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FOLK-LORE
A QUARTERLY REVIEW
MYTH, TRADITION, INSTITUTION, & CUSTOM
Thk Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society
Afid Incorporatmg The AKCHyt;oLOGicAL Review and
The Folk-Lore Journal
VOL. XXIV.— 1913
Alter et IJeni
LONDON :
PUBLISHED FOR THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY BY
SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD., 3 ADAM SI'., ADELPHI, W.C.
1913
[LXXII.]
Q
Glasgow: printed at the university press
bv robert maclehose and co. ltd.
^1
CONTENTS.
I. — (March, 1913.)
Minutes of Meetings : November 20th and December 18th,
1912, and January 15th, 191 3
The Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting: February 19th, 1913.
The Thirty-Fifth Annual Report of the Council: February 19th
1913 .......
Cash .Account and Balance Sheet ....
Presidential Address : Method of Investigation and Folklore
Origins. AV. Crooke ....
A Short Account of the Indians of the Issa-Japura District (South
America). T. W. Whiffen ....
I
5
7
12
M
41
II.— (July, 1913.)
Minutes of Meetings: March 19th and April i6th, 1913 . 153
Mr. Andrew Lang's Theory of the Origin of Exogamy and
■ Totemism. (The Late) Andrew Lang . . • ^55
The Romance of Melusine. E. Sidney Hartland . .187
III. — (September, 1913.)
Minutes of Meetings : May 21st and June i8th, 1913 . . 281
The Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans. G. Landtman . . 284
The Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. T. W. Thompson 314
IV. — (December, 1913.)
The ReHgion of Manipur. J. Shakespear . 409
Pokomo Folklore. Alice Werner .... 456
iv Contents.
Collectanea
County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths, IIL Thos. J. Westropp 365
The Gilyaks and their Songs. Bronislaw Pilsudski .
County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths, IV. Thos. J. Westropi
Breconshire Village Folklore. M. E. Hartland and E. B
Thomas ......
Report of Brand Committee. H. B. Wheatley .
In Memoriam : Lord Avebury (1834-1913). H. B. Wheatley
Correspondence: —
Folk-Medicine in London. E. Lovett
Rules Concerning Perilous Days. Laurence Gomme .
Burial of Amputated Limbs. Robt. M. Hkanley
The Completion of Professor Pitre's Collection of Sicilian
Folklore. E. Sidney Hartland
Charon — Charos. H.J.Rose.
Cursing Trees. W. Crooke ....
Feast Days and Saints' Days. P. J. Heather
Twentieth Century Marriage Customs. A. R. Wright
Interim Report of Brand Committee to Council. ' H. B
Wheatley . .
The Evil Eye in Somerset (1902). M. A. Hardy
lAC.E
Further Notes on Spanish Amulets. W. L. Hildburgh . 63
Oxfordshire Village Folklore (1840-1900). Angelina Parker 74
Piedmontese Proverbs in Dispraise of Women. Estella
Canziani . . . . . . -91
County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths, I. Thos. J. Westropp . 96
Welsh Folklore Items, I. E. J. DuNNiLLand Ella .M. Leather 106
County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths, II. Thos. J. Westropp 201
Piedmontese Folklore, I. Estella Canziani . . .213
Ontario Beliefs. H. J. Rose . . . .219
Indian Folklore Notes, IV. W. Crooke . . .228
The Magic Mirror : A Fijian Folk-Tale. D. Jenness. . 233
Scraps of English Folklore, VII. M. C. Jona.s, J. B
Partridge, Ella M. Leather, and F. S. Potter
Cretan Folklore Notes. W. R. Halliday
Quebec Folklore Notes, III. • E. H. and H. J. Rose
Piedmontese Folklore, 11. Estella Canziani
234
357
360
362
477
490
505
120
1 2 I
123
245
247
247
249
250
382
382
Contents. v
PAGF.
Kolk-Medicine in the Report of tlie Hii^lilands and Islands
Medical Service Committee. David Rokik . . . •3<S3
Simulated Change of Sex to Baffle the Evil Eye. W. Crooke 385
The Religion of Manipur. T. C. Hodson . . 518
Silbury Hill. Rout. M. IIeanley .... 524
Vehicle Mascots. A. R. Wkight .... 524
R.KV1EWS : —
James H. Leuba. A Psychological Study of Religion. W.
Crooke . . . . . . .124
Ernst Samtcr. Geburt, Hochzeit und Tod. W. R. Hallidav 126
Arnold van Gcnnep. Religious Moeurs et Legendes : Essais
a'Ethnographie et de Linguistique. E. Sidney Hartland . 128
S. O. Addy. Church and Manor. S. A. H. Bukne . -132
Felix Amandin. Chants Populaires de la Grande-Lande et des
Regions voisines. E. Sidney Hartland . . -136
Richard Wtinsch. Albrecht Dieterich. Kleine Schriften.
W. R. Halliday . . . . '37
O. Dahnhardt und A. von Lowis of Meuar. Natursagen,
Band IV. Tiersagen. W. R. Hallidav . . .143
Henri A. Junod. The Life of a South African 'J'ribe, Vol. II.
The Psychic Life. E. Sidney Hartland . . -143
L. K. Ananiha Krishna Iyer. The Cochin Tribes and Castes,
Vol. II. W. Crooke . . . . • '47
J. Shakespear. The Lushei Kuki Clans. T C. Hodson . 149
Hermann Gollancz. The Book of Protection : being a Collec-
tion of Charms now edited for the first time from Syriac
- MSS. M. Caster . . . . . 150
Knut Stjer?ia. Essays on Questions connected with the Old
English Poem of Beowulf. Bertram C. A. Windle . 252
A. C. L. Brvivn. On the Independent Character of the Welsh
'Owain.' J. L. Weston ..... 254
Vilhelm Gr^nhech. Vor Folkeret i Oldtiden, Vols. II., III., and
IV. B. M. Cr-\'ster . . . . 256
R. N. Bradley. Malta and the Mediterranean Race. \\'.
Crooke ....... 263
A. L. Kitching. The Backwaters of the Nile \
Cjillen Gouldsbury and Hubert Sheane. The Great c^^- Torday 264
Plateau of Northern Rhodesia J
The Census of Northern Itidia. Reports. W. Crooke . 270
VI
Contents.
Cliarles Hose and William M'-Dougall. The Pagan Tribes of
Borneo. W. J. Perry
Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gilkn. Across Australia. B
Malinowski ......
J. G. Frazer. The BeHef in Immortality and the Worship of
the Dead, Vol. I. Lewis R. Farnell
B. Freire-Marreco and J. L. Myres. Notes and Queries on
Anthropology. John H. Weeks
Pmil Sebillot. Le Folk-Lore : Litterature Orale et Ethno
graphic Traditionelle. E. Sidney Hartland
E. Hoffmann- Krayer. Feste und Brauche des Schweizervolkes
E. Sidney Hartland ....
Marjory Scott Wardrop. The Man in the Panther's Skin
F. C. Conyreare .....
Richard Thuriiwald. Ethno-psychologische Studien an Sudset-
volkern auf dem Bismarck-Archipel und den Salomo-Inseln
W. J. Perry. ....
B. Malinowski. The Family among the Australian Aborigines
Edward We.stekmarck
E. Durkheim. Les Formes Elementaires de la Vie Religieuse
B. Malinowski .....
Plarold Barley. The Lost Language of Symbolism
Athelstane Baines. Ethnography (Tribes and^
Castes) .....
/-". T. Srinivas Iyengar. Life in i\ncient Lidia
in the Age of the Mantras .
A. Avalon. Tantra of the Great Liberation '.W. Crooke
(Mahanirvana Tantra)
A. and E. Avalon. Hymns to the Goddess
R. L. Lacey. The Holy Land of the
Hindus .....
273
278
3S6
392
398
400
401
404
406
525
531
533
ShOR r BlULIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES : —
//. Alexander. The Place-Names of Oxfordshire : their Origin
and Development . . . . . .279
J. Bland-Sutto7i. Man and Beast in Eastern Ethiopia . . 280
H. A. MacMicliael. Brands used by the Chief Camel-Owning
Tribes of Kordofan . . . . . .280
Mannin. A Journal of Matters Past and Present relating to
Mann . . . . . . . 536
The Jii/aha, or Stories of the Buddha s Former Births. Index
Volume ....... 536
Contents. vii
List of Plates : —
ERRATA.
v. 421, 1. 18. /^c;- Hingchabis ;r«rt' Hingchabis.
1'. 431. Delete Note 12.
PAGE
204
208
I. Spanish Amulets .... To face pa^e 64
II. ,,„....„„ 66
III. The Cloughlea (Finn's "Sharpening Stone"),)
Ballysheen, Co. Clare . . . j " "
IV. St. Brecan, St. Luchtighern, and St. Inghine)
Baoith . . . .'./"'
V. St. Maccreiche's Tomb, Kilmacreehy Church, |
Co. Clare . . . . j " '
VI. Binding Churches witli Wax Candles in Crete ,, „ 358
VII. I. Thedraves of the LeinsterMen('ripperary)) ,„
2. .Armada Carving at Spanish Point (Clare) I " "3
VIII. I. Children Dressed as Krishna and Radhafor 1
Ras Li/a Sacred Dance . .1 ,, ,, 416
2. Raja's Jaganath Car at Rath Jatra Festival]
IX. 1. Demons and Body of Crane in Safi-Je?}/>a\
(Cow-herding) Play . . |
2. Z«/-5a«^.y of Pureiromba and his Son Chin- 1 " " ^
songba at Andro . .1
X. I. Litter with Kmblem of Khumlangba . )
2. Maiden Dancers at Khumlangba's Lai-\ >' " 426
harauba . . . . ]
XL I. Enticing Thangjing at Moirang. . ]
2. Khumlangba's Orchestras (with Peiinas) \ •>■> " 43°
and Married Dancers . . j
XII. I. Dance of Village Officials at Thangjing's~|
Lai-harauba . . . . ^ ,, ,, 432
2. Imphal God-carriers with Umbrella-bearers;
XLII. I. Ceremony at Santhong's Lai phayn . )
2. iManipur State Arrow-Thrower . . J >. n 43^
go{h^%Oic.
TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCLE TY.
Vol. XXIV.] MARCH, 1913. [No. I.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20th, 1912.
The President (Mr, W. Crooke) in the Chair.
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.
The election of Lady Constance Boyle, Mr. J. Grant,
Major M'Carrison, and Mr. J. F. Tocher, as members of the
Society, was announced.
The deaths of Mr. W. Ker, Mr. A. Lang, and Mr. J. G.
Tolhurst, and the resignations of Mr. A. R. Brown, Mr.
G. F. Bridge, Mr. C. Gilbertson, Mrs. Greenaway, Mr. A.
Kalisch, the Rev. F. M'Cormick, Mrs. Rounthwaite, and
Mrs. Seligman, were also announced.
The withdrawal of the subscriptions of the Carnegie Free
Library (Alleghany), the Franklin and Marshall College
Library (Lancaster, Pa.), the Kiev Imperial Library, and
the Worcester Free Public Library (Mass.), was reported.
Dr. W. L. Hildburgh exhibited and explained a number
of Spanish charms and amulets against the evil eye,
sorcery, etc., upon which some observations were offered
by Miss Broadwood, Mr. Lovett, and Lady Gomme.
VOL. XXIV. A
2 Minutes of Meetings.
Mr. M. Trophimofif read a paper entitled " Modern
Russian Popular Songs," (Vol. xxiii., pp. 427-42), which
was illustrated by the singing of songs by Mrs. Kipmann
and by Messrs. Volovi, Musatov, and the reader of the
paper.
In the discussion which followed the President, Miss
Broadwood, Dr. Gaster, Mr. Marchant, and Miss Hullah
took part.
The meeting concluded with hearty votes of thanks to
Dr. Hildburgh for his exhibition and to Mr. Trophirnoff
for his paper and to the lady and gentlemen who had
assisted him in illustrating it.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18tli, 1912.
The President (Mr. W. Crooke) in the Chair.
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.
The death of Mr. W. F. Kirby was announced.
On the motion of the Chairman the following resolutions
were passed, viz.: — (i) The Folk-Lore Society desires to
express its profound regret at the death of Mr. Andrew
Lang, one of the original members of the Society and a
former President. During the entire existence of the
Society he displayed the greatest interest in its operations
and contributed largely to its Proceedings. His numerous
and valuable works have done much to establish the
foundations of scientific folklore, and have largely contri-
buted to its popularisation among the British Public and
abroad. The Society desires to express the condolence of
its members with Mrs. Lang on his unexpected death, and
directs that a copy of this resolution, with an expression of
Minutes of Meetings. 3
thanks for the valuable collection of books and pamphlets
which she has presented to the Society, be communicated
to her.
(2) The Folk-Lore Society desires to express its regret
at the death of Mr. W. F. Kirby, for twenty-seven years
a member of the Society, a constant attendant at the
meetings of the Council, and a valued contributor to the
Proceedings of the Society. His wide knowledge of the
folklore of Modern Europe, his translation of the Kalevala,
his Hero of lisihonia, and his bibliography and notes to
Sir R. Burton's edition of the Thousand Nights and a Night
were valuable contributions to the study of folklore. The
Society directs that a copy of this resolution be forwarded
to his family with an expression of condolence at his death.
The election of the following new members was announced,
viz.: — Mr. Harold Bayley, Mr. G. R. Carline, Mr. James
Cunningham, Miss Lilian Gask, Dr. G. Landtman, and
Mr. Clement A. Miles. The resignations of Mr. E. Peacock,
Mr. A. W. Beckett, and Mr. S. G. Warner were also
announced.
Mr. Lovett exhibited a number of dolls representing
sailors lost at sea.
Capt. Whiffen read a paper entitled "A Short Account
of the Indians of the Issa-Japura District (South
America)" (pp. 41-62), which was profusely illustrated
by lantern slides, and exhibited a number of objects of
folklore interest which he had collected in that district.
After some observations by the Chairman on the
paper, hearty votes of thanks were accorded to Mr.
Lovett and Capt. Whiffen.
The following gifts to the Society's Library were
reported, viz. : —
By the Government of India: — ArchceologicaL Survey
of India, Annual Report, 1907-8; Antiqtiities of Chaniba
State, Part /., Inscriptions of the Pre-Muhanunadan
Period, by J. Ph. Vogel ; Progress Report of the Arch<zo-
4 Minutes of Meetings.
logical Survey of India, Western Circle, For the year
ending 2,1st AlarcJi 191 1 ;
By authors, publishers, and reviewers: — Baessler-Archiv,
Band I., Heft I. ; Uber Altperuanische Gcivebe init Szenen-
hajfen Darstelhingen, by Dr. Max Schmidt, (B. G.
Teubner, Berlin) ; The Lushei Knki Clans, by Lt.-Col.
J. Shakespear, (Macmillan) ; The Iowa, by William Harvey
Miner, (Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, Iowa) ; Transactions
and Proceedings of the Japan Society, Vol. IX., Parts H.
and HI.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15th, 1913.
The President (Mr. W. Crooke) in the Chair.
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and
confirmed.
The election of the following new members was
announced, viz. : — Miss V. Dale, Miss P. E. Lawder,
Miss J. M. Marett, Miss Thorpe, Mr. Thurston, and
Mr. Charles Walker. The enrolment as a subscriber of
the Leipzig Library was also announced.
The Secretary read letters of acknowledgment from
Mrs. Lang and Dr. Kirby of the votes of condolence
passed at the last meeting on the 'deaths of Mr. Andrew
Lang and Mr. W. F. Kirby.
Mr. Harry Pouncy delivered a lecture on "Old Dorset
Customs and Superstitions," which was profusely illus-
trated by lantern slides. In the discussion which followed
the Chairman, Miss Burne, Mr. Major, Mrs. Everett, and
Sir L. Gomme took part.
The meeting terminated with a hearty vote of thanks
to the lecturer.
Minutes of Meetings.
THE THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19th, 1913.
The President (Mr. \V. Crooke) in the Chair.
The minutes of the last Annual Meeting were read
and confirmed.
The Annual Report of the Council, Cash Account,
and Balance Sheet for the year 191 2 were duly pre-
sented, and upon the motion of Mr. Hartland, seconded
by Dr. Gaster, it was resolved that the same be received
and adopted.
Balloting papers having been distributed, Mr. L. J.
Pritchard and the Secretary were appointed scrutineers
for the ballot for the election of the President, Vice-
Presidents, Council, and Officers for the ensuing year.
The Chairman then delivered his Presidential Address.
At the conclusion of the address, the Secretary an-
nounced the result of the Ballot, and the following were
declared duly elected, viz.: —
As President. R. R. Marett, Esq., M.A.
As Vice-P7-isidcnts, The Hon. John Abercromby ; The
Right Hon. Lord Avebury, P.C, O.M., etc.; Sir E. \V.
Brabrook, C.B., F.S.A. ; Miss Charlotte S. Burne ; E.
Clodd, Esq. ; W. Crooke, Esq., B.A. ; J. G. Frazer, Esq.,
LL.D., etc.; M. Gaster, Ph.D.; Sir Laurence Gomme.
F.S.A. ; A. C. Haddon, Esq., D.Sc, F.R.S. ; E. S. Hart-
land, Esq., F.S.A.; The Right Hon. Sir J. Rhys, P.C,
LL.D., etc.; W. H. D. Rouse, Esq., Litt.D. ; The Rev.
Prof. A. H. Sayce, LL.D., D.D. ; and Sir E. B. Tylor,
LL.D., F.R.S., etc.
As Members of Council, Mrs, M. M. Banks ; M. Long-
worth Dames, Esq.; Lady Gomme; P. J. Heather, Esq.;
W. L. Hildburgh, Esq., M.A., Ph.D.; T. C. Hodson, Esq.;
6 Minutes of Meetings.
Miss E. Hull ; Sir E. F. im Thurn, K.C.M.G., C.B., LL.D. ;
E. Lovett, Esq. ; A. F. Major, Esq. ; C. Pendlebury, Esq. ;
W. H. R. Rivers, Esq., M.D., F.R.S. ; C. G. Seligmann,
Esq., M.D.; C. J. Tabor, Esq.; E. Torday, Esq.; E.
VVestermarck, Esq., Ph.D. ; H. B. Wheatley, Esq., F.S.A. ;
Sir B. C. A. Windel, F.R.S. ; and A. R. Wright, Esq.,
(Editor of Folk- Lore).
As Hon. Treasurer, Edward Clodd, Esq.
As Hon. Auditors, F. G. Green, Esq.; and C. J. Tabor,
Esq.
As Secretary, F. A. Milne, Esq., i\I.A.
The Chairman, having congratulated the newly-elected
President, vacated the Chair, which was taken by Mr.
Marett, who, after thanking the Society for the honour
they had conferred upon him, proposed a vote of thanks
to the outgoing President for the services he had rendered
to the Society during his term of office. The resolution
was seconded by Dr. Gaster, and carried with acclamation.
THE THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF
THE COUNCIL.
The Council have pleasure in reporting that during the year
twenty-two new members have joined the Society, and that
two libraries have been added to the roll of subscribers.
There are, however, many well known libraries both in
this country and on the Continent which have never yet
subscribed to the Society, and the Council venture to hope
that in view of the increasing interest in folklore and the
wide range of matters dealt with in the journal and other
publications of the Society some at least of these may be
enrolled during the current year.
On the other hand they have to record the unprecedented
number of seven deaths, while there have been fifteen
resignations, and five libraries or other institutions have
withdrawn their subscriptions. The list of members and
subscribers has been carefully revised, and the total number
now stands at 424.
Among those of whom the Society has been deprived by
death are Mr. Andrew Lang, who became a member when the
Society was formed in the year 1878, and Mr. \V. F. Kirby
and Mr. W. Ker, who had been members for upwards of
twenty-seven and twenty-two years respectively. Tributes
to the memory of Mr. Andrew Lang have already appeared
in the pages of Folk-Lore ; and the votes of condolence
with Mrs. Lang and the family of Mr. W. F. Kirby which
were passed at the meeting of the Society held in December
have been recorded in the minutes and will be printed in
due course.
Meetings of the Society have been held as follows : —
17M January, 1912. "The Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies."
Mr. T. W. Thompson.
\2.th February. (Annual Meeting.) Presidential Address : "The Scientific
Aspect of Folklore."' Mr. W. Crooke.
8 Animal Report of the Council.
20th March. "Guy Fawkes' Day." Miss Charlotte S. Burne.
I'Jth April. "The "Dreamers" of the Mohave-Apache Tribe." Miss B.
Freire Marreco.
lyh May. " Cotswold Place- Lore and Customs." Miss J. B. Partridge.
"Japanese Spirits, Mythology, and Folk-Tales." Mr. A. R. Wright.
Kjthjune. "The Sociological Significance of Myth." Dr. W. H. R. Rivers.
20th A^ovembei: "Modern Russian Popular Songs." Mr. M. Trophimoff.
\Wi December. " A Short Account of the Indians of the Issa-Japura District
(South America)." Captain T. W. Whiffen.
Mr. Wright's and Captain Whiffen's papers in May and
December were illustrated by lantern-slides ; and Mr.
Trophimoff's paper in November was most effectively
illustrated by the singing of several popular Russian songs
by a company of singers whom he brought with him to
the meeting.
Exhibits were on view at several of the meetings. In
March Dr. Hildburgh exhibited a collection of Bavarian and
Tyrolese charms ; in April Miss Moutray Read, on behalf
of Miss Haverfield, exhibited a box of playing-cards from
Rajputana, and Miss Estella Canziani a clasp such as is
sewn in the cinctures of women in certain parts of Savoy;
in Novem.ber Dr. Hildburgh exhibited and explained a
number of Spanish charms and amulets against the Evil
Eye ; and in December Mr. Lovett exhibited some dolls
representing sailors lost at sea, and Captain Whiffen a large
number of objects illustrative of his paper, which were of
special interest coming as they did from the district which
is now notorious as the scene of the Putumayo atrocities.
The clasp exhibited by Miss Canziani has been very kindly
presented by her to the Society, and will in due course be
placed in the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at
Cambridge. The Council are glad to be able to announce
that Mr. Pendlebury has consented to act as the convener
of the Exhibits and Museum Committee, and to make
himself responsible for the arrangement of the objects
exhibited at the meetings of the Society, and they hope
Annual Report of the Council. g
that in future the exhibits may once more be arranged as
systematically as they were under the able direction of
Mr. A. A. Gomme.
The Council have made arrangements with the author-
ities of University College for holding the meetings of the
Society in the room of the Women's Union on the ground
floor of the College buildings, the refreshments after the
meetings being served in the Council room on the same
floor. The rooms are spacious, well warmed, and well
lighted, and the Council are confident that the new
arrangements will contribute materially to the comfort
and convenience of members.
Mr. R. W. Chambers, the Society's Hon. Librarian, has
completed a card catalogue of the books and pamphlets in
the possession of the Society, and reports that the library
is in a very fragmentary and incomplete state, and that
some expenditure on binding will be necessary in the
coming year. Mrs. Lang has very kindly presented to
the Society a number of books and pamphlets on folklore
and kindred subjects which belonged to her late husband,
and the Council invite similar gifts as additions to the
Society's collection. It is intended later on to print a
catalogue of the library for the use of members.
Dr. Gaster and Mr. Longworth Dames again attended the
meeting of the Congress of Archaeological Societies in July
as delegates of the Society; and Miss Burne, Mr. Hartland,
Sir E. Brabrook, and the President represented the
Society at the British Association Meeting at Dundee in
September.
The twenty-third volume of Folk-Lorc has been issued
during the year. The Council have again to thank Mr.
Wright for editing the volume and compiling the index,
and they are glad to be able to announce that he has con-
sented to place his valuable services at the disposal of
the Society during the current year. The Council feel that
some apology is due to members for the non-appearance of
the Bibliography of Folklore dealing with the year 1908,
lo Animal Report of the Council.
which they hoped would have been ready a year ago ;
they regret that unforeseen difficulties have prevented its
completion, but have reason to anticipate that it may be
issued shortly.
Notwithstanding the announcement made in the last
Annual Report as to the extra volumes intended to be issued
by the Society, the Council decided to issue Mrs. Gutch's
collection of the East Riding of Yorkshire from printed
sources as the extra volume for 191 1 instead of for 1912,
and the new edition of the Handbook of Folklore as the
extra volume for 1912 instead of for 191 1. Mrs. Gutch's
collection is now in the hands of members, and the Hand-
book is in a forward state of preparation, and should be ready
by the summer. The thanks of. the Society are due to
Miss Burne for the enormous amount of time and labour
she has bestowed upon .the Handbook^ and the Council are
confident that it will be recognised as a work of outstanding
merit and permanent value. The extra volume for 191 3
will be Mr. Simpkins' collections of the Folklore of Fife-
shire, and of Clackmannan and Kinross, from printed
sources.
The Brand Committee, acting under the instructions of
the Council, have drawn up a report of their two years'
work in the compilation of a new edition of the Calendar
volume of the Popular Atitiquities.
The Council regret that but little has resulted from
their scheme for the affiliation of Anthropological Societies
connected with the Universities, and for the admission of
members of such societies to certain of the privileges of
the Society in consideration of the payment of a nominal
subscription. But the scheme is still on foot,' and they
hope that in the near future many University students may
be enrolled as associate members of the Society.
The sum received as members' subscriptions in 191 2 was
;^446 7s. od., which included a life subscription of ^4 6s. od.
from one of the original mem.bers of the Society with
whom the Council made a special arrangement allowing
Annua/ Report of ike Council. i r
him to compound for his future subscriptions at a reduced
rate. In 191 1 the receipts from the same source amounted
to ;^454 15s. od., but in that year the Society received two
life subscriptions of ten guineas each. The Council regret
that there is no reduction in the amount due in respect of
subscriptions in arrear, which now stands at i!^43.
It is proposed to amend Rule III. of the Society's Rules
by making the terms of composition more elastic. At
present any member after paying a single subscription may
become a Life Member upon payment of the sum of Ten
Guineas, no matter what his age may be, and it costs a
member of 30 or 40 years' standing precisely the same sum
to compound for his future subscriptions. The Council are
accordingly summoning a special meeting of the Society to
be held immediately after the Annual Meeting, at which it
will be proposed to cancel the existing rule, and to substi-
tute for it a New Rule under which no member will be
allowed to become a Life Member until after he has paid
five subscriptions to the Society, and a sliding scale is fixed
for compounding future subscriptions — fifteen, ten and five
guineas being the amount payable according as a member
has subscribed to the Society for five, ten or fifteen or more
years. The Council feel that this modification in the exist-
ing rule will meet an objection to which expression has on
several occasions been given by some of the older members
of the Society.
The salvage stock of the Society is not being disposed of
so rapidly as the Council could wish. Applications for
copies should be addressed to Mr. C. J. Tabor, The White
House, Knotts Green, Essex, who undertakes to deal with
them with the greatest despatch. The price is 4s. per
volume, carriage free, with all faults.
The Accounts and Balance Sheet for the year are sub-
mitted herewith.
W. CROOKE,
President.
February, 1913.
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PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.
Method of Investigation and Folklore Origins.
We meet this evening saddened by the loss of a great
personality, a scholar, a man of let-ters, a past President of
this Society, a constant and valued contributor to our
proceedings, Mr. Andrew Lang. So much has been said
in the pages of Folk-Lore and elsewhere regarding his
contributions to the literature of Anthropology and Folk-
lore, that it is needless to discuss them in detail. Perhaps
his most notable achievement was his criticism of the
mythological school and his advocacy of anthropological
methods in the investigation of popular belief and usage.
Though his mind was of the critical rather than of the
constructive type, he might have given to science a great
book on the social aspects of folk belief and custom if, in
the autumn of his life, he had been spared to concentrate
his attention upon it. But this was not to be. By his
premature death the world of science and literature has lost
a scholar and this Society a friend, whose vacant seat at our
council board will remind us of the vast knowledge stored
within that busy brain, and of the critical powers and
delicacy of style with which it was communicated. Mr.
E. W. B. Nicholson, Bodley's Librarian, in spite of his
devotion to other branches of learning, was able to prove,
by his delightful book, Golspie: Contributions to its Folklore,
how the services of school children can be utilised in the
Presidential Address. 1 5
cause of research. Mr. W. F. Kirby added to a wide
knowledge of entomology a profound acquaintance with
various branches of folklore, shown in his translation of the
Kalevala, his Hero of Esthonia, and his notes contributed
to Sir R. Burton's translation of The Book of tJic Thousand
Nig-Iits and a Night.
As w'e review our work in the past, we are often tempted
to regret the chances which we have lost, the schemes
which we have failed to accomplish, because the man and
the money were lacking for their fulfilment. Of course,
with a larger membership and more ample revenue, we
could undertake many projects which, for the present, must
remain only a pious aspiration. But, considering our
limited resources, the published literature of our Society
represents a substantial contribution to the knowledge of
the mind of man in its primitive stages. By the organisa-
tion of anthropological studies in our leading universities,
by our association in this room with scientific training in
the heart of the Empire, we are doing much to impress the
importance of the subject upon the rising generation of
students. During the recent meeting of the British Associa-
tion at Dundee, we succeeded in re-establishing, after some
years of neglect, the study of folklore as a branch of the
work of the Anthropological Section. Miss Burne, Mr.
Hartland, and myself, as your representatives, supported
by Scottish scholars like Canon Macculloch and Mr. Brodie
Innes, discussed the racial element in the folklore of that
country. We pointed out that, while older writers, from
Sir Walter Scott to J. F. Campbell of Islay, J. G. Campbell,
and W. Gregor, — to name only a few out of a long list of
worthies, — did yeomen's service in exploring popular tradi-
tion, they have left few successors, and that, unless a fresh
body of workers is prepared to take the field, much which
it is now possible to collect will inevitably be lost.
Considerable interest was displayed in the subject, and we
may hope that the good seed which has been sown will
1 6 Presidential Address.
yield an abundant harvest. Ireland, again, is a field which
is as yet only imperfectly occupied. But the Folklore
Survey of Co. Clare, for which we are indebted to Mr. T. J.
Westropp, proves, if proof were needed, that we have as yet
barely scratched the surface. We may expect valuable
contributions from the local committee which has recently
been established. The same may be said of many parts of
England, particularly the southern counties.
If Mr. W. Y. Evans Wentz^ has failed to see a fairy, his
zeal in collecting the experiences of more favoured observers
is highly commendable ; and during the past year the work
of Mrs. Leather in Herefordshire, Miss J. B. Partridge in
the Cotswolds, Miss Moutray Read in Hampshire, and Mr.
T. W. Thompson among the English gipsies has provided
a store of fresh material. In view of the importance of the
study of the folk-drama, it is much to be regretted that the
large collections made by the Society still remain unpub-
lished. But the approaching issue of Miss Burne's Hand-
book, and the volume of County Folklore for Fife and
Clackmannan, will mark an important advance. In the
immediate future our energies will be concentrated on the
new edition of Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities,
which will classify much information at present inaccessible,
and will form an encyclopaedia of British folklore. We are
much indebted to Miss Burne and to Mrs. Banks for
organizing a body of workers now engaged in collecting
material. It may be hoped that, from the ranks of the
younger men and women now engaged upon this task, a
body of working members may be created, ready to take
the places of the veterans who lag superfluous on the
stage.
Though it may tend to promote continuity in our work,
I conceive that the custom of re-electing your President for
a second term of office is in some ways unfortunate. In his
first annual address he is tempted to unburden his soul, to
^ The Fairy- Faith in Celtic Countries, 191 1.
Presidential Address. 17
exhaust the small store of material which his studies and
reflection may have provided, without a thought of that evil
day when, for a second time, he is compelled to occupy
your attention with a mere rechauffe, the crauihe rcpetita
which wearies the unhappy listener, liut in the sphere of
Comparative Religion and Folklore the advance from year
to year is startling; "the old order changeth. yielding
place to new " ; we seem, as it were, to feel the ground
slipping beneath our feet ; theories, once accepted, disappear
uiilamented ; gaps in our knowledge are filled up by the
exploration of some savage tribe, only to show themselves
in some other unexpected quarter ; an ever-increasing
literature seeks to explain man's present or forecast his
future from the examination of his past.
But the situation is not quite so startling as it appears to
be. The new learning never quite loses touch with the
science of the past. Even if folk-belief tends to wither in
this unsympathetic age, the old principles readily adapt
themselves to their new surroundings. For instance, tea
leaves and umbrellas, both comparatively recently intro-
duced into common use, have gathered round them a certain
amount of lore among the folk. Ghosts of the dead past
are ever with us, and, like some recent visitors to the
excavations at Glastonbury, we believe that we can catch
whiffs of incense from desolated altars, and hear the bells
peal from the ruined Abbey towers.-
To call attention to these advances in knowledge and
speculation naturally forms the subject of an annual address,
however imperfectly this object may be attained. For
example, we have hitherto believed that through the
medium of dreams we arrive at our conception of another
life. But Professor Frazer, following Mr. Lang, and
reviewing the group of customs observed by savages for
the conciliation and multiplication of the animals which
they kill, dwells upon the unquestioning faith which back-
' Folk- Lore, vol. x.xii., p. 495.
B
1 8 Presidential Address.
ward man reposes in the immortality of the lower creation,
and questions the validity of the current explanation to
account for the fact. '■ The savage," he remarks, " it is said,
fails to distinguish the visions of sleep from the realities of
waking life, and accordingly when he has dreamed of his
dead friends he necessarily concludes that they have not
wholly perished, but that their spirits continue to exist in
some place and some form, though in the ordinary course
of events they elude the perception of his senses. On this
theory the conceptions, whether repulsive or beautiful, which
savages and perhaps civilised man have formed of the state
of the departed, would seem to be no more than elaborate
hypotheses constructed to account for appearances in
dreams." And even assuming, for the sake of argument,
that this theory affords a ready explanation of the wide-
spread belief in human immortality which elsewhere he
accepts,-' he disputes its application to the belief current
among many races in the immortality of the lower animals.
For the old theory he prefers to substitute the savage
conception of life as an indestructible form of energy, which
he compares with the modern scientific doctrine of the
conservation of force.'
In recent discussions the question of method holds a
leading place. In a criticism of some modern works on the
origin of belief and the growth and development of the
moral ideas, in The Birth of Hiiviility, Mr. Marett urges
(p. 6) that " no isolated fragment of custom or belief
can be worth much for the purposes of Comparative
Science. In order to be understood, it must first be
viewed in the light of the whole culture, the whole corpo-
rate soul-life, of the particular ethnic group concerned.
Hence the new way is to emphasize concrete differences,
whereas the old way was to amass resemblances heedlessly
■' The Belief in 1 in mortality aud the Worship of the Dead {Qt'x'Rox'X Lectures),
vol. i., pp. 27, 140.
* The Golden Bough (3id eel.), pt. v., vol. ii., pp. 260-2.
Presidential Address. 19
abstracted from their social context. Which way is the
better is a question that well-nigh answers itself." Follow-
ing the same doctrine, an American writer, Mr. W. D.
W'allis, urges that the method by which anthropological
material should be collected must be both comparative and
intensive, the latter term implying that "no result is of any
value unless you have carefully and, so far as possible,
exhaustively, treated the particular case with which you are
engaged. It will not be sufficient to say that you have
found such and such correspondences and such and such
differences. Tliis is little worth unless you go further and
ascertain how far these may be held to be the total of
correspondences and the total of differences; and, perhaps
more important still, to what extent these similarities are
more than mere correspondences and represent really
efficient factors.''^ As a natural corollary to these doctrines
the new school discards what is termed " the naive scheme
of world-wide unilinear evolution," and pleads the necessity
for a regional surve}' of the beliefs and practices of back-
ward races, such sociological monographs being alone
capable of serving as the basis of sounder comparative
studies. Combined with these suggestions for enquiry, we
find increased importance attributed to the interaction of
the members of the group, the concentrated emotion of the
kin, as the seed-bed of belief and usage.
Our dependence upon regional surveys of modern savage
life involves a certain risk which deserves consideration.
The types of societies which are capable of investigation
fall into two groups : first, those of which we can acquire
knowledge from the stores of a national, historical literature ;
secondly, those which we are able to examine only in the
light of their present condition, and much of this, in the
absence of material illustrating their evolution in the past,
is necessarily obscure. For example, it is only in the case
of a certain group of races, like those of ancient Egypt,
* 77/1? American Anthropologist, vol. xiv. (1912), pp. 179-80.
20 Presidential Address.
India, Greece, or Rome, that we possess much historical
material. What we know of the peoples of Australia,
Melanesia, New Guinea, or Borneo represents only the
condition of their inhabitants as revealed to modern
travellers, and their history is a blank. In the case of the
former group we may expect to find "survivals" in the
present which can be analysed and explained by our
knowledge of their historical literature. Of the latter we
know nothing save what we can pick up at the present
day. It may be true that, as in the case of India, the
historical record may have been manipulated to justify
the pretensions of a priestly body, or to support some
scheme of dogmatic theology. Still, with all its imper-
fections, the historical record does help to explain much
which would otherwise be obscure, while in the case of
savage races we can know nothing of the stages through
which any single belief or usage may have passed.
If, for example, we examine the social system of the
Arunta, we find no record which assists us in interpreting
it, save some vague tribal legends projected into the
Alcheringa, the age of the mythical tribal ancestors.
Hence we are at a loss to explain the origin of a regula-
tion, such as that which divides the tribes into two
moieties ; and we are left to infer, from our ideas of the
probabilities of the case, aided by a comparison of facts
drawn from other groups in a similar stage of culture, that
it results from the coalition of two distinct tribes, or that it
was established by some primitive statesman, or council of
the tribal greybeards, who were forced to take action in
view of the obvious physical dangers resulting from the
intermarriage of the members of a small community. I
confess that I find some difficulty in accepting the theory
that a reorganisation such as this was the work of some
savage Lycurgus and his assessors. Such reforms are, I
am inclined to believe, seldom introduced per saltiim ; it is
more probable that they represent the final stage of a long
Presidential Address. 2i
series of evolution, rather than a single, definite decision ;
still less are such reforms controlled by well-considered
hygienic or economical considerations. Hence, in dealing
with a question of this kind, our onl)' resource is the com-
parative method which postulates the uniformity of psycho-
logical processes. While, then, the regional surveys of
contemporary savage life possess distinct value, we must
not underrate the importance of the stud}' of those societies
which possess an historical record.
Next come^ the question of the character of the evidence
at present available. Some of it is undoubtedly of the
highest value, — surveys of backward races conducted by
observers who by long residence among the people have
acquired an intimate knowledge of their language, mental
characteristics, and institutions, and have been trained in
the laws of evidence by the discipline of judicial work.
Others of the same class are travellers who possess the tact
and sympathy which win the confidence of shy, reticent
people, who understand what is worth seeking and how to
find it. But such enquirers are in the minority, and a con-
siderable part of our older material has been collected by
the casual, uninstructed traveller during a scamper over
half a continent, subject to constant interruption from the
savagery of the people or the difficulties of transport.
As an example of the danger of hasty generalisation, I
may quote the experience of Sir A. B. Ellis, one of the
most competent students of savage beliefs. He tells us that
at an early stage of his enquiries he was struck by the cult
of what are popularly known as " fetish " trees. He was
informed by English-speaking and Christian natives that
" there was a devil in each tree," and that the offerings of
eggs, rum, and palm-oil were intended to propitiate this
devil. He at first accepted the theory that "it was the
spiritualised tree that was worshipped. In this belief
I remained for some years, until, having made myself
acquainted with the language, and learned more of the
2 2 Presidential Address,
general ideas of the natives upon relii^ious matters, it
occurred to me to inquire what had caused them to believe
in the first instance that a god or spirit dwelt in the tree.
The evidence I collected at once exploded my former
theory, and I learned then, for the first time, that the tree
was merely planted to afford shade for a tutelary deity,
that that deit)' was obtained from and appointed by one
of the higher deities through tiie priests, and that the tree
itself, apart from the deity, was an ordinary tree, and
nothing more. This explanation was so much at variance
with my former ideas, and with all I had heard and read
upon the subject, that I received it with extreme caution ;
and it was only after a series of enquiries extending over
some months, that I suffered myself to be convinced that
I had at last arrived at the truth."" The moral of this
lies in the application thereof.
Again, in some modern treatises on the beliefs and usages
of backward races I notice a tendency to accept more pre-
cise definitions of myth and beliefs than, in the nature of
things, are procurable. Writers who lack practical acquaint-
ance with field work, and who are trained in the creeds and
dogmatic theology of the higher religions, are naturally
disposed to define savage beliefs in a series of formulae.
But the trained explorer usually finds that, while the savage
has a very clear knowledge of the social laws of his group,
of the tabus which everywhere control his action, of the laws
of marriage which it is often a matter of life and death
to violate, he is unable, or has no desire, to formulate his
religious views. So far as his religion is part and parcel of
his social law, as is often the case, he shows little reticence.
But, if the investigation be extended to magic, demonolog}-,
and similar subjects which are the very bed-rock of his
beliefs, he takes care to keep this side of his mental equip-
ment concealed in a secret chamber of his brain to which
no foreigner has access. Where we might e.x-pect to find
* The Tshi-Speakiiifi Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa, pp. 1 84- 5.
President ial Address. 23
precision of statement on matters of belief, we encounter
vagueness of thought and that inability to frame anything
like a definition which results from lack of mental concen-
tration and attention. The subject, when undergoing
examination, becomes rapidly tired ; he is ready to say any-
thing which he hopes may satisfy his inquisitor and relieve
him from an unpleasant ordeal. This is, I believe, the
experience of the most competent observers of savage
races, and I suspect that the same may be said about our
own rural population. The writer who is dependent upon
published literature will do well to be cautious when some
explorer supplies him with a set of Creeds or Articles of
Religion of some backward people.
When we pass from a discussion of methods of enquiry
to the question of origins, "the fundamentals," as the Scot-
tish rustic theologian calls them, though the advance is
striking, it is neither violent nor unexpected. " It were
good therefore," says Francis Bacon, " that Men in their
Innovations, would follow the Example of Time itselfe ;
which, indeed Innovatetk greatly, but quietly, and by
degrees, scarce to be perceived." '
In the first place, we observe a new aspect of the relation
of myth to ritual. As I remarked last year, we have
hitherto followed Robertson Smith in regarding myth as
of lower value than cultus, — the one vague and transitory,
the latter definite and persistent. We are now invited to
accept an eirenicon, which re-establishes the importance of
myth as a subject for study. This is suggested in two
ways. First, the Cambridge school, represented by Miss
Harrison, while admitting that myth may arise out of, or
rather together with, the ritual, regards both as inter-
dependent : the one as not prior to the other : they pro-
bably arose together. " Ritual is the utterance of an
emotion, a thing felt, in action, myth in words or thoughts.
They arise pari passu. The myth is not at first aetlological ,
''Essays, xxiv., " Of Innovations," ed. W. Aldis Wright, 1887, p. 100.
24 Presidential Address.
it does not arise to give a reason : it is representative,
another form of utterance, of expression. When the
emotion that started the ritual has died down and the ritual
though hallowed by tradition seems unmeaning, a reason is
sought in the myth and it is regarded as aetiological." ®
In the second place, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, in a paper
recently read before this Society,^ suggests that the study
of myths possesses a distinct sociological value. " When a
social condition is mentioned incidentally or is revealed by
the general colouring of a myth, we can be confident that
it is not a pure product of imagination, but has a definite
historical value. Social incidents," still less the general
colouring of a myth, could never appear unless they had
their roots in the social condition either of the people who
narrate the myth or of those from whom the myth has
been derived." This is old, well-established doctrine. Myth,
like belief, springs from the physical and mental environ-
ment. The novelty of Dr Rivers' exposition lies in the
proof that, in Australia, when the myth deals with the
origin of social institutions, it is usually the totemic system
which forms the special topic of the narrative, not the dual
s}-stem and matrimonial classes, which seem to form the
essential basis of the tribal organisation. Hence arises the
corollary, that, while man lives undisturbed, his own exist-
ence and that of the earth on which he lives form such a
part of his established order that his imagination is un-
touched. But, when a strange race enters the area which
he has hitherto without question occupied, mystery and
wonder will be aroused, or, if the strangers possess a culture
of which creation myths form a part, these will be trans-
ferred and become part of the permanent heritage of the
older people. From this it follows that the stratification
of myth becomes a test of the type of the social complex
resulting from the clash of cultures arising out of migra-
tions, and therefore possesses a distinct sociological value.
* Themis, p. i6. ^ Folk- Lore, vol. xxiii. , pp. 311-2.
Prcsidciiiia/ Addirss. 25
This involves the acceptance of the hypothesis of the
origin of culture advocated by Dr Graebner and his fol-
lowers. It may be true that his attempt to show the general
prevalence of totemism as an universal stage in social de-
velopment has failed to win general assent, but there is a
tendency to accept his theory of the origin of culture as the
result of transmission, not of evolution, — in other words,
lateral, not vertical. It must, however, be remembered that
this new school has in view more the social than the reli-
gious side of culture, with which we are more immediately
concerned. Thus the Vv'ithers of the old-fashioned school
of folklorists are, in a great measure, unwrung, and, for the
present, we may possess our souls in patience until the pen-
dulum moves again and the old hypothesis of evolution
regains its authority.
Transmission certainly plays an important part in the
growth of culture, social organisation, myth, and popular
belief. The American ethnologists seem to be agreed that
their continent was peopled by immigrants from Asia, who,
when their culture was sufficiently advanced to acquire the
use of canoes, crossed Behring Straits, or, wliich is more
probable, that they passed during an age of glaciation. In
South America, at least, these migrations seem to have
occurred at such a remote period that the existing civilisa-
tion has been entirely controlled by the Diilicn. On the
other hand, the movement of the Polynesians within the
Pacific area was comparatively modern. These conclusions
are supported by the fact that the myths of north-eastern
Asia and those of north-western America form practically
a single group, the members of which are allied not by form
alone, but by the actual content of the myths themselves.^'*'
Coming nearer home, Mr. G. Coffey has recently proved
^'^ T/ie American Aiithropolo^^isl, vol. xiv. (1912), pp. 1-59; T. A. Joyce,
South American ArcJucology, pp. 4 et seq. ; A. Hrdlicka, Remains in Eastern
Asia of the Race that Feopled America (Smithsoniajt Miscellaneotis Collectiott)^
vol. Ix., No. 15 (1912).
2 6 Presidential Address.
that the spiral decoration at New Grange reproduces fornns
of ornament prevailing in the.Minoan, Mycenaean, and pre-
dynastic period of Egypt. The first influences from the
Mediterranean area, having penetrated into the north of
Europe by the Atlantic sea-route, probably reached the
Baltic, and passed thence through Scandinavia to Ireland
at the end of the neolithic period and in the beginning of
the Bronze Age.^^
Hut, while transmission of culture may be established by
many other instances of the same kind, we are, I venture
to think, at present unable to formulate a general law
which will account for all the facts. There are cases where
such transmission, though antecedently probable, seems not
to have occurred.
The Minoan Empire, through its control of the sea-
power of the eastern Mediterranean, must have been in
close contact with Egypt. But, though it assimilated some
material culture and imported pottery and other works of
art, the hints and ideas which it received were recast in its
own mould, and in relation to the implements of the Bronze
Age it was quite independent. In the sphere of religion Crete
seems to have been untouched by Egyptian influences. ^^
The great Minoan Mother goddess, with her doves and
snakes, the shrines with tree, pillar, and axe worship, pre-
sent little or no analogy to the complex polytheism of
Egypt. Again, there is no trace of connection between the
megalithic builders in Malta and the civilisation of the
Aegean.^^ The case of the Phoenicians, mere huckstering
traders, who followed sea ways long before opened by
others, is similar. They exercised as little influence on the
religious as on the artistic side of Greek culture.^''
"^"^ New Graiii^e ( Bni^li iia Boinne ) and other huistd Tumuli in Ireland,
pp. 68-9.
*^C. H. and II. B. Hawes, Crete the Forerunner of Greece, pp. '})% et seq.
*^ T. E. Peet, Rough Stone Monttvien's and their Builders, p. 131.
^* D. G. Hogarth, Ionia and the East, pp. 92 et seq.
Presidential Address. 27
Again, while there is good ground for assuming tiiat the
conception of an Earth goddess and a god of vegetation,
sometimes her son, sometimes her fosterHng, or her lover,
may have penetrated from Caria, and thence tiirough a
Thracian-Phrygian medium, to Hellas, she probably gained
vogue in these western lands because she was identified
with some local deity of fertilit)'. Recent explorations by
Messrs, Wace and Thompson ^^ indicate that, possibly owing
to difference of race, the prehistoric culture of northern
Greece was practically unaffected by the outburst of civil-
isation in the Aegean area which we call Mycenaean ; and
the belief, once widely held, that much of the religion and
culture of ancient Greece was derived from Babylonia,
in spite of her domination of western Asia during the
15th century B.C. must now, in the light of Mr. Farnell's
recent examination of the question, be abandoned. In
the records of early Greece no single Babylonian name
is recognisable in its religious or mythological nomen-
clature, and no characteristically Babylonian type of
ritual is identifiable.^® As a matter of fact, the Hittite
power in the second millennium formed a barrier between
the Babylonian Empire and the coast-lands of Asia
Minor.
If, then, we are to accept transmission of ideas through
adjacent groups as an explanation of the growth of culture,
we must endeavour to formulate some principles which
may enable us to distinguish between what is alien and
what is indigenous in each group. For the present we
may accept the criteria laid down by Mr. Farnell in
his discussion of the cult of Aphrodite, — the interpre-
tation of the name ; the existence of the worship, and
the traditional antiquity attributed to it, among those
tribes whose seats were especially remote from foreign
influence; its association with certain ritual and ideas
** A. J. B. Wace and M. S. Thompson, r>-chish'ric '/ Jiessaly.
^* L. K. Farnell, Greece and Bahyloti, p. 307.
28 Presidential Address.
of a primitive cast ; the prevalence of tradition conncctinf^
by lineal descent certain stocks with the divinity in
question.^'
In Greece the evidence, literary and archaeological, for
distinguishing what is indigenous from what is foreign, i.s
abundant. But this is an exceptional case, and in most
other regions the material is imperfect. This is notably
the case in India, which would seem naturally to be a pro-
mising field for such enquiries. But, as I have already said,
the literary record, ancient though it be, is tainted by the
prejudices of its compilers. Broadly speaking, we may con-
clude that in northern India the Aryan-speaking emigrants
formed a more or less intimate association with the tribes
which they found in occupation, and Hinduism, rather a
social system based upon caste and tribal organisation than
what we call a " religion," represents a fusion of cultures,
the lower element contributing the demonology and fertility
cults which have swamped the nature worship of the Vedic
age, and replaced the tribal organisation by a system of
totemic, endogamous groups. This process of absorption
was restricted by the rise of Brahmanism, which formed a
barrier to further race amalgamation, with the result that,
when, at a much later age, it was extended by missionary
effort to the south of the peninsula, the two races are found
practically distinct, — at the top a priestly class, nervously
tenacious of its claims to superiority, and much more tra-
melled by caste restrictions than their northern brethren ;
at the bottom a servile population, unaffected by Brahm.an
control, and practising demon worship and blood sacrifice
in their most brutal forms. We can even watch the begin-
nings of a partial amalgamation. In one famous south
Indian temple, the goddess placidly receives the simple
Brahman offering of milk and the fruits of the earth ; but,
*" L. K. Farnell, The Culls of the Greek Stales, vol. ii., p. 619. For a good
discussion of the problem, see E. S. Hartland, The Intemalioual Folk-Lcre
Congress, 1 89 1 [Papers and Transactions), pp. 15-38.
Presidential Address. 29
when the serf performs his blood sacrifice in her presence,
her image is discreetly veiled.^®
In short, throughout the world, the fusion of religion and
social culture presents itself in many varied forms. Some-
times the new race destroys the indigenous people ; some-
times the women alone are permitted to survive, and are
admitted to rights of connubium and tribal worship with
their conquerors; sometimes, as in the case of modern migra-
tions to America and elsewhere, the two races become fused
on practically equal terms. At times the union is purely
mechanical, like that of sand and water ; sometimes it is a
true chemical union. But, as a whole, the result may be
compared to a geological conglomerate, breccia formed out
of water-worn pebbles, some of which are recognisable as
fragments of some ancient rock, now cemented into an
apparent unity by later filtration. Or, to use a metaphor
employed by Mr. Lang,^' they resemble the Corinthian
bronze composed of gold and silver, copper and lead, all
molten together at the burning of the great city.
Apart from the effects of transmission, the localisation
of folk belief and usage deserves attention. In many
countries, Egypt, Babylonia, China, India, where the facts
are more or less capable of determination, this localisation
is apparent. The oldest deities are those of the family, the
group, the tribe, and it is only through a process of sj-n-
cretism due to special causes, such as the welding of the
scattered units into an empire, or the preaching of some
eminent leader, that they become combined into a pol)--
theistical system. Such local beliefs are singularly per-
sistent, and seem to be little affected by racial movements
or political revolution. In Australia the first thing that
strikes one about the groups constituting the tribe is their
essentially local character.^" These groups are a t}'pe of
** E. Thurston, Castes and T) ibes of Soul hern Itidia, vol. vii., p. 211.
^* History of English Literature, p. 71.
" B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Across Australia, vol. ii., p. 255.
30 Presidential Address.
the most primitive form of social organisation, the old
gorilla with his harem, as described by Mr. Darwin.^i The
influence of some powerful or gifted race has given a per-
manent direction to the thought of its successors in the
same region, or the permanence is the result of the environ-
ment and social atmosphere.
In Egvpt, where the Mediterranean type of race has been
modified by the immigration of Semites from the east, of
negroes from the south, and successive invasions of foreigners,
Persians, Greeks, or Turks within the historical period, we
are assured that tiie folk beliefs of the present day are those
of the dynastic and pre-dynastic peoples. In the welter of
races which constitutes the present population of Palestine,
we find distinct survivals of early Semitic beliefs, older even
than those of the Arabs. In Greece the ancient -Hellenic
folklore survives to the present day. "The past," as Mr.
Abbott" says, is found " peeping through the mask of the
present," or, according to Mr. Lawson,--' " practically all the
religious customs most characteristic of ancient paganism,
such as sacrifice, the taking of auspices, and the consulta-
tion of oracles, continue with or without the sanction of the
Church down to the present day." And this occurs in spite
of the fact that, while in the islands the inhabitants largely
represent the old Hellenic stock, whatever purity that
may have ever possessed, on the mainland it is only the
power of the Church which gives to Slav or Toskh, Vlach,
or half-bred Italian or Turk, a community of tradition,
hope, language, creed, and a single national character.-*
When we find a seemingly alien element, as in the horrid
cycle of tales centring round the Callicantzari or Vampires,
it originated, as Mr. Lawson tells us, in the reputation for
sorcery enjoyed b\' the Centaurs, a Pelasgian tribe on Mount
21 The Descent of Man (2iul ed.), pp. 590 el seq.
-^G. Y. \hhoVX, Macedonian Folklore, p. 25.
23 J. C. Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, p. 47.
2* D. G. Y{o^z.\K\\,- Ionia and the East, \). 149.
Pnsidcntia/ Address. 31
Pelion, modified by Slavic iiiHuences.-^ So, in the Italian
peninsula, the orthodox beliefs forni only a thin veneer
over the primitive dcmonology and witchcraft, la veccJiia
religionc, the old faith, as it is popularly called.
Needless to say, the same condition of things presents
itstlf in these islands, — in our churches built on sacred
hills, near holy wells, or prehistoric barrows ; in the rever-
ence still shown to megalithic monuments; in well-dressing;
in the washing in the May dew as a fertility charm or as a
magical method of promoting moisture. To give two con-
crete examples, — we find the animistic cult of trees in the
famous Wishing Tree at Berry Pomeroy in South Devon.-^
On one side of this tree a peculiar excrescence looks
exactly like a human ear. To obtain fulfilment of a wish
you must, at peril of life or limb, walk three times round
the tree, and whisper }our desires into its ear. In Wexford
we meet the remarkable custom of carrying at a funeral
pieces of wood in the shape of crosses, painted green, red,
and yellow, which are laid at the cross-roads nearest to the
cemetery, where there is always a hawthorn tree on whose
branches the offerings are attached. Even where in some
places the tree has fallen under the weight of the crosses, the
site is always remembered, and the crosses are piled round it.-'^
" C/. cit., p. 255. Tlic continuity of the modern Greek folk-tales with
those of the classical period has hecn recently disputed by Mr Ilalliday, (vol.
xxiii., pp. 486-9).
'"* I am indebted to Mr. R. P. Chope for the following references: Tickler,
Devoiisliire Skelihcs,^. Ii6; Mrs. H. V.\\\\\\covx\)e,Hygo>te Days in Devonshire
and Cormvall, p. 86 ; H. Friend, Bygone Devonshire, p. 43 ; 1'. F. S. Amer)',
Deion Notes and Queries, vol. i., p. 26; A. I.. Salmon, Popular Guide to
Devonshire, p. 131 ; C. K. Kowe, South Devon, p. 162. Compare the tree at
Melling, near Ormskirk, in which the sap, protruding like a man's head, was
believed to be the abode of the poisoner Palmer, " because he was buried
without a coffin," Aotes and Queries, 2nd S., vol. ii. (1856), p. 128.
*' Miss M. Stoker, The Aeadeiny, vol. xJii., p. 390. For the hawthorn as a
death tree and therefore unlucky, see Folk-l.ore, vol. xxii., p. 213, vol. iii.,
p. 88, vol. xxi., p. 224; A'otes and Queries, 6th S., vol. vi., pp. 309, 494;
Mrs. Gutch, Country Folk-Lore, vol. vi. (East Riding of Yorkshire), p. 31, —
" In the East Riding the bloom of hawthorn is not permitted in the house ;
"it has such a deathly smell,'"" — quoting S. O. Addy, Household Tales, p. 63.
o-
P residential Address.
Such localisation of beliefs suggests an important con-
clusion. When, in the course of migrations, ideas are
transplanted into foreign soil, they survive only where the
local atmosphere is favourable. If this is not the case, they
remain exotic, like the orchids removed from a tropical
forest to an English garden. Hence we observe the curious
phenomenon that folk-tales, long forgott<^n in their native
land, return through a foreign medium, and are admitted to
full popular franchise, because they are founded upon
princi])les embodied in the social or economic life of the
race, and, when re-adapted, bring with them a breath from
a half-forgotten past. The tale of Rampsinitus and the
King's Treasury, told from the version of Herodotus a few
years ago to some fellahin in the upper Nile valley, has
now become a part of the local folklore. The Thousand
Nights and a Night, which have their nucleus in Iranian
or Hindu tradition, after passing through the Musalman
alembic in Egypt, with large accessions from Arab sources,
have come back, by translation, into the vernacular dialects
from the Persian, and in an Indian bazaar now delight a
Hindu audience. Miss Frere's charming collection, Old
Deccan Days, translated into Marathi, and Lai Behari Day's
Folk-Talcs of Bengal in a Bengali version, are now freely
circulated as chap-books in the districts where they were
originally collected.
The beliefs which are most persi.stent are those connected
Avith the primal needs of humanity, man's daily bread, the
rites at ploughing, seed-time, and harvest, the fertility cults
associated with sacred tree, well, or stone monument. The
achievement of the new school, of which Miss Harrison is
the leading worker, has been to use the philosophy of M.
Bergson and the sociology of M. Durkheim as a link
between these beliefs and the doctrine that religion is the
outgrowth of the social environment. The group deity, we
are now taught, is the projection or externalisation of the
■collective emotion of the thiasos or group of worshippers.
Preside7itial Address. 33
To put the idea in its crudest form, a gang of savage zealots
by rubbing shoulders in an orgiastic dance, — a mimic repre-
sentation of the action or event in which they are, for the
time, most deeply interested, such as a hunt, the outburst of
vegetation in spring, the ripening of the harvest, — imbibe
each other's Jiiaiia, "the common element in ghosts and
gods, in the magical and the mystical, the supernal and the
infernal, the unknown within and the unknown without,"
the vague feeling of Power or Awe, Supernaturalism,
Teratism. " This vague force in man and in almost every-
thing," says Miss Harrison.^s " is constantly trembling
on the verge of personality," and becomes embodied in
what is now called, by a rather clumsy term, the Eniautos
Daimon, the spirit and potency of each recurring year.
This spirit primitive man, fixing his glance not on the
heaven above but on the earth beneath, by the practice of
sympathetic or homoeopathic magic endeavours periodically
to stimulate and reinforce. The group deity, then, in its
ultimate analysis, is but the shadow of the Brocken mist,
and as little remains of the sanctions or sentiment popularly
associated with what we term religion, as of the conception
. of a personal Deity."-^
This is not the place or time to criticise these far-reaching
hypotheses. But we must remember that they rest upon
the latest fashionable philosophy, which has been summed
up in the expression, " Everything looks as if . . .," and on
a scheme of .sociology which has encountered vigorous
criticism.
Another important phase of the new doctrine is the mode
by which this collective group emotion is expressed and
recorded. This modern school attributes special import-
ance to the dance as a representation in action of this
emotion. In its pantomimic form the dance is the essence
** Themis, p. 67.
"See the powerful criticism by L. R. Farnell, The Hihbert Joiiynal, vol. xi.,
No. 2 (Jan. 1913}, pp. 453 <-l •'<''/•
C
34 President ial Address.
of the mystery function, the central rite of savage initiation.
Skill in its performance confers definite social status.
When a man is too old to dance the tribal figures, he
hands over the duty to a younger performer, and, retiring
into the background, ceases to exist sociall)^ Further, the
knowledge of the dance is transmitted, as a cherished ritual
secret, from one group to another. In their latest book
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen ^^ tell us that Vvhen " a party of
natives from some distant locality, either within the area
occupied by the one tribe or from outside, is visiting a local
group, it is customary to show them some special mark of
attention, and this often takes the form of enacting some
corroboree, which is then made a present to the visitors,
who carry it back with them to their own country." The
donors cease to take any further interest in it, and never, in
any normal condition of the tribe, perform it again."
Thus the study of the folk-dance, for the revival of which
we are indebted to Mr. Cecil Sharp, becomes of great
importance. Its variations are racial or historical, and, like
mummeries, masquerades, riddle and story telling, it once
formed part of a group of ceremonies distinctively magical.
The same may be said of many of our rural games, like the
Cheese-rolling at Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire, the Good
Friday rites at Chilswell Hill near Oxford, or at St.
Martin's Hill near Guildford ;^^ and of the mazes found in
various parts of the country, which are survivals of pagan
celebrations, in which, as in the Olympian Games, the
contest was perhaps originally a method of selecting the
Fertility King of the year.^-
Again, as a modification or extension of Professor
Ridgeway's doctrine that the drama, with its solemn songs
and dances, was a representation of propitiatory rites per-
'^'^ Across Auslralia, vol. i., pp. 244 5.
^^ Folk- Lore, vol. xxiii., p. 351 ; W. John.son, Byzvays in British Archaeology,
p. 195 ; Id., Folk-Memory, p. 336.
3^ F. M. Cornford, in Miss J. E. Harrison, Themis, pp. 322-3.
Presidential Address. 35
formed at the tombs of heroes to induce or compel them to
protect their votaries and promote fertility in the earth,^^
we are now invited to suppose these rites to be unconnected
with the cult of any single dead man. On the contrary, in
its association with the worship of Dionysus, the drama
suggests an embodiment of the Eniautos Daimon, " who
represents the cyclic death and rebirth of the world,
including the rebirth of the tribe by the return of the
heroes or dead ancestors." •^■' Thus the drama of the
Greeks by its successive stages, — the Contest of the Year
against its enemy, Light and Darkness, Summer and
Winter ; the Ritualistic death of the Year Daimon ; the
Announcement of the fact by the Messenger ; the Lamenta-
tion of the death of the old with the triumph of the new ;
the Recognition ot" the Daimon, followed by the Resurrec-
tion,-— is resolved into a form of magic performed as a
periodical fertility cult. But, to quote the warning of a
recent critic : — " The present tendency is to find primitive
religion in everything, and to explain everything by what
]:)rimitive religion was or is supposed to have been. There
is no objection to that, so long as it is recognised that (like
the old interpretation of religion itself in terms of Juris-
prudence) it is only an interpretation ad hoc, a transitory
framework in which something vital and fluid for the time
takes shape. The drawback is that the framework is apt
to dominate over the content, and that to be regarded as
the essence or originating cause which is only the con-
venient— or, it may be, the inconvenient — symbolism. "^^
We may readily admit that these speculations throw
welcome light on many dark places of early Greek belief.
But, if these conclusions are to be admitted, they obviously
carry us far beyond the bounds of Hellas, and other cults,
'3\V. Kidgeway, The Oright of Tragedy, p. 108.
^*Prof. G. M. Murray, in Miss J. E. Harrison, Themis, p. 341 ; and see
II. !• K-ose, J. Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion atid Ethics, vol. v., p. 860.
35 The Ttmes, LiUraiy Sttpplenient, Feb. 6lh, 1913, p. 46.
36 Presidential Address.
other forms of the drama, must be investigated before they
are finally accepted. Many of us will object to the dis-
regard of the historical facts. With the hero envisaged as
a Daimon, the cult of the mighty dead, which is obviously
an important element in popular beliefs, practically dis-
appears. But there are signs of reaction. Critical opinion,
as represented by Dr. Leaf,^^ is coming round to the belief
that the tale of Troy is a fact of history, based upon the
secular contest between Asia and Europe, in which com-
mercial ambitions played a leading part. Enough remains
of the great city to show that the epic which records its fall
is something more than a myth of dawn or sunset or a
legend depending upon a cult of fertility.
Again, we are told that the fertility spirit is more human
and more a present power to his worshippers than the
Olympians, hidden from view in a remote heaven, and
requiring propitiation by a gift sacrifice. But, even if this
be true, it hardly justifies the contumely which the new
school lavishes on those mighty powers which have inspired
the art and literature of the modern world. If they are
assumed to be cold and jealous deities, who by their claim
to immortality have lost their right to man's devotion, we
must remember that, even at the stage when Zeus was
already decadent, he could inspire the deepest religious
feeling in his worshippers. The mere sight of the majestic
image of Pheidias aroused in Dion* a sense of the divine
nature far beyond the paganism of poetry or of the
crowd : — " Whoever among mortal men is most utterly
toil-worn in spirit, having drunk the cup of many sorrows
and calamities, when he stands before this image, must
utterly forget all the terrors and woes of this mortal life."^^
But the strongest objection to this and other similar
attempts to explain the complex of religious beliefs lies in
the danger of attempting to solve the problem by any single
3* W, Leaf, Troy, a Study in Homeric Geography, pp. 326 et seq.
3" [Sir] S. Dill, Noiiian Society from Nero to A/arciis Aureliits, p. 380.
Presidential Address. yj
method. Each of us is tempted to believe that he possesses
the magnnvi secretiini, the one key which will unlock the
door of every mystery. But, before we attempt to apply it,
we are bound to provide some definition which will cover
the myriad phases of popular beliefs. Such a definition
involves an artificial rigidity, and it must result in failure if
we attempt to cram primitive thought, in its varied mani-
festations, or religion, "the uncharted region of human
experience," as Professor Gilbert Murray calls it, into
a .set of neatly labelled pigeon-holes. This is particularly
the case with the cult of fertility. In the last instalment
of The Golden Bough'?^ Professor Frazer, himself the
high-priest of this phase of belief, warns us that we must
not accept "the impression, natural but erroneous, that
man has created most of his gods out of his own belly.
That is not so, at least that is not my reading of the history
of religion." And he goes on to say that the reproductive
faculties are no less essential to the preservation of the
species than the nutritive, thus enforcing the need of the
study of the intricate problems involved in the mysterious
relations of the sexes, one of the most interesting, as it is
one of the most difficult and delicate tasks which await the
future historian of religion. To this he adds the necessily
of the enquiry how the influence of man on man has shaped
human destiny. "If," as he sums up his discussion, "we
could strictly interrogate the phantoms which the human
mind has conjured up out of the depths of its bottomless
ignorance and enshrined as deities in the dim light of
temples, we should find that the majority of them have
been nothing but the ghosts of dead men." We thus seem
to be reverting to the Euhemerism of Herbert Spencer and
Sir A. Lyall. '
But I have exhausted my time and your patience in
3* The Golden Boiii^h (3rd ed.), pi. v., vol. i., Intro., pp. vii. et se</. ; 7'he-
Belief in Iininortality and the IVorship of the Dead (Giftbrd Lectures), vol. i.»
pp. 24 et seq.
38 Presidential Address.
groping among the dry bones of methods of investigation
and the problems of origins. It is ahnost time for us to
cease to follow the will-o'-the-wisp of speculation when so
much remains to be done which is well within the powers
of those to whom the philosophy of folklore seems vain and
unprofitable. We have, in the first place, to infuse a new
spirit of activity in the work of collection. We have still
many fields unoccupied, for example, that of prehistoric
folklore, which is practically untouched. Material is being
gradually collected which will, in time, throw light upon the
beliefs of man not only in the neolithic but even in the
palaeolithic period. M. ]keuil and other anthropologists
have discovered wall paintings and even figures in the
round in the caves of southern Europe, and their significance
is brought nearer to us by the identification of similar
records, dating apparently from the Aurignacian period, in
the Welsh cave. Bacon's Hole.-^^ These discoveries much
extend our knowledge, which was hitherto largely confined
to the mobilier of interments. In this enquiry we shall be
assisted by the identification suggested by Professor Sollas
of the now extinct Tasmanians with the Chelleans, the
Australians with the Mousterians, the Bushmen with the
Aurignacians, the Eskimo with the Alagdalenian people.^*^
The representations of animal hunts in. these caves point to
a form of magic intended to secure a supply of food. The
rudely carved and painted stones laid with the dead may
be the prototypes of the steatopygous figures of the neo-
lithic period. It has even been suggested that from some of
the cave decorations a rite like the Intichiuma, to use the
inaccurate term of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, may have
^* The 7'iuies, Oct. 141I1, 1912. Abbe Breuil, in his recently delivered lectures,
confirms the attribution of these drawings to the Aurignacian period. 7'he
Times, Feb. Ilth, 1913.
^^ \V. J. Sollas, Ancient Hunters and their Modem Representatives, pp. 252,
368-9, etc. ; A. Mossb, The Daivn of Mediterranean Civilisation, pp. 14S
<r/ se(j.
Presidential Adeii'css. 39
been practised. ^^ It is only by the intensive study of
modern savage life that we shall be assisted to interpret
the beliefs of the prehistoric people. Folklore must pass
through the stage of the surveyor before its followers can
presume to be architect.s.
There still remains the aesthetic side of folklore, which,
through our absorption in its scientific aspects, we have
hitherto neglected, with the result that we have, to some
extent, failed in securing our main object, its popularisation.
It is, of course, most important that we should seek behind
the current version of the tale of Cinderella the earlier type,
as it appears in the Scottish version, where the girl's mother
is a sheep, and we are thus able to infer that the nucleus of
the story goes back to a period of totemism or theriolatry.
It is well for us to collect, as has recently been done,^- the
incidents which lie behind the Decameron of Boccaccio.
But a survey like this helps us little to realise the beauty of
the setting, the fugitives from the plague grouped in a
delightful meadow, the delicacy and grace with which the
tales are constructed out of the current folklore. Amid
graver studies, I suggest that we may occasionally find
time to discuss the contrast between the old folk-tale and
its modern imitations, among which perhaps only two,
Meredith's SJiaving of Shagpat and Southey's Three Bears,
conform to the folk-tale convention. We may examine
that law of association which groups the old familiar inci-
dents round some heroic figure of history or myth, —
Alexander the Great, Virgil in mediaeval tradition, or
Charlemagne, just as the after-dinner story is attributed to
Tarleton, Swift, Sheridan, Sydney Smith, Whately, or
Jowett. We may consider how the masters of literature,
like Homer or Shakespeare, work up the traditions of their
time into epic or drama, and how their magical touch
*iR. R. Marett, " In a Prehistoric Sanctuary," The /Jibbert Journal, 1912,
pp. 380 et set/.
*^ A. C. Lee, 7Vie Decameron: its Sources and Analogues.
40 Presidential Address.
becomes most effective when it pierces through the conven-
tionalism of their time and penetrates into the ver}- heart
of the people.
This is an ambitious programme which teaches us that
our true work is only just beginning. But the more we
extend the scheme of our enquiries, the more likely we are
to win the support which our subject deserves. The
increasing interest in the studies which we are pursuing
encourages us to believe that we shall not fail to achieve
success.
W. Crooke.
A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS OF THE
ISSA-JAPURA DISTRICT (SOUTH AMERICA).
BY CAi'TAiN I \v. WHIKFKN, Foiirteeutli Hiissais.
{Keaii at Mating, Deccuibcr i8///, 191 2.)
North of the main artei')- of the great Amazonian system,
between the Rio Negro and the Napo, both of which tribu-
taries have long been known to the traveller, trader, and
missionary, lies a great stretch of virgin forest, drained by
the Issa and the Japura rivers and their affluents. To the
north of the Japura the watershed of an important tributary
of the Negro, the Uaupes river, has also been more or less
opened to European influences, but the Issa and Japura
basins remained unknown, and are to this day a veritable
No-man's- land among the nations, claimed by Brazil, Peru,
and Ecuador, but not administered by any : where never a
king's writ can run, and where each man does what is,
presumably, right in his own eyes and, frequently, egregi-
ously wrong in his neighbour's.
The main trend of the country is a gentle slope from
north-west to south-east, not sufficient to make the river
currents rapid in normal conditions, though the rate of
descent naturally increases greatly when flood water is
coming down. Inundations are frequent, and a great one
probably occurs two or three times in a century. So it is
not, therefore, surprising to find that these Indians have
many stories of a Great Flood.
The land between the river beds is broken by low parallel
ranges of hills, densely wooded. Here and thereon higher
42 The hniiaus of the Issd-Japurd District.
ground a savannah, a natural geological outcrop, breaks the
dense bush with a comparatively open space, where a totally
distinct soil and flora will be found. The Boro explanation
for these outcrops is that they are where Neva, the Good
Spirit, spoke to the Indians when on a visit to earth, in
recognition of which they are open to the sun and the sky
to this day.
The soil in the forest itself is dark and damp, built up of
successive layers of decayed vegetable matter. The rainfall
is excessive and continual, the temperature hardly varies
throughout the year, and heavy storms are frequent, especi-
ally in February and September, which roughly stand in
Amazonia for the seasons designated as the Rains else-
where.
Though the forest abounds in flower-bearing plants and
trees, fruits of gaj^ colours, birds and insects of the brightest
hues, it is a place of dull and oppressive gloom, for all the
life, and light, and colouring are massed overhead in the
treetops, hidden from sight by a density of foliage, and an
intricate tangle of creepers and parasitical growths. The
effect of existence in such environment is depressing in the
extreme. Everything is against progress. All makes for
a dead-level resignation to an intolerable but unavoidable
fate. There are no roads of communication except the
waterways. Life is a ceaseless warfare with certainly-hostile
nature and probably-hostile man.
These wild solitudes are inhabited by groups of Indians, as
to whose origin and racial classification opinions are greatly
divided. In the country now under discussion there are
nine language-groups, — the Witoto, Boro, Andoke, Resi-
gero, Muenane, Okaina or Dukaiya, Menimehe, Karahone,
and Nonuya. It is with the first two, the Witoto and Boro,
that we are mainly concerned.
These two language-groups occupy roughly the centre of
my field of exploration, and are separated from each other
by the Dukaiya-speaking tribes. The Boro tongue is more
The Imtians of the Issd-Japurd District. 43
unintelligible to a Witoto than the speech of a Friesland
Hollander would be to a Briton from the North, and these
groups differ from each other not only in linguistic but in
physical details. Their order in the cultural scale approxi-
mates to the physical features and colouring of the Indians
belonging to the group. The Andoke and the l^oro, the
better-looking, better-developed, taller, and lighter-coloured
groups, are also the most intellectual. The lighter-skinned
Indians look down on and despise the darker tribes, and
those of the lowest grades, such as the Maku, are regarded
as slave tribes by all the others. There is extreme ani-
mosity between the different groups, in addition to recurrent
warfare between individual tribes of each group.
These patrilineal exogamous tribes dwell apart, and but
little communication exists between even those of the same
language-group. There is no organised trade, no recog-
nised trade routes nor trade centres. An intermittent,
irregular barter is carried on by individuals onl}'. Every
tribe has one, (or possibly two), maloka, a tribal house in
which every member of the tribe has a right to food and
lodging. Every maloka has its absolutely independent
Chief, who is subservient to no higher power, answerable
only to his own tribal council The vialoka are built on a
wooden framework, and thatched from the ridge-pole
almost to the ground with layers of palm leaves. The
average size of these buildings is about seventy feet in
diameter, but they differ in accordance with the numbers of
the tribes. They are not permanent habitations. After
two or three years the maloka ceases to be weather-proof ;
the soil of the plantation also is impoverished by successive
cropping. No attempt to better either is made. The com-
munity merely abandons its old headquarters, and makes
tracks for another site. The forest furnishes all it needs
for house-building ; fresh ground is cleared for the planta-
tion ; and life continues as of old. A further reason that
induces the Indian to submit to these unsettled conditions
44 ^/^^' Indians of the Issd- [apnrd District.
is that, despite all possible caution, tracks must get worn
through the bush converging on the homestead, and a path
is simply an invitation to an enemy. Safety lies in isolation
and secrecy, for no other attempt at defensive measures is
ever made, except to dig pits in the forest avenues and ar;n
them with poisoned stakes to trap an enemy, be it man or
beast.
Inside the ma/oka, or tribal lodge, cornered by the
four great posts that support the framework, is a clear
space, which is used as a dancing ground. One end of the
building is set apart for the Chief and his women ; the rest
of the space round the vialoka, between the outer wall and
the central square, is allotted to the families of the tribe.
There are no partitions, but each has its fire, made of three
logs set endways, and by this are slung the three family
hammocks in a triangle. But, in addition to his quarters in
the tribal house, any man may, if he so pleases, build him-
self a small dwelling in the bush. This could, however,
only be done by a married man, because of the very strict
line of cleavage between the work done by the men and
that done by the women. In no circumstances would a
man cook, plant manioc, or prepare the cassava. He is
therefore dependent upon his woman for the necessaries of
life.
Each community, under its independent Chief, is strictly
monogamous and exogamous, for all within the vialoka are
held to be akin, and the only probable exception to the
exogamous rule would be in the case of a Chief with no son
to succeed him. He might, with tribal consent, marry his
daughter to one of the household, in order thus to gain an
heir. There is no head chief to unite the tribes of any
language-group, and only in the most exceptional circum-
stances would any tribes combine even in self-defence
against a common enemy.
The Chief is elected by the tribal council of warriors,
assembled in tobacco palaver, the tribal parliament and
The Indians of the hsd- Japurd District. 45
court of law. He holds office till death, when his son, son-
in-law, or adopted son would probably be elected to succeed
him.
The rival authority is the medicine-man, and the amount
of power exercised by either depends entirely upon their
personality. The medicine-man is not a priest ; he officiates
for no divinity, offers no sacrifice, no prayer. It is his
business to oppose magic to magic, and so protect his tribe,
or his individual patients, from the ills resulting from the
malevolent magic-working of their enemies. Ikit of this
anon.
From first to last the Indian is hedged about by pid,
('it is so,' 'it is our custom'). Before a child's birth the
mother, and after birth the father, must submit to certain
definite tabus. The.se differ slightly among the tribes, but
are similar in all essentials. The mother, for instance, must
not eat paca flesh, or the child's skin will be spotted like
that beast's ; nor capybara, or the child will have the teeth
of a rodent : in fact her diet often is restricted to cassava
and such poor food as small bony fish, frogs, lizards, and
little snakes. Should she give birth to twins, one will be
left by her exposed in the bush, where, when her time
comes, she will have retired alone, or with one other woman.
If the twins were girl and boy, the girl would be killed;
otherwise it would be the second, as obviously that is the
one who lias no business to appear on the scene. The
reason averred is that only beasts have more than one at a
birth, and the Indian's aversion to anything resembling the
brute creation is intense. To avoid any such likeness the
tribes depilate, more or less strictly, all hair but that of the
head. The exception is the medicine-man, and the hairier
he is the better. For the same reason they blacken the
teeth.
If a child at birth were seen to be deformed or sickly, the
mother, during the bath in the river which is immediately
resorted to, would simply submerge it till life was extinct.
46 The Indians of the hsd-Japiird Disti'ict.
Should several unfortunate births occur at any time it
would certainly lead to war, as the tribe would attribute the
evil to the hostile magic of some foe. After bathing, the
mother and infant return to the inaloka, and the father
retires to his hammock' to play the part of interesting
invalid. In no part of my district is the couvade carried
out with the rigour described b}' Dr. Crevaux and Sir
Everard im Thurn. The Boro, who are in every way more
punctilious than the Witoto, observe it most strictly ;
but the \\oxo father is not put to torture. He lies in his
hammock for some three weeks, and till the child's navel is^
healed he must not hunt, nor even touch a weapon, and
must not partake of foods that were previously tabu to his
wife, (that is to say, he may not eat the tlesh of any hunted
animal, and so must practicalU' forego his share in the
famil}' hot-pot). The penalty for int'ringement of the tabu
on the part of father or mother is that the infant will be
either deformed or malignant. The mother goes back next
day to her work in the plantation, only returning to feed the
baby at night; while the father receives congratulatory
visits from his friends, talks, drinks, and licks tobacco with
them. Tobacco, I may note here, is never smoked by these
peoples, though they quickly learnt to smoke mine. This
seems a curious point, for the tribes to the north smoke the
leaf in the form of cigars, and those further south use pipes.
A decoction, like raw treacle in appearance, is made from
the leaf, and this is licked ceremonially between friends, to
ratif)- a contract, and in tribal palaver.
When the medicine-man has arrived, and given his
opinion on the new-born infant, it will be named, on the
eighth da}-, by the medicine-man and the family, with cere-
monial tobacco taking. Boys are generally called by the
name of a bird or animal, usually the name of their father's
father. Girls are given the names of plants or flowers..
This name is never used in speaking. Witoto men address
one another as tanynbe (brother), or iero (father): Boro
The Indians of the Issd-Japind District. 47
as moma. Women are givavo (mother), taiigali (sister), in
Witoto ; einyo (mother), or inuije (woman), in Boro. The
white man may call himself or his Indian companions what
he pleases. As he does not know their real names he
cannot harm them by the use of fictitious ones. If he
runs the risk in his own case of giving power to any hostile
magic-worker to do him harm, through knowledge of the
name that represents his essential ego, that is his affair.
This secrecy of name applies also to the tribes. Indians
call their tribe only by a word equivalent to 'our own
people,' and bestow a nickname for general purposes upon
their neighbours. This all makes for difficulty in the way
of any classification.
The name given, the couvade period at an end, the little
Indian ceases to be of any particular tribal importance for
the next few years. From earliest childhood the youngsters
share the lives of their parents. Nothing is hidden from boys
or girls ; nor is there any great ceremony over the formal
admission of a youth to tribal rank. He has been taught
to hunt and fish ; he is allowed to attend a tribal tobacco
palaver and to lick tobacco, after he has declared he will
bear himself bravely. There are no such trials for the
novice as the northern tribes impose in ceremonial whipping
and Jurupari observances. Girls on the verge of maturity
are segregated in secret lodges in the bush, in part for pro-
tective purposes, — where tribes are in the vicinity of the
raiding Andoke or other enemies, — but there is always some
communication between the lodge and the tribal house
and, when it can safely be done, the girls will be brought in
for any tribal festivities. But they remain in the lodges till
they are married.
The marriage ceremony is simple. A man who desires to
take a wife must have won a certain reputation as a hunter,
to show he could support a wife and family, or no girl
would take him for her husband. He must clear a plot of
forest land for a plantation ; obtain permission from the
48 The Indians of the Issd-fapicrd District.
girl's Chief by the present of a pot of coca and a pot of
tobacco ; and take to his future parents-in-law a piece of ■
palm shingle, such as the roof is thatched with, and a
section of a small tree, — symbolic proof respectively that he
has either built his own house or obtained quarters in one,
and has cleared a plantation. The father will produce coca
and tobacco, and when they have licked this together the
preliminaries are done. Two weeks later the marriage is
consummated.
A man is practically free to marry according to his fancy,
so long as the bride selected is not a member of his own
household, nor one of a hostile tribe. Indians choose, as a
rule, girls considerably younger than tliemselves, and the
child-wife is brought up by the women of her husband's
tribe until she arrives at maturity.
Unmarried women, and girl-slaves capture'd in war,
belong to the Chief, but they are his wards, not his wives.
If a man desires to marry a slave-girl, he must give a
present to the Chief's wife. After marriage the girl is free.
Life is a strenuous business for all, and especially the
women, for their work is continual, but the men's inter-
mittent. Women are the cooks and the agriculturalists.
Woman, the Indian says, can produce children, so it follows
that she can produce manioc. Therefore no man will ever
plant the manioc slips, nor prepare the cassava. His task
is to fish, to hunt, and to fight.
The great event in Indian existence, the one social
function, the sole outlet for all there may be of art in the
Indian nature, is the dance. Anything will serve as an
excuse for such festivity, and all the energies of the tribe
for days beforehand will be concentrated on- the prepara-
tions. From childhood they have practised the steps, and
learnt the tribal melodies. Dress on ordinary occasions is
almost non-existent ; the men wear only a strip of beaten
barkcloth, and the women not even this ; but they paint the
most elaborate and brilliant designs upon their naked skins,
The Indians of the Issd-Japura District. 49
especially for a dance, when they also adorn themselves
with all the ornaments in their possession, — feather head-
dresses if they be men, beaded garlands if women, and as
much in the way of necklaces, armlets, and jangling leg
rattles as each can muster. This finery is brought out from
the storage places on the rafters of the nialoka. Though the
women may not wear feathers, they fasten the white down
of the currasow duck to the calves of their legs with rubber
latex, or some resinous substance. This makes them look
enormous, owing to the fact that they wear tight ligatures
below the knee and above the ankle to swell out the
muscles, after the same fashion that the men wear
ligatures on the upper arm. The Indian will never part
with his feather ornaments, for they are communal, not
personal, possessions ; and I found that they objected
extremely to any attempt on my part to secure photo-
graphs of them. I have only one of a small boy, the son
of a Chief, wearing his feather head-dress. He was also
the only boy I ever saw wearing one, as the feathers are
supposed to be from birds shot by the wearers, in the same
way that the necklaces of tiger, tapir, pig, or other teeth
represent the game killed by the hunter who wears them,
or therewith decorates his family.
When a dance is to be given, invitations are sent round
to all friendly Indians in the vicinity. A piece of tobacco
folded in a palm leaf is the 'at home card ' of the Indian.
The summons to a dance, however, depends on no formal
card. The Chief himself conveys it by means of the
jfiaugiiarc, the great signal drums hung from the rafters of
the uialoka. He beats out his message in notes that travel
for eight or ten miles round. These drums are constructed
from two blocks of hard black wood, hollowed by means of
heated stones, with a husk of purposely varying thickness
to secure the range of notes. The smaller is termed the
male, and the larger the female drum, and they are decorated
within by designs representative of their sex.
50 The Indians of the Issd-Japiird Dishdet.
Then on the appointed day the guests assemble, in their
best paint and ornaments. Set against the deep gloom of
the forest, some two or three hundred Indians in full dress,
— a shifting kaleidoscope of paint, feathers, beads, and
dance rattles, with decorated dance staves and musical
instruments, — the smouldering fires of the inaloka stirred
to a blaze, and the hot flickering of torches adding to the
glow of light, the scene is indescribably bizarre. Nor is the
eye alone affected. Strange and wonderful sounds torment
the ear ; the music of instruments never played for private
amusement, only on such ceremonial occasions, (panpipes,
flutes, and drums), adds volume to the stamp of the dancers'
feet, the jangle of the leg-rattles, and the loud, shrill singing
of the performers. The man appointed to lead the dance
must be one who knows the old songs, mere striiigs of now
unintelligible words handed down from some traditional
and quite forgotten ancestors. The leader sings the solo,
in a high falsetto, and the chorus, picking up their cue,
repeat it with a simultaneously gradual crescendo of sound
and speed.
The circumstance giving cause for the dance determines
if men and women sing together or alone. All songs are
sung in unison, with a drone accompaniment from those
not actually articulating the words, to regular time, marked
by stamping, but with no hand-clapping. The tunes
are simple, and as a rule mereh- the repetition of a single
phrase with no variations, repeated endlessly. What these
mean no living Indian knows. They are the tribal songs
that have always been sung, that are the only right things
to sing ; nor could I detect any suggestion of change or
correction ever attempted or desired. There are no love,
sacred, or nursery songs, and war songs are merely the
chants proper for a war dance, and depend for significance
on the occasion and the spirit of the dancers.
There is in this region no regular harvest time. Crops
grow and ripen all the year round, irrespective of season,
The Indians of the Issd- Japurd District. 5 i
but pineapples are at their best in October, which deter-
mines the date of the special Pineapple Dance. Manioc is
planted mostly just before the heaviest rainfall is expected.
At these, which might be called Harvest Dances, the danc-
ing staves are decorated with part of the plant to be
honoured, a tuft of pine or a bundle of manioc leaves.
The leader starts outside the uiatoka, probably with some
fancy stepping. The dancers, in single file, each with a
hand on the shoulder of the next in front, circle outside
the maloka with a step described by Spruce as ' a succession
of dactyls,' — Right, — left, — stamp. Right, — left, — stamp,
— repeated backwards at lesser intervals. Maintaining step
and time the long line enters the house, to dance round the
Chief till all are assembled. Then, after a signal for silence,
the Chief sings a line that gives the keynote of the occasion.
The men in some cases dance in a ring, faced by a ring of
women dancers ; in others women dance between the men ;
and, again, the men and younger girls may dance round
the older women.
The Boro Manioc-gathering Dance may be taken as a
typical example. The men form up into an outer circle,
the women in the centre or behind the men of their choice,
dancing with steps complementary to, and not identical
with, the men's. The Chief starts with a question, some-
thing after this sort : —
" I am old and weak and my belly craves food,
Who has sown the pika (manioc slips) in the emiye
(plantation) ? "
His wife answers : —
" I have sown the pika, long, long ago ;
The maika is sown with young shoots."
The chorus of women join in and repeat the answer,
changing the verb and pronoun to the plural.
The Chief then questions, after the same introductory
line, " Who has cut \h^ pika in the eniiye 1 " and is answered
in like manner. The song continues till the whole process
D-
The Indians of the Issd-Japurd District.
of growing manioc and preparing cassava is described, and
the meaning will gradually shift from the birth and growth
of the plant to the birth of a human being, The song is
interminable, and will only be concluded when the Chief
cries : —
'''' Inline (it is good), imine,
The women are good wonren,
Imitie^
The Muenane, a language-group between the Andoke
and Resigero peoples, have a special Riddle Dance. This
has been copied by many of their neighbours, judging from
the fact that wherever it is danced the answer, if in the
negative, is given in the Muenane language. The leader, a
man selected for his wit, asks a riddle, probably original.
The dancing chorus repeat it till the measure ends ;
then the questioner with a lighted torch rushes round
and seeks an answer, thrusting . his torch in the face of
those he questions. Herewith comes the Muenane reply
Jatta, (I do not know). The dancer then joins the file
following the originator and copying his actions, which are
supposed to give the clue to the riddle, probably the name
of a bird or animal, whose movements would be copied
with an astonishingly adept mimicry, which is somewhat
akin to certain children's games. The wit of the riddle
depends on the amount of sexual suggestion that can be
introduced in the reply, for these people, though strictly
moral (by their own and even by our standards) in their
habits, are in their most ordinary conversation what we
should consider licentious in the extreme.
A dance is kept going for four or five days without
cessation, and the amount of liquid consumed is amazing,
though solid food is at a discount. The drinks are not
alcoholic, but are made from certain fruits and appear
to serve for food as well as drink. The excitement grows
wilder and wilder ; the noise intensifies ; the breadth of
suggestion in action and word increases to a degree im-
TJiL Indians of tJic Issd-Japurd District. 53
possible to mention in detail. It would appear to be the
maddest orgie of drunken abandonment, yet it never
touches eroticism.
Maddest and most impressive is the dance that follows
the return of the warriors from a successful fight. All the
prisoners, except any young children who may safely be
kept for slaves, are knocked down and killed with wooden
swords, and an anthropophagous feast of vengeance follows.
These Indians are cannibals, primarily, in my opinion, for
purposes of continued hostility. Human flesh is only on
rare occasions eaten for lack of animal food, never for
gluttony, nor, so far as I could discover, with any idea that
the qualities of the eaten would be absorbed by the eater.
It is a purely ceremonial matter, a ritual of vengeance, in
which the women have no share, except the Chief's wife,
to whom the genital organs of the male victims are allotted.
This is noteworthy in that such parts of any animal are on
no other occasion eaten by these tribes, who consider the
intestines, brains, and so forth as carrion, unfit for human
consumption. At the cannibal feast only the legs, arms,
and fleshy parts of the head are eaten. The teeth are
carefully preserved by the slayer to make into a necklace,
visible proof of his prowess and completed revenge. The
skulls are dried and hung outside or on the rafters of the
vialoka above the drums. What is not consumed is thrown
into the river, and thus carried down stream, away from the
Indian Paradise, which lies far up-stream. Some tribes
bury the trunk with public jeers and insults, or it is often
left for the wild dogs to devour. The humerus is made into
a flute. The forearm, with dried hand and contracted fingers,
makes a gruesome ladle to stir the pot wherein the human
flesh, cut in pieces and highly seasoned with peppers, is
cooked by the old women of the tribe, what time the
warriors, the gory heads of the slain on their dancing
54 The hidians of the Issa-Japurd District.
staves, sing, dance, and drink to a repletion relieved by
vomiting, only to be indulged in again and again.
To appreciate the extent of the revenge accomplished by
these anthropophagous practices it must be remembered
that the Indian has an invincible hatred of all wild animals,
which he looks upon as his enemies. To serve an enemy
as a dead beast, — to eat him, — is the most profound insult
he can offer. Moreover, the insult is carried out in
further details. The teeth, though not bored as animals'
would be, are made into a necklace, and they become a
personal possession of the slayer. Now death to the Indian
is not an end of all things. It is a transition. The dead
still exist, for he sees them in his dreams ; but they live in
another world where everything, themselves included, is on
a reduced scale. In this World of the After Life the soul
requires what the body needed on earth. Mutilate the
body, divorce it from all its possessions, keep essential
portions of it, and a naked soul is cast forth to wander
endlessly in the forest, or to go down the holes in the earth
that lead to the regions of the damned. In any case the
Indian's Paradise is unattainable to his enemies. In con-
sequence of this belief in an ultramundane existence, when
an Indian dies all personal properties and ornaments are
buried with the body, — weapons with a man, pots and
domestic articles with a woman. The corpse is wrapped in
its hammock, and buried inside the maloka, below where the
hammock used to hang, and a fire is kept burning by the
relatives over the grave for some days. In the case of a
Chief the maloka would be burnt, and the community
migrate elsewhere. At the conclusion of the funeral feast
everyone bathes ceremonially, for purposes of purification.
The soul of the deceased hovers near for a time, and
then wanders off to the happy hunting grounds of the
Good Spirit.
There is, in Indian opinion, no such thing as death from
natural causes; it must be due to the malignant influence
The hidians of the Issd-Japurd District. 55
of an enemy, working in sickness by means of the spirits of
disease, or, should the death be accidental, brought about
by the inimical intent of the object responsible, inspiring
that animosity. The only way to avert or overcome these
magical evils is to secure the protecting counter-magic of
the medicine-man. This gentleman combines with clumsy
conjuring skilled ventriloquism, some degree of hypnotic
power, and often a considerable knowledge of drugs. He
is poison-maker to the tribe, an important post where all
lethal weapons are armed with poisoned darts. Poison
plays a great part in Indian affairs. The Karahone
especially are famous for their knowledge of toxicology.
Perhaps I should rather say notorious, witness such Indian
proverbs as " Take a pine from a Karahone and die." If
a case of sickness is beyond the medicine-man's skill to
remedy, after he has administered a strong narcotic he will
have the patient taken out into the bush, and left there
under a rough shelter. No one must venture near, or death
will result. If the sufiferer is dead next day, it is, of course,
due to the fact that someone transgressed, and either spoke
to or passed him. If by any chance he should recover he
will relate his dreams, and from them the medicine-man
will 'divine' who was the enemy from whom the sickness
emanated. Vengeance ensues.
With regard to dream.s, the Indian believes that in sleep
the spirit can pass out of the body by the mouth, and visit
the scenes and places recalled after waking. All souls have
this involuntary power of temporary migration, and some
more gifted beings can exercise it voluntarily. The
medicine-man is credited with this capacity, and he must
employ it for the protection of the tribe. In particular he
can assume the form of a jaguar. This great cat, the
'tiger' of Amazonia, is dreaded not only for its daring and
ferocity, but even more because it is a magical beast. It
shares the qualification with the anaconda, the yacii-
inama, mother spirit of the waters that bars the streams
56 The Indians of the Issd-Japnrd District.
and gives rise to floods. Omnivorous eater though he be,
no Indian would kill the great water-snake, nor the jaguar,
for food. When a child is killed by a tiger, or is lost in the
bush, (taken by the tiger in Indian opinion), a tribal hunt
would be organised, and the tiger-folk dealt with as human
enemies would be ; for they, like humans, can institute a
blood feud with their enemies. The brute, if killed, would
be brought back to the vialoka and a feast of revenge,
similar in detail to the anthropophagous orgies, would
follow. Every medicine-man possesses a tiger skin in
which he keeps his magic. It is never used as a covering,
but the wizard is supposed to assume it when he goes forth
in tiger form to work against tribal enemies.
In a sense any animal, all nature in fact, is inimical to
the Indian. He is set in an overpowering environment.
Isolated, without spur to material or intellectual progress,
his surroundings assume a fearsome significance. It needs
not much incentive to imagination to people the dark places
of the sombre, illimitable forest with legions of threatening
devils. Somewhere, above the sky which is the roof of the
world, is an infinitely remote, intangible Beneficence, a
Great Good Spirit, who is good for the sole reason that he
is not evil. This is Neva, already mentioned as the Great
Spirit who once visited earth in the guise of a man, and
spoke to the Indians. The tale was told me by a Eoro,
but is practically the same among all these groups. But,
runs the myth, one Indian displeased the Good Spirit, who
thereupon told the tiger-people to be wicked, and kill the
Indians who had heretofore been their brothers. Then the
Good Spirit went back to his happy hunting-grounds, and
was seen no more by men. Moreover, he is entirely passive.
The Bad Spirit, whose kingdom lies below, is on the
contrary possessed of an exceeding activity. His energies
are ceaseless, and all malevolent. Both these Powers have
subordinate spirits respectively good and evil. No prayer
is offered to the Good, no supplication made to the Bad
llic Indians of the Issd-Japurd District. 57
Spirit, and sacrifice is quite unknown, nor is there an\'
attempt to placate an\- spirits witii gifts.
There are, according to Indian belief, four kinds of
spirits : the temporarily disembodied spirits of the living ;
the permanently disembodied of the dead ; the extra-iniindajie
spirits ; and the spirits of all animate or inanimate objects.
The Indian believes in a temporary transmission of soul
from one body to another, for a definite purpose and time,
whether the spirit be one disembodied temporarily or
permanently, or whether it be extra-mundane. As for the
spirit that exists in all objects, — the ' transcendental x' X'^,
Pfleiderer's illuminating expression, — this belief is the
corner-stone of the Indian magico-religious system. In no
other way can he explain the occult influences that surround
and oppose him. Whether, when a higher-grade spirit
migrates temporarily into a lower material form, the native
spirit of that form is expelled, or shares its habitation for
the time being, I was not able to ascertain.
Thunder is the noise of the spirits of evil when angry,
and before a thunderstorm the air is full of bad spirits,
whom the medicine-man must attempt to drive away, for
probably they bring sickness from some enem\', wishful to
destroy the tribe. Anything abnormal or unknown is re-
garded with suspicion. It is far more likely to be evil than
good. One of the Witoto tribes had a double-stemmed
palm tree that was an object of great importance, even of
veneration, though not actually of worship. The sun and
moon also are regarded with veneration, but are not
worshipped. The moon is the sun's wife, and is sent by
him periodically to prevent the evil spirits of the bush from
killing everyone when the sun has set. Little attention is
paid to the stars, but a Boro told me they were the spirits
of great men of his tribe.
All Indians fear darkness, for then the powers of evil are
most active, and no one willingly ventures far alone after
sundown, nor would one bathe without a companion. In
58 The Indians of the Issd-Japurd District.
the shelter of the inaloka they gather around the family
fires for the meal of the day, and afterwards first one and
then another will tell tales far into the night.
These long rigmaroles are not easy to understand, and
the variations are so many that it is difficult to ascertain if
the tale is a new one or merely a fresh edition of something
heard often before. Animal tales abound, stories in which
the birds and beasts stand for characteristic ideas. Of the
latter the following are typical : —
Tortoise - - Craft and slowness.
Ant and bee - Industry.
Poisonous snakes Evil ; the evil eye.
Boa constrictor - Silence, strength.
Tapir - - Blindness, stupidity.
Dog • - Cunning, deceit.
Capybara - - ' Wit, the practical joker.
Monkey - Tenacity of life.
Parrot - - Irresponsibility, a woman in disguise.
Hawk - - Cunning.
Peccary - - Constancy.
Tiger - - Bravery.
Sloth - - Laziness.
Though there are tales of bygone Chiefs of outstanding
merit, relationship is only traced so far as memory serves,
practically only on the father's side, for the mother, brought
from another household, soon among these unsettled tribes
will lose touch with her own people. There is no trace of
any totemic system. Animals, I repeat, are hated enemies.
I questioned a Boro tribe about one district void of habita-
tions, and was told that the reason was as follows : —
" The Utiguene once lived there, the most powerful of tribes,
but long, long ago the Chief had a daughter, ugly and bird-
rumped, so the medicine-man called her Kemuime, (monkey).
When she was so high (five feet) she went out to pick peppers in
the bush, and did not return. The tribe decided a tiger had
taken her, and organised a tribal hunt, but they were attacked by
The Indians of tJie hsd-Japiird District. 59
a wicked tribe, and great numbers were killed. Long after-
wards, [I am abbreviating considerably], Kemuime returned to
the ffialoka, with her bird-rump covered with hair. The old
women rubbed it with milk to remove the unsightliness. But it
only grew the faster, so she was covered with leaves. She told
them that a kemuime, i.e. a monkey, had seized her and carried
her forcibly off to be his woman. She gave birth to twins, and
buried the second, as even kemuime have but one at a birth. The
child was hairy like a kemuime, with the face of a man. When she
suckled him her unsightliness came. So she ran away. The
tribe held a tobacco palaver, and because of the pollution, and
the blood feud with the wicked tribe, and the girl's unsightliness,
they determined to kill her. But she fled back to the forest, and
all the kemuime came and robbed the plantation ; and the lianas
grew like nets, so that no man of the Utiguene could hunt, and
the tribe died out."
There are also many myths connected with the discovery
and cultivation of manioc, as well as of other fruits, but
space forbids more than reference to them or to the
numerous fables equivalent to such world-wide tales as
the Lion and the Mouse, and the Hare and the Tortoise.
In detail the Indian versions differ greatly from the Old
World stories, but in every case the principle is identical.
The Indian has a firm belief in omens, but none of these
tribes make much use of charms, though men wear
bracelets of iguana skin, and children have a ring cut from
the polished shell of a nut, put on the arm for lucky magic
purposes. Defence lies in observation of tabu, and due
heed to what is ruled good or evil ; also the study of lucky
and unlucky signs. I ought to mention the universal belief
among these Indians in the potency of human breath as an
evil-expelling agency. Much of the medicine-man's cere-
monial healing consists of blowing and breathing over the
patient, as well as the usual sucking out of the poison, the
evil spirit that, in the guise of stick, stone, thorn, or some
similar object, lurks in the flesh of the sufferer and causes
6o The Iiidiaiis of the Issd-Japu7'd District.
the sickness. But others besides the medicine-man can
remove evil by the breathings or sucking process. Spruce
mentions Indians sucking each other's shoulders as a cure
for rheumatism, and I have often known an old woman
breathe over forbidden food, to remove the ' poison ' and
make it permissible to eat. They will breathe over a
delicate child in the same way, to improve its health.
Dr. von Martins considered the savage state of the Forest
Indians to be the result of degradation, a theory recently
advanced with regard to these identical tribes in the
Contemporary Review for September, 19 12. For my part
I agree with Dr. Tylor "that Dr. Martins' deduction is the
absolute reverse of the truth," ^ and regard this theory as
erroneous. I saw nothing to suggest degeneration. On
the contrary, it appears to me that, in spite of the awful
handicap of environment, these tribes are probably evolving
a higher life.
I found no traces of the existence of any submerged
superior civilization, but much to show that these people
have not yet emerged from practically the Stone Age.
There is no metal in the country but what filters in by
barter and is employed for ornaments, — mostly Peruvian
and Chilian dollars and empty cartridge cases. There
is also no stone. Metal tools or weapons are unknown.
They have only wood, and stone axes. The latter
they look upon as of almost divine origin, and have
handed down, they know not from whence, generation by
generation. They have not learnt to produce fire, and have
no knowledge of the potter's wheel, nor of the spindle.
Thread they make from palm fibre, rolled on the naked
thigh. Beaten bark cloth is their only material. Ligatures
are made with finger-work only, in plaiting of an extra-
ordinary fineness. Hammocks are knotted. Baskets, mats,
cassava-squeezers, and other bark-fibre articles are plaited.
Yet with their primitive tools, a stone axe, wooden knife,
"^ Early History of Mankind, ■^. 139.
The Indians of the Issd-Japnrd District. 6i
and capybara-tooth awl, they turn out such finely finished
work as the blow-pipe, made with infinite toil and patience
from laths of hard wood, strips split oft" the trunk of the
chonta palm.
Kverythint^ points to the conclusion that these tribes
found their way to the Forest in a very primitive condition.
The Forest has arrested, has stunted their growth, but it
has not plunged them back from later cultures to the
Stone Age.
Did space permit I would greatly like to touch on the
disputed question of origin. I was continually struck by
the prevalence of Mongoloid traits, especially the obliquity
of eye, most noticeable in the Boro, but more or less
common to all the groups. Tempting parallels of custom
and belief can be drawn, too, with the peoples of similar
cultures to be found among the pagan races of Malaya
and New Guinea. Mr. T. A. Joyce in his recent book
on the Archaeology of South America repudiates the
idea that contact with any Pacific cultures could have
exerted permanent influence on the indigenous popula-
tion. Against any such supposition he advances the
argument that there are no linguistic traces of Polynesian
or Melanesian dialects to be found, and also avers that,
to quote his own words, — " Any people arriving on the
Pacific coast must have been skilled seamen, and it
seems incredible that, after settling, they should have pro-
ceeded immediately to forget their craft, especially as their
chief source of nourishment must have been the sea. Yet
through the whole of the coast of South America nothing
but the most primitive form of raft was found, and it appears
that sails were entirely unknown south of Tumbez."^ But
unwritten languages are surely a parlous guide. The
tongues of Amazonia, at least, are still in constant flux.
Yesterday's word may have other meaning to-day, and be
changed out of all recognition to-morrow. The second
-South American Archaeology, p. 190.
62 The Indians of the Issd-Japicrd District.
argument can hardly be pressed in face of Dr. Rivers'
Dundee paper on the Decadence of Useful Arts. In any
case it is a fascinating subject, and, so far as the Indians of
the Issa-Japura district are concerned, not one that can be
set aside for a more convenient indefinite future to solve.
Their solitudes have been broken. There was only //«', our
custom, to keep tribal law and legend from an obliteration
no research can remedy. An alien culture, — I cannot call
it a higher one, — has intruded. Even now the Boro and
Witoto as I knew them are exceedingly hard to find. It
may be that I was the first and last white man to meet
them unaffected by outside influences.
Thomas Whiffen.
COLLECTANEA.
Further Notes on Spanish Amulets.
(With Plates I. and II.).
In Folk-Lore for December, 1906, I published some notes
deaUng, for the most part, with a series of specimens collected
during the course of the previous year. In the spring of 191 1 I
had the opportunity of collecting a new series of specimens, as
well as of obtaining some slight further information concerning
certain of the types already noticed, upon which the following
notes are based. I think that the difficulty of obtaining reliable
information at first-hand has increased considerably during the six
years intervening between my visits, and the number of amulets
visibly worn or newly-made has decreased in a like proportion,
owing to the advances of modern education and material progress;
as these matters are purely quantitative it is manifestly impossible
to base an accurate judgment upon them in circumstances
necessarily personal.
With respect to a considerable proportion of the specimens
hereinafter described, I was unable to learn more than that these
were "amulets," intentions unstated or given vaguely as against
" the evil eye " ; in such cases I have referred to similar Italian
forms of which the intentions are known. With respect to certain
of the finer specimens, of silver, no definite information was
forthcoming, probably for the reason that these objects were used
only by the wealthier classes and during, apparently, the late
sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, and that these classes are
the ones most likely to alter or to lose their old beliefs. Numerals
in ordinary type refer to the Figures illustrating the present paper,
64 Collectanea.
and those in italics to the Figures of the original paper. Where
specimens are noted as having been obtained at Madrid or San
Sebastian the provenance must be considered as uncertain, since
objects from all parts of Spain are brought to Madrid either by
the collectors supplying the dealers there or by a natural gravita-
tion to the capital, and San Sebastian draws, I think, in part from
Madrid.
Horns. — The horns worn suspended at the neck by pack-
animals were noted as being still in use at Toledo and Granada.
Further specimens of the obsolete type of bone " horn " shown in
Figs. J-, 6, 7 {PL IV.) were noted at Seville; the florid style of
ornamentation of the silver sockets of these appears to be peculiar
to that locality. Amulets similar to Figs. 8 and 40 {PI. IV.) are
still made and used at Seville.
Fig. I (Plate I.). — A piece of antler, in a silver socket;
Madrid. The lower end is carved in a shape suggestive of a
phallus, a form to which, in Roman times, several of the present-
day virtues of the horn were attributed ; the resemblance may,
however, be merely a chance one due to the ornamental
smoothing of the material to avoid paining the child's gums
during dentition. (See also Musical Horns and Tritons below.)
Lunar Crescents. — Several specimens were noted of the silver
compound amulet shown in Fig. /j {PL VII.). One of these, of
unknown provenance, has a right " fig " hand (instead of the left
hand of Fig. 75 {PL VII.)). Another (with left hand), from
Seville, has a square piece of clear blue glass ^ set above the four-
petalled emblem. Such silver specimens do not, in general,
appear to be very old, but I think that they are not of present-day
manufacture ; I have seen no like amulets made of other metals.
Fig. 2 (PI. I.).— A brass amulet, quite new; Seville. This is
particularly interesting as showing the disappearance of the " fig "
hand of the older specimens noted above, which is here replaced
by a small conventional circle, and by the increased resemblance
to a cross of the four-petalled flower-like emblem. I have noted
this emblem as occurring upon the wrists of the " fig " hands of
some of the Portuguese compound amulets combining profane
1 Bellucci, Catalogo Descrittivo, Amukti I/aliaiii, (189S), Tablet x., mentions
blue glass as used against the evil eye in Italy.
Collectanea. 65
amuletic symbols with a figure of the Virgin, and have illustrated
amulets in which a figure of the Virgin is used to turn a profane
amulet (a lunar crescent) into a religious pendant (the Virgin
standing, as is usual, upon a lunar crescent).- Recently I have
seen the four-petalled emblem as the decoration upon the robe of
the Virgin in certain religious pendants of the sixteenth century.
These facts suggest that this emblem, (concerning the meaning of
which I have never succeeded in obtaining definite information
from users of the amulets on which it occurs), is an emblem
connected with the Virgin, and that its presence in the Portuguese
amulets is for the purpose of giving a religious flavour to the
profane " fig "' hand, and in the Spanish amulets of turning the
combination of the crescent and the "fig "hand into an amulet
associated with the Virgin. In these connections it is worth
recalling that the " fig "' hand is a feminine emblem bearing
somewhat the same relation to the vulva that the horn bears to
the phallus. And one is led to speculate as to whether there can
be traced some kinship between the " fig " hand, a distinctive
survival of the days when Spain was Roman, with its feminine
associations, and the almost similarly distinctively Semitic open
hand now commonly known in Northern Africa as the " Hand of
Fatima," — an amulet which, as Mohammedan, must have been
most severely repressed by the Church authorities.
Fig. 3 (PI. I.). A crescent-shaped ornament, of thin brass, in
which the projection at the centre of the inner curve is suggestive
of a conventionalization of the " fig " hand ; Madrid.
Hands. — A number of specimens of " fig " hands were noted, but
of these none, with the exception of some of those of jet, seemed
to be contemporary types. One specimen, of a material not noted
in the original paper, is of ivory, painted red, in a silver socket.^
Almost all of the " fig " hands noted were left hands ; right
hands seem to be comparatively rare. At Madrid "fig" hands
of jet are still made and sold, some naturalistic, but others greatly
conventionalized. (See also Crescents above.)
^ " Notes on Some Contemporary Portugue>e XwwA^X.i^' Folk- Lore vol. xix.,
pp. 217, 222.
'Red-coloured "fig" hands are still commonly used in Portugal. Cf,
vol. xix., p. 215.
E
66 Collectanea.
Fig. 4 (PI. I.). A highly conventionalized "fig" hand, with a
chain for suspension ; Madrid. A flattish piece of jet, with four
lines across the end to mark off the fingers, and a line across one
side (illustrated) to show where the folded fingers meet the palm.
A contemporary amulet, a number of which were kept for sale at a
street-stall, against evil eye and (because it is of jet) for the pre-
servation of the hair. I was told that at Madrid these amulets,
when used for the hair, are carried anywhere upon the person, but
that in the vicinity of Toledo they are worn, by women, in the hair
itself.
Fig. 5 (PI. I.). A similarly conventionalized "fig" hand (back
of hand illustrated) of jet, in a silver socket ; Seville.
Jet. — A note quoted in the Diccionario General Eiimoldgico
speaks of jet as hung from the necks of Spanish Arab infants, to
preserve them from the evil eye.** (See also Hands above.)
Fig. 6 (PI. I.). A large bead of jet, in the form ofa flattened
globe, mounted in silver as a pendant, top here in view ; Madrid.
Stone and Glass. — At Madrid, at a small street-stall, a string of
over fifty milky glass beads, similar to those shown in Fig. ^8
{PI. VIII.), but smaller, was found, kept for the purpose of supply-
ing women with single beads as lactation-amulets. Several beads
of agate, combining greyish, reddish, and white, similar to Figs. 6i
and 62 {Fl. VIII.), were noted in other cities.
Fig. 7 (PI. I.). A triple pendant, with a chain ; Madrid. The
upper piece is of agate, greyish, white, and reddish, and was prob-
ably an amulet for women ; the middle j)iece is of blue glass with
bands of other colours, and may have served as an amulet against
the evil eye ; the lowest piece is a drop of black glass strewn
thickly with spots of blue, yellow, and red, and probably served
against the evil eye.
Fig. 8 (PI. I.)- A large piece of milky agate, mounted in silver
as a pendant ; Madrid. A lactation-amulet.
*See sub. nom. Azabachc (Jet). The word ^ca^ac/^c' (pronounced Atha-ba-
clie) is there given as derived directly from the Arabic, and the Arabic term as
derived from the same root as the Latin word Gagates. The resemblance
between Antipathes (a term used by Pliny in describing a black stone whose
magical properties, corresponded to those of jet) and Azabache is so marked,
however, as to seem to me to be worthy of a note here.
Collectanea. 67
Fig. 9 (PI. I.). A piece of milky agate having a series of con-
centric white stripes, mounted in silver as a pendant ; Seville.
Near the upper edge of the stone a liole has been bored, showing
that the stone was used as a pendant before it was mounted. The
stone is evidently a lactation-amulet, but, since in form and mark-
ings it bears a considerable resemblance to a human eye, it may
have served otherwise as well.
Fig. 10 (PI. I.). A piece of agate, grey, white, and blood-red,
in the shape of a very elongated heart, mounted in silver ; San
Sebastian. Probably an amulet connected with the blood, and,
possibly, lactation.
Fig. II (PI. I.). A small flat bead of agate, clear with bloody
cloudings, mounted as a pendant ; Madrid. A contemporary
amulet to regulate the menstrual flow in women, and for the pre-
vention and cure of hemorrhage in either sex.
Fig. 12 (PI. I.). A globular bead of a soft red stone, mounted
as a pendant ; Madrid. A contemporary amulet to regulate men-
struation.
Fig. 13 (PI. I.). A pendant of banded agate, brown, yellow,
whitish, greyish, and pinkish, mounted in silver ; Madrid. Amu-
letic intention not ascertained.
Fig. 14 (PI. I.). A pendant formed of a piece of hardstone,
mottled brown, yellow, and white, mounted in silver ; San
Sebastian. The stcne appears to be a small neolithic axe, having
portions of its cutting edge broken away, mounted edge upwards.
This object was selected as an amulet, presumably, on account of
its form, for the stone of which it is composed is, I think, one not
commonly used for amulets.^ In Italy neolithic axes are still
used as amulets against lightning ; they are in such cases generally
perforated for suspension or are bound in cloth, and are compara-
tively rarelv mounted in metal. ^
* " In Spain they [neolithic axes] are known as rayos \i.e. thunderbohs]
or centellos [ctf«/^//d! = lightning, flash], and are regarded as thunder-stones."
Evans, Ancient Stone Implements etc. (1897), p. 58.
* Cf. Bellucci, op. cit., and AmnUttes Italiennes Anciennes et Contem-
foraines, a catalogue of a comparative collection exhibited by the Societe at
the Exposition of 1900, in the Bulletins et Memoires de la Soci<!t^ d' Anthro-
pologic lie Paris.
68 Collectanea.
Fig. 15 (PI. I.). A pendant formed of a piece of dark amber-
coloured hardstone, mounted in brass ; Madrid. The stone
appears to be a very small, but carefully made, neolithic axe (or
ornament in the form of an axe) mounted with its cutting edge
downward. There is a hole for suspension near the upper limit,
indicating that the stone had probably been used as an amulet
before having been placed in its present mounting.
Fig. 16 (PI. I.). A heart-shaped piece of dark grey fossil
madrepore coral, apparently ancient, showing traces of having
been mounted in metal, presumably as a pendant; Seville. Mad-
reporite, which belongs to that class of amulets of which the effect
is produced by the confusing of the evil-working eye or evil-
working mind, seems to have been a favourite amulet amongst the
ancient Romans, just as it still is amongst their Italian descen-
dants,'^ and, to a lesser degree, elsewhere where Roman influence
penetrated. In Spain, however, modern amulets of madreporite
seem to be extremely rare, if not altogether lacking.
Fig. 17 (PI. I.). An ovoid piece of clear glass, flattened on
each side so that it resembles somewhat a human eye, mounted
in silver as a pendant ; San Sebastian. A hole has been
bored longitudinally at some period anterior to that of the
mounting. Probably, like Fig. 2g {PL VIII.), an eye form against
fascination. 8
Fig. 18 (PI. I.). A facetted piece of clear glass, mounted in
silver as a pendant ; Madrid. Near the top there is a small hole
for suspension. Probably originally a drop from a crystal chande-
lier, later mounted as an amulet against the evil eye.^
Fig. 19 (PI. I.). A pendant ornament, probably for a child,
formed of a piece of clear glass cut as if twisted of three heavy
strands and mounted in silver ; Madrid. Concerning this form,
which is unusual, I could obtain no information ; I think that it
may have been considered protective for reasons similar to those
given for the next specimen.
" Cf. Bellucci, op. cit.. Tablet vii. ; and Ainukttes Italienties etc.
* Cf. Bellucci, op. ctt., Tablet x.
'Bellucci, op. ctt.. Tablet x., speaks of crystal glass amulets commonly
known as Vetri del Malocchio, and preferred in the form of ornamental pen-
dants from lamps or chandeliers, or as the facetted stoppers of glass bottles.
Collectanea. 69
Fig. 20 (PI. I.). A "sucker" {chupador) for an infant, com-
posed of a piece of four-lobed and twisted clear glass mounted in
silver as a pendant ; Granada. Said, by the vendor, to be con-
sidered protective against the evil eye. The glass is so shaped as
to produce a confusing effect when it is turned even slightly on its
axis, and this (possibly together with the crystalline appearance of
the glass) would seem a valid reason for the assumed amuletic
properties.
Fig. 21 (PI. I.), A "sucker" for an infant, composed of a rod
of clear glass containing twisted bands of blue, red, and white,
mounted in silver as a pendant ; San Sebastian. Two other speci-
mens, of similar form, differing in the breadth of the bands or in
their colours, were obtained at the same time as this, and other
similar specimens were noted at Madrid and Seville. In all in-
stances the objects were referred to as being amuletically protective.
Fig. 22 (PI. I.). A small pendant of twisted opaque white
glass, in a silver socket ; Segovin. For an infant, against the evil
eye.
Coral. — Fig. 23 (PI. I.). A large piece of red coral, set in a
gilt silver socket, with a small bell attached to the lower end;
Madrid. An amulet for an infant (whose name is on the socket)
of, probably, the seventeenth century, corresponding to the
Englisli "coral and bells."
Shells. — The opercule of the trochus shell is still commonly
sold and used against headache. Generally it is set in a finger
ring as shown in Fig. 44 {PL VU.), but I have noted pendants
of it also, and, especially interesting, a pair of ear-rings (from
Segovia) for the cure of megrims.
Fig. 24 (PI. I.). A small shell, set in a silver socket with a
chain ; Madrid. Amuletic intention not ascertained.
Fig. 25 (PI. I.). A large shell, mounted in silver and with
small bells ; Madrid. An amulet for an infant. The surface of
the shell has been removed so as to expose a layer showing
numerous broken and wavy lines. The vendor did not know of
any special amuletic significance attached to the shell.
Fig. 26 (PI. I.). A heart-shaped piece of mother-of-pearl, in-
scribed IHS, mounted in silver : Madrid. Mother-of-pearl seems
to be rarely used for pendants in Spain, and the belief in its
yo Collectanea.
intrinsic amuletic virtues (against the evil eye), common in Italy, ^°
I did not find amongst the persons I questioned.
Bones and Teeth. — Fig. 27 (PI. I.). Two bones (the "ear-
bones") from the heads of fishes, mounted in silver as pendants;
Segovia. Said to be worn by children, against accidents and the
effects of the evil eye. These bones were obtained together, and
are the only mounted examples of the kind I niet with in Spain.^^
On the three occasions that I have obtained such bones in Spain
(Segovia, Granada, Madrid), and on the one occasion in Italy
(Rome), they have been in pairs. An explanation of this fact may
lie in their use as amulets against ear-troubles, as noted by Dr.
Bellucci of occasional occurrence in Umbria, or in their degradation
from specially curative amulets of this kind to simple amulets of a
generally protective nature, or in their origin in pairs.^^
Fig. 28 (PI. I.). Jawbone of a small carnivore, mounted in
silver as a pendant; Seville. History and intention not- known to
vendor.
Fig. 29 (PI. I.). A piece of bone, or a diseased tooth mounted
inverted {i.e., root outward, an unusual mounting for a tooth), in a
silver socket ; Madrid. Specific amuletic intention not known to
vendor.
Bells. — Fig. 30 (PI. II.). A small bell, of gilt silver, to be worn
suspended from a child's waist ; Madrid. Bells of similar character
are to be found in numbers such as to indicate that they must
have been in fairly common use in Spain. On a portrait of a
young child by Velasquez (Xo. 1196 in the Prado Gallery) at
^'>Cf. Bellucci, op. cit., Tab. xi., 16 ("a heart-shaped plate of mother-of-
pearl, set in metal, with a ring for suspension ").
11 A pendant, formed of a larger bone of this kind similarly mounted in
silver, is in the National Museum at Copenhagen, amongst objects of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; its provenance is not stated.
^2 "The head of a perch contains a flat white stone, according to many,
known as the lucky stone. This stone is a charm to bring good luck if carried
on the person. ... If two bones are carried, it is supposed to make one's
luck doubly sure. They should be both from the same fish." From "Fish
and Charms," a short article in P.T.O., London, Dec. 21, 1907.
Newfoundland cod-frshers "carry for luck a bone found in the head of the
cod. This magic bone ... is supposed to preserve its owner's life." , From
Pearson's IVeekly, April 30, 190S.
Collectanea. 7 1
Madrid, painted about the middle of the seventeenth century, is
shown a bell almost identical with the one here illustrated. (See
also notes below, and Xos. 23 and 25.)
Sirens a>id Tritons. — Since my earlier paper was published I
have seen of sirens three specimens not reported there, all of the
same type and style of workmanship, two of them at Madrid and
one just beyond the northern border of Spain.
Fig. 31 (PI. II.). A rtat silver child's pendant, worked on both
sides, representing a triton blowing a trumpet ; Madrid. Along
the lower edge are five loops for little bells, of which one still
bears its bell, two bear old religious medals, and two are empty.
The medals (a silver one of S. James, and a silver-mounted brass
one of the Virgin and a Saint), were said by the vendor to have
been in place when he obtained the ornament. Their addition is
interesting as illustrating one form of the tendency to give a
religious flavour to profane amulets. An ornament cast in the
same form, but tinished in a different style, with all its bells in
place, was obtained at Seville, and another was noted at the same
place. Another triton, of similar type but of finer design and
workmanship, was noted at Madrid.
Fig. 32 (PI. II.). A small flat silver child's pendant, of crude
workmanship, representing a triton blowing a trumpet ; Seville.
The triton is furnished with a wing like an angel, and has three
bells along the lower edge.
Fig. 33 (PI. II.). A pendant, of gilt repousse silver, finished
on both sides, in the form of a triton holding a pecten shell (an
emblem of S. James; compare No. 31) and a shell trumpet;
Seville. Although without bells it may be, like Nos. 31 and 32,
a child's amulet.
These tritons were called (possibly merely through ignorance of
their true name) sirenas by the people in whose shops they were
found ; they may have taken the place, in Seville, of the true
sirens which seem to occur more commonly in Northern Spain.
The trumpet (a horn), which the triton is generally represented as
blowing, may have contributed to their choice as children's amulets.
Musical Horns. — The two specimens described below are
children's belled ornamental whistles. The type is rather uncom-
mon, so that no information was obtained as to the reason for the
72 Collectanea.
choice of musical horns as models, but it would seem likely that
this choice was aided, if not dictated, by the favour in which
representations of animals' horns are held as children's amulets.
Fig. 34 (PI. II.). A musical horn, of heavy gilt silver, with six
small bells along the lower edge and one attached to the elaborate
suspending chain; Madrid, (but obtained at Saragossa by the
vendor). Apparently of the same workmanship as the sirens, (two
of which, at least, are known to have come from Saragossa,) and
as the lion noted below.
Fig. 35 (Pi, II.). A musical horn, of silver, with five small
bells attached to the body ; San Sebastian. Although of much
lighter rnetal, this resembles No. 34 in certain details ; it seems,
however, to be of somewhat later date.
Liofis. — Fig. 36 (PI. II.). A crowned lion, of heavy gilt silver,
with five small bells attached to the feet and neck and one
attached to the elaborate suspending chain ; Madrid, (but-obtained
at Saragossa by the vendor). A child's ornamental whistle, appa-
rently of the same period and workmanship as the sirens and
No. 34. No information as to any atnuletic intention of the lion
was obtained, (excepting the suggestion that it might give strength
to the child,) although the ornament as a whole was said to be an
amulet. There is a similar lion in the collection of jewellery at
South Kensington, and another in the Louvre Museum ; another^
somewhat ruder in finish, was noted in France near the Spanish
border.
Amulets embracing Religious Conceptions. — The two specimens
described immediately below consist of thin bronze medals, appa-
rently of the seventeenth century, resembling Byzantine coin?,
bent into a cup-shape and arranged for suspension. From only
one person, an old v/oman at Madrid, was any information cor.-
cerning their use in Spain obtained ; they seem to be unknown to
most people at present. They resemble an amulet described by
Bellucci ^^ as obtained at Aquila, and some obtained by me at
Verona and Venice.
^^ Op. cit.. Tab. xvi., 14 ; a bronze Bxzantine coin called ^^ sci/'ato," of the
form of a porringer, mounted in silver ; employed especially for timiours (in
the mouth). These coins, either merely perforated for suspension or bound in
a silver rim, must have Ijeen until recently quite common in Northern Italy,
Collectanea. jt^
Fig- 37 (PI- n.). A bowl-sliaped bronze (?) medal (?), worn
smooth on both faces, mounteil in silver with a loop for attach-
ment at each end ; Madrid. The bronze has a hole near each
end, serving to fasten it before the silver mounting was put on.
Said to be for the cure and the subsequent prevention of erysipelas
{erisipela).
Fig. 38 (PI. II.). A bowl-shaped bronze medal, with, the outer
face worn smooth, and with a saint bearing a cross upon the inner
face ; Seville. A hole for suspension, elongated by much usage,
is near the upper edge. No information was obtained concerning
it further than that it was an amulet and (by a leading question)
" Byzantine."
Several bronze medals of S. Anastasius were noted, bearing on
their obverse the head of the saint and an inscription such as
" Imago • S ■ Anasiasi ■ M ■ et • M.," and on their reverse an inscrip-
tion such as " Im - S-Anasta ■ Mon - et - Mart ■ a'ivs - aspec -fugat-i ■
dsmon • morbosq - repell • Acta • 2 - Con - Nic ■ testant - Rovice." The
specific application of these medals in Spain was not ascertained ;
in Italy they are used against demoniacal possession, witches, and
sickness. ^^
Annually, on June 23rd, the day before St. John's Day, a cere-
mony takes place in one of the principal plazas at San Sebastian.
A large ash-tree having been erected, at about 4 p.m. the Chapter
of the Parish of S. Vicente, preceded by the municipal band,
marches to the tree, which is then formally blessed. The tree is
then " burnt "' by lighting a small quantity of inflammable material
placed about it, and is finally overthrown in order that it may be
stripped of its limbs and branches by the great crowd (largely
children and young people) gathered for the purpose. The pieces
are eagerly scrambled for by the younger element, while the more
sedate spectators ask for bits from those fortunate enough to have
secured large pieces. The pieces are hung up within houses, or
upon balconies, and are said to bring good luck.
especially at ^'enice, where they are still known to many people as amulets, —
now stated generally to be against the evil eye. I think that the Spanish
specimens, in which the designs, although almost obliterated, seem to be not
quite Byzantine in treatment, have probably been based on the Venetian.
i*Bellucci, op. fit., Tab. xvi., 3.
74 Collectanea.
Errata in Former Paper. — In the original paper, under Fig. J-/
{PI. v.), read " N. S. de las Angustias '" instead of " S. Angustias."
In the last paragraph of tlie notes on Spanish Votive Offerings,
the statement as to the purpose of the small silver objects there
referred to is incorrect. These objects are not offerings made
before the granting of a request for intercession ; each is a symbol
{cscudo, i.e. scutcheon) of the Virgin of a certain locality, and is to
be worn upon the special dress assumed in certain cases in the
fulhlment of a vow made to that form of the Virgin.
^V^ L. Hjldburgh.
Oxfordshire Village Folklore (1840--1900).
I AM writing this account of old customs, charms, and superstitions
from recollections of what I have myself seen and heard in the
village of Long Handborough, and of what I have been told by
my mother, who was a native of the neighbouring village of
Barnard Gate and whose memory would go back to about 1840.
The few notes from other sources I have carefully distinguished.
As I have tried to make a full record of the local folklore known
to me, naturally many items appear in it which are very familiar
in other places, but the repetition seems necessary for the sake of
completeness. As so much of my material is widely spread, no
attempt has been made to note the numerous parallels in other
counties.
Long Handborough is about three miles from Woodstock, and
about eight and a half miles from Oxford. It is usually called
Handborough ('Amborough in dialect), except when it is necessary
to distinguish it from Church Handborough, which is about a mile
distant.
The inhabitants of the villages in Oxfordshire consisted of the
'gentlefolk,' the 'respectable people,' and the 'poor folk.' The
word ' respectable ' did not apply in any sense to the conduct of
those persons, but only to their social position. The ' gentlefolk '
were usually the' squire, if there was one, the clergyman, and
ColUctanca. 75
perhaps a few others. The ' respectable people ' were all others
above the position of labourers, who were the ' poor folk.' The
countryman had his rules of manners and etiquette, which were
never broken. He took oft' his hat to nobody ; he touched it with
his forefinger to the 'gentlefolk,' but never to the 'respectable
people.' He addressed the 'gentlefolk ' as ' Sir,' and his employer
invariably as ' Master.' Only the principal inhabitants and the large
farmers were termed ' Mr. So-and-So ' ; all the others were called
' Master So-and-So,' as was the married labourer himself. Some of
the more old-fashioned farmers used 'thee ' in speaking to their men,
but it would have been an intentional insult for the men to say
' thee ' to their master, or to any superior. A labourer would say
to his employer, — "What be I to go at, master?" and the master
would reply, — "Thee go up in the Roslin-house ground, and rake
arter cart " (that is, rake up the loose corn behind the wagon, in
carrying corn).
The phrases used in driving horses I always thought interesting.
Some carters would keep saying almost continuously to their
horses, — '• Come hayther, come hayther, ivutV''^ " Het up, Jolly!"-
"Haw wut, Smiler ! " "Come here up, Dumplin!" "Haw, haw,
haw" was said encouragingly, and I took it to mean, — "All is
going well, keep on as you are going." The four horses in a team
were (and still are) called the Forrust, Lash-horse, Body horse,
and Thiller. The first horse was seldom called by his name, but,
if he was not pulling fairly, or was looking carelessly about him,
the driver would call out " Forrust," when he would instantly
prick up his ears, and attend to his work.
The question of women's rights presented no difticulty to the
countryman. He had no doubts whatever upon //za^" subject. He
said, — "A 'ooman's aulus sarved well enough if 'er yent knocked
about." Some even went a little further. A friend of mine told
an old labourer that some man in the village had been ill-treating
his wife, and he replied, — " He unly gin 'er a slap 'o the 'ead, and
that dun't 'urt no 'ooman ! "
1 A call to a horse to come towards one ; hence to turn to the left side, on
which the carter walks when driving without reins.
2 Go to the right or off side away from the driver. Cf, ' heit, scot ! heit,
brok ! ' in Chaucer's Freres Tale. (X.B. Initial // is never pronounced.)
76 Collectanea.
There was an old man in the neighbourhood who remembered
seeing a man sell his wife in Witney market. He said it was quite
lawful if her husband "took her to market in a halter." She only
realised the sum of five shillings !
The language of the people abounded in proverbs and similes ;
most of them are very expressive, and need no explaining, and
some of them are probably very old. I will give here a few of
the sayings most often used :
" Women and linen look best by candlelight.
Bread is the staft' of life, but beer's life itself.
The greater the sinner, the greater the saint.
The man's the head, and the woman's the neck, and the neck
turns the head.
Bachelors' wives and maids' children are always well taught.
The sharper the storm, the sooner it's over.
Self first, then your next best friend.
A creaking door hangs long on its hinges, [said of an invalid
who lives to be old].
You can eat apples and nuts, after any sluts.
Little children make your head ache, and big ones make your
lieart ache."'
Speaking of children, —
" When you've got one you m;\\- run,
When you've got two you may goo,
But when you've got three you must stop where you be."'
Old people would solemnly tell children to work hard at school,
for—
" When house and land are gone and spent,
Then learning is most excellent."
" If you stop till the day of resurrection, I shall stop till the
day after, [said to a wife who goes to fetch her husband
from the public-house].
A salve for every sore, [an excuse for everything. I once
saw this saying in a very old manuscript in the Bodleian
Library].
Every tub stands on its own bottom.
Like the old woman's dish-cloth, looks better dry than wet
[said of clothes that are a bad colour in the wash-tub].
Collectanea. ^7
Too high for the stirrup, and not high enough for the saddle.
Trying to keep one's dish upright, [to make both ends meet].
The boy has gone by witli the cows, [spoken of lost oppor-
tunities].
Every generation gets weaker and wiser.
I'll please my eye if I plague my heart, [said by a man who
marries for beauty only].
To see which way the cat jumps, [to see how things will turn
out].
To put all the bells on one horse.
The nearer the church the further from heaven.
I'd rather have a knave than a fool.
To be poor, and to look poor, is the devil all over.
A bellowing cow soon forgets her calf, [said of people who
grieve noisily].
It must be a man or a mouse, [a master or slave, usually
spoken of husbands].
I'll win the horse, or lose the saddle.
The golden ball never goes up but once.
In and out like a dog at a fair, [said of people or children
who keep going in and out of doors].
As peart as a maggot.
As scarce [pronounced skcs] as snow in harvest.
As snug as a bug in a rug.
Like a crab in a cow's mouth, [said of a small quantity of
anything].
As pleased as if the pot was on.
Slipping about like a cat in pattens."
There were many nursery rhymes current in the neighbourhood,
and the old grandmothers would keep little children and babies
amused for hours by crooning ditties like the following : —
" My good Mrs. Bond, what have you got for dinner?
Beef in the larder, and ducks in the pond.
Dilly, dilly, dilly, dilly, come and be killed,
For the gentlefolks are coming and their bellies must be filled."'
" The man in the moon was caught in a trap
For stealing the thorns out of another man's gap.
If he had gene by, and let the thorns lie,
He'd never been a man in the moon so high."
78 Collectanea.
" Pit a pat, pit a pat, baker's man.
So I do, master, as fast as I can.
Pit it and pat it and mark it with B,
And put it in the oven for baby and me. "
" Dance a baby diddy,
What shall a mammy do wid "ee,
Sit 'ee in her lap, and give 'ee some pap,
And dance a baby diddy."
" I'll tell you a story about Jack a minory
And now my story's begun,
I'll tell you another about Jack and his brother,
And now my story's done."
" Christmas is acoming and very glad am I,
Yo\ I can go to your house and have some Christmas pie.
I don't mean a magpie that sits upon a house.
And I don't mean a crab pie that isn't worth a louse,
But I mean a mince-pie stuffed full of plums,
That I can put my fingers in and sweetly ^pronounced %\\^t\.i\\\€\ suck
my thumbs."
" Once upon a time, when birds made rhyme.
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
When old hens took snuff, to make them puff,
And little pigs run to see the fun,
And couldn't think what was the matter.''
" This pig got in the barn,
Thfs eat all the corn.
This said he wasn't well,
This said he'd go and tell.
And this said, — weke, weke, weke.
Can't get over the barn-door sill."
[This was said taking hold of the baby's toes each in turn.]
" That's my lady's knives and forks,
That's my lady's table,
That's my lady's looking-glass,
And that's my lady's cradle.'"
[This was said interlacing the fingers upwards at the first line,
then downwards at the second line, putting together the two fore-
fingers at the third, and the two little fingers as well at the fourth
line].
]My mother knew an extraordinary number of old rhymes, ghost
stories, and charms, many of which I remember, and which it
seems to me maV be of some interest to lovers of folklore.
Collt'ctanca. 79
I will begin with a charm called " Trying the Dumb Cake,"' by
which a girl could see her future husband. It must be done on
Christmas Eve, and should be carried out in complete silence.
First, a dough cake must be made and placed on the hearthstone,
and the maker must prick her initials on it, the door being care-
fully left open, as something terrible would happen if the spirit
came and found it shut. She must then wait in perfect silence
till the clock strikes twelve, when her future husband will walk in
and prick his initials beside hers on the cake, and then walk out
again. An old lady once told me that a girl in this way brought
her future husband, who was a soldier, into the room, and in
passing through the doorway he broke his sword in two. The
girl picked up the broken piece and kept it. After she had been
married to him some years, in turning out her trunk she came
across it, and showed it to her husband, and he was so angry
he could hardly forgive her. He told her he suffered dreadful
agonies during the time she forced him to appear, although he did
not then know the reason. A woman once told me that in her
youth she and a friend tried the 'Dumb Cake,' but, just before
the clock struck twelve, the dog jumped up and began to growl*
and they were frightened and spoke, and so the charm was broken.
Another way to make your future husband appear, was to take
hemp seed to the churchyard at twelve o'clock at night on Christ-
mas Eve, and sow it going along, saying while doing so, —
" Here I sow hemp seed that hemp seed may grow,
Hoping my true love will come after me and mow."
The hemp seed immediately grew up, and your future husband
came behind you and began to mow it. You must move very
quickly or he might cut your legs oft" with his scythe. I have
heard girls recommended to try this rather ghastly proceeding,
but I never heard of one who did so !
If you wished to dream of your lover, you must pin your garters
to the wall and put your shoes in the shape of a T, and before
getting into bed say the following lines, —
" 1 pin my garters to the wall,
And put my shoes in the shape of a T,
In hopes my true love for to see,
Not in his apparel nor in his array,
But in the clothes that he wears ever\dav.
So Collectanea.
If I am his bride to be,
If I am his clothes to wear,
If I am his children to bear,
I hope he'll turn his face to me.
Bui if I am not his bride to be,
If I am not his clothes to wear,
If I am not his children to bear,
I hope he'll turn his back to me."
After saying this, you must get into bed backwards, and not speak
afterwards.
If you wished to know if your lover was constant, you must
gather four long blades of grass (called ' lovelaces ') and hold them
in your hand. Then tie them together in four knots, two at each
end, saying while you do so, —
" If you love nie cling all round me.
If you hate me fall off quite.
If you neither love nor hate
Come in two at last.''
If the grasses form a ring, he is constant ; if all the knots come
undone, he hates you ; if they come in two pieces, he is in-
different.
There was also a method of finding out the initials of your future
husband, known as the "Bible and Key." You placed the door
key between the leaves of the Bible, leaving the ring of the key
outside, and tied your garter round the covers. Then two persons
held up the Bible by placing the first finger on the ring of the
key, one of them saying the following verses from the Song
of .Solomon :—" His left hand is under my head, and his right
hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
. . . that ye stir not up, nor awake my love till he please. Many
waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it : if a
man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would
be utterly contemned." Then you said slowly the letters of the
alphabet, beginning at A, and, when you got to the initial of your
future husband, the key slowly turned round.
Another way girls have of telling their fortunes, which is common
to the whole county and is still practised, is by taking a seed-stalk
of grass, called a 'bennet,' and saying the following, as they touch
a seed, beginning at the bottom of the stalk and finishing at the
Collectanea. 8 1
top, — " A\'hom shall I marry?" They then take a seed between
the thumb and finger and say, — "A rich man, — a poor man, — a
beggar man, — a farmer, — a thief"'; " How shall I go to church?
coach, — carriage, — wheelbarrow, — chaise." "What shall I wear?
silk, — satin, — cotton, — rags." The sentence or word that finishes
with the top seed determines the fortune.
I used to hear a great many curious old rhymes. I especially
remember one which was intended to make your flesh creep. It
was told in the twilight of a winter evening, and had to be said
very slowly and solemnly, with the voice rising and falling dramati-
cally, and with a strong emphasis on the words in italics : —
" There was a Lady all skiu and bone
Such a Lady ne'er was knaiun.
She went into a church io /ray.
As J have heard many people say.
When she got to the church stile.
She waited there a little while.
And 7C'he)i she got to the church door
She waited there a little more.
And (hen she entered in.
She looked up, and she looked down,
And saw a dead man lying on the ground,
And from his nose, and mouth, and chin,
The worms crawled ottt, and the worms crawled in.
And she said to the parson, — " Must /be so?"
And the parson said, — " You must be so."
And she said. Oh dear, oh dear, O ! "
The exclamations of the lady in the last line were said in a loud
startling voice, and the reciter would put her hand suddenly on
the- listener's, and make her start.
Another quaint old rhyme was the following :—
" A man, a man of double deed,
He sowed his garden full of seed ;
When the seed began to grow,
'Twas like a garden full of snow ;
When the snow began to fall,
Twas like a bird upon the wall ;
When the bird began to fly,
'Twas like an eagle in the sky ;
W'hen the sky began to roar,
'Twas like a lion at your door ;
K
82 Collectanea.
When ihe door began to crack,
'Twas like a stick about your back ;
When your back began to smart,
'Twas like a penknife in your heart ;
When your heart began to bleed,
'Twas time for you to die indeed.'"
I remember my grandfather singing the following old song,
when he was over seventy. It was the only song he ever did sing,
and I believe he had sung it ever since he was a young man : —
"When Adam was first created.
And lord of the universe crowned,
His happiness was not completed.
Till for him a helpmate was found :
She was not taken out of his head, sir.
To rule and triumph over man ;
And she was not taken out of his feet, sir.
By man to be trampled upon :
But she was taken out of his side, sir,
His partner and equal to be,
And him she was bound to obey, sir.
For man was the top of the tree."
Those were not the days of suffragettes, and we used to listen
meekly while he sang the last two lines with great gusto!
The two following old songs were frequently sung by the men
at harvest homes : —
I. " I love a shilling, a jolly, jolly shilling,
I love a shilling, as I love my life ;
A penny I will spend, and a penny I will lend,
And tenpence carry home to my wifi.-."
The next verse begins " I love a tenpence," and ends " And
eightpence carry home to my wife"; and so on, until the last
verse, which ends " And nothing carry home to my wife."
2. " Oliver Cromwell lies dead in his grave,
'Urn, ah, dead in his grave ;
There grows a green apple-tree over his head,
'Um, ah, over his head ;
The bridle and saddle are laid on the shelf,
'Um, ah, laid on the shelf;
If you want any more you may sing it yourself,
'Um, ah, sing it yourself."
Collectanea. 83
If a lady were asked to sing a song, and she was not anxious to
do so, she would decline by singing the following verse : —
'* Vou have asked me to sing, and I'm sure I'm quite sorry,
I cannot oblige the good company here,
If I were to begin you would see in a hurry,
The guests would depart and the coast would be clear."
( Theti with its proper tune .•)
A shepherd was watching his flock by a fountain —
(Oh that is too high for a voice with a tone)
But by your permission I'll try at another.
( Then with its proper time :)
A North-country lass up to London did pass — '
And that is so slow I will never get done.
So I hope you'll excuse me, for I'm sure I can't sing."
It used to be the custom for the hostess, in pouring out tea, to
say to each guest, — "Is your tea agreeable ?," to which the answer
was, usually, — " Quite, thank you." If you wished for another
cup of ten, you placed the teaspoon on the right side of the tea
cup, but, if you did not want any more, on the left side ; and
in cutting bread and butter, it was considered polite to ask, —
" Which do you prefer, upper-side or lower-side ? " — meaning the
top or bottom of a loaf.
The belief in witches was very strong in those times. I remem-
ber an old woman called "Shaking Charlotte," who was afflicted
with palsy, and we were always told she was a witch, and the
children used to run away when they saw her coming, but I never
heard that she did any harm. If you could scratch the supposed
witch with a pin and fetch blood, she was unable to harm you.
An old lady once told me that, many years before, she was in a
low, depressed state of mind, and her brother came to see her.
He said solemnly, — "Jane, you're bewitched. I'll tell you what
I will do. I will put a cross over your door, and then no unholy
thing can enter in." He then placed two straws in the shape of a
cross over the doorway. She did recover, but whether in con-
sequence of the cross or not, she couldn't say.
My mother used to speak of a boy who was supposed to have
been bewitched. She told me his name, but I have forgotten it.
•'This is not the orieinal line.
84 Collectanea.
It was said that he would run straight up tlie walls of liouses, and
over the roofs, like a cat.
There were many stories of the Devil, (familiarly spoken of as
'Old Nick,' or 'Old Scrat'), appearing to people. A man was
going from Northleigh to Barnard Gate, and the Devil came to
him in the shape of a fiery serpent, and surrounded him so that he
could not pass for some time. When at length he was able to
escape, he went back to Northleigh and brought several friends to
the place where the serpent had been, but it had disappeared.
A friend of mine told an old labourer at Helton that he did not
believe in a personal devil, and the old man said, — "Not believe
in the Devil? Why, I've sin' 'im ! "' And he considered there
was no more to be said.
If for any reason you should wish to call up the Devil, you must
say the Lord's Prayer backwards. If a girl looks a long time in
the looking-glass admiring herself, the Devil will come behind her
and look over her shoulder. Any particularly profane or wicked
person was said to have sold his soul to the devil.
Of course there were many tales of ghosts, and of spirits
* walking.' There was said to be a ghost that "walked" in a
lonely road near Northleigh, which carried its head under its arm ;
another was said to open the gates for people going across the
fields from Church Handborough to Eynsham. I was always told
that, if you should see a spirit, you should say to it solemnly, —
"Spirit, what troublest thou?", and follow wherever it led you.
There was a pond on the Witney Road not far from Hand-
borough, in which we were told, when cliildren, that the spirit of
a woman had been laid. She was called " Old Mother Culpepper,"
and there is a tablet to her memory in Handborough church. The
ceremony of ' laying the spirit ' was performed by twelve clergy-
men, and the spirit was enjoined not to return until the pond ran
dry; we were told that, if ever this particular pond, should run
dry^ the spirit would "come again." There was a spirit "laid" in
a barrel of beer at Stanton Harcourt, and the barrel had always to
be kept full to prevent the spirit from returning.
I have many times heard the lads "give the rough music" to a
neighbour who was suspected of certain offences, such as beating
his wife, or being too familiar with his neighbour's wife. They
Collectanea. 85
came round early in the evening and begged old tin trays or tea-
kettles, and then assembled before the oftender's house, and made
a deafening noise. If there was a back way to the house, the man
would escape and hide himself till the performance was over ; but,
if he could not get away, his position was most miserable, for they
would keep on beating their instruments with astonishing perse-
verance, until they were tired out, and had to go home to bed.
It was the regular custom on the evening of the 5th of November,
which was called " Bonfire Night," for the boys to go round the
village to collect faggots for a bonfire, chiefly from the farmers.
They would come to the door, and sing, —
" Let gunpowder plot
Never be forgot.
A stick and a slake.
For King George's sake.
A faggot, a faggot, a faggot,
If you don't give me one, I'll take two,
The better for me and the worse for you.
Hammer and block, beetle and wedges.
If you won't gi%-e me a faggot, I'll cut down your old hedges."
The farmer would promptly fetch a faggot from his ' woodpile,' as
he knew that, at the least hesitation on his part, the lads would
help themselves to two. The boys still go round the villages, but
now they ask for pence instead of firewood.
On Shrove Tuesday, or ' Pancake ' Day, the children used to
sing at each door, —
" Pit a pat, the pan's hot,
And I be come a srover ;
Eat a bit, and bite a bit,
And then 'tis all over,"
and ask for pence.
When the harvesting was finished, the labourers rode home on
the last load of corn, shouting as they went along, —
" Hip, hip, hip, harvest home,
A good plum-pudding and a bacon bone.
And that's a very good harvest home."
The harvest-home dinner, (always called " the harvest-home "),
usually consisted of large joints, plum-puddings, and tins of
86 Collectanea.
potatoes, all baked in the brick-oven, and an unlimited supply of
beer. When dinner was over, the company all stood up, and sang
the following song, —
" Here's a health unto our master,
The founder of the feast.
I pray to God with all my heart
His soul in heaven may rest ;
And that ev'rythink may prosper, 5
Whatever he takes in hand ;
For we are all his servants,
And all at his command.
Then drink, boys, drink,
And see that you do not spill ; lo
For if you do, you shall drink two,
For "tis our master's will.
Here's a health unto our misleris.
The best in one and twenty.
Heigho ! is it so, is it so, is it so ! 15
Fill him up a little fuller,
For methinks he seems but empty.
And down let him go, let him go, let him go.
And if he drinks too deep
He can go to bed and sleep, 20
And drive away dull sorrow, care, and woe."
At line 10 one or two would purposely spill a little, and have to
drink another glass, and at line 16 all the glasses would be filled
up. The "harvest home" has been discontinued for the last
forty or fifty years.
Of course we had the mummers at Christmas. Some little time
before, they would come and ask for newspapers or coloured
paper, with which to deck themselves out, and when we saw them
perform, it was a great part of the fun to guess who they v.-ere, for
they were literally covered from head to foot with narrow strips of
paper. I had forgotten part of the words said by them, so I
obtained this from a native of to-day. It is much altered from
what I remember, and several lines are omitted. It is still acted
in the different villages.
The mummers would come to the back-door, and say, — "Please
to let the mummers act," and, upon our complying, they all
walked into the room, and the first performer, who carried a
Collectanea. 87
stick, walked stolidly round in a circle, and said in a monotonous
tone,—
" A room, a room, brave gallants all.
Please give me room to rhyme,
I am come this merry Christmas time,
To show you activity, activity,
Such as has never been seen before.
Come in, the French officer."
/■/-£//.// orn.-:r: — '' I am the French officer, officer I,
Many long fields I have battled to try.
So guard thy head and mind thy blows, head, face also.
So a battle, a battle, betwixt thee and I,
To see which shall be on the ground dead first. Shall I ? "
( They then flight, and the first speaker is 'uounded. )
" Come in. Doctor Airo."
"See, sir, here comes the noble Doctor Airo; he don't go
travelling about like other quack doctors do ; he has got a sign to
cure, not to kill,"
Doctor : — " I've got a little box of pills to cure
The hock, the pock, the palsy, and the gout,
Pains within, and pains without.
I can cure this man if he ain't quite dead.
So, noble fellow, raise up thy head,
And fight again once more.
Come in. Jack Finny."
Jack Finny. — "■Jack Finny's not my name,
But Mister Finny is my name.
Don't you know Fm a man of very great fame?
Last year when I came here,
Vou never asked me to taste your beer,
Now I have come with my bladder and broom.
To sweep the cobwebs from your room."
Jack Finny was dressed as a clown, and carried a bladder attached
to a long piece of string, with which he used to strike the heads of
the other performers, for the amusement of the audience.
On the 29th of May everyone was supposed to wear a piece of
oak, called "shick-shack," and anyone not wearing it was liable to
be stung with stinging-nettles. The old saying was, — "Twenty-
ninth of May, shick-shack day."' In the afternoon in Oxford the
shick-shack was discarded, and monkey-powder or leaves of the
ash was put in its place, and in the evening both emblems had to
88 Collectanea.
disappear, or the wearers were beaten with stinging-nettles. An
oak tree was often called a shick-shack tree.
On April ist there was the usual custom of making everyone an
April Fool. If anyone was made an April Fool after noon, they
would say to him, —
" April Fool is gone and past,
And you're the biggest fool at last.
When April Fool comes again,
You'll be the biggest fool then."
I was visiting some friends at Blackthorn near Bicester, when
quite a little girl, and was awakened quite early one morning by a
loud clanging noise. I was told they were "ringing the bees."
This was done by beating a fire-shovel with a door key, and was
intended to induce the queen bee to settle. It was said that, if
the bees were not " rung," the owner could not claim them if
they settled on another person's premises. Bees were seldom
kept in the villages around Handborough.
Signs or tokens of death were firmly believed in, and there were
many of them, such as a ' death tick,' — a ticking noise in the wall,
the hooting of an owl, the howling of a dog, a blowfly buzzing
about the house, the chirrupjMng of a cricket, and a " winding-
sheet " or " shroud " in the candle (the guttering usually caused by
a hair). Of three or four magpies seen together it was said, —
" One's a wedding,
Two's mirth,.
Three's a berrin' (bnrying),
Four's death."
It was a general belief that a person could not die if there were
pigeon's feathers in the pillow on which he was lying. I have often
known a friend or nurse of a person ' dying hard ' gently remove
the pillow from under his head, saying, — "There maybe some
pigeon's feathers in it." A person taken to see a dead body
should always touch it, or it was thought he would dream of it. A
cure for goitre, or 'full neck,' was to draw the hand of a corpse
across it. There was a saying
" Happy is the corpse that the rain rains on,
And happy is the bride that the sun shines on."
There was another curious custom which deserves mention.
Collectanea. 89
When I was quite a little girl I remember several times seeing the
funeral of a baby. Four young women dressed in white carried
the coffin on a white cloth held by the four corners. They wore
large white bonnets tied under the chin in the fashion of those
days, and, if they had no white bonnets, they covered those they
had with a piece of white muslin. They walked from Long
Handborough to Church Handborough, a distance of about a mile,
and I never saw any mourners following. This custom was dis-
continued before I grew up.
There was a tradition that a ship could not sail if a murderer
was on board. I remember part of an old song about a man
named William who had murdered his sweetheart and her baby.
The captain of the ship summoned all the men before him, and
told them that there was a murderer on board.
" " For the ship is in mourning; and will not sail on."
Then up came one, — " I'm sure its not me."
And up came another, and the same he did say,
Then up came 3-()ung William to curse and to swear,
" I'm sure it's not me, sir, I vow and declare."
As he was a-turning away for to go,
The ghost of his dear Mary came up from below.
She stript and she tore him, she tore him in three,
All for murdering her sweet baby and she."
There were several "cures" and superstitions which were
firmly believed in. A cure for cramp in the night was to place a
bowl of water under the bed. An old labourer at Holton told me
he used to suffer dreadfully from cramp, but was cured in this
way. He said, — "Nobody need ever have cramp." If anyone
had warts certain persons in the place could charm them away,
and many people assured me that theirs had disappeared after
being 'charmed.' Another way, but a cruel one, was to take a
snail, rub it over the warts, stick it on a thorn, and, as the snail
died, the warts disappeared. There was an old superstition that,
at twelve o'clock at night on Christmas Eve, all the cattle in the
lields fell upon their knees, and another that it was a sin to kill a
martin, swallow, robin, or wren, for
" Martins and swallows are God A'mighty's scholars,
And robins and wrens are God A'mighty's cocks and hens."
At Bloxham it was 'friends ' instead of "cocks and hens.'
go Collectanea.
The dark marks across the shoulders of a donkey, some used to
say, were originally caused by Christ making a cross on the ass on
which he sat ; and others, that they were made by the legs of
Christ as he rode into Jerusalem.
The old saying
"A whistling woman and a crowing hen
Are neither good for God nor men'"'
was carried out in rather a heartless fashion by the farmer's wife,
by chopping off the hen's head on the chopping-block. I
have known this done many a time. It was considered unlucky
to have a crowing hen, but this drastic proceeding was not so
much to avert the ill-luck as to protest against the hen's usurping
the privileges of the cock.
If your cheeks burned it was thought to be a sign that someone
was talking about you, and, in case they should be backbiting
you, you should say, —
" Right cheek, left cheek, why do you Ijurn?
Cursed be she that doth me any harm.
If it be a maid, let her be slayed,
.And if it be a widow, long let her mourn ;
But if it be my own true love, burn, cheek, burn.'*
If your nose itched it was a sign that you would be kissed,
cursed, or vexed, run against a gatepost, or shake hands with a
fool.
A small white spot on the finger-nail meant that a gift was
coming to you, —
" A gift on the finger is sure to linger,
A gift on the thumb is sure to come."
The seventh son of a seventh son would have a remarkable
career.
It was lucky to fall upstairs, or for a black cat to come into the
house. It was unlucky to spill salt at table, — (but the ill-luck
could be averted by throwing a pinch of salt over the left
shoulder), — to meet on the stairs, to be married in May, to have
an engagement ring with an opal in it, — (an opal signified widow-
hood and tears), — for a bride to wear any black article of clothing
on her wedding-day, and to meet a funeral, — (you should always
turn the same way until it was past). If you broke a looking-glass,
Collectanea. 9 1
you would have no luck for seven years. If you laughed before
breakfast, you would cry before night. If you shuddered
suddenly, it was a sign that someone was walking over your grave.
To mend your clothes on your back, meant that you would have
lies told about you. A hot coal flying from the fire in your direc-
tion, was a sign that you had an enemy. A tea-stalk, (called a
stranger), floating in your tea was a sign that a stranger was
coming ; and to stir up the tea-leaves in the tea-pot was to stir up
strife. A spark in the candle meant that you would shortly
receive a letter. To sneeze signified " once a wish, twice a kiss,
three times a disappointment."
Dreams also had their significance. If you dreamt of clear
water, it was a good sign, but, if of muddy water, a bad sign.
"If you dream of a weddin' you'll hear of a berrin.
Dream of the dead, you'll hear of the living.
Friday dreamt, and Saturday told,
\\"\\\ be sure to come true, be it ever so old."
Although I have written in the past tense, because I have not
been in the district for some years, I do not wish it to be supposed
that these old customs and sayings are no longer in use. Of
course some of them may now have become obsolete, but, as the
habits of the people are still very much the same, it is likely that
the old superstitions and omens will continue to be believed, and
the old sayings to be spoken, for many years to come.
Angelina Parker.
PlEDMONTESE PrOVERHS IN DlSPRAlSE OF WOMAN.
Alongside the monkish literature which in mediaeval times
enlarged in dispraise of woman almost as a professional duty,
there flourished a mass of popular ballad, jest, and proverb which
more or less seriously adopted the same tone,^ and this abuse of
^ E.g. the Scottish ballad of The Dumb Wife of Aherdour ; J. Ritson,
Ancient Songs, p. 134; etc.
92 Collectanea.
woman still survives in story and saying all over Europe. In
Servia, for example, we find : — " Where the devil cannot cause a
mischief, there he sends an old woman, and she does it," antl
" Woman has long hair but short brains." -
In Piedmont many proverbs in current use share this mediaeval
characteristic, although the songs of the winter courtship meetings
in the stables ^ are couched in extravagant eulogy of the beauty
and good qualities of woman, or rather of a woman. From a
number of these unprinted songs of young people in love written
out for me by a peasant, I select the following : —
"Sei bella, sei splendida, o vaga fanciuUa,
Dei dolci peccati sei forse pentita ?
Mi sembri una santa discesa dal ciel.
Sei bella e pietosa di bruno vestita,
Coperto la fronte di pudico vel.
Riposa tranquilla nei sogni ridenti,
Eppur gia e scritto nel mio destino
Laggiu suir arena ai rialzi del mar
In mezzo ai profumi di magiche feste
Un giorno mia sposa dovrai diventar.
Ed allora il mio cor sinfiamma d' amor,
O bel angiolo mio, o mio bel tesor,"
which may be very freely translated as
" O dainty girl, so lovely, all glorious within,
Hast thou perchance deserted our pleasant ways as sin ?
To me thou now appearest a saint from Heaven come down,
All beautiful and holy, in simple robe of brown.
The modest veil of girlhood still hides thy forehead clear, •
And be thy dreams all smiling, thy rest without a fear.
But know already written my changeless fate's decree
That there upon the shore of the ever-shifting sea
Love's magic feasts and perfumes await both thee and me,
And thou, one day of glory, my bride and joy shall be.
Then in my heart is burning a love all words above,
O angel mine, O treasure, my beautiful, my dove !"
^ Mijatovich, Sei-via and the Seii'ians, pp. 204-5.
^Cf. vol. xxiii, pp. 457-S.
Collectanea. 93
l>ut the proverbs, — the philosophy of the older and, presumably,
married men, — show a very different outlook, and I have gathered
orally and from various local pamphlets the following choice
specimens, chiefly to illustrate this point of view : — [The spelling
follows the local dialects.]
1. Stan verslusa, n'autran spusa.
This year (a) stye (on the eye), next year (a) bride.
2. Mariesse a 1' e tin briit ale,
Ma, Nossgnur, femlu pruve.
Marriage is a bad business,
But, O Lord, let me try it.
_3. A I'e scrit sii la poita del dom
Che na bella fia a pia iin briit 6m.
It is written on the door of tlie church
That a beautiful girl marries an ugly man.
4. L'om basta ch'a sia |)i bel del diavul, ((?ch'a I'abianen i corn).
It is enough for a man to be more beautiful than the devil, {or
not to have horns).
5. Se iin I'e bin maria,
A I'a el paradis anticij^a :
S' a r e mal maria,
A r a r infern anticipa.
If one is well married.
It is Paradise anticipated :
If one is ill married,
It is Hell anticipated.
6. 'L prim 6m a I'e de Dio.
El secund a I'e del mund.
E r ters a r e del diaval. (Of widows.)
The first man (husband) is god-like, {i.e. gifted with virtues,
because beloved).
The second is worldly, {i.e. has virtues and vices).
The third is diabolic.
7. El cor d' le fumne a I'e a mlon.
A na dan na fetta a priin.
94 Collectanea.
L' ultim ai resta le griimele.
Woman's heart is like a lemon.
They give a slice to everyone.
The last gets the seeds.
8. Chi a I'a pasienssa cun el fil
A I'a pasienssa cun el mari.
Who has patience with the thread
Has patience with the husband.
9. Dua a r e sciir
Le donhe a sun tiite cumpagne.
\Vhere it is dark
Women are all the same.
10. Ne fumma ne teila
Van nen guarda al ceir 'd la candela.
Neither woman nor cloth
Is to be looked at by candle light.
11. Le dohne quasi tilte
Per fesse bele as fan briite.
Nearly all women
To be beautiful make themselves ugly.
12. El diavul a fa la turta
E le donhe an lu fan mange.
The Devil makes the cake
And the women cause it to Jje eaten.
13. La donha a 1' e cum la castagna,
D' fora a I'e bela e dentra a 1' a la magagna.
\Vomen are like chestnuts,
Beautiful outside, bad inside.
14. Le dohne a la san pi lunga del diavul.
Women know more than the devil.
15. Le dohne sun segrete cum el trun.
Women are as secret as the thunder.
16. Le dohne van sempre a j'ecess.
Women go always to extremes.
Co/lcctanca. 95
17. J'arme d" le donhe a sin
La lenga, j'unge, e le lacrime.
Women's weapons are
Her tongue, nails, and tears.
18. Al caval spron,
A la fumna baston.
To the horse spur,
To the woman stick.
19. Sant an cesa, e diavul an te ca.
Saint in church, devil at home.
20. Ti.iti a sun bun d'rcgule la fumma a ciance.
Everyone can manage a woman — in words.
21. ijn 6m a na val sent,
E sent a na valu nen tin.
A man is worth a hundred (men).
But a hundred are not worth one.
22. Vin vej e donne giuvu
A mantenhu el cor cuntent.
Old wine and young women
Keep the heart content.
23. Chi d'amur as pia, d'rabia as lassa.
He who is caught by love, is left by rage.
24. Due fumne e tin oca a fan iin merca.
Two women and a goose make a market.
25. Sinch fumme e na galinha
Fan la fera d' Piscinha.
Five women and a hen
Make the fair of Piscina (near Pinerolo).
26. Tre fumme e tin can
Fan la fera d' Urbassan.
Three women and a dog
Make the fair of Orbassan (near Turin).
27. Tre fumme e iin sach d' nuss
Fan la fera d' Cavalimur.
Three women and a sack of walnuts
Make the fair of Cavallermaggiore (near Saluzzo).
96 Collectanea.
28. Vintinov crave e na fumma
A fan trenta bestie.
Twenty-nine goats and one woman
Make thirty beasts.
To the last proverb women rei)ly : —
29. L" oni, r asu e 1' pitu a s' asmiu.
A man, an ass, and a turkey are the same.
E. Canziani.
County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths, I.
In continuation of A Folklore Survey of County Clare} I now
present a collection of quasi-historic tales and traces of tales,
ranging from mythical times to the early eighteenth century. Few
counties can boast such a rich and unbroken series, and, although
I dare not assert that all the tales have been passed from mouth
to mouth " without book," — and indeed hold an opposite view in
certain cases, — it is probable that many were so transmitted. In
some examples it may be instructive to compare the tradition with
written history. I have arranged the tales in chronological order,
and tried to eliminate all clearly derived from books in recent
years. I shall, however, show how modern books on King Brian
have veneered the purer tradition of 1890 near Killaloe, and
record the oldest written tales about* the district. There is no
reason to believe that the local accounts of De Clare's wars, the
Armada, or the great Civil War of 1641-51, go back to any other
than a remote traditional source.- The tales of the saints were
probably drawn, long ago, from the actual legenda read in the
churches. The wild stories of gods and heroes probably came
down orally from incredibly remote periods.^
^ Vols, xxi., xxii., and xxiii. Map, vol. x\i., I'l. xi.
-The tales have, however, been touched up and remodelled since 1892.
'•* I do not refer to the euhemerized tales of the Tuatha De Danann, of which
the recension dates probably little, if at all, before the Norse wars, and far
later than the introduction of Christianity.
ColkctiDica. 97 '
The belief that the " torch of tradition " has burned continu-
ously, without rekindling, is strengthened by the slight and bald
narrations about the all-important Mound of Inauguration at
Magh Adhair,^ despite its appearance in accessible works, from
the Collectanea of Vallancey onwards. It is also noteworthy that
the bulk of the Clare stories are Dalcassian, the great tribes of the
Corcabaiscinn only appearing in the tales of St. Senan, and those
naming the Corca Modruad having seemingly died out.^
I. The Gods.
Ana or Danann, Moiher of the Gods, is still kept in mind by
Irish speakers in naming certain hills in Kerry, ^ and her children,
the Tuatha De Danann, are not forgotten in ancient Thomond.
Slieve Boughty or Aughty (Sliabh n Fxhtgha), on the north-
eastern border of Clare, is named from " Echtghe the Awful," the
divine daughter of the god Nuada Silver- Arm.' These hills were
given to her by her lover, the cup-bearer of Gann and Genann,
the eponymous ancestors of the Ganganoi of Ptolemy,^ Tuath
Aughty is the parish of Feakle. The god Lugh had a daughter
Tailti, and a rath-builder, Alestar, dug a fort to appease her
anger at a slight offered when her husband, Eochy Garbh, was
clearing a forest to make a fair green in her honour. This fort lay
at Cluan Alestair on Sliabh Leitreach (or Mount Callan),^ but its
site is now forgotten. The two tales are recorded in ancient
books, and the place-names themselves are still preserved.^
I have already noted ^" a warning in 1905 by two natives at
* C/. vol. x.\ii., p. 208. * C/'. vol. xxi., pp. 181-2.
* The Paps of Kerry are called Da chich Da nai)i tie {"The Two Breasts of
Ana''), Annals of the Four Masters (ed. O'Donovan), vol. i., p. 24 ;/.
' " Dindsenchas " (ed. Whitley Stokes), Revue Cellique, vol. xv. (1894),
p. 458. See also the later " Agallamh na Senorach" (The Colloquy with the
Ancients), S. H. O'Grady, Siha Gadelica, vol. ii., p. 126.
* See paper by Mr. G. H. Orren in The Journal of the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxiv., p. 119.
'"Dindsenchas," Rez'ue Celtique, vol. xv. (1894), p. 317.
i"Vol. xxi., p. 198. So in Silva Gadelica, vol. ii., pp. 123-6, people are
afraid to sit on certain tulachs or mounds from fear of the Tuatha De Danann.
For a description of this remarkable district see The Journal of the Royal
Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxxv., pp. 343-52.
98 Collcclaiica.
Croaghateeaun, north-west of Ballinalacken Casile, to cross our-
selves as a protection "against the Dananns," and not far away to
the east, near Lisdoonvarna Castle, is the entrenched natural
green hillock of Lissateeaun (Lios an t siodhain), the "fairy fort,"
which was in 1839 a recognised palace of the De Danann. This
name recalls the early passages relating to the Sidh. The fifth-
century hymn of Fiacc says, — " On Erin's folk lay darkness, the
tribes worshipped the Sidh." while Tirechan's annotations in the
Book of Armagh'^^ tell of the " viros side aut deorum terrenorum,"
for whom Patrick and his clerics were mistaken. Much later
Seaan MacCraith ^^ tells how, in 1317, the hideous liag Bronach
revealed herself at Lough Rask to Prince Dermot O'Brien as one
of the Tuatha De Danann, and again, as a lodger in the green fairy
hills, in the following year, to Sir Richard de Clare at the ford of
the river Fergus. She is still vaguely remembered in northern
Burren.^^ In 1684 Roderic OTlaherty tells us that the Irish call
"aerial spirits or phantoms" sidhe "because they come out of
pleasant hills." Another of the Danann who played a large part
in Clare was the smith Lon Mac Liomhtha. Perhaps the banshee
Aibhill and the lady Gillagreine were of the same race.^* The
latter may have been a daughter of Greine the sun, but in late
legend (the "Agallamh") she is a daughter of Finn mac Cum-
hail.
2. T/ie Red Brauch Heroes.
The great Setanta, surnamed Cuchulainn, (the Hound of Uladh
and for a long time its sole defender against the hosts of Queen
Medbh, whether a real hero or the Brocken spectre of one, a sun
god, or the son of the god Lugh), has set his mark in place-names
i^See Rolls series, Triparlite Life of St. Patrick, vol. ii., p. 315, for
Tirechan, and p. 409 for Fiacc. Tirechan died a.d. 656.
'^'^ Cathreiiii Thoirdhealhhaigh, written about 1345-60, not, as- usually stated,
1459, an error arising from a date in the original of an eighteenth-centuiy copj".
"Cf. vol. xxi., pp. 1S7-9 Her name in 1S39 was Caikach Ciiiii h'oinie(\.ht
" Hag of Black Head "'). The old name of the Hag's Head in Molier Cliffs,
not far south from Black Head, was Cea;in Cailighe (Kan Kallye in the 1580
maps). The Calliagh (cloaked woman) in older legend was younger, i.e. a
Ciiillin.
"Vol. xxi., p. 186.
Collectanea. 99
far and wide, from the CucluiUin Hills in Scotland to CuchuUin's
Leap 15 at the mouth of the Shannon. At the latter place a huge
and lofty rock tower, rising some fifty or sixty feet away from the
end of Loop Head, ai)pears at one time to have been walled, and
may, like other cliff forts, have been approached by a plank or
natural bridge before the chasm widened. Before 850 Irish
writers called it Leim Chonchulainn, so that probably his name
and a story were attached to it in the ages left w-ithout record by
the ravages of the Norse and Danes. But in later days his name
was forgotten. "A hero," said the natives, was loved by Mai
(a " Hag,'' though not necessarily old or ugly), and was pursued
by her into the extreme angle at Loop Head. Closely pressed by
her the hero leaped over to the island, was followed by her, and
gathered his strength and sprang back to the headland. Mai was
not to be discouraged, and followed, but fell short, and her blood
stained all the sea as far as Hag's Head, her abode.^^ Local ety-
mology says that Malbay owes its name to her. The same tale of
Cuchulainn and the too fond dame is told in the Dindsenchas,
but located at Fich m buana, near Dromsna, on the upper
Shannon. 1'
Cuchulainn and the Red Branch Heroes, Conall Cernach, Cet,
and Ross, fought the champions of the Firbolg Clann Umoir, and
slew them. Several of the chiefs of the sons of Umor are com-
memorated in Clare ; Irghus at the fort Caherdooneerish or
Dunirias (not Caherdoonfergus as on the maps), on Rinn Boirne
or Black Head ; Daelach at Lissadeely, Ballydeely, and the
1* Such " leaps" abound up the coast. There is Leamanivore (" Big Man's
Leap") in North Mayo, the "Giant's Leap" at Downpairick Head, Leima-
taggart ("Priest's Leap") and the "Leap of (Fiachra's) Sea Horse" in the
Mullet at Dun Fiachrach Fort, Leim Conor, Leim Chaite, near Donegal Fort,
and Cuchulainn's Leap in Clare, the Leap of Ballingarry in Kerry, and the
" Heir's" Leap near Ardmore in Co. Waterford. There are also inland leaps
such as that at Ardnurcher Castle.
i^O'Curry, in the Baltle of Magh Leana, p. 92, gives the tale rather
differently: the hero's paramour {Cannaii) pursued him from Emania, and
struck her back against a stone slightly below the edge, leaving an impression,
whence it was called Leac na Cannain, and people believed that anyone with
nerve enough to turn on one heel in the mark could obtain any wish.
^" "Dindsenchas," Revue Ce/tiqiie, vol. xvi., p. 57-8.
I oo Collectanea.
Daelach river; Ennach at Tech n Ennach, up the same river,
where the great fort of Doon stands above Kilfenora; Beara at
Finnavarra ; and Adhar at Magh Adhair.^^ Unless the story at
Magh Adhair, — that "it is the tomb of a king," — refers to Adhar,
no trace of the tale has survived except the place-names. I am
myself rather inclined to think that the localities in the tale are
places of similar name in Co. Mayo, where early writers place a
branch of Clann Uathmor.
The O'Conors and O'Loughlins of Corcomroe claimed descent
from Fergus mac Roigh and Medbh, and possibly they, rather than
the intruding Dalcassians, preserved the Red Branch stories.
3. Fhi7i Cycle.
Clare has been less forgetful of the far later saga cycle refer-
ring to Finn mac Cumhail and his warriors, the events of which are
attributed to the third century. Finn, Conan, Caeilte, Dermot,
and Oisin have left obvious traces in tlie place-names. The
Agallavih says that Cluan Chepain ia the mountains of Echtghe
was named from Chepan, son of ^lorna, who fell there.^^ The
site is now forgotten, but was to the south of Lough Graney. The
elopement of Dermot and Grainne, Fmn's wife, has given many
names. I have already recorded their association with dolmens,-^
at one of which, Tobergrania, the use of a flooded dolmen as a
holy well has replaced the pagan lovers by two Christian ascetics
from Feakle. Several hill tops are called Seefin or Finn's Seat, viz.
on Slieve Bernagh, on Inchiquin Hill, and a cairn at Black Head.
The tale of the Glasgeivnagh, or Grey-green Cow, on Slievena-
glasha has been already alluded to,-^ and runs as follows : — Lon
mac Liomhtha (Loon mac Leefa), of the Tuatha De Danann, was
the first smith to make an edged weapon in Ireland. He had only
one leg, with which he could spring over hills and valleys, but as
compensation he had a third arm and hand growing out of his
chest, with which he held the iron on the anvil while forging it with
^^ " Dindsenchas," loc. cit., vol. xv., pp. 47S-4S1.
^^ Silva Gadelica, vol. ii., p. 126.
^Vol. xxiii., pp. 91-2.
^Vol. xxiii., p. 89; see also The Journal of the Royal Society of Aittiqtiaries
of Ireland, vol. xxv., p. 227-9, vol. xxvi., p. 150.
Collectanea. lOi
the huge hammer held by his other hands. He had stolen a
wonderful grey-green cow from Spain, and lived on its unlimited
milk. After long seeking he found a " desert" sufficiently fruitful
to support her in Teeskagh. Many tried to steal her, but failed,
because her hoofs grew backwards and she could not be tracked.
One of Lon's seven sons took charge of her on each day of the
week, holding her tail while she grazed. When she reached the
edge of the plateau, he pulled her round by the tail, and let her
graze back to Lon's fort, Mohernagartan (" the smith's fort ").
Siie drank of the seven streams of Teeskagh,-- and the rocks were
marked in every direction with her hoof prints. At last the fame
of Finn mac Cumhail reached Lon, and he, unlike the rest of his
race, (who sulked in the fairy hills after their defeat by the
Milesians), determined to recognize the chief hero of the new race
and to make for him a wondrous sword. Lon set off to make
himself known, and springing over the intervening plains and hills
reached Ben Edair, the Hill of Howth, on the east coast. Finn
and his warriors were holding a court when the strange being
dropped into their midst, and Finn demanded the name and
errand of the intruder. " I am Lon, skilled in the smith's craft, a
servant to the King of Lochlan," the visitor replied. " I lay on
ye a geis (obligation) to overtake me ere I reach my home," and
off he sprung. The Fianna were soon outdistanced, except
Caeilte "of the slender, hard legs," who came up with Lon hard
by his forge, a cave with heaps of slaggy material in a nook still
called Garraidh ?ia gceardchan. Caeilte slapped Lon on the
shoulder with the words, "Stay, smith. Enter not thy cave."
"Success and welcome, true man of the Fianna," replied Lon, in
delight. " Not for witchcraft did I visit thee, but to lead thee to
my forge and make thee a fame-giving weapon." The two had
already wrought in the forge for two days when Finn and his
followers arrived, and Lon sold them eight swords. He resumed
work aided by GoU and Conan, sons of Morna, but their mighty
blows split the anvil and ended the work.^^
*^ Seachi srotha na Teiscaighe.
^^ Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. ii., p. 71 ; taken down in 1839
from Shane Reagh O'Cahane, an old tailor and shanachy (story-teller) in
Corofin, by O' Donovan and E. O'Curry.
I o 2 Collectanea.
The Scottish versions of this tale are well known, and have
more classical analogies than the Clare tale.-* In the versions of
north Ireland the Glasgavlin cow descends from the sky, and more
closely resembles the rain cows of the Vedas, to which also a
striking analogy is found in a subsequent appendix to the Clare
tale. The cow has habitats at Cluainte (Kerry), Howth (Dublin),
Glen an Arrible (Waterford), Ballynascreen (Londonderry), and
opposite Torry Island in Donegal, where she and another smith
figure in the archaic tale of Balor and Mac Kineely.-^ The cow is
also found in Kerry, and in Glenganlen in Cavan. Finn's cow,
the Glasghoilean, has a bed in the Isle of Skye. The tale was
minutely localised (m Glasgeivnagh Hill and Slievenaglasha before
1839. At first our enquiries seemed to show that the story had
died out, but after a couple of years Dr. MacNamara found it still
subsisting amongst a few old folk and herdsmen near Teeskagh.
As neither of us referred to the 1839 story, we were much struck
by the perfect agreement after the lapse of two generations. I
took down one recension at Tullycommaun in 1896, from John
Finn. The main story is identical with that given above, and it
ends as follows : — " At Slievenaglasha were the Glas. cow's beds.
No grass ever grows on them. She used to feed near the herd's
house [at the dolmen of Slievenaglasha] and over Cahill's moun-
tain, where she could get plenty of water out of Teeskagh. And
-^ I refer to a few in The Journal of the Koyal Society of Antiquaries of
Ireland, vol. xxv., p. 227.
" Ulster Journnl of Archaeology, vol. i. (O.S.).' See also Annals of the Four
Masters (ed. O'Donovan), vol. i., p. 18 n. ; P. A. Joyce, Irish Natnes of Places,
vol. i., cap. iv. ; Curtin, Hero Tales of Ireland, pp. i, 283 ; The Journal of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 315, for Howth. The
Bothair ?ia bo ruadh is said, p. 318, to run all round the Irish coast at a dis-
tance of three casts of a dart from high-water mark. I only note one Borzi
well on Ardoilean or High Island. Like the Bo ruadh well at Elmvale, Clare,
it is now misnamed after King Brian Boru. The Rev. P. Power of Portlaw
gives a Waterford legend of the Glas cow's tail cutting Gleann an earball in
Desies without Drum, ( The Journal of the IVatefford and South East Ireland
Archaeological Society, vol. x. (1907), p. 117). The Balor legend is also given,
from Shane O'Dugan of Co. Donegal, by O'Donovan in Annals of the Four ,
Masters, vol. i., p. 18 w. W. Larminie, West Irish Folk Tales, p. i, gives a
Glass Gavlen tale from Achill, and J. Curtin, Hero Tales of Ireland, the tale of
the sieve in Elin Gow and the cow Glas Gainach at Cluainte, Co. Kerry.
Collectanea. 103
she went away, and how do I know where? And there were no
tidings." Another tale, extant and in 1839, tells that the cow
could fill any vessel with milk, until an ill-conditioned woman
brought a sieve ; the milk ran through and became the Seven
Streams ; and the cow, mortified at being unable to fill the sieve,
ran away and {or, in one version) died. With reference to another
appendix to the tale, — "an Ulsterman took the cow," — I have
already given the tale of the hero and wonderful cow concealed in
a cave until "the last great battle."-'' The Oughtdarra people
say that this cow is not the Glas, but that the latter made the foot-
prints on the neighbouring crags. There is mention of the cow
near Shallee Castle, between Dysert O'Dea and Ennis, and at
Ballymarkahan, near Quin.
In one of the 1839 addenda, apparently now forgotten,
O'Donovan and O'Curry were told that the Tuatha De Danann
posted ambuscades to waylay Finn and his men at the fords of
the Fergus opposite to the Glasgeivnagh Hill at Corofin {Coradh
Finne), Corravickeown (Coradh mhic Eoghain), a mile to the west
of the former, and Corravicbiirrin {Coradh inhic Dhaboireati), at
Kells Bridge, to the east of the first named. The attempts failed,
and in a pitched battle on the summit of Keentlae {Ceann t sliabh,
ancient Cenn iiathrach)^'' or Inchiquin Hill the Fianna slew all
their enemies, whose bones are still turned up at Seefin or Keen-
tlae. The same summit is the scene of the early saga Fets tighe
chonain and Finn's fatal feast, but the site of Conan's house is
forgotten and the saga only known from books.
Finn's gifted son, the bard Oisin, dwelt in a large two-ringed
fort, hence called Caherussheen {Caihair Oishi), close to Corofin,
and Finn's hound Bran gives the name Tirmicbrain to a small
basin-like tarn in a marshy valley and evidently the remnant of a
larger lake. The hero and his soldiers hunted a magic deer
(white, with golden hoofs), which fled to Keentlae with Bran in
close pursuit. All the men save Finn were outpaced, and he and
the quarry and dog reached the eastern brow of the hill as the
sun set, and then dashed down the slope. At the cliff of Tirmic-
2«Vol. xxiii., p. 89.
-^Nathrach is a man's name (e.g. St Senan's smith), and not a literal
" serpent."
1 04 Collectanea.
brain the deer made a wondrous leap into the pool, and Bran
followed. Neither was ever seen again. ^s Finn had "hunting
lodges" at Formoyle to the west of Inchiquin, and at Shallee
{Selga, a hunting seat). In eastern Clare Finn, Oisin, Dcrmot,
and Grainne were in my boyhood usually described as giants.
The next important Finn saga is found at Loop Head, where in
1839 it remained much the same as written by Comyn about 1750
in The Adve?Uiires of the Three Sons of ThorailbJi mac Stairii.
Crochan, Sal, and Dahlin were three brothers to whom a druid
foretold a fearful end if their beautiful and only sister ceased to be
a virgin. Accordingly, they built a fort for her, still called Cathair
na haon 7nna (" the fort of the lone woman "), and three other forts
to guard her at Cahercrochaun ("the fort of the knoll"), Caher-
saul ("the fort of the brine"), and Dundahlin. For long they
guarded her, until their cattle were carried away by three other
brothers, — Ceanuir of Liscannor, Ruidhin of Moherui ruidhin at
the giant cliffs of Moher, and Stuithin of Kilstuitheen (now under
the waves of Liscannor Bay). The Loop Head chiefs overtook
and slew two of the raiders (Stuithin escaping to his magic home,
which sank under the waves), and returned home with the spoils.
Now the amorous Diarmuid Ua Duine was waiting on Mount
Brandon, and, as soon as he knew of their absence from his ring,^*
he set off in his magic square currach (boat) of wax. He choked
with his ring the hideous //a^-/ Dabhran which opened its jaws to
seize him at the cliff, and reached the lady. She consented gladly
to fly with him, and her brothers returned to see her landing far
away in Kerry. They tracked her footsteps as far as Aill an triitr,
where yawned the deep chasm of Poulnapeiste, the dragon's lair.
Fearing a worse doom, they seized each other's hands, and sprang
over the cliff into the hungry waves.^o
-^Dr. G. U. MacNamara, The founial of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of
Ireland, vol. xxxi., p. 206. The name, of course, means Mac Brain's land.
-9 It was given by Angus of the Brugh on the Boyne and had a red stone ;
when the desired event occurred, the stone turned green.
'^^ Ordnance Suii'ey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. ii., p. 71 ; The four ttal of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxxviii., p. 350. It will be noted
that Crochan and Sal are the " humped knoll " and the " brine " of that wild
peninsula. Much of the story is given in the fonrnal of the Kilkenny Archceo-
logical Society, vol. ii., pp. 303-6.
CoUcctauca. 105
An old tale of the same neighbourhood related that Finn threw
a "finger stone" of a ton weight across the Siiannon from Knock-
anure in Kerry to Carrigaholt in Clare. A similar story was told
to me in 1S69 by an old man, Shaneen O Halloran, a retainer of
the Stacpooles of Edenvale. A giant named Hughey in the days
of Finn threw an enormous boulder from either Mount Callan or
Loughnaminna Hill at a hostile giant whom it just missed,
breaking into two. The pieces stand at the northern end of the
Edenvale ridge, opposite the Kennels. The "Irish militia" {i.e.
Finn's troops) made the huge, mysterious, many-gated stone fort
on the summit of the Turlough Hill, south from Corcomroe
Abbey ; so I was told by an old herdsman who crossed the ridge
while I was plotting the fort in 1905. Other rock memorials of
Finn I have already mentioned, ^^ and the Dindsenchas gives a
similar legend of another rock, the Clock nan artn, " on which the
F'ianne ground their weapons yearly." The tale previously
narrated about the Tuam an goskaigh stone -'^ may belong to the
Finn period, as it is placed in a Glasgeivnagh locality. The same
nameless "champion" is commemorated in Barnagoskaigh ; he
was defeated and slain at Doonaunmore fort because he had lost
his " druid's staft"."
The sentence in certain c(^iies of The Battle of Mag/i Rath,
which states that Chonan maol, the Tliersites of Finn's court, was,
while worshipping the sun, slain and buried on Mount Callan, is
undoubtedly a forgery of the late eighteenth century. It is by no
means so certain that the ogham stone, so long read, " Beneath
this stone lies Conan the fierce and swift-footed," is also forged. ^^
The name on the stone is very doubtful, and possibly Collas, and
the epitaph probably a late scholastic freak. It played a great
part in Irish archaeology by reviving an interest in oghamic
script, but all legends connecting it with the band of Finn are
^^ Vol. xxiii., p. 90.
'-Vol. xxiii., p. 92.
*'The five readings extracted by Theophilus O'Flanagan in 1788 ( Transac-
tions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. i.), surpass those of Oldbuck and
Pickwick. I have told the story in The fournal of the Limerick Field Club,
vol. ii, p. 250.
1 06 Collectanea.
probably later than the earliest accounts of its discovery in
1778.^^
Hence I hesitate even to name the Finn items in the tale of the
sinking of Kilstapheen or Kilstuitheen as being of any great age,
though the main tale is doubtless ancient. In 1839 men said at
Lehinch that the golden key of the enchanted island of Kilsta-
pheen lay under Conan's tomb.^^ The preserst-day tale narrates
that in the battle of Bohercrochaun^^ Stapheen, attacking the
spoilers of his cattle, lost the golden key, and his island and fort
immediately sank under the waves. ^'
^To be continued.)
Thos. |. Westropp.
Welsh Folklore Items, J.
Hiring Fairs.
I ENCLOSE a list [of Hiring Fairs]. Of course the custom is dying
out. " At the fairs the servants wishing to be hired stood with
a straw in their mouths." " Llanover Estate hire their servants
Oct. and Nov." Hay and Brecon fairs are very interestmg, and
hiring is still done there. The letter I send is from the farmer's
wife in this neighbourhood who supplies me with butter etc.^
" It was first published by John Lloyd in .-in Impartial Tour in Clare,
1778, but may be alluded to in 1750 by Comyn in his romance, unless the
allusion is also interpolated.
" General Vallancey tells the same tale of the mirage land of Tir Hudi off
the Donegal coast ; its key, too, lay hidden under a druidical monument.
'* Note the name Crochaun, as in the Loop Head story.
3' For further particulars of Kilstuitheen see vol. xxi., pp. 485-6. The
whole subject of spectral islands and their legends is dealt with in The
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxx., part \.
1 " There is a Fair in Abergavenny on May I4lh, and one the first :\Ionday
in .May in Monmouth. They are the hiring fairs, but there are very few girls
go to them now. The custom seems to be dying out. There used to be one
in Caerleon, May ist, but there are no servants go there for hire now. The
farm servants about Jiere change very much the same as a town girl would.
They don't mind when they leave, as they think they can always get a place."
Collectanea. 107
Anglesey. — Menai Bridge, Nov. 14; Trefdraeth, Nov. 1.
Brecknockshire. — Builth, April 16, May 12; Hay, Feb. 2, May
17-18, Nov. 17.
Cardiganshire. — Aberayron, Nov. 13; Aberystwitli, Nov. 12;
Cardigan, Nov. 10; Dihewyd, Nov. 11; Llanarth, Nov. 10;
Llangeitho, Nov. 17 ; Tregaron, Whit T., Nov. 12, 19, 26.
Carmarthenshire. — Kidwelly, Oct. 29-30; Llanfihangelarartli,
Oct. 10; Llangennech, Oct. 23: Llanybyther, Nov. i, 20-1;
Moihvey, Nov. 5.
Carnan'onshire. — Aberdaron, May 12; Criccieth, June 29;
Pwllheli, May 22, Nov. 11 ; Sam, May 15, Nov. 13.
Denbighshire. — Ruthin, first Tuesday every month.
Glamorgan.- — Cowbridge, March 25; Neath, May 12.
Meriotieth. — Bala, May 14, Oct. 2 ; Corwen, third Tuesday in
March; Dolgelly, May 11, Sept. 20; Festiniog, Nov. 13; Llan-
drillo, May 3; Llanuwchllyn, June 20; Maentwrog, ]\Iay 15;
Trawsfynydd, April 20, June 26, Sept. 19.
Monmouthshire. — Abergavenny, May 14; Caerleon, May i;
Monmouth, second Monday in May; Raglan, March 31; Usk,
Trinity Friday.
Pembrokeshire. — Fishguard, Oct. 8 ; Haverfordwest, Oct. 5 ;
Henfeddau, Sept. 27, Oct. 30; Herbrandston, Oct. 10; Letter-
ston, third Monday in Oct. ; Little Haven, Nov. i ; Llandeloy,
Nov. I ; Mathry, Oct. 10-11 ; Newport, Oct. 16; Pembroke, Oct.
10; St. Davids, first Tuesday in Oct.
Radnorshire. — Knighton, May 17-S; Ne\vbridge-on-Wye, May
17 : Penybont, May 13-4; Presteign, May 9.
{The late) E. J. Dunnill.^
Monmouthshire.
Pwka Trwyn. — This neighbourhood is the home of legends of
Fwka, a good spirit who dwelt at some favoured farmhouses.
Gossips yet talk of the farm of " Molly Rosser " on Stow [Hill], at
-At Llandilo, near Swansea, hiring died out some time ago, but was
formerly done at Hollantide Fair, Nov. 12. Both this and St. Barnabas'
Fair, June 21, were great pleasure fairs. — J. B. Partridge.
^ These notes by the late Mrs. E. J. Dunnill, of Newport (Mon.), were made
in 1909, and have not been revised or completed by her. — En.
1 o8 Collectanea.
Newport, as haunted by this spirit, whose kind offices were
obtained by placing a bowl of milk in a particular spot on retiring
to bed at night. In the morning the hearth was cleaned up,
kettles polished, dishes washed, and sometimes the cows milked
and the horses harnessed, in return for the bowl of milk. The
Trwyn is a farm and farmstead in the parish of Mynyddyslwyn,
and tales of Pwka Trwyn, or Puck of the- Trwyn, have been
orally transmitted for several generations. The first place in
which the Pwka appeared was Pantygassy, near Pontypool.
'•'■ Ply gain r — I have met a lady whose mother was very
successful in adorning the candles for Plygain. Among the
Independents and Methodists it was the custom to go on
Christmas morning to the chapel at 5 a.m. to celebrate Flygai?i,
(which, I have been told, means "very early in the morning").
Candles were dressed and decorated with hoops and coloured
paper by the women members of the church, placed in tall brass
candlesticks on the communion table, and lighted, after which a
service was held. There was a friendly rivalry as to who could
make the candles look best. My informant knew this service to
have been held within the last fifteen years at Abercarn. A little
girl writing this Christmas [1909] from the neighbourhood of
Llanfair, near Welshpool, says, — " Plygain or carol singing here
to-night." The letter is not dated, but sent off on Dec. 28th.
Welsh Sabbath. — In a curious book, Account of Aberystritth by
Edmund Jones, printed at Trevecca in 1779, the author says, —
"What progress the Reformation had made was miserably
destroyed by the Book of Sports. No doubt the profane part of
the people of Aberystruth received the news of these kingly and
episcopal orders with pleasure. And as the sinful Israelites
willingly followed the commandment of Jereboam to worship the
Golden Calves, and obeyed these wicked orders to the utmost, to
it they went with a witness, using all manner of sports in the
church yards, bringing music there to animate them in their evil
exercises, and sometimes, in some places the Parson himself was
the musician. All Hell rejoiced at it, for there was a dreadful
harvest of Souls prej)ared for it. Now did the Fairies frisk and
dance and sing their hellish music, for the darkness of ignorance
and vice in which they delighted returned again, and feasts of sin
Collcc(a)ica. 1 09
were made for them.'' Rowland Phillips says, — "In Wales there
was scarcely any necessity for such orders [the Book of Sports] for
the people enjoyed to the fulness of their hearts all games and
sports. Sunday was the day of all others for games, and the
Parish Churchyard shared with the old tennis court or castle
green the scene for athletic sports on Sunday afternoon." The
Rev. Rees Pritchards (c. 1620) in Catnvyll y Cymry^ writing of
the Welsh Sabbath, says : —
' ' A day for drunkenness and gaming,
A day for dancing and for loafing,
A day for harlotry and play,
Such is the Welshman's Sabbath day."
Fifth November. — The Fifth of November was celebrated in
Newport by rolling a lighted barrel of tar down Stow Hill, a street
in the town. This custom was ended because the people threw
into the fire a policeman, who had interfered with their wild sport.
Stow Fair. — This was held in Whit week up to 1S60. All the
people were allowed to sell beer at Fair time. They hung a bush
or branch from the house. Stow Fair always had a Lord Mayor
elected, who presided over the wild pleasures, and punished any
strangers who visited his kingdom without ])aying a toll. The
punishment was being ducked in the muddy pool, or sitting in the
stocks.
May 2()th. — At Caerleon the boys arm themselves with ash
branches and oak branches, and fight each other.
Tree BelieJ. — By the gate of St. Woolos Church [Newport] there
used to stand a very old tree that was hollow inside. The water
used to ooze through the bark and stand in the hollow part, and
was then supposed to have healing properties. The little girls of
the district used to bring their dolls, and christen them in the
water on Sunday mornings.
Marriage. — I was told by a working woman of the wedding,
which took place lately [1909], of a doctor living at a village a few
miles from Newport. '-As the family was much respected they
roped the bride." On enquiry I found this meant that, as the
bride and bridegroom were leaving the church, young men held up
a rope and prevented the bride from getting away until money was
given them. As the rope had been dropped in the muddy road.
iio Collcclaiiea.
the results on the bride's white satin dress may be imagined. I
am told that the bride is roped sometimes in Newport.^
{The late) E. J. Dunnill.-"
The Skyrrid, or Holy Mountain, is so called because it was
divided at the Crucifixion. One part of it is in America. There
has been no snail ui^on it ever since, or worm either : that is
because it is sacred; they cannot go tliere. (Collected at Brom-
yard, 1909.) Ella M. Leather.
Radnorsliire.
Four Stones, Old Rad)ior. — There was a great battle fought
here, and four kings were killed. The Four Stones were set up
over their graves. (Kington \Vorkhouse, 1908.)
Foundation Sacrifice (?). — The following paragraph, appeared
under " Brecon and Radnor Notes " in the Hereford Times, Nov.
26, 1910, concerning Dolfor Hall, which stands near the border
between the counties of Radnor and Montgomery. " Some eighty
years ago, when the old hall, (then 200 years old), was being
restored, a curious discovery was made. As the AN-orkmen were
pulling down the old house, in one corner of the big kitchen, under
the paving, they came across a vault made of flagstones, and
covered over with another flagstone. This vault contained a
horse's head at each corner, all pointing to the north. The only
explanation that could be gleaned was that the heads were placed
there, long before anyone then living could remember, to prevent
or counteract witchcraft, and that they were the heads of horses that
had mysteriously died from the effects of witchcraft. There was,
however, no local tradition." The local theory, though probably
quite a wrong one, proves the survival of a belief in witchcraft
among the inhabitants of Dolfor eighty years ago.
Ella M. Leather.
■* Cf. vol. xxiii., p. 459 (Piedmont) ; vol. xiii., pp. 231-2.
° See note •' p. 107.
REPORT OF BRAND COMMITTFLE.
NEW EDITION OF BRAND'S POPULAR AXTIQUITIES.
Ix reporting the progress of the work deputed to them the
Brand Committee desire to commence with an abstract of
a few particulars respecting the origin of the undertaking.
When Miss Burne delivered her address as President of
the Society in 1910 she directed special attention to the
paramount interest of National Folklore, at the same
time urging a practical endeavour to utilise the mass of
material which, owing to the exertions of the Society,
has been collected. Miss Burne's stirring appeal for a
vigorous attempt to complete the series of County Folk-
lore met with so much appreciation that she followed it
up b\' a circular letter to the Council on the same subject,
which was discussed. In the meantime Mr. Crooke, our
present President, threw out the suggestion that a practical
manner of carrying out some of Miss Burne's views would
be to prepare a new edition of Brand's Popnlctr Antiquities,
thus utilising the great stores of National Folklore dispersed
through the publications of the Society, as well as in the
considerable literature on the subject which has grown up
since the publication of Brand's work.
The President favoured this proposed solution of a
difficult question, and asked Mr. Wheatley to prepare a
memorandum on the best means for carrying it out. The
whole matter was discussed at a Council meeting on
April 20, 19 10, and it was agreed that the Society should
undertake the publication of a new edition of Brand's work.
The Council appointed a Committee "to consider what
steps should be taken to carry out the proposals contained
1 1 2 Report of Brand Couunittee.
in Mr. Wheatley's Note ... to consist of the President (Miss
l^urne), Vlx. Wheatley, and Air. Wright, with power to add
to their number."
At the Council meeting on June 27, 1910, the Committee
brought up the following recommendations, which were
duly adopted by the Council, viz. : —
1. That, in the first instance, the work be confined to
the sections on the Calendar, leaving the 'others to be dealt
with at a future period.
2. That the basis of the new edition be that of Sir Henry
Ellis, with such MS. additions to it as are known to exist.
With these should be collated Hampson's, Hone's, and
other works on the Calendar. Hone's original illustrations
should be reproduced. The volumes of Notes and Queries
and tlie printed Journals and other publications of the
Folk-Lore Society should be consulted ; a Bibliography of
other likely sources drawn up for the use of ^vorkers, and
all information brought up to date by means of local
inquiry.
3. That in the presentment of the matter theories and
guesses at origins should be omitted. The several items
of evidence to be arranged chronologically. The references
to be given briefly on a uniform system. Such of Sir H.
Ellis's parallels from classical and continental authorities
as it may be worth while to retain (on account of the
inaccessibility of their sources) to be placed together at the
end of the British and Irish matter.
(The work will be fully indexed, but the extent of the
index and its details cannot be decided upon until the
materials are in a forward state.)
4. That a general Director of the undertaking be
appointed, with several sub-editors and a large staff of
readers.
5. That communications be entered into with local
archaeological societies and museums with a view to sup-
plement the printed material by oral information whenever
Report of Brand Co)/n//i/fee. i i ,:;
lacuna.' in the former become apparent during the progress
of the work.
6. That in due course a specimen chapter be printed and
circulated for the guidance and instruction of workers, and
that the cost of circulating instructions and queries be
borne by the Society.
7. That the compilation of the Bibliographical list be
put in hand at once, and that two copies each of Ellis's
" Brand " and of Hone's works be procured and pasted down
for general use and collation.
8. That endeavours be made to get the staff of workers
together in time to begin with the New Year (1911).
The Council further appointed Mr. Henry B. Wheatley
as Editor-in-Chief, and a little later Mrs. M. M. Banks,
F.R.Hist.S., became a member of the Committee, in addition
to those previously mentioned.
The Committee had to consider in the first place what
was the character of the published material known as the
work of the Rev. John Brand, and how this was to be
amalgamated with the newer material available in Folk-
lore literature. The literary history of Brand's Popular
Antiquities is so truly remarkable that it will be convenient
to refer to it here.
Ill 1725 the Rev. Henry Bourne (1696-1733) published a
small but useful volume, compiled with the definite object
of drawing attention to the evils of the superstitious beliefs
held by the peasants. This was entitled " Antiquitates
Vulgares : or the Antiquities of the Common People, by
Henry Bourne, M.A., Newcastle-on-Tyne," a small octavo
volume of less than 250 pages. This publication was
evidently intended more for instruction than as an anti-
quarian essay.
Fifty-two years after this book appeared, the Rev. John
Brand (1744-1806) brought out a new edition with additions.
This, although more valuable for what it contains than the
previous book, is very clumsily edited, and therefore not a
114 Report of Brand Coniviittee.
convenient volume to consult. The title is as follows :
" Observations on Popular Antiquities, including the vvhole
of Mr. Bourne's Antiquitates Vulgares, with an Addenda
to every chapter of that work, also an Appendix, contain-
ing such Articles on the subject as have been omitted by that
Author. By JohnBrand,A.B. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1777."
Brand continued to collect further materials, with the
intention of publishing a new edition on a new plan. He
did not live to carry out this intention, and left his materials
in an unfinished state. He had, however, prepared a
preface for this edition which was dated August 4, 1795.
At the sale of Brand's librar\- in 1808 his MSS. were
purchased for the purpose of publication. Mr. (afterwards
Sir Henry) Ellis took the matter in hand, and in 181 3 two
handsome quarto volumes were published with this title:
" Observations on Popular Antiquities. ... By John Brand,
A.M. Arranged and revised with additions by Henry
Ellis, F.R.S."
Ellis's edition was republished with considerable addi-
tions in Bohn's Antiquarian Library in 1848 (3 vols.).
In 1870 Mr. W. C. Hazlitt published a revised edition
with additions; and in 1905 he brought out another edition
rearranged in alphabetical order.
The basis of the new work will be Ellis's "Brand," but it
will be necessary to a large extent, to rewrite the articles of
Brand, so that owing to our fuller knowledge at the present
time they may be more complete and less disconnected
than they appear at present. It will be at once seen that
the new materials are so considerable that Brand's contri-
butions will be largely outnumbered. With every wish to
do honour to Brand, it will not be possible to mark the
text of any particular edition of his work. Moreover, we
cannot attribute with certainty any particular portion to
Brand himself. An endeavour will be made to quote in
Brand's own words anything of special importance in his
own original work of 1777.
Rcf>orf of Brand CoiUDiittcc. 115
It is therefore proposed that tlie general covering title of
the new work shall be BraucVs Popular Antiquities, fol-
lowed by a specific title for the several divisions of the
work. The whole history of the mode of arrangement will
be explained in a Preface.
Should it be thought that this treatment is in any way
disrespectful to the memory of the man whose name is so
intimately associated with the subject, a moment's con-
sideration will show that in Ellis's " Brand " the contents
have been so much enlarged and rearranged as to have
lost all resemblance to the original edition.
The first work to be attended to b)' the Committee has
been the preparation of a Bibliography. The principal
works to be consulted were, of course, well known, but
much difficulty has been experienced in obtaining the
names of local publications, and this part of the list still
requires supplementing from local information. Parochial
histories generally yield more matter than county works.
Glossaries, memoirs, and reminiscences are also valuable
sources. The Committee are much indebted to Dr. T. E.
Lones, who has examined numbers of likely works at the
British Museum and weeded out from the list such as
proved not to contain any useful matter.
Considerable difficulty has in some cases been experienced
in obtaining copies of books, as many workers live out of
reach of libraries.
It has been arranged that general works should each be
undertaken by one worker, and not by several persons
searching for particular districts only ; but local works
have as far as possible been entrusted to workers locally
interested.
Nearly a hundred workers responded to the Committee's
appeal for help, and though few have been able to give
permanent assistance, yet their united efforts, though
temporary, have resulted in a considerable body of
material being got together.
I 1 6 Report of Brand Couiiiiittcc.
The material collected has been copied according" to the
directions issued by the Committee on slips of a fixed
uniform size. Salvage copies of the publications of the
Society have been cut up and the extracts pasted on slips
in the same way. Mr. Wright has so pasted down a late
edition of Ellis's " Brand," which will form the groundwork
of the Society's publication ; also Hone's Every Day, Year,
(iiiti Table Books, and Chambers's Book 'of Days. It has
been found that reading stimulates collection, and this is
what was to be expected.
The various extracts received consist, besides those
immediately relating to the Calendar, of a certain amount
of matter on I^^olklore generally. These miscellaneous
extracts will be put aside for fut.ure volumes, as the imme-
diate object is the satisfactory arrangement of the material
collected for the special division of the Calendar.
Of previous systematic additions to Brand, two annotated
copies of the quarto Ellis's " Brand " may be noted as in the
British Museum Library ; one among the Printed Books
and the other (added to by Joseph Hunter) in the Manu-
script Department (add, MSS. 24,544, -4-545)- It will
probably be well to leave the consideration of these until
the materials in hand are nearer completion. Otherwise
there would be some fear of confusion.
An annotated copy of Bohn's edition of IClUs's " Brand,"
which was prepared by the late William Kelly, has been
kindly lent to the Committee by Mr. C. J. Billson.
The Committee will be grateful for any information
respecting other annotated copies of Ellis's " Brand.'
The work done so far may be summarised as follows.
In England the "slipped" collections for the North and
East Ridings, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Hereford-
shire may be considered sufficiently complete. Shropshire,
which has also been well recorded, is in hand. Staffordshire,
Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, and Devon are well advanced
in the hands of competent workers. A good deal of
Repoi't of Brand Cotuniitfec. i i 7
recorded material is available for other counties, but
workers are needed to complete it ; and for several hardly
anything has been done, especially for Nottinghamshire,
Norfolk, the Fenland, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Kent, and
the south-eastern counties generally.
For Scotland, Gregor's North- East Scot/ and, Mrs. Spoer's
Outer Is/cs, and ten or twelve other volumes have been
slipped. The Orkney and Shetland collections have been
completed and slipped by Mr. A. W. Johnston, and Mr.
David MacRitchie has forwarded a useful collection of
newspaper cuttings accumulated during a series of years.
Hut, though much Scottish Folklore has been recorded, it
chiefly consists of stories and legends, principally Gaelic.
Lowland Folklore is ill-represented, and customs have
been little noted anywhere. Local workers are wanted.
.An effort was made at the Dundee Meeting of the British
.\ssociation in 191 2 to draw attention to the subject, and
it is hoped the suggestion may bear fruit. In Ireland
an independent Committee was founded a year or two
ago for the purpose of collecting oral traditions. Mr.
Westropp has kindly sent a valuable list of references
to Irish publications. Wales is well supplied with first-
hand printed collections, most of which have been, or are
being, read and "slipped," but readers acquainted with the
Welsh language are still needed. In the Isle of Man there
is still much to be done. In the Channel Islands the
Guernsey collection is completed, but hardly anything has
been received from Jersey.
It will be seen that the Committee have in their hands a
large amount of material for the preparation of a book of
great value ; but there can be no doubt that the revision,
and the elimination of repetitions in the material before
them, will be a work of considerable labour.
Taking account of the mere order of the Contents the
possibilities of the work ma)- be generally indicated,
but the Committee feel that it will be inadvisable to
1 I S Report of Brand Coiiniiittce.
formulate any rigid rules for the final treatment and plan
of the work until the bulk of the materials are in their
hands. Then it will be possible to arrange for the selection of
sub-editors, who possibly may be added to the Committee.
Suggested A rrangemeuts.
Preface. This will contain a full account of Brand and
his work in its various editions. What we owe to him and
to his admirable title, and his influence on those who come
after him in the gathering of the popular beliefs and
superstitions before they are entirely lost. Explanation
of the scheme of the work.
Series of Introductions to be prepared by experts on the
several subjects, commencing with the following : —
Calendars. Almanacs. Change of style.
Days of tlie Wee/e.
The Year. General Review of the whole subject.
TIte Four Seasons.
The Months.
At present it appears that it would be advisable to have
a sub-editor for each month, wiio would have before him (or
her) the whole of the extracts for that month, and would
prepare a readable introduction which would contain a
general resume of the folklore of that month drawn up
from the extracts before him, so that the extracts may
follow as the authorities in support of his description.
It is possible that it may be advisable to print some of
these articles in Follz-Lore as a help to the writers in
obtaining such further information as they may consider
needful after using all the materials that they have been
able to obtain. The Committee feel that although their
materials are abundant there are gaps in the information
which must be filled before the work is finally prepared
for the press. This publication would have the further
advantage of keeping up the interest of the members in
the work as it progresses.
Report of Brand/ Commit ttw 119
A Full Index to Complete the Work.
This being the general scheme (as proposed) of the
arrangement, minor matters will be dealt with as they arise.
The General T^ditor hopes to be able to prepare for office
use a general scheme of tlie whole year, and rough notes
on the different days, with references to places where
information is to be found, which will be available to
answer the inquiries of the sub-editors and help to preserve
a unity of treatment in the whole work.
At the present moment the need is for more workers
to complete the collection of material, especially in the
districts which, as indicated above, have as yet been
imperfectly covered. The help of librarians to supply the
titles of local books, of persons with some amount of
leisure to read them (a work which may be undertaken by
quite young people), of local pressmen and others whose
daily life causes them to mingle much with the folk, to
record local sayings and happenings, is urgently wanted.
And the Brand Committee appeal to all members of the
Society resident in the United Kingdom, who have not yet
taken part in the work, to give their aid, either by personal
labour or by introducing others, — not necessarily members,
— whose opportunities may be greater than their own.
The three other members of the Brand Committee wish
to append to this Report the expression of their high
appreciation of the unwearied labour which their colleague,
Mrs. Banks, has devoted to the conduct of the business
arrangements of the whole scheme. The correspondence
has been very heavy, and the care of the numerous manu-
scripts has been entirely in her hands. The measure of
progress achieved is mainly due to Mrs. Banks's energy and
ability.
Henry B. Wheatley.
CORRESPONDENCE.
I''oi.k-Mk!>icine in Loxdox.
I HAVE lately had opportunities for enquiry from druggists and
herbalists as to folk remedies still in use in London, and have
been able to record the following interesting examples :
Orris root. — This is the root of Iris florentiua^ and, apart from
its ordinary uses, some magical quality is ascribed to it. In
Whitechapel, the Jews use it to rub the gums of children cutting
their teeth. But they always select a piece of the root bearing
a fanciful resemblance to a human figure, and, in addition, they
select pieces more or less suggestive of male and female forms.
The male or " He Root " is used to rub the gums of girl babies,
while the "She Root" is used for boys. I obtained confirmation
of this custom in Shoreditch, Bow, and Barking. Some druggists^
however, were quite ignorant of this fact, but they were not in a
Jewish locality. They, on the other hand, sold orris root carefully
shaped to a form suggested by a child's " coral " (which, by the
way, is phallic).
Dragon s blood. — I am informed by a herbalist that factory girls,
and others of the same class, buy penny packets of this gum as a
love philtre. My first informant found this out quite by accident,
being rather surprised at the unusual demand for this material at
certain times. When I consulted my other friends in Shoreditch
and Bromley-by-Bow, they admitted, with some amusement, the
demand for dragon's blood, but could not imagine the reason,
although they said the girls always seemed half-ashamed when
asking for it.^
1 Cf. vol. XX., p. 221 (Stafts.) ; N. Ssr Q..,^. i. vol. ix., p. 242 (no locality).
"Dragon's blood " is "the inspissated juice of cerlain tropical plants of a red
colour, especially of the tree Plerocarpus draco.'^
Con-cspondiucc \ 2 1
Tonnentil root. — 'I'll is is the root of Potenlilla tormentilla^ and
is an ordinary herbal medicine. 'I'wo girls inquired of one of my
friends at Stratford-by-Bow for a "pennorth of tormentel." The
next week they came for more, and were asked wiiat they wanted
it for. After miicli hesitation and nervousness, one of the girls
said that the other, her sister, had been jilted by her young man.
She had consulted an old woman who was " wise," and this old
woman told her to get a bunch of ' tormentel ' root and to burn
it at midnight on a Friday. This would so worry and discomfort
the '• young man ' that he would return to his sweetheart. My
druggist friend told me that they came for three successive weeks,
and then stopped. He does not know if they succeeded, or gave
it up as a bad job, but he thinks tliey won !
Mandrake. — Although I iiave met with this at many herbalists
in poorer parts of London, it seems to be generally used medi-
cinally, and not as an amulet, or in magic. But in one lane in
London a man has a street pitch, and does a big trade in penny
slices of mandrake, which he assures his audience will cure every-
thing. His stock-in-trade, however, consists of a root or two
carefully selected on account of their resemblance to the human
form. This root is the white bryony, and he assured me that it
" screams terrible " when being pulled up ; also that it must be
pulled up at night.
E. LOVKTT.
Rules Concerninc; Perilous Days.
The following rules concerning perilous days will be found in
the Historical Manuscripts Cotmnissioti's Report {Manuscripts of
Lord Montague of Beau lieu, pp. 1-2), and seem worthy of preserva-
tion in Folk-Lore :
(Probably 15th Century.) The furste rule of the distinacionis
aforsaid. These buthe perilous dales as Sent Bernard seythe
that ho so ys bore in eny of them his flesshe schall nevere roty.
Thes dayes buthe marked above in the monthes in the signs
aforsaide (ij days in Marche and one in Januare 19 eve Januar;
14 day ^Lirc and t8 day Marc).
1 2 2 Correspondence.
The secund reule. There buthe perilous daies in the yeere
which Senct Johan. evangeliste in the He of Pathinios (.rzV), in the
whiche daies every man schuld shonys to make matrimonye or
bygynne eny longe viage or foundement of eny other grete worke
other of eny other grete doynge. The dayes hereof buthe marked
in the monlhes aforesaid at the signe made overe this processe.
The Hide rule. There buthe xxviij daies in the 3'ere that ho
so in wiche zif eny mann bygynnethe eney jorney, hit ys happylich
zif lie evere cometh a3en, and ho so ever bygynnethe to take eny
sikenesse hit ys wondere zif he evere recovere. And ho evere be
weddyd in eny of tho daies, hit spedethe not Avell. And ho so
evere ys bore in eny of thulke dayes happlych he lyvethe not
longe. The daies of these perilis buthe marked in the monthes
aforvvrite at the syne overe this processe.
The IIII. rule. The Mondayes in the yeere buthe in the whiche
hit ys weel perilous to eny mann or womann or beste to blede for
unnethe or nevere he schall schape, but that he schali be dede
therby, but the more spe'ciall grace of God lette hit, as by the
marke of this processe in the monthes afore.
The V. rule. There buthe iij perilous Mondaies in the veer as
clerkes seien. That the child that ys bore in eny of hem, he
schall be brende or droynt or deye sudeignely or somme other
foule dethe. And if hit be a maide child, hit schall become a lyzt
woman of hure body and therto badde but zif God lette hyr.
Also zif eny mann ete of eny goos fleshe in tho dayes his ys
drede leste he take the fallyng evyl therof.
Hit is not profitable to bygynne eny grete worke or grete jornay
in eny of thes iij dayes. And they buthe'marked in the Kalender
afore in Feverer, May and Septembre by the signe overe this
processe.
The best dayes of every month in yeer to bygynne eny gode
worke or take eny jornay ys the fyrste day, the iij, vj, vij, xiiij day.
Explicit.
Wytheinne haven. WHier so evere hit be one the prym eve, the
spryng ys at the hyest. And be hit atte the morow tyde ar at the
eve tyde that he be atte the hyest, thukke same daye sevenyzt at
the same tyde, hit bygynnethe to springe.
Correspondence. i 2 3
The furste prime aftur Twelfe day accompte x dayes aftur and
the prime day for one ; the next Saturday afture, Alleluia ys
closyd.^ Imperfect. 3 small pp.
(At the beginning of each paragraph is a roughly drawn device,
and on the fourth page is a fragmentary outline of a calendar, with
Sunday letters and the same devices. The only two names noted
are St. Juliana, Virgin, and St. John ante portam Latinam.)
L.\uki;nck CId.m.mk.
* Appareiul) :i plan for finding Scptiiagesima, when ilio Alleluia wduki cease
to be sung until Leni ua^ ended.
P.UKi.M. 1)1- Ami'Utaiei) Limbs.
(Vol. xxi., p. 387.)
I HEARD a lovely story last night [Feb. 12, 1913] from a friend
who has just returned from Johannesburg. A native man (a
Majanga) had his hand so terribly crushed by the shutting upon it
of a railway carriage door that one finger was actually pinched
right off. Though the i^ain must have been awful, he thought
nothing of it in his eagerness to regain possession of the lost finger
and have it properly buried, — lest he should be maimed in the
spirit world. I asked if the man had been under Mohammedan
influence, and was told, — "Probably, yes."
RoBT. .M. Heanley.
RFJIEWS.
A PsYCHOLOOicA?. Stidv OF RELIGION. Its Origin, Function, and
Future. By jami:> H. Leuba. New York : ALacmillan Co.,
1 91 2. Sm. 8v'(), pp. xiv + 371. 2$ n.
This book is a good illustration of the effective application of the
principles of psychology to the investigation of the qrigins of
primitive beliefs. There is much in it which is beyond the scope
of this review, — the relation of religion to morality and theology,
the latest forms of religion and its future, as illustrated by the
revival in western lands of Buddhism, Christian Science, and the
like. But enough remains to constitute an important contribution
to the investigation of primitive beliefs. The book is so closely
packed with matters of interest that it must be read as a whole.
Here it is possible only to give a summary of the main conclusion.^,
and that, as far as possible, in the author's own words.
F"irst comes an attempt to define " religion " : — " Religion is
that part of human experience in which man feels himself in
relation with powers of psychic nature, usually personal powers,
and makes use of them. In its active forms, it is a mode of
behaviour, aiming, in common with all human activities, at the
gratification of needs, desires, and yearnings. It is, therefore, a
part of the struggle for life. ... In its objective aspect, active
religion consists of attitudes, practices, rites, ceremonies, institu-
tions : in its subjective aspect, it consists of desires, emotions,
and ideas, instigating and accompanying these objective mani-
festations" (pp. 52 et seq.). "The reason for the existence of
religion is not the objective truth of its conceptions, but its
biological value. This value is to be estimated by its success in
/^(•:'n-7vs. 125
procuring not only the results expected by tlie worsliipper, but
also others, some of which are of great significance" (p. 53).
He accepts the conclusion of Sir E. Tylor that " out of naive
thinking about the visions of dreams and trances, and from com-
parisons of life with death, arose a belief in the existence of
spirits as the powers animating nature" (p. 70). But "an in-
creasingly large number of competent writers would now place
earlier than the Tylorian animism, or at least side by side with it,
another fundamental and universal belief, arising from commoner
and simpler experiences than visions : namely, a belief in the
existence of an omnipresent, non-personal power or powers"
<p. 72). This new theory is largely due to the work of Messrs.
1). Brinton, in the United States, and R. R. Marett, in England.
Discussing the views expressed by the latter writer, he remarks: —
" I maintain that in seeking to replace belief in personal agents
(animism) by Afa/ia, ' which leaves in solution the distinction
between personal and impersonal,' Marett disregards the only
definite line of cleavage which can be used to differentiate religious
from non-religious life ; that is, the line separating the attitudes
and actions that involve the idea of personal power from those
that do not. In my view of the matter, when the distinction
between personal and impersonal is in solution, religion itself is
likewise in solution" (p. 74//.). His theory postulates "first,
that the belief in non-personal powers is neither a derivative of
animism nor a first stej) leading to it, but that the two beliefs have
had independent origms : and, secondly, that animism a[)peared
second in order of time " (p. 77).
He goes on to condemn the attempt to seek the origin of super-
human, personal powers in some one class of phenomena, — the
dream theory of Tylor; .Spencer's worship of the dead; Max
Miiller's personification of natural objects. Gods grew, he asserts,
" out of several different ideas of superhuman beings : these beings
had independent origins : the attributes of the gods differ accord-
ing to their origin ; the historical gods are usually mongrel gods,
the outcome of the combination of the characteristics belonging to
superhuman beings of difterent origins ' (p. 86). ".Several of the
sources may have operated simultaneously in the formation of
divine ideas of superhuman beings and subsequently of gods, so
1 26 J^ez'ieivs.
tliat several gods of different origin may have, from the first,
divided the attention of the community, and tliese sources may
have been effective not simultaneously, but successively."
The discussion of magic is equally interesting. Magic and
religion have had independent origins ; magic contributed little to
the making of religion, and in its simpler forms probably antedated
religion : but, as the ends of both are identical, magical and
religious practices are closely associated. Religion is social and
beneficial : magic individual and often evil, and it is of shorter
duration than religion. Science is closely related neither to magic
nor religion, but to tlie mechanical type of behaviour.
Even this summary will show that the book, as a whole, is
interesting and instructive. The results will be seen to be far
from revolutionary, but so many actively disputed doctrines are
discussed that it is certain to arouse controversy.
\\. Crooke.
Geburt, Hochzeit und Tod. Beitriige zur vergleichenden
Volkskunde von Ernst Samter. Leipzig: Teubner, 191 1.
8vo, pp. vi + 222. 7 Ab. im Text + 3 Tafeln. 6 m.
Professor Samter's book is not perhaps exhilarating reading : it
is not the German way to beguile the journey through the wilder-
ness of fact with any cajoleries of style, and inevitably much of the
contents of this book is too familiar to students of folklore to be
very exciting. But, if it is a little tedious as an armchair com-
panion, the book is quite a compendious and useful little book of
reference for the study. It contains an examination of various
practices connected with birth, marriage, and death, the motive of
which is assigned to the aversion or [ilacation of the spirits which
threaten mankind at these crises of existence.
As regards the folklore of Germany and Central Europe, the
author seems well equipped. Many of his illustrations, even where
the practice illustrated is familiar, are new and interesting. His
knowledge of the foreign literature of folklore and of the anthro-
pological evidence appears to be more haphazard, and for savage
Rez'ieius. 1 2 7
customs he is for tlie most part dependent on second-hand material
rather than on tlie observations of field workers. The danger of
utiHzing citations without a knowledge of their context lies in the
undue simplification of the data, and ni a certain encouragement
of the tendency to collect similarities and neglect dissimilarities in
the comparative evidence. And it is the negative evidence that
produces the most certain results. Again, one has an uneasy
feeling that the rites connected with three great human crises are
not necessarily so homogeneous as Professor Samter assumes.
For instance, one remains unconvinced by examples of the offering
of shoes in burial ritual that shoes are thrown at newly-married
couples with the idea of making offerings of placation.
The author rightly acknowledges that a religious usage has
often more than one motive behind it, but in practice he is some-
limes seduced into the primrose path of simplification. The ritual
wearing of the clothes of the other sex, for example, presents more
and more complex problems than his chapter would lead one to
suppose. I am doubtful, by the way, if the hanging up of a pair
of trousers to defend mother and child from evil influences is
quite the same thing as wearing the clothes of the other sex.
There are dangers, too, in giving way to a tendency towards
dogmatic or a priori explanation. Some reasons given for obser-
vances are not sufficiently simple, we are told, to be original.
For instance, the statement of peasants that they put a broom in
front of the door because the A/p has to stop and count the twigs
(p. 34, Note 8) must, according to our author, be an invented
interpretation. But have we the right to push it aside in favour
of a hypothesis ? It is after all a very familiar device for dealing
with the stupid bogey. In modern Greece, if you meet a Kalli-
kdntzaros, and give him a sieve, he will stop to count the holes,
and as no Kallikdtitzaros can count more than two, you will have
ample time to escape. Similarly, witches can be induced to stop
and count the leaves on an onion-flower or a red carnation. ^
The first chapter again displays an eagerness to find a religious
meaning for an action for which a secular motive seems adequate.
After discussing the statue of a kneeling female figure wiiii two
1 Politis, IlapaSoo-ets, i. p. 596 ; Sir Reniiel Kodd, Ciis/ovts and Lore of
Modern Greece, p. 200.
128 Rcz'icivs.
attendant birth-daemons in the Sparta museum,'-' Professor Samter
suggests that the kneeling attitude during delivery brings the
patient into connection with Mother Earth. But that the best
medical authorities of antiquity disapproved of it shows only that
it was commonly adopted, not necessarily that it had any religious
or su])erstitious significance. I am aware that this attitude during
delivery is adopted among many peoples in the Lower Culture.
Kut in noting this fact Professor Samter apparently did not pause
to enquire the proportion of these cases in which any religious
significance was attached to the attitude. I can remember none
where it is even suggested, and, whether Greek medical opinion
was right or wrong, it seems to a layman an attitude which might
naturally be adopted from motives of supposed convenience.
W. R. Halliimv.
Reli(;ion.s Mceurs et Legendes : .Essais d'Ethnographie et
i)E LiNGUisTiQUE. By Arnolu van Gennep. Deuxihne
Si'rie, 1909; Qiiatrieme Serie, [19 12 J. Paris: Mercure de
France. 3 f. 50. per vol.
The first series of these valuable essays was noticed in these
pages in December, 1909, and the third series in December, 191 1 ;
and the critical qualities, both constructive and destructive, as
well as the wide learning of the author, evidenced in those
volumes find admirable expression also in their companions.
In view of a recent article in Folk-Lore by Miss Partridge the
opening essay of the first series on the Girdle of the Church will
now be re-read with much interest. It deals with the practice of
surrounding a church with a girdle of chains, silk or other stuff, or
a long waxen taper. After analysis of several such customs the
author comes to the conclusion that the object was to bind either
some evil or the church and its sacred inhabitants. The ]:)atron
. " To this stalue may he added a damaged terra-cotla group, which was found
in the course of the excavations conducted hy the British .School of Athens at
Sparta. Like the analogous Cypriote terracottas, it seems to represent the
goddess of childbirth with two attendant birth-daemons.
Reviews. 129
saint was thus bound in his dwelling. The English custom of
"clipping" the church with a girdle of live parishioners is not
mentioned. Yet the explanation of the one custom must he the
explanation of the other also. Whatever it may be, there can be
no doubt that its object was magical : a conclusion borne out by
the fact that, in our own country at least, a tree is often the object
"clipped."
Perhaps I may be allowed to refer also to another paper of
special attraction to students of folklore among the varied (and
all interesting) contents of the first series. The author there con-
siders the question whether we are always right in describing as
survivals the rites and beliefs which in various European countries
have been more or less incorporated into popular Christianity,
and yet are obviously not of Christian origin. He suggests that
in many cases they are not necessarily simple incorporations of
pre-existing pagan elements, but that something must be allowed
for invention by imperfectly-instructed native priests. In support
of the suggestion he points to some of the facts of modern mis-
sionary history, such as in Madagascar, where the host and the
consecrated wine have been known to be used as a poultice and
a medicine, and among the Tarascoes of Mexico, where an annual
religious ceremony consists of dancing in the church with lighted
tapers. Dancing has been a religious exercise among the natives
of Mexico from time immemorial; but it has never been admitted
by European Christianity as a religious rite. Here perhaps M.
van Gennep has forgotten the periodical dance by priests in the
cathedral at Seville. He i)oints out that the introduction of the
liglited taper is not a pagan rite in Mexico, and that the Tarasco
ceremony is therefore a compromise of a special kind, introduced
probably by the local priest, in which neither the hysterical dance,
nor the circuniambulation in the church, nor the tapers can be
solely explained as a survival. And he instances as a case of
popular invention in Europe the use of the enormous clapper of
the ancient bell in the cathedral at Mendes by women who come
to pray to the Virgin for children. In all such rites as these the
influence of pagan ideas can undoubtedly be traced ; but the rites
themselves cannot be put down as mere survivals. They have
been adapted or invented to give expression to impulses which
I
1 30 Reviews,
Christianity liad not eradicated, and for which in itself it provided
no obvious outlet. As the author puts it in another place, "our
Middle Age was a period of collective creation out of an original
stock ; that stock itself created ad hoc almost from top to bottom,
and in it only a minority of the more ancient elements occur
definitely as survivals."
The second series of the essays is quite as interesting as the
first, and even more varied. Its topics range- from the Man with
the Iron Mask to totemism and taboo, from the origin of alphabets
and of dialects to the meaning of saintship considered in con-
nection with the proposed canonization of Joan of Arc, that great
and devoted h.eroine, let me say, to whom Englishmen as much as
Frenchmen owe reverence and gratitude and what reparation they
can make to her memory for the cruelty, the wickedness, and the
bigotry of their former rulers in Church and State.
On the question of the historical value of tradition M. van
Gennep discusses the tendency, pronounced in certain quarters of
recent years, to accept traditions almost at their face-value as
records of historical facts ; and he argues convincingly that it is
first of all incumbent on students of folklore and ethnography to
determine with as much rigour as possible within what limits and
for what facts documents of popular origin may be utilized scienti-
fically. In another essay he wages a successful controversy
against the astral interpretation of myths and legends. The
astral interpretation is little more than our old friend the Sun
Myth. It has never been wholly abandoned in Germany; and a
short time ago a new society was started at Berlin for an organized
propaganda on behalf of the interpretation of myths as treating of
the celestial bodies. The propaganda will hardly survive reason-
able criticism. One of the longest essays in the volume is a
defence of the comparative method of enquiry on the subject of
taboo and totemism, reprinted with corrections and additions
from the Revue de V Histoire des Eeligions. The controversy has
somewhat changed its ground since the essay was republished.
The methods of Dr. Graebner, rather than the purely historical
method of M. Tousain, have taken the front of the battle. For
all that the defence here presented of the comparative method
as equally legitimate and necessary with the historical method
Revieivs. 131
remains valid. Nor is it by any means without its application to
the more recent speculations of Dr. Graebner's school.
M. van Gennep takes up his parable on totemism again in the
fourth series of Essays. Reviewing Dr. Frazer's Totemism and
Exogamy, he regrets, as others do, that Strehlow's accounts of the
Arunta organization and beliefs were entirely ignored in that wide
survey. But amid much appreciation of the patient and minute
research displayed, his chief complaint is the difficulty of forming
a notion of what totemism is in itself, and the extreme vagueness
of Dr. Frazer's definition when at last he ventures on giving one.
The difficulty of defining totemism in a manner acceptable to
anthropologists has been exemplified in the controversy in which
the late Andrew Lang took part just before his lamented death.
The very existence of totemism as an institution has indeed been
denied by those for whom British archaeology is effete, and by
whom scientific comparisons between the beliefs, customs, and
institutions of different nations are relegated to the Crack of
Doom, if that will not be really a little premature. In the mean-
time for students the question of definition presses ; for in the
present state of things the most absurd blunders are made for
want of proper definition. The author, therefore, comes back to
an old proposition of his, — namely, to forbear speaking of tote-
mism, at all events in a general way, and to give to each form of
what we now usually and loosely include under the name of tote-
mism its own particular name. Thus he would speak of the
sibokism of the Eastern Bantu ; the system of guardian spirits
especially developed in British Columbia he would call suliaism ;
the institution he finds in West Africa he would call tenne'ism or
iafidism, and so on. This might be feasible; it would at least
provisionally get over the difficulty. He has a further quarrel
with Dr. Frazer over the latter's refusal of all religious signifi-
cance to totemism ; and, while he agrees with him in denying
exogamy to be a fundamental characteristic of totemism, he
insists on knowing among which of the tribes of Australia "pure
totemism " is to be found, since the divergencies of form there are
to be reckoned by the number of " nations" (in Howitt's sense of
the word), if not of tribes, and until the question is answered an
exact idea of "pure totemism" cannot be framed.
1 3 2 Reviews.
An excellent article, in the guise of a lecture delivered at the
University of Brussels, discusses the study of rites and myths and
their relation to one another. Here, after considering other
methods of study and interpretation, he puts in a powerful plea
for his own method expounded in his little book on Les Rites de
Passage. It consists in always studying the sequence of which
any given rite forms part, and never, as too often is done, tearing
it from its context and attempting to study i-t apart, — a method
that cannot conduce to certain results, and too often leads the
enquirer wildly astray. Elsewhere he returns to his Savoyard
studies, begun in previous volumes. In a fascinating dissertation
he traces the influence of the Chansons de Geste on the folklore of
Savoy, showing how stories have been transferred from literary
romances and localized. Following the pilgrimage routes over the
Alps, he demonstrates that they are dotted with places in which
mysteries and passion plays were represented, and from whence
the custom of performing sacred dramas did not penetrate to
other towns of Savoy until the seventeenth century. The volume
closes with a powerful plea for the. preservation of dialects. In
connection with this should be read an article in the second series
on the theory of special languages, slang and jargon included, as
demanded by the progress of the organization of society.
In the foregoing paragraphs I have only attempted to notice a
few of the more salient essays contained in these volumes. M. van
Gennep's style is clear and straightforward, he is always thought-
ful, his arguments are frequently weighty, and his interests touch
almost every side of folklore and ethnography.
E. Sidney Hartland.
Church and Manor. A Study in English Economic History.
By S. O. Addy. George Allen & Co., 19 13. Demy 8vo,
pp. XXX + 473. 111. los. 6d. n.
Mr. Addy terms his book " A Study in English Economic History."
The bulk of its 456 pages of text is devoted to an exposi-
tion of the very many and varying ways in which the mediaeval
village church ministered to the temporal as well as the spiritual
Reviews. 133
requirements of tlie parishioners. Probably the general reader will
be astonished to find how long is the list of what to modern
thought seem profane usages. The church fabric was the general
repository of the village : not only the armour provided by the
township, but more personal property, such as corn and wool,
was stored by those whose own buildings were either too small or
too damp. The parson in many cases, of course, had his tithe
barn, but it seems that the proper place for the payment of tithes,
where this was lacking, was the church. At Sarnesfield pigeons
were kept in the tower and nesting holes provided. In 161 7
Francis Tresse of Monkton confessed at the archdeacon's visita-
tion that he had laid his plough harness "on a wet day" in the
belfry. One of the most remarkable cases in point is omitted by
Mr. Addy. At Abbot's Bromley the reindeer horns which figure
in the annual Horn Dance in September are still warehoused in
the church tower. To a certain extent the church played the part
of a village clubroom : it served as the village theatre : to the
churchyard flocked holiday-makers at the Wakes to buy from
pedlars' stalls and to watch wrestling, cock-fights, and the morris
dancers. The Horn Dance was in times past carried out in the
churchyard, but now the front doors of public-houses form a more
lucrative " pitch." Men of the Middle Ages feasted in church :
they drank in church : they slept in church. In sterner times
men sought sanctuary or staved off a Danish raid in the towers
still existing at Salkeld in Cumberland, at Barton-in-Humber, and
many other places on the exposed Northumbrian frontier. The
church was in a very real sense associated with the everyday life
of the population clustered round it. As a diligent and compre-
hensive collection of the evidence relating to the secular adapta-
tion of the church fabric this book is distinctly suggestive and
useful.
Mr. Addy passes to another phase of the same topic. If the
parishioners found the church fabric of everyday practical con-
venience to them, it is not surprising to find that they were made to
pay for it. To see that they did pay through the medium of church-
ales held upon festival days was one of the principal labours which
devolved upon the churchwardens. Though not accepting that
Mr. Addy is right in maintaining that churchwarden and manorial
] 34 Reviews.
reeve were "identical," (which is a big word,) we may present
him with a point he has missed which is in his favour. Whatever
the origin of the Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance may have been,
there seems no doubt that in the seventeenth century it was a
species of church-ale, for to it " there 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 " :
the onlookers paid " pence apiece " and the profits went to the
repair of the church. Here the reeves evidently acted as church-
wardens, and the dance is considered to be of manorial origin.
The evidence Mr. Addy has collected on the trading of church-
wardens seems to us the most valuable and original part of his
book. Churchwardens' accounts published by the Somerset
Record Society show that at TintinhuU in the fifteenth century
the wardens had a monopoly of the sale of bread and beer : they
managed a common brewhouse and bakehouse, and devoted the
profits to the upkeep of the church. On occasions also they let
the brewhouse for private " functions." One must not, however,
regard the wardens of TintinhuU as publicans. Anybody could sell
ale provided that he bought it from the common brewhouse. Nor
must one argue from the particular to the general, and regard trading
churchwardens as at all common. In this particular instance we
are evidently dealing with a manorial privilege farmed by the
wardens from the ecclesiastical corporation who happened to hold
the lordship. Another useful chapter is that which illustrates the
effect of monastic ownership upon both the structure and the con-
trol of the appropriated parochial churches. " When the founder
gave the church and rectory to the priory [of Wymondham] he
only gave the advowson and the greater part of the tithes, and the
parishioners retained the rights to the nave, aisles, tower, and
churchyard which they had enjoyed before. ... In such a case
the monks usually took the eastern limb or chancel, whilst the
parish had the nave and aisles, a dead wall separating the two
divisions of the building. Such arrangements often gave rise to
disputes, and even to riots, on account of the encroachments which
the monks were constantly making on the rights of the parishioners"
(pp. 379, 376). An interesting illustration of this is what happened
at Wymondham in 1249 and again in 1409. The parishioners
Reviews. 135
boarded up the two doors through which communication between
the chancel and nave was obtained and cut down trees in the church-
yard to make a test case of it, just as to-day a gate is knocked
down to assert a right-of-way. At the dissolution the monastic
portion of Wymondham Church was allowed to become derelict.
This dual ownership is responsible for many architectural irregu-
larities that at first sight are a puzzle to ecclesiologists.
When Mr. Addy abandons fact for theory he certainly shows
courage, for he is surely alone in laying down the general proposi-
tions " that lord and priest were once the same person ; that the
hall cannot at an early time be distinguished from the church ;
and that ecclesiastical benefices were themselves manors, with all
the privileges which belonged to feudal lordship "(p. vii). His
evidence in no way supports this proposition, as it is drawn mainly
from a late feudal period, when advowsons, rectories, and manors
were all different forms of property, and no doubt were in many
cases the property of one individual. Nor can evidence as to the
original unity of church and hall, which is derived from Irish tribal
and monastic society, be allowed much weight in determining the
evolution of the English parish church. Again, after reading at
p. 450 that " the evidence supporting the inference that the bene-
fice and the manor were originally the same thing depends in some
degree on that which supports the opinion that the hall and the
church fabric were once indistinguishable," we at once ask for a
definition of "manor" and "benefice." In area they very often
were co-terminous, and in that sense identical, but in any other
sense certainly not. Space does not permit of examining Mr.
Addy's ingenious argument in full. He does not appear to adopt
the usual interpretation of Edgar's law as to tithe payment : and the
contiguity of manorhouse and church is most reasonably explained
by the supposition that the manorial lord built the church on a
site to suit his own convenience. Apart from his too visible
efforts to fit facts to theory, Mr. Addy has produced a valuable
and a well-indexed volume which will be welcomed if only as a
useful digest upon a subject which was badly in need of one.
S. A. H. BURNE.
I ^6 Reviews.
Chants Populaires de la Grande-Lande et des Regions
voisiNES. Recueillis par F#.lix Arnaudin. Musique, texte
patois et traduction francaise. Tome I. Paris : Honore
Champion, 1912. Pp. lxxxvi + 512. 8 fr.
It is more than a quarter of a century since M. Arnaudin pub-
lished a small but interesting and characteristic collection of
Contes Populaires of a district in the south-east of France, little
known to the outside world, and perhaps possessing few attractions,
save to those to whom ancient manners, customs, and traditions,
with their quaint peculiarities and provincialisms, are dear. It was
the first fruit of a labour to which he had already dedicated
several years, in the effort to save for the benefit of posterity
the knowledge of the modes of thought and ways of life of a
peasantry long isolated from the main current of modern ideas
and the development of modern civilization. Since that time he
has continued his collections with unwearied diligence ; for the
rupture with the past is now, as he says, at last an accomplished
fact, and haste was necessary if anything was to be saved "of what
was our ancient life and shed so much originality, so much primitive
simplicity around our old hearths."
With the present volume he has begun the publication of the
songs of the rural population. It includes cradle songs and dance
songs, with the tunes to which they are sung. To both of these
the attention of the Folk-Song Society should be directed, with
the object of comparing them with English songs. They have
been collected with great pains, in or.der to ensure scrupulous
exactitude even to the smallest details. M. Arnaudin lays stress
on the absolute sincerity with which they have been recorded, and
without which, it is obvious, they would be worthless for all pur-
poses of students. Of the coarser songs he has been very sparing.
Coarseness, and even sometimes obscenity, is a feature of all
Naiurvolker, including in that category the uneducated classes
of civilization. Entirely to ignore this feature would be to present
a picture that would be untrue to life. But, he justly says, the
bulk of such songs must be and remain Kpv--d6ia. What are
mild enough to be given are a hint that such things formed part
of the peasant mentality ; and we need no more.
Revieivs. 137
Among the guarantees of authenticity is a lengthy list of the
peasant singers to whom the author is indebted. It includes not
merely the names of both men and women, but also details as to
birthplace, residence, age, and occupation. This is an excellent
example which might be followed in collecting traditions wherever
practicable.
A careful account of the pronunciation, and the literal transla-
tion which follows each song, give a valuable insight into the
dialect. The appendix and notes elucidate a number of customs
to which reference is made, or which are the occasions of the
songs, and are indispensable for their understanding.
Lastly, the volume is adorned with five clear and beautiful
plates from photographs of customs that have now passed or are
passing away, and of the ancient musical instruments of the district.
It is to be hoped that M. Arnaudin, after forty years spent in
collection, will be enabled speedily to give the world the results of
his life's work, not merely by publishing the remainder of the
songs, but also the tales and customs that without his help would
have vanished and left not a wrack behind.
E. Sidney Hartl.\nd.
Albrecht Dieterich. Kleine Schriften. Herausgegeben
von Richard Wunsch. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1911.
8vo, pp. xlii + 546. Mit einem Bildnis und 2 Tafeln. III.
12 m.
The death of Albrecht Dieterich in 1908 at the age of forty-two,
and at the height of his powers, was an irreparable loss to German
scholarship and to the study of the history of religions. Apart
from the stores of accumulated knowledge that were buried with
him, his untimely death removed a teacher endowed with the
power of arousing interest and stimulating enthusiasm in those
studies to which he had devoted his great gifts. In this country,
where it is the fashion, — perhaps too much the fashion, — for classi-
cal scholars to coquette with folklore and ethnology, it is difficult
to estimate at its true value the personal influence of Dieterich
1 38 Reviews.
and Hermann Usener or to realise the hostility towards the com-
parative method displayed by German Fhiioiogeti, for whom the
apotheosis of Quellenforschung condemned the use of new supple-
mentary methods as ' a going over unto idols.' Dieterich's work
was not in vain. "Nur das im Menschen ist dauernd, was im
Herzen von anderem fortlebt" is a saying of Usener which he
quotes in the obituary notice reprinted in this volume. While
it is perhaps true that at the moment there ,is no successor of
quite the same calibre to take his place, his work is being faithfully
carried on, and, to quote but one objective manifestation of his
influence, the series of Religloiisgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorar-
beiten is evidence of the existence of a rising generation of scholars
inspired by his spirit of enthusiasm and devoted industry. The
sketch of his life and work, reprinted at the beginning of the book,
reveals the influence exercised by a strong and lovable personality
on his friends, colleagues, and pupils. And very interesting is the
account of his upbringing by a devoted father, a schoolmaster, a
strong provincial patriot, a man of forcible character and of pro-
nounced, even narrow, religious creed. In his Hessian patriotism
lay the roots of Dieterich's interest in the Folk,^ while the respect
inculcated for the religious views of his father, which he himself
ceased to share, taught him, when analysing the devious tangle
of religious beliefs belonging to the age in which Christianity
emerged, to avoid a bias, which is as great an obstacle to the
attainment of the truth as any prejudice of religious dogmatism.
The volume contains the bulk of Dieterich's work apart i'rom his
books, reviews, and smaller dictionary articles. The thirty papers
arranged in chronological order include the two large articles in
Pauly-Wissowa on Aeschylus and Euripides, his enlarged doctorate
thesis, and his Habilitatiotisschrift in Marburg, the obituary notice
of his master and father-in-law, Hermann Usener, and papers on
matters connected with the classics, folklore, and Christian legend.
Two have not previously appeared in print. The papers naturally
vary in importance, and the range of subjects is too wide to permit
of an adequate notice of their contents in detail. The classical
articles are probably more familiar to English students than the
^Cf. the eloquent passage in his address Dber Wesen iind Ziele der Volks-
kunde, p. 289.
Reviews. 139
contributions to journals of New Testament criticism or Hessian
folklore. The chronological sequence of the whole throws an
interesting light on the development of the author's interests. Up
to 1900 we find him engaged in the disentanglement of the literature
of the magical papyri and Orphic hymns, or occupied as a pure
classical scholar chiefly with his favourites, the Attic dramatists.
In I goo the first of his folklore papers appears, — Ein hessiches
Zauberbuch. It is an interesting application of the method learned
in working on the magical papyri of antiquity to the no less chaotic
material of folk magic, and demonstrates the distribution of an
original document over a wide area. The Hessian magic book
turns out to be derived from Wiirtemburg, and the Black Forest
district appears to be the home, at any rate in the nineteenth
century, of a familiar type of magic book which is found all over
Germany.
After I goo we find Dieterich in increasing degree applying
himself to problems of folklore or utilising the comparative method
in his investigations into classical religion. The two papers on
Hitnmelsbriefe illustrate the same method as that on the Hessian
magic book. He analyses the text of these letters, which are
supposed to descend from heaven to serve as charms, and demon-
strates that the majority form a combination the parts of which
consistently conform to certain original types. The kernel of the
letter, with its injunctions as to the observance of Sunday, suggests
a Jewish original as the ultimate source. This hypothesis is con-
firmed by corroborative evidence in the second paper, which
proceeds to suggest some classical references to the same supersti-
tion. That it may have influenced the literary forms adopted by
Menippos and Lucian, both Semites, is a brilliant conjecture, but
the alleged references in classical authors are more dubious,
and the letter in Fausanias, x. 38, does not seem to me quite
parallel.
The papers on ABC-Denkmiiler link the alphabets on Greek
vases, and house walls, hitherto awkwardly explained as schoolboy
exercises or fruits of a mason's idle moments, with the use of the
Greek alphabet in the dedication ritual of the Roman Church,
through a connecting chain of evidence as to the magical use of
letters of the alphabet in spells and exorcism. In the matter of the
1 40 Reviews.
use of the alphabet in divination Dieterich seems to have over-
looked the inscriptions of Adada and Limyra.-
Die Weisen aus detn Morgenlande is another paper of great
interest, not merely to students of early Christianity and its struggles
with Mithraism, but also to those who are concerned with the
genesis of saga. Dieterich has shown that the story of tlie Three
Wise Men reflects an historical event which had impressed the
popular imagination of the contemporary world, — the visit of
homage paid by Tiridates and his attendant magi to the Emperor
Nero in 66 a.d.
Sofnmertag contains examples of seasonal songs ancient and
modern, but nothing very new except the attempt to apply them
to two Roman wall paintings. As to the general character of the
scenes depicted, the explanation seems plausible, but in detail we
are not taken very far.
The address t/ber JVesen unci Ziele der Volkshoide is an eloquent
appeal for the scientific recognition of the subject. The analogy
between the comparative study of culture and comparative philology
supplies the main argument. And the warning that is drawn from
the comparison is important. " Ich bin der Uberzeugung, dass sie
wissenschaftlich nur der treiben kann, der in irgend <?/«<? Philologie,
d.h. in dem Studium einer gesamten Volkskultur, so zusagen, mit
beiden Fussen steht."
The paper on the origin of Greek tragedy is clear, sound, and
suggestive. Two points in particular deserve attention. The
suggestion that the ritual of the Eleusinian mysteries influenced
the development of Aeschylean tragedy, and the recognition that
here the comparative method serves chiefly to emphasise the
unique character of Greek drama. The parallels show the uni-
versal connection of drama with cult, but throw no light on the
unaided development of cult drama into tragedy. True the modern
drama is born of the religious play, but Seneca was its father. " Es
gibt nur einen Gott Dionysos und es gibt nur einen Kunstler
Aischylos."
Of the two previously unpublished works, the first, Der Ritus
der verhiillten Hdnde, collects the examples of the ritual covering
of the hands in court ceremonial or religious practice. Instances
-C.I.G. 4310, 43790.
Reviews. 141
are found in ancient literature and monuments ; in early Christian
art it is common, particularly in the Byzantine period ; it survives
sjioradically down to the Quattrocento, and even appears in works
of Luini and John Bellini. The literary evidence and that relating
to the appearance of the rite in lay usage point to a Persian origin,
and to its adoption in the court ceremonial of the Empire by
Diocletian.
The last paper consists of 91 pages, entitled Der Untergang der
antiken Religion. Unfortunately only the first chapter was found
completed at Dieterich's death ; the remainder has been edited
from notes used by the lecturer and those written by his audience.
Obviously such a reconstruction will suffer by comparison with
finished work ; it is a little bald, and the material would have been
arranged somewhat differently in a written essay. But none the
less the whole was well worth publishing. It gives an account,
admirably clear and intelligible yet based on great learning, of the
period of religious history with which Dieterich's studies had been
chiefly occupied. He traces the internal causes of the fall of the
high gods of Greece to " the revolution from above," manifested in
the growth of the scientific spirit, rationalism, scepticism, and that
last desperate venture of the Stoics, the attempted solution of
religious doubts by allegorical interpretation, and " the revolution
from below," beginning with Dionysos and the mysteries and
culminating in Orphic magic, i.e. the development of a popular
mysticism with its interests centred in a future life and built on the
foundations of primitive superstition. "The revolution from
without" passes in review the various cults, which invaded the
ancient world in increasing numbers, and a chapter follows
sketching the superstitious tendencies of the Alexandrian age, and
its underworld of magic. The last chapter summarises the struggle
and victory of Christianity.
One or two details in a general account are of course open to
criticism, but it is a masterly and illuminating sketch. One realises
in reading it the debt which Christianity owes to its organisation.
It succeeded against its rivals partly because it was less compro-
mising. It would never have uttered a plea based on surrender
like that of Symmachus defending paganism against its assaults.
"To the same stars we look upward, one heaven is above us, one
1 4 2 Revieivs.
earth beneath our feet, — more than one way leads to the great
secret." And in contemplating the assimilation of the various
rival religions to each other, one realises the importance of its
uncompromising attitude towards its internal organisation. Heresy
was a real danger.
I have done little more than mention a few of the papers in this
book which are likely to be of particular interest to students of
folklore. It is no unworthy memorial of a scholar of generous
imagination and great learning. Richard Wii'nsch is to be con-
gratulated on his labour of love, and the thanks of the reader are
due to Otto Weinreich for the unobtrusive work entailed by the
compilation of an adequate index. The book is printed in a
manner worthy of the great house of Teubner, and it is the more
unfortunate that the sewing should be of a character which renders
a visit to the bookbinder the inevitable corollary to cutting its
pages.
W. R. Hallidav.
Natursagen. Eine Sammlung Naturdeutender Sagen Marchen
Fabeln und Legenden. Herausgegeben von Oskar Dahn-
hardt. Band IV. Tiersagen, Zweiter Teil. Bearbeitet von
O. Dahnhardt und A. Von Lowis of Menar. Leipzig :
B. G. Teubner, 191 2. Large 8vo, pp. ix + 322. 8 m.
A great deal of hard work and good learning have gone to the
making of this further instalment of AJaiursagen. A mass of
material has been collected and reduced to something like order,
and the gratitude of students is due* to the authors for an
admirable book of reference for the animal stories with which it
deals. To call it a book of reference is not to slight their ability
nor the interest of their work. So little scientific work has been
done as yet in their particular field that the primary necessity is
spade work, and any honest book on the subject can at present
claim no more than to provide Prolegomena. The material has
first to be rendered manageable before lasting conclusions can be
drawn.
This is illustrated in the book itself In Europe, where more
preliminary surveying has been done, our authors walk with firmer
Reviews. 143
steps. When it comes to crossing continents, we are less
confident in our guides. The bridges are at best working
hypotheses. It is not the fault of Diihnhardt and his collaborators,
but of the present state of our scientific equipment. Above all
more regional study is needed. A comprehensive study of the
beast tales of Africa, for example, is necessary before we can
follow the Tar Baby story without misgiving from a literary source
in India across Africa to America.
The fact of the matter is that our working hypotheses are weak
instruments, and I suspect Diihnhardt of under-estimating the
difficulties of charting lines of transmission. Firstly, the earliest
literary source does not necessarily give us the home nor the
original form of a story. Both yEsop and the Panchatantra are
highly sophisticated, and an oral version of a story may quite well
represent an older tradition than they. Secondly, the possibility
of independent invention cannot wholly be excluded, particularly
in the case of beast tales, whose motifs are so very simple.
Thirdly, a connection between two regions must imply an inter-
change of stories both ways. Before satisfactory conclusions can
be drawn as to lines of transmission we need new criteria, and
these can only be supplied by a closer study of regional
characteristics. It is precisely for the reason that both the literary
and the oral tradition in Europe have been subjected to this
intensive study that we find Dahnhardt convincing in the
European field and only plausible outside it.
The addition of a bibliography is a valuable asset for the
student. It is a pity that it is unnecessarily disfigured by a
number of misprints in the titles of foreign books.
W. R. H.MXIDAV.
The Life of a South African Tribe. By Henri A. Junod.
Vol. ii. The Psychic Life. Neuchatel : Attinger Ereres,
1 91 3. [Macmillan.] 8vo, pp. 574. 111. 15s. «.
With this second volume M. Junod has completed the task of
giving an account of the customs, institutions, and beliefs of the
Thonga tribe of the South African Bantu. Although the sub-title
144 Reviews.
of the volume is 77ie Psychic Life, its subject is more compre-
hensive than that phrase would necessarily import. For it
includes not merely the " literary " and artistic life and the
religious life (in a word the folklore in the large sense used by the
Folk-Lore Society), but also the agricultural and industrial life, —
that is to say, that important slice of ethnography often included
by German writers under the name Volkskunde.
The chapters dealing with the latter are, it is needless to say,
replete with interest, and abundantly prove that the folklore in
our sense of the word cannot be understood without a knowledge
of the varied industries with which a people provides for the
maintenance of the individual lives of its members, and its
continuance as a community in its physical environment.
Economic causes and considerations are inseparably bound up
with its organization, its arts, and its religion. Especially is this
the case with the hunting customs, where, if anywhere in this
department of life, we may find indications of archaic modes of
thought and archaic practices, such as may interest students who
are seeking for origins.
In that part of the volume devoted to the "literary" and
artistic life Junod sketches, necessarily in outline only, the Bantu
grammatical system ; and he devotes much attention to the songs
and music of the tribe. The poetry, as throughout the lower
culture, consists chiefly of the repetition of a few phrases and
sentences, and affords many a glimpse into the development of
ballad poetry out of refrains continually reiterated. In dealing
with folk-tales the author refers to his previous collection of
Chants d Conies des Baro?iga, and adds here comparatively few
new stories. He points out that the wealth of tales is vast. He
has collected about fifty Thonga tales, but is under the impression
that these only amount to a fifth or perhaps a tenth of the total :
I should not be surprised to learn that this is an under-estimate,
for no oral tale is conclusively fixed either in form or substance
as one committed to writing is. It is still, as he says, "a plastic
matter unconsciously undergoing constant and extensive modifica-
tions in the hands of the story-tellers." We are all familiar with
the phenomenon. Its result is that the incidents not merely vary
in themselves, but they drop out of one story and find a jilace of
Revieivs. 145
harbourage in another, or they float away and coalesce with
similarly floating incidents to form new stories. The catena of
incidents in a story is always changing. The early studies of the
Folk-Lore Society showed without any doubt that the point on
which attention should be directed is not so much the plot of the
whole story as the separate incidents. They are the units out of
which a tale is made by ever new combinations. The incidents
are very largely a common stock, — one cannot quite say a
universal possession of mankind. Whatever origin may be
assigned to them, they are presumably very ancient. It is their
changing combinations and modifications to suit different stages
and forms of culture that constitute the puzzle which they often
present. The plots resulting from such modifications and com-
binations may often be new or peculiar to different peoples. In
this sense a tale may be sometimes quite modern, while the stuff
out of which it is woven is almost as old as the human race itself
Kthnographically the chief interest of folk-tales lies in these
changes and the hints they may give us of political, economic, or
social evolution or environment of the people that tell them.
Interesting as are the chapters in which the author deals with
this side of the mental and emotional life of the Thonga, far more
interesting is the part of the volume consecrated to their religious
life. It is probable that, from causes we can but vaguely con-
jecture, the Thonga have emerged from a type of totemism
common to other branches of the Bantu race. The totem-kin has
broken down. It is in fact everywhere breaking down among the
Bantu. Among the Thonga it has disappeared with practical
completeness. The family, descendible through males, has taken
its place as the social unit ; and the only beings who receive any-
thing like an organized cult are the Manes of ancestors, either of
the family or the chief of the group which M. Junod calls a clan.
Traces of maternal descent seem, however, to be found in the
veneration of maternal, as well as of paternal, ancestors. There is
some want of precision in the author's information on the subject :
it does not distinctly appear whether the maternal Manes that are
honoured are those of the mother's maternal ancestors or of her
paternal ancestors. The chief performs rites addressed to his
ancestors on behalf not only of himself and his family, but also of
K
1 46 Reviews.
the entire group over which he rules, and which is called by his
name. Officially, it would appear, his ancestors are regarded as
the ancestors of the group, though as a matter of fact the real ties
between the chief and his group are rather political than con-
sanguineous. The point of interest is that their relations to one
another are modelled on consanguinity, and that the religious
implications follow the presumption of the blood-bond.
M. Junod discusses once more, and wijh some additional
evidence, the Thonga idea of Tilo (Heaven), on which he had
given much information in his previous book on the Baronga.
He hardly carries the true interpretation, however, further than
Callaway was able to do in dealing with the Zulu belief, though
he adds some curious details. His account of Thonga magic is
full of interest, especially the section dealing with possession and
exorcism. Exorcism is a special branch of the medicine-man's
profession. Nobody can exercise it who has not been himself at
one time possessed. Indeed, possession is the only'method of
initiation into the business of an exorcist. The spirits who are
active in possession are, it should be noted, not the ancestral
spirits, the ordinary objects of worship, but alien spirits ; and they
subsequently receive a cult from the patient. The exorcists form
a separate guild or society, though they often combine the func-
tions of exorcist with other branches of the medicine-man's busi-
ness. When they die special rites are paid, possibly, I may
suggest, because of their special cult. The funeral is attended by
other exorcists ; the corpse is unusually taboo ; it is not laid in
the grave in the manner of ordinary corj)ses ; a species of urticaria
growing in the water is laid on its head, " to cool him " and
prevent the deceased from coming out of the grave to trouble the
survivors. A little hut is built on the grave for the same purpose ;
one of his followers dances on the grave, and, when the mourning
is ended, he burns the drugs at the annual feast and succeeds to
his master's place. M. Junod's account of the practice of divina-
tion is also very detailed, accompanied with diagrams (one of
them reproduced from his previous work), and the result of much
careful enquiry.
Lastly, a section is devoted to an examination of Thonga
taboos. The author distinguishes between taboos properly so
Reviews. 147
called {yila^ supernaturally sanctioned), infringements of iiau (the
law), and mere observances of etiquette. (Compare the Latin/a5
and jus.) In connection with this matter he points out that
Uantu religion and Bantu morality are mutually independent.
M. Junod has laid all students of anthropology, and especially
all students of Bantu civilization, under a great debt of gratitude
by this painstaking study of Thonga life. The photographs,
sketches, and diagrams are of much assistance in understanding
the text, though some of the photographs fail to bring out the
details, either because they are too small or from other causes.
E. Sidney Hartland.
Thk Cochin TRUiES and Caste.s. Vol. ii. By L. K. Anantha
Krishna Iyer. Madras: Higginbotham & Co., 1912.
8vo, pp. xxiii + 504. 111.
The second volume of this important contribution to the ethnology
of India, of which the first instalment has been reviewed in these
pages, ^ is of much greater value than the portion describing the
forest tribes and the " untouchable " menials, of whom the writer,
a Tamil Brahman, possesses much less intimate knowledge than
of the more civilized races of the seaboard, — Brahmans, Nayars,
Jews, Christians, and Mappillas. The articles are carefully com-
piled, the facts grouped on a well-considered system, and an
abundant supply of good photographs is provided. In some cases
si)ace might have been saved by compression, and the system of
transliteration, where we find the names of deities and other
technical terms of Hinduism sometimes recorded in the recognized
Sanskrit forms, sometimes in the Malayali equivalents, gives an
impression of slovenliness which the book, as a whole, does not
deserve. Thus, the well-known Gayatri sun-hymn appears as
" Gayitri " ; " Ganapathi," " Bhagavathi," instead of Ganapati and
BhagavatI \ Saraswati, sometimes " Saraswathi " ; offend the eye
of the scholar.
^ Folk- Lore, vol. xxiii., pp. 263-7.
1 48 Reviews.
The most important question in the ethnology of South India is
to fix the approximate date for the Brahman emigration from the
north. That many of the southern Brahmans, with perhaps an
exception in the case of the Nambutiris, are, to some extent at
least, " Aryanized " Dravidians, is fairly certain. What we desire
to know is the length of the period during which this process of
racial absorption and the amalgamation of Brahmanical Hinduism
with the indigenous idolatries were partially completed. A
popular astrological formula states that the Nambutiri immigration
occurred 1346 years ago. Of course, Hindu influence in the south
was even earlier than this, because the Periplus, probably written
in the first century a.d., speaks of Komar, the modern Cape
Comorin, which represents Kumarl, " the damsel," the goddess
Durga. Recently discovered copper-plate grants testify to the
existence of Brahman colonies in the fourth or fifth century, and
the late Dr. Burnell was probably correct in fixing the main
southward movement of the Brahmans in the seventh century.
By this time, the Dravidians had established powerful monarchies,
and pre-Brahmanic forms of belief were able successfully to resist
the new learning, with the result that in our day South Indian
Brahmanism is very different from the Hinduism of the north.
It is impossible here to follow the writer through his careful
account of the leading tribes of the state, — the Nayars with their
abnormal matrimonial system, and their connection with that
strange class of Brahman Puritans, the Nambutiris, who by a rigid
system of tabu promoting complete isolation represent at the
present day, more absolutely than any of the northern branches,
the ideals of ancient Hinduism. The elaborate account given of
Brahman ic rites, when compared with the classical description
of Vedic ceremonies by H. T. Colebrooke, written more than a
century ago, will be useful for reference.
Except the Beni Israels of Bombay, who through contact
metamorphosis have become, to a large extent, Hinduized, Cochin
alone contains a Jewish population which, in the case of the
White Jews, has resisted absorption. The racial distinction
between them and the Black Jews, who are apparently, to a large
extent, of local origin, is well illustrated by good photographs.
Mr. Anantha Krishna Iyer and the Government of the Cochin
Revieivs. 1 49
State may be congratulated on the publication of this useful
Ethnographical Survey. Materials have been collected for a third
volume, which will include anthropometrical statistics. It may be
hoped that nothing will prevent the completion of this praise-
worthy undertaking.
W. Crook E.
Thk LusHEi KuKi Clans. Uy Lt.-Col. J. Shakespean.
Macmillan and Co., 191 2. 8vo, pp. 235. Map + 4 col. pi.
+ 19 ill. 10s. ;/.
Out of the fulness of an intimate knowledge comes tliis book.
Colonel Shakespear went to the Lushei Hills in 1888, and has
served there or thereabouts ever since. Of the use to which he
has put his unrivalled opportunities for gathering accurate first-
hand information concerning the Lusheis proper and their
dependent clans and the Old Kuki and other Kuki clans, this
volume packed full of interesting facts gives eloquent testimony.
He gives us matter to weigh and ponder at every page. Why
do Lusheis practise teknonymy? We have the Lushei explana-
tion, and when we learn that the Lusheis are an " extremely
superstitious race " we may be sure that their explanations are
worth attention. Like so many of the tribes in their neighbour-
hood, they believe that there is a divine Supreme Being who recks
not now of mankind. Direct dealings with men are for a lesser
deity, but men are chiefly concerned with the propitiation of the
Huai, evil spirits of hill and dale, of river and jungle. Add to
this a complicated psychology which recognizes a dual soul, one
half of which is in incessant struggle with the other, and you will
see that Lusheis are necessarily unreliable, a fact which a Poli-
tical Officer soon has forced on his notice. Of chapter iv., with
its full and careful account of Lushei religion, I can only say
that it is a fit prelude to chapter v., in which we have not only
folk-tales in ample number, but a most interesting analysis of
Lushei beliefs regarding superstitions and magic. It begins with
the " Thimzing " time when the auk swallowed the sun so
effectually that "a general transformation took place, men being
1 50 Revieivs.
all changed into animals.'" This is not bad for ]:)eople who are
far from primitive. Here, too, we have strange l)eliefs about the
snake, the ne/pi/i, which find a parallel in Manipur and among the
Naga tribes in contact vvith Kukis of the Thado clan. Students
of various forms of social structure will find much delight in un-
ravelling the various systems of marriage to be found in this area.
Neither wild horses nor all the honeyed arguments of an eloquent
editor shall drag from me my theory of the strange happenings
among the Chiru, where one forlorn group of maidens seems con-
demned to go unwed or to have to import their husbands.
In every aspect the book is of very great importance and
value, and, knowing well the patience and care with which its
facts were collected and investigated, I can heartily commend it
to all who seek to know what manner of men are they who thirty
years ago were the terror of the plains below, and now read news.
l)apers and draw interesting plans of the road to Heaven, which
accrued to the man who took heads.
T. C. HODSON.
The Book of Protection : being a Collection of Charms now
edited for the first time from Syriac MSS. With Translation,
Introduction, and Notes by Hermann Gollancz, M.A.,
D.Litt. Oxford Univ. Press, 19 12, 8vo, pp. Ixxxvii -I- vii -F 103,
27 ill. IDS. 6d. n.
Charms are always difficult to obtain and to collect. People fight
shy of communicating them, and those who possess the charms
will, as I can say from personal experience, obstinately refuse to
tell the charm to any one else, as it is said that the charm nmst be
stolen, for if it is directly given it loses its efiicacy. The witch or
the one who endeavours to become a sorcerer must " overhear '
the older one repeating the charm or conjuration, and thus learn
to know it. Nor are charms transmitted in a written form. But
happily even sorcerers and wizards suffer from a bad memory, and
so, from olden times, they evidently found it necessary to prepare
such manuals for their pupils or for refreshing their own memory.
In olden times it was, however, dangerous to keep such records.
Reviews. 1 5 i
The possession of such a collection meant often carrying their life
in their hands, for, if such a hook were to be discovered, it would
have meant evident and irrefutable proof of a man's heresy, and
would bring upon him condign punishment.
Such collections are therefore scarce in Europe, and they arc
no less scarce in the Kast. Happily some have survived, and
Prof. Gollancz is certainly to be congratulated on having come
into the possession of no less than two collections of Syriac charms
and conjurations. A Ms. similar to one of those possessed by
Prof. Gollancz has found its way to the library of Cambridge,
and another is treasured in the British Museum. Out of the four
Prof. Gollancz has made one collection. He has published them
in the original Syriac, and he has added an English translation
with a short introduction. It was not an easy task to translate
such charms into readable and intelligible English. Charms are
not often written so as to be easily understood. On the contrary,
the less they are understood the more powerful and efficacious
they are, and, if one can add a large number of names and collect
a long string of diseases and make them face one another, and
tight together, then the charm's virtue is unimpeachable. Neither
demons nor spirits dare stand up against the crushing power of
sucli an amulet. No less than ninety-five are contained in this
valuable book. Some are mere short adjurations, others are
longer formulas of prayers and conjurations akin to the exorcisms
found in some ancient Greek Prayer Books ; but no doubt most of
them are of great antiquity. Charms have their own history, no
less charming than that of fairy tales ; they also travel from coun-
try to country and from faith to faith. They will easily submit to
slight changes.
It makes very little real difference whether a church saint is
substituted for a pagan god, or a Moslem saint takes the place of
some gnostic archon. So long as the essence remains the same,
the faith of the i)eople supplies the rest. What a goddess has done
in the time of paganism, a Christian saint can equally well do,
and perhaps better, when Christianity is the ruling power.
In my study, " Two Thousand Years of a Charm against a
Ciiild Stealing ^\'itch," ^ I was able to trace the evolution of such
^ folk- Lore, vol. xi., pp. 129-62.
1 5 2 Revieivs.
a charm. In this collection by Prof. Gollancz we find a welcome
parallel to what I was already able at the time to refer to in my
article. It would be an interesting study, and well worth under-
taking, to investigate each of these, or at any rate a large number
of them, as to their origin, source, development, filiation, parallels
in ancient and modern literature, and also the connection between
the formulas found in charms and those used as exorcisms by
various churches for banishing evil spirits.
No less interesting would it be to trace the relation between the
miracles or legends of saints, the incidents recorded of their won-
derful exploits, and the way in which, as in the work of sympathetic
magic, the recital of these deeds had been transformed into power-
ful charms for warding off the evil action of some demon.
Prof. GoUancz's book will prove of extreme value not only for
the study of Syriac charms but also for the comparative study of
divination and magic. The Mss. themselves are of comparatively
recent date (sixteenth or seventeenth century), but there can be
no doubt that the monks who v/rote them copied them from older
Mss. How far they changed words here and there, and how far
they modified the language to suit their own time, could only be
determined by the discovery of older texts. But that the substance
is extremely old cannot be doubted. Some of them remind us of
the Greek formulas of conjurations published by Vassiliev in his
Anecdota Grceca, and by Pradel in his collection of South Italian
conjurations. Le Grand's collection, and those published by me
in my Rotima>iian Popular Literature, offer other curious parallels,
not to speak of the vast number of conjurations and charms found
in Hebrew Mss., some of them going back to the Testament of
Solomon, and some finding parallels in the Greek magical papyri.
Sufficient has been said to show how valuable the publication
of Prof. Gollancz is, and how much folklore is indebted to him for
his scholarly book.
M. G ASTER.
Books for Review sJiould be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lo7'e,
CO David Nutt,
17 Grape St., New Oxford St., London, W.C,.
/->?
J'olk^Xore.
TRANSACT/OXS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
Vol. XXIV.] JULY, 1913. [No. II.
WEDNESDAY. MARCH 19tli, 1913.
The President (Mr. R. R. Marett) in the Chair.
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.
The election of the following new members of the
Society was announced, viz. : — Mr. A. E. Balleine, Mr. E. A.
Barber, Mr. J. A. Beazley, Miss Blackman, the Rev. F. W.
Bussell, Mr. F. M. Cornford, Miss de Brisay, Mr. A. T.
Duguid, Dr. L. R. Farnell, Miss L. Graham, Miss Jane
Harrison, Mr. J. Humphreys, Miss C. E. Ives, Mr. A. Keiller,
Mr. Rudyard Kipling, Mr. S. Langdon, Miss Legge, Miss
J. M. Marett, Miss S. Morrison, Prof G. G. Murray,
M. Emile Nourry, Miss G. M. O'Reilly, Miss G. C. Porter,
Mr. S. Rendall, Mr. F. Roscoe, Mr. A. Sidgwick, Prof. J. A.
Smith, and Mr. F. F. Urquhart.
The enrolment of the Nordiska Museet, Stockholm, and
the Malvern Public Library as subscribers to the Society
was also announced.
The President read a paper by Mr. P. Manning entitled
" Bringing in the Fly," which was followed by a discus-
VOL. XXIV. L
I 54 Minutes of Meetings.
sion in which Dr. Gaster, Mr. Lovett, and the President
took part.
Mr. Lovett exhibited and explained a number of speci-
mens of folk-remedies still used in some parts of London,
{supra, pp. 120-1), upon which some observations were
offered by Dr. Gaster, Dr. Hildburgh, Mr. Wright, Miss
Moutray Read, Miss Porter, and the President.
Miss Burne read a paper entitled " British Calendar
Customs," and in the discussion which followed Mr, Clodd,
Mr. Lovett, Dr. Gaster, Mr. Wright, Mr. Lament, and Mr.
Williams took part.
The Meeting terminated with hearty votes of thanks to
Mr. Manning and Miss Burne for their papers, and to Mr.
Lovett for exhibiting and explaining his specimens of folk-
remedies.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16th, 1913.
The President (Mr. R. R. Marett) in the Chair.
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.
The election of Mr. W. H. Barker as a member of the
Society was announced.
The deaths of Lady Dorothy Nevill and Lord Archibald
Campbell were also announced.
Dr. G. Landtman read a paper on " The Poetry of the
Kiwai Papuans," and in the discussion which followed the
President and Dr. Gaster took part.
Mr. Lovett exhibited and explained a number of amulets
from the eastern counties of England, upon which observa-
tions were offered by Miss Canziani, Dr. Hildburgh, Dr.
Ga.ster, Miss Burne, Mr. Wright, and Mr. W. H. Barker.
The Meeting terminated with hearty votes of thanks to
Dr. Landtman for his paper, and to Mr. Lovett for his
exhibition of amulets.
MR. ANDREW LANG'S THEORY OF
THK ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY AND TOTEMISM.
HV (THE LATE) ANDREW LANG.
[In Mr. Andrew Lanf^'s last communication to Folk-Lore,
which appears on pp. 376-8 of vol. xxiii., he say.s that " for
the last three years I have written and rewritten, again and
again, a work on Totemism and Exogamy ; but for various
reasons, — partly the influ.x of new facts and new theories,
partly weariness of controversy, — I do not expect to publish
the volume. . . . But the chapter on my theory of totemic
exogamy may perhaps be detachable ; if so, Folk-Lore may
give it hospitality .' "
In accordance with the wish so e.xprcssed, the chapter
referred to, (No. xiii., "The Author's Theory of the Origin
of Exogamy and Totemism "), is printed below in the con-
dition in which it is found in manuscript.
For the kind permission to make this extract from the
unpublished work, members of the Society and other readers
o{ Foik-Lore are indebted to Mrs. Lang, who is the literary
executrix of her late husband. — Ed.]
EX0G.\MV is manifestly the greatest and most far-reaching
of taboos. By this taboo every one is aftected. Something
is forbidden, — a taboo is always prohibitive of something, —
and, if we want to understand why anything is forbidden, we
ask "to whose interest is it to prohibit this or that; cui
prodcst?" Usually the persons who reap advantage by a
taboo are the seniors of the community, the makers of
customary law. Were any seniors ever interested in pro-
hibiting all sexual unions (except their own) within any
cfiven circle .'' I think there were such seniors !
I 56 TJie Orioiu of Exogamy and Tote??iism.
As to the origin of Exogamy, I conceive, (following Mr.
Atkinson in his Primal Law), that man dwelt originally,
as in Darwin's opinion, in small family groups, the Sires
in each case expelling the young males when they were
arriving at puberty. The Sires are the interested seniors for
whom we are looking ! " The younger males, being thus
expelled and wandering about, would, when at last successful
in finding a partner, prevent too close interbreeding within
the limits of the sam.e family," says Darwin.^ The sire
among horses, stags, (and gorillas, according to Darwin), thus
expels the young males through no idea of "incest" in unions
of brother and sister, mother and son, through no aversion to
unions of persons closely akin by blood, but from animal
jealousy. Darwin supposed that man did not cease to be
fiercely jealous as he became human. The expulsion of
young males was a practical enforcement of exogamy, of
marriage out of the brutal herd, out of the savage camp.
As progress advanced, I conceive that the sire was moved,
{by the tears, perhaps, of some female mate, in Mr. Atkinson's
theory, and by a softening of his own heart, now becoming
human), to let the son of his old age, his Benjamin, remain
in the camp, so long as he did not interfere with any of the
females, but found a mate outside the group. The custom
of brother and sister avoidance, among tribes known to
Mr. Atkinson in New Caledonia and other isles, seemed
to him a result of this law. Mr. J. M. Robertson calls this
idea " a violent assumption of a dramatic reconciliation
effected by a mother between father and son on the basis
of exogamy for the latter : we are unable to see how the
happy solution was repeated all through the species." ^
Does not Mr. Robertson believe in the blessed words
Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest } He appears
to admit that " early man, like the gorilla and wild bull "
(and many other animals) " of to-day, forcibly expelled or
^ Darwin, The Descerit of Man (2nd ed.), vol. ii., p. 395.
^ The Literary Guide, July, 1910, p. I02.
The Origin of Exogainy and Totetnisni. 157
slew liis male young when they aroused his jealousy." If
early man did so, man not so early left off doing so, certainly;
and for that he must have had some reason, and some early
men must have begun the practice of permitting the young
males to remain in the camp or fire-circle, but not to choose
a mate within it. They were of milder mood ; the mothers,
too, were growing more maternal ; had it not been so, we
should all be more brutal than we are at this moment.
Then came in Natural Selection. Groups which contained
several fine young males would be " the fittest," would over-
come in all encounters groups with only one male, perhaps
a tottering old male ; and the fittest groups would survive.
The reform would be imitated by other groups till " the
happy solution was repeated all through the species."
Mr. Atkinson merely gave dramatically, in his remarks
on the mother, son, and sire, an example of the way in
which advancing humanity might modify the old brutal
custom.
My theory is practically that of Mr. Atkinson. The
expulsion of the young sons by the sire was his unspoken
enforcement of exogamy. The idea is Darwin's, it is not
that of an amateur naturalist : hypnotised by no belief in
the promiscuity of the earliest men. With them, solitary
and fierce, my theory of exogamy begins.
Mr. Howitt, if I understand his meaning, thought that
exogamy arose in a society which, save for exogamy, was
as advanced as that of an Australian tribe of to-day. After
quoting two tribal legends of the rise of exogamy, (legends
of an opposite sort are ignored), from the dividing of the
tribe into phratries, " with intent to regulate the relations
of the sexes," Mr. Howitt, says, " I can see very clearly how
such a social change might be brought about. . . . Such a
man," (a voyant, a medicine-man), "if of great repute in his
tribe, might readily bring about a social change, by announc-
ing to his fellow medicine-men a command received from
some supernatural being such as Kutchi of the Dieri,
158 llie Origin of Exogamy and Totemism.
l^uDJil of the Wurunjeni, or Daramulun of tlie Coast
Murring. If they received it favourably, the next step
might be to announce it to the assembled headmen at
one of the ceremonial gatherings as a supernatural com-
mand, and this would be accepted as true witl^out cjuestion
by the tribes-people.""
But this theory postulates the modern organised tribe,
with a supreme All - Father, a probouleutic council of
medicine- men, a Boule of headmen, with ceremonial
gatherings, and tribal consent.
To such a tribe, hitherto promiscuous, the headmen
announce that, by a supernatural command, they must
so arrange themselves that no man may marry his mother,
nor any woman of her tribal status, nor his sister, nor any
woman of her tribal status, nor any woman in his own
division of the tribe. The tribe accept a proposal so con-
trary to their previous promiscuit}'. But lu/ij Daramulun
issued this edict, if he did, or why the medicine-man con-
ceived such a curious idea, no theorist who beh'eves in this
legislative action can make even a guess. A theory which
postulates that, when exogamy arose, tribes were organised
on the present model ; a theory which postulates a decree
totally bereft of any plausible motive, and conducing to no
perceptible advantage to any mass or class of men, seems
to me futile. It merely re-states the facts, — there is at
present an exogamous division which prevents marriages
of some consanguine and of many more non-consanguine
people, — but why there is such a division Daramulun only
knows ! My theory answers the question, ciii bono f " Who
has an interest in enforcing an exogamous decree ? " My
guess, adopted from the greatest gf naturalists, Mr. Darwin,
is obliged to contradict the theory of Mr. Howitt at every
point. I suppose the "primal law" of the half-brutal sire
to have persisted in local groups longer, owing to the
admission of sons with their alien mates, than the harem
^ The Native Tribes of South- East Atistralia, pp. 89-90.
The Origin of Exoga7ny and Toteniisni. 159
of the old sire. There was as yet no organised tribe : the
groups preserved the ancestral jealous hostility. This can
neither be proved nor disproved, but the hostility is the
keystone of my arch.
As to primal hostility of groups, it is a curious fact that,
in the Banksian island of Mota, the two veve, (or intermarry-
ing phratries), " in the old days . . . hated one another, and
even now there is a feeling of hostility between the two. . . .
There are a number of customs of avoidance which receive
their most natural explanation as evidence of this old feeling
between the two divisions."' ■* Given hostility, to obtain
wives from each other, men, on m\- theory, had recourse
to robbery.
I would add, that if brothers and sisters were allowed to
make love to each other, (and the boys to their mother,
which seems hardly conceivable), the family circle must,
on occasion, have been broken up by murders and
revenges, red revenge between sire and son, brother and
brother. No small society could have lived if such amours
were permitted. Man had thus good human reasons for
slaying such amorists; otherwise capital punishment is all
but unknown to savage law.
I next suppose the local groups to have come to dis-
tinguish each other by names derived usually from animals,
more rarely from plants, for totem kins are so distinguished.
For my reasons and my answers to objections I must refer
to my books. Social Origins, and The Secret of the Totem
(pp. 114-34). Of this later book I reprint what seems
necessar\- : a few passages need alteration.
The establishment of totemic beliefs and jjractices
cannot have been sudden. INIen cannot have, all in a
moment, conceived that each group possessed a protective
and sacred animal or other object, perhaps of one blood
■» W. H. K. Rivers, "The Father's Sister in Oceania," Folk-Lore, vol. xxi.,
p. 55. The Haida intermarrying sets, according to Mr. Swanton, hate each
other bitterlv.
i6o The Origin of Exogamy and Totemism.
with themselves in explanatory myths. There must have
been dim beginnings of the behef (so surprising to us) that
each human group had some intimate connection with this,
that, or the other natural species, plants, or animals. We
must first seek for a cause of this belief in the connection
of human groups with animals, the idea of which connec-
tion must necessarily be prior to the various customs and
rules founded on the idea. Mr. Baldwin Spencer remarks,
"What gave rise in the first instance to the association of
particular men with particular animals and plants it does
not seem possible to say." ^ Mr. Howitt asks, " How was
it that men assumed tJie navies of objects, ivhich in fact
must have been the comniencevient of toteniisvi ? " ^ The
answer may be very simple. It ought to be an answer
which takes for granted no superstition as already active ;
magic, for instance, need not have yet been develoj^ed.
Manifestly, if each group woke to the consciousness that
it bore the name of a plant or animal, and did not know
how it came to bear that name, no more was needed to
establish, in the savage mind, the belief in an essential and
valuable connection between the human group Emu, and
the Emu species of birds, and so on. As Mr. Howitt says,
totemism begins in the bearing by human groups of the
name of objects.
It is difficult to understand how a fact so obvious as
this, — that the totemic name, if th? name existed, and if
its origin were unknown^ would come to be taken by the
groups as implying a mystic connection between all who
bore it, men or beasts, — can have escaped the notice of
any one who is acquainted with the nature of savage
thinking, and with its survivals into civilised ritual and
magic. Mr. Frazer has devoted forty-two pages of his
Golden BongJi"^ to the record of examples of this belief
^^The Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 127].
^ The Native Tribes of South- East Australia, p. 153.
'Sec. ed. , vol. i. , pp. 404-46.
The Origin of Exogaviy and Totonisni. 1 6 1
about names, in various forms. He quotes Sir John Rhys
to the effect that [)robably " the whole Aryan family,
believed at one time not only that his name was a part of
the man, but that it was that part of him which is termed
the soul, the breath of life, or whatever you may choose to
define it as being." So says Sir J. Rhys in an essay on
Welsh Fairies.^ This opinion rests on philological analysis
of the Aryan words for " name," and is certainly not
understated.^ But, if the name is the soul of its bearer, if
his soul be his essence, if he and his totem are of one
essence and name, then the name and the soul, and the
soul and the totem of a man are all one! There we have
the rapport between man and totemic animal for which we
are seeking.^**
Whether "name" in any language indicates "soul" or
not, the savage belief in the intimate and wonder-working
connection of names and things is a well-ascertained
fact. Now, as things equal to the same thing are equal
to each other, animals and sets of men having the
same name are, in savage opinion, mystically connected
with each other. That is now the universal totemic
belief, though it need not have existed when names
were first applied to distinguish things, and men, and
sets of men. Examples of the belief will presently be
given.
^Nineteenth Century, vol. xxx. (1891), p. 567.
'See examples in "Cupid and Psyche," in my Custom and Myth, and Mr.
Clodd's I'ofu Tit Tot, pp. 91-3.
^^ In Mr. Frazer's theory the origin of this idea of rapport is the North and
Central Australian belief that the essence of each human being is the spirit of a
primal being of animal or vegetable form, and so totemic, which enters a
woman and is reincarnated. To me it seems that this belief is a theory
constructed by men who were already totemists, and already animistic, and
who asked themselves, "Why have we totems? Whence have we souls?"
If I am wrong, why do but two human sources of the many totem names
exist ?
i62 Ihc Oi'igiu of Exoga/ny and 7^ofeiuisiu.
Tluis, given a set of local groups ^^ known by the names
of Eagle Hawk, Crow, Wolf, Raven, or what not, the idea
that these groups were intimately connected with the
name-giving animals in each case was, in the long run,
sure to occur to the savage thinker. On that assumed
mystical connection, implied in the common name, and
suggested by the common name, is laid the foundation of
all early totemic practice. For the magiral properties of
the connection bet\veen the name and its bearer, the reader
has only to refer to Mr. Frazer's assortment of examples,
already cited. We here give all that are needed for our
purpose.
In Australia, each individual Arunta has a secret name,
aritiia ch]tri?iga, " never uttered except on the most
solemn occasions," "never to be spoken in the hearing of
women, or of men, or of another group." To speak the
secret name in these circumstances would be as impious
" as the most flagrant case of sacrilege amongst white
men." ^■-
The facts prove, I repeat, that to the early mind names,
and the things known by names, are in a mystic and
transcendental connection of rapport. Other Australian
examples of the secrecy of a man's name, and of the power
of magically injuring him by knowledge of his name, are
given by Mr. Howitt, Brough Smyth, Lumholtz, Bulmer,
Dawson, and others. It would appear that this superstition
as to names is later than the first giving of animal names
to totem groups, and that totem names were not given to
^^ I am sure to be told thai I declared local totem groups to be the result of
reckoning in the male line, and not primitive, and that, here, I make the
primitive animal-named group local. My reply is that in this passage I
am not speaking of totem groups, but of local groups bearing animal names,
a very different thing. A group may have borne an animal name long before
it evolved totemic beliefs about the animal, and recognised it as a totem. No
group that was not local could get a name to itself at this early stage of the
proceedings. The " local habitation " precedes the " name."
1* Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 139.
The Orig'i)i of Exoganix ami Totcuiisui. 163
{groups by the groups themselves, (at least, were not given
after the superstition about names came in), for to blazon
tlieir own group names abroad would be to give any enemy
the power of injuring the group by his knowledge of its
name. Groups, had they possessed the name-belief, would
have carefully concealed their group names, if they could.
There are a few American cases in which kins talk of their
totems by periphrases, but every one knows their real
names.
He who knew a group's name might make a magical use
of his knowledge to injure the group. But the group
names or kin names being alread\- known to all concerned
(having probably been given from without), when the full
totemic belief arose it was far too late for groups to conceal
the totem names, as an individual can and does keep his
own private essential name secret. The totem animal of
every group was known to all groups within a given radius.
" It is a serious offence," writes Vix. Howitt, "for a man to
kill [the totem] of another person," ^"^ that is, witli injurious
intentions towards the person.
An individual, says Mr. Howitt, "has of course his
own proper individual name, which, however, is often in
abeyance because of the disinclination to use it, or even to
make it generally known lest it might come into the
knowledge and possession of some enem\-, who thus
having it might thereby "sing" its owner — in other words,
use it as an "incantation"."^^
Thus, in Australia, the belief that names imj:)l\' a m)-stic
rapport between themselves and the persons who bear
them is proved to be familiar, and it is acted upon by each
individual who conceals his secret name.
This being so, when the members of human groups
found themselves, as groups, all in possession of animal
^"^ The Journal of the Anthropological Instil ulCf vol. xviii. (iS8S), p. 53.
^^ Ibid., p. 51 ; Ike Native Tribes of South- East Australia, j). 581.
164 The Origiii of Exogamy and Totemism.
group names, and had forgotten how they got the names,
(all known groups having long been named), it was quite
inevitable that men, always speculative, should ask them-
selves,— "What is the nature of this connection between us
and the animals whose names we bear? It must be a
connection of the closest and most important kind." This
conclusion, I repeat, was inevitable, given the savage way
of thinking about names. Will any anthropologist deny
this assertion }
Probably the mere idea of a mystic connection between
themselves and their name-giving animals set the groups
upon certain superstitious acts and abstentions in regard to
these animals. But being men, and as such speculative, and
expressing the results of their speculations in myths, they
would not rest till they had evolved myths as to the precise
nature of the connection between themselves and their
name-giving animals, the connection indicated by their
names. There are scores of such myths.
Now, men who had arrived at this point could not be so
inconceivably unobservant as to be unaware of the blood-
connection between mother and children indicated in the
obvious facts of birth. A group may not have understood
the facts of reproduction and procreation (as the Arunta
are said not to have understood them), but the facts of
blood-connection, and of the relation of the blood to the life,
could escape no human beings.^^ As.savages undeniably do
not usually draw the line between beasts and other things
on one side, and men on the other, as we do, it was natural
for some of them to suppose that the animal bearing the
human group name, and therefore solidaire with the group,
was united with it, as the members of the human group
themselves were visibly united, namely, by the blood-bond.
The animal is thus explained as men's ancestor, or brother,
or primal ancestral form. (Or the man's soul is an eman-
ation from a supposed primal being of animal form.) This
**Cf. The Golden Bough (2nd ed.), vol i., pp. 360-2.
The Orioiii of Exogamy and Totc))usni. 165
belief would promote kindness to and regard for the
animal.
Unessential to my system is the question, hoiv the groups
got animal names, so long as they did get them and did
not remember how they got them, and so long as the
names, according to their way of thinking, indicated an
essential and mystic rapport between each group and its
name-giving animal. No more than these things — a group
animal-name of unknown origin ; and belief in a transcen-
dental connection between all bearers, human and bestial, of
the same; — was needed to give rise to all the totemic creeds.
Now, we can prove that the origin of the totem names of
savage groups is unknown to the savages, because they have
invented many various myths to account for the origin of
the names. If they knew, they would not have invented
such myths. Thus that, by their way of thinking, the name
denotes a transcendental connection, which may be ex-
ploited, between themselves and their name-giving animals
we have proved.
In Social Origins I ventured to guess as to how the group
names first arose, namely, in sobriquets given by group to
group.^^ I showed that in France, England, the Orkneys,
and I may now add Guernsey, and I believe Crete, villagers
are known by animal names or sobriquets, as in France —
Cows, Lizards, Pigeons, Frogs, Dogs ; in Orkney — Starlings,
Oysters, Crabs, Seals, Auks, Cod, and so forth. I also gave
the names of ancient Hebrew villages, recorded in the Book
of Judges^ such as Lions, Jackals, Hornets, Stags, Gazelles,
Wild Asses, Foxes, Hyaenas, Cows, Lizards, Scorpions, and
so forth. I also proved that in the Orkneys, and in the
Sioux tribe of Red Indians, rapidly ceasing to be totemic,
the group sobriquets were often "Eaters of" this or that
animal, or (where totemism survived among the Sioux)
''not Eaters of" this or that.^" I thus established the
^* The passage will be found in Social Origins, pp. 166-75.
^'' Social Origins, pp. 295-301.
1 66 The Origiji of Exogamy and Toteniisni.
prevalence in liuman nature, among peasants and bar-
barians, of giving animal group sobriquets. " In Cornwall,"
writes an informant (Miss Alleyne), "it seems as if the
inhabitants do not care to talk about these things for some
reason or another," and "the names are believed to be very-
ancient." When once attention is drawn to this curious
subject, probably more examples will be discovered.
I thus demonstrated (and I know no earlier statement of
the fact) the existence in the classes least modified by
education of the tendency to give such animal group
sobriquets. The same principle even now makes personal
names derived from animals most common among indi-
viduals in savage countries, the animal name usually stand-
ing, not alone, but qualified, as Wolf the Unwashed, in the
Saga ; Sitting Bull, and so on. As we cannot find a race
just becoming totemic, we cannot, of cowxs^, prove that their
group animal-names were given thus from without, but the
process is elsewhere undeniably a vera causa, and does
operate as we show, while it certainly operates in conferring
names on clans just emerging from totemism.
As to this suggestion about the sources of the animal
names borne by the groups. Dr. Dur.kheim remarks that it
is •' conjectural." ^^ Emphatically it is, like the Doctor's
own theories, nor can any theory on this matter be other
than guess-work. But we do not escape from the difficulty
by merely saying that the groups "adopted" animal names
for themselves ; for that also is a mere conjecture. Perhaps
they did, but why? Is it not clear that, given a number of
adjacent groups, each one group has far more need of names
for its neighbours than of a name for 'itself.' " We " are
"we," "The Men"; all the rest of mankind are "wild
blacks," " barbarians," " outsiders." But there are a score of
sets of outsiders, and "we," "The Men," need names for
each and every one of them. "We" are "The Men," but
the nineteen other groups are also "The Men," — in their
^^ Folh-l.ore, vol. xiv., p. 423.
The Oi'igin of Exogamy and Tot cm ism. iGj
own opinion. To us they are something else ("they" are
not " we"), and we are something^ else to them ; n'e are not
t/uy ; we all need differentiation, and we and they, by giving
names to outsiders, differentiate each other. The names
arose from a primitive necessity felt in everyday life.
Through taunts bandied between groups, and through
women stolen by group from group, the names would
become generally known.
That such sobriquets, given from without, may come to
be accepted, and even gloried in, has been doubted, but we
see the fact demonstrated in such modern cases as "the sect
called Christians " (so called from without), and in Les
Giieiix, Huguenots, Whigs, Tories, Cavaliers, Cameronians
{''that nick-JiaJHe" cries Patrick Walker (1720), "why do
they not all call them ' Cargillites' .•* if they will give them a
nick-name.'").^'' I later prove that two ancient and famous
Highland clans have, from time immemorial, borne clan
names which are derisive nicknames. Several examples of
party or local nicknames, given, accepted, and rejoiced in,
have been sent to me from North Carolina.
Another example, much to the point, may be oft'ered.
The " nations," that is, aggregates of friendly tribes, in
Australia, let us say the Kamilaroi, are usually known by
names derived from their word for " No," such as Kamil
(Kamilaroi), Wira (Wirajuri), WongJii {^ow^\ \.nh€), Kabi
(Kabi tribe). Can any one suppose that these names were
given from within .■* Clearlj' they were given from without
and accepted from within. One of the Wonghi or of the
Wirajuri or Kamilaroi tribe is " proud of the title." Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen write, " It is possible that the names of
the tribes were originally applied to them by outsiders and
were subsequently adopted by the members of the tribes
themselves, but the evidence is scanty and inconclusive."-*^
There can hardly be any evidence but what we know of
"^^ Six Saints of the Coz'enaiit (1901), vol. i., p. 241.
^ The Nart hern Tnbes o/ Central Australia, p. II (note),
] 68 The Origin of Exogamy and Toteniisui.
human nature. Do the P'rench call themselves Oui Oui?
No ! But the natives of New Caledonia call them Out OiiiP^
Moreover, to return to totem names, savage groups would
have no reason for resenting, as derisive, animal names given
from witiiout. Considering the universal savage belief in
the mystic wisdom and ivakan, [or inaiia\ or power, of
animals, there was no kind of objection among savages
to being known by animal group names. The names
came to be regarded as rather honour-giving than derisive.
This has not been understood by my critics. They have
said that among European villages, and among the Sioux
of to-day, group nicknames are recognised, but not gloried
in or even accepted meekly. My answer is obvious. Our
people have not the savage ideas about animals : while the
Sioux clans do accept their sobriquets.
Mr. Hovvitt, in his turn, does not approve of my idea, thus
stated by him, that " the plant and animal names would be
impressed upon each group from without, and some of them
would stick, would be stereotyped, and each group would
come to answer to its nickname." He replies, — -"To me,
judging of the possible feelings of the pristine ancestors of
the Australians by their descendants of the present time,
it seems most improbable that any such nicknames would
have been adopted and have given rise to totemism, nor do
I know of a single instance in which such names have been
adopted." 2'
Mr. Howitt, of course, could not possibly find kinships
noiv adopting animal and other such names given from
without, because all kinships where totemism exists have
got such names already, and with the names a sacred body
of customs. But does he suppose that the many local
tribes calling themselves by their word for " No" (as Kabi,
Ka7iii/, Wong/ii, and so on), originally gave these names
-'J. J. Atkinson. The natives call us "White Men." We do not call our-
selves "Goddams," hut Jeanne d'Arc did.
^ The Native Tribes of South- East Australia, p. 154.
llic On'oiii of Exogamy and TotcDiisni. 1 69
to themselves, sayinj^, " We are the people who, when we
mean 'No,' say ' Wonghi"''^. That seems to me hardly
credible ! Much more probably tribes who used Kaniil or
Kabi for "No" gave the name of Woughi to a tribe who
used WongJii in place of their Kamil or Kabi. In that
case the tribes, as tribes, have adopted names given from
without.
Again, I consider that the feelings of that noble savage,
the Red Indian, are at least as sensitive to insult as those
of Mr. Howitt's blacks. Now it so happens that the Black-
foot Indians of North America, who apparently have passed
out of totemism, have " gentes, a gens being a body of con-
sanguineal kinsmen in the male line," writes Mr. G. B.
Grinnell.--^ These clans, now no longer totemic, needed
names, and some of their [new] names, at least, are most
insulting nicknames. Thus we have Naked Dogs, Skunks,
They Don't Laugh, Buffalo Dung, All Crazy Dogs, Fat
Roasters, and — Liars ! No men ever gave such names to
their own community. In a diagram of the arrangement
of these clans in camp, made about 1850, we find \}i\Q gentes
of the Pi-kun'-I under such pretty titles as we have given.-*
(Other instances are given at the close of the chapter.)
If we want to discover clans of fiery Celts adopting and
glorying in names which are certainly, in origin, derisive
nicknames, we find Clan Diarmaid, whose name, Campbell,
means " Wry Mouth," and Clan Cameron, whose name
means "Crooked Nose."-'
Moreover, South African tribes believe that tribal sacred
animals, siboko, as Baboon and Alligator, may, and did,
arise out of nicknames ; for their myths assert that nick-
names are the origin of such tribal and now honourable
names. I cannot prove, of course, that the process of
adopting a name given from without occurred among
'■^' Blackfoot Lodge Talcs, p. 20S.
-* Op. lit., pp. 208, 225.
-' Macbain, An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, p. 357.
1 70 The Origin of Exogamy and Toteniism.
primitive men, but I have demonstrated that, among all
sort and conditions of men in our experience, the process
is a vera causa.
Dismissing- my theory, Mr. Howitt, in place of it, " could
more easily imagine that these early savages might,
through dreams, have developed the idea of relation-
ship with animals, or even with plants."-''
That animal nicknames, given from without, can be and
are accepted in Australia Mr. Howitt seems to think possible
in his own book, in the very page in which he says that the
fact "seems to him most improbable." He writes, "The
hypothesis suggested by Professor H addon is that groups
of people, at a very early period, by reason of their local
environment, would have special varieties of food. This
receives support from the fact that analogous names obtain
now in certain tribes, e.g. the Yuin." If this be the case,
my theory is so far accepted ; groups may and do receive
names from their articles of food. How the steps respecting
the animals or other objects, denoted by the names of the
human groups, would be taken, I have shown. But I cannot
find that Mr. Howitt gives any examples of such group-
sobriquets among the Yuin and other tribes. Some Yuin
personal names are Thunder, Stone-tomahawk, and so
forth ; the " family " names are place-names.-' The elderly
Kurnai receive personal nicknames from the animals which
they are skilled in catching, as Bunjil-tanibun, " Good man
perch." -^ I repeat that nobody could find "groups'"
accepting new animal nicknames now, as the totem
" groups " are, of course, already named Cat or Dingo or
Iguana and so forth.
Meanwhile Mr. Haddon's suggestion, made in the same
year (1902) as my own, is really a form of my own, differing
in so far as he derives the group sobriquets entirely from
articles of food in the area of the group ; and supposes the
group-folk to have lived mainly on the object, and bartered
-" Op. cit., p. 154. -' Op. cit., p. 739. -"^ Ibid., p. 73S.
TJic Origin of Exogamy and Totemism. i 7 i
what was superfluous with other groups in exchange for
[supphes of the objects on which the latter mainly lived].
His chief example was drawn from a myth of two totem
kins in a tribe to the effect that their totem names, a small
fish and a very small opossum, had once been their staple
as food. But the known five other totem kins in the tribe,
according to their myth, were descended from their totems,
and one m\-th is as worthless as another.-^
Against Mr. Haddon's theory Mr. Baldwin Spencer urged
obvious criticisms. Every group eats everything that is
edible in its area.-'^'
Moreover, I add, nobody eats Morning Star or Rainbow ;
the Red Ochre kin of the Dieri live very far from the red-
ochre pits, and Mr. Haddon can hardly think that any kin
lives mainly on carpet snakes, or black bees, or sandal wood,
or bats, or wolves and ravens — dura ilia !
Mr. Haddon's theory, however, agrees with my own in
the essential point that group assumed names were given
from without.
I may best deal here with Mr. Frazer's other objections
of igioto Mr. Haddon's theory, as in essence Mr. Haddon's
idea and mine are much akin. Obviously unacquainted
with my views, Mr. Frazer confines his criticism to those of
Mr. Haddon, and is clearly unaware that in The Secret of
the Totem (1905) I replied to his objections as formulated by
other writers. Concerning Mr. Haddon's view Mr. Frazer
writes,'^^ — " The view that the names of the totem clans
were originally nicknames applied to them by their neigh-
bours, which the persons so n icknamed adopted as honourable
distinctions, appears to be very unlikely. Strong evidence
would be needed to convince us that any group of men had
complacently accepted a nickname bestowed on them,
perhaps in derision, by their often hostile neighbours. ..." I
-*See Mr. Haddon's views in Report of the British Association, Belfast, 1902.
•^' Totemism and Exogamy, vol. iv. , pp. 50-1 and Notes.
^^ Ibid., vol. iv., p. 51.
1 7 2 The Origin of Exogamy and Toteinism,
had answered all this and supplied the strongest possible
evidence, in The Secret of tJie Totcvi (pp. 129-34), giving
modern examples, examples of Highland clans (who are
touchy on points of honour), examples from the Blackfoot
Indians, and (pp. 25-6) the instance of Bakuena tribes who
account for their tribal sacred animals {siboko) as the result
of accepted nicknames.
On December 9, 1879, the Rev. Roger Price, of Molepole,
in the northern Bakuena country, wrote as follows to Mr.
G. W. Stow, Geological Survey, South Africa. He gives
the myth which is told to account for the siboko, or tribal
sacred and name-giving animal, of the Bahurutsi (Baboons).
(These animal names in this part of Africa denote local
tribes, not totem kins within a local tribe.)
" Tradition says that about the time the separation took place
between the Bahurutsi and the Bakuena, baboons entered the
gardens of the former and ate their pumpkins before the proper
time for commencing to eat the fruits of the new year. The
Bahurutsi were unwilling that the pumpkins which the baboons
had broken off and nibbled at should be wasted, and ate them
accordingly. This act is said to have led to the Bahurutsi
being called Buchwene, Baboon-people, — which " [namely, the
Baboon] " is their siboko to this day, and they having the
precedence ever afterwards in the matter of taking the first bite of
the new year's fruits. If this story be the true one," continues Mr.
Price, " it is evident that what is now used as a term of honour
was once a term of reproach." The Bakuena, too, are said to
owe the origin of their siboko [the crocodile] to the fact that their
people once ate an ox which had been killed by a crocodile.
Mr. Price, therefore, is strongly inclined to think " that the siboko
of all the tribes was originally a kind of nickname, or term of
reproach, but," he adds, " there is a good deal of mystery about
the whole thing."
This case, which I obtained from Mss., thanks to the
kindness of Miss Burne, was published in 1905, in Mr.
G. W. Stow's posthumous work, The Native Races of South
The Origin of Exogamy and Toteniisni. 173
Africa (p. 413). Mr. Frazer omits the passac^e in his
account of "the Baboon totem" of the Bahurutsi.^-' Here,
none the less, is his "strong evidence" that the process
which he thinks is improbable, the complacent adoption of
a derisive nickname, is thought actual by the people who
bear the names.
On this point Mr. Stow, to whom Mr. Price wrote the
letter just cited, remarks [p. 417] : —
" From the foregoing facts it would seem possible that the origin
of the siboko among these tribes arose from some sobriquet that
had been given to them, and that in course of time, as their super-
stitions and devotional feelings become more developed, these
tribal symbols became objects of veneration and superstitious awe,
whose favour was to be propitiated or malign influence averted."
I quoted this passage, written before my own theory had
occurred to me, from the Mss. in The Secret of the Totem
(p. 26). Mr. Frazer does not allude to the facts, which
prove that some totemists, or people, at least, with tribal
totems, {siboko), are convinced that " groups of men had
complacentl}' accepted nicknames bestowed on them in
derision, by their often hostile neighbours."
Mr. Frazer continues his criticism : this strong evidence
" would be needed to convince us that any group of men had
complacently accepted a nickname bestowed on them, perhaps in
derision, by their often hostile neighbours, nay, that they had not
only adopted tlie nickname as their distinctive title and badge of
honour, but had actually developed a religion, or .something like a
religion, out of it, contracting such a passionate love and admiration
for the animals or plants after which they were nicknamed that
they henceforth refused, at the risk of dying of hunger, to kill and
eat them." ^3
This is somewhat exaggerated. Mr. Frazer has declared
that totemism is not a religion.^* Again, I know no
^ Totemisni and Exogamy, vol. ii., p. 375.
^ Ibid., vol. iv., p. 51. '^Ibid., vol. iv., p. 5.
1 74 The 0)'igin of Exogamy and Toteinism.
evidence to prove that any totemist would rather die of
hiuif^er than eat his totem : several Australian tribes eat
their totems freely. For the extraordinary influence of the
name as implying the closest rapport between all who bear
it, I merely refer to Mr. Frazer's Golderi BoiigJi, vol. i., pp.
404-46. On my theory, as totemists certainly do not know
how they got their totem names, they would seldom suspect,
like the Bahurutsi, that they were nicknames, perhaps
derisive. I have proved on unimpeachable evidence, Mr.
Price's, that the Northern Bakuena think that a process
occurred which only "strong evidence" would make Mr.
Frazer believe in. However, I am able to prove that savages
can accept, and have accepted, " clan " nicknames from
without.
Take this " strong evidence " : Mr. Frazer writes of the
Wendal or Wyandot, the Hurons' name for themselves.
"According to L. H. Morgan the original form of the name
Wyandot is ivane-dote, " calf of the leg," a name given to
these Indians by the Iroquois and adopted by themselves."^^
Again, the Black Feet. Indians have, or had, exogamous
clans with male descent. The names of these clans are no
longer totemic. Among them now are Liars, Biters,
Patched Moccasins, " They Don't Laugh," Worms, Buffalo
Dung, Crazy Dogs.'^*^
I cite these as obvious and derisive sobriquets, but the clans
have now no other names. Other clan names occur among
the Dacotas, who, as Mr. Frazer points out, appear, in the
seventeenth century, to have had badges, as that of the
Eagle, Panther, Tiger, Buffalo, etc., from which each
band " is denominated." ^'^ Now their clans are styled
"Not encumbered with much baggage," "Bad Nation,"
'■^ Toteinisin and Ex op amy ^ vol. iii., p. 30, n. I.
^Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, pp. 208-10, cited in Toteiitistn and
Exogamy, vol. iii., p. 84, n. 3 ; The Secret of the Totem, p. 132.
3' J. Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts 0/ North America (3rd ed.,
1781), p. 256.
The Origin of Exogamy and TotcmisDi. i 7 5
"' Breakers (of the law)." the law broken being that of
exogamy!-'® No community ever called itself "Incestuous,"
or " Bad Nation " ; these clan names are sobriquets.
Once more, the Crows have exogamous clans ; out of
twelve four are totemic in name, Antelope, Raven, Prairie
Dog, Skunk. I presume that these totem names were, in
origin, sobriquets, just as some of the other clan names
of the Crows, Bad Leggings, Treacherous Lodges, liad
Honours, are undeniably hostile yet accepted sobriquets.'-'
In Europe the sobriquets, animal or vegetable, of the
villages are now resented, and one village is angry, in
Cornwall, when another village hangs up its Mouse, or
whatever its animal may be, dead, by way of a taunt. Mr.
Frazer's readers cannot be aware (nor is he, I daresay) that
in 1905 I defended my theory that savages can and do
accept even injurious clan sobriquets from without by actual
examples, and that I have shown how, the animal name
once accepted, " a religion, or something like a religion " of
it, was "actually developed." Mr. Frazer writes
" No single instance of such an adoption of nicknames from
neighbours was known to Dr. Howitt, the most e.xperienced of
Australian anthropologists, in the whole of Australia."^*'
I have quoted, above, my reply, given in TJie Secret of the
Totem, to ]\Ir. Howitt.
Here may close my chapter of answers to objections
against the possibility of complacent acceptance of sobri-
quets. It occurs in savage as it does in civilised societies :
many of the facts are recorded by Mr. Frazer himself,
others he has overlooked ; and certainly my array of the
facts in 1905 has escaped his vigilant industry in study,
otherwise he would not have ignored what is essential.
My theory of the origin of the phratry system, as given
^^ Toteinism and Exogamy, vol. iii., pp. 86-7, n. 4.
'^ Ibid., vol. iii., pp. 153-4.
^ Ibid., vol. iv., p. 52, n. 2; Howitt, The Native Tribes of Sotilh-East
Australia, p. 154.
1 76 The Oi'igin of Exogamy and Totemisiu.
in 1905, has now to be modified in consequence of the
general acceptance of certain evidence.
I next suppose that a local exogamous group of, say,
Ducks, and another neighbouring group named Dogs,
weary of fighting for wives against the kin of their own
wives and own children, made peace with conniibuun.
Here we have the evidence of the Urabunna, Karamundi,
and Itchumundi arrangement by which people of one totem
must marry only people of one other totem, as Dingo,
among the Urabunna, marries only into Water Hen.*^
The Itchumundi nation contains four tribes. A man of
the Mukwara (Eagle Hawk) totem and phratry " married a
Kilpara " (Crow phratry) of the Bone-fish totem ; a Mukwara
of the Kangaroo totem married a Kilpara of the Emu
totem, a Mukwara of the Dog totem married a Kilpara of
the Padi-melon totem, and so on. " The tribes of the
Karamundi nation have a similar rule [like that of the
Itchumundi nation] by which a member of either class"
[phratry] " may marry only in one totem of the other class."*-
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen and Mr. Howitt ass-ign the
same rule to the Urabunna nation. All these tribes are in
the most primitive state of social organisation, with female
descent and no sub-classes; the Urabunna have, the others
have not, pirraiirii. Mr. Frazer, Mr. Spencer, and Mr.
Howitt make no attempt to explain their unique rule of
one totem to one totem marriage. It must make the two
intermarrying totem kins in a high degree consanguineous,
and can scarcely have been adopted to prevent marriages
of near kin, if cousins were reckoned near kin.
These marriages are mainly marriages of first cousins,
which Urabunna law permits, if the bride be a daughter of
the man's mother's younger brother, or of his father's younger
sister. When one small community may select wives only
from one other small community, — Water Hen group from
■•' Totemism and Exogamy, vol. i., pp. 176-, 387-S, quoting' Howitt and
Spencer and Gillen. ■*2 Howitt, op. cit., pp. 194, 189.
The Origin of Exogamy and Tofcnn'siii. 177
Dingo group with restrictions on t/mt, — if tlie [)cople niaj-
not marry sonic of tlieir first cousins, wiioin nia}- tiicy
marry ?
The Dieri, on the other hand, nia\- marry any person of
the right tribal status, (^/// first cousins are excluded), in any
of the many totems in the phratry which is not their own ;
whereas among the Urabunna, Karamundi, and Itchumundi
the members of eacii totem kin ma\' only marry into one
totem kin in the opposite phratr}'.
I would suggest that, among the Urabunna and the other
" nations," first Dingo and Water Hen, say, made a covenant
to marry peacefully with each other alone, (some two kins
must have begun the practice), and that then other pairs
imitated the example ; and, finally, all pairs coalesced inta
one federated phratry or the other. What they gained b\'
this was peace.
The arrangement, I conjecture, would be worked out
thus: first we have, V animal-named exogamous local groups
raiding each other for wives. Two such groups. Water
Hen and Dingo, tire of this, and make a marriage treaty
for peaceful betrothals : other groups, however, may still
raid //^^w, and they may raid other groups, as they probably
would, in revenge for raids on themselves, and because, in
two small communities, marriageable women were not ver\'
plentiful. But other groups follow their example, two by
two. This, however, does not prevent any adventurous
braves in any of the groups from raiding every group which
is not the one linked by marriage treaty with his own.
This dangerous license would cease when half of the groups
federated, and the other half also federated into what are
now the phratries, each phratry as a whole making a
covenant of peace with the other. But, by an amazing
conservatism, the pairs of totem-kins still only marry into
each other among the Urabunna, Itchumundi, and Kara-
mundi. How otherwise than by my conjecture can we
account for this strange limit to choice in marriage.?
i/S The Origin of Exogamy and Toteniism.
The rule of one totem-kin wedding into only one other
totem-kin in the opposite phratry must be earlier than
marriage into any kin of the opposite phratry. When men,
as among the Dieri, or any other tribe with female descent
and two phratries, had once been permitted to seek wives
in all of the totem-kins of the phratry not their own, they
never could submit to a restriction limiting them, for no
conceivable reason, to brides from a single totem-kin. The
only reason for restrictions being, by the ordinary theory,
closeness of consanguinity, there could be no objection to
Water Hen, in phratry A, wedding into any totem-kin of
phratry B. ?vlr. Howitt, however, writes- that "the Ura-
bunna restriction " for " marriage to one or more
totems") "is certainly later in origin than the Dieri
rule." *3
This seems impossible. Men who had once enjoyed the
wide freedom and ample latitude of choice of the Dieri
would never limit themselves to brides from a single totem-
kin, and do that for no conceivable reason, except that
which I have suggested. Dingo, who may only marry
Water Hen, is not consanguineous with any of the other
totem-kins into which he may not marry : he is not barred
from union with them for that cause. Reason, if there
were a dislike of consanguine marriages, would urge a
larger latitude of choice than a single kinship offers, for,
when two small kinships marry exclusively with each other,
they both become extremely consanguine. Therefore the
Urabunna are forced to allow first cousins to marry, as far
as the age-grades rules permit ; they have no choice if they
are to marry at all. On the other hand, the Dieri, among
whom members of any totem-kin of B phratry may marry
into any totem-kins of A phratry, are able to indulge their
consciences by forbidding all marriages between what we
call " first cousins." Mr. Howitt himself sees that this rule,
" the Dieri rule is evidently a development of that of the
"C/. cit., p. 189.
The Origin of Exogamy and Totcinisni. i 79
Urabuiina, and is therefore the later one."'* I\Ir. I'razcr
agrees.*-"
The Dieri rule about cousins is the later of the two,*" and
it is rendered possible by the Dieri emanci[)ation from the
Urabunna and Karaniundi rule that each totem nui)' marry
only into one other totem.
It follows that the Urabunna, Karamundi, and Itchu-
mundi rule, — one totem marries into one totem only, — is
not later, as Mr. Howitt writes, but earlier than the Dieri
rule, — any totem in phratry A may marry into any totem
in phratry B. Emancipation from the Urabunna, Itchu-
mundi, and Karamundi law, — one totem to one totem
only, — enabled the Dieri to bar the marriages of all first
cousins. Consequently the one totem to one totem rule is
the earliest of all ; and how can we explain it except by the
alliance, with connnbiuvi, of two groups with totemic names ?
The example thus. set was followed by pair after pair of
linked totem-kins, and for this reason there is necessarily
a dual \xx\\o\\ and division of intermarrying kins throughout
the Australian system. This is an automatic result of one
totem to one totem marriage, followed by federations of the
intermarrying pairs of totem-kins.
Why only tzvo groups, in the first place, made alliance
with conniibmin, I have not to explain. It is enough that
they certainly did it, (in several nations they still adhere to
conmibimn between two totems only), unless any other
reason for the one totem to one totem law can be discovered.
Dislike to consanguineous marriages could not produce this
drastic rule, I repeat, for each totem-kin must have recog-
nised no consanguinity with any other.
In The Secret of the Totem (pp. 142-5) I supposed that,
say a dozen, or any number of different exogamous totem
groups were on wife-raiding terms with each other, and that
in each group, say Dingo, women raided from Wallaby,
** Ibid., p. 189. *'^ Totemism and Exoi;ai>iy, vol. i., p. 346.
*^ Jbid., vol. i., p. 346.
i8o The On'o/u of Exogamy and Tote7itism.
Kangaroo, Lizard, and other groups, kept, and transmitted
to their children, their original group animal-names. But
the children, though of different totem names, were pre-
vented from intermarrying in local group Dingo by the
ancient local exogamous prohibition, " no marriage within
the local animal-named group." I then supposed all the
totem groups within a given area to make siinultaneoKsly
alliance and con^iubium in two phratries, each phratry under
the captaincy, and bearing the name of, its most important
totem-kin, say Black Cockatoo for one, and White Cockatoo
for the other phratry. I was not aware that, as long ago as
1890, Mr. Washington Matthews, in TJie J oilrnal of American
Folk-Lore (vol. iii., p. 1 10), had observed that the tendency of
the Navahoes to name a phratry after one of its clans might
end in the permanent and universal use of such a name for
a phratry. This fact is stated by Mr. Frazer,^" but he is
clearly unaware that, in Australia, the phratry names of
many tribes are the names of a totem-kin in each phratry."^*
I supposed the example to be imitated, borrowed, and
diffused widely. But it was obvious that, in society before
the phratriac arrangement, Eagle Hawk local group would
contain many persons of totem names of descent also repre-
sented in Crow local group. Yet the representatives of any
totem never (except in Aruntadom) exist in both phratries.
I had to assume that " the totems were therefore deliberately
arranged so that one totem never appeared in both
phratries." ^^ Deliberate arrangement in making the social
organisation is much insisted on by Mr. Howitt, Mr. Frazer,
and Mr. Spencer, but in this case the measure was rather
elaborate and toilsome, and, on my present view, was super-
fluous, for, on my new suggestion, the totem-kins automati-
cally and necessarily fell each exclusively in one phratry or
the other. Thus if, in making the phratry federation, you
put Water Hen and Dingo into the same phratry, they
*' Totcinism and Exogamy, vol. iii., pp. 243-4.
** The Secret of the Totem, pp. 154-70. ^'-^ Ibid., p. 173.
The Origin of Exogamy and Totonisiu. 1 8 1
could not intermarry with each other. Now it was their
old sacred rule to intermarry with each other, though at one
time they could, if a young brave wanted an adventure, seek
a bride from an uncovenanted group. If I am right "the
Devil's riddle is mastered," the puzzle of " why only tivo
phratries " is solved. I was always inclined to think that
it was an automatic result of some arrangement, but I could
not find the arrangement, and had to fall back on design.
This theory accounts for the final coalescence into a tribe
of groups, by my assumption originally hostile.
Perhaps the usage of part of New Ireland, and of two
adjacent groups of isles, Tanga and Aneri, may corroborate
our information concerning the one totem to one totem
marriage of the Urabunna, Itchumundi, and Karamundi
" nations." The " totemic creatures are the sea-eagle, the
dove, the black and white fly-catcher, two kinds of parrots,
the sea-gull, the dog, and the pig. No man may marry a
woman of his own totem, and more than that, the men of
any one totem clan are not free to marry the women of
any other totem clan. The Sea-gull men always marry
Sea-eagle women," as Urabunna Dingo men only marry
Water Hen women. " The Parrot men of one clan (the
am pirik) may only marry Parrot women of the other clan,
(the angkika) or Dove w^omen."-^'^ But to other clans a
larger choice is open. Pig men may marry women of any
other totem except Sea-eagle, Dog men may marry into
any totem but their own.
This looks as if some totem-kins in these isles had clung
to, and others had relaxed, the Urabunna rule, — one totem
to one totem.
My theory (as far as convergence or amalgamation of
totem-kins into phratries, exogamous and intermarrying, is
concerned), also occurred to M. Arnold van Gennep. Un-
luckily he suppressed his chapter on the subject in his Mythes
et Legendes d'Australie, as my views had already appeared.^^
•50 ToUmism and Exogamy, vol. ii. 32-3. "^ Op. cit. (1906), p. cxii., note 5.
1 82 The 07'igin of Exogamy and Totemism.
Mr. Frazer makes no reference to myself, or to M. van
Gennep, on this matter, but (vol. i., pp. 284-5), argues against
the theory of amalgamation, without noticing our replies to
certain objections that had already been urged on us by
others. " Why," he asks, " were these federal communities
so regularly either two in number or multiples of two?"
M. van Gennep had briefly said that our theory of con-
vergence (amalgamation) "seule explique entre autres le fait
du dualisme des elements de chaque groupe [p. xxxiv]."
He added that the Australians generally "n'ont de noms de
nombres que jusqu'adeux,"and,for an element of symbolism
in this, refers to Mr. MacGee, " Primitive Numbers," in The
NineteentJi Annual Rcpoj't of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. ii., pp. 821-51. These are not my own ideas,
but those of M. van Gennep.
I would say that, if amalgamation began in the Urabunna
" one totem to one totem " marriage, while such pairs
finally federated into each phratry, Mr, Frazer's question
is answered. I regard the later bisections of two classes
into four, and of four into eight, as deliberate and intelligent
imitations of the original model, — the sets of pairs, the
" two class system." The natives, like Mr. Frazer, would
think that it had been the result of bisection, not of
amalgamation, and would imitate what they supposed to
have been the wise method of their ancestors.
Mr. Frazer's argument ought to be given in his own
words (vol. i., p. 285) : —
"While we may without much difficulty conceive that com-
munities," (in this case totern-kins) " which in their independent
state had been exogamous, should remain exogamous after they
had united to form a confederacy ; it is far more difficult to
understand why in uniting they should have adopted the com-
plicated rules of descent which characterise the four-class and
eight-class organisations of the Australian tribes."
Nobody has ever suggested (as far as I know) that " in
The Origin of Exogamy and Toteviism. 183
uniting'' the totem-kins instantly "adopted" the four or
eight class system. The tribes of one totem to one totem
marriage : the Dieri, without that rule : the To-tathi, Bar-
kinji, and many other tribes, have not the four class or eight
class system, but all agree that tribes began with the two
class or phratry model. Many tribes adhere to it; others
have gone on to the four ; others (all with male descent) to
the eight class system. Their motive and method, I think,
are obvious. They do not know Jioiu the phratry, or two
class system, arose, but they see that it excludes from
marriage some close consanguines, mother and son, brother
and sister. They suppose that the system was made for
this very purpose, and when they wanted to exclude other
consanguines, whom the system did not exclude, they did so
in the honoured ancestral model, by repeated bisections,
making first two, then four "subclasses" in each phratry.
Mr. Frazer goes on : — " We can imagine that each com-
munity in the confederacy should continue as before to
take its wives from another community," ("community"
apparently now means phratry), " but why should the two
intermarrying communities nowcede their child to athird?"
(The third "community " clearly means " subclass.") Mr.
Frazer knows, and has very well explained, why the children
are "ceded to athird community," that is, enter the subclass
in the brother or mother's [sister's ?] phratry, which is not
that of father or mother (vol. i., p. 163). It "is to prevent
the marriage of parents with children." The child is not
driven into an alien "community"; it is still in the totem-
kin and phratry of its father and mother, but the rule"maks
siccar" there can be no union of child with father or mother
without violating an express law.
The same obvious reply answers this objection : " On
the theory of amalgamation what motive can be assigned
for the rigid exclusion of all children from the communities
of both parents .'' " There was no such exclusion, no sub-
classes existed, when the amalgamation was made ; there
1 84 The Origin of Exogamy and Totemism.
was none till, long afterwards, a subclass arrangement was
devised to stereotype and express publicly the already
existing bye-law against the union of father and daughter,
motherand son. The poor children," rigidly excluded from
the communities of both parents," are still in the paternal
or maternal " communities " of the totem-kin and the
phratry and in the family fire-circle. They have lost
nothing. That exclusion is perfectly intelligible on the
hypothesis that it was devised to prevent the marriage of
parents with children, but it is difficult to see how it can be
explained on any other: who is dreaming of explaining it
on any other.-' People entered into the phratriac exogamy
by the amalgamation which I and M. van Gennep suggest,
and then, for conscientious reasons, "kept compounding
it as they went on," as Byron says about people who
" began with simple adultery."
Manifestly Mr. Frazer has not understood the theory of
amalgamation. Beginning in the lower degree with the
intermarrying pairs of the one totem to one totem pattern,
the duality was necessarily preserved in the phratry con-
federation, and was deliberately imitated in the formation
of first four, and then eight subclasses.
Of course I cannot answer the question " Why did one
totem pair off only with one other totem at first, why not
with three, or five, or seven ? " I can only say that the
Urabunna, (or certain of their tribes), the Karamundi, and
the Itchumundi obviously did this very thing, and do it
still. Apparently we find an intermediate stage of inter-
marriage of only three or four totem-kins in each phratry.
Rat (in Kararu phratry) marries Cormorant and Bull Frog ;
Bull Frog in Matteri phratry marries Rat, (and probably
Cormorant), while Cormorant (in Matteri phratry) marries
Rat and Red Ochre, in Kararu phratry. This is the rule in
the southern Urabunna tribe called Yendakarangu. It is
said to be an Urabunna tribe, but has the Dieri, not the
Urabunna phratry names. The facts in this strange case
The Origin of Exogamy and Totcnnsni. 185
are obviously not given with completeness. Some kins
marry into three totems. Some into two. Some only into
one other totem. " This table is evidently imperfect." ^-
Evidently there are intermarrying combinations of totem-
kins within the federation of the phratries. The compact
is not between one totem-kin and one totem-kin, but none
must marry into ^/Z the totems of the phratry not his own.
In writing all this I am incurring the rebuke of Mr.
Golden weiser. He writes that we "Britishers" seize upon
" ;i feature salient in thetotemic life of some community only
to be projected into the life of the remote past, and to be
made the starting point of the totemic,"^^ (in my case of the
phratriac) "process." This is " methodologically unjustifi-
able." In making a hypothesis, I think I may seize on a
salient feature of totemic life in three "nations" more
"primitive" than any others known to us. I then try how
the feature works into my hypothesis of the origin of
phratries in totemic communities. Well, it drops in like the
keystone into the arch ! There is the bridge. " Walk over,
my Lady Lee ! ", into the land of a theory which, at least,
shows how phratries containing each a distinct set of totem-
kins viigJit come into existence.
On my theory the primal prohibition was not based
consciously on consanguinit}', but on locality and ownership.
The semi-brutal Sire says, — " No amours except my own
in my camp." When the groups got names, — Emu, Lizard,
Grub, Iguana, Kangaroo, — the prohibition was " no amours
within the name." When two groups first coalesced into
connubiinn, the first rule was " no marriage with peace save
into one other totem group." The final rule was " marriage
into any totem-kin not in your own phratry." As the rise
of the phratries instantly and automatically produced
classificatory relationships or " classes," people were confined
in marriage to one set of such relations in the opposite
^-Howitt, op. ciL, pp. 18S-9.
^^ The loiimal of American Folk-Lore, vol. xxiii. (1910), p. 2S0.
1 86 The Origin of Exogamy and Totemisni.
phratry, the Niipa or Nca set. Men, reflecting on the
system, saw that it barred the marriage of persons of close
consanguinity, and thought that other persons, also con-
sanguine but not so closely consanguine, should be excluded ;
hence the four and eight class systems.
In the same way the Catholic Church excluded first
cousins, and relations in "gossipred," — godfathers and god-
mothers, godsons and goddaughters, — from intermarriage,
and introduced other restrictions hitherto unknown. In
Scotland, among the noblesse, it became very difficult for
any marriage to occur without, a dispensation, and man\'
pairs were divorced because of some s'carcely traceable
relationship. The Australian blacks, in precisely the same
way, conceived new scruples, and passed more stringent
regulations, till human nature revolted, and the exogamous
system was abandoned among the Kurnai and the
Narran-ga. They had run the whole round of the laby-
rinth and come out into davlieht.
THE ROMANCE OF M^LUSINE.
{Read at Meeting, June iSt/i, 191 3.)
The tale of iMelusine, the mysterious wife of Ra}-mond,
Count of Lusignan, belongs to a cycle of folk-tales the
interest of which is imperishable. Its earliest mention is
b\' Gervase of Tilbury, favourite of the Emperor Otho IV.
and Marshal of the Kingdom of Aries. It is found among
other stories in his book entitled Otia Imperialia, a col-
lection, (like the Dc Nngis Cnrialinni of his contemporary,
Walter Map), of speculations, folk-tales, and superstitions
current in his time. Nearly two centuries later, Jehan
d'Arras, a courtier of the Duke of Bar, worked it up
into a political romance in honour of his patron and for
the amusement of his patron's duchess, Marie, sister of
Charles V., King of France. This romance has been made
the subject of an elaborate study by M. Jules Baudot in the
first volume of a work on Les Princesses Yolande et les Dues
de Bar de la Famille des Valois (Paris : Alphonse Picard
et fils, 1900). M. Baudot has minutely investigated the
circumstances in which it was written and the political
references it contains. The result of his researches is to
show that Jehan d'Arras began the composition on the
20th- November (St. Clement's Day), 1387, and finished
it on Thursday, the 7th August, 1393. I do not propose
to follow the commentator in his ingenious identifications
of many of the characters and incidents of the story,
interesting though they are. Their importance is chiefly
due to the light they may throw on the history of the ducal
1 88 The Romance of Mdlusine.
family, on the political relationships with one another and
with the German States of the various lordships ultimately-
incorporated into the Kingdom of France, and on the literary
methods and predilections of the fourteenth century. These
matters may leave members of the Folk-Lore Society cold.
But there are others that will have for them a little more
attraction.
Melusine was one of the mysterious ladies who wedded
mortal men " upon conditions." They form a numerous
class, and are found in all quarters of the globe. The
conditions they lay down are by no means always the
same. According to Gervase's version,- the tale was told
of Raymond, lord of the castle of Rousset, in the province
of Aix ; and the condition imposed by the nameless bride
whom he wedded was that her husband should never see
her naked. We will come back to this condition by and by.
Jehan d'Arras, in adapting the tradition to his own purposes,
reports a different condition, namely, that Melusine's husband
was not to see her on Saturdays. He probably found the
condition in the folklore of his time, for similar stipulations
are not uncommon. Thus, in the arrondissement of Mont-
beliard in the Jura, the water-fairy of the river Doubs weds
the Sire de Mathay after bargaining that she is to be
allowed absence from him every Friday night, and that
he is neither to ask questions nor to attempt to spy on
her. ^ But in a romance it needed some explanation.
For this purpose, and without holding himself bound by
any principle of economy in marvels, the romancer pro-
ceeded to double the mysterious heroine with a mother
also of more than mortal origin, the Lady Pressine. She
was found, he tells us, by Elinas, King of Albany. He was
hunting one day in a forest near the sea-shore, and, over-
come by thirst, made his way to a fountain that he knew.
As he w^as approaching it he heard a voice singing so
melodiously that he thought it must be an angel's. Dis-
1 Ch. Thuriet, Traditions Popidaires du DoJibs (Paris, 1891), p. 458.
The Roi7ia7ice of M^litsine. 189
mountini:^, he crept cautiously to the spot, and, peerinfr
through the branches of the trees, he saw a lady so beautiful
that he was at once smitten with love. He was a widower
and the father of several children. Whether the lady knew
this does not appear ; but she received his advances
graciously, and agreed to become his wife if he would
promise not to attempt to see her during childbirth,
warning him that, if he failed his covenant, he would
lose her for ever. The requirement was not unreason-
able, and the promise was given. But Elinas' son by his
former wife, variously called Mathathas, Nathas, and
Thiaus, hated his stepmother ; and, when she gave birth
to three little daughters of surpassing beauty, he egged
his father on to enter the room where Pressine was en-
gaged in bathing the babes. Pressine instantly snatched
them up and disappeared. In fact, she took refuge in the
isle of Avalon with her sister, the Lady of the Lost Island ;
and there she brought up her daughters until they were
fifteen years of age. The eldest of these daughters was
Melusine, who, having discovered her father's breach of
faith, thought she would be showing her affection for her
mother by going with her sisters and shutting him up " in
the lofty mountain of Northumberland, called Brumbelioys,
where he spent his life in great sorrow." Her mother, how-
ever, took her officious interference in anything but good
part, and cursed her to become every Saturday a serpent
from the navel down, only to be released if she could find
a husband who would promise never to see her on a Satur-
day, or to betray her to any other person. In case he broke
his promise, her punishment was to return to her misery
until the Day of Judgement, and, further, she was to appear
three days before the fortress, which she should build and
should call by her name, every time its lord should change
or a man descended of her line should die.
Out of the many identifications proposed by M. Baudot
for names occurring in the story, only these names of
1 90 The Romance of Mdlusme.
forbears of Melusine and of places connected with them
have any interest for the student of folklore. For the
scene of this part of the story is manifestly laid in the
British Isles, and in the Celtic and pre-Celtic part of them.
If the royal names can be shown to correspond, not to
actual kings (that would be to exact too much), but to
names in the more or less fabulous lists of Celtic royalties,
presumptive evidence would be found of a Celtic origin of
the tale in the British Isles. This is all the more likely
since Jehan d' Arras was brought into contact with English
influences. The second Earl of Salisbury (born 1328) is
described by M. Baudot as his protector and correspondent.
The earl's possessions included not merely New Sarum,
from which he took his title, but also domains in the county
of Northumberland and the south of Scotland. His father,
the first earl, had been governor of Edinburgh during the
second earl's childhood, and the latter had sojourned with
his mother in Scotland. He seems, further, by his second
marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Jean de Mohun of
Dunster, to have come into possession of properties in
Somerset. Here, if he had any taste for literature and
tradition, (and it seems that he had), was ample opportunity
to become acquainted with Celtic story ; and we gather
that he lent certain manuscripts to Jehan d'Arras, though
what they were we have no present means of knowing. In
this loan, at all events, is the possibility that the author of
Melusine had some Celtic legends to work over. Since
there is nothing in Scottish history corresponding with the
names and incidents outlined above, M. Baudot turns to
Irish legend. He identifies Elinas'with Laoghaire, the son
of Neill of the Nine Hostages, and Mathathas with Oilill
Molt MacNathy, the son of Laoghaire's predecessor. The
setting aside of Elinas he assigns to the Irish custom of
electing a successor in the lifetime of the king, the result
of which frequently was that the days of the reigning king
were shortened. The romancer, indeed, expressly says that
The Romance of Mdhisine. 1 9 1
so overcome was Elinas with grief at the loss of his wife
Pressine, that he made over the government to his son
Nathas. These equations can only be checked by an Irish
antiquary. The identification of the lofty mountain of
Brumbelio\-s is a different matter. M. Baudot does not
hesitate to say that it is Crossfell. His contention is
based partly on considerations of the probable corruption
of manuscripts by the misreading of copyists. But the
termination ioys is apparently refractory to this reasoning.
So he reads Brumbelioys as Crossfell Hills, the terminal
syllable, he says, " rendering as perfectly as writing can the
pronunciation of hills !''
We return to the adventures of Melusine. She is found
at midni<;ht at the fair\' fountain called the Fount of
Thirst, and wedded by Raj-mond, Count of Lusignan, on
the terms we know. When he violates his oath, she mounts
on the window sill and flies away, leaving the print of her
foot in the stone, l^ut first of all she goes three times
round the fortress in the shape of a serpent fifteen feet
long, and every time she passes the window of the room
where she has been betrayed she utters a piercing cry.
However, we need not follow the details of departure and
lamentations. It suffices to draw attention to the fact that,
though she is in the form of a fish from the navel down-
ward, she flies, and she also takes the form of a great
serpent. She furthermore returns daily to visit her children
and superintend their nurses. According to another account,
adopted elsewhere in the romance, Raymond, after dis-
covering Alelusine's secret, says nothing about it ; and all
goes on as before, until their son Geoffrey, in a fit of rage
with his brother Froimond, who has become Abbot of
Maillieres, burns the abbey over his head. Raymond, on
hearing of the deed, is overcome with sorrow and anger,
calls her " Thou false serpent ! ", and reproaches her with
the misconduct of her sons. But, when he sees Melu-
sine before him and realizes what he has done, lie pra\-s
19- The Romance of J\Ic^lusine.
her on his knees to forgive him. She may forgive him,
but the curse is stronger than her love, and with the
tenderest words and embraces they part for ever.
Such, in brief, is M. Baudot's analysis of the tale as
developed by Jehan d'Arras. We may pass over the
heroine's lengthy and didactic farewells to her children,
which, as the commentator observes, form a most judicious
compendium of political economy and morals. Whatever
Jehan d'Arras' indebtedness to Gervase of Tilbury, it is
probable that the story in its essentials was current in
Lusignan, a survival of ancient pagan myths. How much
it owes in the romancer's hands to Celtic tradition from
the British Islands, there may be a difference of opinion.
The union of a mortal man with a supernatural lady upon
conditions which are inevitably broken is a frequent inci-
dent in the folklore at least of Whales. Sir John Rhys, in
his Celtic Folklore Wels/i and Jilanx, has given a number
of these stories. In some of them there is the same curious
indecision between aerial and aqueous characteristics of the
lady that we meet with in the tale of Melusine. Like
Melusine and Pressine, she is usually connected with water.
She comes out of a lake or pool, just as those heroines are
found at fountains. But, when the taboo is infringed, she
sometimes flies away, like Melusine, through the air,
like a wood-hen {iar goed), as one of the stories puts it. In
all this, however, there is nothing peculiar to Celtic folklore.
In the Shetland Islands she is actually a seal, in Sutherland-
shire a mermaid. Whether these legends are Celtic in
origin may be doubted. They belong more specifically to
the swan-maiden cycle, in which, instead of a broken taboo,
the catastrophe depends on the recovery by the super-
natural wife of her magical garment. Once more possessed
of this, the swan-maiden resumes her bird-form, the seal or
the mermaid her aquatic nature. In Scandinavian folk-
lore the swan-maiden first appears in the Lay of Weyland
the Smith ; as a seal she is familiar down to modern times
The Romance of Mi'/nsine. 193
ill Iceland. The cycle is in fact very widely diflused. Its
most strikingly told example is the splendid story of Hasan
of Bassorah in the Arabia?i Nights.
A more tragical note is struck where the lady imposes
a prohibition. In the first half of the Middle Ages,
and in some countries even later, a marriage was far from
indissoluble. The Liber Poenitentialis of Theodore, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, is doubtless a compilation of clerical
rules in vogue throughout the west of Europe and not
peculiar to Anglo-Saxon England, though adopted and
possibly adapted for the purposes of his own jurisdiction
by the great archbishop. Its use was extended in the
eighth century by Ecgberht, Archbishop of York, to the
northern province. That the Church was able to enforce
all the prohibitions and penances laid down in it is very
improbable. Indeed there is abundant evidence on the
face of this and other ecclesiastical documents to the
contrary, in the alternative and lighter penances provided,
and in the methods kindlj^ allowed to powerful men to
shift the most uncomfortable parts of their penances to
other shoulders. But even in this very document, if a
woman leave her husband and will not return, he is per-
mitted, after five years, with the bishop's consent, to take
another wife. Or if husband or wife be taken away by
force into captivity, there is permission to marry again after
a like period, and, moreover, a provision that, if in such
a case the captive return after a second marriage on the
part of the spouse left behind, the new husband or wife
shall be dismissed. The husband of an adulterous wife
is also specially authorized to repudiate her, the lord's
sentence having been first obtained, and to marry another.'-
In Wales, at a much later date, the freedom of separation
^ Liber Poenitentialis Theodori etc., xix., 23, 24, 18; cf. Confessionale
Ecgberti, 26, 19 ; Excei'ptiones Ecgberti, cxxiv., cxxv. ; in Ancient Laws and
Institutes of England (Pub. Rec. Comm., 1840), pp. 285, 355, 351, 336; see
also p. 281, n. 4.
1 94 TIic Romance of Melusine.
was even (greater. " Practically," as Sir John Rhys and
Sir David Brynmor Jones say, "either husband or wife
might separate whenever one or both chose," though the
consequences to their property varied with the circum-
stances.^ The facility of separation and marriage to others
enjoyed by husbands and wives in Scandinavia is obvious
to the most superficial student of Norse literature. Among
the Germans, Grimm lays it down that separation might
take place either at the will of both parties, with or without
any other ground, or at the will of one party only, especi-
ally the man's, on account of some bodily blemish or crime.
The husband could demand divorce for his wife's barren-
ness ; she for an equivalent reason on his part, or simply
because he neglected her. The solemnities of divorce
corresponded to those of marriage. The keys, the symbols
of the mistress' authority in the house, were required to
be delivered up. Each party held one end of a piece of
linen cloth ; and while so held it was cut in two, leaving one
end in the hand of each.* It is thus clear that the right of
separation of a married pair was undoubtedly re'cognized
by the common law of various countries in the west of
Europe, and even was to a great extent acquiesced in by
the Church, until the more ascetic of its rulers were able,
after a secular struggle, more or less to enforce their will.
In the light of these facts, a marriage upon conditions im-
posed by the bride is not so fantastic in a mediaeval story as
it otherwise seems ; still less so is it in the more barbarous
societies in which the tale must have originated.
Nor do the conditions themselves appear unduly
arbitrary as they are set forth in the romance. Pressine
forbade her husband to intrude upon her childbed. The
seclusion of a woman at such times from men, including
her husband, is a very common and stringent rule in savage
* Rhys and Jones, The Welsh People (1900), p. 212; Wade-Evans, Welsh
Medieval Law (O.xford, 1909), p. 238.
^J. Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterlhui>ic){2n([e.(}i. ,G'6\.\.\ugtx\, 1854), pp. 443, 454.
The Romance of Mdliisine. 195
life. Tliough among some tribes he is required to be present
and act as midwife, he of all men is more usually required
to be absent. In the Loyalty Islands, indeed, where birth
takes place (contrary to the general rule) in public, every-
body may be present to witness it except the husband,
whose absence is enforced ; nor may he pay his wife a visit
until the child is big enough to crawl.^ But we need not
go to these far-off lands, and to peoples alien to ourselves in
blood and traditions, for examples of the exclusion of the
father from his wife's bedside on such occasions. In our
own social conditions his absence is a matter of course, and
does not suggest to us any special taboo. But if ue take
into account the practices in the more backward parts of
Europe and among the peasantry and working-classes, it
would seem to be founded on sometiiing more than con-
venience. It used to be a general Slav custom, still fol-
lowed in out-of-the-way places in Servia and Jiulgaria, that
a woman must not give birth in the house, for that would
be to pollute it.'^ Among the Votiaks, where possibly
climatic conditions are frequently adverse to birth out of
doors, the midwife hangs up a curtain before the bed, that
no one may witness the birth, since to do so would be an
evil omen." In neither of these cases is there, on the
surface at least, a special prohibition to the husband.
Among the Ossetes, however, an expectant mother used to
be sent home to her own people for the birth.^ It is very
rarely that the Abruzzian husband is allowed to be present;
indeed it would seem to be a purely local exception.^ In
Ireland "the father is carefully kept out of the way on
these occasions." 10 Near Cracow and in Ukrainia the
" ^ The Journal of the Anthropological InstititU\ vol. .six., p. 504.
* F. S. Krauss, Sitte unci Brunch der Siidslavcn (\'ienna, 1S85), p. 537.
'' A'ez'uc des Traditions Populaires, vol. xiii., p. 254.
'Schiefner, Melanges Asiatiques tiris dn BulUtin de I' Acad. Imp. des
Sciences de St. Petersbourg, vol. v., p. 698.
•Finaniore, Tradizioni Populari Abruzzesi {T\ii\n, 1S94), p. 64.
"Dr. C. R. Browne, Folk-Lore, vol. iv., p. 359.
1 96 The Romance of M^lusine.
father is forbidden to be present, and he is only allowed
to visit the mother when the birth is over.^^ Among the
Albanians, after the birth, when the baby has been wrapt
in its swaddling clothes and laid in the cradle, the relatives
are admitted to offer their congratulations and admire the
little stranger. But the father is obliged to keep away, and
to refrain from seeing his child until it is eight days old.^^
I have elsewhere suggested that a requirement thus com-
mon (but not universal) may be a relic of earlier social
conditions, when the wife dwelt in her mother's house, and
descent was reckoned only through women.^-"^ Whatever
may be the value of this conjecture, — and it is only a con-
jecture,— it is plain that Pressine laid no undue burden on
her husband : in fact, she simply demanded his compliance
with a custom probably well known and generally followed
throughout Europe. The same rule may also be suspected
in ancient Japan, though in the authorities to which I have
access I cannot find it definitely stated. When Toyo-tama-
hime, the daughter of the Sea-King, was near her time, she
caused her husband, Hiko-hoho-demi, to build her a separate
parturition-house, in accordance with Japanese custom, and
requested him : — " Thy handmaid is about to be delivered ;
I pray thee do not look upon her." But he peeped in
secretly, and saw that Toyo-tama-hime, in the act of child-
birth, had changed into a dragon or sea-monster of eight
fathoms in length. She was greatly ashamed because he
had disgraced her ; she forthwith abandoned the child on
the sea-shore and returned to the sea.^*
"^^ Revue des Traditions Populaires, vol. vi., p. 36. If we may judge from
the old ballad literature, the custom was the same throughout the Dorth-west
of Europe. See L. Pineau, Les Vieiix Chants Populaires Scandijiaves (Paris,
1898), vol. i., pp. iioet seq.
^^L. M. J. Garnett, The Women of Turkey etc. (1891), vol. ii. , p. 243.
^'J. Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. ii., p. 637.
^* Aston, Nihongi (1896), vol. i., pp. 94-5, 103-4, 107; id., Shinto (1905),
p. 114. The ancient Chinese practice is detailed in the Li Ki, and presumably
it is still followed. There the exclusion of the husband from the wife's room
is complete. See Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxvii., pp. 471, 475, 476.
The Romance of A'Idhisine. 197
Before dealiii;::^ with Mclusine's stipulation let us turn to
that of the fairy wife of Raymond, lord of Rousset, as
narrated by Gervase of Tilbur)-. She forbade her iuisband
to see her naked. We may compare the Indian tale of
Urvasi, the fairy or apsaras wedded to Pururavas. Her
stipulation was: "Without my desire thou shalt not
approach me, and I must not see thee naked, for that is
the custom of us women." ^^ The futile discussions over
this tale by philologists in the third quarter of the last
century are an excellent measure of the value of their
mythological theories. The late Andrew Lang, with
clearer insight, recognized that the gist of the myth was
contained not in doubtful explanations of the meaning
of the names, but in the custom to which Urvasi thus
required her husband to conform. "There must have
been," he justly says, "at some time a custom which for-
bade women to see their husbands without their garments,
or the words have no meaning."^'' Accordingly he adduces
a number of customs, chiefly relating to the early da}'s
of marriage. None of them, it is true, exactly corresponds
to that mentioned by Urvasi ; but the)' do show what is
now familiar to all anthropologists, — that a number of
curious taboos bind brides and bridegrooms in various
parts of the world. So far as these taboos are germane to
the present enquiry, they exhibit the relations between the
young couple as secret, and usually limited to the darkness
of night. I have elsewhere studied the subject of visiting
husbands.^*" In some countries the husband is never at
any time more than a guest who comes by night and goes
with daylight ; in others visits of this kind are merely a
preliminary to a more open and avowed union. It is at
least a plausible contention that in the latter cases we have
^*The story is literally translated from the Sanskrit by A. Kuhn, Die
Herabknnft des Feiiers {2x\^ ed.) (Gutersloh, 1886), p. 73.
"A. Lang, Custom and Myth (1884), p. 71.
'^'' Primitive Paternity (1910), vol. ii., chap. v.
198 The Romance of Melusine.
an epitome of the real history of marriage among the
peoples concerned. Relics of such nocturnal visits in the
customs of courtship are still extant in the north and west
of Europe. A condition similar to that imposed by the
fairy of Rousset, or that by Urvasi, may very well be, and
probably is, an accompaniment of the custom wherever it
is found. To be sure, the exercise of conjugal rights in the
course of these stolen interviews is hardly now in accord-
ance with social convention ; but in fact it frequently takes
place. In the past there is every reason to think it was a
more ordinary incident. However much a matter of course
it may have been, the full disclosure to one a'nother involved
in nudity may always have been deemed indecent, and
therefore a proper subject for resentment on the part of the
lady. But this is by no means all. The prurience of vowed
celibacy and the tyranny of the confessional scrupled not
to pry into the most intimate details of married life, and
strove to regulate them by the artificial and preposterous
ideals of the cloister. Archbishop Theodore's Liber Poeni-
tentialis accordingly imposes on every husband, without
qualification, the prohibition laid by the fairy of Rousset on
Raymond, though it does not venture so far as to affix a
penance to its breach.^^ The ecclesiastical attitude was no
doubt perfectly well known ; and, whatever the laity might
in their hearts think of it, the knowledge would tend to
excuse the supernatural lady's rigour on the point.
Melusine's requirement of absolute privacy on Saturdays
presents more difficulty. It will not have escaped attention
that Urvasi makes a parallel claim for freedom from her
husband's presence except at her own' desire. Such a claim
as this presupposes an equality of treatment of the sexes
much greater than is now recognized by the Hindu sacred
law. But what the law does not recognize is sometimes
secured by contract. Deeds have been officially registered
'^^ Liber Poenileutialis, xix. , 25; cf. Conjessionale Ecgberti, 20 {Ancient
Laws and Lustitutes of England, pp. 2S6, 351).
The Romance of Mdlusine. 199
in India by which a bridegroom agrees never to scold his
wife, under penalty of divorce, and to allow her to go to iicr
father's house as often as she likes, giving her a right to
enforce her liberty in this respect by an action against him
for unlawful confinement.^'-' Among many peoples, however,
the actual freedom of women is much greater than the letter
of the social organization would secure them. It depends,
in fact, on the strength of women's individual wills and
influence, or on their power of combination to counter-
balance the marital authorit)-. The Beni Amer of Ab\-ssinia,
Mohammedans though they are by profession, are unable
to reduce their women to the condition of dependence
envisaged by the Prophet. A wife has the right to return
to her mother's house at any time. She exercises the right
and stays for months, kindly letting her husband know that
if he cares for her he may come and see her. Even at his
own home, if he scolds her, she will exact a penalty, and
perhaps keep him out of doors a whole night in the rain
until he purchases peace with a camel or a cow. Man)' a
husband has been thus ruined by his wife, who has tlien
calmly left him for ever. The women all understand one
another. Whenever there is a family disagreement, the wife
calls her friends together ; the husband is, of course, always
in the wrong ; and the whole village is speedily in an
uproar. It is a point of honour with a woman, even if she
love her husband, not to express it, but to treat him with
contempt ; and it would be deemed a shame to her to
show him any afifection.-*^ This is, no doubt, an extreme
case ; but it shows what may be done by determination
in the teeth of institutions as hostile as possible to the
rights of women.
Somewhat nearer to the stipulation made by Melusine^
but even more exacting, are the marriage customs of the
Hassanyeh Arabs of the White Nile, also followers of Islam.
^' Indian Notes and Queries (Allahabad, 18S7), vol. iv., p. 147.
20 W. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien{2x\A ed., Basel, 1883), p. 324.
200 The RoDiaiicc of Mdhisiiie.
The most respectable women among them, by agreement at
the time of marriage, limit their conjugal duties to not more
than four days of the week, and if possible to fewer. The
remaining days are absolutely at the wife's disposition.^^
Such an arrangement is, of course, foreign to European
manners. In Europe a wife by marriage came legallyinto the
/^/^j-Arj-of her husband. But though he could chastise her, as
he might his slaves and children, she was the ruler of his
household, — a position that probably, in the case of a noble-
man or man of wealth, gave her a considerable measure of
personal independence within well-recognized limits. To
what extent she availed herself of the opportunities afforded
by it must have depended on her character and circum-
stances. The Wife of Bath was not the only lady in the
Middle Ages, or in the Canterbury Tales themselves, who
thoroughly understood how —
" to have sovereyntee
As wel over hir housbond as hir love,
And for to been in maistrie him above."
Succeeding in this, she could impose conditions beside which
that of Melusine would not seem incredible.
It must, however, be remembei-ed that the story of the
conditional marriage did not originate in the Middle Ages,
but in a state of society much more archaic. It is merely
the adaptation of a savage tale to a higher stage of civiliza-
tion, the last term of an evolution which perhaps began in
totemism, and certainly at a period when marriages were
dissolved more freely than the more complex organiza-
tion of social institutions has permitted in Europe within
historical times.
E. Sidney Hartland.
-' J. Petherick, Egypt, the Soudan and Central Africa (Edinburgh, 1861),
pp. 141-4, 151.
COLLECTANEA.
County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths, II. {coniinufd from
p. io6).
(With Plates III.-V.).
Plate III. shows the limestone rock named Cloughlea, the
straight gashes on which are said to have been made by the
sharpenmg of the swords of Finn and his band, as I have already
described, (vol. xxiii., p. 90).
4. Semi-Historical Tales.
Crimthann mac Fidach, a reputed High King of Erin, had a
sister Mong finn (Fair Hair), and was poisoned by her in a.d. 377.
In her anxiety to disarm her brother's suspicions and to secure
the monarchy for her sons, she drank first of the poisoned chalice
and died. The dying king bade his followers take him southwards,
and was brought to a flank of the Cratloe Hills opposite
Limerick City. There he died, and was buried in haste under a
cairn. "Crimthann mac Fidach's poor tumulus ' long remained,
and the hill was called Sliabh oided an righ (the hill of the king's
death). A shadow of the story clung to the king's cairn up Glenna-
gross, but is now on the point of being forgotten. The heap has
been nearly removed, and is unmarked on the maps, — a most
unpardonable omission. Before 1S72 Michael Hogan, "The
Bard of Thomond," went to examine the cairn, and found all
taken away to make fences except the principal slab. The
l)easantry called the hill Knock Righ Crimthan at that time.
I hear from Dr. George Fogerty, R.N., that the site is still shown.
Crimthann had a foster son, Conall of the swift steeds, son of
O
202 Collectanea.
Lugaid INIeann, who had already swept into Clare, fighting seven
battles and reducing under his sway all the central plain up to
Luchaid ford, still the county boundary on the side of Galway. A
foster son stood almost in closer relation to his foster father than
the latter's actual children, and Conall demanded an eric or atone-
ment for his foster-father's death. For this he claimed the district
which, despite the hostility of the Connacht tribes and the wars of
their able king Fiachra, was held by the strong hand by Conall
and his descendants down to Dioma, whose decisive victory in the
seventh century at Knocklong wiped out all future claims of
Connacht on the territory. After the Norse wars the later princes
claimed lineal descent from Conall, and thus southern Connacht
is said to have become " North Munster," Tuadh Mumhan, or
Thomond, in the stead of the older district of that name south of
the Shannon.^
5. Early Christian Period.
Here we ought to be on safer ground, but at their best the
records are so very imperfect down to the ninth century that we
have to depend largely upon late documents, which are rather
sermons than histories, though doubtless recording some facts.
Older writers argue from the use of the present tense and from
such statements as that the saint "is at" a place that the Z/m are
contemporary. But we, recognizing the vivid faith that a Saint
was alive for evermore, or that his relics were at the place, must
look for other proof. Wherever, as in the cases of St. Patrick and
St. Columba, we can test the eleventh and twelfth century legends
by earlier information, the result prescribes great caution in dealing
with any late Life without surviving predecessors. The " field
legends" were probably kept in shape by the lections of the
clerics until, at any rate, the overturn of the old regime late in the
reign of Elizabeth.- The Reformation*, accepted from the English
^ The most accessible of the many records of the story is perhaps Silva
Gadelica, vol. i., p. 413 ; vol. ii., p. 37S ; (from the Book of Ballymote). The
early Dalcassian stories are examined in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish
Academy, vol. xxix. (C), p. 192.
'^ Of course this refers only to Clare, where time-serving Earls of Thomond
and Bishops of Killaloe long protected the old conditions by a show of
conformity.
Plate III.
THE CLOUCIILEA (P^INX'S '-.SHARPENING STONE^%
BALLYSHEEN, CO. CLARE.
To fact- /. 202.
Coliectanca. 203
Government only in lip-service, affected neither the faith nor the
services of the people until the wreckage caused by the Desmond
wars about 15S0 partly cleared its way. Even after the suppression
of the monasteries^ the traditions must have been kept alive by
books until the hopeless ruin of the old conditions after 1651.
By 1638 some of the Lives, and notably that of St. Mochulleus,
had disappeared, so that I am inclined to believe that the stories
of the Saints became oral traditions from at least about the middle
of the seventeenth century. The Lives by which we can check the
folk-tales are those of St. Senan (comprising a very early metrical
one and others of the tenth to twelfth centuries), St. Mochulleus
(written in 1142), St. Flannan (about the same date), St. MacCrecius
(late), St. Endeus (about 1380), the latter's sister St. Fanchea,and
St. Tola, — (the last does not mention Clare), — all later than 1000.
Isolated mentions of other Clare saints abound from The Calendar
of Oengus* (soon after 800) downwards, and a few notes in the
Annals are possibly contemporary with the saints themselves.
The County has no early tales of St. Patrick, nor dedications to
him, thus bearing out the statement of the Tripariite Life that he
did not cross the Shannon. He baptized the Corcavaskin con-
verts at Knockpatrick Hill near Foynes, in Limerick County, and
blessed tlieir country from its summit.'' He also converted and
baptized King Carthin and his son, Eochaidh Bailldearg, the over-
chiefs, at the palace of the former at Sengal {ox Singland) close to
the modern city of Limerick. The widely-known old ballad —
" A hundred thousand vipers bhie he charmed with sweet discourses,
And lunched on them at Killaloe with soups and second courses "
has no reference to any Clare story.
'The Franciscans of Quin and Ennis survived continuously, in the former
place to 1825, and in the latter until the present day, but the Cistercians of
Corcomroe Abbey only until about 1650.
* Editions published by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the Transactions of the Royal
Irish Academy and those of the Henry Bradshaw Society.
*I discussed its identity in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol.
XXV. (C), p. 395. The Agallamh na Senorach ("The Colloquy with the
Ancients," .SV/i'a Gadelica, vol. ii., pp. 101-265), however, tells of an excursion
of St. Patrick in eastern Clare, but I do not think that this work has any weight
against the authorities, loc. cit., p. 126 ; it is later than 1142 if by " Drogheda"
Monastery it means the one founded in that year and not the venerable
Monasterboice, which was sometimes called the " Abbey of Drogheda."
204 Collectanea.
Turning to local saints, we find many remembered in folk-tales,
from the first known evangelist downwards. Earliest of all is
Brecan, son of Eochaidh Bailldearg. " Now Eochaidh Bailldcarg
had two sons, i.e. Conall Caerah and Breasal, i.e. his name was
Brecan of Aran, as the poet says, — "Brecan of Aran, son of
Eochaidh, was a righteous true-judging Saint, .... high his dignity
before he got the name of Brecan."' " ^ He lived about 480, and is
remembered as " Rikin " at Clooney near Quin, and as Brecan at
Kilbreckan and at the well at Toomullin near the cliffs of Moher.
Clare and Aran were so closely connected, until the O'Flaherties
ousted the O'Briens from the Aran Isles about 15S5, that I
include the story from Aran, where Brecan's church is the chief of
the "Seven Churches." The Leaba Brecain, his "bed" or grave,
an early enclosure with a richly carved but broken cross, yielded
on excavation a slab with an early cross and "(S) ci Brecani,""
showing that he was early revered as a saint. The Clare stories,
though vague, represent him consistently as a bright, joyful,
affectionate man, hardly troubled by the more mundane tempta-
tions. He won crowds of converts by tact, patience, and
sweetness, and is said even to have tried to convert the devils who
led forlorn hopes against his temper and patience. He won over
the impatient, jealous St. Enda* by becoming one of his disciples
and causing his own more numerous converts to pay reverence to
that saint. He converted a chief ("king") whom Enda threatened
with lightning, by thanking God for sparing the pagan, and then
teaching the convert to do the same. These stories were told
around Toomullin, but without the saints' names, in 1878, and my
notes of 1880 give the last incident as follows : — "The King was
going to curse and swear, when he stopped and asked the other
saint if he had saved him .... and the King said to the saint, —
''Book of Lee an ^ p. 214. One might speculate that the mythical island
" Brasil " took its name from the saint, in the same way as St. Brandan's Isle,
St. Ailbe's Isle, and the Isle of the Seven Bishops.
"Plate IV. See Lord Dunraven, Notes on Irish Architecture, vol. i., plates
xllv.-v. ; G. Petrie, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland etc., p. 140,
reads " capiti Brecani," but part of the "S" remains. A horseman on the
broken cross at Killeany, shown in Plate IV., is supposed to be Brecan.
*I assume that St. Enda is intended by "the saint from Aran" in the
Toomullin stor)-.
Plate IV.
SI lucmticmern's cell
TOMFINLOUGH.
5T BRECAN'S LEAC
TEAMPUU BRECAIN .ARAN
ST. BRECAX, ST. LLXHTICHPLRX, AND ST. IXGHINE HAOITH.
To J (lie p. 204.
Collectanea. 205
"Ye know more about your Master than that other one, and talk
as if you'd lived in His house. So I'm going to mind yon this
time out." " But I found no stories remembered at Doolin, near
Toomullin, in 1905 ; the well was known as St. Brecan's in 1839.
At Cloony and Kilbrecan his name is only recalled as that of the
church-founder. Doora church near Kilbrecan was called Durini-
erekin in 1189.^ In Aran the most definite tale is that Brecan
and Enda agreed to set out from their churches at opposite ends
of the island and to fi.\ tlie boundary of their districts at the point
at which they met. Brecan celebrated a mass early and set out,
with the untiring energy ascribed to him in the Clare tales ; but
Enda prayed, and the feet of Brecan's horse stuck fast in the rock
near Kilmurvey, in the valley across the island below the great fort
Dun Aengusa, until Enda came. At that point the island is fated
to be broken asunder, — no improbable contingency, in view of the
geology and the violent seas, for a great tidal wave, faintly recalled
in tradition in 1878, passed over the island at this point before
1640.^*^ The fourteenth-century Life of Endeus does not name
Brecan, so that evidently there was then the idea of the saints'
rivalry ; the Life is, however, sadly lacking in personal and local
colour. The Lives of St. Enda and of his sister St. Fanchea tally
perfectly with the popular account of St. Enda's angry, impatient
character. Apart from his brother saint he is only remembered as
the patron of Killeany church near Lisdoonvarna and the builder
of its altar, on which lie the curious " cursing stones " already
illustrated. ^1
Sixth-Century' Saints. — Greatest of all the saints at this period
was Senan, son of Gerrchin of Iniscatha or Scattery, who died
about 550. His Life^- is of great interest, and gives what seems
"Charter of Donaldmore O'Brien, King of Munster, to Forgy Abbey (Clare),
as quoted in a later charter of 1461, MSS. F. i. 15., Trinity College, Dublin ;
see Handbook vi., The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, pp. 67-9.
'° Koderic O'FIaherty, A Chronographical Description of West or H -lar
Connaught, p. 78. "Vol. xxii., PI. v.
^*J. Colgan, Acta Sanctorum etc. (1645), Tom. I., March 8th. The
metrical Life is attributed to St. Colman of Cloyne, and a prose Life to his
successor Odran, but the latter is probably many centuries later. See also
*' Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore," edited by Whitley Stokes in
Anecdota Oxoniensia.
2o6 Collectanea.
to be a genuine picture of his time, showing the chiefs living and
exercising hospitality in their forts, the lesser gentry employing
their sons to herd cattle on their detached pasturages, the boys,
spear in hand, driving herds across the tidal creeks, and all the
men commandeered for a raid against the neighbouring tribes of
Corca Modruadh in Corcomroe. The tradition of the Kilrush
district, collected by the Rev. John Graham before i8i6,^^ said
that Senan was born in Moylough (Maglacha in the Life)^ and
spoke before his baptism, when, his mother having eaten some wild
fruit, he said to her, — " You have an early appetite, mother ! "
" You have old talk, my child," she replied, and named him Senan,
(from sean, old). He told her to pull up three rushes, and the
present lake, still called Loughshanan, broke out and he was
baptized in it. He dedicated Kilmihil Church to St. Michael,
because the archangel helped him in his combat with a monster. At
present, save where the " book legend " has established itself, he is
remembered only as a church founder (Kiltinnaun), healer ("Sinon's
Well," Kilkee), woman-hater, and, above all, a dragon-queller.
Along the Shannon banks you hear of his fight with the Cat, the
Cathach of the older story, which dates from Soo (being known to
Oengus 1^). At Doolough, near Mount Callan, the peasantry told
of his chaining \\\q. peist^ and throwing it into the Lough, which in
storms the monster still makes to boil like a pot. Senan then
built the churches on Scattery, bes.ides those at Kiltinnaun, Kil-
rush, and Kilmihil, and the Round Tower of Scattery. A woman
disturbed him just as he was completing the cap of the Tower,
and he left it unfinished. ^-^ As a boy I heard in 1868 and 1872
endless tales of him from fishermen and donkey boys, but forgot
them before I began to make notes. In 1878 I heard how the
^' W. S. Mason, A Statistical Account or parochial sur-cey etc., vol. ii., p. 439,
a report of exceptional fulness and interest.
^* The Calendar of Oengus (ed. by Whitley Stokes), Irish MS. series. Royal
Irish Academy, vol. i., p. Ivi., March Sth, says that Senan "gibbeted" the
monster. The Lebar Brccc, pp. 83-4, says that Senan hanged and fettered the
monster, whose name was Cathach, for eating his smith Narach, and "Senan
was hangman to the beast''' (p. Ixii.).
^* This is also alluded to in__^0'Brannan's poem on the Shannon. Cf. Folk^
Lore, vol. xxii., p. 206.
Collectanea. 207
dragon slept with its body looped round Scattery and its tail in its
mouth; how the angel brought the saint to Knockanangel hill (and
church), and helped him to drive out the monster ; how Sendn
would not let the lady saint (Cannara) land on his island, and only
let her be buried where the tide ebbs and flows over her tomb-
stone ; and how he let no woman enter the church. At that time
no one prevented girls from entering Teampul Shenain, and the
holy elder bush, from which in earlier days it was reckoned fatal
to break a twig, was a mere memory. St. Senan's bell, folk told,
came down ringing from the sky upon a roadside altar between
Kildimo and Farighy. The late Rev. Sylvester Malone heard from
Dean Ktrnny how his curate, the Rev. S. Walsh, about 1827 first
persuaded some women to enter Senan's church. ^^ Soon after-
wards their families were evicted. At the patterns ^" the women
used to wait at the Cathedral while the men finished their devotions
at St. Senan's grave and church, for they held that any woman
intrudmg was either struck barren or met with some other
disaster.
Caritan, Senan's disciple, is vaguely remembered as " Credaun "
at Kilcredane near Carrigaholt. In 1S16 he was known as Credan
jieapha (jiaomh^ holy), and by his well cured sore eyes and rickets,
giving its waters a circular motion which kept the tide from uniting
with them.^^
The tale of " St. Senan's Warning " ^^ tells, as by Tom Crotty,
an old guide, how thirteen boats full of people came to ' make
rounds ' and merrymake upon one Easter Monday ; one man, who
only came for sport and did no reverence to the saint, got drunk
and was drowned on his way to land. The guide gives a circum-
stantial account of the saint's appearance to his father, Dan Crotty,
but it was probably at least "dressed to amuse the quality," — a
pestilential custom, encouraged by former generations of thought-
less gentry and originating many a sham legend. The convivial
" ^* The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaological Association of
Ireland, vol. xiii. (1874-5), P- 259.
*'See vol. xxiii., pp. 80, 207.
^*W. S. Mason, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 436.
"J. F. O'Hea, Irish Pleasantry (1882), p. 216.
2o8 Collectanea.
Senan in it is the antithesis of the preternaturally austere saint of
other modern tales and of the Lives.-^
St. Coliimba, the apostle of the Hebrides, who died in 597, is
remembered as the builder of Crumlin oratory, opposite the Aran
Isles, from which he came, landing at Lacknaneeve ("the saint's
rock") on the shore below. At the opposite (eastern) side of the
great terraced hills of limestone, he gave his name to Glen Columb-
cille, where he built the church and left the (six) marks of his
fingers on a block of stone by the roadside.
St. Maccreiche, a venerable monk about 580, was, according to
his Life, brought to Corcomroe from Emly, with St. Luchtighern
of Tomfinlough, to go on an embassy to Aedh, king of Connacht,
to recover certain cattle "lifted" by the king's subjects. He and
his disciple Mainchin are locally remembered as building the
churches of Kilmacreehy, Kilmanagheen, and Inagh ; their heads
are carved on the former church, where they lie buried on either
side of the chancel (Plate V.). Maccreehy(buthis name is forgotten)
chained the destructive Demon-Badger or Bruckee {Broc-sidhe) in
its cave Poulnabruckee, near Rathblamaic church in Inchiquin,
and hurled it into Rath Lake. The tale is also told in older written
legend, and the head of the FJruckee is supposed to be represented
in the carvings of large-eared dragons at Rath and Kilmacreehy.-^
St. Colaun of Tomgraney, who died at that place on Oct. 24th,
551, of yellow jaundice, gives his name to Tobercolaun, the well-
house on the road between his church and Bodyke. Some call
him St. Colman.22
St. Luchtighern Mac Ua Trato^^ of Tomfinlough or Fenloe in
south-east Clare, though appearing in the Calendars and the Life
^ It has been maintained that the early Irish adopted a form of humour con-
sisting in attributing incongruous acts to persons notoriously incapable of them ;
see S. H. O'Grady's preface to Silva Gadelica, vol. ii., p. xviii. This view has
been contradicted by others, who ascribe the instances to the defective ideas of
the narrators; see Folk- Lore, vol. iv., p. 380.' Both views are probably in
some cases correct.
-^ See vol. xxi., plate xiv., and also The fournal of the North Mttnster
Archaeological Society, vol. iii., p. 204.
'''^ Annals of Ulster, Clonvtacnoise s^nA Tigherncuh, 548-51.
^ The Calendar of Oengus (loc. cit.), p. Ixxvii. The patronymic may be
corrupt.
Plate V.
ST. MACCREICHE'S TO.MI5, KILMACREEHV CHURCH,
CO. CLARE.
{Lent iy the North Munster Arclueological Society.)
7 0 face p. 20S.
Collect a nea. 209
of St. Maccrecius, has little other record. His name was forgotten
at Tomfinlough until revived by one of my papers,^* but he played
an anonymous part in a local tale in 1839, not quite forgotten
fifty years later. Once on a time a horrible plague invaded Erin,
large lumps coming out on the heads of the victims, who soon
died. The saint told his flock one Sunday that any who got the
disease should come at once to him. Soon afterwards, as he and
his two deacons were making hay in the church field at Tomfin-
lough, they saw a woman running up with two big lumps on her
forehead. She fell at the saint's feet, and he prayed, signed the
cross, and pulled off the lumps, which he flung against the church,
where one of them burst. The woman at once recovered. One
of the deacons knelt and glorified God and the saint, but the
other mocked. " I will carve our three heads over the door ot
the little church," said the holy man, "and let Heaven decide who
is right." Next day the carved features of the scoffer were worn
away.^^ The stone, (with two bosses, one round and one flat),
built into the wall near the south-west angle of the graveyard, and
the three carved heads, of which one is worn flat, may still be
seen. The "plague stone" (Plate IV.) is believed to keep
disorders out of the parish, which certainly was hardly affected
by the destructive " Great Cholera " in the last century.
Seventh Century. — After 600 several saints of great note appeared
in Clare. St. Colman mac Duach founded in 610 the famous
monastery of Kilmacduach, not far over the borders of Clare, and
died in 630. I have already told^^ how he miraculously brought
away the Easter Day feast of his brother, King Guaire the
Hospitable, from Gort to his hermitage under the cliffs of Kinallia.
The story is still told, and the track in the rocks is called Boher-
nameesh {bothar na mias, way of the dishes, or altar vessels).
The grave of St. Colman's servant is seen near it.^' The little
** It now appears on a slab over the restored Holy Well at Fenloe.
*^ Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), (MS. Royal Irish Academy), vol. ii.,
p. 205.
"Vol. XX.. p. 88.
*' Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., p. i lo ; G. Keating, History
of Ireland, Book ii., sec. vii., (ed. Dineen, Irish Texts Society, vol. iii. ), tell*
the story, pp. 65, 71, but calls the saint Mochua.
2 1 o Collectanea.
oratory, the altar with its votive offerings and round stones, the
well, and the saint's cave, under a huge boulder below the Eagle's
Cliff, are still to be seen.^s
St. Mochuille, Mochulleiis, or Mochulla came into Clare about
the same time, 620. His father was Dicuil, or Dicaldus according
to the Life of 1141, which tells how Mochulleus struck the hillside
and three streams broke out and ran down to the lake (stagnum),
north of Tulla. He made a church with levelled-up platform and
earthworks, with the aid of seven soldiers of King Quaire
(Guaraeus), who had killed his tame bull when sent to arrest the
saint, and were converted. The Life was recently found in
Austria,^^ Colgan having sought for it vainly in Ireland in 1637,
so the local tale is an actual tradition. It was told to me in 1892,
long before the Life was published, by some road-menders near
Carrahan and Clooney, and is attached to the pillars on Classagh
Hill called " Knocknafearbrioga " {sic), the hill of ^Xxt farbreaga or
false men.^*^ "The saint, who was building Tulla church, was too
busy to cook the bit he ate. So he used to send his blessed bull
to the monks of Ennis Abbey for food. Now there were seven
thieves kept about this place in old ancient times, and they went
to rob the bull, and he roared so loud the saint heard him over in
Tulla. And he stopped building and knelt down, and he -prayed
and cursed at the one that was hurting his bull all he could. And
the thieves were struck, and became farbreags or sham men."
The hi'O springs forming St. MochuUa's well are on the eastern
shore of Loch Graney, and the earthworks are still traceable round
the church of Tulla (Tulach nan easpuig, rendered " CoUis Epis-
coporum " in the Life). The saint is also commemorated by
Temple-mochuUa in south-east Clare, and by no less than fifteen
holy wells near Tulla. He avenged an injury to the well at
Fortane late in the eighteenth century. ^^
St. Caimeen of Iniscaltra was half-brother to King Guaire the
Hospitable, and died about 653. He is remembered as building
-^ Vol. xxii., plate iv.
^^ Analecta Bollandiaiia, vol. xvii., p. 135.
^^ Proceedings of the Koyal Irish Academy, vol. xxiv. (Sec. C), plate v.
^^ Vol. xxii., p. 211. See also The fournal of the Koyal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xli., pp. 5- 19.
Collectanea. 2 1 1
the Round Tower on Iniscaltra in Lougli Deig. There was some
trace of a tale like his legend in Si/7'a Gadelica, the king wanting
the church filled with soldiers, and the saint preferring it full
of books.3- There is also a story to account for the " unfinished "
round tower, and similar to that about Scattery {supra).^^ He
drowned a gentleman and his assistant who tried to carry off a
girl from his pattern on Holy Island over a century ago.^*
The founders of Kilialoe, SS. Molua and Fiannan, and the
patroness of Kilnaboy, St. Findchu, daughter of Baoth {i/ii:;/iean
baorth) belong to this century. All are remembered, but I heard
only that St. Molua blessed the beautifully variegated ivy on Kilialoe
cathedral, and that St. Fiannan lies buried in the stone-roofed
oratory. The Life of St. Fiannan is e.xtant. He preached also
in the Scotch islands, and the Fiannan Isles and their boat-shaped
early oratory recall his labours. ^^ St. "Inghine Baoith " used to
sit on a natural seat in a ridge of rocks on Roughan Hill near her
church, and her name (Ennewee) was given to women in her
parish as late as 1839. Her "seat" cures back-aches. (Plate IV.)
Eighth Century. — St. Tola, son of Donchad, died in 734 or 737.
He founded Disert Tola, now Dysert O'Dea. The cross near his
church is called Cros banola. O'Donovan regards this name as
meaning "the white cross of Tola," but the people suppose it to
mean " Cross of Banola " (or Manawla), a female saint whose
crozier was preserved locally until secured for the collection of the
Royal Irish Academy. People told in 1839 how St. Blawfugh of
Rath, (Blathmac, son of Onchu), built that church and two round
towers on the ridge not far from Dysert. St. Manawla coveted one
of his towers for her own monastery. Under cover of night she
stole up to Rath, uprooted a tower, slung it in her veil, and ran
down the hill. Despite all her care, she woke St. Blawfugh, and
he ran after her at full speed. The " poor weak woman," hampered
by her unwieldy burden, was on the point of being overtaken
^^ Silva Gadelica, vol. ii., p. 436. Cf. a later tale at Dysert infra.
" In Michael O'Brannan's poem on the Shannon {1794), Caimin is stated to
have built the tower. See Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. ii., p. 158.
"Vol. xxii.,p. 334.
^Tht fournal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxix.
(l899)» P- 32S.
2 1 2 Collectanea.
when she mustered her strength and flung the tower to Dysert,
where it stuck, right end up, beside the church, the top being
broken by the shock, as may be seen to this day. In throwing it
she lost her balance, fell on a rock, and dented it with her knees ;
the rock, with two bulldns or basins in it, existed in 1839,^^ but I
could find no trace of it in 1885 or since.
With Tola we part company from the saints in order of time,
but some undatable stories remain. Templenaneave and Kilcoan,
near Ross in the extreme south-west angle of Clare, were built, the
former by nine saints (whence its name "Teampul an naomhar
naomh "), and the latter by Coan, the survivor of the group.
Coan had fallen into sin and was banished, but, repenting, built
Kilcoan at the opposite side of the bog and regained enough
repute of sanctity to render his church a more popular burial place
than that of the nine just saints who needed no repentance. The
tale was told in 18 16. About a century before, any body buried at
Ross persisted in coming up above ground, even after repeated
re-burials, so that the people deserted the unrestful cemetery.^"
At Clondegad two saints (or druids), Feddaun and Screabaun,
had a bitter quarrel, and decideil that the greatest miracle-worker
should retain the place. Twisting two "gads " of osiers they made
rings, and Screabaun's gad swam up the river against the current,
and gave the place the name Clondegad (plain of the two gads).^^
Feddaun retired and built Kilfiddaun (church of the streamlet).
Screabaun's bed is shown in a cleft of the rock, under a fine ash-
tree and above a waterfall, not far from Clondegad. Screabaun
may be a real person, as there is a holy well named Toberscreabaun,
and in the Papal Taxation of 1302 a place "Eribanub" (perhaps
Scribanus) is named with Clondegad. I found no personal
traditions attached to the other saints whose names are given to
churches and holy wells, except that Senan Liath of Kiltinanlea is
said to have been a brother of Senan of Scattery. St. Forgas is
apparently purely mythical, his name being derived from Loch
Forgas and the river Fergus. T. J. Westropp.
{To be coniimied.)
^^ Ordnance Sio~>ey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., pp. 144-6.
'^' W. S. Mason, o/>. cit.
^ Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. ii. , pp. 98-100.
Collectanea. 2 1 3
PlEDMONTESE FOLKLORE, I.
The following miscellaneous notes were gathered during rambles
through Piedmont in 1911-12, at the same time as material which
has already appeared in Folk-Lore}
Birth. — At Pragelato an infant to be baptized is always carried
to the church by the godfather upon his shoulder, in a cradle
covered with a white cloth decorated with coloured ribbons. After
baptism the cliild is handed to the godmother, wlio returns it to
the nurse. The godmother must also blow out the candle carried
by her at the baptism ; if she succeeds at her first attempt, the
child will live long and be fortunate, but if she fails there will be
bad luck. (In some places, if the candle is blown out by the wind
during the ceremony, it is most unlucky, and the child will die
within the year.) The baptism is followed by a feast called the
babiage. Many guests are invited, and they all kiss each other.
It is held in the mother's house, and each comer, except the god-
father, brings a basket of grissi/ii,- eggs, butter, sugar, and coffee
as a present. At Rua all the women go together to visit the
mother, and take her bread and sugar.
At Finestrelle it is said that the mother must never rock the
cradle if the child is not in it, or the child will be ill.
Death. — If a child dies at Pragelato, its bier is ornamented
with flowers and ribbons. In the funeral procession the nearest
relations walk first and are expected to cry a great deal, and all
who attend are given a candle, which is afterwards put in the
church. There is no professional undertaker, but a neighbour fills
his part, and after the burial is given a feast, together with those
who have made the coffin and those who have watched the corpse.
When parents die, children wear mourning for three years. During
the first sixteen months women wear on their shoulders a white
handkerchief, and then in succession handkerchiefs of black, coffee
colour, and, last of all, green. Men wear first white ties and then
black. For sisters and brothers mourning lasts a year; during the
first six months a brown handkerchief is worn, for the next three
* "Courtship, Marriage, and Folk-Belief in Val d'Ossala," vol. xxiii., pp.
457-8 ; " Piedmontese Proverbs in Dispraise of Woman," supra, pp. 91-6.
2 Grissttii are the hollow pieces of bread, about as thick as a finger and three
yards long, which are common in Piedmont.
2 1 4 Collecta7iea.
one of coffee colour, and for the last three a green one. P'or an
aunt or cousin mourning lasts from three to six months.
At Balme, on the evening of a death, the peasants will say prayers
and the rosary in the stable. It used to be the custom to repeat
the rosary three times, with rests in between, but now it is only
done once. As the mourners leave the stable, copper coins are
given to them. Formerly, in place of money, children present
used to be gwtnfette (slices of bread).
Many old customs at death have now died out. At Caluso
there was the curious custom of the Facolta w^^Yra (Physician's
Order). A doctor who thought that there was no hope of a
patient's recovery was bound to exhort the dying man to receive
the last rite of the Catholic faith, and to warn hiiji that, if this were
neglected, medical visits would cease within three days. This
custom was quite common as late as the early years of the seven-
teenth century.
Marriage. — At Ponte Canale, Castel Delfino (Valle Varaita),
I was told that, when Chianalesi marry, the numerous wedding party
rides from the village to the register office in pairs, and principally
on mules, — donkeys not being used. A single animal carries bride
and bridegroom, another the bride's father and mother, another
her brother and sister, and so on. It is the custom to gallop
through any other villages on the way. At Castel Delfino, when
the wedding day is fixed, the bridegroom presents a coudliii, — a
small silk or woollen hand-woven strip, — to the bride, and she
wears it attached to her lace collar {gorgiera) with its ends falling
down her chest. The bride presents a^^/z/ar/^ (silk handkerchief)
to the bridegroom, and he wears it as a necktie until the wedding
day. On that day the bride will wear her cap so that the lace
falls on her forehead ; the ordinary ironed cap is only assumed
eight days after marriage, and then the lace is stiff. The bride
gives 3./oj{larin or silk or wool ribbons to each of her men friends,
and a wool handkerchief with a fringe to each of the women, who
wear it, with ribbons and strings tied to it, when accompanying
her to church. After the ceremony, friends and acquaintances
kiss the bride on her doorstep, and receive from her a piece of
ribbon and from the bridegroom a coudlin. These gifts are taken
from a box held by the bride's mother or her representative.
Collectanea. 2 1 5
The young folks place the long and large pillow-cushion on the
nuptial couch, and, if not watched, will try to play some trick on
the newly-married couple, such as propping up the bed so that it
will fall to pieces when used, or hiding the key of the room. A
game was also played of which the meaning is obscure. Slices of
bread soaked in wine and sugar were toasted and then offered on
a plate to the married couple. When they put out a hand to help
themselves, the pieces of bread were stuck through with little
sticks to hinder them from being snatched away.
At Boves, near Coni, a tax {labramari) of one per cent, ot the
dowry was once levied by the municipality on a widow or widower
who married again. A bride who married outside the village ])aid
two per cent. A barrier was put across the church door, and
was not removed until these taxes had been paid.
Carnival and Letit. — At Turin, among the poor folks. Carnival
and Lent used to be represented by two puppets. The skeleton of
the Carnival figure was a wooden cross with the arms hinged by
bands and nails. Details were neglected, but the figure had a suit
stuffed out as much as possible with straw and rags, and was given
a stick under its arm, a buttonhole flower, a cigar or pipe in its
mouth, and an old cap over its eyes. It was conveyed round the
streets in a cart or on a donke}-, accompanied by the beating and
rubbing of sticks on the bottoms of metal, wood, or earthenware
vessels. On the last day of the Carnival its funeral song was
sung : —
" Carnuval niio piin d'ogli,
Staser maccarun e crai fogli."
The Carnival figure was burned at midnight. The Carnival being
dead, his widow, Lent, remained. She was represented by a thin
puppet, dressed in mourning, and hung for forty days between two
neighbouring balconies in allweathers "as an example of work
and suffering." At her feet was attached a small orange with six
black chicken feathers stuck in it, and at the bottom a white
feather. A black feather was pulled out on each Sunday, the
last white feather representing the Day of Resurrection.
Holy Thursday. — At Limone the windows are illuminated by
lamps consisting of wicks floating in snail shells full of oil. There
is an elaborate religious procession and service.
2 1 6 Collectanea.
St. Johns Eve. — Young men gather verbena. With it in their
possession, girls with whom they shake hands will fall in love
with them.
The Borrowing Days. — An old peasant at Cogne, in the Val
d'Aosta, told me the following : — An old woman lived with her
lambs at the bottom of the Valle Pontei at a place called Er Follett.
When the end of March arrived she sang : —
'• Marz, Marzolin,
Le mie pecore son salve."
(Mnrch, little March, my larnbs are safe.) March, or ihefolietlo,^
answered : —
" Tre giorni ho ancora,
Tre li prendo dal compare Aprile,
Tutte le tue pecore creperanno."
(Three days have I still ; three I will borrow from friend April ;
all your lambs shall die.) Nothing more was heard, but a land-
slip shortly buried Er Follett and all its inhabitants.
Calendar and Weather Sayings : —
A dry January means a bad season.
If St. Vincent's Day (Jan. 22nd) is fine and clear, there will be
as much wine as water.
If St. Paul's Day (Jan. 2Sth) is fine, it means a fine summer.
When a cuckoo sings in April, it is a good sign.
He who has seen three fine Aprils ought not to mind dying.
A wet April and a windy May will make a happy year.
On St. George's Day (April 23rd) sow barley ; on St. Mark's
Day (April 25th) it will be too late.
If it rains on St. Bartholomew's Day (Aug. 24th), it will rain all
autumn.
December snow lies four months.
A warm Christmas means a cold Easter.
If Christmas Day falls on a Monday, of three bulls you will keep
only one.
If it rains on Thursday, it will rain all Friday and Saturday till
mid-day.
■^ The foI/eUo is a Puck-like little being full of mischief.
Collectanea. 2 1 7
If rain conies from Aosta, be warned ; if from Chatillon, go on
with your work, for it will not last.
A pale sun in the morning means a high wind.
Dances. — At \.\\Q festa of/? zouvenf, the young men promise da
zoiivent, i.e. not to dance during vespers. Two girls with a white
veil over their heads take bread to the altar rails to be blessed, and
distribute it in the sacristy to their waiting companions, a large piece
being offered to the priest. At the public dances, for which the
girls make decorations with leaves and sheets, there is a particular
dance called el bal del basen ; at a certain high note the couples
suddenly stop dancing and kiss each other. Often the dances are
held out of doors, but in the evening they are generally in a stable,
for which the young men make a temporary wooden floor. On
the Sunday after \X\t. festa all the young men have dinner at the
house of the girl who has had charge of the preparations, the girls
providing and cooking the food (usually mutton) and the young
men giving the wine. Dancing and supper follow, and on the
following day all the company returns to eat up what may have
been left over.
Tijikers feasts. — At Mondovi the tinkers during Carnival on
Giovedi Grasso blacken their own faces and those of any whom
they may meet. In the evening polenta is made from maize by
both men and women in the piazza, and given away to any one
who asks for it.
Soiih as flames. — On certain nights, four small flames or lights
are to be seen on the campanile of the church of St. Giulio, in the
Isle of St. Giulio in the Lake of Orta. These are the souls of
four saints, SS. Giulio, Elia, Chiliberto, and Alberto, who meet
there to discuss and arrange the affairs of the island.
Blasphemy punished. — At a dinner some one carving a chicken
said that he had done it so well that not even St. Peter could
put it together again. Suddenly the chicken came miraculously
together, jumped about the table so vigorously that it splashed
every one with broth, and then flew away. All the guests present
died that year. (From Tibaldone Ms.) •*
^Cf. vol. XX., pp. 297-8 (Roumania). The Tibaldone Ms. is in the Archivio
di Stato at Milan, and is a kind of encyclopaedia written in 1701.
P
2 1 8 Collectanea.
At Balme I was told tliat there was once a man who did not
believe in God, or the i^evil, or anything else. One day, when
he was drinking wine in the inn, a companion asked him if he
would sell himself to the Devil for a litre of wine, if the Devil really
existed. Without hesitation he said he would. For some time
nothing happened, and no more was thought about the matter.
Then a young man came in and sat at the same table. He ordered
some wine, and, when he had drunk it, he said to the man, — " Did
you not say that you would sell yourself to the Devil for a litre of
wine?" " Gladly," answered the man. The newcomer sent for
the wine, calling on those present to be witnesses of what had
passed. When the wine was finished, the stranger told the man
that now he must go with him, as he was the Devil. The man
did not want to go, and made a great fuss, but ihe Devil appealed
to the witnesses, and finally disappeared with his prey amidst fire
and smoke.
The folietti.^ — On the slope of the picturesque hill of Santa
Brigida, near Pinerolo, there stands a pillar called d'fiwma niorta
(Dead Woman's Pillar). One very bleak winter evening some
maidens sat in a stable talking about the "good folk" in the
woods. "I even know," said one, "where they hold their gather-
ings," and she pointed to a chestnut-tree. "I'll wager anything
that I will go and stick my spindle at the foot of the tree." Her
companions turned pale with terror, but in spite of their warnings
she ran out of the stable. She never returned, and next morning
they found her lying dead at the foot of the tree, with her spindle
stuck through her gown into the ground. The pillar was erected
and named in memory of this event, and formerly only the most
venturesome would go near the place at night. It was thought
that the pillar was enchanted, and that anyone passing at midnight
would be struck dead. Until a few years ago one side of the
pillar had painted on it the figure of a woman kneeling down and
putting a spindle into the ground, but this has been altered to the
figure of a saint.
ESTELLA CaNZIANI.
Collectanea. 2 1 9
Ontario Beliefs.
The following notes were derived from a retired farmer, a man
of about 70, of a good United Empire Loyalist family, partly Scot,
partly Northumbrian, with a strain of Dutch. Those marked (C)
were furnished to him by his niece, and forwarded to me. All the
ideas mentioned are, or were within my informant's lifetime, living
beliefs in his part of the province, Napanee, Prince Edward Co.,
on the Bay of Quinte, and its neighbourhood. As his memory is
unusually good, they may be taken as in substance correct. As
to how tar these notions form part of current belief to-day, I am
not sure. Many people seem to have forgotten all about them ;
one old resident whom my correspondent approached for informa-
tion declared that he had come "a generation too late." Yet
other and much younger people, such as the contributor of the
items marked (C), have a good store of traditions. On the whole,
I am of the opinion that few of these ideas are now taken very
seriously, except the weather-signs, perhaps. Where I know any
particular belief to be a real and living one, I indicate the fact.
I . ] l^eaiher-signs.
The usual rhyme about Candlemas Day is remembered. The
local form of the belief, common in Canada, is as follows : —
On February 2 a hibernating bear comes out of his hole. If he
sees his shadow, i.e. if the day is at all sunny, he goes back again
for another six weeks, during which time winter lasts. He then
comes out for good.
If Easter is early, spring will be early (C). The prevailing wind
on Easter Sunday is the prevailing wind for the next forty days.
Consequently, if it be in a cold quarter, the fruit crop will be
good, as it will hinder the blossoms from forming prematurely.
The usual belief exists about rain on St. Swithin's Day.
The following signs, largely Indian in origin, — the local Indians
are for the most part Mohawk, — indicate a hard winter: —
Dead leaves clinging to the trees instead of falling.
Muskrats building high and strong winter houses. Before a
mild winter they build less elaborately ; in the very mild winter
of 1877-8 they made no houses at all.
2 20 Collectanea.
Bees storing a great amount of bee-bread. (This cannot be
Indian.)
Burrowing animals making deep burrows (C).
Squirrels laying in a large store of nuts (C).
Several layers of husk on the corn (C). ("Corn" in this country
always means maize, never wheat.)
When the first snow falls, count the number of days to Christmas ;
this will indicate the total number of snow-storms for the winter.
Three white frosts in succession presage rain.
The last Friday and Saturday of each month foretell the weather
of the next month \ as they are warm or cold, rainy or fine, etc.,
so it will be. (I have met this belief elsewhere in Ontario.)
A clear sunset on Friday means a storm before Monday night.
(Communicated by another old resident of Napanee.)
Friday is either the fairest or the foulest day of the week.
When the leaves on the trees turn wrong way up in a wind, it
will rain (C). (This is also Yorkshire.)
If the Great Bear, generally called the Dipper, is visible, it will
not rain : or, in general, if the stars are out (C).
2. Moon beliefs.
The moon controls the weather to some extent. According as
it lies far north or south in the heavens, the weather will be warm
or cold ; if the crescent moon lies supine, there will he dry weather
till the next phase ; rain, if it stands upright.
A halo around the moon indicates a storm coming; the number
of stars visible within the halo equals the number of days till the
storm arrives.
If you wish your hair to grow quickly, cut it in the new moon;
for slow growth, cut it in the wane.^
Kill hogs in the new moon, for then their meat will not grow
less in cooking.
To ensure a good crop of potatoes, plant them at full moon.
To see the new moon over the right shoulder betokens good
luck, which may be conditional on hard work; over the left
shoulder, bad luck but no hard work ; straight ahead, very good luck.
Always wish on a new moon (C).
^ Cf. vol. xxiii., p. 345.
Collectanea. 221
3. Stars.
Always say " Money " when you see a falling star (C). (This is
apparently a worn-down form of wish ; see the next item.)
Wish on the first star you see of an evening (C).
4. Days of the year.
New Year's Day " First foot " must not be a red-headed man,
and should be a dark-haired man. (C, who adds that many of the
older people " make a point " of having the first foot dark-haired.
The name " first foot," however, does not seem to be in use.)
If you would be lucky in the new year, clean the house on
New Year's Eve, so as not to carry over any of the old year's
dust (C).
Easter. Wear some new article of clothing, or you will have
nothing new all year (C).
Christmas. Collect pieces of Christmas cake made by different
friends. Every piece eaten during January will bring a month's
happiness (C). [Cf. N. and Q., 9th S., vol. xii. (1903), p. 505 ;
loth S., vol. i. (1904), p. 172.]
5. Z>ays of the week.
Cut your nails on Sunday, and you kill God's grace for the
week (C).-
Friday is an unlucky day to commence any piece of work ;
however, if a little is done on the Thursday, the ill-luck is avoided.
To be free from toothache, cut your nails on Friday.
6. Birth, marriage, a fid death.
Houses were formerly built with the different rooms of the same
floor on different levels, connected by steps. The reason given to-
my informant by an old lady was that the dust would collect about
the steps and not drift from room to room. Is it not rather to-
facilitate the carrying of a new-born child upwards?
" Rock the cradle empty, babies in plenty."
A child born with a caul will have the second sight if the caul
be removed upwards, so as to open the eyes. If the caul be
removed sideways, so that the eyes are not fully opened, the power
-Cf. Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities etc., vol. iii., p. 178;
County Folk-Lore, vol. iv. (Northutnberland), p. 58; N. and Q. ist S., vol. ii.
(1850), p. 511 {Devonshire), vol, iii, (1851), p. 55 {Lancashire), p. 462.
{Devonshire), vol. vi. (1852), p, 432 {Kent).
2 2 2 Collectanea.
will be imperfect, and his vision too dim to describe ; if downwards,
so as to keep the eyes closed, he will not have second sight at all.
To sit on the edge of a table indicates a desire to marry.
When a wish-bone or merry-thought, — the former is the common
name in Canada, — had been broken in the usual way, the larger
part used to be hung up over the front door of the house. The
first young unmarried person passing under it in entering would
marry within a year.
The same is presaged by the person being handed a cup of tea
or other drink with two spoons in it.^
In shaking hands, if the hands are accidentally crossed, one of
the persons so doing will marry within the same interval. (The
symbolism is obvious ; the position of the hands suggests that of
the hands of bride and groom during the giving of the ring.)
In choosing the wedding-day, the usual rhyme, " Monday for
health, Tuesday for wealth," etc., is quoted.
If an unmarried woman finds a horseshoe, which in general is
lucky, the number of nails in it indicates the number of years to
her marriage (C).
You will never be wealthy until you have worn out all the
clothes in which you were married.
The future husband or wife may be seen as follows : — Walk up-
stairs backwards in the dark, holding a mirror and gazing fixedly
at it. Repeat at each step, — "Come my future, come my love."
The image of the destined person will be dimly seen in the glass
looking over the experimenter's left shoulder.
A girl who " mocks across a chair," {i.e. makes fun of or mimics
anyone when there is a chair between them), will not be married
that year (C).
If a wedding party on its way from the ceremony passes a funeral,
one of the family of either bride or groom will die within a year.
In baking bread, if the top crust of the loaf cracks, a death will
occur before the loaf is eaten. If a hole (supposed to represent a
grave) is found in the centre of the loaf, a funeral will take place
within the same time.
If a framed picture falls from the wall, someone will die in the
house within a year (C).
^Cf. vol. XX., p. 219 (Oxfordshire) ; vol. xxi., p. 226 {Yoi-kshire).
Collectanea. 223
In sowing a field by hand, if you miss a cast, i.e. leave a bit of
the ground you have covered with no grain cast on it, a member
of the family on whose land you are sowing will die within the year.
If a hen crows, she must be killed at once, or one of the family
will die. This seems to be taken quite seriously, and has resulted
in the death of numerous hens.
If you sleep on your face, you will die by drowning.
A dog howling at night is a sign of death, near the place
where he howls and in the direction in which he looks at the time.
(Cf. Mark Twain, Tom Sa7i>yer, ch. x., which gives the same
belief for the Mississippi valley, with the addition that the dog
must be a stray.)
When a funeral procession has left the house, the corpse must
not be carried past the house again, or another of the family will
die. " Many in this locality . . . will travel miles around rather
than pass the house with the corpse," adds my informant.
The usual belief is prevalent about thirteen at table. In
general, " thirteen is an unlucky number for anything" (C).
" Telling the bees " in the case of a death has apparently been
thought superstitious for the last half-century, but seems still to
continue.
The following illustrates the power of a dying man's curse : —
Before the repeal of the death-penalty for theft, a certain Judge
D accused his servant, a man of about forty, of stealing his
watch. The servant, who was innocent, was convicted on circum-
stantial evidence. Before being hanged he wished that none of
the D family might live beyond forty, since one of them had
unjustly caused his death at that age. The curse was fulfilled,
for every member of that family has died somewhere in the fourth
decade of his life.
"Green Christmas, fat graveyards."^
A red spot on a finger-nail denotes the death of a friend.
7. Fo/k-medicifie.
To cure neuralgia, wear about the neck next the skin a neck-
lace of nutmegs bored lengthwise and strung together, long
enough to fall some six inches below the throat.
^Cf. County Folk- Lore, vol. iv. (Aort/minberland), p. 179.
2 24 Collectanea.
Swelling of the neck may be checked or prevented by a neck-
lace of amber beads, which must be genuine and of fair size.
For toothache, use toothpicks made from splinters of a tree
struck by lightning."^ (See also Days of the Week.)
An excellent cure for whooping-cough is bread made by a
married woman who retains her maiden name, — e.g. a Brown who
has married a Brown.
For warts, steal a piece of meat from a butcher's shop, rub it on
the warts, and hide it. Or put it on a loaded cart, or in some
other way insure it being carried some miles ofif. The warts will
then disappear on the ninth day (C).
For a cold in the head, rub the nose and the brow between the
eyes three times with saliva on retiring, taking care to rub downwards
and to allow the application to dry in each time. In the morning
there will be copious discharge at the nose and great relief.
Convulsions : — Take off the child's shirt and burn it. Be care-
ful not to burn it too fast, or the child may die. This belief
flourishes among the poorer classes.
Colic in horses. Put a pan of water on the fire ; by the time it
has boiled dry the horse will have recovered.
8. Witches and wizards.
The latter were rarer than the former, but equally evil. Elf-
locks in the mane of a horse were known as " witches' saddles,"
and regarded as proof that the beast had been ridden by them in
the night. Nothing seems to have been done beyond the practical
measures of combing out the mane and keeping the stable door
locked.
A horse-shoe over the door would keep witches out of the
house. If they got into the churn and prevented the butter from
coming, a shoe recently worn by a stallion, heated red-hot and
dropped in, would scald tliem out. If the witch who was doing
any one an injury was known or suspected', she might be shot at
with a silver bullet. This was quite infallible, as the witch would
perhaps die, and certainly lose all power to harm the shooter ; but
she might nullify the process if she or one of her family could at
once buy or borrow something from him.
•^Cf. vol. xxiii. , p. 193 (Japan).
Collectanea. 225
9. Harvest customs.
Corn. This was, and sometimes still is, husked at a "husking
bee," i.e. all the farmers of the district took it in turns to go to
each other's houses and help in the husking. Food and drink
were provided and a good deal of merry-making went on. Any-
one finding a red ear would be married within a twelvemonth.
Wheat etc. The last sheaf was called " the maiden " or " the
Lord's sheaf." It was cut, bound up, and stood in a })lace where
the rain would not beat it down. It was not lucky to garner it,
and it was left for the poor. Often a whole corner of the last field
was left standing for the poor to glean or for " the Lord's birds,"
a reminiscence of Matth. c. 10, v. 29. The charitable desire to
leave enough for the poor to glean seems to have swallowed up
all other practices connected with the last sheaf. These customs
do not seem to have been general, but the habit of a few families
originally from Vermont. Related to them is the custom reported
by another old inhabitant of his grandfather, who left the United
States shortly after the War of Independence. He would never
allow a sheaf which had been dropped on the way from the field
to be picked up, but gave no reason for letting it lie.
I o. Visitors.
If you enter anyone else's house and leave by a door different
from that by which you entered, you will bring them visitors.
To drop the dishcloth while washing up means that visitors are
coming. The same is indicated by a tea-leaf floating in one's
cup. If the leaf, when bitten, feels hard, the visitor will be a
man; if soft, a woman. To ensure fulfilment of the omen, throw
the leaf under the table, silently wishing that some particular
person may come. (In this hospitable district there is no demand
for means of averting such an omen.)
1 1 . Good and bad luck.
It is unlucky : —
To cut across a corner. If you must do so, wish (C).
To break a mirror \ this means seven years' ill luck.'^
^Cf. vol. xxiii., p. 347 ; N'. and Q., 1st S., vol. xii. (18S5), p. 38 (Cormaat/).
2 26 Collectanea.
To spill salt. Matters are somewhat improved if you throw
some of it over your left shoulder (C)."
To go under a ladder; also to hold an umbrella over one's
head while in the house (C).^
To meet (not to overtake or be overtaken by) any person on
the stairs (C).^
When having your fortune told by tea-leaves, to point at them
with the finger; this nullifies the signs and brings on ill fortune.
If you must point, use a spoon or the like.
To dress one foot entirely while the other is still bare (C),
If after starting from the house you go back for something
forgotten, sit down and count seven before starting out again.
Otherwise you will be unlucky (C).^'^
Sing before breakfast and you will be sorry before supper, ("will
cry before dinner," C).
The following are lucky : —
To find a horse-shoe (C).
If a cat comes to one's house and stays. But^ if the cat is black,
it will bring bad luck (C).
To put on clothes accidentally wrong side out. If it is neces-
sary to change them, wish. (C. — Wishing seems a powerful counter-
agent to evil influences, vid. supra.)
To put the left boot on first. This brings good luck while
those boots are worn.
A rabbit's foot should be carried for luck (C). (This is of
course American, originally Southern, but rabbit-foot charms have
of late years been popular in the Northern States as well.) ^^
" See a pin and pick it up,
All that day you'll have good luck " (C).
After mentioning a piece of good fortune, touch wood, or you
may lose it.
"Cf. N. and Q., ist S., vol. lii., p. 387 {HoUajtd); Brand, op. cit., vol. iii.,
p. 161.
*Cf. vol. XX., p. 345 ^Worcestershire)', vol. xxi. , p. 89 {Argyllshire),
pp. 225-6 ( Yorkshire).
^Cf. vol. xxi., p. 226 ( Yorkshire).
^^Cf. vol. XX., p. 346 {IVoirestershire).
^^Cf. vol. xix., p. 296.
Collectanea. 227
1 2. Miscellaneous.
Hair from the head should be burned, not thrown away. Other-
wise the rest of the hair will come out (C).
If, when you rise from a chair or go up or down stairs, your
joints crack, you have not yet seen your best days.
" Dream of fruit out of season,
You'll be mad without a reason."
("Mad" generally means "angry," not "insane," in popular
speech.)
" Wash and wipe together,
Live at peace forever." ^-
If your nose itches, you will either kiss a fool or shake hands
with a stranger. ^2
Froth in the tea or coffee cup is a sign of wealth, if it be
collected in a spoon and drunk before it dissolves.
If a. person has "crowns" in his hair, their number indicates the
number of reigns in which he will live.
Rat-charmers used formerly to go from house to house. Their
method was simply to walk up and down saying, " Rats, rats, rats,
go away" three times. The vermin were then supposed to go
within three days.
Lizards were formerly, I gather, thought poisonous, perhaps are
still occasionally. My informant describes amusingly the wild
panic of a tea-party which found one in their kettle.
To cut a baby's nails will make it steal (C). ^^
When two people are walking together, if they meet a third and
allow him to pass between them, they will quarrel. But this may
be averted if one of the two says " Bread and butter " (C).
(Apparently the estrangement may be avoided by the mention of
two things constantly found together.)
On coming to the end of a sidewalk, make a wish afterwards,
naming some poet (C). (Our country towns generally have extend-
ing from them into the open country a half-mile or so of paved or
board walk. This is referred to here.)
If a spider crawls over a woman's dress it signifies that she will
soon have a new one (C). H. J. Rose.
^-Contrast vol. xxiii., p. 347 ; vol. xx., p. 346 {Worcestershire).
'•*Cf. vol. xxiii., p. 462.
*■* County Folk-Lore, vol. iv. {Northumberland), p. 58.
2 2 8 Collectanea.
Indian Folklore Notes, IV. ^
The following notes are taken from the Report of the Census of
Baiuchistafi for igii by Mr. Denys Bray,- which is full of inter-
esting matter, and is not generally accessible to English readers.
Ablution, coimiing times for. — " In any Yasinzai Kakar hut you
may see a string hanging from the roof during the winter months,
in which the goodman of the house ties a knot whenever the cause
for an ablution arises, to serve as a reminder of the number of
ablutions he must get through, when summer comes and washing
is less of a nuisance" (p. 60).
Fertility charm. — At a boy's circumcision "among the Mari the
mother stands in the centre of singing women, bearing in her
hands an upper mill-stone, which is sprinkled with red earth and
covered with rue, an iron ring, a green bead and a red cloth, tied
together by a red thread — all symbolical, I imagine, of procreative
virility" (p. 61).
Mosqties primitive. — As for the more primitive mosques, a few
stones in a ring, with a small opening to the east and a small arch
to the west, complete the Brahul's mosque. " My own impression
is that these so-called mosques are much older than Islam itself,
probably developments of something of the nature of magic circles"
(p. 61).
Stojie worship. — " In a certain Chagai shrine there stands a
stone some two feet high, with a flat base and a rounded, bullet-
shaped head, too lifelike, it would seem, to be other than the
conscious work of men's hands. It is hard to avoid the conclu-
sion that in this far-off shrine the pious Musalman is bowing his
head all unwittingly before a lingam, an ancient relic of pre-
Islamic times. Similar in character appear to be a couple of
conical stones at the shrine of Pir-Sultan-ul-Afirin in Zahri, rever- '
entially kissed by all who come to worship. Their shape and
their polished surfaces seem unmistakeable evidence of their long-
forgotten origin. The tops of the stones by the by are pierced
through from side to side, and the keepers of the shrine never tire
of telling how the saint used to run ropes through the holes and
^ For No. Ill, see vol. xx., pp. 229-31.
^ Calcutta, Superintendent Government Printing, price 4s'. 6d.
Collectanea. 229
spend the livelong night with the stones hung round his neck, lest
errant thoughts should disturb iiis holy meditation. It seems
almost sacrilege to add the materialistic detail that each stone
must be a good five and twenty pounds in weight " (p. 63).
Bethgekrt story. — The famous tale of the sacred dog is given
(p. 63 f.). This has been already recorded by Mr. Longworth
Dames {Folk-Lore, vol. xiii., p. 266 ; for further examples from
India see Crooke, The Popular Religioti and Folk-Lore of Northern
India (2nd ed.), vol. ii., pp. 220 et seq.).
Rain magic. — Sometimes the Khan or chief doffs his fine clothes
for the woollen overcoat of the peasant, and himself jiloughs a
field in time of drought. Another device to cause rain is to have
a sham fight, the fall of blood being supposed to induce the falling
of the rain. Men of one camp go to another, make a great noise,
and are soused with water for their pains. They are then given
alms and are sent away (p. 65). Sometimes a boy is dressed up
as a little old man, with a hoary beard of cotton-wool on his chin,
a felt cap on his head, a felt coat, and bells jingling round his
waist. They sing : —
"The buffoon ! The old manikin !
Down fell the grain-bin
On top of poor granny ! "
On this the goodman of the house comes out with a gift of
money or grain.
The little old man then jingles his bells, and bellows like a
camel to the chorus : —
" Good luck to the house of the giver !
And a hole in the bin of the miser !
"And so they move on from house to house. In the end their
collections are clubbed together, a pottage is prepared and dis-
tributed among the people, and the game is closed with prayers
for rain. I suppose the old man's {p'lraka) bellowing and the
jingling of bells are imitative of thunder and the swish of rain, but
I can volunteer no explanation for his general get-up, unless his
snow-white beard is imitative of snow ; the game at any rate is
generally played in the uplands in the late autumn " (pp. 65
et seq.).
" There is a similar rain-making game among the girls. Each
230 Collectanea.
girl makes herself a small wooden frame called tiktalo, something
like the framework of a kite, by tying two sticks crosswise, joining
the ends at top and bottom with two more sticks, and tying another
stick right down the centre as a handle. Then they go in a body
through the village, attended by a female minstrel, and sing at
each door : —
"Tiktalo! Malalo !
Kasim's dwelling, I'll plait you your tresses !
House of RaTs, mulberries and raisins !
Arbab's house, white bread and roast meat !
Rush, rain, rush ! "
Rals and Arbab are titles of headmen among the cultivators, but I
can throw no light on the identity of Kasim ; 'the bread and the
meat and the fruits are symbolical, no doubt, of the produce that
the earth will yield if only the rain will fall. Having collected
doles from house to house, they give them away in alms and pray
for rain. Not until the time comes for the distribution of the
dainties do the males or older women take part in the fun " (p. 66).
Among the Pathans "an interesting rain-making custom still sur-
vives in what is now a mere boy's game. In times of drought
boys make a round bag out of white cloth and stuff it with rags.
And they paint the eyes and nose and mouth of a woman on one
side of the bag, and bedaub the face with flour, and stick a pole
through the bag, and go in a body from house to house, one of
their number carrying the doll, or Lado Ladanga as it is called.
At each door they sing this chorus : —
' Lado Ladanga ! What do you want ? '
' The sky's muddy rain is what I want ;
The earth's green grass is what I want ;
One measure of flour is what I want ;
Flavoured with salt — that's what I want !
Argore ! bargore !
God grant you a son to redound to your glory !
Amen.'
And the mistress of the house may be relied on to give them a
dole in return for their flattering prayer" (p. 67).
Collectanea. 231
Rain stopping. — " Some people stop rain by hanging out a
wooden ladle in the air; others believe in putting antimony in a
cock's eye; women light a small fire in the open and damp it
down with green leaves, to make it send up a column of smoke
into the sky. Any one who can put two and two together will
surely admit that the rain is bound to die away if it falls on a
dead body ; so the Jamall Baloch of Las Bela are doubtless wise
in their generation in never taking their dead to burial if it's
raining, unless of course there has been enough rain and to spare.
But corpses are not always procurable, and I am assured on all
hands that the best all-round device to stop rain is to run a thread
through a frog's mouth and then let it go with the thread tied
round it.^ Unfortunately the hated miser, who hoards up grain, in
his bins and spends his days praying for drought, has learned to
turn the frog to his own base uses. When the rains are withheld,
folks soon begin to suspect that he has hidden some frogs away
in his house in a jar of water, and so stopped the rain. And sure
enough, driven to desperation, they have more than once ran-
sacked some miser's house and exposed his hateful trick. At
least so they tell me. The survey department may possibly have
wondered why their constructions are occasionally demolished in
the wilder parts of the Brahul country. It may be of interest to
them to know that they are joint-accused with the hoarders of
grain, and stand charged with locking up the rain by means of
their survey pillars " (p. 66).
" To a Pathan the stopping of rain must seem simple enough.
For he has a sheaf of devices to choose from. Throw a handful
of salt on the fire ; nail a horse-shoe on to the wall, well out of
the reach of the rain ; plaster a pat'ira or wheaten bannock on a
rubbish-heap ; put a Koran into an oven when the fire is out, and
'During a drought in China, "a geomancer came forward, and obtained the
sanction of the Viceroy to the following ridiculous arrangements for propitiating
the Dragon King. After having closed the south gate of the city — a device
usually resorted to in such emergencies — he placed under it several water tubs,
filled to the brim, and containing frogs — a number of boys were then ordered
by the soothsayer to tease the frogs so as to make them croak. In a few days
rain is said to have followed this extraordinary exhibition of human folly."
J. H. Gray, China (1878), vol. i., p. 147. Cf. Crooke, The Popular Religion
and Folk- Lore 0/ Northern India (1896), vol. i., p. 73.
232 Collectanea.
bring it back to your room and distribute alms — it doesn't seem
to matter much whicli of these methods you adopt, all are pro-
nounced to be immediately effective. But, after all, the only ones
to dabble in rain-stopping are the grain-hoarders who always
hanker after drought, and the women who get bored with a few
days" ram. Two other Pathan ideas about rain are perhaps worth
adding. Pathan lasses are fond of scraping up the last titbits on
the dish with their fingers and licking them off, much to the dis-
gust of the old ladies, who know well what the consequences will
be. "For the hundredth time of asking," they will say, "don't lick
the pot, or there will be a downpour of rain on your wedding day."
And any Pathan can tell you that if you want to change your sex,
all you have to do is to go and roll under a rainbow" (p. 67).
Rain-making by holy men. — " In almost every locality throughout
the land there is a holy man who receives a share of the produce
known as tuk as a retaining-fee to produce rain, ward off locusts
and mildew, and otherwise control nature for the good of the
community. In the more civilised parts the tuk-khor or fee-
receiver is a Sayyid, but in the wilder parts any holy magic-monger
can be found playing the part with apparently equal success.
They go to work in various ways. In Baghbana a Shekh reads
some charm and lures distant clouds to the valley by \yaving his
turban in their direction. . But if there has been some hitch about
his ink, he is quite capable of driving the clouds over the hills and
far away. Not that a tuk-khor has always the best of the matter.
If rain holds off, the people seek to spur his flagging efforts by
stopping his payments. If this fails, and their distress is great,
they bind him hand and foot with a rope and leave him to swelter
in the blazing sun the livelong day, holy Sayyid though he be, in
the pious hope that he will repent him of his slackness, and call
in his frenzy upon God and his sainted forefathers to save his
honour by sending rain. There is nothing like this, I am told,
for bringing a lazy tuk-khor to his senses^ instance could be piled
on instance to prove that rain has fallen wnthin a few hours of his
punishment" (p. 67).
W. Cro3KE.
Collectanea. 233
The Magic Mirror: A Fijian Folk-Tale.
[The following story has been sent to me by Mr. D. Jenness,
of Balliol College, Oxford, who has recently been conducting
anthropological researches at the instance of the University Com-
mittee for Anthropology in the D'Entrecasteaux Group, New
Guinea, and is now attached to the Stefannson Expedition to
the Arctic ; so that I must make myself responsible for the
publication of this interesting piece of Fijian folklore. It was
collected from a Fijian mission-teacher at Goodenough Island,
who has since died. — R. R. Marett.]
Long ago some white men with two Fijians went to one of the
islands in the Fiji group to have a look at it. 1"he Fijians were
left in charge of the boat. One said to the other, — " You look after
the boat while I have a look round." So he went away, and
looking down on to the beach in a certain place he saw what
appeared to be two men, one of whom, catching sight of him,
fled away. He knew they could not be ordinary men because
the island was uninhabited, so he crept up to the one that re-
mained, busily digging in the sand, and caught hold of him. His
captive, however, suddenly straightened up to a great height, and
ran up a small hill, with the Fijian clinging round his neck. On
the top of the hill was a tree called Mafa, and the being entered
into a hole in its side, leaving the Fijian in a trance without. By
and by he came to, and went down to the boat and slept. In the
afternoon the being came to him and told him to go back to the
tree, where he would find a small stone wrapped in a piece of
calico. So the man went and found it. At night the being came
again to him and told him to take great care of the stone, which
was a crystal like glass. " You must not show it to anyone," it
said, "and, if you are wishing anything, you have only to look into
the stone." So the Fijian went back home. Thereafter, when a
man was ill, the Fijian had only to look into the ston^, and it told
him the remedy. Many cures were worked in this way. After
a time some English doctors heard of these wonderful cures, and
sent for him to help them at the hospital. No one, however, knew
anything about the stone. While he was at the hospital, two young
Q
2 34 Collectanea,
men came and asked him to prescribe for a friend of theirs. He-
consented, but they saw him take the stone and look into it, and
went away and told others. The doctors and the Government
heard about it, and the man was imprisoned for two years. Sir J.
Thurston was Governor at the time, and the teacher who told us
the story thought that he had secured the stone.
D. Jenness.
Scraps of English Folklore, VII.
Ca mbridgeshii-e.
Plough Monday. — On the first Monday in Epiphany the men
and boys went through Ickleton after dark cracking whips and
dragging a huge log of wood or old wooden plough. They
rang door bells, and asked for something for Plough Monday, It
was said that, if people refused to give them anything, they at-
tempted to plough up the doorstep or scraper with the improvised
log plough. After the custom of dragging the log died out some
years ago in the neighbourhood of Ickleton and Duxford, the
men simply came round and said they were Mr. So and So's
ploughmen, and v/ould thank you for a trifle for Plough Monday.
The boys used also to come round, and I remember my father
once saying, — " But you are not ploughmen," whereupon the
prompt answer was, — " No, but we be harrer (harrow) boys."
Valentine's Day. — The children go round the village in couples,,
or three or four together, and sing : —
" Good morning, Valentine,
Curl your locks as I do mine,
Two before and three behind,
So good morning, Valentine. " '
Of course pennies or cakes or oranges are expected.
Shrove Tuesday. — The school children are allowed to play in
vicarage meadow, — which adjoins garden at Duxford and is
quite in the middle of the village, — and for this purpose they
are allowed a special half-holiday from school. This meadow^
^ Brand, Obser-dations on the Poptda7- Anlupiities etc. (1S53), vol. i., p. 62 ;
N. 6- Q., 6th S., vol. iii. (1881), pp. 150, 335.
Collectanea. 235
is called the " Camping Close," and I have been told that there
was an old game called •' Camping," which was played on Shrove
Tuesday. It seems to have rather resembled a game of Rugby
football, without the ball. All the participators were ranged in
two long lines facing each other, and at a given signal each man
seems to have "gone for" his vis-a-vis, and serious damage usually
resulted. My information on this point is rather vague and perhaps
not very reliable.
At Duxford there were two churches, and the livings had been
joined into one. The rector therefore lived at the rectory be-
longing to the one church, and let the other residence (a vicarage)
to my father. The Camping Close joined on to the vicarage garden,
and I believe some part of it had, many years back, been taken in
from the village green and enclosed in the vicarage grounds. It
has been suggested that this was the reason for the Shrove Tuesday
custom.
The Camping Close at Ickleton was a meadow adjoining the
water-mill, and was thrown open to the children, exactly as at
Duxford, on Shrove Tuesday, when an old woman residing at
Ickleton always had a cake and sweet stall in the Close.
May Day. — The children brought round garlands, which usually
consisted of a hoop covered with flowers, (generally wild flowers),
and more often than not had a doll or dolls m the centre. Some-
times there were two hoops set at right-angles to each other;
sometimes a piece of cloth was stretched at the back, and some
motto worked in flowers or letters in the centre, instead of the more
usual doll. More often than not the children came round a few
days before to beg for ribbons to adorn the garlands. Sometimes
the boys carried poles with a bunch of flowers fastened at the top.
The garlands were always suspended on a stout stick and covered
with a white cloth, and carried by two of the children. When they
reached a house, the cloth was thrown back, generally with an air
of great triumph, and the children sang : —
" The first of May is garland day,
So, please, I've brought my garland.
First and second and third of May,
Is chimney-sweepers' dancing-day.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a happy May,
I've come to show my garland, because it is May Day."
236 Collectanea.
" Trailing Ale.'' — At the time of harvest, the men of the parish
used to come round, often bringing a stone jar with them, and ask
for "trailing ale." It was supposed thai, if this was refused, the
men would trample down the corn. I never heard of this being
done, and believe the custom of asking for it has died out some time
ago. I think the following points about " trailing ale " gathered
from my brother are correct, as he has been making enquiries in
the neighbourhood from some of the older people who remember
it : —
When any one walked through a field of standing corn while it
was being reaped, the reapers would demand from him something
for " trailing ale." When cows or foals strayed into standing corn,
the owner of the corn was entitled to ask the owner of the cattle
for "trailing ale." If a footpath was made through standing corn,
the people who used it would be asked for " trailing ale."
Harvest. — After harvest the men were nearly always given a
feed of some sort. This was usually on the day on which the
last load was carried. This load was usually decorated with
boughs, and brought home with a little shouting and jubilation.
On my father's farm the men had always bread and cheese and
onions and beer, but on some farms a big hot dinner was
provided. I believe this was always done in my grandfather's
time, but it was found too much trouble to keep it up, so the men
were given 2s. a head and the bread and cheese etc., instead of
the hot meat and pudding. This was always called a "hawkey."
After harvest one or two men from each farm would go round
to the neighbouring farmers and ask for " largesse," as they had
finished harvest. I believe the collection was made on behalf of
all the men on the farm, but I think the custom degenerated into
one or two men just going independently and seeing what they
could get for themselves. -
Fiflh of Noveviber. — The boys used to dress up a figure, or
often dress themselves up, and go round Hie village singing the
usual rhyme.
Christmas was of course another excuse for singing for money
from door to door, and " While Shepherds watched their flocks
2Cf. N. cr Q., 6th S., vol. iii., p. 469, vol. iv., p. 193 (Easi Jno/i'n, 1881),
and Robert Bloomfield, TAe Horkey,
Collectanea. 237
by night " was the favourite, whilst " Good King Wenceslas " was
a very good second ; but there was also a version of the familiar
"God bless the master of this house."
Sayings. — I have no note of locality for the following sayings: —
The apple crop will be the better if christened on St. Swithin's
Day (of course by rain).
Better to see a wolf enter the fold than the sun shine on
Candlemas Day.^
M. C. Jonas.
Devon,
Apple-tree custom. — A woman living near Kingsbridge tells me
that her father, (born about 1830), used to go out in his youth
shooting at apple-trees, " for luck and good crops." They sang, —
"Here's a heaUh to the apple-tree,
Here's a health to the tree that blossoms !
Hats full, caps full, dree bushel bags full,
Hip, hip, hip, hooray ! "
She was not sure of the exact day, but knows that it was just
about the New Year.^
Fishing beliefs. — At Beesands it is held very unlucky to go out
fishing on Good Friday. Some years ago, any Friday was held to
be an unlucky day for fishing, and many men would not go out to
sea on that day.
Fifth of November. — In the Beesands district, an effigy is
always part of the proceedings, as well as bonfires. Any person
who is unpopular may be burned in efifigy. Two years ago, at
Torcross, a pair of effigies were made, man and woman, to
represent a certain gentleman suspected of too much attention to
his neighbour's wife. They were stuck up arm in arm, and
carried about before being burned. (From a fisherman's daughter,
1911.)
Christmas. — People used to go round before Christmas,
begging for wheat from the farmers.
Fairs. — At Moretonhampstead, Summer Fair was held on the
3Cf. Brand, op. cit., vol. i. (1853), p. f^i ; N. &• Q., ist S., vol. vi. (1852),
p. 480, vol. xi. (1855), p. 238 (Norfolk).
*Cf. Brand, op. cit. (1853), vol. i., pp, 28-30.
238 Collectanea.
third Thursday in July, and was celebrated by climbing a pole for
a leg of mutton, jumping for cakes and treacle, wrestling, country
dances, and races. Women raced down the street, starting from
the Cross, for a gown piece. The church tower was decorated.
Whortle pie was eaten.
The church at Moretonhampstead is dedicated to St. Andrew,
and on this day and other Fair days gammon pie was eaten. It
consisted of a leg of pork, a couple of fowls, etc., all put into a
big pan and covered by rough paste. People kept open house.
There was dancing at night. Down to about 181 7 a Fair was
held with gingerbread stalls and shows, and also with races,
wrestling, and other sports.
J. B. Partridge.
Herefordshire.
Charm. — I am indebted to Col. R. Rankin for the following
account : — " In an orchard at the Vroe Farm, Rowlstone, is a fine
old Glastonbury thorn, which is now (January, 1913) in full leaf.
I went to the thorn to take a cutting lately, and was surprised to
see in the fork of the tree, so green and beautiful in the midst
of winter, a number of placentas of cows, which had apparently
been placed there for generations. When the farmer was ques-
tioned, he explained, — ' It do bring wonderful good luck in the
calving.' "
Toad's heart charm. — It was, and perhaps is still, believed that
a person wearing a toad's heart concealed about the body can
steal with impunity, as he cannot be found out. A farmer watched
one of his men, suspected of petty pilfering, and overheard him
boasting to his fellow-workmen thus, — " They never catches 77ie :
and they never ooll neither. I alius wears a toad's heart round
my neck, /does ! "
Seed- time rhyme. —
" riant your seeds four in a row,
One for ihe clove, and one for the crow,
One to rot, and one to grow."
Neiv Year's Day. — There is a saying in the neighbourhood of
Cusop and Hay that, if a tramp calls on New Year's morning,
every knock he gives at the door will be a happy month for the
Collectanea. 239
occupants of the house. This applies only to men. — (Communi-
cated by Mr. C. G. Portman, of Hay.)
To raise bread. — Mr. Portman also informs me that in this
district it was the custom to put dough to rise in a warm bed ;
the bed must be warm from having been slept in.
Gipsy funeral custom. — A gipsy named John Locke died at
Eardisley, in February, 191 2. According to the usual gipsy
custom, his tent, bedding, and other belongings were burnt, and
his beloved fiddle was buried with him. My informant had tried
to buy the fiddle, but the widow refused to sell it at any price.
Ella M. Leather.
Warwickshire.
Rhymes. — The following rhymes relating to the months, and to
the weather or rural matters proper to them, are all known among
the people of Ilmington : —
January dire,
Freeze the pot upon the fire.
February fill-dyke,
And if it be white 'tis the better to like.
By Valentine's Day
Every good hen, duck, and goose should lay.
By David and Chad
Every hen, duck, and goose should lay, good or bad.^
When bean planting in the old-fashioned manner with the peg,
it was usual to dropy^wr beans in each hole : —
One for the pigeon, and one for the crow.
One to go rotten, and one to grow."
Saint Matth-i-as
Springing leaf and grass ;
A little bit of hay at night, and none in the morning.
Wet on Good Friday and Easter Day,
Means much good grass, and but little good hay."
Come Easter early or late,
'Twill make the old cow quake.
•"' Cf. N. (2r Q., 1st S., vol. i. (1850), pp. 238, 421, {Norfolk).
^ Cf. Herefordshire, above.
' Cf. N. &^ (?., 1st S., vol. vi. (1852), p. 123, {Hertfordshire).
240 Collectanea.
If oak is out before the ash,
Of rain you'll only have a splash :
If ash is out before the oak,
Of rain you'll surely have a soak.
Bees. — When a swarm of bees leaves the hive, it is held neces-
sary to " ring " it ; this is generally done with a fire shovel and
a doorkey. Without this ceremony it is supposed that the owner
can claim no right of property in the swarm, but that with it he is
entitled to follow wherever it goes. Bees must not be sold ; a
hive that has been bought will have no luck. In case of the death
of the master, some member of the family must knock on each
hive with the key of the door, and tell the bees of their loss ;
otherwise they will not thrive afterwards.^
Parsley must not be transplanted. If it is, a member of the
family in whose garden the parsley plants are set will die within
the year.^
Ilmington. F. S. Potter.
Mandrake. — In December, 1908, a man employed in digging
a neglected garden half a mile from Stratford-on-Avon, cut a large
root of white bryony through with his spade. He called it a
"mandrake," and ceased work at once, saying that it was "awful
bad luck." Before the week was out, he fell down some steps and
broke his neck. — (Communicated by Mr. F. C Morgan, of Malvern.)
Loo-belling. — The custom which in many parts of the country
goes by the name of "riding the starig," is called "loo-belling"
in Warwickshire. Mr. Morgan photographed "A man's effigy"
at Brailes, Shipston-on-Stour, on February 18, 1909, just after it
had been placed opposite the dwelling of a woman, who was the
other guilty party. Her effigy was made also ; both remained
outside her house during the day, and were carried round the
long, straggling village in the evening. This was done for three
evenings ; on the third both effigies were burnt. In another case,
in Warwickshire, the effigies were carried round three villages. ^"^
^ N. Ssr' Q., 1st S., vol. ix. (1854), p. 446 ; vol. xii. (1S55), p. 37, [Cornwall) ;
Cornhill Magazine, 191 1, pp. 465-79, ("Telling the Bees'").
' Vol. XX., p. 343, {Worcestershire).
'"The custom was described and illustrated by a drawing from Mr. Morgan's
photographs, in the Illustrated Lotidon Nrjis, August 14, 1909.
Collectanea. 241
An old inhabitant of Charlecote describes the custom as follows : —
"Young men and lads armed themselves with tin cans etc., and
went to both offenders' houses three nights in succession, and
marched into three parishes, — Hampton Lucy, Charlecote,
and Wasperton. On the third night they burnt the man's
and woman's effigies in front of both their houses at Hampton
Lucy. The last time it was done in this district was in 1892."
Ell.\ ^L Leather.
Folk-medicine. — At Pillerton a child with the whooping cough
was given a piece of bread and butter every morning while the
dew was still on the grass, a similar piece being put out on the
grass for the black snails.
At Ilmington a cure for whooping cough is to take whatever
is recommended by a man who rides a skewbald horse into the
village. (A skewbald horse is one in which white is varied by
patches of any other colour than black ; a horse with white and
black only being called " piebald.') I have heard an aged relative,
born about 1780, say that in his earlier days he had a friend who
for a time rode a skewbald horse, and was so often stopped by
anxious mothers that he found it necessary to be prepared with
a remedy, which was always "buttered ale."
Once, when a small boy, I was present at the ceremony of
charming for whitemouth or thrush. This was about 1841, but
I remember it clearly, for I was much impressed. The operator
was named Bennett, and was the village carpenter of Ilmington,
and of some local reputation as a successful charmer for the
ailment. The mother brought the sick child to his house ; he
took it in his arms and muttered his charm over it in such a
manner that no word was intelligible. He then took his fee,
which was, I believe, a fixed one.
F. S. Potter.
IN MEMORIAM : LORD AVEBURY (1834-1913).
BY H. K. WHEATLEY, D.C.L.
The Folk-Lore Society, in common with many other important
societies, has suffered a great loss by the death, on May 29th, of
its distinguished member, Lord Avebury, who joined the Society
in 1880, two years after its foundation. Throughout his long life
and amid the multifarious interests which filled it, he always
retained a special interest in the subject to which our Society has
been devoted. His first work of importance was on Prehistoric
Times (1865), and a few years later his Origin of Civilisation and
Primitive Condition of Man appeared. His last work, Marriage,
Totemism and Religion : an answer to Critics, was published in
191 1. In the following year was published in Folk-Lore (March,
19 1 2) his reply to Mr. Lang's review of this book.
Lord Avebury was elected a Vice-President in 1889, an office
which he held until his death.
The name of the eminent banker, author, naturalist, and states-
man, known to all as Sir John Lubbock until 1900, when he was
created Baron Avebury, had been for years a household word, and
his many-sided career as a man of science and a man of affairs is
one to marvel at. He was an indefatigable worker, and when we
look at the voluminous list of his publications we might easily
suppose that he had no other occupation, if we did not know that
he was a man of business in one of the most anxious of professions.
He was also occupied in many national movements, the most
important of which related to early closing and public holidays.
As the founder of Bank Holidays, he obtained the humorous
sobriquet of "St. Lubbock."
My friend. Dr. Philip Norman, a life-long friend of Lubbock,
has kindly communicated to me some interesting particulars of his
In Memoria7>i : Lord Avebiiij (1834-191 3). 243
early life. " Sir John William Lubbock, the astronomer and mathe-
matician, and a prominent Fellow of the Royal Society, spent his
early married life at Mitcham Grove, in a house (now pulled down)
which had belonged to the Hoares. But on succeeding to the
baronetcy in 1840, he settled permanently at High Elms, Farn-
borough, Kent, which, at the beginning of the nineteenth century,
had been a mere farm. He had a family of eight sons and three
daughters, and as the former began to grow up he made a delight-
ful cricket ground for them, and organised matches in which for
some years he used to take part. John was the eldest of the sons,
and being in his boyhood rather delicate, and from the first
devoted to study, he was less known for success in games and
sport than his numerous brothers. He was, however, fond of
cricket and the Eton game of fives, his father having built a fives
court at High Elms, and there being also a court at my home
(about three miles off). For a time he assisted in the management
of the West Kent Cricket Club. Long afterwards, when he had
almost given up the game, he agreed to play one or two matches
for the ' Lords and Commons,' then exceptionally strong in
cricketers. In order to prepare himself, he used to get Joseph
Wells, the Bromley professional, to bowl to him for some weeks
regularly in the early morning before he went up to London to
business, the result being that he scored well in matches against
Harrow and the famous wandering club ' I Zingari.' Lord Ave-
bury was very keen about fives, and a good performer. I have
played with him scores of times. He generally had some stiff book
of science with him, which he read between the games. When
we most often played together he was engaged in the study of bee
life, and between the games I have several times seen him mark a
bee's head with paint, the bee never attempting to sting him. He
was trying how far they could find their way home to the hive."
With respect to Lord Avebury's intimate association with Charles
Darwin, Dr. Norman adds, — " His introduction to science was un-
doubtedly to a large extent brought about by his being near Darwin,
who encouraged and helped him in his study of plant life when he
was a child."
He was an indefatigable Fellow of the Royal Society, and con-
tributed over one hundred papers to its publications. His favourite
244 ^'^^ Me77ioriam : Lord Avebiiry (1S34-1913).
subjects of scientific research were connected with Geology,
Zoology, and Botany, and his studies of the habits of ants and
bees are of particular moment. Punch in 1882 had a happy fancy
portrait of Lubbock described as the " Banking busy bee." He
was fond of travelling, and his popular works on the scenery of
Switzerland and the scenery of England told of this love and con-
veyed it to his readers. The " Uses " and the " Pleasures" of life
he explained to others, and he had every right to teach, for he
knew. It was a great position that Lord Avebury attained to, and
he won it by hard working and earnestness of purpose.
He gave of his best to his profession, and he was regarded by
the bankers as their leader. But he still had time to devote to
Parliament, to social improvements, to science, to literature, and
to friendship. It is not necessary to mention in detail all the
honours meted out to him. He received them from abroad as
well as at home. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of
London from 1872 to 1880, an office first held by his father;
Vice-Chairman of the London County Council, and then its Chair-
man; and President of too many societies to mention. In Parlia-
ment he first sat for Maidstone and then for the University of
London, making, as has been said, an ideal University Member.
Dr. Norman believes that his own father (Mr. George Warde
Norman) introduced Lubbock to politics by persuading him to stand
as a Liberal for West Kent, where, however, he was beaten twice.
He further adds that "he was a man of unswerving rectitude, and
of infinite capacity for work, who was always animated by the
keenest desire to benefit his fellow-creatures." In this high esti-
mate all will cordially agree.
H. B. Wheatley.
CORRESPONDENCE.
The Completion of Professor Pitre's Collection of
Sicilian Folklore.
In the spring of the present year was pubHshed the twenty-fifth
and final volume of Dr. Pitre's Biblioieca delle Tradizioni Fopolari
Siciliane. The occasion ought not to pass unnoticed in these
pages, seeing that the Biblioieca is the most extensive and com-
plete collection of the folklore of any country ever made, or at
least ever published in a tongue generally accessible to students.
The work of collection was commenced by Dr. Pitre at the age
of eighteen, in the year 1858. The first volume, consisting of songs
with a critical study of folk-poetry, was issued as long ago as 187 1 ;
and both collection and publication have been carried on with
steady and persistent determination during all the intervening
years, amid the arduous duties of professional life as a medical
man, in addition to other literary labours, and recently despite
heavy bereavements and some of the infirmities of age. The
touching dedication of the final volume to the memory of his
only son, while bearing witness to the intense grief and disappoint-
ment of a father's heart, contains yet a note of satisfaction that
"the precious treasure of the traditions of the Sicilian people is
henceforth safe," though he who, with his mother and sisters,
could testify how many sacrifices his father had made for the
work was no longer here to partake of the triumph.
A triumph indeed it is. For Dr. Pitre is idolized by his fellow-
citizens. His kindly personality and devoted professional labours
have won their affection. They recognize that his literary labours,
— his studies of various aspects of the history of Palermo and of
Sicily, a number of works on Italian folklore either written or
edited by him, and above all this great collection of Sicilian
traditions now completed, — have reflected lustre on the city of
246 Correspondence.
the Golden Shell. Nor has the Italian Government been insensible
of the national debt to him. A year or two ago a chair of folklore
was erected in the University of Palermo, and Dr. Pitre was
appointed the professor. And since the completion of his task of
recording the traditions of his native island, he has been nominated
Chevalier of the Civil Order of Savoy, — an order instituted in 1831
for those who, belonging to professions not less useful than that of
arms, have become by their profound studies an ornament of the
State, and carrying with it a modest pension of 1000 lire.
A critical review of the Biblioteca is, of course, impossible here.
Perhaps it is known to comparatively few British students. But to
those who know it, it is a prized possession. The stories in par-
ticular are inferior to none. They have an atmosphere of their
own, recalling the conditions of life of the Sicilian peasant and the
eventful and romantic history of the island. They are annotated,
like the other volumes, with illustrations drawn from Dr. Pitre's
stores of knowledge of Italian folklore in general. A few of them
have been translated in Prof Crane's Italian Popular Tales. The
later volumes of the Biblioteca are adorned with excellent sketches
and photographs of almost every phase of j^easant life.
Whatever sorrows and disappointments life may have brought
to Dr. Pitre, as it brings to all of us, he is happy at least in this,
that he has lived and laboured to the termination of an undertaking
such as profound enthusiasm alone could have inspired him to initi-
ate and sustained him in prosecuting. When he began, especially
in the social and political conditions that prevailed at that time,
there can have been few to sympathize with him. He has lived
to hear his work acclaimed as of national importance, to know
that he has succeeded in painting and handing down to posterity
a picture of the life of a people which, but for him, would never
have been preserved. He needs not the congratulations of foreign
students to be conscious that this result far transcends the measure
of national value, that it is a scientific achievement. But at least
we may add our tribute of praise and gratitude, and an expression
of our good wishes that his life may be lengthened to reap more
abundant fruits of his long devotion to the cause not less of
anthropology than of Sicily.
E. Sidney Hartland.
Correspondence. 247
Charon — Charos.
The following extract from the Montreal Daily S/ar, of August
20, 19 1 2, seems worthy of preservation in Folk-Lore:
" iVO CHARON HERE.
He is All Very Good For the Jl'orld Be}ieath.
Amsterdam, August 21 \jic\. — Owing to a boycott on the steam-
ship Charon by the dockers on Greek ports, the Royal Nether-
lands Steamship Company has been compelled to change its \i.e.
the ship's] name. The men refused to work the ship on account
of its association with the mythological old gentleman, who plies
the ferry across the river of the lower world."
The above statement is not quite correct as it stands. The
person with whom the dockers would associate the ship's name
would not be the ancient Charon, but rather his modern descen-
dant, the death-demon Charos, for the facts about whom see
Mr. Lawson's Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion.
The occurrence is interesting, as showing not only the liveliness of
the belief in this picturesque figure, but the survival of the ancient
notions of omens connected with names and chance utterances
(KA-//8di'£s), illustrated by the classical puns on the names Pentheus,
Meleager, Helen, etc.
H. J. Rose.
Cursing Trees.
The custom of cursing or threatening trees with destruction if
they fail to bear fruit is of some interest. In folk belief cursing is
closely connected with blessing. To give one example, — among the
Iranians: "For blessing and cursing one and the same word is
used, dfirinami. The same peculiarity is to be observed in the
old Hebrew word berik^ to give a blessing, and to curse." ^
^ M. Ilaug, Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the
Far sis, p. 175 n.
248 Correspondence.
The custom of blessing trees is common. It is done on the eve
of the Epiphany (January 5).^
On the other hand, in Courland, apple-trees are struck with a
stick on the first day of Christmas, so that there may be a good
crop of fruit. 2 Dr. Frazer has collected numerous examples of the
beneficial effects of curses and abuse in connection with trees and
plants.* The commentator on the Laws of Manu writes: —
" Through fear of being cut down and the like immovable things
such as trees become fit to be enjoyed by means of their fruit,
flowers, and so forth, i.e. they transgress not the law according to
which they must give flowers, etc., at the appointed season."^ In
English custom the habit of discharging guns at trees may have
been partly prophylactic, partly by way of menace. In India, a
barren tree will bear if a naked man cuts a piece off it on the day
of an eclipse.*' Again, Mr. Denys Bray writes : — " They have a
pretty way in Makran of dealing with a mango tree or date palm
that fails to give fruit. The owner gets a couple of friends to bear
him company, and strides up to it in a threatening manner.
"What's all this?", he bawls. "No fruit? D'you think you can
make a fool of me ? I'll soon show you're mightily mistaken."
And with that he gives it a stroke with his axe. Thereupon his
comrades fling themselves upon him and seize his hands : only let
him spare the poor thing tlais once and it'll be on its best behaviour
in future, they'll be bound. But he wrenches himself loose and
gives it another blow before they can. stop him. In time of course
they wheedle him into a more forgiving frame of mind, and turn to
the tree and say, " Harkee, brother Mango ! We've begged you
off this time, or by the Almighty he would have had you down.
And now that we have given our word for your good behaviour,
you'd best bear fruit next year and plenty of it, or you'll catch it
2 T. F. Thistleton Dyer, British Popular Customs (1876), pp. 20 et seq.',
J. Brand, Observations on Popular Antiquities etc. (1848), vol. i., pp. 28
£t seq.; N. <sr Q., 7th S., vol. xi., pp. 103, 2J7, 337; 9th S., vol. ix., pp.
287, 314.
^W. Mannhardt, IVald- und Feld Kulte (1875), 11 ■> Der Baumcultus der
Gerntanen, vol. i. , p. 276.
* The Golden Bough, part i., vol. i. , pp. 279 et seq. ; vol. ii., pp. 20 et seq.
*vii., 15, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv., p. 218 «.
T. R. Hemingway, Gazetteer Godavari District (1907), vol. i., p. 47.
Correspondence. 249
with a vengeance." It's marvellous, I am told, what a bit of
bluster will do to make a mango tree or a date palm mend its
ways.""
I venture to suggest that we may perhaps find in such customs
as these an explanation of the Gospel narrative of the Barren Fig
Tree, which has sorely puzzled the commentators.^ In other
passages the laying of the axe to the root of the tree and the sub-
sequent exhortation, as well as the appeal of the gardener, may
imply a like custom of threatening or coercing a barren tree so
that it may bear fruit.'' Thus it seems at least possible that the
incident of the Barren Fig Tree may have arisen from a mis-
apprehension of a custom of this class. This theory would be
considerably strengthened if I could produce a parallel to these
customs from Palestine or the neighbouring countries. But this I
have as yet failed to discover. Possibly it may be found in the
Talmud or in early Christian literature, and I should be glad if
any reader could supply it.
\V. Crooke.
Feast Days and Saints' Days.
(Vol. xxiii., p. 453.)
In the December number of Folk-Lore Miss J. B. Partridge writes
of the annual Feast at Haresfield being held on the third Sunday in
September, " though the church dedication is to St. Peter."
It is worth placing on record that on the other side of England
in the fourteenth century, at Lynn, Norfolk, the following statute
of the " gild of S. Peter, Lenne," was included in the return of
1389:
" And yis gyld schal have foure morne-spechis in ye yer. Ye
frist schal bene after ye drynkyng : ye secund schal ben ye
sonday nest be-fore mielmes day : ye thyrd schal be ye sonday
J Census Report, Baluchistan (191 1 ), p. 68.
^ St. Matthew, cap. xxi. , v. 17-9 ; St. Mark, cap. xi., v. 12-14 ; Emyclopcedia
Biblica, vol. i., p. 564, vol. ii., pp. 152 et seq.; J. Hastings, Dictionary of
the Bible, vol. ii., p. 6.
^ St. Matthew, cap. iii., v. 10, cap. vii., v. 19; St. Luke, cap. xiii., v. 6-9.
R
250 Correspondence.
nest be-fore candelmes day : ye ferd schal be ye sonday nest
be-fore sent austenis day in may." '
The Sunday next before Michaelmas Day must have been the
fourth Sunday in September, and not the third ; but three possible
explanations suggest themselves for the peculiarity noted by Miss
Partridge, — (i), that there existed at Haresfield a gild of St. Peter,
and that for some local reason what was the second "morowe-
speche of the gyld " at Lynn may have been observed at Haresfield
in place of the feast-day ("ye drynkyng"); (2), that the name of
the patron saint at Haresfield has been changed ;. (3), that some
pre-reformation bell, if any exist in the belfry, may provide a con-
necting link by its inscription, either with St. Peter or some other
saint.
If investigations could be carried out in 'this and other cases
where there is a difference between the feast-day and the day of
the patron saint of the village, it is possible that much hght might
be thrown on a somewhat obscure subject.
P. J. He.\ther.
Twentieth-Century Marriage Customs,
When rice is thrown at a British wedding the birds of the air
quickly remove all traces of it, .and most of us must have
mourned the untidy litter, lasting for very many days, which
follows the more common and meaningless showering of paper
confetti in place of the good old folk customs of rice and shoe
throwing. The lack of significance in paper confetti has, how-
ever, proved unsatisfying, and the modern craze for "mascots"
and luck signs has lately led to the paper discs being sometimes
replaced by paper shapes imitating all manner of amulets and
symbols, appropriate and not. It may .be interesting, therefore, to
record the granting of a British patent (No. 6339 of 1909) for " Im-
provements in or relating to Luck or Love-Charms, Tokens or the
like, and Devices for Holding and Distributing same." The follow-
ing passages are extracts from pp. 2-4 of the description of the
^ Toulmin Smith, English Gilds, E.E.T.S. (1870), p. 62.
Correspondence. 2 5 i
invention. " For many years past, rice alone, and more recently,
confetti alone, have been showered on a bridal pair when leaving
the precincts of the church after the marriage ceremony. Both
these articles are, in this connection, so objectionable and
annoying as to be almost a nuisance ; so, too, is the slipper
occasionally thrown at the bride and bridegroom, and often to the
hurt or harm of one of them if hit by the missile. The prevailing
idea is that these customary or occasional observances bring luck
to the nuptial parties." Then follows a description of "lucky
objects," amongst different races, which are familiar to folklorists.
" My object therefore is to use such forms as luck or love-charms,
or tokens, amulets, emblems and symbols as are indicated, and
others of a like kind (including the forget-me-not) and to make my
representations thereof in papier-mache, celluloid or other suitable
substance, gilded, silvered, or otherwise suitably coloured, as well
as to combine and preserve in continuity therewith, miniature
slippers (of such suitable substance and colouring), rice, barley, or
other cereals, used as aforesaid, and confetti (such seeds being
preferably coated with a smooth transparent substance or varnish
so that they may not so easily cling to the clothing or hair, or
cause an unpleasant feeling inside a garment) for sprinkling in the
path of a newly-wedded couple, or showering over them, as may be
desired — " for luck." " The tokens are to be sprinkled by means
of " a cornucopia or horn-of-plenty, luck-horn, or like receptacles,"
and in its lid flower-holding tubes are fixed. " The names of the
nuptial parties, and date of the ceremony, may also be engraved
on the receptacle, or on a plate to be affixed thereto, so that in its
more artistic forms in silver and gold the receptacles may be
preserved and descend as heirlooms in the family with some of its
lucky contents " (sic).
A. R. Wright.
REVIEWS.
Essays on Questions connected with the Old English
Poem of Beowulf. By Knut Stjerna. Trans, and ed.
by J. R. Clark Hall. (Viking Club Extra Series, No. 3.)
Curtis «& Beamish, 1912. 4to, pp. xxxv+284. 128 ill. + 2
maps. I2S. 6d. tt.
This handsome and finely illustrated volume, containing a part of
the contributions to archaeological science made by the late
Dr. Stjerna during his unfortunately only too brief life, is due to
the industry of Mr. Clark Hall, whose edition of Beowulf was
noticed in Folk-Lore on its appearance in 191 1. The present
writer then took occasion to refer to the useful " List of Things
Mentioned in Beowulf ".which formed an appendix to the work
just mentioned. That list, with some additions, also finds a place
in the volume of essays now under review.
As is only natural, the main interest of the book is archaeo-
logical, and we may at once say that, from that point of view,
it contains contributions to knowledge of the highest interest.
But there are also many points of interest to the folklorist. For
example, there is the account of the method of dealing with a
dragon in charge of a hoard of treasure. The place where the
treasure (and incidentally the dragon) is hidden is known by the
occasional issuance of flames from thq spot. When the seeker
gets near enough he is to throw his knife (with a steel blade) or
his right shoe (doubtless with iron nails or the like in it) into the
flames, and then to throw himself down on the ground with his
legs crossed. The dragon rushes out to kill the man who has
thrown his property into the fire, but the sign of the cross is too
Reviews. 253
much for him and he hurries away (which seems a weak point in
the story), so that the seeker is enabled to secure the treasure.
Here in the iron and the cross we have a very interesting blend
of pre-Christian and Christian beliefs and ideas.
Without citing other similar points we may direct special atten-
tion to the discussions as to various methods of burial and the
underlying ideas attached to each contained in the chapters
"Scyld's Funeral Obsequies," "The Double Burial in Beowulf,"
and " Beowulf's Funeral Obsequies." Everybody knows that
cremation during the later part of the Bronze Age replaced the
earlier method of inhumation and was again itself displaced, and
there has been mucli discussion as to the significance of this.
One of the most recent works which deals with this question is
that very magnificent contribution to science by the Hon. John
Abercromby, Bronze Age Pottery. Mr. Abercromby agrees with
those who think that cremation indicated the belief in a separate
soul which, when the body was burnt, could depart from the scene
of its funeral, whereas the soul belonging to the inhumated body was,
as we may put it, earthbound, and compelled to linger near the place
of its burial. With this view Stjerna concurs, and endeavours to
explain the alternations of the two methods of disposal of the dead
by a consideration of the racial influences from time to time
dominant. On the question of the voyage of the dead, — so
closely connected with many mythologies and, of course, with
ship-burials of Skandinavia, — he thinks that we can distinguish
three typical stages : —
1. The dead man is laid in a boat, and this is pushed out from
the shore, it being left to the Higher Powers to settle what his
fate shall be.
2. The dead man is buried in his ship on land, or both are
hung up in a tree. Here we are further from the primitive idea,
for it is left to the Higher Power not merely to determine where
the boat shall go but actually to launch it from the land.
3. Finally, the Higher Power is expected to look after everything,
for the dead is left without any means of transport. Stjerna thinks
that this development had its cause in the growing spirituality of
the times, but we may also surmise that, at least in many countries,
it was the result of the waning of the belief that the souls of the
2 54 Reviews.
dead had water of some kind to cross before reaching their final
destination.
This is a most interesting book, and makes one lament the
early death of its author, who might have enriched the scientific
world with many other such excurses as those contained in this
volume.
Bertram C. A. Windle.
On the Independent Character of the Welsh ' Owain '.
{Romanic Review, 191 2.) By A. C L. Brown.
In this study Professor Brown carries a step further the campaign
initiated some ten years ago, which had for aim the demolition of
Professor Foerster's theory of the dependence of the Welsh
Mabinogi, The Lady of the Fou7itain, on the /■wai?i of Chretien de
Troyes.
With the general results of Professor Brown's argument I am
entirely in agreement ; in fact I expressed similar views on the
subject as long ago as 1902, in my Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac ;
but so far as the present study is concerned, while Professor Brown
is inclined to lay somewhat undue stress on minor and doubtful
details, he overlooks points of real and striking importance,
sufficient in themselves to prove his thesis. Thus the argument
(p. 158) that the reference to a 'lustrous' or 'resplendent' castle
is a proof of the Other-world origin of the story, is scarcely con-
vincing; any castle of white stone, with the sun upon it, might very
well suggest such an adjective. The detail may be a purely
natural comment. Again, the fact (p. 159) of the silence of the
hosts during the meal is quite capable of explanation on normal
grounds ; chivalric etiquette prescribed a courteous silence till the
guest made his willingness to speak apparent. This latter detail
might well belong to the present redaction of the story, and have
been absent in the original source. These are minor details ;
more important is the fact that Professor Brown has failed to
detect the real source of the character he terms ' The Monster
Herdsman,' whom he looks upon as the servant of the Fairy
mistress of the Other-world palace. The black Giant who herds
Reviews. 255
the beasts of the forest is, in my opinion, not an Other-world, but
a purely Folklore figure. In Mannhardt's invaluable work on
Feld und Baum-Kultus we find that, in many parts of Europe, the
Wood-Spirit is, even to-day, conceived of under a precisely similar
form ; i.e. as a gigantic one-eyed man, who acts as Herd to the
beasts of the forest, a conception which agrees strictly with Owain's
description of the monster as 'Wood-ward,' and the diverse
character of the beasts obeying him. Chretien's ' herd of bulls '
appears to be a rationalized version of the original form. The
English Yivain and Gaivain here agrees with the Welsh.
But, if the Mabinogi has here preserved the primitive form, in
another place it has omitted what appears to be a corresponding
original feature, retained alike by the French and English poets.
In these two latter versions the Lady of the Fountain has been
warned of the coming of Arthur and his knights by a message from
the ' Demoiselle Sauvage,' a mysterious personage alluded to no-
where else in the work. Now in the Italian Tyrol the Wood-Spirit,
referred to above, is still known as LOm Salvadegh {V Homme
Sauvage), and has a female partner. I am inclined to think that
the Demoiselle Sauvage may, like the Herdsman, be a folklore
survival. The fact that the allusion is found in the French and
English versions, while it is absent from the Welsh, seems to point
to a common original, which, in the case of the Male Wood-Spirit,
was followed more closely by the Welsh and English, and in the
case of the Female, by the French and English writers. That the
authors of The Lady of the Fountain and Ywain and Gawain
could, each on his own initiative, have changed Chretien's " herd
of bulls" into the diverse creatures which come at their master's
.call, seems most improbable, while the change by the more sophisti-
cated French poet of monstrous and fabulous creatures into
ordinary animals is quite comprehensible. The fact that the
English writer, while on the whole following Chretien's version,
here falls into line with the Welsh, is an argument in support of
the theory, previously advanced by the present writer on other
grounds, that the English poet knew other forms of the story,
which he drew upon from time to time, to correct, or modify, the
defects apparent in the French text.
That the Welsh Mabinogi is a folk-tale, which in its origin is
256 Reviews.
entirely independent of Chretien's poem, I am firmly convinced ;
that it is, strictly speaking, an Other-world adventure, I do not
feel so sure. The term ' Other-world ' seems to me to be too easily
and loosely applied by modern critics; strictly speaking it connotes
the Abode of the Departed, and I should myself always distinguish
it from Fairyland, for which Professor Brown seems to consider it
a synonym. Oivain is certainly a Fairy-tale, but I do not consider
that the evidence points to its being an Other-world adventure.
So far as the relations with Chretien's poem are concerned, there
seems to me to be indisputable evidence in favour of a source
common to both, but reproduced with greater fidelity by the
Welsh writer.
J. L. Weston.
VoR FoLKE^T I Oldtiden (Our Race in Early Times). II.
Midgard og Menneskelivet (Midgard and the Life of Men).
III. Hellighed og HelUgdoin (Sacredness and Sacred
Things). IV. Aleiineskelivet og Guderne (The Life of Men
and the Gods). 3 vols. By Vilhelm Gr0nbech. Copen-
hagen: V. Pios Boghandel, 191 2. 8vo, pp. 271 -f2o8-f- 133.
In these volumes, which form a sequel to Lykkemand 'og Niding
(The Lucky Man and the Miscreant), published in 1909, Herr
Gr0nbech attempts io reconstruct, on the evidence of Icelandic
sagas and other contemporary literature cited in full bibliographical
notes, the general social and philosophical outlook of the early
Germanic race, and more especially of the Scandinavian branch.
He insists very strongly that to judge the old tales from our
modem standpoint is to misunderstand them entirely, and he
gathers his evidence together into a very vivid picture of a society
built up on certain very definite conceptions, whose last traces are
to be found to-day in a few obscure folk-customs. As Herr
Gr0nbech's volumes are of interest in connection with recent
theories of early communal life and consciousness, and are also
not yet available in a translation, a somewhat extended notice of
their contents has been prepared.
Midgard og Menneskelivet deals with man and his world as
Reviews.
-'0/
viewed by the Norsemen of early times. The subject is treated
under a series of headings, such as "The World," "Life," "The
Soul," etc. ; but the division only serves to emphasize the various
aspects of one all-pervading idea, which can perhaps be best
expressed as "a sense of the wholeness of life." This sense of
wholeness accounts, according to Gr0nbech, for the apparent
conventionality of description found in the sagas, as in most
primitive literature. The old Norse hero could never be anything
but " well-armed," " sword-swinging," " horse-taming," even in his
most commonplace actions, since these qualities belonged to his
very nature or being, and he would be as incomprehensible
without them as the figure of a man would be to a savage if
depicted with less than two eyes and four limbs. The same
conception is made to account for the e.xtreme importance attached
to the maintenance of individual or family honour, — (the two are
hardly separable). For an insult or injury meant a break in
the unity of the nature attacked, and if left unavenged must lead
to annihilation as surely as an ever-bleeding wound. One in
whom this process of spiritual disintegration had been allowed to
set in was known as -a fiiding, and was not only the most pitiable,
but also the most dangerous, of men; for his shattered personality
presented a loophole through which the evil forces of Udgard,
the outer region of darkness, could make their way into Midgard,
the bright, familiar world of men. Hence the nidittg was not
merely left to the inevitable ill-fortune that must pursue one whose
" luck " was broken : he became an outcast, deprived of all human
rights, whether in life or in death. For, whereas the " whole-
souled " man passed in death to a shadowy after-life of which the
happiness consisted in the knowledge that his name and fame
would be revived again and again in the persons of his descendants,
for the niding there could be no after-life except as some horror
of darkness haunting the place where his life had suffered ship-
wreck. And so it became a duty, not only to put him to death,
but to annihilate his body and by every possible means to wipe
out all remembrance of him from tlie earth. It is clear from
some cases quoted that a tiiding was often merely a sufferer from
some slight lack of mental or physical balance : but in the strong
life-instinct of a race bred among stern surroundings there could
258 Reviews.
be no tolerance for weakness, and an infant who showed any
lack of vigour would be left to die. To the Norse mind this was
in no sense murder, since the child only received its full life and a
share in the family hamingja, or luck, when the father admitted
it into his clan by naming it after some ancestor, whose life was
supposed to pass into the child and thus attain rebirth. In the
case of one born of a thrall-mother even more was necessary.
Only after an elaborate ceremony of acceptance into a freeborn
family could it be said of him, in the words of an old Swedish
writer, that he had " received a whole soul and a past."
This inclusion of the past in the present is another characteristic
of the highly-unified view of life upon which the author insists so
strongly. A true life, — the full-souled life of the freeborn, — was
not limited to a single individual, or even to ojie generation. It
was essentially the life of the clan : the life of remote ancestors,
revived again in every worthy descendant, and strengthened by
every union with other freeborn families. It was a pre-eminently
aristocratic conception, and involved, among other things, a great
fearlessness in the face of death ; for death could not end life for
him who left kinsmen to avenge him and to revive his name and
memory. The true enemy to be feared was the oblivion which
awaited the niding.
In Hellighed og Helligdom the same unified life-spirit of the clan
is described as embodied in its material possessions. The root-
meaning of the word hellig, " wholeness," must be kept in mind if
we are to realize the quality of essential vitality which was the
real object of reverence in sacred things.
No man could handle an object without imparting to it some-
thing of his ow]i life and will, which clung to the thing itself even
when it had passed out of his possession. Under these circum-
stances a gift became a serious matter, since the recipient must
admit into his own life, for good or ill, so much of the spirit of
the giver as had been assimilated into the gift. Cases are quoted
where gifts were feared, and if possible avoided, as placing the
recipient in the power of the giver. On the other hand, gifts
became the great binding power in social compacts, such as
marriage, and were considered necessary as a ratification of every
good wish. " What will you give me ? " was the natural reply to
Reviews. 259
a wish for good luck, and the story is told of how King Harald,
hearing his queen wish Bishop Magnus a successful journey,
insisted on her sealing her words with the gift of the cushion upon
which she sat. For a wish without a gift was letter without spirit
and a sign of false-heartedness. In the same way the bestowal of
a name upon a child demanded the seal of a gift. This custom
is referred to in the legend of the Lombards, who on hearing the
voice of Odin enquire " Who are these Long-beards?" immediately
entered the battle-field with the triumphant cry, — " He who has
given us a name will also give us the victory ! " Certain crises in
a boy's life, such as the cutting of his first tooth, were also marked
with gifts intended to ensure to him that fresh share of the family
hamin^a for which he was now prepared.
But there were certain objects capable above all others of
bearing within them the spirit and will of their original or greatest
owner. Such were, in the first place, swords and other weapons,
which were treasured in the clan from one generation to another
and only given away in token of the greatest friendship. Funeral
barrows would sometimes be broken open to obtain possession of
the swords of departed heroes, and in handing on such a weapon
it was customary to recite the deeds of those who had borne it,
not merely as a matter of interest, but in order that the new owner
might understand clearly the nature of the power which he was
taking into his hands. For this was an important point. If his
own nature was in harmony with that of the weapon, or powerful
enough to control it, then the new possession would bring him
good luck. Otherwise the sword itself might take control and
reduce the man to a mere instrument of its own will or fate.
Other "sacred" objects were certain necklaces and arm-bands,
and ships too were recognized as embodying the nature of their
great captains. There are also tales of certain animals which
were held sacred in the family to which they belonged, and which
proved their value by coming to the help of their owner in cases
of emergency.
The extent to which a man's possessions were understood to
partake of his nature is shown by the customs, some of which
survived in much later times, regarding the exchange or purchase
of goods. It is said that down to the present day, in remote
26o Rcvietvs.
parts of Scandinavia, a peasant will abstract three grains from the
measure of corn which he gives as charity, or three hairs from the
cow which he has sold, to ensure that his luck shall not go from
him together with the material object. In the same way, the
purchaser will not feel sure of his possession until he has led the
cow into his house to see the fire on the hearth and to eat a wisp
from the housewife's lap. In earlier times it was the custom to
give a handful of earth to the purchaser of land, and to throw a
staff back over the shoulder on leaving as a sign of full renunciation.
And in the days when disputes as to possession were settled by
single combat, each disputant would first drive his sword into the
ground in question, in order that the " luck " of the earth might
itself declare for its rightful owner.
There were, as one would expect, certain parts of the home in
which the spirit of the family was believed to be specially con-
centrated. The most important place seems to have been the
" high seat," the supports of which would be carried away on
leaving the home, and in several legends are said to have been
thrown overboard on nearing a strange land, in order that by
drifting ashore they might mark out the most auspicious spot for a
new settlement.
As regards the members of the family themselves, the women
were held to be more closely bound by the spirit of the "clan and
more susceptible to its warnings than the men ; and the long hair
of the woman was looked upon as the symbol, or even the medium,
of her especial sacredness. A woman would lay her hand on her
plaited hair in taking an oath as a man would lay his on his sword.
Boys also wore their hair long up to a certain age, and to cut a
boy's hair without the consent of his guardian was an act of
sacrilege. Even when the moment came for him to take his place
among the men, no near relation might perform the ceremonial
clipping of the locks which violated his sanctity. This must be
done by some " whole-souled " man, who_ thereby became a sort
of foster-father to the boy and was expected to seal the act with
gifts. The occasion is said to have been widely used for the
cementing of desirable alliances, a notable case being that of King
Pepin, who as a boy was sent by his father Charles Martel to
Liutprand to have his hair cut by him for the first time.
Reviews. 261
It is very noticeable that in the scheme of philosophy and ethics
outlined in these two first volumes there is hardly any mention of
the gods of northern mythology. If they appear at all it is rather
as heroes, subject like other heroes to the immutable laws of
cause and effect, than as controllers of those laws. And in the
last volume of this series, in spite of its title, the supernatural
beings themselves play an exceedingly small part. One is left in
the end with the feeling that the creed of these hardy northerners,
at least in the age with which Herr Gronbech deals, might be
summed up in a paraphrase of a well-known saying as " Trust in
the gods and keep your sword sharp," and that the trustfulness
depended entirely upon the consciousness of success in sharpening
the blade. There were temples, it is true ; sometimes, as in
Icelandic remains, a large assembly-room with a smaller room
beside it containing the stailr or stone upon which lay the arm-
band of the chief and other sacred objects, and by standing upon
which it was possible to establish communication with the higher
powers. More often there was simply a small blot/ius, or house of
dedication, adjoining the dwellinghouse in which the sacred feast
was served. There were also sacred woods and wells which
marked the meeting-place of certain clans for the periodic festivals
at which they sought to renew their common life. But, though
the names of some of the gods occur in the "healths" drunk on
these occasions, their place being taken later by the names of
Christ, the Holy Ghost, and various Christian saints, it does not
appear that the success of the ceremony was held to depend in any
way upon their goodwill. It was rather the power lying behind
the gods themselves that was called into play, and this not as an
act of grace but as the direct result of the successful performance
of certain ceremonies by the assembled clan. These ceremonies
consisted partly in games, — wrestling, horse-fighting, and other
strenuous exploits of which the success was calculated largely by
the amount of damage effected among the performers, — partly in
the eating of a common meal, but mainly in the drinking of ale in
accordance with very strictly defined rules. The ale was brewed
with special care, served in a great bowl or skapker, and handed
round in a sacred horn by the wife of the king or chief who
presided at the feast. No man might refuse the horn, or drink
262 Reviews.
from it seated, or set it down unemptied, or fail to follow its
course round the hall with silent attention, under pain of being
held responsible for breaking the chain whereby fresh life was to
be drawn into the clan. With each round of the horn a certain
viinne, or health, was drunk, three principal healths, or in some
cases three times three, marking the usual course of the ceremony.
Sometimes the drinking was accompanied by vows of future
deeds, the ale being not only the pledge of good intentions but
an actual means of setting in motion the forces necessary to the
deed. This was especially the custom at funeral feasts, when the
dead man's successor was expected to renew the family life by
some such fresh departure. The boisterous joy shown on these
occasions was a sign that the revitalization had been successfully
accomplished, and not in any sense an incongruous element in an
otherwise serious ceremony.
The word blot used in connection with the annual and special
clan feasts is sometimes translated "sacrifice," but would perhaps
be better rendered as " dedication," since it does not necessarily
include the idea of slaying. In many cases no doubt a specially
selected animal was killed to provide a common ceremonial meal,
but we also hear of both animals and men being blotet'xw the sense
of being dedicated to the gods. Torolf, Torsten, and Torgrim
were all members of a- family in which the custom had been
established of dedicating a son to the god Tor. One thus
dedicated was known as a blotmand^ and was counted a source of
strength to his clan. In another case a certain Floki dedicated
three ravens to the gods before starting on a voyage to Iceland,
in order that the birds might show him the way.
This is the nearest approach to any idea of propitiation of a
personal deity that we can find in Herr Grtmbech's interpretation
of early Germanic religion. If his interpretation is correct, the
religious ceremonies of the northern races must be looked upon
as special concentration-points in that, daily life which was not
merely the aggregate of many individual lives, but one life
animating a whole clan, from its earliest known ancestor to the
last descendant worthy to escape the oblivion of the niding.
B. M. Cra'ster.
Reviews. 263
Malta and the Mediterranean Race. By R. N. Bradley.
T. Fisher Unwin, 1912. Svo., pp. 336. 54 ill. + map.
Ss. 6d. //.
The object of this book is to discuss the Mediterranean race and
its supposed successors, the modern Maltese, from the points of
view of archaeology, anthropology, and linguistics.
In the field of archaeology the views of the author are important,
because he shared in the recent work of excavation. His account
of the great megalithic structures at Hal Safiieni and Hagiar Kim,
illustrated by a series of fine photographs, are valuable. He deals
with the prehistoric remains found in the island under the heads
of — caves ; hypaethral sanctuaries ; hypogaea or underground
buildings; rock tombs; dolmens; megalithic towers, walls, and
villages ; and menhirs or single upright stones. He suggests that
the dolmen had its origin in the attempt to shapen or reduce the
width of the opening of the cave occupied by the primitive
troglodytes.
In anthropology he follows the guidance of Professor Sergi, and
he hesitates to accept the view of Professor Elliot Smith that the
dolmen-building impulse was derived from Egypt. The curious
steatopygous figures or idols found in the excavations he connects
with a South African race like the Bushmen. He is on less safe
ground when he traces the Celtic plaid to " Mycenaean " costume,
and the taste of the modern Maltese for lace to the pre-Aryan
race, or when he finds in the blue eyes of some Maltese girls a
link between Africa and Ireland. We may readily admit that the
almost complete absence of the double-axe symbol and the unique
character of the local pottery prove the isolation of the people in
the prehistoric age.^ But, even granting this, it is difficult to
believe that a race occupying an island provided with fine harbours,
on the highway of commerce, could, in spite of the occupation of
the island by successive bodies of foreigners, have maintained its
purity.
The chapter on folklore records variants of the legends of
Hercules and of Perseus and Andromeda, and a local tale of the
Serpent and the Apples. The curious carving on the altar at
^Cf. Folk-Lore, vol. xxiv., p. 267.
264 Reviews.
Hagiar Kim is connected with the Adonis cult. Among customs,
that of stripping the flesh from the bones before burial of the
corpse, possibly a method of purification intended to propitiate
the ghost, and that of burying articles with the dead, are
interesting.
Mr. Bradley admits that his philological theories will not meet
with immediate acceptance. He finds an Arabic or Semitic sub-
stratum in English to which he assigns words like the ash-Xxtt^
baby, black, chisel, hoof. Jewel, ?nerry, tail, talk, and tall.
Even with some reservations in regard to certain anthropological
and philological speculations, the book is fresh and interesting.
We know so little of the Minoan period that there is some excuse
for a writer who has the courage to desert the beaten track and
follow independent lines of enquiry.
W. Crooke.
The Backwaters of the Nile. Studies of Some Child Races
of Central Africa. By The Rev. A. L. Kitching. Preface
by Peter Giles. T. Fisher Unwin, 191 2. Demy 8vo, pp.
xxiv and 295. Map + 57 ill. 12s. 6d. 71.
The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia. Being Some
Impressions of the Tanganyika Plateau. By Cullen Goulds-
bury and Hubert Sheane. Intro, by Sir Alfred Sharpe.
Edward Arnold, 1911. Demy 8vo, pp. xxiii-f36o. 111.
Map. 1 6s. ;;.
The term " epoch-making " has never been apphed with more
reason to any work than to Mary Kingsley's two great books.
Travels in West Africa and West African Studies, It may be
boldly stated that all books on African travel can be classified as
belonging to the pre-Kingsleyan or post-Kingsleyan period. This
distinction does not, however, mean books which have been pub-
lished before or after the appearance of her writings, but such as
have, or have not, been influenced by her spirit. It is wonderful
for how long a period the negro could be misunderstood by the
Anglo-Saxon ; and still more so that men who were entirely
devoted to the African and did not shrink from sacrificing their
lives for his welfare, men of great eminence, were incapable of
Reviews. 265
seeing him in the true hght. To choose as an example the
greatest African traveller, Livingstone, it cannot be denied that,
although he recognises in his writings all the generous help he has
received from the natives, his strong religious bias always prevents
him from rendering full justice to his black friends. But he was
not to blame ; it wanted a woman, and a woman of Mary Kings-
ley's eminence and delicacy of feeling, to discover the soul of the
negro and to find out that his way of thinking was so characteristic
of his race that it could not be compared to that of any other.
To those who have travelled in Africa and lived with the black
man, IVesi African Studies opened a new world, a world of great
beauty, a world which not infrequently takes possession of him
that penetrates it, and then the European begins to think black.
A brilliant example of this is the author of At the Back of the
Black Mans Mind. But it is not necessary to be so fully affected;
many have learned from Mary Kingsley how to sympathise with
the negro and to judge him according to his own merits and not
according to a standard of our own.
Thetwobooks before me are excellent examples of pre-Kingsleyan
and post-Kingsleyan literature. Mr. A. L. Kitching is a mission-
ary who, if he has ever read Mary Kingsley, has never grasped her
spirit. He is one of those false apostles who never tire of report-
ing to us the darker sides of negro life, accentuating the shadows,
so as to make the picture entirely distorted. This tendency to
blacken the character of the negro has been too much in promi-
nence lately, and the reader ought to be warned only to accept
with the greatest reserve information from these prejudiced sources.
On the other hand, we have the book of Messrs. Gouldsbury and
Sheane, which is post-Kingsleyan ; the two officials who have
written it belong to the class of men of which this country ought
to be prouder than of her victorious generals ; they are obviously
men who love and understand the natives among whom they live
and who, quite justly, enjoy the sympathy and the friendship of
the negroes they have to govern. One may disagree with some
of their views, — (I, for example, cannot see the employment of the
natives in the mines in the rosy light in which it appears to the
authors), — but one is always sure that they state their case as they
think it ought to be stated in all fairness to the black man, whereas
S
2 66 Reviews.
the whole of I\Ir. Kitching's book is a plea for the necessity of
support for the mission, not forgetting to pass the hat round.
The wrong wrought by books of this kind is all the greater,
because those who are attacked do not know of the attack and
have no opportunity of defending themselves.
In On the Backioaters of the Nile the Rev. A. L. Kitching tries
to show up the wickedness of the black man ("half devil and
half child"), and the necessity of improving him by sending out
missionaries, who, he thinks, I am glad to say, ought to "worm
their way somehow into the thoughts and feelings of those they
are to teach." Mr. Kitching has been eminently unsuccessful in
doing this. Although containing some interesting material, his
book is nothing if not a requisitory against the black man. I
generalise on purpose, for the author does not content himself
with speaking evil of the natives he is particularly acquainted
with, but provides us with general information of this kind : "the
attitude of the African mind towards sickness and death is a com-
pound of dread and fatalism, of fear and folly." As for the tribes
that have given him hospitality, those who are naked " are purely
animal, devoid of all self-consciousness, destitute of all sense of
indecency," (which, he explains, means "what we should call
modesty"); those who by the wearing of clothes show outward signs
of decency and propriety " are no more moral than the frankly
primitive Nilotic tribes." Mr. Kitching does not believe in the
spirit of independence which still prevails among some of the
natives, and expresses satisfaction that they are being " hammered
into order." That this hammering goes with the robbing of the
natives by the Baganda agents he admits. It is only "in the
presence and under the heel of the white man that the devilish
side of the African is kept under." He finds among them " the
degradation of all motives to a dead level of blind selfishness,"
and gives as an example the case of a chief who "was quite
willing to give you all he had that you required (I quote), pro-
vided you were agreeable on your part to handing over any article
he fancied among your possessions." Is this not the case all over
the world? Nothing will satisfy Mr. Kitching; he complains
thus of the chief on whose land, I hope with his permission, the
mission was built : " Although he sometimes came to our services
Reviews. 267
and made no attempt to hinder his household from following their
inclination in that respect, he seemed to have no desire for any
standard better than his own, no appreciation of the degradation
of his practices." He is given as an example of a " typical heathen,
steeped in all the degradations of savage life ! "
Mr. Kitching insists on the shadows, and forgets to mention the
h'ghter sides of native life. Sometimes this leads him to amusing
paradoxical statements. On p. 146 we are told that the wives are
mere chattels ; on the same page he deplores the tendency to
avoid marriage ; in one place we are told that these people have
no moral sense whatever, and a few pages later we learn that the
decline of the marriage rate has a deplorable effect on the general
morality. Such a saying as that dances among the Baganda and
Banyoro are too obscene, or at any rate too suggestive, to be coun-
tenanced where Christianity is acknowledged and professed, is
strange reading to a reviewer who has recently visited the United
States and seen the dances fashionable among the white popula-
tion of that country.
It is a pity that the missionary " Advt." part of this book is so
unpleasantly conspicuous, because it prevents the appreciation of
the good material it contains.
"To get at the bottom of Africa there is only one method —
long continued residence — backed by a proper sympathy with
native ideas." Thus says Sir Alfred Sharpe in his introduction to
The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia, by MM. Gouldsbury and
Sheane, both of the British South Africa Company, and when he
says further that the authors give a minute, reliable, and deeply
interesting description of native life on the Tanganyika plateau, I
am in entire agreement with him. Although the book is excellent
reading throughout, the folklorist will take a special interest in
chapters ii, iv, vi, viii, ix, xi, xii, xvi, and xvii, — Mr. Sheane's part
of the work.
The authors are not blind advocates of the natives ; but they
praise the unswerving honesty of the bush {i.e. uncivilised) native;
admit his great generosity, sense of justice, and law-abiding
qualities. They state how keen he is to acquire knowledge,
giving as an example that many of the more advanced boys at the
Livingstonia mission injure themselves by overstudy. As for their
2 68 Reviews.
intellectual powers, their language is a startling monument of this.
Chivemba is closely akin to the Luba languages of the Congo,
and a look at the brilliant grammar of the latter languages by
Dr. Morrison, published a few years ago by the Presbyterian Tract
Society at New York, will confirm the saying of the authors that
"the copious vocabulary and the almost unlimited capacity of
forming derivatives according to fixed laws makes us wonder at
the genius of the race which evolved it." A fair idea of the possi-
bilities of Chiluba may be got from the fact that the Baluba near
Lake Moero use thirty-seven different tenses in their common
speech. None of our European tongues shows such a marvellous
logic as the Bantu languages do ; the closest resemblance to them
can be found in the newer, artificial, international languages.
Besides their qualities the defects of the Awemba are men-
tioned : their want of an aim in life, their thriftlessness, improvi-
dence, and lack of sense of the value of time. The greatest obstacle
to progress is, however, apart from their conservatism (which, I
think rightly, is mentioned among their qualities), the intensity
of their sexual nature. The apparent absence of will-power is
ascribed to the fact that the individual has merged his volition in
that of the clan. The authors prove the presence of a strict code
of sexual morals, and deplore that the natives are very far from
living up to it.
The plateau native is emphatically a man of rehgiosity rather
than a man of religion. Like most Bantu people he accepts one
Supreme God, Leza, the incomprehensible, the greatest of all
spirits, creator of life and death, more a nature-force than a deity :
the African First Cause. Leza is responsible for creation in all its
forms, and for death (natural) and decay; "he brings about in fit
and proper time the death of old age." He is above the flattery
of worship, and prayer is reserved for spirits less exalted, not so
remote from humanity, spirits that have qualities and faults in
common with man, the spirits of the ancestors and of nature, chief
among which is Mulenga. The nature spirits represent those
phenomena of nature against which primitive man has to wage
war ; the ancestral spirits may be tribal (when spirits of chiefs), or
family (when those of a deceased member of the family). The
former have priestesses, doomed to celibacy, and are capable of
Revieivs. 269
personal possession as well as of reincarnation in the shape of
animals. The person possessed by them, usually a woman, has
the gift of propliecy, but may sometimes practise black magic as a
muloshi, or witch, causing disease and death. The family spirits
are prayed to by the head of the family, who makes sacrifices to
them ; it is their duty to protect the crops and to keep illness from
the house ; their foremost task is, however, to keep from the
threshold the vi-waiida, the restless souls of evil men, suicides,
murderers, and sorcerers. There exists a guild of ngufigii^ who
may be priest, physician, diviner, or exorcist ; the different ways
of producing enchantments and practising divination are fully
described. To detect sorcerers the mwav or inavi poison ordeal,
common in East Africa, is resorted to. Totemism is general, and
both animate and inanimate totems are recognised. Exogamy
is general.
The authors believe that the aristocracy of the plateau comes
from UTua,the country of the Baluba of the Lualaba; the proletariat,
too, distinctly show Luba features. This may be the case ; but, if
the aristocracy do come from the Lualaba, they must have returned
to their place of origin, for it seems fairly well established that the
Luba people originate from Lake Nyassa and, travelling in a north-
eastern direction, migrated to the Lualaba, and thence to the
Sankuru and the Kasai ; that one branch proceeded further west,
but, being repelled, returned by a more southern route to form the
nucleus of the Lunda empire, of which Kazembe was an offshoot.
We find ourselves confronted by the exceptional fact that two
tribes, belonging to the same race, both claim to be offshoots of
the main branch : the informant of the authors, Simimbi, a chief
of the Awemba, telling them that they are descendants of the
Lualaba Baluba, and my informant, a chief of Urua on the
Lualaba, claiming descent from the Awemba. This is certainly
the reverse of what usually happens.
It is impossible to do full justice to all the valuable material
contained in this book within the space at my disposal ; The
Plateau of Northern Rhodesia is a work which every student of
Africa ought to possess, and the authors are to be complimented
on their achievement. The illustrations are excellent.
E. TORDAV.
270 Reviews.
The Census of Northern India. Reports. Panjab, by
Pandit Harikishan Kaul, Part i. (191 2), pp, 553 + xiii,
8s.; North-West Frontier Province, by C. Latimer,
Part i. (19 1 2), pp. 268 + cxxv + xi, 9s.; Baluchistan, by
D. Bray, Parts i. and ii. (1913), pp. 200 + 98 + 7, 4s. 6d.;
Kashmir, by M. Matin-uz-zaman Khan, Part i. (191 2),
pp. 256, 6s.; United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, by
E. A. H. Blunt, Part i. (1912), pp. 432, 6s.; Rajputana, by
E. H. Kealy, Part i. (19 13), pp. 271, 4s.
Even to students familiar with the rural life and beliefs of the
Indian races these Census Reports present a mass of new and
important material. It is highly creditable to the officers in charge
of the provincial enumerations that the reports of their operations
are, on the whole, so instructive. Their primary duty was to
organize, often from most unpromising sources, a staff of enu-
merators, and, without interference with racial or religious pre-
judices, to collect a body of statistics which are indispensable to
the work of administration. The discussion of the material thus
collected, and the investigation of problems of religion and
sociology, are only incidental to the successful conduct of the
enumeration. Such discussions and investigations must be carried
on within a limited time, in a climate which often renders intense
mental efforts impossible, and amid the distractions of less interest-
ing but more important duties. That so much has been done
under such difficult circumstances is highly commendable. Again,
when we compare these Reports with the first real attempts which
commenced in 187 1, no one can help being impressed with the
new spirit which pervades them. They are compiled with a much
wider outlook and with greater skill and literary power ; and the
writers, as a rule, seem to have endeavoured to keep themselves
acquainted with the results of recent research, and to provide in
readable form information indispensable to the student of religion
and folklore.
I do not propose within the narrow limits of a review to attempt
detailed discussion of the subjects dealt with in this great series of
Blue Books. These notes are confined to Northern India; Bengal,
the Report of which is delayed by tlie re-arrangement of the pro-
Reviews. 2 7 1
vincial boundaries, the Central Provinces, Bombay, and Madras,
which deal with different races, must remain for future considera-
tion. Here I propose merely to discuss the general characters of
the Reports, and to call attention to some contributions of special
interest. As a whole, they deserve the study of all anthropologists
who realize that no other country presents a more interesting mass
of problems, and that nowhere else is to be found a more valuable
collection of material.
The Indian provinces naturally fall into two classes. Some,
like the Panjab and the United Provinces, have been subject to
British rule for a long period, and much material is already on
record. In others, like Baluchistan, for instance, the administra-
tion is only just beginning to reduce a number of savage tribes into
some semblance of order. There is a further difference in others,
like the United Provinces, where Mr. Blunt has been able to sup-
plement the obvious deficiencies of the Census Report for 1901,
which displayed little or no first-hand knowledge of the rural
population. In the Panjab Pandit Harikishan Kaul has been
able only to glean the fragments which fell from the tables of his
predecessors, Ibbetson, Maclagan, and Rose.
It is interesting to observe that two of these Reports are the
work of native officials. In the mechanical work of compilation,
and in their reviews of statistics, they reach the average standard;
they write wonderfully good English, considering that it is to them
a foreign tongue. But students who look to them for a more
thorough presentation of peasant beliefs, and for much needed
light on the darker regions of social life, will, I venture to think,
be disappointed. The learned native finds it difficult to interest
himself in beliefs and usages which conflict with orthodoxy, while
the observant European finds the living folk of the village more
engrossing than the sacred books of the Maulavi or Pandit. To
take an example, the cult of the goddess Devi is of special interest,
but, when the Pandit from the Panjab discusses it, he bases his
conclusions on the Vedas and Puranas, not the village worship.
To explain the Devi cult the Pandit looks to the Brahman philo-
sophy of Sakta worship.^ Thus he begins at the wrong end, and
his investigation is of little value.
^ Panjab Report, vol. i., pp. 114 et seq.
272 Reviews.
One special question upon which investigation was invited by
the Census Commissioner was the institution of the Panchayat or
caste council as bearing upon internal organisation. The most
valuable contribution on this subject is contained in Mr. Blunt's
excellent report.^ With this may be associated the elaborate
review of Hindu domestic rites by Pandit Harikishan Kaul, and
Mr. Latimer's account of the constitution of caste and tribe on the
North- West Frontier.^ Mr. Bray's report is, as he says, uncon-
ventional. He abandons the familiar, stodgy style of the official
writer, and his notes on the folklore of Baluchistan, from which
extracts are given elsewhere, are novel and interesting, and are
written in a witty and graphic style.
I need not dwell upon the protests from Baluchistan and the
Panjab, as representing the so-called "Indo-Aryan" and "Turko-
Iranian " groups, against this method of race classification. A
revolt was certain to occur against the cruder methods of anthro-
pometry ; but the protest is sometimes based upon inadequate
grounds. We may, for instance, admit that the Baloch mother,
by use of pressure and manipulation, secures that form of head
v/hich satisfies the tribal conception of beauty, without assuming
that every peasant woman elsewhere finds time from her dairy, her
corn-mill, and her cooking pots to force the skull of her child to
assume a shape which race, — or may I add environment? — has
impressed upon it. But sporadic cases of skull manipulation do
not touch the real difficulty.
What are the morals to be drawn from this great collection of
anthropological and folklore material ? I venture to think that it
illustrates the danger of imposing systems of race classification, of
far-reaching hypotheses which, somewhere or other in the vast
area of India, are certain to conflict with ascertained conditions.
The Census officer of the future will be well advised to adopt less
ambitious methods. The patient accumulation of facts, the inten-
sive study of the smaller groups, the exploration of the village
shrine and local cults in search for the key to the strange religious
complex which we, not the people themselves, call Hinduism, will
- United Pi-ovinces Report, vol. i., pp. 332 et seq.
^Panjab Report, vol. i., pp. 263 et seq.; North-West Frotitier Province
Report, vol. i., pp. 322 et seq.
Reviews. 273
give adequate scope for enquiry. If they follow these methods in
the future, they will confer still greater services on science.
W. Crooke.
The Pagan Tribes of Borneo. A description of their physical,
moral, and intellectual condition, with some discussion of
their ethnic relations. By Charles Hose and William
M'DouGALL. Appendix by A. C. Haddon. 2 vols. Mac-
millan, 1912. 8vo, pp. xv 4- 283, x + 374. Col. and other ill.
Maps. 42s. /;.
" In writing this book we have aimed at presenting a clear picture
of the Pagan tribes of Borneo as they existed at the close of the
nineteenth century." The authors. Dr. Hose and Dr. M'Dougall,
have fulfilled their task in an admirable manner, the result of their
labours being two sumptuous volumes full of interest and beautiful
photographs. The authors have aimed, it would appear, more in
the direction of giving a clear-cut impression of the tribes of
Sarawak, especially the Kayan, than at producing a text-book
of the ethnography of the region. Some of the chapters are
admirable as pen-pictures ; that on the Punan is especially to be
commended. Very interesting chapters are given on the various
aspects of these peoples ; their daily life, life on the rivers, in the
jungle, mode of warfare, childhood, and youth being treated in
separate chapters. The final chapter, entitled " Government,"
contains a graphic and sympathetic account of the peace-making
which Dr. Haddon has already described in his book. Head-
hunters., Black, White, atid Brown.
The first half of the second volume is taken up with an account
of the religion and folklore of the various tribes, the well-known
paper of the authors on "The Relations between Men and Animals
in Sarawak " ^ forming the basis of much of it. The chapter on
spiritual existences does not add a great deal to our knowledge,
except that a very clear account of the Kayan spirits called Toh
is given : the same remark applies to the folklore section, where
the authors have contented themselves with giving typical ex-
amples, including some more adventures of those delightful rascals
' The [ournal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xxxi.
2 74 Reviews.
Flandok (the mouse-deer), Kelap (the water-tortoise), and Kra
(the monkey). 2
The most noteworthy feature, however, of the work is the
attempt, and a very able attempt, of the authors to dissect out, as
it were, the various layers of culture which exist in Borneo, and to
establish the relationships of these layers to the cultures of the
surrounding regions. They have not attempted more than a
sketch, but as far as they have carried the analysis they have
thrown a great deal of light upon the subject. Chapters iii. and
xxi. are occupied with the discussion, the results of wliich may be
summarised briefly as follows : — Before Borneo was separated from
the mainland, it, and much of the whole surrounding region, were
peopled by tribes of which the Klemantan, Kenyah, and Punan
are the descendants. " Their cultural status was probably very
similar to that of the existing Punan" (p. 225). The stock is a
mixture of Caucaso-Mongoloid elements (p. 226), and the members
of it are called Indonesian. The immigration of the Mongoloid
stock into the region steadily continued, so that, when Borneo be-
came separated from the mainland, the Indonesian stocks which
were left behind gradually received more infusions of Mongoloid
blood and culture, so that in the course of time the Indonesians
left in Burma and elsewhere became possessed of a culture con-
sisting of an Indonesian layer and a Mongoloid layer.- Pressure
from the North was continuous, and finally those tribes which
were in the southern portion of the area emigrated southwards.
" We believe that the Kayan emigrated to Borneo from the
basin of the Irrawaddi by way of Tenasserim, the Malay Peninsula
and Sumatra, and that they represent a part of the. Indonesian
stock which had remained in the basin of the Irrawaddi and
adjacent rivers from the time of the separation of Borneo, there,
through contact with the Southward drift of people, receiving fresh
infusions of Mongol blood ; a part, therefore, of the Indonesians
which is more Mongoloid in character than the part which at a
remote period was shut up in Borneo by its separation from the
mainland" (p. 233).
The authors would especially associate the Kayan with the
^Cf. Ling Rolh, The Natives of Saraiuak and British North Borneo, vol. i.,
p. 342 et seq.
Reviews. 275
Karen, and in a lesser degree with the Cliin, Kakhyen, and with
the Naga in a still less degree.
The Kayan have "imparted to the Kenyah and many of the
Klemantan tribes the principal elements of the peculiar culture
which they now have in common " (p. 243).
The Murut, again, are thought by the authors to be immigrants
from the Philippines or from Annam. The Iban are a Proto-
Malay stock. " \\'e have little doubt that they are the descendants
of immigrants who came into the South-Western corner of Borneo
at no distant date. We regard them as Proto-Malays, that is to
say, as of the stock from which the true Malays of Sumatra and
the peninsula were difTerentiated by the influence of Arab culture "
(p. 248).
Why, though, this insistence upon the "cultural" side of the
work in a periodical devoted to tlie study of folklore? The
reason is this. If it be conceded that the culture of a peojile such
as the Kayan be complex, that is to say, compounded of two or
more distinct cultures, then it becomes at once apparent that,
before we can proceed to the discussion of the origin and develop-
ment of any custom or social phenomenon, we must make it quite
clear that the facts are considered in their proper setting, and that
we are not talking of "development" when we ought to speak of
" the result of the mixture of cultures." As an example of this let
us consider the hypotheses put forward by the authors to account
for the origin of totemism and head-hunting. In the case of
totemism the clan-totem is said to develop from the individual
totem. Quite so, but, first of all, since totemism proper does not
exist in Borneo, and since the culture of the Kayan is supposed
by the authors to be complex, we should be led to enquire whether
it be not possible that what the authors would tske to be the
beginning of totemism among the Kayan are, on the contrary,
relics. In the region whence the authors suppose the Kayan to
have come, a totemic culture or group of cultures exists, and this
fact would tell against the authors and "in favour of the suggestion
just put forward that the Kayan have retained the elements in
question from one of the contributing cultures.
Let us now examine the explanations of the origin of head-
hunting. Two are offered (vol. i., p. 188). In the first case "It
276 Reviews.
is not improbable that the practice of taking the heads of fallen
enemies arose by the extension of the custom of taking the hair
for the ornamentation of the shield and sword hilt. It seems
possible that human hair was first applied to shields in order to
complete the representation of a terrible human face, which, as
we have seen, is generally painted on the shield, and which is said
to be intended as an aid to confusing and terrifying the foe."
The second possible origin is from "the custom of slaying slaves
on the death of a chief, in order that they might accompany and
serve him on the journey to the other world" (vol. i., p. 189).
Here again we may argue in the same manner. The first view
seems to be adventitious and wholly insufficient, for, in view of
the fact that the Kayan are supposed by the authors to have
brought the custom with them into Borneo, it would follow that
such shields would be found among the tribes in the region whence
they came, and this, so far as I know, is not the case. The
second view is far more plausible, but here again it would seem as
if the solution offered were inadequate. Taken by itself such an
explanation seems at first to be quite satisfactory, but how are we
to account for the fact that the spiritual beings called Toh, which
are not the ghosts of the deceased owners of the heads, take up
their residence in the heads as they hang in the gallery of the
house? (vol. ii., p. 20).
Space will not permit of the discussion of the problem here.
Suffice it to say that this relationship will have to be explained
before we can claim to understand the cult, and that the explana-
tion is more likely to come from the mainland than from Borneo.
I merely cite these two examples to shew that, viewed from
the standpoint of complexity of culture, problems of origin and
development assume a very different character. There can be no
doubt that only in this way can we ever emerge from that region
of probability and conjecture, of personal opinion and subjective
theories, where we are at present confined, to the land of method
and precision.
The following statement by the authors is very welcome, coming
as it does from eminent authorities : —
"It has often been attempted to exhibit the mental life of
savage peoples as profoundly different from our own; to assert
Reviews. 277
that they act from motives, and reach conclusions by means of
mental processes, so utterly different from our own motives and
processes that we cannot hope to interpret or understand their
behaviour unless we can first by some impossible or at least by
some hitherto undiscovered method, learn the nature of these
■mysterious motives and processes. These attempts have recently
been renewed in influential quarters. If these views were applied
to the savage peoples of the interior of Borneo, we should charac-
terise them as fanciful delusions natural to the anthropologist who
has spent all the days of his life in a stiff collar and a black coat
upon the well-paved ways of civilised society."
"We have no hesitation in saying that the more intimately one
becomes acquainted with these pagan tribes, the more fully one
realises the close similarity of their mental processes to one's own.
Their primary impulses and emotions seem to be in all respects
like our own. It is true that they are very unlike the typical civi-
lised man of some of the older philosophers, whose every action
proceeded from a nice and logical calculation of the algebraic
sum of jileasure and pains to be derived from alternative lines of
conduct ; but we ourselves are equally unlike that purely mythical
personage. The Kayan or the Iban often acts impulsively in
ways which by no means conduce to further his best interests or
deeper purposes ; but so do we also. He often reaches conclu-
sions by processes which cannot be logically justified; but so do
we also. He often holds, and upon successive occasions acts
upon, beliefs that are logically inconsistent with one another ; but
so do we also."
The authors would seem to have made contradictory statements
about the Kayan. In vol. ii., p. 217, we read, — "the Kayans have
a keen sense of humour and fun " ; and on page 239, " the Karens
are said to be distinguished by a lack of humour, a trait which is
■well marked also in the Kayans."
\\'. J. Perry.
2/8 Reviews.
Across Australia. By Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen.
3 vols. Macmillan, 1912. 8vo, pp. xiv, xvii + 515. Col.
and other ill. Maps. 21s. n.
Everything coming from the pen of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen
has a " precium affectionis " for the anthropologist ! It would
hardly be an exaggeration to say that, since the publication of their
first volume, half of the total production in anthropological theory
has been based upon their work, and nine-tenths affected or
modified by it. For the theories of kinship and religion, social
organization, and primitive belief, the central and northern tribes
of the Australian continent have proved a mine of invaluable facts
and information.
It is impossible to find in recent anthropological literature a
single publication referring to the origins of religion, government,
or law, to the primitive forms of totemism, marriage, or magic,
which does not deal at length with the data provided by Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen ; an omission of such treatment would rightly
be considered unpardonable.
In this country the monumental works of Dr. Frazer, as well as
the piercing analysis and brilliant conceptions of the late A. Lang,
owe their leading features to the " howling and naked sa-vages " of
Central Australia. In the history of religion, two of the most
important recent works are based mainly on the Arunta folklore,
customs, and rites. I refer to Mr. Crawley's Tree of Life and
Professor Uurkheim's recent work on Les Formes Elevie7itaires de
la Vie Religieuse. The beliefs about "spirit children " and rein-
carnation of ancestors have thrown a most illuminating light upon
savage mentality, and upon the primitive ideas of kinship. All
who know Mr. Sidney Hartland's Primitive Paternity are able
fully to appreciate the discovery of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen.
With reference to this point, as well as to some others, there has
arisen a little confusion from the apparent contradictions involved
in the statements of the Rev. C. Strehlow, who studied the Arunta
after Messrs. Spencer and Gillen and is publishing a series of
excellent pamphlets on the subject. But on a closer inspection
these contradictions are seen to be due only to a different manner
of looking at facts, and in no way to a variance in the facts recorded.
Short Bibliographical Notices. 279
And as far as breadth and soundness of the outlook go, anyone who
knows the two works will hardly hesitate in choosing between the
views of an eminent scientist like Prof. B. Spencer and those of a
missionary who, though an excellent observer, does not seem to
have the necessary scientific training. Nevertheless, the informa-
tion published by Mr. Strehlow is most valuable, as his data of
folklore are more ample and detailed owing to his perfect know-
ledge of the native idiom. His work enhances the value of the
results attained by previous writers, and is a kind of indispensable
complement to their work.
The present book in its way is of a high intrinsic value to the
ethnologist. Although in anthropological material it contains little
that has not been published in their previous volumes, it is very
important because it gives a clear and thorough insight into the
authors' way of investigating and recording information. The
home ethnologist can never know too much about the manner in
which the facts he is using in his theories were obtained. More-
over, the easy colloquial way of treating the subject allows some
glimpses into the homely facts of native life, and brings us into
intimate touch with it, a thing almost impossible in a systematic
and rigidly scientific work, such as the former volumes of these
writers. The book is, besides that, a most interesting and fasci-
nating description of the home of the tribes which have occupied
so much of our thought and attention.
B. Malinowski.
Short Bibliographical Notices.
The Place-Names of Oxfordshire : their Origin a?td Development.
By H. Alexander. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 191 2.
Crown 8vo, pp. 251. 5s. ;/.
To the disgrace of folklorists, a few enthusiasts have published
more county volumes on cliurch bells than our Society has issued
of County Folk-Lore, and the Society's series must now also yield
in pride of numbers to that on county place-names, on which over
a dozen volumes have appeared, including five prepared by the late
Prof. Skeat. As most of the place-names are in counties for which
" printed extracts " have not yet been compiled, future folklore
2 So Short Bibliog7'aphical Notices.
volumes should benefit by the annotations on names. The present
volume is admirable, and comprises, besides notes on phonology
etc., and an alphabetical list of names with dated references for
their various forms, tables of the first and second elements of the
names and a bibliography of record publications, charters, etc.
On p. 24 there is an interesting list of changes due to popular
etymologies.
Man and Beast tfi Eastern Ethiopia. By J. Bland-Sutton.
Macmillan, 191 1. 8vo, pp. xii + 419. 204 eng. 12s. «.
This book is mainly a well-illustrated account of sport and zoology
in British East Africa, Uganda, and the Sudan, the author having
made trips from Mombaza to the Victoria Nyanza, along the
Great Rift Valley, and by boat up the White Nile and Bahr el
Gebel to Rejaf. But it also contains much of interest to the
anthropologist. Four chapters deal with the Masai, Wa-Kikuyu,
Ndorobo, and Kavirondo, and three with Drums, Ornaments for
Ears and Lips, and Ethiopian Fashions of Hair-dressing, with
illustrations of fetish huts, charms, etc., and brief bibliographies.
Brands used by the Chief Camel-Owning Tribes of Kordofan.
By H. A. MacMicha?:).. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1913.
8vo, pp. viii-t-40. xvii pi. 6s. «.
The fascinating story of the History of Writing has not yet been
adequately told. Before it can .even be attempted, it will be
found necessary to record and study far more fully and extensively
the brands and marks of ownership which preceded, perhaps by
an immense interval, the first attempts at picture writing. For
this preliminary work such a collection as the 131 figures supplied
by Mr. MacMichael is invaluable. The shapes of the brands, and
their exact positions, are very clearly shown and explained, and
lists are added of the names of brands, the chief camel-owning
tribes and their brands, and the comriion words used to denote a
camel at various ages.
Books for Re7'iew should be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lore,
c/'o Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson,
3 Adam St., Adelphi, London, W.C.
^u
TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
Vol. XXIV.] SEPTEMBER, 1913. [No. III.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21st, 1913.
The President (Dr. R. R. Marett) in the Chair.
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.
The election of Miss M. Bayley, Mrs. Pope, and Dr.
Cyrus Macmillan, as members of the Society, was
announced.
The resignations of Mr. J. Ceredig Davies and the Rev.
H. C. Matthew were also announced.
Mrs. Shakespear read a paper by her husband, Col. J.
Shakespear, on " The Religion of Manipur," which was
copiously illustrated by lantern slides, and in the discussion
which followed Mr. T. C. Hodson, Sir Charles Lyall, Dr.
Gaster, and Mr. A. R. Wright took part. Mrs. Shakespear
also exhibited a number of objects from Manipur, including
vases, swords, daggers, a walking stick, and a huge hair pin.
A hearty vote of thanks was awarded Mrs. Shakespear
for so kindly reading the paper and exhibiting the objects.
A paper by Miss A. Werner, entitled " Pokomo Folk-
lore," was also read.
VOL. XXIV. T
282 Minutes of Meetings.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18th, 1913.
The President (Dr. R. R. Marett) in the Chair.
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed.
The election of Mr. Singer and Mrs. Singer, as members
of the Society, was announced.
The deaths of Lord Avebury and the Hon. G. Wyndham
were also announced, and, on the motion of the President,
it was resolved " That this Society deeply regrets the loss
of one of its oldest and most distinguished members, Lord
Avebury, and directs the Secretary to convey to Lady
Avebury its condolence with her on her bereavement."
The following resolution was also passed, on the motion
of the President : — " The Folk-Lore Society congratulates
Dr. Pitre on the issue of the twenty-fifth and final volume
of the Biblioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari Siciliane, com-
pleting the devoted labours of half a century ; and desires
to put on record its sense of the monumental character of
his work and its wishes that he may reap in his- remaining
years the reward of fame due to his services to science."
Mr. E. Lovett exhibited and explained a number of
amulets for good luck in fishing used on the coasts of the
British Isles, with foreign examples for comparison.
A paper by Mr. E. S. Hartland, entitled " The Romance
of Melusine" {supra, pp. 187-200), was read.
Dr. Westermarck read a paper on " The Moorish Concep-
tion of Holiness," and in the discussion which followed the
Chairman, Major A. J. N. Tremearne, and Mr. E. Lovett
took part.
The Meeting terminated with hearty votes of thanks to
Mr. Lovett for showing his exhibits and to Mr. Hartland
and Dr. Westermarck for their papers.
The following additions to the Society's Library were
reported, viz.: —
Minutes of Meetings. 28
o
By exchange: — Analccta Bollandiana, Tom. xxxii.,
Fasc. V,
By the Governments of India: — Report of the Super-
intendent, Arcliceological Survey, Burma, for the year ending
3U7 March, 1912/ Annual Report of the A re hcBO logical
Survey of India, Eastern Circle, for 19 1 1-2 ; Annual
Report of the Arcliceological Survey of India, Frontier Circle,
for 191 1-2 ; Annual Progress Report of the Superintendent,
Muhaniniadan and British Monuments, Northern Circle, for
the year ending ^ist March, 191 2; Progress Report of the
A rchceo logical Survey of India, Western Circle, for the year
ending 3 1 st March, 1 9 1 2.
By M. E. Nourry : — Le Disccriicment du Miracle, par P.
Saintyves (K. Nourry, 1909) ; Les Reliques et les Images
legendaires (2nd ed.), par P. Saintyves (Mercure de France,
191 2); Les Saints, Successeurs des Dieux, par P. Saintyves
(E. Nourry, 1 907) ; La Simulation du Merveilleux, par P.
Saintyves (E. Plammarion, 1912); Les Vierges Meres ct les
Naissances Miraculeuses, par P, Saintyves (E. Nourry,
191 1).
By Mr. E. Torday : — Takelma Texts (Univ. of Penn. :
Anthropological Publications of the Univ. Museum, vol. ii.
No. i., 1909).
By Mr. E. Lovett : — Thoinpsoiis Compleat Collection of
200 Favourite Cou7itry Dances (n.d.).
By authors, reviewers, and publishers: — All about the
Merry Tales of Gotham, by Alfred Stapleton, (R. N.
Pearson, Nottingham, 1900); Legends of Ma-ui — A Demi
God of Polynesia and of his Mother Hina, by W. D. Wester-
velt (Hawaiian Gazette Co., Honolulu, 1910) ; The Lushei
Kuki Clans, by Lt.-Col. J. Shakespear (Macmillan, 1912);
Methode der Ethnologic, von F. Graebner (Carl Winter's
Universitatsbuchhandlung, Heidelberg, 191 1).
THE POETRY OF THE KIWAI PAPUANS.
BY G. LANDTMAN, PH.D.
{Read at Meeting, April i6th, 19 13.)
The Kiwai people live at the mouth of the Fly river in
British New Guinea.
These Papuans have a rich treasure of legends and
myths, showing the wonderful imagination with which they
are gifted. During my stay among them I collected over
800 tales, variants included. But the folklore of the Kiwai
Papuans also comprises a great store of what we cannot but
style poetry, due allowance being made for the low stage
of culture of a people ignorant of writing. It is of this
branch of folklore that I wish to give a few examples and
to try to throw some light upon its nature, as far as I have
understood the native texts, so strange and crude to the
European mind and so easily misinterpreted.
In studying the native poetry we find that it comprises
various kinds of songs, and, further, that almost all these
songs belong to some ceremony or dance, and that they
are sung in unison. In some cases the dancers themselves
sing and beat the drums, but in others there are special
drummers who sit on the ground, beating their instruments
and singing, while the dance goes on in front of them, as,
for instance, in the taera or ho?'io7'nic ceremony. On this
occasion the men are dressed up to represent spirits of the
dead and dance before the women. Their faces are covered
with leaves or masks, and, as the women think they are
real spirits, naturally the dancers cannot take part in the
singing, since they would be betrayed by their voices.
The Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans. 285
Each of the songs of tlie various dances comprises only a
very few words, which are repeated over and over again.
When one text has been sung for a while, the singers leave
it and take up another. It proves much more difficult than
one would anticipate to obtain the exact texts of the songs.
In singing the natives generally pronounce the words so
hastily as to make them almost incomprehensible, and
they modify them freely by abbreviating or by adding
extra syllables. It is generally with the utmost difficulty
that a man can repeat correctly in speaking the text which
he sings fluently. The extreme briefness of the texts tends
further to obscure their real meaning. Even when one has
found out what the separate words mean, the sense of such
fragmentary and vague expressions is far from clear. But
it is quite evident that in a great many cases not even the
singers themselves understand the meaning of their own
songs. They have learnt them by repeating them after
other singers, but without troubling themselves about the
meaning of the words. The texts of some of the cere-
monial songs possibly contain old words which are not
properly understood by the present generation. But the
natives are also fond of taking over songs which they have
heard among other tribes, and they often borrow them
without knowing the original language. They simply copy
the dances and words, but, in spite of their natural clever-
ness in mimicry, both tunes and words must become more
or less changed, and much more the interpretation which
they may give to the songs.
An instance of this occurred during my stay in the
country. I went once with a number of natives from
Mawata on the coast to Budji, a couple of days' journey
further west, where the people speak quite a different
language, which my Mawata men did not understand. We
stayed at Budji for two nights, on each of which our hosts
held a dance which greatly interested the Mawata natives.
On our way back they tried to imitate the Budji dances
286 The Poehy of the Kiwai Papuaiis.
and songs, but in spite of all efforts could not reconstruct
the texts beyond a few broken syllables. Shortly after-
wards I left Mawata. On my return in a couple of months
I heard my former companions on the Kudji trip sing the
same songs without any hesitation ; they had practised
them in the meantime, and professed that they were genuine
Budji songs, words and all. There had been no comm.uni-
cation between Mawata and Budji since our trip, and one
can understand how much the original songs must have
changed through this method of learning them.
A, Mimetic Sonos and Dances.
o
Of the different kinds of songs I will first deal with those
accompanying mimetic dances. In these dances the
young men are the chief performers ; they dance together
in a group in the open air to the accompaniment of their
unison songs, while a small " orchestra " of drummers keeps
time on their instruments. The dancers imitate actions
from real life, but without merely copying them in a
mechanical way, the gestures, simplified and convention-
alized, mimicing the characteristic moment only of each
act. One could not understand without being told what
the various dances represent, but having once grasped their
meaning one usually watches the movements of the dancers
with unfeigned admiration. The subjects of these small
pantomimes vary enormously. The following are a few of
the motives belonging to a dance called taibubn : — a canoe
being launched from the beach, a wave coming and lifting it
up ; the rocking movement of a canoe sailing in fair wind ;
a canoe being beached, the waves lifting it higher and
higher up ; a sail shaking in the wind ; the tree-tops bending
down in a heavy rainstorm ; spearing a fish and throwing
it on the beach ; a bird on the beach is frightened away by
an approaching canoe; the walk of a pelican; directing a
blow at an enemy, and dodging his counter blow. One
The Poetry of the Khvai Papuans. 287
song and dance succeed another, each with a different tune,
and there is no connection between the various dances.
The texts of these songs are very poor from a Hterary
point of view, in many cases only comprising two words
which are repeated over and over again in a sHghtly
varying form. Naturally such rudimentary texts do not
greatly assist the uninitiated to understand the dances.
But these fragments express a much fuller idea to the
imaginative minds of the people themselves, who often
attribute to the texts a meaning which cannot be deduced
from the mere words. The following songs of osare dances
exemplify this.
a. " Eh, tetnaio, tonaia, eh, Daruao tcmaia." Tenia
means smoke, and Daru is the name of an island. The
natives explain the meaning of the song as follows : — (I
retain throughout this paper their original expressions in
" pidgin " English) : " Some man he go along canoe, he see
smoke, that smoke he come from Daru."
b. " Eh, luadiiria ivadiirie sakiipe sakupea waditria wadii-
rie." Wadiini is a tobacco pipe of bamboo, and sakiipa or
sogtiba is tobacco. This is the meaning: — " Give me bamboo
pipe, I want smoke."
c. " Teviarore tcmarorea viabo teinaroj'e temarorea." Tcina
means smoke, and mabo root or base. The song says: —
" Smoke he come up, man he make him fire, smoke on top,
fire inside."
The meaning of the songs is often given more or less
differently by different people, particularly when the
mimetic character of the dances is not sufficiently pro-
nounced to contribute to the interpretation of the songs.
B. Sei)ii-Mimetic Songs and Dances.
A category of songs somewhat similar to the last com-
prises those which form a descriptive accompaniment to the
performance of certain rites. Songs of this kind, however.
288 The Poet7'y of the Khvai Papiia7ts,
are comparatively few. Although songs are part of almost
all ceremonies of any importance, the singing does not as a
rule take place concomitantly with the rites but separately,
generally with dancing. In most cases the words of the-
song have little or no reference to the ceremonies in
question.
Certain observances at the gaera or great harvest festival
are said to be accompanied by songs. As an introduction
to the chief part of the ceremony the natives have various
games, and among others a shooting match with small
bows, such as are generally used by boys. A bunch of
bananas is hung on a tree for a target, and instead of arrows
the stiff mid-ribs of a certain kind of. grass are used.
Different groups of men compete, all shooting together,
and each time a man succeeds in placing a missile in a
banana his people cheer by shouting " Wi/" During the
shooting the people sing, —
<-/. " Giriba mannba giriba inanuba wiaika inafiuba
satvaia, zvi."
The meaning of the words is very uncertain, but the
different groups of the people want to encourage their
marksmen in this way.
The most important part of the gaera ceremony is the
setting up of a tree, which is decorated in various ways and
has all sorts of fruit and other garden produce hung from
its branches. Just before the tree is erected the men lift it
up horizontally and swing it in their hands, singing, —
e. " Giigjc ivatara ai'akiki sarakikio!' (" You me (you
me = we) make him that gugu [the tree] now, make him
good.")
" Gidjava gidjavao arakiki sarakikio." (" You me dance
all same, make him good.")
" Rube riibee gagi roropopo rube riibee" (" All people
come thick, all stand close" {i.e. there should be no gaps in
the crowd).)
The Poet)')' of the Kiwai Papuans. 289
During one of the phases of the tacnx or Jioriomu cere-
mony, when spirits of the dead are supposed to dance
before the women, the drummers who accompany the
dance sing, —
f. " Markai wareva biipa ivarc inarkai iamka pi-iautka
ware." (" Brother belong me he ghost now, stop along
dark place, you me make dance belong him now,")
" Markai wareva bupa ware inarkai iiikiapo." (" Friend
belong me he ghost now, stop along dark place.")
" Koimcgc iaba ngatara igiuina zuakai ere pavuija iaba
ngatora!' (" I try wake him my friend, he no more, my
throat he no good now " [is choking].
" lara gasu gapn gavia sura gasn gapu gaina." ("That
dance for you now, you me dance for that brother.")
Although songs are supposed to accompany the above-
named and other ceremonies, they arc not necessarily or
exclusively sung together with the rites to which they
refer, but, like many other songs, may be sung independently
in connection with dances as a semi-mimetic representation
of the rites they describe.
C. Serial Songs.
The most complete song-texts from a literary point of
view are those which are sung in connection with certain
dances and ceremonies taking place indoors, in the darinio
or men's house. Although the various ceremonies differ
considerably from each other, the singing is attended in
many of them by more or less the same circumstances.
The people walk very slowly round and round the long-
house in a column two and two with very short tripping
steps which cause the gay feathers and leaves of their
dresses to wave. Those who do not take part in the dance
sit round the nres. The leader walks at the head of the
procession, the solemn progress of which he regulates.
He knows the texts of the songs, and, when he thinks that
290 The Poetry of the Khvai Papuans.
one text has been sung long enough, he starts another.
Anybody may join immediately, but if it is a song which
the people do not know well, they generally let him sing it
once alone and come in when he begins over again, or as
soon as they think they know it. This kind of singing
characterizes the mado, barari, and other dances, and forms
part of the madia, vioguni, gacra, and other ceremonies,
though these comprise a great variety of other rites as well.
The text of each of the separate songs consists, as
always, of a very few words, the interpretation of which is
all the more difficult as no mimic gestures serve to throw
light upon the significance of the words as in the previously
mentioned dances. For a long time it seemed impossible
to extract any certain meaning from the songs. I do not
need to express my great satisfaction when at last I found
that, although each separate " verse " hardly seemed to
convey any definite thought, yet when put together they
formed a series, supplementing each other and constituting
a sort of narrative, naturally a very crude and fragmentary
one, but unmistakably indicating the character of the
songs. This gave my research a new interest, and gradually
I collected quite a number of these serial songs, some of
them comprising fifty verses and upwards. If the songs are
very long, the singers only go through part of them at a
time and continue them on subsequent days. We shall
now consider some of the texts and the subjects they treat.
g. A Song of a Joiiniey from Adiri, the Spirit-land,
The most characteristic motive in serial songs is to
begin with an allusion to Adiri, the land of the dead, which
is thought to be situated far aw^ay-in the west where the
sun and moon go down. The narrative then follows the
coast in an easterly direction, until it reaches Dibiri on
the eastern bank of the Fly river. The following song
of a niado dance gives an example :
I. ^' Adiri bnsere Adiri boboriido sopu domidaimoy
The Poetry of the Kkvai Papuans. 291
("Altogether girl belong Adiri take him nuid from water-
hole.")
2. ^' Adiri husere Adiri tumurndo sopiito wcmegio."
(" Altogether girl belong Adiri rub him body along mud.")
3. ''Adiri husere Adiri tuviurudo gencito wonegio."
(" Altogether girl belong Adiri make paint [patterns]
along body.")
4. "Adiri biisere Adiri tmnnrudo viorouioro gaborna!'
(" Altogether girl belong Adiri he come, full up people
along road now.")
5. " Oh, oh, piago zviriromea piago iviroroa iiiftiita."
("Oh, people whistle 3.]ov\g pingo [pan-pipe], noise he hear
now.")
6. "Adiri gaf/ia donitiira viabia me beda nisebia}"
(" Beat him drum now along Adiri, small sister he ask :
•'Big sister, what way I dance.'"")
7. ''Adiri darimo gania nnptira gavia juiptira rasioT
(" I\Iake dance along Adiri darijiio [men's house], nupii
[a feather ornament] he move him now.")
8. "Adiri dariinoa dabai riiwoiro." ("Make dance
along Adiri darimo, rope belong ^^/'^ he start swing now,")
Gope is a carved board hung up at the gables of the houses
partly as a decoration and partly to protect the inhabi-
tants from sickness.
9. "Adiri darimoa gope luoiro gope ivoiro!' ("Make
dance along Adiri darimo, gope he swing now.")
10. "Adiri darimoa nioromoro darimoroa." ("Full up
people along Adiri darimo now.")
11. "Adiri burairiido goboroke wahina roriburio!'
(" Canoe he come along Adiri, spring (sinew) he move
that time ghost he get up.") This verse, which seems to
have little connection with the rest of the song, was ex-
plained as referring to the arrival of spirits at Adiri. The
dead bodies are sometimes carried to the grave on a piece of
a broken canoe, which is afterwards left on top of the grave
to provide the spirits with a craft on which to reach Adiri.
292 The Poctiy of the Kiivai Papuans.
With the following verse a new section of the song
begins :
12. '' Idohiuniba knraJaira totoipi Sido rovig-io." ("Come
along Idobimuba now, what place Sido he been cry.")
Idobimuba, a mythical locality, means "the weeping
point," and Sido, the first man who ever died, wept there
on his way to Adiri.
13. ''Ah, Nibonibomnha Sopafiogere iiioveamo." ("Ah,
you me see him Sopanogere (a mythical man) along
Nibonibomuba (another mythical place)." )
14. " Oh, Sopanogere ibotere terei nogiia!' (" Come close
to place belong Sopanogere now, more better you me run
away, by and by he shoot.")
15. " Banda oromo nivio ftivairio Tugere pea Jiivairo."
(" Tugere canoe take you me other side along Bauda
passage.")
16. '' AJi, Boigii tiifitn ogeiviro ntea ogeivirora nimitaioy
(" Ah, frog he sing out along Boigu, you me hear.")
17. " AJi, Boigu bitsere Boigu boborudo suaito 'ivemegior
(" Ah, all girl along Boigu rub him body along mud.")
18. " Ah, Jiinio Sopaimiba Kogea Davane vioveamoy
("Ah, from Sopamuba you me see Kogea at Davane.")
Kogea is a legendary man living at the island of Davane
or Dauan.
19. ''Ah, Davane gonioa Kogea patara pe ratamege."
("Ah, along Davane raft belong Kogea sea he knock
him.")
20. " Davane bari Kogea guinai-o zvario niotoino!''
(" Along point belong Davane you me been put him
up one stone hawk place belong Kogea.") There is said
to be, or to have been, a stone shaped like a hawk at this
spot.
21. "■ Saiba bobo soromi sairo wereivereT ("Along
Saibai [an island] big pelican walk about along mud.")
22. " Saibi bobo buraie burai domodonio." (" Along
Saibai haul him canoe along mud.")
The Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans. 293
23. " Saiba bobo Gebaru buserc Saiba burai domodoyiior
("Along Gebaru [a place in Saibai] girl he haul him
canoe.")
24. " Saiba oronio niuio mzvairio wario savia nivio
uiwairio" [" From Saibai one sting-ray he take you me
go other side."]
25. ''Paso inara))iu Kaibaui Diura sebauba rcbcta vmroro
viiay (" Mother belong Paso [a mythical woman in Paso
island] make him belt belong Kaibani [a mythical man],
that belt he no good.") This verse probably refers to
some incident in a legend.
26. " GugHSH obo topo nica Gugusi obo nou sober e."
("Along creek name Gugusi drink fresh water now.")
27. " Nimo oromoriido Marukara vioiueamoy (" You
me look outside, look island belong Marukara.")
28. " Oh, Aiigaroviuba carobo ca 7>iosio moloir (" I
stand up along Augaroniuba, hold him ea [digging or
walking stick] along hand.")
29. " Nwio Niigii gabonido Nugiiro Jiimchvoro." {" Along
Nugugabo Nugu [a mythical man belonging to that place]
hold him bow [and] arrow after you me.")
30. " Tern/iiiba Maiuigii boro Manitgu teretere nadoro ? "
("Along Teremuba Nugu where he go now?")
31. ''Ah, Teremuba Manugii darinio nadoro'' ("Ah,
along Teremuba Nugu he go inside darimo [men's
house].")
32. "Nimo osio buserc nimo gido nimo Bina wiorori-
burio':' (" You me altogether boy [and] girl look sand-
bank outside Bina river.")
33. " Oh, Bina snomoie Erumia siio riroji.'' ("Oh, along
mouth belong Bina river string belong Erumia he hang
down.") Erumia is a mythical jelly-fish supposed to live
at the mouth of Binaturi river.
34. " Kiaivuro mea kiaivuro rorou ivowogo gugere."
("Outside along reef he full up pigeon [birds in
general].")
294 1h^ Poetry of the Kiivai Papuans.
35. " Kiaivuro inea kiawuro rorou sawia tematema
rorour (" Outside along reef full up pelican he fly all
same smoke.")
36. "' Aberemnba Abcre divare raivioT (" Along Abere-
muba people he put divare [tail of cassowary feathers], he
dance.")
^j. '' Aberemiiba Abere bedai'e sebiao ? " (" Along Abere-
muba what name [why] people he dance .-* ")
38. " Aberemiiba Abere bedare sebiao sawiadai Nigori
gavia rarogoV ("Along Aberemuba what name people
make him dance now belong Nigori?") Nigori is a
ceremony performed during the copulating season of the
turtles.
39. " Yam orovio Dani oromo via beda tato iiiaibi."
('■ No got no paddle, what name I get him other side
along Daru, more better I paddle along hand.")
40. " Soromi zvaro rivadoro Dam giviini 7'ivadoro."
(" Pelican he walk about along sandbank close to Daru.")
41. "Dam aibi inorogido tvia toto norobai." ("Along
reef paddle belong me he catch him bottom now.")
42. '■' Dariia Waimee inorogido Daru gabo rovarogo."
(" Along Daru ask him Waimee [a mythical character of
Daru] where road ; road he there.")
43. '''' Dama Waimee inorogido snrko siirko nese roiva-
rogo!' (" Along Daru Waimee yarn about for me about
that nese [breast shell] he no good.") This verse probably
refers to some episode in a tale.
44. " Dam nainira overa rogo nese nomidai!' (" Along
Daru I speak, " Brother, more better you give me that
nese." ")
45. " Maivata darimo inea kardra micro rivarabu."
(" Inside darimo belong Mawata [a village] good karara
[a ceremonial mask] stop on top.")
46. " Maivata wio mea mo woibi nogua." (" Along
Mawata I very lazy along morning, good sun he stop
[the sun has arisen].")
The Poetry of the Kkvai Papuans. 295
47. ''Ah, Slide wario ro orouioito igiri riwaworo!'
("Along Subo one hawk he fly outside look out for fish.")
A mythical hawk is said to live at a place called Subo.
48. " Subomuba ivario ro iiivio jujnarubo." (" Along
point belong Subo one hawk he fly alongside you me.")
49. " Paravia btiscrc darinio bogiie bogo rarogo!'
(" Paravia busere [mythical women living in the island
of Parama] make noise along darimo [men's house]." )
50. " Gagoro gagoro Dibiri gagoro kudiina gagoro gagoro
Dibiri gagoro." (" Good fine tree stop along Dibiri.")
The reason why so many of the serial songs begin with
allusions to Adiri, the spirit-land, is probably connected
with the fact that many of the rites refer directly or in-
directly to the spirits of the dead. After Adiri the songs
deal with place after place along the coast in an easterly
direction, although it seems doubtful whether they purpose
to describe an actual journey. I believe that they simply
mention the various places in turn, together with some
circumstance customarily connected with them, and, as
Adiri lies at the extreme western border of the world, the
songs seem to describe a wandering from west to east
through the whole of the world known to the Kiwai
people. As there is hardly any conspicuous place in the
country which is not associated with some being or tradi-
tion, the verses naturally combine the names of the different
places with some reference to the local myths.
//. A Song describing the Building of Abere's House
and her Journey.
A serial song connected with the viognru ceremony tells
us how the mythical woman Abere and her people built
a darimo, men's house, in Dudi, the country on the western
side of the Fly river opposite Kiwai island. The house
had only just been completed when they pulled it down.
They tied all the timber together into a raft on which they
sailed away from Dudi, but the fastenings of the raft broke,
296 The Poetry of the Khvai Papuans.
and they all fell into the water. At last they arrived in
Kiwai.
1. " Dcdearo Abere mere darinio paea dedcaroy (" People
belong Abere cut him bush what place they want make
him dan'jHo")
2. *' Doputmio Abere mere darimo paea dopJitimo."
(" People belong Abere burn him bush now for darimo")
3. " Doomiro Abere mere darimo paea doo7niro." (" People
belong Abere clear him ground now for darimo.")
4. " Domoumoro A bere mere darimo saro domoumoro."
(" People belong Abere go cut him post now for darimo.")
5. " Degebaro Abere mere darimo saro degebaro.''
(" People belong Abere cut him post now belong darimo.' )
6. " Dasio Abere mere darimo saro dasio." ("People
belong Abere cut him other end belong post")
7. " Dosoumo Abere mere darimo saro dosoumo."
('• People belong Abere carry him post now.")
8. " Demobodo Abere mere darimo saro demobodo."
(" People belong Abere dig him hole now for post.")
9. "Abo dotigimo Abere viere darimo abo dotigimo."
("People belong Abere put him up abo [the short posts
supporting the floor].")
10. ''Abo madigo dotomonio Abere mere darimo abo
madigo dotomonio." (" People belong Abere put him mao
[the horizontal beams] on top abo.")
11. " Detnobodo Abere mere darimo saro demobodo."
("People belong Abere dig him hole and put him up
saro [the tall posts supporting the roof]." )
12. "Mao dotomo Abere mere darimo saro mao dotomo.'
(" People belong Abere put him mao [the horizontal beams]
on top of saro.")
13. " Dotigiro Abere mere darivio aatio ota dotigiro."
(" People belong Abere put him up post belong wall.")
14. " Daroraniso Abere mere darimo amimirio darora-
ruso." (" People belong Abere make fast all wood belong
on top.")
The Poetry of the Kiivai Pap2ians. 297
15. '' Demoumo Abere mere darimo te dewoumo."
(" People belong Abere go cut him te along bush \te
palms for the flooring].")
16. " Degebaro Abere mere darimo te degebaroT (" People
belong Abere cut him down te!')
17. " Dasio Abere mere darimo te dasio." ("People
belong Abere cut him other end belong teT)
1 8. " Dabogoro A bere mere darimo te dabogoro!' ( " People
belong Abere split him te.")
19. " Doisoro Abere mere darimo te niro opu doisoro."
(" People belong Abere take him out inside belong te!')
20. " Doivasanro Abere mere darimo te doivasauro."
(" People belong Abere carry him tc")
21. " Dariioro Abere mere darimo te danwroT (" People
belong Abere cut him te little bit [make cuts in the surface
of the palm], make him flat.")
22. " Dotomoro Abere tnere darimo te dotomoro!' (" People
belong Abere lift him te on top.")
23. " Dosorooro A bere mere darimo te dosorooro!' (" People
belong Abere put him te proper place.")
24. " Doboboro Abere juere darimo were doboboro."
(" People belong Abere cut leaves for thatching the
roof")
25. '' Dadoro Abere mere darimo were dadoro." (" People
belong Abere put him were [thatch] on top.")
26. " Dobodoro Abere mere darimo gabora dobodoro."
(." People belong Abere shut him gabora [wall in the upper
triangular parts of the gables between the doors and
eaves].")
27. '' Dasio Abere mere darimo tamu dasio!' ("People
belong Abere cut him leaf and shut him ta7nu [the gables].")
28. "Dobodoro Abere mere darimo girivaivoro dobodoro!'
(" People belong Abere shut him girtvaworo [the gap at
the ridge-poles]." )
29. " Soge sogc Abere mere darimo soge soge!^
30. " Pipite Abere mere darimo pipit e!^
29i> The Poetry of the Khvai Papuans.
31. '' Adarainao Abere mere darimo adaramao."
32. " Utejite Abere Diere darimo utentc"
Soge means flying-fox, and pipite, adarama, and iiteute
are various kinds of bat. The meaning of the last four
verses is possibly that Abere's people dancing in the darimo
fill it like a flock of flying-foxes or bats. But the mention
of these animals in connection with the darimo may also
refer to the life-preserving properties ascribed to them, for
which reason they are also among the "medicines" used in
house building,
33. ''* Digirimo Abere mere darimo digirimo." ("People
belong Abere move him house now [they walk about in
the house, stamping in order to find out whether it is strong
enough]." )
For some reason the house is not found satisfactory, and
they pull it down.
34. " Dopodoro Abere mere darimo dopodoroT ("People
belong Abere take him out grass [the thatch]." )
35. "Dopodoro Abere mere dariino girivaworo dopodoro"
(" People belong Abere take him out wood on top [the
ridge-poles]." )
36. ^'Dopodoro Abere me^'e darimo gabora dopodoro"
(" People belong Abere take him out gabora [the tri-
angular parts of the gables underneath the eaves].")
37. "Dopodoro Abere mere darimo aatio dopodoro"
(" People belong Abere take him out wall.")
38. "Dopodoro Abere mei-e darimo amimirio dopodoro!'
(" People belong Abere take him out altogether wood
belong on top [the rafters of the roof]." )
39. " Dopodoro A bere mere darimo viao dopodoro?''
(" People belong Abere take him out altogether mac
[the horizontal beams]." )
40. " Dopodoro Abere viere darimo te dopodoro." (" People
belong Abere take him out altogether te [the flooring]." )
41. "■ Dagiirubo Abere mere darimo saro dagurubo."
(" People belong Abere pull him out saro [the tpiU posts]." )
The Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans. 299
42. '' Dagurubo Abcfe mere dart mo abo dagitnibor
(" People belong Abere pull him out abo [the short posts]." )
43. " Doxverc Abere mere darii)io saro dowerc. (" People
belong Abere put him all post together.")
A new section of the song begins now.
44. ''Abere mere patora viiraro trie patora trie usnrigo
demoivio patora trie." (" People belong Abere take usarigo
[a kind of yam] belong garden, take all wood belong house
make fast, make patora [a raft], water he run round patora,
put kaikai [food] on top.")
45. ''Abere mere patora peito aude demoivio irie patora
irie." (" People belong Abere bring aude [another kind of
yam], put him zXong patora, water he run round.")
46. "Abere mere patora peito giromigo demoivio patora
irie." (" People belong Abere bring giromo [a kind of
banana], put him along patora, water he run round.")
The same is repeated with madego, awea, be7'ogo, oriomti,
obirari, and gidara, all various kinds of banana.
While the raft is carrying the people away, the rope
breaks, and they are all plunged into the water and begin
to swim.
47. " Surama nio giro sarare ivoijiame." {" North-west
wind he come, high sea, Abere swim along giro [in the
shape of a fish, giroY' )
48. " Mercbo karisi merebo lomitiiri karisi merebo."
(" Abere catch him shore along lomituri [in Dudi], he find
him one fish, he kaikai [eats].")
49. " Pedeaturi kada)ne merebo." ("Along Pedeaturi
Abere catch him one shell-fish, he kaikai!')
50. " Guv waea sosoro tama urioro." (" Abere leave him
that giro [abandons the shape of a giro\ he go along waea
[becomes a hornbill]." )
51. " Amura sosoro tama urioro" ("Abere leave him
waea, he go along amura [bird-of-paradise]." )
Abere's people, floating on the remnants of the raft, are
carried to and fro by the tide. Finally they come near a
300 The Poetry of the Kiivai Papuans.
point on Kivvai island. Flying about in the shape of a
bird-of-paradise Abere wants to help her people, but the
bird-of-paradise cannot take her over to the island, as it is
a bush bird and does not belong to the sea.
52. ^' Mumu Kiwai gima badu mumii Kiwai." ("Two
pigeon, gimae and badu, carry Abere go along Kiwai.")
Abere helps her people to reach Kiwai, and some of
the plants which they have brought with them are
saved.
53. "Don everevio biisere nigo iiraniii dou evereuio." (" All
girl belong Abere bring sago-tree and plant him, he all
same husband belong you.") No explanation could be
given as to why the sago-palms are mentioned as fictitious
husbands of the girls. In this verse " Abere's girls" are
substituted for " Abere's people " in the previous verses.
In the legends Abere is represented as the foster-mother of
a great many girls.
54. " Nato boronio ibodoro nato riroiiT (" Abere send him
altogether girl go follow track belong pig.")
The girls kill the pig and bring it home. It is cut up,
and a small piece is put in the ground where they plant
sago. Afterwards they plant bananas, yams, taro, and
other garden produce, but without the meat, which is the
" medicine " of sago only. All these plants are first brought
to Kiwai by Abere.
i. A Song of the Making of a Canoe.
Another serial song describes the making of a canoe, in
which the people afterwards go out on a voyage ; it is
sung both at the mogiiru ceremony and at a dance called
upipoo.
1. "■ Biirai negebaduvio nlmo btirdi tato npi bnrai negeba-
duino." (" All you me woman cut him canoe now, you me
no got no canoe.")
2. " Bnrai nasiodunw iiiino buraitato npi bnrai tiasiodutno."
(" All you me woman cut him other end belong canoe, no
got no canoe.")
The Poetry of the Kiivai Papuans. 301
3. " Burai Jiemnipodiuno nivio biirai tato upi burai ncDiai-
poduinoy (" All you me woman clear him away bushes
where make him canoe, make clear place, no got no
canoe.")
4. " Biirai noiscniiaiio nimo burai tato upi burai yioisodumo!'
(" All you me women dig him out canoe, no got no canoe.")
5. " Burai nododiaidomo nimo burai tato upi buj-ai ?iodo-
diaidono" (" All you mc woman haul him canoe outside,
no got no canoe.")
6. " Burai nagiaduuio ?ii>uo wamea bububc upi burai
nagiaduino." (" All you me make him canoe fine, now
along head.")
7. ''Burai norodiadonio nimo burai tato upi buiai uoro-
diadomo." (" All you me woman go inside along canoe
pull him go now.")
8. '' Nabio Gebaru Aboito gavateai." (" Pull him canoe
go alongside Abo close to Gebaro [two islands in the
delta of the Fly river]." )
9. '' Ibuo nematoidumo nimo ibuo tato iipi 7iomutoidumo''
("You me look out for ibuo [the tidal bore]." )
10. " Mumutumu niromodumo nimo upi besere mumutumu
niromodumor (" All you me woman go catch crab along
Mumutumu.")
11. " Worodo damcra zuorodo Siva damera worodoro!'
(" High ground move him along Siva [a legendary moun-
tain in Dibiri] that time all woman walk about on top.")
12. " Worodo damcra worodoro Mescdc damera worodoro."
(" High ground belong Mesede [a mythical man in Dibiri],
he move him that time all woman he walk about on top.")
13. " Goro darimo nodorodumo nimo goro upi besere goro
darijHO nodorodumo." (" All you me woman go inside darimo
[men's house], make him goro [an episode of the moguru
ceremony]." )
14. " Goro darimo worodoro nimo goro upi besere goro
darimo woj'odoroP (" Darimo he move him that time you
me woman make him that goro'')
302 The Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans.
D. War Songs.
When the men return from a victorious fight they are
received by the women, who dance outside on the beach.
The name of the dance is nekede, and the following are a fev/
texts of the songs : —
J. I. '^ Eregebu7'o warami Jiajiiu iiere rebesio." ("Good
brother he catch him man, he cut head along aere [be-
heading knife]." )
2. " Namu durupi raraentti arinia maivio niawio}'0."
(" Brother he cut head, blood he come, body belong man
he leave him behind.'")
3. " Naviu uere raberuti eregeburo warai)ie namu uere
raberuti." (" Brother cut him head along 7iere, wind belong
that man he burst along throat." )
The dance with which the men celebrate a successful
fight is called pipi, and in the songs they fight their battles
over again, as shown by the texts : —
k. I. " Rorou gabo roroti mo sido gabo gabo roi'oa." (" I
come along good road now.")
2. " Bedebede gubu bcdebede gubuo mo sido diirupio." (" All
mud come on top me that time I fight, my body he fine
[is well ornamented]." )
3. '' Ara papa degurara deguraj'o." ("I put uere [be-
heading knife], blood he jump along man, behind [after-
wards] break him bone inside.")
4. " Boboro mo durupi boboro, mo sido durupio!' (" That
body I been leave him [the body of the enemy whose
head has been cut ofif], he come soft now, close up he
burst, my body he fine.")
5. " Bubure mo durupi bubiire mo sido durupio mo durupi
bubure." (" Altogether fly he full up on top that body, my
body he fine.")
While in the progress of a dance the people are engaged
in singing one verse of a serial song, the leader has time to
The Poet)')' of the Knvai Papuans. 303
think of the next. In modern dances at all events it even
happens now and again that a new verse is composed while
the song is in progress, and each additional verse is cheered
by the people with a loud laughter. In many serial songs
there is a succession of practically identical verses, as for
instance when the different kinds of bananas which Abere
and her people took with them on the raft are enumerated
in seven verses, and such reiteration suggests that at least
in some cases the verses have been added during the singing^
possibly in order to give the leader time to remember the
rest of the sone.
E. Tlie savic Motives in Serial Songs as in Folk- Tales.
The subjects of certain serial songs strongly recall those
of the legends, and indeed the motives are in some cases
identical in tale and song. The contents of the songs are
naturally very meagre, and some of the versified tales are
mere fragments, yet in not a few cases they enable us to
recognize incidents told in some legend or another. Sido
and Sagaru, for instance, the hero and heroine of a great
many myths, are also mentioned in the songs.
Sido first meets Sagaru at a dance at lasa. He gets
there by climbing a tall palm, kiirua, which bends over until
it reaches the long-house at lasa, where he secures the top
of the tree to a post. While the dance is in progress, some
rivals of his cut the string with which the ktirua has been
fastened, and the tree straightens itself and goes whizzing
back to his place, Uuo. The following verses of a madia
song refer to this incident, which is also related in the
legends. The verses are sometimes sung with little regard
to their rule of proper order, but just as the singer re-
members them ; I give them here according to the sequence
of the story : —
I . " Madia mo lasaito maigi gama norozvaro.'' (" I go
make him good dance along lasa.")
304 ^rh,c Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans.
2. " Madia bubua ivapa geseget-ey (" Good wapa [grass
skirt] belong girl [Sagaru] he move him now along
lasa.")
3. " Bertiberiio kurua Uuoito vioriodoro Sido mo upiirii
toio" (" Oh, kurua, ladder belong Sido he go back now
along Uuo.")
After Sido and Sagaru have been married for some time,
she once gets angry with him, according to the tale, and
goes away. Another man, Meuri, who wants her, causes
a tree, iiabea, standing in her path to become quite small ;
and when Sagaru sits down on it to rest, the tree resumes
its natural height, and she is lifted high up. Sido, in pursuit
of Sagaru, finds her in the tree, which he tries in vain to cut
down with his stone axe. Finally he summons the winds,
which blow the tree over, but Sagaru is hurled to Meuri's
place and received by him.
The songs relate the same incidents in the following
way : —
1. ''Sagaru lasa dariino oroinaro rcviovogiir ("Sagaru
come wild now place belong lasa.")
2. " lasa nebea moroba Sagaru ioto titi saragova norodoror
(" Along lasa Sagaru, good woman, he go on top along
nabea!'^
3. " Sido nabea mabuo ibuo ipisiava rarao." {" Sido close
to uabea he think : " What side I go cut him .^ " ")
4. " Sie susuo nouro nabea xvaubaira waubaira nabea."
(" Sido he sing out west wind : " You can knock him down
nabea^")
5. " Nabea inorobo d'laruo diarn nabea inorobo" (" Wind
he take him go nabea and my woman.")
6. " Meuri lasa nabea tau zvowca ro aibi biabia riaibia."
(" Meuri from canoe he see that lasa nabea he come, he pull
strong.")
Sido sends some small birds to look for Sagaru, they find
her and are sent back by her with a message to Sido. He
goes after her and has a fight with Meuri. The latter falls
The Poet)'}' of the Kkvai Papuans. 305
first, although not dead, and Sido is killed by Meuri's
brother. Sagaru takes his body home in a canoe.
The songs give the following version : —
1. '' Teretere nigo uidoti abcre Meuri govioitoy ("Sido
send teretere [some small birds] go outside along place
belong Meuri.")
2. " Sarare babigo nigo wairio inciramii Sagara go7norndo."
(" Sido send him sarare [other small birds] go along Sagaru.")
3. " Giiiiae nigo budo wairio nigo gesogeso vowogo babigo."
(" Sagaru send him small pigeon : " You go back what place
you been come.'' ")
4. " Darimo-darinio babigo nigo Meuri opia gnbnto viraia.^
("Sido he fight him bushman Meuri along stone club, no
kill him proper.")
5. " Nubia iiraniuro Sido nioro 7iuhia wodi scse iirainnro
inoro nubia." (Sagaru wails over Side's body : " My good
husband, all time he long [has been longing after] me,
follow me all time, he dead now.")
6. " Madia Dibiri oromo burai saboa maburio niaraniu
sirurarobo." (" Sagaru put him Sido along Dibiri canoe,
take him go along other side.")
7. '^ Madia mo iiroburae rirua Sido rirua!' ("Small
south-east wind take him Sido go.")
Similar songs, although still more fragmentary, refer to
Mesede, a legendary character famous as a marksman and
also for having a great number of wives, and to the history
of a wonderful drum made by a man named Merave.
Another serial song tells how the mythical Marunogere
inaugurated the moguru ceremony. All the incidents
mentioned in these and other songs of the same kind are
also related in the folk-tales.
F. Songs occurring in Folk-Tales.
It happened quite frequently when the nativfes were
telling me folk-tales that they included some song in the
3o6 The Poetry of the Khvai Papuans.
narrative. In many cases it was a fragment of a serial
song referring to some particular incident in the tale, and
sung by way of parallel to that episode. In other cases the
song really formed part of a tale.
Some songs are said to have belonged originally to a
folk-tale, but to have been afterwards adopted into some
ceremony. Of this the following songs give an instance.
In Mabuiag island in Torres Straits there lived a blood-
thirsty warrior, Kuiamo or Kwoiam,^ who is well known
among the Mawata tribe also, and when he has speared his
mother and after her many other Mabuiag people the legend
makes him sing : —
" Keda baiia keda baua figai Kniajiio ada Kuiaino." (" All
same big sea I come now, I Kuiamo, fine man Kuiamo.")
Returning to Mabuiag after having fought many people
in New Guinea, he sings in his canoe —
" Kupari inanu keke koibaruke Kuiamo^ (" I been kill
man, I been clean him out all place, my name Kuiamo.")
And celebrating his victories with a dance, he sings —
" EJi, kiiti bii waimee, eh, knti bu ivaimee!' (" I sing out
along trumpet shell [a signal of victory], I take head
every time.")
" Ngai Kuiamo koibu gaj'ka." (" I Kuiamo, I been kill
all people.")
All these songs from the legend of Kuiamo are sung by
the people at the pipi dance which is held after a successful
fight.
A rather similar instance is afforded by a song which
the people sing when they plant bananas. According to
a legend it was originally sung by the first man who found
and planted a banana-tree, and that is why it is still thought
to promote the growth of bananas, although the text has no
direct reference to the planting.
The songs which belong exclusively to some folk-tales
^ Cf. Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits,
vol. v., p. 67.
The Poet7'y of the Kiwai Papuans. 307
represent almost the only Kiwai songs which are not con-
nected with a dance or ceremony. Thus utterances occasion-
ally take the form of songs ; the personages of the tale sing
instead of speak. Again, the characters when in distress
sometimes express their emotion or fear in a song. This is
the case in the following songs taken from folk-tales.
The Daru people, once defeated by the Masingara people,
sing on their way back to Daru, —
" Eh, iviri kutaigo, ch, samdi kntaigo djodj'i viiraja, eh,
djodji kntaigo." (" Oh, altogether my good brother, alto-
gether poor people he dead now.")
" Iviri maivari uugiii'uda kazvariiiia sabn sabu sacbar
("That time me come, me plenty people, this time come
short, no much people."')
In another tale a little girl, who has been separated from
her brother and left alone in the bush, weeps and tries to
tell him how he may find her —
" Vazuana, no nati ibodoro ?i(iiiiii arbipuai burn dinonioro
ota uru valouonii.' (" Yawana, brother, you follow m.y track,
I here alone empty country, I stop close to big tree.")
A man once climbed a coco-nut tree to steal the fruit, and
the tree calls out in a wailing voice to its proper owner, a
mythical being, —
" Man, mo scpate datnke, man ! " (" Mother, he pull my
ear now ! ") by ear meaning bunch of nuts.
G. Death songs.
The laments over the dead constitute a particular kind
of songs. Immediately a death has occurred the wail usual
on such occasions is started by those present, and the loud,
sorrowful sounds inform the whole village of what has hap-
pened. In general several persons, men and women, wail
together, but with a total lack of unison ; both tunes and
words vary, and the same singer keeps on modifying his
wail. It is difficult to give an idea of the strange impression
3o8 Tlic Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans.
produced by these wailiiigs, weird and disconsolate past
description, reminding one of' the moaning of the wind or
the howhng of an animal in distress, and interrupted by the
sobs and tears of the singers. Even quite a long time after
a death some relative or friend of the dead man or woman
may again begin to wail, if something reminds him of the
departed person. It also happens, if a man has had a very
narrow escape from death, that his mother or wife in her
anxiety wails over him as over somebody dead, covering
him with caresses.
The words of the death songs vary principally according
to the relation in which the mourners stand to the deceased.
On the whole these laments embody a very limited number
of conventional thoughts and phrases which are repeated
over and over again, and for many of the villagers the
wailing is more or less a formal concern. But to some
extent the mourners may give expression to their sorrow
in words of their own, adapting the text and tune to each
other. I give here a few short texts of mourning songs. A
widow sings at the death of her husband, —
" Uraviue uraniu bomdoveario madi overe tirainue!'. (" Hus-
band belong me, good fellow yarn he make all time, you
me [he and I] sit down one place every time.")
A widower sings over his dead' wife, —
" Orobora (pronounced almost as rubra) oroborae bo?ti-
dovearie madi ivodi bari gem gem oroborae bonigoveario."
(" Good woman, good wife belong me, good nose [good
looks] he got, all time sit down one place.")
A child laments over a father's death, —
" Baba 7iiriuiagarc rere baba dovearic madi overa abera
dovearic." (" Good fellow father, that's why I sorry, good
fellow yarn he make all time, you me one place all
time.")
The different songs mentioned above represent the only
kinds which I have found among the Kiwai people. As
The Poet)')' of the Khvai Papuafts. 309
we have seen, practically all the sonpjs are connected with
some dance or ceremony, among whicli in a sense the death
songs may be reckoned, and the only other kind of songs
is that occurring in certain legends. Naturally the people
sing on a great many occasions besides dances, but the
songs are invariably borrowed from a dance, or possibly
a legend. When the men are returning from a fight, it
seems to be the rule to strike up a song from their war
dance, and when walking together or travelling in a canoe
they may choose a song suitable for that purpose, but on
the whole almost any song seems to do for almost any
occasion. The young people sing the songs belonging to
the dances in which they take part, and the elder their
dance songs. The people hardly ever sing while they are
working. I often asked what a young man would sing
when he wanted to be heard by the girl of his choice,
and the answer was, invariably, " Mado]' " Madial' or some
other dance sone. .
H. Rhyme and Alliteratiofi.
When considering the songs of the Kiwai people from
a literary-aesthetic point of view, we cannot expect to find
much which would appeal to us. But, in spite of all its
general crudeness, the native poetry shows certain higher
attributes which must strike us as rather remarkable.
Thus there is no doubt as to the existence of a sort of
rhyme in the Kiwai songs, which is produced by the repeti-
tion of the same word in a slightly different form so as to
constitute the rhyme. They are therefore a sort of play
upon the resemblance of sound in such words. The follow-
ing verse, which shows rhyme of this sort, belongs to one of
the serial songs describing a journey from Adiri, or Woibu,
eastward : —
" Woibu gaiiatiia Soibu ganania ganauia orodoro." ("Adiri
he go down now altogether [below the horizon]." ) Woibu
3IO The Poetry of the Khvai Papuans.
and Soibu both mean the same thing, the spirit-land, although
the first name only is in ordinary use.
The natives are quite aware of the rhyming character of
such words, and form the variants of these words purposely
for the sake of the assonance ; as one of my informants put
it, "All same I sing out boy belong me [whose name was
Saisami], "Saisami, Aisami, Kaisami." "
Some other texts of the same serial song also afford
examples of rhymes : —
" Warawia bobo Sarawia boboJ' {" They find him one
swamp name Warawia.")
" Mnrke Surke Alttrkc Siirke sagida yobaniar (" I go
place belong Murke [a mythical person], he got plenty
sagida [croton].")
" Yomejia wairii soniena wairu yomena-gii somena-gu."
(" He sing out people belong place, " More better you
come."")
In a few texts three rhymes are combined with each other,
as in the following : —
" Yoroino soronio cronio yaraniaivio saravmwio.'' (" Along
outside, see he break along canoe, spray he come.")
A study of the Kiwai songs furthermore reveals a kind
of alliteration. An example occurs in the serial song
mentioned above, which describes the making of a canoe.
In the seven first verses and in some of the others the verbs
alliterate, all beginning with a w-sound.
" Biirai negebadtimo nimo burai tato iipi biirai negeba-
duino." — " Btirai nasiodumo fiitno burai into upi burai
nasiodiimoT — "■Burai uemaipodumo niino burai tato upi
burai neuiaipoduvior Etc.
All the cases of alliteration which I have found in
Kiwai songs are of this description. The alliterative words
generally occur both at the beginning and end of a verse,
and, as each text is sung over and over again and one
verse repeats the consonance of the preceding one, the
similarity of sound becomes the more obvious.
The Poetry of the Kiivai Papuans. 3 1 1
Another instance, also quoted above, appears in the song
of the building of the darimo, men's house, by Abere. Out
of the forty-four verses which describe the building and
pulling down of the house there are forty in which the
verb begins with a ^-sound.
" Dedearo Aberc mere darimo paea dedearo!' — " Doputimo
Abere mere darimo paea doputimo." — '' Doomiro Abere mere
darimo paea doomiroT Etc.
The consonance is still more marked by the recurrence
of the word darimo, also beginning with d, in each of the
forty verses.
Now, it seems open to question whether so many verbs
beginning with d and connected with house building exist
in the ordinary language. It appears more likely that
some at least of the verbs are simply coined for the sake of
the alliteration, without meaning anything in particular.
Even if this be so, we understand that the different verses
may have a sufficiently clear signification. The nouns, refer-
ring to the different parts of the structure, are used in their
right sense, and as everybody knows that the song is about
a house in building, the meaning of the separate verbs is of
minor importance.
The same applies to the verbs in the song about the
making of a canoe. Different informants of mine translated
many of the separate verses rather differently, which shows
that they did not understand them properly, but they all
agreed as to the general run of the narrative.
Although we can thus trace a sort of rhyme and allitera-
tion in the Kiwai songs, what we never find in the written
texts, and cannot expect to find, is metre. The reason
is simply that the texts only exist as songs, and that in
singing, as stated before, the words are modified at will, so
that almost any text could be sung to any tune. In
writing it is almost impossible to retain the deviations from
the ordinary form of the words.
1 2 The Pochy of the Kkvai Papuans.
I. Poetical Ideas.
The question arises whether in Papuan folklore we can
find any signs of poetical ideas.
The natives are fond of similes and use them frequently
in their folklore ; we often come across passages which
seem to convey a poetical thought.
In one of the tales it is stated that several men once
danced before a girl in order to find out whom she would
prefer. Each one wanted to make her smile at him. The
dance, however, ended in a fight, during which the girl ran
away and went up to heaven, where she remained.
Flickerings of lightning, fitfully gleaming .in the sky, are
her smile.
Another tale, of a comic nature, relates how everything,
the sea included, once laughed at a certain incident, and,
the narrative continues, "sea he laugh still," referring to the
undulating waves of the sea.
When the Daru people once retuned from Masingara,
where many of them had been killed, they saw how the sky
was very red at sunset. According to the tale" the men
associated the colour of the sky with the blood of their
slain brothers and sang, — " Datidai kibiiia Daiidai kiimka
k?iruka viataiba kumka gaum rupiiradara." (" Along
Daudai [the name of the country] sky he red from blood
belong dead man.")
We need not now enter into the question how far, if at
all, the natives consciously use such similes. Whatever our
views as to the existence of poetical ideas in the native
tales, we cannot but recognise in the folklore of these
Papuans one of the many instances in which amid a rude
culture there appear the first sporadic beginnings of pheno-
mena properly belonging to a higher civilization.
In some cases a real sentiment is unmistakably reflected
in the native folklore. When the Mawata tribe left their
old home and went westward to their present, village, one
The Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans, 3 i 3
man, Sabake, at first refused to go with the others, and
stayed behind. After a time his brother Gamea went back
to Old Mawata to persuade Sabake to come. But Sabake
said, in the wording of the tale, " I no like go, I no been see
place all same Mawata. What's good I go that place, I no
can leave my good place." Now Old Mawata, like the
whole coast, is merely a sand and mud bank between the
sea and the inland swamps, overgrown with mangroves and
pestered with mosquitos. The brother did not cease his
persuasions, and at last Sabake yielded. He went to his
garden, smeared his face with mud in token of his sorrow
and wailed, — " I leave my place belong garden, I leave my
good place Old Mawata, good place, good sand, no good I
go dark corner, I been stop light place." On their way to
New Mawata he still wept, sitting at the stern of the canoe
with his feet in the water, " I never look place all same
Old Mawata."
G. Landtman.
THE CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS OF THE
BRITISH GIPSIES.
BY T. VV. THOMPSON.
{Read at Meeting, Jan^iary ijth, 191 2.)
The following paper is a first attempt at a systematic pre-
sentation of what is known at present concerning the
ceremonial customs of the Gipsies of Britain. That it will
not be markedly successful I am fully aware, but I ask for
the indulgence that is granted to inexperienced youth and
to pioneer work.
The chief source from which I have dug out my material
has been the many notebooks filled during a constant
intercourse with British Gipsies extending over the last
three and a half years, during which time I have become
acquainted with more than two thousand of their number,
and have been on exceptionally intimate terms with some
half a dozen families in Westmorland, East Anglia, and
North Wales. I have also made a free use of the note-
books of my friends and fellow-members of the Gyp.sy Lore
Society, thanks to their kindness. Many of the results
of our researches are to be found scattered up and down
the pages of the Journal of that Society, but some are
hitherto unpublished, and for leave to incorporate these
in my paper I am very grateful to Dr. John Sampson
and the Rev. George Hall.
Practically all the other printed sources of information
have been examined, either by myself or by Mr. E. O.
Winstedt of the Bodleian Library ; but not everything
contained therein has been accepted. In addition, parallels
Ceretuonial Citstojus of the Bi'itish Gipsies. 3 1
o^:)
extracted, chiefly by Mr. E. O. Winstedt, from the more
reliable writings on the Gipsies in other countries have been
added in many cases. The mass of material thus collected
would have proved well-nigh unmanageable had it not
been for the assistance in classification afforded by Miss
C. S. I-5urne, to whose suggestions also some of the theories
proposed are due.
Lastly, I have to acknowledge the services of the
Honorary Secretary of the Gypsy Lore Society, who
advised and helped me when I was in difficulty, en-
couraged me when I was despondent, and poured iced
water down my back when I was enthusiastically straying
into dcMigerous paths.
The C "osies are a slightly dolichocephalic, or long-headed,
race, and the average height is 5 ft. 4-9 in. Their limbs
are wiry, their movements vivacious, and their hands and
feet small. Their features are regular and, in youth, often
very beautiful ; the mouth neither large nor small, the
teeth good and white, and the nose straight, with a slight
tendency to be hooked. They are deeply pigmented, the
skin of pure Gipsies being olive, or even darker, and the
hair straight and black with the peculiar kind of blackness
known as " blue-black." The iris is dark, especially among
the women, and the eyes have an indescribable lustre.
Their language is undoubtedly Indian, but their origin
and early history are alike shrouded in mystery. It is
impossible, however, to conceive of them as anything but a
wandering race. From linguistic evidence it is probable
that they all left India before the Mohammedan invasion,
passing through countries where Persian, and possibly
Armenian, were spoken, and avoiding those where Arabic
was the language of the inhabitants. In Asia Minor and
Eastern Europe a halt was called, but in the fifteenth
century they spread over Western Europe by way of
Germany. At the present time they are found in Western
o
1 6 Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies.
Asia and Siberia, North Africa, and the whole of Europe,
from which continent they have spread comparatively
recently into North and South America and Australia.
As no statistics are available, it is impossible to state
exactly how many Gipsies there are in the British
Isles. Estimates vary from 1500 to 600,000, the latter
being absurdly high, and the former much too low. In all
probability the correct number lies somewhere between
15,000 and 20,000.
Leaving Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland out of
consideration, for there are practically no Gipsies there,
this population is fairly evenly distributed as far as
numbers are concerned. Exactly the same kind of Gipsy
is not, however, to be met with everywhere. Draw a line
from the mouth of the Tyne to Morecambe Bay, and
another from Lowestoft to Birmingham and thence to
the Bristol Channel, and the country is very roughly divided
up according to the character of its Gipsy population. In
the North we find what in Scotland are known as tinklers,
and in Westmorland and Cumberland as potters, — a class
which has resulted from the union of pure Gipsies with
" gaberluuzie men " and other " sturdy rogues and vaga-
bonds." Their dialect of Roniani retains no traces of the
original structure of the language, whilst most of the root
words have been debased, or replaced by the "cant" of the
non-Gipsy, or gdjo, element. About 50 per cent, of their
vocabulary at the most can be recognized to be of Roinani
origin. These tinklers and potters are probably descended
from the Gipsies who arrived here in the fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries. The central area is occupied
by the purest Gipsies that we have in Britain. It
is only within the last two or three generations that
they have intermarried with gdjos, and shown other signs
of decadence. One family, the Woods, deserves special
mention. They are the descendants of a certain Abram
Wood, who first went up into Wales soon after 1700 a.d.
Ceremonial C^istonis of the B7'itish Gipsies. 3 1 7
Since then they have isolated themselves, and, in conse-
quence, have so many peculiarities that they ought perhaps
to be regarded as a class by themselves. They alone
preserve the grammatical structure of their language to any
degree of perfection. Shreds of it survive amongst the
other families of this area, who, in addition, retain a fairly
full and comparatively uncorrupted vocabulary. The
ancestors of most of these Gipsies probably arrived at
a later date than those of the tinklers and potters. In the
south we find a class which is intermediate between the
two already considered. All vestiges of the original
structure of the language have disappeared from their
dialect, whilst the vocabulary has been decaying for many
years. Different families preserve it in very different stages
of the process.
AH these Gipsies are little better than local nomads.
The tinklers, and those in the south, practically never cross
the imaginary boundary lines into the central area. A
good many of them are settled in houses for the greater
part of the year ; the rest confine their wanderings within
very limited districts. In Scotland, according to Simson,^
they parcelled out the country at an early date, assigning
each district to one particular family. The head of such a
family issued tokens to all its members, which protected
them within their own district; but if they wandered
outside they were liable to be beaten and robbed by the
family on whose preserve they had encroached. A token
issued by the head of the Baillie family was, however,
sufficient to protect its bearer anywhere. Without any
prearranged scheme England has been portioned out in
much the same way, though not with the same precision.
In the south the district travelled by a particular family
seems to be fixed, with this exception, that large numbers
congregate in the fruit- and hop-growing districts at picking
^W. Simson, A History of the Gipsies : with specimens of the Gipsy
Language (ed. by J. Simson, 1865), pp. 218-9.
;^iS Ccreuionial Ctistoins of the British Gipsies.
time. In the central area the state of affairs is a little
different. It is only within the last hundred years that
the Hemes and Boswells, with sonne of the Smiths and
Lees and Grays, migrated into it from the south-east of
England, and there is still a perceptible drift northwards,
and, to a lesser extent, westwards. It is no rare thing now
to meet Welsh Lees in Lancashire, Lancashire Boswells
in Ireland and Cumberland, or Yorkshire Hemes in Scot-
land, but it would be quite extraordinary to meet them
to the south of their recognized districts. Wide-wandering
bands are not at all common, a fact which is bound up with
the absence of any family organization.
The ill-defined, consanguine groups that, followiiig the
example of the Gipsies themselves, I have "called families,
are quite unorganized. Not this kind of family, but the
individual family, — husband, wife, and children, — is the
social unit. There appear, however, to be some survivals
from an earlier stage in the process of family evolution.
At the present time descent is as a rule reckoned in the
male line, but from a study of English Gipsy pedigrees it
seems probable that matrilineal descent was a little more
frequent in times past than it is now. No particular custom
or rule can be discovered. Elijah Boswell, for instance, had
three wives at the same time, two of whom were Gipsies
and sisters called Smith, and the third a gdji, (a non-Gipsy).
His children by the Gipsy wives were all called Smith, those
by the gdji Boswell. The Youngs, on the other hand, owe
their surname to Miller Heme's wife, Winifred Young, who
can have been little better than a gdji. Women seem to
retain their own surnames after marriage ; at least they are
nearly always referred to by them. Sophy Heme, the wife
of Taiso Boswell, used to be very indignant, and not infre-
quently violent, whenever anyone so much as suggested
that her name was Sophy Boswell.- Again, after marriage
^Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, New Series, vol. v., p. 149 ; (Old Series,
1888-92 ; New Series, 1907 onwards).
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 319
between Gipsies travelling in different areas, it is as
usual as not for the husband to leave his own district
and travel that of his wife's family. Lastly, in the case
of the famous band of Gipsies that travelled through the
country giving balls about the year 1S70, I have been able
to obtain from Noah Young, the commercial manager, the
names of its principal members.-' In addition to himself it
consisted of his mother, ShOri Chilcott, widow of Taiso
Heme {aims William Young), his brother Walter, his sister
Lureni and her husband Kenza Boswell with his father
Wester and some of his brothers, (Bui being specially
excepted), and the brothers Lazzy and Oti Smith, He
did not mention Union Chilcott and Charles Lee, but they
were with the party when it was in Lancashire at any rate.
These appear to have been the nucleus, though the names
of Neily Buckland and Tom Lee ought, perhaps, to be
added. At first sight it would seem as though this were a
very mixed band, the members having no particular con-
nection with one another ; but on examination it becomes
evident that there is a clear connecting link, and that a very
interesting one. Practically every one of the male Gipsies
mentioned was connected with the daughters of John
Chilcott and Liti Ruth Lovell ; some were husbands, some
were sons, and some had married daughters. To illustrate
this point I append a small genealogical tree : —
JOHN CIIILCOTT = LITI RUTH LOVELL.
Caroline C. Union C.= Shuri C = Florence C. =
= Tom Lee. Charles Lee. Taiso Heme (Wm. Young). Wester Boswell.
Lazzy Noah Walter Lureni
Smith = KCrlenda. Caroline = Young. Young. Young. = Kenza. Oscar, (S:c.
• There are two exceptions, Oti Smith and Neily Buck-
land ; but even they had some connection on the female
' A full account of this band has since been published m Journal of the Gypsy
Lore Society, N.S., vol. vi. (1912-13), pp. 19-33.
320 Ceremo7iial Customs of the British Gipsies.
side with the Chilcotts. Otis mother, Elizabeth Smith, as
may be seen from the pedigree attached to my article
on Borrow's Gipsies,'* was a half-sister of John Chilcott ;
while Neily Buckland, whose matrimonial alliances had
been many and various, claimed to have lived at one
time, — probably when these balls were taking place, — with
a Sabaina Chilcott.
The interest of this connection lies in the fact that it is an
apparent survival of the type of family still found amongst
foreign Gipsies. Wlislocki^ lays down the rule, as applying
to Gipsies of Central Europe, that, w'hen a man marries, he
leaves his own clan and joins that of his wife, and to her clan
the children count ; and this rule is supported by Brepohl,^
and is partially in vogue among the Eastern European
Gipsy coppersmiths lately in England. Both principles are
illustrated in the genealogical tree given above. Wester
Boswell and Tom and Charlie Lee counted to the Chilcott
clan by virtue of marriage into it ; Walter Young and
Oscar Boswell by virtue of descent ; and Noah Young and
Kenza Boswell by both. Nor were any of the female
descendants of John Chilcott unrepresented, since Celia
and Bella, the only two daughters not mentioned in the
tree given above, had both died childless. It is significant
too that Wester's oldest son, Bui, whose mother was a
Heme, was not included, for, by the same rule, Bui should
be counted to the Heme clan ; according to Wlislocki, if
the wife dies, the husband reverts to his original clan, and
is at liberty to marry into a third, but the children remain
in their mother's family. It is, to say the least of it,
remarkable that so close an analogy to foreign Gipsy laws
relating to family organization should be traceable in the
case of the only large band of English Gipsies in recent
times about which much is known ; and, taking the other
*■ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., pp. 162-174.
5 Voin Wandertiden Zigeune>~volke (Hamburg, 1890), pp. 61-68.
* Aus dem Winterleben der IVanderzigeuner {Seegef eld, 1910), p. 6.
Cerei)i07iial Customs of the British Gipsies. 321
facts mentioned into account as well, I make bold to go a
little further than this, and state that in England we have
what are almost certainly genuine survivals of the organized
maternal family, — not the matriarchate, for the government
has always, so far as we know, been in male hands.
The organized family bands of Continental Gipsies
keep in touch with one another chiefly by means of
messengers, and occasionally assemblies are held." There
is some traditional evidence to support the belief that such
assemblies were once held in Britain.® That the family
chiefs were then subject to any higher authority is un-
certain, but it is extremely probable. They are, according
to Wlislocki,^ in Eastern Central Europe at the present
day, and there are indications that in the time of James V.
of Scotland ''Johnne Faw, Lord and erle of Litill Egypt,"
enjoyed a position more exalted than that of the ruler of a
small family band.^*' The English Gipsies vaguely re-
member that one Newcombe Heme once made laws for
them.^^ In German)^ the Gipsies are now governed by two
or three selected chiefs, all those in South Germany,
according to Engelbert Wittich,^^ one of their number, being
under the jurisdiction of a single man. He is chosen for
his personal qualities and wealth, and deposed as soon as he
becomes old or sick or infirm, when another chief is elected,
usually from among his family or nearest relatives. At an
annual assembly, or ts'il, he gives verdicts in all disputes,
and punishes those who have broken a taboo, committed an
' E. Wittich, Blickc in das Leben der Zigeuner (Striegau, 191 1 ), p. 21 ; Journal
of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iv., pp. 287-92; Liebicli, Die Zigeuner
(Leipzig, 1863), p. 40; Berliner Tageblatt, Sept. 12, 1890; The Times,
Jan. 27, 1S72, and Sept. 29, 1879.
* Summarized in/onrttal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. ii., pp. 271-4.
® Vom ll'andernden Zigeunenolke, pp. 78-82.
^"Simson, op. cit., pp. 101-3; MacRitchie, Scottish Gypsies tmder the
Stewarts (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 37-44.
"^"^ Journal of t he Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., pp. 225-6.
^"^ Ibid., vol. iv., pp. 287-292.
32 2 Cereynonial Customs of the British Gipsies.
offence aj^ainst chastity or against morality, spoken evil of
their dead relatives or of their own wives, failed to observe
the funerary laws or customs, or been guilty of any serious
crime, the offenders being bale tshido (disgraced and
partially outlawed). Only in cases of revenge for murder
does he possess no rights of settlement. In England Gipsy
jurisdiction and Gipsy law are dead.
On their first arrival here the Gipsies had no surnames,
and it is possibly in consequence of this that an examina-
tion of sixteenth-century parish records reveals such entries
as "Joan the daughter of an Egyptian," "William the son
of an Egyptian," " Robartt an Egyptic," and "John an
Egyptn." After settling they adopted gdjo surnames,
choosing in many cases those of aristocratic families. Of
names in use at a very early date some have survived,
such as Faa, Baillie, Brown, Stanley, and Buckley ; others,
amongst which Bannister, Bownia, Leister, and Volantye
may be mentioned, are no longer found.^^ As fresh Gipsies
arrived, fresh surnames, possibly Heme, Bosvvell, and Lee,
were added to the growing list. Then came constant acces-
sions, due partly to the subdivision of families and partly
to occasional marriages with gdjos. Some of the Boswells,
it is said, began to call themselves Boss, others Lock, the
latter being a nickname by which they were known. Lucy
Lock, to take one example, married a travelling barber
called Edward Taylor, and, as their descendants have
chiefly allied themselves with Gipsies, the gdjo strain thus
becoming diluted, the Taylors, a numerous family, must
now be regarded as Gipsies. Whole families, again, adopted
a new name for trade reasons, or because some individual
member had disgraced himself, or was wanted by the police.
But the surname is of little importance compared with the
'^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, O.S. , vol. i., pp. 5-24; N.S., vol. i.,
pp. 31-4; H. T. Crofton, "Annals of the English Gipsies under the Tudors,"
in Manchester Literary Club Papers, 1S80; D. MacRitchie, Scottish Gypsies
tinder the Stewarts.
Ceremonial Customs of the Bi'itisk Gipsies. 323
pr?enomen, which is the real name. This seems to be part
of a person, for it must not be mentioned after his death
lest his ghost should be recalled. If anyone else bears the
same name, then it must be altered, as in the case of Siterus
Boswell, who has been called Jack ever since his great-
granduncle Siterus died, or a nickname must be sub-
stituted, as in the case of Chasey Price, who is always
called "Shovel Mouth" by his friend Nukes Heme, who
himself has a dead child called Chasey. There is a
well-marked tendency to have two first names, one for
Roinamtshals and personal friends, and the other for
everyone else. For example, Shandres Smith and Lavinia
Boswell have eight children, of whom three have only
one name, the other five being known as Vensa Starki,
Diddles, Lulu, and Nomas to a limited circle, and as Lena,
Bertie, Reuben, Prince Albert, and Edward to the rest of
the world. They generally address one another as "brother,"
"sister," "uncle" and "aunt," quite irrespective of kinship.
" Uncle," and " aunt," or rather the Roiiiaiii words kdJ^ and
blbi, were originally terms of respect ; they are used when
speaking to those of older generations, parents excepted,
and are occasionally accompanied by names. "Brother"
and " sister " are used under all other circumstances, even
by parents when addressing their children, and are practi-
cally never accompanied by names.
In the case of those who have two names, the one con-
ferred at baptism is usually the gdjo name that is open to
anybody. It is publicly revealed at the very beginning, for
the baptismal ceremony is that of the Christian Church,
the British Gipsies having none of their own. Nor is there
anything to make us believe that they ever had one, for
the rather elaborate rites practised by some of the
Continental Gipsies after the birth of a child ^^ seem to have
been borrowed from surrounding peoples. From the time
^* Summarized \n Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. ii., pp. 339-
41. Information mostly derived from Wlislocki.
324 Cerevionial Custovis of the British Gipsies.
of their first arrival here they have been in the habit of
having their children christened. Almost a score of records
of Gipsy christenings during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries have been brought to light,^^ and many more
might be discovered if the Parish Registers were thoroughly
examined. Since 1700 Christian baptism has been the rule.
They adopted this gdjo rite from some superstitious feeling,
the exact nature of which I have not been able to ascertain.
The German Gipsies like to have their children baptized as
often as possible, and the practice of successive baptisms
is not unknown in England.^^
For a certain period after childbirth the mother is con-
sidered to be viokhadi, ceremonially unclean, or tabooed.
Hemes, and Boswells, and Smiths, and Grays, and Lees all
assert that for one month (a month and a day, according
to Bin Boswell) after the event she is allotted her own cup,
plate, knife, fork, and spoon, which are subsequently
destroyed. She is not allowed to prepare or even touch
any food except her own, nor must her husband have
any connection with her. Two or three generations ago a
special tent was frequently assigned to her, and she was
compelled to wear gloves for some considerable time longer
than the month, whilst in extreme cases she was not
permitted to touch dough for a whole year.^'' Even the
very mixed tinklers cling to this observance, for they,
according to Mr. Andrew M'Cormick,^^ do not allow a
woman to cook any food for weeks after she has given
birth to a child. Amongst the German Gipsies, who are
closely akin to our own, the prohibitions are at once more
numerous and more stringent. Wittich ^^ states that births
(except miscarriages, which do not count) are never
^^See Note 13.
^*See 2i\%o Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. vi. , pp. 65-6.
'^'' Ibid., O.S., vol. ii., p. 382, and vol. iii., p. 58; N.S., vol. ii., p. 184.
^* The Tinkler- Gypsies of Gallozuay (2nd ed., Dumfries, 1907), p. 297.
^' Blicke in das Leben der Zigeuner, pp. 27-8.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. ^''
O-D
allowed to take place inside the living waggon, or it
and all its contents would have to be destroyed, or sold
\.o gdjos. It is usually arranged that they take place on a
makeshift straw bed under the waggon, for the bed on
which a child is born becomes inokhadi, of course, and
must be destroyed or sold. No cooking vessels, crockery,
knives, forks, or spoons used by the mother must ever
be used again, whilst between the birth and the christening
of the child male Gipsies must not eat or drink in the
waggon, nor eat anything cooked in it. If any of these
prohibitions are disregarded, the offender is bale tshido.
Liebich, Mr. Gilliat-Smith, and Mrs. Miln all mention the
prevalence of childbirth taboos amongst the German Gipsies.
The first-named states that they last for one month, and
adds that during that time even the breath of the woman is
considered to be niok/iadi?^ The period mentioned by Mrs.
Miln 21 is from the time that the birth is expected until five
months after the event, whilst among the Gipsies of the
Rhine Province, according to Mr. Gilliat-Sniith,^^ a woman
who is found to be with child is separated from the
rest of the tribe, and tended and well cared for by women
alone, which system is prolonged until two months after
the birth. It is not only in England and Germany that
the Gipsies regard a woman as inokhadi for a certain period
following, and in some cases preceding, childbirth. Dr.
Sampson observed childbirth taboos amongst the Eastern
European Gipsies who visited Liverpool in i886.-^ Their
existence has not, however, been recorded by any of the
continental students of the Gipsies of that part of the
world.
The English Gipsies do not, as we have seen, consider a
woman to be mokhadi before the birth takes place, but that
-^ Die Zigeuner, p. 51.
-^ Wooings and Weddings in Many Climes (London, 1900), p. 383.
^Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. i., p. 129.
"■^ Ibid., O.S., vol. iii., p. 58.
o
26 Cere)uonial Cn stems of the British Gipsies.
they did once is suggested by a lingering belief of the
Lancashire Boswells that a pregnant woman protects a
man from hurt by mortal hands;-* any woman does not
protect a man, but the clothing of all women is considered
to be viokliadi in a more restricted sense. In both England
and Germany cooking utensils, crockery, or food touched
by a woman's dress must be destroyed. In Germany, too,
according to Wittich,'^ a woman's linen must not be hung
up in the waggon, because, if a male Gipsy touches it, he is
bale tshido, — a fate which also befalls him if he eats or drinks
from a vessel touched by a woman's dress. The punish-
ment which, in Germany, attends the touching of a woman's
linen possibly affords some explanation of the custom of
the Heme women of wearing men's underclothing. ^^ They
seem, however, to have been paying more attention to the
letter than to the spirit of the taboo. It must not be
imagined, however, that the dread of ceremonial contamina-
tion from women's clothing is merely formal in England.
One afternoon, when I was having tea with the family of
Shandres Smith and Lavinia Boswell, Diddles, a boy of
sixteen, hurled back a slice of bread at his mother because
she had allowed it to touch her dress whilst cutting it.
Lavinia quietly gave it to the dog. " That's the way vvid
all our fambly," she explained, " we can't none on we
stomach hanythink what's viokliadi. I wouldn't have gid it
to the child if I'd a-noticed.''^'
Blankets, handkerchiefs, and anything connected with
the washing of clothes, or with the toilet, are viokliadi.
Kenza Boswell was called "Blanket Pie Kenza " ever after
the memorable occasion at Blackpool, some years ago, when
he forced himself to eat a mouthful or two of a large meat
pie, to avoid offending some charitable folk who had given
"^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, X. S., vol. iv., p. "266.
^^ Blicke in das Leben der Zigeuner, p. 2S ; Journal of the Gypsy Lore
Society, N.S., vol. iv., p. 290.
^^Lbid., N.S., vol. v., p. 7S. -'Ibid., vol. iv., p. 265.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 327
it to the Gipsies as a special treat, but who had made the
lamentable mistake of sending it to the tents in a blanket
in order to keep it hot.'^ The plight of Eros Heme, when
a friendly ^^b brought him some mushrooms in a handker-
chief, was less deplorable ; there was no call for immediate
consumption in his case, so he was able to thank the donor
profusely for the gift, and to feed his bantam with it as soon
as he was gone. Hubert Smith, the son of Shandres and
Lavinia, had serious thoughts of separating from Xxxs potter
wife because she persisted in washing his cooking utensils
and crockery and table linen in the same bowl, with the
same piece of soap, and sometimes even in the same water
as she used for washing wearing-apparel and herself He
contented himself, however, with destroying everything.^*
None of this family of Smiths will take drinking water
from a stream in which some of their cousins washed
several years ago.^'' Saiki Heme, Hros's wife, once dashed
her sugar basin and its contents against an adjoining wall
because a comb from her hair accidentally fell on them.
If it had been a hair brush, a nail brush, or a pair of
scissors, she would have done exactly the same. Things
can even be mokJiadi by association or resemblance ; hence
the widespread avoidance of white crockery.
By some a sick person is considered to be mokhadi,
and has a special set of crockery and a knife, fork,
and spoon assigned to him, which are destroyed when the
illness terminates. This taboo does not appear to have
such a wide currency as some of the others, being confined,
as far as I know at present, to the Cambridgeshire Smiths ^^
and "Jasper Petulengro's" family. Perhaps it is due, not
to survival, but to the confusing of ordinary maladies with
childbirth.
The last class of taboos is concerned with animals, and like
28 Ibid., vol. iv., p. 156. 2D ji)id.^ vol. iv., p. 265.
'" Ibid., vol. iii., pp. 232-3.
** Gipsy Smith, his Life and Work ; by Himself {\<)Q\), p. 7.
328 Ccj'cnionial Customs of the British Gipsies.
those associated with washing and disease it applies equally
to men and to women. In England anything connected
with food that is touched by a cat or a dog becomes nwkJiadi,
and consequently we find Vensalena Smith (Shandres' and
Lavinia's daughter) making paper saucers for her kitten to
drink from,^^ ^nd Algar Boswell driving a stake through
the bottom of a bucket from which a dog had chanced to
drink.^^ German Gipsies are bale tshido for eating the flesh
of cats, dogs, or horses, and for eating from a vessel in
which such food has been prepared or kept.^ On one
occasion, writes Mr. Eccleston, Lazzy Smith, after driving
off a dog that was licking his frying pan, shouted to his
daughter to put it on the fire quickly and clean it. The
inference to be drawn from this is that he counted fire a
sufficient purifier, but other Gipsies say that nothing can
purify a thing that has become mokJiadi. Neither these nor
any other taboos, with the exception of that on the name
of the dead and those that concern women at the time of
childbirth, have been recorded for Eastern European Gipsies.
The German Gipsy punishment of making any offender,
no matter what his sin or crime, bale tshido. amounts to the
imposition of a taboo on him by the chief He is allowed
to travel with the band, but no one must drink from the
same glass as he, nor eat from the same plate, nor use the
same knife, fork, or spoon. To sit at meat with him, or to
drink his health, is, however, allowed, and is not considered
dishonourable. The duration of the sentence varies from
two years to life, breaking a taboo meriting the minimum
punishment. These imposed taboos are removed by the
chief at the annual isU, apparently without any accom-
panying ceremony.35
^'- Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iv., p. 265.
^'^ Ibid., vol. iv., p. 156; see also O.S., vol. ii., p. 382, N.S., vol. ii.,
p. 184, vol. iii. , p. 320.
^* Ibid., N.S., vol. iv., 290; see also vol. i., p. 128.
3^ Ibid., vol. iv., pp. 287-8.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 329
Returning to the English Gipsies, it is worthy of note
that the husband of one of the granddaughters of "Jasper
Petulengro" is treated by his wife and family as if he were
a German Gipsy law-breaker ; he is bale tsJiido for life
because he is a gdjo. No one will eat or drink from the
same vessel, nor use the same knife, fork, or spoon. When
taboos were much more strictly observed than they are
to-day, the Gipsies would naturally never contemplate
marriage with uiokhadi gajos, for they would be afraid of
becoming contaminated themselves. This is quite sufficient
to account for the fact that in a great many countries,
including England and Wales, they are still practically
an unmixed race, though racial pride has probably been
a by no means negligible factor in determining this.
Racial endogamy is, and always has been, their established
rule or custom, but there always have been a few who did
not conform.
At the present day they are endogamous within a more
restricted circle. The British and German Gipsies, for in-
stance, do not intermarry ; they never come in contact with
one another, for one thing, and, even if they did, there are
sufficient superficial differences between them to prevent
intermarriage for two or three generations. Further, the
British Gipsies are, as I have already shown, divided up
into three classes, each confining its wanderings, more or
less, to a restricted area, and these do not intermarry to
any appreciable extent, and would not do so freely at first
if completely mixed. The same cannot be said of the
families within any one of these particular areas. Still,
most of them seem to despise and disapprove of all the
others, and, even after marriage, her husband's family, unless
it is identical with her own, is still contemptible to the
wife, and his wife's to the husband. Something more than
family pride occasionally underlies the feeling between two
families. Once, when I told Lavinia Smith {ticc Boswell)
of a proposed visit to the Bosses at Hale Moss, Altrincham,
" '■o Cere77wnial Customs of the British Gipsies.
oo
she implored me not to go. "They'se will witch hevery
penny out'n your pockets, an' put a spell onto yous so as
yous will do none more good as long as yous may live.
Yous will see nothink only but bad luck an' povertiness an'
rescease into all your days, so now I'm a-warnin' of yous.
An' yous'il come back here wid it all into your clothes an'
things, an' it'll pass on to we, and onto all our childern."^*
But this is only an isolated instance, and consequently is of
little importance at present.
Inbreeding, as might be expected, has been prevalent,
a fact which is revealed by the examination of a large
number of English and Welsh Gipsy pedigrees collected
chiefly by the Rev. Geo. Hall, Mr. John Myers, and myself.
Marriages between cousins have been very common indeed,
and have almost invariably resulted in healthy offspring.
Four children of Elijah Lee married the same number
of his brother Sampson's children, whilst in the Matthew
Wood pedigree, recorded by Dr. Sampson,^" of 24 marriages
during 3 generations, 7 are between first cousins, and 7
between either first cousins once removed or second
cousins. In a list of the 16 great-great-great-grandfathers
of Manfri Wood, the same person, Abram Wood, occurs 7
times. Marriages between nephew and aunt, and between
uncle and niece, have also occurred, without the issue,
which was very numerous in some cases, being in any way
defective. There are also records of more or less per-
manent unions between sister and brother, son-in-law and
mother-in-law, father-in-law and daughter-in-law, grand-
father and granddaughter, father and daughter, but these
have played but a negligible part in the propagation of
the race. Of the German Gipsies Liebich wrote in 1863 :^^
" Marriage prohibitions are confined only to ascendants
and descendants, side relations, even brothers and sisters,
being allowed to marry, although this has been avoided
^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iv., p. 270.
2" /($/af., vol. ii., pp. 370-1. "'S C/. «V., p. 49.
Ce7'emonial C^istoms of the British Gipsies. 331
in recent times, at least as far as brothers and sisters are
concerned." His remarks apply equally well to their
English and Welsh kindred, and probably to the Gipsies
as a race. It is almost certain that there never have
been any degrees of kinship within which marriage was
prohibited, except the direct line. No matter how small
the group unit is made, no traces of rules or customs
designed to produce exogamy are discoverable, nor is
anything known which suggests that exogamy was once
the prevalent system. At the same time it is very doubtful
whether a closer endogamy than that of the race was
originally practised. The present day frequency of marriage
between relatives may possibly be a survival of primitive
family endogamy, but there are indications that it is due
to a comparatively modern tendency of certain families to
isolate themselves more or less completely from the rest.
The statements of Trenit Heme that " Hemes by rights
oughter only to marry Hemes," and of a Herefordshire
Smith that " we never marries out of the name," obviously
cannot be regarded as reminiscences of an ancient endo-
gamic system.
There is nothing to indicate that the Gipsies were ever
polyandrous, nor should we expect them to have been, but
polygamy occasionally occurs at the present day in Britain,
and was more common in the past. The man very fre-
quently married sisters, Charlie Pinfold, for example, taking
three to wife, and Dick Heme, Niaboi Heme, and Edward
Wood, two each.
Before marriage no sexual intercourse is allowed ; in fact
the Gipsies set the very highest value on corporal chastity.
Many observers noting this combined with a certain
obscenity of conversation and song and lewdness of
gesture and dance, have been not a little mystified, failing
to grasp that the one is consistent with their dread of
contamination, and the other with their being in a low
stage of civilization. Some proof of the bride's virginity
^^2 Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies.
used to be exhibited at her wedding, both in England "^^
and Scotland/^ and great precautions were taken lest this
proof should not be forthcoming. A girl was compelled
to wear a " girdle of chastity " whenever she went out
hawking or fortune-telling, — that is, whenever she mixed
with strangers, — from the age of puberty to the day of
her marriage. If any youth said that he had received
favours of a Gipsy girl when he had not, then, according
to Borrow, she had a right to demand a kind of trial. The
details of this, as given in The Romany Ryep- are so absurd
on the face of them that I will not repeat them here.
From Kadllia Brown I once heard that an unchaste girl
used to be driven from the tent and never owned again,
and Borrow gives the same punishment for one who had
granted favours to a gdjo, adding that years earlier she
would have been buried alive. As recently as 1875 an
old Suffolk Gipsy told Dr. Ranking that the ancient punish-
ment for unchastity was burying alive, and pointed out to
him a spot where three roads meet near Bamford, a few
miles out of Ipswich, where, as a boy, he had seen a Gipsy
girl undergo this punishment.*' The German Gipsies take
a very serious view of offences against chastity, whether in
or out of wedlock, the offender being frequently bale tshido
for life.«
The period of courtship is usually short, and any court-
ing is conducted mostly in public. Amongst the Hemes
the bridegroom, or his relatives, test the would-be bride's
constancy by appointing another young man to make a
pretence of wooing her. If she gives him the slightest
encouragement, then she is cast aside as useless ; if not,
marriage follows, subject, within living memory, to the
*' In Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, O.S., vol. iii., pp. 1 58-9, a full
description of the " girdle of chastity" is given.
*^W. Simson, op. cit., p. 261. *Wol. i., chap. x.
^■^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., pp. 170-1.
^ Ibid., vol. iv., p. 290.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. '\,2i'h
approval of an assembly of the bridegroom's older rela-
tions.'" Amongst some of the Smiths, according to Dr.
Ranking/^ on the advent of another suitor a girl who was
already engaged used to withdraw from the tent, seat
herself on the ground apart, and loosen her hair, so that
it fell all round her, and covered her face. It is not
improbable that this practice was originally intended to
facilitate childbirth, as it is among other people. From
old Liz Buckland, Leland ^ heard that it was the custom
of the girl to give her accepted suitor a red string or cord,
or a strip of red stuff, or to throw a cake containing coins
over the hedge to him, but no confirmation of either of
these customs is forthcoming.
Gipsies invariably marry at an early age, so that the
tinkler rule mentioned by Simson of never giving away the
younger daughter in marriage before the elder is quite
unnecessary.*" Parents seem to be loth to part with their
daughters, who have frequently to run away with the
young man of their choice. In many families there is
not, and possibly never has been, any marriage ceremony
whatever. In others, the majority, Christian marriage is
the only form of union in vogue at the present day. This,
however, has never been as prevalent as Christian baptism
or Christian burial,*^ nor does it appear to have been at all
important a century or two ago. A marriage performed
only in a church was not counted as a marriage at all by
the Boswells,*^ nor, if we can rely on Schwicker,^'' by the
majority of Gipsies everywhere ; whilst in Hungary and
Germany, according to Liebich,^^ the religious ceremony
** Ibid., vol. iii., p. 170. *^ Ibid., vol. ii., p. 184.
** The Gypsies (1882), p. 160; Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune 'lelling (1891),
pp. 143-4-
- *" Op. cit., p. 25S. ^ See note 13.
■•^Crofton, "Gypsy Life in Lancashire and Cheshire," in Manchester
Literary Club Papers, vol. iii. (1877), p. 40.
'* Die Zigeuner in Ungarn und Siebenbitrgen (Wien, 1883), pp. 142 et seq.
51 Op. cit. , p. 49.
334 Ceremonial Ctcstoms of the British Gipsies.
might be delayed for months after the civil ceremony. The
Hemes would have nothing whatever to do with Christian
marriage; only prostitutes and cripples (? those already
contaminated), they remarked, were married in churches.
Was their real objection to the presence of a mixed crowd,
or to the close proximity of graves? Almost certainly it
was dread of contamination in some way or another.
A great variety of other marriage rites, once practised
but now extinct, have been recorded, but most of them
are none too well attested. The most widely-spread form
of union in England was a very simple ceremony in which
the bride and bridegroom clasped each other's hands in the
presence of their relatives and friends, and vowed to be
faithful to each other.^- Amongst the Hemes, if a scholar
could be found, he used to read a i&w words from the
Bible ! " Handfasting," which symbolizes union, is of
course common enough amongst Indo-European peoples ;
it is, for instance, a Scottish folk-custom, and it forms part
of the marriage ceremony of the English Church.
A very different rite to this is reported to have been
practised by one of the Lancashire Boswells and her
husband, and by Alfred Heme and his wife. A cake in
which blood drawn from both of the contracting parties
was mingled, was baked, and subsequently eaten by them
together. Amongst the settled Servian Gipsies a cake is
baked, and afterwards eaten together by the bride and
bridegroom,''^ whilst in Germany the Toivode used to touch
the lips of the pair with wine, spill a few drops on their
heads, and then drink the remainder himself^* From
India an exact parallel is forthcoming, for amongst the
Rajputs and Kewats blood is drawn and mixed with food,
which the bridegroom and bride eat together.^^ Eating
^'^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., p. 170.
^'^Gjorgjevic, Die Zigetiner in Serbien, Teil i., pp. 60 et seq.
**Liebich, op. cil., pp. 47-9 ; Mrs. Miln, op. cit., p. 385.
*^ A. E. Crawley, The Mystic Rose (1902), p. 3S5.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 335
together, of which the Roman confarrcatio is a much-
quoted example, and the English wedding cake a survival
is another common Indo-European marriage rite ; and, like
" handfasting," it seems to symbolize union. The English
Gipsy form of it is distinctly "savage."
The marriage ceremony of the Scottish Gipsies, as
described by Simson,^*" was also intended to symbolize
union, and the indissolubility thereof. The officiant, who
carried a long staff, and wore a ram's horn around his
neck, mixed the urine of both parties with earth, and
sometimes brandy, and stirred the whole into an indis-
soluble mixture. This was then handed to the bride and
bridegroom for them to test its indissolubility, after which
they joined hands over it and were thus made man and wife.
The mixture was bottled up, sealed with a mark like a
capital M., and either buried or carefully preserved.
(Small quantities of it were occasionally given to various
members of the tribe.) Following this the more immediate
relations of the contracting parties assured themselves of
the virginity of the bride. Unfortunately there is no
corroborative evidence for the existence of the earlier part
of this ceremon)', nor does any exact parallel seem to be
forthcoming either from Gipsies in other countries, or from
non-Gipsy peoples anywhere. An analogy to it may be
traced in the Hottentot custom, in which the officiant
discharges his secretion first over the bridegroom and then
over the bride, thus uniting them to the tribe and to one
another.^'
At the weddings of the Northumbrian Gipsies, — a class
resembling the titiklers, — a cheese or plate was, according
to Barker,^^ broken over the head of the happy couple.
The breaking of these, possibly to ensure fertility, is
probably analogous to the scattering of cereals, an Indo-
** op. cit., pp. 259 et seq. " Crawley, op. cil.
**"The Gipsy Life of Northumberland," in Bygone Northumberland, by
\V. Andrews (1899), pp. 222-40.
336 Ceremonial Custo^ns of the British Gipsies.
European marriage form which is known in the North of
England and Scotland, where, by the way, cheese is
frequently used in other rites. In passing, it may be
noticed that the Gipsies, in England at any rate, think that
scattering bread on a person, or his carrying a grain of
wheat, protects him against dangers, both natural and
supernatural.^^
To the same Gipsies the practice of jumping over a
broomstick as a form of marriage has been ascribed, ^^ a rite
also mentioned by Mrs. Miln*'! and Morwood.®^ The latter
relates how he surprised a company of Gipsies in Yorkshire,
drawn up in two parallel rows, between which the bride
and bridegroom passed, jumping over a broomstick that
was held across their path about eighteen inches from the
ground. According to Angelina Gray {nee Smith), her
grandfather, Wisdom Smith, was married over a broom-
stick ; an old gipsy woman near Grantham (? Mary Smith)
affirmed that all her people were so married ; and an
Oxfordshire Smith once stated that some few of the Gipsies
jumped over the broomstick at marriage. A bough of a
tree was used in its place by the Shaws, Grays, and
Dymocks, if one can rely on a shepherd of Stanstead
Abbots who knew them well.^^ In Wales marriage over
the suvel or broom is still perfectly remembered by the
Wood family. Matthew Wood's father and mother were
made man and wife in this way, and so were Ben and
Caroline Wood. Dr. Sampson has been kind enough to
supply me with some very interesting details of the
ceremony.^* The shuvel might be a branch or bough of
the flowering broom {cytisus scoparins), in flower if season
^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iv., pp. 265-6.
«»See note 58. «i Op, cit., p. 381.
^^ Our Gipsies in City, Tent and Van (1S85), p. 141.
«» jV. dr' Q., 4th S., vol, iii. (1869), pp. 461-2.
^* These and others have since been published in Journal of the Gypsy Lore
Society, N.S., vol. v., pp. 198-201.
Ceremonial Cu stains of the British Gipsies. 337
permitted, but if not carryint^ its dry pods ; or it might
be a besom, such as was made by the Gipsies them-
selves from broom, preferably one that had seen some
service. It was held by the father either of the bridegroom
or of the bride, with one end resting on the ground, and
over this would jump first the young man and then the
young woman. The elder who was ofificiating would then
say: '' Ne ! kana romerde shan'' (There! now you are
married), or words to that effect, and perhaps admonish
the newly-wedded pair. Presents would then be given, and
followed by feasting, after which the young couple might
go away together for a few da}'s. According to another
account, the elder who was going to officiate would himself
go and cut two long branches of broom, and lay them on
the ground, and over these the bride and bridegroom would
leap, backwards and forwards, with hands clasped together.
The officiant would then take a ring of rushes twisted by
the bridegroom, and put it on the bride's finger half way
down, after which the bridegroom would push it into its
place. As soon as possible after the marriage this rush ring
would be replaced by one of gold, purchased out of the
joint earnings of husband and wife, "to bind them together
right." One of the Locks, who himself married a Wood,
told me that this was the way in which the Welsh gdjos
used to be married, and Elias Owen ^^ states that in North
Wales in olden times marriages were considered valid
when contracted over a besom. Is this Welsh Gipsy rite
wholly or partially of Welsh origin, or was jumping over
the besom introduced into Wales by the Gipsies shortly
after their arrival there about 1700, are questions which
naturally arise. Jumping over artificial objects, as exem-
plified by the Belford " petting " stone, is a widely-spread
Indo-European marriage form, but it is extremely doubtful
whether this Gipsy ceremony ought to be regarded as a
transition rite. Mr. W. Crooke considers it to be a survival
«* Old Stone Crosses (1886), pp. 62-3.
338 Ccrononial Customs of the British Gipsies.
of jumping over the branch of a sacred tree, and as such
interprets it as a fertility charm.^^ It is important to note
that no similar rite has been recorded for Gipsies anywhere
outside Ikitain, and perhaps significant that the perform-
ance of it was in no way secret, friendly gdjos being
allowed to witness it. But at present I shall hazard no
answer to the questions raised.
Jumping over tongs has been ascribed both to the English
Gipsies and to the tinklers,^'^ but the evidence for the exist-
ence of this as a marriage rite is entirely unsatisfactory.
It is also very doubtful whether any credence can be
given to Bulwer Lytton's statement that, when his gipsy
friend, ?vlimy, proposed to marry him, she said : "You will
break a piece of burned earth with me, — a tile for
instance."^^ The breaking of an earthen vessel is, how-
ever, a continental Gipsy marriage ceremony, practised in
Germany, Spain, Moldavia, Transylvania, and Turkey.^^
Another English Gipsy custom, according to a writer in
Notes and Queries,''^ was the compelling of the bride to
bring a pail of water to her husband's tent ; it was probably
intended to symbolize wifely subjection.
Simson's vague statement that the tinklers at"one time
sacrificed a horse at their marriage ceremony cannot be
omitted, though the accuracy of it is doubtful.'^ Sacrifice
is a marriage rite found amongst Indo-European peoples.
The same writer '^ also asserts that the father of the
bridegroom used to spend the three or four nights
^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., p. 178.
^"^ Ibid., O.S., vol. i., p. 179; H. N. Hutchinson, Marriage Citstoiits in
many Lands (1897), p. 337.
** The Life, Letters and Literary Kevtaiiis of Ediuard Bulwer, Lord Lytton
{1883), vol. i., pp. 315-325-
** Germany: see note 54; A. Colocci, Gli Ziiiiiari (Torino, 1889), pp.
225-6, quotes Borrow and Kogalnitchan for this practice in Spain and
Moldavia. Transylvania: Hutchinson, op. cit., p. 242. Turkey: L. M. J.
Garnett, Women of Turkey (1891), vol. ii., p. 360.
"'4th S., vol. iii. (1869), pp. 461-2. " Op. cit., p. 269. " Op. cit., p. 264.
Ceremonial Ciistovis of the British Gipsies. 339
immediately preceding the iiiarria;^e with tiie bride's
mother, but, if this custom ever did exist, it was probably
due to decadence rather than survival, for it is entirely
contrary to the Gipsy view of chastity.
With three exceptions these British Gipsy marriage rites
and all those that have been recorded for their kindred
elsewhere''^ are restricted to one locality. The exceptions
are, — the breaking of an earthen vessel, eating or drinking
together, and the virginity test. The first two have only a
limited currency, but the virginity test, which frequently
accompanies other ceremonies, has been recorded for
England, Scotland, South France, Spain, Switzerland,
Turkey, Servia, and Egypt, "^ and also for a mixed band of
European Gipsies who were in lioston in 1908. It seems
to be genuinely, though not exclusively, Gips}', for, in
addition to being almost universal among them, it accords
well with the general tenor of their ceremonial customs. I
am inclined to think that practically all their other
marriage rites and ceremonies have been acquired by the
Gipsies from the peoples with whom they have come in
contact in Europe, or amongst whom they are now living.
If AI. van Gennep's view that the main point of marriage
rites is to mark the transit from one status to another, from
one family or clan to another, be accepted, then it follows
that they will be of less importance amongst endogamous
peoples, where there is little or no actual transit, than
amongst others. There will therefore be more variation of
rites, those that symbolize union will take the lead, and
family custom will rule. If the Gipsies were originally
"•'Summarized in Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N. S., vol. ii.,
PP- 34I-354-
'* Bataillard, " Les Gitanos d'Espagne et les Ciganos de Portugal" in
Compte rendu de la 9* Session dit congrcs international d'authropologie
(Lisbonne, 1880), pp. 501-5; G. H. Borrow, The Zimali (1841), vol. i.,
p. 340; R. Bright, Travels from Vienna through Loiver Hungary {JE^diwAiMX^,
1818), Appendix, p. Ixxiii. ; W. Simson, op. cit., pp. 261 el seq. ; Journal
of the Gypsy Lore Society., O.S., vol. ii., p. 59, and vol. iii., p. 158.
340 Ceremonial Customs of the Bj'itish Gipsies.
closely endogamous, the variety and instability of their
marriage rites, the comparatively large number of those
that symbolize union, and the scarcity of those that mark
transition, would be natural.
Gipsy marriages are as a rule permanent. True, Mirny
only wanted to marry Bulwer Lytton for five years,"^ and
in a paragraph on German Gipsies in an undated Libaiische
Zeitung"^^ it is stated that marriages are in the first place
for five years only, after which they become final if the
wife has borne children and not betrayed her husband.
This statement is, however, quite unconfirmed.
Unfaithfulness, like unchastity before marriage, is ex-
tremely rare. In Britain the men have never, as far as is
known, been punished for it, but in Germany and Hungary
they are maimed by being shot, either in the leg or in the
arm." The treatment of erring sisters has naturally been
more severe. Possibly they were once buried alive, and
certainly they used to be expelled from the family for
ever, a punishment comparable with that meted out in the
Balkans, where they suffer temporary or permanent banish-
ment, neither they nor their husbands being allowed to
remarry as long as their partners survive.'^^ From Ade-
laide Garratt {fiee Lee) and Eros and Saiki Heme I
recently heard of survivals of two other forms of punish-
ment. Dick Heme, they said, cut off the ears of one of his
two wives (and incidentally gave them to the donkey to
eat), because of her infidelity, whilst, for the same reason,
another Heme caused his wife to run naked around a
large field. '^ In Hungary an unfaithful Gipsy wife suffers
'* See note 68.
''^ Journal pf t/ie Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol., v., pp. 312-3.
'''' Ibid., vol. ii., p. 355.
'* Wlislocki, " Vehmgeiichte bei den bosnischen und bulgarischen wander-
zigeuner" in Ethnologische Mittheilnngeii atts Ungam (Budapest, 1893), vol.
in., p. 173.
"'^Journal of Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., pp. 170- 1.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 341
expulsion from the band, accompanied by flogging, four
gashes to brand her, and a night spent tied naked to a
tree.®" In Germany the punishment takes the form of
cutting ofif, or at least gashing, the nose.®^ The custom
of punishing an unfaithful wife by mutilating the nose or
other member of the body is common enough in India,®-
but the Gipsies might have acquired it in the Near East,
for there is an old Serb enactment of the year 1349, which
states that " A noble outraging a married woman shall have
his hands and nose cut off," and that " A married woman
guilty of libertinage, shall have her nose and ears cut off." ^
Unless these be regarded as such, no traces of divorce
rites have been discovered amongst the English and Welsh
Gipsies, but the tinkters, according to a somewhat unreliable
authority,^ used to employ the broomstick or tongs at their
separations, the parties standing on either side and jumping
away. But the real //«y{'/t'r divorce ceremony, if Simson®^
can be believed, is one of much greater interest. A horse
without blemish was chosen, round which the officiant
walked several times at noon, extolling its virtues. It was
then set free, and by its tameness or wildness when recap-
ture was attempted the guilt of the woman was estimated.
If it was lively and mettlesome, then she ran some risk of
being slain for her misdeeds. Generally, however, the
horse when caught was charged with its own and the
woman's sins, upbraided for them, and stabbed. The
^^ Ibid., vol. ii., pp. 1 90- 1 ; quotation from The Martyrdom 0/ an Empress
(1904), pp. 141-2.
** Liebich, op. iit., p. 50 ; A. Colocci, op. ciL, p. 228 ; Biester in Berlinische
Monatsschri/t, Feb. 1793, P- "8.
*^ N. Chevers, A Manual of Medical Jurisprudeme Jor India, pp. 487 et seq.
^ Jottrnal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S. , vol. iv., p. 68; quotation from
La Turqtiie d" Europe {I'asis, 1840) by Ami Boue, tome 4, p. 430; Liebich,
op. cit., p. 50, mentions a church assembly at Neapolis in Palestine in 1120
which decreed that male Etubrechers should be castrated, and females have
their noses cut off.
«* Ibid., O.S., vol. i., p. 179. " Op. cit., pp. 267 et seq.
34- Ccrevioiiial Customs of the British Gipsies.
parties concerned stood one on each side of the carcass,
clasped hands, and addressed one another. Then, quitting
their hold, they walked three times round it in contrary-
directions, stopping at the " corners " and speaking. At the
last stop, by the horse's tail, they shook hands, and parted
for ever, going north and south. The animal's heart was
then taken out, roasted, sprinkled with brandy or vinegar,
and eaten by the husband and his friends. The wife, on her
departure, was given a cast-iron token about an inch and a
half square, marked with a sign like a capital T. If she
lost this, or attempted to remarry, she was liable to death
after trial by the elders of the tribe ; and the manner of her
death was that she was bound to a stake by an iron chain,
and cudgelled at intervals until she died ! "This ceremony
began at noon, probably because the sun begins to decline
then. The horse is frequently employed in divination by
other peoples, and its use in the chastity test or ordeal is
in no way extraordinary, for what other animal would a
tinkler have, except perhaps a dog ? The eating of the
heart is not a little peculiar, though, for amongst the
German Gipsies, it may be recalled, horse-flesh is tabooed.
As to the origin of this curious form of ordeal, which seems
to be peculiar to the tinklers, I can say nothing, except
that it is obviously not connected, as Simson thought it
was, with the Asvamedha rite. The punishments meted
out to the woman, — expulsion from the band and prohibi-
tion of remarriage, or, under exceptional circumstances,
death, — are very much the same as those of Gipsies else-
where in cases of unfaithfulness, and are quite in keeping
with the high value they set upon corporal chastity.
. Although the British Gipsies have abandoned their
marriage and divorce rites, they still' cling firmly to their
funeral customs, the main point of which, the destruction
of almost everything connected with the deceased, they
observe much more strictly and completely than their
kindred elsewhere.
Ceremonia/ Customs of the British Gipsies. 343
Coffined burial in cliurchyards and cemeteries is now
their universal custom. It has always been prevalent from
the sixteenth century onwards, so prevalent in fact that
many writers have been sceptical about the existence of
any other form of burial. This scepticism I should like to
dispel. In Lai'i'ngro^'' Borrow describes the funeral of an
old Mrs. Heme, who was buried uncofiined in a deep dell,
after the manner of " a Roman woman of the old blood."
Mr. John E. Cussans, writintj to Notes and Queries in 1869,^'
asserts that the Shaws, Grays, and Dymocks used to bury
their dead in a field at Strett Hall, near Saffron Walden,
and also that it was no uncommon thing for bodies to be
buried at the side of the road. The authors of English-
Gipsy Sottgs state that until about 1825 the Gipsies buried
their dead in lonely and remote places.^** This last state-
ment is too inclusive ; they ought to have written " some
few of the Gipsies " and not " the Gipsies," for it is only
in East Anglia that there is any strong tradition of such
burial. Grays, Smiths, and Browns have all assured me
that it was once the invariable custom of some of the
Gipsies, the Hemes being particularly mentioned, secretly
to hide away their uncoffined dead in such lonely places
as the remoter parts of Mousehold Heath, or to deposit
them in ditches by the sides of lanes.^^ It is considerably
less than a hundred years, they state, since such practices
entirely ceased, owing to the attentions of gcijo officials.
From their account it must have been somewhere about
1830 when Borrow's friend, Ambrose Smith ("Jasper
Petulengro"), found one of the Hemes burying his wife in
a ditch near Gorleston, took the body away, and gave
it a Christian burial, to prevent further trouble befalling
the old man.^° About the same time a party of Gipsies
86 Opcit. (1851), vol. iii., p. i68.
*^ 4lh S., vol. iii., p. 462 ; Morwood, op. cit., p. 172.
9* By C. G. Leland, E. H. Palmer, and J. Tuckey (1875), P- 31-
*^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., p. 169.
^"^ Ibid., vol. v., p. 78.
344 Ceremonial Custo7Jis of the B7'itisJi Gipsies.
were compelled to bury an uncoffined body in Littlebury
Churchyard, much against their will, for they wished to
dispose of it elsewhere.^^
Uncoffined burial survived a little longer, for, even after
they were induced to bury their dead in churchyards, the
Hemes and their tributary family, the Bakers, refused to
employ anything more than winding-sheets. Almost exact
parallels are forthcoming in the now extinct German Gipsy
customs of employing only the hollowed-out trunk of a
tree as coffin, and of burying the corpse in the depths of
a thick wood.^2 The Siebenbiirger Gipsies of twenty years
ago buried their dead uncoffined, either in the least fre-
quented part of the village burial ground, or out in the
open country on the edge of a secluded wood, and sub-
sequently planted thorns on the grave.^^ Of this last
custom we have a reminiscence in England in John
Chilcott's death-bed injunction : "Plant briars over me."^*
The grave of Cecilia Chilcott, who died in 1842, was
watched for some time after the funeral, but this may only
have been to prevent resurrection-work, which was common
about that time.^^
More than a score of fairly detailed accounts of English
Gipsy funerals from 1769 to 191 1 have been collected,
chiefly by the Rev. Geo. Hallj Mr. E. O. Winstedt, and
myself, some from printed sources, some from the Gipsies
themselves. I do not propose to give these in full, for a
summary of the more important ceremonial observances
will be better in keeping with my present method of dis-
cussing Gipsy customs.
The body is " laid out," sometimes with the arms crossed,
sometimes with them straight down by the side ; there
seems to be no general rule or custom. Amongst the
*' See note 87. ®- Liebich, op. cit.^ p. 55.
^^ H. von Wlislocki, Vovi Wandernden Zigeunervolke, p. 296.
^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iv., p. 302.
9* The Tunes, Oct. 18, 1842.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 345
Turkish gipsies Paspati '-"' observed that they were placed
in the latter position.
The manner of clothing the corpse also varies. Some
of the tinklers, according to Simson,'-*^ used only to put
a paper cap on the head, and paper round the feet of their
dead, leaving all the rest of the body bare, except the
breast opposite the heart, where they placed a circle made
of red and blue ribbons ; but what reliance can be placed
on this statement I do not know. Isaac Heme was clothed
in pantalets, socks, and a white shirt, whilst one suit of
best clothes and an overcoat, all turned inside out, were
placed in the coffin under his body.^** Pyramus Gray was
buried in full walking-dress, the coat being turned inside
out. In the case of Tom Brown, however, none of the
splendid graveclothes that he wore, — green "cut-away"
coat, plush waistcoat, doeskin riding-breeches, and silk
stockings, — were turned inside out, for this custom seems
to be confined to some few of the Hemes and Grays, He
did not wear any boots or shoes, for that, according to my
informant, Adelaide Garratt {nee Lee), would have been
contrary to Gipsy custom. Neither she nor Lavinia Smith
ijiee Boswell) approved of Jack Lee being buried in red
morocco slippers, ^^ nor of the corpse of Cecilia Chilcott
being supplied with satin shoes. The latter was dressed in
a Scotch plaid gown and silk stockings, but another member
of the same family was buried in white silk, because she
was an unmarried girl. Eliza Heme, less ' gdji'^o.di' than
these two Chilcotts, was buried in the red cloak and bonnet
beloved of Gipsy fortune-tellers a century ago. Major
Boswell was covered with a white sheet, and a tuft of grass
was placed on his chest, according to a common custom in
Staffordshire, where he died.^°° At Wigton, in Cumberland,
^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, O.S., vol. i., p. 5. " Op. cit., p. 128.
^'^ Journal 0/ ike Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. v., pp. 41-4.
" London Evening News, 191 1.
•"" Morwood, op. cit., p. 171 ; quotation from Staffordshire .Advertiser.
Z
346 Ccre))ioniaI Cnshms of the Ih'itish Gipsies.
one-armed Chris Smith was recently buried with a sod
placed in a saucer on his breast, — a custom once preva-
lent in that county, I am told, but now extinct.^"^ The
Lancashire Boswells usually employ shrouds, but enclose
the favourite dress of the deceased in the coffin under the
body. None of the above-mentioned Gipsies wore their
jewellery, as far as we know, except Jack Lee, but to do so
is really by no means uncommon. Full dress, preferably
the best clothes that the deceased possessed, seems to be
the general rule, and many Gipsies, — I am thinking par-
ticularly of Bui Brown ^'^''- and Johnny Gray, — have made
a point of struggling into this before they died. The
former part of this statement applies equally well to most
Continental Gipsies. For instance, when Sophie Kirpatsh, —
one of a band of Eastern European Gipsy coppersmiths, —
was buried at Mitcham in 191 1, she was fully and elabo-
rately dressed and bedecked with a necklace of coins and a
massive silver belt.
Things other than the clothing and jewellery placed on
the dead body are frequently enclosed in the coffin, though
this cannot be set down as a general rule, the East Anglian
Smiths, for instance, thinking any such practice to be quite
improper. Clothes were buried with Isaac Heme, a watch
and a purse of jnoney with Cecilia Chilcott, a fiddle and a
pocket-knife with Pyramus Gray, a whip with Johnny
Gray, and a fiddle, cup, saucer, plate, knife, etc. with an
uncle of Rodney Smith. ^"^ Leland ^^^ records a case in
which a pair of new shoes was bought, and put in the
coffin, but I have been unable to obtain in England any
other examples of the practice of enclosing new things.
According to Liebich, (pp. aV., pp. 54-5), the German Gipsies
of fifty years ago used to bury the' dead man's weapons
101 Westmorland Gazette, Nov. 23, 1912.
'^^'^- Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., p. 169.
los Gipsy Smith, His Life and Work ; by Himself, p. 7.
'"* The English Gipsies and their Language (1873), pp. 5S-9.
Ceroiiouial Customs of the British Gipsies. 347
witli him. Sophie Kir[)at.sh's coffiii contained a piece of
soap, a towel, a mallet, and a flask of water, whilst at the
funeral all the mourners dropped money into it after it
had been specially opened for that purpose.
Ceremonial watching of the body between death and
burial frequently takes place. In the case of the woman
who was buried at Littlebury two long hazel sticks were
bent over the head and feet of the body, the ends being
thrust into the ground. From these hung two oil lamps,
which were kept burning all night, while two women, one
on either side of the corpse, watched, sitting on the ground.
Five tapers were placed on the lid of the coffin of an old
Gipsy woman who died near Highworth in 1830, and were
kept burning until the body was removed for interment. ^"^
When George Miller, a potter, died at Staveley in 1909,
the body was watched continuously, candles being ke[)t
burning at the head and feet of the corpse. The burning
of lights and the watciiing of the corpse are widely-
spread customs, the former being mentioned bj' Sartori ^^^
as among the means used for protecting the corpse, and
the survivors, from evil influences. What special meaning
the British Gipsies attach to them I do not know, but
amongst their Servian brethren the corpse is watched lest
anything should jump over it, in which case it would
become a vampire.^*^^ In the North of England a cat or
dog which jumped over a corpse used to be killed ; the
same prejudice being felt, as Mr. Crooke has pointed out,^"*
in many other parts of this countr)-, Ireland, China, and
the Malay Peninsula.
It is not at all certain whether the Gipsies fast cere-
monially between the death of a person and his burial.
'"Groome, In Gipsy Tents (Edinburgh, 1880), p. 121 quoting from W.
Hone, TVii; Year Book; Tegg, The Last Act ; being the funeral rites of iiations
and individuals (1876), pp. 315-8.
^'^^ Sitte und Branch (Leipsic, 1910), p. 137.
^"^ Gjorgjevie, op. cit., Teil i., p. 70.
^°^ journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., p. 181.
348 Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies.
The East Anglian Smiths and Browns, and possibly also
the Hemes, will not eat any food in a house, tent, or
waggon where a corpse is lying, which possibly sheds some
light on the fact that, when one of the Stanleys died in a
cottage in the Isle of Wight in 1900, the surviving members
of his family camped out in the garden until after the
funeral.^"^ According to Leland,^^° friends used to prepare
food for the family of the deceased for three days after his
death, but that he obtained this statement by the process
of suggestion is, unfortunately, only too probable.
The corpse is usually carried to the grave by the mourners
themselves. At the funeral of Paradise Buckler, aged 13,
who died at Belbroughton in Worcestershire in 181 5, the
coffin was carried on nothing but white pocket-handker-
chiefs, because she was an unmarried girl, this being the
custom in that county.^^^ When Lepronia Lee was buried
at Kirton, sisters and cousins wore white, but the rest
black, except that the men had white ribbons to tie their
hatbands, white gloves, and white neckties ; she too was
unmarried.^^- Mourning colours are, as a rule, avoided ;
black is sometimes worn, but Genti Gray regards red as
the proper colour. Amongst the Continental Gipsies the
colour varies, red and yellow, black, and white all being in
vogue.^^^
On the day after the funeral the complete destruction of
the deceased's personal belongings, (with the exception of
his money), and of the family tent or waggon in which
death took place, together with the entire contents thereof,
is usually carried out. In the earlier records clothes,
blankets, trinkets, a fiddle, and, in one case, books, are
"9^V. iSr (2-, 9th S., vol. xii., p. 496,
*" The English Gipsies and their Language, pp. 127-8.
"ip. H. Groome, /« Gipsy Tents, pp. 119-20 (quoting Truth, Aug. 28,
1879).
^1- Morwood, op. cit., p. 167.
^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. ii., p. 363.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 349
specially mentioned. ^^^ Living-waggons were unknown, or
comparatively rare, until half a century ago, and therefore,
if the destruction were merely a formal rite and dictated
by no real feeling, it is hardly likely that they would now
be destroyed. But to our certain knowledge three have
been burned during 191 1. On the day after the funeral of
Isaac Heme, i.e., on Feb. 25, 191 1, his son Iza, by arrange-
ment with the blacksmith of Sutton-on-Trent, brought his
father's van on to a bare patch of garden behind the smithy.
Wheels and shafts were then removed and placed, with the
harness, inside the van, which already contained bedding,
old clothes, a hat, boots, and other small articles in a
sack. Straw saturated with paraffin was placed in and
around the van, and ignited by Iza. When the fire had
burned itself out the ashes were scattered about the garden.
Everything that will burn is destroyed by fire ; after
which drowning and burying are usually employed to dis-
pose of the remains, and in some cases of the ashes from
the fire. After the death of OH Heme at Withernsea
in 1894, his wife, Wasti, had the waggon burned on the
sea-shore in the early morning, as the tide was rising, so
that the ashes might be carried away. The stove and the
iron belongings, as well as the crockery^ were broken up,
and the fragments thrown into the sea.^^^ About five
years later, when Savaina Lovell, wife of Simpronius
Bohemius (Bui) Boswell, died in Liverpool, the fragments
of the crockery, together with a battered silver tea-service,
and some articles of jewellery, were secretly dropped into
the Mersey from one of the ferry-boats, whilst, when her
'**.\rticle by J. R. T. in Hone's Table Book for June, 1827 (quotation
from a journal kept by a member of his family during the year 1769) ; Annual
Register for 1773 (Sth ed., 1793), pp. 142-3 ; Note by Cuthbert Bede in
N. &' Q., 2nd S., vol. iii. (1857), 442.
"* These details were obtained from Wasti by the Rev. George Hall. See
also Manchester City jVems, Sept. 22, 1894 ; N. &= Q., Sth S., vol. vi., p. 286 ;
Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. i., p. 358.
350 Ceremonial Ciisto77is of the British Gipsies.
clothes and bedding were burned at Jackson's Bridge a few
days later, the ashes were strewn on the canal close by.^^^
A Gipsy grinder's stone was carried two miles in order
that it might be thrown into the River Severn,^^" and the
fragments of Sinfai Heme's {nee Gray's) crockery were
transported twenty-six miles so that they might rest in the
River Tyne. Adelaide Garratt {nee Lee) asserts that not
only is drowning preferable to burying, but that it is
indispensable, because the gdjos might dig up things that
had been buried. Other Gipsies do not, however, share her
fears, Iza Heme, for instance, being quite content to bury
the fragments of his father's stove and pans and crockery,
although the River Trent could not have been far away.
Iza would not allow a gdji to obtain a charred spindle,
but he himself kept the hub caps off the wheels, together
with some hooks, and gave the iron parts of the waggon
that remained after the fire to the blacksmith. After his
mother's funeral in 1908, it is said that the hub caps
and scrap iron and silver were sold, the latter on condition
that it should be melted down. In Germany, where a
failure to perform the necessary funeral rites is followed by
the punishment of being made bale tshido, it is permissible to
retain anything that was removed from the waggon before
the entrance of death, and to sell everything else Xo gdjos
instead of destroying them.^^^ Of these practices such
English Gipsies as I have asked strongly disapprove. In
Germany they do not destroy anything at all when a child
dies, but in Sept., 191 1, at Dormington, in Herefordshire,
Cornelius and Lucina Price on the death of their four-year-
old son burned a practically new living-waggon that had
cost £Zo to build.i^^ If anything has by chance been
"* The Tramp, Oct., 1910. "' From the note by Cuthbert Bede.
"^ Wittich, Blicke in das Leben der Zigeiiner, p. 29 ; Journal of the Gypsy
Lore Society, N.S., vol. v., pp. 48-9. Cf. also Liebich, op. cit., p. 55;
Wlislocki, op. cit., p. 299 ; Gjorgjevic, op. cit., Teil i, pp. 67-72,
^^^ Hereford Journal, Sept. 23, 1911.
Ceremonial C us to jus oJ I he British Gipsies. 351
preserved that ought not to have been, then it is left
severely alone ; no one will look at it, or touch it, or
disturb it.
The favourite animals of the dead person, his horse
and his dog, for instance, are occasionally slaughtered by
English Gipsies, though this is somewhat unusual.^-" The
carcasses are generally buried, occasionally sold, but,
according to Adelaide Garratt {iicc Lee), they ought to
be disposed of under water. The last method, however, is
probably nothing more than a family idiosyncrasy, for it is
obviously impossible in the majority of cases.
Annual ceremonial visits to the grave were at one time
customary. Miller, the Doncaster historian, records that
Gipsies from the south used to visit Charles Boswell's
grave at Rossington annually, and pour a flagon of ale
on it ; ^-^ and a former curate of Selston told the Rev.
Geo. Hall that members of Dan Boswell's family used
to visit his grave there and perform the same rite. The
German Gipsies, in Liebich's time, used to pour the dead
man's favourite alcoholic drink on his grave at the time
of the funeral, and a year later hold a feast at the same
place.^" The Eastern European coppersmiths dropped
rum on Sophie Kirpatsh's coffin when it had been lowered
into the grave, and drank some themselves, returning three
days later to pour beer on the grave. On the ninth day a
feast was held, and it was said that a like ceremony would
be observed at the end of three, six, and twelve months.
The survivors frequently abstain from the favourite food
or drink of a dead relative or friend, or food or drink shared
with him just before his death, sometimes for a number of
>20See note 105; Catholic Times, Dec. 13, 1873; B. C. Smart and II. T.
Crofton, The Dialect 0/ the Eiti^lish Gypsies (2nd ed., 1875), p. 203.
'-^ K. II. Groome, In Gipsy Tents, p. iii, quoting from Miller's
Antiquities of Doncaster (Doncaster, 1804) ; N. <^ Q., 4th S., vol. iii.,
pp. 518, 557 ; Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iii., p. 235.
"^ Liebich, op. cit. , pp. 54.
352 Ceremonial Ciistovis of the British Gipsies.
years, sometimes for life. I could quote a score of instances
of abstention for this reason from such things as fish,
hedgehogs, potatoes, apples, Christmas puddings, tobacco,,
and beer.^--^ In addition to this, the German Gipsies fre-
quently fast on Fridays for a year, and used at one time to
turn vegetarians for a year,^'-^ but a similar taboo has never
been mentioned in connection with the Gipsies of Eastern
Europe. In England they also frequently abstain from the
favourite amusement of the deceased, — music, dancing, or
cards. One of the Burtons never uses the stopping-places
vi'here his dead father used to encamp ; and an aunt of
Louis Lovell, who saw him brought from Darton, where
he died, to Bradford in a suit of red flannel, swore never
to wear that coloured material again. ^'^ The taboo against
mentioning the dead by name, with which I have already
dealt, is the most widely-spread and strictly observed of
all. It has been recorded by Liebich and Wlislocki for
Germany, Servia, and Turkey, in addition to England.
Finally, an oath by a dead relative, — e.g., "By my dear
dead grandfather," — is the most sacred an English Gipsy
can swear.
There can be no doubt that the destruction of the' property
of the deceased, and of the waggon or tent and its contents,
is the main feature of Gipsy funeral rites ; and it seems to
me to be equally obvi ^us, after what has been said about
the Gipsies' fear of ceremonial contamination from clothing,
crockery, etc., that this destruction is not dictated by a
desire to supply the needs of the spirit in another worlds
but by dread, either of the contaminating power of death
or of the clinging presence of the ghost of the dead person.
That the animistic explanation is the correct one becomes
^^' A few examples will be found in Leland's The English Gipsies and their
Language, pp. 49-55-
'^"'■^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. ii., p. 365.
^^^ Crofton, " Gypsy Life in Lancashire and Cheshire," in Manchester
Literary Club Papers, vol. iii. (1877), p. 35.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 353
probable in the light of Wlislocki's proof that tlie Gipsies
are inordiiiateh' afraid of the ghosts of the dead who have
not found rest,'-'' and practically certain when it is recalled
that those who have handled a dead person do not become
taboo, and that the destruction used to be postponed,
amongst the Gipsies of Siebenbiirgen, until such time as
the soul was supposed to be freed from the body, that
is, until the latter was decomposed.^-' Further, it is sup-
ported by the statement of Cornelius Price, an English
Gipsy, that if he had not destroyed his van the spirit of
his dead son would have returned in a short time to haunt
it,'-^ and of Engelbert Wittich, a German Gipsy, that the
rite is observed because it is believed that the ghost of the
deceased must haunt the waggon in which he lived during
his life, and will find no repose until it is destroyed or
removed from the family.'-^ (That the ghost should trouble
gdjos naturally does not matter; in fact, I should think it
was rather desirable.) No evidence of any weight has been
adduced in favour of any other explanation, and I agree,
therefore, with the theory, first proposed by Mr. E. O.
Winstedt, that the destruction of the effects of the dead is,
or at any rate was, dictated by dread of the clinging or
lurking ghost. In the light of this it is quite obvious that
the manner of destruction is of minor importance, burning
and drowning being preferred solely because they are more
irrevocable than any other means.
It is probable that in their fear of the ghost of tlie
dead lies the key to the interpretation of most of the other
Gipsy funeral customs. Planting thorns on the grave, hiding
the corpse in an unfrequented place, burying it in a ditch,
1*® I'olksglaiibe und Religioser Branch der Zigeuner (Miinster, 1S91), p. 97 ;
Vom It^andernden Zigentiervolke, pp. 279 et seq.
^"^^ Journal 0/ the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. ii., p. 361.
'2* Hereford Journal, Sept. 23, 191 1.
^^ Blicke in das Leben der Zigeuner, p. 29 ; see also /ournal of the Gypsy Lore
Society, N.S., vol. v., pp. 79-80.
354 Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies.
under a tree,^^° and (if the statements of Spengler^'^^ and
Miss L. A. Smith ^•^- be accepted) under water, all seem to
be devices for preventinjjf the body from beinjj;^ walked over,
and, as such, are based on fear of the ghost, possibly of
making it uncomfortable and restless, possibly lest some
one should accidentally walk over the grave and " catch "
it. The prohibition of footwear is in all probability based
on the belief that it would keep the ghost from " walking,"
whilst the same belief may underlie the custom of turning
the clothes inside out. In the latter case, however, an
alternative reason suggests itself, namely, that the device
was intended to prevent the stupid ghost from losing its
way during its journey to the other world, for, according
to his son, a half-breed named Winter used to turn his coat
inside out whenever he got lost, with the inevitable result
that he very soon found the right road.^^-^ Articles enclosed
in the cofhn, — " bits o' things what the dead person was
more fonder on than others, an' might find the want of,"
according to Lavinia Smith {nee Boswell), — would no doubt
content it, and lessen the chance of its returning to trouble
those left behind. In the particular case of Rodney Smith's
uncle, however, practically all his possessions were placed
in his coffin, instead of being destroyed, so that nobody
should ever use them again. The enclosure of a pair of
new shoes in the coffin of Job Cooper seems to have been
nothing more than an individual eccentricity, comparable
with the curious behaviour of another of Leland's Gipsy
friends, who burned his waggon on being jilted by the girl
whom he had intended to marry.^^^ The desire further to
130 j^ Twiss, Travels through Portugal and Spain ^ In I'/J2 and /JJS ('775).
pp. 179-80.
^'■^^ Heister, Ethnographische und geschichtliche A'otizen iibcr die Zigeutur
(Kiinigsberg, 1842), p. 51.
!•'" Through J^omany Songland {iSSg), p. 51.
^^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N. S., vol. vi., p. 149.
^^■* English-Gipsy Songs, pp. 68-9.
Ceremonial Customs of the British Gipsies. 355
content the ghost probabl}' underlies the shiughter of
favourite animals, and possibl)' also the pouring of beer or
spirits on tiie grave. WwX. to mention the dead person's name
would summon it at once. " He don't want her to walk,"
was the explanation offered by old Frank Elliot to the
Rev. Geo. Hall of a Gipsy's reluctance to mention his dead
sister's name. The Servian and Turkish Gipsies, on the
seventh night after the burial, call on the dead person by
name, promise never to use his name again, and implore
him to quit the earth and not let his ghost torment his
friends.^^^ The ghost might be inhabiting the favourite
camping places of the dead person, so they are avoided,
whilst to indulge in his favourite amusement or to eat his
favourite food would be to invite it to join in the entertain-
ment or meal.
If the interpretations that I have suggested be accepted
as substantially correct, it follows that the funeral cere-
monies of the British Gipsies fall into two classes. The more
important of these comprises those rites that are dictated
by a dread of the clinging, lurking, or haunting presence of
the ghost ; considered as a class, they are almost universal
amongst Gipsies. The less important comprises those that
are based on a desire by thoughtful ministration and
abstention to avoid giving it any cause, or offering it any
inducement, to return ; these have a more limited currency.
In South-Eastern Europe neither class is well represented,
for the Gipsies there practise funeral rites that are not
readily distinguished from those of their ^ov?/c? neighbours.
I have now recorded all that is relevant to my subject,
and perhaps a little that some may consider to be
irrelevant. My main object has been to provoke discussion,
and to stimulate and give a direction to the research work
in which we are engaged. The interpretations I have
suggested and the theories I have advanced are put forward
quite tentatively for the present. But what stands out most
'•'» Wlislocki, Volksglaube^ p. 96.
356 Cerciuonial Ciisloius of the British Gipsies.
clearh' from the mass of material here presented is, firstl}',
the Gipsies' dread of contamination, and the taboos natur-
ally arising" therefrom ; and, secondly, the main features of
their funeral rites, founded, as I believe, upon their dread
of the clinging, lurking, or haunting presence of the ghost.
These, at any rate, are intensely Gipsy. Their persistence
through long ages, and their existence in our very midst
to-day, add another to the many romances alike of folk-
lore and of gipsy-lore. Unlike family organization they
have been better preserved in the West than in the East
of Europe, but like it they probably date from a time ante-
cedent to the first arrival of the Gipsies in the European
continent, for there is a marked absence of parallels to
them in European folklore. Strongly contrasted with the
unity and persistence of these taboos and funeral rites is
the variety and instability of the marriage rites, a variety
and instability that suggests that they originally had none
at all, but acquired such as they have practised from time
to time by borrowing from the gdjos with whom they are
now in contact, or with whom they have been in contact
within comparatively recent times, and this view is
strengthened by the fact that parallels to most of them,
more especially to those of the gipsies of Eastern Europe,
can be found in European folklore. That they do borrow
from gdjos is, I think, no longer in doubt ; at any rate, since
their arrival in England they have picked up (and possibly
helped to disseminate) many of our native tunes, songs and
dances, medical recipes, charms, and omens. The general
tenor of the customs taken as a whole, and the tone of mind
that prompts them, are characteristic of a people in a low
state of civilization.
•T. W. Thompson.
COLLECTANEA.
Cretan Folklore Notes.
(With Plate VI.)
Binding Churches. — The photographs (Plate VI.) represent two
churches at the little village of Evgenike (Ei'yeruc/)), a drive of
two hours south of Candia. It is a common practice throughout
Greece, when a village is devastated by an epidemic, to vow a
binding of the church or churches with wax candles. The thin
wax caudles are knotted together and tied round the church as in
the photographs. For any serious epidemic spiritual help may be
invoked in this way ; the most frequent plague, and consequently
the most frequent cause of binding the church, is meningitis. But
there is no special connection between that particular disease and
the custom. Further, no reason is assigned, so far as I could learn,
for the binding of the church. All the persons of whom I inquired
informed me simply that the candles were offered as a gift (Swpoi/)
to the Virgm or the Saint to whom the church belonged. The
act of binding seems to have lost any significance it may once
have had.
The following items I gatliered chiefly round our camj) fire
on Mount Ida when we were excavating the Kamares cave.
The greatest of practical archaeologists, the Cypriote foreman,
Grig6ri Antonion, supplied n)ost of the information.
Fumigating against Evil. — One evening he produced from his
luggage some laurel and a packet of olive leaves, both of which he
had brought from Cyprus. The former he presented to us for
seasoning the cooking ; with the latter he fumigated us to ward off
evil influences (5id tIiv ocfjOuXixov, " for the eye "). He explained
358 Collectanea.
that in Cyprus they do not use incense, as they do in Greece, for
domestic fumigation, because incense is used for the dead.
Instead, for domestic spiritual requirements, they use the Palm-
Sunday olive leaves. The leaves are taken into the church on
Palm Sunday, where they are offered as " palms," and left in the
church for forty days. When this period has elapsed they are
taken out and used as incense in households.
Folk-Medicine. — Scorpion bites Grigori cures by putting the
head of the scorpion that bit you on the wound ("a hair of the
dog that bit you ").
Divination. — One evening the conversation turned on divina-
tion. At Knossos once, Grigori discovered who had broken his
7iargileh by means of the sieve.
At his home in Cyprus lives an old woman who takes a hand-
ful of beans and throws them on the table and divines by means
of them. Grigori firmly believes in her powers, and told us that
she had correctly informed his wife of his being on the sea on
his way back to Cyprus.
Divination by the shoulder-blade of sheep (cr-aAAa or kovtoKo)
is ])ractised by shepherds. The men of Sphakia are the experts
at this mode of prophecy. I subsequently discussed this topic
with the Abbot of the monastery of Arkadhi. He was much
interested in such matters, and particularly in pla7ichette, to which
a travelling German had once introduced him. On theological
grounds he was much distressed at the German's statement that
spirits of the dead wrote the answers, and proved to his own
satisfaction that it could not be the dead but that it must be evil
spirits {uKapdara TTvevfiaTa). He firmly believed in the divina-
tion by the speal-bone, and told long stories of the foretelling of
the sack of the monastery by the Turks in 1866. He confirmed
the reputation of the Sphakiani, but appeared to think that the
diviners of these degenerate days were not equal to their pre-
decessors, and that in the rest of Crete the art was dying out.
There was one shepherd, whose name unfortunately I have for-
gotten, from the village of Anogia, of whom he spoke with respect.
I heard of the speal-bone also in Thessaly and Pindus, but
there the practice was always referred to with contempt as a fast-
disappearing shepherd superstition.
Plate VI.
J^
KOF^'-^'V*^^..
niXDlXC CHl'RCHKS WITH WAX CANDI.HS IX CRKTK.
To face p. 35S.
Collectanea. 359
The Abbut of Arkadhi was also familiar with the " Bible and
Key." His method api)arently was to balance the key on the
finger and recite a certain Psalm. He seemed reluctant to specify
the particulars to a foreigner, layman, and heretic.
Supernatural Beings. — An old man whom Mr. Dawkins and I
came across in the village of Phaneromeni, in the Messara,
declared that the Kamares cave itself was haunted, and he
prophesied that we should do no good there. He had once
been a shepherd on the hill and had gone into the cave, and
there he had seen an Arabaizella, whose lower lip hung down to
her waist. He had raised his gun and fired, and she disa|)peared,
the bullet passing right through her and hitting the other side of
the cave. We had, however, no ghostly trouble with workmen,
and, at any rate when in company, these old men's tales are not
taken very seriously by the younger generation.
The story is interesting as a projection of a spook out of folk-
tales. Arabatzilla is the feminine diminutive of Araps, the black
spirit corresponding to an ifrit, who regularly appears in Greek
fairy tales. And in folk-tales of the Xear East these beings are
consistently described as having an upper lip which reaches to
heaven and a lower lip which touches the ground, a feature, I
fancy, of Oriental origin introduced into Greek stories through the
Turkish. It is interesting to notice that, when the old man saw a
bogey, it should possess the stereotyped trait of the bogies of his
folk-tales.
Drolls. — In the villages on the southern slopes of Mt. Ida
and in the i)lain of the Messara Gotham stories are told about
the village of Anogia, which is just the other side of the mountain.
Nearly all the stories which the shepherds told us round the camp
fire began, "Once upon a time there was a man of Anogia," and
went on to tell how he was persuaded that his gourd had given
birth to a hare, or how he tried to rake the moon from a well.
As a matter of fact Anogia is a large and exceedingly prosperous
village, and, to judge from their material success its inhabitants
must be well above the average in intelligence and business
capacity.
W. R. Hallid.\v.
o
60 Collectanea.
Quebec Folklore Notes, III.
A De'iil-Child. — A woman living in a village not far from
Montreal, who was formerly a good Catholic, began to neglect
her religious duties seriously. Her impiety culminated during
her pregnancy, when she repulsed a vendor of religious pictures,
saying that she would as lief have the devil in the house. In due
time her child arrived, and showed extraordinary precocity. He
was born with teeth ; he learned to speak when a month old ;
and, in general, he so astonished his parents, as well as the
neighbours, who came from all sides to see the prodigy, that
they began seriously to discuss the advisability of killing him.
The child overheard them, and interposed with the significant
remark, "If you kill me, there will come seven worse than I."^
He vetoed another proposal to send him to a travelling show as
a "freak," declaring that they should never make money out of
him.
L. B. is rather sceptical about this story, and says she would
like to see the child (who is now alive, aged about twenty) before
believing in it entirely ; but she is of opinion that the creature
was sent as a punishment to its parent, and sure that "il n'est pas
comme les autres enfants." In telling the tale she showed, like
most habitants, marked reluctance to make any actual mention of
the Evil One.
Folk- Medicine. — To cure whooping-cough, take a large cater-
pillar, of a certain species black at both ends and yellow in the
middle. Touch it to make it curl up, but be sure not to hurt it.
Then put it in a tailor's thimble, enclose this in a bag, and hang
it around the patient's neck. As the caterpillar dries up, the
disease will disappear. -
L. B. once kept a number of these caterpillars as pets, but her
brother drowned them all. Next spring, before the caterpillars of
that species appeared, all the children of the family had whooping-
cough, the offending brother being the' worst sufferer. He was in
* Cf. .S". Maltke'v, cap. xii., v. 45.
"Cf. J. Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-Lore, p. 156; Mrs.
Gutch, County Folk-Lore, vol. vi. (East Riding), p. 72 ; vol. ii. (North
Riding), p. iSo.
Collcclanca. ^6 1
o'
high disfavour with both L. B. and her lather for having brought
the disease upon the family.
For a sore throat, take a stocking which has been worn, the
dirtier the better, and tie it inside-out about the neck, making
sure that tlie sole is next to the sore place. (L. B. takes this
quite seriously. When one of us, having an attack of tonsilitis,
used a golf-stocking to fasten on an improvised cold compress, she
was distressed to find that the stocking was clean.) ^
Children. — If a child cuts its teeth very early, the next one will
be born before long.^
To aid children in teething, a hole should be made in a five-
cent piece (the smallest Canadian silver coin, about the size of an
English threepence), and this fastened about the neck with a
string by one of the godparents. The teeth will then come
easily.
A child's nails should not be cut before it is a year old, as it
will either be bad or have a poor memory.^
A baby who cries a great deal will grow up handsome.
To smack it in the traditional fashion promotes its growth.
Dreams and Omens. — To dream of finding money is unlucky ;
to dream of losing it means that someone will find some.
To dream that one's own or anyone else's hair is verminous
portends good luck.
It is unlucky to fasten up a dress crookedly.
To bump your elbow means that a friend is coming.
A long thread on the dress promises a new lover («« nouveau
cavalier).
If a girl splashes herself in washing clothes, dishes, etc., she
will marry a drunkard.^
•* This use of a dirty stocking for sore throat is common in Yorkshire. Cf. also
Mrs. M. C. Kalfour, County Folk-Lore, vol. iv. (Northumberland), p. 47. [Ed.]
* Cf. W. Henderson, iViJ/iTj- on the Folk- Lore of the Northern Counties etc.,
p. 19.
*The usual penalty in England is that the child will grow up a thief. Cf. ,
for example, W. Henderson, op. cit., p. 16.
•"A wet apron [in washing] means a drunken husband," is said in York-
shire, and a similar belief is general, e.,^. C. J. Billson, County Folk-Lore^
vol. i. (Leicestershire and Rutland), p. 66. [Ed.]
2 A
362 Collectanea.
Tacking-threads in clothes indicate that they are not yet paid
for.
If anyone is very sick during a sea-voyage, but recovers quickly
on landing, his health will always be good.
E. H. and H. J. Rose.
PlEDMONTESE FOLKLORE, II.
Charms. — If seven frogs are killed during the duration of a rain-
bow, and pulverized, the resulting powder will cure fever.
To make a woman go mad, horse hoofs and ox horns should be
ground to powder, mixed, and hung in a small bag in the doorway
so that the woman will touch it in passing.
Witches and Witchcraft. — The three following stories were told
to me by the priest and an old peasant at Cogne, in the Val
d'Aosta : —
At Moncuc there was an alpe (mountain hut) in which lived
a cheesemaker. One day he gave an old woman who begged
from door to door some boiling whey in spite. "Thou shalt
make no more cheese," said the old woman. The following night
a landslip came down and destroyed the hut, and on its site there
is now a big boulder {cianet), in the middle of which is a hole. If
you throw stones down the hole, you will hear metallic sounds from
the cauldron of the cheesemaker. The old peasant who told me
the tale said he remembered, when a young shepherd, having
thrown stones in the hole and heard the sound of the cauldron.
An old woman belonging to the village of Cartaselle used to
walk every evening to Lilla, spinning all the way, and returning
home at midnight. Some peasants of Lilla became very curious
about her, and decided one evening to stop her and ask for her
conocchia (distaff). She thanked them; disappeared, and was not
seen again.
In the Mogne castle used to be seen, between 11 p.m. and
3 a.m., great lights and people dancing to the sound of musical
instruments. But one day all this ceased.
Collectanea. ^6
J^v)
A man at S. Jean was toasting his bread, when a woman came
and placed herself in front of the stove. A goat came out of the
stable and went up to her, and she put her hand on its head. The
animal at once fell lame. So the owner quickly took up a knife
and cut off the goat's head. This broke the charm. The goat
became all right again, and the woman became lame. When dying,
the woman averred that four carts would not suffice to carry the
yokes of the cattle which she had destroyed by her sorceries.
The Devil. — A cross was erected on the summit of the rock of
Cavour to the memory of the Cavourese who died fighting there
in 1 69 1. But the peasants give it quite a different origin. They
say that the Devil himself was once lord of Cavour, and lived on
the top of this rock. The human inhabitants determined to get
rid of him by erecting a cross on the very spot. The undertaking
proved very difficult, but they finally succeeded, and then the
Devil, uttering horrible yells, threw himself into the Nether
Regions. He clutched the rock as he fell, and left indelible
prints of three fingers, which can still be distinguished. On the
summit of the same rock there is a large hole, and tradition says
that there is at the bottom of the hole a car laden with gold and
drawn by two yoke of oxen. The car is guarded by the Devil,
who revenges himself on the peasants who drove him away, by
ruining all those who seek to obtain the treasure.
Cavourese legends ascribe to the Devil the power of transforming
himself into many shapes, — a black ram, lovely child, cat, crow,
vulture, eagle, and sometimes even a dove, — although his com-
monest shape is a toad. If, when in any of his shapes, he suddenly
disappears, it is because a saint from Paradise has appeared. For
instance, at the abbey-church of St. Benignus, the imprint is shown
of a taloned hand. The Devil, spited by the monks sending many
souls straight to Paradise, proposed to crush the church and all
within it by throwing the belfry on top of it. But St. Benignus
suddenly appeared, with all the martyred saints of the convent,
and the Devil disappeared in terror.
The old bridge between Mt. Bunasco and Mombasso was built
by the Devil, who, in order to prove that he was the architect, left
a print of his taloned feet in a rock just in front of a neighbouring
chapel.
364 Collectanea.
There is a tale of a poor girl, called Carina, who was the joy of
her friends and of her betrothed. Both her parents died suddenly,
and her betrothed was called up by the conscription. Nor did
her misfortunes end here, for a few days later a terrible tempest
swept over her little plot of ground, destroying everything. The
poor creature in her despair prayed that death would have mercy
on her. Suddenly a dark angel appeared, and offered her every
happiness if she would give her soul to him. Carina, however,
shut her eyes and crossed herself devoutly, whereupon the Devil
disappeared in smoke. But the terrible effects never left Carina.
She heard strange noises in the night, and saw processions of
spectres. This could not long be borne, and she died. Her
betrothed returned to find her in her grave. Even there Carina
is not at rest, for her spirit is seen to hover about the road, calling
her betrothed in piteous accents. She waits for "a reply, and, when
none comes, returns weeping to her tomb.
Folk-Tale. — A shepherd once lost a goat. He looked for it
everywhere. Not finding it in the neighbourhood, he went up
to the mountains to search for it, to the Piano di St. Martino,
a mountain between the Antrona and Anzasca valleys. He lost
his way and never returned home. His voice is still heard, but
he cannot be found.
Mountain Spirit. — A shepherd went up Mt. Becetto, near
Sampeyre, to the Piano del Vino, with his flock, and waited till
evening the arrival of another shepherd, one of his friends, so that
the two of them, with their flocks, might go home together. The
jodel of another friend was heard, and to it a girlish voice
answered from the top of the mountain. This voice continued
as long as the shepherd remained on the spot. Getting frightened
he began to run homewards, but the voice followed him all the
way, and only ceased when he fell asleep.
ESTELLA CaNZIANI.
Collectanea. 365
CouNTv Clake P'olk-Tales and Myths, III. {continued from
p. 2X2.).
(With Plate VII.).
6. The Danish Wars and King Brian.
In the district that produced The Wars of the Gaedhil with the
Gall as a pcean on the winning of its hard-won independence
one would expect a mass of stories relating to the Danes and
Norse. But this is so far from being the case that the very phrase
" Danish forts " is rarely used among the peasantry, though common
in the mouths of "half-read" persons. The "forts," in fact, are
traditionally the homes of the De Danann, of the contemporaries
of Fergus and Diarmuid, and of the early Dalcassians. Rarely
indeed do we meet the term Caher Lochlannach or " Norse fort,"
{not Danish), nor have I found the name in any Clare record before
the Book of Distribution and Survey in 1655 (if, even there,
" Caherloglin " be not some such name as " Cathair lochlain "). I
found the name in use only near Lisdoonvarna, where it was
unmistakably Caherlochlannach. At Kiltumper the base of a
little kerbed cairn called "Tumpers Grave," between Kilmihiland
Doolough, was reputed in 1839 to be the grave of a Danish chief
chased by a Dalcassian army from the stone ring fort of Caher-
murraha (or Cahermurphy) to the Kiltumper ridge, slain, and
buried there.^ The " heathen Danes " or " black Danes " appear
vaguely enough; they were "great druids" (magicians), "made the
heather into beer,"^ and smoked the "Danes' pipes. "^ I hardly
like to repeat a legend at Attyflin, before 1870, that "they (the
Danes) rode eight-legged horses," yet where could the peasantry of
County Limerick at that date have heard of Sleipnir ? Even the
gentry, I believe, were unacquainted with tales from the Edda,
which I first heard of in 1878; at the earlier date I was also told
about the Danes that " they used to swim in the ditches round the
forts." In 1877 a retainer of the Morelands of Raheen on Lough
Derg, and an old fisherman, on my first visit to Iniscaltra (Holy
Island) in that great lake, told me of the Danes. No one would
^ Ordnance Sw-vey Lettrrs (Co. Clare) (Ms. Royal Irish Acad.), vol. ii., p. 46.
'•*So at Lough Graney in 1893. * Really seventeenth-century tobacco pipes.
366 Collectanea.
injure the fences at the churches "for the Danes made them";
the people were less afraid to injure the churches themselves, for
" the saints are in heaven and will not come back, but who knows
where the Danes are ? " " They [nit the forts to mark their estates,
and maybe they'll come back to claim them." "They killed all
the clergy in the churches and the (round) tower, and burned them
(the churches) all." The Danes were reputed to have tails, as I
heard widely about 1870. The stone fort of Caherscrebeen, near
Lemaneagh Castle, Inchiquin, had amongst its treasure caves and
cells one " full of Danes' beer, beor lochlafinach, the best of all
drinks." The old divisions on the hills were made by the Danes
to mark out their heather meadows.
Such appear to be all the impressions that remain, upon the
mind of the folk a thousand years later, of the two terrible half-
centuries 810-50 and 900-70.
So far I can write with little hesitation, but in the legends of the
great deliverer Brian, son of Cennedigh, the collector of folklore
is in constant danger of deception. How far any of the legends
are really old and independent of books, and how far apparently
independent versions were derived from books in the early years
of the last century, I cannot pretend to decide. Now the corrup-
tion is unquestionable ; the popular press and many excellent
little books, besides tourists and others who make enquiries not
always judicious and even supply information directly, have in the
last ten years overlaid nearly all the folk-tales.
The tale of King Brian best attested as traditional relates to the
dam built by him across the outflow of Lough Derg to drown out
his enemies living up the river, and to the fort of Ballyboru con-
structed by him to defend the end of it. The Halls and Windele
found the tale existing over seventy years ago,* and I found it
among the peasantry of Counties Clare and Tipperary near the
fort, among the fishermen on Lough Derg, and among the old folk
and gentry, never varied, from 1889- 1906. Mrs. Hall was told by
an old woman in 1843 that Balboruma was King Brian Boru's
dining room. Windele about 1839 heard that there were two
■'Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Ireland, vol. iii., p. 420. J. ^Vindele, Topo-
graphical J/s. (Royal Irish Academy, 12. c. 3), pp. 614-27, calls Balboru
" the circular rath of Kincora."
Collectanea. 367
sunken ways from Kincora to it, — along one of which the dinner
was carried, the servants returning by the other, — but I always
found Balboruma identified with Kincora. De Latocnaye in 1797 ^
heard that the fort where the Shannon issues from the lake was
" O'Bryan Borhom's palace." O'Donovan was told that the walls
of Kincora were of dry stone, but when he subsequently visited
Killaloe in 1S39 he found that no old person remembered the
building as still standing ; so it was evident that his earlier
informant regarded Balijoruma as Kincora.'' There was said to be
a passage under the river from the fort to County Tii^perary, and
on Craglea the precipice and well were still connected with the
banshee. In 1893 the Grianan Lachtna fort was said to be a house
of King Brian, the Parc-an-each his horse paddock, and the Cloch-
aniona (clock an fhiona) his wine cellar." The last named is a
late-looking ivied ruin across the river, in Tipperary. Thanks to
Mr. Robert White of Kincora House, and the Parkers of Bally-
valley, I was put on the track of many local stories in 1892-4,
before modern changes had affected them.
One of the chief localized tales was about the " Graves of the
Leinster Men " and Lachtrelyon on the flank of Thountinna
mountain in Co. Tipperary to the north-east of Killaloe. At the
former were some low standing stones and an old avenue, and at
the latter a huge rock behind which were traces of a cairn. The
latter was called in English "The Leinster Man's Grave" and
" The Leinster King's Grave," or, in Irish, Knockaunrelyon and
Lachtrelyon {cnocdn or leacht-righ laigheaii). When the cairn was
partly removed, a large human skeleton and rusted iron weapons
were found. These were given or sold to a Mr. Molloy, but I
could not trace their ownership in 1892. The tale then ran that
^Promenade iVnn franfois en Irlande, p. 153.
* It was probably the revival of the name at the modern house that led the
people of the neighbourhood to separate Kincora from Balboruma ; it had
arisen in 1843, for in Hall, loc. cit., we find that "his kitchen was at Kincora
where the steamboat station now is."'
'The Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Tipperary), vol. ii., p. 28(1840), render
it "stone of the wine," but clock is very common for a castle, and sometimes
used for a church ; e.g. Cloghnarold, Harold's Castle (Co. Limerick), Cloghan-
savaun (Co. Clare), Cloghjordan (Co. Tipperary), and many more.
368 Collectanea.
King Brian Boru engaged his daughter to the King of Leinster,
who came to fetch her. But Brian's wife did not like the match,
and sent soldiers to hide on the hill. They attacked the Leinster
Prince, and after " a big fight " several of his men were slain and
he was mortally wounded. He entreated his men to carry him to
the head of the pass so that he might die in sight of Leinster, and
they did so, and buried him there, facing Leinster. They alsa
buried their slain comrades down the hillside under the stones
called "The Graves of the Leinster Men" (see Plate VIL).
Such was the older story, evidently not derived from a book,
but now there is an altered version. In 1906 I heard that the
King of Leinster came to pay his rent to Brian Boru, and
brought a " maypole " as a present. When he came to Kin-
cora, "Brian's bad wife" called him "a sneak" for paying taxes
and sent him away, and then told her husband that the King
would pay no rent. Brian, in a passion, went with all his men by
the short cut under the river from Ballyboru to Rine Innish, and
caught and beat the Leinster men. And when their King fell,
"badly hurt," "Brian came to abuse him and heard all, and he
was very sorry and carried him up to where he could see Leinster,"
and " set by him till he died, and buried him there." The tales
vary on the mountain as to Brian's subsequent meeting with his
wife; "he ran and broke her head," says one, and "she ran off to
the Danes when he offered to bate her," says another. My uncle's
gamekeeper at Townlough said that old people told how "they"
dug behind the Knockaun "and got big bones there." As will be
seen, the early story is free from all those details from The Wars
of the Gaedhil with which the later version is amplified and over-
laid.^ Possibly the original tale did not refer to King Brian at all,
as the cairn burial seems to date it long before 1014.^
In 1889 it was related at Killaloe and O'Brien's Bridge that
Brian Boru broke down the curious half-rebuilt O'Brien's Bridge
to escape from the hot pursuit of a great Danish army from
Limerick. The stone-vaulted romanesque church beside the
Cathedral of St. Flannan was said to be " Brian Boru's vault," and
the far later richly-carved doorway of the older Cathedral was said
^Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxix., pp. 2IO-I.
• However, cairns may have been made even later in some cases.
Plate VII.
1. THE (iRAVKS OF THE LEIXSTER MEN ( TI IT'ERARV).
2. ARMADA CAR\IX(; AT SI'AXLSH I'OIXI" (CL.ARE).
To face /. 368.
I
Collectanea. 369
to have been made for liini as a door for his palace, and some
said that he was buried under the early Celtic tombstone in its
recess. He was, of course, actually buried at Armagh Cathedral,
in accordance with his will.
I got a doubtful story, from a suspected source near Broadford,
that Brian hid his cattle from the Danes in the fort called Lisnagry
("cattle fort") near the pass of Formoyle. I learn from Dr. G.
U. MacNamara that Brian Boru's well at Elnivale near Inchiquin
Lake is locally said to be named from a red cow {bo-ruadh) and
not from the King. The modern story that "Brian Boru was
made King of County Clare " at the mound of Magh Adliair did
not exist there in i8yi, and I forced the old man who told it to
me to confess that he had "got it from a knowledgeable man, a
sapper" on the Ordnance Survey, about 1895. Much history,
spread during this survey, is becoming bogus antique tradition. i*^
7. Other Traditions up to a.d. 1270.
The Annals tell how, in 1086, three named Connaught chiefs
fell in a raid into Corcomroe. Two curious stories, evidently
genuine folk versions of the raid, are attached to the great cairn of
Cairn Connachtagh in the marshy fields at Ballydeely between
Ennistymon and Lisdoonvarna. I was told in 1878 (and Dr.
W. H. Stacpoole Westropp remembered the legend as extant long
before then) that the King of Connacht went to Loop Head and
returned "with lots of men and cows chained together," and the
Clare men (some said " under the O'Briens," comparatively late
settlers in that district), attacked the Connaught men and killed
all except three chiefs, and buried the dead (or the chiefs) under
the big cairn. Others said only that a king was killed in a battle
there and buried under it.^^ In 1839, and long after, it was told
how a Connaught army hunted a big serpent to the spot and killed
I'Mr. P. J. Lynch gives a still later "antique"' tradition, told to him on
the spot, that an old tree grew there and an Orangeman came from Ulster and
cut it down, — an obvious modernization of the Bili Maigh Adhair, a venerated
tree, felled by the Ulstermen in 976, or of its successor cut by Aedh O'Connell
of Connacht in 105 1.
*^ So the late Professor Brian O'Looney.
370 Colicctayiea.
it, and buried it under the cairn. ^^ i^^e first story is probably to
be connected with the tales of the raids of the three brothers of
Loop Head against the plunderers of their flocks/^ as all the three
opposing chiefs came from a few miles away. The cairn is
almost certainly Cam mic Tail, the inauguration place of the
Corca-Modruadh tribes. i*
The Norman invasion has left in County Clare no traditions
known to me. It hardly affected Clare in the time of King
Donaldmore, while his two sons, and especially Donchadh Cair-
breach, had more or less friendly relations with the foreigners.
He was remembered as the builder of Limerick Cathedral, and a
slab near the west door, with an encircled cross between four
fantastic animals, was (at least in later tradition) ^^ believed to
mark his grave. None of his numerous Clare foundations, —
Killone, Canon's Island, Inchicronan, Clare "Abbey, and Cor-
comroe, — was attributed to him, and the last named was definitely
assigned to his grandson Conor. Donchadh Cairbreach was also
forgotten as the founder of Ennis " Abbey."
Croohoore na Siudame. — Conchobar Ruadh succeeded Don-
chadh in 1242. He was an able prince who forced the Normans
to recognize him, and, aided by his gifted son Tadhg Caoluisge na
Briain, expelled them from all their settlements in Clare. He
fell in quelling a rebellion in 1269 at a place called Siudainc near
Corcomroe Abbey,^^ and was buried in the chancel of that
monastery, where his effigy still remains. He is locally remem-
^^ Ordnance Sui'uey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i. , p. 309. Serpents and the
Black Pig are frequently associated with famous meeting places of pagan times.
See De Vismes Kane, Proceedings of A'oyal Irish Academy, vol. xxvii., p. 301.
^^Cf. supra, p. 104.
^■■Cf. Life of St. Maccreciiis and Antials of the Four Masters.
^^ It is not mentioned by Dyneley in his description of the Cathedral, in
Harris' IVare's Bishops, or in any authority known older than i860, such as
the Historical Memoirs of the O'Briens. Lenilian describes it in Lime7-ick : its
histoiy etc. (1866), adding that lions are the arms of the O'Briens, but not
hinting that the slab was connected with Donaldmore. The late Dean
O'Brien had it moved to the steps of the monument of the Earls of Thomond,
resting it in a handsome base.
^* Not behind Ballyvaughan, as marked on the Ordnance Survey maps, but
near the Castles of Muckinish.
Collectanea. 371
bered as "Croohoore na Sudany," and is reputed to have built the
noble early fortress of Dun Conor or " Doon Croohoore," on the
middle Isle of Aran. He may have repaired it, or added a late-
seeming bastion to its outer wall, but the place is evidently of very
early origin. In a poem by Mac Liac, King Brian's bard, about
1000, the island was assigned to Concraid, son of Umor, a
Firbolg chief at the beginning of our era. Probably the names
Concraid and Conchobhar were confused in the poi)ular mind,^'
and the close connection between Aran and Corcomroe familiarised
the Aran men with Conor's monument and history. Hugh
Brigdall in 1695 notes "a monument or statue of ye O'Bryens in
this Abbey nicknamed Concuba na Siudne."*^ Local tradition
in the middle of the nineteenth century said that he fell in battle
and was buried where he fell, and the Abbey built over him.^* A
cruder story about 1849 said that he fell smoking, and was buried
with his pipe in his mouth ! This was still told at the Abbey in
1878, but it is hard to tell how it originated, as the face is clean
shaven and unbroken. I found no trace of the pipe story in 1885,
but by 1900 it had been revived among young men "guides,"
falsely so called, for the benefit of tourists.
A tale existed before 1870 which was curiously like the tales of
Solomon putting Hiram and the temple-builders to death, the
Strasburg clock, and so on. Conor got five skilled masons to
build the Abbey of Corcomroe, and as soon as they had finished
the chancel and east chapels he killed them, lest they should build
similar structures elsewhere \ this explains the rude, bald ugliness
of the rest of the ruin and its beautiful east end. In recent years
^"^ Revue Celtiijne, vol. xv. , p. 478, from the Rennes Dindsenchas, sec. 78, ed.
by VV. Stokes. Roderic O'Flalierty says " Chonquovar" {Ogygia and A Cho'o-
graphical Description of \V(st or H-Iar Counaught).
^* Ms. Trinity Coll., Dublin, i. i. 2, pp. 332 (Cominottplcue Book relating to
Ireland).
^^ Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., p. 156, collected by John
O'Donovan and Eugene O'Curry. A very inaccurate view of the monument is
given in the Dublin Penny Journal, vol. ii. (1834), p. 341, and in Canon
Dwyer's Handbook to Lisdoonvarna (1876), p. 81. The account in the former
says wrongly that the monument is of " Donchadh" O'Brien, slain in " 1267."'
Donchadh also fell in battle and was buried in the Abbey (in 131 7), but the
monument is for Conchobhar, whose powerful son reigned for many years later.
372 Collectanea.
Donaldmore has taken Conor's place as the slayer, because he is
now known to be the actual founder.^"
Torloughmore is remembered as the " founder " {i.e. restorer)
of Ennis Abbey. Strange to say, a few generations after his death
an unflattering tale is told of this special favourite of Clare
historians in the Appendix to a Life of St. Senan. Theodoric,
son of Tatheus, enraged by the monks of Iniscathaigh permitting
a husbandman to take sanctuary, invaded St. Senan's iermon at
cm mic an dubhain (Kilmacduan), and dragged forth the refugee.
On the second night after the sacrilege, the saint appeared to the
prior of Iniscathaigh, and said that lie was going to punish
Theodoric. The Prince saw that same night in a vision St. Senan,
who rebuked him and struck his leg with the crozier. No doctor
could 'cure the wound, which mortified, and Theodoric died.-^
No definite folk-tale seems to refer to "Torlough's war."-- The
second war is, however, well represented.
Claraghmore. — It is wonderful how deep has been the impression
made in tradition by the war of Murchad, Prince of Thomond,
(Torlough's son) with Sir Richard de Clare in 1310-18. But it is
confused and is centred on the Norman leader, locally known
as "Claraghmore" (the great De Clare), bearing no trace until
recent years of deriving anything from the records. The second
prose epic of Thomond, the Cathreim Thotrdhealbhaigh.{"l^x'mm'p\\s
of Torlough "), a bombastic but very reliable history (usually
assigned to 1459 on the sole authority of a late eighteenth-century
copy, but from internal evidence earlier than 1360),"-^ has made
no impression on the folk-tales down at least to 1891. A very
vague memory of a battle near Clare Abbey is believed to refer to
the fierce fight there in 1276, but the tradition gives no data. An
-"[The tale of the slaying of a great architect by his jealous employer is
found throughout the Old World ; see, for examples, the Roumanian ballad of
Manoli, and note by W. A. Clouston in A''. 6^ (}., 7th S. vol. iv. (1S87),
p. 141. — Ed.]
-^ J. Colgan, Acta Sanctortan etc. (1645), Torn i., March 8lh, sec. xiv,
22 Unless a vague fight " where the English were beaten " near Ballycarr be
Torlough's victory in Tradree.
-'^Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxxii., Sec. C, Pt. ii.,
pp. 139-40.
Collectanea.
J/ o
equally vague tale-^ at Mortyclough has been referred to the
decisive battle of Corconiroe in 13 17, which, however, was certainly
fought on the ridge close to the Abbey, between it and Ijealaclugga
creek, and not at Mortyclough. It is probable that the name
Mothar tighe cloice (" fort of the stone house," and in its phonetic
form Mortyclough), suggested to someone the meaning Mortough's
tombstone, and was explained by the slaying of " Mortough
Garbh O'Brien " in the battle. He was a rather obscure adherent
of Prince Donchad, and seems unlikely to have remained in
popular remembrance.
In 1695 Hugh Brigdall records the local tradition near Dysert
O'Dea that De Clare fell at Dromcavan.-* At the stream bound-
ing that townland and Dysert, old folk told in 1839 a tale, iiot
found in the histories but evidently old, that when Claraghmore
was coming to Dysert ^^ a certain Conor more Hiomhair (locally
" Howard ") advised O'Dea to lay a trap. He loosened the timber
side beam of a wicker bridge over the stream, and hid in a recess
on the bank under it, armed with his axe. As Claraghmore rode
across, Hiomhair pushed out a prop and the structure collapsed,
and as De Clare and his horse were struggling in the stream the
Irishman split his skull.-' The history makes it clear that De
Clare had crossed the stream and fell in an ambuscade of the
O'Deas in a wood towards Dysert. There was actually a con-
temporary Conchobhar na Hiomhair, who fought on the Irish side
at the battle of Corcomroe Abbey in the year preceding (131 7),
but was too obscure to render his intrusion into local tradition
probable, and hence may have been the real slayer of the Norman.
The night before Claraghmore died, says tradition at Scool, about
a mile and a half from Dysert, twenty-five banshees washed blood-
stained clothes in the lake. This was told to Prof. Brian O'Looney
before 1870, and Dr. G. U. MacXamara found it still extant some
-^ First given in Dublin Penny Journal, loc. (it., and the Ordnance Survey
Letters.
-"' Commonplace Book, p. 224.
^*As the Castle was far later, O'Dea's residence may well have been the fort
not far from Dromcavan in the intervening townland now called Uallycullinan.
The old townlands have been greatly subdivided, even since 1655.
-' Ordnance Sui-vey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., p. 156.
374 Collectanea.
five years ago. In the history a banshee appears to De Clare.-®
A story preserved in an Appendix to tlie Life of St. Senan tells
how the saint, to punish a violation of his sanctuary, drove Richard
De Clare mad, so that the latter rushed heedlessly into a battle in
which he lost his life; this story probably dates back, to the later
fourteenth century.-^
There are some extremely unreliable De Clare traditions. Clare
Castle and Clarisford near Killaloe were said to be named after
"Clarence," for De Clare, in certain late English histories, had
been transformed into a good " Duke of Clarence " who " intro-
duced civility" into Clare, building market towns and castles and
governing the country well ; but the Irish were under no such
delusions about the civilizing career of Norman conquest in
Thomond.
The late sixteenth-century "court" (possibly that of the Deans
of Kilfenora), on the Fergus near Inchiquin Lake was called
Cobhail ^*' an Claraighmore ("Great De Clare's ruin") in 1859.^^
At my earlier visits the old folk denied that it ever bore the map
name " De Clare's House," or had anything to do with Claragh-
more, with whose name and fate they were familiar.
The north-east tower of Bunratty Castle was named " De Clare's
Tower" by the Studderts; it is clearly of the late fifteenth
century. 2- The name De Clare was used in late times by the
Studderts, who have of course no connection with the extinct
Lords of Bunratty, and probably first applied the name to the
tower with no better foundation than the recent " bathroom "
story possesses.
Conor O'Hiomhair figures in a second tale at Dysert Castle, in
which a guest of O'Dea politely wishes the castle full of gold,
-^Cf. vol. .\xi., pp. 188-9.
^"Colgan, op. cit., March 8th, sec. xxxxvi. \^sic\
'"Cobhal, pronounced locally "Cowl," is used, even by English speakers,
near Corofin and Tulla for a ruined house or even cabin. Coul na brawher
(" the friar's ruin") is still shown, not far north from " De Clare's House."
^'^ Ordnance Sw'vey Letters {Qo. Clare), vol i. , p. 51. It was also called
" O'Quin's ruin" ; v. ibid. pp. 61-3.
'" This tallies with the statement in the " Castle founders' list." So far as I
can judge, no portion of any earlier building is left.
Collcctajiea. 375
and the chief in reply wishes it full of O'Hiomhairs.^^ A very
modern and ill-attested story, which I did not find at Dysert in
1885 or 1895, says that O'Dea lured the English into a bog by
setting bulrushes in the mire, so that De Clare, " knowing that
such plants always grew in firm soil," rode in with his knights and
became a prey to the Irish.
The tale of a great battle at Dysert Castle, and the human
bones turned up round it, probably concern the battle fought
there in 1562, but have been used by some to locale the
decisive battle of May, 131S. The "stone of broken bones"
near Quin (where a Domnall O'Brien was taken by his enemies
and his bones broken on the rock),^^ has been also asserted to
refer to Domnall O'Brien, brother of King Torlough, who was
slain by a Norman soldier, or mason, when peaceably buying wine
at the Castle. I cannot trace the tale before 1860-70, when the
history of the Four Masters was well known, and, if the tale be
genuine or even taken from some " knowledgeable person,"
it more probably relates to Domnall beg O'Brien, whose
bones were broken with the back of an axe and he, still alive,
hung in ropes to the belfry of Quin Abbey in 1584, by order
of Sir John Perrot.
A very remarkable story, certainly genuine and evidently refer-
ring to the period of the Norman wars, attaches to a low hill
with traces of entrenchment and, formerly, a deep straight ditch,
between Loughs Bridget (Breeda) and Anilloon (Alinoon) between
Tulla and Bodyke. It is called Kilconnell, and in 1839 Irish-
speakers called it Cladh na 'n gall ("Foreigners' trench," or
" defeat," said some). An English army encamped there and
was destroyed by an Irish army from Tomgraney. Most of the
English soldiers were slain and buried on the hill top, within the
Cladh, where human bones have been found. ^^ In 1S91 the late
Captain Charles George O'Callaghan, of Ballinahinch near Kil-
connell (from whom I carefully concealed the 1839 tale and the
history, although he said "tell me the story I'm to look for"!)
'^ Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., p. 157.
^* So Prof. Brian O'Looney. The tale is also alluded to in Kr^^ue Celtiijue,
vol. xiii. (1892), p. 67.
'•"' Ordnance Suii'ey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. ii., p. 297.
3/6 Collectanea.
gave me two tales to the same effect. Mr. Whelan of Kilconnell,
and an old labourer at Ballinahinch, gave a version like that of
1639, but added that the English first drove back the Irish into
the swamp at Lough Anilloon below the hill, where many were
lost. No period was fixed by the tale, but it tallies only with an
event in 13 15. Richard De Clare set out to fight with Edward
Bruce, possibly intending to march by Scarift", Portumna, and
Athlone. He entered Hy Ronghaile, camped in the very middle of
it, and sent his Irish allies past Tomgraney to drive prince Murchad
O'Brien from the ford of Scariff ; but they got the worst of it, and
were driven back in great confusion upon De Clare's army, which
fell into panic and retreated hastily to Bunratty. Kilconnell is
" in the very middle of Hy Ronghaile."
8. Period 13 18-1500.
Popular guide-books always follow the Four Masters'^^ in at-
tributing the Franciscan convent of Quin to Sioda MacNamara
in 1402. It was certainly largely rebuilt and ornamented at that
time, but the many earlier features show that Wadding is right in
placing its foundation before 1350. The fact that it was built
on and out of the ruins of a great castle was noted by Sir Thomas
Deanein 1884.^'' I first identified the castle, — which he attributed
to Brian Boru, but which is an unmistakably Norman, court, with
great circular turrets at three angles, — with the "round-towery,
strong castle" built by Thomas De Clare in 1280 at Cuinche.
It is likely that the MacNamaras, after the fall of Bunratty in
1334 and before 1350, gave its site, as a thankoffering for their
victory, to God and the monks of St. Francis, so I shall place the
legends of the " Abbey " in this period. Tradition near TuUa
points to some enclosures, a little over a mile from the village
and in low ground at the foot of " Abbey Hill," as the place
where "the MacNamaras began to build Quin Abbey." The
quarry from which its stones were drawn is shown on the hillside.
^ O'Donovan's enthusiastic belief in this late history has affected all Irish
archeology. " No other authority is heard, once the Four Masters have
spoken ! " seems still operative.
'^Proceedings of tht Royal Irish Academy, vol. ii., Ser. II. (P.L.A.),
p. 201.
Collcclanca. 2>77
At Quin it is said to have l)een built by the Gobban saor, the
famous legendary Master Builder, to whom so many Round Towers,
churcheSjCastles.andabbeysof the ninth to the fifteenth centuries are
attributed. He twisted the spiral pillars in its beautiful cloister with
his own hands. One of the builders fell from the roof and was
killed, where an ancient tombstone, with an axe incised on it,
marks the place of his burial. Several traditions are told about
Sioda, near Kilkishen. He was said to have caught a water horse,
and, after being ridden for many years, it ran away with him one
day, dinting a rock with its hoofs as it sprang, with the chieftain
on its back, into CuUaunyheeda Lake, thence called after his name
"Heeda."^'^ Another tale says that Sioda was not drowned, but
sleeps beneath the waters, not to waken until summoned to the
final battle for the independence of Ireland.
The peel towers rising so numerously in the country mostly date
from about 1430 to 1480. Tradition attributes Rossroe Castle to
Sioda MacNamara, who built Quin Abbey in 1402. Danganbrack
and Ballymarkahan are also rightly assigned to the MacNamaras,
after Quin Abbey was erected, as I was told about Ballymarkahan
in 1906. Near Clonlara seven brothers built "seven" castles
"against each other," and were "all" killed by their brothers.
I heard the story first in 1868, when a mere child, and think that
there was a princess or a beautiful lady in it about whom the
brothers quarrelled, but J barely recollect it, and in 1S89 could
not recover more than "the seven brothers who killed each
other."
Perhaps to this period should be attributed the tale of a certain
monk of Ennis " Abbey" trying to cross the Fergus during a flood.
The current being too strong, he called to some men to help him
over, but they refused, and he cursed Ennis that no man of Ennis
should ever be able to do any good for the place. ^'^
The monks of Ennis told in the seventeenth century how Conor
" Nasatus " {i.e. Conchobhar na Srona) O'Brien, Prince of Thomond
from 1466, was on his death in 1496 seized by devils. Brother
Fergal O'Trean, a man of holy life, when he saw them carrying off
^ More probably after the O'Sheedy, a branch of his house.
•''•' This story was told as a well-established one at a public meeting at Ennis
about 1895.
2 B
^yS Collectanea.
the prince, prayed earnestly for him, and that very liour a holy
hermit at Lismore, where no one had heard of Conor's death,
announced that the prince's soul was saved by the prayers of a
holy monk at Ennis.'*^
OQuin and the S7va?i- Maiden. — The fullest and most beautiful
of the Clare folk-tales is connected in its most popular versions
with Tyge Ahood {i.e. Tadgh an Comhad) O'Brien, Prince of
Thomond, who reigned from 1 461-6. But it is not of his time,
nor indeed of any historic time, but a local version of a world-
wide myth.'^i The Inchiquin legend was first published by Dr.
G. Petrie in 1840, and then in Memorials of A dare by Lord Dun-
raven, who claimed descent from the O'Quins of Inchiquin. ■^^ The
best and fullest modern version is given by Dr. G. U. MacNamara,
whose fields run down to the lake and have in view the castle of
Inchiquin and the church of Coad. The Ordtiatice Survey Letters
give a recension of the same date as Petrie's. I may add that the
power of the O'Quins as a tribe was really broken long before 1 460, in
the opinion of some several generations before the Norman invasion,
and in that of others as late as 1 180. But at any rate the O'Quins
were of good standing down to the Norman invasion. Edaom,
daughter of O'Quin and Queen of Munster, died on a pilgrimage
to Derry in 11 88. The Cathreim Thoirdhealbhaigh barely mentions
the family as fighting at Corcomroe in 131 7, when Mathgamhan
O'Brien held Inchiquin and its island castle.
In 1839 the tale was located at the rock platform, at the upper
end of the lake, called Doonaun, or, at tliat time, Dunean ui chuinn
("O'Quin's rock fort").^^ Conor O'Quin, the chief, walking by
the lake, saw a lovely woman on the south shore, combing her
hair. She vanished on his approach. This happened three times.
O'Quin was consumed with love for her, and at last, seeing her
•*" L. Wadding, Annales JMuioriiin, vol. vii., p. 574.
•*! Cf. E. S. Hartland, The Science of Fairy Tales, pp. 255-32, 337-52.
■*^ See also Irish Penny four nal, 1840-I, pp. 122-3; Antiquities of the
Northern portion of Co. Clare, p. 66 (republished by the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland in 1900 as Antiquarian Handbook No. V.).
^ Dunan (Doonaun) is a rather rare component (Dun, Dunadh, and Duneen
being more common), but occurs attached to two actual promontory forts at
Doonaunroe and Doonaunmore in the county.
Collectanea. 379
take off a dark hood, he succeeded in steaHng upon her and
catching up the hood so that she could not escape. He seized
her "without even saying 'your servant, ma'am!' or any other
decent good-morrow," and asked her to be his wife. She consented,
and they were married and lived most happily for several years.
At last O'Brien of Lemeneagh and others got up races at Coad,
and O'Quin went to them, after promising his wife not to invite
any guest nor to accept any man's invitation. He forgot his
promise, asked O'Brien back to a sumptuous feast, and jolayed cards
with him. His wife took her hood, stole out, and disapjjeared.
O'Quin staked all he had on the cards, and lost. He lived on,
a lonely and miserable man, as a dependent of O'Brien, who
allowed him to dwell in " De Clare's Court " or " O'Quin's Ruin "
on the Fergus just above the lake.*^
Petrie tells how a young chief of the O'Quins saw a number of
lovely swans sporting on the western shore of the lake. He caught
one and brought it to his home, where to his amazement it threw
off its downy covering and appeared as a maid of the greatest
beauty. Madly in love he proposed marriage, and she accepted
him on the three conditions that (i) the marriage should be kept
a secret, (2) he should never ask O'Brien to his house, and (3) he
should avoid all games of chance. Some happy years passed by,
and brought two children. Then there were races at Coad, O'Quin
asked some O'Briens to his house, and his wife after preparing the
feast resumed her swan dress, wept over her children, and plunged
into the lake. O'Quin, ignorant of his loss, commenced gambling,
and lost all his property to "Tiege an cood O'Brien," the most
distinguished of his guests. Petrie is inclined to rationalize the
tale, and to suppose tliat, in consequence of the chief's concealed
and probably lowly marriage, the tribe repudiated him, pointing
out that the O'Quin pedigree given by MacFirbis breaks off about
1460. But the widespread occurrence of the tale does not favour
a local source, although it may have been locally adapted with
that love for definite topographical and historic setting so charac-
teristic of the Irish.
Dr. MacNamara took pains to get the best modern recension,
so I give this in preference to my own scanty notes made ui 1884
« Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., pp. 61-3.
380 Collectanea.
at Kilnaboy.^^ The young chief of Clan Ifearnain was hunting
deer on Keentlae, and in his eager pursuit of a stag got parted
from his companions. As he wandered along the shore of the
lake he saw five beautiful swans playing in the water. They came
ashore, took off their plumage, and became maidens of exquisite
beauty. After a moment's amazement he ran out. They threw
on their feathered robes, — all save one, — and flew away. O'Quin
had seized one dress, and the four other swans, with plaintive
cries, disappeared, leaving their sister weeping. O'Quin led her
back to his castle, comforted her, and won her love. But she
asked two pledges before her marriage, — that it should be kept a
secret, and that no O'Brien should be admitted under their roof.
Seven years passed by, the pair and their two beautiful children
living in ever-increasing happiness. Then, one fatal day, there
were races at Coad, and O'Quin met Teigue an chomad O'Brien,
brought him home, drank freely, commenced gambling, and lost
all his lands and property. The ruined man rushed to his only
remaining possessions, his wife and children, but to his horror
found his wife in her swan dress with a cygnet held under each
wing. She gave him one look of sorrowful reproach, flew out
over the misty lake, and disappeared for ever.
Lord and Lady Dunraven have published an artificial-seeming
story of the O'Quin's ruin, but neither Dr. MacNamara nor I ever
found any trace of it among the people of Inchiquin.'*^ According
to this story, Rory the Black, son of Donal O'Quin, gets into the
wilds while hunting, meets Merulan the wizard and revives him
after a bad fall, and is given a magic jewel (a golden butterfly).
He saves a girl from drowning, and finds that she is Enna,
daughter of a wood kern but of rarest beauty. He marries her
secretly, and then finds that his father has betrothed him to Maud,
daughter of O'Brien, King of Thomond. He refuses the princess,
and is imprisoned until weary of his dungeon, although the jewel
lights it brilliantly. He yields, and determines to repudiate his
45 <4^ young man found seven wild swans, and caught one on the lake. It
became a girl and he married her, and when he was false to her she flew away
again." I got a similar story at Lemaneagh, in the same visit.
*^ Mettiorials of Adare (1865), pp. 170-7; the tale in the Irish Penny Joninal
is also reproduced, p. 168.
Collectanea, ^8i
J'
low-born bride. As he rides to O'Brien's Court, he gets benighted,
but no ray shines from the jewel; this awakes his conscience, and
as he repents the light returns. He puts off his visit until his old
father dies, and, as chief, avows his marriage. O'Brien hurls an
army against him and seizes his territory, and the hapless chief
flies with no other possessions than liis talisman and the love of
his wife. This tale seems to have been either invented, or recast
from "a forgotten memory" of the real folk-tale, probably by
Lady Dunraven.
In the versions which I heard of the genuine story in 1884 the
number of the swans was seven, but, as will have been seen
above, the older versions mention one and "a number," while
Dr. MacNamara heard of five. The lake actually abounds in
these beautiful birds. I have myself often seen more than forty
wild swans at one time sailing or playing on the waters.
Thus. J. Westropp.
{To be concluded.)
CORRESPONDENCE.
Interim Report of Brand Committee to Council.
{Supra, p. 1 1 1-9.)
Since the date of your Committee's published Report, readers
have been found, and are at work, for the counties of Chester,
Essex, and Norfolk. Mr. Carey Drake has undertaken to give
six months' work on local books at the St. Helier's Library,
Jersey. Canon MacCuUoch is taking up work in Scotland, and
Miss Legge is reading Scottish folklore at the Bodleian Library.
A pupil of Sir Bertram Windle has undertaken to read in Ireland.
The Committee are sending out appeals to the Archaeological
Societies of twenty English counties from which little or nothing
has yet been received.
Few general works of any value still remain to be read. The
students at University College Hall have undertaken to paste
Thistleton Dyer's British Popular Customs, which contains various
items not noted in other general collections.
The Committee have appointed Miss Burne as their Honorary
Secretary.
H. B. Wheatlev.
The Evil Eye in Somerset (1902).
{Communicated by Mrs. M. M. Banks.)
To my personal knowledge the belief in the Evil Eye is not yet
extinct in Somerset. Before I came to Sussex I spent many years
in Somerset, where my late husband had in his employ a carter, a
good enough fellow in a general way, but entirely illiterate. He
Correspondence. 2^'^}^
had a great fondness for dogs, and had always at his heels a harm-
less animal which was rather inclined to bark at game. This
annoyed and really distressed a gamekeeper in the immediate
neighbourhood, but the carter took offence at the keeper's remarks
and refused to leave his dog at home. A bitter quarrel followed,
and the carter and keeper- were from that time sworn foes. Then
came trouble in the carter's household, from which consumption
claimed three victims (two fine tall sons, and a nice girl who had
become a factory hand at Yeovil), and the keeper had rheumatism.
The two men believed each that the other possessed the power to
"will" their misfortunes. They never spoke to each other, and
I have known them, if compelled to meet in the course of their
duties, both to walk in the ditch to avoid contact.
They consulted a "wise woman," in the hope of getting the
spells removed. The carter used to borrow a horse sometimes to
visit her, as she lived at a distance. We did not know till after-
wards for what he wanted the horse. Once he asked me for a pair
of fowls, which I let him have. He had been ordered by the
*' wise woman " to bring her a couple of live hens and one live
rabbit in order to work her spell.
After the third death in the carter's household, matters seemed
to improve. The family being smaller, there was no overcrowding,
and the more delicate members being gone, all were well and
strong when I last heard of them. The keeper's ailment was
cured by a good doctor, and was found to have been caused by
lying on the ground in bad weather while tending his pheasants.
Both men then seemed to awake to their folly, and ceased to make
gifts to the " wise woman."
[Mrs.] M. a. H.\rdv.
Guesses Farm, Wiston, Sussex.
Folk-Medicine in the Report of the Highlands and
Islands Medical Service Committee.
Paragraph 21 of this Report reads thus: — ^'' Primiihe Customs
and Habits. In some parts of the Highlands and Islands there
384 Correspondence.
still remains a belief in inherited skill and traditional "cures."
And, as might be expected, we found that this obtains the more
firmly the more difficult it is to get proper medical attendance.
A witness from the remote island of Rona (Skye), which a
doctor rarely visits, was particularly interesting in a description in
Gaelic of some of the various "cures" which in default or dis-
regard of medical advice are frequently resorted to. He told, for
example, of a " cure " recently applied in the case of an epileptic.
A black cock was buried alive beneath the spot where the patient
had had the first attack of epilepsy. He also described the suc-
cessful treatment of a woman suffering from the tinneas aft rigk
("king's evil," i.e. bone or gland tuberculosis) by a seventh son to
whom she had gone all the way to the island of Scalpay, Harris.
Referring to the prevalence of this form of treatment Ur.
Tolmie, South Harris, says : — " When they have bone disease they
use the old remedies. There was a man suffering from keratitis
and he was not getting well. It is a difficult disease to cure in an
old person. He was not getting on, and I had to go over one
very wild day to see him, and when I arrived he was away from
home — it was a fearful day — and he had to drive nine miles and
walk about another six to an old lady at Licisto. The old lady
made up some rhyme, and mixed some grasses with water and
sand, and sung. He came back and said he was a little better.
The seventh son is supposed to be able to cure such diseases.
I know of one case of a person who bad a carbuncle on the back
of his neck, and it did not heal, and he got a seventh son to come
to his house, and every night for a long time he put cold water on
it and a sixpence round his neck." It is in such a field of ignorant
faith that the " skilly " woman can practise all her arts at will and
with greatest danger when she is most in demand — and that is, in
cases of maternity."
Paragraph 57 reads: — "The persistence of the traditional
" cures " and superstitious practices in remote districts referred to
in par. 21 is undoubtedly due largely to the want of medical
attendance."
David Rorie, M.D.
Correspondence. 385
Simulatp:d Change of Sex to iiaffle the Evil Eye.
Some correspondence has recently taken place in Notes and
Queries on the subject of dressing boys in girls' clothes in order
to baffle the Evil Eye.^ The custom, as is well known, prevails
in various parts of the world.- It is common in India. ^ When
the birth of a son is anxiously desired, if a boy is born, it is often
proclaimed that the child is a girl, in the belief that he will be safe
from danger.* It was asserted in the correspondence in Notes
and Queries that in the Aran Islands boys were dressed in girls'
clothes. Prof. R. A. S. Macalister now denies that the custom
prevails in Ireland.' " Mothers," he says, "dress young boys on
the Aran Islands in costume apparently feminine for the sensible
and sufficient reason that skirts are easier to make than trousers.
I know the Aran Islands and their people fairly well, and can
positively assure Mr. G. H. White that this prosaic explanation of
the custom is the true one. I never saw a man more genuinely
astonished than a native of the island to whom I told the
" traveller's tale " about the gullible devil and his appetite for boys.
As nearly as I can recollect his remarks on the subject, they would
translate thus : — " Well, there isn't a man, woman, or child on the
island that believes the like of that. But there was a man here
with a notebook a while ago, and the people sent him away
with it filled." He then proceeded to give me some enter-
taining details of the notebook in question." This information
will interest collectors of folklore. I have a distinct recollection
that the custom of thus simulating a change of sex prevailed in
south-west Ireland. The question is of much interest, and I
would now ask if any one can give facts to show that the custom
did, or does, prevail in any part of the British Islands. I may add
that it seems to have prevailed in Scotland. "The infant, if a
male, [was] wrapped in a woman's shift ; if a girl, in a man's shirt. "**
W. Crooke.
1 nth S., vol. ii., pp. 65, 137, 293 ; vol. vii., p. 493.
2 J. G. Frazer. Pausanias's Description of Greece, vol. ii., p. 266.
?W. Crooke, Popular Peligion and Folk-lore etc., vol. ii., p. 6.
••T. D. Broughton, Letters written in a Mahtatta Camp (1892), p. 81.
5y\'. (5r^ Q., iilh S., vol. viii., p. 58.
^C. Rogers, Social Life in Scotland frotn early to recent times ( 1 884-6),
vol. i., p. 135.
REVIEWS.
The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead.
By J. G. Frazer. Vol. I. The Belief among the Aborig-
ines of Austraha, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and
Melanesia. (The Gifford Lectures, St. Andrews, 191 1-2.)
Macmillan & Co., 1913. 8vo, pp. xxi + 495. i°s. «.
All Dr. Frazer's works are a source both of pleasure and profit to
the reader; the present work is pleasant even to the reviewer.
Unfatigued by his great work on the history and theory of tote-
mism. Dr. Frazer has embarked on a still greater task, the exposi-
tion of the beliefs and practices of the primitive and advanced
races of the earth in regard to the dead. As a master in the
method and art of collecting, selecting, and grouping the facts
upon which the great world-inductions of anthropology might be
based, he has no rivals ; and he shows himself here, as he has in
his former achievements, capable of carrying a project through
which might appear to demand a syndicate of coUaborateurs, and
of conducting it single-handed better than any syndicate could.
In this new field, which promises to yield an inestimable harvest
to social anthropology, his prima vifidemiatio is this first volume.
It displays all the best qualities, both in respect of style and
matter, that characterise his former works, together with a certain
reserve and sobriety in theorising that is sometimes lacking in
certain chapters of The Golden Bough.- The first object of this
new magnum opus is to present us with the facts, to fill a great gap
in what we may call sociological history : and the first necessary
step is the survey of the existing or the recently recorded primitive
races of mankind. Dr. Frazer has here presented us with the
Reviezus. 387
relevant phenomena of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New
Guinea, and Melanesia, a wide region full of varied and typical
forms of savage life. What, perhaps, at first sight impresses us
most is the remarkable monotony of the subject-matter, due to the
close similarity in belief and funeral rites prevalent among so
many societies far removed from each other. This monotony,
which will probably be fell all the more strongly when the other
volumes have come to light, is relieved by Dr. Frazer's clear and
pleasant style, with its occasional humour and archness, and in
any case would not repel the scientific reader. For it is a fact of
high value for the general anthropologist that certain phenomena
such as death, excite the same or similar feelings in the greater
part of mankind, and tliat similarity of feeling suggests identical
rites and customs. Also this prevailing monotony adds interest
to the occasional and not unimportant diversities, which attest
free thought and possibilities of progress.
It is not the object of this notice to question or to criticise the
value or the authenticity of the sources from which Dr. Frazer
draws. He himself is sufficiently careful in this matter, and the
width of his reading fills us with wonder. Yet the investigator
of a special field generally finds something to correct in the work
of his predecessor. And our author might have dealt differently
with the Fijian Kalou, a term which he interprets as "god"
(p. 440), if he had read Mr. Hocart's excellent article in The
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute for 191 2. But the
question of Qiiellen-Kritik will be most urgent when he comes to
deal with the ancient advanced societies of the Mediterranean
area. Here an easy-going and uncritical acceptance of all ancient
authorities would be fatal. And this hint may not be untimely, in
view of Dr. Frazer's statement on p. 159, "Every year the Pelo-
ponnesian lads lashed themselves on the grave of Pelops at
Olympia, till the blood ran down their backs as a libation in
honour of the dead man " ; a rite which he compares with funeral
mutilation in Western Australia. The Australian record is true :
the Greek is entirely bogus, being one of the latest and most
ignorant of the generally admirable and ancient scholia on
Pindar, the invention probably of a late Byzantine scholiast who
could not understand the word al/iaKovpia, but remembered the
3 88 Reviews.
Lycurgean Hogging of the boys at Sparta, and may have thought
that the ancient Peloponnese was a political whole.
But the main object of the present notice is to estimate the
value of the facts that Dr. Frazer has here set forth for general
anthropology, and for the purposes of comparative religion. Much
of his collection of data possesses undoubtedly a great intrinsic
interest, whatever light it may throw on the development of some
of the higher forms of faith and ritual. We are enabled to realise,
for instance, how widespread is the fallacy that all sickness and
death is an unnatural and abnormal event, due to the witchcraft of
the enemy or the malevolence of the ghost. We may take such a
belief as marking a line of cleavage between a civilised and an
uncivilised people ; yet it does not immediately vanish with the
spread of civilisation \ the Greek world had practically escaped
from it by the dawn of the historical period, but the Babylonian
remained susceptible to particular forms of the illusion. Its deadly
social effects will be appreciated by Dr. Frazer's readers. Accord-
ing to the logic of the belief, every death, however timely and
natural, involves the retributive murder of someone else ; and the
superstition is a force that tends to race-suicide. Fortunately
some savage tribes show a progressive spirit even in such a hope-
less situation as this : they find a way to avenge the vindictive
ghost without kindling a tribal vendetta. Dr. Frazer's account on
pp. 280-282 of the methods whereby the Kai tribe in German New
Guinea combine murder with bogus-tricks to deceive the ghost is
one of the most humorous passages in anthropological literature.
He also discovers the same motive, the desire to deceive the
ghost, in that interesting custom of arranging a sham fight, in
which blood is sometimes shed, but not dangerously, between two
parties of the same tribe or of adjacent tribes, on the occasion of
the death of an important personage. He quotes three examples
from Australia, German New Guinea, and Southern Melanesia.
He probably has noted and will quote in another volume an
example of the same rite among the Bangala people of the Upper
Congo.i He suggests that this ritual, which is certainly not dramatic
or commemorative of any story about the dead man, is a humane
legal iiction, whereby the ghost is deluded into believing that his
* The Journal of the Koyal Anthropological Institii/e, vol. xl. (1910), p. 378.
Reviews. 389
kinsfolk are avenging him very thoroughly, while they are merely
amusing themselves with his supposed murderers. His suggestion
of motive may be right in these cases ; but it could not be
naturally applied to two Hellenic parallels, of which he may be
aware, though he has not mentioned them. In the Homeric
hymn to Demeter the goddess promises in honour of her foster-
ling Demiphon, that " over him at fixed seasons as the years roll
round the sons of the Eleusinians shall always join in battle and
the fell war-shout."- I have pointed out what appears to be the
only possible explanation of this mysterious blessing, that the
Eleusinians are to institute a yearly ritual in honour of Demiphon,
which is to include a sham-fight over his grave; and that another
parallel is the Argive \i6o/3okia, where the people joined in two
parties and threw stones at each other in honour of the dead
maidens Damia and Auxesia. Now Demiphon is no warlike
figure of Epic Saga, but probably a peaceful vegetation-hero, and
the mysterious m.aidens, Damia and Auxesia, are revealed by their
names as vegetation-goddesses.^ It is against all the evidence to
explain these two ceremonies as dictated by the desire to avenge
the vindictive ghost ; they belong rather to the sphere of vegeta-
tion-magic : blood shed over the grave of vegetation-heroes or
heroines quickens their powers of fertility. ■*
The savage illusion about death, from which we ourselves have
not yet wholly escaped, engenders the belief that mankind were
originally not intended to die, but that their doom of mortality
was due to some accident, some mistake, or some malevolent trick
of an animal or a human being. In fact a few savage myths,
among the many that Dr. Frazer quotes (pp. 58-S6), resemble the
Biblical story of Genesis still more closely, and attribute the mis-
fortune to some human disobedience of a divine behest (p. 79, the
Baganda of Central Africa), or to some sin of mankind (p. 70, the
Arawaks of British Guiana), and in many of the aborigmal stories
it is a woman who causes the trouble. Tlie death-myth of the
-Horn. i/. Dem., 265-267.
•* Vide my Cults of the Greek States, vol. iii., pp. 93-94.
■• Another type of mimic contests at funerals has been explained as a dramatic
presentation of the conflict between good and evil spirits. \'ide J. Hastings,
Encyclopaedia 0/ Ethics and Religion, vol. iv., p. 481.
390 Reviews.
Cherokee Indians (p. 77) is interesting as showing the type to
which the Hesiodic story of Pandora's box belongs. Only, it is
well worth remarking that the Hesiodic version is different from
these aboriginal stories that were floating round the world \ Pan-
dora's opened box let out a number of evils, but not death, which
had always been in the world of men, even in Hesiod's sinless and
happiest generation of the golden men, to whom death comes as a
sleep. There is no recorded Greek myth that explains the origin
of death or that reveals such an illusion in the mythopoeic mind of
Hellas as that death was not part of the cosmic human plan but
came in as an unintended accident. Greek folklore possessed,
long before Euripides, a personal Thanatos, such a figure as plays
a part in the stories of the Baganda, the Bantu tribe, and the
Melanesians of Banks' Island ; and it could imagine a clever man
like Sisyphos botthng up Death for a few years, during which time
nobody died ; but it rose above the savage level in that it did not
delude itself about the general lot of mortality.
Nearly all the myths reflect the pathetic feeling that death is an
evil. Only one, in vogue among the Melanesians of the Banks'
Islands, rises in this respect to a higher point of view, and reflects
the idea expressed by our most modern science, that death is a
social-economic advantage to our species (p. 83).
The greater number of the funeral ceremonies, which are
generally quaint and elaborate and occasionally most repulsive, are
attributed by Dr. Frazer to one ruling motive, the fear of the ghost.
This is certainly a very widespread, perhaps the predominating,
sentiment in the savage mind. But sometimes it seems quite
inadequate to explain the ceremony which he supposes it to inspire ;
for instance, the strange custom of the women scourging the men
at the funeral of the Fijian chief (p. 452). Also, the critical
reader may feel that he attributes too much to it as the ruling
motive, and too little to affection and real sorrow. The violent
and morbid outbursts of lamentation accompanied with self-
laceration need not be due to the hypocritical desire to persuade a
formidable ghost that the relatives were really very sorry for him
and loved him deeply in life, so that he may refrain from haunting
them now : in view of the unstable emotional equilibrium of the
savage, a simple feeling of sorrow may manifest itself in ritual
Reviews. 391
forms of violent exaggeration, just as in a weak person lauL^hter
tends to hysterics. That the fear of the dead, while being a
coarser emotion, is also more primeval than the emotion of sorrow
or affection in regard to them is not clearly proved by this treatise ;
and the not uncommon custom in savage communities of burying
within or near the house of the living points to affection rather
than fear ; the various rites that appear to aim at effecting a com-
munion with the dead are not normally explicable as prompted by
fear {e.g. pp. 205, 315).
The sympathetic reader may also note at times a lacuna in Dr.
Frazer's theoretic equipment, and may feel that the phenomena
could be sometimes explained without the aid of any ghost-theory
at all : for instance, the feeling of the im|)urity of death, the horror
of bloodshed, which compel the relatives of the dead to be under
a tabu, or the warriors returning from a victorious massacre to be
purified, do not postulate the presence of the haunting ghost, but
may arise from a preanimistic instinct of revulsion and may for
long be sustained by it alone.
But from most points of view the exposition is broad-minded and
well-balanced. Dr. Frazer emphasises eloquently the grim and
devastating results of ghost-faith and ghost-ritual ; but he is fully
sensible of its social advantages as a bond of family union and the
preservative of family morality {e.g. pp. 134, 175). Even savage
eschatology, uncouth and barren of morality as it usually is, has
occasionally a moral value ; on one of the Banks' Islands we meet
with an ethical theory of rewards and punishments after death
higher than that of the Homeric Greek (p. 354). According to
some of the Kai in German New Guinea the ghosts must be purified
from stain before they enter the happy land ; and we have here the
germ of the Orphic-Christian concept of Purgatory.
The present volume already contributes much, either by way of
positive or negative evidence, to certain current religious or anthro-
pological controversies and problems. Dr. Frazer has collected
sufficient evidence to show, {a), that the same people at the same
period may practise sucli different modes of disposing of the dead
as cremation and burial ; therefore a certain ethnologic criterion
much applied to the Mediterranean races loses its credit : (l>), that
the same people at the same period can hold entirely contradictory
392 Reviews.
ideas about the place and lot of the ghost, and that such self-contra-
diction is a mark of the primitive mind : therefore Rohde'sview in
his Psyche that Homer's picture of Hades and the fate of the ghost
is irreconcilable with ghost-cult is untrue to human nature ; {c), that
a powerful ghost of a once-living man may often incarnate itself in
an animal and that this animal will be temporarily reverenced ;
therefore theriolatry and theriomorphism is not a stage of religion
that necessarily preceded anthropomorphism ; the god may have
been a man first, a beast afterwards, and simultaneously man and
beast. Finally, the theory of the origin of Tragedy from the
mimetic representations at the funerals of great men can draw no
single piece of valid evidence from Dr. Frazer's book. Our author
has wisely kept in reserve his own larger inductions : but one can
discern the theory in his mind that ghost-cult has generated much
of the ritual and forms of higher religion. We must wait for his
later volumes before we try to test this question.
Lewis R. Farnell.
Notes and Queries on Anthropology. Fourth Edition.
Edited by B. Freire-Marreco and J. L. Myres. The
Royal Anthropological Institute, 191 2. Sm. 8vo, pp.
xii-f 288. 5s. net.
While reading the above book my regret was great that I did not
meet with it twenty years ago, when I first began to take notes on
anthropology. It would have aided me considerably in any work
I have done, and would undoubtedly have enhanced the value of
that work by helping to a more scientific investigation of the
subject. I cannot speak too highly of the suggestions it offers to
the student for consideration, nor can I commend it too heartily
to my colleagues in Africa, or to those who are living and working,
in one capacity or another, among primitive peoples in any part of
the world. It will suggest topics for study, will keep the enquirer on
the right lines, and help the student to arrive at the heart of things.
When the list of experts who prepared Notes and Queries is
read down, it may seem most presumptuous either to criticise the
Reviews. 393
queries, or to suggest any additions. Yet I would, with all diffi-
dence, step in where others may fear to tread ; and my excuse for
doing so is that, as I have read this book with its series of questions,
I have imagined myself back in the wilds of Central Africa, with
few books of reference and no means of ascertaining the meaning
of some of the technicalities used, such as Keloids (called Peloids
by others), etc. Most men of ordinary general knowledge know
what anthropomorphic means, but the same cannot be said of phyto-
morphic and hylomorphic, — (Chambers' Dictionary gives neither),
— and the men for whom I presume this book to have been
prepared have had no special training in the nomenclature of
anthropology, and are often cut off for years from a good reference
library. A little etymology would have been helpful not only to
the definition of the words, but also in fixing their meaning in the
worker's memory.
I notice that tlie colour of the eye (or the iris), of the skin, etc.
is to be noted, and in my experience scarcely two men will call an
intermediate shade by the same name. I felt this difficulty some
years ago, when collecting fish for the Natural History Museum.
They asked me to describe the colours on the fish directly they
were taken from the water. Now, although I am not colour-blind
in the slightest degree, yet, not having served my time in a millinery
establishment matching shades of colour, my vocabulary respecting
colours was that of an ordinary man, and to what I called by one
name an expert . might have given a quite different name. I
mentioned this difficulty, — a very real one, — and the authorities
supplied me with a book of colours which was most helpful. I
would, therefore, suggest that a page or two of the Notes should be
devoted to examples of colours, with names or numbers to each,
i.e. a page giving shades of colour for the iris, and another with the
various tints of brown for the skin ; it would make for accuracy.
The names and illustrations given in the book of patterns and
designs of the principal geometrical motives, and of decorative art,
are very useful, and will help the student to say accurately in a
word or two what would otherwise demand a descriptive paragraph
or a drawing. Something on the same lines for colours would
standardise them, and we should all mean the same thing when we
mentioned a shade of colour.
2C
394 Reviezvs.
The section on measurements coming at the beginning of the
book is likely to apj^al the new student desirous of taking up the
study of anthropology, for, in the first place, he will in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred lack the proper instruments for taking
accurate measurements, and there is no note stating where he can
procure them, or their probable cost. And, again, the novice sees
about him in one and the same trii)e men of all sizes, every one
of whom will yield different measurements, and he cannot see the
use of such elaborate details, and will be inclined to scoff at the
whole study as utter nonsense. Those who think that anthro-
pometry is the keystone of anthropology may be unwilling to consign
this section on measurements to the appendix as a subsidiary
subject, but it might have served its ])urpose there much better
than where it is. At present it is an unnecessary hill for the
student to climb into the kingdom of anthropology.
I should also like to suggest that the following phrases in italics
should be incorporated in future editions. On page 3, under
"colour of the skin " : "/j- the skin of tJwse people 70/10 live on tlie
hills of a lighter shade thati those who live in S7vampy valleys .?''
Out of some fifty boys that lived in our school at San Salvador I
noticed that those who came from the valleys had darker skins
than those who came from the hills. It would be interesting to
know if this is generally the case. Under " customary postures "
on page 13, it would be useful to note the position of ordinary folk
before chiefs and men of importance. On the Lower Congo an
ordinary person is expected to sit cross-legged, or on his haunches,
before his chief, and to stretch out his legs before him is regarded
as an insult worthy of severe punishment, either by beating, slavery,
or death. On page 15, in the paragraph on "throwing, tossing,
and shooting," it would be helpful to know not only the difference
between spear-throwing and stone-throwing, but also the jnethod of
holding the spear. Most white men, before throwing a spear, hold
it with the tips of their fingers, but Congo natives hold the haft of
the spear across the palm of the hand.' This gives more force to
the throw, and greater accuracy of aim. Is this method general
among primitive peoples ?
Under "personal cleanliness," on page 17, I think an observa-
tion respecting the neartiess or remoteness of streams suitable for
Reviews. 395
bathi7ig should be made. I have noticed that those who live near
streams bathe regularly ; but those living at a considerable distance
from streams, who procure their supply of water from a spring
issuing from the side of the high hill on which they live, very rarely
take a bath, yet they belong to the same tribe as the others. There
is no mention of the pulling out of eyelashes under the subject of
personal appearance. It would be interesting to put on record
at ivhat age is cicatrization begun 1 (p. 25). In one tribe I noticed
that the operation took place in very early infancy, during the first
year ; and in another tribe not until the fifth or sixth year. In the
former case the whole face was scarred, and in the latter only a line
down the forehead.
Does each wife ozcn a house for herself and children ? (appropria-
tion of houses, p. 34) ; are any relishes or sauces prepared^ such as
white ant relish, white-bait sauce, and a relish of red peppers afid
peanuts ground together ? (condiments, p. 43) ; 7i>hat is the effect of
native wine and beer as compared with that of alcoholic drinks im-
ported from Europe? Is old wine put with the nezv to has te?i fer-
mentation? (p. 46). These are a few other questions that might
be worth a place among the many others in the book.
On p. 51 several kinds of nets are mentioned, but the box net
is not among them. This is oblong, with sides, ends, and bottom,
but no top or lid, and varying in size up to fifty by twenty feet.
One end and two sides are fastened by stakes driven in a suitable
place in the river, and the other end is dropped to the
bottom. The fishermen make a wide detour, and, beating and
kicking the water, they drive the fish before them into the net,
and then the loose end is raised and fixed, thus enclosing the fish.
The Libinza Lake peo])le were the only folk I saw on the Upper
Congo employing a net of this shape.
The question, "What are the favourite colours?" is asked
under dyes on page 87 ; but before that is i)ut there should come
another question, viz., "What colours are procurable in the
locality ? " for I have seen more than once colours that appeared
to be favourites pass into disuse on the introduction of a greater
variety of colours from outside sources ; and I have seen the bright,
gaudy colours of cheap trade cloth left untouched when more
sober, and even sombre, colours were imported into the district.
396 Reviews.
There is one use for broken pottery not mentioned on p. 92,
and that is eating it. The Boloki people preserved the broken
pieces of their Libinza Lake pots for nibbling \vhen they had a
craving for eating clay. I would suggest under the heading of
metal-working (p. 95), an enquiry as to the position a smith holds
in the comviunity ; and how do his tieighboiirs regard the smithy, the
anvil, and the fire, etc.
To the question of " How many children had your father and
mother?" (p. 120), there should be a note to warn the enquirer
that primitive peoples are often averse to counting their children,
lest the spirits should hear them and one or more of the children
die ; and for this reason absurd numbers are often given, not to
mislead the friendly enquirer, but to deceive the evil spirits; and,
again, certain cousins, nephews, nieces, etc., are frequently spoken
of as children belonging to a person.
Upon the subject of " European Questions and Native Answers"
(p. in), I would like to sound a note of warning to the student
entering on a fresh field of enquiry amongst a people whose
language has not been reduced to writing, and that is to be sure
that the native uses 'Yes' and 'No' in the same way as our-
selves ; e.g. ask a Lower Congo man the following question, Ku-
kwenda ko e"? (Will you not go?), and, if he is not going, he will
answer Elo (Yes), where we should say ' No.' The European
would understand by the answer that the native was going, but the
native would have in his mind that the supposition of his not going
was quite correct, and to that he answers 'Yes.' This view of
negative questions causes many misunderstandings, and the only
way to avoid them is by the employment of questions in the
aifirmative.
Having reduced to writing one African language, and helped to
reduce another, I should not recommend the method suggested
and illustrated on p. 196. Such a method would necessitate a
great amount of unnecessary writing of slips, e.g. if there are, we
will say, 2000 verbs in the language under consideration, the
writing of a slip for every element underscored, as given in the
illustration, would demand the writing of eight thousand slips, and
the introduction of every new element would mean the writing of
two thousand slips for each. I could give a Congo language
Reviews. 397
which has about twenty-five elements, or prefixes and sufiixes, with
which almost every verb combines, and to underscore and write a
new slip for every element with every verb would entail a burden
of v/ork altogether unnecessary. It is better to take some examples
of the prefixes and suffixes, find out the force of each, write each
prefix and suffix on a separate sliji with some illustrations of their
uses, and write the root of the verb with its definition on a slip by
itself, leaving room on the slip for any peculiar or idiomatic uses
of the verb. \\\\.\\ a very little practice it will be easy to separate
the root from its accretions, and it will be necessary only to note
any new roots on a single slip, and not all the elements with which
it may combine. In this way, instead of using many thousands of
slips, only 2025 will be necessary for the verbs. With the other
remarks on learning a new language I agree, and think that they are
most helpful. The learner must have a proper respect for the
language he is studying, and must not think that, because the
people are uncivilized, therefore they are talking a jargon like a lot
of monkeys. A sincere respect for the language and the people
who are using it will help him to burrow into its secrets ; but a
contemptuous attitude will result only in a very superficial skim-
ming of the surface. In language work, as in other anthropological
investigation, we need a kindly sympathy.
Missionaries possess unique opportunities for the furtherance of
anthropological studies, and it is to be hoped that this book of
Notes and Queries will be increasingly used by them, and that in
the near future they will do for anthropology what they have
already done for language. By knowing men's views of life and
death, their conceptions of spirits and the spirit land, their view of
" sin " in this life and of punishment in the spirit land to which
they are hastening, a missionary can preach his doctrines more
effectively, and for this reason, among many others, every mission-
ary needs more than a mere superficial knowledge of his flock's
customs, habits, and thoughts, and, until the Handbook of Folklore
becomes accessible by a new edition, I know of no book better
able to help him in systematic and scientific study than the one
now under consideration.
John H. Weeks.
398 Reviews.
Le f'OLK-LORE : LlTT^RATURE ORALE ET EtHNOGRAPHIE
Traditionnei.le. Par Paul Sebillot. Paris : Octave Doin
<S: Fils, 1913. Demy 8vo, pp. xxiv + 393. 5/
The indefatigable editor of the Revue des Traditions Populaires
and author of Le Folk-lore de France has in this work produced a
handbook and guide to the collector of folklore. His great
experience in the collection of folklore in Upper Brittany and his
wide anthropological learning render such a book specially
authoritative. We open it with high expectations, nor are they
disappointed. In an excellent introductory chapter he discusses
the origin of the term Folklore, and defends its adoption, though
a foreign word, as expressing more accurately than any other the
extent and limitations of the subject. He divides its contents into
two parts, which he calls respectively Oral Lit-erature and Tradi-
tional Ethnography. Under the former head he ranks tales,
ballads and songs, riddles, proverbs, and other sayings and
formulae, infantine, social, magical, and so forth. The domain of
Traditional Ethnography, on the other hand, is hard to trace
with exactitude : its frontiers are so vague in the direction of
ethnography properly so called and of anthropology other than
physical. Any limitations, therefore, in these directions must be
more or less arbitrary. In this country we have, long since
disregarded them. He- enters a protest against the abuse of the
term Folklore, a term of general import, by limiting it to folk-tales.
English writers are, as he says, peculiarly guilty of this solecism.
But it is not confined to them, as is proved by the examples he
mentions of certain French authors. The chapter is concluded
with some wise and useful observations on the collection and
recording of folklore. Emphasis is laid on the necessity of
alertness in collection and of meticulous accuracy in making the
record, to the effacement, so far as possible, of the personal
equation and the complete separation of commentary and inter-
pretation from the report of the facts. .
In the body of the work Oral Literature occupies much less
space than Traditional Ethnography. This is not because the
distinguished author undervalues Oral Literature, of which in his
native Brittany he has been so ardent and successful a collector.
Revitivs. 399
It is partly because the facts themselves lie in a smaller compass
and are more readily seized, partly because he includes in Tradi-
tional Ethnography many things that we should classify as tales,
and therefore Oral Literature. Of this kind are legends of
creation, the origin of rivers, lakes, fountains, and other bodies of
water, the heavenly bodies, plants and animals, and the cause
of their several peculiarities. From legends such as these he
proceeds to the relations of men with the various ol)jects of the
external world, and the superstitions which attach to them. The
life of man is traced from or before birth to death, burial, the life
after deatii, and the fear of the dead. M. Sebillot then proceeds
to a section denominated Ethnographic Sociology, including the
cultivation of the ground, hunting, fishing, commensal customs,
building of dwellings and shi[)S, industries, commercial relations,
the administration of justice, gestures, war, ornaments and clothing,
art in its various manifestations, and amusements, such as
dramatic jierformances, dances, periodical and other celebrations,
whether religious, magical, or purely recreational. It will thus be
seen that a very wide area is covered. We miss, however, the
subjects of social organization and of religion. Their want would
perhaps be explicable if the work referred solely to European
folklore. In fact it draws its illustrations from all quarters of the
globe. Whether the omission be due to oversight or design, it is
to be hoped that an early opportunity will be taken to repair it.
For in what he has included all M. Sebillot's great gifts of
arrangement and exposition are displayed. He has known how
to condense without allowing his account of the many branches of
his subject to degenerate into a dry catalogue. He preserves the
reader's interest, he directs the collector's attention, without com-
mitting himself to theories which new facts or the reexamination
of old facts may bring to nought, and which in any event are
better kept out of sight in a book intended as an introduction for
the tyro and a guide to the collector. His references are carefully
given ; and a good bibliography and index are appended.
E. Sidney H.vrtland.
400 Reviews.
Feste und Brauche des Schweizervolkes. Kleines Hand-
BUCH DES SCHWEIZERISCHE VOLKSBRAUCHS DER GeGENWART
IN GEMEINFASSLICHER Darstellung. Von Prof. Dr. E.
Hoffmann-Kraver. Zurich; Schulthess & Co., 1913-
pp. xvi+ 179.
Professor Hoffmann-Krayer has produced a very useful little
handbook of Swiss folk-customs, to which the attention of the
Folk-Lore Society, and especially of those members engaged in
the work of revising Brand's Popular Antiquities^ may well be
directed. Though it is specially concerned with the present-day
customs and those practised within living memory, earlier customs
are not wholly left unmentioned. It is chiefly derived from the
collections of the Swiss Folklore Society (the Sch-weizerische
Archiv fiir Volkskunde, the Schweizerische Vaikskunde, and the
Schweizerische Jdiotikoti), in the pages of which further details are
obtainable. Earlier publications on the subject are enumerated
and discussed in the introduction, which is in effect an excellent
summary guide to the literature.
The first chapter, dealing with the epochs of human life, is by
Prof. Hoffmann-Krayer's pupil, Dr. Hanns Bachtold, who has had
the advantage of consulting a large collection of material made
(under the Professor's direction) by his fellow-students W. Mohr
and Dr. P. Geiger, and moreover is preparing a work on the
important subject of marriage customs. The remainder is by
Professor Hoffmann-Krayer himself; It is in two chapters, dealing
respectively with calendar customs and non-calendar customs, and
affords numerous points of comparison with our own corresponding
customs and superstitions.
The influence of Prof. Hoffmann-Krayer has resulted in much
valuable work in Swiss folklore during the past few years ; and the
Feste und Brauche will be found not the least interesting and
important outcome of the enquiries he has been the means of
setting on foot.
E. Sidney Hartland.
Reviews, 401
The Man in the Panther's Skin. A Romantic Epic by
Shot'ha Rust'havkli. a close Rendering from tlie Geor-
gian, attempted by Marjorv Scott Wardroi'. (Oriental
Translation Fund, N.S., vol. xxi.) The Royal Asiatic Society,
1912. Svo, pp. xviii + 273. los.
The literature of the Georgians differs from that of other oriental
Christian peoples, for example, of the Armenians who were their
nearest neighbours geographically and ecclesiastically, of the
Syrians, Copts, and Abyssinians, in this, that over and above
their Church literature they have preserved from the Middle Ages
a literature of epic and romance. No doubt the Armenians also
at one time possessed such a literature, but we already at the very
beginning of the thirteenth century read of the attempts made by
Armenian doctors like Mekhitar Gosh to suppress it. These
efforts were successful, and nothing of it remains, much to the
regret of moderns, who would have preferred a few hundred pages
of pagan Armenia to all the dreary monastic stuff which has been
preserved.
The Mati in the Panther's Skin is a romantic epic, written or
redacted in the form in which we read it to-day, at least as early
as the year 1200, so belonging exactly to the period when the
Armenian doctors began to interest themselves in the destruction
of their national sagas. It is of some length, and contains 1576
stanzas of four lines each. Here is a specimen of how such a
stanza reads in the original language :
Mze ushenod ver ikmnchis | radgan slienkhar misi tsi'Ii
Gaghanamtza mas iaklile | misi eili art'hu tsbili
Miina gnakho mandve gsakho | ganminai'hio giili chrdili
t'hu sitzotzkhle mtsare mkonda | sicvdilimtza mkondes tcbfli.
We are reminded of Burns' beautiful stanza :
Had we never loved so kindly,
Had we never loved so blindly,
Never met, or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.
— which Duncan Forbes selected (in his Persian grammar of 1862)
to illustrate the rhyme of old Persian poetry. It is nearly the
402 Reviews.
same metre as we meet with in the most ancient Armenian
hymnody, for example in this stanza :
Khostovanolc] foi'ithatzarouq | Djanal aprel yavourus mer
Zi aur ;ihel kriy aradji | Ahel adean yev hour ansheadj,
which begins a hymn ascribed to the Patriarch John of Mandak,
c. 4S0. It in turn both in rhythm and contents reminds us of the
Dies irae dies ilia of Latin Christianity.
The poem was translated by Miss Wardrop, who died at
Bucharest in 1909. The reviewer has compared parts of her
version with the original, and can testify to its accuracy and
scholarship. There are not half a dozen people in Europe who
could have accomplished such a work. Her brother, Mr. Oliver
Wardrop of Balliol College, himself a well-known authority on all
things Georgian, has seen it through the press.. He observes
in his preface that " when he wrote his poem, Rusl'haveli had
evidently no violent prejudice for one religion more than another,
but was of a critical and eclectic turn of mind, and formed for
himself a working philosophy of life, showing Persian and Arabian
tendencies, but with so much of Christianity and Neo-Platonism
as to bring it near to Occidental minds."
He also summarises the poet's outlook on life in the following
(I omit the stanza references which he adds for each clause) :
"There is throughout the poem manifest joy in life and action :
God createth not evil ; ill is fleeting ; since there is gladness in
the world, why should any be sad ? It is after all a good world,
fair to look upon despite its horrid deserts, a world to sing in either
because one is happy or because one wishes to be so ; there are
flowers to gaze on, good wine to drink, fair apparel and rich jewels
to wear, beasts worth hunting, games worth playing, foes to be
fought, and friends to be loved and helped. There are grievous
troubles, but they are to be battled against ; it is a law with men
that they should struggle and suffer ; for them is endeavour, and
victory lies with God ; however black the outlook, there must be
no shirking, for the one deed especially Satan's is suicide ; the
game must be played to the end manfully, and God is generous,
though the world be hard ; He will make all right in the end, and
sorrow alone shows a man's mettle. The keynote is optimism
Reviews. 403
quand meme. Life is a passing illusion, brief and untrustworthy,
in itself nothing but a silly tale ; we are gazers through a cloudy,
distorting glass ; our deeds are mere childish sports making for
soul-fitness. The one way of escape from illusion is in the exercise
of that essential part of ourselves which unites us with the choir
of the heavenly hosts ; love lifts us out of the mundane marsh ;
brother must act brotherly ; we must loyally serve our chosen
friends, those with whom we have formed a bond stronger than
the ties of blood : for such we must die, if need be. The poem is
a glorification of friendship, and the story is of the mutual aid of
three starlike heroes wont to serve one another. . . . That women
have their share in such friendship is shown by the fraternity
between Asmat'h and Tariel, and it is a proof of the deep culture
of the people that such bonds still exist ; there is probably no
country where men have so many pure ties with women, where
they are bound by affection to so many with whom the idea of
marriage is never permitted to present itself."
Rust'haveli's poem is unknown in Europe, yet, as Mr. Wardrop
observes, "it has been in a unique manner the book of a nation
for 700 years ; down to our own days the young people learned it
by heart ; every woman was expected to know every word of it,
and on her marriage to carry a copy of it to her new home." The
one writer who was familiar with it, and closely imitated in parts
its story and language, was the Italian, Ariosto, in his Orlatido
Fiirioso. Well may his j^atron. Cardinal Ippolito of Este, have
asked him the question, — " Where did you find so many stories.
Master Ludovico ? " Ariosto must have gained access to it through
one of the Vatican missionaries, who began to frequent Tifiis as
early as the thirteenth century in the hope of persuading the
Georgians to recognise the Pope of Rome.
But it is not known whence Rust'haveli derived his story, though
the statement in stanza 16 that it was "a Persian tale, done into
Georgian " indicates that it came from Persia. The poet continues
thus : it "has hitherto been like a pearl of great price cast in play
from hand to hand ; now I have found it and mounted it in a
setting of verse." Such an avowal no more detracts from the
poet's claim to originality than does the fact that Shakespeare took
the stories of his plays from printed sources detract from his. In
404 Reviews.
Persian literature as we now have it, we find no trace of such a
story, but there is much resemblance of Rust'haveli's imagery to
that of Khakani, a Persian poet who died in Tabriz, close to
Georgia, in 11 86, and of Hafiz of Shiraz, who died in 1300.
To give the reader an idea of Rust'haveli's style, the first
stanzas of the second canto, — a passage imitated by Ariosto, — are
here transcribed :
" They saw a certain stranger knight ; he sat weeping on the bank of the
stream, he held his black horses by the rein, he looked like a lion and a hero j
his bridle, armour and saddle were thickly bedight with pearls ; the rose (of
his cheek) was frozen in tears that welled up from his woestricken heart.
" His form was clad in a long coat, over which was thrown a panther's
skin ; his head, too, was covered with a cap of panther's skin ; in his hand was
held a whip thicker than a man's arm. They looked and liked to look at
that wondrous sight.
" A slave went forth to speak to the knight of the woestricken heart, who,
weeping with downcast head, seems not a spectacle for jesting; from a channel
of jet (his eyelashes) rains a crystal shower. When (the slave) approached, he
could by no means bring himself to speak a word (to Tariel).
"The slave was much perturbed ; he dared not address him ; a long time he
gazed in wonder till his heart was strengthened ; then he said : " (The king)
commands thee (to attend him)." He (the slave) came near, (and) greeted him
gently ; he (Tariel) wept on and heard not, he knew not that the slave was
there.
"He heard not a word of the slave, nor what he said ; he was wholly
unconscious of the shouting of the soldiers, he was sobbing strongly, his heart
burnt up with fires ; tears were mingled with blood, and flowed forth as from
floodgates."
F. C. CONYBEARE.
EtHNO-PSYCHOLOGISCHE StUDIEN an SUDSEEVOLKERN AUF DEM
Bismarck-Archipel und DEN Salomo-Inseln. Von Dr.
Richard Thurnwald. (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fiir ange-
wandte Psychologic und psychologische Sammelforschung.
No. 6.) Mit 21 Tafeln. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Earth,
19 1 3. 8vo, pp. iv+ 163. 9 VI.
This volume contains some of the psychological results of Dr.
Thurnwald's expedition to Melanesia during the years 1906-9. It
is divided into five parts. The first is concerned with the usual
Reviezvs. 405
psychological experiments on tractive force, colour distinction,
attention, suggestion, counting, association, and so fortli. The
second part is concerned with art, and it forms the most important
section of the work. The twenty-one plates of native drawings
and photographs of native objects which form section five are
discussed at length in this part. Part three is inconsiderable, and
is concerned with language. The fourth part deals with the
mental life of the natives, and it forms a noteworthy contribution
to the literature of the subject.
A striking feature of the native mind is its inertia. For example,
a tree-trunk lying across the road will not be removed, but a great
detour will be made to avoid it (p. 100). Again, in conversation,
a subject will be discussed for interminable periods, and a joke
will be repeated times without number and without any decrease
of zest (p. 116). Corresponding to this inertia is a capacity for
performing for interminable periods such appallingly monotonous
tasks as, for example, hewing a drum with a stone adze out of a log
of hard wood (p. 10 1). Dr. Thurnwald also states that the native
becomes quickly tired when engaged upon any task requiring a
constant exercise of attention. This may, however, be due to the
fact that the native quickly becomes bored when not interested.
Once a native is really interested in the discussion of a subject, he
will often tire out a white man.
Another important mental characteristic of the native is his
" egocentricity," i.e. "the identification of one's personal existence
with that of others." Dr. Thurnwald's native " butler," Ungi,
one day appeared to be ill, and spent the whole day loafing
around doing nothing. The Doctor was quite unable to find out
what was tiie matter, except that he did not feel well, and so gave
him some aloe pills, but without result. He then discovered that
Ungi was not really ill at all, but that his wife was. Dr. Thurn-
wald calls this "physiological sympatliy." "This incident points
to a probable origin of the so-called 'couvade'" (p. 103).
The native opinion of white men is most interesting. White
men are magicians. " In general these mighty magicians are
very dangerous, unfriendly and cunning beings, who carry off men
and take away land, who can kill with " thunder and lightning,"
and who often burn villages and make everyone do just what they
4o6 Reviews.
wish. However they possess many useful and agreeable things,
but it is hard to obtain them, and if you take a little I'rom their
superfluity then they become nasty, for they are pedantic, petty
and narrow. They have no social feeling like the village folk who
are always ready to share their superfluity. . . . The European
is immensely rich and his speech eternally dwells upon what he
buys and sells" (pj). 120-1).
W. J. Perry.
The Family among the Australian Aborigines. A socio-
logical study. By B. Malinowskl (University of London :
Monographs on Sociology, vol. 2). University of London
Press, 1913. 8vo, pp. xv + 326. With a biblio. 6s. net.
The aim of this book is, as its author puts it, "to give a correct
description of the Australian individual family." The subject is
certainly novel and refreshing. Who has ever before given much
interest to the individual family among a group of savages whose
claim to sociological distinction rests chiefly on the institution of
group marriage attributed to them by the leading authorities on
their anthropology ? " In all theoretical passages of works devoted
to the social organization of the Australian tribes," says Dr.
Malinowski, "the individual family is passed over in absolute
silence." And yet it not only exists but plays a foremost part in
the social life of these tribes ; it has a very firm basis in their
customs and ideas, and " by no means bears the features of any-
thing like recent innovation, or a subordinate form subservient to
the idea of group marriage." Wives are obtained in various ways.
There are certain normal, pacific methods of acquiring them, such as
exchange of relatives, promise in infancy, and betrothal, and at the
same time there are other more or less violent methods — elope-
ment and capture ; but the latter, and especially capture, seem to
be rather the exception than the rule, and in order to lead to a
union recognized as legal the act of violence must be followed by
some kind of expiation. "The idea of legality may be safely
applied to Australian marriage in all its forms. For in all there
J^ez'/civs. 407
was the necessity of a previous or subsequent sanction of society,
and if this were absent society used actually to interfere with the
union " (p. 66).
How, then, do these facts agree with the group-marriage theory?
If group marriage meant nothing but sexual licence, there would
be no disagreement between them ; for, although the Australian
husband had generally a definite sexual " over-right " over his wife
which secured to him the privilege of disposing of her, or at least
of exercising a certain control over her conduct in sexual matters,
this " over-right " did not, as a rule, amount to an exclusive right.
There were customs like wife-lending, exchange of wives, cere-
monial defloration of girls by old men, tlie different forms of
licence practised at large tribal gatiierings, and especially the
Firrauru relationship found in several of the southern central
tribes. But all this does not constitute group marriage, the com-
plete content of which does not consist in sexual relations alone.
Dr. Malinowski duly emphasizes the fact that marriage cannot be
detached from family life : '' it is defined in all its aspects by the
problems of the economic unity of the family, of the bonds created
by common life in one wurley, through the common rearing of,
and affection towards, the off"spring." In nearly all these respects
even the Firrauru relationship essentially differs from marriage,
and cannot, therefore, seriously encroach upon the individual
family. Xor can we regard this relationship as a survival of
previous group marriage ; in this point Dr. Malinowski is in com-
plete agreement with Mr. X. W. Thomas, although it lies outside
the scope of his inquiry to speculate upon the past history of
marriage in Australia.
In an interesting chapter, where he often refers to Mr. G. C
Wheeler's scholarly book on The Tribe and Intertribal Relations
in Australia, the author demonstrates how the individuality of the
family unit shows itself in the aboriginal mode of living. A single
family is normally in contact with a few other families only, some-
times roaming alone over its own area. But, even when there are
several families living togetlier, the camp rulers keep them apart
from each other in nearly every function of daily life, and the
children, who live in intimate contact with their parents in the
same hut, must necessarily set them apart from all their other
4oS Reviews,
relatives. There are very close personal and individual bonds of
union between parents and children. The parental relation seems
to be a regime of love, and not of coercion. The father's authority
is exercised over his children merely during their early childhood,
**/.<?. during a period when there is, in a general way, very little
room for the display of any serious authority," and comes to an
end when the girl marries and the boy is initiated.
Dr. Malinowski's conclusions derive their great value from the
extremely careful manner in which he deals with his evidence.
This book is a critical study of documents which contain many
inconsistent statements, inaccuracies, and hypothetical assumptions
represented as actual facts. On controversial points he has skil-
fully tried to eliminate the contradictions by applying textual
criticism to the statements, or by pointing out the possible source
of error, or by showing that the contradictions must be set down
to local differences between the tribes. He has carefully disin-
tegrated all that is hypothetical in the statements from the observed
facts themselves; and he has pointed out which facts are well
established and which are more or less uncertain or contradictory.
But, in the first place, he has taken care to give us an explicit
survey of the evidence, and he has drawn his conclusions in such
a manner that his reasons for drawing them are perfectly clear to
the reader. From a methodological point of view. Dr. Malinowski's
book is a model which ought to be imitated in all future inquiries
of a similar kind. Another point of general importance is his long
and penetrating discussion of kinship, occupying no less than sixty-
five pages, which will be found instructive and stimulating even by
those who cannot, in every detail, agree with his views.
My general opinion about Dr. Malinowski's book is that it is one
of the best sociological mnnogra])hs which I have ever read.
Edward Westkr.marck.
Books for Re7Jtew should be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lore,
c/o Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson,
3 Adam St., .\delphi, London, W.C.
'f-'i
Jfolk^Xore.
TR.LXSACTIOXS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
Vol, XXIV.] DECEMBER, 1913. No. IV.
THE RELIGION OF MANIPUR.
BY COL. J. SHAKESI'EAK.
{Read at Meeting, May 21st, 191 3.)
I PROPOSE to commence this paper by a statement of
the position of affairs. As regards reh'gion in Manipur at
the present time, I shall not, except incidentally, refer to the
religion of the many hill tribes who live round the lovely
valley. Manipur figures as a Hindu state in the list of the
Feudatory states of India, and Hinduism is the State
religion, but when we have said this we have by no means
stated the whole case, for alongside of Hinduism we have
the worship of the Umanglais or Forest gods and various
other distinctly non- Hindu cults, which are practised by
good Hindus as well as by those who have not yet aban-
doned the faith of their forefathers. As a matter of fact
even the best Hindus in Manipur, except perhaps a few of
the most holy Brahmans, cannot be said to have abandoned
the ancient faith ; rather, they accepted the Hindu Pan-
theon in addition to the old gods of their own country.
VOL. XXIV. 2 D
4IO The Religion oj Alaiiipnr.
The state of affairs is closely paralleled in Burma, in the
Malay States, and in Java. The resemblance is closest
in the case of Burma, for there, as in Manipur, only one
conversion has taken place. We find the state relifjion, in
Burma Buddhism, and in Manipur Hinduism, existing side
by side with the more ancient faith. To quote from Sir J.
George Scott's great book TJie Bnrmaii his L ife arid Notions^ :
" Notwithstanding that Buddhism has been the established
religion in Burma since shortly after the third great council
at Patalipootra in 241 B.C., and that the purest form of the
faith exists, and is firmly believed in, yet, throughout the
whole of A-shay Pyee [The Eastern Country] both in
Independent and British Territory, the old geniolatry still
retains a firm hold on the mindsof the people. ... As a simple
matter of fact, it is undeniable that the propitiating of the
nats is a question of daily concern to the lower class Burman,
while the worship at the pagoda is only thought of once a
week." Similarly, in Manipur, although most of the inhabi-
tants of the valley profess Hinduism and are strict in
observing many of its customs, they are also ardent sup-
porters of the Unianglais, who seem practically identical
with the Burmese Nats. As in Burma, the p'Jiungyis are
respected and well looked after, and the images of Buddha
never lack loving care, while, at the same time the little
house of the village nat is duly decorated with flowers and
replenished with simple offerings,- so in Manipur. Krishna
is devoutly worshipped and Brahmans are maintained,
while at the same time ever)' village has at least one sacred
grove, the abode of the local god, who has his own priests
and priestesses. In the Malay States we find matters
more complicated, for there, as Mr. Skeat says, "Just as in
the language of the Malays it is -possible by analysis to
pick out words of Sanskrit and Arabic origin from amongst
the main body of genuinely native words, so in their folk-
lore one finds Hindu, Buddhist, and Muhammadan ideas
1 Vol. i (18S2), p. 276. -H. Fielding Hall, The Soul of the People, p. 251.
The Rc/ioion of Mauipur. 4 1 i
overlying a mass of appareiitl\' orii^inal Malay notions."-'
But substituting Mahommedan for Hindu and Buddhist, the
Malays seem to be in much the same position as the Mani-
puris and the Burmans, for Mr. Skeat remarks a little lower
down : — '• It is necessary to state that Malays of the Penin-
sular are Sunni Muhammadans of the school of Shafi'i,
and that nothing, theoretically speaking, could be more
orthodox (from the point of view of Islam) than the belief
which they profess. But the beliefs which they actually
hold are another matter altogether, and it must be admitted
that the Muhammadan veneer which covers their ancient
superstitions is often of the thinnest description."
In one particular the Uinanglais of Manipur are better
off than the Nixts of Burma, for they are officially recog-
nized and some of them receive tax-free lands for their
maintenance, and are every bit as much honoured as the
Hindu gods. Each set of divinities has its own minis-
ters. Krishna and the other Hindu gods are served
by Brahmans, while the local gods have their own priests
and priestesses, known as viaibas and maibis. The
Raja is the recognized head of both religions. As a
Hindu the Manipuri calls in the Brahman on occasions
of births, marriages, and deaths, and observes the Hindu
festivals, but in sickness he consults the viaiba and he
worships the gods of hills and rivers of his country as
his forefathers did before him. I may here point out
that Hinduism is far less antagonistic to the ancient faith
of Manipur than Buddhism was to that of Burma or
Mahommedanism to that of the Malays. To a Hindu,
whose Pantheon contains an unlimited number of beings
more or less divine, the inclusion of the godlings of any
tribe with which he comes in contact is a matter of no
great difficulty. Dr. Barnett has justly remarked, — "Hin-
duism is not one homogeneous growth of religious thought ;
it is neither a single tree nor a forest of trees sprung from
•^ Malay Magic, Preface, p. xii.
412 The Religion of Manipur.
the same stock. It is on the contrary an aggregation of
minor growths, some of cognate origin, some of foreign
provenance, all grouped together under the shadow of one
mighty tree. It is an influence which has taken possession
of well nigh all the roads by which man approaches the
unseen in India, its churches are as well the stately Cathe-
dral, where scholars and princes worship, as the humble
shrine where villagers offer wild flowers to some god born
of their own rude hearts, or the wayside spot haunted by
some random godling, who may have dwelt there long
before the Hindus came into India, or may have arrived
there last week." •* The attitude of the Brahman towards
the gods of the savage races with whom he comes in con-
tact seems to me somewhat similar to that of the Vicar of
Ikay. Whatever they may be, and whatever the rites of
their worship, he is ready to accept them as one or other
of the Hindu gods or godlings and to instal himself as high
priest.
The Manipur chronicle, which is a very interesting history
of the State from the very earliest times, commences with
a pedigree, thus: Naran begat Brahma, Brahma begat
Marichi, and so on through five generations to Chitraketu,
who had one million wives and reigned in Mahendranagarh.
The youngest of the million partners of Chitraketu had
only one son, whose granddaughter Chitrangada became
the wife of Arjun, the third son of Pandu, by whom she
had only one son, Babrubahon, who changed the name of
Mahendranagarh to Manipur. From Babrubahon the pedi-
gree is carried through three generations to Hemanga, who
died childless, but his widow Bhanumati worshipped the
sun and obtained two divine eggs, one of which took the
form of Taoroinai, known later as Pureiromba (of whom
you will hear more when we come to the Uvianglais or
forest gods). Pureiromba, taking the other egg in his
mouth, descended to earth. On the way he was asked by
* Religions Ancient and Modern : Hinduism, ^. i.
The Rclitrion of Manipiir. 413
all tlic fijods whither he was going, but, having the ^^^ in
his mouth, he could not speak clearly (whence the name
Purei-romba, bringing -stammering). The place where Tao-
roinai descended is pointed out close to the entrance to the
present Palace grounds. Bhanumati received this divine
egg brought by Taoroinai and took great care of it, and
from it issued Pakhangba, the divine ancestor of the present
ruling family of Manipur, which is thus clearly descended
from the ancient Lunar dynasty of Hindustan. The Mani-
puris therefore have an ancient Hindu pedigree, but the
modern introduction of the Hindu religion, a revival as the
Manipuris call it, occurred according to their chronicles in
the year 1626 of the Shak era (equivalent to 1 704-5 A.D.),
when we read " A Brahman Goshami named Muni arrived
from Assam with 22 men, and the Raja Chorairongba
and all male and female members of the Royal family, with
all the ministers and the Sirdars, fasted on the 5th Boisak,
Wednesday, and performed the religious ceremony of taking
advice of the spiritual guide, the holy man Muni Goshami."
In 1708-9 we read of temples being built for Krishna and
Kali, but in the following year we read of a masonry
temple being built for Panthoibi, one of the best known of
the Goddesses of the indigenous faith, and immediately
after this the collapse of Kali's temple is recorded, and it
was not rebuilt for five years. In 17 17-8, Chorairongba's
successor, who became known as Gharib Nawaz, is said to
have performed the ceremony of taking advice from his
guru, and in the next line we read that "he also performed
some religious ceremonies at the house of the God Sena-
mahi, with all his wives and servants," Senamahi being
one of the Umayiglais and to this day the household god of
the Manipuris. In 1723-4 the same ruler ordered the
destruction of the houses of the nine Unianglais, but six
weeks later we find him detailing Brahmans to attend on
four of these local gods. In the following year Gharib
Nawaz dug up the bones of his ancestors and conveyed
414 ^'^'^' Rclii^ioii oj Manipni'.
them to the Chindwin and burnt them there, since which
date cremation has been universally adopted. These vacil-
lations of the rulers were evidently due, in part at least,
to the unpopularity of the new religion, for we constantly
read of the Raja and his ministers performing ceremonies
to induce the people to take the holy thread, and thirty-
five years after the first introduction of the new faith we
read " Tungashai performed the ceremony of taking the
holy thread, and on that auspicious day many, many vil-
lages also performed the same ceremony ; even those who
were unwilling to take the holy thread were forced to take
it by royal order." It is clear that the spread of Hinduism
was slow, and was only achieved by a compromise with
the ancient faith. Doubtless the limitation-of diet imposed
on their followers by the Brahmans had much to do with
the unpopularity of their doctrines, for previous to their
conversion the Manipuris were evidently consumers of flesh
and strong drinks. In 1630-1 we read of the Raja worship-
ping his god by sacrificing 100 goats, 100 rams, lOO mithan,
100 pigeons, 100 buffaloes, 100 hogs, 100 geese, 100 ducks,
100 fowls, and lOO dogs, and, judging from the practice in
the case of sacrifices to the Umanglais at the present time,
we may safely infer that the flesh of the victims was eaten
by the worshippers. The Chronicle also contains social
references to the consumption of intoxicants; for instance,
in 1 680- 1 we read that the Raja spent the whole night
drinking in the house of one of his officials, and during his
absence his own house was burnt down. Prior to 1823
Manipur suffered much from raids made by the Burmese,
who, according to the Chronicle, twice carried off 30,000
captives, and Colonel McCulloch writes, " of those not made
captive, some escaped to British provinces, some managed
to subsist themselves amongst the Hill people, and some
amongst the marshes in the southern part of the valley."^
The princes of the royal family, and probably many of the
* Account of Munnipore and the Hill Tribes, p. 1 1.
The Rclis^ion of Manipiir. 4 1 5
better-class Manipuris, escaped to Cachar, and I tliink this
enforced sojourn in a country which had recently come
under the influence of the Brahmans must iiave strengthened
the hold of Hinduism on the exiles. I cannot refrain from
quoting Mr. E. A. Gait'b account of the conversion of the Raja
of Cachar. " At Khaspur it [the process of Hinduization]
proceeded rapidly, and in 1790, the formal act of conversion
took place : the raja, Krishna Chandra, and his brother
Govind Chandra, entered the body of a copper effigy of
a cow. On emerging from it, they were proclaimed to be
Hindus of the Kshatriya caste, and a genealogy of a hundred
generations, reaching to Bhim, the hero of the Mahdbhamt,
was composed for them by the Brahmans."''
I have made so many references to the Chronicles of the
Manipur Kings that it seems necessary to say a few words
regarding them and their value as history. When discuss-
ing this question with my friend Mr. Hodson he expressed
an opinion that, while the Chronicle can not be considered
history, it is certainly very good tradition. The Chronicle
begins with a date equivalent to 392 A.D. Up to the year
143 1 the entries are extremely brief, and I think that, as
regards that portion, Mr. Hodson's estimate is too favour-
able ; from 1431 to about 1700 his estimate seems very
fair ; but, after that, I think more credit may be given to
the book. I have come across two striking proofs of the
truth of the latter part of the Chronicle. The excavation
and consecration of a large tank are recorded in the years
1725 and 1726, part of the ceremony being the placing of
images of Krishna and Kali in the tank. In 1906 the tank
was drained, and the images were found at the foot of the
consecration post, exactly as recorded 180 years before.
Again, in 1905, in the course of enlarging another tank,
we found unmistakeable evidence that the river had at
some previous time run to the west of the royal enclosure
instead of to the east, as it now does, and, on referring to the
^ A History of Assam, p. 251.
41 6 The Religion of Manipur.
Chronicle, I found two entries dated 1 630-1 and 1662-3,
the first describing the cutting of the present channel
and the second the completion of the v/ork by the filling up
of the old bed. These are valuable evidence of the truth of
the latter portion of the Chronicle, but almost more con-
vincing are its contents, for, had it been entirely fictitious,
written to order at a late period after the triumph of
Hinduism, surely the records of the ancient religion and
of the process of conversion to the new faith would not
have been so full. I think therefore that we may safely
place considerable reliance on the latter portion of the
Chronicle.
I must now refer briefly to the form in which we find
Hinduism in Manipur. Though the Manipuris have ac-
cepted the Vaishnavite doctrines, they have rejected entirely
certain Hindu customs; for instance, child marriages are
unknown, and women even of the highest classes go about
freely, unveiled ; widows are free to re-marry, and are subject
to none of the restrictions imposed on them in other parts
of India. I think you will agree with me that in rejecting
these particular customs the Manipuris have shown great
wisdom. I am sure that any one who knows anything of
Manipur will admit that, had the observance of these customs
been insisted on, Hinduism would have made no progress,
for the Manipur woman has clear views as to her own
importance and would never have submitted to being
deprived of her liberty. In other respects also the Mani-
puris have introduced modifications. It is of course well
known that on various occasions a good Hindu has to be
ceremonially shaved; in fact, as Babu Jogendra Nath
Bhattacharya in his great book on the Indian castes has
said, "A Hindu cannot celebrate any religious ceremony
without first shaving ; the barber is an important functionary
in Hindu society." Now, when the first Brahmans came to
Manipur, they appear to have brought no barbers with
them, so that a difficulty arose as to complying with the
Plate VIM.
1. CHILIJRKX DRESSED AS kRISHXA AND RADIIA
FOR NAS LI LA SACRED DANCE.
2. RAJ.VS JAGANATH CAR .AT RATH JATRA FES-
TINA L.
J 'o face /. 416.
Tlif Rclioioti of Maiiipur. 417
requirements of tlie new reli\f;;ion in the matter of shaving.
This was got over temporarily by importing five barbers,
but, as the number of converts increased, it soon became
impossible for five barbers, however diligent and expert, to
attend to them all, and some new arrangement iiad to be
made. Each of the barbers had a certain number of villages
assigned to him, and to each of these he sent the imple-
ments of his trade and in return demanded a small fee in
rice from each holder, and the payment of these fees is held
to satisfy all the requirements of religion. This system
exists still. The supremacy of the Raja is another point
which must not be overlooked ; although there is a Brahman
Somaj to which all questions regarding Hindu rites are
referred, yet its orders require the approval of the Raja
before they become effective. In matters of diet the Mani-
puri is very orthodox, and in many matters is more par-
ticular than Hindus generally are in these days. This is
due partly to the isolation in which, till recently, they lived,
and partly to their desire to mark the difference between
themselves and the Hill tribes, whom they despise.
The Manipuri is a very cheerful person, fond of any form
of amusement, and he has accepted gladly all the festivals
of the Hindu calendar, but to show his independence he
observes them a day later than other Hindus. He indulges
largely in religious plays and dances illustrating incidents
in the life of Krishna (Plate VHI.). The fight with the
Demon and the mighty crane sent by the wicked Kansa
to slay the boy Krishna is a favourite subject. The first
part of the ceremony is conducted indoors, and strangers
are not admitted. At its conclusion the boy representa-
tives of Krishna, Balaram, and their cowherd companions,
in gorgeous costumes, march out into some open space
where the images of Krishna and Radha have been placed
on a stage before which the boys dance and play at ball
as their prototypes are said to have done in days long
gone by in the jungles of Brindaban. The crane and
4 1 8 The Religion oj Mauipnr.
several demons appear (Plate IX.). The former is a man
wearing a huge framework covered with white cloth,
bearing some resemblance to a crane. The demons have
bull-headed masks and dresses made of ropes of jute.
The}' burlesque the actions of the dancers, and indulge
in rough play with each other. Finally, first the chief
demon, and then the crane, are attacked by the boys, who
belabour them so with their wands that they have to
be rescued by the stage managers. There are many such
religious plays and dances, and every temple has a dancing
house attached to it. To build a temple and a dancing
house, and maintain a Brahman, is the great object of a
well-to-do Manipuri. Children are specially trained to
dance these sacred measures correctly, and, as each festival
approaches, the juvenile performers may be seen hard at
work rehearsing under the supervision of professional
teachers.
The Brahmans of Manipur are reputed to be learned
and devout, and are distinctly conservative. Among the
elderly people there are many really devout Hindus, and
large numbers of them may be seen patiently plodding up
and down the steep inclines of the road leading to Silchar,
on their way to the various holy places of Hindustan. There
is much genuine love of Krishna, and among the younger
generation, which has had the advantage of a free education,
a general desire to know more of the principles of the
religion which they profess. I cannot agree with Mr.
Hodson's verdict that, judging by what they do, we must
class the Meitheis as animists." Whether you call them
Hindus or not depends entirely on which definition of a
Hindu appeals to you. The difficulty of defining a Hindu
is well known. To quote from The Pioneer of December
14, 1912, — "Mr. Gait suggested tests whereby Hindus
might be detected from Animists, but it is a remarkable
fact that the Census Superintendents of Mysore, Travan-
' The Meitheis, p. 97.
Plate IX.
w
-A.v
r"-
wm»
1. DEMONS AM) ^,()I)^• OF CRANE IN SAN-JENBA
(COW-HERDING; PLAY.
2. LAI-SANGS OF PUREIR0.M15A AND HIS SON
CHINSONGBA AT ANDRO.
To face p. 418.
The Rc/i'oioji of Manipiir. 419
core, and Cochin are unanimous in rejecting these tests as
an authoritative Shibboleth when appHed to a South Indian
population. Each has endeavoured to fornuilate his own
test. As remarked in a previous article, the Cochin Super-
intendent decided that the crucial point was the recognition
of caste as a socio-religious institution. The Travancore
Superintendent seems to think that belief in Karma is the
determining factor; and Mr. Thyagaraja Aiyar lays down
the following definition : "A Hindu is a Theist believing
in the religious evolution which will some day, but surely,
through worship of God in his various forms, (according to
the worshipper's ideal) and through good works in his
present life, or series of lives, land him in the Godhead,
compared with whom nothing is real in this world."" In a
paper read before this Society on Nov. 15, 191 1, Mr. Crooke
stated that, — " On the whole, it may be said that reverence
for the cow and passionate resistance to its slaughter are
the most powerful links which bind together the chaotic
complex of beliefs which we designate by the name of
Hinduism" {Folk-Lore, vol. xxiii., p. 279). The Alanipuris
certainly are Hindus according to the last test. I think
that the educated among them would pass as Hindus by
the tests of Travancore and Mr. Thyagaraja Aiyar. As
regards belief in caste, too, the Manipuri would pass as a
Hindu, if you accept his own definition of caste.
In order to explain this, and to facilitate the following
of the pre-Hindu beliefs which I am about to describe,
I must briefly touch on the composition of the Manipuri
population. Various clans fought for the supremacy of the
valley; all these were closely allied, although constantly
at war. Of these clans that called Meithei came out the
conqueror, and that name is now applied to all the clans.
But, besides the clans known now collectively as Meithei,
there were other clans in the valley whom the Meithei
conquered but did not admit into the Meithei confederacy.
These are now known collectively as Loi, and, though all
420 The Religion of Manipiir.
the Meithei are now Hindus, many Loi villages still follow
the ancient faith, and the Meithei worship the gods of these
Loi villages as much as the Loi themselves. The Meithei
population is subdivided into seven salei, which represent
the original clans, and each salei is further subdivided
into many yuvinaks or families. The different clans in-
cluded under the name of Loi are also subdivided into
yuvuiaks. All Meithei consider themselves of one caste,
and only intermarry with other Meithei, but breaches of
this rule can be condoned, if not for the actual offenders
certainly for their descendants. The trades of blacksmith,
goldsmith, brassworker, and worker in bell metal and
copper are each restricted to a particular family, but there
is nothing to prevent a member of one of these families
engaging in any other occupation. It is almost certain
that all these are imported trades, and the founders of
these families were either imported by former rulers or
persons sent to Cachar and Assam to learn trades. The
Chronicles record that in 1 66 1-2 "Three men were sent to
Cachar and two to Assam to see," i.e., to pick up informa-
tion, and we have seen that barbers were imported. None
of the indigenous trades are restricted to any' particular
family; carpentry, fishing, weaving, etc. are open to all.
Although the four trades mentioned are closed to the
general public, they are not cut off as regards marriage or
commensality. The blacksmiths are rather looked down
on, and it is possible that in time they may be excluded
from commensality. I am informed that all Meithei can
eat together, but, as eating with strangers is dangerous, one
Meithei seldom eats with another unless he knows him v/eil
and is sure that he is not in any way unclean. Whether
two Meithei will eat together depends chiefly on the amount
of friendship between them. Eating with any but Meithei
is strictly prohibited. Outsiders, except Mahommedans
and sweepers, can be admitted into the Meithei community
with the approval of the Raja. In fact the approval of the
The Reiioion of Maui pur. 421
Raja is sufficient to cover most social and religious irregu-
larities. Xo one who knows anything of the Manipuris
and the tribes which surround them will deny that the
introduction of Hinduism has done much for them. It has
made them into a nation of teetotallers, cleanly in person
and polite to the verge of ceremonious. After all, I think
that a close study of the history of many other communities
which are now considered of unsullied Hindu descent would
reveal that they had all been through very much the same
stages as the Meithei, and that their Hinduism is only
better than that of the Manipuris because it is a little older.
I now come to the ancient religion of the country, the
worship of the Uiuang/ajs, or Forest gods, and other lesser
supernatural beings, such as the Sa-roi-nga-roi, evil spirits
which are always on the lookout to injure human beings ;
the Helloi, beautiful female forms which lure foolish men
into waste places and then disappear, leaving their victims
bereft of reason ; and Hingchabis or witches. Originally
there were only nine of these Forest gods and seven
goddesses, but these have now increased to 364, and the
pundits claim that from their books they can trace the
pedigree of every one of these 364 divinities back to one or
other of the original nine gods or seven goddesses. It
is said that the Raja Khagenba, who reigned between
1597 and 1652, appointed ^\& gnnis to reduce to writing
all that was known regarding these deities and other super-
natural beings. The pundits own thick piles of unbound
sheets of rough paper of local manufacture covered with
archaic Manipuri characters, which are said to be the work
of these old-world compilers, and it is from these records
that I have obtained much of my information ; but I
have also picked up much of interest from the village folk,
who are freer of Hindu influences than the learned men.
The increase in the deities is said to have occurred in three
ways. In some cases a god is said to have children ;
Wangpurel, the guardian of the South, is said to have
42 2 The Religion of Manipiir.
fallen in love with a girl belonging to the Old Kuki clan
called Anal, and to have assumed a human form and
married her in the most prosaic way, after serving for
her the customary three years. He carried her off to his
golden palace in the river near Shuganu, where she bore
him several sons. In other cases it seems that the same
god or goddess may be worshipped under different
names in different places, while some deities are said to
be emanations from greater gods. There are cases in which
Rajas have been deified after death, but the pundits main-
tain that their spirits were emanations from one of the
original nine gods.
The pundits gave me the following names of the original
nine gods: i, Athingkho Guru sidaba, the creator of the
world out of chaos. This god is said to have been the
first great cause, whence all things and beings have
emanated. He is said to be identical with Lai-ningthau-
ahanba, i.e., the eldest chief of the gods, and Pakhangba the
mythical snake ancestor of the Meithei royal family.
2, Athiya Guru sidaba, god of the void above, also called
Chak-khaba. 3, 'Ashiba Guru sidaba, the controller of all
living beings, said to be identical with Khumlangba, the
god of the iron workers of Kakching. 4, Thangjing, the
great god of Moirang. 5, Marjing. 6, Khong Ningthau,
identical with Khobru, the guardian of the north, whose
abode is on the top of a lofty peak, known by his
name, which rises above the northern end of the valley.
7, Thongngarel. 8, Nong Ningthau, chief of the rain.
9, Senamahi, the household god of the Meithei. The word
gum is an importation, and it seems to me tliat much
of the contents of the pundits' books is of a considerably
later date than that to which they are ascribed, and, in
spite of the learned way in which they studied them,
they were not always able to reconcile the statements
they extracted from them ; for instance, having given me
Senamahi as one of the original nine gods, they told me on
The Rclioiou of Manipuj-. 423
another day that Senaniahi was the son of Yumjau
Lairenia. However, the fact remains that the Uinaiiglais
are always spoken of as nine in number, and the Lairemas,
or goddesses, as seven, and at every sacrifice offerings for
these sixteen deities are laid out as I shall describe later.
The greatest of all the gods is Pakhangba. He is the
m\-thical ancestor of the Meithei kings, and is the first
king mentioned in the Chronicle. I have already given
you his pedigree. He is said to have assumed the form
of a god by day, and by night he used to be a man. He
reigned 120 years. In describing the crest he has adopted.
His Highness the present Raja speaks thus of this divine
ancestor : " Pakhangba was an incarnation of God and
born in the family of Babrubahon. He reigned for many
years, and during the l^urmese invasion, when Alanipur was
almost depopulated, he appeared once in Nunjing tank
in the form of a snake, and thus destroyed the Burmese by
some miraculous power. So the form of Pakhangba is
given in the crest to show that he is the sole protector of this
land." Pakhangba had the miraculous power of being able
to sink into the ground and reappear at some spot many
miles away ; these places are known as sariuig, and arc
held very sacred.
There are eight gods distinguished from the rest by the
title of Magci-Ng-akpa, i.e.. Watchers of directions. These
include Khobru the guardian of the North, Wangpurel the
guardian of the South, Nongpok Ningthau chief of the
East, and Hang-goi Ningthau who guards the West.
The remaining four are not placed at the intervening
points of the compass, but two, Marjing and Chingkei,
have their abodes in the North-east, and two, Thangjing
and his son Santhong, have theirs in the South-west.
Marjing is the special god of horses, and, when worshipping
him, a pony is offered, instead of a buffalo or pig as in
the cases of other gods. These greater gods are supposed
to exercise special protective powers over certain tracts
424 J he Rclioio7i of Mauipur.
of country, and are therefore sometimes spoken of as Lam-
lai, gods of the countryside.
In the good old days the eight Mdgei-Ngdkpa were
worshipped annually on behalf of the Raja, and thus sick-
ness and trouble were kept out of the valley of the
Meithei. The custom was discontinued when the ad-
ministration of the country was assumed by the British
Government, and the present ruler has not revived it.
Besides these gods there are others, whose name extends
beyond the village in which they specially dwell. Such are
Khumlangba, the god of the ironworkers of Kakching ;
Pureiromba and Panam Ningthau, gods of the Loi village
of Andro ; Sorarel, the god of the sky, who is specially
worshipped at Phayeng, another Loi village ; Panthoibi,
a very popular goddess ; and many others. In addition to
these QiS^ch. yiimnak or family has a special Lai or Laireina,
who is worshipped by all its members. These are
evidently deified ancestors, real or imaginary. I have
referred to Pakhangba, the ancestor and god of the royal
family. The Longjamj/?/;//;m/(' worship l^or\g]diVa Lairema,
a girl of the family, who was carried up to the sky by
Sorarel, who threw down her clothes, so that her relatives
might know what had become of her. Konthaujam
Lairema, the goddess of the Konthaujam family, was also
carried off by the same amorous deity, who, to console her,
promised that as long as she remained with him none of
her kin should die. This promise in some way became
known to her relations, and, in order to entice her to
descend to earth, they killed a dog and cremated it with all
ceremony beneath a sevenfold canopy, so that the girl
was unable to detect the deception and became very
distressed, fearing that some beloVed relative had died.
Sorarel tried to reassure her, but she would not be comforted,
and insisted on returning to her home. In spite of being
warned by Sorarel of the consequences, she shared in
the family meal, and therefore could not rejoin her divine
The Religion of Manipur. 425
spouse.^ The Khumal Lambom worship Nautinkhong
Ningthau, who married Keiru-hanbi, a daughter of the
Khumal king, by whom he had two sons, from the elder of
whom the Lambom claim descent. In Shuganu I found
five yumnaks, the gods of which had no special names,
being merely known as Apokpa, i.e. ancestor. In Andro,
the Loi village to which Meithei were sometimes banished
for various crimes, I found that the families of these
exiles had no special gods. Though they kept the
family name they were held to have lost all claim to share
in the worship of the famil}' god, and they are equally
ineligible to join in that of one of the indigenous divinities
of their new home. In some cases we find that yunmaks
which are not in any way connected have the same god,
and I think this is due to the desire, not unknown in other
lands, to claim aristocratic descent.
I must now turn to the seven goddesses. The following
are the names given in the pundits' books, but they are
not generally known : i, Lei-khak-bi-ya-rel, from whom
sprang the Ningthaujau clan. She also gave birth to Sing-
sing-yai-nu,from whom sprang all trees, grasses, etc. Thurs-
day is her birthday. 2, Lai-i-bi-a-hum-nu, the ancestress
of the Angom, mother of Ireima-thon-thangnu, from
whom came water and cotton. Her birthday is Monday.
3, Thung-woibi Thoiyinu, ancestress of the Luang clan and
mother of Priprinu, who produced gold and silver, and
also Noinu Thumleima, the goddess of the salt wells. Her
birthday is Friday. 4, Mangwoibi Thongthangnu, ancestress
of the Khumal and mother of Lemlei-nga-na-na-woibi,
who produced iron and all fishes. Her birthday is Tuesday.
5, Chitnu-laima, ancestress of the Moirang clan and
mother of Piyainu Pisamnu, who produced fire. Saturday
is her birthday. 6, Theirei-longbam-chanu, ancestress
of the Ngangba clan and also mother of the winds and
* In the Naga village Maram, I found several traditions of men being taken
up by the sky god.
2 £
426 The Religion of Manipttr.
of Laimon-phau-woibi, the mother of rice. Sunday is her
birthday. 7, La-phubi Leimanu, ancestress of the Chenglei
clan and mother of the earth. She was born on Wednes-
day, on which day no land is sold. As I have said, the
names of these ladies are not in general use, and, as
Mr. Hodson has told us in his book on TJic Meitlicis, these
clans have also male gods. But every one knows that
there are seven goddesses, and offerings for them are laid
out whenever a sacrifice is made.
Every god and goddess has a lai-phani, i.e. a god's place,
a spot specially sacred to him or her at which ceremonies
in the deity's honour are performed. Most of the more
important gods are said to reside on hilltops, but, for the
convenience of their worshippers, they also have abodes in
more accessible spots. Sacred spots are found on the tops
of ridges, where a heap of stones or some other mark informs
the passers-by that they are on holy ground, and each
makes an offering, be it only a leaf from a bush beside the
road. The greater gods have sacred groves near to the
villages of their special worshippers ; inside the grove is an
open spot, at one end of which is the lai-saiig, god's house
(Plate IX.), and on either side are long open sheds in which
the villagers sit, males on one side and females on the other,
all arranged in due order of seniority, during the lai-haraiiba
or " pleasing of the god," a ceremony which usually takes
place once a year. There are various taboos connected with
these groves and the lai-sangs. At Andro, Panam Ning-
thau's lai-sang can only be opened on Sunday, and repairs
must also be done on that day. In case of repairs, or
even entire rebuilding, the work must be finished entirely in
one day. This rule is also observed in the case of Nongpok
Ningthau's house at Langmeidong, but not in case of that
of Panthoibi at Wangu. During the time occupied in the
repairs, the god has to be accommodated in a lei-hul, a
bunch of sacred grasses and flowers, which he is persuaded
to enter, and which is then placed in the grove at a short
Plate X.
l7^
n
■'St^^Z
J^^-:!!
IM
F'l
■LjpHtPK.
it^.^
5^
k
^^^Kfjy r r -??-?|> V
f^
n
Hi.-
iv
•^*•* T^ »^
1. LITTER WITH KMl'.LKM <)F KH LM LAN(;BA.
2. MAIDEN DAN'CERS AT KHUM LAXC.HA'S LA/-
HARACBA.
To fare p. 426.
The Ri'/iQio)! of Manipiir. 427
distance from the house. None of the produce of these
groves, not even the leaves or grass, may be removed or
made use of, except in the service of the god, but at Andro
I was told that Panam Ningthau objected to products of
his grove being used even in his own service. No bird
nor beast ma\- be killed in one of these groves.^ I was
^once requested to dismount, as the people said they did
not know whether the Lai would like my pony to enter his
grove ; this struck me as curious, as the gods are polo-
players, and a stick and ball arc kept in every lai-sang, and
occasionally, when the Lai takes possession of a priestess
at the lai-/iarai(ba, he makes the old lady play a mock game
all by herself In some cases the gods are represented by
images or some material object. Panthoibi at Wangu
resides in an image of wood, which I am told has some
resemblance to a human form, but has horns. This is kept
in a separate little house hidden in the interior of the grove,
whence it is brought on the occasion of a lai-harauba.
As a rule there is no sacred image, but at a "Pleasing" a
brass mask draped with cloth is used to visualize the god
to his worshippers. Khumlangba, the god of the ironworkers,
is represented by a piece of iron, said to have been
brought to Manipur by their ancestors (Plate X.). Panam
Ningthau, of the Loi village of Andro, is a special
guardian of the Meithei Raja, who, on the occasion of his
Jiaranba, sends a mithan or a buffalo, which is sacrificed,
being killed by a blow of an axe. The villagers, who have
not yet become Hindus, eat the flesh, after offering parts to
the god. Besides his regular grove in the village, this deity
has two other sacred places ; one is a cane brake, and,
should a tiger enter this and roar, some dire misfortune
awaits the Raja, who, on being informed, sends a pig and a
cock. The former is sacrificed, and the latter is taken by
one of the Aheibom family, (whose members are servants of
the god), to the cane brake and released a short distance
*Cf. iijfra, p. 43S.
428 The Religion of Manipiir.
within its mysterious precincts. Should the bird ascend a
small mound, flap its wings, and crow lustily, all is well, but,
if it remains quiet, the worst may be expected. This is the
only occasion on which the sacred place may be entered ;
should any daring person enter at another time, he would
assuredly be killed. i*' In years in which tht haraiibn is not
held, five pigs are offered to Panam Ningthau in his other
grove, which is a little way outside the village. The lesser
godlings, though they have each a lai-pham^ have no grove
or lai-saiig.
The principal feature in the worship of these Unianglais
and Lairemas is the lai-harauba, the " pleasing of the god."
I have written elsewhere a full account of Khumlangba's
" Pleasing," ^^ and therefore will not again describe the cere-
monies in detail. The ceremonies differ considerably, but
in every case the spirit of the god has to be enticed from
some stream. As most of the gods are hill deities, it struck
me as curious that they should have to be enticed from
water, but my enquiries only elicited the reply that of
course all Umanglais came from water. The object of this
ceremony of enticing is to bring the god into a state of
activity. I was told that the gods are eternal and ever-
present, but that in ordinary times they are in a state of
quiescence, and by this ceremony they are persuaded to
show their power by taking possession of their favoured
worshippers. The Jiarauba is also thought to strengthen
the god and make him more capable of helping his wor-
shippers. Possession is described as the god mounting on
the head. Any person may become possessed, but only
while the gong is beating during a Jiarauba, i.e. at the time
when the worshippers are worked up to the highest pitch
of excitement. The gods and goddesses prefer to be served
by women, and, therefore, should a man become possessed
"Cf. H. Fielding Hall, The Sotil oj a People, p. 255.
^^ The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, etc., vol. xl. (1910),
PP- 349-59- Cf. Plates X. and XI.
The Rc/i'oion of Manipiir. 429
while dancing at a haraitba, he is styled a niaihi, i.e.
priestess, in contrast to maiba, a priest, and when dancing
before the god he will wear woman's clothes. Such a
person is subject to certain taboos ; he may not eat any fish
which has spines on its head, as such fish are offered to the
god in place of the buffalo of pre-Hindu days. He must
only use clean fire, i.e. fire made with flint and steel, or by
friction of a band of cane drawn across a piece of dry wood.
Should his fire go out and he have no means of making
clean fire, he must take a light from the fire of a neighbour
and ignite a small heap of sticks, and from that ignite
another heap, and repeat the process seven times, the last
fire being considered clean. The signs of possession are
frantic dancing, wild babblings in an unknown tongue
(which is called prophesying), and final collapse in a state
of unconsciousness. On the occasion of the present Raja
assuming the reins of government, a lai-Jiarauba was held
on a very large scale, and one of the many inaibis present
became possessed and prophesied at great length. It was
clear that the matter was taken very seriously by all present,
especially by His Highness, and great satisfaction was
expressed when the aged pundit who alone was able to
interpret the strange tongue announced that the meaning
was favourable. A person who has been possessed is
instructed by the older inaibis and viaibas in all the lore of
the Unianglais. The maibas are responsible for the proper
performance of all the rites, but do not actually take part
in the lai-hamuba, the gods preferring female dancers
(Plate X.) ; yet the village officials dance before them. If
a woman becomes possessed, she is enrolled among the
inaibis, and in token of her superiority she occupies hence-
forth the right side of the conjugal couch.
I have seen two methods of enticing, and there may be
others. At Kakching, where the great god Khumlangba
was being "pleased," the aged inaibi entered the river
holdinsf in her hand a brass vessel containing the leaves of
430 ' The Religion of ManipiLr.
two sacred plants, which had been previously offered to the
god in his house. Having waded out into the centre of the
stream, the maibi moved slowly to and fro, tinkling a small
bell, while on the bank another viaibi tinkled a bell and
chanted in company with some maibas. Suddenly the
priestess in the river stumbled and fell, and then rose with
the brass vessel full of water. Khumlangba had come.
The vessel with its sacred contents was placed in a litter,
and carried up to the lai-sang. At Moirang, where dwells
the god Thangjing, the procedure was different. The
Moirang iiingthau and his wife were seated under
umbrellas by the stream which runs through the village
(Plate XI.), In the lap of each was an earthen vessel
containing 20 gunmetal coins, a betel nut, and a pan
leaf, the top being covered with leaves from which
project bunches of leaves surmounted by white flowers.
To the neck of each jar a cotton thread was attached,
the remainder being wound upon a bobbin. The maibis
sprinkled the water with rice flour and roasted rice
called p2ik-yu, wai-yii. Seven short lengths of bamboo
were stuck in the mud beside the water, and these were
sprinkled with rice and water. This was an offering to the
seven Sa-roi-nga-roi, evil spirits always on the look out to
injure mankind. The chief viaibi then came forward and
entered the water, carrying a parcel wrapped in leaves con-
taining a duck's egg, a little gold and silver, and a lime.
She first flipped the water with her fingers thrice, to remove
any evil influences, and then immersed the parcel. After
withdrawing it she threw it into the stream. This operation
was repeated with another parcel, and then with two
together. The first two parcels were for the gods of the
rivers and lakes, known as Ike Ningthau and Irai Leima.
When the maibi threw the offerings, she murmured, — "We
give you this to eat. We know you as Muba and ]\Iubi
(Black Ones)." Every Manipuri has a pet name, and the
maibi used these nicknames of the god and goddess to show
Plate XI.
1. EXTICIXC; THANCJIX'; AT MOIKANC.
2. KHUMLAXGBA'S ORCH?:STRAS WITH PENNAS)
AXD MARRIED DANCERS.
To face />. 430.
The Religion of Manipur. 431
her affection. The two parcels which were thrown in
together were for Thangjing and his wife. The male viaiba
now took the two pots from the laps of the chief and
his wife, and danced a measure on the bank in company
with the female iiiaibi, who held a bunch of sacred leaves,
called laiii^tcrci, in one hand while she tinkled a small bell
with the other. The /r/z/M.y (Plate XI.) were played while
this dance was being executed. When it was concluded,
the female niaibi took the earthen pots, and entering the
water moved them gently about, taking care that no water
should enter the pots. She then sprinkled a little water
on the upright leaves, and returned the pots to the chief
and his wife, who rose and stood by the water, holding
the pots in slings of white cloth which they wore round
their necks. The bobbins were now taken by the female
niaibi, who held them with some Idngterei leaves in her
right hand. The threads were unwound, and she advanced
into the stream tinkling the little bell in her left hand,
as shown in Plate XI. ^- Then she stooped and gently
moved the Idngterei leaves about in the water, the male
inaiba holding up the threads so that they might not
get wet. The female iiiaibi now intoned a long incanta-
tion, interspersed with prayers to Thangjing to manifest
himself and bless the countr}'. She got more and more
excited, chanted quicker and quicker, and then suddenly
stopped ; Thangjing had come. Rising, the maibi passed
her hand up the strings, moistening them up to the earthen
pots. The chief and his wife now got into their litters,
holding the earthen pots in their laps. The inaiba and niaibi
walked in front, holding the ends of the threads, which were
further supported by two or three women. The procession
went to the iai-sang, just before reaching which it passed
over some rice placed on some leaves and some burning reeds
to purify the performers. The earthen pots were taken into
'-The seven little bamboo tubes stuck in the ground at the water's edge, on the
extreme right of the Plate, contain the offerings to the Sa-roi-ti^a-roi, (p. 430).
432 The Rc/i'oioji of Manipiw.
the lai-sang, and placed before the god's seat. The Idngterei
leaves were placed in the pot carried by the chief, and were
kept in the lai-sang till the next Jiarauha. (The threads
are roads to facilitate the god's passage from the water to
the pots.) During the lai-Jiarauba all concerned in it must
use clean fire, which is made by drawing a band of cane
quickly backwards and forwards across a piece of dry wood,
the hot dust being caught on a piece of tinder. Dancing
before the god is a great feature of every harauba (Plate
XII.), and there is always a processional dance, the per-
formers circling round chanting the praises of the god and
recounting the benefits he has conferred on mankind. The
male and female performers, especially the clowns and the
inaihis, frequently indulge in an exchange of filth)'' abuse,
which provokes much mirth, and is said to please the god.
In Imphal, the capital town, the leaves or fruits into which
the spirit of the god has been enticed are carried round by
two old men, dressed in white, attended by umbrella bearers
(Plate XII.), and by married women and girls carrying
the Lai's utensils, and with the niaibi dancing in front.
Some gods are tricky and perverse, refusing to be conveyed
quietly to their houses, and, taking possession of the bearers
of their litters, they drive them hither and thither in a series
of mad rushes. (Plate X. shows the bearers of such a litter,
decorated with plumes of peacock's tail feathers, in which
is carried the emblem of Khumlangba.) At the harauba
of certain gods, who are supposed to have been spouses of
the amorous goddess Panthoibi, a curious farce is enacted,
which I have described fully elsewhere, in an account of
Khumlangba's lai- harauba}^ so I will not repeat it here.
Panthoibi is a very popular goddess in Manipur. In fact
she is by far the best known of all the female divinities. The
pundits tell me that she originated from the spot near the
State Police ground in Imphal where three big inscribed
stones now stand. Unfortunately the inscriptions are so
^^See Note ii.
Plate XII.
1. DANCE OF \-ILLAGP: OFFICIALS AT THAXC ij I .\(;'S
LAI-HARAUBA.
2. IMI'HAL (;OD-CARRIEKS WITH FMBRELLA-
HEARERS.
'JoJ'aicp. 432.
The Religion of Mauipur. 433
much worn that is impossible to decipher them. The
Tangkhul Nagas also claim this spot as their place of
origin. The pundits admit the truth of this legend, and say
that the common origin was the cause of associating a
Tangkhul with Panthoibi in the farce I have just alluded to.
They say that Panthoibi went in search of Nongpok Ning-
thau, and found him at the site of the present Tangkhul
village known as Ukhrul, which they declare is a corruption
of okna-phavi, i.e. place of meeting. This admission of the
pundits is interesting, as showing that there is some con-
nection between the Tangkhuls and the Manipuris. Both
physically and mentally the Tangkhuls resemble the Mani-
puris more closely than any other of the hill tribes do.
The exchange of abuse between the sexes is said to have
originated from the opprobrious epithets which Panthoibi
bandied with Nongpok Ningthau. These two deities are
gradually becoming identified with Durga and Mahadeo of
the Hindu pantheon.
During a lai-haraiiba the sexes usually keep apart, in
some cases the men all sleeping together throughout the
festival. This is a taboo which is almost universal among
the Nfiga tribes. In some cases we find sacrifices still per-
formed, but this generally occurs in Loi villages which have
not yet embraced Hinduism. At the village of Lang-
meidong, though the inhabitants are Hindus, we find a pig
killed at Pakhangba's harauba, and a pig and two fowls at
that of Nongpok Ningthau, and there are also annual
sacrifices to these deities, in connection with the crops, of a
fowl and a goose. The flesh of these animals is eaten by
children who have not yet taken the thread, and the people
admit that before their conversion every one used to share
in the feasts. The arrangements of Panam Ningthau's
■haraiiba are rather unusual. It takes place on a special
ground situated on the northern edge of the village of
Andro. There are five houses around this ground. In the
sanglen or great house, which is the god's, a sacred fire is
434 ^-^^^ Religion of Manipu)'.
kept constantly burning, whence the first fire in a new house
must be lighted. In front of the sanglcn is the dancing
ground. The population of the village is divided into two
sections, termed the Ahallup and the Naharup paniias.
Each section has two houses, in one of which the married
people collect, while in the other, called the kdngjeng, the
young folk of both sexes assemble. The population, having
assembled in the proper houses, proceeds in four proces-
sions to the dancing ground. The married people of the
Naharup or younger patina must on no account pass
immediately in front of the house of the Ahallup. At this
lai-Jiavaiiba only inhabitants of the village are allowed to
be present. The unmarried girls stand in two rows and
clap hands while the procession of the god -marches round
and round. This procession consists of two men carrying
hollow bamboos, two men carrying large palm leaf fans,
and two men carrying Panam Ningthau's daJis^ followed by
the married men singing. You will notice that this god
prefers to be honoured by men. I could not get any ex-
planation of this divergence from the custom of the other
gods. Before the commencement of the haraiiba the
Aseibom family carry the clothes of the god with some sacred
flowers in a litter from his lai-sang to the sanglen, preceded
by girls carrying his utensils and men carrying his dahs.
Kabok or parched rice is piled up in the sanglen before the
god's seat, and sometimes he scatters it, which portends
sickness and trouble; the initiated profess to be able to
trace the footsteps of the god in the scattered grain. At
Moirang during the annual festival in honour of two female
Umanglais known as Aiyang Leima, kabok is poured out
of a ba.sket in a conical heap which is left till the morning,
when it is inspected by the inaibas. If the top of the cone
is found to have flattened, then there will be high winds ;
if narrow crooked channels appear on the sides of the
cone, troubles and sickness will come ; if the channels be
straight, war is certain ; but if the heap remains unaltered
The Rc/ii^ioii of MiDiipur. 435
all will be well. The UtHiViglaisa.rQ credited with the power
to cure sickness. The maiba is called on to specify to
which particular god offerings had better be made, and
then the patient, or some one acting on his behalf, takes
some rice, plantains, sugar cane, and a cock or hen accord-
ing to the sex of the sick person, to the lai-phaiii, and after
praying to the god the fowl is released and the other
articles left before tlie deity's abode.
Before leaving the Umaui^lixis2<x\di Laircinas I will describe
two interesting ceremonies which I witnessed last summer.
The young Raja came to me in a state of considerable
anxiety, saying that he feared that some serious misfortune
was about to happen to him, as he had received information
that a certain stone, which he had erected at Santhong's
lai-pJiavi, had got out of the perpendicular and that an iron
plate covering certain articles buried at Kanachauba's
Jai-pJiam had come to the surface. After some conversation,
I gathered that the Raja wished me to accompany him to
see the ceremonies. All arrangements had been made for
our journey when news was brought that the haiigjaba
of Shuganu had died of cholera. Wangpurel, the great god
of the South, whose shrine is at Shuganu, and who is some-
times spoken of as the father, and sometimes as another
form of Kanachauba, is said to reside in the Jiaiigjaba, who
is the secular and religious head of the village. Opinions
were divided as to the meaning of this sudden death ; some
said that the god had taken him, and that no further mis-
fortune was to be expected ; others feared further catas-
trophes. After a delay of some days we started and went
first to Moirang and thence to the sacred grove of San-
thong, which is situated in the middle of rolling grass lands
some three miles from that village. Before describing the
ceremony, I must tell you something of the history of the
stones. Khagenba, who first reduced the Umanglai lore to
writing, is credited with having erected the first of the six
stones, as he was advised by the five gums that this act
436
The RcligioJi of Alanipiir.
would give him a long and prosperous reign, which he
certainly had. Since his time five other Rajas have put up
stones, burying a small gold cup beneath them. These
stones are held to be closely connected with those who erect
them, so that any accident happening to a living Raja's
stone is thought to portend some evil happening to him
personally. The stone placed by Surat Chandra was
gnawed by a tiger, and shortly after he was deposed by his
brothers ; no wonder then that our Raja was anxious to do
all he could to avert misfortune. The six stones (Si-6)
stand just outside the grove on the southern side. Taking
the stones from east to west, the names of those who put
them up are : Surat Chandra, Kriti Chandra, Bhaggo
Chandra, Khagenba, Nursingh, and Chura Chand (the
present ruler). The accompanying plan shows how the
properties and the actors were disposed : —
B? T ? ? T ? T ? ?B
B
Si 52 53 54 55 Ss
O O O O D O
18
16
17
- 1
A«
13
14
•A
19
®
®
®
3
0
A, A, A, A. Bamboos support-
ing a white canopy.
B, B, B, B, A line of pine torches
about 8 inches long.
Si-S6. Stones erected by the
Rajas.
1. Basket of paddy, with 2 discs
of local salt, and 2 local coins.
2. A white buffalo.
3. Alaiba's position.
4. .^ pig and a cock.
5. A pot of holy water.
6. Bunch of plantains.
7. Earthen dish containing fire.
8. Offerings to the 9 Umanglais.
9. Pot containing rice covered
with white cloth.
10. Small pot with vegetables and
salt.
11. Four sorts of fishes.
12. Kmpty pot on tripod for the
cooking of the offerings.
13. Offerings to the 7 Lairemas.
14. \^egetables for Santhong.
15. Moirang ningthau.
16. 17. Clothing of the Lai San-
thong and liis Lairema.
18. .\ white cloth.
19. The Raja.
The Religion of Manipiir. 437
Beneath the cloth on which the clothes (16, 17) of
Santhong and his wife were laid, two pieces of iron are
said to be buried on which the feet of the god rest.
The Raja, the Moirang ningtJiau (who is the chief
pundit), and the uiaiba having taken the places assigned
to them, a small piece of gold was affixed to the
right horn of the buffalo, and a piece of silver to the left.
Then the niaiba commenced a long oration in praise of
Santhong, and, calling for his assistance, at intervals he
sprinkled water from the pot (5) in front of him to the right
and left by means of a wisp of grass. When the uiaiba had
finished, the Moirang niiigthan rose and knelt by the stone
of the present Raja, his grandson, and producing a little
book read therefrom some secret charms. At intervals he
smoothed the stone down with both hands. This com-
pleted, the offerings were removed, and the young Raja
came forward, and, standing in front of the stones, tested
his fortune by throwing two small discs, one of gold and
one of silver, on to a plantain leaf. The first two throws
were not very satisfactory, as the silver disc fell slightly
nearer to the stones than the golden one, but on the third
try the two discs fell quite close together, the golden being
between the silver and the stones ; this was said to be a
very lucky throw, and the Raja was well satisfied. A small
hole was now dug some three feet in front of the Raja's
stone to a depth of six or eight inches, and when water
welled up in the cavity every one was pleased ; but, had
milk taken the place of water, their satisfaction would have
been greater, whereas, had a rush of air taken place when
the hole was dug, the omen would have been bad. In this
hole the uiaiba now placed two iron pegs with crutch-shaped
tops, driving them a short distance into the ground
and then, placing a small cross-bar of iron in the crutches,
he placed a thin iron sheet about six inches square behind
the pegs, and pressed it down till the top was level with
the cross piece, which was a few inches below the ground
438 The Rclioion of Mmiipur.
level ; then he placed two more pegs, with a cross-bar^
behind the iron plate to keep it in position. The hole was
then carefully filled in, partly with earth taken out of it,
and partly with fresh earth dug from a spot close by. (The
object of placing the plate was to keep off evil influences.)
The pig and the cock were now taken behind some bushes
and killed there by two men of the Muntuk (Tikhup) clan.
The entrails and liver were examined, for from them the
future can be foretold. The discs used by the Raja were
buried beside his stone. The viaiba took all the offerings,.
including the buffalo, but the pig and the fowl were eaten
by the two men who killed them. The ceremony of erect-
ing a stone is the same, except that the stone is laid on a
cloth beside the ofiierings to Santhong and his Lairema,
and after the Moirang niugtJimis oration it is placed in
position by the Raja and the mcxiha. In Plate XIII. the
six stones appear under the cloth, and the first three
figures from left to right are the Raja, the Moirang
kcirungba, and the Moirang ningtJiau, with the cloth i8 in.
front of them.
I was told that shortly after the performance of these
ceremonies the Raja's stone rose about two inches out of
the ground, which was looked on as a very good omen.
The custom of erecting a stone or a post or some other
object during one's lifetime, in order, as the people say,
"to make your name big," is very common among the
inhabitants of these hills, and I think these stones at
Santhong's lai-phavi must be classed among such memorials,,
though the ceremonies connected with them have a more
distinctly religious flavour than is found among those of
cognate clans. From Moirang we went to Shuganu.
.Before any ceremonies could take place, a new hangjaba
had to be appointed, for Wangpurel is said to reside in the
Jiaugjaba of Shuganu and without his permission it is
dangerous to approach the sacred places. I may here
mention that every Uviaiiglai is supposed to reside in
Plate XIII.
1. CEREMONY AT SANTHOXC/S LA/-PHAM.
2. MAXIITR STATE ARRoW-THROWER.
To face p. 438.
The Religion of Manipur. 439'
some person, generally the head of the village or of the
family which worships him in particular. These individuals
must be treated with respect, and are subject to certain
taboos. Until the present occasion, the reigning chief, or
even his substitute for the time being, the Political Agent
and Superintendent of the State, has appointed the hang-
jalut, without consulting the god, and I am told that the
god has never expressed displeasure at the choice. But
the Raja thought he would give the god a chance of
expressing his own views ; so the five principal officials
of the village were paraded in front of Wangpurel's iai-satig,.
and were enjoined to proceed circumspectly to the bamboo
altar at the far end of the house and make obeisance to
the god, and then to return. On their completion of the
tour one was said to have been selected by the Lai, I
think it was the one who was slightly in front when the
party made its obeisance. Curiously enough the one
chosen was the very man whom the Raja had told me he
wished to appoint. The new haiigjaba was now instructed
to take proper care of the shrine, and not allow any
Rajkumar to approach it, for, should one of the royal
family contrive to worship there and offer gold and silver,
he would certainly aspire to the throne, and might cause
endless trouble. From Wangpurel's grove we went by
boat some three miles down stream, and after a some-
what rough scramble we arrived at Kanachauba's sacred
place, which I should find it hard to identify again, for
there was no clearing and nothing to distinguish it from
any other spot in the jungle. Here we found all prepara-
tions made. Only a select few were allowed to approach
the place, the remainder having to wait some distance oft',
out of sight and hearing. We had been strictly enjoined
to keep silent, as, should any one except the officiating
priests speak, the most dire consequences would ensue.
The " lay out," to borrow a term from the game of
patience, is shown in the following plan : —
440
The Religion of Maiiipu)-
SACRED TRE.es
O
c
©® [e]
0
E
K. Shuganu haiigjaba.
A. Spot where golden models
were buried.
li. Cloth on which clothes of
Lai and Lairema were laid.
C. Pot of rice.
D. Three dried plantain leaves
containing rice, betel nut,
pCui, plantains, sugar cane,
and some flowers and fruit,
offered to the 5 gnrtts, and
laid down first of all, to
purify the spot.
E. Plantain leaf on which are
laid cucunit)ers and other
vegetables offered to Kana-
rr I chauba.
I — I /•'. A cloth on which was a cloth
E knotted to represent a man
(a sort of rag doll).
(/. Moirang keirungba.
H. Moirang nitigthaii.
I. The Raja.
J. Maiba.
M, N. Attendants. O. .\ fowl.
The various performers having taken up their positions,
the head maiba commenced his long oration, which was the
same as he pronounced at Santhong's shrine. This is
mostly in obsolete Manipuri, and the Raja told me that he
could not understand it. I caught the names of various
animals coupled with numbers of months, and was told that
the maiba enumerated all the animals and the number of
months in which each was formed in its mother's womb
by the power of the god. This oration is used on every
occasion of sacrifice, without regard to which particular
god is being addressed ; from which we may infer that
the Umanglais are thought only to be different forms of
one almighty Creator. When the oration was completed,
the Moirang keirungba produced three small models in
gold of boats and paddles, and two discs, one of gold
and one of silver. The models were placed on a brass
tray beside the hangjaba, while the discs were given to
the Raja. The Moirang ningtJiaii now took up a position
before the offerings, and from a paper read in a whisper
a long charm of great power. When he had finished, he
The Religion of Manipur. 441
took up the rag doll (F) and threw it over the edge of the
level space on which the offerings were laid out. The iron
plate, which had become displaced, was now pointed out,
lying beside the left-hand tree. A hole was then dug just
in front of the god's clothing, and in this the golden models
were placed with the plate on top of them, and the hole
was then refilled with earth. The Raja now placed an
offering of five rupees on the cloths, and then threw for
luck with the discs, his second throw being completely-
successful. The discs were placed beneath a stone just
beyond the hole in which the models had been buried,
and on top of it some leaves were placed. The release
of the cock finished the ceremonies as far as we were
concerned, but, after we had left in our boats, the maiba,
the hangjaba, and the lai-jua-nai {i.e. slave of the god)
remained behind to perform a dangerous rite. In this
the maiba, holding in his hand an unbaked earthen pot,
containing rice and vegetables, called on Kanachauba to
accept it in place of the Raja and the country, and then
entered the water, waded out some distance into the stream,
and sat down. If all is well, the god gently takes the pot
from his hand and he rises up and comes to shore, but if
the god be angry he will hold the unfortunate priest below
the water and, if he be not rescued by his friends on the
bank, he will certainly be drowned. In order to know
when to interfere, the hangjaba and lai-ina-nai hold their
breath from the time they see their friend disappear below
the water, and when they can hold it no longer they dash
in and pull him out, thus saving his life. But he is often
punished by the irate deity, who makes him vomit blood.
Fortunately all went well, and the trio soon rejoined us
in the village. In the evening the lai-via-nai sacrificed
a pig before Wangpurel's shrine, killing it by compressing
its windpipe between two pieces of wood. The liver was
then taken out and examined. If black spots are found,
the worst is to be expected ; if much good red blood is
2 F
442 The Religion of Manipur.
found, all is well. On this occasion a curious white
veining resembling ears of rice was found, which was
thought to be a good sign. The flesh of the animal was
eaten by such people as had not become Hindus. The
hangjaba, being a Hindu, may not eat, but he must smell
the cooked flesh, thus ceremonially sharing in the feast,
A buffalo is given to the god, and his servant the Lai-ina-nai
makes good use of it. With reference to the rag doll v/hich
is thrown away during the ceremony at Kanachauba's
lai-phani, I was expressly told that it was meant to repre-
sent a man offered in place of the Raja, and may be
symbolic of a human sacrifice. Some years ago in the
course of my work I had to take down a statement of a
man who had been made a lai-ma-nai or slave to this very
god Wangpurel. I repeat it exactly as I took it down. " I
received twenty-six rupees and a buffalo about one or two
years old. I am a Moirang man. I was taken to Shuganu
by the Raja and the Senaputti. I was taken to Wang-
purel's lai-sang. Then the inaiba and the Raja said many
charms, and a little blood was drawn from my foot, from
the sole, and some of my hair, finger and toe nails were cut
off and laid before the Lai and buried in the Lai's place.
1 was then let go. but I was unable to walk, I had been
sitting so long, from daybreak till sunset, in such an
awkward position that I could not move. I was not tied.
I was told that it would spoil matters if I moved. A
letter came round asking who would become a lai-ina-nai.
I was told that I would be exempt from land revenue,
forced labour, etc. This happened when the Raja was first
going to Ajmir." Further enquiries elicited the fact that
in the good old days, before the State was taken over by
Government in 1891, if matters were not going well, a
consultation of the niaibas would be held, and, if they
decided that the god required food, men would be told
off to seize some solitary wayfarer after dark, in some
unfrequented spot, and draw from the sole of his foot a
The Religion of Manipur. 443
little blood and clip his hair and nails, as was done to
the lai-i)ia-7iai. The victim would be then released, the
blood etc. being buried in the lai-pJiani. Those on whom
this operation was performed are said to have always died
soon after of a wasting illness. I have also been told that
once a man was actually killed, and his blood, hair, and
nails taken to Tegnopal, on the Burma road, and buried
there, beneath a stone, in order to strengthen the god of
that place, so that he might be able to drive back the
evil spirits from Burma, from whose onslaughts the country
was thought to be suffering. This offering of the extre-
mities of the victim to the god is common among all
tlie clans in the neighbourhood of Manipur. You will
remember that Pakhangba, who is the Chief of all the
Umanglais, is a snake divinity, so that in this particular
the Manipur custom is wonderfully like that of the Khasis
when they worship the thle7i, for a full description of which
I refer to Colonel Gurdon's book The KJiasis, from which
I extract the following (pp. 98- 1 00) : " There is a superstition
among the Khasis concerning U thlen, a gigantic snake
which requires to be appeased by the sacrifice of human
victims, and for whose sake murders have even in fairly
recent times been committed." " Its craving comes on at
uncertain intervals, and manifests itself by sickness, by mis-
adventure, or by increasing poverty befalling the family. . . .
It can only be appeased by the murder of a human being.
The murderer cuts off the tips of the hair of the victim with
silver scissors, also the finger nails, and extracts from the
nostril a little blood . . . and offers these to the thlen." If
the victim cannot be killed outright, "he cuts off a little of
the hair, or the hem of the garment, of a victim, and offers
these up to the thie?i." The victim of such an outrage is
said soon to fall ill, and gradually waste away and die.
The Manipuri has three household deities, the principal
of which is Senamahi, to whom the south-west corner of
each house is sacred. In this corner a mat and a bamboo
444 T^^^^ Religiofi of Manipur.
vessel are kept for the god's use. Although every Mani-
puri worships this god every day in his own house, yet for
a Rajkumar to do so, offering gold at one of the regular
lai-phams, is tantamount to claiming the throne, and in the
old days, when a capability to seize and hold it was the
chief qualification for the throne that a Rajkumar required,
very strict precautions were taken that none should get a
chance of approaching any of these shrines. Senamahi has
already been mentioned as one of the original nine
Uinanglais, and also as the son of Yumjau Lairema, but
why he is a special royal god I have not been able to find
out. But he is not the only one; I have already mentioned
VVangpurel, to whom the same prohibition attaches, and
there are some others. In the centre of the north wall of
each Manipuri's house is the shrine of Yumjau Lairema or
Laimaren. Here an earthen pot full of water, with a lid, is
always kept. The third deity in the house is Phunga
Lairu. In each house there are two fireplaces, one for
cooking and one for warmth. The latter is called Phunga,
and is placed in the centre of the house, and to the west of
it is a hollow containing an earthen pot ; the hollow is
roofed over with a clay dome, in the centre of which is a
small hole through which offerings of rice are dropped into
the pot. At this place also offerings are made to Phunga
Lairu in case any member of the household be sick.
Sorarel, the sky god, is specially worshipped at the Loi
village of Phayeng, where in April the maiba strangles a
white duck and white pigeon in honour of this god. The
flesh of the birds is cooked and eaten by four men who are
chosen for the purity of their lives and who, for the day of
the sacrifice and the preceding night, are isolated in a
specially prepared house, where they cook their own meals,
using " clean " fire made by flint and steel. During their
isolation they must not touch any female, nor have any
dealings with their families. Sorarel is claimed by the
people of Phayeng as an ancestor, and in Andro, the people
The Religion of Manipur. 445
of which admit relationship to those of Phayeng, we found
a curious custom. During the Manipuri month of Mera,
lights are hoisted every evening on long bamboos by some
persons, but for very different reasons. In youth, when the
blood runs warm, the ardent lover hoists his light as an
appeal to Sorarel to take pity and soften the heart of his
worshipper's coy mistress. You will remember that Sorarel
himself is said to have had an eye for beauty and a way
with the ladies, so that tlie lovers ought not to appeal in
vain. Late in life, when the world is losing its attractions,
an elderly worshipper hoists his light as a plea to the sky
god to have mercy on his servant, who, to emphasize his
devotion, abstains from eating fish during that month.
Those who are acquainted with Hindu customs will note
that the Manipuri month of Mera coincides with the
Bengali month Kartik, when good Hindus for other
reasons also hoist lights at night. In Andro also we find a
monthly worship of the sun, moon, and stars. Eight
households taken in rotation have to provide, on the last
day of each moon, the following articles, — two pots of rice
beer and two fowls (one of each for the sun and one for the
moon), a sort of cake made of hard boiled eggs, an Qgg,
and as much roasted fish as they can, some vegetables, and
salad. At sunrise all the title holders of the village make
obeisance to the rising sun, and then, after offering him the
articles, proceed to eat them themselves, assisted by any
who care to get up so early. The ceremony is called
ihd-si-ldtpd, worship of moon and stars.
There are some interesting ceremonies connected with
cultivation. Rice is the main article of food, not only of
the Manipuris, but also of the hill folk, and therefore it is
only natural that religion enters largely into the various
processes of its cultivation. The special Lai of the rice is
called Phau-woibi, which name is composed of phau,
unhusked rice, and the verb woiba, to become, the final a
being changed into the female termination i. Although
446 The Religio7i of Manipur.
Phau-woibi is classed as a Lai, she is not reckoned amonjr
the Umanglai, and is really more the Spirit of the rice.
Ploughing must commence on the Hindu festival of
Panchanami, However unfit the ground may be for
ploughing, a small area must be ploughed on that date.
There is, nowadays, no special ceremony at this season, but
the pundits from their books described to me the procedure
which ought to be carried out by the Raja before ploughing
is commenced. Phau-woibi is first invoked, and offerings
of plantains and other fruits and vegetables are made to
her at each corner of a specially prepared piece of land,
which is divided into three plots, in each of which a little
paddy is sown. If all plots flourish equally, the year will
be uniformly good ; but, if the first plot sown thrives best,
the latter portions of the year will not be so good as the
first; similarly, if that sown last does best, the cultivators
are encouraged to hope that, however badly the year may
begin, it will end well.
Before a cultivator cuts his crop he must place offerings
of fruits and vegetables for Phau-woibi at each corner of
his field, and the following ceremony should be performed.
It is seldom carried out now, the cultivator contenting
himself with calling his friends to help in the harvest and
erecting a flag in the middle of the field. He has to
provide food for all his helpers and, before they eat, one,
the oldest present, is selected as phau-rungba, i.e. master of
the rice, and he makes an offering of a portion of the
eatables about to be consumed to Phau-woibi. The
complete ceremony as given me by the pundits is as
follows, referring to the plan : —
[Plan
The Religion of Manipu7'.
447
B
® 0000
B«
1
E
000
D
D
•B
A. A, A, A. Mat with offer-
ings of vejjetables at the
four corners.
B. B, B, B. Posts supporting
a white canopy.
C. Vegetables and a sareng
fisii. offered to Phau-
woibi.
D. 7 different sorts of paddy.
E. Offerings to the 7 Laire-
mas, laid on a cloth.
F. Offerings to the 9 Uman-
glais.
G. A flag.
H. Empty pot in which the
offerings are afterwards
cooked.
M. Maiba's position.
Everything having been prepared and correctly placed,
the niaiba takes up his position at M and pronounces the
following viantra or invocation : —
" Yoibirok, mother of Nongda Lairen Pakhangba, as to
changing (the paddy) she can not change it, as to in-
creasing she cannot increase it. Mahuiroi Laisna, as to
changing she cannot change it, as to increasing she cannot
increase it. Mahuiroi Nongmainu Ahongbi, as to changing
she cannot change it, as to increasing she cannot increase
it. Mahuiroi Haunukhu, as to changing she cannot change
it, as to increasing she cannot increase it. Mahuiroi
Haunuhan, as to changing she cannot change it, as to
increasing she cannot increase it. Mahuiroi Laithong Khu^
as to changing she cannot change it, as to increasing she
cannot increase it. Laithonghan, as to changing she
cannot change it, as to increasing she cannot increase it.
By the maibas, the glorious heap of paddy becomes more
448 The Religion of Manipur.
beautiful. You from Meyanfj Khulen (Cachar), let it
increase, let it grow long. On this day of calling all we
your grandchildren, offering a black hen to you our Lady
Phau-woibi, addressing you as Loimonphau. What we
leave of the cooked rice, let it not decrease but increase.
What we leave of the zii}-'^ let it ferment again. O Lady !
make the paddy to increase on the threshing mat as the
rising rivers fertilize the land. Taratongnu, Liksikharoi,
Yaisen Yaiphau, Chajak Chahow, Pumanbi Langmanba,
Chauwaibi Phaudongba, Hamok Keigabi, Morsi Nauremton,
Phaureima, Phauningthau, Irioya Keitekpaga, Pokliba, to
you we pray."
Yoibirok is Pakhangba's mother, and the other six
ladies mentioned at the commencement are the wives
of the first six rulers mentioned in the Chronicles. The
allusion to Meyang Khulen or Cachar refers to a legend
that Phau-woibi once fled to Cachar, whence she was
recalled by the skill of the viaibas. The names in a long
string at the end are other names of the goddess. The
black fowl is no longer sacrificed, other articles being
substituted.
After the invocation is finished, the cutting of the
crop begins. The harvesters start from the mat, and
follow the directions shown by the arrows. The offerings
are taken to one side, and eaten by all present. Should
any of the paddy be stolen or burnt before it is removed
from the field, or should a cow walk over the threshing
floor, Phau-woibi will run away unless the ceremony is
repeated.
I have mentioned th.e phau-riuigba, the owner or master of
the paddy. Among the Manipuris nowadays he is simply
an elderly person selected to offer her portion to the Spirit
of the Rice ; but among the Kabuis, who inhabit the hills
to the west of the valley, every village must have a nani-u-
"Yu = zu = rice beer, no longer now drunk by the Hindu portion of the
community.
The Religion of Manipur. 449
pan, a title which exactly corresponds to and is always
translated as phau-ru7igba. This person has no particular
duties, but in connection with certain other officials is
considered necessary to the wellbeing of the villai^e. The
kiml-lakpa or head of the village, and the kJiiinpn or head-
man, seem connected with the general welfare of the com-
munity, but the phan-nmgba is only concerned with the
rice. Before his house a sacrifice has to be performed
before sowing can be commenced. He seems to be the
person in whom the spirit of the rice lives, just as the
spirits of the Uviaiiglais are supposed to reside in certain
persons. Cultivation in the valley has extended, and
persons own land beyond the boundaries of the village
in which they live. What wonder, then, if the processes
of cultivation have ceased to be communal acts, and if the
phaic-rungba has deteriorated into any elderly person among
the reapers ?
I must now describe briefly the other supernatural beings
believed in by the Manipuris. There are certain spirits
called Sa-7'oi-nga-roi, i.e. those who accompany beasts and
fishes. These are evil spirits, always on the look-out to
injure mankind, and seem very closely to correspond to the
demons called by the Hill tribes Hicai, Rampu, Tkihla, and
various other names. The pundits' version of the origin
of these beings is that the great giirii married Leimarel,
and during his absence from home a son was born. On
his return she asked him to name the infant, and the guru
said Pu. This name did not please the lady, who refused
absolutely to accept it, and the guru (wise, man !) did
not argue the point, but, having given a name, he could
not take it back. So he created a being to bear it, and
then gave the name Ra for the child. But this also did
not suit the mother, so the guru created another being to
bear it, and pronounced the name Isam. But the lady was
still not satisfied, and four more names were pronounced
and rejected, and for each a being had to be created.
450 The Religion of Manipiir.
Finally, the name Mahirel Sena or Senamahi was approved
of. The seven beings which had thus been brought into
existence each produced twenty-one more, and all these
demanded food of their creator, who, to appease them,
told them that he was about to create men, and that, if
these did not feed them, the Sa-roi-nga-roi might inflict all
sorts of troubles on the human race. This story is far from
satisfactory, as it fails to account for the name Sa-7'oi-nga-roi,
and I think that, in common with much of the pundits' lore,
it is a late invention, probably after the introduction of
Hinduism. When any large concourse of people takes
place, these troublesome spirits collect in great numbers,
and if a person is brought home from a journey ill, the
demons follow him. On such occasions, therefore, it is
necessary to feed them, and this is also particularly requisite
on the two Saturdays preceding the Hindu festival known
as the Holt, the spring festival of general license. Old
women go round from house to house collecting all sorts
of food, and some cotton to represent the clothing of the
people, and also puk-yu, wai-yii, yeast cakes used in
making rice beer. They then go to each point where
a road crosses the village boundary, and there strew the
articles in a thin line composed of seven parts, one for
each of the original beings whence the Sa-roi-nga-7'oi are
said to have sprung. On the first of these two Saturdays,
all sorts of food are offered to Senamahi, and then cooked
and eaten by each household, portions being placed on the
boundaries of the homestead. On that day the luck of
each person for the ensuing year is tested. A ngdmu fish
for each is procured, and the maiba, having placed tiny
pieces of gold and silver in the mouth of each fish, releases
it in a pond, and from the vigour of its movements the
health of the person concerned is foretold. These fishes
are said to carry off ill-luck. This ceremony is also per-
formed on the night of the Chei-tdba, which is that
preceding the Manipuri New Year's Day. On that night
The Religion of Manipiir. 451
the gods settle the fate of every one for the next year.
To diminish the chance of dying durint^ the year, it is well
to keep awake throu<;hout that ni^jht. A safer method is
to give a piece of reed the length of the width of the palm
of your right hand to the maiba, who will pronounce a
charm over it, and lay it before the god Hei-pok, saying,
" Here is So-and-So's stick ; do him no harm." The fol-
lowing morning the stick is returned.
There are various other interesting ceremonies connected
with the Chei-tdba, but I must pass on to the Hclloi, another
class of being. These Helloi are beautiful Sirens who lure
young men into waste places, and then disappear and leave
their victims in a state of insanity. They are said to have
been the seven daughters of a hero who killed the Great
Snake ; they were so lovely that no names were good
enough for them ; they were more beautiful than Sorarel's
dancers. They asked their father what they were to live
on, and he told them to live in waste places ; any one
meeting them would go mad, and they would live on the
offerings given to cure their victims. When a person is
thought to be a victim of one of these fair ladies, the village
inaiba lays out offerings consisting of seven sorts of animals
or birds, seven sorts of fruits, and seven sorts of fishes.
Formerly the animals and birds were sacrificed, but now
a few hairs or feathers are pulled out and given to the
Helloi, who are asked to accept them and let the victim
go. Some foolish men are said to be able by charms to
summon the Helloi and become intimate with them, but
such persons do not prosper, and their wives die. Before
a Hindu can summon a Helloi in this way, he must take oft'
his sacred thread.
More dreaded than the Helloi are the Hingchdbi {/ting,
alive, c/tdba, to eat). Of these also there were originally
seven, but the number has now increased. Hingc/idbis, as
the termination denotes, are all females. They are spirits
which enter into women, and the daughter of one so afflicted
452 The Religio7i of Manipu?:
will inherit the affliction, but not till after her mother's
death. If a Hi7igchdbi stares at the food you are eating
grasp both your knees quickly and abuse her roundly, and
she will not be able to enter into you. If you have any
doubt as to whether a friend of yours is possessed of such
an evil spirit, ask her casually to sit down on a stool of
kJioirao wood ; if she makes excuses and departs, she is
a witch. At the beginning of each year, stir your first
pot of rice with a stick made of this wood, to drive off
such evil spirits. The evil spirit passes from the woman
in which she ordinarily resides and enters another person,
who becomes delirious and mentions the name of the
woman whose spirit is troubling her. To expel the spirit
in former days a mithan used to be sacrificed, but now
a ngakra fish is substituted. This is cooked alive and
placed on top of a plate of rice and offered to the
patient, and then thrown away outside the homestead
after the seven original HingcJidbis have been called by
name. You will observe that the Hingchdbi is not a witch
as we understand the term. She does not control nature
by her spells ; she exactly corresponds with the Khawhring
of the Lushais.^°
The belief in witchcraft is firmly established, and a fairly
well educated man assured me that he, and indeed most
Manipuris, always carried a charm to preserve them from
the danger of being bewitched. The same person solemnly
attributed a sudden death to witchcraft. Tree worship is
not unknown. A certain shrub called u-Jial, i.e. oldest
tree, is said to have the power of curing sickness. The
maiba takes some of the sick person's clothing and places
it on the u-hal, and then, off"ering pan and betel nut to the
shrub, asks it to take the disease of the patient on itself.
The maiba then appropriates the clothing. (Is not the
labourer worthy of his hire.?) To his credit be it said that,
if the person be poor, a little cotton thread may be made
^* The Lushei-A'uki Clans, pp. 111-2.
The Religion of Manipnr. 453
to serve as clothing. A certain tree, on the bark of which
are markings supposed to resemble a troublesome skin
complaint, is believed to be the cause of this disease, or
at least to be the special abode of the Lai which causes it.
If a sufferer hangs his clothes on the tree, and after dancing
before it departs home without looking back, and leaving
his rags on the tree, he will get well. Should he not
recover, he concludes that his particular complaint is not
due to that Lai, and consults a maiba, or goes to hospital.
A short note of mine on the subject of Rain-stopping
appeared in Folk-Lorc for September, 191 1,'" and Mr.
Hodson in The Meiihcis^'' has given various rain-compelling
ceremonies. The following is from my friends the pundits.
A certain woman, who had no children, worshipped Sorarel,
and asked for nine sons. Shortly after this she gave birth
to four stone children. Being ashamed of her progeny, she
left her home and came to the Iril, carrying the four stone
infants. Finding the river in flood, she left the children
and crossed alone, and the abandoned ones cried loudly,
whence that place is called Nunglaubi (stone crying). Sub-
sequently the full number of nine children was born to
her, but all were of stone, and she left them in the places
where they were born and returned to look after the first
four. She asked Sorarel on what she was to feed these
strange children, and was told that the god would stop the
rain and her progeny could live on the offerings made by
men to procure rain. I must admit that this explanation
comes rather too frequently in the pundits' book. Having
got this promise the woman joined her four children, and
changed herself into a stone. She and her offspring are
still to be seen in a small cave in the Nongmaijing hill.
The stone resembling the mother is said to have some
resemblance to the human form, but the four others are
merely round stones from a river bed. There is consider-
able disinclination to touch these stones, as handling them
'•Vol. xxii. pp. 348-50. "Pp. 107-8.
454 ^'^^ Religion of Manipur.
produces sickness. The \.\\o yiimnaks known as Hijam and
Salam are the guardians of the mother and her four chil-
dren. In each family there is a ?io7iglainha, who has to keep
himself undefiled, attending no cremations, always using
" clean " fire, and doing no cultivation. When a rain puja
has to be performed, these two men must keep away from
women for five days, and then they go to the cave in clean
clothes, with some men of their families carrying the rain
shields used by Nagas. A " lay-out " somewhat similar to
those already described is made, and then, after a long
invocation, one of the nonglambais, with the help of a hoe
and a dah, removes one of the stone children and rolls it
into a cloth used by women for carrying children. In this
he conveys it to the Iril, and submerges it. He will not
touch the stone on any account. The stone child will cry
to be returned to its mother, and Sorarel will send the rain.
Should he, however, not do so, the ceremony may be
repeated twice more, but on no account may all four stones
be taken from the mother. That would be too cruel. After
the rain has come the stones are replaced.
While the Raja's raceboats are in the river rain is sure to
fall. Just outside the sacred enclosure in the old palace
there was a spot in which the heads of enemies were buried;
to pour water on this through bamboo pipes from the top
of the kaiigla, or throne room, for five days, was certain to
produce rain. Another method was for the Raja and all
his wives, with their servants and followers, to pour water
on to Yumjao Lairemas shrine, and thoroughly deluge the
whole house and each other, exchanging filthy abuse all the
time.
The invocation used when calling rain is very lengthy.
It commences with an enumeration 'of all the hills in the
neighbourhood whence the rain is supposed to come, and
calls on them to send rain and make the rivers increase. It
then goes through a long list of insects, which it says are
stretching themselves, with stiff backbones and wide open
The Religion of Manipur. 455
eyes.and challenging the rain. " Therefore, O ! Rain, fall, and
increase the waters." Next, a number of animals, and, lastly,
a number of birds, are mentioned, which are said to be
def}ing the rain in the same way, and it is therefore invited
to descend.
I have now given an account of the religion of the Mani-
puri of the present day. You will observe that I have
carefully abstained from applying a name to the worship
of the Uviayiglais and other local cults. Mr. Hodson has
called the Manipuris animists.^^ I leave the question in
your hands.^^
J. Shakespear.
^*See pp. 518-23 below.
^*The lower part of Plate XIII. shows the Manipur State Arrow-thrower,
with an arrow in his hand. See vol. xxi., p. 79.
POKOMO FOLKLORE.
BY ALICE WERNER.
{Read at Meeting, May 2ist, 1913.)
The Wapokomo are a Bantu tribe inhabiting both banks
of the Tana river, from Chara (a few miles from the sea)
to within a short distance of the Equator. They are,
(unless we count the few outlying Swahili to be found
along the coast beyond Lamu), the furthest outpost of the
Bantu race in this direction. Beyond them, on the north-
east, are the Somali, and, on the north, various Galla tribes,
or tribes allied to them, such as the Rendile. The Galla
are also interspersed here and there among the Pokomo
on the western bank of the Tana, and the Wasanye
and Waboni (probably allied to, if not identical with the
hunter tribes called Dorobo by the Masai) range over parts
of the district. Pokomo, the name by which this tribe is
usually known, represents the Swahili pronunciation: they
call themselves Wa-fokomo ( f representing the peculiar
sound of "bilabial f").
The Wapokomo are divided into thirteen tribes, each of
which occupies a fairly well-defined area, though parts of
some have migrated and settled in the territory belonging
to others. The names of the tribes and districts are
identical, and I have not yet been kble to ascertain satis-
factorily to which the name was first applied. So far the
balance of testimony seems to be in favour of the names
belonging to the districts and being adopted by the tribes
when they settled there ; but one old man (at Kulesa) said
Kinakomba.
Ngatana,
Gwano.
Dzunza.
Ndera.
Buu.
Mwina.
Kalindi.
Pokomo Folklore. 457
that the Buu and Ngatana tribes received their names from
God (Muungu) before they migrated into the Tana valley
from the north-east. (The Tana, by the bye, is called by
them Tsana, which is the Pokomo word for a river of
any size, — a smaller stream being itmJio^ or, in Swahili, vito^
The names of the tribes are as follows, the first eight
being known collectively as Wantu wa dzuu (people of
above, i.e. of the Upper Tana) and the rest as Wantu wa
uiHsi (people of below). They are given in geographical
order, going from north to south : —
Korokoro.^
Malinkote.
Alalalulu.
Zubaki.
Ndura.
The Ndera are the last of the up-river tribes, the
boundary between them and the Mwina being a short
distance south of the second southern parallel.
I can throw no light on the etymology of these names,
save that I am told Buu is the name of a kind of fish, and
Kalindi is derived from Dindi (a hole or pit), from the pits
in which, according to an obscure tradition, the ancestors
of the Pokomo at one time lived underground. This seems
to imply that the name Kalindi, at any rate, was not taken
from the place where the people settled, and falls in with
a statement obtained independently at another place, —
according to which the Mwina, Dzunza, and Kalindi were
the three aboriginal tribes and " lived here on the Tana
first of all." Possibly, too, Korokoro may be connected
with Chikorokoro (elbow), and refer to the bend of the
Tana near which that tribe is located. A village some
miles below Kulesa, on a bend of the river, is called
Chunoni (at the hip).
Each of these tribes, {vycti, plural of kyeti), consists of
1 Indivitluals of these tribes are called Mu-Korokoro, Mu-Malinkote, etc. ;
plural, Wa- Korokoro.
2 G
458 Pokonio Folklore.
several exogamous clans, {inasindo, plural of sindo). The
pedigrees I have collected show that descent is counted
through the father, and that both sons and daughters
belong to his clan. They not infrequently marry into
another tribe ; but no marriages take place, (or, at any rate,
none did till recently), between the Wantu wa dzuu and
the Wantu na nsini, and the distinction, not to say
antagonism, is still kept up in other ways.
One curious point is that the names of several Pokomo
masindo are also the names of Galla clans, e.g. the Meta,
Nta, Hani, Karayu, and Garijela of the Zubaki tribe. The
Garijela, according to one informant, is another name for
the Kinakaliani clan, so possibly the Galla designations
were aliases, or alternative names. This is rendered more
likely by the fact that the Korokoro tribe have even dis-
carded their own language for that of their oppressors ;
but I cannot learn that intermarriage has taken place
to any appreciable extent, or that Pokomo customs have
been modified by Galla influence. But it would be pre-
mature to express any opinion on these points. The
physical type, at any rate, is perfectly distinct.
So far I have been unable to discover anything which
could fairly be described as totemism. The few miiko
(prohibitions) of which I have heard do not necessarily bear
that interpretation, — but as yet my information is too
vague to suggest any conclusion. The Mbaji clan of the
Mwina tribe does not eat the fish called mnknugu or fy oka,
which is elsewhere considered very palatable, but I have
not learnt any reason for this abstinence. The Pokomo
are among the few peoples (I have not heard of any others)
who eat crocodile from choice ; they have been known to
protest against the destruction of crocodiles' eggs, lest the
supply of their meat should run short. But some clans
abstain from the dainty, — again I know not why. Rats
{mpanyd) are forbidden food to all Pokomo "from the
Wakalindi to the Wakorokoro " ; so are the leopard, wild
PokoDW Folklore. 459
dof^. baboon, and small monkey called ngoto ; but half the
nation eats the monkey called cliima, and half also eat
lion, — which half not specified. The hippopotamus is
eaten by some and avoided by others of the same tribe, e.g.
the Wabuu.
The names of the clans, with rare exceptions, suggest
nothing in this respect. Many of them are compounded
with kvia. This, I am told, is a word of the Upper Tana
dialect. I could get no explanation of it, but suppose it to
have the same meaning as it has in Swahili, viz. " relations,
family, kin." Sometimes the second half of the compound
has a recognizable meaning in present-day Pokomo, — and
I hope by further enquiry to increase the number of these
examples ; sometimes one can get no other explanation
than " sindo tii " (" it is only a clan name "). Mbare, in
Kifiambarc, is the up-river equivalent to Jizare, the name
by which the Kulesa and Ngao people designate two kinds
of wading birds, (the smaller, I think, is a white ibis). But
no one seems to be aware of anything which might lead us
to suppose that it was the totem of the Kinambare. My
informants denied that they abstain from eating it, and I
could not elicit the smallest hint that they have any special
ideas about it at all. Kinangombe, Kinamongo, and
Kinahafa are compounded with words meaning, respectively,
"cattle," "back" (or, more probably, "the further side"
of the Tana), and "here." There is another clan (of the
Wakilindi) called Mamboo, which seems to mean " people
of the hither bank" {niboo). Gomeni is the name of a
place ; Uta, I thought, was " people of the bow," but bow
is uJia, not 7ita, in Pokomo, and I now find that Uta is also
a Galla clan. A little light is thrown on this matter by
the statement that many clans have alternative names,
one of which is Galla. The Galla were for many years
the tyrants of the VVapokomo, continually raiding and
harassing, when not actually enslaving them, and, — as is
the case with some tribes exposed to the incursions of the
460 Pokomo Folklore.
Masai, — dread of the conquering race was not unmingled
with admiration, resulting in the sincerest form of flattery.
It thus seems probable that the names of Galla clans were
adopted by Pokomo masitido, at first in addition to their
own, and afterwards in place of them.
I do not yet know enough of Galla customs and institu-
tions to say whether the Pokomo have been appreciably
influenced by them ; but it does not appear that their
tribal organization differs appreciably from that of the
Wanyika tribes, who are evidently sprung from the same
stock. For instance, I have been unable to trace anything
like the twofold division of the Galla clans into Irdida and
Barietuma, the members of the first only marrying into the
second, and vice versa. A Pokomo, so far as I can make
out, is free to marry into any clan he likes, provided he
avoids his own. He must not, however, marry relations who
belong to other clans, such as the daughter of his father's
sister, or of any of his mother's brothers or sisters. All
these are called wainibii (sisters). Like the Giryama, and
unlike the Duruna and Digo, the Pokomo, whatever they
may have done in the remote past, now reckon descent in
the male line, the children, both sons and daughters,
belonging to the father's siiido.
There is a twofold division of each Pokomo tribe, however,
of the existence of which I have just become aware, and
which necessitates further enquiry. These sections are
called Mperuya and Magomba, and the chiefs of the tribes
are chosen from them alternately. "Just now," says my
informant, " the children of the Mperuya are ruling. After-
wards the children of the Magomba will rule."' Chiefs
{haju, which seems to be a Galla title), are not succeeded
by their sons, but chosen by the tribe. Their power and
standing seem to be much the same as with the Giryama,
the real authority being in the hands of the old men, or,
properly speaking, the highest grade of elders, who form a
close corporation. The various grades have each their own
Pokomo Folklore. 461
ngadzi or friction-drum, which is never allowed to be seen
except by the initiated, and never, under any circumstances,
by women.
Concerning these grades I must await further information.
As they begin in early childhood, (a man's father purchasing
for him admission into the Makombe, Nchere, and Kundya
in succession, before arranging his marriage), they would
seem to correspond to age-classes. The fees for initiation
into each successive grade are heavy, and, — as is said to be
the case in Freemasonry, — the higher you go the more
expensive the process becomes. The highest order, the
Wakicho, have the right to levy contributions on the rest of
the tribe, in cattle, goats, rice, honey-beer, etc., and the
German missionaries are very severe on their aldermanic
banquets, which one missionary designated by the graphic
but untranslatable term fresserei. Herr Krafift's informant
drew the distinction between the Wakicho and the VVagan-
gana or sorcerers, that the former distribute their super-
fluous property among the people of the village, which the
latter never do. How this corporation of the sorcerers
stands with regard to the Wakicho is one of the things I
have not yet been able to enquire into.
The Buu tribe trace their descent from a man named
Vere, a Melchizedek-like being without father or mother,
who made his appearance in the district now occupied by
the tribe at a period which I have as yet been unable to
ascertain even approximately. But, as Mpongwa, the
Government elder of Ngao, tells me that people were living
on the coast when Vere came here, the mystery probably
reduces itself to the not very recondite fact that he arrived
here by himself and no one has ever heard anything about
his belongings. He was unacquainted with the use of fire,
-till shown how to make it with two sticks by one Mitso-
tsozini, whose status and provenance are not yet clear to me ;
he comes abruptly into the story (like " Miss Meadows ") as
" his (Vere's) companion."
462 Pokonio Folklore.
Vere had a son named Sango - and three daughters. The
eldest of these, called Mkabuu (wife of Buu), married
Buu, the eponymous ancestor, one supposes, of the Buu
tribe. Her two sisters, Habune and Habuya, lived at their
brother's village, and did not marry, but formed irregular
connections with strangers from a distance ; their children
were wana wa haraniu (illegitimate). Mpongwa, who is of
the Karya clan, says he is descended from Habune, so,
unless the descent was on the mother's side, it looks as if
Buu were not responsible for the whole of the tribe called
after him. Again, it would seem that the Katsoo, Kale,
and Deno clans came in later, — but here the ground becomes
so very uncertain that it seems better to say no more till I
have sifted my information.
Passing from the question of origins, I may remark that
the Pokomo have been estimated at about 15,000, though
the German missionaries at Ngao are disposed to think that
this is too high, and also that their numbers are diminishing.
Infant mortality is terribly high, chiefly owing to malarial
fever, from which all natives in the Tana valley suffer more
or less, though the disease is not so acute as among
Europeans. Elephantiasis also is not uncommon, and a
disease called buba, which appears to be that known to
science as fratnboesia, while the small community of Ngao
possesses two lepers. The present year (19 12) has been
one of great scarcity, — first, through an unusually high flood
of the Tana, which swept away the crops, and then through
the drought which has affected all the coast districts.^
The Pokomo live by agriculture and fishing. Their
principal crop in former times was rice, which, — since the
-Bocking and Krafft, in Zeitschrift fiir afrikanische uiid ozeanische Sprachen
{Berlin, 1896), iii. i. p. 33, and Pokomo-Grammafik (Neukirchen, 1908), p. 133,
seem erroneously to have made the two into one, and call the parentless
ancestor Sangovere.
^ Since writing the above I find that last year's land-tax returns give their
numbers as about 18,000. I am inclined to think that the view of the
missionaries is unnecessarily pessimistic.
Pokonio Folklore. 463
Tana has had a wider outlet to the sea and its two annual
inundations cover less ground than formerly,^ — is more and
more giving place to maize. They are ex[)ert canocmen,
manipulating their dug-outs {^vaho,•^\\xx^\ niaJio) with great
skill, by means of short, leaf-shaped paddles and forked
punting-poles, and pass a great deal of their time on the
river. Sometimes one sees a luaho with the husband punt-
ing at the bow and the wife paddling at the stern, or vice
versd, and a baby and a pile of baskets amidships. Both
men and women are good swimmers, using the hand-over-
hand stroke like, I believe, all Africans. The Tana is
infested by crocodiles, though the numbers are kept down
by the popularity of the reptile as an article of food. The
natives seem singularly fearless as regards crocodiles.
" Why, we eat each other ! " they sometimes say, — a la
guerre comme a la guerre. A Pokomo once said to me that
the Swahili are sometimes caught by crocodiles " because
they are afraid of them. But we, — we simply don't pay any
attention to them. We know they are there in the water,
like the fish, but we never trouble our heads about them."
Accidents, however, sometimes happen. A woman is occa-
sionally seized and dragged in when incautiously filling her
water jar at the river's edge, instead of dipping it from the
higher bank with the long-handled gourd in general use.
Fishing is done either with rod and line or with miono
(plural of mono), baskets like magnified lobster-pots, about
five feet long by two wide. During flood-time, i.e. generally
in November or December, and again in April or May,
fishing is carried on in the Tana itself, but, when the water
* The Tana formerly reached the sea through a channel still traceable near
Chara and containing water in places, known to the Swahili as Mto Tana. The
Tana and the Ozi, (a small river with a large estuary somewhat to the north-
east), were long ago connected by the so-called " Belezoni Canal," probably
the work of the Arabs, but scarcely more than a ditch. Mr. Anderssen, Com-
missioner of Tanaland in 1902, had the Belezoni cleared out and widened, and
since then the volume of water entering the sea by way of the Ozi is so great as
to lower the level of the river at flood -time.
464 Pokomo Folklore,
is low, chiefly in the lakes to be found at either side of it, —
Shaka Babo, Sumiti, Gweiti, etc. These lakes receive the
water of the Tana when it is high, and the fish then enter
them, remaining behind when the river falls and communi-
cation is cut off. Fish are also speared with the yntsoma,
a pole some twelve or fifteen feet long, with a sharp, awl-
shaped spike, perhaps ten inches in length, fixed into its
end. The fish most usually speared are the 7nainba and
nswi, both having broad heads and cat-like v/hiskers and
no scales, (or some apology for them which I am not ichthy-
ologist enough to describe). The mainba, which is some-
times over three feet long and proportionately thick, makes
itself a hole in the mud when the dry season comes on and
lies there, torpid and sealed up like the legendary toad, till
the rains come, or till his repose is rudely broken by the
thrust of a yutsoma, (for the Pokomo often spear them at
this season). There is a very large number of edible species
of fish, though at this season of the year, that of low water,
they do not seem to be caught in great abundance.
The large white water-lily, which grows freely on all
pools and backwaters of the river, as well as on the lakes
mentioned above, is also a stand-by in time of scarcity ;
the seed-vessels containing the unripe seeds, and the tuber-
ous roots, are both boiled and eaten., and the ripe seeds are
pounded and made into sauce, eaten with fish. Probably
the roots are very indigestible, as people complain of pains
and intestinal disturbances when reduced to feeding largely
on them. Another alimentary stop-gap is the fruit of the
mkoma or dum-palm {HypJioenc), which has been aptly
compared to a mixture of sugar and sawdust ; children are
fond of it at all times, and it is hawked about in the streets
of Lamu at two for a cent.
The Pokomo grass hut is more accurately described by
the term beehive-shaped than many to which that term has
been applied. It is round, with no separation of roof and
wall, — but not hemispherical like the Zulu, — and slightly
Pokonio Folklore. 465
pointed at the top. The breadth at tlic bottom is about equal
to the height in tlie centre. The thatch is cut ofif, near the
top, in three or more concentric ridges, which gives a pecuHar
cachet to the general effect. The doorway is a narrow
opening just wide and high enough to admit one person in
a stooping position. There is no door, but one or more
dried fronds of the wild date-palm are used to close the
entrance, and lean against the house beside it when not in
use. The principal interior features are the central fireplace
and two bedsteads, made of palm-leaf ribs lashed together
over a rough wooden framework. The husband's bedstead
is high, — three feet six or so, — but the wife's only one foot
or under, in case of the babies rolling off, for the smallest
children share it with their mother. As boys and girls
grow older, they are drafted off to the youth's house and
the maids' house respectively. Polygamists have a hut for
each wife and her children.
The genealogies I have collected seem to show that poly-
gamy is, comparatively speaking, not very frequent. Most
men have one wife, occasionally one has two, but three are
rare. Probably, as the old jest has it, matrimony is a matter
of money, i.e. of inability to raise the bride-price a second
time. Girls are often bespoken in infancy, or even (con-
ditionally) before birth, and one sometimes hears it said, —
" So-and-so has a wife, but she is not grown up yet." The
arrangement is not always rigidly carried out. It would be
surprising if it were among so good-natured a people as the
Pokomo, who certainly do not err in the direction of severity
towards their children. If, on reaching years of discretion,
the girl finds that she does not like the destined suitor or
prefers another, the matter can always be arranged by
returning to the former the payments he has already made
on account. If there is another young man, he, of course,
has to do the paying.
The dress of the non-mission Wapokomo consists chiefly
of one or more pieces of cotton cloth, beads, and a mixture of
466 PokoDio Folkloiw
zazi (red oxide of iron) and sesamum oil, with which they
anoint all the exposed parts of their person, — hair and all, —
acquiring a ruddy tinge which is not unpleasing. The bead
ornaments are many, and often involve a great deal of
work; they include a girdle {silipi) usually an inch and a half
broad, a fillet worn round the head, a straight necklet {kit-
side) about half an inch wide, a more elaborate necklace
<{tsainbaa) with oblong pendant in front, fringed with beads
and small cowries and sometimes having a further fringe of
small iron chains reaching to the waist, etc., etc. The
girdle is supposed to be worn by married women only.
Sometimes they wear a belt of palm-leaf or leather, or, if
within reach of civilization, a strap and buckle. My own
leather belt was remarked on at Kulesa-, in connection
with the usual enquiries as to my status, — " Oh no ! she
can't be unmarried, she has a belt on, — that would never
do," etc.
On the whole I must say that the Pokomo make a
pleasant impression. Physically, they are fairly well-grown
and well-made, though not, as a rule, very tall. They are
dark-brown in colour and have often, to an eye accustomed
to the African type, very pleasing faces, which they do not,
like some other tribes, disfigure by pulling out their
eyebrows and eyelashes. They have the usual splendid
teeth of the African natives, though unable, it seems, to leave
them to their own unaided effect. They usually extract
the two middle incisors of the lower jaw, though this is by
no means universal; some have a small gap between the
two middle upper teeth, which looks as if it were made
rather by inserting some instrument between them, and
gradually working them apart, than by chipping off any
part, — but in this 1 may be mistaken. . Some have a similar
gap in the lower jaw.
In the following desultory notes, of which the sole merit
is that of being compiled in sitii, it has chiefly been my
aim to set down such scraps of belief and tradition as I
Pokomo Folklore. 467
have heard from the natives themselves. Some of these
notes were made at Kulesa, and some at Ngao.
Various fabulous beings appear to be firmly believed in.
The following account was given in all seriousness by a
very intelligent Christian at Kulesa, who pointed out the
spot where the incident occurred. His father, when a
young man, was walking by night from Chunoni to
Kulesa, — about three miles by land, cutting across a bend
of the river, — when, just after passing the old bed of the
Tana, he saw before him, as he thought, a huge leafless
tree, quite white, high up on which were two bright lights,
— " like these," he said, pointing to the brilliant yellow
flowers of a small hibiscus, which I had just gathered
and was carrying in my hand. When Jonathan's father
approached the tree, he found that it was no tree, but a
huge snake, the lights being, 7iot its eyes, but, curiously
enough, its ears. It lifted up its voice and made such a
noise that the percipient was deaf for two weeks after. He
was terrified and fled, but " the snake remained where it
was." It appears to be called ngoloko, so, though no one
else saw it on that occasion, it must have been previously
known, at any rate by hearsay.
On the same occasion, Jonathan pointed out a small bird
on the wing, which, he said, was much dreaded by mothers
of children, present or prospective. He called it Dipiingii.
I could not see it distinctly, but it seemed to be about the
size of a thrush. If a pregnant woman sees this bird, it is
supposed that her child, when born, will be seized and
devoured by some animal, unless she works the counter-
charm by plucking a piece of green grass, — any kind of
grass will do, — tying a knot in it, and sticking it into her
hair. My informant picked and knotted a blade in
illustration. "'Mani mawitsi in kintii cJui kiivolhya" (Green
grass is a sacred thing), he added, " and will prevent the
creature from doing any harm." This belief, it is well
known, is held by the Masai and also by the Galla. I am
468 Pokoino Folklore.
not aware of its existence among any Bantu tribe, unless it
is the Kikuyu, wl^o would have borrowed it from the Masai.
A song sung by children to this bird runs as follows; —
'■^ iVzooiii mityoive^ hiiyii iidiye inpungu
Mpuiigit iiiitleiiji kvoa baba, nzoonj viuyowe.
Hiiyii ndiye mpuugu, bibi, nzooiii viuyowe,
Huyit udiyc inpungu, »ipungii inulcnji huyu."
i.e. " Come and see, this is the vipungii, the mputtgii who
flies on high at my father's, come and see. This is the
inpungu, grandfather, come and see. This is the mpungu,
the mpungu who flies on high."
Another very unlucky bird is the hoyembc, seemingly a
kind of ibis or heron, which is not eaten by any tribe of
Pokomo, apparently because it lives on fish. If men see it
in front of them, when going to fish, they at once turn
back.
I should add that I have hitherto failed to identify the
inpungu. All enquiries at Ngao, which is about a day's
journey below Kulesa, have elicited only the fact that the
people know the mpungu, but, by their description, it must
be an entirely different bird from the above, being like the
cJialikoko (fish-eagle, Haliaetus vocifer), but larger and also
different in colouring. Nor do they seem to be aware of
any sinister reputation attaching to a bird of the name.
I find that the inpungu song of which I have a
phonograph record is not the same as the one given above,
which was dictated to me by the singer at my request,
after taking the record. Many natives seem to find a
difficulty in remembering the words of a song unless they
are actually singing it, (when it requires a good deal of
practice to be able to catch and take them down). In the
same way, I found that some Kikuyu young men could
not, so they said, sing the song of which I wanted a record,
without going through the motions of the dance which it
usually accompanied, and they were unable to do this in
the absence of the other performers. Whether this was
Pokomo Folklore. 469
Jonathan's reason or not, I did not succeed in taking down
the words when repeating the record, and cannot now try
it again until a permanent duplicate is made.
Other more or less fabulous beings are the kodoile, the
iigojaina^ and the kitumisi. The first-named, one informant
told me, was "a bear," — an animal, I believe, quite unknown
in Africa ; but it appears that the translators of the
Pokomo New Testament have used kodoile as an equivalent
for "bear" in Rev., cap. xiii., v. 2. ("Dragon" in the
preceding chapter is rendered by ngojaina.) The accounts
of it are somewhat vague. The old men at Ngao tell me
that it is like a leopard, but its colour is that of "a kind of
cat " ; it is much dreaded, but its attributes seem at present
somewhat obscure. The yigojama and kitiiniisi are both
human or quasi-human in aspect, but the former has a long
steel claw in the palm of his hand, which he strikes into
people, should they be so unfortunate as to come within his
reach, and then drinks their blood. He speaks, and his
language is Galla. He is mostly solitary, but sometimes
has a wife and children ; they live in the bush, but neither
make shelters nor climb into trees. Possibly some solitary
outcast Galla, rendered misanthropical by his experiences
and armed with a spiked bracelet, or possibly with a
weapon similar to the "tiger's claw " of India, originated
the myth.
The following story about the yigojavia^ which was told me
at Kulesa by Yonatan Kopo of the Ngatana tribe, was
hardly intelligible at the time, but I have since obtained
explanations and the continuation from Isaya, a Pokomo
of the Denu clan (Buu tribe) from Ngao. The legendary
hero of the story, Bombe, is said to have been a real man
belonging to the Katsoo clan of the Buu tribe.
" Long ago a man [Bombe] was on the plains {yuaiida,
the open steppe which skirts the Tana forest), and the
* So far as I can trust my ear, the Pokomo say itgojaiiia and the Galla
godyaina.
470 Pokonio Folklore.
ngpjavia lived in the bush at Mifuneni (on the north-east
bank of the Tana) ; and the man and his wife, once upon a
time, went to the bush, and they separated, taking different
paths, and the wife called out " Bombe, iiubaa ? Bombe,
iyubaaV (Bombe, which way are you coming out (of the
bushes) ?, — inibaa being a Galla word). The ngojaina
repeated her words, saying " Bombe, iinbaa ? " "
Here Yonatan broke off", adding, somewhat inconse-
sequently, " His weapon is [a steel spike] in [the palm of]
his right hand, and people fear him." Isaya continues the
story as follows : —
"Then the man in his turn called his wife, saying
" Nanguri ! Nanguri ! " [He was not quite sure of the
name, but thought this was it.] " The woman was silent
when she heard the shout, thinking it was not her husband's
voice, and she called him again, — " Bombe ! Bombe 1 who
is it that is calling .'* " Then the man came to his wife, and
they came out on to the open plain. Suddenly the ngojama
too came out, and called " Bombe, where are you coming
out } " Bombe answered " God will bring me out." The
ngojavia asked " Is your God the black cloud .'' " [The
words are partly Galla.] He answered "Yes." Then
Bombe and his wife ran away, and the ngojama pursued
them as far as the Tana."
Another story told by Isaya is as follows : — " Long ago
Bombe arose and took his saka [a gourd supported by a
string netting], and went to climb a [tree containing a] bee-
hive. While he was climbing, the ngojama came, and
stood at the foot of the tree calling " Bombe ! Bombe ! ",
and Bombe answered, " IVozl" [the usual hail of the Galla].
" Is it you .'' " " It is 1 1 " " Can you escape ? " "I can."
" Where can you get out .'' " " God will take me out."
" Where is this God of yours ? Show him to me that I
may see him who is going to deliver you to-day." Bombe
answered " He lives up there .' " " Is this God of yours
that black cloud ? " " Yes ! " "
Pokonio Folklore. 47 i
[Din/iausa, the word used, is the Pokomo pronunciation
of the Galla diiinens (a cloud), but my Pokomo informant
insisted that it means " that black thing." Gnrdcii is the
Galla word for "black," and Jl'ak for "God"; the usual
expression for the sky is IVakn gtirack. But Gallas, by the
way in which they speak of Wak, seem often, if not always,
to identify him with the sky.]
" Thereupon the ngojama said " Uii hinibou lakis^
[These words purport to be Galla, and to mean "You will
never get away at all."] Bombe climbed up (to get) his
honey, and, when he had finished, said, " Go aside a little
while I come down." The ngojama went apart, and
Bombe came down, took out some of the best honeycombs
and put them on leaves for him, and then hastened on.
The ngojama came and stopped to eat the honey. Bombe
was running away all this time. The ngojama raised his
head and saw him, and said, — " A ! A ! Run as fast as you
like, — I shall catch you even now." Bombe ran very fast,
and had nearly reached the Tana when the ngojama
started after him. He pursued him on foot until Bombe
reached the Tana, and put his gourd into a canoe, and cut
the rope quickly, and pushed the canoe out into the river.
The tigfljama stood on the bank and, seeing that he had
failed to catch him a second time, he cried, — " Wai ! wai !
If I had known, I would not have eaten the honey ! Well,
Bombe, go ! It is you who are the (better) man." Bombe
said, — " Did I not tell you that my God would deliver me ? "
He answered, — " Go, you are a man ! But another day we
shall meet I "
The Galla seem to hold a somewhat different view of
the ngojama. According to Abarea of Kurawa he is nothing
more nor less than a man-eating lion, — a lion "who has
become accustomed to human flesh and will no longer eat
animals." This view is emphatically repudiated by my
Pokomo informant. The Galla-speaking Wasanye (Wat)
of Malindi district, again, recognize the name of ngojama.
472 PokoDio Folklore.
but give yet another account of him. Unfortunately I was
not able to take it down verbatim, and could not always
follow the narrator, nor get him to repeat what was not
clear, but the gist of it is that the ngojama, though quasi-
human in shape, is an animal and has a tail. He used to
roam through the bush, eating raw flesh, till he met with a
Wat named Abalefe, who showed him how to make fire and
cook, and tamed him to some extent. But one day the
savage nature broke out ; he turned on Abalefe and ate
him, and then went back to the bush.
The theological discussion between Bombe and the
ugojaina has a curious parallel in a bit of Galla tradition
which I owe to the kindness of the Rev. W. B. Griffiths of
the United Methodist Mission. A Galla, — (one of " our
Galla," presumably the Barareta or Kofira), — when sending
out his son to herd the cattle said,—" Go and herd together
with the son of God " (Gurba Wakatin). The spies of the
Bworana Galla followed the boy, and asked him what his
father had said. On being told, they asked, — " Where is
this God }'our father speaks of." The boy answered and
said, — " God is he who is above." They answered, — " We
are now going to kill you, — let the God whom your father
and mother speak of save you ! " When they had finished
saying this, those Bworana surrounded that youth on this
side and on that, and flung their spears at him. But they
could not hit him. They missed him (every time), and
(finally) they fought and killed each other.
Of the kitiimisi there are two kinds ; one walks upright,
like a child of Adam {binadauiii) ; the other moves about, —
most uncomfortably, one would think, — in a sitting position,
and in this way only attains a height of about two and a
half feet. He has legs, though he does not use them and,
apparently, does not need them. He wears a cloth {kitambad)
of kaniki (black, or dark-blue, cotton stufQ- As to the
clothing (or non-clothing) of the ngojama I have no informa-
tion at present. It is very dangerous to meet him ; some
Pokotno Folklore. 473
who do so are seized with illness {wanapata ujzva3i),a.nd some
(if I have rightly apprehended the explanation of the verb
ku disa}na-d{saifia), become paralysed and lose the use of
their limbs. But some have boldly grappled with him, and if,
in wrestling, a man can tear ofif a bit of the kitunusis cloth,
his fortune is made. "He puts it away in his kidzavianda
and becomes rich." Kidzauianda is explained at Ngao as
being a covered basket made of viiyaa (leaves of the
Hyphccne palm); no one makes them now, but "our
grandfathers used to keep their cloth and things in them."
This seems to show that no one in this generation has
successfully wrestled with the kitimusi. One wonders if he
is akin to the cliirmvi of Nyasaland, with whom the lonely
traveller must wrestle, if he would pass him in safety ; but
the advantage gained by overcoming the cliiriiwi is that he
shows you all sorts of medicinal herbs and teaches you
their use.s.
The Wapokomo appear to have a large stock of the usual
Bantu folk-tales, in which, as elsewhere, the hare {kitnuguwe)
plays the principal part. They have not as yet been
collected, the only texts hitherto published being the tradi-
tions of tribal origins already referred to and the legends of
Liongo Fumo, printed by Bocking in the ZeitscJirift fiir
afrikanisciie 7ind ozeanisclie SpiacJien, II. i. pp. 33-9, and by
Krafift in his Pokomo-Gratnviatik. The old man of whom I
first enquired said that there were such stories, but, since
the people had taken to reading, they had forgotten them ;
and the missionaries whom I asked said at once that they
had never troubled to enquire into such things. However,
with a little coaxing, the old man just referred to (Abadula)
dictated the chameleon story of which the translation is
given below, and one of the teachers, (Andrea or Bwashehe^
from whom I have obtained a good deal of useful informa-
tion), followed it up with a hare story, which seems to be a
variant of the Yao " Roasted Seeds."^ I think that there are
* Duff Macdonald, Afncana, vol. ii., pp. 3401.
2 H
474 Pokomo Folklore.
a good many other variants, but am unable to give them
from memory. The chameleon story resenibles the one
current among the Wasanye, and published by Capt. Barrett
in The Journal of the Royal A nthropological Institute? The
Pokomo version is as follows: —
"The chameleon {rumvwi) and the dog had a dispute. God
(Muungu) had invited them to a feast, and, when they got ready
for the journey, the dog said to the chameleon, — " How will you
be able to go? I shall go first, and by the time you get there I
shall be sitting on the chair (of honour)." The chameleon
replied, — " Yes ! if it please God, I shall arrive." They slept. In
the morning they started. But, when the dog sprang (forward),
the chameleon climbed up his tail. Well ! the dog ran quickly,
in order to get ahead of the chameleon ; and, when he arrived, he
saw that, at the (places of the) feast, there were bones on the
ground. As he was looking on the ground, (his attention absorbed
by the bones), his tail came close to the chair, and the chameleon
climbed on to it and said, — " Here I am, sir ! " {Ndimi huyu,
Bwana, lit. " It is I, this one"). And the dog began to pant till
his tongue hung out, and the chameleon was a great (person) and
sat on the chair. And so the dog went on eating bones on the
ground to this day."
Having asked Andrea to write out some more stories for
me, and supplied him with an exercise book for the purpose,
I was considerably disappointed when he brought me two
tales in Swahili and certainly not indigenous,— indeed one
was no other than the Merchant of Venice ! As he had
spent some time at the training-school carried on by the
Neukirchen Mission at Lamu (now given up), and can read
a little English, I thought it possible that he might have
become acquainted with the story, of Shakespeare's play
through the medium of some elementary reading-book;
but he tells me that he heard it from a Banyan at Kipini,
and that it is certainly "a story of theirs" {i.e. the Hindus).
'Vol. xli. (191 1), p. 39.
Pokomo Folklore. 475
If really quite independent of European contact, this variant
should not be without interest.
I was more successful with old Mpongwa, the non-mission
elder of Ngao, where there are two villages side by side, —
the Christian, which is being built with rectangular thatched
houses of sun-dried bricks on either side of a broad street
running away from the river, — and the ' Heidendorf' a
cluster of beehive huts a little lower down on the river-
bank. The Christians have their own elder, Nicodemus,
but the vioro or "palaver-house," which is also the equivalent
of the American " corner grocery," or the churchyard wall
at Thrums, seems to be common to both. Mpongwa told
me the tale of Mwakatsoo {alias Kitunguwe) and Muzee
Nsimba, or " Old Man Lion." This is, I think, found in
almost every collection of Bantu folk-tales that has yet
been made, but I am writing at a distance from books and
cannot give references from memory. The best-known is
probably that to be found in Jacottet's Contcs Popidaires des
Bassoutos. I believe that Mr. Walter Jekyll's " Annancy
in Crab Country" is a far-off echo of the same original.®
I give the story as nearly as possible in the old man's own
words : —
" Old Lion built a stone house, and his kinsman was Mwakatsoo.
Lion was hungry, and searched for all the beasts of the bush
\bara, open bush country] and the forest. Mwakatsoo called
all the animals together, elephant, hippopotamus, antelopes,
giraffe, and the pig too, and the big palm-rat too. " Come, there
is a 7iyambura dance at uncle's. There is a big dance. Let us
play."
AH the animals came and stayed outside. Mwakatsoo said to
them, — " Come, dance, there is nothing \i.e. no danger]." And [as
for] the Lion, Mwakatsoo had buried him in the sand, leaving only
one tooth sticking out.
They came in. The house had a big baraza, as long as from
here [Ngao] to Meli [Chara]. All the animals went in. So the
^Jamaican Song and Story, p. 70.
476 Pokomo Folklore.
rhino said to Mwakatsoo, — " Come ! strike up the song of the
dance ! " He struck up the song, and said : —
"All you elephants, all you hippos, when you dance, you will
dance in the inner house.
All you buffalos, etc., etc.
All you crocodiles, etc., etc.
This is the tooth, the tooth, the tooth, the tooth of a camel !
As for me and the civet-cat, we will dance in the outer house.
Come, all you elephants, etc. {da capo)"
All the animals believed him, and went on singing, " This is the
tooth, the tooth of a camel,"' etc."
The singing was continued for some time, the above
words being repeated indefinitely. Then the old man
showed in pantomime how the Lion burst from the ground
with a ' R-R-R-R ! ' Then a young man sitting by took up
the tale, and he, Mpongwa, and the rest somehow finished
it between them.
" While they were singing this, the Lion came out from the
sand and sprang on the animals, seized them, and killed them.
Mwakatsoo had shut the door, and he and the civet-cat ran away.
Afterwards, when the Lion had finished eating the animals,
Mwakatsoo came and opened the door for him, and he came out."
This story was also told me in Swahili by Muhamadi bin
Abubakari at Lamu, but with the hyaena in place of the
lion. One hears curiously little about the hyaena among
the Pokomo, — but this is a subject which would require a
paper to itself!
A. Werner.
COLLECTANEA.
The Gilyaks and their Songs.
The Island of Sakhalin, of which so much was written and spoken
after the end of the war between Russia and Japan, and which is
now divided between the two Powers, was formerly during several
decades used by the Russian Government as a place of exile for
both political and criminal offenders. Its name was held in awe
and spoken with bated breath all over Russia. When I was sent
as a political exile to the terrible Island, I set out as to the land
of the dead, in which there is no hope, and from which there is
no return. But, in reality, the Island is not so much naturally
terrible as spoilt by white men. Though bleak and stern it is
picturesque, and though so much detested by its white inhabitants
it is the beloved home of three small, primitive tribes, who live on
the products of its abundant fauna and flora.
The first of these tribes whom I met was that of the Gilyaks.^ At
first they were afraid of me, as they had suffered from the neigh-
bourhood of common criminal exiles, and feared that I might be
one of them. Finding, however, that I was harmless, they came
in time to regard me almost as an elder brother to whom they
could confide their joys and sorrows. They sweetened for me
many a bitter hour with their trust, their sympathy, and their
songs.
The difficult circumstances which followed the reckless invasion
of their land by a more cultivated nation had a bad influence upon
*[A recent account of the Gilyaks will be found in In the Uttermost East
(Harper, 1903), by Mr. C. H. Hawes, who met Mr. Pilsudski when the latter
was a political exile in Sakhalin (pp. 229, 263-4), and obtained from him the
original and translation of one song and the story of another (pp. 264-8). Eu.]
478 Collectanea.
the literature of the inhabitants of Sakhah'n. They have been
ruined by the colonists, who burned down the forests, hunted out
the game, appropriated the best lands and fisheries, and even often
stole the scanty movables of the natives. Sheer hunger and fear
have practically destroyed the mental life of the Gilyaks.
Many cultivated men, doctors, engineers, naval officers, and
civil servants have employed Gilyaks as guides or escorts during
their travels, and they all praise their skill, fearlessness, and
domestic life, but they share the opinion of a well-known Russian
geographer, who stated that the Gilyaks stand on so low an
intellectual level that nothing interests them except the mere
struggle for material existence.
In the beginning I also held this opinion, but a more intimate
acquaintance with this physically unattractive, dirty, and hard-
working tribe caused me to change my opinion" upon the subject,
and allowed me to collect a large number of the poems and songs
in which the Gilyaks take refuge from the sad realities of their
lives.
The chief wealth of Gilyak prose literature consists of tales
called Tylgund. They are epic in character, and are transmitted
from generation to generation. They deal mainly with religious
beliefs and superstitions, together with their reflections upon the
surrounding nature and animals.
Somewhat less numerous are the historical tales about not very
ancient wars amongst the *' clans," caused chiefly by the stealing of
women and by blood feuds.
To these we must add the very popular puzzles and puns {leren
tiihus) set down in rhythmical prose, occasionally witty, but often
rather cynical and coarse.
Much of the poetry consists of nastund full of mythological
fancies, but always having as a background descriptions of the
miraculous adventures of a hero. But I propose to limit myself
in the present communication to the lyrics {alaktufid), which con-
tain tragedy, pathos, melancholy humoiir, and occasionally exag-
gerated satire.
The Gilyaks distinguish between their old and new songs,
though there is no fundamental difference between them. In
both cases joy, pain, allegories, satire, and especially the pangs of
Collectanea. 479
love suffered by the poet form the subject. The names of older
poets are generally forgotten, except sometimes in the surroundings
amongst which the events described took place. More modern
bards are well known to the whole tribe.
Before dictating a song every Gilyak would explain who wrote
it, in what circumstances, and who are the persons concerned in
it. This has a double purpose, firstly to note a fact, and secondly
to inform the hearers who are the persons before whom they must
not repeat the song.
The Gilyaks sing their songs in a rather low voice. They
modulate them almost exclusively in the throat, with occasional
chest notes. After the dull and throaty sounds comes a stop,
which marks the end of each measure. It is occasionally preceded
by a long-drawn haphazard note.
The lack of louder, higher, or lower tones, gradations, and
variety renders these songs unpleasant to a European ear, and
hinders the understanding of the text.
The musical construction of the songs will probably be studied
by specialists interested in primitive music. I think it is akin to
the falsetto "intoning" of the Chinese, which also makes upon us
a disagreeable impression. Some of the songs are accompanied
on a sort of violin with one string.
Love songs form the bulk of the lyrics. These alakhiund do not
evince any influence from the folklore of the neighbouring tribes,
as is the case with the other poetical works of the Gilyaks, but
reflect the individual characteristics of the tribe. It is only
amongst the Gilyaks that love between two persons is so intense
that they prefer death to separation. The lot of the woman in the
Gilyak family is very hard. In childhood slie is sold to a strange
family, and is not allowed to remain among her own people nor to
marry a man of her father's clan. From these circumstances often
result tragedies ; the woman, usually quite a young girl, feels a
repulsion from the unknown house and family of the husband for
whom she is destined by her parents, sometimes from the day of
her birth ; and some of these songs have been the precursors of
suicide.
A frequent theme of Gilyak lyrics is the history of two lovers
who cannot marry because the girl is already promised to another
480 Collecta7iea.
man. They decide to die together, for, according to Gilyak belief,
such a simultaneous death will bind them together for ever in the
other world. Sometimes it happens that the girl falls in love with
a man of her own clan ; if her relatives find it out they avenge this
awful crime by compelling the girl to commit suicide.
I. The Suicide^ s Song.
" With two boats tied together I float down the river. The
water foams in the shallows, and I float past. By the Upper
Mask I will pause to rest and smoke three pipes. I will get into
the boat again. Tears fall from my left eye on to the toe of my
left shoe ; they sound like raindrops falling. My right-hand plait
swings in the wind, as I float on the heaving surface of the water,
with my two ricketty boats broken at the rudder. By the Lower
Mask brook I will rest and smoke two pipes. My right knee gives
way and will not bear me. "Ah, I am unhappy; how shall I live?
I shall kill myself; for I am guilty of a great sin. I must kill
myself; and yet I have no strength to do it. I will float down as
far as the storehouse of the Orok tribe, and there I will land.
When I have rested a little while, I will float down to my home.
Where shall I hide my face ? I must turn my back on everyone.
I shall feed only on my tears, and strangle myself with a three-
stranded rope." "
Such songs are favourites amongst the Gilyaks, who, as a people,
are very prone to suicide.
In other songs the poet describes a journey to his beloved one,
giving many vivid descriptions of nature. Another popular
subject is the longing of a girl for her beloved, who does not come
for a long time, or who passes near without coming to greet her.
In yet other songs a woman prays to be taken away by a young
man who pleased her while staying in her village.
The poet compares his beloved to the iris, which the Gilyaks
consider to be the most beautiful flower of their country. Her
cheeks are likened to the bark of the birch, as everything which is
white and shiny is considered beautiful. The beloved "bends her
head on one side " (the Gilyak idea of grace). " Her plait is
Collectanea. 48 1
undone." "Her lover is so weary without her" that he cannot eat
or lie down to sleep or work. " I have made thee alone the
object of my desire, but thou dost thou not think of me when
many eyes gaze on thee."
II. A Song of Farewell.
" I am sad at leaving you, I could not lift my left foot ; it hung
back when I crossed the threshold. I was so sad at leaving you.
Will you remember me? I raised my left hand and I covered my
eyes, and long I held them covered. I cannot forget you. But
you know nothing of that. I stretched out my right hand, I
would have caught your shadow. When at last I moved I went to
the i)icking of whortleberries. But still with my right hand I
covered my eyes, always remembering you. When I returned
home to the Larevo village, I landed from the boat. Do you
remember me? If you have seen another woman, surely you have
forgotten me. I cannot work for grief, and you have no thought
of me."
Sometimes humorous sentences are introduced. A girl says of
her lover that he rows with so much strength that at every stroke
he knocks against the bench in the boat. Another asks her lover
to step carefully over the floor of the hut, and try not to break the
planks, for she saw when he walked from the sea-shore to the
houses how his legs sunk deeply into the sand, (strength and
decision being the characteristics of good hunters). Occasionally
the jokes become somewhat harsh : — " When I heard thy voice I
thought thou wert a good man, but when I saw thee with my eyes
thou ceased to please me." A man mocks the plait of his girl,
comparing it to the teeth of a fork, and then adds, — "don't smile
at me, don't wink at me, for I love another." Another poet says
that the legs of his beloved are as thin as those of a mosquito, and
her face is as flat as a board.
, In the rhythmical descriptions of nature, one meets with images
not used in ordinary prose. Troubled water is compared to soup,
and the swiftness of a torrent to the hoops with which children
play. A large village is compared to a thick forest, and an open
482 Collectanea.
glade to a carpet laid on the floor. A tree to which dogs are tied
during a journey waves and bends towards the earth.
The Gilyak poet lacks many sentiments which we are used to
find amongst European poets. He is wanting in sympathy with
other people's troubles, and in understanding of the feeling of
others. I could hardly find in the songs any passages in which
the poet pictures the mental states of other persons. A simple
life with no class differences allows no play for that sense of social
injustice which arises wherever there is friction between two classes
within a nation.
It is true tliat the tribes, formerly sole lords in their island,
regard the domination of white men as a misfortune which has
ruined the normal life of the whole race. But the Gilyaks have
accepted conquest and subjection with a passive and permanent
sorrow which kills any sort of protest. Their Irps utter no words
of revolt. I was able to write down but one short song which
complains of oppression on the part of the conquerors. The
Gilyak, who dictated it to me before I left the country, asked me
to repeat it to the " Great Master." (See song iv. below.)
The Gilyak poet is generally either a shaman or the bard of
his tribe. He speaks a richer language than other men,
with a finer voice, and is endowed with a greater memory. I
will sketch here a few Gilyak poets whom I have personally
known, beginning with my first friend, Nispayn, a boy of fourteen
who at the time I made his acquaintance was wandering about
with his father, an old beggar, half a shaman, of bad reputation.
He would sit silent while his father told fortunes, and it seemed to
me that he was ashamed of this open swindle. A few years later
Nispayn had grown into a very handsome and highly sensitive
young man. After his father's death he became a bard. He did
not live in one place, but wandered from hut to hut and paid for
hospitality with songs and tales. Amongst others he lived in my
hut and dictated to me the poems of his tribe. He was as gentle
as a well-bred girl. His life among strangers taught him unob-
trusiveness, a virtue unknown to the Gilyaks in general. He was
not absorbed by material cares, as is generally the case with even
quite young Gilyaks, but I knew a whole series of his love-affairs,
which always moved him deeply. Once, on returning from a long
Collectanea. 483
journey, he came to me and said " Akan : advise me wliat to do,
I want to marry a Russian." He then told me that he knew a
Russian girl who was lame. She was the daughter of a settler,
whose acquaintance he had made when going with his father from
the Tymi valley to the sea-shore. She had always been kind to
him, instead of making fun of him, as young Russians generally do
with Gilyaks. The young bard told me he wanted to marry her,
and, blushing violently, added that he was sure of her affection as
she had kissed him, — a thing which among the Gilyaks occurs only
between lovers. I succeeded in explaining to him that amongst
white people a kiss is not always of such importance, and the
daughter of the settler was doubtless prompted by playfulness,
rather than by affection. In a short time he forgot her and fell in
love with the young wife of a Gilyak, whom I knew well. He
wanted to be christened with her, so as to escape the wrath of her
husband and family. I forbade him to play this trick, which
would have estranged him from all his fellow tribesmen. Soon
afterwards, according to the custom of the Gilyaks, Nispayn
married the wife of his deceased brother.
I met my second poet friend when he was a boy. He was sent
to my friend, Mr. Sternberg the ethnologist, and myself, during the
hard winter. The young orphan, whose name was Koinyt, made
friends with another pupil of mine, Indyn. Every day he used to
play a musical instrument, and to show us how Gilyak women
dance, amuse their children, etc. Koinyt possessed a great talent
for imitating. He would imitate the doctor, myself, or anyone.
He was generally very gay, and used to tell long stories to his
friend Indyn. One night Koinyt sprang up from his sleep with a
shriek, gesticulated with his hands, and began to improvise. He
was pale, and wore an expression of pain and terror. Indyn
understood what was going on, and after his friend had fallen on
the bed from sheer nervous exhaustion he explained that Koinyt
was not going to remain an ordinary Gilyak, but that the
" shaman's spirits " had taken possession of him. A few years
later Koinyt had become a celebrated shaman.
The gift of improvisation is characteristic of all Gilyak poets. In
1899 I left the place where I had lived for twelve years. Several
Gilyaks came to take leave of me and sing farewell songs, which
484 Collecta7iea.
they composed upon the spot, and which they dictated to me.
Amongst these was an old woman who was known for her wisdom
and the way in which she ruled her numerous children, and even
her husband. I knew that she had composed songs in her youth;
indeed, I had written down some of them, but had never heard her
sing ; it would have been beneath her dignity. I was even
obliged to remember never to read her songs in the presence of
her sons, who would have felt ashamed had I done so. In fact,
in order to avoid unpleasant situations, I used to note on the
margin of every song the list of the persons who must not hear it.
This poetess came of a well-to-do family. In youth her parents
wished her to marry the man to whom they had betrothed her :
she threatened suicide and won her point. After her marriage to
the man of her choice, she left off caring for poetry and devoted
herself to the duties of wife, mother, and housekeeper with such
great zeal that she was noted as a courageous, industrious, and
economical head of a family. She exacted so much from other
women that her two daughters-in-law ran away from her, being
unable to fulfil her ideal of the modest and virtuous woman who
thinks of nothing but her home duties.
However I knew two women who after marriage still kept their
love for poetry. Both were very poor, and therefore were not
much respected by their countrymen. The life of one of them
(Vunit) was particularly hard. Her father shortly before his death
promised her in marriage to his friend. She might have been the
daughter of her old husband, who brought her up with her
brothers and sisters. He soon became paralysed and unable to
work. All his relatives were dead, so he could get , no help from
his family, and led the life of a beggar. The unhappy woman not
only worked incessantly to support her helpless husband, but had
also much trouble with her children, who, born in such misery,
did not live long. In spite of her hard life she retained her
sensitiveness and the gift of rising above the wretchedness of her
daily existence. She had also a good n>emory and real eloquence
and was in no way ashamed of her gift, but considered it as her
glory, distinguishing her from other women.
Collectanea. 48 5
III. A Fare'weil Song (improvised by Viinit, a beggar's wife).
" You, when you go to far off lands, will not think of us. But
I, when you are gone, shall think only of you. Wiiere you loved
to walk, there I will walk. When I see your paths, I will think, —
"There, there, I see him." When I see men walking there, I shall
take them for you ; but they will not be you. When I meet a man
who is like you, I shall remember you. When I see that he is
another man I shall be sad. You are better than a good Gilyak,
even as when I look at many trees the tallest one pleases me
more than the others, for you are kinder than other men.
If you go far, if you go near, take with you the words of my
mouth. When you say them aloud, listen and you will be glad,
and will remember us. Live happy ; carry my words into strange
places, and into strange villages. Carry tliem that many men
may hear them. Let young and old and all hear them. I have
given to you all the words of my mouth. I will forget you only
when I sleep ; when I awake I will tiiink of you again, of how you
live there far away. I shall hear no more of you, or maybe only
once. 1 see you now for the last time. You will never hear of
me ; if I am frozen or some other thing should happen to me, or
if I should die, you will not know. I may hear once of you, but
you will know nothing of me."
The Gilyaks love their poetry, but leave the making of it to
individuals who are unfit for the material struggles of life. Once
a very rich Gilyak was my guest, and I rejoiced at the thought of
hearing a song which would give me an idea of the sentiments of
a successful man. As I insisted on hearing one from him, the
man half amused and half offended, gave me a good lesson : —
" What do you think of me ? Ask of me how, when, and where
one should fish or hunt ; ask me about training dogs, or building
summer or winter huts ; but my head isn't filled with that sort of
rubbish. I don't understand how a sensible man like you can
bother about such silly songs."
IV. Fare-iuell Song (improvised by Sanykh, a rich man,
during a year of famine).
" Long ago when the Russians were not here there was much
fish, there were many reindeer and sables, and there were many
486 Collectanea.
bears. The Gilyaks were rich. Now there are many Russians
here and we are hungry, ahnost we die. Sables are few, bears are
few, reindeer are few. Perhaps we shall die soon. We asked the
Russians for help, and they gave us straw to eat. When you go
to your lord tell him all our wrongs."
The spirit which inspires poetical improvisations lives on the tip
of the tongue and can easily fly away, doing great harm to the
singer. Therefore the audience feel it their duty to excite the
spirit with their shouts.
I shall never forget the impression of one night in my journey
from the south to the north of Sakhalin. We were in two boats,
(three Oroks, two Gilyaks, and myself) going up the river Poronay.
We had been travelling twelve days, and had stopped two days
and nights on account of the rain. We had reached the nearest
Russian colony, and from there it was possible for us to continue
our journey on foot. We spent the last night in the fir forest,
as it was beautiful July weather. Fearing the convicts, thieves,
and vagabonds in the near neighbourhood, we determined not to
sleep till daybreak. After supper our conversation became less
and less animated, and some of us began to doze after the day's
hard work, when someone proposed that we should persuade a
young man, who knew many poems by heart, to sing them to us.
We arranged a little tent for the singer. Some of our'companions
sat near him, and others at the opening of the tent. I and one of
the Oroks (who did not understand the Gilyak language) lay down
under a fir-tree near the tent. I soon fell asleep, lulled by the
monotonous guttural voice of the Gilyak. I often woke up, and
each time the interminable recitative would reach my ears. Now
and again, when the singer paused to take breath, I heard loud
cries of admiration. When dawn came the Orok and I got up
and made tea, but the concert continued without any change.
The listeners did not notice us in the least, so absorbed were they
in the fate of the hero of whom the young Gilyak was singing as
he lay on his back in the tent with botli hands under his head.
When at last he sang the last words of the epilogue he arose pale
with fatigue, and drank his tea in silence. It was some time
before he began to speak to me and my companions. He seemed
to be still living through the adventures of the hero.
Collectanea. 487
The next song was sung to me by an old woman supposed to be
a shaman. I was spending a summer night as a guest in the hut
of some Gilyak neighbours of mine. We slept on benches with
our day clothes over us for coverings. The fire went out, and the
moonlight shining through a hole in the roof lit up the heads of
the people. A figure with tangled white hair, — (she was in mourn-
ing for her husband and therefore could not comb her hair), —
began to sing in a low voice. " Sister of ' Milk ' is singing,"
whispered to me a young friend who lay beside me. All conver-
sation at once ceased, the listeners even holding their breath. At
times the song dropped to a whisper or a smothered cry ; then
from all corners voices of encouragement would come, to show the
singer that the listeners were awake and interested in her song.
The encouragement certainly acted upon her ; by and by the song
grew louder, the time quickened, and the words were clearer.
The moon went down and the hut was in darkness. Through the
hole in the roof I could see only a few twinkling stars in a clear
but dark sky. The mournful tones beat against the roof. The
strained attention of the listeners did not waver, and I heard from
time to time deep sighs of emotion. Next day I asked the old
woman to dictate the song to me.
" By the sea, in the place where is now the Russian Colony
Alexandrovsk, was formerly a Gilyak village, situated in the
middle of a larch wood. Fifty years ago the singer, then a child
of ten years, met a girl of fifteen, the wife of a rich Gilyak, to
whom she had been sold in her childhood. Forced to live with a
man she hated, she could not hide her loathing of her husband ;
this angered him, and sometimes he beat her. She could not
hope for any help from her relatives, for her father had deserted
her and her mother. She therefore gathered together her com-
panions, mostly unmarried girls, and sang to them a farewell song ;
then put an end to her life by hanging." This is the song as the
old woman remembered it : —
V. The Suicides Song.
"The larch tree is smooth and tall. When I go to cut the grass
it trembles from the summit to the very roots, and its branches bow
488 Collectanea.
to the ground. I look up at it : " Thou art like a dying man. I
look at thee still to-day, but it is for the last time. Thou art
gazing at my throat. With a plaited rope I sliall hang myself upon
thee." From my left eye the tears fall and rain upon the ground.
(Unhappy one ! ) I look around me and cease to cry. But again
the tears flow from my right eye and rain upon the ground. Tiie
grass which I have cut has come untied and the dry grass rustles.
I cook a fish before the fire and try to eat it, but my throat is
strangled and I cannot eat. I brew tea from my tears and try to
drink, but I can neither eat nor drink. I will go back. I will go
home. I will enter my hut, and will not cease to think upon my
death. I have but one wish, to bind myself upon my chosen
larch. (Oh, my sorrow ! ) My elder sister will not let me go out.
Do not tell me that thou grievest for me. I will take my little
knife with me and I will hang myself. I will unwind my left plait
and will sink down upon the comb. I will kill myself. My
mother and her sisters, and the wife of my uncle, will hear about
me and will weep for me. They will hasten here to see me. But
they will only hear my voice from the distance. They will hear
me wail and sing from the land of Death. When my throat will
ache from moaning I will make a flute from the rushes and will
play upon it. Listen to my mournful songs. (Oh, my sorrow ! )
I will change my thoughts to thoughts of death. When you eat
fish now you will eat it alone. My food will be frogs. ^ (Oh, my
sorrow ! ) My dear mother will weep and come out of the hut.
Why dost thou weep for me. Mother ? She weeps again and goes
back into the hut. She grieves, but yet for me she will not kill
herself. When she comes to seek me she v/ill sing this song : —
"Against the current of swift water I go to seek my daughter.
The Gilyaks lead me through the high and low valleys of the
river. My lamentations are heard. On all sides the echoes are
spreading. In the heart of the mountain and beneath it the echoes
will resound. My dog Tlakr I will take with me, and will slay him
upon the grave of my daughter. I shall have no dog left. I am
poor. I have nothing in which to clothe my daughter. I have no
cloth to make her grave-clothes. I have no funeral meats to give
^The suicide cannot go to Mlyvo, the spirit- world of the Gilyaks, but is
forced to wander in the swamps and lakes, and to feed upon frogs.
Collectanea. 489
the guests. The tears from my right eye will rain upon the face
of my child, and the sound of their fall will be heard. Thou
hadst no father, and I could not feed thee, my orphan, my little
child. And now from the other world I hear thy voice. Thy
father rejected thee, and I sought high and low for food wherewith
to nourish my daughter. The burden was heavy, and now, even
after death, I shall be parted from her. Wandering along the
banks of the river to the villages high and low I gathered fragments
into my dish, and with these I fed my daughter. I nourished her
but to throw her to the water of the swamps." Thus will she sing
of her daughter. My mothers ^ will ask news of me, and they will
know that I am dead, and from the swamp they will hear my
voice. Thou, my eldest sister, in my place wilt cherish the dog I
reared with eyes of two colours, and tell my kindred of my death.
And you, my fathers,-* keep the great cauldron that was paid for
me at my marriage, for I know that my husband and his clan will
try to take it back again after my death. Keep it. Do not give
it to him. My dear sister, cast my big ear-rings in the place of
my burial. I have nothing more that I wish to take with me.
But yet, break in half the knife with which I cleaned the fish, and
throw it into my grave. I will go away. I will get into my boat;
but my knees are limp and they will not support me. I cannot
stand in the prow of the boat. My slender willow-stem bends,
and I cannot move the boat. Listen, my father, as I sing sitting
in my boat. Thou wilt be sorry for me to-day when I shall die.
Thou wilt see me no more. To-morrow I shall be dead. I
unbind ray left plait and I sit and think. My needle sheath, my
little knife, I will bind to the rope. My weeping will resound to
the furthest mountains. I will raise my left hand to wipe my
tears. Listen, dear mother, although I die sing to the young
girls, and tell them and the little children about me. Tell my
story to all the young. I dread the water of the swamps, and yet
I think about it always, when I enter my hut and when I leave it.
Life is so sad. My path is cut short. Far and wide on the lakes
I shall wander, seeking the frogs for my food. From my steps
will arise a sound like that of thunder. I shall catch frogs instead
^ The Gilyaks call " >Fothers " all ihe sisters of their mother.
■• " Fathers," the brothers of their father.
2 I
490 Collectanea.
of fish, and shall starve. Without hands, without feet I shall
roam. (Oh, my sorrow ! ) "
The old woman finished her dirge-like song, and became
deeply thoughtful. The rest were deeply moved, and the silence
which had fallen remained unbroken. Suddenly, from afar, a
faint cry was heard, probably that of a bird. I heard one of the
boys whisper : — " Hark ! It is the cry of the woman ! "
Bronislaw Pilsudski.
County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths, IV. {Concluded).
9. The Sixteenth Century.
The great religious changes of this period, although ever since
constantly before the people in religious teaching and polemical
literature, have left no clear independent tradition. It is usually
"Cromwell," not Henry the Eighth, "who destroyed the Abbeys,"
just as in County Limerick the Cromwellian war has obliterated
the remembrance of the far more cruel Desmond wars. The
stories of Henry and Luther were usually comic, pretending to no
historic character and of no wide acceptance. The only curious,
and probably native, tale is that already told about "Anne
Bulling " winning and keeping the love of Henry by means of the
pennywort.^ Her enemies put her in prison where she could not
get it, and Henry turned against her and hanged her, "as she
deserved." This I heard both near Sixmilebridge about 1877, and
some five years later near Carrigogunnell in County Limerick, but
the penalties incurred by me for inadvised introduction of anti-
Protestant stories and rebel songs (gathered from my kind friends
among the peasantry) into my very Protestant and loyal family
circle have obliterated the little I heard before my juvenile
researches were nipped in the bud. Queen Mary had no place in
Clare story, but Queen Elizabeth was widely remembered as the
Cailleach or " Hag," and as " The Red Hag," but I can recall no
^ \'ol. xxii., p. 456.
Co//eciaiiea. 49 1
definite story about her. The tale of a battle at Dysert Castle is
almost certainly about that of 1562 ; Professor O'Looney thought
it to relate to De Clare, but could not be certain that " Claragh-
more" was actually named by his informant. The "flagstone of
the breaking of bones," near Quin Abbey, as I have noted,- was,
if not a modern "book legend," perhaps a reminiscence of the
horrible execution of Domnall beg O'Brien by Sir John Perrot in
1582; I never heard the name near Quin myself, and the incident
has no similarity to the stabbing of the earlier Domnall O'Brien.
The only tangible stories relate to the Armada late in Elizabeth's
reign (15S8). The fishermen at Kilkee told my people in 1868-72
of the screams and wailing of the Spaniards lost in the " Big
Ships" in the mist, or by night, at sea ofT the coast. In 1878 I
heard round Doolin, to the north of the Cliffs of Moher, tales of
the Big Ships and the Spaniards wrecked at Doolin, and how at
the mound of Knock na croghery {cnocdn na crocaire, "Gallows
Hill " ), at St. Catherine's, somewhat inland, " Bceoshius O'Clanshy
hung the Spanish grandee." In later years I heard further that a
Spanish nobleman got leave to fetch away the body of his only
son, but it was indistinguishable from the others " in one red burial
blent," whose bones are often found at the hillock. Near Miltown,
Kilfarboy church was said to be the burial-place of the yellow men
{fear buidhe) from the Big Ships. Kilfarboy is, however, really
"the church of Febrath," the Beal an febrath or Belfarboy pass
running to the upland behind it, so that the false interpretation has
evidently given rise to the story, just as Killaspluglonane has
become Killsprunane ( " Gooseberry Church "), and Cnoc uar coill
( " Cold Wood Hill " ) Cnocfuarchoill or Spansel Hill, There
were graves called Teampul na Spanigg at two places, one near
Doolin and one near Miltown Malbay. I heard the name last
near Miltown in 1887, when the graves were almost obliterated,
but could find no trace of it by diligent search in 1908. From the
eighteenth century to the present day Spanish Point has been
connected with the wreck of a Spanish ship (or ships)'. A carving
-Supra, p. 375.
^ There was actually no wreck there, but to this day wreckage and drowned
bodies are swept up there by the prevailing current from Mutton Island, near
which one of the Armada was really wrecked.
492 Collectanea.
of a cornucopia, flowers, and bales (Plate VII),'* long preserved by
the Morony family as a relic of the Armada, is considered by Count
Lorenzo Salazar, the Italian consul in Dublin, as very probably
of the proper period and comparable to other Spanish work.^
In 1887 I was told of another Spanish wreck near Mutton
Island, and "its guns" were shown faintly blue through the clear
water in a rock pool. The wreck was, however, that of a "coast-
guard vessel" in or soon after the Napoleonic wars, which had
attracted to itself the older tale. There were faint traditions of
the wreck of the Big Ships from Dunbeg to Killard in 1894, and
of the ghosts of the crews at Kilkee.
A remarkable ancient table at Dromoland, figured by Count
Salazar,^ was according to tradition given to the then O'Brien of
Lemaneagh by his brother-in-law, Bosthius Ciancy. It is certainly
Spanish, and the tradition may probably be tru€. I heard no tale
in Moyarta of the Big Ship really lost there, but found similar
tales along the Kerry coast beyond, as I did in Mayo and on the
Ulster coast. In 1878 the Calendar of State Papers was un-
known, and no local history told the true story, so that the
mention of " Boeoshius O'Clanshy " seems like genuine tradition.
No wreck is recorded at Doolin, but, when the Zuniga took
shelter in Liscannor Bay, not far to the south, wreckage and an oil
jar floated in," so a wreck is not impossible. A ship -was wrecked
opposite Tromra Castle in the Sound, near Mutton Island, and
another at Dunbeg; a third was set on fire by its crew and allowed
to drift on shore in Moyarta Parish on the Shannon. The letters
of Bcethius MacClanchy, the sheriff of Clare, and others give very
full details.
A second tale, evidently old but less authentic, is told of Dun-
licka and Carrigaholt Castles in nearly identical forms. The
older is given by the Rev. John Graham of Kilrush in 1816.^
Teig MacMahon of Carrigaholt being implicated in the Desmond
rising and absent in Kerry, his followers committed outrages on
^ Supra, p. 368.
'•' The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xli., p. 65.
^ Ibid., vol. XXX., p. 93.
" Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ire/and (i^88-g2), pp. 29-30, 38.
'W. S. Mason, A Statistical Account etc. , vol. ii., pp. 443 et seq.
Collectanea. 493
some collectors of the chief rents. The Earl of Thomond sent
his brother, Henry O'Brien of Trumniera Castle, to conijilain to
MacMahon. While waiting for MacMahon's return, Henry fell
in love with the chief's beautiful daughter, and the lovers agreed
that, if MacMahon on his return showed hostility to Henry, the
lady should hoist a black handkerchief on the west side of the
Castle. O'Brien, returning from hunting, forgot to look for the
signal, and was attacked on entering the courtyard, the gate being
shut behind him. He rode his horse into the river, and swam
across the creek, but was again attacked and wounded, his servant
being killed. He laid a complaint before the Queen in person,
and she outlawed MacMahon, and granted all his estate to
O'Brien. Meantime MacMahon had fled to Dunboy, where he
was accidentally shot by his own son.^ So O'Brien on his return
found all opposition at an end, and married the lady of his choice.
This tale differs too much from history to be " book legend." It
is true that MacMahon got into trouble for capturing Daniel
O'Brien (brother of the Earl of Thomond), and that the estates
were eventually granted to his prisoner, but the anger of tlie
Crown against MacMahon arose from his capture of an English
ship, and his relations with tlie rebel James " Sugan Earl" of
Desmond. Teig MacMahon died in 1601.
In 1875 I heard a similar story about Dunlicka Castle from
some of my brother's tenants at Moveen, near Kilkee. O'Brien
of Carrigaholt fell in love with the daughter of MacMahon of
Dunlicka. She used to hoist a flag on the Castle when her father
was away, but the chief heard of it and himself gave the signal.
O'Brien rode into the Castle and was attacked, but leaped his
horse over the chasm of Poulnagat to the north of the Castle and
escaped unhurt.
10. The Seventeenth Ce?itury.
The only tale referring to the early years of this century is a
bald one of Knockalough Castle on an islet in the lake of the
same name near Kilmilie. "Torlough Roe MacMalion of
Knockalough killed his wife and child with one blow." ^" The
"hero" was living in 161 1.
^This is probably an explanatory remark by Graham, and not local tradition.
'^^ Ordnance Sui-vey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. ii., p. 45.
494 Collectanea.
Maura Rhue. — The most interesting group of tales is attached
to Lemaneagh Castle, a fine, but bare, old mansion, with curious
gardens, courtyards, fishpond, and outbuildings, between Inchi-
quin and Kilfenora.^^ An inscription over a gateway kept the
remembrance green of Conor O'Brien and his wife Mary Mac-
^Mahon, but the gateway has recently been carried off and rebuilt
in a modern garden at Dromoland. The garden near the fishpond
has a sort of summerhouse in one wall, with a niche on each side
of the door, and tradition says that Maura Rhue (Mary O'Brien)
built it for a famous blind stallion, so fierce that, when his grooms
let him out, they had to spring up into the niches for safety.^-
Conor O'Brien built the gates to shut in the people of Burren,
(for a road through the enclosures leads into that extraordinary
mountain wilderness), and would let no one through who did not
ask leave of him and of his wife; but one of the Burren gentry
gathered a band of the inhabitants, broke the gates, and forced
O'Brien to promise free right of way for ever.^^ "Maura," — or, as
she is known in East Clare, " ]\Iaureen " Rhue (Little Mary), or,
by some English-speakers, " Moll Roo," — used to hang her maids
by their hair from the corbels on the old peel tower,i^ (the nucleus
of the building). Others said that she cut off the breasts of her
maids. I was told in 1878-81 that she married 25 husbands, all
the later ones for a year and a day, after which either of the pair
could divorce the other. She used to put her servants into all the
houses of her temporary husband,, and then suddenly divorce him
and exclude him from his property.^^ She was a MacMahon and
had red hair (whence her name), and she and Conor O'Brien
used to ride at the head of their troops in the wars.^*'
Her descendants at Dromoland and elsewhere told, in 1839 and
later, a curious story of her and Conor. General Ireton was
^^ The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxx.,
pp. 403-7.
^2 Collected hy Dr. G. U. MacNamara.
'^'^ Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., p. 55.
"At Lemaneagh in 1884, and also told by the Stacpooles.
i*So Dr. W. H. Stacpoole Westropp in 1S78, and Rev. Philip Dwyer in
1881,
^®At Lemaneagh in 1884.
Collectanea. 495
attacked by Conor O'Brien, who fell mortally wounded but would
not surrender. His servants brought him back, nearly dead, to
his wife at Lemaneagh. " She neither spoke nor wept," but
shouted to them from the top of the tower, — " What do 1 want
with dead men here?" Hearing that he was still alive, she nursed
him tenderly till he died. Then she put on a magnificent dress,
called her coach, and set off at once to Limerick, which was
besieged by Ireton. At the outposts she was stopped by a
sentinel, and roared, and shouted, and cursed at him until
Ireton and his officers, who were at dinner, heard the noise and
■came out. On their asking who was the woman, she replied, —
*' I was Conor O'Brien's wife yesterday, and his widow to-day."
*' He fought us yesterday. How can you prove he is dead ? "
" I'll marry any of your officers that asks me." Captain Cooper,
a brave man, at once took her at her word, and they were
married, so that she saved the O'Brien property for her son, Sir
Donat."
Lady Chatterton's account in 1839 ^^ tallies with that above.
She says that Ireton sent five of his best men, disguised as
sportsmen, to shoot Conor O'Brien, and one of them succeeded in
wounding him. Mary captured and hanged the man, called her
sons and advised them to surrender to the Parliament, and set off
in her coach and six as described above, the rest of the tale being
closely like the Carnelly version.
At Lemaneagh it is added that one morning, after her marriage
to Cooper, they quarrelled while he was shaving, and he spoke
slightingly of Conor O'Brien. The affectionate relict, unable to
bear any slur on the one husband she had loved, jumped out of
bed and gave Cooper a kick in the stomach from which he died.^^
At Carnelly, in 1873 ^"d later, it was told that Maureen Rhue
was taken by her enemies, after killing the last of her 25
husbands, and was fastened up in a hollow tree, of which the site
and, I think, the alleged roots were still shown. Her red-haired
I'So Mrs. Stamer of Carnelly and others down to 1883. The tale was
generally known to the various O'Briens and MacNamaras, and was kept alive
by Maura's portrait still at Ennistymon, and a copy of it at Dromoland.
'^^ Rambles in the South of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 183.
19 So Dr. G. U. MacNaniara.
496 Collectanea.
ghost was reputed to haunt the long front avenue, near the
" Druids' altar " already noted, -'^ when I was a child.
Cromwell (who was never nearer to Clare than the extreme
southern border of County Limerick, fifty miles away) is said to
have marched to attack Limerick along " Crummil's Road," — not
the road so named on the Ordnance Survey maps, but an old
hollow lane, evidently of great antiquity, a little above it and on
the top of the long ridge from Ardnataggle House to Ahareinagh
Castle, to the west of Clonlara and to the north-east of Limerick
City. He is reputed to have destroyed most of the ruined castles
in south-east Clare, and to have knocked down Kilnaboy round
tower with his guns. His men cut down the trees and killed the
deer in the Deer Park of Lemaneagh, General Irayton (Ireton)
was remembered for many acts of cruelty and violence in eastern
Clare. Cromwell, or "an army of Cromwell," attacked the very
curious stone fort called " the Doon " at Ballydonohan between
Bodyke and Broadford ; the army destroyed it, and went on to
Galway by way of Scariff, and a sword was found there
( Ballydonohan). -1 I believe I gave offence locally by saying that
Cromwell had never been in Clare.
In 1877 Mrs. Stamer, who was then 77, told me that, when a
girl, she had heard how the wife of Col. George Stamer, about
1650, was standing on the battlements of Clare Castfe when her
baby sprang from her arms into the river and was swept away.
Ever since on dark and stormy nights the mother's ghost could be
seen frantically searching along the bank. There is no basis for
this story in the family records and pedigree.
Charles the Second has no place in Clare folk-tales, but the
story I have already told- about the Westropp ring may be
placed about 1670. Lady Wilde tells a legend of Querin -^
(which I have myself never heard in Moyarta parish), dated in
1670, but, if genuine, evidently of far earlier origin. On November
-*Vol. xxii., p. 51.
-' So Messrs. Denis Boulton and Daniel O'Callaghan at Ballydonohan. See
also Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxvii. (c), p. 395.
"Vol. xxii., p. 52.
'^Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland (1888),
pp. 27-9.
Collectanea. 497
Eve a kern went to shoot wild fowl on the shore, and saw four
men carrying a bier on which lay a body wrapped in white. He
fired and the bearers ran away, and he found a beautiful girl
apparently asleep. She neither spoke nor took food or drink for
a year, and on the following November Eve her preserver
overheard the fairies talking in Lisnafallainge fort, and learned
that she was daughter of O'Conor Kerry and could not recover
till she ate off her bier covering, which was her father's tablecloth.
The kern broke the spell accordingly, and ultimately won her for
his bride.
Sir Donat O'Brien of Lemaneagh looms large in the popular
memory. He made the old straggling lane-way, traceable in
fragments sometimes a mile apart, from Lemaneagh over Roughan
hill and north-eastward through the barony of Inchiquin, and it is
known as "Sir Donat's road." He bought Moghane Hill near
his property at Dromoland for threescore cows and twenty
bullocks.-^ His mother, Maureen Rhue, apprenticed him to a
London goldsmith. When the later Civil War broke out. Sir
Donat and his (apparently elder) brother, Teigie O'Brien, doubted
sorely which side to support. At last Donat suggested that the
brothers should take opposite sides, so that, whichever won, the
family would have a friend at Court. -^
The unfortunate James the Second was the object to the
peasantry of contempt and dislike far stronger in story than
aversion to his triumphant son-in-law. In Moyarta the loyal Lord
Clare and his yellow dragoons {Dragon buidh) were remembered,
and in 1816 a proverb ran, — "Stop! Stop! Yellow Dragoon, — not
till we come to the Bridge of Clare, not till we come to the pass
of Moyarta ! " It was believed that the ghost of Lord Clare
nightly drilled his phantom army before Carrigaholt, and the
belief was not forgotten round Kilkee in 1875. Graham'-"^ heard
that the ghostly dragoons were seen "to traverse "Tiie West" in the
winter nights, and plunge at the dawning of the day into the surge
that foams round the ruins of Carrigaholt." The drill field was
said to have been to the east of the Castle, where the harbour lies
and the great river breaks against the low banks, all having now
^Prof. Brian O'Looney, 1891. "'Chatterlon, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 184.
'-*W. S. Mason, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 430.
498 Collectanea.
been swept away. The Barclay family of Ballyartney had in
Graham's time (1S16) a definite legend of the war. Their
ancestor, a clergyman, was expelled from his living, and his
successor, a priest, was very strict in exacting security from
Barclay for the payment of his tithe. In the summer of 1691 the
priest objected to the securities offered, and Barclay left for home
in low spirits. On his way he heard from Captain O'Brien of
Ennistymon that the Irish army had been defeated at Aughrim.
So he returned to the priest and offered as his security " the great
King William," and threatened that if his tithe books were not
returned in ten minutes he would have the intruder hanged on
the high road of Kilmurry. Lord Clare's dragoons galloped
through the village in confusion, confirming the news, and Barclay
was reinstated.-''
A ferryman at Kilquane named Macadam helped the Williamite
"Dutch" army over the Shannon in 1691. He was richly
rewarded, but, when he died, people cut on his tomb " Here lies
Philip who lived a fisherman and died a deceiver." Down to
about 1850 pious old people, when visiting Kilquane graveyard,
used to pray at the Macadam tomb for the soul of the man "who
sold the pass." An old poem on the stone exists, — " If all that
were killed, O stone ! by the dead man under thee were alive !"-^
There is no other documentary or epigraphical evidence to
support the popular tradition. The place where William's army
crossed the river, and shut off the city from Clare, is well-known.
A great stone called Carrigatloura {carraic an t slabhra, the rock
of the chain) is shown to which the pontoon bridge was fastened
on the Clare shore.
William of Orange is in popular memory identified with the
^' violated treaty " of Limerick. The table on which that document
was actually signed was long preserved, but ultimately the present
treaty stone (an old mounting-block by the roadside),^^ became
the subject of bogus tradition and undeserved tourist interest.
^W. S. Mason, op. cit., pp. 461-2.
-8 Mss. Royal Irish Academy, 24, M 37. In fact the family of Macadam now
in Clare was of good birth and fortune at the time.
^' Capt. Ralph Westropp often used it when riding out of Limerick, and he
and others often told me of their amazement when the treaty myth grew up.
Collecta7iea. 499
Mrs. Stamer, of Stamer Park and Carnelly, heard from her
husband's aunts, granddaughters of WiUiam Stamer, that the latter
and his brother Henry Stamer of Lattoon, with a few soldiers,
swooped down on Quin Abbey, surprising the monks and the
people at vespers. The laity fled, but the priest continued the
service till Henry Stamer dragged him away. The old man clung
to the altar for a moment, praying that Henry might have no
family and that William's name might die out in three generations
of one male each. The Stamers then expelled the monks and
burned the Abbey. The prophecy was not made ^.v post facto, as
Mrs. Stamer assured me, but her only son predeceased her husband,
who was William's grandson. The monks survived at Drim, in
the neighbourhood of the Abbey, until 1S28, when the last. Father
John Hogan, died. I knew two persons who remembered him ;
he was buried in the cloister, where a long epitaph records his life,
ending with the pathetic text, " Qui seminat in lachrymis exultatiofie
metet."
There was a tradition in the Ross Lewin family of Fortfergus
and Ross Hill that the French landed at tlie former place, took
all the butter out of the dairy, wrapped it in sheets, and burnt it
and other things on the lawn. This agrees with an early deed of
Du Guai Trouin, who, when a mere lad of twenty in 1692, entered
the Shannon, sacked a chateau in Clare, and did not retire until a
■detachment of the Limerick garrison was sent against him.^''
II. The Eighteenth Century.
In 1839 it was told in Querin that, after King W'illiam had
prevailed, MacMahon, one of Lord Clare's kerns, used to make
plundering excursions to harry the English settlers. After many
years spent thus, he robbed a retired soldier named John Meade,
who gathered his neighbours and tracked the plunderers to a house
in the woods. The pursuers tore off the thatch and leaped in, and
a fierce fight ensued in the narrow interior. Meade was engaged
with one of the bandits when MacMahon stabbed him in the side
with a long spear, and he fell. The wounded man, however, in
^'^ Memoirs oj Du Guai Trouin, p. 6. Fortfergus (or Liskilloge) is a low
picturesque ivied house near the Fergus.
500
Collectajiea.
his agony sprang up thrice as high as the cross beam of tlie roof
before he fell dead. The other English were slain, and their bodies
buried near the bank of the Shannon at Temple Meegh or Mead
{Teanipi/l Meadhach) near Querin, which since that time has only
been used for the burial of strangers and unbaptized children.
Jack Cusack, " the priest taker," lived about the same time. He
was High Sheriff in 1708, and became that most hated of persons, —
a " protestant discoverer " under the penal laws in his own interests.
Eut his only daughter married a Studdert and died childless, and
all the lands Cusack had acquired passed then out of the hands of
his family. When Cusack was buried at Clonlea near Kilkishen,
according to tradition an enemy cut on his tomb, —
" God is pleased when man does cease to sin.
Satan is pleased when he a soul doth win.
Mankind are pleased when e'er a villain dies.
Now al! are pleased, for here Jack Cusack lies." '"^
The stone is said to have been broken or thrown into the lake
near the church.
Tradition preserved the recoUeciion of good as well as of ill, for
I remember old people blessing the various families who had acted
as friendly " protestant discoverers " and trustees, thus saving the
lands of the O'Briens and of the MacNamaras. The tradition
was true, for I have unearthed amongst long-forgotten papers ^^ an
account how Marcus Paterson befriended the Barretts, and F. Drew
of Drewsborough and J. Westroppof Lismehan the O'Briens.^
I have not been able to verify the saving of certain MacNamara
'^ M. Lenihan, Li»ierick (1866), p. 30S. This verse has other-attributions.
^2 At Edenvale and Coolreagh. It is only from private papers that the true
character of a "protestant discovery" can be ascertained. The Law and its
records, of course, regarded the trustee as the actual owner, and it depended
entirely upon the personal integrity of him and of his successors whether the
Roman Catholic owners enjoyed the benefits. However, such a trust was
rarely broken, and its breach was never forgotten nor forgiven.
^^Drew and Westropp took counsel's opinion, got a Dublin wigraaker to act
as discoverer, bought up his rights, and then each leased the lands to the family
for which he acted. When the Penal Laws were repealed, the trustees sold
their rights to the true owners for small sums. The Barretts then repudiated
sales made in their interest by Paterson, and so caused litigation lasting even
as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century.
ColUctanca. 501
estates by the Westropps of Fortanne, as told in 1877, but the
family papers there were burned.
To close my chronological series of tales I will tell, less fully
than I have often heard it, a very horrible story of the period
after 1700. A replica of Maura Rhue in the east of Clare used
to dress as a man and rob and murder travellers on lonely roads
through the woods and hills, sometimes shooting them from trees
and throwing their bodies into a lake which was still pointed out
by the peasantry some forty years ago. Her niece was suspected
of admiring a handsome young Englishman who was their servant,
and the family, fearing a love affair, consulted and, at the instiga-
tion of the virago (who had had a personal experience in her
youth), determined to send away the young man. The fiendish
woman advocated stronger measures, and at last carried her point.
All the other servants and retainers were allowed to go to the
great "pattern" at Holy Island, and the stranger was set to pull
down the middle of a turf rick. As he was stooping to remove
the last few sods, the aunt shot him with a pistol, and he fell
senseless. The conspirators proceeded to cover him with the
peats, but he made a feeble struggle and thrust out his hand. His
murderess, on seeking to cover the hand, saw upon it a ring which
she had given long before to her own lover to place on their son's
hand when he grew up. She knew then that she had killed her
own son, and dropped unconscious upon his body. Her brain
gave way, and she remained imbecile until upon her deathbed,
when she cursed her abettors. A terrible destiny, with many an
untimely death, has followed down to our own time the family,
which has long since left its old abode. Local tradition said that
the skeleton of the son was found "some generations after, a
hundred years ago" (from 1870), when peat was scarce and the
rick was used up,^^ Round TuUa, however, it was said that the
family burned the rick to get rid of the corpse, but that a storm
arose and blew away the white ashes, so that the unconsumed skull
and the ring carved with the family shield were exposed.
'* See vol. xxi., p. 34S. Kicks often remained for a long lime, ihe upper part
being replaced each season.
502 Collectanea.
12. Undated Tales.
There are, of course, a number of tales that cannot be located
in time, although sometimes attached to definite places, and
other tales of a vague description.
Lisheencroneen, a splendid earthern fort with a deep fosse and
high rings, lying near Doonaha in south-west Clare,'^ bore in
1 815 the names of Dun Athairrc (Doon Aheirc) and Lios fm
fuadli. Despite a very definite letter of Eugene O'Curry in 1835,
the Ordnance Survey saw fit to give the name Lisfuadnaheirka
to another ring fort, for which the peasantry knew no name,
but I heard a vague tale of " a horned ghost " at the former. ^'^
Knockaun Mountain, to the north-west of Lisdoonvarna, was
called Sliabh oigheh Airim (or Slievyharrim, O'Harrim's mountain),
say the Ord/iance Survey Letters, after "Arim," a supposed son
of Finn mac Cumhail, otherwise unknown.
The Matal (wild boar) and Faracat (a huge wild cat with a
moon mark of white hair), already mentioned as appearing in a
tale by Comyn in 1750,^' possibly founded on folk-tales, have no
place in present-day local story.
The lady Gillagreine ^^ was the daughter of a mortal father
and a sunbeam, and, when told of her ill-matched parents,
sprang into Lough Graney, floated down the river Graney
to Derrygraney, and was buried at Tomgraney {i.e. Loch Greine>
Doire Greine, and Tuam Greine).
Near Sixmilebridge the tale ran that, in early days, Meihan
mac Enerheny, a famous warrior, made the huge fort, or rather
hill town, of Moghane ^'' as a " fighting-ring " for himself. He
^^ The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxxix.,
p. 121 ; Journal of the North Minister Archaological Society, vol. i.,
p. 225. The original papers belong to Col. O'Callaghan Westropp of Lisme-
hane.
^Vol. xxi., p. 343; Ordnance Sin~jey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i. , pp. 371 et
seq. (Aug. 21st, 1835). Fuad is a personal name in the Dind Senchas (Sliabh
Fuad, Revue Celtiqiie, vol. xvi., p. 51) ; but St. Moling was once pursued by
3.fuat or spectre {Mai-tyrology of Donegal, s. June 17).
"Vol. xxi., pp. 183, 479.
'^Vol. xxii., p. 186 ; Ordnance Sui-vey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. ii.,p. 241.
'* Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxvii.
Collectanea. 505
would never allow his tribe to go to war until he had himself
challenged and defeated all the enemy's chiefs. He reigned
in great esteem from the Fergus to the Owennagarna river.
In his fighting-ring he always gave his opponents the choice
of the sun and wind, in despite of which he overthrew them all.
There was no king, nor soldier, nor monster that he feared to
fight. His admiring tribe gave him a gold-embroidered cap, and
the name of Oircheannach (Golden Head), and he died
unconquered.^" I never heard this tale in the neighbourhood
of the fort. It seems artificial, and based on a folk-derivation
to flatter the Maclnerneys ; it is perhaps genuine, though late.
The tale in The Monks of Kilcrea, about the country from
Inchiquin to Moher, is not found amongst the people, and is,
I think, a pure invention by the anonymous author ■'^ of that
pleasing poem.
One townland was transferred from Kilrush to Kilmurry parish,
although embedded in the former. Tradition said that this was
done because the abbot of Iniscatha, and his vicar at Kilrush,
did not attend there during a pestilence to administer the last
sacraments to the dying. The vicar of Kilmurry, hearing this,
faithfully attended the victims, and the bishop afterwards assigned
the townland to him and his successors as a reward. ^'-
The little stone circles and litde cairns on Creganenagh Hill
in the Burren were, from the name, the centre of an early Aetiach,
(fair, or tribal assembly), but Borlase ^"^ heard that they were
memorials of a battle. Neither Dr. MacNamara nor I were
told this at Castletown or Cruchwill, near the hill. The historic
battles of Clare (with the exception of Corcomroe, Dysert,
Clare Abbey, and Kilconnell) have no legends, so the battle-
fields of Luchid, Magh Eir, Craglea, the Callow, Drumgrencha,
Bunratty, Spansel Hill, Beal an chip, and Quin do not figure in
this paper, nor do the sieges of Bunratty or Ballyalla.
The octagonal pillar called the "Leacht" of Donoughmore
O'Daly stands on the shore of Oyster Creek opposite to Muck-
■** Collected by Prof. Brian O'Looney, 1860-70.
*^ Arthur Fitzgerald Geoghegan.
••2\V. S. Mason, o/>. at., vol. ii., p. 493.
^ Dolmens of Inland, vol. iii., p. 809.
504 Collectanea.
innish. Tradition in 1839 made O'Daly a brother of the sorcerer
Macamli of Iniscreamha, County Galvvay."*^ I heard that he
was the head of Corcomroe Abbey, and he was probably one
of the Finvarra O'Dalys of the seventeenth century.
I have now set out all the quasi-historic tales of County Clare
that have come within my reach, but, although I have collected
them from childhood, and with careful diligence during the last
thirty years, I am sure that many more might still be gathered.
I have even heard of "probable people" near Carrigaholt and
in the hills between Tomgraney and Killaloe who had stores
of " old tales " (though I fancy stories rather than histories), but
whom I have been unable to approach.
To record carefully and without leading questions is very slow
work, but the result, even if bald, is of course far more valu-
able than matter polished into attractive shapes or procured
through intermediaries possibly untrustworthy.
There is a great temptation to "tell a good story," and I have
always discounted the testimony of those who appeared to yield to
it, while regarding as invaluable the old people who repeated
simply and crudely what had been handed down to them. I
have indicated my sources as far as possible, and, where manu-
scripts and books have been used, I have tried to help the reader
to assess their value. I may add that my feeling is to distrust the
form, rather than the siibstance, of the tales supplied by Croker'*^
and Lady Wilde, but to trust Graham. The Ordnance Survey
Letters 1 believe to be most reliable. My own collected material
is only employed when I consider it trustworthy. So I have now
brought home the sheaves I have reaped in the hope that others
may be impelled to garner what is still left standing before it
perishes or is trampled down.
Thos. J. Westropp.
*^ Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), voL.i., p. 32. The tale perhaps
arose from a certain Donough O'Daly writing a poem to the shade of a
sorcerer who was one of the Tuatha De Danann.
*^ Except the "soul cages," for which s&e Journal of ike North Miinster
Archaeological Society, 1914, pp. 122-3.
Collectanea. 505
Breconshire Village Folklore.
Most of the tales and old sayings related below by Miss E, B.
Thomas of Llanthomas, Llanigon, were told to her, exactly as
given, by Anne Thomas, wife of the gardener of Llanthomas, a
native of Llanigon, who died in 1905, aged 81 years.
Llanigon is a parish in the county of Brecon, and extends from
the summit of the Black Mountains almost to the banks of the
Wye. The range of the Mountains separates it from Monmouth-
shire, and Herefordshire forms another boundary. The two
nearest towns, Hereford and Brecon, are each about 18 miles
away. The land is entirely agricultural, cut up into small farms,
which become sheep-runs on the higher slopes of the mountain.
The village is a cluster of houses around the church and school.
The population has decreased from 596 in 182 1 to 323 in 191 1.
As might be expected, education is very backward, owing to the
isolated position of the houses and the distance which many of the
children have to come to school. The Welsh language has not
been spoken for nearly a hundred years, although the inhabitants
have all the physical and mental characteristics of the Welsh
people, and the names of the places are universally Welsh or of
Welsh origin, — such as "Wenallt" (white height), "Tymawr"
(great house), "The Celyn " (holly), " Penlan " (the high place),
" Maesygarn " (meadow of the cairn), etc. It has been claimed
that Llanigon is derived from " Llan " (a church) and " Eigen,"
daughter of Caractacus, who is said to have lived at the close of
the first century at Trefynys, (now Llanthomas). There is a well
at the end of Mr. Connop's workshop, not far from the church,
called still St. Eigen's well.
Superstition dies very slowly in the place. The laws now prevent
tampering with graves, so that the several forms known of " laying
a ghost" are no longer practised. Miss George told me that this
could be done by turning the corpse in its coffin with the face
downwards. There seemed a general belief that the ghost of
Joseph Arndell troubled the parish. His tombstone is in the
churchyard, and inscribed ''Joseph Arndell, died Aug. 27, 1768,
aged 60 years." During his life he had the reputation of being an
unbeliever, and spent his Sundays in irrigating his property of
2 K
5o6 Collectanea.
Penywrlodd. Six neighbouring clergy therefore met after his
death, armed with candles and books, " to read him down." A
form of spell was read to bring the ghost to the spot. It arrived
in the form of a bellowing bull, which frightened five of the
parsons into fainting-fits. The sixth continued his incantation,
whereupon the bull dwindled in size. " Why are you so fierce,
Mr. Arndell ? " said the parson. '' Fierce I was when I was a
man, but ten times fiercer now that I am a devil," replied the bull.
The ghost continued to dwindle in size until it became as small as
a fly. Whereupon the parson secured it in a box, and threw it
into a well in the wood above Penywrlodd. Then the parish had
peace. ^
On the banks of the brook Cilonow a tall plant of medicinal
properties, with large yellow blossoms, called Elecampane {Inula
Helenium), grows in masses. An old woman selling salves in the
streets of Brecon was heard to sing the following rhyme, about
fifty years ago, by Mr. Jones, the farmer of Llanthomas, —
" Elicampane sy'n gwella i'r hen
Eli Trefynnon a'i gwella yn union
Eli Treflint a'i gwella yn gynt."
(Elicampane will cure the old.
Eli (the salve) of Trefynnon (Holywell) will cure directly.
Eli (the salve) of Treflint (the town of Flint) will cure sooner.)
The belief in charms is still universal. One person, however,
usually claims only to have power over one, or perhaps two,
diseases, and they all declare themselves powerless over rheumatic
affections. Neither thanks nor payment in money are permitted.
Faith on the part of the patient is the one thing required, and it
is not always necessary that the patient should see the charmer.
The spell may be exercised if the name and description of the
person and of the disease be given. A gift in kind generally finds
its way to the home of the charmer later on. Williams, a gardener
who has been for some years in America, told me that he got rid
of 150 warts by stealing a piece of meat,- rubbing the warts with it,
and then burying it. The warts disappeared within six months.
He was cured of hernia by a man named Alcott, although a
doctor (whose name he gave) had failed to cure him. This man
^ Rev. W. E. T. Morgan, Transactions of the Woolhope Club, 1898, p. 39.
Collectanea. 507
rubbed the place, repeating the Lord's Prayer. A trussed chicken
was despatched later to Alcott's house.
Williams also claimed to have the power of finding water with
the aid of a hazel stick. He said that he found water for two
farmers in America, and that this nearly resulted in a lawsuit.
When the second farmer sank his well, the water from the first
farmer's well disappeared. On investigation, it turned out that
water from the same source supplied both wells.
Mr. Phillips, wheelwright, of Brookside, Llanigon, claimed to
have cured Alice Lewis' toothache by giving her the following
charm to wear round her neck : — "As Peter stood at the gate of
Jerusalem, Jesus saith unto him, "What aileth thee?" He said,
" My teeth do ache." Jesus said, " Whosoever carrieth these lines
about them, or beareth them in memory, shall never have the
toothache any more, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, Amen ! and Amen ! So be it according
to thy faith. Alice Ann Lewis." " This written charm was brought
to me by ^Ir. Connop, a son-in-law of J\lr. Phillips.
I was told the names of several men now living, — James Green-
how, and Mr. Howells of Peterchurch, for example, — who claimed
to have the power, and still exercised it, of stopping the flow of
blood, and curing the sprained limb of an animal.
Crishowell was a cluster of houses in the parish, now in ruins.
M. E. Hartland.
Crishowell People aiid thei?- Nick7iames.
Above Brynglessy's house, right side of lane, "Old Birdie
Peggy." A garden between two houses. Mrs. " Shake-rags "
lived ; four boys and husband. Well ! then you go on up to top
of Crishowell. There Mrs. Job [Sarah Evans] did keep shop.
Then Hannah Thee lived next ; five sons, three daughters,
husband. You do go on to old Pally and old Nancy, and John
her brother. (They was living together.)
Left was old Jenny Toulsin, and Jack Toulsin her husband, and
one daughter. And old Toddy lived next; one daughter. Mrs.
Hobby and husband lived next, more higher than old Toddy.
And the next, Mrs. Perrett, and William Walker ; her did keep a
servant, — name Jane Dolly, of Dolly's Plock. Old Mrs. Perrett
5o8 Collectanea.
kep' Walker as a Bailie, Jenny Toulsin made an oven of clay to
make bread, and, if it cracked, she would dab another wet lump
on it ; and Jenny Toulsin did make balls of wood-ashes to make
lye to wash, and people did buy 'em of her. Mrs. Hobby was a
lady, she kep' a school. She wore white satin shoes at the
christening of Henry Prothero [Anne Thomas' brother].
There was old John Jones, and Jenny Jones, for his wife.
Kitty Davies also. Betsy, Jenny Jones' daughter, married Toddy.
He was a wicked man, because he cut down all the young birches
and nut-trees on a Sunday. What sprigs were over, poor old
Jenny would burn 'em and make nice white ashes. The children
all about Crishowell sang this song about " The Green Jiner," as
old Toddy was called. (The Green Jiner used to cut birches,
and make whiskets and besoms.)
"On Crishowell the Gieen Jiner did dwell,
By his neighbours he's known very well,
Lying and canting, and kicking up strife,
Beware of the Duke and the Duchess his wife ! "
Old Sarah Evans, who kept the shop at Crishowell, did use the
Blue-freestone from Crishowell quarry, and stone [i.e. draw patterns
of] all manner of birds, and old women, and strokes, and
diamonds.
There's a noted well at Crishowell, called " The Stockett Well."
There is no well there now, I doubt ! There was a Pound at
Crishowell.
Mo// Toot.
There was Moll Toot. She lived up the village, where Lettice
Bowen used to. She made an agreement with her husband before
she married him that she would never do a single thing for him ;
no more she did. She used to wear a very large poke bonnet,
covered over with black silk which had got grey with age ; it was
nearly as big as an umbrella. The poke was nearly half a yard
long in front, and the head at the back was long, like a man's hat,
and touched the poke in front. Her hair was sandy and twisted
in loops in front. She had a neat little white cap on all round the
face, and a white muslin handkerchief tied across in front. She
wore a yellow buff dress, and always had bright polished shoes
Collectanea. 509
tied with string, and she wore pattens if it was the driest day in
summer. She ahvays kept a brush in her pocket for the purpose
of keeping her shoes bright, and when any one passed her door
she ahvays shook a white cloth after them, to shake off the dust.
She was ahvays a neat httle body.
Sayings.
Them as do wear a hole in the middle of the shoe, they'll never
want bread.
He is a lawyer ! As sharp as a needle with two points.
The boldest person is the one that gets on in the world the best;
they didn't use to ; they have no dew on their tongue.
Of a little take a little, for you're welcome to,
Of a little leave a little, 'tis manners so to do.
There's plenty of mushrooms for an old song now.
It do fill their eyes just for a moment, and something will come
and take it away, [said when damsons were stolen].
A galloping horse will see no hole in it, [said of an old shawl
with holes in it].
It's a sorrowful wind that'll blow nothing.
The Radnorshires are peacocks when they come, but like
pigeons at home, [said of Radnorshire people].
Price of the Wenallt did say, — " I trod on a lucky stone when I
come over the Wye."
Once good, twice bad.
Never push a man when he's going down the hill.
He who takes what isn't his'n, when he's cotched is sent to
prison. [Almost universal in England.]
Mrs. L. of Llanigon village met Mrs. M. and saw she had a red
flower in her hat, and told Mrs. M. to take it out, saying, — " We
belong to the Mothers' Union, and must dress quietly. You are
like an ould yow dressed lamb-fashion." [A Yorkshire saying.]
A rum old saying, but I believe it is true, — "Them as isn't to
do, shan't do ! " I can prove it to be true ! If I do sit up late
and rise yarly, and work all the hours the Lord have sent for me,
I shall never get rich. I've read that in the Tracts too, and
mother did say if her did get up to three-pence halfpenny, her
5 1 o Collectanea.
was back to threepence, her never could get to a groat. Her'd
lose a caulve or something.
She must have the bean for the pea, [in bargains].
She would skin a flint, and spoil a sixpenny knife by it.
Down with the lambs, up with the lark,
Run to bed, children, before it is dark !
Out of the fashion, out of the nation.
A dainty little dame, — you canna touch her with a hop-pole !
A rotten chip can run downhill easy enough, but coming back
is the main !
I wonder what they are doing in London to-day, for we are
very busy here.
When any one is slow and don't look sharp, it is " Jack behind
Mary !"
The foiled [foolish people] from Capel-y-ffyh did go out with
bags to catch the moon. They said it was a cheese.
Anne Prothero and her brothers and sisters used to say of a
peony, — "The ould hen is dropping her feathers."
A good contriver is an early riser.
A little help is worth a lot o' pity.
A timber-man [who loads a timber-waggon] has never need of a
lawyer to make his will.
I must speak well of the bridge as do carry me safe over, — like
the old man said.
Nothing is too hot or too heavy for a thief.
He that will steal a pin will take a bigger thing. [Universal.]
Keeping a [servant] girl and finding her food, that'll take the
shine out of the gingerbread.
It is the yarly crow^ that eats the late un's breakfast.
She'll do where the crows do starve.
Where there are three children, — two to fight, and one to part
'em, — that's nice.
Whatever is young learnt is never old forgot.
The cold wind in March was called Heirloom. There was a
man went to a cottage to ask for a bit to eat, and she said she had
a bit of cheese in the house. Her husband had kep' it for Heir-
loom. The man said, — " My name is Heirloom." The poor
" Pron. to rhyme with row (a quarrel).
Collectanea. 511
woman was took in, a bit. The husband was keeping it for bad
weather.
I should think we should have no more snow, unless it is some
lamb-snow, [meaning snow coming in April].
When the mist is hanging up on the Allt wood, the children used
to say, — "Old Rhys [of] the Bwlch is boiling his pot, and it will
soon boil over."
The sun and the wind do meet at three o'clock. [Sign of rain.]
New Year's tide, the days lengthen a cock's stride.
Candlemas Day, all candles away.
Where the wind was on the 21st of March, there it would be till
the 2ist of June.
Quid March is never out till the 12th of April.
A cold May makes a full barn.
If her [missel-thrush] do sing in January, her'U cry afore May.
The first cock of hay, the cuckoo goes away.
I went away on Michaelmas Day,
And left my barn full of corn and hay.
I came again at May,
And it was all cliterdy, cloterdy, all gone away ! (Of the swallow.)
Never come Lent, never come winter.
The wasps leave their nests on the 26th of August.
December, the dark month afore Christmas.
Plant and prune, — the increase of the moon.
" I love to marry while the bloom is on my face." Girls used to
say that. " She have left the sun gone over the hill."
You mustn't tread hard on a bear's foot, else er'll turn on you
by and by, [said of a wife keeping away from her husband too
much].
Funeral Custom.
When the mother-in-law of Mrs. Lewis of the Celyn was buried,
— she lived in a funny old house on the left-hand side before you
go to the bridge beyond Celyn, — they was pulling the plum-cake
out of the oven, which was out of doors, and breaking lumps and
giving it to everybody. Anne Thomas was then a tiny girl, and
had a piece given her which she dropped, as it was too hot, but
afterwards put it into her pinafore.
5 1 2 Collectanea.
Flowers.
The Rose de Meaux was all over picks [thorns]. Anne Thomas'
mother used to say to the children, — " Don't you touch that rose.
It killed one lady." A young lady had the choice of three husbands
to marry, and she wouldn't do as her father did wish her, so he
did put the gardener to choose for her. The gardener said, —
" I will choose you the violet, the lily, and the pink." (She had
one in her eye besides those three.) Then she said, — " I refuse
the three, but in June the red rose buds, and that is the flower for
me. The willow-tree did twist and the willow-tree did twine, and
I wish I was in the arms of the young man that has the heart of
mine." She married him, but he wasn't good to her. She wasn't
happy, and so she died.
An old carpenter named Phillips, who died in 1903, told me
that old people call monkshood "mother's nightcap," and the corn
blue-bottle {cetitaurea cyanus) " devil-in-the-bush " — (his body sur-
rounded with scales, the scales of the old serpent, brimstone
torches, plain enough too ! And his brazen face in the midst !)
Calendar Customs.
Rhymes sung at the New Year : —
New's gift, New's gift,
I wish you merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
A pocket full of money, And a cellar full of beer,
A good fat pig to last you all the year !
The roads are very muddy, My shoes are very thin,
I've got a little pocket to put a penny in.
If you've not got a penny, a ha'penny will do.
If you've not got a ha'penny, God bless you !
The cock is in the holly-bush, the hen came clucking by.
Please give me a New's gift, or a Christmas pie.
May Day. — When Anne Thomas was a lump [good-sized child],
the oak-boughs was by the Swan. Boughs was put up each side
the door, two sprays, and above the porch. Spillman was there
then. The same thing was at public-houses up the street. "Agin
the First of May," old women, and Anne Thomas' mother, and
even herself, ran about after whittun-tree [mountain ash] and
Collectanea. 5 1 3
birch, and put it above every door, even the beast house, to keep
the witch out ; and every outside must have a bit of a sprig. At
the works in Llanigon parish there would be a large tub of water,
with rosy-cheeked apples in ; and boys had to try and catch them.
Harvest. — Stephens of the Sheephouse used to try and get his
wheat in before others had hardly begun, and gave his men bottles
of drink to go on the Tump above Penglommen and holloa " Har-
vest home ! " About ten men went after the first load was brought
in, and they'd echo the whole parish, shouting " Harvest home ! "
If the last load did slip, there was no goose for the men's dinner.
Parsnip Day. — William Thomas called the twenty-first day of
December " Parsnip Day," and remembers, when he was a boy,
his mother always gave them parsnips on that day. It was an old
Welsh custom. Mrs. Davies remembered an old aunt of hers
always had parsnips on Parsnip Day.
Llanigon's Feast. — This Feast took place on the first Sunday
after the 20th of September. Farmers 'ud give milk on Saturday
in earthen jars, according to what they could spare. At Pot Street
(village lane) there was a biggish arch, going down to the two
houses, and a big oven facing the road ; two women 'ould bake in
it at a time, and heps of rice puddings and apple tarts were made
there agin the Feast, and if you had any ducks before the Feast,
they was gone, unless they was locked up. The blacksmith's
shop was then a public, and seats were all round the wych-elm
there, and a table with drink, and a woman would come up with
cakes and nuts from Hay, and sell them. All this went on on a
Sunday. Cakes and nuts were sold again on Monday. Young
people mostly came on the Sunday, and every servant would
come home to the Feast. On Monday night farmers and married
people would go and dance, — old Betty Humphreys and old
Rhoda Newell ; the latter would bring servant-fellers from Court
O'Llowes. People would come from the two publics, and begin
to wrestle and fight. The orchard at the blacksmith's shop was
just full with men. At one fight old Nancy Walker carried her
husband a quart of beer, and said, — " Fight on. Jack, I'll carry
thee bones home in my apron, before thee be beaten."
Old blind Ukin played the fiddle at these Feasts for the people
to dance, and his daughter did carry it and often played at the
5 1 4 Collectanea.
Swan. A blind harper from the Harp at Glasbury played the
harp also at these Feasts, and carried it by a string on his back.
Dances.
Quarterly dances in Llanigon parish took place in the time of
Anne Thomas' mother. " It did go round. Mother was at the
•old Veralt-house by Pencaecock. She was there at a dance.
There was young people going there. Old Tom Masta did fasten
the door, as they couldn't come out. There was a window, but
no cagement. He was angry, because his sweetheart was there.
Him did holloa, — " Herrings for breakfast to-day ! " Some one
let them out.
Four or five places they had dances in, — Cilcovereth one,
Llwynmaddy, "The old Veralt," The old Public. For the dance,
six men one side, six girls the other. In the dance, " Haste to
the Wedding," old blind Ukin stamped his feet. " Up the middle
and down the sides," he said. The girls had short-sleeved frocks,
and arms as red as roses, and frocks half-way down the leg. They
had low-necked dresses with a while handkerchief under, up to
the neck. For the dance Anne's mother and all the women wore
bob-tail dresses, two breadths, and tied up behind, in a bob-tail,
and a good petticoat to show, which cost more than the dress.
All married people w^ould go on a Monday evening -to the dance,
but wait till old Mrs. Lewis, [of J the Celyn, did come down to open
the ball, — sometimes with old Rhoda, who was then young and
smart. Old Mrs. Lewis used to dance on her toes. ^Miss Lewis
was a lu7np then, — ten or twelve years old. It was like the rule
of the country: they must all go to the Monday dance. They
had "Bonnets of Blue," "Swansea Hornpipe," and "The Cushion
Dance." For this last one, a young man and a young woman
kneeled down on the cushion, and kissed one another before
every one, and they always locked the door, else the girls would
be running out. The fiddler would lock the door to have his six-
pence or threepence all round. For the " Bonnets of Blue," it
was " Hays-round, three turns round, and gig-like." Old Nancy
Walker used to come in and say, — " Hooray for the Bonnets of
Blue ! " The old fiddler did stamp his feet, and say, — "A cross
out and a figure in, and round me and back again."
Collectanea.
5'^
Custom when some aid women got behindhand with their rent.
" An old widow, say Mary Jenkins, would come round we servants
at the farm-houses, and ask we to come and have a cup of tea at
one shilling apiece, servant-girls and servant-men, and bring the
whistle-pipes, and dance after our tea. Then they'd count the
money up, and see if enough to pay rent, and, if not enough, they
would go round and say, — "Sixpence, please." And some would
have shaking dice for a couple of fowls. They was jolly good
servant-men in those days. Some married people would come
too, to help the ole woman on, — Nancy Walker and old Betty
Hemp, from Cilcovereth. At Llwynmaddy there would be a tea-
party. There was a tea-party at Fforddlas at Jones' (Tregoyd
bailie's) house, where Mrs. Bounds lived, and they did bring nine
gallon of beer there. Betty Hemp had a bottle of gin, and they
gave her a sixpence apiece for some ; her husband was always
making hemp ; he was called Harry Hemp. A dozen places tea
would be at. They would have a bit of plumcake hot out of oven,
and bread and butter.
Fairies.
When Anne Thomas was a girl, the children and she were all
warned never to go inside a fairy-ring. " When we was going to
school, in the Celyn's meadow, there was fairy-rings, and grand-
father did say we must mind and not put our foot inside the
fairy-rings, else the fairies would have us. And we was afeard
in our heart to put our foot inside, afeard the fairies would get
hold of we. And they said there was music and dancing and
fiddles at night. A man did come home from the Hay fair, drunk,
and had cakes in his pocket; and, hearing the music, he stepped
in the ring to them, and there he danced. And he would not tell
how many years he had been inside there. And when he came
out he came to where he thought his home was, and they was all
gone, and there was no-one there."
Folk-Tales.
Story of old Tyucha. — Old Tyucha,^ as she was always called,
lived at Graswell. She used to go to the market at Hay, so had
^ Ty ucha (the upper house) was the place where the old lady lived, not her
personal name. It is quite common in Wales to speak of a person by the name
of his residence.
5 1 6 Collectanea.
to pass the Boiling Well. She always came with a tall stick in
her hand. She used to wear an old close-fitting calico cap, and
the border did come to pin under her chin, and a sort of a straw
hat on her head. She always came to Hay in a greatcoat with a
cape on it, and used to wear a shawl over her shoulders as well
in the winter. The hair of the horse used to come off on the great-
coat ; no skirt was seen. Old Tyucha had to pass the Boiling
Well, where the spirit was always to be seen, dressed in white.
She always left Hay in good time, so as not to pass the ^^'ell when
it was dark, for fear she should see the spirit. The white lady
used to jump on her horse with her at the Boiling Well till she
did ride to her own house with her. Then she did lose her at
once.
Story of Stoke Edith. — Two ladies wished to buy Stoke Edith,
and could not decide, so got two wood-lice and put them to race
together on a table. One lady tried to push on hers with a pin
to win the race, but the wood-louse turned over on its back, so the
other won the Stoke Edith estate. They kept a clown, — Will-fool-
a-ham. — to amuse them, and he used to swing up and down on a
tree-bough over a pool of water. And one day the carpenter
sawed nearly through the bough, so that, when the clown got on
to amuse the people, he fell into the pool, and was so angry he
determined to revenge himself. He went on when the carpenter
was asleep, and caught hold of an axe and cut his head off, and
said " he did not know where the carpenter would find his head
when he awoke, as he had hidden it in the shavings." Then he
hid himself in a bolting of straw. And the pursuers came after
him, and one called out, — " I can see you. Will," and he said, —
"You are a liar, you can't !" Then they collared him, and took
him before the judge. But they could make nothing of him, and
thought him out of his mind. And the judge ordered one of the
warders to reach him a knife, and said, — " Hand me that knife,
my man," and he pushed the blade at the judge, and they judged
him insane. And he saved his head ! "
Story of a Serpent at Mordiford (Herefordshire). — At Mordi-
ford a serpent came out of the wood, and used to go to the river
to drink, and people was afraid of him, and put a reward for any-
one who should kill him. And one man volunteered to do it, and
Collectanea. 5 1 7
got into a hogshead, and put the end back, and his gun through
the small hole. And waited till he came, and shot him, but did
not kill him outright. And the serpent put his venom into the
hogshead, and killed the man. This happened about 150 years
ago.-*
The Mouse and the Basin. — There was an old man breaking
stone, and a gentleman did come by, and the man told him he
was bound to work, as he had ten children to keep, and the
gentleman asked him, — " How did 'er find a living for them all ? "
" By making much of the youngest always." " That is too hard a
work for you. I will keep you." Well ! then he said he should
come away to his seat, and then he would send money for his
wife and children. And, when the poor man came to the seat,
the gentleman did charge him he was not to touch that basin.
And the poor man did rise it to see what was under him, and off
goes the live mouse, and the gentleman couldn't trust him, and
then him had to go back to his stone again. ^
Miscellaneous.
Ladybird. — Anne Thomas used to count the spots on a lady-
bird's back, to see how many years she should be married.
William Thomas used to call it " Little Red Cow.'"' As a boy he
used to put one on his hand, and say, — "Are you going to f]y, or
are you going to fall?" If it flew away, it was going to be fine;
if it fell, it was going to rain.
Marriage. — Young men wanting to find out the savingest wife
did go and see all the kneading-troughs, and that one as he could
find no waste on it, that was the savingest one.
Handsel. — In selling a pig or something, say, — " Please to give
me a Honsal for luck. You must gie me a Honsal." Old Duffee
used to say, — " If I'd give him a halfpenny, he'd be lucky all day,
her'd sell." " I shall go well all day," her'd say.
■•Cf. Mrs. E. M. Leather, The Folk- Lore of Herefordshire, p. 24.
^Cf. J. Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, p. 109.
CORRESPONDENCE.
The Religion of Manipur.
{Supra, pp. 409-55.)
Colonel Shakespear raises two questions in his paper on which
I venture a comment. He appears to consider that I estimate
wrongly the value of the Meithei Chronicles, and he differs from
my statement that the real nature of the religion of the Meitheis is
animistic.
First, what have I said about the jMeithei Chronicles ? In a
note to vol. iii. pt. iii., p. 21, of the Linguistic Survey of India
it is stated that " Mr. T. C. Hodson mentions the Ning-thau-vol
\rol is correct], or history of the kings of Manipur, in which the
first touch of history is dated 1432." In The Meitheis (p. 9) I
describe the period about loco a.d. as a period before history of
any real authenticity begins. As to traditions, I find that in The
Ndga Tribes I use the expression, " we may regard as very largely
true anything that tells against their pretensions. There can be
no doubt that much of what we find in the chronicles is hopelessly
exaggerated." In my paper on " Meithei Literature " in Folk-Lore
(vol. xxiii. p. 2) I say of the Chronicles that "Their historical
value is really much greater than many people are willing to allow.
... I am profoundly convinced that by the strictest modern tests
there is plenty of good history here, and much of it is good direct
history. There are dates, precise dates, — year, month, and day, —
to satisfy the most exigent modern dryasdust historian." I find
nothing here to vary or to modify, so I will leave the matter, only
adding the remark that I agree with those who find it necessary to
call us back to more cautious methods in dealing with traditions
and myths. Too often are legends accepted at their face value as
Corresp07idence. 5 1 9
conclusive evidence of actual occurrences. What they do prove
is the habit of mind of the people who invent them and accept
them as gospel truth. They indicate that the institution or custom
which the legend explains and justifies has come to be recognized
as standing in need of an explanation or of justification. What
has forced this on their notice is not infrequently contact with
some alien culture.
I now come to the second and much more difticult matter. Let
me quote a passage from The Meitheis (p. 96), where I said that " It
is not sound to regard these beliefs as " survivals " despite the official
superstratum of Hinduism which exists in Alanipur, solely in its
exoteric form, without any of the subtle metaphysical doctrines
which have been elaborated by the masters of esoteric Hinduism.
The adherence of the people to the Vaishnavite doctrines which
originated in Bengal is maintained by the constant intercourse
with the leaders of the community at Nadia. It is difficult to
estimate the precise efiect of Hinduism on the civilisation of the
people, for to the outward observer they seem to have adopted
only the festivals, the outward ritual, the caste marks, and the
exclusiveness of Hinduism, while all unmindful of its spirit and
inward essentials." Finally, after a passage which I quote with
complete agreement from the high authority of Colonel
McCuUoch, for 27 years Political Agent at Manipur, who married
a Manipuri lady and was a most competent linguist, I make the
statement to which Colonel Shakespear objects, that " In INIanipur,
where Hinduism is a mark of respectability, it is never safe to rely
on what men tell of their religion ; the only test is to ascertain
what they do, and by this test we are justified in holding them to
be still animists."
In order to demonstrate to me the error of my ways Colonel
Shakespear has collected a singularly valuable mass of facts, some
entirely new to me. He admits that the Manipuris differ from the
orthodoxy of Hinduism in : (i) child marriage, (ii) widow marriage,
and (iii) the freedom of women. Divorce is common in Manipur.
After all, Hinduism still attaches great importance to these
points. Only on their own definition of caste can the Manipuris
be considered within caste. Babu Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya
in his great book on Indian castes does not mention the Manipuris,
520 Correspondence.
which is rather important as evidence of the position they really
hold in the 'caste' system. The Raja, not the Brahman, is the
supreme source of authority in matters of social discipline, a fact
for which there are parallels from elsewhere in India. I have
expressed as strongly as I knew how the view that the Manipuri
reverences the cow, which is almost the only point where practice
and theory are in accord in Manipur. I admit the acceptance
by the Meitheis of Hindu practices in regard to food {pp. cit.,
p. 47), and I agree with the dictum that the Manipuris readily
adhere to these food rules because they "desire to mark the
difference between themselves and the Hill Tribes whom they
despise." Quite so. Hinduism is respectable.
Colonel Shakespear and I are not likely to agree because our
point of view is naturally different. He came to Manipur from
the Lushai Hills, but I came comparatively fresh from the plains.
What struck us both was the diff'erence between the religions of
the people with whom we were familiar. Colonel Shakespear
attributes the difference to Hinduism, and he is of course perfectly
right. I attribute it equally to the prevalence and persistence of
animism, and I think that I no less certainly am right. Another
factor is that the social polity of the Manipuris is well advanced,
and is reflected in the superior organisation of their divinities.
But I am not going to run away from the difficulty of defining the
essentials of Hinduism. I have read the actual census reports,
which discuss the question. A passage from Dr. Barnett's sug-
gestive little book on Hinduism is quoted, but Colonel Shakespear
does not quote Dr. Barnett's assertion which follows on the same
page, that "The kernel of Hinduism consists of two groups of
ideas. The first of these is the conception of a social order or
caste system, at the head of which stand the Brahmans as com-
pletest incarnation of the Godhead and authoritative exponents of
its revelation. Secondly, we have a series of ideas which may be
summed up in three words — 'Works' {karma)^ wandering (samsara)
and release (moks/ia)." Sir Herbert Risley's famous epigram that
" Hinduism is animism more or less transformed by philosophy or
magic tempered by metaphysics," ^ is also quoted by Dr. Barnett,
only a page further on. If philosophy and metaphysics are of the
i/.C.A'./. (1901), p. 357.
Correspondence. 521
essence of Hinduism they are absent from Manipur ; at least they
are not touched upon in Colonel Shakespear's paper, save by the
statement that the educated Manipuri would come up to the
Travancore standard of the belief in kanna and up to the theism
of the Mysore Census Report. Are we to regard only the
educated class of Meithei as Hindu? Thanks to Colonel Shake-
spear education has made great progress in Manipur since I left
the State twelve years ago, and I am prepared to believe that there
are more people there now than then who understand the meaning
of kar7>ia and are theists. But even yet they are surely a small
minority,^ and I can well imagine that a man may understand
and believe the doctrine of karma and remain at heart and
in practice an animist. Neither the belief in karma nor in
reincarnation are after all characteristic of Hinduism. What is
characteristic is the social ideal of mukti, the orientation of the
belief in reincarnation, its importance in the scheme of life, and
that again is after all an expression of social ideals in another
mode.
The only scrap of evidence of theism in Manipur in the paper
is the statement that the enumeration by the itiaiba of all the
animals used on every occasion of sacrifice without regard to
which particular god is being addressed permits the inference that
the Umanglais are thought only to be different forms of one
almighty Creator. That ingenious argument I have heard used
by Hindus in like case, but it is an error. The real, and much the
simpler, explanation is, I think, that, as any evil can be averted
by naming the proper spirit, it is essential that "the roll of spirits
should have no omissions." One can " make assurance doubly
sure by naming all."^
Animism in India is described by Sir Herbert Risley as "an
essentially materialistic theory of things which seeks by means of
magic to ward off or to forestall physical diseases, which looks no
further than the world of sense and seeks to make that as tolerable
'^The Hindus of Manipur are the least literate of all Hindu groups in Assam.
See table in ^J5a//i Census A^efor^igii), p. 92, Subsidiary Table HI.
•'See F. B. Jevons, Introduction to PlutarcWs Koniane Questions, p. Ivii.,
and E. Clodd, Tom Tit Tot, p. 177 and footnote to p. 178.
2 L
c; 2 2 Corresponde7ice.
as the conditions will permit."^ As a definition it will do. It
fits the facts collected by Colonel Shakespear admirably.
I note with interest that in Burma, where the state of affairs is
very similar to that in IManipur, the Cefisus Report quotes Mr.
Lowis to the effect that " Animism supplies the solid constituents
that hold the faith together, Buddhism the superficial polish. Far
be it from me to underrate the value of that philosophic veneer.
It has done all that a polish can do to smooth, to beautify, and
to brighten, but to the end of things it will never be anything
more than a polish. In the hour of great heart-searchings it is
profitless as the Apostle's sounding brass. It is then that the
Burman falls back upon his primaeval beliefs. Let but the veneer
be scratched, the crude animism that lurks must out. Let but
his inmost vital depths be touched, the Burman stands forth an
animist confessed.""' I do not commend this picturesque per-
suasive style, and I prefer my own way of putting it, — that what
the Manipuri does shows him to be an animist. Colonel Shake-
spear tells us that H.H. The Raja exhibited the same consternation
when his stone at Santhong's /ai-p/iam shifted from the perpen-
dicular as did the Nagas of Maram when the Public Works
Department began to break up some of their memorial stones for
roadmetal.*^ So, then, H.H. The Raja reverts " in the hour of
great heart-searchings". to non-Hindu practices, employs a non-
Hindu priest to set things straight to prevent disaster, and, in
fact, displays the faith and the. imagination of a Naga. In
Hinduism itself there is a large amount of animism. " It would
be fruitless," says Sir Herbert Risley,' " to attempt to distinguish
the two streams of magical usage, the Vedic and the Animistic."
" The Vedas themselves are one source of the manifold Animistic
practices which may now be traced all through popular Hinduism."
But, thanks to Colonel Shakespear and to the official main-
tenance of the old religion, we can distinguish in Manipur with
some degree of accuracy between the elements which the life of
^ Other definitions are to be found in E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture,
vol. i., p. 426, in Indian Census Reports, 1901, pp. 350 et seq., Bengal Census
Report, 1 90 1, p. 151.
^ Burma Census Report, 191 1, p. 94. ** The Ndga 7 ribes of Manipur, p. 188.
''Indian Census Reports, 1901, p. 358.
Correspondence. 523
the people has received from Hinduism and those which it has
retained from the days when their forefathers were as the Hill
people now are. As regards the things that are seen, the Mani-
puri is — to a great extent — a Hindu, but when we get below the
surface, to the real man, I firmly assert that "Let but his inmost
vital depths be touched, the Manipuri — like the Burman — stands
forth an Animist confessed."
There are one or two minor matters which I venture to criti-
cise, but only in a spirit of very great gratitude for the care and
sympathy with which the facts have been collected and the skill
with which they are recorded and presented to us. I was not wrong
when I said that " There is yet a rich harvest to be gathered in, and,
if the workers are few, their labour will be justified by its reward."
The nam.es of the goddesses and their offspring preserve the
archaic form of the feminine, ;///, which is found in cognate dialects
to this day.8 Bi (or //) is not only used in modern Meitliei as
the feminine suffi.x, but as in other dialects it is the honorific or
magnitive suffix.^
The details of the human sacrifice recorded by Colonel Shake-
spear have great interest for me, because I failed to elicit any
definite information on this very point. Some parallels between
the Meithei belief in Pakhangba and the Khasi belief in U Thlen
were noted by me.^'^ I stated, too, that I had been told that in
dire extremity the blood of some captive would bring rain.^^
1 cannot agree with the orthography of chei-taba. It should, I
think, be chahi taba}- The main thing, surely, is the selection of
the person who gives his name to the year, and for that year
{chahi, year) determines the fortune of the State. No doubt all
sorts of methods of divination are employed on this occasion,
rhabdomancy among them, but without stronger reasons than
those that are advanced here I am not prepared to abandon a
form which, though difticult of explanation, has behind it the
great authority of Colonel McCulloch.
T. C. HODSON.
*Lmhei Grammay, p. 154, s.r. "Cf. Tlie Mikirs, p. 162.
'0 The Meilheis, p. lOl. " Il'id-, P- 108.
'2 See McCulloch, Accoimt of Munnipore etc., p. 57, and The Meitheis, pp.
104 et seq.
r 2 4 Correspondence.
SiLBURY Hill.
It is, I believe, a generally accepted fact that Silbury Hill, in
Wilts, not far distant from Avebury, is an artificial mound. But
the following account of its origin may be new to many of the
readers of Folk-Lore. It was told me by a native of jNIelksham,
whose family has been settled thereabouts for at least three
centuries, and has handed on the tradition from generation to
generation :
" When Stonehenge was builded, a goodish bit after Avebury,
the devil was in a rare taking. " There's getting a vast deal too
much religion in these here parts," he says, "summat must be
done." So he picks up his shovel, and cuts a slice out of Salis-
bury Plain, and sets off for to smother up Avebury. But the
priests saw him coming and set to work with their charms and
incusstations, and they fixed him while he was yet a nice way off,
till at last he flings down his shovelful just where he was stood.
And that's Silbury."
Only those who have seen Silbury can appreciate the size of
that shovelful.
RoBT. M. Heanley.
Vehicle Mascots.
The hundreds of volumes of specifications of patents for inven-
tions seem such an unpromising field of search for folklore, even
in its twentieth-century forms, that two inventions for vehicle
mascots, of which specifications were printed in 1910 and 1912
respectively, are probably worthy of record in Folk-Lore.
Specification No. 29301 of 1909 describes mascots consisting of
lay figures or articles, (such as figures of policemen, soldiers,
eagles, dragons, and lighthouses), in which the eyes or other parts
are illuminated by electric light and may .change colour, while the
heads, arms, or other parts may be adapted to move.
Specification No. 980 of 191 2 describes means whereby
mechanical action is imparted to movable members of mascots
representing policemen, soldiers, etc.
A. R. Wright.
REVIEWS.
Les Formes Elementaires de la Vie Religieuse. Le Systeme
Totemique en Australia. (Bibliotheque de Philosophie Con-
temporaine.) Par E. Durkheim. Paris: Felix Alcan, 1912.
8vo, pp. 647. Carte. \ofr.
It is superfluous to draw the attention of students to the import-
ance of Prof. Durkheim's new work, for the appearance of a large
volume from the pen of the leader of the French sociological
school is a scientific event. The group of savants connected with
rA?ifiee Sociologiqiie has achieved remarkable success in dealing
with problems in primitive religion, and we have to thank it
especially for the essays of MM. Hubert and Mauss on Sacrifice
and Magic, and the articles of M. Durkheim on the Definition of
Religious Phenomena, Classifications in Primitive Thought, and
Totemism, and of M. Hertz on Funerary Rites.
To Prof. Durkheim the religious is the social par excellence.
The distinctive characters of social and religious phenomena
practically coincide. The social is defined, in Regies de la
methode sociologique, by its " exteriority to individual minds," by
its " coercive action " upon individual minds ; the religious, which
is also "external" to individual minds, by its "obligatoriness."^
It is obvious, therefore, that the present volume is of special
importance, being the systematic and final expression of the best
organized sociological school extant on a subject specially important
to, and specially well-mastered by, this school.
There is yet another reason why this book should particularly
arouse the interest of the sociologist. It is Prof. Durkheim's first
1 See " Sur la Definition des phenomenes religieux," in fAnn^e Sociologiipie
vol. ii.
526 Reviews.
attempt to treat a "problem of origins" of such a fmidamental
and general social phenomenon as religion. In his methodolo-
gical work, Regies de la methode sodologique, he has strenuously
insisted upon the treatment of social phenomena "as things,"
upon the necessity of excluding all forms of psychological explana-
tions from sociology.- This postulate undoubtedly appears to many
a rule rather artificial and barren in its practical applications, —
and especially to British anthropologists, who prefer psychological
explanations of origins ; and this volume enables us to judge as to
the success of his method.
The book has several aspects and aims. It attempts to state
the essential and fundamental elements of religion, being thus a
revision of the author's former definition of the religious ; it investi-
gates the origins of religion : it gives a theory of .totemism ; and it
is designed as a substantial contribution to philosophy.
All these problems M. Durkheim seeks to solve by an analysis
of the beliefs of practically one single tribe, the Arunta. His keen
eye detects in the facts we owe to iMessrs. Spencer and Gillen
much that is not patent to a less acute mind, and his researches
through their two volumes, completed by the records made by
Mr. Strehlow, yield him an abundant crop of theoretical results.
Nevertheless, to base most far-reaching conclusions upon prac-
tically a single instance seems open to very serious objections. It
is extremely dangerous to accept any people as "the absolutely
primitive type of mankind," or as "the best example of elementary
forms of social organization and creed," and to forego the verifica-
tion of conclusions by other available instances. For example,
when M. Durkheim, in trying to determine the fundamental aspect
of religion, finds it in an universal and absolute bipartition of men,
things, and ideas into "sacre et profane,"(pp. 50 f/j^^.), he may refer
to a well-known passage by the Australian ethnographers,^ and, in
fact, a sharp division of all things into religious and non-religious
seems to be a very marked feature of the social life of Central
Australian natives. But is it universal? I feel by no means
persuaded. In reading the detailed monograph by Dr. and Mrs.
Seligmann about the Veddas, no such division is suggested as exist-
- Op. cit.. Table of Contents, cap. ii.
^ The Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 33.
Reviews. 527
ing among that extremely primitive people. Again, it would be
ditticult to maintain the existence of such a separation amongst
the Melanesian peoples of whom we have very copious records.
This may be due to a gap in our information, but, anyhow, it is
not admissible to base a system upon a mere assumption, instead
of on certain knowledge.
One does not feel quite easy, also, about the assumption of
totemisni being the elementary form of religion (liv. I, cap. iv.),
especially as here again we find the investigation limited to the
beliefs of the Central Australians.
Prof. Durkheim's theory of totemism is that the essence of
totemism lies in the totemic symbol and badge, and that the
sacredness of the totem is derived from the sacredness of the
badge. A reconsideration, from this new point of view, of
the problem of totemism, grown slightly wearisome owing to
^'totemic hyper-production" in recent times, cannot fail to be
stimulating. M. Durkheim and his school accept, as is well-
known. Dr. Marett's theory of preanimism. The totemic principle,
the totemic force, is for Prof. Durkheim akin in nature to mana.
This principle, inherent in the first place in the totemic badge and
symbol, then in the species, and then in the clansmen, is thus
explained: — " Le dieu du clan, le principe totemique, ne peut
■done etre autre chose que le clan lui-meme, mais hypostasie et
represente aux imaginations sous les especes sensibles du vegetal
ou de I'animal qui sert de totem " (p. 295). Undoubtedly this is a
very interesting conception of religion, foreshadowed in our author's
former works, in which so much stress is laid on the social nature
of the religious, — but here plainly expressed for the first time.
M. Durkheim proceeds to show how it comes about that society
is the real substance, the materia prima, of the human conception
of divinity. " Une societe a tout ce qu'il faut pour eveiller dans
les esprits, par la seule action qu'elle exerce sur eux, la sensation
du divin; car elle est a ses membres ce qu'un dieu est a ses
fideles" {Ibid.). Again, "parce qu'elle a une nature qui lui est
propre, differente de notre nature d'individu, elle poursuit des fins
qui lui sont egalement speciales ; mais, comme elle ne peut les
atteindre que par notre intermediaire, elle reclame imperieuse-
ment notre concours" {Ibid.). Let us note that here society is
5 28 Reviews.
conceived to be the logical subject of the statement ; an active
being endowed with will, aims, and desires. If we are not to take
it as a figure of speech (and M. Durkheim decidedly does not
give it as such), we must label it an entirely metaphysical con-
ception. Society conceived as a collective being, endowed with
all properties of individual consciousness, will be rejected even by
those sociologists who accept a "collective consciousness" in the
sense of a sum of conscious states (as it is accepted, for example,
by Messrs. McDougall, Ellwood, Davis, and, partly, by Simmel
and Wundt). But, a few pages further, we read a statement which
seems to allow of another interpretation. Speaking of " manieres
d'agir auxquelles la societe est assez fortement attachee pour les
imposer a ses membres," he says, " Les representations qui les
expriment en chacun de nous ont done un intensite a laquelle
des etats de conscience purement prives ne sauraient atteindre ;
car elles sont fortes des innombrables representations individuelles
qui ont servi a former chacune d'elles. C'est la societe qui parle par
la bouche de ceux qui les afifirment en notre presence" (p. 297).
Here we stand before a dilemma : either this phrase means that
"social ideas" possess a specific character, because the individual
who conceives them has the consciousness of being backed up by
society in his opinion, in which case the statement is perfectly
empirical ; or the statement implies the conception of a non-
empirical action of society upon the individual consciousness, in
which case it conveys no scientific meaning.
The writer expresses himself again on the subject, from the
genetic point of view, — "En un mot, quand une chose est I'objet
d'un etat de I'opinion, la representation qu'en a chaque individu
tient de ses origines, des conditions dans lesquelles elle a pris
naissance, une puissance d'action que sentent ceux-la memes qui
ne s'y soumettent pas " (p. 297). Here the author stands in front
of the real problem. What are these specific social conditions in
which arise " social consciousness," and consequently religious
ideas ? His answer is that these conditions are realized whenever
society is actually gathered, in all big social gatherings : — " Au sein
d'une assemblee qu'echauffe une passion commune, nous devenons
susceptibles de sentiments et d'actes dont nous sommes incapables
quand nous sommes reduits a nos seules forces , et quand I'assem-
Reviews. 529
blee est dissoute, quand, nous retrouvant seul avec nous-memes,
nous retombons a notre niveau ordinaire, nous pouvons niesurer
alors toute la hauteur dont nous avions ete souleve au-dessus de
nous-nienie " (p. 299).
This answer is somewhat disappointing. First of all, we feel a
little suspicious of a theory which sees the origins of religion in
crowd phenomena. Again, from the point of view of method, we
are at a loss. Above we had been dealing (with some difficulties)
with a transcendental collective subject, with a "society which
was the creator of religious ideas " : " Au reste, tant dans le present
que dans Thistoire, nous voyons sans cesse la societe creer de
toutes pieces des choses sacrees " (p. 304). Then society was the
divinity itself, i.e. it was not only creator, but the object of its
creation, or at least reflected in this object. But here society is
no more the logical and grammatical subject of the metaphysical
assertions, but not even the object of these assertions. It only
furnishes the external conditions, in which ideas about the divine
may and must originate. Thus Prof. Durkheim's views present
fundamental inconsistencies. Society is the source of religion, the
origin of the divine ; but is it " origin " in the sense that " the
collective subject . . . thinks and creates the religious ideas '' >
This would be a metaphysical conception deprived of any empirical
meaning; or is society itself the "god," as is implied in the state-
ment that the " totemic principle is the clan," thought under the
aspect of a totem ? That reminds one somewhat of Hegel's
Absolute, "thinking itself" under one aspect or another. Or,
finally, is society, in its crowd-aspect, nothing more than the
atmosphere in which iiidividtials create religious ideas ? The last
is the only scientifically admissible interpretation of the obscure
manner in which M. Durkheim expounds the essence of his
theories.
Let us see how our author grapples with actual and concrete
problems, and which of the three versions of "origins" just men-
tioned he applies to the actual facts of Australian totemism. He
starts with the remark already quoted about the double form of
the social life of the Central Australian tribesman. The natives
go through two periodically changing phases of dispersion and
agglomeration. The latter consist chiefly, indeed, almost ex-
530 Reviews.
■clusively, of religious festivities. This corresponds to the above-
mentioned statement that crowd originates religion: "Or, le seul
fait de I'agglomeration agit comme un excitant exceptionellement
puissant. Une fois les individus assembles, il se degage de leur
rapprochement une sorte d'electricite qui les transporte vite a un
-degre extraordinaire d'exaltation. . . . On con^-oit sans peine que,
parvenu a cet etat d'exaltation . . . I'homme ne se connaisse plus.
Se sentant domine, entraine par une sorte de pouvoir exterieur qui le
fait penser et agir autrement qu'en temps normal, il a naturelle-
ment I'impression de n'etre plus lui-meme. II lui semble etre
devenu un etre nouveau : les decorations dont il s'affuble, les
sortes de masques dont il se recouvre le visage figurent materielle-
ment cette transformation interieure, plus encore qu'ils ne con-
tribuent a la determiner . . . tout se passe, comme s'il etait reelle-
ment transporte dans un monde special, entierement different de
celui ou il vit d'ordinaire. . . . C'est done dans ces milieux
sociaux effervescents et de cette effervescence meme que parait
etre nee I'idee religieuse. Et ce qui tend a confirmer que telle en
est bien I'origine, c'est que, en Australie, I'activite proprement
religieuse est presque tout entiere concentree dans les moments ou
se tiennent ces assemblees " (pp. 308, 312, 313).
To sum up, theories concerning one of the most fundamental
aspects of religion cannot be safely based on an analysis of a
single tribe, as described in practically a single ethnographical
work. It should be noted that the really empirical version of this
theory of origins is by no means a realization of the " objective "
method, in which ]M. Durkheim enjoins treating social facts as
things and avoiding individual psychological interpretations. In
his actual theory he uses throughout individual psychological
explanations. It is the modification of the individual conscious-
ness in big gatherings, the "mental effervescence," which is
assumed to be the source of " the religious." The sacred and
divine are the psychological categories governing ideas originated
in religiously inspired crowds. These ideas are collective only in
so far as they are general, i.e. common in all members of the
crowd. None the less we arrive at understanding their nature by
individual analysis, by psychological introspection, and not by
treating those phenomena as "things." Finally, to trace back the
Reviews. 531
origins of all religious phenomena to crowd manifestations seems
to narrow down extremely both the forms of social influence upon
religion, and the sources from which man can draw his religious
inspiration. " Mental effervescence " in large gatherings can
hardly be accepted as the only source of religion.
But, while one is bound to criticize certain points of principle in
Prof Durkheim's work, it must be added that the work contains
in a relatively small bulk such thorough analyses of theories of
religious facts, — several of which, of first-rate importance, are
original contributions by Prof. Durkheim or his school, — as could
only be given by one of the acutest and most brilliant living
sociologists, and that these by themselves would make the book a
contribution to science of the greatest importance.
B. Malinowski.
The Lost Language of Symbolism. An enquiry into the origin
of certain letters, words, names, fairy-tales, folk-lore, and
mythologies. By Harold Bavlev. 2 vols. Williams &
Norgate, 1912. Svo, pp. x + 375, viii + 3S8. 111. 25s.//.
A RECENT Chinese minister to this country contended, in a
magazine article, that Europe would soon follow the example of
China, abandon all attempts to represent by writing the temporary
sound of words, and base a universal written language of the
future upon pure symbols of ideas. However this may be, it is
certainly the case that in the last generation and a half there have
appeared a host of works on emblems and symbols, of which the
best-known are those of Inman, Goblet d'Alviella, and F. E.
Hulme. During the current year several additions have been
made of books on animal and floral symbolism in architecture and
art. The present volumes have a much more ambitious aim than
these departmental studies, for their publishers claim that they
"will be for Symbolism what Frazer's Go/den Bough is for
Religious Anthropology " !
To many minds symbolism is a fascinating study, and to some
it is a dangerous one by its temptation to read recondite meanings
into simple signs and scribbles, and to find a lofty philosophy in
the crude designs of the savage. AVhere the symbol-users are far
532 Revieivs.
removed from ourselves in time or culture, or are unknown, we
may grope for their intentions without much reason to expect
success, and cup-and-ring markings and other ancient patterns will
long supply us with material for dubious discussions and lengthy
(and very dull) dissertations.
In his first chapters Mr. Bayley seeks to show that paper marks
and printers' marks were originally not merely trade-signs but
hieroglyphs embodying a mystic tradition of vast antiquity. In
chap. viii. we arrive at the tales in Miss Cox's Cinderella, which
are continually referred to throughout the rest of the work. (In
view of this frequent quotation it is odd that one of the few
misprints we have noticed is in Miss Cox's Christian name,
p. 179). Cinderella is held to be a solar allegory, of which there
are indications and parallels in The Song .of Solo7?ion, and in
chap. ix. we have a study of Cinderella's changes of raiment.
After Cinderella come discussions of the worship of the Queen of
Heaven ; eye symbols ; bull and other animal symbols ; the
Heavenly Twins; horses, pigs, and dogs in symbolism, mythology,
and tales ; the sign of the cross ; the tale of Atlantis and fire
customs ; stones and rocks ; plant and tree symbols ; dragons,
hands, crowns, etc. Throughout all this are distributed over 1400
text illustrations of paper and printers' marks (mainly from the
16,000 examples in Briquet's Les Filigranes), and the author,
taking all knowledge for his parish and ranging from the arms of
Marylebone to Peruvian sun festivals, gives us a riot of suggested
roots, and derivations, and comparisons. He allies Peru to the
Slavonian god Perun or Perkunas (vol. i. p. 311), and equates the
Spanish Perez with the Old Testament Perizzites (p. 311), and
Frazer with Pharaoh (p. 320); Pankhurst is compared with the
town name of Panuca or Panca in ancient Mexico. It is a pity
that the author should treat Mr. F. W. Bain's charming stories as
if they were real translations of Hindu Mss., and frequently quote
Churchward's Signs and Symbols of J^rimordial Man ^ and Le
Plongeon's extraordinary Maya derivations.
Such a book as this it would be unjust to dismiss with a few
words of casual criticism or of easy ridicule of some of its
innumerable details, while it is obviously impossible to discuss
1 Cf. vol. xxi., pp. 525-7.
Reviews. 533
within reasonable limits such an enormous mass of classified
material. It is a monument of painstaking industry like Higgins'
Anacalypsis or Donnelly's Atlantis and Kagnarok. No one
interested in symbolism can afford to neglect it, and it should
appeal alike to seekers after something new by its startling
speculations, and to serious students as a quarry of laboriously-
accumulated facts.
IsLANDiCA. An Annual relating to Iceland and the Fiske Ice-
landic Collection in Cornell University Library. Vol. V.
Bibliography of the Mythical-Heroic Sagas. By
Halldor Hermannssox. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell Univ.
Lib., 1912. Pp. ix-f-73.
The very useful bibliography of Icelandic material issued by the
Cornell University Library is continued in this volume, which
adds the legendary sagas to the Icelandic, Greenland, and Norse
historical sagas, and the Laws, dealt with in the previous volumes.
These Fornaldar Sogur, belonging to the decadence of saga-
writing, contain a large spurious romantic element ; but there
is much genuine mythological material to be sifted out, and the
tales of foreign origin often provide interesting variants. The
bibliography is very thorough, and the arrangement admirably
clear. L. W. F.
Ethnography (Tribes and Castes). By Sir Athelstane
Baines, (in Griindriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie mid
Altertianskiinde). Strassburg : Trubner & Co., 19 12. 8vo,
' pp. 211. I OS. >i.
Life in Ancient India in the Age of the Mantras. By
P. T. Srinivas Iyengar. Madras : Srinivasa Varadachari,
1912. Sm. 8vo, pp. x-h 140. 2s. 6d.
Tantra of the Great Liberation (Mahanirvana Tantra). A
Trans, from the Sanskrit, with Intro, and Comm. By
A. AvALON. Luzac cS: Co., 191 3. 8vo, pp. cxlvi -1- 360.
I OS. n.
534 Reviews.
HvMNS TO THE GoDDESS. Translated from the Sanskrit. By
A. and E. Avalon. Luzac & Co., 1913. 8vo, pp. xii+ r8o.
4s. n.
The Holv Land of the Hindus. By the Rev. R, L. Lacev.
Robert Scott, 1913. Large cr. 8vo, pp. xii + 246. Map
+ 24 ill. 3s. 6d. ;/.
The long-felt want of a compendious account of the ethnography
of India is, to a large extent, satisfied by the work of Sir A.
Baines. He is well qualified to undertake the arduous task,
having been in charge of the Census of the Bombay Presidency
in 1881 and of the India Empire in 1891. Beginning with a
brief ethnological introduction, he passes on to a historical and
descriptive account of the social organization. He then considers
the Castes and Caste-Groups under the heads of Brahmans,
Rajputs, Trading Classes, and Writer Castes. Turning to the
village community, he discusses in turn Landholders, Specialized
Cultivators, Cattle-Breeders, and Village Craftsmen. Then come
the Subsidiary Professional Castes, such as Bards, Astrologers,
and Priests. Then he takes up the L'rban and Nomadic Castes,
and Hill Tribes, and ends with the ^Mohammedans. The book
thus gives a bird's-eye view of the Indian people. It suffers under
the disadvantage that these groups are not homogeneous, — for a
certain class of artizan in the Panjab may be of very different rank
from the same workmen in Madras. It contains a large amount
of well-arranged material, which is naturally more complete in the
region, — Bombay and the Deccan, — with which he is best
acquainted. In other parts of the Empire he has consulted the
best authorities, of which Mr. W. Siegling has provided an
excellent bibliography. Needless to say, the book is fuU^ of
valuable comments on ethnographical problems, but in the text
there is a complete absence of references, and, strangely enough,
the reader is forced to wade through a. mass of detail without the
aid of an index or ethnographical map.
Mr. Srinivas Iyengar's book is an excellent example of the
useful work which native scholars are qualified to undertake. It
may best be described as a summary of the religion and sociology
of the Vedic Age. The writer brinsjs together under each head of
Reviews.
DjD
his subject translations of the original texts, with adequate refer-
ences. I do not know of any other book which does the same
service in so clear a way. The author, a South Indian scholar,
of course writes from the Dravidian point of view, and tries to
show that the contributions of the Aryans to Indian culture and
belief were inconsiderable. He is thus in direct conflict with the
school of Max IMiiller and Risley. If it may be argued that he
has perhaps overstated the Dravidian case, it is much to the pur-
pose that the excessive pretensions of Aryanism should be dis-
counted. The writer promises to extend the survey to the later
periods of Indian history. If this future work maintains the high
standard of the present book, he will have done good service to
students of Indian religion and sociology.
Mr. Avalon is greatly daring in attempting an English version
of the Tantrik literature describing the beliefs of the Sakta sect,
worshippers of the Mother-Goddess. This body of literature is
little known to European students, partly because the subject is
repulsive, and partly because its followers are reticent in com-
municating or interpreting their sacred books. In the present
volume, amidst much verbiage and puerility, the reader will find
valuable accounts of domestic and temple ritual. A full intro-
duction and commentary clear up most of the difficulties. In the
Hymns there is some tolerable poetry, and, as the authors say,
no translation can reproduce the rhythm of the original. We know
so little of the cult of the goddess Devi that this version of the
hymns in her honour is welcome.
Mr. Lacey served for twenty-one years in the Baptist Mission
to Orissa. In his foreword he promises "a little religious folk-
lore " ; but what he does give is not of much interest. Most of
his space is occupied in describing mission work and in denouncing
the idolatrous worship of Jagannath and other local deities.
Orissa is one of the strongholds of orthodox Hinduism, and, as
might be expected, mission work is carried on under serious
difficulties. It is to be regretted that the writer gives so little
from his own stores of information. He knows Puri well, but he
is content to quote largely, with due acknowledgment, from Sir
W, Hunter's work on Orissa, He notices with regret that the god
at Serampore has recently been provided with a new iron car.
536 Reviews.
built by an European firm in Calcutta, and we are therefore not
surprised to hear of a suggestion that the temple of Jagannath
should be furnished with electric light. The old god is clearly
very much alive, and determined to keep his concern up to date !
W. Crooke.
Short Bibliographical Notices.
Mannin. a Journal of Matters Past and Present relating to
Mann. Nos. 1-2. Douglas: S. K. Broadbent & Co., 1913.
111. 2S. 2>^.p.a.
All folklorists with pleasant memories of delightful Alan, and all
who wish to aid the collection of fast-vanishing British folklore,
should subscribe to this admirable journal, the first numbers of
which include charms, old Manx airs, folk-songs, and other
folklore.
The Jataka, or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births. Index
Volume. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 19 13. Svo, pp. 63.
5s. n.
Many large collections of tales lose much of their usefulness
because they have no index, or, like Burton's Arabian Nights, an
index which does little more than ring the changes on story titles
which often give no suggestion of the tale itself. The six volumes
of the splendid Cambridge translation of the Jataka are made
enormously more valuable by this index volume. It appears to
satisfy most ordinary requirements, and all storyologists should be
deeply grateful for this excellent example of the work of that
ill-requited, and often unthanked, benefactor, the indexer.
Books for Review should be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lore,
c/o Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson,
3 Adam St., Adelphi, London, W.C.
y*<^jL
^h
INDEX TO VOL. XXIV. (1913).
Abbot's Bromley : horn dance,
133-4
Aberayron : hiring fair, 107
Abercam : Christmas custom, 108
Aberdaron : hiring fair, 107 •
Abergavenny : hiring fair, 106-7
Aberystruth : Sunday customs,
108-9
Aberystwith : hiring fair, 107
Abruzzi : childbirth, 195
Abuse ; brings rain, Manipur, 454 ;
defence against spirit possession,
Manipur, 452
Abyssinia, see Beni Amer
Accidents : amulets against,
Spain. 70
Achill island : tale, 102
Across Australia, by B. Spencer
and F. J. Gillen, reviewed,
278-9
Adada : inscription, 140
Adiri, land of dead, see Hades
Adonis cult, 264
Adultery : punishments for, gip-
sies etc., 340-1
-Egean culture, 26-7
Africa : (see also Abyssinia ;
Bantu; Bushmen; Congo Beige;
Eg^'pt ; Gallas ; Hottentots ;
Johannesburg ; Madagascar ;
Majanga ; Pokomo ; Rho-
desia ; Uganda) ; amulets, 65 ;
Kitching's The Backwaters of the
Xile reviewed, 264-7 ; sibokos,
169 ; totemism, 131 ; west, fetish
trees, 21-2
Agate : in amulets, Spain, 66-7
Age classification : Pokomo, 460-1
Agnation or father-right : Po-
komo, 458, 460 ; Thonga, 145
Agricultural folklore, see Corn
spirits, vegetation souls, and
the like ; Harvest ; Planting ;
Ploughing ; Sowing ; Weather
Aix, see Rousset
Albania : childbirth, 196
Albrecht Dieter ich : Kleine
Schrijten, by K. Wunsch,
reviewed, 137-42
Ale : ceremonial drinking, Scandi-
navia, 261-2
All Father beliefs : Aweniba, 268 ;
Lusheis, 149 ; S. Amer., 42, 56-7
All Fools' Day : Oxon, 88
Alliteration in Kiwai poetry, 310-1
Almsgiving : in magic, Baluchis-
tan, 230, 232 ; Scandinavia, 260
Alphabet : in magic, 139-40
Amber : amulet, Ontario, 224
America, see North America ;
South America ; West Indies
Amulets and talismans, 1, 8, 59,
63-74 {plates), 83, 139, 154, 216,
223-4, 226, 238, 250-1, 291, 336,
360-1, 452, 507, 513, 524
Anaconda : mother of the waters,
S. Amer., 55-6
Ancestors : divine, Manipur, 444 ;
royal, Manipur, 422-3 ; spirits
of, Aweniba, 268-9 ; worshipped,
Awemba, 269, Manipur, 424-5,
Thonga, 145-6
Andoke Indians, 43, 47
Andrew Lang's Theory of the
Origin of Exogamy and To-
temism, Mr., 155-86
Andro : festival, 433 ; gods, 424-5,
427 ; lights hoisted, 445 ;
sacred grove and house, 426-7 ;
worship of heavenly bodies, 445
Aneri : marriage, iSi ; totems,
181
Anglesey : hiring fairs, 107
Animals : [see also Anaconda
Antelope ; Baboon ; Badger
Bat ; Bear ; Birds ; Buffalo
Camel ; Capybara ; Cat ; Cattle
Chameleon ; Civet-cat ; Crus
tacea : Deer ; Dingo ; Dog
Donkey ; Dragon ; Earthworm
Elephant ; Fish ; Flying fox
Fox ; Gazelle ; Giraffe ; Goat
Hare ; Hippopotamus ; Horse
Hyaena ; Iguana ; Insects
2 M
538
Index.
Jackal ; Jaguar ; Jelly-fish
Kangaroo ; Leopard ; Lion
Mithan ; Monkey ; Mouse
Mouse-deer ; Muskrat ; Paca
Padimelon ; Palm-rat ; Pan-
ther ; Peccary ; Peists ; Pig
Prairie-dog ; Rabbit ; Kat
Reindeer ; Reptiles ; Scorpion
Seal ; Sheep ; Shellfish ; Skunk
Sloth ; Snail ; Snake ; Squirrel
Taper ; Tiger ; all enumerated
at sacrifice, Manipur, 440 ; im-
mortality of, 18 ; names de-
rived from, S. Amer. Indians,
46 ; sacred, Scandinavia etc.,
259 ; as symbols, 532 ; in tales,
142-3, S. Amer., 58-9 ; weather
signs from, Ontario, 219 ; wor-
ship of, 39, 392
Animism : Burma, 522 ; Mani-
pur, 418-9, 518-23 ; pre-anim.-
ism, 125 ; S. Amer. Indians,
57
Anne Boleyn : in tale, Clare, 490
Annual Meeting, 5-6 ; Report of
Council, 7-13
Anogia : divination, 358 ; tales,
359
Ant : in tales, S. Amer., 58
Antelope : clan name. Crow
Indians, 175 ; in tale, Pokomo,
475
Anthropometry, 394
Antimony : in rain-stopping,
Baluchistan, 231
Antler : as amulet, Spain, 64
[plate)
Aosta : saying. Piedmont, 217
Aphrodite : cult of, 27-8
Apparitions, see Ghosts
Apple : {see also Crab-apple) ;
in sport, May i, Breconsh.,
513 ; in tales, Malta, 263
Apple-tree : Christmas custom,
Courland, 248 ; New Year
custom, Devon, 237
April : {see also All Fools' Day ;
Borrowing Days ; St. George's
Day ; St. Mark's Day) ; hiring
fairs, Wales, 107 ; in sayings.
Piedmont, 216
Aquila : amulet, 72
Arabian Nights. The, 32, 193
Aran Isles ; fortress, 371 ; con-
nected with Clare, 204, 371 ;
saints, 204-5, 208 ; simulating
change of sex, 385
Arawaks ; death, origin of, 389
Archery : in harvest game,
Kiwai Papuans, 288
Architect slain by employer in
folk-tales, 371-2
Argos : sham fight, 389
Argyllshire : unlucky deed, 226
Ariosto : origin of stories, 403
Armada : in tales, Clare, 96,
491-2 {plate)
Armbands : sacred, Scandinavia
etc., 259, 261
Armenia : literature, 401-2
Arrow-thrower, Manipur, 455
{plnte)
Arunta : religion, origins of,
526-7 ; social system, 20-1 ;
totemism, 526-7
Ash-tree : amulets from, Spain,
73 : on May 29th, Monmouthsh.,
109, Oxon, 87-8 ; rhyme, War-
wicksh., 240
Asia, see Armenia ; Asia Minor ;
Babylonia ; Burma ; China ;
East Indies ; India ; Japan ;
Malay Penin. ; Palestine ;
Persia ; Phoenicians
Asia Minor, see Caria ; Troy
Ass, see Donkey ; Wild ass
Assam : {see also Cachar ; Lusheis;
Manipur) ; Manipur obtained
trades from, -120
Astronomical folklore : {see also
Moon ; Stars ; Sun) ; in
myths, 130
Atlantis, tale of, 532
Attyflin : tale, 365
Auditors, 6
Augury, see Divination
August : {see also St. Bartholo-
mew's Day) ; 26th, wasps leave
nests, Breconsh., 511
Auk : in myth, Lusheis, 149 ; as
nickname, Orkneys, 165
Australia : {see also under names
of tribes) ; Spencer and Gillen's
Across Australia reviewed,
278-9 ; corroborees, 34 ;
de^th customs and behefs,
387-92 ; Malinowski's The
Family among the Australian
Aborigines reviewed, 406-8 ;
marriage, 406-7 ; ISIousterians,
38 ; social organization, 29-30;
totemism, 131, 161
Austro-Hungarj-, see Galicia ;
Hungary ; Transylvania
Index.
539
Avalon, isle of : in romance of
Melusine, 189
Avebury ; in tale, 524
Avebury, Lord : death, 282 ;
obituary, 242-4
Awemba : Gouldsbury and
Sheane's The Great Plateau of
Northern Rhodesia reviewed,
264-5, 267-9
Axes, stone : as amulets, Italy,
67, Spain, 67-8 ; divine, S.
Amer., 60
Ayrshire, see Monkton
Babies, see Children
Baboon : as siboko, S. Africa,
169, 172-4 ; tabooed, Pokomo,
459
Babylonia : influence on Greece,
27 ; sickness and death un-
natural, 388
Backache : stone seat cures,
Clare, 211
Backwards : to call up Devil,
Oxon, 84 ; to see future
consort, Ontario, 222
Backwaters of the Nile, The, by
A. L. Kitching, reviewed,
264-7
Bacon's Hole : paintings, 38
Badger : demon, Clare, 208
Baganda : death, origin of, 389
Bahurutsi : siboko, 169, 172-4
Bakuena : siboko, 169, 172-4
Bala : hiring fair, 107
Balance Sheet, 13
Balkan Peninsula : (5^^' also
Albania ; Bulgaria ; Greek ;
Moldavia ; Servia ; Turkey-in-
Europe) ; gipsies, 340
Ballydeely, 99
Ballydonohan : tale, 496
Balme ; death customs, 214 ;
tale, 218
Baluba : language, 268
Baluchistan : {see also Makran) ;
folklore, 228-32 ; head mani-
pulation, 272
Bamford : gipsy girl buried
alive, 332
Banana : in game, Kiwai Papuans,
288 ; in song, Kiwai Papuans,
299
Banana plant : song in planting,
Kiwai Papuans, 306
Bangala : sham fight, 38S
Banks' islands : (see also Mota) ;
death myth, 390 ; future life,
391
Banshees : Clare, 98, 367, 373-4
Bantu : (see also under tribal
names) ; languages, 268 ; si-
bokism, 131 ; totem-kin break-
ing down, 145
Baptism : gipsies, 323-4 : Pied-
mont, 213
Bards : Gilyaks, 482-4 ; India,
534
Barking : folk-medicine, 120
Barkinji : class system, 183
Barley : sowing. Piedmont, 216
Barnard Gate : folklore, 74-91
Barrenness, see Birth
Barton-in-Humber : use of
church, 133
Bat : in song, Kiwai Papuans,
298
Bathing, 395
Battle traditions : Clare, 503 ;
Radnor, no
Beads : (see also Amulets and
talismans) ; green, as symbol,
Baluchistan, 228 ; ornaments,
Pokomo, 466
Beans : in divination, Cvprus,
358
Bear: in saying, Brcconsh., 511;
weather sign, Canada, 219
Beast fables, 58-9, 143
Beasts, see Animals
Beating, ceremonial : Courland,
248 ; Fiji, 390
Bee : ' ringing the bees,' Oxon,
88, Warwicksh., 240 ; not sold,
Warwicksh., 240 ; in tales, S.
Amer., 58 ; ' telling the bees,"
Ontario, 223, Warwicksh. etc.,
240 ; weather sign, Ontario, 220
Beesands : Friday fishing un-
lucky, 237 ; Nov. 5, 237
Belbroughton : gipsies, 348
Belief in Immortality an4 the Wor-
ship of the Dead, The, by J. G.
Frazer, reviewed, 386-92
Bell : in amulets, Spain, 69-72 ;
in charm for rain, Baluchistan.
229 ; Glastonbury, 17 ; in
rites, Manipur, 430- r, Mende,
129 : in saying, Oxfordsh., 77 ;
St. Senan's, 207
Bengal Presidency, see Serampore
Beni Amer : position of women,
199
Beowulf, poem of, 252-4
540
Index.
Berry Pomeroy : Wishing Tree, 31
Besom : jumping over, as mar-
riage, gipsies, 337
Betel nut ; in rites, Manipur, 430,
440. 452
Bethgelert tj'pe of tales, 229
Bible and key charms, 80, 359
Bibhography : 399 ; animal tales.
143 ; annual, 9-10 ; Iceland,
333 ; India, 534 ; Oxon, 280 ;
of Brand's Popular Antiquities,
113-4, 116
Bicester : ' ringing the bees,' 88
Binding churches, see Church cUp-
ping
Birch-tree : in love-songs,
Gilyaks, 480
Bird of Paradise : in song, Ki\vai
Papuans, 299-300
Birds : [see also Auk ; Bird of
Paradise ; Cassowary ; Cor-
morant ; Crane ; Crow ; Cuc-
koo ; Curassow duck ; Dove ;
Duck ; Eagle ; Eaglehawk ;
Emu ; Feathers ; Flycatcher ;
Fowls ; Goose ; Hawk ; Heron ;
Hornbill; Ibis; Magpie; Martin;
Missel-thrush ; Owl ; Parrot ;
Peacock ; Pelican ; Pigeon ;
Raven ; Robin ; Sea-eagle ; Sea-
gull ; Swallow ; Swan ; Vulture ;
Water hen ; Wren) ; names
derived from, Pokomo, 459, S.
Amer. Indians, 46 ; in songs,
Kiwai Papuans, 300, 305
Birth customs and beliefs : [see
also Baptism ; Milk ; Taboos ;
Twins) ; barrenness, rite against,
Mende, 129 ; bathing, S. Amer.,
45 ; caul beliefs, Ontario, 221-2 ;
couvade, S. Amer., 46 ; de-
livery attitude, 128 ; and cus-
toms, 195-6 ; Samter's Geburt,
Hochzeit und Tod reviewed,
126-8 ; perilous days for b.,
122 ; pregnant woman, omen
to, Pokomo, 467, protects men,
gipsies, 326 ; S. Amer. Indians,
45-6
Bismarck Arch. : [see also Xew
Ireland) ; Thumwald's Ethno-
psychologische Studien an Sud-
seevolkern auf dem Bismarck-
Archipel etc. reviewed, 404-6
Black animals, see names
Blackfoot Indians : clan names,
169, 174
Black Head : place-names, 99, 100
Blacksmith : Lon mac Liomhtha,
Clare, loo-i ; position of, 396,
Manipur, 42a
Blackthorn (Oxon) : ' ringing the
bees,' 88
Blasphemy punished, Piedmont,
217
Bleeding: perilous days for, 122;
stopping, Breconsh., 507
Blessing trees, 248
Blood : amulets for, Spain, 67 ;
disables u-itch, Oxon, 83 ; in
symbohc human sacrifice, Mani-
pur, 442-3
Blowfly : omen from, Oxon, 88
Blowpipes : S. Amer., 61
Bloxham : rhyme, 89
Blue : against evil eye, Italy and
Spain, 64 .
Bluestone : patterns by, Bre-
consh., 508
Boa constrictor : in tales, S.
Amer., 58
Boar, see Pig
Bodyke : tales, 375-6, 496
Boloki : eat clay, 396
Bombay : Beni Israels, 148
Bone : as amulet, Spain, 70 ;
merry-thought, Ontario, 222
Bone diseases : cures for, 384
Bone-fish : totem, Aus., 176
Book of Protection, The, by H.
Gollancz, reviewed, 150-2
Books, see Library
Boot, see Shoe
Borneo : Hose and M'Dougall's
The Pagan Tribes of Borneo
reviewed, 273-7
Boro Indians : 42-3, 61-2 ; cou-
vade, 46 ; dance, 51-2 ; myths,
56-9 ; names, 46-7 ; origin of
savannahs, 42
Borrowing : nullifies charm,
Ontario, 224
Borrowing Days, The : Piedmont,
216
Boves : marriage taxes, 215
Bo\* : folk-medicine, 120
Boys : {see also Initiatory cere-
monies) ; names of, S. Amer.
Indians, 46 ; simulating other
sex for protection, 385
Bracelets : S. Amer. Indians, 59
Brahmanism : effect of 2S-9
Brahmans, 147-8, 534
Brailes : loo-belling, 240
Index.
541
Bran, Finn's hound, 103-4
Brand Committee, 10, 16, 11 1-9,
382
Brands used by the Chief Camel-
Owning Tribes of Kordofan, by
H. A. MacMichael, noticed,
280
Brasil, enchanted isle, 204
Bread : in charm, gipsies, 336 ;
cures whooping cough, Ontario,
224 ; dough risen in warm bed,
Herefordsh., 239 ; etiquette in
cutting, Oxon, 83 ; omen from,
Ontario, 222 ; Piedmont, 213 ;
oven, Breconsh., 508
Breaking earthen vessel as mar-
riage rite, gipsies, 338
Breath : expels evil, S. Amer.,
59-60
Brecon : hiring fair, 106 ; street
cry, 506
Breconshire : {see also Brecon) ;
B. \'illage Folklore, by M. E.
Hartland and E. B. Thomas,
505-17 ; hiring fairs, 107
Bridges : Devil builds. Piedmont,
363
Bringing in the Fly, by P. Man-
ning, 153
British Calendar Customs, by
C. S. Bume, 154
British Columbia : {see also
Haidas) ; guardian spirits, 131
British Guiana, see Arawaks
Broadford : tale, 496
Bromley-by-Bow : love-philtre,
120
Bromyard: Skyrrid, 118
Bronze Age : death customs, 253
Broom : delays Alp, 127
Broom plant : in marriage, gip-
sies, 336-7
Broomstick : jumping over, as
divorce, 341, and marriage,
gipsies, 336-7
Bro\%Tiie : Wales. 106-7
Buddhism : Burma, 410
Buffalo : as badge, Dacotas, 174 ;
in clan name, Blackfeet, 169 ;
offered, jNIanipur, 436-8, 442 ;
sacrificed, Manipur, 423, 427 ;
in tale, Pokomo, 476
Builth : hiring fair, 107
Bulgaria : childbirth, 195
Bull : ghost appears as, Bre-
consh., 506 ; masks, Manipur,
418 (plate) ; in saying, Pied-
mont, 216 ; as symbol, 532 ; in
tale, Clare, 210
Bull-frog, see Frog
Bunratty : De Clare, 374
Burial alive : gipsies, 340, Suf-
folk, 332
Burial customs and beliefs, see
Death and funeral customs and
beliefs
Burial of Amputated Limbs, by
R. M. Heanley, 123
Burma : {see also Lushei Kxtki ;
Manipur) ; religion, 410, 522
Bume, C. S. : British Calendar
Customs, 154 ; Guy Fawkes'
Day, 8
Bume, S. A. H. : review by,
132-5
Burren : tales and myths, 98, 494 ;
tribal assembly, 503
Bush : as sign, Mon., 109
Bushmen : Aurignacians, 38
Buu, 457, 459, 461-2, 469
Cachar : Hinduism, 415 ; Mani-
pur obtained trades from, 420 ;
rice spirit from, Manipur, 448
Caeilte, in tales, loo-i
Caerleon : hiring fair, 106-7 ;
May 29th, 109
Caherdooneerish, 99
Cakes : in charms, Ontario, 221,
Oxon, 79 ; eaten at marriage,
Breconsh., 511, gipsies etc.,
334-5 ; in rain stopping, Balu-
chistan, 231
Calendar Customs of the British
Isles, see Brand Committee
Calendar folklore, see Days and
Seasons
Caluso : death custom, 214
Cambridgeshire : {see also Dux-
ford ; Ickleton) ; folklore items,
234-7 ; gipsies, 327
Camel : brands, Kordofan, 280 ;
in tale, Pokomo, 476
Cameron : as clan nickname, i6y
Campbell : as clan nickname,
169
Canada, see British Columbia ;
Ontario ; Quebec
Candle : at baptism. Piedmont,
213 ; to bind churches, Crete,
357 {plaie) ; in Christmas cus-
tom, Wales, 108 ; in dance,
Mexico, 129 ; omens from,
Oxon, 88, 91, Piedmont, 213
542
Index.
Candlemas Day : sayings, Bre-
consh., 511, Cambs., 237,
Ontario, 219
Cannibalism : E. Africa, 472 ;
S. Amer. Indians, 53-4
Canoe : on grave, Kiwai Papuans,
291 ; amongst Pokomo, 463 ;
song of building, Kiwai Pa-
puans, 300-1, 311
Canziani, E. : exhibit, S ; Pied-
montese Folklore, 213-8, 362-4 ;
Piedmontese Proverbs in Dis-
praise of Woman, gi-6
Capybara : flesh tabooed, S.
Amer., 45 ; in tales, S. Amer.
58 ; tooth as awl, S. Amer., 61
Carbuncle : cure for, Harris, 384
Cardigan : hiring fair, 107
Cardiganshire : hiring fairs, 107
Caria : deities, 27
Carrigaholt : ghosts, 497 ; tales,
105. 492-3
Carmarthenshire: hiring fairs, 107
Carnarvonshire : hiring fairs, 107
Carnation : stops witches, Greece,
127
Carnelly : tale, 495-6
Carnival : puppet, Turin, 215 ;
tinkers' feasts. Piedmont, 217
Carrigogunnell : tale, 490
Cartaselle : supernatural appear-
ance, 362
Cash Account, 12
Cassava : dance, S. Amer.
Indians, 51-2 ; prepared by
women, S. Amer. Indians, 48
Cassowary : in song, Kiwai Pa-
puans, 294
Caste : Barnes' Ethnography
(Tribes and Castes) reviewed,
533-4 ; Manipur, 519 ; northern
India, 272 ; as test of Hin-
duism, 419, 519-20
Castel Delfino : marriage customs,
214-5
Cat : [see also Wild cat) ; black,
lucky, Oxon, 90, unlucky, On-
tario, 226 ; Devil as, Piedmont,
363 ; killed if jumped over
corpse, N. Eng., 347 ; in say-
ings, Oxon, 77 ; taboos con-
nected with, gipsies, 328
Cateq:)illar : charm against whoop-
ing cough, Quebec, 360-1
Cattle : (see also Bull ; Cow ;
Ox) ; on Christmas Eve, Oxon,
89
Caul : Ontario, 221-2
Cavallermaggiore : in proverb, 95
Cavan : tale, 102
Caves : Malta, 263 ; paintings, 38
Cavour : Devil at, 363
Cetisus of Northern India, The :
Reports, reviewed, 270-3
Ceremonial Customs of the British
Gipsies, The, by T. W. Thomp-
son, 7, 314-56
Chair : unlucky to mock across,
Ontario, 222
Chameleon : in tale, Pokomo
473-4
Channel Islands, see Guernsey ;
Jersey
Chants Populaires de la Grande-
Lande et des Regions voisines, by
F. Arnaudin, reviewed, 136-7
Charlecote : loo-belling, 241
Charms and Spells : (see also Amu-
lets and talismans) ;
against : bone diseases, Harris,
384 ; colds, Ontario, 224 ;
colic, Ontario, 224 ; convul-
sions, Ontario, 224 ; cramp,
Oxon, 89 ; dangers, gipsies,
336 ; epilepsy, Skye, 384 ;
fever, Piedmont, 362 ; goitre,
Oxon, 88 ; hernia, Breconsh.,
506-7 ; rats, Ontario, 227 ;
scorpion bite, Cyprus, 358 ;
sore throat, Quebec etc., 361 ;
thrush, Warwicksh., 241 ;
toothache, Ontario, 221, 224;
warts, Breconsh., 506, On-
tario, 224, Oxon, 89 ; witch-
craft, Ontario, 224, Oxon, 83 ;
whooping cough, Ontario, 224,
Quebec, 360-1, Warwicksh.,
241 ;
alphabet in, 139 ; to ascertain
future husband or lover, On-
tario, 222, Oxon, 79-80 ; to
assist calving, Herefordsh., 238 ;
blowing and breathing as cure,
S. Amer., 59-60 ; to cause mad-
ness. Piedmont, 362 ; to change
sejc, Baluchistan, 232 ; eating
Christmas cake, Ontario, 221 ;
to get and revive love, London,
1 20- 1 ; to get and stop rain,
Baluchistan, 229-32 ; Himmels-
briefe, 139 ; to get hidden
treasure, 252-3 ; to make barren
trees bear, India, 248 ; 7th son,
Skye, 384 ; Syrian, 150-2 ; to
Index.
543
test lover, Oxon, So ; thanks
and payment not permitted,
Breconsh., 506
Charon-Charos, by H. J. Rose, 247
Chastity : gipsies, 331-2, }^i^, 339
Chatillon : saying, Piedmont, 217
Cheeks : omen from, Oxon, yo
Cheese : at marriage, gipsies, n^
Cherokee Indians : death myth,
390
Chestnut : in proverb, Piedmont,
94
Chief, election of : Pokomo, 460 ;
S. Amer. Indians, 44-5
Childbirth, see Birth
Children ; ysee also Baptism ;
Birth customs and beliefs ;
Games) ; counting, Congo, 396 ;
nails not cut, Ontario etc., 227,
Quebec etc., 361 ; in sayings,
Oxon, 76 ; smacking aids
growth, Quebec, 361
Chilswell Hill : Good Friday rites,
34
Chimneysweepers : in May Day
song, Cambs., 235
China : childbirth, 196 ; corpse
taboos, 347 ; rain stopping, 231
Chivemba : language, 268
Christmas cake : charm, Ontario,
221
Christmas Day : plygain, Wales,
108 ; saying. Piedmont, 216
Christmas Eve : cattle kneel,
Oxon, 89 ; charms on, Oxon, 79
Christmastide : [see also Christ-
mas Day ; Christmas Eve ;
Mince pies ; Mummers) ; apple-
tree custom, Courland, 248,
Devon, 237 ; sayings, Ontario,
223, Piedmont, 216 ; singing,
Cambs., 236-7
Church-ales, 133-4
Church and Manor, by S. O. Addy,
reviewed, 132-5
Church chpping, 128-9, 357 (plate)
Church Handborough : ghost, 84
Churchyard : in charm, Oxon, 79 ;
dance in, Abbot's Bromley, 133 ;
games in, Wales, 10S-9
Churning customs and beliefs :
Ontario, 224
Cicatrization, 395
Cinderella type of folk-tales, 39,
532
Circumcision : Baluchistan, 228
Civet-cat : in tale, Pokomo, 476
Clans : Pokomo, 438-00
Claraghmore, tales of, 372-6, 491
Clare : (see also under place-
names) ; folk-tales and myths,
96-106, 201-12 (plates), 365-81
(plate), 490-504
Clare Abbey : battle, 372
Clare Castle : name, 374 ; tale,
496
Classagh Hill : tale, 210
Clondegad : saints, 212
Clonlara : tale, 377
Clooney : saints, 204, 210
Clothing : omens from, Quebec,
361-2 ; of other sex worn, 127 ;
wrong side out lucky, Ontario,
226
Coad : in tale, 379-80
Coca : in marriage ceremony, S.
Amer. Indians, 48
Cochin Tribes and Castes, The, by
L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer,
vol. ii, reviewed, 147-9
Cock : black, in charm, Skyc, 384 ;
offered, Manipur, 435 ; omen
from, iNIanipur, 427 ; in rain
stopping, Baluchistan, 231 ;
sacrificed, Manipur, 436, 438
Coco palm : in song, Kiwai Pa-
puans, 307
Cod : amulet from, Newfound-
land, 70 ; as nickname, Ork-
neys, 165
Cogne : borrowing days, 216;
tales, 362
Coins and medals : as amulets,
Italy, 72, Quebec, 361, Spain,
71-3 ; in dreams, Quebec, 361 ;
in rites, Manipur, 430, 436
Colds : charm against, Ontario,
224
Colic : charm against, Ontario,
224
Collectanea, 63-110, 201-41 (plate),
357-81,477-517
Colours : (see also under names) ;
favourite, 395 ; should be stand-
ardized, 393
Committees, 8-9, 11 1-9. 382
Compass, points of, see under
names
Confetti, 250-1
Congo Beige, see Bangala ; Bo-
loki ; Kasai river; Libinza Lake
Connaught : (see also under names
of counties) ; wars with Mun-
ster, 202
544
Index.
Convulsions :
Ontario, 224
Convbeare, F. C
charm
against,
re\ie\v by.
401-4
Cooper's Hill : cheese-rolling, 34
Coral : as amulet, Italv, 68, Spain,
68-9
Corcabaiscinn, 97, 203
Corca Modruad, 97, 206, 370
Corcomroe : Cistercians, 203 ;
traditions, 369-71, 373
Cormorant : totem, Aus., 184
Corn blue-bottle : name, Bre-
consh., 512
Comer : south-west of house
sacred, Manipur, 443-4 ; un-
lucky to cut across, Ontario,
225
Com spirits, vegetation souls, and
the like : drama as fertility
cult, 35 ; Greece, 389 ; Manipur,
426, 445-8
Cornwall : animal nicknames, 166,
175 ; bees, 240 ; omen, 225
Corofin : tales, 103
Correspondence, 120-3, 245-51,
382-5, 518-24
Corwen : hiring fair, 107
Cotton : divini? origin of, Manipur,
425
Council of F-L. S. : elected, 5-6 ;
Report, 7-13
Counties dealt with for new
edition of Brand's- Popular
Antiquities, 116-7
Counting : children causes death,
396 ; in protective charms,
127
County Clare Folk-Tales and
Myths, by T. J. Westropp,
96-106, 201-12 [plates), 365-81
[plate), 490-504
County Folk- Lore, 10
Courland : apple-tree custom, 248
Courtship customs and beliefs ;
N. and W. Europe, 198 ; charm,
Oxon, 80 ; gipsies, 332-3 ; songs.
Piedmont, 92
Couvade, 46, 405
Cow : charm to assist calving,
Herefordsh., 238 ; as nick-
name, France, 165 ; sale cus-
tom, Scandinavia, 260 ; in say-
ing, Oxon, 77 ; reverenced,
Manipur, 520 ; in tales, Ireland
and Scotland, 100-3 i as village
name, Hebrews. 165
Cowbridge : hiring fair, 107
Crab : as nickname; Orkneys, 165 ;
in song, Kiwai Papuans, 301
Crab-apple : in saying, Oxon, 77
Cracking of joints, omen from,
Ontario, 227
Cracow ; childbirth, 195-6
Cradle : emptj-, not rocked. Pied-
mont, 213, rocking brings babies,
Ontario, 221
Craglea : banshee, 367
Cramp : cure for, Oxon, 89
Crane : in religious plav, Manipur,
417-8 [plate)
Cra'ster, B. M. : review by, 256-62
Cratloe Hills : in tale, 201
Creator, beliefs about : Awemba,
268 ; Manipur, 422, 521
Creganenagh Hill : tribal assem-
bly, 503
Cremation : " belief in separate
soul, 253 ; Manipur, 414 ; prac-
tised together with burial, 391
Crete : animal names, 165 ; Cre-
tan Folklore Notes, by W. R.
Halliday, 357-9 [plate) ; Minoan
culture, 26
Criccieth : hiring fair, 107
Cricket : omen from, Oxon, 88
Croaghateeaun : fear of Dananns,
98
Crocodile : eaten, Pokomo, 458,
463 ; as siboko, S. Africa, 169,
172-4 ; in tale, Pokomo, 476
Cromwell : in tales, Clare, 490,
496
Crooke, W. : Cursing Trees, 247-9 ;
Indian Folklore Notes, iv, 228-
32 ; Method of Investigation
and Folklore Origins, 14-40 ;
The Scientific Aspect of Folk-
lore, 7 ; Simulated Change of
Sex to Baffle the Evil E\-e, 385 ;
reviews by, 124-6, 147-9, 263-4,
270-3. 5ii-^
Cross : as amulet, Oxon, 83 ;
expels Devil, Piedmont, 363 ;
in funeral custom, \\'exford, 31 ;
repels dragon, 252-3 ; as sym-
bol, 532
Crow : Devil as. Piedmont, 363 ;
phratry, Aus., 176; in sayings,
Breconsh., 510 ; in sowing
rhyme, Herefordsh., 238, War-
wicksh., 239
Crow Indians : clan names, 175
Crown : as symbol, 532
Index.
545
Crucifixion : in mytli, Bromyard
no
Crustacea, see Crab
Cuchulainn sagas : Clare, 98-100
Cuckoo : in sayings, Breconsh.,
511, Piedmont, 216
Cucumber : offered, Manipur, 440
Cumberland : {see also Salkeld ;
Wigton) ; gipsies, 316
Currasow duck : down as orna-
ment, S. Amer. Indians, 49
Cursing : curses, see Imprecations ;
cursing stones, 205; Cursing
Trees, by W. Crooke, 247-9
Cyprus : folklore items, 357-8
Dacotas : clan names, 174-5
Daelach river, 100
Dalcassians, 97, 202, 365
Dances : Australia, 34 ; Bre-
consh., 513-5 ; Central Africa,
267 ; cushion, Breconsh., 514 ;
in funeral rites, Thonga, 146 ;
before gods, JNIanipur, 417-8
[plate), 429, 432 [plate), 434 ;
horn dance. Abbot's Bromley,
133-4 ; Kiwai Papuans, 284,
286 ; kissing, Breconsh., 514,
Piedmont, 217 ; sacred, Mexico,
129 ; songs for, France, 136,
Kikuyu, 468, Kiwai Papuans,
2S4-313, Piedmont, 217, Po-
komo, 476 ; S. Amer. Indians,
48-54 ; special importance of,
33-4 ; war, Kiwai Papuans, 302
Danes : in tales, Clare, 365-6,
368-9
Darton : gipsies, 352
Daru : songs, 287, 294, 307, 312
Date palm : charming, RIakran,
248-9
Days and Seasons : All Fools'
Day, 88 ; April, 88, 107, 216 ;
Aug., 216, 511 ; Borrowing Days,
216; Calendar Customs of the
British Isles, 111-9,382; Can-
dlemas Day, 219, 237, 511 ;
Carnival, 215, 217 ; Christmas
Day, 108, 216; Christmas Eve,
79, 89 ; Christmastide, 78-9, 86-
7, 89, 108, 216, 221, 223, 236-7,
248; Dec, 78-9. 86-7, 89, 108,
216, 221, 223, 236-7, 248, 511,
513 ; Easter Sunday, 219, 239 ;
Eastertide, 216, 219, 221, 239;
Epiphany, 248 ; Feast Days and
Saints' Day. by P. J. Heather,
249-50 ; Feb., 107, 122, 219,
234, 239 ; Frida\-, 34, 91, 121.
188, 216, 220-1, 237, 239, 352,
425 ; Good Friday, 34, 237,
239 ; Guy Fawkes' Day, 85,
109, 236-7 ; Holi, 450 ; Holy
Thursday, 215; Jan., 121, 216,
219, 221, 234, 237-9, 248.
51 1-2; July, 219. 237-8; June,
73, 107, 2i6 ; Kartik, 445 ;
Lent, 215, 511 ; March, 107,
121, 216, 239, 510-1 ; May,
87-8, 90, 106-7, ""9. 122, 216,
235. 511-3; May Day, 235,
512-3 ; Mera, Manipur, 445 ;
Alichaelmas Day, 511; Monday,
107, 122, 216, 220, 425, 513-4 ;
New Year's Day, 221, 238-9,
512 ; New Year's Eve, 221,
450-1 ; New Year tide, 511 ;
Night, 57-8 ; Nov., 85, 106-7,
236-8 ; November Eve, 496-7 ;
Oct., 51, 106-7, 496-7; Palm
Sunday, 358; Parsnip Day,
513; Plough Monday, 234;
Rules Concerning Perilous
Days, by L. Gomme, 121-3 '<
St. Andrew's Day, 238; St.
Barnabas' Day, 107 , St.
Bartholomew's Day, 216 ; St.
Chad's Day, 239 ; St. David's
Day, 239 ; St. George's Day,
216; St. John's Eve, 216; St.
Mark's Day, 216 ; St. Matthias'
Day, 239 ; St. Paul's Day, 216 ;
St. Swithin's Day, 219, 237 ;
St. Vincent's Day, 216 ; Satur-
day, 91, 188-9, 198, 216, 220,
425. 450 ; Sept., 107, 122, 249,
511, 513-4; Septuagesima, 122-
3 ; Shick-shack Day, 87-8, 109 ;
Shrove Tuesday, 85, 234-5 ."
songs, seasonal, 140 ; Sunday,
108-9, 221, 358, 426, 513-4;
Thursday, 216, 238, 425 ;
Trinity Friday, 107 ; 'Tuesday,
85, 107, 234-5, 425 ; Valen-
tine's Day, 234, 239 ; Wednes-
day, 426 ; 'Whitsuntide, 107,
109 ; Whit Tuesday, 107 ; year
named, Manipur, 523
Dead, land of, see Hades
Dead, spirits of, see Ghosts
Death : in Greek folklore, 390 ;
origin of, Arawaks, 389, Ba-
ganda, 389
Death and funeral customs and
546
Index.
beliefs : [see also Churchyard ;
Cremation ; Ghosts ; Graves ;
Omens) ; Frazer's The Belief in
Immortality and the Worship of
the Dead, vol. i, reviewed,
386-92 ; boats for dead, Kiwai
Papuans, 291 ; Breconsh.,
511 ; Bronze Age, 253 ; burial
customs, 391, gipsies, 343-4,
Oxon, 89, Piedmont, 213, S.
Amer. Indians, 54, Thonga, 146 ;
burial \vithout coffin, Lanes.,
31 ; clothing the corpse, gipsies,
345-6 ; corpse must be touched,
Oxon, 88, must not be carried
past house again, Ontario, 223 ;
corpse stops rain, Baluchistan,
231 ; crosses attached to haw-
thorn, Wexford, 31 ; dead,
voyage of, 253-4 > death, caused
by witchcraft, Manipur, 452,
never natural, Manipur, 452,
S. Amer. Indians, 54-5, of
exorcists, Thonga, 146 ; dog
slain on grave, Gilyaks, 488 ;
fasting, gipsies, 347-8, 351-2 ;
feasts, Gilyaks, 488-9, gipsies,
351, Scandinavia, 262 ; future
life, beliefs about, Banks' is.,
391, Bronze Age, 253, Gilyaks,
488-90, New Guinea, 391, S.
Amer. Indians, 54 ; gipsies,
342-55, Herefordsh., 239 ;
grave visited, gipsies, 351 ;
hawthorn a death tree, 31 ;
laments, Kiwai Papuans, 307-8 ;
mourning customs, Gilyaks, 487,
gipsies, 348, Oxon, 89, Pied-
mont, 213-4 '• offerings at grave,
gipsies, 351, 355 ; pigeon's
feathers hinder death, Oxon, 88 ;
property buried with dead, Gil-
yaks, 489, gipsies, 345-7. 354.
Malta, 264 ; property destroyed
after death, gipsies, 348-51 ;
Samter's Gebiirt, Hochzeit und
Tod reviewed, 126-8 ; S. Amer.
Indians, 45 ; stripping flesh
from bones, Malta, 264
Decameron, The, 39
December : (see also Christmas-
tide ; New Year's Eve ; Parsnip
Day); sayings, Breconsh., 511,
Piedmont, 216
Deer : stag, village name, Heb-
rews, 165
Deities : [see also Earth deities ;
Forest gods ; and under names) ;
S. Amer., 42 ; theories of origin
of, 3-2-3. 37. 125-6, 527-9
Deluge legends, 41
Demeter, 389
Demons and evil spirits : [see also
Devil) ; cause disease, S. Amer.,
59-60, and thunder, S. Amer.,
57; devil-child, Quebec, 360;
Helloi, Manipur, 421, 451 ;
Hiiai, Lusheis, 149, 449; in
play, Manipur, 418 (plate) ;
Sa-roi-nga-roi, Manipur, 421,
430, 449-51
Denbighshire : hiring fairs, 107
Denmark, see Danes ; Iceland
Dermot and Grainne, tale of, 100,
104
Derrygraney : tale, 502
Devi cult, Panjab, 271, 535
Devil : appearances of, Oxon, 84,
Piedmont, 363 ; to call up,
Oxon, 84 ; in proverbs. Pied-
mont, 93-4, Servia, 92 ; S. Amer,
Indians, 56-7 ; in tales. Pied-
mont, 218, 363-4
Devon : (see also Beesands ;
Berry Pomeroy ; Kingsbridge ;
Moretonhampstead ; Torcross) ;
Christmas custom, 237 ; cutting
nails, 221
Dieri : group names, 171 ; mar-
riage, 177-9. 183--4
Dieterich, A. : Kleine Schriften
reviewed, 137-42
Digo, 460
Dihewyd : hiring fair, 107
Dingo : clan, Aus., 176-81
Dionysus, 35, 141
Diseases : (see also under names) ;
amulets against, Italy, 70, 73,
Spain, 70 ; binding church
against, Crete, 357 ; caused by
evil spirits, S. Amer., 59-60,
ghosts and witchcraft, 388, tree
or spirit, Manipur, 453 ; cured
by Umanglais, Manipur, 435
Divination : alphabet in, 140 ;
A-vyemba, 269 ; by beans,
Cyprus, 358 ; by Bible and key,
Crete, 359, Oxon, 80 ; by
dreams, Oxon, 79-80, S. Amer.,
55 ; by entrails of animals,
Manipur, 438, 441-2 ; by fishes,
Manipur, 450 ; by grass, Oxon,
80-1 ; by growth of special
crops, Manipur, 446 ; by hazel
Index.
547
stick, Breconsh., 507 ; by metal
discs, Manipur, 437, 441 ; by
shoulder blade, Crete, 358 ; by
sieve, Cyprus, 358 ; of con-
stancy of lover, Oxon, 80 ; of
future consort, Oxon, 79-81 ;
of health, Manipur, 450 ; of
presence of water, Breconsh.,
507 ; among Thonga, 146
Divorce, see Marriage customs and
beliefs
Dog : (see also Wild dog) ; in clan
names, Blackfeet, 169 ; in gipsy
funeral rites, 351 ; killed if
jumped over corpse, N. Eng.,
347 ; in myth, Manipur, 424 ;
as nickname, France, 165 ;
omens from, Ontario, 223, Oxon,
88 ; sacrificed, Gilyaks, 488 ;
in sayings, Oxon, 77, Piedmont,
95 ; taboos connected with,
gipsies, 328 ; in tales, Baluchi-
stan, 229, Pokomo, 474, S.
Amer., 58 ; totem, Aus., 176,
Melanesia, 181
Dolgeily : hiring fair, 107
Dolls : christened, Mon., 109 ;
May Day, Cambs., 235 ; repre-
sent drowned sailors, 3, 8
Dolmens : Clare, 100 ; Malta,
263 : origin of, 263
Donegal : place-names, 99 ; tales,
102
Donkey : {see also Wild ass) ;
marks on, Oxon, 89 ; in pro-
verb, Piedmont, 96 ; wild ass,
as village name, Hebrews, 165
DooUn : Armada, 491 ; saints, 205
Doolough : St. Senan, 206
Dormington : gipsies, 350
Dorset : lecture, 4
Doubs Dept, see Montbeliard
Doubs river : tale, 1S8
Dove : Devil as, Piedmont, 363 ;
in sowing rhyme, Herefordsh.,
238 ; totem, Melanesia, 181
Dowsing, see Divination
Dragon : (see also Peists) ; re-
pelled by cross, 252-3 ; as
symbol, 532
Dragon's blood as love-philtre,
London, 120
Dreams : (see also Divination) ;
charm for, Oxon, 79-80 ; omens
from, Ontario, 227, Oxon, 91,
Quebec, 361 ; as origin of
future-life beliefs, 17-8, 55
Dress : Breconsh., 508-9, 516 ;
omens from, Quebec, 361 ; Po-
komo, 465-6
Drogheda : monastery, 203
Drolls : Crete, 359
Dromcavan : tradition, 373-4
Dromoland : Armada, 492 ; tales,
494-5. 497
Drowning : omen of, Ontario, 223
Drum : E. Africa, 280, 461 ;
Kiwai Papuans, 284, 286, 305 ;
Melanesia, 405 ; S. Amer.,
49-50
Dublin county : (see also Howth,
Hill of) ; tale, 102
Duck : (see also Curassow duck) ;
egg in rite, Manipur, 430 ; in
rhymes, Oxon, 77, Warwicksh.,
239 ; white, sacrificed, Manipur,
444
Dumb Cake charm, 79
Dum-palm : basket from, Po-
komo, 473 ; fruit eaten, Po-
komo, 464
Dunbeg : Armada, 492
Dung : in clan name, Blackfeet,
169
Dunlicka Cas. : tale, 492-3
Dunnill, E. J. : Welsh Folklore
Items, 106-10
Durga, deity, 148
Duruna, 460
Duxford : Plough Monday, 234 ;
Shrove Tuesday, 234-5
DysertO'Dea : saints, 211 ; tales,
103, 211-2, 373-5, 491
Dzunza, 457
Eagle : as badge, Dacotas, 1 74 ;
Devil as, Piedmont, 363
Eaglehawk : totem and phratry,
Aus., 176
Ear : amulets for, Italy, 70 ;
ornaments, E. Africa, 280
Eardisley : gipsy death custom,
239
Earth deities : mother of earth,
Manipur, 426 ; spread of cult,
27
Earthw-orm : not on Holy Moun-
tain, Bromyard, iro
East: god of, Manipur, 423
Easter Sunday : rhymes, War-
wicksh., 239 ; weather sign,
Ontario, 219
Eastertide : (see also Easter Sun-
day) ; wear new clothes, On-
548
Index.
tario, 221 ; weather signs, On-
tario, 219, Piedmont, 216
East Indies, see Borneo ; New
Guinea
' Eaters ' in group nicknames, 165
Echtghe the Awful, 97
Edda, The, 365
Editor of Folk-I.ore, 6
Eggs : in divine descent, Manipur,
412-3 ; offered, Manipur, 430,
445
Egypt : [see also Kordofan ;
Sudan) ; gipsies, 339 ; influence
on Crete, 26 ; survivals, 30 ;
tales, 32
Eight : ' watchers of directions,'
Manipur, 423-4
Elbow : omen from, Quebec, 361 ;
tribal name, Pokomo, 457
Elder-tree : sacred, Clare, 207
Elecampane : as salve, Brecon,
506
Elephant : in tale, Pokomo, 475-6
Eleusis : sham fight, 389
Emu : totem, Aus., 176
Endogamy : gipsies, 329, 331,
339-40
England : {see also under names of
counties) ; animal nicknames,
165
Ennis : cursed, 377 ; founder of
Abbey, 370, 372 ; folk- tales,
103, 210, 377-8 ; Franciscans,
203
Ennistj^mon : tale, 369
Epileps^• : charm against, Skye,
384
Epiphany : blessing trees, 248
Erysipelas : amulet against, Spain,
73
Eskimo : Magdalenians, 38
Essays on Questions connected with
the Old English Poem of Beowulf ,
by K. Stjerna, reviewed, 252-4
Essex, see Littlebury
Ethnography [Tribes and Castes),
by A. Baines, reviewed, 533-4
Ethno-psychologische Studien an
Sudseevolkern auf dem Bismarck-
Archipel und den Salomo-Inseln.
by R. Thurnwald, reviewed,
404-6
Etiquette : Oxon, 75, 83
Evgenike : binding churches, 357
(plate)
Evil eye : amulets, Spain, i, 8, 63,
66, 68-70, Italy, 64, 70, 73 ;
bafiBing by simulating changed
sex, 385 ; The Evil Eye in
Somerset, bj^ M. A. Hardv,
382-3
Evil spirits, see Demons
Exhibits at meetings, i, 3, 8-9,
281-2
Exogamy : Mr. Andrew Lang's
Theory of the Origin of Exo-
gamy and Totemism, 155-86 ;
Pokomo. 458, 460 ; S. Amer.,
43-4 ; and totemism, 131
Exorcism : alphabet in, 139 ;
formulas of, 15 1-2 ; Thonga,
146
E3'e : {see also Evil eye) ; amulets
in form of, Spain, 67-8 ; omen
from stye, Piedmont, 93 ; re-
moving lashes, 395, not done,
Pokomo, 466 ; as symbol, 532
Eynsham : ghost, 84
Fairies : Breconsh., 515 ; Clare,
497 ; fairy rings, Breconsh.,
515 ; Wales, 108-9
Fairs, see Festivals
Fairy forts, Clare, 98
Falling : upstairs lucky, Oxon,
90
Falling stars : wishing, Ontario,
221
Family among the Australian
Aborigines, The; by B. Mali-
nowski, reviewed, 406-8
Farnell, L. R. : review by, 386-92
Fasting : between death and
burial, gipsies, 347-8 ; favourite
food or drink of dead tabooed,
gipsies, 351-2 ; from fish, Mani-
Pur, 445
Father- right, see Agnation
Feakle : in myth, 97
Feast Days and Saints' Days, by
P. J. Heather, 249-50
Feathers : for god's litter, Mani-
pur, 432 ; hinder death, Oxon,
88 ; worn by men only, S.
Amer. Indians, 49
February : {see also St. Matthias'
Day ; Valentine's Day) ; hiring
fair, Wales, 107 ; perilous
Monday in, 122 ; rhyme, War-
wicksh., 239 ; weather sign,
Ontario, 219
Fenloe : saints, 208-9
Fergus river : in tales, 103, 377,
379
Index.
549
Fertility spirits, see Corn spirits
Feste und Brduche des Schweizer-
volkes, by E. Hoffmann- Krayer,
reviewed, 400
Festiniog : hiring fair, 107
Festivals and fairs : {see also
Carnival) ; Breconsh., 513-4 ;
clan, Scandinavia, 261-2 ;
Devon, 237-8 ; Feast Days and
Saints' Days, by P. J. Heather,
249-50 ; hiring fairs, Wales,
106-7 '< lai-haraubas, Manipur,
427-34; Piedmont, 95, 217;
tinkers'. Piedmont, 217
Fetish huts, E. Africa, 2 So
Fetish trees, W. Africa, 21-2
Fever : charm against, Piedmont,
362
Fighting, ceremonial : brings rain,
Baluchistan, 229 ; deceives
ghost, Aus. etc., 388
Fig-tree : cursing, Palestine, 249
Fiji islands : death custom, 390 ;
Kalou, 387 ; tale, 233-4
Finestrelle : empty cradle not
rocked, 213
Fingers : (see also Nails, linger) ;
nursery rhyme for, Oxon, 78
Finnavarra : place name, 100
Finn sagas : Clare, 98, 100-6, 201,
502
Firbolgs, 99, 371
Fire : [see also Hearth) ; clean
fire, Manipur, 429, 432, 444 ;
divine origin of, Manipur, 425 ;
5th Nov. bonfires, Monmouthsh.,
109 ; omen from, Oxon, 91 ;
over grave, S. Amer. Indians,
54 ; in Pokomo myth, 461
Firstfooting : Ontario, 221
Fish : {see also Bone-fish ; Cod ;
Perch ; Sting-ray) ; bones as
amulets, Spain, 70 ; divination,
by, ^lanipur, 450 ; divine origin
of, Manipur, 425 ; offered,
Manipur, 436, 445, 447, 452 ;
tabooed, Manipur, 429, Pokomo,
458 ; tribal name, E. Africa, 457
Fishguard : hiring fair, 107
Pishing customs and beliefs : {see
also Omens) ; amulets, New-
foundland, 70 ; Friday unlucky,
Devon, 237 ; nets, 395 ; Po-
kom.o, 463-4
Flint : salve, 506
Flintshire, see Flint ; Holywell
Flood legends, see Deluge legends
Flowers and plants : {see also
Banana plant ; Broom plant ;
Carnation ; Coca ; Corn blue-
bottle ; Elecampane ; Grass ;
Heather; Iris; Ivy; Lrmgtcrei \
Manioc ; Monkshood ; Onion-
flower ; Osier ; Prm ; Parsley ;
Peony ; Roots ; Rose ; Rue ;
Sugarcane; Urticaria; Verbena;
Water-lily) ; on dancing staves,
S. Amer. Indians, 51 ; divine
origin, Manipur, 425 ; names
derived from, S. Amer. Indians,
46 ; offered, Manipur, 440
Flute : Gilyaks, 488 ; S. Amer.
Indians, 50, 53
Flycatcher: totem, Melanesia, 181
Flying fox : in song, Kiwai
Papuans, 298
Fly river, see Kiwai Papuans
Folk-dances, see Dances
Folk-drama : Greek, 35, 392 ; as
magic, 35 ; Manipur, 417-8
{plate) ; Savoy, 132
Folklore: collection of, 385, 398;
Le Folk-Lore : Litterainre Orale
et Ethnographie Traditionelle, by
P. Sebillot, reviewed, 398-9 ;
Method of Investigation and
Folklore Origins, by W' . Crooke,
14-40
Folk-medicine, see Medical folk-
lore
Folk-Medicine in London, by E.
Lovett, 1 20- 1
Folk-Medicine in the Report of
the Highlands and Islands
Medical Service Committee, by
D. Rorie, 383-4
Folk-music : France, 136 ; Gil-
yaks, 479 ; S. Amer. Indians,
50 ; Thonga, 144
Folk-sayings, see Proverbs
Folk-songs : Brecon.sh., 512 ;
Cambs., 234-5; France, 136-7;
Gilyaks, 477-90 ; Kiwai Pa-
puans, 284-313 ; Oxon, 82-3,
85-6, 89 ; Piedmont, 92 ;
Pokomo, 468 ; Russia, 2 ;
seasonal, 140 ; song and dance
associated, Pokomo, 468 ; S.
Amer. Indians, 50-1 ; Thonga,
144 ; war, Kiwai Papuans, 302
Folk-tales : {see also under names
of typical tales) ; Baluchistan,
229; Breconsh., 515-7 ; Egypt,
32; Fiji, 233-4 ; France, 136;
550
Index.
Ciilyaks, 478 ; incidents more
important than plot, 145; India,
32, 149; Ireland, 96-106,201-12
(plates), 363-81 (plate), 490-504;
Malta, 263 ; Alclusine, 187-200;
Papuans, 284, 303 ; Persia, 32 ;
Piedmont, 216-8, 362-4 ; Po-
komo, 469-71, 473-6 ; re-
adapted in native land, 32 ;
Scotch, 39, 102 ; S. Amer.
Indians, 56, 58-9 ; Thonga,
144 ; Wales, 254-6
Folletti, Piedmont, 216, 218
Foot : unlucky to dress one first,
Ontario, 226
Forest gods ; Burma, 410 ; Mani-
pur, 409-55, 523
Formes ElSnentaires de la Vie
Reli°ieuse, Les, by E. Durk-
heim, reviewed, 525-31
Fortaiie : holy well, 210
Formojle : Brian Boru, 369
Fortfergus : tradition, 499
Forts, Clare, 98, 365
Foundation sacrifices : Wales, no
Four : in sowing, Herefordsh.
and Warwicksh., 238-9
Fowls : {see also Cock ; Hen) ;
sacrificed, Manipur, 433
Fox : as village name, Hebrews,
165
Foynes : St. Patrick, 203
France : (see also Aix ; Doubs ;
Lozere ; Savoy : Vienne) ;
animal names, 165 ; folk-songs,
136-7 ; gipsies, 339
Franche Comte, see Montbeliard
Freire ]\Iarreco, B. : The
" Dreamers " of the Mohave-
Apache Tribe, 8
Friction-drum, see Drum
Friday- : (see also Good Friday) ;
in charm, London, 121 ; dreams
on, Oxon, 91 ; in fasting cus-
tom, gipsies, 352 ; fishing un-
lucky, Devon, 237 ; goddess
born on, Manipur, 425 ; nails
cut on, Ontario, 221 ; in tale,
France, 188 ; unlucky to begin
on, Ontario, 221 ; weather
signs, Ontario, 220, Piedmont,
216
Frog : bull f. totem, Aus., 184 ;
in charm. Piedmont, 362 ; food
of suicide's spirit, Gilyaks,
488-9 ; as nickname, France,
165 ; in rain stopping. Ba-
luchistan and China, 231 ; in
song, Kiwai Papuans, 292
Frost : weather sign, Ontario, 220
Fruit and vegetables : (see also
Apple ; Banana ; Beans ; Crab-
apple ; Cucumber ; Limes ;
Nutmeg ; Nuts ; Pineapple ;
Plantain fruit) ; in myths, S.
Amer., 59 ; offered, Manipur,
440, 445-7 ; omen from dreams
of, Ontario, 227
Funeral customs and beliefs, see
Death and funeral customs and
beliefs
Further Notes on Spanish Amu-
lets, bv W. L. Hildburgh, 63-74
(plates)
Future life, beliefs about, see
Death and funeral customs and
beliefs
Gahcia, see Cracow
Gallas : clans, 458-60 ; god and
sky, 471 ; grass sacred, 467 ;
origin of ngojama, 469 ; among
Pokomo, 456 ; tale, 472
Galway county, see Aran Isles
Games : contest, Cambs., 235 ;
harvest, Kiwai Papuans, 288 ;
once magical, England, 34 ;
Piedmont, 215 ; polo, Manipur,
427 ; Sunday, Wales, 108-9
Ganganoi, The, 97 '
Garlands : May Day, Cambs.,
23.5
Garter : in charm, Oxon, 79-80
Gaster, M. : review by, 150-2
Gazelle : village name, Hebrews,
165
Geburt, Hochzeit und Tod, by E.
Samter, reviewed, 126-8
Georgia : Wardrop's The Man in
the Panther's Skin reviewed,.
401-4
Germany : (see also Hesse ; Wiir-
temberg) ; gipsies, 321, 324-6,.
328-9, 332-4, 338, 340-2, 344.
346, 350-3
Ghosts : Breconsh., 505-6, 516 ;
cause disease etc., 388 ; Clare.
496-7, 502 ; in dances, Kiwai
Papuans, 284, 289 ; as deities,
37 ; dreaded, 390-1, gipsies,
352-6 ; headless, Oxon, 84 ;
laying Breconsh.. 506, Oxon,
84 ; Piedmont, 362-4 ; recalled
by naming dead, gipsies, 323,
Index.
551
55^
57
355 ; S. Anicr. Indians,
Giants : in tales, Clare, 104-5
Gilyaks and their songs, The, by
B. Pilsudski, 477-90
Gipsies : The Ceremonial Customs
of the British Ciipsies, by T. W.
Tliompson, 7, 314-56 ; death
customs, Herefordshire, 239
Giraffe : in tale, Pokomo, 475
Girdles : for married women only,
Pokomo, 466
Girdling a church, see Church
clipping
Girls : {see also Initiatory cere-
monies) ; names of, S. Amcr.
Indians, 46
Giryama, 460
Glamorgan : hiring fairs, 107
Glasgeivnagh, tale of, 100-3
Glastonbury : incense and bells,
17
Gleaning customs : Ontario, 225
Gloucestershire, see Cooper's Hill ;
Haresfield
Goat : in proverb. Piedmont, 96 ;
in witch tale. Piedmont, 363
Gods and goddesses, see Deities
Goitre : cure for, 0.\on, 88
Gold ; for divination, Manipur,
437 ; divine origin of, Manipur,
425 ; as offering, Manipur, 430,
437. 439-41. 444
Gomme, L. : Rules Concerning
Perilous Days, 121-3
Good Friday : fishing unlucky,
Devon, 237 ; rhyme, Warwick-
sh., 239 ; rites, Oxon and
Surrey, 34
Goose : perilous days for eating,
122 ; in proverb. Piedmont, 95 ;
in rhyme, Warwicksh., 239 ;
sacrificed, Manipur, 433
Gorleston : gipsy burial, 343
Gotham type of folk-tales, 359, 510
Granada : amulets, 64, 69-70
Grantham : gipsies, 336
Grass : in charm, Pokomo, 467 ;
on corpse, gipsies, 345-6 ; in
divination, Oxon, 80-1 ; sacred,
E. Africa, 467
Graves : in houses, S. Amer.
Indians, 54 ; rock tombs, Malta,
263
Great Bear const. : weather sign,
Ontario, 220
Great Plateau of Norlherv Rhodesia,
The bv C. Gouldsbiiry and H.
Sheane, reviewed, 264-5, 267-1*
Greek islands, see Crete
Greeks : {-iee also Argos , Eleusis :
Greek islands ; Olympia ; Pm-
dus ; Thessaly) ; and PIkv-
nicians, 26 ; birth customs, 128 ;
Charos, 247 ; drama, 35, 140.
392; fall of ancient gods, 141
omens, 247 ; sieve stops Kalli-
kantzaros, 127; survivals, 30;
vampires, 30-1 ; witches stop
to count leaves, 127
Groves see Trees
Guardian spirits : British Co-
lumbia, 131
Guernsey : animal names, 165 ;
calendar customs, 117
Guildford : Good Friday rites, 34
Gum dragon : as love philtre, 120
Guy Fawkes' Day : bonfire, Oxon,
85 ; Cambs., 236 ; Devon, 237 ;
rhyn^es, Oxon, 85 ; tar barrel,
Monmouthsh., 109
Gwano, 457
Hades : Adiri, Kiwai Papuans,
290-5, 309-10; Mlvvo, Ciilvaks,
488 '
Hag's Head, 99, 98
Haidas : hostile phratries, 159
Hair : {see also Shaving) ; amu-
lets to preserve, Spain, 66 ;
burnt, Ontario, 227 ; not
combed in mourning, Gilyaks,
487 ; cutting, Ontario, 220,
ceremonial, Scandinavia, 260 ;
in dreams, Quebec, 361 ; dress-
ing, E. Africa, 280 ; removed
from body, S. Amer. Indians,
45 ; in symbolic human sacri-
fice, Manipur, 442-3 ; taken for
ornamentation, Borneo, 276 ;
women swear on, Scandinavia,
260
Halliday, W. R. : Cretan Folk-
lore Notes, 357-9 {plate) ; re-
views by, 126-8, 137-43
Hampshire, see Isle of Wight
Hampton Lucy : loo-belling. 241
Hand : as amulet, Africa. 65,
Portugal, 65, Spain. 64-6 :
covered in ceremonials, 140-1 ;
as symbol, 532
Handbook of Folklore, 10
Handlwrough, see Long Hand-
borough
OD-
Jndex.
Handsel : Breconsh., 517
Hardy, M. A. : The Evil Eye in
Somerset, 382-3
Hare : in tales, Pokomo, 473
Haresfield : Feast, 249-50
Harris : folk-medicine, 384
Hartland, E. S. : The Completion
of Professor Pitre's Collection of
Sicilian Folklore, 245-6 ; The
Romance of Melusine, 187-200,
282 ; reviews by, 128-32, 136-7,
143-7. 398-400
Hartland, M. E. : Breconshire Vil-
lage Folklore, 505-7
Harvest customs and beliefs :
Breconsh., 513 ; Cambs., 236 ;
Kiwai Papuans, 288-90 ; Mani-
pur, 446-8 ; Ontario, 225 ;
Oxon, 85-6 ; S. Amer. Indians,
51-
Hassanyeh Arabs : marriage,
199-200
Haverfordwest : hiring fair, 107
Hawk : in songs, Kiwai Papuans,
292. 295 ; in tales, S. Amer.,
58
Hawthorn-tree : death tree, 31 ;
in funeral custom, Wexford, 31
Hay : hiring fair, 106-7
Hazel-tree : in water-finding,
Breconsh., 507
Headache : amulets against,
Spain, 69
Headhunting : Borneo, 275-6
Headless ghosts : Oxon, 84
Healths : Scandinavia, 261-2
Heanley, R. M. : Burial of Ampu-
tated Limbs, 123 ; Silbury
Hill, 524
Heart : as amulet, Herefordsh.,
238 ; in divorce rite, gipsies, 342
Hearth : Manipur, 444
Heather : beer from, Clare, 365-6
Heather, P. J. : Feast Days and
Saints' Days, 249-50
Heaven : Thonga, 146
Heavenly Twins, the, 532
Hebrews, see Jews
Hebrides, see Harris ; Scalpay
island • Skye, Isle of
Hell : S. Amer. Indians, 54, 56
Hemp seed charm, 79
Hen : crowing unlucky, Ontario,
223, Oxon, 90 ; offered, Mani-
pur, 435, 448 ; in proverb,
Piedmont, 95 ; in rhyme, War-
wicksh., 239
Henfeddau : hiring fair, 107
Herbrandston : hiring fair, 107
Herbs, see Flowers and plants
Hercules sagas, 263
Herefordshire : {sef also Brom-
yard ; Dormington ; Eardis-
ley ; Kington ; Mordiford ;
Rowlstone ; Sarnesfield) ; folk-
lore items, 238-9
Hernia: charm against, Breconsh.,
506-7
Hero legends, Gilyaks, 4 78, 486
Heron : not eaten, Pokomo, 468 ;
unlucky bird, Pokomo, 468
Hertfordshire : {see also Stanstead
Abbots) ; rhyme, 239
Hesse : magic book, 139
Hidden treasure, see Treasure,
hidden
Highlands : clan names, 169 ;
folk-medicine, 383-4
High worth : gipsy funeral, 347
Hildburgh, W. L. : exhibits by,
1,8; Further Notes on Spanish
Amulets, 63-74 {plates)
Hills ; gods reside on tops, Mani-
pur, 426
Hinduism : a fusion of cultures,
28, 273, 411-2 ; in Manipur, 281,
409-55 {plate). 519-23
Hippopotamus : tabooed, Po-
komo, 459 ; in tale, Pokomo,
475-6
Hiram and King Solomon type of
folk-tales, 371-2
Hiring fairs : Wales, 106-7
Historical traditions : Gilyaks,
478 ; value of, 130
History explains survivals, 19-21
Hodson, T. C. : The Rehgion of
Manipur, 518-23 ; review by,
149-50
Hall festival, India, 450
Holland : unlucky deed, 226
Holton ; Devil seen, 84 ; folk-
medicine, 89
Holy Land of the Hindus, The, by
R. L. Lacey, 534-6
Holv men, see Saints
Holy Thursday : Piedmont, 215
Holywell : salve, 506
Holy wells : Clare, 100, 204-7,
209-10, 212
Hornbill : in song, Kiwai Papuans
299
Horn dance, Abbot's Bromley,
133-4
Index.
553
Hornet : village name, Hebrews,
165
Horn, musical : in amulets, Spain,
71-2
Horns : as amulets, Spain, 64
(plate) ; in charm. Piedmont,
362 ; in dance. Abbot's Brom-
ley, 133 ; on sacred image,
Manipur, 427
Horse : charm against colic, On-
tario, 224 ; in charm, Piedmont,
362, Warwicksh., 241 ; in
divorce, gipsies, 341-2 ; eight-
legged, Clare, 365 ; at gipsy
marriage, Scotland, 338, and
funeral, 351 ; names and
phrases used to, Oxon, 75 ; in
proverb, Piedmont, 95 ; ridden
by witches, Ontario, 224 ;
sacrificed, Manipur, 423, Wales
no; special god of, Manipur,
423 ; as symbol, 532
Horseshoe : amulet, Ontario, 224 ;
omen, Ontario, 222 ; lucky to
find, Ontario, 222, 226; in rain
stopping, Baluchistan, 231
Hottentots : marriage, 335
Household deities, Manipur, 413,
422, 443-4
Houses : entering and leaving by
different doors brings visitors,
Ontario, 225 ; Ontario, 221 ;
Pokomo, 464-5 ; sacred corner,
Manipur, 443 ; tribal, S. Amer.,
43-4. 49. 53-4
Howth, Hill of : in tale, loi
Hungary : gipsies, 333-4, 340-1
Hunting customs and beliefs :
survivals in, 144 ; taboos after
childbirth, S. Amer., 46
Hurons : name, 174
Husbands : in proverbs, Piedmont,
93-4
Huts, see Houses
Hyaena : in tale, Swahili, 476 ; as
\nllage name, Hebrews, 165
Hymns to the Goddess, by A. and E.
Avalon, reviewed, 534-5
Iban, 275, 277
Ibis : not eaten, Pokomo, 468 ;
unlucky bird, Pokomo, 468 ;
white, name from, Pokomo, 459
Iceland : temples, 261
Ickleton : Plough Monday, 234 ;
Shrove Tuesday, 235
Iguana : in amulet, S. Amer., 59
270-3 ;
(Tribes
533-4
Iliad, The, 36
Ilmington : folklore items, 239-41
Images, sacred ; Manipur, 427
Immortality : origin of belief,
17-8
Imphal : god carriers, 432 (plate) ;
origin of goddess, 432-3
Imprecations : of dying powerful,
Ontario, 223 ; in tales, Clare,
377. 499. 501
Inagh : saint, 208
Incense : Cyprus, 358 ; Glaston-
bury, 17
Inchiquin : in tales, 104
Inchiquin Hill : in tale, 103
Inchiquin Lake ; in tales, 378-81
India ; {see also Assam ; Baluchi-
stan ; Bengal Presidency ; Bom-
bay ; Brahmanism ; Cochin ;
Hinduism ; Kewats ; Orissa ;
Panjab; Rajputana; The
Census 0/ Northern India :
Reports reviewed,
Baines' Ethnography
and Castes) reviewed,
Lacey's The Holy Land of
the Hindus reviewed. 534-6 ;
Indian Folklore Notes, iv, by
W. Crooke, 228-32 ; Avalon's
Hymns to the Goddess reviewed,
534-5 ; Iyengar's Life in An-
cient India in the Age of the
Mantras reviewed, 533-5 ; mar-
riage, 199 ; origin of gipsies,
315 ; simulating change of sex,
385 ; tales, 32 ; Avalon's Tantra
of the Great Liberation reviewed,
533. 535
Iniscaltra : Danes, 365-6 ; saint,
211
Iniscatha : tradition, 503
Initiatory ceremonies : dances,
34 ; S. Amer. Indians, 47
In Memoriam : Lord Avebury
(1834-1913), byH. B. Wheatley,
242-4
Insects, see Ant ; Bee ; Blowfly ;
Caterpillar ; Cricket ; Hornet ;
Ladybird ; Wasp ; Woodlouse
Interim Report of Brand Com-
mittee to Council, 382
Inverness-shire, see Harris ; Skye
Iranians, see Persia
Ireland : (sec also Cuchulaina sagas;
Finn sagas ; and under names of
counties and provinces) ; calendar
customs, 117 ; childbirth, 195 ;
2 N
554
Index.
corpse taboos, 347 ; north, tale,
102 ; south-west, simulating
change of sex, 385
Iris : [see also Orris root) ; in
love-songs, Gilyaks, 480
Iron and steel : {see also Knife ;
Pin) ; divine origin of, Manipur,
425, 427 ; plate to repel evil,
Manipur, 438
Islandica, vol. v, reviewed, 533
Islands, enchanted : Clare, 104,
106 ; Hy-Brasil, 204
Isle of Man, see Mannin
Isle of Wight : gipsies, 348
Issa-Japura District : account of,
3, 8, 41-62
Italy : {see also Abruzzi ; Pied-
montese ; Romans, ancient ;
Sicilian) ; amulets, 63-4, 67-8,
70, 72-3
Itchumundi : marriage, 176-7,
179. 184
Ivy : blessed, Clare, 211
Jackal : village name, Hebrews,
165
Jagannath : car, Manipur, PI.
viii ; temple, 536
Jaguar : blood feud with, S.
Amer., 56 ; medicine-man as,
S. Amer., 55-6 ; in tales, S.
Amer., 58
Jamaica : tale, 475
January : {see also Candlemas
Day ; Epiphany ; New Year's
Day ; Plough Monday ; St.
Paul's Day ; St. Vincent's
Day) ; charm, Ontario, 221 ;
19th perilous, 121 ; in saying.
Piedmont, 216 ; rhyme, War-
wicksh., 239
Japan : childbirth, 196
Japura District : account of, 3, 8,
41-&2
Jdtaka, The, 536
Jelly-fish : in song, Kiwai Pa-
puans, 293
Jenness, D. : The Magic Mirror :
a Fijian Folk-Tale, 233-4
Jersey : calendar customs, 117
Jet : amulets, Spain, 65-6
Jews : ancient village names, 165 ;
blessing and cursing, 247 ; folk-
medicine, 120 ; India, 148 ;
origin of Himmelsbriefe, 139
Johannesburg : burial of ampu-
tated finger, 123
Jonas, M. C. : Scraps of English
Folklore, 234-7
Journeys : perilous days to begin,
122 ; unlucky to turn back,
Ontario etc., 226
July : {see also St. Swithin's Day);
3rd Thursday, fair, Devon, 238
Jumping as marriage rite, gipsies
etc., 336-8
June : {see also St. John's Eve)(;
hiring fairs, Wales, 107 ; 23rd,
amulets prepared, Spain, 73
Kabi : name, 167-9
Kabuis : master of the rice, 448-9
Kai tribe ; death customs and
beliefs, 391
Kakching : god of iron workers,
422, 424, 429-30
KaU, deity, 413, 415, 433
Kalindi, 457-9
Kamares cave : haunted, 359
Kamilaroi : name, 167-9
Kanachauba, deity, 435, 439-41
Kangaroo : totem, Aus., 176
Karahone Indians, 55
Karamundi : marriage, 176-7, 179,
184
Kartik : lights hoisted, 445
Kasai river : Luba people, 269
Kavirondo, the, 280
Kayan : account of, .273-7
Keils Bridge : in tale, 103
Kent : cutting nails, 221
Kenyah, 274-5
Kerry : place-names, 97, 99 ;
tales, 102, 105, 492
Kewats : marriage, 334
Key : in divination, Oxon., 80 ;
in tales, Clare, 106
Khasis : snake worship, 443, 523
Khumlangba, deity, 422, 424,
427-30- 432 {plate)
Kidwelly : hiring fair, 107
Kikuyu, 280, 468
Kilbreckan : St. Brecan, 204
Kilcoan : saint, 212
Kilfarboy : Armada tradition, 491
Kilfenora : place-names, 100
Kilfiddaun : saint, 212
Kilkee : Armada, 491-2 ; ghosts,
492,497; St.Senan, 206; tale, 493
Kilkishen : traditions, 377
Killaloe : names, 374 ; saints, 211 ;
tales, 96, 368
Killard : Armada, 492
Killeany : cross, 204 ; saint, 205
Index.
ODD
Kilniacduach : saint, 209
Kilmacreehy : saint, 208 (plate)
Kilmanagheen : saint, 208
Kilmihil : St. Senan, 206
Kilmilie : tale, 493
Kilmurry : tradition, 503
Kilnaboy : saint, 211 ; tales, 380,
496
Kilquane : tale, 498
Kilrush : St. Senan, 206 ; tra-
dition, 503
Kiltinnaun : St. Senan, 206
Kiltumper : tale, 365
Kinakomba, 457
Kincora : Brian Boru, 366-7
King Aedh of Connaught, 208
King Arthur romances : The
Lady of the Fountain, 254-6
King i3rian Boru, 96, 102, 366-9
King Charles II. : not in tales,
Clare, 496
King Conchobar Ruadh, 370-2
King Crimthann mac Fidach,
201-2
King Donaldmore, 370, 372
King Guaire, 209-10
Iving Harald, 259
King Henry VIII. : in tales,
Clare, 490
King James II. : in tales, Clare,
497
King Pepin, 260
Kingsbridge : apple-tree custom,
237
King's evil : 7th son, Skye, 3 84
Kington : battle, no
King William III. : in tale, Clare,
498
Kinship, see Relationship
Kirby, W. F. : death, 2-3, 7, 15
Kirton : gipsies, 348
Ivissing : in dances, Breconsh.,
514 ; Piedmont, 217
Kihinusi, fabulous being, 469,
472-3
Kiwai Papuans, The Poetry of
the, by G. Landtman, 154,
284-313
Klemantan, the, 274
Knife : breaks spell, Piedmont,
363
Knighton : hiring fair, 107
Knockalough : tale, 493
Knockaun Mtn. : name, .502
Knossos : divination, 358
Knots : record ablutions due,
Baluchistan, 228
Kodoile, fabulous being, 469
Koran : in rain stopping, Ba-
luchistan, 231
Kordofan : camel brands, 280
Korokoro, 457-8
Krishna ; worship, Manipur,
410-1, 413, 415, 417 (plate), 418
Kulesa : bird names, 459 ; folk-
lore items, 467-76 ; marriage
custom, 466 ; tribal names,
456-7
Kurnai : marriage, 186 ; nick-
names, 170
Lactation, see Milk
Ladder : unlucky to go under,
Ontario, 226
Ladles : in rain stopping, Ba-
luchistan, 231 ; S. Amer.
Indians, ^2,
Ladybird : omen from, 517
Lady of the Fountain, The, 254-6
Lake Moero : language, 268
Lake Nyassa : Luba people, 269
Lakes ; (see also Jinder names) ;
gods of, Manipur, 430
Lamps : snail shells. Piedmont,
215
Lancashire : (see also Liverpool ;
Melling ; Ormskirk) ; cutting
nails, 221 ; folk-medicine, 360;
gipsies, 326, 329-30, 334, 346
Land : combat custom, Scandi-
navia, 260 ; sale custom, Scan-
dinavia, 260
Landtman, G. : The Poetry of the
Kiwai Papuans, 154, 284-313
Lang, A. : death, 2-3, 7, 14 ; Mr.
Andrew Lang's Theory of the
Origin of Exogamy and To-
temism, 155-86
Langmeidong : sacrifices, 433
Ldngterei leaves in rite, Manipur,
431-2
Larch-tree : in song, Gilyaks,
487-8
Laughter : zs omen. Oxen, 91
Laurel-tree : leaves as seasoning,
Cyprus, 357
' Leaps ' on Irish coast etc., 99
Leather, E. M. : Scraps of English
Folklore, 238-41 ; Welsh Folk-
lore Items, no
Left : hand in amulets, Spain, 65 ;
lucky, Ontario, 226
Lehinch : tale, 106
Leicestershire : omen, 361
2 N 2
556
hidex.
Leinster : {see also iivder vames
of counties) ; ' Ciraves of the
Leinster Wen,' Clare, 367-8
(plate)
Lemaneagh : heather beer, 366 ;
tales, 380, 494-7
Lent : puppet, Turin, 215 ; in
saying, Breconsh., 511
Leopard : tabooed, Pokomo, 458
Letterston : hiring fair, 107
Levirate : among Gilyaks, 483
Leza, First Cause, Awemba, 268
Libinza Lake : fishing, 395 ; pot-
tery, 396
Library of Folk-Lore Society, 3-4,
9, 282-3
Licking fingers causes rain, Ba-
luchistan, 232
Life in Ancient India in the Age of
the Mantras, by P. T. Srinivas
Iyengar, reviewed, 533-5
Life-index : Manipur, 435-8 (plate)
Life of a South African Tribe, The,
b}' H. A. Junod, vol. ii, re-
viewed, 143-7
Life ]\Iembers, 11
Lightning ; amulets against, Italy,
67 ; in charms, Japan, 224,
Ontario, 224 ; smile of girl,
Kiwai Papuans, 312
Limerick county : (see also Carri-
gogunnell ; Foynes ; Limerick);
name, 367 ; traditions, 490
Limerick : St. Patrick, 203 ; treaty
stone, 498
Limes : in rite, Manipur, 430
Limone : Holy Thursday, 215
Limyra : inscription, 140
Lincolnshire, see Barton-in-Hum-
ber ; Grantham ; Kirton
Linguistics, 396-7
Lion : in amulets, Spain, 72 ; as
name, Hebrews, 165 ; tabooed,
Pokomo, 459 ; in tales, Galla,
471, Pokomo, 475-6
Lip ornaments : E. Africa, 280
Liscannor Bay : Armada, 492 ;
in tale, 104
Lisdoonvama : forts, 98, 365 ;
saint, 205 ; tales, 369-70
Lisfuadnaheirka, 502
Lissadeely, 99
Littlebury : gipsy burial, 344,
.347
Little Haven : hiring fair, 107
Liutprand, 260
Liverpool : gipsies, 349-50
Lizard : as nickname, France, 165 ;
village name, Hebrews, 165 ;
poisonous, Ontario, 227
Llanarth : hiring fair, 107
Llandeloy : hiring fair, 107
Llandilo : fair, 107
Llandrillo : hiring fair, 107
Llanfair : Christmas custom, 108
Llanfihangelararth : hiring fair,
107
Llangeitho : hiring fair, 107
Llangennech : hiring fair, 107
Llanigon ; folklore, 505-17
Llanover : hiring fair, 106
Llanuwchlljn : hiring fair, 107
Llanybyther : hiring fair, 107
Loaf, see Bread
Lombards : saga of, 259
London : folk-medicine, 120-1
Londonderry : tales, 102
Long Handbdrough : folklore, 74-
91
Lon mac Liomtha, 98, loo-i
Loo-belling : Warwicksh., 240-1
Looking glass : breaking unlucky,
Ontario, 225, Oxon, 90-1 ; con-
sort seen in, Ontario, 222 ;
Devil seen in, Oxon, 84
Loop Head : in tales, 99, 104-5,
369-70
Lord's Prayer : backwards to call
up Devil, Oxon, 84 ; in charm,
Llanigon, 507
Lost Language of Symbolism, The,
by H. Bayley, reviewed, 531-3
Lough Anilloon : tradition, 375-6
Lough Derg : (see also Iniscaltra) ;
Brian Boru, 366-7
Lough Graney : tale, 502
Loughnaminna Hill : in tale, 105
Louth, see Drogheda
Love-charms, 80, 121, 216
Love-philtres. 120
Love songs : Gilyaks, 479-81 ;
Piedmont, 92
Lovett, E. : exhibits, 3, 8, 154,
282 ; Folk-medicine in London,
120-1, 154
Loj-alty islands : (see also New
Caledonia) ; birth customs, 195
Lozere, see Mende
Lualaba river : Luba people, 269
Lucky and unlucky days and
deeds : 12 1-3 ; Ontario, 220-3,
225-6 ; Oxon, 90 ; Piedmont,
213 ; Quebec, 361
Lugh, Irish deity,. 97-8
Index.
55:
Lunar crescents, see Moon
Lunda people, 269
Lusheis : spirit possession, 452
Lushei Kuki Clans, The, by J.
Shakespear, reviewed, 149-50
Lusignan : romance of Melusine,
187-200
Luther : in tales, Clare, 490
Lynn : gild of St. Peter, 249-50
Mabuaig island : hero tale, 306
Madagascar : folk-medicine, 129
Madrepore coral : as amulet,
Spain, 68
Madrid : amulets, 64, 72-3
Maentwrog : hiring fair, 107
Magh Adhair : origin of name,
100 ; in tales, 97, 100, 369
Magic : (see also Amulets and
talismans ; Charms and
spells ; Divination ; Witchcraft ;
Wizards) ; alphabet in, 139-40 ;
drama as form of, 35 ; magic
book. Black Forest, 139 ; to
obtain or stop rain, Baluchistan,
229-32, Manipur, 453-5 ; rein-
forces Eniautos Daimon, 33 ;
as related to religion, 126 ;
among Thonga, 146
Magic Mirror, The : a Fijian Folk-
Tale, by D. Jenness, 233-4
Magpie ; omen from, Oxon, 88
Maize : among Pokomo, 463 ;
weather sign, Ontario, 220
Majanga : burial of amputated
finger, 123
Makran ; charming barren trees,
248-g
Maku Indians, 43
Malalulu, 457
Malay Penin. : corpse taboos, 347
Malay States : folklore and
religion, 410-1
Malbay : origin of name, 99
Malinkote, 457
Malinowski, B. : reviews by,
278-9, 525-31
Maloka, tribal houses, S. America,
43-4. 49. 53-4
Malta : and .Egean culture, 26
Malta and the Mediterranean Race,
bv R. X. Bradley, reviewed, •
263-4
Man and Beast in Eastern Ethiopia
bv J. Bland-Sutton, noticed,
280
]\Ian in the Panther's Skin, The,
by AL S. Wardrop, reviewed,
401-4
Mandrake: beliefs about, London,
121, Warwicksh., 240
Mango-tree : charming, Makran,
248-9
Manioc : dance, S. Amer. Indians,
51 ; in myths, S. Amer., 59 ;
planted by women, S. Amer.
Indians, 48
Manipur : The Religion of Mani-
pur, by J. Shakespear, 281,
409-55 {plates), 518-23; snake
beliefs, 150
Mannin noticed, 536
Manning, P. : Bringing in the
Fly. 153
Manors : Addy's Church and
Manor reviewed, 132-5
Maram : memorial stones, 522 ;
myths, 425
March ; [see also St. Chad's Day ;
St. David's Day) ; 14th and
1 8th perilous, 121 ; hiring fairs,
Wales, 107 ; in sayings, Bre-
consh., 511 ; in tale. Pied-
mont, 216 ; wind in, Breconsh.,
510-1
Marett, R. R. : The Magic Mir-
ror : a Fijian Folk-Tale, 233-4 ;
President, 5
Marjing, deity, 423
Marriage customs and beliefs ;
(see also Endogamy ; Exogamy:
Levirate ; Omens ; Polygamy) ;
Arabs, 199-200 ; Australia.
406-7 ; Breconsh., 517 ; bride
price, Gilyaks, 489, Pokomo, 465;
ceremonies, gipsies, 333-40, 356 ;
child marriages unknown, Mani-
pur, 416 ; choosing day, On-
tario, 222 ; confetti, 250-1 ;
divorce, gipsies, 341-2 ; facilities
of separation, Middle Ages,
193-4 ; game, Piedmont, 215 ;
gifts. Piedmont, 214 ; group
marriage, Australia, 407 ; inter-
marriage, gipsies, 330-1 ; lick-
ing fingers causes rain, Baluchi-
stan, 232 ; May unlucky, Oxon,
90 ; perilous days for m., 122 ;
Pokomo, 460 ; procession. Pied-
mont, 214 ; punishments for
adultery, Servia etc., 340-1; rop-
ing bride, Monmouthsh., 109-10;
Samter's Geburt, Hochzeit und
Tod reviewed, 126-8 ; in say-
558
Index.
ings, Breconsh., 511, Piedmont,
93 ; S. Amer., 43-4, 47-8 ; 3
years' service for bride, Mani-
pur, 422 ; unlucky events.
Oxon, 90 ; widows remarrj^
Manipur, 416
Martel, Charles, 260
Martin : not killed, Oxon, 89
Masai : 280 ; grass sacred, 467-8
Mascots, see Amulets
Masks : Manipur, 418 {plate), 427
Mathry : hiring fair, 107
May : {see also May Day ; Shick-
Shack Day) ; hiring fairs,
Wales, 106-7 ' perilous Monday
in, 122 ; in sayings, Breconsh.,
511, Piedmont, 216; unlucky
to marry in, Oxon, 90
May Day : bushes over doors,
Breconsh., 512-3 ; games, Bre-
consh., 513 ; garlands, Cambs.,
235
Mayo : {see also Achill island) ;
place-names, 99, 100 ; tales,
492
Mayors, mock : Monmouthsh.,
109
Mazes, 34
Medals, see Coins and medals
Medical folklore : {see also Amu-
lets and talismans ; Charms
and spells) ;
diseases and injuries treated : —
rheumatism, 60 ; rickets,
207 ; sore eyes, 207 ; teeth-
ing, 120 ; whooping cough,
224 ;
localities : — Clare, 207 ; Lon-
don, 120-1 ; Madagascar, 129;
Ontario, 224 ; S. Amer., 60 ;
remedies : — bread, 224 ; Eu-
charistic elements, 129 ; man-
drake, 121 ; orris root, 120 ;
water from holy well, 207, and
tree, 109
Medicine-men, see Wizards
Meeting : funeral unlucky, Oxon,
90 ; on stairs unluckj', Oxon,
90
Meetings, 1-6, 7-9, 153-4, 281-2
Megahthic structures : Malta, 263
Megrim, see Headache
Meitheis : as animists, 418, 518-23;
one caste, 420 ; chronicles,
518-9 ; clans among, 419-20
Melanesia : {see also Aneri ; Banks'
is. ; Bismarck Arch. ; Solomon
is. ; Tanga) ; death customs and
beliefs, 387-92
Melksham : tale, 524
Melling : tree belief, 31
Melusine, romance of, 187-200, 282
Members dead, 1-2, 154, 282
Members elected, i, 3-4, 7, 153-4,
281-2
Members resigned, i, 3, 7, 281
Members, List of, i-xvii
Men : {see also Boys ; Husbands) ;
names, S. Amer. Indians, 46-7 ;
in sayings, Oxon, 76-7, Pied-
mont, 93-6
Menai Bridge : hiring fair, 107
Mende : rite against barrenness,
129
Mending clothes on back unlucky,
Oxon, 91
Menhirs : Malta, 263
Meningitis : binding church for,
Crete, 357
Men's house : Kiwai Papuans,
289-91, 295-301, 311
Menstruation : amulets for,
Spain, 67
Mera, month of : lights hoisted,
Manipur, 445
Merchant of Venice as folk-tale,
474-5
Merioneth : hiring fairs, 107
Mermaid beliefs : Sutherland, 192
Merrj'-thought : omen from, On-
tario, 222
Mersey river : in gipsy funeral
. rites, 349
Metals, see Gold ; Iron and steel ;
Silver
Metal working : 396 ; Manipur,
420
Method of Investigation and Folk-
lore Origins, by W. Crooke,
14-40
Mexico, see Tarascoes
Michaelmas Day : in saying, Bre-
consh., 511
Middlesex, see London
Milk : lactation amulets, Spain,
66-7"
Millstone : as symbol, Baluchi-
stan, 228
Miltown : Armada, 491
Mince pies : in nurser\- rhyme,
Oxon, 78
Minoan culture, 26
Minutes of meetings, 1-6, 153-4,
281-3
Index,
559
Mirror, see Looking glass |
Missel-thrush : in saying, Bre- I
consh., 511 j
Mitcham : gipsies, 346, 351 i
Mithan : sacrificed, Manipur, 427,
Mithraism, 140
Mock mayors, see Mayors, mock
Mohawk Indians : weather signs,
219-20
Moirang : festival, 434 ; god, 422,
430 ; rites at life-index stone,
435-8
Moldavia : gipsies, 338
Mombasso : Devil's Bridge, 363
Moncuc : witchcraft, 362
Monday : dances, Breconsh., 514 ;
Feast, Breconsh., 513 ; hiring
fairs, Wales, 107 ; goddess born
on, Manipur, 425 ; perilous
days for birth and bleeding,
122 ; sapng, Piedmont, 216
Mondovi : tinkers' feasts, 217
Money, see Coins
Monkey : tabooed, Pokomo, 459 ;
in tales, Borneo, 274, S. Amer.,
58-9
Monkshood: name, Breconsh., 512
Monkton : use of church, 133
Monmouth : hiring fair, 106-7
Monmouthshire : [see also Aber-
carn ; Abergavenny ; Abery-
struth ; Caerleon ; Monmouth ;
Mynyddyslwyn ; Newport ;
Pantygassy : Raglan ; Stow ;
Usk) ; Holy IMountain, no ;
marriage custom, 109-10
Montbehard : tale, 188
Montgomeryshire : {see also Llan-
fair ; Welshpool) ; foundation
sacrifice, no
Moon : in amulets, Portugal, 65,
Spain, 64 ; controls weather,
Ontario, 220 ; new, seeing and
wishing, Ontario, 220 ; in nur-
sery rhyme, Oxon, 77 ; in
saying, Brecon.sh., 511 ; sun's
wife, S. Amer. Indians, 57 ;
venerated, S. Amer. Indians,
57 ; weather signs, Ontario,
220 ; worshipped, Manipur, 445
Mordiford : tale, 516-7
Moretonhampstead : fairs, 237-8
Mortyclough : battle, 373
Mota : hostile phratries, 159
Mother goddess : India, 535 ;
^linoan, 26
Mother-of-pearl : in amulets,
Italy, 70, Spain, 69-70
Mother-right : gipsies, 318-20 ;
Thonga, 145
Mothvey : hiring fair, 107
Mountain ash ; keeps out witches,
May I, Breconsh., 513
Mountain spirits : Piedmont, 364
Mt. Becetto : mountain spirit, 364
Mt. Bunasco : Devil's bridge, 363
Mt. Callan : in myth, 97 ; in
tales, 105, 206
Mt. Ida (Crete) : folklore items,
357-9
Mt. Pelion : Centaurs, 30-1
Mourning customs, see Death and
funeral customs and beliefs
Mouse : in tale, Breconsh., 517
Mouse-deer : in tales, Borneo, 274
Moyarta : Armada, 492 ; pro-
verb, 497
Moylough : St. Senan, 206
Muenane Indians : dance, 52
Mummers : Oxon, 86-7
Munster : [see also under names
of counties) ; wars with Con-
naught, 202
Murderer : hindered ship sailing,
Oxon, 89
Murut, the, 275
Museum : gifts to Society, 8
Mushroom : in saying, Breconsh.,
509
Musical instruments : [see also
Drum ; Flute ; Horn, musical ;
Panpipes ; Pennas ; Violin) ;
France, 137
Muskrat : weather sign, Ontario,
219
Mutton island : Armada, 491-2
Mwina, 457-8
Mycenaean culture, 26-7
Mynyddyslwyn : good spirit, 108
Mysteries : Savoy, 132
Myth : and ritual, 23-4 ; socio-
logical value of, 24 ; study of,
132
Nagas : [see also Maram) ; snake
beUefs, 150 ; taboo, 433
Nails, finger : baby's, unlucky to
cut, Ontario etc., 227, Quebec
etc., 361 ; cut on Friday, not
Sunday, Ontario, 221 ; omens
from, Ontario, 223, Oxon, 90 ;
in symboUc human sacrifice,
Manipur, 442-3
;6o
Index.
Nambutiri Brahnians, 148
Names : {see also Nicknames) :
ceremonial giving, S. Amer.
Indians, 46 ; gipsies originally
no surnames, 322 ; not named
after death, gipsies, 323, 352,
355 ; sealed by gift, Scandi-
navia etc., 259 ; secret, Aus-
tralia, 162, S. Amer. Indians,
46-7; are souls, 161; totemic,
160-3; women retain surnames
after marriage, gipsies, 318
Napanee: folklore, 219-27
Narran-ga : marriage, 186
Nats : Burma, 410-1
Nature spirits : Awemba, 268
Natursagen, Bd. iv, reviewed,
142-3
Navahoes : names, 180
Naj'ars, 148
Ndera, 457
Ndorobo, 280
Ndura, 457
Neapolis : punishment for adul-
tery, 341
Neath : hiring fair, 107
Necklaces : amuletic, Ontario,
223 ; Pokomo, 466 ; sacred,
Scandinavia etc., 259 ; S. Amer.,
49, 53-4
Nero, Emperor, 140
Nets, fishing, see Fishing
Neuralgia : amulet for, Ontario,
223
Neva, Boro good spirit, 42, 56
Newbridge-on-Wye : hiring fair,
107
New Caledonia : name for French,
1 68 ; taboo, 156
Newfoundland : amulet, 70
New Grange : origin of ornament,
26
New Guinea : {see also Kiwai
Papuans) ; death customs and
beliefs, 387-92
New Ireland :
totems, 181
Newport (Mon.)
good spirit, 107
custom, 109-10 ;
109
Newport (Pem.) :
107
New Year's Day :
Ontario, 221 ;
fordsh., 238-9 ;
consh., 512
marriage, loi
5th Nov., 109 ;
-8 ; marriage
tree belief,
hiring fair,
firstfooting,
omen, Here-
rhymes, Bre-
New Year's Eve : clean house,
Ontario, 221 ; fate for year
settled by gods, Manipur, 450-1
New Year's tide : [see also New
Year's Day ; New Year's Eve) ;
saying, Breconsh., 510-1
Ngao : bird names, 459, 468 ;
folklore items, 467-76 ; myths,
461 ; two villages, 475
Ngatana, 457, 469
Ngojama, fabulous being, 469-72
Ngoloko, fabulous snake, 467
Nicknames : Breconsh., 507-8 ;
as origin of group names, 165-75;
S. Amer. Indians, 47
Niding : dangerous to fellows,
257-8
Night : feared, S. Amer. Indians,
57-8
Nine : in charm, Ontario, 224 ;
gods, Manipur, 421-3
Norfolk : {see also Gorleston ;
Lynn ; Wymondham) ; apple-
tree custom, 237 ; rhymes, 239
North : guardian of, Manipur,
422-3
North America : {see also Canada ;
Eskimo ; Mexico ; Newfound-
land ; United States of North
America) ; peopling of, 25
North Carolina : nicknames, 167
North-east : gods of, Manipur, 423
Northleigh : Devil appears, 84 ;
ghost, 84
Northumberland : cutting nails,
221, 227 ; folk-medicine, 361 ;
■gipsies, 335 ; saying, 223
Norway : Norse in tales, Clare,
365
Nose: omen from, Ontario, 227,
Oxon, go
Notes and Queries on Anthropology,
reviewed, 392-7
Nottinghamshire, see Selston ;
Sutton-on-Trent
November : {see also Guy Fawkes'
Day ; St. Andrew's Day) :
hiring fairs, Wales, 106-7
November Eve : tale, Clare, 496-7
Nuada Silver-Arm, 97
Numbers : {see also under names) ;
lucky and unluck}' days, 122
Nursery rhymes : Oxon, 77-8
Nutmeg : amulet, Ontario, 223
Nuts : {see also Betel-nut ; Chest-
nut ; Walnut) ; as amulets, S.
Amer., 59
Index.
561
Oak-tree : on May ist, Breconsh.,
512 ; on May 29th, Mon-
mouthsh., 109, Oxon, 87-8 ;
rhyme, Warwicksh., 240
Oaths : Scandinavia, 260
Obituary, see In Memoriam
October : (see also November
Eve) ; dance, S. Amer. Indians,
51 ; hiring fairs, Wales, 106-7
Odin, 259
Oisin the bard, 103-4
OHve-tree : leaves as incense,
Cyprus, 357-8
Olympia : flogging on grave,
387-8
Omens : (see also Lucky and un-
lucky days and deeds) ;
from : — animals, Manipur, 427,
436, Ontario, 223, Oxon, 88 ;
baby crying, Quebec, 361 ;
birds, Manipur,427-8, Ontario,
223, Oxon, 88, Pokomo, 467-8;
breaking mirror, Ontario, 225,
Oxon, 90-1 ; candle, Oxon,
88, 91, Piedmont, 213 ; cloth-
ing, Quebec, 361-2 ; cone of
kabok, Manipur, 434-5 ; cut-
ting teeth, Quebec, 361 ;
, dreams, Ontario, 227, Oxon,
91, Quebec, 361 ; dropping
dishcloth, Ontario, 225 ;
embers, Oxon, 91 ; falling
picture, Ontario, 222 ; froth
in cup, Ontario, 227 ; horse-
shoe, Ontario, 222 ; insects,
Breconsh., 517, Ontario, 227,
Oxon, 88 ; knocks, Here-
fordsh., 238-g ; laughter,
Oxon, 91 ; loaf, Ontario,
222 ; names and chance
utterances, Greeks, 247 ;
passing funeral, Ontario, 222 ;
parts of the body, Ontario,
223, 227, Oxon, 90, Quebec,
361 ; sea-sickness, Quebec,
362 ; seeing new moon,
Ontario, 220 ; shaking hands,
Ontario, 222 ; shuddering,
Oxon, 91 ; sleeping on face,
Ontario, 223 ; sneezing,
Oxon, 91 ; sowing, Ontario,
223 ; splashing, Quebec etc.,
361; spoons, Ontario etc., 222;
stye on eye, Piedmont, 93 ;
tea leaves, Ontario, 225-6,
Oxon, 91 ; weather, Oxon,
88 ; wishbone, Ontario, 222 ;
of: — Dirth, Quebec, 361 ; death,
Ontario, 222-3, Oxon, 88,
Piedmont, 213, Pokomo, 467 ;
enemies, Oxon, 91 ; fishing,
Pokomo, 468 ; future life,
Oxon, 88 ; gifts, Oxon, 90 ;
marriage, Breconsh., 517,
Ontario, 222, Oxon, 88, Pied-
mont, 93, Quebec, 361 ; new
dress, Ontario, 227 ; talk
about one, Oxon, 90-1 ;
visitors, Ontario, 225, Oxon,
91, Quebec, 361 ; weather,
Breconsh., 517 ;
S. Amer. Indians, 59
Onion-flower : stops witches,
Greece, 127
Ontario Beliefs, by H. J. Rose,
219-27
On the IndependeHt Character of
the Welsh " Owain," by A. C. L.
Brown, reviewed, 254-6
Opal : unlucky, Oxon, 90
O'Quin, tale of, 378-81
Orbassan : in proverb, 95
Ordeals : poison, Africa, 269
Orissa : Lacey's The Holy Land of
the Hindus, reviewed, 534-6
Orkneys : nicknames, 165
Ormskirk : tree beUef, 31
Ornaments, personal : S. Amer.
Indians, 48-9, 60
Orris root : in folk-medicine,
London, 120
Orta, Lake : souls as flames, 217
Osier : in tale, Clare, 212
Ossetes : childbirth, 195
Other World : not Fairyland, 256
Oughtdarra : tale, 103
Owl : omen from, Oxon, 88
Ox : horns in charm. Piedmont,
362
Oxfordshire : (see also Barnard
Gate ; Bicester ; Chilswell
Hill ; Church Handborough ;
Evnsham ; Holton ; Long
Handborough ; Northleigh ;
Witney) ; gipsies, 336 ; omen.
222 ; Oxfordshire Village Folk-
lore (1840-1900). by A. Parker,
74-91 ; place-names, 279-80
Oyster : as nickname, Orkneys,
165
Ozi river : connected with Tana,
463
Paca : flesh tabooed, S. .\mer., 45
562
Index.
Padimelon : totem, Aus., 176
Pagan Tribes of Borneo, The, by
C. Hose and W. IM'Dougall,
reviewed, 273-7
Paintings : body, S. Amer.
Indians, 48 ; cave, 38 ; wall,
Roman, 140
Pakhangba, deity, 413, 422-4, 443,
523
Palestine : {see also Adada ;
Neapolis) ; survivals, 30
Palm-rat : in tale, Pokomo, 475
Palm Sunday : ' palms ' used as
incense, Cyprus, 358
Palm-tree : [see also Coco palm ;
Date palm ; Dum palm ; Sago
palm) ; venerated, S. Amer.
Indians, 57
Panam Ningthau, deity, 433-4
Pan leaves : in rites, Manipur,
430, 440, 452
Pandora's box, 390
Panjab : Devi cult, 271
Panpipes : S. Amer. Indians, 50
Panther : as badge, Dacotas, 174
Panthoibi, deity, 413, 424, 426-7,
432-3
Pantygassy : good spirit, 108
Papers read before Foik-Lore
Society, 2-3, 7-8, 153-4, 281-2
Paradise : S. Amer. Indians,
53-4
Parker, A. : Oxfordshire Village
Folklore (1840-1900), 74-91
Parrot : in tales, S. Amer., 58 ;
totems, Melanesia, 181
Parsley : not transplanted, War-
wicksh. etc., 240
Parsnip Day : Wales, 513
Partridge, J. B. : Cotswold Place-
Lore and Customs, 8 ; fairs,
107 ; Scraps of English Folk-
lore, 237-8
Passion plays : Savoy, 132
Pathans : rain-stopping, 231
Peacock : feathers for god's litter,
Manipur, 432 {plate)
Peccary : in tales, S. Amer., 58
Peel towers, Clare, 377
Peists, 104, 206
Pelican : in song, Kiwai Papuans,
292, 294
Pembroke : hiring fair, 107
Pembrokeshire : hiring fairs, 107
Pennas, Manipur, 431 {plate)
Penybont : hiring fair, 107
Peony : in saying, Breconsh., 510
Perch : amulet fiom, Brit., 70 ;
as personal name, Kurnai, 170
Perry, W. J. : reviews by, 273-7,
404-6
Perseus and Andromeda type of
folk-tales, 263
Persia ; blessing and cursing, 247 ;
Georgian epic derived from,
403-4 ; tales, 32
Phallicism, 37, 64, 228-9
Phaneromeni ; bogey, 359
Phau-woibi, rice goddess, 426,
445-8
Phayeng : divine ancestor, 444 ;
sacrifice, 444 ; sky god, 424,
444
Phoenicians : influence on Greece,
26
Phunga Lairu, household god, 444
Piano di St. Martino ; tale, 364
Picture : omen from fall, Ontario,
222
Piedmontese Folklore, by E.
Canziani, 213-8, 362-4
Piedmontese Proverbs in Dispraise
of Woman, by E. Canziani, 91-6
Pig : {see also Wild boar) ; Black,
and pagan meeting places, Ire-
land, 370 ; killed in new moon,
Ontario, 220 ; in nursery
rhymes, Oxon, 78 ; sacrificed,
Manipur. 423, 427-8, 433, 436,
438, 441 ; in song, Kiwai
Papuans, 300 ; as symbol, 532 ;
in tale, Pokomo, 475 ; totem,
Melanesia, 181
Pigeon : feathers hinder death,
Oxon, 88 ; as nickname, France,
165 ; in rhyme, Warwicksh.,
239 ; white, sacrificed, Manipur,
444
Pilgrimage : Manipur, 418 ;
routes. Savoy, 132
Pillerton : folk-medicine, 241
Pilsudski, B. : The Gilyaks and
their Songs, 477-90
Pin : lucky to pick up, Ontario,
226
Pindus :, divination, 358
Pineapple : dance, S. Amer.
Indian, 51
Pinerolo : tale, 218
Piscina : in proverb, 95
Pitre's Collection of Sicilian Folk-
lore, The Completion of Prof.,
by E. S. Hartland, 245-6, 282
Place-Kames of Oxfordshire, The,
Index.
56;
by H. Alexander, noticed,
279-80
Plague : in Oare, 209
Plantain fruit : ofiered, Manipur,
435-6, 440, 446
Planting customs and beliefs :
Breconsh., 511 ; Ontario, 220;
Kiwai Papuans, 306 ; S. Amer.
Indians, 48
Plants, see Flowers and plants
Plate : broken at marriage, gip-
sies, 335
Ploughing customs and beliefs :
Manipur, 446
Plough Monday : Cambs., 234
Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans, The,
by G. Landtman, 154, 284-313
Poison : among S. Amer. Indians,
55
Pokomo Folklore, by A. Werner,
281, 456-76
Polo : played by gods, Manipur,
427
Polygamy : gipsies, 331 ; Po-
komo, 465
Polynesia, see Fiji islands ;
Loyalty islands
Ponte Canale : marriage custom,
214-5
Portraiture : objected to, S. Amer.
Indians, 49
Portugal : amulets, 64-5
Possession, demon and spirit :
amulets against, Italy, 73 ;
Awemba, 269 ; Manipur, 427-9,
451-2 ; Thonga, 146
Potato : planted at full moon,
Ontario, 220
Potter, F. S. : Scraps of English
Folklore, 239-41
Potters (gipsies), the, 316, 327,
347
Pottery : eaten, Congo, 396 ;
Malta, 263
Pouncy, H. : Old Dorset Customs
and Superstitions, 4
Pragelato : birth customs, 213 ;
death customs, 213
Prairie dog : clan name. Crow
Indians, 175
Prayers : [see also Lord's Prayer) ;
unknown, S. Amer. Indians,
56
Pre-animism. 125
Pregnancy, see Birth
President : election, 5 ; Presi-
dential Address, 5, 14-40
Presteign : hiring fair, 107
Priestesses: Manipur, 410-1, 427.
429-32 ; of nature spirits,
Awemba, 268 9
Priests : Burma, 410 ; India.
534 ; Manipur, 410-1, 429, 431,
434-7. 440-1. 444. 447-8, 450-2
Prophecy : Awemba, 269 ; Mani-
pur, 429
Proverbs and savings : Breconsh.,
509-11; Cambs., 237; Clare.
497 ; Ontario, 223, 226-7 ;
Oxon, 76-7, 90 ; Piedmont,
91-6, 216-7 ; Servia, 92 ; S.
Amer. Indians, 55 ; Yorksh.,
361, 509
Psychological Study 0/ Religion, A,
by J. H. Leuba, 124-6
Punan : account of, 273-4
Punjab, see Panjab
Pureiromba, deity, 412-3
I*wllheli : hiring fair, 107
Quebec Folklore Notes, iii, bj'
E. H. and H. J. Rose, 360-2
Queen Elizabeth : in tales, Clare,
490-1
Queen Mary : not in tales, Clare,
490
Queen of Heaven, worship of, 532
Querin : tales, 496-7, 499-500
Quin : Franciscans, 203, 376,
499; saint, 204; tales, 103, 375,
377, 491. 499
Rabbit : foot as amulet, America,
226
Race : effect on local beliefs, 29-30
Radha : in religious play, Mani-
pur, 417 (plate)
Radnorshire : foundation sacri-
fice, no ; Four Stones, tale of,
no ; hiring fair, 107 ; in say-
ing, Breconsh., 509
Raglan : hiring fair, 107
Rag-trees : Manipur, 453
Rain : deity of, Manipur, 422 ;
rites to bring or stop, Baluchi-
stan, 229-32, Manipur, 453-5 ;
sayings, Breconsh., 511, On-
tario, 219-20, Piedmont, 216-7
Rainbow : changes sex, Baluchi-
stan, 232
Rajputana : exhibit, 8 ; mar-
riage, Rajputs, 334 ; Rajputs,
534
Ram, see Sheep
M
Index.
Kanipsinitus and the King's
Treasury, 32
Rat : charm against, Ontario,
^27 ; tabooed, Pokomo, ^58 ;
totem, Aus., 184
Rathblamaic : saint, 208
Raven : clan name. Crow Ind.,
175 ; dedicated. Scan., 262
Read. D. H. Moutray : exhibit, 8
Red : in amulets, Portugal, 65,
Spain, 65 ; cloth and thread as
symbols, Baluchistan, 228 ;
courtship gifts, gipsies, 333
Red ochre : totem, Aus., 171, 184
Reincarnation beliefs : as animals,
Awemba, 269; Hinduism, 521
Reindeer : horns in dance.
Abbot's Bromley, 133
Relationship : Aus., 408 ; terms,
Gilyaks, 489, gipsies, 323, S.
Amer. Indians, 46-7
Religion : defined, 124 ; Durk-
heim's Les Formes £lementaires
de la Vie Religieuse reviewed,
525-31 ; as outgrowth of social
— environment, 32-3 ; Leuba's
A Psychological Study of Re-
ligion reviewed, 124-6 ; savage,
-:- not definable in formulae, 22-3
Religion of Manipur, The, by J.
Shakespear, 281, 409-55 [plates),
518-23
Religions Moeiirs et ■ Legendes,
Series ii and iv, by A. van
Gennep, reviewed, 128-32
Reports of Brand Committee,
1 1 1-9, 382 ; of Council, 7-13
Reptiles, see Crocodile ; Frog ;
Lizard ; Toad ; Tortoise
Reviews, 124-52, 252-80, 386-408,
525-36
Rheumatism : cure for, S. Amer.,
60
Rhodesia : Gouldsbury and
Sheane's The Great Plateau of
Northern Rhodesia reviewed,
264-5, 267-9
Rhymes : {see also Folk-songs ;
Nursery rhymes) ; Breconsh.,
508-12 ; Cambs., 234 ; Here-
fordsh., 238 ; in Kiwai poetry,
309-10 ; Oxon, 81-2, 85, 87-90 ;
Warwicksh., 239-40
Rice : in rites, Manipur, 430-1,
4.35-6. 440. 444. 447 ; spirit of,
Manipur, 426, 445-8
Rickets : cure for, Clare, 207
Riddles : Gilyaks, 478 ; S. Amer.
Indians, 52
Riding the stang : Warwicksh.,
240-1
Right : hand in amulets, Spain, 65
Ring, iron : as symbol, Baluchi-
stan, 228
Rings, finger : opal unlucky,
Oxon, 90 ; rush, for marriage,
gipsies and Wales, 337 ; in tclles,
Clare, 104
Rip van Winkle type of folk-tales,
515
Ritual : relation of myth to, 23-4
Rivers and streams : (see also
under names) ; gods enticed
from, Manipur, 428 ; gods of,
Manipur, 430
Rivers, W. H. R. : The Socio-
logical Significance of Myth, 8
Robin : not killed, Oxon, 89
Rocks, see Stones and rocks
Rock tombs, Malta, 263
Romance of Melusine, The, by
E. S. Hartland, 187-200, 282
Romans, ancient : amulets, 68 ;
wall paintings, 140
Roots, see Mandrake ; ^Manioc ;
Orris root ; Yam
Rose : in tale, Breconsh., 512
Rose, E. H. : Quebec Folklore
Notes, iii, 360-2 -
Rose, H. J. : Charon-Charos, 247 ;
Ontario Beliefs, 219-27 ; Quebec
Folklore Notes, iii, 360-2
Ross : saints, 212
Rossington : gipsies, 351
Rough music, Oxon, 84-5
Rousset : romance of Melusine,
188
Rowlstone : charm for calving,
238
Royal Oak Day, see Shick-shack
Day
Rua : birth customs, 213
Rue : as symbol, Baluchistan,
228
Rules Concerning Perilous Days,
by L. Gomme, 12 1-3
Rules of Folk-Lore Society, 11
Rush rings : in marriage, gipsies
etc., 337
Russia : {see also Courland ;
Georgia ; Ossetes ; Sakhalin ;
Ukraine ; Votiaks) ; folk-songs,
2
Ruthin : hiring fair 107
Index,
i65
Sacrifice :
animal : — Gilyaks, 4S8 ; India,
29 ; Manipur, 414, 423, 427,
433, 441, 451-2 ; as marriage
rite, gipsies, 338 ; Wales,
no; gQ
gestation periods of animals
enumerated at, Manipur, 440 ;
human : — ^Khasis, 443 ; Mani-
pur, 443, 523 ; symbolized,
Manipur, 440-3 ;
other than animal, India, 28,
Manipur, 426, 435, 444, 448,
452; unknown, S.Amer. Indians,
57
Sago-palm : in song, Kiwai Pa-
puans, 300
Sailors' customs and beliefs, see
Sea customs and beliefs
St Anastasius : in amulets, Italv,
73, Spain, 73
St Andrew's Day : fair, Devon,
St Barnabas' Day : fair, Wales,
, 107
St Bartholomew's Day : saying.
Piedmont, 216
St Benignus, 363
St Blawfugh of Rath, 21 1-2
St Brecan, 204-5 (plate)
St Caimeen of Iniscaltra, 210-1
St Cannara, 207
St Chad's Day : rhyme, War-
wicksh., 239
St Colaun of Tomgraney, 208
St Colman mac Duach, 209-10
St Colman of Cloyne, 205
St Colman of Tomgraney, 208
St Columba, 202, 208
St Davids : hiring fair, 107
St David's Day : rhyme, War-
wicksh., 239
St Eigen, 505
St Enda, 203-5
St Fanchea, 203, 205
St Findchu, 211
St Flannan, 203, 211
St Forgas, 212
St George's Day : in saying,
. Piedmont, 216
St Inghine Baoith, see St Findchu
St James : in amulets, Spain, 71
St John's Eve : love charm.
Piedmont, 216
St Luchtighern, 208-9 (plate)
St MacCrecius, 203, 208-9
St Manawla, 21 1-2
St Mark's Day : in saying. Pied-
mont, 210
St Martin's Hill : Good Friday
rites, 34
St Matthias' Day : rhyme, War-
wicksh., 239
St Michael, 206
St Mochulleus, 203, 210
St Moling, 202
St Molua, 211
St Patrick, 202-3
St Paul's Day : in saying. Pied-
mont, 216
St Peter : 217 ; gild of, Lynn,
249-50 ; in toothache amulet,
Breconsh., 507
Saints, Balochi : make rain, 232
St Senan, 97, 203, 205-8, 212, 372,
374
Saints, Irish : (see also under
names) ; legends, 202-3
Saints, Piedmont : appear as
flames, 217
St Swithin's Day : saying, Cambs.,
237 ; weather sign, Ontario, 219
St Tola, 203, 21 1-2
St Vincent's Day : in saying.
Piedmont, 216
Sakhalin, see Gilyaks
Saliva : in charm, Ontario, 224
Salkeld : use of church, 133
Salt : in rain stopping, Baluchi-
stan, 231 ; in rites, Manipur,
436 ; unlucky to spill, Ontario
etc., 226, Oxon, 90
Salvage stock of Society, 1 1
Sampeyre : mountain spirit, 364
Sankuru river : Luba people, 269
San Sebastian : amulets, 64, 67-8,
72-3
Santhong, deity, 423, 435-8
Saragossa : amulet, 72
Sarawak : Hose and M'Dougall's
The Pagan Tribes of Borneo
reviewed, zjy]
Sarn : hiring fair, 107
Sarnesfield : use of church, 133
Saturday : dreams, Oxon, 91 ;
evil spirits fed, Manipur, 450 ;
goddess bom on, Manipur, 425 ;
in romance of Melusine, 188-9,
198 ; weather signs, Ontario,
220, Piedmont, 216
Savannahs : origin of, 42
Savoy : drama, 132 ; exhibit, 8 ;
tales, 132
Scalpay is. ; folk-medicine, 384
566
Index.
Scandinavia : {see also Denmark ;
Iceland ; Norway) ; marriage,
194 ; sliip burials, 253 ; society
based on certain conceptions,
256-62 ; tales, 192
Scattery Island, see St Senan
Scorpion : cure for bite, Cyprus,
358 ; as village name, Hebrews,
165
Scotland: [see also Hebrides; High-
lands ; Orkneys ; Shetlands) ;
calendar customs, 117 ; gipsies,
316-7, 321, 332, 335-6, 339 ;
place-names, 99 ; simulated
change of sex, 385 ; tales, 39,
102
Scraps of English Folklore, vii,
234-41
Sea customs and beliefs : {see also
Fishing customs and beliefs) ;
dolls, 3, 8 ; murderer hinders
sailing, Oxon, 89 ; sea laughs,
Kiwai Papuans, 312
Sea-eagle : totem, Melanesia, 181
Sea-gull : totem, Melanesia, 181
Seal : as nickname, Orkneys, 165 ;
in tale, Shetlands, 192
Sea-sickness : omen from, Quebec,
362
Seats : high seat, Scandinavia, 260
Second sight : Ontario, 221-2
Secretary, 6
Segovia : amulets, 69-70
Selling : customs, Scandinavia,
260
Selston : gipsies, 351
Senamahi, deity, 413, 422-3, 443-4,
450
September : {see also Michaelmas
Day) ; Feasts, Breconsh., 513-4,
Glos., 249 ; hiring fairs, Wales,
107 ; perilous Monday in, 122
Septuagesima : plan to find, 122-3
Serampore ■ god's car, 535-6
Serpent, see Snake
Servia : childbirth, 195 ; gipsies,
334. 339. 347. 352, 355 ; pro-
verbs, 92 ; punishment of adul-
tery, 341
Seven : in death custom, gipsies,
355 ; evil spirits, Manipur, 430,
450 ; in getting clean fire,
Manipur, 429 ; goddesses, Mani-
pur, 421, 423, 425-6 ; in offer-
ings, Manipur, 451 ; 7th son,
Skye, 384, of 7th son, Oxon,
90
Severn river : in gipsy funeral
rites, 350
Seville : amulets, 64, 66-71, 73 ;
sacred dance, 129
Sex ; simulating cliange of, 385
Sexual intercourse, taboos on, see
Taboos
Shakespear, J. : The Religion of
Manipur, 281, 409-55 {plates),
518-23
Shaking hands : omen, Ontario,
222
Shamans, see Wizards
Shannon river : not crossed by
St Patrick, 203 ; Cuchullin's
leap, 99 ; St Senan, 206 ; in
tales, 105, 498
Shape-shifting : by Devil, Pied-
mont, 363 ; by medicine-man,
S. Amer.,.55 ; in myth, Lusheis,
150 ; in romance of Melusine,
189 ; in song, Kiwai Papuans,
299
Shaving : as rite, Manipur, 416-7
Sheep : black ram. Devil as.
Piedmont, 363 ; divination by-
shoulder blade, Greeks, 358 ;
in saying, Breconsh. etc., 509 ;
in tale, Scotland, 39
Shellfish, see Oyster
Shells : as amulets, Spain, 69-70
Shetlands : tale, 192
Shick-shack Da\- : Monmouthsh.,
109 ; Oxon, 87-8
Shield : Borneo, 276
Ship burials, 253
Ships : embodied captain's
nature, Scandinavia etc., 259
Shipston-on-Stour : loo-belling,
240
Shirt : in charm, Ontario, 224
Shoe : in charm, Oxon, 79 ; lucky
to put left on first, Ontario, 226 ;
not on dead, gipsies, 345, 354 ;
in ritual, 127 ; in saying, Bre-
consh., 509
Shoreditch : folk-medicine, 120 ;
love-philtre, 120
Shcfrt Account of the Indians of
the Issa-Japura District, A, by
T. W. Whiffen, 3, 8, 41-62
Short Bibliographical Notices,
279-80, 536
Shrove Tuesday : games, Cambs.,
234-5 ; rhyme, Oxon, 85
Shuganu : ancestral deities, 425 ;
hangjaba incarnates god, 435,
Index,
.67
438-9 ; symbolic human sacri-
fice, 442-3
Siberia, see Sakhalin
Sicilian Folklore, The Completion
of Prof. Pitr^'s Collection of, by
E. S. Hartland, 245-6
Siebenbiirger gipsies, 344
Sieve : divination by, Cyprus, 358 ;
stops bogev, Greece, 127
Silbury Hill," bv R. M. Heanley,
524'
Silver : amulets, Quebec, 361,
Spain, 63-4, 66 ; bullet against
witches, Ontario, 224 ; for
divination, Manipur, 437 ;
divine origin of, Manipur, 425 ;
offering, Manipur, 430, 437, 439
Simulated Change of Sex to Baffle
the Evil Eye, by W. Crooke, 385
Sioux : nicknames, 165, 168
Siren : as amulet, Spain, 71
Siva, 433
Sixmilebridge : tales, 490, 502-3
Skin diseases : caused by tree or
spirit, Manipur, 453
Skulls : dried, S. Amer. Indians,
53
Skunk : clan name. Crow Ind., 1 75
Sky-god : Galla, 471 ; Manipur,
424-5, 444-5
Skye, Isle of : folk-medicine, 384 ;
tale, 102
Skyrrid, sacred mountain, no
Sleepers : Sioda, Clare, 377
Sheve Aughty : origin of name, 97
Sloth : in tales, S. Amer., 58
Smoke : in rain stopping, Baluchi-
stan, 231
Snail : in charm, Oxon, 89, War-
wicksh., 241 ; not on Holy
Mountain, Bromyard, no;
shells for lamps, Piedmont, 215
Snake : [see also Anaconda) ;
ancestor of royal family, Mani-
pur, 422 ; beliefs about, Assam,
150; deity in shape of, Manipur,
423 ; Devil as, Oxon, 84 ; in
romance of Melusine, 189, 191 ;
in tales, Breconsh., 516-7, Clare,
369-70, Malta, 263, S. Amer.,
58 ; white, fabulous, Pokomo,
467 ; worshipped, Khasis etc.,
443
Sneezing : omen from, Oxon, 91
Snow : saying, Ontario, 220,
Piedmont, 216
Sobriquets, see Nicknames
Social organization : S. Amer.
Indians, 43-4, 48
Solomon islands : Thumwald's
Ethno-psychologische Studien an
Sudseevolkern attf . . . den Sa-
lomo-Inseln reviewed, 404-6
Somerset : {see also Glastonbury ;
Tintinhull) ; evil eye, 382-3
Sorarel, deity, 424, 444-5, 453, 454
Sorcery, see Witchcraft
Sore throat : cure for, Quebec etc.,
361
Soul : dual, Lusheis, 149 ; as
flame. Piedmont, 217; can
leave living body, S. Amer.
Indians, 55 ; name as, 161
South : god of, Manipur, 421, 423,
435
South America : (see also British
Guiana ; Issa-Japur4 District) ;
languages, 61-2 ; migrations,
25. 61
South-west : gods of, Manipur,
423 ; sacred corner of house,
Manipur, 443
Sowing customs and beliefs :
omen from missing cast, On-
tario, 223; Piedmont, 216;
rhymes, Herefordsh., 238, War-
wicksh., 239
Spain : (see also Seville) ; amu-
lets, I, 8, 63-74 (plates) ; gipsies,
33S-9
Spanish Point : Armada, 491
Spear-throwing, 394
Sphakia : divination, 35S
Spirits : (see also Ghosts) ; four
kinds, S. Amer. Indians, 57 ;
white lady, Breconsh., 516
Spoon : omen, Ontario etc., 222 ;
in tea-drinking, Oxon, 83
Sprains : curing, Breconsh., 507
Squirrel: weathersign, Ontario, 220
Staffordshire : (see also .\bbot's
Bromley) ; gipsies, 345
Stag, see Deer
Stairs : unlucky to meet on,
Ontario etc., 226, Oxon, 90
Stanstead Abbots : gipsies, 336
Starling : as nickname, Orkneys,
165
Stars : spirits of great, S. Amer.
Indians, 57 ; weather sign,
Ontario, 220 ; wishing, Ontario,
221 ; worshipped, Manipur, 445
Staveley : gipsy funeral, 347
Stealing : in charm, Ontario, 224 ;
568
Index.
charm must be stolen, 150,
Breconsh., 506 ; thieves' amu-
let, Herefordshire, 238
Steatopygous figures : Malta, 263
Sting-ray: in song, Kiwai Pa-
puans, 293
Stocking : in charm, Quebec etc.,
Stone Age : folklore of, 38-9 ; S.
Amer., 60- 1
Stone circles : as mosques, Ba-
luchistan, 228
Stones and rocks : {see also Dol-
mens ; Megalithic structures ;
Menhirs ; Stone circles) ;
erected by Rajas etc., Manipur,
435-8, Nagas, 522 ; in legend,
Clare, 210 ; as life-index, Mani-
pur, 435-6, 438 ; lingams, Ba-
luchistan, 228-9 ; in magic to
bring rain, Manipur, 454 ;
magic, in tale, Fiji, 233 ;
marked by Devil, Piedmont,
363, and saints, Clare, 208, 212 ;
over kings' graves, Radnor, 1 10 ;
for sharpening swords, Clare,
201 [plate) ; stone seat cures
backaches, Clare, 211 ; as sym-
bols, 532
Stone-throwing, ceremonial :
Argos, 389
Stow : 5th Nov., 109
Stratford-by-Bow : love-charm,
121
Stratford-on-Avon: mandrake, 240
Straw : at hiring fairs, Wales, 106
Styes on eye : omen from, Pied-
mont, 93
Subscribers admitted, 4, 7, 153
Subscribers resigned, i, 7
Sucking as cure, S. Amer., 59-60
Sudan : Bland-Sutton's Man and
Beast in Eastern Ethiopia
noticed, 280
Suffolk, see Bamford
Sugar cane : offered, Manipur,
435. 440
Suicide : Gilyaks, 480, 487-90
Sun : daughter of, Clare, 98 ; in
tale, Lusheis, 149 ; venerated,
S. Amer. Indians, 57 ; wor-
shipped, Manipur, 445
Sundav : [see also Palm Sunday) ;
Feast, Breconsh., 513-4 :
games, Wales, 108-9 ; goddess
bom on, Manipur, 426 ; god's
house only accessible on, Mani-
pur, 426 ; nails not cut on,.
Ontario, 221
Sunset : in song, Kiwai Papuans,
312
Surrey, see Guildford ; Mitcham ;
St Martin's Hill
Sutherland : tale, 192
Sutton-on-Trent : gipsies, 349-50
Swahili : tale, 474, 476
Swallow : not killed, Oxon, 89
Swan-maiden type of folk-tales,
192-3, 378-81"
Swellings : amulet against, On-
tario, 224
Switzerland : gipsies, 339 ; Hoff-
mann-Krayer's Feste und
Brauche des Schweizervolkes re-
viewed, 400
Sword : embodied owner's nature,
Scandinavia etc., 259 ; hilt,
Borneo, 276
Symbolism : Bayley's The Lost
Language of Symbolism re-
viewed, 531-3
Table : sitting on, Ontario, 222
Taboos : on animals, gipsies, 328 ;
among Brahmans, 148 ; at
childbirth, gipsies, 324-6, S.
Amer., 45-6 ; discussed, 130 ;:
exogamy, see Exogamy ; on
favourite food and drink etc.
of dead, gipsies, 351-2 ; food,
Manipur, 420, 429, Pokomo,
458-9 ; on god's houses and
groves, Manipur, 426 ; on
names of dead, gipsies, 323, 352,
355 ; on newly wedded, 197-8 ;
in romance of Melusine, 188-9,
192, 194, 197; between sexes
during festival, Manipur, 433 ;
on sick persons, gipsies, 327 ;
among Thonga, 146-7 ; on
toilet and washing appliances
etc., gip.sies, 326-7
Tailed men : Danes, Clare, 366 ;
E. Africa, 472
Tana river : (see also Pokomo) ;
changes in, 463 ; fishing, 463-4 ;
name, 457 ; peoples on, 457
Tanga : marriage, 181 ; totems,
181
Tanganyika plateau : Goulds-
bury and Sheane's The Great
Plateau of Northern Rhodesia
reviewed, 264-5, 267-9
Tangkhul Nagas ': origin of, 433
Index.
569
Tantra of the Great Liberatiov , by
A. Avalon, reviewed, 533, 535
Taper, see Candle
Tapir : in tales, S. Amer., 58
Tarascoes : dances, 129
Tar Baby tales, 143
Tasnianians : Chelieans, 38
Tea-drinking : Oxon, 83
Tea-leaves : fortune-telling, On-
tario, 225-6, Oxon, 91
Teeskagh : in tale, 101-3
Teeth : cutting first tooth marked
by gifts, Scandinavia etc., 259 ;
gapped, Pokomo, 466 ; in neck-
laces, S. Amer. Indians, 49, 53-4
Teething : amulet in, Quebec,
361 ; omen from, Quebec, 361 ;
root used in. London, 120
Temples : Iceland, 261 ; Manipur,
426 {plate)
Thangjing, deity, 422-3, 430-2
Theriolatr\', see Animals
Thessaly : divination, 358
Thimble ; in charm, Quebec, 360
Thirteen : unlucky, Ontario, 223
Thomas, E. B.; Breconshire Village
Folklore, 505-17
Thomond : origin of, 202
Thompson, T. W. : The Cere-
monial Customs of the British
Gip.sies, 7, 314-56
Thonga : Junod's The Life of a
South African Tribe, vol. ii,
reviewed, 143-7
Thor : dedications to, Scandi-
navia, 262
Thousand Nights and a Sight, see
Arabian Nights
Three : years service for bride.
Manipur, 422
Thrush (disease) : charm against,
Warwicksh., 241
Thunder : noise of evil spirits, S.
Amer. Indians, 57
Thunder-stones, 67
Thursday : fair, Devon, 238 ;
goddess lx)rn on, Manipur, 425 ;
saying. Piedmont, 216
Tiersagen, by O. Dahnhardt and
A. von Lowis of Menar, re-
viewed, 142-3
Tiger : as badge, Dacotas, 174 ;
omens from, Manipur, 427, 436
Tiger or jaguar, see Jaguar
Tinkers : feasts, Piedmont, 217
Tinklers, the, 316-7, 324, 333, 338,
341-2, 345
Tintinhull ; wardens as traders,
134
Tipperary : Brian Boru, 367 ;
■ Graves of the Leinster Men,'
367-8 (plate) ; name, 367
Tir Hudi, land of, 106
Toad : as amulet, Herefordsh.,
238 ; Devil as. Piedmont, 363
Tobacco : as dance invitation, S.
Amer., 49 ; licked ceremonially,
S. Amer., 46-8 ; pipes, Clare,
365, 371 ; in songs, Gilyaks, 480,
Kiwai Papuans, 287
Tobergrania : dolmen, 100
Toes : nursery rhymes, Oxon, 78
Toledo : amulets, 64, 66
Tomfinlough : saint, 208-9
Tomgraney : saint, 208 ; tale, 502
Tongs : at divorce, 341, and
marriage, gipsies, 338
Tools : S. Amer. Indians, 60-1
Toomullin : saints, 204-5
Tooth, see Teeth
Toothache : amulet against, Bre-
consh., 507 ; charm against,
Ontario, 221, 224
Toothpicks : in charm, Ontario,
224
Torch : in ceremony, Manipur,
436
Torcross : 5th Nov. effigies, 237
Torday, E. : reviews by, 264-9
Torloughmore, tale of, 372
Tormentil root : as love-charm,
London, 121
Torres Straits islands : death
customs and beliefs, 387-92
Tortoise : in tales, Borneo, 274,
S. Amer., 58
To-tathi : class system, 183
Totemism : Mr. Andrew Lang's
Theory of the Origin of Exo-
gamy and Totemism, 155-86 ;
in Australian myth, 24 ; among
Bantu, 145, 269 ; Borneo, 275 ;
discussed, 130-1 ; Durkheim's
theory, 527, 529-30 ; Pokomo,
458-9 ; in tale, Scotland, 39 ;
no trace, S. Amer., 58
Touching wood : Ontario, 226
Tragedy : Greek, origin of, 140,
392
" Trailing Ale," Cambs., 236
Transylvania : gipsies, 338
Trawsfynydd : hiring fair, 107
Treasure, hidden : charm to
obtain, 252-3 ; Piedmont, 363
570
Index.
Treasurer, 6
Trees : [see also Apple-tree ; Ash-
tree ; Birch-tree ; Coco palm ;
Date palm ; Dumpalm; Elder-
tree; Fig-tree; Hawthorn -tree;
Hazel-tree ; Larch-tree ; Laurel-
tree; Mango-tree; Mountain ash;
Oak-tree ; Olive-tree ; Palm-
tree ; Rag-trees ; Sago palm) ;
cursing and blessing, 247-9 ;
divine origin of, Manipur, 425 ;
fetish trees, W. Africa, 21-2 ;
sacred groves, Manipur, 426-7,
Scandinavia, 261; in song, Kiwai
Papuans, 304; assymb3ls,532; in
tales, Clare, 369, Fiji.. 233 ; water
from as cure, Monmouthsh.,
109 ; weather signs, Ontario,
219-20 ; worshipped, Manipur,
452-3
Trefdraeth : hiring fair, 107
Tregaron : hiring fair, 107
Trinity Friday : hiring fair,
Wales, 107
Triton : as amulet, Spain, 71
Trochus shell : as amulet, Spain,
69
Trophimoff, M. : Modern Russian
Popular Songs, 2, 8
Troy, fall of, 36
Tuatha De Danann : in tales,
Clare, 96-8, loo-i, 103, 365, 504
Tuberculosis : 7th son, Skye, 384
Tuesday : (see also Shrove Tues-
day ; Whit Tuesday) ; goddess
bom on, Manipur, 425 , hiring
fairs. Whales, 107
TuUa : saint, 210 ; tales, 210,
375-6, 501
Tumours : amulets against, Italy,
72
Turin : Carnival and Lent pup-
pets, 215
Turkey-in-Europe : gipsies, 338-9,
345. 352, 355
Turlough Hill : fort, 105
Turning inside out : clothing of
corpse, gipsies, 345, 354 ; lucky,
Ontario, 226
Twentieth-Century ^larriage Cus-
toms, by A. R. Wright, 250-1
Twins : one exposed, S. Amer., 45,
59
Two : no name for higher number,
Aus., 182
Tyne, River : in gipsy funeral
rites, 350
Uganda : Bland-Sutton's Man
and Beast in Eastern Ethiopia
noticed, 280
Ukraine : childbirth, 195-6
Ulster, see Cuchulainn sagas ;
Donegal
Umanglais, see Forest gods
Umbrella : unlucky deed with,
Ontario etc., 226
United States of North America :
{see also Blackfoot Ind ; Chero-
kee Ind.; Crow Ind.; Dacota^ ;
Hurons ; Mohawk Ind.; Xava-
hoes ; North Carolina ; Sioux ;
Vermont); amulet, 226; gleaning
custom, 225 ; omen, 223
Unlucky days and deeds, see
Lucky
Urabunna : marriage custom,
176-9, 184 .
Urticaria : in funeral rites,
Thonga, 146
Urine : in marriage ceremony,
gipsies and Hottentots, 335
Urua : origin of Awemba, 269
Urvasi, the apsaras, 197-8
Usk : hiring fair, 107
Val d'Aosta : borrowing days,
216 ; tales, 362
Valentine's Day : rhyme, Cambs.,
234, Warwicksh., 239
Vampires ; Greece, 30-1 ; Servia,
347
Vehicle Mascots, by A. R. \\ right,
524
Venice : amulets, 72-3
Verbena : love charm. Piedmont,
216
Vermont : harvest customs, 225
\'erona : amulets, 72
Vice-Presidents, 5
Vienne, see Lusignan
Violin : Breconsh., 513 ; Gilyaks,
479
Virgin Mary, The : in amulets,
Portugal, 65, Spain, 71
Virginity, see Chastity
Visitors : means to bring, Ontario,
225 ; omens of, Ontario, 225
Vor FolketBt i Oldtiden, b}- V.
Griftnbech, reviewed, 256-62
Votiaks : childbirth, 195
Votive offerings : Spain, 74
Vulture : Devil as, Piedmont, 363
Waboni, 456
Index.
571
Wales : {see also under names of
counties) ; calendar customs,
117; gipsies. 316-7, 329-31,
336-7 ; Mabinogi, 254-6 ; mar-
riage, 193-4, 357 > Welsh Folk-
lore Items, i, 106-10
Walnut : in proverb. Piedmont,
95
Wangpurel, deity, 421, 423, 435,
438-9, 441-2, 444
Wangu : sacred image, 427
Wanyika, 460
Wapokomo, see Pokomo
War dances, see Dances
War songs, see Folk-songs
Warts: charm against, Breconsh.,
506, Ontario, 224, Oxon, 89
War\vickshire,see Ilmington; Strat-
ford-on-Avon
Wasanye, 456, 471, 474
Washing and wiping together
lucky, Ontario, 227
Washing clothes : omen from,
Quebec etc., 361 ; taboos con-
nected with, gipsies, 326 ; wood
ashes for, Breconsh., 508
Wasp : in saying, Breconsh.,
5"
Wasperton : loo-belhng, 241
Water: (see also Divination ; Lakes;
Rivers and streams ; Wells and
springs) ; divine origin of, Mani-
pur, 425 ; in dreams, Oxon,
91
Waterford : place-name, 99 ;
tales, 102
Water hen : clan, Aus., 176-8
Water horse : in tale, Clare, 377
Water-lily : eaten, Pokomo, 464
Water snake, see Anaconda
Water spirits : Doubs, 188
Water-tortoise : in tales, Borneo,
274
Weather sayings and signs : Bre-
consh., 511; Ontario, 219-20;
Piedmont, 216-7 ; Warwicksh.,
239-40; Yorksh., 220
Wednesday : goddess born on,
Manipur, 426
Week, days of, see under names
Weeks, J. H. : review by, 392-7
Wells and springs : (see also Holy
wells) ; Breconsh., 505-6, 508,
516 ; Clare, 369 ; sacred, Scan-
dinavia, 261 ; in tales, 102
Welsh Folklore Items, i., 106-10
Welshpool: Christmas custom, 108
Werner, A. : Pokomo Folklore
281, 456-76
West : god of, Manipur, 423
Westermarck, E. : The Moorish
Conception of Holiness, 282 ;
review by, 406-8
West Indies, see Jamaica
Westmorland : (see also Stave-
ley) ; gipsies, 316
Weston, J. L. : review by, 254-6
Westropp, T. J. : County Clare
Folk-Tales and Myths, 96-106,
201-12 (plates), 365-81 (plate),
490-504
Wexford : funeral custom, 31
Wheat : as amulet, gipsies, 336
Wheatley, H. B. : In Memoriam :
Lord Avebury, 242-4 ; Reports
of Brand Committee, 11 1-9, 382
Whiffen, T. W. : exhibits, 8 ;" A
Short Account of the Indians of
the Issa-Japura District, 3, 8,
41-62
Whistle : in amulets, Spain, 71-2
White animals, see under names
White bryony, see Mandrake
Whitechapel ; folk-medicine, 120
Whitsuntide : (see also Whit Tues-
day) ; fair, Monmouthsh., 109
Whit Tuesday : hiring fair, Wales,
107
Whooping cough : cures for,
Ontario, 224, Quebec, 360-1,
Warvvicksh., 241
Widows : remarry, Manipur, 416
Wife-beating : rough music, Oxon,
84-5
Wigton (Cumb.) : gipsies, 345-6
Wild ass : as village name, Heb-
rews ; 1 65
Wild boar : in tale, Clare, 502
Wild cat : in tales, Clare, 502
Wild dog : tabooed, Pokomo,
4.58-9
Wilts, see Avebury ; Highworth ;
Melksham ; Silbury Hill
Windle, B. C. A. : reviews by,
252-4
Winds : divine origin of, Manipur,
425 ; in sayings, Breconsh.,
509-11 ; weather saying, On-
tario, 219
Wirajuri : name, 167-9
Wise women : Somerset, 383
Wishbone, see Merrythought
Wishing : at first star, Ontario,
221 ; new moon, Ontario, 220 ;
5/2
Index.
averts ill-luck, Ontario, 225-6 ;
and naming poet, Ontario, 227 ;
ratified by gift, Scandinavia
etc., 258-9
Wishing Trees : Devon, 31
Witchcraft : {see also Charms and
spells ; Magic ; Witches ;
Wizards) ; amulets against,
Breconsh., 513, Manipur, 452,
Spain, I ; charms against, On-
tario, 224, Oxon, 83, Piedmont,
363 ; Oxon, 83-4 ; Piedmont,
362-3 ; Wales, no
Witches : amulets against, Spain,
73 ; Awemba, 269 ; charms
against, Ontario, 224 ; elf-locks
are saddles, Ontario, 224 ; stop
to count leaves, Greece, 127
Withemsea : gipsies, 349
Witney : wife-selling, 76
Witoto Indians : 42-3, 62 ;
names, 46-7 ; palm-tree vener-
ated, 57
Wives : {see also Marriage customs
and behefs ; Wife-beating ;
Widows) ; selling, Oxon, 76
Wizards : Awemba, 269 ; Giiyaks,
483 ; Ontario, 224 ; Pokomo,
461 ; S. Amer. Indians, 45-6,
55. 59 ; Thonga, 146
Women : {see also Birth customs
and beliefs ; Girls ; Marriage
customs and behefs ; Mother-
right ; Widows ; Wives) ; in
folk-songs, Oxon, 82 ; gods
prefer as servitors, Manipur,
428-9 ; names, S. Amer.
Indians, 47 ; objects touched by
dress unclean, gipsies, 326 ;
position of, Abyssinia, 199,
Oxon, 75, S. Amer. Indians, 48 ;
in proverbs, Oxon, 76, Pied-
mont, 91-6
Wonghi : name, 167-9
Woodlouse : in tale, Breconsh.,
516
Wood-spirits : Wales etc., 254-5
Worcestershire : (see also Bel-
broughton) ; lucky and unlucky
deeds, 226-7 ; parsley not trans-
planted, 240
Wren : not killed, Oxon, 89
Wright, A. R. : Japanese Spirits,
Mythology, and Folk-Tales, 8 ;
Twentieth-Century Marriage
Customs, 250-1 ; Vehicle Mas-
cots, 524
Wiirtemburg .: magic book, 139
Wymondham : church ownership,
134-5
Yam : in song, Kiwai Papuans,
299
Yao : tale, 473
Year : named, Manipur, 525
Yorkshire : {see also Darton ;
Rossington ; Withernsea) ; folk-
medicine, 360-1 ; gipsies, 336 ;
hawthorn a death tree, 31 ;
omens, 222, 361 ; saying, 509 ;
unlucky deeds, 226 ; weather
sign, 220
Yuin : group names, 170
Yumjau, household goddess, 444,
454
Zeus, 36
Zubaki, 457-8
OLASOOW : PRIKTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
(1913-)
R. R.
JJvtsibrnt.
MA RETT, M.A.
THE HON. JOHN ABERCROMBY.
LORD AVEBURY, P.C, O.M., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., etc.
SIR E. W. BRABROOK, C.B., Y.P.S.A.
MISS CHARLOTTE S. BURNE.
EDWARD CLODD.
W. CROOKE, B.A.
J. G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., etc.
M. CASTER, Ph.D.
SIR LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A.
A. C. HADDON, D.Sc, F.R.S., etc.
E. S. HARTLAND, F.S.A.
PROFESSOR THE RT. HON. SIR J. RHYS, P.C, 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 SIR E. B. TYLOR, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.
^Hcmbcvs of Conncil.
MRS. M. M. BANKS.
M. LONGWORTH DAMES.
LADY GOMME.
P. J. HEATHER.
W. "l. HILDBURGH, M.A., Ph.D.
T. C. HODSON.
MISS ELEANOR HULL.
SIR E. F. IM TIIURN, K.C.M.G.,
C.B., LL.D.
E. LOVETT.
A. F. MAJOR.
C. PENDLEBURY.
W. H. R. RIVERS, M.D., F.R.S.
C. G. SELIGMANN, M.D.
C. J. TABOR.
E. TORDAY.
E. WESTERMARCK, Ph.D.
II. B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
SIR B. C. A. WINDLE, F.R.S.
Ifion. ^reaflurtr.
EDWARD CLODD.
^jon. Jlubitors.
F. G. GREEN. j C. J. TABOR.
F. A. MILNE, M.A.
(gbitor of (dffolk-^ore.
A. R. WRIGHT, F.S.A.
MEMBERS {corrected to March, 1913).
The letter c placed before a jueniber's name indicates that he or she has
compounded.
1S84. Abercromby, The Hon. J., 62 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh {Vice-
President).
1899. Amersbach, Professor K., 32 Ciliimer Strasse, Freiburg in Baden,
Germany.
1909. Anderson, R. H., Esq., 95 Ale.xandra Rd., N.W.
1894. Anichkov, Professor E., University of St. Vladimir, Kiev, Russia.
1889. Asher, S. G., Esq., 30 Berkeley Sq., W.
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, P.C., O.M., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., etc.,
High Elms, Orpington, Kent (Vice-President).
1900. Baker, Judge Frank T., 3543 Lake Avenue, Chica'go, 111., U.S.A.
1912. Balfour, Henry, Esq., Langley Lodge, Headington Hill, Oxford.
1913. Balleine, A. E., Esq., Craven House, Northumberland Avenue, W.C.
1903. Banks, Mrs Mary M., 7 Wadham Gardens, N.W.
1913. Barber, Eric .\., Esq., Merton College, 0.\ford.
1905. Barry, Miss Fanny, Highfield, Haddenham, Bucks.
1885. Basset, Mons. Ren6, Villa Louise, Rue Deufert Rochereau, Algiers.
1913. Bayley, Harold, Esq., 20 Alexandra Court, 171 Queen's Gate, S.W.
1913. Beazley, John .\., Esq., Christ Church, Oxford.
1912. Benson, Mrs., 5 Wellington Court, Knightsbridge, S.W.
1892. Billson, C. J., Esq., M.A., The Priory, Martyr Worthy, Winchester.
1906. Binney, E. H., Esq., M.A., 21 Staverton Rd., Oxford.
1902. Bishop, Gerald ^L, Esq., Shortlands, Wentworth Rd., Golders
Green, N.W.
1912. Blackburne, Miss G. Ireland, S.Th., 14 Motcomb St., Belgrave
Square, S.W.
1913. Blackman, Miss, 24 St. John St., Oxford.
1890. Bolitho, T. R., Esq., per W. Cooper, Esq., Estate Office, Treng-
wainton, Hea Moor R.S.O., Cornwall.
1888. Bonaparte, Prince Roland, 10 .Avenue d'l^na, Paris.
ii
Me7nbej's.
Ill
1882. Bowditch, C. P., Esq., in Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass., U.S. .A.
1912. Boyle, Lady Constance, 63 Queen's Gate, S.W.
1880. Brabrook, Sir E. W., C.B., V.P.S.A., 178 Bedford Hill, Balham.
S.W. {\"\cc-Presiient and Truster).
c. 1878. Britten, James, Esq., 41 Boston Rd., Brentford.
1892. Broadwood, Miss Lucy E., 84 Carlisle Mansions, S.W.
1909. Brown, Major H. R., 2 Nundidroog Rd., Benson Town, Bangalore,
India.
1903. Brown, James, Esq., Netherby, Galashiels.
1889. Browne, John, Esq., Birchwood, 36 Park Hill Rd., Croydon.
1912. Buchan, The Hon. Mrs.; .Auchmacoy House, Ellon, Aberdeenshire.
1893. Burgess, Mrs. L. J., 1201 Blue Avenue, Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.A.
1883. Burne, Miss C. S., 5 Iverna Gardens, Kensington, W. {Vice-
President).
1907. Cadbury, George, Esq., Jun., Bournville, Birmingham.
1880. Caddick, E., Esq., \\ illington Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.
1907. Calderon, G., Esq., Heathland Lodge, Hampstead Heath, N.W.
1894. Campbell, Lord Archibald, Coombe Hill Farm, Kingston-on-Thames.
1898. Campbell, W. J. Douglas, Esq., F. S.A.Scot., Innis Chonain, Loch
Awe, Argyll.
1911. Canziani, Miss E., 3 Palace Green, Kensington, W.
1910. Carey, Miss Edith F., The Elms, Cambridge Park, Guernsey.
191 2. Carline, G. R., Esq., 3 Park Crescent, Oxford.
1894. Carpenter, Professor J. Estlin, 11 Marston Ferry Road, Oxford.
1912. Casson, S., Esq., 2 Spring Terrace, Richmond, Surrey.
1899. Chambers, E. K., Esq., C.B., Board of Education, Whitehall, S.W.
1912. Chambers, R. W., Esq., University College, Gower Street, W.C.
{Hon. Librarian).
1901. Chase, Charles H., Esq., 11 Everett St., Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
1878. Clodd, Edward, Esq., 5 Princes Street, E.C., and Stafford House,
.Aldeburgh (Vice-President and Trustee).
1912. Cohen, Chapman, Esq., Belle Vue, Grove Hill, S. W'oodford.
1901. Coleridge, Miss C. R., Cheyne, Torquay.
1895. Conybeare, F. C, Esq., M.A., 17 Bradmore Rd., Oxford.
1907. Cook, .A. B., Esq., 19 Cranmer Road, Cambridge.
1886. Cosquin, M. Emmanuel, Vitry-le-Franc^ois, .Marne, France.
1888. Cox, Miss Marian Roalfe, 80 Carlisle Mansions, S.W. {Hon. Member).
1889. Crombie, James E., Esq., Park Hill House, Dyce, Aberdeen
{Trustee).
191 1. Crooke, Elliott H., Esq., Brazenose College, Oxford.
1911. Crooke, Roland H., Esq., Langton House, Charlton Kings, Chelten-
ham.
i88i. Crooke, W., Esq., B.A., Langton House, Charlton Kings, Chelten-
ham (Vice-President).
1913. Cunningham, James, Esq., Argyll Lodge, St. .Andrews, Fife.
iv Members.
1905. D'Aeth, F. G., Esq., 65 Hope Street, Liverpool.
1913. Dale, Miss Violet M., 18 Collingham Gardens, S.W.
1892. Dames, M. Longworth, Esq., Crichinere, Edgborough Rd., Guild-
ford.
1895. Dampier, G. R., Esq., c/o Messrs. Grindlay, Groome & Co., Bombay,
Partabgarh, Oudh, India.
1905. Davies, J. Ceredig, Esq., Dyffryn Villa, Llanilar, Aberystwyth,
c. 1908. Davies, Prof. T. Witton, B.A., Ph.D., Bryn Haul, Victoria Drive,
Bangor, N. Wales.
1895. Debenham, Miss Mary H., Cheshunt Park, Herts.
J913. de Brisay, Miss, 11 Bradmore Rd., Oxford
191 1, de Gruchy, G. F. B., Esq., 180 St. James' Court, Buckingham
Gate, S.W.
1894. Dennett, R. E., Esq., Benin City, Forcados, S. Nigeria, per H. S.
King & Co., 9 Pall Mall, S.W.
1905. Dennis, Miss C. J., Laracor, Cheltenham.
191 1. Dewar, Mrs. Alexander, Hospital Hill, King William's Town, S.
Africa.
1905. Dickson, Miss Isabel .'\., 17 Pelhani Crescent, S.W.
1903. Doutt^, 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.
1913. Duguid, A. T., Esq., Executive Engineer, P.W. Dept., Silchar,
.Assam.
1S96. Eagleston, A. J., Esq., M.A., 14 Old Park Avenue, Nightingale Lane,
S.W.
1895. Evans, Sir Arthur J., M.A., F.S..A., Ashmolean Library, Oxford.
1899. Evans, Sir E. Vincent, 64 Chancery Lane, W.C.
1912. Evans, The Rev. H. R., Wilburne, Broughton, Wre.vham.
1895. Eyre, Miss, The Hudnalls, St. Briavel's, Coleford, Gloucestershire.
c. 1889. Fahie, J. J., Esq., c/o Robert Rankin, Esq., Rufford Old Hall,
Rufford, francs.
1909. Fallows, J. A., Esq., M.A., 28 Redington .Avenue, Hampstead, N.W.
1900. Faraday, Miss L. W., Carshalton House, Heaton Road, Withington,
Manchester.
1913. Farnell, Lewis R., Esq., >L.\., Litt.D., Exeter College, 0.xford.
1895. Fawcett, F., Esq., Westbury, Tyler's Green, High Wycombe.
i8go. Feilberg, Dr. H. F., Askov, Vejen, Denmark.
1906. Ferrington, G. W., Esq., Fairfield, Gobowen, Oswestry.
1885. Fitzgerald, D., Esq., c/o W. A. Fitzgerald, Esq., H.M. Office of
Worlds, Storey's Gate, S.W.
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).
Members. v
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. M., 22 Rue Cervaiidoni, Paris.
1912. Garbett, Colin Campbell, Esq., I.C.S., Mardi State, via Kangie,
Punjab, India.
1912. Gardiner, Alan H., Esq., D.Litt, 25 Tavistock Sq., W.C.
1906. Garnett, Miss A., Fairfield, Bowness-on-Windermere.
1900. Garrett, A. C, Esq., 525 Locust Avenue, Germantown, Pa., U.S..\.
1913. Gask, Miss Lilian, 4 .Mdred Rd., West Hampslcad, N.W.
i886. Gaster, Dr. M., Ph.D., 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. Gomme, A. .Allan, Esq., 41 Upper Gloucester Place, Baker St., N.W.
1878. Gomme, Sir Laurence, F.S.A., 20 Marlboro Place, N.W. (Vice-
President and Hon. Member).
1898. Gomme, Lady, 20 Marlboro Place, N.W. (Hon. Member).
1883. Gosselin-Grimshawe, Hillier, Esq., Bengeo Hall, Hertford.
1907. Gouldsbury, Henry C, Esq., Native Department, Abercorn, N.E.
Rhodesia.
1913. Graham, Miss L., 6 Onslow Studios, Chelsea, S.W.
1912. Grant, J., Esq., 31 George I\'. Bridge, Edinburgh.
1911. Grant, The Rev. Canon Cyril F., i Sloane (Jardens, S.W.
1890. Green, Frank G., Esq., Waverley, Carshalton (Hon. Auditor).
1910. Green, Miss F. Kirby, El Azib, Tangier, Morocco.
1878. Gutch, Mrs., Holgatc Lodge, York.
c. 1890. Haddon, Prof. .A. C, D.Sc, F.R.S., 3 Cranmer Rd., Cambridge
( Vice-President).
C. 1903. Hall, Mrs. H. F., Oaklands, Sheffield.
1910. Halliday, W. R., Esq., The University, Glasgow.
1901. Hamilton, Miss Katherine, Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.
1901. Hampton, G. H., Esq., Eastcroft, Eaton, Norwich.
1909. Hanna, Col. W., Beech House, Higham, Colchester.
1912. Harding, Newton H., Esq., no N. Pine Avenue, Chicago, 111.,
U.S.A.
1878. Hardy, G. F., Esq., 31 Broad Street House, Old Broad Street, E.C.
1878. Hartland, E. Sidney, Esq., F.S.A., Highgarth, Gloucester (Vice-
President).
191 1. Heanley, The Rev. R. H., Weyhill Rectory, Andover.
1900. Heather, P. J., Esq., 8 Laurel Rd., 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.
vi Members.
1912. Hibbert, R. F., Esq., Woodpark, Scariff, Co. Clare.
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, Ferniehurst, Shelley Road, Worthing.
1910. Hocart, A. M., Esq., Lakeba, Fiji,
c. 1883. Hodgkin, J. H., Esq., F.L.S., F.I.C., F.C.S., 97 Hamlet Gardens,
Ravenscourt Park, W.
1904. Hodgson, Miss M. L., The Croft School, Fleet, Hants.
1910. Hodson, T. C, Esq., 10 Wood Lane, Highgate, N.
1901. Holmes, T. V., Esq., F.G.S., 28 Crooms 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.
1900. im Thurn, Sir E. F., C.B., LL.D., K.C.M.G., 39 Lexhani Gardens,
W.
1913. Ives, Miss C. E., New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A.
1899. Janvier, T. A., Esq., Century Club, 7 West 43rd Street, New York,
U.S.A.
igi2. Jarmain, W. , Esq., Fairfield, Hatch End, Middlesex.
1891. Jevons, F. B., Esq., M.A., Litt.D., Hatfield Hall, Durham.
1911. Johnston, R. F., Esq., Wei-hai-wei, China.
1895. Jones, Captain Bryan J., Chanbuttia V.P., India. -
1907. Kabraji, Mrs. J. K., Bijapur, India.
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.
1897. Ker, Professor W. P., M.A., 95 Gower Street, W.C.
1911. Kingsford. H. S., Esq., 8 Elsworthy Terrace, N.W.
1910. Knowles, G. G., Esq., 21 Dukesthorpe Rd., Sydenham, S.E.
1911. Lake, H. Coote, Esq., Heage House, Crouch Hill, N.
1912. Landtman, Dr. G., 180 Holland Rd., W.
1913. Lawder, Miss P. E., Lawderdale, Ballinamore, Co. Antrim.
1905. Leather, Mrs. E. H., Castle House, Weobley, R.S.O.
1912. Letts, Malcolm, Esq., 34 Canonbury Park South, N.
1908. Lewis, The Rev. Thomas, c/o Missionary in Charge, B.M.S.
Matadi, Bas Congo, Congo Beige.
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.
Members. vii
1901. Lucas, Harry, Esq., Hilver, St. Agnes Road, .Moseley, Birmingham.
1889. MacCormick, The Rev. F., F.S.A. Scot., M.R.A.S., Wrockwardine
Wood Rectory, Wellington, Salop.
1909. Macdonald, The Hon. Mrs. CJ., Ostaig, Broadford, Isle of Skye.
1912. Macdonald, G., Esq., M.D., S5 HarJ. y St.. W.
1912. Mace, .Alfred, Esq., 7 .\ndr6gaian, Hclsingfors, Finland.
1882. Maclagan, R. Craig, Esq., .M.D., 5 Coates Crescent, Edinburgh.
1S95. 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.. Nethcrgrove, Portesham, Dorchester.
1900. Marett, R. R., Esq., M..\., Exeter College, 0\foid i^Vrcsidenl).
1880. Marston, E., Esq., St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.G.
1892. Masson, Sir D. P., Managing Director, The Punjab Bank, Lahore,
per H. S. King & Co., Cornhill, E.C.
1905. Matthew, The Rev. H. C, St. Matthew's Manse, Stawell, Victoria,
Australia.
1889. Matthews, Miss E., Raymead, Park Road, Watford.
1902. Ma.wvell, W. C, Esq., Attorney General, Kedeh, Malay Peninsula.
1905. Maylam, P., Esq., 32 Watling Street, Canterbury.
1913. McCarrison, Major, LM.S., c o Cox & Co., Bankers, Bombay, India.
1912. Meek, Miss M., 2 Dunstall Cottage, Hatherley Court Rd., Chelten-
ham.
191 1. Mercer, The Rev. Prof. S. .\. B., 2735 Park .Avenue, Chicago, 111.,
U.S.A.
1892. Merrick, W. P., Esq., Elvetham, Shepperton.
1913. Miles, Clement \., Esq., 6 (irove Cottages, Hampstead, N.W.
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 F"orbesfieId Road, Aberdeen.
1890. Mond, Mrs. Frida, 20 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, N.W.
1904. Montague, Mrs. Amy, Penton, Credilon, N. Devon.
1889. Morison, Theodore, Esq., Ashleigh, St. George's Road, Weybridge.
1910. Musson, Miss .A. J., Fair View West, 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., New College, 0.xford.
c 1885. Nesfield, J. P., Esq., Stratton House, 2 Madley Road, Ealing.
1 91 2. Nevill, The Lady Dorothy, 45 Charles Street, Mayfair, W.
1913. Nourry, M. F.mile, 62 Rue des Ecoles, Paris.
191 1. Nutt, Mrs. A., 17 Grape St., W.C.
1902. O'Brien, Major A. J., Deputy Commissioner, MuzafTargarh, Punjab,
India, c/o H. S. King & Co., 65 Cornhill, E.C.
viii Member's.
1892. Olrik, Dr. Axel, 174 Gl. Kongevej, Copenhagen, Denmark,
c. 1910. O'May, J., Esq., Kuala Kansar, via Taiping, Perak, Fed. Malaj
States.
1913. O'Reilly, Miss Gertrude M., 94 Lower Leeson St., Dublin.
1886. Ordish, T. Fairman, Esq., F.S..A., 2 Melrose Villa, Ballards Lane,
Finchley, N.
1890. Owen, Miss Mary A., 306 Xorth Ninth Street, St. Joseph's, Missouri,
U.S.A. {Hon. Member).
191 1. Partington, Mrs. Edge, The Kiln House, Greywell, Odihani.
191 1. Partridge, Miss J. B., Wellfield, Minchinhampton, Glos.
1892. Paton, W. R., Esq., Ph.D., Ker Anna, Pirros Guirce, C6tes-du-Xord,
France (per Messrs. Burnett & Reid, 12 Golden Square, Aberdeen).
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, iok Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.
1889. Pineau, M. L6on, Rue Dolly, Chamalieres, Clermont Ferrand, Puy de
D6me, France.
1906. Pitman, Miss E. B., Humshaugh Vicarage, Northumberland.
1898. Pitts, J. Linwood, Esq., M.J.L, F.S.A., Curator, Guille-Allfes
Library, Guernsey.
1912. Pochin, Miss, The Manor House, Wigston, Leicester.
1889. Pocklington-Coltman, Mrs., Hagnaby Priory, Spilsby, Lincolnshire.
1912. Porter, Capt. W. F., Imphal, Manipur State, Assam (per T. Cook &
Son, Calcutta).
1905. Postel, Prof. Paul, Lemberg, Austria.
c. 1879. Power, D'Arcy, Esq., M.A., M.B., F.S.A., ioa Chandos Street,
Cavendish Square, W.
1906. Pritchard, L. J., Esq., Menai Lodge, Chiswick, W.
1906. Raleigh, Miss K. A., 8 Park Road, Uxbridge.
1909. Ramanathan, P., Esq., B..^., Man6nmani Velas, Chintadinpeh,
Madras, S.C.
1888. Reade, John, Esq., 340 Leval Avenue, Montreal, Canada.
1913. Rendall, Vernon, Esq., Athenamm Office, 11 Bream's Buildings.
Chancery Lane, W.C
1892. Reynolds, Llywarch, Esq., B.A., Old-Church Place, Merthyr-Tydfil.
1888. Rhys, Professor the Rt. Hon. Sir John, P.C., 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.
191 1. Richardson, Miss Ethel, B.A., Wyss Wood, Welcomes Road, Kenley^
Surrey.
Members. ix
1900. Rivers. VV. \\. R.. Esq., M.D.. K.R.S.. St. John's College, Cam-
bridge.
191 1. R6heim, G., Esq., 35 Hermina-ut, Budaijest, Hungary.
1903. Rorie, D., Esq., M.D., CM., i St. Devenick Terrace, Cults.
.\bcrdeenshire.
1909. Roscoe, Rev. John. Ovington Rectory. Watton. Norfolk.
1901. Rose, H. .A., Esq.. Ludihaud. Punjab, India, c/o Grindlay & Co.,
54 Parliament Street, S.W.
1910. Rose, H. J., Esq., 6 V'almont .Apartments. 21 11 Park Avenue,
Montreal, Canada.
c. 1891. Rouse, W. H. D., Esq.. Litt.D., Perse School House, Glebe Road.
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-Presidcni).
1911. Schmidt, Dr. F. S., St. Gabriel Modling. Vienna, .Austria.
1887. Scott, Sir J. G., K.C.I.E.. 53 Marlborough Hill, St. John's Wood,
N.W.
1912. Searle, W. T., Esq., 5 and 6 Hand Court, Bedford Row, W.C.
1888. S6billot, M. Paul, 80 Boulevard St. Marcel, Paris (lion. Member).
1895. Seligmann, C. G., Esq., M.D., 36 Finchley Road, N.W.
1909. Sell, Frank R., Esq., Central College, Bangalore, India.
1906. Seton, M. C, Esq., 13 Claiendon Road, Holland Park, W.
1903. Seyler, Clarence .A., Esq.. Hindfell. Coedsaeson, Sketty. Swansea.
1909. Shakespear. Col. J.. The Residency. Imphal. Manipur State. Assam :
Burton House, Staines Rd., Twickenham.
1909. Sharp, Cecil J., Esq., Dragonfield, Uxbridge.
1900. Shewan, A., Esq., Seehof, St. .Andrews. Fife.
1913. Sidgwick. .A.. Esq., M.A., 64 Woodstock Rd., 0.\ford.
1894. Sikes, E. E., Esq., St. John's College, Cambridge.
1896. Simpkins, J. E., Esq., Museum of .Antiquities. Edinburgh.
1896. Singer. Professor, 2 Lanpenstrasse. 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., Romcland Cottage, St. Albans.
1913. Smith, Prof. John A., Magdalen College. Oxford.
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.. Church House, Cairo. Egypt
1899. Starr, Professor Frederick, University of Chicago. Chicago. U.S.A.
(Hon. Member).
1909. Steinitzer, H., Esq.. 8/1 Wilhelm Strasse, Munich. Germany.
Members.
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., 1545 X. Meridian Street, Indianapolis,
Ind., U.S.A.
1878. Swainson, The Rev. C, 9 Shooter's Hill Road, BlacUheath, S.E.
1889. Tabor, C. J., Esq., The White House, Knotts Green, Leyton, Essex
(Hon. Auditor).
1885. Temple, Lieut.-Col. Sir R. C, Bart., C.I.E., F.R.G.S., The Nash,
Worcester.
1896. Thomas, N. W., Esq., M.A., Pine \'iew, Wreccleshall, Farnham.
1907. Thomas, P. G., Esq., Bedford College, Baker Street, W. [28 Den-
nington Park Road, West Hampstead, N.W.].
1912. Thompson, T. W'., Esq., The Graniniar School, Gainsborough, Lines.
191 1. Thompson, W. B., Esq., United University Club, Pall Mall East,
S.W.
1913. Thorpe, Miss Maude V. A., Sand Drift, South Promenade, St.
Anne's-on-Sea.
1910. Thurnwald, Dr. R., Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen, German New Guinea.
1913. Thurston, Edgar, Esq., CLE., Cumberland Lodge, Kew, Surrey.
1913. Tocher, J. F., Esq., Crown Mansions, Union St., Aberdeen.
1910. Torday, E., Esq., 40 Lansdowne Crescent, W.
191 1. Torr, Miss Dora, Carlett Park, Eastham, Cheshire.
1897. Townshend, Mrs. R. B., 117 Banbury Road, Oxford.
1896. Traherne, L. E., Esq., Coedriglan Park, Cardiff.
1887. Travancore, H.H. The Maharajah of, Huzur, Cutcherry, Trivan-
drum, India.
1910. Tremearne, Major A. J. N., Tudor House, Blackheath Park, S.E.
1888. Turnbull, A. H., Esq., Elibank, Wellington, New Zealand, per
A. L. Elder & Co., 7 St. Helen's Place, E.G.
1878. Tylor, Professor Sir E. B., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., Linden, Welling-
ton, Somerset (Vice-President).
187S. Udal, His Honour J. S., The Manor House, Symondsbury, Bridport.
1899. Van Gennep, Professor A., 2 ruelle Dupeyron, Neuchatel (Suisse).
1912. Vansittart, Miss E. C, 31 Via Palestro, Rome, Italy.
1913. Walker, Charlton, Esq., B..'\., O.xford English Dictionary, Old
Ashmolean Buildings, Oxford.
1879. Walker, Dr. Robert, 7 East Terrace, Budleigh-Salterton, Devon.
1910. Webster, Prof. Hutton, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska,
U.S.A.
1910. Weeks, The Rev. J. H., 61 Lucien Rd., Tooting Common, S.W.
Members. xi
1906. Westermarck, Prof. E., Ph.D., S Rockky Road, West Kensington
Park, \V.
1897. Weston, Miss J. L., Lyceum Ciub, Piccadilly, W. ; Cobdown, Ditton,
Maidstone.
1910. Westropp, T. J., Esq., 115 Strand Rd., Sandymount, Dublin.
1883. Wheatley, Henry B., Esq., F.S.A., 96 King Henry's Rd., South
Hainpstead, N.W.
191 1. Whitehorn, Alan L., Esq., c o Mr. J. Gumley, 70 Arden Street,
Edinburgh.
190S. Williams, R. James, Esq., 30 Bolston Road, Worcester.
1890. Williamson, The Rev. C. A., Ashampstead Vicarage, Reading.
1908. Wilson, T. I. W., Esq., Repton, Burton-on-Trent.
1893. Windle, Prof. Sir B. C. A., M.D., F.R.S., President's House,
Queen's College, Cork.
1911. Wingate, Mrs. J. S., Talas, Cesarea, Turkey-in-Asia.
c. 1893. WisscndorfT, H., Esq., 19 Nadeschkinskara, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1893. Wood, .-Me.xander, Esq., 24 Montgonicrie Crescent, Saltcoats, .Ayr-
shire.
1909. Woolsey, J. M., Esq., Mount X'eriion, W'estchester Co., State of New
York, U.S.A.
1890. W^right, \. R., Esq., F.S..\., H.M. Patent OlVicc, 25 Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C. (Editor of Folk-Lore).
1884. Wright, W. Aldis, Esq., LL.D., Trinity College, Cambridge.
1897. Wyndham, The Rt. Hon. G., M.P., House of Commons, S.W.
SUBSCRIBERS {corrected to March, 1913).
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.,
Broadway House, Carter Lane, E.C.
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., 14 Bedford St., Covent
Garden, W.C.
1880. Bibliothfeque Nationale, Paris, per Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 31 and
32 Paternoster Row, E.C.
1884. Birmingham Free Library, Ratciiffe Place, Birmingham, per
W. Powell, Esq.
1882. Birmingham Library, c/o The Treasurer. Margaret St., Birmingham.
xii Members.
1908. Bishopsgate Institute, Bishopsgale 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 E. G. .Mien & Son, Ld.,
14 Grape St., VV.C.
1881. Boston Public Library, Mass., U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert & Co.,
2 Star Yard, Carey St., VV.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.
1913. Brockhaus, F. A., 48 Old Bailey, E.G.
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.
(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.
1898. Chicago University Library, Illinois, U.S.A., per B. F. Stevens &
Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, W.C.
1890. Cincinnati Public Library, per B. F. Stevens & Brown, 4 Trafalgar
Square, W.C.
1912. College Hall Library, Byng Place, Gordon Sq., W.C, per Miss
Eileen O'Rourke.
1894. Columbia College, New York, per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard,
Carey St., W.C.
1879. Congress, The Library of, Washington, U.S.A., per E. G. Allen
& Son, 14 Grape St., Shaftesbury .\venue, W.C.
1890. 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.
Members. xiii
1894. Edinburfjh Public Library, per Hew Morrison, Esq., City Chambers,
Edinbur{»ii.
1890. Enoch Pralt 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.
1911. Fulham Public Library, Fulham Rd., S.W., per W. S. Rae, Esq.,
Librarian.
1901. Giessen University Library, per E. G. .Mien & Son, 14 GrajK? 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. Gottingcn University Library, per .Ashcr & Co., 14 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. ^L Barrajo, Esq., Librarian.
1878. Harvard College Library, per E. G. .Mien & Son, 14 Grape St., W.C.
1904. Helsingfors University Library.
1904. Hiersemann, K., 3 Konigstrasse, Leipzig.
1896. Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans, U.S.. A., per W. Beer, Esq.
1902. Hull Public Libraries, per W. F. Lawton, Esq.
1911. Illinois University Library, L^rbana, 111., U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert
& Co., 2 .Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.
1892. Imperial University Library, St. Petersburg, per Voss Sortiment
(Herr G. W. Sergeiifray), Leipzig.
1895. India Office Library, Whitehall, S.W., per F. W. Thomas, Esq.
1901. Institut de France, per Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 31 and 32 Pater-
noster Row, E.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.
xiv Members.
191 1. Kansas Public Library, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.A., per Mrs. C. W.
Whitney.
1905. Kensington Public Libraries, per H. Jones, Esq., Central Library,
Kensington, VV.
1892. Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, per G. F. Stevenson,
Esq., LL.B., 11 New St., Leicester.
1903. Leland Stanford Junior University Library, Stanford University,
Cal., U.S..'\., per G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St.,
W.C.
1885. Library of the Supreme Council of the 330, etc., 10 Duke Street,
St. James', S.W., per J. C. F. Tower, 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.
1913. Malvern Public Library, per H. L. Whatley, Esq., Council Offices,
Malvern.
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. W'ilson 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.
1902. Michigan State Library, 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, North St., Glasgow, c/o F. T. Barrett, Esq.,
Librarian (per J. D. Borthwick, Es'q., City Chamberlain).
1880. Munich Royal Library, per Asher & Co., 14 Bedford St., W.C.
1909. Museo di Etnographia Italiana, Pallazo Dell Esposizione, via
Nationale, Rome, Italy, per Dr. Lamberto Loria, Secretary and
Librarian.
1904. Nancy, University de, Nancy, France, per M. Paul Perdrizet.
Mtnibcrs. XV
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.
1895. 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, Ncwcastle-on-Tyne,
per H. Richardson, Esq.
1898. New Jersey, The College of, Princeton, N.J., U.S. .A., per H. .A.
Duffield, 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 ^.\stor, 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.
1913. Nordiska, Museet, Stockholm, 14, .Sweden, per Visen Lewin, Esq.
191 1. North Stafford^^hire FieM Club, per W. Wells Bladen, Esq., Fairlie,
Stone, Staffs.
1908. North Western University Library, Evanston, III., 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.
191 1. Omaha Public Library, Omaha, Neb., U.S.A., per Miss E. Tobitt.
igii. Oriental Institute, Vladivostock, per Luzac & Co., 46 Gt. Russell
St., W.C.
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 University Museum, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A., per
G. E. Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.
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.
x\i Members.
1903. Portsmouth Public Library, per A. E. Bone, Esq., Borough
Treasurer.
1894. Providence Public Librarj', 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., Broadway
House, Carter Lane, E.C.
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. Sheffield Free Public Library, Surrey Street, Sheffield, per S. Smith,
Esq.
1898. Signet Library, Edinburgh, per John Minto, Esq., Librarian.
1905. Sion College Library, Victoria Embankment, E.C, per C. H.
Limbrick, Esq., Sub-Librarian.
1879. Stockholm, Royal Library of, per W. H. Dawson & Sons, St.
Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.C.
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., Broadway House, Carter Lane, E.C.
1891. Swansea Public Library, per S. E. Thompson, Esq., Librarian.
1908. Swarthmore College Library, per E. G. Allen & Son, 14 Grape St.,
Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.
1881. Sydney Free Public Library, per Truslove & Hanson, 153 Oxford St.,
W.
1895. Tate Library, University College, Liverpool, care of J. Sampson, Esq.
1883. Taylor Institution, Oxford, per Parker & Co., Broad Street, Oxford.
1906. Texas, University of, Austin, Texas, U.S.A., per G. E. Stechert &
Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.
1898. Toronto Public Library, per C. D. Cazenove & Son, 26 Henrietta St.,
Covent Garden, W.C.
1899. Toronto University Library, per C. D. Cazenove & Son, 26 Henrietta
St., Covent Garden, W.C.
Members. xvii
1879. Torquay Natural History Society, per A. R. Elwes, Esq., Hon. Sec.
1899. Upsala University Library, per C. J. Lundstrom, Upsala, Sweden.
1896. Van Stockum, W. P., & Son, 36 Buitenhof, The Hague, Holland.
1899. Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.A., per
H. Sotheran & Co., 140 Strand, W.C.
1907. Victoria Public Library, Melbourne, per Agent-General for Victoria,
Melbourne Place, Strand, W.C.
1909. Vienna Imperial Court Library, por Asher .'^ Co., 14 Bedford St.,
W.C.
1901. Vienna Imperial University Library, per Asher ^ Co., 14 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.,
per W. J. James, Esq., Librarian.
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.
1905. Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A., per G. E.
Stechert & Co., 2 Star Yard, Carey St., W.C.
ADDENDA OF MEMBERS {March, 19 13).
191 3. Bussell, The Rev. F. W., B.Mus., D.D., Brazenose College, Oxford.
1913. Cornford, Francis M., Esq., Conduit Head, Madingley Rd., Cam-
bridge.
1913. Harriison, Miss Jane, Newnham College, Cambridge.
1913. Humphreys, John, Esq., F.S.A., 26 Clarendon Rd., Edgbaston,
Birmingham.
1913. Keiller, Alexander, Esq., 13 Hyde Park Gardens, W.
1913. Kipling, Rudyard, Esq., The .Athenaeum Club, S.W.
1913. Langdon, Stephen, Esq., 17 Northmore Rd., Oxford.
1913. Legge, Miss, 3 Grove St., Oxford.
1913. Marett, Miss J. M., La Haule Manor, St. Aubin's, Jersey.
1913. Morrison, Miss Sophia, Manx Language Society, Peel, Isle of Man.
1913. Murray, Prof. George Gilbert, M.A., 82 Woodstock Rd., Oxford.
1913. Porter, Miss Grace Cleveland, Whitehall Hotel, 18 Montague St.,
Russell Sq., W.C.
1913. Roscoe, F., Esq., M.A., Sec, Teachers' Registration Council,
College of Preceptors, Bloomsbury Sq., W.C.
1913. Urquhart, F. F., Esq., Balliol College, Oxford
GR
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