p. 171.

20 Presidential Address.

son. In Europe this appears to arise from migration, from
the Teutonic fashion of letting the adult sons go out into
the world to found families elsewhere, so that the youngest,
remaining longest at home, was naturally the one who
inherited the paternal homestead. But in South Africa
the inheritance of younger sons, where it occurs, is due to
polygamy and wife-purchase. In the struggling days of
his youth a man cannot always afford to give much for
a wife, and the " great " or chief wife, whose son will be
his successor, may not be acquired till, in his mature and
prosperous years, his means and position enable him to
look higher for an alliance. In such a case, the younger
children inherit before their elder brethren, the sons of her
humbler predecessors. Thus a superficial likeness of effect
may be produced by two entirely distinct causes.^

How important it is to study differences as well as
likenesses, history as well as environment, I shall now
endeavour to show by an examination of some annual
customs still observed in England.

In 190 1 Mr. S. O. Addy published in Folk-Lore (vol. xii.,
p. 394) a detailed and very interesting account of a May
festival, celebrated at Castleton in the Peak of Derbyshire,
and known by the name of " Garland Day." On the 29th
of May in each year, the bellringers of Castleton make an
enormous " garland " of flowers, which is carried round the
village on the head and shoulders of a man on horseback,
in costume, accompanied by a band playing a special
traditional air and followed by a party of morris-dancers,
while another man on horseback, dressed in woman's
clothes, brings up the rear. After perambulating the place,
they hoist the garland to the top of the church-tower, and
fix it on one of the pinnacles. The day is kept as a
general holiday. The dancers now are girls, dressed in
white and carrying wands adorned with ribbon streamers,
but formerly they were men, and it is remembered that the

'^ Ibid., citing tiie Rev. James Macdonald in Folk-Lore, vol. iii., 33S, q.v.

Presidential Address. 21

ringers themselves used once to perform the dance, and
also that a man with a " besom " (broom) used to lead
the procession, sweeping the crowd out of the way. The
villagers call the riders the King and Queen, but the
ringers themselves speak of " the man that carries the
garland " and " the lady." The "■ garland " is neither a
simple wreath or circlet, nor the combination of transverse
circles which is the ordinary form of May-garland in Eng-
land. It is a dome-shaped crown with seven arches, and
the apex is formed by a nosegay called the " queen " (or
"quane"), of which more anon. The crown is so large that
it covers the wearer down to the hips as he sits on horse-
back. His appearance naturally suggested to Mr, Addy
a comparison with the German spring-festivals, in which a
" Grass-King," or " Green George," or other such character,
is escorted round the town or district encased in a covering
of leaves and branches.

Now dressing up a man in greenery is not the usual
type of May-celebration in England, except among the
chimney-sweeps. Nor is it common to the whole of the
Peak district. Far from that, May Day is there observed
only by the most conservative part of the population, the
children, who keep it in the characteristic old English
fashion, by setting up a Maypole and dancing round it,
(cf. Folk- Lore, vol. xvi., p. 461); and, whether the 29th of
May is observed or the ist, it is kept in the same way, and
by the children only. Why should Castleton differ from
its neighbours, and why should its festival resemble a
German rather than an English rite ? Is there anything
in the circumstances of the place to account for these
peculiarities .''

We may reasonably look for traces of extreme antiquity
in the folklore of the Peak District. The evidence of
barrows, roads, and other remains shows that it was
already inhabited in Roman and even in pre-Roman times,
and it seems to have retained a continuous existence

22 Presidential Address.

through the Saxon and Danish invasions, for the inhabi-
tants at that time are always spoken of as a distinct
people, — the Pec-saetas, or dwellers in the Peak. But, as
it is obvious that we have to do with a case of the
transference of a festival from one date to another (May
1st to May 29th), we must begin by enquiring into the
circumstances of the locality at the time of the change.

The 29th of May was, as we all know, made a public
holiday by Act of Parliament in 1660 (12 Car. II.), in
memory of the restoration of the monarchy. A special
service was provided for it in the Prayer Book of 1662.
But the day does not appear to have been universally or
even generally observed.

Derbyshire took the side of the Parliament during the
Civil Wars. That is to say, the county town was
garrisoned for the Parliament, and overawed the surrounding
country, but the miners of " Derby hills so free " cared
little for the opinion of the county town. They were a
rough and independent folk, accustomed (as Mr. Addy
shows) to manage their own affairs and fight out their
own quarrels. Within living memory fights were arranged
between neighbouring villages, traditional taunts were
exchanged, and visitors to the rival "wakes" were
" aggravated " and insulted. The king stood in a special
relation to them. As Duke of Lancaster he was Lord
of the Peak, — their landlord as well as their sovereign ;
and there is plenty of evidence that Derbyshire men
leaned for the most part to the Royalist side. They
mustered 300 horse to fight for Charles I. at Tissington
just before Naseby ; they rioted for Charles 11. in Derby
streets under Richard Cromwell. In religious matters
too, the Peaklanders were accustomed to act for them-
selves. Not ten years before the outbreak of the
Rebellion the parishioners of Castleton built a district
church in the parish, and retained the right of patronage
in their own hands. At Chapel-en-le-Frith (or Forest) the

Presidential Address. 23

freeholders were the patrons. They presented a Royalist
to the living in 1648. A few years later, under Cromwell,
Peak Forest Chapel was built, and was dedicated to King
Charles the Martyr, — one out of only four such dedications
in England. Such was the state of popular feeling in the
Peak at the eve of the Restoration.

Anxious to find out something of the circumstances of
Castleton parish itself at the time, I paid a visit to the
place last summer. It is a little, old, decayed market town,
overlooked by the ruins of the famous Castle of the Peak.
The lines of a rampart that surrounded the town and con-
nected it with the fortifications of the castle may still be
traced. The houses are built close together, — on the waste
of the manor, I was told, — without gardens. They line
rectangular streets that remind one of Winchelsea, and
suggest definite "town-planning."^ The place is situated
on level ground at the farther end of one of the highest
dales of the Peak, at the spot where the valley becomes a
pass. Two miles below it, at the mouth of the dale, is
Hope, a village of which the local proverb says, — " There's
many a one lives in Hope as never saw Castleton," so
little ' through traffic ' is there in the valley. The present
vicar, the Rev. J. H. Brooksbank, received me with the
utmost kindness. He is deeply interested in the local
history, and from the parish registers and other data in
his possession I obtained the information I wanted.

Through all the ups and downs of the period the
Reverend Samuel Cryer was vicar of Castleton. Ap-
pointed in 1644^ by I know not whom, (the patronage was
in the hands of the Bishops of Chester), the Parliamentary
Commissioners found him there in 1650, and left him in
possession. He was re-instituted on the eve of " Black
Bartholomew" in 1662, and died vicar under William and
Mary, in 1697, after fifty-three years' unbroken ministry.
Such a length of time could hardly help leaving some

*See Note I., infra. ^j^g year of Marston Moor.

24 Presidential Address.

trace of his personality in the parish, and, in fact, the
present vicarage-house, a building of the seventeenth cen-
tury, is still called Cryer House. That he and his people
welcomed the Restoration we may feel sure, for on its
accomplishment the re-pewing of the church was immedi-
ately taken in hand. It was filled with fine carved oak
pews with book-rests and wooden candlesticks, and holes
in them to receive the sprigs of holly with which it is still
decorated by the ringers at Christmas. Mr. Cryer's own
pew bears his name in full, and the date 1661. Other
initialled pews are dated 1662 and 1663. Wood-carving
was a local trade, and these pews must have been carved
in the village, for the special pattern favoured by the
Castleton people occurs on them. (The last old wood-
carver, who died only last year, so Mr, Brooksbank informed
me, would not have used a Hope pattern.)

Now it is of course open to anyone to call Mr. Cryer a
Vicar of Bray,*^ but it may equally well be maintained that
to live peaceably with all parties through such troublous
times implies the possession of no little tact and judgment
and power of conciliation, and I suggest that to this we
owe the institution of the Castleton Garland in its present
form. The principles of a Church-and-King man of the
seventeenth century were in favour of public sports and
holidays, and we know from the evidence of the pews that
Mr. Cryer and his parishioners pulled together in Church
matters. But, even if his own principles allowed him to
countenance a complete revival of the May-games pro-
hibited under the Commonwealth, a prudent man would
not give offence to Puritan neighbours or visitors by
restoring that " stinckyng ydoll," the Maypole, with the
rowdy expeditions to "bring it home," and the dancing of
both sexes about it, to which they took such exception
So the whole festival is turned into a loyal celebration of

^One who "whatsoever King might reign would still be Vicar of Eray,
Sir ! »

Presidential Address. 25.

the restoration of " Church and King." Instead of the old
garlands adorning the Maypole on May Day, a floral
crown is hoisted to the steeple on the new authorised
holiday. The dancing is decorously performed by skilled
and selected dancers. Women take no part in it, (though
children have lately begun to do so), and the whole affair
is carried out by responsible Church officials, the ringers,
whose beloved bells the Puritans would have silenced.
The thirty-seven years which Mr. Cryer's incumbency
lasted after the Restoration would be long enough to
allow his reforms to take root. Before his death a new
generation would have grown up to whom the reorganized
festival would seem part of the natural order of things,
and the ringers, who were responsible for it, would have
begun to keep it up as a matter of course. It is thus
that I would account for the peculiar features of the
Castleton Garland Day. Its resemblance to the German
spring festivals seems to me to be merely accidental.

Two points in the rite seem to be survivals from the
older May festival. First, the man in woman's clothes,
who can be no Queen of England, nor of the May. Her
crown is a recent innovation ; she used to wear a bonnet,
and "the oldest shawl that could be found;" and her
place is not beside the " King," but at the fag-end of the
procession. She is, in fact, that mysterious, but invariable,
attendant on the morris-dance, the " Molly " or " Bessy."
Second, the nosegay, or "queen," which surmounts the
garland, which, before it is hoisted, is taken off and pre-
sented to a woman, the latest comer to the parish ;'' just as
the harvest-queen, harvest-dolly, or kern-baby is presented
to the mistress of the farm. From what dim background
of antiquity, from what primitive stages of society, these
two features descend, I will not attempt to decide. But the
point I want to emphasise is this, that local peculiarities

^So Mr. Brooksbanktellsme: the point escaped Mr.Addy. The "queen" was
given to Mrs. Brooksbank in the first year of her residence at Castleton, 1904.

26 Presidential Address.

should be observed and possible local reasons enquired
into, before parallels are sought for farther afield.

To take another example, — the Horn Dance at Abbot's
Bromley in Staffordshire takes place every year on the
Monday after September 4th.^ Six men carrying horns, —
reindeers horns, — and accompanied by a hobby-horse and
a man carrying a cross-bow, and also (as usual) by a fool
and a man in woman's clothing, dance a morris-dance in
the streets of the town, and before the principal houses
in the neighbourhood, after which money is collected from
the spectators in an ancient wooden ladle. The " proper-
ties,"— horns, hobby-horse, cross-bow, and ladle, — are kept in
the church tower from year to year. (The present leader, or,
as they call him, the " father " of the band, is a man named
Bentley. It gives an idea of the unchanging ways of the
place to learn that a Bentley is entered as Constable of
Abbot's Bromley in the Muster Roll of Henry VIII., 1539.)

The first notice we have of this dance is from Dr. Plot,
the historian of Staffordshire, who wrote in 1686. In his
time the horns were painted with the arms of the lords of
the three manors included in the parish. He adds this
curious information, — " To this Hobby Horse dance there
also belong'd a Pot, which was kept by Turnes by ^ or ^ of
the cheif of the Town, whom they calVd Reeves, who
provided Cakes and Ale to put in this pot." Every house-
holder contributed " pence a piece " to the expenses, and
the fund raised by this means and by the contribution of
" forraigners that came to see it " was applied to the repair
of the church and the relief of the poor ; in other words, it
supplied the place of church-rate and poor-rate.^

^ The date is now popularly supposed to be that of the Wake or Dedication
Feast, but is noted in the Staffordshire Directory of 1861 as being that of the
local fair. Henry III. granted the Abbots of Burton a fair at Abbot's Bromley
on the Eve, Day, and Morrow of St. Bartholomew (August 24th). This is
doubtless the same fair, reckoning the date by Old Style. The dedication of
the Church is St. Nicholas (December 6th).

»See Note III., infra.

Presidential Address. 27

I first drew attention to this performance in 1896
{Folk-Lore, vol. vii., p. 382), and at once a comparison was
made between it and the Buffalo Dances of the North
American Indians, and the suggestion was advanced that
it must have had a magical import, and have been primarily
intended to secure success in hunting. I myself supposed
that it was a mock hunt, probably instituted to com-
memorate some right of the chase, some privilege of
annual hunting in the preserves of the lord of the manor,
or the like. I was wrong. But, before giving you the
evidence lately brought to light, I must say something
about the locality itself. The parish consists of two town-
ships, Abbot's Bromley itself, and Bromley Hurst (or
wood), together with the extra-parochial liberty of Bagot's
Bromley.^*' It lies a little to the north of the Trent on the
banks of its tributary the Blythe, hemmed in on the further
side by Needwood Forest. There is no trace of any pre-
Saxon, or rather pre-Anglian occupation, and the name
Bromley, the broomy ley, or pasture, seems to indicate that
the Anglian settlers of the seventh century, or thereabouts,
found it an open space covered with nothing higher than
brushwood. (The oaks of Needwood were famous ; some
still remain.) We first hear of the place in 1002, in the
midst of the worst time of the Danish invasions. In that
year Wulfric, surnamed Spot, Ealdorman of Mercia, gave
it to his new foundation of the Benedictine Abbey of
Burton-on-Trent. Up to that time it must, like most of
the surrounding district, have formed part of the posses-

1" Bagot's Bromley is first mentioned in the twelfth century, when it was
already the property of the lineal ancestor of Lord Bagot, the present owner.
It contains a woodland tract of some 1200 acres, called Bagot's Park, probably
already enclosed from Needwood Forest in the same century and preserving its
natural features untouched. In it are some wonderful old oaks, (among them
the Beggar's Oak, under which tradition says any beggar has a right to a night's
lodging), a herd of deer, and a herd of wild goats, on the preservation of which
the existence of the Bagot family is popularly supposed to depend. They are
said to have been given by King John to the Bagot of his day.

28 Presidential Address.

sions of the Ealdormanship, and before that no doubt of
the Mercian kings. It continued to belong to the Abbey
till the Dissolution, when it passed to the Paget family,
ancestors of the present Marquis of Anglesey, who is still
Lord of the Manor of Abbot's Bromley itself.

My nephew, Mr. S. A. H. Burne, following the lead of
his father's sister as dutifully as if he had been a native
of the Banks' Islands,i^ determined to go further into the
history of the place, and what I have now to tell you is the
result of his investigations.

The Chartulary of Burton Abbey contains a document
drawn up circa 1125, in the reign of Henry I,, from which
it appears that the rents of the manor of Abbot's Bromley
were then farmed by five men, — Aisulf the Priest, Godwin,
Bristoald, Leuric, and Orm, — but the wood the Abbot kept
in his own hands. He also received three shillings rent from
Edric the Forester. The " wood " referred to is evidently the
township of Bromley Hurst, and the " five men " must be the
predecessors of the " 4 or 5 of the cheif of the Town, whom
they call'd Reeves," of Plot's account. I need not remind
you that the Reeve was the ancient elected headman and
representative of the township, as the Sheriff (shire-reeve)
was of the county. But this is not all. A postcript in
another hand follows this entry. It may be translated
thus : — " Nevertheless, later on, Edric ceased to make this
payment, and on their petition the Abbot granted to them
his enclosures {Jtayes) with the grazing thereof to feed
their cattle on, at a rent of lOs. per annum, and they" {i.e.
the tenants) " acknowledge themselves to be the foresters
and keepers of the woods {forestarii et custodes silvariim)."

I will give my nephew's conclusions in his own words.
" If this means anything, it means that the Abbot relieved
his tenants at Abbot's Bromley from the unwelcome
presence of the forester, and allowed them, for a con-
sideration, the grazing in his "hayes," which were small
^^ See infra, p. 42.

Presidential Address. 29

parks. But he still had the right of hunting, and these
five men mentioned above undertook to safeguard his
rights in this respect. (The Abbot seems to have held
the modern belief that no gamekeeper is as good as an
old poacher !) "

"The substitution of themselves for Edric would be a
great gain for the tenants. They evidently recognized it
to be so. Not only would the absence of a troublesome
official be a matter for congratulation, but the recognized
forester's perquisites, — such as dead wood, windfalls, and
an occasional deer, — would be regarded as worth having.
The more one looks into the economy of a forest manor
such as this, the more clear is it that this concession of
the Abbot's was one to which the villeins would cling
most tenaciously. Now a parade, or, in modern termino-
logy, *a demonstration,' was in the Middle Ages the
recognized way of asserting and keeping alive privileges
and customs. I believe the Horn Dance served this
purpose. No doubt from time to time the Abbots sought
to detract from their predecessor's grant, and the villagers
took themselves horns, — the natural emblem of a forester, —
and paraded the village every year in assertion of their
right to be themselves ' forestarii et custodes silvarum.' " ^^

I think there can be little doubt that it was in fact this
feature of the local economic system that led to the
institution of the local Horn Dance. But to every
beginning there is a yet earlier beginning, and if anyone
should maintain that the reindeers' horns, — for reindeers'
horns they are beyond dispute, — came to Abbot's Bromley
up the Trent and the Blythe in Viking galleys from the
far north, I should not have a word to say to the contrary.
Nor will I venture even to guess what memories of elk-
hunts in the snow, of earlier dramatic dances and disguises,

^^S. A. H. Burne, Transactions North Staffs. Field Club, 1908-9, p. 143.
Not impossibly, in King Stephen's time, they had some difficulty in getting
their rights acknowledged by the defaulter Edric.

30 Presidential Address.

may have crossed the seas with them. But that any more
direct relationship than this can have existed between a
rite practised by a settled agricultural and pastoral people ^^
and one practised by nomadic tribes of hunters, can hardly,
I think, be maintained.

One more example, of a more general kind. I mean
the annual hunts of creatures not usually killed, either for
food or for sport. These at once suggest the idea of
totemism to the folklorist mind, and, in the case of
Hunting the Wren on St. Stephen's Day, I would not
attempt to contest the point. That custom is confined
to the " Celtic fringe " of our islands, the parts where
invasions have been fewest, where the oldest existing
stocks of the population are to be found, and where, if
anywhere, totemism may be supposed once to have
flourished. But the annual hunts of owls and squirrels
noted in various parts of England (and included by Mr.
N. W. Thomas among relics of totemism, Folk-Lore, voL
xi., p. 250), differ from the wren-hunt in several important
points. The species of creature hunted is not held
specially sacred at other times, the dead body of the
victim is not the subject of any subsequent rite, and the
pursuit (wherever any definite details are forthcoming),
is carried on in some particular spot, not visited or
accessible on other occasions. The likeness to the wren-
hunt is in fact only the superficial one of the annual
recurrence of the chase.

The origin of the squirrel-hunt must be looked for, I
think, in the hi.story of enclosures. From the time of the
Statute of Merton in 1235, which empowered the lords of
manors to enclose the waste lands of their manors, down
to the final settlement come to by the local Enclosure
Acts of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the
question of enclosures was a source of chronic dispute and

^^ Cattle pastures were a special feature of Needwood Forest at the time of
Domesday, and remain so to this day.

Presidential Address. 31

litigation in practically every parish in England. The
Assize Rolls of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
teem with actions for trespass, for thefts of wood from
parks, or fish from ponds, in reply to which the offenders
pleaded ancient customary rights. The records of the
Privy Council in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
are full of petitions containing complaints and counter-
complaints of illegal enclosure and illegal fence-breaking ;
when the incensed owners, like Justice Shallow, "made a
Star Chamber matter of it," Often it is plain that the
invasion of private enclosures was made simply for the
purpose of testing or asserting a customary right of
common. Now this, I submit, was the probable object
of the owl and squirrel hunts. Observe that the incursions
are not undertaken in pursuit of game birds or beasts.
That would have rendered the hunters amenable to the
game-law or forest-law. The quarry is worthless when
captured, and nothing is recorded of its eventual fate.
But the annual entry of a crowd into an enclosed park
would be sufficient to prevent any customary right-of-way
from lapsing. Conversely, owners of private roads some-
times still lock their gates once a year, to prevent a
right-of-way from being acquired,^*

It is in this way that I would explain the Good Friday
squirrel-hunt in Shervage Wood, on the slope of the Quan-
tock Hills {Folk-Lore, vol. xix., p, 41), and the similar hunt
at the November Wake by Duffield men in Kedleston Park,
enclosed no one knows when or by what authority from
the Forest of Duffield Frith, In the latter case the raiders
were accompanied by "rough music," — clanging of pots and
pans, as in that well-known form of popular legal demon-
stration, "riding the stang," {Folk-Lore, vol, xiv., p. 185.)

i-* A particular date is often chosen for this. An old gentleman in Cheshire,
who died in i8 — , always locked his gates on All Fools' Day, April ist. I
have myself been stopped on New Year's Day by a locked gate, in Shropshire.
Staple Inn in London is always closed to casual wayfarers on Ascension Day.

32 Presidential Address.

With these, I think, should be classed the septennial
"Whitsuntide Ale held at the entrance to Blenheim Park.
Here the surrounding district was nominally subject to
forest law (as part of Wychwood Forest), as late as 1704,
and the object of the festival is expressly said to have been
a right-of-way. If it were not kept up, so the people said,
a turnpike could be put up across the road from Woodstock
to Bladon, which, they declare, was actually done as
soon as it was discontinued. The people "claimed certain
portions of wood from Wychwood Forest for use on the
occasion," and the owner of the park, the Duke of
Marlborough, provided a Maypole, and evergreens for
the " Bowery," or open shed, erected for the sports. From
the roof of this shed were hung two cages containing an
owl and a hawk, which were supposed to be the pets of
the burlesque " lady " of the feast, but it is not stated how
they were procured. Burlesque ceremonies resembling
the "Mock Mayor" rites were practised with regard to
them, and the festival included a procession, morris-
dancing, festival cakes, and other details into which I
cannot now enter, {Folk-Lore, vol. xiv., pp. 171-75).

No one, I think, will accuse me of wishing to under-
value survivals, but it is needful to distinguish between
one survival and another, between survivals from mediseval
days and survivals from totemic days, between local
variations and radical differences. It is the possibility of
doing this that constitutes the special value and import-
ance of European (and Oriental) folklore, as compared
with that of peoples which have no recorded history.

We may ask, (as was asked at a recent meeting), why a
given people should change from the matrilineal to the
patrilineal method of reckoning descent, what are the
causes of the varying forms assumed by totemism in
different countries (as numerous in Melanesia as the
variants of Cinderella or as the islands of the South Seas),
why it should flourish in one place and die out in another.

Presidential Adaress. 33

and so on. But in such cases we can do little more than
speculate on the external influences, the psychological
ideas, which may from time to time have caused change,
development, decay, or survival of belief or custom. On
the other hand, where historical records are forthcoming,
we can go a good way towards actually ascertaining these
things. We can say with tolerable confidence that the
special form of the May festival at Castleton was caused
by the political leanings of the people and the special
idiosyncrasy of their clerical guide, at a time of political
and religious stress ; that the special form and continued
existence of the morris dance at Abbot's Bromley is due
to the local form of land tenure ; that the effect of cen-
turies of struggle between communal and individual rights
in land may be traced in the jealous maintenance of
perfectly useless privileges which takes shape in the
squirrel-hunts. The analogy of this and other such evi-
dence should assist our judgment as to the varied forms
assumed by the institutions of savagery. Thirty years
ago, we studied savage customs to explain European
survivals; now we need to study European survivals to
understand the developments of savage customs.

This is a point which I do not think has hitherto been
sufficiently recognized. Sociology is the coming study
of the immediate future, but sociologists seem not yet to
realize that European folklore is the missing link, the
bridge over the gulf, between savagery on one side and
culture on the other. As was feelingly observed in my
hearing not long ago, it is a far cry from the slums of
East London to the Australian marriage system, and it
is difficult to get young sociologists, eager to remedy
the evils of the former, to spend time and patience in
mastering the intricacies of the latter. The folklore
of Europe shows the bearing of the one branch of study
on the other, if only it is considered, not as a set of
barren facts, but as the rungs of the ladder by which we

34 Presidential Address.

have climbed, the landmarks of the successive stages
through which we have passed, to reach our present
level, a level to which others have yet to ascend.

The preference of savage to European folklore has also,
as it seems to me, affected the progress of anthropology
among classical students. The classical scholar, standing
amazed before the spectacle of a civilization such as in
some respects has never since been equalled, recoils from
a comparison between the philosophers, the poets, the
legislators, the empire-builders, to whom he looks up with
veneration, and the half-naked savages of Australia or
New Guinea. But to compare their actions with such
"last infirmities of noble minds" as Lord Bacon "salving
the weapon and not the wound," or Dr. Johnson touching
every post as he passed, might not seem to them so bizarre
and irreverent.

Yet what body, what organization in England, outside
our own, takes more than a passing cognizance of such
matters .-' Much is being done in the way of direct study
of the rudimentary culture of the lower races, little in the
study of the folk-learning of the more advanced. Yet the
latter, as I have tried to show, is needful in the best
interests of the former.

And herein lies the answer to the question with which
I set out : — How can the Folk-Lore Society justify its con-
tinued existence ? What is now its proper sphere .'' This
field of labour is ours to go in and occupy. No one
disputes it with us. Let us enter in and possess it.

Hitherto we have generalized, have taken up work now
in this direction and now in that. " The pages oi Folk- Lore"
as one of the Council remarked the other day, " are strewn
with the debris of abandoned projects." This is inevitable
in the vague and formless period of beginnings. Experi-
ments must be tried, and attempts be made, now in this
direction, now in that. Some will prove failures ; some,
too successful, will be taken up by others better equipped

Presidential Address. 35

for the task. Only gradually does the right path unfold
itself Now, after the unorganized labour of a whole
generation, the time for concentration of energies has come,
for concentration on the methodical study of the folklore
of our own country,

I do not appeal to the dilettante, nor even to the local
antiquary. I appeal to the serious anthropologist, the
sociologist, the philosopher, the historian of culture. The
French, led by Monsieur Sebillot, have already gathered
and synthetized the folklore of France ; most of the
principal countries of Europe have formed schemes and
societies for dealing with theirs; what has been done in
thirty years for the folklore of Great Britain ? Henderson's
Northern Coimties, two volumes of reprints of Denham's
Tracts^ six of collected passages from other works, relating
to as many English counties, one dealing with the Orkney
and Shetland Islands, Dr. Maclagan's and Dr. Gregor's
collections in the Highlands, ten or twelve articles in the
Journal on English county folklore, a few on Scottish, and
five or six on Irish, and a few studies of single customs.
Independently of the Society, Wales is now fairly well
represented, projects are mooted for further work in
Ireland, and Mrs. Leather's Herefordshire collection will
soon be ready. But eleven out of the forty English
counties have practically never been dealt with at all,
either by ourselves or anyone else, including such famous
and individual ones as Kent, Hampshire, Somerset,
Warwick, Derby, Cheshire, Norfolk, and the greater part
of the Fen country ; and the rest, as I have shown, have
been very imperfectly examined.^"

Let no one say there is nothing now to be found. Ten
years ago, no one knew that there was any folk-music in
England. The Folk-Song Society was founded. Not
long ago I found the Secretary of the Society surrounded
by the MSS. of a thousand airs from Dorset alone, which

15 See Note III., infra.

36 Presidential Address.

were awaiting classification and sifting. Mr. Cecil Sharp's
Somerset collections grew under his hands, and filled
volume after volume. Some months ago, a visitor at a
country-house where I was staying entertained the party
for the whole evening with Somersetshire songs, collected
by Mr. Sharp from labourers on the estate of the singer's
father, — old men whom he and his family had known all
their lives without ever having discovered their musical
powers. It is the same with folklore. Those who look for
it will find it.

I do not mean of course that British folklore is of more
value than that of other European countries, but that, as
most countries have now taken up the study of their own
lore, Great Britain and India are the principal fields lying
untilled.

The German and Swiss Folklore Societies confine their
output of Nachrichten and ZeitschrifteJi mainly to the
folklore of their own countries. We can hardly go so far
as that. For our own sakes we must not confine ourselves
to Great Britain. We must not get out of touch with the
travellers who return to us from time to time, bringing
their sheaves with them. Nor must we forget the needs of
our Indian and Colonial members, some of whom are ill-
placed for obtaining books, and depend on Folk-Lore to
keep them in touch with the world. But some sort of
concentration of our work seems to me desirable and even
needful. I will not enter into details until I have some
assurance of your support, but, if my views find favour
with the Council and with the Society at large, I feel
convinced that we shall be able to frame some definite
proposals to lay before you at our next Annual Meeting.

Charlotte Sophia Burne.

Presidential Address. 37

Note I. Castleton.

At the time of my visit to Castleton, I did not know what
I afterwards learnt, that Edward I. was Constable of the Castle
of the Peak before his accession to the throne. He gave the
patronage of the living to the Abbey of Vale Royal in Cheshire,
with whom it continued till the Dissolution, when it was handed
over to the newly-founded See of Chester. The church, which
contains Norman features, is dedicated to St. Edmund, one of
the royal English saints specially honoured by Henry III.
Doubtless this was a re-dedication by Edward. His connection
with the place is curiously corroborated by the resemblance I
observed to Winchelsea. Castleton is not mentioned by name
in Domesday Book, but is simply called "the land of William
Peverel's Castle in Peak Forest."

There are two slight discrepancies between the accounts of
Mr. Addy and Mr. Brooksbank. Mr. Addy says that the
Bradwell people are supposed to be descended from convicts,
and the Castletonians from slaves. Mr. Brooksbank reverses
this. Mr. Addy says that the tower is adorned with oak-boughs
on Garland Day, and the people carry sprigs of oak. Mr.
Brooksbank says it is not oak but sycamore. If so, this probably
betokens the Whig ascendancy under William and Mary.

" Royal oak
The Whigs to provoke.
Plane-tree leaves
The Church-folk are thieves : "

runs a rhyme of the rival factions quoted by Brand (i., p. 275).
The Cavendish family, who were, as we know, among the main
instruments in bringing about the Revolution, were then, and
are still, lessees under the Crown of the Manor and Castle of
the Peak, and the Rev. Samuel Cryer, as we have seen, was not
a non-juror. He accepted the Revolution.

Mr. Brooksbank has given me the following interesting notes :
" For a young man and woman to go together in the evening
on 'Cauler' (Cawlowe), the hill next the Castle, was supposed
to be tantamount to a betrothal, and young people who are
suspected to be keeping company furtively are advised to go
on Cauler."

38 Presidential Address.

"If a Castleton girl married into another village a rope was
put across the road to Hope, to bar her passage, and a forfeit
exacted. This was done in the old road to Hope, skirting the
hillside, not on the new road which runs down the centre of
the valley."

"The Friday night before Wakes Sunday, (the first Sunday in
September), was always called Stealing Night. The youths of the
village were in the habit of taking anything they found out of its
place, whether a broom, a cart, or anything else, and carrying
it into the market-place, whence it had to be reclaimed by its
owner. I can find no trace of redemption money being paid."

"The steps of houses which abutted on the roadway were in
comparatively recent times ploughed up on Plough Monday
unless a fine were paid."

"On Christmas Eve all the miners used to knock off work at
noon, choose the best bit of lead ore they could find, place a
special candle on it, and then sit around it singing carols. They
left the candle burning. This is said to have taken place at
Odin Mine."

" ' Shaking Day ' is still kept. On Good Friday the children
used to take bottles to the well of ' our Lady ' in Cavedale,
fill them from it, bring them home, put in Spanish juice
(liquorice) and spices, and then put them in the dark till Easter
Day, when they brought them to church, shook them, and
allowed one another to drink out of each other's bottles."

"The following seems to be part of an old carol referring
to pre-Reformation education in the arts of illumination and
embroidery :

They teached the boys to read and to write

With a silver pen and golden ink.
They teached the girls to knit and to sew

With . . . and golden thread."

Note H. The Horn-dance.
The following is Dr. Plot's account of the Horn-dance :
"At Abbots, or now rather Pagets Brotnley, they had also
within memory a sort of sport, which they celebrated at Christmas

Presidential Address. 39

(on New Year, and Twelft-day) call'd the Hobby-horse dance, from
a person that carryed the image of a horse between his leggs,
made of thin boards, and in his hand a bow and arrow, which
passing through a hole in the bow, and stopping upon a sholder
it had in it, he made a snapping noise as he drew it to and fro,
keeping time with the Musick : with this Man danced 6 others,
carrying on their shoulders as many Rain deers heads, 3 of
them painted white, and 3 red, with the Armes of the cheif
families (viz. of Paget, Bagot, and Wells) to whom the revenews
of the Town cheifly belonged, depicted on the palms of them,
with which they danced the Hays, and other Country dances.
To this Hobby-horse dance there also belong'd a pot, which was
kept by turnes, by 4 or 5 of the cheif of the Town, whom they
call'd Reeves, who provided Cakes and Ale to put in this pot;
all people who had any kindness for the good intent of the
Institution of the sport, giving pence a piece for themselves and
families ; and so forraigners too, that came to see it : with which
Mony (the charge of the Cakes and Ale being defrayed) they
not only repaired their Church but kept their poore too : which
charges are not now perhaps so cheerfully boarn " (Plot's Natural
History of Staffordshire, p. 434, ch. x., par. 66).

This suggests that the Horn-dance, with other such sports, had
been discontinued under the Commonwealth. If it had been
already revived in 1686, Dr. Plot had not heard of it. When
I visited the place in the early nineties, the then vicar, who
showed me the horns, told me that he was informed that the
dance was formerly performed in the churchyard, after service,
on three successive Sundays at Christmas time. Whether these
were the Sundays between the dedication-day, Dec. 6th, and Christ-
mas Day, or whether they were the Sundays in Christmas-tide,
with Christmas Day itself, I cannot say, nor when the dance
was removed (or restored?) to the fair-day. Miss Mary Bagot,
daughter of the Rev. Walter Bagot, rector of the adjoining
parish of Blithfield, wrote in 181 7 of the local Christmas sports
in the last years of the eighteenth century, — " a party from Abbot's
Bromley came once, and must, I think, have performed Maid
Marian's dance, from the faint recollection I have of it " {Links
with the Fast, p. 190). The cross-bow man, who still makes the

40 Presidential Address.

" snapping " noise as described by Plot, and the man in woman's
clothes, are now known as Robin Hood and Maid Marian, but
it may be doubted whether this is not a modern pseudo-antique
touch. The costumes now worn have been made and presented
by some neighbouring ladies since 1899. The members of the
North Staffordshire Field Club were informed in 1909 that they
had been copied from the figures of the morris-dancers in the
famous window atBetley (see Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare),
so they might be depended on to be quite correct ! Three plates
in Sir Benjamin Stone's Pictures show the various properties and
the present costumes.

Note III. Folklore of the United Kingdom.
The following is a rough sketch of the progress of folklore
collection in the United Kingdom. Additions to the list would
be welcome.

ENGLAND.

Counties in which nothing has been done (11).

Bedford. Kent.

Buckingham. Middlesex.

Chester. Nottingham.

Essex. Surrey.

Hampshire. Warwick.
Huntingdon. •

Counties dealt with only by old-fashioned writers (6).
Cumberland. Northampton.

Lancaster. Westmoreland.

Norfolk. Worcester.

Coufities dealt with only ijt County Folklore (3).
Leicester. Suffolk.

Rutland.

Counties in which only single Rites or Legends etc. have been
dealt with in Folk-Lore (4).

Cambridge. Herts.

Derby. Somerset.

Counties on which articles have appeared in Folk-Lore etc., but
7iot otherwise dealt with (6).

Berks. Oxford.

Dorset. Sussex.

Monmouth. Wilts.

Presidential Address. 41

Counties variously dealt with (10).

(fl, by old writers ; b, by modern ones ; c, in County Folklore ;
d, in Folk- Lore etc.)

Cornwall, a, b. Salop, b.

Devon, a, b., d. Stafford, a, b (slight), d,

Durham, a, b. York — N. Riding, b ; E. Rid-

Gloucester, c, d. ing, b, c ; VV. Riding, b.

Hereford, (^ (promised). {The West Riding Anthro-

Lincoln, c, d. pological Society is now

Northumberland, a, b, r, d. beginning work)

WALES.

Works by Sir John Rhys, Rev. Elias Owen, Mrs. Trevelyan,
Wirt Sikes. Byegones columns.

ISLE OF MAN.

Sir John Rhys, A. W, Moore, Train, Sophia Morison in
Folk-Lore.

SCOTLAND.

Aberdeenshire. — Gregor.

Argyllshire. — R. C Maclagan, J. G. Campbell.

Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross. — Folk-Lore and Folk-Lore

Journal.
Hebrides. — Goodrich Freer, Macphail in Folk-Lore.
Highland Folk-tales.— J. F. Campbell.
Lowlands. — Sir W, Scott, Napier.

IRELAND.

Folk-tales. — Patrick Kennedy, Larminie, Croker, Curtin, Hyde,.
Joyce, Lady Wilde.

Articles in Folk-Lore, Folk-Lore Journal, etc. — Connemara,
Donegal, Down, Galway, Leitrim, Louth, Meath, Ros-
common, Sligo, Wexford, etc.

CHANNEL ISLANDS.

Guernsey. — MaccuUoch (ed. Carey).
Jersey. — Entirely wanting.

SCILLY ISLANDS.

Wanting.

THE FATHER'S SISTER IN OCEANIA.^

BY W. H. R. RIVERS, ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

{Read at Meeting, November lyt/i, 1909.)

During a visit last year to Polynesia and Melanesia I found
in three different places a very close relationship between
a person and his or her father's sister, very few special
duties and privileges connected with this relative having
hitherto been recorded. The first place where I found the
close relationship to exist was Tonga, and the fact surprised
me greatly by its contrast to what I had found in other
parts of Polynesia, where duties connected with kinship
are neither numerous nor important. My surprise was,
however, still greater when I found very similar customs
in the New Hebrides and the Banks' Islands, among
communities with matrilineal descent where one hardly
expected to find the most intimate relationship between
persons who, though of common blood, have by previous
writers been regarded as not even kin to one another.-

In Tonga a man honours his father's sister more than
any other relative, more even than his father or his father's
elder brother. In the old time it was believed that, if he
offended her, disobeyed her, or committed any mistake in
the regulation of his conduct towards her, he would die.
The father's sister or mehikitanga usually arranged the

^ The new facts recorded in this paper form part of the work of the Percy
Sladen Trust Expedition to the Solomon Islands.

2 Cf. infra, p. 58.

The Father s Sister in Oceania. 43

marriage of her fakafotii or brother's son, and she could
veto one arranged by his parents or by the man himself.
Even now a man will usually take the woman whom his
father's sister wishes him to marry, though he will some-
times rebel and choose for himself. There is some degree
of community of goods between nephew and aunt ; the
father's sister can take anything belonging to her nephew
and the latter will not say a word, but, if the nephew
desires anything belonging to his aunt, he must ask for it,
and to take it without permission is one of the mistakes
which it was said would have had fatal results in the old
days. If permission to take anything were asked, however,
it would seem that it was rarely refused.

There are a certain number of restrictions on the conduct
of a man in relation to his father's sister which resemble
the customs of avoidance of certain relatives so often found
elsewhere. A man may not eat in his aunt's presence, nor
may he eat anything which she has carried. He will not
sit on her bed, nor will he stay in a house into which she
comes. On the other hand, restrictions on conversation
with her and on the use of her name do not exist.

The relation of the father's sister to her niece is like
that towards her nephew. A girl is subject to the same
restrictions in relation to her father's sister as a boy, and
her relative arranges her marriage and may take any of
her possessions. The father's sister also takes the leading
place in the ceremonial connected with the first menstrua-
tion of a girl, and to her is given the piece of tapa cloth
stained with the menstrual blood. I could not discover
that the father's sister took any corresponding part in
ceremonial connected with her nephew, the leading part
in the ceremonial connected with circumcision being taken
by the mother's brother.

In Melanesia I found a very similar relationship between
paternal aunt and nephew or niece in two places, — in the
island of Pentecost or Raga in the New Hebrides, and in

44 The Father's Sister in Oceania.

the Banks' Islands, In both these places there is matri-
lineal descent together with the dual organisation of society.
The whole population of an island is divided into twa
exogamous sections, and every person belongs to the
moiety of his mother. Now, — and probably it has long
been so, — the succession to property is in an intermediate
state between an older condition of inheritance by the
brothers or the sister's children and a later condition in
which the children inherit. Some kinds of property or
right still go to the brother or the sister's son, while, in
cases in which the children inherit, a clear indication of the
older method of inheritance is shown by certain payments
which have to be made to the sister's children. This being
the case, I was hardly prepared to find that the relative
who stands in the closest relation to a person, if closeness
of relationship is to be judged by its associated functions,
is the father's sister.

In Pentecost I was only able to obtain a very scanty
account^ of the functions of the father's sister, and there is
little doubt that far more remains to be discovered. Enough
was found, however, to show very definitely a relationship
resembling in its main features that which had been already
found in Tonga. The father's sister chooses a wife for her
nephew, who will take without demur the woman chosen.
A man will also obey his aunt generally, and anything he
possesses is at her command. He helps her in her gardens
or at other work, and, when a man is going away, he will
leave instructions with his sons that they are to do whatever
their aunt wishes. So far the relationship is as in Tonga,
but there is a difference in other respects. In Pentecost
aunt and nephew may eat together, but the nephew may
not say the name of his aunt. If they are alone together,
and if the aunt does not hear her nephew when he calls
' muanil her kinship name, he may call her by her personal

2 I was only able to obtain this through the kind help of Miss E. Wilson of
the Melanesian Mission.

The Father s Sister in Oceania. 45

name, but, if others are present, the aunt would be very-
angry. In this island the father's sister and the mother are
called by the same kinship-term, but strangely enough
there is a special term for the husband of the father's sister,
who is called hurina. There are no restrictions on conduct
between a man and his htirina, who are on quite familiar
terms, though there is no such especially derisive behaviour
as in Mota.*

A much more complete account of the functions of
the father's sister was obtained from the Banks' Islands,^
where of all relatives the father's sister is the most highly
honoured. The term by means of which her relationship
is ordinarily denoted is veve (mother) or veve vus rawe
(the mother who kills or strikes the tusked pig, or " is
connected with striking the pig"), but she may also be
called maranaga, a term used for a woman of high rank
and now used for "queen." The father's sister must never
be addressed or spoken of by her personal name, but by
one of these terms denoting either her relationship or
the estimation in which she is held by the speaker. It
is a sign of the times that children will now annoy their
aunts by calling them by name, and I was told of one
case in which a woman had been reduced to tears by
this unceremonious behaviour on the part of her nephews
and nieces, behaviour which in the old days would have
been out of the question. A man will never chaff
{poropord) his aunt, or joke with her, and will always
speak to her in a gentle and conciliatory tone. A definite
comparison was made between the mother and the father's
sister in this respect ; the mother may be spoken to
strongly, emphatically, with assurance, but such a mode
of address would never be employed in speaking to the
father's sister, and in the small island of Rowa it was said

^ Cf. infra, p. 50.

^ I am greatly indebted to the kind help of the Rev. C. E. Fox and the
Rev. W. J. Durrad of the Melanesian Mission in obtaining this information.

46 The Father s Sister in Oceania.

that a man would never take the initiative in addressing
her, but would always wait till he had been spoken to.

A woman always takes the greatest interest in her
brother's son. She will always keep her ears open for
any rumour about him. If she finds that anyone has a
grudge against him or intends to do him an injury, she
will warn him of his danger. When the time comes for
a man to marry, it is his father's sister who will choose
his wife for him, and the marriage she ordains will take
place whether the nephew likes it or not. If he chooses
for himself, she may veto the marriage, and, if she does so^
no one will think of disobedience. In Melanesia the first
step in the case of illicit sexual intercourse is usually taken
by the woman ; in such a case, however, she will not go
to the man himself, but will first approach his father's
sister.

There is to a certain extent community of goods between
a man and his father's sister. The latter can take her
nephew's possessions, but only those which he has received
from his father or has obtained for himself. She could not
take what has come from his mother or his mother's
people. If a man wants any of his aunt's goods, he will
ask for them, and it is rarely that his request will be
refused.

If any of the rules regulating the behaviour of a person
towards the father's sister are broken, the offender has
to give a feast in honour of the injured relative.

The father's sister also has a number of functions in
ceremonial connected with her nephew or niece, and her
role in this respect begins even before the birth of the
child, when it may be that she acts rather as the sister
of the husband than as the aunt of the expected child.

A rite called valugtoqa (? valugtoqai) is often performed
at an early stage of pregnancy, which is accompanied
by a process of divination to discover the sex of the
child. One feature of this rite is the passage of money

The Father s Sister in Oceania. 47

from the father to the wife's brother, the money being
first placed on a pudding and then put over the right
shoulder of the expectant mother to be given later to
her brother. The act of divination consists in the pinching
of a leaf-cup containing water brought from a spring used
only for this purpose. If the child is to be a boy, the
water will squirt out, but, if it is to be a girl, this will
not happen. A formula is uttered during this rite by
the sister of the husband, the future paternal aunt of
the child.

When the birth is about to take place, the woman who
is to take the leading part in looking after the mother
is chosen by the husband's sister, and this means much
more than the mere choice of a midwife, for in Mota it
is the act of payment to this woman which determines
the parentage of the child for social purposes. In this
island it is the man who pays this woman chosen by
the father's sister who becomes the father of the child.
As a general rule the payment is made by the actual
father, but, if he is away or has no money, or if another
is more anxious than himself to own the child, he may
be forestalled in this payment and lose his right to his
own child.

When the piece of umbilical cord separates from the
child, it must first be offered by the father to his own
sister, who will, however, usually refuse it, because its
acceptance would make it necessary later for her brother
to prepare a great feast in her honour. When she has
refused it, he gives it to some other woman whom he
calls sister by the classificatory system, who puts it in a
leaf which is covered with string so that it is not visible
and hangs it on her neck. She keeps this on her neck till
the child is two years old, and then the father of the child
has to give her a feast. The father's sister may also ask
for some of the nail-parings of the child, and keep them
on her neck in a similar way, and this has also to be

48 The Father's Sister in Oceania.

acknowledged by a feast. This may be done at any age,
and a recent case was related in which the paternal aunt
of a man had picked up some of his nail-parings just as
he was going away to another island, and, when he
returned, he had to make a feast in his aunt's honour.

There are several special rites and feasts after the birth
of a first-born child. In the island of Motlav all the
women of the village come to the house with their mats
and sleep there for twenty days, decorating themselves in
a different way every day, and feasting on different kinds
of food, which they are privileged to take from the gardens
of anyone. On the twentieth day there are various pay-
ments which are prominent in every Banksian rite, and
then all the women who have been staying in the house
sit in a ring outside, and the father's sister brings the
baby out of the house and hands it round the circle,
so that each woman holds it in turn. When the child has
gone the round, it is given back to the father's sister, who
carries it round the circle four times, — the customary
number of a Melanesian rite, — and the child is then
returned to its mother.

In Mota, when a woman has given birth for the first
time, the child is taken to the door of the house by a
woman, and a little bow is put in its hand, and all the
maternal uncles of the child collect and shoot at it with
blunted arrows or throw limes. When this is over, the
child is handed to the father's sister, who holds it out
with straightened arms till they tremble, and then she
says, — "You and tawarig^ go up into the cultivated land,
you with your bow and tawarig with the basket, digging
yams ; you shooting birds, tawarig breaking up the fire-
wood; you two come back to the village; she will take
food and carry it into the house ; you will take your
food in th.Q gamal." As these words are said the father's
sister raises her arms, lifting the child in the air.

•^ Tawarig is the name which she will give to the future wife of the child.

The Father s Sister in Oceania. 49

A prominent event in the life of a boy, in which the
father's sister takes a part, is when her nephew reaches
a certain rank in the siiqe, the organisation which dominates
the whole Hves of the Banks' Islanders. The rite I am
about to describe is as it is practised in Motlav, but it
is probably very similar in other islands. It has two
special interests. It is the only occasion on which women
ever enter the gamal or club-house of the siiqe, and it
is to this ceremony that the father's sister owes her
name. We have here an excellent illustration of the
difficulty of obtaining explanations from Melanesians, and
I believe this difficulty is general among those of the
lower culture. One of the first pieces of information I
gained in the Banks' Islands was that the father's sister
is called veve viis rawe, or " the mother who strikes the
tusked pig." Although my informant was of excep-
tional intelligence, he could not give the explanation of
this name, and it was only seven or eight months later,
when on my way home, that I was told of the following
ceremony, which probably provides the explanation.

The name of the division of the stiqe in connection with
which the ceremony takes place is Avtagataga. When
a man or child is to be initiated into this division, all
the people gather in the open space of the village ; the
candidate sits on a mat, and about twenty women sit
on mats round him. Of these women the father's sister
must be one, and she will take the leading part in the
ensuing rite. The head of a tusked pig {rawe) is put
on the mat before the candidate, and, after the usual
payments of money, four blasts are blown on a conch-shell ;
and at the end of each blast the candidate brings down a
stone on the pig's head lying before him. Then the
candidate is taken into the gamal by his father's sister
and the other women, being led in if he is adult by his
aunt, and carried on her back if he is being initiated
while yet a child. The initiate then becomes nat vuhe

50 The Father's Sister in Oceania.

rati, and the aunt vev vuhe rati, (the Motlav forms of
natui vus raive and veve viis razve).

In one of the Banks' Islands, Merlav, it was said that
a man might marry his father's sister and that this was
more frequent in the old days than in recent times. The
same kind of marriage probably occurred also in the
other islands, and it may be noted that it is also found
in the Torres Islands to the north of the Banks' group.

Before I pass on to consider the meaning of these
customs, I should like to give a brief account of the
relation between a man and the husband of his father's
sister, a relationship which has features even more bizarre
than those which have just been related. There is a
Banksian custom cdiWed poroporo, -which, maybe translated
most nearly by the word " chaffing." There are very
definite regulations as to whom you may chaff, whom
you may not chaff, and whom you may only chaff a little,
and the whole custom has great significance in the eyes of
the people, for, if a man chaffs a woman whom he should
not, it affords legitimate grounds for inferences as to their
moral relations. It will have been noticed that the father's
sister is one who must on no account be the subject of
poroporOy but on the other hand her husband is continually
chaffed by his wife's nephew. I will give you some
examples, for which I will take a concrete case, that of
my informant, John, and his father's sister's husband,
Virsal, whose names may be found in the Mota pedigree
given by Dr. Codrington.'^ If John and his sister see a
pig wallowing in the mire, they will say as a joke, —
" There is Virsal." If they hear a flying-fox in the night,
and meet Virsal the next morning, they will say, — " We
heard you last night." If they hear a kingfisher cry,
they will say to it, — " The body of Virsal is your food,"
and anyone who heard this would know at once how they
were related to Virsal. If they see Virsal going to the
"^ The Melanesiaiis, p. 38.

The Fathers Sister in Oceania. 51

beach, they will ask him if he is going to eat worms or
sea-slugs. If anyone were to ask John where to find Virsal,
he would say, — " He is in Panoi " (the Banksian Hades),
or in some other sacred place. If a dance is to take
place at which Virsal is to be present, John will go too,
and will rush upon Virsal with a club and seize him,
and will only relax his hold on the payment of money,
which Virsal will have brought with him because he will
know what is likely to happen. The explanation
of these customs given by John was that they were all
designed to magnify the importance of the father's sister.
When Virsal was about to marry his aunt, John would
have heaped all sorts of opprobrious epithets upon him,
because he would not think him good enough, and John
thought that \.\\e poroporo was merely a continuation of this
practice after the marriage had actually taken place, its
object being to magnify the importance of the father's
sister by depreciating her husband. This explanation
must be taken with the caution which is in my opinion
necessary with all native explanations, but, though it may
not be the ultimate explanation of the strange customs, it
indicates very clearly the high estimation in which the
father's sister is held. I may point out in passing that the
man who is thus so unceremoniously treated is necessarily
of the same veve as his tormenter; they will in the native
terminology be sogoi.

We know far too little of the sociology of the part of
Melanesia where the father's sister exercises this pre-
dominant role to allow any certain conclusions as to
the origin of the various customs which I have described.
The information obtained by me was merely the result of
a brief visit, and doubtless some of the descriptions I have
given will require some modification in detail on further
investigation, though I have no doubt about their general
accuracy. It was evident that even in the Banks' group
there were definite variants in different islands in the

52 The Father's Sister in Oceania.

customs connected with the father's sister, and an
investigation of these in the less advanced islands of the
group, such as Vanua Lava, may throw much light on
their nature.

Although, however, no decisive opinion can be expressed,
there is so much that is suggestive in the customs I
have described that I cannot forbear from putting forward
some alternative hypotheses which may serve the useful
function of assisting the course of future inquiry.

It may be well first to point out again that the special
matter which has to be explained is the existence of this
close relationship between a person and the father's sister
in communities with matrilineal descent. According to
some the father's sister is not even to be regarded as
the kin of her nephew, and nevertheless we find between
them ties which indicate the closest bonds of relationship.

One of the features which will have struck everyone in
hearing of these customs is the very close resemblance
between them and those which are found to exist in so
many peoples between a man and his maternal uncle.
When the latter customs are found in a people with
patrilineal descent, we have been accustomed to look upon
them as a survival of a previous condition of mother-right,
the close relation naturally existing in this latter state
between a man and his mother's brother having persisted
after the mode of descent has changed. That this has
been the explanation in many cases, as in that of the
peoples of North East Africa described by Munzinger,^
and in many other instances, there can be little doubt.
We have in these cases clear evidence of transitional states
which entitles us with the greatest confidence to explain
the one condition as the survival of the other.

The possibility is naturally suggested that the relation

^ Ostafrikanische Studien, 1S64, and Sitten unci Recht der Bogos, 1859.
For a discussion of this evidence, see Reports of the Cambridge Expedition
to Torres Straits, vol. v., p. 151.

The Fathers Sister in Oceania. 53

between a man and his father's sister in the Banks' Islands
may be explained on similar lines, and may be the sur-
vival m mother-right of a preceding condition of patri-
lineal descent. Though following so naturally, such a
conclusion would, in my opinion, be flying in the face of
every probability. All through Melanesia we have at the
present time the clearest evidence that the population is
in a state of transition from matrilineal to patrilineal
descent, the change having been completed in the Western
Solomons, and it would seem in the highest degree
improbable that this change now going on should be
merely a reversal of one in the opposite direction which
has left Its mark in the functions I have recorded We
cannot, however, afl^ord to dismiss any hypothesis in
anthropology merely on the ground of its improbability
and It wdl therefore be well if we keep in mind, as the
hrst working hypothesis suggested by these customs, that
they may be survivals of a condition of father-right or at
least of patrilineal descent which preceded the present
state of mother-right.

_ A second possibility is that the functions of the father's
sister may have been due to the fact that she was at one
time also the wife of the mother's brother. It is a frequent
feature_ ol systems of relationship,-and tokens of it are
found m the Banks' Islands,-that the father's sister and
the wife of the mother's brother receive the same name, and
It IS clear that this is either because they are actually one
and the same person or have been so in the past. This is the
natural result of either of two different customs, both of
which are found in Melanesia, viz., the cross-cousin marriage
and the custom of exchange of brother and sister with
sister and brother, /.,., the custom through which, when a
rnan marries a woman, it is at the same time arranged that
the brother of the woman shall marry the sister of the man.
Of these two customs, either of which would have made
the fathers sister identical with the mother's brother's wife

54 The Father s Sister in Oceania.

that which has probably been in action in Melanesia is the
cross-cousin marriage, which has evidently been a wide-
spread Melanesian institution. Its existence in Fiji is of
course well known, and during last year I found it also in
the Eastern Solomons, in the Torres Islands, and in the
Southern New Hebrides. This form of marriage has usually
been regarded as a survival of the dual organisation of
society, but, after visiting Melanesia, I feel much less
confident of this than I was before my visit, and I am
now more inclined to believe that, though the two con-
ditions are related to one another, one has not necessarily
always preceded the other. Whatever may be the ex-
planation of these institutions, there can be little doubt
that the cross-cousin marriage might furnish the explan-
ation of some of the functions of the father's sister, and
especially her role in the arrangement of marriage. So far
as I am aware, the only place where a special connection
between a man and his father's sister has previously been
pointed out is in India, and I have elsewhere^ tried to show
the connection here with the cross-cousin marriage which
was probably at one time a universal Dravidian institution.
According to this view, the father's sister would arrange the
marriage of her nephew, because at one time it would have
been her daughter that he would have married ; she would
have been his potential, if not his actual, mother-in-law.
Her other functions would be explained by her having been
at one time the wife of the mother's brother, functions
which had persisted and perhaps been magnified after the
necessary connection between the two relationships had
come to an end, as they certainly have come to an end in
the Banks' Islands. A further piece of evidence as to the
old identity of the two relationships is to be found in the
fact that in at least one of the islands a man may marry
his father's sister. In all the islands he may marry the
wife of his mother's brother, which may even be said to

^ The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1907, pp. 611 et seq.

The Father s Sister in Oceania. 55

be the orthodox Banksian marriage, and, if the mother's
brother's wife had been at one time the same person as the
father's sister, it is not surprising- that marriage with the
latter should have persisted here and there.

A third working hypothesis is suggested by the fact that
the father's sister is a member of the opposite veve or social
division of the community. We have another example of
such relations between people of different social divisions
in the help that is often given to a man by his wife's
brother,io and Mr. A. R. Brown has called my attention to
the fact that such relations are frequent in Australia. Is
there anything in the functions of the father's sister in the
Banks' Islands which may suggest a general explanation
of this relationship between members of different social
divisions .''

Before considering this, I must describe certain features
of Banksian society which are of significance in this respect.
In the island of Mota the two veve are believed to possess
different dispositions; those of one division are learned
in social lore, living peaceably with one another, and
capable of looking after themselves and their affairs ; the
members of the other division are ignorant, always
quarrelling, and unable to manage their affairs properly.
In the old days the members of the two veve hated one
another, and even now there is a feeling of hostility
between the two. There is a tradition that at one time
there was a very long gamal or club-house, the site of which
can still be pointed out. One veve lived at one end of this
house and the other at the other, and a man who entered
the wrong door, or crossed the gamal from his own end to
the other, ran the risk of being killed. Further, there are a
number of customs of avoidance which receive their most
natural explanation as evidence of this old feeling between
the two divisions.

The problem we have then to face is the choice of a

"See Reports of the Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits, vol. v., p. 148.

56 The Father s Sister in Oceania.

member of a group of more or less hostile people to act in
the closest relationship to a child. The special function of
the father's sister, which may supply the answer to the
question posed above, is her place as custodian of the
fragment of umbilical cord and nail-parings of her brother's
child. These, and notoriously the latter, are objects by
means of which injury may be inflicted if they come inta
the hands of a stranger, and the hypothesis I should like ta
suggest is that the umbilical cord and nail-parings are
given to the aunt as the representative of the more or less
hostile body formed by the other social group of the
community. It is, I believe, consistent with savage modes
of thought and action that, if it were known that these
objects were in the hands of one prominent among them-
selves, it would act as a hindrance to the action of others,
and I would suggest that, when relationship with the father
begins to be recognised, his sister is chosen as the receptacle
of those objects by means of which the members of her
division might injure the child, and she thus by their
possession obtains a power over the child which makes her
the most honoured relative, and then this place of honour
becomes the cause of the special place she is called upon to
fill in the ceremonial connected with her brother's child.
According to this view the special place of the father's
sister would be one of the many actions of magic or
the belief in magic on features of social organisation. This
hypothesis involves much that is doubtful, but, though the
actual form in which I have put it may turn out to be
wrong, it is highly probable that it is some such belief
involved in the relations between the different social
divisions which lies at the bottom of these functions
assigned to a member of a hostile social group.

A fourth possibility, suggested to me by Mr. T. C.
Hodson, is that the special position of the father's sister is
one of the signs of increasing recognition of the kinship of
the father, who deputes his sister to perform certain acts as

The Father s Sister in Oceania. 57

an assertion of his paternity, thus bringing her functions
into line with those which, according to one view, belong to
the Couvade. There is little doubt that the latter institu-
tion is based primarily on the belief in a sympathetic
relation between father and child, but in its more developed
forms it is possible that the assertion of paternity may
have played a part, and Mr. Hodson's suggestion should
be borne in mind as affording a fourth working hypothesis
by means of which to seek the explanation of the functions
of the father's sister. According to this view it would be
expected that the cord and nail-parings would be given
to the father's sister to give her a hold over the child, a
means of compulsion in disputes between the father and
his wife's people.

Of these four hypotheses the first has been advanced
chiefly as a matter of form, and I am inclined to attach
most importance, so far as concerns the original basis of
the customs, to the third, while the conditions assumed in
the second and fourth hypotheses have probably been
also in action. According to this view the origin of the
special functions of the father's sister was in her position
as the member of a different social group who stood nearest
to the child, whether the actual motive was the fear of
magic which I have suggested or some other. Later
this special position of the father's sister was strengthened
by other relationships to her nephew or niece which came
into existence, perhaps as the wife of the mother's brother,
but probably still more as the potential mother-in-law,
while it is also possible that the desire of the father to
assert more definitely the paternity already implied in
the functions of his sister may have added to her import-
ance. According to this view we should have in the
development of the functions of the father's sister one
of those cases of complex causation which I believe to
be the rule in sociology.

The foregoing hypotheses are directed towards the

58 The Father s Sister in Oceania.

explanation of the functions of the father's sister in the
matrilineal communities of Melanesia. There remains
the very similar position of this relative in Tonga. The
similarity is so great that there can be little doubt that
whatever conditions explain the Melanesian facts will also
explain those of Tonga, and it may be pointed out that
there is no doubt that the cross-cousin marriage existed
at one time, if it does not still exist, in Tonga, especially
among the chiefs, the information given to me on this
point confirming the account given by Mr. Basil Thomson.^^
Further, there would seem to be a close analogy between
the functions of the aunt in the two places in taking the
umbilical cord and the first menstrual blood respectively.
We have in the Tongan practice an example of a custom,
having its origin at a time when kinship with the father
was beginning to be recognised, which has persisted long
after this kinship has been fully established, and long after
the change from matrilineal to patrilineal descent has
taken place.

In conclusion, I should like to refer to the bearing
of the facts I have related on certain questions of
definition. Of all sociological terms there are none
more important and at the same time used more inde-
finitely than "kin" and "kinship." In his book on
the Melanesians Dr. Codrington has spoken of a child as
not being of the same kin as his father.^^ Here Dr.
Codrington has used the English word " kin " as the
equivalent of the Mota word sogoi for those related to
one another by common membership of a social group,
in this case the veve or moiety of the whole population.
Thus one of the meanings which has been ascribed to
the word " kin " is membership of the same group, so that
it excludes certain people related by consanguinity, and
includes others with whom no genealogical connection
can be traced. The same definition is implied, though

" The Fijians, p. 184. ^^p. 29.

The Father s Sister in Oceania. 59

not definitely stated, by Dr. Frazer when in his Adonis,
Attis, Osiris he has used mother-kin in place of mother-
right. 1=^ This title implies that a man is only kin with the
members of the group of his mother, and the term has
been used with this significance by others. The ascription
of this meaning to the word seems to me to depart so
widely from the customary, as well as the legal, meaning
of the word in the English language that I cannot regard
it as satisfactory, and I have proposed elsewhere that on
the contrary "kin" and "kinship" shall be limited to
relationships which can be shown to exist genealogically.^*
The special point to which I wish to call attention now
is that, as we have seen, the relationship between a man
and his father's sister, which so far as functions go is of
the nearest, perhaps nearer than that of parent and child,
is one in which, according to the view of some, the two
persons would not be kin. Our ideas of kinship are so
intimately associated with honour and obedience that it
seems to me to be a pity to use the word in such a sense
as to exclude the relative who is honoured and obeyed
before all others. I think we shall be keeping much
more closely to the general meaning of the word if we
use it to denote genealogical relationship, and find some
other word for the relationship set up by common
membership of a social group.

W. H. R. Rivers.

^^2nd edition, p. 384.

'^'^ Report of the Seventy-seventh Meetmg of the Brit. Assocn., etc., 1907,
p. 654 ; also Man, 1907, p. 142.

THE SUN-GOD'S AXE AND THOR'S HAMMER.

BY OSCAR MONTELIUS, ROYAL ANTIQUARY, STOCKHOLM.

Anyone seeking in the cottages of Sweden of to-day for
stone implements, ought to ask whether any thunderbolts
or Thor-bolts {Thorsviggar) have been found, rather than
to enquire for stone axes {Stenyxor). The former term
implies just what is wanted, while the cottagers generally
imagine that stone axes are axes used for working stone.

In the different countries of Europe, and in other
parts of the world, such as Brazil and Japan, there is
a current belief amongst the people that the stone axes
which are found in the ground, and the use of which is
forgotten, are thunderbolts, weapons by means of which
the god of thunder kills his enemies, when it looks as if
they had been struck by lightning. Only three years ago
a man in the northern part of Sweden dug a hole in the
ground where he hoped to find a thunderbolt ; there
had just been a lightning stroke in this place.

On looking backwards we find that in ancient times
there was a widespread belief in Greece, more than 2000
years ago, that stone axes had the character of thunder-
bolts. But we also find, — and this is closely connected
with what has been said above, — that the axe has from
time immemorial been considered, both in Greece and else-
where, a symbol of the thunder or sun god. It soon
becomes evident that the god of the sun and the god of
thunder have originally been one and the same deity,
although the ancients had not learnt to understand as we

^^^s^'\^mft(^w^

The Sun-God's Axe and Tkors Hammer. 6i

have the intimate connection which exists between the
thunder and the sun.

Amongst the Aryan peoples of India we find a god
whose favourite weapon in his fight against the demons
is the thunderbolt. This god, glorified above all others in
the Rigveda hymns, was Indra, that fabulously strong
deity who corresponds to the Thor of the Scandinavians.
His original weapon was the "heavenly stone" which the
primeval smiths had sharpened for him ; it was thus a kind
of stone axe. Then a bolt was prepared for him which,
according to some hymns, was made out of the skull of
a horse, while others describe it as being made of bronze.
Strictly speaking, it was made of " ayas," the same word
as the Latin " aes," which word in the earlier Indian
language signifies copper or bronze, but which in later
times, after iron became known, means this new metal.

From the fact that one of the Rigveda hymns gives to
the lightning the name of the axe of heaven, we may
rightly infer that Indra's axe is really the lightning.

The Indian myths relate how a cunning being forfeited
his head to the artist who forged the bolt for Indra, but
saved it by stratagem. The northern myths tell the same
legend about Loke and the gnome who forged the hammer
for Thor. The earth is the mother of Thor as well as of
Indra. Indra drives about, just as Thor does, in a chariot,
the wheels of which roll through the air. We have good
reason to believe that, according to the earliest notions,
Indra's chariot, like that of Thor, was drawn by bucks. A
later belief was that it was drawn by horses, but these
horses could come to life again, exactly as Thor's bucks
did, after having been killed and eaten.

We also come across gods carrying axes in their hands
in several parts of Western Asia.

One of the bas-reliefs dug up from the ruins of the
Assyrian Nimrud represents a procession in which several
images of gods are carried in exactly the same manner

62 The Sun-God's Axe and Thors Hammer.

as the images of saints in Roman Catholic processions.
One of these god-images from Nineveh (Fig. i) holds in
his right hand an axe, and in his left a thunderbolt. It
would perhaps have been difficult to say with certainty
that this implement, three-pronged at both ends, represents
the lightning, had not its shape lived on in Greek art
almost unaltered.

The axe that the Assyrian god carries in his hand has
but one edge. The axes of other gods from Western
Asia are, as a rule, edged on both sides (Fig. 2, Hittite).

Not far from Mylasa in Caria there was a place named
Labranda, where a God was worshipped whom the Greeks
called Zeus Labrandeus or Zeus Stratios. He is shown on
coins from Mylasa as carrying in his hand a double axe,
an axe edged on both sides. We also find him represented
with javelin and eagle, both usual attributes of the sun
god. The fact that the god on some coins is represented
with lightning and javelin, whereas he generally carries
axe and javelin, is a still further proof of the close
connection between the axe and lightning. A wooden
image is known of this god carrying a double axe in
his right hand and a javelin in his left. The handles of
both axe and javelin were so long that they reached the
ground.

In some of the east-Mediterranean countries, a word
labrys signifies axe, and Plutarch has connected this word
with the name of the god. It was suggested by Mr. Max
Mayer that the well-known Labyrinthos of Knossos was
derived from that name Labrayndos or Labrynthios.
Some years after this suggestion had been published. Dr.
Arthur Evans found that in the royal palace of Knossos,
evidently identical with the Labyrinthos, the double axe,
the labrys, had been worshipped. The holy figure of the
double axe was found everywhere in this old building

(Fig. 3)-

Because the double axe was a religious symbol, it was

Plate

Fig. ].

Fig. 3.

Ilovi 'OvLCH E N o. ,

Fig. 5.

Fig. 4.

THE SUN-GOD'S AXE AND THOR'S HAMMER.

To face p. 62.

The Sun- God's Axe and Thor's Hammer. 63

used as an architectural ornament in Asia Minor as well
as in Crete.

We find a god with a double axe not only in Labranda,
but also in other towns of Asia Minor and Syria, as, for
instance, in Tarsos. Coins from that town (Fig. 4) show
us the god holding in his hand an axe of this de-
scription. Like many other Syrian gods {e.g. Fig. 2) he is
represented as standing on an animal, in this case a lion.
A Greek author alludes to a curious ceremony in which
this god played the principal part. The image of the god
was burnt on a huge pyre, in view of an immense crowd
of spectators. In the first century of our era, when this
author was living, the ceremony took place only every
five years. Judging from what is known about similar
ceremonies in other places, we may presume that in earlier
times the god was burnt every year, and that, when
the fire had burnt down, the birth of a new god was-
celebrated. It is the god of the sun that is thus celebrated.
He it is that dies every year in order yearly to rise again.
The season of the festival in Tarsos is not known, but it
was probably at the vernal equinox, that critical time in the
yearly life of the sun when the power of the sun is again
manifesting itself on the earth. At that time the Christian
Church still celebrates the festival of the Resurrection.

In Roman times there was a well-known Syrian god with
a double axe, whom the Romans called Jupiter Dolichenus,
after the town of Doliche, the present Doluc in Com-
magene, that part of Syria which lies between the ordinary
crossing-place of the Euphrates and Mount Amanus. The
god was probably called Baal by the town's own inhabitants.
Like the god in Tarsos he is represented as standing on
an animal, in this case a bull. In his right hand he
holds a double axe, and in his left the lightning (Fig. 5).

About the middle of the second century after Christ,
Syrian gods, and amongst others Jupiter Dolichenus,
became known and worshipped in different parts of the

64 The Sun-God's Axe and Thors Hammer.

Roman Empire. Jupiter Dolichenus had one temple on
the Aventine and another on the Esquiline in Rome in the
time of the later Emperors. Moreover, inscriptions were
dedicated to him in all the frontier provinces of the Empire,
— in Dacia and Pannonia, in Germania and Britain. He
was worshipped chiefly by soldiers, but also by merchants
and other Syrian immigrants.

Very early the double axe was considered as a symbol,
also, on the islands west of Asia Minor and in Greece. Of
the Cretan labrys I have already spoken. Whenever it is
possible to ascertain of what god it is the symbol, it is
always found to be of the sun god.

An old relief has been discovered at Kameiros in Rhodes.
Amongst its figures there is a man holding a double axe
with a short handle in one hand, and a thunderbolt in the
other (Fig. 6). The relief is damaged, so that the man's head
and the top part of the thunderbolt cannot now be seen.

In Crete, and in other islands of the yEgaean Sea, double
axes of bronze have been found, the votive character of
which is obvious, as their blades are always too thin, and
generally also too small, to have been of any real use.

During the excavations at Olympia a number of
such votive double axes of thin bronze have been dis-
covered in the deepest layers of the precinct dedicated to
the sun god from time out of mind (Figs. 7 and 8).

Small double axes of thin gold date from a still earlier
period, from the second millennium B.C. They have been
found in the magnificent royal tombs of the Mycenaean
acropolis. It is quite evident that they are votive axes,
which is further confirmed by the fact that some of them
are fixed between the horns of small bull's heads, made of
thin gold (Fig. 9). A large bull's head, from one of the
Mycenaean tombs, has between the horns on its forehead a
big sun-like flower. We know that such flowers, chrysan-
themums, have been in Western Asia, and are still in
Japan, symbols of the sun.

Plate II.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

S^f^'i^' ,-

Fig. 8.

Fig. 10.

Fie. 12.

Fig. 11.
Fig. 9.

THE SUN-GOD'S AXE AND THOR'S HAMMER.

To face p. 64.

The Sun-God's Axe and Thors Hammer. 65

In one of these Mycenaean tombs an engraved stone was
lying, representing several persons grouped round an erect
double axe with a handle, in such a way that the scene
evidently has a religious significance (Fig. 10).

A double axe, furnished with a handle, is also met with
as a symbol or an ornament on Greek pottery, from the
latter part of the second millennium B.C. (Fig. 11). A
similar, sometimes T-shaped, figure is also seen on coins
from Asia Minor by the side of the standing or sitting
Zeus-Baal, and on several Greek coins. Many Greek coins
have this sign tripled, as is shown in Fig. 12, and it has
been supposed that when thus arranged it signifies the
Trinity that the Greeks, possibly through influences from
the Orient, imagined in connection with Zeus.

Some coins from Elis have the head of Zeus on the
obverse, and on the reverse side the tripled T-shaped
hammer or axe. Other coins from the same place have the
head of Zeus on the obverse, and three thunderbolts on
the reverse side. This remarkable fact is a further proof
that the hammer and the thunderbolt denote the very
same thing. It also shows how the Greeks, in the course
of time, passed from the older to the younger symbol, from
the axe or the hammer to the lightning.

In Greece, as in other countries, the sun god came
gradually to be worshipped under many different names.

Though it is believed that Apollo in olden times was
figured with a double axe in his hand, yet Zeus carries, in
all now existent images from Greece, the lightning, shaped
in the well-known manner. Other Greek gods have re-
tained the double axe, or the hammer, of which the outlines
correspond to those of the axe. The best known amongst
them is Hephaistos, which god, according to the myth,
soon after his birth fell down from heaven. There is there-
fore no doubt about his signifying the lightning. We
know that Hephaistos is often depicted with a double axe
or a hammer (Fig. 13). An author who has fully treated

66 The Sun-God's Axe and Thors Hammer.

the subject of this god as he appears in the myths and in'
art says,^ — "The heavenly fire, represented by Hephaistos,
can originally have been nothing else than the light-
ning. It was only with the knowledge of metal-work that
Hephaistos became a divine smith. The transition is easily
explained by the resemblance that imagination readily
detects between what occurs in a smithy and during a
thunderstorm, especially at a time when the working of
metals still seemed something wonderful, requiring the
assistance of the gods to be possible. No great stretch of
imagination was needed to associate the flashes of lightning
with sparks from the forge, and the claps of thunder with
the hammer's sounding strokes against the anvil, or to look
upon the thunderstorm itself as the work in a heavenly
smithy."

Lycurgos also, the Thracian sun god, carried a double
axe, and the mallet of Heracles was perhaps originally
such a weapon, because Heracles is the oriental sun god
who has been transplanted into Greece, and in his own
country is usually represented with an axe.

An ancient writer- tells us the names of the four horses
that drew the chariot of Apollo. One of these names
means lightning, and another thunder. This fact proves
that the god of the sun and that of thunder were in
Greece, as elsewhere, looked upon as one and the same
god. The same conception of the two gods we also find
in the legend relating how Apollo with lightning and
thunder drove away the Gauls who threatened Delphi.

The gods of Italy correspond to those of Greece.
Vulcanus with his hammer is the same as Hephaistos,
and Hercules with his mallet was known also by the

^W. H. Roscher, Ausfiihrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen
Mythologie, vol. i. col. 2047 (Leipzig, 1886).

^ Hyghms, Fab. 183. (Cf. Roscher, op. cit., col. 2006.) "Bronte, quae nos
tonitrua appellamus," and " Sterope, quae fulgitrua." Another writer has the
names Bronte and Astrape (lightning). (Roscher, op. cit., col. 2007.)

Plate III.

Fig. 15.

Fig. 16.

Fig. 17.

Fig. 13.

Fig. 18.

THE SUN-GOD'S AXE AND THOR'S HAMMER.

To face p. 66.

The Stm-GocTs Axe and Thors Hammer. 67

Romans. In Italy, too, votive and symbolic axes have
been met with, dating from very early times (Fig. 14^).

This is equally the case in Europe north of the Alps.
In Gaul we find such symbols as early as the Stone
Age. Axes with or without handles are carved on stones
forming the walls and roofs of tombs of this period.
The image of a man, or rather of a god, with an axe,
may be seen on the wall of one of the caves that in
Champagne are hewn out of the chalk-rock (Fig. 15),
and from the time that Gaul was a Roman province we
have many reproductions of a god holding in his hand
a hammer with a long handle (Fig. 16). The hammer,
symmetrical like the double-edged axe, strongly resembles
the hammer of the northern Thor, but the handle is so
long that it reaches the ground. In Latin the name of
this Celtic god is Taranis or Tanarus. Whether this
name is philologically related to Thunor, the old Teutonic
form of Thor's name, is a question with which I cannot
deal in this connection.^

The Gauls also looked upon the sun god and the god
of thunder as one. This is proved by the images that
have been found in Gaul of a god resting with one hand
on a wheel, the symbol of the sun, and holding in the
other a flash of lightning (Fig. 17).

The Slavonians figured Perun, the god of thunder, with
a stone axe in his hand. A statue that Prince Wladimir
put up in Kiev in the year 980 was made of wood
and had a silver head and a golden beard. In honour
of Perun an oak-log fire was kept burning night and
day. In Greece, too, the oak was dedicated to the sun
god.

The Lithuanians worshipped the same god under the
name of Perkunas, and the Letts called him Perkons.

■^ Found in a tomb at Bologna. Cf. Montelius, La civilisation primitive en
Italic, vol. i. col. 404, Fig. e. Half size.

* Cf. Stallybrass, Teutonic Mythology by Jacob Grimm, vol. i. p. 168.

68 The Sun-GocTs Axe and Thors Hammer.

In Scandinavia, as in Gaul, the axe had a symbolic
signification even in the Stone Age. We know this
because axes made of amber and dating from this period
have several times been found in our countries. Most of
the axes are small, and have been worn as ornaments;
some have the same shape as the ordinary one-edged stone
axes with an eye for the handle, {e.g. Fig. i8, from Sweden,
full size) ; others are double-edged and resemble those that
occur in the south, {e.g. Fig. 19, from Sweden, half size).
But besides these axe-shaped heads of amber, there have
been found, both in Sweden and in Denmark, some axes
of amber which, being too large for ornaments, must have
been used as symbols, {e.g. Fig. 20, from Sweden, two-thirds
size). Judging from what we know previously about such
symbols, we may safely assume that these amber axes,
dating from the Stone Age, have been symbols of the
sun god.

Flint axes, well polished, have often been found, which
are so huge that they probably could not have been used
as tools or weapons. Several of these flint axes have
evidently been laid down as offerings. At Ryssvik, in
the south of Smaland, fifteen large flint axes were un-
earthed in 1 82 1. They were lying in a half circle, with
their edges towards the east.

From the Bronze Age some symbolic axes have also
survived. At Skogstorp in Sodermanland two large and
magnificent bronze axes were found, adorned with round
plates of gold in which pieces of amber are inlaid. Only
the surface is of bronze ; the interior consists of clay
round which the thin bronze has been cast with an
extraordinary skill (Fig. 21, quarter size). The oak handle
is coated with bronze. Two quite similar axes, of thin
bronze cast over a still existing clay core, have been
found in Denmark.

It is probably not by accident that in both these cases,
— as in many other deposits from the Bronze Age as well

Plate IV.

Fig. 19

Fig. 20.

Fig. 21. Fig. 22.

THE SUN-GOD'S AXE AND THOR'S HAMMER.

To face p.

The Sun-God's Axe and Thors Hammer. 69

as from the Stone Age, — the number of axes discovered
was two, especially as, on one of the stones forming the
walls of the tomb at Kivik on the east coast of Skane,
which tomb dates from the first period of the Bronze
Age, two similarly-shaped axes are figured, one on each
side of a cone (Fig. 22). The Scandinavians had already
by this time come in some contact with the Orientals,
amongst whom the cone was one of the symbols of the sun
god. Professor Sven Nilsson therefore supposed that the
conic figure of the Kivik tomb had the same significance.
So long as the figure in the Kivik tomb is the only one
of its kind known in the north, we cannot be quite certain
of its meaning, but the question is of great interest.

On a rock-carving of the Bronze Age at Backa in
Bohuslan a man is represented axe in hand. He is so
much larger than the other persons figured on the same
rock, that some archaeologists, probably quite rightly,
consider him as a supernatural being, the god whose
symbol the axe was.

In Denmark a bronze image, (Fig. 23, three-quarters
size), has been found, belonging to the end of the Bronze
Age, representing a man.^ From the account of the
discovery we know that the image, when found, carried
an axe or a hammer in his right hand, but that hand
is now lost.

Towards the end of the heathen period we find instead
of the axe a symbolical hammer, alike on both sides of
the eye. The fact that in Scandinavia the sun god's axe
became a hammer can be explained, if we consider the
original Scandinavian word hamarr. This word signified
originally stone, and was thus a natural term for the
weapon of the sun god or the thunder god, so long as
this weapon was thought of as a thunderbolt of stone.
Later on, when the word had acquired its present meaning

5 Engelhardt, Memoires de la Society Royale des Antiquaires dzi Nord,
1872-7, p. 71, Fig. 9.

70 The Sun-God's Axe and Tkors Hammer,

of hammer, it was just as natural for people to imagine
Thor's weapon to be an iron hammer. They represented
it then as one of the hammers used in that period.

In old songs Thor's hammer is called MJollnir, which
form the name has in the Icelandic Edda. The word
means " the comminuting one," and corresponds to our
mjolnare (miller). It refers to the terrible power of the
hammer to crush whatever it encountered.

Of the circumstances under which the hammer was made,
legend gives the following account. Loke let some gnomes,
the sons of Ivalde, make three valuable presents for Odin,
Thor, and Fro (Frey). Then he laid a wager on his own
head with a gnome called Brock, that the latter's brother
Sindre would not be able to make three equally fine
things. Thus provoked, Sindre forged several things,
amongst which was MJollnir, the iron hammer. The
gods declared that the hammer was the best of all
the gifts, and that Loke had lost the wager. He only
saved his head by a quibble that reminds one of " The
Merchant of Venice." When the gnome wanted to take
his head, Loke answered that the head was certainly his
to take, but that to the neck he had no right.

The hammer had only one flaw, the legend goes on,
— the handle was too short. The reason for this was that,
when Brock was working the bellows while the iron was
in the forge, a fly placed itself between his eyes and hurt
his eyelids. As the blood then came into his eyes and
blinded him, he put up his hand for a moment to rub
them. To do this, however, he was obliged to let the
bellows stop for a moment, and thus the forging did not
succeed so well as Sindre would have liked. The handle
was made too short.

Brock gave the hammer to Thor, and told him that he
could strike as hard as he liked with it, and whatever he
liked, still it would not break. If he threw the hammer,
it would never miss the mark and never go too far to

Plate V.

Fig. 22.

Fig. 25.

Fig, 29.
THE SUN-GOD'S AXE AND THOR'S HAMMER.

To face p. 70.

The Sun-GocTs Axe and Thorns Ham'tner. 71

return again to his hand, — i.e. the god of thunder could
let one lightning be followed immediately by a new one.
If Thor desired it, the hammer would grow so small that
he could carry it inside his clothes. It is also mentioned
how Thor's hammer " was thrown," and " how it flew
through the air." These are most remarkable expressions,
reminding us of the fact that the hammer was originally
identical with the lightning.

In the Icelandic legend of Gylfaginning, Thor is said to
possess three precious things, one of which is the hammer,
" that giants and ogres know well, when it comes flying
through the air. As it has crushed the skulls of many
of their fathers and relatives, that they know the hammer
is not to be wondered at."

But the hammer was used for many other purposes than
as a weapon against giants and ogres.

In the evening Thor used to kill his bucks and eat the
flesh. The following morning he got up, seized his
hammer, brandished it, and " consecrated " the buckskins
on which the bones had been thrown during the meal.
In this way the bucks were brought to life again. We
remember why one of them is halt.

It was especially at weddings that Thor's hammer must

have been of a great importance in heathen times. In

Thrym's song, or "The Fetching of the Hammer," it is told

how the wedding was celebrated between Thrym, the king

of the giants, and Thor, dressed up as Freya. Thrym then

says, —

" Bring the hammer

the bride to wed,

place Mjbllnir

in the maiden's lap,"

In this way Thor got again the hammer that had been
stolen from him. The first use he made of it was of
course to slay Thrym and to mutilate the giant's whole
family.

72 The Sun- God's Axe and Thors Hanimei'.

The important part that Thor played at weddings is
also evident from Herrod's and Bose's saga. Here it is
told how Thor's " health " (toast) was drunk at the wedding-
banquet before that of any other god. Norwegian folk-
lore also relates Thor's presence at certain weddings.

But consecration by the hammer was not confined to
brides. When Balder lay on the pyre, Thor consecrated
the pyre with Mjollnir, and on some runic monuments
from Scandinavia we read the supplication " May Thor
consecrate these runes," or " May Thor hallow these
monuments." When there is a hammer figured on a runic
stone, it is evident that the monument has been con-
secrated with the hammer (Fig. 24^). Runic monuments
of the Christian era have a cross instead of the hammer.

How our Viking ancestors pictured to themselves the
hammer of Thor may be gathered from the aforesaid
runic monuments, as well as from many small hammer-
shaped ornaments made of silver or iron which have
been dug up (Figs. 25, 26, and 30). Several of these orna-
ments have been worn on silver chains, just as Christians
used to wear small crosses. The difference between the
hammer and the cross was not great. To make a cross
it was only necessary to continue the handle on the other
side of the hammer.

That the likeness between the hammer and the cross
was noticed at a comparatively early date is best shown by
Snorre's account in the saga of King Hakon, Athelstan's
foster son, about the sacrificial festival at Lade, where Jarl
Sigurd was present. King Hakon, though baptized in
England had to be present at the heathen festival. When
the horn was filled for the first "health," Jarl Sigurd dedi-
cated it to Odin. The king received the horn and made
the sign of the cross over it. Then one of the peasants
asked, — "Why does the king do like that? Is he still
unwilling to offer a sacrifice .■*" Jarl Sigurd answered, —
^ Runic stone at Stenqvista, Sddermanland, Sweden.

Plate VI.

Fig. 24.

Fig. 26.

I'~ig- 27. Fig. 30. Fig. 28.

THE SUN-GOD'S AXE AND THOR'S HAMMER.

To face p. 72.

The Sun-God's Axe and Thors Hammer. 73

"The king does like those who believe in their own strength
and power, he dedicates the horn to Thor. It was the
sign of the hammer that he made before drinking."

The sagas tell us more than once that a wooden statue of
Thor with his hammer was to be seen in a temple dedicated
to him. For instance, it is mentioned in the saga of Saint
Olaf that the king asked the son of that Gudbrand, after
whom the large and beautiful " Gudbrandsdal " is named,
what the god-image in their temple was like. The answer
was, — "It represents Thor. The god is large and hollow,
and carries a hammer in his hand. Underneath there is a
pedestal on which he stands when he is brought out.
There is no lack of gold and silver on him."

Concerning the temple of Old Upsala, Adam of Bremen
relates, (towards the end of the eleventh century), that the
people there worship three gods. The mightiest of the
three, Thor, sits in the middle, and on either side of him sit
Odin and Fro, or " Fricco," as he is called by Adam, who
is writing in Latin. Like Jupiter, Thor carries a "sceptre."
Adam, misunderstanding the description he has received,
transforms the hammer to a "sceptrum." Even the two
brothers, Johannes and Olaus Magnus, though living some
hundred years later than Adam, misunderstood what they
had read or heard, and described Thor's image at Old
Upsala as carrying a " sceptrum."

Other accounts show that Thor was sometimes repre-
sented as sitting in his " cart," drawn by bucks.

It is quite evident that the images were made of wood.
This is also clearly shown by the descriptions we have of
god-images that were burnt when Christianity was first
introduced.

Several other Thor's hammers are mentioned besides
those placed in the hand of his images. Saxo, for instance,
tells us about King Magnus Nilsson, who fell in the
battle of Fotevik in 11 34, that, while he was waging war
against Sweden, he despoiled a temple of remarkably heav>r

74 The Sun-God' s Axe and Thors Hammer.

Thor hammers made of copper or bronze, with which the
claps of thunder could be imitated, and which from olden
times had been objects of worship,

It is true that Thor is now-a-days thought of merely as
the god of thunder, but that he, like other gods of thunder,
really was a sun god, we gather partly from the fact that
he was called upon, as Adam tells us, when famine was
threatening, — (it belonged to the sun god to grant a good
harvest), — and partly from the peculiarly important part he
played at Yule, that great festival of midwinter. The buck,
Thor's sacred animal, is still of great significance at Christ-
mastide. Many a Christmas cake, or julkiise, has even
now the shape of a buck, and most of us have seen as
children the fur-clady/^/^-^/^^>^ on Christmas Eve. Formerly
it was dressed up in a real buck's head, and in some parts
of Scandinavia it carried a wooden hammer (!), whereby
its connection with Thor becomes still more obvious.

The worship of Thor was not abolished even when
Christianity, after a hard struggle, had finally conquered.
Its roots were too deep to be pulled up at once, — indeed,
they were so deep that much survives even until this day.

Thor experienced the same fate as many other heathen
gods. He lived on partly under his own name, and partly
under that of a saint. In saintly attire he moved from his
/^^ (temple) into the Church.

Thor's worship was continued in the Church by that
of Saint Olaf, who had the fortune to be slain with an
axe at the battle of Sticklastad in 1030. That is why
he is figured with an axe in his hand (Fig. 28). The
people, who had always been accustomed to worship a
^od armed with a hammer, recognised in the image of
Saint Olaf with the axe the mighty Thor. In another
respect, also, the likeness was or became very great.
Thor, the sun god, is described as a red-bearded man.
Olaf also had, or it was imagined that he had, a red beard,
and he was represented with one. Moreover, the images

The Sun-Gocf s Axe and Thors H amine}'. 75

of Olaf and the other saints were carved in wood, just as
those of the old gods had been.

The fact that the worship of Saint Olaf was not, like
that of the Swedish Saint Erik, limited principally to his
own country, shows that there must have been some special
reason for the prominent position he occupied within the
northern Church. Countless images and legends prove that
Olaf was commonly worshipped, not only in Norway, but
in the other northern countries, — in Finland as well as in
Sweden. If the Christian Scandinavians looked upon him
in the same way as their heathen ancestors had looked
upon Thor, we can easily understand why it was so.

Just as people in old days believed that Thor could grant
good harvests, so even in the nineteenth century they have
supposed Olaf to be in possession of the same power.
Stories from the south of Sweden and from Denmark tell
how the peasants were wont to drag the image of Saint Olaf
round the fields after the sowing. The image of Saint
Olaf in Vanga church in Vestergotland was carried round
in that way, in spite of vigorous protests from the clergy.
The peasants had given it the name of the " corn god."

Olaf's axe has, just like Thor's hammer, been used to
consecrate with, the word consecrate being here taken in
its original meaning of hallowing. We have the most
notable example of this use of Olaf's axe in the church
close to Simrishamn in Skane, which is called after him.
The saint carries in his hand a silver axe. On Saint
Olaf's day, the 29th of July, there is a great muster of
people in the church. There they take the axe from the
saint's hand, and rub themselves with it nine times.
After every third time they replace the axe in the hand
of the saint, in order to renew its strength. It is needless
to point out that the numbers three and nine are sacred.

A particularly interesting proof that Olaf is the Christian
heir of Thor is given by the following fact. There is a
little Swedish town still named after Thor, — Torshalla, in

76 The Sun-God's Axe and Thor's Hammer.

old times Torsharg (the sanctuary of Thor). This town
ought to have had the image of Thor in its seal, if towns in
heathen times had possessed any seals. But there were no
seals then; they were not used until the Middle Ages, when
it was impossible to put the image of a heathen god in the
seal. In its stead we find in the seal of Torshalla the image
of Olaf, the saint who had replaced Thor in the popular
belief (Fig, 29). The fact that the saint is represented as
standing in a boat, which is not elsewhere the case, deserves
special attention, because Thor sometimes is figured as
standing in a boat, when he is fishing for Midgdrdsonnen7

Thor has survived the fall both of heathenism and of the
Roman Catholic Church in Sweden. Even to the present
day many traits are preserved in the language, as well as
in popular belief, which show that the ideas formed by
our heathen forefathers of this god are still alive, and that
he was not conceived of merely as a god of thunder, but
was also in other ways considered as enjoying the power
which belongs to the sun god, especially as regards fertility.

Writing about Warend, that old part of Smaland where
so much of the belief and customs of former ages still
remains, Mr. Hylten-Cavallius says,^ — "They still look
upon the thunder as a person whom they call alternately
"Thor" or "Thore-Gud," "Gofar," and "Gobonden." He
is an old red-bearded man. In 1629 a peasant from
Warend was summoned for blasphemy against God. He
had said about the rain,— " If I had the old man down
here I would pull him by the hair on account of this
continual raining." Thus it is Thor that gives the summer
rain, which therefore in Warend is called " Gofar-rain,"
'• Gobonda-rain," or " As-rain." The rumbling of the
thunder is produced by Thor's driving in his chariot
through the clouds. It is therefore called Thorddn after

7 George Stephens, Mdmoires de la SocUte Royale des Antiquaires du Nord,
1884-9, p. 32 (Fig.).

8 Warend och Wirdarne, vol. i. p. 230 (Stockholm, 1863).

The Sim-God's Axe and Thors Hmmner. yy

him. People also say that " Gofar is driving," " Gobonden
is driving," " The Thunder is driving." Thor drives not
only in the air but also on earth. Then they say that
" he is earth-driving." A peasant met him once, when
he was driving like that. He was sitting " in a small
cart drawn by a horse." " Thor has in his hand a bolt
of stone, called Thor's bolt, which is often found in the
ground. Such a Thor's-bolt or Thor's-bolt stone is good
to have in the house as a protection against every kind
of sorcery. Thor throws the bolt after the ogres whose
worst enemy he is. As soon as the thunder is heard,
the ogres hasten to return to their hiding-places. That
is why so many gusts of wind precede a thunderstorm." "

Hylten-Cavallius gives us also some very remarkable
examples, showing how long the memory of Thor has
been kept up. " Even towards the end of the seventeenth
century," he says,^ — " people in Warend used to swear by
Thor—" Yes, Thore-Gud," " No, Thore-Gud." " The most
noticeable trace of our country's older worship of Thor
is that "Thor's day" (Thursday) was still in the nineteenth
century considered as a sacred day, almost as a Sunday.

In the Christian Middle Ages Thor's old spring at
Thorsas was called "Saint Thor's Spring." According
to these ideas the god himself became a Roman Catholic
saint, a Saint Thor! Thor has thus, like other heathen
gods, lived on after the victory of Christianity, not only
disguised as a saint under a different name, but also
under his own name, which was then considered as that
of a saint. In the same way Santa Venere, the holy
Venus, is spoken of in more than one part of Italy.

The veneration for Thor was so common amongst our
forefathers in heathen times that even the Lapps came
to know him. It was not so long ago that they worshipped
a god whom they called Thor or some similar name. He
slew the ogres. The Lapps figured him therefore with a

^ Op. cit, p. 232.

yS The Sun-GocTs Axe and Thorns Hammer.

hammer in his hand. The hammer they called Thor's
hammer, and the rainbow they called Thor's bow, with
which he will shoot and slay all ogres that wish to hurt
them. They further believed that this Thor had people's
health and welfare, life and death, in his power, where-
fore they became very frightened when hearing the
"Thordon." That is why they sacrificed to him, and put
up his image on a sort of primitive altar. The images
were made of birch, — the head of the root, and the body
of the other part, with a hammer in the hand. Fig. 30
shows such a Lapp image of Thor.^*^

It has of course not been possible here to give an
exhaustive account, but the examples I have given
will probably suffice to show that the god of the sun
and that of thunder were originally one and the same
god, that from time out of mind and by widely different
peoples the axe has been considered as the sun-god's
weapon, and that amongst certain peoples it became a
hammer. The idea of Thor's hammer is therefore not
peculiar to the Scandinavians.

In order to get a correct result in this, as in every
other similar enquiry, it is necessary to look far afield.
By doing that we get a view of the connection between
different peoples and different periods which we could
never get in any other way.

It is certainly dangerous to deal with mythological
questions, because we are too easily tempted to leave
the terra firina of scientific investigation and to sink
down into the marshy ground of hypothesis. But the
danger is not so great if, as in the present enquiry, we
endeavour to keep aloof from explanations on which
opinions may differ, and confine ourselves chiefly to the
putting down of facts.

Oscar Montelius.

^^ Gustaf von Diiben, Om Lappland och Lapparne, p. 2S8, Fig. 72, (Stock-
holm, 1S73).

COLLECTANEA.

Manipur Festival.

(With Plate VII.)

The chief interest attaching to certain ceremonies performed in
Manipur on the Bijoya Dhasami, the fourth day of the Durga
Puja, lies in the manner in which customs prevalent before the
conversion of the people to Hinduism have been adapted to the
requirements of the new faith. I will begin by describing the
ceremonies as I have just seen them performed.

The site of the performances is chosen after consultation with the
Panji-sang or College of Soothsayers, who declare which direction
is favourable to the Raja and the State. This year (1909) the west
was declared to be the lucky direction, and so the ceremony took
place at Gwa Kaithel (the Betel-nut Market), two miles from
Imphal on the Silchar Road. The festival is known as the Kivak
Jatra (Crow Festival). About 2 p.m. a procession started from
the palace. First came a long line of litters, each containing some
person of a certain amount of importance, carried by hill men,
some five hundred of whom were summoned for this purpose.
Each worthy was attended by various persons, carrying, one his
hookah, and another his betel-nut dish, or, if the occupant be
entitled to it, an umbrella. Each litter contained a looking-glass,
which the occupant made frequent use of After the litters came
a crowd of spearmen and swordsmen, and the pony of the State
Arrow-thrower, last representative of the dreaded Manipur horse-
men. Behind this motley crew came the Senaputti (Commander-
in-Chief), on an elephant, and behind him came the Raja on
another elephant. All along the route every householder stood at

8o Collectanea.

the gateway of his garden, beside his offering, — a stem of sugar cane
or plantain stuck in a lump of mud, some betel-nut, rice, water,
and sometimes a few pieces of sugar cane and a piece of burning
pine wood. This is said to have been the continuous custom
since the days of the king Khagenba. In the Manipur Chronicle,
under the year a.d. 1628-29, we find, — "He (Khagenba) went to
inspect the village of Laiching, and on this occasion the villagers
throughout the whole route crowded on both sides of the road to
pay respect to their sovereign, and throughout the route the resi-
dents on both sides of the road cleaned the ground in front of their
houses, and planted a plantain tree at each door, and a burning
lamp with some fruits was kept there to worship their king, and
from this time this was the established custom of paying respect to
the king when he was out."

At the site selected some grass sheds facing inwards had been
erected in the form of a hollow square. The Raja and his
following took their seats within, and the spearmen, swordsmen,
and others showed off their skill in the open space in the
centre. Directly the Raja had taken his seat, some five or
six horsemen started off to the scene of the special ceremonies,
which was about a quarter or half a mile further on. For
some months past rice had been daily thrown out under a certain
tree, and consequently a considerable number of crows had
become accustomed to waiting there for their daily meal. When
the horsemen had arrived the rice was thrown down, and the crows
swooped down on it. Then a man with a gun crept up, and
from a few yards' distance fired a blank round. The birds of course
took flight, and the direction of flight of the first bird to rise
decided the future of the Raja and the State for the next year.
The bird took a northerly direction, which was said to foretell
cheap rice.

The following are the interpretations attached to the different
points of the compass : — If the bird flies north-east and then
returns quickly to the rice, extreme good fortune to the Raja;
if north-west, rice and fish will be plentiful ; if west, receipt of
news of wars from other countries; if south-west, worms and
mosquitoes will abound, and the Raja and the people will be ill at
ease ; if south, much sickness and many deaths ; if south-east,

Plate VII.

RAVAN THE TEN-HEADED.

To face p. 80.

Collectanea. 8 1

disturbances in the country, and lives lost in war and by the
attacks of wild beasts ; if east, happiness for the Raja. I have
failed to ascertain why these meanings are attached to the
particular directions.

As soon as the birds had flown, the horsemen galloped off
to inform the Raja. The next performance was the shooting
of Ravan. Ravan, the ravisher of Sita, was represented by ten
be-turbaned earthenware pots placed on a long bar (Plate
VII.). The fifth pot from the right was larger, and from it
depended a white robe. The State police provided the firing
party, each man firing in turn. A hit to count must be on the
bigger pot, or in the region of the heart of the robe. A hit on
the cheeks, throat, chin, or top of the head of the biggest pot, or
in the heart, was considered to presage good luck, while a hit on
the forehead, eyes, or mouth meant misfortune. In case of a hit
on one of the lucky spots, the firer received a reward. While I
was watching, no hits were scored, and, fearing that my presence
might prevent the firers from approaching the figure, I left, and
within a short time a satisfactory hit was achieved. The news was
conveyed to the Raja by the horsemen, and the proceedings
terminated, the procession was reformed, and the Raja returned
to his palace.

The following is the explanation given me, by two of the most
learned pundits in the state : — Pakhangba, the mythical ancestor
of the Manipur Rajas, who is said in the Chronicle "to have
assumed the form of God by day, and by night he used to be
a man," had a son Khui, who rebelled against him, and for a time
was successful, but eventually Khui was slain by his father in
single combat in the palace, and his head cut off. His spirit
entered a certain somewhat rare bird called wakhembam. To
celebrate his victory, Pakhangba instituted a festival on the
anniversary of the fight. Those skilled in warlike exercises
showed off their skill before the Raja, while a wakhembam was
shot at with arrows. In the year a.d. 1726-27, the Raja Gharib
Nawaz, the first convert to Hinduism in spite of his Mohammedan
name, altered the festival to its present form, and ordained that
crows should be substituted for the wakhembam, on account of
their being so common. It is only since this change that the flight

82 Collectanea.

of the birds has been considered prophetic. The crow is supposed
to be a hing-cha-biox witch {king, aUve, cha, to eat), — and therefore
it knows the future, and, being frightened, foretells it. I suppose
the bird which flies first is the most timid, and therefore the most
likely to tell the truth. Gharib Nawaz also instituted the shooting
at Ravan, and combined it with the earlier festival, which is said to
have taken place at about the same time as the Durga Puja.
Gharib Nawaz also had an image of Ramchandra made, and
placed it near to a large tank which he caused to be dug and
consecrated, in the same year as he revised the Kwak Jatra.
Some years back this tank was cleared out, and in the middle
were found the images of Krishna and Kali the submersion of
which is described in the Chronicle. It is interesting to note
that Kali, who, it may be presumed, represented the sculptor's
ideal female, was given the huge earrings which are worn now
only by the hill tribes of Manipur, but, I infer, at that time were
in common use by the Manipuri ladies of the highest degree.

The Manipur story of how Ravan came to have ten heads is
as follows. My Hindu friends say that it is new to them. Bissha
Sharba, afterwards father of Ravan, deserted his wife Nikasha, and
joined certain saints in a forest. After nine months a hostile
influence made itself manifest, and the saints informed Bissha
Sharba that his wife, resenting his prolonged absence, was by
charms interfering with their devotions, and they directed him to
return home. On arrival at his house, Nikasha protested against
his nine months' desertion. On the advice of the saints, Bissha
Sharba gave a certain drink to Nikasha which had the effect of
nullifying the spell she had thrown over them. Before returning
to the forest Bissha Sharba stayed some time with his wife, and in
due time Ravan was born with ten heads, of which one was much
bigger than the others.

By the time of Gharib Nawaz, Khui had come to be looked
on as an arch fiend, and, therefore, to a convert to Hinduism,
it would seem very appropriate to make a festival to commemorate
his defeat, and also to commemorate the defeat of Ravan.

J. Shakespear.

Collectanea. 83

Folk-medicine in the Panjab.

In his Census Report of the Panjab for 1901 (vol. I., pp. 161
et seq.), Mr. H. A. Rose discussed the belief in the inherited
powers of curing disease and working other miracles claimed by
certain sacred clans and persons. This belief he connected with
the theory of the metempsychosis. It more probably results from
the consciousness of the power of heredity. He has now forwarded
a series of notes contributed by several native correspondents,
from which the following extracts have been made.

In Rewari in the Gurgaon District an Ahir, or breeder of cattle,
claims the hereditary gift of being able, by smelling a handful of
earth, to decide, when a well is being sunk, whether it will
produce saline or sweet water, and at what depth the spring
will be found. In the same district several persons assert a
similar power of curing hydrophobia, which is healed by waving
peacocks' feathers over the patient, who is made to look towards
the sun. Then a ball of kneaded rice flour is placed in his
hands, and he is ordered to press it. By and by the hairs of
the mad dog show themselves in the dough, and the venom is
removed. A Brahman professes to cure stomach-ache by making
the sufferer stand behind a wall and place his hand on the
seat of the pain ; the Pandit mutters a spell, and a cure is
effected. In the same way, in the Rohtak District, three mer-
chants claim to be able to cure tumours and other swellings.
Several men in both districts cure snake-bite by reciting sj^ells
and waving a branch of the sacred ni}n tree {Azadirachta indica)
over the sufferer. None of these people take any reward for
their services, — in fact, they will not even smoke in the village
where they attend patients. If they accept a small fee, they
spend it in sweetmeats which they distribute.

In one case among the Jats of Rohtak this healing power
descends in the female line. It is also part of the treatment
that the patient must neither eat nor drink in the healer's village;
if he does so, the charm will fail.

In Gurgaon District the residents of a certain village possess
the hereditary power of curing scrofula and glandular swellings,
a gift conferred on one of their ancestors by a Fakir. They

84 Collectanea.

exercise it by waving a wooden spoon over the patient. Others
cure pains in the side by drawing lines with a knife on the
ground near the sick man, who is ordered in return for the
cure to dig a certain amount of earth out of the bed of
the village tank, and to distribute sweetmeats as a thankoffering.
Children in both the Rohtak and Gurgaon Districts are said
to suffer from a mysterious disease attributed to displacement
of the rib bones. The healer cures this malady either by an
application of charmed ashes, or he sucks the affected part, —
with the result that blood and pus flow from his mouth, though
no wound is visible on the body of the patient.

In the Rohtak District a Brahman cures pains, apparently
rheumatic, in the following way. He takes the sufferer outside
the village, heats three or four iron scythes in the fire, dips
them in oil, and then flings them aside. On this the patient
is directed to run away, without looking back, until he reaches
the boundary of the village, when the pain disappears.

In the Gurgaon District boils on the leg joints are cured by
touching them with the toe of a child born by the foot pre-
sentation. Both sexes possess this power, but it can be exercised
only on Saturday or Sunday. Enlargement of the spleen is cured
by laying the patient on the ground, where he is held by four
persons and prevented from moving. Several layers of coarse
cloth are placed over the spleen, and on this a lump of clay
upon which fire is placed. The clay is sometimes replaced
by a thin wooden board which is rubbed with a blazing stick
so as to be slightly marked. After the recital of a charm a
small boil appears on the diseased part, and a cure is effected.
This prescription is said to have been given by a Fakir long
ago. One form of cattle plague, known as Chhabka, is cured
by catching an insect of the same name. The healer makes a
small cut in one of his fingers, rubs the insect on the wound,
and thus gains the faculty of healing by touch. It is a condition
of working these charms that the practitioner should receive no
remuneration.

In the Hissar District diseases are cured by what is known
as jhdrd (" blowing of spells "). A brass pan containing a little
oil and one and a quarter pice (small copper coins) is placed

Collectanea. 85

upon the abdomen of the patient; charms are recited, and the
diet of the sick man is carefully restricted for fifteen days.
This prescription was also given by a Fakir long ago ; it is
effective only if done on Saturday night or Sunday morning.
Members of a family of Mohammedan blacksmiths effect cures
by drawing three lines with ashes on the right arm of the patient.

One man in the Jhilam District says that he cures toothache
and ringworm by reciting spells which he learned some years
ago from a negro cook in East Africa, — a curious example of
the importation of folklore. A person in Amritsar cures hydro-
phobia by treatment taught to his grandfather by a grateful Sikh
ascetic. His method is to recite charms seven or eleven times
over a little water with which he doses his patient. When he
is informed of a case of snakebite, he slaps the messenger on
the face with his hand, and gives him a little charmed pepper
which is to be administered. In cases of toothache he recites
a charm over a knife, and sticks it in the ground or buries it
while the sufferer sits concealed by a curtain. Another healer
cures hydrophobia by writing some magical characters on a
piece of bread which the patient eats. The cure is finished by
making him walk (? in the course of the sun) twice or thrice
round a mosque.

In Ludhiana District persons suffering from snake-bite are
brought to the shrine of Guga, the snake god.^ Some earth
is dug from the god's tank, on which the patient is laid. He
falls asleep, and sees a vision that ensures his cure.^

In the Salt Range cattle are healed by a person who walks
round them reciting thrice certain verses from the Koran, and
blowing towards the animals, and on water in an earthen cup
which he holds in his hands. The sacred volume is then wrapped
in cloth, hung over the street, and the cattle are driven under it
and sprinkled with the holy water. In the same locality members
of the Khichi sept of Rajputs charm away hail by walking round
the spring crops, blowing over them, and reciting charms. If hail

^ Cf. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of N. India, vol. i, pp. 211
et seq.

^ Cf. the eyKoifiTjiJLS practised at Greek shrines of Asklepios ; Harrison, Fro-
legomeiia to the Study of Greek Religion, pp. 343 et seq. ; Hamilton, Incubation.

86 Collectanea.

does fall, after this rite, it is a sign that the charmer was
impure. They are said to have gained this power from the
saint Sayyid Muhammadi, whose tomb is venerated at Bhera.
Descendants of another saint. Shah Bilawal, cure hydrophobia
by blowing charms on salt. The healer sits on a raised seat,
and stretches out his legs ; the sick man is passed under him,
and eats the holy salt. Another healer cures guinea-worm,
scrofula, swollen glands, and boils by sitting in a mosque with
the sick person lying on a cot before him. He recites charms,
and waves a wand of the date or other tree. Another family
gained the gift of healing because their ancestor once released
the hair of a noted Fakir which had become entangled in a
tree. In his gratitude the holy man conferred on his benefactor
a cure for guinea-worm by reading a charm and marking lines
on the patient's body. His descendants give the sufferer a
charmed slip of paper, which he continues to stare at while
the healer makes lines on the affected limb. Another worthy
cures pains in the loins by giving the sick man a kick in that
region.

In the Jhilam District some people cure inflamed eyes by
hanging an amulet round the waist and giving pills. They also
know charms effective to free a person from the influence of
evil spirits. In the case of a bite of a dog they draw a line
with an iron rod round the wound to prevent the poison from
spreading. At Datiya jaundice is cured by invoking the seven
daughters of the Lord Siva and giving the patient some
charmed lentils. The healer, if his charm is to work, must
not practise it during the Holi or spring festival, the Divili
or feast of lamps, or an eclipse, or immediately after his return
from a funeral. The charm must be recited three times while
the patient is fumigated with incense.

Queensland Corroboree Songs.

\Comt7iu7iicated by Air. R. R. Marett.^

The following four Corroboree Songs, spelt phonetically in the
Goorang-Goorang dialect, were obtained by Mr. R. B. B. Clayton,

Collectanea,

Moon Creek, Upper Burnett River, Queensland, about the years
1863-5. The musical notation is by Miss I. S. Clayton.

No. I.

1=?;=*:

-■ii-wt

3^^

^ P *

Yar yung-ein mar-ar moon-ie yung-ein mar - ar ce-leen-bar ar

p P W-

T^ WW

itz

ce-leen-bar ar ce-leen-bar ar Joo vari yung-ein mar-ar

rS^

-p p J

liariz*

ce-leen-bar ar ar Joo - 00 - vari yar yung-ein mar-ar moonie

No. 11.

A-P-m-^

# — •— • — a-

m ^~|~ I I — ^

^«=P=

milearah vun - gah tooey bithera beera too

#^^=fTr^^^?jfe

1=21

-LJ-y

-W-U^

varina bithera berra anama - danava ar ar

Merah anadadanava ava our our

^^TTT"

:ti:

P-"~^ o'

?^:^g^

Merah anamadanava our anama - danava our iddlety way.

No. III.

-w~w^w—w^

V \V \f

at=3trt*z*:

-M r^ ^ ^-

-»s^S 4

Animularine

P P p \f

mong aliong Animularine mong

P f P f

z-g-

^^^-trf

=^=t^

aliong. Amarabula

la clang

Amarabula

Collectanea.

^^^lE

'W~W P • ft-V^

"^^ "^ V \f

clang.

Animularine

mong aliong

^Si=

-^-

^^^=^

Amarabula

la clang Animularine mong aliong.

No. IV.

-H-

i> 1

1 y ^ 1

^:3-|

rTf-

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Bundar Boomerah lar

Bundar Boomerah lar.

Scraps of Scottish Folklore, I.

Aberdeenshire.
On two occasions of marriage on Lower Deeside, one being that
of the uncle of my informant, forty -five years ago, the bridegroom
was followed from the place in which the wedding took place
by a procession of couples, the first pair of which were two young
men, who walked close behind the newly married man holding
behind him by the upper corners a sheet or other white cloth at
about the height of his shoulders. They followed thus for a
distance, keeping the cloth in the same position as if they were
guarding him from a draught. Was this to prevent his shadow
from being trodden upon?

About 6o years ago, an old man living on Lower Deeside had
an attack of a feverish affection locally known as " the sleeping
fever," and his wife took a number of stones and heated them
red hot in the ashes of a low peat fire. She then carried them
in a pot still surrounded by glowing embers to the ford, and
dropped them in one by one. The ford carried the road to the

Collectanea. 89

churchyard through the stream, and my informant declares that
this was a necessary condition to success.

The affairs of a small farmer in Crathie (West Aberdeenshire)
fifty years ago were in a bad way. There was disease among his
stock and ill-health in his household. A friend who came to
sympathize with the man noticed that the barnyard fowls were
mostly of the black Minorca breed. As soon as he noted the
fact he advised his friend to get rid of the last one of them, and
to supply their places by white-feathered birds, — an advice which
the farmer followed as speedily as possible. Soon things began
to mend, and in a short time all was prosperous. Neither
argument nor sarcasm could thereafter move the old man from
his faith in the virtue of his " white birds."

Durris, by Aberdeen. A. Macdonald.

Argyllshire.

A pair of scissors is a lucky present to receive ; it means " We
part to meet again."

If a pair of scissors, a knife, or a needle falls to the floor
and sticks in an upright position, an unexpected guest will
arrive ere long.

A needle broken in two while sewing brings good fortune to the
wearer of the article sewn ; if in three pieces an offer of marriage.

If you mend your clothes while wearing them, you will be
slandered.^

If a girl's stocking wrinkles and refuses to remain " pulled up,"
her lover is thinking of her.

To open an umbrella in the house brings misfortune.^

To put your shoes on the table signifies that you will quarrel
with someone in the house.

A girl who sits on a table will never be married.

The lady who takes the last piece of bread on the plate will
marry a rich man.

If a glass is accidentally broken during a marriage feast, it
foretells misfortune to the bridal pair, but, when the health of
bride and bridegroom is drunk, someone must throw a glass
over their shoulder and break it " for luck."

^ Cf. Worcestershire, vol. xx., p. 346. ^Cf. Worcestershire, vol. xx., p. 345..

■90 Collectanea.

When a glass breaks of itself, it signifies sudden death.

If two persons unintentionally begin to say the same thing at
once, they will die together.

A robin coming into a house foretells death.

A cock crowing at the door brings hasty news.

Moths round a candle tell of a visit from a stranger.

Never let your tears drop on a corpse, or harm will befall you.

If a child be born with a caul, he or she will possess " second
sight," and will never be drowned.

When I was a child we had a Highland gardener named Hugh
Gillies, who told us many stories of fairies and kelpies, amongst
which the tale that pleased us most was the following account
how his mother, whom we remembered, was carried off by the
fairies and kept by them for two months : —

When Hugh and his brothers and sisters were very young,
their father and mother did not live very happily together, and
another man, whom I will call Donald, often came to see their
mother when their father was not at home, so that after a time
people began to talk and someone told the father, who swore
to punish his wife if he ever saw her speaking to Donald again.
Soon after this the autumn market was held at the little village
of Ford at the foot of Loch Awe. To this market Mrs. Gillies
went, and the gossips saw her in earnest talk with Donald late
in the afternoon. That night Mrs. Gillies did not return
home, and her husband, believing that she had fled with
Donald, walked from his home in Kilmartin Glen the twelve
miles up Loch Awe side to Donald's home, but, though he
searched the house and neighbourhood thoroughly, no trace
of his wife could be found. He had the place and Donald
carefully watched, but neither he nor the neighbours obtained
the slightest clue to the whereabouts of the missing woman.
Yet every night, after the household had gone to bed, she
used to come and "red up" (tidy) the house, lay the fire
ready for kindling the next morning, and brush and comb the
children's hair. Hugh distinctly remembered being roused out
of sleep night after night by his mother lifting him on to her
dap while she "did his hair."

For nearly two months this state of affairs continued, and then.

Collectanea. 9 1

one morning, as Gillies was passing throun;h a big wood some
way from his home, on his way to work, he heard his wife
calling him. Following the sound of her voice he came to a
large hazel bush, but, as he could see no one, he was turning
away when from the middle of the bush came again his wife's
voice. He felt very frightened, for he thought it must be her
ghost, but he asked what she wanted. " I am tired," replied
his wife, " and want to come home, but I am naked and cannot
get quit of the fairies until I am clothed. Fetch me a smock
to-morrow morning, and hang it on this bush just when the sun
rises, but you must not try to see me, or the fairies will hide
me so that I can never find my way back." The next morning
at sunrise Gillies hung the smock on the bush, and, as he was
turning away from the place, his wife called out to him to bring
her another garment, and each morning she asked for something
more until he had brought everything she needed. The last
thing he brought was his wife's " mutch " (white cap), and, when
he was turning to leave the wood, she called to him to go straight
home at once, to speak to no one on the way, and not to turn
his head either to the right or to the left. If he did as she told
him, he would find her at home when he got there. Hugh always
declared that his father ran nearly all the way home, and, when
he reached the house, his wife was seated by the fire with the
children round her, brushing the baby's hair and talking to them
as if she had never been away at all. From that day she
remained at home as other people did, but she would never
tell anyone anything of how she had lived during those two
months or of what she had seen or done while she lived with
the "wee folk," and to the day of her death she was always
looked upon as being " fey."

Minnie Cartwright,

Kirkcudbrightshire.

In Castle-Douglas, it is believed that if two plants of cock's
head ^ are put by a happy lover under a stone, and flower there-
after, he or she will be married ; if not, not. An old woman of

^ From the specimen forwarded this appears to be the plant Plantago
lanceolata.

92 Collectanea.

nearly eighty tells me that the same meadow plant is called
"Adam and Eve" as well as "cock's heads," and is used to
divine the name of the future partner as follows : There are two
varieties, a light and a dark. A woman divines with the dark,
and a man with the light variety. The plant is pulled up by the
root, laid under a sclate (slate or flat stone), and left all night.
Next morning, if the root be examined, the initial letter will be
found of the name of the future husband or wife.

Glasgow University. H. M. B. Reid.

Lanarkshire.

The following appeared under the heading "An Ancient Custom
at Lanark" in the Scotsman for March 2nd, 1909 :

" The ancient honoured custom known as ' Whuppity Scoorie'
was celebrated by the youth of Lanark last night, and was
witnessed by a crowd of several hundred people. The origin of
the custom is unknown, but is generally supposed to herald the
entrance of spring. From the months of October to February the
town bell in the steeple is not tolled at six o'clock in the evening,
but during the other months it rings at that hour daily. On the
first day of March, when the bell is rung for the first time after its
five months' silence, the boys of the town congregate at the Cross
with a bonnet to which a piece of string is attached, and so soon as
the first peal of the bell rings out the parish church is walked
round three times, and thereafter a dash is made to meet the boys
of New Lanark. On their meeting there is a stand-up fight, the
weapons used being the stringed bonnets. This procedure was
followed last night, and about seven o'clock the boys returned
and paraded the principal streets singing their victx>rious refrain."

David Rorie.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Sale of Salvage Stock to Members of the Society.

It will be seen from the Council's Annual Report (supra, p. ii)
that a considerable portion of the Society's stock of bound and
unbound volumes has been damaged by water, and that the
salvage stock is now in the possession of the Society.

The Society's volumes, so far as the stock was not exhausted,
have hitherto been obtainable by members only on payment of
their subscription of one guinea for the year of publication, and
by the general pubhc on payment of the higher prices set out in
the prospectus of the Society. A few bound copies of certain
of the volumes, quite free from any defect, can still be obtained
on these terms by members through the Secretary, and by the
general public through the Society's publisher.

The Council have carefully considered the disposal of the
salvage stock by destruction or otherwise, and, thinking that
many members would be glad to complete their sets of volumes
by the addition of working copies at a low price, have ordered
the damaged volumes to be collated, cleaned, and rebound.

This work is being done, and a list of the volumes available
is appended, with notes of a few of the principal contents of the
volumes of the Journal. As the cost of handling the salvage will
be very heavy, it is hoped that members will avail themselves
liberally of this opportunity of purchase, and so benefit themselves
and recoup the Society for its expenditure. The volumes, bound
to correspond with the rest of the Society's publications, are
offered at the uniform price of four shillings each, carriage free,
and are sold not subject to return. With the exception of copies

94 Correspondence.

of The Folk-Lore Record (1878-82), which in some cases want
the title-page and index, the whole of the volumes are guaranteed
complete ; but many of them are more or less water-stained,
and the Council do not hold themselves responsible for the
condition of any.

In order to protect the value of the undamaged copies, all
volumes sold at the above greatly reduced price will be marked
on the title-page " Salvage."

Orders for salvage copies must be accompanied by cheque or
P.O.O., and should be addressed to Mr. C J. Tabor (The White
House, Knotts Green, Leyton, Essex), who, with the assistance
of Dr. Hildburgh, has kindly undertaken to superintend the
despatch of the volumes.

Charlotte S. Burne, President.

LIST OF VOLUMES.

1. The Folk-Lore Record, Vol. I. Mrs. Latham: West

Sussex Superstitions. W. R. S. Ralston : Notes on Folktales.
A. Lang : The Folklore of France. C. Pfoundes : Some
Japan Folktales. W. J, Thoms : Chaucer's Night-Spell,
pp. xvi, 252.

2. Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of

England and the Borders, by William Henderson. A
new edition, with considerable additions by the Author,
pp. xvii, 391.

3. The Folk-Lore Record, Vol. IL H. C. Coote : The Neo-

Latin Fay. J. Sibree : Malagasy Folklore. J. Hardy :
Popular History of the Cuckoo. J. Napier : Old Ballad
Folklore. F. G. Fleay : Some Folklore from Chaucer. The
Story of Conn-Eda. pp. viii, 250; Appendix, pp. 21.
5-6. The Folk-Lore Record, Vol. III. H. C. Coote : Catskin.
J. Fenton : Biographical Myths ; illustrated from the Lives
of Buddha and Muhammad. J. B. Andrews : Stories from
Mentone ; Ananci Stories. J. Long : Proverbs, English and
Celtic. J. S. Udal : Dorsetshire Mummers. H. C. Coote :
Indian Mother-Worship. G. Stephens : Two English Folk-
tales. W. S. Lach-Szyrma : Folklore Traditions of Historical

Correspondence. 95

Events. Evelyn Carrington : Singing Games. H. C. Coote :
Folklore the Source of some of M. Galland's tales, pp. 318 ;
Appendix, pp. 20.
7. Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-east of Scotland.

By the Rev. Walter Gregor. pp. xii, 288.

9. Researches respecting the Book of Slndibad. By Pro-

fessor Domenico Comparetti. pp. viii, 167. — Portuguese
Folk-Tales. By Professor Z. Consiglieri Pedroso, of Lisbon ;
with an Introduction by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. pp. ix, 124.

10. The Folk-Lore Record, Vol. V. Alfred Nutt: Mabi-
nogion Studies, I. Branwen, the daughter of Llyr. R. C.
Temple : Agricultural Folklore Notes (India). Mrs. Mawer :
Roumanian Folklore Notes. G. L. Gomme : Bibliography
of English Folklore Publications (A— B). R. Clark : Wex-
ford Folklore. North American Indian Legends and Fables,
pp. 229.

12. Folk Medicine. By W. G. Black, pp. iii, 228.

14. Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. II. J. Abercromby : Irish Stories ;
Irish Bird-Lore. J. Britten : Irish Folktales. Ed. Clodd :
The Philosophy of Punchkin. H. C. Coote : Sicilian Chil-
dren's Games ; The Folklore of Drayton. W. Gregor : Folk-
tales from Aberdeenshire. W. H. Jones and L. Kropf:
Szekely Folk-Medicine. G. A. Kinahan : Connemara Folk-
lore. Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco : American Games
and Songs. F. E. Sawyer : Sussex Tipteerer's Play ; Old
Clem Celebrations. J. Sibree : Malagasy Folktales. R. C
Temple : Burmese Ordeals, pp. 409.

16. Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. III. C. S. Burne : The Science

of Folklore. H. C. Coote : Origin of the Robin Hood Epos.
G. L. Gomme : The Science of Folklore. W. Gregor : Some
Folklore of the Sea. E. S. Hartland : The Science of Folk-
lore ; The Forbidden Chamber. T. H. Moore: Chilian
Popular Tales. Rich. Morris : Folktales of India (Jatakas).
R. C. Temple: North Indian Proverbs, pp. 412.

17. Folk-Lore and Provincial Names of British Birds. By

the Rev. C. Swainson. pp. viii, 243.

18. Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. IV. C. S. Burne : Classification
of Folklore ; Staffordshire Guiser's Play. W. Gregor : Folk-

96 Correspondence.

lore of the Sea ; Children's Amusements. E. S. Hartland :
The Outcast Child. G. H. Kinahan : Donegal Superstitions.
Rich. Morris: Folktales of India. R. C Temple: The
Science of Folklore, pp. 380.

[13.] Magyar Folk-Tales. By the Rev. W. H. Jones and
Lewis H. Kropf. pp. Ixxii, 438.

19. Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. V. W. H. Babcock: American
Song-Games. W. G. Black : North Friesland Folktales.
C. P. Bowditch : Negro Songs from Barbados. J. G. Frazer :
A Witch's Ladder. M. Gaster : The Modern Origin of Fairy
Tales. J. S. King : Folklore of the Western Somali Tribes.
W. F. Kirby : The Forbidden Doors of the Thousand and
One Nights. C. G. Leland : The Witch's Ladder. N. G.
Mitchell Innes : Chinese Birth, Marriage, and Death Rites.
G. Taylor : Folklore of Aboriginal Formosa, pp. 384.

25. Gaelic Folk-Tales. Edited and translated by the Rev. D.
Mclnnes, with Notes by Alfred Nutt. pp. xx, 497.

27. Folk-Lore, Vol. I. A. Lang : Presidential Address ;
English and Scotch Fairy Tales. J. Abercromby : Magic
Songs of the Finns; Marriage Customs of the Mordvins.
A. C. Haddon : Legends from Torres Straits. W. Ridge-
way : Greek Trade Routes to Britain. E. S. Hartland :
Peeping Tom and Lady Godiva. F. York Powell : Recent
Research on Teutonic Mythology. J. G. Frazer : Some
Popular Superstitions of the Ancients. G. L. Gomme :
A Highland Folktale and its Foundation in Usage. S.
Schechter : The Riddles of Solomon in Rabbinic Literature.
J. H. S. Lockhart : Notes on Chinese Folklore ; The
Marriage Ceremonies of the Manchus. P. Kowalewsky :
Marriage among the Early Slavs. W. A. Clouston : The
Story of the Frog Prince. pp. 563 ; Appendix, pp.

123-54-
58. Folk-Lore, Vol. II. G. L. Gomme: Presidential Address. J.
Abercromby : Magic Songs of the Finns. M. Gaster : The
Legend of the Grail. W. Gregor : The Scotch Fisher
Child; Weather Folklore of the Sea. A. Nutt: An Early
Irish Version of the Jealous Stepmother and the Exposed
Child. Mrs. M, C. Balfour : Legends of the Lincolnshire

Correspondence. 97

Cars. J. Abercromby : An Amazonian Custom in the
Caucasus. J. Rhys : Manx Folklore and Superstitions. J.
Sibree : The Folklore of Malagasy Birds. J. G. Bourke :
Notes upon the Religion of the Apache Indians, pp. 528,
xlviii.

29. The Denham Tracts, Vol. I. Edited by Dr. James

Hardy, pp. xi, 367.

30. Folk-Lore, Vol. III. G. L. Gomme : Presidential Address.
A. Nutt : The Lai of Eliduc and the Marchen of Little
Snow-white. J. Abercromby : Magic Songs of the Finns ;
Samoan Tales; An Analysis of certain Finnish Myths of
Origin. W. Gregor : Guardian Spirits of Wells and Lochs.
J. Rhys : Manx Folklore and Superstitions ; " First Foot " in
the British Isles. E. S. Hartland : The Sin-Eater. J. Sibree :
Divination among the Malagasy. J. Macdonald : Bantu
Customs and Legends. C. J. Billson : The Easter Hare.
Whitley Stokes : The Bodleian Dinnschenchas, edited and
translated. M. L. Dames : Balochi Tales, pp. 584, xii.

31. Cinderella. Three hundred and forty-five variants. Edited
by Miss M. Roalfe Cox. pp. Ixxx, 535.

32. Folk-Lore, Vol. IV. G. L. Gomme : Presidential Address.
J. Abercromby: Magic Songs of the Finns. J. Rhys : Sacred
Wells in Wales. E. S. Hartland : Pin-Wells and Rag-Bushes.
A. Nutt : Cinderella and Britain. L. L. Duncan : Folklore
Gleanings from County Leitrim. M. L. Dames : Balochi
Tales. May Robinson and M. J. Walhouse : Obeah Worship
in East and West Indies. W. A. Craigie : The Oldest
Icelandic Folklore. J. Jacobs: Cinderella in Britain. G.
Hastie, Jas. E. Crombie : First Footing. A. C. Haddon : A
Batch of Irish Folklore. A. Lang : Cinderella and the
Diffusion of Tales. Whitley Stokes : The Edinburgh Dinn-
schenchas. R. H. Codrington : Melanesian Folklore,
pp. 552, xii.

33. Saxo-Grammaticus. Books I.-IX. Translated by Oliver
Elton, with introduction by Professor York Powell, pp.
cxxvii, 435.

34. Folk-Lore, Vol. V. G. L. Gomme : Presidential Address.

W. H. D. Rouse : Religious Tableaux in Italian Churches.

98 Correspondence.

F. Favvcett : Early Races of South India. C. S. Burne :
Guy Fawkes on the South Coast. F. York Powell : Saga-
Growth. E. Anichkof: St. Nicolas and Artemis. W. P.
Ker : The Roman van Walewein. L. L. Duncan : Further
Notes from County Leitrim. A. W. Moore : Water and
Well-Worship in Man. M. J. Walhouse : Ghostly Lights.
K. Meyer: The Irish Mirabilia in the Norse Speailum Regale.
A. C. Haddon : Legends from the Woodlarks, British New
Guinea, pp. 367, xx.

35. Denham Tracts, Vol. II. pp. xi, 396.

36. Folk-Lore, Vol. VI. E. Clodd : Presidential Address.

A. J. Evans : The RoUright Stones and their Folklore. T.
Walters : Some Corean Customs and Notions. W. W.
Groome : Suffolk Leechcraft. A. E. Crawley : Taboos of
Commensality. R. C. Maclagan : Notes on Folklore Objects
collected in Argyleshire. M. MacPhail : Traditions, Customs,
and Superstitions of the Lewis. W. H. D. Rouse : Notes
from Syria. J. P. Lewis : Folklore from North Ceylon.
J. E. Crombie : Shoe-throwing at Weddings. C. J. Billson :
Folksongs in the Kalevala. H. F. Feilberg: Hopscotch as
played in Denmark. The "Witch-burning" at Clonmel.

pp. 43o> ™-

37. County Folk Lore. Printed Extracts. Vol. I. Glouces-
tershire, Suffolk, Leicester, and Rutland, pp. 58, xv,

202, vi, 153.

38. Folk-Lore, Vol. VIL E. Clodd: Presidential Address.

B. G. Corney : Leprosy Stones in Fiji. F. C. Conybeare :
The Barlaam and Josaphat Legend in the Ancient Georgian
and Armenian Literatures. W. H. D. Rouse : Folklore
Firstfruits from Lesbos. L. L. Duncan : Fairy Beliefs, etc.,
from County Leitrim ; The Quicken Tree of Dubhross. M.
Gaster ; Fairy Tales from inedited Hebrew MSS. of the
Ninth and Twelfth Centuries. J. Abercromby : Funeral
Masks in Europe. C. S. Burne : Staffordshire Folk and
their Lore. pp. 434, xii.

39. The Procession and Elevation of the Ceri at Gubbio.

By H. M. Bower, pp. xi, 146. Illus.

40. Folk-Lore, Vol. VIII. A. Nutt: Presidential Address.

Correspondence. 99

T. Doherty : Notes on the Peasantry of Innishowen, Co.
Donegal. H. Gollancz : The History of Sindban and the
Seven Wise Masters, translated from the Syriac. R. E.
Dennett : Death and Burial of the Fiote. Mary H.
Kingsley : The Fetish View of the Human Soul. R. C.
Maclagan: Ghost Lights of the West Highlands. W. P.
Ker : Notes on Orendel and other Stories. P. Manning :
Some Oxfordshire Seasonal Festivals. W. Crooke : The
Binding of a God : a Study of the Basis of Idolatry, pp.
434, xii.

41. Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Fjort (French Congo).
By R. E. Dennett, pp. xxxii, 169.

42. Folk-Lore, Vol, IX. A. Nutt : Presidential Address. F.
Sessions : Some Syrian Folklore. W. Crooke : The Wooing
of Penelope. F. H, Groome : Tobit and Jack the Giant-
killer. E. S. Hartland : The " High Gods " of Australia.
Mary C. Ffennell : The Shrew Ash in Richmond Park,
pp. 411, xii.

44. Folk-Lore, Vol. X. A. Nutt : Presidential Address. A.

Lang and E. S. Hartland : Australian Gods. G. L. Gomme
and A. Nutt: Ethnological Data in Folklore, W. H. D.
Rouse : Folklore from the Southern Sporades ; Christmas
Mummers at Rugby. C. Hill-Tout : Sqaktktquaclt, the
Cannes of the Ntlakapamuq. A. Goodrich-Freer : The
Powers of Evil in the Outer Hebrides. A. Werner : The
Tar-Baby Story. W, G, Aston : Japanese Myth. J. B.
Jevons : The Place of Totemism in the Evolution of
Religion. R. C. Temple : The Folklore in the Legends
of the Panjab. pp. 520, xiii.

45. County Folk-Lore, Vol. II. Printed Extracts, No. 4.

Examples of Printed Folklore concerning the North Riding
of Yorkshire, York, and the Ainsty, Collected and edited
by Mrs, Gutch. pp. xxxix, 447,
4C. Folk-Lore, Vol. XI. E. S. Hartland : Presidential Address,
W. Crooke : The Legend of Krishna, M. Gaster : Two
Thousand Years of a Charm against the Child-stealing
Witch. R. R. Marett: Pre-animistic Religion, N, W,
Thomas : Animal Superstitions and Totemism. H, M.

I oo Correspondence.

Chadwick : The Ancient Teutonic Priesthood. A. H. Sayce :
Cairene Folklore, pp. 501, xv.

47. The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire, compiled
by R. C. Maclagan. pp. vii, 270. lUus.

48. Folk-Lore, Vol. XII. E. S. Hartland : Presidential Address.
Eleanor Hull : Old Irish Tabus or Geasa ; The Silver Bough
in Irish Legend. E. F. im Thurn : Games of the Red Men
of Guiana. Mabel Peacock : The Folklore of Lincolnshire.
Ella C. Sykes : Persian Folklore. S. O. Addy : Garland Day
at Castleton. pp. 559, xv.

49. County Folk-Lore, Vol. III. Printed Extracts, No. 5.
Examples of Printed Folklore concerning the Orkney and
Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black, and edited by
N. W. Thomas, pp. xi, 277.

50. Folk-Lore, Vol. XIII. E. W. Brabrook: Presidential
Address. A. Goodrich Freer : More Folklore from the
Hebrides. M. Gaster : The Letter of Toledo. W. Skeat :
Malay Spiritualism. W. Crooke : The Lifting of the Bride.
M, Longworth Dames : Balochi Folklore. A. Lang : The
Origin of Totem Names and Beliefs. A. Lang : Australian
Marriage Systems, pp. 491, xv.

51. Folklore of the Musquakie Indians with a Catalogue
of a Collection of Musquakie Beadwork and other
objects. By Miss M. A. Owen. pp. vii, 147. Illus.

52. Folk-Lore, Vol. XIV. E. W. Brabrook: Presidential
Address. E. S. Hartland: The Voice of the Stone of
Destiny. H. A. Junod : Folklore of the Ba-Thonga. M.
Longworth Dames : Folklore of the Azores. A. Lang :
Notes on Ballad Origins. F. T. Elworthy : A Solution of
the Gorgon Myth. J. J. Atkinson and A. Lang : The
Natives of New Caledonia. A. B. Cook : Greek Votive
Offerings. A. J. Peggs : The Aborigines of Roebuck Bay,
Western Australia. Sh. Macdonald : Old-World Survivals
in Ross-shire, pp. 485, xvi.

53. County Folk-Lore, Vol. IV. Printed Extracts, No. 6.
Examples of Printed Folklore concerning Northumberland,
collected by M. C. Balfour, and edited by N. W. Thomas,
pp. XV, 180.

Correspondence. loi

54. Folk-Lore, Vol. XV. E. York Powell: Presidential
Address. Eleanor Hull: The Story of Deirdre. Arthur
and Gorlagon, translated by F. A. Milne, with Notes by
A. Nutt. R. Marett : From Spell to Prayer. A. B. Cook :
The European Sky-God. J. Rendel Harris : Notes from
America, pp. 528, xvi.

Transactions of the Second International Folk-Lore
Congress, 1891. Edit, by J. Jacobs and A. Nutt. pp.
xxix, 472.

The Future Work of the Folk-Lore Society.

I am heartily in agreement with the President in the desire to
make the collection of British (including Scottish and Irish) folk-
lore assume a more prominent place in the work of the Folk-Lore
Society. If this is not our sole object of existence, it is, at least,
our prime and chief duty, and the one that lies to our hand. It
is, too, I feel sure, the direction in which foreign workers would
naturally look to us for help.

Personally I should be inclined, until our work at home is done,
or being done, to exclude even European folklore, and to become
for a time rigidly insular and local, centralizing all our efforts on
the collection and arrangement of our own material. (This, of
course, applies only to separate volumes ; I should be sorry if any
matter whatever that comes rightly under the head of folklore
were excluded from our meetings or from publication in Folk-Lore.)
When we have issued a complete series of county and provincial
collections, we can then, and then only, afford to expend our
energies on foreign work, which it rightly belongs to other
countries to carry out.

I am also of opinion that general studies on the wider aspects
of folklore, however valuable they may be in themselves, are not
the sort of publications suitable for issue by our Society. Neither
do I think that translations or re-publications come within our
scope. I think that we should husband our resources for the
publication of new material. But I should not exclude, but rather
welcome, material gathered in our own islands that is grouped

I o 2 Correspondence.

round a special subject and where the author's or editor's part
is confined to notes and introduction. I am thinking of such a
book as Anatole Le Braz' Llgende de la Mort en Basse-Bretagne,
in which a large body of customs and stories connected with
the idea of Death and revenants is brought together, not for
the purpose of urging a special theory, but in order to present the
whole material to the judgment of the reader. It is the material^
not the conclusions, that should occupy our thoughts in contem-
plating any publication. I even doubt whether the Society ought to
make itself responsible for the opinions of any individual member,
as it does to a certain extent in publishing under its authority a
general treatise.

Eleanor Hull.

In recommending the utilization of folklore for filling in the
details of the historic culture record, the President not only
recalls us to a too-much-forgotten part of our work, but points
out the way to enlist the support of many local antiquarian-
minded people who have little taste for either pre-history or for
savage anthropology. Working on the lines she suggests, we
can appeal to numbers of such local antiquaries who have hitherto
stood aloof, and I sincerely hope that the Council will back
up her initiative.

At the same time, one must recognize that in this direction
the rdle of folklore study is a subordinate, an auxiliary one. Take
the Castleton garland practice, for example. Miss Burne's inter-
pretation is only rendered possible by the fact that not only
is the general history of the country at the period well-known,
but also the special history of the district. If we did not know
about Cryer's tenure of the vicarage, we could not guess it from
the practice itself; nor, in the absence of such special know-
ledge, would acquaintance with the general history of England
be sufficient to justify such an interpretation. But, as it is, the
three sets of facts work harmoniously together, and produce a
given result, and that a vivid realization of the past and a sense
of its human-ness which the historic research alone would fail
to give.

A. NUTT.

Correspondence. 1 03

The West Riding Teachers' Anthropological Society,

The West Riding County Council holds a yearly "Vacation
Course" at Scarborough for teachers in primary and secondary
schools, and at the session of August, 1909, an attempt was made
to emphasise the importance of anthropological study as part of
the teacher's professional equipment. An evening lecture was
given, and attended by nearly four hundred students ; two dis-
cussion classes were held, one on anthropometric and colour-
survey work, and the other on the collection of local folklore ;
and Tylor's Anthropology and Haddon's Study of Man were read
by a considerable number of the students.

The result was that a small Anthropological Society was set on
foot. At present there are nine members ; the lecturer acts as
secretary and issues a " Monthly Letter," which is typewritten and
circulated by the Education Department of the West Riding
County Council, and with this is generally included a 'special
supplement' consisting of printed matter dealing with anthro-
pology, archaeology, or folklore. For example, the members
have received (through the kindness of Mr. Sidney Hartland and
others) the Form of Schedule for an Ethnographical Survey issued
by the British Association, and Notes explanatory of the Sche-
dule ; a paper on the Hair and Eye Colour of School Children in
Surrey ; and Mr. G. H. Round's Notes on the Systematic Study
of English Place Names. The President of the Folk-Lore Society
has been kind enough to promise copies of her presidential
address. The Letter itself contains notes on Yorkshire museums,
*' books recommended," correspondence with members, and a
series of papers on "The Significance of Children's Singing-
Games."

The practical work of the Society has been, so far, in the
direction of folklore. At an informal meeting held at Scarborough
the members decided "to begin by collecting local Singing-
Games, collections to be sent in to the Secretary during January " ;
and "charms, folk-medicine, superstitions, luck-bringers, proverbs,
ghost-stories, local legends, witchcraft, Christmas customs, guising,
and sword-dancing" were suggested as subsequent objects of
study. Up to the present time forty singing-games have been

I04 Correspondence.

sent in, from seven localities ; and Christmas customs and
superstitions from four. Members have been making enquiries
among past and present scholars and comparing notes with
relations and friends whose local knowledge goes back farther
than their own. One member reports an Easter Play, in which
the actors are St. George, the Black Prince of Paradise, a
Knight, a Doctor, and a " tosspot," and promises to obtain the
present version and another of twenty years ago.

In fact, if it is not too soon to judge of it, the West Riding
Society seems to show a real and hopeful movement although on
so small a scale. There can be little doubt that a tincture of
anthropology is a desirable element in the teacher's education,
and, conversely, that the teacher can make very valuable
contributions to our knowledge of local tradition and folklore
generally. The Society aims at promoting this exchange of
benefits. It should be added that the Education Committee of
the County Council gives every encouragement to the Scheme ;
for instance, it is intended that the 1910 Vacation Course shall
include a short course of lectures on some branch of anthropology,
probably in its relation to geographical teaching. This ought to
result in an increase in the number of members.

In conclusion, may I ask the members of the Folk-Lore Society
to help this young Association through some of the troubles of
infancy ? Firstly, I should be very grateful for reprints of pub-
lished papers, especially on English and European folklore.
Secondly, I shall be out of England from July, 19 10, to February,
191 1, and I am extremely anxious not to discontinue the Monthly
Letter; I am bold enough to hope that some folklorist, who has
the extension and popularisation of the science at heart, may
be willing to undertake the editorial work and correspondence
(both very inconsiderable) for those months.

Barbara Freire-Marreco.
Potter's Croft, Horsell, Woking.

Correspondence. 105

Burial of Amputated Limbs.
{Ante, p. 226.)

" One year, riding in the park at Holkham, Lady Anne [Coke]
had a fall from her horse and broke her leg. The bone was set,
but it had splintered, and for long afterwards small pieces of it
used to work out from the injured limb. Each time when a piece
of the bone came away, Coke sent it carefully to Lady Anne's
brother, Tom Keppel, with instructions that the latter was to
keep all the pieces of bone together in a little box, and ensure
that when Lady Anne was buried they were buried with her.
This was done, and when Lady Anne died, in her coffin was
placed a small glass box containing the fragments of bone which
had been so carefully preserved." (A. M. W. Stirling, Coke of
Norfolk and his Friends, vol. ii., p. 334. John Lane, 1908.)

Lady Anne Coke, who was a daughter of the third Earl of
Albemarle, was fifty years younger than her husband, Thomas
William Coke, created first Earl of Leicester of Holkham in
1837, to whom she was married in 1822. She outlived him,
however, only two years, and died in 1844, aged 41.

Charlotte S. Burne.

Good Men have no Stomachs.

The following extract from Quarterly Notes for Dec, 1909,
printed at the Baptist Missionary Station of Yakusu, near Stanley
Falls on the Upper Congo, amongst the Lokele tribe and about
1400 miles up the river, seems of interest as an illustration of
the ignorance and misconception of natural processes which are
amongst the themes of Mr. Hartland's Primitive Paternity.

At the Yakusu Training Institute for boys some lessons have
been recently given in elementary physiology. "The boys were
greatly interested in what they saw and heard, but they insisted
that good men could not possibly have stomachs. All digestion,
according to their conclusion, must be performed in the intestines.

I o6 Correspondence.

The goats and monkeys used in the lessons proved to them
nothing concerning human beings.

They acknowledged that some men, killed by accident or in
warfare or by poison have been men with stomachs, but they are
of opinion that these men were brought low in consequence of
the very fact of their being in possession of the unlucky and
unwelcome appendage, the seat and worship of the lord of evil
influences. It seems to be generally accepted that a person
charged with exercising evil influences, towards others, is naturally
well able to resist the trial by poison or other ordeal unless he has
really afforded some malign spirit an abode within him and so
become possessed of a stomach."

A. R. Wright.

Locality and Variants of Carol Wanted.

Can any reader throw light upon a carol published by W. Sandys
in his Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833) ^ He gives it
amongst others "still sung in the west of England," but adds nothing
concerning its source.
The first verse runs :

" To-morrow shall be my dancing day,
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance.
[Chorus] Sing oh ! my love, oh ! my love, my love, my love.
This have I done for my true love. "

There are eleven verses in all, in which Jesus, (the speaker of the
text), sets forth His birth, life and passion, etc., in every verse
using the mystical language of summoning man to join in the
(heavenly or cosmic) " dance."

I should be grateful for references to any variants, printed or
orally transmitted.

Lucy Broadwood.

REVIEWS.

The Fisher King in the Grail Romances. By W. A. Nitze.

(Publications of the Modern Language Association of

America, xxiv. 3.)
The matter of our studies is universally human, forming a proto-
plasm common to every agglomeration of mankind that has
attained a certain level of culture. But every such agglomeration
possesses definite characteristics, the outcome of geographical,
economic, racial, and historic conditions, and these characteristics
react upon and modify that common protoplasm which we call
folklore. Thus it is that each of the historic entities styled races,
peoples, or nations offers folklore problems with factors special,
in a measure, to itself, the solution of which constitutes, or
should constitute, a portion of its special intellectual task. For
the historic entity Britain, the Arthurian Romance cycle forms
such a problem, and of that cycle the legendary nebula of which
the Grail is the apparent nucleus is the most mysterious and
fascinating section. As a student of British folklore I early felt
that none of the quests of our study had a higher claim upon the
enthusiasm and perseverance of one born within the bounds of
la bloie Bretaigne^ and now, after thirty years have passed since
I first experienced the attractive power of the mystic vessel, I
make no apology for dwelling at length upon the latest contribu-
tion to the story of the Grail legend.

At the outset let me note that, in so far as there is still division
of opinion respecting the essential nature of the legendary matter
embodied in the Grail romances, and respecting the manner in which
that matter came to assume its extant form. Dr. Nitze belongs,
in the main, to the school of which I had the honour to be the

io8 Reviews.

first English representative and to the doctrines of which Miss
Weston has made such brilliant and decisive contributions.
Indeed, his study may be described as a confirmatory complement
to Miss Weston's article, The Grail and the Rites of Adonis {Folk-
Lore, vol. xviii., pp. 283-305). For Dr. Nitze the stuff of the Grail
legends is no mere literary hotch-potch worked up under the
impulse of definite artistic or edificatory considerations by twelfth-
century storytellers, but is of immemorial antiquity, and is in its
essence mythic and ritualistic ; for him, the Celtic factor in the
formation of the cycle is not secondary and unimportant, but
primary and dominant.

The special contribution made by Dr. Nitze to the elucidation
of the legend is of a two-fold nature. He seeks to show that
previous investigators have erred in the emphasis laid upon
particular features of the legend ; according to him the " Fisher
King [and not the Grail itself] is the central figure of the Grail
story, and thus probably the crux of the Grail problem." He
further illustrates the essence of the legend by a more detailed
comparison with the Mysteries of Antiquity than was made by
Miss Weston, and this in order " to ascertain, if possible, the
organic meaning of the Grail theme."

Dr. Nitze regards the Fisher King as "an intermediary
between the two planes of existence, the present and the here-
after, the symbol of the creative, fructifying force in nature,
specifically associated with water or moisture" (p. 395); the act
of fishing dwelt upon in the romances, but of which, as is obvious
to any unprejudiced observer, the romancers could make neither
head nor tail, "symbolizes the recovery of the life-principle
from the water, and as a piece of sympathetic magic doubtless
had its practical value." He is also " the representative of the
other world " ; " his weakness or infirmity agrees with Nature's
declining strength." His recovery depends upon a ceremony
which, when successfully performed by the " initiate " Grail
Knight, enables the latter to become his successor. In this
ceremony, these rites "required to restore the strength of the
Fisher King," the Grail is "the receptacle for the divine food,
wafer or blood, by partaking of which the mortal establishes a
blood-bond with the god " (p. 400). This function is important.

Reviews. 109

but it has not in the pristine myth the pre-eminent importance
assigned to the Holy Vessel in the mediaeval romances. Equally,
in the pristine myth the real stress is upon the permanent factor,
the representative of the life-force, the Fisher King ; the questing
initiate is only of importance in so far as he succeeds in duly
accomplishing the set ceremonies of the ritual, and thereby becomes
himself Fisher King, the necessary link between Man and those
Nature Forces which Man masters and exploits, but only on
condition of submitting himself thereto. In the mediaeval
romances, again, there has been a shifting of interest ; the quest
has transcended its object, the quester the person whom he
seeks.

I have restated in my own way and to some extent amplified
Dr. Nitze's theory, — (here and there he does not seem to me to
bring out his points with sufficient clearness), — without, I think,
altering it. I am quite disposed to beUeve that the Fisher King
was originally of greater and more significant importance than in
the Romances ; the postulated process by which a material
factor in the ceremony, — the Grail, — and the secondary living factor,
— the Grail Knight, — came in the Romances to overshadow
him, is a natural and inevitable one. As Dr. Nitze remarks,
" the least Christian feature in the legend is the Fisher King —
his parallelism with Christ apparently stops with the name
Fisher" (p. 372). Forcedly, therefore, the process of Chris-
tianisation was bound to obscure, even where it did not ignore,
the part he played. The Grail itself could not, once that process
was begun, escape identification with the Eucharistic Vessel, the
means of saving grace ; the Grail Knight could not, (though the
process is only completed in the very latest phase of the legend's
development), escape identification with the Saviour. Necessarily,
in the legend as we have it, all the forms of which are to some
extent transformed by the Christian ferment, these two elements,
lending themselves as they do to Christian interpretation and
amphfication, have come to overshadow that element which was
insusceptible thereto.

All this is at once sound and acutely reasoned. The features
in the Fisher King's personality and in the ritual of which he is
the centre, adduced by Dr. Nitze to justify the conception

no Reviews.

outlined above, are, in part, those noted by previous investigators,
— Simrock, Martin, myself, Staerk, and, in especial, Miss Weston.
As far as Simrock and Martin are concerned. Dr. Nitze might,
indeed should, have noted that their brilliant anticipations
necessarily failed to command assent at the time. The theory
of the mythic nature and significance of the Fisher King can
only be justified if the Grail cycle as a whole is shown to have
literary and historic connection with a mythical system as set
forth in a mythico-romantic literature. To demonstrate this was
largely the object of my 1888 Studies. This demonstration, com-
pleted by the independent yet allied investigation of the Irish
Elysium and Rebirth conceptions ( Voyage of Bran), and rein-
forced by other scholars, notably Miss Weston and Mr. A. B.
Cook, both using, like myself in the Voyage of Bran, the Mann-
hardt-Frazer theory as a working hypothesis, has, I may claim,
definitely indicated the true line of research. Until the connec-
tions of the Grail cycle with Celtic myth were established, the
legend remained a ''sport"; once they were established, it fell
into its place in an evolutionary series.

I would note one instance in which a feature insisted upon
by me in 1888 has received recent and independent confirmation,
the parallelism of the Fisher King theme with an episode in the
Finn Saga. I relied upon the Irish romantic tale, the Boyish
Exploits of Finn, preserved in a late Middle Irish MS. True, I
had in these pages {Folk-Lore Record, vol. iv., pp. 1-44) as early as
1 88 1 urged the archaic nature of this tale. The evidence lay
open, nevertheless, as Dr. Nitze has noted, to Professor Zimmer's
objection that the Finn Saga, as a whole, is late. Within the last
few years Mr. John MacNeill, analysing the historic and genea
logical data of the Finn cycle, has shown that the Boyish Exploits
belongs to the very earliest stage of that cycle, and cannot have
assumed its extant shape much later than the eighth century.

It is, however, the novel evidence and arguments adduced by
Dr. Nitze in favour of the mythic nature of the Grail story that
give his study its chief interest, and require most searching
consideration. Taking the Eleusinia as a type of the Mysteries,
being from the start " both agrarian and mystic," he proceeds, —
"We may say the mysteries in general served a double purpose:

Reviews. 1 1 1

first, to induce through a sacrificial feast the fi-uctification of
nature ; secondly, to initiate the human soul into the secret of
life by bringing it, as it were, into relationship with the life deity "

(p. 384)-

He then briefly reviews certain particulars of the Eleusinian
ritual, the Egyptian Osiris myth, the Adonis and Attis cults, and
the Mithraic worship. He has little difficulty in establishing the
"life-force" element in all these bodies of practice and doctrine,
and he brings out isolated parallelisms with the Grail romances.
But I fear he is preaching solely to the converted when, after
asserting that " what remains of the Grail romances when stripped
of the Perceval Galahad quest is clearly a vegetation ceremony,"
he proceeds, — " it is hardly necessary to repeat here the agreements
upon which the argument rests ; for the most part they are
self-evident." In the first place, I do not understand the words
I have underlined. The significance of the Quest may, as
stated above {supra, p. 109), have been altered in the mediaeval
romances ; none the less is it an essential portion of the legend.
Further, I think that Dr. Nitze exaggerates the " self-evidence "
of the agreements upon which his argument rests. For the most
part they are of too slight and general a character to carry convic-
tion. The most noticeable and cogent had already been instanced
by Miss Weston, and, although the mass of further "agree-
ments " adduced by Dr. Nitze possesses a cumulative weight, the
pertinency of each individual item often seems questionable. I
doubt if the Mysteries evidence in itself can be held to substan-
tiate the statement, " The Holy Grail, by the mediaeval romancers
often conceived of in terms of a quest, is au fond an initiation,
the purpose of which is to ensure the life of the vegetation spirit,
always in danger of extinction, and to admit the " qualified "
mortal into its mystery," although in consideration of the entire
body of evidence concerning the Grail legend I am prepared to
accept the contention. But Dr. Nitze seems to me to have done
more to establish it by his acute analysis of the original import
of the Fisher King's role than by the new facts he brings
forward.

Dr. Nitze has thrown new light upon that enigmatic character
the Fisher King's father. To borrow an illustration from history.

112 Reviews.

he is the Mikado of the myth, the supersanct representative, nay
the actual manifestation, of the life-god, the Fisher King being the
Shogun, the active, visible, intermediating link between the deity
and mankind. As such, the former is even more rebellious than
the Fisher King to Christian transformation, and his personality is
even more enshrouded in obscurity. He seems more especially
to stand for the god when the weakness of the latter is figured as
the result of a wound "in the vital (generative part)," and Dr.
Nitze claims that " he is not so much to be avenged as healed "
(P- 399)- But may not, as I implicitly argued in 1888, the two
processes be ultimately one, may not "vengeance" be the indis-
pensable prerequisite, nay the effective means, of "healing" in
the mythic drama? Compare in this light the march of events
in the Mabinogi of Math : Llew is not reinstated in his lordship,
i.e. fully restored, until he is avenged on Gronw Pebr. I am
still of opinion that in the complex mass of the cycle two allied
versions of an originally similar theme are interwoven, one
insisting upon the healing and one upon the avenging function
of the Grail quester.

Dr. Nitze is thus a firm believer in the mythic nature of the
Grail legend. But diverse explanations of the emergence in
mediseval Christendom of a myth originally and essentially pre-
Christian are possible. That which commends itself on the whole
to Dr. Nitze is substantially the one which I have championed :
for him the Grail legend is, in the main, the outcome of mythic
conceptions, rites, and fancies current among the Celtic-speaking
populations of Britain and Ireland. He expresses himself
cautiously, it is true ; thus, a propos of the Mysteries evidence, he
remarks (p. 381), — " Though we now know that the cults . . . were
carried into Gaul and even Britain in the stream of Roman
colonization, and that Mithraism in the form of Manicheism had
a recrudescence in France in the heresies of the Middle Ages, yet
it is doubtful whether these influences were operative in forming,
though they might have been a contributing element, especially
later on." Again, in referring to Burdach's theory respecting the
influence of the Mysteries ritual upon the liturgy of the Eastern
Church, he remarks (p. 380, n. 6), — "This line of investigation
seems especially promising with respect to Wolfram, in fact to all

Reviews. 1 1 3

the later works with oriental colouring. But I do not see its
bearing on the Conte del Graal, Perlesvaus, or indeed Borron's
Joseph."

I am quite prepared to associate myself with this cautious
mode of expression, and with the reserves expressly formulated
(which I have italicised) in these passages. I hold, as must, I
think, every impartial and serious investigator of the Grail cycle,
that the original (Celtic) non-Christian elements were reinforced
at the end of the twelfth century by others which made their
presence felt in the lost French romance upon which Wolfram
founded his Parzival. Whilst at first blush these other elements
seem to me to come from the trans-Byzantine East and to be
definitely referable to the Crusading movements in general, and
to the Temple organisation in particular, I fully admit the possible
survival, alike in the Byzantine area of influence and amongst the
heretical communities of the West, of conceptions and practices
deriving directly from pagan syncretism of the Empire. But these
other non-Christian features of the legend are, I repeat, secondary
and contributory; the primary, the formative, non-Christian
elements are Celtic.

Dr. Nitze's whole argument implicitly accepts, nay, indeed,
rests upon, certain postulates to the vindication of which much of
my work has been devoted. For him, as for me, the " primitive
Celts in Gaul, Wales and Ireland " had reached such a stage of
culture as permitted the formation of a ritual, a mythology, and
a resultant mythico-romantic body of artistry. I use this clumsy
phrase to avoid the word literature with its implication of a written
product. Let me add that what is premised above of the
primitive Celts is by me, and, I have little doubt, by Dr. Nitze,
to be premised likewise of the primitive Teutons. For him, as
for me, products of ceremonial practice, of doctrinal belief, or
artistic fancy, to be met with in the Celto-Teutonic area of the
Middle Ages onwards to the present, which differ in content and
purport from the prevailing Christian-Classic higher culture of that
area, are, in the first place, to be explained by the hypothesis of
possible survival from the primitive Celto-Teutonic past rather
than by misinterpreted and deformed borrowing from intrusive
higher culture. The one theory postulates not only the possibility

114 Reviews.

but the universality and strength of tradition, while the other
implies arbitrary and lawless modes of influence the essential
insignificance of which is not more flagrant than their crass
unlikelihood.

By way of conclusion let me show how these principles which
have guided me ever since I took up the study of folklore over
thirty years ago have been strengthened by research in other fields
of historical investigation during that period, both in their general
bearing upon folklore studies and in their special bearing upon
the problems of the Grail.

It is unfortunate that the researches of historians, archaeologists,
philologists, and folklorists are often pursued along lines, parallel
indeed, but separated by lofty and impenetrable barriers. Other-
wise the import of the results achieved by the studies of pre- and
proto-historic archaeology and of proto-history in the narrower
sense, for folklore problems could hardly have been overlooked.
Briefly put, the great antiquity, the high level, and the relatively
independent development of Central and North-western European
culture have been clearly demonstrated. The richness and variety
of the material culture disclosed alike in Scandinavia, Britain, and
the plains and valleys of Central Europe vouch for a corresponding
level of psychical culture. To assert, as some scholars still persist
in asserting, that the conceptions and fancies only known to us in
Celtic or Teutonic monuments which did not assume their final
shape until the Middle Ages, were beyond the reach of the Celto-
Teutons of looo-ioo B.C. is mere kicking against the pricks.
The men of the Bronze Age, whether on the plains of Meath,
around the lakes of Sweden, or on the Hungarian steppes, were
certainly superior in material equipment and in social advance
to the Maori when the latter first came in contact with the
European. Yet implicitly or explicitly certain scholars have
treated them as if their mental and moral horizon barely surpassed
that of Australian blackfellows or Terra del Fuegians. The whole
trend of recen*^ proto-archaeological and proto-historical studies
has been to demonstrate the age, variety, and persistence of
European culture.

The effect of another branch of study has been equally far-
reaching as regards our science. All folklore problems ultimately

Reviews. 1 1 5

resolve themselves into analyses, — quantitative and qualitative, —
of tradition. If we consider European culture during the period
of some four thousand years during which we can trace it, we
note the rise of Christianity and the consequent extension of
Christian-Classic culture over the whole European area as the
most momentous of the transforming elements which have affected
it. The method of the folklorist is akin to that of the chemist :
he studies the reactions and new combinations set up by the
Christian-Classic ferment in an older body of elements. Scarcely
anywhere else are these processes manifested alike with such
precision and such complexity as in the formation and evolution
of the Grail legends. The Grail cycle offers an almost ideal field
for that species of analysis which has to be applied in almost
every section of folklore study.

If this is so, it follows that the formative period of Christianity,
that in which it was transforming Pagan culture and being modi-
fied itself in the process, is of first-rate importance for the folk-
lorist. This period, roughly speaking the first four centuries of
our era, produced a very rich literature. Some of it, the canonical
writings of Christianity, is of first-rate importance from whatever
point of view it be considered, and has always been the object of
intense study, but much, perhaps the greater part of the literary
output of those four centuries, is from an aesthetic, a philosophic,
or a spiritual point of view inferior. The Pagan-Classic portion
is, from the necessities of the case, decadent ; a considerable
section of the Christian portion is, equally from the necessities of
the case, puerile ; what has survived of amalgams or compromises
between the two warring worlds of thought and emotion is for the
most part, with equal necessity, an abortion or a still-birth. Such
as it is, however, this literature claimed the attention of the
Renaissance scholars and their successors almost equally with that
of the great Classic period. Throughout the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries, well on into the eighteenth century, there was
no hard and fast line drawn in ancient studies between profane
and sacred, between Classic and post-Classic. Then specialism
set in, the classical scholar divorced himself wholly from theo-
logical, the theologian from classical studies ; the late Classic
period, the period of strife and compromise with Christianity, was

1 1 6 Reviews.

neglected by the classical scholar as an epoch of decadence,
whilst the attention of the theologian was concentrated almost
wholly upon the primary monuments of the new faith. Down to
1750 scholarship implied familiarity with the third century a.d. as
well as with the fifth-fourth centuries B.C., — with all the products
of Christian as well as of Pagan Antiquity. But throughout the
greater part of the nineteenth century it was possible to attain
first rank as a student of Classical Antiquity or early Christianity
whilst remaining confined to the literature of one particular
century. Within the last thirty years a marked change for the
better has taken place ; a series of great scholars, trained in the
strictest methods of classical philology, have devoted themselves
to the elucidation not only of the Canonical Writings, but of the
illustrative, apocryphal, hagiological, heretical, and controversial
literature. In particular the products of syncretism, the essays at
amalgam and compromise, have received close attention. Of this
tendency, as far as regards its bearing upon folklore studies in
the narrower sense, Hermann Usener has been the most illustrious
exponent.

When, in 1877, the first serious survey of the Grail cycle
was made by Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld, Usener's influence had not
yet made itself felt. The borderland between Paganism and
Christianity was far more of a terra i?icogtiita than it is now. In
especial the two provinces were more sharply delimited ; con-
ceptions were Christian or non-Christian, and the extent of
pre-Christianity in contributing to the completed Christian fabric,
as well as the influence of anti-Christianity in modifying the
outlines of that fabric, were realised in a far less measure than
to-day. Necessarily Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld, who championed the
theory of the Christian origin of the Grail legend, was affected by
the prevailing attitude of scholarship. He would not now, I
think, hold that the presence of definite apparently Christian
elements in a mediaeval legend necessarily entailed the solely
Christian origin of that legend ; he would, probably, be ready to
admit that the Christian element itself might be not homo-
geneous, but analysable into further combinations of material,
some of them derived from a pre-Christian past, and that, in this
way, resemblances might be accounted for without recourse to

Reviews. 1 1 7

what then seemed the only possible hypothesis, namely, that of
direct dependence upon Christian literature.

Writing, as I did in 1888, largely in opposition to Dr. Birch-
Hirschfeld, I was naturally affected by his presentment of the
case, and hence at times a polemic I should now judge unneces-
sary or imperfect. The Grail problem, involving as it does the
mystic conceptions of communion and sacrifice, entered upon a
new phase when it was recognised that these conceptions, even in
their orthodox Christian forms, were connected with and had
been influenced by pre-Christian doctrine and practice. In this
country the standard-bearer of the movement of which Usener
was the chief German representative has been Dr. Frazer. It is
fitting that the solution of the Grail problem should now be
sought along the lines which were first laid down for most
English students in the Golden Bough.

Alfred Nutt.

Folklore and Folk-stories of Wales. By Marie Trevelyan.
With an Introduction by E. Sidney Hartland. Elliot
Stock, 1909. Fcap. 4to, pp. xiv-F35o.

Mr. Hartland's name is sufficient guarantee for the quality of
this work. Despite a certain lack of skill in literary presentment,
it may not unjustly be described as the most important collection
of the contemporary folklore of the British Isles since the late
Mr. Henderson's Northern Counties. Other writers have pro-
duced careful and excellent studies of special points, such as
Dr. Maclagan's works on the Evil Eye and the Games of the
North-west Highlands, but few have even attempted to record
the folklore of any important district as a whole. Mrs. Trevelyan
premises that she has omitted the fairy-lore and giant-legends of
Wales, of which she has a sufficient collection to form a separate
volume. What she does give us is comprised under the following
heads : Folklore of the Sea, Lakes, Rivers, and Wells ; Fires and
Fire-festivals; the Heavens and the Earth ; Hounds of the Under-
World and others; Water-horses and Spirits of the Mist; Animals,
Birds of Prey, and Insects ; Plants, Herbs, and Flowers ; Trees,

1 1 8 Reviews.

Birds, and Waterfowl ; Wind and Weather ; Stones and Caverns
Secret Hoards and Treasures ; the Devil and his Doings in
Wales ; Dragons, Serpents, and Snakes ; Corpse-candles and
Phantom Funerals; Weird Ladies and their Work; Witches,
their Rendezvous and Revels ; Charms, Pentacles, and Spells ;
Days and Months ; Births, Weddings, and Funerals ; Death, its
Omens and Personifications ; Transformations and Transmigra-
tions ; Colour-lore and Old-time Remedies ; the Leasing — i.e,
the Gleaning of such miscellanea as found no fit place elsewhere.

This, it will be seen, is a very comprehensive and well-planned
survey of the field of folklore. It begins where it ought to begin,
with the world of Nature, it proceeds to the visionary world of
mythic beings and phantoms, thence to magic in its twofold
manifestation as witchcraft and charming, and, lastly, deals with
the life and death of man and the folk-philosophy of the After-
Life. It is an admirably designed programme, but the manner in
which it is carried out is open to criticism in some respects.
Fire-festivals at the beginning of the volume are oddly divorced
from Days and Months near the end. Hallowmas appears in the
latter, and Christmas in the former. (A burning cart-wheel was
still rolled from the top of many Glamorganshire hills on Mid-
summer night as late as 1820-30, p. 27.) Birds, (among which
bats are classed), are curiously divided between Animals and
Trees, water-io'^X being placed with the latter !, and Trees are
separated from Plants and Herbs to accommodate them. The
matter noted under the head of Wind and Weather might well
have been distributed among the animals, birds, and plants which
give the weather-omens, or else might with advantage have been
placed in closer relation to Heavens, Earth, and Sea ; while the
Water-horses, Spirits of the Mist, and Hounds of the Under-
World are awkwardly separated from the other spectres. Possibly
Mrs. Trevelyan was actuated by a wish for uniformity in the
length of the chapters : hardly a sufficient reason, to our mind.

Mrs. Trevelyan's collection deals primarily but not wholly with
South Wales. The nucleus of her material consisted, she tells us,
of the large MS. collection of her late father, which she has
supplemented partly from printed sources, partly from personal
enquiry among old inhabitants. She has aimed at distinguishing

Reviews. 1 1 9

the several sources, but she has hardly carried this sufficiently
far. For instance the story of the robin as fire-bringer (p. no)
is given as " a well-known nursery story," in a way that would lead
the reader to suppose it is told on Mrs. Trevelyan's own authority,
whereas it is a verbatim quotation from Notes and Queries {Choice
Notes, p. 184). And, like most "Celtic" writers, she does not
always make it clear whether she is speaking of ancient mythology
or contemporary folklore.

Nevertheless, the matter is obviously thoroughly authentic and
thoroughly Welsh. We see the Welsh type of religious senti-
ment in the form taken by the usual reluctance to disclose secret
beliefs and uncanny stories. Most of Mrs. Trevelyan's informants
desired their names to be kept secret "for religious reasons."
The scanty population and the characteristic " scattered " type of
settlement (as distinguished from the " village " type) appear in
the fewness of the social festivals ; the melancholy imaginative
Celtic temperament in the predominance of spectres and appari-
tions. Second sight, we are told (p. 191), is nearly as prevalent
among the Welsh, especially the South Welsh, as among the
Scottish Highlanders, and stories of phantom funerals, wraiths,
and corpse-candles abound throughout Wales. In fact, the occur-
rence or otherwise of phantom funerals may almost be used as
a racial test in the Welsh borderland. I never met with them
in Shropshire except among the wild ranges of hills along the
Welsh boundary.

Another ominous spectre in olden times in Wales was the
"death-horse." Sometimes he was white, with eyes emitting
blue sparks " like forked lightning " ; sometimes black, with eyes
"like balls of fire" (p. 182). He came to bear away the
parting soul : his coming was quick and stealthy, but his going
was with " the wind that blew over the feet of the corpses." The
" death-horse " only survives in the memory of a few aged people,
but belief in the " corpse-bird " seems to be living and flourishing.
This is a small bird of no known species, without feathers and
without wings, or with only downy flappers, unable to fly, which
sits all day on a bough outside the dying patient's window, utter-
ing a melancholy chirp. "The sound and sight of it," said a
villager, "makes one shiver" (p. 182).

1 20 Reviews.

Stories of the Wild Huntsman and his hell-hounds, eerie and
ghostly to the last degree, come from every part of Wales in
numbers sufficient to give a name to a whole chapter (pp. 47-54).
Sometimes a stray hound would haunt a house where death was
imminent, or the whole pack would hunt through a house from
room to room, until they got on the scent of the doomed man,
who fled in terror with the Cw7i Annwn, the hounds of the
Under-world, at his heels (p. 48).

The Ceffyl-dwr, or water-horse, does not seem to be a " death-
token." He is in fact the Scottish Kelpie. He comes out of
seas, lakes, or rivers, allows himself to be mounted or harnessed,
then throws his rider or breaks away from the plough, plunges
into the sea, or vanishes into the air. He is described as
"luminous and fascinating" in South Wales, as dark, fiery-eyed,
and forbidding in the North. Sometimes he is winged hke
Pegasus, sometimes his hoofs are turned backwards. In North
Wales, where the myths seem to be, like the scenery, altogether
more wild and gloomy than in the south, he can transform
himself into other shapes, a goat, a satyr, a monster, leaping
upon harmless passers-by, crushing and injuring them in his
horrid grip.

The Gwrach-y-rhibyn is a gruesome night-hag with talons and
bat-like wings, who rises up out of swamps or river-creeks and
haunts old ruined castles, — Caerphilly, St. Donat's, and others.
She is a sort of Banshee, an ancestral spectre, haunting old
families, heralding death, or mourning over change of ownership.
She is generally seen flapping her wings, wailing and sobbing, but
sometimes she is spoken of as a kind of Fury, capable of mal-
treating anyone who offends her, attacking them with beak and
talons as an eagle might (pp. 65-69). Numerous legends are told
of " weird ladies," (what is the Welsh appellation thus translated
does not appear), who haunt lonely spots, — wells, fields, ruins.
Sometimes a ghost tradition attaches to them. Generally they
guard hidden treasures ; often they are bespelled, and can only be
disenchanted by the firm grip of a man, as Tamlane was by that
of Fair Janet. Often they give flowers or berries to friendly
passers-by, which turn to gold in the recipients' pockets ; some-
times they point out the whereabouts of hoards of gold. The

Revietvs,

121

most interesting of all, perhaps, because the most palpably a
nymph or goddess of the well, is the Green Lady who "appeared
beside the eye-well in Marcross, near St. Donat's, and watched
people carefully as they deposited rags on the thorn-bushes
around the well " (p. 204). Unlike the heroines of parallel
traditions in Germany and England, these ladies are described
not only as white, but as black, grey, or green, according to the
colour of their clothing. The Celtic love of colour appears all
through these stories of apparitions : the Ceffyl Dwr may be grey,
white, piebald, or chestnut; the Cw7i Annum black with red
spots, or vice versa, blood-red, black, brown with white ears, or
even white with ears "rose-coloured inside," but, whatever it be,
the colour is nearly always mentioned.

The Vampire belief, unknown, to the best of my knowledge, in
England, flourishes in Wales. The vampire is supposed to be a
person who after death has gone neither to Heaven nor Hell, but
has joined the Wild Hunt, and the curious feature about it is that
the superstition is attached not only to the dead man, but to the
furniture which belonged to him. One story goes that whoever
slept in a certain ancient four-post bedstead was attacked in the
night by a blood-sucking demon. In two other cases the vampire
is an old carved oak chair itself, apparently. Nothing is seen, but
the occupant of the chair finds his hand scratched and bleeding.
Not even ministers of religion were exempt from the attacks of one
such vampire chair (p. 56) ! Mr. Hartland (p. x.) confesses
himself unable to cite an exact parallel to this weird and " creepy "
story.

The people of Wales are much to be congratulated on the
acquisition of this valuable work, "as full of matter as an egg is of
meat," — to use an appropriate folk-saying. With this, and the
further volume which Mrs. Trevelyan leads us to hope for, added
to Principal Rhys's Celtic Folklore, the Rev. Elias Owen's Welsh
Folklore, and the promised work by Mr. J. Ceredig-Davies, we
only want a series of "Choice Notes" reprinted from Byegones,
and a carefully detailed account of the whole folklore of " Little
England beyond Wales " to have a very fairly complete record
of the folklore of the Principality.

Charlotte S. Burne.

12 2 Reviews.

Native Life in East Africa. The Results of an Ethnological
Research Expedition. By Dr. Karl Weule. Trans, by
Alice Werner. Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1909. Ryl. 8vo.
pp. xxiv +431. Maps and III.

Dr. Karl Weule, Professor and Director of the Ethnographical
Museum at Leipzig, has recorded first in a "popular" manner,
and secondly in an official report (reviewed in vol. xx., pp.
244-5), ^^ results of an ethnological expedition undertaken on
behalf of the Museum to the German possessions in East
Africa. The book described above is the translation by Miss
Alice Werner of the former. The author has been extremely
fortunate in his translator, whose qualifications for the task are
unsurpassed. It may easily be believed indeed that the trans-
lation is an improvement upon the original edition. For Miss
Werner's experience of the East African native and her rare
knowledge of the Bantu languages and of Bantu ethnology
enable her to check and confirm or modify many of the state-
ments of the author ; so that the best criticism on the book is
probably to be found in her introduction and notes.

Anthropological science owes a great debt to Germany. The
authorities of the various German museums grasped years
ago the importance of setting about at once to collect and
compare the outward appliances of savage and barbarous
life. They fitted out expedition after expedition for the purpose,
and reaped so rich a harvest of ethnographical material in
various parts of the world that now, in order to study the
economics and art of the natives even of British colonies, it
is frequently necessary to resort, not to London or Oxford,
but to Berlin or Leipzig. In pursuit of this object they have
doubtless to some extent neglected what to those of us who
have been trained in the school of Tylor is even more important,
the study of the mental and spiritual sides of the lower
culture. Partly due to this cause, partly to his inexperience as
a collector of folklore, and partly to his very brief stay in
the country, — (he was there little more than six months), —
must be reckoned the inferiority of Dr. Weule's results in
this direction ; though even here he has done something.

Reviews. 123

He was chiefly occupied with two Bantu tribes, the Wamakonde
and the Wamakua, who with some detached branches of the
Wayao and some intrusive Angoni inhabit the country between
the Lukuledi and Rovuma rivers. His drawings and a large
number of his photographs are excellent. As Miss Werner remarks
too, it was a happy inspiration to collect and preserve native
drawings. Their value as records of this kind of artistic de-
velopment among the tribes in question, and as data for
comparison, will increase if other travellers will follow the
example. English anthropologists have not left us entirely
without such specimens from various peoples ; but they have
not recognized their importance, and have not accumulated
them systematically.

The student of folklore will turn with interest to the questions
of social organizations, institutions, and beliefs. But for the
reasons I have indicated he will hardly be satisfied. The
paragraph, for instance, on page 314, on the marriage rules
of the Makonde, is far from clear. It does not appear why a
Makonde youth must marry his maternal uncle's daughter,
especially as the author goes on to say that in the next gene-
ration the youth must marry the daughter of his father's sister.
This difficulty is only partially removed by Miss Werner's note on
a subsequent page ; and it is evident that a little more minute
enquiry on Dr. Rivers' plan might have been successful in
explaining the position. Probably Makonde society is under-
going a transformation, as Miss Werner suggests, from matri-
lineal to patrilineal descent. This appears to be hinted at
on p. 311; but Dr. Weule did not follow up the clue. Not
having the original before me, I do not know whether he wrote
on p. 307 matriarchate or mother-right. The example given is
certainly to be referred to the latter, and the word matriarchate is
perhaps a slip of the pen on the part of author or translator.

Is it true to say that the ceremonies at a first pregnancy are
"at bottom only a pleasant setting for a number of rules and
prohibitions inculcated on this occasion by the older women?"
Have they no ritual effect in themselves? It would be con-
trary to what we know of other ceremonies. For the details of the
puberty rites, so far as the author was allowed to witness them

124 Reviews.

or was told concerning them, we must go to his official report.
What is given here is as much as could be told in a work
intended for the general public. Of religion his account is
necessarily superficial. But then that is only what any traveller
who has not resided in the country in intimate converse for years
with the natives can give ; therefore we expect no more. We
know in general terms the religion of the Bantu tribes. Dr.
Weule does but add a few local touches, without penetrating
into the native soul.

I cannot assent to the parallel he draws between the
civilized custom of tying a knot in a handkerchief when it
is desired to remember something, and the native custom of
tying knots on a string to indicate a number. The one is
intended to call attention by its strangeness to something of
importance to be done or said ; the other is a mode of reckoning
and keeping count, — a very different matter.

Dr. Weule worked with German energy, and from a museum
point of view his success probably left little to be desired. He
has contributed materially to our knowledge of the externals of
native life. As regards the more recondite subjects of mental
life, he has furnished data which will be valuable for further
investigation. Meanwhile, his conclusions must be regarded as
purely provisional. The map of his route is useful ; but it is
curious that neither this nor the four coloured plates are
enumerated in the list of illustrations.

E. Sidney Hartland.

Folklore of the Santal Parganas. Trans, by Cecil Henry
BoMPAS, Indian Civil Service. Nutt, 1909. 8vo, pp. 483.

Our knowledge of the folklore of the Santals, that interesting
non-Aryan race occupying the tract known as the Santal Parganas
on the eastern outskirts of the Chutia Nagpur plateau in Bengal,
has hitherto been mainly derived from the small collection of
tales pubUshed in 1891 by Dr. A. Campbell. The present series
of tales was recorded by Rev. O. Bodding of the Scandinavian

Reviews. 125

Mission, and has been translated by Mr. Bompas, who has added
in an appendix some tales from the Hos of the Kolhan in the
Singhbhiim District. This book contains a large mass of interesting
but undigested material. No attempt has been made to compare
the tales with those published by Mr. Lai Behari Day in his Folk-
tales of Bengal^ or with any of the standard classical collections,
such as the Jdtakas or the Katha-sarit-sdgara of Somadeva. A
record of the names of the tellers of the tales, an abstract or
index of the chief incidents, and some notes on Santdl religion
and custom would have made the book much more useful.
The materials have been roughly classified into six divisions : I,
General folk-tales; II, Animal tales; III, Anecdotes of Santdl
social life; IV, Tales relating to Bongas, — a vague term which
includes gods, godlings, and other supernatural beings, spirits of
ancestors, and of streams and forests, and fairies ; V, Creation
and other tribal legends ; and VI, Witchcraft. Of these the
fourth and fifth groups will probably be of the greatest interest.

Bongas take an active part in human affairs ; they assume the
forms of young men and women who form connections with
human beings of the opposite sex; they cause diseases at the
bidding of witches, and hound on the tiger to attack men; but
they are not always malevolent, and one of them, the Kisar
Bonga, resembles our Brownie, who steals food for his master,
and, unless he be offended, causes him to grow rich. Once
upon a time a man married a Bonga girl, who invited her
husband to visit her parents. When he went to spirit-land he
found that the house seats were formed of great coiled snakes,
beside which tigers and leopards crouched. When he returned
to earth, he discovered that the provisions which he had brought
back from spirit-land had turned into dry leaves and cow-dung
fuel cakes.

In the olden days the Lord, Thakur Baba, produced the rice
ready thrashed, and woven cloth grew on the cotton trees ; men's
skulls were loose, and they could remove, clean, and replace
them. But a dirty servant maid defiled the rice and cloth, on
which Thakur Biba was wroth, and reduced created beings to
the state in which we find them now. The sky originally was
close to the earth, and Thakur Baba freely visited mankind.

126 Reviews.

But a woman after her meal threw an unclean leaf platter
outside the door, and the wind carried it up to heaven. This
oifended the Lord, who raised the sky to its present position.
Finally, Thakur Babd destroyed mankind, all save one youth
and one maiden who were hidden in a cave, and from them
a new race was born. Ninda Chando, the kindly Moon, fearing
that these might meet a similar fate, pretended to devour the
people, of whom only two were saved, who became the morning
and the evening stars. When the Sun god saw that some human
beings survived, he scattered them in his wrath, and that is why
the stars are spread all over the sky. He also cut Ninda Chando
in two, and that is why the Moon waxes and wanes ; formerly she
was always full like the Sun. In another version, the youth and
maid had twelve sons and twelve daughters, from whom the
twelve races of men are sprung, being graded in rank according
to the kind of food which their progenitors chose at a great tribal
feast.

Enough has been said to show the value of this interesting
contribution to the folklore of India.

W. Crooke.

Myths and Legends of the New York State Iroquois.
By Harriet Maxwell Converse. Edited and annotated
by A. C. Parker. Education Department Bulletin, No. 437.
Albany, N.Y., 1908. (New York State Museum Bulletin,,
125.) 8vo, pp. 195.

The Iroquois, although at the same general level of culture as
the tribes surrounding them, had developed their political
organization far in advance of any other North American tribe,
and their folk-tales "were of strength, of great deeds, of nature
and the forces of nature, . . . they are the classics of all
the unwritten literature of the American aborigines. The
Iroquois were a people who loved to weave language in fine
metaphor and delicate allusion and possessed a language
singularly adapted for this purpose. They were unconscious
poets "(p. 10). Mrs. Converse endeavoured " to produce the same

Reviews. 127

emotion in the mind of civilized man which is produced in
the primitive mind which entertains tlie myth, without destroying
the native style or warping the facts of the narrative." This
method of recording folk-tales was justified by her intimate know-
ledge of and love for the Indians. Mrs. Converse's grandfather,
Alexander Maxwell, migrated from Scotland in 17703 he was
greatly esteemed by the Indians on account of his courtesy
and honesty. His son was adopted into the Wolf clan of the
Senecas. Thus Mrs. Converse was reared in the right atmosphere,
but it was not till she was stimulated by General Ely S. Parker
that she devoted herself to befriend and study the Senecas.
Morgan, in his League of the Iroquois^ acknowledges the
collaboration of Parker, who was evidently a very remarkable
Indian. Mrs. Converse spent her life in assisting the Indians in
all sorts of ways, and to prove their gratitude she was gradually
advanced in honour among them, till in 1892 she was unanimously
confirmed a chief of the Six Nations, an honour never before
conferred upon a white woman. Unfortunately, in 1903 she died
suddenly, and the pious duty of editing her manuscripts fell to the
able hands of Mr. A. C. Parker ; the present memoir of 195 pages
is all that he was able to publish. The reliability of the matter is
beyond question, and therefore it is worthy of careful study.
Thirty-six legends are given, and there are added several valuable
papers by Mrs. Converse. One on the " Iroquois Indians of
the State of New York " summarizes their religious beliefs and
moral code. Another is on "Woman's right among the Iroquois";
it will be remembered that the Iroquois afford one of the best
examples of a mother-right community. Some welcome informa-
tion is given about wampum belts. A short paper describes the
game of lacrosse, which evidently was of ceremonial origin.
The most important papers are those by Mrs. Converse and
Mr. Parker on the ceremony of initiation into a Seneca Medicine
Society. Several illustrations of Indians, ceremonial objects,
wampum belts, etc., and several drawings by a Seneca boy-artist,
increase the interest of this publication.

A. C. Haddon.

128 Reviews.

Short Notices.
Die Germanische Tempel: mit 2 Karten. Inaugural-Dissertation
zur Erlangung der Doktorwiirde der Hohen Fakultat der
Universitat Leipzig, Vorgelegt von Albert Thummel.
Halle-a-S. : Karras, 1909. 8vo, pp. 124.
In this fragment Mr. Thummel describes in detail the remains of
supposed temples in Iceland and elsewhere. There is very little
outside Iceland ; for South Germany he has nothing but Tacitus's
description of the consecrated groves. For our purpose, nothing
of importance emerges except that the Icelandic temples were set
on hills. The author discusses their shape, the building materials,
and other archaeological details.

Folktales of the Maori. By A. A. Grace. Wellington, N.Z. :

Gordon & Gotch. 8vo, pp. 257.
Mr. Grace's book consists of short stories founded on materials
supplied by a native ; some of them with an element of demons,
fairies, and magic in them ; but others only rather trivial anec-
dotes, seasoned for pakeha use, entertaining enough for those
who wish to make acquaintance with Maori life, but, as usual
with Anglo-Maori stories, rather sugary and sentimental, and in
any case of little use to the folklore student. In a note on p. 53,
where pigs are spoken of in an apparently old story, the author
supposes the mention of them to be a recent interpolation, since
Captain Cook introduced pigs into New Zealand. It is certainly
the accepted belief that New Zealand was pig-less until the
coming of the British. But the story may have survived from
a prehistoric period, evidenced by language, ,-hen there were
native pigs. The Maori-Polynesian race carried its own breed of
pigs with it in its migrations about the Pacific, and, if the
animal had in fact died out in New Zealand by the time of Cook's
arrival, at any rate the name still survived, for "poaka" is native
Maori, and its resemblance to " porker " is purely accidental.

George Calderon.

Books for Revieiv should be addressed to

The Editor of Folk-Lore,

c/'o David Nutt,

57-59 Long Acre, London, W.C.

TJ^AJVSACTIOJVS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCLETY.
^'°^- ^^^I-J JUNE, 1910.

No. II,

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16th, 1910.

THE PRESIDENT (MiSS C. S. BuRNE) IN THE ChaIR.

The minutes of the December Meeting were read and
conhrmed.

The election of the Rev. J. Wood Brown, Miss Edith

AM J" ^- ."""'^ ''"^"' ^''- ^^- ^- Halliday. Mr.
A. M. Hocart, The Hon. Mrs. G. Macdonald, and Mr.
Hutton Webster as members of the Society was announced
The murder of Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, and the resignations'
ot Mr. b. L. Bensusan, Mr. A. G. Chater, Mr. G W
Fernngton and Dr. D. M'Kenzie were also announced. "
Mr. K Sidney Hartland, on behalf of Prof F Starr
exhibited (I) two figures, in black wax pierced with pins of
persons (in one case a witch) whom it was desired to injure
T^Z °^ '^"^P^^h^tic magic, from near Zacoalco in
western Mexico ; and (2) an amulet of bamboo and shells
suspended under the eaves of a house by the Ilocanos and
voL XX?" '"" ^^°°' La Union Province, Luzon,

130 Minutes of Meetings.

Philippine Islands ; and announced that the Professor had
presented these objects to the Society. It was resolved
that the hearty thanks of the Society be accorded to
Prof. Starr for his gift, and that the objects be added to
the Society's collection in the Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnology at Cambridge.

Mr, Hartland also read a paper entitled "The Cult of
Executed Criminals in Sicily" (pp. 168-79), which was
illustrated by lantern slides.

The Rev. J. H. Weeks read a paper entitled " The Congo
Medicine-man and his Black and White Magic," and in the
discussion which followed Mr. R. E. Dennett, Mr. Hartland,
Mr. Tabor, Mr. Wright, and Dr. Hildburgh took part. Mr.
Weeks exhibited the following objects illustrative of his
paper : — male and female fetish figures, horn amulet, fibre
cloth, and a medicine-man's charm for curing lung diseases
from the Lower Congo ; a pipe bowl and basket from the
Upper Congo ; and brass rods which are currency on the
Upper Congo.

Mr, Hartland exhibited and presented to the Society
two models of house posts carved and painted by Joe
Hayes, a Nootkan Indian, and representing the legends of
his family, from Clayoquot on the west coast of Vancouver
Island ; and Miss D. Moutray Read, on behalf of her
brother Capt. B. Moutray Read, exhibited a drum and an
" Abiriwa " fetish dress from West Africa.

The meeting concluded with hearty votes of thanks to
Mr. Hartland and the Rev. J. H. Weeks for their papers,
and to Mr. Hartland for the objects which he had so
kindly presented to the Society.

Minutes of Meetings. 131

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16th. 1910.
The President (Miss C. S. Burne) in the Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.

The election of Miss Musson as a member of the Society
was announced.

The resignation of Mr. J. L. Freeborough was also
announced.

Dr. Hildburgh exhibited the following objects : three
hanging lamps with {a) earthenware oil holder, {b) toothed
bar for adjusting height, and ic) a figure of a cock and a
head of iron, from Amiens ; two hanging lamps with drip
pans, from Rouen ; a brass object presumably representing
Jonah and the whale, and a silver votive offering re-
presenting a ship, from Antwerp ; two votive offerings of
white metal from Corfu ; a metal bowl with magical inscrip-
tion for imparting magical properties to liquids, probably
from Persia ; an iron candlestick from Ghent ; a coil-type
adjustable candlestick and a collection of whistles, from
Brussels ; and a heart-shaped object of copper, said to be a
Jewish amulet, from London,

Miss Eleanor Hull read a paper entitled "The Ancient
Charm Hymns of Ireland," and Mr. Rolleston read some
examples of charm hymns in Latin. Dr. Gaster offered
some observations upon the paper, for which a hearty vote
of thanks was accorded to Miss Hull.

The Secretary read a paper by Mr. Andrew Lang
entitled "Method and Minotaur" (pp. 132-46), and in the
discussion which followed Dr. A. J. Evans, Dr. Gaster, and
the President took part.

The meeting concluded with a hearty vote of thanks to
Mr. Lang for his paper.

METHOD AND MINOTAUR.

BY A. LANG.

{Read at Meeting, March i6th, 191 o.)

Whoever, as a child, read Kingsley's The Heroes with
delight, must have been thrilled strangely when he learned
that Mr. Arthur Evans had found in Knossos the palace of
King Minos, and even representations of his bull-headed,
bull-hoofed, and bull-tailed man-monster, the Minotaur.
That find was first made some ten years ago, and it was
a not unnatural inference from the discovery that the
people of ancient Crete, (whose race and language we
know not), had a bull-headed god. It was also a natural
inference that the lads and lasses in Athenian stories
sent to encounter the Minotaur were, in fact, offered as
human sacrifices to this being. But a great deal of doubt
has been thrown on these theories by the later discovery
that Cretan art rejoiced in many things as fantastic as the
grotesque non-religious sculptures on the walls of mediaeval
cathedrals. The Cretan seal-rings display many purely
fanciful figures of goat-headed, ass-headed, lion-headed
men, and of an eagle-headed woman. Archaeologists as a
rule do not take these figures as representations of therio-
morphic merging into anthropomorphic objects of worship.
Mr. A. B. Cook and Mons. Reinach (in a recent article in
Rev. de V Hist, des Religions) are, I think, of that opinion,
which certainly needs discussion. But the bull-headed
figure appears to be the only one of these grotesques which
is employed as a link in a certain long and labyrinthine

Method and Minotatir. 133

series of scientific hypotheses. They begin with Zeus. It
is proved that he was in Greek religion the god of the sky,
of the air, of the earth, of what is under the earth, of
the rain, of the sun, of the stars, of the oak-tree, and of any
other tree that was present where oaks were scarce, say
poplar, plane, palm, and so on. No doubt all these and
many other provinces were claimed for Zeus in historic
Greece, though in each department he had many divine
under-studies. But we, if interested in the Minotaur, want
to know what the religious professors in prehistoric Crete
thought about Zeus, how they worshipped him, and with
what rites. On this part of the subject our only light
comes from works of Minoan art, with inferences from
the rites of Greeks in Crete in historic times. A new
theory, however, concerning the Minotaur goes on to argue
that, in late Minoan Knossos, (not yet Greek), a highly-
civilized, wealthy, peaceful, and monarchical city, with
a royal palace of enormous extent and surprising magni-
ficence, and with a population who lived in eligible villa
residences with every modern sanitary requirement, religion
took the following shape : — The king (or Minos) was a
priestly king, and was believed to be the living embodiment
of Zeus, — in especial of the god as Lord of the Sun. He
was obliged every nine years to fight, run, or take part
in some other athletic contest. If defeated, (and the
veteran could hardly expect, if he won at eighteen, to
retain the prize at thirty-six), he was done to death, and
the victor obtained the crown. "It may be conjectured
. . . that the ritual costume of Minos was a bull mask,"
says Mr. A. B. Cook, " and that this gave rise to the legend
of the bull-headed Minotaur." ^

Now, according to the Athenian legend, (which educated
Greeks of the fifth century B.C. proclaimed to be a mere

* The Classical Review, vol. xvii., p. 410. Mr. Cook has since modified
his theory ; it was not the king of Crete, but his son, who did and suffered
these things, {Folk-Lore, vol. xv.).

134 Method and Minotaur.

poetic fiction contradicted by Homer and Hesiod,^ human
victims were offered to the Minotaur, while, according
to Mr. Cook's theory, the Minotaur, or (by his amended
system) the Crown Prince of Knossos, ended by being a
victim himself.

That in a highly-civilized community of white men,
where the king had great wealth, drilled troops (Cretan
art proves that fact), and a powerful navy, the monarch
should submit to such conditions is prima facie not
probable. That any king, anywhere, has ever been
regarded as the embodiment of the Supreme Being and,
as such, slain, is not proved, to my knowledge, in a single
verifiable instance.^ It is therefore my purpose to examine
the scientific theory of the Minotaur as held by Mr. Cook
{Folk-Lore, vol. xv., and Classical Review^ vol. xvii.), and to
point out what I humbly conceive to be perilous errors
in the method of the extremely erudite school of the
New Mythology.

But my task is most complicated. I have re-written
this paper several times, to tell the truth, and am not
sure that I can make the matter clear. If you want
lucidity, go to a Frenchman, and, at last, I have followed
the clue of Ariadne as constructed by the Rev. Father
M. J. Lagrange.*

Our first question is, — what was the nature of religion
in civilized, prehistoric Crete ? For a reply we first
examine the contents of the caves which were held sacred
even in the time of Socrates and later, and one of which
was in the time of Socrates regarded as the birthplace of
the Cretan Zeus, whatever the name of the god may have
been in prehistoric times. Remember that, in Greece itself,
as Pausanias writes in the second century A.D., — " It is
difficult to count all the peoples who attest that Zeus
was born and bred among them," and he gives several

'^ Plato, Minos, 3l8<^ to 320^*. ^ Cf. Magic and Religion, pp. 82-107.

^ La Crete Ancien7ie, Paris, 190S.

Method and Minotaur. 135

instances.^ As the belief was so common in so many parts
of the Greek mainland, it is probable that, when Homer's
Achaeans settled in Crete, they found it already present
as to the local cave-birthplace of a god whom they styled
Zeus.

Now the contents of one Cretan cave of Zeus, in Mount
Ida, show relics of comparatively late non-Minoan art
and worship, with an inscription in Greek characters. The
pottery is not Minoan, but in the geometric style of de-
coration influenced by Assyrian art, through Phoenicia.
This is an early Dorian style, shown in the excavations
at Sparta. Dorians dwelt in Crete in the time of the
Odyssey. The other cave, (where, according to the
Platonic dialogue Minos, King Minos met Zeus and took
his instructions), is that of Dicte, near Psychro and near
the ruins of Lyttos. This cave and its legend were already
known to Hesiod, say 700 B.c.^ The cave has been
excavated by Mr. Hogarth.''' The contents prove what
representations of worship in Minoan art do not prove,
that animals, oxen, goats, and deer were sacrificed, perhaps
to the Mother of the Gods, perhaps to her associate, whom
the Greeks called Zeus, her child. The double axe, often a
symbol of divine power, was present, in art and in bronze
votive offerings ; all this certainly in Minoan times before
the coming of Homer's Achaeans.

That any divine being is represented by a bull-headed
man is doubtful. Gods in the art are usually anthro-
pomorphic ; by far the most prominent is female. The
male gods with haloes have human faces. One monster,
with an earless and hornless head, a forked tail, human
feet, and an arm ending in a hoof, is seated on a low
camp stool, and gods are often seated. Beside him is a
man who, contrary to Minoan usage, is short-haired and

^ Pans aulas , bk. iv., c. 33 ; bk. viii., c. 8, 28, 36, 38.

® Theogony, v. 477.

'' The Annual Report of the British School at Athens, vol. vi., pp. 96 et seq.

2,6 Method and Minotaur.

bearded.^ This is the most plausible example of a divine
indeterminate bestial-headed monster. He is dubious.
It is certain that the bull was a favourite victim in Minoan
religion, and that, as in the Egypt of the period, the
boukranion or bull skull, with a rosette or double axe
between the horns, is a common decorative motive in
Cretan art, as also in the tombs of the Acropolis at
Mycenae.^ The Elamites also, 3,000 years before our
era, represented Minotaurs in their art, apparently in
an attitude of adoration. These are probably the proto-
types of the Cretan Minotaurs or bull-headed demons.
The ox does not appear in any form in the more primitive
archaeological strata of Crete.^*'

As regards the divine bull, or the bull-headed god,
the Minotaur, (whose existence as a being divine and
worshipped is quite problematic), we have little to add.
As late as Euripides a tradition of strange and wild feasts
on raw bull's flesh in Crete existed. These, in the
fragmentary chorus from his fragmentary play, The
Cretans, are contrasted with the pure and vegetarian life
of the devotees of the Idaean Zeus. But Miss Harrison,
in contradiction of several learned Germans, thinks that
Idaean Zeus, the pure, is merely another aspect of Dionysus
Zagreus, the impure, whose orgies involved " red and bleed-
ing feasts" of raw bull's meat.^^ Miss Harrison shows that
Plutarch and the early Christian fathers speak with horror
of wild savage rites, " eatings of raw flesh and rendings
asunder," as being still extant ; while there are traditions
in very late sources of tearing a living man or child in

^ See Harrison, Prolegof/iena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 483,
Fig. 146.

»Cf. Fig. 9 (Plate II.), ante, p. 64.

^° Lagrange, op. cit., p. 85, Figure 66; The Journal of Hellenic Studies,
vol. xxi. (1901), p. 152.

" Op. cit., pp. 474-501. Compare Helbig, s.v. Minos, in Roscher's Lexicon
for the opposing view.

Method and Minotaztr. 137

pieces in honour of the Cannibal Dionysus. Moreover,
Clemens Alexandrinus says that the abomination, ac-
cording to Antikleides, author of an epic on the Return
of the Heroes from Troy, was practised by the Cretan
Lyctii, apparently of Mount Lyttos, where is the cave of
Dictaean Zeus.^-

We have certainly a most unholy mixture of bulls
and human sacrifices and Zeus reported from Crete, Is
the Athenian legend of the victims of the Minotaur a
refraction from actual facts of human sacrifice to a bovine
god ? That is our problem. I may first remark that Mr.
Evans, as he tells me, has found no hint of human sacrifice
in prehistoric Cretan art, or in any other relics of that age
and country. Secondly, in the transition from Euripides
to Clemens Alexandrinus we do not get, — at least I do
not get, — the impression that these savage survivals or re-
crudescences were national, or were affairs of civic worship.
Rather they seem to be the delight of secret societies of
decadents like de Sade and Gilles de Rais. If so, worse
things than they did may have been attributed to them.
Compare pagan charges against the early Christians, medi-
aeval charges against the Jews, and the allegations against
witches even later. The public worship of highly-civilized
Minoan Crete, as far as Cretan art shows, consisted of
prayer and offerings of fruit, flowers, and libations. The
only sacrifice of animals is represented on a painted
larnax or coffin from Hagia Triada, and the recipient
seems to be the ghost of a dead hero.^^ Father Lagrange
himself thinks that the god had the main part of the
sacrifice, but the hero seems to be accepting a calabash
of ox's blood. There is no hint of fire and sacrifice.

Here it may be well to say that there is very little
evidence for human sacrifice in prehistoric Hellas, while, as
for the pharmakos of historic Hellas, the wretch may

" See authorities in Harrison, op. cit., pp. 484-6.
^' Lagrange, op. cit., pp. 60-7.

138 Method and Minotaur.

or may not have been put to death, probably not, in
historic Greece : but that he was no sacrifice to a god,
and merely a human scapegoat bearing the pollutions
of the city on his head, Miss Harrison and Mr. Murray
seem to have proved.^* Miss Harrison thinks that the two
human scapegoats were criminals already condemned, and
that they were done to death. Certainly a writer of 230
B.C., with another rather silly gossip of 11 50 A.D.
(Tzetzes), and a scholiast on Aristophanes, leave the
impression that the men were killed, to prevent them from
returning. But scapemen are one thing, and altars of the
Olympians stained with human blood are another.

As to pre-Homeric times, Miss Harrison says, (p. 109),
— " It may indeed be doubted whether we have any certain
evidence of ' human sacrifice ' . . . among the Greeks even
of mythological days." Iphigenia and Polyxena, she
thinks, were slain, (of course not in Homer), to placate
a ghost. Polyxena, in the Ionian epics of 750 to 600 B.C.,
was slain over the grave of Achilles, but the same poets
tell us that Achilles was not buried in Troyland, he
was carried by Thetis to the Isle of Leuke in the Euxine,
where he was worshipped, and, says Pausanias, married
happily, his wife being Helen of Troy !

The post-Homeric legends, whether in Ionian epics,
historians, the tragic poets, or scraps preserved by anti-
quaries down to 1 1 50 A.D., are all at odds, and only prove
that such or such a writer or chapel-sacristan thought such
or such a sacrifice feasible in prehistoric times. As a
matter of method, all such evidence is suspicious, and
we ought to use it with the utmost critical care ; especially
we must not select scraps which suit our theory and ignore
others which contradict it. When the Achaean traditions
in Homer backed by Hesiod take one view of a legendary
personage, such as Minos, while the Attic traditions, really

"Harrison, op. cit., pp. 95-110; Murray, The Jiise of the Greek Epic,
pp. 253-258.

Method and Minotaur. 139

hostile to the Achaeans, take the opposite view, we must
not ignore Homer and Hesiod and treat the figments of
Attic poets as in a way historical.

Now, to return to the Minotaur, we must steadily
remember that the whole story about him and his victims
is an Attic, a non-Achaean, legend. Socrates, in the
Minos, justly says that it was an invention of Attic
poets, made because they were on ill terms with Minos,
whom Homer applauds, with Hesiod's consent, above
any other mortal man. Next, we must remember that the
story of Theseus and the Minotaur, and all the pseudo-
historic legends of the Greek states, (except probably as
to migrations of peoples), are merely the "saga" forms
of mdrchefi of world-wide diffusion and of dateless anti-
quity. The story which a Greek tells of Theseus or
CEdipous, of Pelops or Minos, of Orpheus or Zagreus, of
Hesione or Andromeda, is only a mdrchen or folk-tale,
equipped with names of legendary heroes and heroines,
and of known places. The Bechuana, the Samoans, the
Samoyeds, the Santals, even the Arunta, the Huarocihiri,
the Maoris, not to mention the folk-tales of Europe,
repeat the same stories and story-incidents about unnamed
persons in No-man's-land. It appears to me that some
of our most erudite mythologists have not these facts
present to their minds in each case. Therefore, when they
find in the pseudo-historic legend and in poetry traces
of a custom, say the bride-race, or royalty acquired by
success in running or boxing, or by solving a riddle,
or bringing some rare object through many perils, or
slaying a monster like the Minotaur ; or find exogamy,
indicated by the crown going to an alien adventurer
who wins the heiress by answering her riddle, or defeating
her in a race, or making her laugh, or who runs away
with her after she has magically enabled him to achieve
some perilous adventure, (Theseus and Ariadne, and
Medea and Jason) ; mythologists leap to the conclusion

140 Method and Minotaur.

that one of these methods, the contest for the crown in
a race or a fight, was the recognised and customary way of
settling the succession to the throne in ancient Greece.

Meanwhile all these incidents are mdrchenJiaft ; they
are romantic stock situations ; if such modes of acquir-
ing royalty were once universally customary, it must
have been in the world of early human fancies, not of
facts.

Before we can infer that even one of these many
incidents was ever matter of custom so widely diffused that
it has coloured the vidrchen of the world, and the shape
that they take in Greek saga, we must discover many
examples of the custom with valid historical record,
observed and described by competent witnesses. For
one incident, the bride-race, or the race for the crown,
Mr. Frazer cites the Alitemnian Libyans,^^ while the
Svayamvara, where the maiden chose one of her crowd
of suitors or was offered as the prize in a trial of skill, " was
occasionally observed among the Rajputs down to a late
time." Several German and one English treatise on
Hindu Law are cited in support.^^ Of course sporting
Rajputs may have imitated what they knew from mdrcJien
or from sagas (the Mahabhdratd). Or the Rajputs may
really, like the Alitemnian Libyans, have had the usage
of giving the crown, or the bride, to the swiftest or most
dexterous competitor. But examples of this one usage,
historically observed in the ancient world, have only the
authority of Nicolaus Damascenus, in one instance, so
far as I am aware. Surely that is not enough to prove
that all the body of such eccentric customs in the mdrchen
of the world are survivals of universal usages. The usage,
necessary to Mr. Cook's Minotaur theory, of slaying
unsuccessful competitors, is, as far as I know, without

"Nicolaus Damascenus in Stobaeus, Florilegium, xliv. 41 ; Frazer, Lectures
on the Early History of the Kingship, p. 260.
" Frazer, op. cit. , p. 262, note 2.

Method and Minotaur. 141

example in practice. Nor can we infer, with Mr. Cook,
that in highly-civilized Knossos, with its wealth, its palaces,
its bijou villa residences, and its pretty Parisiennes in every
variety of mediaeval and modern costume, the King or the
Ciown Prince, wearing a bull's mask, had at stated intervals
to fight or run for his life and his royal rights, and was,
in fact, the Minotaur defeated by Theseus ! This is the
theory of the Minotaur advanced by Mr. Cook in his
" Zeus, Jupiter, and The Oak," in vol. xvii. of The Classical
Revieiv, and, with variations, in his " The European Sky
God " in Folk-Lore, vol. xv.

Now for the story of conflicts with the Minotaur we have
no evidence, I repeat, beyond the Athenian adaptation
of the mdrchen of the Lad, the Giant (or Elephant), and the
Giant's Daughter to the names of Theseus, Minos, and
Ariadne. To this I shall return ; but, meanwhile, the
Greek (chiefly Attic and Ionian) legends of sacrificed
princesses appear in Attic mdrchefi so primitive that a
large percentage of the characters become birds, as in
Australian, or American-Indian, or South American folk-
tales. One form of such sacrifice is exposure of the royal
maiden to a monster, (Andromeda and Hesione). That is
pure mdrchen, and is no proof of such a custom in pre-
historic Greece or at Troy. The mdrchen is carried on into
pseudo-historic legend.

The other human sacrifices are done in obedience to
the command of an oracle, so that some curse on the
country may be removed. But in the famous Minyan case
of Phrixus, Helle, and the Ram,^''' (whether his fleece was
golden or purple, or merely white), in my earliest excursion
into these fields ^^ I showed that the Phrixus story is
the saga form of the world-wide folk-tale of children with a
ram, lamb, or other friendly animal, fleeing, not from
sacrifice, but from cannibalism. The modern Epirote

^^ See Phrixus in Roscher's Lexikon.

18 <■<■ Mythology and Fairy Tales," Fortnightly Review, May, 1873.

142 Method and Minotaur.

variant Asterinos and Pulja is in Von Hahn ^^ ; the
Samoyed, with beaver for ram, in Castren.^''

The Greeks merely adapted the mdrchen to certain
names, — (Helle is simply, as Seeliger says, in Roscher's
Lexikon, the eponymous heroine of the Hellespont), — and
to certain places, which were localised variously as geogra-
phical knowledge widened. For cannibalism the Greeks
substituted human sacrifice in some great need of the
State. It is in Attic myth that the story is constantly
repeated, like a formula of mdrchen. I cannot deny that
the idea was much present to the ancient story-tellers
who converted mdrcJien into saga or pseudo-history ; but
I agree with Miss Harrison, as already quoted, that " it
may be doubted whether we have any certain evidence
of 'human sacrifice' among the Greeks even of mytho-
logical days."

Again, it was customary for classical antiquaries to
explain various rites as offerings of " surrogates," or
sacrifices for human victims.

One case of such an aetiological myth is notorious.
We know the oscilla, masks of human faces, which in parts
of Italy were suspended on fruit trees and vines.^^ The
old antiquaries of Rome explained these masks as
substitutes for heads of human victims, which the Dodona
oracle bade the Pelasgians offer to Saturn (Kronos). For
the story of an oracle older than Heracles' time they
quoted L. Manilius, who saw the oracle inscribed on a
tripod. It contains Latin words, " the Saturnian laws,"
" the aboriginesl^ and is a clumsy forgery.

Meanwhile, Mr. Stephen Ponder points out to me that
Maori chiefs of old hung their own portrait masks {j'ahiii),
with their own well-known tattooing, in each case, about

1^ Griechische und Albiinische Mlirchen.
"^^ Ethnologische Vorlesungen iiber die altaischen V olker etc.
^^ Virgil, Georgics, ii. 389, and see examples in Smith's Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Antiquities, s.v. Oscilla.

Method and Minotaur. 143

their own grounds as a mark of ownership, — and of
tabooed soil, I presume. "Trespassers, beware!" that
was the meaning.

Miss Harrison also^^ quotes savage masks whose function
is permanently " to make an ugly face " at you if you are
robbing a neighbour or his orchard. Miss Harrison is not
discussing oscilla, but I think that she and Mr. Ponder
have hit on a more probable explanation of oscilla than
that which Mr. Cook shares with L. Manilius and other
Roman antiquaries. Mr. Cook holds, with them, that the
masks are evidence of human sacrifice in the past.-^

The forged oracle in Pelasgian Greek and Latin, more
ancient than Heracles, was also used to explain the Argei,
or straw puppets, thrown over the Sublician bridge at
Rome. They were originally men offered, on the demand
of the same forged oracle, to Saturn. In the case of the
puppets, the presence of the wife of the Flamen Dialis,
mourning, may indicate that the Latins once drowned men,
as the Trojans drowned horses, to propitiate their river.

Now I hope that I have made my position, the shadowy
nature of mythological evidence for Greek human sacrifices
to gods, clear enough to procure suspended judgment, or
even a verdict of " not proven."

Returning to Minoan Crete, we have had no proof of
human sacrifices in that isle in prehistoric times. But
that topic, with the whole theory that the Minotaur was
the king, or prince, of Knossos embodying the god of the
sun, the sky, the stars, and the oak tree, and that, masked
as a bull, he, or his son, fought every nine years for his
rights and his life (Mr. Cook's view), or was butchered
in a cave, while another man came out in the same
mask (Mr. Murray's view), cannot be dealt with in our
space. Meanwhile, let the reader ask himself, " Was the
arrangement likely to be submitted to by the wealthy
and powerful monarch of a highly-civilized state, in touch

^ Op. cit., p. 138. ^'^ The Classical Review, vol. xvii., pp. 269-70.

144 Method and Minotaur.

with the Egypt of the sixteenth century B.C. .-* " The
soHtary historical example of kings who, at the end of
twelve years, had to commit suicide, is that of Calicut,
but there the king (a vassal or subject prince) adopted
measures which secured his safety before 1683.^* Not a
hint of any such measures occurs in Greek tradition. I
have not read that this king of Calicut was looked on
as an embodiment of such a deity as the Zeus of the
Greeks.

Again, in the Attic fable, Theseus, after slaying the
Minotaur, does not succeed to the rights of the Crown
Prince in Knossos. He simply sails away.

Finally, the whole theory that the Minotaur has to
do battle for his life and rights at stated periods, rests
solely on one line of the Odyssey, in which, whatever
Homer means to say, he certainly says not a word
about any such contest. The line is Odyssey^ xix. 179;
it runs, being interpreted, " Cnossos, and there Minos
reigned evvewpo?, he who spake face to face with (or was
the comrade of) great Zeus."

The meaning of the word kvvewpo^ in this passage is
unknown. If we translate it " Minos ruled in periods
of nine years," or "Minos conversed with Zeus every
nine years," we get a recurrent period. Mr. Cook holds
that at these periods the son of Minos fought for his
crown. Mr. Murray holds that Minos himself, wearing a
bull's mask or protome, was butchered in the Dictaean
cave. If you consult Mr. Monro's edition of the Odyssey^
you will find that he knows not how to interpret the
passage. You will get no more satisfaction from another
great scholar, A. Ludwig, in his essay on Minos (Prague,
1903). Ludwig equates Minos with the German Mannus,
and thinks him a purely mythical being.

In short, as Professor Burrows, Dr. Hawes, and other
scholars see, the possible historic fact in the Attic myth

2* Frazer, Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship, pp. 293-296.

Method and Minotaur. 145

of Theseus and the Minotaur is the sending of Attic
captives into the Cretan bull-ring itaiirokathapsia), where
boy and girl acrobats, on foot, played perilous tricks
with bulls, as often depicted in Cretan art. The rest of
the myth is a common indrchen localised.

I have tried to keep the discussion within the limits of
Folk-Lore and of historic fact, and am dealing elsewhere
with other elements in Mr. Cook's system. For example,
the late Cretan explanation that Athens had to provide
young people, in revenge for the death of Androgeos, as
prizes at periodical games at Knossos, cannot be earlier
than the non-Homeric institution of games at fixed
periods. No evidence, I think, is produced (as in the
case of Dodona) for such games at Knossos. Again, the
passage cited from Diodorus, in proof that Kings of
Egypt did wear bestial masks, is a mere astiological myth
to explain the Odyssean story of Proteus. He, said the
Egyptian priests, was a King of Egypt, and such kings
wore trees and fire on their heads, as well as bestial
masks. This is absurd : they only wore the golden
uraeus-snake of Royalty.

The Attic Theseus story is but a world-wide mdrchen,
coloured, probably by a memory of the sports in the
bull-ring, (at which captives may have been the per-
formers), and perhaps by representations in art of men
with bovine heads. From such figures it is a far cry to
inferences about the king as an embodiment of an
universal god, and as fighting, in person, or in the person
of his son, for his life and crown. A far cry, too, it is
to the sacred wedding of the Queen with a Bull-god. If
such a rite in any place occurred, it was at Athens. The
Athenians would understand that the affair was mystic
and symbolic, not abominable. But it is the Athenians,
not the Achaean poet, Homer, who degrade the whole
kith and kin of Minos by the most disgusting inventions,
including the birth of the Minotaur. These tales, inter

146 Method and Minotaur.

Christianas non nominanda, may be read in the articles
on "Minos" and "Minotaur" in Roscher's Lexikon. The
article on Homer's stainless Achilles illustrates even
more powerfully the horrors with which historic Greece
defiled the memories of the heroes of the conquering
Achaeans ; against whom the later Greeks, descendants,
mainly, of a conquered population, entertained an undying
grudge. It survives in the Troilus and Cressida of
Shakespeare.

A. Lang.

THE FORCE OF INITIATIVE IN MAGICAL
CONFLICT.

BY W. R. HALL I DAY.

All magic is in a sense a conflict. It is not, however,
with the machinery of this conflict, nor with the weapons
with which it is carried on, that we are here concerned, but
rather with the deeper causes of victory or defeat. The
result of reflection on the relation between sorcerer and
victim, witch and bewitched, and an examination of the
psychological presuppositions on which are based their
success or failure, may, perhaps, prove of some interest and
even importance in connection with the general question
of the basis of magical efficacy ; and at the outset, in view
of the vexed controversy in which the larger question is
involved, some declaration of creed may be thought
necessary. Certain views, at any rate, I must put forward
as briefly as possible, more or less after the manner of
postulates deprived by lack of space of the justification
which, in some cases, they may seem to require.

It is now widely admitted by anthropologists that magic
is based on power. A rite which has efficacy in se is
exactly analogous to a word of power. It is by his power
or inana that the sorcerer or medicine-man works his will.
But it is important to notice that in the lower culture the
sorcerer's power differs not so much in kind as in degree
from that of the ordinary man. Everyone has some power,
some personality. For example, on the Rio Grande people
are warned not to leave their hair clippings about, not
because an enemy might make magical use of them, but

148 Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

for fear that they should do harm to others/ and, in the
East, Ahura Mazda advises mankind in much the same
fashion.^ Again, it is the sick and weak that witchcraft
easiest attacks. Infants before baptism, i.e. before they
have a spiritual personality, are easy victims to dangers
which have no power to harm adults. The evil eye
most easily assails infants, animals, and young animals.^
Adults possess a power which, if alert, will serve for
their defence. In Apuleius' story of Thelyphron {^Meta-
morphoses, ii. 21), if the watcher of the corpse relaxed
his attention, the body was mutilated by witches, but
so long as he kept awake all was well. This innate
power in every grown human being is a motive for the
secrecy of magic. The ideal plan presumably is to work
magic secretly, and then let your enemy know that you
have done it and he will die of fright. In any case, if
the aggressor's mmia is not strong enough for a direct
attack, he effects by secrecy a breach in the enemy's
defence. He secures, unknown, his image or his hair ; he
takes him off his guard. When the Iroquois goes hunting,
his orenda conquers the orcnda of his quarry.* A similar
conflict underlies all magical usage. The existence of a
modicum of power in every human being of necessity
implies it.

Now the so-called sympathetic magic is based, not on a
supposed axiomatic law that like causes like, but on the
contagion of qualities. But qualities are, as it were, mana
specialised, and the belief in the contagious infection of
qualities is but an extension of the belief that mana affects
that with which it is brought into contact. The wide area
of personality as it is conceived in the Lower Culture

^ Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, vol. ii., p. 68, note 5.

^Reinach, Orpheus, p. 99.

"* Plutarch, Quaestiones Conv., v. 7 ; Virgil, Eclogues, iii. 103; Elworthy, The
Evil Eye, pp. 9-10; Dalyell, The Darker Superstitions of Scotland, pp. 4,
10-12.

* Hewitt, American Anthropologist, N.S. vol. iv., p. 38.

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. 149

enables persons quite easily to be united, or brought into
contact, with power. Modes of contact for example are, —
seeing, touching, spitting on, speaking to, the use of hair,
faeces, images, or name, the giving of presents, and, in some
cases, the payment of money. Union or contact with
power is the foundation of magic, and in religion communion
with the divinity is the basic idea : sacrifice has ultimately,
as its raison d'etre, the bringing into contact of worshipper
and God.^ The agent brings himself voluntarily into
contact or union with a beneficent power, as, for example,
in the cases of union with the healing well or sacred tree.^
Further, of course, this union may be effected for the
benefit of someone by a third party. Thus Tum, Safekht,
and Thoth inscribe the name of Rameses II. on the sacred
tree of Heliopolis, thereby endowing him with eternal life.''
But magic, no less than religion, is based on this notion
of contact or union. The medicine man can add to his
mana. The possession of the kin gives the Australian the
magic power which is in them ; the power of the inigis
passes to the Mide into whom it is shot. By eating a dead
enemy you may add his power to your own. The
religious sacrament is to some extent a self-surrender.
There contact with a stronger power is undertaken, but
the power is known to be beneficent ; in union the wor-
shipper is absorbed, but not annihilated, by the divinity.
But, in the case of the accumulation of mana, the power is
absorbed by the stronger party. When Isis knew Ra by
his name, the god's power passed into the goddess. Thus,
magical encounter is at once a union and a conflict. For
union is fatal to that party whose identity is absorbed by

^Messrs. Hubert and Mauss have made it clear that the main function of
sacrifice is to bring into union God and worshipper. The ritual of sacrifice
primarily exists for the purpose of minimising the risk attendant on the contact
of sacred and profane. Cf. " Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice,"
Melanges cTHistoire des Religions, pp. 1-130.

^Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, vol. ii.

^Clodd, Tom Tit Tot, p. 160, (quoting Wiedemann).

1 50 Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

the other. That is why failure is fatal to ogres. The
Sirens must die when Odysseus passes in safety ; the
Sphinx, when her riddle has been answered, is doomed. In
the case of witchcraft, again, may be seen how, beneath the
conflict, lies still the idea of union, — the victim simply by
being bewitched becomes part of the witch's personality.
The regular charm against witchcraft is to attack the witch
by sympathetic magic ; it is noticeable that part of the
victim is in this process as efficacious an instrument as the
excreta of the witch. For example, a Somerset farmer cut
off the ears of his bewitched cattle and burned them, "that
the Witch should be in misery, and could not rest till they
were pluck'd out."^ Glanvill narrates of another house
where the furniture was bewitched "which they of the
house being fully persuaded of, roasted a BedstafT, upon
which an old Woman, a suspected Witch, came to the
House." 9

Magic then might almost be expressed as a conflict of
wills. Powers or personalities are brought into contact,
with the result that the identity of one party is absorbed
or annihilated by the other. In the simple case of the
accumulation of mana by the medicine-man, the power of
the conquered enemy becomes, in the eating, ipso facto the
power of the victor. The stronger absorbs the weaker.
My object here is to suggest that throughout magical
conflict this holds good and the stronger party wins. The
aggressor, the party who takes the initiative, who recognises
the seriousness of the conflict and acts with intention, is
the winner ; failure is of the weaker party, who is taken
unawares, who gives himself away, who allows the enemy
to get an advantage.

Let us take, first, the eff"ect produced by very great mana
on that with which it comes into contact. Contact with

^ Glanvill, Sadducismus Triumphatus, 4th ed. p. 327. (Trial of Julian Cox at
Taunton, 1663.)

^Glanvill, op. cit.^ p. 363.

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. 151

persons highly charged with viana may be beneficial or
highly dangerous. When Arise Evans rubbed his fungous
nose on Charles II.'s hand, the king, we read, was disturbed,
but the patient was cured.^^ The relics of saints have been
known to effect cures by their intrinsic holiness." But at
the same time this awful power was not lightly to be
approached. Great power may be hurtful as well as
beneficial to that with which it comes in contact. In
Bechuanaland violemo means poison as well as medicine,^^
and the Gorgon's blood was powerful to heal or kill.^^
Eurypylos, son of Euaemon, received a chest among the
spoils of Ilium which fell to his share ; inside it was an
image of Dionysos. No sooner did he look inside and see
the image, than he went out of his mind.^* On the return
of the ark from the Philistines, the Lord " smote the men of
Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the
Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and three-
score and ten men. And the men of Beth-shemesh said,
Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God ? and to
whom shall he go up from us .-"'^^ And, as David brought the
ark in solemn procession to his new capital, Uzzah, one of
the drivers of the cart, "put forth his hand to the ark of God,
and took hold of it ; for the oxen shook it. And the anger
of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah ; and God smote
him there for his error ; and there he died by the ark of
God."^*^ A Samoan high priest's glance was so deadly
that, if he looked at a coco-nut tree, it died, and, if he

^"Aubrey, Miscellatiies, (ist ed., 1696), p. loi.

" Cf. St. Paul's handkerchiefs, The Acts, c. xix., v. 12.

^-Frazer, Anthropological Essays preseiited to E. B. Tylor etc., p. 161,
note 4. Cf. Servius on malum virus, Georgic i. 129.

^3 Euripides, Ion, 1010-1015, Apollodoros, iii., 10. 3. 9.

"Pausanias, vii. 19. 7.

^^I. Samuel, c. vi., v. 19-20.

^^11. Samuel, c. vi., v. 6-7.

152 Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

glanced at a bread-fruit tree, it withered away.^'^ The
holiness of Rabbi Juda of rabbinical tradition blasted four-
and-twenty of his scholars in a single day,^^ Thus it is
that the superman of the Lower Culture is hedged
about with taboos. Of course, you must protect the
External Soul of the community from possibility of
harm, but you must also protect his subjects from the
awful consequences of unwary and accidental contact
with his supreme sanctity.

Now, if we ask when or under what circumstances
is contact with very great mana beneficial and when
is it dangerous, it is possible, I believe, to diagnose
the general feeling which underlies the distinction. If
we take the case of Rabbi Juda, an analogy may be
witnessed in the relations of more modern teachers
to their pupils. A person of strong character may
stimulate or crush that of his pupils in proportion as
their own mana is strong enough to benefit by the
influence or weak enough to lose entirely its own
independence. It is the utter disproportion of the two
manas which is fatal to the smaller. " Who is able to stand
before this holy Lord God ? " Moses may not see the face
of Jahwe ; " he said, Thou canst not see my face ; for there
shall no man see me, and live."^^ To come into contact
with 7nana without disaster and even with beneficial
results, it is necessary that your own mana should be
sufficiently strong to bear it. Your intention, the serious-
ness of your attitude, your courage, or the sanction
given by the performance of certain rites are essential.
Thus, for example, the danger of blasphemy lies in the
levity with which Power is approached. In Lincolnshire
" old fashioned people at the end of the last century \i.e.

^''Turner, Samoa etc., p. 23, quoted Hartland, op. cit., vol. iii., p. 144;
cf. Clodd, Tom Tit Tot, p. 52.

^^ Hartland, op. cit., vol. iii., p. 144.
^^ Exodus, c. xxxiii., v. 20.

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. 153

the 1 8th] used to make it a matter of conscience when
they read Holy Scripture, or talked on religious subjects, to
speak of the devil ; but when they had occasion to use the
word in oaths, or in talk of a lighter sort, they were
careful to say Diviiy-^ The development of this double
aspect of mana into the ordeal of itself bears witness to
the deep-rooted feeling that the intention or the attitude
of mind of the person who comes into contact with great
power is of the most vital importance.

We have seen then that contact with mana may kill
or cure, and that, on occasions where the contact is
accidental and the agent lacking in seriousness of inten-
tion, the result is liable to be fatal. There are, indeed,
two ways of dealing with hostile magic powers: (i) to
avoid the possibility of contact, to conceal your name,
to keep silence, to keep still, to conceal carefully the
fragments of your clothing, hair, nails, etc.: (2), if
contact is unavoidable, to get the upper hand by taking
the initiative, by anticipating the contact, by asserting
your own mana. Unless the victim gives himself away
his mana will suffice for defence, and the enemy has no
power over him. „ Here lies the basis of responsibility
in temptation and the ruses by which victims are
entrapped into giving themselves into the enemy's hands.
Fairies could not seize any victim they chose ; it was
only those who went to sleep under a rock or on a green
hill after sunset, or those who joined voluntarily in their
levels or entered the fairy circle. If some adventurous
wight penetrates to the land of the dead, to the realm
of Faerie or to Hell, his return can only be pre-
vented if he is unwary enough to eat pomegranate seeds,
sit in the chair of Lethe, play on a demoniac bagpipe,
consume the repast offered him, pluck a flower there
growing, or perform some similar act of aggregation.
Had True Thomas eaten the fruit, the Queen of the

'^"Gutch and Peacock, County Folklore, vol. v. (Lincolnshire), p. 66.

154 Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

Middle Kingdom could not have sent him back to

earth.

He pressed to puUe fruyt with his hand
As man for faute that was faynt :
She seyd, Thomas, lat al stand
Or els the deuyl wil the ataynt. ^i

Compliance is fatal. The Butler in Glanvill's eighteenth
relation is warned " Do nothing this Company invites you
to."^"' Those who obeyed the magic voice which murmured
in their ear, — " Thou art a handsome youth, a handsome
youth. Only look in the glass," put themselves by
compliance into the enemy's hand.^^ Similarly, thought-
less invitation of evil powers is fatal.

"But I had not the power to come to thy bower
Had'st thou not conjured me so,"

says the lover's ghost to his mistress in one of Sir W.
Scott's poems.2* And the result of thoughtless impre-
cation is recognised all the world over. An irate Malay
mother once exclaimed to her naughty boy, — " May the
'Toh Kramat Kamarong fly away with him," Next day
the boy disappeared, and three days later 'Toh Kamarong
appeared to her in a dream and told her that he had taken
him off.2^ " Deevil," cried the witch of Mucklestane Moor,
incensed at the obstinacy of the geese, which she was
trying to drive, " that neither I nor they ever stir from this
spot more." She and her flock turned immediately to
stones, which remain to this day.^^ Among the Chukchi,
"if a herdsman, angered with his flocks for their restlessness,

^^ Appendix to Thomas the Rhymer, I, in Sir W. Scott, Minstrelsy of the
Scottish ^or^t'r (Edinburgh 1853), vol. iv., pp. 122 et seq.

22Glanvill, op. cit., p. 356.

^^ Hartland, The Legend of Per seiis, vol. iii., p. 102.

^ " The Eve of St. John," Scott's Poetical works (Lansdowne Poets),
p. 348.

25 Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 70.

26 Sir W. Scott, Black Dwarf c. ii.

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. 155

should say to them " Let the wolves eat you," as is usual
with the reindeer Chukchi, he is considered to have promised
his entire flock to the kelat, to whom the wolves are said
to be akin, and the promise must be redeemed by slaying
several of his best animals." ^'^

In possession by the Devil is to be found just the same
responsibility on the part of the victim. He must have let
the fiend within the circle of his defence. He must have
put himself in the weaker position. The disciples suppose
that an unfortunate cured by Jesus must have committed
in his own person or that of his parents some grievous sin.
So those who omit obvious precautions are liable to
possession. "A Nunne did eat a lettice without grace or
signing it with the signe of the cross, and was instantly
possessed (sine cruce atque sanctificatione sic a demone
obsessa. dial. Greg. pap. cap 9). Durand, lib 6. Rational, cap.
86. num. 8, relates that hee saw a wench possessed in
Bononia with two Divells by eating an unhallowed Pome-
granet, as she did afterwards confess, when she was cured
by exorcismes." 2^ Exactly analogous is the case of the
savage who leaves his fragments lying about. His careless-
ness puts him in the weaker position. It is his own fault
that his enemy can come to close quarters with him. The
case of the name is particularly instructive from our point
of view. Of course, it is dangerous to let people get hold
of your name, which they can use as easily as a piece of
your clothes as an instrument of secret magic for your
undoing. But the most fatal thing of all is to tell your
name yourself. "In the west of Ireland," says Dr.

^ Bogoras, *' The Chukchi of Northeastern Asia," American Anthropologist,
N.S., vol. iii., p. 106. For further examples cf. Hartland, The Legend of
Perseus, vol. iii., pp. 120-122, 124; Heywood, Ensampks of Fra Fiiippo,
pp. 282-283 ; The Spanish Mandevile of Miracles, (translated from Spanish
of Anthonio de Torquemada, London, 1600), fol. 63 ; Gesta Romanormn,
clxii., "Of avoiding imprecations" ; Gervase of Tilbury, ap. Scott, Minstrelsy
of Scottish Border, vol. iv., pp. 220-271.

^''Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, part I., sect. 2, memb. I, sub. 2.

156 Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

Haddon, "and in Torres Straits people have refused
to tell me their names, though there was no objection to
someone else giving me the information."^^ Mr. Clodd
quotes examples of a similar feeling as prevalent in British
Columbia, among the Abipones of S. America, the Fiji
Islanders, the North American Indians, and the Negroes
of Trinidad.^*' Here obviously stress is laid on the danger
consequent on the act of giving yotir self away.

We see then that, if you are weak enough to put yourself
in the worse position and give the enemy a point of
vantage by carelessness or compliance, you are more or
less at his mercy.

It is fatal to put yourself in the weaker position, and the
converse holds good. If you know that a person is a
suspicious character, the best thing to do is to take the bull
by the horns.

OTTTTOTe Kcv KipKYj or' iXdcTrj TrepifJL-^Ke'i pdfSSo),
St) Tore crv ^i(f)OS o^v ipvcrcrdixevo'i irapd fx-qpov
KipKTj eVai'^at ws re KTa/xevat /xeveatVcoi/.^^
Bogies are powerless before the lad who didn't know
what fear was.^^ There is no need to quote all the
examples of the Proteus type of story and that of the
victory of a human warrior over a ghostly enemy. Against
courage metamorphosis avails not, and to a Jacob or an
Osbert spirit antagonists are forced to yield. He who has
courage to rush upon a fairy festival and snatch from them
their drinking cup or horn will find it prove to him a
cornucopia of fortune.^^

The secret of success is to be the aggressor, to assert

^^ Haddon, Magic and Fctichisni, p. 22.
30 Clodd, Tom Tit Tot, pp. 82, 84-85, 87.
2^ Homer, Odyssey, x., 293.

32 Grimm, Kinder- ti?id Hausmdrchen, 4, 12 1, 193, 195; cf. Croker, "The
Legend of Knocksheogow," Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of
Ireland, vol. i., pp. i-io.

33 Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. ii., p. 276.

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. 157

your power; to secure the upper hand and to keep it is of
vital importance. Michael Scott was obliged to keep his
familiar under control by ceaseless employment. After
making him bridge the Tweed and split the Eildon Hills,
the magician hit on the ingenious device of setting him to
the manufacture of ropes of sand.^^ Loss of faith or of
courage means failure, if not disaster. For the success of a
charm two brothers sent to fetch magic water are enjoined
" nocht to speir ane word all the way, and quhat euir they
hard or saw nawayis to be affrayed : saying, it micht be
that thai wold heir grit rumbling and sie uncouth feirfuU
apparitiones, but nathing suld annoy thame."^^ Mr. Hart-
land mentions a certain John Gethin who was overcome
with fright on raising the Devil, and so put himself into the
enemy's power. A fight ensued between the Devil and
Gethin's bolder companion, and the unfortunate man v/as
rescued after being nearly torn in two.^^ When St. Peter
walked on the sea, so soon as he began to be afraid he
began to sink. Fear was fatal to the man who saw
Heracles and Cerberus.

tria qui timidus, medio portante catenas,
coUa canis vidit ; quem non paver ante reliquit,
quam natura prior, saxo per corpus oborto.^'''

Again, the principle that victory goes to the party which
puts itself in the stronger position is very clearly brought
out in cases where speaking is the mode of contact. A few
examples may be quoted from Mr. Hartland's Legend of
Perseus. In a German tale, the hero, returning with a
branch of the Tree with the Golden Fruits, hears someone
calling him, and turning to reply becomes a pillar of salt.
This fate also overtakes his eldest sister, but the younger

^ Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel, note i8.
s^Dalyell, op. cit., p. 85.

^^Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, vol. ii., p. 105.
"*' Ovid, Metamorphoses, x., 65.

158 Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

resists the temptation to answer and restores her brother
and sister with the Leaping Water.^^ In the Kabyle story
of the children and the bat, the brothers, one after the
other, are sent to find the bat. "What wild beast comes
here ? " asks the bat from the top of the tree. " Go to
sleep, old head," answers each lad, with the result that
the bat changes their guns to pieces of wood, and renders
each of them in turn " microscopic." Their sister is more
circumspect ; she does not answer the bat, but waits until
it is asleep, climbs the tree, seizes the bat creature, and
compels it to restore her brothers. In a story from
Mirzapur, those who answer when addressed by the night-
ingale are turned to stone.^^ A Lincolnshire man whose
wife was bewitched went out to gather "wicken." "On
the way he met a woman belonging to the village, who

said, " Mr. W , what time is it .'' " but he would

not reply, because he knew it was the witch." ^° It is
very dangerous to answer questions addressed to you by
strangers or suspicious persons.^^ But sometimes Greek
meets Greek. In another story, a Moor, who finds the
second brother stretched on the grass, asks him, — "What
do you want here .-' " He replies " Nothing." The Moor
spits on him, and turns him to stone. The youngest
brother, when confronted with the Moor, replies with
another question, — " What are all these many stones I
see around me ? " The Moor answers that they were
men whom his spittle had turned to stone, and threatens
him with the same fate. Thereupon the magic nightingale
with which the hero was returning began to sing, and

^^ Hartland, The Legend of Persetis, vol. iii., p. 97.

^^ Hartland, op. ciL, pp. 99, 97.

*" County Folklore, vol. v. (Lincolnshire), p. 99.

'^^e.g. at night when evil spirits are about, (Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore
and A}tcient Greek Religion, pp. 140, 201, 365), or on your marriage day,
when enemies may seek to cast a spell, (Doutte, Magie et Religion dans
VAfrique du Nord, p. 290).

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. 159

the Moor fell down upon the ground a heap of ashes.*^
The Moor, like his former victims, had put himself in
the weaker position by answering a question. To this
necessity for getting the upper hand in a verbal encounter
may be traced the formal acceptance of omens in
classical antiquity. The omen is ratified by acceptance,
and the fatal word can thus be made sure, even in a
sense which is contrary to the speaker's intention. For
example, the Spartans, on the advice of Delphi, sent
an envoy to Xerxes, to demand justice for the murder
of Leonidas. After hearing the complaint, Xerxes turned
to Mardonios, who was standing by, and uttered the
fatal words, " TOiyap cr(pL M.apSovio'i oSe SiKa^ Scocrei TOiavra?
o'la9 eKelvoia-L irpe-jrei." The envoy accepted the omen,
and departed.*^ The victory again goes to the party
who is astute enough to take the offensive.*'^

Now there is a class of rites in which contact with
a dangerous power is deliberately anticipated in order
to secure safety or to annul harm magically inflicted by
that power. For example, there are those ford rites in
which the traveller throws in some articles of small value,
spits in the stream, washes his hands, or takes a ceremonial
sip before braving the danger of crossing. Peruvians,
Indians of the Cordilleras, Sinhalese, Zulus, Bantus, and
Badagas of the Neilgherry Hills observe one or other of these
forms of ritual.^^ Hesiod warns the traveller against crossing

^^Hartland, op. cit., vol. iii., p. loi.

*3 Herodotus, viii. 115. For other examples of the formal acceptance of
omens, cf. Herodotus, viii. 137, ix. 91, i. 63; Cicero De Div., i. 46, 103;
Plutarch, Parallela, 306 c. So the technical word for the ceremony of averting
an omen implies refusal. Of Hippias we are told, direnrd/j.evos t^v 6xj/lu, 'iiveiMire
T^v irofiirTjv iv ry Brj rekevrq., (Herod., v. 56).

**Cf. the story in Herodotus, viii. 137. Perdikkas' acceptance of the oppor-
tunity is contrasted with his brother's dulness of apprehension.

^^Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 210; Hildburgh, The Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute etc., vol. xxxviii., p. 189; Frazer, in Anthropo-
logical Essays etc., pp. 140-14 I.

i6o Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

a river without washing his hands in its waters.*^ By-
effecting a contact with the power of the water, you
prevent its harming you. Again, a wounded man, who
might cause the Zulu cattle to milk blood, is given to drink
the parboiled entrails of a young heifer.*'^ Among the
Bechuanas a woman, whose husband is dead, must boil her
food in a mixture of milk taken from every cow in the
herd, and must smear herself with dung from the cattle
pens, in order to avert the danger to the cattle consequent
on contact with her.^^ In the Highlands a stranger
suspected of overlooking a cow is made to drink some
of her milk.^^ In Melanesia a madman is supposed to
be afflicted by an angry tindalo. In such a case " they will
put bits of the fringe of the mat which has belonged
to the deceased," (i.e. the man whose ghost has become the
tindalo in question), " into a coco-nut shell and burn it
under the nose of the possessed." ^*^ Mr. Crawley has
drawn attention to what he calls "Inoculation"^^ in the
Lower Culture. " Inoculation," he says, " is the avoiding
of the dangers of taboo by boldly courting them ; taboo
is minimised by breaking it." ^"^ Zulus apply the principles
of homoeopathic medicine, eating in the case of sickness the
flesh of animals supposed to be the cause of the disease-
among the same people things struck by lightning are held
to have the power of lightning. With these witch-doctors
inoculate themselves, and priests sometimes make the
people eat an ox that has been struck by lightning.^^
A Zulu, before crossing a river full of crocodiles, will
chew crocodiles' excrement and spatter it over his person.

^^ Hesiod, Works and Days, 737-741. *' Frazer, loc. cit., p. 158.

*8 Ibid., p. 161. « El worthy. The Evil Eye, p. 9.

^•^ Codrington, The Melanesians, p. 219.

■'^Crawley, The Mystic Rose, pp. 81 et seq., 236 et seq., 308 et seq., 371
et seq.

^^ Crawley, op. cit., p. 235. ^^ Crawley, op. cit., p. 232;

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. i6i

In West Africa,^* and among the Nandi,^^ the blood
of a slain enemy was drunk, and in New Britain it is
believed that if you eat your enemy his friends cannot
do you hurt.^^ " About two years ago a coroner's inquest
was held at Kirton-in-Lindsey, and it was noticed as
very strange that one of the jurors did not touch the
corpse. It appears that it is held that everyone who
has had occasion to see a dead body, whether it be that
of a relative, a friend, or a stranger, should not leave it
without laying his hand on the body; if he does not do
so he will be haunted by the spirit of the departed, or
at least suffer from his presence in evil dreams." ^^ Kaffirs
rub their eyes with a piece of the lion's skin before they
venture to look at his dead body ; ^^ Africans, " in passing
through a country where leopards and lions abound,"
" carefully provide themselves with the claws, teeth, lips, and
whiskers of those animals, and hang them round their
necks to secure themselves against being attacked. For
the same purpose the point of an elephant's trunk is
generally worn by elephant-hunters." ^^ The Sinhalese, to
protect themselves from snakebite, wear a picture of the
king of the cobras tattooed on their arm, recite a mantra
which identifies them with the serpent king, or carry a
jewel which is supposed to be a serpent stone. Similarly,
since smallpox appears in tiger form, parts of tigers are
efficient amulets against it.^'^ One method of gathering

^^ Crawley, op. cit., p. 233.

^^ Hollis, The Nandi, p. 27. It is washed off the spears, and drunk by
the slayer.

^''Crawley, loc. cit. ^"^ County Folklore, vol. v. (Lincolnshire), p. 142.

'^Arbousset, 214, (Crawley, loc. cit.)

■^* Haddon, Magic and Fetichism, p. 32.

®'' Hildburgh, The Jour 7ial of the Royal Anthropological Itistitute etc.,
vol. xxxviii., pp. 187-8. Cf. Cornish charms, the milpreve, the snake-
stone ring, or the body of a dead snake bruised on the wound. Hunt,
Popular Roma7tces of the West of England, 2nd S., p. 215.

1 62 Force of Initiative i^i Magical Confiict.

the herb Baharas is thus described by the author of
the Spanish Mandeville. " Neither can it be found, unlesse
you first cast upon it " a certain liquid, " poured downe all
at once upon it, which beeing done, it discovereth it selfe
presently to the viewe of those that seeke it, who die at the
very instant, unlesse they have a peece of the roote of the
same herbe gathered before, bound to theyr arme, having
which, they remaine secure, & may gather it without any
perrill or danger." ^^

Now Mr. Crawley's Inoculation seems to me an unfor-
tunate and perhaps misleading description of these kinds
of practices. Inoculation necessitates a mild attack of
the disease. But, as a matter of fact, I have not come
across any example in which there seems any ground
for supposing the motive suggested by Mr. Crawley to
be really present. The object is not to "avoid the
dangers of taboo by boldly courting them," but to avoid
the dangers entirely. There is no desire to court them
even as a precautionary measure. For example, when
the Nandi warrior washes the blood off his spear and
drinks it, his object is to get rid of the dead man
altogether; an inoculation theory would seem to demand
as his object the voluntary submission to an unpleasant
interview with the ghost instead of a necessary and
dangerous one. The efficacy of these practices lies, I
believe, in that feeling, that victory goes to the aggressor
in magical conflict, with which we have been dealing.
The fact that you deliberately unite yourself to the evil
power gives you the whip hand. The wild dogs of the
jungle are considered by the Malays to be the "ghost"
dogs of the Spectral Huntsman. They are regarded as
most dangerous to meet, for, according to a Malay
informant, " if they bark at us, we shall assuredly die
where we stand and shall not be able to return home ;
if, however, we see them and bark at them before they

^^ The Spanish Mandcvile of Miracles, fol. 38.

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict, 163

bark at us, we shall not be affected by them. Therefore
do all Malays give tongue when they meet the wild
dog in the forest." ^^ It is the same with the classical
superstition about the wolf:

Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina : vox quoque Moerim
Jam fugit ipsa ; lupi Moerim videre priores.^^

It is priority of action and initiative which constitutes
the success of the man who seeks safety in a voluntary
contact with a dangerous power.

But, further, this deliberate contact with the dangerous
power may be efficacious as a charm when the victim
has already been bewitched. This is the original basis
of the medical practice which is inspired by the belief
" similia similibus curantur." The idea of transference,
which is advocated by Messrs, Hubert and Mauss,^* is
here, I am convinced, a later development, just as it is
a later development in the case of the rites attaching
to a sacred well and tree.^^ A few examples will suffice.
A large number of the charms against the evil eye
consist of the wearing of amulets which take the form
of the dangerous power. An effective method of dealing
with witchcraft is to employ those very modes of contact
which witchcraft itself uses. Thus you may spit upon
the witch. After quoting examples from Russia, Corsica,
and classical antiquity, Mr. Hartland continues, — " The
intention here is by spitting on the evil thing so to
bring it on your side as to prevent its doing you any
ill." In Italy a successful charm is to fling the dust of
the witch's footprint over the person or cattle bewitched.
The Persians scrape mud from the sorcerer's shoes, and

•'^Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 183, note 2.

'^Virgil, Eclogues, ix. 53 ; cf. Plato, Republic^ 336 d. ; Theokritos, xiv. 22;
Pliny, Nat. Hist., viii. 22 (34).

^ Hubert et Mauss, L'Annee Sociologujue, vol. vii.

®^ Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, vol. ii., pp. 1^6 et seq., 21^ et seq.

164 Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

rub the part affected.^^ Again, you may drink the
witch's blood as " a means of destroying her witchcraft,
and doubtless for the same reason : it united her with
her victim." ^'^

In all these cases the charm consists in setting up a
fresh union. We have to ask why they are successful ;
why is it that, when the witch touches you, you are the
victim, and that, when you drink her blood, you are
the victor } The only possible answer lies surely in the
feeling, which we have been trying to demonstrate, that
victory lies with the party who takes the initiative. For,
as we urged above, magical contact is a union in which
one party is absorbed. The victim becomes part of the
Avitch, and successful charming means the annihilation
of the sorcerer. As the Cherokee poetically puts it, the
object of a charm is " to shorten a night goer on this
side." ^s When two powers are brought together in
magical contact, one or other of them must become
subordinated, and lose its separate existence. The reason
why spitting on the evil thing " brings it on your side "
is because you make the attack. If a case of witch-
craft and charming is analysed, it will be seen that
there are no remedial measures in magical conflict; it
is all a matter of attack and counter-attack. A witch
overlooks a farmer's animals. The charm is retaliation
and an attack on the witch ; the farmer burns the
beast's ears in the fire. To counteract this, the witch
has to endeavour to set up a fresh connection ; she will
come round and try to borrow something. In dealing
with magical powers the motto of the successful man is
toujours Vaudace. It will hardly be denied that the im-
plicit psychology of magical conflict, which gives the

^^Hartland, op. ciL, vol. ii., pp. 272-3.

^■^ Hartland, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 244.

^Mooney, " Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees," in Seventh Annual Report
of American Bureati of Ethnology, p. 384.

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. 165

victory to initiative, to aggression, to assertion of the
will, is a tacit recognition of the efficacy of power. It
is important, then, as evidence that power is the pre-
supposition which underlies, not merely the wonder-
working of the sorcerer, but all sympathetic magic.
But the cogency of this kind of evidence may perhaps
be called in question, — though not, I believe, with reason,
— as being of too fanciful a nature. To regard magic
as a formal abstract science was a mistake that has
led us far astray. It must always be remembered
that in magic, as in religion, we have persons acting
under the stress of passion, or in a highly strung,
tense, emotional state. Like religion, magic is the field,
not of rational consideration, but of belief or faith. Its
forms must not be mistaken for the content of its efficacy.
It is to the emotions with which its formulae are regarded
by agent and victim that we must have recourse in order
to understand the belief in its efficacy. The mediaeval
scientist, for example, was feared by the ignorant as a
sorcerer precisely because it was believed that he was
able to violate the laws of causality by some mysterious
power of his own, or with the aid of devils, not because
the categories of similarity and identity were confused.
It is not the possession of knowledge, but the supposed
character of the knowledge he possesses, that clothes the
sorcerer with awe and fear.

The apotheosis of ritual at the hands of anthropologists
has not been altogether fortunate in its results. It is true
that the recognition of the value of ritual as the most
concrete kind of evidence at the disposal of the student
of religions was a valuable discovery, but the consequent
neglect of the psychology of the persons for whom ritual
was but an instrument, and in the last resort but a
distinctive mode for the adequate expression of their
emotions and purposes, has created many difficulties and
misunderstandings. For, indeed, to attribute the basis

1 66 Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.

of magical efficacy purely to the form of its ritual
would be an error analogous to that of attributing the
spirit and efficacy of the poet to the rules of prosody
or to the " Gradus ad Parnassum." In magic, as in
poetry, there is the perpetual interreaction of form and
meaning, due to the fact that the analysis of the form
of the mode of expression belongs to a later date than
its creation. But in magic and religion the apotheosis
of form leads to sterility, and for further advance there
is a cast back to the reapplication of fundamental notions.

To get at these fundamental notions we must take
account of the factor of the mental state of the agent, as
well as of the content of the forms in which he expresses
it, and, before any clear and proper notion of magic and
religion is to be obtained, much of the ground, on which
imposing structures of the schematism of ritual have been
built, must, I am convinced, be cleared. Let me take
as an example those laws of contact and contiguity
which sympathetic magic is said to employ. Here is a
misapprehension arising simply from the neglect of the
psychology of human nature, and resulting in the gift
of a false appearance of system to that which is not
systematized. There are no laws in question at all. The
conception of personality in the Lower Culture is but
little more vague in its extent than our own.
"A clod, — a piece of orange peel, —
An end of a cigar,
Once trod on by a princely heel.
How beautiful they are ! "
A man's personality embraces everything by which you
can think of him, or on seeing which he is naturally
recalled to you. It is because the footprint is his, not
because his feet have touched the earth, that you can use
it against him.

There is, therefore, I would urge, some utility in en-
deavouring to analyse the psychological presuppositions

Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict. 167

underlying victory and defeat in magical conflict, and the
results, if they are admitted to be proven, can rightly
claim to be given some weight in the consideration of
the basis of magical efficacy. Power is the fundamental
principle on which magical efficacy is based, and, through-
out the varied manifestations of magical practice, at least
the tacit presupposition of the exercise of power can
be traced ; for, without it, its forms are invahd. Hotspur
put the case in a nutshell to Owen Glendower :

" Gletidower. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur. Why, so can I, or so can any man ;

But do they come when you do call for
them ? "

W. R. Halliday.

THE CULT OF EXECUTED CRIMINALS
AT PALERMO.

BY E. SIDNEY HARTLAND, F.S.A.

{Read at Meeting, February i6th, 19 lo.)

Just south of the city of Palermo the river Oreto flows
down from the adjacent mountains to the sea. It is crossed
by a bridge of acutely-pointed arches, the famous Ponte
dell' Ammiraglio, built in 11 13 by the Admiral Giorgio
Antiocheno, one of the companions of the Norman Count
Roger, who with his brother Robert Guiscard conquered
the island from the Saracens. The bridge is now disused
in favour of a more modern structure immediately beside it.
If you go from the city towards the bridge, just before
reaching it you may see on the right, down below the road,
a little church mentioned in no guide-book and frequented
only by the poorer classes of Palermitans. It is a dilapi-
dated, a pathetic structure, without any architectural pre-
tensions ; the front is cracked from top to bottom, and
shored up with timber and stones. The site was perhaps
once a part of the river-bed, and the building itself is
probably not much more than two hundred years old.
The original dedication seems to have been to the Virgin,
for it was known as the Church of the Madonna del Fiume
or Madonna del Ponte. For more than a century, how-
ever, it has been known as the Chiesa delle Anime de'
Corpi Decollati, or more shortly as the Chiesa dei Decollati.
It occupies the far end of a small quadrangular graveyard
protected by high stone walls and shaded with cypress
trees and oleanders.

The Decollati are executed criminals. Herein lies the

Plate VIII.

« >

CHIESA DEI DECOLLAT

y/n- Chapel.

To face p. i68.

The Cult of Executed Criminals. 169

interest of the church. Formerly, criminals of rank whose
friends did not succeed in obtaining their bodies for burial
elsewhere, or whose sentences did not extend to quartering
and the distribution of their members for public exhibition
until they rotted away, were buried here, and the graveyard
is filled with their tombs. The church in consequence is
the shrine of a remarkable cult, the cult of the Aiiime dei
Decollati. A tiny side-chapel opening directly on the
burial ground forms the special centre of this cult (Plate
VIIL). It is filled with votive offerings of wax, — legs, heads,
feet, babies, and so forth, — testifying to the various benefits
for which the intercession of the Decollati is besought. In
a side-case is a representation in relief of Purgatory with
three or four persons in the flames. Their necks are hung
with hearts and other amulets. Above in the case is a
crucifix to which they are apparently praying, and in the
case are also several pairs of votive eyes in wax. The
money box beneath is inscribed " Elem^ Messa nei
Primi Lunedi." The front of the chapel has been restored.
Over the door in the tympanum of the arch are represen-
tations of souls in Purgatory praying to the Virgin.
Similar representations are on the gateposts of the church-
yard and on the pier at the northern angle of the church-
yard wall.

Most curious of all, however, is a case of rude water-
colour drawings outside and adjoining the church on either
wall of the burial ground. These drawings represent
persons suffering from internal hemorrhage or various
wounds ; they represent accidents, shipwrecks, and at-
tempted murders. Some unfortunates are tumbling from
scaffolds ; some are being crushed by tramcars, some by
falling trees, and so forth. Bystanders or relatives are
represented in attendance. They, or the persons more
immediately concerned, appear to be praying to the
Decollati, who are shown in one of the upper corners to
the number of three or four up to their waists in the flames

170 The Cult of Executed Criminals.

of Purgatory. They are generally manacled. Some of
them have ropes round their necks, and in one instance
at least there is, in a sort of inset in the scene in Purgatory,
a representation of the execution by hanging. The
Decollati in turn are praying from Purgatory to the Virgin
and Child shown frequently just above them. The date
of the miracle or answer to prayer usually appears beneath
the drawing, together with the initials V. F. R. { Voto fatto,
ricevutd) or V. F. G. A. { Voto fatto, grasia avuta).

The characteristic Sicilian vehicle is a light cart mounted
on two wheels and coloured a bright yellow. It is a
conspicuous object everywhere, and is often elaborately
carved. On the sides and tailboard are painted scenes
from the history and traditions of the island. Photographs
of two of these carts are shown in Plates IX. and X. The
second of them is adorned with paintings of the Decollati.
It is a sufficient witness to the popularity of the cult.

My attention was first directed to the cult by the
writings of Dr. Pitre, the eminent recorder of Sicilian
traditions, whose Biblioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari
Siciliane is one of the most highly prized treasures of
students of folklore. From that source the additional
particulars I am about to give are drawn.

The veneration of the souls of departed malefactors is
by no means confined to Palermo and its neighbourhood.
On the contrary, it is known from Acireale on the east
coast to Trapani at the extreme west. Its shrines are
found in many a commune all over the island, even to
Noto in the far south. But the most famous of all is the
church at Palermo. Palermo has been the seat of govern-
ment since the Saracen Conquest, and there naturally
what was called justice claimed its most abundant heca-
tombs. The executions were public. They were sur-
rounded with every circumstance calculated to attract the
sympathy of the crowd. There were several places of
execution in and around the city. One of them was on

The Cult of Executed Criminals. 171

the road to Bagheria which leads past the Chiesa dei
DecoUati. The gallows there was not taken down until
nearly the end of the eighteenth century, and, so long as
it stood, the rotting members and the bones of many of
the victims remained to poison the atmosphere and horrify
the passers-by. The neighbouring Ponte dell' Ammiraglio
had another name by which it was commonly known, the
Ponte delle Teste, from the number of heads constantly on
view there. These things could not fail to impress the
inhabitants. Accordingly various churches of the city
witnessed at different times a cult similar to that which
has now concentrated at the Decollati.

The lives of these deceased malefactors had presumably
been passed in crime and deeds of blood, and their disem-
bodied souls cannot forget blood. But, whereas in their
earthly life they had no pity on their neighbours and paid
regard neither to their substance nor their honour, being
dead and reconciled to the Church they take the part of
the weak; they become the shield and defence of those who
are attacked. They hate violence, and, if they do not
always punish it in those who commit it, at least they ward
off its worst effects from the victims. They frequently
interfere to protect their devotees from robbers. An old
lithographic print reproduced year after year records one
of these miracles. A warm adherent of the cult was once
riding by night with a sum of money. Some robbers who
had got wind of it were on his track armed with daggers,
knives, and guns. The unfortunate man, not knowing
what was best to do, turned with true faith, (an indispens-
able condition in such circumstances), to the Decollati,
and all at once you might have seen the skeletons of these
executed criminals rising from the grave, laying hold of
their bones and running to the help of their adorer,
knocking the robbers right and left, killing some outright,
and driving the others half-dead with terror to save them-
selves by flight. But it is not only deeds of blood ; blood

172 The Cult of Executed Criminals.

in any form draws the compassion and help of the De-
collati. Accidents of every kind and haemoptysis are the
subjects of their special care. There are numerous and
ghastly examples of these among the votive drawings.

The special days of devotion to the Decollati are
Monday and Friday. On these days pilgrims, (chiefly
women), from not only Palermo but also other parts of
Sicily, may be seen wending their way to the little church
beside the Oreto. At eight o'clock in the morning the
performance is at its height. Arrived at the church of
the Annegati, half-way from the Porta Garibaldi to the
Chiesa dei Decollati, the pilgrim, if his vow was to walk
barefoot, takes off his shoes and begins his rosary. The
prayers include addresses in rhyme to the " Armuzzi di
li corpi decuUati," requesting their intercession with the
Eternal Father on behalf of the petitioner. When he
reaches the church, he offers the rosary and prays before
the altar of St. John the Baptist, who is naturally the
patron of the Decollati. Then he adjourns, — or at least
every devout woman who makes the pilgrimage adjourns,
— to the little chapel already mentioned. There, just on
the right inside the door, is a stone under which the
souls are believed to crowd in the greatest numbers.
There she makes known her wishes, speaking audibly or
murmuring and praying earnestly. When she has finished
she applies her ear to the stone, and trembling waits for an
answer. The slightest sound is taken for a favourable
reply ; and naturally it is not wanting to a fancy wrought
to the utmost tension by the religious exercises and excite-
ment of the morning. Her countenance instantly flushes
and her eyes sparkle, as she rises filled with the joy of
conviction that the favour she has sought so earnestly
is granted. The scene. Dr. Pitre writes, should be
witnessed by others as well as those who are especially
interested in folklore. Foreign friends whom he has taken
to the chapel have looked at it with open-mouthed

The Ctilt of ExectUed Criminals. 173

astonishment, hardly able to believe that they had not
alighted on a different planet.

But it is not everybody who has a petition to the
Decollati who can undertake a pilgrimage to their shrine.
Where this cannot be done there is still the possibility
of reaching their ears. In the stillness of the night a taper
is kindled before their picture. A ghastly picture it is,
of bodies hanging from the gallows or burning in the midst
of the fire, the latter being usually taken for a scene
in Purgatory. The cottage door or the window is opened.
The devotee falls on her knees, and tells her beads.
Among her prayers she states in plain terms what she
wants, — for there is no need to beat about the bush with
the Decollati, — winding up with a last orison in rhyme
threatening them with indifference for the future if they
do not grant her what she has in mind. All sorts of
petitions are thus presented, nor is it only women who
are the petitioners. One man will ask for success in
business, and another for three lucky numbers in the
lottery. The mother will pray for her children, and the
wife for her husband. The maiden who has quarrelled
with her lover will pray thus :

literally
Artni H corpi decullati Souls of the beheaded bodies,

Tri ^mpist, tri ocisi, e tri annigati^ Three hanged, three slain, and

three drowned,
Tiitti novi vi junciti, All nine of you join,

Nti hi me zitu vi ii7ii jiti^ Go into my sweetheart,

Tanti e tanti cci nni dati^ Give him such and such [tor-

ments]
Nopifallic muriri Not to make him die

Mapifallu a niia viniri. But to make him come to me.

This reminds us of the common English charm :

It's not this bone I mean to stick,
But my true lovei-'s heart I mean to prick,
Wishing him neither rest nor sleep
Until he comes to me to speak.

174 ^-^^ Cidt of Executed Crwiinals.

During this prayer, and indeed the whole of the rosary,
the suppHant listens for what is called the echo of the
souls, and by the sounds she hears she judges whether
her prayer be granted or not. Among good auguries
are the crow of a cock, the bark of a dog, a whistle, the
sound of a guitar or of bells, a song (especially a love-
song), a knocking on a neighbour's door, the rapid shutting
of a window, and the rapid passing of a carriage. On the
other hand the mew of a cat is a fatal augury for
relatives who are travelling. The bray of an ass, a dispute,
the sound of weeping or lamentation, and that of water
flung into the road are all evil omens. The chance words
overheard from passers-by are also very important, and
inferences good or bad are drawn from them.

Whatever manifestations are vouchsafed on these
occasions appear to be given to the ear only. But the
Decollati also walk by night in human semblance, speaking
in clipped and broken words, and giving good counsel
and warnings. Sometimes they appear white-robed and
wandering on the banks of the Oreto. One woman saw
some of them in front of their church. A devoted girl,
who had them ever on her lips and in her heart, saw
them one night clad in long white garments among the
poplar-trees outside the Porta San Giorgio at Palermo.
At that moment she was assailed by robbers intent on
taking a sum of money in gold that she was carrying.
She cried out to the Decollati, and they came to her
assistance. Only just before, she had left that very money
in a shop, having forgotten it, and the Decollati had by
dint of repeating behind her " Go back, go back ! " made
her return and fetch it. A carter who was conveying
sulphur from Lercara to Palermo was robbed of a portion
of his load by his foreman. When he got to his destina-
tion the quantity was found short, and he was required
to make it up and was dismissed from his situation. But
his wife prayed to the Decollati to clear her husband

The Cult of Executed Criminals. 175

and punish the foreman. Her prayer was answered. The
foreman, coming to Palermo not long after, was attacked
by unknown persons and given such a thrashing that
he remembered it all the rest of his life. The unknown
persons were of course Decollati. The poor carter
in some way was discovered to be innocent, and reinstated
in his position.

All this and more may be read in Dr. Pitre's interesting
pages.^ The concentration of the cult in Palermo and at
the little church beside the Oreto I have already accounted
for. Its general popularity in the island is doubtless attri-
butable to the generations of tyranny suffered by the
inhabitants at large and particularly by the poorer classes.
These classes supplied most of the victims of the law.
Tyranny produced lawlessness. The poor had little to
lose, and the violence of brigands and marauders was
chiefly directed against the wealthy and the powerful.
A brigand became the hero of the countryside. When
he was caught and put to death with the forms of
justice after due confession and the rites of the Church,
and with all the pomp and circumstance of a public
execution, the sufferer, {Vafflitto, as he was called), received
the rank of a martyr, and honours quasi-divine were paid
to him. These honours were extended by analogy to all
other criminals, however atrocious, provided they met their
death in the same conditions. It was impossible to
distinguish between them, for popular sympathy was
always and inevitably against the rulers. Priests lent
themselves to the development of the cult, nor need it
be supposed that their motives were wholly unworthy.
They were probably themselves drawn from the lower
strata of society, and may be supposed to have had a

^ Pitre, Biblioteca, vol. xvii. , pp. 4 et seq. ; vol. i. , p. 77 ; vol. ii. , p. 38. La
Vita in Palermo, vol. ii., c. xviii., where an impressive account is given of
executions in Palermo to the end of the eighteenth century. Mostra Etnografica
Siciliana, pp. 51, 80.

176 The Cult of Executed Criminals.

sympathy by no means superficial with persons who may
have been in many cases innocent, and always were rather
the victims of an inequitable social order than malefactors
without excuse. Such victims even in their eyes would
without difficulty assume the unspotted raiment of martyrs.

Throughout Christendom the qualifications of a martyr
were vague ; a violent death was, (perhaps it still is), the
only condition absolutely necessary to satisfy. In our
own country we have only to refer to the honours paid
to Saint Kenelm, king and martyr, to King Edward
the Martyr, and to Simon de Montfort, Edward II., and
Charles I., as examples of the extreme latitude of inter-
pretation of the term martyr. More might easily be
cited, and from other countries hundreds.

Some peoples indeed go to the length of putting to
death a holy man in order to provide an object of
devotion. At Gilgit there is the shrine of a famous
Mohammedan saint who is said to have been thus
murdered ; and similar stories are told about many
shrines in Afghanistan and on the north-western frontier of
India.^ These stories are very often true ; for it is well
known that the late Sir Richard Burton, when exploring
some remote places disguised as a Mohammedan fakir,
had a narrow escape from being thus honoured. The
practice is of long standing, and embodies ideas of wide
range in the East. Marco Polo relates that the people
of a province he calls Carian were villainous and wicked.
A stranger of learning and bodily perfection coming that
way would be put to death at sight, — not, they declared,
for the purpose of robbery, but that his beauty and learning
might abide in them and their country. The Great Khan,
however, conquered the province in 1296, and put down
the practice.^ Half-a-century ago it was a common prac-

^Dr. Leitner, Asiatic Quarterly Review, 2d. S., vol. v., pp. 156, 161 note;
Lyall, Asiatic Studies, vol. i., p. 29 note ; Burton, Sindh, pp. 86, 3S7.
3 Marco Polo (ed. 1597), ch. 86.

The Cult of Executed Criminals, 177

tice with the Lhota Naga, a tribe on the north-eastern
frontier of our Indian Empire, to cut off the head, and
hands and feet, of any one they could meet with " without
any provocation or pre-existent enmity, merely to stick
up in their fields to ensure a good crop of grain." * This
approaches very closely to the famous Meriah sacrifice
of the Khonds, but perhaps involves the idea rather of a
guardian than of a fertilizer. More personal is the relation
between the head-hunter of the Malay Archipelago and the
skull of his victim. The soul of the victim seems to be
attached to the skull, and becomes the bringer of luck
to, and the guardian-spirit of, the murderer and possessor.
So among the Eskimo of Behring Strait a man will some-
times cause the death of a new-born child and secretly
steal its body to carry about with him. He believes that
the child's shade will then accompany him and secure
success for him in hunting.^

Whether the shrines of any European saints have
originated like those in Afghanistan and India just
referred to I do not know. The idea at least is not
quite unknown. Southey put into verse the curious tale
of Saint Romuald which he found recorded in both French
and Spanish. The French writer, horrified at the popular
wickedness and jealous for the honour of his country,
laid the scene in Catalonia ; the Spanish writer for the
same excellent reasons laid it in Aquitaine. But both
were agreed that such was the renown of Saint Romuald
during his life that the people of his neighbourhood
made up their minds to slay him in order to be sure
of having his relics as a precious possession afterwards.
Unhappily for them the saint heard of their intention ;
he disapproved of their excessive devotion, and fled the
country. The importance of securing the tomb of a

* Miss Godden, The Journal of the Anthropological Institute etc., vol. xxvii.,
p. 9, quoting Damant.

® Nelson, Twenty -Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 429.

I\I

lyS The Cult of Executed Criminals.

holy man is still familiar in many places ; for example,
in Auvergne, where, when the cure of a parish dies, the
inhabitants will not, if they can avoid it, permit his
burial outside the parish bounds, even though his relatives
desire it, lest the village be subject to hail-storms for
seven years or some other calamities happen.^

In this case it is not suggested that a violent end is
put to the parish-priest's career. The law would look
more than coldly on such a proceeding ; and the super-
stition is in an attenuated form, glad to take advantage
wherever it can of the action of a thoughtful Providence.
But in East and West alike human beings have been
from time to time murdered as foundation-sacrifices for
house or bridge, or as guardians of hidden treasure or
against a foreign invader. In all these cases the dis-
embodied soul of the deceased is believed to become a
powerful protector. On the other hand, superstitions like
those concerning ghosts in the West and bJmts in the
East exhibit souls disembodied by other than a natural
death as vindictive and often extremely dangerous beings,
who must be pacified and exorcised or even worshipped.

The cult of executed criminals in Sicily is therefore
not an isolated example of the vagaries of human
emotion. It is merely one of the many manifestations
of the shock given to the collective mentality of any
society by the death of a member. That shock is
always deeper and more terrible where the severance
from life is by violence, most terrible of all when it
takes place under the impressive forms of law. Even
where the law is the expression of the collective will,
the shock and its accompanying emotions of pity and
sorrow are often acutely felt. But where it is not the
expression of the collective will, where it is imposed by
arms or more mysterious terrors on the part of a class
or classes with interests opposed to the general interests
'' Kevue des Traditions Popnlaires, vol. xii. , p. 447.

The Cult of Exeaited Criminals. 179

of the community, and to that extent an anti-social
force, then the shock and the terror reach their height,
the whole sympathy of society goes out toward the
victim, and he is surrounded with a halo of more than
common radiance. In some stages of civiHzation and
under the influence of some beliefs the reaction takes
the form of apotheosis of the victim. Hence the vene-
ration paid to the martyrs in more than one highly
organized religion. Perhaps the Decollati of Sicily were
not less worthy of this exaltation than some other martyrs
commemorated in more enlightened countries.

I have thought it needless to refer to the value in
folk-medicine and witchcraft of the blood and other
relics of executed criminals. The belief in these things
has been recorded by many authors from Pliny down-
wards ; it is known as far to the east as Japan ; and
the Portuguese found it in the kingdom of Monomotapa
south of the Zambesi. It has been abundantly discussed
by anthropologists.''

E. Sidney Hartland.

■^ Plates VIII, IX, and X are from photographs by Miss Alice Q. Hartland.

COLLECTANEA.

A Folklore Survey of County Clare.
(With Plate XI.i).

County Clare from the fourth century of our era was united
politically with North Munster, Tuath Mumhain, or Thomond,
though separated from it by the broad waters of the Shannon.
Standing thus by itself, " isolated by the Sea, the River, and the
enmity of Connaught,"it might be expected that it would preserve
until modern times an unbroken tradition from the prehistoric
past, and that a survey of its folklore would show many traces
of ancient beliefs still surviving. The battle goddess Catabodva^
worshipped in antique Gaul, appears as the Bodbh of battle
{catJi) in the wars fought by the Princes of Clare in 1014 and 1317,
and the spirit that washed the bloodstained clothes and limbs
of the then living combatants still, I was told three years ago,
foretells calamity by washing clothes in the same waters.^ PHsts
or water snakes, — emblems, perhaps, of pagan islanders or devour-
ing seas and lakes, — abound in the legends of a very early
date, and are still reputed to seize the cattle, and even human
beings, drowned in the lakes of Clare. The place names con-
sidered below will show to what an extent our present nomen-
clature records the mythology and sagas of early days, and I
propose in the remainder of this first paper to deal with the ban-
shee, the death coach, and the fairies. The bulk of the traditions

^ This plate of the Ancient Parishes of County Clare has been kindly lent by
the Council of the Royal Irish Academy, and appears in their Proceeditigs,
S. III., vol. iv.

^ Cf. the lavandiires de imil, discussed by Sebillot, Le Folk-lore de France,
Tome iii.

Plate XI.

/v 1 MVr

r" KjLFARBOr^ ^^^

«AtM •v. ^ ..__ _< jn 1'

OaCHCllFF+OOORA+CLOOMET # /,

^/ f lOYARTA 3'£' « ""'"'"'.■•'Slit- "if i^'^HlRCOn

TTEfir iii>

LLOFFlr.

Miles

ANCIENT PARISHES OF COUNTY CLARE.

7(7 face p. I So.

Collectanea, i8i

since 1790 has been collected from the mouths of the people, and
not from books nor from the notes of others, and I have tried,
where possible, to gather various versions of the legends without
the dangerous aid of " leading questions."

I. Place Names and Legends of Places.

Were we assured of the date of their origin, place names would
be our most authentic, and perhaps our earliest, evidence of
traditional beliefs and superstitions, but their first records only
give a minimum date. To take a few examples : — if we may-
accept explanations earlier than a.d. 800, the name of Iniscatha,
traceable from about 550, embodies the name of a monster,
(probably the " god or demon of the flood "), dispossessed by
St. Senan, the missionary of the Corcavaskin district.^ Again,
Craganeevul near Killaloe recalls the belief in Aibhill, or Aibhinn,
"the beautiful," the tutelary spirit of the ruling house of the
Dalcassians, the later O'Briens. If the " Life of St. Maccreiche "
be early, it bears out a later belief that the cave of Poulnabruckee,
in Inchiquin, commemorates no ordinary badger, but the formid-
able " demon-badger," killer of cattle and men.^

Following certain topographical lines I give the names as they
occur, rather than as grouped according to beliefs. I must also
premise that the Dalcassian tribes virtually covered the eastern
Baronies of Bunratty and TuUa, with part of Inchiquin, from about
A.D. 377 ; the Corca Modruad, (the royal line of the mythical
Queen Maeve and Fergus mac Roigh), were in Burren and Cor-
comroe from still earlier times, beyond the range of even historical
tradition^; while a third great independent line, the Corca-

^Colgan, "VitaS. Senani," Acta S.S. Hib. (March 8).

^This I suspect to have been really a belated bear, as that formidable beast,
whose bones so abound in Clare caverns, perished at an unknown date, leaving
his name " Mathgamhan," or Mahon, to his human enemies, and his remains
as his only monument. Certain MacMahons, however, affected to believe
that they were Normans originally named Fitz Urse, in the same way as the
MacNamaras were supposed to be Mortimers {de Mortuo Mari) by Spenser
and others in the time of Elizabeth.

^ An account of a curious episode found in the legend of St. Mochulla, whose
" Life " had been lost or taken from Ireland before 1637, has been preserved
orally until recent years (see Bunratty infra, p. 184). The legends of the

1 82 Collectanea.

baiscinn, occupied the Baronies known down to Tudor times (and
still as a rural deanery) as Corcavaskin, — now Moyarta and
Clonderalaw, with the Barony of Ibrickan, (which takes its name
from a settlement of fugitives from the Norman conquest in
Leinster about 1180).

Burren. — Irghus or Eerish, a Firbolg in the oldest of Clare
legends,^ is commemorated by Caherdoonerish stone fort/ on
Black Head. Finn MacCumhail gives his name to Seefin, on
the same hills. The " silver bells " of Kilmoon church are said to
be recalled by Cahercloggaun fort and Owenacluggan brook near
Lisdoonvarna. In Kilcorney Parish we have two forts, Lisananima
and Caherlisananima, named from ghosts ; the first name is older
than 1652. Beara, another Firbolg, brother of Irghus, gives his
name, (found in a poem dating before 1014), to Finnavarra Point,
— but not to Kinvarra, which is akin to Kenmare and Kinsale,
"Head of the Sea" or "of the brine." The name Bohernamish,
or " way of the dishes," with its legend of the miraculous rapine
of King Guaire's Easter banquet, about a.d. 630, is found in the
mediaeval Life of St. Colman MacDuach.^

Corcomroe. — The reef of Kilstiffin, Kilstapheen, or Kilstuitheen
has a legend of a sunken church and city, of which the golden
domes appear once in seven years. The submerged forests and
bogs inside the reef in Liscannor Bay, and the record of the great

Armada on the coast, heard by me down to 1878, have been since confirmed by
the publication of long-forgotten letters. So historical tradition, even under the
unfavourable conditions of recent centuries, has kept wonderfully accurate
versions of events. The continuity of the schools and families of the hereditary
bards and oUainhs favoured still greater accuracy in early times. Ireland
had "books and philosophers" in the fourth century, according to Ethicus
of Istria {Social History of Ireland, vol. i., p. 403), and, possibly for the same
period before Christianity as the Armada lies behind our own time, history
was handed down truly, at least in its broad outlines.

6 "Legend of Carn chonaill," " Dindsenchas," Revue Celiique, vol. xv.
(1894), pp. 478-80.

''"Fort" in this paper means one of the entrenched residences, (usually
circular,) of the early inhabitants. These are called in Irish rath, liss, and
dun ; the dry stone equivalent is caher.

^ Mish also means an altar in early works. Cf. Tripartite Life of St. Patrick,
(ed. W. Stokes).

Collectanea. 183

earthquake and tidal wave that split into three Inis Fitse ^ on the
same coast (a.d. 799-802), incline one to believe in a basis for the
legend. In Nonghaval is a fort called Liskeentha, from "fairy
songs " heard there. Not far away, in Kilfenora Parish, we have a
Boughil or "petrified boy," and in Carran Parish a Farbreag or
"petrified man"; such names, originating in strangely-shaped
rocks, are rather common. A third Firbolg brother, Daelach, gives
his name to the little river Daelach and the townland Ballydeely.
In Carran and Kilmanaheen the belief in the phooka or puca^ a
demon horse or goat, is stamped on the Poulaphucas, one of which
has a fine dolmen; such monuments all over Ireland are found
connected with the malignant prototype of Puck, Lisfarbegna-
gommaun, "the fort of the little men (playing at) hurling,"
commemorates fairy sports.

Ibrickan. — Poulaphuca in Kilfarboy is, so far as I know, the
only mythic name, but Doolough Lake (Nigricantis) is named in
the early " Life of Senan " ^^ as the prison of the fearful " Cata" of
Iniscatha, while the "Legend of the sons of Thorailbh mac
Stairn"^^ locates the cavern whence the ferocious "Faracat"
launched itself on the heroes' spears, beside its waters. Dunbeg
Bay is the scene of a curious merman story.^^

Moyarta.—hX Loop Head, the south-western extremity of the
county, we find a Poulnapeiste and a line of forts, — Cahercrochain,
Cahersaul, Dundahlin, and Cahernaheanmna, — connected with the
monster killed by Dermod O'Duine and the brothers Crochaun,
Sal, and Dahlin, whose sister ("the one (lone) woman") gave her
title to the last fort.^^ Iniscatha commemorates its dragon, and
Lisnarinka fort the " dances " of its fairy dwellers.

Clonderlaw. — Turning inland, up the Shannon and Fergus

^Now Inniscaeragh or Mutton Island, Illaunwattle, Inismatail, or Mattle
Island, and Carrickaneelwar. The first two are named Iniskereth and Inis-
matail in a charter of 1216.

"Colgan, op. cit. (March 8).

"A romance of about 1750, by Michael Comyn.

^'^ Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,
1825, vol. ii., p. 31, (The Soul Cages).

13 ' ' Adventures of the sons of Thorailbh " ; see also Ordnance Survey Letters,
Co. Clare, Killballyowen Parish, (MS., R.I. Academy).

1 84 Collectanea.

confluence, Tobersheefra (" elf's well ") and Poulaphuca are named
from the fairies and puca, and Clondegad from two druids who
competed in magic, making " two gads " (or withes) to sail up the
stream.

Inchiqui7u — Passing on to the settlements of the Dalcassians,
we find treasure legends at Cloghanairgid ("rock of the silver
(money) ") and Skeaghvickencrowe (" MacEnchroe's bush ").
Cloghaphuca in Kilnaboy and Poulnabruckee in Rath, with
Toberatasha ("spectre's well," perhaps recording an apparition
akin to that of Avenel), represent various supernatural beings.
Seefin, Caherussheen, and Tirmicbrain near Corofin com-
memorate Finn, his son Oisin, and his dog Bran. The old
pre-Norman Fenian tale of Feis tighe chonain is located on the
high ridge over Inchiquin Lake, and connects Finn with the
district and with a "hunting lodge" at Formoyle, but the first
name ("seat of Finn") has been lost since 1839.^'^ In the
weird terraced hills of bare crag behind Kilnaboy legend meets
us at every turn. Slievenaglasha, the Glasgeivnagh Hill, Moher-
naglasha, Leabanaglasha, and Mohernagartan, " Smith's Fort,"
commemorate the Irish Vulcan, Lon mac Leefa (Liomhtha),
and the wonderful "glaucous cow," the Glas^ whose hoof prints
mark the rocks in every direction. Inchiquin Lake has a
beautiful swan-maiden tale,^^ but jj « names no name." Still in
Kilnaboy we find, near the tall brown peel tower of Ballyportry, a
Cloughaphuca and the enchanted Lake of Shandangan.^^ Ruan
Parish has Cahernanoorane, taking its name from " fairy melody."
Lisheenvicknaheeha (" the little fort of the son of the night ")
seems ghostly, but the constituent is also an ancient personal
name, Macnahaidche, in use down to at least 1084. In Dysert,
Crush'banola and the basin stone near it are connected with a

^^ I.e. lost so far as I know. Many names supposed to be lost prove, how-
ever, still to exist, especially amongst old persons, but should never be asked for
directly, as the demand usually creates the supply. This precaution is too
little heeded by enquirers in Ireland.

'''Given by Dr. George U. MacNamara in Tlie Journal of the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxxi., p. 212.

^'^ Its curious and unusual changes of colour give it the reputation of
enchantment.

Collectanea. 185

curious legend which I reserve. Banola or Manawla is really the
historic Tola, living about a.d. 637. Drehidnavaddaroe Bridge
may commemorate a ghostly " red dog," like the dogs of Cratloe
and Ennistymon in this county, and the Maelchu of Kerry.

Islands. — This small district, although containing the " capital "
of Thomond from about 1220, is of little note in names. Poulna-
clug contains the hidden bells of Dromcliff Round Tower.
Knocknabohilleen probably had a "Boughil" or "Farbreag"
(see Corcomroe supra). Fairyhill Fort in Kilmaley, and Music
Hill, are connected with the "good people." Knockananima
near Clare Castle, though superficially a ghost name, is said to be
Cnoc (or Cnock an) na h iomdna or " Hurling-field Hill."

Bnnratty. — Taking the Upper and Lower Baronies together,
both here and in TuUa, we find an oblique allusion to the fairies
in Gortnamearacaun ("foxglove field"), called also "Thimble-
town," — the foxglove being the fairies' thimble. Caheraphuca
has a fine dolmen and haunted fort. Knocknafearbreaga derives
its name and legend from the " seven " {rede five) pillar stones,
once the seven robbers who ill-treated St. Mochulla's tame bull.
It is noteworthy that the life of St. MochuUeus, (sought for vainly
by Colgan about 1637 and only recently found in Austria and
published), gives the seven soldiers and the slaying of the tame
bull that ran errands for the saint. ^'' In the Lower Barony the
fairies are connected with Lissnarinka ("fort of the dance") in
Clonloghan, and perhaps Caherfirogue ("young man's fort,"
16 1 7), which is now forgotten. Moyeir, Moyross Parks, and
Moyri are variants representing the ancient Magh Adhair, the
settlement of another Firbolg chief and place of the inauguration
of the kings of Thomond from at least a.d. 847 to Tudor times.
Slieve suidhe an righ or Slieve oided an righ ("king's seat" or
"king's death hill"), in Glennagross, was connected with a
legend, probably historical, that King Criomthann died there in
A.D. 377 poisoned by his sister, who drank before him to disarm
his suspicion and secure the kingship for her son.^^

Tiilla. — In the mass of hills near the Shannon, Carrickeevul,
Tobereevul, and Glennagalliach (" hag's glen ") commemorate

^"^ Anakcta Bollandiana, xvii., p. 135.
^^S. H. O'Grady, Silva Gadelica, vol. ii.

1 86 Collectanea.

banshees (see below). Knockaunamoughilly is named from a
"Boughil," and other "sham men" appear at the Farbreagas
in Cloontra and Cloongaheen. Seefin in Kilseily is another
" seat of Finn." Some names are more doubtful. Lough
Graney, the river Graney, and Tomgraney, are attributed to a
suspicious solar heroine, the lady " Gillagreine " or " Grainne of
the bright cheeks."

11. Banshees.

Above the Shannon gorge, overlooking a beautiful mass of
mountains, the southern arm of Lough Derg, and the river and
Killaloe with its weirs, rises the great brov/n and purple bluff
of Craglea. Above the low earthworks and mound of stones
that mark the ninth-century fort of Prince Lachtna ascends
a rough lane. Further up on the east flank a little well,
Tobereevul, gushes out from under a low rock amid the ferns,^^
and on the west side, — up a lonely valley, a long-forgotten
battlefield, "Crag Liath where shields were cleft," in one of
Brian Boru's earlier combats with the Norsemen, — rises a high
crag called Craganeevul. The names of both well and crag
commemorate the tutelary spirit of the House of Cass, Aibhill or,
more correctly, Aibhinn, " the lovely one," once, it may be, the
goddess of the House.

On Good Friday, a.d. 1014, Brian, the aged monarch of all
Erin, knelt in his tent praying for victory, while the battle
raged over the low ridge now crowded by the houses of
northern Dublin and on to the weirs of Clontarf News came
that his brave son's standard had fallen, and his page entreated
him to ride back to the camp. " Oh, God ! thou boy," cried
Brian, " retreat becomes us not, and I myself know that I shall
not depart alive, for Aibhill of Crag Liath came to me last night,
and she told me that I should be killed today." ^'^ How
many centuries of faith lay behind the king's fatalism, who can
say? As the Gauls worshipped another banshee, Catabodva,

i^It still exists, though marked only "site of" in the new Ordnance Survey
maps.
20 Wars of the Gaedhilwith the Gaill (Ed. Dr. Todd, Rolls Series),

Collectanea. 187

as their war-goddess,2i so, before the baptism of King
Cairthinn, (first Christian Prince of his House, about a.d.
430), the ancestors of the Dalcassians may have worshipped
Aibhinn on her holy hill, and her equally lovely sister Aine,
crowned with meadowsweet, on the tamer mound of Knock-
aney. Whether, if so, they found her already enthroned at
Craglea on their conquest of the district, or whether the
conqueror Lugad consecrated the mountains to his patroness,
it is now impossible to guess. Aibhill, as banshee, held her
own. We find her even usurping the place of the " Sybil " in
a translation of the Dies IrcB^^ in unwonted companionship
with Kmg David, and she was a commonplace of local
threnodies during the eighteenth, and even the nineteenth,
century. In the lake below Rathblamaic in Inchiquin she has
down to recent years been seen, with the twenty-five other
banshees of Clare that call her their queen, washing clothes
before any impending disaster. 2

The next appearance of a banshee in local history is of
a very different spirit three centuries later. The Cathreim
Thoirdhealbhaigh ("Triumphs of Torlough ") was written pro-
bably about A.D. 1350 by Seean mac Craith, the hereditary
histonan.23 n contains accounts of three spirit women,— one, the
"Sovereignty of Erin," being of surpassing loveliness, and the' two
others, (if not the same,— " Dismal" and "Water Dismal") of
loathsome hideousness. The hags, however, probably survive
while the "Sovereignty" has perished. Bronach ("the sorrowful
or dismal one ") of Ceann Boirne was known as the " Hag of
Black Head" from the modern name of the older Ceann (or
Rinn) of Burren. She was in full repute in 1S39, and I have
heard of her vaguely about 1885 or 1887. In August, 1317, she

^^Cf. Revue ArchMogujue, N.S., vol. xviii. (1868), p. i; Sir Samuel
Ferguson s paper, from the Irish point of view, in Dublin University Magazine,
Oct 1834. p. 463; W. M. Hennessy, "The War Goddess of the AncienJ
Irish, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. x., p. 425.

22Mss., Royal Irish Academy, 23.M.47.

2^ As yet only in manuscript, -one copy of A.D. 1509, and another probably
from one of 1449. For its age see Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,
vol. xxxii., p. 139. ■''

1 88 Collectanea.

was able to appear in " the dark before sunrise " and foretell
destruction by words and hideous action. The supporters of
Prince Murchad O'Brien, (then absent in Dublin), under his
brother Dermot invaded the territory of his rival Prince Donchad
O'Brien. The latter got together an army, "even the man in a
souterrain {uamh) of a fort" being summoned, and marched round
the site of the modern village of Ballyvaughan, his foe having
sheltered in Corcomroe Abbey, in a nook of the bare hills some
miles to the north-west. Approaching Lough Rasga, (still known
as Rask), " they looked on the shining mere, and there they saw
the monstrous and distorted form of a lone, ancient hag, that
stooped over the bright Lough shore. She was thatched with
elf locks, foxy grey and rough like heather, matted and like long
sea-wrack, a bossy, wrinkled, ulcerated brow, the hairs of her eye-
brows like fish hooks ; bleared, watery eyes peered with malignant
fire between red inflamed lids ; she had a great blue nose, flattened
and wide, livid lips, and a stubbly beard." ^^ The writer adds
detail on detail (some 90 in all), many too disgusting to copy.
The hag was washing human limbs and heads with gory weapons
and clothes, till all the lake was defiled with blood, brains, and
floating hair. Donchad at last spoke. "What is your name and
race, and whose kin are those maltreated dead?" She replied, —
"I am Bronach of Burren, of the Tuatha De Danann. This
slaughter heap is of your army's heads ; your own is in the
middle." The angry men raised their javelins, but she rose on
the wind, yelling more and more words of woe till she vanished.
"Heed her not," said Donchad, "she is a friendly Bodbh of Clan
Torlough " (his opponents). The army hurried on to the ridge of
the Abbey, where Donchad and all his kindred, save one brother,
were slain before evening.

Not to the Irish alone did the banshee foretell ruin. In May,
13 18, Richard de Clare, leader of the Normans, was marching to
what he supposed would be an easy victory over the O'Deas of
Dysert. The English came to the "glittering, running water of
fish-containing Fergus," when they saw a horrible beldam

^ I have to thank Mr. Standish Hayes O'Grady for this and other extracts
from the work, the translations in the Hbrary of the Royal Irish Academy
being, (it is understood), very crude.

Collectanea. 189

washing armour and rich robes till the red gore churned and
splashed through her hands.-^ Calling an Irish ally to question
her, De Clare heard that "the armour and clothes were of the
English, and few would escape immolation." " I am the Water
Doleful One. I lodge in the green fairy mounds {sidh) of the
land, but I am of the Tribes of Hell. Thither I invite you. Soon
we shall be dwellers in one country." Next day De Clare, his
son, and nearly all his English troops lay dead upon the fields
near the ford of Dysert for miles over the country in their flight.

The belief of the early eleventh and fourteenth centuries is still
extant, for local legend near Dysert tells how Aibhill and twenty-
five banshees washed blood-stained clothes in Rath Lake before
" Claraghmore " (De Clare) fell, and that they still do so when
mischief is afoot.^*^

For nearly 300 years there is no other Clare banshee tale, till
the famous one of 1642 in the Menioires of Lady Fanshawe,
(published in 1665). 2'' It is so well known that a brief abstract
will suffice. Her Ladyship, staying with some of the O'Briens,
was sleeping in a room, of which the window overhung water at
some height, at a castle, perhaps Bunratty or Castle Lake. She
was awakened by a horrible scream, and saw a girl outside the
window. The apparition was pale, rather handsome, and with her
reddish hair hanging dishevelled over her shoulders. After some
time the unwelcome visitor vanished, with other ghastly shrieks.
In the morning Lady Fanshawe, telling her tale, was told of the
death of a relative of the family whose illness had been concealed
from her. The spirit was that of the peasant wife of a former
owner of the castle, drowned in the moat by her husband and of
evil omen to his descendants.

The next story was told in my own family and, I understand,
in that of the Ross Lewins. I have traced it to a daughter of
Jane Ross Lewin, one of the girls who saw the banshee. It related
to Jane's father, Harrison Ross Lewin of Fortfergus, who probably
died in 1776, as his will, dated November, 1775, was proved in

'■^Another "washer of the ford " appears in "Da Choca's Yiosit\,'" Eevue
Ccliiqtie, vol. xxi. (1900), p. 157, and she is also a Bodbh.

^"Told me by Prof. Brian O'Looney in 1890, and I have heard more recently
of the existence of the belief. "^ Loc. cii., pp. 83-6.

1 90 Collectanea.

March, 1777; but I have hitherto been unable to verify the
circumstances or place of his death. Mr. Ross Lewin had gone
to Dublin on business, the journey at that time taking five days,
and the several stages being Limerick, Nenagh, Mountrath, Kildare,
and Dublin. In his absence the " young people " went to a friend's
house for the evening. The road passed an old church (Kilchrist),
which was unenclosed, standing in an open field. As the party
returned under bright moonlight, they were startled by loud keening
and wailing from the direction of the ruin. Coming in sight, all
clearly saw a little old woman with long white hair and a black
cloak running to and fro on the top of the side wall, clapping her
hands and wailing. The young men, leaving the girls together on
the road, sent some of their number to watch each end of the
building, and the remainder entered and climbed up on the wall.
The apparition vanished as they approached the church, and, after
a careful search, could not be found. The party, thoroughly
frightened, hurried home, and found their mother in even greater
terror. She had been sitting in the window when a great raven
flapped three times at the glass, and, while she told them, the bird
again flew against the window. Some days later, news arrived from
DubUn that Ross Lewin had died suddenly on the very evening of
the apparition and omen.

It is curious that an English family, no matter how long settled
in Ireland, should have acquired the ministration of a banshee,
but, besides the Ross Lewins, both the Stamers and the Westropps
were so endowed in Clare.^^ The Westropps had also death warn-
ings in the shape of a white owl and the headless coach. This bird
last appeared, it is said, before a death in 1909, but it would be
more convincing if it appeared at places where the white owl does
not nest and fly out every night. The banshee has been conspicu-
ously absent of late years, although on the death of my father, the

^'^ Among families with banshees, Thomas Crofton Croker {op. cit., ed.
1862, p. 115,) names old Englishry such as the Burkes, Rices, Husseys (the
Norman, not the Gaelic, name), Trants, and Keatings. The FitzGeralds of
Kerry and Limerick had also a banshee. Of the Clare families the Westropps
came from Yorkshire, the Stamers from Essex, and the Lewins probably from
Durham. Some banshees may have been acquired by marriage, for the three
latter families were related to O'Briens, MacNamaras, and O'Gradys, to
name only a part of their Celtic connections.

Collectanea. 191

late John Westropp, at Attyflin, in 1866, keening and weird lamen-
tation, (probably of some of the country folk who held him in deep
affection), were heard the same night by the servants and some of
the family. When Mrs. Stamer died at Stamer Park, Ennis, in
January, 1883, the banshee and death coach were also supposed to
have been heard, — though far more satisfactory explanations of
the noises were forthcoming. The popular belief in Clare is that
each leading Irish race had a banshee, Eevul, the banshee of the
royal O'Briens, ruling over twenty-five other banshees always atten-
dant on her progresses. The stream from Caherminaun to Dough,
(the Daelach), was called the " Banshee's Brook," and when, as
sometimes happens after an unusually dry summer, the water gets
red from iron scum, everyone is on the alert to hear the rustling
flight of the banshee, (not apparently Eevul), and her attendants
through the air. In the prevailing suspense someone generally
succeeds, and then there is unrest and fear until a death removes
the uncertainty. There are many other modern tales of banshees.
Mr. Casey of Ruan heard a banshee cry at the death of his father.
The late Dr. MacNamara of Corofin was similarly honoured ; in-
deed, when his family lived at Ballymarkahan, near Quin, there
were numerous "authentic instances" recorded. The Corofin
banshees, however, did not lag behind the age by maintaining
aristocratic prejudices, for one, at least, used to sit near the cross
road leading to the workhouse and foretell the deaths of the poor
inmates.2^

The most recent visit of a banshee told to me was in 1 905,2*^
and is sadly tame when compared with the stories of MacCraith
and Lady Fanshawe. Some scattered cottages form a sort of
suburb to Newmarket-on-Fergus at a temporary lake (or turlougli)
called Lough Gaish. The inhabitants were greatly alarmed by the
loud and ghastly wailing of some unknown being on several suc-
cessive nights. Local panic spread, and few ventured out after
dark. Had any tragedy happened, the reputation of the banshee
would have rested on a rock of belief for another generation ; but
nothing occurred, and it is now doubted " whether it was a banshee
at all, at all."

-''Told to Dr. G. U. MacNamara at Caherminane and Corofin.

3" By Mrs. and Miss Neville and Miss G. C. Stacpoole of Newmarket.

192 Collectanea.

III. The Death Coach?^

The " headless Coach " or " coach a bower" seems of far later
date than the banshee. Ghostly chariots such as that of Cuchu-
lain figure in very early tales, but neither their appearance nor
their sound foretold death. ^^ In Clare, at sight or sound of the
coach, all gates should be thrown open, and then it will not stop
at the house to call for a membi^r of the family, but only foretell
the death of some relative at a distance.^^

I collected five stories, three of well-defined character, and give
them in order of time as the dates can be fixed. The first appear-
ance, on the night before June i8th, 1806, was related to my three
informants'^ most solemnly by their fathers and uncles. Two
told it in a general and confused way, but varied from the story of
the third, which I give, only by omissions. Ralph Westropp, of
Attyflin and Lismehane, — the latter place is in Clare, but I never
could learn where he died, — lay sick unto death. His sons in the
late dusk waited on the steps for the arrival of the doctor. Suddenly
they saw and heard a large coach drive into the paved court before
the house. One of them stepped down to open the door, but the
dark object rumbled past and drove down the long, straight
avenue, which was fenced on both sides. Two of the watchers
ran after it, hearing it ahead of them. The noise stopped, and
they expected to find the coach at the gate. They ran full tilt
against the bars, the gate being closed and locked. They called
up the lodgekeeper, and he was found to have been asleep with
the keys still beside him. The sick man died the next morning.

Lismehane, under its later name of Maryfort, afterwards became
the residence of the O'Callaghan family, its present occupants.
On the night of April 29th, 182 1, two servants, — one of whom
was " Matty Halloran " who died not long ago at an advanced

^^Cf. " Irish Folklore from Cavan, Meath, Kerry, and Limerick," vol. xix.,
pp. 320-1 ; vol. X., p. 119.

^^Is not the death coach, and not the Hellequin, the "hell waine " of
Reginald Scot's list of spirits in The disconerie of witchcraft, Bk. vii., cap. xv. ?

^^ Cf. Herefordshire belief about corpse candles.

^^ The late Capt. Ralph Westropp of Coolreagh (in 1879), and the late Mrs.
Wilme and Mrs. Pitcairn, whose fathers were present.

Collectanea. 193

age, and the other was a butler named Richard Burke, — were
sitting up to receive a son of the family, Cornelius O'Callaghan,
who had travelled for his health in vain and was returning home.
Halloran, who told the tale with fearless faith and weary
frequency, said that the heavy rumble of a coach roused them.
Burke stood on the top of the long flight of steps with a lamp, and
sent Halloran down to open the carriage door. He reached out
his hand to do so, saw a skeleton looking out, gave one yell, and
fell in a heap. When the badly-scared Burke picked him up,
there was no sign or sound of any coach. A little later the
invalid arrived, so exhausted that he died suddenly in the early
morning. The present generation seems to have got the story
from Halloran alone.

On the night of December nth, 1876, a servant of the Mac-
Namaras was going his rounds at Ennistymon, a beautiful spot in
a wooded glen, with a broad stream falling in a series of cascades.
In the dark he heard the rumbling of wheels on the back avenue,
and, knowing from the hour and place that no " mortal vehicle "
could be coming, concluded that it was the death coach and ran
on, opening the gates before it. He had just time to open the
third gate and throw himself on his face beside it, at the bank,
before he " heard a coach go clanking past." It did not stop at
the house, but passed on, and the sound died away. On the
following day Admiral Sir Burton MacNamara died in London.^^

A man living at Annaghneale was returning from Tulla late at
night. As he reached the corner of Fortanne demesne he heard a
heavy rumbling behind him, and horses trotting. Surprised after
a time by its not coming nearer, he looked back and saw a large
dark mass with a figure on the box. It came no closer to him,
and in a fright he hurried on. At a bend in the road he ventured
to stand at the fence and look again. This time he saw the horses
and carriage drive over the wall and ditch into Fortanne. He
fell, nearly insensible with terror, but, hearing and seeing nothing
more, hurried home. This was told to a steward at Maryfort
about twenty years ago, and happened " long after the sale of
Fortanne" to its present owner in 1879. The present tradition

^5 From Mr. R. Twigge, F. S.A. , whose wife is a daughter of the House of
Ennistymon.

1 94 Collectanea.

of Fortanne says that the coach was heard at the deaths of
certain Westropps after 1873, but nothing happened after its last
appearance.

The phantom of a coach and horse was seen not far from
Corofin, at Cragmoher, not long since, but it is agreed that no
death took place after the apparition. An equally vague story
was told about 1870 at Attyflin by a very old woman, Norry
Halloran, whom the sound of the coach pursued one dark
evening for a long way, but it did not pass her door, and nothing
happened afterwards.

IV. Fairies and Fairy Fo?'ts and Mounds.
MacCraith, in the Triumphs of Toriough, in describing the
prognostics of the death of Prince Donchad early in the fourteenth
century says that " lights shone on the fairy forts," and it has
already been noted that the sidhs or fairy mounds were lodgings
of appalling apparitions, like Bronach when not at her proper
residence in the lower deep. The Dindsettchas, — that early
encyclopaedia invaluable for everything but the reliable account
of the origin of place names which it purports to be, — describes
how a lady dwelling in such a mound sprang out at her would-be
lover in the form of a dragon.^** Probably such beliefs, and the
consequent fear of irate and deadly beings in earthworks, have
helped until recent years to preserve the residential earthen
"forts," although the ring walls were destroyed with but little
scruple. Nevertheless the son of a farmer named Nihill told me
in 1892 that, after some days wreckage and removal of the outer
wall of the fine triple stone fort of Cahercalla, near Quin, his
father was stricken with acute pain, and only recovered from his
illness when the work was stopped, — whence this interesting ruin
has been preserved to the present day. A certain landlord, still
living, nearly lost the use of one eye from the dust of an explosion
when blasting a rock in an earth fort which was being removed,
and this incident has upheld the faith and fear of the fairies in
north-eastern Clare. A locally famous "astronomer" and weather
prophet tried, many years ago, to blast a dolmen in Inchiquin
Barony, and a splinter hit his hand, which was badly injured and
'^'^ Revue Celtiqtie, vol. xv., p. 441.

Collectanea. 195

afterwards festered. The wreckage of the dolmen was lying
untouched on the ground a few years ago. The collapse of a
calf shed on its occupants followed the demolition of Templenaraha
oratory for building the unstable structure ;^^ this might be
ascribed to a more sacred anger than that of the fairies, but the
oratory stood in a ring fort. Another case of supposed vengeance
occurred near Lehinch on the Atlantic. Some workmen were
employed to level the earthworks of Dooneeva,^^ a fort on a low
cliff at the end of the bay and near the modern Protestant Church.
The man who originated this outrage was digging at the mounds
when he fell to all appearance dead. The news was at once taken
to his wife, a reputed "wise woman," and she ran to a "fairy
spot" and "did magic." She then went to her apparently lifeless
husband, and ordered the fairies in a peremptory way to restore
him at once and take his stick. Then, before everyone, the
stick vanished, and the " dead man " sat up none the worse for
his "rapture to the land of faery." ^9 The date of this event could
not be fixed, but it seems to be attributed to the period before
1840, and Dooneeva seems to have been in its present condition
in 1839.

Two forts named Lissardcarney and Ballyhee in Templemaley
Parish were in 1839 reputed strongholds garrisoned by troops of
fairies. The songs of the fairies were heard in Cahernanoorane
in Inchiquin, and Leskeentha near Noughaval.^^ They danced
in the Lisnarinkas, played " hurley " in Lisfearbegnagommaun,
and laid in wait to worry the belated traveller in Rathfollane and
a small fort near the rectory, to the south of it, near Newmarket-
on-Fergus. Fairies haunted the well of Tobesheefra, while even
at the holy well of the powerful and vengeful St. MochuUa at
Fortanne milk was once offered to them. The butter had refused
to "come," and the mistress of the house, (a Protestant woman
of good birth and fair education), as she told me herself about
1878, took some of the refractory milk to the well, made the sign

37 Told to Dr. G. U. MacNamara about 1907.

^ Not Doonmeeve as on the Ordnance Survey maps.

3^ Told to Miss Diana Parkinson. I heard it locally, but more vaguely, in
1907.

*" Local traditions, 1904, 1908.

196 Collectanea.

of the cross over it, said the Lord's Prayer, dug a hole in the mud
at the well with her left heel, and went away without looking back.
As might have been expected, the butter had "come" by the
time she had got home again, and she used to quote the case as
"proof positive." Besides the forts and wells, the dolmens are
believed to have been fairy homes, but in my enquiries since
1892 I have never been able to authenticate a case of offerings
at them of milk and butter, although small basins like the Swedish
"elf mills" are found in the covers of more than one of these
structures, and large bullaims or basins at others, such as Bally-
ganner Hill near Noughaval, Cappaghkennedy on the hills above
Corofin, and Newgrove and Kiltanon near TuUa in eastern Clare.
Food and drink, however, have been, until at least the present
century, set out in plates and cups in Inchiquin and Moyarta
Baronies, and in the latter, on the Shannon bank, the slops were
thrown out and clean plates, water, chairs, and a well-swept hearth
left by a punctilious servant for fairy guests in 1888 or 1889.

The greatest fairy monarch in Clare was " Donn of the Sand-
hills " (now the golf links), near the old castle of Doogh, {i.e.
Dumhach or Sand Dune), near Lehinch. He, or one of the
other fairy princes named Donn, appears in a list of the divine
race of the Tuatha De Danann,*i and is therefore of the family of
the Dagda, and, it may be presumed, a lineal descendant of the
ancient Ana, Mother of the Gods. A well-known Irish scholar
and antiquary, Andrew MacCurtin, before 1730 addressed a
political petition to Donn of Dumhach complaining, like most
Irish antiquaries, of the neglect of the gentry, and praying for any
menial post at his Court.*^ As there was none that answered,
the petitioner had to rest content with the hospitality of the
MacDonnells of Kilkee and the O'Briens of Ennistymon.
Donn's heartless conduct met poetic justice, for he has ever since
"lacked a sacred bard," and, save for a slight uneasiness in a few
poor old people passing across the sandhills after the golfers have
left and the sun has set, he is now all but forgotten. In another
poem of MacCurtin's, on a monk's horse " overlooked " and
killed by the evil eye, or by the look of a red-haired woman, or

*^ Cath Finntraga (ed. Kuno Meyer), p. 15.

*2 Mss. Royal Irish Academy, 23. M. 47.

Collectanea. 197

by " the stroke of a fairy," the poet recommends the holy man to
get the aid of a local practitioner of renown, Peter the Fairy
Killer.43

In recent years I have met only one sign of true respect for the
•' Sheevra " race. A small patch of land was left untitled in the
midst of a cornfield at the end of the steep descent from Carran
old church to Eanty in the Burren, It was left for three years
amidst the tillage, and then the field was allowed to return to
grass. The owners obviously disHked to explain the matter, but
the act was clearly understood in the neighbourhood as a con-
cession to the spirits of the field when the grass land was broken
up for the first time in human memory.^*

The appearances of the fairies also seem now very rare indeed.
At Newmarket-on-Fergus, a centre of much folklore, we find that,
besides the two forts named above and a low earth mound (per-
haps sepulchral), only one spot has been honoured by an actual
apparition in the last ten years. In this case a man walking
on the Ennis road, not far from Lough Gaish, saw a very little
man neatly dressed in green and walking on the path. Suspecting
the green man to be a leprechaun, — and hence an owner of gold, —
the Clare man tried to grasp him, but the sprite vanished out of
his hands.^5

The " literary movement" will probably affect the folklore very
soon, as it is already affecting historical tradition, — which
is shown by the variations in certain legends collected at
long intervals at the same sites. By some the Danann have
been identified with the Danes as " fort builders." If this were
so, why did Dane's fort become Caher Loghlanach, (Caher
Loglin, 1652), and similar forms? The people once knew better,
for forts were attributed to all sorts of times and races, not only
to members of the Tuatha De Danann, but also to Firbolgs and
mythical persons such as Aenghus, Eerish, Eir, Farvagh, and

*^lbid. 23. K. 10.

''■* It was certainly not the darker belief that in Scotland dedicated an offering
to the one called euphemistically "The Goodman," nor like the sheaf some-
times dedicated to Brigit and other saints in West Munster, or, indeed, in
other parts of Ireland.

^^ Collected by Miss Katherine Neville. The sprite was, of course, proved
not to be a leprechaun, as that being can be held by the eye alone.

igS Collectanea.

Croaghan, and Celts such as Lachtna (a.d. 820-840), and Brian
Boru (a.d. 980-1014). In one notable instance, King Conor (a.d.
1 242-69) is the reputed builder of the great stone fort of Dun Conor
in Aran, which in the eleventh-century legend is evidently connected
with Conchiurn or Conchraed the Firbolg, — a relation accepted
in 1685 by Roderic O'Flaherty, although he called its hero
" Conquevar " {i.e. Chonchobhar or Conor). Any modern allusion
to the Danann is therefore " suspect." Many visits to the recesses
of the hills in Burren from 1878 onwards, — and I may add that
the same is true of the rest of Clare, — only gave me, in 1905, one
direct reference to the Danann. '^^ At the natural moat crowned
by the small stone ring wall of Croaghateeaun, near Lisdoonvarna,
we were told to cross ourselves as a protection against the Danann.
The place was, nevertheless, undoubtedly regarded by the older
people living near it as a most dangerous fairy fort, and we were
told how certain badger hunters, — (who brought drink with them),
— after a long festival on its summit got benighted there; they
eventually returned home sobered by fright, as they suddenly
" saw the whole fleet " of " them " coming up the mound, and
escaped only just in time.

The " whirlwinds " along dusty roads and sudden gusts were
not long ago everywhere supposed to be caused by the progress of
fairy beings. The older folk believed, and trembled, — crossing
themselves, or saying a word of prayer, — while the younger folk,
more than half in jest, raised their hats, as is still sometimes done
to the unlucky " single magpie " and the weasel.

I know of two cases of reputed changelings. My second sister,
whose delicacy, when an infant, excited remark, was, about 1842,
taken out by a servant to be exposed on a shovel on the doorstep
at Carnelly. The angry and hasty intervention of another servant
saved the child, but the would-be " exposer" was convinced of
the propriety of her attempt " to get back the real child " from the
fairies. A very old woman, Kate (Geerin) Molony, a henwife at
Maryfort, near Tulla, whom I faintly remember in 1869, was many
years before anxious about her little daughter's failing health, and
went to a "wise woman," who assured her that the child was
*' changed." She spoke of this on her return, and unfortunately
^^ Apart from Lon, at Slievnaglasha, and the "hags."

Collectanea. 1 99

the patient was old enough to understand the fearful decision.

The poor child turned over on the bed with a groan, and was a

little later found to be dead.

Thos. J. Westropp.

{To be continued^

Fifty Hausa Folk-tales.

The Hausas, as I have tried to prove elsewhere,^ have probably
come from somewhere near Ethiopia, and are a mixture of Arabs
and Berbers with Copts and many local tribes between the Nile
and the Niger. The following tales are a selection from those I
collected during 1908 and 1909 in Jemaan Daroro (N. Nigeria).
Women and children are usually the best story-tellers, but I found
them difficult to get hold of and more nervous and easily tired than
the men, so that I had to rely mainly on my own sex, the narrators
being Privates Ba Gu(d)du and Umoru Gombe of the ist N.
Nigeria Regt.,the Sa(r)rikin Dukawa (Chief of the Leather workers),
Mamma, a personal servant, and Ashetu, a policeman's wife;
the stories contributed by them are marked respectively B.D.,
U.G., S.D., M., and A. Of these by far the best Hausa was
spoken by Mamma. All were of course illiterate. The most
serious difficulty one encounters is to keep pace with the narrator.
To stop him for an explanation is often to disturb him so much
that he loses the thread of the tale. Many of the speeches also
are sung in a falsetto voice, and this alters the sounds and even the
accents of vowels. Again, the story-teller, if paid so much per
story, is apt to skip certain parts which he thinks would puzzle the
listener, and if paid by time he may add on parts of other tales to
avoid the trouble of thinking out a whole fresh one. Lastly, as
Mr. Hartland remarks in The Science of Fairy Tales (p. 18), " It is
by no means an uncommon thing for the rustic story-teller to be
unable to explain expressions, and indeed whole episodes, in any
other way than Uncle Remus, when called upon to say who Miss
Meadows was : " She wuz in de tale. Miss Meadows en de gals
wuz, en de tale I give you like hi't wer' gun ter me." Dr. Steere,
speaking of a collection of Swahili tales by M. Jablonsky which I

"^ Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, vol. xviii., pp. 767-75.

200 Collectanea.

think has never been published, tells us that almost all of the tales
had " sung parts," and of some of these even they who sang them
could scarcely explain the meaning." I often found that, although
several men would give the sentences in exactly the same way, not
one could explain their meaning, and I had to ask the assistance
of the Alcali, or native judge, — as being the best educated man in
Jemaa, — to help me out of the difficulty. Even now there are one
or two words which I have been unable to translate, and rather
than make a guess I have left them in the Hausa, so that others
may see and perhaps be able to explain them.

The following selection comprises only one-third of the stories,
namely those about animals. Many of the other tales refer to the
unfaithfulness of wives, and are hardly fit for publication.

To summarise the stories. With the Hausas the Lion seems to
be the King of Beasts as with us, though the Spider is in one story
said to be so, and the Lion is no match for that insect in cunning.
He has a special Kirrare or form of address, — Gaddanga Wan
Dawa, ("Oh Strong One, Big Brother of the Forest "). The Spider
is known as Maiwayo (" The Crafty One "), because it remains so
long in one place apparently studying intently all around it. The
Spider is shown here as outwitting the Hygena (who is the buffoon
of the animal world), the Hippopotamus, and the Elephant, and
as being stronger than these two beasts, the Snake, the Jackal, the
Lamb, all the animals, and even Man, but he does not seem equal
to an old woman, and males very often pay him out, as do certain
of the animals, such as the Tortoise, the Jackal, and the Goat, but
he usually escapes owing to his having a charm for popularity.
There is no sense of proportion; e.g., the Spider carries a boy on
his back, and can lift any animal and eat it.

The Hysena, as mentioned above, is often the victim of the
Spider's craftiness, and is less sharp even than the Goat, who
is by no means the senseless animal that he is with us, for
he can deceive even the Lion. The Hysena is taken in by
the Jerboa, the Ostrich, the Jackal, the Scorpion, the Dog,
of course Man, and even the Donkey, but he sometimes manages
to revenge himself on Man and the Donkey. We have seen that
the Goat and Donkey are not types of foolishness with the
Hausas. Strangely enough the Dog is seldom regarded as being

Collectanea. 201

particularly knowing, perhaps because the local animal is a poor
one. The Dog is always in difficulties with the Hysena, and has
to be very clever to get out of them. He once manages to play
a trick on her, but it is the Goat who thinks out the plan. He is
no match for the Jackal, The only two tales here concerning the
Tortoise show him to be able to hold his own with the Spider and
Man. The Elephant is not wise. The Snake, the Scorpion, and
the Centipede are the friends of Man. Next to the Spider the Jerboa
is usually regarded as being the most clever ; he also plays tricks
on the Hysena and the Jackal. On the whole birds seem to have
more brains than animals, though not always, and may advise and
help even Man.

Instances of human beings taking the forms of animals or birds
are numerous, as are the opposite transformations, and men may
become even inanimate objects. Naturally all animals and birds
can talk to Man, and sometimes things do also. Man is
evidently closely connected with every other living thing, since
one may marry the other and have children. It is therefore not
to be wondered at that they behave in a similar way in regard,
for instance, to living, feeding children, marriage, fleeing from
creditors, working, and revenge. Honesty is by no means always
the best policy, (indeed at times it is extremely unprofitable), but
instances of the reward of gratitude are given, though ingratitude
and trickery seldom seem to bring any punishment. In cases
where certain conditions have to be observed, there is no objec-
tion whatever to shirking them provided one be not found out.
Some stories seem to point to some form of tests on initiation.

There is sometimes virtue in being swallowed, but if animals or
insects act the part of Jack the Giant Killer they usually seem to
kill their adversaries by cutting their way out of their hosts.

As regards marriage, a bachelor is looked down upon, so there
is no need to extricate him from danger, and a girl should not
raise objections to the husbands selected by her parents, — which
is probably Mohammedan. I have a story in which girls wishing
to be married to a certain youth have to guess his name. Where
there are several wives there is of course jealousy, and many
stories are told of the ill-treatment of the rival's children by the
stepmother, but I have given only one here. The desire for

202 Collectanea.

children is shown strongly, and obedience is expected from them.
They are usually well treated, unless they are unnatural. The
Hausas reckoned descent through females, and even to-day a
Hausa or Filani woman will not mention the name of her first
husband. There is a song Allah na hiba, na foddi sunan mijjina
(" Oh God, I repent, I have spoken my husband's name"), supposed
to be sung should any break this law. The eldest child, —
especially if a daughter, — is almost always known by a nickname,
and the mother at any rate would not say the proper name. The
Hausa brides are carried off screaming to their husbands, a survival
of marriage by capture. It would seem from one of the stories
that various gods or spirits of some kind were once worshipped,
since there is a King of the Thicket and a King of the Heavens,
and the Hausa idea of a god is fashioned on that of a king.
Allah Sa{r)rikin Dwiia (" God is the King of the World ") is a
very common expression. The rainbow is said to be a Snake
which comes out of a well, a belief, — according to Tylor,^ —
common to rude tribes. Pagans, (and also those professing
Mohammedanism when their sincerity is doubted), are to-day
sworn on iron, — usually a knife or bayonet. Most Hausas are
also careful to bury the nails and hair. Names for echo are Iblis
(the Arabic devil) and Kurua (shade).

Since the spider is the king of cunning and craftiness all fables
are told in his name. A story commences thus, the listeners
answering the narrator as follows : —

N. Ga ta nan, Ga ta nan. See her here, see her here.

L. Ta zo ta taya viu hira. Let her come and aid our conver-

sation
or

Ta zo muji Let her come (and) let us bear

Ta zo ta wuche Let her come and pass.

The narrator then proceeds with his tale. When it is finished

he says : —

Kti{r)riii)i bus kan kusu (or bera) Finished (A'm^;;«<j = ashes) is the

head of the mouse.
En ba don gizzo ba Were it not on account of the

spider

'^Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 293.

Collectanea. 203

da na yi ka(r)ria dayawa. I should have greatly lied.

Da ma, ka{r)ria nan ta azuzttka. Formerly this lie was lucky.

Gobe da safe ka gewoya To-morrow morning you go around

bayan da(i)ki, sat ka ga behind the house, and you will see

azuriifa tinjiin a pile of silver (which)

gizzo ya subar. the spider has placed (there).

The story proper often ends with the words suka zona ("they
remained"), an equivalent for our "they lived happy ever after-
wards." The Hausa would not, however, bind himself to such a
wide statement when he knows that the wife at any rate, (being
only one of four), will not be altogether content.

The first few tales I have translated literally, so as to show the
exact style of a Hausa story, but later ones I have rendered
more freely.

I. The Spider, the Hippopotamus, and the Elephant. (S. D.)

The Spider got up and went to a river, and^ said, — " Hippo-
potamus, the Elephant says she is stronger than you." She
(Hippopotamus) said, — " She is not stronger than I." He said, —
"Very well, to-morrow we shall bring you together in the wood."
He took a leather thong and tied one end to the Elephant. He
went to the river, found the Hippopotamus, and tied her with
(the other end of) the rope. He returned to the higher ground.
He caught hold of the rope and shook and pulled it. The
Elephant said, — " The Hippopotamus is pulling me." The
Hippopotamus said, — " The Elephant is pulling me." The Spider
pulled hard, and they came {i.e. were dragged towards one
another) and saw each other on the hill. Then the Hippopo-
tamus said, — " So it is the Spider who has made us quarrel (joined
us with strife), I and you." Then they untied the thong, and
said, — "Let us throw away the thong and find the Spider."
When the Spider heard he was being sought, he went away
and found anold Oribi skin which had dried up, and he put
it on (got inside). He waited in the sun (until) the skin dried
up thoroughly, then he started off and came to (the place of)
the Elephant. When she saw him, she said, — " O Oribi,

* There is no such "and" in Hausa, — the pronoun being repeated, — but
this is the best way to translate.

204 Collectanea.

what has happened to you (that) you look so ill ? " ^ The Spider
said, — " I fought yesterday with the Spider, — see, he scratched
me, he bit me, and that is why I look so ill." The Elephant
did not know that it was the Spider (who) was speaking, she
thought it was the Oribi. So she was frightened and did not
look for the Spider any more (///. did not increase looking).^

2. The Spider, the Hyana, and the Corn. (S. D.)
The beasts of the forest had all assembled. They made their
fences, and they collected their guinea-corn in their storerooms.
They said, — " Let us go and travel. When the wet season
has commenced let us return to our store." ^ After they had
gone, the Spider came and used to take out the corn. Each
morning he took (some), until he ate up the corn in all the
stores. Then he sought a calabash, and (began) collecting the
Hyaena's dung, and filled the store with it. About that time
the animals said, — " Let us return home." All returned. The
Spider was nowhere to be seen (they did not see). He was
their Chief They kept calling,— "O Spider, O Spider," (but)
they did not see him. As for him, he was close, but he
answered softly "Yes," like as if he were far away. Then
some time after he answered loudly " Yes." Then he came.
They said, — "We have been here (come) since the morning.
We are hungry (hunger has seized us). You must give us out
our corn that we may eat." Then he caught hold of the (wall
of the?) store-room, and climbed up. When he had climbed
up and looked he said, — " Great Scot ! " (No God). They said,
—"What is it?" He said,— "No" (I cannot say it). He
descended. Then he said, — " Hyaena, you climb up, and give
out the guinea-corn." The Hyaena caught hold and ascended.
When she had opened (the roof)''' she saw dung inside like
hers. She said, — " (As) God (is my witness) it was not L"

*Lalache, i.e. wasted, ruined.

® Cf. Cronise and Ward, Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the other Beef,
pp. 117-22 ("Spider, Elephan' en Pawpawtamus") ; y(3?«'«a/ ^ /"/^e African
Society, 1904, p. 307 ("Animal-stories from Calabar : The Tortoise, Elephant
and Hippopotamus ").

^ The stores are usually depleted about this (sowing) time.

^ The stores are small houses with grass roofs, or they may be sm,aller and
built inside the dwellinghouses.

Collectanea. 205

They said,— "What is it?" She said,— "It was not I." An
(animal) then said, — "Let me go and see." When he had
climbed up and looked, he said, — "The Hyaena has cheated
us." Then they pushed her about. Each took his stick to beat
her (her to be beaten). Then she ran away, (and went) into
the bush. That was the end of the friendship between her and
the (other) beasts of the forest. She has not (since) liked
them ; they have not liked her. They did her a wrong. The
Spider brought the trouble upon her.

3. The Malam^ the Spider, and the Hymna. (S. D.)
This is about a certain learned man and his horse. He started
from Zaria to go (he would) to the city of Kano, but dismounted
and rested at the foot of a tamarind tree. Then the Hyaena came
and said,—" O, Learned One ! " He said,—" Yes." The Hyaena
said, — " There is (see) an animal over there which has died in the
forest, will you not lend me your horse so that I may get there
quickly?" Then the learned man said, — "Certainly. Mount,
Hyffina." Then she said, — " Good, Let me take off the saddle
and leave it." When she had taken (it) off and had put (it down),
she led (pulled) the horse (away). When she had led (it) to the
(place where) her cubs (were), they ate it. The learned man,
without Hyaena or horse, was sitting there at a loss what to do.
Then the Spider came and said, — " O, Learned Man, what are
you doing here?" He said, — "I am (merely) sitting (here). I
have lost my horse, which I was to have ridden (mounted and
gone) to Kano." Then he (Spider) said, — " Here is a saddle.
How (is it) you have no horse to ride ? " (which you will ride).
Then he (Learned Man) said, — " The Hyaena came and led away
the horse to her den." Then the Spider said, — " Look here, I
am going to bring the Hyaena to you at once. I shall girth on
the saddle, I shall put on the bridle, and you shall mount and go
to the city of Kano. You on your part, if I do this for you, will
you give me a charm for popularity?" (lit. white blood.) He
(Learned Man), — " I shall certainly give you a charm, O Spider."
Then the Spider got up and went to the Hyaena's den, and said, —
^' You, Hysena, you are losing a great chance (doing work of use-
^ Learned man, priest, or magician.

2o6 Collectanea.

lessness). There is a feed over there. Yet you are at home ? "
(lying down). Then she said, — " Truly has an animal died, O
Spider?" Then he said, — ''Come out, and let us go with all
speed." Then she came out, and they went off (were travelling).
Then he came upon the saddle-cloth on the road, and said, — " O,
Hyaena, if I take this saddle-cloth and put it on your back and
mount, we shall go more quickly." So she said, — " Spider, take
(it) and put (it on) by all means." So he took (it), and put it on
and mounted. Then he went (a little way) and came upon the
saddle also, and said, — " O Hysena, your back is sharp (with
pricking), I had better girth on the saddle that I may feel com-
fortable (while) riding." So she said, — " Take (it) and put (it on)
by all means." He put (it on) and mounted. Then he went and
got the bridle also, and said, — " O Hysena, if I put this on you, if
you were about to fall through the slipperiness (if slipperiness
were about to bring you down), if I pulled (it) really you would
not fall." So the Hysena said, — " Take (it) and put (it on) by
all means." So he put the bridle on her and mounted. Then,
(as) he was going along, he got the spurs and said, — " Let me put
these on. If I touch you, you will go more quickly." When he
had put on the spurs and had mounted the Hysena, he kept on
digging (moving to one side) the spurs into her stomach, (so that)
she lost control of herself (was dropping), and he brought her to
the Learned Man. He said, — " O Learned Man, mount. Here
is the Hyasna. I have brought her to you." So he (Learned
Man) made a charm for popularity, and gave (it) to the Spider.
Then the Learned Man went off, towards Kano. The Spider
said, — " When you go to Kano, do not tie her up with a leather
thong. Put a chain on her." Then the Learned Man said to the
Hysena, — "Stop, the Spider is saying something behind (us)."
But she said, — " I heard. He said, — '* When you have gone to
Kano, you (must) tie me with a thong. He said you must not
chain me up. If you put a chain on me I shall die." " Then he
spurred her, and they went on quickly (with a run). When he
came to Kano, he dismounted, and he tied her up with a thong
(hide). So, when night came, the Hy^na ate the hide. She
drank the water for the house,° and ate up the fowls belonging to
^ Brought by the women and left in pots in the house.

Collectanea. 207

the house. Then she seized one goat, and ran away with it, and
brought the goat belonging to the house to her cubs. Then she
went out to look for the Spider. (As for) the Spider, he had
been given a charm for popularity. Every animal she inquired of
said, — " We have not seen the Spider." Even though (until) she
became tired of traversing the forest, she did not see him. Then
an internal sickness griped her, and she died in the forest. That
was the beginning of (the time when) the Spider became popular.
(In) every tale one mentions the Spider.^^

4. Hoiu the Spider outwitted the Snake. (B. G.).

A Snake had a bull. The feast ^^ was approaching. It was
the eve. So he was going about with his bull and saying (said)
(it is) for sale, but it will not be paid for with money ; but a
time must be fixed when payment shall be made, and he
(Snake) will come and bite the man, (thus) he will pay (he
will have paid). So he took it around (went around with it) ;
of all (the people) not one took it. Then he went to the
Spider's house, and the Spider said, — "How much is your bull? "
Then he said, — " My bull I will not sell for money, but a time
must be fixed when one is to pay, and I shall come and bite
you." Then the Spider, the thief, said he agreed. He (Snake)
said, — "Very well, he could eat the bull, but twelve days after
the feast, (when the feast had gone by twelve days), he would
come and bite him." Then the Spider said, — " Very well, let
it be so." So he went away. When only one of the twelve
days was left, the Spider told his wife to rough-grind some
millet flour. Some tamarind (leaves ?) were taken and put into
this millet flour. When day broke, the twelve days were com-
pleted. So the Snake came. He said, — "Welcome, welcome."
Thus spoke the Spider. Then he said to the wife, — "Bring
some water that he may drink." He was about to have the
bitter flour brought (lit. bring). She brought (it). Then the

i^Cf. Cronise and Ward, op. ciL, pp. 70-5, (" Mr. Turtle makes a Riding-
horse of Mr. Leopard ").

^^ Salla. There are two ; the second, or Babban Salla, comes a month after
the first, and everyone feasts after the fasting. These are of course observed
only by the Mohammedans.

2o8 Collectanea.

Snake drank (some) water, and the Spider said, — " Oh, the bitter
(stuff) is at the bottom (in the middle). Eat (some)." So he
(Snake) took (some) and filled his mouth. Then all his teeth
became useless (died). Then the Spider said, — " Drink to be
sure." He (Snake) said he would not drink any more. Then
the Spider said, — " One drink (is) no good." So he took some
more. The jaws (teeth) became stiff (cold) and would not move.
They were (no longer) powerful as before. Then he (Spider)
stretched out (his) leg to him, and said, — " Now bite." He
(Snake) said, — " No, I cannot." He (Spider) said, — " Certainly,
we arranged that the time should be completed to-day. You
must bite." He (Snake) said he could not. He (Spider) said,
— " Very well. If you do not bite (me) to-day,^^ j ^^ve paid
for your bull. If I see you again (you will get nothing) but a
beating (blows) with a stick." Then the Snake saw that the
Spider was crafty, so he said, — " Very well, we fixed a time
and it has come. I cannot bite you. You have (nevertheless)
paid. I shall not come again."

5. The Snake and the Dove outwit the Spider. (B. G.).
This is about a Snake (who) was tending his bull. He asked
the butchers to come and buy. So they said, — "For what?"
He said, — "Whoever buys (it), when my pool has dried up I
shall come and go inside him." Then the chief of the butchers
said, — " No, we cannot do (that)." Then a Spider came.
When he had come and had been told, he said, as for him,
he would buy (it). When the pond should dry up, let him
(Snake) come and enter inside him.^^ g^ j^g Spider said he
agreed. He seized the bull, the Snake returned to the water,
and the Spider went off and ate his meat. Now what was he
to do (when) the time was up? The Spider went off and dug
a hole, some flour was ground for him, (and) he took it into
the hole. His wife covered him up. Then he told the wife,
if the snake came, to say to the Snake he (Spider) was dead.
When the Snake had come, the female spider said to him, —

^2 Really means " whether you bite me or not to-day."
^* It is rather uncertain, in the Hausa, who is speaking here, but the sense
points to the Spider.

Collectanea. 209

"The Spider is dead." Then the Snake said, — "Let her go
and show him the grave." The female spider went and showed
him. So the Snake returned. A Dove^* came to the Snake,
(and when) she (perched) on top of a tree she saw the Snake
was about to die. So she said, — " What has happened to you ? "
And he said, — " It is (because) the Spider has cheated me.
He has eaten ^^ my bull." Then she said, — "How much will
you give me now if I take you to where the Spider is?" So
said the Dove. He said he would give her 2000 (cowries).^®
She said she refused. He said he would give her 10,000. She
said she refused. Then he said he would give her 20,000.
Then she said, — "Agreed." So she came and lifted him up,
and took him to the Spider. She was singing and saying, —
" Debts are owed (even) to the grave. We the payers of the
debts to the Spider have come." She said, — " The soup (made)
of rice and sweet herb (is welcome ?) thus (to) birds." ^'^ Then
the Spider replied and said, — " Is that so, O Dove ? Come
into my house and drink water. The soup of rice and sweet
herb (is welcome) thus (to) birds." Then the Spider came out-
side, and saw the Snake. He (Snake) said, — " For shame, you
man of the world, you have eaten my bull (and) I was searching
for you and could not find you?" Then the Spider said to
him, — "What shall we do?" Then he (Spider) said, — "Very
well, enter." So the Snake entered the body of the Spider,
and the Spider lay down and died. Then the Snake went off.

6. The Spider has a Feast. (B. G.).
The Spider was seized with hunger, (but) he had nothing to eat.
So he said, — "Very well," he must make a plan. He said he
would summon all the beasts of the forest to mourn (his) death.
When they had all assembled, he would jump up (with a) "boop,"
(so that) the big ones would be frightened and trample on the
small. Well, the Elephant was told that the Spider had died, the
Buffalo was told, the Roan Antelope was told, the Hartebeeste

^* It is doubtful whether kurichia is a dove or a wood-pigeon.
^•^ Perhaps " won from me." ■''' Worth is. in Jemaan Daroro in 1908.

^^ The narrator said that this was the meaning of the song, but it seems
doubtful. Perhaps he did not know it himself.

2 1 o Collectanea.

was told ; amongst the small ones also the Gazelle was told that
the Spider had died, the Oribi was told, the Duiker was told, the
Reed-buck was told, the Hare was told, the Jerboa was told, the
Francolin was told. So they all came and assembled at the
house. Each one who (he) came looked at his eyes and started
crying, and said, — " Alas, the Spider is dead." All the animals
here cried until only the Francolin was left. She was more
knowing than they. When she came, she watched and saw the
eyeball bright, so she flew up (on to a tree) and began to sing. As
for the Spider, he had put an axe close to his head (neck). The
Francolin was going to put the small ones on their guard (make
cunning to). She said, — " Jerboa, Hare, the Spider is dead, but,
if a man dies in his town, does one eye blink ? (Does he put) an
axe by (his) head?" She said "Jerboa, Hare, run away." She
flew thus, — turrrr. As she arose, the Spider heard, and saw (that)
the other animals were about to flee, so he jumped up "boop."
When he appeared, the Elephant, the Buffalo, the Roan Antelope,
and the Hartebeeste ran away, and they trampled on the Gazelle,
the Reed-buck, the Hare, and the Jerboa, and killed them (all
died). Then the Spider came and took the meat. He said he
had been cunning enough to get (he had made the cunning which
got) meat.

7. Hoiv the Spider obtained a Feast. (M.).
This is about a Spider. He was longing for a feast, so he set
fire to his house and burnt (it). When he had burnt (it), he went
to the Fowl's house, and said, — "To-morrow I am having a
" working-bee." ^^ My (his) house is burnt." So the Fowl said,
—"Very well, (but) do not tell the Wild Cat." So he said, —
"Oh, come." When he had left (he went straight to) the Wild
Cat's house. When he had gone to the Wild Cat's house he said,
— " Peace be to you." He (Wild Cat) then said, — " On you be
peace." Then (thus it was until) he said, — "Now my house ^^ is

^^ If a person has such an accident, his friends assemble and help him to
repair the damage free of charge.

^'* Gidda is really the whole dwelling, and da{i)ki a single hut, but both
terms are used to describe the same thing. I have used the word house here
instead of den, hole, or web as the case might be, as the idea is evidently that
the abodes have grass roofs.

Collectanea. 211

burnt, to-morrow I am having a working-bee." So he (Wild Cat)
said, — "Very well, but do not tell the Dog." He (Spider) said, —
"Oh, no." When he left, he went straight to the Dog's house.
He said, — " My house is burnt. To-morrow I am having a bee."
He (Dog) said,—" A bee for what ? " He (Spider) said, — " A bee
for roofing." He (Dog) said, — "Very well, but do not tell the
Hyaena." He (Spider) said, — " Oh, no, you will not meet with
her." When he left, (he went) straight to the Hyaena's house.
He (Spider) said, — "To-morrow I am having a bee." She said, —
" Very well, but do not tell the Leopard." He said,—" No." He
left, (and went straight) to the Leopard's house. He said, —
"To-morrow I am having a bee." He (Leopard) said, — "Very
well. May God preserve (take) us, but do not tell the Lion." He
(Spider) said, — " No." He left, (and went) straight to the Lion's
house. He (Spider) said, — " Peace be to you." He (Lion) said,
— " On you be peace." He (Spider) said, — " O Great One, big
Brother of the Forest," and said, — "To-morrow I am having a
bee." He said, — "Very well." So the Spider returned home.
When he had returned home, in the morning -^ lo ! the Fowl came
to tie the grass. She was (in the midst of) tying the grass when
the Wild Cat came (lit. see the Wild Cat). So the Wild Cat
said, — " Peace be upon you, O Spider." Then the Fowl said, —
" Ah, Spider, I said you were not to tell the Wild Cat. Did you
just go straight and tell him?" Then the Spider said, — "Well,
hide in this grass." Then the Wild Cat went and caught the
Fowl, (and) killed it. When this had happened (so it was), the
Spider said, — " Well done. Bring (it) here that I may put (it) by
for (you)." So the Wild Cat said,—" Very well." Thus it was
when the Dog (came), and said, — "Ah, Spider, where is the
roofing (to be done)?" So the Spider showed him the place
where the Wild Cat was hiding, and said, — "Oh here it is." So
the Dog seized the Wild Cat and killed (it), and the Spider said,
— " Well done. Bring (it) for me to keep for you." So the Dog
was making the roof when the Hyaena arrived. When she came,
she said, — " Where is the roofing (to be done ?) " Then he
(Spider) showed her where the Dog was. Then he (Dog) said, —
"Ah, I said you were not to (do not) tell her." So the Hyaena
^" Next day, of course.

212

Collectanea.

seized the Dog, and killed (him), and the Spider said, — "Well
done. Eat him yourself, I do not want any." ^i So she ate (him).
When this had happened (so it was when), the Leopard came,
and the Spider said, — " Here is the place to make the roof." So
she (Leopard) went and seized the Hyasna, who (she) was crouch-
ing in the grass. So she (Leopard) killed (the Hyaena), and gave
(the body to) the Spider, (and) he put (it) by. When, lo ! the
Lion came upon the Leopard. They began to fight. They
fought, and fought, and fought, (and) the Spider took up a big
stick and began beating (them), and beating (them), and saying, —
" O Lion leave off, O Leopard leave off. Who can decide (enter)
a (your) quarrel between great ones?" So the Spider beat and
beat them with the stick (until) he killed them. Then he collected
all (plenty of) the meat in his house. He ate all the meat. He
did not give (any to) the female spider. The greediness of the
spider is very great (fills much).^^

8. The Spider ouhvitted by the Tortoise. (B. G.).

This is about the Tortoise, He and the Spider were going on
a trading expedition. (At) each house (where) they stopped he
(Spider) said to Tortoise, — " Now, if, when food has been brought,
it is said (to be) 'for the strangers,' it is mine. If it is said (to
be) ' for the stranger,' it is yours." The Tortoise did not know
the language of the town where they were going. In the evening,
food was brought ; it was said (to be) ' for the strangers.' The
Spider said, — "Now, Tortoise, you see it is mine." He (Spider)
ate up the food. He left him (Tortoise) hungry. Next morning
they went to another town. Food was brought. It was said (to
be) ' for the strangers,' so the Spider said, — " It is mine." As for
the Tortoise, he was famishing, he got very thin. As he was
hungry (wasted away), in the middle of the night he took a
calabash belonging to the people of the house and began eating
the scraps. Then the owner of the house came out with a stick

"^^ The pagans around Jemaa all eat dogs, while the Mohammedan towns-
people do not. So this may be a local variation, as the narrator was a
Mohammedan.

22Cf. journal of the Ajrican Society, 1904, pp. 307-8 ("Animal-stories from
Calabar : Tortoise's Creditors ").

Collectanea. 213

to beat him, but he said, — '•' No, no, it is I, the Tortoise." Then
the owner of the house said, — "Very well, but what about the
food that has been brought to you?" Then he said, — "Oh no,
the Spider said if (it was for) ' the strangers ' it was his ; if (it was)
* for the stranger ' it was mine." Then the owner of the house
said, — "Indeed, so the Spider played you a trick like that?"
He said, — " Let us go now (leave). In the morning you will be
revenged" (it will be revenged to you). In the morning the
owner of the house caused food to be prepared. Two fowls were
brought, a boy was found, and it was said to him, — " See here,
You must say 'Here is food for the stranger.'" When the boy
had brought (it), he said, — " (It) is for the stranger." Then the
Spider said to the boy, — " You are lying. We are two. Do you
say 'here is food for the stranger'?" Then the boy said, — "No,
I was told (it was said) to brmg food for the stranger." Then the
Spider said, — "Very well. Tortoise, eat (it). It is God (Who) has
given you (it)." Then the Spider became angry, and said, —
"To-morrow we shall go away." When they were about to bid
them farewell, the people of the house put a he-goat and a bull
in a house. A cord was tied to the bull, and a leather thong to
the he-goat. The door was closed, (and) only the ropes were left
outside. Then the owner of the house said, — " Let each one
come and hold a rope. Whatever he seizes will be his." Then
the Spider came and pushed the Tortoise aside, and caught hold
of the thong, thinking that must be (for) the bull. Then they
said, — "Have you got hold?" They said they had caught hold.
When the door was opened, they said, — " Let each pull his own."
When the Spider pulled the hide rope, the he-goat came out, —
" baa " j when the Tortoise pulled his cord, (out came) a bull, a
big one. Then the Spider felt sore at heart, and said he would
be revenged for this evil deed. They went off, and he (Spider)
killed his he-goat, he, the Spider, and he gave the Tortoise the
liver, and he (Tortoise) put (it) in his bag. They went on a little
way, when the Spider said, — " Here, Tortoise, give me my liver,"
so said the Spider. Then the Tortoise put his hand (into the
bag), and pulled it out and gave (it) him. Then the Spider said,
— "Nonsense, Tortoise, don't you understand a joke?" Then
he said, — " I was playing a trick on you. Eat it up, I gave it to

214 Collectanea.

you as a present." So the Tortoise ate up the liver. When he
(Spider) saw (that) he had eaten (it), and they had gone on a
little way, he said, — "Tortoise, give me my liver." Then he
(Tortoise) said, — " Oh no, I have no liver." Then the Spider
said, — "You are a liar. You must kill your bull, and give me
(his) liver." So he killed the bull, he the Tortoise, and gave (it
to) the Spider. Then the Spider said his liver was bigger than
that (thus). Then the Tortoise got angry. He divided his bull,
and gave him half. But the Spider said, oh no, his liver was
bigger than that, he must give him the whole bull. So he took
the whole of the meat, he the Spider, and he said he was revenged.
The Tortoise said, — "Very well, I also shall revenge (myself)."
Then the Tortoise ignored the Spider ; he took a different road,
and found some chalk and blue dye, and put (it) on his body in
spots. Then he went and lay down in the road. The sun sank.
Evening had come. Then the Spider came, and saw him ; (he
was) afraid. He smote his breast, and said, — " O Spotted One,
gave me room to pass." He (Tortoise) remained silent. Then
he (Spider) said, — " Do you want the bull ? " The Tortoise did
not move. Then he (Spider) took a leg, and threw (it) to him.
The Tortoise did not move. Then he threw more to him. (There
was) only silence, no movement. Then he said, — " Do you want
the whole of the flesh of the bull ? " He took (it). He threw him
the whole of the flesh. The Tortoise refused to move. Then
the Spider said, — " Do you want my coat and trousers ? " So he
took (them) off. He gave him all. He became naked. Then
the Tortoise moved to one side, gave him room, and he (Spider)
passed by. So the Tortoise arose and took the flesh, he took all
the booty, and said, — " I also am revenged."

9. The Spider and the Rubber Baby. (B. G.).
This is about the Spider. He said to measure him out some
ground-nuts. He said, — " Peel and cook (them)." So (they were)
peeled and cooked, salt and oil were put in, (and) he said he was
going to sow. So he took his hoe, and found a shady, cool
place near (the) water. Then he ate (until) he was satisfied, he
drank water, he lay down, and went to sleep. When he got up, he
took some mud and plastered (it) on his body. Then he came to

Collectanea. 215

his wife, and told (her) to bring him water to wash with, he had
returned from work. This went on and on until the time of the
ground-nut harvest came. Then the wife said she had seen ground-
nuts at everyone's house ripening (looking well) ; (therefore) those
which her husband had sown must be ripe by now. So she said
she wanted to go to the farm and grub. Then he said,—" Oh no,
it was not you (who) sowed the ground-nuts for me. I shall go
and dig them." In reality he was going to steal from the Half-
man. So he went and stole ground-nuts, and brought (them) to
his wife. Then the Half-man came, and saw that he had been
robbed, and said he would make a trap with a rubber girl and
catch (the thief). Then the Spider came and saw a fine girl, with
a fine neck (look at the neck), with fine breasts. So he came and
touched the breasts, and said,— " Oh, Girl." Then the rubber
held him. Then he said,—" Ah, Girl, let me go. Do you want
me?" Then he placed one hand (on her) also. Then the hand
stuck. Then he said,—" You Girls, do you like a man enough to
hold him? I will kick you." So he kicked with one foot. The
rubber held him. Then he got angry, and used an abusive epithet.
He kicked also with the other foot. When he had kicked, the
rubber caught him all over. He was bent up. Then he said,—
"Very well, I am going to butt you." So he butted her, but his
head stuck. Just then ^^ the Half-man saw (him). Then he said,—
"Thanks be to God." He got a switch of the tamarind tree, and
put it in the fire. Then he brought some butter and rubbed (it
on). Then he came, and fell upon the Spider until (his) back
peeled. His whole body was peeled. Then he loosened the
Spider from the rubber. He said,—" Here, you Spider," so said
the Half-man, " if you come here again, I the Half-man will kill
you." 24

A. J. N. Tremearne.
( To be continued.)

23 Lit. "from there," so it may mean "just then," or " from where (he was)."

"^ I have met no other reference to the Half-man in Hausa tales (A. J. N. T.)

Cf. vol. XX. pp. 209-11; Journal of the African Society, 1904, pp. 59-60

("Duala Fables : I. The Man and his Wife"); and, for the Half-man, Cronise

and Ward, op. cit., pp. 178-86 (" Marry the Devil, there's the Devil to pay ").

2 1 6 Collectanea.

Panjab Folklore Notes.

Next to nothing appears to have been done to collect the folklore
of plants and animals in the Panjab, and the District Gazetteers
and Settlement Reports are naturally almost silent upon a subject
which is of no official importance or interest. The following items
from such sources, however, seem worth recording.

The first extracts are from the late Mr. E. O'Brien's Gazetteer of
Muzaffargarh : —

In Muzaffargarh owls, owlets, and goatsuckers, {ghugh, tilu,
chebri, and buk), are birds of bad omen. The ghugh is called
Kirakkd shhih, or the Kirar's tiger, because Kirars hold it in super-
stitious dread.

Chdnh or blue jay. To hear or see it is a good omen.

Malhdld, butcher bird or shrike. To see one fly is a good
omen.

Hil (Hind chO) is the kite, which is supposed to be female for
six months and male for the other six months of the year.

Khan, a black and white lizard with a bluish tinge. There are
all sorts of fables about khans. It does not copulate, but is found
full-grown in the belly of snakes. It is supposed to be most
deadly, though it is really perfectly harmless.

Jai khn khdwe khan Ma na dekhe jan.

" He whom a khan bites is as sure to die as if his

mother had never seen him born."

Galei. This is a lizard which is larger than the house lizard,
and is supposed to be harmless. If a woman touch a galei before
she makes butter, it will be abundant.

Salang vdsak, also called sdl pivnd ("the breath-drinker"),
because it drinks the breath of sleeping persons.

Vais, a snake said to tie the hind legs of buffaloes together
with its coils as with a kicking-strap, and to drink their milk.

Tir nidr or ghore dangan, udfid, or jatal is said to be a hairy
snake.

What is the charohd {lit. washerman), described as a harmless
snake, — and why is it so called? Why is the garwdnak snake
also called sankan (" co-wife ") ? Why is the fish khaga {macrones
carcio) also called trikanda ?

Collectanea. 2 1 7

The following notes come from the same writer's Multani
Glossary (old edition) : —

C/iihri, the spotted owlet, ("button owl" of Europeans and
Athene brama of Jerdon). Besides being a bird of ill omen, it is
considered extremely ugly.

Harmal, a plant, {peganum harniala, Stewart), which grows
abundantly in the Sindh Sagar Thai. Its seeds, mixed with bran
and salt, are burnt to drive away jinns, and to avert the evil eye
and the machinations of enemies.

Methrd, {tngonella fcettttm-graecum). There is a popular belief
on the banks of the Indus that, if tneihrd seed is sown before noon,
mithrd will come up ; if after noon, usstin {brassica eriica).

Kal kdrchchi, the king crow bird. It is reverenced by Moham-
medans because it brought water to Imam Husain when he was
martyred. Sindhi kdlkanchhi.

Kiiral, a large fish-hawk. The popular story is that kurals hunt
in couples, one before the other. The first flies along the surface
of the water, croaking "Allah ! Allah ! ", and the fish which come
to the top to see who is the pious person are seized by the other
bird.

The following note comes from an old Settlement Report in
Gujranwila : —

" The people have curious superstitions about sugar-cane : the
setting the cane is a solemn operation, none of the family are
allowed to spiti on that day for fear it should cause a stringy and
worthless crop, and when the crop is ripe the yf?-^/ juice pressed in
the new sugar mill is distributed gratis io fakirs, servants, etc."

This is probably an instance of sympathetic magic. Spinning

would cause the cane to burst and so become worthless. The

first-fruits also are given away, though not dedicated, apparently,

to a temple.

H. A. Rose.

Armenian Folk-Tales.

The first of the following stories, " The Foolish Man," is trans-
lated from the second story in Manana, a collection of Armenian
folk-tales published in 1878 by Bishop Karekin Servantzdiantz.

2 1 8 Collectanea.

A portion of the Bishop's later work, Hamov ffodov, has been
translated by M. Frederic Macler.^who also gives some account of
the life of the author in his Preface.

Bishop Servantzdiantz was closely connected with His Holiness
Mgrditch Khrimian, — teacher, Bishop, Patriarch, and late
Catholicos of the Armenian Church, — in various enterprises set
on foot for the betterment of his people.

After the Berlin Congress, Bishop Servantzdiantz was commis-
sioned to travel through the Turkish Provinces in order to exhort
the Armenians to be patient yet a little longer, and wait for the
promised reforms before seeking a refuge in other countries. At
the same time he collected various statistics, and also the folk-tales
which appeared later in his books, — Shushan (Lily), Krots ou Prots
(Of Pens and Picks), Hnots yev Ncrots (Of Old and New), Toros
Aghpar (Brother Toros), Manana (Manna), and Hamov Hodov
(Spicy and Fragrant).

Many villages have their local bard or story-teller, but it is not
every one who is favoured with a recital. The story-teller is shy
of exhibiting his skill in the presence of clergymen or foreigners.
A degree of familiarity with devils, and indelicate allusions,
appear in the tale, told as it has been handed down to him by a
preceding raconteur, which he fears will offend such hearers.
Bishop Servantzdiantz disguised himself as a layman in order
to obtain these tales in their unexpurgated form, and he
transcribed them accurately in the dialect peculiar to each region
of country. It must have been a trial to the Bishop to curb his
pen and give the short, crisp sentences of the Oriental story-teller
instead of his own flowery style, of which the following extract
will serve as an example, and give, at the same time, his aim in
preserving these tales : —

" To save Armenians from oppression, they must be taught to
know themselves. To rescue Armenians from the brink of the
grave of indifference, it is necessary to call to them in the dialect
of their ancestors. It is necessary to play upon the flutes of
Mount Masis (Ararat) in their ears ; it is time to wipe the dust
from our harps ; to reset and stretch their loose and broken

^ Collection de Contes et Chansons Populaires, Tome xix., Contes Arminiens^
(1905). Some of the same stories also appear in The Olive Fairy Book, 1907.

Collectanea. 219

strings; to set the press at work, and by its means to scatter
broadcast the national songs and tales, and study the literature
and the archaeology and the writings and sayings of our people."

A few years ago it was a common sight, — and in some villages
it is still, — to see the men of the place hastening through the
evening meal in order to be on hand at the house of the story-
teller, who has a supply of tales warranted to last all winter. You
may see them slipping, singly, through the streets at nightfall,
each with a flat cake folded and thrust under his arm, and a small
loaf of fresh bread, called popotch, stuffed into the front of his
blouse. They enter a low-raftered room, a portion of which is
railed off from the rest. The inner portion has divans extending
along the opposite sides, raised slightly above the central strip.
This space is carpeted, while the divans are spread with large flat
cushions, or mats, which are piled two and three deep at the upper
end. These are the seats of honour, on either side of the fireplace.
Here the oldest members of the company seat themselves, and
the others follow in strict order of age or importance. The
younger married men sit cross-legged in the centre of the room,
while the beardless men and boys are ranged beyond the railing.
The flames of the fire and the flickering rays of a wick floating in
a clay lamp of the kind used two thousand years ago, furnish the
light for the occasion.

As the company gathers, the entrance of each graybeard is the
signal for a general up-rising; the old men move down a peg or
two to give room to one who is more worthy, or wealthy, or hoary
than themselves ; the younger men stand with hands folded
across their breast, a solemn row, unless some irrepressible fellow
discomfits their gravity by some droll aside, causing them to drop
to the floor with smothered laughter. Salaams are exchanged
with each one upon his arrival, and again after the full complement
has arrived. "Good evening. Uncle Toros." — "God give you a
good evening, my son ! " " How are you, are you well ? " — " How
should I be, my son ? He who lives will see sorrow ; life is
fleeting." — "Oh, you will live to see a hundred years!" — "My
father lived to be a hundred and ten, but I shall not see my
grandchildren's grandchildren, alas ! "

After such preliminaries the aged guest turns to the host and

2 20 Collectanea.

inquires, " What have you for us to-night, Dede Agha ? ", and soon
the story is in full swing. The elder men nod gravely, and interject
an occasional " Amen," or a " Praise to Thee, O Lord ! " The
young men roll up the flat cakes, and, holding them like giant
cigars, munch away on them, varying their fare with a bite taken
now and then from the loaf which they hold in the other hand.
Thus, with hands and mouths agreeably employed, they drink in
the tale with both ears, and have their eyes fixed upon the story-
teller, who holds them spell-bound with his graphic narrative.

I. The Foolish Man.

Once upon a time there was a man who was very wealthy, but
he was a spendthrift and he ate up all that he had. Neither
bread nor broth remained. So he thrusts one hand into his
bosom, and, resting his head upon the other, he sits and medi-
tates upon his condition, and wears himself out moaning and
lamenting. His acquaintances come and gather around him, and
an old gray-bearded man amongst them rises and says, — "You
have done something (some sin). Your Luck has deserted you.
Arise, go after your Luck. You may possibly find it, and, regain-
ing it, be as fortunate as before."

The man set out. He travelled over rocks and hills. Night
and day he sought for his Luck. One night, in a dream, he sees
his Luck lying face downwards on the top of a mountain, moaning
and bewailing, like himself.

When he awakes the next morning he directs his steps towards
that mountain.

He goes, and goes. He sees a lion seated in his path. The
lion calls the man, and asks, — " Where are you going ? " The
man says, — " I am going to find my Luck." The lion says, — " I
am sure that your Luck is very wise. Ask him how I can get
strong. (It is seven years that I have been crippled.) When you
return, come and tell me, and I will do you what kindness I can
in return." The man promises, and goes on his way.

He goes, and goes, and he sees a vineyard which is full of a
thousand kinds of fruit. When he gathers some and eats it, he
finds that it is bitter. The owner of the vineyard happens along,

Collectanea. 221

and is angry at him. Afterwards he asks the man where he is
going. The man tells the owner of the vineyard his trouble. " If
that is so," says the owner of the vineyard, " ask your Luck what
remedy there is for my vineyard, for, in spite of everything I do,
the fruit is bitter. I grafted it ; it did no good. I set out new
shoots ; it did no good. When you return, bring me an answer ;
I will do you what kindness I can in return." The man promises,
and goes on his way.

He goes, and goes, and he comes to a kiosk and a palace. He
enters, and he sees a beautiful young woman walking about inside
the gate. She asks the man, — "Brother, what are you doing
here ? " The man tells her his story. The young woman replies,
— " I have great good luck, much property and goods ; but I have
a grief, so that my days and nights are passed in sorrow. If you
will ask your Luck for a remedy for me, I will share all my riches
with you." The man promised, and went on his way.

He went, and went, and, lo ! and behold ! there was his Luck,
lying on the top of a mountain ! He gives a salaam, and sits
down beside him. He complains to him about himself (about his
plight), and then he asks all the questions he had promised to ask,
and receives the answer to each. " Now let us be going," says he.
"You go ahead, and I will follow," says Luck.

The man sets out, and, coming first to the young woman, he
says, — " Your remedy is to marry some brave fellow, and then
your sorrow and grief will be over."

He comes to the vineyard. He calls the owner of the vine-
yard, and says, — " In the stream from which you water your vine-
yard there is gold ore. Bits of gold come with the water ; the
trees absorb these, and the fruit becomes bitter. Either draw
your water from another stream, or dig out the ore, and your fruit
will taste sweet."

The man then comes to the lion and sits down beside him, and
tells him how he found his Luck, and all about the vineyard-
owner, and about the young woman. The lion enquires, —
" Didn't the young woman do you any kindness ? " The man
replied, — " She said, — " Come marry me, and let us enjoy
together the goodness of God." But I did not consent." The
lion asks, — " What kindness did the owner of the vineyard do to

22 2 Collectanea.

you ? " The man replies, — " The owner of the vineyard dug up
the ore. A heap of gold was taken out, and he gave it to me, but
I wouldn't take it. I said, — " Who is going to take that on
his back and carry it all the way home ? " " " Well," says the
lion, — " What remedy did he say there was for me ? " The man
says, — " And for you he said, — " If he eats the head of a foolish
man he will grow strong." "

The lion thought it all over very carefully, then, raising his paw
very gently towards the man's head, he strikes it to the ground,
and smashes and eats it, and he says to himself, — " Lord, I
can't find a more foolish man than you on the face of the
earth ! "

Talas (Cesarea). J. S. Wingate.

Scraps of English Folklore, V.
Buckinghamshire.

A FARMHOUSE, demolished about thirty years ago, was situated
where now is the garden of the Mound, Long Crendon, and at the
beginning of the last century was inhabited by two old women.
One of them, who was single, stole the wedding-ring of the other,
who was lying dangerously ill. So the sick woman vowed that
after her death she would haunt and torment the thief. This she
did, and the victim felt as if she were being pricked by pins and
followed by the ghost, especially when near an old elm-tree which
was on the green in front of the house. This continued until the
ghost was laid in the salt-box of the house, which was kept near the
fireplace to keep the salt dry. The ceremony of laying the ghost
was performed by twelve parsons, who, standing in the middle of
the room, chanted a prayer backwards, one of them meanwhile
holding a dove in his hand. The spirit, in the shape of the dead
woman, tore the dove in pieces, and then went into the salt-box,
there to remain "whilst water runs and the sun shines."

The above account was given by Mrs. Cadle, of Long Crendon,
who heard it from her grandmother.

Geoffrey L L. Gomme.

Collectanea. 223

Mrs. A., a resident here, says that every time a robin comes into
her house there is trouble. She cites three instances, two in which
the omen was followed by serious illness, and a third, when robins
entered repeatedly, by death.

Yesterday (May 26th, 19 10), I was given an orchid which had
been rescued from one of the Royal wreaths on the way to the
bonfire. The next woman I called on told me it was very un-
lucky to bring such things into the house.

Slough. (Rev.) R. V. H. Burne.

Essex.

The following cure for whooping-cough was told by an old woman,
about the year 1878 : — " You must cut a little hair from the nape
of the child's neck and make it into a ball with some fat," (some
particular fat was specified), "but butter will do, and lay it on your
front door step, and the first dog that comes by will eat it. My
little Bill" (her grandson) "was bad, and I tried it for him. I
had hardly laid the fat on the steps when Master Edwards " (the
shepherd) " come by, and his dog snapped it up, and the child
never whooped again" — (these last words very solemnly and
impressively).^

One day, the Rector, — it must have been in the sixties or
seventies, — called at some cottages in a remote part of the parish.
In one house the woman said her baby had been very bad with
teething, but she had been to Walden and got a skein of red silk
to put round its neck, so she hoped it would be better. Next
door, the woman had cut her hand badly, but "I greased the knife
and put it on the shelf," which she seemed to think would give her
great relief.

About 1899, I discovered that our garden-boy would not go to
the pond for water if a dragon-fly were about, — " merrymaid " as
he called it, — as "it would draw him into the water." (Apparently
some confusion with mermaid ? )

A cook who lived with us for some years always kept a Queen's
head (a shilling) on her bad leg, but whether to ease the pain or to

^Cf. Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the No7-thern Counties etc., p. 143 ;
vol. XX., p. 221 {Staffordshire).

2 24 Collectanea.

keep the place from breaking into an open wound, I cannot now
feel sure.

Essex people say, " If you draw may into the house, you
draw the head of the house out"; and this last spring (1909),
when I was staying near Safifron Walden, I gave an old woman in
the almshouse a piece of pink may that I was wearing, and her
rather sudden death the following week I found was attributed to
this.

Eynsham, Oxon, M. F. Irvine.

Lancashire.

At Coniston it is believed that no light should be taken outside
the house from Christmas Eve to the New Year, and that, for the
same period, the ash-pit under the kitchen fire must not be emptied
lest a death should follow speedily.

Coniston. Harriet M. Smith.^

At Manchester on New Year's Eve a gold coin is thrown into
the house for luck before the " firstfoot " enters.

Florence M. Brown.^

Surrey.

L. B. (aged about 25) says that at Hascombe it is thought
unlucky to throw away the greenery of Christmas decorations ; it
should be burnt, but there is no particular day for burning it.^

She says also that it is unlucky to have "palm" in the house
before Palm Sunday.

Woking. Barbara Freire-Mahreco.

Somerset.
If you strike any glass vessel and stop it ringing, a sailor is
saved from drowning.

Slough. (Rev.) R. Dyke Acland.

2 A member of the West Riding Teachers' Anthropological Society {supra,
p. 103).

^Cf. vol. XX., pp. 488-90.

Collectanea. 225

Yorkshire.

In the colliery district near Normanton, it is believed to be
unlucky to meet a woman or anyone with a squint when going
to work.^

In Craven it is unlucky to put up an umbrella in the house,^ or
to put it on a table ; to put shoes on the table ; ^ to sit on a table ; *"'
for one crow to be flying about ; or for a bird to enter a house
suddenly^

In Craven it is lucky to hear a cricket whistling.

At Carleton-in-Craven, my grandmother and parents were quite
convinced that at Christmas certain things must be done and
others left undone, viz. — no greenery was to be brought into the
house before Christmas Eve ; ^ no green was to be burnt ; ^ and a
Yule log must be burnt both on Christmas Eve and New Year's
Eve. My grandmother believed that on Old Christmas Day
(January 6th) all oxen knelt down at a certain hour to do homage
to the Saviour, and that a flower bloomed for a short time.

Coniston. Harriet M. Smith.^

The following items were collected in villages near Pontefract in
1909-10 : —

To spill milk is the sign of a birth.

A child must be christened before paying its first visit, or evil
comes to the house visited. ^'^ On that visit it receives a present of
an egg, salt, and silver.^^ The salt prevents trouble with the teeth,
and in Knottingley the egg is to make a custard for the mother.
Sometimes a match is given ; this is explained as intended to light

^Cf. vol. XX., p. 222 {Staffordshire).

^Cf. vol. XX., p. 345 {Worcestershire) ; ante, p. 89 {Argyllshire).

"Cf. ante, p. 89 {Argyllshire).

''Cf. ante, p. 90 {Argyllshire) ; ante, p. 222 {Buckinghamshire).

®Cf. vol. XX., p. 343 {Worcestershire).

^Cf. vol. XX. p. 488-90 {Cheshire, Lincolnshire, and Staffordshire')',
Henderson, op. cit., p. 119.

^^ Cf. Henderson, op. cit., p. 20.

"Cf. Henderson, op. cit., p. 20 (egg, salt, and white bread or cake). My
grandmother, who died in 1882 at Huddersfield, used to give salt, a slice of
cake, and a sixpence (A. R. Wright).

2 26 Collectanea,

the way to heaven, but I have heard it said that it is to light a fire
to keep the child warm all his life.^''

Two spoons in a cup is the sign of a wedding.^^

It is unlucky to see the bridal dress by candle light.

The door of the bride's home must not be closed while she is at
church.

A bride is fortunate in her choice if the clock chimes /z*!^/ before
she enters the church, but will be unhappy if it strikes while she is
inside. Local brides will wait outside the church until the
chimes have sounded.

A plate of cake should be thrown over the carriage of a newly-
wedded couple, and it is considered lucky if the plate breaks into
many pieces, but very unlucky if it escapes damage. ^^

It is unlucky to put boots on a table.^*

A Featherstone miner who finds his boots toppled over in
the morning will not work in the pit that day for fear of
disaster.

To put the right boot on first is unlucky. Huntsmen in the
district believe that to do this, or to put a riding boot on the
wrong foot, foretells a mishap in the hunting field.

It is unlucky to open an umbrella under a roof;^^ to pick up
your own umbrella if it falls ; ^^ or to have a loaf upside down on
the table.

To pick up someone else's umbrella is lucky.

To meet a person on the stairs signifies a quarrel.

If a cock crows before the clock chimes twelve, it is unlucky to
all who hear it.

If a spoon falls on the floor, expect disappointment.^'''

If a fork falls, a gentleman visitor is to be expected,, but, if a
knife falls, a lady comes. ^^

^^Cf. vol. XX., p. 219 {^Oxfordshire).
i^Cf. Henderson, op. cit., p. 36.

^* Cf. Craven above. ^^ Cf. Craven above.

^^Cf. vol. XX., p. 345 {Worcestershire).
^■^Cf. vol. XX., p. 345 {Worcestershire).

^^In Manchester a knife signifies a man, and a fork, a woman (F. M. Brown).
So in Staffordshire, and I think generally (C. S. Burne).

Collectanea. 227

Soot hanging on the bar of the grate foretells a stranger's visit; if
it falls into the fire, the stranger has changed his mind.

On New Year's Eve, in Knottingley, coal is brought into the
house first of all,

A dead man's tooth is carried to ward off toothache.^^

Two well-known residents in Castleford wear garters made of
eelskins to prevent attacks of rheumatism.

Death is foretold by a shooting star, or by a mirror cracking
without cause.

The following items were collected in the neighbourhood of Scar-
borough : —

If the sign of the cross is made over the nets before fishing, a
good catch is certain.

If a sea-gull flies against the window, some member of the family
is in danger at sea.

Wives of fishermen will not wind wool after sundown, for, if they
do, they will soon be making their husbands' winding sheets.

Many fishermen believe in signs seen in the tea-leaves at the
bottom of a tea-cup. The meanings of some of the signs are : —
an oar, a warning to be cautious when embarking; an anchor,
safety ; a loaf, future life to be free from poverty ; and a lily, a
good omen.

Knottingley, Florence M, Brown.^

i^Cf. Henderson, op. cit., p. 145 {Devonshire)', Gregor, Notes on the Folk-
lore of the North-east of Scotland, p. 48.

ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY
KING GEORGE V.

TO THE KING'S

MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

May it Please Your Majesty,

On behalf of the Folk-Lore Society I
humbly beg leave to approach Your Majesty with an
expression of the heartfelt sorrow which its members
feel at the demise of their late gracious and beloved
Sovereign His Majesty King Edward the Seventh.

This Society, established for the study of the traditions
and modes of thought of all races of mankind, finds
among the many and various peoples which are united
under the British Crown a most fruitful source of
materials for that study, and has had reason to know
and appreciate the deep and widespread loyalty which
His late Majesty evoked from all his subjects of every
race and degree of culture.

Your Majesty has personally visited most of the
British dominions beyond the seas, and in all has left a
gracious impression which cannot but increase their
sentiments of loyalty and devotion.

We rely with unabated confidence on the sympathy
of Your Majesty and Your Royal Consort in all our
efforts to promote a better understanding of the modes of
thought of barbaric and uncultured peoples and classes,
by those who are called upon to govern or have dealings
with them.

We beg most respectfully to assure Your Majesty of
the loyal devotion we entertain to Your Majesty's throne
and person.

Signed on behalf of the Folk-Lore Society,

C. S. BuRNE, President.
22, Albemarle Street,
May liik, 1910.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Sale of Salvage Stock to Members of the Society :
Hints to Collectors of Folklore.

{Ante, pp. 93-101.)

Fuller examination of the salvage stock has revealed the exist-
ence of sundry odd copies of single numbers of the serial
publications, insufficient to form complete volumes. The
Council have decided to offer these odd numbers for sale to
members at sixpence each, post-free, with all faults. Applica-
tions for these odd copies, and for the remaining copies of
the salvage volumes of which a list appears in March Folk-
Lore, should be addressed to Mr. C J. Tabor (The White
House, Knotts Green, Leyton, Essex), and must be accom-
panied by a remittance. The following is a list of the odd
copies :

Folk-Lore Journal: Vol. I., Part I.; Vol. H., Parts H., HI.,
VI., IX., XII., and Part containing index, title-page, etc. ;
Vol. III., Parts II., III., and IV.; Vol. IV., Parts III. and
IV.; Vol. v., Parts III. and IV.; Vol. VI., Parts II. and
III. ; Vol. VII., Parts III., IV., and V.

Folk-Lore : Vol. II., Nos. 3 and 4 ; Vol. IV., Nos. i and 4 ;
Vol. VI., Nos. I and 4; Vol. VH., No. 4; Vol. VIII., Nos.
2, 3, and 4 ; Vol. IX., Nos. i, 2, and 3 ; Vol. X., Nos. 2
and 3; Vol. XL, Nos. 2 and 4; Vol. XIII., Nos. i and 2.

I further take this opportunity of making it known that the
Council have recently had some leaflets of Hints to Collectors
of Folklore printed, which may be obtained gratis from the
Secretary by any member anxious to promote the work of
collection with increased diligence.

Charlotte S. Burne, President.

230 Correspondence.

Cuckoo Heroes.^

(Vol. XX., pp. 503-4.)

Dr. Pokorny's article on Cuchulinn, Mongan, Finn, and Arthur
as Cuckoo Heroes was first brought to my notice by Sir John
Rhys' review in Folk-Lore, and I trust I may be allowed to
bestow upon it a further notice which it deserves both on
account of its many ingenious views and because Dr. Pokorny,
following the example of his hero the Cuckoo, essays to lay
in the mythological nest an alien egg which I, for one, mean
to do my best to expel.

Dr. Pokorny notes the traits which the four heroes cited
above have in common, and, in the discussion which followed
the reading of his paper, the well-known Germanist, Prof.
Much, adduced similar traits in the Volsung saga. Neither
scholar seems to have recalled J. G. v. Hahn's study on the
Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula, in which he dealt inter
alias with the Volsung saga (the story of Siegfried and his
kin), nor my extension of the formula to Celtic territory
{Folk-Lore Record, vol. iv.). J. G. v. Hahn had omitted
Celtdom from his survey; I had no difficulty in showing that
the Arthur, Finn, and Cuchulinn stories also belonged to the
same group as that studied by Hahn. If, therefore. Dr.
Pokorny's explanation is valid for the Celtic members of the
group, it must be equally so for the non-Celtic, and we must
look upon Siegfried and Perseus, Theseus and Romulus,
Cyrus and Dietrich, as, in Mr. Lang's phrase, " magnified non-
natural cuckoos." Dr. Pokorny approves himself a bold, a
very bold champion, but I fancy this prospect may act like the
bucket full of fish in the tale, and send a shiver down even
his back.

First, let me welcome certain suggestions by the author, and
beg owners of the Voyage of B rati to note them on the margin of
their copies : —

^ This letter will be read with mournful interest as it was written only a
few days before the death, by drowning, of Mr. Alfred Nutt in a gallant
attempt to rescue his younger son from the river Seine near Melun. An
obituary notice of Mr. Nutt will appear in the September number.

Correspondence. 231

P. 99. I believe Dr. Pokorny is correct in holding that in the
Mongan saga the same mythic being is father of both Mongan
and his wife Dubh Lacha, in other words that Mongan, like Arthur
and Siegmund, weds his sister.

P. 100. I accept the equivalence of Arthur's wife Gwen-hwyfar
and Mongan 's, Find-tigernd.

P. 1 01. The equation of Finn's hound Bran 'of the poison
claw ' with the venomous hound which Mongan's supernatural
father bestowed upon the mortal king in exchange for his wife's
favours is ingenious.

P. 10 1. I regard the explanations of the stories which pictured
Mongan as a rebirth of Finn as plausible. The two heroes are
originally and essentially one, but, when the variant form had
been associated (a) with a third-century champion, Finn, and
ib) with a sixth-century kinglet, Mongan, the nevertheless
persistent identity had to be accounted for. The rebirth theme
afforded an easy explanation.

P. 104. The birth story of Cuchulinn. Of the three variant forms
Dr. Pokorny regards the incest one (in which the hero is son of
Conchobar and his sister Dechtire) as the oldest. In the Voyage
of Bran I allow the possibiUty of this; Dr. Pokorny's explanation
of the form which makes Cuchulinn a reincarnation of Lug,
swallowed by Dechtire, as being transferred from the hero's
grandmother, Ness, to his mother, Dechtire, is ingenious and
seems plausible. This would make Conchobar, not Cuchulinn,
the hypostasis of Lug. Dr. Pokorny also hints that the third form,
that in which Conchobar and his men come to Lug's palace, really
involves the incest form.

I now come to the essentials of Dr. Pokorny's theory. Of the
four Celtic sagas that of Cuchulinn is the oldest, and the only one
in which the hero retains his original name and his bird-like
nature. The name is explained, — not, as the Irish themselves
explained it, as Cu-chulaind or Culann's Hound, — but as Cucu-
lind or Cuckoo-dragon, As such it is equated with the Esthonian
Kukkulind.

As practically all the traits upon which Dr. Pokorny relies
appear in a more decided form in the Conchobar-Cuchuhnn
saga than in the other Celtic variants, I will confine myself

232 Correspondence.

to it in giving a schematic arrangement of Dr. Pokomy's
argument.

1. The parentage of both Conchobar and Cuchulinn is ' wropt
in mystery.' So is that of the cuckoo.

2. Conchobar 'does' his uncle Fergus out of the kingship.
The cuckoo turns his step-brothers out of the nest, and displays
no affection towards his foster-parents.

3. Cuchulinn overcomes the 150 youths of the Ulster court.
The cuckoo gets the better of the other nestlings, however many
they may be.

4. Both Conchobar and Cuchulinn are pre-eminently 'ladies'
men.' The cuckoo is the Don Juan or Solomon of the bird
world.

5. As the cuckoo is unacquainted with its relations, he in-
evitably weds his sister, as does Conchobar, or fights unknown
with his son, as does Cuchulinn.

6. Conchobar is deceived by Medhbh, and forsaken by Deirdre.
The cuckoo's name is a wide-spread term of reproach to the
deceived husband.

7. Cuchulinn is a great bird-hunter. The cuckoo is feared by
smaller birds.

8. Cuchulinn pays a visit to the other world. The cuckoo
disappears in the late summer, " whence the conception of its
passing its time in the Under-world easily arose" (p. 115).

9. Arthur and Mongan live on in the deathless Other-world.
According to Gubernatis the cuckoo is regarded as immortal
because he goes and comes mysteriously.

ID. Cuchulinn, when the fury of battle is upon him, is subject
to a mysterious transformation which swells and distorts every
limb. Birds when they fight, — and the cuckoo is very com-
bative,-— puff up their feathers and present such an appearance
that the origin of the archaic description of the hero's distortion
"cannot remain in doubt any longer" (p. 114).

II. Cuchulinn alone of the Ulster^ heroes is not subject to the
childbirth weakness which overtakes the Ulstermen at stated
periods. Like most scholars Dr. Pokorny refers this mysterious
ailment to the custom of the couvade, and maintains that a cuckoo
hero has naturally nothing to do with a custom intended to

Correspondence. 233

strengthen the tie between father and son. But Dr. Pokorny
forgets that Conchobar, who ex hypothesi is also a cuckoo, is
represented as prostrated by the fioinden Ulad equally with all his
warriors save Cuchulinn.

12. The name which in the Arthurian romance appears as
Gawain is in Welsh Gwalchmai {i.e., according to Sir John Rhys,
Hawk of May). But popular beUef, the trace of which may
be found in Aristotle and Pliny, treats the cuckoo as an immature
hawk. Gawain is nephew of the cuckoo hero Arthur, possibly
even his son.

I make Dr. Pokorny a present of the demonstration, fully
worked out by Miss Weston ^ following up hints of mine, that
Gawain is a Brythonic counterpart of Cuchulinn. ^

I omit minor ' proofs ' upon which the author himself lays less
stress, as also philological arguments which I am incompetent to
appreciate, but which, even if correct, cannot warrant his inferences
from them. Although I have summarised the theory semi-
humoristically, I do not think I have done it injustice. I may say
at once that I do not believe a word of it. In the first place, as I
have indicated, the Celtic variants of the Expulsion and Return
theme cannot be treated apart from the other Aryan forms. Now,
if the theory were true, the Cuchulinn form would be the nearest
to the original one : no other Aryan hero has retained so many

^ The Legend of Sj}- Gawairi.

^It is well known that the German Walsh (whence our Welsh) is derived
from the Celtic tribal name Volcse. The Germans of about 400 b.c. came
across the Volcse in what is now central Germany, and regarded them as ' the
stranger ' par excellence. (The mediaeval Eastern use of Fraiik to designate all
Westerners is analogous.) Now, in the discussion which followed Dr.
Pokorny's paper, Prof. Much made a statement of considerable import for
the history of the Arthur cycle, if correct. He asserts the Welsh Gwalch
(Hawk) to be a loan from Germany, and maintains that the form Gwalchmai
can only have come into existence after the Celts had come into contact with
the Anglo-Saxons. The historical process involved is, to say the least,
complicated. The primitive German comes in contact with the Volcre, and
styles the hawk (why ?) ' the Volcan bird ' or ' the Volcan ' (Anglo-Saxon

Wealh-nafor, Old Norse Fair). Several centuries later the Celt discards his
own term for hawk (why?) in favour of the German one, and applies it to a
famous hero of his own, little doubting that its real meaning is ' the Volcan {i.e.

Wehhva.'i.TC) of May.' I would like Sir John Rhys' opinion on all this.

234 Correspondence.

traces of the pristine cuckoo nature. When it is recalled that
among the other Aryan forms are such early recorded ones as the
Hellenic Perseus, the Italic Romulus, and the Iranian Cyrus, the
force of the objection is manifest. Furthermore, the father and
son combat is a standing part of the Expulsion and Return
formula. But this theme, as Dr. Potter has shown in Sohrab and
Rustem, is of almost world-wide occurrence. Can it be seriously
maintained that it has its origin in reflection suggested by the
domestic, or rather non-domestic, arrangements of the cuckoo.

My initial and fundamental objection is psychological. The
sagas discussed were the cherished possession of the foremost
races of mankind, of the races which have developed the whole of
modern culture, to whom every advance in thought and art is due.
At a certain stage of their development these races associated
this saga with their wisest and mightiest chief, with their pre-
eminent champion, with their eponymous hero. I assert that the
elements of the saga, elements purely mythical, must be referable
to a section of the mythology which had a vital, a predominant,
interest for these races. I am quite willing to admit that the
cuckoo may have possessed a mythical significance. I protest
that it can only be a secondary one at the best, and that among
no people can the cuckoo have played such a part as could by
any possibility whatever have enabled stories connected with it to
have developed into a heroic saga of the first rank. This is not
the case with explanations derived either from ' solar ' or from
' Life-persistence and Increase ' mythology. Both have demon-
strably given rise to considerable mythical systems with corre-
sponding ritual ; both are capable^ by their extension in the
mythopoeic age, by their cultural import, of furnishing a soil
in which subsequent heroic saga could flourish. If ever a cuckoo
mythology existed, — and Dr. Pokorny should first have demon-
strated this, — it must, in the nature of things, have been incapable
of doing what he claims.

Numerous other objections will occur to everyone : it is the
female cuckoo which lays the egg in the alien nest, and one
expects a cuckoo saga to develop on matriarchal lines ; the re-
proachful use of the term cuckoo is of course ironic, — the names
of the arch-deceiver being applied par antiphrase to the deceived

Correspondence. 235

one; etc., etc. When the basis is unsound, it is waste of time to
criticise details of the superstructure.

If my distrust of the theory could be intensified, it would be
by Dr. Pokorny's advocacy of ' pre-Aryan ' hypotheses in their
wildest form. Of course the hypothetical cuckoo saga is, like
Druidism and other characteristic traits of Celtic culture as known
to us historically, taken over from the pre-Celtic inhabitants of
Ireland. These were, in part, probably Finns. Dr. Pokorny has
seen a photograph of an Esthonian peasant which reminded him
strongly of a non- Aryan Irishman ; in Esthonian saga the cuckoo,
Kukkulind, plays a great part."* As a matter of fact there are
' very few pure Celts ' in Ireland ; where the Irish are dark-haired
they are pre-Celtic, Finnish or Iberian ; where they are fair-haired
and blue-eyed, they are " probably for the most part of Germanic
origin," (p. 108). I do not see how it is possible to make any
serious progress in Celtic or in mythological studies on such lines
• as these. Instead of starting from a fixed point, — a definite litera-
ture in Gaelic or Brythonic appealing presumably to men of Gaelic
or Brythonic blood and culture, — of which we can know something,
we assume a hypothetical stage of which at the best we can know
nothing definite, and gaily build on further our ' Cuckoo-City in
the Clouds ' !

Like Sir John Rhys I welcome Dr. Pokorny as a Celtic student.
He has enthusiasm and imagination. I am sure he will do useful
work. But, as for his theory, I say, topically, Hoi' sie den Kukkuk!

Alfred Nutt.

The Future Work of the Folk-Lore Society.

{Ante, pp. 101-2.)

Mr. E. S. Hartland, in reviewing recently two volumes of M.
Sebillot's Folklore de France, expressed the hope that we might

■* Philology is a mystery with which a layman like myself fears to meddle.
But I cannot help pointing out that the word cuckoo is onomatopoeic. The
backbone of the word is the medial ck. In the nature of things this must be
so. But the name of the Irish hero is pronounced Coo-hSo-Wxm. Irish phone-
ticians can perhaps say if there is any evidence that it was ever pronounced
CuiT/C'oolinn.

236 Correspondence.

one day possess a record of the folklore of this country to compare
with it.

There is no need to emphasise, in the pages of Folk-Lore, the
desirability of pushing forward the researches necessary for such
a production.

One important preliminary for the work would seem to be a
systematic search into our literature from century to century in
order to place upon record the various items of folklore contained
in it. Notes of time, showing the first appearance in the written
language of any belief of " the folk," as well as tracing the modifi-
cations it has undergone (if any) in passing through the ages, need
to be carefully recorded.

The English writings of the fourteenth century are occupying
part of my leisure, and I should be prepared to carry out the above
suggestions for this period. But I would suggest that, if workers
can be found, (and there must be many who have but few oppor-
tunities of undertaking the more valuable work of collecting
folklore orally), the preceding and subsequent centuries should
be taken up upon a uniform basis.

P. J. Heather.

The West Riding Teachers' Anthropological Society.

{Aide, p. 103.)

In answer to Miss Freire-Marreco's appeal in March Folk-Lore

I have undertaken to do my best as her substitute for the next

eight months. Being wholly unpractised in the work, I in my

turn appeal for help, especially in the shape of spare copies

of papers or lectures likely to help and interest the teachers who

form the West Riding Teachers' Anthropological Society. My

address is The Hudnalls, St. Briavels S.O., Gloucestershire, and I

wait hopefully for the Society to assist in cheering on these

promising beginners.

L. M. Eyre.

REVIEWS.

The White Book Mabinogion : Welsh Tales and Romances
reproduced from the Peniarth MSS. Edited by J.
GwENOGVRYN EvANS, Pwllheli (Subscribers only). 1909.

In this impeccably printed volume Dr. Evans has again provided
students of Welsh philology with material of first-rate importance,
and as, ultimately, many questions of literary history can only
receive their answer in the court of philology the student of
subject-matter is also his debtor. Further, although Dr. Evans
disclaims presenting reasoned hypotheses respecting the date,
process of growth, and significance of his texts, he has in his
preface made a number of statements and suggestions of high
interest and far-reaching import. Alike the authority of the editor
and the supreme importance of these Welsh tales necessitate
searching examination of what he either definitely asserts or simply
suggests.

As is well known, the title Mabitiogion properly belongs only to
the series of four tales, the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. The
current explanation of the term, due to Sir John Rhys, is that
" mabinog was a technical term belonging to the bardic system and
meaning a literary apprentice." Thus the Four Branches cycle
revealed itself as a summary of certain mythico-romantic themes
the knowledge of which was indispensable to the bard.

I accepted this explanation in my annotated edition of the
Mabinogion, as did Mr. Ivor John in his booklet {Popular Studies,
No. 11). I have often enough found myself compelled to
question opinions expressed by Sir John Rhys for it to be un-
necessary to repel the accusation of accepting an explanation
solely on his authority. I did so because, as far as I could test it,

238 Reviews.

it satisfied the historical and psychological conditions of the case.
It presupposed in Wales what we know existed in Ireland, — an
order of men of letters with a settled hierarchical organisation and
a definite programme of studies. In view of the clear statements
of the Welsh Laws respecting the attributes and prerogatives of the
bard, and of the close parallelism between Goidelic culture in
Ireland and Brythonic culture in Wales, such a presupposition was
inevitable. But a literary class comprising teachers and learners
forcedly implies text-books (or their oral equivalents). Finally we
have the illuminating parallel of Snorre's Edda. This, avowedly
a text-book for apprentice bards or skalds, to use the Icelandic
term, contains a series of prose narratives strikingly akin to the
Four Brafiches, a schematic summary of the main features and
chief incidents of the mythology.

Now, according to Dr. Evans, " no evidence has been produced
in support of this view " of the term ?nabinog. For him it would
be "more correct to say that any narrative which treats of early
life is a niabinogi." But unfortunately the only narratives to which
the term mabinogi is applied in Wales are the Four Branches
series, which, in no sense of the word, treats of " early life." Dr.
Evans shows, indeed, that mabinogi occurs in mediaeval Welsh as
a synonym of the Latin infantia, but this is in the literal, not the
figurative, sense. He compares the Norman-French term efifances
as apphed to a particular ^^;/ri? of story. But this comparison is far
from assisting him. Enfances, in this technical sense, is the
account of the early years, the apprenticeship, the squire-ship, of a
famous warrior ; it necessarily implies a secondary stage of story-
telling. Primitive and early epic does not take a hero in the
cradle ; it is only later that the story-teller reverts to the cradle
because, knowing the hero, the audience are curious respecting his
origins. Nothing of the kind is to be detected in the Four
Brafiches cycle.

For the present, therefore, I see no reason for rejecting Sir John
Rhys' explanation, or for withdrawing the deductions from it which
both Mr. John and I have made. Needless to waste a word upon
the absurdity of the equation, — mabinogi— X.dXo. for the young, —
which some scholars, who ought to have known better, have
approved. Mediaeval literature has no " juvenile department."

Reviews, 239

It must not be thought that this is an idle question of termino-
logy. In default of the explanation due to Sir John Rhys, the
existence of the Four Branches cycle cannot be accounted for in
any rational way. Literature in a society such as that of mediaeval
Wales is the product of sociologico-psychological necessities, not,
as it often is in advanced civilisations, of individual impulse. It
can only exist and survive if it satisfies communal requirements,
and plays its due part in the organised social scheme. The first
question to be asked of any monument of primitive literature is, —
what general need does it serve ? Sir John Rhys' hypothesis gives
a satisfactory answer to this question as far as the Four Branches
cycle is concerned.

Respecting the chronological order of the tales brought together
in Lady Charlotte Guest's collection, Dr. Evans expresses
opinions which I find myself unable to accept. First, be it noted
that he puts the earliest actual Ms. date of any portion of the
Mabinogion, (fragments of the Four Branches), at about 1235.
But, as he shows at length, the earliest Ms. approve themselves
copies of far older originals. In fact, the " paleographic evidence
takes us back at a bound to the first half of the twelfth century.
. . . The Four Branches are therefore demonstrably a century older
than any manuscript containing them, which has come down to
our time," (p. xiii). In my annotated edition of the Mabinogion I
assigned the composition of the Foiir Branches cycle in its extant
form to the last quarter of the eleventh century. As Dr. Evans'
date is that below which the cycle cannot be brought, and as he
does not preclude " the possibility of composition being a century
or more earUer," (p. xiii), it will be seen that so far there is no
quarrel between us. But I, in common with all earlier investi-
gators, looked upon the Four Branches 2l^ the oldest portion of the
collection. This Dr. Evans will not allow. For him "the
Winning of Olwen is the oldest in language, in matter, in simplicity
of narrative, in primitive atmosphere," (p. xiv). It may seem a
matter of slight importance whether one Welsh fairy romance
precedes or follows another. Not so ; if Dr. Evans' contention is
admitted, our view of the whole development of Arthurian romance
in the iith-i2th centuries is vitally affected.

Let me premise that both Dr. Evans and myself refer in our

240 Reviews.

dating of these tales to the extant form. He would, I am sure,
agree with me that the substance may be, nay, almost certainly is,
far older. This point of possible misapprehension eliminated, I
must say that I do not think Dr. Evans has stated the case quite
correctly. He says, (p. xiv), — " It is commonly assumed that
nothing containing the name of Arthur can be earlier than
Geoffrey of Monmouth. . . The name of Arthur, it is argued,
does not occur in the Four Branches, therefore they are older than
Geoffrey ; the name of Arthur does occur in Kulhwch, therefore
it is later than Geoffrey." I confess I don't quite know against
whom this polemic is directed. The " common assumption " can
only be that of very ignorant persons.^ A moment's glance at
Nennius would convict them of error. What I think is commonly
held, is that the appearance of Geoffrey's Historia exercised such a
marked effect on Welsh literature as to render the emergence of
any body of romantic fiction independent of the Arthur cycle, or
of other portions of Geoffrey's work, unlikely in the extreme. The
Four Branches cycle stands entirely outside the Arthur legend,
and in no relation to any non-Arthurian section of Geoffrey; it is
therefore a fair assumption that it must have preceded the latter.
But this assumption by no means implies the presumption that all
Arthurian romance must necessarily be post-Geoffrey. That is a
question to be decided on its merits in each case. Now, as
regards Kulhwch (the Winning of Olwen), the case is a complicated
one. That remarkable story is one of the finest romantic fairy
tales in all literature. As a fairy tale the "matter" u early, as
early probably as anything preserved in Welsh ; true, also, that
the " primitive atmosphere " of this fairy tale is, on the whole, kept
with extraordinary skill. All this must be granted to Dr, Evans.
But Kulhwch is not a fairy tale pure and simple ; it is a fairy tale
which has been woven into the framework of the Arthurian epic.
Considered under this aspect it cannot belong to an early
stage of that epic, neither to its spring nor its summer, but
must be referred to its autumn, its decadence, in the literal

^I had done my best to destroy this "common assumption" by clearly
stating in my edition of the Mabinogion, (p. 333), — "The Arthurian legend
was, of course, perfectly familiar to eleventh-century Wales, and was un-
doubtedly a fertile theme for the Welsh story tellers of that time."

Reviews. 241

sense of the word without implication of aesthetic or ethical
inferiority. Every truly national epic passes through certain
stages, — at first it is treated with, in the Arnoldian phrase,
"high seriousness." Personages and themes appeal primarily
to the racial, the historic, the realistic instinct, and second-
arily to the romantic, the aesthetic instinct. But there comes
a time when the epic, having established a standard, becomes
a convention, and the development of that convention proceeds
along lines laid down more and more by appeal to the
romantic instinct of the hearer, or in accordance with the
individualized aesthetic impulse of the teller. Ultimately these
two tendencies reduce the convention to a condition in which it
can only be saved by the exercise of deliberate, self-conscious
humour, and the " simple, sensuous and passionate " presentment
of the epic in its heyday may end in a parodistic rendering,
charming or grotesque, naive or profound, according to the
temperament and genius of the race and the artists which
elaborate it. This general statement is verifiable alike in the case
of the Greek and of the Irish epic. The " primitive " character of
the Homeric poems has been denied on account of their
surpassing literary merit, but this is due to the genius of the
Hellenic race. The Homeric poems are, on the whole,
" primitive " in a true sense, because, on the whole, they belong to
a " primitive " stage of epic ; they are conceived in a vein of
" high seriousness " ; they are charged with ethical intent on the
part of the narrating artist, with appeal to the ethical feeling of the
audience, and by these tests the Odyssey approves itself younger
than the Iliad.

Now of the Arthurian epic nothing has survived "primitive"
in this sense, as the Homeric poems are primitive, though much
of the matter used in it may be quite as primitive as anything in
the two-thousand year older Greek epic. That such a stage was
once represented in Welsh literature I see no reason to doubt ;
the extant remains of the Gododin, and, though to a less extent,
of the Llywarch Hen cycles are conceived in a realistic, serious
spirit, and such a spirit shines forth through the halting Latin
of Nennius in what he relates of Arthur, The Four Branches
cycle, belonging to pre-Arthurian heroic myth, is still, though

242 . Reviews.

with a not inconsiderable romantic mixture, conceived in such
a spirit. If Kulhwch really were as old as, or older than, the
Four Branches, its matter might be substantially the same, but
its manner of telling would, I believe, be far different. In
especial the distinct parodistic touch, the presence of which I
have noted in it, would be absent.^

The effect of Geoffrey upon the Welsh presentment of Arthur
is indicated in a phrase of Dr. Evans, — " Geoffrey changed a
national into an international hero." Rather, I should say, he
completed the process of internationalisation which must have
begun at least 100 years before his time, but he completed it
in the most thorough and startling manner, and in so doing he
burst the moulds in which, as I believe, the Welsh Arthurian
epic had hitherto been confined, destroyed the serious, realistic
mode of conceiving and presenting it, and made it the sport
of romanticising or humorous fancy. Of such fancy both
Kulhwch and Rhonabwy, expressed in a manner modelled upon
that of the Irish story-tellers of the tenth-eleventh centuries, are,
I believe, examples. Thus, whilst I cannot accept Dr. Evans'
pre-Geoffrey date for Kulhwch, I can as little accept his date,
"second half of the thirteenth century," for Khonabwy. Both
tales are, I believe, products of the same school of story -telling ;
with the exception of isolated passages in Geraint and The Lady of
the Fountain, they are the only examples of that school in Welsh
literature. It may be not impossible, but it is in the last degree
unlikely, that they should be separated by over a century and
a half.

Of the three Welsh tales, — The Lady of the Fountain, Geraint,
Peredur, — the subject-matter of which corresponds to that of the
French metrical romances, by Crestien de Troies, — Le Chevalier
au Lion, Erec, and the Conte del Graal, — Dr. Evans regards the
Peredur as the oldest, " distinctly older " than the other two
"in language, more Welsh in feeling and atmosphere, less influ-

^ In any case there are passages in Kulhwch which cannot be as early as
claimed. Thus, when Kulhwch comes to Arthur's court, the porter
Glewlwyd speaks thus, — " I have been in India the greater and India the
lesser . . . and when thou [Arthur] didst conquer Greece in the East." This
at least must be post-Geoffrey.

Reviews. 243

enced by the prevailing romances of chivalry," (p. xv). This
opinion is worth recording in view of the doctrine, advocated by
Professor Forster, which holds the Welsh tales to be simple
abridged versions of the French poems, for the order of the
latter is the reverse of that stated by Dr. Evans, and it would be
strange indeed, if the German scholar were right, that the Welsh
translation of a French poem finished about 1200 at the earliest
should be " older in language " than that of the poems belonging
to the period 1160-70. Whilst agreeing on the whole, in so far
as I am competent to express an opinion, with Dr. Evans, I
think his statement is too general ; it neglects the fact, upon
which I have repeatedly insisted, that none of the three Welsh
tales is homogeneous ; each is the result of a process of amalga-
mation, and it is quite possible that there may be not
inconsiderable differences of date between the component parts.
Thus the opening of The Lady of the Fountain is certainly older
and more " Welsh in feeling and atmosphere " than the subse-
quent adventures ; similarly, there are passages in Geraint which
belong to the school of the Kulhwch story-teller. Again, in
Peredur there are considerable sections which have no analogue
in the French poem ; portions of these strike me as older than
anything in the Conte del Graal; portions again as younger. A
deal of minute analysis is necessary before philological criticism
has contributed all it can to the determination of the date and
provenance of these three tales.

As stated above, I agree on the whole with Dr. Evans'
chronological classification, because the points of difference
between Peredur and the Conte del Graal imply, to my mind,
more distinctly the priority of the Welsh tale than is the case as
regards the other two Welsh tales and their French analogues.
Whilst admitting certain signs of relative lateness in Peredur^ I
must still insist, as I did a quarter of a century ago, upon the
fact that it presents in orderly and intelligent sequence a series
of folk-tale incidents which can just be detected, but in a frag-
mentary, obscure, and distorted form, in the Conte del Graal.
This thesis of the substantial antiquity of Peredur is supported
by Dr. Evans with arguments, not only of a linguistic and
stylistic nature, but implicating the subject-matter of the tale.

244 Reviews.

Like most scholars brought into contact with the fascinating
mystery of the Grail, Dr. Evans has felt its alluring charm, and tc
Peredur he devotes one-third of his Introduction.

To the elucidation of the Grail problems he makes one contri-
bution which, if well founded, is of capital and decisive
importance. As is well known, the central incident of the Grail
legend is the healing or deliverance of the Grail guardian by the
Grail quester. In the Cotite del Graal the latter is Perceval (the
Welsh Peredur). Now in the, seemingly, very archaic Verses of
the Graves found in the twelfth century Black Book of Carmarthen,
and- commemorating all the great heroes of Welsh legend,
(many of whom are otherwise unknown to us), Peredur has,
according to Dr. Evans, the epithet /^^ze^^/zV, which signifies chief
physician. Dr. Evans maintains that this epithet carries with it
the definite Grail legend in a Welsh form, and with Peredur
as hero. He is thus in disaccord with the German school, which
looks upon the Welsh tale as secondary and derivative, and also
with Miss Weston, who holds that Gawain was the earliest Welsh
Grail hero.

The stanza of the Verses of the Graves in which this pregnant
epithet occurs refers not to Peredur himself, but to his son, Mor,
who has the epithet diessic (unbruised). As Miss Weston has
pointed out, this Mor seems to be the original of the Morien,
son of Perceval, in a romance now only extant in a mediaeval
Dutch version, and of the Feirefis, son of Parzival, in Wolfram.
Both of these heroes are Eastern on the mother's side, and it
is conjectured that this Eastern origin is due to a misinterpre-
tation of Mor as Maure. Of two things, one : the stanza of the
Verses of the Graves must be posterior to the development of
the Perceval story which gave him an Eastern son, i.e. posterior
to Kiot, author of the lost French romance underlying the
Parzival, whose date can hardly be put before 1190, and the
Welsh Mor must be due to misinterpretation by the Welsh poet
of the French Maure ; or else it must be anterior, and if anterior
to that, also, as a necessary consequence, to Crestien, indeed to
the entire French or Anglo-Norman treatment of the legend. I
do not think that even Professor Forster and his pupils, reckless
and wilfully blind to evidence as they have shown themselves,

Reviews. 245

will champion the first alternative. Does Dr. Evans' contention
follow then ? Well, I must avow hesitation. Is it quite certain
that the epithet /^«Z£;g//(rnecessarily implies all that he maintains?
I reserve my adhesion, pending further criticism of the passage in
the Verses of the Graves.

Dr. Evans alleges other reasons for holding Peredur to be
earlier than Crestien or Kiot-Wolfram ; some of these, e.g. the
greater preponderance in the Welsh tale of an ascetic element, I
must frankly say, strike me as fanciful, nay, rather to plead against
priority. One argument, developed at length, though of interest
and value in itself, is inconclusive ; it is that the episode of the
Witches of Gloucester is misplaced. The hero should receive the
training the lack of which is apparent when he first visits
Arthur's court from these mistresses of magic and war-craft, Welsh
counterparts of the Irish Scathach, or Bodhmall. In other words,
the episode should immediately follow the slaying of the Red
Knight and the departure of the untrained hero, smarting under
the insults of Kai, and precede the visit to the realm of the
Fisher (Grail) King. But this is not so in the Welsh tale, which
thus shows itself, in its present form, secondary, although it has
retained the pivotal Witches episode of the original legend,
and conclusive arguments for the priority of Peredur can only be
based upon its present form. Pleas based upon what may have
existed in an earlier and purer Welsh form, great as may be their
measure of probability, cannot convey certainty.

Dr. Evans compares his primeval Peredur legend with the
Achilles story. I quote his words : " Both heroes are carried
early to retreats through the anxiety of their mothers to keep
them from taking up arms ; both are associated with females ;
both very early in life catch stags or hinds without help of
any kind ; both are introduced to the sight of arms by accident
or stratagem ; both immediately after take up arms ; both receive
careful training ... by preternatural agencies; both sulk deter-
minedly ; both are unrelenting in their anger and revenge ; both
have embassies sent to them in vain ; both listen to the gentle
persuasion of a comrade ; both are pre-eminent in the use of the
lance ; and the lance of each is distinguished by its size."

I am not clear in what sense Dr. Evans would interpret this

246 Reviews.

alleged parallel, — as implying community of origin between
Hellenic and Brythonic heroic myth, or influence of mediaeval
Welsh by Graeco-Roman literature. Here again I must frankly
say that many of the terms of the parallel strike me as so vague
as to be altogether inconclusive, and that those which are most
striking are of comparative unimportance in the respective sagas
of the two heroes. If we compare the entire life-history of
Achilles with that of Peredur, we fail, in my opinion, to trace any
such organic kinship as obtains, for instance, between the sagas of
Peredur and Finn, or of either and Cuchulinn. If it is urged that
a mediaeval Welsh story-teller borrowed from such versions of the
Achilles story as may have been accessible to him, I believe
he would in such a case, forcedly, have borrowed more and made
the likeness much closer.

I trust I have made clear the pregnant significance of the few
pages which Dr. Evans has given to these questions of date,
origin, and nature. Acceptance of his statements would imply the
existence (a) in eleventh-century Wales of a romantic Arthur
legend which had already entered the stage of decadence, i.e. of
humorous semi-parodistic treatment; and {b) in early twelfth-century
Wales of a fully-developed Grail legend presenting substantially
the same series of incidents as we find in the Conte del Graal of
1 170-1200. The brief form in which these far-reaching views are
stated may easily mislead concerning their essential importance ;
this must be my excuse for a notice which is well nigh as long as
the text upon which it comments. All future Mabinogion
criticism must take account of what Dr. Evans has here written.

Alfred Nutt.

The Hooden Horse. By Percy Maylam. Canterbury :
Privately Printed, 1909. 4to., pp. xvi-t-124. 5 Plates.

This is an admirable piece of work, careful, thorough, unambitious,
and complete in itself Mr. Maylam has all the humour and
sympathy and unfeigned enjoyment of his informants' society and
doings that go to the making of a genuine collector, and adds to

Reviews, 247

them the skill in weighing and marshalling evidence that belongs
to his legal training; and he has left no point untouched that
could serve to throw light on his subject.

"Hoodening" is a Christmas custom observed by the men
employed in farm-stables in the Isle of Thanet and the adjoining
district of East Kent. On Christmas Eve they go round the
neighbourhood collecting money, and singing carols and other
songs, accompanied by musical instruments (usually a concertina
and triangle), or sometimes performing tunes on hand-bells. The
distinctive local feature of this all-but-universal practice is that the
men take with them a hooden horse. This is a wooden horse's head
fixed on a pole like a child's toy "hobby-horse," and carried by a
man whose body, together with the pole, is completely shrouded
m a rude garment of sackcloth or other rough material, attached to
the head and generally adorned with some attempt at representing
the be-ribboned mane and tail. The head is decorated with "horse-
brasses," and the jaws are well provided with iron nails representing
teeth. The lower jaw is fixed on a hinge, and is worked backwards
and forwards by the man inside, who prances and curvets and
imitates the action of a fidgetty horse. He is known as the
" Hoodener," and is led by another man dressed as a " Waggoner "
with a long whip, who makes him show off his paces, and is
accompanied by a "Rider" or "Jockey," who attempts to mount
him, to the amusement of the spectators ; and also by " Molly," the
man in woman's clothes who commonly accompanies such rustic
shows, and who here carries a birchen broom and makes a great show
of sweeping. When these have sufficiently shown off their antics to
the mingled terror and delight of the younger folks present, the
money is collected, and in some places must be put into the
Hooden Horse's jaws. The Horse is kept from year to year in
the farm-stables, and has been known to be renewed from time to
time when lost or worn out. On its existence, of course, depends
the continuance of the custom. Mr. Maylam points out that the
places in which it is observed are all in the area of the Lathe of
St. Augustine, which is also the area of a distinct variety of the
Kentish dialect. The natural inference from this would be that
the custom took shape when the Lathe in question was still in some
sense a political unit, a distinct entity with its own special features.

248 Reviews.

Discussing the origin of Hoodening, Mr. Maylam first decides
against the received derivation from wooden, albeit this is coun-
tenanced by the English Dialect Dictionary ; and if, as he says,
the ehsion of the initial w is foreign to the genius of the Kentish
dialect, we think he is right, and even more so when he dismisses
the other popular etymology from Woden or Odin. He is well
aware of the absurdity of trying to prove a direct connection
between Teutonic paganism and hoodening, and applies himself
rather to the examination of mediaeval pastimes as the " proximate
origin " of the custom. Here, of course, he meets with the familiar
Shakspearian " hobby-horse," and the representation of the hobby-
horse in the famous window at Betley Hall, Staffordshire, temp.
Edw. IV. Perhaps the connecting link with Pagan times may be
found in the well-known extract (which he quotes, p. 28) from the
Penitential of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, or-
daining the penances to be performed by "any who on the kalends
of January clothe themselves with the skins of cattle, or carry about
the heads of animals." Here we come as near as may be to evidence
of similar Christmas customs in the Lathe of St. Augustine in the
seventh century.

But we cannot agree with him when he derives the name of the
hooden horse from Robin Hood. In the first place Robin Hood
was an archer,^ a footman ; not a mounted highwayman with pistols
like Dick Turpin. He never appears as riding but when he
accompanies the King to Court or on some similar occasion.
Marksmanship with the long bow, not horsemanship, is his charac-
teristic. Then again, the Robin Hood pageant was/ar excellence
a J/rtj/ game appropriate to the "greenwood" visited by the
Mayers, and not a Christmas custom. Mr. E. K. Chambers
{MedicBval Stage, vol. ii.) shows us that the festival games of the
Middle Ages consisted of three, not two, elements : — the morris-
dance, the masquerade (of Robin Hood or St. George), and the
" grotesque " characters, as he calls them, who acted independently
of the rest. These were usually three in number, the Fool, the

^ On the evidence of Mrs. F. A. Milne and other spectators of the Abbot's
Bromley Horn Dance in 1909, it is the crossbow-man who is called Robin
Hood, not the Hobby-horse, as stated by Mr. Maylam (p. 62) on the authority
of Sir Benjamin Stone's Picttires.

Reviews. 249

Molly or Bessy, and the Hobbyhorse, though they were not all
invariably present. Two of them appear in the Hooden Horse
party, and, on the analogy of the feats of the circus clown, the Fool
may be represented by the Rider or Jockey. (The particoloured
costume worn by the tambourine player in Plate A resembles that
frequently worn by the Fool in the mumming plays ; and on page
92 is a mention of the hoodeners " knocking one another about
with sticks and bladders," — the characteristic action of the Fool).
The whole affair seems to us to be a performance of these
grotesques without the dancers or actors. Mr. Maylam confesses
that he has found no trace of Robin Hood in Kent.

We should be inclined to connect the name " Hooden " with the
covering worn by the *' Horse," which, from the photographs,
resembles a rude edition of the " hoods " (always so known in the
stable world) worn by valuable horses on journeys etc. to protect
them from the weather. Search might be made for the use of
" hood " as a verb, meaning to cover or disguise (cf. a hooded hawk).
But these are guesses. All one can say is that the genealogy of the
Hooden Horse probably goes much further back than the days of
Robin Hood, who, so far as Mr. Maylam's evidence goes, does not
appear to have penetrated to the Isle of Thanet.

We must congratulate Mr. Maylam most warmly on an excellent
bit of work. Let us hope he will be persuaded to continue his local
investigations. Kentish collectors of folklore are "sadly to seek,"
and Mr. Maylam is a collector of the first rank. A word of
praise must be added for the care he has bestowed on the paper
and illustrations, so as to ensure the durability of his record ; a
matter which, as he remarks in his preface, is too often overlooked,
thereby, as will one day be discovered, wasting all the labour
bestowed on making it.

Charlotte S. Burne.

Old Etruria and Modern Tuscany. By Mary Lovett
Cameron. Methuen, 1909. 8vo, pp. xxii + 332. 32 ill.

In this unpretentious work, which modestly claims only to be
a portable guide to Etruscan sites and museums and to

250 Reviews.

supplement well-known earlier works now falling out of date,
Miss Cameron brings together, with numerous illustrations, what
is known of the manners, customs, and religious beliefs of the
mysterious Etruscan people. In her introduction she rightly
praises the collection of the fast-growing material, not in huge
central institutions, but in local museums, where the finds from
the neighbouring ancient sites are preserved in juxtaposition and
can be studied as local wholes. In her final chapter on " Links
between Old Etruria and Modern Tuscany " she may perhaps
insist a little too strongly on resemblances such as those between
Etruscan and mediaeval demons in art, on the descent of horse
races such as the Palio of Siena from Etruscan times, and so on,
but her references to the giostra plays in remote Apennine
villages, (which sometimes have for subjects Bible stories but
never Gospel narratives), and a curious folk-tale (pp. 320-1)
collected by her on Monte Amiata, make one wish that she
would utilize her intimate knowledge of modern Tuscan places
and people to do for the folklore of the remoter districts what
another member of our Society, the late C. G. Leland, did for
the neighbourhood of Florence in his Etruscan Roinati Remains
in Popular Tradition and two volumes oi Legends of Florence.

High Albania. By M. Edith Durham. Edward Arnold, 1909.
Demy 8vo, pp. xii -1-352. 111. and Map.

What is the literary gift ? As well ask why does one here and
there win your confidence by a smile, but another not by a
service. All things are big with jest, said George Herbert, if you
have the vein ; what bores one to death makes a charming tale for
another. Miss Durham has the vein ; she has the gift ; she has
also any amount of pluck, and wins everybody's confidence, — her
readers' also. What a treat for one of our Society, which can so
easily fall into priggishness ! Not that Miss Durham takes her
task lightly. Far from it, she uses all pains to get at the truth, her
curiosity is insatiable, and down it all goes in the book. Here
we have not a transcript of life, which must have been as dark as
life itself can be, but a picture of life, the lights and shadows

Reviews. 251

brought out and unity in the design. It is impossible to quote
from the book; as soon as we begin one anecdote the eye
catches another, and there is nothing for it but a self-denying
ordinance. You must buy the book, there's an end of the matter.
But I will just note a few of the topics it deals with. Here are
descriptions of the face and form or the dress of the people,
with sketches to show how they shave their hair. Headtufts and
headwraps are not too insignificant for Miss Durham ; she learns
that the headwrap is said to date from the battle of Thermopylae !
Then there is the blood-feud, which is not only explained in detail,
but comes again and again into the story with great effect ; our
readers will be interested to hear about the Old Law, as it is
called. Politics appear, — not as hatched by callous and greedy
men in chancelleries, but as they affect the people. How they
hate the Turks ! Miss Durham asked one how long a certain
village had been Moslem : the answer was, — " They have stunk for
seven generations." It was not want of washing ; Islamism stinks.
Here again is the local telegraph; news is shouted from hill to
hill, and any one who hears it sends it on. How much does a wife
cost ? Twelve Napoleons in Vulki, where they are cheap. Charms
and the evil eye come in on occasion ; one man made a bunch
of grapes shrivel by looking at it. Excellent folk-tales appear.
And that unhappy " Constitution," hailed with such joy, but
practically stillborn ! Some of us know what a Turkish con-
stitution means ; but not in England. " It was not until I came
to London," says Miss Durham, " that I met people who really
believed in the ' Konstituzion.' " The Albanians still say you
cannot trust a Turk. But Miss Durham ends thus :
" I cannot write

FINIS

for the END is not yet."
So I have quoted after all. Never mind. What does consistency
matter ? I am still consistent, anyhow, in saying that this is a
delightful book.

W. H. D. Rouse.

252 Reviews.

With a Prehistoric People. The Akikuyu of British East
Africa. Being some Account of the Method of Life and
Mode of Thought found existent amongst a Nation on its
first Contact with European Civilisation. By W. Scoresby
RouTLEDGE and Katherine Routledge (born Pease).
Edward Arnold, 1910. Ryl. 8vo, pp. xxxii + 392. Map
and cxxxvi 111.

This is a book to be cordially welcomed by anthropologists, —
using that elastic word for convenience' sake in its widest sense.
Of the thorough way in which Mr. and Mrs. Routledge have
done their work, and of the excellence of their methods, it is
superfluous to speak, — since we cannot improve upon Mr. Marett's
estimate (pp. 357-8). We have here a large amount of unimpeach-
able first-hand information, presented in such a way that even the
non-speciaUst can read the book, (or the greater part of it), with
interest.

The Akikuyu, it may not be superfluous to premise, are a
(probably) Bantu tribe dwelUng in the country between Mount
Kenya on the east, and the Aberdare Range on the west, and
extending south as far as the Athi River and the Uganda Railway.
They consider themselves an offshoot of the Akamba : this state-
ment was made to the authors in at least five different localities.
Sir Charles Eliot is of opinion that they are " a comparatively
recent hybrid between the Masai and Bantu stock."

The work before us does not, so far as we can see, lend any
support to this theory, and we may remark, in passing, that it
seems strange if the men of a race containing a strong infusion of
Masai blood should, as a rule, attain no greater stature than
5 feet 4 inches (see p. 19). Their language is undoubtedly Bantu;
— but language, as we know, is not invariably a criterion of race,
and we learn that " they possess another language in addition to
that in common use." It is of the utmost importance that this
form of speech should be investigated and its affinities determined,
— if, indeed, it is a real language and not an artificial jargon like the
kinyiime of Zanzibar, or the "secret" languages taught to the
Nkiniba initiates on the Congo. Perhaps the relationships of the
Akikuyu and Akamba are to be sought in the as yet imperfectly

Reviews. 253

known Wasandawi, Wambugu, Wambulunge, and Watatum of
German East Africa.^ We gather that the hair of the Akikuyu
is not woolly but curly (pp, 19, 26, 27); but this is scarcely
evident from the photographs, — except Plate CXII. It must be
said, however, that most of the heads shown are either shaved or
elaborately dressed, so that it is difficult to tell. This important
racial characteristic would certainly seem to tell in favour of a
Masai mixture.

We own to a doubt of the etymology suggested on p. 19. It
is contrary to all analogy to find ki- as a locative prefix ; and the
fact of A- being prefixed to it, shows that ki is part of the root ;
otherwise the people would be called Akuyu. True, we sometimes
find double prefixes {e.g. Wa-nya-ruanda), but -ki- does not seem to
occur in this position. Mr. H. R. Tate ^ asserts, on the authority
of Dr. Henderson, that the name should be written as A-Gikuyu,
as k before another k (and several other consonants) becomes g.
It may seem hypercritical to add that, while the authors have in the
main followed sound principles in their spelling of native names
and words, we can see no reason for the retention of the apostrophe
after initial m or n {e.g. M'kihiyu, n^giio), and "Ke-ny-a" is surely
misleading. The_y is consonantal and nya makes but one syllable, —
otherwise we should write — " Ke-ni-a." In the division of words,
the rule that all Bantu syllables are open has been persistently
ignored: thus, on p. xxiii., "Wa-nan-ga" should be "Wa-na-nga,"
"Ka-ran-ja" should be "Ka-ra-nja" etc. The unnecessary r
inserted in tnali on p. xxiv., suggests a doubt whether " N'jarge "
should not read " Njage " : the r sound occurs in Kikuyu, but is
unlikely before any consonant, — except possibly w.

Mr. Tate, in the paper just referred to, gives the legend told by
the "Southern Gikuyu," {i.e. Kinyanjui's people in the country
N.W. of Nairobi), to explain their own origin and that of the
Akamba and Masai. As it is different from any of those recorded

^ See Meinhof, Linguist is che Stiidien in Ostafrika, x. , xi., in Transactions oi
the Berlin Oriental Seminary for 1906 (Dritte Abteilung : Afrikanische Sttidien,
pp. 294-333). The volume for 1909 contains a Sandawi vocabulary : Versuch
eines Worlerbuchs fiir Kissandatii, von Hauptmann Nigmann (pp. 127-130).
This language has several clicks,

"^Journal of the African Society, April, 19 10, p. 237.

254 Reviews.

by Mrs. Routledge (pp. 283-4), and involves a point of great
interest, I make no apology for quoting it : —

" In the beginning the father of our people, named Mumbere, came out of
his country and travelled day after day until he came to the sun -rising. Upon
his arrival there the sun asked him, "Where do you come from? " He replied,
"I do not know; I am lost." Thereupon he asked him, "Where are you
going?" and was answered " I do not know." Then the sun said to him,
" Because you have seen where I come from, out of the ocean, which no man is
supposed to do — if you do not want to die you must call me ' ' Kigango." " This
means " The most high," or " The Great Over-all." Moreover the sun gave him
a strip of meat, telling him to eat a tiny piece each day as he travelled many
days' journey towards the sun-setting, and that this would be sufificient food for
him until he arrived at the country where he was to dwell. When the food was
finished he had arrived at the country of the Mbere, near Mount Kenya.

There he found a woman, married her, and had born unto him three sons
and three daughters. When they grew up, the father called them together, and
placing on the ground before them a spear, a bow and arrows, and a cultivating
stick, told them to choose. One chose the spear, and his children became the
Okabi, or the Masai tribe ; the second chose the bow, and his children became
the Kamba ; while the third chose the cultivating stick, and his children are the
Gikuyu. Afterward, when the Masai wanted vegetable food, they came to the
Gikuyu for it, giving them in return sheep and cattle ; it is thus we have flocks
and herds like the Masai, and also carry spears like them as well as our own
swords.

After Mumbere had lived to a great age, he called his descendants together,
telling them to; bring him meat and receive his blessing, as on the second day
following he was to die. Accordingly on that day he called the sun by its
customary name ' riua ' and died." '

The word for " sun " given in Mrs. Hinde's Kikuyu Vocabulary
is njiia^ but the forms erua and eruwa occur elsewhere ; cf. also
the Yao lyuwa. I can find no indication as to whether any of the
Akikuyu use the word kigango for the sun at the present day. This
notable example of tabu, whatever may be the real facts covered by
the legend, (no doubt an attempt to explain a local prohibition for
which the reason had been forgotten), may help to throw some
light on the differentiation of words in the Bantu tongues. There
is a remarkable uniformity, all down the eastern side of the
continent, in the use of the root juba (or, according to Meinhof,
ywvd), varying locally according to well-ascertained phonetic laws,

'^/ourtial of the African Society, loc. cif., p. 236.

Reviews. 255

— but with such remarkable exceptions as the Zulu ilauga and the
Chwana tsatsi, which are probably to be accounted for in a similar
way, perhaps by the existence of a chief named Juba, which
caused the word to be interdicted among his subjects.

It is worth noting that the sun is looked on as the moon's
husband, and the stars as their children, because the opposite sex
is very generally attributed to the moon among the Bantu, at any
rate on the eastern side of the continent. The evening and the
morning star, (no one, of course, supposing them to be one and
the same), are thought to be the moon's wives,* the Anyanja of the
Lake even having names for them, — Chekechani and Puikani.

The Akikuyu say (p. 3) that, when they first settled the
country, they now occupy, the Ndorobo (whom they call Asi) were
living there. This is curiously borne out by the Masai tradition
which postulates the Ndorobo as having been there from the
beginning. "When God came to prepare the world, he found
three things in the land, a Dorobo, an elephant and a serpent." ^

With regard to the clans, the list given on p. 21 is nearly (but
not quite) identical with that obtained by Mr. Tate among the
Southern Akikuyu. Some of the differences are probably mere
matters of local pronunciation (as th for z). As Mr. Tate gives
some details not mentioned by Mr. and Mrs. Routledge, and as
their list seems to clear up some difficulties in his, we quote the
passage in question.

"(i) Clans of the Gikuyu. — i. Achera. 2. Anjiru. 3. Agachiku.
4. Aithiageni. 5. Amboi. 6. Agathigia. 6a. Airimu. 7. Angare.
7a. Aithekahunu. 8. Aichakamuyu. 9. Aithaga. 9a. Ambura.
10. Aitherandu. Ii. Angui.

If the three clans, Airimu, Aithekahunu, and Ambura are identical with
those that precede them under other names, the Gikuyu clans are 1 1 only in
number. If separate they are 14.

Formerly (probably until the European invasion of British East Africa) the
first five clans were the most powerful, and were constantly engaged in fighting
with one another over property.

''Note made at Blantyre in 1894 ; the names are given in Barnes, Nyanja-
English Vocabulary, p. iii., s.v. 7nwezi. The appended explanation shows
that the Anyanja have observed the heavens with sufficient accuracy to con-
nect the new moon with the evening star and vice versd.

^ HoUis, The Masai, p. 266.

256 Reviews.

They lorded it over the smaller tribes and appear to have bullied them more
or less. Blood money owed to the latter was not usually paid by the five
"cock " clans.

There are five recognised heads of these clans to-day, but the importance of
being chieftain of a clan is not what it was years ago. Some of these men,
however, are Government headmen to-day (Kinyanjui is head of the Achera),
and have thus a dual standing in the District.

The Agathigia and remaining clans are said to have never had any recognised
head, the five big clans being paramount.

The origin and derivation of the names of clans are unknown for certain.
My informants cannot say whether the names come from the first head of the
clan or from the ridge or district in which they formerly lived. The first is
probably the correct solution and has been endorsed by information given to
Europeans other than myself."^

If Mr. Tate's "9a Ambura" corresponds to "6. Akiuru or
Mwesaga or Mburu," (the first two names, apparently, do not occur
in Southern Kikuyu), we are right in counting it as a separate clan.
The same is the case with the Agathigia and Airimu ; but, on the
other hand, the " Angari or Aithekahuno " are taken by Mr.
Routledge as one, so that the total number is thirteen.

We must conclude this necessarily very incomplete and inade-
quate survey, of a book which has permanently enriched the records
of ethnology, by a glance at the folk-tales. Two points of special
interest emerge here, — the rainbow-snake ^ and the ilimii. The
story called " The Giant of the Great Water " represents the former
being as eating " the father and the young men, and the women and
the children, and the oxen and the goats, and then he ate the houses
and the barns, so that there was nothing left." Subsequently all
the lost were recovered when the sole survivor of this destruction
made an incision in the giant's middle finger, just as Masilonyane's
cows (Jacottet, Contes Pop. des Bassoutos, p. 51) came out of the
old woman's big toe. But in Masilo et Masilonyane this point is
scarcely of the essence of the story, which belongs to a very wide-
spread type in which the jealousy of one brother (or sister) leads
to murder, and the murder is discovered by means of some part of

^'Journal of the African Society, April, 1910, p. 237.

'' For the rainbow-snake in West Africa, cf Dennett, At the Back of the
Black Matins Mind, p. 142. The Zulus seem to retain traces of a similar con-
ception, but the story in the text is the first I have met with which connects it
with the swallowing story.

Reviews. 257

the victim's body, which takes shape as a hving being.^ The big
toe incident, which in Masilo et Masilonyane is combined with this
motif, really belongs to the type represented in Suto and Chwana
by "Kammapa and Litaolane," and found in numerous variants, —
one of the most interesting being the Shambala one, where a
pumpkin grows to an enormous size and swallows all the people of
a district, except one woman, who afterwards gives birth to a boy.
This boy, when grown up, cleaves the pumpkin with his sword
and releases the people. It is found among so many different
Bantu tribes, as well as some on the West Coast,^ including some
with whom our acquaintance is comparatively recent, that it does
not seem feasible to trace it, as some have done, to a Christian
origin.

As for the ilimu {irimu, irimu), he is our old friend the Zulu or
Suto cannibal {izifnu, modinid), with perhaps rather more of mon-
strous and abnormal characteristics. He is known to the Duala
as edimo, and just survives in Swahili folklore as zimivi, though
usually Arabicized into jini. In many places his character and
attributes are becoming shadowy, but with the Akikuyu, though
evidently a very variable quantity (p. 315), they are tolerably
distinct. A comprehensive study of the traditions concerning this
being, embracing the whole Bantu field, would be well worth
undertaking.

To conclude, — Mr. and Mrs. Routledge have given us a book
which is of the greatest value, not only to students of Volkerkunde
in general, but to all who have any practical concern with the wel-
fare of our subject races. It would be beside the present purpose
to enlarge on this point, but I cannot refrain from quoting a
sentence or two which every colonial administrator would do well
to bear in mind : —

" The present and avowed object of the East African Judiciary
is to suppress native justice altogether as derogatory to the dignity
of the British Courts. Even allowing for all the imperfections of

^Traces of one variant occur in "The Forty Girls," p. 324.

" Cf. Dr. George Thomann's Essai de la Manuel de la Lanque N^ouoli (Ne
tribe of the Ivory Coast), Paris, 1906, p. 144 ("Za calebasse enchantie") ;
also, for the toe incident, the preceding story, ^^ La jettne JUlCy La Mort, et le
vanneau."

258 Reviews,

primitive methods, this shows a point of view at which it is hard to
arrive. . . . Theoretically, also, it is an obvious absurdity to speak
of raising the natives, and at the same time deprive them of the
best means of education, namely self-government" (pp. 220-221).

A. Werner.

VoLKSKUNDLiCHES Aus ToGO. Marchen und Fabeln, Sprich-
worter und Ratsel, Lieder und Spiele, Sagen und Tauschung-
spiele der Ewe-Neger von Togo. Gesammelt von Josef
ScHONHARL. Leipzig: Kochs, 1909. 8vo, pp. x + 204.

Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria West Africa. By
Elphinstone Dayrkll. With an Introduction by Andrew
Lang. Longmans, Green, & Co., 1910. 8vo, pp. xvi-l- 159.
Frontispiece.

Herr Schonharl's book is an important addition to the scanty
records of the folklore of the Ewe-speaking peoples. It com-
prises 28 tales from Togoland, half a dozen from Dahomey,
200 proverbs, — (Ellis gives only 120), — 176 riddles and parables,
119 trinknamefi, 11 games, 3 sleight-of-hand tricks with maize
grains, and 25 songs (with the music of 20). Beast fables, com-
bining keen observation of animals' ways with a full disclosure
of native ways, are the most popular of West African tales, and
there are numerous specimens here, as well as tales of origins, —
how death came (28), why women have breasts (15), why foxes
chase hens (23), why a mosquito buzzes in one's ear at night (25),
etc. The trick played by the hare in the fourth tale, (in which
the crocodile suckles the same young one four times in suc-
cession, mistaking it for the three other children already slain
and eaten), and the similar trick played on the leopard by the
wicked twins in the thirteenth story, are the same as that played
on the leopard by the jackal in a Hottentot story,^ and there are
numerous other resemblances to Bantu as well as Negro tales.
In Togoland, as elsewhere amongst the Ewe, the spider {Eyevi)
is the superior of all animals, as the possessor of the inventive

^Vaughan, Old HendriKs Tales, p. 11 7-

Reviews. 259

cunning adored by the native. In the twelfth and seventeenth
stories, however, Eyevi is the name of a human trickster, — an
example probably of anthropomorphizing tendency, as the person
tricked is, in the former story, a dove. No. 16 is an inconsequent
story in which the fiercer animals appear as slave-dealers, and in
the next story a king's daughter is stolen as a slave. The few
comparative notes given are chiefly from German Kamerun and
East African collections, and could have been extended very
usefully.

The proverbs and riddles are an unusually interesting gathering
of negro wit and wisdom ; the riddles are especially welcome, as
such devisings are commonly dismissed with much less notice
than they merit as products of the black man's mind. The
trinknamen {ahanonkowd) are names, or rather sentences (and
generally well-known proverbs), which, to the number of 5, 10, or
20, are attached to a palm-wine drinker. He cries out these
" names," or has them cried at him by a friend, as an encourage-
ment in times of difficulty or war. They may refer to his weak
side as well as to his more heroic qualities of body and mind, and
personal names may be chosen from them. Several Togo varia-
tions of the wide-spread game of mandala are described, with
figures, and other games resemble European games with tops,
ninepins, etc. Unlike the lower Congo natives, the Togos prefer
"sit-down" games to those requiring much bodily exertion. The
songs are said by the natives to have been borrowed from the
Tshi, and a curious tale ascribes the origin of drum-beating
and singing to the natives of a Fanti seaside town who learnt
them from the sea. Forty pages are devoted to a painstaking
account of Togo music and songs.

District-Commissioner Dayrell's volume of forty stories has the
advantage of a ten-page introduction by Mr. Lang (who indicates
in his usual delightful fashion the surprisingly numerous variants
in ancient myth and European mdrchett), but the tales themselves
are on the whole less varied and interesting than the Togoland
collection. About half of them refer to Calabar or its immediate
neighbourhood, or are dated by Calabar kings, and many of these
contain references to the Egbo society. The number of these
stories of which variants have already been recorded from elsewhere

26o Reviews.

in West Africa is not large. In the second tale a hunter disposes
of his creditors, — the cock, bush-cat, goat, leopard, and another
hunter, — through their successive slaughter of each other from a
trick like that in a Hausa tale.^ In the eighth story a vain
and disobedient daughter marries a skull from spirit land, who
borrows parts to make up a complete body from all his friends
there, and returns them on his way home after the wedding ; this
is a version of a story found also in Sierra Leone ^ and amongst
the Yoruba.'' The twenty-fifth story (" Concerning the Leopard,
the Squirrel, and the Tortoise") is a completer form of a story
collected in Jamaica,^ and the twenty-ninth (" How the Tortoise
overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus") has a variant in
a Hausa tale.*^ In the beast fables the tortoise is the chief animal,
as amongst the Yoruba, and the only reference to the spider seems
to be in the third story, in which an old childless king marries one
of the spider's daughters because they always had plenty of chil-
dren. Unfortunately one does not feel sure that the tales are
close and unornamented renderings from the originals, and this
doubt is strengthened by comparing Mr. Dayrell's versions of
No. XXIII. and an incident in No. XII. with Calabar versions
taken down from a native by Mr. C. J. Cotton.^ Moreover,
there are no particulars given of the narrators or their localities,
and such humorous "morals" as " always have pretty daughters,
as no matter how poor they may be, there is always the chance
that the king's son may fall in love with them, . . ." are not
obviously native. Nevertheless, this is a book for the folklorist to
buy, as the body of the tales is undoubtedly native.

A. R. Wright,

"^ Ante, pp. 2II-2. A better-told version from Calabar, — of a worm, cock,
wild cat, leopard, and hunter, — appears in the Journal of the Africa7i Society,
vol. iv., pp. 307-8.

''Cronise and Ward, Cuntiie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the other Beef, pp.
178-86 (" Marry the Devil, there's the Devil to pay").

* Ellis, 7/^1? Yoruba- speaking Peoples etc., pp. 267-9.

"P. C. Smith, Annancy Stories, pp. 51-4 (" Paarat, Tiger an' Annancy ").

'^ Ante, p. 203.

^ /oiirnal of the African Society, vol. v., pp. 194-5.

Reviews. 261

The Garos. By Major A. Playfair. Introduction by Sir
J. Bampfylde Fuller. (Published under the orders of
the Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam.) Nutt,
1909. 8vo, pp. xvi + 172. Illustrations and maps.

This account of the Garos forms one of the excellent series of
monographs on the tribes of Eastern Bengal and Assam which
we owe to the Government of that province.

The Garos, the first of the wilder forest tribes which came
into contact with the British, inhabit a range of hills forming
the southern boundary of the Brahmaputra valley, and numbered
at the last census 160,000 souls, divided into two branches, — one,
the more primitive group, occupying the hilly tract, and the other
newcomers settled in the districts of the plains. They are members
of the Tibeto-Burman stock, emigrants from the trans-Himalayan
plateaux, their connection with which is proved by some interesting
survivals, — their matrilinear social organisation, portions of their
vocabulary, their reverence for the yak {bos gruniens), and their
habit of collecting gongs, which are highly prized. They have
now to a great extent abandoned the predatory habits which
formed the subject of repeated complaints against them in the
older reports, and they have settled down to agriculture,
cultivating cotton and other staples with much success. Their
economical position is thus superior to that of the neighbouring
tribes.

Major Playfair has given a detailed account of the religion,
ethnology, traditions, customs, sociology, and folklore of this
interesting tribe, which it is impossible to summarise or discuss
in detail.

Their religion is of the animistic type, a number of departmental
spirits being supposed to control all the spheres of human activity.
Thus Tatara-Rabuga is the creator of all things ; Chorabudi the
benign protector of crops ; Nostu-Nopantu the fashioner of the
earth; Goera god of strength and causer of thunder and lightning;
Kalkame, brother of Goera, holds in his hands the lives of men ;
Susime gives riches, and causes and cures blindness and lameness ;
and so on. Ancestor worship plays a leading part in the funeral
rites. The main elements of the worship of this pantheon are

262 Reviews.

sacrifices of animals and birds, and drinking, usually accompanied
by ritual dances.

The spirit occupying the bodies of men, when released at death,
wends its way to Mangru-Mangram, the ghost world, identified
with certain neighbouring hills, and regarded as a place of purga-
tion through which good and bad alike must pass. The way to
it is long and dreary, and for the journey the soul must be pro-
vided with a guide in the shape of a dog or the night-jar bird,
money, and eatables. On the way lurks the monster Nawang,
who covets brass earrings, which the spirit flings before him and,
while the demon is busy collecting them, takes the opportunity to
escape. Hence such ornaments are commonly worn by all classes.
If a sick person becomes comatose before death, it is supposed
that Nawang has seized him. Hence the corpse is so rapidly put
away that it is supposed that premature cremation not infrequently
occurs. The period of probation in Mangru-Mangram depends
partly on the cause of death and partly on the sins committed
during life. The suicide is reincarnated as a beetle, and one slain
by an elephant or tiger in the form of the animal which caused the
death. The spirit of a murderer is detained for seven generations
before regaining human form. A wrong-doer is often reborn as an
animal, but when it dies human shape may be regained after a
second period of purgation. The Garo recognises no distinction
between the souls of men and animals, both being supposed to go
to Mangru-Mangram.

Many of their feasts are devoted to the expulsion of the powers
of evil. An annual rite is performed to protect the tribesmen from
the dangers of the forest, sickness, and other mishaps. The sowing
season, the time of first-fruits, and harvest (at which a representa-
tion of the head of a horse is paraded and subsequently flung into
water, apparently with the intention of dispersing evil influences),
all have their appropriate observances.

Among other beliefs the trust placed in prognostication from
dreams is noteworthy. When an evil vision is seen, the tribal
priest collects a bundle of reed-like grass, repeats spells, and strikes
the dreamer with the stalks. Then the priest and patient sacrifice
a cock on the bank of a stream, letting some of the blood fall into
a miniature boat made of the stem of a plantain, which is launched

Reviews. 263

into the water, carrying the evil with it. The cure is completed
by the patient bathing.

A small collection of folk-tales, among which is a good case
of animal metamorphosis, concludes this excellent account of a
remarkable tribe.

W. Crooke.

Short Notices.

The Races of Man and their Distribution. By A. C. Haddon.
Milner & Co., 1909. Large crown 8vo, pp. 126.

Dr. Haddon has accomplished with a large measure of success
the difficult task of compressing within a small handbook the
main principles of Anthropology. He describes the physical
characteristics on the basis of which attempts have been made
to classify the human race, and he gives a succinct account of
the various peoples of the world. The matter is, of course, very
closely compressed ; but the author has used the latest authori-
ties. So far as it goes it may be safely recommended as a useful
summary of a wide subject, and a valuable introduction to more
comprehensive treatises on Anthropology. W. Crooke.

A Worcestershire Parish in the Olden Time. Reprinted from the
Worcester Herald. Worcester, 1910. Pp. 41+ii.
This sixpenny pamphlet on the recently transcribed accounts of
St. Andrew's Parish from 1587 to 1631 indicates the useful results
which could be obtained, by a systematic investigation of such
accounts, both for future volumes of County Folklore and for study
of the origin and continuity of customary folklore. Such annual
events as the beating of the bounds, the communion on Low
Sunday, and the bell-ringing instituted after the Gunpowder Plot,
are all reflected in the accounts, and the revival of old practices
after the Reformation appears in the payment in 1621 of \s. "for
singing the carrall on Christmas Day," and in 1629 of 2s. 2d. "for
Hollie, Ivy, Rosemary, and Bayes against Christmas."

264 Short Notices.

Old-Lore Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness, and Suther-
land, Vol. II., and Vol. III., Parts I. and II., {Old-Lore Series,
Vols. II. and III.) Edit, by Alfred W. Johnston and Amy
Johnston. Viking Club, 1909-10.

Folklore students should keep themselves in touch with this and
other publications of the Viking Club, or they will miss many use-
ful notes. The Parts of the Old-Lore Series before us include
articles on " Orkney Folk-lore," " Some References to Witchcraft
and Charming from Caithness and Sutherland Church Records,"
and " Tammy Hay and the Fairies," and short notes on witchcraft,
fairies, 'forespoken' animals, counting-out rhymes, "casting the
heart," New Year songs, etc. Other matters of interest are articles
on the odal families of Orkney {i.e. families whose estates were
subject to odal sub-division), and lists of Shetland names of
animals etc. We heartily welcome this active co-operation in the
collection of a section of British folklore.

As Old as the Moon. Cuban Legends : Folklore of the Antillas.
By Florence Jackson Stoddard. New York : Double-
day, Page & Co., 1909. 8vo, pp. xxv4-205. 111.

This volume is a collection of the myths and tales of the Antilles
and the Lucayas or Bahama islands, from allusions and brief
mentions in historic chronicles and narratives of the Spanish
conquerors' adventures etc. Unfortunately the author gives no
references to her sources and no exact translations of the original
passages, but says " these fragments I have had to piece together
bit by bit, feeling for what was unsaid to complete what was given
for a consistent whole " (p. x). In consequence, a book contain-
ing much interesting folklore of a little-known people has been
rendered of small use to the student by the setting and burnishing
processes which have certainly made it an attractive " story book."

Books for Review should be addressed to

The Editor of Folk-Lore,

c/o David Nutt,

57-59 Long Acre, London, W.C.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
Vol. XXI.]. SEPTEMBER, 1910. No. III.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20th, 1910.

The President (Miss C. S. Burne) in the Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting were read and
confirmed.

The election of Mr. G. G. Knowles, Mr. S. Lister Petty,
and Mr. J. G. Tolhurst as members of the Society, and the
enrolment of the Lund University Library as a subscriber
to the Society, were announced.

Mrs. H. Hamish Spoer read a paper entitled " Notes
on the Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin"
(pp. 270-95), and in the discussion which followed Dr.
Rivers, Mr. Tabor, Mr. Lovett, and Miss Rashleigh took
part. Mrs. Spoer exhibited a number of bridal necklaces,
amulets, and other objects illustrative of her paper.

The following objects were also exhibited : —

By the President and Mr. E. Lovett: — Some hand and
evil-eye charms from Arabia and elsewhere.

By Mr. A. R. Wright : — A collection of fifty finger-rings

VOL. XXI. S

266 Minutes of Meetings.

from Tibet, Palestine, Syria, Nineveh, Persia, Ashanti,
Southern Nigeria, Arizona, and England.

The meeting terminated with a hearty vote of thanks to
Mrs. Spoer for her paper.

The Secretary reported the following additions to the
Library since the meeting held on June i6th, 1909, viz.: —

The Bleeding Lance, by A. C. L. Brown, Ph.D. ;
Ethnographie Eiiropee7ine, by H. Bourgeois ; Rude Stone
Implements from the Congo Free State, by Prof F. Starr ;
and Renward Cysat, 1 545-1614, by Renward Brandstetter —
presented by the respective authors : Proceedings of the
Davenport Academy of Sciences, Vol. XII., presented by
the Academy; Annual Progress Reports of the Archceo^
logical Stirvey of the Northern Circle, 1908-9 / Progress
Report of the Archcsological Stirvey of India, Western
Circle; Annual Progress Report of the Archceologicat
Survey Department, Southern Circle; Report of the Archceo-
logical Stirvey of India, Frontier Circle ; Report on the Ad-
ministration of the Government Museum and Connemara
Public Library ; Akbar's Tomb, Sikandarah, near Agra, by
E. W. Smith, M.R.A.S.; and Castes and Tribes of Southern
India (7 vols.) — all presented by the Government of India;
Unwritten Literature of Hawaii, by Emerson ; Tlingit
Myths and Texts, by Swan ton ; Antiquities of the Mesa
Verde National Park, by J. W. Fewkes ; Ttcberculosls
amongst certain Indian Tribes of the United States, by
A. Hrdlicka ; and The Choctaiu of Bayou Lacomb, St.
Tammany Parish, Louisiana, by David L. Bushnell, Junr.
— all presented by the Bureau of American Ethnology :
Die Stellung der Pygmdetivolker in der Entwicklungsge-
schichte des Menschen ; Die Mythologie der austronesischen
Volker ; and Grundlinien einer Vergleichung der Religio7ien
und Mythologien der austronesischen Volker, by P. W.
Schmidt, presented by the Administration of Anthropos ;
and Analecta Bollandiana, Vol. 28, Parts 3 and 4, acquired
by exchange.

Minutes of Meetings. 267

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11th, 1910.
Sir E. W. Brabrook (Vice-President) in the Chair.

At a Meeting of the Society held this day, the Chairman
proposed, Dr. M. Gaster seconded, and it was unanimously
resolved, that the President be requested to draw up, sign,
and submit to H.M. the King, on behalf of the Folk-Lore
Society, a loyal and dutiful address, expressing the sorrow
of the members on the occasion of the demise of His late
Most Excellent Majesty King Edward VII., and their
devotion to His Majesty King George V., upon whom
the Crown has devolved.

The meeting then adjourned until Wednesday, June ist.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1st, 1910.
The President (Miss C. S. Burne) in the Chair.

The minutes of the Meetings of April 20th and May
nth were read and confirmed.

The President reported that, in pursuance of the resolu-
tion passed on May nth, she had prepared an address to
H.M. King George V. on the lines indicated in the
resolution, and had forwarded the same to the Home
Secretary for presentation (p. 228).

The President announced the tragic death of Mr. Alfred
Nutt by drowning in the Seine, near Melun, in attempting
to rescue his son, on May 23rd, and moved a resolution in
the following terms, viz. : — " That this meeting has heard
with the deepest regret of the sad but heroic death of their
old and valued colleague, Mr. Alfred Nutt, one of the
original members and founders of the Society, to which his

268 Minutes of Meetings.

services have for so many years been rendered without
stint, and desires the Secretary to communicate to Mrs.
Nutt an expression of their sincere sympathy with her and
her family in their melancholy bereavement." The resolu-
tion was seconded by Dr. Gaster, and carried unanimously.

Mr. Longworth Dames read a paper by Mr. F. Fawcett,
entitled " Odikal, a method of killing among the Muppans,
a hill tribe of Malabar," and some notes on certain death
ceremonies observed by the same tribe. He also exhibited
some blunt arrows and an " Odikal stick " used in the
killing process, and a bamboo water vessel employed in
one of the death ceremonies. These objects were sent by
Mr. Fawcett, and presented by him to the Society.

Mr. T. C. Hodson read a paper entitled " Some Naga
Customs and Superstitions" (pp. 296-312).

A general discussion on the two papers followed, in
which Dr. Gaster, Mr. Tabor, Mr. Longworth Dames, and
Mr. W. W. Skeat took part.

Mr. A. R. Wright exhibited the following objects from
India, viz.: — Amulet given to pilgrims to shrine of Jaggan-
nath ; talisman in form of a face in relief and containing a
MS. and thirteen garnets, twelve rough and one polished ;
a decorated betel-nut cutter with mirrors ; a copper " foot
of Vishnu " with symbols ; three copper talismans worn on
the person and prepared according to the horoscope ; large
copper hand on brass-cased wooden staff, carried in pro-
cessions ; shrine with decorated folding doors ; and tiger's
claws mounted below a silver case containing a very hard
cement mixed with tiny white and red beads and silver foil
and cuttings ; and, from Ceylon, the horoscope of one
Dingaros, the casting of which cost £2.

The meeting concluded with hearty votes of thanks to
Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Hodson for their papers, to Mr.
Fawcett for his gift of objects to the Society, and to
Mr. Wright for exhibiting his objects of folklore interest
from India and Ceylon.

M mutes of Meetings. 269

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15th, 1910.

The President (Miss C. S. Burne) in the Chair.

The minutes of the Meeting held on June ist having been
read and confirmed, the President moved, Dr. Gaster
seconded, and it was unanimously resolved, that a rule be
added to the Rules of the Society as amended at the
Special General Meeting of the Society held on January
17th, 1900, in the terms following, viz. : — " In all proceedings
by or against the Society, the Society shall sue and be sued
in the name of its Secretary for the time being."

A letter from Mrs. Nutt was read acknowledging the
vote of condolence passed at the last meeting.

The election of Mr. H. J. Rose and Mr. G. Pendlebury
as members of the Society was announced.

The death of Major McNair, and the resignation of
Earl Beauchamp, were also announced.

Dr. Westermarck read a paper entitled " Moorish Beliefs
and Customs," and in the discussion which followed Mrs.
Spoer, Capt. A. J. N. Tremearne, Mr. Calderon, Dr. Gaster,
Mrs. Grant, Mr. G. L. Gomme, Mr. Longworth Dames,
Mr. Shearman Turner, Miss A. Werner, Major O'Brien,
and the President took part.

Some amulets against the evil eye suspended in the
doorways of small shops at Naples were exhibited by Mr.
E. Lovett, and a collection of amulets and votive offerings
from Italy and Corfu by Mr. Hildburgh.

Mr. F. Fawcett exhibited, and presented to the Society,
a tally stick and a hand-made pot from Malabar, Southern
India.

The meeting terminated with hearty votes of thanks to
Dr. Westermarck for his paper, to Messrs. Lovett, Hild-
burgh, and Fawcett for their exhibition of amulets and
other objects, and to Mr. Fawcett for his gift of objects to
the Society.

NOTES ON THE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS OF
THE BEDU AND FELLAHIN.^

BY MRS. H. HAMISH SPOER (A. GOODRICH-FREER), F.R.S.G.S.

{Read at Meetings April 20th, 19 10.)

I, The Bedu.

It is not surprising that the marriage customs of the Fellahin,
— or agricultural population, — and still more of the Bedu, —
or desert, nomadic population, — of Palestine should show
traces of the remotest antiquity. On the other hand, it is
also natural that in the course of ages, and by reason of
change of place and the admixture of alien elements, such
customs should have been subjected to many modifications,
affecting different districts in various degrees, so that the
invariable custom of one village or tribe may be wholly
alien to the next, and even in so small a country as Pales-
tine,— about the size of Wales, — it is not fair to assert or deny
the existence of any usage without extensive and continuous
study, opportunity for which is not always easy to obtain.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to such observers as Burton,
Doughty, Baldensperger, Goldzieher, Musil, and Euting.
Among women, I know of none whose observations are
of value except Miss Rogers, (who wrote in the middle of

^I wish to express my thanks to Musil's Arabia Fetrcea, vol. iii., and to
Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta. I need hardly say that without the
help of my husband much of the contents of this paper could not have been
observed and recorded. I am also greatly indebted for practical help to Herr
Elias Haddad, Teacher of the Syrisches Waisenhaus, Jerusalem.

Marriage Ctistoms of the Bedii and Fellahin. 271

last century), and, within a limited geographical area, Lady
Burton.

The nature of marriage usages depends, primarily, upon
the status of man and woman respectively, and the con-
ditions of the social organisation under which they lived
during the period of their development. The Semite races
lived, as the Bedu still do, in tribes, the basis of which was
blood-relationship, and the end to be kept in view that of
increase in the number of fighting men and marriageable
women. The tribe was a compact whole, and this con-
ception of solidarity required that the woman, with her
children, — (named by her according to her own tribal usage),
— should remain with the clan to which she belonged. She
had the right to dismiss her husband at will, and the
children were traced by descent from the mother only. Of
this we may expect to find certain traces.

Gradually, however, the matriarchate gave place to a new
system of regarding the descent of the child as from its
father, and the woman followed her husband to his own
tribe, thereby losing all rights over herself. The husband
now assumed a new position. He was called her ba^al ^ or
owner, and was in a position to divorce her at will. The fact
of being an alien among her new surroundings was in some
degree an element of weakness, but at the same time a con-
dition of security in a race in which the sense of kinship
is, as among the Semites, enormously strong and reaching
far beyond the third and fourth generations. To injure
her was to arouse her tribe, to whom that of her husband
had to account, so that she could not receive physical
injury nor be sold as a slave. It seems at first sight sur-
prising that a people with so strong a sense of relationship
should be willing to hand over women of their blood to a
stranger, to whose will she was entirely subject. In pre-
Islamic times, however, — as now, — her own family received
a considerable payment, usually in camels or small cattle.

^Cf. Hosea, c. ii., v. i6.

272 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

The Bedawi of the present day receives a proposal for the
hand of his daughter in some such phrase as "Thou hast
come to buy of me my hver." The price among the better
classes, especially in towns, has now come to be rather of
the nature of a marriage settlement, and much of it accrues
to the bride herself. Not wholly, however, as will be seen.
This prematrimonial pledge, of which we read as far back
as in the history of the negotiations by Eliezer on behalf
of Isaac, was in some sense a pledge of security for the
woman, but it was, in large degree, an actual purchase.
Women had a definite value, especially in the desert. The
Bedu, unlike the Semitic town-dwellers, have very few
children. The conditions of life are hard, food of the
scantiest, and girl-children succumb to their hardships
more readily than boys. To this day, the bridal price
of a woman varies not only according to her rank and
appearance, but also according to the district to which she
belongs. It was this scarcity and costliness that led to the
necessity for the capture of women. Of this there are still
certain symbolic traces. The last time it occurred in fact
was after the withdrawal of the French in 1798. As a
general rule, the person of a woman is always respected, —
among the Moslems.

It is to the humane teaching of the prophet Mohammed
that the Arab woman owes the removal of many of her
disabilities, and he specially required the fair treatment of
captured wives, — insisting upon the equality of all believers.
The old Arab poetry is full of contempt for the children of
such marriages, and Mohammed did not succeed in estab-
lishing the principle in his own day, when to be called the
" descendant of a slave " was the last insult which could be
offered to the haughty sons of the desert. Time, however,
brings its revenges; now, in the towns, some of the noblest
Arab families of our own day are proud of the traces of obvious
admixture of Abyssinian or Nubian blood, as evidence of
long descent and prosperity, — of relationship with those who

Plate XII.

BARGAINING P^OR THE i5RIDE AMONGST THE BEDU.
MUSA, A A\llV/OR PROFESSIONAL SINGER.

To face p. 272.

Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin. 273

could afford to keep slaves.^ The agriculturist Fellahin
" smiles at the claims of long descent," but the Bedawi still
boasts himself " the son of a woman with a white forehead,"
and holds the maxim, — " If you cannot find an equal match
for your daughter, her best place is the grave." Needless to
say an unmarried woman, unless physically defective or
evil spoken of, is practically unknown among Moslems.
" Take a woman of a clan," they say, " even if she be on a
mat," i.e., is possessed of no property but her sleeping mat.
It is the duty of every able-bodied Moslem to marry so
soon as he possesses a moustache.* It is his first duty to

* There are certain '* points " in a woman's appearance which tell against her.
For example it is held undesirable to choose a wife with " rounded heels." In
North America I believe that a projecting heel is considered a sign of "coloured
blood." Has the former the same significance?

* This point of view may perhaps be regarded as Semitic, as it is shared by
Jews and Christians, who also hold that a young man of marriageable age is
committing actual sin by remaining single. Such an one is buried in wedding
clothes, just as a Moslem dying uncircumcised must be circumcised after death.
In February, 1909, when a fierce ^meiite took place amongst the Christians of
Jerusalem, a young unmarried Arab of the Greek Church was amongst those
killed. His corpse was paraded about the town in procession, seated upright
in full wedding finery, a cigarette in one hand and a bouquet in the other, and
his father danced the wedding dance. The following song refers to such an
occasion : —

1. "Barhoom, O Barhoom !

O father of locks ! [i.e. having the abundant hair of youth.]

With your eye you beckon me !

Woe to me ! And with your hand you beckon me !

2. Barhoom is upon the roof,
And his hair is fluttering,
And the heart is wounded.

Woe to me ! It is the wound of the knife !
Woe to me ! It is the wound of the knife !

3. Barhoom is behind the door.
He is calling O youths !
The moon has set, has set.

Woe to me ! He no longer entertains me.
Woe to me ! He no longer entertains me.

4. Barhoom is not with us,

And the hair has been dyed with henna.

274 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

see that no maiden among his cousins, especially the
daughter of his paternal uncle,^ shall remain single. Among
the Bedu such marriage is even his right, and he may-
insist upon the rejection of every other suitor should he him-
self desire her, and she only has the right to refuse him.
Even after she has been assigned to another, and is already
seated upon the camel which will conduct her to her future
home, her nearest cousin may deliver her, with her own
permission.

This marriage of near relatives has the advantage^ of
ensuring previous acquaintance and intercourse, as the pair
have probably played together in childhood. Among the
Bedu and Fellahin this is not important, as the women
are unveiled with very rare exceptions, (such as the tribes
of Jumma'^in, Jayusah, and el-Baraghit), and the sexes have
free intercourse, within certain rules of decorum. Among
the Bedu and many Fellahin, all relatives on the mother's
side beyond those of the same generation are regarded as
lawful, or rather, to quote their own expression, " not unlaw-
ful." A man may not marry his paternal aunt, but may
his paternal uncle's daughter. A woman may not marry her
uncle, as he is regarded as " complete parentage " ; the
maternal uncle is, moreover, her protector, in many cases
even more so than is her father. Relatives-in-law are not

Demand and wish,

O my brother, and the wedding is doing an injustice.
O my brother, and the wedding is doing an injustice.
5. Barhoom is in the village square,
He is smoking a cigarette.
Implore you, O Sara.
Woe to me ! Rise and open to me
Woe to me ! Rise and open to me. "

Spoer and Haddad, Manual of Palestinean Arabic, etc., p. 174.

^ This is so far taken for granted that an Arab will speak of his wife as Bint
"ammi (the daughter of my uncle), whether she really holds that relation or not.

^Cf. Musil, op. cit., vol. iii., pp. 173 et seq. Disadvantages, however,
cannot be denied, from repeated marriages of consanguinity. Cf. Doughty,
op. cit., vol. i.

Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin. 275

expected to concern themselves with blood feuds, A
woman is regarded as a stranger to her husband's family.
After his death he may be looked upon by his mother and
sister only. If his wife should come near the body, it would
have to be re-washed. This was explained to me once as
being due to the fact that a man would give his wife
permission, upon his death-bed, to remarry, so that she is
regarded as divorced. Other reasons are, however, conceiv-
able. Moreover, widows are not, in general, held in high
honour. A Moslem will marry a divorced woman rather
than a widow. If she be left with young children, her
husband's brother is bound to marry her, should she be
without means or protection. If a man marries a widow
without such necessity, there is no rejoicing at the wedding,
no feast, and the men will spit in her face as she goes by to
her new home. No man may marry a widow and her
daughter at the same time. The marriage with a wife's sister
is not regarded with favour. In some tribes, e.g. the Sur, he
may marry his wife's sister after the wife has borne him a son.
Should two young people be forbidden to each other, as, for
instance, in the case of the prior claim of a near male
relative, they will, if determined to marry, escape to another
tribe, where the maiden is carefully guarded in the women's
tent while the man puts himself under the protection of the
Shech, who acts as intermediary with the tribe of his
guests ; and not until the matter has been settled are the
pair allowed to meet.

I may remark here that among the Bedu maiden
purity is most jealously guarded. If a girl has consented
to her own dishonour, she is put to death, with
horrible details, by her nearest relatives. If they refused
to do this, the whole clan would be dishonoured ;
they would lose all civil rights, and would be unable to
marry their sons or daughters. I once witnessed the
funeral of the Shech of a tribe of Nowar (gipsies), a nomadic
people whom the Moslems regard as " forty times unclean,"

276 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

— pointing perhaps to their pagan origin. It was attended
by an immense crowd, including many biladiye (towns-
people), whom I was surprised to see in such association.
It was explained as being due to the respect felt for
one who had, with his own hands, unhesitatingly killed his
own daughter on hearing of her misconduct. A man who
wrongs a girl with her consent must marry her and pay
"the price of her virginity," i.e. the same sum as if he
had killed a man. Moreover, her family have the right to
harry and loot his clan during a period of eight days.

Love plays quite an important role in Bedawi marriages.
Arabic poetry tells many a tale of secret meetings, though
these are not sanctioned by convention. It is, however,
easy enough for a lad to make known his sentiments, and for
a girl to send him word enet hdss must rdsi (" thou hast
entered into the comb of my head").

" The woman is a donkey by day and a wife by night,"
say the Bedu, yet the man is, in general, considerate
of his wife and, unlike the fellah, commonly sets his wife on
camel-back when travelling, if only on account of the work
which is expected of her on alighting, when the erection and
arrangement of the tent falls to her lot. The Bedawi poet
Nimr, whose songs may be heard at every camp fire,
celebrated his first wife in 365 songs, and could not be
consoled for her death, although he tried 80 others, all
of whom he returned to their homes.

A Bedawi has very rarely two wives at a time. Baldens-
perger, the longest and perhaps the most trustworthy
observer of Arab customs, says he has never known a single
case. Divorce is easy, and, like Nimr, he may have many
wives in succession. Divorce does not carry the stigma which
it does with us, as adultery in the desert is practically
unknown. Both persons would be at once put to death. A
man who desires his neighbour's wife, asks him for her,
— naturally for "a consideration," which commonly con-
sists of the bridal money he has already paid with certain

Marriage Customs of the Bedti and Fellahin. 277

presents in addition. Many stories are related of love-lorn
Bedu who have ruined themselves by high payments on
such an occasion.

Two young people, deciding to marry, must announce
their views to their respective fathers. A straight path to
any object being unknown in the East, the father of the
youth employs a spokesman whom, with other friends, he
accompanies to the father of the maiden, and who, possibly
to forestall a rebuff, opens up transactions, rather unfairly,
in some such terms as these, — " This maiden, thy daughter,
is in the habit of running after this youth the whole day,
from the moment he drives out the herd. Her soul is
in him, and his soul in her."

The father will probably reply, — " If her soul dwells in
him and his soul dwells in her, I shall not separate soul
from soul. Listen to what she herself has to say. In case
she wishes to take him I shall give her, and blessing shall
go with her and guide her."

The maiden herself is now visited by the intermediaries,
and, if she gives her consent, she is begged to authorise
someone to act on her behalf. The same process is
repeated with regard to the youth, and, everyone having
agreed on both sides, the real business begins.'' The two
spokesmen, with the friends of the youth and maiden,
adjourn to the tent of the girl's father to consider the
financial aspect of the case. The price of a virgin is double
that of a divorced woman or widow. If the suitor belongs
to a small tribe, or is of inferior rank, he will be expected
to pay in proportion to the advantages he gains by the
alliance. The daughter of a Shech will command a
considerable addition in camels. Doughty relates that the
bride-price in the districts which he visited is very rarely

^The terms of the enquiry are interesting as a historical vestige. The
spokesman asks, in either case, — "Wilt thou take M. (or N.) the son (or
daughter) of. . .," naming his (or her) mother. Cf. the Psalmist's "I am thy
servant and the son of thine handmaid."

278 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

paid, the sum in question being then regarded as the
estimated value of the lady and the process of valuation as
honorific or possibly for future reference, as, for example,
in case she should merit divorce for physical defect or
lightness of conduct. One may not question the accuracy
of such an observer as Doughty, but such paternal liberality
would be difficult to find elsewhere. Nimr, the Bedawi
poet already referred to and a powerful Shech of the
Adwan, obtained the peerless Watha without price as a
reward for chivalrous conduct towards her, but he probably
paid the usual terms for the remaining eighty matrimonial
experiments made after her death. Even Watha, how-
ever, on more than one occasion returned at her own
caprice to her tribe, and this is a contingency to be guarded
against. The bridal price having been agreed upon, a
forfeit in case of such desertion on the part of the untamed
beauty of the desert must be arranged. This is, as a rule,
double the value of the bride, — two camels, mares, sheep,
etc., for every one of the dowry. This is sworn to in
the presence of witnesses, but, as such a condition might be
an incentive to ill-treatment, her father adds, — " If, however^
which may God forbid, thou maltreatest my daughter^
I will take her back, and thy hand shall remain empty.
This is custom and law. Neither to thy tribe nor to
thyself shall enmity arise from this." It may of course
happen that the father of the maiden refuses to give
his consent. This, however, is not an insurmountable
obstacle, provided only that the lady is willing and the
would-be bridegroom has means to pay the bridal price, as
popular feeling is in favour of matrimony as tending to the
honour and preservation of the tribe. In such a case, the
representatives, having received their refusal, will return
reinforced in numbers and bearing with them, or more
probably driving before them, the bridal price. A formal
demand is again made by the spokesman of the young
man, and on meeting a second refusal he conveys the

Marriage Customs of the Bedtt and Fellahin. 279

message to his client's father, and returns, bringing one
camel, or mare, or a few goats less than before, a process
which is repeated at every renewed refusal until all are
withdrawn, when the young man is free to take possession
of his bride, in whom her father has no further property.

The most propitious time for a wedding is the night
between Thursday and Friday, the Arabic name for
Friday being ydnt el-jiimnia'^ , or day of assembly or union.

The mother of the maiden, hitherto in the background,
now becomes important, and seven days before the
wedding erects a white flag over her tent, which now
becomes a centre of gaiety until the wedding day. The
young people meet there every evening, dancing and
performing feats of arms about a blazing fire, the elders
apart, — the men drinking coffee, the women chatting,
and the old ones possibly spinning goat's- or camel's-hair
for carpets or tent-clothes, — all smoking if means permit.

A favourite game is for the young men, with arms inter-
locked, to form a semicircle before a young girl who holds
in each hand a drawn sword. She stands at some distance
from the fire with her back to it. Stepping slowly
towards the men she sways gracefully backwards and
forwards, whirling the swords above her head. The young
men, swaying rhythmically and singing simple words of
invitation, — " O be welcome " or the like, — beat the ground
in measured time with their feet, and seek to drive her
backward towards the fire, while she defends herself with
the swords. Should they succeed, she kneels down, holding
one sword above her head ; the men also kneel, but, incited by
the onlookers, especially the women, she will seize a chance
to regain her feet and continue her dancing, driving them
away at the sword point. When exhausted, she will escape
and shelter amongst the women. Is this a reminiscence of
marriage by capture }

Another amusement is for the girls to place the bride
upon a camel and lead her between the tents to an open

28o Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

space beyond the camp. There she is feted by songs and
dances in her honour. If she does not go herself, a hayfork
is dressed up to represent her. The songs are naturally
topical, with allusions to the joys and sorrows of her posi-
tion,— the mother-in-law of course being a prominent butt.
" Thy father gave the Beloved to me, but his mother opposed.
May her death be terrible, because she did not give him.
May seven black dogs be the sacrifice for his mother on the
day of her death."

If an old man should, — as a matter often of duty, — marry
the young widow of a near relative, they will sing, —

" I'll die the worst death, but a greybeard shall never embrace
me.
His white beard is like a scorpion piercing my bosom."

The future husband, if good-natured, will reply, —

" We'll go to-morrow to the dyer, and for love's sake I'll have
my beard dyed,
" And I'll be a fine fellow, who has no equal among the
Bedu." (Trans, from Musil, op. cit., vol. iii.).

Or, again, —

"I am smeUing the odour of the sweet trefoil,^
She who is above has taken my understanding,
And he who goes to the hot bath
Hears the tinkling of the anklet.
I am smelling the odour of the sweet trefoil,
I am smelling the odour of ginger,
Spur on thy horse, my brother ; spur on,
Spur on thy horse which is noble." •

Another song is, —

" O paternal uncle, said Ralye,
A lady of the costly ones is costly.
I take none except the Bedu

The father of the head-cloth which is put on askance. [This
is a sign of jollity; cf Plate XII.].

''Sweet herbs, or a necklace of cloves, are always a part of the bride's
toilette.

Marriage Customs of the Bedii and Fellahm. 281

A rider against the mob of Arabs

At mid-day, the middle of the noon-rest. \i.e. attacks them
when they are most alert.] ^

On the eve of the wedding-day the bridegroom is
seated before a small tent, generally new, to receive the
offerings of his friends, for which the " friend of the
bridegroom " gives thanks. The bride meanwhile is
arrayed by her mother, and, when all is ready, she is
led forth upon a camel, her maternal uncle on the saddle
behind her, — she crying all the time " O my father ! O
my brother ! " This is now a mere conventionality, but
may have originated in real fear or anxiety, the presence
of the mother's brother having originally been intended
to prevent flight. When she reaches the bridegroom's
tent, the remaining portion of the bride-price is handed
over. Then a sacrifice is brought, and killed at the tent
door, the bridal pair being sprinkled with the blood.
This is the religious act which makes them man and
wife. During the bustle which follows while the offering
is being prepared for the feast, the bride seizes the
moment to escape into the desert, where she hides
herself for a longer or shorter time according to her
temperament and inclination. The husband must seek her
out, taking with him food and water. For at least six
days he alone knows of her hiding place ; in some tribes
she is hidden for as much as half a year. Not to fly
directly after the sacrifice would be considered shameless,
and her children would be born cowards.

On returning to the camp her first act is to go with
her friends to the well to wash her husband's clothes.
It is now her turn to receive presents, which remain her
inalienable property. She also receives a lamb, which she
herself slaughters and consumes with her friends. She

'•'These two songs are from Spoer and Haddad, Manual of Palestincan
Arabic etc., p. 177.

282 Marriage Customs of the Bedii and Fellahm.

is invited by all her neighbours, and, after four days, she
invites her parents, and is then "at home" to all and
sundry.

II. The Felldhin.

The Fellahin, the agricultural population of Syria, are
a people of, for the main part, other traditions than
those of the Bedu, by whom they are despised as mere
labourers whose rough stone or clay-built villages and
toilful lives, albeit more comfortable surroundings, contrast
widely with the freedom, the hospitality, and the lawlessness
of the tent-dwellers of the desert.

With the Fellahin, the first consideration in seeking for
a wife is utility. The Shech of a village would not
marry his daughter to one of lower rank than her own,
unless the bridegroom offered him considerable financial
inducement thereto, but another man has other aims.
His wife must help him to wrest a scanty living from
the over-taxed field and orchard ; she must have physical
strength and capacity for work, or, failing that, she must
have property of her own ; if these qualifications be
lacking, she must at least be clieap. To have more
than one wife at a time is very unusual among the
townspeople or the Bedu ; to the Fellah an additional
wife means an extra hand at farm-labour, and the
potential mother of wage-earning sons. Matrimony is so
much the more incumbent upon them. A Fellah, however,
will not willingly give his daughter to a townsman ;
trousers are an indecency, and a hat prevents one from
looking up to heaven. A girl is often betrothed at birth.
" Blessed be the bride " is the form of announcement of
that event. A neighbour possessed of a boy a few years
older will probably claim her at once. This is a formal
engagement. The fatiha is read, and a sacrifice offered.
A popular arrangement is to affiance a boy and girl of
one family to a girl and boy of another. Such a mutual

Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin. 283

accommodation economises at the wedding festivities, and
saves the bridal price. There is no age Hmit among
the Bedu. I have witnessed the marriage of boys of
twelve to girls of ten. At the other extreme, a man is
considered marriageable, however old, so long as he
possesses enough vitality to move his toes. For a girl to
do so is considered a gross violation of decorum, however
natural where all are barefoot. It is one of the charges
brought against the " frenji," the European population, who,
unconsciously or indifferently, defy many rules of oriental
etiquette, and then are astonished that the natives do
not respect them !

A Fellah likes to have at least one wife with fair skin,
white teeth, and, as his poets express it, eyes like a
gazelle and mouth like a quarter of a mejidi (a coin of
about the size and value of a shilling) ; for the rest,
muscular development is the main thing. There are
certain villages, wliich I could name, known for furnishing
wives good and cheap, — and plain ; others, where women
are cheap and — less refined as to morals and manners.

Boys and girls even, not to speak of older suitors and
sought, have a voice in the selection, but there is less
love-making than in the desert. There is less leisure,
and the needs of life are more pressing. The spokesman,
visiting the girl's father, opens matters with " We have
come to seek your daughter and relationship," — to which
he replies what may be translated " According to your
wish," but which is literally "According to your purse."
Coffee is then offered. The etiquette of coffee is a
science in itself In general, to decline it is a deliberate
insult or declaration of enmity On this occasion, however,
it may, in some districts, be declined as an intimation
that the preliminaries are not satisfactory, or that diffi-
culties are foreseen.

Business proceeds somewhat as follows, — " We come to
you as petitioners, — and are not to be refused by God or

284 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

you." " Your arrival be welcome," replies the father,
" Darkness be behind you, and moonlight before." Each
party then state the benefits to be conferred according to
their own point of view, and at great length. Finally the
father of the maiden assents, in the words, " I am the
camel, — you are the knife," and, after this declaration of
entire submission, proceeds to ask some exorbitant sum.
" You will destroy the house ! " cries the spokesman indig-
nantly, and one by one his party arise and go out, trailing
their long cloaks behind them, in sign of displeasure.
The relatives of the girl, — should they at heart desire the
alliance, — will now pursue them, and with flattery and
promises persuade them to return. All re-seat themselves,
and a lengthened haggling begins, as is inevitable in any
bargain in the East. As in ordinary affairs a man who
wishes to buy a horse, or a piece of ground, or even a mat,
will ask for a reduction in the name of his children or of
the salesman's children, or, if he be a Christian, in the name
of the Messiah, so now the spokesman will say, — " Now
how much will you take off for the sake of God ? "^"^
Something having been conceded, he asks again and again
for the sake of your father, and of mine, of our paternal and
maternal uncles, children, grandchildren, and of this or
that friend. Serious offence is sometimes taken by some
friend whose name has not been mentioned, or on whose
account some sum, inadequate to his consequence, has been
remitted. Then the women appear, and one by one claim
that, for their sake, a reduction shall be made. Finally
some sum commensurate to the bridegroom's means, if not
to the lady's value, is arrived at, and the spokesman accepts
the terms in the phrase, — " The girl is priceless, but we will
give you so many thousand piastres for her," (2000 ps. equal

i°For the following scenes cf. Dr. H. H. Spoer, "A Fellah Wedding at
Siloam," Biblical World, vol. xxvi.. Ft. i; "Some Contributions to the
Interpretation of the Song of Songs," Jonr?ial of Semitic Languages and
Literature, vol. xxii., Pt. 4.

Marriage Customs of the Bedii and Fellahm. 285

about ^25.) The sum varies from 20 to 80 napoleons.
Out of 80, quite a usual price, about 30 go to the bride,
3 or 4 to the mother, 2 or 3 to the maternal uncle, and
various smaller sums to other uncles, to brothers, sisters,
etc., so that the father's share is somewhat reduced before
it reaches him. The price among the Fellahin is usually
paid, at least in part, in coin, and the rest may be in small
cattle, wheat, olives, butter, etc. — not in camels or mares as
among the Bedu. The price is often paid off by degrees
during the engagement.

It will be observed that the bride has no part in the pre-
liminaries. Rebecca, who was asked, — "Wilt thou go with
this man?" belonged to a nomad race, and to the nobler
desert life.

The fatilia, the opening Stira of the Koran, is repeated
by a religious teacher, and the two are now legally husband
and wife, though the wedding may not take place for some
time. During this religious ceremony much evil may be
effected by the ill-disposed, and various amulets, usually
blue, are hung about the person of the bride. It is also a
good plan to return home by a different route. One serious
source of danger was but lately disclosed to me. If a
person, while uttering curses, scatters flour upon the ground,
it is almost as difficult to avert them as to collect the flour,
and any one suspected of evil intentions should be carefully
watched. Also the bridegroom should not step over water
for seven days. At length the date for the marriage is
fixed, and a week of festivity follows. The convenient
season for Fellahin weddings is after the harvest, when they
have leisure and ready money, but the actual date, among
Moslems and Christians alike, is arranged after consultation
with a sorcerer who consults the stars. These sorcerers are
Nowar (gipsies) or Moghrabis (Moors) as a rule, though a
few may be found in the towns.

All expenses of entertainment before the engagement
and the marriage fall upon the bride's family. It is,

286 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

however, customary for visitors who are not relatives to
contribute something, — from a handful of coffee beans to a
sugar loaf. All such offerings are collected by a friend
selected for the office. The expenses of the marriage are
defrayed by the bridegroom.

The favourite entertainment on all joyous occasions, such
as return from war, or a long journey, or a pilgrimage to
Mecca, and above all at weddings, is the dancing round a
tree, the people carrying torches. If the occasion be in the
summer, the family of the bridegroom makes a fire in an
open space ; if in winter, in the guest-house of the village
Here sit the older people, men and women apart, and the
men according to age or rank. Mats are spread, or
carpets called hujra {pi. hujdr) which are woven on the
table-land above Hebron. The unmarried men, the friends
of the bridegroom, and even the bridegroom himself, wait
upon them, handing coffee and water-pipes. The services of
a poet and story-teller are engaged, who accompanies himself
upon the rabdbe, the one-stringed fiddle, often with really
beautiful effect. His stories are mainly of the deeds of
heroes, Bedu of course, Zir, Jassas, Zarrati, and others, of
which the villagers are never tired. The young men,
placing themselves in a row before their guests, vary the
entertainment by songs of love and heroism, the hearers
encouraging them by exclamations of "Allah! UUah 1 !
Ull-aw, — aw ! ! ! " in increasing appreciation. At times they
dance, clasping each other's hands or each pair united by
grasping the end of a handkerchief, some of the spectators
clapping their hands in time to the movement, which is
backwards and forwards and is called sahye. Simple as it
looks, this dance has a strict etiquette, and must be learnt.
Sometimes one will play upon the shalinoy, (a double pipe
with stoppers), and another execute a sword-dance, or they
sing an impromptu song, — one giving out a line or couplet,
and others adding to or repeating it in chorus. These songs
are generally topical, and sometimes very amusing. This

Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin. 287

goes on from three to six nights, called laydlil-fdrah, ("Joy
evenings"). No business maybe introduced during these
first days. Then comes a period known as rddwetel-ab,
(" the satisfying of the father "). The two fathers or their
representatives meet, apart from the guests, and give
accounts mutually of what has been received. An account
written down at the time ran thus, —

Thou hast received three mejiddt from Hassan es
Silwani at Beit Jala.

Also the wages of a ploughman for five days, — 5 mejiddt.

Also two rottles of meat (about 12 lbs.).

Also a sheepskin ; a sack of straw ; two pairs of horse-
shoes.

Come, think ye this insufficient .? Name a worthy sum
of us, and render yourself what is meet, yet not all which
you intend to give.

At this stage things are expected to go smoothly and
with mutual compliment, but a night or two later there is
plain speaking. The whole business often begins again,
and outsiders are called in to adjudicate. Finally peace is
restored, and festivities continue.

But a third stage is yet to come, called " the satisfying of
the relatives." These tend to multiply in number and in
their claims. It may even happen, as at a wedding at
which my husband was present, that, when the bride
is ready to start, some small brother or sister may shut the
door of the house till he or she gets the 'abbai, or shoes,
or veil desired, — or the bride herself may decline to start
till assured that she has received all her rights. It is
during this period that the bride and her companion, or the
bridegroom with his friends, repair to the town for the
wedding outfit, which is an occasion of great rejoicing and
merriment.^^ The procession is joined by many friends on

"The wedding dress of a Fellaha bride is somewhat costly, but, unless
she buys European materials, will last almost a lifetime. In some villages, and
especially in Bethlehem and Ramallah, the gown and veil are beautifully

288 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fella kin.

the way, and the purchases are brought home in gaily
painted chests upon the head of one or other of the
company in turn, with songs and rejoicing, the women
announcing the occasion by the zagJiareet}'^ a trilHng cry

embroidered by her own hands. Even amongst Christians in some of the
convent schools these beautiful handicrafts are encouraged. I obtained the
following estimate from a bride in Beit Jala : Silk robe, 50 francs ; embroidered
jacket, 50 fr. ; "abbai (mantle), 25 ; sash, 6 ; shatwe (headdress), 10 ; veil, 30 ;
total, 171 fr. (nearly £"]). This does not include silver ornaments for head, neck,
wrists, fingers, and possibly ankles, nor the decoration of her headdress, which
consists of the coins received from her father, husband, and friends, pierced and
strung in rows. Such a headdress weighs from 8 lbs. upwards, and is worn
night and day. The coins are never removed, except in case of real necessity,
nor have I ever heard of a woman being robbed of them.

12 The following are examples of the zaghareei, (Spoer and Haddad, Mavual
of Palestinean Arabic etc., p. 176) : —
For the bridegroom : —

Aeeee. O N.N., O rose upon a tree !

Aeeee. O Prince, O son of princes !

Aeeee. And I have prayed the Lord of Heaven that wealth come to thee

by trading.
Aeeee. Mayest thou rule, and prescribe, and receive the Wazirs !
L6olool6olee !
For the bride : —

Aeeee. O lady, O N.N., mankind has not borne the like of you !

Aeeee. O Gillyflower opened in a glass !

Aeeee. O Thou with whom is God and Chadr abool-'^ahds \i.e. St.

George, patron saint of the demented].
Aeeee. O Those who protect you against the eyes of man \i.e. the evil
eye]. Loolooloolee.
For a bridegroom and bride who are orphans : —
Aeeeee. O dish of mulberries
Aeeee. Upon whom the spiders have rested.
Aeeee. O God, may He protect the children who are orphans,
Aeeee. Who have grown up and built houses. Loolooloolee.
Song when making the wedding cake : —

1. I am going and returning to my fatherland,
The virgins met me in the valley.

They said to me good-day, {lit. health] O camel-driver,

Thy camels are from Aleppo,

Their halters are silken and beautiful.

2. I am going and returning to Neeha.

The virgins met me at Reeha [i.e. Jericho, or any names which
rhyme].

Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin. 289

of joy inimitable by European throats. During this same
visit to the town the bride is perhaps taken to the bath,
where she is specially treated for the occasion, and whence
she emerges with henna-stained nails and hair, and face
shining from the entire removal of the down from the
skin. The etiquette of the bath is most elaborate, and
I have decribed it elsewhere.^^ The Jinn which haunt such
places have to be propitiated, the evil eye averted, and the
future kept in view. She must be confronted only with
what is pleasant, a young mother, actual or prospective,
must accompany her, and her companions should be
healthy, good-looking, and gay.^"^ If the period be that of
the new moon, as is generally desirable, proper measures
must be taken to secure a favourable month. On seeing
it, (or him as the Arabs say), it is proper to observe, —
" God's new moon has appeared in his exaltedness. May
it be for us a blessed new moon." Then, taking up a stick
and breaking it, " We have broken a stick under the eyes
of the envious." If any person is present of gloomy
countenance or who is ill, the bride should turn away her
face, and some pleasant object, such as a napoleon, should
be held up before her.

The bridegroom usually goes to the house of a friend to
be prepared and arrayed for marriage. In a country
where the beard, (even in the future), is an object of
importance, even of veneration, shaving is of course an
important ceremony. This is done by the friends of the
bridegroom ; each takes a share, to bring good luck to
himself.

When the wedding day comes, all the men of the village
meet at some open space and amuse themselves, firing
at a target being a favourite sport. Their range is often
up to 60 metres ! The prize may be a pair of shoes which

'^ Inner Jernsale?)i, pp. 305-7.

^^A Christian (whether bride or not) must never bathe on Sunday, on pain
of losing the benefits of baptism.

290 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

the bridegroom brings on a horse, or possibly the head
of the lamb which has been slaughtered for the evening
meal. This meal may also be of a sacrificial nature,
especially if the young pair are to inhabit a new house,
in which case the animal is killed on the threshold,^^ and
the blood is sprinkled on doors and windows, — if the people
are Christians, in the form of a cross. If no such sacrifice
is made before occupying the new house, Azrael will claim
his victim, — one of the occupants must die. The bride-
groom, however, generally takes his bride to his mother's
home ; unfortunately mothers-in-law have earned the same
reputation in the East as elsewhere.

Music is always an important feature at a wedding. The
guest is expected to offer a coin to the musicians. In the
course of the evening the wedding gifts are offered to
" the friend of the bridegroom," (St. John, iii. 29), who is
master of the ceremonies during the whole day. He is
seated on the floor of the bridegroom's house, with a cloth
in front of him into which the gift is dropped after being
announced. The same guest will give his offering a part at
a time, (as who should give half a crown in sixpences),
for the sake of hearing his name proclaimed again and
again, and his generosity lauded. The amount is often
greatly exaggerated in proclamation.

The real amount is, however, noted, and the same sum
will be returned to the giver on any future occasion when
it is his turn to be the recipient. This reduces the question
of " presents " so definitely to an affair of loans that the
custom is dying out among the well-off. We lately
received an invitation from a townsman with the post-
script " No compliments." Then comes the evening meal,
served on the ground. Honoured guests may be provided
with spoons.

The bride meanwhile receives her guests in her own

^^ H. H. Spoer, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xxv.,
pp. 312-13, vol. xxvii., p. 104.

Marriage Customs of the BediL and Fellahin. 291

home, taking no part, however, in the entertainment. It is
etiquette for her to take no interest in anj^thing, to eat
nothing, and even in some places to make a pretence of
trying to run away. The guests, however, amuse each
other with dance and song. The songs are mainly in praise
of the bride, and prophetic of her future happiness. When
the night is far advanced and all claims satisfied, the cry is
heard, — " Behold the bridegroom cometh, — go ye out to
meet him ! ", and the procession, bearing lights as of old,
sets forth to meet that of the bridegroom, and to conduct
the bride to her new home.

She is mounted upon a mare ; in sign of submission,
because the horse is stronger and more powerful, is the
explanation of some. Others, with more probability, say
because the mare is so much more valued, and the honour
paid to her is the greater. Another informant said that
the first reason was Christian and the second Moslem.
In either case the animal is led by the father or uncle, for
the maiden, heavily veiled, is unable to guide her steed. A
near relative, uncle or brother, must also hold her on, as
both of her hands are occupied with the sword which she
holds before her face, and which is often brought for the
purpose by the bridegroom decorated with flowers and gilt
stars. In some districts two relatives, walking on either
side, hold each a drawn sword, the two points meeting over
her head, the idea being that of protection in either case.

The procession is accompanied by crowds of friends,
the young men shooting and performing sword feats,
the girls clapping, and the matrons trilling their
zaghareet. A complication may arise if the bride and
bridegroom belong to opposite factions, one being
Kais and the other Yemdniy^ Though the difficulties

^^ Formerly the whole country was divided between these two factions, the
origin of which is lost in the mists of folklore. Now only certain villaf'es
keep up the tradition. A rich Shech of the race of Antar of Bab-el-wad, the
point where one leaves the Judaean hills and enters the Plain of Sharon, had a

292 Marriage C^tstoms of the Bedu and Fellahin.

now raised are not so great as formerly, still I have myself
seen the wedding festivities suddenly turned into a scene
of confusion, and even danger, several persons being
wounded, in the Christian village of Ramallah, before the
Shechs from the next Moslem village of Bireh could be
called in to make peace. The standard of the Kais is red,
and that of the Yemdni white, and the bride must adopt
the colour of her husband's faction. It was formerly neces-
sary that she should wear a veil of one colour lined with
the other, which could be turned according to the village
through which she passed.

An interesting vestige of matriarchate times is that, in
some districts, the maternal uncle will cause the stoppage
of the entire procession by refusing to allow the bride's
steed to go further, until he receives a gift of \x\o\\&y from
the bride s father, which he hands over to her. All presents
to the bride are her own property.

Of course there are variants of these proceedings. In
some places the bride walks in the procession, other details
being the same. Again, where her new home is distant, the
procession may take place by daylight.

On nearing the bridegroom's home, he and his friends
press forward so as to be ready to receive her. Meanwhile
her maidens take the opportunity for her further adornment,
painting her face, colouring her eyebrows, and affixing
patches of gold paper to her cheeks and forehead. The
veil is replaced, as only the bridegroom has the privilege of
removing it.

Arrived at the house, he lifts her from her horse, and

beautiful daughter. Her numerous suitors were reduced to two, — one
favoured by herself and the other by her family. Confident in the prowess of
her lover, she consented to marry the one foremost in various prescribed
feats of valour. The rivals were always equally successful, and finally she
decreed that they should be tested in single combat. Both were killed, and
the girl drew a dagger and slew herself between their bodies. The two
factions are still fighting out the question. (More prosaic interpretations
are also vaguely assigned.)

Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin. 293

she yields up her sword to him in sign that he is, for the
future, her protector. Then with his long knife he removes
the veil, and gives her a present of money, in gold or in
silver niejidat according to his means, laying each piece
against her forehead while the chief bridesmaid extends her
long sleeve to catch them as they fall. Each piece is offered
with the phrase, — " This is for the love I bear to thy father,"
to thy uncle, mother, etc., as the case may be. The father
and mother, relatives, and friends, in turn, do the same.
Her face is then washed, and the decorations removed and
burnt.

Symbolic actions follow, varying with the district. In
some places the bride sticks a piece of dough on the door-
way, and sometimes upon her own forehead, in token that
she is, according to popular derivation, the lady or loaf-
giver of the house. In others she breaks a pomegranate
upon the threshold, and throws the seeds into the house ;
or a jar of water is placed upon her head, which she carries
over the threshold, in allusion, again, to her future duties.
This done, she slaps the bridegroom on the hand, and the
parents and friends slap him on the back. I do not know
whether this is the modern version of an ancient usage, not
yet wholly extinct, though in modified form, by which the
bridegroom felled his wife with a club in token of the sub-
mission required of her ?

In some districts, again, a female sheep or goat is
sacrificed by the bridegroom upon the roof, over the nuptial
chamber. The bride is sprinkled with the blood.

The bridal pair are now placed upon a raised seat. Pots
or bunches of sweet basil, clove pinks, or other sweet-
smelling herbs, are laid near by, and supper for all guests
is prepared at the bridegroom's cost. For seven days the
bride does no work. Breakfast next morning is prepared
by the bridesmaids, but during the whole week the house
is not cleaned. To violate this rule would be to cause the
dc;ith of one of the inmates. A festival diet, mainly of

294 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

mutton and rice, is eaten during the whole week. On the
evening of the sixth day the father of the young wife sends
her a present known as " es-suhber It consists of a kid or
lamb divided into pieces, each upon a separate tabak or
straw dish ; also bowls of uncooked rice, and of semn or fat
for cooking. These are covered with red gauze. He sends
also a wadded jacket, a woman's ^abbai or mantle, three or
four tydb (dress lengths) of red or blue cotton, and some
head-coverings. These are brought by the female relatives
with song and dance, generally taking a long way round
by way of announcing the festal occasion. Then there is
supper for all, and in Christian villages much drinking,
and, at a later hour, friends of the bridegroom will bring
presents, generally of a domestic nature, such as dried figs,
raisins, dibs or grape-honey, coffee, and the like. These are
known as inkoot-es-sdbi'^-, or presents of the seventh.

These may amount, in all, to three or four hundred
piastres (fifty, sixty, or seventy shillings), and in rich
districts even to one thousand piastres.

On the seventh day the young wife leaves the house for
the first time. When the pair pass the house of a friend,
he will rush out and strew their path with sweet things,
raisins or figs. An enemy takes the same occasion to
express his sentiments in less savoury fashion.

Most of these customs obtain whether the happy pair be
Christian or Moslem. There are, of course, variants. 'J he
bride, if of the Latin Church, will wear a crown of flowers
on her wedding day ; if of the Greek Church, both wear
crowns of gilt. These are put on in church. Modern
converts learn to despise the customs of their race, wear
caricatures of European clothing, and celebrate the occa-
sion in travesty of P2uropean manners. They do not come
within the sphere of our present discussion.

The married life of the Fellaha is not so secure and
happy as that of her Bedawi sister. Her marriage is less
often a matter of choice, and in the lack of tribal feeling she

Marriage Customs of the Bedtt and Fellahin. 295

is less assured of protection. She may even be beaten by her
husband with the same freedom as the woman of the same
class in England and elsewhere, so long as serious injury
is not inflicted, — in which case her family must interfere.
" The flesh belongs to the husband, but the bones to the
clan," is an aphorism commonly recognised. The family,
however, will not encourage her to apply for divorce, as
they would have to return half of the bridal price. If
the husband divorces her, he receives nothing back. The
village Shech is sometimes called upon to interfere in cases
of incompatibility, and he counsels the pair like a local
magistrate.

My own experience, and I could give man}' illustra-
tions, is that even in the Fellah house "the grey mare is
generally the best horse," and divorce in this class is very
rare. The Fellah, unlike the Bedawi and townsman, as has
been already said, is not averse from polygamy, and so
has not the excuse which in their case sometimes leads to
divorce, — i.e. failure of offspring.

Divorce for misconduct such as comes into our own
courts is unknown, and even serious incompatibility
(generally among the harem) seldom leads to more than
separation. The wife merely returns to her family, taking
her personal property with her, and perhaps a sheep or
two, and, amongst the Bedu, a camel,, in addition. The
law of divorce requires that, in case the pair should wish
to re-unite, she must marry some one else in the interval.

So, for the most part with fair confidence, we may leave
our bridal pair to be happy ever after.

A. M. Spoer.

SOME NAGA CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS.

BY T. C. HODSON, EAST LONDON COLLEGE.

{Read at Meeting, June ist, 1910.)

When I was busy with the census of 1900, a Naga^
once asked me what the census was for. Shrewdly enough
he suspected an increase of taxation, but I was not to be
drawn. I was near the truth when I told him that the
Maharani was so interested in her Naga subjects that
she had sent me to find out how many of them she
ruled over. It must have seemed to my questioner that
I was engaged in rather a useless task if I was merely
satisfying the curiosity of that distant mysterious per-
sonage whom many of them believed to be the wife
of John Company, and therefore called Kumpinu, the
feminine form of Kumpini. We are living in an age in
which social problems are rigorously investigated by
statistical and scientific methods. The interest of the
State in the conservation and enhancement of the forces,
social and economic, which repair continuously the wear
and tear of the fabric of society, is now vivid and direct.
More and more are we devoting our energy to the task
of organising and preserving the raw material of the

^ Naga is generally derived from Assamese nauga (naked), and has nothini;
to do with tidg (snake). The Naga tribes and their congeners, — Abors,
Mishmis, Daflas, and Miris on the north ; Kukis and Lushais on the south ;
Chins and Singphos on the east ; and Garos, Kacharis, Tipperahs, and
Mikirs on the west, — speak dialects which are members of the Tibeto-
Burman group of Indo-Chinese languages.

Some Naga Customs and Superstitions. 297

future. We talk of eugenics as if it were a new thing,
but I suspect that it has a long history behind it. Simple
communities such as those of the Naga hills, as I think,
do indeed recognise the social importance of these vital
processes. Their recognition may at best be but imperfect,
indirect, and subconscious. The rites they perform as
organised communities in the active presence of these
processes afford indications both of the nature of, and
of the degree of intensity of, their feelings towards social
phenomena. These rites are the outward expression of
the faith that is in them. They are customary rites, and
have therefore a peculiar extrinsic validity. As Hobhouse
acutely remarked, — " At a low grade of reflection there is
little room for doubting that at bottom custom is held sacred
because it is custom. It is that which is handed on by
tradition and forms the mould into which each new mind
is cast as it grows up. Thus, while for society it is custom,
for the individual it has something of the force of habit
and more than habit." ^ I seek to show that in this
small area, where with all its diversity of custom there
is substantial homogeneity of culture, the end which these
rites serve is often consciously realised as a social end,
beneficial to them as organised communities. We have
views as to causality in the physical world which are
not theirs. The means they employ have in our eyes
no sort of quantitative or qualitative relation to the
ends they seek to compass.

^^ JFelix qui potuit rerum cognescere causasT

Naga communities are simple in structure. Here and
there are groups of villages in political subordination to
one large and powerful village, but Meithei rule has broken
up and put an end to such troublesome agglomerations.
The village groups of Mao and Maikel offer something

- Transactions of the Third Congress for the History of Religions, vol. ii.,

P- 435-

298 Some Naga Czistoms and Superstitions.

more nearly resembling tribal unity. They are believed
to be related, and legend attributes their present sepa-
ration to a religious schism. In each case there is a
common gennabiira, or priest-chief, who exercises great
but strictly constitutional authority in matters of ritual.
Yet in matters of coiffure and costume there are tribal
resemblances which, taken with linguistic identities, serve
as tribal marks. To certain food tabus extending to
members of tribes I shall recur presently. As a general
rule it may be said that each village forms an inde-
pendent, self-contained group. The natural environment
makes for the multiplication of such small self-contained
communities. Yet, where colonisation is recent, the colony,
— if we may call it a colony, — preserves its connection
with the mother village by regarding the same marriage
regulations. A Naga village consists of a number of clans,
never less, as I found, than three, and sometimes as many
as twelve or more. The usual story is that the village
was founded by a band of brothers, who are often the
eponyms of the clans. These clans each occupy a well-
marked area or quarter of the village, and are not
intermixed. Marriage is forbidden within the clan, so
that the married women in any clan are always brought
in from outside, from some other clan or from some other
village. The tendency is for women to be taken from some
clan in the same village rather than to introduce women
from other villages, and they tell me that they would
not marry women from a village whose dialect they do
not understand, thus employing a rough linguistic test
which in practice answers well enough. In one village I
found that the four component clans were arranged in
pairs. Each pair formed an exogamous whole, and the
reason advanced for this was that they were related.
Each clan is composed of a number of families, each
owning a separate house. There yet remain villages where
exist Bachelors* Halls, institutions which are, I fear, doomed

Some Naga Customs and Superstitions. 299

to disappear, as modern methods of taxation tend to intro-
duce modifications in the economic environment, with
corresponding changes in social structure. The Bachelors'
Hall is an institution which is found in many parts of the
world. In this area it is universal in some form or other.
In Meithei literature reference to the PdkJionvdl and to
the Ni?igonvdt, to the Pdkhonlakpa, to the Nahdrakpa,
and to the Ningonlakpa is constant, thus proving that
there they had the Bachelors' Hall, the Spinsters' Hall,
and officials to look after the young unmarriageable males,
the young marriageable males, and the unmarried girls.
From the Nagas of the north ^ to the Lushais* on the
south comes evidence that these houses for the men were
strictly forbidden to women.

It seems that married men were bound to live in the
Men's House till old age, visiting their wives by stealth
and at night only. I know of cases where the men live
in the Men's House till marriage, and we have, as I have
pointed out above, the household system where the pater-
familias, his wife, and children live together under one
roof, until the sons and daughters marry and depart.
This separation of the sexes, whether in its modified form
or in its severer mode, is a social fact of importance
related to social structure. The earliest differentiation of
function in economics follows the line of cleavage by sex.^
In these communities where the men must wive themselves
from another clan, the women, if married, are ex Jiypothesi
daughters of another clan, and, if unmarried, are at
least prospectively associates of some other clan. The
permanent element is therefore small. Yet women are

^Peal, "On the Morong," (Bachelors' Hall), The Journal of the Anthro-
pological Institute etc. , vol. xxii. , p. 248.

* Shakespear, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute etc., vol.
xxxix., p. 374.

^Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, vol. i., p. 173; Westermarck, The Origin
and Development of the Moral Ideas, vol. i., pp. 633 et seq.

300 Some Naga Customs and Superstitions.

recognised as part and parcel of the village or clan in
which they happen to be, whether as wives or as daughters,
since some of the cultivation rites demand the active pre-
sence and co-operation of the women of the village. The
beginning and the end of the cultivating season are cele-
brated by a village genna or communal festival, the most
conspicuous feature of which is the tug-of-war between
the women and the girls on one side and the men and
the boys on the other. What is with the Nagas a serious
business has become among the Meitheis a mere pastime,
since we find mention in the Meithei Chronicles of the
pleasure which barbarous royalty took on occasion in
similar tugs-of-war.

Eschatological belief often affords valuable light on
customs otherwise difficult of explanation. It emphasises
the division of the village communities by sex. Colonel
Shakespear tells us that Pupaola always shoots at women,
and that the dead at whom he shoots drink of the waters
of Lethe, and are never minded to return to earth.^
The heaven which serves as a baby factory, as Mr.
Hartland calls it, is open only to certain meritorious
males, especially to those who have been beloved of
many women, a belief also found among the Garos.^

Among the Mao Nagas is held the belief that a grim
deity stands at the gates of heaven and guards against
intrusion, so that the warrior must needs enter the king-
dom of heaven by violence and fight with the warder of
its gates.^ This belief regulates mortuary ritual.^ The
implements put in a woman's grave are certainly of very
little use for combat with a stalwart deity.

In fact the line of cleavage is primarily by sex, both in
heaven and on earth. The Naga heaven is divided into

^ The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute etc., vol. xxxix.,
pp. 379-S50.

■^Playfair, The Garos, p. 104.

^ Lijiguistic Survey of India, vol. iii., part ii., p. 461.

^ Arckivfur Keligionswissenschaft, vol xii., pp. 447 et seq.

Some Naga Customs and Stiperstitions. 301

many mansions, which afford an interesting-, though indirect,
light on their own views of social segmentation. It is true
and natural that these beliefs are not very distinct and clear.

Here and there in this area, but not among Naga tribes,
we find legends that the first man was born from an q^^.
As a rule the Naga legend brings their progenitor from
the bowels of the earth, — already a married man, accom-
panied by a family. Since then, the supply of ready-made
families has ceased. When working at the eschatological
beliefs of the Nagas recently, I observed that a belief,
perhaps rather a tattered belief, in the reincarnation of
the good and the annihilation of the bad was a cardinal
feature of their system. I have been assured that incon-
testable proof of the truth of this belief, that men when
dead return to life, is afforded by the startling likeness
which children are seen to bear to some deceased relative.
Naga society does not always renew itself with new
material. It sometimes gets old stuff back again from
the stores of vital essence. Colonel Shakespear tells us
how the Lushais believe that, " after a certain period in
one of these two abodes of departed spirits, the spirit is
born again as a hornet and after a time assumes the form
of water, and if, in the form of dew, it falls on a man,
it is reborn as his child.^^ I have pointed above to beliefs
which seem to give warrant for the view that only men
are eligible for the intermediate heaven from which return
to earth is possible. We find among the Naga tribes that,
if a woman died in childbirth, (an event of rare occurrence),
the child was never allowed to live, because they believed
it to be an evil spirit, a disembodied ghost, incarnated
in the mother whose death it had caused.

What is the explanation of the rule which forbids un-
married girls to eat the flesh of male animals.^^ I own

'^'^ Ethnography of India, pp. 225-6.

^^ Cf. Marett, The Threshold of Religion, p. 104 ; Anthropological Essays
presented to E. B. Ty lor etc., p. 228.

302 Some Naga Customs and Superstitions.

that I lean to the suspicion that Naga ideas as to the
conception and procreation of children might not be found
to be altogether in accord with modern gynaecology.

Age and physical and social maturity ^^ mark important
stages of social cleavage. McCulloch^^ noted that children
up to eleven or twelve years of age and old people in
Manipur are exempt from Hindu laws of dietary, and
throughout this area the stages of society are reckoned
by age, and physical and social maturity are marked by
external and characteristic distinctions of coiffure, costume,
and ornament.

Up to puberty the children are marked by having their
hair closely cut all over, except for a tuft at the point of
the skull. At puberty boys and girls alike let their hair
grow, and it is often said that it is disgraceful for a girl
to have a baby of her own before she has got long hair.
Among the Tangkhuls, in those villages in the north where
the women are still tattooed, this is done at puberty. The
girls generally go to another village, if possible one in
which they have a maternal uncle. They are kept under
strict tabus, and the operation is so painful that it is often
done in instalments. The object of the practice of tattooing
the women was given to me as the desire to identify their
wives in the afterworld. It is therefore a pre-nuptial or
quasi-initiatory rite. If women do not go to heaven, the
practice would fail to achieve its object. This incon-
sistency may be more apparent than real. Perhaps there
is a side door to heaven, — *' For ladies only." Since the
men of the northern Tangkhul villages were renowned for
their prowess, it was observed that their daughters were
eagerly sought in marriage, as any harm to them was
immediately and fiercely avenged. I was once touring
among the Southern Tangkhuls, and met some lads
wearing their hair combed down in front in the way of

^- Van Gennep, Rites de Passage, p. 94.
^^McCMWoch, Account of JiIan}iipoi-e etc., ^. 17.

Some Naga Customs and Superstitions. 303

the unmarried girls in Manipur. Some of them had
black spots on the sides and tip of the nose, and I
learnt that these lads had reached the age for marriage
and thus advertised the fact. Among Nagas the custom
of head-hunting is associated with and regarded as proof
of physical maturity, and therefore as evidence of social
maturity and fitness for marriage,^'* which is paralleled by
an interesting survival in Manipur. The eldest son of the
Raja is required, on attaining the age of twelve years, to
take the silver-hilted dao which the king of Pong, the Shan
kingdom, presented to King Khagenba, and to go into
the jungle and there to cut twelve bundles of firewood,
and bring them home as proof of his courage and
strength.^^ Among the Tangkhuls we have, if the house
tax has not by now entirely obliterated it, a custom by
which, on marriage, a man succeeded to his father's office,
if his father happened to be a village office holder, and
also occupied his father's house, turning out the old people,
who seem to have been allowed to return after a short
while and then to live in an inferior portion of the house.
The effect, if not the purpose, of this custom, in so far as
it relates to village offices, is to secure continuously for the
office a man in the plenitude of his strength, physical and
mental. No one who is physically deformed or of weak
intellect is allowed to hold office. The Tangkhul Nagas
also assume the ring at puberty, and in some Kabul villages
there is a village genna or communal rite for the unmarried
boys and girls. Dr. Webster asserts that the presence in
a primitive community of the men's house in any one of
its numerous forms points strongly to the existence, now
or in the past, of secret initiation ceremonies.^^ I cannot
say that I have definite knowledge of any puberty or
secret initiation rites performed in the Bachelors' Hall.
I think it reasonable to regard the facts I have cited as

"Cf. vol. XX., p. 141. 1^ The Meitheis, p. 114.

^^ Primitive Secret Societies, p. 16.

304 Some Naga Customs and Superstitions.

evidence of an organised appreciation of the importance
of this stage in the growth of the individual tribesman, so
that social and physical maturity are here not far apart.

A distinction is made in Naga ethics between the married
and the unmarried, as if they regarded marriage as not only
in its social aspect a mark of full tribesmanship, but from
another and more intimate point of view as in itself a liberal
education. Theft, we learn, is more severely punished when
the offender is a married man than when he is a callow
youth.^'^ The subtleties of the lav/ are thus not unknown in
the rarefied atmosphere of these hills. In mortuary ritual,
too, a marked difference is made between the married and
the unmarried, and their respective duties are strictly
defined.^^ The relations of the sexes before marriage are
lax in the extreme, while after marriage the strictest
chastity and connubial virtue are exacted. Davis, a most
competent observer, declares that the prenuptial " lover
would, as a rule, belong to the girl's own khel and would
be a man whom it would be impossible for her to marry
in any case." ^^ For the moment I only wish to emphasise
the fact that a change in status is effected by marriage
and brings with it an absolute and unconditional liability
to the fundamental laws of this form of society. No
village would tolerate in its midst a couple who sought
to live together as a married couple when they were
forbidden to do so by the law of exogamy. Indeed I
have often asked directly what would happen if a couple did
thus break the law and live together. I was assured that
such a thing was impossible, that, if it did happen, they
would be driven from the village and be outlawed, outcast,
at the mercy of anyone who might choose to kill them, and
that, were such marriages permitted, some dire mysterious
misfortune would surely happen to the village. If a young

1' McCuUoch, op. cit., p. 17.

^*Hodson, Archivfur Keligionsvoissenschaft, vol. xii., p. 449^

^^ Assam Census Report, 1891, vol. i., p. 250.

Some Naga Customs and Superstitions. 305

couple do not regularly complete the marriage ceremony,
and omit that important part the payment of the price, they
are not allowed to eat or drink in the house of the girl's
parents till the price is paid to the last farthing. Here, at
least, there is no natural repulsion between those who have
been brought up in close intercourse.^^ Marriage is the fact
which for ever after keeps them apart.

All their gennas or communal rites are accompanied by
special food tabus, followed by communal feasts at which
men and women eat and cook apart. The little society is
thus temporarily resolved into its primal elements, which
are reaggregated at the end of the ceremony, when their
normal commensality is resumed. Nervous exaltation is
conspicuous on these occasions. I have often wondered
whether savages such as these are more sensitive than civil-
ised men to nervous crises and physical changes. They
brood on them, and by anticipation enhance their intensity.
They augment their sensibility by sudden alternations of fast-
ing and feasting.'^i These festivals {gennas, as, after Davis,^^
they are specially termed in Assam), are characterised by
temporary food tabus, by temporary disturbances of the
normal social relations, commensal and conjugal. They are
the means by which all events possessing social importance
are celebrated. I shall have to recur presently to this aspect
of their life, but now seek to draw your attention to the
permanent food tabus which mark the lines of social struc-
ture. In emphasis of the sexual solidarity of these com-
munities, we find that, among the Tangkhul Nagas, women
and girls are not allowed to eat dog. In other villages pork
is forbidden to them and allowed to the men. As a general
rule, the food regulations are relaxed for young children and
for the aged. Unmarried but marriageable girls are not

20 Cf. Thomas, "Origin of Exogamy," Anthropological Essays presented to
E. B. Tylor etc., p. 20.

2^Cf. Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, p. 47, on " Hyperaesthesia."
^'^Assa?n Census Report, 1891, vol. i., p. 249.

3o6 Sojne Naga Customs and Superstitions.

allowed to eat the flesh of any male animal. Women with
child may not eat the flesh of any animal that has died with
young. To them is forbidden the flesh of any animal that
has died a natural death as we classify natural deaths, and,
by a rather interesting amplification of the category of
natural deaths, of any animal that has been killed by a
tiger. Here and there I have found evidence of permanent
food tabus affecting single clans, and therefore separating
them from other clans in the same village. There are whole
groups of villages which are subject to a common food
tabu, which serves, therefore, as a rough test of tribesman-
ship. The Tangkhuls do not eat or keep goats. The
Maram villagers do not eat pork, and have imposed this
tabu on villages which they have conquered. They tell a
tale about it which, though doubtless aetiological, seems to
indicate a connection between food tabus and the law of
marriage. Another important element in the structure of
society is sharply and permanently demarcated by food
tabus. To the priest-chief, whose sanctity is of a high and
special order, necessitating many protective measures, are
denied many articles of food otherwise allowed to his fellow
villagers. His wife is equally subject to these food tabus,
so that she bears a double burden, that of her sex and that
of intimacy with so distinguished a lord and master. The
first fruits of the cultivation are forbidden to the village
until the priest-chief has put his hand to the harvest, thus
rendering it available for all.

Even the food tabus which for a moment I classified as
temporary may be categorised legitimately as permanent,
because they are imposed not by individual choice or
caprice, but of necessity, whenever events occur which are
held to demand such measures. They are relaxed when
the crisis is overpast, and are therefore as much part and
parcel of the laws of society as are the permanent tabus.
No doubt many of them "depend," as Tylor observed,-^

"^^ Early History of Mankind, p. 131.

Some Naga Customs and Sziperstitions. 307

"on the belief that the qualities of the eaten pass into the
eater," but they have been incorporated into the fabric of
society, and have therefore and thereby acquired a special
significance. Salomon Reinach invites us to accept tabu
as the basis of religion, " un ensemble," as he calls it, "de
scrupules qui font obstacle au libre exercice de nos facultes."
He goes further, and asserts that " la sanction prevue, en
cas de violation du tabou, n'est pas une penalite edictee par
la loi civile, mais une calamite, telle que la mort ou la cecite
qui frappe le coupable." ^'* The criticism which I have to
offer on this passage, and especially on the concluding
portion of it, is that the penalty attaching to a breach of
these social laws is in this area distinctly and unmistakably
social, not individual. If the priest-chief eats food which
is forbidden, the village may suffer a plague of boils, or of
blindness. If a warrior eats food cooked by a woman
before a raid, the whole enterprise will go wrong and all his
companions be exposed to danger. If parents taste oil or
pulse while the hair-cutting genua is in progress, the child
will suffer. Just in this way the sin of Achan, who took the
accursed thing, brought defeat and misfortune on the
people of Israel. The strength of the genua system among
the Nagas lies, therefore, in the indirectness and un-
certainty of its sanctions.-^ A violation of a tabu on
hunting during the cultivating season would, — specifically,
— bring about a shortage of rice, but any subsequent
misfortune would be attributed to it. If all may suffer
for the default of one, it becomes the business of each
to see that his neighbour keeps the law. If not the germ of
altruism, is not this conducive to altruism } I have exploited
this social solidarity in a severely practical manner when
dealing as a judicial officer with village and other disputes.
But rarely was the penalty, death or such other misfortune
as an active imagination might suggest, invoked in their

^ Orpheus, pp. 4, 5.

^^Cf. Archivfiir Religionswissensckaft, vol. xii., p. 451.

3o8 Some Naga Customs and Stiperstitions.

oaths upon a single person. The members of his family in
ordinary matters, of his clan in more serious cases, and in
extreme matters of the whole village, were rendered liable
to the penalty invoked in the imprecation which forms so
important and characteristic a part of the Naga oath. I
did but follow their own custom, often at their own sug-
gestion.

I find that we may estimate the importance of any event
that takes place in the midst of Naga communities in terms
of genua. First, I consider the social unit affected by the
genua appropriate to the particular occasion, and then I
reckon the duration and intensity oi Xho. genna in question.
My method may not be strictly scientific, but it does at least
employ a standard measure of the country. By this method
we must place \y\.x\h gennas rather low in the scale. It costs
less to be born than to be buried all the world over. We
can carry our classification of birth gennas to some degree
of accuracy, for it is usual to hold a genua on the birth of
the young of any domestic animal in the house. The scale
has been worked out elaborately in one village, Mayong-
khong, where I learnt that chickens got one day, kittens
and puppies two days, pigs three days, and calves five days.
Only the eldest child gets as much as a calf, while the
second and other children only rank with the pigs. Else-
where the scale is kinder to man, for at Maikel the eldest
child gets a genua for a month, and the second one for
fifteen days, while a calf gets five days, and puppies and
pigs only have one day. It is often usual to vary the genua
according to the sex of the child, allowing a day longer to
a boy than to a girl. Only the parents are affected by the
birth genua, a fact of some importance as proving that the
community as a whole does not recognise any direct interest
in the event. What is also of interest is that, as among the
Tangkhuls, the father is genua for a longer time than the
mother, and that ih^ gennas are stricter in his case than for
his wife. He may not work, and the solace of a pipe. is

So7ne Naga Ctistoms and Superstitions. 309

denied to him. This genna seems to be more severe in
those villages where the husband acts as the midwife.
Among the Tangkhuls, too, the father gives the child its
first food. He chews a few grains of rice, and then puts
them in the child's mouth. Is this a sort of acknowledg-
ment of paternity ? Is it the assertion of a claim .? Is it,
— intentionally, — designed to create a bond between father
and child .-* I myself regard it as in part explained by the
fact that "C'est le premier pas q?ci cotlte'"?-^ Just as the
Gennabura sets free the new crop of rice by tasting it himself,
so the father, who is the sacrificing authority inside the
house, sets the child free to eat the staple of his adult life.
It is a rite of aggregation and ic7ie levee de taboii. In cases
where the marriage rites have not been duly completed
before a child is born, provided the couple might otherwise
marry, the father is often required to acknowledge formally
the paternity of the child, which is then allowed to live.
Were he to deny paternity, or if the couple might not
marry, the child would not be reared. Marriage has there-
fore the effect of " legitimising " the children. Is pater
qiieni nuptiae demonstrant.

At Maolong, a Quoireng Naga village, where the birth
genna for a calf lasts for a month, the same period as for a
child, I was told that the fowl killed by the father when
the child was born was eaten by the mother, and that the
father was not allowed to taste it. In the same village I
learnt that no one was allowed to eat the flesh of a dog or
goat that has been sacrificed for them. In other villages
the diet of the proud parents during the birth genna is fish
and salt. Yet again in others fish and fowls only are
allowed. The Kukis are not so strict about the rule
enjoining the parents to have no contact with the rest of
the village, for they allow drinks to be given by them to
all, except the unmarried. Nearly all sacrifices are in part
used as occasions for taking omens, and the fowl killed at

^^ Cf. Van Gennep, Kites de Passage, pp. 249-50.

3IO Some Naga Customs and Superstitions.

the birth genna affords excellent omens. They watch the
convulsive struggles of its feet in the death agony, and, if
the left foot crosses over the right foot, the future is believed
to be favourable for the child. I have been told that the
sacrifice of the fowl was in worship of the inumg lai, the
household deity, but I realise that by employing a Meithei
term my Naga informants may quite unconsciously have
given their own custom a colour and meaning which it does
not properly possess. Meithei is the tingica franca of this
part of the hills, and in nearly every village there is some
one who knows Meithei well enough to act as interpreter,
for the multiplicity of dialects is so great as to make a first-
hand knowledge of each dialect impossible. As we find
that the food prohibitions at the time of ear-piercing and
hair-cutting are intended to save the child from harm, or
rather that a breach of these prohibitions brings harm to the
child, not to the parents, it seems not unreasonable to attach
the same or a similar significance to the food prohibitions
imposed during the period of the birth genna, and to think
that the sacrifice then made may be in part an act of
worship, in part designed to afford an omen, in part to
absorb and remove impurity, and in part protective
Where, as here, a belief in evil spirits is common, women
before, during, and after childbirth are peculiarly exposed
to malignant influences, I have come across rites such as
the worship of the River spirit and of the lairen (python)
which are intended to procure an easy delivery. In some
Kabui villages I was told that an unmarried lad, — not yet
arrived at puberty, — accompanied women to the village
spring after the birth genna was over, armed with a spear
to protect his companion from evil spirits.

The h\x\\\ gcmias are entirely matters for the household,
and, if I may continue to &x^^\oy gennas as the standard of
measure, I would infer that the household is thus recognised
as a religious unit in the social structure, and that the child
is thus made a member of the household only. The

So7ne Naga Customs and Superstitions. 3 1 1

gennas for name-giving, ear-piercing, and hair-cutting
are also as a rule household ge?inas, though McCulloch
states that " in February (of each year) there is a festival
of three days continuance in which the ears of the
children born after the last festival of this nature are
pierced. This festival loses its interest for those who have
frequently participated in it, and is looked forward to
chiefly by those for whom it is new."^''' I am not sure from
this whether or not the festival is looked forward to by the
babies, but my reason for quoting the passage is to show
that it may mean that this was a village genua like the
other festivals which he was describing, not, as I found it
elsewhere, a household genua. I find that at Maolong, a
Kabul village, there is a village genua for unmarried boys
and girls held annually (which may be a rite of initiation,
and, if so, demands further investigation), and one for
cutting the children's hair. As an example of the variety
in local custom, I may say that my notebook shows that at
almost the next village the child's hair is cut during the
birth genua, and that the ear-piercing takes place during
November or December at the mangla tha, the genua when
the annual ceremony on behalf of the dead is performed.
But there is no departure from the rule that the birth genua
proper extends to the parents only, and is purely a house-
hold affair. The marriage gennas are similarly private
matters, but the clans of the contracting parties take part
in the rites. The smallest social unit that takes part in a
death genua is the clan, while there are occasions on which
the participation of the whole village is obligatory on
account of the manner of the death of the departed
tribesman.

There are some odd items of information about children
which may perhaps be mentioned. There seems to be a
general agreement that twins, boy and girl, forebode bad
luck. Some say that twin boys bring good luck to the

27 op. Cil., p. S3.

312 Some Naga Customs and Superstitions.

whole village, while twin girls keep the good results to
their parents. Some again say that children born out of
wedlock bring good luck, but I suspect that they mean the
children of people who are free to marry, since the marriage
laws are strict enough. They interpret a dream of putting
a hen in a basket as meaning that a girl child will be born to
the dreamer soon. Dreaming of water is always a good
sign, and we may connect this with the worship of the river
spirit performed before the birth of a child. To dream of
a tiger is good at marriage, but of bad import at other
times. To dream that an unmarried girl has a child is
usually interpreted as a sign of good crops or of other
prosperity.

In this sketch I have tried on a small scale to bring birth
customs into relation with social structure viewed from
several aspects, and, while I am fully conscious of the
many gaps in my information, due perhaps to the diffi-
culties under which my work was carried on, yet I think I
have shown the main features of the rites which express
the interest of Naga society in the processes which repair
the ravages which death causes in its fabric.

T. C. HODSON.

OCCULT POWERS OF HEALING IN THE
PANJAB.

BY CHARLOTTE S. BURNE.

Mr. H. a. Rose, on his last visit to England, handed
over to the Folk-Lore Society a number of miscellaneous
notes on folk-medicine collected for him by his Indian
correspondents. It was suggested that I should classify
and arrange them for publication in Folk-Lore, a proposal
to which Mr. Rose readily assented. He has read the
manuscript and added explanatory footnotes.

The leading feature of the collection is the idea of the
" virtue " of certain persons, places, and formulas in the
cure of disease.

This virtue is inherent, not merely in certain individuals,
but in whole families, or in the whole of the natives of
certain villages, to whom it has descended from some
eminent ancestor, or has been communicated by some
friendly saint or Fakir ; and contact with some person or
persons so gifted is the essential feature of most cures. It
is found sufficient by itself, without the aid of charms,
medicines, or ceremonies. Thus, we are told that : —

"The Bhagwani Machhis (fishermen) of Rajanpur are said to
have inherited the power of curing a throat disease called gal pere
by touching it with their hands thrice. They read nothing, and
use no medicine. They are said to have possessed the power
for eight or ten generations."

" The Bhuttas (a Jat tribe) of Rajanpur can cure galpera and
saiighri, (both diseases of the throat), by merely touching the

314 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

place with their hands. They inherited this facuhy from their
Fir (Mohammedan saint) some six generations back." (Dera
Ghazi Khan.)

"Any male born in the village of Mohiuddinpur Thirana in
Shat Tahsil, or in Paiwant in Tahsil Karnal, can cure rheumatism
in the knee by merely touching it."

** Any male Jat ^ born in Diwan in Tahsil Panipat, of the family
of Sahni Jat, can cure colic simply by touching the patient's
stomach."

" Any male Bairagi of the village of Pardhana in Tahsil Panipat
can cure tumours by touching them with his big toe within the
precincts of the shrine of Gunga Das." (Karnal.)

The limitation of place in the last item points to the
source whence the wonder-working power was derived.
The next is an interesting example of inheritance from
a female ancestor : {satt, it need hardly be said, conferred
sanctity, which involves wonder-working) : —

"The members of a family of Madaha Banias (the trading
ckss) at Batala cure ringarwah (pain in the legs etc.) by a touch
of the hand. This power was conferred on them by a woman of
the family who became sati ; and it has become hereditary in the
family." (Gurdaspur.)

Healing powers can be communicated by one individual
to another not related to him : —

" In the village of Panjgirain, Tahsil Batala, a Jat has received
from a Fakir power to cure wad (a kind of ulcer). He touches
the ivad with his feet seven times, and the patient is cured. He
takes no fee." (Gurdaspur.)

" One Ahmad Dudi of Rajanpur says that a Saniasi Fakir
taught him to cure genr (a disease of the stomach) by rubbing
it with his hands." (Dera Ghazi Khan.)

Perhaps this last item may really imply instruction

in some kind of massage, rather than the communication

of an occult power. If so, it is the only instance of the

sort recorded in the notes. In the following case the

power is individual, not communicated or inherited : —

^ An important tribal caste of peasant proprietors, many of them Sikhs
in religion.

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 315

"At Rohtak town there is an old widow who has a great reputa-
tion for the power of curing fever, which she acquired because she
married three husbands in succession. This is said to be a
common belief in India. The patient, or some one sent on his
behalf, drinks water from her hand, and is thereby cured."

Touching with the hand or foot is not the only method
of bringing about contact between the healer and the
sufferer. The gift of food or drink, as above, breathing,
spitting, and rubbing with earth or ashes may be equally
efficacious : —

"In the village of Narli, Tahsil Kastlr, there is a Brahman
who has the power of curing anyone who is suffering from pauri
(yellowness of the eyes). The patient is cured by eating khir
(rice cooked with milk) cooked by the Brahman." (Lahore.)

"The Soni Khatris^ of Nangroha in Tahsil Nawashahr in
JuUundur District have a peculiar power. Anyone who cannot
see in the night-time goes to the house of a Soni and asks him for
a piece of bread, which is given to him and which he eats. This
cures the night-blindness." (Ludhiana.)

" In the villages of Ban Bodla and Zamingai in Kasur, there
are Bodla Fakirs who received power from their ancestors to cure
dogbite by spitting in the mouth of the patient. This cure is
exercised gratis."

" The Sayyids (descendants of the Prophet Mohammed) of
Baras village in Tahsil Karnal, who are descendants of Salar
Chishti, have the inherited power of curing hydrophobia by
filling the mouth with water and throwing it over the patient's
face, and then turning him out of the village." (Karnal.)

" The Dalewani Aroras ^ of Jampur, who are Hindus, can cure
hydrophobia by spitting on a little earth and giving it to the
patient to apply to the bite. Their ancestors obtained this power
by the blessing of their Pir, the saint of the shrine of Dera Din
Panah." (Dera Ghazi Khan.)

"^ Khairis, high-caste traders claiming Rajput descent. Sotii or Seoni, a
got or section of the Khatris which appears to derive its name from sond,
gold.

^The Aroras are the great trading caste of the south-west Panjab, and their
gots or sections include the Dua, Dhingra, and very many others.

3 1 6 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab,

" A family of Aggarwal Banias * of the Gol goi or section, two
of whose members reside at Batala in the Gurdaspur district and
two in Amritsar, have the inherited gift, said to have been con-
ferred on their ancestors by a Fakir, of curing swellings of the knees
and jaws. The material used is the ashes of burnt cowdung
{arnas). These are charmed with the breath of the curer and
then rubbed copiously on the affected part. This power, however,
is only possessed by the males of the family." (Lahore.)

" Members of the family of Govind Mahajan of Ladwi in
Tahsil Thanesar possess the power of curing enlarged glands
(bodh, kachhrdlt, or kanpera), by blowing cowdung ashes on the
patient and then rubbing them in." (Karnal.)

"The Jagu-pota Nais (barbers) have the power of curing lict
{herpes or ringworm) by rubbing ashes on the patient on two
or three days." (Jullundur.)

Other methods of cure may perhaps be best described as
aggravated forms of healing by touch : —

" Chuk, a pain in the loins (lumbago ?), is cured by
Sadanas (Aroras) of Jampur, who take hold of the patient by his
loincloth and push him forward thrice; by the Manjotha Jats of
Jampur, who put a clod of earth on the part which pains, and rub
it with a wooden pestle, the pain disappearing after this process
has been repeated thrice ; by the members of the family of Remal
Mai, a Dhingra Arora of Rajanpur, who only apply a part of their
clothing to the part affected and give the patient a push, thrice ; or,
if all the members of the family are absent, the patient is cured by
rubbing his back against the wall of a Dhingra's shop. The Dua
Aroras 2 have a power similar to the latter." (Dera Ghazi Klian.)

" Some Kapur Khatris of Jullundur city can cure kandd (a
swelling below the ears) by drawing lines on the part affected,
in the name of their Guril (religious teacher). This is done for
three days." (Possibly these are cabalistic symbols.)

"A family in Khan Khasa in Tahsil Raya have an inherited
power of curing hydrophobia by making the mark of a cross on the
patient's hand with some hard substance which bruises the skin,
a condition being that no other remedy is resorted to within
twenty-four hours." (Sialkot.)

^Banias are an influential mercantile caste of the East Panjab.

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 3 1 7

"The Dhandi Jats of Manakwal have the power of curing a
child under ten years of age, of any caste or creed, which has
boils or eruptions on its body, by exorcising it with a branch
of the ^/^ shrub ^" (Ludhiana.)

In the last case the virtue of the healer seems to be
reinforced by the virtue of the dk shrub, which we shall
meet with again. The next two examples involve some
rough surgery, but still it is not the means used which
effects the cure, but the person who " has the power " of
applying them : —

"The family of Gurdit Singh, zaildar (principal headman) of
Nagar, Tahsil Phillaur, has the inherited power of curing rheuma-
tism. They apply a lancet to the leg according to the season, or
to the joint where the phlegm is much congested." (Jullundur.)

"The Lohars (village smiths, low caste) of Aulain in Tahsil
Garhshankar have the inherited power of curing disease of the
urethra {ndl utar jatd hai) by boring the patient's ear."
(Hoshiarpur.)

In the following cases the power of the healer is qualified
or assisted by some condition of time, place, or ceremony,
by a food tabu, by banishment from the village, or by the
like :—

"The descendants of one Jewan Shah, Fakh- of Kirto Pindori,
a village in Tahsil Raya, are called Bodals.^ They have the
power of curing hydrophobia by reciting incantations over gur
(raw sugar), which is given to the patient, who must eschew the
use of some one kind of food for life." (Sialkot.)

"The descendants of one Bhargar, a Gujar^ of Miana Chah,
are believed to have the power of curing sciatica. Bhargar is said

^ The dk, {akk in Panjabi), or Calotropis gigantea is a plant, or rather a small
bush, which produces fleshy green beans. Ak juice {viaddr) is yielded by its
beans, and resenibles milk when fresh drawn, but soon congeals and forms a kind
of resin. It is used to cause infanticide, but, though poisonous, is also used
externally as a rubifacient in Indian medicine. The stalk and root of the dk are
used medicinally when powdered. Very little is known of the properties or
effects of the various parts of the plant, or the post-tnoriem symptoms caused
by it.

^ ^^rfa/ literally means "simple," or even "imbecile."

''A cattle-keeping tribe.

3 1 8 Occ^ilt Powers of Healing m the Panjab.

to have been a saint, and there is a beri tree in the courtyard
round his tomb. Persons suffering from any pain are told to rub
the part affected against this tree, and the gaddi-nashin (incum-
bent) of the shrine, who must be a descendant of Bhargar, recites
the verse of the Koran Al-hamd-ul-illdh etc., and touches the
part. This is repeated on three successive Sundays." (Gujrat.)

"At the village of Shah pur, Jhanjora, Tahsil Shakargarh, there
is a Lalotra Rajput^ named Kako, who has the power of curing
the disease of athra.^ The woman or child suffering from the
disease comes to him on a Sunday or Tuesday in the month of
Chet or Katak on a moonlight night. (These Sundays or
Tuesdays are called chand?ia.) Kako rubs dried cowdung on the
third right rib, at the point distant 2)4 ribs from one side,
and presses a piece of cotton besmeared with the milky juice of
the dk plant on it, so that the part rubbed may be moistened ;
but care is taken that the dk juice falls only on the part rubbed.
The charm is read before or after the process. The woman or
child is then directed to pour dk juice on the place, or to get
some one else to do so, on the following day, and this is done
accordingly. When the place gets blistered by the dk juice, the
patient applies spittle for twenty-one days, after which the disease
is cured. Kako says that this power was conferred on his family
by a sadhii (saint or ascetic) some nine generations ago. No fee
is paid, and, if any one of his own will offers gram, gur, or pice,
these are distributed among the poor or the children present on
the occasion. A child who continues thin may be cured in
twenty-one days by the same process. No other member of the
Lalotra caste can cure these diseases." (Gurdaspur.)

"In the village of Vila Bijjii, Tahsil Batala, the shareholders of
patti^^ Vila, who are Jats of the Bhindar got, received from a
Fakir the power of curing jaundice. Both the calves of the

^ High-caste Aryan claiming to represent the ancient Kshatriya or Warrior
caste.

* Athrd is said to be a disease which attacks children in the eighth day,
month, or year of their age. Obviously this is a folk-etymology from dfh
(eight). But I have seen somewhere atra (literally, bead) described as a
disease.

'"A subdivision of the village.

Ocadt Powers of Healing in the Punjab. 319

patient's legs are first bled. Next, seven &k leaves are besmeared
with the blood, and then a tila (wooden stick) is run through
them and given to the patient with instructions to keep looking
at them and to hang them up in front of the entrance of his house.
As the leaves get dried, the patient is cured. One member of
this patti must fast on the nauchande (new moon) Sunday."
(Gurdaspur.)

Sometimes the healing virtue resides in the place ivhere
the cure is performed, not in the healer himself; but on
examination these usually prove only to be secondary
instances of personal mana. The power of the original
healer has passed into his tomb instead of into his
descendants, or has been communicated by him to a well
instead of to a disciple ; that is all. Contact is still the
essential feature of the cure, and the same conditions and
ceremonies occur.

"The tomb of Mr Ghazi Sayyid is famous for its cures of
chambal {herpes). The patient must go to it on four successive
Thursdays, and rub a little of the dust of the tomb on the part."
(Locality not stated.)

"In the village called Malak Afghanan in Tahsil Shakargarh is
a shrine with ^kachc/ia (mud or adobe) building which contains the
tomb of Shah Fath Muhammad Sayyid, in the shape of a heap
of mud, and adjoining it is a well. The khdngah (shrine) and
tomb have been in existence for the last four or five hundred
years. If any one bitten by a snake can get there alive, he is
cured and recovers his senses, even if he only reaches the
boundary of the village. On arriving at the tomb a Hindu patient
himself draws water to drink, but the Fakir of the tomb gives
water from the well to a Mohammedan. The Fakir then takes
some earth (one tola in weight, i.e. about one rupee) from the south
side of the tomb, i.e. the side on which the patient's feet lie and
puts It m the water. The patient drinks the water, and the mud
which remains at the bottom (of the vessel) is applied to the bite
The patient then goes back, either on foot or on horseback, fully
cured. No charm is read. This miracle is ascribed to Shah Fath
Muhammad." (Gurdaspur.)

320 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

•* At Chiniot are a well and chaubachcha (reservoir) before the
tomb of/^rBurhan Shah. Children suffering from boils on the
head and body are brought on Thursdays and bathed there. The
water is drawn from the well by the miijawirP- The patient is
cured. No fee is fixed. It depends on the will of the relatives of
the patient to give in charity whatever they think fit."

" At the Kacha Lahori gate at the same place is the grave of
Mama-Bhanja (uncle and sister's son). Any one suffering from
swellings near the ear {kanpera) takes earth from the grave from
the hand of the Brahman mujawir, rubs it on the place, and
gets cured. No fee is fixed." (Jhang.)

"Children get pani-wata or warts, from birth up to three years
of age. There is a grave and well near the Cathedral at Lahore,
to which mothers take their children early in the morning, before
sunrise. They first salam to the grave, then take some mud and
rub it on the body of the child, and then bathe at the well, with
the result that the disease is cured. They pay five pice to the
fnujdwir. The water of the well is brackish." (Lahore.)

" In the village of Lakra, Tahsil Shakargarh, is the shrine of
Haji Shah Fakir, and many Fakirs act as mujawirs at this tomb.
Whenever anyone who has been bitten by a mad dog comes there,
one of the Fakirs blows on a piece oi gur (raw sugar), and gives
it to the patient, who becomes mad when the sugar is given to
him, and remains so for a day, but on the following day he
recovers his senses. The mujawirs are paid by the patient
according to his means, but a lump of gux and one ser (2 lb.)
of flour must be given. This is alleged to be a miracle of Haji
Shah Fakir, who conferred this power upon the mujawirs of this
tomb." (Gurdaspur.)

" In Nathllpura, a village near Atari, is the grave of Pir
Dabari. The mujawirs^ both Hindu and Mohammedan, have
the power of curing dogbite by giving the patient a morsel of
bread. A mantar (charm-formula) is written in Gurmukhi (the
sacred script in which Sikhs write Panjabi) on the bread, which
is then given to the patient to eat. Each patient is charged
As. 1/3 {i.e. five pice)." (Amritsar.)

^^ Mujdwir (vulg. ar), is an Arabic word used for the attendant at a
Mohammedan shrine. He ranks below the mddi-7tashin or incumbent. "

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 321

" In Peshawar near the Akhund Gate is the grave of the saint
Pir Ajaib. The earth of the grave is put on a wound on a
Thursday.^2 This is done for several days, until the wound is
cured. After the cure the mujawirs receive seven sers of oil
for burning lamps on the grave. If a man cannot learn the
Koran by heart, he will succeed in doing so if he reads on the
grave for three Thursdays." (Peshawar.)

It vv^ill be observed that, whereas the possessors of
inherited gifts of healing charge nothing for their exercise,
the ofificial guardians of sacred spots usually demand a fee,
of fixed or uncertain amount.^^

In some cases the residents at the tomb or shrine seem
to co-operate in the cure with the dead man: —

" At Zakhanke in Tahsil Pasrur is a shrine belonging to a saint
whose disciples can cure chandri (boils) by incantations and by
rubbing ashes from the tomb on the affected part." (Sialkot.)

" In the village of Samailpur, Tahsil Gurdaspur, there is an
Afghan family, every member of which is endowed with the power
of curing the bite of a dog, by giving the patient water from
his village, and, providing the dog is not mad, the bite is healed.
At the tomb of Pir Sayyid Burhan-ud-Din Bukhari, five-pice-wortli
of red sugar is taken from the patient, and the ceremony of
khatam'^^ is performed in the name of the Sayyid, and the sugar
is distributed to children. If the patient gives cash, an earthen
pitcher is brought and offered on the tomb. It is not known
when the family got this power. The tomb has existed ever since
the foundation of the village." (Gurdaspur.)

^^ Thursday is the eve of the Mohammedan Sabbath.

^''The following case may seem an exception, but one suspects an omission in
the details given. The clod of earth is probably taken from the Fakir's tomb.
Possibly, too, the possession of healing powers may depend on drinking the
water.

"A Fakir named Nihal Das has bestowed upon the family of Prem Das,
Jat of Jaura Singha in Tahsil Batala, the power of curing hajir (swollen
glands, literally a fig, and also boils in the neck). A clod of earth is given
to the patient for application to the hajir. If this is done on the Nauchandl
Sunday, the gland heals; but the patient is prohibited from drinking the water
of the village. A dhoti (loincloth) and five pice are taken from the patient
as a fee." (Gurdaspur.)

^^This rite is unknown to me. (li.A. R.) It generally means a recitation
of the Koran provided at the expense of the patient. (W. Crooke.)

32 2 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

There is a touch of sympathetic magic about the next
two cases. The old teacher's tree restores diseased brains ;
the innocent girl's white thread is an antidote to diabolical
agency.

"In the village of Sabowari is the shrine of Wadda Mian, called
Wadda Mian ka Dars. The saint opened a school, and taught the
Koran to everyone, even if deaf, blind, etc. ; for years he used to
sit under the wan tree {Salvadora oleoides) which now hangs over
his grave. A patient suffering from brain disease gets cured by
eating a few leaves of this tree. No fee is charged." (Lahore.)

"In Kasur is the grave of one Ahmad Bakhsh, darwesh, to
whom was given the power of curing aseb (shadow of a devil or j inn).
The micjawir keeps a small quantity of white kankar (nodules
of lime) on the grave, and whoever goes there is given a bit of the
kankar, which he ties with a cotton thread, prepared by a young
unmarried girl, round the neck of the sick person, who is at once
cured." (Lahore.)

The next point to be observed is that healing wells,
though often found in connection with graves, are not
necessarily associated with them ; —

" In the Gumti Bazar at Lahore, a Brahman has a well the water
of which is said to have been enchanted by a Fakir. Kanperd
(swelling near the ear) is cured by taking mud from the chaubachcha
(reservoir) of the well and by paying five pice to the Brahman."
(Lahore.)

" In Peshawar there is a well in the dharms&la (resthouse, or
hospice for pilgrims) of Baba Jagan Shah. Lepers, and those
suffering from saya or aseb, are cured by bathing in the chaubachcha
on a Sunday or saftkrdnt (the first day of the month)."

"At Kandrali, in Tahsil Jhajjar, is a tank which was blessed by
a Fakir, and by bathing in it the bite of a dog or jackal is cured.
It is also sufficient to rub the dust of the tank on the body.
Sugar should also be distributed to children."

"At Anwal in the same Tahsil, and at Chara in Tahsil Sampla,
are tanks blessed by Fakirs, by bathing in which jaundice is
cured." (Rohtak.)

Considering the reverence paid to water in the East, —
the river gods, the worship of the Ganges, and the like,— rit

Occult Powers of Healing in the Pmijab. 323

may be doubted whether these legendary Fakirs, who are
said to have given power to the wells, are not in reality
early devotees of the wells in question, whose memory
lingers at the places they themselves worshipped, and
beside which they were frequently buried. If this be so,
then in the case of the well cures we have the mana of
place existing in se, and independently of the mana of
persons.^^

The cults alluded to in the next item are not merely
local : —

"In Maheshi, Tahsil Jagadhri, is a temple of Siva, and in
Bhut Majra in the same TahsiI there is a grove of trees called the
bani (copse) of Guga Pir. Pearsons bitten by snakes are cured by
gomg to these places. The temple at Maheshi has a wide
reputation in this respect." (Ambala.)

We have seen that, whatever combination of elements,
—person, place, time, and ceremony,— may enter into a
cure, one or other of two is always present, namely the
communication of the " virtue" or majia either of a person
or of a fountain, and that either of these two may stand
alone, unconditioned by the other three. There is yet a third
form of cure which may be found by itself and unassisted
by other conditions, namely the charm-formula, sooken
or written. The question is, does the virtue of this cure
reside in the words themselves, or in the ina^ia of the
ongmal speaker, lingering in them as the scent of rose-
leaves lingers in d. pot-pourri ]2.x }

First, we will note what seems to be an instance of the
ongmal speaker of the charm. The power is spoken of
as havmg been inherited, but it is the power of narrating
a story, not the secret of a word-formula.

"A Julaha (weaver) of Jullundur city can cure 'splitting of
one side of the head' by reciting a story in the patient's ear.
I he patient cannot hear the story distinctly, but the headache
disappears. The Julaha claims to have inherited this power."

^^The parallel with the Celtic local saints will strike everyone.

324 Occtilt Power's of Healing in the Panjab.

The power of the spoken word occurs again in the
following singularly close parallel to a well-known English
cure, which is, by the way, the only mention of whooping-
cough in the notes : —

" Whooping-cough can be cured by asking a man who is riding
on a black mare for a remedy, and whatever he may prescribe
will be efficacious." (Sialkot.)

Next, some cases may be noted in which the repetition
of a charm-formula is associated with breathing on the
patient : —

"The Rajputs of Khandhala, a village in JuUundur Tahsil,
have the inherited power of curing snakebite by blowing on
the place and reciting mantras ' in a peculiar language ' over it."

"The Jats of Nangal Shayan in this Tahsil can cure wind or
phlegm by blowing on the part affected with charms on three
successive Sundays. The patient must not eat, drink, or smoke,
or even remain, in the village, but he may return after the
blowing." (JuUundur.)

" In JuUundur city a Sayyid family cures hydrophobia by
blowing on the bite a secret charm, and making the patient pass
under his (the healer's) legs."

These rather suggest that the charm derives its virtue
from the breath or voice of the speaker, an idea which
is borne out by the following case, in which the charm
and the breathing are treated as alternatives to each
other : —

"The Kanga^^ sept of Kekri Sher Shah village possess the
power of curing hydrophobia, either with a charm or by blowing
on a piece of bread by way of incantation and giving it to the
dog to eat. Sometimes they give a purgative (also)." (Mont-
gomery District.)

On the other hand, it is sometimes expressly stated that
a charm has been communicated and is not hereditary,
clearly implying that the inana resides in the words and
not in the speaker. The following are cases in which the
charm stands alone and unassisted : —

^^ Probably Khagga is meant.

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 325

"In Raslilpur, Tahsil Ambala, certain Arains (a caste of petty
cultivators) profess to have the power of curing swelling in the
stomach hy J hdrnd,'^'^ or the recitation of a charm. A family of
Rajputs in Barara, Tahsil Ambala, claims the power of curing
pain in the knees by a charm."

" In several other places individuals claim to cure snakebite by
means of charms, but have not hereditary powers." (Ambala.)

"At Beri in Tahsil Rohtak, a kumhar (potter) cures pain in
the abdomen, however violent, by reciting a secret charm. At
Shamspur Majra in Tahsil Jhajjar, a Mahajan (Bania) family,
which has been blessed by a Fakir, can cure ulcers of any kind in
three days by the recitation of a secret charm. At Talao in
Tahsil Jhajjar a Mohammedan Rajput can cure any disease of
the spleen by secret charms. A Brahman of Badli in the same
Tahsil can cure headache by similar means. At Dighal in
Rohtak Tahsil is a Jat who can cure worms in the head by secret
charms which cause the worms to come out through the patient's
nose. Several men at Rohtak cure worms in the wounds of
animals by charms which compel the worms to come out of
the wound. A schoolmaster at Rohtak cures ague by giving the
patient a secret charm written on a piece of wood ; and at
Jhajjar another schoolmaster cures intermittent fever by reciting
some secret charms over two pieces of cotton, which are placed
in the patient's ears." ^^

"These secret charms are only communicated to sons or
regular disciples, after long trial and constant attendance on those
who possess them." (Rohtak.)

We may now^ examine some cases in which the charm is
not spoken directly over the patient, but over some article
given to him by the healer, either as a cure or to be carried
as a protection. In the latter case the given article
becomes an amulet.

"The Sayyids of Sahii Lakhd in Kharian Tahsil cure hydro-
phobia, or the bite of a mad dog, by reciting the verse Allahu-
samad over some salt, which the patient has to taste twice or
thrice every morning and evening for four days. He is also

^''Literally "to sweep," (d. JJuIrd, sweeping), and so "exorcism."
^"^ So that the disease may hear them ?

26 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

prohibited from eating certain things, and given a purgative."
(Gujrat.)^^

" The Bukhari Sayyids of a village near Jalalpur Bharwala, in
Tahsil Shuja'abad, claim to cure hydrophobia if the patient
presents himself within three days of being bitten. They make
small balls of flour and place them in his hands, reciting charms
meanwhile. As the charms are read, hairs come out of the pills
of flour. These are believed to be the hairs of the mad dog, and
in a few days the patient recovers." ^o (Multan.)

" Bakshan Shah Sayyid of Dera Ghazi Khan city is said to cure
hydrophobia by sprinkling charmed water over a patient's body,
and making him pass under his legs without looking backwards." ^i
(Apparently country salt, over which the Mohammedan kalima
has been recited, is also used. H. A. R.)

"Abdul Hakim Shah Sayyid of Jampur gives water, (over which
a verse from the Koran may have been read, though this is
not essential), to a patient sufi'ering from hydrophobia to drink,
and makes him pass under his leg. This is said to cure the
hydrophobia. He is also said to cure gej'ir (indigestion) by laying
his sword on the patient's belly and placing his hands on the
sword." (Dera Ghazi Khan.)

(In the last case, the personality of the healer is evidently
the source of the mafia, and the charm is only used to
reinforce it.)

** In the Jhelum District, where guinea-worm is rife, it is cured
by certain men who repeat a charm and blow on the leaf of a
dharek ^^ tree, with which the wound is then gently wiped. This
is done several times. Another method is to tie knots in a
woollen thread between each repetition of a charm, and then tie
the thread above the wound. Or the sore is simply touched
after repeating a charm." (Jhelum.)

19 Cf. ante, p. 86. ^o cf_ kiltie, p. 83, (Gurgaon).

^' Cf. ante, p. 86. This curious ceremony reminds us of the "creeping
cures " of Europe, — the briar rooted at both ends, the holed stone, the cleft
ash, and so forth. All are probably a symbolic "re-birth," completing the
cure.

''^ Melia Azadarachta. Its leaves and fruit are officinal, and its seeds, which
are considered hot, are given in rheumatism.

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 327

" In the village of Mama Khaira, Tahsil Shakargarh, is a
Khaira Jat named Labhu, who takes a woollen thread and ties
five or seven knots upon it, repeating the name of God, and gives
it to anyone afflicted with chandri (boils). The patient wears it
on his neck, and the chandri is healed. It is said that this power
is inherited by the family from generation to generation. Labhu
cannot say how the power came into his family. The thread is
prepared on any day of the week, and nothing is taken as
compensation." (Gurdaspur.)

"The Mianas (a Gujar clan) of Mangat, who are descended
from one Chandhar, can cure scrofula by reciting a secret charm
over a thread of cotton in which several knots are tied mean-
while. The patient wears this thread round his neck for forty
days." (Gujrat.)

" Khilanda Mai Naring of Rajanpur says that a Saniasi Faktr^^
taught him a charm for curing rheumatism, and that he used
to cure the disease by giving his patients a string made of black
wool, but for the last year all his teeth have been broken and no
patient has come to him." (Dera Ghazi Khan.)

*' Members of the family of one Ghulam Bhik, headman of
Shahabad in Tahsil Thanesar, can avert an attack of tertian
fever by the following charm. The operator takes a piece of
fibre and ties in it seven knots, reciting the Mohammedan kalima
as he ties each knot. This charm is called gandi (knot), or taga
(thread), and it should be prepared two hours before the attack is
expected. A man should tie the fibre round his right arm, a
woman round her left, and before doing this a //(T^-worth of
sweetmeats should be given to the children who are present.
When taken off, the charm should be thrown into the well {sic),
as a mark of respect." (Karnal.)

Here we have the combined virtues of the healer and
the words, giving power to the sympathetic magic of the

"^ Sanidsts, a sect, or rather order, of Hindu ascetics, who, having died
to the world in initiation, are, on physical death, buried and not burnt.
Strictly speaking, a Sanidst is any Hindu who, having passed through the
three stages of life, enters on the fourth or last, which is termed sanyds or
abandonment of the world. The change in the meaning of the term is
curious.

328 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

knots to "bind" disease. The amulet so endowed is put
on with almsgiving and sympathetic ceremony, and is
disposed of, when disused, by adding it to a storehouse
of mysterious inaua, {i.e. a well of water). But on the
other hand there are cases in which the favourite cord-
amulet is powerful without knots or charms, simply from
contact with the healer : —

"All the people of Lallu Lilian in Tahsil Zafarwal have the
inherited power of curing scrofula by placing round the patient's
neck a hempen cord made with their own hands." (Sialkot.)

" The Lohars (ironsmiths) of Takapur in Tahsil Garhshankar
have the power of curing a wasting disease by giving the sufferer
a thread." (Hoshiarpur.)

Perhaps the relations of the charm and the charmer are
best brought out in the following account of snake-charming
from Jhelum, in which the holiness of the original charmers
enables them to "discover" the healing charm: —

" One of the priestly families of the Sikhs, the Sodhis, descend-
ants of the Gurils Ram Das and Gobind Singh, discovered, in the
course of their devotions, certain healing ma?iiras, and those in
wliom the power of healing by means of these resides are called
viantns. E.g. a mantra for the cure of snakebite is transmitted,
and the power is now vested in Sodhi Naranjan Singh viantA
(charmer) of Haranpur in Jhelum, The patient, if unable to
attend in person, sends a messenger, who must not tell any one on
the road of his mission. The tnantrt gives him mesmerised water
for the patient to drink. If the latter attend in person, the mantri
calls the snake to the spot where he and his patient are, however
far away the snake may be. When the patient arrives, the Sodhi
recites a mantra and he recovers his senses. Asked how he does,
he replies — "There is a snake," but no one else can see it. Then
the Sodhi tells him to look carefully where it goes, and repeats the
matitras over and over again until the snake comes and lies on a
line marked by the Sodhi on the ground near his feet. But only
the patient can see the snake, — not the spectators or the Tnantrt ;
and he shrinks from it, telling the Sodhi of its position and move-
ments. He then tells the patient to offer the snake a (real) cup of

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 329

milk. This the snake eventually accepts, delaying the more to do
so, the higher his status and descent in the snake-world. All that
passes between the Sodhi and the snake is conducted through the
patient, but the spectator can hear every word of the dialogue.
The snake is finally asked to take back his poison, and eventually
it does so, in such a way that any one may see it come out.
Lastly, the Sodhi recites a mantra to release the snake, — otherwise
it could not recover.

" Another Sodhi, Sampflran Singh, grandfather of my informant
Sodhi Parshotam Singh, possessed such sanctity that water which
he had touched with his right toe would, if drunk before confine-
ment, facilitate delivery. (This power is not, however, inherited,
but is bestowed on one who is nara kd suchchd, i.e. pure in heart.)
Further, the snakebite mantra is a secret one, and is only com-
municated by its holder when in extremis to one whom he deems
most fitted to succeed him as mantrl." (Jhelum.)

The following describes a rather similar but more simple
rite : —

"At Kastlr there is one Rahmat Khan, a police constable, who
has received from some Fakir the power of stopping a snake from
running away by putting a bit of kankar on it. He can thus
catch the snake and cure the patient by reciting some kalam over
the place where he was bitten." (Lahore.)

In several cases the secret of the charm-formula has
been disclosed to Mr. Rose or his informants. The
following comes from Si^lkot : —

"The following incantation will cure snakebite and pain from
a scorpion sting : —

Inna mukhddiso Guru ke bah&n dUre nur-ul-bahan dur^
samjhak. Pafijwdn kard Sayyid Sultdn Sd'id Ahmad Kabtr,
sattar sau, dfat kul awe zanjirr, yd Pir Dastgir tawakkul Khudd
sidq tusade te zahr band karni, hukm merd nahin, hukm Khudd da
te Khudd de RasAl dd. Kard Sayyid Sultdn Sd^id Ahmad Kabir.
Kird tare., bis j hare, bis chale ?idl ndl, bis chale ddl ddl, bis ko garh
diydl, gahre mdri hak, chhor de bisse chare chak. Dhart badhd
shinh garje jangal badhd wds ; sdp kd khadd kadi na mare hukm
Alldh te Aluhammad-ur-Rasiil-Alldh de ndl. Awwal hudd Khudd
dd, dusrd hidd Khudd de Rasid dd, tisrd hudd zanbil-i-qurdn dd,

330 Occult Poivers of Healing in the Panjab.

chauthd, hudda chauhh Varan da, Dadha Khuda Hazrat Pir
Dastgir da, hudda Hazrat Habib Michan Khel da, hudda Baghdad
Sharif da, huddd, kohdn de sahib-zadian da, huddd Wattt kol s&hib
da, huddd Budhdi sahib da, huddd Shaikh Lamkdr sdhib da,
huddd Kahdn dd, ndgdn kd, dabbidn kd, telarian kd, sam^chtir kd,
kamchilr kd, gurhd kd, khachchar kd, bhisi kd, athdrd zdt athudii
kd, dddhd huddd Hazrat Fir Dastgir kd. Sdp khdye athudh
khdye jo koi viarjdye uske zdmin iush'i. Nagdh f)idr bastam
Jaj'ighd mar bastam, KardhdH mdr bastam, Niiak f?idr bastam,
sufed mdr bastam, sidh mdr bastam. Hukm-i-Khudd mdr
bastam, Hukm-i-Rastil mdr bastam. Rakh, Rakh, Rakh, Alldh
ki rakh ; jis paidd kitd sab khalaq. Ldildha-il-Alldh-i-Muhammad-
ur-Rasul-Alldh-i-Dam Khudd, dam Fir Ustdd, mdi chit kdlCi terd
bis jhdrCih, bis kdl mukdli. Sdthi chdwal bufid bharan pahnaeo
gar motion kd hdr, tan tan dge dpe hui ja7vdr. Samundar ki
khdi, uttar bisse taintli'i kalme Muhammad-ur-Rasfil-Alidh di duhdi.
Ba-haqq-i-Ldildha-il-Alldh-i-Muhammad-ur-Ras{d- Alldh.

"This charm can only be chanted by permission of one
already practising it. The person who desires to obtain such
permission must bow down and eat a piece of salt, which the
initiate has kept in his mouth, while reciting the whole incantation.
To cure the injury, [take] a piece of a bitter plant, {e.g. tobacco,
dharek, or nim); ^^ a stick or a green branch of it should be
waved continuously from the bite to the nearest extremity of
the patient's body, and meanwhile the incantation should be
chanted within the lips. If the pain seems stubborn, a few
repetitions of the incantation are sure to bring about the desired
effect. When the patient feels complete relief from the pain,
except at the place bitten or stung, the practitioner should
make seven circles with spittle applied to his finger-tip. Care
should be taken not to let the finger-tip touch the lips or
tongue, for it might transmit poison to them from the poisoned
place in making the circles."

The next note seems to be from Jhelum : —
" Charms are used to stop toothache, heal bites, ' bind ' a
needle, an oven, or a fire, or stop a dust storm.

^ These two, and the dk, are the only magic plants mentioned in the Notes.
There must be many more in use.

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 331

" The following are two charms for binding scorpion-bite :

I. — Lakan ka kot, samundar ki khdt, Nikal be chhachhud,y
Shaikh Nizam ki duhdt.

2. — Gori gchi goringe singid iere bachchoh lakhon Pinie Nan
kar bichhu bdndn teri zdt jurum sohdnd ghar ghar mittt urde wick
tera ptth main tere bdndh ditte per khaddoii phat.

"These charms must be repeated seven times. In the same
way a fire or an oven {chfilhd) can be ' bound ' by the following
charm : —

Ag ko bdndhCm, ndr ko bdndhuh, siiraj bdndhun, Jot Nastar {?)
deotd. Bdndhuh ndr ko ndr se Shams Tabriz ki duhdi haiy
Mangal bdndhilh, Sanichar bdndhuh, Shams Tabriz ki duhdt
hat.

" This mantra must be repeated eleven times. The result is
that, though the fire burns, its heat is controlled by the charm, so
that it will not burn anything, nor cook food; and an oven
can be bewitched in the same way," (so that this charm may be
used for evil as well as good).

" The mantra or charm for binding a needle is as follows : —

Sfiti baund?'i, Sdr baundh, Plr de Pahdr baundh, lohe de Lohdr
baundh, Satte Aitwdr baundt'i.

" This charm must be repeated seven times, and the needle
blown on with the mouth. If the body be then pricked with the
needle, it will not bleed nor even feel any pain."

" The charm for ' binding ' a dust storm has not been obtained.
By it the dust storm can be kept suspended in the air, but
the wind ceases to blow." (Jhelum.)

" The Chishti tribe and the Bodlas, in the Fazilka Tahsil
of Ferozepur, have also the bakhsh (gift) or inherited power of
curing hydrophobia by charms, which are kept secret."

" The Rawals of Sialkot District perform two special functions : —
(i) They expel plagues of mice which occasionally occur, the tract
being completely overrun by this pest. To do this they read
incantations for a fixed fee, and sometimes bury charms at
the four corners of a square in the centre of the village lands,
so that the mice may be driven out. (2) A class of Rawals,
called rath bahnas (from rath, hail, and bdhnd, one who checks or
imprisons), can avert hailstorms, either by dispersing the clouds

332 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

or by diverting the hail into a pond or on to waste land. This is
done by incantations.

"On the other hand, oil which has been bewitched by in-
cantations on the Ddw&li night (or feast of lamps) will, if rubbed
on the pegs to which an enemy's cattle are tethered, cause them
to pine away and die." (Sialkot.)

We have wandered here from curative to destructive
formulas, from charms to spells. The barrier between
them is of the slightest ; both are the expression of power,
for good or for evil. We may return to our proper subject
with the following charm for headache : —

** Hafiz Muhammad, a Kachhela Jat, and Mullah Ramzan, an
Unar Jat, of Jampur, are said to cure headache of a particular
kind, which begins at sunrise and lasts for about two hours every
morning, by placing a sieve on the patient's head, sprinkling
water and reciting the following darHd or benediction, and a
kalam or prayer :

Alia hum-ma sulk ata Muhammadin wa ata die Muhammad
bdrik wa sallam, i.e. " Oh, Allah, give benediction to Ali
Mohammed (or Ah and others) descendants of Mohammed : make
them blessed and safe."

"This is a quotation from the Hadis. The kaldm is as follows :
Dam Datn Khudd, Dam Dam Pir Ustdd, Alt-haydt hillah, i.«.
Breath of God and Breath of my Fir Ustdd (spiritual adviser and
teacher), I am devoted (to them)." (Jampur.)

The water dropping through the sieve is no doubt
imitative rain, and a touch of sympathetic magic seems
also to occur in the next example, in which the nail
perhaps represents the tooth. A similar cure is well
known in Europe : —

"Haidar Shah Sayyid of Jampur is said to cure toothache
by repeating the words samd liitt, and making the patient thrust a
nail into a tree, fixing the period by which the toothache is to
disappear, but it is said to reappear after the period fixed by him."
(Dera Ghazi Khan.)

*' The following is the charm against toothache (customary in
this District) : The words yd shama^oh are written on a bit of

Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 333

paper, and an iron nail twisted into the form of the Arabic letter
^ain (^) which occurs in the word shamaon^ is driven through the
piece of paper, and the formula written on it is repeated seven
times. This cures the toothache. The rite is called dant kadard
bdndhnd, i.e. binding the pain of tooth." (Jhelum.)

Written charms are of course a development from the
spoken formula, combining in themselves the virtue of a
charm and the convenience of an amulet. Here is another : —

" At Pakpattan in the Montgomery District is the kd?ikdh of
Baba Farid where the mujdwirs have the power of facilitating
childbirth in cases of arra, or lingering labour. The following
tdwiz is written, and the patient is ordered to tie it on her right
thigh with a thin thread : —

Marra jd shud kharam ra wiz jd shud Zane Dehkan zdyad ya
na zdyad.

"She gives birth to the child at once." (Lahore.)

Another shows belief in the mystic povi^er of numbers.
The figures are so arranged that, whichever way they may
be added together, the total is fifteen, — a not uncommon
form of charm : ^^ —

" Fazal Din Shah Sayyid of the Hazari well in the village of
Basti Arain, Dera Ghazi Khan Tahsil, is said to cure epilepsy
by the following charm : "

In the following case the charm seems to be used for the
protection of the operator, — (for once there is some ration-
ality in the remedy), — not for the benefit of the patient: —

" At Godhri in Tahsil Jhajjar is a sweeper who cures snakebite
by drinking oil and then sucking the wound and throwing the
poison out of his mouth, reciting a charm at the same time. A
sweeper at Birohar has the same power." (Rohtak.)

26 Cf. vol. xiii., p. 190.

334 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

The only other case noted that may be called one of
treatment rather than of occult healing is the well-known
bit of savage magic that follows : —

"A Jat of Silana in Tahsil Jhajjar cures all diseases by sucking
the chest of the patient and by spitting blood." (Rohtak.)

There is little admixture of common-sense in any of these
remedies ; singularly little, in fact, of anything that can be
considered as the rudiments of rational medical practice.
We find wounds treated by local applications, necklaces
worn for swollen glands in the neck, bathing resorted to for
boils and swellings, and salt and water used (evidently) to
compel the sufferer from hydrophobia to drink ; but little
more. That these notes form a complete account of the
folk-medicine practised in the Panjab is not to be supposed ;
but they do at any rate contribute some valuable evidence
on the much-discussed subject of the origin of magic.
This evidence, I suggest, so far as it goes, — but it does
not touch on magic feats performed on things or persons at
a distance, — supports the view that the essential element
of magic is the occult power, — the "virtue," the niana, —
of the wonder-worker, or of the words or materials
(plants, waters, and so on) used by the " cunning
man." The sympathetic or symbolic rite is here secondary ;
the mana of the performer or his material is what makes
it effective for its purpose among the population of the
Panjab. And this principle appears irrespective of race,
creed, or caste, for, as we have seen, the evidence is
gathered from Mohammedans and Hindus, Brahmans,
peasants, and vagrant tribes alike.

Charlotte S. Burne.

IN MEMORIAM: ALFRED NUTT (1856-1910).

BY EDWARD CLODD.

*' The free man," says Spinoza, " thinks of nothing less than of
death, and his wisdom is meditation not of death but of life."
When the thoughts of such an one dwell on the inevitable, his
desire is that it should be without warning ; nevertheless, the
sudden death of a friend comes as a shock, the greater when
memory recalls regrets, — neglect of chances of more frequent
intercourse where interest in things that endure is common, — and
all else that is unavailing.

So, when the news from Melun reached London that in striving
to rescue an invalid son, who, through the shying of his horse, had
been thrown into the Seine, Alfred Nutt had been swept away by
the current, his friends were stunned as with a blow dealt by
an unseen hand. Only six days before his tragic end our
President received a letter from him in which, after touching in
bright vein on topics of the day, he spoke cheerfully about his
health, which, for some months past, had not been good, com-
pelling him to take a holiday. " I am feeling better," he said,
" and hope that a quiet summer in the open air will give me
back my full working powers. I am still unequal to any serious
or prolonged effort. I am amusing myself at present with anno-
tating Arnold's Study of Celtic Literature. Whether anything will
come of it I don't know."

My friendship with Alfred Nutt dates from the formation of the
Folk-Lore Society in 1878, and, although our opportunities of
intercourse were rare and fitful, I saw enough of him to warrant a
hearty tribute to his genial nature, and to an enthusiasm about
everything connected with folklore, which, with equipment of
learning that few among us possess, made his services to our
Society of special and abiding value. He was not only of the
rare species of author-publisher; he was of the yet more rare
species of scholar-publisher. In many ways, notably in the
format of the series of the very scarce Tudor Translations,
the fortunate owners of which treasure them for their beauty.

^T,6 In Memoriain: Alfred Nutt (i 856-1 910).

he revived the well-nigh vanished traditions of Aldus, Elzevir,
Stephens, and Plantin. And, because his heart often got the
better of his head, there was, not infrequently, a debit balance
against books on folklore, for which, as for most serious literature
nowadays (perhaps it has been so always), the demand is small.
So, like the showman who lost on the roundabouts, but more
than made it up on the swings, it was only in other branches
of his business which his skill and energy developed, that he
could recoup the losses that the publication of his own works and
those of fellow folklorists involved.

As the great-grandson of one publisher, — William Miller, whose
business John Murray acquired, — and the son of another, there
were inherited bookish traditions whose influence shaped his career.
It was his misfortune to lose his father, David Nutt (whose
name the firm retains), in 1863, when he was but seven, but this
did not disturb the plans for his education, which was carried on
in England and France, and followed by three years' business
training in Leipzig, Berlin, and Paris. At the age of twenty-two
he became the head of his late father's firm, remaining so till
his death, and leaving to his widow and their eldest son the
conduct of a business which plays a leading part in the distribution
of high-class continental literature in this country.

The last words of the letter to Miss Burne, which are quoted
above, give the key to his favourite pursuit, the study of Celtic
mythology. He was happy in his choice, because, save in
Germany, whence largely came his impulse thereto, that branch of
mythology had received but scant attention. So far as mythology
entered into the education of those of us who are well-on in life,
it was restricted to that of Rome and Greece, chiefly as given in the
arid pages of Lempriere and Dr. William Smith. As late as
1867, Matthew Arnold, in his Study of Celtic Literature, "labour-
ing to show that in the spiritual frame of us English ourselves, a
Celtic fibre, little as we may have ever thought of tracing it,
lives and works," added, "and yet in the great and rich univer-
sities of this great and rich country there is no chair of Celtic ;
there is no study or teaching of Celtic matters, those who want
them must go abroad for them. So I am inclined to beseech
Oxford, instead of expiating her over-addiction to the Ilissus by

Plate XML

ALFRED NUTT.

To face p. 336.

In Memoriam : A If red Nutt (1856-1910) '•^

JO-

lectures on Chicago, to give us an expounder for a still more
remote-looking object than the Ilissus — Celtic languages and
literature" (pp. 148-9, 1891 ed.).

Ten years passed before Oxford founded a Celtic professorship,
her choice of an " expounder " faUing on Sir John Rhys, the
one man most competent to fill the chair, and, happily, still its
occupant. That the book giving the impetus to this tardy
recognition of the importance of studies which, for us British,
should take precedence of classical mythology, has been anno-
tated by Alfred Nutt, and, as we are glad to know, left by him
in so forward a state as to warrant its issue, thus enriched,
is perhaps the happiest legacy that so eminent a Celtic scholar
and apostle of the Celtic revival could have bequeathed.

Here there is no need to set down the titles of the eleven books
which stand against his name in the British Museum Catalogue,
the more so as they indicate only a portion of his ceaseless
activity in separate papers contributed by him not only to our
Society's Journal, — these including his Presidential Addresses
delivered in 1897-8, — but to those of the Irish Texts and
Cymmrodorion Societies, in the foundation of both of which he
took a prominent part. Added to these are his pamphlets in
the series of Popular Studies in Mythology^ Romance and Folk-
lore^ which are designed to make clear to the " man in the street "
the significance of folklore as embodying, in far greater degree
than that simple term implies, the serious beliefs of the past, and
the rites and customs which are their outward and visible signs.

If, as Montaigne says, — and who can question it ? — " the profit
of life consists not in the space, but in the use," then in the career
of Alfred Nutt there has been to his fellows gain " more precious
than rubies " to the world's intellectual wealth ; a " profit of life "
with which no length of listless days can compare. If, in the
unfulfilled promise of addition thereto from his well-stored mind
and active pen, they mourn his premature death, there will for
him be echo of the lines in Adonais :

" Awake him not ! surely he takes his fill
Of deep and liquid rest, forgetful of all ill."

Edward Clodd.

COLLECTANEA.

A Folklore Survey of County Clare {continued).

In a preceding article I have dealt with place names and legends
of names, banshees, the death coach, and fairies, and in the
present one I propose to deal mainly with other appearances of a
spectral or spiritual character. In doing this it is necessary care-
fully to avoid attributing to older writers beliefs which they never
held. It is more than probable that the writer of the Wars of the
Gaedhii with the Gai/i, and Seean MacCraith, the author of
the Triumphs of Torlough, were no more under a delusion when
they personified the spirits of Valour, Bloodshed, Terror, and
Sovereignty than the modern journalist who writes of " Public
Opinion sitting in judgment," or the " Spirit of Loyalty attending
King George." The first ancient writer, describing the terrors
of the deadly combat of the Irish and the Norse in 1014, tells us
that there was "a bird of valour and championship fluttering
over Murchad's head and flying on his breath." He also tells
how there flew a dark, merciless, (and many more adjective-
endowed) bodbh, screaming and fluttering over the combatants,
while " the satyrs {bannanaig), the idiots, the maniacs of the glens,
the witches, the goblins, the ancient birds, the destroying demons
of the air and sky, and the feeble demonic phantom host"
arose to accompany the warriors in the combat. He probably
meant little more than " Amazement in the van and Flight
combined with Sorrow's faded form and Solitude behind," though
possibly the various uncanny " creatures of the wild " were real to
him in their proper places in the hills and glens, but not in
daylight on the fields beside Dublin. The second writer {circa

Collectanea. 339

1350) describes King Torlough, about 1286, returning from a
successful raid, which has left its mark very clearly on the legal
rolls of the day, ravaging the English lands round the mountains
of eastern County Limerick and northern Tipperary, and march-
ing up the western (Clare) shore of Lough Derg. A lovely
maiden appeared, " modest, strange in aspect, glorious in form,
rosy-lipped, soft-taper-handed, pliant-wavy-haired, white-bosomed."
She was the " Sovereignty of Erin " come to rebuke the chief for
letting De Burgh dissuade him from attempting the reconquest oi
all Ireland, and vanished in a lustrous cloud. The author's
intent here is unmistakable. MacCraith has one other passage,
so suggestive and remarkable that it can only be regarded as
a literal statement of the beliefs of the warriors at the burial
of some of whom his father, Ruadri, presided, a few years later, in
13 1 7. Donchad, a prince of the Clan Torlough line, aided by
William de Burgh, gave his deadly enemy, Richard de Clare,
a severe defeat near Bunratty in 131 1. At the moment of victory
De Burgh was captured by the foe, and the victors fled in
indescribable confusion, — the English to their nearest castles, and
the Irish to their stone strongholds, the great terraced mountains
of Burren. De Clare and his protege, Prince Dermot, camped
on two ridges at Cruchwill and Tullycommaun, a long ridge capped
with tumuli, dolmens, and " forts." Donchad lay across the
valley and lake on the spurs of Slieve Carran opposite. The
soldiers of Donchad, we are told, " were disturbed by phantoms
and delusive dreams, lights shone on the fairy forts," the waves of
Erin ^ groaned, " the deep plaint resounded from the woods and
streams," shades were seen, and hollow groans were heard. This
is evidently a true tale of the reminiscences of the depressed
and anxious men who lay looking at the foes' camp fires opposite.
I have often heard with wonder on these lonely hills

" undescribed sounds
That come a swooning over hollow grounds
And wither drearily on barren moors,"

the noise of the winds in the rocks and bushes, the strange prattle
of streams in crannies deep down in the rocks, the cry of night

^ Misfortune was foretold by great waves at four spots on the Irish coast,
to which later belief added a fifth at Malbay in Clare.

340 Collectanea.

birds, the whisper and rustle of the wind on the grass and heather,
and those weird sounds, booming and sobbing out of nowhere,
which are supposed to arise from underground streams and
caverns.

V. Will-o-the-wisps and Corpse-lights.

The will-o-the-wisp, if not unknown, is at least extremely rare.
The name Loughaunaguinnell, or Loughaguinnell, of a pool in
Doora refers, I was told, to a " candle " floating over its surface.
In the name Doora itself we find the ancient word for water,
which occurs as the river Dour in Kerry in Ptolemy's Atlas in
the first century. Mr. and Mrs. Hall, in Ireland : its Scenery,
Character, etc. (1841), note that one of their guides told them of
" corpse candles " seen on the banks of the Shannon, and voices
of the "good people" heard with them. Crofton Croker, in
"Florry Cantillon's Funeral," ^ alludes to the "Blue Man's
Lake at midnight," a lonely place in the bog at Shragh, near
Kilrush, where " a spectral figure enveloped in a bluish flame "
haunted the melancholy waters. Some of the "corpse lights"
shining in graveyards, "forts," and deserted buildings I have
myself seen. In one case, I traced the light to the stagnant
water, full of rotten leaves, in the fosse of a "fort," which, when
stirred by waving branches, gave out phosphorescent light. In
another case a church gable was observed for many nights lit
up with blue flame, after three victims of a railway accident had
been laid in their family vault below it. The windows of
Inchiquin Castle are seen across the lake, lit up by pale blue
fire, which vanishes from the sight of anyone approaching the
ruined building though still visible at a distance. A deserted
cottage on a ridge not far from TuUa, as I have seen, used to be
lit up with pale light, and was reputed haunted. Several grave-
yards have displayed " corpse lights," and particularly those at
Killone Convent (a picturesque twelfdi-century ruin on a wooded
slope over a beautiful lake near Ennis), and, I hear, Killeemur
and Kilmaleery on the Shannon and Fergus, and Clooney in
Bunratty Barony.

"^ Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland, Part II. (1828), p. 24.

Plate XIV.

RalK.BlalKmtic.^^BrocsiiV'aai^'SheeUK'

\9io

ly^ert-o'Dea

Ghost Stoaa". Cloalara' ^^jw

To face p. 340.

Collectanea. 34 1

VI. Underground Folk.

To underground folk, other than fairies, I have only found
few and uninteresting references, such as, — " an old woman
looked out of the side of the fort, and the man ran away";
" he heard them talking inside the hill " ; and " the little old man
came out of the fort, and shut it behind him."

VII. Water Spirits and Mer-folk.

The Shannon, according to the Dindsenchas, derived its name
from a sea-lady, but evidently not a " water-breather." Sinenn,
daughter of Lodan, came from Tir-taimgire, the Land of Youth,
under the sea, to visit the well of Connla, under the river now
called Shannon. She came to Linn na feile, but was drowned
at Tarrchinn "on this side Shannon," and gave her name to
the great river.^ A water spirit, or mermaid, is remembered
at Killone Lake and Newhall. The legend is preserved in
several variants. In 1839 it was told how O'Brien of Killone
saw a lovely girl in the lake, and caught her. Bringing her
home, he found to his great disgust and disappointment that
she had a fish's tail. He ordered her to be kept in a "crib," and
fed and well-treated. As she never spoke, a local fool threw
scalding water on her to make her say something. He was only
too successful, for, after a wild, blood-curdling shriek, she cried :

" As the return of the salmon from the stream,
A return without blood or flesh,
May such be the departure of the O'Briens
Like ears of wild corn from Killone."*

The legend recorded, almost at the same time (1840), by
Crofton Croker was told to me by the old peasantry, about 1876,
as follows : — A mermaid used to swim up a stream that flowed
under the cellars of Newhall, in order to steal wine. The
"master" (an O'Brien), or the butler, hid and stabbed her, (or
threw her into a tub of scalding water where she became a
big lump of jelly), and her blood ran down the stream and

"* The Dind Senchas," Revue Celiique, vol. xv. (1894), p. 456.
* Ordnance Survey Letters, (Co. Clare), vol. ii., p. iii.

342 Collectanea.

reddened all the lake. As the wounded being floated away she
wailed : —

" As the water maid floats weak and bloodless down the stream
So the O'Briens shall go from Killone."

Prof. Brian O'Looney heard in his youth, and told me, a tale
nearly identical : —

" As the mermaid goes on the sea,
A wretched victim devoid of flesh and blood,
So shall the race of O'Brien pass away
Till they leave Killone in wild weeds."

The lake, like the stream already noted at Caherminaun, turns
red at times from iron scum and red clay after a dry summer.
This is supposed to be caused by the local Undine's blood,
and to foretell a change of occupants in Newhall. Strange to
say, I saw it happen last when the place was let by the
MacDonnells to the O'Briens. The cellar at Newhall has its
outer section roofed with large slabs, and the inner consists of
long, low, cross vaults. In the end of the innermost recess is a
built-up square patch, which sounds hollow, and is said to show
the opening closed to keep out the thievish mermaid. There
seems no evidence of any stream running underneath the cellar,
but local tradition tells of a vaulted passage down to the lake.

Sruhaunaglora (prattling brook), in Kilseily on the flank of the
eastern hills, probably owes its name, as many brooks their
legend, to the supposed talking of water-folk. There was some
belief in mer-folk at Kilkee ])efore 1879, but it has nowadays got
touched-up for tourists. Such touching-up, however, cannot have
aff'ected the ugly, drunken, stupid tnerrow Coomara (sea-dog),
who kept the souls of drowned sailors in magic lobster-pots
in his house under the sea, off Killard, as related by Crofton
Croker.^ The merroio's power of passing through the waves
depended on a magic cap, and a duplicate of it enabled his
human guest to visit him.

The last reported appearance of a mermaid is so recent as the
end of April, 19 10. Several people, including Martin Griffin, my
informant, saw what they are firmly convinced was a mer-woman
in a cove a little to the north of Spanish Point, near Miltown,

5 Op. cit.. Part 11. (1828), pp. 30-58 (" The Soul Cages").

Collectanea.

j^o

Malbay. She was white-skinned and had well-shaped white
hands. The party tried to make friends with her, giving her
bread, which she ate. Then a Quilty fisherman got frightened,
said she was "something bad," and threw a pebble at her, on
which she plunged into the sea and disappeared. Soon after-
wards King Edward died. An old man at Spanish Point said
the last mermaid was seen the year of the Great Famine (1846),
and that such an appearance foretells a public disaster.

VIII. Ghosts and Haunted Houses.

Here, "where'er we tread is haunted," and libellous, ground, so
that in the majority of cases the names and definite addresses
must be withheld, although in every case I am acquainted with
them.

Taking first the ancient buildings, I am unable to state the
nature of the haunter of Lisananima (ghost fort) in Kilcorney, or
of the other places of like name, although, as regards the former.
Dr. George MacNamara and I did our best, about 1897, to
find out, for the ghost was said to have been seen recently ; so
also at Toberatasha (spectre well). At Lisfuadnaheirka, near
Kilkee, we were told in 1896 of a "horned ghost," but
" Fuadnaheirka " was a local "terror by night" who slew
people, as Eugene O'Curry says his bare legs knew when, (as
a boy in 181 6), he lived close to Dunaheirka (or Liscroneen),
a large fort, which was the chief seat of this being, and was
evidently a place to be run past on dark winter evenings.^ It
is not wonderful that stories should be so vague. A form " that
shape has none" terrifies some nervous or drunken person,
who afterwards speaks often of the ghost, but can give no
details. The subject is usually regarded too seriously for verbal
embroidery.

A fisherman, being detained on Scattery Island by a storm early
last century, and hence unable to attend mass at Kilrush, went
up into the " cathedral " "' to pray. After a time he looked up and
saw a crowd of monks and laity with priests at the altar in

" Ordnance Survey Letters, (Co. Clare), vol i., pp. 370 et seq.
' This is the Church of St. Mary near the Round Tower.

344 Collectanea.

gorgeous vestments. He shut his eyes in terror and prayed, and
when he ventured to look again he saw only " the clouds flitting
over the roofless church and the old ravens croaking and wheeling
over their nests on the tower top." ^ At Stamer Park I was
told, in 1873, that "a string of monks" used formerly to pass
up the garden to the Abbey of Ennis, but, even then, it was
only a vague tradition. A ' she-ghost ' haunted the canal bridge
of Clonlara, while it was being built in 1769, and was at last
exorcised by a slab, still remaining, with her figure cut on it
in low relief and the date (Plate XIV.). This figure closely
resembles the grotesque (and usually indecent) carvings of
prophylactic female figures called " hags of the castle," and now
sheelanagigs from a well-known carving in County Cork. Two
undoubted examples of these figures remain in Clare, a much-
defaced one above the door of Kilnaboy church, and a perfect
one, struggling with two dragons, on the ornate, and possibly
eleventh-century, sill at Rath-Blathmaic church.^ The Clonlara
figure, if older than 1769, may have been brought from one of
the ruined towers of Rinroe, Newtown, and Aharinagh, not far
away.

The back avenue near the castle of Teermicbrain or Adelphi
was haunted, until 1885 at least, by a dark shadowy figure. A
" grey man " haunted the lonely storm-beaten shell of Dunhcka
Castle, on the cliffs near Kilkee, one of the wildest and most
beautiful parts of that glorious coast. He tried to point out
hidden treasure, but failed owing to the fears of the man who
saw him, and who, when at last venturing back, could not
remember the exact hiding-place. The disgusted treasure
guardian has made no later attempt.^^ Doonmore, a shore
castle farther north, was notorious for the ghastly sounds heard
in its vaults, probably caused by waves lapping into rock crannies,

* Told by an old peasant of his grandfather, Dublin University Magazine,
vol. viii. (1841), p. 548. The same person one moonlight night saw a dim
figure making signs, and, following it, found his cow with her legs firmly fixed
in a hole and in great danger.

®See Plate XIV. and the figures in Journal of the Royal Society oj
Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxiv., pp. 27, 33.

^"Frorn two residents at Moveen in 1908.

Collectanea. 345

but imputed to the perturbed spirits of those who had perished
miserably in the dungeons. ^^ At Clare Castle, there used to be
seen a ghost, said to be the wife of the first Colonel George Stamer
of Carnelly (1680), who held the place under Lord Clare.
Legend said that her infant had sprung from her arms through an
open window into the river Fergus beneath. The mother went
mad and died, and her ghost could be seen vainly searching for
her lost child along the bank.^^ Bq^ jn the records her place is
occupied by a business-like lady who brought much land and
money to her husband, survived him, and died, (evidently in full
possession of her senses to the last), at a ripe old age with her
children around her. At Carrigaholt Castle, on the Shannon,
the ghosts of Lord Clare and his " yellow dragoons " could, I
was told in 1875, be seen at military exercises in the castle field.'^
This seems now to be forgotten. Fortanne, or Rosslara Castle,
near TuUa, and the old roadway south from it, were reputed to
be " airy " (eery) ; the haunting beings whispered, laughed, and
rustled in the hedges, and "things flew out." (I have often
been there in the dusk, and, as in most lonely lanes on a hill-
slope facing "the wild west wind," found the noises very weird
and curious).

While, as we know, the country in darkness abounds with
uncanny sounds, this is still more the case with old mansions.
Such houses, with disused chimney flues and attics, ill-fitting
casements, ivy and snails to tap on the windows, owls to flap
and moan overhead, rats, shaking doors, and warped stairs
to imitate footsteps, only need a legend and a few nervous
inmates to become treasure-houses of ghost-lore.

One house on the verge of the Atlantic was haunted by a
" breathing ghost," and had also a footstep passing with a faintly-
clanking chain up and down a lobby. Our servant, after a couple
of weeks in 1887, heard the first, and we heard the footsteps

"Alluded to by Crofton Croker in " Florry Cantillon's Funeral," op. cii..
Part II. (1828), p. 23. I heard it locally in 1892.

12 So Mrs. Stamer in 1881.

^^ Their ghostly appearances riding through Moyarta, and their plunging
into the Shannon, are alluded to in 1816. Cf. Mason, Parochial Survey,
vol. ii., p. 430.

346 Collectanea.

frequently. I finally located the latter in a dully-jarring sash
which resounded in the flooring, the "chain" was a loose
pump-handle, and both were actuated by the fairly regular
recurrence of a prevailing sea-breeze in the stillest part of the
night. A little inland, and not many miles from Lisdoonvarna,
two rooms in an old family house are reputed haunted. The
ghost of a faithless wife used to be seen getting out of the
study window, just before dawn on the anniversary of her elope-
ment. Loud noises, shaking the floor, were heard in the room
overhead. The ghost of a legendary "Countess of Antrim,"
whose portrait was preserved there, haunted the hall and passages,
and it was told that she had made away with her stepson in
order that her own child might succeed. She was not visible,
but revealed herself in a rustling of garments and turning of
handles. A fragment of a poem on her crime is remem-
bered : —

" The blood on the cradle's the worst blood of all,
For the young Lord of Antrim lies dead in the hall.""

Corofin has several haunted houses, both new and old, in and
about it. One ghost haunted a house in the village for half a
year, putting out candles and throwing sods of turf about at night.
Near Moyhill, in the same district, a ghost was seen by a Mr.
O'Neill coming through a ceiling; it used to put its hands on
sleeping people, causing much alarm, but, like the preceding
spectre, it lapsed into the Silence after a few months.^^ j^ g,
house near Ennis, a soft footstep hurried on some nights through
several rooms, in one of which a cupboard used to open after the
noise; this was not only seen and heard by the family and
accustomed guests (like myself), but by new visitors unacquainted
with the story.

It is not clear whether the beings that haunted two farmers'
houses between Kilkee and Liscrona were ghosts or elves. The
families began to " see things," and notably a little old man who
used to sit on a sod of turf This inoffensive haunting was more
than the occupants could bear. One of them fitted up a cow-
house as his dwelling-place, and the other actually built a new

"So Mrs. Twigge. ^'^So Dr. G. U. MacNamara.

Collectanea. 347

house. The old residences are in ruins, and their desertion took
place over sixteen years ago.^^

It is to the credit of the people of Eastern Clare that it
possesses hardly any haunted houses, but there are two of
transcending interest.

The first lay near the Fergus. A footstep followed one at
night on the upper stairs, and curtains were drawn round the old-
fashioned beds, — if not by " a hand of bone," at least by a " thing
that no man sees." On more than one occasion all the bed-
clothes were lifted, " as if by four people," off a sleeper. Even
the late Mr. Richard Stacpoole, a man of iron nerve, told how
once on a visit this happened to him ; indignant at what he
supposed to be a foolish joke, he got up, locked the door,
searched the room, and kept awake, only to find the action
repeated twice ; he struck a light at once, but no one was visible.
Hands were laid on the doors and their handles. Anyone who
"married into" the family or its connections was liable to have
their hands kissed in the dark on their first visit. An invisible
dog used to howl before deaths, being only heard from the room
of the relation of the foredoomed person. A ghost, (said to be
of no less a person than Maureen Rhue, the famous Amazonian
O'Brien of 1640-50), used to pass up and down the long, straight
avenue. Legend said that, after the murder of her twenty-fifth
husband, — (only three husbands are known to history, which
is also ignorant of their murders), — she was fastened into a hollow
tree and starved to death. There were also the ghosts of two
nuns, — for the place was said to have been a convent, without
a particle of evidence,^'^ — and, in 1838, a lady on horseback at a
" Druid's Altar." (The last-named was probably a pure invention
of the then owner.) There was, however, another ghostly object
of which I heard from an eye-witness still living. A dark spot
used to break out in the wall of a quaint old brick-floored room,
with an inside window looking down into the kitchen. The
legend was that an old nurse, a pensioner of the family about
1750, used to live in this room, and died, aged over 90, suddenly

18 So Mrs. MacDonnell.

1' Except that skeletons, and, it is said, crucifixes, were found in the garden
just beside the house.

348 Collectanea.

and mysteriously. One evening the kitchen-maid brought up
some beer, and fancied she saw "a black shadow hanging over"
the nurse. The latter was much alarmed at hearing this, and
took her chair over to the inner window, where she could see
into the kitchen. Next morning, when the girl brought up the
breakfast, the beer stood untouched, and the old woman sat
leaning back with a look of appalling horror on her face and with
her hands resting on the table. The other servants ran up at the
maid's shrieks and lifted the nurse, who was stone-dead, with a
deep cut on the back of her head. There was a small patch
of blood on the wall, and ever since it comes out as a dark
spot on the wall about the anniversary of the nurse's mysterious
death.18

The second house, now a dismantled ruin in a lonely valley in
the eastern hills, had a far worse reputation. It brought mis-
fortune on anyone who rented it, and a heavy doom lay on its
actual owners ; certainly, when my family rented it for the shoot-
ing, its reputation was maintained by the falling on us of a
subsequent heavy trouble. Its most ghastly legend will be told
later, and relates to a skeleton found buried under a peat rick
in the yard, when the rick was removed owing to scarcity of
peat; according to another version, told at Tulla, the rick was
set on fire, and, when the white ashes blew away, the un-
consumed skull of a murdered man remained.^^ One room was
fastened up with iron clamps, tradition said, because its floor was
soaked in ineffaceable blood. Another legend, (which I never
heard locally or, indeed, in Eastern Clare at all), told how long
ago a detachment of a Scottish regiment, quartered there, was
poisoned by the owner. The drummer boy escaped the poison,
but only to be brutally murdered as he tried to escape from
the window. My informant (in the far west of the county), says
that " the boy's ghost has been seen by many credible witnesses."
There was some vague tale of a light on the lake, where dredging
yielded a vast quantity of bones, said to be human and mainly of
children, but I distrust profoundly the dicta of Clare people on
comparative anatomy. The stories I give next were told me by

18 So Mrs. O'Callaghan of Maryfort.
" So the late Mrs. Spaight of Affock.

Collectanea. 349

at least six of my relatives, including my mother and two of my
brothers. Those who stayed in the house rarely rested un-
disturbed, for whisperings and mutterings, footsteps down the
passages, low sobbing, and strange shrieks and laughter were usual.
Sometimes grimmer visitors came. My mother told how she and
my father were awakened by the clang of a door and heavy foot-
steps. Someone then entered their room, though the door was
afterwards found locked, and they both felt a horrible sense of
some fearful presence in the darkness, seeing, — but unseen.
After a few long minutes of suspense " It " passed back through
the door and up the corridor, another door crashed to, and
nothing more was heard. The clanging door was believed to be
the one clamped up. My sisters also had a tale to tell. The
curtains of their great bed had been carefully drawn and tucked
in all round, but in the night my eldest sister awoke, and, feeling
a gust of air and hearing a rustle, called to the others. She
found the curtains drawn back, and all heard a horrible mocking
laugh, but nothing was found in the room when the candle was
lit. Noises and rustlings, with groans, sobs, and hurrying feet in
the corridor, were heard for four nights. My brothers attested
most of the noises, and I believe that most occupants of the
place told similar tales.

Thos. J. Westropp.

(To be continued.)

The Dragon of La Trinita : an Italian Folk-Tale.

The following tale was taken down almost word for word from
the lips of a charcoal-burner in a Tuscan roadside inn at Le
Bagnore on the edge of the great forest on the slopes of Monte
Amiata, which raises its cone-shaped summit 5500 feet above
the plains and swamps of Maremma. This district formed the
border-land between Tuscany and the old Papal States, and has
retained a distinctive character of its own. The teller was a tall
lean fellow with glittering eyes and high cheekbones, and with the
wild and uncivilised aspect common to the men who live an

350 Collectanea.

isolated life in the depths of the forest as their forefathers have
done before them. The tale was told by him to a group of his
companions about the log fire of the inn kitchen, on a wild wet
night in late autumn, while I sat back in the shadows.

" I will tell you the story of the dragon of La Trinita. Once long
ago, before any of us were born, a monster, a dragon they called
him, lived in a cavern high on the mountain among the pines, up
where you now see the convent of La Trinita. He used to come
out and devour whatever he could find. The peasants could no
longer send their sheep and goats out to pasture on the mountain
side, and cows and oxen he did not fear to attack. Not only so,
but human beings he killed and devoured, — and even/nars were
not safe. Yes, two or three friars he also ate. Then the great
Duke Sforza, who lived in the castle over yonder at Santafiora,
said, — " I will deliver the land from this fierce beast." So he put
on his armour, and took a long lance, and mounted his horse, and
rode up the valley. But, when the dragon saw him, it withdrew
into its den as was its way when people came out armed against
it. But what did Duke Sforza do ? He fastened a red flag to the
end of the lance, and thrust it into the entrance of the cavern.
The dragon thought it was a piece of meat, and rushed at it, and
the Duke drew it back so that the dragon came rushing out of the
cavern with his great mouth wide open. And the Duke grasped
his lance, and waited there, erect on his horse, for the onslaught
of the monster. It came on, always with its great mouth open,
and, as it rushed at him, the Duke received it on his lance, and
the lance went right down its throat — down, — down, — and it died.
And the Duke cut off its head, and brought it to show to the
people. And its great jawbone is kept in the sacristy of the
convent of La Trinita, where the sacristan keeps it in a box. You
may see it there still. I have seen it myself, and that is how I
know that the story is true."

I may add that I also have seen an enormous upper jaw-
bone, something like that of an alligator, which is kept, as he
described it, in the lonely little Franciscan Friary of La Trinita
up miles of stony mule track on the slopes of Amiata.

Mary Lovett Cameron.

Collectanea. 351

Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales {continued).
10. The Jackats Revenge on the Spider. (B. G.)

This is about the Spider. He was friends with the Jackal.
Then the Jackal said, — " Look here, Spider, I am going away, and
(but) the seed-time ^ has come." He brought seeds of the millet,
and said, — "When the rain comes (and) you go to your farm and
sow, will you sow mine for me ?" Then the Spider said, — " Very
well." When the rain had come, then the Spider sowed millet on
his (own) farm. When he had finished, then he came to the
Jackal's farm. Although he hoed (cut), he did not sow the seed.
He merely trod (the ground). When the Spider's millet had
sprung up, it looked very well. On the Jackal's farm only grass
came up. The Jackal did not start on his return (returning) until
the millet had begun to ripen (was in ear). At this time there was
no more sowing. Anything which might be sown would not come
up. On his arrival the Spider went to him and said, — " Look
here, I sowed your farm, but the Francolin came and picked (up)
the seed from your farm." The Jackal said, — " Oh, did she not
ruin yours, (since) she ruined mine ? " Then he (Spider) said, —
" Oh, it was at night. She was pecking in the ground. She did
not do it up above. There was no one to see." Then the Jackal
said, — "Very well. Thank God, but I shall be revenged." Then
the Jackal left (the matter) until harvest came, until the Spider
had put guinea-corn in his store, and millet, and dauro^ and beans.
Then the Jackal procured a small calabash, and poured some
honey in it and brought it to the Spider. Then the Spider put in
his hand and tasted (it), and said, — " Ah, what is (this) so sweet?"
Then he (Jackal) said, — " Ah, that is guinea-corn which I left in
my store. (When) I came back from my journey I burnt (it), and
filtered (water through) the ashes." Then the Spider went and set
fire to his store and burnt (it), and filtered the ashes of his guinea-
corn. He tasted (it). The water was not sweet like the honey,
so he returned to the Jackal and said, — " Really I did not find it

^ Rains commence about April, and after the ground has become well soaked
the sowing is done.

^A high plant, something like a bulrush, which gives a species of millet
grain.

352 Collectanea.

sweet." The Jackal said, — "What did you burn?" He said, —
'* Guinea-corn." He (Jackal) said, — " Oh no, I did not say you
were to burn the guinea-corn, I said you should burn the millet."
Then he said, — " Very well." So he went and burnt the store of
millet, and filtered (it) and tasted (it). It tasted bitter.^ He did
not find (it) sweet like the honey. Then he (Spider) said to the
Jackal, — " I did not find it sweet." So the Jackal said, — " What
did you burn ? " And he said,—" Millet." Then he said,—" Oh
no, I did not say you should burn millet, I said dauro." So he
said, — " Very well." So he went and burnt the store of dauro, he
filtered (it), he tasted (it), he did not find it sweet. Then he
returned and said to the Jackal, — " I did not find it sweet." So
the Jackal said, — "What did you burn?" He said, — ^^ Dauro."
He (Jackal) said, — " Oh no, I did not say you were to burn dauro,
I said you were to burn the beans." So he said, — "Very well."
So he went and burnt the store of beans, he filtered (them), he
tasted (them), he felt a bitter (taste), he did not find them sweet
like the honey. So he said to the Jackal, — " I did not find them
(it) sweet." So the Jackal said, — " What did you burn ? " Then
he said, — "Beans." He (Jackal) said, — "Thank God, Spider, I
have paid back on you the evil turn which you did to me." So
the Spider was without food. He had to beg (so he was begging).

II. The Lion, the Spider, and the Hycena. (B. G.)

This is about a Lion, (who) had bought a ram. He tended it.
(He kept it ?) thus until the ram grew up, and was given the name
of Barra randam. A bell was tied on its neck. The ram grew
big. One day the Lion was going to look for food at a distance.
When the Spider heard the news, he came and asked the Lion to
let him look after the ram. The Lion said, — " Oh no." He said,
— "Perhaps something might happen to him." Then the Spider
said, — " Nothing will happen to him." So the Lion said, — " All
right, I will leave it (let me leave it)." When the Lion had gone,
the Spider took the ram. He went and killed and ate it. He
put the skin and bell by. He put the fat by. Then the Lion
came home, (and) the Spider came crying and said, — " Somebody

^Or perhaps "he felt a bitter (taste)."

Collectanea. 353.

(thing) has stolen the ram." Then the Lion said, — "That is a lie."
He said, — " To-morrow I shall summon all the beasts of the forest
to come and dance before me." Then the Spider went home.
He went and called the Hyaena. He came and said, — " To-
morrow there is to be a feast in front (at the door) of the Lion's
house. See here a skin (for) you to wear." Then the Hyaena
took (it) and put it on. Then the Spider tied the bell on her
neck. He brought the fat and anointed the Hyaena's mouth.
Then he said, — "Now, do not eat the fat, leave it. It is an
ornament." So the Hyaena felt very proud, saying the Spider
had given her finery. (When) morning came all the beasts of the
forest assembled. When they were assembled, the Spider came
with his little drum. He came (he was) drumming, " Who has
eaten Babba randam.'* The Hyaena is the devourer of Babba
randam. The skin on her back (is) the skin of Babba randam.
The bell on her neck (is) the bell of Babba randam. The fat on
her mouth (is) the fat of Babba randam." The Hyaena was
dancing and playing, and said, — " That is so (thus the word is),
beat your drum, oh Spider, that is so." Then the Lion got angry,,
and he went and felled the Hyasna and killed (her), and then all
the beasts of the forest ran away. " The Lion has revenged (him-
self) " said the Spider. " Truly the Hyaena ate the ram."

12. The Cunning Spider and his Bride. (U. G.)

This is about a certain handsome ^ girl. Each one who came to
marry her she told that she was not to be had by the bringing of
presents.*^ Then her father made a dung-heap at the door of the
house. . . . Everything that was filthy (he put) there. He said, —
" There, whoever comes and clears (opens) the place, (and) does
not spit (and) does not eat food, he shall be her husband." Now
every youth who came said he was not able. Then the Spider

^This is a play on the words. "Babba randam" means "large bull," and
the Hysena was proud of having killed one.

^ Handsome or fine is about the nearest meaning we can give to da keau
when applied to women, but it must be remembered that the Hausa's
idea of beauty is very different from ours.

'' Marriage is a modified form of purchase. The acceptance of the presents by
the girl's parents would signify an engagement.

354 Collectanea.

came and said he could (do it). He said, — " If I come to (do)
this digging, shall I be (is it) allowed to sing ? " Then the father
said, — " What, is the farmer prevented from singing ? " Then he
(Spider) said " Right. To-morrow morning I shall come," so said
the Spider. So he made the female spider, his wife, mix flour and
water and put (it) inside his quiver. Then he picked a stalk and
put it in the quiver. It was like an arrow. When he had come,
the father said, — " Right. Here is the dung-heap which you must
clear." He said, — " Right. I have a word (to say)," he said.
" While I am digging I shall not take off my quiver. In these
times it is not meet that a man^ should be without his arms (should
separate from his quiver)." Then the father said, — " Oh, good,
does a man go without his arms ? " Then he said, — " There is
nothing that will be denied to you except spitting (and) except
eating." Then he said, — " Right." He seized his hoe (and
began) to dig. He was expectorating spittle on the sly. He was
singing, — " I am a spider of spiders." He said, — " Upp tupp tupp,
Upp tupp tupp," — he was expectorating. So, when the sun got
(hot), his mouth was dry. He pulled out the stalk from the
quiver, and said he was going to dry the poison. Then he put
his mouth to the mouth of the quiver, and filled his stomach with
fura. Then he arose and began digging (again). So he cleared
the dung-heap right away. Then the girl came out and said, —
'•'• Arururnruruwi, this is my husband." Then the father said, —
" Praise be to God. He is my daughter's husband." So it was
presents of good things were prepared (pots of butter, salt, cakes,
rice, and beans). So the girl was taken to the Spider's house.
Soon the girl conceived and bore a daughter. Now, when she
was going to the stream to get water, the Spider would take the
child and dance and sing, — "Through (having) /z^ra in my quiver
I won your mother. I was cunning. I made plans." Once an old
woman, — (put down your head, sword ^, "You kill my lice and I'll
destroy your marriage " ^) — heard. When she returned from the

"^ Namijji is used here to signify a real man, not merely a male. A common
title of a good soldier is Mijjin tuazza, i.e. a man of men.

^ Referring to an old woman's sharp tongue.

'^ When one woman does another's hair, the latter perhaps tells the former
little anecdotes of her husband's attentions to others, and so in return for
having the live stock cleared out of her head she does her best to clear her

Collectanea. 355

river she told the girl. She said, — " Have you heard what the
Spider was saying? He said through (having) //^ra in his quiver
he wedded you. He said (it was through) cunning and plans."
Then she (girl) said, — " Now, old woman, you have seen that I
am living with my husband in dignity and happiness (fortune).
Do you want to separate me from my husband ? " Then she
(old woman) said, — " Very well, since you argue, to-morrow when
you have gone to the river come (back) and hide." She (girl)
said, — "Agreed." In the morning, when she had gone to the
river, she returned and hid. Then the Spider (began) dancing,
and saying, — " (Because of) the fura in the quiver I won your
mother. I was cunning. I made plans." Then she came and put
down her pot, and said, — " Is it true, when you came and said
you would marry me and you were told that spittle must not be
expectorated nor food eaten, that you drank on the sly ? " She
said, — " Very well, since you drank fura I shall not remain in
your house. I shall go home." When she had gone, her father
said, — "What has brought you?" Then she said, — "Oh, there
is a reason why I have come " (lit. there is a thing which has
brought me). She said, — " The Spider, when he came to marry
me, really drank on the sly. There, I shall not remain with him."
Then the father said, — " Very well, the Spider will certainly come
to get you back, (and) I shall hear what has caused you to
quarrel." So the Spider went to bring about a reconciliation.
When he had come, the father said, — " What has come between
(joined) you ? " Then the Spider said, — " Oh, it was because of a
song. The girl went to the stream. I was dancing with the
child and singing." Then the father said, — "What kind of a
song were you singing?" The Spider said, — "You, child of
promise, child of two people." So, when she came, the father
said, — "Was it this song which caused you to quarrel?" The
Spider said, — " Yes." Then the father said, — " Very well, this
quarrel is not bad enough for a separation." Then the daughter
got her belongings, and returned to the Spider's house. So the
Spider came and did his work (as usual). Even now his deceit
has not been discovered. What he did has not been found out.

friend out of her husband's house. Kasshe {oxpasshe) aure (to kill, or break, the
marriage) means to separate, divorce, or perhaps destroy happiness.

356 Collectanea.

13. How Spiders were reproduced. (B. G.)
This is about the Spider. It was a time of famine. He had no
food, (so) he said he would travel around and teach. The Ewe
said, — " Here is my son, take him, and teach him reading." As
they were travelling they came to some water, and the Spider
told the lamb to mix flour (and water). When he had mixed the
flour, he (Spider) said, — "You are not going to have any to drink.
I shall drink, but if you beg you will get something." As they
travelled, the lamb wasted all away, and became (like a mass of)
veins. So it was, when they came to a certain town, the Spider
said, — " Now, this evening when food has been brought, if I am
not here do not begin to eat, but give it to the dog belonging to
the chief of the town." He (the lamb) said,—" Right." Then
the Spider turned (himself) into a dog. When he had turned
(himself) into a dog, food was brought. So the lamb divided the
food, (and) threw (some) to the dog. He ate it. He threw (some
more) to him. He ate it. So he threw him the whole. When
the food was finished, the Spider changed and became a Spider
(again, and) came to the lamb, and said, — "When food was
brought, did the chief's dog come, and did you give him (it) ? "
He (lamb) said— "Yes." Then he (Spider) said,— "Good.
To-morrow we shall leave." When dawn came they started, the
lamb following him. Then he (Spider) said, — " You see (during)
this travelling we have not had any luck. Let us return home,"
so spoke the Spider. So they went on. When they had come to
a certain river, the Spider lighted a large fire. When the fire had
been lighted, the Spider said, — " Listen, I am going to fall into
the water. You must fall into the fire." Then he (the lamb)
said, — " If the Spider were not alive, what use would life be to
me ? " When he heard the Spider fall into the water, he fell into
the fire and died. Then the Spider appeared. In reality he had
not thrown himself into the water. He had thrown a stone. So he
scraped off the lamb's hair {i.e. flayed him), and ate half there.
The (other) half he put into his bag. When this was done he
left. When he came near the Ewe's house, he (began) crying, he
cried, (and) said, — " I was given a young one that I might teach
him reading. Lo, he is dead." (He went on) thus until the Ewe
said, — "Oh it is nothing. Spider. God has done so." Then a

Collectanea. 357

Nanny-goat (who) was the rival of the Ewe, — both had the same
husband, — said, — " I have a (my) son. You go together." So
he said, — "Right," so said the Spider. Then the kid had made for
him a small ladle and a small calabash. Flour was ground for
him. As they were travelling they came to a river, and the
Spider said, — " Kid, mix your flour. So I may drink (while) you
go and beg." Then he (the Kid) said, — " What if I beg and get
nothing?" So they mixed the ^arz'and drank (it) together (until)
they were satisfied. The kid arose refreshed. The Spider also
arose refreshed. So they went on. When they reached a certain
town they halted, (and) the Spider said, — " When food has been
brought this evening, if I am not here don't you eat (it), but give
(it) to the host's dog, (for) he will come." The kid said, — "Very
well." So, when evening came, the Spider changed (himself) and
became a dog and came. The kid, however, had collected stones
in front of him. When food had been brought and the dog had
come, he threw stones at the dog. So he finished eating the
food, and felt satisfied. Then the Spider changed (himself) and
returned (to the form of) a Spider, and said, — "(When) the chief's
dog came, did you give him food?" Then the kid said, — "I,
what have I got to do with the dog? I only threw stones at him."
Then the Spider said, — " Right, that is enough. We shall leave
to-morrow. This journey has not been a successful one." He
(the kid) said, — "Very well." When they had arrived at the
river, the Spider lit a fire, and said he was going to throw himself
into the water, (so) the kid should throw himself into the fire.
The kid, when he heard the Spider throw himself into the water,
took the Spider's boots and put them into the fire, (and then) he
got inside the Spider's bag and tied the mouth. When he came
out, he, the Spider, he pulled out the boots and (began) eating.
He said, — " This one used to eat enough, but has not much fat.
The other one was fatter than he." The kid was listening
inside the bag. When the Spider came to the Goat's house, he
(began) crying, and said, — "I was given the lamb (and) he died.
Lo, the kid also is dead." The kid was in the bag, (and) when
he heard this he came out (with a) " boop," and said, — " It is a
lie you are telling. You ate my brother." Then the Spider
bolted. Then the Ewe said, — "Now who will catch the Spider for

35^ Collectanea.

me?" Then the She-ass said, — "I will bring (him) to you." She
(She-ass) said, — " Now make «a/^/a." So she made ^'z^i^/o. Those
(cakes) worth five cowries each were kneaded separately, those
worth ten separately, those worth twenty separately. Then the
she-ass swallowed all of them. Then she came near the Spider's
fence, and began eating (it). So the Spider said to his wife, —
" Go out, you, drive away for me the She-ass. She is eating the
fence." When she (Spider) had taken a stalk and had beaten her,
she (She-ass) let fall some dung made of cakes of nakia worth five
cowries each, and the Spider's wife took them. When she had
tasted (them), she liked them (tasted sweetness), so she took
(them) to the Spider. When he had eaten (them), he said, —
*' Here, you, where did you get this ? " She said, — " (It is) the
dung of the She-ass which was eating our fence." Then he said,
— " Give me a stick quickly." Then he went and, (as he) followed
her, he beat her, so she let fall (a cake) worth ten (cowries), and
he took (it) and ate (it). He again followed her, and she let fall
one worth twenty. He followed her (and) beat her until they
came to the Ewe's house. The Spider did not know. Then a
bound was made, (and) the Spider was captured, (and) he was
dashed on the ground. He was broken and scattered on the wall
of the house, on trees, (and) on everything. That is the reason
why he became so numerous. Formerly there was only one.

14. How the Woman taught the Spider cunning. (S. D.)

A certain woman called a Spider, and said, — " Come and I will
teach you more cunning (increase to you cunning)." He came,
(and) she said, — " Go and get some Lion's tears." She said, —
" Go and get an Elephant's tusk, and the skin of a Dingo." Then
the Spider arose and travelled on the trader's road, and lay down,
and pretended that he was (made like) dead. He lay down and
was silent. Now, when the traders came and passed, they said, —
" Hullo, a Spider has died on the road." The traders all passed
(were finished). All passed except one man. He went off again
at a run, he, the Spider, and made a detour, and got ahead of them
on the road, and he lay down again on the road. Now, when the
traders came and passed, they said, — " Hullo, to-day a lot of

Collectanea. 359

Spiders have died. See another here." They all passed, except
this one, he came, he was carrying a load of salt. Then he saw
the Spider, and said, — "Oh, let me go and get the other one,
and come and add it to this one, and eat (them)." '^'^ When he had
put down his load and gone, the Spider got up and took the load.
When the trader returned, he did not see his load, and did not
see the Spider. Of the two of them he did not see (even) one.
He ran away and followed his fellow traders. The Spider got up
and broke up the load (of salt) on a rock. Then he called the
Elephant, and said, — " O, Elephant, see the food I have brought
you," Then the Elephant came and (began to) eat. (While) she
was eating the stone broke her tusk. The Spider took the tusk,
and hid (it). Then he went and called the Dingo, and said, —
" Now, you come in a crowd (assemble), (and) let us make fun of
the Elephant (make song of). Her tusk is broken." Then they
came altogether, and began singing, — "See the Great One, see the
Great One, with no tusk." Then the Spider ran to the Elephant,
and said, — Oh, Elephant, have you heard the Dingoes making fun
of you? " Then the Elephant (she) came and said, — " Where are
they?" He said, — "See them over there." He said, — "Now,
if you kill (beat) them, flay them and throw (the skins) behind."
Then the Elephant (began to) kill them, she killed them with her
trunk (hand-of-nose), and she flayed them. The Spider took up
the skins, and went and hid (them) with the Elephant's tusk. Then
he returned and ground some pepper in a gourd, and went and
found the Lion lying down. He said, — " I have come to make
some medicine for you for soreness of the eyes. I see your eyes
are sore." The Lion said, — " Very well." The Spider put some
pepper in his eyes. Then the Lion felt (them) stinging and shut
his eyes, and the tears ran out, and the Spider collected them in
the gourd. He said, — *' Now I am going home, but to-morrow,
(when) I come, the pain will have gone." He took the gourd, and
went off on the road to go to his house. Then he took the gourd
of tears, the skin of the Dingo, and the tusk of the Elephant, and
came to the old woman. He said, — " Old Woman." She said, —
"Oh, Spider, have you returned?" He said, — "Yes." Then she

^^ If the man had not passed the spider at the first place where he lay down
he could not have seen him, so the narrator is at fault here.

360 Collectanea.

said, — "Very well. Where are the things that you have got?
Bring and let us see (them)." So he brought the skin, the tusk,
and the Lion's tears. Then she said to him, — " Very good. Come
in, that I may teach you cunning." She took a big calabash and
said, — " Now, Spider, lie down inside, and I will shut you in, so
that I may come and teach you more cunning." She shut him up.
Then she went outside. She took a stone, and brought it back.
When she had gone out, he, the Spider, opened the calabash and
got outside, and came (to) the door of the house and hid. She
brought the stone and came to throw it in the calabash, saying she
would kill the Spider. When she had thrown (it), and had smashed
the calabash, the Spider said, — " What about your calabash ? " She
said, — " If I taught you more cunning, you would destroy every-
body (finish the world)." She drove him out. He ran away, and
left all his booty with her, except the cone (of salt) which he had
hidden in the bush.

15. The Hyana, the Scorpion^ and the Ram. (S. D.)

A certain man started off to take his ram to a certain town. A
Scorpion said, — " Let me come and escort you." Then the
Scorpion held the ram. They went out and met with a Hyaena.
The Hysena said, — "Let me come and escort you." Then, when
they had gone to their lodging (place of sleeping), they tied the
ram to the trunk of a tree. The Hyaena said she would lie a little
way off. The owner of the ram (goat) ^^ lay down in a different
place from his ram. The Scorpion lay down very near the ram.
When midnight had come (night had made middle), (and) they
were sleeping, the Scorpion got up and lay down on the (their)
ram's neck. In a little while the Hyaena called out, — " O owner
of the ram ! O owner of the ram ! " Silence. Then she said
(again), — " O owner of the ram ! " She called even thrice. He
did not (refused to) answer. Then the Hysena got up, and walked
(was walking) carefully, and came to seize the ram. When she
was just about (had put her mouth) to seize the ram (goat), the
Scorpion stung her on the nose. She returned to her resting

^' This is an instance of Hausa carelessness, the animal being called a ram or
a goat indifferently.

Collectanea. 361

place (over there), she, the Hyaena. The Scorpion also returned
to hers. Then she said, — " Scorpion, Scorpion." She (Scorpion)
said, — "Um." She (Hysena) said, — "Are you asleep?" She
(Scorpion) said, — "Oh no, I have not been asleep." She(Hygena)
said, — " I am going home." She (Scorpion) said, — " Be patient.
To-morrow morning we shall go and kill (the ram) and give alms,
and we shall give you your (portion)." She (Hysena) said, — " I
shall not stop. I am going off" (on my business). She (Hyaena)
went off. She was feeling the pain. She started running, and
crying out " Oo, Oo." She was crying. She was hot (with pain).

16. The Ungrateful Hyana. (B. G.)

This is about a certain Filani. He had a son. The name of
the son (was) Dan Makubibi.^^ jjg went to look after his cattle.
His cattle (numbered) 100. When night came, he was singing,
and said, — " I, Dan Makubibi, I tend (the herd) at night." Then
he (they) met with a Hyaena.^^ The Hyaena said, — " Dan Maku-
bibi, will you not give me one bull that I may appease my
hunger?" So he said, — " Oh no, I will not give you (one) from
these. They are not fat." He said, — " But to-morrow, when
evening comes, I will come and tie (one) up for you here, at the
mouth of the well." He said he would tie up a bull for her. The
well was in the middle of the road, the road to the market. Then
he brought gourds, of the kind of which the inside is scraped out
to make calabashes. ^^ Then he came and placed them around the
mouth of the well. When the Hyaena came she saw the gourds
very white, (so) she thought (said) (they were) cattle. So she came
with a run, and fell into the well. Now this was the road to the
market. The Oribi came on her way (she was going) to the
market. The Oribi came and looked into the well. She wanted
to drink. But she saw the Hyaena's eyes. Then she said, — "Oh
dear!" She said, — "The water is too much for me to-day." Then
the Hysena said, — " Come now, Oribi, do me a good turn." The

'^'^ Makubibi means " an injured one," or something of that kind.

^^The use of the plural form of the pronoun where we should use the
singular is common, and vice versd.

"Lit. "a gourd (but pi. intended), the kind which is scraped out its inside
is made a calabash with it."

2 A

362 Collectanea.

Oribi said, — "Oh no, it is no business of mine, I (who am) a
short-tailed one." Then the Gazelle came. When she had looked
as she was going to drink, she said, — " Oh dear, I cannot drink
to-day." Then the Hyaena said, — " Come now, Gazelle, do me a
good turn." But she said, — " Oh no, it is no business of mine, I
(who am) a short-tailed one." Then the Monkey came. He
looked in, and saw the Hyaena, and he said, — " Oh dear, the
water is too much for me to-day." Then the Hyaena said, —
"Come now. Monkey, do me a good turn." Then he said, — " I
don't want (lest) to do you a good turn and you to return me
evil." Then the Hyasna said, — " I shall not do so to you." So
he stretched out his tail to her in the well. The Hyaena seized it,
and came out. When he had pulled her out, he said, — " Now,
Hyaena, I am going to market." Then she said, — " Will you not
let me dry?"^^ Then he said, — "Ah, that is what I was trying
to avoid (run from)." When she was dry, she said, — "Come,
Monkey, will you not give me a little bit of your tail that I may
appease my hunger?" So he said, — "All right." So she bit off
(a piece) about the length of a finger. Then the Monkey said, —
" That's enough, I'm off." But she said, — " Will you not let me
rest?" Then the Monkey said, — "That is what I was trying to
avoid." Then the Jerboa came, and said, — " Come here, and I
will decide between you at the foot of the tree." So he said, —
" My judgment is, the Jerboa inside quickly, the Monkey above,
the Hyaena between {i.e. left alone). When she looked, she saw
the Monkey above ; the Jerboa had entered his hole. As for her,
she went off.

17. The Girl who prevetited the Beasts from drinking. (B. G.)

This is a short one. It is about a certain person, a girl. Now,
a younger sister had been born to her, and all used to go to the
farm, — the mother, the father, and she the elder sister. They
used to leave the younger sister in a pot of grease. It happened
that (really) a Hyaena came to the house, and she saw the pot of
grease, so she took (it) and swallowed (it). When they returned
(it was come), neither the girl nor the pot was to be seen. Then
the elder sister began to cry, but she said she would see who had

'^^ The Hyaena had not let the Monkey's tail go.

Collectanea, 363

taken from her (to her) the younger sister in the pot. Now there
was a certain water, at which all the beasts of the forest used to
drink, called " Let (me) run." So the elder sister scooped out all
the water, and climbed a baobab tree with it, and left (nothing
but) mud. Now all the beasts of the forest used to drink water at
the place. Now the Lion came first, and she (began) singing, she
the elder sister, and said, — " Hullo, Lion, where are you going ? "
Then the Lion said, — " I am going to ' Let (me) run ' to drink
water." So she said, — "If you give me my younger sister, I shall
give you water to drink." Then he went, — " Hakk " (a cough),
and said, — "What I have eaten you see, Hakk, (and) only grass
it is." Then the elder sister said, — " Very well. Baobab, grow
up higher." So the baobab grew higher. Then the Buffalo
came, and she (elder sister) said, — "Hullo, Buffalo, where are
you going? " Then the Buffalo said, — " I am going to ' Let (me)
run ' to drink water," So she said, — " If you give me my younger
sister, I shall give you water to drink." Then she went, — "Hakk,"
and said, — " What I have eaten you see, Hakk, (and) only grass it
is." Then the elder sister said, — " Very well. Baobab, grow
up higher." So the baobab grew higher. All the animals
came, and she questioned them all thus. So all were lying down.
Thirst was almost (wanting to) killing them. Then the Hysena
came last of all. So she (elder sister) said, — " Hullo, Hyaena,
where are you going ? " Then the Hysena said, — " I am going to
* Let (me) run ' to drink water." So she said, — " If you give me
my younger sister, I shall give you water to drink." Then the
Hyaena went, — " Hakk." The pot came out, with the younger
sister inside. Then the elder sister said, — " I knew that it was
you, you (or who was the) glutton, that it was you who had taken
my younger sister." Then she (elder sister) said, — "Very well,
Baobab, put me down (return with me) on the ground." So she
came and gave them water, (and) they drank. Then she lifted up
her younger sister, and brought (her) home. That is the end of this.

18. The Cunning He-goat, the Hycena., and the Lion. (B. G.)

A certain He-goat said he knew (how to) sew calabashes.^^
He was always passing the door of the Hyaena's house. The
^^Lit. "Knew the sewing of calabashes. " They are mended thus.

364 Collectanea.

Hyaena wanted to ask him,^^ but felt afraid. She went to the
Lion's house, and said, — "The He-goat is always passing my
house." She said, — " I should like to ask him what work he does,
(but) I am afraid of him." Then the Lion said, — "Very well, if
he comes again, call him and come to me." She said, — "Agreed.
If he comes you must break a pot,^^ and say he is to sew (it). If
he does not sew it, say I am to seize him." So he (Lion) said, —
"Very well." Then the Hysena returned home. (When) the
He-goat came, she said,— " Here, the great one, the big brother of
the forest, is calling you." So he said, — "Very well, let us go."
On their arrival, the Lion broke a pot, and said, — "What work
(do you do)? " The He-goat said, — " I am a sewer of calabashes."
Then the Lion said, — "Very well. Here is a pot of mine (which)
is broken. If you do not sew it, I shall make the Hysena seize
you." Then the Hyaena said, — " Can you sew? " Then the He-
goat said, — "Come, Hysna, is it to be a quarrel? Really I
shall do it." Well, as for him, he had a small flask-shaped gourd,
and he had poured some honey in it, he the He goat. So he
said to the Lion, — " Now, the only thing to sew with (thing of
sewing) is Hyaena sinew. Where can it be got ? " Then the
Lion said, — "Oh, here is a Hygena." So the Lion said, — "You,
Hyaena, bring a little of your sinew." So the Hysena caught hold
(put hand) and plucked out a piece of sinew from her leg, and
brought (it) to the Lion. And the Lion gave (it to) the He-goat.
The He-goat took the piece of sinew, and put it in the honey.
Then he took it out of the honey, and handed (stretched) (it) to
the Lion, and said, — "Here (see it), smear spittle on it, and give
me (it) so that I may commence sewing." Then the Lion, when
he put it (in his) mouth, tasted the sweetness of the honey. So
he swallowed it. Then the He-goat, when he (Lion) had
swallowed (it), said, — " Ah, where shall I obtain a piece of
sinew?" Then the Lion said, — "Oh, here is a Hysena." So the
Lion said to the Hysena, — " Here, pick out a small piece of your
sinew." So she gave the Lion (it), and he gave the He-goat (it).
Then the He-goat put (it) in the honey, and gave the Lion (it),
and told him to smear spittle on it and give him. He said, —

17 «« What he did " is understood.

^8 Calabashes (gourds) can be sewn, but the pots are made of earth.

Collectanea. 365

"Really, you must not (don't) swallow that." When the Lion
had taken (it), he swallowed (it). Then the He-goat said,— "Ah,
where shall I obtain a piece of sinew?" Then the Lion said,—
" Ah, here is a Hyana." Then the Hyana went off at a run, and
the Lion followed her. The Hyaena only just escaped. The
He-goat also ran away. He had outwitted (made cunning to)
the Hyaena.

A. J. N. Tremearne.

(To be continued.)

Armenian Folk-Tales {cotitinued).

Of the two following tales, "Brother Lambkin" is the first
story in Manana, and "The Magpie and His Tail" is from
Hamov Hodov, but does not appear in M. Macler's Contes
Armeniens.

2. Brother Lafnbktn.
There was once a widow who had a daughter. This woman
married a man who had a son and a daughter by his first wife.
The woman worked and schemed until she drove her husband
distracted, urging him to take his children and lose them on the
mountains. Finally, one day he stuffs a few flat cakes into his
pouch and goes with his little ones up the mountain. He goes,
and goes, until he reaches a lonely spot, and there he says to his
children,—" Let us sit here and rest awhile." They do so ; but
their father turns his head away from them and weeps bitterly.
Afterwards he turns towards them once more, saying,—" llaX a
bit of bread, my little ones." When they had eaten, the son said,
— " Papa, I am thirsty." Then the father takes the staff which
was in his hand, plants it in the ground, and, taking off his cloak,
spreads it over the staff, and says,— "Come, my son, come sit
under the shade of my cloak, and I will go and see where I can find
a spring of water." The brother and sister seat themselves there,
while the father goes off and leaves them. There the poor little
ones remain. They watch and wait, but no father returns. They
rise and search on all sides, but find no man nor living being.

366 Collectanea.

They come back and begin to weep and cry, saying — *' Alas !
alas ! The staff is here, the cloak is here, but no Papa is here ! "

Again they watch and wait, and at last they rise to search once
more. One takes the cloak, and the other the staff, and they
wander about lost in the woods. They go, and they go, until
they reach a spot where they see a hollow made by the print of a
horse's hoof, and it is full of rain water. The boy cries, —
" Sister, I am thirsty." His sister replies, — " Do not drink, or
you will turn into a horse."

They go, and they go, until they reach a spot where there is the
print of the foot of an ox. The brother cries, — "Sister, I am
thirsty." His sister says, — " Do not drink ; you will turn into an
ox."

They go, and they go, and they reach the print of a buffalo's
foot. The brother cries, — "Sister, I am thirsty." The sister
says, — " Do not drink ; you will turn into a buffalo-calf."

They go, and go, and reach the print of a bear's foot. The
brother cries, — "Sister, I am thirsty." The sister says, — "Do not
drink ; you will turn into a bear's cub."

They go, and go, and reach the print of a hog's foot. The
brother says, — "Sister, I am thirsty." The sister says, — " Do not
drink ; you will turn into a hog."

They go, and go, and reach the print of a wolf's foot. The
brother says, — " Sister, I am thirsty." The sister says, — " Do not
drink ; you will turn into a wolf."

They go, and go, and reach the print of a lamb's foot. The
brother says, — " Sister, I am thirsty." The sister says, — " Do
not drink; you will turn into a lamb." The brother cries, —
" Sister, have mercy ; I am dying for a drink," The sister says,
— "What shall I do? I give it up. Drink, if you wish; but
you will turn into a lamb." Then the brother drinks and turns
into a lamb, and follows his sister, bleating as he goes. They
walk on, and on, and finally reach home.

One day the mother, being with child, ^ says to her husband,
— " Bring your lamb and kill it, that I may eat." The sister tried
every means to save her brother, and at last escaped with him to

* Every wish expressed by an expectant mother must be gratified, lest her
child be marked with the object refused.

Collectanea. 367

the mountains. There she would lead him to pasture every day,
while she would spin. Then, one day, the distaff fell from the
girl's hand into the mouth of a cave. The lamb went on grazing
above, while the girl went down to find her distaff. She enters,
and what does she see but a witch a thousand years old lying
there ! The moment she sets her eyes on the girl, the witch says,
— " Maiden, the bird on its wing, the serpent on its belly, can
not come here ; how did you come ? " In her fright, the girl
replied, — '* Your love drew me here, mother mine."

The witch has her sit down, and asks her about every thing
under the sun. This girl takes the fancy of the witch. " I will go
and fetch you some fish to eat," says the witch. " You must be
hungry now." The fish she brings are dragons and snakes ! The
girl is terrified. She is nearly frightened to death, and she begins
to weep. The witch says, — " Why do you weep, maiden ?" The
girl replies, — " I was thinking of my mother ; therefore I wept."
Then she tells the witch all that has happened to her. " Since
that is the case," says the witch, " you sit here, and I will lay my
head in your lap and go to sleep." First she lights a fire and puts
the iron cross-pieces ^ in the fire, and says to the girl, — " If the
Black-One comes by, don't waken me ; but, when the Green-and-
Red-One comes, touch the red-hot iron cross-pieces to my feet
that I may awake." The girl's soul shrivelled to the size of a pea.
Oh, what shall she do ?

She sat down. The witch laid her head on the girl's knees,
and went to sleep. Soon she saw a terrible Beast, the Black
Goblin, pass by ; but she made never a sound. She waited a
little longer, and she saw the Green-and-Red Goblin coming.
Then she seized the red-hot iron cross-pieces and struck them
against the witch's feet. The witch cries, — " Oh, the fleas are
biting me," and wakes up. The girl calls out ; the witch rises,
and the girl stands up. The Green-and-Red Goblin strokes the
girl's hair, and all her garments turn to gold.

Then the girl kisses the hand of the witch, receives permission

'^Two iron bars held together by a pivot through the middle of each.
When opened in the form of a cross, they are laid across the top of the
opening in the earthen oven, called a tandour. The pots and kettle are set
upon this, as on andirons.

368 Collectanea.

to go, and, finding her brother. Lambkin, goes home. She
secretly digs a hole beside the fireplace,^ where she hides her
golden garments away from her mother; she puts on her old
clothes and sits down. The mother comes home, and sees that the
girl's tresses are of gold. She says, — " Girl, what have you done,
that your tresses have turned to gold ? " Then the girl tells her
all about it. When the stepmother hears this, she sends her own
daughter the very next day to that mountain. The girl drops
the distaff from her hand, and enters the cave. The witch turns
her into a hideous, horrible creature, and sends her away. They
repent of it, but what can they do about it?

One day there is to be a wedding at the palace of the King
of that country. The Prince is to be married. The whole
country goes to see the wedding. This woman puts on her white
sheet,^ throws a veil^ over her daughter's head, decks her out as
fine as you please, and goes to look on. Then the orphan girl
rises and puts on her golden garments, and from head to foot she
is transformed into a fairy princess.^ She goes to look on at the
wedding also.

On her return the fairy princess runs to reach home before her
mother, and to take off her garments and hide them. Because she
runs so fast, one of her golden slippers'^ falls into a fountain. The
King's horses are brought there to drink. The horses catch sight
of the golden slipper, and they start back in affright, and will not
drink. The King has a workman^ called to clean out the foun-
tain. He finds the golden slipper, and fetches it out. The King
sends a crier through the city to call, — " Whoever is the owner of
this slipper shall marry my son." They begin to measure the

^The fireplace, or tandojir, called also tonii\ is built of clay either on the
level of the floor or sunk below it. The fuel is put in at the top, and there is
an opening at the bottom for the draught. Flat cakes are often plastered on
the inside to bake. The thick edges of the fireplace may be hollowed out and
used as hiding-places for valuables.

■* The shabtg nnikhmel, or charshaf, is the usual outside wrap worn by the
women of the East.

^ The medad, or yazma, is a large square of coloured cotton gauze.

8 A houri ox shining being ; any very beautiful girl.

^ The Armenian word used here is sol. Is it not related to " sole "?

8A kankaii, or workman whose trade it is to build watercourses.

Collectanea. 369

feet of every one in the city. They reach the house of the
Lambkin. The stepmother thrusts the orphan girl into the fire-
place and hides her. She shows her own daughter. Then the
cock flies from its perch, and, standing on the door-sill, calls
thrice, — " Googloo-goo-goo ! the lady is in the fireplace ! " The
men push the mother aside, bring the girl out of the fireplace, and
measure her feet. " Come now, let us go," they say, " You are
the bride of the King." The girl opens the spot where her
golden garments are hidden, puts them on, leads away her
brother. Lambkin, and goes. The wedding lasts for seven days
and seven nights, and so the girl marries the Prince.

One day the stepmother takes her own daughter and goes to
the palace to see her other daughter, and her daughter treats her
as though she were her own mother, and takes her to the Park,
and from there they go to the sea-shore. The stepmother says, —
" See here, daughters, let us go in and take a swim." So they go
into the water. Then the stepmother pushes the Princess into
the middle of the sea, and a great fish comes and swallows her.
The mother gathers up the golden garments, and dresses her own
daughter in them. She returns to the palace, and sets her
daughter in the bride's place. The girl's face is veiled (nose and
mouth, eyes and face are covered) ; no one knows her, and the
mother does not tell.

The other poor girl remains in the belly of the fish for some
days. One night she hears the night watchman, and she cries from
inside the fish : —

" Watchman, watchman, when you call the hour,

And cross your breast seven times each hour :

As you love God who gives you the day,

Go take this word to the Prince, and say,
" Do not harm my brother. Lambkin !" "

The watchman heard this repeated once or twice; then he went
and told the King's son. One night the King's son arises,
and goes with the watchman to the seashore and listens.
He recognises the voice of his fairy Princess. He bares his
sword, and leaps into the sea. He cuts open the fish with
his sword, takes his bride in his arms, brings her to land,
and they go home. Then he calls the stepmother before

370 Collectanea,

him, and says, — " Lady Mother-in-law, what gift shall I give
you, — a horse that eats barley, or a black-handled knife?"
The mother-in-law replies, — " Let the black-handled knife be
for him who wishes you ill ; give me the horse which eats
barley." Then he has the mother and daughter tied to the
tail of a horse, and he says to the hostler, — " See that you drag
them from mount to mount, and rock to rock, till not a bit of
them is left larger than an ear, or a wisp of hair. Bring it and
come." They met with their deserts.

The bride and bridegroom lived together, and brother Lambkin
with them. They attained to their desires. Three apples fell
from heaven. 9

3. The Magpie and his Tail.

An old woman had milked her cow, set her milk-pail down on
the ground, and gone to find some twigs and litter with which to
light a fire and boil the milk. A magpie came along and dipped
his bill into the milk-pail to get a drink of milk. The milk-pail
was upset, and the milk was spilled upon the ground. Just then
the old woman returns, and seizes the magpie by the tail. The
magpie tries to fly, and his tail is left in the old woman's hand.
The magpie goes and flies up on to the wall, looks down at the
old woman, and caws and begs, saying, — " Old woman, old
woman, give me my tail. Let me take it and fasten it on, and
go and join my companions." The old woman says, — " Go, and
bring me my milk."

Then the magpie goes near the cow, and begs and says, —
" Cow, cow, give me some milk ! I will take it to the old woman.
The old woman will give me my tail. I will take it and fasten it
on, and go and join my companions."

And the cow says, — " Go, bring me some grass." The magpie
goes to the field near by, and begs and says, — "Field, field, give
me some grass ! I will take it to the cow. The cow will give me
some milk. I will take that to the old woman. The old woman
will give me my tail. I will take it and fasten it on, and go and
join my companions."

' The stereotyped ending for all stories is, — " Three apples fell from heaven :
one for the one who told it ; one for the one who asked for it ; and one for the
one who gave ear to it."

Collectanea. 371

And the field says, — " Go, bring me some water." Then the
magpie goes to a water-carrier,^'^ and begs and says, — " Water-
carrier, water-carrier, give me some water ! I will take it to the
field. The field will give me some grass. I will take it to the cow.
The cow will give me some milk. I will take that to the old
woman. The old woman will give me my tail. I will take it and
fasten it on, and go and join my companions."

And the water-carrier says, — " Go, bring me an egg." So the
magpie goes to the hen, and begs and says, — " Hen, hen, give me
an egg ! I will take it to the water-carrier. The water-carrier
will give me some water. I will take it to the field. The field
will give me some grass. I will take it to the cow. The cow will
give me some milk. I will take that to the old woman. The old
woman will give me my tail. I will take it and fasten it on, and
go and join my companions."

The hen's heart is moved with pity for the magpie. She sits
down and lays two eggs. The magpie takes them to the water-
carrier. The water-carrier gives him some water. He takes it to
the field. The field gives him some grass. He takes it to the
cow. The cow gives him some milk. He takes it to the old
woman. The old woman gives him his tail. He takes it and
fastens it on, and flies away and joins his companions.

Talas (Cesarea). J- S- Wingate.

(To be continued.)

^" Literally, the man who apportions the water to each field.

Playing the Wer-Beast : A Malay Game.

In Europe the werwolf and other wer-beasts were looked on
as exceptional phenomena produced only by the reincarnation of
wicked souls or by the changing of the shape of men and women
by witchcraft. But in Burmah and Sumatra a quite ordinary
man may turn into a tiger in the evening without any fuss. It
is simply a gift. In the Malay Peninsula also the wer-tiger is
regarded as a fact as real as the natural beast. As a by-
product of this belief, and all over the country Malay boys have a

372 Collectanea.

favourite game, played on moonlight nights, based on this
power of transformation. The game is called Hantu miisang,
— hantu meaning a spirit or demon, and miisang the common
civet-cat which plunders the orchards and fowl-houses of the
villagers. The game, (of which variants have been described by
Mr. Skeat for Selangor,^ and by Mr. D. F. A. Hervey for
Malacca,^) consists in nothing less than turning a boy temporarily
into such a beast by possessing him with the '•'■ hanhi of the
musangs." His outward appearance, of course, is unchanged,
but one must be careful, I am told, to bring him back to the
normal state within an hour or so, or he will turn into a real
mnsa7tg ior good. The boy is first hypnotised, — though of course
there is no such word or idea among Malays. A dull, stupid lad,
the nearer half-witted the better, is invariably chosen. The experi-
ence of Malay boys does not at all agree with Moll's statement ^
that "intellectual people and those who have strong wills are
more easily hypnotisable than the dull, stupid or weak-willed."

The subject sits down cross-legged, and his head, at least, is
wrapped in a cloth, preferably a white one. (White cloth figures
very frequently in Malay magic and divination.) His ears are
closed by the thumbs of one of the others, and he is told to
remain motionless, not even swallowing a drop of saliva. Then
he is monotonously patted on the back, or, more usually, swung
backwards and forward by his arms or the ends of the enfolding
cloth, while the others sing over and over again an appropriate

1 Malay Magic, pp. 498-9. [For a very similar specimen of the ' Monkey
Dance' {Main Bro), see il>id., p. 465, App. p. 647 ; and for similar facts as to
(presumably) hypnotic personation of animals, see ibid., pp. 160-3, 436-44 5
Pagan Races of the Malay Penitisula, vol. ii., pp. 227-9, ^11 describing imper-
sonations of the tiger spirit. Mr. Skeat writes to me : " Mr. O'May's descrip-
tion of the civet-cat game is cordially to be welcomed, because no one has yet
made a speciality of studying hypnotism as practised by the Malays, a subject
which much requires attention. Mr. O'May would be doing yeoman's service
if he could send for publication in Folk-Lore at some future period a detailed
statement as to any instances of actual hypnotism, (not solely cases of beast-
personation), that he has himself witnessed, and tested by any of the usually
approved methods, amongst the Malays of the Peninsula." Ed.]

^ 7'ke Journal of ike Royal Anthropological Institute etc., vol. xxxiii.,
PP- 299-300.

'Myers, Human Personality, vol. i., p. 438.

Collectanea^ 373

spell-like verse. These verses vary considerably ; the following
are examples : —

" Sang Gali, Sang Bertali, akar lada.

Datang sa-ekor Musang, sa-ekor ayam pun tiada."

and

" Chok Pa Lechok, Gali-gali ubi

Di-mana kayu bongkok, Di-situ musang men-jadi."

The boy becomes giddy, tired, and finally, — it may be after a
considerable time, — appears to sleep.

The song must have a lulling effect. I have not heard of
shaking or swinging being employed elsewhere by hypnotists, but
the effect of a strain on the neck in producing an abnormal
mental state has been widely made use of; for example, by the
Maenads, (who are figured in Bacchic ecstasy with heads flung
back), by the dancing Dervishes, by Malay wizards seeking to be
possessed,* by the "Pentecostal dancers," and by those Greek
monks who formerly attained ecstatic illumination by sitting with
their eyes steadfastly fixed upon their abdomens. The chant is
considered absolutely necessary, and such formulae are used in
most Malay wizardry.

When the subject's feet feel cold, or he is no longer ticklish,
the process is complete, and the rest of the band run off, some-
times imitating the cries of fowls, creatures beloved of all musangs.
The newly-admitted member of that race starts up and pursues,
and it goes ill with anyone he catches, for he bites and scratches
hke the beast he is imitating. I am told that he not only eats
eagerly all the fruits which musatigs are fond of, but also kills and
devours fowls. He never uses his fists, and a blow does not stop
him. If his prey escapes, as usually happens, he takes to climb-
ing trees, in accordance with his acquired character, and is said to
show marvellous agility and skill in reaching the topmost
branches and jumping from tree to tree. There is nothing in
this which goes beyond the ordinary feats of somnambulism,
mania, and drunkenness. In all this there is clearly a good deal
of danger both to the musang and his companions, but, though
the latter do get bitten at times, no damage is done as a rule.

* W. E. Maxwell, In Malay Forests, p. 20.

374 Collectanea.

When any one is at the mercy of the possessed lad, he breaks the
spell by calling out his real name. This offends the hantu of
the musangs, by whose assistance his climbing feats have been
performed, and who is responsible for his acts as a whole. The
spirit therefore leaves him at once, and it is therefore important
not to call the boy's name while he is up a tree, lest, being
deserted, he should fall and be hurt.

The return to normal consciousness is sometimes preceded by
insensibility. The subject remembers nothing afterwards of what
has been happening. He is more or less insensible to pain, too,
during the trance, as might be expected, though, when it is over,
he is much exhausted and often aching and miserable.

Why should the sound of his own name thus strip off the boy's
assumed personality? Doubtless we can call it pre-suggestion.
He knows all about the game beforehand, and so practically
receives a suggestion that the sound of his name is to awake
him ; and the awakening follows the signal, as usual.

One might ask, too, why any boy should wiUingly fill a role
which seems so unattractive, but there is usually no difficulty on
that score. Lads of the type required seem often to like it.

This game is the commonest of a group which includes hantu-
kambing (goat), hantu kra (monkey), and hantu kuching (cat). All
are played in the same manner, except that different rhymes are
used, and the behaviour of the corresponding animal is imitated.
A human goat does not climb trees, but he will charge the wall of
a house so violently as to break a plank, apparently without feeling
pain.

Naturally, these games are often imitated. A boy will pretend
to be berhantu in this way when he is quite self-possessed and
conscious, and then the amusement is merely a variety of
" I spy." But the descriptions given me by many boys who have
played it, and in particular such details as the tests used to decide
when the possession is complete, make it unmistakably clear that
the game as I have described it is a favourite amusement among
boys all over the Federated Malay States. It is also sometimes
played by men.

Kuala Kangsar. J- O'May.

Collectanea. 375

English Charms of the Seventeenth Century.

In a Ms. (Cod. Gaster, No. 1562), written mostly by a certain
Thomas Parker in the years 1693-5 ^'^d containing astrological
horoscopes and nativities, there are towards the end also a few
charms, written by the same hand. The Ms. has evidently passed
from the first writer into the hands of others addicted like him
to the study of astrology, and they have added between the two
original sections a number of other nativities and sundry notes of
a mixed character, among which is, for example, Lord Wharton's
Satyr on ye Judge^ 1726, which is the latest date mentioned in
the Ms. But that part of it which is written by Parker is the
most interesting. It includes a manual of leechcraft, or, better,
of "astronomicall elections for physick and chyrurgery depending
upon the place and course of the moone." He has compiled also
a perpetual calendar for Easter and an " Almanack for 34 yeares,"
from 1696 to 1731 ; short chronologies and descriptions of
natural phenomena, the number of parish churches in every
shire and the number of shires in England and Wales ; " Of
the cause of severall things" in a poem, and 15 distiches on
vapour, rain, hail, earthquakes ; etc. He knows Latin and Greek,
and writes the Greek words in Greek letters. He also gives us
the names and the Seals of the seven Archangels, viz. Michael,
Gabriel, Samael, Raphael, Sachiel, Anael, Asael, and Gapriel (?)
and " five infernal kings " : — Sitrael, Malanta, Thamaor, Falaur,
and Sitrami; and on the last page but two (f. 157/^) we find the
following stanza : —

"Excess of wealth great pourful God,

I do not wish to see ;
Extreame of want and poverty

Aflict not Lord on mee.
For since the one exalts too high,

The other brings too low ;
A mean therefore for natures need,

Great God on nie bestow."

Sufficient has now been said to characterise the writer of this
Ms., who must have found the charms in the original from which
he took most of the materials of his book.

I am reproducing them here exactly as they are in the Ms.

376 Collectanea.

from fol. 1433-145(5, preserving the spelling and imitating the
mystical signs as found in the original, but prefixing numerals
to facilitate reference. They are love charms &c., one against
thieves, and two amulets with celestial Seals, or those of the
spirits who were to protect the wearer of the amulets. They
resemble the metal amulets of the time of Charles II., when
mystical literature flourished extensively in England.

Bound up with this Ms., which is in my possession, is part of
Coley's Almanack for the year 1691 with "The first Rudiments
of Astrology in Memorial Verses."

These are the charms : —

(i) How to make a woman follow thee.

Write your name and the name of the maide in anny leafe
with the Blood of a white henn and touch her with it and shee
will follow thee.

(2) Annother way.

Take the Blood of a bat and write in thy hand with it

g : h : b : m : ^-yi_^ 2 : b : d : And thou touch her therwith.

{3) Write In an apple these three names
Aatnell: Loliell : Clotiell :
And after say I Conjure thee apple by these three names that
what woman so ever eats of thee shee may soe Remaine In

my Love that she take no rest <-?»*—>

Donee uoluntatem mea afervile.

(4) How for to know a womans Councill.

Take virgine wax and write theron these words + lacus +
stratus + Dromedus + Frigius. And when shee sleppeth put it
betweene her breasts and shee will shew thee all her meaneing

Collectanea. 377

(5) Write these words in uirgins wax and aske what thou wilt
of anny one and it shalbee giuen thee

(6) Uerum : Iff it bee put into watter all the fish will com
to it : Iff a man Bear yt about him hee shall not bee hurt of
hys Enemy : Iff anny thing bee stolen let him that is suspected
bee touched with it and Iff hee bee guilty he will say hould I
haue it.

It must bee gatherd in may may {sic) on munday befor the
feast of holly Cross.

(7) The holly ghost Bless us now and ever mor amen.

I Bequeath thys place all about and all my goods within and

without to the Blessed trinity that one god and three persons

to all Christs Apostles to all Angells Archangells Chirubims and

Seraphimes : I Bequeath this place all about and my goods to

Jesus Christ and to saint John the Euangelist that was that

true deciple that noe theeues away take But keepe holy for our

Blessed Ladyes St : maryes Sake that not from hence no theeues

feet goe but keepe them hear still O Blessed trinity through the

uertue of thy godhead that Created heaven and earth And all

things Contained therin : and By the uertue of hys powerfull

passion that hee suffered in his manhood for our Redeeption :

and by his holly name Jesus and by all the holly names of god

that are to be spoken and that are not to be spoken : and by

the name that is aboue all names wherwith god Created all

things : And by the uertue of his Body in forme of bread : And

by uertue of euery mass that hath beene saide both more and

less : And by the uertuouse worlds stones and grass : By all the

names aboue rehersed : I charg youe euery one and the four

Euangelists Mathew : mark : Luke : and John : By all the raightye

powers of god by the gloryouse Ascention of our Lord Jesus

Christ By all the names and miracles of the apostles martyrs

2 B

Z7^

Collectanea.

Confessours uirgins I Charge youe for to keepe him or them
hear still : I Charge youe seaven plannets

I Charg the the twelfe Signes ;

■■ '?"■• b": jr ■ 2^ • SV. TTi_ tOsx -m.- y«

3£

I Charg you all hear to keepe (him) or them still By the
miracles of god and of hys apostles and of all holly martyres :
by the uirginitie of our blessed Lady and uirginities of all other
uirgins that they pass no foot untill they haue told euery stone
in the way and euery watter drop that drops in the sea. I pray
youe all that It bee soe and that you binde them hear asdid
St. Barthallamew the deuill with an haire of hys beard theeues.
theeues. theeues.

Stand by the uertue of the blessed trinity and by all the uertues
before Rehersed : And by the uertue of the passion of Christ
by his death and buryall and his upriseinge and Ascention and
by his Comming at the dreadfuU day of Judgement to Judge
both the Quicke and the dead allso I bind youe by the dread-
full name of god tetra gramation untill to morrow that I Com
to speake with him or them hear or ther untill I Liscence them
to goe their way: I Charg youe all aforesaid that it bee soe by
the uertue of the Blessed trinity the Lord of might : Amen.

(8) Whoso hath this figure
about him let him fear no foe
but fear God.

(9) Whoso hath this about
him all spirits shall do him

homage.

M. Gaster:

CORRESPONDENCE.

How Far is the Lore of the Folk Racial?

How far can we use the lore of the folk for ethnological and
racial analysis?

It is only in comparatively recent times that the question has
arisen explicitly. Effective folklore studies started from the survey
of local, regional, or, at widest, assumed racial groupings of man-
kind. The first glimmerings of folklore as a separate field of study
go back to the sixteenth century, to the period when, as a result
of the long and complex processes styled Renaissance and Reform,
the lore of the folk really became differentiated from that of the
cultured classes, a differentiation which has increased ever more
and more until the present day, when in so many countries the
folk has largely lost its old traditional lore without acquiring the
culture of advanced civilisation. The definite organisation of
folklore study is due to the Grimms in the early years of the
nineteenth century. During the first portion of the intervening
period, the most important and valuable collection of folklore
material was made by the Danish antiquaries of the 1 6th- 17th
centuries, who published the ballads, i.e. the narrative poetry,
partly dramatic and partly lyrical in form and spirit, still current
in the Danish area ; this popular poetry was regarded as being
essentially a product of the Danish people, the exponent of its
emotions and feelings, a reflex of the historic conditions through
which it had passed. Toward the close of the period, the alleged
Celtic traditional poetry made known by Macpherson was uni-
versally hailed as a genuine revelation of the Celtic race, as an
interpretation of its inmost individuality. But a short while later

380 Correspondence.

Herder essayed in his Stimmen der Volker to elaborate a racial
psychology on the basis of material for the most part of a popular
nature. The essay was brilliant but premature, as the material at
Herder's disposal was both fragmentary and insufficiently analysed.
None the less his influence was wide and stimulating, and he may
truly be regarded as one of the founders of our study. After a
few more years the brothers Jacob and William Grimm, — but
especially Jacob, — by their labours constituted folklore an inde-
pendent branch of study with aims and methods of its own. Now
Jacob Grimm was essentially a historian; he always sought to
replace every fact he studied in its historic setting, to determine
its historic relations, and to utilise it for a constructive view of
historical development. A right and sound decision led him to
work thoroughly a definite linguistic or racial area. Inevitably,
however, the view of folklore which resulted and which prevailed
among his followers was that of something distinctive, specifically
characteristic of particular linguistic or racial groups. Inevitably
also the significance of the lore of the folk as indicative of racial
psychology was enhanced ; its essentially archaic, primitive
nature invested it with weightier import than those other elements
of the more advanced culture, the alien, borrowed nature of which
was so evident. Teutondom, — for it was in connection with the
Teutonic group that the implications of folklore study first became
manifest, — might have taken its religious organisation wholly, its
political and juridical organisation largely, and its higher artistic
culture to a great extent, from Rome; the lore of its folk was
a thing of its very self, blood of its blood and soul of its soul.

This conception must undoubtedly have been speedily modified
by the rapid advance of knowledge, and the consequent apprecia-
tion of the marked kinship of the lore of the folk throughout the
European area, but for the fact that this advance coincided with
the development of the studies of comparative philology and
mythology, and with the consequent recognition of Aryan or
Indo-Germanic unity. The results of the humbler study fell into
line with those of the more influential academic sisters ; they
demonstrated the unity of Aryan speech and myth, and she
that of popular fancy and behef. The tendency was fortified
by the fact that up to then it was the artistic aspect of the lore

Correspondence. 381

of the folk, its output in story, legend, song, and saying, that had
attracted most attention. Of the basic works of the new science,
the Kinder- und Hausmdrchen, the Deutsche Mythologie on its
literary side, and the Deutsche Sagen had hundreds of readers
and disciples to every one of the Deutsche Weisthilmer. But
the lore of the folk, from this point of view, has close connection
with the subject-matter of philology and mythology; little wonder
if the students of all three were guided by the same dominating
conceptions.

Again advancing knowledge broke down the conception and
shifted the point of view. The Aryan unity was transcended, yet
still the kinship of the lore of the folk manifested itself. German
and English scholars alike brought in a rich garner of facts from
outside the Aryan area ; English scholars first sought to determine
the import of these facts, and first essayed, in recent times, to
treat the lore of the folk from a cultural rather than from a
historico-racial standpoint. The significance of a similar attempt
made in the previous century became then apparent. This
attempt had been made, as was natural, in France, for the French
intelligence may be defined as algebraic in essence, — it perceives
facts stripped of their contingent and accidental properties, and
conceives of them schematically. By nature the French mind is
synthetic, and was thus well fitted to consider the elements of the
lore of the folk apart from their local manifestations, and to work
them into a philosophical scheme. It was the cultural psychology
of the lore of the folk that Fontenelle and De Brosses had in view,
and not, like Herder, a racial psychology. Their syntheses failed,
like his, because, like his, they were premature and were based
upon fragmentary and imperfectly analysed material. Whereas
Herder inspired and strengthened his own and the succeeding
generation of folklorists, the work of the French scholars lay
infertile for over a century. It was necessary that the science
of folklore should first constitute itself upon a local, a racial basis,
before its universally human elements could be appreciated at
their true value.

The new tendency in folklore study which began to manifest
itself in the sixties of last century was strengthened by the labours
of Mannhardt. With him the stress was shifted from the artistic

382 Correspondence.

to the ritual side of the study ; not what the folk feigned in saga
and song, but what it wrought in rite and practice, attracted his
attention and that of his followers. It was precisely these elements
that proved susceptible of fertile comparison with the extra-Aryan
material revealed by Waitz, Bastian, Tylor, and McLennan. As
far as myth and legend and saying were concerned, the Aryan
unity had shown itself, practically speaking, self-sufficient; what
savage material was adduced in comparison was possibly derivative
and, in any case, brought little fresh light. It was far otherwise
with rite and practice, and the animating principles which underlie
them ; it soon became obvious that here comparison was both
illuminating and fertile.

Thus, in the first half century since our study became major and
self-conscious, say since 181 3, it marched in the wake of Aryan
comparative philology and mythology ; it isolated and emphasised
racial differences. In the second half century, — Dr. Tylor's works
marking the dividing stage, — its tendency has been more and
more to march in the wake of comparative anthropology, to con-
sider the facts from the standpoint of culture stratification rather
than as factors in distinctive historical and racial developments.
Whilst the earlier folklorists may be criticised for isolating the lores
of the folk, say of England, Germany, and France, as distinct,
independent, and self-contained entities, (a tendency which survives
in full force among the non-folklorist public !), the very opposite
criticism may be passed upon his anthropological successor; he
may be taxed with considering the facts, in his method of research at
all events, "out of space, out of time," and some critics have hinted
that the result of the method of "wild" is certainly not " sublime" !

The question of racial elements in the lore of the folk attracted
me from the earliest stages of my interest in the subject, coaeval
with the foundation of our Society. From the beginning, too, I
felt that this question could nowhere be studied with greater
chance of success than in Britain. Thanks to our insular
position, the facts of historic superposition and mutual influence
of different races are far more clearly established than in other
European lands where the shock of races and cultures has been
longer, more intense, and more obscure. It early became evident
to me that under a common designation were comprehended

Correspondence. 383

elements derived from culture strata differing greatly in origin and
date, and that forgetfulness of this fact accounted for much of the
controversy between the different schools. Those elements upon
which the researches of Mannhardt and his followers had con-
centrated attention, elements the significance and import of which
had received so much illumination from comparison with the
beliefs and rites of contemporary savage peoples, seemed to me
to stand outside, nay, almost to ante-date, any racial groupings of
which we have historic knowledge, to belong to an archaic stratum
of thought and practice through which every people that has
reached a certain stage of culture has passed almost forcedly, and
to constitute the oldest and most widely-spread of religions. We
cannot, I think, use elements of this kind for discriminating Celt
from Teuton, or either from the pre-Aryan folk they are assumed
to have subjugated, for this ancient religion was, I believe,
common, in substance, to all alike. But, where the lore of the
folk embodies survivals of economic, social, and political practices
known to have been current among the organised communities,
Celtic or Teutonic, occupying portions of these islands, it may
yield useful clues respecting the distribution and development of
such communities, clues all the more useful as they are not
infrequently our only source of detailed knowledge. Yet we
must recognise that here the part of folklore is that of a sub-
ordinate auxiliary of historic record; we require the latter to
supply a framework into which we can fit the details furnished by
the former. In the absence of such a framework, deductions
based upon the lore of the folk alone would be insecure. Could
we, for instance, safely infer from it the Scandinavian settlements
of the Qth-iith centuries in Britain? The answer must be in the
negative ; none the less is the testimony precious for filling in
many gaps where historic record leaves us in the lurch.

So far I have considered the practical elements of the lore of
the folk, whether derived from a pre-racial or a racial stratum.
The case is different with the artistic elements ; these are, as a
rule, the outcome or exponent of the fancy, emotion, humour, and
philosophy ol a. people, i.e. of a grouping constituted, at first at all
events, upon a racial basis. The nature of this kind of popular
lore is also largely conditioned by language, and language coincides

384 Correspondence.

originally with race. Racial conflict may, it is true, disassociate
the two by imposing the speech of the conqueror upon the con-
quered, but even in this case language furnishes valuable clues to
racial grouping, for, where a subject race accepts the speech of
its conqueror, it nearly always distorts it. If every historic record
in the world were destroyed, a student examining the speech and,
let me add, part of the lore of the negro population in America,
could reconstruct something not too remote from historic reality.
Moreover, these elements of the lore of the folk are, in a very
special sense, the products of racial self-consciousness ; they cling
to, and perpetuate, bodies of belief and legend which require for
their formulation and conservation the existence of a definitely-
constituted class, priestly or bardic. It is in times of racial stress
and shock that these bodies of belief and legend, — the racial
mythology, the racial heroic saga, — emerge sharply, and identify
themselves most closely with the racial consciousness. It is in
the ranks of the class professionally charged with the preservation
of myth and saga that the feeling of a distinct national individuality
finds its most extreme and durable expression. Where the political
chief may consent to temporise and to conciliate, the high priest,
the chief bard, the man who has formulated and who embodies
the national spirit in its most intense form, is all for a fight to the
finish, and for the smiting hip and thigh of the racial foe. These
organised classes, — priesthoods, saga-preserving corporations, or
what not, — are furthermore gifted with great power of vitality;
they survive the social conditions which gave them birth, and they
outlive the communities of which they formed a vital organ and
drag on their existence, maimed, it is true, and often underground,
amid political, economical, and social surroundings which have
altered entirely ; and to the last gasp they cherish fragments of the
lore it was once their glorious function to express and magnify.

Considerations such as these have always led me to seek for the
remains of what is racially distinctive among the artistic rather
than among the practical elements of the lore of the folk.

Alfred Nutt.

Correspondence. 385

Heredity and Tradition.

The correspondence which recently appeared in The Times
under this heading deserves the attention of folklorists, and, as
the folklore side of the question was not touched upon before the
correspondence closed, it will not perhaps be considered out of
place if I shortly state what the position of folklore is on this
important point. The fact that it has arrived at a stage when it
can contribute something to what pure science has said, is not
without significance to the progress of our study.

In my book on Folklore as an Historical Science, published two
years ago, I introduced a chapter on "the psychological con-
ditions," and ventured upon the theory of the continuity of
tradition being due to environment. The facts of tradition are
sufficiently startling to need some scientific basis to account for
them. We have a primitive thought prevalent among savage
people side by side with its parallel obtaining amongst the
villagers of a civilized country, and it is not enough to say that
the latter is a mere survival from a far-off period when these
villagers were on a level of culture with the savage. The
"amazing toughness of tradition" is of course recognized by all
folklorists, but to account for its prolonged persistence requires
something more than the mere quality of toughness. This some-
thing more is, I venture to think, the important influence of
environment. Anthropologists generally have neglected this in-
fluence, or at all events have not formulated its position. And
yet it is apparent in all recent research. Two notable examples of
this are Dr. Frazer's recently published Totemism and Exogafny
and Mr. Hartland's Primitive Paternity. Totemism in its earliest
stage is clearly not due to formulated theories of social organiza-
tion; paternity, as originally conceived, is clearly due to the
enormous influence of environment upon the sensitive organs of
observation which man has always possessed. But these concep-
tions, carried through the ages, get repeated at different stages of
culture whenever environment operates upon similarly constituted
minds. Little groups of isolated members of civilized nations,
groups of backward intellect, individuals incapable of receiving
the advancing culture of their times, recede from the higher

386 Correspondence.

environment and fall back upon the lower. Their intellects or
their limited opportunities are thus operated upon by the same
outside influences as operated upon their savage or primitive
ancestors, and thus produce the same results or continue the same
ideas.

Superstition is not always inherited. It is also created. Thus,
as I pointed out in my book, when the Suffolk peasant set himself
to work to account for the origin of the so-called " pudding stone "
conglomerate, and decided that it was a mother stone and the
parent of the pebbles,^ he was beginning a first treatise on geology
in the terms of his environment. A child thinks and acts in terms
of his nursery, his school, or his playground, and the grown-ups
think in the terms of their family, their farm, or other industry.
When this thought is shut out from the influence of science, it
harps back to the primitive, reproducing an existing idea with
which it can most easily assimilate, or formulating a new idea on
precisely the old lines.

I do not know whether I have succeeded in making my mean-
ing clear, but the conclusion I have come to, as a student of folk-
lore, is that the impressions of the surrounding life have not been
sufficiently regarded in their influence upon primitive thought, and
this neglect of a very important factor in anthropological science
has prevented us from seeing that tradition is an external product
operating on the human mind, instead of an inheritance from folk-
memory.

G. Laurence Gomme.

^County Folklore, vol. i., 2 {Suffolk), p. 2.

The Antiquity of Abbot's Bromley.

{Ante, p. 27.)

The village of Bromley, Staffordshire, can be traced back into
the tenth century, some years earlier than the date given by Miss
Burne. In 993 Ethelred II. gave it to one Wulfric, who is no
doubt identical with Wulfric "Spot," whose gift of it to Burton

Correspondence. 387

Abbey in 1002 Miss Burne mentions. Ethelred's charter has not
been printed, but it is mentioned in the second volume of the
Reports of the Historical MSS. Commission.

University College, Reading. F. M. Stenton.

Burial of Amputated Limbs.
{Ante, p. 105.)

The following extract is from the Sun newspaper of March 3rd,
1799:—

"The Sexton of a Parish Church in Shropshire lately

established a curious kind of apportionment ; he insisted upon a

poor man, who had lost its leg by amputation, paying sixteen

pence for burying it. The Pauper appealed to the Rector, who

said that he could not reheve him in the present case ; but he

would consider it in his fees when the remainder of his body came

to be buried."

A. R. Wright.

Crosses Cut in Turf after Fatal Accidents.

Winkworth Hollow near Hascombe (Surrey) is a long steep hill,
the scene of many bad accidents. A cross is kept cut in the road-
side turf to mark the spot where a carter was killed about
eighteen years ago. Another large cross is cut in Hascombe Park,
where a man was killed by a tree falling off his timber-cart ; this
also happened in L. B.'s childhood, — (my informant L. B. is
now aged about 25), — and made a deep impression on all the
neighbours. Is this a regular custom of the south of England ?

At Kennington, near Oxford, in August, 1901, a boy took me to
see a cross cut in the roadside turf, half-way between Kennington
and Bagley Wood ; here a man had been run over by a timber-
cart; the boy said that the roadmenders cut the cross afresh
every year, and he seemed to regard it as a very impressive
memorial. There is a cross cut on the eastern face of Pyrford

388 Correspondence.

Stone in Surrey, and a working-man (not a native of Pyrford), said
that he supposed for that reason that the stone must have been
set up for some man that had been killed.

Potter's Croft, Woking. Barbara Freire-Marreco.

A Spitting Cure.

On Wednesday, June 22nd, 1910, I was travelling in a third-
class carriage from Spandau to Berlin in the company of a man,
his wife, and their son and little girl. The man was seized with
some kind of fit, foamed at the mouth, and made motions towards
the door. I helped the wife to hold him, and she asked me if I
had ever seen die Krdmpfe before. On my replying in the negative,
she begged me to spit three times in his face. Her hysterical
condition finally compelled me, with some natural reluctance, to
comply. Though by no means satisfied with my readiness or the
vigour of the performance, the good lady was quieted, and the
fit passed. She subsequently confided to me that a friend of a
friend of hers had been subject to fits, but that someone who
had never seen die Krdmpfe spat three times in his face while the
fit was on him, and he was cured for life.

W. R. Halliday.

A Surrey Birch-Broom Custom.

At Great Bookham in Surrey I saw recently an ordinary birch-
broom sticking out from the chimney of a cottage, and enquired
the reason. I was told that the neighbours had put it there
because the man's wife had gone away on a visit, and "he was
left on his own." No further explanation could be obtained,
except that it was always done in such a case. The broom was
placed in the chimney in the night-time, handle downwards.

Geo. Thatcher.

Liverpool Rd., Kingston-on-Thames.

REVIEWS.

ToTEMiSM AND ExoGAMY. A Treatise on Certain Early Forms
of Superstition and Society. By J. G. Frazer, D.C.L.,
etc. 4 vols. Macmillan, 1910. 8vo, pp. xix + 579, vii + 640,
vii + 583, iii + 378. Maps.

In 1887 appeared a modest little treatise on toteraism ; the author
was J. G. Frazer. It is safe to say that he little imagined that in
less than twenty-five years four large volumes, nearly two thousand
two hundred pages, would be needed to contain his materials and
speculations on the same subject. And even now the materials,
as the author himself knows better than anyone, are far from
exhausted.

The work falls roughly into three portions : firstly, reprints of
the early treatise on totemism, with certain later articles on the
Australian facts that have come to light in the last dozen years ;
secondly, an ethnographical survey of totemism, much of it
material hitherto unpublished, occupying two and a half volumes ;
and, thirdly, a discussion of origins and criticism of previous theories,
occupying half the fourth volume, the rest of which is devoted to
notes and addenda.

The problems which Dr. Frazer sets himself are two — firstly, to
determine the origin of totemism ; and, secondly, that of exogamy,
for in the present work he recants his first view that exogamy is
an essential part of totemism, and does so on the ground of the
evidence from Central Australia.

Briefly stated, the two theories put forward by the author are as
follows : (i), Totemism was originally a primitive theory of concep-
tion ; ignorance of the facts of procreation led a pregnant woman
to imagine that her condition should be attributed to something

390 Reviews.

which she saw at the moment when she first became aware that
she was to bear a child, and to believe that the object, what-
ever it was, actually entered her body and then came into the
world again, the same but transformed into the semblance of a
human being. (2), Exogamy was instituted by the wise men of a
tribe to guard against the evils which threatened the community
from the practice of intermarriage between near relatives. These
evils were not of a kind to appeal to the biologist ; a superstition
hitherto unrecorded by observers of primitive tribes, but possibly
discoverable, caused man to believe that these evils would be
caused by marriages between near kin.

It is clear that a good deal turns upon the validity of Dr.
Frazer's belief that the Central Australian tribes are more primitive
as regards totemism and exogamy than any other. If their
totemism was at one time hereditary and has ceased to be so,
it is permissible to suppose that their theories of conception,
which hang so closely together with their totemism, have also
undergone changes, possibly fundamental.

Now it appears to be a well-established fact that, although the
totem kins of the Arunta are not at the present day so arranged
that each kin lies wholly within one moiety, or class, of the
tribe, yet the majority of members of any one kin do actually
belong to a single moiety ; how Dr. Frazer explains this we cannot
tell, if indeed he admits the fact; but it is evident that some
explanation is wanted, for the prima facie reason for such a
condition is that the totem kins were originally divided between
the moieties, as in other tribes, but that these tribes were led
to abandon the hereditary principle in totemism, while they
retained it in the classes. Much has been written on the
subject of Australian totemism and marriage customs, and
Dr. Frazer may be well advised to avoid controversies in a work
already bulky, but he cannot afford to neglect crucial points of
this kind.

It is true that Dr. Frazer cites Dr. Rivers in support of his view
that an even more primitive totemism is found in the Banks
Islands than in Central Australia, and in the Banks Islands there
appears to be no evidence that totems were ever hereditary ; our
author, therefore, may have felt himself to some extent absolved

Reviews. 391

from a rigorous examination of the Central Australian evidence.
But there is much room for difference of opinion as to the Banks
Islands evidence ; for Dr. Rivers appears to state explicitly that
what is believed to enter the woman is not a real animal or plant
but some incorporeal phantasm of one ; in fact, we do not know
that the belief is not the same as that of the Arunta, and that
what is incarnate is not a human spirit.

Although Dr. Frazer does not mention it, there is one point on
which the totemism of the Central tribes of Australia differs
markedly from that of the other totemic peoples, and it suggests
that totemism elsewhere must have originated differently if the
totemism of Central Australia has not been modified. Pre-
cisely how many totem kins there are among the Arunta is
probably unknown ; Strehlow gives a list of fifty-nine ; Spencer
and Gillen enumerate sixty-six. Now, in the south-eastern
tribes, so far from finding a large number of totems, we find a
very small one; eight or ten is the ordinary number, if we
exclude multiplex totems. It is prima facie highly improbable
that the number of objects should be so small, if Dr. Frazer's
theory of a conceptional origin is the correct one ; if conceptional
totemism ever existed there, it must have been much modified.
But this is not the only difference ; plant totems are common in
the centre and north, but almost unknown in the south-east. Why
is this ? If the eating of food or sight of an object was held to
produce pregnancy, and from this belief arose totemism, plants,,
which women rather than men would collect for food, should
surely provide as many totems as the animal kingdom !

Admitting, however. Dr. Frazer's premises, is he right in tracing
hereditary totemism to this source ? The crux of the situation is
evidently to explain how the hereditary principle was introduced ;
and here Dr. Frazer has little guidance to give us.

The American view of the origin of totemism is that it was
developed from the personal totem. Dr. Frazer objects to this
that (i) personal totems are rare in Australia, (but on this point
see Mrs. Langloh Parker), and (2) many totem kins reckon
descent in the female line, and that the personal totems of
women are unimportant. Admitting the latter fact, the answer is
obvious : inheritance from the mother's brother will produce

392 Reviews.

precisely the same results as inheritance from the mother, and it
is by no means a rare type of succession.

Now, when Dr. Frazer comes to explain how totems, caused as
he suggests, became hereditary, he has Httle difficulty in showing
that community of interests bind a man and his children,
especially his sons, together; but it is by no means apparent why
a mother should desire to hand on her totem to her children. Dr,
Frazer, in giving this desire of the mother as the only explanation,
appears therefore to pass too easily over a crucial point. Hold-
ing, as he does, that the classes in some cases preceded hereditary
totems, it is perhaps singular that our author has not suggested
that the totem became hereditary in matrilineal tribes on the
analogy of the classes, for the female descent of which a reason
can more readily be given.

As to the origin of exogamy, we have already seen that Dr.
Frazer is no more explicit than as to the origin of the hereditary
principle of totemism in matrilineal tribes. There are many other
debateable points in his discussion of exogamy, but only a few
can be selected. On some points the author's views have clearly
undergone fluctuations.

In Dr. Frazer's final statement of his theory exogamy originates
because the community thinks that sexual unions between near
kin are hurtful and injurious to the common weal; on p. 109,
however, he speaks of the germ of exogamy as a dread or
aversion to sexual unions with certain persons, — an entirely different
view, which is rejected on p. 155.

Again, it is pointed out repeatedly that exogamy prevents the
marriage, not only of consanguineous relatives, but also of tribal
kinsmen bearing the same terms of relationship. In the text
of volume i. the author makes these classificatory relationships
the primary ones ; in a note in the last volume, however, he
modifies this view, and explains that the simplest consanguineous
relationships were known to the authors of exogamy, who
extended them into the classificatory system.

Now, in view of the fact that Dr. Frazer maintains, (vol. i., pp. 399
et seq.), with some emphasis that the object of exogamy was to
prevent the marriage between tribal relatives, this is a rather
surprising volte-face; for, according to the author's later view,

Reviews. 393

there were no tribal relatives until the classificatory system was
set up by the inventors of exogamy. Clearly, when he propounds
his suggestion of the origin of exogamy, — public ills caused
by the marriage of near kin, — Dr. Frazer means the marriage
of consanguineous people in our sense; for ex hypothesi there
was nothing to distinguish the tribal relatives-to-be who were
later to be forbidden to marry from those who were to be allowed
to marry. Why, then, was the cumbrous machinery of exogamous
classes introduced?

This raises the questions, what is in fact the effect of exogamy
in a two-class tribe, and how far do Dr. Frazer's theories meet the
case? The answer to the first question is that all tribes forbid
brother and sister marriage ; some forbid the union of mother
and son, and others that of father and daughter, according to
whether they are matrilineal or patrilineal.

Now, if, as Dr. Frazer argues, it was consanguinity which made
certain unions objectionable, it is inconceivable that the authors
of exogamy should not have everywhere barred unions between
mother and son, at a time when, according to Dr. Frazer's view,
fatherhood was not recognised (p. 127), and the whole tribe
cohabited promiscuously, so that it was impossible to name the
father of a child. It is inexplicable that patrilineal descent
should have appeared at all.

Clearly, what it was desired to prevent, if the fundamental view
was everywhere the same, as Dr. Frazer maintains (p. 43), and
if exogamy was due to legislation, was the union of brother and
sister. But, even if the forbidden women included a man's
mother, it would presumably be far easier to make a man carry
his own family tree (cf. p. 113) in his head, than to teach him
that the tribe was henceforth divided into exogamous moieties.
The number of forbidden women would seldom exceed four,
if present-day tribes are any guide ; and, as Dr. Frazer accepts
the myth that the totem kins were endogamous, the possible
field for each individual would be one or two women at a high
estimate, perhaps none at all ; and it was to forbid these rare
and easily preventable marriages that exogamy was called into
existence !

Once more. Dr. Frazer argues that the totems were in some

2 c

394 Reviews.

cases hereditary before exogamy arose, — and this is, indeed, the
most probable explanation of how totem kins are ranged on one
side or the other, — but we may ask why create moieties at all,
when in matrilineal tribes all consanguineous marriages would be
equally well barred by totemic exogamy ? Dr. Frazer speaks of
the burdensome rule of the class ; and the burden was laid on
their shoulders unnecessarily. Is it probable that this should have
been done all over the world?

Is it probable that all the world should have agreed to arrange
hereditary kins on one side or the other, if, as Dr. Frazer suggests
(p. 128), this arrangement is only accidental?

Dr. Frazer has failed to deal with evidence that goes against his
views. Firstly, it is recorded that in the Urabunna tribe the
exogamous law takes the form of a decree that members of one
totem kin shall be restricted in their choice to one single totem
kin in the other class. As a tribe which practises what Dr, Frazer
regards as group marriage, (though reasons, which lie does not
combat, have been urged against this view), the Urabunna are, in
our author's view, one of the primitive tribes of the centre. How
does it come that with them the class counts for nothing and the
kin for everything in exogamy? Why was the class called into
existence? Secondly, from the time of Ridley onwards so-called
irregular marriages have been reported from Australia, i.e.
marriages in which a man goes outside his proper sub-class or
even class. Dr. Frazer absolutely ignores these, except in his
account of the tribe, but it is far from being an isolated phe-
nomenon, and must be reckoned with in propounding a theory
dealing with Australian matrimonial institutions.

On certain points Dr. Frazer's assertions are too absolute, and
a negative can either be proved or made probable.

Dr. Frazer affirms his belief that exogamy everywhere arose in
the same way. On this point some Nigerian evidence is of
interest. The people of the VVefa country are divided into two
great exogamous groups, Ego and Atzikia; traditionally tliese
arose when Sobo immigrants took possession of the country, and
they were formed as a result of the ordinary marriage rule that
a man may not marry in his father's family. (I hope to set out
the matter at length shortly.) Now I have reason to believe that

Revietvs. 395

their traditions as to their migration are historically accurate;
primd facie, therefore, so is their account of the origin of their
system of exogamy. If that is so, exogamy is of more than one
kind, for there is no question here of exogamous classes being
evolved by lawgivers as a refuge from promiscuity.

This brings me to another point on which Nigerian facts are
against Dr. Frazer. We are told (p. 135) that the system of kin-
ship of totemic peoples is always classificatory ; the Edo (Bini)
are totemistic ; but their kinship system is descriptive ; my father's
brother is called my father's father's son, and so on.

On certain points Dr. Frazer seems to go astray entirely. There
is a strange statement (i. p. 248) that "segregating of the two
moieties locally from one another (in Australia) was to secure that
the men and women who were forbidden to each other should not
normally meet." What the author has in view I cannot conceive ;
for the fact is that, if men of one moiety marry women of the
other, segregation up to the time of the marriage keeps apart
those who should marry and keeps together those who should not
marry.

A note (p. 244) on the change from the maternal to the paternal
line contains another curious statement. Dr. Frazer supposes that
wives were purchased in order that their children might be the
heirs of the husband ; that is correct ; but he goes on to say that
the rule of inheritance would be changed " by compensating those
who under a system of mother kin would have been the rightful
heirs." But the bride price is paid to the woman's family, and a
man's heirs under mother kin are his sister's children ; are the
sister's children compensated if their mother's brother purchases a
wife ?

A minor slip, which should, however, be noted, is the identifi-
cation (iii. p. 403) of the Musquakie, who are Algonquins, with
the Muscogee or Creek Indians.

It will readily be imagined that this brief review does not
exhaust all points of interest in Dr. Frazer's great work; an
adequate discussion, even of the problems, would demand a whole
number of Folk- Lore, and even then the collection of material
would remain untouched. One is accustomed to get so much
from Dr. Frazer that, when he glides lightly over points of

396 Reviews.

difficulty, we feel disappointed of our due. However that may

be, all will yield their tribute of admiration and thanks for the

splendid corpus of material brought together by the author's

unwearied industry.

N. W. Thomas.

Irish Texts Society. Vol. VII. Duanaire Finn. The Book
of the Lays of Fionn. Part I. Irish Text, with Translation
into EngHsh by Eoin MacNeill. Nutt, 1908. 8vo,
pp. lxv + 208.

This volume contains part of the oldest extant Ms. written in
Ireland, consisting solely of pieces belonging to the Ossianic
cycle of which Finn mac Cumhail, his son Oisin, his grandson
Oscar, his nephews Diarmaid and Caoilte, and his rival GoU are
the chief personages. It dates from the first quarter of the
seventeenth century. A certain number of the pieces are known
from much earlier Mss., e.g. No. XIII (The Headless Phantoms)
is found in the twelfth century Book of Leinster, and the chief
prose text of the cycle, the Agallamh na Senorach, found in the
Ms. in an imperfect form, is extant in Mss. older by one
hundred and fifty to two hundred years. But Captain Sorley
Macdonnell, for whom the collection was transcribed, and his
scribes seem to have been the first compilers of a Corpus
Ossianicum. For the well-known Scotch Gaelic Ms., the Book
of the Dean of Lismore, which antedates the Macdonnell collec-
tion by about a century, is only partially made up of Ossianic
pieces.

The fashion set by the Macdonnell Ms. in bringing together a
number of metrical pieces, — (it is these alone which Mr. John
MacNeill has edited and translated), — representing more or less
all the phases of the cycle, was to be eagerly followed. From
thence onward the number of Irish Mss. containing narrative
Ossianic poetry steadily grows throughout the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. But in the majority of these the poems are
in the new and freer metrical system which first made its
appearance in the Scotch section of Gaeldom in the sixteenth

Reviews. 397

century, whereas the poems in the Macdonnell Ms. are all in the
formal mediaeval metres, and thus approve themselves products
of the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries at latest.

I do not propose to discuss the poems edited and translated
by Mr. MacNeill, as the present volume contains only about half
of the Macdonnell collection, and discussion is best reserved
until all the poems are accessible. I will only re-emphasise the
distinction which, over twenty years ago, I drew in vol. 25 of
the Folk-Lore Society's publications {Gaelic Folk-Tales) between
the verse and prose presentments of the Ossianic stories. The
difference is not alone one of tone and style, — the content and
personnel of the stories, the choice of incidents, the importance of
themes, and the characterisation of personages vary in a most
marked degree. To some, but a far slighter, extent, the Arthurian
cycle offers a parallel. The Arthurian matter found in the
Middle-English poems which Miss Weston has grouped together
under the title "The Gest of Sir Gawayne" differs markedly
from that found in Malory.

I would also call the attention of lovers of fine literature to
the remarkable quality of many of these poems, which can be
fully appreciated in Mr. MacNeill's admirable version. I would
especially signal out No. V, Qisin's lament ; No. XXXIII,
Grainne's Sleep-song for Diarmaid; No. X, GoU's Parting with
his Wife. Here is poetry, exalted in sentiment, poignant in
expression.

In addition to his work as editor and translator, Mr. MacNeill
has in his Introduction propounded a new, ingenious, and
interesting theory concerning the origin and nature of the Ossianic
literature, which deserves close attention from students of tradi-
tional romance, as will, I trust, be apparent from the following
outline and comment.

In texts which go back to the eleventh century at the latest,
the deeds of Finn and his warrior clan are worked into a
traditional account of Irish history in the third century a.d. which
assumed substantially its extant form not later than the ninth
century. The thread of the cycle is a feud between the kin of
Finn and the Milesian High Kings of Tara ; Finn weds Grainne,
daughter of Cormac of Tara, and Oscar and Cairbre, Cormac's

39^ Reviews.

son, fall at each other's hand in the battle of Gabhra, the Camlan
of the Ossianic legend.

This traditional account is open to grave objections. A
distinguishing feature of the cycle is the position assigned to the
Fenian bands ; these have the status of a semi-professional army,
and are continually engaged in repelling the attacks of foreign
invaders. No such state of things is known to have existed, or
indeed, as far as foreign invasions are concerned, could have
existed in third-century Ireland. This discrepancy between his-
toric fact and the donnees of the cycle induced Professor Zimmer
to assign the latter to the ninth century, the period of the
Viking invasions. Mr. MacNeill's theory is different. He
accepts as genuine the standing-army character of the Fenian
bands ; what he rejects as the fiction of a later age is the
traditional history of the second-third century kings, Conn,
Art, Cormac in the North, Eoghan, Ailill Olum in the South.
According to him the saga of these chiefs is not that of settled
dynasties with a background of regal status and descent cover-
ing centuries, as the chiefs of the seventh and eighth centuries
fondly imagined, but of a period of conquest during which the
major part of Ireland was subjected to the sway of Milesian
kings ruling at Tara in the North and at Cashel in the
South. The Milesian tribesmen were free men, and could only
be called upon for short spells of military service, — a fort-
night and a month, says one text. But amongst the peoples
subjugated by the Milesian chiefs were fighting races. Upon
these the chiefs laid the burden of permanent liability to military
service ; thanks to the standing armies thus evolved they were
able to dominate all Ireland, and establish the political system
known to us from texts of the seventh century onward. Early in
the fourth century Milesian supremacy crystallised round the two
centres of Tara and Cashel; the institution of yfawship, the
standing army organisation of the subject races, died away with
the conquest period which had given rise to it ; the history of
the second-third centuries was transformed in order to warrant
the claims of long descent and settled rule put forward for the
chiefs of the conquest.

For Mr. MacNeill the Ossianic cycle consists of the hero

Reviews. 399

legends of one of these subject races, more or less transformed
when they were taken up by the Milesian story-tellers in order
to fit them into the framework of pseudo-history elaborated by
the Milesian bards and ollamhs with the object of glorifying
the second-third century Milesian chiefs of the conquest.
This admission into what may be styled the official corpus of
story-telling took place, and could only take place, long after the
first formation of the legends. So long as any trace of the
subject status of the Fenian races subsisted, so long were their
legends disdained by the free kinsmen of the Milesian
kings. Moreover, the latter had learnt and eagerly appro-
priated the older heroic legends of Ulidia, the legends which
centred round Conchobor and Cuchulainn, and it was a main
object of the Milesian bards to forge genealogical links in a
serried chain uniting the chiefs of Tara and Cashel with the
mighty sons of Rudraighe who had held sway at Emain Macha.

It was not until, in the course of centuries, the distinction
between the free and subject races of Ireland had become
effaced in practice, — (it survived in theory until the final dis-
appearance of the Irish school of genealogist antiquaries in the
eighteenth century), — that Finn and Oscar could take their place
by the side of Conchobor and Cuchulainn ; and, to do so, their
story must suffer a change. Originally the blood-feuds which
supply a backbone to the cycle ran their tragic course wholly
within the circle of the subject races ; this would never do, and
so the high-kings of Tara came to figure as protagonists in
the story, which thus became worthy the recitation of courtly
ollamhs.

Another set of historical circumstances helped to determine
the final evolution of the cycle. For centuries there was strife
between the Milesian chiefs of the North and the South, between
the race of Conn and the race of Eoghan. For centuries the
North held the advantage, though it was illusory rather than real.
At length a time came when the chiefs of the South wrested
the high kingship from those of the North. But Finn and his
band had always belonged to the South rather than to the
North, and the historical exigencies which, in their transformed
saga, gave them the high kings of Tara as opponents could

400 Reviews.

not do away with the psychological exigency of all sagas,
namely, that the opponent- of the hero must be more or
less of a villain. It was no discredit in the eyes of the southern
bards that Cormac, the great wise king of northern legend, did
not enjoy in the Ossianic tales that beau role which was his
prerogative elsewhere. Rather were those bards minded to
brighten the character of the warrior and to darken the character
of the king.

Such, briefly sketched, is Mr. MacNeill's theory. It coincides
with the views I expressed twenty years ago, in Gaelic Folk-Tales,
in so far as it emphasises the part played in the final development
of the cycle by the transference of the high-kingship from the
northern kin of the Ui Neill to the southern kin of Brian of the
Dalg Cais. It was, to some extant, anticipated by the late W.
Larminie, who held the Fenian tales to be the product of people
older than and alien to the Milesian Gael. But in its elaboration,
in its founding upon historical, genealogical, and literary con-
siderations, it is as original as it is remarkable. One of the
literary considerations adduced by Mr. MacNeill is of special
folklore interest. As we have seen, his theory postulates the
doctoring of the Fenian legend to make it accord with Milesian
pseudo-history. Now there exists a romantic tale, The Boyish
Exploits of Finn, only preserved in a fifteenth century Ms., the
content of which is partly the same as that of a pseudo-historical
tract found in the eleventh-century Book of the Dun Cow.
Twenty-nine years ago I compared these two texts in these
pages {Folk- Lore Record, vol. iv.), and showed that the Boyish
Exploits was essentially more archaic than the eleventh-century
tract. Mr. MacNeill now claims the Boyish Exploits as the one
surviving remnant of the Fenian saga before its contamination
by the pseudo-history of the second-third centuries, — a claim which
would throw it back to the eighth century at least. He maintains
that it knows nothing of an established Milesian order, and
that it is wholly concerned with feuds between rival divisions
of the subject races. If he is correct, then my former contention
is justified, and the Boyish Exploits is the oldest full presentment
in the Celtic speech-area of the Expulsion and Return Formula,
and, as such, a mythico-heroic document of the first importance.

Reviews. 401

A full criticism of Mr. MacNeill's theory would lead me too
far. For one thing, it is presented in a tentative, fragmentary-
form that makes criticism difficult. Nowhere is there a clear
statement respecting the historic movements postulated for the
second-third centunes, nowhere a hint of the way in which
the ethnological relations between the free and subject races or
of both to the earlier Ulidians are conceived. Does Mr.
MacNeill regard all three as Gael ? But I may say at once that
the theory strikes me as involving far too great a break with
Irish tradition as extant from the seventh century onwards. Whilst
prepared to regard the major part of Irish history prior to the
fourth century Niall as being euhemerised and historicised heroic
romance, I am not at present prepared to admit such a historico-
literary process as Mr. MacNeill postulates. Further, with the
best will in the world I cannot detect in the Fenian legends any
trace of a " subject " or " servile " origin. On the contrary ! The
Fenian warriors are all very fine gentlemen, — gentlemen for whom
warfare, the chase, and dalliance are the sole objects in life worth

consideration.

Alfred Nutt.

ViTAE Sanctorum Hiberniae. Partim hactenus ineditae ad
fidem codicum manuscriptorum recognovit prolegomenis
notis indicibus instruxit. Carolus Plummer, A.M. 2 vols.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910. 8vo. pp. cxcii-t-273, 390.

Nowhere, perhaps, is the line of demarcation between the Pagan
and Christian systems of thought reduced to narrower and more
shadowy dimensions than in the history of early Celtic Chris-
tianity. If the settlement of the Christian faith in Ireland was a
peaceful one, inviting few calls to what their early teachers called
"red martyrdom," or the suffering of actual death for the faith, it
was largely because the teachers of that faith were not missionaries
coming from abroad, to whom the native customs and beliefs
would at every point present antagonistic elements calling for
complete uprooting and reversal, but men born and bred in the

402 Reviews.

same traditions and system of things, and clinging with all the
strength of hereditary custom to the ancient ways in which they
had grown up. The native traditions were as intimate a part of
the texture of thought of the Celtic " Saints " or teachers as they
were of the people whom they sought to instruct. Hence a
transition that might, in the hands of foreign missionaries, have
been attended with sharp collisions between the outlook of the
teachers and that of the taught, went forward in Ireland with as
little uprooting of native habits as possible. The liberal incor-
poration of old beliefs with the new was not a dangerous
experiment, doubtfully acquiesced in by the religious leaders ; it
was an unconscious but universal result of their own native habits
of life. The feeling of opposition between the old order and the
new, such as we see symbolized in the hostility of the Druids to
St. Patrick or in the parable of King Murtough and the Witch-
Woman, though it was no doubt aroused occasionally, was rare
and unusual. The worship of stream and well and fire and stone
continued much as of old, only that it became associated with the
name of some local hermit or abbot who had supplanted the
original pagan deity of whose special cult it formed a part.

All this is fairly well understood, but the recent edition of the
Latin Lives of the Irish Saints, the Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, by
the Rev. Charles Plummer, presses the matter a step further. In
reading these Lives it is impossible to resist the conclusion that
he has himself come to, that several of the individual saints have
incorporated into their actual life-story large elements derived
from the traditions concerning some earlier pagan god or hero
belonging to the district in which they settled. This may have
happened frequently, but it is not always possible to trace the
direct connection between the Christian saint and his pagan
forerunner. This can, however, be done in the case of St.
Moiling of Ferns in Leinster. He is named Moiling of Luachair
on account, as his Irish pedigree tells us, of his three swift leaps
which he took in clearing Luachair of Dega " when the spectres
were after him."^

Now we find in two Irish secular tracts, — the " Colloquy of

^ Irish Life, ed. by Whitley Stokes, pp. 14-16 (1906); Silva Gadelica, ed.
by Standish H. O'Grady, vol. ii., Extracts III. (viii.).

Reviews. 403

the Ancients " and the " Borohme," — that, in the time of Finn
MacCumhaill, one of his followers, who hailed from identically
the same district, Ross Broc in Leinster, was named Moiling
luath or " the Swift," on account of his athletic powers. It is
evident that the Saint's cognomen is a corruption of that of his
pagan predecessor, and that the characteristic quality of the one
has been transferred to the other. But this is not all. The
district of the pagan Moiling luath was remarkable for a cascade
which afforded relief to every disease, while the life of St. Moiling
specially associates him with the perambulation of this same
watercourse, to which in his time and up to the fourteenth
century or later the afflicted people of the surrounding country
continued to resort for the cure of various ailments. Again, both
the pagan and the Christian Moiling were closely concerned with
the remission of the heavy Leinster tribute known as The
Borohme or "The Tribute"/^?- excellence, and it is allowable to
hope that, if there ever existed an actual St. Moiling, (which we
are sometimes tempted to doubt), some of the discreditable
stories about this incident, as well as other wild tales told of
him, have really been derived from the more ancient cycle of
legends belonging to the pagan hero of the place. It seems likely
that the confusions in St. Molling's genealogies arise out of the
same cause. That a connection between the two Mollings was
generally recognised is shown in the fact that Finn is said to have
prophesied the coming of the saint while he was in the company
of Moiling luath^ and on the very spot associated with both the
namesakes.^

If we possessed a similar connecting link between St. Brigit and
her great pagan prototype, the Triune Goddess of Wisdom or
Poetry, Medicine, and Smithcraft, from whom she has evidently
derived her fire attributes, we should no doubt find that the
transition was equally simple; unfortunately, no evidence seems
to be forthcoming to show that the cult of this goddess, (which
seems to have been one of the most widespread Celtic pagan
observances), was especially connected with Kildare, the settle-
ment of the Christian Brigit ; that is, if we except the perpetual

^Lat. Life, vol. ii., pp. 193-194; Introduction, pp. Ixxxi.-lxxxii., and
Notes; cf. Silva Gadelica,vo\. i. , pp. 152-3, 364-6; vol. ii., 168-169, 405-406.

404 Reviews.

fire kept up at Kildare and tended by forty virgins, which was
evidently the relic of a local pagan cult. The local connection
with Kildare is, however, in the case of this Saint almost a
negligible matter ; for the " Mary of the Gael," as she is
frequently called, held a pre-eminent and universal position in
Gaeldom as presiding genius of the hearth and protector of the
homestead, and there can be little doubt that she owes this wide
distinction to the incorporation of the older cult with her own
more local fame.

Mr. Plummer lays special stress upon the similarity between
the names of certain Irish saints and words meaning " fire " or
"water." He derives the name of St. Aed of Ferns, — with its
Latinized forms Aidus, Aedan, or Edanus ; or with the prefix mo
("my"), and the diminutive og or <?r, becoming Maedoc or
Maedhog ("my little Aed"), — from the Irish aed ("fire"); or,
again, St. Lasrian, better known with the endearing prefix mo as
St. Molaise, the founder of the wealthy and powerful Abbey of
Devenish on Lough Erne, whose name seems to be derived from
an Irish word meaning a "little flame"; or St. Abban, whose
name may have been confused with the Irish abann ("water").
The Editor considers that the fire or water legends ascribed to
these saints may have been transferred from those belonging to
some local solar or water deity. In the same way he connects
the name Molua, ("my Lugh" or " Lugaid "), with the sun-god
Lugh, and he sees in his life solar attributions. There is much
probability in all this ; nevertheless, it is a supposition that may
be unduly pressed. No names are more common both in the
secular and religious literature of Ireland than Aedh and Lugh,
and it is as unnecessary to connect them, simply on that account,
with any solar or other deity as it would be to connect every
person bearing the name of Smith with one particular industry.
In the career of many of these saints we get a curious combination
of fire and water incidents. This is notably the case in the
Brendan legend, for, though his whole career turns upon his marine
exploits, his pre-eminence is symbolized by fire attributes. In
truth, such marks of future greatness as can be shown forth by a
flame issuing from the mouth or playing about the head of a
famous child, or by a star falling into the bosom of its mother or

Reviews. 405

by globes of fire in her breasts, are too usual and widespread to
be taken as anything more than general symbols of the future
brilliance of a youth's career. They are poetic formulae common
to all literatures, Eastern as well as Western, and do not
necessitate a definitely solar connection, though they generally
accompany it.

Mr. Plummer has taken his material chiefly from two manu-
scripts which probably have a single source, — one in Marsh's
Library, and the other in Trinity College, Dublin (marked E. 3.
ii),' — and from two Rawlinson Mss. in the Bodleian (Rawl. B. 485
and 505), of which one is a copy of the other. Many of these lives
have not been published before, though a few of them have
appeared among the great collections published by Colgan, Fleming,
and the Bollandists. We can fancy with what admiration the
devout and indefatigable Colgan would have regarded this work,
representing the completion of his labours and the fulfilment of
his aspirations ; and also with what pain and horror he would
have read the Editor's admirable introduction on the " Heathen
folklore and mythology in the lives of Celtic Saints," in which
over a hundred pages are devoted to the discussion of the solar
and water elements in these lives, the cult of trees, stones, and
other objects, the association of the saint with the heathen druid,
charms, taboos, fairy elements, etc. Full as these biographies
are of pagan admixture, they have yet undergone a careful and in
many instances all too successful farcing and editing for the
purposes of edification and for the due glorification of the Saint ;
and many of their wildest and most savage elements have been
omitted or transformed into some milder and more acceptable
mould. This can be clearly seen in comparing the Irish Life of
St. Moiling, edited by Whitley Stokes, with the Latin Life given
in this book. The former is written in the crude folk-tale style,
and is full of unpleasant incidents, many of which, such as the
Saint's birthstory and the meeting with the leper, have either been
greatly modified or omitted altogether in the Latin Life. This
Saint seems to have been popularly regarded as a grotesque
figure, about whom it was legitimate to create strange stories.
His interview with the devil, upon which subject an ancient Irish
poem is founded, his wild leaps over hills and into the clouds, the

4o6 Reviews.

coarse pleasantry of the leper and spectre incidents, his associa-
tion with the Gobban saer (the typical pagan architect and
builder of Irish imagination), who reappears in every successive
age with the same joyous vitality, and the evident delight taken
in Molling's sharp practice in his efforts to gain the remission of
the Leinster tribute, all tend to show that he impersonates some
traditional figure of the Til Eulenspiegel type. We note that
Adamnan's name is not mentioned in the Latin Life, where the
protesting opponent of St. Molling's tricky conduct is simply
called saiictiis magus, just as the Gobban saer appears in the same
story as an ingeniosus artifex unnamed, which shows a creditable
caution on the part of the clerical compiler.

A close study of these saints' lives in their various recensions,
Latin and Irish, would form an instructive study in the develop-
ment of the religious biography out of the popular folk-tale.

There is great diversity in the Lives, and a comparison with
the corresponding Irish life is often interesting. As a rule the
Irish Lives are simpler and more full of local and characteristic
touches. They show a less fully developed sense of what is and
what is not proper and dignified for a saint to do, and we thus get
nearer to the actual daily life of the subjects of the biography.
For instance, the Latin Life of Ciaran of Clonmacnois here
printed offers suggestive points of comparison with the Irish Life
printed by Whitley Stokes from the Book of Lismore. Even
where the same incidents are retained, their arrangement is often
different, and most of the more precise details are omitted. Such
are the friendly participation of the youthful Prince Dermot, the
then exiled heir to the throne of Tara, in the founding of
Ciaran's monastery of Clonmacnois, or the charming story of the
boy Ninnid begging a loan of the copy of St. Matthew's Gospel
from which Ciaran was studying when both were students in the
monastic school of Clonard. We would note the difficulty
experienced by both compilers in fitting in the account of the
arrival of merchants with "wine of Gaul," when the Saint stood
in need of refreshment for his guests, with the necessity they also
felt of obliging him to work a miracle for the purpose. Both had
evidently found the realistic explanation in some earlier and more
simple copy, and they fit it into different parts of their narrative.

Revieivs. 407

with an evident hesitation both as to its propriety as a too
mundane explanation, and as to how the conflicting accounts can
be made to tally.

A further point in which the author of the Rawlinson text has
"improved" on his predecessors is in his omission of the touch-
ing and evidently historic reminiscence of Ciaran's death found
both in the Marsh's Library text and in the Irish version. No
doubt he considered that the monk's very human shrinking from
the "dread upward path" into the unknown was unbecoming in
a saint. Probably also the dying man's impatient and con-
temptuous dismissal of his disciples' proposal to stay by his
" relics," i.e. his dead bones, was unpleasing to the sentiment of a
later age. On the other hand we find an addition made to the
mention of the "hallowed fire" kept always burning at the
monastery of St. Ciaran of Saighir which is instructive. In the
Latin form it is developed into a Pascal fire, " et sanctus senex
Kiaranus nolebat ignem alium in suo monasterio, nisi consecratum
ignem a pascha usque ad pascha sine extinccione." It is likely
that this ever-burning fire had, like St. Brigit's fire at Kildare, a
more ancient origin than that of the monks of St. Ciaran's
monastery. The transformiation into a pascal fire has probably a
parallel in the pascal fire at Tara (or Taillte) so confusedly spoken
of in the Lives of St. Patrick.

To the general student the most important new matter in these
volumes will probably be the two hitherto unpublished Lives of
St. Brendan. The second of these lives, taken from a Bodleian
Ms. (e. Musaeo iii.), sometime belonging to the Abbey of Valle
Crucis in Denbighshire, shows many peculiarities, and is of
special interest as being in the Editor's view the original from
which was derived the Anglo-Norman poem published by F.
Michel in 1878, and by Suchier three years previously. Taken
along with the Latin and German texts published by Jubinal,
Schroder, and Card. Moran, the Early English versions printed by
Thomas Wright, the Irish Life from the Book of Lismore edited
by Dr. Stokes, and the Anglo-Norman poems, students have now
before them the larger part of the material available for the study
of the Brendan legend. To Irish readers its chief interest will
always lie in the meeting in it of an Eastern and a Western

4o8 Reviews.

element, and the discrimination of the native material from the
foreign admixture with which it has undoubtedly become
assimilated.

Mr. Plummer's introduction is so detailed and complete that it
offers few points for comment. There is an accidental slip on
p. clxvii. of " Genesis " for " Exodus," and on p. clxxxi. it may
be remarked that the connection between fairies and angels has
always retained its hold on the Irish mind, the fairies being
popularly supposed to be the angels who fell with Lucifer. The
Editor seems to lean to the popular theory that as a rule the chief
came over first to Christianity, bringing his tribe or clan along
with him. We have never seen sufficient reason for accepting the
view that in Ireland the people accepted Christianity in masses, —
we do not hear of the baptism of whole tribes together. In many
cases, such as that of King Laery or King Murtough macErca,
the prince was the most determined opponent to the new
doctrine ; in others, such as that of King Aedh, who gave a site
for a church to St. Columcille within his royal fort of Derry, the
church seems to have been admitted as a friendly experiment.
In the larger number of cases the desire for learning seems to
have been the lure which attracted the young chiefs, as it
attracted the people, to the monastic schools, and there they
imbibed Christian instruction. We hear of thirty sons of kings
and princes studying at one time at the school of St. Brendan
{Life of Moiling^ Whitley Stokes, p. lo), and in numerous
instances it was the repose and learning of the monastic life or of
a hermitage which attracted the close kin of chiefs. Many of the
" Saints " were of royal birth, but, though this no doubt facilitated
the spread of the new doctrine among their septs, we have never
been able to see proof that there were forcible or even voluntary
conversions of whole tribes at once in Ireland such as occurred in
Normandy under Charlemagne or in Norway under St. Olaf

Eleanor Hull.

Reviews. 409

Studies in English and Comparative Literature. By former
and present students at Radcliffe College. Presented to Agnes
Irwin, Dean of Radcliffe College (Cambridge, Mass.). (Rad-
cliffe College Monographs, No. 15.) Ginn & Co., 1910. Post
8vo, pp. viii+ 170.

This work is of the nature of a Festschrift dedicated to Miss
Agnes Irwin, a former Dean of Radcliffe College, and like most
volumes of that description affords a good deal of " fine confused
reading." Some of the articles are purely literary. Others deal
with matters of interest to folklorists, and of these the two which
have most attracted us are those on "The Story of Vortigern's
Tower," and the " Island Combat in Tristan," both of which
display much research, and are well worth reading. We cannot
help also alluding to Miss Allen's study on the "Authorship of
the Prick of Conscience," long ascribed to that delightful writer,
Richard RoUe of Hampole. Miss Allen more than doubts this
assignment, and gives very cogent reasons for the hesitation
which she shows in accepting the popular verdict.

The shortest paper in the book, — consisting of but two pages, —
is by Miss Blount. It contains the important information that she
has collected fairly complete material " for an onomasticon, or
name-book of the Arthurian cycle of romances, which, while not
likely to be published very soon, is now accessible to scholars in
the library of Harvard University." Seeing how very useful such
a book would be to hosts of workers, and how absolutely hopeless
it is for them to think of visiting the " library of Harvard Uni-
versity," we venture to express the hope that someone will expedite
the publication of this work so that it may be accessible to those
unhappy enough to live out of reach of the existing manuscript.

B. C. A. WiNDLE.

On THE History of the Ballads, i 100-1500. By W. P. Ker.
(From the Proceedings of the British Academy^ vol. iv.).
Frowde, 1910. 8vo, pp. 27.

The ballad, Professor Ker thinks, is an idea, a poetical form,
which can take up any matter, and does not leave the matter as it

4IO Reviews.

was before. The key of the position for the study of the subject
is to be found in Denmark, and the author speaks with special
praise of the collection made by E. T. Kristensen. Ballads were
still alive in Jutland in the nineteenth century, and the ballad-
dances of the present-day Faroe Islanders preserve what was not
so long ago the favourite amusement of the old Danish country-
houses. This being the case, it is very interesting to find that, in
spite of the close connection between Denmark and Germany, the
ballads of the latter country have had but Htde influence on those
of the former. Nor does there seem to have been any very close
connection with those of England ; in fact, the author finds that
it is with France that the Danish ballads are most closely linked.
The connection between the ballad and folklore is dealt with
incidentally, the author pointing out that " there is a freedom of
communication, — a free passage, — between the popular tales
{mdrchen) and the ballads, with this most important condition,
that nothing shall be taken up by a ballad except what is fit for
the ballad form." The subject must not be too large or too
complicated, and for this reason many fairy tales are unfit for
ballad treatment on account of the great variety of adventures
which they exhibit. Further, the fairy tale generally has a happy
ending, which is not beloved of the ballad. This is a very
illuminating and interesting study of a most fascinating subject.

B. C. A. WiNDLE.

Certain Quests and Doles. By Charles Peabody. (From
the Putnam Anniversary Volume). Cedar Rapids, Iowa;
The Torch Press, 1909. 4to, pp. 344-367.

This reprint contains a number of interesting notes on seasonal
customs, — Christmas, Easter, and the like, — with questing songs,
most of which, we think, have already appeared in the columns of
Folk-Lore. In places the collection rather suffers from the fact
that the information is somewhat " thrown together," if we may
use that expression without any offence. For example : —

" HOLY WEEK. — In England on Palm Sunday it was the custom to throw
cakes from the church-towers to the children ; and in Belgium, dainties {onblies)

Reviews. 4 1 1

were carried in procession, and caught by the children. Sacrea branches are
still distributed from all Catholic churches. The cakes caught from them
retained some of the imparted virtues."

The sentence which we have italicised would seem to indicate that
in some unexplained way cakes were thrown from the "palm-
branches," (which are very commonly twigs of yew or some
conifer), for the children to catch. If this be the meaning, we
can only say that, with a fairly wide acquaintance with Catholic
ritual, — and, of course, the reference is to the distribution of
"palms" on Palm-Sunday, a part of the service on that day in
every Catholic Church in the world, — we have never seen or
heard of cakes in connection with the ceremony. We conclude
that this sentence is out of its place, and should have followed
that which actually succeeds it. Placed as it is it is very mis-
leading.

B, C. A. WiNDLE.

The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs. By
T. Sharper Knowlson. T, Werner Laurie, 1910.
8vo, pp. X+ 242.

"The following pages," says the author in a brief preface, "are
based on Brand's Popular Antiquities, the edition published in
1 84 1, supplemented by the results of later investigation. My aim
has been to deal only with those superstitions and customs which
are operative at the present time ; and, so far as is possible, to
trace these to their original sources. In some cases the task is
fairly easy, in others very difficult; whilst in a few instances
the 'prime origin,' to use the words of Brand, is absolutely
unattainable."

So far good. The critic's task is clear, viz., to judge how far
the author has achieved the object he has had in view. He
begins with a sensible little essay on Superstition, its psychological
causes and the external occurrences which give it shape and
maintain its existence, winding up, however, with a hint that (to
use a common phrase) " there may be something in it after all."

4 1 2 Reviews.

Then we enter on his version of Ellis's " Brand," cut down to
some 2 20 pages of large type by the omission oi everything
which Mr. Knowlson believes to be either obsolete or irrelevant.
We thus have 76 pages, or about half the present number of
Folk-lore (allowing for difference of type), allotted to Days and
Seasons, 14 to Marriage, one to Christening, 76 to Divination
and Omens, (here Mr, Knowlson practically parts company
with Brand), and 42 to Miscellaneous Superstitions and
Customs ; hardly an adequate presentation of the wealth of
existing folklore in Great Britain ! A page and a half quoted
from Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare suffices for Morris-
dancing ; the Mummers' Play and the Wren-Hunt are not so
much as mentioned. Hay and corn harvests apparently are never
gathered in the British Isles, and no one ever dies or is buried.
The fact is that Mr. Knowlson's real object is to discuss and
account for, without too rigorously condemning, the fashionable
superstitions of a certain section of society in the present day,
such as concern May weddings, mascots, palmistry, and the like ;
together with the common fancies about spilling salt, sitting down
thirteen at table, and so on, — (he omits walking under a ladder,
saluting the new moon, and many others equally common), —
and a few pretty customs like Tissington well-dressing, which may
attract the attention of tourists. His explanations, thanks to
the authorities he has consulted, are much better than were the
speculations of the old-fashioned antiquaries on these subjects.
But they are very prolix, and do not rise above the "popular"
level, and the book as a whole adds nothing to our knowledge
beyond a few fresh instances of well-known superstitions, and two
short accounts of those connected with the theatre (p. 225), and
with card-playing (p. 233), which do appear to include some
items hitherto unrecorded.

Charlotte S. Burne.

Reviews. 41 3

The Riddles of the Exeter Book. Ed. with Introduction,
Notes, and Glossary by Frederick Tupper, Jr. Ginn &
Co., 1910. 8vo, pp. cxi + 292.
This very erudite work contains a print of the Riddles in the
celebrated Exeter Book, with copious notes and a series of solu-
tions approved by the author. The transcript, — though a glossary
is appended, — will only be of service to persons who can read
Anglo-Saxon, and the present reviewer, having unfortunately for-
gotten most of what he once knew of that tongue, after puzzling
out one or two riddles has now to content himself with the fervent
hope that the learned writer will on some early day give to the
world a short translation of these riddles for the use of folklorists.
Even the folklorist who is ignorant of Anglo-Saxon will, however,
find in the lengthy and admirable introduction a great deal to
interest him, and the same may be said of the "Notes," though it
is somewhat tantalising to get the answer without being able fully
to grasp the meaning of the question.

In the introduction, dealing first of all with the nature of
riddles, the author points out their connection with metaphors as
originally indicated by Aristotle, and with poetry, which we
approach at least when we find the reply to a riddle relating to
"the heaven's tooth " to be " the wind." Also it is closely related
to the myth, for "the riddle, like the myth, arises out of the
desire to invest everyday things and thoughts with the garb of the
unusual and the marvellous." The author further devotes some
space to the distinction between kunstrdtsel and volksrdtsel^ or
literary and popular problems, and discusses the manner in which
the former may be derived from the latter. Two sections are
devoted to " The originals and analogues of the Exeter Book
riddles " and their authorship respectively. There is a full
bibliography, and those who are interested in the study of riddles,
now degenerated into one of the worst inflictions which we suffer
from the most tiresome of bores, will find indicated for them the
directions in which they may most fruitfully pursue their studies.

B. C. A. WiNDLE.

4 1 4 Reviews.

The Sikh Religion. Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors.
By Max Arthur Macauliffe. 6 vols. Oxford : The
Clarendon Press, igog. 22 + 13 mm.; Ixxxviii + 383, 351,
444, 421, 351, and 453. 111.

Much has been written on the history of the Sikhs and their
religious beliefs, but the literature of the sect was practically
unknown to the scholars of Europe until 1877, when Dr. Ernest
Trumpp published The Holy Scriptures of the Sikhs. This edition
was in many ways unsatisfactory, partly on account of the author's
lack of familiarity with obscure local dialects used by the Gurus,
and partly owing to his unsympathetical attitude to the views of
the Gyanis or native interpreters. The task of finally editing
the Sikh Scriptures was left to a Panjab civilian, Mr. Macauliffe,
who, assisted by the co-operation of the leading scholars of the
sect, has produced the present version, which may be regarded
as authoritative. This edition, however, due to a reaction against
the interpretation ot Dr. Trumpp, is not free from a danger
peculiar to itself. The songs of the Gurus are often exceedingly
obscure, and the reader will often have occasion to doubt how
far the mystical interpretations now adopted were present to the
minds of the original singers, and how far they may have been
suggested by later scholiasts. The editor, again, has not utilised
the stores of new material on the monotheistical developments
of later Hinduism which have been collected by Dr. Grierson.
Hence there is still room for an examination of Sikh theology
and morals from a wider point of view. When this is undertaken,
it must be based upon the unselfish life-work of the present editor.
Nanak, the founder of the Sikh sect, was born at Talwandi in
the modern Lahore district in a.d. 1469. His teaching involved
a protest against the popular Hinduism of his day, and he called
his followers Sikhs or "disciples," he being the first of their ten
Gurus or spiritual teachers. The Adi Granth, or standard collec-
tion of the Scriptures, known to his followers by the dignified
title of the Granth Sahib, " Master Book," was compiled by the
fifth Guru, Arjan (a.d. i 563-1606). His successor, Har Govind,
adopted that militant policy which soon brought them into con-
flict with the Mughal dynasty, and resulted in savage persecution.

Reviews. 415

Teg Bahadur, the ninth Guru, being tortured and finally beheaded
by orders of Aurangzeb. This atrocious act was avenged by
Govind Singh, the tenth and last Guru, who organised his followers
as a fighting power, called them Singh or " Lions," instead of
Sikhs, and established their organisation under the name of
Khdlsa, "the Elect." To him is due the Fdhul, or baptism
to the dagger, which is still the rite of initiation. On the
collapse of the Mughal power, the invasion of the Panjab by
the Afghan Ahmad Shah Abdali, by the defeat of the Marathas
on the field of Panipat in a.d. 1761, destroyed the last hopes
of the establishment of an orthodox Hindu empire, and left the
Sikhs free to pursue their national destiny. Ranjit Singh (1780-
1839) absorbed the Sikh Misls or confederacies, and established
his Court at Lahore as ruler of the nation. This power fell before
British attacks in the successive wars of 1845-6 and 1848-9, the
latter involving the annexation of the Panjab. Since that date,
under the guidance of a succession of able officials and stimulated
by a remarkable series of prophecies delivered by their Gurus
announcing the coming domination ot the white man, the Sikhs
have become devoted adherents of the Empire. Their services
in the Great Mutiny of 1857-8 have been repeated in many later
campaigns, and we possess no Indian troops more conspicuous
for loyalty and soldierly qualities. At present the Sikhs number
nearly 2\ millions.

The characteristic teaching of the Gurus is the Unity of God.
Their creed is thus given in the Japji of Nanak, a verse which
every Sikh must whisper in the morning: — "There is but one
God whose name is True, the Creator, Devoid of fear and envy,
Immortal, Unborn, Self-existent, the True, the Great, the Bounti-
ful." To adopt Mr. Macauliffe's summary of their beliefs (vol. i.
Preface, p. xxiii), Sikhism "prohibits idolatry, hypocrisy, caste
exclusiveness, the concremation of widows, the immurement of
women, the use of wine and other intoxicants, tobacco-smoking,
infanticide, slander, pilgrimages to the sacred rivers and tanks
of the Hindus ; and it inculcates loyalty, gratitude for all favours
received, philanthropy, justice, impartiality, truth, honesty, and
all moral and domestic virtues known to the holiest citizens or
any country." Its creed may be summed up in the formula, —

4 1 6 Reviews.

the unity of God, the brotherhood of man, and universal tolera-
tion. It doubtless owes much to Buddhism, and it is certainly
deeply indebted to the teaching of Kabir and his school and
to the religious movement from Persia, itself probably suggested
by Hindu Vedantism, which has resulted in the body of the
mystical doctrine known as Sufiism and its development Babiism.

It is difficult to forecast the future of Sikhism. Mr. Macauliffe
truly compares Hinduism to a boa-constrictor striving to crush
this phase of sectarianism within its folds ; and there can be no
doubt that in these later days its practices have fallen short ot
the ideal standard prescribed by the Gurus. The bonds of caste,
idolatry, and pilgrimages to Hindu sacred places have been widely
adopted. But it still preserves a large measure of vitality, and
the efforts of its leaders are now devoted towards the restoration
of its primitive beliefs and usages. This revival of the faith will
be largely stimulated by the present work, which may encourage
official patronage of a sect on which the maintenance of British
supremacy so largely depends.

It is impossible within the limits of this review to indicate
in detail the many interesting features which render this book
valuable to all students of comparative religion. The develop-
ment of monotheism, the mystical conception of the Godhead,
the mass of hagiology and miracles which has grown up round the
lives of the Gurus, all deserve attentive study ; and the religious
and moral insight of the Gurus will probably be a new revelation
to those who are unfamiliar with the modern developments of
Hinduism. If we could be assured that the revival of Vedantism
and other effisrts now in progress to purify the dark places of
Puranic Hinduism in order to adapt it to the requirements of
the present age and the influences of western thought will, like
Sikhism, be based upon active loyalty to the Empire, the outlook
in India would be much more hopeful than it is at present.

W. Crooke.

Books for Review should be addressed to

The Editor of Folk- Lore,

c/o David Nutt,

57-59 Long Acre, London, W.C.

jFolk^Xore.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

Vol. XXL] DECEMBER, 1910. [No. IV.

THE ANCIENT HYMN-CHARMS OF IRELAND.

BY MISS ELEANOR HULL.

{Read at Meeting, March i6th, 1910.)

The native hymns and eulogies of Irish saints are
anriongst the oldest in western Europe, some of them, — such
as Sechnall's poem in praise of St. Patrick, St. Patrick's
Lorica, the poem of Ultan to St. Bridget, and the Alius
Prosator of St. Columba, — belonging, by every test of
language and sentiment that can be applied to them, to the
period to which tradition has ascribed them {i.e. the fifth to
the seventh century).^ Only a few of the Latin Church
hymns of western Europe date so early as this, though those
of Hilary of Poitiers (d. 368) and St. Ambrose (d. 397),
who are reckoned by mediaeval writers to be the earliest

^The dates of the earliest Irish hymn-writers are, — St. Patrick, t 461 ;
St. Sechnall, contemporary of St. Patrick ; St. Columba, t 597 5 St. Ultan,
+ 656; St. Broccan, +650; St. Cummain the Tall, t66i-2; St. Cuchuimne,
t746 ; St. Colman mac Ui Cluasaigh, t 731 ; St. ^T.ngus mac Tipraite, t 745-

VOL. XXI. 2 E

4i8 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.

authors of Latin hymns, date from the middle and close
of the fourth century. The use of hymns in the Offices of
the Church was not encouraged by Rome ; it only began
to be admitted reluctantly in the twelfth century, but
Hraban Maur (786-856) tells us that in his time the
custom of singing hymns was elsewhere universal in the
West.^ In Irish monasteries the use of hymns in liturgical
worship must have begun early, as we hear in Adamnan's
Vita S. ColumbcB (Lib. ii. 9) of a Jiyvinorinn liber septi-
manioruin sancti Cohunbce inami descriptus, or book of
hymns for weekly use ; and in the same life we are told
that, on the morning of St. Columba's death, hymns were
sung in the Office at lona, Jiymiiis maUitinalibns ter-
minatis (Lib. iii. 23) ; also a tradition connected with St.
Columba's Altiis Prosator says that, in acknowledgment of
the saint's gift to him of this fine hymn, Pope Gregory sent
him in return, among other gifts, " a hymn for every night
in the week." The story of Gregory's gift may be an
invention, but the use of hymns in the daily Offices seems
clear, and that it became the general custom of the Irish
monastic Church we know from the hymns for the canonical
hours in the eighth-century Antiphonary of Bangor and
other early Irish service books.

But it is not of the use of hymns in Church worship that
we have to speak here, but of hymns composed with quite
another purpose and used in another way. Among the
early hymns and religious songs that have come down to
us are several composed as charms to ward off disease or
plague, to protect the author or those who used the hymn
from the perils of a journey, or in various ways to bring him
good luck and freedom from danger. Among the twenty
hymns or songs of Irish composition collected in the book
known as the Liber Hyuinoruni^ (of which two copies,

^ In 563 the Council of Braga forbade the use of hymns, but this opposition

was broken down at the Council of Toledo in 633, and Spain used them largely.

^Edited by Barnard and Atkinson, 2 vols. (Henry Bradshaw Society, 1898).

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland, 419

differing only slightly, exist), ten were written expressly
for the protection of the writer from some peril, bodily or
spiritual, or are said to confer similar protection on those
who recited them. In some cases, no doubt, their use as
charms was a later result of the tradition of sacredness
attaching to their authorship or age, but in others the
authors themselves are believed to have conferred upon
them their special charm-power. Just as the small hand-
bells of the monks were used not only to call the hours of
prayer but to exorcise evil spirits, so the charm-hymn, while
nominally it commemorated some dead saint or eulogised a
living one, had also the more practical quality of warding
off disease or death from those who recited it. These
hymns partook of the same character, and in many cases
were thrown into the same form, as the pagan charms which
they to a certain extent replaced.

The first extant Irish hymn is Sechnall's or Secundinus'
Latin hymn in praise of St. Patrick, Audite omnes, a long
hymn of which, in a fashion very common in early Ireland
and not unknown elsewhere, every quatrain began with a
successive letter of the alphabet. In order to get Patrick
to listen to his poem, Sechnall is said to have suppressed
the first stanza, which conveyed the fact that it was a
eulogium on himself, and Patrick expressed himself so well
pleased with the hymn that, at the close of its recitation, he
offered Sechnall a variety of rewards for its composition,
such as that as many sinful souls should go to heaven for
the sake of this hymn as there were days in the year or
threads in the hood of his cowl. Sechnall contemptuously
rejected the terms. " What believer," said he, " would not
take with him as many as that to heaven without the
trouble of eulogising a man like thee at all .'' " Finally, St.
Patrick, who had already promised a full table to everyone
who will recite the hymn before dinner and a special pro-
tection to every new house in which it is recited on entering,
raised his offers to a promise of heaven to everyone who

420 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.

will recite it at lying down and at rising up. Even with
that Sechnall was dissatisfied. " The hymn," he truthfully
said, " is long, and not everyone will be able to remember
it " ; and, finally, St. Patrick compounded for the recitation
of the last three stanzas only, which will convey a blessing
equal to the whole. " Deo gratias" said the eulogist, satis-
fied at last. It would appear that the Irish mediaeval
memory was not to be trusted for long efforts, and that the
convenient method of making three stanzas serve for the
whole poem was one commonly resorted to, and we find
indeed that in the Book of Mulling, in which this poem
takes its place with other hymns in a special Office to
invoke divine protection against that dreadful scourge of
Ireland, the Yellow Plague, only three stanzas are used.
The same thing occurs in this same service with regard to
the hymns Noli Pater of St. Columba, that of Cum main
Fota, Celebra Jtida, and that of St. Hilary, Hymnum dicat,
in all of which cases three stanzas serve for the whole hymn.
This convenient plan of claiming the rewards of devotion
with a minimum of effort is further shown by an abridg-
ment of the Psalter found in the Liber Hymnoriun, in which
a collection of 365 verses is made to do duty for the whole
Psalter, the Preface stating that the selection was made by
Pope Gregory and bore his special commendation. That
the promise of St. Patrick was fulfilled may be held to be
proved by a story in the Life of St. Canice, in which a man
is said to have been saved from demons by reciting the last
three stanzas, " nam vir ille tria capittda de hymno S. Patricii
ante mortem . . . cantavit et per hoc liberaius est de manibus
tiostris." ^

*Colgan, Tr. Thaum, p. 210. In the case of the hymn Christus in nostra,
only the three last verses are extant, all the remaining stanzas of this alphabetical
hymn having apparently been forgotten. In the Basle Psalter (Ms. A. vii. 3)
the hymn is described as Xps in nostra.

For other examples of the benefit derived from reciting three stanzas see
"The Colloquy," Silva Gadelica, vol. ii., p. 202; Mugroin, abbot of Hi, is
said to have been " skilled in the three verses."

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 421

A similar blessing is ascribed to the recitation of a Latin
hymn of St. ^Engus mac Tipraite (i*745) to St. Martin,
which was a " protection or charm against every disease,
and secured heaven for reciting it on lying down and rising
up," besides ensuring to a person who recited it before
visiting a prince or a synod personal reverence and respect.

Two hymns of extraordinary richness and melody, — viz.,
that ascribed to S. Cuchuimne (■(•746.?), " Hymn to the
Virgin," and that of St. Colman Mac Murchon, Abbot
of Moville, (i*73i) in praise of St. Michael, — have also the
character of personal charms, here intended solely for the
benefit of the composers. The object of the former was, (as
we learn from the preface), to free him from the evil life he
was leading, or to smooth the difficulties of his studies ;
while the latter was composed, according to the guess of
the writer, for the relief of the three sons of Murchu of
Connaught, a bishop and two priests, who were making
pilgrimage across the Ictian Sea {i.e. the English Channel)
and who were overtaken by a tempest and thrown upon an
island, where a great famine fell upon them. St. Michael
was the special guardian of the Irish against disease, and
was, in general, regarded by the Celts as a protector against
demons of all kinds. In an Irish tract we read, — " the three
hostages that were taken on behalf of the Lord for warding
off every disease from the Irish are Peter the Apostle,
Mary the Virgin, and Michael the Archangel."^ The idea
that these three august personages were held in hostage by
the Deity for the safety of the people is peculiarly Irish.
These two hymns, though written in Latin, are specimens
of mediaeval Irish verse at its best and richest. All the
intricate, native-born systems of rhyme, correspondence,
assonance, and alliteration are brought to bear to produce
poems of that luxurious and gorgeous quality which Ireland
alone produced at this period, and which was, in the com-
bination of its features and the care bestowed upon it,

*** Second Vision of Adamnan," ed. Stokes, Rev. Celt. vol. xii., sec. 19.

422 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of I Iceland.

peculiar to Irish verse structure of the best period. Dr.
Atkinson, in writing of these hymns, draws attention to the
rich trisyllabic rhymes occurring throughout, the double
consonantal alliterations in each line, and the correspon-
dences between the succeeding lines. " These pieces," he
says, " are poems in Latin written in popular metre by Irish
poets ; the prosody of the classical language is replaced by
accent and rhyme, and the rhymes in each case are rich
and perfect.'"^

The largest section of the charm-hymns is directed
to the attainment of personal benefits, but one or two
were apparently used for the purpose of preventing
public calamities. Such is the short hymn in abrupt,
rough Latin ascribed to St. Columba, beginning Noli
Pater indulgere, which was primarily intended as a pro-
tection against fire and lightning, but which appears to
have been used in a penitential office against the Yellow
Plague, which decimated Ireland at frequent intervals
during the seventh century. According to an ancient
prophecy, a visitation of Fire and Plague was to come
in connection with St. John's Day, and special Offices
were drawn up to stave off the calamity. Professor
Lawlor identifies this hymn '' as one of those occurring
in the office of the Book of Mulling, and also in the
Second Vision of A dam nan, both of which were penitential
acts in view of the visitation of Plague, and Dr. Bernard

As an example of St. Colman's hymn to St. Michael we take the first stanza
and the last stanza but one : —

In trinitate spes mea fixa non in omine

et archangelum deprecor Michaelem nomine

Sterna possint preestare regis regni aulia
ut possedeam cum Christo paradisi gaudia.

^ Lawlor, Book of Mulling, cap. vii.

The Ancient Hymn-C harms of Ireland. 423

is disposed to accept his verdict. Connected also with
the visitation of the Plague is St. Colman's curious
Irish hymn, with Latin phrases intermixed, Sen De
( " Blessing of God " ), which is said to have been com-
posed by St. Colman mac Ui Cluasaigh, a scholar from
Cork, and by his fellow-students, to save themselves from
that visitation of the Yellow Plague that occurred in the
time of King Aedh Slane (c. 600). According to the
Preface, which is amply supported by other authorities,
the pestilence " ransacked all Ireland, and only one man
in three was left alive." Colman and his fellow-students
took to flight before it, and sought refuge on an island,
according to the universal Irish belief that pestilence
could not cross the water, and that at a distance of " nine
waves " from the shore they were safe. A most curious
story in one of the prefaces to this hymn relates that
.this visitation of the Biiide Connaill or Yellow Plague
came in consequence of a struggle between the oligarchy
and democracy, owing to the great increase in the
population, which caused a scarcity of agricultural land.
The nobles of Ireland, supported by three well-known
abbots, and with their two joint-kings at their head,
fearing a famine, assembled together and prayed and
" fasted " before God to get the population reduced.^ The
plague came in answer to their prayers, but it is satis-
factory to note that, instead of merely cutting off the
superfluous common people, as the combined church and
state of the day desired, it selected as its first victims
every one of the important personages who had demanded
its aid.^ This long hymn, to which there are various

** In the Life of St. Gerald of Mayo, he is said to have disapproved of the
action of the abbots, and refused to join with them.

^The worst outbreaks of the Biiide Connaill or "Great Death," as the
Yellow Plague was variously called, occurred in Ireland in the years 543 and
562, and again during 664-669. During this later outbreak the two joint-
kings of Tara died, and the Abbots of Clonard, Fore, Clanmacnois, and other
monasteries. Four Abbots of Bangor, Co. Down, succumbed to it in succession.

424 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.

specially Irish additions, invites the aid of the saints of
the Old and New Testaments in turn in a sort of Litany,
and relates Biblical instances of deliverances, such as Noah
from the flood, Lot from fire, Daniel from the lions, etc.,
in the regular charm form. The last of these miscellaneous
charm-hymns of which I shall make mention is St.
Columba's great poem the Alius Prosator, which con-
ferred on those who recited it " many graces," freedom
from famine and nakedness and strife, the protection of
angels, and safety from the attacks alike of earthly foes
and of demons, with the certainty that no death should
befall the reciter save ordinary death in a bed, or "death
on pillow " {absque pretiosa) as the writer of the preface
puts it. This long alphabetical hymn, well known in
the Galilean Church, and long ascribed to Prosper of
Aquitaine,^*^ may be called the Paradise Lost of mediaeval
Ireland. It begins by a recitation of the glories of the
Trinity, and describes the creation of the Angels, their
nine grades and their fall, the creation of the earth and man,
the praises of the Hosts of Heaven (meaning here the
Angels), the creation of the clouds and sea, rain and
rivers, the foundations of the earth, hell, and the worship
of the under-world, the Garden of Eden, the thunders of
Sinai, future judgment, and the last things.

The cosmogonic speculations in this remarkable hymn
are closely akin to those of The Book of Enoch, a book
which, though lost until quite recent times elsewhere,

It was followed by a great mortality among the cattle, which brought about a
famine all over the country. A marginal note states that the man who was
allotted to compose lines 41-43, which are in a different metre, died of the
plague.

i^A large portion of the Altus was incorporated by Hraban Maur (786-
856) into a long poem beginning ALterne rerum conditor. It is found in four
Mss. among works attributed to St. Prosper of Aquitaine (403-465). In
three cases the hymn follows directly on the De vita contemplatitia, a work now
usually attributed to Julianus Pomerius (c. 500), though formerly believed to be
by Prosper. These copies contain no preface, titles to the stanzas, or glosses.

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 425

seems to have been well known in the mediseval period
in Ireland. The idea still prevalent in Ireland that the
meddling and malicious fairies are the angels who fell
with Lucifer, and who were on their way down to hell
when our Lord held up his hand, which caused them to
remain stationary wherever they happened to be at the
time, seems to find an echo in this poem, which says
that "the spaces of air are closely crowded with a
disordered crew of rebel satellites, held invisible lest man
should become infected by their evil examples and their
crimes, if there were no wall or screen between him and
them." The great age of the composition, and its
probable Irish origin, are shown by what the Editors,
Drs. Bernard and Atkinson, call its " rude and barbarous
though vigorous Latinity," by its use of an old Latin
Biblical text as its foundation, and by the employment
of those strange and bizarre Latin words found in the
Hisperica famina, and peculiar, if not to Ireland alone,
to the Celtic districts of S.W. Britain and Ireland. The
title of the first stanza, speaking of Columcille as "the
latest and noblest of Ireland's prophets," seems also to
suggest a date close to Columba's own time, for these
titles were added later than the composition of the poem
itself.

None of the poems that we have hitherto passed in
review, though composed as charms or believed by later
reciters to contain definite charm-power, can be said to
show any connection in form or style with the Pagan or
native charms which they displaced ; they were formed
upon another and foreign ecclesiastical model. But we
come now to a group which, whether written in Latin or
in Irish, show a marked similarity to the native charms
common to this day throughout Ireland and the West
of Scotland. At the head of this group of native-born
charm-poems we may place St. Patrick's Lorica. The
word lorica or lurica, the corselet or breastplate, though

426 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.

a Latin word, no doubt adopted from St. Paul's expression
induti loricam justitice {Ephesians, vi., 14), is one found
in the body of several of the hymn-charms we have
been considering, and it forms the express title of those
we are now about to consider. It became the usual
word used to express a poem of which the recitation was
designed to form a protection against some explicit evil,
or to give an indulgence to the reciter. It is quite possible
that the poems were originally written in the form of a
breastplate, just as charms in the form of crosses, circles,
and squares with cross lines, are found in manuscripts
and in written charms still in use.^^ Six of these Loricas,
or " Hymns of the Lorica " as they are sometimes more
justly styled, have up to the present been printed.
They are —

(i) The Lorica of St. Patrick.

(2) The Lorica of Lodgen, so called in the Book of Came;
called also the Lorica of Laidcend mac Buith bannaig (in
Leabhar Breac), and of Lathacan Scotigena (in Darmstadt or
Koln MS.) ; usually known as the Lorica of Gillas or Gildas.

(3) The Lorica of Columcille ; edited from Yellow Book of
Lecan, by Dr. O'Donovan, for the Misc. of the Celtic Society. •

(4) The Lorica of Mugron, Abbot of Hi or lona, IqSo ;
edited by Dr. Kuno Meyer from Ms. Rawl. B. 512, {LLib. Min.,
Anecdota Oxon., 1894).

(5) L.orica of Leyden ; edited by Dr. V. H. Friedel in
Zeitschrift fiir Celiische P/iilologie, vol. ii., p. 64.

(6) Lorica from MS. jfi^, p. 237, Royal Irish Academy;
printed in Bernard and Atkinson's edition of the Liber
LLymnorum, vol. ii., notes, p. 210.

A good deal of attention has been bestowed upon these
poems in recent years on account of the similarities which
several of them show to the tract known as Hisperica

^^ See, for example, "The Circle of St. Columcille" in Ms. Cott. Vitell, E,
xviii., fol. 13. 1), and another charm for discovering a thief quoted by Cockayne,
Saxon Leeckdoms, vol. i., pp. 395-396; Hyde, Religions Songs 0/ Connachi,
vol. ii. , p. 32.

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of h^eland. ^i^j

fafnina}^ a long piece written in that artificial and pom-
pous style of Latin which seems to have been cultivated in
Irish monasteries, or monasteries having in them a strong
Irish element, in the seventh and eight centuries. Zimmer
places its use even earlier, and this opinion seems to be
borne out by the occurrence of similar words in these
early Loricas.

The question of their archaic and singular linguistics,
however, is not one which concerns us here, unless it could
be proved that these bizarre forms were of the same
kind and had arisen out of the same causes which tend
in charms generally to preserve words whose meaning is
forgotten, or which have become corrupted through their
usage by persons who did not understand their meaning.
In any case we know that in Ireland there existed one
or more special and artificial kinds of the native tongue
called bearla feint or berla iia filed (" poet's speech ")
employed only by poets and brehons, and it is possible
that similar vagaries of language ma}^ have been thought
by the students of the cloisters to be specially suitable
to certain kinds of composition. So far as is at present
known, the existing examples of it are confined to one
long prose treatise, the Hispcrica famina itself, chiefly
occupied with a description of natural objects, the heavens,
fire, the sea, the firmament, the winds, etc., subjects

^^ The Hisperica famina was first published by A. Mai in the fifth vol. of
Classici Auctores, pp. 479-500, from Cod. Vat. {Reg. Ixxxi. ); see also Migne,
Pat. Lat., vol. xc, pp. 1187-96. The latest edition is that of F. J. Jenkinson
{1908). It is of unknown authorship. Mai and Thurneysen consider that the
examples all hail from Irish sources. Zimmer believes that they were written
in some S.W. British or Armorican monastery that had a strong Irish element
in it. For a discussion of the whole subject see Zimmer's Nennius Vindicatus
(App. , pp. 291-342); Thurneysen, Revue Celtiqtte, vol. xi., pp. 89-90, and
" Gloses Bretonnes," ibid., p. 86. The St. Omer poem was published by
Bethmann in Zeitschrift fUr Deutsches Alterthum, vol. v. (1845), p. 206.
See also Stowasser's Wiener Studien, pp. 9., 309-322, and his " Incerta
auctores Hisp. Fam. denuo edidit et explanavit," Vindob. 1887 (Programm
des Franz-Joseph's Gymnasiums, 1888- 1889). Thurneysen's edition (above)
gives Stowasser's readings of the poem and the Breton glosses.

428 The Ancient Hymn- Charms of Ireland.

which seem to connect it with St. Columba's Alius
Prosator, where some of the same obscure terms are found;
an Alphabetical Poem, {i.e. that found in the St. Omer
Ms,, no. 666) ; and the Loricas of Gildas and St. Patrick.^^
Hence it may be looked upon as being confined in its
use to poetic or oratorical flights, a sort of monastic
euphuism or bearla feiniy^

To us it is more important to notice that the structure
of these poems, (or of most of them), tends to fall into
a fixed form. Four out of the six known to us begin
in the same way, with an invocation of the Trinity ; after
this opening, the Lorica of Gildas (or Lodgen, as it is
also called), and the Lorica of Leyden proceed to a lengthy
and extraordinarily minute enumeration of the parts of
the human body, from head to foot, for which protection
is invoked, and the pieces wind up by calling on angels,
archangels, cherubim and seraphim, thrones, dominions,
and powers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, virgins,
and confessors to defend the reciter from all ills. The
Lorica of the Royal Irish Academy replaces the list of
the parts of the body by an enumeration of the perils
from which the author prays to be preserved, and its list
of saints whose aid is appealed to is simpler; it does not
take the fixed form of the " 9 grades " of heavenly powers,^^

i^The Folium Luxemburgense fragment is an enlarged repetition of part
of the Hisperica famina with a glossary of difficult Latin words.

"A poet named Teigue O'Rody wrote in the year 1700, — "Irish is the
most difficult and copious language in the world, having five dialects, viz., the
common Irish, the poetic, the lawyer's dialect, the abstractive and separative
dialects : each of these five dialects being as copious as any other language,
so that a man may be perfect in one, two, three, or four of these dialects
and not understand even a word of the other " ; (see O'Reilly, Dictionary,
Supplement, s.v. bearla f^ini).

1^ Eight of the nine grades are mentioned in each of these Loricas, one
(different in each) being omitted. They are in the usual order. The idea
of the nine orders of angels was adopted in the Western Church from the
homilies of Gregory the Great (c. 600); it was originally introduced through
the Greek mysticism of the writings of Dionysius in the fifth century.

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 429

such as is found in the two Loricas of which we have
spoken. Instead it calls for protection upon
" Every (blessing) without pain, every pure prayer,
Every ladder that reaches heaven shall be an aid to me,
Every good saint who suffered on the Surface of the Earth,
Every chaste disciple who was tortured for Christ,
Every meek, every gentle, every candid, every pure person.
Every confessor, every soldier who lives under the sun.
Every venerable patron saint who should reach me for luck,
Everyone, gentle or simple, every saint who has suffered the
Cross."

The Lorica of St. Patrick is more complicated and
broken in its structure, and as a devotional poem it is
far finer than any of the others. It is divided into
seven parts, five of them connected together by the
repetition of the word Atomriug ("I raise myself" or "I
arise"), the final portions being preceded by the solemn
invocation of all the forces hitherto appealed to, to come
to the aid of the reciter

" Against incantations of false prophets
Against black laws of paganism
Against false laws of heresy
Against deceits of idols

Against spells of women and smiths and druids
Against all knowledge that is forbidden to the human soul."

This piece both begins and closes with an invocation
of the Trinity, which is preceded at the end by the well-
known passage appealing for the aid and presence of
Christ on every hand, and on all with whom the reciter
is brought into contact.

In the earlier divisions, instead of a banal list of the
members of the body, such as we had in the previous
Loricas, we get a short litany of the events of our Lord's
life, succeeded by a recitation of the grades of angels
and confessors. After this we have a short group of
phrases appealing for the aid of the elements ; for the

430 The Ancient Hymn- Charms of h^eland.

" Might of Heaven, brightness of the Sun, whiteness of
snow, splendour of fire, speed of light, swiftness of Wind,
depth of Ocean, stability of Earth, firmness of Rock,"
to intervene in his behalf.

The remaining passage is a fine invocation of the power
of God to exert itself in different ways against
*' Snares of demons, allurements of vices,
Solicitations of nature,
Against every person who wishes me ill,

Far and near, alone and in a crowd. . . ."
" The Might of God for my piloting
The Wisdom of God for my guidance
The Eye of God for ray foreseeing
The Ear of God for my hearing
The Word of God for my speech
The Hand of God for my guardianship
The Path of God for my precedence
The Shield of God for my protection
The Host of God for my salvation." ^*^

Here we have the complete charm-form carried over
into the Christian hymn, with its iteration of the
same idea with slight changes of wording. Let me
illustrate this by pointing to a charm. Christian also in
sentiment but going behind the Christian period in its
form, from the Western Isles of Scotland, which is
almost identical with parts of this hymn of St. Patrick : —

'■'■Rune before Prayer.
I am bending my knee
In the Eye of the Father who created me,
In the Eye of the Son who purchased me,
In the Eye of the Spirit who cleansed me,

In friendship and affection.
Through thine own Anointed One, O God,
Bestow upon us fulness in our need,
Love towards God,
^^ Liber Hymnor nut, vol. i., pp. 133-135; vol. ii., pp. 49-51.

The Ancie7it Hymn-Ckar77is of Ireland. 431

The Affection of God,
The Smile of God,
The Wisdom of God,
The Grace of God,
The Fear of God,

And the Will of God
To do in the World of the Three,
As angels and saints
Do in heaven ;

Each shade and light.

Each day and night.

Each time in kindness.

Give Thou us Thy Spirit." i^

Here is another beautiful Highland charm called the
Ora nam buadh or " Invocation of the Graces." It has a
strong pagan note : —

" I bathe thy palms

In showers of wine,

In the lustral fire,

In the Seven Elements,

In the juice of the rasps,

In the milk of honey,

And I place the nine pure choice graces

In thy fair fond face.
The grace of form,
The grace of voice.
The grace of fortune,
The grace of goodness.
The grace of wisdom,
The grace of charity.
The grace of choice maidenliness.
The grace of whole-souled loveliness.
The grace of goodly speech. . .
A shade art thou in the heat,
A shelter art thou in the cold.
Eyes art thou to the blind,

^'^ Cartnina Gadelica, vol. i., p. 3.

432 The Ancient Hymn- Charms of Ireland.

A staff art thou to the pilgrim,
An isle art thou at sea,
A fortress art thou on land,
A well art thou in the desert,

Health art thou to the ailing. . .
Thou art the joy of all joyous things,
Thou art the light of the beam of the sun.
Thou art the door of the chief of hospitality,
Thou art the surpassing star of guidance,
Thou art the step of the deer of the hill,
Thou art the step of the steed of the plain.
Thou art the grace of the swan of swimming,

Thou art the loveliness of all lovely desires,
The lovely likeness of the Lord
Is in thy pure face,
The loveliest likeness that
Was upon earth." ^^

The Gaelic of part of this last rann is : —

Is tu sonas gach ni eibhinn.
Is tu solus gath na greine,
Is tu dortis jlath na feile,
Is tu corra reul an iuil.
Is tu ceum feidh nan ardu.
Is tu ceum steud nam blaru.
Is tu sei?nk eal an t-snamhu
Is tu ailleagan gach run.

This rhythmic iteration of the idea may be found in
numberless runes and charms ; it is often really beautiful
in its effect and in its thought, and no doubt tended to
soothe both the reciter and the person to be benefited by
the charm. The tendency of all charms everywhere is to-
wards the repetition of phrases, but among the Gaelic-
speaking peoples this tendency is specially marked.
Here is a prayer used in the Highlands : —
"O God,
In my deeds.
In my words,

^^ Cartnina Gadelica, vol. i., pp. 7-11.

The Ancient Hymn- Charms of Ireland. 433

In my wishes,

In my reason,

And in the fulfilling of my desires,

In my sleep,

In my dreams.

In my repose.

In my thoughts,

In my heart and soul always.

May the blessed Virgin Mary,

And the promised Branch of Glory dwell,
Oh ! in my heart and soul always,
May the blessed Virgin Mary,
And the fragrant Branch of Glory dwell." ^^

Another, an " Exorcism of the Evil Eye," runs : —

" Power of wind I have over it,

Power of wrath I have over it.

Power of fire I have over it.

Power of thunder I have over it.

Power of lightning I have over it.

Power of storms I have over it.

Power of moon I have over it.

Power of sun I liave over it,

Power of stars I have over it.

Power of firmament I have over it.
Power of the heavens
And of the worlds I have over it." ^<^

Here is a musical little prayer from Connemara, which
reminds us of St. Patrick's Lor'ica : —

The Will of God be done by us,

The Law of God be kept by us.

Our Evil Will controlled by us,

Our tongue in check be held by us,
Repentance timely made by us,
Christ's passion understood by us,
Each sinful crime be shunned by us,

^^ Ibid., vol. i. , p. 27. '■^ /bid., vol. ii., p. 45.

434 Tf^^ Ancie7it HyDin- Charms of Ireland.

Much on the end be mused by us,
And Death be blessed found by us,

With angels' music heard by us,

And God's high praises sung to us,
For ever and for aye." ^^

I would now take the passage in St. Patrick's Lorica
which we have hitherto passed over.

" Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ under me, Christ over me,
Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me,
Christ in lying down, Christ in silting, Christ in rising up,
Christ in the heart of every person who may think of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who may speak to me
Christ in every eye that may look on nie !
Christ in every ear that may hear me ! "

and compare it with a similar passage in the Lorica
ascribed to Mugron, Abbot of lona, in the tenth century,
which shows either that he copied directly from St. Patrick's
Lorica or, as is more probable, adopted a widely familiar
form of phraseology : —

" The Cross of Christ with me in my good luck, in my bad luck ;

The Cross of Christ against every strife, abroad and at home ;

The Cross of Christ in the East with courage, the Cross of
Christ in the West at sunset ;

South and North without any stay, the Cross of Christ with-
out any delay ;

The Cross of Christ above towards the clear sky, the Cross of
Christ below towards earth.

There shall come no evil nor suffering to my body or to my soul,

The Cross of Christ at my sitting, the Cross of Christ at my
lying ;

2^ Hyde, Religious Songs of Connacht, vol. ii., pp. 12-13. For similar Irish
charms see Lady Wilde, Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland,
pp. 9-51; for Scottish charms see Wm. Mackenzie's "Gaelic Incantations,
Charms, and Blessings of the Hebrides," Transactions of the Gaelic Society
of Inverness, March 1892.

The Ancie7it Hymn-Charms of Ireland, 435

The Cross of Christ all my strength, till we reach Heaven's
King ! " 22

Or we may compare it with St. Columba's hymn /;/ te
Chris te : —

" Chris fus redemptor gentium, Chris tus amator uirginum,
Christus fons sapientium, Christus fides credentium,
Christus lorica militum, Christus creator omnium,
Christus salus uiuentiiim, et uita morientium,
Coronauit exercitum nostrum cum turba martirum, etc., etc. "

and also with the " Beltine (or May Day) Blessing" in the

Hebrides, in which the idea is identical —

"... The strength of the Triune our shield in distress,
The strength of Christ, His peace and his Pasch,
The strength of the Spirit, Physician of health.
And of the priceless Father, the King of Grace . . .
Be the Cross of Christ to shield us roundward,
Be the Cross of Christ to shield us upward,
Be the Cross of Christ to shield us downward,
Accepting our Beltine blessing from us.
Accepting our Beltine blessing from us." 23

It may be said that these are all Christian poems, and
not in any sense pagan ; but in the charm and incantation
the world of thought is pagan and Christian at once ; there
is no possible line of demarcation between them. In the
fifth century St. Patrick, or the composer of the ancient
Lorica ascribed to him, invokes the forces of the elements
and the power of God to intervene between him " and every
fierce merciless force that may come against body or soul " :

" Against incantations of false prophets

"Against black laws of paganism. . . .

" Against spells of women, smiths, and druids,

" Against all knowledge that is forbidden the human soul."

'^Bernard and Atkinson, Liier Hymnorum, vol. ii., p. 212. Translated
from two Mss. in Royal Irish Academy ^ and ^ by Professor E. J. Gwynn.
^ Carmina Gadelica, vol. i., p. 189.

436 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.

and in a prayer or rune said to this day in the Island of
Aran in Galway when going on a journey, the power of
Mary and Brigit is sought to be placed —

" Between us and the Fairy Hosts,

" Between us and the Hosts of the Wind,

" Between us and the drowning Water,

" Between us and heavy temptations,

" Between us and the shame of the world,

" Between us and the death of captivity." ^^

A Highland rhyming prayer still in use asks for safe-
guard

" From every brownie and ban-shee,
From every evil wish and sorrow.
From every nymph and water-wraith,
From every fairy-mouse and grass-mouse,
From every fairy-mouse and grass-mouse.
From every troll among the hills.
From every siren hard pressing me,
From every ghoul within the glens.
Oh ! save me till the end of my day,
Oh ! save me till the end of my day." ^^

Perhaps the most curious, as it is certainly one of the
rudest and most pagan in tone of all the ancient hymn-
charms of Ireland, is the Lorica ascribed to Columcille
from Leabhar Buidhe or the Yellow Book of Lecan, a
fourteenth-century Ms. It is said to have been composed
by him as a " Path Protection " when, after his condemna-
tion at Tara, he fled alone into Donegal to seek the protection
of his own powerful clan of the O'Donnells against King
Dermuid of Tara. It is promised " to give protection
to any person who will repeat it going on a journey." It
breathes that extraordinarily fatalistic spirit which permeates
Irish pagan literature and which probably the introduction
of Christianity accentuated rather than dispelled. In it we

^Religious Songs of Connacht, vol. ii., p. 53.
'^'^ Carmina Gadelica, vol. i., p. 31.

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 437

have an enumeration of various methods of foretelling or
divination against which the author prays to be protected.
The meaning of some of the special terms is doubtful.
•' Our destiny is not with the sreod^

Nor with the bird on the top of the twig,

Nor in the trunk of the gnarled tree,

Nor with a sordan hand in hand.

Better is He in whom we trust,

The Father, the One, and the Son. . . .

I adore not the voice of birds

Nor the sreod nor a sen in this life,

Nor a son, nor chance, nor woman ;

My Druid is Christ, the Son of God,

Christ, Son of Mary, the Great Abbot,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

My lands are with the King of Kings,

My order is with Kells and Moen " (Moone in Co. Kildare.) ^^

Though in most extant and living charms Christ and
Christian Saints have replaced the older pagan allusions and
names, it is undoubted that many of the charms themselves
have come down from a period earlier than Christianity.
In some cases this can be traced directly. For instance,
the charm for cure of a sprain of a horse or the human foot,
still familiar in the Highlands, —

" Christ went out
In the morning early,
He found the legs of the horses
In fragments soft ;
He put marrow to marrow.
He put pith to pith.
He put bone to bone.
He put membrane to membrane," etc., ^7

^^ Ed. J. O'Donovan, Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society.

^ Carmina Gadelica, vol. ii., pp. 21, 14, 19, etc.; William Mackenzie,
" Gaelic Incantations, Charms, and Blessings of the Hebrides" ; and cf. Lady
Wilde, Ancient Cures, Channs, and Usages of Ireland, p. 11, where it is
St. Agnes who falls.

43 8 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.

is the famous Merseburg charm for a lamed horse. But in
the tenth-century German charm it is Balder's horse that
falls, and it is Odin who effects the cure. The incantation
is said on a black woollen thread with nine knots upon it,
bound over the sprained limb. In a true Gaelic charm we
never find such special introductions as that with which
this cure begins.^^ In some very ancient charms, such as
those found in the Irish manuscripts at St. Gall monastery,
Switzerland, we find the names occurring of the great Irish
pagan deities Goibniu, the smith or Vulcan of Celtic myth-
ology, and Diancecht, the physician or healer, who was
fabled to dip dead men in his Cauldron of Renovation and
restore them to life and health again. " Very sharp is
Goibniu's science ; let Goibniu's goad go out before
Goibniu's goad," says the incantation to extract a thorn ;
and in a charm against various ailments the afflicted patient
says, — " May that be made whole whereon the salve of
Diancecht goes. I put my trust in the salve which
Diancecht left with his people."

In a charm against wounds and poisons recorded by
Lady Wilde, we find " The blood of one dog, the blood
of many dogs, the blood of the hound of Fliethas — these I
invoke. ... I invoke the three daughters of Fliethas against
the serpent," etc.-^ But this kind of direct allusion or appeal
to pagan deities seems to be rare. They have been ousted,
and their place and duties are amply filled by certain
all-powerful saints, — St. Michael, St. Columba, and St.
Brigit. It is singular how frequently the names of these
last two saints, the male and female agencies, occur in
Gaelic charms, Irish and Scottish. They are the great
necromancers of the Gael, gifted with all powers of poetry,
of prophecy, and of healing. In St. Bride's or Brigit's case
the matter seems fairly well explained by remembering

^Cf. K. Meyer in Quarterly Kevietv, July, 1903, p. 27 ; George Henderson,
Norse Influences on Celtic Scotland, p. 72.

'^'^ Ancient Legends etc. of Ireland, 1887, vol. ii., p. 85.

The Ancient Hymn- Charms of Ireland. 439

that, behind the Christian Brigit of Kildare, there lay
another Brigit, more powerful and awful, the great triune
goddess of Wisdom of pagan Gaeldom, presiding alike over
poetry, medicine, and the arts.^° She it is who seems to have
given her name to the Brigantes, the tribe of Brigit; she
whose connection with light and fire and healing powers
were transferred over to her Christian successor "Brigit the
ever-good woman, the golden flame, sparkling, the radiant
fiery sun," the maiden who, on a wet day when she had
been herding her sheep on the Curragh of Kildare, dried
her cloak by hanging it "indoors across a sunbeam ";^^
she whose sacred fire, perpetually watched by forty virgins,
might never be extinguished. Both in the ancient hymns
and the later runes and charms, she has become everywhere
confused with the Virgin Mary, and is represented as
the Mother, or more generally the Foster-Mother, of our
Lord ; in Ireland she is commonly called " The Mary of
the Gael."

She becomes thus naturally the guardian of the house-
hold and the hearth, associated with the fireside, and all this
idea conveys of health and home. Many runes assign
to Brigit and to the Virgin Mary a distinct share and
place in the watching of the home. In the special
prayers for " covering " the fire or " sparing it " as it is
called {i.e. the nightly making up of the turf so that a seed
of flame might be preserved until morning), that prevail
everywhere in Ireland and in the Hebrides, Brigit or Bride

^ In Cormac's Glossary, (ed. Stokes, p. 23, art. " Brigit"), she is described
as Brigit, a poetess, the female sage or mistress of wisdom, the goddess whom
poets adored on account of the greatness of her protecting care, whence she is
called the goddess of poets. She is daughter of the Dagda, and her two sisters
are Brigit the woman-leech or physician, and Brigit mistress of smith-craft or
metal work. This is an interesting example of the breaking up of a triad of
qualities into three personalities. So great and all-pervading was she that
" with all Irishmen every goddess was called Brigit."

^' Hymn " Brigit be bithmaith," Liber Ilymnorutn, vol. ii., pp. 39, 42.

440 The Ancient Hymn-Cha7'ms of Ireland.

is represented as guarding the centre of the house, {ix. the
place of the hearth), and the Blessed Virgin the top or ends

of it.

" As I save this fire to-night
Even so may Christ save me.
On the top of the house let Mary,
Let Bride in its middle be.
Let eight of the mightiest angels
Round the throne of the Trinity
Protect this house and its people
Till the dawn of the day shall be." ^^

This is the Innismaan version from the Aran Isles, Co.
Galway. The Cork version is practically identical.

" I save this fire

As kind Christ saves.
Mary at the two ends of the house,

And Brigit in the middle,
All that there are of angels

And of saints in the city of graces
Protecting and keeping

The folk of the house till day."33

In the Highlands and Western Isles the idea is almost
the same, whether for kindling or for "smooring" the fire,
as the "covering" is here called {beannchadh snialaidli).

" Kindling the Fire.

I will raise the hearth-fire

As Mary would.

The encirclement of Brigit and of Mary

On the fire and on the floor,

And on the household all.

Who are they on the bare floor ?

John and Peter and Paul.

Who are they by my bed ?

^^Hyde, Religious Songs of Connacht, vol. ii., p. 47.
^ Ibid., p. 51.

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 441

The lovely Brigit and her Fosterling.

Who are those watching over my sleep?

The fair loving Mary and her Lamb.

Who is that anear me?

The King of the sun, He himself it is.

Who is that at the back of my head ?

The Son of Life without beginning, without time." ^^

So, in the Evening Prayer beginning with the familiar
phrase —

" I lie down with God, and may God lie down with me,
That I may not lie down with evil
And that the evil may not lie with me,"

we get the same idea of Brigit being in the centre and the
Virgin at the head of the sleeper.

"The girdle of Brigit round my middle,

And the mantle of Mary round my head.

Come, O young Michael, and take my hand

And make my peace with the Son of the Graces.

If there be any evil thing at all in wait for me

I put the Son of God between myself and itself.

From tonight until a year from tonight

And tonight itself,

And for ever !

And for aye ! " ^^
In connection with these Sleeping or Night Prayers
and runes it may not be out of place to point out that the
quatrain known as the White Paternoster, familiar all
over Europe, is used also in Ireland. Dr. Hyde gives two
examples of it, —

" Four corners to my bed,

Four angels round it spread.

If I die within the night,

God receive me into light." '^^

'^ Carmina Gadelica, vol. i., p. 235.

^•'(From Innismaan, Co. Galway), Keligious Songs of Connacht, vol. ii.,
pp. 28-36; cf. Carmina GadeHca,vo\. i., pp. 81-89, 95-

•'''^Religions Songs of Connacht, vol. ii., p. 217.

442 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.

This is a Mayo version. Another from Aran is more
familiar, —

" Four posts around my bed,
Four angels have it spread,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Keep me, O God, till day shall dawn "

which is very nearly the common English version.^'^

The immense number of native words in Irish and Scotch
Gaelic relating to spells, charms, and divination show the
prevalence of these ideas and the care with which one charm
was distinguished from another. The most interesting to us
is the spell called faeth-fiadha, (modern Irish, feth-fia,
Scotch Gaelic, fatJi-fidhe or fa' fithe), the name given to
St. Patrick's Lorica and usually translated " The Deer's
Cry," in allusion to the tradition that, when St. Patrick and
his followers were escaping from King Laery, they were
changed into a herd of deer and so rendered invisible to
him and to his hosts. It was a charm rendering the user
of it invisible, but its original meaning has become con-
fused with the Gaelic word for a deer {fiadJi), with which
it has nothing to do, and this story, combining the two ideas
of invisibility and of the deer, has evidently been invented by
mediaeval writers to support this explanation. The learned
guesses of modern philologists have not tended to make
the matter clearer. But the fatJi-fidhe is still well-known
in Scotland, and has been applied in quite recent times to
decidedly practical purposes. A hunter poaching in his
landlord's ground could, under the protection of this charm,
come from the forest laden with the spoils of the chase,
without any danger of being seen, or a smuggler could
carry on his trade under the very eyes of the excise officer,
safe from all chance of detection. Thus the composition of
this Hymn was -a faeth-fiadha or protective charm or word-

2^ Cf. article on "The White Paternoster" in the Countess Martinengo-
Cesaresco's Essays in the Study of Folksongs, pp. 203-213.

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 443

spell,^^ rendering Patrick and his companions invisible. It
was only a later reflection on the matter that suggested
that they were turned into deer.^^ Here is the Charm
called fatk-fidhe, as given by Dr. Alexander Macbain in
vol. xvii. of the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of
Inverness, (April, 1891), and later, in March, 1892, by Mr.
William Mackenzie in the same journal.

Fa fithe cuiream art, I put on theeTtf fithe,

Bho chu, blio chat. From dog, from cat,

Bho bho, bho each From cow, from steed,

Bho dhuine, bho bhean From man, from woman,

Bho ghille, bho nighean From lad, from maid,

'S bho leanabh beag, And from little child,

Gus an tig mise rithisd. Till I come again.

An ainm an Athar, a Mhic, In the name of the Father and
'S ar Spioraid Naoimh. of the Son and Holy Ghost.

In a spell in Carniina Gadelica,^^ we find the same word

used : —

" Fath fith
Will I make on thee,
By Mary of the augury,
By Bride of the corslet,
From sheep, from ram,
From goat," etc., etc.

At p. 158, vol ii., we find a FritJi Mhoire or augury of
Mary made to discover where Jesus was when he stayed
behind in the Temple. In making the Frith the recitation
of the following formula is enjoined in Benbecula — " I go out
in thy path, O God ; God be before me, God be behind me,

^Y{.&nct.ferba-fath, ' words of magic,' A'eviie Celtique, vol. xx., p. 146.

*"" Thus the Holy Man composed that Hymn in his native speech, which is
commonly called /eih fiadhe and by others the breast-plate or Lorica of
Patrick, and it is held among the Irish in the highest regard because it is
believed — and proved by much experience — to preserve those who piously recite
it from dangers which threaten them in soul and body." Colgan's Tr. Thaum.,
p. 126, quoted in Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, Ed. Stokes, p. 48.

■•"Vol. ii., p. 25.

444 The Ancient Hym7t-C harms of Ireland.

God be in my track : the knowledge (or spell ?) which Mary-
made for her Son {i.e. in seeking Christ). Brigit breathed
through her palms, knowledge of truth, without knowledge
of falsehood : as she obtained (her quest), so may I too see
the semblance of that which I am myself in quest of" *^

In olden times the study of divination, the casting of
horoscopes, and the elaborate rites for gaining illumination
or knowledge of the future through an ecstatic trance
formed one of the regular subjects of study in the advanced
grades of the Bardic schools ; and the ' knowledge that
enlightens * was put into practice on every important
occasion, such as the choice of a chief, the undertaking of
a battle, or the going forth on a cattle-raid. In the tract
dealing with the courses of instruction and the laws of
Irish metric in the Book of Ballyviote are allusions to
various other charms to be studied during the ninth year of
the course, charms for an alehouse, charms to track a thief
or cow-stealer, charms to prevent a horse from stumbling,
and charms for luck on entering a new house, or for
guidance during a journey made on horse-back, and also
one for long life in which, among other things, " The Seven
Daughters of the Sea who weave the threads of the Sons
of Long Life " are invoked, evidently a Norse charm.*^

The directions for exercising the teinn-laeghdJia and
inibas-forosfiai, {i.e. the rites for securing a " trance of fore-
knowledge"), are preserved. We meet also with other
lesser rites, such as blowing through the palms of the hands,
watching the wind blowing the twigs of a tree,*^ etc. Fionn
macCumhail gained his magical powers by biting his
thumb.

^^ E. Henderson, loc. cit., p. 73.

*^ /rische Texte, vol. iii., Pt. i., 2nd Text, Sees. 95, 96, 97, pp. 51-53.
^^ Cf. an old Welsh poem given by Stephen, Literature of the Cymry,
pp. 331-2, where a similar method of augury seems to be referred to, —
" If I had known as now I do
How clearly the wind blows on the sprigs of the waving wood,
I should not have done what I did."

The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 445

Among the St, Gall manuscripts are charms in Old Irish
for extracting a thorn and against various diseases such as
headache and sudden tumours, etc. The same charm
given in the St. Gall fragments against headache is
given in the Book of Nunna Minster against sore eyes.
In the Stowe Missal are found charms for healing the eye
and another for a thorn, the latter being curiously like a
modern charm given by Lady Wilde in her Ancient
Legends etc. of Ireland}^

In Gaeldom, each act, both public and private, had its own
charm or incantation or blessing. In olden days the king
or chief was chosen and the clan undertook its public duties
after the performance of magic rites and under the direction
of a soothsayer ; today, in the Western Isles of Ireland and
Scotland, the huntsman going to hunt, the fisherman to fish
or lay his nets, the agriculturalist to sow or reap his harvest,
and the weaver or spinner to wind his yarn, go forth to
their work with some familiar charm-prayer or charm-hymn,
(or, as they are often beautifully called, " The Blessings "),
in their mouths. The milkmaid calling her cows or churn-
ing her butter, the young girl fearful of some neighbour's
evil eye, and the cottager sweeping up her hearth in the
evening, laying herself down to rest for the night, or rising
up in the morning, soothes her fears or smoothes her way
by some whispered paider or ortha, a prayer or a verse-
charm. The whole of life is encompassed by invisible
dangers, which it is the business of the charm to turn aside.

Nor, where all the ills of life are conceived of as being
wrought by the malignant action of evil powers and remov-
able by incantations, can any actual dividing line be drawn
between the magic charm and the religious prayer. In the
charm, the power of the Being to whom prayer is offered
may be conceived of as more entirely transferred to the
words of the spell itself, but in the larger number of cases I
imagine that the belief is still in some Higher Power,
"^NoX. ii., p. S2.

446 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.

personal or impersonal, mana or deity, outside the actual
recitation of the words. In any case, the closeness of the
resemblance was so universally recognised in the Middle
Ages that we find in ancient service books, such as the
Leofric Missal and the Stowe Missal^ the Book of Nunna
Minster, and The Book of Came, — books which bear the
marks of strong Celtic influence, — not only the Lorica of
Gildas or Lodgen frequently taking its place among the
hymns and collects, but charms for sore eyes, charms against
the evil eye, charms to extract a thorn, and the enumeration
of diseases and of parts of the body afflicted with them such
as we find in the Loricas, with prayers for deliverance alike
from the attacks of monsters and of powers of necromancy.
Hence, to return to the original subject, we find hymns for
charming away plague or peril among the canticles and
hymns of the Irish Liber Hyimioriini. The step "from
Charm to Prayer," as Mr. Marett might call it, is a short
and easy one.

Eleanor Hull.

THE CONGO MEDICINE-MAN AND HIS BLACK
AND WHITE MAGIC.

BY JOHN H. WEEKS.

{Read at Meeting, February i6th, 19 lo.)

In this paper I desire to supplement information already-
given in Folk-Lore'^ concerning the Lower Congo nganga
or medicine-man by a fairly complete list of the many
varieties of nganga. After careful enquiry I have arrived
at the conclusion that nearly all ngangas practise both
black and white magic, by the use of the same fetish in
different ways.

The term nganga covers the meanings sorcerer, exorcist,
witch-finder, fetish-priest, healer of diseases, diviner, con-
juror, etc.,^ but no one nganga exercises all these functions.
Each is expert in his particular line, rarely working outside
it, and it will be seen from the names of the various ngangas
that their functions are usually well-defined. Men and
women on becoming ngangas do not take new personal
names (except that the ndeinbo ngangas are always called
Nkau), and can become ngangas in several different ways,
viz. : —

1. Initiation.^

2. Payment to a ngang' a mbambi of 1000 strings of blue

iVol. XX., pp. 182-8.

2 The term nganga is also applied to initiates of the ndembo and nkimba
secret societies, but such persons rarely act as ngangas in the ordinary sense,
and a nganga need not be a member of either society.

*Vol. XX., p. 183.

44 8 The Congo Medicine- Man.

pipe beads and a fowl, after recovery from an infectious
disease by means of the inbambi fetish. In return for the
fee instruction is given in the "medicines" used and
method of procedure. (If the patient is clever enough to
recognise the herbs etc. given to him, and to imitate the
ceremonies, he may set up as a nganga without paying any
fee.)

3. Being imbued with fetish power in the ekimi dance.*

4. Passing the ordeal for witches successfully.^

The profession was therefore open to any shrewd, artful,
and energetic person, either rich or poor, bond or free, and
was not confined to one sex. As a rule, the nganga was a
lithe and active person, for it was often necessary to dance
for hours to excite the crowd to the necessary pitch ; he
had restless, sharp eyes that jumped from face to face of
the spectators ; he had an acute knowledge of human
nature, and knew almost instinctively what would please
the surrounding throng ; but his face became after a time
ugly, repulsive, and the canvas upon which cruelty,
chicanery, hate, murder, and all devilish passions were
portrayed with repellent accuracy. When performing,
blue, red, white, yellow, and any other colours he could
obtain were plastered in patches, lines, and circles upon
the face and exposed parts of his body ; thick circles of
white surrounded the eyes, a patch of red crossed the fore-

■•Vol. XX., pp. 464-5.

•''Vol. xix., p. 417. In March, 1909, I met a man who had formerly been a
ngatig' a ngomho (witch-finder). He had been accused four times of being a
witch, and each time had vomited after drinking the nkasa infusion, and so
proved his innocence. After the fourth ordeal he informed his friends that he
would begin business himself as a ngang" a ngoiiibo. He was in much request
as a witch-finder, and was never again himself accused. On one occasion he
was chased by the person accused, who threatened to shoot him, but his prin-
cipal professional difficulty was to find unerringly the grave of the person
killed by the witch. If death was believed to be due to witchcraft, no trace
was left of the grave, and the pointing out of the place of interment was
regarded as the crucial test of the occult powers of the nganga.

The Congo Medicine-Man. 449

head, broad stripes of yellow were drawn down the cheeks,
bands of red or yellow ran down the arms and across the
chest, and spots of blue and other colours were put on
promiscuously to fill up, according to no rule other than
his own crude taste and the colours available. His dress
consisted of the softened skins of wild animals, either
whole or in strips, feathers of birds, dried fibres and leaves,
ornaments of leopard, crocodile, or rat's teeth, small,
tinkling bells, rattling seed pods, and anything else that
was unusual and wearable. The effect attained was
extremely grotesque, but was to the native the sign of the
witch-doctor's power. To inspire the natives with awe
and fear this get-up was absolutely necessary, for, if a
nganga arrived at the scene of his operations in the ordi-
nary garb of a native, he would be scouted and turned out
of the town.

The nganga was the arbiter of life and death, for not
only was his selected victim led away to drink the ordeal,
but so implicitly did the people believe in him that, when
he said that his patient would die, this invariably happened,
as the friends began at once to prepare for the burial, and,
instead of feeding the patient, they would dig his grave
and send to call his relatives to the funeral. The nganga
had said he would die, so what was the use of wasting
time and good food on him .-'

The nganga was consulted about a child before birth,
at birth, and throughout its childhood and youth, during
illness to drive away the evil spirits causing the sickness,
after the death of a first wife to cleanse a widower, after
death to discover the witch who caused it, and at burial to
ensure that the deceased would not return to trouble the
family. Even after death and burial the spirit of the
deceased can be controlled by the nganga, and destroyed
by him if it does not behave itself decently.

The nganga put the native under tabu, and removed
it; he made the hunting, trading, and war "medicine"

2 G

450 The Congo Medicine-Man.

to ensure good luck ; he brought the rain when there
was a drought, or stopped it when the fields were being
inundated with abnormal storms ; he made the fetish for
the caravan to carry on the road, which would soften the
heart of the white trader so that he would give a good
price for the produce offered for sale ; he made the
charms that would protect a whole town, or an indi-
vidual, or an animal. There was no condition of life which
he was unable to affect either for good or evil, and his
services must not be despised, or some catastrophe would
follow. Such were the pretensions of the Congo nganga,
and over the natives he wielded tyrannical and empirical
power.

There are two phrases that contain the whole theory
and practice of the Congo medicine-man's black and white
magic.

When a man has been injured by a known or unknown
enemy and wishes to inflict on him disease, misfortune,
or death, he selects a nganga who possesses a fetish that
has control over certain diseases, and pays him a fee to
loka e nkisi, i.e. curse by the aid of a charm or fetish.
The fetish is beaten with a stick, informed what it is to
do, and then hung up outside the invoker's house, and
the spirit of the fetish flies off to obey its orders. This
is the simple modus operandi followed by all ngangas,
who invoke their fetishes to use their various powers
against the enemies of their clients. Any ordinary man
who owns a fetish can curse an enemy with it by per-
forming the same ceremony. If a man has not a fetish
of his own powerful enough to satisfy his hatred, and
does not want to go to the expense of engaging a nganga
to loka e nkisi, he can, for a smaller sum, borrow for a
limited time a strong fetish, and can himself loka e nkisi.
When this ceremony is performed, it is not necessary to
mention a name, but only " the thief who stole my goods,"
or "my enemy who sent me bad luck," or "the one who

The Congo Medicine- Man. 451

bewitches me with this bad disease," as the case may be.
This is the whole science of the Congo medicine-man's
"black art."

Now all diseases, bad luck, misfortune, sorrow, and
death are caused by witchcraft, i.e. by some one lokanga
e nkisi against a person or a member of his family. For
example, if a piece of cloth is stolen, the owner pays a
nganga to loka e nkisi against the unknown thief If the
thief hears of it, and through fear returns the cloth, he
will pay compensation and ask the nganga to lembola e
nkisi, i.e. to soothe, appease the fetish, and thus remove
its curse from working against him. Supposing the thief
does not hear that the robbed man has called in the nganga
to loka e nkisi, or feels so secure either in his disbelief
in fetishes or in the protective power of his own charm
that he retains the cloth, then the spell will work either
on him or on one of his family. Hence, when a man is
suffering from a disease, no one knows whether that
disease is the result of a curse invoked on his own evil
doings or on a member of his family who has injured
some one so badly that they have paid a nganga to
loka e nkisi. A robbed man will call upon the ngang'
a nkosi (p. 462 infra) to curse the unknown thief with some
severe lung trouble, and for this he is paid a fee by his
client ; by and by a man in the neighbourhood is troubled
with a chest complaint, and, all other remedies failing,
he asks and pays the ngang' a nkosi to use his good
offices with his nkosi fetish to lembola it, to appease it
so that the curse may be removed, and he may be cured.
It is evident that either the man or one of his family
is the thief, or why does the man suffer from such a dis-
ease } The same nganga practises his black magic to
loka his fetish to curse a man with a disease, and uses
his white magic to lembola his fetish to remove the curse,
i.e. cure a man of a disease. He draws pay from both
parties. Hence loka e nkisi is to invoke malignant spells

452 The Congo Medicine- Man.

against an enemy, and lembola e nkisi is to invoke bene-
ficent power on behalf of a friend by removing the curse
by various rites and ceremonies. The same fetish is used
for both purposes.

Some of the ngangas in the following list are common
to the whole of the Lower Congo, others are known only
in certain localities, and others are known by one name
in one district and another name in another district. It
will be observed that some are more beneficent than
malignant in their operations, but it may be stated as
an axiom that, the more malignant a uganga can be for
evil, the more beneficent he can also be in removing
curses and curing diseases. The powerful fetishes that
give malignant diseases are also supposed to be able to
cure them when properly appeased by the ngangas cere-
monies.

1, Ngang a wuka, — {wuka, to cure or heal), — is a general
practitioner who deals in simples and charms for curing
diseases.*^

2. Ngang' a nioko, — {moko, arms). Whatever this may
have meant originally, it has no intelligible meaning now.
The moko is sometimes a bundle of charms, and sometimes
a small box of charms, and the moko doctor is more
frequently a woman than a man. A red bead is taken to
her from the patient, and she puts this bead under her
pillow and dreams about the complaint of the patient who
has sent it. In the morning she tells the messenger the
cause of the illness and the treatment to be followed.
This nganga only goes to the patient in a very bad case.
The fee is i fowl and 500 strings of blue pipe beads ;
should she go to the town of the patient, she receives
another fowl before she begins her ceremonies. The special
function of this nganga is to state whether the patient is
bewitched or not. Should the ngang' a W7ika fail to cure
his client, he lays his failure at the door of witchcraft, and

^Vol. XX., pp. 183-4.

The Congo Medicine- Man. 453

the ngang' a nioko is called in7 Should she say there is
no special witchcraft in the matter, another ngang' a
W7ika is called ; should she say, however, that witchcraft is
at work, some one goes through the village night after night
calling on the witch to desist from his evil practices or he
will be surely punished. (The ngang' a moko is also often
required to discover a thief) Should the patient still not
regain his health, another nganga is called, viz.: —

3. Ngang'' a bitodi. This nganga calls on the spirits, and,
having the trick of throwing his voice in different directions,
answers himself in assumed tones, and will keep up a
conversation with the evil spirits, exhorting them to leave
the sick man alone. Sometimes he will chase the said
spirits out of the town, and, getting them near the bush,
will fire his gun repeatedly at them to drive them away.
(Cf No. 9 below.) The following is another method of
this nganga : — In 1909 a man named Kiala of Wombe was
ill with a cough and bad chest, and on the complaint
growing worse the ngang' a bitodi was called to discover
what retarded the patient's recovery. On arrival in the
town the nganga took his fetish and locked himself in a
house. He told the people that they would see the house
shake as they heard the voices of the spirits {nkwiyd)
talking to him. The fetish bitodi spoke and the spirits
answered, and the voices of young men, old men, young
women, and old women were heard in conversation. After
a long consultation between the bitodi and the spirits, the
nganga came out and said, — " When the brother of the sick
man married, he did not give any palm wine to his wife's
family, and consequently this sickness has come as a
punishment for breaking a country custom." The nkwiya
also said through the nganga, — " One or two of the three
sisters of the sick man had an evil spirit (ndoki), and they
all three must bless the patient so as to remove the evil
influence." The three sisters one by one took their sick

^Vol. XX., p. 185.

454 '^^^ Congo Medicine- Man.

brother's right hand, and, having pretended to spit on it^
said, — " Ovw^ e nsambu yo inalawn " (May you have bless-
ings and good fortune). This particular blessing is called
taulwila, from taula, to spit. The nganga in this case, to
prove his power, heated a matchet red hot three times and
licked it each time. He received as a fee for his services
an amount equal to 24s,

The next nganga in importance is the one called in on
the death of a person, and is named —

4. Ngang' a 7igombo, — {ngombo, guessing). The special
work of this nganga is to guess at or point out the witch
{ndoki) who has caused the death of the deceased.^ This
nganga is sometimes, but rarely, engaged to discover the
witch who is troubling a sick man, especially if the said
sick man is influential and wealthy, — a chief of importance.
Usually, however, he is not sent for until the person is
dead. This nganga must not belong to the same family or
clan as the deceased.

5. Ngang a nzaji. Thunder is supposed to be made by
the nzaji fetish, which also has the lightning under its con-
trol, and both lightning and a thunderbolt are called inbw a
nzaji (the dog of nzaji), Nzaji is represented by a wooden
image, and is believed to possess tremendous power.
When a person has been robbed and cannot discover the
thief, he sends for ngang' a nzaji, who brings his wooden
image, and asks the suspected persons if they have stolen
the article. If they all deny the theft, the nganga goes
outside the house, taps with his knife several times on
the stomach of the image, and raises and lowers it three
times. Nzaji is thus incited to strike the thief with
lightning.^ The man who has a skin disease called tiya
twa nzambi (fire of God), in which the skin puckers up and
blisters as though burnt, is thought to be under the ban of
nzaji, and when he dies he is buried at or near a cross
road. The fear of nzaji is so great that a thief will return

8 Vol. XX., p. 186-7. *Vol. XX., p. 475.

The Congo Medicine- Man. 455

the stolen article, secretly if possible, or openly rather than
risk a terrible punishment. The nzaji curse is nullified in
the following way : — The person or family under the ban tells
the ngang' a nzaji to bring his image, and he pours some
palm wine into the hole in the stomach of his image, stirs
the wine well, and gives it to the person or persons to
drink. This is called nua mbozo (to drink the mixture),
and the mixture renders the participants immune from the
above disease, and from death by lightning. If several
members of a family die by nzaji, the family goes through
the ceremony of marrying the nzaji fetish into their family,
or one of the members of the family becomes a ngang a
nzaji, and this is called timtuka nzaji (to come under the
benign influence of nzaji). It is believed that, if nzaji
belongs to the family, it will have pity on it. It must be
remembered that, when the nzaji curse is put on a thief,
the thief's family is included in the curse ; and, if the family
has a strong suspicion that one of its members is the thief,
they try to protect themselves in the above manner, and
undoubtedly the thief often protects himself by taking
advantage of the antidote.

6. Ngang' a mbainbi. This nganga by his fetish image
gives syphilitic sores and deep-seated ulcers. A man
living in a town near San Salvador had some syphilitic
sores called nibadi which the ngangas could not heal,
although many were engaged for that purpose. At last
they said the sores were caused by the vibainbi fetish, and
to cure the man it was necessary to make the mbanibi
fetish a member of the sick man's family, when it would
take pity on him. The ngang' a mbanibi was sent for,
and on arriving he put his drum in the centre of the
crowd that had collected in the middle of the town. A
boy and girl were selected to represent the clan. The
girl was put on the ground with her back supported by
the drum, and the nganga beat away on his drum until
the girl swayed to and fro with the rhythm of the beating ;

456 The Congo Medicine -Man.

then, of a sudden, she jumped up and ran to a house
opposite, climbed over it, and, as she went, pulled out, in
her frenzy, handfuls of grass. Her actions showed that
she was under the spell of the fetish, which had taken
possession of her. The same operation was repeated on
the boy, but, being too young to know what was expected
of him, he sat stolidly still, and at last was replaced by an
older boy, who very quickly re-enacted the girl's perform-
ances. The nibambi fetish was then regarded as a member
of the clan, and was expected to withdraw his displeasure
from his " relative." The patient, however, was never
cured of his disease, and died a short time after the above
ceremony.

7, Ngang' a vipiingu, — (jnpjingii, mighty, all-powerful).
This nganga owns a luck-giving bag of charms.^*' This
ngajiga is supposed to have the power of making his
clients favoured by women, slaves, and trade, and also
by his family and friends. Those who by us are regarded
as being the special favourites of fortune are regarded on
the Lower Congo as being in possession of the nipimgu
charm, or sole image. The price of this charm is one
slave, and, as only the rich can give that price, the idea
is consequently fostered that such a fetish really gives
good luck to its happy owner. The nganga can not only
impart good luck to his clients, but, if paid, also remove
good luck from any one and overwhelm them with mis-
fortune. He has only to tap the sole image and hold it
up and down three times and hang it outside his house,
and away its spirit will fly to ruin the person against
whom it has been incited.

8. Ngang' a zimibi. Should a town desire to have good
luck in health, in trading, in breeding animals, and in its
rivalry with other towns in hunting, farming, etc., the
inhabitants contribute towards feeing a ngatig' a zimibi

^°Vol. XX., pp. 43-4. The bundle of mpiingu may also contain some
albino's hair.

The Congo Medicine- Man. 457

to make for them a tikimf a evata (town charm). The
nganga arrives in due time with his bag of charms. A
plain post of le^nbanzaii wood is procured, and a hole is
cut in the top. Into this hole some of the strong ziinibi
charm is put, and a piece of palm gossamer is tied over
the top. A hole is then dug in the ground just outside
the town by the side of the road along which the women
pass when fetching water from the stream. A goat is
killed, and the head is put in the hole, and the fetish
stick placed on it. (This is supposed to keep the white
ants away from the stick.) The blood is poured over the
hole in the stick, bathing thus the charms in blood. The
town charm is now complete and ready to work, but there
is one prohibition that must be scrupulously observed, —
nothing tied in a bundle may enter the town, or the charm
will become non-effective. Women returning with fire-
wood must untie the bundle before reaching the "town
charm " ; men with bundles of grass for thatching must
untie them ; carriers with loads must loosen all the cords,
or make a wide detour ; and people must remove their
girdles and belts. No sacrifice is offered regularly to this
charm, but, should something very bad happen to the
town or people, they refresh, or renew the energies of, the
charm by pouring some more blood over it. Sometimes
the fetish post is placed in the centre of the town.

Sometimes a man will invest in a zumbi charm for his
own exclusive use. The fee is so extravagantly large that
only rich men can pay it, and hence the idea of its power
to bring riches to its owner is fostered.

This zumbi charm is at times put into a fowl, a goat,
or a pig, and such a fowl or animal is never sold or killed,
and it is never stolen, as no one would dare to steal the
fetish belonging to another. Male animals only are in-
vested with the zumbi power, and, when the animal grows
old, the power is transferred to another. There used to
be found in the towns what were called nsusti a zumbi

45^ The Congo Medicine- Man,

{sumbi fowls). The possessor of a zumbi charm selected
a fine healthy cock, and gave it a small portion of the
zumbi charm to swallow. That fowl then became his
fetish, and he treated the fowl like a fetish. No one was
allowed to beat or offend it, and it was respected like a
chief. The zumbi fowl told its owner of coming events,
such as danger to the town or to himself, and by its crow
it also foretold the future, and in that way brought luck
to its owner, as only he understood the information given
by its crow and could take advantage of it. When the
fowl became old, the zumbi charm was given to another,
and the first one was killed, but eaten only by its owner.
Drums were used in driving the zumbi power into a
person, but the fowl simply swallowed a piece of the
charm.

The zumbi is a bundle of charms, or an image that has
had some of the charms put into it, or a fowl, or an
animal as indicated above. The power of the zumbi is
derived from the great mpungu charm. Nsusu (fowl) a
zumbi, nsusu a sole, and nsusii a mpungit are all the same
in their operations, getting their power, however, origin-
ally from the last, — mpungu.

9. Ngang a Jikwiya. This nganga pretends to control,
punish, and even destroy the nkwiya, evil spirits that
cause all diseases and death, for the nkwiya is the evil
spirit by which the 7idoki (witch) is possessed. If the
ngang a bitodi (No. 3) is unsuccessful in persuading the
spirits to let the sick man alone, the ngang" a nkwiya
is called, and, when he has ascertained what spirit it is
that is troubling the man or family, he tries to drive
it away by cursing, threatening, and firing his guns at
it, and, as a last resort, he digs up the body of the person
whose evil spirit is accused of being the cause of the
illness or epidemic and burns it. By burning the body
it is believed that the spirit is effectually destroyed, but
this is done only when the evil spirit of the person is

The Congo Medicine-Man. 459

persistent in its attacks on the health and comfort of
the individual or family.^^

10. Ngang' a munkanda, {i.e. trap). This nganga works
with a bundle of charms and some small traps. The
bundle contains powdered chalk, palm nut, and small
garden eggs, and the bag is called nkutu a maswa ; on
the outside are six traps. The leaves etc. are nlakaji,
lumbuzii, fuunjila-njila, mundondo, dintata, and tendi kia
ndungn. If a person spits blood, or has a bad chest
complaint, the nganga takes makaiya (leaves) 7na himbuzu,
some dintata, and some of the chalk powder, crushes them
together, and adds a little palm wine, and gives the mess
to his patient to drink. Then the nganga puts several
of the nkanda (traps) about the doors of the sick one's
house or room, having first put a little fowl's blood or
some sweet herbs in them to attract insects, spiders, cock-
roaches, etc. In the morning he looks to see if anything
has entered them, and, if he finds a cockroach is right at
the end of the trap, he knows the witch belongs to a
distant branch of the family, and without more ado he
crushes the cockroach, believing that the sickness will now
pass from his patient to the ndoki represented by the
cockroach. His patient will now get better. If, however,
the cockroach is only half-way up the trap, he knows the
ndoki is of very near kinship to the patient, and, as he
does not want to pass the sickness on to a near relative,
he warns the cockroach, and lets it go. Should a cock-
roach be found in the trap the next morning, he believes
it is the same one (or, if it is a spider, that it has only
changed its form) ; he will either warn it and threaten it
more strongly and let it go, or he will keep it shut up
a few days without food, and will watch to see if a near
relative of the patient becomes thin, and, if no one becomes
thin, he will vehemently threaten the ndoki in the insect
and let it go. Should he find an insect in the trap on
"Vol. XX., p. 60.

460 The Congo Medicine- Ma7i.

the third morning, he kills it at once, as it is evident that
the ndoki is very persistent and should be punished. It
does not matter if the insect is found in a different trap
each time. When he squeezes the insect in the trap
some one else gets the illness of the patient, and, as this
is the only way to catch this particular complaint, it is
evident that the first patient got it by trying to bewitch
some one else. This is supposed to be the only way in
which this lung trouble is imparted and cured. Some
women when confined send for this 7iganga to keep all
7idoki from entering their babies. It is interesting to
note that these ndoki can travel about disguised as
insects, and the folk they represent suffer in proportion to
their own suffering. In this nganga we have the black
and white art operating at one and the same time, in
curing and in giving a complaint.

II. Ngang a masaku. A person suffering from dropsy
in the stomach sends for this nganga, who on arrival calls
together the relatives of his patient, and to some of them
he gives light branches, to others rattles, and to one of
them the fetish image masaku. The nganga puts the
drum by the side of the sick man, and, while the nganga
is playing it, the relative who has the fetish image beats it
and calls on it to use its power to cure the patient, and
punish those who are causing the disease ; those with the
rattles shake them vigorously, and those with the branches
beat the body of the sick man with them. After keeping
up this performance for some time, the nganga leads them
outside the town, and the branches are all heaped together
and left. The nganga then procures some sweet-smelling
herbs, and boils them in a large saucepan, which is put
under the patient ; a large blanket is put over the man
and the saucepan, and thus he takes a vapour bath and
perspires most freely. This is repeated many times.
Here again in the same ceremony are exercised both the
black art and the white art.

The Congo Medicine-Man. 461

12. Ngang' a nkamba. This is a female nganga who
exercises her functions in cases of pregnancy to ensure a
good and easy delivery and a healthy child. ^^

13. Ngang' a nkisi, — inkisi, fetish, charm, amulet). When
a child is born under unusual circumstances, i.e. by presen-
tation of the legs, or the mother has dreamed of the
ximbi (water spirits), a ceremony already described is
observed.^^

14. Ngaiig a mbansangola has a fetish which is the most
powerful and most feared of all the fetishes in the cata-
logue. It is a wooden image, and is retained in the
possession of its nganga. A private person can buy a sole
fetish, or any one of the others, but no private individual
may own a mbanzangola fetish. If a person desires to
cause pain, disease, or death to another, he goes to a
iiganga of this fetish, and, having paid a fee, drives in a
nail or a knife where he wants his enemy to feel the pain,
A knife stabbed in a vital part means a painful death to
the man's enemy. A nail in the shoulder, elbow, or knee
would mean excruciating agony in one of those joints, and
indicates that the man does not want to kill his enemy, but
only wishes him to have rheumatism, abscesses, or some
other minor ailment. The mbanzafigola images are often
found stuck over with nails, knives, and other sharp instru-
ments. This is probably the only fetish image in connection
with which there is no white art practised. It is neither a
preventive fetish nor a curative one, but is always used to
inflict pain.

1 5- Ngang' a lembe, — {lemba, to tame, soothe, make gentle).
This nganga is called upon to ratify unconditional peace
between towns or chiefs that have been making war on
each other.^'* If a man has killed another by accident, he
has to pay a small sum of money to deceased's family.
The homicide is then taken to this ngatiga, who procures

^^Vol. xix., p. 419, '•■'Vol. XX., pp. 477-S.

i^Vol. XX., p. 37.

462 The Congo Medicine-Man.

a saucepan of palm wine and presses into it the juice of
nsangalavwa stems and elemba-lemba leaves. He then dips
his hands into the mixture, and puts the palms of his wet
hands to the forehead and back of the homicide's head,
then to the temples, and then over all the joints of the
body. This makes him olembamene (gentle, docile, careful).
Should a hunter kill his dog, he must call this nganga
and go through this ceremony, or next time he will kill
a man. No one would hunt with him unless he observed
this rite. In the same way the ngang^ a lembe operates
upon the insane to render them docile, and to cure them
of their madness.

16. Ngang' a siingii, — {sungu, violent death, — the war
fetish). On the proclamation of war between the towns, a
strong charm is made by this nganga}^

17. Ngarig' elejuba, — {lemba, to remove all evil spells), —
provides means used to accomplish much the same object
as No. 16.^^ No. 16 provides a charm to cause a violent
death to the enemy, and No. 17 a protective charm from
violent death by the enemy.

18. Ngang' a nkosi, — {nkosi, lion). This nganga' s fetish
has the power of giving and curing chest complaints such
as pneumonia, pleurisy, etc., and a person suffering from
a disease of this kind goes to or sends for the ngang' a
nkosi, who cuts a long, thin, exposed rootlet of a tree, and
binds it tightly round the patient's chest. The ?iganga
then searches for a bunch of palm nuts on a palm-tree
that has never been cut before for palm nuts, and, having
found the first fruits of the palm-tree, he takes some of the
nuts and tears the oily fibre off with his teeth, — (a knife
must not be used), — meanwhile walking round the palm-
tree. Two of the nuts freed of their oily fibre are hung from
the rootlet round the man's chest, — one near each breast, —
and then the oil from the fibre is pressed out and mixed
with palm wine and rubbed well into the patient's chest.

i^VoI. XX., p. 35. i^Vol. XX., p. 36.

The Congo Medicine-Man. 463

19. Ngang' a lufivalakasi, (probably lufwa lua {n)kazi,
from lufwa{fwa) death, lua of, Jikazi wife and husband).^^
The ceremony performed on a widower who has lost his
first wife is as follows : — The bereaved husband sends for
this nganga, who gives him a raw egg to swallow. The
widower then enters his house, and for six days comes out
at night only. He may only sleep on a palm basket, i.e. a
basket made by plaiting two palm fronds together. At
dawn on the seventh day the male relatives of the deceased
woman arrive to escort him to a running stream, carrying
his basket bed. On arrival at the stream one of the
relatives takes the bed and throws it into the water, scrapes
his tongue, shaves him, pares his nails, makes three small
cuts on his arm, and finally immerses him three times in
the river to wash away the death. The widower then
returns to the town, and a cock and hen are killed and
cooked, and are eaten by the relatives of the deceased, —
the males eating the cock, and the females the hen. The
greatest care must be taken not to break a single bone of
either fowl. Palm wine is then drunk, and the bereaved
is rubbed with oil and camwood powder. At sundown the
bones of the fowls are collected and tied in a palm leaflet,
and buried at the base of a young palm-tree. From those
who are present the nganga selects the men and women
who have never been bereaved of husband or wife, and
these have to tread in the earth over the buried bones.
Those who thus tread in the bones have a tabu put upon
them that they are not to eat palm nuts or anything made
from them until a child is born to each of them. To
disregard this prohibition is to court a like bereavement.
A pumpkin seed is added to the charm worn by the
widower, and three fibre cloths dyed black are put about
his waist, and thus all the evil spells are broken. The man
need not wait a year or two as a widow does, but can
marry as soon as the wife is buried and the above rites

^^ Vol. xix., p[). 431-2.

464 The Congo Medicine- Man.

performed. He is obliged to observe them, as otherwise no
woman would dare to marry him. When the man returns
to the town, his deceased wife's sister steps over his legs.
The nganga receives as his fee a demijohn of palm wine
and from 50 to 100 strings of blue pipe beads.

20. Ngang' a nkisi a Kiniambe, {i.e. divine fetish).^^

21. Ngang' a bail, — {ban, divination by ordeal or testing).^^

22. Ngang'' a inanimba, {i.e. sleeping sickness). The
patient suffering from this complaint who goes to a nganga
is treated in the following manner : — The nganga gives
him a purge, and then something hot to drink with pepper
mixed in it. He occasionally drops pepper juice in the
patient's eyes to keep him awake, and lets blood every
four days. He also scarifies the back and legs, and rubs
in a mixture of lime juice and gunpowder, and stands
the patient for a short time in the sun. Very often a
low state of health exhibits some of the symptoms of
sleeping sickness, and such cases are helped by any course
of medicine in which they have faith ; these so-called
cures foster the belief of the people in the power of the
nganga to relieve real cases of sleeping sickness.

23. Ngang' a nibuji, {i.e. madness).^*'

24. Ngang' a manga. A married couple, who have by
death lost several children, will send for this nganga.
When he arrives, the woman holds a " hand " of plantain
on her head with her right hand. Her left hand
being tied with a rope, she is led by a man who cries
out, — " I have a person for sale." The nganga says,
— " Bring the woman here, and I will buy her that she
may bear children." The seller demands 3000 strings of
beads, and the nganga pays 3 single beads and takes the
woman, whereupon he throws away the plantain, saying, — •
" Remove these plantains, for they are the reason why she
does not bear healthy children, because she is carrying
them on her head." He cuts the rope, and a fetish feast

^8 Vol. XX., p. 57. i^Vol. XX., pp. 187-8. -oVol. XX., p. 40.

The Congo Medicine- Man. 465

is made called elainbti. The nganga puts a tabu on her,
and the ceremony is finished. The ngang' a manga also
does around Wathen what the ngang' a moko practises
around San Salvador.

25. Ngang' a ezaii, — {zaula, to scoop away). This
nganga destroys the power of the evil eye.^^ The pos-
sessor of the charm can call away the soul of his enemy,
and the soulless one will soon die.

26. Ngang' a kimbaji-mbaji^ {i.e. to-morrow). Any one
who desires to do harm to a person under the protection
of this charm always puts off committing the evil until
to-morrow, and thus the person is never hurt, as to-morrow
never comes. This nganga is employed to use his charm
especially to counteract the evil designs of ezan. The
charm itself is composed of various herbs rammed into
a univalve shell.--

27. Ngang' a nibtimba, {i.e. secret, mystery).^^

28. Ngang' a mpongo. This nganga owns a fetish by
which he prepares in saucepans protective charms which
work by making an enemy forget his evil intentions. If
a person wants to rob another under his very eyes, he
uses a charm prepared by this nganga^ and under its
guard he goes to the person's house, and either he or an
accomplice engages him in an interesting conversation
so that he forgets all else, and while in that state of
forgetfulness is robbed.

29. Ngang' a ngani?^

30. Ngang' a mbanibiuii, — {ba})ibula, to deflect, to transfer
in a mysterious way). The owner of this fetish is sup-
posed to have the power of causing farm produce to leave
an enemy's farm and go to that belonging to the owner of
this charm, or client of this nganga. Fruit is also mysteri-
ously stripped from the enemy's tree, and made to hang
from the trees of others. Trade goods can also be spirited

^^Vol. XX., p. 473. ^'^Vol. XX., p. 473.

^■*Vol. XX., pp. 40-1. "■*Vol. xix., p. 436.

2 H

466 The Congo Medicine-Man.

from one house to another. Any one possessing this
fetish on him is not allowed to stay or sleep in a
strange town, as the people fear its power. This fetish
and the ezau are much the same, and can be counteracted
by using the same charm.

31. Ngang' a iikonzo, {i.e. nervous energy). Any person
lacking energy through ill-health, etc., sends for this
ngajtga, who rubs two pieces of iron down the legs and
arms three times ; he then takes some green grass, and
rubs it into shreds, and puts some fire in the middle
and some sweet herbs on the live ember. He blows on it
until there is a good smoke, and then passes the smoking
herbs three times round the legs of the patient as he (or
she) stands astride. When a woman is in birth pangs and
has not strength to deliver her baby, they seat her on two
stones and perform the above ceremony. This fetish
comes from the forge, and consequently no one will steal
from a forge, or he would lose his nervous energy.

32. Ngan^ a malunga, — {lunga, a smithy, forge). The
same as No. 31.

33. Ngang' a maytihi, — {yukida, to transfer, deflect), —
has much the same power as Nos. 25 and 30.

34. Ngang^ a ebakii is at the head of the tikimba secret
society, i.e. there is a nganga of this cult in every vela
(lodge) of the society. He superintends the twirling of
every novice until the latter becomes giddy and uncon-
scious, and in that condition is carried into the lodge. Ebaku
means an old man, an elder, and in every nkiniba lodge there
was an ebaku who looked after the initiated and taught
them the arts of the guild and also the secret language.

35. Ngang' a 7ikau was the name given to the ngangas
who were at the head of the ndembo, or nkita, or nsi a fwa
secret society. To what I have already written on the
7idcinbo cult,-^ I should like to add the following note : —
Nkita is a fetish that is responsible for all crooked and

-5 Vol. XX., pp. 189-98.

The Conoro Medicine- Man. 467

"&,

deformed things. Any abnormal event, such as a child
being born by presenting its feet first, is put to the credit
of 7ikita. Nkita is the power in ndembo that can remove
deformities, if the deformed person will enter the ndembo
lodge, and, as infecundity is regarded as abnormal, a
sterile person, — man or woman, — has only to enter ndembo
to have the disgrace removed. This is done by giving the
initiated a new body.

36. Ngang' a ngoP a tikasa is the one who administers
the ordeal {nkasa) to a witch.^^

37. Ngang" a nko7igo, {i.e. hunting skill).^^

38. Ngang' a mwilu. The functions of this fetish man
are the same as those of nzaji (No. 5).

39. Ngang' a maninga owns the fetish that causes a man
to become extremely thin and weak, and also cures the
complaint.

40. Ngang" a ngiuidu is the one who attempts to cure
hernia with fomentations of hot leaves, purgatives, and
palm wine mixed with certain juices.

41. Ngang' a ngobila possesses an image that is used for
discovering thieves, and recovering stolen property. This
fetish gives thieves any and every kind of bad lung trouble,
from which they cannot be cured until they have made
restitution for the robbery.

42. Ngang' a ebunze. When this nganga is called to
attend a person with fits, apoplexy, or the ague shivers of
fever, he makes a leaf funnel and squeezes the juices of
certain leaves into it, and drops the mixture into the eyes
of the patient.

43. Ngang' a eseka, (probably from seka, to sharpen).

44. Ngang' a lubiviku.

45. Ngang' a elongo.

46. Ngang' a kiimbi.

These four ngangas perform the rites of circumcision.'^^

'^^Vol. xix., p. 417. ^'^Vol. xix., pp. 434-5.

-^Vol. XX., pp. 304-7.

468 The Congo Medicine-Man.

47. Ngang' a lukandti is the one who has the rain-
stopping charm. The lukandti is a small bundle of
" medicines," and when the 7iganga wants to stop the rain
he puts this bundle on the ground and surrounds it with
several small heaps of gunpowder. He shakes his rattle,
explodes the powder, and blows his whistle three times,
and then the rain will neither be so frequent nor so
abundant. (The rainbow is one of the signs of the
effective power of this nganga. When the people see it
they believe the charm has worked, and the rain will not
again fall for a time.) If this, however, does not succeed,
salt is put on the fire ; but this last charm may stop the
rains entirely, so it is used with great care and only when
other means fail. The nganga, on the day that he is going
to invoke the lukandii, must neither drink water nor wash
himself. To make the rain come after a long drought, the
nganga takes some lidemba-lemba leaves, and puts them
into a stream and dives under the water, and when he
returns to the surface the rain will- soon fall.

48. Ngang' a ekunifu owns an image that squats on its
haunches with its arms upraised, holding something on its
head. My informant's mother was a nganga of this kind,
but, as she died while he was a young lad, all he remembers
of the fetish is its shape, and that it was regarded as
powerful, but its special functions he has forgotten.

49. Ngang a inaladi. When a person recovers from
certain serious sicknesses, such as sleeping sickness, dropsy,
etc., this nga7iga brings his fetish, which originally came
from the Baladi country (in French Congo), and removes
the tabu of " not crossing a road," which was imposed on
the patient while ill, in the following manner : — He takes his
patient to a cross road, draws a chalk mark on the road,
digs a trench, puts water into it, and then he takes the
patient, by interlocking the little fingers of the right hands,
and helps him over the water three times. The tabu is
removed, and the sickness is not able to follow the

The Congo Medicine-Man. 469

man. Should a woman give birth to weakly children
that soon die, this nganga is called, and on arrival he digs
a trench and puts water in it. He helps the woman over
it by the interlocking of the little fingers of the right
hands, and the sickness from which she was suffering,
and which caused the death of her children, will not
follow her across the running water.

It will be observed in the above list that there is a
nganga for every known disease, and one for every
possible emergency in native life. The native was afraid
to take a single important step in any direction from birth
to death without first invoking the aid of the witch-doctor
and his fetishes. When a native was not helped by one
nganga, he, as a rule, did not blame him, but thought the
diagnosis was wrong, and that the disease or misfortune
was not under the control of his particular fetish. His
faith in ngangas was not affected, but he simply changed
one medicine-man for another, hoping that the new nganga
would have a fetish to meet his case.

It is not to be thought for a moment that all these
ngangas sprang simultaneously into existence, or that they
are the product of only one tribe ; they are undoubtedly
the evolution of many generations, and a free appropriation
from neighbouring tribes of fetish ceremonies, etc., that
appealed to them through being made widely known by
some famous nganga of the time. The Congo native was
always ready to try a new fetish, hoping thereby to gain
some advantage to his fortune or his health.

The following is probably the history of the rise of
many of the nganga cults now in vogue : — A quick-witted,
observant man noticed that a certain herb, or a certain
mode of procedure, such as massage or inducing perspira-
tion by steaming, was beneficial to a patient suffering from
a certain disease. If he had given the herb in a simple
way without any hanky-panky, or did a little medical
rubbing without accompanying it with ceremonies, or had

470 The Congo Medicine-Man.

given a vapour bath without rites and the ostentatious
display of fetish power, the natives would not have
regarded him as a nganga, and he would have procured
very little business. In order to protect his discovery, and
to draw patients, he surrounded it with the hocus-pocus of
fetish rites and ceremonies, and thus started a new cult
that had its day. It is most probable that ngangas and
their fetishes have risen in power, have had wide fame
and much popular support, have then fallen into disrepute,
and have been abandoned in favour of new ones, and, if
the truth were known, as many, if not more, nganga cults
have been forgotten as are now remembered.

In the early years of the Baptist Mission on the Congo,
the natives had little or no faith in our medicines, because
we administered them in a simple and straightforward
way. If we had had recourse to trickery we might have
made large sums for our Mission, but, although our
medical knowledge has been very limited, yet our reme-
dies have so gained in favour that at one station alone,
(Wathen), a sum of from £2^ to £},0 is taken annually for
medicines, and natives come long distances to be treated
in our hospital.

The ngangas have largely maintained the continuity of
native customs, for, when baffled in curing a person, they
have frequently put their failure at the door of a broken
or slighted country custom ; they are largely responsible
for crushing any inventive genius the people have shown
by putting public calamities, — such as an epidemic of sick-
ness,— to the account of any inventor who might be known
at the time ; and they have retarded all progress by
charging with witchcraft any one who was more skilful in
work, or more energetic and shrewd in trading, than his
neighbours. The fear of being accused of witchcraft has
been so great and continuous that it has hampered and
destroyed every attempt at advancement, and nullified
every progressive step, and there was little hope of the

The Congo Medicine- Man. 471

native attaining advancement in civilisation or any better-
ment of his conditions of life, until he lost faith in his
ngangas.

It will be observed that in the ceremonies of some
ngangas white magic is more evident than black, and
in others black magic is more prominent than white, and
that nearly every nganga practised both the black and the
white art by the invocation of the same fetish in a slightly
different way ; by dealing with his fetish in one way he
invoked it to curse a person with disease and misfortune,
and by following another mode of procedure he tried to
soothe and appease his fetish, so that in a good humour it
would give his client good health and good luck.

John H. Weeks.

COLLECTANEA.

The Fairy Child and the Tailor: an Isle of Man
Folk-Tale.

[The following story was told to me by Joe Moore, who lives in
the parish of Patrick, some mile from Close-ny-Lheiy. I wrote
the story down from notes made at the time, — the dialogue being
taken down, word for word, as it fell from his lips. He told me
that his father got the story from old Hom Bridson himself,
ninety years ago and more ; he never repeated the story while
any of the CoUoo family lived, but the last descendant died
many years ago, and the old farmhouse is in ruins. It was a
curious coincidence that, in the week following that in which
I had the story from Joe Moore, I received it also from Logan,
Utah, from Miss Quirk, who had it from an old Manxman who
had lived there for fifty years and had emigrated from Glen Meay.]

There was one time a woman named CoUoo in Close-ny-Lheiy,
near Glen Meay, and she had a child that had fallen sick in a
strange way. Nothing seemed wrong with him, yet crosser and
crosser he grew, nying-nyanging night and day. The woman was
in great distress. Charms had failed, and she didn't know
rightly what to do.

It seems that, about a fortnight after birth, the child, as fine a
child for his age as you would see in a day's walk, was left asleep
while the mother went to the well for water. Now Herself forgot
to put the tongs on the cradle, and, when she came back, the
child was crying pitiful, and no quatin' for him. And from that very
hour the flesh seemed to melt off his bones, till he became as ugly
and as wizened a child as you would see between the Point of

Collectanea. 473

Ayre and the Calf. He was that way, his whining howl filling the
house, for four years, lying in the cradle without a motion on him
to put his feet under him. Not a day's res' nor a night's sleep
was there at the woman these four years with him. She was fair
scourged with him, until there came a fine day in the spring that
Horn beg Bridson, the tailor, was in the house sewing. Horn is
dead now, but there's many alive as remember him. He was
wise tremenjus, for he was going from house to house sewing,
and gathering wisdom as he was going.

Well, before that day the tailor was seeing lots of wickedness
at the child. When the woman would be out feeding the pigs
and sarvin' the craythurs, he would be hoisting his head up out of
the cradle and making faces at the tailor, winking, and slicking,
and shaking his head, and saying "What a lad I am ! "

That day the woman wanted to go to the sliop in Glen Meay to
sell some eggs that she had, and says she to the tailor : — " Horn
man, keep your eye on the chile that the bogh [poor dear] won't
fall out of the cradle and hurt himself while I slip down to
the shop." When she was gone the tailor began to whistle aisy to
himself, as he stitched, the tune on a HI hymn.

" Drop that, Horn beg," said a lil harsh voice.

The tailor, scandalised, looked round to see if it was the child
that had spoken, and it was.

"Whush, whush, now, lie quate," says the tailor, rocking the
cradle with his foot, and as he rocked he whistled the hymn tune
louder.

" Drop that, Hom beg, I tell ye, an' give us something light
an' handy," says the lil fella back to him, middling sharp.

" Aw, anything at all to plaze thee," says the tailor, whistling a

jig-

" Hom," says my lad, "can thou dance anything to that?"

" I can," says the tailor, "can thou?"

" I can that," says my lad, " would thou like to see me dance? "

" I would," says the tailor.

"Take that oul' fiddle down then, Hom man," he said, "and
put ' Tune y wheeyl vooar ' [Tune of the big wheel] on it."

" Aw, I'll do that for thee, an' welcome," says the tailor.

The fiddle quits its hook on the wall, and the tailor tunes up.

474 Collectanea.

" Horn," says the lii fella, " before thou begin to play, clear the
kitchen for me, — cheers an' stools, everything away. Make a
place for me to step out to the music, man."

"Aw, I'll do that for thee, too," says the tailor.

He cleared the kitchen floor, and then he struck up "Tune
y wheeyl vooar."

In a crack the lil fella bounced from his cradle on to the floor
with a " Chu ! " and began flying round the kitchen. " Go it
Horn, — face your partner, — heel and toe does it. Well done,
Hom, — jog your elbow, man."

Horn plays faster and faster, till me lad was jumping as high
as the table.

With a " Chu ! " up goes his foot on top of the dresser, and
" Chu ! " then on top of the chimlee piece, and " Chu ! " bang
against the partition, then he was half flymg, half footing it round
the kitchen, turning and going round that quick that it put a reel
in Horn's head to be looking at him. Then he was whirling
everything round for a clear space, even Hom himself, who by
degrees gets up on the table in the corner and plays wilder and
wilder, as the whirling jig grew madder and madder.

"M' Yee !" says the tailor, throwing down the fiddle, "I mus'
run, thou're not the chile that was in the cradle. Are thou ? "

" Houl' man ! thou're right enough," says the lil fella. "Strike
up for me, make has'e, make has'e, man, — more power to your
elbow."

" Whush 1" said the tailor, "here's Herself coming."

The dancing ceased. The child gave a hop, skip, and jump
into the cradle.

"Get on with thee sewing, Hom; don't say a word," says the
lil fella, covering himself up in the clothes till nothing was left of
him to be seen except his eyes which keeked out like a ferret's.

When Herself came in the house, the tailor, all of a tremble,
was sitting cross-legged on the round table and his specs on his
nose and letting on that he was busy sewing; the child in the cradle
was shouting and sweeling [squealing] as usual. " What in all the
earthly worl' . . . ! But it's the quare stitching, altogether, there's
been goin' on here, an' me out. An' how thou can see thee needle
in that dark corner, Hom Bridson, let alone sew, it beats me," says

Collectanea. 475

she, siding the place. " Well, well, then, well, well, on the boghee
veg [poor little thing]. What is it at all, at all, that's doin' on the
millish [sweet]? Did he think Mammy had gone an' lef him
then, the chree [heart] ? Mammy is goin' to feed him, though."

The tailor had been thinking mighty with himself what he
ought to do, so he says, — " Look here, woman, give him nothing
at all, but go out and get a creelful of good turf."

She brought in the turf, and throws a big bart [bundle] of
fern on it. The tailor give a leap off the table down to the floor,
and it wasn't long till he had the fine fire.

"Thou'll have the house put on fire for me, Horn," says
Herself.

" No fear, but I'll fire some of them," says the tailor.

The child, with his two eyes going out of his head watching to
see what the tailor would do then, was slowly turning his whining
howl into a kind of call, — to his own sort to come and fetch him,
as like.

" I'll send thee home," says the tailor, drawing near the cradle,
and he stretches out his two hands to take the child and put him
on the big red turf fire. Before he was able to lay a hand on him,
the lil fella leaped out of the cradle and took for the door. "The
back of me han' an the sole of me fut to you !" says he, "if I
would only ha' had only another night I could have showed thee
a trick or two more than that yet."

Then the door flew open with a bang, as though some one had
thrown it open, and he took off with himself like a shot. A
huUaballoo of laughing and making fun was heard outside, and the
noise of many running little feet. Out on the door of the house
goes Herself, she saw no one, but she caught sight of a flock of
low-lying clouds shaped like gulls chasing each other away up
Glen Rushen, and then comes to her ears, as if afar off from the
clouds, sharp whistles and wicked little laughs as if making mock
of her. Then, as she was turning round and searching, she
suddenly sees her own sweet rosy smiling child with thumb in
mouth lying on the bink [stone bench] right before her. And
she took all the joy in the worl' of the child that he was home
again safe and sound.

Sophia Morrison.

Peel, Isle of Man.

476 Collectanea.

A Folklore Survey of County Clare (continued).

IX. Supernatural Animals.

There is a rich fauna of supernatural animals in the county,
even snakes being represented in it. There can be little doubt
that the highly imaginative early Irish personified the more
terrifying powers of nature, such as the sea, the storm, and the
thunder. The roaring, writhing waves in a sea creek or river
swirl may have suggested some great creature, (too great to be
natural), wallowing under the waters, and so given rise to the
endless p'eist names and legends, in which a distinction is never
drawn between the spectral and the natural.

Feists. — Ireland, although free from serpents at all times known
to science, was yet much dominated by them mentally. Probably
no lake of any importance in Clare was untenanted by a serpent,
a wonderful animal, or a city. A peist could, however, be chained
or slain by a hero or saint, and the majority of the pels ts were
believed to have been eliminated by such warriors in the same
way as the bear and, later, the wolf were cleared away by ordinary
mortals. jPeist only meant beast, and seems to mean no more in
many place-names not belonging to lakes or river pools.
Cappanapeasta near Inchicronan need not imply a monster, but
Poulnapeasta we may always venture to translate as "water
dragon's lair." There are many examples in tradition of the
" dweller in the waters," " the serpent-god of this hallowed
stream." In the Hunting of Sliabh Truim we find a peist with
"ears as large as the gate of a Cathair " (stone fort) and "tusks
as big as a tree." ^ The saga of Da Dergas Hostel brings into
one the Norse, Irish, and Hebrew beliefs of the peist, Midgard
Snake, and Leviathan by its tale of the " Leuidan, that surrounds
the globe and strikes with its tail to overturn the world." ^ The
Feis tighe chonain and Hunting of Sliabh Trui7n are full of
allusions, and contain a dialogue with a Grecian peist, and tell
how Finn slew spectres, arrachs, and aimids (women bugbears),
and " banished from the raths (earth forts) each peistr Even in
a nearly contemporary history of a hero of the time of Canute, a

1 Op. cit., p. 115. "^ Revue Celtiqtie, vol. xxi., p. 54.

Collectanea. 477

Clare prince Murchad, son of King Brian, and, like his father,
slain at the moment of victory in 1014, is described as "the
second powerful Hercules who destroyed and exterminated //zV/i-
and monsters."^ It is interesting to note how the deserted
forts, even in pre-Norman tinies,* were believed to be the haunt
of strange monsters, and to afford an equivalent to "big game
shooting " for the local warriors :

"He slew the spectre of Drom Cliabh,
And the spectre and serpent of Lough Ree.
Fionn banished from the raths
Each piast he went to meet.
A serpent in the refulgent Shannon
He slew by frequenting the "lake.""^

First in importance amongst the peists is the " Cata." St. Senan
(about A.D. 500) found that this monster dwelt in Iniscatha, now
Scattery, in the estuary of the Shannon, where Finn had killed a
like infester. The Cata devoured the saint's smith, Narach, but
Senan brought him forth again alive. The subsequent combat
promised great things, but ended tamely. The Cata advanced
" its eyes flashing flame, with fiery breath, spitting venom and
opening its horrible jaws," but Senan made the sign of the cross,
and the beast collapsed and was chained and thrown into
Doolough near Mount Callan (the black lake, " Nigricantis aquae
juxta montem Callain in Tuamonia ").^ In the oldest (metrical)
Life of Senan, the peist appears as the "immanis bellua" or
"bestia," while Iniscatha is rendered "Belluanam Insulam."
The legend is alluded to even in the late eighth-century Calendar
of Oengus under March 8th, " Senan of InisCathaig gibbetted
Naroch's foe." The story is remembered widely, and among all

•* Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill (ed. Dr. Todd, Rolls Series), p. 187.
This curious and bombastic panegyric proves statistically that the valour of
Murchad was xirsTrTt^' PS''"'^ of that of Hector of Troy, who was seven times
more valiant than the Tuatha De Danann god Lug-long-hand.

^ The Normans held similar beliefs. Giraldus Cambrensis gives an account
of spectral apparitions in a fort during the conquest of Leinster.

5 Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. vi. ; cf vol. ii., p. 58.

* Prose Life of St. Senanus, Colgan, Acta S. Hib., under March 8th,
Section xxxviii. See also Wh. Stokes, Lives of the Irish Saints from the
Book of Lis more.

478 Collectanea.

classes at Scattery and along both banks of the river, at Kilkee,
Kilmihil, and round Doolough and Miltown Malbay. In the
fifteenth-century details of the " Cathedral " of Scattery a large-
eyed dragon with crocodile jaws is conspicuous ; there was another
carving at Kilrush ; and a third, — the " pattern-stone " removed
from Scattery and until lately at Kilkee, — showed the Cata as
"the amphibious beast of this blessed Isle," a nondescript
creature with spiked back, scales, fish tail, nose curling up
spirally, and clawed forefeet.

St. MacCreehy, a generation later than Senan (about 580),
rivals the latter as a "dragon queller." He subdued the
" Bruckee," a demon badger {broc sidh), at Rath Blathmaic near
Inchiquin, which slew men and cattle and resisted the prayers
of six local saints.^ MacCreehy by his holiness soon over-
powered and chained it ; the aged saint then threw it

" Deep in that forgotten mere
Among the tumbled fragments of the hills "

below the hill of Scamhal (or Scool) where its den Poulnabruckee
(Poll na broic sidhe) is still shown. As already suggested (p. 181)
the Bruckee may have been a bear, and "a terrible bear, — he
is death to a herd of cattle" in Bricriiis Feast ^ sounds like an
allusion to a common occurrence. The Bruckee on " MacCreehy's
tomb " in Kilraacreehy church, on the shore of Liscannor Bay»
is exactly like the Cata carvings in Scattery, with long pointed
ears, large eyes, and huge jaws blunt-ended, but bristling with
pointed teeth. In the fifteenth century it had become a dragon
in local belief

Another Bruckee haunted Shandangan Lough near Corofin,
a little pool famous, when I first knew it, for remarkable changes
of colour. There are two funnel holes, eight to ten feet wide,
full of water, in the soft ground near the pool which are still

''See Plate XIV., p. 340, ante. O'Curry, Manners and Ctistoms of the
Ancient Irish, vol. iii., p. 322 ; The Jotirnal of the Royal Society of Anti-
quaries of Irelatid, vol. xxix., p. 249.

® P. 64 (ed. Irish Texts Society). However, if the animal was common in
the literary period, one might expect that the Life of King David would have
suggested an Irish counterpart to the monks. Fights with the wolf are
practically absent from Irish tales, and it seems safer to regard the identity
with the bear of the badger " as big as a cow " as a mere speculation.

Collectanea. 479

regarded with fear and suspicion. Ned Quin of Coad, a honest
truthful man who died about eight years ago, firmly believed that
he had seen the Bruckee in this lake. When he and a man
named Pilkington were passing by, they saw a brown hairy
monster swimming and plunging in the water, and it had eyes as
large as turnips.^ It was probably a " tussock " of peat and
coarse grass that had, as often happens, fallen off the crumbHng
shore. There is no tradition that this pest was confined by the
local sainted lady (Findclu) Inghean Baoith.

John Windele, amongst much speculation as to there being a
dragon temple {dracontiuni) at Scattery and others at Loop Head
in Clare and at Dun Farvagh in the Middle Isle of Aran, asserts,
on the authority of The Adventures of the Three Sons of Thorailbh,
a romance written in 1750, that several other formidable monsters
belong to this district.^*^ These were the Faracat,^^ Fearboc or
Fearbach, and three other dragons, the spawn of the " all-
devouring sow, on the rock of Cruine " reared by " the red demon
of Doolough." Comyn, in the same romance, derives the name
of lUaunmattle, an island off the neighbouring coast, from the
Matal, a formidable beast, (perhaps a demon boar), defeated by
the same heroes.^- How far those of Comyn's stories without
local attestation are genuine folklore is doubtful. Akin to these
monsters is the mighty serpent hunted and slain by the O'Briens'
army down the valley of the Daelach in Corcoraroe. They stoned
it with rocks which still form the great cairn of Carnconnachtach,
near Ennistymon, over its remains.^^ This cairn, being at Bally-
deely (Daelach's town par excellence), may have been the reputed
tomb of the Firbolg chief Daelach, son of Umor, and is
almost certainly the "Carn mic Tail" where the O'Conors of
Corcamodruad inaugurated their chiefs.

9 So Dr. G. U. MacNamara.

^"Windele, Topographical MS. (Royal Irish Academy), p. 3; Ordnance
Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., p. 350.

'^'^Ante, p. 183.

^^The Mata, a giant, many-legged, and carapaced monster, infested the
Boyne valley, and left a pyramid of its bones in the cemetery of Brugh. See
"Dindsenchas," Revue Celtique, vol. xv. (1894), pp. 292, 329.

^* Ordnance Survey Letters (Co, Clare), vol. i. , p. 309.

480 Collectanea.

These beliefs are obviously early, as in the "Agallamh" of The
Book of Lismore'^'^ is a lough /m/ which kills men and hounds, and
The Book 0/ Beetiagh tells of " Loc na pesti," where a hideous /m/
slew 900 youths as they bathed. The Seanchus M6r has a lake
monster, the Murdris, which expands and contracts like a smith's
bellows. The same idea takes shape in the reputed gigantic (if
not supernatural) eels and pikes in certain lakes. An enormous
pike haunts Gurteen Lough, an old property of the Stamers,
in Lower Bunratty. The peasants dare not bathe in its waters,
and believe they have seen in the dusk a huge misty form in the
lough and even crawling up its shores, whence it has frequently
carried off lambs, and even calves. ^^

Bulls. — In ruins and hollow trees sometimes a strong breeze
from some particular point will cause a deep intermittent bellow,
which might originate a belief in ghostly bulls. At Rosslara
(Fortanemore) Castle near Tulla we have heard the wind from
some undetermined point towards the north-west, when sufficiently
strong, raise a roar so mighty as to be audible far from the ruin.
I traced the noise to a small deep window nearly filled by a slope
of earth and stones. The Castle enjoys the fame of being
haunted, but I have heard no bull legend. At Rinroe (or Elmhill)
Castle near Clonlara, the bull was seen about 1890 by the then
owner of the farm on which the ivied tower stands. Having
missed several " trams " of hay, the farmer was lying in wait in
some bushes in the Castle field, and at last saw a huge black bull
come out of the ruin, and throw its tail round a "tram" of hay
and draw it into the castle.^*^ There is an old lane way at a
beautiful spot on the shore of Lough Derg opposite to the " Holy
Island " of Iniscaltra with its lofty round tower and clustered
churches with their noble setting of lake and mountains. In this
old road are two dreaded spots, one haunted by a ghostly black
bull with fiery eyes, and the other by a less awe-inspiring object
" a ghost like a turkey cock " ! Farther north is the scene of a
curious variant of the Bishop Hatto legend, with frogs instead of
rats and a brutal boy in place of a cruel prelate.^''

^^ Translated by S. H. O'Grady in Silva Gadelua, vol. ii., pp. 101-265.

^^ So the late Ralph Hugh Westropp and Mrs. Stamer,

^^ The late Hugh Massy Westropp heard this from the farmer.

" So Capt. Hibbert.

Collectanea. 481

Water Cattle. — I have not found a water-bull legend clearly
told in Clare, but cow's horns are seen over the waters of one lake
and "something roared" under the waters of another. ^^ In 1877
I heard of cattle coming out of some lake near Kilkishen, (perhaps
Cullaun, with its enchanted city or palace), but I could not
recover the story when searching twenty years later. " Loch na
h6 girre which is called loch Greine " is given ^^ as an old name
for the large lake of Lough Graney in the Aughty mountains on
the north border of Clare. This probably implies that it had a
legend like that of Lough bo Girr, near Cahir in County Tipperary,
whence an enormous long-horned cow used to issue.

PUcas and Horses. — Though the ptica has influenced very often
the place-names of Clare, its legends in the county are dry and
vague. One man near Clonlara had the misfortune to become its
sport. It took the form of a pony, and, finding the man searching
for treasure in a gravel-pit, in which he had dreamed that gold was
concealed, bore him away on a long rough ride and dropped him
at the spot from which it started, where he was found bruised and
insensible next morning. ^^ The pitca also appears as a hideous
goat. I was told by a servant, about 1870, of a demon "black
puck-goat with fiery eyes " appearing to a poor country woman on
a roadside bank in the Cratloe hills. ^i The tale was very blood-
curdling, but, doubtless to my relief then but regret now, I put it
out of mind, and now forget its details. The picca always puts its
hoof on the blackberries at Michaelmas, after which they become
unfit to eat. 22

Of spirit horses other than the pieca, I have heard of one at a
deep gravel quarry, near Trough in the same hills. The ghostly
presentment of a Limerick gentleman, a Mr. Furnell, appeared
one moonlight night on horseback. He rode at full gallop, with

^^ I think Lough Breeda, east from Tulla, and Clonlea Lake were intended.
I am to blame for not making a note at the time, but was only interested
in the legend. My notes only begin in 1878, though embodying earlier matter,
and are too often "car notes" from drivers and others and not properly
located. Where possible, I re-examined them from 1892 upwards.

^^In the " Agallamh," Silva Gadelica, vol. ii., p. 126.

*' So the late Sir Hugh Dillon Massy at Doonass.

^^So Mrs. O'Shea at Clorane, Limerick.

^ Cf. similar English belief as regards the devil.

2 I

482 Collectanea.

hounds in full cry, and the sound of horns, across the upper field,
leaped the fence, and disappeared into the quarry with a crash and
groan. Mr. Francis Drew of Drewsborough, who was driving
past with a friend, recognised and called to the ghostly rider;
when he saw the supposed accident, he ran into the quarry, but
could find nothing. Next day he heard of the death of the
hunter, but far away from the quarry.^^

Supernatural, but evidently material, were the horses which
came out of the caves of Kilcorney in the heart of the Burrenj^*
for they left descendants, noted for their high spirits and fierceness,
by earthly mares in the valley. A similar tale of sea-horses
coming out of Galway Bay was told some thirty-five years since,
and we owned a reputed scion of their race, a cob from Conne-
mara on the opposite side of the Bay.

Dogs. — One spectral dog haunts the road between Carrigaholt
and Ross in the long peninsula of the Irrus, and is believed to be
the spirit of a comparatively recent local celebrity, " Robin of
Ross," of whom many tales are told. He was a member of
the Keane family, and one version makes his ghost a different
dog from the one near Carrigaholt.--^ Another dog accompanies
a human ghost on its nightly patrol between the railway bridge and
the cemetery at the venerable church and shattered round tower
of Dromcliff. The precincts of Ennistymon House were haunted
by the spectre of a large black hound, quite harmless.^'^ Once
very famous, but now nearly forgotten, was the ghostly " Black
Dog of Cratloe." Many believed that they had seen the appari-
tion, which used often to accompany the D'Esterre's coach and
the mail car. My mother and my brother Ralph Hugh Westropp,
who travelled through the great floods of the Shannon on
February ist, 1869, told a very circumstantial tale of the dog."^

-3 So the late Capt. Ralph Westropp, from Mr. Drew.

"^ Ordnance Survey Letters, (Co. Clare), vol. i. , p. 236 ; cf. Gough,
Camden, vol. iv., p. 366.

25 So the MacDonnells and a driver named Russell. " Robin" lived in the
early eighteenth century.

2^ So Mrs. Twigge.

"^ My mother in her diary notes, — " Drove home through several floods, the
worst at Bunratty. . . . Saw the phantom dog at Cratloe."

Collectanea. 483

I was present at its first telling, before they heard from our
old servant, Mrs. Julia MacHugh, of the local belief. The tale,
I have heard, was fully confirmed by their driver and a guide,
a workman of the D'Esterres, who piloted them along a flooded
and unfenced reach of the road a little to the east of Bunratty. A
large, dark, shadowy dog seemed to run upon the moonlit water,
first to one side and then to the other of the carriage, and
was more than once lashed at by the driver. It disappeared near
where the road ascends from the low marshy " corcasses " along
the foot of the Cratloe hills. Julia MacHugh, a woman of wide
local knowledge, at once " explained " the apparition and said
that the omen was good if the dog ran alongside, but bad if he
leaped at the carriage or horses. On one occasion he leaped at the
mail car, and soon afterwards its driver was thrown off and killed
on the spot. I recently learnt that a ghostly black dog haunts by
night the lonely road above the old ruined house of Glenomera.

Seals. — The belief that seals are disguised human beings
prevailed, I am told, in Clare forty years ago, at least along
the Kilkee coast. ^^ I never heard it myself from fisherfolk. A
little further north, from Connemara up to Mayo, the Kinealys are
reputed to be descended from a beautiful seal-woman. The
belief is nearly universal, and is attached even to a few of the
family in Clare.

Rabbits. — Early this year a clever intelligent man, near Ennis,
went with a boy and a ferret to shoot rabbits from a fort. Three
ran out and were shot at and missed. The man then called the
boy to come at once, and ran off in great excitement and fear,
saying that the rabbits were fairies. Some such belief must be
widely spread, as Mrs. MacDonnell of Newhall told me that, when
a girl, she took up a small and very tame white rabbit in the glen
at Edenvale and immediately afterwards found that she had lost a
ring. The people who helped in the search, and her father's
gamekeeper, were convinced that the rabbit was a fairy and had
taken the ring with it.

Birds. — I have read of an enchanted bird which was caught in
the cave of Kilcorney and spoke with a human voice.^^ The

^ So the late Hugh Massy Westropp.

^' Ordnance Survey Letters, (Co. Clare), vol. i,, p. 236.

484 Collectanea.

ravens and owls connected with the Ross-Lewins, Westropps, and
other families as death warnings have already been referred to
(p. 190).

X. Spectral Lands and Cities.

Clare formed a part of the outmost fringe of the ancient world,
and its people were deeply impressed with the mysteries and
wonders of the Outer Ocean. The voyage of Maelduin tells of
the son of a Clare man sailing out into " the great endless deep "
and finding isles of surpassing beauty and wonder, and the " Hui
Corra " in deep repentance sailed towards the setting sun from the
creek at the northern bound of Clare " to meet the Lord on the
sea." 2^ St, Brendan, eager to seek out new islands, went for
advice to St. Enda, a saint closely connected with Clare, (where
Killeany bears his name), and its appanage, Aran. In the bay to
the north of Clare William Ires, a native of Galway, became
accustomed to the ocean which he crossed with Columbus, and it
may be that his tales of Hy Brasil, of St. Brendan's Isle, and of
the "thrice fifty distant Isles in the ocean to the west of us.
Larger than Erin, twice is each of them, or thrice," ^^ encouraged
the frightened sailors of the great Admiral to persevere a little
longer.

Hy Brasil,^^ the Isle of the Blessed, is possibly a legacy from
ancient paganism, which placed its Tirnan-oge, The Land of Youth,
in the waves " on the west side down from Aran, where goes the
sun to its couch." 22 The desire for the ageless, deathless land
prevailed all up the western coast, and was strong in Kilkee in
1868-78, and perhaps even still. I myself saw the mirage several
times in 1872 giving the perfect image of a shadowy island with
wooded hills and tall towers springing into sight for a moment as
the sun sank below the horizon. I have also heard from Kilkee
fishermen legends, like that embodied in the verses of Gerald

30 n Voyage of the Hui Coxx&," Revue Celtique, vol. xiv. (1893), p. 37;
Voyage of Bran, (ed. Kuno Meyer), vol. i., p. 12; "Voyage of Maelduin,"
Revue Celtique, vol. ix. (1888), p. 45.

3^ Voyage of Bran, vol. i., p. 14.

^ It is marked on a series of ancient maps from the fifteenth to the middle of
the seventeenth centuries.

" Grolla anfhinga, (Irish Texts Society, vol. i.), p. 21.

Collectanea. 485

Griffin, of men starting seaward to reach its fairy shores, and never
returning.

Another magic island was Kilstuitheen, or Kilstuiffen, in Lis-
cannor Bay. On the southern shore, in 1839, there was said to
have been an ecclesiastical city swallowed up by the earthquake that
split Innis Fitae into the present three islands,^^ which suggests
derivation from O'Conor's then recent version of the various Irish
Annals. On the northern shore the tradition was fuller. Kil-
stuitheen sank when its chieftain lost its golden key in battle, nor
will it be restored until the key is recovered from its hiding place,
some say, under the ogham-inscribed gravestone of " Conan " on
Mount Callan. (When that place was dug out only bones and
rusted iron were found.) ^^ The island, with its golden-roofed
palaces, churches, and towers, may at times be seen shining far
below the waves, but once in seven years it rises above them, and
those who see it then are said to die before its next appearance.
The fishermen

" point how high the billows roll above lost Kilsafeen,
Its palaces and towers of pride
All buried in the rushing tide
And deep-sea waters green. "^^

Comyn, in The Adventures of the Three Sons oj Thorailbh
(1750), connects it with the raid of Crochaun, Dahlin, and Sal in
the time of Finn and their defeat of Ruidin, Ceannir, and Stuithin.
Legend near Lehinch places the battle at Bohercrochaun. A
pretty legend in 1878 told how those rowing over the sunken island
smell the flowers of its fields through the waters. ^^^

** Annals of Ulster, Clonmacnoise, and the Four Masters ; Ordnance Survey
Letters, (Co. Clare), vol. i., p. 304.

^^ The Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, ser. ii., vol. i. (1872), pp.
269 et seq.

^ Monks of Kilcrea.

^'' Ordnance Survey Letters, (Co. Clare), vol. i., pp. 300-4, vol. ii., pp.
74,99; Handbook to Lisdoonvarna (1896), p. 64; The Journal of the Royal
Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxx. , p. 289 ; fournal of the Limerick
Field Club, vol. iii., p. 197, where I have collected the materials at some length.
Other sunken monasteries and churches are alleged at Monaster Letteragh, off
the coast of Mayo, and the Cantillons' Church in Ballyheigue Bay in Kerry.
I do not regard the story in the Irish Penny Journal, vol. i., p. 362, by J.
Geraghty MacTeague, as anything but a work of fiction ; it is very artificial,

486 Collectanea.

Another sunken island off Loop Head is named by the Rev.
John Graham and the Halls,^^ and called Kilstiffin or Kilstapheen.
I heard no such tradition in Moyarta, but O'Curry alludes to it
without contradiction, although he was a native and son of a
veritable repertory of the local legends of the Irrus.^^ The towers
and other edifices were visible at times under the waves, and its
inhabitants sometimes raised destructive storms over its site when
all around was calm.

The large lake of Cullaun (Cullaunyheeda) near Tulla is
reputed to cover a palace or a city. Tradition said that a chief,
Sioda MacNamara, (probably the restorer of the beautiful
"Abbey" of Quin in 1402), was carried into the depths by a
" water horse " which he had caught and trained. The rock off
which his treacherous steed leaped was shown before 1870, and
the chief was believed to be sleeping till " the last weird battle in
the west," doomed to win Ireland her liberty and a glorious place
amongst the nations. It seems likely that it was from the same
lake that magic cattle issued, as I heard about Kilkishen, near it,
in 1877. A local bard, Michael Hogan, refers to the lake in one
of his poems,**^ but how far he embodies local legend I am unable
to say. His light-hearted, if lawless, hero is surprised on coming
to " Cullaun's fairy waters " to see a noble park instead of a lake.
He hits his cow in surprise, and she leaps the fence. P'oUowing
her he reaches the palace of an ancient chief, who entertains him
and dismisses him with his marvellously fattened cow. He finds
at the fair that he has been absent for a year under the waters of
the lake.

** Thro' wild Cullane's embowering shades —
Beneath the silver starlight, sleeping,
He pass'd — the trees, with silent heads,
Upon his darken'd path hung weeping.

following other romances, and contradicting the genuine legends in several
particulars.

^ .1/(1 son's Parochial Survey, vol. ii. , p. 490, collected by Rev. J. Graham
from the Behanes, Landers, Contis, and Coonerties of Kilrush and Carrigaholt ;
Mr. and Mrs. S. Hall, Ireland : Its Scenery etc., vol. ii., p. 436.

^^ Ordnance Survey Letters^ (Co. Clare), vol. ii.

^ Lays and Legends of Thof/iond, Y>\>- I3> 20.

Collectanea. 487

He turned to see the Lake's blue plain.

With all its emerald glories round it ;
But there appear'd a grand demesne,

By towering elms and poplars bounded.

He look'd behind — the scene was gone —

A thrill of wonder gather'd o'er him ;
For, nothing save the blue Lake shone

With all its silver curls, before him."

There was another legend, but a very vague one, about a city
submerged by a magic well under the beautiful lake of Inchiquin.
The legend seems to have died out near Corofin. Another
curious legend about Inchiquin lake was found by Dr. G. U.
MacNamara, to the effect that the lake originated from an old
woman piercing the earth with a spindle, when waters burst out
and filled the valley.

Thos. J. Westropp.

(To be continued.)

Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales {continued).
19. The Hycena and the Wrestling Match. (B. G.)

This is about the Hyaena. She had a husband, a male
hyaena.^ So she arose and got a vessel to go to the stream.
So she went and came to (the place where) games were being
held (by) the Elephant, the Buffalo, the Hartebeeste, the Roan
Antelope, the Gazelle, the Jerboa, the Hare, the Lizard, and
the Water-lizard. They were having a game. Now the Elephant
was the great one, the umpire. So she (Elephant) said, — " Now
(in this) wrestling game whoever throws down another may
eat the flesh of him whom he has beaten." Now, on the
Hyaena's arrival, they said, — "Are you not coming to play?"
She said, — " I am (playing) certainly." When she had put down

'"Kura" is nearly always employed for both sexes, but the word itself
ending in "a" is feminine ; only in story 28 is it made masculine. The male
hyaena is larger than the female.

488 Collectanea.

her vessel, she was given the Gazelle to wrestle with (she was
joined wrestling). When she (Hygena) had lifted her (Gazelle)
up, "boop" she threw (her) on the ground. Then the Elephant
said, — "Good. Take it away. (It is) your meat. You have
won." When she (Hyaena) had gone, she met her husband, who
said, — "Where did you obtain the meat?" Then she said, —
" God curse you." She said, — " Look here ! Wrestling is going
on over there. He who throws another may take his flesh and
eat (it). You, you can sit down (doing nothing)." Then he
said, — " Are they doing it now ? " — so spoke the male. Then she
said, — " No, they have gone away (there will be no more) until
tomorrow." He said, — " All right. May God bring us safely to
tomorrow." He was rejoicing. Day broke. He had not slept,
but in the early morning said, — "Have they come (to) play?"
She said, — " Oh, no, (not) until the afternoon." He was rejoicing.
In the afternoon he came first to the playground. He had tied
twenty bells to his waist-belt. On his arrival ^ they said, — " Oh,
to-day we have a wrestler as a guest." Then the Elephant said, —
" Well, let the wrestler enter the arena so that we may see him."
So he entered the arena, and he danced, and danced, and danced.
Then he challenged (stretched hand to) the Elephant, for the
Elephant to wrestle with him (catch him wrestling). But the
Elephant said, — " You are full of insolence. Will you not find a
small (antagonist)?" Then he challenged the Buffalo, but the
Buffalo said, — "You are full of insolence. Will you not find a
small antagonist ? " Then they said, — " Oh, this one is a
wrestler." Then the Elephant said, — "Let us match him with
(push him to) the Jerboa, and we shall perforce see." So the
Elephant said, — " Here is the Jerboa. Start wrestling." Then
the Hygena said, — " Oh, you are mocking me." But the
Elephant said, — "Go on, nevertheless." As the Jerboa came,
he (Hyaena) threw him up and opened his mouth, (and) the
Jerboa fell in the mouth. So he (Hygena) swallowed (him).
Then he challenged the Roan-Antelope, but he (Antelope)
said, — " Oh no, the small ones are not (yet) done with
(finished)." Then they said (it was said), — "Water-lizard, come
out and wrestle with him." So the Water-lizard said,—" Very
^ Not clear how they could have been there at his arrival when he was first.

Collectanea. 489

well." When the Water-lizard came out, the Hyaena threw her
up, and opened his mouth to treat her like the Jerboa. (But)
the Water-lizard as she descended caught (his) throat. Then the
Hyaena fell down, crying out, — "Alas, alas." Then the Hyaena
shook (his head) violently and threw off the Water-lizard. Then
the Elephant said, — " Come on, let us help the Lizard to get the
meat." But the Hyaena went off with a run, and just escaped.
Then he came and told his wife, and said, — " (As for) you, wife,
your nature is not a good (one). You said they were playing,
(yet) see they wanted to kill me there." Then she said, — "As
for you, you are worthless. You shall not eat (any of) the flesh
of this Gazelle, not even the bones."

20. Why Dogs and Hares do not agree. (S. D.)

A Dog and a Hare became friends in a suburb of the town.
So the Hare said to the Dog, — " My love for you is great. I shall
take you to our town. The whole town is filled (populated by)
Hares. (It is) a city of Hares." The Hare was not able to carry
the Dog, so he dragged (him) along the ground in a leather bag.
When he had come (gone), all the Hares gave him a welcome,
and said, — "What kind of goods (load) have you brought?" Then
he said, — "It is a load of medicine,"^ They said, — "Bring (it)
here. (Let us) take it from you."* But he said, — "Oh no. If
it were taken from me, the medicine would become useless"
(finished). When food had been brought (made), he (Hare) took
some, and put (it) inside the bag and gave (it) to the Dog, who
ate (it). They stayed for two days at the town. Then the Hare
said to the Dog, — " I am going to take you back to the village
where we are living in friendship." So he began dragging the
leather bag on the ground with the Dog inside, and they came
to a Hyaena's farm (where) the Hyaena was working with her cubs.
As the Hare dragged the Dog, they trod down the Hyaena's
guinea-corn (for the Hyaena). Then the Hyaena said, — " Who
is that who is destroying (going to destroy) my guinea-corn?" So
the Hare said, — " Oh, Hyaena, is that what you are like (your

* Or charms.

* If a person has a very heavy load on his head, he always has to get some-
one to help him to put it down.

490 Collectanea.

character) ? Would you not like a bit of luck ? " But the Dog
heard (them speaking) thus, so he came out with a " boop " from
the bag. The she (Hyaena) said, — " I shall go and see who have
broken down my guinea-corn." When they saw her coming, the
Hare ran away. The Dog (also) ran away. Then the Dog
returned to the village where he was living in friendship with the
Hare. The Dog could weave. (So) he sat down, and (began)
weaving at the village. Now the Hysena was following them,
and she came and found the Hare amongst the bushes lying
down. Then he (Hare) got up with a " boop," and came upon
the Dog at the weaving place. Then he said, — " Oh, Dog, are
you weaving? Give (not bring) (it to me). Let me relieve you."
So the Dog said, — " Very well. As for me I am tired, so get up
(on the seat). I shall rest." The Dog lay down panting, when
the Hyaena came and said, — "Of you two whom was I chasing?"
Then the Hare said, — "Whom do you see panting?" Then she
(Hyaena) made for the Dog at a run, and the Dog only just
escaped. Then he said, — "Ahem, I, a dog, (think) 'I only just
escaped' is better than 'I was only just caught'" {i.e. I was lucky
to get off). Then he said, — " Lo ! (but) I met the Hare and made
friends with him, (and) he has played me false " (eaten my friend-
ship). That was the beginning of his quarrel with the Hare.

2 1. The Dog, the Salt, the Cake, and the Hyana. (B. G.)

The Dog, the Cake,^ and the Salt started off on a journey to a
strange land.*' When they reached the river, (they found) the
water had risen, so the Cake told the Dog to take him across.
But he refused, so the Cake asked him to be patient. When he
had asked him, the Dog took up the Cake to ferry him across
(make a ferrying for him). Now, when he entered the water, he
dipped the Cake in. The Cake only just got over. He (Dog)
went and put the Cake in the sun. Then he returned to the Salt,
and he took the Salt and entered (went to) the water. Then he
wetted the Salt in the water. When he had wetted the Salt, it
dissolved and disappeared in the water, (so) the Dog crossed and
came to the Cake. Then he said that they should go. They

^ Dadawa, black cakes made from the fruit of the doroiua tree.
' Lit. " to act as strangers," yi being understood.

Collectanea. 49 1

arose and went. They went to a Hysena's farm. Now the Cake
was carrying a leather bag. So the Dog said, — " Let me get
inside the bag." So the Dog got inside. When he had got inside,
he told the Cake to carry him. Then the Cake said he would be
revenged. The Dog said not to take (follow with) him into the
Hyaena's farm. So the Cake carried him. But he took him
into the Hysena's farm. When he had brought him, he began
kicking down the ridges of the farm. Then the Dog said, —
"Here do not go (here)." Then the Hyaena said, — "Who are
there?" The Cake said, — "Ah, it is we." Then she said, —
"You and who?" so said the Hygena. So he said, — "I and the
Dog." But the Hygena did not hear. So they went on and on,
the Cake kicking down the ridges of the farm. Then the Hyaena
said, — "Here, what kind of people (are you to do) thus?" Then
the Cake said, — " A man with a Dog for a load will not be unable
to wander in the Hyaena's farm " {i.e. will be welcome). Then the
Hyaena said, — "What did you say?" So the Cake said, — "I
have (a load of) a Dog here." When the Hyaena heard, she
came running. So the Cake threw down the Dog. So the Cake
ran away, and left the Dog there. (So) the Hyaena came and took
(him). When she had taken (him) and had gone, she (found that)
she had no fire. (So) she left (him) with her cubs. When she
had left (him) with (to) them, she went to look for fire.'^ Then
the Dog said to the cubs, — " Have you ever seen my nose ? "
The cubs said they had not seen (it). So the Dog said, — " Open
(the bag) a little, that I may show you my nose." When they had
seen (it), they said, — "All right. Go back. We have seen (it)."
He went back, and said, — "Have you ever seen my head?"
They said they had not. So he said, — "Open a Httle, and you
will see." When they had seen, they said, — " All right. Go back.
We have seen it." Then soon afterwards he asked if they had ever
seen his feet. They said they had not seen (them). He said, —
" Well, open a little, and I'll show you (them)." When they
had seen (them), they said, — "All right, we have seen (them).
Go back." He went back. After a little he said, — " Since you
were (born) have you ever seen my pace?" (running). They said

' This story is not yet modernised enough for matches to be introduced. The
only available fire would probably be at her house.

492 Collectanea.

they had not seen (it). So he said, — " Well, open a little, and
you will see." When they had opened (the bag) he ran off rapidly.
So the Dog got away. When he had gone, the father (Hysena)
returned, and came and saw the Dog was missing (without). So
he fell upon his cubs and beat them until he had killed them.
The Dog had gone away. The Cake had gone in his own
different direction. The Dog was looking for him.

2 2. The Hycena and the Bitch. (M.)
The Hyaena and the Bitch. They kept house together in the
midst of the forest. One had (see) her hole. The other had hers
separately. So it went on until they conceived and gave birth.
This went on until the Hyaena said, — " Oh, Bitch, if we go to the
forest and do not get anything (to eat), let us return and you seize
one of your pups and kill (it) so that we may eat (it)." So the
Bitch said, — " Very well." So, when they had gone and returned
and had not caught anything, the Bitch came and seized a young
Hyaena and killed it. Then she cooked it (made food), and they
ate it. At daybreak (next morning) they went to the forest and
returned. Even this time (now) they did not catch anything.
Therefore the Bitch came, caught a young Hyaena, and killed it,
and they ate it. (This went on) until six young Hyaenas had
been taken. So the Bitch went and found a place for her puppies,
and she put them on the top of a tree. She said, — " If you hear
me say ' My puppies su(r)r/ let down the rope for me to climb
up." Then the Bitch came to the Hyaena's house, and said, —
" My puppies are finished. Shall we go and take yours and eat
them?" Then the Hyaena said, — "Oh no." Then she went to
her hole and looked, and did not see anything. So then the
Hysena sprang at the Bitch, and the Bitch (ran away) straight to
her house. When she came, she said, — " My puppies su(r)r."
So they let down the rope for her to climb up. So the Hyaena
was left on the ground. He was foaming at the mouth (spittle
was flowing). So the Hyaena went to the house of a magician,
and she said, — "O, Magician, will you not give me a charm (a
thing of praying), that I may go and say ' My puppies su(r)r ' so
that they may let down the rope for me to climb up ? " So the
magician said, — " Very well, I will give you (one)," he said,

Collectanea. 40-?

" but if you come upon (any) bones do not take and eat them."
So the Hyaena was given a charm. When she had been given a
charm, she went and she saw some bones on the road. She was
hungry. She ate (them). Then she came to the house of the
puppies. On her arrival, she said,—" My puppies shi." Then the
puppies said,—" Oh, we know you. You are the Hygena." Then
the Hyana returned to the magician. And she said,— "Ah,
Magician, the charm which you gave me did not act." Then
he said,—" Well, I told you, if you saw (any) bones, not to
take them." Then she said,—" Very well." Then he gave her
another charm. So she returned. On her arrival she said,—" My
puppies su(r)r." Then the puppies let down the rope.' When
she had almost climbed up, the puppies saw it was the Hysena.
So they let her fall (to) the ground. Then the Hysena (then she)
came and shrivelled up, and became a wooden mortar. That is
all. Then the Bitch came and saw her. On her arrival she
said,—" Oh, my puppies su(r)r." So they hauled her up to the
top. Then the puppies told her the news.

23. The Cunning Goat and the Hycenas. (M.)
This is about the He-goat. He started off on a journey in the
early morning while it was still damp.s He said he was going to
the Hyenas' market to buy.^ He was travelling along (when) he
met the Hysna, and she said,— "Oh, He-goat, where are you
going ? " Then he said,—" Leave off calling me ' He-goat,' I am
God."^^ So she said,—" If you are God, make me some water to
dnnk." So he shook his body, and water poured off. So then
the Hyaena went off After she had gone, she returned again to
the He-goat, and said,— "It is a lie. If you are God, give me
some more water." So he again shook his body, and water
poured off Then she said,-" All right, be off" Then he came
upon some Hyaenas, and they made for him at a run. They
drove him away. He ran until he met with a Lion. Then
the Lion said,— " He-goat, where are you going.?" So the
He-goat said,— "I have been buying at the Hysenas' market."
*Lit. "So he took dew."

'Or else "it was going to be held," though the pronoun ought, if so, to be
feminine.

494 Collectanea.

He (Lion) said, — "What and what have you bought?" He
(He-goat) said, — "Some Hysena urine and some dung. They
are very sweet." The Lion said, — " Give me (some) to try
(touch) and taste." So the He-goat gave him some honey and
7iakia}^ So the Lion tried (some), and enjoyed it.^^ Now the
Hyaenas were following the He-goat to seize (him). So the Lion
called a Hyaena. He said, — " Hyaena, come here." So the
Hyaena came. He said, — "Give me (make for me) some urine
and dung of yours to taste." So she (Hyaena) said, — " Oh, we
have no sweet dung." Then he said, — " You are lying." So she
said, — "(As) God (is my witness) (it is) not a He I am telling"
(making). Then he seized the Hyaena, and squeezed (her).
Then the Hyaena made water for him. He took (it) and tasted
(it). He said, — '•'•(Term of abuse), there is another sweet kind."
So thus it was he squeezed her and squeezed her until the Hyaena
died. Then the Lion went away. When he had gone, the other
Hyaenas chased the He-goat to catch (him). So they came upon
the He-goat at his house. Then the He-goat said, — " Here, you
wait, I am owed (following) money by the chief of the butchers."
He said, — " If I get (it), let us go that I may buy meat for you."
So they said, — "Agreed, let us go." Now they came upon the
kind of trap which catches animals. The trap now had fastened
to it a leg of a goat. So he said, — "Now, look here, you ask him
to give you (it) that you may go." Then one Hyaena said, — "Hai,
Chief of the Butchers, give us (the meat) for heaven's sake, and let
us go." But the chief of the butchers refused to speak. Then
the Hyaena sprang upon the goat's leg and seized it, but the trap
caught the Hyaena. Then the sisters ran away, and so the He-
goat went off. Soon the men who had set the trap heard the
Hyaena's growling, so they came and took her out, and the
Hyaena ran away. Then she went and told her parents. But
they said, — " Really you must keep away from the He-goat.
Otherwise (if it be not thus) he will kill you." Thus it was she
kept away.

^^ Cakes of flour and water soaked in honey and pepper.

"Lit. "Felt sweet."

Collectanea. 495

24. The Old Woman, the Hycena, and the Monkey. (B. G.)
This is about a Monkey. The Hyaena went to the forest and
found a suitable spot, and she said she would build a house
(there). Then the Monkey came, and he also said that the spot
was good for building a house in. He cleared the ground (place).
Then the Hyaena came and said, — "Who is so fond of me (my
lover) that he clears the ground for my house ? " Then she built
a house. The Monkey came and said, — " Who is it who is so
fond of me that he makes me a house ? " Then he made a roof.
When night came, a certain old woman, — (old shrivelled one, your
fat is only on your knee, your bones (would fill) a basket, your
fat (only) a fist), — came and entered the house. Now this was the
road to the market. The Monkey when he came picked some
ground-nuts and entered the house. He did not know that the
old woman was there. Then the Hyaena also found the dead
body of a horse and entered. She did not know that the Monkey
was there. She did not know that the old woman was there. As
for the old woman, she knew they were there, for she saw them.
Now, the Monkey, when he had cracked and eaten two ground-
nuts, reached out his hand to put (the rest) in the corner, and
the old woman got them. The Hyaena also thought she would
hide the rest of the horseflesh, but the Monkey got it. When the
Monkey had taken it, he put it in the corner and the old woman
got it. Now the old woman, the senseless old thing, said, —
"These young people are giving me presents, what shall I give
them, let me give them something from the market." They did
not know she was there. So she stretched out (her hand), and
put a giginnia seed in the hollow of the Monkey's eye. Then the
Monkey rushed outside, — "booboop," — with a run. Then the
Hyaena rushed outside, — "booboop," — with a run. Then they
saw each other, and they said, — " Now, let us make an alliance
against (upon) the thing which is in the house." So they allied
themselves with the Elephant, with the Buffalo, with the Lion,
with the Duiker, with the Hare, with the Jerboa, with the Ostrich.
Then the Hyaena said, — " Whoever finds out what is in this house,
I will give him a hundred thousand (cowries)." The Monkey also
said (that), whoever found out what was in the house, he would
give him a hundred thousand (cowries). So they said, — " Whom

496 Collectanea.

shall we put inside the room ? " Then the Ostrich said she would
go in. She said let her body be tied with a rope, (so that)
when she entered they could pull (were pulling) the rope from
behind. She said, — " If you hear me say ' Pull,' (then) pull."
The Ostrich, when she had entered, was caught by the neck by the
old woman. 12 Then she (Ostrich) said, — "Pull." They pulled
(were pulling), and the old woman pulled, until the old woman
cut off the Ostrich's head. Then the Ostrich fell down. (She
had) no head. So they scattered. While they were running, the
Elephant trampled on the Hare, and on the Duiker, and on
the Jerboa, and all died. Then the old woman came out from
the house and collected the flesh. Thus it was that she inherited
the house of the Hysena and of the Monkey.

25. Why the Hy(27ia and the Donkey do not agree. (B. G.)

This is about the Hysena and the Donkey, and what caused
them to quarrel. ^2 The Hysena said to the Donkey, — "Why do
you wag your head (the wagging that you do) ? You wag to the
south. You wag to the north. What do you get by it ? " Then
the Donkey said to her, — " Every time I wag (every wagging that
I do), if I wag to the south I am given a piece of meat ; if I
wag to the north I am given a piece of meat." Then the Hysena
said, — " Oh, of a truth, Donkey, you will not get thin. Always
in the dry season and the wet season you are fat and well con-
ditioned." 1* Then she said, — " Now, as for me, what shall I do
also to get some ? " Then he said, — " Wait until we have unloaded.
Then come and sleep with us." So she said, — "Very well," and
(all that day) she was praying to God that the evening would
come.^5 Then she went amongst them and slept. When morning
came, they said, — "Bring the donkeys and put their loads on."
When all had had loads put on, and all were complete, she said she
had none. So a load was taken off from one small donkey which
was not fit to carry a load, and it was given to her. Now, when

^2 Lit. " The ostrich, when she had entered, then the old woman seized her
neck."

i^Lit. "what joined them in strife."

^* Literally tibbir means rolling in fat.

J«Lit. " Oh God, oh God, let night come (quickly)."

Collectanea. 497

they were travelling, she was beaten once. Then she wagged to
the south, she wagged to the north, but she did not see any piece
of meat. Then she said, — " Here, Donkey, up to now I have not
had anything." Then the Donkey said, "Come, Hyaena, is one
given breakfast before sunrise? Indeed, only after sunrise," so
said the Donkey. And the Hyaena said, — "Very well." So they
went on a little further, and they beat her with a stick. Then she
wagged to the south, she wagged to the north, and said, — " Here,
Donkey, shall I not get any breakfast?" Then the Donkey said,
"Come, Hysena, you are in a hurry." Then she said, — "Very
well, for to-day (I shall be patient). I shall try my best for
one day." So they were travelling on and on, when she was
beaten with a switch. Then she said, — "Oh, Donkey, as far
as I am concerned I am going to run away." Then the
Donkey said,-— "Oh, come, Hysena, why?" Then the Hysena
said, — " Oh, is everyone like you, a great useless one ? " Then
the Donkey said, " Come, try a little longer. If you do not see
you get (some), then run away." She said — "Very well, I will
make that attempt for your sake." Now, as it happened, the
Hyaena began to get tired, her tongue hung out. Then the traders
said, — " Oh that (term of abuse), the Hyaena, she cannot travel."
Then they all beat her, and, when the Hyaena had got her deserts,
she ran away. So she said (to herself), — "Very well, Donkey.
Even in the next world (you may) pray God not to let you meet
me." That is what made them quarrel.

26. The Lambs, the HycB7ia, the Jackal, and the Jerboa. (U. G.)

The Lambs had gone to wash when the Hyaena came amongst
them, and said she would wash with them. And she began to
seize one and push him under the water and twist his neck and
hide him. Then again she caught another and put him in another
hiding-place, until she had killed ten. When the Lambs (sheep)
had come out and were going home, they saw that ten of them
were missing, so they said, — " Washing like this is not good for us.
We shan't wash with the Hyaena again." Now in the evening the
Hyaena returned and entered the water, and when she had thrown
one out and put it by, she returned to the water. Just then the
Jackal came and took it, and went into the forest some distance off

498 Collectanea.

and hid it. Then again she threw one out, and, when she returned
to the water, the Jackal took it. When the Hygena {saw that she)
had only (the) one left (which was) in her mouth, she said
(wondered) who had done this to her? Then she let it pass,
and went to her house. Then the Jerboa brought her news, and
said, — " Oh, Hyaena, what will you give me if I tell you where
your meat (pi. for s.) is?" Then she brought a bag and gave
him, and he took it to his house. She said, — " If you go and
guide me to my meat, when I get it I will give you another bag."
In reality, this bag was a bag of the Hyaena's wind, (which) she
had made inside and had caught it and tied it up. When she
had no flesh she used to squeeze the wind in soup and it became
like kwaddo}^ Then he (Jerboa) said, — "Very well, let me take you
to your meat." So they went to the Jackal's house. When they
had gone, the Jerboa said, — "Lie down here as if you had died."
So she lay down. Then he went and found the Jackal, and said, —
" Look, some animal of the forest has died." Then he (she),^^
(Jackal), said, — " Oh (that's nothing), I killed it yesterday." So
she came out and said, — " Go on in front and guide me to the
carcase," and he (Jackal) went along singing a song of praise to
his arrow, saying he was a mighty hunter,!^ the slayer of beasts.
Then they came upon the Hyaena. The Jackal did not know
(that there) was a Hyaena (there), she was in the grass. Then
the Hysena jumped up with a " boop," and seized the Jackal, and
said, — " Let us go. You take me to where my meat is, including
you." So the Jackal took her where her meat was. Both him
(Jackal) and all the meat the Hyaena ate up. She gave the
Jerboa one amongst the remainder.

27. Why the Hyccna and the Jerboa cannot agree. (B. G.)

The Hyaena and the Jerboa ^^ were friends. He (Jerboa) said, —
" Oh, Hyaena, I saw a house with young women (in it). I shall
go and court one. You also court one, (and) we shall be
married." And the Hyaena said, — " Very well." So the Hyaena

^^ Salt and the fruit of the locust-tree (dorowa) ground and mixed with water.

1' Oxla is at first made feminine (ends in a), but should be masculine.

^^ Maizubge, properly the owner (or user) of poisons.

"This animal is not really a jerboa, but is something like a grey squirrel.

Collectanea. 499

procured a bag, and put cowries in (it). As for the Jerboa, he
put wind in his. When they were close, the Jerboa said, — " Now
you are the greater. Your load of money is heavy. Mine is of
cloths, (and) not heavy. Since you are the more important, you
carry mine and I'll take yours." The Hysena said, — " Very well."
When they had got near the door of the house, the Jerboa said, —
"Oh, Hysena, what would you give to hear good news?" He
said, — "This house has a goat-house and a fowl-house. I shall
sleep in the fowl-house, you in the goat-house." The Jerboa
said, — "During the night I shall eat five fowls." The Hysena
said, — "No, no, I cannot do that. In the house of my mother-
in-law I shall eat one (only)." When they had come, they
saluted. It was said, — "Welcome to you, welcome to you."
When they had come, each showed his presents separately.
Now the Jerboa, since he had taken the Hysena's load and had
not returned it to him, passed it off as his own. The Jerboa's load
of wind (was) with the Hysena, and became his. When the
Jerboa's load of money was seen, it was said, — "Certainly this
one has come with a true (purpose)." When the Hysena's load
had been opened, only air came out, and it left the bag com-
pressed (fallen in). Then they said, — "This one, a thirst for
evil has brought him." Then they said, — "Well, give them a
place to sleep in." So it was said, — " See here the fowl-house,
here is the goat-house, let each choose the place where he will
sleep." Then the Hysena opened his mouth quickly, and said, —
" I (shall sleep) only in the goat-house." Then the Jerboa said, —
"Right, as for me I shall sleep in the fowl-house." In reality,
the Jerboa wished to betray the Hysena and have him killed.
When they had gone to their rooms, the Jerboa came out again
and went to the people of the house. He said, — " Now I, wher-
ever I go, I travel honestly (with one heart)." He said, — " Now
you know you have put me in the fowl-house, and the Hysena in
the goat-house. When day breaks you must say, — " We do not
know the number of the fowls in this house, we shall count
them." When they have been counted take one and give it to
the strangers (for) food." He said, — " You say also " the goats of
this house we do not know how many they are, let us count them,
and when the strangers are about to go home let them be sped

500 Collectanea.

with a he-goat." " When day broke the fowl-house was opened,
the goat-house was opened. Then the Jerboa said, — " They are
saying the fowls are to be counted." And the Hyaena said, —
" When the fowls have been counted, the goats, will they count
them also?" The Jerboa said, — "So I heard them saying."
When the fowls had been counted, all were there, the Jerboa
had not eaten any. It was said, — "Let the goats be counted."
When the Hyasna heard (this), he said, — " Oh, Jerboa, I am
taken short." So he went out behind the house. So the Jerboa
said, — "Oh, do you see the beginning of his treachery?" When
the goats had been counted and one found missing, the youths
were called. It was said, — " Come quickly and follow the
Hyaena." So they followed, calling, — " Hyaena, come here (and
see about) the business of your marriage." But he said, — "No,
no, I give (it) up." So it was said, — -" Very well. It is known
what he has done, follow him, shoot him." When he had turned
around and had seen that he was being followed with bows, he
bolted, and saved (himself) only with difficulty. He said, — "It
is between me (us) and the Jerboa." He said, — " But, as for the
Jerboa, I (we) shall meet (or quarrel) with him." Well, that is
the thing which caused his (their) quarrel with the Jerboa. The
reason why the Jerboa runs from the Hyaena (is) because of (the
fear of) revenge.

28. Why the Donkey lives in the Town. (G. B.)

Of all the beasts of the forest the Donkey was the greatest, so
he said. He said, if he went to the forest, (of) the beasts of the
forest that he would kill there was no end. The Hyaena said, —
" Oh, no, I am the greatest." Then the Donkey said, — " Hyaena,
go to-morrow and find out where the beasts have assembled.
Then come and tell me." The Hyaena said, — "Very well," In
the morning the Hysena went to look for the place where the
beasts had assembled. When he had gone, he came upon the
Elephant, the Buffalo, the Deer, and the Water-buck. The beasts
had assembled in force, all had come to one place. Then the
Hyaena returned, and told the Donkey. So he told her to go in
front, and take him to the place. They went on, and on, and on,
until they came to the place. Then he said, — "Hyasna, go- back

Collectanea. 50 1

a little, and stop until I call you to come and eat some flesh."
Then the Donkey went carefully, so that the beasts of the forest
would not see him. When he had come close, he rushed out with a
" boop," and went, — " Hoha, hoha, hoha," like the braying that they
make. Then the Elephant became frightened and ran away, and
trampled on the Buffalo, and the Deer, and the Water-buck, and
others up to about a hundred she killed. The remainder ran
away. Then he said to the Hyaena, — " Come here." When the
Hy^na came, he said, — "See here, all these I have killed."
Then the Hyaena said, — " Of a truth you are a terror, you are my
chief." The Hyaena was (then) afraid of the Donkey. He (they)
always used to go out with the Hyaena. She thought his ears
were horns, until one day she said, — "May I touch your horns
(s. for pi), and feel them ? " So the Donkey said, — " Here they
are." When she had touched them, she found they were not
hard, and said, — " Indeed, those things of yours are not horns ? "
So he said, — " Yes, they are ears." Then she said, — " That's very
nice." Then, one day in the evening, the Donkey went out to
feed, when the Hyaena made a bound and rushed and seized the
Donkey, and the Donkey, when he felt pain, ran away right inside
the town. When the people of the town saw him, they caught
him, and said they had gained a Donkey. From that time the
Donkey has never returned to the forest.

29. The Jackal and the Dog at the Marriage Feast. (S. D.)
The Dog came, and said to the Jackal, — "There was a
marriage at our house yesterday." He said, — " Let us go to the
bride's house and have a feast (drink oil).20 There is plenty of
oil there. Let us go and (drink it)." So they came and entered
the house where the oil was. They kept on drinking, they drank
and drank, they went on drinking. As they were drinking, the
Jackal, the crafty one, went outside several times,2i and measured
the door to see that his body would not (if lest) become swelled
enough to prevent him passing. As for the Dog, since he had
entered he had not gone out. At length the people of the house
heard a movement, and said, — "Who is in the room ? " They went
out. The Jackal went out, the Dog came (but) he was unable to
^Probably palm-oil, a great delicacy. ^i ljj^ <« ygg^ jq go_»

502 Collectanea.

go out, his body prevented him. So the people of the house came
and beat the Dog well, until the Dog played them a trick and lay
as if he were dead. When they saw the Dog was dead, they
threw him away. Then the Dog opened his eyes (awoke), got
up, and ran away. 22

30. The Contest of Wits between the Dog and the Jackal. (B. G.)

This is about the Jackal and the Dog. They were friends.
The Jackal asked the Dog, and said, — " How many wits have you
got?" The Dog said, — "Twelve." He said, — "How many
have you?" He said, — "Only one." Then the Jackal said, —
" Well, let us go for a walk and see what your wits (are worth)."
So they went and found that the Hyaena had gone for a walk,^^ so
they went into her house. When the Hyaena came back, she
said, — "Ah, welcome, Jackal." Then the Jackal said, — "I came
to see how you were, I have had guests." ^^ He showed her the
Dog, and said, — " See what the guests brought for me. (They are)
ten. I have brought you one." Then the Hyaena said, — " Thank
God, Jackal." Then the Jackal asked the Dog, and said, —
" Hullo, Dog, amongst your twelve wits how many are left ? "
The Dog said, — " Ten." Then the Jackal said to the Hyaena, —
"You must look and see him, look fixedly (join eyes), do not
ignore him." When the Hysena had looked fixedly at the Dog,
and they had stared at each other, the whole of the Dog's body
was shaking. Then the Jackal said to him, — " Hullo, Dog, of
your wits how many are left?" Then the Dog said, — "Oh, dear,
only two." Then the Jackal said, — " Very well, tell me what the
two are." Then the Dog said, — " At first, when I am crushed, I
shall call out. After that, when I am crushed again more powerfully,
then I will drop." Then the Jackal said, — " Very well, you will see
that my one wit is better than your twelve." Then he said to the
Hyaena, — "I have been thinking." Then the Hyaena said, — "What

^Cf. Vaughan, Old Hendrik's Tales, p. 125 ("Ou' Jackalse Takes Ou'
Wolf A-Sheep Stealing ").

^Lit. "They came upon the Hyaena, she had gone for a walk." This
does not mean that they met her, but that they did not find her.

'^See note to story 19, (p. 487).

Collectanea. 503

have you been thinking about (what kind of a thought) ? " Then the
Jackal said, — "I, the possessor of ten things, have brought you only
one, yet are you my friend ? Let me return home now, and bring
you three, so that one you will eat, and two you can give to your
cubs." Then she said, — "Very well, praise God, go and bring
them." When they had come to the mouth of the hole, the
Jackal said, — "Well, bring me that one that I may go and make
up the two." Then the Hygena said, — " Oh, no, leave this one,
go and bring two more." But the Jackal said, — "Oh, no, I
cannot do so. If I do not return with this one the others will
run away," So the Hyaena said, — "Very well." Then she
brought the Dog to the mouth of the hole, but the Dog bolted.
Then the Jackal bolted. Then he went and lay down close to
the foot of a tree. The Dog came and lay down (also). He did
not know the Jackal was there. When he came he lay down, then
the Jackal said, — " Is that you. Dog ? " Then the Dog said, —
" Yes, is that the Jackal ? " The Jackal said, — " Now, do you see
that my one wit was better than your twelve ? " Then the Dog
said, — " Indeed, it is so." It happened, as they were talking, the
Hysena was standing close to (upon) them, (but) they did not
see her. The Dog was lying down and panting. Then she
(Hysena) said, — " Of you two, who was I chasing ? " Then the
Jackal said, — "Ah, who is panting?" Then the Dog went off at
a run. The Hyaena followed him. The Jackal also ran away
and escaped.

A. J. N. Tremearne.

(To be continued.)

SiRMUR Folklore Notes.

The following notes have reached me from Sirmtlr, a state
between Simla and Dera Dun, in the hills which form the
southern ranges of the Himalayan system. It is a Hindu State
with few Mohammedan subjects, yet Islamic influences are
apparently pronounced.

504 Collectanea.

A small creeping plant called gaur is used as a cure for snake-
bite, a cowrie's weight of it being pounded and eaten. This plant
is found all over the hills.

For hydrophobia a chWi or black hornet is caught, and its head,
legs, and wings cut off. The carcase is then pounded, and given
to the patient to eat.

The following mantra is recited as a cure for snakebite : —

Ran bdndhilh, ranbir bdndhiln, liln bdndJiAii, Parmeshar bthtdhdn. Bis
Jhdlt sdton patdl,jahdn baitheh sdson Bhunpdl, nil kd kaiithd bhatiwar kd
jdl. Pahld band Rdmchandrajt Ide Sitd, Sit-bdndh Sitd- lede. Dujd band
Hajttlnidnt Pardhdn. Rdm, Rahim, RasM ki dn?- Chauthd band Gaurjdn
ne did Saivd bhar nirbis kiyd. Chale mantar, phiire bdckd," Hard Hari shib
Shanka7-i ! Chale datik bis mithi ho-jdye I

" I will bind (z".^. control) the battle and the warrior. I will bind salt as
well as Parmeshewar (God). There is poison spread in the seven lower regions
where the great Basu Nag, the king of snakes, has his home, and also where
there is the net spread by a bhatiwar, with its blue neck. The first binding is
of Ramchandraji who brought home Sita, crossing the ocean on the bridge called
Sit-bandh. The second binding is of the Lord Hanuman. Take care of Ram,
Rahim, and Rasul (Mohammed). Gaurjan gave the fourth bond, and made
ineffectual i^ loads of poison. Let the mantra be effective, and let my saying
come true! By the grace of Hara Hari and of Shankari (Durga) let the poison
become harmless ! "

The following mantra is a cure for a black scorpion bite : —

Kdld btchhA, ptld bickktl, bichhil, kangar-wdld, hari chiinch, gal sone
kt mdld I Eshar dne, Gauran de attdr bickhH atrain. HanHmdn bir Idlkarun.
Mere chagat, mere gur kt sakat! Phuro viantro bdckd! Is bdchd se Idle
Lwia Chamari ki khdl me?t pare ! Is se na idle to khari samundar men
pare.

" Black scorpion, yellow scorpion, scorpion with thy precious stone, thou
hast a green beak and necklace ! God may bring, and Gauran (Shiv's wife) may
take away. Scorpion, I will make thee go ! I will challenge the warrior
Hanuman to assist men. My devotion and my guru's power ! Take effect,
my mantra and my word ! If it avoids this word, let it fall into Luna
Chamari's womb ! (If still it does not go away, then let it go to hell !) If
still it does not go away, let it fall in the salt sea ! "

In the Kiarda Dun women are supposed to be sometimes
possessed by Sayyids (Mohammedan saints). In such cases
violent measures are avoided, and the Sayyid is humbly asked
to accept a nazr or present and leave the woman.

1 An oath. ^ p^/^chd, a saying :—bdshd.

Collectanea, 505

The following is a mantra for expelling evil spirits from a
woman : —

^^ Bismill dh-ir Rahmcin nir-Rahim. Agan jdgS jagmi jcige jAge Khwcijci Fir.
Chhattis karor Devi Devtdjdgen, Kkwdjd ti): Khwdjd Khizr kar bhali. Shri
ko chord ko »iarhi ko Masdmkojin ko bhut ko prSt ko bdndh ko lydun. Nd awe
to pakar ke tndr ke lyaiin. Khwdjd Khizr kar bhali."

" In tte name of God, the merciful and generous ! Awake fire, the world,
the Khwaja Pir (Khizr), 36 crores of gods and the Khwaja's arrow ! Do some-
thing, good Khwaja Khizr ! I will bind and bring Lachhmi (goddess), she-
demon, evil spirit burial ground, genii, bhitt, andpreL If they will not come, I
will catch hold of them and will beat them, and then will bring them. Do
something, good Khwaja Khizr ! "

The patient, while this is being recited, is fumigated, being
made to inhale smoke through the nostrils. If she still remains
unconscious, a still more drastic treatment is employed, and she
is slapped on the face or her hair pulled until she speaks, and
she then names the she-devil who possesses her and who, when
told to depart, demands a certain thing in a certain place. This
demand is at once complied with.

The following is known as the Ased ka mantra : —

Hdth men hathart Hanumdn ke, sahe Bhairon sagpdl, Ndhar Singh kt
manu tnahni. Kali kal siri ddr did. Nar mahtd bir. Chart ko bdiidhil?i,
churel ko bdndhiln, jddtl ko bdndhiln, chhut ko bdndhiin. Chute sabhad phure
bdchd 7nerd. Find hoe Kdchd Ndhar Singh atir Hammidn kd sabhad hae
sachd.

" Hanuman's hand is adorned with a hammer, and Bhairon's with a sagpdl \
Nahar Singh has a precious stone. Kali brings death on one's head. The
warrior is with a lance. I will bind the Chart and Chjirel (evil spirits), and
even magic and the chhtlt. Let the word go on, and let the saying take effect.
My body is mortal, but Nahar Singh and Hanuman's words are true."

Fever, — tertian or quartan, — is treated by going to the forest
and cutting down a plant called bissu, the patient saying, — " O
brother fever, forgive my fault and come into this plant." For
snakebite a small bough of the samaM tree is cut, and the
wound touched with it twice or thrice, whereby the spread of the
poison is arrested. The mantra for snakebite is : —

Bismilldh-ir Rahmdn nir-Rahtm. Hazrat Sulaimdn Faighambar bin Ddild
alae his-salam. Haftad do giroh mdr zihr mdr bdd vidr. Bistnilldh tilharnda
lildhe Rab-bil dlemtn mdleke yatim iddin iyydkd ndbodo wa iyydkd nastd-in,
ihd-i- nds serdiul micstaqtm serai iilldztna anainta alaihijn ghairil maghziibe

5o6 Collectanea.

alaihim walaz-zualin. Atnin 1 Qui ho wallaho ahad Alla-hus-samad lam
yalid wa lam yulad wa lam ya kulla hu kofowan ahad.

" In the name of God who is merciful and benevolent ! Sulaiman, the
Prophet, the son of David, salutation be to him ! The clans of snake !
Poison of snake, wind of snake ! In the name of God ! Praise be to God
who feeds all worlds and is the Master of the last day ! We worship thee and
we invoke thy help. Show us the direct way, the way of those whom thou
hast favoured and not of those whom thou hast discarded and depraved !
Amen ! Say He is God, the Eternal God. He was not born, nor does he
give birth to any, and there is none equal to Him."

The bite of a black scorpion is touched thrice with an iron
prong or chimia to stop the poison from spreading.

When the fields have been damaged by rats, the people of the
Dun place halwa (a sweetmeat) before their holes, and pray to
them thus : — " Ai Musa Paighambar, ab hamart kheti ko nuksan
na kariyo" i.e., " O Prophet Moses do not injure our fields ! "
The charm simply depends on the verbal resemblance between
mftsh (rat) and M^tsd (Moses).

For headache or intermittent fever, the picture of a peacock
and a scorpion is drawn on a piece of paper, or bhoj pattar leaf.
Sometimes this charm is worn round the neck ; sometimes it is
washed in water which the patient drinks.

The following is a charm used in Sirmur for the cure of a
disease in children called mitha, in which the ears are said to
become cold : —

' ' Awwal bismillAh ar nam Rahtm, gath men Sarusti astaj pir, dost scibat
Rahim yaqin, haqq Idilldh Muhammad RasiH-ul-ldh ! Chale mantar,
phurwa bcishd, dekh mere sabkarma tamdshd, jal chhorAh jalwdf, chhorAn
jal ki, chhoj/Hn kdi, tin khtint jangal ki chhonlii, chhor/ih agan sawdt, jal
bdndlmh Jalwdf, bdndhAn jal ki, bdndhUn kdi, tin khtint jangal kt
bdndhtln, bdndhilh agan saiudi, merd bdndhd bandhe, merd khold khule,
titjhe HanAmdn pir ki diihdi.

" First by the name of God and His merciful name, in my possession is
Saraswati (goddess of learning), teacher and pir. Let friends be reassured.
God is true and Mohammed is his Prophet ! Let the mantra go forth,
and let the word take effect ! Look at my good works and miraculous
deeds ! I release the water and that which pertains to it, and its kdi
(the green scum on the surface of a stagnant pool). I release the three
corners of the jungle and the powerful fire. I bind water, everything per-
taining to it, and its kdi. I bind the three corners of the jungle and the
powerful fire. Let it be bound by my binding, and by my untying let it
be loosed. Hanuman pir's oath is upon you ! "

Collectanea. C07

In the recently published Gazetteer of the Sirmur State a
brief account is given of certain cures used in diseases of
children. I here give some other cures:—

When the child get blisters on its body, a young pi^ fg
dedicated over its head, and turned loose in the forest; some
/^m (cakes) and gulgalas (sweetmeats) are also offered in the
same way, and placed with the pig. When the child feels pain
in Its ribs, a mixture of the root of the kandfcA-ldl ^nd. jawain
rubbed into the mother's milk is given to it to drink.

H. A. Rose.

Armenian Folk-Tales {continued).
4- The Thousand-noted Nightingale {Hazaran Bulduiy
Once upon a time a certain king causes a church to be built
It takes seven years to complete it. It is dedicated, and the
kmg goes there to worship. As he is on his way, a tempest
arises. The king is in danger of perishing. Suddenly he sees a
hermit standing before him, who accosts him, saying,—" Long
live the King ! Your Majesty has built a beautiful church, but it
lacks one thing." The tempest increases in fury, and the hermit
vamshes from sight. The king has the church torn down. It is
seven years in being rebuilt, and is grander than before. It is
dedicated. The king goes to worship. A terrible tempest arises.
Ihe hermit appears again to the king. He says,— " Long live
the King ! Your Majesty has built a magnificent church, but one
thing is lacking." The king has it torn down again. This time
it is nine years in being re-built. The king commands it to be
built so that nothing upon earth can compare with it. It is com-
pleted, and dedicated. The king goes there to worship. A
tempest arises. The hermit again stands before the king. He
says,— -Long live the King! The church you have built is
matchless ; it is a pity that it should lack one thing." Then the
king seizes the hermit by the collar, and demands,— " Now tell
^ This is the eighth story in Mattana.

5o8 Collectanea.

me what my church lacks ! You have had it torn down twice
already." "This church needs the Thousand-noted Nightin-
gale ; then it will be perfect." He spoke these words and
vanished. The king returned to his palace.

Now this king had three sons. The sons noticed that their
father was troubled about something, and they asked, — "Father,
what is your grief?" He replied, — " I am growing old, and how
am I going to go after the Thousand-noted Nightingale, which I
must have to make my church complete." " We will go and
bring it for you," his sons assured him. Then the three sons
mounted their steeds and set forth.

After travelling for a month they reached a spot where the road
forked. They stood there puzzled. A hermit met them, and
asked, — " Where are you going, my brave fellows ? " " We are
going to bring the Thousand-noted Nightingale, but we don't
know which road to take," they replied. Then the hermit said, —
" He who takes the wide road will return ; the one who takes the
middle road may return or he may not ; the one who takes the
lower road cannot hope to return. Do you ask why ? Well, you
go along and you come to a river. The owner of the Thousand-
noted Nightingale has bewitched it, and turned its waters into
salt water which cannot be used, but you must drink of it and
say, — " Ah, it is the water of life ! " You cross the river, and you
come to a thicket. It is full of briars. They are ugly. You
must gather them, and say, — " Oh, these are the flowers of immor-
tality ! " You pass the thicket, and you come to a wolf tied on
one side of your path and a lamb on the other. There is grass
before the wolf, and meat before the lamb. You must take the
grass and put it before the lamb, and the meat before the wolf.
You pass on until you come to a great double gate. One side is
closed, and the other is open. You must open the closed gate,
and close the open one. You enter, and you find the owner
of the Thousand-noted Nightingale asleep within. The owner
sleeps for seven days, and remains awake for seven days. If you
succeed in doing all I have said, you will be able to bring back
the Thousand-noted Nightingale ; if not, you will neither be
able to reach there nor to return.

The elder brother took the wide road. He went and went

Collectanea. 509

until he reached a kiosk and a palace. Then he said to himself,
— " Why should I go and lose my life ! I will stay here and
serve in this house and live."

The second brother took the middle road, and went, and went,
until he crossed a mountain. There he saw a palace which shone
like the sun. He dismounted and tied his horse. He entered a
park. A green bench stood near by, and he went and sat there.
Immediately a gigantic Arab came rushing towards him, and,
giving him a blow with his club, felled him to the ground
and turned him into a round stone which rolled under the
bench.

Now let us come to the youngest brother. He mounted his
horse and took the lower road. One after the other he reached
river, thicket, wolf, lamb, and gate, and did all that the hermit
had told him to do. When he entered the park, he saw a most
beautiful maiden reclining upon a couch. The Thousand-noted
Nightingale had come out of its cage and stood upon the maiden's
breast singing its sweetest notes, and had put the maiden to sleep.
Then the Prince caught the Nightingale, and stooped and im-
printed a kiss upon the maiden's brow ; then he set out upon his
return.

When the maiden awoke from her sleep, she saw that the
Thousand-noted Nightingale was gone. She knew it had
been stolen, and she cried, — " Gate, stop him ! " The gate
replied, — " God be with him. He opened my closed door and
closed my open door." " Wolf, Lamb, stop him," she cried.
"God be with him! He gave the grass to the lamb, and the
meat to the wolf," they answered. " Thicket, stop him," she
cried. "God be with him ! You made me to be full of briars ;
he made me become the flower of immortality." " River, stop
him," she cried. " Why should I stop him ? You made me salt
and slimy ; he made me become the water of life. Let him go !
God be with him ! " The maiden was at the end of her resources.
So she mounted her steed and gave chase. Let us leave her for
the present.

The Prince met the hermit once more ; he saluted him, and
said, — " Here is your Thousand-noted Nightingale." Then he
inquired about his brothers. The hermit told him that they had

5IO Collectanea.

not returned. The Prince asked the hermit to keep the Nightin-
gale for him while he went to find them.

He took the broad road and went till he reached a large city.
He went to a baker's for something to eat. He saw his elder
brother working there. He made himself known to him secretly,
and taking him back with him left him with the hermit while he
went to find his other brother.

He crossed the mountain. He came to a palace which shone
like the sun. He dismounted, tied his horse, entered the park,
and sat down on the bench. Then the great Arab rushed towards
him, crying, — " Do you think that seat has no owner, that you
seat yourself there ? " As he spoke, he raised his club to strike
him, but the Prince was too quick for him. He snatched the
club from the Arab's hand, and struck him, whereupon the fellow
turned into a stone. The Prince said to himself, — " Some evil has
befallen my brother here." He began hitting the round stones
which were lying about on the ground, and each one became a
man and fled in haste from the spot ; but he did not see his
brother among them. Then he saw the stone under the bench ;
he struck that also, and it proved to be his brother, who also
started to run away. He cried after him, saying, — " Brother, do
not run away ; I am your brother." His brother looked behind,
and behold, it was so 1 The two brothers returned together to
the hermit.

They took the Thousand-noted Nightingale, and the three
brothers set out for home. On the way they were thirsty. They
came to a well. They let the youngest brother down into the
well to draw up water for them. They drank, but then they left their
youngest brother in the well. The other two said to each other,
— " If he be with us, with what face shall we go to our father."
They took the Nightingale and went on.

When they reached home they said to their father, — "Our
youngest brother was killed. We found the Thousand-noted
Nightingale and brought it to you." They hung the Thousand-
noted Nightingale in the church, and expected to hear it sing,
but there was not a sound nor a breath from it.

The maiden, mounted upon her steed, reached the King, and
asked, — " Who was that brave fellow that took away my Nightin-

Collectanea. 511

gale?" "We took it," the two brothers replied. "What did
you see on the way ? " " We did not see anything." "You are not
the ones who took it from me, then ; you are robbers," she said,
and she cast them into prison, and their father also, while she
ruled the city. "Until the one who took the Thousand-noted
Nightingale appears, there is no escape for you," she said. Let
them remain there while we go and find the Prince.

Some women who were reaping barley drew the Prince up out
of the well, and one of them adopted him. One day, a few weeks
later, news reached them that the Thousand-noted Nightingale
had been brought to their country, and that the owner of the bird
had come after it. Then the Prince begged for permission to go
to the city and see the new church and all the sights. He went.
He visited his home, and found neither his father nor his brothers.
He inquired where they were. They told him that the owner of
the Thousand-noted Nightingale had come and cast them into
prison. He went and brought them out. The maiden sent for
him and said, — " I am the owner of the Thousand-noted
Nightingale, do you not fear me ? " The Prince replied, — " I am
the one who brought the Thousand-noted Nightingale. I do
not fear you." The maiden asked, — " What did you see on the
way?" The Prince told about the river, the thicket, the wolf,
the lamb, and the gate, — all that he had seen and done. " And
if you do not believe me, behold, there is the mark which I im-
printed upon your brow, betrothing you to myself ! " he added.
" I wish you joy," responded the maiden.

They had a grand wedding in the church, and the Thousand-
noted Nightingale began to warble and to pour forth a thousand,
thousand sweet notes, and still it sings and still it sings ! Three
apples fell from heaven.

J. S. WiNGATE.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Alfred Nutt : an Appreciation.

In the history of any given study there occur moments when
circumstances seem, as it were, to call a halt, and bid the student
survey the distance travelled, to sum up gains and losses, and
estimate alike the ground traversed, and the point attained.

To Arthurian scholars the untimely death of one whose name
has so long, and so honourably, been associated with these studies
offers such a halting-place, and it has seemed to me, as one who
for upwards of twenty years had been closely connected with Alfred
Nutt in those studies in which he took so deep and unselfish an
interest, that it would be well for us to look a little more closely
at the work which he achieved in these special fields, and appre-
ciate more accurately the debt which English scholarship owes
to him.

In a letter which I received a short time ago from Dr. Nitze,
a review of whose study on The Fisher King was one of the last
contributions from Mr. Nutt's pen, the impression made by his
work abroad was thus summarized : "// is a great loss to scholar-
ship. Mr. Nutt had an excellent trainings an accurate method, and
a sense of style P The testimony voices, I think, the opinion even
of those who felt unable to accept the conclusions to which he
came.

To my mind the great value of Mr. Nutt's work has been his
appreciation of the fact that the progress of Arthurian romance has
been along the road of evolution, that direct literary invention has
played but a secondary part in the growth of this wonderful body
of romance, and that the study of folklore might, therefore, aid us

Correspondence. 513

in distinguishing the elements of which that body was composed ;
further, he pointed out the part which specifically Celtic tradition
had played in this evolutionary process.

The earlier studies contributed to this Review, — the examination
of J. G. von Hahn's ^^ Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula"'^ and
the study on the '■'■ Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr"'^
— and the later essay on The Influence of Celtic upon Mediceval
Romance, (which inaugurated the series of Popular Studies on
Rof?iance and Folklore), dealt with this question in its main aspect,
and brought to light many hitherto unsuspected parallels between
Welsh and Irish tradition and the literary Arthurian cycle.

The Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail carried the attack
further, to the very heart of the citadel in which Christian mediae-
val tradition and imagery had been for so long securely intrenched.
The first English " Travail d' ensemble " on the subject, it at once
freed English scholarship from the reproach of having too long
neglected a study which might have been expected to make a
special claim upon the attention of English scholars, and drew
attention to the pressing character of the folklore problem. The
opposition which the work met with in certain quarters may be
best realized by a perusal of Mr. Nutt's Apologia contra Zimmer,
which, appearing originally in the Revue Celtique^ was subsequently
published in pamphlet form. From that time forward Alfred Nutt's
name was, on the Continent, definitely associated with the plea for
the insular, Celtic, and '^o'^xxidx provenance of the Arthurian cycle,
and he was regarded as the most prominent advocate of the views
championed, more moderately, by the late M. Gaston Paris.

At that time the theory associated with the names of Professors
Foerster and Golther practically held the field. These scholars
staked, (and stake), all on the genius and originality of Chretien de
Troyes ; with him the romantic Arthurian tradition had taken a
definite literary form, before Chretien all was chaos, after him all
was imitation, and the indignation with which the ' evolutionary '
theory, militating as it did against the inventive genius of their
idol, was received, was unbounded.

But ' Wisdom is justified of her children ' ; doubtless many
readers of Folk-Lore have perused with interest Mr. Lawson's

^ The Folk-Lore Record, vol. iv. "^ Ibid., vol. v. ^ 1891, vol. xii.

2 L

514 Correspondence.

recently published work, Modern Greek Folklore and Ande?ii
Greek Religion, a review of which appears below. The reviewer
remarks that the principle of the work, — i.e. the idea of illustrating
from present popular belief the beliefs and practices of classical
times, — is a perfectly sound one, but it was precisely for this that
Alfred Nutt, twenty years ago, incurred the biting scorn of his
foreign critics, — i.e. for daring to use modern folk-tales in elucida-
tion of mediaeval romance. The gulf Mr. Lawson proposes to
span is far wider, but the bridge is of identical construction, and
the feat of literary engineering which was received with opprobrium
twenty years ago, meets with no more than ordinary criticism
to-day.

The latest work of importance published by Mr. Nutt, the text
of The Voyage of Bran, with essays on "The Happy Other-World,"
and " The Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth," is one which I think has
not yet received its due meed of appreciation. Mr. Nutt, I know,
felt this himself; when discussing the support which the theory of
the Life-Cult origin of the Grail tradition receives from the facts
collected in the work referred to, he wrote to me as follows, — " I
do believe The Voyage of Brafi is a good sound piece of work,
seminal, and creative, and I think it should have received higher
recognition than it did." The book was, indeed, ahead of the
critical knowledge of the day, and at the moment we did not possess
the facts which would enable us to appreciate the importance and
critical value of the evidence to which Mr. Nutt drew attention.
In my opinion the book, — certainly the second volume, — is
likely to gain in interest as time goes on, and will probably prove
to be the most valuable legacy the writer has left us. But, if due
recognition was not forthcoming, Alfred Nutt did not fight a losing
battle ; as his notice of Dr. Nitze's work, above referred to, clearly
shows, he was keenly aware of the progress which Arthurian criti-
cism has made in these latter years, and, if the cause in which he
spent himself so generously has not yet quite come to its own, the
time is not far distant ; the future is with the Folklore School, and
their opponents know it.

Jessie L. Weston.

Correspondence. 5 1 5

" Cross Trees."

Can any reader give information about the " Cross Trees " in
Wexford ? It is, I am told, locally believed that, if a funeral
party omits to leave a cross by the tree in passing it on their way
to the churchyard, ill will befall " the corp."

M. Eyre.

Religious Dancing.

Th. Trede, in the fourth part of Das Heidentum in der
romischen Kirche, Bilder aus dem religiosen und sittlichen Leben
Suditaliens, 189 1, states that cultus-dances still go on in Chris-
tian lands in spite of all the prohibitions which Popes, Councils,
and Synods have issued. Wild, bacchic performances in con-
nection with the Madonna are still to be watched in the
Posili-grotto near Naples during the night between the 7th and
8th of September. Trede also mentions a similar dance near
Salerno, in connection with " the feast of the forty martyrs."
In many parts of Calabria dances always accompany the pro-
cession in which the image of a saint is carried. Religious
dancing of a serious and dignified order also occurs in modem
Greece.^ The Sprifigprozession at Echternach is described in
T. H. Passmore's In Further Ardenne, p. 217, and the frontis-
piece of the book represents "this skipful Pilgrim's Progress."
Tille, in his Geschichte der deutschen Weihnacht, makes several
allusions to the custom of dancing in and round churches.

I should be grateful for information as to religious dancing in
European countries, and particularly as to the ecclesiastical
dancing-customs of Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica?

Kirton-in-Lindsey. Mabel Peacock.

^ The authorities quoted are B. Schmidt, Volksleben der Neugriechen, S. 88
Hettner, Griechische, Eeisen, S. 73.

REVIEWS.

L'Origine de l'Idee de Dieu. Etude Historico-Critique et
Positive. P'^ Partie. Historico-Critique. Par le Pere
GuiLLAUME Schmidt, S.V.D. Vienne, Autriche : Imp, des
Mechitharistes, 1910. 410, pp. xiii + 316.

In compliance with many requests, he tells us, Pere Schmidt
republishes from his excellent serial, Anthropos, the first part, —
historical and critical, — of his work on " The Origin of the Idea of
God." His purpose is to ask for criticism, which he will grate-
fully receive : meanwhile he bids us remark that he does not yet
propound his own solution of the problem of the Origin of the
Idea of God. That solution he promises to give us in a later
work.

It is not an easy task for me to speak of the book of Pere
Schmidt, because he professes great obligations to my own writings
on the evolution of religion, though, naturally, he differs from me
on various points. Perhaps I may be allowed to explain how I
arrived at my present opinions. They are, in fact, derived from
study of the writings of Mr. E. B. Tylor. In the earlier editions
of his Primitive Culture^ a book of forty years ago, he made it
plain that certain peoples, when first studied by Europeans, were
not, indeed "monotheists," did not "assign the distinctive
attributes of deity to none save the Almighty Creator," but did
exhibit, "high above the doctrine of souls, of divine manes, of
local nature-spirits, of the great deities of class and element . . .
shadowings, quaint or majestic, of the conception of a Supreme
Deity." 1

^ Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 302 (ist edit.).

Reviews. 5 1 7

" Shadowings, quaint or majestic, of the conception of a Supreme
Deity" — these I found almost everywhere, when I was writing
Myth, Ritual, and Religion (1887). In my preface of that year I
said " the existence — even among savages — of comparatively
pure, if inarticulate, religious beliefs or sentiments is insisted
on throughout." I was amazed at the nature and amount of
the evidence for Mr. Tylor's "shadowings of the conception
of a Supreme Deity," among low races who did not possess
what Mr. Tylor regards as the upward steps towards that con-
ception, the beliefs in "divine manes, local nature gods, great
gods of class and element," I found the result without the
supposed prior steps towards the result. Therefore, in 1898, I
published a too hastily written book, The Making of Religion,
(more or less modified in editions of 1900 and 1910), and my
conclusion was that the more the beliefs and practices of Animism
or ghost worship prevail, the more did the conception of a primal,
creative, and ethical and non-animistic superior being fall into
the background, till in a few cases there remained of him but
nominis umbra, or not even the shadow of a name. Mean-
while the evidence for the very wide diffusion of the belief in this
being, (who is best called, I think, the All Father, a term em-
ployed by Mr. Howitt), has rapidly accumulated. I take up the
newest book on a barbaric oceanic people, " The Island of Stone
Money," by Dr. W. H. Furness, a son of the great American
Shakespearean scholar (Lippincott, 19 10), and I find Yalafath
•' the ruler of Heaven," " the supreme deity," high above War and
Wind and Dance gods ; and beginning to be, though benignant,
"negative rather than positive," though addressed in prayers,
(pp. 144, 149-50)-

I said, and I repeat, that the comparative study of religions did
so persistently overlook this form of belief that in Professor
Huxley's and Mr. Herbert Spencer's works we find no trace of
creeds which Mr. Tylor and "/(? vieux Waitz," (as Pere Schmidt
writes,) dwelt upon, — Waitz especially in the cases of African and
Australian tribes. I tried to call science back to the super-
abundant evidence, and Pere Schmidt, in an amusing history of
the fortunes of my little book, shews that I piped to " scientists "
who declined to dance, — at least on the Continent and in' America.

5 1 8 Reviews.

At last, in Germany, K. Breysig, in criticising P. Ehrenreich, (who
discovered me,) styled me "cet Ecossais, aussi parfaitement
capricieux que spirituel." But K. Breysig did not examine my
evidence ! Moved, as early as 1902, and again in 1904, by
Dr. L. de Schroeder, Professor of Sanskrit at the University
of Vienna, Pere Schmidt made the acquaintance of my book, and
pursued the subject with energy, and with the aid of his very
extensive erudition, — for example, his knowledge of savage
languages, and of the Pygmsean peoples.

This personal explanation is almost necessary, for Pere Schmidt
devotes fifty-two pages of his work, (pp. 72-124), to a statement
of "Ze Preanimisme mojiotheistique d^ Andrew Lang."

The terms preanimis7ne monotheistique scarcely express my
notions. As Mr. Tylor says, " the assignation of the distinctive
attributes of Deity to none save the Supreme Creator," is
monotheism " in the strict sense," and " in this strict sense no
savage tribe of monotheists has ever been known." Very few
monotheistic peoples, " in the strict sense " very few, if even any
at all, have ever been known. I do not think that I ever ascribed
to any savage tribe, or to the masses of any European people,
a religion which is monotheistic " in the strict sense " of the
philosopher. What I did hold, and do hold, is that " shadowings
quaint or majestic" of a most superior, noti-a?timtstic, often ethical
Father and Master and Maker are a very widely diffused element
in savage and barbaric beliefs, and that this element is the germ
of the most advanced monotheistic creeds. It is desirable that
adversaries should criticise, in detail, the testimony, early, modern,
and daily accruing, to the fact of the existence, (in various degrees),
of the belief. Such criticism is a very considerable task ; the
adversary must undertake it before he can prove that my opinion
is, in Mr. A. R. Brown's words, "an elaborate misinterpretation"
of the evidence. Nobody seems to be in a hurry to examine the
evidence !

Pere Schmidt states my scantlings of evidence, with additions
from later sources, such as Mr. Strehlow's work on the Aranda and
Loritja. He is most copious as regards both materials and
criticism in his critique of my theory, (pp. 125-244). Here he
deals with the views of Messrs. Howitt, Tylor, Hartland, Foy,

Reviews. 519

Marett, and Van Gennep, especially applauding "I'opposition
resolue mais noble de M. Sidney Hartland," to whose criticisms,
indeed, and perhaps to his alone, I am greatly indebted. That
Mr. Tylor has not offered any censure of my book, or books, is
due to two causes, no doubt. I am his very old friend and pupil ;
he loves not controversy ; and his official duties at Oxford,
combined, alas, with ill health, have retarded the publication of
the great work on which he has long been engaged. Many
learned men, Uke Mr. Tylor, detest polemics, though, for my part,
I think that discussion may be most profitable, as long as we do
not let " our angry tempers rise."

Pere Schmidt begins with Mr. Howitt, whose theory of the
origins of the belief in an All Father is not, indeed, identical with
my own. But, in the matter of facts, Mr. Howitt wrote, "as to
the belief in the tribal All Father which is held by the tribes
mentioned by me in my Native Tribes^ and is not held by other
authors, I see no reason to alter anything I have said." Well, as
to the existence of the belief in an ethical and explicitly non-
animistic All Father, I entirely agree with Mr. Howitt. As to the
origin of the belief I do not feel sure that Mr. Howitt is right, his
view being that the All Father is merely the Head-man of the
Sky-tribe. However, this is a matter of theory of origins : and
Pere Schmidt proceeds to combat Mr. Howitt's theory (pp.
127-128), which certainly does not colligate all the facts. At
most Pere Schmidt appears to grant that "some of the traits
which characterise the Supreme Being among the aforesaid tribes "
are suggested by the earthly headman : which is not unlikely.

To me Mr. Howitt seemed to regard the belief as a concomitant
of social progress from " group marriage," female descent, and
"matrimonial classes," to individual marriage, male descent, and
society with a local basis. Pere Schmidt shows that Mr. Hartland
and Mr. Frazer understood Mr. Howitt in the same sense.- But
I pointed out that, according to Mr. Howitt, the belief existed
among tribes with female descent and with no local basis of society,
while it is not found in Mr. Spencer's Arunta and the northern
tribes with individual marriage, male descent, and loca
communities.

~^Folk-Lore, xvi., 1905, p. 106. Fortnightly Review^ Sept., 1905.

520 Reviews.

Mr. Howitt replied that I had misunderstood him ; but he did
not say that Mr. Frazer and Mr. Hartland had also done so, — as
they had. Even now I do not think that his statement was lucid,
nor am I entirely certain that he did regard the All Father creed
as a concomitant of social advance, while the question was
superfluously complicated by his belief in "group marriage"
among the Dieri and their congeners. The certain fact is that the
All Father belief is common, or universal, in South Eastern tribes
whether with male or female descent, whether with or without
communities of local basis, while the belief is absent, or merely
vestigial, in northern and central tribes with male descent and
local communities. These are the facts, and they exclude the
opinion that, in Australia, the presence or absence of the All
Father is a concomitant of social advance or failure to advance. ^

There is no room for a criticism here of Pere Schmidt's opinions
about social evolution in Australia. He is inclined to think that,
in Australia, descent in the male line is earlier than descent in the
female line, and he enters into ethnological theories of race. My
reply exists in a book which will probably appear some day.
But into these ethnological theories about various races, with
various institutions, now combined in Australia, I cannot here
enter. I confess to being a sceptic about all ethnological specula-
tion whether concerning Pelasgians in Greece, or Papuans and
Negritians in Australia. My knowledge does not enable me to
estimate the value of linguistic arguments and tests of race ; it is
for philologists acquainted with many outlandish tongues to criticise
Pere Schmidt's conclusions. He reviews battles long ago, waged
in Folk-Lore between Mr. Hartland and myself. To me he seems
an impartial umpire, for, though on the whole he sides with me, he
allows plenty of " points " to Mr. Hartland. If I were re-writing
my book I should find much advantage in Pere Schmidt's verdicts.
"Mr. Hartland's piercing eye has discovered many weak places,
inaccuracies, and exaggerations in the system of Lang." Being on
my side, after all, Pere Schmidt, naturally, gives me the majority
of "points," mainly objecting to "the emphasis with which Lang
so often insists on the word " father." "

'Pere Schmidt, (p. 131, Note 3), has unluckily credited me with some
opinions entirely contrary to what I hold.

Reviews. 521

Really, as the Australians do so too, I hardly see how I can
help following the evidence. To be sure, as Mr. Howitt observed,
they use the term " father " in the classificatory sense, but they
also use it in the personal sense. Moreover they use "father" as
a title of reverence, and, as Christians speak of God as " the
Father," black fellows apply the same term to the being whom
they regard as primal and most potent ; while their application of
the word " Father " to a Colonial Governor is on a level with our
speaking of "Father Schmidt." Really I do not see how I have
erred in this matter.

Pere Schmidt gives a point to Mr. Hartland for saying that we
find no All Father who at the beginning lived in the sky. But
before the beginning Atnatu of the Kaitish lived beyond the sky,
and still inhabits that region. I must not, however, go on
defending myself, — to tell the truth, Pere Schmidt often does
me that service, even in cases where I should have been at
a loss. The personal character of these All Fathers is certainly
in striking contrast to that of Zeus in Greek mythology, but
Bunjil is accused of seizing two women whom Karwin had
made or created, and of giving Karwin satisfaction by spearing
him in the thigh. I do not feel tempted to excuse Bunjil, but
Pere Schmidt thinks it worth while to do so. From my point
of view the contrast between the Zeus of everyday fabliau and
the Zeus to whom Eumaeus prays is quite natural and inevitable,
and nobody denies that Zeus is a supreme being.

The same view I would extend to Bunjil, but Pere Schmidt
defends his character in a very complex argument which I do not
clearly follow and cannot condense. It partly turns on the
relations of Bunjil with the Eaglehawk of mythology, and with
the stars (pp. 202 et seq.), and "sex-totems" come into the
discussion. It is too ramified for me, but at all events, in a
variant of the Karwin myth given by Miss Howitt, Karwin is
the sinner, and Bunjil merely punishes his wickedness. Let us
give Bunjil the benefit of the doubt ! The discussion leads Pere
Schmidt into theories about astral and lunar myths, no longer
intelligible to the blacks, and to a system of the blending of two
distinct cultures and races in S.E. Australia: a crisp-haired and
a straight-haired race. " Solar heroes " come into the system, and,

52 2 Reviews.

enfin, a medley of astral, lunar, and solar myths, and sex-totem
myths, have obscured and more or less depraved the legends of
the All Father, which is very probable. Thus the view of M. Van
Gennep that the All Fathers are merely First Ancestors or Culture
Heroes is set aside. It was rejected by Mr. Howitt, and may, I
think, be disproved without all the apparatus of Pere Schmidt.
Four divergencies from my view, and concessions to criticism, are
made, — with my entire consent, though I am rather shy of our old
friend the Solar Hero. J'en ai vii Men d^autres !

" Le resultat general de la critique est done extremement
favorable a Lang." But Pere Schmidt for the present confines
himself to Australia, while pointing out that my contention covers
the whole field of savage and barbaric religion, as far as I have
information. To the great mass of evidence Pere Schmidt intends
to return.

His last chapter deals with the " preanimistic theories of
Magic," which we associate in England with the name of Mr.
Marett. The book of a predecessor, Mr. King, " The Super-
natural," (London, 1892), is unknown to me, and is described as
"the best work, hitherto, of the new school." Pere Schmidt has a
genius for discovering hidden merit : he has met with no mention
of Mr. King in the literature of our topic. One must instantly
procure Mr. King's book, in two volumes : its title, " The Super-
natural," would have attracted me, but it never swam into my
ken. Mr. King does not accept Animism as the starting point of
religion, " Magic is anterior to Animism." He investigates the
notions of mana, wakatt, orenda, and so forth. About the All
Fathers of Australia, Mr. King seems to be strangely ill-informed
(p. 257). Concerning Mr. Marett's essays, Pere Schmidt makes
criticisms of much the same sort as have occurred to myself: he
admires the article " From Spell to Prayer," first published in
Folk-Lore, June, 1904.

Space permits but a very inadequate notice of the work of
Pere Schmidt, and vanity has dictated a treatment perhaps too
personal, though it was quite impossible, as his readers will see,
to keep myself " out of the memorial."

A prima ^«'e objection to the opinion which 1 share with Pere
Schmidt, is that we have both a heavy bias, — he as a Catholic

Reviews. 523

priest, and I as un capricieux, — against the anthropologically
orthodox doctrine of the rise of religion in Animism. But I have
no a priori objection to that doctrine, for, like Malvolio, "I
think nobly of the soul," and, if we have no souls, I have no
interest in religion. The truth is that, the more I studied early
religion, the less did the hypothesis of Animism as the origin of
belief in the All P'ather seem to colligate the facts. None the
less, Animism has, of course, had an enormous influence on the
development of religion, an influence often very hostile to Theism;
in other cases complementary to Theism.

As Pere Schmidt has not yet given us his own theory of the
origin of the idea of God, I do not know what his theory is, or in
what way his bias afl"ects, if at all, his logic. But let me insist
that every man of us has a bias, and a strong bias, a circumstance
which our opponents, — whose strong point is not a sense of
humour, — do not seem to be able to understand. Whether or
not the scientific bias caused the chapter of the All Father of
backward tribes to be ignored, it is not for me to say, but ignored
it was, too frequently, by students in the last century. In that
chapter there is nothing to alarm them, if they see the obvious
conclusion which, — with their opinions, — they can draw from the
early belief.

A, Lang.

MELANGES d'Histoire des RELIGIONS. Par H. Hubert et
M. Mauss. Paris : F. Alcan et Guillaumin, 1909. 8vo, pp.
xlii + 236.

L'Ann^e Sociologique. Publiee sous la direction de Emile
DURKHEIM. Tome xi. (1906-1909). Paris: F. Alcan et
Guillaumin, 1910. 8vo, pp. iii + 822.

The Birth of Humility. By R. R. Marett. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 19 10. Svo, pp. ii + 31.

The first two books are in continuation of the valuable series of
publications initiated by Prof. Durkheim, of which an account
has been laid before the Folk-Lore Society on previous occasions,

524 Reviews.

and which have contributed so much to the discussion of
anthropological problems during the last dozen years. Of the
second it will be sufficient to say that it continues the acute and
original series of reviews of works, whether in the shape of books
or of single articles, on sociological and anthropological subjects,
and that its intrinsic importance is in no way diminished by its
divorce from the initial Memoires that used to appear in the same
covers.

The volume of Melanges by Messrs. Hubert and Mauss is a
reprint of three articles already published, two of them, — namely,
those on Sacrifice and on the Origin of Magical Powers, — in
previous volumes of the series, and the third, — on the Repre-
sentation of Time in Magic and Religion, — separately. They are
here preceded by a Preface in which the authors expound the
connection between the three and the ideas which underlie their
researches, and incidentally answer objections to method and
results. The republication of these articles in a cheap and handy
form will render them more useful to students of folklore, and it
is to be hoped will cause them to be more widely known and
studied. Students who are already acquainted with them will
turn with interest to the Preface. The defence of the authors'
position it contains is to some extent a retrospect of the steps by
which they have reached that position. But it is more than this,
for in replying to objections they are led to the enunciation of
general principles and results. The summary analysis of the idea
of Sacredness, for example, deserves careful comparison with that
recently put forward by Mr. Marett in his masterly lecture on The
Birth of Humility. Mr. Marett's analysis is the more detailed
and exact ; but, while it covers much of the same ground and so
far agrees with that of Messrs. Hubert and Mauss, it approaches
the subject from a different starting-point. Mr. Marett is a
psychologist : Messrs. Hubert and Mauss are sociologists. They
insist on Sacredness as a social phenomenon : he views it primarily
as the expression of the complex emotions of the individual soul.
Neither of these aspects can be safely neglected. A clear com-
prehension of the interaction of the social relations with individual
impulses is necessary to enable us to read the half-effaced
hieroglyphs of the genesis of religion. For the French authors

Revieivs. 525

the social influence is everything. Judgements, for them, are not
dictated by the individual reason, but by social forces. We owe
much to Prof. Durkheim and his disciples for calling attention to
the social side of religion. The tendency of the English school
of anthropologists was too greatly to neglect it. But, after all, the
emotions arise in the individual. They are emphasized and
organized by contact with those of other individuals collected in a
group, whether that group be a howling mob of rioters or the
bedizened knights and councillors and dames of a Primrose
League. What anthropologists have to do in retracing the history
of civilization is to balance accurately the one set of forces with
the other, and to allot to either no more than its fair share in
originating and impelling the movements of human progress.

E. Sidney Hartland.

The Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man. Being an
Explanation of the Evolution of Religious Doctrines from
the Eschatology of the Ancient Egyptians. By Albert
Churchward. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 19 10. gf" x 6">
pp. xxiii + 849. Col. etc. ill.

The title of the book is somewhat misleading, as the object is
not so much to explain the evolution of religious doctrines as to
set forth a pet theory of the author in regard to Freemasonry.
The author finds the root of all true religious knowledge in the
Egyptian religion, especially as set forth in the Book of the
Dead, and, as has been done before, traces Egyptian influence to
almost very clime and people. The book is written ad majorem
gloriam Freemasonry, and with Freemasonry, as such, we find no
fault.

To judge by the author's frequent remarks, such as, — "a
statement too absurd for any kind of argument," "an assertion
sufficiently ridiculous to prove his complete want of knowledge
of the subject" (p. xii.), "so lamentably ignorant of the whole
subject" (p. xiii.), "in ignorance of anything pertaining to the
subject" (p. xiii.), when speaking of those who disagreed with him

526 Reviews.

in regard to views set forth in another work of his, the author is by
no means destitute of confidence in his superior knowledge;
indeed, not to leave the reader to the mercy of his {i.e. the reader's)
private judgement, he states in plain language, "We contend
that the result of our labours herein set forth is correct" (p. 5).
It may be quite true that the reviewers of the former work of the
author had no knowledge of the Egyptian alphabet (pp. xiv et seq.),
and we have no doubt that the author has " tried to search after
the facts with a steady honesty" (p. xi), and, when he says, —
"Facts and history are one thing; theories and "according to"
are another" (p. i), we agree with him heartily, finding both in
his book. The book contains many facts carefully collected from
numerous mentioned and not mentioned sources, and a great
many more theories, many of which have long been exploded as
fanciful. To the facts no one can object, but, when they are
handled, as they have been by the author, to prove a preconceived
notion, science gives way to imagination and fact to fancy.

The book bristles with assertions which one really cannot take
seriously, and is full of inaccuracies. The writer seems to lack
even an elementary acquaintance with one of the languages which
he uses (or attempts to use), to prove one of his theories. This
is surprising, especially as he lays so much stress upon accurate
knowledge, from which he avers the correctness of his deductions
(p. 5). We will point out only a few things in support of what
has been said above.

The author's remarks on the Jewish religion (pp. 236 ei seq.)
betray no knowledge of the state of the historical situation as
recognized by the scholars of to-day. It may be that the author,
who seems to quote well-known authorities simply to point out
their ignorance, did not consider it worth while even to mention the
critical position of Bible scholars as being perhaps, to use his own
language, " too ludicrous to discuss." He revives a long-exploded
theory identifying Jahweh with an Egyptian deity (p. 294). The
author's knowledge of Hebrew cannot even be called elementary.
The Hebrew word in 1. 20, p. 294, which he imagines to represent
the Hebrew word for mercy-seat, has absolutely no meaning.
The four Hebrew letters n^S? should be HISD and the mistake
arose simply from the author's ignorance of Hebrew. The same

Reviews. 527

is true of other Hebrew words with which the author ornaments
the pages of his book; e.g., on p, 297 we find a word which the
author believes to represent the Hebrew for "ark" or "coffer."
As little knowledge of Hebrew is displayed on pp. 364 et seq.
To judge by the way in which Baali (p. 365) is used, the author
seems to have no idea that it is Baal plus the pronominal suffix
of the first person singular; and what does "Baalam" (p. 365)
mean ? Whence that form ? The plural is Baalim.

HiSTOIRE DE L'iMAGERIE POPULAIRE FlAMANDE ET DE SES
RAPPORTS AVEC LES IMAGERIES ETRANGERES. Par E. H.

VAN Heurck et G. J. Boekenoogen. Bruxelles : G. van
Oest & Cie, 19 10. 4to, pp. ix+ 727. Col. etc. ill.

The Continental definition oi folklore as covering folk arts and
crafts and, in fact, anything produced by or related to the folk,
seems to have stimulated the formation of collections and
museums of folk objects. While the museum of peasant art at
Haslemere is probably, — until Mr. Lovett's comprehensive collec-
tion is adopted by some fortunate locality, — the only separate
public gathering of the kind on this side of the Channel, in 1907
the catalogue of the Antwerp Musee de folklore of the Conservatoire
de la Tradition Populaire Flamande already included 2816 items,
ranging from house tiles, salt-boxes, stable lanterns, costumes, and
toys, to lovers' hearts cut in trees, folklore electoral., chapbooks,
and broadsides. Collections of less importance exist at Skansen
in Sweden, Bucharest, and elsewhere. The present handsome
and fascinating volume is appropriately dedicated to M. Elskamp,
the donor of the Antwerp Museum, and describes, with the help
of hundreds of illustrations, the picture broadsides, each con-
taining one or a number of coloured or plain woodcuts or prints
with accompanying legends, which from the adoption of wood
engraving for this purpose in the fifteenth century up to recent
years were produced in millions for the peasantry and the children
of Flanders and other European countries. Early prints of this
kind were generally religious, and evidence of this remains in the

528 Reviews.

names still applied to them of heilig in Protestant Friesland and
of aleluyas in Spain. Some of the most interesting examples are
still of the religious type, such as the pennons (drapelets) printed
with the legends etc. of trade patron saints, or places of
pilgrimage, carried in funeral and wedding processions, and hung
up in the peasants' homes beside the statuette of the Virgin.
The capricious colouring of the prints is thought by our authors
to have been adopted to suit a popular taste formed by the weird
rose-coloured dogs, red trees, and blue horses of the twelfth and
thirteenth century painted glass in the cathedrals of Antwerp,
Laon, etc. The authors supply a mass of laboriously collected
material for the study of the long life and transmutations of wood
blocks, — some of which they trace back to seventeenth-century
Dutch and French originals and others to eighteenth-century
chapbooks, while the bulk were specially cut for the broadsides.
One of the most curious examples of change of ascription is the
use about 1820 of a very recognizable portrait of Napoleon as
the portrait of the hereditary prince of the Netherlands, 'the
conqueror of Waterloo.' In another print, obviously of St Brigit
of Ireland, the legend is that of Brigit the Swedish princess. As
might be expected, many of the subjects occur in the prints of
almost every nation, and, as in chapbook and ballad literature,
there is the strangest mixture of old folk-tales, — Cinderella,
Habetrot, Red Riding Hood, Tyll Owlglass, the Land of
Cockayne, the Wandering Jew, — with tales perhaps on their way
to become folk-tales, — e.g. Gulliver's Travels, in which two
episodes differ from Swift, Gulliver's death-scene appearing
to be copied from that of Tom Thumb ! — proverbs, street cries,
fashions, games old and new, monsters surviving from mediaeval
bestiaries, old customs such as leaping over candles on January 6,
universal jests such as La Dispute de la Cuiotte, battle pictures of
Jena etc., the burning of Moscow, and prints (of about 1850)
of General Tom Thumb. One interesting adaptation to modern
conditions is the belief that if the prayer on a certain common
print be read daily for eight days before the drawing of the con-
scription, and the print bound to the arm with which the ticket
is drawn, a 'good number' will result (p. 74).

The greater part of the book is concerned with the prints

Reviews, 529

produced at Tumhout, (about 20 miles from Antwerp, and now
a world-centre of the manufacture of playing cards), and we are
told that, of the three principal houses originally producing these
broadsides, one has closed its doors, another has given up their
production and destroyed its blocks, and the third has adopted
modern machine processes and is allowing its remaining blocks
to pass to the Antwerp Museum, — a different attitude to that of
a Nancy proprietor, who refuses to part with, or even to show,
the blocks mouldering since 1844 in his attics, and is using the
remaining stock of prints as packing material ! Much information
is given, however, about other countries, with bibliographies, and
it is possible to confirm Mr, Nutt's luminous suggestion {antey
p. 384) that the racially distinctive elements of the lore of the
folk are to be found amongst its artistic rather than its practical
elements ; soldiers abound in German broadsides, while they are
rare in Holland until after the Napoleonic wars and the Belgian
insurrection of 1830, and many other examples occur of national
preferences and additions to the common stock of subjects.

This book is not only an interesting record of the time when
the workman was still a designer and thinker and not a mere
machine minder, but a rich storehouse of material for study of the
problems of the diffusion and variation of folklore, and is to be
very heartily commended to all students.

A. R. Wright.

Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion :
A Study in Survivals. By J. C. Lawson. Cambridge
University Press, 19 10. 8vo, pp. xii + 620.

In this very readable book the author gives the results of his own
researches when, ten years ago, he visited Greece as Craven
student, together with a considerable amount taken, with due
acknowledgement, from other workers in the same field. A
companion volume to Abbott's Macedonian Folklore, dealing with
the beliefs and practices of more southerly Hellenic populations,
has long been needed, and to some extent this book, despite
grave defects, fills the gap. We say " despite grave defects," for

2 M

530 Reviews.

the book is in one respect almost worthless owing to its
inaccuracy. The writer sets out upon perfectly sound principles,
namely, with the idea of illustrating from the present beliefs of
the conservative peasantry the popular beliefs of ancient times.
He succeeds in telling us something about modern Greek super-
stitions; but his comparisons with ancient ideas break down
hopelessly, because, — to be frank, — the religion of ancient Greece
is a subject about which he knows less than nothing. What is to
be made, for example, of such statements as these ? " Nothing was
imposed [in ancient Greece] by authority. In belief and in
worship each man was a law unto himself" (p. 3). Every man
"a law unto himself" in worship, in any ancient state or any
part of the countryside, of which we know anything ! Probably
nothing outside of savage communities was ever so completely
controlled by sacred and inviolable rules, observed to the letter
by the whole community, as the religion of ancient Greece, unless
it was that of ancient Rome. After this we are quite prepared to
find him reversing the functions of the Heavenly Aphrodite and
Aphrodite Pandemos (p. 4), on the strength of a passage in
Artemidorus, — he does not seem to know that the blunder, or
rather the deliberate misrepresentation, dates from Plato, — and
trying to find, in the confused ancient way of speaking of the
dead, now as corpses and again as phantoms, a trace of some-
thing like the Slavonic belief in vampires, or stating (p. 572) that
the date of the Mysteries coincides roughly with that of Easter, —
a glaring error from which any handbook would have saved him.
His handling of ancient texts also is childish. Not only does he
accept, with hardly a trace of criticism, any and every piece of
vaporing of late authors on such dark subjects as the ritual of
Eleusis, — (Lobeck, whom he quotes, might have taught him a little
caution, to say nothing of later works), — but he continually mis-
interprets perfectly straightforward statements of, e.g. Herodotus.
Her. IV. xciv. (the human sacrifices of the Getae) is thus
expounded, — "No one can fail to notice that Herodotus' own
interest in the custom centres not in the idea which prompted it
but in the manner of carrying it out. His account of it reads as
if he knew his Greek readers to be familiar enough with the con-
ception of human sacrifice as a means of sending a messenger to

Reviews. 531

some god " etc. (p. 350). That is, the presence in historical
Greece of a hideously barbarous rite, mentioned with abhorrence
by Greeks, for a purpose foreign to their beliefs, — for all their
deities were accessible to ordinary prayer, and to kill a man was
not to send him to the gods but simply to the Underworld, where
he would be cut off from communication with the greater portion
of them, — is to be forced out of a passage which states simply
that such a rite took place among certain savages ! Another
misinterpretation of the same author, which we have not space to
quote, occurs on p. 501, and similar blunders are scattered up and
down the whole book.

When we turn, however, from Mr. Lawson's theories of ancient
religion to his facts about modern and mediaeval folklore, we find
less to criticise and much to interest us. Thus, the examples of
survivals of polytheistic beliefs are noteworthy. We mention a
few ; continual reference in popular stories etc. to ra '^onepiKoi,
the "outside," i.e. pagan, spirits, conceived as really existing and
not necessarily and entirely malignant; the quaint Athenian
blessing, va o-' d^uocrrj 6 Oebs va iV)(api(TTT^crrj<s Oeovs Kal dv6pu)Trov? ;
belief in local daimones {a-Toiyijetd) ; tales of a mysterious per-
sonage once actually called r} Seo-jrotva, who seems to be simply
one of the Chthonian goddesses, perhaps Demeter ; belief in the
Fates (Mot/oats), in fairies called NepatSes, and in the Lamia. We
are glad also to get further information about the " Callicantzari,"
as Mr. Lawson calls them, — Mr. Abbott, using a slightly different
form of that Protean name, says " Karkantzari," — formidable and
exceedingly filthy bogeys who prowl, it would appear, especially
about Christmas time. Without accepting Mr. Lawson's attempt
to derive their name and functions from the Centaurs, — we should
emphatically label them " non-Greek," leaving it to experts to
decide whether they are Slavonic, Turkish, or what not, — we
recommend these gentry to all folklorists. Equally interesting is
the account of modern funeral customs, in which traces of crema-
tion may be found ; and also the survival of the common ancient
metaphor of death as a marriage, — if survival it be ; at least it is
an interesting parallel. We wish, however, that Mr. Lawson had
been a little more critical in the selection of his materials, if he
did not want to publish all he had collected. When (p. 339) he

532 Reviews,

tells a tale of human sacrifice in recent times (early nineteenth
century) from Santorini, we cannot but conclude that the vener-
able narrator was " having " him.

However, with all its defects, — and they are wide-reaching, —
the book, as we have said, fills a gap and has its value. Some
day we hope the author will give his undoubted abilities a fair
chance by extending his reading and cultivating the art of
disbeUef. Then he may give us something of less impeachable
worth.

H. J. Rose.

The Melanesians of British New Guinea. By C. G.
Seligmann. With a Chapter by F. R. Barton, and an
Appendix by E. L. Giblin. Cambridge : University Press,
1 910. 8vo, pp. xxiii + 766. 111.

In this massive volume Dr. Seligmann has given us the most
complete account yet published of the sociology, sorcery, and
religion of any tribe on the mainland of New Guinea, and he
has done this for such diverse tribes as the Koita of the central
district, the Roro and Mekeo tribes of the lower reaches of
the St. Joseph river, and the Southern and Northern Massim
of the south-eastern archipelagos. Considering the relatively
short time Dr. Seligmann spent at some of the places he visited,
it is surprising what a mass of systematic material he has collected,
but the help which he enlisted from Government officials and
from missionaries enabled him to correct and extend his observa-
tions. All the peoples studied are at the same stage of material
culture, but there are considerable differences in social customs
which are of great interest, and when more data are available
from other areas we shall be in a better position to judge how
far these are due to an evolution from within or to influences from
without. The following notes will give some slight idea of the
scope of the work.

The most characteristic cultural feature of the Massim is the
existence of a peculiar form of totemism with matrilineal descent.
The members of each clan have a series of totems, of which a

Reviews. 533

bird is the most important. The series usually consists of a bird,
fish, snake, and plant, but a four-footed vertebrate may be added.
In some parts there is a dual or a multiple exogamous grouping of
the clans, which regulates many social matters. There does not
appear to be any special affinity between a man and his totems,
nor can he influence these in any way. All over the district a
man shows more regard for his father's totems than for his
mother's, which are also his own. A person can kill his own
totems, and, with the exception of the bird, even eat them. In
the central district totemism has disappeared, but among the
Roro-speaking people of the coast about Hall Sound and to
Cape Possession, and the Mekeo further inland, it is represented
by clan badges. There is another strange resemblance to the
natives of the north-west coast of America in the unexplained
hekarai ceremony, — a series of feasts which by its rivalry and
exchange of valuable property bears a superficial resemblance
to a potJatch ; but a more close analogy can be found in the
public exchange of food or property which occurs in Murray
Island, Torres Straits.

The burial customs of the Northern Massim are particularly
interesting on account of the contrast they present to those of
their Southern neighbours, among whom people of clans other than
that to which the dead person belonged scrupulously abstain
from having anything to do with the dead body or its burial.
Among the Northern Massim the whole funeral is carried through
by the dead man's /udai or nubai, certain connections by marriage,
who are consequently never of the same clan as the dead man.

In the Trobriands, as soon as a man dies his store of yams
is divided amongst his near relatives who are members of his
own totem, and several of his coco-nut trees are cut down by
some of his relatives, there being no restriction regarding the
use of these trees, their leaves, or their fruit. The dead body
remains in the house until burial, and wailing is kept up
unceasingly. When the body has been placed in the grave by
the lubai, food is provided by all near relatives belonging to the
deceased's own totem, and is eaten by all the other clans of
the village, in which feast the widow and father of the dead
man take part, having previously blackened themselves as a

534 Reviews.

sign of mourning. When a village chief dies, those belonging
to his totem from all the neighbouring villages bring food to
the burial feast; members of any other totem bring no food,
although they come to the feast. The widow's hair is cut, her
mourning costume being provided by her lubai^ — in this instance
the sisters of her dead husband, who also shorten her petticoat
and cut her armlets and leglets at the conclusion of her term
of mourning. When a woman dies, her lubai, — in this case
her husband's brothers, — dig the grave and bury her, after which
the usual feast takes place. A widower blackens himself and
wears mourning for his wife, his mourning gear being provided
by his female bibai^ — dead wife's sisters. On the night following
the burial the body is exhumed by the dead man's father, or,
if he is absent, the dead man's sister's husband may perform
the duty. The bones of the legs and arms are then removed,
and these are made into spatulge by the father, brother-in-law,
and children, who alone are allowed to use them, ceremonially.
The terminal joints of the phalanges are worn by the children,
and in some cases the jaw is worn as a bracelet by the widow.
In the case of the death of a paramount chief, his father or his
sister's husband removes the bones from the arms and legs,
and perhaps even some of the ribs ; these bones are distributed
to people of all the totems except that of the dead man, each
village chief in his district receiving one bone. Enough bones
would be reserved for making lime spatulas for the ceremonial
use of the father, children, and sister's husband. The skull
would be made by the children of the deceased into a lime
pot, which they, and perhaps also their father's widows, might
use. In every case it is the relations-in-law or the liibai who
remove the bones and make the spatulae, and who also perform
the office of burying the dead.

In the Marshall Bennets the widow almost invariably keeps the
skull of her husband in the house, and wears his jaw as a bracelet,
while his vertebrae and phalanges are worn by her brothers and
her children. A widower also keeps the skull of his late wife in
his house, and wears her lower jaw as a bracelet, while her
vertebrae are worn by her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. In
some parts a dead man's jaw will be worn by his son. In

Reviews. 535

Kwaiawata the bones are kept in the house for some time, and
then removed and exposed in shallow rock shelters in the sea
clififs.

The book contains a very large number of very excellent and
well-chosen photographs, and fifty illustrations in the text. A
very interesting feature is the large number of reproductions of
native drawings, serving in most cases to elucidate ceremonies,
but incidentally illustrating other matters, and demonstrating the
artistic skill of the natives. Dr. Seligmann's book is a notable
contribution to ethnology, and deserves a place in every
student's library.

A. C. Haddon.

The Island of Stone Money. Uap of the Carolines. By
William Henry Furness, 3rd. J. B. Lippincott Co., 1910.
8vo, pp. 278. 111.
Dr. Furness's pleasant book on the people of the isle of Uap in
the Caroline Group is not specially meant for anthropologists.
Rather it is aimed at the general reader. Consequently special
students are left asking for more, and hoping that Dr.
Furness will communicate more precise and more extensive
information to some anthropological serial. We want to know
about the rules regulating marriage in Uap, about totems (if they
exist in any degree), about names for human relationships,
classificatory or descriptive ; and perhaps Dr. Furness may some
day enlighten us. He has a curious chapter on the failu or the
club-house of the males, into which very little boys may wander
freely. It it also the resting place of weary fishers home from
the sea, who are tabued so strictly that they may not even see
the faces of women or come near them. The lads of each failu
carry away a pretty girl from some other community, perhaps
of old by sheer violence ; now some secret bargaining is probably
done. Though she is common to all the adult members of the
club, she is treated with perfect courtesy and kindness ; too
long attachments to any individual are gently discouraged, but,
as far as she is concerned, there is no jealousy. The life of a

536 Reviews.

mispil is not unhappy, but poor Migiul, the prettiest mispil in
the isle, looks profoundly melancholy. In another photograph
of her sent to me by Dr. Furness pere^ the eminent Shake-
spearean scholar, she is much prettier than in the published
copy (p. 124). If a mispil bears a child she becomes the
individual wife of a member of the club. You may meet matrons
of the most unimpeachable virtue marked with the mispil tattoo.
Still, it is not a pretty custom. The stone money, — huge circles
of perforated stone, — is hardly a medium of exchange, but a
circle lost at sea is still at the owner's account at the bank.
Shell money is also in circulation. A three-span fei^ of good
whiteness and shape, purchases fifty baskets of food, but the
owner of the baskets need not carry off the fei; it lies at his
account.

In religion we find, atop of the topmost bough, Yalafath, " the
ruler of Heaven," "the creator of the world," Lord of the dead;
he is kind, but rather unsympathetic. Nevertheless he is addressed
in prayers. After a stay with Yalafath, souls seem to return,
invisible, to Uap. Yalafath "is the supreme deity and has the
general supervision of mankind." There is a polytheism of
departmental deities ; Dr. Furness found no sacrifice, and no
priests, but there are paid wise men and exorcists. Colours are
easily distinguished by the natives, but blue and green pass as
lighter shades of black, and all three are rutigidu. Tattooing is on
the wane; slaves may not tattoo themselves. Burying is by
interment ; various postures are given to the corpse. The living
are "delightful people," and the Germans, to their infinite credit,
prohibit alcoholic drinks. There is given a pretty full vocabu-
lary. Yalafath is rendered " God of Creation," Dr. Furness not
having before him the fear of critics. But what he gives as
the " Creation Legend " says nothing about what we mean by
"creator," and is not of much authority.

A. Lang.

Melanesians and Polynesians. Their Life-histories described
and compared. By George Brown. Macmillan, 19 10.
8vo, pp. XV 4- 45 1. 111.

Dr. George Brown has given us in this beautiful volume the

Reviews. 537

ethnological information he has collected during nearly fifty years
in the West Pacific, but practically the book is a comparison
between the natives of a limited area of New Britain and those of
Samoa. Dr. Brown was one of the first white men to go to New
Britain, and, though some similar information has been pubUshed
by Parkinson (especially in Dreissig Jdhre in der Sildsee) and by
others, his first-hand account is of great value, as it deals with
the time of the first contact of the natives with Europeans. For
various and obvious reasons many sections dealing with New
Britain lack that thoroughness which modern science requires,
but it is not fair to expect expert work to be accomplished by
a pioneer missionary. In addition to his own information. Dr.
Brown gives some valuable quotations from various missionaries
and native teachers in the Bismarck Archipelago, from the Rev.
W. E. Bromilow for parallels in south-east New Guinea, and from
other correspondents elsewhere. An extremely good idea of
savage life can be gained by the reader, and the student of folk-
lore will find much to interest him, especially from a comparative
point of view, for he has to hand two contrasted stages of
evolution, not indeed of the same people, but at all events of
people not too remote from each other geographically and
culturally. Where there is so much to choose from, it is diffi-
cult to make selections, and all that the present writer can do
is to recommend the book heartily as interesting, informing,
and accurate ; but there is so much more one would like to
hear about ! Dr. Codrington's Melanesians still retains the
premier place amongst books dealing with the Western Pacific
south of Dr. Brown's particular field, and for more precise infor-
mation on mainly sociological and religious matters we await
the publication of the investigations undertaken by Dr. Rivers.
Would that an English student could supplement Dr. Brown's
work in New Britain, working by modern methods !

Our gratitude is also due to Dr. Brown for the beauty of
his illustrations, and to his publishers for their number. They
add to the attractiveness of the book, and contain much valuable
ethnographical information.

A. C. Haddon.

538 Short Notices.

Short Notices.

Legends of the City of Mexico. Collected by Thomas A. Janvier.
Harper & Bros., 1910. Post 8vo, pp. xix+ 165, 111.

In this volume Mr. Janvier has collected and annotated nine-
teen stories of a kind of which far too few have yet been
printed, — town stories in which the results can be examined of
the popular mind working upon historical and alien traditions
and moulding them to its liking. The tales were gathered in
Monterey and Mexico City mainly from the old women who
are everywhere the chief depositories of traditionary wisdom, and
the book is one to be added to every folk-tale library. It would
have been well to state in the preface that the text of twelve
stories (without the notes) has previously appeared, — viz. in
Harper's Magazine for 1906.

The Niger and the West Sudan, or The West African^s Note
Book. By Capt. A. J. N. Tremearne. Hodder & Stoughton,
1910. 8vo, pp. vii+ 151.

The usefulness of this book is not limited to the many who
go nowadays as travellers or officials to West Africa, as, besides
numerous notes about kits, passages, etc., it contains convenient
summaries of past history and 49 pages concerning the races of
British West Africa, (including a reprint of the account of the
Hausas referred to on p. 199 ante). Capt. Tremearne, (as shown
also by his Hausa tales in Folk-Lore), is one of the new school
of administrators, whose efficiency is enormously increased by a
sympathetic and scientific interest in the natives under their
charge. As he himself observes (p. 78), "the more an official
studies the natives the more he must sympathise with and be
interested in them, and the greater must be his knowledge of
their laws and ideas of justice."

Books for Review should be addressed to

The Editor of Folk-Lore,

c/o David Nutt,

57-59 Long Acre, London, W.C.

INDEX.

Abbot's Bromley : antiquity, 386-7 ;
fair, 26 ; horn dance, 6, 25-30,
33. 38-40
Abscesses, see Tumours and ulcers
Aberdare Range, see Akikflyu
Aberdeenshire, see Crathie ; Lower

Deeside
Abipones : dangerous to tell name,

156
Abiriwa fetish dress, 130
Accidents : Decollati save from,

Sicily, 169, 172
Accounts of Society, 12-3
Achilles sagas, 138, 146, 245-6
Acireale : cult of executed crimi-
nals, 170
Acland, R. D. : Scraps of English

Folklore, 224
Address to His Majesty King

George V., 228, 267
Adi Granth, the, 414
Adonis myth, 11 1
Adwan tribe : poet Nimr, 276,278
^Egean islands, see Greek islands
Affock : murder legend, 348
Afghanistan : shrines, 176-7
Africa : (.see also Alitemnian Lib-
yans ; Amazulu ; Ashanti ; Bantu ;
Basutos ; Bechuana ; British East
Africa ; Calabar ; Congo Beige ;
Congo Frangais ; Dahomey ;
Dualas ; Egypt ; Fanti ; Hausas ;
Ivory Coast ; Kabyles ; Kaffirs ;
Masai ; Monomotapa ; Morocco ;
Nandi ; North Nigeria ; Nyassa-
land ; Sierra Leone ; Soudan ;
South Nigeria ; Swahili ; Togo ;
Tshi ; Yoruba) ; amulets, 161 ;
east, Indian charms from, 85,
Weule's Native Life in East
Africa reviewed, 122-4 > Tre-
mearne's The Niger and the West
Sudan noticed, 537 ; north, dan-
gerous to answer questions, 158 ;
south, inheritance customs, 20 ;
west, blood drunk, 161, rainbow
snake, 256

Agnation or father-right : Banks'
islands, 53

Agoo : amulet, 129

Agricultural folklore : (see also
Firstfruits ; Harvest customs and
beliefs ; Planting customs and
beliefs ; Ploughing customs and
beliefs ; Rice ; Sowing customs
and beliefs) ; deity of crops,
Garos, 261 ; fetish powers, Con-
go, 465 ; human sacrifice,
Khonds, 177 ; parts of bodies
stuck up in fields, Assam, 177 ;
town charm, Congo, 456-7

Ague : amulet against, India, 325

Aharinagh : tower, 344

Aibhinn the beautiful, 181, 186-7

Air : Zeus as god of, 133

Ak shrub : in folk-medicine, India,
317-8, 330

Akamba : Akikuyu offshoot from,
252 ; legend of origin, 253-4

Akikflyu : Routledges' With a Pre-
historic People reviewed, 252-8

Albania : (see also Vulki) ; Dur-
ham's High Albania reviewed,
250-1

Alfred Nutt : an Appreciation, by
J. L. Weston, 512-4

Alitemnian Libyans : bride-race,
140

All-Father belief, see Deity, con-
ceptions of

All Fools' Day : annual barring of
way, Cheshire, 31

Alius Prosator, 417-8, 424-5, 428

Amazulu : crocodiles, rites against,
160; ford rites, 159; lightning,
beliefs about, 160 ; medical folk-
lore, 160; rainbow snake, 256;
wounded man dangerous,

160

Ambala : folk-medicine, 323, 325

Amber : as amulet, Suffolk, 7 ;
axes, Scandinavia, 68 (plate)

America, see North America ; South
America

540

Index.

Amiens : cock as lamp ornament,

131
Amritsar : folk-medicine, 85, 316,

320
Amulets and talismans, 2, 3, 7, 8-9,

77, 118, 129-31, 161, 163, 169,

223-4, 227, 265, 268-9, 285, 325,

327-8, 333. 376-8, 438, 457, 462,

506, 528
Ancestors : spirits of, India, 125 ;

worshipped, India, 261
Anchor : as tea-leaf sign, Yorks,

227
Ancient Hymn-charms of Ireland,

The, by Eleanor Hull, 131,

417-46
Andaman islands : religion, 8
Androgeos, revenge for death of,

145

Andromeda legend, 141

Angoni, 123

Animals in folklore : (see also Ante-
lope ; Badger ; Bat ; Bear ; Beast
fables ; Beaver ; Birds in folk-
lore ; Buffalo ; Bush-cat ; Cat ;
Cattle ; Civet-cat ; Deer ; Dingo ;
Dog ; Donkey ; Dragon ; Duiker ;
Earthworm ; Elephant ; Fish in
folklore ; Flying-fox ; Fox ; Gaz-
elle ; Goat ; Hare ; Hartebeeste ;
Hippopotamus ; Horse ; Hyasna ;
Insects in folklore ; Jackal ; Jer-
boa ; Leopard ; Lion ; Mole ;
Monkey ; Mouse ; Pig ; Rabbit ;
Rat ; Reindeer ; Reptiles in folk-
lore ; Seal ; Sea-slug ; Sheep ;
Squirrel ; Tiger ; Water-lizard ;
Wer-beasts ; Wild-cat ; Wolf ;
Yak) ; cause diseases, Zulus, 160 ;
in folk-tales, India, 125 ; names,
Shetlands, 264 ; sacrifice of, see
Sacrifice ; supernatural, Clare,
476-84 ; Wales, 117

Animism : amongst Garos, 261 ; re-
lation to All-Father belief, 517,
523 ; and magic, 522

Annaghneale : death coach, 193

Annee Sociologique, L', by E.
Durkheim, reviewed, 523-4

Annual bibliography, 10

Annual meeting, 5-7 ; Report of
Council, 8-13

Ant : white, kept off by goat's head,
Congo, 457

Antelope : (see also Oribi ; Reed-
buck ; Water-buck) ; in folk-tales,
Africa, 209-10, 487-8

Antilles : folk-tales, 264

Antiquity of Abbot's Bromley, The^

by F. M. Stenton, 386-7
Antrim : amulets, 7, 9
Antwerp : exhibits from, 131 ",

Miisce de folklore, 527
Anwal : folk-medicine, 322
Any an j a : moon's wives, 255
Apollo : double axe, 65 ; horses, 66
Apoplexy : cure for, Congo, 467
Apple : in love charm, England,

376
April, see All Fools' Day
Aquitaine : St Romuald, 177
Arabia : amulets, 265 ; marriage

customs, 270-82
Aran island : fort, 198 ; rune, 436 ;

white paternoster, 442
Aran isles : (see also Aran island ;

Innismaan) ; dragon temple^

Middle Isle, 479
Archangels, 375, 421
Argei, the, 143
Argyllshire : (see also Ford ; Kil-

martin Glen ; Loch Awe) ; folk-
tale, 90-1 ; marriage custom, 38 ;

scraps of folklore, 89-90
Ariadne legend, 139
Arise Evans, cure of, 151
Arizona : rings, 266
Armada, legends of, 182
Armenian Folk-Tales, by J. S.

Wingate, 217-222, 365-71, 507-11
Arrowheads as amulets, Antrim, 7
Arrow-thrower, State, Manipur,

79
Arthur, King, see King Arthur
Arunta tribe : All-Father belief,

519 ; conception beliefs, 391 ;

totem kins, 390-1
Aruwimi river : mask, 2, 9
Ascension Day : annual barring

custom, London, 31
Ashanti : exhibits from, 1-2, 9, 266
Ashes : in folk-medicine, India, 84-

Ash-tree : concretions as amulets,
Sussex, 7 ; faggot, Devon, 6

Asia : (see also Afghanistan ; Ar-
abia ; Armenia ; Asia Minor ; As-
syria ; Burma ; China ; Chukchi ;
East Indies ; Elamites ; Hittites ;
Japan ; Malay Archipelago ; Ma-
lay Peninsula ; Palestine ; Persia ;
Philippines; Phoenicia; Syria;
Tibet) ; western, gods with axes,
6i-2, sun symbols, 64

Index.

541

Asia Minor : (see also Caria ;

Cilicia ; Troy) ; coins, 65 ; double

axe, 63
Ass, see Donkey
Assam : (see also Garos ; Hakka

Chins ; Kukis ; Lushais ; Maikel ;

Manipur ; Maolong ; Mayong-

klong ; Meitheis ; Nagas ; Tang-

khuls) ; dialects, 296 ; exhibits,

9 ; head-hunting, 8
Assyria : (^ee also Nineveh) ; god

images, 61-2 (plate) ; influences

Crete, 135
Astrology : fixes wedding date,

Palestine, 285
Astronomical folklore, see Eclipse ;

Meteors ; Moon ; Stars ; Sun
Athens : blessing, 531 ; Minotaur

legends, 132-4, 137-9, M^'S
Athi river, see Akikuyu
Atnatu, deity, Kaitish, 521
Attica, see Athens
Attis myth, iii
Attyflin : banshee, 191 ; death

coach, 192, 194
Auditors, election of, 6
Augury, see Divination
August, see St Bartholomew's Day
Aulain : folk-medicine, 317
Aunt, see Father's sister
Australia : (see also Queensland ;

South Australia ; Torres Straits ;

and under names of tribes) ; All-
Father belief, 519-22 ; kin, 149 ;

social evolution, 519-20
Auvergne : burial of cur^, 178
Axe : double, as symbol, 62-6

(plates), 68, 135 ; of St 01af,74-6 ;

of sun-god, 60-78 (plates)

Babies, see Birth customs and be-
liefs

Bachelors' Houses, see Men's
Houses

Backa : symbolic axe, 69

Backwards : in laying ghost,
Bucks, 222

Badagas : ford rites, 159

Badger : demon-badger, Clare, 181,
478-9 ; snout as amulet, Somer-
set, 7

Badll : folk-medicine, 325

Bagheria : cult of executed crimi-
nals, 171

Bagley Wood : cross in turf, 387

Bagot's Bromley : history, 27

Bahamas : folk-tales, 264

Baharas herb : gathering, 162

Baladi : fetish, 468

Balance Sheet of Society, 13

Balder, 72, 438

Balkan Peninsula, see Albania ;

Servia ; Thrace
Ballads, see Folk-songs
Ballydeely : cairn, 479 ; meaning,

183
Ballyganner Hill : dolmen, 196
Ballyhee : fairies, 195
Ballyheigue Bay : sunken church,

485
Ballymarkahan : banshee, 191
Ballyportry : place-names, 184
Ballyvaughan : legend, 188
Baltimore : bayberry candle for

luck, Christmas, 6
Ban Bodla : folk-medicine, 315
Bangor (Down) : plague ravages,

423
Banks' islands : (see also Merlav ;

Mota ; Motlav ; Rowa ; Vanua

Lava) ; conception beliefs, 391 ;

father's sister, 42, 44-55 ; magical

practices, 2 ; marriage customs,

54-5 ; totemism, 390-1
Banshees, 120, 186-91
Bantu : (see also under names of

tribes) ; ford rites, 159
Baobab-tree : in folk-tale, Africa,

363

Baptism : before child's first visit,
Yorks, 225 ; dangers before,
148

Baras : folk-medicine, 315

Barrenness, see Birth customs and
beliefs

Basti Arain : amulet, 333

Basutos : folk-tale, 256-7

Bat : blood, in love charm, Eng-
land, 376 ; in folklore, Wales,
118; in folk-tale, Kabyles, 158

Batala : folk-medicine, 314, 316

Bathing : of bride, Palestine, 289 ;
in folk-medicine, India, 320, 322 ;
not on Sunday, Palestine, 289

Batta tribe : sorcerer's book, 2

Bayberry : candle for luck, U.S.A.,
6

Bay-tree : Christmas greens, Wor-
cester, 263

Bear : in folk-tale, Armenia, 366 ;
in legend, Clare, 181, 47S

Beara the Firbolg, 182

Beast fables, 200-1, 203-15, 258-60,
351-65, 487-503

542

Index.

Beating, ceremonial : Palestine, 293

Beating the bounds, 263

Beaver : in folk-tale, Samoyeds,

142
Bechuana : molemo, meaning of,
151 ; widow, protective rites by,
160
Bedstaff : in charm against witch-
craft, 150
Bedstead : vampire, Wales, 121
Bedu : marriage customs, 265, 270-

82 (plate)
Beetle : suicide reincarnated as,
Garos, 262 ; in witch-finding,
Congo, 459
Beggars : lodging right, Needwood

Forest, 27
Behring Straits, see Eskimo
Beit Jala : wedding attire, 288
Belemnite : as amulet, Surrejs 7
Belgium: (see also Antwerp; Brus-
sels ; Flanders ; Ghent) ; van
Heurck's and Boekenoogen's
Histoire de Vimagerie populaire
Flamande reviewed, 527-9 ; Palm
Sunday, 410-1
Bell : in folk-tales, Ireland, 185 ;
omen from, Sicily, 174 ; ringing,
Lanark, 92, Worcester, 263
Bellringers : Garland Day, Castle-
ton, 20-1, 25
Benbecula : divination, 443-4
Bengal, see Assam ; Chutia Nag-
pur
Beri : folk-medicine, 325
Berkshire, see Bagley Wood
Bethlehem : wedding attire, 287-8
Beth-shemesh : plague caused by

curiosity, 151
Betley Hall : hobbyhorse, 248
Bhera : saint's tomb, 86
Bhut Majra : folk-medicine, 323
Bhuts, India, 178

Bibliography : annual, 10 ; of folk-
lore of United Kingdom, 40-1
Bini, see Edo

Birch-broom custom, Surrey, 38S
Birch-tree: god -images from,

Lapps, 78
Birds in folklore : (see also Blue
jay ; Butcher - bird ; Crow ;
Cuckoo ; Dove ; Eagle ; Eagle-
hawk ; Fish-hawk ; Fowls ; Fran-
colin ; Goatsucker ; Goose ;
Hawk ; King crow ; Kingfisher ;
Kite ; Magpie ; Nightingale ;
Night-jar bird ; Ostrich ; Owl ;

Peacock ; Raven ; Robin ; Sea-
gull ; Turkey cock ; Wakhem-
bam ; Wood-pigeon ; Wren) ; en-
chanted, Clare, 483 ; in folk-tales,
141 ; omens from, see Omens ;
sacrificed, Garos, 262 ; as totem,
New Guinea, 533 ; Wales, 117-8

Birohar : folk-medicine, 333

Birth customs and beliefs : {see
also Omens ; Twins) ; barren-
ness cured by iidembo, Congo,
467 ; body of newly-born as amu-
let, Eskimo, 177 ; child slain if
mother dies, Assam, 301 ; cou-
vade, Ulster, 232-3 ; delivery aided
by amulet, India, 333, fetish
power, Congo, 461, 466, sanctified
water, India, 329 ; first food given
by father, Assam, 309 ; gennas,
Assam, 305, 308-9 ; nganga,
Congo, 461, 466; parentage de-
termined by payment. Banks'"
islands, 47 ; pregnancy rites,
Assam, 310, Banks' islands,
46-7, East Africa, 123 ; rite
against weakly children, Congo,.
464, 469 ; tabus, Assam, 306,
308 ; in Wales, 118

Birth of Humility, The, by R. R.
Marett, reviewed, 523-4

Bismarck Archipelago : (see also
New Britain) ; 537

Bissu plant : in charm against
fevers, India, 505

Black animals, see Bull ; Dog j
Horse

Blackberry : spoiled at Michaelmas,
Clare, 481

Black Sea, see Leuk^

Blacksmith : fetish from forge,
Congo, 466 ; as healer, India,
85 ; Hephaistos as smith, 66

Black thread amulet, German)', 438

Bladen, W. Wells : exhibits, 6

Bladon : right of way, 32

Bleeding, see Blood-letting

Blenheim Park : septennial festi-
val, 32

Blessings : Athens, 531

Blindness : god who cures, Garos,
261

Blithfield : Christmas sports, 39-40

Blood : in charms, Congo, 457,
England, 376 ; drunk, 164,
Africa, 161 ; of Gorgon, 151 ;
offered, Crete, 137 ; in . rite
against evil dream, Assam, 262 ;

Index.

543

sprinkled on bridal pair, Pales-
tine, 281, 293, and on new house,
Palestine, 290

Blood feud : relatives-in-law not
concerned, Bedu, 274-5

Blood-letting : in folk-medicine,
India, 319

Bluebeard : Gilles de Rais, 137

Blue jay : omens from, Panjab,
216

Blythe river, 27, 29

Boar, see Pig

Boat : Thor and St Olaf in, 76

Bodlas : charms, 331

Bohercrochaun : legend, 485

Bohernamish : legend, 182 ; mean-
ing, 182

Bohuslan, see Backa

Boils : cures for, India, 84, 86, 317,
320-1, 327

Bologna : votive axe, 67 (plate)

Bones : as amulet, Suffolk, 7,
Yorks, 7 ; of dead used as spatu-
lae etc., Trobriands, 534

Bonfires, see Fire

Bongas, supernatural beings,
India, 125

Book of Ballymote, 444

Books presented to Folk-Lore
Society, 10, 266

Boots, see Shoes

Borrowing : in witchcraft, 164

Bow and arrow : as musical instru-
ment. Abbot's Bromley, 39-40

Boyne river : monster, 479

Bracelets : jaw bones as, Trobri-
ands etc., 534

Bradwell : descent of people, 37

Brain diseases : cure for, India, 322

Bran, Finn's dog, 184, 231

Bran, voyage of, 230-1

Brandon : amulets, 7

Brazil : thunderbolts, 60

Bread : in folk-medicine, India, 85,
315. 320

Bread-fruit tree : withered by
glance, Samoa, 152

Breathing : in folk-medicine, Pan-
jab, 316, 320, 324

Brendan legends, 404, 407-8, 484

Bride Wager type of folk-tales, 139

Brigit, the goddess, 403-4, 439

British Columbia : dangerous to tell
name, 156

British East Africa, see Aberdare
Range ; Akamba ; Akikuyu ; An-
yanga ; Athi river ; Mount Kenya

British folklore, collection of, 15-6,
18-41, 101-2

Broadsheets, Flanders, 527-9

Broadwood, Miss L. : Locality and
Variants of Carol Wanted, 106

Brock the gnome, 70

Bromley Hurst, 27

Bronach the hag, 187-8

Bronte, Apollo's horse, 66

Bronze Age : culture of, 114; sym-
bolic axes, 68-9 (plate)

Brooksbank, Rev. J. H. : exhibit, 6

Brooms : birch-broom custom,
Surrey, 388 ; on Garland Day,
Castleton, 21

Brown, F. M. ; Scraps of English
Folklore, 224-7

Brownies : India, 125

Brugh : monster, 479

Brussels : exhibits from, 131

Buckinghamshire, see Long Cren-
don ; Slough

Buffalo : in folk-tales, Africa, 209-
10, 363, 487-8, 495, 500-1, Ar-
menia, 366 ; milk drunk by
snake, Panjab, 216

Bull : (see also Minotaur) ; feasts
on, Crete, 136-7 ; in folk-tales,
Africa, 212-3 > ghostly, Clare,
480 ; god stands on, 63 (plate) ;
head as symbol, Mycenae and
Crete, 64, 136 ; in saint's legend,

185

Bull-ring, Crete, 145

Bunjil, deity, Australia, 521

Bunratty : banshee, 189 ; corpse-
lights, 340 ; Dalcassians, 181 ;
giant fish, 480 ; place-names, 185 ;
spectre dog, 483 ; supernatural
phenomena, 339

Burial customs and beliefs, see
Death and funeral customs and
beliefs

Burial of Amputated Limbs, by
C. S. Burne, 105, and A. R.
Wright, 387

Burma : wer-tiger, 371

Burne, Miss C. S. : Burial of
Amputated Limbs, 105 ; exhibits,
6, 265 ; Occult Povk'ers of Heal-
ing in the Panjab, 313-34; The
Value of European Folklore in
the History of Culture, 5, 14-41 ;
reviews by, — Trevelyan's Folk-
lore and Folk-stories of Wales,
117-21 ; May lam's The Hooden
Horse, 246-9 ; Knowlson's The

544

Index.

Origins of Popular Superstitions
and Customs, 41 1-2

Burne, R. V. H. : Scraps of Eng-
lish Folklore, 223

Burren : banshee, 186-7 '< fairies,
197 ; legends and place-names,
182, 198 ; supernatural horses,
482 ; tribes, 181

Burton-on-Trent : abbey posses-
sions, 27-9 ; Abbots' fair, 26

Bush-cat : in folk-tale, S. Nigeria,
260

Butcher bird : as omen, India, 216

Butter-making, see Churning

■Caerphilly castle : night-hag, 120
Caheraphuca : meaning, 185
Cahercalla : dangerous to destroy

fort, 194
Cahercloggaun : meaning, 182
Cahercrochain : meaning, 183
Caherdoonerish : meaning, 182
Caherfirogue : meaning, 185
Caherlisananima : meaning, 182
Cahernaheanmna : meaning, 183
Cahernanoorane : fairies, 195 ;

meaning, 184
Caherussheen : meaning, 184
Cahersaul : meaning, 183
•Cahir, see Lough bo Girr
Caithness : witchcraft and charm-
ing, 264
Cakes : in folk-tale, Africa, 490-2 ;

jiilkuse, 74 ; nakia, Hausas, 358,

494 ; Oxon, 32 ; thrown at

bridal, Yorks, 226 ; wedding,

Palestine, 288
Calabar : folk-tales, 204, 259-60
Calabria : processional dances, 515
Calderon, G. : review by, — Grace's

Folktales of the Maori, 128
Calicut : suicide of king, 144
Calves, see Cattle
Canada, see British Columbia ;

Vancouver island
Candle : bayberry, for luck,

U.S.A., 6
Candlelight : unlucky to see bridal

dress by, Yorks, 225
Cannibalism : in folk-tales, 141-2,

Africa, 256 ; as protective rite.

New Britain, 161
Canoes : ornament. New Britain, 3
Cape Possession : clan badges, 533
Cappaghkennedy : dolmen, 196
Cappanapeasta : meaning, 476
Card-playing superstitions, 412

Caria, see Labranda ; Mylasa
Carian province : strangers slain,

176
Carleton-in-Craven : Christmas cus-
toms and beliefs, 225
Carnconnachtach : meaning, 479
Carnelly : changeling belief, 198
Caroline islands, see Uap
Carols : England, 106
Carran : fairies, 197 ; petrified

man, 183 ; phooka, 183
Carriage : omen from passing of,

Sicily, 174
Carrickaneelwar, 183
Carrickeevul : meaning, 185-6
Carrigaholt : spectre dog, 482
Carrigaholt Castle : ghosts, 345
Carts : paintings of Decollati,

Sicily, 170 (plates)
Cartwright, Mrs. M. : Scraps of

Scottish Folklore, 89-91
Cass, house of : tutelary spirit, 186
Castleford : amulet, 227
Castleton : 37 ; church pews, 6, 24 ;
descent of people, 37 ; " Garland
Day," 20-5, 33, 37, 102 ; in pro-
verb, 23 ; Stealing Night, 38
Cat : (see also Wer-beasts ; Wild
cat) ; birth genna, Assam, 308 ;
omen from, Sicily, 174
Catabodva, battle goddess, 180,

186-7
Catalonia : St Romuald, 177
Catamenia : first, ceremony at,
Tonga, 43, 58 ; liquid in gather-
ing herb Baharas, 162
Cattle : (see also Bull ; Cow ; Ox) ;
birth gennas, Assam, 308-9 ;
charms to protect, Italy, 163,
Somerset, 150, and to destroy,
India, 332 ; not in early Cretan
art, 136 ; cures for, India, 84-5 ;
dung in protective rites, Bechu-
ana, 160 ; kneel, Jan. 6, Craven,
225 ; sacrificed, Crete, 135 ;
water-cattle, Clare, 481 ; widows
dangerous to, Bechuana, 160
Caul: birth with gives "second
sight," and prevents drowning,
Argyll, 90
Cavedale : well custom, 38
Caves: in folklore, Wales, 118;

sacred, Crete, 134-5
Cawlowe hill : in saying, 37
Celts as amulets, Antrim, 7
Centipede : in folk-tales, Africa, 201
Cerberus, 157

Index.

545

Certain Quests and Doles, by C.

Peabody, reviewed, 410-1
Ceylon : amulets, 161 ; ford rites,

159; horoscope, 268
Chaffing, as custom. Banks'

islands, 45, 50
Chair : vampire, Wales, 121
Chalk : in fetish charm, Congo,

459
Changelings : Clare, 198-9 ; Isle of

Man, 472-5
Channel islands : bibliography, 41
Chapbooks, Flanders, 527
Chara : folk-medicine, 322
Charms and spells : (see also Amu-
lets and talismans) ;
against : — animals, noxious, In-
dia, 86, 326, 331, 506, Zulus,
160 ; bites and stings, Ceylon,
161, Cornwall, 161, India, 86,

324-5. 329-31. 333. 504. 506;
blisters, India, 507 ; diseases
and ailments, 445, Essex, 223,
Germany, 388, India, 83-6, 323-
8. 330, 332, 433. 505-8; Ire-
land, 418, 422-3, 444-5, Scot-
land, 88-9, 437, Zulus, 160 ;
enemies, Africa etc., 161, In-
dia, 217 ; evil eye, 164, India,
217, Scotland, 160, 433 ; evil
spirits, India, 86, 217, 310, 322,
505 ; false lovers, Sicily etc.,
173-4 '. fire and lightning,
Ireland, 422 ; hailstorms, In-
dia, 85-6, 331-2 ; journey
dangers, Ireland, 418, 436-7,
444 ; poisons, Ireland, 438 ;
theft, 377-8, 426 ; witchcraft,
163-4, Somerset, 150 ; wounds,
India, 325, Ireland, 438 ;
in ancient service books, 446 ;
to bind needle, oven, or fire,
India, 330-1 ; for childbirth,
India, 329 ; to destroy cattle,
India, 332 ; to stop dust-storm,
India, 330-1 ; English Charms of
the Seventeenth Century, by M.
Gaster, 375-8 ; to extract thorn,
St Gall, 438, 445 ; for long life,
Ireland, 444 ; hymn-charms, Ire-
land, 417-46, Scotland, 430-5 ; to
learn Koran, India, 321 ; in N.
Scotland, 264 ; object of, Ameri-
can Indians, 164 ; taught in bardic
schools, Ireland, 444 ; in Wales.
118; written in special shapes,
426

Cherokees : charms, 164

Cheshire : annual barring, Apl. 1st,

Chet : in folk-medicine, India, 318

Chhahka : in charm, India, 84

Chickens, see Fowls

Children, see Baptism ; Birth cus-
toms and beliefs ; Circumcision ;
Games ; Medical folklore

China, see Carian ; Tibet

Chiniot : folk-medicine, 320

Chishti tribe : charms, 331

Christiania : horse trappings, 4

Christianity : in Grail romances,
109, 1x2-3, 1 16-7; as transform-
ing-element, 115-7

Christmas Day : carol-singing,
Worcester, 263

Christmas Eve : greenery not in
house before, Craven, 225 ; min-
ing custom, Castleton, 38 ; Yule
log burnt, Craven, 225

Christmas Night : bayberry candle
burnt, U.S.A., 6

Christmastide : (see also Christmas
Day ; Christmas Eve ; Christmas
Night) ; bogeys, Greece, 531 ;
buck associated with, 74 ; fire
customs, Coniston, 224 ; greenery,
Worcester, 263, not burnt,
Craven, 225 ; hoodening, Kent,
246-9; in Wales, 118

Chrysanthemum : as sun symbol,
Japan etc., 64

Chukchi : thoughtless impreca-
tions, 154-5

Church : garland on tower, Castle-
ton, 20; pews, Castleton, 6, 24

Churchyard road, in charm, Scot-
land, 88-9

Churning customs and beliefs :
India, 216 ; Ireland, 195-6

Chutia Nagpur, see Santdls ; Singh-
bhum

Chwana : folk-tale, 257

Cilicia, see Tarsos

Cinderella type of folk-tales, 368-9

Circumcision : Congo, 467

Civet-cat, see Wer-beasts

Clans : Akikdyu, 255-6 ; British
New Guinea, 533 ; Nagas, 298

Clare : A Folklore Survey of
County Clare, by T. J. West-
ropp, 180-98 (plate), 338-49
(plate), 476-87

Clare Castle : ghost, 345 ; place-
name, 185

546

Index.

Clayoquot : house posts, Nootkans,

130
Clock : omen from chimes, Yorks,

226
Clodd, E. : In Memoriam : Alfred

Nutt, 335-7
Cloghanairgid : meaning, 184
Cloghaphuca : meaning, 184
Clondegad : meaning, 184
Clonderalaw : place-names, 183-4 '

tribe, 182
Clonlara : bull, 480 ; ghost, 344

(plate) ; phooka, 481
Clonloghan : place-name, 185
Clonmacnois : St Ciaran, 406-7
Clontarf, battle of, 186
Clooney : corpse-light, 340
Cloongaheen : place-name, 186
Cloontra : place-name, 186
Close-ny-Lheiy : folk-tale, 472-5
Cloth : once grew on trees, India,

125 ; white, in magic, Malays,

372
Cloughnaphuca : meaning, 184
Cloves : necklace of, on bride,

Bedu, 280
Coal : brought in, New Year's Eve,

Yorks, 226
Cobra, see Snake
Cock : fetish, Congo, 458 ; in fetish

rite, Congo, 463 ; in folk-tales,

Armenia, 369, S. Nigeria, 260 ;

as lamp ornament, Amiens, 131 ;

omens from, Scotland, 90, Sicily,

174, Yorks, 226 ; sacrificed,

Assam, 262
Cockroach, see Beetle
Coco-nut palm : cut down at death,

Trobriands, 533 ; killed by

glance, Samoa, 151
Coins : Greek, 65 (plate) ; Mylasa,

62 ; Tarsos, 63 (plate)
Colic : cure for, Panjab, 314
Collectanea, 79-92, 180-227, SS^'T^.

472-511
Colour in folklore : (see also under

various colours) ; Carolines, 536 ;

Wales, 118, 121
Commagene, see Doliche
Compass, points of, see under

names
Conception : Banks' islands, 391 ;

totemism a theory of, 389-90
Congo Beige : (see also Aruwimi ;

Lokele ; San Salvador ; Stanley

Falls ; Wathen ; Wombe ; Ya-

kusu) ; exhibits from, 2, 9, 130 ;

The Congo Medicine-man and
his Black and White Magic, by
J. H. Weeks, 130, 447-71

Congo Frangais, see Baladi

Coniston : Christmastide tabus, 224

Connaught, see Connemara ; Gal-
way ; Mayo

Connemara : prayer, 433-4

Conte del Graal, 243, 246

Cook's islands, see Hervey island

Corcabaiscinn, 181-2

Corca Modruad, 181, 479

Corcavaskin : St Senan, 181 ;
tribes, 182

Corcomroe : legends, 182-3, ^88,
479 ; place-names, 182-3 > tribes,
181

Cordilleras : ford rites, 159

Corfu : exhibits, 269 ; votive offer-
ings, 131

Cork : (see also Kinsale) ; rune, 440

Corn spirits, vegetation souls, and
the like : in Grail romances,
iio-i ; white dogs as, 18-9

Cornwall : charms, 161

Corofin : banshee, 191 ; bruckee,
478 ; death coach, 194 ; dolmen,
196 ; haunted houses, 346

Corpse bird, Wales, 119

Corpse-candles : Ireland, 340 ;
Wales, 1 1 8-9

Corpses, see Death and funeral
customs and beliefs

Correspondence, 93-106, 229-36,
379-88, 5 1 2-5

Corroboree songs, 86-8

Corsica : spitting, 163

Council : annual report, 8-13 ; elec-
tion, 6

Counting-out rhymes : Scotland,
264

Courtship customs and. behefs :
Derbyshire, 37

Cousins marry, Bedu, 274

Couvade : Ulster, 232-3

Cow : dung in folk-medicine, India,
316, 318; in folk-tale, Armenia,
370-1 ; the Glas, Clare, 184 ;
milk affected by wounded man,
Zulus, 160 ; milk of herd
mingled in protective rite,
Bechuana, 160

Craganeevul : meaning, 181, 186

Craglea : in folk-tale, 186-7

Cragmoher : death coach, 194

Cramp : amulets against, Sussex,
7, Whitstable, 7

Index.

547

Crathie : lucky fowls, 89

Cratloe : ghost, 185 ; phooka, 481 ;
spectre dog, 482-3

Craven : (see also Carleton-in-
Craven) ; omens, 225 ; unlucky
actions, 225

Creation legends : Carolines, 536 ;
India, 125, 301

Creator, beliefs about : Carolines,
536 ; Garos, 261

Creeping cures for diseases, India,
326

Crete : (see also Dicte ; Hagia
Triada ; Knossos ; Minotaur ;
Mt. Ida ; Mt. Lyttos ; Psychro) ;
religion in, 133-46 ; votive offer-
ings, 64

Cricket : lucky to hear, Craven, 225

Croaghateeaun : fairies, igS

Crocodile : charm against, Zulus,
160 ; in folk-tale, Togo, 258

Crooke, W. : reviews by, — Bompas'
Folklore of the Santdl Parganas,
124-6 ; Playfair's The Garos,
261-3 ; Macauliffe's The Sikh Re-
ligion, 414-6 ; short notice by, —
Haddon's The Races of Man and
their Distribution, 263

Cross : as amulet, Antrim, 9 ; re-
places hammer as symbol, Scan-
dinavia, 72 ; signed over fishing
nets, Yorks, 227

Crossbow : in horn dance, Abbot's
Bromley, 26, 39-40

Crosses Cut in Turf after Fatal
Accidents, by B. Freire-Marreco,
387-S

Crossing road : tabued in illness,
Congo, 468

Cross-roads : as burying-place,
Congo, 454

" Cross Trees," by L. M. Eyre, 515

Crow : (see also King crow) ; in
festival, Manipur, 79, 81-2 ;
omen from, Craven, 225 ; as
prophet, Manipur, 82 ; a witch,
Manipur, 82

Crowns : wedding, Palestine, 294

Cruchwill, 339

Crush 'banola : legend, 184-5

Cuba : folk-tales, 264

Cuchulainn sagas : Cuckoo

Heroes, by A. Nutt, 230-5 ; link-
ing Milesian kings to, 399

Cuckoo Heroes, by A. Nutt, 230-5

Cullaun lake : enchanted city, 481,
486-7 ; water-cattle, 481

Cult of Executed Criminals at
Palermo, The, by E. S. Hart-
land, 130, 168-79 (plates)
Cups, see Drinking-vessels
Currency : {see also Coins) ; Caro-
lines, 536 ; Upper Congo, 130
Cursing, see Imprecations
Cyrus, King, see King Cyrus

Daelach river : meaning, 183, 191 ;
snake, 479

Daelach the Firbolg, 183, 479

Dahomey : folk-tales, 258

Dalcassian tribes, 181, 184, 187

Dances : ekinu, Congo, 448 ; fairy,
Isle of Man, 473-4 ; horn dance.
Abbot's Bromley, 6, 26-30, 39-40 ;
morris. Abbot's Bromley, 26, 33,
39-40, Castleton, 20-1, 25, Oxon,
32; Palestine, 286; religious, 515

Datiya : folk-medicine, 86

Days and Seasons : All Fools' Day,
31 ; April, 31 ; Ascension Day,
31 ; August, 26 ; Peabody's Cer-
tain Quests and Doles reviewed,
410-1 ; diet, 318 ; Christmas
Day, 263 ; Christmas Eve, 38,
225, 246-9 ; Christmas Night, 6 ;
Christmastide, 6, 38, 74, 118,
224-5, 246-9, 263, 531 ; December,
6. 38, 74, 118, 224-5, 227, 246-9,
263, 531 ; Easter Day, 38 ; Easter-
tide, 31, 38 ; Epiphany, 528 ; Feb-
ruary, 311 ; Friday, 31, 38, 172,
279; Good Friday, 31, 38; Hal-
lowmas, 118; January, 31, 38,
39, 225, 528 ; July, 75 ; June,
118; Kdtak, 318; Low Sunday,
263 ; May, 20-1, 435 ; May Day,
21, 435 ; Michaelmas, 481 ; Mid-
summer Night, 118; Monday,
26, 38, 172, 377; New Year,
31, 39, 224-7, 264 ; New Year's
Day, 31, 39; New Year's Eve,
224-5, 227 ; Night, 158 ; Old
Christmas Day, 225 ; Palm Sun-
day, 224, 410-1 ; Plough Mon-
day, 38 ; St Bartholomew's Day,
26 ; St John's Day, 422 ; St
Stephen's Day, 30 ; Saturday, 84-
5 ; September, 26, 38, 481, 515 ;
Shaking Day, 38 ; Stealing Night,
38 ; Sunday, 38-9, 84-5, 224, 289,
318-9, 321-2, 324; Thursday, 77,
279, 320-1 ; Tuesday, 318 ; Twelfth
Day, 39; in Wales, 118; Whit-
suntide, 32

548

Index.

Dead, land of the, see Hades

Death and funeral customs and be-
liefs : (see also Ghosts ; Omens ;
Purgatory ; Reincarnation be-
liefs) ; ancestor worship in,
Garos, 261 ; Assam, 311 ; burial
at cross-roads, Congo, 454 ;
burial by interment, Carolines,
536 ; burial caskets, Ashanti, 1-2 ;
burial of cur6 outside parish dis-
astrous, Auvergne, 178 ; charms
not worked after funeral, India,
86; corpse bird, Wales, 119;
corpse must be touched, Lin-
colnshire, 161 ; corpse protected
by watcher, Greeks, 148 ; corpse
not seen by wife, Bedu, 275 ;
crosses in turf, S. England, 387-
8 ; cross left by tree, Wexford,
515 ; death-horse for soul, Wales,
119; death, origin of, Togo,
258 ; funeral customs, Greece,
531, New Guinea, 533 ; funeral
feasts, Trobriands, 533-4 ; funeral
flowers unlucky, Bucks, 223 ;
funeral hood, Salop, 6 ; guides
given to dead, Garos, 262 ; homi-
cide, purifying from, Congo,
461-2 ; mourning, Trobriands,
533-4 ; ritual duties affected by
marriage, Assam, 304 ; Saniasis
buried, not burnt, India, 327 ;
tears not dropped on corpse,
Scotland, 90 ; unmarried buried
in wedding clothes, Palestine,
273-4; in Wales, 118; widower,
ceremony for, Congo, 463-4

Death coach, see Headless ghosts

December, see Christmas Day ;
Christmas Eve ; Christmas
Night ; Christmastide ; New
Year's Eve

Dechtire, 231

Decollati, see Executions

Deer : bucks draw Indra's and
Thor's chariots, 61, 73, reincar-
nated by Thor, 71, and associ-
ated with Yule, 74 ; in folk-tale,
Africa, 500-1 ; in legend of St
Patrick, 442-3 ; sacrificed, Crete,

135

Deirdre, 232

Deity, conceptions of : Schmidt's
L'Ortgine de I' Idee de Dieu re-
viewed, 516-23 ; Uap, 536

Delphi : advice to Spartans, 159 ;
Apollo and Gauls, 66

Demeter, 531

Demons and evil spirits : (see also
Devil ; Jinns) ; charms and rites
against, India, 86, 310, 322, 505 ;
controlled by nganga, Congo,
458-9 ; exorcist, Congo, 453-4

Denmark : (see also Faroe islands ;
Iceland) ; folk-songs, 379, 410 ;
sowing customs, 75 ; symbolic
figures, 68-9 (plate)

Dera Ghazi Khan : folk-medicine,
314-6, 326-7, 333

Derbyshire, see Bradwell ; Castle-
ton ; Cavedale ; Cawlowe ; Duf-
field ; Hope ; Kedleston ; Peak
district

Derry : St Columcille, 408

Devenish Abbey : St Molaise, 404

Devil : Lincolnshire, 152-3 ; Wales,
118

Devon : ashen faggot, 6

Dharek-tree : in folk-medicine,
India, 326, 330

Diancecht, deity, 438

Diarmaid and Grainne, 396-7

Dicte, cave of, 135, 144

Dieri tribe : group marriage, 520

Dietrich saga, 230

Dighal : folk-medicine, 325

Dingo : in folk-tale, Africa, 359

Dintata : in fetish charm, Congo,

459

Dionysos : sacredness of image,
Ilium, 151

Dionysus Zagreus, 136-7

Diseases : (see also under names of
diseases) ; caused by animals,
Zulus, 160, bongas, India, 125,
fetish, Congo, 460-1, witchcraft,
Congo, 451 ; cures, see Medical
folklore ; witch-doctor cures,
Congo, 452-3

Divdli feast, India, 86

Divination : by birds, Congo, 458,
Ireland, 437, Manipur, 80 ; by
blowing through hands, Ireland,
444 ; by dreams, Congo, 452 ; by
plants, Ireland, 444, Scotland,
91-2 ; by trance, Ireland, 444 ;
by traps, Congo, 459-60 ; by
water. Banks' islands, 47 ; friths,
Hebrides, 443-4 ; in ancient Ire-
land, 437 ; nganga for, Congo,
464 ; of marriage, Scotland, 89 ;
of sex of unborn. Banks' islands,
46-7

Diwan : folk-medicine, 314

Index.

549

Dodona : oracle, 142-3

Dog : birth genna, Assam, 308 ;
Bran, 184, 231 ; in charm, Essex,
223, Ireland, 438 ; fetish cere-
mony if killed, Congo, 462 ; flesh
tabued, Assam, 305, 309 ; in folk-
tales, Africa, 200-1, 21 1-2, 357-8,
489-93, 501-3 ; guides soul,
Garos, 262 ; hounds of Under-
world, Wales, 1 17-8, 120-1 ;
mad, amulet against, Minehead,
7 ; omen from, Sicily, 174 ; sacri-
ficed, Assam, 309 ; spectre, Clare,
185, 482-3 ; white, in proverb,
Oxon, 18-9 ; wild, beliefs about,
Malays, 162-3

Dogbite : cures for, India, 86,
315, 320-1

Doliche : Jupiter Dolichenus, 63
(plate)

Dolmens : dangerous to blast, Ire-
land, 194-5 ; homes of fairies,
Ireland, 196

Donkey : ass-headed figures, Crete,
132 ; in folk-tales, Africa, 200,
358, 496-7, 500-1 ; omen from,
Sicily, 174

Doogh castle : fairies, 196-7

Doolough Lake : legends, 183,

477-9

Dooneeva : fairy revenge, 195

Doonmore : ghostly sounds, 344-5

Door : of bride's home shut during
wedding, Yorks, 226

Doora : ' Water,' 340

Dorians : in Crete, 135

Dorowa-tree : fruit in folk-tale,
Hausas, 490-2

Dorset : folk-music, 35-6

Dough : in marriage custom, Pale-
stine, 293

Dove : in folk-tales, Africa, 208-9,
259 ; in laying ghost, Bucks,
222

Down, see Bangor

Dragon : in folk-tales, Ireland,
477-8, Italy, 349-50 ; on horse
tassel, Tibet, 3 ; in Wales, 118

Dragon of La Trinity, The : an
Italian Folk-Tale, by M. L.
Cameron, 349-50

Dragonfly : dangerous, Essex, 223

Dreams : (see also Incubation) ;
divination by, Congo, 452 ; evil,
rite to counteract, Assam, 262-3 >
from seeing corpse, Lincolnshire,
161 ; omens from, Assam, 312

Drehidnavaddaroe : meaning, 185
Drinking : as ford rite, 159
Drinking-vessels : fairy, Scotland,

156 ; fetish, Congo, 2 ; omens

from, Scotland, 89-90
Dromcliff : ghosts, 482 ; hidden

bells, 185
Dropsy : fetish ceremony for,

Congo, 460 ; tabu removed after,

Congo, 468-9
Drowning : birth with caul pre-
vents, Argyll, 90
Druids : in folk-tales, Clare, 184
Drum-beating : in fetish ceremony,

Congo, 455-6 ; origin of, Africa,

259

Dualas : folk-tales, 215, 257

Duanaire Finn, by E. MacNeill,
reviewed, 396-401

Dubh Lacha, 231

Duffield : annual hunt, 31

Dugong : amulet to attract. New
Guinea, 2

Duiker : in folk-tales, Hausas, 210,
495-6

Dunaheirka : spectre, 343

Dunbeg Bay : folk-tale, 183

Dundahlin : meaning, 183

Dung : in folk-medicine, India,
316, 318; in protective rites
against crocodiles, Zulus, 160,
and widows, Bechuana, 160

Dunlicka Castle : haunted, 344

Durga : in mantras, Sirmflr, 504-5

Dust-storm: charm to 'bind,'
India, 330-1

Dysert : legends, 188-9 \ place-
names, 184-5

Eagle : eagle-headed figure, Crete,

132
Eaglehawk : Bunjil related to, 521
Ear-piercing : food tabus at,

Assam, 310 ; gennas at, Assam,

311

Earrings : save souls from monster,
Garos, 262

Earth : Zeus as god of, 133

Earthworm : in folk-tale, Africa,
260

East : in divination, Manipur, 81

Easter Day : Shaking Day, Castle-
ton, 38

Eastertide, see Easter Day ; Good
Friday

East Indies, see New Guinea ; Nias
island ; Sumatra

550

Index.

Echo : names of, Hausas, 202
Echternach : processional dance,

515

Eclipse : charms not worked dur-
ing, India, 86

Edenvale : fairies, 483

Editorship of Folk-Lore, 10

Edgmond : funeral hood, 6

Edo : totemic kinship, 395

Eel : amulet from skin, Yorks,
227 ; gigantic, Clare, 480

Egbo society, 259

Egg : in fetish charms, Congo, 459,
463 ; first man born from,
Assam, 311 ; given on child's
first visit, Yorks, 225

Egypt : (see also Heliopolis ; King
Rameses 11.); Osiris myth, iii ;
Churchward 's The Signs and
Symbols of Primordial Man re-
viewed, 525-7

Eight : in folk-medicine, India, 318

Eildon Hills : split by familiar, 157

Elamites : Minotaur, 136

El-Baraghit Bedu : women veiled,
274

Elemba-lemba : in fetish ceremony,
Congo, 462

Elephant : amulet against, Africa,
161 ; in folk-tales, Africa, 200-1,
203-4, 209-10, 255, 260, 358-9,
487-9, 495-6, 500-1 ; victim rein-
carnated as, Assam, 262

Eleusinia, the, iio-i

Eleven : in charm, India, 331

Elis : (see also Olympia) ; coins,
65

England : (see also under counties) ;
bibliography, 40-1 ; rings, 266

English Charms of the Seventeenth
Century, by M. Caster, 375-8

Ennis : banshee, 191 ; death coach,
191 ; fairies, 483 ; ghosts, 344,
346

Ennistymon : death coach, 193 ;
ghost, 185; snake, 479; spectre
dog, 482

Epilepsy : amulet against, India,

333

Epiphany : Flanders, 528

Epirus : (see also Dodona) ; folk-
tale, 141-2

Eskimo : hunting charm, 177

Essex : (see also Saffron Walden) ;
dragonfly belief, 223 ; medical
folklore, 223-4

Esthonia : cuckoo in sagas, 235

Etruria : Cameron's Old Etruria
and Modern Tuscany reviewed,
249-50

Euphrates river, see Commagene

European folklore : its value in the
history of culture, 14-41

Eurypylos, son of Euaemon, 151

Euxine, see Black Sea

Evening star : moon's wife, Aki-
kuyu, 255 ; origin of, India, 126

Evergreens : Christmas, Worcester,
263, burnt, Surrey, 224, not
burnt. Craven, 225, not in house
before Christmas Eve, Craven,
225

Evil eye : amulets against, 163,
265, 269 ; attacks weak, 148 ;
charms against, 164, India, 217,
Scotland, 160, 433 ; grapes
withered, Albania, 251 ; power
destroyed by nganga, Congo, 465

Evil spirits, see Demons and evil
spirits

Ewe, see Togo

Executions : cult of executed crimi-
nals, Palermo, 168-79 (plates) ;
executioner's coat, Ashanti, i

Exhibits at meetings, 1-4, 6-7, 129-
31, 265-6, 268-9

Exogamy : Assam, 298-g, 304 ;
Banks' islands, 44 ; in folk-tales,
139 ; Frazer's Totemism and
Exogamy reviewed, 389-96 ; S.
Nigeria, 394-5

Exorcism : Carolines, 536 ; Congo,

453-4
Eye : amulets in shape of, 163 ;

votive offerings in shape of,

Sicily, 169
Eye diseases : cures for, 445, India,

86, 315 ; eye well, Glamorgan,

121
Eyre, L. M. : " Cross Trees," 515 ;

The West Riding Teachers'

Anthropological Society, 236

Fairies : in County Clare, 183-5,
194-9, 483 ; in folk-tales, 156,
Argyll, 90-1, Greece, 531, India,
125, Ireland, 408, 425, Isle of
Man, 472-5 ; Scotland, 264 ; seize
entrapped victims only, 153

Fairs : Derbyshire, 38 ; Stafford-
shire, 26

Fairyhill Fort : meaning, 185

Familiar spirits : of Michael Scott,
157

Index.

551

Fanti : origin of songs and drums,

259

Farbreagas : meaning, 183

Faroe islands : ballads, 410

Fates, the : Greece, 531

Father's Sister in Oceania, The,
by W. H. R. Rivers, 2, 42-59

Fawcett, F. : exhibits b)', 268-9 ;
Okidal, a Method of Killing
among the Muppans, 268

Fear, The Lad who didn't know,
in folk-tales, 156

Fear as fatal in folk-tales, 156-7

Feasts, sec Festivals

Featherstone : omen, 226

February : festival, Assam, 311

Fergus mac Roigh, 181

Fergus river : ghosts, 345, 347

Ferns : saints, 402, 404

Ferozepur : charms, 331

Festivals : (see also Days and
Seasons) ; Hausas, 207 ; Nagas,
300, 305, 308-11 ; Oxon, 32 ; Tro-
briands, 533-4

Fetishism : (see also Witch-finders ;
Wizards); dress, Africa, 130;
fetishes, Africa, i, g, 130, 448,
453-6. 458, 460-1, 465-8, ex-
hibited, 2, 130

Fevers : amulet against, India,
506 ; cures for, Congo, 467,
India, 315, 325, 327, 505, Scot-
land, 88-9

Fifty Hausa Folk-Tales, by A. J. N.
Tremearne, 199-215, 351-65, 487-

503
Fighting, ceremonial : Scotland, 92
Fiji islands : dangerous to tell

name, 156 ; marriage customs,

54 .

Filani : in folk-tale, 361 ; names
tabued, 202

Find-tigernd, 231

Finger-rings : as amulets, Corn-
wall, 161, Suffolk, 7; exhibited,
265-6

Finnavarra Point : meaning, 182

Finn MacCoul : (see also Ossianic
sagas) ; as cuckoo hero, 230-5 ;
in folk-tales, no, 476; magic
powers, 444 ; in place-names,
Clare, 182, 184

Firbolgs : in legends, Clare, 198 ;
in place-names, Clare, 182-3, i85>
197

Fire : ashpit not emptied, Christ-
mas, Coniston, 224 ; charms to

' bind,' India, 330-1, Ireland,
422 ; in charms, India, 84, Scot-
land, 88 ; fires and fire-festivals,
Wales, 1 17-8; sacred, Kildare,
403-4, 439 ; sends off changeling.
Isle of Man, 475 ; not taken out
of house, Christmastide, Conis-
ton, 224

Firegrate : soot on bars as omen,
Yorks, 226

Firstborn : rites and feasts after
birth. Banks' islands, 48

Firstfooting : Manchester, 224

Firstfruits : Assam, 262 ; Panjab,
217

Fish in folklore : (see also Dugong ;
Eel ; Pike ; Sea-horse ; Shark) ;
herb attracts, England, 377 ;
names, Panjab, 216; as totems,
New Guinea, 533

Fisher King in the Grail Romances,
The, by W. A. Nitze, reviewed,
107-17

Fish-hawk : belief about, Panjab,
217

Fishing customs and beliefs : amu-
let. New Guinea, 2 ; fishers
tabued, Carolines, 535 ; signing
cross, Yorks, 227

Fits : cures for, Congo, 467, Ger-
many, 388

Five : in charms, India, 327

Flags : drapelets, Belgium, 528

Flanders : (see also Turnhout) ;
broadsides, 527-9

Fliethas, deity, 438

Flour : in charms, India, 326 ; in
imprecations, Palestine, 285

Flowers in folklore : (see also
Chrysanthemum ; Foxglove ;

Lily ; Orchid) ; bloom, Jan. 6,
Craven, 225 ; as offerings, Crete,
137 ; in Wales, 117

Flying-fox : in chaffing custom,
Banks' islands, 50

Fly-whisk as chief's insignia, Her-
vey island, 3

Folk-drama : England, 248-9 ; Italy,
250

Folklore : hints to collectors, 229 ;
How Far is the Lore of the Folk
Racial? by A. Nutt, 379-84 ; pro-
gress of study of, 14-7

Folklore and Folk-stories of Wales,
by M. Trevelyan, reviewed, 117-
21

Folklore of the Santdl Parganas,

552

Index.

by C. H. Bompas, reviewed,
124-6

Folklore Survey of County Clare,
A, by T. J. Westropp, 180-98
i^laie), 338-49 (/)Za«e), 476-87

Folk-medicine in the Panjab, by H.
A. Rose, 83-6, 313-34

Folk museums, 527

Folk-music : Africa, 258-9 ; Aus-
tralia, 86-8 ; England, 35-6

Folk pictui-es and drawings, Flan-
ders, 527-9 ; Melanesia, 535

Folk-sayings, see Proverbs

Folk-songs : Africa, 258-9 ; Aus-
tralia, 86-8 ; Denmark, 379, 410 ;
England, 36, 38, 106 ; Faroe
islands, 410 ; Germany, 410 ; Ma-
lays, 373 ; Palestine, 280-1, 288 ;
Scotland, 264, 379

Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria,
by E. Dayrell, reviewed, 258-
60

Folk-tales : (see also under various
types, such as Cinderella) ; Af-
rica, 158, 199-215, 253-60, 351-
65, 487-503 ; Amerindians, 126-7 >
Armenia, 217-22, 365-71, 507-11 ;
in broadsides etc., Flanders,
528 ; Germany, 157-8 ; Greece,
139, 141-2, 531 ; India, 124-5,
158, 263; Ireland, no, 182-4,
341-2 ; Isle of Man, 472-5 ; Italy,
250, 349-50 ; Jamaica, 260 ;
Mexico, 538; New Zealand, 128;
sagas and marchen, 139 ; Samo-
yeds, 142; Scotland, 90-1, 157;
story formulae, Armenia, 370,
Hausas, 202-3 ; " sung parts,"
199-200 ; Wales, 237-46

Fool : in horn dance. Abbot's
Bromley, 26

Foot, see Heel ; Toes

Footprints : of animals in folk-tale,
Armenia, 366 ; dust from as
charm, Italy, 163 ; in magic, 166

Force of Initiative in Magical Con-
flict, The, by W. R. Halliday,
147-67

Ford (Argyll) : in folk-tale, 90

Fords : charms at, Deeside, 88-9 ;
rites at, 159-60; Washers of the
Ford, 180

Forests, see Trees

Fork : omens from, England, 226

Formoyle : folk-tale, 184

Fortanne : death coach, 193-4 > fairy
beliefs, 195-6; haunted, 345

Fortune or Luck in folk-tale, Ar-
menia, 220-2

Fossils in folklore, see Belemnite ;
Shark

Fotevik, battle of, 73

Four : in Melanesian rites, 48-9

Fowls : (see also Cock ; Hen) ; birth
genna for, Assam, 308 ; fetish,
Congo, 457-8 ; flesh tabued, As-
sam, 309 ; in folk-tales, Africa,
210-1 ; white, lucky, Crathie, 89

Fox : in folk-tale, Togo, 258

Foxglove : fairies' thimble, Clare,

France : (see also Aquitaine ;
Auvergne ; Corsica ; Seine-In-
f^rieure ; Somme) ; proverbs, 18

Francolin : in folk-tale, Hausas,
210, 351

Freemasonry, 525

Freire-Marreco, B. : Crosses Cut in
Turf after Fatal Accidents, 387-
8 ; Scraps of English Folklore,
224 ; The West Riding Teachers'
Anthropological Society, 103-4

French-Sheldon, Mrs. M. : paper
and exhibits by, 1-2, 9

Freya, 71

Friday : (see also Good Friday) ;
in cult of Decollati, Sicily, 172 ;
day of assembly, Arabs, 279 ;
Stealing Night, Castleton, 38

Fr6, the deity, 70, 73

Frog : in folk-tale, Clare, 480

Fruit and vegetables in folklore :
(see also Apple ; Blackberry,
Grape ; Mulberry ; Palm nut ;
Plantain ; Pomegranate ; Potato ;
Pumpkin) ; as offering, Crete,

137
Fumigation : cures madness, Me-
lanesia, 160 ; expels demons,

India, 505
Funeral customs and beliefs, see

Death and funeral customs and

beliefs
Funerals, phantom : Wales, 118-9
Future life, beliefs about, see

Death and funeral customs and

beliefs
Future Work of the Folk-Lore

Society, by Eleanor Hull and A.

Nutt, 101-2, and P. J. Heather,

235-6

Gabhra, battle of, 398
Gall canton, see St Gall

Index.

553

Galway : (see also Aran isles) ;
Brendan legends, 484 ; sea-
horses, 482

Games : lacrosse, Iroquois, 127 ;
mediaeval, England, 248 ; pla3'ing
the wer-beast, Malays, 371-4 ;
traditional, study of, 15-6; Togo,
258-9 ; tug of war, Assam, 300 ;
wedding, Bedu, 279

Garland Day, Castleton, 20-5, 33,
37, ^02 _

Garnets : in talisman, India, 268

Garos : dialect, 296 ; The Garos, by
A. Playfair, reviewed, 261-3 >
heaven, 300

Garter : of eelskin, Yorks, 227

Gaster, M. : English Charms of the
Seventeenth Century, 375-8

Gaul : axe symbols, 67 (plate) ; sun
and thunder gods, 67 (plate)

Gaur plant : cures snakebite, Sir-
mur, 504

Gawain, in Arthur sagas, 233, 244

Gazelle : in folk-tales, Hausas, 210,
362, 487-9

Gennas, see Festivals

Geraint, saga of, 242-3

Germanische Tempel, Die, by A.
Thiimmel, noticed, 128

Germany : (see also Luxemburg ;
Thuringia) ; folk-tale, 157-8 ;
spitting cure, 388

Gharib Nawaz, Raja, Manipur,
81-2

Ghent : exhibit from, 131

Ghosts : cause lunacy, Melanesia,
160 ; County Clare, 343-9, 480-2 ;
death coach, Ireland, 190, 192-4 ;
laying, Bucks, 222 ; offerings to,
Crete, 137, Greece, 138 ; in place-
names, Clare, 182, 184-5 ! un-
natural death makes vindictive,
178 ; Wales, 119-20

Gilgit : saint's shrine, 176

Gipsies : Palestine, 275-6, 285

Girls : eldest daughter not named,
Hausas. 202 ; house for, Assam,
299 ; tabus on, Assam, 301

Glamorgan : (see also Caerphilly ;
Marcross ; St Donat's) ; Midsum-
mer custom, 118

Glands, enlarged : cures for, India,
316, 321

Glasgeivnagh Hill : meaning, 184

Glenmeay : folk-tale, 472-5

Glennagalliach : meaning, 185-6

Glennagross : place-name, 185

Glenomera : spectre dog, 483

Glen Rushen : fairies, 475

Goat : (see also Phooka ; Wer-
beasts) ; fetish, Congo, 457 ; flesh
tabued, Assam, 309 ; in folk-
tales, Africa, 200-1, 213-4, 260,
357. 360, 363-5, 493-4; goat-
headed figures, Crete, 132 ; head
keeps off white ants, Congo, 457 ;
sacrificed, Assam, 309, Crete,
135, Palestine, 293 ; tabued, As-
sam, 306

Goatsucker : omen from, Panjab,
216

Godhri : folk-medicine, 333

Gods, 5ee Deity, conceptions of ;
and under various names

Goibniu, deity, 438

Gold : coin at firstfooting. Lanes,
224

GoU of the Fianna, 396-7

Gomme, G. I. L. : Scraps of Eng-
Hsh Folklore, 222

Gomme, G. L. : Heredity and Tra-
dition, 385-6

Gongs : collected, Garos, 261

Good Friday : squirrel hunt, Somer-
set, 31 ; well custom, Castleton,
38

Good Men have no Stomachs, by
A. R. Wright, 105-6

Goose : turned to stone, Scotland,

154

Gorgon, blood of, 151

Gortnamearacaun : meaning, 185

Grail romances, 107-17, 243-4, 246,
514

Graney : meaning as place-name,
186

Grape : withered by evil eye, Al-
bania, 251

Great Bookham : birch-broom cus-
tom, 38S

Greek folklore : (see also Achilles ;
Attica ; Eleusinia ; Elis ; Epirus ;
Greek islands ; Iphigenia ; La-
conia ; Minotaur ; Mycenaj ; Pho-
cis ; Polyxena ; Sparta ; and
under names of deities) ; answer-
ing questions dangerous, 158
axes as symbols, 60, 65 (plate)
coins, 65 (plate) ; dances, 515
Lawson's Modern Greek Folk-
lore and Ancient Greek Religion
reviewed, 529-32 ; oak, 67 ; sun-
god, 65-7 ; thunderbolts, 60 ;
thunder god, 66

554

Index,

Greek islands : (see also Crete ;
Ionian islands ; Rhodes ; Santor-
ini) ; double axe, 64

Gudbrandsdal : god-image, 73

Guga, the snake god, 85

Guinea-worm : cures for, India, 86,
326

Guitar : omen from, Sicily, 174

Gujranwila : sugar-cane beliefs,
217

Gujrat : folk-medicine, 318, 326-7

Gunpowder : in fetish ceremony,
Congo, 468

Gurdaspur : folk-medicine, 314,
318-21, 327

Gurgaon : {see also Rewari) ; folk-
medicine, 83-4 ; hereditary heal-
ing powers, 83-4

Gurteen Lough : pike, 480

Gwa Kaithel : festival, 79-82 (plate)

Gylfaginning saga, 71-2

Haddon, A. C. : reviews by, —
Brown's Melanesians and Poly-
nesians, 536-7 ; Seligmann's The
Melanesians of British New
Guinea, 532-5 ; Converse's Myths
and Legends of the New York
State Iroquois, 126-7

Hades : Banks' islands, 51 ; Garos,
262 ; prevention of return from,

Hagia Triada : animal sacrifice,

137
Hail : charms against, India, 85-6,
331-2 ; curb's burial outside parish

brings, Auvergne, 178
Hair, human : in charm, Essex,

223 ; clippings, buried, Hausas,

202, and harmful to others, 147-

8 ; cutting, gennas at, Assam,

307, 310-1 ; dressing, Assam, 302
Hakka Chins : exhibits, g
Half-man, in folk-tales, Africa, 215
Halliday, W. R. : The Force of

Initiative in Magical Conflict,

147-67 ; A Spitting Cure, 388
Hallowmas : Wales, 118
Hall Sound : clan badges, 533
Hammer : denotes thunderbolt, 60-

78 (plates) ; of Thor, 60-78

(plates)
Hampshire, see Winchester
Hand : as amulet, Suffolk, 7 ; on

processional staff, India, 268 ;

washed at ford, 159, or crossing

river, Greeks, 160

Handbook of Folklore, The, 10
Hanuman : in mantras, SirmOr,

504-5

Haranpur : charm against snake-
bite, 328-9

Hare : in folk-tales, Africa, 210,

258, 487. 489-9?. 495-6

Harmal : in magic, Panjab, 217

Hartebeeste : in folk-tale, Hausas,
209-10, 487

Hartland, E. S. : The Cult of Exe-
cuted Criminals at Palermo, 130,
168-79 (plates) ; exhibits by, 130 ;
reviews by, Durkheim's L' Annie
Sociologique, vol. xi, 523-4 ;
Marett's The Birth of Humility,
523-4 ; Hubert and Mauss' Me-
langes d'Histoire des Religions,
523-5 ; Weule's Native Life in
East Africa, 122-4

Harvest customs and beliefs : As-
sam, 262 ; fetish exhibited, 2 ;
Thor and St Olaf granted har-
vests, Scandinavia, 75

Hascombe : Christmas greenery
burnt, 224 ; cross in turf, 387 ;
palm unlucky before Palm Sun-
day, 224

Hat : prevents looking up to
heaven, Palestine, 282

Hatto legends, 480

Haunted houses : Clare, 343-9

Hausas : beliefs, 201-3 ; folk-tales,
200-15, 260, 351-65, 487-503

Hawk : (see also Fish-hawk) ;
cuckoo an immature h., 233 ; in
septennial festival, Oxon, 32 ;
W"elsh name, 233

Hawthorn-tree : blossom fatal in
house, Essex, 224

Head : charm against worms in,
India, 325

Headache : amulet against, India,
506 ; charms against, India, 323,
325. 332, St Gall, 445

Head-hunting : Assam, 8, 177, 303 ;
Malay Archipelago, 177

Headless ghosts : Clare, 190, 192-4

Heart : as amulet, London, 131,
Sicily, 169

Heather, P. J. ; The Future Work
of the Folk-Lore Societv, 235-
6

Heaven : N^gas, 300-1

Heavens : god of, Hausas, 202

Hebrews, see Jews

Hebrides : (see also Benbecula) ;

Index.

555

charms, 430-3, 435, 437, 440-1,
445 ; house guardians, 439-40
Heel : indicates descent, N. Amer-
ica etc., 273
Helen of Troy, in legend, 138
Heliopolis : sacred tree, 149
Hell : prevention of return from,

153

Hell-hounds, see Dog

Hempen cord : as amulet, India,
328

Hen : in dream, Assam, 312 ; in
fetish ceremony, Congo, 463 ; in
folk-tales, Armenia, 371, Togo,
258 ; white, in love charm, Eng-
land, 376

Hephaistos : as lightning, 65-6 ;
symbols, 65 (plate)

Heracles : fear fatal in encounter
of, 157 ; mallet, 66 ; sun-god, 66

Herbs in folklore, see Plants in
folklore

Hercules : mallet, 66

Heredity : healing powers from,
India, 83-6

Heredity and Tradition, by G. L.
Gomme, 385-6

Hernia : cured by nganga, Congo,
467

Herrod's and Bose's saga, 72

Hervey island : chief's fly whisk, 3

Hesione legend, 141

High Albania, by M. E. Durham,
reviewed, 250-1

Highlands : (see also under coun-
ties) ; charms and rhyming
prayers, 436, 440

Hildburgh, W. L. ; exhibits, 9, 131,
269

Hints to Collectors of Folklore, 229

Hippopotamus : in folk-tales, Af-
rica, 200, 203, 260

Hisperica famina, 425-8

Hissdr : curing by charms, 84-5

Histoire de I'iinagerie populaire
Flamande. by E. H. van Heurck
and G. J. Boekenoogen, re-
viewed, 527-9

Historical tradition, accuracy of,
182

Hittites : axes of gods, 62 (plate)

Hobby-horse : in horn dance, Ab-
bot's Bromley, 26, 39 ; Stafford-
shire etc., 248-9

Hodson, T. C. : Some Naga Cus-
toms and Superstitions, 268, 296-
312

Holed stones : amulets, Antrim, 7

Holi feast, India, 86

Holkam : burial of bone splinters,
105

Holly-tree : Christmas greens, Wor-
cester, 263 ; in church decora-
tion, Castleton, 24

Homicide, see Death and funeral
customs and beliefs

Hooden Horse, The, by P. May-
lam, reviewed, 246-9

Hoods : funeral, Salop, 6

Hope : marriage custom, 38 ; in
proverb, 23

Hornet : black, as remedy, Sirmur,
504 ; spirit reborn as, Assam, 301

Horns : borne in dance. Abbot's
Bromley, 26, 29, 39

Horoscopes : Ceylon, 268

Horse : (see also Death-horse ;
Hooden Horse ; Phooka ; Water-
horse) ; black, in charm, India,
324 ; bride rides mare, Palestine,
291 ; charms for, Germany, 438,
Ireland, 437 ; draws Indra's
chariot, 61 ; in folk-tales, Ar-
menia, 366, 370 ; head in harvest
customs, Assam, 262 ; Horse
Charms and Superstitions, by E.
Lovett and A. R. Wright, 3, 9 ;
skull as Indra's bolt, 61 ; spirit,
Clare, 481-2 ; supernatural, Clare,
482 ; toy, Russia, 4

Horse-shoes : exhibited, 3

Hos : folk-tales, 125

Hoshiarpur : folk-medicine, 317,
328

Hound, see Dog

How Far is the Lore of the Folk
Racial? by A. Nutt, 379-84

Huddersfield : gift on child's first
visit, 225

Hui Corra, voyage of, 484

Hull, Eleanor : The Ancient Hymn-
charms of Ireland, 131, 417-46 ;
The Future Work of the Folk-
Lore Society, 101-2 ; review by,
— Plummer's Vitce Sanctorum
Hibernice, 401-8

Hunting customs and beliefs :
amulets, Africa, 161, Eskimo,
177 ; annual hunts, England, 30-
3 ; nganga, Congo, 456-7, 467 ;
omens, Yorks, 226 ; protective
rites, Kaflfirs, 161 ; tabus, Assam,
307 ; town charm, Congo, 456-7

Hyaena : in folk-tales, Africa, 200-

556

Index.

1, 204-7, 211-2, 352-3, 360-s, 488-
501

Hy Brasil, 484

Hydrophobia : cures for, India, 83,

85-6, 315-6, 320, 504
Hymn-charms of Ireland, 417-46

Ibrickan : place-names, 183 ; tribe,

182
Iceland : {see also Gylfaginning) ;
temples, 128

Ilium, see Troy

lUaunwattle island : meaning, 479 ;
names, 183

Immortality : given by deities,
Egypt, 149

Imphal : festival, 79-82 [plate)

Imprecations : flour scattered with,
Palestine, 285 ; penalty in, Nd-
gas, 308 ; thoughtless, are dan-
gerous, 154-5

Inchicronan : place-name near, 476

Inchiquin : badger cave, 181, 478 ;
blue fire, 340 ; Dalcassian tribes,
181 ; dolmen, dangerous to blast,
194-5 > fairies, 196 ; place-names,
184-5 ■> sunken city, 487

Incubation, India, 85

Incubi, 125

India : (see also Assam ; Bengal ;
Ceylon ; Gilgit ; Indra ; Khonds ;
Malabar ; Manipur ; Neilgherry
hills ; Panjab ; Rajputs ; Sirmur) ;
exhibits, 268 ; father's sister, 54 ;
north-west frontier shrines, 176 ;
Macauhffe's The Sikh Religion
reviewed, 414-6

Indigestion : charm against, India,
326

Indra : corresponds to Thor, 61

Inheritance : Melanesia, 44 ; by
youngest son, 19-20

Iniscaltra : holy island, 480

Iniscatha : legend, 183, 477 ; mean-
ing, 181

Inismatail island, 183

Initiatory ceremonies : Assam, 302 ;
Medicine Society, Senecas, 127 ;
of nganga, Congo, 4.47 ; Sikhs,

415
In Memoriam : Alfred Nutt, by E.

Clodd, 335-7
Inniscaeragh island, 183
Innismaan : house guardians, 440
Inoculation against tabu dangers,

160-2
Insanity, see Lunacy

Insects in folklore : {.see also Ant
Beetle ; Centipede ; Chhabka
Cricket ; Dragonfly ; Hornet
Mosquito ; Moth ; Scorpion
Spider); Wales, 117; in witch-
finding, Congo, 459-60 ; witches
travel as, Congo, 460

Invisibility, Gaelic charm for, 442-

3.
Ionian islands, see Corfu
Iphigenia, slaying of, 138
Ireland : {see also Connaught ; Lein-
ster ; Munster ; Ulster ; and under
names of deities, heroes, kings,
and saints) ; bibliography, 41 ;
charm hymns, 131, 417-46; folk-
tales, 110; Plummer's Vitce Sanc-
torum HihernicB reviewed, 401-8 ;
west, dangerous to tell name,
155-6
Irghus or Eerish the Firbolg, 182,

197

Iron and steel : {see also Horse-
shoes ; Knife ; Nail ; Needle ;
Pin ; Scissors) ; oath on, Hausas,
202

Iroquois : Converse's Myths and
Legends of the New York State
Iroquois reviewed, 126-7 '< orenda
in hunting, 148

Irrus : legends, 482, 486

Irvine, M. F. : Scraps of English
Folklore, 223-4

Isis, the goddess, 149

Island of Stone Money, The, by
W. H. Furness, reviewed, 535-6

Isle of Man : bibliography, 41 ;
folk-tale, 472-5

Isle of Thanet : hoodening, 247-9

Italy : (see also Bologna ; Calabria ;
Etruria ; Naples ; Romans, an-
cient ; Rome ; Sicil}- ; Tuscany ;
Venice) ; charm against witch-
craft, 163 ; cultus dances, 515 ;
exhibits, 269 ; oscilla, 142-3 ;
votive axes, 67

Ivalde, the sons of, 70

Ivory Coast : folk-tales, 257

Ivy : Christmas greens, Worcester,
263

Jackal : in folk-tales, Africa, 200-1,

258, 351-2, 498, 501-3
Jalalpur Bharwala : folk-medicine,

326
Jamaica : dangerous to tell nfime,

156 ; folk-tale, 260

Index.

557

Jampur : folk-medicine, 315-6, 326,

332
January, see Epiphany ; New Year's

Day ; Old Christmas Day ;

Plough Monday ; Twelfth Day
Janus-headed : amulet, Mortlock

island, 3 ; cup, Congo, 2
Japan : sun symbol, 64 ; thunder-
bolts, 60
Jason legend, 139
Jaundice : cures for, India, 86, 318,

322
Jaura Singa : folk-medicine, 321
Jayusah Bedu : women veiled, 274
Jech Doab, see Bhera
Jemaan Daroro : dogs eaten, 212 ;

folk-tales, 199-215, 351-65, 487-

503
Jerboa : in folk-tales, Africa, 200,

210, 362, 487-8, 495, 500
Jews : amulet, 131
Jhang : folk-medicine, 320
Jhelum : folk-medicine, 326, 328-

3i> 333
Jhilam : folk-medicine, 85-6
Jinns : charm to expel, Panjab,

217
Juda, Rabbi : holiness blasted,

152
Jullundur : folk-medicine, 316-7,

323-4
July : 29th, St Olaf's Day, 75
Jumma'in Bedu : women veiled,

274
June, see Midsummer Night
Jupiter : Dolichenus, 63-4 (plate)

Kabul N^gas : (see also Maolong) ;

protection against evil spirits,

310 ; rites for unmarried, 303
Kabyles : folk-tales, 158
Kafifirs : rite before seeing dead

lion, 161
Kaitish tribe : Atnatu, 521
Kali the goddess, 82, 504-5
Kameiros : symbols, 64 (plate)
Kandr^li : folk-medicine, 322
Kano : in folk-tale, Hausas, 205-6
Karnil : folk-medicine, 314-6, 327
Karwin myth, Australia, 521
KasOr : folk-medicine, 322, 329
Kdtak : in folk-medicine, India,

318
Kedleston Park : annual hunt, 31
Kekri Sher Shah : folk-medicine,

324
Kells : in Lorica, 437

Kelpie, see Water-horse
Kenmare : meaning, 182
Kennington (Oxon) : cross in turf,

387
Kent : (see also Isle of Thanet ; St
Augustine's Lathe; Whitstable) ;
Maylam's The Hooden Horse re-
viewed, 246-9
Kerry, (see also Ballyheigue Bay ;
Kenmare) ; banshee, 190 ; Mael-
chii, 185
Khandhala : folk-medicine, 324
Khan Khasa : folk-medicine, 316
Khonds : Meriah sacrifice, 177
Khui, in Manipur legend, 81-2
Khwaja Khizr : in expulsion man-
tra, India, 505
Kiarda Dun : possession by saints,

504
Kiev : Perun statue, 67
Kilchrist : banshee, 190
Kilcorney : enchanted bird, 483 ;

ghosts, 182, 343 ; supernatural

horses, 482
Kildare : St Brigit, 403-4, 439
Kildare county, see Kildare ;

Moone
Kilfarboy : place-name, 183
Kilfenora : petrified boy, 183
Kilwch and Olwen, 239-40, 242-3
Kilkee : ghosts, 343-4, 346-7 ;

magic isle, 484-5 ; mer-folk, 342 ;

peist, 478 ; seal human, 483
Kilkishen : water-cattle, 4S1, 486
Killaloe, see Craganeevul
Killard : merrow, 342
Killeany : meaning, 484
Killemur : corpse-lights, 340
Killone Convent : corpse-lights, 340
Killone Lake : mermaid, 341-2
Kilmacreehy : carving, 478
Kilmaleery : corpse-lights, 340
Kilmaley : place-names, 185
Kilmanaheen : phooka, 183
Kilmartin Glen : in folk-tale, 90
Kilmihil : peist, 478
Kilmoon : legend, 182
Kilnaboy : sheelanagig, 344 ; place-
names, 184
Kilrush : pdist, 478 ; spectre, 340
Kilseily : water folk, 342
Kilstiffin : legends, 182, 485
Kilstuitheen, see Kilstiffin
Kiltanon : dolmen, 196
King Aedh Slane, 423
King Arthur sagas : Cuckoo

Heroes, by A. Nutt, 230-5 ; effect

558

Index.

on Welsh literature, 240 ; evolu-
tion of, 512-4; Nitze's The
Fisher King in the Grail Rom-
ances, 107-17 ; name-book, 409

King Brian Boru, 186, ig8, 477

King Cairthinn, 187

King Charles I, 176

King Charles II, niana of, 151

King Conchobar mac Nessa, 231-3,

399
King Conor, 198
King Cormac mac Airt, 398, 400
King Criomthann, 185
King crow : reverenced, Panjab,

217
King Cyrus, myths about, 230, 234
King Dermuid of Tara, 436
King Edward the Martyr, 176
King Edward II, 176
Kingfisher : in chaffing custom,

Banks' islands, 50
King Guaire, 182
King H3kon, Athelstan's foster-
^ son, 72-3
King Kenelm, 176
King Khdgenba, Manipur, 80, 303
King Leonidas : in omen, 159
King Magnus Nilsson, 73-4
King Minos, 132-5, 138-9, 144-6
King Rameses II, 149
Kingship : acquiring in folk-tales,

139-40 ; in Crete, theories of,

133
Kings of Tara, Milesian, 397-8
Kings of Thomond : inauguration,

.185
King Solomon : in mantra, India,

506
King Torlough, 338-g
King Xerxes : omen from words of,

159
Kinsale : meaning, 182
Kinship, see Relationship
Kinvarra : meaning, 182
Kirars : dread owl, 216
Kirkcudbrightshire : love divina-
tions, 91-2
Kirton-in Lindsey : touching corpse,

161
Kirto Pind6ri : folk-medicine, 317
Kite : changes sex, Panjab, 216.
Kitten, see Cat

Kivik : symbolic figures, 69 (plate)
Knife : in charms, India, 84-5 ;

omens from, England, 226 ;

Scotland, 89
Knockananima : meaning, 185

Knockaunamoughilly : meaning,

186
Knocking : on door, omen from,

Sicily, 174
Knocknabohilleen : meaning, 185
Knocknafearbreaga : meaning, 185
Knossos : bull-headed monster, 132-

46 ; double axe, 62 (plate), 135 ;

games, 145 ; labyrinth, 62 ; re-
ligion, 133-46
Knots : in charms, India, 326-8 ;

Congo, 457 ; East Africa, 124
Knottingley : child's first visit, 225 ;

coal brought in first. New Year's

Eve, 227
Koita tribe : account of, 532
Kolhdn, see Hos
Koran : in charms, India, 85 ;

charm to learn, India, 321
Krishna the deity, 82
Kukis : birth gennas, 309 ; dialect,

296
Kurman vine : in magic, Torres

Straits, 3
Kwaiawata : bones of dead, 535

Labranda : local Zeus, 62

Lachhmi : in mantra, India, 505

Laconia, see Sparta

Lacrosse : ceremonial origin, 127

Lade : sacrificial festival, 72

Ladle : in horn dance. Abbot's
Bromley, 26

Ladwa : folk-medicine, 316

Lady of the Fountain, The, 242-3

Lahore : folk-medicine, 315-6, 320,
322, 329, 333

Lakes : (see also under names) ;
folklore of, Wales, 117

Lakra : folk-medicine, 320

Lallu Lalian : folk-medicine, 328

Lamb, see Sheep

Lameness : god who cures, Garos,
261

Lamia, 531

Lanark : " whuppity scoorie," 92

Lanarkshire, see Lanark

Lancashire, see Coniston ; Man-
chester

Lang, A. : Method and Minotaur,
131-46; reviews by, — Furness's
The Island of Stone Money,
535-6 ; Schmidt's L'Origine de
I'ldde de Dieu, 516-23

Lapps : rainbow Thor's bow, 78 ;
worshipped Thor, 77-8

Lavandieres de nuit, 180

Index.

559

Leabanaglasha : meaning, 184
Lead mining, see Mining
Le Bagnore : folk-tales, 349-50
Legends of the City of Mexico, by

T. A. Janvier, noticed, 538
Legs : cures for pains in, Panjab,

314
Lehinch : fairies, 195-6 ; legend,

485
Leinster, see Kildare ; Meath
Lembansau-tree : in town charm,

Congo, 457
Lentils : in charm, India, 86
Leopard : amulets against, Africa,
161 ; associated with bongas,
India, 125 ; in folk-tales, Africa,
211-2, 258, 260
Leprosy : cure for, India, 322 ; St

Moiling and leper, 405-6
Lercara : cult of Decollati, 174
Letts : god Perkons, 67
Lettuce : dangers of eating, 155
Leuk6, Isle of : Achilles legend,

138
Lhota Naga : charm for crops, 177
Library of Society, see Books pre-
sented to Society
Lightning : the axe of heaven,
India, 61 ; controlled by fetish,
Congo, 454-5 ; god of, Garos,
261 ; horse of Apollo, 66 ; hymn
against, Ireland, 422 ; striking
by lightning gives power of,
Zulus, 160 ; as symbol, Assyria
etc., 62, 63
Lily : as tea-leaf sign, Yorks, 227
Lime spatulje, Trobriands, 534
Limerick county : banshee, 190
Lincolnshire : (see also Kirton-in-
Lindsey) ; devil not named with
levity, 152-3 ; volume of county
folklore, 10; witchcraft, 158
Liomhtha, 184

Lion : amulets against, Africa, 161 ;
deity stands on, Tarsos, 63 ; in
folk-tales, Africa, 200, 211-2,352-
3. 359. 363-5. 493-5. Armenia,
220-2 ; lion-headed figures, Crete,
132 ; protective rite when slain,
Kaffirs, 161
Liquorice : Easter custom. Castle-
ton, 38
Lisananima : haunted, 343 ; mean-
ing, 182
Liscannor Bay : legends, 182, 478,

485
Liscrona : ghosts, 346-7

Liscroneen : spectre, 343
Lisdoonvarna : 182 ; fairies, 198,

ghosts, 346
Lisfearbegnagommaun : meaning,

183. 195
Lisfuadnaheirka : ghost, 343
Lisheenvicknaheeha : meaning, 184
Liskeentha : fairies, 195 ; meaning,

183
Lismehane, see Maryfort
Lisnarinka : meaning, 183, 195
Lissardcarney : fairies, 195
Lissnarinka : meaning, 185
Lithuanians : god Perkunas, 67
Lizard : {see also Water-lizard) ; be-
liefs about, Panjab, 216; in folk-
tale, Africa, 487
Llywarch Hen, poems of, 241
Loaf : as tea-leaf sign, Yorks, 227 ;

unlucky if upside down, Yorks,

226
Locality and Variants of Carol

Wanted, by Lucy Broadwood, 106
Loch Awe : in folk-tale, 90
Loke, myths of, 61, 70
Lokele tribe : good men have no

stomachs, 105-6
London : amulets, 7, 131 ; barring

custom, 31 ; horse ornaments, 3
Londonderry, see Derry
Long Crendon : ghost, 222
Looking glass : medicine man's

mirror, Nias, 2 ; omen from,

Yorks, 227
Loop Head : dragon temple, 479 ;

place-names, 183 ; sunken isle,

486
Loricas, 417, 425-46
Lough bo Girr : legend, 481
Lough Derg : apparitions, 339, 480
Lough Erne : St Molaise, 404
Lough Gaish : banshee, 191 ;

fairies, 197
Lough Graney : legend, 481 ; mean-
ing, 186
Loughaguinnell : will-o-the-wisp,

340
Lough Ree : Finn's feats, 477
Love charms : England, 173, 376 ;

Sicily, 173
Love divination, Scotland, 91-2
Love tokens : English, 7
Lovett, E. : exhibits by, 4, 7, 9,

265, 269 ; Horse Charms and

Superstitions, 3, 9
Lower Deeside : folk-medicine, 88-

9 ; marriage custom, 88

56o

Index.

Lowestoft : amulets, 7

Low Sunday : communion, Wor-
cester, 263

Lucky and unlucky days and
deeds : Bucks, 223 ; Scotland, 89-
90; U.S.A., 6; Yorkshire, 225-7

LudhiSna : folk-medicine, 85, 315,

317
Lug, Irish god, 231, 404, 477
Lukuledi river, see under tribes
Lulemba-lemba : in rain-bringing,

Congo, 468
Lumbuzii : in fetish charm, Congo,

459

Lunacy : amulet against mad dog,
Minehead, 7 ; cause of, Greeks,
151, Melanesia, 160; cures for,
Congo, 462, 464, Melanesia, 160

Lung diseases : amulet, Congo,
130 ; caused by fetish and witch-
craft, Congo, 460, 462, 467

Lushais : dialect, 296 ; exhibits, 9 ;
folk-tales, 8 ; men's house, 299 ;
reincarnation beliefs, 300-1

Luxemburg, see Echternach

Luzon, see Agoo

Lyctii, see Mt Lyttos

Lycurgos, sun god, Thrace, 66

Mabinogion, The, 112, 237-46

Mabuiag island : magic, 3

Macdonald. A. : Scraps of Scottish
Folklore^ 88-9

Macmahons : origin of name, 181

MacNamaras : origin of name, 181

Madeley : singing games, 15

Madness, see Lunacy

Madonna, The, see Virgin Mary

Maelduin, voyage of, 484

Magic : (see also Amulets and talis-
mans ; Charms and spells ; Witch-
craft) ; animism as related to,
522 ; Banks' islands, 2 ; same
fetishes for black and white
magic, Congo, 447, 450-2, 471 ;
The Force of Initiative in Magi-
cal Conflict, by W. R. Halliday,
147-67 ; kurman vine in, Torres
Straits, 3 ; magic and religion,
522 ; magic bowl, Persia, 131 ;
mana the essence of, 334 ; origin
of, 524 ; sorcerer's book, Suma-
tra, 2 ; sympathetic, against
witchcraft, 150, basis of, 148,
165-6, Congo, 468, Essex, 223,
India, 217, 322, 332-3, Mexico,
129 ; time as represented in, 524

Magic squares : as amulets, India,

333

Magpie : in folk-tale, Armenia, 370-1

Maheshai : folk-medicine, 323

Maid Marian : in dance. Abbot's
Bromley, 39-40

Maikel : birth gennas, 308 ; village
groups, 297-8

Maize : sleight-of-hand tricks, To-
go, 258

Makonde : marriage customs, 123 ;
social organization, 123

Makua, 123

Malabar : (see also Calicut ; Mup-
pans) ; exhibits, 269

Malacca : game, 372

Malak Afghanan : folk-medicine,

319
Malay Archipelago : head-hunting,

177
Malay Peninsula, see Malacca ;

Malays ; Selangor
Malays : bark at wild dogs, 162-3 ;

playing the wer-beast, 371-4 ;

rash imprecations, 154
Malbay : fifth wave of Erin, 339 ;

mermaid, 343
Mama Khaira : folk-medicine, 327
Mana : in charms, Ireland, 446 ;

discussed, 147-53, 5^2 ; " virtue "

in the cure of disease, India, 313-34
Manakwal : folk-medicine, 317
Manchester : firstfooting, 224 ;

omens of visitors, 226
Mangat : folk-medicine, 327
Mangunga : exhibits from, 2
Manipur : (see also Gwa Kaithel ;

Imphal) ; age and dietary, 302 ;

exhibits, 9 ; hair dressing, 303 ;

test for raja's son, 303
Manipur Festival, by J. Shake-
spear, 79-82 (plate)
Mantras, see Charms and spells
Maolong : food tabus, 309 ; gennas,

309, 311
Mao Nagas : village groups, 297-8 ;

warder of heaven, 300
Maoris : Grace's Folktales of the

Maori reviewed, 128; masks,

142-3
Maram Nagas : food tabu, 306
Marcross : eye-well, 121 ; Green

Lady, 121
Marett, R. R. : communication

from, 86-8
Marriage customs and beliefs :

answering questions dangerous,

Index.

561

N. Africa, 158; Australia, 389-
96, 519-20 ; barring custom,
Derbyshire, 38 ; Bedu, 270-82 ;
bridal dress not seen by candle-
light, Yorks, 226 ; bridegroom's
parents turned out, Assam, 303 ;
bride race, Alitemnian Libyans,
140 ; bride's home door shut dur-
ing wedding, Yorks, 226 ; cake
thrown over carriage, Yorks,
226 ; capture, Hausas, 202,
Palestine, 272, 279 ; East Africa,
123 ; father's sister in, E. Africa,
123, Oceania, 43-4, 46, 50; in
folk-tales, 139-40, Hausas, 201 ;
gennas, Assam, 311 ; group inar-
riage, Australia, 519-20; lucky
dream, Assam, 312 ; marriage
changes status, Assam, 304 ;
Melanesia, 53-4 ; Nagas, Assam,
298 ; omens, see Omens ; Pales-
tine, 265, 270-95 (plate) ; poly-
gamy, Africa, 20, Bedu, 276-7,
Palestine, 276-7, 282, 295 ; Poly-
nesia, 58 ; protecting bridegroom,
Deeside, 88 ; purchase, Africa,
353, Albania, 251, Palestine, 272,
276-9, 284-5 > Rajputs, 140 ; S.
Nigeria, 394-5 ; tabu, Palestine,
285 ; Thor's hammer in, 71-2 ;
Wales, 118
Marshall Bennetts : bones of dead,

534-5
Martyrs, Decollati as, Sicily, 175-6
Maryfort : changeling belief, 198-9 ;

death coach, 192-3 ; mysterious

death, 348-9
Maryland, see Baltimore
Masai : folk-tale, 255 ; legend of

origin, 253-4 ; relation to Aki-

kuyu, 252-3
Mascots, sec amulets and talismans
Masks : bull-headed, Crete, 133,

143-4; Congo, 2, 9; Egypt, 145;

Maoris, 142-3 ; oscilla, Italy, 142-3
Massim tribes : account of, 532 ;

funeral customs, 533 ; totemism,

532-3

Match : gift on child's first visit,
Yorks, 225-6

Mattle Island, 183

May : (see also May Day) ; 29th,
Garland Day, Castleton, 20-5

May Day : Beltine Blessing, Heb-
rides, 435 ; Peak district, 21

Mayo : [see also Monaster Letter-
agh) ; white paternoster, 442

Mayongkhong : birth gennas, 308

Maypole : Oxon, 32 ; in Peak dis-
trict, 21, 24-5

Meath, see Kells

Medea legend, 139

Medical folklore : (see also Charms
and spells) ;

diseases and injuries treated : —
apoplexy, 467 ; boils, 317, 320-
I ; brain diseases, 322 ; colic,
314; demon blight, 322; dog-
bite, 315, 320-1 ; enlarged
glands, 316, 321 ; eye diseases,
315 ; fevers, 315, 467 ; fits, 467 ;
hernia, 467 ; hydrophobia, 85-
6, 315-7. 320, 325. 504; jaun-
dice, 318, 322 ; legs, pains in,
314; leprosy, 322; nightblind-
ness, 315 ; rheumatism, 314,
316-7, 326 ; ribs, pains in, 507 ;
ringworm, 316, 319 ; sciatica,
317; sleeping sickness, 464;
snakebite, 83, 85, 319, 323,
504 ; spleen, enlargement of,
84 ; stomache-ache, 83 ; sto-
mach diseases, 314; swellings,
83-4, 86, 316, 320, 322 ; throat
diseases, 313-4; tumours and
ulcers, 314 ; urethra diseases,
317 ; warts, 320 ; wounds, 321 ;
localities : — Africa, 160, 464, 466-
7 ; India, 83-6, 313-34. 504.
507 ; Wales, 118 ;
remedies : — ak, 317-9 ; ashes,
316; bathing, 320, 322; bleed-
ing, 319, 464; bread, 85, 315,
320 ; cowdung, 316, 318 ; dhdrek
seeds, 326 ; flesh of animal
causing disease, 160 ; gaur,
504 ; must not be paid for,
^3-4. 314-S. 318 ; pepper, 85,
464 ; purges, 464, 466 ; salt,
86, 325 ; scarifying, 464 ;
spittle, 315, 318; sugar, 317,
320; tomb dust and earth etc.,
319-22 ; touching, 313-5, 319-
22 ; wan leaves, 322 ; water,
85. 315. 319-22

Medicine-men, see Wizards

Meetings, 1-7, 129-31, 265-9

Meitheis : 297 ; girls' houses, 299 ;
lingua franca, 310 ; men's houses,
299 ; tug-of-war, 300

Mekeo tribe : account of, 532 ; clan
badges, 533

Melanesia : (see also Banks' is-
lands ; Bismarck Archipelago ;

562

Index.

Marshall Bennetts ; Mortlock is-
land ; New Guinea ; New Heb-
rides ; Santa Cruz ; Solomon is-
lands ; Torres islands ; Tro-
briands) ; madness, treatment of,
160 ; Melanesians and Poly-
nesians, by G. Brown, reviewed,
536-7 ; The Melanesians of British
New Guinea, by C. G. Selig-
mann, reviewed, 532-5

Melanges d'Histoire des Religions,
by H. Hubert and M. Maus, re-
viewed, 523-5

Members deceased, 1-3, 129, 269

Members elected, 1-3, 8, 129, 131,
265, 269

Members resigned, 1-2, 8, 129, 131,
269

Mending clothes : unlucky while
wearing, Argyll, 89

Men's Houses : Assam, 298-9, 303 ;
Carolines, 535-6

Menstruation, see Catamenia

Mercia : possessions of ealdorman,
27-S

Merfolk : County Clare, 183,

341-3

Merlav : marriage customs, 50

Merseburg : charm, 438

Metals in folklore, see under metals

Metamorphosis, see Shape-shifting

Meteors : omen from, Yorks, 227

Method and Minotaur, by A. Lang,
132-46

Methrd : belief about, 217

Mexico, see Mexico City ; Mon-
terey ; Zacualco

Mexico City : Janvier's Legends of
the City of Mexico reviewed, 537

Miana Chah : folk-medicine, 317-8

Michaelmas : phooka spoils black-
berries, Clare, 481

Micklestane Moor, stones of, 154

Micronesia, see Caroline islands

Middlesex, see London

Mide Indians : migis, 149

Midsummer Night : burning wheel
rolled, Glamorgan, 118

Milk : omen from spilling, Yorks,
225

Milpreve, Cornwall, 161

Miltown : mermaid, 342-3 ; peist,
478

Minehead : amulet, 7

Mining customs and beliefs : Derby-
shire, 22, 38 ; Yorkshire, 226

Minos, King, see King Minos

Minotaur, The, 131-46

Miracles : of Decollati, Sicily, 171-

2, 174-5
Mirror, see Looking glass
Mirzapur : folklore, 158
Mist spirits, Wales, 117-8
Mithras cult, 11 1-2
MjoUnir, Thor's hammer, 70-1
Mock mayor rites : Oxon, 32
Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient
Greek Religion, by J. C. Lawson,
reviewed, 529-32
Mohernagartan : meaning, 184
Mohernaglasha : meaning, 184
Mohinddinpur Thirana : folk-medi-
cine, 314
Mole : feet as amulets, Sussex, 7
Monaster Letteragh : sunken mon-
astery, 485
Monday : (_see also Plough Mon-
day) ; in cult of Decollati, Sicily,
172 ; horn dance. Abbot's Brom-
ley, 26 ; magic herb gathered,
England, 377
Mongan, as cuckoo hero, 230-5
Monkey : (see also Wer-beasts) ; in

folk-tale, Africa, 362, 495-6
Monomotapa : executed criminals,

relics of, 179
Monte Amiata : folk-tales, 250,

349-50

Montelius, O. : The Sun-God's Axe
and Thor's Hammer, 60-78
(plates)

Monterey : legends, 538

Montfort, Simon de, 176

Montgomery (Panjab) ; folk-medi-
cine, 324, 333

Moon : friend of mankind, India,
126; male, Bantu, 255; new,
rites at, Palestine, 289 ; origin of
variations, India, 126 ; wife of
sun, E. Africa, 255

Moon Creek : corroboree songs,
86-8

Moone : in Lorica, 437

Morning star : moon's wife, E.
Africa, 255 ; origin of, India,
126

Morocco : Moorish Beliefs and Cus-
toms, by E. Westermarck, 269

Morris dances, see Dances

Mortlock island : amulet, 3

Moses the Prophet : in charm,
India, 506

Mosquito : in folk-tale, Togo,. 258

Mota : birth customs, 47-8 ; hus-

Index.

56:

band of father's sister, 45 ; social

divisions, 55-6, 58
Moth : omen from, Scotland, 90
Mother-right : Africa, 123, 202 ;

Iroquois, 127 ; survivals of, 52
Motlav : father's sister, 49-50 ;

feasts after first birth, 48
Motor mascots, 3
Mountain ash : against witchcraft,

Lines, 158
Mt Amanus, see Commagene
Mt Callan : Conan's grave, 485 ;

past, 477
Mt Ida : cave of Zeus, 135
Mt Kenya, see Akik^ayu
Mt Lyttos : cave near, 135, 137
Mourning, see Death and funeral

customs and beliefs
Mouse : charms against, India, 331
Moveen : treasure legend, 344
Moyarta : fairies, 196 ; ghosts, 345 ;

place-names, 183 ; tribe, 182
Moyeir : meaning, 185
Moyhill : ghost, 346
Moyri : meaning, 185
Moyross Parks : meaning, 185
Mugron, Abt. of lona, 420, 426, 434
Mulberry: in zaghareet, Palestine, 288
MQltan : folk-medicine, 326 ; plant

and animal beliefs, 217
Mumming plays, see Folk-drama
Mundondo : in fetish charm, Con-
go, 459 .
Munjila-njila : in fetish charm,

Congo, 459
Munster : (see also Clare ; Cork ;

Kerry ; Limerick ; Tipperary ;

Wexford) ; sheaf dedicated, 197
Muppans : okiddl, 268
Murchad, son of K. Brian, 477
Murder : reincarnation of murderer,

Assam, 262
Murray island : exchanges of pro-
perty, 533
Musical instruments, see Bell ; Bow

and arrow ; Drum
Music Hill : meaning, 185
Mutton Island, 183
Muzaffargarh : animals, beliefs

about, 216
MycencB : bull's heads, 64 (plate),

136 ; chrysanthemums, 64, 136 ;

double axes, 64-5 (plates), 136
Mylasa : coins, 62 ; local Zeus, 62
Myths and Legends of the New

York State Iroquois, by H. M.

Converse, reviewed, 126-7

Nagar : folk-medicine, 317

Nagas : (see also Lhota Naga) ;
Naga Customs and Superstitions,
by T. C. Hodson, 268, 296-312

Nail : in charm, India, 332-3 ;
horse-shoe, as charm, 3

Nail fetish, 2, 461

Nail-parings : buried, Hausas, 202 ;
preserved by father's sister,
Banks' islands, 47-8, 57

Names : dangerous to disclose, Ire-
land etc., 155-6; gennas at nam-
ing, Assam, 311 ; not spoken,
Hausas and Filani, 202 ; transfer
power, Egypt, 149

Nandi : drink blood, 161, 162

Nangal Shayan : folk-medicine,

324
Nangroha : folk-medicine, 315
Naples : exhibits, 269 ; religious

dancing, 515
Narli : folk-medicine, 315
NathOpura : folk-medicine, 320
Native Life in East Africa, by K.

Weule, reviewed, 122-4
Ndembo society, Congo, 447, 466-7
Ndorobo : aboriginal, 255
Necklaces : Mangunga, 2 ; Pales-
tine, 265, 280 ; Santa Cruz island,

3
Needle : charm to ' bind,' India,

330-1 ; omen from, Scotland, 89
Needwood Forest, 27, 30
Neilgherry Hills, see Badagas
Nessa, Cuchulainn's grandmother,

231
New Britain : cannibalism, 161 ;

compared with Samoa, 536-7 ;

exhibits, 3
New Grove : dolmen, 196
New Guinea : amulet, 2 ; culture

parallels, 537; Seligmann's The

Melanesians of British New

Guinea reviewed, 532-5
Newhall : mermaid, 341-2
New Hebrides : (see also Pentecost

island) ; father's sister, 42 ; mar-
riage customs, 54
Newmarket-on-Fergus : banshee,

191 ; fairies, 195, 197
Newtown (Clare) : tower, 344
New Year : (see also New Year's

Day ; New Year's Eve) ; songs,

Scotland, 264
New Year's Day : barring custom,

Salop, 31 ; dance, Staffs, 39
New Year's Eve : coal brought in,

564

Index.

Yorks, 227 ; firstfooting, Man-
chester, 224 ; Yule log burnt,
Craven, 225

New York State, see Iroquois

New Zealand, see Maoris

Ngangas, see Wizards

Nias island : exhibits, 2

Niger and the West Sudan, The, by
A. J. N. Tremearne, noticed, 538

Night : dangerous to answer ques-
tions, Greeks, 158

Night-hags : Wales, 120

Nightingale : in folk-tale, 158-9,
Armenia, 507-11

Night-jar bird : guides soul, Garos,
262

Nimr, Bedawi poet, 276, 278

Nim-tree : in charms, India, 83, 330

Ninda Chando, the Moon, India, 126

Nine : in amulet, Germany, 438 ;
orders of Heavenly Powers, 428 ;
in theory of Cretan kingship,

133. 143-4
Nineveh : exhibits, 266 ; god-image,

62 (plate)
Nkirnba society, Congo, 447, 466
Nlakaji : in fetish charm, Congo,

459
Nootkan Indians : house posts, 130
Norfolk, see Holkham
Normanton : omens, 225
North : in divination, Manipur, 80
North America : (see also Canada ;

Eskimo ; Mexico ; United States

of N. America ; West Indies) ;

dangerous to tell name, 156 ; heel

shows descent, 273
North east : in divination, Manipur,

80
North Nigeria, see Filani ; Hausas ;

Jemaan Daroro ; Kano ; Zaria
North west : in divination, Mani-
pur, 80
Norway : (see also Christiania) ;

charm, 444
Notes on the Marriage Customs of

the Bedii and Fellahin, by Mrs.

H. H. Spoer, 266, 270-95 (plate)
Noto : cult of executed criminals,

170
Noughaval : dolmen, 196 ; fairies,

195 ; fort, 183
Nsangalavwa : in fetish ceremony,

Congo, 462
Numbers in folklore, see under

names
Nutt, A. : Alfred Nutt : an Ap-

preciation, by J. L. Weston,
512-4 ; Cuckoo Heroes, 230-5 ;
death of, 267-8 ; The Future
Work of the Folk-Lore Society,
102 ; How Far is the Lore of the
Folk Racial?, 379-84; In Me-
moriam, by E. Clodd, 335-7; re-
views by, — MacNeill's Duanaire
Finn, 396-401 ; Nitze's The Fisher
King in the Grail Romances,
107-17 ; Evans' The White Book
Mabinogion, 237-46
Nyassaland, see Angoni ; Anyanja ;
Makonde ; Makua ; Yao

Oak-tree : Beggar's Oak, Need-
wood Forest, 27 ; on Garland
Day, Castleton, 37 ; oak-log fire
for Perun, Slavonians, 67 ; in
rhyme, 37 ; tree of sun-god,
Greece, 67 ; Zeus as god of,

133
Oar as tea-leaf sign, Yorks, 227
Oaths : on iron, Hausas, 202 ; by

Thor, Sweden, 77
O'Briens, legends of, 181, 188-9,

191, 341-2, 347, 479
Oceania : exhibits from, 2-3, 9 ;

The Father's Sister in Oceania,

by W. H. R. Rivers, 2, 42-59
Odin, 70, 72-3, 438
Odysseus, saga of, 150
Ogres : Thor enemy of, 77-8 ; v^'hy

failure is fatal to, 150
Oil : in charm, India, 332
Oisin : in place-name, Clare, 184
Okidal, a Method of Killing among

the Hill Tribes of Malabar, by

F. Fawcett, 268
Old as the Moon, As, by F. J.

Stoddard, noticed, 264
Old Christmas Day : flower blooms

and oxen kneel. Craven, 225
Old Etruria and Modern Tuscany,

by M. L. Cameron, revievi^ed,

249-50
Old-Lore Miscellany of Orkney,

Shetland, Caithness, and Suther-
land noticed, 264
Old Upsala : three gods, 73
Old Woman and Sixpence type of

folk-tale, 370-1
Olympia : votive offerings, 64
O'May, J. : Playing the Wer-Beast,

a Malay Game, 371-4
Omdurman : amulets, 9
Omens: amongst Greeks, 159;

Index.

565

from animals, Sicily, 174 ; from
birds, Bucks, 223, India, 216,
309-10, Ireland, 190, Scotland,
90, Sicily, 174, Yorks, 225-7 ;
from breakages, Scotland, 89,
Yorks, 226-7 > from clock, Yorks,
226 ; from death coach, Clare,
190, 192-4 ; from dreams, Assam,
262, 312 ; from fork, England,
226 ; from insects. Craven, 225,
Scotland, 90 ; from knife, Eng-
land, 226, Scotland, 89 ; from
meeting on stairs, Yorks, 226 ;
from meteors, Yorks, 227 ; from
needle, Scotland, 89 ; from scis-
sors, Scotland, 89 ; from shoes,
Scotland, 89, Yorks, 226 ; from
sitting on table, Scotland, 89 ;
from soot on firebars, Yorks,
227 ; from sounds, Clare, 347,
Sicily, 173-4 V from spilling milk,
Yorks, 225 ; from spoons, Yorks,
226 ; from stockings, Scotland,

89 ; from taking last slice, Scot-
land, 89 ; from tea leaves,
Yorks, 227 ; from words of
passers-by, Sicily, 174 ; of acci-
dents, Yorks, 226 ; of answer to
prayers, Sicily, 173-4 ; of birth,
Assam, 312 ; of death, Ireland,
190, 192-4, 347, Scotland, 90,
Wales, 118, Yorks, 227; of mar-
riage, Scotland, 89, Yorks, 226 ;
of news, Scotland, 90 ; of pro-
posal, Scotland, 89 ; of quarrel,
Scotland, 89, Yorks, 226 ; of visi-
tors, England, 227, Scotland, 89-

90 ; of weather, Wales, 118 ; rati-
fied by acceptance, 159

Orchid : from funeral wreath un-
lucky, Bucks, 223
Ordeals : Congo, 448, 467
Orenda, see Mana
Oreto river : (see also Palermo) ;

Decollati appear on banks, 174
Oribi : in folk-tales, Hausas, 203-4,

210, 361-2
Origine de I'Idee de Dieu, L', by

G. Schmidt, reviewed, 516-23
Origins of Popular Superstitions

and Customs, The, by T. S.

Knowlson, reviewed, 41 1-2
Orkney islands : folklore, 264
Oscilla, 142-3
Ossianic sagas : Clare, 485 ; Mac-

Neill's Duanaire Finn reviewed,

396-401

Ostrich : in folk-tales, Africa, 200,

495-6
Oswestry : St Oswald's well, 6
Oven : charm to bind, India, 330-1
Over-looking, see Evil eye
Owenacluggan : meaning, 182
Owl : annual hunt, England, 30 ;
omens from, Clare, 190, 484,
India, 216-7 > '" septennial festi-
val, Oxon, 32 ; white, as death
omen, Clare, 190
Ox : flesh eaten if struck by light-
ning, Zulus, 160 ; footprint in
folk-tale, Armenia, 366
Oxfordshire : (see also Bladon ;
Blenheim Park ; Kennington ;
Wychwood Forest ; Woodstock) ;
proverb, 18-9

Paiwant : folk-medicine, 314

Pakhangba, royal ancestor, Mani-
pur, 81

Pakpattan : charm, 333

Palermo : The Cult of Executed
Criminals at Palermo, by E. S.
Hartland, 130, 168-79 (plates)

Palestine : (see also Beit Jala ;
Bethlehem ; Beth-shemesh ; Ra-
mallah) ; exhibits, 265-6 ; mar-
riage customs, 265, 270-95 (plate)

" Palm," see Willow

Palm nut : in fetish charms,
Congo, 459, 462

Palm Sunday : cakes and branches,
England, 410-1 ; dainties, Bel-
gium, 410-1 ; palm not in house
before, Surrey, 224

Palm-tree : Zeus as god of, 133

Palm wine : in fetish ceremonies,
Congo, 455, 459, 462 ; trinkna-
nien, Togo, 259

Panipat, battle of, 415

Panjab : (see also Ambala ; Am-
ritsar ; Datiya ; Dera GhSzi
Khan ; Ferozepur ; Gujran-
wila ; Gujrat ; Gurdaspur ;
Gurgaon ; Hissar ; Hoshiarpur ;
J^mpur ; Jech Doab ; Jhang ;
Jhelum ; JuUundur ; Karnal ;
Kasflr ; Kirars ; Lahore ; Ludhi-
ana ; Mflltan ; Muzaffargarh ;
Peshawar ; Rajanpur ; Rohtak ;
Salt Range ; Sialkot ; and under
names of villages) ; folk-medicine,
83-6, 313-34; Occult Powers of
Healing in the Panjab, by C. S.
Burne, 313-34

^66

Index.

Panjab Folklore Notes, by H. A.
Rose, 216-7

Panjgirain : folk-medicine, 314

Papers read before Society, 1-3,
8-9, 130-1, 265, 268-9

Pardhana : folk-medicine, 314

Parzival legend, 113

Peace : nganga ratifies, Congo, 461

Peacock : in amulet, India, 506 ;
feathers in cure for hydrophobia,
India, 83

Peacock, Mabel : Religious Danc-
ing, 515

Peak district : folklore of, 20-5

Feists, 180, 476-80 iplate)

Pentacles, see Amulets and talis-
mans

Pentecost island : father's sister,

43-5

Pepper : in charm, India, 85

Perceval legends, 244

Peredur, saga of, 243-6

Perkons, deity, Letts, 67

Perkunas, deity, Lithuanians, 67

Perseus saga, 230, 234

Persia : magical bowl, 131 ; rings,
266 ; sorcery, charm against,
163-4

Peru : ford rites, 159

Perun, thunder god, 67

Peshawar : folk-medicine, 321-2

Pharmakos, the, 137-8

Philippines, see Luzon

Phocis, see Delphi

Phoenicia : influences Crete, 135

Phooka : in County Clare, 183, 481

Phrixus, folk-tale of, 141

Pig : birth genua, Assam, 308 ; in
chafifing custom, Banks' islands,
50 ; in charm, SirmOr, 507 ;
fetish, Congo, 457 ; flesh tabued,
Assam, 305-6 ; in folk-tales, Ar-
menia, 366, Maoris, 128 ; in
initiation ceremony. Banks'
islands, 49 ; in title of father's
sisters. Banks' islands, 45, 49-50 ;
tusk as horse pendant, Servia, 3

Pike : gigantic, Clare, 480

Pin : wax figures pierced by, 129

Place-names : Ireland, 181-6

Plague : hymns against, Ireland,
418, 422-3

Plane-tree : in rhyme, 37 ; Zeus as
god of, 133

Plantain : in divination, Scotland,
91-2 ; local names, Kirkcud-
brightshire, 91-2

Plantain fruit : in rite against

weakly children, Congo, 464
Plantain stem : in rite against evil

dream, Assam, 262-3
Planting customs and beliefs :

sugar cane, Panjab, 217
Plants in folklore : {see also Ah ;
Baharas ; Bissu ; Dintata ;
Elemba-lemba ; Gaur ; Harmal ;
Ivy ; Kurman vine ; Lettuce ;
Lumbuzu ; Methrd ; Mundondo ;
Munjila-njila ; Nlakaji ; Nsanga-
lavwa ; Plantain ; Pumpkin vine ;
Rosemary ; Sugar cane ; Tendi
kia ndungii ; Verum) ; as totems,
Australia, 391 ; New Guinea, 533 ;
Wales, 1 1 7-8
Plate : omen from, Yorks, 226
Playing the Wer-Beast : a Malay

Game, by J. O'May, 371-4
Pleurisy, see Lung diseases
Plough Monday, Derbyshire, 38
Pneumonia, see Lung diseases
Poison : charm against, Ireland,

438
Polygamy, see Marriage customs

and beliefs
Polynesia, see Cook's islands ; Fiji

islands ; Samoa islands ; Tonga
Polyxena, slaying of, 138
Pomegranate : danger of eating,
155 ; in marriage custom, Pale-
stine, 293
Pontefract : folklore, 225-6
Poplar-tree : Zeus as god of, 133
Possession, demon or spirit : by
sayyids, India, 504 ; expulsion
rites, India, 505 ; results from sin
or carelessness, 155
Potato : as amulet, Suffolk, 7
Poulaphuca : meaning, 183-4
Poulnabruckee : meaning, 184, 478
Poulnapeasta : meaning, 476
Pregnancy, see Birth customs and

beliefs
President, election of, 4
Presidential Address, 5, 14-41
Proteus type of folk-tales, 145, 156
Proverbs : Derbyshire, 23 ; Oxford-
shire, 18-9 ; Palestine, 276, 295 ;
Togo, 258-9
Psychro : cave near, 135
Puberty rites : Assam, 303 ; East

Africa, 123-4
Publications of Folk-Lore Society,

35. 40-1. 93-101
Ptica, see Phooka

Index.

567

Pumpkin : in folk-tale, Africa, 257
Pumpkin vine : seeds in charm,

Congo, 463
Purgatory : in cult of executed

criminals, Sicily, 169-70, 173 ;

amongst Garos, 262
Pyrford Stone, 387-8
Python : worshipped, Assam, 310

Quantock Hills : annual squirrel
hunt, 31

Queen Guinevere, 231

Queen Maeve, 181

Queensland, see Moon Creek ;
Upper Burnett river

Queensland Corroboree Songs, by
R. B. B. Clayton, 86-8

Queen Victoria : wife of John Com-
pany, Nagas, 296

Questions : dangerous to answer,
158-9

Quin : banshee, 191 ; fort, danger-
ous to destroy, 194

Quoireng N gas, see Maolong

Ra, the god, 149

Rabbi Juda, see Juda

Rabbit : fairy, Clare, 483

Race elements in lore of folk, 379-
84

Races of Man and their Distribu-
tion, The, by A. C. Haddon,
noticed, 263

Raga island, see Pentecost island

Rag-bushes : Glamorgan, 121

Rain : controlled by nganga, Congo,
468, or salt, Congo, 468 ; given
by Thor, Sweden, 76 ; Zeus as
god of, 133

Rainbow : sign of nganga' s power,
Congo, 468 ; snake coming from
well, Africa, 202, 256-7 ; Thor's
brow, 78

Rajanpur : folk-medicine, 313-4,
316, 327

Rajputs : charm, Khichi sept, 85 ;
marriage custom, 140

Ram, see Sheep

Ramallah : factions, 292 ; wedding
attire, 287-8

Ramchandra, 82

Rask, Lake : legend, 188

RasQlpur : folk-medicine, 325

Rat : charm against, India, 506

Rath : place-names, 184

Rathblamaic : banshees, 187 ; carv-

ing, 344 (plate) ; demon badger,

478
Rathfollane : fairies, 195
Ravan the ravisher, 81-2 (plate)
Raven : omen from Clare, 190,

484 , ,

Red : in amulet, Essex, 223 ; bead

for divination, Congo, 452 ;

beards of St Olaf and Thor, 74,

76
Reed-buck : in folk-tale, Hausas,

210
Reid, H. M. B. : Scraps of Scottish

Folklore, 91-2
Reincarnation beliefs : Assam, 262,

301
Reindeer : horns in horn dance.

Abbot's Bromley, 26, 29, 39
Relationship : kinship defined, 58-9 ;

terms used, Oceania, 42-5, 53, 58
Religion, evolution of, 516-23,

525-7
Religious Dancing, by M. Peacock,

515

Reptiles in folklore, see Crocodile ;
Frog ; Lizard ; Snake ; Tortoise

Reviews, 107-28, 237-64, 388-416,
516-38

Rewari : forecasting well water
etc., 83 ; folk-medicine, 83

Rheumatism : amulets against, Suf-
folk, 7, Yorks, 227 ; caused by
fetish, Congo, 461 ; cures for,
India, 84, 314, 316-7, 326-7

Rhodes, see Kameiros

Rhonabwy, story of, 242

Rhymes : England, 37

Rib-bones : cure for displacement
of, India, 84

Ribs, pains in : cure for, India, 507

Rice : once grew ready-thrashed,
India, 125

Riddles : discussed, 413 ; of Exeter
Book, 413 ; Togo, 258-9

Riddles of the Exeter Book, The,
by F. Tupper, reviewed, 413

Rigveda hymns, 61

Rings, finger, see Finger-rings

Ringworm : cures for, India, 85,
316, 319

Rinroe : ghostly bull, 480 ; tower,

344
Rio Grande : hair clippings not left

about, 147-8
Ritual, value of discussed, 165-6
Rivers and streams : (see also

Fords ; and under names) ; folk-

568

Index.

lore of, Wales, 117; spirits of,
India, 125, 310, 312

Rivers, W. H. R. : The Father's
Sister in Oceania, 2, 9, 42-59 ;
Some Magical Practices in the
Banks' Islands, 2, 9

Roan antelope, see Antelope

Robin : as fire-bringer, Wales, 119;
omen from, Bucks, 223, Scot-
land, 90

Robin Hood : in dance. Abbot's
Bromley, 40 ; hooden horse cus-
tom, Kent, 248-9

Rocks, see Stones

Rohtak : folk-medicine, 83-4, 315,
322, 325, 333 ; healing gifts in-
herited in female line, Jats, 83 ;
patient neither eats nor drinks in
healer's village, 83

Romans, ancient : (sec also under
deities) ; worship of Jupiter Doli-
chenus, 64

Rome : (see also Jupiter) ; straw
puppets thrown over bridge, 143

Romulus saga, 230, 234

Rorie, D. : Scraps of Scottish Folk-
lore, 92

Roro tribe : account of, 532 ; clan
badges, 533

Rose, H. A. : Folk-medicine in the
Panjab, 83-6 ; Occult Powers of
Healing in the Panjab, 313-34;
Panjab Folklore Notes, 216-7;
Sirmlir Folklore Notes, 503-7

Rose, H. J. : review by, — Lawson's
Modern Greek Folklore and
Ancient Greek Religion, 529-32

Rosemary : Christmas greens, Wor-
cester, 263

Ross Broc, see Ferns

Ross (Clare) : spectre dog, 482

Rosslara Castle : haunted, 345, 480

Rouen : exhibits from, 131

Rovuma river, see under tribes

Rowa : father's sister, 45-6

Ruan : banshee, 191 ; place-names,
184

Rubber figure in folk-tale, Hausas,
215

Russia : (see also Esthonia ; Kiev ;
Letts ; Lithuanians ; Samoyeds ;
Vologda) ; spitting, 163

Ryssvik : flint axes, 68

Sabowari : folk-medicine, 322
Sacrifice :
animal : — Assam, 309-10 ; Crete,

i35> 137 ; India, 262 ; Pale-
stine, 281, 290, 293 ;
contact with God, 149 ; discussed
by M. M. Hubert and Mauss, 524
human : — Crete, 133-4, i37> ^43 i
Greece, 137-8, 141-3, 530-2 ;
India, 177 ; oscilla as evidence
of, Italy, 142-3

Saffron Walden : amulet, 223 ;
hawthorn fatal, 224

Sahu Lakhu : folk-medicine, 325

St Aed of Ferns, 404

St /Engus mac Tipraite, 417, 421

St Agnes : in charm, Ireland, 437

St Ambrose, 417-8

St Augustine's Lathe : hoodening,
246-9

St Bartholomew : binds devil, 378

St Bartholomew's Day : fair fixed
by, Staffordshire, 26

St Brendan, 404, 407-8, 484

St Bride, see St Bridget

St Bridget : on broadside, Flanders,
528 ; Brigantes the tribe of, 439 ;
in charms, Hebrides, 444, Ire-
land, 438, 441, 443 ; crosses of,
Antrim, 9 ; fire at Kildare, 404,
407 ; pagan prototype, 403-4,
439 ; poem to, 417 ; sheaf dedi-
cated to, Ireland, 197 ; as watcher
of home, Hebrides, Ireland, 439-
40

St Broccan, 417

St Canice, 420

St Ciaran of Clonmacnois, 406-7

St Ciaran of Saighir, 407

St Colman MacDuach, 182

St Colman mac Murchon, 421-2

St Colman mac Ui Cluasaigh, 417,

423
St Columba : in charms, 438 ;

hymns, 417-8, 420, 422, 424-5,

428, 435
St Columcille, 408, 426, 436-7
St Cuchuimne, 417, 421-2
St Cummain the Tall, 417, 420
St Donat's castle : night-hag, 120
St Edmund, 37
St Edward the Martyr, 176
St Enda, 484
St Erik, 75

St Gall : charms, 438, 445
St Gerald of Mayo, 423
St Hilary of Poitiers, 417-8, 420
St John the Baptist : patron of

Decollati, Sicily, 172
St John's Day : special Offices, 422

Index,

569

St Joseph river, see Mekeo ; Roro

St Kenelm, 176

St Lasrian, see St Molaise

St MacCreehy, 478

St Maccreiche, 181

St Martin, 421

St Michael, 421-2, 438, 441

St Mochulla, 181-2, 185, 195

St Molaise, 404

St Moiling, 402-3, 405-6

St Nicholas : church of, Abbot's

Bromley, 26

St Olaf : heir of Thor, 74-6 ; saga,

St Oswald : well, Shropshire, 6

St Patrick : Lorica of, 417, 425-46 ;
poems in praise of, 417, 419-20

St Peter, 421

St Prosper of Aquitaine, 424

St Romuald, 177

Saints : (see also under names) ;
Hindu and Mohammedan, in
folk-medicine, India, 314-6, 318-
23 ; hymns and eulogies of Irish
saints, 417-46 ; legends on popu-
lar broadsides, Flanders, 528 ;
Plummer's Vitce Sanctorum
HibernicB reviewed, 401-8 ; slain
to fill shrine, India etc., 176-7

St Sechnall, 417, 419-20

St Senan, 181, 183, 477

St Stephen's Day : wren hunt, 30

St Thor, 77

St Ultan, 417

St Winifred : blood stains, Salop, 6

Sale of Salvage Stock to Members
of the Society, by C. S. Burne,
93-101, 229

Salerno : religious dance, 515

Salt : in charms, Congo, 468, India,
86, 217, 325-6, 330; in folk-tales,
Africa, 490, Germany, 157 ; given
on child's first visit, Yorks, 225 ;
shape-shifting to pillar of, Ger-
many, 157-8

Salt-box : ghost laid in, Bucks, 222

Salt Range : folk-medicine, 85-6

Salvage stock, sale of, 93-101, 229

Samailpur : folk-medicine, 321

SamdlH-tree : cures snakebite,
India, 505

Samoa islands : culture parallels,
536-7 ; highpriest's glance deadly,
151-2

Samoyeds : folk-tale, 142

San Salvador : sores caused by
fetish, 455 ; witch-finding, 465

Santa Cruz island : exhibits, 3
Santafiora : in folk-tale, 350
Santdls : Bompas' Folklore of the

Santdl Parganas reviewed, 124-6
Santorini : human sacrifice, 531-2
Saturday : in charms, India, 84-5
Saturn : offerings to, Italy, 142-3
Scandinavia : (see also Denmark ;
Norway ; Odin ; Sweden ; Thor ;
Volsung saga) ; hatnarr, 69-70
Scapegoat : Greece, 138 ; India, 507
Scarborough : horse ornaments, 3 ;
lucky and unlucky actions, 227 ;
omens, 227
Scattery island : dragon, 479 ; p6ist,

477-8 ; spectres, 343-4
Sciatica : cures for, India, 317
Scilly islands : bibliography, 41
Scissors : lucky present, Argyll, 89 ;

omen from, Argyll, 89
Scorpion : in amulet, India, 506 ;
charm against stings, India, 329-
30, 504, 506 ; in folk-tales, Africa,
200-1, 360-1
Scotland : (see also Hebrides ;
Highlands ; Orkney islands ;
Shetland islands ; and under
counties) ; bibliography, 41
Scott, Michael, the wizard, 157
Scraps of English Folklore, V.,

222-7
Scraps of Scottish Folklore, I.,

88-92
Scrofula : cures and charms for,

India, 83-4, 86, 327-8
Scythe : in charms, India, 84
Sea customs and beliefs : (see also
Fishing customs and beliefs) ;
Somerset, 224; Wales, 117-8
Sea-horses : as gondola ornaments,

Venice, 4
Sea or water horses, see Water

horses
Seal : human, Clare, 483
Seals : Crete, 132
Sea-slug : in chaffing custom.

Banks' islands, 51
Second sight : Argyll, 90 ; Wales,

119
Secretary, election, of, 6
Secret societies : Egbo, 259 ; Lower
Congo, 447, 466-7 ; paper by Mrs..
M. French-Sheldon, 1, 9
Seeds, see Pumpkin vine
Seefin : meaning, 182, 184, 186
Seine-Inf^rieure, see Rouen
Selangor : game, 372

570

Index.

Senecas : initiation, 127 ; Wolf clan,

127
September : (see also Michaelmas
Day ; Stealing Night) ; 4th, Mon-
day after, horn dance. Abbot's
Bromley, 26 ; 7-8th, dances,
Naples, 515
Serpent, see Snake
Servia : horse pendant, 3
Seven : in charms, Congo, 463,
India, 86, 327, 330-1 ; in legend
of sunken city, Clare, 485
Sex-totems : Australia, 521
Shahabad : folk-medicine, 327
Shahpur : folk-medicine, 318
Shakespear, J. : Manipur Festival,

79-82 (/)Zaie)
Shakespear, Mrs. : exhibits, 9
Shaking Day, Castleton, 38
Shambala : folk-tale, 257
Shamspur Majra : folk-medicine, 325
Shandangan Lake : demon badger,

478-9 ; enchanted, 184
Shannon river : corpse candles,
340 ; ghosts, 345 ; origin of name,

341

Shape-shifting : in folk-tales, Af-
rica, 201, Assam, 263, Germany,
157-8 ; from rash imprecations,
Scotland, 154; Wales, 118, 120

Shark : fossil teeth as amulets,
Whitstable, 7

Sheep : bone as amulet, Whitby, 7 ;
in folk-tales, 141, Africa, 200,
352-3. 356-7. 360-1, 497-8, Ar-
menia, 366 ; sacrificed, Palestine,
290, 293

Shells in folklore : amulet, Philip-
pines, 129 ; as currency, Caro-
lines, 536

Shervage Wood : annual hunt, 31

Shetland islands : animals' names, 264

Shoe : mud from as charm, Persia,
163-4 ; omens from, Argyll, 89,
Yorks, 226 ; unlucky actions
with, Argyll, 89, Yorks, 225

Shooting stars, see Meteors

Shragh : spectre, 340

Shropshire : (see also Edgmond ;
Madeley ; Oswestry ; Woolston
Well) ; annual barring custom,
31 ; phantom funerals, 119

Sialkot : charms and folk-medicine,
316-7, 321, 328-32

Sicily, see Acireale ; Bagheria ; Ler-
cara ; Noto ; Oreto river ; Paler-
mo ; Trapani

Sierra Leone : folk-tales, 204, 207,

215, 260
Sieve : in charm, India, 332
Signs and Symbols of Primordial

Man, The, by A. Churchward,

reviewed, 525-7
Sikh Religion, The, by M. A.

Macauliffe, reviewed, 414-6
Silana : folk-medicine, 334
Silver : gift on child's first visit,

Yorks, 225 ; medicine-man's mir-
ror, Nias, 2
Simrishamn : rite with St Olaf's

axe, 75
Sindre the smith, 70
Singhbhiim, see Kolhdn
Singing games : English, 15-6
Sirens, the, 150
Sirmur Folklore Notes, by H. A.

Rose, 503-7
Sister : of deceased wife in rites,

Congo, 464 ; of father, Oceania,

2, 42-59
Sita, 81

Siva : in charm, India, 86
Skane, see Kivik ; Simrishamn
Skeaghvickencrowe : meaning, 184
Skin disease caused by fetish, Con-
go. 454
Skogstorp : symbolic axes, 68
Skull : in folk-tale, S. Nigeria, 260 ;

as lime pot, Trobriands, 534 ;

preserved, Marshall Bennetts,

534
Sky : Atnatu lives beyond, Kaitish,

521 ; once near earth, India, 125-

6 ; Zeus as god of, 133
Slave-dealing in folk-tales, Africa,

259

Slavonians, see Perun ; Russia

Sleeping sickness : treatment, Con-
go, 464, 468-9

Slieve Carran : supernatural pheno-
mena, 339

Slievenaglasha : meaning, 184

Slieve Suidhe an righ : meaning,
185

Slough : funeral flowers unlucky,
223 ; omens, 223

Smaland, see Ryssvik ; Warend

Smallpox : amulets against, Cey-
lon, 161

Smith, H. M. : Scraps of English
Folklore, 224-5

Smithy, see Blacksmith

Snake : (see also Piists ; Python ;
Water-snake) ; amulets against,

Index.

571

Ceylon, 161 ; charms against,
Cornwall, 161, India, 83, 85, 319,
323, 328-g, 504-6 ; in charm
against bite, India, 504 ; cure for
bite, India, 504 ; drinks buffalo
milk, India, 216; in folklore,
Wales, 118; in folk-tales, Africa,
200-1, 207-9, 255, Ireland, 479 ;
Guga, snake god, India, 85 ;
rainbow as, Africa, 202, 256-7 ;
as seat in spiritland, India, 125 ;
as totem. New Guinea, 533 ;
varieties, Panjab, 216

Snake-charming, India, 328-9

Snakestone ring, Cornwall, 161

Sodermanland, see Skogstorp ;
Stengvista ; Torshalla

Sohrab and Rustem, 234

Solomon islands : marriage cus-
toms, 54 ; patrilineal descent, 53

Some Naga Customs and Supersti-
tions,byT. C. Hodson, 268, 296-312

Some Notes on Magical Practices
in the Banks' Islands, by W. H.
R. Rivers, 2

Somerset : {see also Minehead ;
Quantock Hills ; Taunton) ; folk-
songs, 36 ; sea belief, 224 ; witch-
craft, 150

Somme, see Amiens

Soot on grate bars as omen, Yorks,
227

Sorcery, see Magic ; Witchcraft

Soudan, see Omdurman

Souls : called away by nganga,
Congo, 465 ; of men and animals
not distinct, Assam, 262

South : in divination, Manipur, 80

South America : (see also Abi-
pones ; Brazil ; Cordilleras ;
Peru) ; ford rites, 159

South Australia : Frazer's Totem-
ism and Exogamy reviewed, 389-
96

South east : in divination, Mani-
pur, 80-1

Southern Nigeria : (see also Cala-
bar ; Edo ; Wefa) ; folk-tales,
258-60 ; rings, 266

South west : in divination, Mani-
pur, 80

Sowing customs and beliefs :
Assam, 262 ; Denmark and
Sweden, 75 ; India, 217

Spain, see Catalonia

Spanish juice, see Liquorice

Spanish Point : mermaid, 342-3

Sparta : Dorians, 135 ; omen, 159

Sphinx, the, 150

Spider : in folk-tales, Africa, 200-
15, 258-60, 351-60; in witch-find-
ing, Congo, 459

Spinning : tabued when setting
sugar cane, Panjab, 217

Spitting : in blessing, Congo, 454 ;
in folk-medicine, Germany, 388,
India, 315, 318, 330 ; in folk-tale,
158; in ford rites, 159; against
witchcraft, 163-4

Spitting Cure, A, by W. R. Halli-
day, 388

Spleen diseases : charms against,
India, 325 ; cures for, India, 84

Spoer, Mrs. H. H. : Notes on the
Marriage Customs of the Bedu
and Fellahin, 265, 270-95 (plate)

Spoon : omen from, Yorks, 226

Sprains : charms for, 437-8

Springs : St Thor's, Sweden, 77

Squirrel : annual hunt, England,
30-3 ; in folk-tale, Africa, 260

Staffordshire : (see also Abbot's
Bromlev ; Bagot's Bromley ; Bet-
ley Hall ; Blithfield ; Bromley
Hurst ;Burton-upon-Trent ; Need-
wood Forest) ; omens of visitors,
226

Stairs : omen from meeting on,
Yorks, 226

Stamer Park : ghosts, 344

Stanley Falls : good men have no
stomachs, 105-6

Starr, F. : exhibits by, 129-30;
gifts to Society, 129-30

Stars : (see also Evening star ;
Morning star) ; Bunjil related to,
521 ; children of sun and moon,
E. Africa, 255 ; origin of, India,
126 ; Zeus as god of, 133

Stealing Night, Castleton, 38

Stengvista : cross on monuments,
72

Stenton, F. M. : The Antiquity of
Abbot's Bromley, 386-7

Sterope, Apollo's horse, 66

Sticklastad, battle of, 74

Stockings : omen from, Scotland, 8g

Stomach : not possessed by good
men, Congo, 105-6

Stomach-ache : cure for, India, 83

Stomach diseases : cures for, Pan-
jab, 314

Stone Age : symbolic axes, 67-9

Stone money, Carolines, 536

572

Index.

Stones : (see also Dolmens) ; in
folklore, Wales, ii8; Mickle-
stane Moor, legend of, 154 ; in
place-names, Clare, 183, 186
Storms: work in heavenly smithy, 66
Streams, see Rivers and streams
Studies in English and Compara-
tive Literature, reviewed, 409
Substituted Bride type of folk-tales,

369

Succubi, 125

Sucking, cure by, India, 84

Suffolk : (see also Brandon ; Lowe-
stoft); "pudding stone" belief,
386

Sugar : in folk-medicine, India,
317, 320-2

Sugar cane : firstfruit custom,
India, 217; tabus, India, 217

Suicide : reincarnated as beetle,
Assam, 262

Sumatra : {see also Batta tribe) ;
wer-tiger, 371

Sun : in folk-tale, Africa, 254 ;
moon's husband, Akikuyu, 255

Sunday : (^ee also Palm Sunday) ;
in charms, India, 84-5, 318-9,
321-2, 324 ; Christian never
bathes on, Palestine, 289 ; horn
dance. Abbot's Bromley, 39 ;
Wakes, Castleton, 38

Sun god : cuts moon in two, India,
126 ; Lugh, 404 ; scatters stars,
India, 126 ; Zeus as, 133

Sun-God's Axe and Thor's Ham-
mer, The, by O. Montelius, 60-
78 (plates)

Sunken cities and lands : 182 ;
Clare, 485-7

Sunwise : in charm, India, 85

Suqe, men's society, Banks' is-
lands, 49

Surrey : {see also Great Bookham ;
Hascombe ; London ; Pyrford
Stone ; Winkworth Hollow) ;
amulet, 7

Surrey Birch-Broom Custom, A, by
G. Thatcher, 388

Sur tribe : marriage with wife's
sister, 275

Sussex : amulets, 7

Sutherland : witchcraft and charm-
ing, 264

Suttee : confers wonder-working
powers, Panjab, 314

Swahili : folklore, 8 ; folk-tales,
199-200, 257

Swan-maiden type of folk-tales, 184

Sweden : {see also Bohuslan ; Gud-
brandsdal ; Lapps ; Old Upsala ;
Skane ; Smaland ; Sodermanland,
Vestergotland) ; amber axes, 68
(plates) ; Thor-bolts, 60 ; Thurs-
day sacred, 77

Swellings ; cures for, India, 83-4,
86, 316, 320

Switzerland, see Gall canton

Sword : in dance, Palestine, 279 ;
at marriage, Palestine, 291, 293

Sycamore-tree : on Garland Day,
Castleton, 37

Syria : (see also Commagene) ; ex-
hibits, 266 ; gods on animals, 63 ;
Jupiter Dolichenus, 63 (plate)

Table : unlucky to put boots on,
Argyll, 89, Yorks, 225-6, or sit
on, Argyll, 89, Yorks, 225

Tabor, C. J. : exhibits, 4, 9

Tabus : as basis of religion, 307 ;
on bridegroom, Palestine, 285 ;
on crossing road, Congo, 468 ; as
to father's sister, Oceania, 43 ;
on fire, Christmastide, Coniston,
224 ; on fishers, Carolines, 535 ;
on food, Congo, 463, India, 301,
305"9i 317; gennas, Assam, 301,
305-6, 308-10 ; inoculation against
dangers of, 160, 162 ; on names,
Bantu, 254-5, Hausas and Filani,
202

Takapur : folk-medicine, 328

Talao : folk-medicine, 325

Tallies : Malabar, 269

Talwandi : birthplace of Nanak^
414

Tamarind-tree : in folk-tale, Hau-
sas, 205, 207

Tanarus, Celtic god, 67

Tangkhuls : birth gennas, 308-9 ;
marriage customs, 302-3 ; puberty
custom, 303 : tabus, 305-6 ; tat-
tooing, 302

Taranis, Celtic god, 67

Tar-baby type of folk-tales, 214-5

Tarsos : coins, 63 (plate) ; local
deity, 63 (plate)

Tattooing : Assam, 302 ; Carolines,.
536

Taunton : witchcraft, 150

Tea-leaf fortune-telling, 227

Teeth : of animals as amulets, Af-
rica, 161 ; dead man's, as amulet,.
Yorks, 227

Index.

Teething, amulets for, Essex, 223
Templemaley : fairy forts, 195
Templenaraha : demolition avenged,

195

Thdkur Bdbd, the Lord, India, 125

Thatcher, G. : A Surrey Birch-
Broom Custom, 388

Theatre superstitions, 412

Theft : charms against, 377-8, 426,
and to aid, Congo, 465 ; fetish
invoked against, Congo, 451,454-
5, 467 ; magic herb detects, 377 ;
thief-finder, Congo, 453

Theseus, saga of, 139, 141, 144-5,
230

Thetis, legend of, 138

Thickets : god of, Hausas, 202

Thomas, N. W. : review by, —
Frazer's Totemism and Exogamy,
389-96

Thomond, see Clare

Thor : The Sun-God's Axe and
Thor's Hammer, by O. Mon-
telius, 60-78 (plates)

Thorn : charm to extract, St Gall,

438, __ 445

Thorsas : St Thor's spring, 77

Thrace, see Lycurgos

Three : in fetish ceremonies, Con-
go. 454. 456. 463. 466, 468

Threshold : bridal sacrifice on,
Palestine, 290

Throat diseases : cure for, Panjab,

313-4

Thrym, king of the giants, 71

Thunder : (see also Thor) ; caused
by fetish, Congo, 454, or Thor's
chariot, Sweden, 76-7 ; god of,
Garos, 261 ; horse of Apollo, 66 ;
thunder god also sun god, 60-78

Thunderbolts : Brazil, 60 ; Greece,
60 ; Japan, 60 ; Surrey, 7 ;
Sweden, 60, 77

Thunderstorms, see Storms

Thunor, see Thor

Thuringia, see Merseburg

Thursday : in charms, India, 321 ;
in folk-medicine, India, 320 ;
night for wedding, Bedu, 279 ;
sacred, Sweden, 77

Tibet : horse tassel, 3 ; rings, 266

Tiger : (see also Wer-beasts) ; as-
sociated with bongas, India, 125 ;
in dreams, Assam, 312 ; parts as
amulets, Ceylon, 161, India, 268;
victim reincarnated as, Assam,
262

Time in magic and religion, 524
Tipperary, see Cahir ; Lough bo

Girr
Tirmicbrain : ghost, 344 ; meaning,

184
Tobacco : in charm, India, 330
Toberatasha : meaning, 184, 343
Tobereevul : meaning, 185-6
Tobersheefra : meaning, 184, 195
Toes : in charms, India, 84, 314 ;

in folk-tales, Africa, 256-7 ; not

moved by girls, Palestine, 283 ;

moving shows that marriageable,

Palestine, 283
Togo : Schonharl's Volkskund-

liches aus Togo reviewed, 258-

60
'Toh Kramat Kamarong, 154
Tola, legend of, 185
Tomgraney : meaning, 186
Tonga : father's sister, 42-3, 58
Tooth, see Teeth
Toothache : amulet against, Yorks,

227 ; cures for, India, 85, 332-3
Torres islands : marriage customs,

50. 54

Torres Straits : (see also Mabuiag
island ; Murray island) ; danger-
ous to tell names, 156

Torshalla : seal, 76

Tortoise : in folk-tales, Africa, 200-
I, 212-4, 260

Totemism : British Isles, 30 ;
British New Guinea, 532-4 ;
Frazer's Totemism and Exogamy
reviewed, 389-96

Touching to cure diseases and bites,
Panjab, 313-4, 505-6

Toys : Russia, 4

Transmigration beliefs : Assam,
262 ; Wales, 118

Trapani : cult of executed crimi-
nals, 170

Traps : in divination, Congo, 459-
60

Treasure legends : Clare, 184, 344 ;
Wales, 118, 120

Treasurer, election of, 6

Trees in folklore : (see also Ash-
tree ; Baobab-tree ; Bayberry ;
Bay-tree ; Birch-tree ; Breadfruit-
tree ; Coco-nut palm ; DharSk-
tree ; Dorowa-tree ; Hawthorn-
tree ; Holly-tree; Lembanzau-
tree ; Mountain ash ; Nim-tree ;
Oak-tree ; Palm-tree ; Plane-tree ;
Poplar-tree ; 5a»nd/M-tree ; Syca-

574

Index.

more-tree ; Tamarind-tree ; Wan-
tree ; Willow-tree) ; in folk-tale,
Germany, 157 ; forest spirits, In-
dia, 125 ; sacred, 163, Egypt, 149 ;
Wales, 1 17-8; Zeus as tree god,
133
Tremearne, A. J. N. : Fifty Hausa
Folk-Tales, 199-215, 351-65, 487-

503

Trent river, 27, 29

Tristan legends, 409

Trobriands : death and funeral cus-
toms, 533-4

Trough : spirit horse, 481

Troy : fatal spoils, 151

True Thomas, tale of, 153-4

Tshi : Togo games derived from,

259
Tuatha D^ Danann, 188, 196-8
Tuesday : in folk-medicine, India,

Tulla : corpse-lights, 340 ; Dalcas-
sians, iSi ; death coach, 193 ;
dolmen, 196 ; ghosts, 348-9 ; mur-
der legends, 348 ; place-names,
185-6
Tullycommaun, 339
Tumours and ulcers : caused by
fetish, Congo, 455, 461 ; charms
against, St. Gall, 445 ; cures for,
India, 314, 325
Turkeycock : ghostly, Clare, 480
Turkey-in-Asia, see Armenia
Turkey-in-Europe, see Albania ;

Thrace
Turnhout : broadsheets etc., 528
Tuscany : (see a/50 Le Bagnore ;
Monte Amiata ; Santafiora) ;
Cameron's Old Etruria and
Modern Tuscany reviewed, 249-
50
Tweed river : bridged by familiar,

157
Twelfth Day : dance, Abbot's

Bromley, 39
Twelve : in laying ghost, Bucks,

222 ; races of men, India, 126 ;

years reign of king, India, 144
Twins : lucky and unlucky, Assam,

311-2

Uap : Furness's The Island of
Stone Money reviewed, 535-6

Ulcers, see Tumours and ulcers

Ulster, see Antrim ; Boyne river ;
Brugh ; Down ; Londonderry

Ulysses, see Odysseus

Umbilical cord : preserved by
father's sister, Oceania, 47,

57-8

Umbrella : lucky and unlucky ac-
tions with, Argyll, 89, Yorks,.
225-6

Unbaptized, see Baptism

Uncle, maternal : in marriage cus-
toms, Bedu, 281, 292 ; protects
niece, Bedu, 274

Uncle, paternal : cousins marry,
Bedu, 274

Underground people : Clare, 341

Under-world : Zeus as god of, 133

United States of North America,
see Arizona ; Behring Straits ;
Cherokees ; Iroquois ; Maryland ;
New York State

Upper Burnett river : corroboree
songs, 86-8

Urabunna tribe : marriage customs,

394
Urethra diseases : cures for, India,

317
Ursprtmg des Arthursage, Der, by

J. Pokorny, discussed, 230-5
Uzzah, death of, 151

Value of European Folklore in the
History of Culture, The, by Miss
C. S. Burne, 5, 14-41
Vampires : Wales, 121 ; Greeks,.

530
Vancouver Island, see Clayoquot
Vanga : sowing custom, 75
Vanua Lava : father's sister, 52
Venice : exhibits, 4
Ventriloquism : Congo, 453
Verum (herb) : in charms, Eng-
land, 377
Vestergotland, see Vanga
Vice-Presidents, election of, 5-6
Vila BijjO : folk-medicine, 318
Virgin Mary : in cult of executed
criminals, 168, 170 ; wards off
disease, Ireland, 421 ; watcher of
home, Hebrides, Ireland, 439-41
Vishnu : amulet, India, 268
Vitce Sanctorum Hibernice, by C.

Plummer, reviewed, 401-8
Volcas, German tribe, 233
Volkskundliches aus Togo, by J.

Schonharl, reviewed, 258-9
Vologda : toy, 4
Volsung saga, 230
Volumes issued by Society, lo-i
Votive offerings : Belgium, 131 ;

Index.

575

Greeks, 64 (plates), 131, 269;

Sicily, 169-70 (plate)
Voyage of Bran, notes on, 230-1
Vulcan and Hephaistos, 66
Vulki : wife price, 251

Wakes, see Fairs

Wakhembam bird : in festival,
Manipur, 81

Wales : (see also under counties) ;
bibliography, 41 ; divination,
444 ; Trevelyan's Folklore and
Folk-stories of Wales reviewed,
1 17-21 ; Evans' The White Book
Mabinogion reviewed, 237-46

Wampum belts, 127

Wan-tree : in folk-medicine, 322

Warend : Thor, memory of, 77 ;
thunder, beliefs about, 76-7

Warts : cures for, India, 320

Washers of the Ford : France,
180 ; Ireland, 180, 187-9

Water : (see also Fords ; Lakes ;
Rain ; Rivers and streams ;
Springs ; Wells) ; in charms,
India, 85, 315, 319, 321 ; in fetish
ceremonies, Congo, 463, 468-9 ;
lucky in dream, Assam, 312 ;
omen from, Sicily, 174 ; not
stepped over by bridegroom,
Palestine, 285

Water-buck : in folk-tale, Hausas,
500-1

Water-cattle, see Cattle

Water-folk, see Merfolk

Waterfowl, see Birds

Water-horses : Clare, 486 ; Galway
Bay, 482 ; Wales, 117-8, 120-1

Water jar : in marriage custom,
Palestine, 293

Water-lizard : in folk-tale, Africa,
487-9

Water-snake, see Pdists.

Water spirits : Clare, 341-3 ; Con-
go, 461

Wathen : medical treatment, 470 ;
witch-finding, 465

Wax : in charms, England, 376-7

Wax figures in magic, Mexico, 129

Weather lore : (see also Hail ;
Lightning ; Rain ; Rainbow ;
Storms ; Thunder) ; Wales, n8

Week, days of, see under days

Weeks, J^ H. : The Congo Medi-
cine-man and his Black and
White Magic, 130, 447-71 ; ex-
hibits by, 130

Weeping : omen from, Sicily, 174

Wefa : exogamy, 394-5

Weird ladies, Wales, 118, 120

Wells : in charm, India, 327-8 ;
Easter custom, Castleton, 38 ;
fairy, Clare, 184, 195-6 ; folklore
of, Wales, 117, 120; healing,
India, 322-3 ; St Oswald's, Os-
westry, 6 ; sacred, 163 ; Woolston,
Salop, 6

Wer-beasts : cat, Malays, 374 ;
civet-cat, Malays, 372-4 ; goat,
Malays, 374 ; monkey, Malays,
372, 374; tiger, Burmah etc.,
371-2

Werner, Miss A. : review by, —
Routledges' With a Prehistoric
People, 252-8

West : in divination, Manipur, 80

Westermarck, E. : Moorish Beliefs
and Customs, 269

West Indies, see Antilles ; Baha-
mas ; Cuba ; Jamaica

Weston, J. L. : Alfred Nutt : an
Appreciation, 512-4

West Riding Teachers' Anthropo-
logical Societ}', The, by Barbara
Freire-Marreco, 103-4, ^nd L. M.
Eyre, 236

Westropp, T. J. : A Folklore Sur-
vey of County Clare, 180-99
(plate), 338-49 (Plate), 476-87

Wexford : (see also Ferns) ; " cross
trees," 515

Wheel : in Midsummer custom,
Glamorgan, 118

Whistling : omen from, Sicily, 174

Whitby : amulets, 7

White animals, see Dog ; Hen ;
Owl

White Book Mabinogion, The, by
J. G. Evans, reviewed, 237-46

White cloth in Malay magic, 372

White paternoster, Ireland, 441-2

Whitstable : amulets, 7

Whitsuntide : septennial Ale, Blen-
heim Park, 32

Whooping cough : charm against,
Essex, 223

Wicken, see Mountain ash

Widowers : mourning customs,
Trobriands, 534 ; rites performed
by, Congo, 463-4

Widows : not honoured, Bedu, 275 ;
mourning customs, Trobriands,
533-4 ; protective rites by, Bechu-
ana, 160

576

Index.

Wild cat : in follc-tales, Africa, 210-
1, 260

Wild Huntsman : Malays, 162-3 !
Wales, 120-1

Will-o-the-wisps, 340

Willow-tree : ' palms ' not in house
before Palm Sunday, Surrey, 224

Winchester : horse ornaments, 3

Winding wool unlucky, Yorks, 227

Windle, B. C. A. : reviews by, —
Peabody's Certain Quests and
Doles, 410-1 ; Ker's On the His-
tory of the Ballads, 409-10; Tup-
per's The Riddles of the Exeter
Book, 413 ; Studies in English
and Comparative Literature, 409

Window : omen from shutting of,
Sicily, 174

Winds : in folklore, Wales, 118

Wingate, J. S. : Armenian Folk-
Tales, 217-22, 365-71, 507-11

Winkworth Hollow : cross in turf,

387

Witchcraft : (see also Amulets and
talismans ; Charms and spells ;
Magic ; Witches ; Wizards) ; at-
tacked by sympathetic magic,
150, 163-4; attacks weak, 148;
dangerous to answer witch's
questions, Lincolnshire, 158 ; in
folk-tales, Armenia, 367, India,
125 ; in N. Scotland, 264

Witches: Wales, 118

Witch-finders : Lower Congo, 448,
453-4. 459-60, 465

Wizards : book and mirror. East
Indies, 2 ; The Congo Medicine-
man and his Black and White
Magic, by J. H. Weeks, 130,
447-71 ; inoculated by lightning-
struck objects, Zulus, 160

Wolf : clan, Senecas, 127 ; danger-
ous if not seen first, 163 ; in
folk-tale, Armenia, 366, Ireland,
478 ; in imprecation, Chukchi,

155
Woman : (see also Birth customs
and beliefs ; Catamenia ; Concep-
tion ; Girls ; Marriage customs
and beliefs ; Mother-right ;
Widows ; Witches) ; breasts,
origin of, Togo, 258 ; food tabus,
Assam, 305 ; not reincarnated,
Assam, 300

Wombe : exorcism, 453 ; ventrilo-
quism, 453

Woodstock : right-of-way, 32

Wood-pigeon : in folk-tale, Africa,
209

Woolston Well : St Winifred's
blood, 6

Worcestershire Parish in the Olden
Time, A, noticed, 263

Wounds : charm against, India,
325, Ireland, 438 ; cures for,
India, 321

Wren : annual hunt, 30

Wright, A. R. : exhibits by, 2-3, 6,
9, 265 ; The Burial of Amputated
Limbs, 387 ; Good Men have no
Stomachs, 105-6 ; reviews by, —
Dayrell's Folk Stories from
Southern Nigeria, 258-60 ; van
Heurck's and Boekenoogen's
Histoire de I'imagerie populaire
Flamande, 527-9 ; Schonharl's
Volkskiindliches aus Togo, 258-9

Wychwood Forest : festival, 32

Yak : reverenced, Garos, 261

Yakusu : good men have no
stomachs, 105-6

Yalafath, deity, Uap, 517, 536

Yao, 123

Yorkshire : (see also Castleford ;
Craven ; Featherstone ; Hudders-
field ; Knottingley ; Normanton ;
Pontefract : Scarborough : Whit-
by) ; The West Riding Teachers'
Anthropological Society, by Bar-
bara Freire-Marreco, 103-4, ^^'^
L. M. Eyre, 236

Yoruba : folk-tale, 260

Youngest son, inheritance by, 19-
20

Yule, see Christmastide

Zacualco : sympathetic magic, 129
Zaghareet, 288
Zakhanke : folk-medicine, 321
Zamingai : folk-medicine, 315
Zaria : in folk-tale, Hausas, 205
Zeus : carries lightning, 65 ; caves
of, Crete, 134-5, ^37 > O'"" coins,
62, 65 (plate) ; in Greek religion,
133 ; Idaean, 136 ; Labrandeus or
Stratios, 62 ; Trinity connected
with, 65
Zulus, see Amazulu

■Glasgow: printed at the university press by Robert maclehose and go." ltd.

THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

(1910.)

MISS CHARLOTTE S.

BURNE.

THE HON. JOHN ABERCROMBY.

LORD AVEBURY, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.

SIR E. W. BRABROOK, C.B., F.S.A.

EDWARD CLODD.

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

DR. M. GASTER.

G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A.

A. C. HADDON, D.Sc, F.R.S., etc.

E. S. HARTLAND, F.S.A.

ANDREW LANG, M.A., LL.D., etc.

PROFESSOR SIR J. RHYS, M.A., LL.D., F.B.A., F.S.A.

W. H. D. ROUSE, Litt.D.

THE REV. PROFESSOR A. H. SAYCE, M.A., LL.D., D.D.

PROFESSOR E. B. TYLOR, LL.D., F.R.S.

i^Tcmbers of (HovtncU.

G. CALDERON.

W. CROOKE, B.A.

M. LONGWORTH DAMES.

A. A. GOMME.

W. L. HILDBURGH, M.A., Ph.D.

T. C. HODSON.

MISS ELEANOR HULL.

A. W. JOHNSTON, F.S.A. Scot.

W. F. KIRBY.

E. LOVETT.

A. F. MAJOR.

R. R. MARETT, M.A.

W. H. R. RIVERS, M.D.

C. G. SELIGMANN, M.D.

C. J. TABOR.

E. WESTERMARCK, Ph.D.

H. B. WHEATLEY.

A. R. WRIGHT.

EDWARD CLODD.

^on. glttiitors.
F. G. GREEN. | A. W. JOHNSTON.

(Secutavg.
F. A. MILNE, M.A.

dommitttf.

Dr. Gaster, a. A. Gomme, T. C Hodson, C. J. Tabor,

H. B. Wheatley, a. R. Wright.

The President and Treasurer ex-qfficio.

MEMBERS {corrected to September, 1910).

The letter C placed before a member's 7ia?iie indicates that he or she has
compounded.

1884. Abercromby, The Hon. J., 62 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh {Vice-

President).
1899. Amersbach, Professor K., 13 Erbjwinzenstrasse, Freiburg in Baden,
Germany.

1905. Amherst, The Countess, Montreal, Sevenoaks, Kent.

1909. Anderson, R. H., Esq., 95 Alexandra Rd., N.W.

1894. Anichkov, Professor E., University of St. Vladimir, Kieve, Russia,

1889. Asher, S. G., Esq., 30 Berkeley Sq., VV.

1906. Ashton-Rigby, Miss L. E., Beverley Lodge, Leamington.
1893. Aston, G. F., Esq., 2 Templeton Place, Earl's Court, S.W.

1880. Avebury, Rt. Hon. Lord, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S.,
F.L.S., High Elms, Farnborough R.S.O. (Vice-President).

1878. Backhouse, Sir Jonathan E., Bank, Darlington.

igoo. Baker, Judge Frank T., 3543 Lake Avenue, Chicago, 111., U.S.A.

1903. Banks, Mrs. Mary M., 30 LamboUe Rd., Swiss Cottage, N.W.

1905. Barry, Miss Fanny, 91 Chelsea Gardens, S.W.

1885. Basset, Mons. Ren^, Villa Louise, Rue Deufert Rochereau, Algiers.

1910. Belcher, Miss M., Elsinore, East Twickenham.

1892. Billson, C. J., Esq., M.A., The Wayside, Oadby, Leicester.

1906. Binney, E. H., Esq., M.A., 21 Staverton Rd., Oxford.
1902. Bishop, Gerald M., Esq., 5 Robert St., .'\delphi, W.C.
1902. Bladen, W. Wells, Esq., Fairlie, Stone, Staffordshire.

1890. Bolitho, T. R., Esq., per Llewellyn T. E. Llewellyn, Esq., Estate

Office, Trengwainton, Hea Moor R.S.O. , Cornwall.

1904. Bompas, C. H., Esq., c/o Grindlay & Co., Parliament St., S.W. :

Magistrate's House, Alipore, Calcutta.
1888. Bonaparte, Prince Roland, 10 Avenue d'I6na, Paris.
1882. Bowditch, C. P., Esq., 28 State Street, Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
1897. Bower, \l. M., Esq., Trinity Hill, Ripon.
1880. Brabrook, Sir E. \V., C.B., V.P.S.A., 178 Bedford Hill, Balham,

S.W. {Vice-President).

1905. Bridge, G. F., Esq., 45 South Hill Park, London, N.W.
1878. Britten, James, Esq., 41 Boston Rd., Brentford.

Members. iii

1894. Brix, M. Camille de, 36 Rue des Chanoines, Caen, Calvados, France.

1902. Broadbent, N. M., Esq.

1892. Broadwood, Miss Lucy E., 84 Carlisle Mansions, S.W.
1909. Brown, A. R., Esq., Trinity College, Cambridge.

1909. Brown, Major H. R., 2 Nundidroog Rd., Benson Town, Bangalore,

India.

1903. Brown, James, Esq., Netherby, Galashiels.

i88g. Browne, John, Esq., Oakdene, Park Hill Rd., Croydon.

1893. Burgess, Mrs. L. J., 433 Adair Avenue, Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.A.
1883. Burne, Miss C. S., 5 Iverna Gardens, Kensington, W. (President).

1907. Cadbury, George, Esq., Jun., Bournville, Birmingham.

1880. Caddick, E., Esq., Willington Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

1907. Calderon, G., Esq., Heathland Lodge, Hampstead Heath, N.W.

1908. Cameron, Miss M. Lovett, Monastero del Giglio, Assisi, Perugia,

Italy.

1894. Campbell, Lord Archibald, Coombe Hill Farm, Kingston-on-Thames.

1906. Campbell, Miss M. C.

1898. Campbell, W. J. Douglas, Esq., F.S.A.Scot., Innis Chonain, Loch

Awe, Argyll.

1910. Carey, Miss Edith F., The Elms, Cambridge Park, Guernsey.

1894. Carpenter, Professor J. Estlin, 11 Marston Ferry Road, Oxford.

1899. Chambers, E. K., Esq., Board of Education, Whitehall, S.W.
igoi. Chase, Charles H., Esq., 11 Everett St., Cambridge, Mass, U.S.A.

1881. Chorlton, T., Esq., 32 Brazennose Street, Manchester.

1878. Clodd, Edward, Esq., 5 Princes Street, E.C., and Stafford House,

Aldeburgh [Vice-President).
1 901. Coleridge, Miss C. R., Cheyne, Torquay.

1895. Conybeare, F. C, Esq., M.A., 17 Broadmore Rd. , Oxford.

1907. Cook, A. B., Esq., 19 Cranmer Road, Cambridge.

1886. Cosquin, M. Emmanuel, Vitry-le-Frangois, Marne, France.

1888. Cox, Miss Marian Roalfe, 80 Carlisle Mansions, S.W. (Hon. Member),

1889. Crombie, James E. , Esq., Park Hill House, Dyce, Aberdeen.

1881. Crooke, W., Esq., B.A., Langton House, Charlton Kings, Chelten-
ham.

1909. Crookshank, Miss M., Saint Hill, East Grinstead.

1905. D'Aeth, F. G., Esq., 65 Hope Street, Liverpool.

1892, Dames, M. Longworth, Esq., 55 Cambridge Terrace, W.

1895. Dampier, G. R., Esq., c/o Messrs. Grindlay, Groome & Co., Bombay,

Partabgarh, Oudh, India.
1905. Davies, J. Ceredig, Esq., Dyffryn Villa, Llanilar, Aberystwyth.
1909. Davies, T. Hws., Esq., B.Sc, 59 Agate Road, Hammersmith, W.
. 1908. Davies, Prof. T. Witton, B.A., Ph.D., Bryn Haul, Victoria Drive,
Bangor, N. Wales.
1904. Dawson, Rev. A. C, Rathillet Manse, Cupar, Fife.

iv Me7iiders.

1895. Debenham, Miss Mary H., Cheshunt Park, Herts.

1894. Dennett, R. E., Esq., Royal Societies' Club, St. James's St., S.W.
1905. Dennis, Miss C. J., Laracor, Cheltenham.

1908. De Wolf, Prof. L., College N.D., Ostend, Belgium.

1905. Dickson, Miss Isabel A., 13 Selwood Terrace, Onslow Gardens, S.W.

1903. Doutte, Prof. Edmund, villa Rupert, rue Marey, Algiers.

1904. Drake, Carey, Esq., The Grey House, Hartley Wintney, Hants.
1907. Draper, Mrs. H., 271 Madison Avenue, New York City, U.S.A.

1905. Dunnill, Mrs. E. J., 5 Stow Park Avenue, Newport, Mon.
1907. Durrant, Wilfred S., Esq., 60 Croydon Road, Reigate.

1896. Eagleston, A. J., Esq., M.A., 14 Old Park Avenue, Nightingale Lane,

S.W.

1895. Evans, Arthur J., Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Ashmolean Library, Oxford.

1899. Evans, Sir E. Vincent, 64 Chancery Lane, W.C.

1895. Eyre, Miss, The Hudnalls, St. Briavel's, Coleford, Gloucestershire.

c. 1889. Fahie, J. J., Esq., The Rosary, 28 Cavendish Rd., Bournemouth.

1909. Fallows, J. A., Esq., M.A., 28 Redington Avenue, Hampstead, N.W.

1900. Faraday, Miss L. W., Carshalton House, Heaton Road, Withington,

Manchester.

1895. Fawcett, F., Esq., Westbury, Tyler's Green, High Wycombe.

1890. Feilberg, Dr. H. F., Askov, Vejen, Denmark.

1906. Ferrington, G. W., Esq., Fairfield, Gobowen, Oswestry.

1889. Ffennell, Miss Margaret C, 5 Putney Heath Lane, Putney, S.W.

1885. Fitzgerald, D., Esq., c/o T. P. Fitzgerald, Esq., 2 Edge Hill,

Wimbledon.

1892. Eraser, D. C, Esq., M.A., 25 Balls Road, Birkenhead.

1885. Frazer, J. G., Esq., M.A., LL.D., Litt.D., St. Keyne's, Cambridge

( Vice-President),

1889. Freer, W. J., Esq., V.D., F.S.A., Stonygate, Leicester.

1902. Furness, Dr. W. H., 1906 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

1902. Gaidoz, Mons. H., 22 Rue Cervandoni, Paris.

1906. Garnett, Miss A., Fairfield, Bowness-on-Windermere.

1900. Garrett, A. C, Esq., 525 Locust Avenue, Germantown, Pa., U.S.A.

1886. Gaster, Dr. M., Mizpah, 193 Maida Vale, W. {Vice-President).
1882. George, C. W. , Esq., 51 Hampton Road, Clifton, Bristol.
1909. Gerould, Prof. G. H., Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A.

1907. Ghosal, B. B., Esq., M.A., C.M.S., High School, Jubbulpore, India.

1908. Gilbertson, C, Esq., 16 Gloucester Walk, Campden Hill, W.

1891. Gollancz, I., Esq., Litt.D., Tan-y-bryn, Shoot-up-Hill, N.W.

1907. Gomme, A. Allan, Esq., 12 Dryden Chambers, 119 Oxford Street, W.

1878. Gomme, G. Laurence, Esq., F.S.A., 20 Marlboro Place, N.W. {Vice-
President).

1898. Gomme, Mrs. G. Laurence, 20 Marlboro Place, N.W. {Hon. Member).

Members,

1883. Gosselin-Grimshawe, Hillier, Esq., Bengeo Hall, Hertford.

1907. Gouldsbury, Henry C, Esq., Native Department, Abercorn, N.E.
Rhodesia.

1890. Green, Frank G., Esq., Waveriey, Carshalton (Hon. Auditor).
1910. Green, Miss F. Kirby, El Azib, Tangier, Morocco.

i8gi. Gregory, H. E., Esq., Quintain House, Offham, Mailing, Kent.

1878. Gutch, Mrs., Holgate Lodge, York.

c. 1890. Haddon, A. C, Esq., D.Sc, F.R.S., Inisfail, Hills Road, Cambridge

(Vice-President).

c. 1903. Hall, Mrs. H. F., Oaklands, Sheffield.

1910. Halliday, W. R., Esq., New College, Oxford.

1901. Hamilton, Miss Katherine, Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.

1901. Hampton, G. H., Esq., 22 Cleveland Terrace, Darlington.

1909. Hanna, Col. W., Beech House, Higham, Colchester.

1878. Hardy, G. F., Esq., 31 Broad Street House, Old Broad Street, E.G.
1878. Hartland, E. Sidney, Esq., F.S.A., Highgarth, Gloucester (Vice^
President).

1900. Heather, P. J., Esq., 25 Lambton Road, Wimbledon, S.W.

1905. Henderson, C. A., Esq., I.C.S., B.A., Bunlipatam, Madras, per Bank

of Madras, Bangalore.
1886. Hervey, The Hon. D. F. A., C.M.G., Westfields, Aldeburgh-on-Sea,
Suffolk.

1891. Higgens, T. W. E., Esq., 25 Finborough Road, Fulham Road, S.W,

1906. Hildburgh, Walter L., Esq., M.A., Ph.D., St. Ermin's Hotel, St,

James' Park, S.W.
1895. Hinuber, Miss, 34 Linden Road, Bedford.

1910. Hocart, A. M., Esq., Lakemba, Fiji.

c. 1883. Hodgkin, J. H., Esq., F.L.S., F.LC, F.C.S., 97 Hamlet Gardens,
Ravenscourt Park, W.
1904. Hodgson, Miss M. L., The Croft, Betley, viS Crewe.
1910. Hodson, T. C, Esq., 10 Wood Lane, Highgate, N.

1901. Holmes, T. V., Esq., F.G.S., 28 Grooms Hill, Greenwich, S.E.
1878. Howard, David, Esq., Devon House, Buckhurst Hill, Essex.

1900. Howell, G. O., Esq., 210 Eglinton Road, Plumstead, Kent.

1901. Howitt, Miss Mary E. B., Eastwood, Lucknow, Victoria, Australia,
1904. Hughes, G. H., Esq., Turf Club, Cairo.

1898. Hull, Miss Eleanor, 14 Stanley Gardens, Notting Hill, W.
1906. Hulst, Mrs. Henry, 88 Fountain Street, Grand Rapids, Michigan,
U.S.A.

1898. Hutchinson, Rev. H. N., F.G.S., 17 St. John's Wood Park, Finchley

Road, N.W.

1900. im. Thurn, Sir E. F., C.B., K.C.M.G., Governor of the Fiji Islands.

1899. James, C. H., Esq., 64 Park Place, Cardiff.

vi Members.

1899. Janvier, T. A., Esq., Century Club, 7 West 43rd Street, New York,

U.S.A.

1891. Jevons, F. B., Esq., M.A., Litt.D., Hatfield Hall, Durham.

1903. Johnston, A. W., Esq., F.S.A. Scot., 29 Ashburnham Mansions,

Chelsea, S.W. (Hon. Auditor).
1895. Jones, Captain Bryan J., Lisnawilly, Dundalk.

1907. Kabraji, Mrs. J. K., Alibag, viS Bombay.

1902. Kalisch, A., Esq., 29 Tavistock Square, W.C.

c. 1908. Kelly, Paul, Esq., 20 Cheapside, E.C.

1894. Kennedy, Miss L., Fairacre, Concord, Mass., U.S.A.

1907. Kennett, The Rev. Professor R. H., The College, Ely.
1890. Ker, W., Esq., i Windsor Terrace, West, Glasgow.
1897. Ker, Professor W. P., M.A., 95 Gower Street, W.C.

1886. Kirby, W. F., Esq., F.L.S., F.E.S., Hilden, 46 Sutton Court Road,

Chiswick, W.
1 910. Knowles, G. G., Esq., 21 Dukesthorpe Rd., Sydenham, S.E.

1878. Lang, A., Esq., i Marloes Road, Kensington, W. (Vice-President).

1905. Leather, Mrs. F. H., Castle House, Weobley, R.S.O.

1889. Letts, C, Esq., 8 Bartletts Buildings, W.C.

1908. Lewis, The Rev. Thomas, The United Training Institution, Kim-

pese, c/o B. M. S. Matadi, Congo Beige, West Central Africa
(vid Antwerp).
1885. Lockhart, The Hon. J. S. Stewart, Government House, Wei-hai-wei.

1909. Lones, T. E., Esq., LL.D., Dudley House, Upper Highway, King's

Langley, Herts.
1901. Lovett, E., Esq., 41 Outram Road, Croydon.
1901. Lucas, Harry, Esq., Hilver, St. Agnes Road, Moseley, Birmingham.

1897. Macbean, E., Esq., 23 Kensington Gate, Kelvinside, Glasgow, W.
1889. MacCormick, The Rev. F., F.S.A. Scot., M.R.A.S., Wrockwardine

Wood Rectory, Wellington, Salop.
1909. Macdonald, The Hon. Mrs. G., Ostaig, Broadford, Isle of Skye.
1907. Macgregor, The Rev. J. K., B.D., Hope Waddell Institute, Calabar,

West Africa.
1882. Maclagan, R. Craig, Esq., M.D., 5 Coates Crescent, Edinburgh.

1895. Major, A. F., Esq., Bifrost, 30 The Waldrons, Croydon.

1896. Manning, P., Esq., M.A., F.S.A., 6 St. Aldate's, Oxford (Beechfield,

Watford).

1898. March, H. Colley, Esq., M.D., Portesham, Dorchester.

1900. Marett, R. R., Esq., M.A., Exeter College, Oxford.

1904. Marsden, Miss, F.R.G.S., Chine Side, Shanklin, Isle of Wight.
1S80. Marston, E., Esq., St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.C.

1892. Masson, Sir D. P., Managing Director, The Punjab Bank, Lahore,

per H. S. King & Co., Cornhill, E.C.

Members. vii

1905. Matthew, The Rev. H. C, St. Matthew's Manse, Stowell, Victoria,
Australia.

1889. Matthews, Miss E., Raymead, Park Road, Watford.

1905. Maylam, P., Esq., 32 Watling Street, Canterbury.

1902. Maxwell, W. G., Esq., Attorney General, Kedeh, Malay Peninsula.
1892. Merrick, W. P., Esq., Elvetham, Shepperton.

1891. Milne, F. A., Esq., M.A., 11 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, W.C.

{Secretary).
1902. Milroy, Mrs. M. E., The Oast House, Farnham, Surrey.

1909. Mitchell, W., Esq., 14 Forbesfield Road, Aberdeen.

1890. Mond, Mrs. Frida, 20 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, N.W.
1904. Montague, Mrs. Amy, Penton, Crediton, N. Devon.

1889. Morison, Theodore, Esq., Ashleigh, St. George's Road, Weybridge.

1910. Musson, Miss A. J., Fair View Vv'est, Rainhill, Lanes.

1899. Myers, C. S., Esq., M.A., M.D., Galewood Tower, Great Shelford,
Cambridgeshire.
c. 1897. Myres, J. L., Esq., M.A., F.S.A., 26 Abercromby Square, Liverpool.

€ 1885. Nesfield, J. P., Esq., Stratton House, 2 Madley Road, Ealing.

1902. O'Brien, Major A. J., Deputy Commissioner Deri Ghazi Khan, c/o
H. S. King & Co., 65 Cornhill, E.G.

1892. Oldfield, Lieut-Col. F. H., R.E., c/o Cox & Co., 16 Charing Cross,

London, S.W.
1892. Olrik, Dr. Axel, 174 Gl. Kongevej, Copenhagen, Denmark.
1910. O'May, J., Esq., Kuala Kangsar, via Taiping, Perak, Fed. Malay

States.
1886. Ordish, T. Fairman, Esq., F.S.A., 2 Melrose Villa, Ballards Lane,

Finchley, N.

1890. Owen, Miss Mary A., 306 North Ninth Street, St. Joseph's, Missouri,

U.S.A. (Uon. Member).

1909. Parrot, F. Hayward, Esq., Walton House, Aylesbury.

1892. Paton, W. R., Esq., Ph.D., Ker Anna, Pirros Guirce, C6tes-du-Nord,
France (per Messrs. Burnett & Reid, 12 Golden Square, Aberdeen).

1878. Peacock, E., Esq., F.S.A., Wickentree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey,
Lincolnshire.

1910. Pendlebury, C, Esq., Arlington House, Brandenburg Road, Gunners-

bury, W.
1899. Percy, Lord Algernon, Guy's Cliff, Warwick.
1907. Peter, Thurstan, Esq., Redruth.
1910. Petty, S. L., Esq., Dykelands, Ulverston, Lanes.
1894. Phipson, Miss, lOK Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.
1889. Pineau, M. L^on, Rue Dolly, Chamalieres, Clermont Ferrand, Puy de

D6me, France.

1906. Pitman, Miss E. B., Humshaugh Vicarage, Northumberland.

viii Members.

1898. Pitts, J. Linwood, Esq., M.J. I., F.S.A., Curator, Guille-All^s

Library, Guernsey.
1889. Pocklington-Coltman, Mrs., Hagnaby Priory, Spilsby, Lincolnsliire.
c. 1879. Power, D'Arcy, Esq., M.A., M.B., F.S.A., lOA Chandos Street,
Cavendisii Square, W.

1905. Postel, Professor Paul, Lemberg, Austria.

1906. Pritchard, L. J., Esq., Menai Lodge, Chiswick, W.

1889. Pusey, S. E. Bouverie, Esq., F.R.G.S., 40 South Audley Street, W.

1906. Raleigh, Miss K. A., 8 Park Road, Uxbridge.

1909. Ramanathan, P., Esq., B.A., Man6nmani Velas, Chintadinpeh,

Madras, S.C.
1888. Reade, John, Esq., 340 Leval Avenue, Montreal, Canada.
1892. Reynolds, Llywarch, Esq., B.A., Old Church Place, Merthyr-Tydfil.

1888. Rhys, Professor Sir John, M.A., LL.D., F.B.A., F.S.A., Jesus

College, Oxford (Vice-President).

1906. Richards, F. J., Esq., LC.S., United Service Club, Bangalore, c/o

Messrs. Binney & Co., Madras.

1889. Risley, The Hon. H. H., M.A., CLE., c/o Messrs. Thacker & Co.,

2 Creed Lane, Ludgate Hill, E.C.

1900. Rivers, W. H. R., Esq., M.D., St. John's College, Cambridge.
1904. Rodon, Major G. S., F.Z.S., Dharwar, Bombay, India.

1903. Rorie, D., Esq., M.D., CM., i St. Devenick Terrace, Cults,

Aberdeenshire.
1909. Roscoe, Rev. John, Namirembe, Kampala, Uganda, St. Africa [80
Chesterton Rd. , Cambridge].

1901. Rose, H. .'\., Esq., c/o Grindlay & Co., 54 Parliament Street, S.W.

1907. Rounthwaite, Mrs. M. L., Fermain, Holly Rd., Wanstead.

C. i8gi. Rouse, W. H. D., Esq., Litt.D., Bateman House, Cambridge (Vice-
President).
1907. Row, C Seshagiri, Esq., Kotipalli, Madras Presidency, India.

1904. Rutherford, Miss Barbara, 196 Ashley Gardens, S.W.

1890. Savage, The Rev. Canon E. B., M.A., F.S.A., St. Thomas's

Vicarage, Douglas, Isle of Man.
c. 1879. Sayce, The Rev. Professor A. H., M.A., LL.D., D.D., 8 Chalmers
Crescent, Edinburgh (Vice-President).

1887. Scott, Sir J. G., K.CI.E., ioa Clarendon Court, Maida Vale, W.

1888. S^billot, M. Paul, 80 Boulevard St. Marcel, Paris (Hon. Member).
1897. Seebohm, F., Esq., LL.D., F.S.A., The Hermitage, Hitchin.
1907. Seligman, Mrs. J., 17 Kensington Palace Gardens, W.

1895. Seligmann, C G., Esq., M.D., 15 York Terrace, Regent's Park,

N.W.
1909. Sell, Frank R., Esq., Central College, Bangalore, India.
1906. Seton, M. C, Esq., 13 Clarendon Road, Holland Park, W.
1903. Seyler, Clarence A., Esq., Hindfell, Coedsaeson, Sketty, Swansea.

Members. ix

1909. Shakespear, Col. J., The Residency, Imphal, Manipur State, Assam :

Burton House, Staines Rd., Twickenham,
1909. Sharp, Cecil J., Esq., 183 Adelaide Road, N.W.
1900. Shewan, A., Esq., Seehof, St. Andrews, Fife.
1894. Sikes, E. E., Esq., St. John's College, Cambridge.
1896. Simpkins, J. E., Esq., Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh.
1898. Sinclair, The Hon. Mrs., 12 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, W.

1896. Singer, Professor, 15 Nydecklaube, Bern, Switzerland.

1907. Singh, H. H. The Raja Sir Bhuri, Chamba, via Dalhousie, Punjab,

per King, King & Co., Bombay.
1900. Skeat, Walter W., Esq., M.A., Romeland Cottage, St. Albans.
1907. SparHng, Halliday, Esq., Vezelay, Arden Rd., Finchley, N.
1898. Speakman, Mrs. J. G., Villa Commendone, Siena, Italy.

1898. Speight, Prof. Ernest E., B.A., F.R.G.S., Daishi Koto Gakko,

Kanazawa, Japan.
1893. Spoer, Mrs. H. Hamish, F.R.S.G.S., Bos 104, Austrian P.O.,
Jerusalem, Syria.

1899. Starr, Professor Frederick, University of Chicago, Chicago, U.S.A.

{Hon. Member).
1909. Steinitzer, H., Esq., 8/1 Wilhelm Strasse, Munich, Germany.
1909. Stephens, The Rev. J. R. M., Baptist Mission House, 19 Furnival

St., E.C.
1909. Stephenson, R. H., Esq., St. Saviour's Road, East Leicester.

1897. Stow, Mrs., c/'o Bakewell, Stow & Piper, Cowra Chambers, Grenfell

Street, Adelaide, S. Australia.
1909. Sullivan, W. G., Esq., B.A., 1525 N. Meridian Street, Indianapolis,

Ind., U.S.A.
1878. Swainson, The Rev. C, Southdene, Babbacombe Rd., Torquay.

1889. Tabor, C. J., Esq., The White House, Knotts Green, Leyton, Essex.
1885. Temple, Lieut.-Col. Sir R. C, Bart., CLE., F.R.G.S., The Nash,
Worcester.

1896. Thomas, N. W., Esq., M.A., 10 Helena Avenue, Margate.

1907. Thomas, P. G., Esq., Bedford College, Baker Street, W. [28 Den-
nington Park Road, West Hampstead, N.W.].

1909. Thompson, Maurice S., Esq., Garthlands, Reigate Heath, Reigate.
1892. Thompson, Miss Skeffington, Glenelly, Chiselhurst Common, Kent.

1910. Thurnwald, Dr. R., 25 Joachimsthaler Str., Berlin, W.15.
1910. Tolhurst, J. G., Esq., St. Albans, Beckenham.

1910. Torday, M. E., 56 Melbury Gardens, West Wimbledon.

1897. Townshend, Mrs. R. B., Derry Illawn, Banbury Road, Oxford.
1896. Traherne, L. E., Esq., Coedriglan Park, Cardiff.

1887. Travancore, H.H. The Maharajah of, Huzier, Cutcherry, Trevan-

drum, India.
1910. Tremearne, Mrs. A. J. N., Tudor House, Blackheath Park, S.E.

Members.

1888. Turnbull, A. H., Esq., Elibank, Wellington, New Zealand, per

A. L. Elder & Co., 7 St. Helen's Place, E.G.
1878. Tylor, Professor E. B., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., The Museum House,
Oxford (Vice-President).

1878. Udal, His Honour J. S., Chief Justice of the Leeward Islands,

Antigua, West Indies.

1899. Van Gennep, Professor A., Rue Froidevaux, Paris, XIV.c

1889. Walhouse, M. J., Esq., 28 Hamilton Terrace, St. John's Wood, N.W.

1879. Walker, Dr. Robert, Budleigh-Salterton, Devon.

1897. Warner, S. G., Esq., Elmside, Bolingbroke Grove, S.W.
1910. Webster, Hutton, Esq., Station A, Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.
1910. Weeks, The Rev. J. H., 61 Lucien Rd., Tooting Common, S.W.
1906. Westermarck, E., Esq., Ph.D., 8 Rockley Road, West Kensington

Park, W.
1897. Weston, Miss J. L., L3'ceum Club, Piccadilly, W. ; Cobdown, Ditton,

Maidstone.

1909. Weston, William N., Esq., Estancia St. Kilda, Parade Quebracho,

Paysandu, R.O.

1910. Westropp, T. J., Esq., 115 Strand Rd., Sandymount, Dublin.

1883. Wheatley, Henry B., Esq., F.S.A., 96 King Henry's Rd., South

Hampstead, N.W.

1890. Williamson, Rev. C. A., Ashampstead Vicarage, Reading.

1908. Wilson, T. I. W. , Esq., Repton, Burton-on-Trent.

1893. Windle, Professor B. C. A., M.D., F.R.S., President's House,

Queen's College, Cork.
C. 1893. Wissendorff, H., Esq., 19 Nadeschkinskara, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1893. Wood, Alexander, Esq., Thornly, Saltcoats, Ayrshire.
1910. Wood Brown, The Rev. J., M.A., 16 Corso Regina Elena, Florence,

Italy.

1909. Woolsey, J. M., Esq., Mount Vernon, Westchester Co., State of New

York, U.S.A.
1890. Wright, A. R., Esq., H.M. Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, W.C.

1884. Wright, W. Aldis, Esq., LL.D., Trinity College, Cambridge.
1897. Wyndham, The Rt. Hon. G., M.P., House of Commons, S.W.

1902. Zervos, Gerasimos, Esq., c/o Ralli Brothers Agency, Karachi, India.

SUBSCRIBERS {corrected to 1910).

1893. Aberdeen Public Library, per G. M. Eraser, Esq., M.A., Librarian.

1894. Aberdeen University Library, per P. J. .Anderson, Esq., Librarian.
1902. Adelaide Public Library, South Australia, per Kegan Paul & Co.,

43 Gerrard St., W.C.

Members. xi

1899. American Geographical Society, New Yorli, per B. F. Stevens &

Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, S.W.
1891. Amsterdam, The University Library of, per Kirberger & Kesper,

Booksellers, Amsterdam.

1879. Antiquaries, The Society of, Burlington House, W.

1905. Asiatic Society of Bengal, 57 Park Street, Calcutta, per B. Quaritch,

II Grafton St., W.

1881. Berlin Royal Library, per Asher & Co., 13 Bedford St., Covent

Garden, W.C.

1880. Bibliothfeque Nationale, Paris, per Simpkin, Marshall & Co., Orange

St., W.C.
1884. Birmingham Free Library, Ratcliffe Place, Birmingham, per A. Capel
Shaw, Esq.

1882. Birmingham Library, c/o The Treasurer, Margaret St., Birmingham.

1908. Bishopsgate Institute, Bishopsgate St. Without, E.C., per C. W. F.

Goss, Esq., Librarian.
1899. Bordeaux University Library, per A. Schulz, 3 Place de la Sorbonne,

Paris.
1878. Boston Athenaeum, Boston, U.S.A., per Kegan Paul & Co., 43 Gerrard

St., W.C.

1881. Boston Public Library, Mass., U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert & Co.,

2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

1906. Boysen, C, Hamburg, per Kegan Paul & Co., 43 Gerrard St., W.C.

1902. Bradford Free Public Library, Darley St., Bradford, per Butler

Wood, Esq.
1894. Brighton Free Library, per H. D. Roberts, Esq., Chief Librarian,

Brighton.
1906. Bristol Central Library, per E. R. Norris Mathews, Esq., F.R.

Hist. Soc.

1909. Brooklyn Public Library, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,

Carey St., W.C.

1905. California State Library, Sacramento, California, per B. F. Stevens &

Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.
1908. California, University of, Berkeley, Cal., U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert

& Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

1903. Cambridge Free Library, per W. A. Fenton, Esq.
1898. Cardiff Free Libraries, per J. Ballinger, Esq.

1898. Carnegie Free Library, Alleghany, Pa., U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert

& Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.
(2) 1904. Carnegie Library, Pittsburg, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,

Carey St., W.C.
1898. Chelsea Public Library, Manresa Road, S.W., per J. H. Quinn, Esq.
1890. Chicago Public Library, Illinois, U.S.A., per B. F. Stevens & Brown,

4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.

XI 1

Members.

1879.
1909.

iSqo.

Chicago University Library, Illinois, U.S.A., per B. F. Stevens &

Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.
Cincinnati Public Library, per B. F. Stevens & Brown, 4 Trafalgar

Square, W.C.
Columbia College, New York, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,

Carey St., W.C.
Congress, The Library of, Washington, U.S.A., per E. G. Allen

& Son, 14 Grape St., Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.
Conrad, H., 26 Paternoster Row, E.C.
Cornell University Library, per E. G. Allen & Son, 14 Grape St.,

Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.

1890. Detroit Public Library, Michigan, U.S.A., per B. F. Stevens &

Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.
1906. Dundee Free Library, per A. W. Steven, Esq., 95 Commercial St.,

Dundee.

1894. Edinburgh Public Library, per Hew Morrison, Esq., City Chambers,

Edinburgh.
1890. Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore City, U.S.A., per E. G. Allen & Son,

14 Grape St., Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.
1893. Erlangen University Library, per W. Dawson & Sons, St. Dunstan's

House, Fetter Lane, E.C.

1897. Franklin and Marshall College, Lankaster, Penn., U.S.A., per
Lemcke & Buechner, 30-32 West 27th Street, New York (H.
Grevel & Co., 33 King St., Covent Garden, W.C).

1905. General Theological Seminary, New York City, U.S.A., per G. E.
Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

1901. Giessen University Library, per Hirschfeld Brothers, 13 Furnival St.,

W.C.
1883. Glasgow University Library, per J. MacLehose & Sons, 61 St. Vincent
St., Glasgow.

1902. Gloucester Public Library, Gloucester, per Roland Austin, Esq.
1878. Gottingen University Library, per Asher & Co., 18 Bedford St.,

Covent Garden, W.C.
1905. Grand Rapids Public Library, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,

Carey St., W.C.
1892. Guildhall Library, E.C, per E. M. Barrajo, Esq., Librarian.

1878. Harvard College Library, per Kegan Paul & Co., 43 Gerrard St.,

W.C.
1904. Helsingfors University Library, per Kegan Paul & Co., 43 Gerrard

St., W.C.
1904. Hiersemann, K., 3 Konigstrasse, Leipzig.

Members. xiii

1896. Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans, U.S.A., per W. Beer, Esq.

1902. Hull Public Libraries, per W. F. Lawton, Esq.

1892. Imperial University Library, St. Petersburg, per Voss Sortiment

(Herr G. W. Sergenfray), Leipzig.
1895. India Office Library, Whitehall, S.W., per F. W. Thomas, Esq.

1901. Institut de France, per Simpkin Marshall & Co., Orange St., W.C.
1899. Iowa State Library, Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A., per B. F. Stevens &

Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.

1904. Jersey City Free Public Library, New Jersey, per G. E. Stechert &

Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

1907. Johannesburg Public Library, per J. F. Cadenhead, Esq., Johannes-

burg, S. Africa.
1895. John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester, per S. J. Tennant,

Esq., Treasurer.
1879. Johns Hopkins University Library, Baltimore, per E. G. Allen & Son,

14 Grape St., Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.

1905. Kensington Public Libraries, per Farmer & Sons, 179 Kensington

High St., W.
1882. Kiev University Library, per F. A. Brockhaus, 48 Old Bailey, E.C.

1892. Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, per G. F. Stevenson,

Esq., LL.B., ii New St., Leicester.

1903. Leland Stanford Junior University Library, Stanford University,

Cal., U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St.,

W.C.
1885. Library of the Supreme Council of the 33°, etc., 33 Golden Square,

W. , per J. C. F. Town, Esq., Secretary.
1899. Liverpool Free Public Library, per Peter Cowell, Esq., Chief

Librarian, William Brown St., Liverpool.
1879. London Library, St. James's Square, S.W.

1904. Los Angeles Public Library, California, U.S.A.

1910. Lund University Library, per Karl af Petersens, Librarian.

1878. Manchester Free Library, King St., Manchester.

1897. Max, J., & Co., 21 Schweidnitzerstrasse, Breslau.

1902. Meadville Theological School Library, Meadville, Pa., U.S.A., per

G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey Street, W.C.

1908. Mercantile Library of Philadelphia, U.S.A., loth St. Above Chestnut

St., Philadelphia, U.S.A., per T. Wilson Hedley, Esq.
1904. Mercantile Library of St. Louis, U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert & Co.,
2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

1893. Meyrick Library, Jesus College, Oxford, per E. E. Genner, Esq.,

Librarian.

xiv Members.

1902. Michigan State Librar}', Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A., per G. E.
Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

1907. Michigan University Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.
1881. Middlesborough Free Library, per Baker Hudson, Esq.

1905. Minneapolis Public Library, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,

Carey St., W.C.
1894. Minnesota, University of, Minneapolis, U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert

& Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

1878. Mitchell Library, 21 Miller Street, Glasgow, c/o F. T. Barrett, Esq.,

Librarian.

1880. Munich Royal Library, per Asher & Co., 13 Bedford St., W.C.
1909. Museo di Etnographia Italiana, 2 Via Colletta, Florence, Italy, per

Dr. Lamberto Loria, Secretary and Librarian.

1904. Nancy, University de, Nancy, France, per M. Paul Perdrizet.
1894. National Library of Ireland, per Hodges, Figgis & Co., 104 Grafton
St., Dublin.

1908. Nebraska University Library, Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A., per Walter

K. Jewett, Esq., Librarian.
1898. Newark Free Public Library, New Jersey, U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert

& Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.
1888. Newberry Library, Chicago, U.S.A., per B. F. Stevens & Brown,

4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.

1879. Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle-on-Tyne,

per H. Richardson, Esq.
1898. New Jersey, The College of, Princeton, N.J., U.S.A., per H. A.

Duflfield, Esq., Treasurer.
1894. New York, College of the City of, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star

Yard, Carey St., W.C.
1898. New York Public Library (Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation), per

B. F. Stevens & Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.
1894. New York State Library, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,

Carey St., W.C.

1908. North Western University Library, Evanston, 111., per B. F. Stevens

& Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.
1883, Nottingham Free Public Library, per J. E. Bryan, Esq., St. Peter's
Churchside, Nottingham.

1894. Oxford and Cambridge Club, per Harrison & Sons, 45 Pall Mall,
S.W.

1881. Peabody Institute, Baltimore, U.S.A., per E. G. Allen & Son, 14

Grape St., Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.

1909. Pennsylvania Universitj' Museum, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A., per

G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

Members. xv

1894. Peorio, Public Library of, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,
Carey St., W.C.

1899. Philadelphia, Free Library of, per B. F. Stevens & Brown, 4 Trafalgar

Square, W.C.

1881. Philadelphia, The Library Company of, U.S.A., per E. G. Allen &
Son, 14 Grape St., Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.

1879. Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History
Society, per C. S. Jago, Esq., 18 Seaton Avenue, Mutley, Ply-
mouth.

1903. Portsmouth Public Library, per A. E. Bone, Esq., Borough
Treasurer.

1894. Providence Public Library, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,
Carey St., W.C.

1900. Reading Free Public Library, per W. H. Greenhough, Esq.
1894. Rohrscheid, L., Buchhandlung, Am Hof, 28, Bonn, Germany.
1908. Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, per Kegan Paul & Co., 43 Gerrard

St., W.
1908. Royal Dublin Society, per Arthur H. Foord, Esq., Leinster Ho.,

Dublin.
1894. Royal Irish Academy, per Hodges, Figgis & Co., 104 Grafton St.,

Dublin.

1888. St. Helens Corporation Free Library, per A. Lancaster, Esq.,
Librarian, Town Hall, St. Helens.

1898. Salford Public Library, Manchester.

1908. San Francisco Public Library, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,
Carey St., W.C.

1907. Seattle Public Library, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., per B. F.

Stevens & Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, S.W.

1899. Shefifield Free Public Library, Surrey Street, Shefifield, per S. Smith,

Esq.

igo8. Sigma Fraternity, The, per Miss Christine Meyrick, 25 Wood Cot-
tage, Wellesley, Mass., U.S.A.

1898. Signet Library, Edinburgh, per John Minto, Esq., Librarian.

1905. Sion College Library, Victoria Embankment, E.G., per C. H.
Limbrick, Esq., Sub-Librarian.

1879. Stockholm, Royal Library of, per W. H. Dawson & Sons, St.
Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.G.

1903. Sunderland Public Library, Borough Road, Sunderland, per B. R.
Hill, Esq.

1894. Surgeon General Office Library, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., per
Kegan Paul & Co., 43 Gerrard Street, W.

1891. Swansea Public Library, per S. E. Thompson, Esq., Librarian.

1908. Swarthmore College Library, per E. G. Allen & Son, 14 Grape St.,

W.C.

XVI

Members.

1881. Sydney Free Public Library, per Truslove & Hanson, 153 Oxford St.,
W.

1895
1906

1879

1899

1896
1899

1907

1909

1901

Tate Library, University College, Liverpool, care of J. Sampson, Esq.
Texas, University of, Austin, Texas, U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert &

Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.
Taylor Institution, Oxford, per Parker & Co., Broad Street, Oxford.
Toronto Public Library, per C. D. Cazenove & Son, 26 Henrietta St.,

Covent Garden, W.C.
Toronto University Library, per C. D. Cazenove & Son, 26 Henrietta

St., Covent Garden, W.C.
Torquay Natural History Society, per S. Boase, Esq.

Upsala University Library, per C. J. Lundstrom, Upsala, Sweden.

Van Stockum, W. P., & Son, 36 Buitenhof, The Hague, Holland.
Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.A., per

H. Sotheran & Co., 140 Strand, W.C.
Victoria Public Library, Melbourne, per Agent-General for Victoria,

Melbourne Place, Strand, W.C.
Vienna Imperial Court Library, per Asher & Co., 13 Bedford St.,

W.C.
Vienna Imperial University Library, per Asher & Co., 13 Bedford St.,

W.C.

1910. Washington Public Library, D.C., Washington, U.S.A., per G. F.

Bowerman, Esq., Secretary.
1910. Washington University Library, St. Louis, per G. E. Stechert & Co.,

2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.
1890. Watkinson Library, Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A., per E. G. Allen

& Son, 14 Grape St., Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.
1898. Weimar Grand Ducal Library, per Dr. P. von Bojanowsky.

1907. Wesleyan University, Library of, Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.A.
1898. Wisconsin State Historical Society, per H. Sotheran & Co., 140

Strand, W.C.

1908. Woolwich Free Library, William St., Woolwich, per E. B. Baker,

Esq., Librarian.
1885. Worcester Free Public Library, Mass., U.S.A., per Kegan Paul &
Co., 43 Gerrard St., W.

1905. Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A., per G. E.
Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.

GR Folklore

F47

V.21

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